Fading Stars Ch. 02

Still laying on the floor, Thexus took a few long, measured breaths. The injuries were severe but he was sure that his innate healing factor, combined with the implants he had received during his maturity rite back on the Homeworlds would take care of them.

Something beeped, behind a panel to the side. Thexus sat up and pulled himself onto his feet, using the edge of a bunk. It didn't even creak under his weight. Well-built. Possibly fused with the bulkheads to deter any forcible removal. He reached the panel. It hissed open, revealing a small synthesis engine filled with food. Thexus pulled the tray free, sat on a bunk and ate without caring much what was in the bowls. His body needed the fuel. Sated, he pushed the empty bowls and tray back into the synthesis engine. He used the shower to clean up then sat cross-legged in the center of the cell. Time to take stock.

His last fight against the local guards didn't exactly go as planned. He had underestimated their fighting prowess and the injuries he had sustained during the battle for the Novitar had not improved his chances against them either. Nevertheless, he had taken one of them down by punching her into a force field. So they were not immune to its effect and their captain hadn't programmed the force field emitters to shut off should one of them stumble into it. Valuable intel.

Steps came closer. Thexus looked up in time to see three people arrive. One of them was a Grey wrapped in a garish pink robe, a frilled collar looming high over its oversized head. The other two were black-armored Silicians, one of which balled her fists as she stared at Thexus. The Gravon offered a little smile.

"You are the captain of this ship?" Thexus asked.

"Indeed. I am Xeltec. And you are in a shitload of trouble, my friend," the Grey purred. Long-fingered hands clasped in front of its stomach, his fingertips tapping a complicated rhythm on a highly ornate belt buckle. "You really hurt my dear Fury #2." He gestured at the Fury to his right, the one with two marks on her shoulder. "You are one fantastic hunk of meat but I can't let any kind of rebelliousness slide. Next thing I know my merchandise is planning an insurrection. I can't have that."

"What are you planning to do with me? Bore me to death with your soliloquies?"

"Oh, you're a feisty one." Xeltec chuckled. More steps came closer. "And here's part of your entertainment for today. Mind you. You hurt her, we hurt you. Badly. Understood?"

Thexus shrugged.

A moment later, Deeva came into view, wearing a similar set of black body plating as the other Silicians.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, irritated. The blue-skinned alien confused him more with every appearance. Seeing her with his captors didn't help. Why was she working for the Grey? She had been acting suspiciously on the Novitar as well. Why had she been in the antenna room before? Did she call the slaver to their position? Too many questions he didn't have answers for. Yet.

"She's the instrument of your punishment," Xeltec said, stretching the sentence for dramatic effect.

"Punishment? You can't fault me for trying to escape," Thexus growled, rising to his feet.

"Well, you failed, now you have to face the music. Get away from the force field." The Grey's voice hummed with power. Psionic manipulation, Thexus realized. He tried to muster his willpower but his body betrayed him. Slowly but inexorably, his feet shuffled backwards until his bare ass bumped into the cell's back wall.

"Good boy," Xeltec murmured. He turned to face Deeva. "Did you get everything you need?"

"Yes, master. Your surgeon has provided me with a new phallus and these tools," she said, brandishing the equipment she held in her left hand.

"Splendid," Xeltec said, a wicked smile tugging at his thin lips. He tapped a control pad next to the cell. "Have fun."

"Yes, master," Deeva said, entering the cell. "Come here," she said, indicating the bunk.

Thexus weighed his options. She was only one single opponent and probably not very adept at close-quarters brawling. He could overpower her easily and use her as a shield against the retaliation of the other two. Which would leave the Grey and his psionic abilities. Thexus gnashed his teeth. Given the ease with which this Xeltec had overridden his own will his chances of escape were rather slim.

On the other side of the force field, both Silicians had lowered their weapon pods onto their shoulders, the muzzles flickering with barely contained energy.

"What are you planning?" Thexus asked Deeva, not moving.

"Come here," she repeated, more urgently. A sharp whirring from outside the force field was the only warning he got. Thexus, acting more on instinct than anything else, dodged to the side, barely avoiding twin blasts of shocking force. So, they could shoot through the force fields. More valuable intel.

He raised his hands. "Fine. I'll play along. No need to shoot."

"Then do as she says," Xeltec snapped.

Thexus moved towards the bunk. "Well, what should I do?"

Deeva pointed at the bunk. "Sit." She brandished a piece of tech with a long plug at the end.

"And here I was, half expecting you to shed your body plating and assfuck me," Thexus murmured.

Deeva said nothing. She brushed hair from his temples until she found his data jack and plugged the item into it. In his field of vision, several long columns of text and numbers flared up as the dongle synced up with his implants. Deeva connected a long, flexible cable with the dongle and plugged the loose end into her own jack.

"This better be good," Xeltec grumbled. "I wanted to see him weep, preferably with your new Type-5 up his ass."

"Weep he shall," Deeva said ominously. A moment later, text flickered across his vision.

I AM SORRY FOR WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.

Thexus cocked his head.

DO NOT SPEAK. XELTEC DOESN'T KNOW I'M ON YOUR SIDE.

"What are you doing?" Xeltec snapped from outside.

"Thexus is a Gravon."

"I can see that."

"His species is renowned for superlative endurance and resilience, not to mention a curious tolerance for cybernetic enhancement. It is customary for their young warriors to receive implants during their rite of passage. Usually items which will enhance their natural abilities even further. This one has fought hostile aliens and got mauled pretty severely but there are very few traces of that encounter left."

"He should be coughing blood after the kick he got from me," Fury #1 said, her voice clinical, icy cold. "Broken ribs, a punctured lung."

"Yes, yes. Now what?"

"Causing him pain is a sub-optimal way of torture," Deeva patiently explained. "Even if I were to rape him with my phallus, it would cause him mild discomfort compared to any other Precursor species. Therefore I have to use his own gifts against him."

Again, letters flickered through his vision.

FORGIVE ME.

"I will need a sturdy set of cuffs for that," Deeva added.

"No problem." Xeltec tapped his communicator. A moment later the synthesis engine next to the bunk hummed furiously then beeped. "There."

Deeva claimed the items. "On your back," she snapped.

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Thexus complied. He recognized the cuffs. They were especially constructed to restrain unruly captives with greater than normal strength, be it cybernetically enhanced or natural. During his wilder days, he had been forced to wear them on occasion, never a fun time. They had been part of his security officer kit as well. Matte black and made from a special weave containing nanofibers and monofilaments, they were almost indestructible, unless treated with a particular chemical solvent.

Deeva tied him to the bunk until he couldn't even budge. Already his claustrophobia flared up. The last thing he wanted was being displayed, spread-eagle and helpless. But she wasn't done. Some gibberish flickered through his field of vision then there was only the ceiling above him.

His eyes had been enhanced to display data, usually the ammunition counter and crosshairs of his equipped weapon, along with target data and, if need be, an enhanced image of his surroundings.

Now he saw the walls of the cell move in closer, the ceiling come down. He didn't know how she did it but Deeva manipulated the scale of the room.

"You damn bitch," Thexus snarled, not having to act one bit. He knew she was fucking with his brain but his body reacted nonetheless. Cold sweat was gathering in the palms of his hands and his heart rate picked up.

"What is happening?" Xeltec demanded.

Deeva said something in the machine-tongue of the Silicians and one of the Furies tapped Xeltec's shoulder, handing him some device. The Grey pointed it into the cell. Thexus was too busy fighting his own fight or flight reflex to notice more.

"Oh," the Grey said, a fiendish grin spreading over his lips. "He is afraid. This huge dude, shivering in his booties. Huh."

"Okay... you win," Thexus croaked. The room had shrunk to the size of a coffin already. The walls had moved in close enough to almost, almost touch him. Only the ceiling was still a ways away, preventing him from going hysterical.

More gibberish flickered through his vision. Deeva, probably messing with his cybernetics. And suddenly it was immensely hard to breathe. His whole torso had seized up, all the muscles laced through with artificial, electrically controlled muscle fiber were fighting him, robbing him of air.

Thexus gasped for air. He fought against the restraints which only hardened and cut into his wrists and ankles. And the ceiling came down! Way too fast, the ceiling came. And it got darker and darker as it lowered, until only a thin band of brightness around the top of the coffin was visible. Thexus wheezed and whimpered, blood seeping from his chafed arms and legs, panic now flooding his system. Underneath him, the bunk creaked in protest but it didn't budge. There was no way to move, no way out, nothing he could do.

Far, far off, he heard shrill, hysterical laughter. A sharp, biting stench hit his nostrils just before he fainted.

* * * *

Deeva unplugged the dongle from Thexus' data jack. The unconscious Gravon was a sorry sight. Blood and urine were spattered everywhere and she felt sorry for the big man. But at least he would survive, even if his dignity hadn't.

Deeva claimed the solvent stick from the open synthesis engine and dissolved the restraints. Thexus would be out for some time, no danger to herself. Hopefully she would find a way to properly apologize to him. Disgusted at herself, she tossed the bloody cuffs and the chem stick into the synthesis engine and shut the door. The machine obediently dissolved the items and Deeva turned to leave.

Outside the cell, Xeltec still giggled. Deeva motioned that she wished to leave and a Fury lowered the force field for her to pass. She joined Xeltec and bowed her head.

"Did this suffice, Master?"

"Oh fuck yeah," the Grey said, chuckling. "Making him piss himself was a nice touch. How did you do it?"

"Like I said, I used his gifts against him. I reprogrammed his cybernetics to work for me. His brain did the rest. Too bad for him I knew about his claustrophobia."

"If we find the time, we should talk about building a gadget for occasions like this," Xeltec said, patting Deeva's behind. "Well, you're in. I will transfer the same kind of access privileges my Furies possess. And I'll probably want you around once sales negotiations roll around for your former crew mates. I have set aside a room on the command deck for your needs."

"Speaking of needs," Deeva said. "Am I allowed to have fun with the ...merchandise? I do like to expand my xenobiological horizon from time to time."

"If you mean 'fuck the slaves,' sure, go right ahead. Just make sure to leave access logs on the mainframe. I want to know where everything is on my ship. And should I notice any funky behavior or, Maker save you, damage on the merchandise, you can count yourself lucky if I only dismantle you for spares."

"There will be no problem." Deeva bowed and prepared to leave. Her gaze was again caught by Thexus, lying in a mess of blood and urine, his wrists and ankles chafed raw. She opened her communicator and sent a request for aid to the surgeon.

* * * *

Deeva left the shower. She had spent the last half hour trying to wash the smell and the guilt off herself but to no avail. She felt like a dirty traitor and no amount of hot water and scented soaps could rectify that. She wished she had someone to confide in but all her friends were locked up two decks below her. Using the ship's surveillance system, she checked up on them. Tabby had been locked up with a Marked Zuthrian wearing a metal collar and they had slept, curled around each other like longtime lovers, with the Zuthrian's impressive hardness wedged between Tabby's butt cheeks. Deeva felt a pang of jealousy. Even in these grim times, the Felinoid had managed to find someone to hold on to, to derive pleasure and maybe even a measure of tenderness from.

Vecora and her Gravon cell mate were next. She had put as much distance between herself and the huge, naked male as she could, wrapped into a blanket in a corner of the shower. Deeva sighed. She longed to apologize to her friend for the deception and all the hurt which it entailed but doing so would jeopardize her chances of freeing them all in the end. At least the Gravon wasn't forcing himself on her.

Zamos and the Faceless had stopped their tentacle game and were sharing a meal, sitting in the center of the cell. The Zuthrian gunner seemed strangely at ease, both with his predicament and his cell mate. The Faceless, still wearing a female shape, wore a playful smile and every movement promised more forbidden pleasures. Either she was utterly under Xeltec's mental control or she actually enjoyed her current state of being. Deeva knew too little of the alien shapeshifters to even guess. Maybe she should change that in the near future.

Thexus was still in his cell, his wrists and ankles freshly bandaged. He used disposable towels from a dispenser next to the showers to mop up the mess on the floor and the bunk. Suddenly he looked up, his eyes boring straight into one of the cameras. Deeva recoiled. His eyes promised a world of hurt. A new wave of guilt washed over her. That was her doing. There probably was no way she could ever make up for the trauma she had caused.

The only one she couldn't find was Gaia. The green-haired Nor pilot wasn't in the cells. She wasn't in Sickbay either, at least not in the parts she had surveillance access for. Deeva would have to ask the surgeon what he had done to her. Not knowing her fate made Deeva very nervous.

Her communicator beeped. Xeltec. She took the call.

"Yes, master?"

"Come to the bridge."

"No explanation?"

"Of course not. If I ask you to jump, you only ask 'how high,' understood?"

"Of course. I'll be right there."

She clipped on her body plating and left her room, which had the shape of a blunt wedge and was bigger than her quarters on the Novitar. The bed alone had room for a small orgy and the entertainment unit was the best money could buy. She guessed normally it was used as a guest cabin for well-paying customers.

Shrugging, she went along the corridor until she reached the short ramp leading up to the bridge, which sat atop the disc-shaped spaceship like an armored bubble. A holographic projector displayed their current location within a deserted solar system, four gas giants orbiting a flaring red sun. Xeltec lounged on a raised chair and slurped on a long, curled straw which disappeared in a boxy can of protein shake on his armrest. Another Grey was busy manipulating a complex set of controls.

"Deeva, meet Xavra, my pilot. Xavra, say 'hi.' Be nice to each other."

"Busy," Xavra snapped, her long-fingered hands fluttering over the controls. "Course laid in and verified. Jump drive spooling up. Oh, and hi."

She slapped a large button and somewhere below, a high-pitched whirring became audible. The image on the holographic projector winked out, plunging the whole bridge in velvety darkness for a heartbeat. When the projector came back on, it showed a new system. Two habitable planets orbited a yellow sun. The slave ship had appeared on the edge of the system, beyond a dense asteroid field which would obscure their jump signature from any prying sensors further in.

"Contact. I think it's him," Xavra said.

"Let's have a look then. Open the main screen and magnify until I can see something."

"Sure." More quick button presses. Deeva tried to understand the layout of the controls. In contrast to most other spacefaring races, the Grey didn't seem to use specialized consoles to control their large ship. Xavra was doing the duties of science officer, pilot and navigator all at once from what seemed to be one oversized, heavily modified keyboard. As this was her first time on a Grey vessel, Deeva couldn't make heads nor tails of the user interface, especially since most of it was covered in the intricate rune script of the Grey. She probably could reverse-engineer the code if she ever had the chance to download the ship's OS but with both Xeltec and his pilot around that had to wait.

The bridge had brightened up significantly as the main screen had come online, displaying a breathtaking view of the surrounding space. The holographic projection didn't show any of the background nebulae visible with the naked eye and Deeva simply stared, awestruck at the majestic beauty in front of her.

Xavra manipulated the controls and the view zoomed, homing in on a shape slowly emerging from the asteroid cluster. The exact size of the ship was hard to make out without any reference points and the Grey runes didn't help either. It was shaped like a horseshoe, flying through space with the rounded end first while the two prongs emitted long trails of glowing exhaust. The exterior looked like it was covered in stone, with thin metallic panel lines between each chiseled segment. As it came closer, Deeva could make out more details. Sunk deep into the front were several large muzzles and what looked suspiciously like a maw. It took her a moment to realize the maw probably was some kind of hangar access. The top and bottom were studded with point-defense turrets and as the ship dove to avoid a particularly large chunk of space rock, she could see several boons mounted between the prongs, ending in claws and drills.

"Is it me or is he flying a new ship again?" Xavra asked.

"Nope, that's definitely new. Damn, I wish I knew how he got his paws on that one. Goliath-class Gravon salvage and mining vessel. Niiiiice," Xeltec drooled. "Hail him."

"This is the Zhijit-akra-dona, calling Iorec Bloodhand," Xavra sing-songed. "Can we get directions on how to dock with that giant hunk of yours?"

"This is the pirate ship 'Injustice IV'," a cool female voice replied. "You are free to dock in hangar bay two. Guide beam incoming."

"Wait. I know that voice," Xeltec hissed. He tapped his omnipresent boom mic. "Hey Axilia, is that you?"

"Yes, this is communications officer Axilia speaking. I would lie if I had to say 'nice to see you again,' slaver."

"So, you blew Iorec so hard he gave you a job besides bed warmer? I'm impressed."

"Boss, they are arming their weapons systems," Xavra hissed. "They're locking on."

"Okay, okay. I apologize. Well, good for you, Axilia. Xavra, take us in." Xeltec cut the connection.

On the screen, the "Injustice IV" loomed larger and larger. A few minutes later, the hangar maw swallowed the Grey disc.

... to be continued.

I hope you enjoyed this twisted fantasy of mine. If you did, let me know. Vote and/or comment. Even if you didn't, tell me. How else can I improve? Thanks for your time.