Portal

by Sydney Morgann

  “The real thing is always better,” Malcolm replied, holding her and stroking her damp hair.

  “Speak for yourself, stud. After you, all I'll ever want is an artificial man. I haven't even had a real one, yet.” Her muffled voice vibrated against his skin.

  * * * *

  “Why didn't you tell them about your dad?” Tal asked from the shadows.

  Cea jumped, almost falling off the side of the over-sized wooden box she sat on in the loading bay. “It's none of their business,” she snapped. “For that matter, it's none of yours either.”

  Tal moved into the circle of light that illuminated her like a spotlight. He sat on a neighboring crate but made no move to get closer. “I knew him, too, Cea,” he whispered. “Believe it or not, I liked him very much. Under any other circumstances, we could've been close friends, your dad and I.”

  Her head whipped around until she stared him in the face. “Then, why did you kill him, you bastard? And why won't you let me bring him back?” Her hands gripped the outer edges of the crate until the knuckles were white and the tendons stood out on her wrists.

  “When the hell are you going to stop blaming me for something Crowe did?” he rasped. Anger at her rose like bile in his throat. “I didn't kill him. I tried to help him.” He glared at her. “And, I already told you why you can't use the clone.”

  “You're the one who brought the gun on board. You're the one who shot it, and you're the one who killed him, as far as I'm concerned. You destroyed my life,” she shouted. “I ended up in prison because of you. I lived in hell. Do you really think I'm going to forgive you for that or for my father's death?”

  Tal threw up his hands, palms out to her. “Cea! Cea. Will you please let me defend myself?” The pleading in his voice came from deep inside. “I was shooting at Crowe. I tried to stop him from killing your dad, but your dad got in the way instead of staying down. I didn't mean to kill him!”

  Cea threw her hands over her ears and screamed. “You killed him, not Crowe! You sent me to prison, not Crowe! Can't you give me a break here?”

  Before he could add anything more, she jumped down from the crate and moved so close to him that he could see flecks of green in her pale blue eyes.

  “I'll never forgive you! Never! Never! Never!” she spat into his face.

  Overwhelmed with a jumble of emotions he couldn't define or control, Tal grabbed her, shook, then crushed her against his chest. As he held her thrashing, sobbing body against his, he murmured in her ear, “Cea. Cea. You know I didn't kill him on purpose. You know I would never do anything to hurt you. Never. I love you, Cea. Do you hear me? I love you.”

  Her wailing curses against his chest drowned out his words. Her body bucked and fought against his hold. “I hate you! I hate you!” she screamed against the dampness of his shirt. “Every day I prayed to find you, to kill you, to make you hurt like you hurt me, you fucking bastard.” Her nails reached for his face, ready to dig deep.

  Tal grabbed both hands and held on. “Calm down, damn it!” He pushed her away then raised his hands in surrender. “Okay. Enough! Kill me when this is over if you must, but leave it for now.”

  She stood with fists clenched at her sides, her chest heaving with barely contained emotions as she glared at him. “I will kill you, Tal English. Bet on it.” She turned on her heel and stalked away into the shadows.

  Chapter Eight

  Penny and Malcolm lay with naked bodies entwined on one narrow cot while Cea curled into a fetal ball on the other, facing away from them.

  Tal sat at the table watching his companions sleep. Dark circles under his eyes and lines in his face showed the fatigue that finally had caught up with him after several days with little or no sleep. His hands were steady on the plastic cup of hot coffee he lifted to his lips, but his shoulders were slumped and resigned.

  How can I convince her I mean her no harm, much less prove my love for her? He agonized over the problem while he watched the even rhythm of her breathing and the smooth unlined beauty of her face in sleep.

  Tal lowered the cup to the table and pushed it away. With a sigh, he stood and made his way out into the lab. The light was no brighter than the night before, and the smell in the air had not lessened even with the ventilation system reactivated. Fighting the urge to gag, he moved to the large bay where he and Malcolm had moved the Europa to work on her.

  The ship sat like a molded work of milky opalescent art in the middle of the grey metal room. The gleaming white on the body swirled with a rainbow of colors that appeared to move but were only an illusion, a trick of the light.

  Tal stepped to the port side and inspected the hull patch Malcolm had fused to the ship the night before. He ran his hand over it, impressed with the droid's mechanical skills. “The thing is so smooth you can't tell it's a patch,” he murmured, enjoying the silken feel of the ship under his hand.

  At that moment, a blast roared through the bay, sending chunks of metal, parts, and chemical drums through the air. The impact rocked the entire building, almost deafening Tal as he hit the floor. Scrambling to his feet, he raced out of the bay, toward the dispensary.

  The others were awake and pulling on their bio-suits when he entered the room. “We're under attack! Quick, to the ship,” Tal shouted as he grabbed his gear and a laser pistol from the cot he hadn't slept on.

  “Scorpion, you think?” Cea asked while she grabbed her backpack and pistol.

  “Hard telling. But I know we can't stay here. They've got us targeted.” He watched Malcolm and Penny gather their things then wait for his lead. “If we don't move fast, we won't have a ship left.”

  He beckoned them to follow. He ran from the room with Cea, Malcolm and Penny close behind.

  “I'm the Captain here,” Cea panted as she sprinted past him to open the airlock door. “Mother, power up for emergency liftoff,” she said into the COM link floating in front of her mouth.

  The engines immediately powered up, and the airlock ramp descended. Cea loped up the walkway and disappeared into the ship. Within moments, she sat in the captain's chair. Seconds after that, Tal was in the weapons’ chair and Malcolm, in the navigator's position. Penny secured the ship for takeoff.

  “Open outer doors,” Cea ordered Mother. An apparently seamless wall at the back of the bay began to separate.

  Another large blast hit behind the ship, obliterating the labs and dispensary. The force of the explosion helped the small ship lift from the planet with greater speed than usual.

  Cea inspected the view screen and saw The Blackbird bearing down on them through the thick atmosphere. “It's Scorpion all right, and he's looking to cream ass right now, I'd say.” Cea executed a roll then another evasive action under the huge freighter, one guaranteed to keep them from firing on her.

  “How the hell did they find us so fast?” Tal asked while he scanned his screen and targeted the freighter.

  “We didn't travel that far from our original destination,” Malcolm said. “According to the records at the lab, we only made a small hop, but we made it very quickly.”

  Tal sent a salvo of return fire at the big ship dogging their behind. “That still doesn't explain how they knew we were there.” He fired at the bigger ship once more.

  “Scorpion gave me the map to that place.” Cea's hands gripped the steering rod and swerved the ship to avoid the laser blasts. “He probably guessed we'd go there, especially since it was that close.” She bit her lip when a blast came within inches of the Europa's side plates. “Damn him!”

  She placed the ship in a steep-angled dive then abruptly turned to the right. After flipping the ship over, she swerved to the left as quickly as she could. The Blackbird laboriously made course changes behind her.

  “Beautiful. This baby may be small, but she's fast and quick like any young lady should be.” Penny's softly murmured comments reached Cea's ears.

  Cea smiled. “She's not easy to catch or rape,” she replied with a warm tone in her voice for the f
irst time since Penny's arrival. “She's a warrior.”

  “Always willing to fight and harder than plasteel to crack,” Tal muttered under his breath. He targeted the underbelly of the pirate's ship. “Just like her owner.”

  After the Europa cleared the planet's gravitational pull, it shot out into space with the Scorpion close behind and still firing volleys of laser shot.

  Malcolm scanned the ship's status. “We can stay ahead of her, but I'm afraid our fuel won't last long, Captain. We're showing redline now. I calculate...” he punched a few buttons. “...that we have about an hour left before we go dead stick in space.”

  Penny laughed. “But we have an unlimited fuel source, remember? All we have to do is...”

  “No!” Cea roared.

  Penny put her hand on Cea's shoulder. “It's okay, Cea. Malcolm and I can take care of it.” The tone in her voice was one of amusement, colored with a sensual trace of anticipation.

  Malcolm turned in his chair to face the two women. “I'm afraid it's not that easy, Penny.”

  “Huh? It was last time,” she protested, shooting him a look of puzzlement and irritation.

  “Not quite,” Malcolm replied. “Last time, we attained hyperspeed and ended up at that abandoned planet. I asked myself why when I did an analysis of real time events at the labs...”

  “You did an analysis there? When?” Penny asked, truly puzzled now. “You were with me the whole time and...” The realization that he had been analyzing during sex with her hit her. “You really are a marvel, you know?”

  “And, what conclusion did you reach, Malcolm?” Tal asked, continuing to monitor The Blackbird's course.

  “I concluded that we in all probability landed there because the Captain was thinking about body parts at that time and...”

  “And how the hell did you come to that conclusion?” Cea asked, her voice a mixture of anger and curiosity.

  Unruffled, Malcolm continued. “I believe, based on all available data, that the alien artifact is activated by the captain of whatever ship it's on. It's logical to assume this is the case, since it could not function properly if it was under the control of more than one person at a time. It naturally would obey the captain's orders, or desires, when it is powered up.”

  “Well, we certainly powered it up, all right,” Penny chuckled then glanced down at Cea, and added, “All four of us.”

  Cea blushed and turned her gaze back to the view screen. Random shots of laser light still streaked past the ship. “I wasn't thinking about anything when that thing decided to work.”

  “Captain, with all due respect, I saw what state you were in and where you were looking at the time. I could only conclude, based on my intimate knowledge of your thinking patterns, that body...”

  “Oh, shut up, Malcolm!” Cea roared before she could get a grip on herself. She took a large calming breath then let it out slowly. “Okay, so that may be how it works. That still doesn't mean I have to participate in ... doing ... powering it up.” Her face flamed but her hands remained steady on the steering rod.

  “That's what was happening last time, if I remember correctly. We don't have time to experiment; we have to go with what we know,” Penny quipped, enjoying the other woman's discomfort. “I'd say we don't have much of a choice if we want to get out of here alive, do you?” She leaned down to peer at Cea and watched as the captain's color deepened to a brighter shade of pink.

  “I agree. If we are to survive until we get to another planet and find fuel, we must all raise our sexual energy as high as possible. The Captain must also think about where we need to be at the same time,” Malcolm said in a calm, detached voice. “She is the key to getting it work.”

  “What do you think, Tal?” Penny turned to him. He sat, staring at his screen with a barely suppressed grin on his face. The Blackbird was exposing her underside and Tal lined up the firing lines on the screen. A dull hum indicated he had a lock on his target.

  Moments later, a laser blast hit the backside of the Europa, rocking her off course. Cea fought to regain control and began executing even more drastic evasive maneuvers than she had before.

  “Shields?” she asked, struggling with the steering rod between her legs.

  “Holding, Captain, but another hit will take us out. We don't have the capabilities to withstand a ship that powerful,” Malcolm added.

  Cea banked the ship hard to the right and exposed her side the pirates, inviting a blast but also lining English up for his shot. “At least they're no better off than us. Hit them again, if you can Tal. Aim for the command tower.”

  “No problem,” he responded and hit the firing switch, then lined up for another shot. While he watched the screen, Tal added, “I think that's why the guys back on Earth couldn't get the transporter to work, you know. They didn't have the right power source. And, they had no ship, Captain, or destination for it to home in on.” Tal finally reacted to his last shot as he continued firing at the pirates. “Gotcha, you bastards!” Tal growled.

  “You took out their navigational beacon. Well done, Agent English,” Malcolm reported after reading the data on his screen. “That will give us some time and distance to get the transporter working.”

  “Are you sure there's no other way then to use that device?” Cea asked with a small whimper in her voice.

  “I'm sure,” Malcolm said. “All clear. The Blackbird is well behind us and badly damaged, thanks to Agent English. We're out of range—for now,” he added. “Another ten minutes and we'll be nothing more than a memory on their long-range scanners.”

  “At least for an hour, we will,” Penny reminded them. “Then we'll run out of fuel and be dead in the water. Easy pickin's for them when they do catch up with us.” She watched Cea intently, waiting for her to realize she had no choice in the matter and working at arranging her face to show some sympathy for her, too.

  “Fifty minutes, standard time.” Malcolm corrected Penny's assessment of how much time they had left.

  Penny leaned down and whispered next to Cea's ear. “Look hon, you don't have a choice. I know you love the guy, so loosen up and enjoy it. He won't know you do, just that you had to do it. So, your secret will still be safe.” She patted Cea on the shoulder then stood up.

  “Malcolm, let's do it, baby,” she said with a broad smile on her face and her hands on the Velcro closure of her suit.

  Malcolm put his console on auto-pilot and stood up, peeling his suit off as he rose. Soon, his under things and Penny's slipped to the floor, making a soft bed.

  Cea glanced behind her then quickly back at the screen. “For Danu's sake, you two, there is a bed in the back of the ship. Go use it!” she snapped.

  Penny lay on the clothes and beckoned Malcolm to join her. “Nope, that's for you two,” she said, grinning up at Malcolm while spreading her legs. She thrust her hips upward, exposing an already moist and swollen vagina.

  With shaking hands, Tal reached for the alien transporter sitting nestled in a protected cubby in the wall. He took the two parts and slipped the rod into its round counterpart. Immediately, it began to glow pink and emit a humming that filled the cabin.

  He then stood and stepped over Malcolm and Penny's entwined bodies to stand behind Cea's chair. He placed his hands on her shoulders and felt them tense. “I won't hurt you, Cea. I promise,” he murmured, unsure how to go about the awkward business of initiating sex with the woman he loved in front of an alien and an android.

  He glanced down at the two and noticed they were already oblivious to everything but each other. “For what it's worth, I ... I'm as uncomfortable about this as you are, but I really do think we don't have a choice,” he added in a voice so soft it could only reach Cea's ears.

  Cea's shoulders slumped then she took a deep breath and whispered, “Mother, continue evasive action. Do deep scan for any inhabited planet and plot course when you have one locked in. Set alarm for any emergency.”

  Reluctantly, she slipped the head-com off and turned to f
ace Tal. “I hate you, Tal English, and the last thing I want is your hands on me, much less...”

  Tal offered her a hand. “We don't have a choice; not if we want to get out of here alive and find Crowe.”

  She ignored the large, long-fingered hand that patiently waited for her. “You bastard,” she whispered.

  Tal's hand dropped, and he shrugged. “If you want revenge on Crowe and me then you'll have to live, won't you?” His brown eyes gleamed.

  Cea stood, nudged him away then started to precede him down the passageway to her cabin.

  “No,” he said, grabbing her arm, spinning her around and stopping her in her tracks. “If this is going to work then it's going to have to be as hot as possible, just like last time. It's the only way to be sure.”

  Cea turned and blushed, then indicated the fevered mating on the floor at their feet. “I can't. Not in front of...”

  Tal smiled and began to unfasten the white bio-suit that molded his tall body. “No choice,” his deep bass voice replied. He tossed the suit into a corner then tucked both thumbs into the waistband of his shorts.

  Every muscle in Cea's body tensed into stillness, but her gaze traveled from the smile on his lips to the thick mat of dark hair over his wide, muscular chest, then followed the hair down over the ridges of his stomach until she stopped, her gaze locked on his hands. “I can't,” she gasped as he slowly lowered the shorts until they slid down tanned, muscular thighs and calves to land on the cabin floor.

  “Yes, you can. And you will,” he replied. As he watched, her breasts rapidly rise and fall under her suit. Inch-by-inch, his erection hardened until it stood upright, thick, reddened and ready.

  Cea's breath came in labored gasps as her body responded to his hungry gaze. She slowly reached up and unfastened the top clasp on her suit. With shaking hands, she ran her fingers down the Velcro strip opening it down to her navel. Her jaw clenched while she eased the suit down her body then kicked it into the corner where it landed on top of his.