Space Cherry Pt. 08

Author's Note:

Here concludes the story of Cherry and the crew of E16.

Thank you for reading and thanks again for all the very kind ratings and comments.

***

Cherry felt a little embarrassed when she learned that Hyfax 7 wasn't a planet as she'd assumed, but rather an enormous space station along the lines of Apollo - the huge trade and travel hub in Earth's orbit - only many, many times larger.

It got its name from the Hyfax Corporation, an interstellar, multi-species conglomerate that owned and operated twelve such stations. Not only were they each home to around a million residents, many admittedly short term, they were also among the most well-known centers of commerce and trade anywhere in the galaxy. Hence Cherry's embarrassment.

"So Cherry, this is probably your first visit to a Hyfax station, huh?" Tor asked her.

E16's crew were gathered in the galley for dinner, as they gathered almost everyday. She was on final approach to Hyfax 7.

"Uh huh - I'm excited!" Cherry acknowledged happily.

"You know, I remember my first time on a Hyfax, Hyfax 4 I think?," Fem began, looking to the middle distance as he recalled the memory. "I honestly thought it was the most overwhelming place I'd ever been. It was like, total non-stop party mayhem!"

Cherry smiled at Fem's happy memory and she noticed Heb and Tor laughing in agreement and for the rest of dinner her crew mates shared stories of their many trips to various Hyfax stations over the years and Cherry's anticipation grew.

"You know some asshole tried to shake us down on a Hyfax once?" Heb said as a lull developed between stories.

"Oh yeah," Tor joined in, "I remember that fucker. Tried to say we owed like thousands of credits in import fees. Hyfax 10 I think."

"Oh my god, why?" Cherry asked and Tor and Heb looked at each other and smiled.

"Well, if memory serves," Fem piped up, "it was because the Skipper here made a fool out of him at a poker tournament, in the guy's own casino."

"It wasn't even a big money game, some kind of charity thing I think, he just wasn't a very good loser," Heb said.

"So, how did you... I mean, how were you able to get clearance to leave?" Cherry asked.

"Oh, an old buddy of mine from my navy days was working dock control, I told him the story and he let us go, said it wasn't the first time that asshole - Noparion I think his name was, a Gollomite - had tried the same shtick."

"Wow, what a dick," Cherry agreed.

After docking, they made their way to the station's main social hub known as The Diamond. Like the center of a land-based city, it was the jumping off point for all of the activities life on the massive station had to offer.

Heb had arranged some meetings with various contacts to discuss possibilities for E16's next job and Tor and Fem had a list of mechanical and other supplies they wanted to source.

Much to Cherry's objection, they had all insisted that, because it was her first time on a Hyfax, she be exempt from any tasks so she could immerse herself in station life.

They arranged to meet at a bar on The Diamond later in the day and went their separate ways. Cherry had downloaded a map and guide book of the station to her Biohud. She was most attracted to the area known as the Reeper Plaza - the center of the city's more hedonistic entertainment and recreational activity.

Like the district of the Earth city of Hamburg from where it got it's name, it was a veritable hive of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Cherry took some time to wallow in the assault on her senses the plaza provided and marveled at how crowded and busy it felt at what was, ostensibly, the middle of the day by station time, before picking a particularly lively looking club to head inside.

As she took in the sights and sounds of the place, she knew she'd made a good choice. Alien music, strange to her ears, formed the backdrop to the veritable theater of entertainment she witnessed. There were so many different species present, there was no way she could possibly count them all.

At the center of the huge space was a large dance floor, slightly sunk into the floor so that the various tables and seating areas that surrounded it were raised above it. Cherry located the bar along one wall and made her way there as a starting point.

She had a quick drink but the noise and excitement of the place was too much and Cherry just couldn't help making her way almost immediately to the dance floor, letting her body move and react by itself to the high paced and incredibly rhythmic alien music.

Automatically, she smiled broadly as she moved. It had been too long since she'd been in a place like this, had allowed herself to just give her body over to the music and revel in how it made her feel.

Given how crowded the place was, she couldn't avoid bumping into various other patrons as she danced, but she didn't really care and they didn't seem to either. Like sex, Cherry found that as much as she loved dancing alone, it was always better with someone else.

As she felt herself graze off yet another alien body, she turned and really by accident made eye contact with a member of a species she'd never met before, although she knew that he was Arborean. His wide mouth was smiling at her and she couldn't help smiling back.

Arboreans, she knew, were more plant than animal, hence their deep green color and almost shaggy appearance, like an old tree covered in ivy. While his body was shaped in a quite humanoid way, with arms and legs and a head, she knew his species were capable of growing and removing parts of their bodies as they needed to or chose to, something she'd always been fascinated by. As she moved closer to the green alien now, that part of her that was innately fascinated with new species longed to ask him about it.

She wasn't sure if it was this innate curiosity that caused her to reach out and touch the Arborean, but she was glad she'd done it. His dark green body, mostly uncovered but for a pair of loose, dark pants, felt like no species she'd ever made contact with. His body was hard but his leaves, for want of a better word to describe the apparent foliage that covered him, felt smooth and soft, like the petals of a flower and after her first touch she couldn't help but move her hands across his body in wonder.

The Arborean didn't object though, and when she glanced up at him after a moment, their bodies now moving together to the music, his smile had widened and she felt his hands on her for the first time. She didn't object either and soon their hands roamed each other in exploration as their bodies began grinding together rhythmically.

Though it hadn't necessarily been her intention on this occasion, Cherry had always found dancing an inherently sexual event. Phil had told her she'd nearly made him cum in his pants on more than one occasion such was her talent on a dance floor and she'd always thoroughly enjoyed the way she could feel a body react to hers as she pressed against it and moved to music.

This she began doing now in earnest, for although she wasn't really sure if the Arborean had a cock she could make hard, from the movement of his arms and what she could read on his face, he was definitely enjoying her talents, and her body.

As she knew she would, Cherry felt the familiar tingle between her legs as the music seemed to become louder and more intense. She turned her back to the Arborean and pressed her ass against him, grinding her body against his to the music.

The flimsy white dress she wore was short and a slit up one side exposed most of her legs to the green hands that ran over her now, sending pulses of sexual energy through her as she felt herself get wetter and wetter.

She got wetter still as, while she continued to writhe her body against him, she felt the Arborean move his hands higher. Her dress spread in a V from just above her waist so that it only really barely covered her tits and her nipples, hard as they were now, pressed against the thin fabric. She groaned as she felt the strong but incredibly soft green hands make contact with her bare torso now and move upwards slowly and pressed herself against him hard when she felt them pass lightly over her tits, tantalizing her sensitive nipples.

There was a strange moment when she felt more contact on her skin, on her legs again. The Arborean's hands were now kneading and caressing her tits and she was fairly certain Arborean's had only one pair of hands. Just as she was about to wonder if some other unseen alien had joined their erotic embrace, she thought of the possibility that her plant-based Arborean dancing partner was changing shape, adding body parts as she knew he could.

Although it was pretty dark, when she looked down she could see what she could only describe as two tentacles, one wrapped loosely around each of her thighs. Although they lacked the leaves that covered the rest of his body, by feel she knew they were a part of the Arborean, they had the same softness as his hands did and shared the deep green color of the rest of his body. Still, there's not much that's as totally non-human as a tentacle and Cherry felt an instinctive rush of adrenaline course through her body as, slowly at first, they started to move up and down the soft skin of her legs as she continued pressing herself into the green alien.

Still with her back to him, she turned her head a little to glance up at his face and saw an obvious question in his eyes. She simply smiled and pressed her body against him even more firmly.

She groaned again as she felt his hands slip under the fabric of her dress and press into her tits, his fingers pausing to play with her hardened and sensitive nipples.

With slow deliberation, she felt the tentacles on her legs start to move higher too, gently snaking their way towards her pussy as they tightened their grip on her and she felt her whole body tingle in anticipation. Adrenaline still surged through her as her mind attempted to make sense of the totally alien feel of the tentacles as they snaked their way up her body. Her body and that of the Arborean, still pressed together, moved as one now to the intense rhythm of the music.

As she felt the tentacles finally reach her pussy, Cherry found her eyes closing as she savored the strange contact. She was a little surprised at their dexterity as they casually and efficiently slid inside her panties.

"Mmm, fuck..." she said, although she doubted the Arborean could hear her over the music, as she felt the tentacles slide over her mound. She was dripping by now and she wondered if the Arborean was aware of the significance of this or even if he could feel it through the tentacles.

What she was quickly sure of was that the Arborean definitely knew what to do with a human pussy. As one tentacle slid up and down her slick opening, the other seemed to change shape, to flatten at the tip somewhat, before pressing against her and starting to grind against her clit.

"Fuck yes, that's good!" she said and, whether or not the Arborean could here her, he kept up his ministrations.

As she felt the tide of her pleasure rising rapidly, she was just about to reach down and try to direct the tentacle that was teasing her slit inside her when she felt it start to slide in all on its own. Instinctively, she felt herself press back even harder against the Arborean as if to encourage him to push it deeper and this he duly did.

Cherry's breathing was heavy now and she chuckled to herself a little. Although the fantasy of being fucked on a dance floor was something she had thought about often, until her recent experience of public fucking on Matrylla, she didn't think she'd ever have had the confidence to go through with it. Yet, here she was: a strange Arborean whom she hadn't even spoken to had his hands on her tits and his tentacles in her pussy. She smiled as the thought occurred to her that it hadn't even crossed her mind as her encounter with the Arborean got hotter and hotter that she was literally surrounded by other people.

Opening her eyes for the first time in a while, she found that several people from a number of different species were in fact watching them intently. Looking around, she could see at least three other inter-species sexual encounters underway in her immediate vicinity and her smile widened. This place is fucking great, she thought.

Her brief reverie was interrupted as the Arborean stepped up the intensity of his tentacles. The one he'd put inside her had slowly started to fuck her. As it plunged into her again and again she was aware of it throbbing and pulsing almost perfectly in time to the music and her body quivered with the thrill of this new and utterly alien sensation inside her. Its pace increased now until it was sliding in and out of her like a machine.

"Fuck! Holy shit!" Cherry wailed as she felt herself nearing the precipice. Instinctively, her hands groped for support and she gripped the Arborean's powerful arms tightly. She was pressing her body back against him so hard she had to wonder how she hadn't knocked him down.

"Yes!!" she screamed, long and loud, as she finally came, her knees buckling and her body tensing. She felt the Arborean's strong hands grip her tightly. She'd wondered if the tentacles were a genuine sexual organ or if he was just using them for the purpose. This question was answered as she felt the tentacle finally jam deep inside her and then pulse and expand once more before forcefully expelling warm jets of cum into her pussy.

As her breathing started to ease and her body recovered, she finally looked back at the Arborean, who she still hadn't spoken to. He was still smiling.

She inclined her head and he bent down to kiss her.

"Thank you," she said into his ear as their heads remained close, "that was fucking amazing! I'm Cherry by the way."

"Thank you Cherry," he said, "it was a most pleasurable experience for me as well. I am Dorlan."

They retired together to a seating area away from the loudest of the music to recover after their exertions. Dorlan went to get them both a drink and Cherry was finally able to ask him all her questions about his unusual biology and was soon lost in the conversation.

With a strange suddenness though, she became aware after a while that she was probably late for her rendez-vous with the rest of the crew and, with regret, took her leave of the soft, green Arborean.

She made her way back out to the street and was about to call up the messager on her Biohud when she found an incoming call from Fem.

"Hey Fem, is everything OK? Sorry I'm late... I ah... I got a little distracted," she said cheerily, accepting the call.

"Ah... not exactly..." Fem replied slowly, reflecting back none of the levity Cherry had offered. "You... ah... you better get down here Cherry," he went on. Cherry's station map appeared on her Biohud and she saw a location ping pop up.

She was already on the move before Fem spoke again after a brief pause, the dread in his tone unmistakable.

"Better... hurry."

*

Cherry wasn't all that surprised to find that the location ping Fem had sent led her to a Casino. She was already more than familiar with both Heb and Tor's proclivity for that particular type of establishment. Above the entrance, the name gave her pause as she recalled it from Heb's story about a past visit to a different Hyfax station: 'Noparion' appeared in large neon lights. She found Fem pacing in the lobby.

"Fem...!" she called breathlessly, having ran much of the way.

Fem looked up when he heard her, but his worried expression didn't lighten at all.

"What's...?" she started to ask, but he merely nodded his head towards the bar and led her in that direction.

"Fem... what the fuck is going on? Is this really the time to be having a drink?" she asked, a little irritably.

Fem arrived at the bar and signaled the bar tender. Two small glasses with a dark, golden colored liquid appeared in front of him and he pushed one towards Cherry, who was now standing next to him.

"Fem?" Cherry asked again, no clearer on the crisis that had apparently been the cause of his summoning her here.

"Here's to E16," Fem said slowly, raising his glass. "She was quite a ship."

"Was?" Cherry asked, starting to panic a little. "Fem - you have to tell me right now, what the actual fuck is going on here? Where are the Skipper and Tor? And why did you just refer to our ship in the past fucking tense?"

Fem looked at her forlornly, a deep sadness in his eyes and told her the sorry tale.

Having each finished up their earlier errands a lot sooner than expected, Heb, Tor and Fem had decided to leave Cherry to whatever fun she was undoubtedly having and take in a little time at a casino. When they'd seen the Noparion sign, and having only just had a conversation recalling their previous encounter with the Gollomite, they thought it was funny and decided to head in. As they had suspected, it was owned by the same Noparion they'd had the run in with on a different Hyfax station years earlier and the source of their mirth was the prospect of once again taking some of the Gollomite's money from him.

There were, unfortunately for them, three things they hadn't known at that point.

The first was that Mr Noparion was, in fact, present in person on Hyfax 7 at that time. This was both coincidental and unfortunate. It wasn't as if he'd been tracking E16 down for years or anything, he just happened to be there.

The second was that Mr Noparion was significantly more of a dick than they had already thought.

Although his attempt to extort money from E16 in their previous encounter had been an obvious shake down, he nevertheless maintained that he was due this money and, in fact, maintained a very detailed ledger of all such 'debts' he felt he was owed. Indeed, he went so far as to ensure that each of his many businesses throughout the galaxy maintained a facial recognition log of all such defaulters, as he considered them, in case any of them happened to drop by.

The third, and most serious, was that Hyfax stations operated on the basis of their own set of regulations or laws - officially called the Hyfax Code - and that, although all the stations were obviously separate, for the purposes of the enforcement of the Hyfax Code, all the stations operated as one so that a crime committed on one Hyfax station was just as enforceable on another.

In particular, section 211, paragraph 7 of the Code would - combined with the other two pieces of information above - have been a good one to know about before deciding to come to Hyfax 7 and certainly before entering Noparion's casino.

Section 211 dealt with commercial and civil debts between different parties and paragraph 7, in particular, dealt with what would happen should a party default on such a debt.

It said, in obviously very legalistic although nonetheless unambiguous language, that - regardless of the size of the debt - in such a case all of the assets of the party in default could be transferred to the ownership of the party to whom the debt was owed, provided notification be served in person on the party in default.

Essentially, it meant that any business that found itself in debt to another and unable to honor the debt would simply cease to exist. It was, to Cherry's mind, a rather heavy handed way of ensuring that enterprises using Hyfax stations to conduct business operated within their means.

In combination, these three pieces of information had coalesced in the person of one Mr Kolpang, the manager of Noparion's Hyfax 7 Casino. Together with a couple of burly security types, he had approached Heb, Tor and Fem as they got a quick drink at the bar only a few minutes after arriving in the casino.

Evidently, Kolpang had received a ping on his Biohud from the facial recognition log that had identified the three companions as owing money to his boss when they entered the casino.