by Jaye Peaches
It was hers though; it was exactly what she’d studied. “I guess he has an implant and uses psycho-neuro transmits.”
“What? You’ve just made that word up.”
Jade slapped the heel of her palm on her forehead. “That’s it. That’s how you can catch him.”
Mason eased himself up onto an elbow. “How?”
“The implant in his brain. Given what you say about his speed, I would say that the nerves aren’t fully connected to his brain, that the signals are send via transmitters from his brain to—”
“Slow up. Explain.” Mason’s demeanor had shifted. He wasn’t interested in a lecture, he wanted a solution.
“Okay. Simply put. He thinks what he wants to do, the message doesn’t go through his spine and nerves, it’s transmitted directly to his muscles using the implant device in his head. Break the transmission and he can’t move. He’s not wired up like us. It takes years to regrow nerves—”
“I get it.” Mason pursed his lips. “How to break the transmitter?”
“Interference. Block it. Find the wavelength and zap it.” She’d made it sound simple, but it wasn’t. The big problem was identifying the wavelength.
“Is it feasible?” Mason mused. “How close would the device need to be?”
“I guess a few strides. The same room. The transmitter in the implant would be localized to him.”
“What do you need?”
Jade was delighted—he wanted her help. She had a purpose beyond fixing dilapidated systems and the problem needed her innovated set of skills. She examined the wrist bands. Mason had agreed if she made it to the space station without any further punishments he would remove them.
“The remote you use to activate these.” She waved her arm. “I’ll use that. It transmits a similar signal and I could alter it to scan for others, then transmit an alternative signal, something to confuse his implant.”
He reached over her to the bedside table and retrieved the remote from a drawer. He smiled. “I guess you’ll have to come out of those bands.”
She fluttered her eyelids. “I have been good, sir. And it’s just two days to the station.”
He chuckled and tapped the button with a special rhythm. The bands slipped off her wrists. Part of her missed them, because although they represented her status as his captive, they also implied a different kind of bond between them—that she was under his protection. Mason handed her the remote. “Look after it.”
“I’ll have to take it apart,” she said.
His eyebrows furrowed. “It doesn’t scan for signals—it sends them.”
Stealth! The solution lay in her little craft. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but there is a nano-scanner on Stealth. We use it to monitor military channels—for the purposes of completing the mission, of course.”
Mason grunted, obviously displeased with her admission, but he couldn’t ignore the opportunity. “You could incorporate the two devices into one?”
“Probably, can’t promise. I’ll have a go.”
His face transformed from displeasure to delight. It pleased her to see him happier. He also had undergone another transformation. Sweeping back the covers, he revealed a growing erection.
“What do you want, sweetheart? Your treat.”
She might have been sleepy when he woke her up, but not any longer. “Can I taste you? Swallow…” She trailed off, almost ashamed of her neediness.
“Hungry, are we?” He grinned, settling back. “Sure, it’s good for both of us.” He winked and she giggled.
As she lowered her head, licking her lips in anticipation, he commanded the lights to go out. The computer obliged, casting them into darkness. She didn’t mind, it was something special—sucking cock in the dark while he stroked her hair and whispered encouragement.
“That’s it, slow licks.”
It the darkness, she had to use her other senses: smell, taste, and touch. Feeling her way around was relaxing, soothing and the sedate pace calmed her anxieties—she’d just agreed to construct something she’d never made before now. Fortunately, he wasn’t in a hurry and neither was she. A feast involved lots of dishes and the fun part was enjoying every one of them: the textured sheath, the smooth glans, and the pre-cum trickling out of his slit.
Later, after she’d swallowed every drop, she snuggled against his resting body and drifted off asleep.
* * *
Mason held the device; it fitted snugly into the palm of his hand. The level of ingenuity she’d accomplished in two days was impressive. Jade was beyond his expectations when it came to her determination to stick to a task. He’d escorted her onto her ship, watched as she extracted the scanner from underneath a console and scavenged for other parts. She’d asked to be excused from her other maintenance duties, which he happily obliged, and she dedicated long hours in her makeshift workshop in the engineering bay fashioning components.
“How does it work?” he asked.
She picked the pebble-shaped device off his palm and explained. “It utilizes the tapping rhythm as a way to instruct it. Different patterns represent different scanning programs. Then, when you press the little button, the same one you used to lock my restraints, it sends a signal out. The right one will interfere and effectively block Curtis’s implant. The trouble is, I don’t know which program will work and it’s all trial and error. You need to be quite close to him.”
“So there’s no way to test this?”
She shook her head. “No. We don’t know the frequency to test.”
“This is amazing, Jade.” He retrieved it, turning it over and feeling the smooth surface. He pressed the button and it vibrated, a tiny pulse in his hand. “It vibrates.”
“Yes. While it’s vibrating it’s sending out the signal. That way I know it’s transmitting. If there is no match during that vibration, I know it’s the wrong one. If it is, it’ll intensify.”
“Clever.”
She smiled in a bashful way. “Thank you.”
“You’ve made a vibrator.” He held it up before her nose. “Perfect shape too, don’t you think?”
Her cheeks blushed. “That wasn’t my intention…” she stuttered.
Mason laughed. “No, of course not. I’m teasing.”
She turned away slightly as she spoke. “Well, I wouldn’t put it past you to…” Her voice tapered off.
“Tomorrow we arrive at Station Omega. The farthest point from Novador. I’ll dock Titan and make contact with my informant. She’ll let me know where to find him.”
“She?” Jade spun around and her eye slits narrowed. Jealous? It wasn’t something he expected.
“Omega is a notorious pit-stop for anyone seeking pleasure. She is a sex worker.”
Jade’s eyes widened. “You’ve…” She stopped, which was a good thing, because if she’d suggested he would pay for the information with sex, he’d spank Jade over his knee for disrespect.
“No,” he growled. “I don’t barter. She hates Curtis. He raped her sister and mother before her eyes. However, she’s too afraid to take vengeance and in any case, it would be futile.”
“I didn’t mean… sorry. I’ve not been fair to her. She sounds very brave.”
“She is,” Mason concurred. Teesha had just reached adulthood, barely matured and she was selling her body. She’d been dumped on Omega after the rest of her family were killed by Curtis’s gang, and put to work serving in bars. Eventually, desperate to escape, she’d sold herself to raise money. “If I get Curtis, she expects the girls trapped on Omega will be free because with his power gone, they can stand up for themselves. They’re going to charter a ship to take them somewhere safe.”
“This is more than capturing a fugitive. This is a rescue mission, too,” Jade commented. She inhaled deeply. “I want to help.”
“You have.” He held up the device.
“I mean I want to come. Please, I can operate the device, I made it, I can scan and you’ll be ready to pounce on him—”
<
br /> “No,” Mason said firmly.
“No?” Her lower lip trembled as she straightened her shoulders. “If you draw attention to yourself, sir, you’ll risk blowing it. I can do this.”
“No,” he reiterated. He couldn’t risk her down there amongst the scum and the desperate. She was too beautiful, too naive.
Her face flushed pink once again, but this time she was angry. “You’re being foolish—”
He leaned forward and interrupted her before she said something she’d truly regret. “Don’t say another word,” he said softly, “or you’ll be over my knee in a flash.”
She bit down on her lip. To his surprise, tears bubbled up into her eyes. “I… I…” She buried her face in her hands.
Something else was bothering her and it wasn’t his order to stay put. He prised her hands away and tipped her chin up. “What is it, Jade?”
She sniffed. “I’ve been on this ship for days and days. I’m not like you. I’m not a loner. I just want to see people.”
“People? These aren’t the kind of people you’ve come across on Malimor in your cozy township. You’re not here to make friends. Loner? Weren’t you flying solo?”
“To prove to them I had backbone. In truth, it was a mistake. I’m not cut out for running solo. I should have offered my services as an engineer at the base.”
“We learn from mistakes,” he said. “We need to make them to move forward. Also, if you’d not flown that mission, we’d not have met and that would have been unfortunate.” He lowered his lips and kissed her mouth.
“Unfortunate?” She smiled sweetly.
“Really unfortunate.” He kissed her again, harder and she responded by molding her body into his. By the time they’d finished smooching, his cock had gone hard and her nipples pressed against the fabric of her top.
One thing he couldn’t argue with was Jade’s ability to adapt and learn. She was adventurous, too. It dawned on him that they had more in common that he’d thought. Although she wasn’t a loner, like him, they both thrived on adventure, thinking on their feet and both of them relied on perseverance to see things through to the end. What had started out as an exercise in sexual compatibility, the dynamics of a particular relationship, had shifted into a new direction. He wanted more than a compliant mate who meekly kowtowed to his wishes. Jade was his friend. Perhaps lover, if she felt the same way. What he had to accommodate were her wishes, while not losing sight of his own. It was in that frame of mind, he realized she understood the mechanics of the device far better than him and would operate it quicker—speed would be essential in capturing Curtis.
He sighed, unable to ignore her heartfelt request. “Okay. You can come.”
Her face lit up, dark eyes sparkling. He brushed her raven hair back, bundling it into his hands. “Turn around,” he whispered, suddenly breathless in his eagerness to touch her intimately and all too aware of his cock pressing against his pants.
She bent over the workbench, pushing aside a few tools with flailing arms.
“Good girls need hard reminders that failing to obey means consequences, bare bottom ones.” He released his erection, then quickly pulled down her pants. Her little star flexed as if to invite him in—he’d save that conquest when they had Curtis safely secured in the hold. He lowered his line of vision to her shaved folds, which had swollen, glistening in their readiness. The girl was always wet for him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to warm her up. He rocked his cock along the furrow, plying her slit with pre-cum.
She moaned, her eyes squeezed shut. “Yes, sir,” she murmured belatedly.
He nudged her feet further apart, opening her up, and he dipped the head of his cock into her pussy. She gasped and pushed back, trying to draw him in deeper.
With his hands on her hips, he held her steady and entered her with a single thrust. When his balls kissed her with a swing, he halted. As her slick tunnel embraced his cock, she’d given him no resistance. From deep within her, buried to the hilt in her core, he glided back and forth, building the rhythm, the speed. Occasionally, he targeted her soft spot, teasing it with caresses before returning to pound her hard.
“No wandering off,” he growled, accompanying his demand with a thrust. “I can’t bear to lose you.”
She whimpered, “Yes, sir.”
“No attracting attention, talking, unnecessary chatter.” He rattled off his rules while maintaining the pace. He grew breathless, excited by her mewls and gentle groans.
“You don’t engage with Curtis.” The cyborg wasn’t going anywhere near his girl. “You’re mine.”
Jade lifted her head. “Please, sir, may I come?”
He loved it when she asked. There was no reason to say no. She deserved it. “Come, yes, now,” he grunted.
She clenched his cock and went quiet, holding her breath for the duration of the orgasm. He watched her buttocks twitch, her muscles tense, then flop. He followed quickly, pumping every last drop into her, pressing his weight forward to keep her trapped between his hips and the table.
Later in bed, when she entwined her legs around his and dozed, he wondered if he’d made a mistake, whether she was really capable of holding her own in such a daring mission.
Chapter Nine
Jade perched on the barstool and waited with one hand holding a tumbler of juice and the other stuffed in her jacket pocket out of sight. She fingered the little device, praying it would work.
Across the room, lounging in a comfy seat was Mason. He’d transformed himself from marshal into a gangster. Gone were the neat hairline, the shiny boots, and pressed clothes; he’d camouflaged himself and gone undercover in style by wearing a trench coat, a black t-shirt with a silver skull embossed onto it, and studded boots.
She struggled not to stare at him by locking onto the glass. Now and again, she glanced in his direction. Somehow, he managed to stay sexy and mean. Some of the girls behind the bar were equally intrigued. They nudged each other, pointing at him, whispering and snickering. He didn’t flicker his eyes in their direction or acknowledge them.
The men who loitered around the bar showed no interest in the newcomer. People came and went on space stations, especially this one where there were no enforcers. Omega was a lawless domain, forgotten by the Federation, and heavily utilized by criminals.
It was a dangerous hideaway—she understood Mason’s reticence for letting her join him. There was no safe place to run to and certainly no friends to make. She had to focus on the job. Mason was happy to attract attention, because it kept any eyes off her. However, she would eventually draw someone’s eye—it was the nature of the place.
The bar was one of many, but according to Teesha, whom Mason had covertly contacted, it was Curtis’s favorite.
The dim lighting projected faint beams onto the drab walls and there were pockets of near darkness in the corners and behind partitions. Plenty of places to disappear and it was into those spots the girls took the men. Jade heard grunts, panting, and other sounds indicative of urgent, base fucking. She’d not anticipated the public arena or the lack of shame.
A girl approached Mason and he waved her away. Time was passing and still no sign of the cyborg.
It was Jade’s turn to attract unwanted attention.
“Hi, babe. Looking lonesome and cute.” The man had an eye patch and a heavy accent, which Jade couldn’t identify. “Can go over there, if you like?” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at one of the dark recesses in the corner.
“I’m fine, no thanks,” she hissed. Her heart was already beating too fast and the glass in her hand was in danger of slipping out of her fingers if she didn’t stop shaking.
“Sure, ‘cos if you just want to suck it,” he smirked and grabbed his crotch, “it’s fine by me.”
The repulsive man, with half his teeth missing and a crooked smile, wouldn’t back off. What she’d done with Mason two days ago was unthinkable with the stranger.
“Please, you’re not my type. J
ust… fuck off.” She raised her voice, because over on the other side of the room, Mason was on the verge of standing up. She had to show him she was in control. “I’m waiting for somebody. Nyle Curtis?”
The man’s face went pale. “Oh, right, sorry.” He edged backward. “Didn’t know you were his chick.” As he stumbled on a stool, the color drained out of his weathered complexion. He wasn’t looking at her any longer, but at somebody behind him.
Around the bar, everyone fell silent and seemed to be looking at her, but they weren’t. There was somebody right behind her, almost breathing down her neck.
“I told you, cretin, to keep your hands off the girls.” The voice was low, almost a growl and fearsome.
“Sorry, Curtis,” mumbled the man with the broken teeth and missing eye. He darted away, nearly colliding with one of the bar girls.
“What do you say to the man who saved you from that creep?” Curtis rumbled in her ear.
Jade had frozen. She’d not expected Curtis to single her out. Her mouth had gone suddenly parched. “Thank you, I guess.”
“You guessed right, girl.” He moved around and his shadow fell over her as he blocked out the lights and her view of Mason.
Mason was right in his description—somebody had taken a man and turned him into a beast made of metal. Curtis made no attempt to hide his robotic arms and legs—he wore a sleeveless vest, latex pants, which accentuated the steel framework, and massive boots. The cyborg mimicked the correct anatomy of a man with elbows and knee joints, the skeletal properties of a humanoid, but that was as far as the similarities went. The skin covering the limbs was red and tattooed with gruesome images, the flesh underneath was sinewy and filled out with bulky muscles to such an extent that his legs were like mammoth trunks. When he folded his arms across his broad chest, the uncovered biceps rippled and the artificial veins rose to the surface forming a network of lines.
Jade reminded herself that none of it was real. The flesh wasn’t his, it had been grown in a laboratory and he wore it like armor. It was armor, according to Mason, skin-like in its appearance but able to withstand blasts and lasers.