Starship Desolation

by Tripp Ellis

  “Doc, snap out of it. She needs an implant,” Marco said.

  It took a moment for Doc’s eyes to focus. A moment later, he nodded and pushed up from the desk. He listed over to the cabinets and grabbed an obedience disc.

  Doc ambled over to Slade. His words were thick and slurry. “Don’t move during the process, or you could become paralyzed.”

  Marco put a gun to Slade’s head. “Or you could become dead.”

  No way was she going to let this happen.

  Doc was trying to line up the disc and implant it on the back of her neck. But he was having a hard time. His hand was drifting from side to side.

  Slade mashed a stiletto into Marco’s foot. She spun around and leaned out of the way as Marco squeezed the trigger.

  BAM!

  A .45 caliber round drilled past her forehead. She could feel the breeze as the bullet pierced the air. She did a roundhouse and kicked the gun from Marco’s hand. The gun clattered across the floor.

  Like lightning, Slade kicked Marco in the groin. But it didn’t faze him. He grabbed onto her ankle and yanked her from her feet. Slade’s head smacked the hard floor.

  Marco rolled her onto her stomach and pounced on her back. He grabbed her hair and mashed her face into the floor. He put his other hand between her shoulder blades and held her to the ground.

  “Trust me, you really don’t want to move during this process,” he said.

  This was more action than the Doc had seen in quite some time. He looked on, nervously.

  “Go ahead, Doc,” Marco said.

  Doc knelt to the floor, placing the disc against Slade’s neck. Then he activated it. Eight spider-like arms burrowed into her skin and affixed the disc to her neck. Her body stiffened as the nano-tentacles plunged into her spinal fluid and spread to her brain.

  Within moments, she relaxed. She was calm and sedate. She was something she never thought she’d be—compliant.

  Marco grabbed his gun from the floor and holstered it. Doc gave him a controller, specifically coded for Slade’s implant. He pulled Slade from the ground and marched her to another room down the hall. He pushed her inside. It was a typical pleasure room. There was a bed, seductive lighting, music.

  Marco removed her handcuffs.

  There was a part of her that wanted to escape. But she just couldn’t make her body do anything about it. Part of her was terrified. Part of her just didn’t care.

  She looked over the room, then faced Marco as he stood by the door.

  “Let me tell you how things work around here.” Marco held the controller in his hand. “You can feel pleasure…” He pressed a button. A flood of endorphins rushed through Slade’s body. It was pleasure like she had never felt before. Every nerve ending in her body bristled with euphoria.

  “Or you can feel pain.” Marco pressed another button. Stabbing, pulsing pain covered her body. Deep, chilling pain. Like every bone in her body had been broken. Like her skin had been seared and her flesh was blistering. Like someone had stabbed an ice pick through her temples. She crumpled to the ground, and tears streamed from her eyes.

  Marco lifted his finger from the pain inducer.

  Slade felt instant relief. She exhaled, and her body relaxed.

  “Do what you’re told, and you get rewarded with pleasure. Cause trouble, and your life will be hell. Do we understand each other?”

  Slade nodded.

  “You know, most girls grow to like it here. They get addicted to the pleasure. I’m told nothing can compare—that no pleasurable experience is as complete as one derived from pure brain stimulation.”

  Marco hit the pain button again. Slade seized up in pain. She twitched and convulsed on the ground for a minute. Then Marco released her.

  “That’s for kicking me in the balls.”

  She gasped for air and wiped the tears from her eyes.

  Marco yanked her up from the floor. “Now you’re going to go down there and do exactly as you’re told. And if you try to leave, I can inflict pain and track you down. You’ll probably be dead by the time I get to you, so I advise against trying to escape.”

  Marco escorted her down to the main stage. He whispered something to the DJ.

  After the current song ended, the DJ introduced Slade to the eager crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage our newest addition to the Teasers’ House of Pleasure, the one and only, Ms. Electra!”

  And just like that, she had been dubbed with a new identity.

  Logan sat with his crew at a table by the stage. They were drinking their fill on Nicky’s dime. But Logan looked like an old stick in the mud. He wasn’t having a good time. He watched Slade as Marco shoved her onto the stage.

  “What’s the matter, boss?” Gorth asked. “You look like someone kicked your dog.”

  “Nothing.”

  “Come on. 300K, that’s the most we’ve ever scored. Plus the 50K on the other goods we delivered to McMurphy. Not a bad haul. And you can settle your debt.”

  Logan forced a smile.

  “Shit boss. Don’t tell me this one got under your skin?”

  Logan’s face tightened. “No. Of course not.”

  “Then live a little,” Gorth slurred. “We earned it.” He slugged another shot down. He was going to drink his fill of free whiskey.

  “This is Ms. Electra’s first night at Teasers. Please give her a warm welcome,” the DJ said.

  The crowd erupted with applause.

  Slade hesitantly walked to the end of the stage. A spotlight bathed her body in warm light.

  “Spin around, honey,” the DJ said. “Show them what you’ve got.”

  Slade did as he commanded.

  “This is a woman who knows how to fulfill your every desire,” the DJ said. “If you want some private time with Ms. Electra, grab her when she comes off stage. Better hurry. The line is going to be long for this one.”

  34

  WALKER

  Walker and Gavin stood over the carcass of an arthropod they had rooted out of its burrow and killed. Gavin cut into the creature’s flesh and scooped out its gooey green blood into a clay bucket.

  Walker’s face twisted up. “That smells like ass.” The stench hit him like a hot wall of filth.

  “Give me a hand with this, would you?” Gavin said. “Fill up that other bucket.”

  Walker cringed, but knelt down and started scooping the slop into the bucket. “Want to tell me what this is for?”

  “Those arthropods have a highly attuned sense of smell. While they have good visual acuity, their pattern recognition sucks. This blood will mask your scent. They’ll see you as one of their own.”

  “Have you tested this theory out before?”

  “Yes,” Gavin said. “You just better hope one of them doesn’t want to mate with you.”

  “That sounds pleasurable.” Walker grimaced, his voice thick with sarcasm.

  They hauled the slop back to Gavin’s dwelling. Malik’s face crinkled and Bailey whimpered.

  “Put a lid on that,” Malik said. “And I thought human’s smelled bad.”

  Gavin covered the buckets. It helped attenuate the stench a little, but not nearly enough. It permeated everything in the small dwelling. Gavin was never going to be able to get the smell out. But if things went well, he wouldn’t be living on this planet for much longer.

  After a while, they got somewhat numb to the horrid smell. But every now and then, you’d catch a good whiff of it and want to hurl. It was the kind of smell that you could almost taste in the back of your throat, triggering your gag reflex.

  Walker tried to get a good night’s sleep, but he kept having nightmare’s about bugs. When he woke in the morning, he was certain he was back on Delta Crucis 6, for a moment, fighting the bugs—and losing. The campaign on DC6 was one of his first deployments. After all these years, it still haunted him. He shook the dream off, and hoped it wasn’t some sort of bad omen.

  Gavin had stockpiled enough jerky to last for months
. Dehydrated on racks in the sweltering sun, the saber-tooth jerky made as tasty a breakfast as one could get on this planet. But with the stench of the bug goo wafting through the air, it was hard to enjoy the meal.

  They geared up for the journey, then doused themselves in the bug juice. Bailey was no fan of the putrid smelling slop. Walker coated Bailey’s skin with it, and the dog would try his damnedest to shake it off.

  “I know it smells bad, but it’s going to help,” Walker said. He gave Gavin the evil eye. “It better help.”

  The team set out for the flatlands. The goop dried and stuck to them like a nasty paste. By dawn, they had reached the end of the canyon.

  Walker looked out over the flatlands. “We’ll only be able to make it half way by midday. We’ll have to root one of those things out of their burrows and take shelter. We’ll march single file to minimize our footprint.”

  Walker started off jogging into the flats. He was keeping a good pace. Malik had no problem keeping up. He was physically superior. Bailey was a natural runner. But Gavin wasn’t used to this kind of physical exertion. He was lagging behind. His chest heaved and expanded as he gasped for breath. Sweat dripped from his brow. He had to stop several times, hunching over on his knees, sucking wind.

  Walker slowed up and waited for him, but he knew the delay was going to cause problems. They had been lucky, so far. They hadn’t seemed to stir up any arthropods.

  They all took a break and caught their breath for a moment. They weren’t even a quarter of the way to the ship, and the heat was becoming unbearable.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a march like this,” Gavin said between gasps. I’m slowing you down.”

  “We’ll be just fine,” Walker replied. “We’ve got maybe another hour before the heat will be too much. We can look for shelter now, or we can push on.”

  “We need to cover more ground,” Gavin said. “If we don’t, we’ll all freeze out here, come nightfall.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” Walker said.

  They followed him as he sprinted north. It wasn’t long before Gavin’s side was aching and he was gasping for breath again. He was limping along like a wounded animal. Eventually, he had to take a knee and catch his breath.

  Walker slowed and backtracked toward Gavin. “We’ll rest here a moment.”

  They still weren’t halfway yet.

  Walker took a swig of water.

  Malik was visibly frustrated. “I’ll carry him.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Gavin said, defiantly.

  “I’m twice as strong as you humans. I will not continue to waste valuable time placating your ego.”

  Gavin gritted his teeth. “You’ll be old too, one day.”

  “But not today,” Malik said. “If we continue to let him drag us down, we will all die.”

  This infuriated Gavin. He looked like he was about to pounce on Malik and start a brawl.

  “He’s right,” Walker said.

  Gavin scowled at Walker. “If you think I’m gonna let him give me a piggy back ride, you’ve got another thing coming.”

  “It wasn’t a suggestion, Lieutenant,” Walker said.

  “I should outrank you by now,” Gavin grumbled.

  “But you don’t.” Walker grinned.

  Gavin muttered something under his breath and climbed on Malik’s back. “This is ridiculous.”

  Bailey started barking.

  “What is it, boy?” Walker asked.

  Several arthropods emerged from the sand and surrounded them.

  35

  SLADE

  Logan grimaced and pushed back from the table.

  “Where you going, boss?” Mia asked.

  He ignored her and climbed onto the stage and pulled Slade away.

  “Seems we have a taker,” the DJ said.

  Mia and Gorth looked at Logan like he was crazy.

  “What the hell has gotten into him?” Mia said.

  Logan led Slade to one of the pleasure rooms upstairs. He locked the door behind them.

  Slade was a little nervous, almost trembling, not sure what he had in mind.

  “Relax,” he said. “If I wanted you, I could have taken you back on my ship.”

  Slade was relieved and oddly offended at the same time. “Please, I remember kicking your ass, if I’m not mistaken.”

  Logan glared at her.

  “So, what, did you miss my charming personality? You bring me up her just to talk?”

  “I’m trying to help you. But keep being a smart ass and I’ll be happy to throw you back to the wolves.”

  “Did you suddenly develop a conscience?”

  He scowled at her again. “Look, lady. I don’t really give a shit what happens to you. You’re just another piece of merchandise.” He was lying. Slade could see in his eyes that what he had done was eating at him.

  “How many girls have you done this to?”

  “Plenty.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He lifted his brow at her. “You think I’m some kind of amateur?”

  “I think you’re a delivery boy. And you’ve never delivered a cargo like this before. That’s why you’re here. You feel guilty. Who knew scumbags could have a conscience?”

  Logan’s eyes narrowed at her. “I don’t need to take this bullshit from you. Have a nice life.” He spun around and marched for the door.

  “Wait. Don’t go.”

  He stopped at the door with his back to her.

  “You have to help me.”

  “I don’t have to do shit.”

  “Please.” Her voice was frail and vulnerable. It wasn’t a tone that often slipped from her lips. It was a tone that was hard to ignore.

  Logan grimaced, mad at himself for letting Slade get to him. Pissed he had gotten into this situation in the first place. He knew he was going to regret getting involved with her.

  He turned around and her big blue eyes were pleading with him.

  “I can’t help you. You don’t cross Little Nicky and live. I’ve got my own problems, I don’t need any more.”

  “Then why bring me up here?”

  “Okay, fine. You’re right. I’ve never done this before, and I feel like shit about it, if you want to know the truth. I usually just run drugs for Nicky. But I needed the extra cash.”

  “Help me get out of here.”

  “If I do that, I’m a dead man. And I’ve already got one bounty out on my head.”

  “Well, you can’t die twice,” Slade said, her voice filled with subdued optimism.

  “You can’t leave. The minute you step out of the building, it will trigger your implant. You’ll be filled with unimaginable pain. You won’t make it past the sidewalk.”

  “Then we take the implant out.”

  “It’s not that simple. Remove it improperly, and you could become paralyzed, or even die.”

  “We find the Doc, and force him to remove it? Problem solved.”

  Logan cringed. This was all going to end badly, and he knew it. But he agreed. He had gotten her into this mess. He was going to get her out of it.

  He pushed open the door and peered down the hallway. There was a fat old guy pulling a young girl into one of the pleasure rooms. They disappeared inside the room, and the hallway became quiet.

  “Stay here,” Logan said.

  He slipped out of the room and crept down the hallway to the Doc’s office. He put his ear to the door, but didn’t hear any activity inside. He pushed through and found Doc passed out at his desk. But as he stepped closer, Logan had that sinking feeling in his stomach that the Doc wasn’t just passed out. There was an empty syringe on the desk. Doc’s body was cold and lifeless. Logan grabbed his hair and lifted his head. Doc wasn’t breathing. He had OD’d.

  Logan made his way back to Slade’s room and told her the bad news.

  “Just do it,” Slade said. “I’ll take my chances. Just pull the damn thing out. I’d rather die than spend the rest of my life like this.�
��

  Logan frowned, then pulled his mobile from his pocket.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I know a guy who might be able to help,” Logan said.

  The call connected. A young guy appeared on the screen. He was early 20’s, and he didn’t look too happy to be hearing from Logan. “What do you want?”

  “I was just calling to see how you’ve been? Long time, right?”

  “You only call when you want something. And you still owe me money.”

  Logan grinned. “Silas, I don’t want anything. I just need some help… for a friend.”

  “Logan, you don’t have any friends. Just people you use.”

  Logan turned the mobile so the camera could frame Slade.

  “Take my advice, Lady. You don’t want anything to do with this guy,” Silas said.

  Logan turned the display back to face himself. “We’re in a bit of a situation.”

  “Not my problem.”

  “I can pay.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “No, really,” Logan said. “I’m flush at the moment.”

  “Then why is there still a bounty out on your head.”

  “Today was payday. I can either settle up with you, and compensate you handsomely for a very simple job. Or I can take all these credits and erase my debt with the Duke.”

  “The smart thing is to settle up with the Duke. I’m not really looking to kill you over the 1000 credits you owe me.”

  “As we both know, I don’t always do the smart thing. Call it a genetic defect.”

  “You’re defective, alright.”

  “Do you want the job, or not?”

  “What is it?” Silas asked.

  “She needs an implant removed.”

  Silas cringed. “Those are risky.”

  “We know that. Can you do it?”

  “I’ve done them before.”

  “Great. We have a deal.”

  “We haven’t even discussed price,” Silas said.

  “10,000 credits.”

  Silas’s eyes went wide. “Okay. Bring her over.”

  “No. You have to come here.”

  “Where is here?”

  “Teasers.”

  “Oh, hell no!” Silas shook his head.

  “What’s the big deal?”