by Corin Cain
"Sit down," he commands – and the two of us, still on the brink of a fight, reluctantly back down and take our seats back at the gunnery stations.
I grip the handles of the Orb-Cannon, and stare out into the cold, dead emptiness of space.
In three days, we’ll be back in Colossus – and everything will be the same.
Allie will be out of our lives.
When we finally hand her over to the authorities, we’ll wash our hands of this deed. Daccia, Hadrian and I will receive our promotion. We're due for it.
With that rank will come more responsibility – but also more money, and we’ll be awarded manors from which we can start our harems.
Ha! The irony of that…
Before I’d met Allie, all I could think of was recruiting the first ten or twenty women for my harem. I'd lounge there while off duty, relaxing as these willing human women served me.
Daccia, Hadrian and I postponed this pleasure – joining Aurelian Law Enforcement after our hundred years of service to the Empire, instead of immediately starting our lives as citizens of Colossus. We’d postponed such idle pleasure with the aim of serving our Empire, keeping humanity safe, and earning greater wealth and influence in the future.
But now, the promise of greater wealth is empty. Now, all I want is to have Allie within my reach.
Just her. One single female, as opposed to ten or twenty. Only her.
I long to carry Allie into a pleasure room, to strap her down, and to use her perfect body while she moans out in bliss. I want to tease and torment her so deeply that she can’t control herself. My cock surges uncomfortably in my modified, undercover combat pants at the very thought of it.
Gods-dammit! I know won't be sated until I've released every drop of my seed deep into Allie’s fertile cunt.
Anger suddenly flares up in me. I realize I’m thinking like a brute. Aurelians are supposed to be better than this!
We’re not simple beasts – not rutting dogs. I will not lose my control over a woman – especially a criminal, whose very crime is seducing Aurelians and taking their fortune.
And then I blink.
All of a sudden, it’s all so clear.
“Pheromones.”
Hadrian grunts. “What?”
I turn in my seat to look at him.
“Pheromones. That’s how she seduced those three Elites. That’s what she’s doing to us! That woman must be using illegal pheromones.” I narrow my eyes. “She could have an implant.”
Daccia’s aura grows inside mine. He’s considering the possibility.
“Pheromones won’t affect us if we keep her in the brig,” he eventually nods. “We’ll give her an inspection once she’s out… or if she causes us more trouble.”
I lick my lips. I can just imagine Allie strapped down on the medical table, naked and restrained. Examining her for a pheromone implant – a hidden device that can release the hormones which drive the mating urge – will be like torture… for us.
Will we be able to restrain ourselves if Allie is naked and helpless in front of us? I shudder. It’s my deepest urge to take her...
…but I force the arousal back. Now that I understand it – that she might be using artificial pheromones to manipulate us – my desire becomes easier to control.
In fact, I snort. “Clever bitch. She’s using our very nature against us.”
At the helm, Daccia nods. As he stares forward into space, our leader murmurs: “She is. This woman is a clever one – but as long as we keep her out of reach, we’ll be able to take her back to Colossus without incident. She’s using every trick she has. We just can’t fall prey to any of them.”
Well, that’s easier said than done. I’m ashamed to admit that, if I was alone on this ship with her, I’d already be deep inside her wet, welcoming pussy by now.
Allie might be using pheromones to seduce us – a drug and hormone cocktail designed to induce the mating rage – but she can’t hide her own lust. I tasted that in her scent.
Allie is trying to make us crave her… But she herself already craves us. It’s clear she craves the dominance of our species...
A thread of worry suddenly pulses through the Bond. It comes from Daccia, and it disturbs me deeply.
I’m not used to my leader being nervous. We’ve served together for decades – throughout our hundred years of service to the Aurelian Empire, as part of their army, and our career with Law Enforcement that followed.
Together, our triad has survived countless Scorp attacks, and outwitted scores of criminals. I have no idea the number of times that I’ve saved Daccia’s life, or the number that he’s saved mine – only that I’d die for my triad…
…and I've certainly killed for them.
So, to sense this disquiet from my leader worries me.
"What is it, Daccia?"
Our leader pauses. He slowly turns his head, looking away from the consoles and the wide, empty space in front of us.
"New reports are coming in,” he gestures towards one of the side screens. “More Orb-Drives are failing. We lost two more Reavers in the gulf."
My body suddenly feels cold.
Perhaps the only thing that could cool me down after the thought of taking Allie – of ravishing and seeding her – is this news.
We’re facing the cold reality of Orb-Travel – a reality that’s shifting… evolving....
The mysterious substance known as Orb has long baffled both scientists and priests. The otherworldly substance powers so much of what drives our Empire – from the Orb-Weapons at our belts, to the might cruisers and spaceships that travel the universe with an Orb-Sphere providing them with nearly unlimited power.
The Orb-Drive is what helped Aurelians conquer so much of the universe, and establish our Empire. It’s the most reliable way to travel almost unfathomable distances in the blink of an eye.
There have always been occasional... accidents when it comes to Orb-Travel. When you Orb-Shift through space and time – from one corner of the universe to the other – it feels like you're disappearing from reality itself, if only for a second.
But in the past, you’ve always come back...
Occasionally, every decade or so, there’d be an isolated report of an Aurelian vessel shifting out of reality and then never returning.
But lately? It seems like every month a new vessel disappears. Orb-Drives are becoming less and less reliable – and more and more dangerous.
And now, according to the report on Daccia’s console, there have been two vessels lost – both in a single day.
I hate to imagine what happens to those ships that disappear. Are they trapped in that in-between place? For eternity? Or do the simply disappear, into atoms and void?
Who knows? And not knowing is terrifying.
“We could standard travel.” I’m shocked that the suggestion came out of my mouth – and I instantly feel like a coward for suggesting it.
Standard travel – using the impulse drives that powered interstellar transport before the discover of Orbs – still comes with its own set of dangers.
Not least of which is her.
We could resist Allie for a few days – but it would take weeks to reach Colossus using standard travel.
In that case, we couldn't legally confine her to the punishment brig – not for that long. Aurelian law is robust and heartless, but even it states that for escape attempts during arrest you can’t hold a prisoner in a punishment brig for longer than fourteen days.
According to protocol, Allie’s recent escape attempts have only earned her two weeks in the cell. After that? According to law, she'd be allowed in move to the official prisoner chamber – a slightly more comfortable bedroom, which offers limited access to the rest of the ship.
Access to us.
I remember the way Allie touched my chest – and I shudder at the memory of her soft touch. She knew exactly what she was doing. Allie knows how to pour gasoline onto the flames of lust, and if she had twenty-five
days to use those seductive wiles, my triad and I might not be able to resist the temptation.
Daccia grunts, sensing my concern.
"We could – but our superiors have okayed us to Orb-Shift even with the increased risk. We can't give up a tactical advantage. If the humans and Toads think the agents of the Empire are no longer willing to Orb-Shift, we're risking another interplanetary war. We don't want to have that happen again. Our races barely survived the first one."
That was true enough. There had been a time, an eon ago, when the civilizations of Toad and Aurelian fought for supremacy across the universe. Entire planets were razed, and whole galaxies were left devoid of life after the Planet Killers started blasting and destroying strongholds and fleets of warships.
If the Aurelian Empire wants to keep the uneasy peace in our galaxy, no one can know our people are growing increasingly hesitant to Orb-Shift. Word has come from headquarters that the Toad fleets have already begun only shifting in emergency situations. The Empire needs to keep its tactical advantage; even as if becomes ever more dangerous to do so.
But danger is a mindset – and this is a battle fought by will rather than weapons.
As for us, right now – well, knowing the orders of the Empire doesn’t reassure us much. Even with the increase in Orb-Shift disappearances, the odds are still in our favor for a safe shift. After all, even two disappearances in a single day doesn’t outweigh hundred – or potentially thousands – of shifts that have been completed safely in that same timeframe.
Logically, we have little to worry about...
…but logic doesn’t help. The thin tendrils of fear start to squirm through all our auras. It’s infectious – and the thought of Orb-Shifting fills my battle-brothers with as much anxiousness as it does me.
Fear propagates fear.
Hadrian breaks the uneasy silence. “She deserves to know.”
Daccia turns to face him down. “She deserves to know? About the risk of Orb-Shifting?” He pauses. “Would you want to? Before you take the journey, that is?”
Cold fear grips me. I wish I didn’t know we were about to face a fate worse than death.
Even when shifting goes smoothly, it’s still a freakish experience. When you Orb-Shift, it's like you're leaving your own body. It's like you're in this... limbo – this cold, dark place where nothing exists. You’re only there for a second – for less than the blink of a second – but it’s plenty long enough.
The thought that scares me the most is being that place for eternity. It's like death, even while you're still alive. Is that where the ships that have disappeared end up? Hanging in nothingness for eternity?
For Allie's own sake, she shouldn't know how fucking dangerous Orb-Travel is right now.
I shake my head. The three of us know the risks. We're willing to take them. But to put Allie into that dark place?
Then I wonder... If we were trapped there – in the void of nothingness on the other side of a shift – would we be trapped together? My battle-brothers and Allie?
Or would we just disappear? Disintegrated to less than atoms?
And – if so…
A cold knot of tension tightens in my belly. I have to speak up.
“We can't shift,” I warn my battle-brothers. “She's too valuable."
Suddenly, Daccia turns his iron gaze to me. I’m instantly reminded why he is our leader. Daccia’s a natural-born commander.
“You’re thinking with your cock, Kitos,” he warns me. “We need to do this…” Daccia’s eyes narrow “Unless, of course, you want to be the one to explain to the Commander why the three-day journey took twenty-five?”
I let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. Daccia is right, of course. When the word comes down the chain of command, you have to follow it – without question.
“You’re right.”
Daccia nods, and turns to focus on the empty space in front of us. His fingers work quickly at the controls – hitting buttons and inputting trajectories.
“Prepare for Orb-Shift!”
The terror grabs my heart, but I force it back. I am an Aurelian warrior, after all. I’m no cowardly Toad or sniveling human.
If things do go wrong – if this is how my time in this universe ends – then I must accept my fate, knowing my life was given in the service of my people.
We know the risks.
We take them.
The Orb-Drive hums to full power. As the vibration rises, something primordial surges deep inside my being. It isn’t the will to survive.
It’s the will to breed.
Suddenly, something akin to madness overwhelms me – but it’s not madness. It’s almost the opposite – an instant, stark, undeniable clarity.
I can’t let us go into Orb-Shift with such valuable cargo on board – and I’m not talking about Allie in the context of a notorious fugitive…
"…what if she's our mate?"
I utter the words a heartbeat before the Orb-Drive suddenly hums to full power. For a moment, I’m foolish enough to try to stand – thinking that maybe I still have time to stop the shift…
…but instead, reality distorts all around me. It’s all I can do to fall back to my chair; even as my chair ripples from existence.
I feel both the firm seat beneath me, and nothing at all – both at the same time.
Resigned, I prepare myself for the blink – the fraction of a second in which we’ll be exposed to the endless rift of reality. A fraction of a second that, each time, feels like an eternity.
Reality starts to fade around me…
…then blinks back into existence.
Except, we're in the same spot.
We should have been three galaxies away by now – one leg of our journey to Colossus completed…
…instead, it’s as if we never left.
“What the fuck just happened?” Hadrian demands. I can feel his confusion through our Bond.
Daccia double-checks the controls. “Everything is working fine on this end.”
Hadrian stands from the gunnery station, stretching to his full height. “I’ll check on the drive.”
Daccia considers this. His fingers tap against the console, like they always do when he's deep in thought. Then, he growls:
"No – there’s no point. All my readings check out.”
He turns in his seat – our leader’s slate-grey eyes locked on us.
“It doesn't make sense,” Daccia growls. “The Orb-Drive malfunctions we’ve heard about - they always occur during the shift. It’s not an inability to shift.”
He turns back to study the readouts.
“Something else is at work,” Daccia murmurs. “Enemy activity, possibly – like a remote shift jammer.” He glances up. “AI – give me a scan of nearby space. Maybe that human we stole Allie from, Spur, was foolish enough to follow us after all.”
His eyes turn to Hadrian, still standing over us.
“Back to stations!”
Hadrian sits back down. His aura shifts from confusion to eager energy. I’ve always swallowed down my weaker emotions – fear and anxiety. Hadrian shifts their focus instead; using them as fuel to charge his concentration.
Huge hands gripping the handle of the Orb-Cannon, Hadrian scans the empty space beyond the viewport – searching for any sign of a ship that might be jamming our Orb-Drive.
My own targeting reticule dips and darts over dead space, scanning every meter of it. I’m ready to turn any opponents into dust and meat…
At the same time, three probes shoot out from our Reaver – arcing off into space around us. Our AI system will use the probes to search space for any sign of enemy contact – a cloaked ship, emission trails, or an energy signature – even as we continue flying away from the planet we’d stolen Allie from.
We might not be able to Orb-Shift – but we’ll still put as much distance between us and that planet as we can.
Ten minutes pass. There's not a single ship in my line of view –
not even a harmless cargo ship on its way to the planet we’ve just left.
Daccia snaps his fingers, as if suddenly having a flash of inspiration.
"AI – show video feed of the punishment brig, ten seconds before Orb-Shift initiation."
A three-dimensional hologram shimmers into existence between the three of us – a feed from the brig in which Allie is imprisoned.
Suddenly, not a single one of us is scanning space anymore. Instead, we’re watching the digital recreation of Allie.
The moment before we attempted to Orb-Shift, the three-dimensional video recording shows her reaching to her left arm, pressing something…
…and smiling.
It hits me instantly.
"She has a shift-blocker – embedded in her own flesh!"
Hadrian growls: "She'll suffer for this. Punishment rations for a week."
The thought of Allie being forced to eat dried, flavorless rations angers me. I don't know why. For some reason, I don't look at her like she’s just some unruly prisoner, the same as all the others my triad has rounded up during our career with Law Enforcement.
No, Allie is different – and as cunning as she clearly is, I feel a great responsibility for her.
8
Allie
My heart is pounding.
I wasn't sure the jammer device would work. I got it installed in a back-alley modification center, and developed an infection in my arm as a result. The infection caused a fever so bad that I missed a whole week of work at Spur’s joint, and almost got fired.
It was my own fault – you get what you pay for. The infection was bad enough, but given how sloppy they’d been about implanting the device, it wouldn’t have been difficult to imagine the device not working at all when I actually needed it.
Thankfully, it did work.
The device in my arm is designed to create a feedback loop that shorts out an Orb-Drive as it powers up to shift – kind of like the way an electromagnetic pulse can knock out and short electronic circuits.
As a result of using it, the Orb-Drive of this Reaver will now be out of commission – entirely inoperative until they get the blown circuits fixed. It’s not a massive task – but Orb-Drives are rare and expensive, and the tools and expertise to fix them isn’t widely available.