Space Cherry Pt. 09

"And..." she said tentatively, "... they, or like someone from the mob... they rescued...?"

"Yeah. Your mom and dad are safe, at home. Our... contacts are still with them, they've explained everything. Your dad was a little banged up but he's OK," Heb answered and he could see the muscles in Cherry's face and shoulders melt a little, see her eyes slowly close as she finally allowed relief to wash over her.

"But, well, there's more you need to know and we kind of decided it might make it easier if we... if we told you the whole story," Heb went on and Cherry, despite her relief being almost overwhelming, was a little surprised at seeing Heb so nervous.

"One for all and all for one Skip," she said finally. Heb smiled and lowered his chin to his chest for a moment before looking her in the eye again.

"Right. Well, I guess it all started around, what? Seven years ago?" he said finally, glancing at Tor and Fem and Cherry couldn't fail to notice that they too seemed to share their captain's reluctance or hesitation in telling this particular story.

"More like eight I'd say," Tor said.

"Yeah, sounds about right," Fem offered.

"Eight years then," Heb resumed. "We'd had a bit of a run of bad luck I guess you could say and we were pretty desperate. Barely had enough scratch to keep us in the air. We were docked at this out of the way little trading post in the Beta Hullivar system and..."

The story continued with Heb, Tor and Fem each taking it up at intervals.

Their initial contact had been an Azurian named Balkor. He approached them in a bar at the little trading post in Beta Hullivar and offered them a job that seemed too good to be true. A simple pick up and drop-off and double the usual Freight Guild rate. Desperate as they were, they asked no questions until it was too late. Even when Balkor told them they were not to open or inspect the cargo in any way, they focused on their payout. Even when they were stopped by a Dilusean patrol ship as they approached the colony world of Fankit for their drop off, they assumed it was just routine.

But after the Diluseans confiscated the cargo, Balkor was there at their drop-off location to meet them, and he wasn't happy. 'This could have been such a profitable relationship,' he'd said. 'What a shame,' he'd said, as he coolly levelled a pistol at Heb's face.

It was only then that they finally realized who they'd managed to get themselves involved with. Cherry tried to resist the surge of concern that these were the people now taking care of her parents as the story continued.

For a long time afterwards, they often spoke about how fortunate they'd been that the four-armed, four-eyed Azurian and his small group of toughs hadn't killed them immediately. Heb persuaded him to give them another chance, pleaded that they had simply been the victims of misfortune, that nothing they had done had given them away. Unlikely as it seemed, Balkor agreed.

And so, E16 and her crew found themselves indebted to the Meldobian mob.

It wasn't all the time, but every so often they would get a call from Balkor, always Balkor, with a task for them to complete. Usually simple cargo transport but occasionally other things too.

As the years went by without any further hiccups, eventually E16 became one of Balkor and his superiors' favorite couriers. Reliable, efficient and discreet, E16 had never again aroused even a hint of suspicion from the authorities on any world while on one of their mob trips. They asked no questions and they never said no.

They knew the people they were working for were bad. Knew they hurt people. Knew they had the capacity for great cruelty. But what choice did they have?

And so, given their long experience with those who preferred to work off the grid, when they noticed Phil's reluctance to involve the authorities in his pursuit of Cherry, all three immediately had the same hunch as to why. So it was Balkor that Heb called first.

In eight years, Heb and the crew of E16 had never asked their handler for anything, had never wanted to. Indeed, they were instinctively fiercely resistant to the thought of digging themselves any deeper into their connection with the mob. Now, in Cherry's hour of need, they didn't hesitate to do just that.

And although Heb had been immediately suspicious, even he couldn't have imagined just how close to home his suspicions actually were for, although Cherry had never known, it quickly became apparent after his call to Balkor that all the money Cherry had taken from Phil he had in fact gotten from the Meldobian mob.

He'd always told her his apparent wealth and affluence was due to some shrewd investing and the success of his VR business. It wasn't.

Phil's business had struggled. In a saturated market for VR output, Phil's product just wasn't good enough for him to break through the mass of options open to consumers. In desperation, he'd turned to a man named Gomer who had provided him with a significant loan to ensure he could keep his business afloat. And Mr Gomer, as it turned out, worked for the same organization as Balkor.

And so Heb's call to Balkor not only set in motion the rescue of Cherry's parents, by complete chance, it also explained straightforwardly Phil's motive for the attack. The Meldobians had called in their marker.

It was less than an hour after Heb's call to the Azurian that associates of Mr Gomer had entered Cherry's parents' apartment. In the confusion that followed, somehow, Phil had escaped.

"But your mom and dad are safe," Heb said finally before a heavy silence descended on the galley.

"We could have just given him the money," Cherry said at last. "It's not as if a quarter of a million would make much of a dent in what we have now."

"We thought about that," Heb said, "but the consensus was that you don't give a bully what they want. Not if you can avoid it. And honestly Cherry, with all we have now, we're in a much stronger position to hold our own against the mob. They'll want something in return for this, of course they will, but we'll handle it."

Cherry looked around and saw Tor and Fem nod solemnly in agreement.

"Excuse the interruption Skip." The oddly sultry voice of SARA, the ship's AI, interrupted their quiet moment. Getting used to her constant presence was going to take some time. And while their initial impressions of her personality were generally positive, it always took time to be able to make a solid judgement about a new AI.

"Yes SARA," Heb replied, "what is it?"

"We are approaching the designated coordinates and I am preparing to drop the ship to sub-light velocity for orbital approach."

"Thank you SARA, I'm on my way."

"Are we...?" Cherry began, tentatively. The grey-blue image of Earth filled her mind and she was suddenly overcome with a strong desire to see her parents face to face, to embrace them.

"Yeah," Heb replied, "we're taking you home Cherry. Just got to pay the toll here at Bryson and we'll be on our way."

By then it was late evening by ship's time and, despite the excitement of the day, they drifted towards sleep.

Cherry took a shower in her room, taking a moment to smile to herself at the luxury of having her own bathroom. As the warm water cascaded over her body, the intense relief she could feel at her parents' deliverance was combined with a deep rooted gratitude towards her ship mates. Of course, she understand that what she had done on Hyfax 7 could make them feel indebted to her, the kind of debt that could never be paid back, though she'd tried to make it clear to them that it shouldn't. But in her heart, she knew that wasn't why they had done what they'd done for her and her parents.

Even though she'd lied to them, or at least not done much to disavow them of a misunderstanding, they hadn't hesitated to come through for her in her hour of need. All for one and one for all, Fem had said.

It was almost involuntary when she felt her hands drift slowly along her body, feeling the hardness of her nipples, thinking about how much she loved them. And she knew what she wanted to do to show them how she felt.

Fem was first only because his room was closest to hers. As E16 hurtled towards Earth, Cherry didn't need to speak to let Fem know the reason she'd come to his quarters, leading him away from the desk where he was working on his latest sculpture so she could ride him on the couch. She breathed deeply as his soft, gentle hands caressed her body while she ground her hips slowly but powerfully against him, his cock buried in her. She gasped when she came, long and slow and languid, his hands pulling her onto him until she felt him explode inside her, just as she'd wanted.

Although the new E16 could happily have operated without a human crew at night, or at any time really, Heb insisted on always maintaining a watch so she knew she'd find Tor on the bridge. Fem's cum still leaked from her as she strode naked towards him and again no words were needed. He grinned at her as she took hold of the fabric of his t-shirt, pulling him down to kiss him hard and deep. She'd already had sex on the bridge, christening the Captain's chair with Heb just after they'd first come on board, but after a quick glance around at the almost totally glazed space, the forward console seemed like an even better spot. And as her legs shook and quivered in orgasmic bliss while Tor railed her powerfully from behind, her hands gripping the console, she took in the incredible view of the stars flying past them and it felt like they were fucking in space itself. She closed her eyes as Tor's strong hands pulled her body against his when she came on his cock and she was smiling broadly when he finally released inside her.

She found Heb in his quarters, absent-mindedly reading a book on his bed. He actually tried to dissuade her from what she obviously had come there to do, but it didn't take a great deal of convincing on her part before she found herself lying under him, happily enveloped by his powerful frame. She couldn't help a long groan at the familiar and exquisite sensation of his thick cock spreading her, filling her deliciously. And although this was her third cock of the evening, she came just as fast and just as hard, her arms and legs pulling Heb's body against her own until he added his own load to the two that already filled her.

She sighed contentedly as she leaned into Heb's body beside her, his arm draped protectively and affectionately across her as they drifted towards sleep, the cum of the three men she loved most in the galaxy mingling inside her utterly satisfied pussy.

***

Even thirty-six hours later, as E16 thundered away from Earth at top speed, she still found herself occasionally grinning at the thoughts of their three loads inside her. It brought back memories of their visit to Matryll and she wondered how she might go about engineering a situation where she could have all three of them take her at the same time once again.

But those thoughts were fleeting. There was serious work to be done. Dangerous work.

Her reunion with her parents had been as joyous as she knew it would. She was, after all, their only daughter and they hadn't seen her since she'd left that fateful night, suddenly and without telling them where she was going. So even if they hadn't gone through the terrifying ordeal of Phil's attack, they would have been overcome with happiness to see her again.

Of course they wanted to know what had happened, why Phil had done what he'd done. And she'd been honest with them. She'd decided never again to keep things from those she loved. Nothing good could come of it. Whatever their reaction might have been, it was definitely tempered by the knowledge that, thanks to their daughter's new found extravagant wealth, their lives were about to get a lot easier. They'd always talked about retiring to a pleasure planet, but it was never something they could ever really hope to afford, until now.

And then, of course, there were the Meldobians to deal with, or at least their human agents. Meldobians, like all alien species, were not allowed on Earth.

Heb's fear had been that, because Cherry had effectively stolen the money from Phil, the Meldobians' money, they would hold her responsible for it. And while paying it back, even with interest would have been a drop in the ocean of their newfound wealth, the mob were well known for ensuring that examples were made of those that stole from them.

So it hadn't been a pleasant meeting with Gomer, the Meldobians' man on Earth, or at least the one who had given the loan to Phil. It soon became clear that Phil's debt to the mob was a lot more than the 250 thousand that Cherry had taken from him. He was into them for millions. And while Gomer had made it clear that the Meldobians didn't hold Cherry responsible for the debt, her role in Phil's disappearance would require that a penance be exacted. Or at least a service.

So that's why E16 found herself leaving Earth again, almost as soon as they had arrived. After his inexplicable escape from her parents' apartment when the mob's henchmen came calling, Phil had fled. Through their contacts in the underworld and in various police and government departments, they had been able to trace his movements to a spaceport and passage booked on what was obviously the first available transport off world, a mining ship bound for the asteroid belt. From there he'd chartered a berth aboard a freighter headed for the Alpha Cygnus system, where the trail went cold, the Meldobians having only a very limited presence in that sector.

That was E16's destination, Alpha Cygnus 4, less than a day's journey thanks to their new ship's powerful engines. Once there, their task was to find Phil and deliver him to Meldobian mob justice.

As Cherry sat in one of the crew lounges and, with SARA's assistance, did some research to better her understanding of the Meldobians, she reflected on what they would have to do.

She'd loved Phil once, or at least she'd thought she had. And now she was on a mission to deliver him to what was almost certainly going to be a slow and painful death, if he was lucky. She asked herself if she would be able to bring herself to do it. But she didn't have an answer.

So she refocused on her research. Though she'd never encountered a Meldobian in person, their reputation as the most ruthless organized crime group in the galaxy was well known everywhere. Since the unexplained destruction of their homeworld centuries before, they had spread into a vast diaspora, gradually becoming synonymous with crime across the galaxy, everything from narcotics to slave trading to weapons smuggling. If you wanted something done that was on the wrong side of the law, the Meldobians were the ones to see.

Absent any kind of central government or authority, Meldobian culture had fallen back on a power structure based on ancient tribes or clans from before their exodus. They ranged in power and influence in various parts of the galaxy and alliances were frequently made and broken, with smaller, less powerful tribes sometimes subsumed into larger ones.

This constantly shifting network of control was ostensibly overseen by a shadowy body called The Prime whose existence, either geographically or even notionally, was disputed by many.

Regardless, it was nevertheless true that any major criminal enterprise almost anywhere in the civilized galaxy was either controlled by or heavily influenced by the Meldobians.

In appearance, Cherry found them remarkably humanoid. Although on average around a foot taller than humans, their basic body shape was the same - two arms, two legs and a head based around a central trunk. Their skin was a deep purple of an almost universal shade but it was the extraordinary patchwork that covered it that most struck Cherry. It was as if the circulatory system was visible from the outside but it's appearance was almost artistic in nature, with incredibly intricate geometric patterns and shapes lacing all over their bodies. No two Meldobians had a pattern precisely the same and Cherry was intrigued to learn that the patterns could glow or shine in times of heightened emotion.

Their heads were quite human too, although there were obvious differences. Their two bright blue eyes were much larger than a human's and set into the sides of their head. Instead of hair, their heads were topped with an array of short, stubby antennae whose purpose remained a mystery to galactic medicine. But it was their mouths that were the most striking, wide and menacing and sporting two rows of razor sharp, narrow teeth top and bottom.

Over dinner later that night, Cherry shared what she'd learned with the crew. Having had their own run-ins with the Meldobians over the years they were able to add a lot of context and anecdotal evidence to Cherry's conclusions, but the pattern remained the same: cross the Meldobians at your peril.

They'd been given the name of a contact on AC4, Terrbo Denane, the person in charge of the fledgling Meldobian operation there. Given what Cherry had learned about how the Meldobians operated, her feelings about meeting him were decidedly ambivalent. On the one hand, she knew what he would be capable of and that obviously scared her. But on the other, it was a necessary first step in extricating themselves from the situation they found themselves in.

They made contact with Denane as soon as they were in comms range of AC4 using the coded channel Gomer had provided them with, receiving only cryptic instructions to meet him in a bar in one of the larger settlements that only reinforced the sense of foreboding Cherry had about the whole enterprise.

And when they got their first look at the surface of AC4, this impression was strengthened still further. Originally a joint colonial enterprise between several species, more than two centuries later AC4 was a desolate world. Geological instability combined with unstable solar activity had turned much of the planet to desert and its cities, such as they were, were a mass of haphazard buildings constructed from the remnants of the ships used to ferry the settlers to the planet or other repurposed materials. Its people, a mish-mash of races, had the instant and universal appearance of those who have to work hard just to scrabble a living. If it weren't for the rich veins of lithium just beneath the surface that were the only basis for the world's economy, Cherry couldn't think of any reason why anyone would choose to make this place their home.

So it was safe to say Cherry and the others were on edge when the entered the dingy bar that was their designated meeting place. Even she could instantly tell that it used to be the cargo hold of a mid-size shuttle. She'd been expecting to have to ask for their contact and be shepherded to some clandestine back room but instead, the Meldobian was not hard to miss as soon as they walked in the door.

He sat to one side of the place, against the wall, with two others sitting opposite him, a human and an Azurian. He noticed them immediately and nodded towards them almost imperceptibly before returning to his conversation. The place wasn't that busy and Cherry could just about make out what they were saying.

"Are you sure this will work Bo?" the human asked.

"It has to," the Azurian noted, "if it doesn't, the kids..."

"It'll work Jassin, I know it will," the Meldobian said, reassuringly. "I've dealt with guys like Ressik before, trust me, the kids will be fine."

The men exchanged solemn nods before they rose and made their farewells, the human and the Azurian nodding at the E16 crew as they left.

"Captain Sundras and company I presume," the Meldobian said loudly, approaching them with arms spread wide in greeting, a broad smile on his face.

"That's right," Heb said, extending a tentative hand.