by M. Garnet
"Where's our visitor?" Bruno asked as he chomped on a chunk of cheese. He had a strange-looking apple in the other hand and a mug propped up on the dash near his feet.
"Tearing our ship apart looking for the weapon. I guess she will be up here soon and checking your pockets."
Bruno raised his eyebrows. "I'll let her search me all over. She's nice-looking when she quits gritting her teeth."
"Well, you need to watch out for her knives. Not the long ones you can see on her hips. You need to watch out for the ones she had hidden. That is one dangerous bitch." Keenan reached under his seat and pulled out a bottle that was two-thirds full of whiskey.
He and Bruno shot the shit for the next few hours, and when it was late enough, Thea came up to take the co-pilots seat.
"Okay, guys. I'm going to get some sleep." Keenan got up and made his way off the bridge, ducking to get through the airlock door and down the hall.
"Captain, soldier breaking in your cabin."
"Fuck." He took long steps down the slope of the hall past the gallery and up to the cabin area. Sure enough, she was working on the palm plate at the Captain's Cabin. He didn't say anything, just approached her in a hurry and grabbed her by the hips, and then slammed her against the opposite wall.
Chapter Fifteen
She didn't make a sound, but her instincts were fast as she reached for one of the knives on her hip. Struggling, she flipped her back to the wall as she tried to work her hand down to one of her sharp weapons.
He grabbed onto both hands and pulled them above her head, having to use some of his unusual strength to control the fighting soldier. He had her hands pinned hard against the metal wall with one hand and reached down to pull a knife loose and let it drop to the floor of the hall.
The fighting soldier twisted her hips to bring a knee up, aiming at something very important to a male. Using the longer length of his body, he pushed her hips back with his and put a leg between hers. Now he had her trapped with body to body.
Changing hands that were holding her arms above her head, he pulled out the other long knife, letting it join the first one on the metal below. He began to run his hand over her body, feeling for other items that would stick him. Running his hand over her firm breasts held in the special shirt made for females, he decided that this bitch was all woman. Sure enough, between the full orbs was another knife. It dropped with a ring to join the others.
As she tried to butt him with her head, he pushed hard against her to make it hard for her to breathe. His body was reacting to being shoulder to knee against a full-blown female, but a blown-up cock felt something hard that wasn't a woman. He worked his hand down inside the pants of the hot woman, and yes, near her crotch was another knife.
He couldn't resist moving the back of his fingers against the moist female, and suddenly with that, she froze. He grabbed the knife and pulled it from her clothes, and let it drop with its brothers. He was beginning to have a pile on the metal floor. Thinking she probably had a knife down on one leg or the other near an ankle, he was trying to think of how to reach those locations when she pushed her hips against him. That felt good.
"That fucking box isn't in my cabin, but if you just wanted to inspect my bunk real close, I would love to be the tour guide." He pushed with his hips, letting her feel the length of his aroused member.
"Let me go, and I will kill you."
"Kill me, and you and your boss will never get the weapon." The two glared at each other, faces almost touching. He was surprised when she closed her eyes and quit struggling. He did not trust this viper, waiting for her next move. Even though she was stiff in his hold, she did nothing, hanging with his body pressing her against the cold metal wall.
Bringing up his free hand to lift her face, he wrapped his long fingers around her neck and felt a prick. Putting his hand into her tightly twisted knot of hair at the back of her neck, he found another knife.
"Damn bitch, didn't they teach you how to shoot a fucking gun." The click of the knife hit the floor as her hair became loose over one shoulder. Her dark brown eyes opened, and there was a flame there, but he couldn't read hate. What was she up to now?
Even without changing or drawing on the mother earth, he was a tall, strong male, but she had given him a good fight. She had spent years in training as a soldier, and her muscles were well-toned, without an inch of extra weight on her body. Yet, there were some curves that marked a female.
Being a male that never had a hold on his urges, he also never took a female by force. He wanted approval and always gave as good as he got. He just looked for the chance for a little more often than most males and had the blessings of looks that drew women like flies to three-day-old dead fish.
But he wasn't sure what he was seeing in those dark brown eyes right now. Then she whispered. "Show me your bunk."
Now that was a surprise. After all the fighting and kicking, she was asking to see his room in a manner that sounded like sex and not a cup of tea. He released her hands, took her by one upper arm, and hit the palm plate to open the door. At this point, he wasn't about to let her go. Inside the room, it was the soldier that turned on him.
It turned into a different type of fight. This never was a sex that most people would understand. It was hard and sweaty, and there were bite marks on both bodies. It was a one time in which he got to sink deep into her as she clawed at him and used her tongue on his mouth. If the bunk had not been soldered in place, it would have been torn from the wall.
There wasn't time for all the clothes to be removed, but there were a lot of rips while two heavy breathing people tried to get closer to each other. The orgasm was together and almost as strong as if it had been a battle. But when the breathing slowed, she was up, pulling her clothes together and opening the door, as she slammed her hand on the plate.
Rolling over on a side, feeling like he had just fought a battle and not a love fest, he watched her pick up all her knives from the floor of the hallway. Without looking back, she was gone, and he was left to wonder what had happened. He did feel some relaxation, as any male felt when they had dumped their semen into someone. But he was confused. What a strange bitch. He felt too worn out to even get up and close the door.
Poly bobbed in the opening. "Do I watch?" The calm teacher's voice was funny to Keenan, and he lay back and laughed. This was turning into one of the weirdest trips he had experienced since obtaining the Adamant.
Checking in his mirth, Keenan finally answered his crew bot. "Yes, keep her in contact and report to me in two hours."
"Confirm, Captain."
Relaxing back with Poly off and the door still open, Keenan told his body to sleep for two hours ship time. They were on a twenty-four-hour standard time unit, but after skipping around to so many different planets, it was hard for the crew to know what unit to use. So, they just decided on their day and night periods. They had a large clock up high in the bridge, and when they were out in the deep dark, they adjusted their lives to that clock. It was a twenty-four-hour clock with a side in white and the other in black.
Precisely in two hours, Keenan opened his eyes and slowly rose from the wrinkled bunk. Everything smelled of sex and was either misplaced or torn. He shook his head as he stripped off the destroyed pants and shirt and pulled up the loose bedding. He stuffed everything into the side chute and went into the bathroom to spend some time in the shower.
When he came out, he knelt beside the plant in his cabin. There were many plants throughout the ship, including a complete small farming unit built into a section near a wing. This one was a large pot full of rich soil and housed a beautiful orga tree. It was a type of tree found on most worlds and in larger forms was called Pine or Fir trees.
Although he took good care of the small tree, seeing that it got the correct amount of light from the special bulb above it, the tree was not important. It was the mother earth that healed him as he put his hands deep into the dirt. He stood feeling renewed. All the marks the soldier had
decorated on him were gone, and his body was feeling strong as if he had slept for ten hours. Time to get dressed.
He pulled out a pair of the black pants he preferred and put his naked feet into the tall boots, stooping to push the closures together. He grabbed a dark soft shirt and pulled it on over his head. He reached over and grabbed a regular hair tool and removed the stubble from his face, tossing it aside as he headed to the bridge.
Time to check on their progress and see how his crew was doing. Going past the gallery, he took a minute to fix a sandwich and grab a bulb of juice. At last, he ducked to walk into the bridge and sighed. He wasn't sure when this had started to feel like home, but this was where he breathed easy.
Sliding into his favorite Captain's chair, he looked around at Thea in the co-pilot's seat and over at Bruno in his dark armor at the weapons console. Yes, this felt like a place where he could relax and feel safe. He held up the sandwich.
"Sandwich. I wonder when or why people started calling putting food between two pieces of bread a word that was sandwich. Sand is what we find on beaches or dead worlds, and which is the decision or indecision of a middle word. What the fuck does it mean when we put the two words together to make the food we eat?"
"I research for you, Captain. Soldier inside big shuttle" Poly was reporting on the soldier's hunt for the weapon.
Looking over at Thea with a raised eyebrow, Keenan shrugged. "Has she, uh, sort of, uh, cleaned herself up?"
"Soldier took clothes. Cleaned in cabin. Dozed for short time." Suddenly on a small screen above the dash, they could see the Sub-leader Sorchia Ment pulling open cabinets inside the big shuttle.
"She is one determined hunter." Thea leaned back and pointed a steaming mug up at the screen. They all sat back and watched her tap the walls with a metal bar, looking for hidden panels. It was relaxing and entertaining to watch the female hunt for the weapon. Of course, she was not going to find it, but it was interesting to watch someone else who was so determined.
"She was in here twice," Bruno mumbled around a sweet bun he was stuffing into his mouth.
"You didn't interfere with her?" Keenan spoke around a big bite of sandwich.
"Naw. Let her search. It gives her some meaning for her time with us." Now Bruno pulled up a water bulb to help wash down some of the bun, which had not stuck to his stubble on the outside.
"What are we seeing in the belt ahead?" Keenan looked at a couple of the other screens to see the blur of the distant rocks as they were now getting closer. Now the asteroids were starting to separate and become individuals. That is what happened in all of the belts that generally formed in solar systems.
From a great distance, the ring seemed to be a solid form of grey dust and matter. But get close, and you could fly through the big ice or metal rocks that were many klicks apart. Over the eons, natural movements and a bounce or two had caused a separation of everything in these large rings. Even the small dust was nothing that hung to any other item as they had collected to some more significant ice and rock. The most that happened, one rock would bounce another out into the system, and dust and ice would follow to make a comet.
That made the asteroid rings the perfect place to set up an outpost for miners or pirates. They're the people who were hiding from others who could build homes and fortresses to protect their centers and ships from intruders. Here small families that had misstepped could hide and stay together. Find the right type of rock, and the biggest crime lord could hunker down and run his empire and influence everywhere.
Chapter Sixteen
It was a bit harder to find a place where a crime lord had his hideout among so many asteroids of different sizes, in an immense circle around the distant sun of this system. First, there were a lot of choices that were from large ice junks to plain rocks and scary, hard metal forms.
Honest miners had found some to work, and their ships moved about like bugs moving off dead carcasses. You could keep going for days, in and out of the many planetoids, and finally, see where there was a busy place. Pirates had set up a hold with covers to trap in the air, parking places for many battered but usable ships.
But the Adamant was hunting for a large rock that could hold a great many people and dock good ships, some as big as warships. So, they were looking for the movement of the ships through the wide circle. It might mean looking at different sections of the massive band of the belt.
As quiet as the female soldier was, no one could sneak up on a Veldan modifier. Keenan sat down deep in the comfortable chair and knew exactly when the woman entered the bridge, trying to walk without any noise.
"How's the search going, Sub-leader?"
Hearing her give a snort, she walked up and put her hands on the back of the empty co-pilot's chair. "It is a large ship with too many places to put such a small item. I only want to confirm that the weapon is really in your possession."
"I don't think so. You want to find its location, then your orders are to fucking kill each one of us and take it to your boss." He swung his seat around and smiled at her. "Tell me I'm wrong."
"My order is to accompany the weapon to our leader." The woman said that statement with a straight face.
"We can check out my cabin again." Keenan had a wicked smile on his face as he looked the soldier up and down.
"That was one mistake." Now her façade broke as she snarled and turned to stomped out of the bridge, bumping her head on the low exit.
After she left, he checked the information on the archive that Poly had gotten from the burnt pad and put some changes into the limited AI and navigator. Within another day, they should be coming into the area indicated on the pad and hopefully near the headquarters of this evil crime lord. Then he shook his head. All crimes lords were evil. That thought ran through his mind, and he remembered who he had met in the past. Perhaps this one was no worse than the others out there, breaking the laws and robbing good people. Maybe he had just painted this one darker due to what this man had ordered done to Keenan's family.
Going deeper into the belt but not seeing any asteroids, except on the screens above while the radar and other devices tracked the rocks. Now the information from the intelligent dashboard told Keenan that there was a ship out in the same area as the Adamant. Ships meant people, and people had to have a place to survive. That meant air and food, and water.
The ship's shape said it was an older freighter. It was going in the same direction they were heading. If the location on that burnt pad was the headquarters of the Transformed, there should be a lot of activity near it.
Soon both Thea and Bruno were at their positions, as after a long day, it looked like they were finally getting close. They checked the position marked on the burnt-out pad. Of course, Poly had saved the information, and now it was up on a small screen with a red dot for a destination.
Space was deep and large, even in an asteroid ring. They had passed a rock that was being mined by some unknown people. They didn't send out a standard alert and didn't answer a contact from Keenan's ship. Thea just did one ping and then gave up. Someone didn't want to be bothered, as they worked.
"Let them alone, Thea," Keenan spoke low as he watched the screens, seeing spots show up more ships. Yes, they were coming up to a very busy place.
"Bruno, put us into stealth mode. Thea, take over manual control. We are about to get busy." With that, they all took a look out the front clear metal window, and they got their first look of a rock. Even this far away, they could tell that there were ships moving around this one asteroid and that it had to be a large one.
It was another couple of hours before they got close enough to recognize the attachments and ships that were docked to the large rock. This asteroid was one of the types that were mostly solid rock or igneous and metamorphic with pockets of ice. This meant there could be water and a hard surface to living spaces.
From what they could see, as they came in slowly and got their first live views, was that the people had chosen to go underground.
They had trapped or closed off the entries to produce and keep the air in pockets or caves or long tunnels. This asteroid was almost as big as some small moons and must have the gravity force of about one-quarter of standard. It would be comfortable to stay or even live for a while on this location.
"Captain, soldier, trying to start up small shuttle." It was Poly speaking into his ear bone comm.
"Thanks, Poly. We will handle it from here. Thea shut off all power on shuttles and everything in both bays. Our soldier is getting anxious."
"Done, boss." Thea's long fingers flew over some glowing lights; then, she also looked up at the screens. All three of them were moving their eyes between the screens and the transparent front of the ship. It all was a fascinating scene.
Although there were settlements and openings along with landing sites all over the planetoid, they were looking at one in particular.
"Are they training men under that shelter?" Bruno was bringing up a special area on the big screen. It was a ground area covered with a clear globe to hold in the atmosphere. Bruno was correct; there were hundreds of people in rows, marching or running or doing calisthenics. Some had long weapons that were held on their shoulders. Bruno had the scene blown up hundreds of times to allow them to see the details.
"Yes, we are in the right place. Look over there. We need to set down the ship on that big landing site." Keenan brought up a view on a different screen. Thea began to change the direction of the ship and closed down the big engines. They would now control the ship on small engines to come in and land.
"Hold us up above until we get contact. Go ahead and bring us out of stealth mode." Now a beautiful silver arrow appeared above the busy landing site. It brought up a lot of attention, as special lights came on and several ships in the area moved away.
"Attention, rogue ship. You are in a restricted area. State your name and ID immediately. Attention, identify yourself or face attack."
