Tales From the Pegasus #2
Unwanted Re-acquaintance
By Bernard Doove © 2008
Starman Second Class Kenneth Darwin was not having a good day. A scowl was locked on the lion morph’s face as he stalked to his cabin, his mood not improved by the dull throb of pain from his forearm. The large patch of singed fur around the right wrist was testament to the accident that he’d had earlier. The tan sleeve of his uniform was also burnt, but had saved him from a worse injury. But what hurt worst was the stinging lecture that his supervisor had given him after he had been patched up.
"One more screw-up, Darwin, and you’ll be busted down to Starman third class! How the hell you even made it into the service, I cannot even begin to fathom."
In fact he had barely scraped in, more by luck than ability. When he had been assigned to the Pegasus though, he thought he’d hit the jackpot. However, things had gone downhill ever since. A series of incidents had cemented people’s opinion that he was careless and a slacker. Couldn’t they see that it was just bad luck?
He reached his cabin, glad that capital ships like the Pegasus could give even common starmen an individual room, small though it was. More than once he had vented his anger and frustration in the privacy of his cabin. Just as he was about to touch the entry panel though, a familiar voice caused him to hesitate.
"Now stay off that foot for at least three days. Give the rapid-heal a chance to fully work and you’ll be back playing racquet-ball in next to no time."
The female voice had the usual purring tones associated with Caitians, but a little deeper in timbre than normal. Darwin looked around to see an unusually large Caitian in the doorway of the cabin one door up and on the other side of the corridor. As she emerged, her attention on her patient, Darwin got a look at her other outstanding attributes. There was only one Caitian in the galaxy who was stacked like that. The day was starting to look up after all.
"M’Lai! I didn’t know that you were on this ship!" Darwin called out.
Doctor M’Lai Saarath looked around, annoyed at being addressed so familiarly while on duty. At a glance, the speaker could have been a Caitian too, except for the larger muzzle and smaller tail, and definitely not around 6’ 5" like this person was, so unlike the diminutive Caitians. Then her eyes widened in surprised recognition.
"Ken Darwin! What a surprise to see you. I last saw you when we parted back on Cait. I’d just finished my induction into Star Fleet and you were doing you basic training as a starman. Have you made corporal yet as you boasted you would?"
Darwin gave her a confident grin that belied the truth. "Not quite yet, but I’m getting there."
"You’d better! After all that tutoring that I gave you to help you pass your tests to get you into that job."
Darwin laughed. "We might have had more time for tutoring if I hadn’t been tending to your needs so often."
M’Lai lowered her ears in mild embarrassment. Her hyperactive sex drive and gigantic stature had made it hard to find compatible partners to work off her incessant lust, and finding Darwin had been like a gift from the goddess. He was so much like a Caitian in many ways that it had been easy to imagine herself as being normal while with him, and he was more than happy to oblige her desires. Such a pity that he hadn’t been terribly bright or interesting otherwise, because she might have been tempted to ask him to take her as Firstwife. Her current status as Fifthwife to Admiral Kline was a much better result though, and one far greater than she had ever dared dream of. "It seems that we are both doing well in spite of that."
Darwin nodded. "So I see. One of the doctors for the flagship of the First Fleet. Not bad!"
"Assistant Chief Medical Officer, actually," M’Lai corrected.
"Wow! Even better," Darwin conceded. "How would you like to chat more about it in my cabin? I’ve just come off-duty."
"I’m at the end of my shift also, but I am expected elsewhere soon," M’Lai replied.
"Oh, c’mon! Just five minutes or so. I’ll even make you coffee."
M’Lai smiled. "OK, just for a few minutes. I’ll skip the coffee for now though." M’Lai reckoned that she had been spoiled by the flavoursome brew that her mate would always make for the family each evening.
"Great!" Darwin said as he unlocked his cabin door and waved her inside.
The cabin was just like the one that she had just exited – small but efficiently laid out. It had a bunk that folded up to leave more space for a small desk and chair, a large locker, and very little else besides a lot of pictures of female morphs on the walls. Darwin offered the chair to M’Lai, then pulled down the bunk so that he could sit on that.
"So, how did you get to be on the Pegasus?" M’Lai asked him.
"I’d love to say that it was my outstanding performance, but I have to admit that it was probably because my name was at the top of the roster list. Pure luck. I was glad of the opportunity to prove myself though. What about you?" Darwin wanted to get her off the subject of his career so far.
"The Pegasus isn’t my first ship. It isn’t even my second. I kept having some of those ‘incidents’."
Darwin winced in memory. "Bad enough in civilian life, but much worse in the service, I suppose?"
"Yes, although I did have understanding captains, so I didn’t get into trouble. Nevertheless, I was shifted from ship to ship until I found the right one for me. In the meantime, I garnered praise for my work and got rapidly promoted, so I’m quite happy with my life right now."
"You haven’t had an incident on this ship yet, I take it?"
"No, not yet. I’ve been getting enough sex, and life has been pretty stress-free, so it’s been wonderful so far."
"It could be even better now that I’m here. We could take up where we left off. We could both get more of what we enjoy most."
M’Lai grinned. "You haven’t changed a bit, have you? I recall constantly having to tell you – study first, then sex. At least I had a medical excuse for it. You’re just a big randy cat!"
Darwin returned the grin unrepentantly. "You were glad enough that I was, as I recall. While you rewarded my studies with sex, it was all that sex that I was able to give you that let you ease your needs and enable you to concentrate on your own studies. We complimented each other beautifully."
M’Lai nodded. "I admit that’s true, and I’ll be forever grateful, but that was then, and my circumstances have changed a lot since. I am quite happy and satisfied now, and I don’t need your ‘services’." She was about to explain that she was mated and had a couple of chakat co-mates to help him deal with her needs, when Darwin cut in.
"Bull! You told me yourself that unless they ever found a cure for you, you were never going to be totally satisfied. Come on! Just one night for old time’s sake."
M’Lai frowned at him. "Whether or not that still holds true, it doesn’t mean that you can presume upon our previous relationship. I’m mated now, and I like things the way they are." She got up to leave. "It’s been good seeing you again, Ken, but from now on we’re just friends, okay?"
Darwin got up also, annoyed that things were degenerating so rapidly. He stood between her and the door, blocking the way in those cramped quarters. "We screwed every night for months and you want to wipe it off as if it was nothing? I don’t think so; I know you better than that. I learned a lot about you in those months. Things like this!"
Before she realised what he was about to do, he leaned up against her, putting one hand behind her and under her skirt, touching her in a sensitive spot located under the tail.
M’Lai gasped, both in surprise and in reaction to that special touch. Caitians called it the Mating Touch, the use of which was to facilitate procreation. In males, it stimulated an erection. In females, it stimulated the flow of lubricant and made them receptive to their mate. In M’Lai though, her supercharged sexual nature made her virtually explode into a state of extreme lust, and she sagged weakly against Darwin. M’Lai’s medication implant regulator went into high gear, struggling to cope with the flood of hormones into her system, and losing the battle. An emergency protocol was activated.
"That’s more like it," Darwin said with a satisfied smirk. "You didn’t realise that I’d remember that, did you?"
"No, don’t," M’Lai protested weakly. "Don’t do that. I don’t want sex with you." She tried to push past the lion, but he was stronger than her, especially in her enervated condition. He pulled her into his embrace and nuzzled her neck.
"Please! No!" she said again, futilely trying to push him away, this time with renewed vigour as she regathered her strength.
In reply, he gave her the mating touch again.
M’Lai yowled in anguish and lust, her physical resistance virtually destroyed, but her mind refused to accept his advances. "Stop it, Ken. I don’t want you. I want my mate. I want my co-mates. I need… need my Boyce… my Midnight…. Where are you? … I need your help." She started reaching for her combadge.
Darwin snatched the combadge off her uniform before she could activate it. "Uh-uh! None of that. You won’t be needing anyone but me soon enough, and you’ll thank me for it when you come to your senses." He then pressed the concealed stud in the collar of her uniform. The fabric slackened and the seam fell apart, allowing him to pull it down off her, leaving the Caitian in bra and panties only. He reached for the bra, but she batted his hand away. He just grinned, enjoying the game.
M’Lai cursed the feeling of weakness. If she just surrendered to the lust, she knew that she could more than match his strength, but only due to the same kind of sexual frenzy that had marred her assignments on the other starships, and she wanted nothing of that ever again. Attempting to resist the almost irresistible was weakening her terribly though, but still she tried. "Leave me alone! You have… no right! I don’t need you… or want you…. I only want… Boyce… Midnight…. Stop…. Stop please!"
In response, Darwin said, "Your words say no, but your body says yes, and I’m listening to that right now!" He pushed her down onto the bunk, reaching again for the bra. She tried to push him away again, but this time he wasn’t letting himself be put off. He grabbed the fabric and pulled, snapping the straps and revealing her breasts.
"Hello my pretties. Nice to see you again," Darwin said as he went to put a hand on one to fondle it. Instead he found himself flying through the air and he crashed into the wall, taking a knock to the head. Darwin shook his head to try to clear his vision as a shadow loomed over him.
"Stay down there!" the shadow’s voice snarled in command.
Anger rose in Darwin as his eyes focused. Not a shadow, but a black-furred chakat. How dare shi interrupt him and violate his privacy. It did not occur to him then as to how shi had gotten in.
"Who the hell do you think you are, barging in on us like this?" he snarled, getting up to his feet in spite of the order.
"The lady told you that she doesn’t want you, but you won’t take no for an answer. I’m here to enforce her wishes," the chakat replied.
"She’s just playing hard to get. Look at her, how she desperately wants sex. I know you chakats – how you fuck everything in sight. Well she’s mine, not yours. Now get the hell out!"
The lion morph towered over the chakat, intimidating in size and strength. He swung a haymaker that would have felled hir with one blow… if it had connected. Shi dodged it with deceptive ease and grace, then buried hir fist in his solar plexus. Darwin collapsed to his knees. Struggling to start breathing again, he looked up to see that the chakat now had a phaser pointed at his face.
"My name is Lieutenant Commander Midnight, Chief of Security, and you have just tried to rape my co-mate, as well as being moronic enough to try to attack a security officer. I am not in a good mood, so don’t try me any more."
Darwin was surprised. This was the person M’Lai had been calling for? He watched as Midnight backed over to M’Lai who was still lying on the bed, moaning in distress. Shi laid a gentle hand on M’Lai’s head, turning it so that shi could look into the Caitian’s eyes.
"It’s alright, dear. Everything will be fine soon. Just hold on a bit longer." Midnight tried using hir empathic talent to soothe M’Lai’s needs, wishing that shi had hir lifemate, Forestwalker’s, skills.
Darwin finally regained his breath. Nauseous but defiant, he said, "So you’re her lover, hey? You don’t know her like I do though. She’s never satisfied, never can get enough. She needed me badly and she still wants me, and I’ve always given her exactly what she wants. You have no right to come between us, Boyce Midnight!"
"You are an idiot if you think that you can fool a chakat about such things, and I know her better than you think. You are seriously deluded if you think that she really wants you. And my name is just Midnight. Boyce is the name of our mutual mate. You may know him better as Admiral Kline, captain of the Pegasus. Congratulations Mr Screw-Up, you just tried to rape the captain’s wife!"
Darwin felt the blood drain from his face in shock. He was as good as dead. He panicked and turned to get away. There was nowhere to run on a starship, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying! He ran straight into a wall of muscle. He had to look up to see the face of the Rakshani security officer who was blocking the exit. As strong as Darwin was, it was nothing compared to that of a Rakshan warrior. Kenneth Darwin was definitely not having a good day.
Midnight had been finishing the last report of the day when the alert tone that shi had prayed that shi’d never hear, sounded stridently. M’Lai had consented to having a security alert go out from her drug implant controller if it was ever overloaded. M’Lai had made an additional suggestion:
"When I go into one of those episodes, I can never think sensibly, so I never call for help. Why don’t we have it also activate my combadge so that you can hear what is going on and respond accordingly?"
Privately, Midnight had already been thinking of doing that, but had been loathe to violate M’Lai’s privacy. The idea was implemented immediately, and now Midnight was very glad that it had. The combadge was routed directly to hir office and shi heard, "…like it. You didn’t realise that I’d remember that, did you?" It was a male voice with which shi wasn’t familiar.
"No, don’t. Don’t do that. I don’t want sex with you." M’Lai’s voice, distressed and unambiguous. She was in trouble!
Midnight’s comm was automatically recording the event, and shi set it to relay to hir wrist-PADD also. Then shi left hir office at top speed. Hurtling past startled crewmembers, shi commed hir top sergeant. "Midnight to Rastivok! Meet me on deck G cabin 34 immediately!"
Shi plunged down access tubes, disdaining the translift for being too slow, cursing under hir breath as shi listened to the events unfolding. Alert now to M’Lai’s distress, hir empathic sense could distantly detect hir co-mate’s feelings of dismay, lust and desperation. Shi reached deck G and raced along the corridor towards cabin 34. Shi called out, "Computer! Security override on cabin G34. Open the door now!"
The computer recognised hir authority and complied, opening the door just as the chakat reached it. It took Midnight only a moment to assess the situation as the preoccupied lion morph failed to notice hir entrance. He was sexually assaulting M’Lai, and Midnight was in no mood to be nice about hir response. Shi reached out and grabbed him by the uniform and threw him against the opposite wall. Shi warned him to stay down, but was quite happy that he gave hir an excuse to retaliate against his attack in order to subdue him. Shi didn’t want to waste too much time on him though because shi was being psychically battered by M’Lai’s intense feelings in those close quarters, and shi knew that shi needed to help hir co-mate quickly. Shi tried to soothe her while having to listen to him rant. Marvelling at the man’s stupidity, shi took pleasure in figuratively twisting the knife as shi informed him that he had tried to rape the captain’s wife. As he tried to flee, he ran straight into Rastivok who had arrived in time to hear Midnight’s comment about rape. He glared down at the quailing lion morph, seriously considering breaking something as he took him into custody. Discipline was all that restrained him.
"Throw him in the brig," ordered Midnight, "and no need to be gentle about it."
Rastivok grinned toothily. "With pleasure, Commander."
Darwin was more dragged away than marched, looking as if he was being taken to his execution.
Midnight tapped hir combadge. "Midnight to Doctor Kelly!"
A moment later, the doctor responded, "Kelly here."
"Doctor, we have an incident involving M’Lai. Please come to cabin G34 immediately."
"On my way, Commander."
Then Midnight contacted Commander Silpurr and advised her of the situation, leaving it to her to break the news to their mate gently. Shi could then turn hir full attention to M’Lai whose emotional radiation was constantly building. Midnight had been blocking it as much as possible, but its intensity was overwhelming hir. The sheer deluge of lust had already given hir a full erection, but shi ignored that to try to deal with the Caitian’s distress. Shi squatted by the bed where M’Lai was still writhing in unrelieved need. Shi hugged hir and said, "Doctor Kelly is on her way. It’ll be okay soon."
"I’m sorry… Midnight," M’Lai gasped. "I’ve let you… down."
"Oh, heavens no! My beloved M’Lai, you are totally blameless. But look at you – you are still resisting something that you have always succumbed to in the past. You are doing marvellously!"
M’Lai smiled crookedly, clinging to Midnight for comfort. "Something was… different this time. I have… have a krisark… a husband… co-wives whom I… care for…. You… You’re my strength…. That saved me…. I could not… disappoint you… my family!"
"We all love you, Lai," Midnight replied, contracting her name to its intimate form.
Just then, Doctor Kelly arrived, with Rosepetal hot on her heels. "What happened?" the doctor asked.
"A crewman tried to rape M’Lai. Whatever he did triggered one of her episodes," Midnight replied.
The human woman turned on her scanner and took some readings, a frown of puzzlement growing. "My God! These hormone levels are incredible, and yet M’Lai is still resisting their effects. That’s amazing."
"Thanks," M’Lai grated out. "Antidote now… please!"
"Sorry." Doctor Kelly loaded the special concoction that they had developed to counteract M’Lai’s episodes if they ever occurred. After adjusting the dosage to match the readings that she had just taken, she injected it into M’Lai’s arm.
A few seconds passed, then M’Lai gave a huge sigh and started to relax. Midnight also felt the empathic pressure start to drop to the point where shi no longer had trouble blocking it, and hir aching penis, which shi had kept discreetly hidden by hir forelegs, at last started to retract into its sheath.
Doctor Kelly watched the readings on her scanner with satisfaction. She nodded when they reached an acceptable level. "OK, I recommend that you rest for a while right here."
She didn’t get to add any more because M’Lai cut her off. "I will not stay in that sisthpikk’s room for one moment longer than I must. Midnight, will you help me back to our cabin, please?"
"Of course. Take as much of my strength as you need."
As Midnight helped M’Lai off the bunk, Rosepetal handed her the uniform that she had picked up from the floor. "You might want this," she said.
M’Lai looked down at herself, nearly naked except for her panties. "Oh, yeah." With Midnight helping the woozy Caitian keep her balance, M’Lai donned her uniform sans the ruined bra. Then, surrounded and supported by her co-mates, she stepped out of the cabin with a sense of triumph. She had been tried and not found wanting, and she could hardly wait to see her mate and share that victory with him.
Characters and story copyright © 2008 Bernard Doove
except Admiral Kline and Rosepetal Silpurr who are © Boyce Garald Kline Jnr, and used with permission.
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