Lost Star (3 page)

He screamed and shoved away from it. “
Get out! Get out of my head
!”

It didn’t let him go. “
Give me, now
!”

“
No
!” He writhed in an acid bath that tore his thoughts to shreds and ate the pieces. He thrashed in the tank and tried to scream.

Hands grasped the acid things and pulled them away. “
Nav-pilot, stop
!”
Niobe’s
mental voice vibrated with anger and terror. “
You’re causing damage
!”

Aubrey gasped in shuddering relief. The liquid in the tank hid his tears.

“
Bad boy! Give me what I want
!”

“
Nav-pilot, not this way
!”
Niobe
moved between them, pushing the acidic touch from his mind. “
Give me access, and I’ll get it for you
.”

“
How
?”

Comfort spilled across Aubrey’s mind. Erotic pleasure spilled down his spine and poured into his cock. He froze in shock. “Niobe?
What are you doing
?” Her presence filled his mind and molded around him with the powerful sensation of flesh against flesh. His body responded. He couldn’t stop it. “Niobe!”

“
Oh
.” The nav-pilot purred. “
Seduction
.”

Sensation raced through his body. Phantom kisses and caresses that he could feel, but weren’t there. He fought the drugging pull of rising climax, but his body wanted the pleasure of release she was offering. “Niobe,
please! Don’t do this to me
.” His balls tightened with urgency. He was going to cum, and when he did, she would take whatever it was the nav-pilot was after. “Niobe!
This is rape
.”

“
I know
.” Her mental voice echoed with regret and entered him.

He came, bucking hard. His mind opened under the whitewash of blinding pleasure.

She speared deeper into him, burning him with searing delight.

He shuddered and felt climax rise again. “Niobe,
don’t
!” He tried to fight his body’s animalistic reactions and couldn’t. “Niobe,
please
!”

“
I’m sorry, Aubrey, but they will have your compliance, or they will kill you. I will not let
you die
.”

He came again, screaming into the liquid.

* * * * *

punctuated by stronger dreams of sex. Aubrey fought against the visceral pleasure pouring into his body, knowing that his mind was being taken while he cried out in release.

12

Morgan Hawke

Niobe’s
sweet nature made it difficult to fight her. She had to be the gentlest ship-mind he’d ever had contact with. Her affection and desperate sorrow throbbed against his mind every time she brought him to unwilling release, but her conviction that she was saving him from certain death made her continue.

He pleaded with her to let him go, to let him die.

She wouldn’t. He was the only thing she had, and she would not let him go. She pleaded with him to forget them, to just let go and let them take what they wanted.

He would not stop fighting. What they were using him for was wrong.

She knew and regretted it deeply. He could feel how she ached with every death her ship caused. But she took him anyway.

Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star

13

Aubrey awoke feeling the liquid bubbling around him. They were draining the tank. His head cleared the fluid, but his eyes still refused to function. He could hear voices, but his ears were too full to make out what they were saying. He sucked in a breath to ask what was going on.

His body revolted, and he spewed viscous gunk from his mouth and nose. His head, lungs, and stomach ached long before he was done. The air was ice-cold compared to the warm bath of the tank.

He was released from the harness and pulled from the tank naked. Aubrey counted four hands, so two people. He collapsed into their hands, too weak to lift his head.

He was lifted onto an anti-grav table and floated somewhere. Moments later, the table stopped and hot water sprayed down on him.

He jerked in alarm.

Hands held him down on the table. They washed every inch of him in the most impersonal manner possible. After a humiliating eternity, the bath finally ended, and Aubrey was helped upright, then onto his feet.

He wavered off balance between them. His ears abruptly cleared.

“There, that wasn’t so bad.” The voice was deep, an older male.

“At least this one isn’t augmented to hell and gone.” The second voice seemed even older and also male.

“According to medical, he’s not augmented at all. If he was augmented, we could have used force cuffs to hold him upright.”

Aubrey smiled sourly. “Sorry to disappoint you.” It felt strange to use his mouth to talk.

14

Morgan Hawke

The first man snorted. “Oh, so your ears are working after all?”

“Yeah.” He shivered. “But my eyes are all messed up.”

“Tank liquid.” Fingers dug into his left upper arm to keep him balanced on his feet, and turned Aubrey to the side. “You look wasted, but your muscles appear to be working just fine.”

Aubrey rolled his eyes. “My muscles are not working fine. I can barely stand.”

One of the men snorted. “You’ve been getting some kind of exercise in there, or you wouldn’t be able to stand at all.”

Aubrey frowned. All those dreams of swimming through stars… Had he been exercised while he slept?

The water collector went on with a loud howl, sucking all the moisture from the air in seconds.

Aubrey shivered. It was cold in the room. He was shoved forward between the men. The tile under his bare feet became metal plate, and he was stopped.

Hands cupped his elbows. “Lift your foot.”

Aubrey lifted his foot and was helped into what felt like a full-body ship-suit. The fabric was thickly padded, warm and very welcome. He sealed it closed with fumbling fingers. “How long?”

Socks were tugged onto his feet. “‘How long’ what, kid?”

“How long have I been in the tank?” Aubrey lifted his feet for a pair of boots.

“Um, let’s see…”

The boots were fastened closed. The damned things actually fit better than his last pair he’d worn. Aubrey felt something itching on his neck. He scratched at it and discovered that it was his own hair. It was past his shoulders. He froze. He’d been in the tank long enough for his hair to grow that long from a buzz cut?

“I’m not sure. You’ve been in that tank since I got on board three cycles ago.

Aubrey lifted his head. “
Three
thirty-day cycles?”

“Oh, longer than that.” The other man chuckled. “I’m thinking at least two more.”

Aubrey felt his knees shake beneath him. “
Five
cycles?” He was tugged forward and out into a carpeted hallway.

“Let’s see, I think the limit is nine cycles, and they told us to pull you because you’d reached the limit.”

Aubrey tripped on the carpet. “Are you saying I’ve been in that tank for nine cycles?” He couldn’t grasp being in the tank that amount of time. It hadn’t seemed that long at all. “So now where am I going?”

“Right now? Where they told us to put you.”

Aubrey dug in his heels. “You’re not putting me in that tank again!”

The older man laughed. “Oh hell no, you can’t go back in there. Stay in there too long and you won’t be able to function outside it.” They tugged him forward.

Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star

15

Aubrey walked. It was that or be dragged. “Then what?”

“What were you in it for?”

Aubrey stiffened. They didn’t know? “I was in it, I think, for lung damage.”

“Lung damage?”

“That must have been some damage to need breathing liquid.”

Aubrey clenched his jaw. “I suppose one too many visits to the airlock would do that.”

“The airlock? Who’d you kill?”

“Who did
I
kill?” Aubrey chuckled, and the chuckle became outright laughter. He threw back his head, laughing as the tears burned down his cheeks. He finally stopped, gasping for breath. “How many ships in the past nine months?”

“Are you okay, kid?”

Aubrey looked up with his sightless eyes and screamed. “How many ships did this fucking ship take in the past nine months?”

“Uh, forty-seven, I think.”

Aubrey’s knees gave out, and he dropped to his hands and knees. “Bleeding Fate…” There were hundreds of lives on some of those ships, and thousands on others.

“Come on, get up.” They worked to pull him upright.

Aubrey climbed unsteadily onto his feet. “You want to know who I killed?” The hurt was so large, he couldn’t quite feel it. “I killed every bloody man aboard every bloody ship you took.”

“What?”

“The kid’s hysterical…”

Aubrey allowed them to tug him forward. He’d killed forty-seven ships. And he was going to kill more if they jacked him back into the ship. He couldn’t physically fight them. He was completely blind and without a drop of physical augmentation. He couldn’t mentally fight them. The ship was too strong, and the nav-pilot was too crazy.

He had to die. It was the only way to stop the killing.

A vibration raced under Aubrey’s feet. There was a distant howl of metal.

“What the hell was that?”

Aubrey smiled. He knew exactly what that was. He remembered it from his own ship. “We’re under attack.”

The man on Aubrey’s right jerked. “We can’t be…?”

The man on his left released Aubrey’s arm. “Yes we can. I heard that we’ve been in Skeldhi space for two days now.”

Aubrey blinked his blind eyes. Skeldhi space? That species had a particular hate for humans. A smile stretched his mouth. He didn’t have one drop of code to get into 16

Morgan Hawke

their craft. He didn’t have their coding language. He wouldn’t be killing any ships today.

“What in bleeding fury are we doing in Skeldhi space?”

Aubrey released a chuckle. “Getting your asses blown away, I’d say.”

“Who the hell gave clearance to pull that kid from his tank?” The voice bellowed right in front of them.

Both men at Aubrey’s elbows released him.

“Captain! Uh, it came from medical, sir!”

Aubrey frowned. That captain sounded nothing like Moribund.

“Yes, sir, Captain, sir! We got notification to pull him, clean him, get him dressed, then take him to”—there was a pause—“dock port seventy-nine, sir!”

“That’s a shuttle bay. Why the hell would someone send him there?”

A strong vibration shook the deck.

Aubrey fell to his knees and laughed. Because someone wanted him to live at all costs. The only person who had known that there was no way in hell he could tap a Skeldhi ship.

Niobe.

He groaned. Bleeding Fate… What were they doing in Skeldhi space? Committing suicide.
Niobe
must have finally had enough ship-killings and decided to take herself out of the game.

“Son of a fucking bitch!” The captain’s shout came from dead ahead. “Give me the damned kid. You two get to battle stations!”

Aubrey felt his upper arm grabbed by a hand that had serious power in it. He was dragged to his feet and winced.

“Come on.”

Aubrey went. There was no way he could fight the strength in that hand. It would only get his arm broken. “I can’t tap a Skeldhi craft. I don’t have the programs.”

“I know. The nav-pilot already told me.”

Aubrey’s brows shot up. “Then where are we going?”

“To your escape shuttle. Moribund will fry my ass if his most prized possession gets lost.”

Aubrey licked his lips. “This would be a hell of a lot easier for both of us if I could see.”

“Shit.” The captain came to a halt. “Turn around.”

Aubrey turned around. Something was jammed into his data port on the back of his skull, then yanked back out. The darkness brightened.

“Come on.” The hand on Aubrey’s arm jerked him back around and started hauling him down the hallway.

Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star

17

Aubrey squinted. “My sight is still off-line.”

“It’ll get better. Your sight has been off-line awhile.”

Aubrey clenched his jaw. “How long a while?”

The captain snorted. “Long enough to make you nothing but a scrawny bag of bones. I’m afraid if I sneeze too hard, I’ll break you.”

Aubrey was jerked to a halt. The hiss of an opening lift door came from right in front. Bodies moved past them. The captain pushed him into the lift.

Aubrey let himself be jerked around to face the front. “Captain, how long a while have I been playing executable program floating in a liquid tank?”

The captain sighed. “Kid, you really, really don’t want to know the answer to that one.”

Aubrey clenched his jaw. “The men said nine cycles.”

The captain chuckled. “It’s been a little longer than that.”

“How long?”

The lift doors opened. Smoke drifted into the lift with the sounds of screaming metal and shouting men.

Aubrey was shoved forward and angled to the left. His eyes watered in the acidic air.

The captain leaned down to talk in his ear. “Just so you know, most of the docks have already been holed. I don’t know how anyone knew to pull you from the tank and send you here, but this dock holds the one hidden shuttle on this ship. The first officer doesn’t even know about it.”

Aubrey choked. “You’re abandoning your first officer?”

“Fuck yeah. It’s a two-man craft. I’m taking the only thing Moribund wants to keep… You.”

Aubrey shivered. “What the hell kind of people are you? Killing whole crews, even your own?”

“We’re mercenaries.”

Aubrey scowled. “That’s crap! My dad was a merc, and his company didn’t do shit like that!”

The captain tugged Aubrey to a halt. “Yeah, well, he didn’t work for the Moribund Company, did he?”

Aubrey’s eyes saw a colored blur right in front of him. He heard a door open. A hand at his back shoved him up some steps and through a door.

The captain followed right on his heels and grabbed his collar. “You know what Moribund means, don’t you?”