In Service

by Mima

  “Yeah, definitely,” Grady answered, checking the window view, closing the shade.

  “Good view of our target, Shon, just like you thought.”

  Shon sat next to where Kor had sprawled on the floor. “Team status.”

  Kor linked them for three seconds and closed the link. Malla knew in that instant that Shon was thrilled but on edge, fighting a roiling anger in himself, and Kor, Grady, and Vel were severely depleted. She wondered what they got from her.

  Glancing over as Vel eased off Cris’s armor, Malla choked at the raw mess of Cris’s shattered shoulder blade, a huge patch of skin missing and a wash of blood.

  “Cris!” Char crawled over to her, brushing her hair out of her face with a shaking hand.

  “Cris!” She was unconscious, but he didn’t seem to understand that. “Cris!”

  Ahmed moaned across the room. “No. No, not Cris, too.”

  Vel reassured them. “She’s alive. She’ll need surgery for the bone, but I’ve got skin regen and extra plasma. She’ll be fine, barring complications.” He continued to work over her, steady and careful, wiping away blood, sealing up her flesh, spraying holding compound on her fracture.

  Char pounded his still-gloved fist into the floor. “She needs to drink!” He turned to Shon, snarling. “We need to get to your servers! Now!” He jumped to his feet, his curls sweaty and face red.

  “You’re not giving orders. Lower your voice. You’ll draw attention to us. And no more pounding on the floor.”

  Char turned in a tight circle. He went and knelt on one knee by Ahmed, laying the backs of his bare fingers on Ahmed’s white face. “Look, you can’t be serious. Your men need service, too. There’s no way you can get through to Radha and get her out on what you’ve got left. We need to backtrack to the hangar.”

  Shon shrugged out of his backpack. He rummaged and pulled out an insulating tarp. He unfolded it, and spread it out on the floor, kicking garbage out of the way. It was the size of a small bed, long enough for Grady, but only about three people wide.

  “Vel, we need Cris conscious.”

  “What?” Kor perked up. “Why? She’s wrecked. Keep her under.”

  “Grady, send package one.”

  Package one was a pre-recorded, carefully worded message to their commanders that their Team was on a personal honor mission on Dunru. They’d taken Sig Twelve, and were in contact with Kappa 49. They also warned that if the other, hostile team trying to acquire Sig Twelve got in their way, they were going down and the bureaucrats were going to get all the blame. The hope was they’d call off the team the Duke had ordered and direct Kappa 49

  to cooperate.

  Grady set up his com link, an extra large box he’d had to carry in addition to Char, his backpack, and his huge ion bolt.

  “I have to agree with your man. Keep her under,” Char sounded absolutely wiped and utterly defeated. “It’s not like she can contribute to the rescue now.”

  “Just rest. Trust me to know what I’m doing. Hydrate, eat if you can.” Shon got out some dried vitamin packets and tossed them to everyone.

  People seemed too tired to argue. Listlessly, Malla got out her water and took a sip. It was the sweetest she’d ever tasted.

  “Char, look at this. Add anything if you can.” Shon tossed him a vid plate.

  It would be a schematic of Radha’s prison. Char frowned, panning through it. Vel finished applying bandages to Cris and moved to Ahmed. He scanned him.

  “Yep, a little jog through the city sure did make it worse.”

  Ahmed laughed weakly, bitterly.

  Vel gave him another patch. He scanned Char, and nodded. “Doing all right.”

  Grady looked up from his portable com. “Package away.”

  Vel went back to Cris. He scanned her, and applied three patches. “We’ve got a

  window coming up in about three minutes, Shon.”

  Shon stood and helped Vel gently move her onto one side of the tarp, face down in deference to her wound. Then Shon and Grady came for Ahmed and laid him on the other side.

  “What are you doing?” Char asked.

  Vel went to stand by Kor. Grady lay down in between the two wounded Luo.

  “Oh, fuck no.” Kor got to his feet. Vel moved into his space and Kor shoved him, but he stayed put. “This is shit, Vel. Shon, you’re a shit.”

  Malla stood and went to kneel at Grady’s feet. She glanced at Ahmed, lying on his back, watching her curiously. She took off her helmet. He considered her, and then his eyes went wide.

  “Here, sweet. Just focus on me.” Grady’s rumble took the tight feeling in her chest and moved it down about half a meter, to her pussy. She smiled at him, meeting his serious blue eyes. He was worried about her.

  Shon went to stand by Char. Dark and hard, he gritted out, “You don’t touch her until I say, where I say.”

  Malla set her helmet to the side, and took off her gloves. Kor raved behind her, a steady outpouring of curses. She turned her head over her shoulder and met his frantic eyes.

  “Kor. You’re pissing me off. Shut. Up.”

  To her surprise, he listened, clenching his jaw so hard a muscle in his cheek jumped.

  Malla crawled up over one of Grady’s rock hard thighs, and lowered herself.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Char exclaimed. “She’s a server? You took a server through those firefights!”

  She had trained for this, to come easily, almost at will. It was harder, with the suit on.

  With the rustle of the metallic tarp. With the incredulous stares of Char and Ahmed. With Kor’s beating disapproval. But she managed. She ground and rubbed, circled and writhed.

  She reached out a hand to each of the Luo on either side of Grady. She worked her hands up until she touched the sweaty, clammy skin of Cris and the jumping pulse in Ahmed’s throat.

  “Grady…”

  Answering her plea, he laid one of his hands on her head. She tilted her hips and came.

  She opened her well and let her energy roll through her body.

  “Hnngghh!” Ahmed bowed and screamed, then choked on it.

  The pleasure already drained away, but Ahmed had a grip on her light, as did Grady, and more distantly, Cris. Still, the energy slipped away too soon.

  “Good, Malla. That was good.”

  She sighed, rubbed her cheek against him. “It was a start.”

  Over the next half hour, she came three more times. It got harder to bring the pleasure up, and her clit was getting raw. Her thighs were damp and her arms ached from their stretched position. Occasionally, Cris’ pain-filled moans would distract her. Once, Shon and Vel came over and shared her energy. The last time, Char was directed to go in and taste her, putting his hand on her head. It jarred her, badly. She’d gotten too used to the intimacy of her own men. Servers serve. You trained for this. Focusing on the fact it was Grady she rocked on, she managed to come.

  “Get your hands off me,” she snapped when Char was slow taking his hand away after her light died.

  Exhausted, she lay shaking on Grady’s chest, panting, legs twitching in reaction.

  Grady’s erection was a bar along her ribs. She could feel it even through the thick armor.

  Sighing, she slid to the inside of Grady’s spread thighs, and rolled over, cradled in the V of his legs, resting the back of her head on his erection.

  “Malla?” Shon knelt in front of her, offering water. She took it gratefully. When she focused on his face, she was surprised to see how drawn it was, his lips thin.

  She tried to summon a smile to reassure him, but she was wiped. “No more, Shon. No more unless it’s an exchange. If I could get an exchange, I’d be able to recharge a bit, too.

  Was it enough? What’s the status?”

  “We’re good enough for the next stage, but not really fully charged. It just wasn’t…the same.”

  “So we’ve discovered I can’t really harmonize unless I have full partners.”

  Char an
d Ahmed both gasped.

  “It’s true?” Ahmed whispered.

  “What do you think you’ve been experiencing?” Vel’s voice was dry.

  Char was sitting against the wall. She met his blue eyes and shivered at the intensity of them.

  He turned away to stare at Shon, slack-jawed. “You brought an Elite, harmonizing server into Dunru. You fuckhead.”

  Shon lifted his lip and growled at him. Then he turned to where Vel and Kor sat on the floor. “Who’s going to do the honors?”

  “You’re damn straight it’s an honor. And you’re just going to do her in this filth, with this shit treasonous team watching. Worse, drinking her. They don’t deserve her.” Kor’s voice was quiet, but vibrating with rage.

  Vel hadn’t needed to put his hands on him, but he’d stayed between Kor and Malla just in case.

  “Oh, Kor.” Malla sighed. She was tired of his inability to understand this was part of the mission, like Shon having to put a bolt in the head of wounded enemies or Grady having to invade people’s heads and shatter their minds.

  “Right. Not Kor, then. Vel? Grady?”

  What? What about Shon?

  “I will.” Vel stood up and began undoing his armor.

  A hard, ho hand spre

  t

  ad in the middle of her back, pinning her to the shower wall.

  Warm water sheeting over her face as she gasped to feel his thumb in her ass. Malla reached for her waistband and fumbled it open. She took a breath, used the strength of her anger to lift her hips and pushed her armor down.

  “Stop, Malla. Vel will do it.” Shon’s order was gentle.

  She glared at him. “I want you to do it, but you’re a coward.”

  His head knocked back as if she’d struck him. Her heart twisted, but anger still coursed through her belly. Then Vel was kneeling at her feet, working her pants down to her knees.

  “Hey, lovely. How much do you feel like sharing?”

  He was asking how much skin she wanted to bare. She wanted him to take her from

  behind, with as little showing as possible. But she was pissed now. She stared Shon down. “I never want anything less than everything you can give me, Vel. I’m not ashamed of what I am, or what I share with you.” She moved her eyes to Kor’s. “I’m proud of being good at what I do. I’m proud to serve my team.” She felt a flicker of satisfaction when they both looked away.

  Vel took off her boots, peeled off her pants. He reached for her torso armor and undid it, and then Grady sat and lifted her, held her while Vel undressed her. Grady’s hands covered each breast entirely. He gently rubbed her chafed skin.

  She shivered. “Oh.”

  Vel’s fingers moved over her thighs and hips, firm, stroking, massaging. Delicious.

  Their touch strengthened her while relaxing her aching muscles. These were the men who saw what she had to do and were strong enough to support her doing it. She was going to rock their world.

  She raised one hand up behind Grady’s head and pulled him down for a kiss. His lips were strong, his tongue gentle. The rush of him poured down her spine. She broke from him to grab Vel’s face and lift it to hers. Vel took her mouth and her mind. He pushed into her skin. He danced over her lips and her tongue danced back in return. When he pulled away, she could hardly breathe. Her breasts throbbed, full and heavy in Grady’s hold. She stared at Vel, willing to follow him anywhere. She drew her knees up, spreading her thighs until her heels met her ass.

  “Vel…”

  He dropped his gaze to her open folds, dark pink and dripping. He met Grady’s eyes behind her for a moment.

  Grady laid back down, his hands trailing from her chest to her shoulders, and she reclined with him. Her head rolled on the ridge of his erection, her shoulders held by his hips. She kept her heels high, and her knees splayed out, propped up by Grady’s spread thighs. Cris moaned again, a sound of agony, and she tensed, her senses going to that side.

  Char moved into her line of vision as he came and knelt by Cris. He laid his hand on her head and crooned to her, whispering reassurance.

  “Malla.”

  She looked back at Vel.

  “When I fuck a lover, their attention is on me.”

  She nodded. He took one of her knees and shoved it up to her chest. He stared at her for a moment, licked his lips. He glanced back at Shon, who was standing with his arm around Kor’s shoulders. Malla couldn’t tell if it was a stance of moral support or a restraint.

  Vel said, “If you don’t take her ass soon, I’m going to.”

  Shon’s chin tucked down, his eyes hardening. Then Vel was crawling up over her. He bent and nipped her breast, hard, over the purple bruise he’d left on her in the fighter pod, seemingly a decade ago.

  Malla squeaked.

  “I told you, pay attention to me.”

  He lifted one hand and pulled and tugged a nipple. Malla shifted her leg, trying to get comfortable with one folded so high and tight against her. He put his dick to her cunt, then bent to suckle her gently. She focused on his mouth, the pull of it, the swish of his tongue, the heat and wet of it, and suddenly when she breathed again, the tip of him was in her, stretching and sending her empty pussy a-flutter.

  He lifted his head, and toyed with the same nipple. This time he rolled it in a squeezing pinch, but it was wet and it felt good. She tried to squeeze on him, but he wasn’t high enough. She reached up and returned the movement on his small nipple.

  “Vel, you’re driving me crazy. It doesn’t have to be lovemaking. Just fuck me.” She eased her lifted leg up over his back, her heel settling in the top of his ass. He stared at her a moment, then he powered into her, driving her hard into Grady’s solid supporting strength behind her. It occurred to Malla she could happily spend the rest of her life being fucked between various pairs of her men.

  He pushed through her tight channel, and it seemed as if she’d never taken a man so big. She was so sensitive from her masturbation she thought she’d pass out from the stimulation of Vel’s length going in, and in.

  “Vel! Ahhhh!”

  Then he drew out a few inches and slapped back into her. He put his head down next to hers, gripped her hips, and began to pummel her. Vel’s weight drove Malla’s head harder against Grady’s erection. She tossed her head against him, struggling with the pleasure, but also wanting the contact. Grady moaned. His hips trembled underneath her shoulders.

  Vel whispered in her ear, “You’re going to come when I tell you to.” A little twist of his hips ground on her clit.

  “Ah!”

  “Do you hear me Malla? You’re going to serve us all.” He pumped.

  “Yes!”

  “In three.” Grady was writhing. Vel’s cock was in deep, hips swishing side to side.

  “Ah!”

  “Two. You give yourself over so easily. It’s such a fucking turn-on.” He rocked his length in and out lightning fast, and just as hard.

  “Yes!”

  “One. Get ready, baby. We’ve got your back. Don’t be afraid.” He circled between her legs, grinding.

  “Vel!”

  “Come. Now.” He powered himself in even tighter, deeper.

  Her muscles became light and her belly held the sun. Dimly, there were hands on her arms and shoulders, two on her ankles. People surrounding her, needing her. Spirit, it was so beautiful. Vel thrust in her again, tucking his hips hard against her clit. She ceased breathing as the second orgasm took her.

  “-- baby, yes, so good --”

  “-- get Cris’s skin in contact --”

  “Ahhhhhh!”

  “Fuck! Yes! Malla!”

  “Uhhhhhhhhhh…”

  Shon’s hoarse voice ordered, “Again, Vel.”

  Vel shoved both his hands up the back of her thighs, catching her knees and throwing them high. Then he strained forward, taking her at the new, steeper angle. Malla gasped, her head arching, grinding against Grady, as her body shuddered and shook, held together by hands, so many
hands.

  The energy that powered out of her this time didn’t feel like it was coming from her, as it did when it was just her on Grady. No, this time, it came from all of them, for all of them, because of all of them…

  When she woke up, she was wrapped in a thermal blanket, being rocked slowly,

  slightly. Shon and Grady were at the window, talking in whispers. Vel held complicated-looking instruments over Ahmed, who was face down, stripped to the waist. Char was sitting by Cris, eyes closed, his hands holding one of hers. That meant it was Kor holding her.

  She sighed, snuggled into his hold. He continued to rock her.

  “I’m glad you came over to drink,” she murmured to him.

  He didn’t reply. She sat up in his arms, stretched. Looking up at him, she saw his eyes were vivid green and that muscle was still jumping in his jaw. She laid her palm over it, smiling at him. “See, Kor? No harm done.”

  He held her eyes, then came in for a kiss. His mouth pushed hers open, and he stormed inside, kissing her deeply, holding her head in his hand. Pulling back, he stared at her as if he hadn’t seen her for a thousand years.

  “How far into Stage D are we?”

  His eyes narrowed on hers. “Malla, shut the fuck up.”

  Her face pulled into an instant smile. “I love you, too.”

  He kissed her again, more slowly, more deeply, his lips slanting back and forth as he pulled on her tongue, traced her teeth, tasted her again and again.

  When they came up for air, Shon’s legs were right next to them. Malla tipped her head back and looked up at him. He was smiling with his eyes, although his face was reserved.

  There was a faint bruise that hadn’t been there on one cheek.

  Malla glared at Kor. He shrugged. Shon offered her a hand, and she took it, finding she was still nude within the blanket.

  “There’s a sanitizer set up in the corner. We’re moving out within the hour. Grady checked your guns. Here’s an update.” He handed her a plate. Brushing his knuckles down her throat, he tipped her chin to one side and placed a gentle kiss over her throat. His lips were so warm, burning a brand into her. “All right, Stardust?”

  “Yes, sir.” She saw immediately it was the wrong thing to say, naming him her