Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (34 page)

Chapter 8

“Oh, damn, my arm is all numb!” Fletch awoke in a panic, memories of the searing pain of a blaster burn competing with snippets of garish, Technicolor dreams. He felt as though a ten-ton weight held his right side flat against the firm mattress of the infirmary cot on which he lay, and for a moment, he feared he’d never be able to aim a shock pistol again.

A bandage covered his chest from his nipple to the back of his shoulder, and two analgesic patches had been stuck just beneath his collarbone. A thin blanket covered his lower half, which gratefully moved on command, assuring him he hadn’t been completely paralyzed.

“Relax.” Gan’s voice floated above him. In the half light, only a very faint outline of the Metrian was visible. “You’re fine.”

“I can’t move my arm.”

“Overkill.”

“What?”

“I think I might have given you too much pain killer. I’m sorry. It’ll wear off soon.” Talia’s face swam into view. She looked pale and a little tired but strikingly beautiful to his drug-addled brain. “Good thing Gan knows a lot about first aid.”

“Removed testicles.”

Panic shot through Fletch’s groin followed by the sound of Gan’s laughter. Talia chuckled, too, and hitched one lissome hip onto the cot to sit next to him. “Metrian’s have no comedic timing. He was supposed to tell you that first.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Gan. Do you think I really would have believed you could con Talia into removing my testicles to treat a shoulder wound?”

“Trust me, he tried. He’s a funny guy once you really get to know him.” She patted Fletch’s left shoulder, but snatched her fingers away self-consciously before he could get used to the soothing warmth of her touch.

“Yeah, he’s a scream. How long have I been out? What’s our ETA to the Belt?”

“One day,” Gan replied.

Talia shrugged. “I have half a mind to give Kreth another intra-pod dose of that sex-change hormone. I’m sure there’s some hapless miner who would be happy with a four-armed sex slave.”

“Hmm.” Fletch grunted. He wanted to get up, get back to the bridge and make sure everything really was under control. “Poor guy wouldn’t last a day. Besides, humans and Mogarthan’s aren’t all that compatible. Kreth is better off right where he is.”

“I’m not convinced the other women aren’t, either. I still don’t think it’s fair to dump them into the waiting arms of a bunch of horny miners.”

Fletch sighed. “You still don’t believe me that there isn’t any other antidote? It may seem a little barbaric, but trust me, everyone will have a good time.”

Her only response was a withering glare as she rose from the cot. He stared after her, wishing he had the strength to follow her across the room. She’d done a magnificent job helping him wrest control of the pod carrier back from Kreth, and he wanted to find a way to thank her, but all he could come up with on short notice involved the use of all his extremities, several of which were a bit non-functional at the moment.

“You rest,” she said finally. “I’m going up to the bridge so Gan can teach me more about how to fly this thing.”

Fletch’s eye’s widened, and he searched the shadows for Gan’s distinctive outline. “What?”

“No worries,” the Metrian said, a smile evident in his tone.

“She’s not a licensed pilot, you know—don’t go giving her the helm just for kicks.”

Talia winked and blew him a kiss before ducking out of the room. “Don’t worry.” Her voice floated back to him from the corridor beyond. “For kicks, he’s going to show me how the laser cannons work!”

Fletch’s eye’s fluttered closed, and he moaned as theatrically as possible, though he was certain his dubious crewmates were long gone. He’d probably have been better off if he’d just stayed unconscious.

* * * *

Talia lounged in the captain’s chair, watching the stars go by on the main view screen. Irregular in shape and surrounded by a faint blue glow, one star in particular had begun to grow larger at the center of the screen. The mining colony. Built on one of the myriad asteroids that made up the Threxis Belt, Asteroid X7658 housed some two dozen employees of GemCon, the galaxy’s principal manufacturer of industrial grade emeralds.

She imagined she could see the whole habitation dome just vibrating with excitement over their very first, and hopefully last, delivery of sex slaves. Though Gan had assured her that the medical personnel on board would see to the physical and mental well-being of each of the women decanted from the pods, Talia still felt somewhat responsible for them.

Every one of the females Kreth had captured would wake up just as she had, horny as hell and ready to fuck anything that moved, and the miners would be lined up, prepared to do their civic duty by helping the women overcome their U-4EA addiction.

The thought of it made her angry…and just a little hot. The place was going to be like an orgy for several days. That thought reminded her that she hadn’t even touched Fletch in twenty-four hours. It bothered her that she wanted to. Since she’d left him in the infirmary yesterday, they’d managed to avoid each other. She’d almost begun to think all the effects of the aphrodisiac had worn off, except that now, imagining the sexual frenzy that would ensue on Asteroid X7658 in a few hours, she’d begun to wonder if it wouldn’t hurt to just get one final fix of her own.

No.

She didn’t want Fletcher Gray in any way. Not near her, under her, over her, or in her. Gods, it was hot on the bridge. She fanned herself with her hand and shifted in her seat. She could do this. She could get through this and put Fletch completely out of her mind forever. After all, Gan had arranged a transport to take her from the Belt back to CalTak headquarters. She’d seen the communiqué that Earth-Sec had sent to her employer explaining her absence from work, as well as commending her for her part in rescuing the other women from Mogarthan slavery. There would even be a tidy reward to help make up the wages she’d lost while she was Kreth’s unwitting prisoner.

Her ordeal was almost over. Soon, she could get back to scouting on some distant, empty planet, with only herself for company. Just the way she liked it.

* * * *

Fletch paced along the central aisle of the pod room, pausing briefly here and there to check stats on several of the gooze-filled containers. Each of the twenty-four remaining women seemed to be in good health according to the minimal life support monitors attached to each pod. He hoped there wouldn’t be any complications associated with their long incarceration, though any illness or injury they suffered would only serve to extend the length of Kreth’s sentence once his/her trial came up at Earth-Sec.

He stretched his shoulder and rubbed at the tingling flesh beneath the new bandage he wore. Talia had done a good job fixing him up, and that was one more thing he had to find a way to thank her for. She’d made sure their paths hadn’t crossed in the last day, and now that they were only hours away from station fall at the mining colony, they would soon part ways forever. It was, after all, a big galaxy, and the likelihood that they’d ever run into each other again somewhere was extremely slim.

Nevertheless, he hadn’t been able to shake the vision of her standing in the cool, blue water on Narex. His lusty dream haunted him and made him wish, to his personal shame, the U-4EA high had lasted just a few days longer. They’d been good together, both in bed and out, and he’d guiltily indulged in the fantasy that she might join Earth-Sec and become his partner—not that he didn’t appreciate Gan, but a Metrian was a poor conversationalist at best, and once in a while it would be nice to be able to high-five someone who actually had a hand.

Ah, well. He hadn’t signed on this mission detail to make friends or to fall in love.

Where the hell had that thought come from?

He shook his head.
Time to get back to work and stop thinking about Talia.
He firmly put all thoughts of her utterly and completely out of his mind forever.

Then he turned around and stepped on her foot.

“Ow!” She staggered back, hopping and wincing. “Crapallmighty, Captain Gray, are those lead-lined boots?”

He reached out to steady her and surprisingly, she took his arm. “Actually, they are. I use these for EVAC. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” She cringed a bit and tapped her toe experimentally on the deck. “I can walk, but I can’t dance.”

“Sorry…uh…but what were you doing sneaking up behind me?”

She tossed her hair, and those dark eyes of hers flashed. “I was
not
sneaking up on you.”

“I work with a Metrian. I know sneaking when I see it.”

She huffed and let her fingers drop from his bicep. “I actually just came to say good-bye. I wanted to be ready to hop on the transport Gan lined up for me.”

“Oh.” Right. Of course she’d want to get going as soon as possible. She did have a life, after all, and it made sense that she’d want to get back to it.

“You seem disappointed.” Was that hope in her voice, or just curiosity?

“No. Of course not. I just figured you’d stick around to oversee the decanting. I know you were concerned about the other women.”

Her eyes widened just a fraction. “Right. Yes. I am, very concerned. But the medical personnel on Asteroid X7658 will probably have things well under control. There are twenty male miners and one lesbian…and a few of the men have offered to take on two of the women, so no one should be left out of the…festivities. I’m sure you could lend a hand if need be.”

Fletch watched her from under lowered lashes. She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I can’t really do that…because…uh, I have to get back to work, right away. Gan and I have another mission lined up. We’re going to be tracking ships leaving Camilax, trying to catch them with slaves on board.”

“Oh.” She nodded and seemed to step a little closer to him. The sweet scent of her reached him. Did she naturally smell like sex, or was his libido in overdrive due to the tons of U-4EA gooze that surrounded them? “That sounds very…interesting and dangerous. You’ll be careful, won’t you? I don’t read the news pages much, but I’d hate to find out you got hurt again.”

Yes, she was definitely closer. Fletch moved in, his gaze on her lips. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got Gan.”

“Gan is ninety-eight percent incorporeal.” Her breath warmed his face, and her fingers found their way to the collar of his uniform. “What happens if you need someone to bandage you up again?”

Fletch let one hand rest on her hip, luxuriating in the gentle curve and the firmness of her ass. He drew her closer, a millimeter at a time so as not to scare her off. If she wanted him again, if she needed him, he was ready. He was more than ready. “I’m sure I’ll manage. Somehow. But who’s going to keep you from getting captured by Mogarthan slavers? Trinium scouting is a lonely business, and I’d hate to think of you floating in some pod somewhere, all…naked and covered in U-4EA.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m going to stick to the settled territories for a while.”

“Oh.” Their lips hovered just centimeters apart, and Fletch wondered if he could come just from the anticipation of tasting her again. He hadn’t indulged in any U-4EA, yet he felt like every nerve in his body was on fire. If his mouth touched hers, he’d be lost, completely at her mercy, and he longed for it.

On the next heartbeat he closed his eyes and plunged into emptiness.

“Wha—” He flailed a bit, then regained his balance. Talia stood a step away, and the dim outline of a Metrian hovered between them. “Gan! You’re interrupting a private conversation.”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, right. What’s up?” Fletch tried to shrug off the sensual itch that plagued him. He was hard as a rock and so hot for Talia that it hurt.

“Docking procedure.”

“Can it wait a minute?”

“Wanna crash?”

Fletch threw up his hands and sighed. “At this point, I almost don’t care.” He squared his shoulders. Ignoring the twinge of pain beneath his bandage, he gave Talia a stern look as he passed her. “Don’t you go anywhere. I’ll be back.”

She bit her lower lip. “Famous last words.”

He muttered a few choice curses at Gan under his breath and stalked off toward the bridge.

* * * *

Talia watched him go, seething for release beneath the calm exterior she portrayed. One more time. That’s all she wanted with Fletch, just one more time so she could remember the best sex of her life before the U-4EA buzz wore off completely.

He probably had her all figured out, smug bastard that he was. She’d seen it in his eyes, how much he wanted one more romp. Of course, he could probably have his pick of the other women from the pods. Surely there would be one he could snag for himself and some poor miner would just have to settle for one insatiable sex slave instead of two.

She left the pod room, having no intention of staying put until he came back to claim her. The moment had fled, thanks to Gan. She wondered, as she made her way back to her quarters, if Metrians had sex. Surely they could touch each other, even if they couldn’t touch humans. If not, what a terribly lonely existence it must be. No wonder Ganymede seemed to revel in teasing his companions.