by A. C. Ellas
She sat. “Nice ship you have here.”
“Thanks, I’m rather fond of him.” The corner of Nick’s mouth twitched upward.
“Him?” Evie asked then shook her head. “Of course, the ship’s gender is reflective of its Gator. So, what is Astrogator Cai like? Is he a petty tyrant? Is he grotesque like the Gators in the holos?”
“Oh, I’m a terrible tyrant, but I hope I’m not a grotesque,” Cai’s voice replied from the sensor array.
Evie sat up straight. “Astrogator Cai, are you eavesdropping?”
“A young lady, new to my ship, leaves her scientific comrades and travels across half my ship to speak to my captain and you wonder that I’m curious?” Cai’s voice started from the speaker in the array but ended from the doorway as the Astrogator slipped in.
“Astrogator Cai, this is my little sister, Evie.”
Evie was staring in open surprise, much to Nick’s amusement. His Gator was tall, thin, good looking and easy going—the exact opposite of how Gators were portrayed in the holos.
Cai smiled at her, the expression warming his eyes to a noticeable degree. “I am pleased to meet you, Miss Gillespie. How is it that you are Captain Steele’s sister but do not share his name?”
“I took our adoptive mother’s name for a variety of personal reasons. Nicky didn’t object.”
Nick shrugged. “I was already at the Academy. But no, I didn’t mind.” He glanced at Cai. “How long before we jump?”
“Two days. Sol System is cleaner than Tarasch, and we’re above the commercial travel lanes. I could get to the hardpoint much faster, of course, but you know the regulations, no more than half the speed of light in the inner system.”
Nick wondered how much of that had been for Evie’s benefit.
Cai winked at him, slowly and deliberately.
He cleared his throat then asked, “Evie, did you need something or is this a purely social call?”
“Purely social. We don’t have anything to do yet, so I thought I’d come say hi.” Evie tucked her left foot under her right leg, a mannerism that had started in her childhood but which brought only fond memories to Nick’s mind.
Cai gracefully folded himself into the last remaining seat as Nick leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers and asked, “Why were you assigned to this mission? I thought you were specializing in human-created species?”
“I am, but I do evolutionary ecology, too, and I’m along because of that. Darwin’s the top doc in the field; it’s a privilege to work with him.”
“Darwin?” Cai looked like a man trying not to laugh. “Shall I rename myself the Beagle?”
“Only if you want to,” Evie countered. “Darwin Hull is a fine scientist, but he does admit his namesake influenced his choice of fields.”
“If I could change my ship’s name, I might,” Cai mused. “I’d rather be an adorable hound than an extinct owl.”
And I’d rather be in bed with you, Nick thought, earning himself a sharp glance from Cai. Now that they were lovers, Cai was able to read his surface thoughts with only a little effort, though the core of himself still remained opaque to Cai’s talent unless the Gator wanted to read him.
“You’re rather approachable for a Gator,” Evie said. “Not that I have anything to go on besides the holos.”
“This will be your first jump, then?” Cai looked genuinely interested in her answer, and Nick was pleased that his lover was making an effort to be kind to his family. He knew it was a real effort for Cai to socialize.
“Yes, it’s my first time on a real Astrogator ship, too. In fact, a lot of us haven’t ever been on a ship like this.”
“Would you like a tour?” Nick asked.
Evie clapped her hands. “I’d love one.” She paused. “But what about the others?”
“Private tour, sis. I am not about to tramp all over the ship with a gaggle of greenling graduate scientists trailing me like so many chicks.”
“No tramping,” Cai opined. He had laced his fingers together to form a platform on which to rest his chin and was in the process of staring at Nick.
Evie shot him a glance then Nick. “So, uhm, are you seeing anyone yet?”
“It’s possible,” Nick evaded. “Are you still dating your unnamed friend?”
“Perhaps,” Evie responded in kind. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”
Nick smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, sis. My lips are sealed.”
“Around my cock,” Cai interjected telepathically. “As soon as we have some privacy.”
Nick managed not to choke. With a faint smirk for Cai, he proceeded to give Evie a very thorough tour of the ship. They ran into some of Evie’s comrades in the process, and Nick had no good excuse for excluding them, so they tagged along. In the end, he did have a gaggle following him like a bunch of chicks, but their conversation was excellent and Nick found that he enjoyed their company.
When the tour was over, however, he presented himself to Cai’s chambers, feeling nervous about his reception. Si-el opened the hatch and stood blocking the entrance. “Clothing won’t be required,” the adjunct told him. “You may enter once you’re naked.”
Nick flushed and glanced both ways down the empty corridor. It wasn’t a well-frequented corridor, but it had some traffic, and he could be seen at any time. “Let me come inside and I’ll strip.”
“Cai’s instructions were explicit. You are to undress where you are.”
It was a test and revenge all rolled into one. If Nick wanted Cai enough, loved Cai as much as he’d claimed, he’d take the risk of embarrassment in order to be with him. Nick undressed with almost inhuman speed, nearly ripping the fabric of his uniform in the process. He piled everything on the floor and stood before Si-el in the nude.
“Pick up your belongings,” Si-el told him. The adjunct hadn’t visibly reacted to Nick’s nudity, nor did he budge out of the way.
Nick picked up his clothes and boots and stood with them bundled in his arms.
Si-el reached down, grasped him by the penis and used it as a leash to guide him inside. As soon as the hatched closed behind Nick, Si-el said, “Drop your belongings. They will be seen to.”
His cock was coming erect under Si-el’s hand, for the adjunct hadn’t released him. He did as he was told, letting his stuff drop to the floor. He looked down at the hand encircling his shaft. It was really kind of…nice. He found himself enjoying being treated this way, and when Si-el continued to lead him that way, he was pleased. Si-el guided him across the main room and into Cai’s bedroom.
Cai was waiting for him, and with a flick of a finger, he dismissed Si-el. The adjunct released Nick’s cock and slid out of the room without a word. Cai looked him over slowly. “You liked that, didn’t you.”
It was a statement, not a question, and Nick saw no need to deny the truth. “Yes, I did.”
“I wish I were allowed planetside,” Cai sighed.
“Why?” Nick asked, startled. He searched Cai’s eyes for some sign of instability or depression. “You know it’s not allowed, the Laughing Owl would die without you.”
“I know that,” Cai snapped. “I’d just like to take you to Sparta and lay official claim to you.”
Nick drew in a sharp breath. Sparta, the habitable planet of Merope Four, where slavery was still legal. All forms of slavery but especially sex slavery. “You don’t need to take me to Sparta to claim me. I’m yours already.”
Cai reached out and stroked his erection. “I know, and I love you, too. I just can’t shake the mental image of you in my collar, subject to my sexual will.”
Nick pressed himself more firmly into Cai’s hand. “Why don’t you make your mental image real here in your chambers? I’ll even wear a collar for you.” He watched Cai anxiously, hoping the offered solution would do, though he found that he wouldn’t actually mind going to Sparta and becoming Cai’s in law as well as in spirit.
Cai’s lips parted
, and his excitement was clearly visible in his blue eyes and tense posture. “Kneel,” he whispered, letting go of Nick’s member.
Nick knelt and spread his legs, trying to remember the details of the slave dream he’d shared with Cai some time back. Cai’s bare foot slipped forward, under Nick’s dangling jewels, and he rubbed them against the top of Cai’s foot. The brush of fabric against his backside stilled him, however. One of Cai’s six was in the room, and he froze. The adjunct handed something to Cai, and the Gator immediately showed it to him. It was a collar—an old, worn, brown leather dog collar with a steel buckle and a couple of rings for attaching things to.
“Do you want to wear this, Nick? Do you agree that by wearing this you become my slave until I release you to return to your duties? Do you agree to let me treat you like a slave, using you as I see fit, chaining you as I choose, sharing you if I wish and even punishing you?”
Nick rubbed himself on Cai’s foot again and to be damned with the adjunct. “Yes, I want to wear your collar, please. I agree, I agree to all of it.” In fact, each further stipulation had excited Nick even more. But he had to wonder who Cai could possibly share him with.
Cai held out the collar to him but not relinquishing it just yet. “Then call me master and beg me to put it on you.”
“Master, I beg you, please put your collar on me. Please let me be your slave.” Nick rubbed harder against Cai’s foot as he begged.
Cai didn’t object. He bent a little and buckled the collar around Nick’s neck. “There’s a good slave,” he crooned as he straightened up. “Now, Nicky, we’re going to have a rather intensive session of cock sucking.” Cai adjusted his pants to free his package then stepped forward to push his erection against Nick’s face. In the process, the foot that had been under Nick was now atop him and resting squarely on his own erect cock.
Nick slurped Cai’s meat into his mouth and went to work lustily. Cai stroked his hair and occasionally pressed down. Nick moaned as exquisite shots of pleasure rolled through him whenever Cai did this. Cai’s semen was salty sweet with what Nick would have sworn was a hint of mint. He swallowed it down greedily, and then, Cai hauled him up and kissed him passionately.
The next thing Nick knew, he was down on the bed and Cai was in him, pumping strongly to gain full penetration. He moaned and writhed and worked to cooperate with Cai’s taking of him, and through it all, he could sense Cai’s love and desire and was secure in the knowledge that Cai could sense an equal measure of devotion from him. He’d do anything to keep this man happy, to keep them together, even if it meant facing down the Guild itself.
Over the next week, Nick, Cai and the rest of the crew got acquainted with the scientific contingent as Cai sped them toward Tycho and the planet Brahe. Evie weathered her first jump, not on the bridge, for there wasn’t space, but in the transient quarters. Nick did have screens set up for the scientists so they could watch the jump, and Cai let them see things from his perspective also, particularly the physicists.
Evie told him later that her first jump had been special thanks to his and Cai’s thoughtfulness. She found Cai’s perspective to have been the most interesting. Nick agreed immediately and told her about the simulated jump he’d sat through as a cadet. The other scientists were also grateful, going so far as to say the Laughing Owl was the best host ship any of them had ever been on.
Inevitably, they reached Tycho. The star itself was a subgiant, but its outer layers had been blown away in the supernova, so it wasn’t much larger than Sol, and considerably more evolved, bearing many trace metals in its signature. Tycho was an interesting star, but what drew the eye was the fantastic nebula it nestled within. The expanding shell of gas didn’t look like much from the outside, but from within, it had a delicate, lacy structure reminiscent of a honeycomb.
According to the data available to Nick, the nebula was visible from Brahe’s surface all night and sometimes even during the day. The planet’s aurora was said to be spectacular, visible even from the habitable belt at the equator. Brahe had a much greater axial tilt than did Earth, a full thirty-five degrees. The polar ice caps melted every summer and reformed every winter, so the oceanic currents were fierce beyond belief. That, combined with almost nightly meteor showers and two large moons in competing orbits, rendered most of the planet uninhabitable and the equatorial region marginal. However, the planet was the source of many strange and wonderful compounds, pharmaceuticals and, according to Cai, was a major, but not the only, manufacturer of Synde.
To Nick, the biggest mystery of all was how the planet had ever developed life in the first place. Life was tenacious, sure, and it cropped up in the unlikeliest of places. But Brahe seemed a bit outside the parameters life needed to develop, which meant, to his mind, that the planet might have been seeded. There was evidence that this had occurred on other worlds, but there was no definitive proof, and also begged the question of why anyone would bother seeding a planet like this.
Lashed by wind and water with a sun that blew off a large amount of mass within the last couple thousand years, and yet, this planet has an established ecosystem of plants and animals larger than single-celled organisms. The more Nick thought about Brahe, the less sense it made. He went to Dr. Hull with his questions.
Darwin beamed at him like he was one his own pupils. “Very good, Captain, and exactly right. This planet should be a barren mud ball. That’s one of the things we hope to discover while we’re down there. You’re welcome to join us, of course.”
“I just might,” Nick said. They talked about ecology and environment for a few more minutes, then Nick returned to his regular duties. They were approaching Brahe orbit now, and Nick wanted to be on the bridge when they got there.
Chapter Four: Brahe
“It’s a pretty planet,” Cai said from his seat before his gigantic console.
Nick came up behind him and rested his hands on Cai’s shoulders. “Yes, it is. But the surface serenity masks the chaos below.”
“I didn’t say it was serene,” Cai countered with a grin. “I can trace the paths of wind and current visually, and that’s pretty impressive for a rocky planet. Are you set on going down there?”
“I’d like to if you don’t mind.” Nick was fully willing to share in Cai’s shipboard exile to the extent that duty permitted if that would make Cai happy.
“I don’t mind, just take me with you.” Before Nick could protest, Cai held up a small device of a type Nick recognized. It would tie into his implant and allow Cai to see and hear everything he did.
“I’d be delighted,” Nick said immediately, taking the device. “I’ll go down to medical and have Dr. Fleming insert this at once.”
“Medical? You want it perm?”
“For you? Yes. Besides, it will be easier to talk this way, less of a strain on you, and I won’t have to scream inside my own head.” Nick dropped a kiss on Cai’s forehead and made tracks for medical. The procedure was routine, no different than receiving an implant and shouldn’t take as long.
* * * *
Cai had but to close his eyes and concentrate on Nick and he was there, on the planet’s surface, looking at the clouds racing overhead, forming and reforming in intricate patterns. The clouds weren’t the fluffy white clouds of Earth, not from below, but a bewildering assortment of colors that blended into one another and changed even as you watched.
“It’s the chemical compounds in the low cloud layer that causes the colors,” said Dr. Rowland. “There’s so many unique biologicals in the air, the soil, the water that I’m not surprised the colonists are seeing things. What’s surprising is that they’re not seeing more than they do.”
“I think it’s interesting that all the colonists report seeing the same thing. How likely is that?” Cai asked Nick, who asked it aloud.
“It’s similar to the old Earth myths about witches or aliens. Once the first person comes up with the idea, the minds of others who witness something then add i
n the details to match their preconceived notion. But this is different in that they really are seeing things, the witches and aliens were never based in any reality, even pharmacological.”
Cai wasn’t so sure, but Rowland was so pompous, he didn’t want to argue the case, though he was correct about the alien abduction craze of pre-collapse old Earth.
The planetary governor welcomed them with open arms and databases. Colonists voluntarily came forward, telling the scientists about the floating islands nobody could catch, the migrating trees, and the man in the sleigh with the flying reindeer. Cai recorded their words and created a database of his own, one that compared all the details of the accounts, things like what color the sleigh was—green with red and white trim—how many reindeer there were—always eight—and the fact that the reindeer more closely resembled white-tailed deer than actual reindeer.
It was soon apparent that the accounts weren’t just similar. They were close to identical. Especially in the details. Like the golden bells on the red harness the deer wore. And everyone agreed on the color of the trim. Cai tried to point this out and was ignored by the scientists. Dr. Rowland had them convinced it was pharmacological, and they were too busy collecting samples to isolate the culprit to entertain any other theories from outside their group.
Cai was about to give up out of frustration when it happened. Nick was outside, supervising the collection of yet more samples, when a sense of some presence filled the air. Nick looked up, and there was Santa, just like the colonists had described. The jolly man with flowing white hair and beard wore a suit of red trimmed with white fleece. His sleigh was ornate, red and trimmed in green and white. In front of the sleigh were eight large white-tailed deer, all antlered, with red harnesses strung with golden bells.
“Do you see this?” Nick asked.
“I see it. And if it was a hallucination, I wouldn’t.” Cai felt vindicated. There was more at work here than some unknown drug. Making a quick decision, he tried to bridge himself from Nick’s mind to the Santa figure, but it was too far, even for him. He was well over a hundred klicks away from Nick’s location and only able to keep in contact via the addition to Nick’s implant. But he didn’t at all like failure, and he turned his mind to calculating how deep into the atmosphere he could orbit the Laughing Owl without harming himself.
