Wild Space Pt. 03

"I'd be better if these so called men could fight." She said. Tira was feisty. She had short brown hair, cut so it framed her face, and laughing green eyes, the color of the sea. She wore traditional garb: a white dress that left her shoulders and ankles bare and sported trim, blue in her case. The garment was just tight enough to conceal the curves of her zaftig body. She wasn't so feisty that she didn't go barefoot as tradition dictated.

"Good fighters come out later," Marik agreed. He smiled his toothiest. "Hey, did you hear about the dog?"

He talked with her as the sun went down and the air grew progressively cooler, rich with the ever present smell of the ocean. Someone lit the old fashioned lamps made out of translucent gourds and the copse was awash with light. The man collecting money came around with the tsara bottle again, this time in a companionable way. Both Marik and Tira sipped. He wondered aloud if she'd want to go back to Kim's for something stronger.

"No, I don't think so. I've got things to do early tomorrow." She said.

"Okay then." Marik said, and some dejection slipped out before he could catch it.

"Aw don't sulk, you big baby." She punched him playfully. "I'll be at the festival in a week. You can sweep me off my feet then. In the meantime, head back to Kim's anyway. My brother has a job for you."

*******

Marik had a home of sorts, on the beach, a lean to made of metal that he had built in his spare time over the years. He was rarely on Azura for any length of time, the Queen Bee was his home. But right now his ship was being filled with crate after crate of premium grade tsara, the best performing export. Many drinks had been had at Kim's. Tira's brother wanted him for a non stop run to Valantier, the closest Capital Worlds planet. He would be shipping tsara for a noble wedding. He had to be cautious. Like anywhere else, Valantier didn't like offworlders.

He had been to Valantier or as the local nickname went "Big V", before. It was cold, busy, loud and dirty. A man had to be slightly mad to live there, but then again, most men who lived on any Capital World were slightly mad. A metropolis masquerading as a planet. The local governor lived there, lords, ladies, generals and admirals. Azura was technically held under the sway of Big V, a rich planet that had made its fortunes in mining and other industrial pursuits. The air was so thick one could barely breathe it. The entire planet was like a dirty snowball seen from orbit, the gray cold steel of cities covered with a filthy sheen. Marik wondered how it would feel to live in such a place, rich, secure, choking on the air and shivering.

Boring, probably.

He grilled up some pineapples and mahi-mahi and drank two glasses of tsara and went to sleep in the sand.

********

Lex was bored and horny, a dangerous combination. The staff knew her moods, probably more so than some of her closest friends. When her pale aquamarine eyes narrowed and her pretty little aquiline jaw set they all scattered. She looked that way now.

"Where the hell is my dress?" She bellowed in a voice three times her size. Lex was a woman barely five feet tall, who weighed a hundred pounds with a full meal in her. She had a beak of a nose, large dark eyes, pale skin, and favored bright makeup that set off her complexion. Her dark, lustrous hair was currently piled atop her head and her skinny body ready to be padded with various garments and soft fiber shapes that would plump her up. For a woman so small, Lex had estimable breasts and a proportionate bum, round and firm and supple. But Valantier was like most Capital Worlds in that a woman with a full figured body, the better to give birth with, was favored. And Lex unfortunately wasn't in a social position to flaunt such norms.

At her shout a handful of servants scampered about the brightly lit, intimate sitting room. Garments were brought and cast onto the lacy, overly plush bed for later sorting. Preparing a noblewoman for a traditional Valantier wedding was a long process.

As the servants sorted the clothes, a local makeup artist was applying the dyeing light cosmetics to Lex's face. First a very scant pass with a light to turn her pale skin even whiter. Lex had always been blessed with the type of complexion that did not require much whitening. Then a strong shade of purple on one cheek, just for an instant, as the shade was very dark. The same on her other cheek with blue. And a black line, unbroken and solid, running across her face, from cheek to nose to cheek.

A hush and a few muttered "my lords" were heard behind her. Lex cocked her head and saw from her mirror that her lord husband had entered. Immediately, she smiled and rose to greet him.

"Lord Ehren," She said with a smile. The servants had not yet applied any dye to her lips, so she pursed them out until they took the hint and got to work.

"I am not yet prepared to receive you, my lord." Lex continued. She was naked, and knew exactly why he had timed his visit for right now.

"No matter," Ehren said, stepping closer to her, his eyes on her breasts. Her lord husband was short, and had commanded his head to be shaved the moment his hair had begun to thin. His beard was a fierce thing, though starting to gray. His soft body was nearly bare, as he wore only the traditional thick, heavy loincloth that Valantier noblemen used to cover themselves and let their garments drape to the rest of their body. In Ehren's case, it would drape a set of wide shoulders, a big potbelly, and thick arms and legs. He had once been a powerful man, but had slipped away to fat. A man of less standing might have fretted, but Ehren paid it no mind. He was too young to be so hefty but not too poor.

"Are you wearing your paisley robe this evening?" Lex asked and innocently shifted from one foot to another, causing her tiny but extremely firm and youthful breasts to bounce merrily.

"That is my prerogative, yes," Her lord husband said. Unashamedly, he dipped his left hand beneath his loincloth and moved it back and forth at the sight of her.

Despite herself, she felt herself stirring, but there was frustration there, too. Her servants exchanged a knowing look. She had been married to Ehren to for four years now, ever since she was 19. In that time Ehren's lust for her had not dimmed. It was expected for a lord and a lady to take others as lovers. Quite a few married couples, after a similar amount of time, slept together infrequently or not at all. But to this day she was awoken most nights when her lord husband returned from other nightly activities, his dueling, gambling, his men, his women. He may not have been much to look at but Ehren still had a gift. She just wished he didn't want to share it so frequently and thoughtlessly.

"Shall I present, my lord?" Lex asked politely.

"Yes." Ehren was a man of a few words and purposeful actions. His loincloth hit the lush carpeted floor before any of them could blink.

She took his already hardening cock in her hand and absentmindedly led him over to the settee. She knelt on it, knees close together, and got on her elbows so her ass and pussy were as high as possible. Immediately, her lord husband attempted to mount her, caring nothing for her pleasure. Or for physics.

"You're dry," He said, as he always did. "Xandra, prepare her."

Lex felt her vagina contract with his words, this time an entirely genuine reaction with no frustration at all. Xandra was her favorite, though Ehren had no way of knowing that and likely wouldn't have remembered had she told him. She sneaked a glance over her shoulder.

A cheerful looking servant woman with a riotous mass of soft brown curls to her shoulders, a wide face, and stormy blue eyes walked over to the pair. Xandra was short and thick through the belly, legs, hips and shoulders but had small breasts and a tight ass. Her mouth was sensual, made for smiles, and her pug nose gave her a mischievous look.

"Eyes front and center, my lady," Ehren told his lady wife. "Pretend it is I pleasuring you. I will enjoy the sight of it."

As if he could pleasure her. Lex did as she was told, however. Xandera grabbed her ass, digging her fingers into the flesh, causing her to gasp in delight. The servant woman nuzzled the fragrant flesh between her lady's legs, nose tickling over her asshole, which was mauve and petite and lips against Lex's cunt, already growing wet with anticipation. Unconsciously, Lex spread her legs, giving the other woman better access.

When Xandra's tongue finally slide along her crease the noblewoman shivered and hissed. Balancing on just one elbow, Lex nimbly pinched her nipples on each hanging breast, jiggling them roughly while crying out until each nipple was stiff and pert.

The other woman's mouth crew slick with her lady's juices. Her blue eyes narrowed slightly and her mouth would have smiled as she heard Lex softly gasping. Instead, she uses her mouth to tongue fuck the lady she served, both women having forgotten about Ehren, who was greedily watching the scene.

"I believe she's ready," Heedlessly, he walked over the kneeling servant woman, brushing her aside, breaking the connection between the two women and causing them both to complain. Ehren slid himself into his lady wife from behind, quickly and with no concern for her comfort or pleasure.

Lex felt every inch of her lord husband's considerable member and gave a shrill cry of half pleasure and half anger. Ehren would have been pleasant enough company abed had he cared for her feelings or her getting off. But that wasn't the way their marriage worked.

Ehren was hunched over her, seizing her around her ribs, squeezing the breath out of her as he bucked over and above her like some kind of animal. At least it was short, like two beasts mating in a field somewhere. Her lord husband only lasted a handful of punishing strokes before he trembled hard enough to nearly throw them both off the settee.

She felt so violated that she was frozen, kneeling there. Ehren always refused to cum anywhere but in her pussy, saying to do elsewhere would have required him to do more work than he cared for. Lex felt his seed inside of her.

Something cool and soothing was wiping her down between her legs, sopping up the moist lips and the semen within. Xandra had been ready with a cloth, and Lex felt grateful.

"Mind the time," Ehren said, red faced and catching his breath. "I want to arrive at the ceremony before Carsono, that reprobate. I will not be upstaged by a prancing dandy."

When he left, Lex gestured and the remaining staff except for Xandra departed. The short, skinny girl shook like a leaf on a tree. She wailed and raged and attempted to flip over the settee, and after a considerable effort was able to do so.

Now that they were alone, the smaller woman collapsed crying in the big servant's arms, and was rocked sweetly and soothingly. Xandra whispered to her lover and kissed her.

"It's okay, my lady." She said softly. "I'm here. Our time will come, don't worry."

"When?" Lex asked through her tears as she desperately clutched the other woman.

"For the important things we make the time, don't we?" The servant girl said with a reassuring smile.

********

The Queen Bee hummed along on her engines, or as Marik called them in front of the ladies, her wings. The little fat freighter could barely manage the minimum required speed to run cargo in the Capital Systems, but they weren't like to turn him away. They loved tsara on Valantier.

When the Bee flew into the system she was inundated with comm traffic. He had forgotten to adjust the settings. On Azura, there were perhaps six orbiting comm buoys. Big V had hundreds.

"This is freighter Queen Bee, requesting docking clearances," Marik said into the comms. "Consignment number 5-2-1-3-9."

"Another liquor shipment for the wedding. You're nearly late." An educated voice replied.

"Lucky for me we've got the best booze in the sector," Marik said lightly.

"Well, you've got booze. Dammit, man." The voice sounded frustrated. "Your computer is so old I can barely reel your ship in!"

"I'd be happy to pilot her down."

"Nothing doing. Last I let one of you beach bums land they scraped the deck for a quarter mile. Head for the automated buoy."

Somewhere on the dirty, crowded planet of Valantier the operator had located the Queen Bee and was automatically piloting her to the designated landing pad. Freed from duties, Marik found his cup and placed it on the dash. He'd swiped a primo bottle of tsara from the cargo and now he poured out a generous measure of the purple brown liquid and drank. The stuff was strong enough to burn his hair off. It came on strong but finished with a mellow and fruity flavor. For this bottle the natives and human workers had intensively labored for probably a month. He wondered if any of the nobles and officers getting sloshed at the royal wedding would even taste it.

He was finished his glass with the bottle packed away and waiting in the cargo hold by the time he landed. When the Queen's belly opened a smell like the inside of a beached sea lion fed a straight diet of industrial waste seeped into the ship. Marik was as prepared as he could be. Abaro's wife, who acted as Marik's surrogate wife in terms of caregiving, had prepared him a perfumed handkerchief to drape over his mouth and nose. A pair of scratched but clean pilot's goggles protected his eyes.

The human cargo crew that shuffled in to empty the Queen were far more alien to Marik than any native Azuran. A spindly group of men and women, with sallow and unhealthy skin, dirty long hair, skinny limbs sticking out of their purple uniforms. They didn't seem affected by the smog or the smell. None of them looked up much or spoke. Each one carried a portable antigrav unit. Working quickly, they emptied the cargo hold of the Queen Bee in a fraction of the time it would have taken native laborers back home.

One of them was holding out a light to him. "You're invited."

"I don't have a BMU." Marik said, eyes avoiding the too bright glowing orb in the other man's hands. "Just tell me."

The worker lifted his forearm and held the light out to it; it crumpled and disappeared into the computer he had clamped over his arm. A Body Mounted Unit, they called it. Most of the common people on Big V, those whose lives were spent making the rich richer, had one installed. Marik didn't want a computer attached to his body, though the procedure was reversible.

"One thing: the madame understands that you less civilized traders do not use electronics. The password to enter the club is 'amet.' The wedding is being held in the cathedral, naturally. The reception is at the baroness's chateau. Of course, the common men and women may not attend. Instead, we are invited to amuse ourselves at the Club Universal."

That sounded much better than some stuffy old wedding. Marik only had one more question.

"Why me?"

"Any laborer or artist and so forth is invited to the Universal. The baroness is appreciative of our work." The worker said.

I bet, Marik thought as he made his way through the crowd. More sickly looking, short, malnourished people. An entire mass of them. The nobles did not appreciate any of them. They would founder and die without the classes supporting them, whom they barely acknowledged. Still, a noble ha just gifted him a free pass to one of the best clubs on the planet, so perhaps he ought not to complain.

Big V spread out above and ahead of him, stretches of dirty purple pavement with angry daggers of skyscrapers poking through. The cluster of buildings over his head nearly blocked out the sky. As he always did, Marik experienced a moment of disorientation and vertigo until he acclimated to the sight.

He would never acclimate to the sound and smell of Valantier, however. It was a constant reminder of how far away from home he was. The metropolis was noisy with the rattle of engines of passing public trans, all of them ferrying workers back and forth from the countryside mines, metal works, power plants, and any other industry that could muddy up the water and clog up the air, it seemed like.

The spaceport, though Marik thought of it as docks, was in a better part of town than most of the workers lived. He had no desire to travel to any of the poorer residential sections of Big V. He had been trading here for years and had not once ventured from the spaceport area and the establishments that catered to the freighter pilots and their crews. Until now.

He caught a public trans and told the driver to take him to the Club Universal. The vehicle rose shakily and finally its air drives slammed into gear and it took off swiftly and smoothly. From this high up, Marik could see the giant lights being cast and blinking onto the smog around one of the many Flesh Districts on Big V: a woman in a rainbow pattern, naked, a man dancing with her. The name of a dance club flashed onto the smog after that, but the vehicle shifted and Marik couldn't make it out. They might be ugly and dangerous but the smog sure made a decent billboard. He smiled a bit, and let his handkerchief drop and took off the goggles. It had been a long flight, and traffic was light. Marik felt himself being lulled to sleep. The motions of a public trans weren't all that different from a boat. Last time he had been on an honest boat felt like it far too long ago. His cousin had taken them all out on a sunny, sultry day. The woman Marik had been with at the time, whose name he didn't recall, was a tall, statuesque blonde, bright blue eyes, who had dove into the sea after he had dropped something into it, when she had climbed out of the water it had clung to her shoulders and sides and the backs of her legs, making her shine...

"Hey! This isn't a motel room. We're here."

The driver held out his hand to be paid. Sleepily, Marik got some coins from his money belt and held it out.

"Silver? I need credits, sir." The driver said irritably. His hairline appeared to start about an inch above his eyebrows and he looked as if he hadn't slept or shaved in years.

Marik had forgotten where he was. He was more tired than he thought. He held out a credit. The driver frowned when he didn't let it go. Grudgingly, Marik was given change and he left an appropriate tip.

"Fucking rustic," The ill mannered fellow said loud enough to be heard before speeding away.

On Azura, that'd be grounds for a fight. Here on Valantier it was simply how people spoke to one another. Trying to remain unfazed, Marik entered the Flesh District.

A metal painted trestle gate marked the beginning of the neighborhood, warning off traffic and stating that only pedestrians were allowed ahead. The building pressed even closer here, and the music that thumped out of every other doorway reverberated up and down the block. The Flesh District was one of the oldest parts of the city, the only city on the entire planet. Workers came from far away to spend their hard earned pay on liquor, prostitutes, and to gamble. And Club Universal was at the center of the entire District.

A few eyes followed him as shoulders his way throughout the crowd. The miners and other workers were the easiest to spot. They had come directly from their job sites and still stank and looked as if they had all wrestled one another in a pit of soot. Depending on what drugs they'd ingested some of them would party for twelve hours without stopping, try to level off with more drugs, and then had back to work. Big V was that type of boomtown. So long as one had money to spend and minded their place they were welcome.

The brothels were easy to spot. Open air displays, covered by differently colored translucent forcefields. Blue meant women, yellow meant men. Green meant some form of both. They washed the dirty streets in light and threw up shadows. The shops that weren't brothels sold drugs, fairly openly, but ostensibly they were taverns or sex shops. Some were all four. It smelled different than the rest of Valantier, still as dirty, but all of the sweat and sex was raunchy instead of disgusting. He felt his heartbeat quicken in excitement at the first whiff.