by Foxx Ballard
There was no working up to it. Rusty was suddenly in the throes of orgasm. Convulsing, pleasure like he had never experienced, coursed through his whole body and took over his brain. He couldn't think or see and it didn't stop until he was choking on seawater. Even then, he didn't want it to stop, but his survival instinct kicked in.
“It always like that?” he asked once he had gotten back his breath. “Maybe I say yes earlier.”
“No, that was intense,” she admitted, spitting out seawater herself. It seemed that she was affected, just as he had been. “Your brain is like an accelerator. You think so quickly, that feedback was like nothing I have ever experienced. Umm, thank you.”
“Thank you too. Me say anytime, but not sure that safe.”
She laughed. “I will always ask first,” and she gave him a tired smile. “No more though. As much as I'd love to use the last of our energy for such an admirable purpose, I'm not going to stay afloat much longer if we keep at it.”
“Agree,” Rusty replied, staring back up at the sky. He could see the sky lightening up toward the west. The storm was coming to an end. “Storm almost over.”
She looked in that direction. “So it...” She paused, and he looked at her. Angel was staring off to the northwest, so he followed her gaze and there, at the edge of the clouds, was something flying. Make that three somethings flying, using enormous wings that glided more than they flapped. They had to be very large to appear at this distance and their heading was perpendicular to their current location, so they weren't going to get any closer unless they changed course. Rusty glanced back at Angel and could see her concentrating with her eyes closed. Her face was starting to go red.
Finally, she huffed in annoyance. “They're too far away, I can't connect with them.”
Rusty put his tongue against his teeth and blew as hard as his lungs would allow through pursed lips. The piercing whistle actually hurt his own ears, but after watching the winged creatures for a few moments, he saw them slowly turn towards them.
“By the Sky Lords, Rusty, you did it!” Angel said excitedly. She relaxed and closed her eyes and concentrated. Rusty looked about while he was waiting and noted the strip of blue sky was now visible past the clouds. The rain had died down to a light dusting of tiny drops, even though the clouds were still above them. As the wind blew the rain passed their current position, it was hard not to get excited. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but… there was a chance! Patiently, he waited to see what was going to happen. Then his heart dropped as the three winged beasts turned around to fly off in a different direction.
“It’s my fault, I assumed they ate fish.”
Angel started concentrating some more. Finally, the flying creatures turned back once again and approached. She smiled and whispered a happy, “Yes!”
When they were close enough, Rusty could make out expansive wings made of skin, a rather wide and flat mouth and head, and two lower legs with grasping claws.
“What do they eat?” Rusty risked asking, hoping he wouldn’t interrupt her, but curious.
Angel opened her eyes, not seeming disturbed in the slightest. “Other birds. I’m just convincing them we are birds, but hopefully too large for them to eat right now. Ideally, they pick us up in their claws and carry us back to their young. If they do pick us up, I’d suggest not putting up much of a fight. We may never get another opportunity to get to shore again.”
As the fliers got closer, Rusty marveled at their wingspan, probably ten full paces across.
“I'm going to have the first one pick me up just to make sure it's safe.”
“But...” Rusty started to protest, but it was too late. The giant-winged creature flew down and snatched her up in its claws. What if it ate her? Guess it didn't matter either way, he would be dead regardless. “You okay?!”
I'm fine, she thought back to him. Now if I can just...” No!” she called out loud as the next flier tried to snap Rusty up in its beak. Rusty saw it coming, though, and realized this wasn't part of the plan. He twisted as the great wide beak snapped at him and then, once it had closed, grabbed its flat mouth with both hands. This jerked him out of the water hanging beneath the beak, so he swung his legs up and clung to the creature's throat, where it could no longer bite at him. It thrashed back and forth, trying to shake him off, but Rusty clung on tight, remaining rigid, but not so hard as to choke the creature, as he worked his way down the neck.
Keep hanging on, I'll calm it.
Immediately after her message, the thrashing stopped. The third flier flew underneath and snapped at Rusty, but he wasn't about to become food for one of these things. Gripping the flier's loose skin tightly in his fists, Rusty crawled his way around until he was sitting atop the neck at the base of its shoulders. So long as he maintained his grip, he didn't have to expend more energy, and he didn't have much left. He was near the point of exhaustion.
The third flier took a run at him, this time from above. He hugged the neck close so it wouldn’t have as much of a target. It loomed close and then suddenly the one he was riding dropped a few feet out of reach. Angel must have been controlling it.
I got you.
Me think head that way. And he pointed towards the blue sky.
That’s generally in the direction of their nests, anyway. Try to settle in, it’s going to be a long ride.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Lais: The Maiden, above the western sea
Lais sighed. This couldn’t be happening. There would be tears in her eyes if she hadn’t shut off her tear ducts.
They were flying just low enough to be able to see for a mile in every direction. The storm had passed on, and they had a clear view of the sea, but Rusty and Angel were gone. Likely beneath the waves. She wasn’t sure how long they could swim for. Not giving up, she fired Buck straight up in the air. The blast was brilliant and would be seen almost to the horizon, though maybe not quite that far through the rain, if anyone was looking for it.
“Cooling…” the automated feminine warning voice needlessly reminded her. “Missed target, Incarcerata IV,” Buck reminded her for the thousandth time in his masculine targeting voice.
Lais ignored him and fired again once the lights indicated the cooling was complete. She would give them a few more hours, at least until she was sure they wouldn’t have survived.
Jack had a sad face on and Synth-E-Uh’s head constantly scanned back and forth, searching the sea for anything. Mogul called out for them, but his voice was losing volume and was becoming hoarse. Eventually, he was forced to stop.
Lais sighed. She was losing everyone. First her sister and now this. Things were not going as planned.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Angel: Ptera flight above the western sea
Angel shifted her body within the claws of the Ptera, the name she had picked for them, to get more comfortable. She occasionally checked on Rusty to make sure he was still perched atop the second flying beast and to discourage the third from trying to snap him off of its brother. They had been flying for at least an hour or two, and though she didn’t have to expend any energy to remain in the creature’s claws, Rusty had to maintain his hold on his mount’s neck, and she wasn’t sure how much longer he could do that for. He was certainly resilient. Currently, his mind was in a sleeping trance-like state, and yet he managed to maintain his grip at the same time.
Out of her peripheral vision she caught a flash of the lightning, but no thunder. The storm was pretty far away now, so it didn’t surprise her that she couldn’t hear it. Another flash reminded her that they were better off out of the storm than in it.
Angel closed her eyes, making sure not to disturb Rusty mentally. He needed to rest in what little way he could. It was getting hard to fight those damned urges again. She hated reaching the Year of Breeding. She was almost constantly in heat, and the only living male within reach was Rusty. Not that she didn’t like him. He was actually quite likable, and intriguing to boot, but she knew a lot of he
r drive was hormone-based… but, mmm, it felt so good. Her hand wandered and her mind immediately thought of Rusty… maybe just a little… NO! Damn the Deep! She took a deep breath and did her best to think of something else. Maybe in a year or so, the breeding urges would subside… she wasn’t going to be able to get pregnant and end them early. On Earth, they had hormone shots that could fake her body into thinking it was pregnant, but that wasn’t going to happen now, was it? All the sex in the world wasn’t going to get two different species pregnant.
Another hour of fighting with herself and she could see land… LAND!
“Rusty!” she called out loud. Rusty!
The Goblin’s distant mind snapped back to the present. He looked in the direction she was pointing and yelped out a whoop of joy. “Me see it too!” he shouted back at her with a wide, tired grin.
As they closed with the shore, his grin slowly lessened into a look of deep concern. Angel couldn’t help copying his expression.
The shore line was a cliff of rock, as far as they could see to the left and right, probably no more than three stories high above the waves with long swaths of yellow grass behind it. Beyond that, she could make out a forest. The concern, though, was the hundred or so Pteras that were roosted or flying above the cliff. There was no way she could control that many. She could barely handle these three.
Thinking quickly, she directed the three towards the north, trying to convince them their nests were further up the shoreline, but they only wavered for a moment before continuing on their original course.
She tried making them feel like they wanted to breed in that general direction, but it just resulted in the three flying faster towards the cliffs where the rest of them were. Food maybe? They had been flying for a long time with no sustenance. She made them feel hungry and excited, like there was a flock of yummy gulls just out of sight to the north. Hesitantly, they switched direction. They had a pretty strong drive to head back to the nest, but an even stronger one to come back full of gull meat to share. At least they were heading away from their brethren.
Angel directed them down in the clearing next to the forest and then had the one carrying her feel as if its claw had just been bitten. Instinctively, it released her, and she quickly unfurled her wings and flapped into the edge of the forest, making sure not to hit any branches in case they had knife-like edges, which seemed to be a common thing on this world. From a position of relative safety, she was prepared to assist in directing Rusty’s carrier to the ground, but the Goblin simply let himself slide off the creature’s neck when it flew above the trees. As if a practiced acrobat simply exercising one of his routines, he used his reflexes to catch and swing between the branches on the way down, while avoiding the leaves. By the time he reached the final branch, he had used up so much of the inertia that he just dropped in front of her with his wide, pointed-toothed grin. The Pteras flew around the edge of the forest for a bit, but had no desire to enter, and robbed of their invisible gull meal, they flew back to the nesting cliffs.
“Well, I bet you never thought you’d see land again.” Angel nudged Rusty. Instead of giving a reply, he simply leaned in and hugged her legs. Which immediately had her growing hot with need again. She fought it down with difficulty. The desire to be in his mind, to have him inside her… She looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. Rusty let her go, as if he knew what she was thinking. When she touched on his mind… oh, of course, he could smell her excitement. Wow, even her pheromones. Didn’t she feel silly. He’d know how she was feeling every time.
“Me no find land without you,” he replied, ignoring her plight or being too polite to mention it, and then he added a goal to help distract her. “We need find water, very thirsty.” She appreciated the attempt. She was thirsty, too. Another deep breath and she almost wasn’t thinking about sex. Almost.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lais: The Maiden, above the western sea
Lais let the tears flow because she wanted to feel the loss of Angel and Rusty. They had been circling a broad area for six hours now, widening on each pass, but they still hadn’t seen them. It was very unlikely they would have stayed afloat this long.
Lais fired Buck into the air one more time for good measure.
“Hit ratio extremely low, suggest target practice,” Buck offered.
“I wasn’t aiming at anything,” Lais told the weapon. She could hear the steam vents hissing as he cooled from the last shot.
“Admission to careless use of firearms is a violation of the Public Safety Act, contacting local authorities for suggested counseling. Error: local authorities not found. Searching… Open Military channel found. Submitting.”
Lais suddenly found herself intrigued by what Buck was saying. Normally, he just rambled. “Are you in communication with something or someone, Buck?” Lais wiped the tears away with the back of her hand, the few she had allowed. She was curious, but concerned at the same time. Could Chais be within range by some twist of fate?
Mogul perked up, too. He had been seated and looking over the side for hours.
“Yes,” Buck replied in her hands. “We are being approached for escort by Fighter Pilots Didi Hawking and Pradeep Nikodemos.”
“People? We can trade with?” Jack was now bouncing up and down on his treads with his hands clasped in excitement. He had a big smile on his face monitor.
Synth-E-Uh chimed in. “What frequency are you on, Buck? I’m not receiving any wireless signals. I didn’t even know you were capable of wireless. Submit your specs to me on forty point five megahertz.”
“Universal standards for wireless communication were changed in the year 2741. The frequencies you use are likely no longer valid. I will update you.” A line of lights along the side of the weapon flashed for a few seconds.
Suddenly Synth-E-Uh was broadcasting a female’s voice through her speakers. “…Repeat, this is Officer DiDi Hawking of the WOLF Carrier Nemesis. You are in violation of a technology-restricted zone. Mechanical criminals are supposed to be on the prison world in Alpha Centauri 2, not on Incarcerata IV. We are on approach to your vessel. Do not take any offensive actions. Do you copy?”
“Should I answer?” Synth-E-Uh asked.
“YES!” said Jack happily.
Lais shouldered Buck, slinging him behind her. “They know we’re here. You might as well. Why the hesitation?”
“Well, the Nemesis did shoot us down…” mumbled Synth-E-Uh, and then she spoke clearly and louder than normal, stopping the propeller and disconnecting her wheel from it, which suddenly made things a lot quieter. “This is Synth-E-Uh, AI of the CompsoStar freighter BOB IV. We are presently on a search and rescue mission.”
“Good thinking,” Lais whispered, giving Synth-E-Uh the thumbs up, immediately followed by, “Why am I whispering?”
There was a pair of sonic booms as two fighters appeared in the sky, circling toward them. The fighters were triangular with low angles, likely to resist radar, appearing near flat.
“Acknowledged Synth-E-Uh, we have you on visual. We are on approach. Please do not take any offensive measures or we will be forced to retaliate. Do you understand?”
“We understand.” Synth-E-Uh replied.
The two fighters closed quickly and slowed as they neared the airship. The jets on the fighters were multi-directional and Lais felt the jet-wash pass over her as they slowed. In a moment they were hovering beside them with a dull roar and Lais could see the pilots through their cockpit windows. Their reflective helmets, anyway.
From the front of one of the ships, a vertical line of red light passed over the airship from left to right and then back again. Lais recognized they were being scanned. She wondered how they were going to respond to her physiology, she would likely be interpreted as an android or a biobot, but wasn’t sure. The two pilots looked at each other. Their heads were moving as if in conversation, but they must have been on a private channel. After a minute or so, they looked back toward the airship.
This time, the voice was male, obviously the second fighter. “Despite your mission, the restrictions on this world take precedence: no technological beings. None of you are registered, except the Ramogran, and it would take eight years to verify your identity through Earth records, so you will have to be detained. How did you come to be here?”
“That's easy,” Synth-E-Uh replied. “You shot us down.”
The two pilots looked at each other again and took a minute, likely discussing the matter with the Nemesis.
“That was designated as... a Demolition and Salvage mission...” The pilot trailed off as if he was hoping they would just accept the explanation.
“Not on your life,” Synth-E-Uh replied angrily. “We were on a peaceful mission, sent to this system long before you were born. The Nemesis had no right to shoot us down.”
“We're just here to escort you back to the Carrier,” Officer Didi replied. “Any disagreements can be logged with the Duty Officer.”
“We're in no position to resist,” Synth-E-Uh responded. “Nor do we wish to. What do we need to do?”
“Is there a planetary resident on-board that can take over as pilot of your vessel?”
“You've scanned us, you know there isn't. Mogul can’t run this ship on his own.”
“Then you'll have to land your vessel. We’ll send a dropship for you.”
“This vessel is not watertight. It will sink. We need to get to land, but we don't know where the nearest land mass is.”
“We will tow your ship to land. The Ramogran can surely survive from there.”
Lais looked at Mogul, but he just shrugged in return. What did she expect? She didn’t know what to do either.
The two fighters immediately rose in unison and flew together in front of the airship. When they were a distance ahead, they both fired cables at The Maiden, which attached to the edge of the deck with powerful clamps. Lais watched as the slack was taken up by the two ships, so evenly they might as well have been one. There had to be an AI flying them. She had never known of humans capable of being that exact.
