Medusa's Touch

by Emily L Byrne

  TiCara didn’t really believe that he felt that old, that sick. The gesture was meant only to sooth her terrors and she felt ashamed that she needed to see it. But his credit had been good before and Sherin Khan looked almost as good as the credit. This trip would finally be her chance to get close to the beautiful rep. If they made it there and back, wherever there really was.

  Sherin glanced up, catching her eye, desire clear and unmasked for an instant. TiCara’s stomach whirled with butterflies, much to her surprise. That look alone was almost worth all the risks the pilot feared. TiCara smiled, letting her anticipation show. Her medusas moved languidly around her head, as the sensuality of her thoughts traveled through their wiring.

  Not that her interest, no, need, for this job ended with her desire for the lovely Sherin. Her last few independent jobs had not brought in what she had hoped for, and there was too much competition for shadow trade jobs in Kyrin Spaceport. That was why she was contracted with Sirius now. But if she took Vahn’s job, she might not need to subcontract again. And the Astra would be all hers, finally.

  That was too tempting a notion to abandon: to fly through the stars free of the demands of the corps, to come and go as she wanted, finally free. That had been her dream since she first saw a medusa pilot and fell in love with the possibilities. Now it was within her grasp. If this went well. But even that hope wasn’t enough to stop her from asking her next question. And if your intel blackholes, Ser?

  Vahn tilted his head, eyes slitted as if he needed to weigh his words, weigh her reaction. At last he said, You will be paid your fee, Captain-Pilot. He waited for her head jerk of agreement and watched her consent to the eyescan on Sherin’s pad to sign the agreement before bestowing a wry smile on them both.

  That completed, TiCara made the socially appropriate responses to Vahn, doing all that the old man could want by way of a formal parting. Then she followed Sherin from the room, entertaining herself by watching the other woman’s body in her form-fitting suit. She looked good. Better than good even.

  Maybe even good enough for old-fashioned meatspace sex, something more special than jacking into the VR modules. It had been a long time since she felt that way about anyone, and she let the sensation wash over her, savoring it. She imagined the taste of Sherin’s skin, the feel of flesh against flesh, and it intrigued her, sending a wave of heat up into her belly.

  The door closed behind them and Sherin stopped, turning to say something through blackberry lips gone puffy and delectable. TiCara stepped up to her and, after a moment’s hesitation, kissed her. She could feel Sherin tremble, then press closer, felt the first tentative fumblings of the rep’s tongue against hers. It was as if she had never kissed anyone before.

  Maybe she hadn’t, at least not outside virtual reality. It wasn’t common but TiCara had met others, like her old lover and mentor, Elia, who were more comfortable being intimate in VR than outside it. And yet, Sherin was kissing her back after her initial hesitation, awkward eagerness in the touch of her lips.

  That touch jolted and aroused her. This job could be so much more than she had hoped for when she entered Vahn’s office. Sherin wanted her, she could feel as much in the rep’s quickened breathing and she meant to take full advantage of that on this trip. She had waited far too long for this chance.

  TiCara could feel herself get slick with the thought and deepened the kiss, parting Sherin’s teeth with her tongue and pulling her closer. Sherin went stiff for a moment, then molded her body to TiCara’s, pressing tightly against her, wrapping her arms like iron cables around her waist and shoulders. TiCara gasped as one of Sherin’s hands slid tentatively down her back to cup her ass through her uniform.

  For a moment, she lost herself in their embrace, letting their bodies meld together until it felt like they were going to abandon all self-control and take each other there in front of Vahn’s office door beneath the shining red lights of the secur cameras. But TiCara knew that she couldn’t let herself go that far, not yet anyway. She had preparations to make, a job to do and a client who might not enjoy a free show outside his office. After a few pleasurable moments, she pulled back, sending out a single medusa to stroke the other woman’s cheek.

  Sherin shuddered and half-closed her eyes, as if TiCara had touched her with her own hand instead of her implant. TiCara had to force herself not to kiss her again, We’ve got work to do, my starshine pretty. Fun must wait, sadly. Reluctantly TiCara stepped backward, the medusa lingering for an instant longer than necessary. Twenty machrons, the Kyrin equivalent of eighteen Earth hours, didn’t give her much time to prep. She bit back a sigh.

  Sherin’s eyes were completely closed now and TiCara could see the breath catch in her throat. Then the corp rep training took over and a layer of ice spread over her features as she opened her eyes and looked away. Of course. Follow me, please. Sherin straightened her top and turned on her heel to walk down the hall, only a quick, savage kick at a Vahn Corp Eye that came too close, conveying her frustration.

  She missed but the gesture made TiCara smile just a little, though she could feel her own disappointment ache between her legs. She hated postponing her pleasures, especially the more unusual ones. But business needed to come first. That was how she’d made it this far.

  She followed the other woman to her office where Sherin handed her a credchip. Try not to blackhole his credit. Sherin almost smiled then seemed to think the better of it and looked stern instead. I run the numbers for him. I’ll know if you exceed what’s needed.

  As if I would break one of my best clients. Silly starshine girl. Give me another kiss before I go? TiCara stepped up to the rep’s side but hesitated at her fierce glare. Instead, she settled for blowing the rep a kiss from her fingertips, hoping the archaic gesture would charm the other woman.

  She couldn’t be sure that she’d gotten her hoped for reaction, but she reveled in the blush that followed, darkening Sherin’s skin from deep gold to dark brown in an instant. Then she backed away, chip in hand, her smile promising more to come. She could almost feel Sherin’s gaze burning on her back as the door slid closed behind her.

  Chapter 2

  TiCara walked back down the corridor into the main space station, trying to use the walk to put Sherin out of her mind for the time being. She deliberately looked straight ahead, never up at the big clear dome over her head where the starfields blazed above Kyrin’s surface. Too much time looking at the galaxies got to you, made you lose perspective, grounding; that’s what they always told her at the Academy. All the things she couldn’t afford to lose right now.

  Her mind was already busy making a list of what her ship and crew would need for this trip. Basic supplies and fuel were automatically added, but including Vahn, Sherin and Vahn’s bondarmin meant more planning, more food and fuel. She added several small luxuries and more processors for the nutrient dispensers to the growing list.

  With the part of her mind not full of lists and supplies, she combed through her memories, trying to remember what she could about Electra 12. It wasn’t much, just a few old spacer stories here, a snatch of bar gossip there. The bits and pieces swirled around, refusing to come together into something coherent. It was enough to make her shake her head in frustration.

  She needed to talk to her contacts on Downside, spacers who could give her real intel about the asteroid, or at least enough to judge whether or not it was a myth and this trip a fool’s errand. For that, she needed spacer talk, not the Nets. The Nets were corp-controlled, after all; any information on them could be accessed and manipulated by the Ears or other corps personnel.

  Tru tell ran on the underground lines or in real-time. Just like the best sex. She thought of Sherin again and smiled. But then, this wasn’t the time for that, either. She needed to go to the bars and see what she could find out. TiCara scowled at the thought, missing a younger, brasher self who might have chosen differently.

  Her thoughts spun in a lazy circle until she remembered that before she went
to Downside, she should call the Astra and have Erol, her Second, round up the crew and get the ship prepped for launch. Erol would also need to bribe the spaceport customs. Sirius shouldn’t hear any details about this expedition, not if she wanted to pilot for them again soon.

  Buying personal weapons was something she would take care of herself. A ship the size of the Astra usually didn’t carry much, nothing beyond a small pulsar cannon or two, and lazers for the captain and crew. Corp subcontractors and smugglers depended on stealth and bribery to hide any contraband that they carried, not the firepower they could never carry enough of. Before this job TiCara thought it was a badge of honor that she hadn’t needed any extra weapons.

  But this trip wasn’t going to be like her other jobs. Not the way that Vahn looked when he made it clear that he didn’t want anyone to know about it. Someone, maybe multiple someones, must be very interested in him and where he might be going.

  Not that her crew needed to know that, at least not yet. Just in case. She grimaced at the direction her thoughts were taking. Distrusting her own crew wasn’t part of any job she thought she’d sign up for: this got more complicated every angle she checked. They were a good crew, loyal to her, but anyone might talk if the incent was right. Even her. She wrinkled her nose in distaste at that thought, even as she acknowledged its truth.

  But she was going to need to tell them something about their passengers and their destination, enough to satisfy their curiosity and help them prepare. Just not tru tell until they were out of port comm range. And then I can tell them that we’re on a hunt for a ‘stroid that doesn’t exist. So very starshine. No mutiny risk there. She managed not to roll her eyes.

  And what happened once they got back? If it turned out that Electra really did exist, maybe Vahn’s cred might have to be good enough to keep them silent for a while then, too. She suspected that the less any corp, let along his, knew about this trip, the better. As she considered that, she had to wonder how the asteroid, if it existed, kept its location secret? Did it have an asynchronous orbit around…whatever it orbited around? Did they memory wipe anyone who left?

  TiCara’s medusas coiled around her head, their movements erratic and nervous, reflecting her mood. She caught a glimpse of herself in the station’s reflective metal walls and made a face. The medusa hard wiring into her brain had its downsides. What was the point of controlling her face and body if her implants gave her feelings away?

  She strained to take in a deep, relaxing breath and quiet her mind until they went limp. A wary glance around suggested that no one else seemed to be paying attention to her, at least not enough to be troubling. But then, it was hard to tell for certain: groundies and spacers, the ones who weren’t wired, often tried to ignore medusa pilots as much as they could. TiCara forced herself not to look for Eyes or up at the station cameras that she could see.

  There was an unoccupied comm booth down the corridor and she strode over to it. Her fingers lingered on the entry pad before keying in the standard open code for Kyrin while she took a few seconds to run through scenarios in her head. Vahn would have to be a corp rep going to black market trade negotiations and Sherin his assistant. The bondarmin could continue to serve as a bodyguard. Or a nurse, or both, given that many bondarmini filled a range of functions. That was a story that would make sense to her crew, one that would encourage them to hold their tongues.

  She sealed herself into the booth, clouding the walls so that no one could see her inside. Then she plugged her medusas into the console, letting the initial rush of the connection wash over her. Her implants would mix her brainwaves with internal signals, just as they did when she was piloting. It would make it harder for anyone to hack the call if someone was paying that much attention. Safer than using her handheld to talk to the Astra, anyway.

  She sent a brief message, letting Erol know that they had a client, a rep and his staff, who’d be riding with them on a confidential mission to one of the outer systems. She added a list of supplies that they would need, including the new ones that she’d just remembered. He and the crew would take care of the rest from there, creating passenger quarters from her cabin and the two cabins that had been converted to extra storage as well as prepping whatever else the ship needed.

  She clicked off the connection, contemplating how much she had come to rely on her Second. It had been worth everything she’d spent to recruit him from one of her rivals. And he’d been happy to give up being a junior navigation officer on a corp ship to become Second on the Astra for a bigger share of the take and more independence. But much as she trusted him, she still wouldn’t give him tru tell about Vahn and Electra, not yet. It wasn’t just Vahn’s request either, there was more, more than she was willing to admit to herself. She just wasn’t sure what that something more was, not yet. She rubbed the side of her nose and frowned, trying to pinpoint what was bothering her.

  That uneasiness was enough to make her hesitate before unplugging from the comm board for an instant longer than necessary, as she tried to center herself. If she didn’t do something about the chaos in her head soon, she wouldn’t be good for anything. TiCara sank down into the booth’s cushioned chair and let her medusas warm up until she could feel her shoulders relax a little as she let her mind wander through some centering and breathing exercises.

  As she released some of the tension, she became aware of other feelings. The medusa sockets had a sensuous quality that vibrated up the medusa coils into her skin. It was like sliding into a new lover, open and waiting for her, then feeling that lovely body closing snugly around her once she was inside. She thought of Sherin, naked and vulnerable, and her legs quivered as she started to get damp. She smiled as she caressed her thigh through her suit.

  There was no time for this, none at all, if she was to seek out information and finish all that needed to be done before they left. But the more she thought about Sherin, the more she wanted that fulfillment, or something like it. Wanted it now. The fastenings on the crotch of her suit felt like they gave way and opened with just a thought.

  Her hand slid inside her suit, slipping between her thighs. Her breath caught in her throat and she ground her crotch against the seat as her medusas switched modes, sending a sudden hot spike through her. She conjured Sherin’s body in her imagination, silky skin pressed against hers. She used her tongue, her hands, her medusas on the beautiful rep, coaxing, teasing, caressing. The fantasy sent a white-hot spark through her, lighting her flesh on fire until she writhed, rubbing herself against the seam of her uniform.

  Then she imagined Sherin flipping her over, burying her face between her legs. Sweat trickled down her scalp, ran under her jacket collar as the sensations built. Her fingertips sank deeper into the molten wetness between her legs. When she couldn’t control herself anymore, she arched her back, locked her legs and came with a soft shout.

  Catching her breath seemed to take forever after she pulled her medusas free. She gasped against the recycled stale air of the sealed booth until her heartbeat slowed. Only then did she remember to turn on the booth’s air

  circulation function.

  TiCara laughed at herself, the sound filling the little soundproof booth. Sex might be even better than she imagined if only she could convince Sherin to give in to her desires. And if anyone could do that, it was TiCara, Pilot-Captain of the Astra. She waggled her nonexistent eyebrows at her reflection in the booth’s wall and studied her reflection for a moment. Her features suggested a mix of Old Earth races, like most spacers: straight nose, full lips, sharp cheekbones, light brown skin, narrow blue eyes. She wondered what Sherin saw when she looked at her. Her last couple of lovers told her that she was breath-taking, handsome even, like an old time vidstar.

  Ridiculous flattery, of course, but if she could get Vahn’s rep to see some of what they saw, she might enjoy Sherin’s charms even sooner. That idea made her laugh again, this time a bit more drily. Sherin had been resisting her advances since they’d met and doing it more succe
ssfully than anyone else ever had. TiCara admired that about her, even though it left her hot and temporarily frustrated.

  But once she was on the ship, fully exposed to TiCara’s seductive wiles, well, then things might be different. Would be different. TiCara shook her head slightly, letting her medusas coil and wriggle free of the board, and her suit absorb her excess body fluid before she uncoiled herself from the booth seat. It was time to focus on more practical considerations. She checked the planetary time. The rep was something special, but if she didn’t get her prep work done, there was no way to ensure that the journey would be calm enough to let her find out. She straightened out her uniform and wiped the sweat from her face.

  Her thoughts switched to Electra and Vahn and what she needed next. But she kept getting distracted by everything she didn’t know. What if the rock didn’t exist? Or wasn’t where Vahn thought it was? They could be drifting for lifetimes looking for a legend.

  There was one obvious source to turn to, always provided that she wanted to ask. Elia had been flying ships when TiCara was still hiding in the port walls scavenging for her next meal. She herself had told TiCara that she had flown through most of known space. If anyone knew anything about the asteroid, it would be her.

  But even with her former lover’s boast ringing in her ears, TiCara hesitated. She hadn’t seen her old teacher in more than a full revolution, going by Kyrin’s annual calendar. It might be hard to find her, even harder getting good tell from her: Elia’s ability to distinguish between legend, rumor and reality, had been blurring the last time they spoke.

  And watching Elia get older reminded TiCara that she might face the same thing some day, if she lived long enough for Eternayouth to stop working for her. Elia had voluntarily stopped using the drug once she stopped teaching pilots, choosing to age naturally for reasons that TiCara couldn’t understand. She shuddered just thinking about it; it would be Eternayouth for her until the corp techs figured out how to extend the functionality of medusas without it. Then and only then would she give it up.