I pulled her to me. "Shhh, baby. Shhh. Don't worry. I love you, Rilar. You do know that, right?" I smiled and she finally chuckled nervously.
"I love you too, Dex." She muffled into my shoulder.
"Good. Now that that's established, what exactly does shor'vennak mean, honey?" I had to know.
She thought for a second. "The closest translation I can think of would be a succubus."
I nodded. "A female demon of lust that devours the souls or drinks the blood of her victims. Honey, that ain't you! Clearcut?"
"As diamond, Dex." She smiled and kissed me lovingly.
Our one hour was just about up, so we got showered and toweled off. We taped our holdouts to our inner thighs, and dressed. Rilar put on one of her flightsuits with 'Solar Wind' stitched across the back, and I put on a tanker, jacket, pants, and boots. I made sure my pants were baggy enough to conceal the holdout. I sent a text to Bili to tell him we were ready, and we walked out with a couple old PuNCH pistols for him to 'confiscate' as he took us into custody. I also called Jeka before we went down the ramp.
"Hey, Dex. What's up?" She asked with that just been fucked and satisfied tone in her voice.
"Hey, Jeka. You sound happy! Anyway, we might not be able to make it tomorrow morning. If not, go ahead and contact CFC with the evidence against Jen. Bili's here, and we've got a plan to take her for every credit she has." I was grinning.
"Tell Bili I said Hi, and if he hurts either of you, I will bleed him of every drop he has!" Jeka was laughing now, and I could hear Rick laughing close by.
"Will do, Jeka. We're diamond here. It's all good. See ya when we see ya." I hung up and we went down the ramp to where Bili was waiting.
"We good?" He asked.
Rilar and I handed him the old trophies from past battles. "Good to go, Bili." I said, and he slapped the cuffs on us. He marched us to the next bay over and we boarded his modified patrol cutter, the SS Bloodhound.
We sat in the cockpit with him as we undocked from the bay and headed out to where he would meet the Grant. We entered slipstream as he turned to us. "Ok, it'll be about fifteen minutes until we reach the Grant. Once there, I will turn you over and get paid. Once I have the creds, it will be up to you to escape. You'll have thirty minutes while I weasel a drink out of her for a bonus, and then I'll leave. I'm leaving the hatch unlocked so you can get back aboard. Clearcut?"
"Diamond, Bili. Pure diamond." I replied with a grin. It was a solid plan. I was still wondering where the fuck she got a hundred K to blow on us, though.
We dropped out of the slipstream and saw the CSS Ulysses S. Grant looming large in front of us. Its 500mm Rail turrets were fuckin' huge, but Bili asked for, and received clearance to dock. He slipped us a couple of speed picks for the cuffs, and then he popped the hatch and lowered the ramp down to the shuttle bay. We walked down with sullen expressions, and there she was.
Jen was smirking in triumph. "Why, Jen? Why hire a bounty hunter for me? Seriously!" I sounded desperate, which is how I wanted to sound.
"Because, my dear Dex Relway. Because you screwed me over for your little Gurshinkan tart here! Because you've been an everlasting obsession of mine for the past SEVEN YEARS!" She was screaming by the time she said the last. All I could think now was that old saying from ancient Earth. 'Hell hath no fury, like that of a woman scorned.'
"Ok, Jen. Seriously, I was NOT screwing Rilar when we were together! I've told you this LORDS KNOW how many times! You know I'm not lying!" I was mad. I was pissed. I watched as her aide handed Bili the credit sticks for both of us. 75K on one, and 25K on the other. He then approached Jen.
"Captain, might I impose on you for a drink before I depart? I'm a bit thirsty." He sounded sincere.
Jen grinned in triumph. "I don't see why not. I'll have my security team escort these two to the brig, and you and I can get to know each other better." She turned and took Bili's arm as her two security goons pushed us forward. I'd already picked the cuffs, and so had Rilar. We were just waiting for the right opportunity.
As soon as we entered the 'vater to the Brig, Ri stumbled forward. A goon went to grab her, and she socked him in the nuts as I turned and disarmed his buddy. I used the butt of the rifle on his face, and he collapsed unconscious. Ri had choked out her guard, and both were unconscious now. I rigged the 'vater with a loopback and closed the panel. Once the doors closed, it would go up one deck, down one deck. Up one... yeah, you get the idea. The door wouldn't open, as the loopback plug would be constantly feeding the command into the system. Once we were through, we sprinted back to the shuttle hangar and up Bili's boarding ramp. We got inside the ship and hid.
The hatch opened a little while later and he buttoned up for takeoff. "We're good, guys." He called. "I hope you made it."
We stepped out. "We're good, Bili." I nodded to him. He tossed me our credit chit and I hit the display button. 25K showed in green LED. "Pleasure doing business, Bili. You going to retire now?" Rilar asked with a hug for our friend. Bili had turned out to be all right.
"Yeah. Bykora and I want to settle down and raise a family. We'll be adopting, since I grew up in an orphanage. I want to help as many as I can. By the way, Jen tried to seduce me. I drink through my helmet filter, so she asked me to remove it. I refused, so she kicked me out a little early." He shrugged as he took us out and set course for Port Royal. We entered the slipstream and were there fifteen minutes later.
As we all walked down the ramp, Bili removed his helmet and showed us his face for the first time.
"Hello. I'm Bilior. Good to meet you both." He held out his hand with a smile.
We shook his hand in stunned disbelief. He was Gurinkan, but I'd always thought he was Human! Rilar was even more stunned than I was, though. Hell, EVERYONE thought he was Human, and he'd been in the business for over twenty years!
He explained. "Gurinkans really aren't known for being Bounty Hunters. I found this old armor back in the Army and decided to adapt it for hunting. I was able to pass myself off as Human under the helmet. People just assumed it. I was tempted not to help you, but if I hadn't, I'd be a hypocrite. Rilar, you aren't the only one who loves outside our species." He smiled at us both, and we shook his hand again.
He launched again and Rilar jumped into my arms. We'd just made three months' worth of credits in a little under an hour.
I called Jeka immediately.
"Herro?" She asked, and I could tell she'd been sleeping.
"Jeka, we're back! We'll meet you in your office in the morning." I told her.
"Good. Now I'm going back to sleep. If you call me again, I'll bleed you." Click.
We laughed as we walked back to our hangar.
We fell into our bunk once I had the hatch secured aboard Solar Wind, and I kissed my mate lovingly.
"We did it, love. We just gave Jen the biggest middle finger possible!" Rilar was grinning as she said it.
"Hell yeah we did!" I replied, grabbing two beers from the 'fridge unit. We popped them open and toasted.
"To Bili and his honor!" Rilar said with a grin. We clinked, drank, and she snuggled up to me.
I kissed her lovingly, and she returned it just as tenderly. "I love you, Rilar." I said as we broke the kiss.
"I love you too, Dex." She replied with a warm smile.
We finished our beers and tossed the empties in the recycler as usual. I held her and we kissed some more and cuddled before drifting off to sleep.
We were woken by the com. "Solar Wind, this is the CSS Grant! Dex, I am here to kill you, and I'll bring down that entire station around you if necessary!"
We jumped up, and both of us put on flight suits. I didn't have time for pants, shirt, jacket, or any of that shit. We scrambled for the cockpit and saw the battleship hovering just outside our hangar.
I hit the com. "Fuckin' hell, Jen! If you open fire, this station will destroy your ship!" I yelled at her.
"I don't fucking care, Dex! I want you dead, and you are going to BE DEAD!" Sh
e had completely lost it.
"First Officer! If you can hear me, relieve Captain Cardwell of command! She is unfit for duty in her current condition!" I yelled over the com.
"Bridge crew are dead, Dex. The rest not loyal to me are dead as well. It's just you and me now, lover." Her voice had taken on the seductive tone that had attracted me to her in the first place. Rilar stiffened beside me, and we exchanged glances.
I switched channels. "Solar Wind to Royal Control! The CSS Grant has been subverted and is preparing to open fire. Raise shields immediately!"
"Royal to Solar Wind. Already done, Dex." Rick's voice came back. Yes!
"Thanks, Rick. If she fires, please don't return fire unless she fires more than three times. Solar Wind, out." I answered, relieved.
I switched back. "Jen, listen to me. You and I weren't meant to be, ok? As much as I wanted it to work out, we are just too different."
"You were fucking that alien whore, Dex! The entire fucking time!" She was screeching now. Then her first salvo hit the shields over the hangar, and the entire place shook.
"Shit, Jen! You're fucking insane!" I shouted back over the com.
Rilar nudged me out of the way. "Jen, this is Rilar. Dex is telling you the truth. We didn't start our relationship until after your Marine wounded me the other day."
There was silence from the com. Utter and complete silence. She turned and slipped her arms under mine and up my back as I wrapped mine around her. She laid her head on my shoulder and we just held each other close.
"Solar Wind, this is CSS Grant. Do you copy?" A new voice said.
"Dex here. Who's this?" I asked.
"Ensign Jonas Braedon, sir. Captain Cardwell just took her own life." He said with a choked up tone.
"How, son? Did you see her do it?" I asked. I had to know.
"She... She just sat there after First Officer Rilar told her about your relationship. Then without warning, she drew her dagger and sliced her own carotid artery. She bled out in seconds, sir." He lost it as he said that last part. I felt for the kid.
"Easy, Ensign. Take it easy. Can you get the Grant back to CFC?" I asked.
"Ye..yes, sir." He said, finally.
"Good. Son, I need you to turn that warbird around and get out of here before the station opens up on you. There's been enough death today." I said it as evenly as possible, fighting a lump in my own throat.
"Will do, Captain. CSS Grant, out." He replied, and I could tell he was in tears. The ship pivoted in place and went into slipstream. Rilar and I breathed a joint sigh of relief.
She held me as I collapsed into my seat. I cried for a woman I'd once loved and called a friend, who had lost her mind over an obsession. An obsession with me. When I'd broken it off with her, I'd done so as gently as possible.
"Why, sweetheart? Why would she risk her ship, kill her crew, and then kill herself over me? I don't understand!" I was in shock. I was horrified by the thought that I had somehow driven her to it all.
"Dex, baby. It wasn't your fault. She thought she was in love with you, but she couldn't handle the breakup. I know how she was. Very possessive. Extremely jealous. That isn't real love, honey. She wanted to own you body and soul. She was obsessed from the first moment you gave in to her." Rilar spoke softly, holding me.
I heard her words finally. I understood. "Ri, you are the only woman I've ever really loved." I realized the truth of it as I said it. Even before we became lovers, I loved her.
"I know, baby. As long as we've known each other, I knew there was something about you under that dense skull." She said, and I chuckled.
"Yeah, I'm dense. I know I'm dense. I'm a guy with a severe denseness disorder." I laughed with relief and to let out the rest of my grief.
We got the call from Jeka after a little while, and she told us we could come up. I said we'd be right there, and I changed into my usual clothes.
We walked in and sat down, and recounted the events of the morning to her. Jeka shook her head sadly.
"She was batshit crazy, Dex." She shrugged.
"Yeah, I know." I replied.
"I've forwarded your evidence to CFC, and just waiting on a reply. Care to stick around?" She smiled at us.
"Sure. We got nothing better to do." Rilar said.
We sat and talked until Jeka's com beeped with the call from CFC. "Administrator Jeka here."
"This is Admiral Conroy at CFC. The Grant just pulled into dock and Ensign Braedon has reported the circumstances surrounding the attacks on the Solar Wind, Port Royal Station, and the suicide of Captain Jendrene Cardwell. She murdered most of her bridge crew and quite a few of her ship's crew. We at CFC wish to express our sincerest apologies to Captain Dex Relway, First Officer Rilar, and to everyone at Port Royal Station."
"Admiral, Dex Relway here. What about some sort of compensation for my time being grounded and being illegally boarded?" I asked.
"Captain Relway, CFC is prepared to offer you the sum of fifty thousand credits to forget this ever happened. Do I have your word that you won't say anything, Captain?" Conroy asked, and I grinned along with Rilar and Jeka.
"Transfer, sir?" I asked. I pulled out my PDA and watched the transfer happen.
"Forget what ever happened, Admiral? I have no idea what you're talking about."
Chapter 2: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
My name is Dex Relway. Captain Dex Relway of the light freighter Solar Wind. I'm 33, with longer than average dark brown hair to my shoulders. Mostly because I haven't felt like cutting it since getting out of the Confederate Navy three years ago. I have hazel eyes and I'm pretty powerfully built. At 6'1" and 210 lbs, I can hold my own in a fist fight. Rilar, my best friend, partner, and now lover can hold my and her own in a gunfight. I'm Human, she's Gurinkan.
Rilar is a big pussycat. Really. Lavender-purple skin, luscious lips, fangs, claws, a long white topknot ponytail, a stripe of very very soft white hair down her spine on her back. B-cup breasts just perfect for licking and sucking. And her pussy smells like cherries when she gets horny and wet. For those of you not into aliens, don't judge. I like what I like.
I tried Human women, and found them to be.... not what I want. One even became so obsessed with me, she ended up committing suicide when she figured out she couldn't kill me.
So yeah, I love my kitten. She's 33 as well, from the planet Gurhin. I'm just glad my dense ass finally figured out that she had been head over heels in love with me for the past ten fuckin' years!
My ship is our baby. I bought Solar Wind for a steal with the credits I'd saved from my time in the Navy during the war. An old Sparrow class light freighter. Originally crewed by five people, Ri and I modified Solar Wind so it only takes her and me to fly it now. I fly. She shoots. That's how we roll. She even named the two dual 100mm Railgun turrets 'Hugs' and 'Kisses' with heart symbols. A little joke going way back to the Hegemony War. But anyways, on to the story...
^V^V^V^V^
We were sitting in The Jolly Roger pub on Port Royal with some of our friends, the day after Rilar and I got paid some big bucks to keep our mouths shut about what a rogue captain in the Confederate Fleet had done in the name of revenge. We were having a blast and getting free drinks for taking out some very messy and specist trash the other day.
Rick West and his girlfriend/vampire Jeka were having drinks with Rilar and me. While Rilar and I had agreed to keep our mouths shut about Jen's unholy crusade, Jeka had not been made to keep any such promise. Rick was laughing about how we'd pulled one over on the CFC.
"So he pays you guys off not to say anything, but forgets all about Jeka?" Rick was grinning and shaking his head.
I nodded my head and winked as I said "I have no idea what you mean, Rick." See? I was keeping my word.
Two credit chits hit the table in front of Rilar and me. I looked and just about shit myself. Added together, they totalled nearly eighty thousand credits!
I looked up, and up into the red and black eyes of the green haired Pirate
Queen Harrana Bloodskull. I grinned up at her. "I guess that thing you had on Mars paid out?"
"You got that right, Dexypoo. That's your and Ri's cut! Call it a tip for a tip." She winked and sat down on the other side of me from Rilar.
"Awww, sweetycakes. You shouldn't have!" I gave her a peck on the cheek, which was easier to reach now that she was sitting.
Harrana Bloodskull is a pirate. Pure and simple. She's tough, fearless, ruthless, and completely loyal to her crew and her friends. Rilar and I were counted among them since we'd pulled her big gorgeous ass out of a firefight a couple years back. Thanks to her, Solar Wind was now Off Limits to any and all pirate ships, under the threat of Harrana coming down like the Wrath of The Lords on their heads. She stands 6'4" of pure Amazon Warrior from the aptly named planet of Amazona. Go figure. She once had a crush on me, but got over it after nearly breaking me in half on our one night together. We still flirt a bit, and I believe I may be the only man in the galaxy who can get away with calling her sweetycakes. But then, she and Rilar are the only ones who would dare call me Dexypoo to my face.
Rick's a former pirate gone legit... sort of. He still keeps a few fingers in the pie and an ear to the deck. He kind of had no choice when he ended up losing his legs in a pitched battle against a numerically superior force of law enforcement ships. He'd taken two of them down by the time his ship got blasted and a bulkhead had fallen on his legs. The tough sonuvabitch had crawled to the cockpit on just his arms. He was able to enter slipstream for Port Royal before the last cutter could board him. He'd had to scuttle his ship, though. It was a total loss. He used the insurance to pay off his surviving crewmembers and used the rest to buy himself two new cybernetic legs. He hooked up with Jeka while recuperating in the hospital, but they knew each other from when they served together in the Navy. They were nearly like me and Rilar, in that they crewed a two man frigate. The difference was that when the war ended, they did their own things while Rilar and I stuck together. Mostly because we'd bonded as best friends by then, and enjoyed cuddling together when we slept.
Voyages of the Solar Wind 1: A Fire in Heaven Page 7