The Owl Initiative

by A. C. Ellas

  Cai wiggled his butt against the hard shaft pressing against him from beneath. “Are you going to spank me now?”

  “I was thinking of rodding you instead,” Nick replied, referring to a space-war technique of dropping an iron rod onto a planet from orbit. It had the effect of a massive nuclear strike without the nasty radioactive effects. Basically, it was equivalent to smacking a planet with an asteroid, but their shape and composition meant that they could be aimed. Laughing Owl was actually carrying six of the heavy rods suitable for planetary bombardment and a dozen smaller rods deemed sufficient for domed colonies. Cai had supervised the loading of this payload himself, in person, along with his chief engineer and the supercargo—the mass had to balance just right.

  Nick’s hands were unfastening Cai’s pants now. Cai wiggled again. “Here?”

  “Why not?” Nick tugged the waistband down; Cai raised himself to allow the fabric to slide down. Nick pulled the pants and the underwear down at the same time, baring Cai’s ass to the cool breeze from the air exchangers.

  The air caressed his skin in counterpoint to Nick’s hot hands, the contrast adding to the tactile enjoyment. When Nick pulled Cai back down, he discovered that Nick had bared himself as well. The hard head of Nick’s cock briefly pressed against Cai then parted him and bulled its way inside. Cai’s own weight worked to push Nick more deeply into him; he impaled himself on Nick’s thick spear and loved every moment of it. It felt so good pressing into him, rearranging him, filling him to the point of bursting then delving even more deeply. He groaned as the coarse pubic hair pressed against his tender flesh, as Nick’s hand came forward and cupped and rolled his balls.

  The hard rod pumped him, stroking him from the inside as it moved in and out with a firm, forceful action. Cai spread himself against it, flexed his back and buttocks to accentuate Nick’s efforts and simply enjoyed being taken so deeply and so well. Nick’s hands continued to play with his package, rolling his balls and caressing his erection, adding that extra bit of stimulation and love.

  Cai felt the tension mounting in him far more quickly than he would have thought, and Nick sped up, working him harder and faster, deeper and stronger, and Cai lost his control, spurting into Nick’s waiting hand as the wave of orgasmic pleasure crashed over him and into Nick. It was almost as glorious as a jump and entirely satisfying in its own right. Nick pumped him a few more times, then Cai moaned in appreciation as he felt the strong throbbing of Nick’s cock as it pumped its load deeply into him. That night, he’d be the one wearing the plug, holding Nick’s semen inside his body for as long as he could.

  Chapter Ten: The Attack

  Nick studied the holotank with Nbuntu at his right elbow and Cortez at his left elbow. All four attack groups were closing on their targets. Nbuntu had changed the plan after seeing the system; instead of all twelve Owls hitting the one planet, each group had a different planet. Cai called it a miracle that all the ships had made it to the system, though they had idled for weeks out in the Kuiper Belt before they’d all gotten there.

  More than once, Nbuntu had been ready to launch the mission without the full complement of ships and had backed down saying, “Let’s give them a little more time.” His patience had been rewarded.

  The Owls had crossed through the Kuiper Belt and through the outer system completely undetected. None of the Gators had reported so much as a casual scan. They were approaching the inner system now, coming in just above the plane of the sparse asteroid belt. If this succeeded, they had every chance of exiting the system alive. If it failed to cause enough chaos, they’d be in for a heavy firefight.

  Nick thought they’d be in a firefight either way, so he had his flyers already in their fighters and ready to launch and his gunners manning their guns in a heightened alert mode. Each gunner had already selected an enemy ship to target and was continually adjusting their aiming point as relative positions changed. If a ship fell out of the gun’s range, the gunner promptly selected a new target to aim at. It was great practice for them in addition to the practical aspects of being prepared to take out as many nearby ships as possible, as quickly as possible, when the time came.

  Cai pinged him and the admiral on the shipnet. “Captain, Admiral, all Owls are in position and ready to go.”

  “Thank you, Astrogator,” Nbuntu replied. “Captain, please commence the attack. Astrogator, signal the others to proceed as well. Unleash hell on these bastards.”

  Nick’s mouth went dry, but he managed to broadcast shipwide, “Commence the attack.” The crew was already at their battle stations, of course. Nothing more needed to be said. After losing hundreds of thousands of civilian lives across a dozen colony worlds, the humans were finally going to strike back.

  The AI was acting as the targeting computer now. The screens showed the scan of the fourth planet’s surface. Their six targets had been carefully selected over a day ago. None of the rods were being aimed at the same place. With eighteen rods between the three ships, there was enough destructive energy being delivered to the planetary surface to trigger an extinction event twice over. Laughing Owl shook like a wet dog as each of the six rods were launched. Cai was flying a specific pattern over the planet to drop his payload, the Barn Owl and the Screech Owl had different patterns reflective of their differing targets, and the Gators had taken care that none of the course lines conflicted.

  Cai had shut down all his dampeners before commencing his attack run, as had the others. To the Rels, Nick imagined it would be frightening. Out of nowhere, a dozen enemy ships suddenly appeared and attacked. Cai was accelerating now since there was no need for stealth and great need for speed. With the six planetary rods on their unstoppable trajectories, Cai turned his attentions to the moon colonies. These were designated as targets of opportunity, and Cai and the AI had a dozen rods to cause as much damage as he could while screaming back out-system at his maximum speed.

  The ship didn’t shake as much as Cai launched rod after rod aimed at the domes on several moons. Cai did seem to be shooting them as fast as he could, though. Nock nodded to himself. Cai was shedding the excess mass. He’d already pushed Laughing Owl past point five c, and the faster one tried to go, the more power it required. Energy still equaled mass times the speed of light squared, after all.

  Cai pinged them again. “Captain, all rods are away. Targets are locked.”

  Nick studied the holotank. Swarms of Rel ships were moving on intercept courses. A fight was guaranteed, and although the Owls were valiant, they were outnumbered a hundred to one. “Admiral, I recommend an emergency FTL transit—the undampened effects of multiple wormhole formations and collapses within the inner system will play as much havoc with the Rels as the rods will.”

  “I concur. Astrogator, prepare for emergency jump, order the others to do likewise. Scatter plan delta.”

  Nick nodded. Scatter plan delta was the retreat plan with the best chance of success. Each ship would resume full-stealth mode and change course. The original plan had them all aiming for a different hardpoint to jump from, but with this variant, they’d jump from wherever they were. The Astrogators were responsible for charting their way back to human-held space independently; they all had the charts from previous exploratory runs, including Cai’s now-famous run from Luyten’s Star to Meli.

  He wondered what the Rels thought—he saw immediate changes in trajectories as the Owls went into full-stealth mode, not just making like rocks but becoming literal holes in space even more impenetrable than even a black hole because the Owls didn’t have event horizons to give them away. Only direct organic observation could spot them and then only by the stars they occluded on line of sight for the hulls had all been replated from matte grey to an eye-twisting black. Meeting the Rels has caused a sharp upgrade in our stealth technology, Nick thought.

  Yes, it has, Cai replied directly. Isn’t it always thus? Nothing fuels rapid technological advancement like an enemy with unknown capabilities. Aloud, the
Astrogator announced, “All hands, prepare for emergency FTL transit. You have three minutes to suit up and couch down.”

  People scrambled shipwide while Cai brought up the jump protocols. Fortunately, for most, it was just a matter of double checking their oxygen supplies and tightening down the restraints of the couches they were already in. Nick and Cortez both monitored the crew’s progress as the rest of the bridge crew ran through the shortened version of the jump checklist. This would be a hard jump; there were a lot of masses. But Cai was delaying his jump—Nick could tell. The Astrogator was ready to jump and yet, not jumping. The entire ship was prepared, everyone was in his or her couches, the batteries were at maximum capacity, the fusion reactors were cranking out their full output, and still, Cai wasn’t jumping.

  “Astrogator, what are you waiting for?” Nbuntu snapped.

  “Shut up,” Cai snapped back. He directed his sensor feeds into every couch on the ship as the rods impacted the fourth planet. Red, yellow and white flowers bloomed across the planet’s face then vanished into the blackness of smoke and Cai jumped the ship into subspace a moment later.

  * * * *

  He couldn’t believe the admiral had dared bother him in the midst of jump preparations. Yes, he’d delayed the jump, but still... Cai shrugged his anger off and concentrated on slaloming down the treacherous slope, trying to avoid the looming masses all around him. His acceleration was phenomenal, too, reaching the maximum stress level his frame could take far too quickly, forcing him to try to slow, to bank his body around the obstacles in a way that didn’t add velocity. He reached the chasm and leaped easily, catching the edge of the next system and climbing upward past the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt until he could feel a stable place to emerge.

  He activated his jump maskers, hoping they’d respond even here in subspace, and they came right online without a hitch. Cai untwisted the untwistable, and they popped into normal space at an awesomely fast point eight c, still redlining the structural tolerances. He took a quick look around. Another Rel system, one his databanks recognized, since he’d been here before. This time, he wasn’t noticed. He plotted a course for the next hardpoint he wanted; it was a third of the way around the system’s disk from his present location. He could use that giant gas ball, a Neptune analogue, for gravity braking, but at the moment, he was happy with point eight c.

  “Can we slow it down a bit, Cai? Engineering is squawking like a bunch of flustered hens over the structural stressors.”

  Cai recomputed, this time with the gravity-braking maneuver around the gas giant. “Very well, bringing us down to a nice point seven. Will that satisfy?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Cai turned his belly to the gas planet as he ripped through the outer layer of the atmosphere, leaving a long line of fire and roiling cloud behind him to mark his passage. Let the Rels wonder about that, he muttered as he shot out of the planet’s clutches like a greased pole. He’d done more than leave a calling card for the enemy; he’d used the planet’s gravity to slow him to a more stable point seven, just like he’d computed. They’d be at the next hardpoint in only a few hours, so once Cai checked to see if any Rel ships wanted to play and finding nothing moving toward him, he relaxed back into his physical body, the group mind of himself and his adjuncts breaking back into their individual states.

  He opened his eyes as the crystal array retracted back into the ceiling then allowed his adjuncts to peel him out of the couch. He still had that damn tube down his throat, and it was very irritating. He reached up and pulled it out, trying valiantly not to heave all over Tri-ess as the thing slid over his gag point. He dropped the tube into the recycle bin as he marched, with assistance, to bed.

  He was so exhausted, he could barely see, his left knee had locked and his right knee ached. His adjuncts ended up carrying him into his bedroom. He collapsed onto the soft surface of his bed, and finally, something good happened. Nick’s arms came about him, supporting him in a gentle embrace. Cai turned toward his husband, rested his head on Nick’s firm, warm chest and fell asleep almost instantly.

  When the alarm sounded two subjective minutes later, admittedly closer to three hours in real time, Nick said, “This is dangerous, love.”

  “Coffee,” Cai replied. He craved coffee from the very bottom of his heart. He’d worry about the jump after he’d had some hot heaven in a mug. He sat up to accept the steaming mug from Fo-vi. His adjuncts knew him, being as they were a part of him. The coffee had been started twenty minutes before his alarm had gone off.

  Nick chuckled, accepting a second mug from Tri-ess. “Thanks, dear.” His captain stretched, and Cai admired the man’s mountain-climber physique. Cai was well aware of Nick’s favorite leisure activity; he’d followed along via Nick’s implant as Nick had tackled rock faces with ropes and pitons and other gear Cai didn’t have the proper names for. He’d never have an opportunity to climb a mountain himself, so the matter was very academic to him. Nick enjoyed it, and that was good enough.

  “Wish I didn’t have to Chamber,” Cai admitted when Nick noticed his attention.

  “Then don’t,” Nick said, much to his surprise.

  “What?” Cai set his mug down. “Nick, we’re almost at the hardpoint.”

  “I don’t think we should go home, I think we should go back. The Rels think we’ve gone. I want to see the results of our attack.” Nick sipped his coffee. “I think you should hide us here for a day or two then jump back to their home system. We take a look, make some scans...”

  “I think you better run that by the admiral,” Cai suggested. “And quickly.” Cai didn’t have to jump from the hardpoint, but the more he delayed, the less slope he’d have to build up speed in subspace, and that could, theoretically, affect the jump over the bottomless pit between systems. He wasn’t worried, of course, but his crew would be, and also, the admiral might not be thrilled with Laughing Owl sailing off into the starry void past the hardpoint.

  Nick grinned at him. “I already have. He agrees. Now, you need to eat then go back to bed. Once you’re rested, you can turn us around and take us back to the Rel home system.”

  Cai almost choked. He did shake his head. “I’m screaming into the void at point seven c.”

  “At that rate, we’ll reach the closest star in what, five years?” Nick snorted. “You can make it up, don’t pretend you can’t. Time isn’t as important here as your health.”

  “I’d be happier if I could change our course at least.”

  “Not happening,” Nick told him. “Unless there’s an emergency threatening the ship, I’m banning you from that Chamber for the next eight hours.”

  “You can’t do that,” Cai protested.

  Nick snorted, pulled Cai out of bed and marched out of the bedroom, across the parlor and into the dining room where the meal had already been laid out by Cai’s industrious adjuncts. He pushed Cai into a chair and served him deftly.

  Cai looked at the casserole—it was leftovers, but it was Nick’s leftovers and absolutely perfect for a situation like this. It was also hot, flavorful and filling. Nick kept piling food onto his plate until he thought his stomach was going to burst if he ate another bite. Nick then directed him back into the bedroom, pushed him back onto the bed and pinned him down.

  Before Cai could react, Nick had his pants down and was slurping his mouth over Cai’s stiffening cock. Cai moaned in pleased surprise, though he was fully aware of what Nick was doing—delaying him. Nick couldn’t actually forbid him to enter the Chamber. At the moment, as Nick swallowed him from head to root, turning the ship was the last thing on Cai’s mind. In the end, Nick got his way, and Cai didn’t enter the Chamber until a full twelve hours had passed.

  Chapter Eleven: The Return

  Cai studied his situation dispassionately. Fifteen hours after his initial jump into this system, he was nearly past the Kuiper Belt and approaching the Oort Cloud. He had to turn around, but the real trick was to do so withou
t being observed. He needed a dwarf planet or a very large space rock. He had already turned his nose to point back along his trajectory and was feeding power to the ion engines. The steady thrust was slowing him since he was applying it directly in counter to his vectored momentum, but it wasn’t stealthy.

  The glow of ionized hydrogen would give him away before long. He had an hour before the light of his exhaust would reach the nearest Rel ships. He’d better be long gone before they mounted a response. However, it had worked to slow him point two c already, and assuming he didn’t find any dwarf planets to change his vector, he would eventually come to a stop then accelerate back along his own path. The problem was it would take too long. He had to assume the Rels would see his trail, unlikely though it really was given the vastness of space, the distances involved and the relatively low-energy output of his thrust compared to astronomical objects.

  “And now I’m a bloody planet hunter,” Cai muttered to Nick over the shipnet as he continued his survey. So far, he hadn’t found anything even remotely large enough to use out here.

  “Then, why not use that bloody planet over there?” Nick replied. “As fast as you fly, you’d be in, around and out before the Rels could react, and with the jump maskers, they might just assume you’d shot off into the Kuiper Belt again.” Nick sent an image of Rel ships chasing a phantom ship into the Oort Cloud.

  Cai looked again at the relatively small gas giant. It was a real planet, inside the heliopause, but he could reach it far more easily than he could perform a direct turn around. Either the planet was at aphelion or it orbited on the very verge of the heliopause and probably played havoc with the hardpoints whenever it was nearby. He ran the numbers again, estimating times, relative speeds, probable Rel response time... he wanted to shake his head, but he was in Chamber. “I think I can do this in such a way that the Rels assume me to be a cometary impact event.”