The Liberty slowly dropped down towards the moon Rhea.
Rhea was unique in the solar system: an ocean world wrapped in an ice coating. Beneath the two kilometer thick frozen shell that provided its visual surface, lay a twelve to fourteen kilometer deep ocean of pure water. A resource that humanity, naturally, was exploiting to its fullest. A half dozen pumping stations littered the moon, drilling down to the liquid treasure, filling enormous tanker ships to satisfy the needs of man. Already a ten meter gap existed in places between the bottom of the ice and the top of the ocean, and speculation as to what might happen as even more water was removed ran to the bizarre. Some had the ice shell collapsing, killing all living there. Others saw the creation of a brand new living space on the exposed rocky surface under the ice ceiling. An idea put forward by some engineers was to spin the ice shell, giving the inner surface its own gravity, and thus creating three surfaces on the world for man to colonize.
Those engineers tended to not find paying employment.
The spaceport landing pads were virtually empty as the ship touched down at Catty Township. The bulk of a water tanker dominated the field as the landing cradle adjusted to the much smaller size of the Liberty and a boarding tunnel was extended. It made contact just as the engines cut out. They were down.
****
"Welcome to Catty," the rather unimposing Dock Master told Kine as the ship hatch opened. The official was waiting for them right in the boarding tunnel, along with a dozen Rebel guards. They made up for his distinct lack of... well, anything. Kine almost hadn't noticed him standing in front of the armed soldiers, despite his bright orange uniform. His brown hair was short and neat, and he had the type of face computers tended to churn out to fill in crowd scenes.
"Greetings," Kine said, not stepping off the ship quite yet. His eyes flicked from the official to the guards, then back again. "Expecting trouble?"
"Always. Step aside so we can inspect your ship." The official motioned the guards forward, but Kine stood his ground.
"No."
The guards paused, as the man's eyes widened. He looked down at the pad in his hands, then back at Kine.
"No?"
"Nope. Not gonna allow it."
The two locked eyes. The dock master broke off his gaze and glanced at his data pad again.
"L-look, after everything that's been going on out there, we HAVE to inspect every ship! I mean, we don't want the same thing to happen here that happened to the London!" He was sweating, partly due to Kine, but perhaps even more so due to the condescending looks his men were giving him. Kine was almost ready to feel sorry for the guy.
"But it's pointless." The official looked up. "I mean, if we ARE the spearhead of a Federation attack, as soon as your men step on board, the troops I have ready in the passageways behind me just out of sight will spring out and kill you all." The guards half raised their weapons at this. Kine remained still, calm. He went on, casually. "If we're NOT Feds, then naturally we'll probably assume you men are, and are trying to take over our ship. In that case any attempt to board us will result in either those troops behind me ready for just such a betrayal jumping out, or I'll shut this hatch and we'll try an emergency takeoff. This will likely destroy the cradle, and the docking bridge on which you're standing."
The Rebels were now looking at each other, concern on their faces. Kine caught the eye of the Dock Master, who was completely flustered.
"Now, given all that, and given this really is a small ship and we don't want any trouble, what I'd do if I were you is put a camera and a portable turret aimed right at this door, then let us into your fine town to resupply and spend money. If the camera picks up any large troop movements, you can have the turret blast away. What do you say?"
The man considered. He looked once again at the sensor readings they had of the Liberty, then at Kine... and nodded.
"Sergeant, put a sentry gun and a guard on this gangway. Again," he said, in a relieved and happy tone, "welcome to Catty." Kine stepped out of the ship and walked over to shake his hand. Mel exited behind him, first excursion party organizing behind her.
Kine looked the officer over again. He seemed the type that knew lots of stuff, but just needed a friendly ear. He gave him his most charming smile.
"You know, we could really use the latest gossip from this system. There's so much rumor floating around out there, we have no idea what's going on. Why don't I buy you a drink, to make up for all this, and we can talk?"
The Dock Master's eyes widened, a slow smile growing on his face as his eyes traveled up and down Kine. The blond teen suddenly realized Sean would have been better suited for this. The man moved to Kine's side and, as the two started walking, put a hand on his back.
"You know, that sounds like a wonderful idea. It's about time for my break. I know this wonderful place down by Suzy's that serves these wonderful poached fish..."
****
Shelly ached all over.
It was bad enough working out. It was bad enough working out next to super warrior Lessa, and the young and eager Wendi. But, did they have to have the gravity turned up over one gee? "Oh, this way we'll really work those muscles, and you'll be ready whatever the conditions we fight in." Bullshit. It was all a plan to torture her, to make her feel weak and inferior.
The bra made it worse.
Lessa and Wendi, and Mari who was just doing stretches while watching the older girls, had decided to train nude. Something about it being just more natural and relaxing. It only took Shelly about five minutes to discover her larger boobs didn't like that kind of treatment, so there she was with her boulders restrained while everyone else showed off what the gods had given them. Grrr... it made Shelly want to go find a man and bang him silly just to prove her body was in fact good for something. VERY good for it. Right now, though, she just needed drink and sleep.
The rec room door opened, the sound of soft music, mostly strings and woodwinds, lofting through the air greeting her. She was also greeted to the sight of Sean sitting at a chair pulled up next to a pool table, with a glass and bottle of booze in front of him on the railing.
Gee, just the male to solve her problems.
Sean turned as the door closed behind her, and it was obvious he had put a dent into the bottle already. He smiled, raising a full glass to her in toast.
"Hello, Slut!"
"Hi, Buttfucker."
Shelly went over to the bar, looked around, grabbing a bottle of white wine. Opening it, she turned, leaned back against the bar and took a swig. She probably should be hydrating, or some such, but man she needed this.
"So, what have you and the Evil One been playing at?" Sean turned his chair a bit so he faced her across the pool table. Shelly suddenly noticed how... tired he looked. His day hadn't been much better than hers.
"Oh," she said, taking another swig before dropping her arm to hold the bottle casually by its neck. "just training to be super soldiers. You know how it is. Can't destroy all your enemies without getting in some jumping jacks." Sean just shook his head at her.
"WHY are you doing this? You have to know she's crazy."
Shelly closed her eyes.
"I know, I know..." She sighed at Sean. "The last time she was like this, I did nothing. She went off and just... butchered. Came back two weeks later with... scalps! If I'm with her this time, maybe..." She shook her head. "I have to try. I can't live with myself if I don't."
"You're as bad as Kine," Sean snorted. "Worse, maybe. He's going along with her to try and steer her madness into productive, non-suicidal paths. You're just going to follow along and hope, when the time comes, you can talk reason into her."
"There will be more hitting than talking, I suspect."
They both took a drink. Shelly gave him a speculative look.
"Why don't you just leave? If you know where this is going, and you don't want to be caught up in it..."
His sigh mirrored hers.
"I should. Just go. Leave all of you to flame out, in a meaningless blaze of glory. But..." Sean looked down at his empty glass. "I'm still somewhat of an outsider here, socially, but this is the most welcome I've ever been. If I leave... well, unless I go back to the Guard, I'm back to ground zero. Except I'm alone on a strange moon instead of my home world."
They were silent. Shelly contemplated the bottle in her hand, found the cork and shoved it back in. Putting it back on the shelf, she looked back at Sean. He was actually rather handsome, now that she actually thought about it. Then again, maybe it was the wine
"Either help us... or leave." He looked up at her. "I'd rather you were around, myself."
With that, she walked out to find some lucky boy to fuck.
****
"You see," the Dock Master, whose name was Timothy, said as he took the small umbrella out of his drink, "the whole place is falling apart."
Kine sat across from him in the booth, nursing a beer. It had a nutty flavor he hadn't tasted in awhile, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. The same went for this bar, and his companion, nutty flavor and all. He was surrounded by the tackiest decorations he'd ever seen, a collection of bright colors and fake plants that give the place the look of... well, his own personal hell. As for Timothy... at least he was as talkative as Kine had guessed.
"I mean, take yesterday as an example," Timothy continued, pausing to sip at the straw coming out of the fake coconut. "We get this SOS from the London, right? Big attack! Then it cuts out, which you kind of expect if the attackers are doing their job. But, then there's another message about us doing this big invasion of Nene, and them calling for help followed by silence. Imagine, two major operations at the same time! Naturally, we figured one of them had to be fake, but who knows!"
"Was there an attack on Nene?" Kine interrupted, leaning forward. He was barely touching his drink, but didn't think his companion had noticed.
"I don't THINK so. My former roommate Rodney is in logistics and usually sends me warnings about that kind of thing, but I haven't heard from him this last week. It's just like him. He was always vanishing for a day or two, not bothering to tell me where he was spending the night..."
"Have you heard anything about what happened on the London?"
"Oh! Yes! My friend Shela was on the first relief wave that got there. The sneaky Feds had already left by then, naturally. They even destroyed the docking ring as they did! Imagine that!" Kine did imagine it. "So, she goes inside with everybody, and it's a bloody mess. And I mean, bloody. Lots of survivors, yes, but they didn't care who they killed. Sent missiles everywhere, just blowing things up..."
"But," Kine asked, trying to actually get useful information, "what were they AFTER?"
"Oh," Timothy said, waving his hand dismissively, "Who knows. There's that whole secret weapons development place there at the far end. Could have been anything from there. They trashed the place, that's for certain, from what Shela said. Fired at everything BUT the base at the start, but after their troops had gone in and done whatever, they blasted the hell out of it. Tough thing, those old stations, the outer shell never ruptured..."
"I'm just curious as to how they managed to get that close undetected." Kine sat back in his chair. This was the important question, so far as they were concerned.
Timothy waves his hand dismissively.
"Oh, probably was that new fangled scanner jammer thingy they have. Ours still has some bugs, although it's suppose to be better than the Fed crap, but obviously they work well enough to do the job. Silly things, changing the balance of power and all that..."
"But," Timothy suddenly said, leaning forward and giving Kine a look many a girl had given him before, "enough of that. Tell me something about yourself..."
"Big Brother!"
The whinny little girl voice startled both of them. Turning, Kine saw Amanda running over to him. She was holding her stuffed bear, pouting like she was six. He was half surprised, and half relieved. And half angry if she had been allowed to come here alone. A quick glance behind her, though, showed Jenny and Hanna in the doorway. Hanna gave him an unobtrusive wave, then the two of them were gone. His attention turned to his sister who was standing next to him looking worried and angry.
"Kine! Billy took Mr. Snuffles and won't give him back! Make Billy give him back! Please?!?" She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him up out of the chair. Timothy just stared at her, uncomprehendingly. Kine turned to him, apologetically.
"Sorry, family emergency. Gotta go."
"Come on!" Amanda pulled harder, and Kine let her drag him towards the door. He never glanced back, but instead walked faster until both of them were out onto the street. They were about twenty meters from the bar before Amanda stopped pulling and just broke down laughing. Kine looked down at her, amused.
"OK, what was that all about?"
"Oh," Amanda said, wiping tears from her eyes with Teddy's fur, "Mel was worried you were going to be seduced, so she sent me to come get you whenever it seemed the conversation turned in that direction. She figured it wouldn't be good for you to actually turn the Dock Master down, so this way you stay on good terms with him." She hugged his arm, enjoying having him this close. Kine suddenly realized how little time they had spent of late, just the two of them. She looked up at him. "So, did you find out anything?"
Kine reached over and rubbed her head.
"Oh, a few things. Nothing good, but that's to be expected. So," he asked, cocking an eye at her, "what now?"
"Shopping!"
****
"Shelly!"
Shelly turned, watching the small girl running towards her. Mari was dressed, back disguised as a little girl rather than one of Lessa's nude warriors. She looked better like this, in pinks and yellows. Little girls should stay little girls.
"What is it, Mari?" Shelly dropped down into a crouch. She always felt better talking to the kids on their own level. One of her uncles had done that with her and her sister.
The thought of family wiped what little good mood she had left from her mind. Mari came to a stop before her, hands on Shelly's shoulders. Her face was serious.
"You left early! You missed seeing Lessa throw Wendi over her shoulder! It was funny!"
"I'm sure it was," Shelly said, forcing a smile. "So... are you going to keep training with us?"
Mari nodded.
"Yup. Lessa is training Wendi, and Wendi is going to train me. I'm going to be a warrior!"
Ice went through Shelly's veins. She had to stop this. Stop it now, before... before what? Before the girls learned to defend themselves? It was what Lessa planned to do with the training that was the problem, not the training itself. Maybe... maybe Shelly could...
"Good," she said, smiling at the girl. "Good. Train hard. We have an important job, you and I."
"Really?!"
"Yup. You and I, and Wendi, have to protect Lessa. Protect her, and the baby. Think you can do that?"
"Yes!"
"Good girl!" Shelly stood, muscles groaning. Gods, she was out of shape. A door a bit down the hall opened, a blond boy passing through it. Shelly's next course of action became clear. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a boy I need to hunt down and rape."
****
"We're lost, aren't we?
Jenny looked at Hanna, who was looking from the map displayed on her pad up to the street signs at the intersection. The look on her face wasn't good.
"The streets are all straight! How can we be lost?!?"
Jenny sighed, looking around. It was an interesting settlement. It was enclosed, naturally, protecting their frail forms from the cold and unfriendly atmosphere, but they had built it as if it was a terrestrial town, just putting a clear ceiling on the place. The effect provided you with the impression you were walking on the surface of this strange planet, with the gas giant Hikaru and some of its moons hanging over you. It was incredibly pretty, she had to admit, but it was the type of beauty that could only be taken in small doses. If she had to see that over her every day, Jenny thought she'd go insane.
Hanna, on the other hand... Jenny could look at her beauty every minute of every day. Her gaze went to her chosen wife, who was chewing on a finger in concentration as she tried to figure out the map. Her hair, the sweep of her jaw, those eyes... Jenny had always been bi. From when she had been a kid, both boys and girls had interested her, and the fact of her own particular gender had never really figured into anything she did. All of her actual loves, though, had been male. There had been no real reason for that, apart from an accident of who she happened to be around. She had always loved machines, worked around male mechanics... she had really liked Ger. Still did. They worked well together, and he was smart, fun to be with. He could also tear down an engine faster than she could. It's just... well, if Hanna hadn't come along, they probably would have worked things out, still been, at least, fucking occasionally. But, once Hanna had hesitantly taken her hand in her cabin that night... Jenny still shuddered at the memory.
She was never going to leave her.
"Stupid!"
Hanna looked almost ready to throw the pad onto the paved ground. Jenny reached over and touched her hand.
"What is it, Love?"
"I'm stupid! The directions I was following haven't been updated in five years! The stupid store isn't even there anymore!" Jenny had to just laugh at that.
"And I assume we're both too butch to ask for directions!"
Hanna gave her a disgusted look.
"YOU may be too butch, but I'm a dainty feminine flower who has no such hangups." She looked around. "However... from the info I did find, this area isn't used much anymore. They had a die off a couple years ago and compressed the population closer to the center."
"Anything contagious?" Jenny asked, turning serious and carefully looking around. There was a general sense of abandonment to this area, it was true. But, not abandoned enough to not be dangerous in many ways, and they had been forced to leave the ship unarmed.
"Doesn't say," Hanna replied, now starting to get nervous. She reached out and grabbed Jenny's strong hand.
"Which way back?"
Hanna turned around, and they started walking down what she assumed was the street they had come from. Now that they weren't talking and flirting with each other, it was clear they should have noticed something earlier. There were no lights on in the various store fronts, and foot traffic was nonexistent. The place was clean, though. Had to give the town that. A planet side city would have turned into a shit hole inside of a month.
They were passing by a gap in the buildings when a soft crying came from the opening. Hanna paused, jerking Jenny to a stop after taking another step. Jenny looked at her.
"What is it?"
She didn't answer, but with an unsure expression on her face Hanna started to slowly walk into the alley. Jenny let go of her hand for a moment, walking over to the side of a building and grabbing a half rusted metal rod that happened to be wedged behind a garbage bin. Her mate had waited for her. The buildings on either side were only three stories tall, not creating too many shadows, but they still were careful. There was a pit with a stairwell leading to a basement door in the middle of the alley, and the crying seemed to come from there. Carefully approaching, they peeked over the railing.
There was a dead woman lying at the bottom. Her neck was bent unnaturally, a dark red stain peeking out from under her. On top of her...
... was a baby.
"Oh!" Hanna's voice caught in her throat. The child couldn't have been more than a few months old, and from the position of the dead woman's arms she had tried to cradle the infant as she fell. The baby's cries were hoarse. Who knew how long it had been down there, starving and lonely...
Jenny glanced at Hanna's face, then quickly dropped the rod and carefully descended the stairs. She knelt down, examining the woman for a moment. She was in her 20's, plainly dressed but very pretty. Jenny memorized the face. A bad habit, she knew, one of the many reasons she kept away from the fighting. She would remember this poor woman, always. With a sigh, she picked up the baby. Its diaper was filthy and it stank. She looked up.
"It's a girl. She needs food and a change." Hanna nodded, going to the top of the steps as Jenny climbed three of them to hand the baby to her. Jenny then went back down and searched the mother. She found a purse with a small amount of money, an unopened jar of baby food, and that was about it. No identification, no photos. Was she running away? A robbery? She took the jar and climbed up, showing it to Hanna. Hanna nodded, sitting down on the street cuddling and cooing to the still crying infant while Jenny struggled with the lid. Finally getting it open, she sat down next to Hanna and dipped a finger into the jar. Bringing it out covered in the wet apple mush, she brought it to the baby's mouth.
The crying stopped, as she tasted the sweet mush for the first time in maybe days. Jenny pulled her finger out to refill it, and as the child greedily sucked nourishment from her Hanna undid the diaper and almost gagged at the stench.
"Gods! No wonder your end is so cute, given how this end looks! Gimme that water bottle." Jenny handed it over with her free hand, and Hanna started washing what she could down there. She tossed the old diaper off to the side, looking critically at both her and Jenny's outfit to see what could be sacrificed as a replacement. Jenny looked at her.
"What do we do?"
Hanna paused, looking down at the infant in her lap. She reached down and stroked her dark hair, then her soft cheeks. Looking up at Jenny, tears were in her eyes.
"Do you want a daughter?"
Jenny looked at her, eyes wide. A... daughter. They'd be a family. She'd... have a real family. That part of Lessa's plan had seemed silly to her up till then. But... feeding this baby, seeing how naturally Hanna held it, the love in her eyes... She reached out, with her non-baby food hand, and touched Hanna's face.
"Our daughter..."
****
Shelly lay on the bed as Dave thrust in and out of her.
It wasn't working.
Oh, Dave was doing the best he could, and the foreplay had been nice (if a bit rough), but her old joy at the act of sex wasn't there. The body still responded, nipples hardening, opening getting nice and wet, but mentally this was doing nothing for her. What was wrong...
She looked up at the blond on top of her. He was cute enough, in a geeky way, and she had been with him before. This wasn't his fault. She wasn't going to ask him to stop just because of her mood. That wouldn't be fair. It had always been her philosophy that if you worked a guy up, you had to see things through. Teasing had never been for her.
... and that's what it had seemed Lessa was doing to her that morning. Teasing her. Doing those stretches nude, her firm breasts jutting out, the swell of her tummy, the brown triangle of hair between her legs...
Shelly felt a contraction between her legs, and she closed her eyes. She could see Lessa's firm leg muscles bunching and flexing, her lovely back arching, those eyes...
She came. Shelly gave a half scream, arms and legs tightening on Dave as she pulsed around his manhood. This pushed him over the edge, but Shelly didn't even notice. Her mind was still filled with the image of her lovely Lessa, a nude goddess, perfect in every way. It wasn't until she felt the weight lifting off of her and she opened her eyes to see the grinning boy that she realized what had just happened.
Lessa... had made her cum.
"Go away," she whispered, closing her eyes as tears started to come. Dave just stared at her, not understanding. "PLEASE!" He stood, confused, hurt. She wanted to tell him it wasn't him, it was her, it was always her. Quickly dressing, he gave her one more sad look, mumbled something, then left.
Shelly put her hands over her eyes, turned on her side and half curled up. She cried... tears of joy, that her body finally felt about her love as her mind did, and tears of horror... Lessa was now beyond her reach, in mourning for another love that she dare not compete with.
Why did life hate her so.