Degenerate Star Ch. 03 - Tension

"Welly, well, wellstrom, what do I spy with these little peepers." A large human with a dark beard said. He didn't come close to the mutant size of Zed. Riley noticed the overalls coated in layers of grease and void-knew-what-else was emerging from a little cubby hidden in the corner of the engine room. Errant pipes and more dangling wires obfuscated the cubby hole. She guessed it was where the engineer slept or hid while on duty to get away from any prying eyes.

He advanced on Riley wiping his hands with a soiled rag, one of his arms was obviously mechanical, gleaming chrome in the stark lights.

"Zed ole boy, send you down to reward us for keeping this bucket alive?"

She looked him up and down and gave him an expression of pure disgust. "Thankfully no, swabby."

The engineer froze in place, fury crossing his brow. He replied in a low tone, anger brimming in every syllable. "What in the void, slave girl?"

"I said, no. He did not send me down as a prize." She glanced around the bay, "As a matter of fact I was sent here specifically to assess your work and make... adjustments."

"Over my dead and gone again body." He said advancing on Riley.

"When Zed hears about your little hidey-hole it may come to just that. Although I bet, he'll be more furious when I tell him about the exposed hyperdrive."

"You fucking little bitch. How dare you..."

"Back off mate." Came a new voice. Riley turned to see the tattooed human that had shoved his cock in her face the day before. He had come from behind one of the impulse drives, it was impossible to tell if he'd been slacking or working. "You saw what Zed did to Jadaciux, tore his arm clean off. Beat him nearly to death with it too. Threatened to shove it up my ass too. If I were you Henfry I'd back off."

Henfry considered Riley with dark eyes. His baleful gaze stared at her for a long, awkward moment. Then he let her watch him look her up and down and lick his lips. "Fuck it, I've had better."

Rohm laughed, "Sure you have."

Riley cleared her throat loudly. She felt ridiculous doing it utterly naked, but she needed to control this situation carefully. "If you girls are done gossiping and playing house, can we get back to business? The Captain sent me down here to assess the shit poor job you slackers have been doing and make this steaming pile of Nyxx shit right."

Both of the men stared at her, dumbfounded. They blinked, looking her up and down. Her ample skin wasn't helping her sell this but deferring to Zed as the captain seemed to have the desired effect.

Rohm looked to Henfry and then back at her, "What do you need?"

Breathing a secret sigh of relief, Riley continued as if it were business as usual, clothes or no clothes. "I want a status report on all the primary systems: drives, generators, life support, main computer, comms, targeting, weapons, and anything else you think worth mentioning. Do it. Now. I'll be back in sixty minutes for the initial report."

The tattooed engineer moved to a console and began working the controls. The bearded one stared hard at her a moment longer, then trudged to the console where his younger companion was working. He muttered, "Bitch better be worth a huge fucking cut of bonus..."

Riley turned and exited quickly. In the cargo bay, she slumped, visibly exhaling. Zed's name, even in reference carried a lot of weight. Then again, ripping a being's arm off was also impressive. He did that for me, she thought. Butterflies danced inside even though the thought of that sort of violence sickened her.

There was no time to dwell on happy-sick thoughts, time was her enemy. She walked quickly back to the main deck. She took a breath, then plunged into the galley.

Two humans were on either side, one sitting on a table, the other leaning against a bulkhead. On all fours between them was Geller. The overweight botanist was naked and facing away from Riley. Her thighs glistened with fluids, either her own or other's. Geller was crawling between each oinking, as they poured drinks on the floor. The crawling girl would then rush over and lap it up with her tongue. All while oinking.

"What's going on here?" Riley demanded.

Three sets of eyes turned to her. The men looked puzzled, indignant. Geller had the most pathetic look of hope on her face Riley had ever seen. She felt bad that rescue wasn't in the cards.

"Just having a little fun with cleaning-piggy." One with a bright shock of orange hair said. He bounced off the table and walked toward her, "But if you're here to relieve her, I can think of some other fun we might have."

"Zed tasked me with a job." Riley stood her ground, staring defiantly at the absurd mop of orange hair, "If you slow me down, you'll be answering to him."

Orange head stopped and looked back at the other who shook his head no.

Riley continued, "I need to find Maxwell, the male crewmember of my ship. He isn't... entertaining anyone is he?"

The human against the bulkhead answered, "Zarina was playing with him earlier, he may still be in the girl's bunk."

Turning to leave she heard Geller call out, "Captain, please..."

The hatch shut before she could hear any more. She felt awful for the botanist, but there was little she could do to help. Zed might find her bossing the techs around funny. But interfering with the potentially mutinous crew's play time would be inexcusable.

She considered marching into the women's bunks but decided it was too risky. If Zarina had fucked Zed she'd be emotional, or calculating, or catty. Any meeting without Zed there would end poorly for Riley, especially if Zarina had a control wand. If she was playing with Maxwell she most certainly had one.

Out of options, she decided to retrieve her uniform, only to discover that the bridge wouldn't open. Of course not. She'd left the ring-key in her uniform on the bridge. She was going to help her crew escape? More bonehead moves like that, and she could guarantee being auctioned off to the scum of the galaxy.

Back in Zed's cabin, she gathered up the clothing she'd collected a day earlier. No luck in finding another. She thew the load into the fresher, then began picking bits and bobs up. Soon, she was full-on cleaning. The sheets were an archipelago of stains. She didn't want to know about any of them. Although there was a niggling question if any belonged to Zarina.

It occurred to her that she hadn't seen Zed all day. He hadn't been on the bridge, in engineering, or the galley. In hyperspace, it wasn't like he could leave the ship. He'd mentioned plotting jump routes, it was a shame she hadn't been able to sit in on that. It might have opened up opportunities.

Checking the time, she cursed at herself. It had been several hours since she left the engineers. There was only a half-hour left in the current duty shift. She fled Zed's cabin and ran down the passageways. At the galley, she dodged around a few surprised raiders but was in the cargo bay before they could get their wands out. Slowing to stop, she took a few breaths to compose herself before strutting into engineering. Naked with head held high she entered the cramped space.

Rohm sat at the console, the chair turned around, watching as she entered. Henfry, though, was naked. Across a workbench in front of him, K'rra had been bent over naked as well. The bearded engineer was in the middle of slathering the blue-skinned woman's ass with some sort of greasing agent.

"What's going on here?" Riley demanded as K'rra looked up emotionlessly. "You're supposed to be briefing me on ship status."

Henfry laughed, "Rohm's got you covered slave bitch. I'm taking my share of booty right now."

Riley tried to think of any reason to stop the molestation of her chief science officer. Her mind was blank to offer anything that might stop the raider and not make Zed suspicious. She knew she was playing a dangerous game. Zed's protection would only go so far. If she pushed the crew too hard, they could snap and have at her. If Zed caught her abusing her ties to him, he might just allow the abuse as a lesson.

She nodded and K'rra seemed to resign herself to what was about to happen. She forced herself to walk to the work console as Henfy whistled a little ditty.

"I've got the preliminaries charted out," Rohm said. "If you want to come over to this side, I can show you data and schematics."

Riley moved around to see the console and realized it positioned her perfectly to watch the show that Henfry was about to start.

"Here's a schematic of the ship." The view on the console showed blueprints of each deck. Riley studied it carefully. There were many places she hadn't been on the ship yet. The ship's computer was in a very odd spot, between the weapon control batteries.

The sound of a slap drew Riley's gaze from the computer. Henfry lifted his hand and brought it crashing down on the pale blue ass of K'rra. She said nothing just winced at the impact. Henfry shot Riley a nasty grin, then grabbed his human-sized cock and started slapping it on the bent science officer's ass. As he ground his tool into her cheeks, coating it with grease. Riley forced herself to look back at the console.

The weapon control batteries were just off the crew quarters. Most of the crew had double bunks, with the exception of Zed's on the command deck and another among the crew. She wondered if the wolf-alien had the other solo cabin, he seemed to act in an executive officer sort of way.

A grunt caused Riley to look up again. Henfry was now buried in the K'rra. Her face was pained, and Riley took it to mean her crewmember was being violated in the rear. The engineer was laying into her hard, pounding away with all his might. The science officer grunted occasionally and fretted her brow. As Riley watched, however, K'rra's face softened, and she began moaning. It was unsettling to see the stoic woman panting and begin shoving herself back into the bearded man.

Between grunts, Henfry said, "Tell everyone here what sluts you stuck-up Gythians are."

The science officer didn't resist at all, "It's true, sir. We're fucking filthy whores. I ignore you, but secretly I want that hummy cock buried in me. Feel how wet you make me? Fuck this filthy little whore."

Shaking her head Riley forced herself to look down at the console again. It didn't help that Rohm put his hand on the small of her back. The palm burned fiercely, lighting a thousand fires inside. Listening to K'rra and Henfry fucking, listening to her crewmate call herself the most vile things, it felt dirty. Riley was a voyeur now on top of everything else. And that made her ache.

"It's okay," Rhom said, "I know you want to suck cock. Don't you?"

Nodding Riley felt her hand reach out of its own accord and grab Rohm's thigh. She could feel his prick through his trousers, and like he said, she wanted it all over her, her mouth especially. She had to force herself to repeat the word duty as a mantra over and over again. With inhuman willpower, she forced herself to stop watching Henrfy fucking and look back at the blueprints.

Her mind was fuzzed, confluted, brimaxed, she wanted to just surrender and fall to her knees. Then she spotted the motherload. Just off the cargo bay on each side of the ship were launches. One was listed as holding a ship's boat, and the other was listed with two emergency shuttles. None of them would be jump-capable, but there were ways to get off the ship.

She dropped to her knees. Rohm's cock was in her face just like the day before. Her lips parted, and she sucked him in, relishing the feel of how being just this slutty made her pussy tingle with unquenchable excitement. It was as if she'd been made just for this. Beyond the console K'rra was climaxing, screaming obscenities and begging for more, harder, and faster.

There were ways to get off the ship.

With her eyes closed and the image of Zed's face and glorious body in her mind she sucked as if her life depended on it. She needed this, needed to feel him climax, needed to taste every drop of him.

There were ways to get off the ship.

He exploded in her mouth. She drank deeply. Far away K'rra was saying something in her native tongue, crying out in utter delight. Riley had never liked the overwhelming bitter taste of cum before, but now... it was an addiction.

There were ways to get off the ship.

Now she needed a plan.