Degenerate Star Ch. 04 - Loyalties

Five sets of puzzled eyes stared at Riley. She pressed on. "It may not sound like much of anything at all. But it gives us a chance to explore the ship, to take note of anything that might lead to an opportunity. To consolidate and share info."

Geller asked, "Might lead to an opportunity? What sort of opportunity?"

Riley nodded, "An opportunity eventually leading to escape."

"Captain," K'rra said. "We are on the edge of Federated territory. While escape is unlikely, it is theoretically possible. Without a jump-capable ship, we cannot do much more than crash land on what may be an uninhabited and most likely hostile world. An alternative might be taking the ship from the raiders. However. they outnumber us by more than two to one. Casualties for our crew would be high, and even with the element of surprise, the probability of actually taking the ship would be considerably low.

"There are two small shuttles and a ship's boat. The shuttles are really just glorified escape pods. The boat, however... well, there's a chance it may have a jump drive."

The entire crew considered. Riley scanned their faces. K'rra was stoic as ever. Maxwell and Geller seemed to perk up. They exchanged glances then looked back to the captain. Kimura looked worried. Her help would be the most needed as a pilot. Terellia's face beamed with hope. They all looked eager to do something, anything, rather than sit waiting for the next abuses.

"I know the last few days have been rough. We can get through this. Escape won't happen tomorrow. Look at this as a long-term endeavor. Our first step is to explore the ship and catalog everything." She moved to the hatch with a nod from her head for the crew to follow.

"First, let's..." her voice faded when the hatch refused to open. Puzzling, but her crew thought she was in charge. Hitting a hurdle immediately would shake their faith in her. She wondered if Zed had done this on purpose, another in a series of games to break the captive's morale.

She stood tall and switched her plans on the fly. "Let's catalog everything in this room. Pull every single thing off the shelves, out of drawers and lets lay it out in a grid. Look for anything that might be useful. Not to take now, but so we know where it is when needed."

Maxwell stood and helped Geller up. The rest of her crew milled about, glancing at the contents of the room but not moving to do anything.

"Maxwell, Geller, take the fore bulkhead. Kimura, cover port-side. Terellia, you're on the hatch side. K'rra, with me on aft." Riley had been forbidden from cleaning, but cataloging and organizing wasn't exactly cleaning.

The group split into teams, each moving to their assigned areas. They began pulling things out of drawers and off shelves. Riley began doing the same, laying out a row of cleaning chemicals and small metal containers covered in alien writing that hadn't been used in years.

When K'rra was nearby, Riley whispered, "We are definitely going to need your help. Be alert for anything that we can use to our advantage. For example, can we mix any of these cleaning supplies into a chemical weapon?"

K'rra nodded and whispered back, "Sadly, we didn't have a chemist on board. Without access to a library, it will be difficult to make anything more complex than irritants and poisons. We do have access to the galley, would you be willing to kill en masse?"

Riley considered that for a moment, she'd never even fired a weapon at anyone. The thought of killing was heavy, but she had a duty to her crew. She repressed the queasiness she felt even thinking about killing another, especially when she thought of Zed choking on some poison. "I have access to the library, verbal only as far as I know. Trying to poison all the raiders at one time? That's a long shot."

"That wasn't my question, Captain."

Damn this science officer, she was making Riley think through truly ugly scenarios. The thought of lifelong slavery to some wealthy warlord in the Coalition was not something Riley would wish on any being. Her resolve weakened when she entertained thoughts of being Zed's property. Given his protective streak for her, he might keep her? She shoved the thought aside, her crew came first. There was no way she'd let them suffer horrible fates and short lives.

"Yes. I'd do what's needed for escape."

"Every single one of them?" K'rra pressed.

Zed choking. She buried the image. "Yes. My crew comes first."

"Degenerate star!" Maxwell howled. Riley turned to see him at the other end of the room, curled fetal clutching his groin. She moved swiftly to him.

"Maxwell, what happened?" She asked as the crew all watched.

"There's something at the back of the drawer. I touched it and..."

Riley had a hunch as to what happened, "Okay, relax."

She moved to the open drawer. Looking inside she saw a jumble of electronic pieces, light pens, circuits, and the handle of something. She took the edge of the drawer and shook it, opening and closing it watching the contents spread.

Sure enough, she soon saw the handle of a pistol buried in discarded junk. It was a Federated Service sidearm. Almost exactly like the one Zed had taken from her. Without its owner's palm print, the weapon wouldn't fire. Useless to the raiders, it had been dropped in a drawer and forgotten.

A lost weapon here, another back in engineering, Riley suspected that if the crew searched, they'd find enough stray weapons to supply an army. Jamming the implants was an absolute top priority.

She turned back to her crew, "Everyone, take care when searching. Be extremely cautious if you see a weapon. Maxwell touched one, and you can see the results."

The crew looked from her to Maxwell. Not a single set of eyes showed any doubt of what had happened.

There was a loud clang from outside the room, and the ship jerked.

Kimura was the first to say what everyone was thinking, "We just docked."

Riley knew what this was, a port of call for emergency repairs on the jump drive. The station two jumps inside Federated space. If they could get a message out to anyone on the starport...

If only she'd thought of the cleaning detail earlier. Even a day earlier might have helped. Now she understood why the door was locked. It simply would not do to have engine mechanics stumble into abduction victims. Slavery was not legally recognized by the Federation. The discovery of slaves, kidnapped ones at that, would end poorly for Zed's crew.

How to get a message out? The drive techs would be in engineering on the lower deck. She tried to sort out the spatial details of the ship and concluded this room would be above the shuttle storage. Banging a message on the floor might maybe be heard. If the techs didn't know Morse, however, it would be in vain. And, of course, there would be retaliation if discovered.

Riley considered the options for this sudden opportunity. The Academy taught that if there was an opportunity, a captain should act on it. Acting had the potential to succeed, whereas not acting always guaranteed failure.

She recalled the details she'd seen about the starport the day earlier. It was small, at the edge of Federated Space. It was listed with full repair services. She figured that would require a crew of maybe fifty, plus civilians for a total of one to two hundred people. Out this far, traffic would be light. The station might even be able to work on Zed's ship immediately. The repairs themselves wouldn't take more than one shift, so five hours tops. Her window to act was the next few hours.

If she was able to get a message to the starport personnel, her crew could very well be rescued immediately. Riley decided she was going to act.

"I need everyone to carry on with the work assigned. I'm going to try and get a message to the starport." She announced.

"How do you plan to do that?" K'rra asked.

"Morse," Riley said. The quizzical look on K'rra's made the captain continue, "An old audible code used by humans before computers."

Riley scanned the room, she'd need to try from as far back of the room as possible. "K'rra, supervise the organizing and don't let anyone go aft-ward. If Zed discovers us I'll take all the blame on this one."

"Zed?" K'rra asked.

"The raider captain."

"You're on a first-name basis with this captain?"

"Yeah, he sort of... claimed me." Riley said cautiously.

"The captain claimed you?" Geller said, "The rest of us should be so lucky to be claimed by just one of them."

Riley realized this was touchy ground, another field of landmines that might distance her from her crew. "I'm working on an escape for all of us."

Geller looked the captain up and down quickly. While Riley still had been treated roughly, she wasn't bruised as thoroughly as the rest of the crew. Geller smirked, "I'll just bet you are."

Before Riley could say anything more, K'rra ushered everyone back to their tasks.

With no time to fully consider what had passed with Geller, the captain surveyed the aft end of the room. Opening a series of metal drawers, she made impromptu steps up to an overhead vent. Looking around, she found a spanner and climbed up to listen closely at the vent.

There were many muted noises coming through the airshaft. It was impossible to tell if they were typical ship sounds or something else. When she heard a series of sharp metal-on-metal noises, she decided that the repairs might well be underway.

She then climbed back down to the deck and grabbed a metal container. Using the spanner, she struck the metal container a few times, damaging its locking clasp. Switching to the deck she started hammering out a repeating series of emergency signals in Morse. Save-Our-Shores, Charlie-Charlie-Charlie, and Tango-Tango-Tango were the most repeated. She then threw in EMERGENCY once in a while just in case. She struck the spanner hard against the deck until her arm was sore. She considered asking another member to take over for her, but she didn't want anyone else getting in

The hatch hissed open and Riley switched her target from the deck to the box.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Rohm yelled. He spotted Riley with the spanner in one hand and the container in the other and stormed towards her. "What are you doing?"

Riley blinked and tried giving him her most innocent look, "Trying to open this box, sir."

He snatched the metal container from her hands, "Why? Do you even know what's in this?"

"It was with the cleaning supplies. I was hoping it was sponges or something."

"It's not. It's fucking emergency rations for Orlunulites."

Riley gave him a confused look, "Why would rations be stored with cleaning supplies?"

Rohm's face was nearly as bright as the shock of orange tangle on his head. He sputtered until the hatch hissed open again.

"Rohm, there are troubles. The tech wants to see what the noise was." Jadaciux reported from the hatchway. Riley cheered inside.

While Rohm had his attention turned to the door K'rra pointed at the spot Riley had been hammering. There were hammered scars, evidence that Riley hadn't been focused on striking the container. K'rra stepped on them covering them with her pale blue feet. Riley scooted a half meter to the left.

"Fucking void!" Rohm screamed. He touched a button on his collar, "Rohm for Zed, Rohm for Zed. We have a situation down here. Come to engineering as fast as possible."

The tattooed raider looked back at the naked prisoner then turned to his tree-like companion, "Stay here. Don't open the door for anyone but Zed." He then raced off.

Jadaciux eyed the crew and placed his back on the closed hatch. He stood there watching Riley and her crew for long minutes. Riley made a circuit of the room, looking at the contents of drawers and shelves her crew had laid out. When she saw a large rubber mat, she hefted it up and approached K'rra. Together, they placed the mat on the floor, covering the marks Riley had made.

There was a banging at the hatch, and Zed announced himself. Jadaciux opened the hatch, and the two conversed briefly. Zed finally announced, "Captain... and..." His eyes scanned the crew and settled on Terellia. You, Wotin girl. Come with me."

Riley walked to the door with the crimson-skinned meteorologist. "Yes, Sir?"

"Both of you, follow me." Zed stalked down the corridor.

Riley followed with Terellia in tow. "Can I ask what's going on, Sir?"

"We have an emergency in engineering," he stopped, yanked out his control wand and touched several keys on it. He pointed it at each of them, then turned and marched down the corridor again.

Riley was elated. Rescue was close at hand.

As they descended the aft stairwell, Zed told them, "No words. You do exactly as I tell you."

The three went through the cargo hold and into engineering. Riley saw a strange human there, in worker's overalls. His eyes went wide as Zed and two naked women entered the engineering bay.

"What's this?" the tech stammered.

"My harem, of course." Zed approached the mechanic and leaned against the exposed hyperdrive. "When I told them about how you were saving our ship they wanted to come thank you personally."

Riley wanted to shout out to the mechanic and tell him she was abducted and being taken far away to be sold as a slave. Something made her hesitate. Zed had programmed the wand and, thus, the controller units specifically. She knew speaking would be a mistake. She hesitated debating her own paranoia.

Terellia stepped forward and tried to say something. "He..."

The crimson-skinned woman doubled over in agony, falling hard to the floor. Riley rushed to her side.

"Stars!" the tech yelped, "what the fuck?"

"That, my friend," Zed explained, placing a massive fist on the tech's shoulder, "is a dehydrated Wotin. She needs brine. Needs it badly, or she'll continue to cramp up like that."

"Uh-huh," the tech said dubiously, watching Riley help her meteorologist up.

Zed continued with an air of utter casualness, as if this was well known in certain circles, "And do you have any idea what Wotins drink if they can't find brine?"

"uh... No. no, I don't." the tech said, watching the two naked humanoids embracing. Stationed out on the fringe, Riley guessed it had been a long time since he'd seen a naked available woman without coughing up half a paycheck.

"Well, I'll give you a hint." Zed went on, "It starts with the letter sperm."

"Get the void out."

"Yup. Like I said, my harem wanted to come thank you personally. But, you have to promise to get us out of here in under an hour."

"I can do that," the tech said, licking his lips. "Oh, but I have to track down that hammering noise. It's most likely a clogged hydrogen line, and that might take some time."

Zed squeezed his shoulder and the tech winced. "Kyl. It is Kyl, isn't it? Look at those four tits. Would you rather get your greasy paws on those or spend all day feeling up hydrogen lines?"

"It's Franke actually. There are regulations..."

"Four tits, Kyl. Choose wisely."

"How exactly were they going to thank me?"

"Like I was saying... Wotins need fluids, briney, salty, fluids. You wouldn't happen to have anything like that on you... or in you?"

The tech looked up at Zed with a grin, "I can think of something salty she might want to drink."

"That's the spirit, kid. Trust me, you'll tell your grandspawns all about this someday." Zed waved to Riley, "Capsy, come show your gratitude by liberating this poor lad from his pants."

Riley stared in disbelief. Her shot at rescue, escape, was sold for a blowjob. She wanted to liberate the tech from breathing, not just his pants. Knowing she could say nothing, she thought about throwing herself to her knees and pleading with hand signs. Utterly futile, she realized. The tech was leering like a numbers game winner, eager to collect his prize. Civilized men were weak, so sex-starved they'd ignore the obvious just to have their prick slathered.

"Well?" Zed asked. She leapt forward realizing the implants were already past the angry biting insects phase and moving into the sharp electric shock setting by the time she'd processed her blown escape chance.

Falling to her knees she ripped at the tech's belt as he laughed, mistaking her quick action to undress him as eagerness.

"Bluesy, look at that cock. Full of delicious salty goodness. You are going to suck it all out of him. At least twice."

Riley felt Terellia join her in kneeling. The Wotin wasted no time wrapping her lips around the human tech and sucking him violently into her mouth.

"You know Capsy? We are in a hurry, why don't you help your sister wife out by sucking his balls?"

Riley had to fight to keep from saying 'Yes, Sir.' She leaned down on one arm at an angle and closed her eyes. She could hear Terellia slurping noisily beside her. Opening her mouth, she gently sucked the tech's unkempt hair-tangled balls into her mouth. As she did so the implants rewarded her. In no time she was stroking herself as Zed and the tech made comments on the two naked women on their knees, servicing a complete stranger.