Periphery (19 page)

“I’m in steerage,” she announced. “I’ll be taking the air-tube to the lower decks.”

She glanced over at Anne and found the girl was comparing her card to the one Hoyt carried. “Looks like my father was economizing,” the blonde said. “My berth is right next to yours.” She broke into a delighted grin and Hoyt felt her heart speed up.

Tongue-tied, Hoyt led the way to the nearest air-tube. Once they’d stepped inside the small unit, Hoyt realized they were standing so close they were almost touching.

“Guess everything is going to be space dimensions from here on, huh?” Anne commented. She sent a quick glance up at Hoyt and then looked away, blushing again. Hoyt suddenly realized she seemed nervous. Then the air-tube triggered and they both gasped as the human-sized bullet around them plunged six-stories to the lowest regions of the ship.

They found their berths and keyed the doors open with their cards. Hoyt stepped into her two-by-four-meter unit and stowed her backpack in the belongings box. Experimentally, she sat down on the narrow knee-high bed built against the wall, testing the thin mattress. Seems comfortable enough. There was a slight sound in the hall and then Anne came through the doorway.

“This is just like mine,” Anne said. Artlessly, she dropped down beside Hoyt, sitting on the bunk and sending her gaze around the tiny space.

Hoyt swallowed hard, stunned by the fact that she was alone with the girl and far away from anyone who could possibly interrupt what she’d been longing to do since they’d sat together in Madame Hong’s tent. Anne ran her hand over the thick hemp blanket and their shoulders accidentally brushed. Hoyt felt heat wash through her, blossoming in her belly and flickering across her chest. A light sweat prickled to the surface of her skin.

“What is it?” Anne asked, gazing at her. “You look…feverish.”

Unable to speak, Hoyt didn’t dare meet Anne’s eyes. The girl scrutinized her a moment more, then abruptly stood and closed the door. Alarmed, Hoyt shot to her feet.

Biting her lip, eyes down, Anne came closer to her. “You feel it, too,” she accused, her voice barely audible. “It makes me want to try things.” She stopped directly in front of Hoyt. Her blue eyes lifted and met Hoyt’s with a gaze of shy desire. “I’m not really sure…how to do this. But I want to.”

Hoyt’s mouth was open, and she could hear herself breathing fast in the small confines of the berth. Focusing on Hoyt’s lips, Anne leaned in. Electrified, Hoyt stood there motionless as Anne reached up and laced her hands through Hoyt’s loose black hair, pulling her head down. The first kiss was off-center, but it still made Hoyt gasp. Then Anne pressed into her and Hoyt instinctively bent down; the second kiss was brief, but landed true. Without really intending it, Hoyt’s arms went around the slim young woman. Anne kissed her again, harder and with decided purpose. The kisses seemed to string together, easy and delicious, until Anne was braced against Hoyt, and they were both breathless.

“Your father—you’re not supposed to—” Hoyt got out.

“Don’t talk,” Anne ordered, moving back in and kissing Hoyt with unmistakable want.

The slow burn in Hoyt’s body flared, and she sat back down on the bed, pulling the hips beneath her palms down with her. Subtly, she guided the long, lithe legs until they straddled her right thigh. At the contact with her center, Anne’s head dropped back, exposing her neck. Hoyt drew her closer, nibbling her neck and ears gently and repeatedly, while her thigh nestled against the growing warmth.

“Do you want me to stop?” Hoyt asked softly.

“No,” Anne answered, meeting her eyes with a gaze full of trust. “I want this. And I want you to be the one who shows this to me.”

Hoyt kissed her thoroughly then, and began asserting the control that Anne had requested. All the same, as they progressed, the look of bewildered need on Anne’s face made Hoyt go slowly, made her delay her own ferocious craving in order to entice Anne steadily deeper into lust. Hoyt’s large hands moved over the supple body, caressing her, worshipping her, until little cries began issuing from Anne with every play of Hoyt’s mouth and fingers.

At last Hoyt opened Anne’s shirt and brought her mouth to those high, apple-sized breasts, initiating Anne into that sweetly female ecstasy. Deliberate and tender, Hoyt moved back and forth, toying with one soft peak and then the other, making Anne squirm upon her leg. Then, with an impatient groan, Anne finally grabbed the back of Hoyt’s head, holding her hard against her, while rocking her hips into Hoyt’s thigh.

Laughing quietly, Hoyt freed herself and asked, “Ready for me, huh?”

She really expected no answer from Anne, and didn’t get one as she unfastened the girl’s pants. Anne was flushed and breathing hard, her eyes dilated. Hoyt ran her eyes over her half-clothed body, knowing Anne was poised on the edge, needing to be finished with every cell in her being. After a caress across the flat, heaving belly, Hoyt eased her large right hand down lower.

“Oh,” Anne crooned, inhaling sharply. “Oh, please.”

She was arching backward, her hands spasmodically gripping Hoyt’s upper arms. Smoothly, Hoyt gathered her in close, lifting her a bit as she slipped her fingers between Anne’s clitoris and her own leg. She was so light that Hoyt found it easy to hold her suspended there. Panting with excitement, Anne made a husky, mewing gasp, her hips jerking against Hoyt’s motionless hand. Instinctively knowing what was needed, Hoyt whispered in her ear. “All right, let me have you now.”

With her left arm, she cradled the girl against her, while her right hand moved, and her fingers swirled through the thick wetness. Anne made that odd little sound again, and the hair on Hoyt’s neck stood up in shared arousal. With a smooth authority, Hoyt began to work the girl, stroking her, pacing her, deftly following the multitude of physical cues the agile young body was throwing off. As she completely bent to Hoyt’s will, Hoyt knew Anne was caught in the inexorable rush.

Then, all at once, Hoyt felt Anne stiffen. She jerked, then shuddered in Hoyt’s arms like a crystal quaking with the force of light. Thrilled, Hoyt held her, and as the girl relaxed, Hoyt began whispering soothing nonsense to her, gentling the girl’s return from a realm of sheer sensation. Anne became like a sack of crystal dust, collapsing into her. Hoyt shifted the girl, moving her sideways so that Anne’s head was in the crook of her left arm and she lay like a baby across Hoyt’s lap.

Looking astounded, her eyes blinking slowly, Anne heaved a deep sigh. She was perspiring, brilliantly flushed and vital with life.

Dry-mouthed, Hoyt knew she had to have more of her. Quickly, she lifted Anne’s knees, positioning her, draping Anne’s legs over her right thigh. Feeling omnipotent, Hoyt sent her right hand roaming repeatedly over Anne’s belly and breasts, stirring her, readying her.

Anne whispered, “Oh, Hoyt,” while her body rose and fell with Hoyt’s hand, reacting swiftly, completely open and defenseless. Seemingly unaware of what she was saying, she called Hoyt’s name, her voice low and begging, and deep in her soul Hoyt knew she owned her now.

Hoyt bent and teased a breast with her mouth, while brushing her hand along the skin of those silken inner thighs. Anne’s legs parted and Hoyt went to the source again, stroking her more and more firmly. As Anne’s upper body bowed back, Hoyt turned on the bed, lowering Anne’s shoulders to the blanketed mattress. Now Anne’s hips and torso were open to her, and Hoyt moved her left hand across Anne’s breasts, strumming her like a human harp. Her right hand, slippery with Anne’s juices, tentatively pressed against Anne’s vulva. Anne’s hips lifted of their own volition and pressed back, taking Hoyt’s two fingers into a sheath of slick heat. Anne actually shouted, startling Hoyt so much she pushed deeper into the young woman, then found herself just holding on while Anne’s body writhed in delirious rapture. Hoyt’s hot gaze was fastened on her, ardently appreciative as Anne was completely consumed by passion. The slender body twisted, repeatedly coming, dewy with sweat and aglow with the syrupy elation Hoyt was squeezing from her.

And Hoyt watched her with a breaking heart, realizing that one lovemaking session would never be enough with this caring, beautiful, avid girl.

*

A half hour later, with the lift-off warning bells sounding, they finally managed to get their hands off one another and stumble to their feet. Hurriedly, they used their berth misters to clean up, changed clothes, then rode the air-tube to the deck where the lift-off chamber was. They were giggling as they left the air-tube unit, exchanging bashful, yet intent, glances. Their hands brushed lightly and all too frequently as they walked side-by-side down the corridor. Together, they entered the large chamber at the center of the ship.

Filled with plush seats that rose in a series of rows, the space was dominated by the multiple large screens currently glistening with a snow-white emptiness. Hoyt and Anne climbed the carpeted staircase, choosing seats located high in the back, away from the eight other passengers and ten crew members. They took their seats and keyed the small computer at their right hand. Dutifully, they each watched the ship captain’s safety message, and the dos-and-don’ts vidbrochure that came next.

Hoyt saw the Zhi Li Enterprises guy enter the chamber and pointedly search until he saw them. For a moment Hoyt thought he was going to approach them, but after a lingering gaze at Anne and an assessing one at Hoyt, he seemed to reconsider and moved to a seat in the front, near another man. The two began a loud conversation about the distressing limits on personal luggage.

Her lips twitching with a smile, Anne leaned closer to Hoyt. “I think you scare him.”

“Mph.” Hoyt answered. “Don’t think a female can scare his type.”

“I’m so glad you’re on this flight,” Anne confessed in a quiet, fervent voice. “Not because of him…because…” In what seemed like an impulsive gesture, she reached across the space between their two chairs and took Hoyt’s right hand, squeezing it. Her bright blue eyes were unguarded and full of something wonderful.

It was so sincere and spontaneous, that Hoyt squeezed Anne’s fingers in return, letting the depth of her own emotion show on her face. After a moment, they both let go, but they kept their eyes on one another, unable to keep the smiles from surfacing over and over again.

Another set of bells began ringing, signaling that lift-off was imminent. The few people still milling around who had not taken a flight chair quickly found one. A few minutes later the automatic belts emerged from the sides of the seat cushions, smoothly harnessing each of them to their chairs. The lights gradually dimmed and the screens in the front of the chamber lit up with the freighter’s corporate logo. A moment later, the screens went to live action, displaying the various camera views from outside the craft. One screen showed the terminal bridge retracting back to the departure gate portal. Another showed the dome roof above them sliding into the recesses of the superstructure. A screen on the right showed the captain and his officers on the flight deck, each one sitting in a flight chair and responding to a computer prompt, or dutifully checking engine power levels and energy fluctuations.

Slowly, Hoyt became aware of a gentle rumbling sensation that came from far below her. She settled herself deeper in her chair in anticipation. With a joyful laugh, Anne reached out and gripped Hoyt’s hand again.

“Here we go,” Hoyt said

The ship shivered with a glorious rush of force as it began to thrust free.

*

Five weeks later, Madame Hong sat behind her shop counter and read the colorful feed-streams running across the market newsboard. The conservative Chinese banner sedately announced that the Jiang Zemin was not responding to calls requesting its location. The English banner reported that a small tourist liner crossing the asteroid belt had found what seemed to be a trail of spacecraft debris. The Geek-Speak strip showed a graphics representation: a large freighter, similar to the Jiang, was being hit by several pieces of speeding rock, then exploding in a fiery flash; large print followed, stating, “20 DED, 90,0000 YEN LOS.”

Madame Hong bent her head. To her, this was not news. She had already known that the Jiang Zemin would be lost on the far edge of the Dragon’s Breath Asteroid Belt. She stilled herself for a moment, saying blessings for her young charges.

The press and the corporate agents of powerful Earth authorities would search for the Jiang and anxiously debate its fate for decades to come, but she knew the ship would never be found. As planned, her renegade children had waylaid the ship, taken off all the crystal it carried, all the riches and space station supplies, and had then extended invitations to all those onboard willing to build a new life on a new world.

The old woman smiled slightly, caressing the leather bag in her pocket. Among the many mysteries in her possession was an incredibly fortuitous secret. No one in Devulba knew that another planet had been discovered five light-years beyond this difficult-to-inhabit world. It was a planet of Earthlike dimensions, orbiting a yellow-orange G-type star. No one else in Devulba knew because the discovering ship had been manned by a gang of her own incorrigible apprentices. The first exploratory-bot had sent back startling images: vast dark-turquoise seas, forested continents, rain fall and weather patterns similar to the original. It was a twin to Earth in every way, and aside from a few small animals still in early evolutionary development, it was unpopulated.

The renegade boys and girls she had trained to pickpocket the wealthy and industrious of Devulba had been following her counsel for years. They had been banking their earnings, had been covertly educating themselves on the net and in the corporate library, preparing for a day when the dispossessed and the forgotten would unite to take what they needed. After years of laboring at menial jobs, learning all the world-building crafts, they had started finding jobs on the space flight circuits as cooks and cleaners, content to be the lowest of low. They watched and learned. Her first small ships had been taken from Vegas 2, causing everyone to think the hijackers were from Earth. Increasingly older and bolder, hordes of her petty criminals had begun slipping away from their menial jobs, using their stolen wealth to fund the complicated architecture a great dream required. In the last two years they had initiated Madame Hong’s design in earnest. Her little bandits were now pirates, stealing ships and recruiting volunteers. With a quiet, well-organized stealth they were launching a revolution, and peopling a colony like no other.