by Jack Porter
Then her eyes seemed to refocus. She seemed to stiffen against me and pushed herself back.
“What day is it?” she demanded quietly.
Then she looked left and right, and it was as if she saw where we were for the first time.
“Shit. Oh shit,” she said. Then her face almost crumpled in a mixture of horror and shame. She jerked herself off me and onto the canvas we had spread on the ground.
“Sorry,” she said, and it looked as if she was on the verge of scampering away.
I did my best to appear friendly and welcoming.
“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “Sit with me,” I said. “I could use the company.”
Kia’s cheeks had turned pink in a blush. It seemed that she wanted to run away and hide. But I just kept my nonthreatening expression firmly in place, and never let go of the hope that she might do as I suggested.
In the end, perhaps it was my expectation that proved the difference. Instead of fleeing, perhaps out of the shelter completely, she accepted my invitation, and sat next to me as Deeve had done during the sandstorm, propping herself up against the supplies but keeping a deliberate distance between us.
She sat there for some moments in silence. Eventually, I had to ask.
“So, what was that all about?” I said.
Chapter 19
With her cheeks still aflame, Kia offered me a shy smile.
“Sorry,” she said again. “Sometimes, when I’m not fully awake, I forget the difference between what has happened and what is yet to come. It’s only when I wake up properly—or when I see something that anchors me—that it all snaps back into place.”
I thought about what the psychic woman was saying.
“So, in the future…?”
I didn’t need to complete the question. Kia was already nodding, her cheeks bright pink.
I had to admit to a degree of surprise. Kia was far from unattractive. With her exotic look and a body many models would have been proud of, she would have turned heads in any arena.
It was just that Deeve was more my type. Her and Uma. There was something about their physical capability and serious, determined approach to everything that appealed.
Not to mention that they were both, in their own ways, equally beautiful.
But then, who was I kidding? For all her foot-stomping petulance and general difficulty, I would have been more than happy to take Jayloo for a ride as well. Sure, she was closer to the crazy end of the spectrum than I typically favored, but there was no denying her appeal.
Same with Sydney. There was a wisdom to her, an indication of hidden understandings behind the hint of good humor in her typical expression. Even if she did seem to lean more toward members of her own gender.
“Not to begin with,” Kia replied. “But yes. After we all reach an understanding that it’s okay to share, you and I get together as well.”
I studied the exotic-looking woman for a while. There were hints of all sorts of things wrapped up in what she’d said.
“Share?” I said. At the same time, I was very aware that she’s said, ‘we all’. Did she mean everyone?
If anything, Kia’s blush became even more pronounced. She turned her head away.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have said any of this.”
I thought the implications through. “Why not? Does saying it have an impact on how the future will turn out?”
She nodded, but didn’t look back to me.
“Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t see it clearly.”
I studied her from the side. “The rest of us live without knowing what the future might bring. How would it be a bad thing if you did the same?”
At this, she did look back toward me. Her blush had started to fade, and she wore a serious expression on her face.
“It isn’t like that. Not exactly. I’ve never been able to see the future as clearly as you might think.” She offered a self-deprecating smile. “If I could, do you think I would have been allowed to jump on a transport and just go to wherever I wished?”
She shook her head. “The Company would have hidden me away, like they do with all those who are more gifted than me. No, I catch glimpses, but that’s about all.”
I wasn’t completely sure why Kia was telling me this, but it became clear as she continued to talk.
“I can see enough to know that this is a dangerous world. That the difference between survival and death here depends on all manner of things going right, or just a single thing going wrong.”
Her expression grew earnest. “I wish I could see it all more clearly. It would be easier if I could. I just know that if things change, even a little, the end result might prove disastrous.”
I could tell that she meant it. Yet, at the same time, her actions before had awakened something within me, and I felt my gaze being drawn to different parts of her body.
“So, if we were to adjust the timetable of us getting together…” I didn’t feel like I needed to finish my sentence.
Some of the color returned to the psychic woman’s cheeks. “I do not know one way or the other if it would have any negative impact.”
I found myself starting to grin. “Maybe you could try to sense it, or whatever it is you do. Consider the futures with it in mind. Us getting together earlier than we might have otherwise.”
I was aware that I’d almost let my opportunity pass by with Deeve the night before, and didn’t want to miss out with Kia if I could help it. At the same time, I didn’t want to risk upsetting a precarious future, either.
“You know, I haven’t really looked at it like that.” The psychic woman tilted her head to an angle and gave me a hesitant smile. She seemed to be weighing her options.
Finally, she nodded. She closed her eyes and seemed to go still for a moment. Yet the blush on her cheeks remained, and in fact, it seemed to become even deeper.
Then she opened her eyes once again and looked at me with an expression of gentle surprise.
“Well,” she said. “How about that?”
I couldn’t help but smile at her.
Despite what she had apparently seen of the future, she hesitated a moment longer. I kept grinning and tilted my head briefly sideways to beckon her closer, and that was enough.
Her cheeks still blushing pink, she nodded, and once more placed herself in my lap, facing me.
This time, she was far less confident in her actions. It was almost like she was a different person completely. Yet she leaned in toward me and kissed me again, her lips tasting sweet and somehow pure even in this hellish place.
She broke away quickly and bit her lower lip in a gesture that suggested she was unsure of herself. So I wrapped my hands around her narrow waist in a way that felt comfortable and continued to smile.
“It’s okay,” I said. “The others are asleep. We are free to do as we wish.”
I knew I was supposed to be on watch, but figured I could keep enough of my wits around me to respond if anything untoward was to happen. And besides, this was Kia. She would know if there was any danger approaching.
“It’s not that,” she said. But if I expected her to say anything more, then that expectation wasn’t met. Instead, she leaned forward again, and this time she didn’t seem interested in breaking away.
She pressed her body against me and kissed me again and again, in a way that was quite different from Deeve. The taller, athletic woman had gone about her work with a knowing smile on her lips, intent and knowledgeable.
Kia was growing less hesitant by the moment, but her kisses were still exploratory, still those of someone looking to learn. She also seemed more delicate. Where Deeve had been proof against the strength I had used with her, I feared I might break the ethereal psychic woman if I wasn’t careful.
At the same time, I couldn’t deny the effect she was having. My body responded to her efforts in a way that was obvious despite my clothing.
I returned her kisses with enthusiasm, teas
ing her tongue with my own, enjoying the feel of her slim body against me.
She quickly began panting between kisses, her desire seeming to waft from her in waves. Soon, she began to writhe against me, her kisses and actions taking on an overtone of frustration. Her hands were everywhere, as if she was trying to find a way through my clothing.
I found myself smothering a laugh, but that just seemed to increase her frustration. At the same time, I wasn’t having as many problems. The psychic’s flowing top and skirt allowed easy access, and I was making good use of it, running my hands over every part of her I could reach.
Finally, Kia made a noise of irritation and stood up. “Can’t you—” she said, her cheeks so flushed it was like they were giving off their own heat.
“Can’t I what?” I replied. I admit it. I could have anticipated what she was wanting, but I was having too much fun.
As if she was afraid to ask me directly, she turned away. “Take off your pants,” she finally managed.
“Of course,” I agreed, keeping my voice as low as she’d done. “Why didn’t you ask?”
She turned toward me with a puzzled expression, and I grinned at her. All at once, her frustration turned into a mixture of disbelief and good humor.
“You’re teasing me?” she asked.
“Only a little,” I replied.
At the same time, I shuffled out of my pants, but stayed in my seated position with my back to the supplies. Kia’s eyes grew large as she focused on my newly revealed self, and it looked like she didn’t know what to do next.
I decided to help her out. “Take off your underwear,” I said.
As if she was on automatic, she did so, but she kept her skirt in place. Then she waited for my next instruction.
“Come back here and sit down,” I suggested. “But maybe turn around before you do.”
She did as I asked, lowering herself carefully back down to my lap, holding her skirt aside as she did. I felt her shivering in anticipation and heard her breath catch in her throat as my dick touched her soft, delicate flesh.
Instinctively, she reached down and started rubbing my length against her folds, using me as a toy, and I could tell how wet she had become.
“You feel so good,” she managed as she leaned against me. Already, she was trying to shift her weight, to angle me toward her entrance, but I was content to wait a bit longer so chose not to help.
“So do you,” I returned, nuzzling the back of her neck even as I reached under her blouse to her breasts. She was wearing a lightweight bra thing that had some stretch to it, and I used that to free her, so I could tease her delicate peaks until they pebbled under my touch.
She melted against me.
“Oh god,” she said, still remembering to keep her voice down. “I want you in me.”
I felt the heat of her, felt my own breath quickening as she fumbled my erection against her, and finally, I decided we’d waited long enough. The next time she tried to line me up, I helped, lifting her just enough.
“Oh god,” she repeated as she slowly lowered herself down. “Oh god. Oh, fuck.”
Yet she didn’t stop, instead lowering herself down on me fully, and then breathing a deep sigh of pleasure.
I placed my hands on her hips as she started to move. She leaned forward a little, grabbed hold of my knees, and started grinding against me in earnest.
I just rested against the supplies and enjoyed it, moving against her but letting her do most of the work. She quickly increased her speed, digging her fingernails into my skin. In what felt like no time at all, both of us were starting to pant and Kia was bucking as if she was riding a bull.
With her breathing coming in gasps, I thought she was on the home stretch, but then she half-turned around so she could catch my eye.
She wore a secretive smile, as if she knew something I didn’t. “God, you feel good,” she gasped, but then added a question that surprised me. “Have you ever been with someone like me before?”
At first, I wasn’t sure what she meant. But then, somehow, I knew. Her pointed ears, large eyes, her ethereal look. She was asking if I’d ever been with anyone not quite one hundred percent human.
She was asking if I’d been with anyone with alien DNA.
I shook my head, but was enjoying what I was doing too much for anything more.
Kia grinned more broadly even as she rocked against me, smoothly upping the tempo, no longer struggling with my size. Showing more expertise than I would have expected given her earlier uncertainty, she very deliberately brought me close to the edge, closer, even closer… and over I went.
With a low, animal growl, I gripped her more tightly than I’d done before, shuddering as I came deep inside her. Nor was it all about me. Kia’s voice joined my own in a series of gasps that turned into a wail as she ground hard against me.
That’s when Kia surprised me. Reaching climax with her was like an explosion going off in my mind. It was like she was with me, there in my head. I felt a warmth spread through my whole body, and felt a sense of peace and bliss.
For long moments, I just stayed as I was, enjoying the sensation, completely forgetting all that had happened, all my plans and dreams, my hopes and fears for the future. Everything.
It was like I was floating on a cloud of energized tranquility, and I would have been happy to stay there forever.
After long moments, the connection that had formed between us faded away. With both of us still panting at our exertions, Kia took the opportunity to spin around to face me again, without disconnecting. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me once more.
“Well, now you have,” she said in a low voice, chuckling away to herself as if she knew full well what she had done.
As for me, I couldn’t help it. I returned her kiss and held her close, enjoying the aftermath as much as I’d ever done before.
We were lost on a strange world a million light years from everywhere.
But things weren’t all that bad, considering.
Chapter 20
A small handful of hours later, long after Kia had headed away to sleep, Uma once again roused herself from her slumber with the intention of taking over the watch. But when she sat down next to me in the same spot Kia had vacated, she seemed to be in a contemplative mood.
The way she looked at me, I couldn’t tell if she thought of me as an ally or adversary, or something else entirely. Nor did her opening question clarify her position in any meaningful way.
“Was I right to trust you?” she asked. There was no greeting, not even a simple hello.
“And a good morning to you, too,” I said in reply, keeping my voice low and softening my words with a smile.
She took it in good humor and responded with a wry smile of her own.
“Is it? If this world is stuck with one side facing the sun, then it’s all much the same. Not morning, not afternoon. Just day, and an endless supply of it.”
“Or you could assume that ahead of us is dusk, which means that somewhere behind us, there’s a dawn. But I guess it would be a location, rather than a time of day.”
Uma made a small noise of acknowledgement, and into the silence that followed, I decided to answer her original question.
“The six of us are, as far as I can tell, alone on this world. The conditions are harsh, but if we don’t make too many mistakes, perhaps they are survivable. I have no intention of harming you, Deeve, Kia, Sydney, or Jayloo in any way. In truth, it is my intention to do all I can to keep you—as well as myself—alive.”
The Commander studied me carefully. “Will you though? Or, when the chips are down, if you don’t like what they show, will you leave us to our fate and make your own way?”
Commander Uma Reynolds was relatively young to have made it to that rank. Her capability was clear in everything she said and did.
I noted randomly that her eyes, as well as conveying her serious nature, were a delicate purple color, and I couldn’t help but wonder if tha
t was natural or if they were a result of some sort of procedure.
Idly, I looked at my wrists, at the metal cuffs that would no doubt be with me for some considerable time.
“If I’d been just another passenger,” I mused out loud, “and didn’t come with these fancy bracelets, would you be asking me the same question?”
To her credit, Uma gave my words serious thought.
“Probably not. But you weren’t just another passenger. As well as that jewelry you wear, you are what you are. A Canary. Which means you have value, but also that you see the world in a slightly different way.” Her face hardened. “I said it before. You are cold. Calculating. When push comes to shove, will you act as a human being, or not?”
I’d thought that Uma’s biggest worry about me might be that I was going to try to usurp her position. Apparently, she had other concerns.
“Do I really come across as all that cold and calculating?” I asked her.
Again, she studied me closely. It was as if my answers weren’t quite what she expected. Slowly, as if she was uncertain, she shook her head.
“Only in part. And even then, no more than others I’ve met.”
Once again, I gave her a smile. “I’m just like you. Just a person trying to do my best. Sure, there’s part of me that is the calculating, emotionless thing you think me to be. But I like to think there’s more to me than that.”
“I guess we’ll see,” Uma said with a sigh.
As I studied the Commander, Kia’s words drifted back to me. The psychic had implied that at some point in the future, we would all become lovers. Not just Kia, Deeve, and me. But all of us.
Even the Commander herself.
She was certainly attractive enough. She would turn many heads, although I doubted there would be many who were truly up to the challenge she represented.
But as I stared at Uma’s face, I saw a certain brittleness in her. It was as if she carried the responsibilities of the world on her shoulders, and had little left over for anything else.
And when it came down to it, she was right. I’d joined with these women at first so that I could access their water and their rations. Beyond that, I’d made no real commitment to stick around.
