As Darkness Falls [Flights of Fancy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by Melodee Aaron

  Elsa caught herself doing some heavy reading over the last few days on a subject that she thought she had no interest in, but it had caught her fancy. It was one of the more than five thousand books written by Empress Tanya with the challenging title of Humanization of Biosynthetic Human Analogs Utilizing Stage Four Positronic Systems. She could barely comprehend the introduction page.

  The book, all seven thousand pages, dealt with just two synthetic humans—Q and a waitress at the Imperial Café aboard Boone named Rebecca. Tanya had built them both, Rebecca about six hundred years after Q, and the Empress stated that she used lessons learned with Q to design Rebecca. At first, Rebecca’s social development was significantly ahead of Q’s, but as time passed, they seemed to equalize somewhat.

  Where Q developed a sense of duty and honor first, Rebecca got a sense of humor and became a bit flirtatious. Elsa wondered if part of that might be because Q was a soldier and Rebecca was a cocktail waitress. As time passed, the positronic systems evolved and both became indistinguishable from humans. The interesting part—at least according to Tanya—was that the stage three positronic brains on Boone also developed a sense of humor. Even though Elsa didn’t give a rat’s ass about a ship’s brain, her theory broke down on that part.

  The only facts that concerned her were that Q acted human, thought like a human, and looked like a delicious human male. In Elsa’s fantasies, he was more than human enough to fuck her until she could barely walk and to hold her tight against his chest afterward until she fell asleep in his arms.

  Elsa pulled herself back to the conversation. “Yes, Sir, it is good for a change. We haven’t had any contact with the Ling that amounts to much, but they are a secretive and shy people. Not too much unusual about them, though, and I’m not concerned.” She couldn’t help returning his smile.

  “Then I have no concerns.” He stared at her for a moment. “While the norm for commanding officers is to stay single, I’m surprised you never married. You have a very nice smile.”

  Heat flooded her face, and Elsa looked down for a moment. “I guess I’m like all Captains. I’m married to my ship.”

  “Perhaps, but we do refer to all ships in the feminine.”

  “I guess that makes me a lesbian, then.”

  Q laughed, and his face lit up, laughing with not only his mouth and lips, but with his eyes and every part of his face. Elsa felt the familiar silly grin trying to creep onto her face.

  “I would hope that bisexual would be a better term.” A soft buzz came from his end of the link, and Q looked at a display screen on his desk. “I’m sorry to cut our chat short, Captain, but I’m needed elsewhere. Keep me posted.”

  Before Elsa could say anything more, the screen faded to black. She stared at the display wondering what just happened.

  * * * *

  After they made love, Cliff had wrapped his arms around her, and Rabine cuddled close to his body. Eight days had passed since they had first spent their night together, and she still felt like she walked on clouds when she was with him. She moved her things into his room, and they only left the room when they had to for their duties and meals.

  Cliff’s breathing was slow and regular, and she’d learned that was his normal sleep pattern. Rabine wiggled a little to snuggle as close to him as she could get, but she was careful not to wake him. Just being with him was enough to keep a smile on her face. She wondered if that meant she was really falling for him.

  She wasn’t at all sure because she didn’t really know what love was actually about. She liked being with Cliff, and the sex was the best she’d ever known, but did that make it love? He had a way of looking at her, and Rabine couldn’t describe it even to herself, but when he used that look, she recognized it and knew it meant that she was the center of his universe. She wondered if that look meant he was falling for her. Did the fact she understood the look mean she was in love with him?

  Rabine just didn’t know, but she realized that it didn’t matter. There was no crime in being together, enjoying each other’s company, and sharing passion. It felt good and right in his arms and in his bed. She didn’t need reasons, and she certainly didn’t need to analyze the situation. All she needed to do was enjoy being with him. Rabine kissed Cliff’s cheek softly and closed her eyes to sleep, trying to let go of the whirling thoughts.

  As sleep neared and her mind calmed, an image suddenly leaped into Rabine’s brain. She stood in the garden of the palace grounds, and the Ling woman, Leilend, was with her.

  In the shimmering light of the reddish moon, Leilend’s blonde hair sparkled like molten bronze, the gentle breeze making it flow and ebb in fascinating ways. Rabine reached out to touch the streaming hair, but a falling star flickered across the sky, its light catching in the Ling’s blue eyes, throwing fire like a laser.

  The flash from Leilend’s eyes caught Rabine off guard, and she froze in the vision, her gaze locked onto the woman’s face. Leilend smiled at her.

  “Come, Rabine, and meet me in the garden.”

  Chapter 6:

  Time to Get Away

  As Rabine made her way to the garden, she wondered why she was even doing it. She’d managed to leave the bed and slip on her robe without waking Cliff, and she left him sleeping soundly. She felt some guilt for leaving their bed, but something told her this was important. The vision wasn’t like a dream—it was more like a movie played in her head. Leilend looked real, three dimensional, and even odors and sensations were sharp in the images.

  Rabine moved into the garden, and the smells of wet dirt with living things growing in it assailed her as a pleasant pungency and let her know it was all real—or at least as real as things could be—and not some figment of her imagination. The grass of the garden tickled her bare feet as she made her way to the place from her vision where she knew Leilend would be waiting, and the dampness was cool against her skin. The light robe Rabine wore did little to block the gentle wind, and the chilly night air made her nipples hard.

  When she rounded a huge bush, Rabine saw Leilend standing beside a fountain, and the Ling stared directly at her.

  Leilend smiled. “Thank you for coming. I didn’t know if you would or not. I had doubts if you would even believe the vision I sent to you.”

  Rabine struggled to understand. She was a scientist, and everything had a logical and scientific explanation. There was little room for telepathy and visions in her worldview. “You called me here?”

  “Yes, I did. It has been a long time since a Ling has tried to contact a human that way.”

  She shook her head, but that didn’t help her think any better. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “It matters not. My husband will explain everything when you meet with him.”

  “When will that be?”

  “As soon as you can reach him. Crosley can’t come here to see you because Logan will have him killed on sight.”

  “Why?” She’d seen no sign of violence among the Hargon.

  “Because my people are rebelling against the Hargon dictatorship.”

  Rabine realized now that things may not be as they seemed on the planet, and she needed more information. “I’ll have to call my ship and tell Captain Davis what’s going on.”

  Leilend shrugged. “Do as you must, but that path leads to the death of many Ling. If Logan believes you know the truth, he’ll kill all the Ling he can find. He may even attack your people.”

  “I don’t understand this.” Rabine couldn’t get a handle on what was happening. She had only cursory training in diplomacy, and politics always eluded her.

  “I know, but Crosley will make it all clear.” Leilend reached out and ran her fingers down Rabine’s cheek.

  The touch of the woman’s hand sent chills through her, and Rabine wondered if the night was cooling even more. As in the vision, Leilend’s hair sparkled with rays of flowing bronze from the ruddy light reflected from the moon, and her blue eyes challenged the dark sky for beauty reflected from the d
epths. The Ling’s skin looked soft and smooth, and despite the shimmering thin material of the tunic Leilend wore, she didn’t shiver with the cold of the night.

  The woman cupped Rabine’s chin in her palm, and she smiled slowly. “I too have had visions of you.”

  Like a searchlight switching on, Rabine’s mind filled with an image of Leilend and a Ling male. They were together in the garden, but the red sun filled the air with warmth and light, and Leilend straddled the man. As she bounced up and down on him, Rabine watched his thick cock sliding in and out of Leilend’s pussy and her breasts twitched on her chest with the riding motion. The man reclined on the grass of the garden, his hands gripping Leilend’s hips as she bounded on his cock, pulling her down onto him, and he turned to face Rabine. He smiled.

  Rabine had only a moment to ponder the meaning of what she saw before motion in the phantom-hedges caught her attention. Cliff walked from the brush, and he, too, was nude. His cock was as hard as she’d ever seen it, and he walked straight to where the Ling couple fucked ever faster. Cliff stepped to place his feet on either side of the man’s head and reached to grasp Leilend’s blonde hair with both hands. When Cliff pulled her head toward him, Leilend opened her mouth wide and took Cliff’s dick between her lips.

  The two men pulled Leilend’s pussy and mouth onto their raging cocks, filling her with each thrust, and Rabine felt wetness oozing from her pussy while heat spread over her breasts.

  Cliff suddenly pulled his cock from Leilend’s mouth and stepped back. The Ling man pushed her from atop him, and Leilend rolled onto her back in the warm grass. Both men knelt beside Leilend, one on each side of her head, and they reached across her to grasp each other’s hard dicks. As Rabine watched, she saw Cliff’s eyes flutter closed as the alien man pumped his cock. At the same time, Cliff jacked off the Ling, the long shaft of the man sliding through his palm.

  Leilend’s gaze flickered between the two men, and she smiled as she watched the two hard cocks being stroked so close to her face. Both men tensed, and Leilend opened her mouth, her tongue thrust out between her lips.

  The men came at the same time, frothy white fluid bursting from their dicks to make sticky splatters on Leilend’s face and lips. Leilend licked at the men’s cum as it rained down on her, and she reached up to add her hands to help the men masturbate each other.

  When she had lapped away the last of the precious liquid, she stood and smiled at Rabine. Leilend nodded in the direction of the two men kneeling in the grass, and when Rabine looked at them, Cliff and the alien man motioned for her to join them.

  Rabine blinked, and the garden slowly dimmed back to the night. “What…”

  Leilend smiled. “It matters not. Be at the north edge of the city, near the water tanks, just after lunch tomorrow to meet Crosley.”

  Rabine watched Leilend walk away into the darkness. She wondered how she would explain this to anyone, most especially Cliff.

  * * * *

  Cliff opened his mouth a few times, and then finally found his voice. “I think I’m supposed to say something flippant about being there next time.”

  Rabine knew enough about psychology to understand that he was trying to hide the hurt with humor. “I’m not trying to minimize any of this, and I’m sorry I hurt you, but we need to think about what this really means.”

  He nodded. “I know, and we do need to talk, but I need to get past that for now.” Cliff paused a minute and he stared out the window of their room at the morning sun painting the garden in shades of red and gold. “I guess we both need to do that.”

  “Yes, we do.” Rabine took a deep breath. “So, what do we do?”

  “I’m not sure. If Leilend was telling the truth, going to the Captain could get a bunch of people killed. Not going to the Captain could get us reassigned to a garbage scow.”

  “Right. I do trust her and I think we should meet this Crosley and see what’s up before we get anyone else involved.”

  He nodded again. “I agree.” A smile spread over his face, the first real one since she’d told him about Leilend. “I just can’t decide if I’m agreeing because I really think it’s the right thing to do or because I’m crazy about you.”

  * * * *

  By the time they reached Alexa’s room to let her know they were going out for a while, Cliff thought he finally had a handle on his emotions. Over the years, he’d had his fair share—and a few other folk’s fair shares—of three-ways. The most recent was just a couple of months ago, but now with Rabine in his life, the idea of sharing her with someone else, male or female, was disturbing. The idea of being with another woman paled when he thought about how good it was to be with Rabine.

  When Rabine told Alexa they were going out into the city for a while, Alexa looked up from her microscope and over the tops of her glasses at them both for a moment. Cliff had always wondered why Alexa didn’t have the doctors fix her eyes so she could get rid of the spectacles, but he figured maybe she liked the grandma image the lenses and gold frames gave her.

  “That’s not a good idea, kids.”

  Rabine laughed. “Other than the obvious reason that it’s against orders, why not?”

  She slipped off the glasses and took a drink of the ever-present Hargon liquor. Alexa tapped the stage of the microscope. “There’s something odd here, and I have no clue what it is yet.”

  That worried Cliff. He’d met Empress Tanya once and Admiral Claire Reeves, the Emperor’s eldest daughter, several times while he was on Boone. Most experts considered the two women the smartest people in the galaxy, though the order of who was number one and who was number two varied a bit. All he knew was that Alexa was the smartest person he actually knew. The fact that she didn’t understand something—and admitted it—worried him. A lot.

  Rabine looked about to speak, but he beat her to the punch. “What is it you don’t get?”

  Alexa sipped at her drink again. “If I knew that, I’d know more about it. All I can say now is that the Hargon and Ling share a really odd protein. It doesn’t belong there, and I can’t find any group four elements in it. Looks like it might be kin to something in group zero.”

  Now Rabine frowned. “Isn’t that impossible?”

  “Apparently not. I don’t know how it got there or what it does.”

  He wished he’d paid more attention in biology or chemistry or some class like those. Cliff decided to ask the obvious question. “Is it the same in both Hargon and Ling?”

  “That protein is, but there are others that interact with it, and they’re different between the two groups.”

  “And you think that’s important?”

  “Got me.” She tossed off the rest of the booze and refilled her glass from a large Dewar flask on the desk. “My experience is telling me it’s very important.”

  Rabine sighed. “That’s all interesting, but it’s no reason for Cliff and me to cancel our outing.”

  Alexa shrugged. “You’re the Senior Science Officer, and I work for you. Besides, you’re both all grown up and can do what you want.” She toasted them with her glass of napalm. “You probably will anyway.”

  * * * *

  Rabine waited beside Cliff at the big water tank at the north edge of the city. There was little traffic here and even fewer people. They had both avoided the subject of Leilend’s late-night visit, and that left Alexa’s revelations as the only safe topic of conversation. They each admitted that Alexa was brighter than they, and so they didn’t reach any conclusions.

  A man walked around the tank, and Leilend was on his arm. Rabine assumed the man was Crosley. She knew he was the man from her vision. He was tall, almost as tall as Cliff, but not nearly so well muscled. His hair was a sort of sandy brown with red hints, and like Cliff, the man had green eyes.

  The pair walked right up to where she and Cliff waited.

  “I’m Crosley. I understand you already know my wife.”

  Rabine extended her hand. “Yes, Leilend and I already met. This is Clif
f.”

  Crosley took Rabine’s hand and smiled. “Leilend told me of your beauty.” He leaned forward and kissed the back of her hand. Heat flooded her face, and Rabine thought she saw Cliff tense a little.

  Crosley turned to Cliff. “And good to finally meet you as well, Cliff.”

  Leilend touched her husband’s shoulder. “We should get on with this.”

  “Right as usual, my love.” Crosley looked around the area for a moment. “Did you come alone?”

  Cliff seemed happy to stand by and let her talk with Crosley. That was fair since Rabine was the one Leilend approached. “Yes, and I don’t think we were followed.”

  “That doesn’t matter now.” Crosley looked around again. “My people are close and will protect us if needed.”

  The last half-day had put Rabine’s nerves on edge, and she was getting tired of the pleasantries. “So, what is it that you want to tell me?”

  “That things are not as they seem. Logan is misleading you to get more weapons so he can crush the Ling.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “I’m not asking you to believe me, only to consider the idea. The weapons the Old Ones gave to the Hargons are falling apart, and Logan fears he can no longer hold the world by force.”

  Cliff frowned. “Old Ones?”

  Crosley nodded. “Yes, but to understand, I must tell you a story, the legend of the Ling and Hargon.” Crosley paused for a moment before he went on. His voice took on a singsong quality, like he told a story instead of relating historical facts.

  “Eons ago my ancestors lived on a planet very far from here. On that planet were many creatures that showed the promise of developing not only intelligence but also civilization as we define it today. From our oldest records, the most promising of the creatures were reptilians. There were others at that time with some limited promise, including small rodents that had warm blood and bore living children as we do.”