G-Pol Ch. 09

Her eyes moved to Karl as he came over and joined them. Natasha saw the hunger rise in the other woman's eyes as they roamed Karl's body. Her eyes kept returning to his genitals, and she was licking her lips. When Rachel realized what she was doing and that both Natasha and Karl were well aware of it, she blushed furiously and hid her eyes behind a fall of flaming hair. "I'm so sorry. I guess you both know I want him. I'm sorry Natasha, I can't help it! It's like he just stepped out of one of my wildest sexiest fantasies. But... I'm going to shut up before I really embarrass myself."

Natasha knelt down and hugged the other woman, giving her a friendly kiss on the cheek and squeezing her tight. Rachael returned the embrace, a sheen of tears brimming in her eyes. When they broke apart, Natasha settled down to Rachael's left side, since Vixi was lying on the other and waved Karl down to join them. "I know exactly what you mean Hun. It's like that for me too. Not too discount your feelings, but I don't really think he's your type..."

Rachael surprised her by bursting out laughing, startling Vixi awake. "Oh I know it too! He's got the looks from my fantasies, but he's way too quiet, kind of remote, you know? Too... Reserved? I'm dumb enough to want a tough looking fairy tale Prince Charming, and I hope I'm smart enough to know there's no such thing. People just aren't that simple, especially men. You learn that pretty quick doing what I do for a living. You see all kinds of men, and you learn pretty quick the kind of pressure they're under. We women are fucking cruel! Well, most of us anyway. I really try not to be."

Karl was shaking his head. "It's not women, or men, it's society. It's the way we're all raised, the conflicting values, and it's genetics and evolution running against it all. It puts unbelievable pressure on all of us. Some take it better than others, some just go insane. I'd rather you didn't do that. I like you better the way you are. If you're lonely though, I'd suggest going to the gym like you did a few weeks ago. I don't think you'll be lonely for long that way. There are at least a couple of guys there I think might be worthy of you."

Natasha had to smile. Karl's gambit had the intended affect, as Rachael smiled and blushed prettily. Thinking back, she realized he was right too. There had been plenty of men staring at her, and some of them had seemed truly interested in more than her body.

Vixi's head came up and she looked Rachael in the eye, not letting her escape by turning away. "He's right you know. I saw those guys staring at you too. Just go up and talk to the one you want. You'll know as soon as he opens his mouth if he's the right one. If he's not, then move on! I'd say go for the quiet ones. Just my advice. Anyone else hungry?"

Natasha had to laugh. Yeah, I was hoping I could work out before breakfast as usual, but this place is a mess! Let's let the cleaning robots do their thing and Karl and I can work out while all you horny lazybones sleep it off!" Using her negligible telekinetic ability, she shut down the sound system. "Anyone hungry? I'm with Vixi, let's go eat something."

The others had finally run down and had been relaxing in the hot water as they'd talked. Now they all climbed out and dutifully followed up to the crew deck. Demeitri met them in the living room as they came out of the stairwell. When he saw where they were headed, he began running in excited circles around them. "You know," bona announced mentally to the room at large, "I'd swear that little runt is a precog! And maybe a telepath and empath as well. All anyone has to do is think about getting something to eat and he's always right there! You'd think we fed him on scraps off our plates or something. Go ahead and get settled everyone, I've already programmed the autokitchen. Breakfast should be ready in a few."

"Wow!" Rachael exclaimed, "I need a partner like you! Someone who could read minds and know exactly what somebody's gonna order? We could have it ready and waiting for them exactly the way they want it! We'd make a killing!"

"And I aim to please!" bona laughed. A few minutes later she was serving their breakfasts, exactly as they'd wanted it.

Natasha began the teasing. "So, Janice likes to bite huh?" she glanced meaningfully at Lisa's scattering of love bites and hickies, "I hope you don't bite the more sensitive areas too hard."

Janice smiled knowingly as she ran her eyes lasciviously over Natasha's breasts and neck where they were visible over the dining table. "Not always, I'm the one who likes getting bit, can't yu tell?" She waved her hand over her skin. Taking a closer look now she had the chance, and permission, Natasha saw that the pebbling she'd noticed earlier was actually made up of thousands of overlapping curving bite scars! As Vixi had noticed previously, it looked as if every square centimeter of the little woman's skin was covered in bite marks, not all of them old either. Several of the ones on her breasts, neck and shoulders were quite fresh! "Getting bitten is my ultimate turn-on I think. I mostly nibble and suck and lick until you scream for mercy! I only bite when you ask me. I know for a fact that both Lisa and Vixi got off on biting me! I have the marks to prove it! I'm completely open too. I love sex, and I'll do it with almost anyone, male or female and I like to share Mike too.,Wanna try us out? I promise you won't regret it! Ask Lisa and Vixi. WE didn't give them anything to complain about."

"Oh you won't either!" Lisa agreed smiling devilishly, "I've been giving her a few cunnilingus pointers too. She's one hell of a student! But then, noone's better than her teacher! Why don't you and Karl come by and see us lazy horndogs once we've slept it off? I'd love to hear you scream for me like you do for him."

Janice turned her most radiant smile on natasha. "me too for that matter! And if you wanna bite me, and make me bleed, I'll scream for you too! That offer goes for both of you by the way. I'll gladly take anything you wanna dish my way! And I do mean absolutely anything."

"Ooh, I'd like Karl to make me scream like that!" Vixi agreed giggling hysterically, "I wish you both would come join our next little party. Then everything would be perfect."

An evil glint appeared in Natasha's eyes. "Maybe if you're both good little girls..."

"Hey!" Janice protested, "what about us? Are you going to leave us out? No fair! I want in on that prime little orgy! We can make it a real, big orgy."

Mike looked rueful. "Uh, honey? I don't think she's into other guys. And I definitely don't want Karl mad at me!" He mock shivered as if horrified. "He might hurt me!" They all laughed at that.

Janice smiled victoriously as if she'd won a fight of some kind. "Oh, no problem! Just don't fuck his woman! You can fuck the rest of us instead! We'll fuck her, and him too." She didn't sound like she was joking anymore. In fact, she was looking at Natasha questioningly.

Natasha was flabbergasted. What could she say to that? What came out of her mouth surprised even her. "So what about Rachael? Don't you think she's going to feel a little left out?"

Natasha knew she'd made a mistake the moment she heard her own words. She'd just effectively promised to join in the group sex. And she realized, the women included. That hadn't been her intention at all. It wasn't even anything she was interested in trying. Was it?

Of course, three sets of eyes went right to Rachael. Natasha cringed inwardly. She definitely hadn't intended to divert attention in that direction. Her mistakes just seemed to be piling one atop another.

It was Vixi who saved them both, kind of. "Oh that's easy! The rules are, us girls keep our hands off Rachael. She can play with the boys, and us girls can play with anyone else we want!"

Mike added the final nail. "And I'll leave Natasha alone. Otherwise, everyone's fair game."

Janice smiled wickedly. "Unless she lets us share him with her. We've all seen what the others hav to offer. I'd kill to have Karl and Mike filling two of my holes!

Natasha knew she was sunk. There was no way she would be able to avoid this for four or five more days. Interestingly, Karl didn't look any more sanguine about the idea than she felt. That made her feel a little better. She looked around the table at all the expectant faces. "Like I said, we'll see." That brought three raucous triumphant cheers from Lisa Vixi and Janice. Mike and Karl both just smiled patiently. Rachael looked nervous, as if she expected to be sick. Strangely though, or perhaps not, she also looked as if she was anticipating just such an event too.

Just before noon, they intersected the inner edge of the asteroid belt and turned to follow its curve. Natasha had chosen this part of the belt because it was denser with smaller asteroids that would prove useful as practice targets. While they looked for an appropriate cluster, Karl and Lisa brought the point defense system online and began training Vixi in their use. Once again they'd prepared her for this ahead of time.

Lisa had programmed a training sim and modified the system for that purpose, really only a minor tweak to the system's power management programming. A simple command would return the system to combat ready status in less than a second.

They targeted fighter and small ship sized rocks as they flashed past. It didn't take Vixi long to adapt her small arms capabilities to the more complex weapons system. Soon she was obliterating simulated targets on a pretty regular basis. Both Karl and Lisa were pleased with the quality of work that had gone into the design and programming of Czarina's original improved weapons system. Natasha's parents had obviously really cared when they'd had the work done. The accuracy and rate of fire were astonishing, even at maximum range! "You know," Karl commented, "these things could probably shoot down missiles on their own." Lisa could only nod her agreement, eyebrows raised. It was impressive.

Later that afternoon, they found what they were looking for, and Natasha brought them onto a heading that would take them past a particularly dense cluster of smaller rocks, from fist sized up to more than man sized. The cluster was about ten thousand kilometers across, and Czarina's radar told them it contained thousands of potential targets. Using the radar, Lisa designated a dozen targets in a pattern that resembled a pair of six missile volleys. When she was finished, Natasha aimed them for that part of the cluster and activated the force shield to prevent their being hit by anything. An asteroid impact, even with one only a centimeter or two across at the speed they were traveling, would punch right through the entire length of the ship like a bullet through a single sheet of tissue paper.

The first pass was a success. The system hit ten of the twelve targets, seven of them solidly enough to be considered kills. That was pretty good for an automated system, but Lisa knew she could improve the average with a few tweaks. With Vixi in close attendance, she set to work, explaining what she was doing as she went. It took a couple of hours, but the second pass proved her work. This time, the system hit ten of the twelve selected targets as well, but all were kills.

Several more passes with different patterns and numbers of targets showed consistent results. The first series of passes complete, Lisa, with Natasha's Karl's and bona's aid, went through the recordings to find any places improvements could be made. Using those results, they further enhanced the programming. Then they all went EVA to make some physical adjustments to the lasers and turrets themselves. Lisa had decided that she needed to make some tweaks to improve the turrets' and lasers' traverse rates. This would allow them to get on target faster, thus increasing their chances of making an effective hit. It would also make them capable of tracking and targeting faster moving missiles. Each ball turret housed a pair of class three medium pulse lasers. Since they were pulse lasers and military grade, there was nothing Lisa could do to increase their rate of fire, short of completely redesigning and rebuilding their charging systems. She wasn't up to that kind of job though. That would require a military trained armorer, or better yet, a fully rated weapons Engineer.

It was during this spacewalk that Karl caught a far distant hint of movement. Using his enhanced body armor's more limited sensor systems, he magnified the image a hundred times to see if he could make out what it was. All he could tell was it was a ship. It was too smooth and shiny to be an asteroid, and its movement was all wrong. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He knew it could be an asteroid prospector or similar, but he also knew the odds of coming within visual range of anyone in space was beyond astronomical. This area wasn't exactly teaming with asteroid miners after all, nevermind the vast amount of material floating around loose out here. Aphrodite's economy wasn't geared toward mining and refining of raw materials either. It was a tourist destination, and the locals liked it that way. Apparently, so did the pirates.

He was glad they weren't moving and had parked near a larger cluster of rocks that broke up Czarina's outline. He couldn't help feeling suspicious. They were a long way away from any source of help. Still, whoever it was wasn't coming their way, yet anyway. He decided he would keep a sharp look out.

He waved to get Natasha's attention. When he had it, he waved to his com earpiece and made a throat cutting gesture that she would know meant radio silence. Then he waved her over. Placing his visor tight against hers to transmit the sound via contact, he rolled his eyes in the direction of the distant ship. "We've got company. I can't tell more than that it's a ship, it's a long way off."

"But if you can see them, they can see us." Natasha finished his thought.

"Exactly," he agreed calmly, "It's a good thing we're imbedded in this cluster and not moving. It should help keep us hidden from his sensors, and the rocks should break up our shape a little. Let's get this finished and get back inside quick time. I want to keep an eye on that guy, and the ship's passive sensors will work a lot better than our body armor." Natasha nodded her agreement, and they went back to work, but they kept their eyes open too.

"I've got them." Bona announced mentally, "I heard most of that and thought I'd try to check them out. I'm glad I did. That's no prospector ship. and definitely not a miner. I'll give you one guess what it is, and its got more guns than any space yacht should. I'll keep an eye on them, but I don't think they've seen us yet. They're moving across our previous path. If they start looking though, it won't take them long to spot us. These rocks really are just rocks. Their metal content is pretty low."

"Thanks Bona." Karl thought. He leaned his head back in to address Natasha. "If there's one pirate out here, there will be more. We'll have to watch our backs." He finished the adjustment he'd been making and closed his access hatch. Natasha had already finished hers and was waiting for him.

They went to the belly to find Lisa and Vixi still hard at work. Karl approached Lisa and laid a hand on her shoulder to let her know he was there. Then he turned her to face him and touched his visor to hers. Don't talk over com. We have company out here." Lisa nodded downward past their feet. "NO kidding. Bona filled us in, and I started looking around. I spotted that one right off. Vixi says there was another one she'd been watching, but it disappeared a few minutes ago. I'm not sure if it went into Transit, or just activated a stealth system. Either way, that's at least three. I think there might be a base of some kind out here. Those ships looked pretty small, say about our size I'd guess."

Karl raised his eyebrows questioningly. You've got good eyes! Even at full magnification I could only tell the one I saw was a ship."

Lisa shook her head slightly. "No, not really. I've just been in space a lot longer than you have. You learn to tell how far away something is, and how big it is, with a little practice."

"She's right about the sizes." Bona sent, "the other one is under stealth. I can make out the dust dispersion as it moves around out there. It seems they have seen us and they're keeping their distance, just watching. I'm pretty sure they are pirates too. All the ships are about the same size, but none is the same model, and they all show signs of heavy, if slapdash modification. We could probably handle one..." No more needed to be said.

"Well, let's get this job done so bona doesn't have to leave us behind to save our passengers." Lisa remarked as she turned back to finish her work. Natasha was already helping Vixi finish hers. Karl reached out and snagged Lisa's work list and checked to see if there was anything left he could do. There was and he moved to the appropriate panel and popped it open.

With four working on it, the remainder of the job was finished in short order. Natasha had bona initialize the lasers from inside the ship, and they watched to be sure their work had been done properly. Everything looked okay. The turrets rotated quickly and smoothly, and the laser emitters pivoted freely. Their movements were far faster than the human eye could follow, and Karl couldn't tell whether they were any faster or not. Their work outside the ship done for now, they moved inside.

Bona was just finishing the troubleshooting program and all the indicators were in the green asKarl and Natasha moved onto the bridge deck. Natasha moved into the pilot's chair and strapped herself in. "Bona, did you let everyone know to get themselves secured?"

Bona huffed a laugh. "I didn't have to. Mike and Janice were making out in the cockpit when I came in to see what I could see. They got the idea pretty quick. All three of them are completely dressed and ready to fight for their lives. Rachael was all for getting armed and going out on the hull for some target practice! Mike wasn't far behind her. I think of the three, Janice is the only one with even a lick of common sense. It didn't take her long to convince them they'd be the ones playing target if they tried that. She had a harder time convincing them small arms wouldn't do much against any spaceship. They've all been watching too many bad action movies."

"Yeah," Karl chuckled, "the ones where the hero brings down the world destroying super ship with a well placed shot from a popgun! Those things are sooo realistic. I guess if it prunes the dead weight out of the gene pool, it can't be all bad though. Lisa, you want the belly gun?"

"yeah I got it Karl Hun." She replied, "Okay Baby, you're spot is the copilot's chair. Keep an eye on the sensors and let Natasha know if you see anything that needs her attention."

"I'm on damage control and passenger calming duty I guess." Bona chimed in.

Vixi was at her station and studying the holo display worriedly. "It looks like there's four of them. They've got us surrounded, about a thousand kilometers out. The computers having a hard time identifying most of their weapons."

"They're probably not in standard mounts." Natasha said, "Pirates are always improvising their equipment. That usually means it doesn't always work the way they'd like it to. We can hope that's the case with these guys. How do their defenses look?"

Vixi flicked a few controls. "I'm not seeing any signs of force shields yet. Most of them seem to have armor plating welded to their hulls though."

"That's usually low grade steel." Lisa informed her, "They weld it on everywhere they can make it fit. It's useful against the first missile or two, or against light autocannon fire, or shrapnel, not so great against things like our particle beam cannons or even our antimissile lasers."