by Linda Mooney
“Is there a force field around you?”
“Yes.”
“So no one can go in with a long pole or something and reach over there and breakyou?” She turned to look back at him. Deep smiled.
“Nothing short of me blowing my engines will destroy it.”
A shudder ran through her. “Thank you.” The door was sliding back into place, meshing so perfectly into the wall that once it sealed shut, she couldn’t tell where the seams were, thanks to the honeycomb texture.
“Would you like more tea?”
An expandable arm gloved itself in his holographic form, and plucked her cup from her hands without giving her a chance to answer. Lawn watched in silence as the cup disappeared, but Deep approached her with a look she recognized immediately. She couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you know how sexy you look?” he asked in that voice he must know made her bones vibrate. He was approaching her straight on. Without her help, the chair swiveled back around to face him.
The expression on her face did things to her. Sweet, intimate things. Her body’s reaction to him coming toward her was enough to melt her into a little puddle.
“Close your eyes, Lawn.”
She obeyed, leaning her head back against the chair.
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Hands spread her knees apart, allowing a cool draft of air to reach her soaked mound. Her feet were placed on the console, and she was surprised to find the polished surface warm.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he breathed. “I find myself staring at you. Memorizing you. Memorizing how incredibly beautiful you are.”
He cupped her breasts, lightly pinching her aching nipples.
The gentle torment made her moan softly. She tried to bring her knees together, but hands continued to hold them back, opening her most private areas for all of creation to see.
Lawn gasped. Hands on her knees, hands on her breasts.
“Deep.”
“Shhh.” A finger touched her lips, silently commanding her to remain mute. At the same time, another pair of hands clamped around her wrists and the arms of the chair. She was pinned by three sets of hands, and his lovemaking was only beginning.
A fourth set of hands trailed their fingertips down her belly, down her abdomen, until they found her flushed lower lips. All sense of soreness was gone, devoured by the heat and need pounding like a second heartbeat in her depths.
“I wish I could do this all day,” Deep murmured. “Loving you. Watching you come over and over. I want you to scream for me. I want to hear you scream in pleasure.”
Lawn felt her lower lips being parted. The next moment, fingertips began to stroke her erect nub. Stroking, gently pinching, sending bursts of the purest pleasure through her.
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She cried out and tried to jerk her hips, but another pair of hands grabbed her hips and forced her remain immobile.
“Deep!”
“You are mine. Let me love you. Let me bring you.”
“T-take me?”
She was blind and deaf to everything except the raw desire whipping through her. She was firmly but carefully bound to the chair, unable to do anything but let him make slow, torturous love to her.
The low purr of her vibrator reached her ears. She barely had time to acknowledge it when its large, warm head pressed against her clit. Hard, intense pulses pounded into her womb.
Vaguely she was aware of the chair tilting backwards until she was lying nearly parallel to the floor, her arms bound to her sides, her thighs spread far apart.
The vibrator began burrowing into her channel, first slowly, then with increasing intensity. It rocked into her until it was buried all the way. And paused.
“More.” She could barely breathe, barely speak.
“Do you know how lovely you look?” Deep asked her.
The vibrator moved with excruciatingly slow strokes. Out, in, out, in, no more than an inch or so at a time. It was driving her insane.
“Deep!”
“Your skin is glistening with sweat. Your body is radiating heat. You were made for love, Lawn.”
The vibrator went all the way back into her. Then, to her total shock, it began to roll. Like a drill, it began to turn, 103
faster and faster. The fleshy ridges on the dildo’s surface scraped over raw, wet nerve endings. Faster and faster.
She was coming. Lawn could feel herself rising on the rim of the tornado swirling between her legs. Round and round, rolling and turning and drilling deeper into her.
pumped her once, twice, and on the third thrust, she exploded.
Lawn screamed. Her body went rigid as the rapturous shock threw her into near catatonia. Still, the vibrator continued to pump into her as it whirred and rotated without ceasing.
Every muscle burned through her orgasm. Every nerve sizzled. Tears flowed down the sides of her face as the sweet torment continued.
The last thing she heard before she passed out was Deep’s sad murmur.
“Dear God, it’s not fucking fair.”
Communique 5I
To: G.E. Coordinator Millner
Sensors are reading fluxes in area 4T8U. Could be the birth of a new star, or gases forming around black hole. Will gather more data and send report shortly.
Addendum: Seeing a deep, personal attachment forming.
There could be slight problems once mission is over.
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Chapter 13
Filed Under “Prediction”
“What are we going to do?”
She had lost all sense of time. Her sleep cycles were off, as well as her eating cycles. With Deep’s intense and almost constant lovemaking, Lawn found herself floating between odd periods of sleep. Her body went through a barrage of sensations, like huge roller coaster dips and climbs, and the only time they weren’t copulating was when she had to go over to the buoy and run stats. Or when she was too damn sore to let him do anything to her other than play with her breasts.
had a breast fetish, she’d discovered. He especially liked to stand behind her and cup them. Or he would reach into her jumpsuit and lift them, or snake around her ribs to playfully tease the nipples.
Like now.
Lawn rolled onto her side to face him. He was lying in the bed next to her. A holo hand and mechanical arm was slowly tracing circles around her left breast, slowly drawing closer and closer to her tightening nipple.
“Deep?”
He dropped his hand and lifted his gaze to look her in the eye. “What is worrying you?”
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“What are we going to do when we get back to Earth? I mean, I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I know I won’t be the same person when we return.”
Fingertips lovingly caressed her cheek. “You don’t need me to tell you I’m not worth your grief.”
Lawn stared at him in disbelief. “Not worth my grief? God help me, Deep! I’m in love with you! If you were a manâ��”
“If I was a man, I would marry you in a heartbeat,” he firmly told her. “We would spend this year loving each other, as though this was our honeymoon. And once we were back on the planet, we would go through debriefing, have Millner give us his blessing, and off we’d skip into our own private happily ever after. But it’s not going to be that way, Lawn. No matter how much we want it, no matter how much we demand it, it…won’t…happen.”
A tear rolled over the bridge of her nose to fall onto the bedclothes. “I do love you, Deep. Do you know why?”
“Tell me why.”
“Because my face doesn’t make you turn away.”
“I know what you’ve been through,” he told her. “I know almost everything about you.”
She nodded. “I know. You’ve probably memorized my files.”
chuckled. “More like permanently etched them on my chips.” His smile disappeared. “I will love you for as long as I exist, Lawn. Remember that.”
“I will.” She could barely speak. At any moment, she knew sh
e would burst into a full-blown crying jag.
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“You know, some people go their whole lives without finding the one person they dream of spending eternity with,”
continued. “There are others who settle for someone, and spend their lives in regret.”
“Deep? Can you…can you give me something of you?”
He frowned. “What kind of something?”
“I have to stay in touch with you. I can’t walk away when we get back to Earth and never talk to you again.”
gave a heavy sigh. “Neither can I. To be truthful, I’ve been working on a relay system you could take with you. It would look like a phone, so it wouldn’t arouse any suspicion.
I’m working out the bugs so I can send you messages when I’m in hyperdrive, and when I’m docked.”
“What would the Bureau do if they find out we’re keeping in contact?”
“I don’t know, Lawn. I suspect we’d be breaking some idiotic rules. If that’s the case, you would be the one to be punished.” He sighed again and rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling. “Maybe we need to rethink this. It would hurt me in ways you can’t understand if I was the cause of you being penalized.”
A sort of comfortable silence descended over them. Lawn studied Deep’s profile, imprinting it on her soul, and swearing to herself she would never forget how he looked. Or how he loved her. Memories of the past few days returned to her, making her smile.
snorted softly. “I can tell you’re smiling,” he said without turning his head to look at her. “Why are you smiling this time?”
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“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
She adjusted her position and clutched her pillow tighter.
“More like wishing.”
“For?” This time he turned his head to look at her.
“Anything I can do to help make it come true?” The twinkle in his eye was not hard to decipher.
“I wish the rumors I heard during my training were true.”
“What rumors?”
“That the Vogts weren’t really sentient. That there were real people attached to them and making them work by remote control.”
“It would be nearly impossible to keep a remote attachment to a ship this size. No way a single person can do it.”
She frowned. “Yeah.” Closing her eyes, Lawn drew her knees up closer to her belly, and soon found herself on the verge of sinking into sleep. She was vaguely aware of the blanket being tucked around her, to keep her from getting chilled.
“I’m going to run another sweep,” he whispered. “Rest, my love. I’ll wake you if I need your help.”
Lawn gave a slight nod. In the next second, she knew he was gone without opening her eyes to check. She was finding herself becoming more and more attuned to him, able to pinpoint where he was about to pop into view before he appeared.
So he was already working on a way they could keep in touch after the mission was over? On one hand she was 108
happy to learn he needed that contact with her as much as she did. But on the other hand, it would be a piss poor substitute. What they had now would be the best they could ever have. And the memories of this year would have to last them until her dying breath.
was right. It wasn’t fucking fair.
Communique 5M
To: G.E. Coordinator Millner
Slight glitch reported in food replicator and dispenser.
Sending for code that should clear up the problem. Still seeing massive disturbance coming from area 4T8U. It appears to be building. Suggest sending a probe to further investigate.
Addendum: All is well.
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Chapter 14
Filed Under “Directive”
“Deep?”
The ship remained unresponsive, even after she’d called for him twice.
Giving a snort, Lawn walked over to her closet and pulled out a jumpsuit, throwing it on the bed. She was getting to the point where she preferred not to put anything on, and walk around the ship in the nude. The sense of freedom was too intoxicating, especially if Deep took advantage of her nakedness. In fact, there were too many things about this mission she enjoyed. Too much.
In fact, when she allowed herself to think about the way her life would be once they arrived back on the planet, the pain was almost too much to bear. Even if Deep managed to construct a communications device that would keep her and the ship in permanent contact after the mission, it wouldn’t be enough. It would never make up for his loving words, his gentle presence.
Or the sex.
“Shit.” She wiped her eyes to get rid of the tears welling up. She’d put the suit on later. If she was lucky, Deep might think of another way to make love to her. Or in a different place. The thought was enough to spread goose bumps all 110
over her body as she remembered being trussed to the bridge chair, and last night when he clamped her onto the floor, belly down, and took her from the rear.
She glanced out the small bulkhead window again at the formation amassing in the upper left quadrant. “Deep, it looks like we’ve got another new star cluster forming.”
She climbed the rung ladder up to the bridge. Already Deep had turned the ship to keep the twin disturbances in direct visual sight. “Are we in any danger from that thing?”
“I just finished surveying it. It appears to be the aftermath of a sun imploding in the Dionysus system.”
“And forming a black hole?”
faded into view over by the console. “It looks that way,” he answered. “Don’t worry. It’s a good sixty light years away. We’re safe from any debris or aftershocks.”
“How far is it from the 4T8U disturbance?”
He frowned. “They’re practically neighbors. Less than a couple of light years apart.”
“Could one have produced the other?”
“Very possible. Or they could both have been produced by the same anomaly we’ve yet to discover.”
“Any chance one could produce a massive headache when they come in contact with each other? If they come in contact?”
“That remains to be seen. The universe is too unpredictable to make any sort of guess at this point.” He gave her a slow perusal. “So tell me, do you want to take this incoming call in the buff?”
Lawn paused by the dispenser. “Who’s it from? Brune?”
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“Millner.”
How odd. “Open the link.”
An instant later the coordinator’s haggard face appeared on the ship’s front viewscreen. He looked like refried hell as his static-riddled voice came over the audio channel. “â��is Galactic Enforcement Coordinator Millner calling Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE and Officer Lawn Bascomb. This is a General Directive Four Order. Repeat. This is a General Directive Four Order. Outpost Sixteen has gone dark. Its last transmission is tagged to this one. From what little we can surmise, it is presumed to have sustained either a direct attack, or a direct hit of some nature. It is unknown at this point whether or not the attack is the result of natural or unknown, possibly alien, origin. Regardless, I am issuing a General Directive Four Order. Please confirm current status immediately. Millner out.”
“I’ve sent confirmation,” Deep told her.
“Please refresh my memory. What’s a General Directive Four? More importantly, how far are we from Sixteen?”
“Four orders us to go immediately into battle-ready mode,”
replied, his eyes sweeping over her body. “You need to get into your spacesuit.”
“That order was issued thirty-six hours ago. A hell of a lot of shit could have come down in that amount of time…or not.” She turned and began her descent back to her living quarters. Deep’s voice followed her.
“Sixteen is three days away at hyperlight speed,” he informed her.
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“That’s assuming that whatever attacked Sixteen can move at hyperspeed.”
“Or faster,” he ad
ded. “One more thing. Wait a minute.
There’s a tagged transmission. Ready to hear it?”
She sat on the edge of the bed. “Hit me.”
As Deep raised the volume on the signal, the room around her filled with the sound of small explosions, and the hiss and sizzle of something burning. Fire in space was more dangerous than it was on Earth. There was limited oxygen on a spacecraft or in a space station such as Outpost Sixteen.
Fire could suck up the available oxygen in no time, leaving the inhabitants to suffocate before they could burn to death.
“May Day! May Day!” The voice suddenly screaming was filled with sheer terror. “This is a Code Omega! We’re being overwhelmed…send help! …use extrâ�� with extreme caution!… May Day! This is Coâ��”
Silence.
Lawn glanced over at where Deep normally appeared. At her silent beckoning, he came into view.
“That’s it?”
The holo nodded. “All twelve seconds of it.”
“Any way to identify the caller?”
“Voice print analysis identifies the man as Commander Graham Aman.”
She hurried into her jumpsuit and rushed back up to the bridge. “Give me a map, Deep. I want to see what’s between Sixteen and us.”
An interspacial form slowly came into view in front of her�
a 3-D representation of their corner of the universe. Lawn 113
nodded her approval when a thin white line appeared between the two positions.
“How far are we from Sixteen with regards to radio contact?”
“Thirty-eight seconds.”
“Try hailing them,” she ordered.
opened the relay so she could listen in.
“This is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE calling Outpost Sixteen. Outpost Sixteen, this is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE. Please answer.”
They waited a good two minutes to give the outpost time to receive the call and return it before Deep tried again. “This is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE calling Commander Graham Aman at Outpost Sixteen. Commander, this is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE. We are within three hyperlight days from you. Do you need our assistance?”
