Chapter 14

Sol thought of his ship as quiet as it barreled through space. But it turned out that it gave off a low hum – something that Sol became very aware of whenever the ship was not making said hum. The lack of sound wasn’t new to him, of course, but now it sounded alien.

He tossed and turned after signing off with Erinys. The ship seemed empty, and with the engines off, it also seemed eerily quiet. As he dozed off, the door to his room cracked open. In his grogginess, Sol didn’t even open his eyes to see who it was. Maybe it was Erinys. But that couldn’t be right. Maybe it was Sophie. She’d mentioned that she was getting frustrated with him.

He felt his bedsheets being pulled aside and he felt a body settle into the bed with him. He wrapped his arms around it instinctively. It was nice to have such domestic instincts. Not long ago, his instinct would have been to reach for a gun. It clearly wasn’t Erinys. It didn’t feel like her. That left Sophie. He hugged her close. Her body felt nice against his. He felt his member stiffen. She held his hand against herself and moved it up to her breast. Sol’s fingers brushed a nipple. He played with it, rolled it between his fingers. She took his other hand and slipped it between her legs. She was wearing a pair of panties made of light material. He traced a line up and down the front of her panties, from where he imagined her clitoris to be to the waistband and back down again. Her breath caught as he did it. He could feel her pubic hair through the panties, and then the slight dampness as it gave way to her lips.

As the fact that Sophie didn’t have pubic hair registered through his sleep-addled mind, he noticed the presence of another person slipping into bed on his other side. Whoever this person was wasted no time in slipping a hand beneath the waistband of Sol’s pants and running soft fingers up and down his hardening cock.

“Sophie,” he said.

“Yes,” came a voice whispering in Sol’s ear from behind.

“What the fuck?” he asked, sleepily.

“Shhh. Just relax ... captain,” Star’s voice intoned from in front of him. Star turned over to face him. In the darkness, it was nearly impossible to see anything, but he could feel her eyes on him, and he remembered that her vision was supposedly enhanced.

“Sophie, turn up the lights a little,” Sol said, still groggy. The lights in the room came on, but the room remained mostly dark. It was just bright enough to make out the contours of Star’s face in front of him. This close, it was impossible to deny her beauty. Her skin looked flawless. Her eyes bored into his with an alien intensity. Sol felt himself falling into them, as if they had a gravitational pull.

“I hope this is ok,” she said.

Sol kissed her lips softly. They parted for him. He reached down again and played with her panties. She exhaled when he reached the damp spot again.

“You’re...”

“Sophie and I had some fun before we came in,” she said.

“That’s a sexy image,” Sol said.

“It was pretty sexy,” she whispered. “The one thing it was missing was a hard cock.” Star grabbed ahold of him as she said it, and slithered down the bed. She put her lips on his tip and took him into her mouth. The sensation was mind numbing. Sol rolled onto his back. She and Sophie took turns running their tongues up his shaft. Sophie licked his testicles while Star took him all the way into her mouth. They switched. Sol lost track of the minutes, and felt barely on the edge of consciousness.

“This isn’t fair, Star,” Sophie said. “We’re being ignored.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked Sophie.

Sophie gestured at Sol, and Star got up, climbed over Sol’s body, and straddled his head. She leaned back to look down at him. He looked up at her. Her breasts protruded from her body. In the darkness, her nipples looked almost black. Her face had an anticipatory glow. Sol grabbed the cheeks of her ass and pulled her closer. He kissed her thighs. Then he kissed the lips between them. Star let out a loud sigh. Sol put his tongue against her lips and pushed it between them. She pushed herself against him. Her thighs closed on his head.

As he did it, Sophie licked the length of his shaft. Sol struggled to keep his composure, but Sophie made it hard. Sol grabbed Star’s ass again and pulled her against him. Her juices covered his face. He felt the little bump of her clit against his tongue as he licked her. Star shouted. It sounded gleeful. When the shouting subsided, she jumped off.

Star looked down at Sol mischievously. She scooted down his body so that her ass rested against his hard penis. She reached behind her body. Sol felt her grip him by the shaft. Then she lifted her body up and brought it down on top of him, enveloping his shaft within her. Sophie, still behind Star, reached around her body and manipulated her clit as she lifted her body up and down along Sol’s length. Star closed her eyes and moaned loudly. She squeezed one of her dark green nipples. Her mouth jolted open and shut indiscriminately. Sol felt himself unload inside of her. Star rode the crescendo of Sol’s orgasm without slowing the pace of her movements. When Sol thought he was done, she rode him to a second orgasm before dismounting like some kind of professional dancer.

Sophie wasn’t finished, though. “Sol, you need to give me some attention now,” she said.

“Do I?” he asked.

She climbed onto Sol, positioning her now glistening pussy above his face, and her face above his cock. She grabbed the base of his shaft and started to masturbate him back to hardness. Star climbed onto the bed below Sophie and ran her tongue up Sol’s balls. In no time at all, he was as hard as he had been before. Sol grabbed Sophie so that he could give her the same attention he’d given Star before. She straddled his face and knelt down to put his cock into her mouth. He ran his tongue up and down her hairless slit, being sure to pause to give her clit attention. Star meanwhile focused her attention on Sol’s sack. He couldn’t see her, but it sounded like she was masturbating as she did it. She heard her excitedly moan. Sophie was starting to moan, too. Sol, once again, felt his rhythm slipping as he began to orgasm. Sophie didn’t seem to care. She was whipping herself against his face, back and forth. Then she offered a low moan and the motion slowed.

“That’s just what I needed, Sol,” she said. “I’m going to clean up and get to work now.”

Sol smiled weakly, his strength drained. Star cuddled up to Sol. At some point, the two of them nodded off.

Stefano had spent the day lounging, enjoying the break from the ship’s monotonous interior. Laura and him had flirted a little bit, but nothing had come of it. He didn’t even think about flirting with Fortuna or Aurora. Those two dykes were about as standoffish to him as was possible. Aurora was friendly. But she was just as quiet and reserved as she was friendly. And Fortuna didn’t seem to like anybody.

That had left Laura, until now. So finding himself surrounded by young women was the dream Stefano needed to restore his sanity in a job that otherwise put him in the outer reaches of space in a tin can with three women that didn’t seem to want to give him the time of day.

Meeting Jamie had restored his faith in the universe. She’d been playing in the water gaily when Stefano stepped outside The Revenge to take a dip in the water. Sol was sitting by the water like a statute with the green girl. She looked like some kind of shut-in, in the hot sun wearing a long sleeved shirt that covered her body. Sol was little better. The guy was surrounded by pussy and always seemed to act like humanity had germs.

He was about to kick a small rock when he saw Jamie. She was bouncing up the beach in a white shirt with some panties. The shirt was now almost totally useless – her pink nipples were easily visible through it. And the panties were thin enough that her blonde pubes were enough to create a dark spot on the panties’ front. Stefano tried not to be obvious about staring.

“Hey,” she said to him.

“Hey,” he said back to her.

“You’re one of the pirates who rescued us?” she asked.

“I’ve been called a pirate,” he said. Sol counted, right? He’d called them all pirates.

She giggled. “Tell me about your greatest heist,” she said. She had a childish enthusiasm, a bubbly smile, and dangerously soft looking skin.

Stefano smiled at her. “I was going to go in the water. If you come with me, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I just got out. Do you have something to eat on board the ship?” she asked. Fuck the lake, Stefano decided in that instant.

“Sure,” he said, and shrugged. He tried to figure out how old she was by looking at her. Her breasts were large enough to more than attract attention. Her cheeks were rosy with a hint of baby fat. The baby fat was a bit more pronounced at her belly, which protruded beyond her panties pleasantly. He asked her to lead the way up into the ship, used the short steps to the gangway to peek at her ass. Her hips were wider than her body, and her ass was barely covered by the panties, though they weren’t made to be particularly revealing. Stefano struggled with himself not to reach out and grab ahold of it.

The ship was docked with its foredeck facing the beach. Stefano was pretty useless in the kitchen, but he put together a couple of simple meals from the provisions they had. Jamie had found a chair in the minimalist mess hall. She sat, splayed, without a care in the world. Stefano didn’t even pretend not to stare.

“Do you want me to get you a shirt and pants or something?” he asked.

She laughed. “Only if it’ll make you more comfortable,” she said.

He smiled and brought her the provisions.

“I guess not,” she says. “So ... your biggest heist...”

Sol and Sophie watched with amusement the next day, as the video feed played back Jamie climbing onto the table on The Revenge’s mess hall and Stefano humping her from behind. “This isn’t the best part,” she said.

“What’s the best part?” Sol asked.

“3... 2... “ Sophie counted down. In walked Laura and Aurora, apparently returning to the boat to grab something to eat. Aurora remained expressionless, but Laura shouted, causing Stefano – still erect – to fall over.

“You couldn’t take this to your room?” Laura asked him.

“Fuck,” Stefano yelled. Jamie got up, looked sheepish, and put her panties back on. Then she walked out of the room.

“I feel bad for the guy,” Sol said.

“I do too,” Sophie said.

“Is Aurora pissed?” Sol asked.

“She thinks Stefano exercised poor judgment,” Sophie said.

“He did. Am I going to have to deal with this?” he asked.

“Meh,” she answered. “He’s a big boy.” Sophie had waited until the morning to run the situation by him, giving him the benefit of the rest of his night’s sleep. He’d woken up to Star’s still beautiful body, and he let her stay there while he fixed breakfast and some coffee.

“Status on Fortuna?” she asked.

“No change from yesterday to my knowledge. Erin still has the tender, and she’s supposed to be checking on Fortuna this morning. If all is well, she’ll be coming back as soon as possible. My repairs will take another day,” she said. So they’d be gone from here in a day at the earliest.

“Did my life just get more confusing?” he asked the AI.

“Because you had sex with someone? No. Since when does sex make things confusing?” She said.

He looked at her askance to find her smirking.

“If you really think that it made things confusing, then I’d suggest you get it out in the open with Erin and find out where she stands. You guys owe each other honesty, and – as long as she wants her space – she owes you the freedom to make your own decisions ... At least, that’s what I think. But what do I know? Everything in my world is binary,” she added.

“I’d like to rescue Star’s sister,” he said.

“That’s admirable. I’m pretty sure its also a function of her enhanced pheromones, for what its worth,” she said. “You’ll have Fortuna’s support. Maybe she’ll even hobble into battle and give you a hand.”

“Wow,” Sol said. “I thought you’d be behind me.”

“I am. See how behind you I am? I’m being subservient and docile.”

“Ok, but you’re also being a bitch about it. Out with it. What am I missing?”

“I know where she is,” the AI said. “She’s in a federal labor prison on Potamos.”

“Fuck,” Sol said.

“Indeed,” she replied.

“How did she get there?” he asked.

“Theft.”

“Fuck,” he said again.

“I love you, Sol. I think the job is too big for you. At least right now while you have a target painted on your back it is.”

“I agree,” he concluded.

Later that day, Erinys returned with Fortuna. She was bandaged, with instructions to avoid heavy activity for several weeks. Most of her injury was relegated to blood loss. The hospital she’d been brought to had organ reconstruction technicians to keep the internal damage to a minimum. She’d lucked out, and Sophie’s help had kept her alive. Thankfully, they had the money to pay for it. Now she just had to do the one thing that came easy in space, but was hardest for space pirates: rest. The group met in the mess hall of the Revenge.

Sol, Erinys, Fortuna, Aurora, Tammy, Stefano, and Laura sat around a table with some food and a bottle of rum that Sol had brought from Reis. The AI was outside swimming around and keeping an eye on the others.

“Sophie says that the new ship will be ready to fly by tomorrow. My initial thought was to take it to Piso and sell it. But it turns out that the ship was hauling a pretty serious amount of drugs that we can sell. Its not nearly enough to be worth a full ship, but depending on how much hauling we’ll be doing, it may not be a bad idea to have a ship,” Sol began.

“More ships mean more costs. Also, three ships are easier to spot than two,” Fortuna said.

“That’s true. But the new ship isn’t combat ready anyhow. It’ll stay out of raids. We’ll use it when we haul food only,” he suggested.

“There’s only eight of us when you count Sophie. We’ll want security teams on each ship. We don’t have it yet,” Fortuna said. “We can pay for security somewhere. Whenever you pay people to protect you, you’re not only bleeding money, you’re increasing the circle of trust. And frankly, the circle of trust is already too big.” She looked at Tammy as she said the last piece. “Or Eliza can supply some of her people, if its ok with Sol. But that will have to wait a little while, I imagine.” Aurora nodded.

“Well, I’m no help to you raiding slaver ships. I’m not even comfortable with it,” Tammy said. “But if you want to treat me as a member of the crew as opposed to a prisoner, I can help arrange shipping. I don’t even mind if I’m placed with Sophie. She’s not bad company for a glorified prison guard.”

“Is Sol willing to part from her?” Aurora asked, causing some in the room to chuckle.

“He has me. That’s not enough?” Erinys said, to more chuckling and a couple of uneasy glances.

“Stefano, you’re my security guy. Talk,” Sol said, hoping to get the attention off of Erinys for the moment.

“I’d be happiest if you had at least three people with guns per boat. The Revenge has four of us,” he said, pointing to Fortuna and Aurora, then Laura, and finally indicating himself. “Reis has you and Sophie probably counts for two. Tammy and Erin aren’t going to help you much in a firefight ... You’re spreading that thin,” he said.

“So if we get three more gun-having people into the inner circle, its manageable...” Sol said. “Well these drugs are worth their pay for a few weeks anyhow. Fortuna, do we know people who could help? Do you?”

“You do,” Star’s voice said as she walked into the room. “Sorry for listening in, but I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to ask you about this anyhow. Sophie told me that my sister is in jail ... I’m not going to be able to break her out. Her sentence runs for another year. Until then, I’m homeless. I have skills. I’m genetically enhanced in ways that could help you. I’m not a marksman or anything, but I know how to use a gun.”

“How old are you?” Erinys asked her.

“I don’t know,” she said. “My best guess ... I’m old enough to have a cup of that rum on most systems.”

Aurora looked surprised. “You’re not in a database...”

“No, I’m not.”

“That could be useful,” she said.

“Not very. I’m green. I stick out whether I’m in a database or not,” she offered.

“Not to computers,” she offered. “Federal computers’ face recognition isn’t based off of color. They’re based off of contours.”

Star’s eyebrows raised.

“Ok, fine. But who is captaining the third vessel?” Fortuna asked.

“Aurora is the most qualified,” he said. Aurora smiled.

Fortuna balked. “I like having her with me. Maybe Erinys should captain it...”

Erinys laughed.

“Green. How about you?” Fortuna asked.

Star wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a captain of anything.”

“Other than whatever you choose to call that boat sitting out there,” Fortuna offered.

“Your ships are named after ancient pirates. I’ll name mine after a glorious future. Verathragna!” she said.

Sol smiled broadly. “Ok, but you’re the only person who’s going to call it that whole thing. Vera it is.”

“I’ll live,” Star said, shrugging.

Nerdy and cute, Sol thought.

“And the security issue?” Fortuna asked.

“All things in their time. We have the boat. We have an income stream. We can find people. Maybe some of your pirate friends. Some of them were pretty cute,” Sol said.

“You have enough cute things, no?” Fortuna jibed.

Erinys blushed. If Star did, too, it didn’t show. One of the benefits of being green, he guessed.

The ships sailed through the endless night two days later, making for Cepha to deal with their refugees. Sol planned a short stop in Piso to unload some precious and highly illegal cargo. Star and Sophie were in Vera. And wherever Sophie went, so went Tammy. A few of the refugees had been loaded back onto Vera. The rest had been distributed between Reis and the Revenge. Human chattel was relatively light. But that didn’t make transporting them easy. Sol felt like he’d given up his privacy during the day. What was worse, Erinys was sometimes talkative, but emotionally about as reserved as when Sol had picked her up. He knew he needed to bring up the “issue”, but he didn’t quite know how.

He finally dealt with it on the second night of their journey. Erinys had retired to her room. Sol, newly showered, was sipping his with a whiskey that Erinys had picked up for him in town. Restless, he did a sweep of the ship, stopped to talk to some of the refugees who were now sleeping on makeshift cots in the cargo hold of the ship. Then he ascended the gangway back towards his quarters. He knocked on Erinys’ door. “Come in,” she said.

He walked in to find her in a loose-fitting shirt and some panties. She sat on her bed and read a book.

“What’s up?” he asked her.

“Nothing. Reading,” she said. She looked up to smile at him.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, putting the book down. She looked at him expectantly.

“What’s up? You seem distant,” he said.

“I’ve been giving you space,” she said.

“I never said I wanted space,” he offered.

“You were awkward around me before, and I didn’t want to pressure you,” she said.

“Before?” he asked, now confused.

“On Paliochora,” she said.

“I guess ... I was worried about upsetting you,” he said.

“How could you upset me?” she asked.

“I slept with Star,” he said.

“Ahh,” Erinys said, and then smiled.

“That’s not the reaction I was expecting,” he admitted.

“I told you that I wanted freedom, and I didn’t want to tie you down,” she said.

“You did,” he agreed.

“So you exercised your freedom,” she said.

“I did,” Sol said, agreeing perhaps too quickly.

“Are you looking for me to take your guilt away? Because I’m not angry,” she said.

“Good then,” he said. He turned as if to leave.

“Sol,” she said.

“What?” he asked.

“I met a man planet-side. He took me out. We had sex,” she said.

“You don’t need to report to me,” he told her.

“Does it make you jealous?” she asked.

“A little,” he said. “Maybe not just a little.”

“What you told me makes me a little jealous too,” she said.

“What’s wrong with us?” Sol asked.

Erinys smiled broadly. “Nothing. That’s what’s nice about being an adult. We can do whatever we want,” she said.

“I don’t think that’s what I meant. What I meant was that...”

She cut him off. “You meant that you’re in love with me, and I’m in love with you, and it feels strange to be having sex with other people.”

“Yeah, I guess that was easy enough to say...” he said, impressed with her candor.

“It wasn’t, but I’m done with keeping my feelings to myself. I need freedom, Sol. I’m building my sense of identity, and it can’t be just based on the next man to show me favor. So its important to me that I be able to explore who I am, and its important to me that you’re free to do the same,” she explained.

“So ... sex without the responsibilities?” Sol asked.

Erinys smiled. “I guess you could put it that way.”

“I suppose I’ll live,” he said. Sol the understated. “But if that’s the case...”

Sol pulled his pants down and took out his half-hard member. He grabbed her behind the head and pulled her closer to him. She opened her mouth and took him in. Her face held an expression of shock. But she wrapped her arms around his body and pulled herself towards him. She put pressure on him with her lips, and ran her tongue up his shaft. Sol reached into her shirt and grabbed a nipple. Erinys made a muffled noise. It would have been impossible to tell if it was pleasure or shock. Sol squeezed harder and elicited the same sound. The vibrations against his shaft sent him reeling in pleasure.

He clumsily reached down to take off her shirt. She, slightly less clumsily, pulled off her panties. Then she took Sol by the arm and pulled him down into bed. Erinys tore his pants off. Sol ripped his shirt off. She straddled his chest and looked down into Sol’s eyes. He could see the faintest outline of her ribcage. Her breasts rested beautifully. She smirked down at him. He reached up and played with her nipples again. She bit her lower lip, now more clearly in appreciation. Her own hands traveled down her body to her bare womanhood. She rubbed her clit with one finger.

“You think you’re the only one who can take charge?” she asked him.

Before he could respond, she climbed off of him, using his chest as leverage and leaving a damp spot on his body. She turned her body around and straddled him again, this time backwards. She knelt down and took his cock in her mouth yet again, this time with Sol’s own head between her thighs. Sol grabbed her by the ass and pulled her down onto him. He sought out her clit with his tongue. She pressed herself against his face. He felt his grip on sanity fading with every flick of her tongue. He also knew that she felt the same. The undulations of her waist about his face had started rhythmically, and had devolved into something else. Her slick juices coated Sol’s face.

As Sol approached climax, Erinys climbed off of him and spun her body around. She came down on top of his erection and guided it into her. She held her hands behind her head and rode the orgasm.

The next morning, a very naked Sol woke up in bed with an equally naked Erinys. They were a day closer to Piso, and a day closer to getting the bulk of his ship back.