by Lisa Lace
She held on as he took her, wild with his thrusts, unable to stop him if she tried, but not wanting to either. It felt too good, sending her a place where there were no thoughts, only the relentless pleasure of his cock inside her. Suddenly, she exploded, breaking apart into a million stars, her cry ringing against the hollow walls of the cavernous room. With a final push he spilled inside her, pumping his cock three more times, huffing like he couldn’t breath.
“Oh, great goddess,” he said when he could catch a breath. He pulled her head to him and kissed her, crushing his mouth to hers.
The room was quiet until she said, “I can’t be in outer space. For one thing, I’m not dressed for it.”
“You are,” affirmed Rev.
“But I have my job. I need…”
“You need to breath deeply,” he said. “And you need to accept this. Because I need you to THINK. This is a bad situation for all of us and any misstep will get us sent out the airlock into space.”
She swallowed hard. “Does that mean what I think it means. That I’d…” Tracy stared hard at the view screen.
“Not just you. Carol too, and possibly me.”
“Fuck,” she said. “What are we going to do?”
“I’m going to secure you for the night shift. Then I’ll continue with my work.”
“Which is?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Holding her this close, with her butt almost on his cock, generated sexual thoughts in Reven. He shifted without thinking to push closer to her.
“Plausible deniability,” she said.
“Uh huh,” he said, not actually listening to what she was saying. Holding her near brought her scent, her delicious, sensual fragrance, to his nose. Why did this creature, not even his own species, hold such allure? He bent his head down to breathe in more of her. The aroma hit him like a drug.
She said she tasted like vanilla. Rev didn’t know what vanilla was, but if it was like Tracy it was delectable. Rev hadn’t visited many planets because of his relative youth, but he wasn’t inexperienced with women. Any woman he’d been with didn’t compare with Tracy’s alluring curves and the enticing flavor of her lips. If he could, he’d take her now but that would be wrong.
“What are you doing?” she said her voice rising. “Are you sniffing me?”
The sound of her voice shocked him out of his reverie. Oh gods, he was. “Sorry,” he said. Rev released her.
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Over to the tanks.”
“What are you going to do? You aren’t putting me IN that thing, are you?” she asked. Her voice climbed higher when she saw the regeneration tanks just past the tables.
“It’s not too bad. I’ve been in them myself.”
“You have?” she asked suspiciously.
“It is a standard medical practice. It will help to flush the drugs from your system and accelerate the healing process. When you get out, you’ll feel great.”
She gulped. “Isn’t there another way?”
“No. If Grenta checks during the night and you’re not there, he’ll raise an alarm.”
“You aren’t giving me much choice.”
“WE don’t have much choice.” Rev agreed. “But it will keep you safe.”
She edged closer to the tank and peered in. “How does it work?”
He pulled up the face mask connected to hoses sitting inside the tank. “This goes over your face. It’s your breathing supply. The healing medium flushes into the tank and you lie in it.”
“Submerged.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t like it. We have things that on Earth. We call them sensory deprivation chambers.”
“You will not be deprived of anything. The healing medium naturally puts you to sleep. You’ll wake when I drain the tank and take the mask off you.”
“You’ll be here?”
“Yes.”
She took a deep breath. “Well, if we don’t have a choice, let’s do it.”
Rev’s hands trembled as he struggled to control himself. His hands slide over her soft hair as he fitted the mask on her face, making sure it was secure.
When he picked her up, he found it difficult to not put her on the table and fuck her again right there. The need to do this was immediate and irrational, and he struggled to focus to complete his task. He only regained control when the healing medium, a clear gel, flushed into the tank and covered her body. Rev watched as she slowly closed her eyes and floated serenely in the tank.
The woman would be the death of him. She was from a Non-Aligned world and the law said that it was illegal to have sex with Non-Aligned Sentients.
He reminded himself that there were good reasons for this. An Aligned Worlds citizen had legal rights that Non-Aligned sentients did not. This created a power imbalance between the two individuals that in the society of Aligned Worlds that was not just unacceptable, it was immoral.
In simpler terms, a Non-Aligned world sentient, in a relationship to the Aligned World sentient, had the legal status of a pet. Rev was a civilized man, trained to defend citizens and non-citizens alike against the abuses of men such as Jaal, Bris and Cax. He would not take advantage of a Non-Aligned Sentient.
If only his dick knew or cared about legal rights. It throbbed between his legs. It was an aching annoyance begging for something it could not have.
Traitor.
Rev put the woman Carol in the tank next to Tracy. He guessed that whatever drugs she had been given was double Tracy’s dosage, because the other woman was still unconscious. The tank would flush the drugs out her and repair any physical damage.
Unfortunately, this was done only to get the women ready for genetic conversion. The thought made him sick to his stomach.
*
Reven had work to do, and he concentrated on those tasks to get his mind off Tracy. The database he found earlier was filled with information on cargo, destinations, and delivery dates. All he needed was some undisturbed time to commit the information to his memory; then he would be able to give testimony to the courts.
If he got that far. The bitter information he had learned of his brother’s fate at the hands of these people stayed close to him.
It was unusual for the Aligned Worlds Enforcement Wing to admit brothers into their ranks. Although the work was dangerous, the prestige of working in the Enforcement Wing generated enough hopeful candidates to spare a family from losing multiple members in its service. Rev’s eidetic memory was the deciding factor in admitting him to the Academy. A rare ability, it made him even more valuable in giving court testimony than the usual tracker. Rev was proud of his ninety-eight percent conviction rate. It was the high point of what had, until this point in his life, been an outstanding career.
Rev’s decision to pursue his brother’s disappearance against orders put that career at risk. Though trackers were allowed a certain amount of discretion in pursuing cases, this was one instance where his captain overrode him.
It was an angry confrontation and one that Rev regretted now. It was almost certain that his brother was dead, released into space by either Bris or Cax when they discovered him snooping around. His brother Tev, was smart and resourceful, pulling himself out of situations that would strike terror in anyone.
But being spaced? Rev couldn’t imagine how a person would getting out of that situation. Rev’s zero-g training had taught him that. One particularly harrowing training exercise was floating out of an airlock without a tether. His mission was to dock with another spacecraft using only the small jets built into a spacesuit.
Unfortunately, Rev’s suit sprouted an air leak and depressurized rapidly. This left him without pressure to keep the fluids in his body functioning properly and he didn’t have enough air to breathe. He was unconscious within ten seconds. Rev was only alive today through the quick thinking of one of his classmates.
Three minutes. That’s how long a body can survive without any protection in
the vacuum of space. His classmate revived him right before the three minute mark. Rev couldn’t imagine that his brother survived being spaced without a suit, without back-up, and without help.
Rev rubbed his temples. It had been a stroke of luck that he had gotten one of the criminals responsible for his brother’s death jailed on a backwater planet. Even better, he had been able to assume Cax’s identity as well. The data he looked at and absorbed now was a gift from the gods. This information would shut down a major wiver’s ring that went beyond Jaal and his crew.
The view screen winked off. Rev had memorized everything he needed from the database. If he was smart, he would activate his pick-up signal and wait for the enforcement wing to send a ship. According to protocol, he would launch himself into space in a pressure suit and jet to a waiting ship. On the ship, Rev would read his testimony into the judicial record. People higher up the food chain would then decide what to do.
For some reason, he didn’t feel that smart. Rev glanced back at Tracy’s tank. The idea of leaving her behind and subjecting her to Grenta’s conversion techniques stuck a knife in his heart.
He shook his head, getting angry at himself. How could he get into such a crazy situation? Going against orders to rescue his family was one thing. He had to find his brother to heal his soul.
Going against the law was another thing entirely. Rev revered the rule of the law and the stability and justice it brought to society. Duty to the principles of the Aligned Worlds had given him a sense of morality and helped guide his actions. He couldn’t let his attraction to this woman get in the way of his duty.
Could he?
Rev thought for a minute. There was one more thing to do before he made a plan of action. He pushed up from his seat at the console and walked towards the stasis chambers at the back of the room. Rev had the identifiers of the chamber prisoners now: their height, weight, hair color, skin color. Grenta’s records obligingly listed what they had been and what they became during their conversions.
As he walked into the stasis area, lights above the chambers switched on.
The chambers were all six feet in height, with the faces of the occupants visible through a transparent window.
Their eyes were shut, their faces were devoid of emotion, and the looked peaceful. They appeared to be asleep, though they were not. The body functions of the women were kept at a minimal amount of activity, which kept toxic build-ups of waste products from flowing to the gel around them. Their brain activity was minimized as well. Because these machines were commonly used by the wivers, Rev had studied them and their use in the academy.
One by one, he scanned their beautiful faces and committed them to memory. Twenty three faces of women who may never see their families again, twenty three faces who were ripped from their homes, their towns, and their societies.
When he had seen their records, the women were just words and numbers on a piece of paper. When he saw their faces in front of his eyes, the visual representation was almost too much to take. They had the facial features and the blue skin of the miners who sought to buy them, the species that shared Rev’s home planet.
The Staukub. Rev considered himself an enlightened man, but thinking about the miners caused bile to rise in his throat.
He turned and thought about leaving this place and getting some sleep after this eventful day. But he couldn’t pass Tracy’s tank without taking one last look.
Rev stared at her, resting his eyes on her white skin, her graceful form, and the dark hair fanning from her face. The pink nubs of her ample breasts poked up and Rev thought he’d never saw a more arousing sight. Dark hair formed an inverted V between her legs and pointed the way to the delights of her body.
He could not tear his eyes away from Tracy, and in the end he could not leave her.
He made a decision then, gazing at this ethereal vision of pale skin and dark hair. He would not her to be corrupted by conversion, and certainly not into a Staukub.
Rev would take Tracy Walsh with him when he left the ship. He’d bring her in as a witness, and that way he could be with her a little while.
He heard a noise behind him and spun around with a guilty look on his face. It was Grenta.
“Just checking on the cargo. We can’t afford to lose any more.” said Rev.
“Yes,” said Grenta. “I agree. So how did this one do?” He pointed to Tracy’s tank.
“She’s fine,” he said. “Toxins are nearly flushed.”
Rev was lying. Tracy’s body was completely clean, but he didn’t want Grenta to touch her.
“Nearly? She should be done.”
“Not everyone responds the same way. The other one is ready,” said Rev.
“Flush her tank and get her on the table. We’ll start with her then.”
“Yes, doctor,” said Rev.
With a heavy heart, Rev emptied Carol’s tank and pulled her naked body out. He laid her on the table and wiped her body down from the stack of large disposable towels on a cart nearby. Carol was beautiful, but in a different way from Tracy. Carol had full breasts and nicely shaped hips but he just didn’t feel the same way about Carol that he did for Tracy.
He supposed such things were relative to each sentient.
“Fastened her down,” said Grenta dispassionately.
Rev moved around the table, hating everything that he did, but securing her arms and feet so she could not move.
Carol stirred, and gasped, taking in a huge breath of air. Her eyes open wide and she looked around confused.
“Where am I?” And then her eyes lighted on Rev. “You! What are you doing to me! Where is Tracy?”
“Tracy is fine,” said Rev trying to reassure her.
“Why am I naked. What you going to do to me?” Carol looked around for something to cover herself up. Finding nothing, she positioned her hands as strategically as possible.
Grenta walked to her table. “Everything is going to be fine,” he said.
“When people say that, it’s a sure sign that everything is NOT going to be fine. Why is your mouth moving funny? It doesn’t match your words.”
“The translator is putting my words into your language. The disorientation is only temporary.”
“Your language? If you don’t let me off this table, I’m going to scream.”
“If you do that I’m going to have to gag you. I can’t give you sedatives until the conversion process has taken hold.”
“Conversion!”
“Cax, get the gag.”
“No! I’ll be quiet.”
“Good girl. Get the first injection from storage.” He pointed vaguely to a box at the left wall. Rev searched in the box until he found a syringe that looked correct, retrieved it and handed it to Grenta.
“These are implanted memories. Cax, what’s wrong with you today? Get the other injector, the blue one.”
“Implanted memories!” squeaked Carol.
“Yes, doctor.” Rev found the blue injector and handed it to Grenta.
“You really won’t feel a thing, at first.”
Grenta held the auto-injector to Carol’s stomach, and she grunted.
“That pinched,” she complained.
“You did well,” said Grenta soothingly. “Now for this one.”
He picked up the auto-injector and held it to the back of her ear.
“Ouch!” she said.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” said Grenta.
Rev, who’d seen training films on this process, knew the real horror hadn’t yet happened, and he didn’t want to watch it. He felt bad enough that he had not stopped this madness, but he was one man among many here. If he interceded for Carol, he wouldn’t be allowed to help Tracy.
Rev vowed that when he finished his testimony he’d come back for Carol and the other women. The Aligned World doctors had made many advances in reversing the conversion process. He hoped Carol would be one of the lucky ones on which it worked.
He’d come back to get her.<
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Carol screamed and twisted in her restraints. It would be the first of many cries of pain as the conversion took hold.
Finally Carol passed out, and Grenta instructed Rev to put her back in the tank. Already Carol’s skin had turned a pasty blue. As Rev moved her, her hair fell out in chunks, and nubs that would develop into quills stuck up from her hairline.
“Remember,” said Grenta, “Her Staukub name is Grubba. Call her that from now on. It will help reinforce her implanted memories.”
“Awful name,” said Rev.
“The Staukub aren’t known for their witty names. I’m getting some lunch. Get the other one ready while I’m gone.”
“Yes, doctor,” said Rev, gritting his teeth.
In his mind he had formed a plan. He emptied two syringes and filled them with the healing gel from Tracy’s tank. He was wiping them clean when he heard a voice.
“What’s going on here?”
Rev recognized the voice, and turned to face Bris. He casually set the injectors down on a metal tray.
“Getting ready for the next procedure,” Rev said. “What are you doing here?”
“Just though I’d check on those Terran women. The one I was with was a hot piece.”
“She’s in the tank.”
Bris went over and peered over. “Staukub. Not my favorite. Those quills are sharp! She’s still pretty though.”
“Don’t get any ideas. She’s had a rough morning.”
Bris grunted. “Is that a note of concern in your voice? You didn’t care before.”
“I just care about profits. We lost one already and we don’t need anymore mistakes. It’s all about profits, remember? Now get out of here.”
Rev was taking a chance by yelling at Bris, who technically was Cax’s boss. His intuition told him that in the scheme of this operation, Bris was just an errand boy.
Bris grunted and left. Rev didn’t have much time before Grenta returned and he had to prepare Tracy for what was going to happen.
Once again, he drained the tank, and pulled a body out. He laid her down gently on the table while trying to stop staring at her. He tenderly rubbed the gel off her body and her hair. She came to slowly, but when she opened her eyes, she smiled.