Hired Gun Pt. 05

Just as Suzy promised, Troy was back on his feet the next day. The human spent the craziest night of his life strapped to the medical exam table, making love to his tigress captain, female skunk archaeologist, his doctor-vixen, and his domineering engineer, a rambunctious rabbit. The events of the prior night stuck with the human as he tried to fulfil his duties as first officer, but the other furvoids seemed to be different creatures in the daytime.

"Morning Troy, how's your foot?" Captain Ember Riley asked.

"Uh...fine, thanks," he said, sitting down at the table in the galley. Ember handed him a bowl of cereal, but this time it was meant for humans. The meaty mystery cereal from before was now replaced with frosted oat clusters.

"I don't know how you humans eat this stuff," she said, sampling a flake. "Too damned sweet if you ask me."

"It's an acquired taste, I guess," he shrugged. "Do you need help on the bridge, Captain?"

"No, why don't you see if you can help Audra pour through the texts. I received a communique the disease is getting worse on our home planet. If you could perhaps help her we might find that damned stone sooner," Ember said.

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

"Troy..."

"Yes Captain?"

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, why do you ask?"

"You seem very quiet today. We...didn't freak you out last night, did we?"

"Oh, no. I get turned into a sex slave by four furvoid chicks on a regular basis," he said.

"Last night was...I'll admit, we were a bit out of control. I apologize for that. It won't happen again."

"Right, well, I'll just take this cereal with me and uh, visit Audra," he replied. He left the galley and entered Audra's quarters.

"Oh...hi Troy," she said, blushing immediately.

"Audra," he began, but she interrupted him.

"Troy, I'm so sorry, I would never want to cause you pain, you know that; I was in the moment and..." she said, nearly on the verge of tears.

"It's not your fault, if anything I came to apologize to you."

"We went way too far," she continued.

"Piper," Troy said softly.

"What about her?" Audra asked nervously.

"She dominates you?"

"It gets awful lonely in the void," Audra said quietly.

"I'm not judging you, hey, it's alright. I just...I don't want her to hurt you," he said.

"I like to be hurt, remember?" she said weakly.

"There's a difference between playful punishment and abuse. I'll protect you from her," he offered.

"You're sweet, Troy. I don't need it, really."

"Well, maybe I can at least help you with these ancient texts," he countered.

"Are you hiding the fact you're also an archeologist from us too?" she teased.

"Sorry, history and archeology were things I kind of slept through in class," he said with a laugh.

"Well, you might not find this task to your liking," Audra replied.

"I might find the subjects boring, but I also like a challenge. Maybe my primitive human brain will see things different than you might."

"Alright," she chuckled. "Well, the thing is, the Chelali race were famous for their riddles. The healing stone is of great importance to them, so they went to great lengths to hide it. Only those who are enlightened can hope to find it, so they made the riddles so difficult and vexing, it would take a truly advanced civilization to crack their codes."

"Well, let's see this one here," Troy said, pulling a copy of the text. It was in Furvoid, but he switched the language to English.

"Thrice a stone unturned, twice a stone burned, once a well to drink, never a chain is linked. Well, that makes a bunch of sense," he said.

"This particular riddle makes no sense, because none of the temples have any matching descriptions," Audra said, sipping her tea.

"Well," Troy said, taking another bite of his soggy cereal, "do you have the original text, I mean in their own language?"

"You speak Chelali?" she snickered.

"Not a word, I just want to see them. Sometimes, the idiots see things the geniuses miss," he replied with a playful wink.

"You are not an idiot, Troy, and I wish you'd stop saying that," she reprimanded him lightly. "Nevertheless, here they are," she said, pulling up the digital file of the original sandstone carvings.

The sandstone was in a writing form totally alien to the human. It consisted of angular lines and geometric shapes. Scholars used a sort of Rosetta Stone at the main temple to decipher the language, but the riddles had stumped all those who sought their treasure.

"Huh, that's funny," Troy remarked, looking at the writing.

"What is?" Audra sked, perking her ears up in excitement.

"Oh, it's probably nothing, never mind I said anything," Troy said dismissively.

"Troy," Audra again scolded her lover.

"Well, I don't know anything at all about the Chili Pepper language..."

"Chelali."

"Yeah, them too. Anyway, I do know a thing or two about space travel, and some of these symbols sort of look like the maneuvering flight paths I would take to avoid neutron stars," he said.

"Which ones?" the skunk asked.

He pointed to one.

"This is the word for sand...what else do you see that jumps out at you?"

"That one, and that one, oh and this one here, too," Troy commented, pointing at the symbols.

"Ocean, island, hilltop..." she translated.

"Know of any temples on any planets that match all of those requirements?" he asked.

"Checking," she said, putting the parameters in the computer.

"Valga 2, but we've been there already," she said in a deflated voice.

"Didn't find anything there?"

"Nothing more than a few clay pots and trinkets."

"It was a good idea though, Troy, really. I would have never thought of an idea like that," she said rubbing his hand with hers.

"Hey, what's this one?"

"Which?"

"That one, over there. Looks sort of like a globular cluster," he replied.

"It means flames."

"Flames? Did this Valga 2 have anything to do with flames?"

"Not that I recall. Wait, now that you mention it...there was a sacrificial torch. But I looked inside, it was empty."

"What was that text again, I mean in English? The riddle that is."

"Thrice a stone unturned, twice a stone burned, once a well to drink, never a chain is linked."

"Burned. Burning, torches, unturned," he muttered aloud.

"What are you getting at, Troy?"

"What if you went there and thought you uncovered everything, but you didn't?"

"Are you saying I missed something there, Troy?" Audra asked.

"Well you are only human...uh Furvoid," he corrected himself.

"That planet is days from here. The captain isn't going to waste time going on a hunch, especially for a place we already checked," Audra complained.

"I don't know why, I just feel there's more to that planet than you think."

"Troy..."

"Once a well to drink, twice a stone burned," he kept saying to himself.

"What are you getting at?"

"These aren't riddles, they're instructions!"

"What?"

"You said yourself, these chili pepper people," Audra didn't bother correcting him and let him continue, "were very advanced, yet they clung to tradition."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, what if they expect those who seek their treasure to perform the same rituals? Anyone can come in with a pickaxe and a shovel and dig around for treasure, but only one who is enlightened to their culture can gain their secrets. You said as much yourself."

"So you're expecting me to tell the Captain to turn the ship around, travel to the temple, try to recreate their ceremonies, and suddenly the answer will appear?"

"Well, I just..."

"Relax, babe. You sold me. I'll go inform the captain."

They went up to the captain and Audra explained Troy's hypothesis.

"And you think it's plausible, Audra?"

"Well, Captain, so far, all we've found on our digs is enough junk and trinkets to keep food in our bellies, and barely at that. Maybe a fresh perspective like Troy's idea might help."

"If you're wrong, we'll have wasted valuable time looking for the stone while our people die."

"But if he's right, Captain..."

Ember looked at her two crewmembers and smiled wryly. She punched in the coordinates in the computer and the ship slowly came about. "Well Mr. Wooten, you may very well be the best abductee I've ever kidnapped."

"Let's not get too excited until we get there and find out if this hunch of mine is right or not," he cautioned.

The Shield Maiden entered the planet's atmosphere. They flew over an ocean until they reached a sizeable island with a temple on a hilltop. Troy gathered his weapons and accompanied both Audra and Suzy into the temple, while Piper and Ember remained on the ship. It was a hot, tropical island, and steamy mist wafted over the jungle below the hilltop temple.

Troy was both excited and nervous. He kept his finger close to the trigger of his gun and constantly scanned every direction for even the slightest hint of danger.

"You're making me nervous," Suzy complained to Troy.

"If you're not already nervous, I don't know what you're doing here," Troy snapped at the doctor. The vixen ignored the comment.

"Well Troy, there it is, the ceremonial fire pit. They would make offerings and burn them as offerings to their gods," Audra said. Troy examined the stone, torch-like structure. It was just a bowl, devoid of any flammable substances.

"Thrice a stone unturned," Troy said, looking at a rough spot in the cobblestone floor with three stones seemed to form a rough triangle. They were only slightly darker than the rest of the floor. Troy got on his knees and pried them out of the ground. A foul smelling, black ooze stuck to the bottoms of the stones.

"Ugh, what is that?" Suzy asked, pinching her nose.

"Pitch, tar...whatever. It's meant to burn," he said. He brought the stone to the torch and placed it in the center.

"So what now?" the vixen asked? Troy produced a laser-lighter and ignited the pitch soaked stone. It burned for a minute or so before it exhausted its fuel.

"Well that was a waste of time," Audra remarked.

"Twice a stone burned," Troy reminded her of the riddle. She rolled her eyes. Troy took a small cup from his backpack and filled it with the tar and carried it to the torch. He covered the stone in the liquid and lit it again. The flames grew bright and suddenly a stone slab in the ceiling lowered. A metal ring as large as his fist rested against the stone slab.

"Well I'll be," Audra exclaimed. Troy reached for the ring and cautiously grabbed it.

"Well that's nice, but it doesn't look like a healing stone."

"No...but remember the rest of the riddle, 'once a well to drink, never a chain is linked,'" she said.

"So this is a link to a chain?"

"Perhaps. It would make sense. Two questions remain: will we find more of these links, and if we do, where is the well?"

"Fuck if I know, I'm just a soldier," Troy said with a wink.

"Who constantly surprises us," Suzy remarked.

"I would like you to continue to help me. I look at things in too academic a sense. Whereas you..."

"Take the stupid man's approach," Troy finished for her.

"That's not what I was going to say."

"It's alright, I'll do what I can."

"So did you retrieve it?" Ember asked as they boarded the ship.

"No, but we have this," Audra replied, showing the sampling ring.

"What is it?" the captain asked.

"We think it's a link in a chain, a chain which will reveal the stone."

"Good work Audra."

"Actually, Captain...it was all Troy's doing," the skunk said with reddened cheeks.

"Really? So our protector, pilot, sexual healer is now an archaeologist as well?" Ember teased the man, running her tigress finger up and down his chest.

"Lucky guess, that's all," he replied nervously.

"No, Captain," Suzy interrupted. "It wasn't luck. He figured out the riddle. He believed in it more than we did."

"Nice work, First Officer Wooten," she said with a smile.

"Thank you Captain," Troy said softly.

"Why don't you clean up; we'll have dinner ready in a few hours. I'll take us off this rock in the meantime," Ember said.

Troy was headed back for his room, but he decided to make a detour to the engine room. Piper, the chocolate brown bunny was running a computer diagnostic on the engines.

"Piper, is it okay if I come in?" Troy asked.

"Sure," she said in anything but a sure voice.

"You've been avoiding me today. I haven't set eyes on you since I left the infirmary," he replied.

"I...I didn't think you would want to set eyes upon me again," she said so quietly, he almost missed it over the hum of the machinery in engineering.

"I was a little...surprised by what happened in the infirmary," he said.

"I tortured you and Audra," she said, avoiding eye contact.

"Well, look it's..."

"No, Troy. I'm a monster. I...I don't know what gets in me sometimes," she said, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You're not a monster. You just...have a different kind of kink," the human replied.

"How can you forgive me for what I did to you?"

"I've been through far worse," he said softly.

"Torture?" she asked, and he nodded. "And here I am, doing it to you for my amusement."

"Piper, there is a way you can make it up to me," he said. The bunny perked her ears up and sniffled from crying.

"How?"

"Don't...don't dominate Audra anymore. You can do whatever you want to my body. I can take it. Just let her be," he said gently.

"I shouldn't be hurting anyone," she said angrily.

Troy took off his shirt.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Proving myself to you," he said, as he slipped out of his shoes and unbuckled his pants.

"You don't have to do this, Troy," she said.

"I want to," Troy answered as he removed the last articles of clothing. He knelt in front of the rabbit and bowed his head.

"Ember told me about your incident when you were in the army. The apartment complex. You're carrying a heavy burden with you."

"What's your point?"

"If you're coming to me to seek the pain of my whips as a sort of punishment you wish to bear for your past, I could whip you until your skin falls off, and it won't make you feel any better."

"What I do with my body, and with whom I allow abuse, is my choice," he replied.

"So what you're saying is...this body is mine to do as I please?" the bunny asked, her left ear perked up a bit.

"Yes, Mistress," Troy responded, his head still lowered.

Piper slowly walked around the nude and submissive soldier in her engine room. Her boots clacked on the metal tile with each footfall. She traced her fingers down his spine and then continued walking.

"So I could abuse your body at will, over and over again," she asked saucily.

"Yes Mistress," he replied dutifully.

Piper stood at his side for a few silent minutes and finally crouched down next to the naked human and whispered in his ear "what if I said...I didn't want to hurt you?"

"Mistress?" he asked in a confused voice. She took her brown, fur clad finger and lifted his chin so that he could look in her eyes. She immediately kissed him.

"What are you doing?" Troy asked with surprise.

"I don't need to hurt you to dominate you, my dear. Just giving yourself up to me like that, so completely, so willingly, mm," she said, removing her own clothes.

"But," he protested, yet was immediately silenced when her finger hushed his lips.

"You have suffered enough in life without me marking your back and bottom up. What pain could I possibly inflict on you that you haven't already inflicted upon yourself?"

"Hit me, come on and hit me you bitch! You worthless piece of shit!" he said.

Piper merely laughed. "I know what it is you're trying to do. I won't be goaded into hurting you, my love. You want the pain. You want to transfer the pain which is inside you to become pain throughout your body. No. I won't participate in your destruction. I won't let you."

"Do it, mark me up, let go of yourself and brutalize me! I need it!" he nearly begged.

"You need to be dominated by me...but not for my pain. You want to mask your emotional pain with physical pain. I...am going to make you confront your pain so the only thing dominating you is me."

"I will not let go of the pain. My men died because of my failure to obey orders!" Troy said fighting back tears. Piper straddled her man and pinned his arms against the cold, steel floor. She licked his neck.

"Your men went into that building to save innocent civilians. And you saved many of them. If you ordered me into that building, I would go, because I know it would be the right thing to do."

"Don't do this to me," Troy begged.

"Do what? Make you realize you're carrying a burden which does not belong to you?"

"Don't try to make me feel better!"

"So you can what? Keep living your life in emotional hell? To escape pain with more pain? No! You are one of the strongest persons I've ever met. I will not let you destroy yourself. I need you."

"You what?"

"I need you, alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was raped. Repeatedly. I was tied down to a table and raped by a dozen men for a week. They beat me, they tortured me, and they humiliated me to my very core. Why do you think I am the way I am to you?"

"Piper I didn't..."

"Didn't know? How could you know? The captain doesn't even know. She just sees me as a bright and perky engineer with a twisted, kinky side to her. I need you to let go of your pain so that I know...that I can do the same one day," she said, a tear rolled down her cheek and splashed on Troy's bare stomach.

"Piper," he began again.

"Please, forgive yourself; forgive yourself so I can see there's still light in the darkest of hearts."

Troy swallowed hard. He nodded and said "alright."

"Yes, it is," she cooed.

"I wanted to die with them," he said.

"I know."

"I want to trade places with them."

"I know, my lovely human," she said again, and lowered herself so her warm, soft breasts nearly smothered him. She stroked his hair.

"How, how can you even stand to be with me after what they did to you?" he asked.

"For a long time, I couldn't," she said with a long pause. "But then, I realized there's a difference between being raped and making love. It took a long time. It's why I always had to be the one in control. It's why I had to have my men in handcuffs before I would mount them. It's why I beat some of them raw."

"We each carry a burden around us. I can't even begin to imagine the hell you were through," he said softly.

"Nor I, yours. Which is why we need each other. I need you now," she said as she gently bit his shoulder blade. His cock stirred.

"Piper," he began again, but Piper rolled off the straddling position and laid on the floor.

"Take me, Troy."

"What?"

"You heard me. I could ride you, I could dominate you, but all I'd be doing is living in my comfort zone. Take me, and let me prove to myself I can give myself to you."

Troy looked at the beautiful rabbit who looked up at his eyes longingly. He moved over to her so that he knelt in front of her spread legs. She was already moist with anticipation.

"Take me," she said again.

"I will not plow into you like you're a piece of meat," he said. He gently rubbed her feet, which he found so cute and beautiful, and massaged her shapely, athletic legs. "I'm not going to fuck you, I'm going to make love with you," he said softly. He got on his belly and placed his face in front of her hot, sweet pussy. It was dripping wet. He licked her thighs to remove her moisture, and the rabbit moaned.

He went down on her and licked her slowly and passionately. The bunny was squirming with lust and delight as he slowly built up her orgasm. Before she got too far, he moved his tongue up her belly, darting it in her navel. He explored her abdomen, her breasts, and climbed his body over hers so they matched.