Nyx was running. She wasn’t sure why she was running but she was running. Corridor after corridor blew by her; junction after junction. Windows flashed planets she recognized, places she’d visited. Knowing where she would end up if she kept running, she tried to turn, only to realize the other doors were portals to that one route, the route she had run before. No matter where she turned she got closer and closer to that lounge.
This was how it always ended. Her first year in captivity always resulted in her getting cornered in this lounge, and today was no different. The lounge had a brand new holovision and a heavy oak table. The window that looked out at Terra had a small red pillow before it. It stunned her for a moment, forgetting where she was and who was chasing her.
“Nyx!” she jumped, hiding under the oak table.
Never had she been that quiet. She tricked her body into thinking they were out in space, floating among the stars. There was no air here, no oxygen. All she had was what she could keep inside, bottled up. She closed her eyes, and for a few moments forgot where she was. She remembered Terra, and her life. She remembered school, and graduating, and job-hunting. She remembered the petty dilemma of whether she should go into med-school or pursue her dream of science – of getting out into space.
What an irony that was. If she wasn’t hiding in petrifying fear she’d laugh at the tragic irony. Out in space, her dreams come through. Her Blackwing instincts satisfied. She had even been loved! Adored! But nothing here was what it seemed. The world seemed to shift, fade.
“Where are you hiding?” Martock asked.
Why couldn’t she be back home? She wished to go back home.
Snap. Martock’s whip coiled around the table, ripping it from above her. She screamed out in fear.
–
“Nyx!” Fawkes yelled. Flustered, Nyx leapt from the bed, avoiding eye contact, staring at nothing but the ground. “You’re shaking.”
“I laughed at Gaius. I struck him for doing what I did all those years ago.” Nyx cried. “It wasn’t fair.”
“Forget that. Forget those years.” Fawkes said soothingly, as coiled around her as he could be, wings embracing and caressing.
“Did I…“
“Yep, I think so.”
A small drone had already snatched the sheets and thrown them into the laundry chute. A new spare sheet had been placed onto the bed in less than a minute.
“Fresh sheets!” Fawkes said, annoyed by the silence.
Nyx was on the verge of tears again.
“Let’s unfreshen team!” Fawkes suggested, trying to push her towards the bed.
“I don’t feel like it.” Nyx yawned.
“You never feel like it.”
“Well we’ve got enough hatchlings, and you clearly hate my tail…”
“I don’t hate your tail!” Fawkes said.
That was sly. Flames transmitted.
How’s that? Fawkes asked.
You changed the topic. Now you’re in a win-win situation. If you don’t get sex, at least Nyx won’t be moping about her latest flashback. If you do get sex – you get sex!
Observant Flames… Fawkes muttered.
She was moving towards the red pillow at the food of the bed.
“No you’re not!” Fawkes growled, tightening his wing-grip on her.
“I’m tired, Fawkes.”
“You aren’t coiling up by the red pillow.” Fawkes said sternly.
“Let go of me…” Nyx growled.
“Never…” Fawkes whispered, tightening.
She scowled, and bit at his face, or tried to, unable to get a grip. Fawkes growled back, biting at her neck.
He had been very tactical with his ‘hug’, making sure it would be a prime pinning position in case she tried to retreat again. He knew how it would end if Nyx was allowed that pillow.
“I know I haven’t been the best mate lately. But I need this time alone.” Nyx grunted, trying to pull free of Fawkes. Whenever she gained distance, Fawkes got closer to getting on top of her. Her rear legs were completely pinned now, as was her tail.
“You definitely aren’t getting any pleasure at the angle you’re at.” Nyx hissed.
“I don’t want pleasure. I want you to stay with me.” Fawkes pleaded.
“I will – always.”
“You’re letting your trauma control you.” Fawkes said.
“I’m just scared. I need time to let the fear fade.”
“I’ll help you. Don’t lock me out again!”
Nyx stopped struggling against Fawkes, which made Fawkes fall over her in surprise. She was on her back now with a half-smile. Fawkes loomed over her, staring, knowing she’d decided something, but unsure of what it was.
“Maybe mating is good…” Nyx said, basically to herself.
“It’s always good!” Fawkes agreed.
“But I really am tired.”
“Then sleep in our bed. If you go to that pillow. I will dominate you, whether you like it or not. I’ll be more dominant than you ever were in that lounge.”
Nyx’s eyes glazed over as she thought back on the lounge. Fawkes kissed her before she would start reliving those memories again. It seemed to work, she kissed back, and coiled her tail around his, tightening until his tail started to get cut.
She pressed forward, getting Fawkes on his back. He whimpered plaintively from the pain in his tail.
“That’s right Fawkes. Don’t think you can ever dominate me as well as I dominate! Remember what you said!”
When Fawkes and Nyx had first started playing their domination games, there had been one particular day where Fawkes had been completely defeated, and forced to recite a set of words.
“I do remember:” Fawkes said, thinking back, “Nyx is the best and will always be the best,” Nyx growled seductively, nibbling his neck, “there is no other Vorchan for me but the most beautiful Vorchan in existence: Nyx; the most powerful Vorchan in existence: Nyx. The most…” Fawkes froze, realizing what the next word was. He looked at Nyx, who seemed completely euphoric from the memories, he couldn’t not say it, not to her face, “dominant Vorchan in existence: Nyx!”
She started to cry, and then kissed him, their incisors locking. When they finally had to breathe, Fawkes said, “I’ll replace them all – all your painful memories.”
“Oh Fawkes…” she growled.
Knowing what was to come, Fawkes activated the privacy locks.
–
Flames sighed disappointedly, deciding to stalk Hannah with his presence now. She was awake, staring up at the ceiling, lying on her bed. A few rooms away, Red was awake too, coiled up in a ball and staring at one of the walls intently. Fawkes knew neural communication when he saw it. He piggybacked into Red’s neural link, only to hear silence. Whatever channel she was on, it wasn’t the global channel or the private Captain-ship channel.
Hey! Allonsi yelled.
Flames fled from the channel, pretending Allonsi didn’t notice.
“How did you do that!” Allonsi growled.
“Do what?”
“You entered my private net! How did you do that?”
“It doesn’t matter. You noticed.”
“Have you been spying?” Allonsi asked.
“I’m just bored, I’m trying to figure out who Red is talking to.”
“I think she’s talking to Hannah.” Allonsi observed.
“I figured that. What are they talking about?” Flames asked.
“I don’t know, but sometimes Red laughs; sometimes she cries.”
“Observant…”
“I mean, while talking with her! They obviously talk about a lot. I think it’s good for her – I wish she told me though, unless she knows I know. She probably knows.”
“You don’t talk with Red much, do you?”
“No. I really should talk with her more.”
“You should. The Captain-ship link is important.” Flames said.
“Right, aren’t you the preachy one.”
“I don’t preach!”
“What’s it you’re doing now then, preacher?”
“Whatever.” Flames focused his attention elsewhere, away from the beemster.
She didn’t like that too much, flying closer to him. “One of my sisters is your mate!”
“Observant…” Flames repeated.
Allonsi didn’t say anything else for a while, her sensors passing over him casually. “I never found Descendents that attractive.” She finally said.
“You will, when you get older.” Flames said.
“No. I think I’ll stick with Puritans.”
“No, there’s something about us, Allonsi. That you girls just can’t resist.”
Allonsi laughed. What hurt even more was that it was a stifled laugh, as if Flames hearing her laugh would be embarrassing in some way. “Sorry.” she transmitted.
“What? Are you saying I’m not attractive?”
“Well that’s just because I’m young. I don’t find things attractive yet. You said it yourself!”
“What’s not attractive about me?” Flames continued, annoyed now. “I’m big, and a direct Descendent, and I can do all sorts of things!”
“Like what?”
“Well…”
“Then why has Violet been avoiding you?” Allonsi asked.
“She’s avoiding me??” Flames asked, starting to feel very insecure.
“I think so. But what do I know, I’m just a little beemster.”
“I should check up on her.” Flames muttered… finding her in the nodescape. Mates always knew where the other was. It bothered him to see her signature was starting to fade, however. They hadn’t been in close proximity for a while now. Allonsi nudged him. “What are you doing?”
“Coming with—“
“No – she does high-traffic courier runs. You can’t keep up!”
Allonsi didn’t move, knowing if he jumped now, she’d get sucked into the interstice with him.
“Get clear…” Flames warned.
Allonsi pressed in closer, the ships started to instinctively lubricate the points of contact.
“That’s inappropriate!” Flames growled.
“Jump us already!”
“You’ll get stranded when she leaves!”
Allonsi pressed closer, moving over to his ventral side. He polarized his hull – slightly, pushing her away. She reversed her polarity, which made Flames’ hull polarization have the opposite effect, drawing her closer.
“I will pull you off me if you don’t leave.”
“I wonder what Thanatos would say if he saw you drawing me in with a hull polarization?” Allonsi asked innocently, shifting her gaze to Thanatos off in the distance. He was in a low power state, on stand-by for Fort II’s RDF fleet.
Flames immediately jumped.
They dropped out over the planet of Aldoris VI. A maritime planet surrounded by artificial moons.
“Oh hi Flames!” Violet exclaimed, shooting by him. Her trajectory was taking her to the fourth moon. Flames scanned her, first to see what she was carrying, and then to get an invasive peek.
“Dirty…” Violet snickered.
“Dirty? You should see what Allonsi did to convince me to take her with –“
Violet locked Allonsi in surprise, not having seen the tiny beemster pressed up against Flames’ hull. “I see…”
“That is NOT what I meant!” Flames transmitted immediately.
“Of course not…”
“Allonsi was – she –“ Flames realized he couldn’t say anything to get out of the situation he had dug himself into.
“You would too, wouldn’t you, Flames?” Violet said reproachfully.
“I – I would! How could you even think— I – no!” Flames jumped out in distress, back at Emerald. Allonsi hadn’t followed. “Shit!”
He jumped again, back by Violet, her and Allonsi were flying together, laughing. When they saw him they laughed harder.
“I don’t like either of you.” Flames muttered, feeling very empty, having drained all three of his koveran chambers jumping about for no reason.
“You know you’re in violation of Descendent protocol: All three chambers drained. What if you’re called into battle?!” Violet asked.
Flames was also on standby for the RDF fleet. It was easy money and they never actually called, but the idea that he couldn’t immediately respond if called upon made him very uncomfortable.
“If they call… I will rip you apart Violet!” Flames exclaimed.
“Looking forward to it!”
“You are?” Flames asked expectantly.
“Sure – when I’m not busy!”
“You’re always busy…”
“Yep…”
He followed Violet on her run, and watched her jump clear, forced to stay behind and wait for Allonsi’s immature generator to recharge. Luckily, Chiron had not called the RDF fleet into action while his chambers had been depleted, and Fawkes was still most likely entwined with Nyx, as he hadn’t reactivated his neural interface, which meant nobody that cared had noticed him slip away from Emerald.
“What’s this planet like?” Allonsi asked.
“Busy.” Flames said, watching a small transport fly by them. They were right in one of the inter-orbital lanes.
“It’s interesting. What else do you know about it?”
Flames reached into his extensive database, seeing what files he could recall on Aldoris VI. He dumped the whole lot of files into Allonsi’s database. She gasped at the intrusion, assimilating the information slowly.
“Oh – so that’s what a neural transfer is. That felt weird.”
“They didn’t give you any in school?” Flames asked.
“Not like that – It’s a violation of rights. Harassment.”
“Is it now?” Flames asked, transmitting a few more files over to her. They were lens calibrations for manoeuvring in a hostile environment, scalable to gravimetric systems of all sizes.
“Amazing…” she transmitted reverently, eating up the information. “What else do you have?!”
“The entire VE database, for one. Did you ever wonder what Red’s race is like?”
Flames grabbed a bunch of files on Vulcans and dumped them over.
She was silent for several minutes now. “That hurt a little. I think I’m on the brink of overload. I’ll read this over later. Oooh I feel whoozy.”
She fainted.
Flames panicked, scanning her over and checking up on Fawkes. Privacy mode was still on.
“Wake up!” Flames hissed. “If he sees you unconscious…”
Allonsi was mumbling, but not coherent.
Thirty agonizing minutes later, she awoke. “Oh what a dream! Surrounded by Reds!! So many Vulcans. Oohh… give me more! I want to know about Blackwings too!”
“That’s enough for now. If you behave, I promise to send you information on Blackwings.”
“I understand… can you at least tell me about them?”
“Well… rumour has it they’re the space-faring Vorchans. Most have a desire for space travel. They’re also very rare…”
–
Fawkes woke to his ship explaining the fundamentals of fleet positioning in a long range engagement with multiple elements. Allonsi seemed to be listening intently, as were a few transports that had stopped to eavesdrop.
What the hell are we doing here?
“Shit, fleet jump, like I explained!” Flames ordered. Allonsi tucked in gracefully and they disappeared from the Aldoris system, re-appearing at Emerald with a two kilometre separation, a standard VE separation distance for an assault squadron.
That was pretty good. Fawkes said. How did she do that?
She’s smart. Flames transmitted.
“Is Fawkes awake? Does that mean you won’t teach me anymore?” she asked disappointedly.
Why hadn’t Fawkes thought of that before?
“I have an idea.” he declared.
–
–