G-Pol Ch. 10

Chapter 10

Aftre the Czarina had vanished into foldspace Karl commented, "Somebody is watching us. I don't think those pirates just happened to be out here conveniently waiting for us. Who all did we tell we were coming out here? After all, there is no way those guys could've followed us out here without us noticing. If they all had stealth systems, why did they suddenly decide to show themselves to us now. Why not just attack out of the blue? That's not typical pirate behavior."

Natasha looked thoughtful. "You're right. They didn't do any of the usual pirate stuff either. They didn't call us to make threats. They knew they had the advantages of numbers and firepower, but they didn't attack. Instead, they just sat out there and apparently watched us."

"They were watching us." Bona confirmed, "From what I could get at that distance, I could tell they knew we were there and they were paying attention to what we were doing. It didn't look like they saw you guys outside though. I think if they had, they would've made a move. They all seemed pretty impatient. Anxious to be doing something, anything."

Vixi nodded her agreement. "Karl is right, and so are you Natasha. The question is, who would know where you're going every time you go somewhere? Mallory always seems to know exactly where you are. It seems to me it would have to be somebody high up in the station."

"Or in G-pol's own offices." Lisa added, "Think about it. Not only have you been filing your movements with Navigation control, you've been telling G-pol command every move you've been making. I agree with Vixi too. It has to be somebody on the station. It's too local for somebody back on Luna to be reporting on you. Dumerk's office knew you were coming out here long before you got here. Your arrival was posted on the office daily bulletins a couple of days before you got here. Not too many people actually see those either. It's actually only intended for the post's command staff, but I manage to get a look at my bosses more often than not. It's not as secure as they think."

Karl nodded his agreement. "True, but that kind of thing usually doesn't need to be overly secure. It's not common after all for guys like Mallory to be interested in what most consider to be general operations information. What's more important, is that someone knew what Natasha was coming here for in the first place."

"That's exactly it." Bona replied, "Someone knew ahead of time where we were going and why. Not to mention, when. That should help narrow down who our culprit is."

"Don't forget," Karl put in, "Mallory has no problem doing whatever it takes to compromise anyone he thinks will be useful to him. Then he tends to destroy them when he's done. So, whoever it is, they're likely to run into big trouble soon. I think he's gotten what he wanted from them, now they're of no more use to him."

They'd all turned their seats to face one another, so Natasha's frown was visible to everyone. "That's worrying. I'd really like to get ahead of Mallory for once. So, who would be the easiest for him to compromise? It has to be someone who has the access he would need to pull off the stunts he has already. Somebody who wouldn't attract attention by snooping, maybe somebody who'd be expected to be a little snoopy."

"Oh, that's too easy!" Vixi growled sounding chagrined, "It's a secretary. They're expected to be snoopy, they go through all the documentation; you know, to filter out the crap. Nobody pays them any attention. Nobody pays any attention to their personal security either. They're usually not considered important enough for that. I got to know more than a few cute little secretaries when I was modeling." She blushed slightly at that. Apparently, she'd done more than get to know a few of those little secretaries. They would have to tease more of that out of her later.

"You're right Vixi." Karl agreed nodding knowingly, "That makes them the easiest targets too. In fact, do you remember how frazzled Dumerk's secretary was the morning Giovani showed up? No one is surprised when a secretary is stressed out either. It's expected, especially when she works for a guy like Dumerk."

"Oh shit!" Natasha grunted as she spun around to her com console. She immediately Connected to Giovani's com system via the G-pol subspace net and sent him an encrypted report warning him of their suspicions. "I hope he gets this soon enough. Whatever Mallory said to break her, maybe we can stop it before he does whatever he threatened her with."

"We can hope." Lisa commented, "From what Karl's told us though, I'm afraid we're probably too late."

"Probably," Karl agreed, "We can't take the chance though. One of Mallory's favorite methods is to threaten family members, or even entire families. One guy I talked too afterward showed me pictures Mallory sent him of his family going about their daily business. When he was done with the man, he killed them all with a bomb placed in their home by the building's maintenance guy, who he'd also compromised. The whole family was killed in that blast. Then the information he used to blackmail the maintenance guy was released to the authorities. The vicious bastard doesn't care about anyone. They're all potential victims to him. The more misery he can cause, the happier he is."

Vixi looked confused. "How the hell does he manage to get so much information? He's got to have one hell of a network! When everyone knows he can't be trusted, how does anyone fall for his lies. None of it makes any sense!"

Lisa smiled sympathetically at her lover. "It's simple fear. He pics people who know whatever they were doing will get them into more trouble than they can deal with. Then he uses his contacts to find as much dirt as he can. The rest is just human nature."

"The other problem is," Karl added, "The ones he's extorting of course don't talk about it until after the fact. Then the legal system tries to protect potential witnesses. They classify certain facts and there you have it. The legal system unintentionally maintains his operational security. The guys he's extorting never find out he can't be trusted until it's too late."

Vixi snarled, "Now I understand why you hate him so much! He's a truly evil son of a bitch! He needs to die!"

Lisa nodded. "I think we all agree with you baby. Those pirates got in the way of our lunch though. I think it's time to eat now. Who's with me?"

Karl laughed. "Sounds like a good plan! Count me in."

Natasha nodded smiling. We've got about eight hours. I say we enjoy ourselves and let our guests finally unwind."

That agreed, they all climbed out of their seats and made their way back into the living area. Mike, Janice and Rachel all popped to their feet as they came out of the bridge deck. So, is it over?" Rachel asked before anyone else could speak.

"For the next eight hours at least." Natasha replied, "No one knows where we're going this time. So I doubt there'll be anyone waiting for us when we get there."

Janice was the first to catch on. "So those guys were out there waiting for us? Do you have any idea who they were?"

"They were definitely out there for us, and I got the impression from their minds that they had been waiting for us." Bona answered, "we think they were sent after us by Mallory, but we can't be absolutely positive of that because we didn't stick around long enough to confront them. They had us outnumbered and heavily outgunned. I've no interest in becoming a posthumous hero."

"Us either." Mike replied, We were discussing it before you came out. We're glad you got us the hell out of there. Won't they be waiting for us to go back home though?"

"Probably," Karl replied, "but that's why Natasha's not taking us back to the station yet."

"Exactly." Natasha continued, "I headed us for the belt on the opposite side of the system. I figure that's the last place they'll expect us to go. Once we're ready, we'll come in to the station from an unexpected direction, and actually ready for a fight."

That, and they won't have the balls to just leave a bunch of obvious pirate ships sitting out in open space for everybody to see." Lisa added, "That would stir the pot too much. They wouldn't want to ruin their prime hunting grounds. Not that it's not going to get bad for them pretty soon. Colonel Giovani was pretty pissed about pirates brazen enough to attack a G-pol officer the moment she arrives in system. I think this place is going to have a much higher G-pol presence soon."

Karl nodded, but looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure that's going to make much of a difference though. G-pol doesn't exactly specialize in hunting pirates."

That's true." Natasha agreed, "we don't exactly have a large enough fleet of warships at our disposal for it either."

Janice got an evil grin, "Just set a bounty by the ship, or by the head, like Sol system does. That'll attract all the pirate hunters you could ever need! If you've got guys like Georgia Porter and Blackie Staab hunting for you, you're not gonna be sticking around to cause trouble for a few rich guys."

Karl laughed out loud. "I like the way you think pretty lady! I was back on Earth when the Blackguards made their debut. The guys sponsoring the Sol pirates're probably still running with their tails between their legs. You wouldn't believe how fast some of those guys made themselves scarce! I wonder who's sponsoring these guys. They seem too organized to be independent operators. You usually don't find fleets of ships like we just ran across among normal pirates."

Natasha frowned. "That's a good point. And whoever it is, he's obviously working for Mallory."

"Actually," Karl replied, "It's most likely the other way around. Whoever it is is probably doing this as part of Mallory's price for working with him. When he heard G-pol was taking a more direct interest in him, he probably decided to have the problem dealt with by his new employer, or employers. Mallory's not an organizer, he's a lone operator who likes to take advantage of somebody else's resources."

"That makes sense." Janice agreed, "A true psycho like that wouldn't be good as a team player. He'd be too disruptive." She was already taking off her armor. "This stuff isn't exactly comfortable."

"That's because we didn't get a chance to fit it to you like we normally would." Lisa replied, "We should've taken the time as soon as you came aboard. If you want, we'll help you take care of that as soon as we've all eaten. Natasha's already programming the autokitchen."

Natasha was, with Bona's help. Bona was mentally contacting each individual to find out what he or she wanted, then passing that on to Natasha who then programmed it into the kitchen. By the time everybody was out of their armor and had put it away for the nonce, the kitchen was chiming to tell them their lunch selections were ready.

Karl and Natasha passed out the food while Lisa and Vixi arranged the conformable tables into a dining configuration in the sitting area. When everything was arranged, they all sat down together to enjoy their meal. Not quite by common consent, they'd all stayed in their body gloves. It hadn't been discussed, but the gloves were comfortable and just as easy to move around in as was your own skin. Plus, they offered excellent support both for the males with their dangling sexual apparatus, and those females with larger breasts.

Once the meal was finished, Vixi was the first out of her clothes. As they were getting up to clean up and put the sitting area back to its original configuration, she was shucking off her body glove. "I like it better when we're all naked!" Rachel was closest to her and turned to watch as she worked the tight garment free. The little woman seemed fascinated as she stared, almost as if she were a child observing something forbidden.

Bona noticed the strange reaction first and immediately caught her bondmate's attention. "There's something wrong with Rachel. Do you feel what I do coming from her?"

Natasha recognized it instantly. "She's terrified! And... she's completely turned on at the same time!"

"And they're not connected." Bona commented, "The lust and the fear are completely separate and apparently unrelated." She turned her attention to Karl. "Karl honey, can you take a look at Rachel? Natasha and I have no idea what's going on with her, but there is definitely something wrong."

Karl turned toward Rachel, a concerned look on his face. He watched her for a full minute as first Vixi, then Lisa and then Janice stripped out of their body gloves. She stared at each with the same fascination. She was equally interested in Mike as he stripped off his own clothes, but the stark fascination wasn't there. He turned his mental attention to Natasha. "Baby, why don't you take off your body glove too. Do it nice and slowly, and make sure Rachel gets a good look at you as you do it. Trust me. I think I know what's going on."

Since his thought was directed at her, Natasha had no difficulty hearing him. She did as he asked, curious to see what his conclusion might be. The woman's fascination extended to her as well. Then Karl took off his own body glove and her attention was riveted by his action much more strongly than with Mike, but it wasn't the sheer terrified fascination she'd exhibited upon watching the women disrobe.

Karl interrupted her thoughts. "Now do me a favor? Offer to help her out of her glove. You're the only other straight female here, so you're the least threatening. I want to see how she reacts. If she does what I'm afraid she's going to do, we'll know for sure."

Completely mystified, Natasha did as she was asked. She moved casually up to Rachel and laid a hand on her shoulder so as not to surprise her. "Want me to help you out of that thing? I know they're a bit tight."

The look of sheer panic in Rachel's eyes nearly broke her heart. What made it worse was the desire mixed in with the terror. She could literally feel the roiling emotions pouring out of the little woman, and her empathy wasn't all that strong! Despite her obvious fear though, Rachel accepted her offer. She was obviously fighting her fear, but she was having a very hard time doing it.

Natasha helped ease the skin-tight supportive garment down over Rachel's shoulders, then down her arms. When Natasha's hair brushed Rachel's breasts as she helped the woman free her arms, Rachel froze like an animal caught in the headlights of an onrushing vehicle. Seeing this reaction, Natasha thought she was beginning to understand. Just to be sure though, she continued helping the woman undress. She took the garment where it now bunched around her waist and began working it down over the woman's hips, taking every opportunity to brush her skin. Each and every time, the reaction was exactly the same, as if it were a conditioned response. In fact, Rachel was beginning to look positively ill! Now Natasha remembered Rachel's comments from this morning. Even the thought of a woman touching her or worse, going down on her made her sick to her stomach!

Apparently, Karl caught all of this as well. He spoke aloud to Rachel. "Rachel, where are you from?"

Rachel looked at him confused. "I'm from Earth. Well, actually, my birth certificate says I was born on Cestus station, but I was raised in New Zealand back on Earth."

"Oh shit!" Lisa exclaimed, "It's no wonder you freak out whenever a girl touches you! Those assholes think homosexuality in women is the ultimate sin! They brainwash all female children from right after they're born to be deathly afraid of homosexual thoughts and feelings. If a girl even looks like she might be interested in her own sex, she's tortured until she doesn't have a sexual identity at all! How those bastards get away with it, I'll never understand."

Rachel looked horrified. "Are you serious? NO, never mind, I can tell you are. What does that mean? I was adopted when I was four. Shouldn't I have gotten over that by now? I mean..." her thoughts seemed to bind up at that and she had nothing more to say.

"I only know one good way to fix that." Lisa began, "First of all, do you think you feel any attraction to any of the women here? Or are you more interested in the men?"

Having figured out what her lover was up to already, Vixi pitched in. "Or is it maybe both?" She smiled encouragingly as she approached. When she took Rachel in her arms and kissed her, Rachel froze instantly and began trembling, as if terrified. Vixi didn't release her though. Instead, she turned toward Karl. "Karl honey, I know she likes you. Why don't you come and join us. You too Natasha."

At Natasha's nod, Karl moved over and wrapped his arms around Rachel and Vixi both. Rachel turned and threw her arms around him, clinging as if to a lifeline. Vixi began whispering soothing nothings into her ear as she slowly ran her hands over the little woman's body, stroking and caressing in a comforting manner, not sexual. Soon, Rachel was crying bitterly against Karl's chest. Then Natasha was there and the little woman was encapsulated between the three of them.

Karl directed his thought at Bona. "Can you relay my thoughts to Lisa?" At Bona's nod, he continued, "Lisa, I think you're gonna be the best for this. I know you don't like to hear this, but you're softer inside than the rest of the women here. I think you can relate better than any of them, and she's going to need a woman she can relate to. Unfortunately, Vixi and especially Janice are too aggressive, and this needs a soft touch."

Bona added her own input. "I'll help you too. Karl's right too. You're the most sympathetic woman on board right now. You and Natasha. Karl, you're going to have to be a part of this too. She's going to need a man to reinforce what we do here. Mike will be a little help, but you're the one who's going to be the most important to her over the next few days. I'll warn you now too. There may be some physical contributions necessary on your part. While you and Mike might be physically equal when it comes to sexual equipment, she has no other male interests at the moment. She likes to look at him, but she wants you and you only. Though you, Lisa, have definitely piqued her forbidden interest. She just can't admit it to herself as of yet. The conditioned response will keep getting in the way for some time."

Lisa nodded her acknowledgment. "I dated a girl who broke out of that mess once before. She was a complete emotional wreck most of the time. The only thing consistent about her was that she absolutely hated men. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to find out she was in prison for murdering some poor bastard who had the bad taste to try pushing her too hard. If Rachel likes Karl, it's probably a good sign. At least she's not showing any signs of being crazy."

Though Natasha was conscious of the conversation between her bondmate, Karl and Lisa, she was more aware of the feelings emanating from Rachel at the moment. She was surprisingly content, and it wasn't just from being in Karl's arms. Though that was a major part of it. But at the same time, she was drawing considerable comfort from her own presence. Natasha was surprised. The woman's feelings were like those for a big sister she could rely on. She actually trusted Natasha implicitly, despite having known her for only a few days! She thought Karl was probably right too. Lisa's softer nature though well hidden, would be essential to her healing.

Then Natasha found herself smiling. Rachel's contentment was quickly becoming something else, and surprisingly, she herself wasn't feeling any jealousy at all! It did seem strange to be standing here naked and holding another naked woman so tenderly though. Especially one who was seconds away from throwing herself at her man! Strangely too, Rachel's need seemed to be spilling over into her! She could feel her own libido building toward its boiling point!