Bannon's Binge Ch. 02

For now, she ignored the image of a shuddering sky, tossing up to eagerness, excitement, elation, and the awareness that soon she would be dancing, sweating, and writhing against another warm body again very soon. Rounding the corner she could already see the lines to the clubs. To the left was 3rd Street Anti-Grav Club. Usually she went without panties and wore a short skirt, but today she only had half that equation. Pass.

On the right, with not nearly as big a line was New Pluto. A nonhuman club, mostly, it was filled with various species that included Dryonosats (which came with many tentacles, each squirming into places they weren't yet invited on the dance floor), blue skinned Tharkuns (a seemingly barbaric race that traditionally went naked except for body paints that were very much situational), red skinned Tharkuns (less barbaric but sharing in the body paints they went mostly topless), and Harokians (all unseemly disgusting creatures she had avoided due to rumors of their depraved sexual appetites that generally left their lovers bloodied, bruised, and unable to walk for at least a couple days). Not wishing to be covered in various gelatinous oozes from some orifice or another she kept walking.

Down a side street was The Alley. Just a good old bar where there was beer, drugs, and sex in bathroom stalls and dark corners. A little seedy for her tastes tonight. She was clean and didn't want to get dirty until later on. It was a human bar and looked like something out of ancient Earth history.

She aimed for the door of the next club, skipping a long line of various aliens and humans, Idax Rilph's. Not too pompous but with enough standards to keep the congregation of clubbers from average to beautiful in looks, middle class to upper middle class, and just enough variety of species that everyone could find what they were looking for.

Michelle approached the bouncer, Rocco always let her in with a smile, much to the protests of those waiting outside. They all knew Michelle, though. She was a regular in Rilph's. Both his club and his bed. She never paid for a drink, either. The place was filled, smelling of sweat and smoke and alcohol and lust. She loved this place.

She went straight for the floor and grabbed the nearest body, pulling it close and rubbing her breasts up against its'... breasts! A woman, most likely . Her hands wound around waist, sliding down to ass, pulling her close while they both kept time to the music. A tongue flew into her mouth, and she decided it was a woman based on the taste alone. She hadn't had a woman fully, yet, but maybe tonight would be the night. Usually she shared them with Abraham. She had tasted another woman's pussy, and she liked it, though. She had had another woman's tongue on her own, and liked the difference. The utter awareness of the flicks and lashes on her clit, and the knowing of exactly how it made her feel. But she couldn't concentrate fully with a cock in her mouth, too.

Hands were everywhere, now. Her jumper had been unzipped almost all the way down to reveal her short and curlies. Her own hand was inside panties, rubbing a soft smooth ass, gently winding down the crack to tease. Did the ground just shake? No, it's just the music and the movement. Shirt up she kneeled down, fondling a bellybutton. Female and human, apparently. Hands were caught in her hair, urging her downward under a short skirt. Holding her ground at midriff she slid a hand slowly up the woman's inner thigh. It was muscular. She fought her way into underwear probing to find the moist pussy she could now smell, but then she was gone.

Someone pulled her away by the arm. She cold hear her name being called, now, and was that explosions or just the rhythmic bass of a club hit from twenty years ago?

"Let go of me!" she screamed fighting, but the hand was strong on her upper arm.

"We... out...NOW!" struggled through the din, voice sounding somewhat familiar. Abraham? She squinted in the darkness. It was Abraham, but he was supposed to be working. The kitchen double door flung open, knocking down a waiter.

"Will you let go of me?! What the fuck are you doing?!" she screamed, free hand grasping at his fingers to try and pry them free. But Abraham was strong. One of the things she liked about him.

"Leaving. You're coming with me, Chell. There's no time to explain why, just believe me, we gotta get the fuck off station."

"What?! I'm not leaving! Let go!"

"Stop struggling" he growled as the ended their kitchen detour to head out the back garbage door. Abraham yanked her hard, their faces together. "I have ways to make you come with me, but most of them are very painful. I don't want to hurt you, so just come on already!"

Finally prying herself free, she backed up, pulling a small knife from behind her belt. Less a knife and more a scalpel the edge screamed sharpness nonetheless. "I never thought you'd one of the crazies, Abrah..."

He was faster than her. Faster than almost anyone, she would think later. She barely had time to react and then it wasn't enough. One moment he was there, the next he wasn't.

****

When she blinked her eyes open several hours had passed and she was on a ship. Voices could be heard ahead, in the cabin. One was Abraham's, she didn't recognize the other. She cursed when she discovered her knife was missing, and began scrounging for a weapon. She'd be damned if she was going to be kidnapped without a fight.

She caught a few words from the air next door. Explosion. Massive casualties . Somebody fucked up. Abraham sounded frantic. She put her ear to the door, straining to hear through the thin steel.

"You didn't fucking warn me! This isn't my fault!" Abraham passed through gritted teeth.

"You didn't need to know. It was a simple drop, it should have been easy for a professional such as yourself."

"Simple drops don't blow holes in station bulkheads, Max! I was making the drop when someone started shooting. I ran, and then there were explosions, and..."

"Do you have the package, Abraham?"

"..then the sky went black.."

"Abraham! Do you have the package!"

"What? You think I care about the package?"

"Do you fucking have it?! Yes or no?!" obviously angry, the mysterious voice waited for an answer to that venom laced question.

"Yeah, I have the package. Do you know I could hear the vacuum starting when we made it to the ship?"

"We? Is someone with you?"

"Yeah. Does it matter? We need to figure out what to do, here."

"Who did you bring? Was it that whore you run around with?" Whore? Michelle was many things, but whore wasn't one of them. Maybe she traded favors for a piece, but she never charged actual money.

"We need her, and you know it. We couldn't have gathered the data without her, and she could lead us to more useful information."

"It's the Kanians, Abraham. If you'd watched the news you'd know they have been systematically assaulting planets, stations, and any human life forms they can find. They're looking for something. I doubt it's related to what we're doing."

Michelle's arm had been tingling, falling asleep from the strain of holding her upper body, for several minutes now. It finally began to give out, collapsing under her and dropping her head into the metal door with a sharp thud/twang you only get when metal is struck by something dense.

"I'll call you back when I get somewhere safe" and then nothing. Abraham surely heard her stumble. She looked around, slightly panicked, for anything she could use as a weapon. The best she could do was a rusty twig of metal. It was crumbling enough in her hands to make her believe that it would probably just turn to dust on impact. Then again, rust particles would burn like hell in someone's eyes.

Abraham's footsteps began, moving slowly to the door. "Michelle? You awake?" said in that way that really means "I know you're awake but I want you to think you have the element of surprise."

"Fuck" she whispered, dropping the rod. "Yeah. I'm awake, but don't come in here." She was already defeated. What could she do? He was obviously up to no good. Well, she always knew his dealings were shady, dangerous, and probably illegal, but this was kidnapping.

"You're probably wondering what's going on, huh? Well, for starters, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Then why did you kidnap me?"

"There was no time to discuss it. We needed to leave, and fast."

"Why did you hit me?"

"You pulled a knife out on me 'Chel! What was I supposed to do?"

"Explain what's going on maybe?"

"There was no time, I told you. Look, I came for you to get you off the station. It was going down, fast. I couldn't leave you behind."

"Your favorite whore?"

"Chel, I never said that. I love you. Now, I'm coming in. Please trust that I won't hurt you."

"Okay" She said, prepared for the worst. The door slid open and Abraham stepped in.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"No, I'm fine." Her arms floating up, signaling to be held as she willed tears to her eyes. Abraham stepped in, falling for the ruse. Arms around her he was too late when he noticed she grabbed the taser on his belt. Too late to keep himself from being stung by it and falling to the floor. By the time he blacked out she was tying him with the belt from her jumpsuit.

Last he remembered was her calling him a son-of-a-bitch psycho.

*****

Michelle was not super aware of how to pilot a spacecraft. She had paid attention enough and been taught enough by one of her transporters to get the computer's auto pilot to work. If you can do that, the rest is easy as talking to a person. She sat in the pilot's seat, all metal and leather, and tapped a few buttons on the arm's small keyboard. The screen of a monitor to her left lit up.

"Welcome, pilot. Instructions?" it poured out of a speaker near her right ear.

"Where are we going?" A second of silence as the programs ran in the background, processing the verbal commands.

"The ship's Destination is Meskad IV. Time to destination is 5 hours" crackled in her ear in a vaguely feminine tone. She hated how these things sounded like women, mostly. You could even get different mods to make them whatever you want. Language, tone, accent, and sex could be changed easily. But mostly they were women. Monotone and irritating in their lack of inflection and emotion.

Abraham wouldn't be easy to keep under wraps for that long, she imagined. The speed he showed when kidnapping her showed as much. He was no regular street thug.

"Is there a closer destination?" Even though the time was less than a second she hated how you knew it was because of the processes. No matter how lifelike, she could never force herself to believe these things were human. Maybe nobody did.

"Aeninti I can be reached in 3 hours. Enkia can be reached in 1 hour. Velyc can be reached in 30 minutes."

"Set destination for Velyc, ship."

"Destination changed. New Destination, Velyc."

"What can you tell me about Velyc, ship?"

"Velyc is designated as Class Four. Able to support human life, as well as most in the Universe. The local wildlife is typically herbivore. Carnivorous wildlife exists far from civilized areas. The planet is covered in dense vegetation with ice caps at both poles. Precious minerals are abundant. The main function of this planet is a transportation hub and mining operation. Humans control the major ports of New Vestralia, Camino, and New York VI."

"New York VI? What happened to New Yorks One through Five?"

"Destroyed in territorial skirmishes in the Velyc Expansion War 50 years ago."

"Is there still fighting there?"

"No reported fatalities due to armed conflicts have been reported in ten years in major ports and cities."

"Thank you, ship" ended the command process. Sounds like Velyc is her best bet to get away. Major ports meant she could find passage easily and start anew somewhere else. Then again, she could always stay there and send the ship away. She rose and stepped back to the compartment where Abraham lay, bound. She double checked to make sure they were tight, but tased him again to make sure and because it made her feel good. Bastard.

She moved back to the cockpit and took a seat in the passenger's chair. Reaching out to a screen, she swung an arm to bring it in front of her. The touch screen was about 15 inches and gave her access to the SubNet.