“Honey, you’ve been out four hours. I hung on for as long as I could, but I got a little chilly up here.”
Aaron spoke from somewhere else in the room. Emi hurt too badly to turn her head to look to see from where. “Hey, Caph, she’s awake.”
She felt the other two men cross the room and stand at her side. Aaron gently stroked her forehead. “You all right, Em?”
“Oh, sure. Feel great. Let’s go for a jog.”
He laughed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “There’s my girl. I’m so proud of you.”
She felt Caph’s enormous hands engulf hers. “Fuck, babe. I was so goddamned worried about you there at the end. I was afraid she was going to hurt you.”
“She did. She didn’t count on me playing dirty.”
“All right, you two,” Ford chastised. “Don’t make her talk.” She felt a slight sting on her upper lip as he injected medication to reduce the swelling, then again on her lower lip.
“Is she okay?” Aaron asked. “Do we need to get her to a base?”
“She’s no worse off than any of us have gotten in a bar fight. Although that rib will take a few days to quit hurting. I gave her a dose to make it knit, but until it does, she needs to be handled with kid gloves.”
She realized her other hand was still tightly clenched around the rubber spider. She opened her palm and held Bucky up to Caph. “Here,” she whispered. “Hold on to this for me until I feel better.”
He laughed. “Is that what you threw at her?”
Emi managed a nod.
“Okay,” Ford scolded. “Leave her alone. Now. You can sit and stare at her, but quit making her talk, goddammit. She needs her rest.”
As she drifted back into unconsciousness, she felt Caph start to massage her feet while Aaron laced his fingers through hers and rested his head on the bunk next to her.
* * * *
She opened her eyes and realized both eyelids now obeyed commands from her brain. Ford had been trained as a medic, but with all the fights he and Caph had been in, he probably relied more on his practical memory than any training to get her body healed to this point. Still, she hurt like hell.
Ford’s concerned, blue-eyed gaze came into view. “How you feeling, sweetie?”
“Like I had the crap beat out of me.”
Caph, who’d apparently been sitting with his head resting on the end of the bunk, sat up. “Hey, babe.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I love you.”
She felt for and found his hand and squeezed. “Love you, too, big guy.”
“She’s not dying,” Aaron quipped from somewhere out of her range of vision. She sensed him walk over. Then he appeared, standing next to Ford.
He gave her a smile. “Feeling better?”
“A little. Help me sit up, please.”
All three leaned in, nearly bonking their heads together in the process. “I’ve got her,” Caph tersely said. The other two backed off and let Caph help her. He kept an arm around her, protectively tucking her close to his body.
Emi suspected he’d never leave her side if it wasn’t for the fact he had to take turns with the others doing watches.
She placed a hand on his chest as a wave of regret washed over her from him. “Caph,” she gently said, “you and Ford didn’t do anything wrong.”
His gentle face clouded. “I wanted to kill that bitch,” he said. “If I’d been able to get up off that bench, I would have. I felt so damned angry and scared for you. It’s our job to protect you and I couldn’t.”
She glanced at the other two men and saw their sad expressions. They felt the same, to a lesser degree than Caph. Their sadness was more for the large man than it was over their own feelings. She tipped her face up and kissed him. “I’m okay. How about you carry me back to our cabin and help me get a shower?”
Before Ford or Aaron could respond, she found herself in Caph’s arms and being carried out of sick bay.
In his massive body she felt something else, an old, unhealed grief bubbling to the surface. Emi immediately realized the true source of Caph’s feelings.
He’d lost Kels, and nearly lost Aaron at the same time. Caph was a man of action, wanting to fix things and protect his loved ones. Watching Emi fight Rawin brought back a host of bad memories and grief he hadn’t adequately worked through yet.
They indulged in a water shower instead of a sonic one. Emi let him hold her, gently lathering her bruised flesh, carefully rinsing her off before patting her dry and carrying her to bed.
He lay with her tucked against his side. “I’m so sorry, Emi,” he whispered.
“It’s okay, big guy. I’m here. Everything’s fine.” She sensed Ford and Aaron approaching the cabin. “How about you make me some soup for lunch?”
Before the sound of her words had died in the air, Caph was up and bolting for the galley to get it for her. She still sadly stared at the doorway when Ford and Aaron appeared, both looking down the hallway in the direction Caph headed.
“Where’s he going in such a rush?” Ford asked.
“I sent him off for soup.”
Aaron walked over and kissed her. “Is he okay?”
She forced a smile. “I think he’s dealing with some old stuff now.”
“I suspected,” Ford said. “The big guy’s a softie. You know that.”
“Go easy on him, guys, okay?”
Aaron nodded. “Don’t worry. We will.” He stroked her hair. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Sore. I’ll survive and recover. Just need some more sleep.”
Ford held up a hypo bolus of medicine. “You want this now or after the soup?”
She reached for it. He walked over and dropped it into her palm. “I’ll give it to myself after the soup.”
“So do we let him stay in here with you all day,” Aaron asked, “or do we give him busy work to keep him focused?’
She loved that Aaron deferred to her about stuff like that. “I’ll make him leave when I finish lunch. Keep him busy. I think that’ll be best for him right now until we get back to our normal routine.”
“Whatever that is,” Ford snarked.
Chapter Fifteen
That night, after Emi awoke from her nap, she relaxed in their bed with an old movie vid playing on the screen. Bucky rested on her chest, his sightless rubber eyes staring up at her.
Emi stroked him. Caph had washed all the sand off him, leaving him squeaky clean.
She couldn’t help it. Bucky had helped her save her men. She wasn’t ready to let go of him yet.
Aaron laughed from the doorway. Without moving her still-sore neck, she looked at him. “I see Bucky’s got the good life now,” he teased.
She managed a smile for him. Even doing that still hurt, but not nearly as much as earlier, when she’d first awoken after they got her back to the ship. “Yeah, he does. I hope Caph doesn’t mind I’m not giving him back anytime soon.”
Aaron pushed off the doorway and walked over to sit next to her on the bunk. “I’m sure he won’t mind.” He reached out and stroked the spider with a finger. Emi felt a wave of melancholy from him.
She studied his expression. “What is it, Aaron?” she softly asked.
He wistfully smiled. “You didn’t hear the story of how Bucky came to be with us, did you?”
“No. I was too pissed off at Caph that morning to ask.”
“Kels scared Caph with it.”
That explained a lot. She felt guilty at her initial plans that morning to throw it away. “No wonder he begged me not to incinerate it.”
“Yeah. If you hadn’t agreed, then I would have stepped in and taken custody of Bucky myself.”
She looked at the rubber spider again, a little more guilt seeping in. “Maybe I should give him back, then.”
He shook his head. “No. He belongs with you now.” He let out a sad sigh. “I know this is sentimental, and please don’t take it the wrong way, but it’s like a little part of her is looking out for all four of us.”
&
nbsp; Emi started to mention the strange voice she’d heard in her mind during her fight with Rawin, then decided against it. It had to have been a trick of her own mind, probably due to her empath training and skills. Instead, she smiled. “I think that’s a wonderful way to look at it.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “Ford sent me to tell you dinner will be ready shortly, and to use my captainly authority to order you to stay here and be served in bed.”
She managed a soft laugh that didn’t hurt her healing ribs. “I won’t argue, Captain.”
He caressed her cheek. “I am so proud of you. I was really worried there for a while, though. I won’t lie to you. I thought she was going to beat you.”
“So did I for a while.” Emi returned her attention to Bucky. “So did I.”
* * * *
“What do you mean we can’t leave yet?” Emi asked Aaron the next morning.
She read his wave of patience, trying not to get upset for her benefit. “Honey, Mauri asked us to come down to the planet.”
“Oh, fuck no. She can’t make us. She let us all go!”
He nodded. “I know. However, she said she would consider it a personal favor if we would. She promised to come up to the space station herself and accompany us the entire time.”
Emi warily eyed him. “Why does she want us down there?”
“She insists that we have a right, according to their laws, to witness the initial punishment.”
Emi’s stomach rolled. “No thanks. I’m good.”
“She really feels horrible about what happened.”
“She’s just worried we’re going to give her a bad review in the next issue of Kinky Vacations for Horny Rich Women magazine, or however people find out about their planet.”
He smiled. “Maybe. But I believe her. Let’s end this trip on a good note.”
“Me winning wasn’t a good note?”
“Please?”
“Seriously, how is going down there a good note?”
“Mauri shared her report with me. The one she’s sending to the head honchos, praising us and our professionalism during the events and recommending we receive commendations for our service.”
“In other words, she’s scared shitless we’re going to say bad things about what happened and wants another chance to apologize and suck up.”
“Yes. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt. We were ordered to indulge diplomatic relations.”
“And I nearly lost the three of you because of that woman’s horny bitch cunt of a daughter!”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “Emi,” he quietly said. “Please?”
She glared at him. “Is that an order, Captain?”
He picked up her hand and brushed his lips across her knuckles. “It’s a request.”
“What’d the twins say?”
“They’re okay with it.”
Damn. “Clothes?”
“She personally assured me we are allowed to wear our standard crew uniforms. She entered an exception into their laws for diplomatic occasions.”
Emi snorted in disgust. “A little too late for that, huh?” He simply looked at her, waiting her out. “Okay, fine. Set it up.”
Two hours later, they were on their way to the surface in a shuttle with Mauri and Baltin. Emi had lost count of how many times the Moran leader profusely apologized to her for what happened. “I want to assure you, Doctor Hypatia, we are taking great pains to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. We are making video surveillance mandatory, and requiring video evidence in all future cases such as this.”
Emi didn’t want to debate their legal system, even though at least three faults in the Moran leader’s logic popped out at her immediately. All she wanted was to get the visit over with and get their asses back to the Bight and get the hell off that rock and back to their original mission.
Emi’s slow walking pace somewhat hampered their progress. Caph offered to carry her, but she declined, opting to lean on his arm for support instead. Modern medicine could do wonderful things, but her body still needed time and rest to heal from the pounding she’d suffered at Rawin’s hands.
When they entered the stables at the Imperial Home, Emi crossed her arms in front of her and tried not to look into any of the windows. At one point she walked into Caph, who’d stopped, mouth agape, as he stared into one of the rooms.
“Move it,” she grumbled, pushing him.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m moving.” She thought he’d kink his neck trying to turn his head to look back as he moved forward.
They reached the window Emi remembered from the previous visit. No one was in the room yet.
Mauri looked grim and spoke in Moran to one of the guards. The guard nodded and left. Then Mauri offered Emi a kind smile. “It pains me as a mother to have to do this.” Her expression hardened. “As a leader, however, I refuse to shun or shy away from my duties. My people expect me to uphold our laws. Her punishment will also be recorded for viewing by any who wish to see it. It is part of the sentence. My people will also see that I will not show any favoritism toward those who break our laws. Especially when they dishonor people whose only reason to come to our world in the first place was to help us, at our request.”
Rawin, naked except for a black collar and a harness around her waist, was dragged into the room by two red-collared males. Both males wore grim expressions and she realized one bore fresh scratches on his chest that looked like fingernail marks.
Apparently Rawin wasn’t going to meekly accept her punishment.
“The harness,” Mauri explained, even though Emi didn’t ask, “is also used much in the same way the attachment on the bench is used for males who normally service the ferals.”
Her meaning hit home. “You mean it’s like a vibrator?”
Mauri looked confused. “I do not know what that is, but she will receive physical pleasure during the servicing.” Mauri’s face looked even more grim. “It also means she will service ferals the way males do. She will not be allowed, during the time of her sentence, to service the males in the way females normally use them. She must rut like a male. And her debasement will be recorded for all to see as a lesson for all honor-titled women to never repeat her mistakes.”
The two males finally got Rawin down on the bench and bound her arms and legs to it. She couldn’t escape. They seemed to need a moment to recover their energy. Then one of them walked over to a shelf on the wall Emi hadn’t noticed before. He picked up something that looked like a remote control and pointed it at Rawin.
Her body arched off the bench as far as her restraints would allow. Despite not being able to hear what was going on, Emi could imagine the arched feet and clawing fingers meant an orgasm had hit her.
Then they grabbed something else from the shelf. When the second man grabbed a fistful of Rawin’s hair and pulled her head back, the male she’d scratched jammed the item into her mouth and buckled a strap around the back of her head. From the large ring in the gag that held Rawin’s mouth open, Emi easily surmised its purpose.
The collared male who’d been scratched made a gesture at Rawin. Emi suspected it was the Moran equivalent of flipping a bird. Then he grabbed his cock, stroked it a few times to make it hard, and fed it into her mouth through the ring in the gag. Rawin continued rolling through her orgasm as the male grabbed her head and started fucking her mouth. He soon finished, laughing and stepping aside for the other male to take his turn.
When both males finished using her, the one who’d been scratched opened the door and motioned someone in. A handler had a feral male on a pole attached to the feral’s collar.
Rawin turned her head to look. She appeared to be sobbing at the appearance of the feral male, shaking her head.
The feral male didn’t look too sure about the situation either and had to be coaxed over by his handler. Then his male handler slapped her on the ass, apparently to show the feral it was okay.
One of the other male handlers picked up the remote
control again and made an adjustment to the settings on Rawin’s harness.
When the feral male began fucking her in the ass, Rawin’s body appeared eager to fuck herself back onto his enormous cock, regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.
“She will service twenty to thirty ferals a day as part of her punishment,” Mauri quietly said. “In addition to the trainers and any public service use they find for her. And her body will enjoy it. Her body will be retrained to only receive pleasure when servicing males for their pleasure. Even after her sentence is over, she will never again be able to feel pleasure unless she is servicing a male.” The older woman shook her head. “She would have been next in line to take over and now look at her. Nothing more than a rutting whore for males and ferals.”
The first feral finished and was led away. Another feral was brought in. As if no longer in control of her own body, Rawin’s hips started frantically humping at the air when she spotted the next feral male.
Emi turned away. “I’ve seen enough. Can we go?”
“Do you wish to see the other two receive their initial punishments? It is your right under our laws.”
“Not really. I get it. I’ll pass. I just want to get back to our ship and lie down.”
Mauri nodded. “Of course, Doctor Hypatia.”
The Moran leader led the way out of the stables. Behind her, she heard Caph whisper to Ford, “These people are fucking messed up in the head. They call that punishment? People pay good money at the Tardarius brothels to be treated like—”
“Caph!” Aaron quietly scolded. “They do things differently than we do. Shut. Up.”
He fell silent.
* * * *
Emi had plenty of time to kill. Aaron ordered her confined to quarters to rest for a few days. She used part of the time to catch up on her reading and vid watching, including the ancient film The Wizard of Oz.
Her eyes teared up as she realized the significance of the costumes.
Ford’s sense of irony apparently knew no bounds. When he appeared a few hours later to check on her following his watch, she crooked a finger at him, calling him over to the bed. When he bent down, she kissed him.
Spider Bight Page 13
