Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (33 page)

“Gan’s not the one I’m worried about. He doesn’t need our air to survive, and even if she—
he
—vents the ship, Gan can cling to the interdeck plating to keep from being blown into space. It’s one of the few things he can actually touch in this dimension. I’m the one I’m worried about, sweetheart. I’m really not in the mood to die, and Mogarthans take their revenge very seriously.”

“So I helped her escape.”

“Mmm. Yep. Thanks for that. I was getting bored with my mission going pretty much as planned. I really needed the diversion.”

Talia sank into the cushions of the captain’s chair. She’d been so gullible. She’d wanted to believe the worst about Fletch, so it hadn’t been a stretch to assume Kreth-Regana was telling the truth.

He brushed past her, his footsteps heavy in the dull, unmoving air of the bridge. “Stay here. There’s no hatch-lock on the bridge, so you won’t be sucked out into space immediately if she vents the deck.”

Talia spun around in the seat and stared at Fletch’s retreating back, cast in silhouette by the palm-torch he carried. “Where are you going?”

He swung around and gave her a dark look from under his brows. “To try to take the ship back so we don’t all end up sucking Mogarthan dick on Camilax.”

He left her then, alone in the dark.

Chapter 6

Gan appeared in the corridor leading to the ship’s auxiliary control room. The Metrian was little more than a shadow within a shadow. “Talia alone?”

Fletch made only a half-hearted attempt to tamp down his annoyance at the question. He had bigger problems right now. “She’s safe. I left her on the bridge. More importantly, where is Kreth?”

“Pod room.”

“Uh huh. If she…
he
decants anyone else, we’re going to be in trouble.”

“May dump cargo.”

Fletch’s heart lurched. Would the Mogarthan really kill all the remaining women just to be able to make a faster getaway and destroy evidence of his/her crimes?

“I don’t think so. We’re equidistant from Camilax and the Belt right now. If Kreth can get me out of the way, she’ll try to get to her original destination. She won’t give up that kind of money for a full shipment.” Fletch thought for a moment. He had few resources available on the ship. An extra pair of eyes with Gan, with Talia, an extra pair of hands.

It stung that she hadn’t trusted him. Why should she, though? She’d been abducted, drugged, and dumped cold and naked in the middle of a Mogarthan slave ship where he’d promptly taken advantage of her state of hyper-sexual arousal. There was certainly no basis for trust there.

She’d naturally felt some sympathy for the Mogarthan in female form. Kreth had managed to play on her sympathies, and Talia was just looking for an excuse to think of Fletch as the enemy.

Two days ago life had seemed so much simpler. Hijack a slave ship, free all the cargo, move on to his next assignment.

Fletch leaned against the bulkhead and drew in a breath. The air already seemed stale and warm. It wouldn’t be long before he and Talia were out of atmosphere. “All right, let’s brainstorm. We caught Kreth the first time during a sleep cycle, but she’s not going to close her eyes again until I’m dead. We need another weakness to exploit.”

“U-4EA.”

Fletch squinted at Gan’s shimmering outline. “You don’t mean make her horny, Gan. That’s just not funny.”

“Better idea?”

“I’m sure I could think of one, given enough time.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time. “I certainly don’t like this one.”

“Empty pod.” Gan’s voice held a hopeful lilt.

“Right. We can put Kreth in the empty pod. Once we get the ship to the Belt, we can have Earth-Sec come and retrieve her, pod and all. Oh…wait a minute. She’s a he now, Gan. The last thing I want is to be chased around this tin can by a horny male Mogarthan.”

“Get Talia.”

“For what?” This didn’t sound good at all.

“Bait.”

“Oh, no. That’s a really bad idea.”

Gan shrugged, and their gazes held for a split second before the Metrian faded away into the shadows. “She’s not going to go for that, you know. She already hates me. I can’t ask her to—”

“I’ll ask.” Gan disappeared completely then, leaving Fletch alone in the corridor shaking his head. He knew what his next move needed to be to get his partner’s outlandish plan to work and he didn’t like it one bit. He might have hesitated except that, despite his misgivings, he trusted the Metrian completely. Ganymede would make it work, somehow.

With a sigh, Fletch headed toward the pod control room.

* * * *

“Gan!”

Talia nearly jumped out of her skin when Gan appeared next to the captain’s chair in which she sat. She’d been trying to remember some of the commands Fletch had taught her, hoping she might be able to figure out how to override Kreth’s auxiliary control of the ship.

Shame battled with her determination to help. If she hadn’t been taken in by what she perceived as the Mogarthan captain’s plight, if she’d only trusted Fletch enough to go to him first…

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” She resisted the urge to reach for the Metrian’s hand. “What’s happening? Where’s Fletch?”

“Needs help.”

Talia struggled to focus on Gan’s outline in the near darkness of the bridge. “Tell me what I can do.”

Using more words that she’d ever heard him utter before, Gan explained his daring plan to lure a sex-starved Mogarthan into the pod chamber and imprison him/her in a vat of U-4EA gooze.

It sounded risky, but with Kreth in control of life support, there seemed to be few options. She agreed to do as Gan instructed, hoping her own U-4EA addiction had worn off enough that she wouldn’t actually find herself turned on by the four-armed alien she-male.

Chapter 7

Holding a weapon in each of his/her four hands, Kreth-Regana made an imposing sight.

Fletch watched the Mogarthan from a storage niche in the pod room, a scalpel from the infirmary poised to sever the feed line from an auxiliary canister of aerosolized U-4EA. He’d have to be quick and efficient and choose just the right moment to cut the line and spray the U-4EA gas in Kreth’s direction.

Gan shimmered through the wall next to him and gave a barely perceptible nod. “Your mask.” The Metrian pointed to the plastic air filter that hung around Fletch’s neck. It certainly wouldn’t do for him to get a snootful of the aphrodisiac at the same time as the now male Kreth did.

Fletch flipped his mask into place, nodded to Gan, and sliced the tube that sprouted from the top of the gas canister.

With precision born of necessity, he rolled the canister across the floor toward Kreth, who lowered three of his weapons long enough to take a curious glance at the metallic object. The greenish gas hit him in the face, but only after he’d managed to squeeze off a single shot from his reclaimed blaster, did he inhale.

The Mogarthan roared and flailed, trying to staunch the flow of gas from the tank. In the storage niche, Fletch sank to the floor, lips clamped tight against a sudden, burning pain. Kreth’s blaster shot had grazed his shoulder—not a fatal wound, but painful enough to knock the wind out of his lungs and buckle his knees. If he made a sound, Kreth would no doubt be able to finish him off with a second shot before the effects of the U-4EA rendered him/her too randy to shoot straight.

* * * *

Talia waited a beat, watching from the narrow corridor outside the pod room. She cringed when Kreth squeezed off a blaster shot and held her breath until the Mogarthan managed to bend the thin metal tube, cutting off the flow of U-4EA gas.

Kreth swayed, and one by one, dropped her weapons. That’s when Talia made her move.

She sauntered into the pod room, determined not to stare too long at the rows of naked women floating in the gooze-filled pods. Her only objective was to get Kreth near enough to the one empty pod from which Fletch had freed her, for him to push the alien captain inside.

The Mogarthan’s limpid eyes fell on her and tracked her movements hungrily the moment she rounded the corner. “Come here, female!” Though she still appeared outwardly female, Kreth’s voice had changed thanks to the dose of hormone enhancement Talia had unwittingly provided. She forced down fear and revulsion and concentrated on two important facts. Kreth’s strength had increased three-fold, and he/she was now horny enough to mate with a Crenelian Rock Slug.

Talia had to move fast.

Sporting her best come-hither pout, Talia sauntered in Kreth’s direction, careful to remain just out of reach of the captain’s four, grasping hands. “Ooh, you’re going to have to come and get me, big…boy. That’s it, right this way.”

Disarmed, but just as dangerous, Kreth lurched after Talia, slavering and panting. “Stand still, female. Let me get my hands on you.”

“In good time, sailor. Come this way.” Talia forced a saucy grin and crooked her finger at Kreth. She backed up toward the empty pod, searching behind Kreth for signs of Gan or Fletch. Where were they? They should be sneaking up on the Mogarthan, ready to wrestle him into the open pod.

Two arms swiped at her while a third began unfastening Kreth’s uniform pants. Talia noticed when Kreth unceremoniously dropped his trousers, that the wound-like genitalia she’d seen on his/her thigh earlier seemed to have disappeared. She refused to let her gaze linger too long below Kreth’s belt, though, as she had absolutely no desire to see what passed for sex organs on a newly transgendered Mogarthan male.

A roar escaped Kreth’s drooling mouth when Talia slithered out of reach one more time. She’d almost reached the pod and the faint, sweet aroma of the U-4EA gooze flavored the air, heightening her own arousal. Good gods, this would not do! She had to get Kreth in position fast and try not to breathe too much in the process. The only thing more humiliating than actually considering Kreth as a sex partner, would be if she found herself shamelessly chasing after Fletch again in the aftermath of their little mutiny.

“That’s it, right here. Come on.” She coaxed Kreth, her voice lilting but a little shaky. A few more steps and she’d be home free, but with her back to the pod, she had to time her escape just right or end up trapped under a hundred kilos of undulating Mogarthan flesh.

Where are you, Fletch? Come on, I’m cutting it close here.

Fighting the sudden heat and a full body flush brought on by thoughts of Fletcher Gray’s hard body pressed against hers, Talia took two more steps back. She winked at Kreth and blew him/her a smacking kiss. “Jump my bones, big boy! Right now!” Gan! Anybody!

She dropped to her knees and flung herself sideways as Kreth lunged for her. The Mogarthan’s huge body flopped over the lower edge of the pod and hung there, half in, legs kicking, four hands beating on the slick insides of the clear pod bubble.

“Fletch! Where the hell are you?” Talia whirled around, regaining her feet. For a brief instant, the incongruous sight of Kreth’s bare ass bent over the open rim of the pod imprinted itself on her unwilling brain. Later, the memory of it would probably be hilarious, but right now it made her slightly nauseous.

“Legs!” Gan’s voice echoed in her ear, and she jumped back.

“What?” She couldn’t see the Metrian at all, but the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, telling her he was close by.

“Grab legs.”

“Where’s Fletch?”

“Injured. Grab!”

Oh, fuck.
The last thing she wanted to do was get any closer to Kreth’s naked anatomy. Squinting to avoid too detailed an inspection, she bent over and wrapped her arms around the Mogarthan’s knees. “He weighs a ton!” She kept up a stream of expletives while doing her best to shove Kreth the rest of the way into the pod.

“The hatch!” Gan’s command guided her. She slammed the pod closed while Kreth rolled over inside. Arms and legs entwined, the Mogarthan looked like a roly-poly insect that had been flipped on its back.

“Now what?”

A gray shimmer marked where Gan stood next to the pod controls. “Green button.”

She obeyed the shorthand command, and a stream of gooze began to flood the pod.

“Now red.”

She followed Gan’s instructions, and within minutes had executed the entire command sequence that would keep Kreth in a blissful state of near-orgasm indefinitely. By the time the pod had filled completely with the neon-yellow liquid, the Mogarthan’s struggles had ceased. His/her eyes drifted closed and a satisfied grin replaced the lecherous smirk Kreth had worn.

Talia let out her breath and sagged against the controls. Fortunately, what little buzz she’d gotten from the remnants of U-4EA left in the air had already dissipated. All she felt now was exhaustion.

“That was too easy.” Fletch’s voice, tight with pain, cut through the momentary silence in the pod room. Holding the scorched remains of his shirt together over the wound on his shoulder, he limped out of a storage niche behind the last row of pods. His skin was ashen and his gait unsteady, but he managed a thin smile. “I was expecting to have some real fun with this plan.”

Talia’s jaw dropped. She hesitated only a moment, then rushed forward and ducked under Fletch’s arm, bolstering him upright when his knees started to give out. “Yeah, easy. Flipping a hundred kilos of horny Mogarthan into a stasis pod is child’s play for me.”

Fletch laughed, but the sound was laced with pain. Gan hovered before them as they limped toward the corridor. “Not fatal,” he said, though his voice sounded more hopeful than reassuring.

“Nah, I’m gonna be just fi…fine.” Fletch stumbled, and Talia tightened her grip around his waist. She’d seen enough blaster burns before to know he would surely live, but that didn’t ease her worrying much. She was no medic, and she’d already screwed up her attempt to help what she thought was an injured Mogarthan. How could she possibly offer any reasonable assistance to Fletch?

“Yep, that’s right. You’re going to be fine. Just keep walking, though. You’ve got to stay on your feet because I don’t have the energy to drag your butt all the way to the infirmary, got it?” She offered him a shaky smile, and for a moment, his eyes held hers in a look that threatened to ignite the fire she’d been trying so hard to quell.

Then he passed out.