Desert World Savages

by Lace, Lisa

  A knock on the panel jolted Tracy out of her thoughts.

  "Mate," she heard through the metal. At least she knew who it was. No one else in the universe would call her “mate.” She huffed a breath of relief and pulled the panel back.

  "Come on, it's clear for now, but we should hurry." Rev held the panel from the other side so Tracy could slip through the crack. He pulled the panel tightly closed after she stood next to him. Tracy looked around the large hold lined on both sides with small ships, most of which looked like fighters to her. The third one on the left, however, looked familiar. She pointed at it. "Is that it?"

  "Yes. It's Jaal's transport, and it makes sense S'den would pick that one. The other ships can't be released without command codes, and mine have probably been disabled."

  "Rev," said Tracy sadly. Hearing him speak so bluntly about the consequences of his choices made her feel sad and a bit guilty.

  "Make no mistake,” he said when he saw her distress, “I do not regret this decision now, and I never will. But we'll have a lot of regrets if we don't get out of here right now."

  "And how are we going to do that if you don't have command codes?" Tracy nodded at the heavy doors at the end of the bay. "Those look solidly shut."

  "They won't be," said Rev. "S'den gave us presents." He slipped the pack off his back and opened it. He took out four black discs the size of his palm. He walked up to the control panel by the bay doors to place the discs, slapping one in each bottom corner and two in the middle close together.

  "Stop!" The one-word command froze them both.

  Rev and Tracy turned to see a man in uniform enter the bay. Rev tossed the pack to Tracy, raced towards the intruder, and tackled him. The uniformed man attempted a defense, but Rev was in attack mode and unstoppable. With a final jab from the heel of Rev's hand, the soldier crumpled at his feet.

  Shaking his head, Rev picked up the body and dragged it behind a bulkhead. "Let's go. We don't have any more time, and there might be more of them."

  He ran to the transport and held his palm against the control panel to open the entryway, then he and Tracy scrambled inside. Rev shut the hatch and waved her towards the pilots' cabin.

  "Sit down and buckle up," he ordered as he sat in the command chair and started flipping switches overhead.

  Tracy dropped the backpack between them and sat in the other chair. She used the attached restraints to strap herself in. Rev was focused on the instruments as he checked readouts on the panel ahead of him. He pressed some buttons, and the engines whirled to life. The ship was at a forty-five-degree angle to the launch bay door.

  An alarm sounded, and the lights in the bay flashed. Rev reached into the pack and pulled out a small oval device. "Hold on, Tracy!" Rev shouted as he pressed a red button. "This is going to be messy."

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  A loud rumble surrounded them as the launch door shuddered then broke apart in front of their eyes. The landing bay was filled with a silent chaos. The destruction of the door not only hurled pieces of spaceship hull at the ships, it also exposed the ships to the vacuum of space. Rev guided their transport towards the opening before the mess of metal and parts could reach them. The ship shook and groaned as it whooshed into the maw created by Rev's act of destruction.

  Tracy's heart pounded in her chest as she sat gripping the edge of her seat. Rev expertly manipulated the controls to keep an even trim on the ship's flight path as broken parts of other ships tumbled past them, creating a dangerous debris field. The transport rocked, and large pieces of metal flew towards them. Rev looked grim as he piloted the ship, holding it on a steady course. The transport was fighting against Rev and on the verge of spinning out of control. Rev swore as the ship tilted sharply then began to roll. At that moment, the speakers came to life with a crackling sound.

  "Tracker Ar-Reven, return immediately. If you come back right now, no additional charges will be brought against you. If you do not return, we'll be forced to blast your ship to pieces. This is your only warning."

  "Tracy," said Rev, "I told you to hold on before. Now you really have to hang tight. Oh, and please do me a favor, push that blue button on the panel."

  "Okay," she said and pressed the button. She expected something dramatic to happen, but nothing did. Instead, Rev began to speak.

  "This is the transport, ah let me see—" Rev peered at something on the command screen before him "—the transport Go to Hell, and your demand only warrants a one-word response. Goodbye."

  Rev moved his hands around the ship's instrument panel, and the engine sound changed from a low roar to a high whine.

  "Tracker Ar-Reven, we see your engines engaged. Do not, repeat, do not initiate jump drive this close to our ship. It is an unsafe procedure. Do not—"

  Rev flicked off the incoming signal.

  "Are you sure about this?" asked Tracy. "What will happen to them?"

  "They'll survive, I think," Rev said darkly. "We won't survive if we stay."

  He pressed another button. Tracy was jolted forward and then back into her seat. Her breath was knocked out of her and everything went black.

  "Tracy! Tracy!" said a strange voice.

  It sounded urgent. She felt someone shaking her shoulders. Tracy barely opened her eyes. She felt groggy and uncoordinated. "Is it morning? I hope I'm not late to work. My boss will freakin' kill me."

  "Tracy," said the voice more softly, "are you okay?" The voice rumbled with gentleness, and it had deep undertones that made Tracy think of hot sex. Hm. She must have gotten ten kinds of lucky last night. Maybe that's why she felt like shit this morning.

  "Just barely. What was in those drinks last night? My head is pounding."

  "Tracy, you did not have any drinks last night."

  "Well, I sure as shit feel like I did. God, I had the freakiest dream. A dream like I'm in the middle of a movie. Anyway, I was abducted by aliens! There was this man, of course. He was green, but he was the sexiest thing I ever saw. He claimed me and made me his mate, and he was hot in bed! We fucked for hours. I hope you don't mind me saying this, because I'm sure you were awesome too."

  "Not at all. I'm glad you think I'm sexy."

  Tracy's eyes opened wide. She tried to sit up straight, but she was held tight by the restraints around her. She glanced around. There were lights in displays before her and a vista of stars in the view screen. "Oh. I guess it wasn't a dream."

  "It's normal on your first few jumps to be disoriented. Personally, I think you are doing very well. Not too many sentients wake from their first jump without feeling the need to vomit."

  "Come to mention it, I do feel a little queasy."

  Rev stood and moved over to a panel in the side of the cabin and produced a small pouch. "You should drink this. It will make you feel better."

  "Thanks," said Tracy. She took an exploratory sip and was pleased to find it tasted like citrus. She drank some more.

  Rev sat in the pilot’s chair again and looked straight at her. "So you think I'm sexy?"

  "And fucking crazy. What the hell did you do back there? Because by the indignant yelling coming out of the speakers, you did something that wasn't safe and they did not like."

  "When I engaged the jump engines on our ship, I collapsed their jump field. It's a safety precaution. When two jump fields are in close proximity, the one about to make the jump takes precedence, and the second field collapses. Otherwise the second ship would be drawn into the first ship's spatial wake. Right now, they are sitting dead in space, working to get their engines online."

  "How long will that take?"

  "Since they simultaneously have a hull breach, it might take them a while. They may even need to get their ship repaired before they can go anywhere."

  "I guess Ja-Idin Du is right," said Tracy, folding her arms. "I'm a dangerous influence on the Aligned Worlds’ sentients."

  "No," said Rev. "You're a force to be reckoned with."

  "Me?" Tracy snorted. "I'm just a paper girl
."

  "There is nothing 'just' about you, Tracy Walsh. I have told you before that I could have searched all the planets in the Aligned Worlds and found no one more perfect."

  "Sweet talker. So what now?"

  "We will try to find my brother. Jaal gave testimony that my brother was alive. Now we have to find out where."

  "And how will we do that?"

  "We need to get into an Enforcement Wing office and read Jaal's testimony. They kept it secret from me when we were in court together."

  "Something tells me this isn't going to be a walk in the park."

  "It won't be. We are marked fugitives, and there is always the danger we'll be arrested. We probably have a hefty price on our heads too."

  "Before, that would have seemed alarming, but now? I don't know, Rev. It doesn’t sound any more dangerous than what's happened so far."

  "Fearless," muttered Rev. "Utterly fearless."

  Rev had been staring at star maps and checking information in the ship's database for hours. "I think I've located a good place."

  "Where?" Tracy moved behind Rev's seat and put her arms around his neck.

  He pointed to a place on the map in front of them. "Chougyrc. It's not that far, and it has an automated tracker's station."

  "How do you say that again?" said Tracy.

  "Chow-gur-ik."

  "Oh," said Tracy, her nose crinkling. "That makes it easier."

  "Well, that's in the Standard tongue. Not all sounds in all languages translate correctly. If you wanted to say it in the native tongue, you'd have to add a grating sound to the G sound and send the I in "ik" into an ultrasonic range, which is difficult to do with our vocal cords."

  "How do you know all that? Do you make a habit of studying foreign languages?"

  "No, not me. I barely passed Standard during my entrance examination for the academy, and that's with studying it since I was in grade school. The dialectic marks are here in the database along with the word."

  Tracy leaned over him and saw where he was pointing. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

  "It will. We'll get you lessons. We can get a private tutor if necessary when I get you home."

  Tracy smiled. He really did put thought into doing things for her. "So it's an automated station?"

  "The trackers are stretched thin all across the galaxy."

  Tracy paused for a moment. "Do you ever wonder why that is? I mean, with a galactic civilization that spans thousands of worlds, you'd think there would be enough resources to outfit their Enforcement Wing properly."

  "Tracy, I’ve always thought the same thing, but what could I do about it? I am only one tracker."

  "I don't know about your worlds, Rev, but on my world, change starts with one person saying that something is wrong and needs to be fixed."

  "That sounds very serious. Now I have a serious question for you."

  "What is that, Rev?"

  "Why aren't you sitting on my lap right now?"

  Tracy squealed as Rev grabbed her shoulders and pulled her around to land in his lap. "What? What is this all about?"

  "Can't you tell?" he said with a gleam in his eye.

  Tracy felt Rev's crotch beneath her. He pressed her down, and she felt his hardness against her ass.

  "We haven't had sex for a long time," Rev said.

  "Mr. Romantic Alien," she said dryly. "You think less than three days is a long time?"

  "It sure feels like it."

  "You know what I feel?" Tracy shifted her ass over his crotch, sending tingles through her. She felt her desire burn inside.

  "No, what do you feel?" he breathed, his eyes half-closed.

  "I feel a hard, sexy alien under me wanting to pound the hell out of me."

  "Mmm," he said. He lifted her shirt and took her breasts in his hands. "Do you know what I think of when I see your breasts, Tracy?"

  "No."

  "I think of the pure snow on the top of Mount Quiqat. It is the highest mountain on the capital planet, and it is said the snow of that mountain is the frozen milk of Queen Endra. When the spring waters rush from the melted snows, Endra feeds her people."

  "I guess I can live with being compared to a queen."

  "You are my queen, forever and always, mate. There is no other to govern me."

  Tracy melted. She had never had a man say such sweet things to her. The few boyfriends she’d had were more concerned with the latest football game on television and whether she would get them a beer. At his words, Tracy felt her heart smolder then burst in a white-hot flame, and she knew she was in love with Rev. All this time he had talked about how she was his mate, but it wasn’t until this moment that Tracy felt they were inseparably joined.

  Something unchained in Tracy. She crushed her lips to Rev's, licking and nipping, seeking his tongue with her own. Rev kissed her back with enthusiasm, making noises as their tongues danced with each other. She pulled at the buttons on his uniform, seeking to touch his hard chest. When she managed to open his shirt, she attacked his nipples, sucking them in a frenzy of passion.

  "Oh gods, Tracy."

  "I need you, Rev. I need you now."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Tracy stood up. She pulled down her loose slacks and stepped out of one leg to free herself from the fabric. Rev grabbed her ass in his hands and pulled her mound to his face. His tongue lashed her clit and its soft flesh. Tracy groaned, and he pulled her in closer to his face so that his tongue could move even farther into her, reaching deep inside. His lips pressed hard against hers. Tracy bucked her hips as he moved his tongue. She grabbed his hair with her fists, holding him in place as she moved.

  "Fuck," she said as her heart pounded in her chest. Every nerve burst apart in pleasure. She stood over him breathing hard, and he stood up and pulled down his uniform pants. His cock sprang up, the ridges red and swollen.

  Without wasting a second, Tracy gripped his cock in her hands and stroked it. It pointed towards her, pre-cum pearling at the tip. With one hand on Rev's shoulder, she lowered herself on his shaft, inch by inch, in a slow descent. Each ridge she slid over washed a wave of white-hot heat through her. The gauntlet of pleasure threatened to overwhelm her.

  Rev groaned. When she was almost seated, he palmed her left breast and sucked it in his mouth. The sharp sensation of pleasure and pain caused Tracy to arch her back. As she met his thighs for that final inch, a shock ran through her as every inch inside her was filled with his flesh.

  "Baby," she moaned and started rocking on him.

  He held the globes of her butt apart and fingered her ass, gently probing the bud there. He took his finger and put it in her mouth. "Suck on that, mate," he said, and when she did, he withdrew it and put it to that opening, circling it, caressing the tight flesh. Between the fluttering attention to her sensitive hole, Rev's hard cock inside her, and her grinding on it, Tracy felt another well opening inside her, taking her to a place where there were no words. There were only the sensations of her body reaching for release. She trembled. Her need was great, but she wasn't quite there.

  Rev watched her face and felt her trembling. He placed his fingers on her clit and rubbed her gently. Their breathing synced. Rev trembled, wanting to come, but he wanted to see ecstasy on Tracy's face more.

  "Oh God, oh God," Tracy moaned, her eyes fluttering shut. She lifted herself slightly on her feet and slammed down on Rev's cock. "Baby," she said, and she did it again, and again, and once more. Her hot core melted around his steel shaft.

  "I'm coming," she gasped, and the sparks flew through her body. She screamed, the sound filling the small space.

  Rev groaned loudly. His cock throbbed, releasing his seed deep inside her, giving her every bit of himself.

  They held each other tightly until their breathing calmed.

  Tracy looked into his eyes. "I know this doesn't mean that much to you, but I love you, Ar-Reven. I will for the rest of my days."

  Rev and Tracy ate rations and drank water for dinner. The
se weren't the same kind they had in the desert; there was more space on a ship for better provisions. Not restaurant quality, but at least there were pastes of different flavors and colors.

  Tracy wrinkled her nose in distaste. "This is not real food," she said as she slurped a yellow paste into her mouth.

  "Sure it is," said Rev. He grabbed a tube with a picture of something brown on it and ripped the top off. He sucked on it with gusto.

  "Is this what you eat at home?"

  "No, of course not. These are emergency ship rations. An emergency can include the loss of shipboard gravitation, and it is difficult to eat solid food with no gravity."

  "What is that you’re sucking in?"

  He handed her the tube. She put her tongue to it and was shocked. "That tastes just like chocolate pudding!"

  "Chocolate? I don't know what chocolate is. This is smashed goigo, a fruit from my planet. Very healthy."

  "A planet with a fruit that tastes like chocolate can't be all bad. So, tell me about these space emergencies. What can happen?"

  "Plenty of things," said Rev. He sat back and looked like he was about to give a lecture. "You're traveling in a tin can through space, and it's a hostile place. Meteors can hit, which is bad, but you can usually detect them and avoid them before they become a problem. Micrometeorites are worse. They rip tiny holes in the bulkhead, and your air will seep out. Radiation is always a danger, which is why ships are triple shielded against it. All it takes is failure of a critical system, and you are in a bad spot. That's just talking about natural and mechanical phenomena. That doesn't account for pirates or other criminals on the run from the law."

  "You mean people like us."

  Rev chuckled. "Yes, people like us."