A Soldier For All Seasons Ch. 08

"Isabelle is in my head. She's only in my armguard when she wants to chat with you or wants to explore the Fed network. Usually watching reality holo-TV." Nate said drily.

*Yes, and I'm not happy about missing tonight's episode of My Bionic Boyfriend.*

"Does she have any ideas on getting out of here?" Ana said hopefully.

*No.*

"She's working on it." Nate assured Ana.

*I am not. I have already concluded there is no hope.*

"I'm sure she'll think of something." Ana gave him a weak smile and cuddled into him when he lifted his arm.

They snuggled for a bit, taking comfort in each other's warmth as the cold stone enveloped them at every angle. And then, on that same stone, footsteps. Heavy, slow, assured.

And then a face, at first. A furred hood taken down, revealing glacial green eyes and glass-cutting cheekbones. Pursed lips, a little blue from the chill of the night. A heavy robe, loose. A bald head, split down the middle by a thick scar, like a cracked egg that had been put back together. His skin was white, not in the way that people said it, but in the actual color; white like wedding dresses, like paper.

Whiter than bone.

And his face was smiling, handsome. "Good evening."

"Hi." Nate said dumbly. Because he recognized him. The Judge. The white-skinned Judge who had walked onto his cruiser one day, declared a man as a human trafficking ringleader and simply executed him, a plasma blast through his brain. And then walked away, answering no questions — unaccountable.

He prayed nothing showed on his face — for he knew that if the man thought he'd been recognized, they were dead. He even knew the Judge's name, heard it murmured by the General that had watched on, pale-faced.

Jarek.

"I hope you're not too uncomfortable. Goodness knows I wouldn't want harm to come to the pregnant lady, there. How are you, miss?"

Ana wisely stayed silent.

"I have a problem." Jarek started, hands behind his back. "I understand you two were asking some odd questions recently. Questions about Council or Federation entities in the area."

"I, yeah, just heard some chatter that's all, didn't know nuffink." Nate tried to play dumb.

"What kind of chatter?" Jarek frowned.

"Just some boys at the bar, you know how it is. No details, really."

"So why were you interested? What do you do?"

"I just do bits of transport, bit of cargo jobs. Not always by the book, but I don't be looking what's in the book, and I certainly don't look what's in the box of what I'm moving." Nate laughed awkwardly. "I had some Fed trouble a while back so I just wanted to make sure they weren't sniffing around the Dead Space."

"What bar did you hear it from?"

"The uh, Lucky Maid."

"Here on Acropolis?"

"That's right."

"But your first port of call after arriving today was at the info-brokers."

"Right, yes." Nate swallowed. "But I've been to Acropolis before. I did a job here a week ago, just porting some crates, tying them to an asteroid in Fed space. You know, a standard dead drop. Before I left, I heard the chatter but I didn't have time to look into it, on account of the job. See?"

"I do see. Is that the case of it, miss?" He turned to Ana.

"Yes." She squeaked. "That's right."

Jarek turned, the sapphire glow of the electrified bars casting his face in a sinister blue. He faced someone out of sight. "Any history of him or his ship ever being on Acropolis before, Madam?"

"I think you know the answer, friend." A rich velvet voice answered, each syllable long and languorous. "And even if it were true, can we take the risk?"

He shrugged, eying Ana's belly. "I suppose not. A shame but we can't take the risk, as you say. Will you take care of it? I'd rather not stay in Acropolis any longer than I have to."

"Mind if I make a sport of it? I do need...volunteers."

He sniffed. "It is unbecoming of you, you know that right?"

"But Jarek, dear, it's so much fun. You'd know if you ever bought a ticket."

"As you wish." Jarek cast them a final glance, smiled politely, brought his hood back up and stalked away.

His footsteps went but a different set came towards them — high heels propping up short, stout legs, covered in lacy stockings. A black leather skirt over wide hips, underneath a red leather corset. Gold hoop earrings, too large by far. She looked like a dominatrix, or a hooker. Or she would have, at least, if it wasn't for the thin tracing of metal inside those hoop earrings, that spelled out the letter M, spinning slowly as she puffed on her her pipe, examining them both.

"Fuck." Nate muttered. Dean had sent him a message warning him about this woman.

"Yes, quite. I suppose introductions are unnecessary."

"Yup."

"Nate?" Ana wondered worriedly.

"Madam Mayko. She runs this place."

"Pleased, darling." The Madam said dismissively.

"The arena?" Nate put two and two together. He and Ana would be the volunteers.

"So nice to see a little intelligence in this place." She sniffed. "You wouldn't believe the fools I have to suffer, at times. Try to put on a show, will you?"

Nate thought briefly about pleading their case, about begging. Then he thought better of it. "Sure. What time?"

"At midday. I'll get the guards to bring you a last meal. Try to put up a fight, it's difficult to generate excitement for the matinée."

He bit his lip, trying to find a way out. "The crowds won't mind a pregnant woman?"

The Madam blew a smoky ring with her pipe, watching it float, flutter and dissipate. "The beasts generally go for the throat — we should be able to save the child. I'll get it shipped to Fed space."

"Thanks." Nate said dryly.

"Welcome, sugar." She studied Ana for a moment. "Shame. What a beauty." And then she was gone.

"Nate, I'm scared." Ana admitted.

"I know, Princess." Nate took her hand in his. "But it'll be fine."

"How can you know?"

How could he know? He didn't. Didn't know the first thing about what he was doing, hadn't done since he'd fallen into that sinkhole and found Isabelle. Or maybe long before. He'd just been following orders, killing bugs and protecting his boys. That seemed like as good a calling as any, and he'd never looked far from it. Now he'd managed to bring the Lunari Princess, the lynchpin of the Lunari, all way out to the Dead Space, just so she could get her throat eaten by whatever beastie Mayko had found.

"Cos you've got me, right? The Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"Taranasar." Ana giggled, sniffling with wet eyes. "Are you finally admitting what you are then?"

"Difficult to ignore when I've got you in front of my eyes. My God, Ana, what I have done to you?"

She slid herself over him, did that thing that she did where she entwined herself with him, that he was ashamed to admit he loved so much. "What have you done for me, you mean? Saved me from kidnap, rape, murder. Saved my planet, my people. Showed me what a good man is." She slid her hand under his shirt, traced her finger over his skin, blushing. "Showed me pleasure, how to receive it...how to give it."

"But—"

"Made me confident in my body."

"By changing you to fit my dreams—"

"By making me beautiful. By making me your dream girl?" She shivered. "Can't you see what a simple joy that is, what a privilege it is, to know that you fulfil your partner's fantasies completely? To know that you can be the everything to the man..." She took a deep breath. "To the man you...to the man I love."

"Ana..."

"I love you." She sat up, smiling from ear to ear as she gazed down at him, eyes shining. "I love you. I love you. By Vashayna, I love you."

"Sweetheart, I haven't just changed your body."

She tittered as she slid up and down his body, grinding on him as she peppered kisses up his chest, up his neck. "Oh, my Nate, I know. I'm a woman in love, and nothing changes a woman more than that. Mother warned me, you know?"

"Ana, you're sucking me off more than you have hot meals."

"Mmm," she suckled on his neck, marking him. "My man is so virile, he needs so much relief. It's a good thing you taste so good, huh?"

This was madness. "Ana, you orgasm at the taste of me."

"So what? You changed my body a little."

"Ana!" Nate gasped out as she kept attacking him, her hands dipping into his pants. "I've changed your mind. You're submissive, you're affectionate, you're desperate for me. I'm old and a human and you're engaged. For fuck's sake, you're the Lunari Princess and I'm—"

"The Taranasar. He would breed the old Lunari royalty too, thousands of years ago." She blinked her eyelashes coquettishly. "Are you going to breed me, Nate? You'd best think of an escape plan, Captain, because your number one is ready to be—" she tugged at his ear lobe and whispered into his ear—"fucked."

Nate sat up, lifted her by the waist so she couldn't affect him with her curves and her warmth, and then sat her by his side. "Ana, how can you be okay with this?"

"Oh, Nate." Ana took his hand. "When I was a young girl, I would follow my mother around the galaxy, to the tribes you don't hear about, deep within Lunari space. To the planets beaten into strange shapes by unending desert winds, to planets where the Lunari have adapted, evolved over millions of years. Lunari with gills swimming in black waters. And the planets which pay their tithe reluctantly, but have never joined us properly.

Planets run by slavery, dictators, planets broken by revolutions every year. Each of them pay their tribute to my Mother, and so we look the other way.

And my Mother showed why she ruled, because she didn't care. She reclined on her throne, feet up on a sobbing slave. Whether it was famine or revolution, her answer was always the same to any threat to her tribute; put them all to the death. And we'd fly back home, fly over dry fields set alight, fly over vast cities crumbling at her say-so, fly over our lines of shooting squads."

"Fuck, Ana." Nate wiped the tears from her cheeks away.

"And I-I-I'd copy her, because I didn't know any better." She took a long drawn breath. "I started acting like her in school. I'd bully my classmates. Friends became victims. I'd threaten the teachers, the ones who used to love me because I was the teacher's pet." She sniffed. "I hurt this girl once, hurt her really bad, because she said something about Mother, and I couldn't bear the thought she was right. She hit me back and Mother found out, and then she was gone...But not just her, her whole family. Her family's family. Just...gone."

Ana shuddered, her stare long and blank. "And then the Lunari rebellion, the one that made the news even in human space. They caught their leader Rasputin and put him to death. My Mother put him to death, not feet away from me, in front of all the cameras, in front of the crowds. I stood at her side. He had set fire to some building and...s-so they set fire to him."

She clutched his hands suddenly, so tightly it stopped the blood from flowing, so tightly her nails dug into his skin. "Nate, I breathed him in. I smelled his burning flesh and it flooded my lungs and my nostrils, as his flesh turned to ashes. I was sick. Sick for days, so sick I couldn't move, sick to my bones, until days turned to weeks turned to months."

"What did your Mother do?"

She laughed shortly, bitterly. "Ordered the doctors to examine me again and again. She thought he'd given me some disease. For a time, I did too. I hated him. And then I hated Mother. But mostly, I just really hated myself."

She gazed down at her body, seeing but not seeing. "I got too thin, stopped caring, let Mother push me around. Mother married me off to Prince Elathariel of the Twin Seas tribes to bring some unity to the two biggest alliances of tribes. But even our marriage doesn't stop any of the troubles of the hundreds of other tribes, doesn't help them get out from underneath Mother's foot."

She pressed her forehead against his, her skin warm against his. "My marriage doesn't stop the famines, doesn't stop the dictatorships, doesn't stop the oppression. It doesn't help my people. It doesn't stop my mother from being blind and cruel. It doesn't stop our Council from being useless and corrupt." She nuzzled his nose. "But you could."

"Me?" Nate said. That was the last thing he had thought she'd say.

"You. You can change everything. The Taranasar reigns over all, because he created us. United us in the first place. Every tribe knows the Taranasar, even if it is lost to myth and legend. And I know you can change everything because you changed me."

She kissed him, the moment stretching in time, tongues dueling as she poured herself into him. But it was her that pulled away, a little breathless. "See? When I'm with you, I'm back to the girl that I used to be. The one that wanted breathless kisses, the one who'd watch romantic holo-films and dream about the cute boys, the one who was friends with everyone in school, who wanted to help people."

Nate was struck silent in the face of her earnestness, her belief in him. He'd never had that before, and he wondered for a moment if she was changing him as much as he was changing her.

She gazed at him, full of love, and wasn't that the kicker? Somehow, by charging into every fight and letting her feed from him, he'd created a bond between them. And while he couldn't say it was love — not yet, he couldn't deny the affection and possessiveness he felt over her.

He needed to say something. Anything, to break her longing eye.

"Who are these cute boys?" He grumbled.

She laughed, long and loud, until she was shaking in his embrace. "Just silly boys, now I've seen a real man." Her tone was joking, but her eyes were serious.

"You're a real ego-inflater, you know." Nate griped. He squeezed her waist. "It won't work, forever."

She nuzzled his nose again, giddy like a teenager. And, the guilty thought intruded, he remembered she was a teenager. "That's our deal, lover. I inflate your ego and you inflate my belly." She pulled his hand onto her bare stomach. It was basically back to normal now, making him think he needed to change that.

"We're really going to fuck, huh?" He'd had to remind himself again and again that her sweet pussy was off-limits, even as she lounged naked in his bed, that it felt a little unbelievable.

"Nate, once we get off this planet, we're going to do nothing but fuck." She shivered.

"Scared?"

"Eager." She thought for a second. "A bit scared, too. Now I've seen Skyla take it, I can see that it's biologically possible."

For some reason, Nate found that hilarious. "I'm not a monster!"

Her look was flat. "Really?" She sat up on his lap and fished his cock out, jerking it a little so it hardened. Then she pressed it against her belly, pulling up her top so they could both see how far it would extend within her. It went up over her belly button, thick and girthy. Seen against her pale skin, it only made it more evident how oversized it was. "I just hope the changes you've made to me have included rearranging my insides before your cock does it first."

Nate bit his lip to stop from laughing.

"It's not funny!" Ana slapped him on the arm again and again.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Nate scrambled up, putting Ana in front of him to hide his shaft.

Beyond the bars, another visitor. A woman dressed from neck to toe in a black shiny leather catsuit, all curves, vibrant copper hair tousled down to her shoulders. An elegant raised eyebrow, drawing his attention to her sharp emerald eyes and not to her...rod-raising catsuit.

Isabelle reacted first. *Federation? Uniform suggests possible Judge or special forces. Infiltration of some kind.*

"Are you a Judge too?" Nate gulped out.

"Are you getting harder?" Ana hissed out under her breath, feeling something poke her.

"What?" The woman said sharply. "What do you mean?"

Nate started talking quickly, embarrassed as he put his member away. "We just had Jarek here playing a game of twenty questions. And listen lady, we don't know anything. He's gonna throw us to Madam Mayko's arena in the morning for the crime of being ignorant."

"Jarek?" She startled. "What did he look like?"

"Bald, white, scarred like someone smart had tried to split him in two. Imagine the man of your dreams then imagine the opposite." Nate said snidely.

"Are you sure it was Jarek?" She asked, scowling at him.

"Look, spy-lady, dominatrix, whatever you are, he looked like a creep and he introduced him as a creep and he's gonna kill us so we don't tell people he's a creep. What more do you want?"

She looked to the sky thoughtfully, crossing her arms. "Can you prove it was Jarek?"

"No."

*I'm sorry, Nate. Separated from the armguard, I can't record our audiovisual memories.*

*That's fine, Isabelle.*

"Still," The strange lady hummed to herself. "The Council will want to hear about this."

Nate spotted an opportunity, even if he wasn't sure who the fuck she was. "Can you get us out of here?"

"Not here." She shook her head. "Security is too tight and I could only get in with a cover I had from five years ago. But...at the arena, if you can survive long enough, I can make a distraction for you."

Ana spoke then. "What's the signal?"

The Lady examined her. "Did Jarek realise who you are?"

"I...I don't know what you mean." Ana shrank back.

The redhead crossed her arms. "Did he notice that you were Princess Anariel, consorting with a Federation captain?"

Nate felt his eyes widen in panic.

"Relax." The spy snorted. "I don't care who you engage with, Princess, and from the looks of it—" her gaze dropped to his crotch —"I can see why you'd want to. But if he realized who you were, then I need to change plans."

"No, he didn't." Ana said, hands dropping to her now flat stomach. "I, umm, had a different look."

"You're Federation? Out here?" Nate came forward, dropping his sarcastic tone.

"Captain Clancy."

"I'd salute, but I don't know what rank you are."

"And you never will." She shot him a teasing smile. "Which means I outrank you by a lot."

"Ma'am."

"You're gonna go by regulations now, after taking the Lunari Princess out to the Dead Space? You were told to keep her safe, Captain."

"I had a hunch." Nate shifted from foot to foot.

"Don't worry, I'm not your boss. Army matters don't interest me. But what you have to say does. Or rather, it will interest The Council. Wait for my signal in the morning, then make for your ship. Once you're off-planet, head back to Fed space to Orbis."

"What's your signal?" Ana repeated testily.

"Oh, believe me—" she smiled and strutted off, "—you'll know." She called behind her.