Chapter 5: Last Straw

The next morning, for the first time since arriving on the Pinwheel, I was awoken by my alarm rather than by Raz’s loud exercising. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes as I looked over to see that her bunk was empty. Maybe she had actually gone to exercise in the gym like I had originally asked her to.

I made my way to the mess hall in search of breakfast, and encountered Raz on the way. She was returning from the gym, sporting her distracting tube top and shorts combo. She looked wet, she must have been for a morning swim, too.

The previous night’s encounter had rattled me. There had always been a vague background radiation of attraction between the two of us, but I hadn’t realized how strongly she felt about me until she had made her feelings so abundantly clear. Now I felt awkward, almost ashamed, as if we had been caught doing something that we shouldn’t. I was afraid of her on some level, no longer fearing her bullying or her abuse, but rather a budding romance that might prove to be even more dangerous.

“Morning, Raz,” I said as I greeted her in the hallway. “Thanks for not waking me up today.”

She nodded, joining me as I continued toward the mess hall. I poured myself a bowl of cereal, and she selected her usual cut of meat, then we made our way toward one of the tables. I figured that I owed Raz a favor for going to the gym to exercise, and so I motioned to the taller Borealan table, which was presently unoccupied.

I climbed up onto the exaggerated bench, feeling like a toddler sitting in a booster seat as my feet dangled off the floor, much to Raz’s amusement. She seemed to appreciate the gesture, able to eat at the table normally rather than having to sit on the deck. It wasn’t too much of an inconvenience for me, the table was a little higher than was comfortable, but I could reach.

We ate in silence, but it wasn’t an awkward one. Raz and I seemed to have reached some kind of new equilibrium, a mutual understanding that could be left unspoken.

When I was most of the way through my bowl of cereal, I noticed that Raz’s ears were swiveling toward the door, her feline pupils dilating as the Borealan pack entered the room. They headed straight for our table, grouping up together, practically walking in formation. As they drew closer, Raz’s ears flattened against her head, her eyes firmly fixed on what I assumed to be the new pack leader who had succeeded her.

While not as physically imposing as Raz, she was far bigger and more intimidating than any human could have hoped to be. She stopped by our table, glancing back and forth between the two of us, perhaps unsure of who she should be addressing. Unlike Raz, who was making great strides in the field of human social interaction, the other aliens were still rooted firmly in their pack mentality. Eventually, the tall alien chose to address me, rather than her old Alpha.

“This our table, human,” she said in the same rolling accent as Raz. “Please leave.”

I stopped chewing, setting down my spoon. Her tone wasn’t insulting or disrespectful, but she was being bizarrely dismissive of human social norms.

“I’m sorry, but we were here first,” I replied. I gestured to the adjacent benches, which were vacant. “You’re welcome to eat with us, though.”

The Borealan pack bristled, the lower ranked members looking to their leader for guidance, uncertainty etched onto their faces. The new Alpha seemed to take my comment as an affront, rather than as a compromise. Her lips pulled back to expose her teeth, her clawed fingers flexing as if she was anticipating sinking them into my flesh. Even when Raz had been at her most arrogant, she had not been this confrontational. It made me think that this new leader was overcompensating, either because she was unsure of herself, or because she was still afraid of Raz.

She turned her attention to my companion instead, hissing something in their native tongue. The look of displeasure on her face gave me the impression that she didn’t even deem Raz worth talking to.

“He said no, Xhe,” Raz replied. She made a point of speaking English, which seemed to further annoy the pack.

The leader, or ‘Xhe’ as Raz had referred to her, seemed to take this as an insult. Based on my ever-expanding knowledge of Borealan customs, Raz had challenged her by addressing a higher ranking pack member in such a flippant manner. Xhe slammed her fists down on the table, making me jump in surprise, the milk from my cereal sloshing around in the bowl.

Raz remained motionless, which might be a sign of either submission or defiance, I couldn’t be sure.

“You submit to humans now, Raz?” Xhe spat. I could see the contempt in her yellow eyes.

“I submit to ‘no one’,” Raz replied.

You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. The few trainees who were eating their breakfast had either quietly filed out of the room, or were watching with concern. A couple of Krell were halfway out of their seats, they looked like they were gearing up to intervene.

Xhe didn’t seem to know how to respond. She looked to her pack for reassurance, but didn’t find any, then she turned back to face Raz.

“How can you function in a pack if you do not submit? Have you gone completely rogue?”

Raz rose from her seat abruptly, Xhe flinching back as she stepped away from the bench and stood before her defiantly.

“I no longer require submission, I have made friends.”

“You’re insane,” Xhe shot back, her sharp teeth bared. Whatever signal the Borealans had been waiting for, it had been given, and they began to encircle the table. This was getting too dangerous for the likes of me, I didn’t fancy being caught in the middle of a Borealan catfight, and I didn’t fancy the odds of Raz taking on the whole pack and winning. If it were that simple, she would have done it in the first place. She could probably take two of them, maybe three, but the pack was five strong with Raz making the sixth Borealan on the Pinwheel. I didn’t know why they had elected to send such a small contingent compared to the other species, perhaps it had something to do with the probationary nature of the Borealan allegiance to the Coalition.

Raz became a spitting demon, the fur on her tail puffing up like a feather duster as it whipped through the air. Her eyes were wide, and her pupils were dilated into large, dark circles. She bared her fangs and flexed her claws, her ears pressed flat against her head as she squared off with her former pack. They seemed afraid of her, wary of getting too close. Xhe barked orders at them in their native language, and they held their ground.

I didn’t know what to do. If the claws started flying, then I would be torn to shreds, but I wasn’t about to let my hard-won friend get dogpiled. If there was a serious fight, then the M.Ps would show up and haul everyone off to the brig. Would they get here in time to prevent anyone from being seriously injured, and would a group of military police armed with batons and stun guns even be able to take down half a dozen pissed off Borealans?

Oh well, it was partly my fault that Raz was in this situation to begin with. ‘Guess we’re doing this’, I thought to myself as I climbed up onto the table, drawing confused glares from the angry aliens.

“Alright, you pussies, who’s first?”

I kicked a half-full bowl of cereal at the nearest Borealan, who ducked out of the way of the bowl, but was doused with milk. She yowled and sputtered, shaking corn flakes out of her hair. Xhe snarled an order in their feline language, two of the aliens darting toward Raz. They were so impossibly fast despite their size and weight, the powerful muscles in their thighs rippling beneath their uniforms as they propelled themselves forward, their sharp claws digging furrows in the deck.

Before I could so much as blink, Raz clotheslined one of them, and it dropped like it had been hit by a bus to lie wheezing on the floor. The second swiped at her, but Raz blocked the blow with her forearm, taking advantage of the opening to lean in and slam her fist into her assailant’s sternum. The Borealan buckled, crumpling to the ground as her pack looked on. One on one, none of them could touch Raz, she had apparently been deserving of her title of Alpha.

Xhe spat another order, and the rest of the pack piled in. I tried to kick one of them in the head, but it casually brushed me off the table with the back of its hand. It was quite a fall for a human, and I hit hard, cracking a rib.

Raz turned to help me, but in her distraction, she took a swipe to the back. She yowled in pain and anger, spinning around to deliver a brutal uppercut that lifted her attacker clear off the ground. The forces at play were so far beyond human experience, the sound of her fist impacting the other Borealan’s chin was like that of someone hitting a side of beef with a sledgehammer. Crimson blood dripped from the four claw marks on her back, leaving round splotches on the white floor. I couldn’t tell how bad it was from my prone position.

The Borealans weren’t staying down, they were resilient creatures, and the one who had been clotheslined clambered to her feet. She spied me, and made her way around the table toward me, brandishing her claws as her yellow eyes focused on me. It was like being on the wrong side of the fence at a tiger enclosure, and I winced in pain as I tried to scramble backward, one hand clutching my side.

A Krell came barreling in from my left, lifting the Borealan off the floor and carrying her along, using its weight and momentum to slam her into the edge of the table. There was a sickening crunch as she was trapped between the Krell and the metal, the alien howling in pain and surprise.

From the other side of the table, a second Krell charged into the fray, letting loose a bone-chilling roar that gave even the Borealans pause for thought. One of the felines turned to face it, slicing at its scaly underside, but even her wicked claws were no match for the Krell’s defenses. Her talons glanced off it, failing to find purchase. She didn’t get the opportunity to try a second time, the reptile body-slamming her, sending the Borealan crashing to the deck.

The same reptile then spun around, swinging its massive tail like a wrecking ball, sweeping Xhe’s feet out from under her. She went down hard, the metal bench ringing like a gong as her face impacted it. She scrambled to her feet, dazed and unsteady, but the Krell brought down a fist the size of a bowling ball on her head. She fell back to the floor limply, lying motionless, a trickle of blood leaking from her pink nose.

A plucky human snuck up behind one of the remaining Borealans, the alien distracted by the arrival of the Krell, and smacked it over the back of the head with a metal dinner tray. More humans and Krell flooded into the mess hall, word of a fight must have spread quickly, and they were coming to defend their own.

The Borealans that were still on their feet looked conflicted. Their leader was down, unconscious on the floor, and most of the pack was incapacitated. The one that had been steamrolled by the Krell was making a racket, hissing and spitting in either pain or anger as she lay slumped on the table, I couldn’t tell which.

Now a dozen humans and half as many Krell were advancing on the beleaguered felines. They were hopelessly outnumbered, and they began to panic, their yellow eyes darting about wildly. Before the brawl could go any further, two dozen M.Ps wearing Marine armor with white helmets and wielding batons came streaming into the room, and they began hitting everything in sight. The humans were battered with strikes and forced toward the walls of the mess, while the Krell shrugged off the blows with little concern, plodding away peacefully to join their friends. Only the injured and the Borealans remained by the table in the middle of the room, the M.Ps rounding up those who could still walk under their own power, calling for stretchers to transport the incapacitated.

I was helped up by a medic and escorted toward the infirmary, wincing as the man draped one of my arms over his shoulder and guided me toward the door, my ribs burning with every step. I looked back to see a medic struggling to drag Xhe’s limp body onto a stretcher, being helped by three M.Ps. Two of the Krell had already been conscripted to carry her away. Someone was tending to Raz, but as I was led out of the room, I saw the M.Ps corralling her into a corner of the room with the other Borealans.

I was discharged from the infirmary later that afternoon. My broken rib was bandaged, and I had to make up a story about the scars on my chest to dissuade a curious nurse. The M.Ps came to visit me, taking a statement about the fight, but they didn’t drag me off to the brig. Vasiliev was waiting for me outside the building as I made my way onto the torus. I attempted to salute him, but the pain in my side made me think better of it.

“Stanley, how’s your injury?” he asked.

“I’ll be fine, sir. How’s Raz doing?”

“Don’t worry about her, the medics told me that she was pretty much fifty percent scar tissue to begin with. Two of the others sustained some more serious injuries, however, even for Borealans. The Krell really worked them over. One broke a vertebra and fractured an arm, and the other sustained a pretty serious concussion. Since the Borealans were the aggressors in this scenario, no formal charges will be filed against the Krell, but when those lizards throw their weight around it tends to result in people getting hurt.”

I nodded, and we began to walk back in the direction of the barracks.

“Stanley,” Vasiliev continued, “this station is technically an active service Naval installation. I hope you understand that participating in a brawl, even as a defensive measure, carries some serious consequences. We can’t have Marines running around, getting into fights in an enclosed space like a station or a carrier.”

“Yes, sir. I understand,” I replied. “I assume that the M.Ps gave you our statements?”

“Yes, all of the accounts corroborate yours, but there will still be a disciplinary citation on your record. I take no pleasure in it, but we can’t make exceptions for anyone.”

I had guessed as much. It wouldn’t kill my career by any means, but it was a blight on my otherwise exemplary record.

“The Admiralty has seen enough of the Borealans,” Vasiliev continued, adjusting his cap as he walked. “The conclusion has been reached that they represent a liability to our mixed units, they can’t be socialized, we can’t integrate them. We’ll be shipping them home on the first available jump carrier.”

The news drove an icicle straight through my heart, and I stopped in my tracks. Vasiliev paused and turned to look back at me, confused by my reaction.

“What about Raz?” I asked, apprehension tying a knot in my belly. “Will she be sent back to Borealis too?”

“I know that you’ve taken a shine to Raz over the past few days,” he replied. “She’s seen dramatic improvements in her academic and XMR performance, but as I said, the Admiralty has deemed that the Borealans cannot be socialized. Borealis is being dropped from the integration program, and their personnel are being sent home, Raz included.”

I balled my fists, frustration overpowering my usual professionalism.

“Sir, you don’t understand, she ‘can’t’ be sent back to Borealis! They ‘can’ be socialized, I figured it out, I’m starting to understand how they think. Raz is making progress, she’s starting to-”

“The decision has already been made, Stanley, it’s not up to me.”

He sighed, turning and walking back toward me. He took me by the arm and ushered me along as I stared at the floor, dejected. I couldn’t believe what was happening, we couldn’t lose all of the progress that we had made merely because of a fight, one that we hadn’t even started! Raz was now enamored with the idea of friendship as an alternative to their brutal pack structure. If she took that message back to Borealis, alone and without the means to properly convey it, she would be eaten alive.

There had to be some way to fix this, some way to prove to the Admiralty that I alone could bridge the cultural gap between Earth and Borealis.

I arrived back at our dorm to find Raz waiting for me. She was perched on the edge of her bed, the red tinge to her eyes suggesting that she had been crying.

“Are you okay, Raz?” I asked as I sat down beside her on the bunk.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. “You look a lot worse off than me,” she added, gesturing to the bandages that were peeking above the open collar of my uniform.

“Eh, it’s nothing,” I replied with a wave of my hand. “Just a broken rib, it’ll be healed in a few days.”

Raz stared at the carpet, her ears drooping and her tail hanging limply off the edge of the mattress. She looked downright miserable.

“Stanley ... they said that I have to go home. They’re putting me on the next carrier, it’s leaving tomorrow afternoon.”

“I know,” I mumbled, “Vasiliev already told me. The Admiralty doesn’t want Borealans in the program anymore, they think that you can’t be socialized.”

“I really thought that...” Raz trailed off, and I reached up to put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll find a way to fix this,” I insisted. “You’ve made so much progress, there has to be some way that we can show them that you’re different from the other Borealans. If you can learn to get along with humans, then others can too, and you’re the key to that. If Borealis wants to join the Coalition, then you’re the only person who can make that happen.”

“It’s too late,” she sighed, “the order has already been given. Worse, when I get home, I’ll lose my standing in the hierarchy. My father will blame our failure to complete the program on me, I’m responsible. The last thing that he told me before I left was that everything was resting on my shoulders, and that he was trusting me to prove our worth to the humans. Now the Coalition won’t want Borealan warriors, they might not want an alliance at all. It’s my fault...”

“No,” I said as I shook my head vigorously. “You’re the only one who has made any progress in the program at all. The other Borealans weren’t even trying. You’ve done exactly what you were supposed to do, me and you, we’ve found common ground. I’ll try to talk to Vasiliev again before the jump carrier leaves tomorrow, try to make a case for you staying on the Pinwheel. Maybe you can request asylum, or you could become an advisor, or ... something. You should come with me. Maybe if he sees the change in you for himself, then he’ll pass the word up the chain to the Admiralty.”

Raz didn’t reply, she just continued to examine the floor. I felt terrible in the knowledge that, in trying to improve her life on the Pinwheel, I had likely ruined her future back home. Who knew what adversity she would face now, all because of my meddling...

“Raz, is there anything that I can do?”

She seemed to perk up a little, one of her ears swiveling in my direction.

“Well ... it’s our last night on the Pinwheel together. Tomorrow, I’ll be gone. There’s no reason to think that we’ll ever see each other again. There’s ‘one’ thing that you can do for me...”

Before I could react, she took my face in her furry hands, leaning down close to me. Her soft, full lips pressed against mine, and then I felt her tongue push into my mouth. It was so long and flexible, warm, and slick with her saliva. The top was covered in rough barbs, but the underside was as smooth as velvet, the tapered tip of her winding organ finding my tongue and coiling around it like a snake. She held me there for a minute, locking me in a long, deep kiss that made my mind go blank. My cheeks burned as she cradled them in her silky palms, my heart hammering in my chest. She finally released me with a wet pop, her amber eyes seeming to glow as she peered down at me longingly.

I sat there, practically steaming. I felt as if my brain was about to melt and run out of my ears. She placed a hand on the back on my head, almost broad enough to encompass it entirely, and I felt her smooth cheek brush against mine as she drew closer to whisper in my ear.

“Let me have you, Stanley. I ‘need’ this, I want you so ‘badly’...”

I was dazed, the metallic taste of her kiss still lingering on my tongue. My body wasn’t responding to instructions from my brain, all I could do was sit there. She combed my hair with her claws, their pointed tips tickling my scalp, and I gasped as I felt her sharp teeth tug at my earlobe. I was buried in her thick mane of orange hair as she chewed my ear, her inviting scent filling my nose. She wasn’t one for perfumes and scented soaps, she smelled of exertion and body wash, musky and exciting.

She was actually asking for my permission this time, she wasn’t just taking what she wanted.

“K-kiss me again, Raz,” I stammered.

She pulled back and beamed at me, then drew me close, her hand still cradling my head. She snuck her other arm around my waist, tugging me tight against her body and trapping me in a hug. I felt her pillowy breasts yield beneath her uniform as she pressed me into them, each one as large as my head, her warmth permeating me. As I looked up at her, she delivered another debilitating kiss from above. Her lips were so full and smooth, my spine arching as she slipped her agile tongue into my mouth again. She probed greedily, wantonly, as if the answer to some burning question might be found within. I felt the tapered tip painting shapes on the roof of my mouth and my inner cheeks, wrestling with my tongue. It was like damp satin, so smooth and slick, my eyes fluttering as more of its coils piled into my head. She was careful with the rough side, I could barely feel the feline barbs.

Her tight grip hurt my broken rib a little, but I was too enraptured by the artful strokes of her tongue to care. Her soft breasts spilled around my neck and shoulders due to our difference in stature, their weight resting on me through the fabric of her coveralls. My aching erection pressed against her toned belly, the bunches of hard muscle teasing me even through our clothes.

The kiss went on almost too long. Just when I was beginning to feel dizzy, she released me, and I sucked in a breath of air as I slumped against her. I buried my face in the nape of her neck, it was all that I could reach, feeling the heat of her skin on my cheek as I nuzzled.

“It won’t hurt,” she murmured, “I’ll go slow...”

I couldn’t even react, my body was burning up, my mind was in a haze. I could hear my own blood pumping in my ears, my erection beating in time with my heart. Raz released me, lowering me to the bed, then I felt the mattress shift as she stood beside the bunk. She pulled down the zipper on her blue uniform, shrugging out of the upper half, letting it hang behind her. Her pale skin caught the light, her breasts straining heavily against the tube top that fought to contain them, my eyes wandering down toward her stomach to admire her six-pack.

She shook her wide hips, dancing on the spot as she pulled down her uniform, so tight around her butt and thighs that it was almost like a second skin. When she succeeded in freeing herself from its confines, she stepped out of it, crawling back onto the bed and sinking me into the mattress as she straddled me. I gulped conspicuously, we were really doing this...

Raz reached down and took my hand in hers, guiding it up toward her belly. She planted it there, encouraging me to touch her, watching with a smile as I traced the contours that her abs carved in her tummy with my fingers. It was like they were hewn from stone, muscles the size of my fist hiding beneath her glass-smooth skin, flexing as I brushed them. I dared to plant my other hand on one of her massive thighs, as thick around as my torso. I slid up toward the hem of her tight shorts, sinking my fingers into her doughy fat layer and feeling the hardness that lurked just beneath.

“Is it everything that you imagined?” she asked. “You don’t have to pretend to be asleep when I’m exercising anymore,” she added with a chuckle, and my face burned hotter.

She lowered her lips to my neck, mouthing at my throat, teasing me with wet kisses and gentle bites. Flashes of stimulation ran down my spine like it was an optical cable, each flick of her tongue or pinch of her teeth making me arch my back and roll my hips. I couldn’t control my writhing, I was like a puppet, dancing on the end of her strings. She slid her rough tongue down my neck and nibbled my shoulder, one of her massive thighs coming up to press into my groin. Anticipating my reaction, she held me down with a firm hand as I bucked into her, my beleaguered body trying desperately to grind against hers. I felt a throb of pleasure as my member pressed against her leg, separated from her velvet skin by naught but a sliver of fabric.

She was enjoying the effect that she had on me, her amber eyes playing over my body as I writhed beneath her. She tugged my zipper all the way down, parting my uniform and slipping her hand beneath the tank top that I wore beneath. I flinched as I felt her pointed claws press against my belly, contrasting strangely with the softness of her fur. Slowly, lightly, she dragged them down toward my waist. I twitched, watching the outline of her hand glide lower.

“You’re so sensitive, monkey,” she whispered. “You don’t mind if I call you that, right?”

“N-no,” I mumbled, my heart skipping a beat as the previously insulting nickname took on an entirely new meaning. She gazed down at me, a mixture of affection and mischief on her face. I lurched as she brushed my erection through the fabric of my uniform, my mind swimming in a sea of arousal and embarrassment as her yellow eyes peered down at me. I tried to cover my face, but she took a firm grip on my wrist and pulled my arm away, pinning it against the mattress.

“Let me see your face,” she chuckled, “you’re so red.” She leered at me, a cruel grin spreading across her lips, her tongue sliding out of her mouth to wet her lips.

“Raz ... do it gently...” I whispered.

She cupped her face in her hands and crooned happily, unable to contain herself.

“Oh Stanley ... you just keep digging yourself deeper and deeper, don’t you?”

She tightened her hold on me, her steely thighs gripping me like a vice, the crotch of her bike shorts pressing down on my member. I could feel her warmth through the thin fabric, it was maddening. Her breasts wobbled enticingly within the confines of her tube top, beads of sweat trailing down her belly, her taut abdominal muscles flexing with her every breath. She began to roll her wide hips gently, grinding against me, the stimulation making me writhe under her oppressive weight.

“The other night, when I wanted to have you” she began. “You told me that you could only do it with someone that you loved, right? Is that some kind of cultural thing? Do humans pair for life or something?”

“Yes, well ... no, I mean ... it’s just something that I promised myself.”

She perched atop me, watching me intently with her glowing eyes as I stammered through my reply.

“I don’t think that you could say no to me at this point,” she said sweetly as she gave me another thrust, making me squirm beneath her. “And after all, I could take you in any way that I wanted.” I gasped as she ground her crotch against me again as if to illustrate her point. “But I promised that I’d be a good girl. What do you think? Could you ever love me?”

I was taken aback by her question, my cheeks turning an even deeper shade of red. I tried to cover my face again, and she laughed, pinning my arms against the bed as she made a point of gazing down at me. Her stare was so intense, her irises glittering when they caught the light. As her eyes met mine, I felt all semblance of resistance fade away.

Of course I loved her, I had always loved her. Even when she had pushed me down, when she had scarred me, when she had done her best to make my life miserable. A seething, guilty attraction had bubbled under the surface all the while, made all the more irresistible by its taboo. I had done my utmost to suppress it, I was afraid to admit my infatuation with her because of the power that it might give her over me, cruel and capricious girl that she had once been. She would have toyed with me, she would have broken my heart, and I would have loved every second of it.

Was it safe now? I realized that I no longer cared, I was too far gone. She had already bewitched me.

“I’m ... already in love with you,” I replied, my own candor surprising me. Now it was Raz’s turn to blush. She batted her long lashes and looked away, biting her lower lip.

“Really, monkey? Even though I was so horrible to you?”

I nodded in reply, and a shiver seemed to pass through her body, her thighs tightening around me.

“You poor, hopeless thing,” she murmured. She leaned down and kissed me again, doubling over to reach me due to our difference in stature. Her embrace was more urgent this time, almost desperate in its intensity, as though she wished to express every roiling emotion that she felt through the coiling of her tongue. My mind blanked out, pulses of white light flashing in my head. It felt as if she was tugging at my very nerves, plucking at them like the strings of a harp. When she broke away to leave me gasping, her plump lips were joined to mine by a strand of saliva, which broke and fell to my chest as her eyes followed it lasciviously.