Garian’s mellow voice came across the helmet’s intercom. “What’s the plan, Captain?”
Axel pointed at the center of the image. “We go in, destroy the mechanism that powers their damn tractor beam, then we get the hell out of here.”
“Destroy it?” Horror laced Derek’s voice.
Axel turned his helmeted head toward Derek. “Now is not a good time for you to study it or understand how it works. Our goal is to survive and escape.” He pointed at the red heat sources moving closer to Nebula’s location on the map. “Our other goal is to avoid direct contact with whoever controls this asteroid. If we can’t avoid contact, shoot on full stun first, ask questions later.”
The other part Jeresa liked about his orders was the way he’d decided to keep them all together. No way in hell was she going to remain on board while they left and faced whoever controlled this asteroid. She wanted to be right there with them to render medical aid as needed instead of staying behind and going crazy with worry.
Axel took his crew out through the maintenance hatch rather than the main entrance. Had he made the right choice? He didn’t know. All he knew was that any choice was better than no choice at all. This way, he had a better chance at keeping control of the situation.
They cycled through the second lockout hatch onto the cold empty rock of the asteroid. Axel stopped, pressed his helmet against Derek’s and said, “I want no radio contact to betray our position. Relay all messages helmet to helmet.”
Derek said, “Gotcha.” Then he turned, pressed his helmet against Garian’s and forwarded the message.
The crash-induced spin of the asteroid made the stars circle above them in a lazy merry-go-round. Axel focused his gaze on the fused stone and jagged rocks jammed against Nebula’s battered black hull. This was neither the time nor place to get spacesick. He led his crew away at a tangent that should bring them behind a shallow crater wall.
Just in time too. Barely fifteen seconds after they’d crouched on knees and elbows behind the crater wall, bulky shapes of space-armored figures loomed on the opposite horizon. He counted twenty-two of them. The asteroid pirates wore a mixture of old and new space armor that appeared to have been patched and cobbled together to fit the wearer. They maintained radio silence during their approach. Apparently they had no desire to communicate or offer surrender terms.
Four more space-armored figures maneuvered two laser cannons into position. They launched two brilliant streams of pure white light at the main airlock door. The ship’s shields shimmered with silent splashes of red and purple blotches under the onslaught.
Good. That should keep them occupied for about six hours before the shields weakened. Axel gestured at his crew to follow him and crawled backward down the crater wall. If they kept to the left, this should bring them around to the rear. Hopefully, the pirates had left the entrance to their lair unguarded. As for bypassing the pirates’ security, Derek had the knowledge and tools to pick most locks.
It had been a nightmare journey across a stark black and white landscape. Pure light and shadow with no air to soften the edges. They’d crept over surrealistic jumbles of loose rock, and crawled past gutted and scorched spaceships. As far as they could tell from a cursory examination of the first two ships, there were no bodies and no survivors inside. The ships had been stripped from top to bottom. All food, clothing and furnishings had been torn out and carted away. Fuel, water and oxygen tanks had also been removed.
Jeresa huddled on her knees behind a final mound of loose rocks. She clutched her emergency med kit to her chest and pressed her helmet against Marcus so he could relay her comments to the others. “All I see is a cave entrance in solid rock with a metal frame around the opening.”
Marcus nodded, pressed his helmet against Garian’s and relayed her message up the line. A few minutes later, Marcus relayed Axel’s comments and plan of action. “They didn’t post any guards. We ran a preliminary scan for obvious security traps and hidden lasers and so far, the entire area is clean. Derek goes first. If he gets inside without triggering any alarms, then we join him.”
They faced yet another impossibility. Total vacuum loomed on the outside of the cave entrance, yet according to the readouts in his helmet, they had Earth normal air on the inside. Axel slid the faceplate up on his helmet and took a cautious breath. Warm, breathable air flowed into his lungs. A faint metallic tinge hit the back of his mouth.
His crew opened their helmets one at a time and sucked in deep breaths of air with looks of complete wonder on their faces. Jeresa went to her knees between Gem and Star, removed their helmets and handed one to Garian. She and Garian then clipped the dogs’ helmets to their belts. As for the armored space suits on both dogs, they left them on the same as everyone else. Any protection was better than no protection.
Both Gem and Star lifted their ears and sniffed. Star trotted over to the opposite end of the tunnel. A row of dim green glowing spots about six inches in diameter in the ceiling gave a very minimal light to the rough-hewn corridor. The bulky suit around her body gave her the rounded shape of a bear cub. She peered into the shadowed space, plopped onto her haunches with her ears flat against her skull and gave a series of sharp barks and whuffs. Gem translated Star’s angry barks with the help of her gene-spliced secondary vocal cords. “The air smells bad. I smell many dead people deep down inside.”
Gem’s words triggered a long-buried series of memories in Axel’s mind. He remembered a carpet of shattered bodies strewn across laser-scorched corridors. The stench of urine, vomit, feces and blood fouled the air while he fashioned crude tourniquets for his shredded legs. Pain kept him from passing out from loss of blood. Shock kept him in a curious state of limbo. He’d welcomed the pain as a way to prompt him to pull his body forward across the uneven deck and broken bodies.
“This is fantastic, unbelievable!”
Derek’s excited voice pulled Axel back to reality, and he turned around.
Derek stood transfixed by the portal at the tunnel entrance. Reverent delight glowed on his face. He unclipped a scanner from the tool belt buckled over his spacesuit. Incoherent mutters accompanied his eager strides.
The portal was a rectangle made of a dull gray metallic substance, twenty inches thick with a width of fifteen feet and height of ten feet. A strip of pale white material that appeared to be ceramic lined the interior surface. On this side they had breathable air. Take one step through to the other side and he’d be standing on the airless surface of the asteroid. Embedded within this simple device, a mechanism generated a specialized type of energy field that affected only air molecules.
Those gutted ships they’d passed on the way over to this tunnel had filled his mind with too many old memories. Axel tapped Derek on the shoulder. “Let’s go. We have a job to do. Remember?”
A pained expression twisted Derek’s ebony features. He groaned. “I need more time to examine the material and decipher how it works. I need to take samples. I need to dismantle it. Just think of the commercial possibilities and potential profits here if I can duplicate the effect.”
Axel sighed. His crew’s survival was more important than the temptations of the unknown and possibly alien technology the asteroid pirates had acquired here. “A tractor beam of unknown origin has Nebula pinned down. We have a band of space pirates shooting laser cannons and trying to get inside our ship. Gem and Star smell death here. If we don’t disable that beam and escape, we’ll be just as dead as everyone else who crash landed on this asteroid.”
Chapter Ten
The back of Jeresa’s neck itched and it wasn’t because she’d braided her hair too tightly. If Gem and Star smelled death she wanted to be as far away as possible instead of walking single file behind both dogs. The dim green blotches in the ceiling had ended about fifty yards back. They’d had to switch on their helmet lights just to keep from stumbling around in the dark, sloping tunnel.
Gem sneezed, clearing her nose in order to catch an odor that interested
her. Then Star sneezed.
Jeresa pointed at the dogs. “They smell something.”
Garian pulled her behind him. Axel, Marcus and Derek positioned themselves along both sides of the tunnel. They had their guns set on full stun.
Both dogs stood with their legs braced and heads up, pulling in the scents from the unlit black shadows of three smaller tunnels branching off from the main one. Star lifted her head, stared at the second tunnel and made a sound deep in her chest halfway between a moan and a bark. She turned her head and caught Jeresa’s gaze and whuffed. Her eyes had a reddish glow.
Gem said, “Woman smell. Afraid smell.”
Jeresa thought that over for a few seconds. “Woman is afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Bad smell?”
Gem sneezed, and took another long sniff. “No bad smell. Afraid. Alone.”
Jeresa exchanged a long look with Axel.
He gestured at Garian. “Find woman. Take Garian with you to bring woman here.”
Garian stepped forward and thumbed his stun gun control to half power.
Gem and Star turned and trotted away into the darkness with Garian right behind them.
Five minutes later, they returned with the woman. Dark-skinned with a head of velvet brown curls, she walked with hunched shoulders and dragging feet. The jagged rips and tears in her spacesuit had been crudely patched with foam adhesive. She was painfully thin from starvation and had the dry skin and chapped lips of dehydration.
* * *
Inch by inch Axel crawled through the dark ventilation shaft carved into the interior of the asteroid’s tunnel system. A faint light glowed ahead of them. He crawled behind Serena Veille Delgado through the twisted passageway while the rest of his crew snaked along behind them. Serena’s ship, Star Chaser, had crashed on the asteroid three weeks ago.
When they asked her about her crewmates, the haunted expression in her eyes had darkened into a bleak stare. Finally, she shook her head and said the best way would be for her to just show them the truth. After they’d seen what she wanted them to see, only then would she agree to bring them to the location of the controls for the tractor beam.
Serena stopped at the final curve, turned her head and held her finger to her lips warning them to remain silent. She pressed her body against the wall and motioned at him to approach the circular opening at the other end.
Human legs, arms, torsos, thighs, hands and feet, male and female, hung from hooks in rows in the cavern like dried beef. Ice crystals clung to the frozen flesh. The ambient temperature had been set at subzero level within that storage space. Axel swallowed the taste of vomit that surged into his mouth. The asteroid pirates were cannibals, plain and simple. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about what had happened to her crewmates. He wouldn’t want to either. He rolled to the side and let the others squeeze by one at a time in order to see the truth.
Serena led them to the cavern that contained the tractor beam generator next.
Axel didn’t have to give the command to fire. They simply rushed in, aimed their stun guns and shot the three guards down with five blazing arcs of electro-shock.
A five-foot square cube of metal sat in the center of the rough-hewn floor. Pale blue streams of light shimmered across the black surface in tune with a steady pulsing hum. It felt and sounded like a giant heartbeat. Derek knelt at the base, stuck a wad of explosive putty there and hurriedly rigged up a crude timing device from his dismantled wrist computer.
Marcus and Garian sliced strips of fabric from the downed guards’ spacesuits, gagged them and bound them together with cruel knots. They rose to their feet and stood over the unconscious bodies. Marcus asked, “What about them? Are we going to let them live now that we know what kind of murdering scum they are?”
Axel tucked his stun gun into his holster and shook his head. “Roll them into the corridor where they’ll have shelter from the blast. Let’s focus on getting out of here alive and in one piece. If we kill them, then we’re no better than they are.”
Jeresa sat on the floor with Serena, checked the emaciated woman’s vital signs and shared sips of water and energy bars with her from her med kit. As for Gem and Star, both dogs lay stretched out on the floor with their heads in Serena’s lap.
Derek stood. “I’ve set it to blow in fifteen minutes.”
* * *
Jeresa sagged in her seat. An image of the deadly asteroid receded in the distance on the main view screen while Nebula’s engines continued their steady burst of power taking them away into the relative and impersonal safety of space.
They’d escaped in a mad scramble across the rocky asteroid, ducking and hiding behind gutted ships while the ground shook and shuddered under them from the first explosion. They would never know when or how the pirates had obtained the alien technology and subverted it into their cruel and barbaric parody of life and death.
She turned her head. The same stark horror that held her heart in a tight vice was reflected in everyone’s eyes. Garian’s hands shook while he sent out a final series of message drones far and wide. Marcus looked away from the receding image of the asteroid on his screen, saw her looking at him and flashed her a subdued smile. Gem and Star lay quietly on either side of her chair.
Derek moved his hands rapidly across the control panels under Axel’s soft-voiced commands, setting in their new course for Delta Nine station at Vega star system at full speed. As for Serena, she’d collapsed into the auxiliary command chair and passed out under the strong acceleration of their hasty blastoff.
Axel spoke the final command. “Computer.”
“Yes, Captain Axel Dane-Niallsen.”
“Initiate auto-pilot course as programmed to Delta Nine Station.”
“Auto-pilot initiated.”
Chapter Eleven
Two days passed. Two days of uncomfortable silences and lonely nights while they continued their interrupted journey. It didn’t feel right to sleep together when Serena had no one to comfort her.
The warm odors of coffee and fresh cooked food filled the air in the galley. Axel slid into the empty seat beside Serena. Marcus had outdone himself again preparing a feast to tempt anyone’s appetite. Pasta twists steamed on the plates with a selection of hot, spicy and sweet sauces lined up in bowls in the center of the table. Another platter held fried cheese and vegetables. He’d prepared chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.
Serena slapped her plate away in a sudden clatter and burst into tears. Pasta and sauce spilled onto the deck. Jeresa jumped to her feet, pulled Serena from her chair and wrapped her arms around the woman’s shoulders.
Axel and the rest of the crew jumped out of their seats and linked their arms and bodies around both women. Grief and pain poured out of Serena in a torrent of soul-cleansing sobs and shudders.
Now the healing could begin. Axel caught Jeresa’s gaze, glanced in the direction of the cabin that contained the largest bed for their special times together and waited for her response. Did she understand what they needed to do next? Would she be willing to help Serena heal from her guilt and grief at being the only survivor of her ship in the oldest remedy known to humanity?
Jeresa’s dark chocolate eyes widened with comprehension. She turned her head, gazed at Marcus, Garian and Derek one at a time and finally nodded. Moving with slow deliberation, they eased Serena from the galley to the corridor and finally into their private playroom. A double king-sized bed took up most of the space in that spacious mirrored cabin. Velcro strips kept the satin sheets and pillows in place under zero g conditions.
It was enough just to lie there at first, all tangled together in mutual warmth, comfort, gentle touching hands, quiet murmurs and chaste kisses. Finally, Serena’s deep sobs ended in hiccups.
Serena rolled over into Marcus’s arms and started kissing him long and hard. Garian pulled her shirt up and exposed the smooth dark skin of her small breasts and hard nipples all ready for loving.
Axel breathed a sigh of r
elief and rolled over. He turned his attentions to helping Derek peel the shirt and pants from Jeresa’s lush and delightful curves.
At first Jeresa felt a little uncomfortable lying in the bed with Serena sandwiched between her and all of her men. But then, as Serena lay there with her face buried in the pillows and sobbed her heart out, Jeresa relaxed.
Serena needed her love too. After all, that’s what it meant to be crew.
Jeresa stroked Serena’s hair and murmured soothing words of comfort. She thought how she’d feel if she were the only survivor from her ship. How empty and lonely her life would be without the familiar joy of her crewmates’ bodies pressed against her. How horrible it would be to never feel their hands and mouths upon her skin again, or their cocks sliding into her from every possible angle.
If that happened to her, if she were the only survivor of this ship, she knew they’d want her to be happy again. Jeresa knew they’d rather see her find another ship’s crew to accept her, love her and cherish her the way they did than spend the rest of her life sad and alone.
Axel pulled her pants down and spread her legs apart. Her breath hitched under the first long lick of his tongue. She sagged back, open and ready for him to continue. He deepened the movement. Skillful swirls and soft nibbles teased her clit to swollen arousal.
She arched her back and bucked against the steady flicks of his tongue, riding the first crest of pleasure. Gentle hands on her breasts. Warm mouth kissing her. Soft mounds of womanly breasts pressed against hers.
Serena just kissed me!
She opened her eyes and met her newest crewmate’s loving gaze.
Crew. My crew. Serena belongs to me as much as the men now.
Derek knelt on his knees beside them. He rubbed his thumb across Jeresa’s lips. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to kiss me.”
The Zone Page 6