Lost In Dreamland

by Jason Paul Rice

  The last team finished up and Captain Steevens set a course to get back to Centimore. Roxelle took a nap during the ever-dangerous intergalactic commute on the long space shuttle with four boosters. Arrib woke her up when they arrived at Centimore and broke through the atmosphere. The shuttle landed softly on the continent of Panmay.

  The four sponsors of the entire company lived and stored the diamonds here. Roxelle carried out her other duty as a miner and transported the diamonds into the warehouse. As she went to exit the ship, an intercom next to the door asked, “Planet of origin please?”

  Roxelle said, “Alperia.”

  A slot under the intercom slid open and Roxelle grabbed the small white pill inside. She chewed it up and swallowed it before hitting the green button above the intercom. A door opened and she jumped out. The pill made it so she could breathe on this planet. Senti got out after her. Roxelle pulled the leathery flesh above her wrist away and used her forearmScreen to call for a hoverHauler from inside the warehouse.

  A small platform, the size of a twin bed mattress with raised edges, floated out and came to a rest next to Roxelle’s ankles. She and Senti grabbed the biggest diamond first, which had to be about five times the size of her head. Her ligaments and tendons tightened and tensed as the pair picked it up. Her muscles shook as they tried to set the precious stone down gently without damaging it.

  They unloaded the rest of the stash and Roxelle stared through the garage-sized door as the hoverHauler floated back inside. The door closed slowly and she walked down the street to the AirPort. The DMC83 Jet took sixteen people to their home continent named Marigold.

  Aside from the sponsors on this planet, Roxelle was one of the wealthiest workers, especially in Marigold. Most people with as much money as she lived on another continent called Ashmore, which was safer because it contained fewer dangerous people.

  Roxelle liked danger and being a rich person on Marigold had tremendous perks that appealed greatly to her. The aircraft landed and she got on the HyperLoop to get to her favorite bar. The Loop raced along the raised track for three hundred kilometers before coming to her stop.

  She got off and walked into the concrete jungle known as Ridmore. Ridmore was the biggest city on this continent and the only one worth a good damn if you asked Roxelle. She walked two blocks up and two blocks over to get to her favorite watering hole. She ducked down to get through the low entrance door of the Buzzed Being.

  The theme of silver immediately caught her eye from the tables to the bar to the ceiling fans that didn’t work. A soft beat of rhythmic digital music hummed in the background because it was still early. She could smell the hot sauce in the air and couldn’t believe that beings still bothered with eating.

  The reminder precipitated her to reach into the inside pocket of her black leather dovetailed vest and grab a green pill. She popped the equivalent of a well-balanced meal into her mouth and lightly bit her tongue to release some saliva so she could swallow the pill. She pushed the mushy pill to the back of her tongue, leaned back and took a deep gulp.

  The pill had a minty aftertaste she needed to chase away, so she went to the long bar. A gold-tinted droid stationed on top of the bar zipped over to her.

  The round garbage can shaped droid stopped in front of Roxelle. A computer generated voice asked, “May I take your order please?”

  Roxelle said, “Give me two shots of Green Goddess and a double Hegrins and soda water.”

  Red lights started flashing on the droid and it said, “That will be 8.88 trolodites please.”

  “Scan it,” Roxelle said and held her wrist up to the front of the droid.

  A red glow scanned her wrist and the purchase was approved. Within thirty seconds, a server with pale yellow skin brought out her drinks on a circular black tray and set them on the bar one by one.

  Roxelle grabbed the plastic shot glasses with both hands. She banged down the one in her left hand first and followed immediately with the other. The Green Goddess left a harsh, spicy fennel aftertaste that Roxelle chased with the Hegrins and Soda.

  Roxelle started to work up a buzz as she stood at the bar and looked around. Harrins, her girlie werelion friend, and the half-droid Mimick were by the pool tables, waiting to hustle someone, no doubt.

  Boggle Ritby slammed a red shot at the bar and her blue face turned almost black as she choked on the liquor. She pounded her fist on the bar and bobbed her flushed face up and down to the rhythm of the soft music playing.

  Oswell Hawkins came into the bar, ducking his bald, reddish brown head to get under the entrance and the lanky, totally hairless male went to the buffet. He grabbed a chicken drumstick and shoved it in his mouth. He pulled out a meatless bone and threw it back on the buffet.

  Roxelle tried not to make eye contact with any of them as she panned the room again.

  Roxelle turned around and took another swig from her double. She almost choked as a small, but firm, hand smacked her right butt cheek and a sharp set of fingernails dug in. She tensed her frame and peeked back at a weretiger who started purring seductively in her ear.

  “You trying to get lucky or what?” he asked and moved his crotch closer to her.

  His warm breath stinking of raw meat tickled the back of her neck. She could feel his increasing manhood on her ass and in one quick move, she reached back and grabbed his semi-hard penis and testicles. She thought about how much she loved her giant hands as the weretiger whimpered in agony.

  Roxelle said, “I think I’ll go with ‘or what.’ I would say don’t ever approach me again, but this will serve as a better reminder if you ever even think about it again.”

  She twisted her huge, powerful hand and yanked as hard as she could. She smiled as injured animal yelps came from the weretiger until she finally let go. The man slithered away, having injured his manhood in two ways.

  She pressed the button to fetch the bartender and saw that the red light was already on in front of several other people seated at the bar. The number 12 appeared on the bar in front of her, which meant 11 people still needed to be served. She held up a half-empty double and tried to estimate if it would last until the bartender got to her

  The red male next to her was up next as the bartender droid settled in front of him. The man placed his order and Roxelle leaned over.

  She said, “If you let me add my drink on, I’m buying.”

  “Yeah,” the man replied.

  Roxelle ordered and went to scan her tracker when someone shouted, “What the shit? You can’t just jump in and grab a drink, bitch.”

  Roxelle peered down the bar at the pale orange man with balding brown hair and a patchy beard. She shouted, “Shut your ugly face and sit down before you get your ass whooped by a woman. Then you’ll see who the bitch is.”

  She knew it must be his first night in the bar if he was picking a fight with her.

  The rotund man said, “I don’t usually hit women, but you keep talking like that, I’ll have to shut your mouth for you. Now apologize and we can all have a nice time.”

  People around the bar started to shift around as the music and murmur of conversation wasn’t loud enough to drown out the argument at the bar.

  Roxelle said, “You’re right. I should apologize for talking back to a man.”

  She walked over in front of him and said, “Look, I’m sorry…”

  Roxelle blasted the man across his cheek with a clenched right fist, knocking him back into the bar. He smacked into the two people next to him who jumped up, ready to fight. One of the men went after Roxelle, who flattened him with a straight left jab.

  Mayhem.

  A huge brawl broke out and Roxelle found herself right in the middle of it. She had only wanted to hit one man, but people kept coming after her and she had to handle her business. She found the fat guy who had been talking shit and grabbed him by the left shoulder and ploughed her right fist into his nose several times.

  Thick, crimson blood came pouring out of his wide nose as h
er right hand lunged for his throat. Several other brawlers came crashing into her and separated her from the balding man. The chaotic scene caused Roxelle to spin around several times to scan for her enemy.

  The short man appeared in front of her and held his hand in front of her chest. The fighting died down and nearly came to a stop as Roxelle held her hands up. She looked down the barrel of a white plasma blaster.

  The brawling patrons gathered around Roxelle and several people tried to convince the man to put down the gun.

  Roxelle said, “You sure you want to do this? If so, you better turn that thing straight around on yourself. I am worth more than a being like you could ever pay the fine for. So do you want to commit suicide?”

  The man’s hand was shaking, making Roxelle even more uncomfortable. He said, “How do you know how much I’m worth?”

  She answered, “I don’t. I know how much I am worth. I only know that I am a Level 1A Miner on Dia 447 and there isn’t anyone other than a sponsor who could afford that fine for murder. So kill me and you are just killing yourself.”

  The man said, “This planet is shit. Because you have a better job than me, that gives you a license to kill and I am powerless to do anything.”

  “You could get a better job.”

  “Bullshit. All the rules and regulations are bullshit. I should just do it anyway. Who cares if I die?” the man asked and looked around the bar. He seemed to notice that several people had their guns pointed at him.

  He started to back away from Roxelle and said, “I see how it is. I’m not going to do anything.” He pointed his gun at the bouncer and told him, “Open the door.”

  The bouncer obliged and the fat man slithered out backwards.

  Roxelle took a deep breath and sighed out straight relief. She looked around and made quick eye contact with Harrins and Mimick before turning away.

  She went back to the bar, glad to be alive and happy she wouldn’t have to pay another fine for murder. She hated the whole process of having to go through all the paperwork to get out of the cell. It normally only took a few days, but with her normal lifestyle, it was a major cramp.

  The night wound down and the siren rang again for everyone to leave. Roxelle stood with her back against the bar and no plans to go anywhere. The bouncers tried to chase out the last dozen patrons by the pool table as five other beings lurked at various spots along the long bar.

  Everyone left except for her and the people at the bar as the doors sealed shut and more security cameras popped out of the walls and ceiling. The servers, cooks and bouncers left through the back and a tall strong-looking man with yellowish skin popped out of a side door with a smile on his face.

  Roxelle spoke in a sober tone. “We lost Diandre today. We’re probably going to have to push back our date now. That puts us down two people on outside lookout duty. I don’t feel comfortable with only one person out there. I don’t even want to try it with two.”

  Glint Chesswell, one of the owners of the mining company, said, “Do we know anyone that could fill the void?” He looked around the table. “It’s only lookout, they don’t have to even know anything about the mission.”

  A few grumbles were heard but nobody could come up with any names.

  Marlowe Reed, a silver-skinned male with a dead left eye, said, “I don’t know anyone that can be trusted even if they didn’t know what was going on.”

  Roxelle said, “For the money involved here, we should have people lining up. We’re going to have to approach two people. Wish we had some stupid earth humans around. We could use them and they would have no idea what was going on. Advanced beings will be too suspicious.”

  The werelion named Harrins smiled, showing that some of his jagged teeth were missing. “We could kill humans too and not have to worry about paying the fine. Too bad there aren’t any aliens willing to abduct humans anymore and send them our way.”

  Mimick, the half-droid with laser-red eyes suggested, “Earth humans aren’t as dumb as most of you elitists think.”

  Roxelle snapped at him. “Shut up, you impish sissy. Nobody asked you anything.”

  Mimick lowered his head like a scolded dog.

  Boggle said, “So we know we have to get two more people for the mission, but is everything else worked out? Do we have the code to hack the warehouse alarms and automatic computerized weapons in and around the warehouse?”

  Glint Chesswell pushed the thinning black hair on top of his head back with the palm of his hand and said, “I got all that under control. I already have the code ready to launch the Intel-Driven Lasers that will help us bust through the protective shield around Soro Exxo.”

  Roxelle added, “A beautiful planet all to ourselves. We can use those ghosts as slaves if we want, but we just can’t let them get ahold of any of our weapons.”

  Marlowe said, “Haha, I’m shooting anyone that comes near me once we get there. That goes for all of you too.”

  Mimick asked, “Has the code been tested for the lasers? We don’t want to be stuck outside Soro Exxo for too long.”

  Roxelle said, “If Glint says the lasers will be ready to go, then they’ll be ready to go. I told you to keep quiet unless I called on you, mufucker.” She was always hostile toward Mimick.

  Roxelle was worried about losing two people from the mission. She could find anyone to do the job, but could they be trusted? She knew a lot of beings that would agree to the job and then report her to the authorities. It had been hard enough to find the original twenty-eight people that they needed to pull off this job.

  They had already gone over the plan in great detail and now they were only waiting to find two more people to help. The group talked for about another hour before Roxelle decided to go home. She took a quick ride on the raised track of the HyperLoop to get to her nice neighborhood.

  She punched in her security code and turned the knob on the door before entering. The big house was sparsely decorated because Roxelle hardly ever had company over. She walked into her living room and sat down on her long, black couch when an odd feeling hit her chest.

  Her heightened sense of smell detected the faint body odor of a man. She grabbed her gun from under the couch and headed down the hallway.

  She started to search stealthily around the house for a predator. She peered into her bedroom and found the culprit. She ran up behind the person and applied a choke hold.

  She asked, “What are you doing here?”

  A monotone voice answered, “You know exactly what I’m doing here.”

  She spun Mimick around and planted a powerful kiss on him that almost sucked his entire face in. She ripped his shimmering silver suit from his turquoise body and threw it aside. She threw the half-droid with robotic arms and legs onto the bed. Roxelle peeled off her red leather pants, but left her top and vest on. She never wore panties.

  She jumped up on top of Mimick and rubbed her sweet spot tantalizingly back and forth on his manhood, trying to get excited. Roxelle didn’t believe in love, only lust that would get her through the night.

  No kids, never married. She stroked his curved penis with her hand until it was hard and she slowly slid down on his member.

  She slammed down on him like thunder and immediately started with crashing thuds at a fast pace. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She pounded away for about ten minutes. Roxelle opened her eyes and noticed the smile on Mimick’s face. She used one hand to help get herself off and the other to cover Mimick’s mouth.

  She wasn’t worried about him screaming, she was worried that he might say I love you. Roxelle usually took what she wanted sexually and moved on, but she had been carrying on this relationship with Mimick for years. Roxelle had started it because she and Mimick shared a similar low emotional level with Mimick and she didn’t think either being would get attached.

  Roxelle squeezed Mimick’s metal forearms and shuddered as a quaking orgasm followed. She leaned down and kissed him on his warm, glowing emerald cheek.

 
“Thanks. Now get the fuck out.” Roxelle lay back as Mimick picked up his clothes. She thought about life on Soro Exxo and becoming one of the richest people in the universe.

  Chapter 1

  “Nothing is going to interrupt this honeymoon,” Trent assured Whitney as they sat on the beach, looking out at the incoming waves.

  “Do you promise?”

  Trent said, “Uh, uh, well…”

  Whitney stopped him, “Don’t worry, I won’t make you commit to something crazy like that. How bad do you miss little Lance?”

  The server dropped off two strawberry margaritas.

  Trent pushed the straw to the side and took a drink. He wiped the frosty drink from his lips. “To answer your question, I miss our son like crazy. I’m glad you said something first.”

  “What? You’re trying to be a tough guy about loving and missing your son?”

  Trent said, “I was just joking. Easy Broom Hilda.”

  Whitney sat back in her lounge chair and tried to relax. “I know. I’m just on edge without him here. This is supposed to be nice and relaxing but all I can think is how cruel we are for abandoning our eleven-month-old son for two weeks.”

  Trent laughed and lifted his sunglasses as the fire in the sky retreated behind a white cloud. He said, “Come on, Whit. Stop beating yourself up. You’ve been a great mom and taking a slight break isn’t going to hurt Lancelot. He’ll probably get more attention with your mom, Victoria and her girls than he would with us.”

  “That is a pretty good point,” she said and took a sip through the straw of her drink.

  Whitney leaned back. A huge flying object soared through the sky. The winged creature descended at an insane speed before crashing into the ocean and causing a splash of epic proportions. All the vacationers on the beach of the coastal resort started to point and talk.

  However, the beast never rose out of the water. The murmuring continued as a tall, lanky man with a golden complexion broke through the top of the water near the shore. Darominius shook his head like a dog to get rid of the saltwater.