Find the Shoe on the Other Foot Ch. 03

Mercada neatly fished out his already hardening member and began to lick it, all the while making certain Anari had a good view of what she was doing. The commander wasn't a stranger to this kind of spectacle but she had never had this good a view of it nor was she certain where this was going. 'Is she getting him hard for me or showing me how to do it or something else?' Anari simply didn't know.

So she stayed there and watched as Mercada's head bobbed up and down with one of Draeck's hands running through her hair. That Draeck was enjoying the blonde's attention was no surprise but Anari was still amazed to note the look of pleasure on Mercada's face.

Draeck didn't even give a verbal warning that he was about to cum but Mercada knew anyway. She locked her lips around his tip and stroked him to completion. "I know you don't want to get it straight from the source, not yet anyway, so I will let someone else do that for you." At those words Mercada stood up and walked to the still kneeling Anari.

She was mesmerized by the white trail dribbling from a corner of the doctor's mouth. Already she could feel her headache lessen and her stomach beginning to settle. She stopped squinting, something she hadn't even noticed she was doing before then.

Mercada took her head in her hands and bent over, giving her a passionate kiss that Anari answered. She was relieved to find the taste to be nothing particular good, just a bit salty although not exactly bad either. She had been afraid Draeck had done something to her to make his cum taste really good but that was not a danger.

She swallowed and the symptoms disappeared, like someone had thrown a switch. But she kept kissing to get every little bit, afraid that if she didn't the symptoms would return and concerned that the relief was temporary. That it would end with the kiss.

And then the blonde ended it for her, pulling back with a big smile and only then did Anari realize everybody had been watching her. Had seen everything. But she refused to show her embarrassment and simply stood up to make her way to her seat. Without looking at anybody she began attacking her breakfast. 'I should have done this yesterday,' she berated herself. She peaked around the table noticing two pairs of eyes on her. 'And somewhere more private.'

"Alright Yanara, time to get underway," Draeck announced once breakfast was finished. The Amazonan nodded and left the table at once.

Anari blinked at the announcement, then frowned. "Were you waiting for me to crack before getting underway?" she inquired indignantly.

The man gave her a grin, apparently completely unaware of her anger. "Not really. We needed time to make some modifications to our ships as well as training our new additions to the family in operating the Erato. But that you stopped procrastinating is good too." He stood up. "Now come along, I have a use for you now that you are feeling better."

Anari stood up but before she could tell him where to stuff his use, Draeck had already walked out of the cafeteria and she had no choice but to follow him and Scorpia. "Just because I'm not fighting this ludicrous addiction you gave me anymore doesn't mean I will do whatever the hell you want." And she kept going in a similar vain till they reached their destination.

Only then did Draeck speak. "You get to hurt me." Those words shut her up. "I know martial arts thanks to the knowledge I gained from my girls, especially Scorpia, but even with the help of the nanites my body isn't truly used to fighting like that," he clarified. "So I want to spar with you because unlike the others you won't feel bad about hurting me. So don't hold back. Well, not much. I want you to refrain from any killing moves."

Now it was Anari's turn to grin and she quickly stepped on to the mat and assumed the standard ready stance of 'Celer Macto'. Draeck followed after shedding off his shirt. To her dismay she recognized his style as a perfect example of 'Durus Macto', a variation of the one she was using that was more suited to those who had a heavier physique.

Anari didn't say anything, she simply attacked. A feint left Draeck out of balance and a sweep combined with a palm strike knocked him off his feet. But Draeck wasn't put out by the ease of his defeat and just got up again. She didn't want to be predictable so this time she didn't feint but simply launched a swift flurry of kicks and jabs.

This time Draeck blocked some but the rest got through and once again it ended with him lying on the mat. "'I know martial arts'," the redhead mimicked. "I'm still waiting on you to prove it."

"I will see what I can do to make this more interesting for you," he replied as he got back up.

"Sure you will," Anari told her and she immediately followed it up with an attack. But this time Draeck was there to meet it, turning her feint into his counterattack and in short order it was Anari who was looking at the ceiling. Spurred on by this she redoubled her efforts, using every trick she knew of and it got her several satisfying bruises that unfortunately faded away far too quickly. But Draeck was learning and more and more of her attacks were blocked while she managed to deflect and evade less and less of his own assaults.

And then Draeck caught her completely by surprise by switching styles in mid-fight, suddenly copying her own moves and executing them faster than she herself could. And he was still stronger too. The fight now became one-sided and the fact that Draeck was being careful not to really hurt her only made her angrier.

Until now she had limited herself to non-lethal moves but she was past caring what would happen if she tried to kill him.

In the heat of the moment she even forgot their conversation of two days ago about his supposed immortality and simply moved to strike. Her muscles turned to jelly as her mind was suddenly lifted off into the stratosphere by pleasure. It was like a rocket had been strapped to her mind that launched her up and away. But it sputtered out just before she escaped the attraction of her body and her mind could free fall into climax. And then the pleasure receded and dragged her mind back with it.

Next thing she knew she was clinging to Draeck with her face buried in his chest. 'His sweaty, very naked chest that was sporting some nice muscles.' Anari jumped away like she had touched a live wire.

Draeck studied her. "You tried to kill me," he concluded. "The collar gives different punishments for different things," he clarified at Anari's surprised look. Then he frowned. "Strange, I would think the increased survival-instincts would have kicked in by now."

Anari's heart was racing, her body only now catching up with the pleasure her mind had been subjected to and demanding she finished it. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I tinkered a little with your mind after all. Just to ensure you wouldn't think of anything suicidal. I mean, you haven't thought of suicide to escape your predicament right?"

Anari stared at Draeck's smug, superior, know-it-all smile that she just wanted to wipe of his face. 'He can't be right, I'm just not wired that way. I was never a quitter, was I?' She swallowed as she realized that Draeck could very well make her believe anything. She got angry again, a temporary safeguard against the rising fear. The doubt that she was a puppet after all even as she refused to believe it. She needed to prove him wrong. "No, you're lying. I'm going to warn the outpost. So there!" And she could kick herself the moment the words left her lips.

But Draeck seemed to be mulling her words over for a moment, apparently not certain what she meant right away. "Oh, you mean you thought I was going to use you to captain the Panopea for the first part of the plan. No, that was never in the cards."

"But, they will never let her dock without a captain and they'll know I was supposed to be the one commanding her."

Now the guy was grinning. "And an Anari will be in command, just not you. Scorpia, if you please."

"What do you mean, a me?" Anari asked but her eyes were already centering on Scorpia who had closed her eyes in concentration. The commander could hear a muted crackling as her face began to morph. Before her eyes the intelligence officer's skin-tone became a little lighter and her hair changed to red, red like Anari's. And then Scorpia opened her eyes and Anari found herself looking in two familiar brown orbs. She was looking at herself.

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Captain Anea was busy finishing up her monthly assessment-report about the two new Intelligence officers she was manning the refueling-outpost with. This would just be their first test, to see how well their discipline held under isolation. And they needed people to crew these things which was an easy job, their best defense was the fact nobody knew they were there.

All of these refueling-stations were hidden away in the unguarded outback of other nations. Systems that were considered of too little value to properly patrol and they were not always uninhabited. Take the system they were in at the moment. Nominally it belonged to the Thornburgers, but the small colony on the second world only had a few hundred thousand inhabitants and there was only one sentinel-satellite in orbit. Enough to get a warning of if anybody dropped by but a solar system is very big and you can only see into hyper when you're in hyper.

So if you were a little careful you could quite easily hide away something in the outer system like a refueling-station in the Oort cloud. Plenty of fuel right there, you just had to bring in the tools to mine and process it. But riding herd on one was mind-numbing boredom for the most part, despite the relative closeness of the enemy. 'Which means that the poor sap who gets stuck with command can wait a while on a promotion unless something unanticipated happens. And surprises are not good in this line of work.'

Anea was actually cut out for the work. She wasn't very good at undercover work or anything like that but she was a very good commander and Intelligence needed all sorts of talent. Experienced too, at 38 already she was the veteran of three wars. But where her previous assignments had given her the feeling she had actually contributed something, this one just left her cold. In the year she had been here only two ships had visited, one of which was the planned resupply drop.

And there wasn't even much commanding to be done. Given there were only three women and someone had to be in the control room at all times meant that usually one would be asleep, one was off-duty and the last was actually stuck on command. At the moment that was Anea while Nari and Yngrid were eating. Which brought her back tot he report in front of her. 'These stationpods really are multi-functional, one press of the button and you can either check the status of the fusion reactor or make a report. Comfy seating too.'

The blearing of the alarm yanked her wandering mind back to business. It was being played in every room of the outpost so after a few seconds Nari and the Yngrid entered command as well and threw themselves in their pods. By then the captain's pod had already sealed shut and the Amazonan inside had punched up an image of the new arrival.

"Target is an Amazonan vessel, Nereid-class," Anea identified. "According to its transponder it's the Panopea, its coming in on the correct trajectory and speed. Get ready to blast it out of the sky if it doesn't hail us...now," but it kept following procedure. 'Which is good, the chance to see a new face is a precious luxury out here.'

On her screen a redheaded commander appeared. "Refueling-outpost G-74, this is Commander Anari commanding the Panopea. I request permission to dock and to take on fuel."

The station's computer automatically accessed its files pertaining to the Panopea and Commander Anari and was able to confirm that she was who she said she was. Anea was about to grant her request when Yngrid asked for the captain's attention. "Just a moment while we verify a few things, Commander. It's procedure, you know how it is."

A corner of the commander's lips went up a little. "Yes, I do. I just got a fresh reminder of it too. We'll wait here, Anari out."

And with those words the image was replaced with Yngrid's blue-eyed face. "Captain, the Intelligence AI on board the Panopea piggybacked a report on the signal. Apparently the Panopea discovered something valuable to the Amazonan nation and is now under orders to bring it back. We are to debrief them, store half their cargo, copy the data they retrieved and give them all the aid they ask for."

Anea rolled her eyes. "And of course it doesn't say exactly what this is all about in the first place. Sometimes we take security a little too far. But who asks me? Nobody, that's who." She contacted the ship again. "I just got confirmation, you can come in. And I was led to understand you have something for us. Something that needs safekeeping."

Anari nodded, she ordered someone off-screen to bring the ship in before returning her attention to Anea. "Yes, the AI just gave us our orders too. How do you want to play this?"

"Me and my crew will debrief your crew first while you give our computer a copy of the relevant data. Can you handle the cargo on your own or do you need a hand?"

The commander shook her head. "Fits in the palm of my hand, I'll bring it along when I come aboard. I take it you want to sweat me once you've gone over everything with my crew?"

Now it was Anea's turn to nod. "Don't worry, we'll be gentle."

"Oh, I hope not too gentle," Anari shot back before closing the channel. 'Was she flirting?' the Intelligence officer wondered.

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They were in their stationpods again, watching the Panopea move away before entering hyper. 'A lost research ship, Hix nanites and a crew that had apparently gone insane. Oh yeah, they're flying straight for an instant-promotion with that kind of a coup.' She remembered how happy all of the crew was, relaxed and looking forward to going home. 'But I got one of those nanites now too!' Anea consoled herself. Not the same as finding them but getting it safely back to Amazonan hands would get her mentioned.

And the Panopea had given them a welcome, if brief, change of routine. 'But it was over all too soon, now we're back to the grindstone.' She pushed the button that would open the canopy and was already calling up the report she had been working on before all the excitement when her brain informed her that she hadn't heard the canopy actually open. A quick check confirmed that it was still closed and pushing the button some more didn't help either.

Anea looked out to see if Nari and Yngrid had the same problem and it was clear that they did. "Computer, override the seal on my pod. Authorization-code, Bullcrap."

The soothing voice of the computer responded without delay. "I am sorry Anea, but I cannot do that. You have not yet accepted your total obedience to Master."

For a moment the words held no meaning to her, they were that unexpected. "What?" And even after she understood the sentence, she had no idea what the AI was talking about.

"Please, do not be alarmed," the AI continued. "You have no hope to resist this. And once you surrender yourself to Him you will feel so much better."

Finally her hands flew to the controls but they went dark before she had even touched them. From her peripheral vision she caught movement at her feet. Anea looked down and watched as a silver liquid began to come out of the floor. On closer inspection the captain realized that the silvery substance wasn't acting like a liquid after all, it was clawing up the walls and then it began streaming up her legs.

Panic gripped her for a second and she tried to kick it off, only succeeding in planting her feet deeper into the stuff. 'Calm down. You're in your skinsuit, remember? The stuff can't get in and you can survive for a few days in it.' She shivered at the knowledge where her water would come from for that time.

Adrenaline was now uselessly surging through her system, prepping her body for a fight against something that she couldn't hurt.

Her thoughts were racing, looking for a way out of this predicament until they came to a screeching halt at her force baton. She had already whipped it out when she realized that she didn't have the strength to smash the clear covering of the canopy nor could she shoot herself out of the pod. The effectors would just bounce off of it and quite possibly kill her.

The choice was taken away from her when a glob of the liquid launched itself at the baton, quickly covering it and startling Anea so much that she dropped it. It fell into the goop that was now coming to her shins and covering her up to her waist. Her mind grew numb as she couldn't come up with any way to escape. All she could do was sit there and watch it cover more and more of her.

Her only solace was the knowledge that there was still something between her and the mercury-like substance now racing to cover the rest of her. She took a look at Yngrid's pod and saw that she too was being covered by the silvery liquid. Her movements were frantic as she tried to brush it off, only succeeding in getting it on her hands too.

Before her sight was blocked Anea witnessed Yngrid's arms calmly resting themselves on the chair's arms. At the same time she felt her own body being positioned into a comfortable position as well. Next she felt something cold move against her skin, it was slick and warming up where it touched her body. 'Oh shit.'

She couldn't actually see but she was certain that the liquid was dissolving her suit. Which opened some grim possibilities on what it would do with softer materials like her flesh. She could feel the plumbing attachments leave her body, felt them sink back into something. But they were swiftly replaced by something smooth and cold that inflated after entering her.

And then it was on her face, slithering through her hair. She squashed her first impulse to scream not wanting to give the stuff an easy way in. Anea didn't think it would suffocate her but there was no way to tell as it finished conforming to the shape of her head.

She couldn't tell when it was finished but she slowly realized that she couldn't feel anything. There was no light, no sound, no smells nor could see even feel anything like heat or cold. She couldn't lift a finger, the only movement she was still allowed was breathing.

The only thing she could still feel was the press of the substance now covering her. Or at least, she thought she could still feel it. It was hard to tell if she was actually still feeling it or just remembered how it felt. Anxiety spurred her breathing to go faster but to her horror it wouldn't, it just kept going at the relaxed pace and Anea discovered she had no control on even that small aspect of her body.

It didn't matter if she closed her eyes or not, she was in the dark. Lost in a warm, comfortable void that seemed timeless. Anea wished she could scream but she didn't even have enough room for that.

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"All hail the conquering hero," Anari grouched behind Draeck as they stepped onto the outpost.

"Are you now the slave reminding me that I am only mortal?" Draeck asked as he turned around. "Or maybe my court-jester?" he suggested with a smile. Anari gave him a death glare but kept quiet. Draeck sighed in disappointment and began walking towards command. "Oh, come on. You can smile if you want to, nobody's going to get hurt."

The outpost was small so they were already entering the circular room when the commander answered. "I am not going to act like everything is okay when you just hijacked one of our outposts. Not to mention the fact what you've done to me," she finished with a blush. She was distracted from giving the man a piece of her mind by her first glimpse of the inside of one of the pods.