by Robin Danner
But because of this prejudice, there was a healthy underground trade of forged health papers in every LEO spaceport. What people don't know won't hurt 'em.
Lin rolled off the back of the dais, taking her new friend with her. She pushed off the edge of the foamboard clouds and snagged his wrists in her grip before drifting out into the cavernous space of the tunnel hangar. “Come on,” she muttered, dragging him with her as they began to fall downward. “I've now got less than twenty hours to make it to the Martian system. I hope they have an Express.”
* * * *
Having no choice, Rex fell down with her. Native Lunar, he thought, watching the way she drew her limbs close to her body and kept her movements small. She angled her body towards the wall of the descent tube and began a graceful spin with a slight, deliberate wobble designed to bring her close to the wall. She's good, he thought. He remembered the scent of her tight, musky pussy. In more ways than one.
She caught a maintenance ladder with one foot and brought her body in against it. He used his own methods to get there—actually he could have just hung there in null-grav and waited for the magic to drag him along after her—but he still held out a small hope he’d be able to get away. Maybe she could be reasoned with.
And maybe the Moon really is made of green cheese. She was one of Diana's. The Moon goddess didn't choose Her servants from those who gave up. He landed against the wall and wondered what to do next. Beside him, Lin muttered. “Hah! Always an access hatch.”
She gave the circular hatch door's panel a quick jab with the palm of her hand. The panel's faceplate sprang open. On the inside, she pushed the yellow emergency release and the hatch released with a hiss. She turned around. “Don't lag. The binding will make you sorry you did.”
“I know all about the bindings,” he retorted. They got you physically at first. Then they crawled into your headspace. The longer you spent with bindings on you, the less they were needed. The more time he spent with her, bound to her, the less he'd want to leave. “You're making a mistake,” he said. “You don't want to take me back to Diana.”
She crawled into the tunnel, her heart-shaped ass in front of him. “Diana wants me to take you back to her. And she overrides you.”
“She's not herself. There's something wrong. If you were really an Arrow, you'd have sensed that.”
“Take it up with her.” She paused to look over her shoulder and he wished she were looking back with other thoughts on her mind. Serving a celibate goddess messed with your head sometimes.
“Why do you think I left,” he muttered. A good Hound obeyed his Mistress without question. Questions generated…retribution. He resisted the urge to rub away phantom pain from his ribs.
They came to another hatch and she twisted her body to pop it open with her legs. “I don't care,” she said. “I can't.”
* * * *
She emerged into a closet space and drifted to the ground, the Hound floating behind her. The sign on the door read Commercial Hangar Egress and she stepped forward. The gravity shelf tripped her up and she fell. His arm shot out to steady her. She shot him a sideways look. “Thanks,” she muttered.
He dropped his arm. “If you're one of Hers,” he said, “you know there's something wrong.”
Her fingers went to the chip of industrial diamond around her neck. The one that served as her pendulum, and interrupted what would have been a fantastic evening by pegging him as her target. Wrong kind of target, she thought grimly. “I don't know what you're talking about,” she said, ignoring the questions of her own she'd never received answers to. “Besides, I'm not one of Her regulars. I'm just on…short-term loan, I guess.”
“I didn't just run for my health, you know,” he said. “I wouldn't break an oath like that. Especially not to Her.”
“I don't care,” she said again. “I have promises of my own to keep. And one of them involves getting you to Deimos in the Martian system.” Although why the goddess had chosen Deimos she would never know. Deimos barely had gravity, much less anything in the way of spiritual centers. Lin rounded a corner and came out into the public area of the spaceport.
“There are others, you know,” he said. “I'm not the only one who escaped. Maybe you have the wrong guy.”
She tapped her pendulum. “It's tuned to you. This is your personal tracking pendulum.” When the Goddess had given her the diamond chip, it had been attached to a thick length of leather that she now realized was the perfect size to be a Canid collar. The idea of collaring a sentient human being, no matter how genetically altered, left a bad taste in her mouth, but the law was the law.
Terminals listing outbound shuttles lined one wall, while the inbounds were displayed on a giant, 3-D holographic projector in the center of the main intersection.
People milled around the gates leading to departures. She paused to consult the outbound screens, searching for something going to Mars as soon as possible. Beside her, the Hound shifted backwards. “Don't get any ideas,” she muttered, trying to read. “Over there.” She pointed to a hallway three arches down from where they stood and started towards it.
A knot of people emerged from one of the arches she had to pass, and with them came two Whites. She couldn't help but meet their gazes, and one of the security men frowned. “Hey,” he said. “That's the woman who skipped out on the parade!” The two men lunged for her.
Hells bells! She dodged to the left and broke into a run. Behind her, she felt more than saw that the Hound had swung around to follow her. The binding tugged at her, somewhere behind her navel. She ran out towards the main atrium, counting on the crowds of people to run interference.
A glance back showed her the two Whites moving through the clusters of people, stun-sticks raised. The one on the left brought his stick down on the shoulder of a man who didn't move out of the way fast enough.
A large support column flanked by two kiosks loomed in front of her. She flung herself around the side of one of the kiosks and crouched down by a garbage can. She pulled the Hound down in front of her. “Keep your mouth shut or we're both in trouble,” she hissed.
He shot her a look. “Hey, I'm an uncollared Canid. I'll take you over the Whites any day.” The clump of security boots—made for kicking asses—came closer. A few people browsing at the news kiosk scurried away, stealing some of the cover their bodies would have provided. The white coveralls of the guards appeared in between the scrolling headlines and flashing ads of the thin plastic newssheets hanging from the kiosk's supports. She pressed her back harder against the column. Maybe if she wished hard enough, she'd go right through it.
A man in a long black coat stepped up to the kiosk and snatched one of the dangling sheets of flimsiplast. He stepped close to the garbage can and shook the sheet open to full size. The liquid crystal inside the sheet flared to life and began scrolling the news headlines over the sheet. The shaggy-looking man spread the newssheet over the garbage can and stood off to one side, holding it up as the Whites stomped by.
He glanced down at her, huddled in the corner alongside the Hound. “You folks need to get out of here fast?”
Lin sized him up. The guy looked like he'd been living out of a spaceport locker for at least a week. He grinned, white teeth gleaming in his unshaven face. Her eyes flicked over his shoulder. The Whites had passed them, but had slowed their pace while they scanned the milling people. Hells bells. “You go to the Martian system?”
“Lady, I go anywhere they pay me.”
Large headlines scrolled over the sheet and masked their presence from the passers-by. Helios array shines light on class warfare in LEO cities screamed the largest. Plight of lost Lunar miners worsens—several still missing caught her eye and twisted her heart. Hang in there, guys, she thought. Union busted on Phobos—riots expected. “Deimos.”
“I could let the Whites toss you in jail. It's nicer.”
She shifted in her crouch. “I don't have time for games, space cowboy.”
“Okay, ok
ay. Eight thousand, round trip.”
Holy crap and Hells bells! “Two,” she replied. “I'm only going one way.”
He flicked the paper with his forefinger and the scrolling headline expanded and displayed an Op-Ed claiming the Helios project's ambition encouraged a false hope of independence among LEO cits. “You're crazier than I thought, lady. And that's saying something, since you look pretty hot in that dress.”
Oh hells bells. She still wore the Diana costume. And I had time to change when? “Look, cowboy, are you going to deal with me or not?”
“Cool your jets, Precious. Two's too cheap,” he said. “You ever see the spaceport entrance on Deimos?” She shook her head. “Have an easier time trying to suck your own dick.”
“Nice,” Rex muttered beside her. The Whites were joined by two other security guards and they began fanning out. Lin fidgeted. It's too hot to be pissing around now.
“Three,” she said. “It's all I got. And my name is Lin, not Precious.”
He glanced from her to the Hound. “And what about hangdog eyes, here? You give yourself a name, or do you just answer to Good Boy?”
Lin thought it was a funny way to ask someone's name, but the pilot didn't seem all that stable overall. As long as he can fly. Beside her, the Hound stiffened. “Call me Rex,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Good boy, Rex,” the pilot said. “My name's Max. Wasn't that easy?” He turned his bright blue eyes back onto her. “Okay, Precious, you win. I'm a sucker for hangdog eyes.”
Chapter 3
Lin fully expected their eccentric pilot's ride to be as scruffed up as he was, but the inter-system shuttle proved to be top of the line. She frowned. “Who did you say your client was?”
“Right this way, ma'am,” the pilot said, pulling back a curtain right in front of the docking hatch to reveal the clean lines of a state-of-the-art passenger section. Plush, full-recline seats with footrests, a wet bar, and even a vid-game station all waited.
Hells bells, she thought. I got a deal at three thousand.
“I'll just go and take her out of sleep-mode and we'll be off.”
“You do that,” Lin said.
Beside her, Rex whistled, a little series of pitched trills, while he pulled the hatch shut and keyed the OK-green button. A hiss of air echoed through the chamber and the distant clank of the docking hood pulling away from the hatch covered up any further questions before Max ducked through another curtained alcove that hid the door to the pilot's cabin, leaving her alone with Rex.
A second later, Max's voice came over the intercom. “You folks pick a seat and strap in. The armrests are programmed to induce sleep after liftoff.”
She settled into one of the seats. A vid-screen descended from the ceiling. Beside her, Rex strapped himself in, securing the seat's crash webbing over his body. He fumbled with the last clasp and she reached over to help him. Again, his liquid brown gaze held hers.
Craters, but he's young, she thought. His face was just so…open. “Don't be scared, kid,” she said. “Whatever you did, She…” she trailed off. It was none of her business.
His hand clamped down on her wrist. “Don't send me back there,” he pleaded. “You don't understand. If you were one of Hers, you'd know.”
She shook her head. She wasn’t supposed to care. “She thinks you're important enough to chase,” she said. “She cares enough to want you back.”
The shuttle rumbled, and then made a sickening drop as it fell away from the outer shell of the ring-city. The monitor displayed the outside camera view of the shuttle arcing backwards into an apparent free-fall, curving itself away from the stately turn of the ring-city. Her ears popped and her stomach straightened itself out until the curious lightness of microgravity settled into her body. She bumped gently against the crash webbing of her recliner. A faint hiss sounded as the lights dimmed and the sedative gas started its work. Must be nice, she thought, for someone to care when you go missing.
* * * *
Rex couldn't help but watch her sleep. And wonder why he wasn't going out as well. His question was answered a minute later when the pilot came back through the door from the cockpit. “Am I glad to see you, little brother.” Max made his way hand over hand to Rex's seat and clapped him on the shoulder.
Rex sighed and embraced his former Packmate. His cheek rested against the other man's and he breathed in the wolf-scent of home gratefully. His body pressed against the older man's and Max wrapped his arms around him, responding to the need for comfort and touch.
“I thought we’d lost our last chance,” Max said. “I worried about you being on your own.” He glanced over at the sleeping Lin. “But you found yourself a patron, I see.”
Rex's gut sank. He didn't want to break Max's bubble. “It's not what you think,” he said.
Max chuckled. “Hey, the Lady doesn't rule us now, remember? We're not subject to Her rules.”
“No, it's just…”
“I can smell her all over you,” Max said, drifting over to the sleeping woman. “She's delicious. Would you share?”
Rex's laugh was only a touch bittersweet to his own ears. “Forget it, Max,” he said.
“I'm crushed, little brother.” Max lifted a hand to touch the sleeping woman's hair. “There's certainly a resemblance.”
“You're better off not knowing. She's an Arrow.”
Max drew his hand back so fast it sent him into a tailspin. “What? How did…you get…caught up.in that?” His words came only when he was facing the younger man.
Rex watched Max spin, his coat flapping like great batwings around him. Finally dizzy enough to take mercy on his friend, he unhooked one latch of the webbing and stretched out an arm to stop the pilot's crazy trajectory. The coat kept spinning another quarter-turn until it came to rest, wrapped around Max's legs. “I didn't know,” he said. “I was running from the Whites and I looked up and there she was. I thought she was the Lady at first.” That moment of fear-terror-relief still confused him. “I just jumped on the parade float and hoped nobody would notice me long enough for me to lose the Whites.”
Max quirked his lip. “And the sex came into play when?”
Rex blushed. “She was already worked up when I got there. I think I was just in the right place at the right time.” He looked over at Lin. “She's a Truebreed. They're not known for their discriminating tastes. She said so herself. It wasn't until after she was done that her pendulum gave me away.”
“I'll change course,” Max said. “I can put us on an intercept with Helios. If she gives us trouble, she can go airlock-surfing.” The disreputable grin was gone, and the older man's eyes hardened. “I've made a contact on board the array. I think he might be able to help.”
Rex's heart jumped. “Who is it? How…”
Max shook his head. “Let's deal with our present problem first.” He reached for the medkit panel housed in the wall. “I can make it painless…”
“No!” Rex unbelted himself all the way and floated out of his berth towards his Packmate. “We don't kill.”
Max's nostrils flared and Rex smelled the wolf in him stir from slumber. “We don't have the luxury of mercy,” he said.
Rex grabbed hold of a stabilizer strap and pulled himself in close against the wall. “Mercy is not a luxury,” he said. “We. Don't. Kill.”
A low growl rumbled in Max's throat as his blue eyes met and held Rex's. Rex's stomach clenched at facing down the elder Packmate whose will should have been sacrosanct. He took a shaky breath. “We are not animals, Brother.”
Fine trembling started in his limbs as Max raised his eyebrows. “Of course we're animals,” he said, pushing himself back from the medkit panel. “We're all animals, formed of clay and by the whim of the Gods.” He spread his arms and executed a graceful flip, and Rex felt the tension ease between his shoulder blades. “She gets to live. For now.”
Rex tried not to let his sigh push him across the room. “I appreciate that. Especially as she's put a bindi
ng on me that keeps me close to her. She goes out an airlock…”
“And you follow her like a Good Dog.”
Rex's lips twisted.
“So why the hell is she dragging you to Deimos?”
He shrugged. “Ask her. I'm planning to. As far as I can tell, Diana's given her a limited time to bring me to Deimos.”
“Why Deimos? It's a shithole.”
“I don't know,” Rex said, agitated. “Maybe she's into the food. All I know is that once Lin delivers me to Diana, the compulsion to follow her will be gone. After that…I'll deal with that when it gets here.” He made his way back to the recliner and wriggled back into the webbing.
“And the other compulsion?” Max asked archly, settling his hand over Rex's crotch. “The one that's keeping this in a semi all the time?”
Rex sighed. “I want her. A lot. She felt so good when I put my fingers inside her.” Just thinking of it made his cock ache. “But not bad enough to start thinking with my dick instead of my head.”
Max's arms went around Rex’s waist. “Maybe you need a little relief.” He ground his hips against Rex's erection.
Rex hardly dared to ask. “It's been lonely,” he said. “Without the Pack.”
Max's hands worked at the fastener of his pants. “I know. It's not easy being an exile.” Rex's cock sprang free into Max’s hand and he pushed himself to his knees. Sudden tightness built in Rex's gut. The mere sensation of human contact sent such relief through him that his chest caught. And when Max's mouth closed over his dick, there was just as much comfort as pleasure. He whimpered as the blood rushed to his cock, swelling it in his Packmate's mouth.
Max's rough fingers encircled his shaft, working up and down in time with his mouth. The shudders raced through Rex in time, then double-time, with the motions of Max's hand and mouth. His hips started to move. The motion sent Max's legs up and out, dangling upwards in the absence of gravity.
Weeks of sleeping in boxes or on top of cargo crates had worn on Rex. Surviving on his own, without a friendly hand to help or a warm body to curl up next to, had taken its toll. He missed the goddess…it ached so deep being alone. His hands threaded through Max's unruly hair, shifting the other man's head in little motions up and down along the length of his cock.