Criminal Core

by Nick Broad

  “She is expecting you to impregnate her,” Meiko said with a smirk, some of the unease falling off her face.

  I glanced back at the cocoon. “I don’t know how I’m going to break it to her that I can’t impregnate anything,” I said ruefully. “Unless Shay was just fucking with me when she explained android physiology...”

  Meiko shook her head. “No. You’re not fully human, Noah. Bathory could mate with you for a thousand years and never produce a child.”

  “All the better for us,” Ruby said, giving my ass a squeeze.

  “Better for you,” I said, giving her a lustful glance. “Not so great for a Xenian Queen. I’m guessing they put a lot of importance on fertility, considering the whole Queen thing. I just hope she doesn’t rip my face off when she figures it out.”

  Meiko had that holding-back-laughter look again. “You will have to try for some time before she becomes convinced,” she said, keeping her face carefully neutral. “And even then, she may simply assume you’re not...’manly’ enough to successfully impregnate her...”

  “What? Oh hell no!” Both women laughed at my outburst. “I’ll tell her before then. I’m plenty manly - ask anyone on this station!”

  “None of us are doubting that,” Meiko said, wiping her eyes.

  “Let’s get this thing back up and running,” I said, leaning over my work. “Then I’ll both of you how manly I am...”

  “We’ll definitely have something to celebrate!” Ruby giggled, popping the hatch off the access panel.

  For a while, I lost myself in the work - in the ceaseless scrolling of diagnostics, status reports, and logs of everything that had gone wrong with the Gamma reactor. The room grew hotter as we worked, until I was down to shirtsleeves and Ruby was wearing nothing but her underwear. I had a perfect opportunity to turn that into something more when we were inside a different access panel together, but neither of us even suggested it - for once, we were too locked in for fucking. The thrill of imminently getting the reactor back up and running supplanted everything else, made us nearly frantic.

  This is going to work, I thought, watching the diagnostics flip from broken-red to active-green over the course of several hours. Once we get this thing running again, that’s thousands of energy credits. Enough to put the solar sail back together. Enough to do anything we want.

  Soon I’d be the Warden of the prison for real, not just some schlub. And I wouldn’t forget what Meiko and Ruby had done for me, either. There was no way I’d let Shay tuck them back into cells, no matter what freaky, kinky sexual delights she queued up for me. This was my life now, and I was never letting go of the things that belonged to me.

  Finally I stood up, nearly exhausted. “That’s it,” I said. “That’s just about everything. How about you?”

  There were soot marks across Meiko’s face. They made her look like some kind of tribal warrior. “Yeah,” she said, looking around the room like she was no longer on firm ground. “That’s...that’s it. It either works or it doesn’t.”

  “All systems go, Master!” Ruby flapped across the room and gave me a big hug, her cleavage bouncing in my face. “Let’s fire this thing up and go celebrate!”

  My hands trembled as I put the console through a few final tests. Everything came up green - working and active. All I had to do was throw the switch. The reactor would hum to life, fixing everything...

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not just me who throws the switch. Come on, girls, let’s do this together.”

  All three of us put our hands on the main switch. I flicked the toggles on the side of the main reactor caging with my free hand, reminded suddenly of resetting the fuse box on cold winter days.

  “Alright,” I said, gripping tightly. “Here we go...!”

  The central console lit up like a supernova. Sparks flew as the reactor roared to life, the dormant energies inside of it reawakening with planet-cracking force. For a few moments I thought of Dr. Pavlichenko’s chair, that horrible, beautiful creation, and a tear formed in the corner of my eye.

  “If it hadn’t been for Dr. Pavlichenko,” I said, my voice thick with emotion, “none of this would have happened. I would’ve lived a boring, normal life on Earth. But I would have missed all of this...”

  I felt the warmth of reflected suns on my face. Energy surged into the Gamma spire as the reactor surged into full production. An icon on the screen showed the progress as it took more and more energy into itself.

  Reactor Efficiency at 25%, it said. Then, in a blink, 30%.

  “Thirty’s more than enough!” I yelled, tears spilling down my cheeks. “Fuck yes! We did it! We fucking did it...!”

  The reactor continued to tick higher. Thirty-one percent, then thirty-two and thirty-three.

  The ground shuddered beneath my feet.

  I fell against Ruby, suddenly off-balance. Meiko tumbled gracefully to the ground, coming up in a roll and steadying herself against the console. I felt Ruby’s firm flesh against mine as my back hit the floor.

  The tremor didn’t stop. It increased in intensity. My mind screamed earthquake, but that was impossible - we were on a fucking space station!

  “What is it doing!?” I screamed over the din. I managed to get to my feet, just in time to see the glow at the center of the reactor go incandescent. It was like staring into a nuclear explosion. If it hadn’t been for my augmented vision, I’d have been blind for life.

  As it was, I had a front row seat to what happened next.

  The glow grew to unfathomable, unbearable levels. It was like being thrust into the sun, like being torn apart atom by atom at the molecular level. It was like approaching the Pearly Gates.

  Then darkness. The whole thing turned off like someone hit a switch.

  I slumped backwards, all my senses overloaded. I don’t know how long it was before I came back to myself, but when I did, Meiko and Ruby were kneeling over me.

  There was an alarm going off somewhere, low and muffled in my ears. I blew out my fucking eardrums, I thought in a panic, and the relief when my hearing started to clear was overwhelming.

  “He’s back,” Ruby said, her face streaked with tears.

  “God, Noah,” Meiko whispered. She sounded like she couldn’t decide if I was the bravest man she’d ever met or the dumbest. “Would it have killed you to get down? What kind of man tries to spit in the face of a reactor overload?”

  “I was trying to stop it,” I said. My voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well. “What happened?”

  Meiko glanced over her shoulder, then gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s fried,” she said.

  What!?

  I sat up straight - and my jaw hit the floor. Where the Gamma reactor had stood was a pile of overheated slag, half-melted into the floor. Thankfully the reactor caging had kept the radiation contained - otherwise Meiko and Ruby would be dead. That was some comfort, but staring at the ruin of my best, last hope didn’t give me nearly as much comfort as one might hope.

  “It’s...did we at least get some energy out of it?” I asked. “Enough to start the solar sail-”

  “Energy collection doesn’t start until the reactor is at 75% efficiency,” Meiko said sadly. “I’m...I’m sorry, Noah. We tried. Bathory just did too much damage to the reactor. Her growths made it unstable...”

  “Hive,” I said numbly. It felt like I’d been packed in ice. “She calls it her hive. Fuck.”

  A hand squeezed mine. All of a sudden I realized Ruby was right next to me.

  “This isn’t over, Master,” the Fae said. Her face was tear-streaked and covered with soot, but she was still more beautiful than I’d ever seen her. “We’ll figure something out. We will get this station back up and running...”

  I sighed and got to my feet. Meiko tried to stop me, Ruby did too, but I pushed them away. There was a pressure behind my eyes like my head was going to explode, and if I didn’t do something I was going to completely lose it...

  “It’s
over,” I groaned, fighting back tears. “Shay broke one reactor because she’s a stupid fucking slut, and Bathory killed the other one because of her goddamn beauty sleep...!”

  There was a wrench sitting on the console next to me. Without thinking, I tossed it across the room as hard as I could. It hit the far wall and sank halfway in. Under different circumstances, my android strength would have impressed me - now, it just reminded me how inhuman I really was.

  “Fuck! Fuck! We’ve done everything and we just get shit on over and over again...!”

  “Noah,” Meiko said, genuinely shocked. “Please...please calm down...”

  “FUCK CALM!” I didn’t feel calm. I felt like I wanted to break things. Hell, the station was broken anyway, right?

  “You can leave whenever the fuck you want, Meiko - there’s a whole galaxy out there for people like you! I’m tethered to this fucking station, no purpose, no life, and it’s going to take decades of waiting to get enough credits to make a solar sail! Fucking decades! I’m not going to make it, I’m really not, I’m going to go crazy...” Tears covered my cheeks. “Just like Shay said, we all go crazy without a purpose. Mine was fixing this fucking station, and that’s gone now. So what!? Do I turn into a fucking bad guy now? What the fuck, Meiko...”

  Then there were arms around me, holding me tight. Ruby’s arms.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Master,” she murmured against my ear. “I’ll stay here with you for as long as it takes to get things off the ground. I’ll make sure you don’t lose your purpose...”

  She brought me back to myself. Instantly I realized what an ass I was being. Shame blossomed beneath my disappointment, but both faded as my hands took Ruby’s waist and held her tight. I kissed her, hard, letting all my frustration out in the motion of my lips on hers.

  “Well, fuck,” I finally said. My gaze traveled to Meiko. “I think I lost my head there for a second.”

  “It is completely fine,” Meiko assured me. She crossed the distance between us and then she was hugging me too, held in Ruby and I’s embrace. “You’re under a lot of stress right now, Noah. I can’t even imagine.”

  “Don’t leave,” I said, showing more of myself than I’d ever dared. “Please. Don’t let the mass exodus start with you...”

  Meiko started to laugh. “I have no intentions of leaving the Oubliette, Noah. There’s nothing out there for me. Did you forget I’ve been here for years? I could have left anytime, but didn’t. And I’m not going to now.”

  “Good,” I said, my hand sliding down to her ass. I gave it a squeeze. “Because you’re mine. And I still haven’t gotten to hear your story yet. Actually...”

  The alarm hadn’t stopped. Even though the reactor was inert and dead.

  “I can’t hear much of anything over that,” I grunted. “What gives?”

  Ruby wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think it’s from the reactor,” she said, glancing up at the ceiling. “I think it’s the jailbreak alarm?”

  “Indeed it is!” a cheery little voice informed us.

  I’d gone so long without hearing Chirrup that I flinched at the sheer verve in her voice. “Hey, Chirrup. What’s happening?”

  “If you’ll turn your attention to the screen,” Chirrup tittered, lighting up a panel on the far wall, “I will show you! I would use a closer viewscreen, but all the others in this area seem to have been recently destroyed!”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” I muttered. “Show me the problem...”

  The display flickered to life. The three of us were staring at a live feed of a hallway inside of Beta spire, not far from the lowermost cell blocks. To my surprise, I was actually starting to recognize particular areas around the station without having to be told. Even though they all looked the same, I was getting the hang of the place.

  I should have been pleased. But all I was was pissed. Because I recognized one of the people escaping.

  “That’s the Red Tigers,” I growled, pointing a finger. “Look, it’s the same dude leading them as before. The big guy with the eyepatch.”

  Eyepatch Man was hustling a group of two other Tigers down the hall. I could tell they were all Red Tigers because of their matching jumpsuits - the same ones I’d seen during the last jailbreak. They moved with more caution than they had last time, though, probably because I’d spooked them. They were no longer one-hundred percent certain the Oubliette was abandoned, and that slowed them down.

  “They are the most common gang to be imprisoned here!” Chirrup informed me. “Also the most common to escape!”

  “That makes sense,” I said, shrugging. “Although, hey, that one is different...”

  The Tigers had a new member of the crew - a woman. And unlike the two men she was with, who were decidedly humanoid, she took the whole ‘Tiger’ thing a bit too literally. Orange and black striped fur covered her everywhere her jumpsuit didn’t, giving her an impression of fierceness and vitality. At the same time, she wasn’t bad looking in the slightest. I’d never been attracted to aliens, but then again I hadn’t really met any aliens. And the ones I had didn’t look like her at all.

  “Yeah, she’s new,” Meiko murmured, watching the three on the feed. “Not too many women in the Tigers.”

  “That one’s a Tigress,” I said with a chuckle. “Nice suit.”

  Next to me, Ruby giggled. “You like her, Master, don’t you?”

  “She’s...interesting,” I allowed. “It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to stop them.”

  Both Meiko and Ruby stared at me. If Chirrup had a face, she’d probably have been doing it, too.

  “Um, Sir?” Meiko glanced over at the smoking ruin of the Gamma reactor. “Have you forgotten that we’re completely broke?”

  “We don’t have any defense countermeasures,” Ruby said, her wings flickering. “We don’t even have locks!”

  I knew that. But I didn’t care. Something strong was building up inside of me, something that felt like purpose. A growing certainty that I didn’t need the Beta or Gamma reactors to stop a jailbreak, or the solar sail.

  All I needed was a little help.

  “No more,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “Not one fucking more.”

  Meiko cocked her head. “Noah?”

  “If I can’t fix this fucking station,” I said, looking at each of them in turn, “I can at least stop it from being such a revolving door. People like them just come in here and walk right back out again like it’s easy. Like it’s nothing. Do you know what Eyepatch Man was doing the last time he broke out of the Oubliette, Meiko? Do you?”

  An awkward look flickered across her face. “He laughed at us,” she said.

  “Exactly. The whole fucking galaxy is laughing at us, Meiko. At the prison without locks. Without so much as a single fucking combat droid to keep people from climbing into the escape pods. No more. No fucking more!”

  “Your enthusiasm is wonderful,” Meiko said in a strained voice, “but there’s nothing we can do, Noah. We don’t have the resources-”

  “Fuck resources!” I threw my hands in the air, painfully aware of how crazy I sounded. “Fuck all of it! We’ve got people. We might not have droids, but we’ve got one pissed-off fucking robot right here! You’re looking at him!”

  Ruby’s eyes shined with a strange light. “Not just you,” she said, smiling. “Shay is augmented as well. Much stronger than any of the Red Tigers.”

  Not to mention her clones, I thought but didn’t say. I was pretty sure Shay didn’t want me talking about those. I’d betrayed pretty much every secret she’d confessed to me to the rest of the group, but I was going to hold that one close to my chest for the moment. An army of Shays could be useful, though. Even a small squadron of them working together.

  And not just in the bedroom.

  “We don’t need any of that stuff,” I said, putting an arm around Ruby’s shoulders. “We have everything right here - me, Shay, you, and Meiko.” I grinned at the obake, eyes shining with approval. “I’ve seen you fig
ht. You held off a Xenian Queen by yourself like it was nothing. We can make mincemeat of those fuckers.”

  Meiko thought about it for a moment, then a wicked little smile appeared on her face. “Yes,” she mused, nodding. “Yes we could.”

  “Those three,” I said, pointing at the feed, “are not leaving this station. That’s for damn sure.”

  Next to me, Ruby stiffened. For a moment, I worried I’d said something wrong, but all of a sudden she was jumping up and down like she could barely contain her excitement.

  “Master,” Ruby said, her voice crackling with mischief, “I have an idea. Something that might slow the Tigers down long enough for us to plan an ambush.”

  “Mind telling me what it is?”

  She shook her head. “I’d rather keep it a surprise. I’m going to Beta - I’ll meet you two back at the command center. I’m guessing that’s where you’ll be?”

  “Planning the attack,” I said with a nod. “You’ll be safe, Ruby?”

  She winked. “Don’t worry about me, Master. I’m starting to get the feeling I was someone not to be fucked with back on Titania. I’m looking forward to figuring that out - with you.” She flapped her wings, then planted a kiss on my cheek. “And I haven’t forgotten that threesome.”

  A pang shot through my cock. “Me either.”

  Ruby nodded at Meiko. “Keep him safe for me,” she said.

  “Will do.”

  “Alright,” I said, watching Ruby’s backside as she fluttered down the hall. “To the command center. I’m going to have to give Shay that same speech if I want her help.”

  “No,” Meiko said, giving me an odd look. “You’ll have to be much more convincing for her.”

  I hoped she was wrong about that.

  Eighteen: The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Revisited

  When we got back to the command center, Shay was sitting sideways across the Captain’s chair reading a book. A cup of coffee lay balanced flat against her flatter stomach, hot enough that a human woman would have been screaming in pain. She glanced up, nearly knocking the mug to the floor, but didn’t move to vacate the chair.