A Tale of Arcane Space: Lost & Found

"Hold tight... god you're beautiful, Cori. Don't let go."

A sudden movement in the cockpit caused GraveDancer to angle her sensors to take a closer look at the pair. The elf was stronger than he looked -- he'd actually picked up his larger mate, keeping her impaled on him as he staggered down the short hallway and... yes, to the bed. Understandable. They collapsed together onto the mattress, and went right back at it, the woman's legs scissoring around his hips as her freely flowing juices stained the sheets. Not that GraveDancer minded -- it had been too long, even before her hibernation, since any of her pilots had brought anyone onboard to give her a show. By the suns, how she missed those precious moments. She dove into her memory archive, and pulled up one especially precious memory -- her very first pilot, Lethiri, roaring in unison with her mate and fellow orc Gatt as he slammed his thick green cock inside her ass, their cries a celebration of love and battles to come.

Koutash had never understood GraveDancer's needs, her lusts. He respected her as a machine of war -- but didn't think of her as a person. She was "only" an Arcane Intelligence to him, and that she thrilled to the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the TOUCH of her pilots fucking other beautiful people inside her... he was disgusted by the mere idea. His loss, the abandoning bastard. She'd even gone through the trouble to bring aboard a deeply amused artificer during their last bit of downtime before the final battle, to make for her a very special remote body -- and Koutash had recoiled from it, as if she'd asked him to put his shaft inside a Beholder's fanged maw. Again, his loss.

Hmmm. That remote body was still onboard, in stasis... she smiled to herself as she ran a quick systems check on her body, removed the stasis field, and diverted a small portion of power to clean it and start warming it up. She turned her attention back to the mystery lovers in her bed... what lovely new debauchery had they gotten up to now?

***

Enrique ran his instruments over the exposed hull around the giant golem's huge eyes, speaking into his suit's audio pickup. "Okay, Captain, here's what I've got. The whole body is solar-reactive, but the eyes in particular are very powerful energy collectors -- and emitters. That's why the chimney was built over one of the eyes, no doubt." He touched the hull with a gloved hand. "This thing is definitely powering up, you can feel the vibrations building -- but it's really, really slow. Which makes sense, this thing's been running on fumes for centuries. It's going to take some time to work out all the kinks once the batteries fill up."

Captain Liang gave a thoughtful hum. "Should we try another solar grenade? Snowdrop, you do have some more, yes?"

Standing at the top of the chimney shaft, Snowdrop paused to check one of the clamps on the amplifier array they'd set up. "Sure, got a whole bandolier back in my quarters, back from my Vamp-Hunter days. Hell, they're not even hard to make. Cori or Lindauriel could probably whip up a batch in... well, anyway, I've got more. Want me to come back and grab 'em?"

George shook his mechanical (and unsuited) head very emphatically, holding up another hand-scanner and showing its results to Enrique, who nodded. "I wouldn't, Snowdrop. Take it from a machine -- you don't overload a battery unless you know that machine's systems very, very well. One grenade was an acceptable risk, but two? Better to play it safe and slow than risk burning anything out by rushing it. We're beaming down a nice steady stream of heat and photons now, much more than it was getting before." He looked back down at the scanner's screen. "The good news is that I was able to find very faint traces of two infra-red signatures inside this thing. It's hard to see them, but because we're right on top of the thing, the scanners can make them out -- and they are moving. Well, one of them definitely is, it's hard to tell with the other. One hundred percent certainty that at least one of them is alive, ninety percent on it being both."

"Speaking of being alive," Norrish's voice said in their ears, "George, do you think this golem might be equipped with an Arcane Intelligence? I couldn't find any records on that."

George's mechanical body gave a very natural shrug. "It's possible, but unlikely. Arcane Intelligence crafting was still quite new back then, and very, very expensive for the time. Part of me hopes there isn't one, in case they still have old grudges to work out, or have gone insane from isolation -- we are social beings, you know. But I confess I also hope that there is one awaiting us inside -- to meet a living legend, someone who actually lived through such an amazing period of history."

The captain made a murmur of agreement. "That would be something... but are you managing all right in your body?"

"Thank you, Captain. I'm fine for now. The excitement and curiosity of the task at hand is doing a wonderful job of distracting me from the physical discomfort. But by all that one might hold holy, this old remote unit is a piece of utter shit. I can't wait to ditch this for something with clean and uncorroded circuit-paths. I do like the Kobold look, at least."

"Next port we get to, Omikron George, you get a new remote body, on me, even if this job turns no profit at all. I can afford it, and I had no idea it had gotten this bad. My apologies -- as your captain, I should have noticed that it was a problem for you."

"Very kind of you, sir, and I do accept and appreciate that offer. But honestly, don't blame yourself. I don't need to use the remote very often, but I should have made a more clear mention of the issue sooner."

Enrique looked out over the huge cavern, now well lit with multiple lamps and the enhanced beam of sunlight. "Now we just have to find an airlock."

***

On a whim, Lindauriel turned the faucet -- and a steady stream of moderately hot water came out. "Water's back on!"

Cori's voice echoed from the bedroom. "Huh. I wonder if one of the bridge controls did that. Can you bring me a really warm wet washcloth?"

"Be right there." He splashed some water on his face, wiping away the sweat he'd worked up. To his surprise, there was a set of soft clean towels hanging nearby -- he hadn't noticed them before, but chalked it up to not having really been looking too closely in here before either. He grabbed a small hand-towel, turned up the heat on the faucet a bit, and soaked the cloth all the way through, wringing it out a couple times until it was only very damp rather than soaked. He looked up at himself in the mirror -- and in spite of the worry in the back of his mind about possibly being trapped in here, he still couldn't stop smiling. Cori was... amazing.

"I know exactly what you need, pretty lady." As he walked back into the bedroom, he took a moment to admire his new lover's naked body. Soft in all the right places, hard and strong everywhere else, and she laid there on the edge of the giant mattress with arms and legs wide open, eager to show him every inch of herself.

"Say that again."

"What, 'pretty lady'?"

"Uh-huh. Been called a lot of nice things in my life, but never 'pretty'. I like it. And what, pray tell, do I need?"

"First, my pretty lady, is this." He laid the warm cloth over her pubic mound, and the reaction was immediate, her toes curling with relaxed pleasure.

"Read my mind, Lin. Ohhhhh, that feels perfect. You really do know how to treat a lady right. What's the second thing?"

Without another word, he stepped over to where her head rested on its pillow, almost hanging off the bed's side. Meeting her gaze, he lifted his shaft, newly erect again after their first mutual climax, and moved it towards her mouth.

"You remembered," she said with a husky whisper, and opened her lips wide. He slid into her mouth, all the way in until her lips were tickled by the soft red down between his legs. They moaned together, and he put a hand on the back of her head, gently bracing her as he fucked her mouth, much more gently than the urgent pounding he'd given her elsewhere minutes before.

Rubbing the deliciously warm cloth into her freshly-fucked pussy, Cori couldn't remember the last time she'd been this deliriously happy. She'd dropped mention of a long-held fantasy of hers a little while earlier, just to see how he'd react -- and now he'd made a point of making it come true. He was so damn perfect. By the blessed Sun, he even tasted amazing, his shaft still coated with his seed and her own gushing wetness. She let herself go limp in his grasp, happily letting him use her mouth any way he liked, trusting that he wouldn't abuse his new privileges. Not that she couldn't handle a little rough play -- but it was a precious thing to feel safe in someone else's arms again, after so long. Dropping the used wet cloth over the side of the bed, she rubbed around her clit in lazy circles with a fingertip, closed her eyes, and let this unfamiliar feeling of pure bliss warm her from head to toe.

Lindauriel was in paradise. Or rather, his cock was in the perfect paradise of Cori's eager mouth, gently sucking on his length as he buried it down her throat with a slow slide. None of his fantasies about this woman had ever approached anything like this -- and all it had taken was a little privacy, a little emotional vulnerability on both their parts, and the looming spectre of being trapped alone together for who knew how long. He laughed to himself -- he'd have to find a way to thank this giant machine. Without it, none of this would likely have ever happened.

As that thought flickered through his mind, a small movement caught his eye. The wet hand-towel that Coriolis had dropped... was floating through the air, back to the wash closet. As he watched, his hips still steadily feeding cock back and forth into Cori's warm mouth, a dry towel floated into view, and proceeded to wipe away the water that had dripped onto the floor from that first cloth.

Whispering a quiet incantation under his breath as he caressed Cori's soft breasts, his eyes took on a soft glow, and he looked around the room with enchanted true-sight.

GraveDancer hummed a little tune to herself as she reached out again with the simple Unseen Servant enchantment built into all the interior compartments. Now that she'd reactivated cleaning functions, it was a simple matter to leave out fresh towels for "Cori" and "Lin", as they'd called each other in the throes of passion. She liked how considerate Lin had been afterwards, and thought it would be best to clean up the puddle of water on the floor before anyone accidentally slipped on it. She remembered all too well how slick these floors could get with a little moisture. Her second pilot Bolkoro had given himself a concussion after stepping out of the shower and onto the floor with wet feet, falling head-first into a wall. She'd always made sure to leave a fresh towel on the floor like a bath-mat after that.

ALERT! DIVINE FIRE DETECTED INSIDE COMPARTMENT!

The Arcane Intelligence immediately shifted her visual input to the lovemakers -- and sure enough, the considerate elf's eyes were aglow with a small manifestation of that energy. An enshrined priest! He was looking right at the invisible mage-construct hand moving the drying towel, and then looked unerringly right at her -- or rather, the hidden lens of one of her cameras in the corner of the ceiling, the one she'd been actively using to watch their wonderful coupling. Still caressing his lover with one hand, he pointed to his eyes with the other, and then pointed to the hidden camera. His lips moved without sound, but she could read his speech with no difficulty at all: I see you.

She waited a moment, to see what he would do. He paused to indulge in a shiver of joy, as the Goblin pushed her face forward to fully engulf him, but his eyes never left the camera. His lips moved again: Show yourself. And after a moment, he added with a smile, please.

After that, he let his hand hang in the air, palm up, his eyes still quietly blazing. GraveDancer had seen enough combat priests in action to recognize that stance -- if she made any hostile move, he was ready to cast. Not that she was planning any hostilities at all. Throughout all of this, Cori had continued slurping happily at his length without pause. GraveDancer smiled, and made a decision.

Her remote body stepped out of its compartment in the wall of the bridge, freshly steam-cleaned, wearing its standard modesty unitard. She'd had it built to resemble an Orcish beauty she'd seen pictures of in media broadcasts back during the war, an actress named Nakasha Naaga. The artificer had made the body as lifelike as possible. By law, it still had to have glowing golden eyes and some chrome patches along the face to mark it as an A.I.'s remote body, but in all other respects, the artificial body looked, felt, and even smelled like a young adult Orc woman. While her true Golem body was a huge and incredibly powerful machine, she enjoyed the contrast of this remote unit being somewhat small and slender. Even Sun Golems liked to feel dainty sometimes, she thought with a giggle.

As she stepped down the hallway towards the bedroom compartment, GraveDancer idly wondered if Nakasha's legendary beauty would still be recognized five hundred years later. Koutash had certainly recognized it -- but had rejected her nonetheless. She put the thought of her ex-pilot out of her mind. It was time to make... new friends. She hoped. She knocked twice on the door, and waited.

Cori's eyes shot open. Letting his length fall from her lips, she looked up to see Lin's eyes lightly aglow with divine fire, his gaze fixed on the wall behind her -- or rather, the door that had just been knocked on. Resisting the urge to whirl around and blast first, ask questions later, she instead slowly got up onto her knees, turning to face the door. Her voice was a whisper. "Lin, do you know what's going on?"

"Not yet. Someone's been watching us. And cleaning up after us while we were... busy." He raised his voice. "Won't you come in, please?"

The door slid open -- and a beautiful green woman walked inside, hands raised and open. "My apologies, I did not mean to interrupt your lovemaking," she said. "If you wish me no harm, then I wish the same for you."

Cori slid off the bed, and stepped closer, looking closely at the stranger's face. "Are... you an Arcane Intelligence?"

"I am a Tanzanite-rated Arcane Intelligence, built by the Arko-Zafraelish Shipyards. You are inside my main chassis. I'm named GraveDancer... but you can just call me 'Dancer' or 'Danielle' if you like. Some of my past pilots used such nicknames." Her face took on a faint yellow blush. "You're both very beautiful. It was wonderful to wake up to such lovely sights and sounds."

Lin lowered his hands. "How long have you slept?"

"Over five centuries. I imagine much has changed -- but that is a very long conversation, which can wait." She stepped forward. "May I make..." She swallowed. "...a selfish request?"

Coriolis put a hand on Lin's shoulder. "You can ask, sure. I know if I'd been out for that long, I'd want a lot of things. Name it, we'll see what we can do."

GraveDancer bit her lip, a quiver of worry in her voice. "May I... may I watch some more?"

***

"Well, ain't that a load of wyvern-turds." Snowdrop stared at the airlock door, as if glaring at it angrily might cause it to change its mind about its stubborn inaction. "Captain, we are getting absolutely nowhere with this. Nothing we have can cut urutromium, none of us can teleport, and as far as we can tell, this door doesn't even have any power going to it, so even if we could spoof the lock, it's not budging."

Enrique was kneeling down. "Hold on, I might have something here." He jammed a slender flat-head screwdriver into a small seam that was barely visible, and pried loose a small panel. "I think I just found a powerfeed. George, what do you make of this?"

Omikron George knelt next to him, his eyes zooming in. "I think you and I could rig a crude adaptor plug. Then I could run some current from this body into it, and try to trigger a manual override. Captain, with your permission?"

"Granted, George. It's not like I have a better idea."

***

Lin and Cori traded surprised looks, and she broke the silence first. "That isn't what I was expecting."

GraveDancer bit down on her lower lip. "I'm very sorry, Please forget I asked."

Lin stepped forward, a hand raised. "No, no, it's okay. Really. We're just surprised. We have a crewmate who is also an Arcane Intelligence, and he's never expressed an interest in, well, organic sexuality."

"I've been told that I'm... unusual." She looked around at the walls. "When my first pilot brought her husband aboard to... ah, 'anoint' me with their lovemaking, I found their actions very..." She blushed again. "Stimulating. When I spoke to my fellow A.I.'s about it, they chided me for my, ah, perversion."

Cori couldn't help but giggle, walking over to her and throwing an arm around her shoulder. "Danielle, you are utterly adorable. Trust me on this, we are not going to kink-shame anyone around here, not while I'm still riding the amazing high this elf gave me with that hard hammering earlier. Being a pervert is amazing."

"You really seemed to like what he did."

"Danielle, Danielle, Danielle -- you have no idea. Like is far too small a word." She turned back to Lin, pleased to see a stirring between his legs. "Tell me, Lindauriel... y'ever fuck a girl in front of an audience before?"

He looked into Cori's sultry eyes, and listened to the sound of her husky alto voice. He looked to "Danielle", whose shimmering eyes were fixated on his nakedness, her tongue unconsciously licking her parted lips. "Oh, Cori..." He took his cock in hand, stroking it slowly to a new erection. "I told you that we got up to some wild parties in the seminary dorms. Get on the bed, let's get this show started."

***

"Come in, and gimme a sit-rep, Sloknar-- godsdamnit, stop that saluting shit! I keep telling you, you're just pissing me off when you do that!"

The Centaur navigator sheepishly lowered his hand. "SORRY, MISTER THURMOND, SIR! I'LL REMEMBER NOT TO DO THAT NEXT TIME, SIR!"

Dag Thurmond ran a hand through his long hair, annoyed that his reflection showed it was rapidly fading from its once-lustrous golden color to a dull grey. "Not even fucking silver, 'course not." He turned away from his mirror to look at Kallitrix, his pale-skinned and beautiful Cave-Elf chief engineer, who was buttoning up her blouse as she sat on the edge of his bed. "Trix, where did we get this dipshit?"

She stood up, and patted the centaur's shoulder. "Don't be so hard on Sloknar, Mister Thurmond. He's ex-militia, and he's very good with scanners and starmaps. He's just not used to his... new occupation."

Dag barked a laugh at that. "You feeling bad about takin' wages from gangsters, criminals and smugglers, horsey-boy?"

"SIR NO SIR!" The youth managed to stop his hand from saluting on reflex... but only barely. Dag and Trix's eyes met, and they shared an eyeroll. "I'M READY TO MAKE A SHITLOAD OF MONEY DOING CRIMES, SIR!" Another shared eyeroll, and Dag put his face in his hand.

"You're killin' me with this shit, kid. Give me the fuckin' report already, before I have Boris chop off somethin' memorable and shove it up your ass."

"SIR! I'VE FOUND THE PATH THE ENDURANCE USED THROUGH THE ASTEROID CLUSTER, SIR! THEY HAVEN'T MOVED FOR SOME TIME, AND I BELIEVE WE CAN CATCH UP TO THEM IN ROUGHLY ONE HOUR! SIR!"

"Alright, now that's some shit I like to hear. The beacon we planted on 'em still sendin' signal?" The centaur nodded. "Alright. We should still be out of their sensor range for now, but it's time to move in for the kill. That little dung-bug Guan's gonna regret the day he turned his back on me and skittered off with one of my ships! Now get the fuck out of here, and tell Tamaki to haul ass down the course you plot. GO!"