“Harley, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know that there’s no going back to Unity. Not now.” She nodded. Whatever we did from then on, we were permanent enemies of the military that we’d been raised to serve and defend.
“There were signs all along that something was wrong, but I never wanted to listen to them.”
“Yeah. It’s like when everything that you have is put into something, you don’t have the luxury of questioning whether it’s wrong.” Her blue eyes flitted those long, sexy lashes. “Ted,” she said softly and I understood in an instant why she had come to me, and I wanted the same thing too. Before I had a mission to consider. I had to put my duty first. Now that mission was over and I could finally start living for myself.
I leaned over and kissed her hard, our tongues wrapping around and getting lost in each other. I pulled her close to me, and held her, pulling off my gloved hand to feel her left breast. This time there would be no hesitation. We both sensed in that moment that this is what we were meant to be doing. My hand went to her zipper, sliding her out of her little blue flight suit. It was form-fitting and so she had no need for a bra. She mewed like a kitten as I took her double-d cup breasts in each hand and stroked her. Then, I pressed my mouth to hers and massaged her tongue, liberally rubbing and stroking. When we came up for air, I smiled at her and said, “I’ve done this before.”
She giggled and I parted the “V” of her zipper by guiding both hands down to her navel. “God, Max!” she breathed. “Fuck me now!”
I went for my own zipper, realizing only then that our boots would get in the way. We broke away from each other for only the seconds that it would take for us to disrobe completely. As we got naked, I admired her pert ass with just a patch of fragrant, wet pussy hair. Her legs were smooth but for the tiny fine hairs on her shins. In all the excitement of the last few days she must not have had the time to shave. I didn’t care. It somehow made her even sexier to me. Wilder, somehow. I took her by the waist and pulled her nearer to my throbbing erection.
“Yeeesss. Jesus, Max. What took you so long?” she gasped as I entered her. Her legs wrapped around mine and I stumbled over to the bed, carrying her as we sucked at each other. I threw her down and took her from the front, my cock sliding into her like a hand in a glove. Suddenly, I felt like the guy I had been before all of this had happened. I was Clockwork: pure precision, focus, and dedication. I thrust into her slowly at first, building up speed. This was much more than the kind of animal lust I had felt when I took Drasheel in this same bed. The excitement was there, but not the urgency. It was if gliding myself into her sex was the most natural thing in the world. As inevitable and right as an apple falling from a table or a planet revolving around its sun.
“Let me,” she squealed. I pulled out and fell to the bed, flipping from my side so that I was on my back. She started riding me rough and fast, holding her tits in each hand as she sang out in passionate enjoyment. I sunk into her as she rode me like a bronco. Finally, I could feel myself getting near cumming and I knew she was near the same thing. She looked down at me, blonde hair framing those blue eyes with their sharp eyebrows. I felt a release, and we came together, both of us exploding into ecstasy. I pulled out and collapsed onto the bed, holding each other in the afterglow.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she said. And I realized that I had too. I was always chasing after Celeste, or the top score; there was always some reason why it wasn’t the right time. Then, I thought about what had happened in the reprogramming center, the Voltec and Kris-10. I had felt myself fucking Harley then too. Was that a projection of my unconscious mind, or some kind of premonition? I didn’t really care, I realized. There would be time to make sense of all of that later. In that moment, the only thing that concerned me was being there with her. I held her in my arms as we both drifted off to sleep.
I was half conscious when I heard the doors of my cabin slide open. Sleepily, I let my eyelids flutter. The figure becoming clearer had purple skin and a headful of tendrils on her head.
“Drasheel!” I shouted, amazed. The sudden yelling disturbed my lover sleeping beside me. Harley sat up and rubbed her eyes, allowing the blanket to slide off her pert breasts. Drasheel watched, fascinated. There was no sign that she was jealous of the two of us. On the contrary, she seemed to be admiring Harley’s body in a way that was more than just the acknowledgement of an excellent example of the Earth female form.
“Braay-Kurr” said Drasheel, in her far-away, underwater voice.
“Who is this, Max?”
“She’s…” a friend? A lover? An ex? The woman who framed me for murder and then left me for dead?
“Drasheel,” I answered, simply.
“What is she doing in your room?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen her since she took off and left me with a murder rap that I had to defend myself for.”
Drasheel approached the bed, taking a seat beside us.
“Why did you come back?” Her golden tendrils fluttered. She wanted to show me something from inside of her mind.
“Derringer, don’t be an idiot,” Harley scolded. “You can’t trust her.”
I looked into Drasheel’s neon-green eyes, hoping to get some flash of understanding as to what she was here for.
“It’s okay,” I assured Harley. “She didn’t have to come back here. She had every reason to stay away. So whatever it is that she has to show me must be important.”
Cautiously, I touched Drasheel’s golden tendril.
I was flying through space without a ship, just like before. Only this time I was above Dawn. But the planet was receding, and I was flying hundreds of clicks away. Stars rushed before my eyes and I was able to see shiny metal toys against the black. I got closer and the toys got larger, until the 9th fleet was in full view. Big powerful destroyer ships, with the Titan Class Battleship leading the charge. I passed by windows to see inside. The ship was piloted by Space Commandos. It seemed that the Commandos were now in control of the whole military, or so I guessed. At the helm was a round, stocky man with a bald head, pale features, and dark circles under his eyes. Admiral Vorgon. Then, I was pulled away from the ships and back to Dawn. I opened my eyes, and I was back in my room again with Harley and Drasheel beside me.
“The 9th Fleet is headed for Dawn,” I announced. Drasheel nodded.
“How did they know to come here?” asked Harley, incredulous.
“The Space Commandos must have followed us. We were in their ship, after all. It couldn’t have been that hard to track it.” I felt responsible for the blunder. Because of me, and my plan to break us out of the reprogramming center, innocent lives were now at risk.
“They’re bringing the Titan Class Battleship at the head of the armada. They have enough firepower to wipe out the entire planetoid and everyone in its orbit.”
“So, we’ve got to stop them,” Harley said, crossing her arms. “Now that we know they’re coming, we can start planning a defense.”
“I’ll tell Teru,” I said sliding off the bed to retrieve my clothes. Maybe we can scrounge up some star fighters.”
“Scrounge up? This place is going to need every starfighter it has.”
“We lost a lot of our best pilots in that raid. I don’t know what kind of defense we can mount without some kind of reinforcements.”
Drasheel put her hand on my wrist. You have me. I wanted to pull away from her, tell her that I wanted nothing to do with her. Problem was, I still needed her. So I simply gave a curt nod. Harley covered herself as she went to take her flight suit off the floor. I noticed Drasheel watching her as she dressed.
“You should watch this one,” said Harley, eyeing Drasheel warily. Drasheel’s tendrils swayed and pulsed slightly, giving a coy smile. I half think she took it as a complement.
“How long?” asked Teru, taking a long puff on his Teracinni pipe.
“Fourteen hours at the most,” I said. “They won’t be using the closet warp gat
e because they’ve probably figured out that Dawn has rigged it so that it redirects ships with Federation signals.”
“She told you this?” Teru asked, pointing to Drasheel with his smoking hose.
“She showed me, and I believe her. I don’t know what else I believe, but I know that she’s telling the truth about this.”
Teru played his Teracini again, letting out a plume of rainbow smoke, “Our people can take shelter near the core.”
“That won’t be enough. They’ve got lasguns capable of blasting through Dawn’s shield. We need fighters to disable those guns, and we need ships to cover them while they do. It’s more firepower than we’ve got, I know.”
“We’ve got pilots. There’s you, and there’s me. We’ve got others.”
“Too few, and too little time to do anything about it.”
“So what are you asking for?” Teru took another long drag.
“I don’t know. You’re the wise guru. Don’t you have some idea?” Teru shrugged.
“I’m a pilot. Tell me fly, I’ll fly. Tell me fight, I’ll fight. But you’re asking me to make ships and pilots appear from nothing, and that’s more than I can do.” Once again, I was reminded of the limitations of Teru’s inactive philosophy.
The Voltec. The words appeared in my mind. I turned to Drasheel.
“What about the Voltec?” I asked.
“Yeah, what about the Voltec?” Harley intonned.
They can help. But why would they? The Voltec were enemies of the Federation, sure. But that didn’t mean that they were friends to us. Their main goal was to wipe out organic life, considering it an abomination. We certainly qualified.
They’d just kill us all, I said to Drasheel in my mind.
No, you are Voltec. Then, I had a flood of memory. Those words, frantically spilled out by my crazed mother. She was so convinced there had been something special about me. Then, in my vision in the reprogramming center. Kris-10. The temple. The command to change. Strangely it made a kind of sense to try it.
“Derringer!” Harley snapped me back to reality. “Care to translate for the rest of us who aren’t in your head?”
“I think that we can use the Voltec. I can’t explain why, but I think they’ll help us.”
“What? Why?”
“We share a common enemy, and I have some kind of a connection with them. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s at least worth a try.”
Harley was dumbfounded. Teru too seemed skeptical.
“Guys, come on,” I said. “We don’t stand a chance without allies, and it’s hard for a hidden colony of raiders to make a lot of new friends.”
I could see from the looks on their faces that this made sense to them too, even if it barely made sense to me as I was saying it. The Voltec weren’t well understood by our people. And what we did understand from them was hostility. But I saw a chance and I decided to go for it.
“I’ll leave immediately. If I’m right, I’ll bring back reinforcements.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Harley. Drasheel nodded, indicating that she too was in.
“Earther!” We turned. It was Sladurr, parting the crowd. He had a murderous look in his one good eye, and I could see that I wasn’t going to avoid a confrontation this time. “You’ll pay for the insults that you’ve done. How many of us died in that raid that was your doing?” he seemed to trying to get the attention of the rest of those sitting around the Teracinni cantina. The people were silent, watching what would become of the confrontation.
“Sladurr,” I said, trying to defuse, “what’s between us will have to wait.”
“Swine! You have the gaul to put me off? You slew Uprakon, and face no punishment. You lead our people into a slaughter. For what?”
“I have a lot to answer for in that raid, I know. But this is not the time. All of Dawn is in danger now.” I hesitated, not wanting to start a panic by revealing everything. But the people deserved to know what was coming, and there wasn’t much time before none of us would have a choice. “A Federation fleet is coming for us,” I announced, setting off a wave of whispering and gossip.
“More lies!” Sladurr spat.
“It is no lie, Sladurr” Teru piped up. Sladurr seemed taken aback that the old man would weigh in. I was surprised too. He was usually so serene, ready to wait and see how things would play out.
“Then he’s the one who brought them here!” this got a response from the crowd, who now seemed to be more seriously entertaining the idea of turning on me, so long as no one of them was the first. It wasn’t even wrong, really.
“Sladurr, I admit that I had a lot to atone for. I don’t deny it. Let’s just put off this challenge until after the battle is won. There are more important things to worry about than our rivalry now.”
“You think I would follow you into battle after what you’ve done? To kill you is to save my own life and the lives of everyone in Dawn.”
Sladurr withdrew the blade at his belt. It sang to life, giving a sickly green tinge to everything around it. “No more. No more of your games.” He tossed over the nearest table, sending the pipe shattering to the floor. All around people scrambled for cover.
Shit. I wasn’t going to talk my way out of this. I had a laser, but he could deflect it if he was quick enough. And there was always the chance of someone wandering into my weapon’s path.
A sound like a sharp, high whistle came from behind me. I turned and it was Teru, blowing on his pipe. He one-hand tossed me his own sword and I caught it, sending it to light in a flash. Tables were hastily pulled out of harm’s way, and a perimeter formed around us two combatants.
Sladurr was taller and faster, and he’d had been plenty of experience cutting men down with swords. More than I had, anyway. I kept expecting him to lunge first, the brute force of his blows making him easier to counter. But his bluster was just for show. It wasn’t rage that motivated him so much as this cold hate that radiated through him. He stepped slowly, carefully. But he couldn’t play that game forever, and after going around the circle once he started inching closer, showing off his mastery with the long sword, twirling and spinning it in his palm. But he gave up a key weakness in that moment, and I was quick enough to exploit it.
I slid my foot, pivoting slightly. He thought I was about to lunge, and leaned back to parry the blow from his left. But instead, I jumped sideways, anticipating this response and forcing an overreaction. Sladurr sent his blade slicing into the floor and I kicked him across the face, bringing my sword up to meet him a second later. He blocked it with his own, but I had him down. He tried to trip my legs out from under me with a sweeping kick. I jumped, avoiding it but it gave him the upper hand to charge at me, putting me on the defensive.
“Derringer!” called Harley, “Let me shoot him!”
“Don’t! If you cheat, they’ll never let us leave her alive.” I parried another blow, this one coming close enough to my head for me to feel the heat at my ear. I narrowly avoided becoming the new Charmer.
“Go ahead. Let your bitch kill me for you.” He sent a slash close to my middle and I dodged it easily, shifting my weight and sending one straight for his head. Close. Almost close enough to give him another scar to match the first. Grrrah! He kicked my knee and made contact, throwing me off. Then, he brought the force of his laser sword down onto me. I resisted his weight with everything I had, desperately trying to hold him. But he just dug deeper and harder into me. I could feel the heat getting closer as the beam of his blade slid down my own. “You know,” Sladurr whispered, “I never really hated you. Your arrival afforded me cover to slay Uprakon myself.” Of course. Drasheel had nothing to do with his murder. But I was unprepared for the revelation here and now, and even less prepared for the pain as it ate the back of my hand. Ararwgha! A layer of my skin crumpled and blackened like tissue in a hot flame, but I knew that if I didn’t hold out that fire was going to pass straight through me. I gritted my teeth and pushed back, giving it everything I had
.
He was bigger. He was stronger. He had the upper hand. And I was moving him anyway. The pure terror in Sladurr’s eyes as I broke his hold drew that inner strength out of me. I was back on the offensive, thrusting with wild, confident blows. I should have been covering myself, playing defensively. But there was a strength inside me that I’d uncovered, and I could feel it taking over. I slashed hard, forcing him to rely on his footwork to counter my attacks.
“Here is Uprakon’s killer” I yelled, slashing again.
“Liar!” cried Sladurr, who was now only trying to hold me off. I let up, trusting that he was now so tired, overwhelmed and thrown off base that he would make a mistake. I was right, his thrusts had become sloppy and erratic. He left his wrist exposed, and I brought my blade straight through it. His hand, and his sword, clamored to the floor.
Sladurr clutched at his cauterized stump in pure amazement. Finish him came a warning in my brain. I met Drasheel’s neon green eyes, but I couldn’t bring myself to do what she asked. I couldn’t just cut down a vanquished foe, no matter how much he may deserve it. The others surrounding me clearly expected the same, but instead I withdrew my sword and left him there, confident that it was the moral thing. I turned to go. Teru played a sweet, mournful tune on his Teracini, and for a moment I was transfixed by the sound.
“Farewell, Alpha Wing. Don’t come back the same.”
We were nearing the Voltec homeworld Viro, its silver metallic oceans shimmered and caught the rays from the planet’s sun in magnificent spectacle.
“So how are we going to know how to find this place?” asked Harley from behind the jump seat behind me.”
“I’m just going to go off of feeling,” I answered, taking a page from ol’ Teru’s book. I took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the grip of the yoke in the palms of my hands and imagining it was a divining rod, leading me to where I needed to be. I let it drift slightly as we descended. I closed my eyes, feeling the way down. I listened for alarm sounds from my control panel telling me that I was headed straight into the sea. Other than that, I was just letting the feel of my craft guide me. After a moment, I could see a red dotted path illuminated in front of me. The old me would have said that I was just making it up, but the new more spiritual me was ready to believe in things that I didn’t understand. I guided the craft gently, turning it with my palms towards a spot on the planet’s surface.
Alpha Wing Page 15
