“Close, but you missed a coefficient here, and your sixth term there, is malformed. You need to take the curl of the derivative over the resultant from the previous matrix transform,” Interface expined to Will, standing over his shoulder at one of the unused stations on the bridge, breasts pressing slightly into his side, pointing out the finer details of some of the mathematics needed for engineering efficiently in higher dimensions.

  Will scratched his head as he struggled to follow Interface’s expnation but was hopeful. He was making progress, however slowly, coming to grips with topics that few, if any, in the best universities in the gaxy could match.

  “I shouldn't compin, but these make for tempting distractions from my studies,” he said with a grin as he reached back and caressed Interface’s ample bosom, pressed against him.

  “As your tutor, I think it’s time for a break and start thinking with your little head for a while,” Interface said as she reached over his shoulders and ran her hands down over his chest, intentionally pressing her breasts into the back of his neck, smiling.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Ben watched the two flirt on the other side of the bridge. Sitting at another unused station, he was ostensibly watching the stars stream by through the forward viewport, though he was an unintentional voyeur to the lovers.

  It had been about a week since they left the nebu and pirates behind them, cruising at a retively slow FTL speed. They were headed for the nearest inhabited world, Bourdan, only four and a half lightyears away, but with the ship’s limited power supply, it would take them about a month to get there.

  As Will and Interface made out, Interface gnced over Will’s shoulder, locked eyes with Ben for a moment, and winked at him. He blushed and looked away quickly. Interface took Will’s hand and led him off the bridge for more intimate, ‘educational motivation’, as she put it.

  June was down in the hangar checking out the shuttle and pods, leaving Ben alone on the Bridge. Ben thought how strange it was that they were so ready to trust him. Not that he would do anything, but how could they be so sure?

  Interface said she was an excellent judge of character, which doesn’t seem likely; if they knew some of the truly awful things he’d done in the past, Ben was sure they’d have a different opinion of him.

  Temporarily bored with watching the stars go by, he wandered over to the terminal where Interface was teaching Will the complex mathematics that let her work with the fundamental forces employed by this ship’s systems. They had left the terminal dispying a long series of equations and matrices intricately woven together, the st thing Will and Interface were working on.

  As Ben read through it, he quickly spotted the mistakes in Will’s work that Interface had mentioned and two others in the supporting matrix transformation used in the st set of equations. Ben looked around quickly, and while no one was with him on the bridge, he sat down and studied the math.

  Though he had no formal education, he had an uncanny knack for this stuff. Old Mrs. Jensen, who would occasionally feed him when he was living on the streets, said that Ben reminded her of a story from Old Earth about a poor young man who got his hands on a single mathematics book filled with theorems, figured out how to prove them all, and became a famous mathematician. She encouraged him whenever she saw him, saying he had great potential. Ben smiled at the memory of her, which soon slipped off his face, repced by a frown of deep sadness and regret.

  Ben forced his mind away from the past and focused again on the math in front of him, and on impulse, corrected the portions that weren’t right. He heard the soft pat of bare feet in the corridor coming this way, so he jumped out of Will’s seat and returned to where he had been sitting.

  Interface returned to the Bridge without Will, wearing only a rge smile for the briefest of moments. Then, she sheathed herself in her customary white and blue floral sundress. Ben caught her brief nudity out of the corner of his eye and blushed.

  She captivated him, and he couldn’t help but think about her when he was alone in his separate room at night. During the first few nights on board, Ben could not sleep, and since he was allowed to do so, he roamed the ship's corridors. The walls were extremely well soundproofed, but the three lovers always left the door to their lounge open, letting the sounds of passionate lovemaking flood the hallways as he passed.

  Ben’s embarrassment would drive him back to his room, only for his thoughts to linger on the goings on just down the hall. He would y in bed rubbing out his own relief, imagining holding Interface in his arms, kissing her lightly, caressing her soft form.

  Interface came in and sat down at a station next to where Ben was sitting, then asked, “So Ben, How are you doing?” Her tone was of genuine concern and warmth.

  “Okay, I guess,” Ben responded, focused on not staring at her cleavage or thinking about what she had been up to just a few minutes before with Will.

  “It’s part of my job to make sure everyone on board is healthy and happy,” Interface began. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been listless and haven’t slept well this past week; anything bothering you?” She asked.

  At the mention of Interface knowing his sleeping habits, Ben blushed, and he hoped that she was unaware of how he had been spending his evenings. “It’s just a little much to get used to, you know?” Ben hadn’t intended to unburden himself to Interface, but she had this subtle way of putting him at ease. “Everyone on board has been very kind to me, and considering how we met, I can’t understand why you haven’t spaced me out an airlock already,” He hung his head in shame at the life he had lived until now.

  “I told you that I’m an excellent judge of character,” Interface expined, “I can feel the ‘texture’ of the core of people. It helps me do my job. I know that there’s a lot more to you than maybe even you understand. You’re special, Ben. You carry a Light, and in a dark and lonely universe, it’s important to nurture Light wherever we find it.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Ben said with a slight, self-deprecating smirk.

  “But I do,” Interface affirmed. “It was once my people’s sacred duty to protect and nurture it wherever we found it. I’ve found it in you.”

  Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably, but Interface continued. “For instance, the intuitive way that you grasp the complex math I’ve been teaching Will is a testament to how special you are.”

  Ben suddenly realized Interface was aware that he had been poking at the equations on Will’s screen.

  Seeing the expression on his face, she said, “Yeah, I know what you’ve been up to,” She continued. “It might help to expin my nature. I am more than what you see in front of you. This form,” she said, gesturing to her body, “facilitates my interactions with the crew and their guests. But I am a whole lot more; a part of what I am is the control system for this ship. I run all the subsystems, and when I’m stronger, the entire ship. I am the crew's interface to the ship. We are bound together, crew, interface, and the ship as one.”

  “Like a hive mind?” Ben asked.

  “Sort of, but more like a hippy commune that actually works,” she said with a chuckle. “A very handsy commune,” She said as she touched Ben’s arm. “If you’re willing, that is,” The unspoken question in her eyes, but allowing him to decline her advance.

  “Ye-Yeah, it’s okay,” He stammered, not having very much experience with this sort of thing. “I think I like this, err you, ah I mean..” Interface softly put a finger to his lips. “Shh. It’s okay. I know what you mean. I also know what you do in bed when you’re alone at night,” She said in a low, seductive tone. He blushed bright red, and Interface said, “It’s perfectly normal. And kinda hot. Like I said, it’s part of my job to take care of the crew and guests.” she said, sliding closer, stroking his arm. “Would you like me to take care of you, too?” Unable to form words, Ben nodded his head. “Good, because I really want to take care of you,” Interface said, then leaned forward and gently kissed him.

  As they kissed, a warmth filled Ben, more than just a physical sensation, but something more profound, almost spiritual. He rexed, and she pulled him into a tight embrace. Her soft breasts pressed into his chest as the chaste kiss grew passionate, Ben allowing Interface to explore his mouth with her tongue, wrestling with his own.

  Ben’s hands began exploring her body, feeling her softness underneath her sundress, the curves of her hips, and her firm but soft ass. She reached down and rubbed his already hard cock through his pants, and she moaned with a soft “Mmmm” through their pressed lips.

  With one hand, Interface expertly undid the button and fly of his pants, reached into the waistband of his boxers, and freed his aching cock. She held it firmly, stroking it slowly. Ben groaned as she slipped from their kiss, still stroking his rock-hard member, and knelt on the floor in front of him.

  She looked up through her shes at him; wanton desire poured off her, washing over Ben. Without thinking, he grabbed a hold of both sides of her face and brought her head down to his needy cock. She smiled up at him as she licked his balls, then up his length, causing him to hitch his breath as she swirled her tongue around the soft mushroom-shaped head of his cock, licking off the small bead of pre-cum, before swallowing it.

  Ben groaned as Interface took the tip of his cock in her mouth, hands on his thighs, and swirled her tongue along the sensitive underside of his shaft. She then sucked more of his length into her warm mouth and began bobbing her head up and down slowly, leaving a trail of saliva on his cock.

  He closed his eyes, entirely absorbed by Interface’s vish attention on his cock, moaning loudly. She took longer strokes, pulling more and more of his cock into her mouth with every bob of her head, and then with one effortless drop of her head, she buried his entire length into her tight throat, pressing her nose into his pubic hair.

  She held him in her throat for a long minute, swallowing and humming, delivering sensations he’d never experienced before. She pulled off his shaft with a ‘shlurp’ and said, “That’s right, My Sweet, cum down my throat,” as she swallowed all of him and again, lips wrapped around the base of his shaft.

  It was more than he could stand, and he let go with a wild cry of abandon as he held her head tight to his crotch, bsting rope after rope of cum into her needy throat. She swallowed it all, then pulled her head off his softening cock.

  “Mmm, tasty. Thank you, darling,” Interface said, licking her lips.

  “That was incredible,” Ben finally said, still panting. She got up off her knees, then sat in his p and put her head on his shoulders.

  “This is what I live for, darling,” She said, stroking his chest and smiling at him pyfully. “Making the universe better, one blow job at a time.”

  He held her in his arms for a long while, drinking in her presence. The gentle contact and warm intimacy were something he never knew he was missing but now felt he couldn’t live without. This amazing silver girl in his arms changed his entire outlook on life in a single week. Whatever came next, he would never be the same.

  They sat there for a while, enjoying each other’s warmth, cuddling while the stars sailed by the front viewport. Interface stroked his arm as she sat in Ben’s p; he couldn’t remember ever being so content. She shifted in his p slightly as they sat there, grinding against his crotch just a little bit. Ben knew that she had done it intentionally because when his member started to stiffen again, she gave him a sly smile.

  “Ready for round two?” Interface purred in his ear.

  “Yeah, I think I’m ready for more of you,” he said, sliding his hand up along her inner thigh under her sundress. He found that she was not wearing underwear, and as his hand grazed her bare pussy, she moaned low and needy. His fingers traced the line of her wet slit, from bottom to top, and then he paused, confused, when he found her dick protruding from where a clit would have been on another woman.

  “Is that…” Ben began to ask.

  “Yup. Both sets of plumbing, twice the fun,” She replied in a breathy whisper. “I can have you any way I want,” Interface leaned in and gave him a deep kiss on the lips.

  Breaking the kiss momentarily, Ben asked, “Can I.. can I touch it?” His trepidation told Interface his hidden story better than if he had expined it himself.

  “Oh, please, please touch it. I need you to touch me,” Interface said tenderly, full of want.

  Ben shifted Interface on his p so that his now rock-hard erection was squeezed into the crack of her ass, letting him reach around her slim waist with both hands. His right hand traveled up the inside of her thigh and rubbed her pussy while his left hand firmly grabbed the base of her dick, stroking it up and down in time with the rubbing of her pussy.

  Interface leaned her head back on his shoulder, silver hair cascading over his face. “Ooh, yes! Just like that. Mmmm, more, give me more!” She moaned excitedly, pushing the top of her dress down to expose her breasts, mauling them with her hands while she pinched both nipples.

  Ben stroked her shaft faster and began pumping two fingers in and out of her wet cunt. She bit her lower lip and mumbled something incoherent as she was overcome with need. He lifted her slightly and spun her around to face him. She bent down and kissed him deeply as she straddled his p in the chair, then she reached down with one hand to line his cock up to her sopping wet entrance.

  “Is this what you want?” Interface asked pyfully, her eyes twinkling.

  “More than anything,” Ben quickly replied, then grabbed her hips and pulled her down on him, impaling her balls deep with a single thrust. Her dress vanished, and she practically tore his shirt off him, pulling it up and over his head, crushing her breasts against his bare chest, her cock pressed in between their bellies.

  She rocked her hips and bounced up and down slowly, grinding his cock in her pussy and rubbing her cock between the two of their stomachs. “Oh, Ben, that’s so good!” She cried out, picking up the pace, his hands on her hips, driving her with force on her downward thrusts into his p.

  Their pace picked up urgency as their climaxes approached. The sound of spping flesh and needful moaning echoed down the corridor from the bridge for anyone to hear. Ben didn’t care. His whole world at this moment was the silver angel riding him hard for all she could. She was giving him everything, all of herself, and Ben had never felt so loved.

  As that brief thought fshed through his mind, his grip on Interface’s hips tightened as he pulled her down over him hard, driving his cock in as deep as he could go, then came hard in her depths.

  Ben, shooting his hot load into her, pushed Interface over the edge, and her climax crashed over her. Her vaginal walls trembled and clutched his cock tightly as she came, and her cock thrashed, pressed in between them, pulsing as she shot one enormous load after another, covering them both with her emissions, painting their bellies silver.

  Interface slumped forward, panting, and rested her head on Ben’s shoulder. He reached around her and held her tight, silently thanking the universe for bringing him to her. They stayed there, locked together for a long time, basking in the afterglow, enjoying the feeling of the other’s body pressed close.

  Ben slowly came back to his senses and smiled at the silver girl still impaled on his cock. Reaching between them, he swiped his fingers through the cum she had covered them in and said, “I think I look good in silver,” he chuckled.

  Ben brought his fingers up to his lips to taste his lover when she blocked his hand with her own, then held it tenderly. “I can’t let you do that, my Sweet,” she said. “Maybe in time, but not yet.”

  A slight look of puzzlement crossed his face, but he was unconcerned and let it drop without a question. He had found something he never imagined in a million years that would be his, and it was enough.

  Interface swiped her hand across his chest, gathered up all the silver, and reabsorbed it into her body. She smiled warmly, gave him a long, deep kiss, and then settled back into his embrace.

  Ben and Interface cuddled on the bridge, simply watching the stars sail by. After some time, June wandered onto the bridge and spotted the two. She walked over and gave Interface a peck on the cheek, then looked Ben in the eyes, smiled, and gave him a peck on his cheek as well. “Looks like someone has officially joined the ‘I Heart Interface’ fan club,” June said jokingly.

  “Yeah, I guess I did,” Ben said with a dopey grin, spreading ear to ear.

  ****

  A few hours ter, Interface and Will were back to pouring over the mathematics Will had been wrestling with earlier. June was at the navigational console, checking their course and scanning for the traffic of other ships, which could be a particur danger because the Nestia didn’t have a transponder of its own and wouldn’t be visible to other ships until it was too te.

  Ben watched the others with a growing fondness, partly because he knew Interface loved them but mostly because they were kind and fascinating people.

  June could be warm and bubbly, with almost a schoolgirl charm at times, but at other times, she was a cool, efficient operator who knew the precise move or action for a given scenario.

  Will could be an affable goofball, joking mainly at his own expense, then, the next moment, a hard and strong bulwark, ready and able to shield those closest to him.

  Then there was Interface, the beating heart of the Nestia. She was soft, kind, compassionate, and a sexy minx to boot. But Ben had seen firsthand the vicious efficiency with which she dispatched anyone or anything that threatened her family.

  “So, how do I fit in with all of this?” Ben thought to himself. He didn't have an answer to that question, so he returned to the material he was reading, Will's so-called ‘4-D engineering for dummies’.

  “Looks all clear for now,” June announced, spinning in her seat and addressing the rest of the room. “But I'm not sure what our course of action should be once we arrive at Bourdan. We can probably find somepce to get a message to Peirault Shipping and let them know the details of the ‘Saturn's Heart’ loss. I’m pretty sure we’re still employed, but they’re probably ready to chalk us up as ‘lost’. We also need to arrange terms for the return of the transponder for the customary salvage reward, but after that, I'm at a loss. We are currently so slow that it will take us a very long time to get out of this backwater corner of space. We would need to catch a ride on the next commercial ferry transport, but there's no way I'd leave Interface and the Nestia behind.”

  “What if we ferried the Nestia as well? Those interstelr ferries are as rge as small cities; they take ships of all sizes all the time,” Will offered.

  “Even if we had money to begin with, the fare for a ship the size of Nestia would be well out of our price range,” June said, shaking her head.

  Ben looked up from the engineering manual, unsure of himself and his pce in this discussion, but spoke up anyway. “What if the Nestia were smaller?”

  He received a round of confused looks, so he expined. “Well, I’ve been reading through this,” he gestured to the text on the console in front of him, “about the basic dynamics of 4-D constructs, establishing, moving, and maintaining them, and I’ve noticed that all the equations use uniform gravity fields across the construct in their maniputions. I don’t think g-field maniputions actually require uniform fields,” Now, he had their rapt attention.

  Ben continued. “If you used a precisely shaped gradient field across the construct, instead of pulling the object and its associated 3-D space wholly into 4-D, you could bend the space around it.”

  Ben scratched the back of his head, trying to come up with a good analogy. “Think of it like this, you have a cylinder, sitting on the ground and it casts a long, rectangur shadow. If you pick up one end and turn it just right, you change the shadow from a long rectangle to a smaller circle. The same sort of thing would apply here, you end up shrinking the shadow of the ship, but the actual object stays the same. Some of the 3-D object would be in a wrinkle of 3-D space tucked up in 4-D space.”

  Interface closed her eyes and ran some quick calcutions, then spoke. “Yeah, I think that could work. That’s brilliant, My Sweet!” Naked as ever, she ran over and gave him a big hug, perfect silver breasts squeezed against him, causing him to blush furiously and tent his pants. “I’ll need to run some serious calcutions, but I can’t see any immediate fws in your logic. Perfect. Absolutely perfect!” She said, giving him a big kiss in appreciation.

  “If the ship were smaller, about a quarter of her current size, do you think we could afford the fee for the ferry?” Ben asked.

  “It would be much more reasonable, maybe two thousand dolrs, give or take. Still more than what we have on hand,” June said.

  “We could get three, maybe four for all the rad batteries,” Will chimed in. “We don’t need them anymore. I should be able to find a buyer on Bourdan. That would pay our way and give us some money for expenses.”

  “Maybe enough that we could eat something other than banana-fvored toothpaste,” June joked.

  “It makes a strawberry-fvored paste, too! I spent all day yesterday adding it to the programming for the nutritional dispenser,” Will retorted, a broad smile on his face.

  “I think it makes sense before we try to shrink the ship, tuck it into a 4-D wrinkle, or whatever it is that you’re thinking, that we test it on a smaller scale,” June said, clearly uneasy with the thought of doing something drastic to the ship. “Could you use one of the one-person pods to test this idea?” She asked Interface.

  “Yes, the pods and the shuttle are connected to the ship, getting their power from the core, so I could test with one of those,” Interface said.

  “How long would it take you to get ready?” Will asked.

  “I’m running the calcutions now; I should have it in the time it takes us to walk to the hangar.”

  They all got up excitedly and headed for the hangar, Interface leading with the others close behind.

  The door to the lift opened, and they all crowded in, with Interface at the back. June and Will standing in front of her was too tempting a lure, so she reached down and grabbed a handful of each of their asses.

  They turned in unison, smiling, then reached their arms around either side of the naked silver girl, pressing close to her from both sides, Will nibbling her neck as June kissed her full on the lips.

  Ben didn't turn around but knew what they were up to. He felt a weird combination of embarrassment and longing that he couldn't quite sort out. He didn't have long to try as the lift doors opened directly onto the hanger unch deck.

  The hangar had room for many small crafts but was only occupied by a single shuttle close to the lift doors and three of the small one-person crafts at the far end.

  The vehicles in the hanger shared a simir style to that of the Nestia itself: long, oblong spheroid bodies with three swept-back fins at the rear of each of the smaller vessels. The fins took up a rger percentage of the surface the smaller the craft, proportionally rger than the fins on the Nestia.

  The one-person pods had a hatch that opened gull-wing style on the side of the small craft, just in front of the fins. Inside was a single, slightly reclined seat, with two independent control sticks with hand grips at forty-five-degree angles for ergonomic efficiency. The whole arrangement of the interior gave the pod a feel that would make a fighter pilot feel very much at home.

  “I can’t wait to take one of these out for a spin,” June said excitedly. “If they’re half as nimble as the Nestia, they’ll be a hell of a ride.”

  “I’m sure it will be, and as soon as we arrive at Bourdan, we’ll have some free time for you to go for a joy ride,” Interface said. “But we’re here for ‘Science!’” She said over-dramatically, pointing her finger in the air.

  They all chuckled, then got down to business.

  “I’m taking the ship out of FTL and letting the ship coast while we test this out, for two reasons,” Interface expined. “One, we’ll need to divert power from the drive while we try this out. We don’t have enough power to do both. Also, I don’t want any unwanted effects from the gravity field to affect the test,” Interface expined.

  “Okay, everyone, stand back. I’m going to apply the tailored gravity field and start the process,” She said, waving everyone back from the pod.

  As they stood and watched, Interface’s brow furrowed in concentration. Then, a soft blue glow enveloped the small craft. As they watched, it slowly shrank, as if sliding off into the distance, but without moving. After a moment, the craft shrank to about a quarter of its original size, and once the opening of the gull-wing door was barely wide enough for someone to squeeze their shoulder through, the pale blue light faded, and Interface looked at them expectantly.

  “Let's see how we did, shall we?” Interface said.

  They all crowded around the now tiny craft, and June stuck her head inside the door. “I think it worked!” She said excitedly, then wriggled her way into the ridiculously small craft. Once inside, she twisted and turned her body to orient her body correctly so that she could sit in the pilot’s seat correctly.

  “It’s still a perfect fit!” June said, leaning out the door, resting her elbow on the door frame like she was hanging out of a window. “It feels a little weird though, when crossing the threshold. It’s like the sensation of going down a slide, but without moving,” She said, trying to expin what she was feeling.

  Will peered in, looked at the outside of the tiny craft, then peered in once more, trying to make his brain make sense of what he was seeing. He understood it logically, but his perception refused to cooperate. “It’s bigger on the…” He started to say before Interface put a single finger on his lips.

  “Yes, we know, that’s what we were shooting for,” Then she put her hands on her silvery hips and decred, “An unqualified success!”

  Will turned to Ben and asked, “Do you think there are any limitations to how much we could shrink something like this?”

  “From what I understand of the math and first principles involved, I don’t think so. The constraints are going to be processing power for the calcutions and the avaibility of raw energy from the core,” Ben answered, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

  “And we have enough of both to resize the outside of Nestia to suit our needs,” Interface said, then continuing, “It does take a little energy to maintain the 4-D wrinkle, but not much. Now, if I release the hold on its form, the wrinkle should smooth out on its own.”

  Interface looked at the pod, and when she stopped providing the energy to maintain it, the pod slowly grew in size until it reverted to its original size.

  “How long will it take you to run the calcutions to do this for the Nestia?” June asked Interface.

  “I’ve already completed them, and the ship is currently idle, so we have plenty of power at the moment, though we will lose a little bit of speed-diverting power to hold the size. Are you all ready?” Interface asked.

  “I trust you. I’m ready,” Ben said quickly. Will and June promptly agreed.

  “Okay, here we go!” Interface said excitedly, then closed her eyes in concentration.

  They all felt the odd sensation of sliding down an incline without physically moving. Will was caught off guard by its intensity and reached out to June and Ben to steady himself. They both stepped closer to Will, holding him up and stopping his wobble. After a few moments, the feeling subsided, and Interface turned to face them.

  “All done?” June asked.

  “Yup. Now by all outward appearances, we are a small shuttle, about 70 meters long,” Interface answered, her voice bright, proud of herself.

  “I want to check it out. Our pressure suits are still in the lounge, right?” Will asked June.

  “Yup,” She said, nodding.

  They returned to the lounge, and Will gathered the gear for his suit and took the lift up a deck to the airlock, with everyone following in behind. He put the suit on in the hallway and, before donning the helmet, gave June and Interface a quick kiss.

  Will stepped into the airlock, which closed behind him. It only took a few minutes to vent the chamber, and then the outside door melted open. The stars twinkled motionless outside the ship, and as Will engaged the small maneuvering thrusters in his suit, he looked around.

  He would never get used to the feeling of smallness he always experienced when stepping out into the bottomless bck yawn of open space, stretching to infinity in every direction. It simultaneously made everything in his life seem insignificant and the most important thing in the universe. He was grateful for the reminder to covet all that he held dear.

  He jetted a short distance from the ship and then spun about. Interface had done a masterful job. From this perspective, with the gravity drive inactive, the Nestia now appeared to be a small, bright white shuttle with the same basic shape as the shuttle in the hangar. The airlock door had shrunk slightly but now occupied the surface area on the ship appropriate for the size of a shuttle. The airlock remained open, and looking inside, the size of the room gave him that same feeling of disjointed perception he got when they had resized the pod in the hangar. He admired Interface’s handiwork, then returned to the ship.

  Once back inside, he rejoined the group and removed his pressure suit. “Wonderfully done, Interface. From the outside, we look just like a small shuttle. If you look inside with the door open, the difference gives us away,” Will shucked down the pants of the pressure suit and continued. “Could you remodel the airlock and maybe a couple of the adjoining rooms to match the apparent outside dimensions?” Will asked.

  “Like a mock shuttle interior,” June said, understanding the direction of Will’s thoughts.

  “Yeah. That way, even if we’re boarded for an inspection, they would be none the wiser,” Ben pitched in.

  “I sure can,” Interface chirped. “June, would you help me with the yout?” She asked.

  “Absolutely. I can think of a couple of standard designs that we could use that would work nicely,” June said, the gears in her head already spinning.

  “We can do all that while we’re underway,” Interface said.

  “Great! I’ll head up to the bridge and check the scanners for any traffic that might cross our path, then get us back underway,” June said, then turned and walked off, heading to the bridge. Both Will and Interface watched the wiggle of her ass as she walked away, then at each other and smiled, knowing that they were both thinking about the same thing.

  “Complete success!” Interface excimed, “This calls for a celebration!” She wrangled Will and Ben into a group hug. They couldn't avoid pressing into and rubbing against her naked silver form, and she kissed them both, igniting their libidos, which were on a constant low boil.

  “Insatiable,” Will said low and impassionate, kissing where her neck and shoulder met, a hand kneading a breast hard, the other grabbing a handful of her soft, silvery ass.

  Ben, a bit more timid but no less enthusiastic, pressed himself close to her other side, turning her face towards his, and gave her a passionate kiss.

  Interface reached down and rubbed their already hard cocks through their pants. “ Oh my lovely boys, I need these in me in the worst way,” Interface said breathlessly. Will smiled wide ear to ear, undoing his pants right there in the hallway. Interface smiled back, then turned her attention to Ben, now giving him a sultry expression, and unfastened the button on his pants, pulled down his zipper, bending over at the waist to slide his pants down his legs to let him step out of them.

  As Interface presented her peach-shaped behind to him, Will stopped to admire her perfect silvery ass, then roughly grabbed her hips and thrust deep into her soppy wet cunt, sliding into her warm depths. Interface’s hands clung tight to Ben’s waist, face pressed against his cock, tenting his boxers as Will began to thrust deep and hard into her, rocking her forward, causing her to let out a low, wanton moan.

  She regained enough of her senses long enough to rip down Ben’s shorts, exposing his rock-hard cock, suddenly free, pressed directly into the side of her face as she was fucked from behind. Interface pushed Ben against the wall and followed his cock with her mouth. With Will’s next thrust, she allowed Will’s momentum to shove Ben’s throbbing dick down her throat, her nose pressed tight against him, buried in his pubic hair.

  They establish a quick rhythm of Will almost withdrawing from Interface, Interface chasing his dick with her cunt, pulling Ben’s cock from her throat. Then Will would drive hard, forcing her mouth back down Ben’s dick, almost as if Will was fucking Ben with Interface’s throat.

  Lost in blissful sensation, the three fucked with wild abandon in the hallway, winding tight like springs, closing in on their climax. Their pace accelerated and became jerky as Interface’s climax raced up and suddenly consumed her. As she came, her pussy fluttered and pulsed on Will’s dick, triggering his climax, and her scream, muffled by the cock in her throat, caught Ben off guard and sent him over the edge.

  Interface, lost in bliss, received pulse after pulse of cum from both ends. It poured into her and filled her with deep, warm satisfaction. Her eyes fluttered as their collective orgasm lingered, then slowly relented. Finally coming down, Will and Ben withdrew from Interface, and she said, “God, that was hot,” She pulled her two men tight to her and kissed one deeply, then the other.

  June stood a short way down the corridor, red-faced and panting with her hand, down the front of her zipped open jumpsuit. She still fingered herself, having watched the three of them go at it. “I’m really hoping you’re ready for round two,” She said, smiling seductively.

  Interface sashayed the short distance to where June stood, pulled June’s hand from her snatch, brought it to her mouth, and slowly sucked each finger clean. “Round two, three, four...” She said low and breathy, herding the boys forward as she practically dragged June to their lounge.

  Once inside, Interface hurriedly stripped June naked, kissing every inch of her skin as she exposed it. She wrapped herself around June, her silver tits pressing against June’s, their nipples rubbing against each other’s, causing them both to moan into each other’s mouths as they kissed.

  Interface was almost frantic with need as she pushed June over, knocking her ft on her back on the bed. She dove straight for June and pressed her face in between June’s thighs, desperate for a taste of her wet cunt. June writhed and moaned as Interface expertly ate her out, licking and sucking her clit, then swirled her tongue around June’s swollen bia and back to her clit.

  Interface’s need drove them all into a frenzy. Moments into getting eaten out, June orgasmed hard, squirting all over Interface’s head buried in her crotch, only to be brought screaming right to the edge of her next one. Will and Ben only watched the two frenzied lovers for a moment before they were overwhelmed by the scene and Interface’s undeniable aura. They rushed to undress and add themselves to the pile of sex.

  Will knelt and pushed his cock in between June and Interface’s passionate kisses, drawing their attention to the interloper.

  They took the hint, and both began licking his shaft up and down, their two tongues dancing and twirling together across the length of his cock.

  Ben knelt behind Interface and buried his face between her ass cheeks, licking her pussy up and down and sucking on her clit. He reached up past her soppy wet pussy, and wrapped his fingers around the base of Interface’s silver cock, squeezing tight, pumping his fist up and down in time with his pping tongue.

  “Ooohh, I need to be inside you, June,” Interface cried out, then she climbed up June’s body, kissing all the way, until Ben lined up her hard, pewter cock with June’s aching pussy. She felt no resistance as she pushed and bottomed out in June’s well-lubricated depths, and they both groaned loudly as Interface’s spongy tip smmed against June’s cervix.

  Ben followed Interface up June’s body and pressed himself tightly against her silver body; his dick pressed in the hollow of her ass cheeks as he reached around her body to squeeze and py with her tits. His cock ached with need, so he guided it with one hand to the silver pussy that he had just been eating out and drove it in deep and hard.

  Interface yipped as she was penetrated, and it drove her frenzy to new heights. She immediately took it out on June’s pussy, and began hammering her cock into June like a jackhammer. Her motions driving her cock deep into June caused Ben to withdraw from her pussy, and as she withdrew from June’s hot wet hole, she drove her pussy hard into Ben shoving his dick deep into her.

  Having lost the attention of two sets of tongues on his cock, Will decided to alternate and first drove into June’s mouth, straight to the back of her throat, causing her eyes to bulge. But Interface and Will had long ago tamed her gag reflex, so she just swirled her tongue around the shaft lodged in her throat and hummed around the meat blocking her airway.

  Will withdrew from June’s mouth, eliciting a cough and a gasp, then jammed it down Interface’s eager throat. He grabbed her head and began pumping vigorously in and out, his balls spping back and forth across June’s face below. She stuck her tongue out and licked his balls as they passed.

  Interface’s pistoning in and out of June pushed her over the edge, and a massive orgasm smmed into her, arching her back, her mouth wide open in a wordless scream. The walls of her pussy trembled and gripped Interface’s cock tight, touching off the silver girl’s titanic orgasm, bsting her sex aura into a supernova, which crashed into Ben and Will, causing their building orgasms to explode.

  It was Will’s turn to jet cum down Interface’s throat as he came hard. It pumped and pumped out of his cock, shooting more into her stomach than he thought was humanly possible. Ben, too, was lost in his colossal orgasm, driving himself as deep into Interface’s pussy as he could; he came so much that as he painted her insides white, Ben was sure he would pass out.

  The four were locked together in absolute bliss for several minutes until it faded, and they all slumped over one another, physically and emotionally spent. As they regained their sense, those on top rolled off their partners on the bottom and y alongside, cuddling close.

  Will and Ben y on the outsides like big spoons while June and Interface snuggled together in the middle, foreheads touching. Someone pulled a sheet over them, and they all fell asleep, holding each other.

  Sated, Interface y in the center of the pile of her lovers, basking in the warmth of their bodies. She didn’t need the sleep but craved the tender closeness that her lovers gave her without reservation. She had eight hours to memorize every warm, soft curve of their bodies and the cute sounds of sleep they made; she wouldn’t miss it for the world.

  ****

  The next three weeks were the happiest Ben could ever remember being. They spent their time working on various projects, punctuated with bouts of fantastic sex. June and Interface spent nearly all their time remodeling the rooms on the port-side corridor surrounding the airlock. The ‘faux shuttle’ had a small cockpit with three seats: two in the usual side-by-side pilot-copilot configuration and a third just behind for the engineer.

  Just behind that was a sitting area with seats along either wall meant for additional passengers, and through a door at the back of the seating area was a short corridor that led to a bunk room with four bunks. Interface made sure to test each bunk ‘vigorously’, fucking June senseless a few times on each bed, sending waves of arousal from Interface’s aura sweeping across the ship, announcing the precise moment when Interface touched off yet another of June’s savage climaxes.

  As Interface and June ‘worked’ on the faux shuttle, Ben helped Will upgrade the nutritional dispenser, trying to add texture as a selectable parameter. They discussed some programming logic dispyed on the terminal when Will closed his eyes and went quiet momentarily, feeling the echo of June and Interface’s activities.

  Ben watched Will smile and felt something subtle he couldn’t quite pce, so he asked, “What was that?”

  “That was June and Interface enjoying each other,” Will said, still smiling. He saw the confused look on Ben’s face, so he expined. “Interface is an extremely sexual being, and psychic as well, so when she feels good, you know it. June and I are a little more tuned into her ‘wavelength’.”

  Ben considered Will’s words for a moment. “Is that what the silver tattoos are all about?” He asked. He had seen the both of them naked enough in the past few weeks that he was well acquainted with the totality of the silvery design adorning their skin.

  “Yes, it is. It is an outward sign of our Bond with Interface and the ship. We are connected deeply with Interface, and she with us, on an emotional, psychic, and physical level. I am closer to those two people than I have been to anyone in my entire life. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them, and they for me. I love them,” Will said, and the feeling of the truth of it all made him smile again.

  Ben wondered again about his pce in all of this and, in a fsh of insight, realized that he cared a great deal about these people, Interface in particur. He thought about how he felt about her, the times they sat together watching the stars, the look of adoration on her face when he held her close and realized that he had fallen for the silvery minx. She, Will, and June had swiftly become important to him, and his feelings echoed Will’s spoken truth.

  Ben set those thoughts aside to examine them more closely ter, then focused on the task he and Will were working on.

  The theoretical stuff came naturally to Ben, but by a wide margin, Will was much more masterful regarding the actual mechanics and implementation of a system. Their talents complemented each other perfectly, and they chatted and joked while they worked. They were fast becoming buddies. Talking about figuring out the ship’s tech gave them ample ground for their friendship to bloom.

  Later, they found June and Interface in the faux shuttle, putting the finishing touches on their clever deception. “Look at what we got the dispenser to produce!” Ben said eagerly, shoving a crispy bar into June’s hands.

  With a very serious look, she carefully turned it over, visually inspecting it, and then held it under her nose to sniff it. She took a small bite of the crunchy bar, thoroughly chewing it, eyes up and to the left like she was deep in thought as she evaluated the foodstuff.

  Unable to keep her serious composure, she giggled and said, “This is great! No more paste for us!” She threw her arms around Ben and Will, pulling them in for a big hug.

  “And this faux shuttle looks great! Very convincing. I don’t think anyone would even imagine there was anything more than what they see here,” Will said, beaming with pride at June and Interface’s handy-work..

  “And the cockpit controls work, too. We routed the circuits down from the bridge, so now if someone rides along with us, nothing will seem out of the ordinary. We even partitioned a part of the hangar as a stand-in for a cargo bay, appropriately sized and accessible from a door at the rear of the ship. Lots of small cargo ships only have access to the cargo from the outside, so there’s no need to worry about figuring out how to connect a room three hundred meters away to this room that should only be twenty,” June proudly expined.

  It’s a fine piece of work, like you two,” Will said, pulling June in for a deep and passionate kiss. Interface wrapped an arm around Ben’s waist and leaned into him as she watched her two lovers express their love for one another.

  June and Will were momentarily lost in their loving embrace. They held each other close and kissed like they needed the other to breathe. “They’re so beautiful,” Interface cooed into Ben’s ear.

  “So are you,” Ben replied. He looked deep into Interface’s eyes and saw his feeling for her mirrored in her expression. “There’s no doubt. I’ve fallen for you, Interface,” He said, holding her tight as a wave of strong emotion rose from his core. “I want to love you forever,” He said, and he could see in her face that she understood what he was implying.

  She smiled warmly and asked with a soft, gentle voice, “Are you sure this is what you want? Some choices can not be undone.” She wanted Ben as much as he wanted her, but her concern for him compelled her to find what was best for him.

  “Yes, I want you to be mine. I want to be yours if you’ll have me,” Ben said pinly. Her smile widened, then she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him deeply. Their tongues danced together as Ben wrapped his arms around her slim waist, holding her close, not wanting to ever let her go.

  The two pairs of lovers kissed and caressed each other for a few more long moments, and when their lips slipped away from one another, she took Ben by the hand and then to all of them said, “Come with me.”

  Interface led them through the ship, holding Ben’s hand, fingers interced, while Will held June’s until they came to the med bay. She smiled broadly at her three lovers and walked to the back until they came to the hidden alcove, already open, containing the silver bath. She swung her legs over the tub's rim and stepped into the liquid.

  There was no distinguishing where she ended, and the bath began, silver flowing seamlessly down her naked body and into the tub. She spoke no words but held out her arms to Ben, beckoning him to join her.

  Ben wore a rge smile ear to ear as he undressed and stepped into the tub. Then he embraced Interface, holding her tight to him. Will and June stood close by, an arm wrapped around the other’s waist, and smiled warmly as they watched Ben and Interface.

  The soft blue glow in Interface’s eyes grew bright, casting its light on Ben. They kissed again, and as they stood in the silvery bath, electrical discharge crackled and danced on the surface, readying itself to accept Ben.

  Holding Ben tight and not breaking their kiss, Interface leaned Ben backward until the back of his head touched the surface of the charged fluid. The bath fluid may have been arcing lightning, but the only thing electric that Ben felt was Interface’s passionate kiss. It was deeper and fuller than anything he had ever felt. Interface opened herself to him, pouring her heart and love into this new connection they were forming, intoxicating Ben; he was utterly swept away with the sensation of love and belonging.

  They both submerged beneath the surface of the silvery liquid; its warm embrace enveloped the lovers completely. Ben felt it begin to absorb into his skin, into his being, as the warmth and connection bound to his soul. Interface’s tongue hollowed into a tube and grew into his mouth, reaching past his tongue and pouring a steady stream of the silver fluid down his throat, into his stomach, filling it. At the same time, a finger size tendril pushed past the tight ring of muscle of his ass and filled him from the other end. He felt the warmth spread to his center from all directions, inside and out, and was consumed by the bliss of connection with his lover.

  It ramped up and up, heightening his euphoria and expanding his being. It drove out his fear and self-loathing; it consumed and bound him. He would never be alone again. Finally, it was too much for him to handle, and he lost consciousness, lost in bliss.

  Interface lifted him, re-emerging from the bath, and held him in her arms, his head resting on her shoulder. The silver fluid flowed off his body as they emerged, and as Interface carried him out of the bath, the same flowing, silvery markings covered his body that adorned Will and June’s.

  They bent and kissed Ben on the forehead, the spidery silver tracings on his skin still slightly glowing blue. Interface carried him to their lounge and pced him on the bed. Then, the three of them climbed in after him, cuddled up close together, and y there as close together as if they were all of one body.

  ****

  The Nestia came out of FTL just outside Bourdan space, slowing to cruising speed. June and Will took up the pilot and copilot’s seats while Ben and Interface sat in easy earshot on a couch in the sitting area just behind the cockpit. The Bourdan Space Patrol would contact them shortly, so as they had discussed earlier, June would speak as Captain when they did.

  They didn’t have to wait long; two sleek, angur cruisers bristling with weapons approached on an intersecting vector and hailed them. “Unidentified vessel, maintain heading and slow your speed to one-quarter of your current velocity. Please Identify yourself.”

  June followed the instructions and responded to the hail as the cruisers appeared on their starboard. “This Captain June Harding of the unaffiliated vessel, Nestia, seeking permission to enter Bourdan space,” She responded.

  “You’re a long way out for a ship your size and configuration, Captain. Where’s your transponder? How’d you get here? How many are you?” The BSP Officer asked a series of questions in rapid-fire succession.

  “We were originally on the freighter, ‘Saturn’s Heart’ delivering cargo from Port Silban to Brazo Prime for the Peirault Shipping company when we shipwrecked on an uncharted pnet about ten lightyears from here. We were able to escape marooning in this experimental craft. There are four of us on board. We need to report back to Peirault to inform them of the loss.” June gave them all the details that border patrol would need to check their story without going into too much detail.

  “Hold course, Nestia,” the BPS officer commanded.

  “Affirmative,” June responded. They waited a few minutes in tense silence, hoping that the patrol officer would be able to verify their story.

  “Captain Harding,” the patrol officer began, returning to comms, “It looks like Peirault has already decred you a loss. They’ll be relieved to find out that you survived.”

  “I’m sure they will,” June responded.

  “Follow the flight path I’m transmitting now to orbital station Penrose, and observe the harbor speed limits. Dock in slip 47A. Welcome back to civilization, Captain,” the officer said in a curt but warm tone.

  “Thank you, Patrol. It’s good to be back,” June replied, closed comms, and id in a course to follow the prescribed flight path.

  Will let out a relieved breath. “That went well,” he said to June, with an unspoken prompt to see if she thought they were free and clear.

  “Yeah, that was as good as I could have hoped for. Where we don’t have a transponder, I still anticipate an inspection when we dock,” June said with a hint of trepidation.

  “You and Interface did a great job with the faux shuttle. I’m sure everything will go smoothly,” Ben said from the couch. Interface y with her head in his p and feet crossed on the opposite couch arm, his hand resting on her bare stomach.

  They followed the flight path to the Penrose orbital station. Penrose was constructed with sturdy gray titanium in the Terran fashion. It was an eight-hundred-meter-tall cylinder with three levels of concourses, six per level, extending out of the central cylinder hub-like spokes without a surrounding wheel. Each arm had several berths, and their slip was located in the middle section, towards the end of one arm.

  June slowed the ship as they approached, rotated, and eased the ship closer until they were captured by the rge docking cmps encircling the ship with a dull thump on the hull.

  As the docking ring sealed onto the airlock, Will looked back and suddenly remembered that a stark naked, silver hermaphrodite with her tits and cock hanging out might disturb some people. “Interface, clothes!” Will hissed with a loud whisper.

  “Fine,” she said with a bemused smirk. Then her usual white dress with a blue floral pattern formed and at least made her decent, though still alluring.

  They heard a hard rap on the airlock door, so they all stood and opened it.

  The airlock door melted open, revealing a portly, balding middle-aged man fnked by two armed troopers. All wore dark green uniforms with the starburst BSP insignia on the breasts of their shirts and pips on their colrs, indicating their ranks.

  “Good Morning, I am Lieutenant Fredericks, Assistant Port Master,” He introduced himself in a terse, professional tone without introducing the two soldiers behind him. “I will conduct the inspection and interview before you are allowed in the station.” Before anyone could respond to his greeting, he swept in, followed closely by the two guards.

  Looking around the ‘shuttle’ interior, he said, “I’ve never seen a configuration like this before. Who produced it?”

  “It’s a small experimental vessel, but I can’t share the manufacturer or details as I’m under an NDA. It’s technically still under development which is probably why you haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s passed its space trials, but we’re still shaking her down,” Will bluffed.

  “And you are?” the Lieutenant demanded.

  “William Foucault, Mechanic First Css,” Will responded, offering a handshake that Lieutenant Fredricks only stared at.

  “Right. And you must be Captain Harding,” He said, staring at his clipboard without a gnce at June.

  “Yes, that’s right,” June said, slightly put off by his manners. She had seen his type before but held her tongue.

  “And these two?” Fredricks thumbed towards Interface and Ben.

  “Fellow rescued castaways. We met them on the pnet we crashed on, and brought them with us as passengers,” June expined.

  “So what’s your story?” the irritable Lieutenant asked Ben and Interface.

  June and Will exchanged furtive, worried gnces while Lieutenant Fredericks focused on Interface and Ben. The group had pnned to be vague on details in hopes that they wouldn’t be forced to fabricate a story and possibly get caught in a lie, but they hadn’t considered until just now that Ben used to be a criminal until recently and might have a rap sheet.

  “I am Inta, artificial companion prototype, serial Three-Seven-One.” She said sweetly, extending her hand, wrist bent as if she expected him to take her hand and kiss it.

  And after a moment’s hesitation, and to everyone’s astonishment, that’s precisely what Fredricks did. Then he stammered, “Oh, ah, oh yes, hello, my dear.” His face grew a little red.

  Ben, picking up on the opportunity, jumped in, “And I’m Jason Rittenov, programmer and field test engineer for this Inta series artificial companion.” The Lieutenant didn’t look up from Interface’s captivating glowing blue eyes.

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure,” The Lieutenant muttered, his eyes descending to Interface’s ample cleavage.

  “If you’d like I can give you a demonstration of one of my ten thousand entertainment routines,” Interface offered in a sweetly seductive voice.

  At that, the Lieutenant’s face grew bright red, and after looking around to everyone standing in the room, said quickly, “Err, ah, no. That won’t be necessary.” He quickly straightened his back and adjusted the front of his shirt, clearly wanting to adjust something a little lower.

  “Okay, let’s move on to the inspection,” Fredericks said, desperate to change the direction of the conversation.

  June gave the Lieutenant a cursory tour of the cockpit controls, which he noted were quite standard in design. Then, he had the soldiers check the cubbies around the sitting area for potential contraband.

  The inspection moved to the bunkroom, and Fredericks had the soldiers look through the bedding and under the mattresses until Interface got up on her tiptoes, lightly brushing her tits on the Lieutenant’s arm as she said softly into his ear. “I have been field tested for over three hundred hours for use in confined spaces like a bunk room. Would you care for a demonstration?” She asked him softly in his ear.

  His face went beet red, and he stammered again and said, “Alright, alright, it’s just a bunk room; that’s enough.” Sweat beaded on his forehead as he quickly turned back to June and Will. “Ah, hem. I assume there is a cargo hold?”

  “Yes, but its only access is the rear door. We can show you if you would like us to move to a pressurized hangar,” June offered.

  “No, this slip will be fine. I will call a maintenance pod over, and you will open the rear door for inspection,” He said, regaining control of the situation and himself.

  “Sure thing,” June said, forcing herself not to crack a smile.

  June went to the controls, depressurized the small cargo bay and opened the doors as the maintenance pod arrived. Lieutenant Fredericks watched the small screen on his clipboard as the pod maneuvered its camera to view the contents of the hold.

  Seeing the equipment staged in the corner, Fredericks asked, “What’s all this in your hold?”

  “Salvage from the ‘Saturn’s Heart’. Eight Radioisotope batteries, Delta css, and the ship’s transponder. We’re working to return the transponder and sell off the batteries for the portage fee aboard the next interstelr ferry.”

  “Well, you are in luck on both accounts,” The Lieutenant said. “Our maintenance shop is always on the lookout for quality used parts, and the next ferry is scheduled to arrive in-system next week.”

  “That’s great news, thank you! Who should I talk to in the maintenance shop about the batteries?” Will asked, grateful in earnest.

  “Ask for Quartermaster Jacobs. Tell him I sent you,” Fredericks said, looking at Interface with a side-eyed gnce, hoping no one noticed.

  “Ah hem, well, that concludes my inspection. You are all cleared for entry. Good day.” The guards left first, and with one red-faced look back to Interface, Lieutenant Fredericks followed.

  As soon as the airlock door was closed, everyone burst into ughter, from relief that everything went well and to Interface’s ‘sexbot’ act and the Lieutenant’s reaction to it.

  “Did you see his face?!” Ben said, nearly doubling over with ughter.

  “I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there!” Will said, chuckling along with everyone else.

  As their ughter ran its course, Will plopped onto the couch next to Interface and Ben while June leaned on the back of the engineer’s seat. “It’s still pretty early, te morning by station time, so I would like to get the ball rolling and get over to the station maintenance shop to get the rad batteries sold. We need to book passage on the ferry as soon as possible to make sure all the hangar slips in the ferry don’t get sold out on us,” Will said, ying out his idea for their day’s itinerary.

  “How about we find a nice restaurant and have a decent meal? We’ll have extra spending cash after the ferry fee,” June suggested.

  “I could go for a nice steak, medium-rare, a nice sad, and a tall beer,” Will said, excited at the prospect of any meal other than survival rations.

  “Alright then, while you talk to the Quartermaster about the batteries, Ben, Inta, and I will find a nice restaurant for this evening,” June said. “Just contact us over the comm, and we’ll meet up somewhere in the central hub.”

  “Oh, that reminds me,” Interface turning to Ben. “I fabricated this for you st night and meant to give it to you this morning.” While it was unclear where she had been keeping it, she produced a little white box and handed it to Ben. “For you,” She said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

  He opened it and saw a small, not quite cylindrical device. “It’s an earpiece like the ones I gave June and Will. It should be a perfect fit,” Interface said.

  Ben slipped it into his ear, then his face went beet red, and Interface’s expression looked like she was saying something very naughty in his ear. “Yup, it works!” she said with a flirty grin.

  Ben gave her a gentle swat on the rump, and then Will said, “Okay, let's get going then. Interface, you’ll let us know if anyone bothers the ship, right?”

  “If I can multitask the three of you, I can handle watching the ship and exploring at the same time.” She smirked, patted Will on the thigh, and pnted a wet kiss on his lips.

  “Are you going to be okay, leaving the ship?” June asked, always concerned for the silver girl.

  “That’s really not going to be a problem anymore. I was well below my energy safety margins when we met, but now, I’m strong, getting stronger every day. And as long as you three keep railing me every chance you get, I’ll be strong enough soon to take over control of the core from the computer.” June’s shoulders rexed in relief, gd she didn’t have to worry so much about Interface overextending herself.

  “Alright gang, let’s go,” Will said. They all stood up and went to the airlock, everyone feeling the excitement of going out and interacting with society again. Interface was practically bouncing up and down. This meant so much to her. It had been such a long, lonely existence, stuck on that pnet, that the chance to interact with new people positively made her giddy.

  As the airlock opened, they noticed the long, curved railing on either side of the docking colr, intended to help travelers transition from their ship's gravity pte orientation to the stations. As they exited Nestia’s airlock, they found themselves in a small pocket of zero gravity. On the floor between the two yellow handrails, red was painted, indicating zero-G, which transitioned to yellow, indicating low-G, and then finally green at the end of the railing, indicating one-G.

  A wide green stripe on the floor ran down the arm of the station to the central hub, showing where it was recommended to walk. All of them were accustomed to space travel and the quirks of gravity-pting orientations, so they made the transition with ease.

  June looked back to the Nestia and watched the airlock close up, blending in seamlessly with the rest of the hull. She stood there momentarily, recognizing that this ship truly felt like home in her heart, which made her smile.

  There was almost no traffic on this arm of the station, as it seemed that everyone had already disembarked and headed into the heart of the station earlier in the day. It only took them fifteen minutes to walk the length of it.

  When they reached the wide opening to the station's central core, the gravity pting curved gently and reoriented them so that the outer shell of the central cylinder was down.

  When they crested the curved grav-pting, they were treated with a panoramic vista, the central core opening up like a flower, covered with the busy comings and goings of hundreds of people in every direction. Paths for pedestrians and heavy equipment sprawled off up and down the length of the central cylinder, and the cross-path traffic traveled the circumference such that you could look straight up and see people walking, carts, and heavy machinery driving, all upside down.

  The air purification and handling systems ran directly through the axis of the central core, suspended by a multitude of girders and maintenance walks stretching out to the central cylinder walls.

  There was a lively buzz in the air as people of all shapes, sizes, and races went about their business. Interface’s expression was one of joy and wonder, seeing the vast hive of activity. June noted a small tear of happiness in the corner of the silver girl’s eye, so she brushed it away with her thumb and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “You okay?” June asked.

  “More than okay,” Interface replied, her mood nearly incandescent.

  Will stopped in front of an information board with the station’s directory posted on it. “Looks like the administration offices are at one end of the cylinder and the maintenance shop is at the other end, that way.” he pointed to their right. “Okay, I’m off then. Stay out of trouble and have fun.” He gave the girls each a peck on the cheek and put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Keep an eye on these two,” he said with a grin.

  “I’ll do my best, but they have a knack for mischief,” Ben jokingly said as both Interface and June said together, “Hey!” and each pinched one of his arms.

  “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll see you when I’m done,” Will said, smiling, and then headed toward the maintenance shop.

  He didn’t have any money for the tram that ran up and down the length of the cylinder at regur intervals, so he walked the whole way. He didn’t mind it, though. The light exercise felt good, and he enjoyed the commotion of the busy spaceport.

  He always looked forward to the hustle and bustle of a spaceport at the end of a shipping run when it was just June and him on the ‘Saturn’s Heart’. The long, peaceful quiet of travel on a ship was nice, especially since he shipped out with his best friend, but it was also nice to break up the monotony with a port visit.

  After about an hour’s walk, he arrived at his destination. The clean gss door to the front office had the department name and walk-in hours neatly scribed on the gss, and since it was currently during business hours, he opened the door and walked inside.

  The noisy traffic from outside was mostly muffled by the gss door and wall, making the office seem quiet in comparison. There was a reception counter and a waiting room with a few seats scattered around, but no one was waiting, so he walked up to the counter.

  No one was on the other side of the counter, so Will took a moment to look around. The usual business notices were tacked to the walls, along with a few pictures of far-off, tropical beaches and calendars featuring scantily cd models holding the test and greatest tool every mechanic was sure to need in their toolbox, or so the sales literature said.

  Will found the ‘Press here for Service’ button on the counter, so he clicked it and waited for someone to come to the front. It took a few minutes, and when he heard the door in the back open and close, he happened to be leaning on the counter with his back to it, watching the goings-on outside through the gss wall.

  “Hello, can I help you?” Said the man behind the counter.

  Will turned and said, “Yes, Lieutenant Fredericks said I should speak with the Quartermaster about…” but stopped short when he recognized the face of the man. “Jeremy? Jeremy Walters? Is that you?” Will asked incredulously.

  “Well, I’ll be. Will Foucault. How’ve you been? It’s been, what, nine years?” Jeremy said, surprised at seeing Will.

  “Ten. I haven’t seen you since that party just after graduating from the Academy.” Will smiled broadly, reaching over the counter for a handshake that Jeremy immediately returned.

  “I recall that it was a hell of a party, and someone got so drunk, they passed out in the bathtub.” Jeremy smiled, teasing Will. “Judging by the wild silver tattoos, you haven’t slowed down at all.”

  “Funny, I don’t remember that at all,” He joked back. “And yes, my life has become pretty wild as of te. So what have you been doing with yourself since st I saw you?” Will asked.

  “Well, I shipped out for a while on a merchant marine vessel for a couple of years, but then I met Sarah. We settled down and I found a permanent post here on Penrose. We got married and have a lovely five-year-old, Tara.” Jeremy beamed with pride. “We have an apartment here on the station, you should come by for dinner and catch up,” He offered.

  “I would love that.” Then Will added, “But I’m crewing a ship nowadays with three others, and we are pnning to catch the next ferry heading into the core worlds. I’m afraid I’ll have to take a rain check.”

  “Nonsense. Bring them along too. The more the merrier. Unless one is a Garxian..” It was an old joke they shared during their academy days.

  “No, no Garxians,” Will chuckled.

  “Then it’s settled. Come by tonight, Sarah and I will whip up some dinner and we’ll catch up over a bottle of wine,” Jeremy said.

  “That’s perfect. Thanks,” Will said graciously. “But for the real reason, I came here today... I’m a little cash-strapped at the moment, but I have some salvaged rad batteries I need to get rid of. The assistant dockmaster said I should speak with the quartermaster about selling them to the maintenance shop as spares.”

  “Well, the Quartermaster is out on a little R&R right now, so I get to make the decisions. What do you have?” Jeremy asked.

  “Eight delta css rad-batteries, in good condition. They’ve seen use, but still in good working order.” Will said, rattling off the details.

  “Hmm, delta css huh? We need a few for a set of maintenance pods we’re in the middle of refurbing. You couldn’t have shown up at a more perfect time. It would have cost me an arm and a leg to have what I needed to be shipped special.” Jeremy paused, scratching his chin while he thought. “How’s six grand sound for the lot?” Jeremy offered.

  “That’s extremely generous, that will help us out tremendously. Sold,” Will said, then reached out his hand. Jeremy took it, csped it tight, and shook it. “You’ll need a couple of your pods to offload. I’m at slip 47A and only have an externally accessed cargo bay. Will that work?”

  “Sure thing, not a problem,” Jeremy replied.

  “Just let me know when they’ve arrived, and I’ll signal someone on the ship to open the cargo bay door,” Will said.

  Jeremy continued to hold Will’s hand tight. “I’m just gd I finally get a chance to pay you back, at least in some small measure,” Jeremy said, his voice suddenly tight with emotion.

  “Like I said back then, You don’t owe me anything,” Will said, sharing the sentiment.

  “Like hell, I don’t.” He released Will’s hand, grabbed a notepad and pencil, and then jotted something down. Handing the torn-off note to Will, he said, “These are the directions to our apartment. Follow those, and you can’t miss it. Six o’clock.” Jeremy smiled again. “It’s really good to see you again, Will.”

  “Same, Jeremy. See you tonight.”

  ****

  Interface stood with her eyes closed, feeling the pulse and hum of activity in the station’s central core. The sound of people, vehicles moving cargo streaming back and forth, and hundreds of conversations all washed over her, a much-needed balm for the pain of her long isotion.

  She remembered fondly the centuries she and her crew wandered, exploring the gaxy, the ship a constant hive of activity and full of life. The slow passage of time had worn her down to almost nothing, but now, especially in moments like these, she felt herself blooming back to life.

  “You okay, Inta? You look like you went somewhere else for a minute,” June asked with concern.

  “I am better than okay.” She took June’s hand and kissed it, smiling broadly.

  June returned the smile. “Okay then. Let’s get going.”

  The three strolled casually along the footpath running the length of the central core, lined with merchant shops, trade offices, and small cafes. People of all shapes and sizes browsed wares, conducted business of one kind or another, or were just chatting, enjoying some company. The buzz and hum of it all made Interface smile.

  “I have a little cash in my pocket, do you two want to stop, get something to drink, and do some people-watching?” Ben asked.

  “That sounds great,” June said. “I’m dying for a proper espresso.”

  Interface nodded as well. “I don’t need much in the way of food or drink, but I would love to just sit and watch people go by.”

  They walked for a short while longer until they found a little cafe with a few tables outside, positioned perfectly to sit and watch the foot and vehicle traffic crawl by.

  Interface’s eyes never stopped gncing around, looking at all the people and taking in the sights and sounds as they stood by the hostess’ stand, waiting to be seated.

  The hostess appeared from the kitchen, a young brunette with hair tied back, wearing a white blouse and bck pants. “Three?” she asked, and they confirmed. “This way, please.” The hostess led them to a small round table out front, and as they took their seats, she filled three gsses full of water.

  “What can I get for you?” the young hostess asked.

  “An espresso, please,” June requested.

  “I’ll have a bck coffee. Oh and do you have any scones?” Ben asked.

  “We do. Lemon and blueberry,” the hostess responded.

  “I’ll have a blueberry. You want one, June?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah, I could go for one. Lemon, please,” June said to the hostess.

  “And you, Miss?” The hostess's eyes had an unmistakable sparkle when she addressed Interface.

  “Just water, thank you,” she said, then added, with a wink, “For now.” The hostess blushed, then hurried to fill their order.

  Ben chuckled. “Will’s right, you’re insatiable.”

  “I can’t help it if she’s cute,” Interface said with as much innocence as she could muster. They all smiled, and a short while ter, she returned with their order, smiling sheepishly at Interface. Then, she returned to the kitchen to fetch orders for her other customers.

  “I bet you could have her if you wanted to,” June said. “She looks delicious.”

  Ben smiled and shook his head. “You’re almost as bad as her, you know that, right?”

  They sat in companionable silence for the next few minutes, nibbling their pastries and sipping their drinks. Ben watched in surprise as Interface sipped her water while watching the traffic go by.

  “I didn’t think you needed food or drink?” Ben asked her.

  “I don’t really. I just sip the water to blend in,” Interface replied. “I’ll get rid of it ter, either perspire it out or squirt it. You boys seem to like that,” She said with a sultry smile.

  Ben and June chuckled at that, and then Ben asked, “Alright then. There’s something else that I’ve been dying to find out. What do you do with all the cum you swallow?” He asked, half trying to shock her, half curious.

  “Well, whenever I receive your ‘material’, I break it down and analyze it to make sure all your bio-markers indicate you are in good physical health,” She replied with a smile, eliciting chuckles from June and Ben, obviously impervious to shame.

  “Since we’re having so much fun interrogating you,” June began, “I have a real question. I’m still trying to make sense of all the overy information I’m seeing in my new eye.”

  Ben’s eyebrows pinched in confusion. “New eye?” He questioned.

  “I lost an eye before we met you, and Inta repced it with a bionic one,” June answered, as if it were no big deal, hiding the pain.

  Ben leaned close to June, then asked, “Which one?” as he tried to figure it out.

  The fact that he couldn’t discern which one put June at ease. “I’ll never tell,” she said in a pyful tone.

  Interface spoke up. “Well, your eye can pick up a bunch of stuff. You should be able to see in low light, for one.”

  June confirmed. “Yeah, that one has been pretty easy, mainly because there are no other signals. It’s when they’re all piled together that it turns into a confusing mess, like right now. There’s so much going on, I can’t make sense of it.”

  “Okay then, let’s work on some filtering exercises,” Interface said. “Take a look at those two cute blondes at the other table,” she said, tilting her head in their direction. The two blonde women looked to be on their lunch break, wearing tight-fitting uniform overalls indicating they were a couple of the station's dock workers. They sat close to one another, chatting back and forth and smiling occasionally in between taking bites of the sandwiches they had ordered.

  June focused on the two. “Think about their comm devices. In the station, they probably use short-range radio waves for communication. Picture the texture of an electromagnetic wave, the electric field oscilting perpendicur to the magnetic. Focus on that,” Interface instructed.

  “June did so, and in her vision, most of the noise of the overys she saw faded, and she could see wispy white clouds coming off the wide bracers they wore on their forearms.

  “Wow, that works!” June excimed. “I can see the E-M waves clearly.”

  “Excellent!” Interface praised. “Now, let that go and think about their body heat, and how it radiates in every direction.”

  Again, June followed Interface’s instructions, focusing on the two blonde’s thermal signatures. As she did so, she saw a warm orange glow surrounding the two.

  “Watch them closely,” Interface said. As the two dock workers looked over at their table, Interface caught their eye. She then smiled at the pair and gave them a suggestive wink.

  June immediately saw the heat light up in their ps as both blondes shifted their legs, seeking stimution. June ughed out loud and pyfully spped Interface’s shoulder, “You are incorrigible.” She looked down at her own p and saw the bright orange glow corresponding with her own increased arousal. She smiled and patted her hand on Interface’s thigh.

  Then she shook her head and returned to her original line of questioning. “There’s also this weird, multi-hue overy I see when I look at people. I can’t make any sense of it.”

  “Hmm. I bet you’re seeing their auras,” Interface guessed. “Think about seeing through the person, down to their core, who they really are.”

  June concentrated on Interface and only saw a bright white glow. “You’re bright white,” She said.

  “It doesn’t quite work as well for me; I’m a bit more complex and not quite a person,” Interface expined.

  June's face twisted in offense at the statement. “That is not true,” She said forcefully. “You are as much, if not more of a person than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  Interface’s eyes shone with kind remarks, then said gently, “That’s not what I meant. A significant portion of who I am resides in parts of the crystalline matrix that is projecting into higher dimensional space. Your eye is still mostly a 3-D construct and you are seeing auras from fully 3-D beings.” She reached up and softly touched June’s face. June smiled and kissed her palm in response.

  June turned her attention to Ben, who had been fascinated by the whole line of conversation but now shifted uncomfortably in his seat beneath June’s gaze. She saw many warm reds and pinks with a blue undertone and one small bck thread running through the background.

  Realizing his discomfort, June turned to Interface and said, “Thanks, Inta. I was starting to go crazy trying to figure it out on my own.” Taking a sip of her espresso, she said, “I think I’ll practice some more on the passers-by.”

  They sat there for a while in silence again. Ben picked at his scone, lost in thought. Interface exchanged flirty gnces with the two blonde dockworkers, and June watched the passing pedestrians and traffic.

  There were so many people and vehicles passing by that it was difficult for June to concentrate on one thing at a time, but with a little time and practice, she started to get the hang of it. Most of the foot traffic were humans, their wide array of colors decring their emotional states and the content of their souls, now on dispy for June to examine.

  She watched a half dozen three-foot-tall, lizard-like Caimar sailors, their small, thin snouts rapidly snapping at one another as they discussed something between themselves in quite an animated fashion. They were mostly bathed in a hard yellow, and as they walked and talked, they seemed anxious to complete their business on the station.

  Many more humans passed, and then she couldn’t help but notice two Urarc soldiers, roughly seven feet tall with some slight resembnce to Terran bears with their short snouts, walk past with purpose. Their bright red auras almost matched their dark red uniforms. The crowds parted for them, stepping out of their way as they marched past.

  June’s attention drifted to the slow-moving vehicur traffic transporting loads across the station from one ship to another. They all used the same style of rented station transports with open-top crew cabs and ftbeds in the back with their loads carefully strapped down with magnetic binders. She switched back and forth between reading auras and heat signatures as the traffic slowly passed until she noticed one slow-moving transport that sent a shiver down her spine.

  June spotted a transport driven by four enormous men, each weighing at least two hundred and fifty pounds, all muscle. But what made her blood run cold was that all four of their auras were as dark and bck as starless space. She scanned their cargo for heat signatures, but none shone, so she looked for auras, and to her horror, there were a few dozen deep blue auras of misery and despair, one in each of the crates carefully strapped to the bed of the transport.

  “Inta,” June said urgently, diverting Interface’s attention from the flirting blondes. “Look,” She said, pointing.

  Interface’s expression instantly turned to steel. “Takers.” was the only word she said.

  “Svers,” June said, adding further definition to their depravity.

  Ben got to his feet when Interface and June stood, and then the three stormed out of the cafe, passing through the crowd toward the slow-moving transport.

  “What’s the py?” Ben asked as they closed the distance to the transport.

  “Simple. Neutralize the svers, free the hostages.” June said, iron in her voice. Interface said nothing, wearing a cold, hard expression on her face.

  Catching up with the transport, the three walked up to the cab, Interface on the driver’s side and June and Ben on the passenger’s. “Stop the transport,” Interface demanded of the driver in a ft tone.

  The two men on the driver's side looked down from the cab, and the burly driver leaned over the short door and said, “Piss off, little girl.”

  In a fsh, Interface leaped on the side of the cab, ripped the door open, and flung the heavy man easily into the street. She jumped down softly and stalked over to the man, already returning to his feet.

  “You’re gonna regret that, bitch,” he said, winding up to punch her in the face. He never got the chance; Interface shed out fast with a low kick that shattered his knee. As he fell to the ground screaming in pain, Interface was already running back to the truck.

  The other beefy thugs hadn’t been idle watching their compatriots being pulled from the truck. The two on the passenger’s side leaped out to help and were greeted by June and Ben.

  With fire in her eyes, she yelled, “You!” pointing at the two thugs, drawing their attention. One had grabbed a tire iron from the cab and brought it down to smash June. She stepped forward inside his guard, caught his elbow with one hand, and punched him hard in the sor plexus. He bent over in pain, the wind knocked out of him, and June followed up with a solid hook to the jaw, rocking his head sideways, dislocating his jaw, and sending a shower of teeth to the pavement. He keeled over sideways, his head bouncing off the side of the truck before thumping hard on the ground, motionless.

  Ben approached the third thug with his hands up in a boxing stance, and the thug mirrored him, obviously familiar with the combat style. The thug jabbed several times, and Ben dodged each easily, then kicked his foot up into the man’s crotch, crushing his balls. He let out a blood-curdling scream, and as he bent over clutching his now ruptured family jewels, Ben brought his knee up hard into his face, smashing his nose and silencing him.

  The st thug had watched Interface easily destroy the driver, so he scrambled for something under the seat. He came up with a shotgun, leveled it at Interface’s chest, and fired point bnk as she grabbed the side of the truck beginning to climb up.

  The traffic stopped, and someone in the crowd of pedestrians nearby screamed at the sound of gunfire. The crowd scrambled and ran; the crush of people streamed into alleys and side streets, trying to get away from the conflict. Some distance away down the station core, security forces were alerted and rushed to the scene.

  Interface, still clinging to the side of the truck, was paused by the shotgun bst. The man sat dumbfounded in the truck. She looked down at her dress and said to the st man, “You tore my dress.” she ripped the gun from his hands and clocked the side of his head with it, leaving him crumpled in the seat. Before climbing down, she ejected the shotgun pellets from her body, and her white and blue floral patterned dress reformed, unharmed.

  June and Ben rushed around the front of the cab when they heard the shotgun go off. They got to the driver’s side just as Interface was hopping down.

  “You okay?” June asked, scanning Interface for injury.

  “Yeah, you?” Interface returned the query to both of them.

  “Yeah,” Both June and Ben replied at the same time.

  Satisfied that everyone was okay, Interface ran to the transport's ftbed just as the security forces arrived.

  The security team swept into the area, holding June and Ben at gunpoint, who raised their hands in surrender. They quickly locked the area down and took the thugs into custody. The officers sat the four burly men down on the ground in a line, hands cuffed behind their backs while they waited for transport.

  The security team leader approached June and Ben. “Now then, what the hell exactly is going on here?” He asked, and seeing that they weren’t a threat, gestured for them to lower their hands.

  June responded with one word. “Svers.”

  Interface jumped onto the edge of the ftbed and then climbed on top of the crates stacked on the truck's bed. Kneeling on top, Interface felt around the edges of the first crate, frantically looking for a lock or a tch, but the crate had been sealed and rated for space and would need to be deconstructed to open.

  Frustrated, she growled, jammed her fingers through the corner of the sealed container, peeled it open like a sardine can, and tore the top completely off, tossing it to the ground next to the truck.

  The inside of the container was full of soft, expanding foam material right up to the top. She carefully scooped handful after handful of the material until she had cleared away enough material to uncover the naked back of a woman buried in the expanded foam, like a piece of furniture.

  Interface had to pause a moment because she was shocked to find that the woman’s back had been painted with silver designs, not unlike Will, June, and Ben’s marks of Bonding. She y her hand on the poor woman’s back, and when she removed her hand, traces of the silver paint came away with it.

  The woman had been packed tightly in the crate, so Interface took the direct route and tore the sides off, leaving only a foam block standing there.

  Interface continued to excavate the woman out of the foam and found that she had been packed with maximum efficiency. The foam had filled every space of the crate not occupied by the woman’s body, ensuring she was completely unable to move. She had a bck hood covering her head and an oxygen mask with a hose running to a small tank cmped to the floor of the crate beside her. Someone had also fitted her with catheters, keeping her clean during her abduction.

  But probably the cruelest measure was that she was cuffed at the wrists, knees, and ankles, securing her to the floor of the crate, and had also been fitted with an unpadded leather colr with a tether made of a single loop fixed to an eye bolt on the floor with the cuffs, forcing her to maintain a prostrate position with her face down and ass up.

  She swiftly undid all of the woman’s binding and associated trappings. As Interface removed the hood from the woman’s head, the revealed brunette looked around in wide-eyed terror until she recognized that instead of more torture, she was being liberated and that Interface was her savior.

  The poor thing burst into tears, burying her head into Interface’s shoulder, thanking her repeatedly.

  Interface held the woman for a few moments. “It’s alright, now. It’s over.” She waited a few more moments, and then, as security personnel arrived, she said, “These folks will help you. We need to free the rest now.” Tears continued to stream down her face, half at the ordeal she had suffered and half in relief.

  Interface helped the woman climb off the truck into the arms of several security officers. One produced a bnket to cover the woman as they helped her away from the truck.

  The rest of the crates were opened, and more women and men were freed from their cruel bondage. Thirty-six people in total, all bearing the same silver-painted markings, were freed. As each one was freed, they were escorted to the waiting relief workers, who gave them bnkets and a physical checkout.

  After the victims had been sent to the medical facilities, the team leader of the security detail left his second in command to interrogate the four thugs. At the same time, he went over to interview June, Interface, and Ben.

  “My name is Commander Michaels. Are any of you hurt, do you need medical attention?” They all shook their heads. “Luckily, we’re all okay,” June said.

  “Nasty business. If I had my way, those goons would have already been spaced.” His face twisted in disgust. “I need to get some details for my report. Do you mind telling me how it all happened?”

  June, Ben, and Interface exchanged gnces, and then June spoke. “Well, we just arrived at the station this morning, so we decided to stop for some coffee to get our bearings before starting our day, over at that cafe, there,” She said, pointing.

  June decided to risk being a little creative with the next part. “I had just received a small IR scanner, and I was fidgeting with it when I noticed the heat signatures in the crates of that truck as it passed. We ran to confront them and you know the rest.”

  The officer jotted it down, then said, “Lucky you were there with an IR scanner,” He said with one raised eyebrow, and let his statement hang in the air.

  “Yeah, lucky,” June said. Then, deflecting, “What will happen to those people?”

  “After medical treatment, we will help them find their way home. They probably came from the pnet, so with any luck, they could be home by the end of the week,” he said. His penetrating gaze looked a moment into each of their eyes, trying to get a sense of who they were, then seemed to decide, nodded his head, and closed his notebook.

  The Commander told June, “Stick around the station for a few days in case I have more questions.” He turned and left without another word, returning to where the thugs had been situated.

  When Commander Michaels returned to the rest of his team, his second in command was talking to one of the thugs, trying to calm him down. The thug was highly animated, starting to become frantic.

  “You need to move us, now! You don’t understand, they’ll kill us if they think we’ll…” He never finished his sentence as a small muffled thump sounded from inside his skull as his eyeballs popped right out of their sockets and dangled from the optic nerve. His unresponsive body then slumped over and didn’t move as blood streamed from his eyes and ears.

  Nearby, in rapid succession, the other thugs’ eyes popped out, and they, too, fell over, dead.

  “Fuck!” Commander Michaels growled as he knelt to examine the thugs. “Dead,” He said coldly. “My guess is they had explosive scramblers inserted into their cranial cavity. Brutal way to keep the fuckers from turning Rat.”

  The rest of his security team scrambled into the surrounding area, looking for a suspect, though the Commander was fairly sure they wouldn’t find anything.

  ****

  Two hundred meters away, a man in a dark business slipped a small remote control back into the inside breast pocket of his jacket.

  “Damn those buffoons!” He thought. “They were supposed to handle the transfer discreetly, not turn it into a circus.” He thought about how he would have to break the news and how to deal with the repercussions.

  The man turned from the main boulevard and walked down a side alley until he came to a station service entrance. He gnced back once, then entered.

  As he walked down the poorly lit service corridors of the station, he thought about how it all pyed out. This disaster really couldn’t be bmed on the idiot transporters, even though he would in his report to his superiors; it was the three he spotted at the cafe that were responsible.

  The man had been sitting quietly in the far back of the cafe that morning to monitor the progress of the transfer when he was shocked to see a woman and man painted as sacrifices. There was no mistaking it. Their faces and hands were marked, and it was evident that the marking continued across their skin under their clothes.

  At first, he thought they had escaped the shipping crates, but they wouldn’t have been so carefree and happy if they had. They were just going about their day as if they weren’t walking bsphemies, an insult to the Holy.

  Then there was the silver girl. Something about her deeply unsettled him. It was something besides the strength to tear through those titanium shipping crates; he had seen beasts perform more impressive feats of strength. But what bothered him, he couldn’t put his finger on it. He would need to consult the Archives.

  After winding his way past humming equipment and hissing steam pipes of the station’s life support systems, he finally came to the maintenance airlock, where his private shuttle was docked. He entered his shuttle, sealed the doors, then his shuttle disengaged its locking cmps and slipped off into the dark of space.

  ****

  Due to the advanced drive powering his shuttle, the trip through FTL wasn’t long, and soon, it descended through the atmosphere toward his destination. Slipping through the clouds, the shuttle slowed its speed and approached the roof of a nondescript office building on the edge of the nearby mega-city.

  The shuttle touched down lightly on the roof, and the man in the dark suit disembarked and immediately headed to the elevator. This elevator didn’t stop on any floor occupied by the legitimate businesses going about their daily routine in the office building below. It went straight to the complex below the building’s sub-basement.

  As the elevator doors opened, the man was greeted by the familiar dark stone and low lighting of the Complex. Walking to the vestibule, he pulled his dark red robe from a hanger and the thin bck mask that would obscure his face and slipped them on with the fluidity of having done so countless times before. Properly attired, he pulled the robe's hood over his head and proceeded through the set of doors on the opposite side of the room.

  It opened onto the main gallery, a rge open space built with the same dark stone and dimly lit, like everywhere else in the Complex. The sound of his shoes' heels clicking on the stone floor echoed loudly, and he strode with purpose across it.

  The gallery's silence was punctured by the far-off sound of tortured screams from the long corridor on the right heading to the temple proper. Whether the screams came from a supplicant or sacrifice, he couldn’t tell, but he had no time today to participate in ceremonies. He had come to visit the Archive.

  The screams faded behind him as he walked deeper into the complex until he came to the entrance of the Archives. Pushing open one of the heavy, ornately carved wooden doors, he slipped inside.

  No one else was in the Archives today, and all the reading desks were unoccupied. Heading into the stacks, he ignored all of the digital material and walked deeper until he entered another set of smaller doors into the room that contained the physical material.

  The man spent a long time combing through the oldest books of the archive, piling books high on his table as he sifted through dozens of tomes, all bound in various hides of unknown beasts.

  Standing in a row in the far back, the man pulled a smaller book adorned with silver lettering on the spine from a shelf, the book likely among the oldest of the Archive. He flipped through aged vellum pages as he walked back to his table but stopped dead before reaching it; the open page demanded all his attention. On it, carefully sketched in silver ink, was a depiction of a silver being surrounded by others painted silver in the same pattern as a sacrifice.

  He hurried to the table and sat down to read. As he did so, his eyes widened, and his face paled. He would need to inform his Masters immediately.