G-Pol Ch. 03

The man whose face she couldn't se and whose voice she couldn't quite make out was doing wonderful things between her thighs. She could feel the orgasm building as she massaged her breasts and played with her nipples. Suddenly there was an annoying sound and she could feel it all slipping away except the heat in her middle. She so wished she could keep it going, maybe then she could find out who that man was!

Reaching over, she shut off the alarm then lay there committing what she could remember of the dream to memory. It was one of her better ones and she didn't want to forget it. That done, she threw back the covers and rolled out of bed. The cooling moisture at her crotch told her the dream had been really good!

Reaching down she ran her fingers along the still pulsing and very moist folds and the soft curly hair surrounding them. It instantly brought back the images of her dream and it felt divine! She found herself sucking on her wet fingers and giggled. She knew she wasn't attracted to women, but anyone who saw her do that would probably think she was at least bisexual, if not entirely homosexual. She'd never done that before, but now she had, she realized her taste was rather sweet and not at all unpleasant. "In fact," she thought, "I wouldn't have any trouble kissing any man who gave me what my dream lover had to within a centimeter of his life!" That had her laughing out loud as she walked into her lav.

Once she'd relieved herself she walked down to the gym still naked and activated the swim mode on the spa. She wanted a good workout but wasn't in the mood for weights or martial arts. A good long swim sounded wonderful though. Maybe afterward she'd take a nice hot bath too.

Slipping into the cool water and leaning forward until she floated comfortably, she began with a slow breast stroke to warm herself up and get the blood flowing. As she swam, her mind drifted. When she'd had the spa installed, the sales agent had demonstrated a holo-curtain that could create the illusion she was bathing or swimming in any number of exotic locations, from an ancient bathhouse to a steamy jungle to the middle of space. She hadn't thought much of it at the time and said no, but now she was thinking it could be rather nice! Especially after her discovery of the joys of sex in water! A romantic setting with the right music, and maybe even a little wine?

She pushed those thoughts out of her mind. If she kept them up, she wouldn't be swimming anymore. The idea of the holo-curtain was a good one though. She'd have to look into retrofitting the spa when she got the chance. The idea of swimming a jungle river with crocodiles somehow seemed attractive, so long as they weren't real anyway. And that was only one of hundreds or thousands of possibilities. Actually, something similar for her bath would be nice too.

She checked the time and was surprised to find she'd been at this for over an hour! The warm feeling in her muscles and the mental and emotional euphoria told her the workout had been successful. The endorphins were doing their wonderful work. She'd gone through her entire routine, the breast stroke becoming a side stroke from which she rolled into a backstroke, reversed to a crawl and finally progressed to a full butterfly before reversing the order. Now she was back to her easy breast stroke. The idea of course being to avoid cramping and sore muscles later on.

She deactivated the spa and climbed out. Grabbing a towel she dried herself enough to keep from dripping water all the way back up to her room and lav. Once back in her room, she picked out her outfit for the day and laid it out on the bed. As she did this, she also activated the auto kitchen to prepare her breakfast. After her workout this morning she would need something high in protein and fats to replace what she'd used up, then she added a little fresh fruit and a few crepes to finish off and for energy.

Checking the time she saw she had about forty five minutes until they arrived. She wanted to be on the bridge deck when that happened. You never new what you might come across emerging from Transit space. It was best to be prepared, especially in regions that might harbor pirates. She set the kitchen to have her meal ready in half an hour and climbed into the hot bath she'd promised herself. She made quick work of the getting clean part and lay back to relax until it was time to get out.

Bona woke her up with the news that her breakfast was just emerging from the auto-kitchen and if she didn't hurry, she wouldn't have any breakfast. It was looking awfully tempting! Natasha laughed as she got out of the tub and dried herself quickly. Bona wouldn't actually eat her breakfast, but it was a joke between them that human food was like a drug to a canine. And Demeitri, he would eat her breakfast if he wasn't watched, the little opportunist he was. She was glad she had Bona around to keep him in line when she couldn't watch him constantly.

She slipped on her bra and panties then took the rest of her clothes with her to put on while she ate. Her time was getting short after all. She arrived in the kitchen and dining area to find bona and Demeitri finishing their own breakfasts and Demeitri already eyeing hers greedily.

She took her plate and carried it over to the table. Everything was just the way she liked it. The eggs were scrambled and she could smell the cheese melted into them, and there were a half dozen sausage links. She picked up one of the sausages and nibbled on it as she pulled on her pants, wiping off the grease on a napkin so as not to stain her clothes. The crepes and fruit were on another plate, the smell of the melted real butter on the crepes blending wonderfully with the smells of the mandarin orange slices and strawberries. Next she rolled some of the oranges into one of the crepes to nibble on as she pulled on her stockings and light boots. Then she finished her meal.

She entered the Bridge with two minutes to spare as she was pulling her shirt on. This was cutting things close! She didn't bother to button her shirt or tuck it in. Instead she activated the ship's force shield and the point defense weapons. She'd been happy to see her parents had upgraded the weapons when they'd refurbished the ship. Now in place of the class three light laser weapons it had carried most of her life, the two new and heavily reinforced military grade turrets each sported class four light particle beam cannons. In addition the missile batteries had double the capacity of the originals. Her parents had said it only made sense to have improved weaponry in a vehicle owned by a G-Pol officer. After all there were those who would take an opportunity to attack one if it presented itself. This way she could present them with a nasty surprise. The force shield had also been upgraded for her protection. It was no warship, but it was better than would be expected too. She set the weapons turrets on automatic as she began buttoning her shirt. There was fifteen seconds left.

She'd just finished buttoning and tucking in her shirt when the stars began to fade into view. There was a sudden din of the proximity alarm and she dropped into her pilots chair and switched the view to see what was so close. It had to be coming toward her, because otherwise its gravitational field would've offset her arrival. As she expected, it was a vessel and coming straight at her. She fired her thrusters at full power to get out of the way and cleared her weapons to fire if it came within a kilometer or if it pursued.

A quick check of her sensors showed it was not emitting the proper identification codes and it was too well armed to be a civilian ship. That could only mean it was a pirate. Something caught her attention then. Apparently there were two of them. One the large vessel and another, a suit of power armor. Oddly, the power armor was behind the larger vessel. It'd only been revealed to her when she maneuvered to avoid the ship.

Suddenly her laser communications system showed an incoming transmission. civilians didn't usually use laser communications. Most ships were usually equipped with it but it was rarely used except in heavy traffic areas where overlapping coms could create interference, or when someone wanted absolute privacy and had a direct line of sight. She activated the console to see what was going on. "Hi there" a smooth sounding male voice said, "I've been hunting these bastards for a month now. If you can keep them distracted long enough, I should be able to get aboard and put a stop to this!"

"Who are you" she responded suspiciously.

"Name's Karl! I'm a bounty hunter" he responded with what sounded like a smile made vocal. He gave her his license and identification numbers which she quickly noted into her log. "You have a beautiful voice there my lady! If you can just keep up what you're doing, this should be easy enough. These guys are worth quite a bit. There are four of them aboard. If you like, I'll split the reward with you for the risk I'm asking you to take. I'm not a greedy man!"

"Okay, just do what you're going to do and I'll keep them busy." Natasha agreed maneuvering hard to keep their attention on her. She knew there was no chance of outfighting or outrunning them. She might be unladen and therefore faster than most shuttles of her class and type, but she also knew that most pirate ships were heavily modified so as to be as fast and capable as possible. In other words more than a match for her ship with her alone. She had no doubt she and Bona could take them if they were stupid enough to board her, but she'd rather they didn't stink up her home.

"Okay my lady!" Karl laughed, "I'll take care of them in a hurry and let you know when I'm done. Talk to you in a bit!"

She noticed her standard com panel also alight. She opened the channel setting it to emit an acknowledging beep but didn't speak. She wasn't going to announce to them she was a woman, it would only encourage them. She didn't want to think about what they might want her for. The best she could hope for was rape and being held for ransom. The other likely possibility was to be sold into slavery after being raped. She'd rather die. Or better yet kill them all!

The voice that came over the com almost made her lose her self control. The stereotypical pirate drawl sounded so ludicrous she nearly broke out laughing. She could tell he was trying very hard to sound threatening, but he was failing miserably! "Hey there pretty lady. We know you're all alone! You can't fight us and you can't outrun us so why not make it easy on yourself? We'll take it a lot better if you play nice and don't give us any trouble. Why don't you bring her to a stop so we can get the preliminaries out of the way? I promise we'll take good care of you! We wouldn't want the guy that hired us to get mad after all if we hurt you. But if we have to, we'll cripple that little toy of yours."

That was a bit of unwelcome news and this wasn't funny anymore. They'd known she was coming, and had been hired to capture her. They also knew who she was. She shut down the com. There was no need to hear any more of their blathering. This had to mean there was a leak within G-Pol. It was strange they didn't seem to know about Bona though. Or maybe they did, and intended to kill her? That thought tied a painful knot in her chest. Then she got mad!

Checking the scanners to see where Karl was, she saw he was getting close to them but was still a safe distance away. She cut loose with everything her weapons turrets had to offer. The four particle beams splattered off the pirate's force shields but it most certainly got their attention. The twelve short range missiles fired in volley mode with their armor piercing warheads definitely drove the message home. The first nine to reach their target actually overloaded and brought down the force shields, allowing the last three to hit the pirate's hull. If that didn't distract them nothing would. She didn't dare risk another missile volley now though for fear of hitting the bounty hunter who was very close. However, the particle beams were a precision weapon and could still be used safely. she continued to punish the pirate vessel, those were the same types of guns often mounted on combat mecha and would do a fair amount of damage. She was careful to target the weapons turrets primarily, in order to prevent their being used against her. Nonetheless they did open fire, if not as effectively as they might've wished. Their laser shots splattered ineffectually against her shield as her first shots had against theirs. Once again she thanked her parents for their foresight. Her upgraded force shield was probably on par with their own, but they apparently had orders not to kill her.

Their fire suddenly seemed to become far less accurate with most of it missing her entirely. She was glad they hadn't used missiles as they were self guided and wouldn't require an operator for targeting. Unlike the pirate vessel, hers didn't carry any armor either. Her automatic point defense systems though were far more advance than the usual and could therefore be relied upon to perform at levels similar to a trained gunner. Strictly speaking, it was technically a military system. Realistically though, it was actually available to anyone who was willing to pay for it. Her parents had been, and she was grateful. Most military vessels used human gunners anyway.

A few seconds later the firing from the pirate vessel stopped altogether and it slewed wildly for a moment before its automatic stabilizer kicked in. Apparently the pilot had been incapacitated. This probably meant that Karl was now in control and the fight was over.

Bona came in at that moment. "I've secured Demeitri in his couch" she said sounding slightly amused, "I think he was ready to fight whoever came aboard for us! He's nothing if not loyal..." They both had to laugh at that. "I heard the weapons fire" bona continued, "So, did we win?"

Natasha smiled. "We had some help!"

"Hmm, a man I take it?" Bona's smile was toothier than usual, "So who is he?"

"I don't know yet." Natasha replied thoughtfully, "He says his name is Karl and he's a bounty hunter. He actually attacked that pirate ship in nothing but a suit of power armor. He's got balls, that's for sure!"

At that moment the com system showed another transmission from the pirate ship. Natasha opened the channel. "Everything okay over there?" Karl asked.

"He sounds good" Bona said lightly.

Natasha replied as she smiled at the obvious double meaning in her statement. "Yes, we're fine. None of their fire hit us. Everything go okay over there?"

"Beautifully! Taking down their force shield really made things easier." Karl said happily, "I don't think they were expecting that kind of firepower from a shuttle! By the way, what can I call you? I feel kind of funny talking to you and not knowing what to call you. That, and I need to know who to make out your portion of the reward to!"

Natasha laughed. "You can call me Natasha. And you don't have to worry about the reward, it's all yours. I'm not allowed to take it since it's my job to arrest people like that anyway. I'm with G-Pol."

"Oh, okay." Karl said sounding thoughtful, "Well then, maybe you could escort me to the station to turn them in? Then I can at least buy you dinner to say thanks? It's the least I could do. After all, you did make this a lot easier than it would've been otherwise."

Okay, sounds good" Natasha agreed with a smile, "dinner sounds nice. I'll need to stop in at the station anyway to check in and file a report on what happened."

"All right then!" Karl replied the smile obvious in his voice, "I'm ready when you are. I've got our little friends secured over here. You wanna follow me or should I follow you? Uh, nevermind. Stupid question! I should probably follow you so I don't get shot out of space here! I am piloting an obvious pirate ship after all! Ladies first then?"

"Well, he doesn't seem too full of himself." bona commented, "I think I like him. Now all we have to do is figure out what you should wear for dinner!"

They began the journey to the orbital spaceport, Bona teasing and making the most outrageous clothing suggestions she could think up and generally keeping them both amused. Unlike most inhabited worlds, this one had its spaceport located in an orbital station from which smaller shuttle craft could then depart to land visitors anywhere on the planet. This minimized the need for massive infrastructure and potential environmental damage that would result with the construction of a planetside port and the resulting city that would spring up around it. There were dozens of smaller landing fields scattered around the planet that could handle the tourist traffic and the needs of commerce without a massive complex that would scar its natural beauty. In this way too, population growth could be somewhat controlled as could the crime and corruption such a large facility inevitably brought with it.

The station had a G-Pol office and a reasonably well equipped police force, but that wouldn't be anywhere near enough to handle piracy in the system. Aphrodite was a beautiful world but it could easily fail under the pressures of piracy and fear. They really needed a military arm, if only a small one for such things. Either that or they needed to increase and improve their police force and its equipment. They would have to be careful in doing that though, an organization with that kind of power could become a threat to civil rights if allowed to grow out of control. A separate military force controlled by a civilian government was a better option. At least in that way, the two would be there to keep each other in check. A corrupt leader convincing one to help him take over entirely would have a lower chance of success and it would be far harder to convince both.

The trip would take seventeen hours. So Natasha took some of the time preparing her report and the acquisition forms to replace her missiles. When on duty such expenditures were covered by G-Pol and the weapons should be readily available on the station to those authorized for them as she was. Of course if needed, such things could be had on the civilian market as well as through the black market. The civilian prices were high and the black market's were higher. Not to mention she didn't like the idea of supporting any part of the illegal weapons trade and so would not deal with black marketeers if it could be helped. Since she'd gone out into the field, that was a funny thing to say these days but it still meant pretty much the same thing, she hadn't ever had to purchase her own ammo. In fact this was only the second time she'd ever had to fire on anything in space. Still, in both instances it'd gotten the job done when there seemed no other option.

Much to Bona's annoyance she decided to wear her G-Pol dress uniform to dinner. Bona made it clear she really had wanted her to wear something risque. Her argument was, "How are you supposed to impress a man wearing so much clothing? Men are men after all!" Her return argument was that she didn't want to give it all away too soon. Men liked a little mystery too!

She did invite Bona which mollified her somewhat. She really didn't like having to keep Bona in the background just because of the fear of the ignorant. If Karl was afraid of her, he'd just have to get over it! Somehow though, she didn't think she had to worry about that this time.

As they came within range of the stations sensors, she contacted the control center and identified herself. It was a simple matter to make arrangements to bring in the captured pirate vessel. She forwarded the identity of the bounty hunter at the controls of the captured ship and informed them he had the four pirates aboard secured and ready to be turned over. The bounty hunter was in charge of the prisoners and had made the captures himself.