Chapter 6

The crew convened the next morning in their room in the resort. In the light of the morning, the fish looked less alien but just as impressive. Various colors flitted about across the window that made up the wall of the room. The plan was for Sophie and Erinys to stick around while Sol made the trip, which wasn’t for a few hours. Sophie was dressed for the occasion in her bathing suit. A small pair of shorts that barely qualified as shorts covered up her bottom. That was it other than the bathing suit. She wasn’t even wearing shoes.

Sol could intellectually appreciate the majesty of if all. But he was too conscious of the impending planetary event to be distracted by some fish. “Ok,” he said, “I’m going to get ready to meet with Eliza. You guys can...”

“You have a few hours before you need to be there, Sol, and the tender will get you there in no time,” Sophie cut him off. “Relaxation is good for you. Like, live a little.”

“Well, I see you have a bathing suit. Does Erin?” Sol asked.

“They sell them upstairs,” Sophie said.

“Oh, its ok, I don’t need to...” she began to protest.

“Bullshit. You do. You need a drink with a little umbrella in it, and some time in a hot tub. You can do that here in the room, or you can do it upstairs under the warm sun,” Sophie said.

“The sun might be warm on its surface,” Sol began. “But its...”

“Its paradise, Sol. Yeah, it isn’t Kimolos. Tourists aren’t going to be burning in their skin here. But its nice. Its comfortable. I’m going. I’m buying Erin a bathing suit with your money, and we’re going to relax. You’re invited to come,” Sophie said.

“Aye aye, captain,” Sol said. “One of these days I’m going to take away your independence setting. You’ll be reduced to moving shit around my ship.”

Sophie stuck out her tongue. Erinys giggled.

–

The pool was actually quite beautiful. While most of any sea-stedding island was raised well above the sea level, the pool was precisely at sea level. Someone swimming in the pool felt like they could keep on swimming into the great ocean that was Thaiki. It even had a beachfront (artificial of course). A handful of people were there, including a family with a girl who looked Sophie’s age. That is to say, she looked like she and Sophie were the same age, not that she looked like she was Sophie’s actual age. A group of young men, boys really, were playing some kind of game of tag in the pool.

The hot tub was empty, and that’s where Sol went when he got to the pool. Sophie and Erinys were apparently buying Erinys a bathing suit. Sol doubted it would be as quick as Sophie had taken to find her red bikini. Sure enough, it took them twenty minutes or so to come out.

Sophie stood above Sol, blocking his sun, when they emerged, with her hot red bikini. Sol couldn’t see whether the boys were staring. He didn’t have to see it to know. “You shoulda seen this purple one she tried on ... it was really hot,” Sophie said, indicating Erinys. She had emerged wearing a dark green one-piece bathing suit that was about as modest as anyone could find. She’d also put her blouse back on, though unbuttoned, and had found a pair of shorts. Her legs looked pale but inviting in the sunlight.

Sophie slipped into the hot tub with Sol, and the two just percolated in the hot water for a few minutes. It was eerie to see Sophie sit perfectly still; it emphasized her feigned humanity. After some time, Sol decided that even if the two women intended to sit tight, he was going to prepare for the trip north to meet with Eliza.

–

Sol flew the tender back to Sinaan Reis. At the last minute, he’d decided that he wanted to be on his own ship, not its tender, when he faced a fellow pirate for the first time. People like Sol had only a limited supply of commercial assets, and one of them was their reputation. Sol was a lot more imposing getting out of a monster like Sinaan Reis than he was getting out of a little tender, a space dinghy.

As he sat down in the captain’s chair, the screen came on, momentarily obstructing Sol’s view through the window – part of Sophie’s continuing upgrades to the vessel. It was Erinys, taking off her blouse, and then climbing out of the shorts she had brought. “Am I seeing the world through your eyes?” Sol asked the screen, out loud.

“M’hmmm,” Sophie’s voice answered. “She’s cute isn’t she?”

The she, of whom they spoke, had turned away from Sophie to take off her shorts, giving Sophie, and therefore Sol, a great look at Erinys leaning over to pull the shorts off her feet. Even in her bathing suit, the image still was clear enough to give Sol fuel for his imagination.

“I think she probably was waiting for me to leave before doing that. Don’t you think its a little inappropriate and voyeuristic to do this?” Sol asked.

“Of course it is, you pervert. I bet you haven’t stopped looking,” she answered. She was right, of course.

Erinys turned around and joined Sophie in the hot tub. The bathing suit didn’t emphasize her breasts, but the truth was that they needed no emphasis. Lying in the tub, with the tops of her breasts just visible above the surface of the water, she looked almost peaceful. Sol wished he could bring her many such peaceful moments. The reality was that peace rarely followed him.

“Ok,” Sol said, “you gals have fun. Make sure Erinys puts on sun block or something.”

“No doubt you want to be able to watch that, right?” Sophie responded.

“You bet. She’s pretty cute,” Sol said.

“Bye, Sol,” the voice said, and the image flickered out.

–

As Sol took off on his short hop to Eliza’s sea-stedding island, Sophie sent him yet another feed from the resort. Sure enough, she reminded Erinys to put on sunblock, and Sol got a front row ticket to the show of her putting it on. It was nearly an innocent image, except for the fact that Erinys almost definitely was waiting for Sol to leave before doing it, to say nothing of the fact that Sol stopped and reversed the feed a few times at the part where Erinys rubbed the lotion into the tops of her breasts.

“You’re magical, Sophie,” he said.

“I know,” the ship’s com responded to him. He turned off the feed and focused on his mission.

So far, no messages had come in for Sol. He didn’t know whether that was good news, bad news, or meant nothing. The trip took less than an hour – and only that because while ships were in atmo, they had to observe a drastically reduced speed limit. As he touched down, he noticed Sheba’s ship on the makeshift spaceport. The sea-stedding island was sizable, but had only several buildings. It was clear what the space was for: many space ships that could be launched at a moment’s notice, and likely could carry much, if not most, of the island’s other contents and inhabitants.

Sol set the ship down, and climbed down the ladder. A couple of women were waiting for him. Sheba wasn’t one of them.

“Captain Sol of Sinaan Reis,” he told them.

“Ensign Janelle of the Barbarossa,” said a tall, blond-haired woman. “This is Sub-Ensign Aurora, also of the Barbarossa.” Janelle indicated a shorter blond who was standing next to her.

“Barbarossa? What’s a red beard among women?” Sol asked. They looked at each other and grinned.

“Come this way,” Janelle told Sol. They turned around and walked towards the largest of several buildings.

Inside, Sol saw that it was part warehouse and part command center. The command center had a small mess hall – though certainly larger than either of Sol’s ships’ mess halls. At a table in the hall were Sheba and a woman who had to be Eliza. Everyone on the island, so far, had been dressed in nearly rag tag regalia. Janelle, for example, was wearing some kind of shorts and a white tank top, exposing her sculpted legs and shoulders. Aurora also had on a tank top, but it was orange, and cut off at the bottom, and her shorts, unlike Janelle’s, hugged her legs and her ass.

The woman with Sheba, by contrast, almost looked presentable in polite company. She had on long pants that hugged her legs and a long-sleeved shirt that did the same. The color scheme was a drab brown. In fact, it almost looked like...

“You were part of the colonial resistance,” he said, after they’d said their hellos.

“The outfit give it away?” she asked.

“Yeah, in fact,” Sol admitted.

“So we were enemies once,” she said.

“I was drafted to haul shit around for the federales. That’s hardly a combat role. Enemies is a little strong,” Sol said.

“I’d have killed you just the same, Sol,” Eliza said. “When you’re part of a resistance, there are no innocents. There are allies, and there are enemies.”

“Then I’d be dead, and unable to help you today,” Sol said.

Eliza grinned.

“Then it was God’s will that we didn’t meet until today,” she said.

“You’re religious?” Sol asked.

“When you’ve seen as much fate as I have ... but no, I wouldn’t call it religious. Maybe just superstitious. If there’s a God, I have a lot of things to tell her when I see her,” she stated, grimly.

Aurora walked back into the room with a jug of beer and several cups. An old Kithiran tradition suggested that negotiations could only begin when there was beer on the table. Sheba’s background with Eliza made a bit more sense now – not that Sol needed it. He trusted Sheba. She might be one of the few people he trusted. Sub-Ensign Aurora stood off to the side so as to be unobtrusive, but she didn’t leave.

“An old Martian Off-world tradition is to share whiskey before important discussions. Or, just to share whiskey whenever,” Sol grinned. He pulled out his flask, hoping the maneuver would be seen as emphasizing a shared working-class background. Eliza smiled and indicated that cups be brought out to distribute the whiskey. Aurora complied. Sol and the others drank. Sheba grimaced. Eliza didn’t.

“I’ve asked the other captains to wait until we talk before they come in,” Eliza began. “You’ve met Aurora,” she said, smirking for some reason.

“She called herself a sub-ensign,” Sol said, implying the question.

“When you’ve spent a lifetime at war with the federales, the militia lingo is hard to shake. My people have stayed with me because I provide them stability; and the ones who provide me with the same get to stay on. I’ve found that treating them like a small army helps,” she explained.

Sol blinked but didn’t say anything. Sheba was the first to lay the issues on the table. “The federal crackdown on smuggling has put the squeeze on several colonies ... well, I guess they aren’t colonies anymore ... several systems that aren’t well situated agriculturally. We’re seeing it in Naxos and Milos, but its really across the Isles. Now, some wealthy corporations from Inland own most of the farming rights in Cepha, just like they are trying to force out competition for the shipping rights – for water – here on Thiaki.”

“The way we’ve been dealing with it has been to organize relatively low risk shipping from Inland interests – bribable government officials and lower management at the major corporations – to the Isles through Corfu. That way, our commerce has run almost parallel to legitimate commercial projects.”

“We’ve always felt that that would be much lower risk – to everybody – than to organize trade between the colonies, since the whole point of the colonial enterprise was to create artificial trading partners between Inland firms and the Isles. We just figured that the feds would crack down harder on illegal trade between the Isle systems. And, for the most part, we were right, until very recently.” Sheba looked meaningfully at Sol. Sol got the hint and continued the speech.

“Since I’m not part of the old network of smugglers, I’ve been pretty insulated from the crackdown. But what its created is a new reality: if it isn’t any more dangerous to trade between the old colonies, why aren’t we doing it? The Cephan farmers are getting shafted due to their proprietary accounts with Inland interests. And the Naxosians, for example, have to pay a phenomenal markup on simple commodities that grow a couple of star systems over. There’s got to be a better way.”

Sheba took over. “That’s where we come in. If we can organize some of the farmers in Cepha to sell us even a small number of crops, we can resell those through free market buyers in Naxos. If that’s successful, we can even expand our markets elsewhere, like Milos, and Thiaki.”

“So,” Eliza said, “you’re talking about trucking, basically.”

“In a way,” Sheba said.

“I raid corporate ships to undermine the stability of the colonial project. This is a little boring, no?” She asked.

“The Isles are never boring, particularly during times of turmoil,” Sheba said. “But more importantly, this attacks the feds’ whole colonialist purpose in this part of the galaxy.”

“We’ve needed a better method of obtaining funds for some time now,” Eliza confided. “Lately, we’ve been raiding human smuggling ships – pirates who the feds have basically ignored so long as they confine their activities to the poorer reaches of the Isles.”

Sol gave Eliza a blank look.

“Slavers, in a word,” Eliza explained. “They kidnap young boys and girls to be sent into hard labor or used as sexual slaves.”

“Even the feds couldn’t condone...” Sol began.

“Oh, officially they don’t. The slaves go to work for outsourcing agencies that, for all outward appearances, are legitimate enterprises. If you need to quickly hire an affordable workforce, these agencies are your friends. The problem is that many of the laborers are basically indentured. Sometimes its even overt kidnapping. But most of the time, its just parents who can’t afford to feed their kids resorting to selling them into service,” Eliza explained.

“Anyhow, whatever we salvage from the slaver ships, we sell. The government leaves us alone because, officially, they’re against slavery anyhow. The money is good, but its inconsistent, and its dangerous; and the government is starting to crack down on ‘piracy.’” Eliza explained.

Sol considered. “We can offer you a way out of that kind of inconsistent work,” he finally said.

“That’s the funny thing,” Eliza said, polishing off her beer and reaching for the jug to refill it. “We don’t want a way out. The work is rewarding, and nobody else is doing it. Someone needs to stand up to these corporations. We could use your help. And in return, I’ll go in with you on your plan to save Naxos from high food prices.”

Sol could tell she was making fun of him even as she was agreeing to work with him. Part of him bristled. The work was important. Commodities were the basis of any economy. And if the feds controlled them exclusively, they controlled the rest of the economy as well. Pretending that there was a free market when the market was controlled through oppressive licensing regimes for the benefit of well-connected corporations was the opposite of freedom. And it made dark underbelly practices like slavery easier because the government had abdicated its stated objectives of making the world safer and freer a long time ago. Undermining that corrupt control of commodities would also undermine the government’s tacit protection of everything else, including the slavery racket that Eliza and her merry band were picking away at.

But on the other hand, she had handed him what he ostensibly wanted: a steady stream of income. Sheba looked at him for a moment and grinned. She knew him better than their limited interactions should have allowed.

“In that case, lets talk turkey,” Sheba said.

Derek was fucking around in the pool with his friend Zander, and eyeing a blonde girl who was sitting next to her parents – Derek had decided they were her parents – reading something on a com.

“She’s pretty hot,” Zander said to Derek, as he noticed where Derek was looking.

“Shh, man!” Derek told his friend. “I don’t want her to hear, you fuck.”

“She won’t hear if you don’t shout, asshole,” Zander said. Zander was an asshole. He was also pretty suave, Derek had to admit.

Derek was trying to figure out whether the girl knew what she was doing. She was wearing a lavender bikini with little colored designs on it, and she’d changed positions like three times since Derek had started watching her. Her feet were facing the pool, and her head was mostly obstructed by the com. That prevented Derek from seeing her face, but it also prevented her from seeing Derek staring at her.

First, she’d sat there with her legs slightly apart, giving Derek what was almost a good view of her snatch. He was trying to figure out whether he could see camel-toe, or if it was just his imagination. Then she’d widened her legs a little bit, as if to get more comfortable, but it made it almost clear that he was seeing camel-toe. Finally, she’d tucked her legs in closer to her body, while keeping her knees apart. She was either way too innocent, or she was doing this on purpose. Derek could see most of her ass, and he could definitely make out the faint shadow of a camel-toe.

He was thinking about asking her if she wanted to join them when he saw the other girl.

Holy shit, she was hot. She had walked out of the lobby of their resort with a woman who looked too young to be her mom. Lavender – Derek’s name for her due to the color of her bikini – might have been wearing a slightly revealing bikini, but Red – Derek’s name for the girl who had just come out of the lobby – was wearing something that was made to attract attention. Unlike Lavender’s top, Red’s only contained enough material to actually cover up her breasts. Just enough material to be almost decent. And the material was apparently thin enough that the slightest hint of a nipple was visible. Her bikini bottoms weren’t indecent, but any less material and they would be. The woman with Red couldn’t have been her mother, and Red’s bathing suit told him that she was looking for attention, so naturally Zander was the one who strutted over to the hot tub to talk to her.

He didn’t do it immediately, of course. He had to wait for the right moment. The man who was with Red got up and left the hot tub. A few minutes later, the woman who was with them got into the hot tub. Then she got out again to put on some sunblock and to lie in the sun. When Red was alone in the hot tub, Zander pounced.

Derek watched as Zander and her talked. She seemed to giggle about something. Then Red got up out of the hot tub and sauntered over to the pool with Zander. That fucker had way too much confidence.

“I’m going to ask the girl over there if she wants to join us,” he heard her say to Zander, before she walked over to Lavender. Derek couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Lavender got up and both of them jumped into the water together.

Awkward introductions were made. Apparently, Red’s name was Crystal, and Lavender’s name was Sara. Sara explained that her parents were in from Milos, where they now lived, and that they ran a business importing water. Crystal explained that she was on vacation from Inland with her uncle and a family friend. Derek introduced himself and then Zander explained he and Derek had been let loose on the island by Zander’s parents, and that this was something of a yearly tradition.

That was about the point where things started to get weird. Sara’s parents decided that they wanted to leave the pool, and asked Sara if she wanted to come with them. Sara declined, and her parents walked into the lobby. For awhile, they didn’t do anything other than talk to each other awkwardly – a teenage pastime, Derek thought.

Zander was the one who upped the ante. “Lets go back to my room, guys. My parents aren’t going to be back for awhile.”

Sara looked apprehensive. “Don’t worry,” Crystal told her. “I could take a guy’s head off without breaking a sweat. We’re safe. And it might be fun.”

That was an odd thing for someone to say. But it seemed to work on Sara. Crystal ran over to the other woman, and then ran back to the Derek and the gang. He didn’t need to look at Zander to know what he was staring at. Crystal’s tits bounced as she ran. Derek tried not to stare. Zander didn’t even try.

“Hey Zander, your tongue is hanging out of your mouth,” Crystal said to him, and winked at Derek. Sara laughed. Zander looked embarrassed but he quickly rebounded.

When they got to the room, Crystal asked if they had any music. Zander put on some music, and Crystal started dancing in place. “Got anything to drink?” she asked. Zander laughed and grabbed some rum from a cupboard. Cups were passed around with way too much rum in them.

“You like dancing?” Zander asked Crystal, once everyone was properly hydrated.

“Sure. Wanna dance?” she said. Zander put his arms around her waist, with his fingers just on top of her bikini bottom. Crystal put her arms around his neck. It was like watching a baboon from one of the nature movies Derek had seen as a kid try to dance with a ballerina. Crystal moved perfectly in time with the beat. Zander flopped around like an idiot.

Derek looked over at Sara and kind of shrugged. She walked over to him said “I’m not as outgoing as those two, I guess.”

Derek told her that he wasn’t either. She laughed nervously, and the two of them started talking to each other. It was nice. She was really pretty, especially up close. If anything, her tits might have been bigger than Crystal’s. Derek liked a nice pair of tits. Zander was always going on about “tight asses.” That sounded kind of scatological to Derek. Sara had wider hips, what he would call a nice ass. It wasn’t what Zander would call a “tight ass,” though. He might not know exactly what that was, but he knew that Sara didn’t have it.

She did have a cute round face with dimples. Her skin was as pale as the moon – an expression he’d heard his mom use, though Milos had no moon. If she hadn’t come inside when she did, she might have gotten a sunburn, even out here in Thiaki.

Slowly, as the two of them talked, they got more comfortable with each other. It took him a couple of songs, but finally, Derek asked Sara to dance with him. When he asked her, she glanced over to where Zander and Crystal were dancing together. Crystal was facing away from Zander, rubbing her body against his. Zander had his hands on her ass, as if he was directing how she should move.

“Not like that,” Derek said, causing Sara to laugh again nervously. She wrapped her arms around Derek’s neck, and rested her head on his shoulder. Derek could hardly keep himself from sporting wood, and he pulled her body a little closer to his so that it wouldn’t be as obvious to Zander or Sara.

When the song came to an end, Zander shouted “truth or dare!” Derek was of two minds. On the one hand, he never would have suggested such a game, particularly given how timid Sara seemed to be. Zander couldn’t have been worse at reading people’s comfort zones. On the flip side, Derek knew that he wasn’t about to take whatever he was having with Sara at this moment to the next level in the short time they had unless some brash asshole like Zander did something stupid like yell “truth or dare.” The alcohol was starting to have its usual effect. Liquid courage was always appreciated at times like these.

So Derek didn’t protest. Sara looked at him and he shrugged. Crystal, perhaps sensing Sara’s discomfort, said “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, honey.” And Sara seemed to relax. They sat down in a little circle, and began to play the universe’s oldest stupid party game.

The questions started almost innocently. Zander asked Sara her breast size, as if he would understand the answer. Sara gave it, and seemed kind of proud of herself, which made sense given how nice her breasts were. Sara asked Derek if he’d ever had sex with a girl. Derek had, but it was kind of awkward, and he didn’t think of himself as that experienced. He sputtered with his answer but then admitted that he had. Derek asked the same question right back. Sara asked if blowjobs counted – so there was that.

The first dare came from Crystal, who dared Derek to masturbate for 10 seconds in public. That was instead of revealing what he wanted to do with Sara if he could do whatever he wanted. “I don’t know if you know how this works, but a guy can’t just get hard on command.”

Without warning, Crystal leaned in to Sara and kissed her on the lips. Sara kissed back for a moment before breaking away.

“Holy fuck,” Zander said.

Crystal looked over at Derek and cocked her head to the side, expectantly. Derek was hard, there was no doubt about that. Should he press his luck?

“I think I need more incentive than that,” he said.

Sara looked at Crystal and leaned in again, this time slowly, almost sensually. As Crystal’s lips touched Sara’s, she reached down and touched herself softly over her bikini bottoms. Derek didn’t need to be told twice. For thirty seconds, he gave the girls (and Zander) a clumsy and awkward show. When Crystal said “time!” Derek raced to put himself away.

Derek picked Sara, who picked dare. “Kiss Crystal again for 30 seconds. Get really into it.” Sara screwed up her face noncommittally. She might have been shy around the boys, but this didn’t seem to phase her. Of course, she also didn’t really get into it. It was obvious to Derek that she was going through the motions.

Crystal parted her lips at last moment. Sara, in spite of herself, played along, parting her lips and sticking her tongue into Crystal’s mouth. Crystal purred, and Sara reached out to touch her face as they kissed. Right before the 30 seconds were over, Crystal touched a finger to Sara’s shoulder and traced a line down to the top of her bikini. Then they separated.

“You got into that a little,” Crystal said to Sara.

“Yeah, it was weird, but it also felt kind of good. Hey Derek, I dare you to dare me to do that again,” she said.

“Gotta pick someone else, that’s the rules,” Zander said. Suddenly, rules were really important to him.

“Ok, how about you, Zander? Truth or dare,” Sara said.

“Dare,” he said. The momentum had taken over. Anyone who had ever been a teenager has felt it: the momentum of a room full of horny teens. Each one is uncomfortable. Each one knows that the others are also uncomfortable. And so each person practically dares the others to push their own boundaries. By picking Zander, the loudmouth, Sara was asking Zander to help her push her own limitations – which would otherwise hinder her chances with Derek.

“Ok, I dare you to kiss Crystal for 30 seconds,” she said.

“That’s like saying, ‘I dare you to enjoy yourself for 30 seconds.’” Zander said. Crystal crawled over to him on her hands and knees and kissed him, hard. While she kissed him, he put a hand up and started playing with Crystal’s tits. Derek thought Crystal would be upset, but she seemed to get into it. She pushed him down and crawled on top of him suggestively before time was called.

Zander picked Derek. Derek saw where this was going and said “dare.”

“I dare you to kiss Sara for 30 seconds,” he said.

Sara giggled, and as she leaned over to kiss Derek, Zander added, “like I just kissed Crystal.”

“It looked like Crystal was doing most of the kissing, dude,” he said. But Sara took the opportunity. Zander was sitting on the floor with his feet out and his hands behind him. She sat on his lap, straddling him with her legs, and forcefully kissed him. There was a whole lot of tongue, and Derek thought it was kind of sloppy, like she wasn’t too experienced. But there was no arguing with the pressure she was putting on his dick. He reached up and brushed a breast lightly.

Sara pulled away and smirked at him. Then she kissed him again and said “done.”

“That was about 24 seconds,” Crystal said. “But I think it passes.”

Derek picked Crystal. Everything was about dares now. He didn’t even ask her to pick truth or dare. “Take Zander into the bathroom and give him a minute he won’t forget.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “He can only last a minute?” she asked. But she got up, and Zander – trying to hide his erection – got up with her. They went into the bedroom together.

Derek turned to Sara and awkwardly tried to start a conversation. “So...” he said. Sara giggled.

“I’ve never done anything like this. Its fun. I think my mom and dad would kill me if they found out...” she said.

“You know we’re next right?” Derek said. “I’m enjoying spending time with you. And I won’t forget it. So if he dares you to give me a time I’ll never forget ... just sitting and talking with you is enough.”

“You’re not getting off that easy,” she said, and leaned in to kiss Derek. That’s when the door to the bedroom opened, and a very flushed Zander stepped out with Crystal.

Crystal dared Derek to take Sara in the bathroom and show her a good time, instead of the other way around. When they got in there, and the door closed, Derek was more than a little nervous. He started kissing her again, and as Sara’s body melted into his, he got daring and rubbed a hand against a breast. Sara seemed to like it. Derek felt her breathing get quicker. He felt her fingers against the waistband of his bathing suit. She clumsily pressed a hand against his bathing suit, touching the tip of his erection. Derek wanted to return the favor. He dipped his fingers into Sara’s bikini and ran them down the peach fuzz of her bush to her lips below.