Precipice of Darkness Read online

  Roxy turned down the passage that led to the dock, but doubt filled her mind.

 

 

  Carmen’s tone was hard and edged.

  Roxy didn’t reply, but she also didn’t slow her approach. Once beyond the dock’s doors, she surveyed the area, looking for Jane.

  A loud clank drew her attention to the left, and she saw the pilot walk out of one of the adjacent machine shops with a strangely shaped component in her hands. The pilot’s tight shipsuit was pulled down, with the top half dangling from her waist, her breasts free and covered with a sheen of sweat.

  “Whatcha got there?” Roxy called out, sauntering over to Jane. “And why’s it got you so greasy?”

  “Hey, Roxy. It’s a stabilizer bar for one of the ballast rockers. It’s a fallback system for balancing the ship if the grav systems go out—or if it needs to use stealth and not bleed gravitons everywhere.”

  “And the dock monkeys make you work on this stuff alone?” Roxy asked, her eyes straying to Jane’s uncovered chest.

  “They’re all on the other ship,” the pilot jerked her head to the side. “Asshats left me to fix this myself.”

  Roxy placed a hand on Jane’s arm. “Want a hand?”

  The other woman chuckled. “Stars, you’re extra randy today, aren’t you? I wouldn’t be against a more…thorough diversion than we had before, but first I need to get this fixed.”

  “I’ll help,” Roxy said brightly. “You already know I’m good with my hands.”

  Jane laughed and brushed her hip against Roxy’s. “Well, they say many hands make a light load…or something. Let’s get to it.”

  It only took twenty minutes to replace the stabilizer bar, and another ten for Jane to run her tests. The final checks were performed in the cockpit, and Roxy stood behind Jane, running her hands over the pilot’s chest, cupping her breasts and adding a pinch every so often.

  “Stars, Roxy, I’ll never get this done if you keep that up.”

  “You have somewhere you need to be?” Roxy whispered in Jane’s ear. “Other than in your cabin with me.”

  Roxy slid a hand down Jane’s stomach, and beneath her shipsuit, driving her point home.

  “Fuck this shit,” Jane said, closing down the console and rising slowly while keeping her back to Roxy. “I’ve got a bunk here on the pinnace, third door on the left.”

  “Awesome,” Roxy whispered and drew a moaning Jane down the pinnace’s central corridor until she reached the indicated door, pulling it open with a flourish.

  Seconds later, she had pushed the pilot onto her bunk and set to pulling her shipsuit the rest of the way off, getting ready to work the woman over.

  Carmen said as Roxy lowered her lips to the cleft between Jane’s breasts, breathing deeply of the other woman’s scent.

  Roxy paused, suddenly remember what it was that she’d come to the bay for in the first place.

  She connected to the breach nano Carmen had deposited and set it to sever Jane’s Link—a benefit of the toys Hand agents had that noncom pilots did not. Once she knew that Jane couldn’t signal for help, she slid up the woman’s body until their lips were brushing.

  “Sorry about this, Jane. I know you’re just a lonely, randy bitch, but it’s time for me to use you for a change.”

  Jane furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to speak, but it was too late: her body froze and consciousness left her.

  Roxy rose from her position atop Jane and grabbed a towel from the small san in the corner, cleaning the sweat and dirt off her chest, hands and face.

  She checked on Jane once more, ensuring that the pilot was out but otherwise in good health. Satisfied that the woman would be fine in a few hours—though not sure why she cared so much—Roxy left the room and walked back to the cockpit, settling in the primary chair and initializing a takeoff sequence.

  A call came from Lieutenant Gloria on the bridge.

  Roxy replied, using the ident tokens she’d lifted from Jane’s Link hardware—glad that the pilot hadn’t updated her firmware in a few years.

  Gloria replied, her tone light.

  Roxy replied with a laugh.

 

  A minute later, the pinnace was in the black. Roxy was a capable pilot, but she let Carmen take control of the pinnace, certain that the AI could better mimic a test flight than she could. As they approached the Damon Silas, Carmen slewed the ship to one side, and Roxy reported in to Gloria.

 

  Gloria asked.

  Roxy replied.

  Gloria responded.

  Roxy suppressed a groan, and instead gave Gloria a calm, positive response,

  Carmen informed Roxy privately.

 

  The next five minutes had Roxy on the edge of her seat. She kept expecting Justin to come on the comm and demand to know what she was doing, but he never did. She had to keep reminding herself that it was because he had no idea she was on the pinnace. He’d have no reason to reach out to Jane.

  As they approached, Carmen didn’t even have to link up with the NSAI backup that was running systems aboard the Damon Silas. Her command access was still functional, allowing her to open the dock’s outer bay doors and unfurl a docking cradle to receive the pinnace.

  “Stars,” Roxy muttered. “This is almost too easy.”

 

  Roxy didn’t reply as she made her way to the sortie locker and pulled out a SS-R4 stealth sheath, sliding into it before grabbing a lightwand and a pulse pistol. She considered getting a rifle as well, but decided against it. Not being detected in the first place was her best weapon.

  She activated the sheath’s stealth systems and then cycled the airlock open, watching the bay through the pinnace’s external feeds, glad to see that it appeared exactly as it had when the TSF abandoned the ship several days ago.

  she murmured and walked out into the bay, stepping lightly down the ramp. Roxy considered deploying drones to counter any sounds she made, but decided it was better to leave as small a footprint as possible.

  Her luck held, and the passage outside the docks was clear, as was the lift.

  Once on the medbay’s level, she had a near run-in with Sam and Harry—two former Hand agents who had helped breach the ship.
<
br />   “I still think we should punch through to Vela. If we take that system and depose the chancellor, we can destabilize the whole region,” Harry said as he rounded a corner, nearly walking into Roxy.

  She flattened herself against the bulkhead as Sam shrugged.

  “Sure, but you know that Admiral Krissy will throw everything she has at keeping Vela safe. We have this one stasis ship, she has thousands,” Sam pointed out.

  “That’s why we take the capitol right away,” Harry replied as they continued on down the corridor. “Krissy won’t hit us when we have the entire populace under our control.”

  Carmen commented.

  Roxy said as she continued on her way to the medbay.

  Carmen asked.

 

  Carmen sent a feeling of agreement.

 

  Carmen asked.

 

  they AI’s voice contained a note of amusement.

 

 

  THE DREAM TEAM

  STELLAR DATE: 09.24.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Prairie Park, ISS I2

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  “You going to be OK?” Tangel asked Sera as they walked down one of the pathways in the I2’s Prairie Park.

  Sera gave a rueful laugh. “In regard to what? My two sisters? My father-not-father? Going on a mission with Finaeus?”

  “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Tangel joined Sera in her laughter. “I guess all of it. Things are intensifying. Not only does Airtha have EMGs, but we have to assume that the lost stasis ship—”

  “The Damon Silas,” Sera supplied.

  “Yes, we need to assume that it has fallen into Airtha’s hands. We may only have months before she has a stasis fleet.”

  Sera placed a hand on Tangel’s shoulder. “So you’re saying that I need—” Her statement was cut short as she stepped in a gopher hole that one of the industrious creatures had dug in the path. “Shit…those little buggers are everywhere.”

  “That’s what you get for wearing boots with heels like that,” Tangel chided. “You are one of the least practical women I know when it comes to footwear.”

  Sera shrugged. “I like boots. Lots of women like sexy boots. Honestly, I think you’re the odd one out on this front.”

  Tangel ignored the critique. “Yeah, but you have flow armor for skin. You can just make boots.”

  “Sure, but it’s like walking barefoot everywhere. Cheeky was telling me she loves that her feet are just a sexy pair of heels, but it feels weird to me. I think a good pair of boots is my security blanket.”

  Tangel glanced down at the five-centimeter platforms and fifteen-centimeter heels under Sera’s feet. “Well, you should put a-grav generators in them—or gyros, at least.”

  “I do…but you have to turn them on to gain gopher-hole protection,” Sera nudged her shoulder against Tangel’s. “You know, the real reason I go this high is so I’m taller than you.”

  Tangel chuckled. “I love you like a sister, Sera, but you’re one strange woman.”

  “Sister-zoned again,” Sera muttered with a twinkle of mirth in her eyes. “You do realize, Tangel, that there are entire worlds of people who dress like I do—plus worlds where people are far, far stranger—but so far as we know, there are no human-AI merges that are ascended.”

  “Right,” Tangel chuckled as she slapped Sera on the shoulder. “I’m elite, you’re weird.”

  “Well, I love being weird,” Sera held her hand up and formed a fist. “And I’m gonna take one of my impractical high-heeled boots and kick it right through Airtha’s primary core. Then we’ll force Kirkland to stand down, and this whole mess will over.”

  “I think there are a few more steps in there,” Tangel replied with a chuckle. “Though I suppose those are the highlights.”

  The two women walked in silence for several minutes, before Sera asked, “But if we need you, you’ll come, right?”

  “To Airtha?” Tangel asked, and her friend nodded. “Of course. With bells on. But I have a feeling you and your sisters can get the job done. You have shadowtrons, and Earnest is waiting at Styx. Once Katrina gets that shard of Airtha, he and Finaeus will work out a plan to take her out, I have no doubt about it.”

  “Should be fun to see those two working together,” Sera said with a laugh. “Seriously…once we achieve a lasting peace, we need to keep an eye on them. Before you know it, they’ll do something crazy like build a ring around the galaxy.”

  “Is that a risk?” Tangel asked, wondering if such a thing was possible.

  “Just something uncle Fin used to say when I was a kid,” Sera replied with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t put it past them.”

  “Speaking of ‘them’, how are your sisters doing?” Tangel asked.

  “Honestly? Better than I’d’ve thought. It’s funny, both of them admit to having been rather straight-laced when they were with Mom—by my standards, at least—but Fina has really cut loose. She’s going to give me a run for the money in the weird department.”

  “She’s a rebel at heart. She was pushing back against your mother even before we removed her aegis. I think the fact that she was fighting so hard is going to cause her to swing the other way before she stabilizes.”

  “You calling my sister a human pendulum?” Sera asked with a chuckle.

  “We’re all pendulums.” Tangel shrugged, carefully stepping around a cluster of gopher holes. “Always in motion. When we stop, we die.”

  “Well, no risk of that anytime soon. Right now everything’s in motion. The two of them are off getting ‘the skin job’, as Finaeus calls it, plus some other mods. Fina is enamored with the idea of flowmetal limbs. If she comes back looking human at all, I’ll be surprised…and owe Cheeky something I’ll have to convince Jason to let me do.”

  Tangel barked a laugh and shook her head. “Did you seriously bet a foursome with Cheeky over this?”

  “You reading my thoughts?” Sera asked, meeting Tangel’s eyes and cocking an eyebrow.

  “If you think I needed to read your thoughts to figure that out, you’ve been underestimating me for some time. If you do lose, think you’ll be able to convince Jason? Are you two enough of an item that you think he needs to be in the loop?”

  Sera shrugged. “I don’t know…he’s still back in the LMC trying to get things sorted out there. I got a message that he’s not sure if he’ll return directly to New Canaan, or if he and I can have some time first. What, with Terrance still sorting things out in the IPE…” her voice trailed off for a moment. “Dammit, I just want to see Jason again before we dive into the shit, you know?”

  “If for nothing else than to explain to him why you’re going to go have a foursome with your sisters and Cheeky?” Tanis asked with a laugh, then cleared her throat. “Sorry, you’re trying to be serious, and I’m still stuck on your bet about Fina. But what is it? Incest? If it’s with yourselves, is it just masturbation?”

  Tangel couldn’t help a giggle at her joke, and Sera
shot her a narrow-eyed look.

  “Well…not if Cheeky’s the one getting all the attention, she has three—”

  “OK, stop!” Tangel shook her head. “I know all about what Cheeky has. I’ve seen it in action. You keep evading the Jason question. Think he’ll have an issue?”

  “Jason? He might just join in. I’m half worried that he’ll be pissed if he misses out.”

  “Wait,” Tangel stopped in the middle of the path, forcing a cougar to walk around them as it crept toward a rabbit in the underbrush. “Jason? In a fivesome with your sisters and Cheeky? That’s not the Jason Andrews I know.”

  Sera gave Tangel a knowing wink. “Trust me, I know a very different side to Jason than you do. He acts like the elder statesman, conscientious and in charge, around everyone else. But you get him between the sheets, and he’s—”

  “Stars, Sera, how does this conversation keep coming back around to you having sex with everyone I know? I have the worst visuals in my mind—half of them, you’re broadcasting at me.”

  A grin split Sera’s lips. “I was wondering if that would work. You’re going to have to learn how to block other people’s thoughts out.”

  Tanis gave Sera a cautious look. “You’re telling me, and you’re a jerk, just in case you didn’t know.”

  “Back to the topic at hand.” Sera’s brows knit together seriously as they resumed their walk. “I could probably sell tickets to half the galaxy to join in with—or stars, just watch—Cheeky with me and my sisters.”

  “Sera!”

  “Think about it…if this whole war thing doesn’t work out, we could try it. ‘Fuck Peace’. You get it?”

  Tangel took one look at the earnest and surprisingly innocent look in Sera’s eyes and burst out laughing. She tried to stop, but the visuals Sera kept sending her had Tangel in stitches for nearly five minutes.

  When she finally got herself back under control—still wheezing slightly—she clasped Sera’s hands between hers.

  “Stars, Sera, I’m going to miss you when you head back out. Let’s go get some drinks and wait to see how many tentacles Fina has when her mods are done.”