To Clan and Conquer (Clan Beginnings) (5 page)

Tranis shook his head and looked at Lidon, whose gaze kept watch on the irreverent doctor.  “Is he always like that, or is he drunk?”

Lidon never took his eyes off Degorsk.  “It takes a great deal of time to learn to appreciate the doctor’s attempts at humor.  He is … unique.”

The warmth in the Nobek’s tone made Tranis wonder at the relationship between the two men.  He watched Lidon watch Degorsk with fascination.  How could a Nobek of Lidon’s serious nature be so obviously captivated with the offbeat Imdiko?

Before Tranis could come up with a way to ask such a question without offending the weapons commander and getting his already kicked ass kicked some more, Degorsk returned with an injector.

The Imdiko told Tranis, “The computer says this concoction will calm your belly, soothe your pain, keep your hurling hand from falling off, and give you the biggest cocks in all the Empire.  That should sweeten your demeanor a little.”

Lidon ducked his head.  He made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snicker.

Amusement was getting the upper hand with Tranis as well.  Smothering his own smile, he told Degorsk, “You are the strangest man I’ve ever met, Doctor.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”  He injected Tranis in the long muscle of his neck.  Immediately, the nausea and throbbing of the Dramok’s hand lessened.  He couldn’t help but sign with relief.

“That’s all the thanks I need,” Degorsk said.  He turned to Lidon.  “Show me some leg, you hardass Nobek.”

Lidon slowly pulled his formsuit off, having removed his leg brace as soon as he’d gotten up on the table.  Tranis pulled his mud-encrusted clothing back on, trying not to appear too interested in the body being revealed in front of him.  It wasn’t easy.  Lidon’s chest and arms were chiseled to perfection, powerful muscles rippling all over as he moved.  He slid the pants part of his formsuit off his good leg first, showing off a thigh and calf of knotted strength.  His ass was carved granite.  A large pair of semi-erect cocks slipped into view.

The torn formsuit peeled away from Lidon’s right leg, and Tranis sucked in a breath.  He stopped pretending he wasn’t looking.

The man’s thigh and calf were crisscrossed with scar tissue, as if a demented child with unformed handfuls of clay had finished off a masterpiece sculpture.  There were hollows where muscle should be bulging and spongy lumps in other places.  Lines of lighter flesh where skin had been forged back together stood out against Lidon’s brown skin.

Tranis swallowed.  He knew he was staring and that the other two men were looking at him, but he couldn’t help himself.  With utter admiration, he said, “Now that is a war wound.  I am more honored than ever that you played at my side today.”

Lidon nodded proud acknowledgement.  Degorsk rolled his eyes.  “He even sounds like a fucking Nobek.”

As the doctor bent close to examine the weapons commander’s game injuries, Lidon put his mouth to the Imdiko’s ear.  “When was the last time you were around a
fucking
Nobek, Doctor?”

Tranis’ eyes widened as Degorsk flushed at the obvious innuendo and moved his head so the smugly smiling Lidon couldn’t get so near.  As if he’d been asked a serious question, he answered, “I’m around your self-destructive breed all the damned time, Commander.  And none of you will let me do what I can for you.  Like refer you to a surgeon who will make it so you don’t have to use a brace to walk around?”

Lidon’s evil smile was replaced by a scowl.  “You know better than to suggest I lose my marks of honor.”

“I’ll have them leave every last one of your ‘marks of honor’.  Hell, I’ll get them to give you more to show off if it will make you happy.  I know surgeons who will grant you plenty of mobility you don’t have now.  Not to mention, spare you so much pain.”

Lidon gave him a dark look.  “I am not spending weeks on end in recovery and rehabilitation.  I had more than enough of that after the injury.”

Degorsk sighed.  “Stubborn, stubborn.  You are a Nobek’s Nobek.”  He put his scanner away.  “The hits you took today didn’t do anything but bruise you.  Will you at least consent to pain inhibitors so you can do your job at maximum effectiveness?”

The Nobek’s tone was almost gentle.  “Will it make you happy?”

The Imdiko deadpanned, “Ecstatic.  I might do backflips in my unmitigated joy.”

Lidon bowed his head.  “‘The true master receives joy from serving his servant.’”

Degorsk narrowed his eyes.  “Which of us are you calling the servant?”

Lidon grinned and refused to answer.  “I will accept your offer of pain relief.  For the good of my work, of course.”

“Of course.  One moment.”  The medic glanced at Tranis, who was now dressed and getting down from the table.  “Commander Tranis, don’t run off.  I need to go over some medical records with you in my office.”

He walked off, and Lidon watched him as he began putting his formsuit back on.  Tranis shook his head.  The blatant flirting was a revelation.  Who would imagine such a pairing?

Lidon said in a low voice, “I believe Degorsk likes you, Commander Tranis.  If he’s inviting you in his office, he must want to show you his ass.”

Tranis stared at him.  “Excuse me?”

He looked over at Degorsk, who was fussing with another injector.  Sure, the guy was decent looking, handsome in fact.  If he’d shut up for a few minutes, he might even be fuckable.

Lidon had his magnificent body clothed once more.  “I’ve never known him to show any interest in younger men.  Of course, you are a treat for the eyes and you do hold up in intelligent conversation.”

Tranis blinked at the Nobek.  Lidon found him attractive?  Intelligent?  And he thought Degorsk felt the same?  “Uh.  You think so, huh?” was all he could say.

“You’ll see.”

Degorsk rejoined them.  He was suddenly all business.  “All right, Weapons Commander, this will allow you to take up your duties on the bridge right away.  I’ll report to Captain Piras myself presently, but feel free to let him know his first officer won’t be able to perform his shift until tomorrow.”  He shot Tranis a severe look.

The Dramok protested hotly.  “Hey!  I’m due on the bridge in three hours.”

“You’ll be very late.  You’ve got a hell of a lot of poison in your system.  Enough that I can’t guarantee the medication will cover all the effects.”  He turned his back on Tranis to give Lidon his medication.

The Nobek smirked at Tranis over Degorsk’s shoulder.  “Our captain is going to be very disappointed in you.  He’s not a kurble fan, you know.”

Tranis’ stomach curdled anew.  Piras’ temper was infamous.  He was well known for dressing down underlings in humiliating fashion, and in front of as many people as possible.  He took special delight in assigning demeaning tasks.  Tranis had managed to avoid such censure, garnering only a few condescending remarks and barbed insults so far.

“Shit,” he breathed.  “Tell me you’re kidding about the missed shift.”

Degorsk gave him a look that was devoid of all merriment.  “No.  I absolutely am not kidding.”

“Shit,” Tranis repeated.

Lidon locked on his brace and slid off the table.  Stepping close to Degorsk he said, “Thank you for your always impeccable treatment, Doctor.  I look forward to expressing my full gratitude at your earliest convenience.”

Degorsk looked at the Nobek like prey confronting a predator.  He swallowed and stepped back.  Lidon glanced at Tranis.  “I’ll give the captain your deepest regrets, Commander.”

He headed out and both men watched him limp into the corridor.  Under his breath, Degorsk growled almost too low for Tranis to hear.  “Damned Nobeks.  Him most of all.”

He turned to Tranis and his smile returned.  “That hand looks better already.  My office, Commander?”

Frowning slightly, the first officer followed Degorsk into his office.  The door with clear inserts shut behind him as he gaped.

The head medic’s office was small, allowing only enough room for a slight ledge of a desk with two seats on either side of it.  What had Tranis stunned was not the size of the space, however.  It was what adorned the walls.

Right in front of him was what looked like the mold of someone’s naked ass and upper thighs hanging behind the desk.  Degorsk’s back was still to him as the Imdiko fussed with some storing files on the desk surface, and Tranis quickly looked to compare the cast to the live man.  Degorsk’s green tunic covered the upper half of his buttocks, but from what Tranis could discern from the close-fitting trousers, the sculptural piece was indeed derived from him.

He looked at the muscular swells of the mold and thought about having that ass beneath him.  Enfolding him.  Holding him tight as he pumped in and out of it.  His cocks warmed with interest.

As Degorsk turned to him, settling that delicious rear on his desk, Tranis moved his gaze to the room’s other ‘art’, hanging on the wall to his left.  A vid still photo met his eyes.  It depicted two big, furry, awkward ronkas fucking in a field.

Tranis shook his head.  “You really enjoy shocking people, don’t you?”

Degorsk grinned, completely unrepentant.  “I love to see the looks on new crewmembers’ faces.  You should see how huge your eyes are right now.  And yes, that is my ass.  Done on a drunken dare, but it looks good, doesn’t it?”

Tranis refused to look at it again.  He was still coming down from the kurble match, and wanting to fuck remained a high priority after the game’s excitement.

The doctor shrugged.  “Have a seat, First Officer.”  He indicated the chair next to Tranis.

Tranis looked at the seat.  It was an off-the-floor chair, not a seating cushion, but with Degorsk perched on his desk, sitting in it would put Tranis at a lower level than the Imdiko.

“I’ll stand, thanks.  What are you doing on a destroyer?”

Degorsk snorted.  Something dark passed over his otherwise beaming expression.  “Trust me, I’ve asked myself that quite a few times.  Which brings me to the real reason I asked you to come in here.  Are the rumors true that there have been Tragoom incursions at the border and we’re heading over to fight them?”

Tranis blinked.  He realized Degorsk’s question was valid.  He was the head of the medical department after all.  The potential for wounded would be priority information for him.

“The information I’ve gotten consists only of some strange energy signatures in the buffer zone between Empire and Joshadan space.”

Degorsk relaxed.  “Good.”  He picked up a remote and clicked it at the vid.  The humping ronka were replaced by a still of a very old, naked Bi’isil male with an incredibly small and wilted penis.  The ancient alien with the bulbous head and huge black eyes lounged on a rocky beach.  His tiny slit of a mouth wore a lascivious smile.  If not for the cast of Degorsk’s ass hanging in Tranis’ peripheral vision, the Dramok’s semi-erection would have disappeared at the sight.

Again, Tranis asked, “What are you doing on a destroyer?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time?”  Degorsk shrugged with a sheepish grin.  “I signed on to the military when I was young.  The opportunity for occasional female companionship on other planets was a big draw, as it is for many Kalquorian men.  Plus, I thought it would be glorious, patching up war heroes.  Not to mention how good Nobeks look in battle armor.”

“I won’t argue with you about the women or the armored Nobeks.” 
Or naked ones
, Tranis thought.  The image of Lidon bared of his formsuit flashed across his mind’s eye.

That dark look passed over Degorsk’s face again.  “It’s not so delightful when you’re pulling off that armor and finding a ragged mess of what used to be a man who has been blasted into pieces.  Torn to shreds, yet he continues to breathe and scream—”  He stopped, a haunted expression replacing the joking brightness.

Tranis’ Dramok instincts to take control of an obviously upset Imdiko came over him.  He moved close to Degorsk and put his hand on the doctor’s shoulder.

Degorsk started and flushed with embarrassment.  “I’m all right.  Just remembering not so good times.  Have you seen combat yet, Commander?”

Tranis let go of him.  “Just small stuff with Tragoom raiders.  Nothing like what you and the weapons commander have.  Were you on his ship when he took that injury?”

“No, thank the ancestors.”  Degorsk scowled and shook his head.  “He should have had a robotic limb put on rather than making the surgeons put that leg back together.  Stupid Nobeks and their marks of honor.”

“They are a proud breed.”

“You’d know, wouldn’t you?  Five older Nobek brothers!  It must be a lot to live up to.”

Tranis arched an eyebrow.  He glanced up at the mold of Degorsk’s ass.  In a low voice, he said, “It’s left me with a tendency to be a little more forceful than many Dramoks.”

A sweetish-spicy scent not his own wafted to his nostrils.  Degorsk looked up at him, his pupils widening.  “That’s – interesting.”

“Yes?  How interesting do you find it, Imdiko?”  Tranis leaned down and tasted Degorsk’s lips, moving his mouth gently over the other man’s.

Degorsk made a small sound.  His lips parted, allowing Tranis’ tongue to forge into the warmth of his mouth.  The Dramok took the invitation, stroking the raw silk of the other man’s tongue.  A wave of need slammed into his gut, spilling heat into his cocks.  They filled, and he pulled Degorsk close, rubbing the swelling lengths against the doctor’s firm abdomen.