Criminal Core

by Nick Broad

  There was an uncomfortable pause.

  “Look, I’m just saying,” Shay protested, rolling her eyes, “that little miss monster over there killed one of the leaders of the Red Tigers. They’re going to be here soon, and they’re going to want blood. Maybe we should think about the defenses around the station-”

  Meiko stepped forward and slapped her. Before Shay could react to it, her hand went to her sword.

  “Woah, woah!” I yelled, stepping between the two women. “Calm the fuck down. We should not be fighting right now. Shay, take it back.”

  “I take it back,” she snarled, rubbing the red spot on her cheek. “Fuck.”

  “And you,” I growled, bringing myself to my full height to loom over Shay. “What’s gotten into you? You know what would let us build lots of defensive measures into the station? Having a fucking solar sail giving us a bunch of energy!”

  “Okay, okay,” Shay said, her voice lowered into a grumble. “Do it, Chirrup. Build the damn sail.”

  Chirrup hummed happily. “Orders submitted! The solar sail should be complete shortly!”

  “How soon?” I asked, then whistled when Chirrup spit out the number. It was impressive. I’d expected days of down-time, but it looked like we were going to have the station up and running very, very shortly.

  “We should get down there,” Meiko said, echoing my thought. “That was the plan from the beginning, right? Ruby and I head to the trailer hitch and install the solar sail.”

  “Right,” I said. “Shay and I can’t go there, or else-” I mimed drawing a hand across my throat. “Right back in my Core.”

  “Exactly,” Meiko said, smiling. Then she grabbed me and kissed me, so hard that I nearly tore her clothes off right then and there.

  “The second that energy starts rolling into the station,” she growled, sounding almost like the monster she kept on a leash inside. “The very instant the solar sail is online-”

  “I know,” I grunted. She could feel my cock pulsing against her thigh. “You, me, Ruby. Go time.”

  Meiko grinned. “I won’t let you down.”

  Both women left the command post, the solar sail in sight. It wouldn’t be long now before we had energy again. In a few days, the station would look almost nothing like the broken, barely-functioning wreck I’d woken up in. It was going to take a lot of getting used to.

  “I still can’t believe it,” I said excitedly, my back to Shay. “This place is really coming back to life. You and me, we’re going to be Wardens for real...”

  When there was no response, I turned around.

  To see Shay staring at me, her shipsuit unzipped all the way down to her hips.

  I barely had a moment to take in the sight before she jumped into my arms with a squeal. The valley between her legs was as warm as an oven, and the look in her eyes was desperation personified.

  “Fuck me,” she begged, the words spilling from her pink, pouty lips. “Stretch my little pussy out, Daddy, please. Do it before Mommy gets back and catches us...”

  I knew it was wrong. I don’t really know what came over me. I’d been holding myself back, dismissing the growing urges inside of me until we got the solar sail set up. I’d turned down threesomes, for fuck’s sake! But the sight of Shay, the smell of her hair and the feel of her skin on mine and the absolute way she was begging me to take her, just pleading like the world was ending - something inside of me broke.

  I realized too late that I was a pot full to the brim with water, and Shay had just made me boil over.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I growled, my mouth against hers. I tried desperately to stop what was happening, to reassert control. “First you argue with the girls, now this...?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she whimpered, grinding her needy pussy against me. “Don’t think about it, Daddy - just take me. I’m right here and I’m so fucking horny and I’m so goddamn wet my fucking shipsuit is squeaking...”

  She punctuated this by grabbing my wrist and shoving my fingers between her legs. She wasn’t kidding - I’d never felt Shay this turned on, this utterly ready for me. Maybe like me she was riding the high of actually winning for a change - or maybe it was something else. I didn’t care. I couldn’t fucking think straight.

  I put my free hand under her ass and lifted her off the ground. With a grunt, I carried her over to one of the consoles and set the edge of her butt against it, my fingers working inside of her.

  “You bad girl,” I panted, my own cock throbbing like a white-hot iron girder in my suit. “Trying to make me lose control now, of all times?”

  “That’s when it’s best,” she growled, tugging down my zipper. “When it’s forbidden. Take my hot little pussy, Daddy, use it the way I know you want to. Only you can have it - nobody else! You’re the only one who gets to feel my tight teen body wrapped around your cock...!”

  If she didn’t stop, I was going to bust right then and there. I put a hand over her mouth as my cock came out of my pants, stiff as a board and coated in precum. She bit me - actually bit me! I don’t know if she was mad that I was keeping her from talking or if she just wanted to make things hotter, but when the pain hit, I saw red.

  I slapped her. Her mouth dropped open in shock, and before she could regain her senses I grabbed a handful of hair and tugged her head to the side. It left her pinned beneath my strength, her legs spread wide and her soft, silky folds completely open to my cock.

  The head of my cock pushed into those folds, and Shay trembled. She growled beneath my fingers, eyes rolling in her head.

  “Such a pretty pussy,” I said, watching as my cock disappeared into her slit. “Such a perfect little princess pussy. Daddy loves this pussy so much...”

  I couldn’t hold back. My fingers tightened against her ass as I rammed myself home, burying my cock inside of her to the hilt in one smooth, savage stroke. Shay cried out beneath my fingers, her tits heaving as pleasure infiltrated her. Her inner walls were softer than silk, gripping me tight as I bottomed out inside of her.

  We fucked like mad animals. Shay’s back hit the wall over and over again as I lost control, pumping my hips like a piston. None of the other girls would have been able to take it - they would’ve walked away from treatment like this bruised and battered. Not Shay. Shay loved it.

  “Tell me you love me,” she whimpered, pulling my hand away from her face. “Tell me you love me, Daddy, that you’ll always take care of me...”

  Holy shit, I thought, a shock cutting through the haze in my head. Shay was crying. Tears rolled down her cheeks, her shoulders moving in silent sobs as she impaled herself on me over and over again.

  “Always,” I grunted, bearing down harder. “You’re my sexy little princess, Shay. Daddy owns you now - don’t you ever forget it!”

  But Shay wasn’t satisfied with just that.

  “I’m your favorite, right? Tell me I’m your favorite.” There was something deeper than desperation in Shay’s eyes, a hunger that sent a shock through me even as I wrung her tight little pussy dry and used it to the hilt.

  “I’m not going to say that,” I grunted, putting a hand on her chin. “You gonna tell me I’m your favorite, you naughty little girl?”

  I tried to play it off like Shay was just talking dirty. But she meant it.

  “Tell me you love me more than them,” she whimpered, her walls quivering around me as she approached her peak. “Tell me I’m the most important one - that you’ll choose me over everyone else! Tell me I’m your girl, Noah - tell me I’m yours...”

  I had no idea where this was coming from. I was about to ask, but a moment later Shay’s walls went crazy around me and there was no getting through to her. She tossed back her head and screamed, the sound muffled just in time by my hand over her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she came, her heart pounding against her artificial ribs like a fucking jackhammer.

  Inside of that tight, wet, quivering perfection, I lasted about three more strokes. I pushed past the
point of no return and buried my face in Shay’s cleavage, sucking at her hard nipples as I went over the edge. A shudder passed through me as the fireworks show started - explosions of white and red behind my eyes as I grunted and thrust and shot over and over again inside of her. It was like all the frustration of the last week, all the losses, all the setbacks, all of it was flowing out of me. It felt fucking incredible.

  It also felt guilty as fuck.

  As I came down from my peak, Shay rubbed the back of my head and whispered soothing words into my ear.

  “I love you,” she whimpered, clinging to me. “I want to be your favorite. I want to be the only girl you need...”

  Reality reasserted itself. I pulled out of Shay, her slit dripping with my load. I pulled up my shipsuit and tried to get myself back into proper order, noting with some confusion that Shay hadn’t even zipped herself back up.

  “I can’t believe we did that,” I said, looking back and forth across the command center like I expected Meiko or Ruby to catch us. “We really shouldn’t have done that, Shay. Fuck...”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said, a faraway look in her eye. “Noah, please. We’ve had fun - I know we have. But you have to choose me. You need to get over this whole ‘harem’ thing.”

  I shook my head. “Shay, that’s not happening. We talked about this. We all made an agreement.”

  Shay’s face twisted. “Fuck the agreement. You don’t need them - I can be any girl you want. Just kick those bitches to the curb already and let’s rule this whole fucking station together! Let’s rule the galaxy!”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  “After everything we’ve been through,” I said, my jaw practically on the floor, “you’re still jealous. You’re still trying to have me all to yourself. Shay, you’re crazy.”

  Before she could respond, there was a crackling sound.

  “Meiko here,” Meiko said, sounding every bit as full of cheer as I was of dread. “Ruby and I are suited up - the solar sail is ready for install. Switching on cameras now.”

  The main viewscreen blazed to life. Either Ruby or Meiko must have strapped a camera to the helmet of their suit - I was looking at a live view of the lowermost point of Gamma spire. The trailer hitch, the point where androids like Shay and I couldn’t go. The place where the solar sail was installed, where it spread out to encompass the entire station and bring us enough energy to totally transform the Oubliette.

  “I’m here,” I said, hoping they couldn’t hear the we-just-fucked tone in my voice. “We’re watching you!”

  “Noah, it’s not too late,” Shay said, suddenly frantic. “Call them back. Don’t do this.”

  I whirled on her. “What possible reason would there be to abandon this?” I asked, glaring down at her. “This is what we’ve worked for since I got here, Shay! This is the only thing I’ve cared about since you woke me up.”

  “Since I woke you up,” Shay repeated numbly. She stared out into nothing for a moment, then grabbed my hand with tears in her eyes. “Tell them to abort! Put the sail back where you got it! Please!”

  I’d heard enough.

  “What are you not telling me!?” I demanded, grabbing Shay by the shoulders. “What!?”

  Back on the screen, Ruby and Meiko were advancing. I could see the circular platform in the distance where the solar sail’s control array waited. It was a squat bank of computers in the middle of what looked like an old satellite dish. Meiko and Ruby were falling towards it, using handholds in the station to control their descent.

  Shay looked around frantically, like a rat caught in a trap. Finally her eyes traveled to the screen, and something inside of her broke. She slumped in my arms. A moment later, the tears began. To my surprise, she didn’t sob. They fell silently down her cheeks, and when she looked up at me, there was a look of such profound despair in her eyes that I instinctively felt sympathy for her. Even if holding whatever the fuck this was back for so long was her fault.

  “Noah,” she said, shaking her head back and forth. “There’s so many things I should have told you. I should have explained as soon as I realized you were...that you were different.”

  I cocked an eyebrow, completely confused. “Different how?”

  Her mouth moved soundlessly, trying to find the words. “You don’t know the real me,” she said, grasping at it helplessly. “And, Noah - you don’t know the real you...”

  My blood went cold. I remembered the Forbidden List, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.

  “Shay,” I growled, a core of anger igniting in my stomach, “what have you done?”

  “Noah!”

  Shay and I both froze. That was Meiko - and her voice was ice.

  “What?” I asked, turning to the screen. Shay clung to me, trying to stop me, but she wasn’t strong enough. “What is it, Meiko?”

  “There’s something up here you need to see,” she said flatly. “Switching to my video feed...”

  The screen changed. Now I was looking at Meiko’s feed. She was feet away from the solar sail’s controls, well into the station’s dead zone. It was a minor miracle that the cameras worked.

  Only it wasn’t. Because I clearly did not understand the situation at the solar sail.

  There were bodies on the ground. Lots of them. Some of them crumpled up in fetal positions, some of them lying flat. They were perfectly preserved, and for a moment I allowed myself to wonder if the vacuum of space had kept them from decaying somehow. Then Meiko robbed me of even that when she kicked the body nearest to her over with her foot.

  It wasn’t a person. It was an android.

  It was me.

  Every single one of them was me.

  Twenty-Two: Too Many Noahs

  “That’s...that’s impossible,” I stammered, staring at the screen. “There’s like twenty bodies around the solar sail array. They’re not all me, right, Meiko? They can’t be me...”

  “They are.” Ruby stepped into the frame, her suit clinging to her curves like a second skin. “I’ve checked them all, Master. All of them look exactly like you. They are you.”

  The bottom dropped out of the world. My view of the screen dimmed, hot tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

  “I’m going insane,” I muttered, putting a hand against my head. “What the fuck? How the fuck is this possible?”

  There was only one person who could answer that question. And she was standing right next to me.

  “Yes,” Meiko said, something hard and cold in her tone. “I would very much like an explanation of this as well.”

  It was a long moment before I dared to turn around. When I did, Shay had completely crumbled. She shuddered as if she was standing on top of a frozen mountain, her knees knocking together. For a moment, I thought she was going to lean over and vomit.

  “I can explain,” Shay said in a sad, desperate voice.

  “You’d better,” I said, still reeling. “You’d better explain to all of us, Shay.”

  She nodded, her lips pressed tightly together. “Okay. Well, shit. Where do I begin? Noah...you’re not the first ‘you’.”

  “I gathered that,” I said, the words tasting bitter in my mouth. “I’m not that stupid.”

  Shay flinched. “I know,” she said. Behind us both, Meiko’s camera bobbed as she walked the length of the solar sail array, like she was trying to capture every angle of it. Almost like a detective scoping out a crime scene. “I’ve brought you back to life many times, Noah.”

  “How many?” I asked, bracing myself.

  She shook her head, tears falling from her cheeks. “I’m honestly not sure,” she admitted. “Once every couple of years. It’s been going on for a decade or two, at least.”

  The words hit me like a blow. I felt like I needed to sit down - but if I did, I might never be able to stand upright again. “Decades?” I managed.

  She nodded sadly. “It’s always the same story,” she said, her eyes taking on that faraway
look again. “I put you into a body, I explain everything that’s going on. Then we...well, we fuck. You and I go to my dungeon, and we have a lot of fun. You’re exactly the psychological type I need - a take-charge man who brings out the submissive in me. I legitimately love the time we spend together-”

  “Don’t,” I said, cutting her off. “Just don’t. Get to the bad part.”

  She swallowed hard. “It’s not enough,” she admitted, looking lost. “It’s never enough. You always get fed up eventually - this station is like a missing tooth to you, Noah. You can’t stop putting your tongue where it used to be, and it drives you mad. Eventually, no matter how much I try to stop you, you get it into your head to fix the station. And it can’t be fixed - it’s never fixed, no matter how much you try.”

  I could follow her logic. “And I eventually go to the trailer hitch,” I said, looking out over all those bodies. “Thinking there has to be some way to reactivate the solar sail.”

  “You did,” Shay said with a sniffle. “You leave me, every time. You break my heart, every time. Then you drop dead, and I have to wait a year and put you in another body. This is the first time that’s been different. The first time you thought to make alliances with the prisoners. I knew as soon as you did it that you were different somehow - not the same Noah I’ve been talking to for all these years. But I didn’t...I never expected you could actually do it...”

  It all made sense. Why she had such a bizarre case of separation anxiety when it came to me, why she’d cultivated such a cynical attitude about the station. Why she’d never believed me. Why would she, when she’d seen me fail so many times?

  “Shay,” I said, shaking my head. “Shit, I wish you’d told me sooner...”

  Shay smiled, then I smiled. And for a moment, everything was fine. It was all behind us, and there was no hurt, and we were a crew again. For one single moment.

  Then Meiko spoke up, and everything changed.

  “I don’t mean to call you a lying bitch,” Meiko said acidly, “but look at this.”