Rebel Fleet (12 page)

What convinced me in the end was Mia’s questioning face. She was, in a way, very innocent. She could tell that I wanted sex, and so did she. For her, that seemed to be enough.

I suspected my cautious reaction must have been very confusing for her. Apparently, she didn’t understand that humans made a big deal out of mating. I realized just how complicated modern humans tend to make life’s simplest experiences. Mia and her kind lived in the here and now, and they didn’t understand why the monkey-types wanted to think about every angle.

“You’re very appealing to me,” I said. “But can we touch first? Kiss?”

“Kiss?” she asked.

I touched her gently, and I kissed her. She pulled back her head, eyes squinting in confusion. I think she was afraid I might bite her.

But after a moment, she came around. I taught her how to kiss. I hadn’t done that since high school.

As she got used to my kisses, our touches became more urgent.

At last, she turned around again, pressing herself toward me. By that time I was ready for anything.

What was it like? It was hot—literally hot. Her body temperature was much higher than mine. It almost burned. But it felt great, like nothing I’d imagined. I could tell she was enjoying it too.

When we were both thoroughly satisfied, I was glad I hadn’t chickened out.

=20=

After my rendezvous with Mia was over, I had time to ask her a few questions.

“Do you… do you mate like that with Ra-tikh?”

“Rarely,” she said. “I’m his fourth, as I said. He does not favor me.”

“And… is that why you wanted me?”

She looked at me seriously. “Yes. Partly. He insults me with his lack of attention. You have defeated him twice, injuring him badly the last time. I liked that,” a slow smile spread over her face. She suddenly looked like she was hunting me with her eyes as her tongue darted out to lick her lips.

“I see. Is it only by chance that there’s only one male in your group?”

“Yes, that was good luck. On our world, females outnumber males about nine to one. By the odds, there should be no males in our crew.”

“Lucky bastards,” I whistled.

“When I saw your only female spurn you,” Mia continued, “I knew I had a chance.” She sprang up, shook her tail and looked down at me happily. “Now, I will go to Ra-tikh and tell him he’s been humiliated for a third time!”

“Whoa! Hold on girl!” I said. “Just a minute. I didn’t do this to start a fresh war with your crew. I was hoping to make friends.”

“Make friends?” she laughed. “By stealing a mate? That’s absurd, and you are disappointing me. When a male steals a mate, he does it proudly after having bested another male.”

“Yeah…” I said, scratching my head. “I get that. But I can’t take you into my crew. Only five are allowed.”

She crouched suddenly beside me. Her eyes were big and intense. I noticed her pupils had become slits. It was a little unnerving.

“Yes,” she said, “an adjustment must be made. Kick out that female who refused you. I will replace her. Better yet, you could toss her into space the next time you fly your ship. It could be another accident.”

Now, at long last, I was beginning to catch on. I hadn’t quite understood why Mia was seducing me in such an insistent fashion.

Her standing in her own group was low. In my crew, she’d be the only female—or at least, that was her plan. That would make her powerful, the number one girl, instead of the fourth place finisher with the bottom rank.

My hesitation made her mad again.

“You lead your crew, do you not?” she demanded. “Decide: will you have me or that cold one who refuses you?”

“Uh…” I said, standing up. “It’s not that simple. Look, this was real nice, but I—”

She slapped me. In truth, it was more than a slap. Her claws left four bloody lines on my cheek.

“Damn, girl!” I pressed a hand to my stinging face and gave her my undivided attention.

“You want to have both of us, don’t you? Primates always have a scheme.”

“It seems to me that you were doing your share of the scheming today.”

That was the wrong thing to say. As a man, I’d always excelled at pissing off females, and Mia seemed to be no exception.

She turned to run off, but I reached for her—and grabbed her tail. How could I help it? There it was, right in my face. It was the only thing I could reach—like some kind of handle, almost.

She whirled again, her odd golden eyes blazing. I winced, fully expecting to get savaged.

“Is that it?” she asked. “You demand me again so soon? I don’t know your people, but it is unusual for a male to become so quickly aroused a second time.”

“Right…” I said uncertainly, but I recovered quickly enough. “You’re just so beautiful,” I offered brightly.

She smiled, and we did it again. My legs were shaking after that, but I felt good all over—except for my bloody cheek.

In the afterglow, I reflected on this strange situation. It might well be true that the descendants of the Kher were all related, but we certainly weren’t a single people. We’d taken some pretty radical twists and turns down different evolutionary paths over the millennia. The ramifications were physical, emotional and hormonal, not just cultural. My mind was trying to grasp it all at once.

“I’ve come to a decision,” Mia said when we separated. “You make me feel good. I will enjoy being with you from time to time. I still hope to make you give up on your female, who you are clearly in love with. I will watch, and I will wait.”

She made this little speech proudly, almost as if it was some kind of ceremony. Maybe on her planet, that was how a girl stated her intentions to horn-in on a different family, or pride—or whatever.

“That’s great,” I said, not knowing how else to respond.

She stepped close to me very quickly and nuzzled into me. Her chin was tucked and her body was close and powerful, but sweet, as we embraced. She nipped my collarbone once without breaking the skin, while looking up at my eyes. Then she darted out of my reach before I could speak or grab that tail again.

Mia left me, and I let her go. She was happy, and I was happy, and that was the best possible outcome in this freaky situation.

Walking back to my own pod, I washed my face tenderly, wiping the dried blood from my cheek.

“What did you do to her, you goat?” asked Dalton.

I turned to see him wearing a dirty grin.

“Who?”

“The cat-girl. Half the ship watched you walk away with her. You shagged her, didn’t you? Did she want it, or did she fight? Maybe a bit of both?”

He came closer and put a finger to my bloody cheek, laughing. I grabbed that finger and threatened to break it.

He struggled with me. “Let it go, mate!”

“What do you mean half the ship knows?”

He ripped his hand away from mine.

“They were all watching,” he said. “We’re all on the same carrier, my randy friend. Everyone knows when these things happen. I’ve been trying to catch something with a tail myself today. One of those bird-girls seems to like me. They’re weird-looking, but I could get used to it.”

Heaving a sigh, I turned back to patching up my wounds. I’d put the magic salve on them, but we were out.

I wondered what Gwen was going to say when she heard about this.

Less than an hour passed before Gwen returned with Dr. Chang from the reactor cores. She seemed animated.

“It was
amazing
down there!” she told me. “I asked to see the computers that control the whole thing, but they wouldn’t let me near the touch-consoles. Hey… what happened to your face?”

From across the pod, Dalton hooted.

We glanced his way, then Gwen looked back at me. She frowned, and I looked guilty. I couldn’t help it.

“I met up with some of Ra-tikh’s crew,” I confessed.

Gwen stepped closer, touching my cheek gently.

“Are those scratches?” she asked. “Did they attack you?”

Her reaction was going my way, but Dalton wasn’t going to let such an opportunity pass. He swaggered up to us, grinning.

“You going to tell her how you beat old Ra-tikh again?” he asked me.

“One of the females attacked me,” I told Gwen.

“Because he grabbed her tail!” Dalton said, laughing.

“What?” Gwen asked in confusion. “Did she urinate on you or something?”

“I bet he wanted that, too,” Dalton said.

Having had enough, I stood up and threw a punch at him. He dodged, countered, but then I caught him with a left hook, and he fell to the ground. He rolled away and got up.

Gwen watched all this, and she began to catch on. Shaking her head, she walked up to me and stared into my face.

“You had
sex
with a cat?” she demanded.

“Yeah…” I said. “It was her idea, though.”

Gwen was disgusted. “Eew! She has a tail and everything—how
could
you? Men are disgusting!”

She left the pod then, and I didn’t go after her.

“That was great!” Dalton said. “The look on her face… priceless!”

I moved toward him again, and he ducked out the door. I could hear him laughing all the way down the passages.

Another voice spoke as soon as the place had quieted. It was Dr. Chang. I hadn’t even remembered he was inside the pod with us.

He stepped out of his cubby and looked at me.

“Don’t feel shame,” he said. “These people—they’re our genetic relatives. Like Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon. We’re all brothers and sisters. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was reproductive compatibility between some of the various races.”

“What?”

“I mean that she might be able to have your child.”

“Oh… That’s just grand. Thanks for putting that special thought into my head, Doc.”

“You’re welcome.”

* * *

Ra-tikh came to our fighter the next day. We’d finally rested up and served our “punishment” in the eyes of the officers.

Ra-tikh was not in a good mood. His women followed him at a safe distance. His fur was all standing up on his back like he was some kind of angry animal—which in a way, I supposed he was.

“Blake!” he called out. “I demand satisfaction!”

“What can I do for you, Ra-tikh?” I asked, stepping out of the fighter’s undercarriage. I wiped my hands on a rag and tossed it down.

Behind me, my crew drew their disruptors, but I waved them back.

“You have humiliated my crew,” Ra-tikh said.

“You talking about the battle in the pit? Or how about when Samson held your tail for you?”

He bared his teeth. His fangs glistened a gray-white.

“No. Those acts were fairly done. I’m talking about dishonor. You mated with a member of my crew.”

I shrugged. “So? She’s a free girl, not a slave.”

“That doesn’t matter!” he shouted. “You did it to embarrass me. We must fight a duel to the death. It is a matter of honor.”

I considered that. I wasn’t sure I could take him one on one. Probably, he was banking on that.

Around our ship’s pit, a crowd had begun to gather. I saw Shaw among them. He had his big arms crossed over his bulging chest muscles. He didn’t look happy, but he wasn’t ordering us to go back to work, either.

Duels of honor between men of the same rank were allowed in the Rebel Fleet, I knew that. Apparently, Ra-tikh did too.

Thinking fast, I came up with a new approach.

“Where I come from,” I said, “the challenged man gets to choose the weapons for a duel. I choose
Hammerhead
. You in your ship, me in mine.”

Ra-tikh looked dismayed. His big mouth opened, but no sound came out of it. We both knew he was a rookie pilot with no similar experience to fall back on.

“Forget it, Blake,” Shaw boomed from the crowd. “No dueling in fighters at your rank. The fighters are more valuable than your entire crew to us.”

I shrugged. “All right then, I choose disruptors at one hundred paces.”

“What’s the point of that?” demanded Ra-tikh.

My smile was a confident one. “I know I’m better at aiming a disruptor than you are.”

He glowered, thinking it over.

“Don’t like that offer?” I asked. “I’ll give you another one. We’ll trade crewmembers. One of mine for one of yours.”

Ra-tikh perked up. “That might be acceptable.”

His gaze turned toward Gwen. He appraised her frankly. “I think that might be
quite
satisfactory.

“Lt. Shaw?” Gwen called out. “There’s no way I’m going to go live with four cats! I’m allergic!”

“Your pod assignment is up to your crew-chief,” Shaw said.

Gwen looked shocked. She came up to me angrily.

“You bastard,” she hissed. “All this for sexual favors? You’re no better than Ra-tikh.”

“Ease down, Gwen,” I said. Turning back to Ra-tikh, I gave him my best smile. “Do you agree to a trade?” I asked him.

“I do. Honor would be served.”

I nodded slowly, walked over to Dalton, and put my arm around his shoulder.

“You like cat-girls?” I asked him.

He looked suspiciously at me at first, but then he brightened.

“I do indeed!” he said. “I could go that way!”

“The big kitty might kick your ass.”

“I already get that from you.”

I chuckled, and shoved him toward Ra-tikh.

“Here,” I said. “You can have my fourth. Now, send one of yours to me.”

The brawny cat looked shocked. He froze for a second then made a choking sound.

“You have a hair-ball, or something?” Dalton asked him.

“You give me this creature?” Ra-tikh demanded.

“Are you backing out of our deal?” I asked him. “You said honor would be satisfied by a trade of crewmembers. Choose or be dishonored.”

Ra-tikh looked around the crowd in pain. There was no way out of this one. They’d all heard what he’d said. It was time to either put up or shut up.

“Very well,” he said. “Take my fourth. I do not want her, she stinks of monkey!”