Center Worlds - Spark

by Tim Morrison

  Chapter 7.3

  Pirate Vessel Alkadia -10 BA

  Willem, as he had begun to think of himself, finally took the plunge in a seamy tavern on the frontier world of Gillem's Point, as the ship was laid up for repairs after a one-sided battle with a United Suns frigate.

  Willem had been on the Alkadia for three cycles, and navigator now for almost a full cycle, after Hands had been shot by a crewman aboard a liner they had attacked and had died before they could save him. Willem's skill and innate understanding of the way the ship flew had been an improvement in the way they had run missions, and an asset to overall morale as well as rewards.

  The ship had been broad-sided by the Frigate as it pulled out of an asteroid field, and even as Willem had thrown the ship into Neospace to dodge any further weapons fire, they knew they would need repairs. The ship had been hulled, badly.

  They put down on the closest world with facilities, and the Captain organized the deckhands to fix the ship while the rest of the crew took leave. They would be there for three days, so they may as well relax, nothing else could be done.

  Willem had initially stayed on board, checking and rechecking the nav systems, until the Captain had gruffly tossed him a credit stick and told him to get off this stinking tub and get some rest, or he'd beat him into the med bay and he could rest on his back.

  Willem grabbed his jacket, and went.

  He wandered a bit aimlessly. The town was large, spread out, and set up to facilitate repairs for many different ships. This was typical of a lot of the frontier worlds. Most of them service bays for spacecraft of all types.

  He finally entered a tavern that looked the same as all the rest, but this one was quiet, not too noisy, and mostly empty. He took a seat at the bar and looked at the array of bottles. The barkeep came over and leaned on the bar, polishing a glass and watching Willem quietly.

  “What's your poison, Son?” He asked in a quiet voice.

  “Willem blinked away a twinge of memory and focused. “Some Siless- no you wouldn't carry that, would you?”

  The barkeep snorted. “No, Son. We don't carry that brew. Do you have another preference, or you want me to size you up and get you something?”

  “I'll trust you, whatever you reckon.” Willem said as he felt somebody come up around and sit right beside him.

  He turned his head and his heart froze. The hair, the face, the body. “Gya?”

  She looked at him with a wide smile. “Raice is my name, Who's Gya? Your girl?” In a voice that was different, but similar enough to pull at his heart.

  “A long time ago, far away, yes.” Willem said as the barkeep placed a small glass full of amber liquid on the counter. Willem handed over the credit stick and the barkeep swiped it, then handed it back to him.

  “That's strong, Son. You might want to take it a bit slow.” The barkeep said. Willem nodded, swirled the liquid then downed it in one gulp. He coughed and gasped a bit, but endured, and felt the liquid fire run down his gullet.

  “Hit me again.” Willem said. The barkeep nodded and refilled the glass.

  “You OK?” Raice asked him, her hand gently resting on his arm.

  Willem shook his head and downed the second glass as quickly as the first.

  “I'm not at all OK, miss. I'm lost, stuck, and right now, aimless. No direction.” He replied, looking at her. Her eyes were not quite right, they were more silver than grey, and her face was more triangular than oval. But she was so similar it was breaking his heart.

  He made a decision. “I'm uh, not too sure how to ask this, but ...” He stammered, suddenly nervous.

  She smiled. “If you want to know if I am available, the answer is yes. There is a cost, I'm sure you can handle it though. And if not, I think we can come to some sort of arrangement.” She got off the barstool and gently pulled his arm so Willem got up and followed her.

  “Raice?” Came the call from behind them. She turned and flashed a brilliant smile at the Barkeep who had a comm to his ear. “You take care of him, darlin'. He just saved twenty men.”

  Raice led Willem up the stairs and down a short hall into a spacious room that was modern and yet rustic at the same time. The main feature was a large bed, but it had a refresher and some chairs, looking quite comfortable. Willem walked over to the windows and looked out. He could see most of the urban sprawl, and could see in the distance, the upper hull of the Pirate ship in the mechanic bay, worklights glowing as the ship was slowly repaired from it's battle damage.

  He heard a noise and turned to see Raice slipping out of her dress so she was just in a short shift that barely covered anything.

  “What's your name?” She asked him.

  “L-Willem, miss.” He managed to get out.

  “Most of the boys around here never stop talking, Willem. I can see you're different.” She said as she walked towards him and put her bare arms around him. Willem leaned into her and hugged her, just breathing and allowing memory to guide him.

  Raice gently kissed him, then pulled him towards the bed with her. She turned and as his legs bumped the bed, she pushed him down and lay on the bed beside him.

  “You remind me of somebody I lost, a long time ago. I'm not sure I should do this.” Willem said.

  She leaned over him, letting her hair fall over his face as her lips slowly kissed his cheek and then he felt her warm breath on his ear. “Your head may be confused, Willem. But other parts of your body are more demanding.” He looked down as he felt her hand and saw just how aroused he was. Even through the shipsuit, he was pressing hard and her hand was gently tracing length and width.

  Willem kept breathing evenly as she deftly undid the fasteners and slipped her hands inside to gently caress him. He shifted slightly and slid his arms out of the one piece suit, then with her aid, he pulled his legs free and lay there naked in front of her.

  Raice smiled at him as one hand caressed his length while her other stroked his chest, tracing lines of old injury and scar from his time on board the ship, dealing with blowouts, metal fatigue and whatever else could go wrong on board the ageing starship.

  Willem remained still as he felt her breath on his chest, stomach, then her wet lips wrapped round him and he felt a rush of pleasure roll over him as Raice used one of her many talents to give him pleasure.

  It did not take long before he erupted his release, and lay back as his body relaxed from the release of his seed into Raice's willing mouth. When he opened his eyes, she was lying beside him, gently stroking him and as he noted, he had not softened, much.

  “There now. We've taken the edge off of your desire, Willem.” She whispered, and kissed him tenderly, then rose onto her knees and straddled him, guiding him into her wet depths as he groaned at the feeling of finally being inside a woman. Not his Gya, but still, this must be what they talked about when you went to Pangea, infinite pleasure.

  His hands caressed her breasts, larger than Gya's, but not by much, and different in colour, as Gya had olive skin, and Raice was more brown tinted. Her nipples were larger than Gya's, and the skin around them more pronounced. Willem sat up as she gently rocked back and forth on him and buried his face in her breasts, kissing and licking her erect nipples as she twined her hands in his short hair and guided him to give her the best pleasure as well.

  Everything about Raice was different, but just similar enough to allow Willem to lose himself in memory and fantasy, as he imagined he was coupling with his lost Gya. He explored her body as Raice gently rode him, drawing another wave of pleasure out of him as he kissed and nibbled her neck and ears, kissing her deeply on her wide always smiling mouth, until he again felt the release and poured seed deep into her as he gasped out his passion into her chest.

  Willem lay on his stomach as Raice leaned back afterwards, one leg up as she rested, smoking a thin stick that had a sweet smell as she slowly blew clouds of multicoloured smoke around the room.

  “I feel like I should thank you, Raice.” He said after watching her for a
few minutes.

  She smiled at him and laughed quietly. “No need to thank me, although it is most certainly appreciated. You were certainly energetic enough. Was this your first?”

  Willem nodded and looked at her through heavy lidded eyes.

  “I must say, Willem, for somebody with no real experience, you are a considerate lover. Whomever this Gya is, she's missed out on a real keeper in you.” Raice said as she smiled at him.

  He sighed. “I may never see her again. You look like her, you even sound like her. I know you're not her, but it feels almost close enough. I know you're a different person, I just miss her so much. I love her.”

  Raice looked at him, then took a final drag on her stick, tossed it into a basin by the bed, then rolled over and pulled him into a firm kiss.

  “I'm not her, but if that is what you need, Willem. Let me be her, just for a moment. I'm here for you, imagine that I'm your girl, and enjoy the moment.” Raice said, pressing her breasts against his chest and letting him again inhale the warm scent of her as she traced long fingernails down his muscular chest.

  He looked into her eyes, and tried to lose himself in pleasure and memory.

  ...

  The Alkadia lifted off from Gillem's Point, fully repaired and rested, ready for action.

  Willem continued to slowly improve the ship as best he was able. Loading different navigation programs allowed for him to fly the ship more efficiently. Changing fuel feeds with information he gleaned from planetary databases allowed for the engines to run longer and at higher thrust for less fuel cost. Important on a mercantile vessel such as this. He worked with the gun crews to improve their ability to track hostiles and showed them to target specific hull points that were more generic. More ships fell to the pirate vessel and the crews' fortunes rose with almost every improvement.

  Willem had no choice, so he felt the more he could do, the better chance he might have to leave the ship at some point. However, the Captain was always watching, always aware, and never had the ship in a port close enough to allow Willem to jump ship and get any sort of easy transport back to the Confederacy.

  Willem got his own back though. Over the first four full cycles, six pirates died from accidents. The same six that had killed and raped his crewmates from the TGX. Willem remembered, but was so very careful that the Captain never even suspected.

  Suffocation claimed one, a pinprick in his Air Cycler claimed him while on a boarding party. The spoils were more easily split among the remaining crew so he was not missed, they never even bothered with the body, just left it to drift in the vacuum.

  Another died when the maintenance shaft he was working on suddenly vented fuel and then cleaned itself. An accidental cycle that immersed him in hydrogen vapour long enough to kill him cleanly. The Captain shrugged and kicked the body, this man had been a pain all along, and the Captain was glad to be rid of him.

  The third life was given to Pangea when the pirate was doing some maintenance work on a gun port, secured to a line that was holding him in place on the hull. The line broke from rubbing against a sharp piece of hull plate. Before he could even shout, he was fifty kims away and charred by the drive exhaust.

  Number four lost it when his gun discharged while he was cleaning it. An accident that was so normal nobody even thought twice on it, except had they checked they would have seen that his power pack was set to overload. A setting that nobody on the crew even had the slightest idea how to do.

  Number five was killed during a boarding detail when his suit bearings suddenly seized. All of them at once, his suit unmoving, he was an easy target for the defenders. The Captain worried a bit, because that man had always been careful with his suit, but the appearance of a United Suns corsair close stopped his thought as the Alkadia fled into neospace, leaving the body to drift.

  The last pirate died when his suit decompressed explosively during yet another boarding detail. An examination would have revealed over a hundred minute cuts through the layers of suit material, however it was not even noticed as this prize contained a vault filled with rarified Diamond that was worth more than a thousand Regals. “We split among 14 now. That means everybody gets 60 Regals instead of 55.” Said the Captain. Five Regals was the difference between a street whore and a night in a luxury suite with two high class beauties. That alone brooked no argument or concern about the lost man.

  Willem had a significant nest egg built up. The Captain, true to his word, ensured Willam earned and was paid with every action. Unlike the rest of the men, Willem did not indulge in women, the only one he went with was when they eventually made their way back to Gillem's Point, then he would spend his nights with Raice and imagine she was his lost Gya. He also barely drunk alcohol, so his balance simply continued to accrue. He could draw funds at any terminal in the United Suns from his thumbprint, as it was guaranteed by the Idolan Commerce Society, which even the Confederacy honoured as they helped run the economy of the wild zones.

  The Confederacy was always close to Willem's mind, and whenever he heard news, he would read it eagerly. No word was heard of specific ships or specific clans, but he listened and watched reports of border skirmishes and helped the Captain plan patrols to avoid Confederacy ships. Willem knew that if they came up against a Confederacy ship, his best bet was to run, because he'd have no chance to get any sort of message off before the entire ship was blown apart. Piracy was not tolerated, and the only penalty the Confederacy honoured was death.