“Thank you for inviting Fel and Saphy. They are so nice and I had a great time.” She bent and kissed the top of his head before helping him pull off his shirt. Cyndora watched him slip off his pants as she removed the earrings he had given her as a present before the dinner and then did a balancing act to remove her heels. Crineal was stretched out on the bed in his shorts feeling tired when he noticed Cyndora start to take off her blouse. Under it she was wearing a simple white bra with a little lace trim to it. The redhead put the blouse on a hanger and unzipped her skirt pushing it to the floor revealing matching white panties, stockings and a garter belt. Crineal was now more than awake. She hung the skirt up with her blouse.
“Uggh…my feet hurt,” she complained. “It’s been ages since I wore heels.”
“Why don’t you lay on the bed and I’ll rub them for you?” Crineal offered.
“Would you?” Cyndora flopped onto the bed and moved around a little so he could reach her feet. Crineal sat up in a cross-legged position and started to massage the soles of her stockinged feet whilst enjoying the sight of her in her lingerie. “Mmmm… that feels so good, Sweetie,” Cyndora purred happily.
“My pleasure, Hon. You looked particularly lovely tonight.” He kneaded the balls of her feet hard, causing her to groan. “Starting to feel better?”
“Ummmm uh much.” From the way Cyndora was moving Crineal thought she might be referring to more than her feet. She stretched and writhed a little on the covers, obviously enjoying the intimate attention. Crineal stopped the foot massage and moved up to kiss her on the lips.
“Thank you, Sweetie,” she said as she put her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
“Mmmm… Let me see if I can make you feel lots better?” Crineal offered and started to walk kisses down her throat and onto her upper chest. As his lips reached one of the cups of her bra he gently pulled back the material to fully expose her breast so he could continue kissing her bare skin and nipple. Cyndora hummed with pleasure at his touches as he moved his attention to her other breast for a little while before continuing the trail of kisses downwards over her stomach. Crineal stopped at her waist but continued to kiss her silky soft lower stomach as he undid the straps on her garter belt that were holding up her stockings. Then, with that done, he very slowly pushed her panties down and off before bending once more to continue kissing.
Cyndora was now moaning softly as she could feel his mouth on her, kissing and gently licking. She rested a hand on the back of his head in encouragement, starting to gasp a little now as the excitement built within her. Cyndora couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so good, having someone love her rather than just use her.
“Please, baby, that’s so good, don’t stop… oh, ooohhhhh.” Cyndora felt a wave of heat wash through her body and her muscles tighten. She pressed her legs together as she shuddered and gasped in ecstasy. Crineal sat up a bit to watch the expression on her face, eyes shut tight, her cheeks flushed and her head moving from side to side a little. He moved up to lie alongside Cyndora, pulling her on top of himself. Cyndora rolled against his side, cuddling him, still gasping with her head nuzzled into the crook of his neck.
Eventually, she whispered breathlessly into his ear, “That was so good it should be illegal,” then kissed his cheek. Crineal gave a self-satisfied chuckle. “Brute,” she teased him, still breathing hard. “Taking advantage of a woman helpless after a foot rub.”
“You’re welcome, Love,” Crineal replied kissing the top of her head.
“Help me the rest of the way out of this bra would you? And the garter belt too,” she asked in a voice that was starting to sound sleepy. Crineal complied whilst Cyndora slipped the loose stockings off her legs and then cuddled back up against Crineal once she was naked. Soon he could feel her breathing deepen as she drifted contentedly off to sleep and he reached up to kill the lights.
Waking the next morning Cyndora found her head pillowed on Crineal’s shoulder, his arm against her back cuddling her to him and her body still draped over his. She wormed her way a little closer with a comfortable little smile on her lips. The slight movement disturbed him from his sleep
“Mm…”He fumbled for the light and turned it on to a very low setting. Crineal opened his eyes and looked at her in the dimness. “Well, good morning,” he greeted her, his voice still a little slurred by sleep. Craning her neck a little she kissed his cheek and they lay there for a short while, enjoying the feel of their bodies touching.
Eventually, Cyndora broke the quiet. “Thank you for last night, Crin. I finally felt like a person again. Dinner with friends, the conversation… and then after…. You made me feel loved. I never thought I’d be able to feel that way again,” her voice soft in the gloom.
Crineal tenderly stroked her hair. “You are loved and I’ve never seen you as anything but a person,” he replied gently.
“I know that now. Just like I know how careful you’re being with me. And I think that’s what I need.” Cyndora took a deep breath. “I’ve had to do things that were horrible, where I had to let go of my dignity just to make it through.” Crineal held her tighter, trying to quietly support her as she talked. “One time they made me and my friend Jaydea… perform… with each other in front of the rest of the prisoners.” Her hand clutched the sheet as she remembered. “I’m not sure if it was better or worse that we were friends. Some of the other stuff we had to do… I just can’t bring myself to think about. They tried to train us to accept almost anything so we could serve better. I was lucky I had Jaydea with me. I don’t know how I would have got through some of it without her. And now you.” Cyndora titled her head to look up at him. “You must know some of what I had to do, had done to me, but you still care for and love me.”
Softly he planted a kiss on her forehead. “Because you’re still you, how could I not? Do you think that your feelings for me are because I helped you? Or because I care for you and you don’t think anyone else will?”
“No, Crin!” Her eyes went wide open in hurt and worry that he might think such a thing. “I feel this way because of who you are, too.” Crineal gently kissed her on the lips to reassure her and she smiled at him a little as they pulled back. “You’re still the idealistic kid I first knew sixteen years ago. I loved you then as a friend. Now I feel it’s more. It’s just so natural laying here with you. It feels like home.”
Tilting her chin up with his left hand he looked into her green eyes. “I hope that you never want to leave.”
Tears formed in her eyes. “I hope you never want me to go,” she whispered back as she started to cry softly. The man from her past held her with all the love he could find.
Chapter Fifteen
The patrols from the Annihilator continued their searches over the next few days finding nothing but space debris. Hera went out on another patrol without their leader and once again it was uneventful. On the fourth day Crineal was still behaving himself and working from his quarters when he was interrupted by a comm message.
As he responded to the message bleep, Admiral Ken’Rathel’s voice came through. “General? I’d like to see you in my office immediately.”
“On my way, Sir,” he answered. Crineal figured that it must be important as Ken’Rathel wasn’t normally that brusque. He hauled himself to his feet and grabbed his jacket. Cyndora looked up at him from where she was doing a little studying about the Imperial political structure. “Admiral wants me for a meeting, Love,” Crineal told her as he finished sealing his jacket.
“Ok, Sweetie, you take it easy getting there though. No sprinting,” she said with concern.
“I will. I’m doing much better now.” Crineal bent down and kissed her lovingly, Cyndora responded in kind and he had to tear himself away. “Quit that. I’ll be late for the meeting.” The redhead smiled at him wickedly and gave him a little wave as he left.
Crineal arrived at the admiral’s office not even out of breath, which pleased him. Ken’Rathel’s adjutant immediately
escorted him in to see the admiral. Crineal found that Captain Aldar was waiting there, too.
Ken’Rathel waved him to a seat. “Good news, Crin. The probes found something.” He paused whilst the general seated himself. “A major rebel base. The biggest we’ve found so far,” he said, handing Crineal some hardcopy reports and images.
Crineal studied the films. “Static base on a barren rock, two orbital docks, fixed defenses and… ” He looked closer. “Five cruiser squadrons.” He looked up at the other two men. “That would be about a fifth of the known rebel forces. Do they know we found them?”
Aldar nodded. “That’s what Fleet Intel thinks and no, the probe is in silent mode apart from a two second burst transmission every twelve hours. The rebels are showing no signs of evacuating.”
The black-haired admiral rested his arms on the desk. “Lord Sar’Clax has asked us to put a plan together. He wants us to capture the base and get as much intel from it as possible. He’s giving us five other carrier strike forces. If we can come up with a plan, we’ll be leading the attack.” He smiled at them wolfishly. “I’ve forwarded you both the information from the probe and Intel’s analysis. I want us each to work up a plan independently and then we’ll put our heads together and see what we have. I’d like you both back here in three days when we’ll reach Orbital Three again. Crin, this is your priority; no flight duties until further notice.”
Crineal grimaced. “Yes, Sir.”
“Alright,” the admiral smiled. “Get going. You’re both dismissed.”
Studying the layout of the rebel forces again, Crineal frowned. He’d been at this for a day now and it still didn’t look any easier. The forces available to him were sufficient to do the job but they would take heavy casualties doing it in a frontal assault. The rebel fixed defenses would make up for their lack of heavy ships. The Imperial forces could come in from outside of their range and launch a ballistic bombardment to take them out but then the rebels could just flee. They’d lose the base and docks but the Empire wouldn’t get much information. The most obvious attack would be to jump in on one side of the perimeter and smash that side with overwhelming firepower, but the Imperial losses would still be bad. He estimated perhaps thirty to forty percent. The rebel losses would be much higher, but he didn’t like throwing away lives like that. They could try an enveloping attack and jump in on all sides, but if the rebels reacted well they could form up and hammer one or two of the Imperial formations and escape. He wasn’t going to count on the enemy sitting there fat and stupid. Crineal rubbed his forehead in frustration. What if the rebel defenses were looking the other way though? He ran a sim that had one strike force jump in just ahead of the others but right into the center of the rebel area. Then, the remaining Imperial forces all hit the perimeter whilst the rebels were distracted. The projections looked better; casualties at twenty percent or less, but the first strike force would be almost completely destroyed. Better overall, but he couldn’t imagine trying to brief that strike force commander and tell him he was going into certain death. Crineal sighed. Now if he was ordering Del’Tarim to do it then he wouldn’t have a problem; in fact, a force full of Del’Tarims would be ideal. He sat back in contemplation, an idea starting to form in his head. Hmmmmmm, could he get away with it? He set to work again, fitting the pieces together. Late that evening the plan was finally ready, all three parts of it. But he couldn’t present it to the admiral. It was completely unacceptable militarily. Crineal sighed. He was going to have to be up very early in the morning to make a call. Closing down the data screens he went to join Cyndora in bed.
At oh five hundred the following morning Crineal crept out of bed to avoid disturbing his partner and by oh five thirty he was in his office. He activated the comm and put in a request for a full security hyper relay channel. As soon as it was made available to him he entered the codes to Lord Sar’Clax’s private line.
“This is General Crineal for Lord Sar’Clax. Urgent priority, maximum security.”
The talking sim head responded, “Please wait,” before disappearing and being replaced by the distinguished features of his old commander.
“Crin! Two calls in a month? I didn’t think you’d be that lonely especially with such a pretty girl to distract you,” he chuckled. “How are you both doing, my boy?”
“Cyndy and I are doing well thank you, My Lord. And yourself and Lady Sar’Clax?” Crineal responded politely.
“Magdarla is busy organizing the first reception for the spring season and enjoying herself immensely judging from the litany of complaints I hear from her every evening.”
Crineal smiled. Sar’Clax’s wife loved the social scene and threw herself into every occasion she hosted. “I’m glad to hear she’s gainfully employed, My Lord. Please give her my regards and love.” She also had a tendency to look on Crineal as an adopted son and mothered him terribly whenever he visited. He was very fond of her.
“So, may I assume that this is not a social call? Something to do with the planning for the operation?” Sar’Clax asked shrewdly.
“Very astute, My Lord, I have a proposal that I want your opinion on before submitting it to the admiral.”
“Alright, Crin, let’s have it,” the older man said indulgently. Crineal transmitted his first data package which detailed a frontal attack along one side of the rebel perimeter. Sar’Clax studied it. “Hmm…fairly orthodox, high casualties, but probably acceptable in light of the results. I expected something more imaginative from you.” His look wasn’t quite disapproving.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, My Lord. Would you mind if I sent a separate annex?” Sar’Clax waved his assent and Crineal transmitted the amendment to his plan that had a single strike force jumping into the middle of the rebel held area. He watched as his patron’s eyebrows lifted in surprise as he viewed the revised plan.
“Well, Crin, that looks better apart, from it being totally ruthless. You’d really sacrifice an entire strike force? Order them into certain death like that? I thought you cared more for your comrades.” Sar’Clax frowned deeply at him.
“Yes, Sir. I do. But what if Del’Tarim was in command of that force,” Crineal proposed with a predatory smile.
Sar’Clax looked confused. “Del’Tarim? He’s on Dalgon VI by now. You’re not planning on asking for his release are you?”
“No, My Lord, Perhaps I should have said what if someone like Del’Tarim was in command? In fact what if the entire force was manned by crews of Del’Tarim’s quality? The vicious, the incompetently dangerous, the violent troublemakers that no one wants?” The image of Lord Sar’Clax sat back thoughtfully. “I noticed we’ve been allocated the Devastator Strike Force. It has the worst performance and discipline record in the fleet. If Personnel Section was persuaded to arrange some transfers, I thought that we might salvage whatever good crew is left in that force and transfer in all the rest of the fleet’s rotten apples?”
Sar’Clax looked at him sternly. “I’m shocked, Crin, truly shocked that you could think that the fleet could have so many undesirables.” The supposedly stern demeanor wasn’t helped by the spreading smile on his face. “I couldn’t even imagine agreeing to a plan that would sacrifice so many brave men and women. Out of curiosity how would you get them to commit this form of suicide? I can’t imagine them blithely saying ‘Yes Sir’ and jumping into certain death,” he asked curiously.
“Well, My Lord,” Crineal sent his third data package, the one containing the two sets of jump instructions. “As you can see, the attack instructions would be as outlined in my original proposal. However, I feel that given the quality of crew in the Devastator force it’s entirely possible that some errors might occur in the programming that would cause the force to act as in my annex. The proper instructions overwritten just minutes before the planned attack. And then rewritten just after the jump to cover the incompetence?”
“Utterly regrettable. Those brave sailors inadvertently sacrificing themselves in a glorious battle…
,” Sar’Clax said with a serious look on his face.
“I thought that some of the trickier transfers into Devastator could be accompanied by much needed promotions for the crew members involved and perhaps we could use our contacts within the fleet to gently suggest to various commanders that now might be a good time to review their personnel needs? Whilst you use your influence with the personnel department at HQ?” Crineal suggested helpfully.
Sar’Clax looked at something out of Crineal’s view in apparent surprise. “What a shame, Crin. I seem to have accidentally deleted your second and third transmissions. I do hope they weren’t important?”
“Not at all, My Lord. Can I ask that you’ll give my plan due consideration when it’s submitted as part of Admiral Ken’Rathel’s proposals?”
“Of course, Crin. You can rest assured that the best attack plan will be selected,” Sar’Clax said. “Now, Ken’Rathel mentioned that you’re due leave at your next stop over and Magda insists that you come and visit us. Bring your pretty assistant along, too. She might protect you from my wife’s matchmaking attempts.”
“Tell Lady Sar’Clax that she can expect us during my next vacation,” Crineal replied with a warm smile.
“Good, that means she won’t badger me to have you arrested and dragged here in chains. Well, if there’s nothing else then, I hear an attractive lunch calling my name,” Sar’Clax attempted a plaintive tone.
“Then I won’t keep you, My Lord. Enjoy your food,” Crineal said before Sar’Clax signed off.
The following day Crineal was back in the admiral’s office alongside Captain Aldar. The admiral looked at them both. “Well, gentlemen? I hope you’ve got something good for me.” Aldar and Crineal transmitted their individual plans to Ken’Rathel’s data pad and waited whilst he studied them. “Not bad, Aldar. The encirclement attack could be promising. Risky though.” Then he frowned as he looked over Crineal’s submission. “A frontal attack, General? I expected something more enterprising from you. It’s very traditional.”
Crineal Chronicles 1: In Hera's Service Page 26
