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Graves

By: Hawaiinshirt



She moved down the street calmly and quietly. Glancing at her watch with her blue eyes. She noticed it was about One AM. She was about 5'3" and luck if she was 110 lbs., she wore a white blouse and a gray skirt the ended just above her knees, he blouse was undone enough for one to see nice creamy cleavage. Suddenly, she stopped. Turning, she saw some bushes move. She moved closer to take a look, bending over she saw nothing in the dark.

Suddenly, something jumped out and tackled her. She had no time to react, but when she looked up she did, screaming. On her was a large furry creature, easily seven feet tall. It had reddish brown fur and white eyes, and a fully erect cock sticking out from between its bottom legs. It stood on its hind legs, throwing her over its shoulder with its front, using them like arms. 

She was taken forward down the street, before she could understand what was going on she was thrown over a bench, her skirt torn off, along with her underwear. Suddenly, she felt the creature's cock rub up against her ass cheeks, she would have screamed when it was rammed into her if it didn't feel so good. Actually, a slight moan of pleasure escaped her pink lips. He blonde hair was thrown all over the back of her white shirt, that was, until it was torn off, along with her bra. The creature's furry palms moved down to her breasts and started to massage them, another moan escaped her lips.

"Fuck…" she managed to moan out. "Harder, god damnit, harder!" she demanded this, and, as if understanding her, the creatures cock began to pound into her harder. Her fingers went down her stomach to her wet cunt, two of them slipping in and out repeatedly. She fingered herself furiously as the creature massaged her large breasts and assaulted her ass. Soon enough, she came to an orgasm.

"God! Harder! Fucking harder!" she was screaming now, almost angered. The creature again did as she said, pumping into her ass like there was no tomorrow. She let out one last moan as she orgasmed, her fluids dripping onto the sidewalk beneath her. The creature moaned into the night behind her, she could feel it come into her ass. When she stood and looked, around, there was nothing to be found, so she dressed, and went home.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, the creature padded down a sidewalk. Suddenly, its fur began to disappear. It stood up on its hind legs, its body mass shrinking, its eyes turned blue, its back legs snapped back into human legs, its front legs turning back into arms. The creature was now a man, the man was about 5'6" and somewhere around 120 lbs., relatively small, his hair was a bright red and carelessly spiked around his head aside from the short ponytail coming out from just above his neck, he wore no shoes, a pair of denim shorts and a loud blue Hawaiian shirt. He stopped one the sidewalk, looking across the street to a bar, grinning.

As he crossed the street he noticed to Choppers parked in front of the bar, undoubtedly there was going to be some leather-clad, beer bellied, pool playing bikers in here, but not many. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he came to the door, swinging his leg out and kicking the door open. He stepped in, and looked around calmly. It was a bright, musty place with a bar and a few tables and a pool table. He smirked and looked around once more.

There were three people in the bar, two large men playing pool, and a busty, good looking blonde waitress. The two men were about 6'6" and on the heavier side of 230 lbs. One of the men dropped his pool stick and stormed over to the short redheaded man, looking down at him. "Who do you think you are, busting in like this?" he asked

The redhead smirked and said "I though I would just let you two know that one of you is walking home?"

The man in front of the redhead lashed his fist out. The redhead ducked easily enough then sent the man barreling into a table with his foot. When he stood, the other biker was running at him with a pool Que. The redhead grabbed the man's Pool cue and tore it out of his grip, then beat him with it for about minutes until he was bloody and on the ground. The redhead tossed the pool cue and looked at the dumbfounded waitress.

"I don't know who you are" the waitress said. "But those guys have been here all night, I couldn't get them out. Thank you."

The redhead shrugged and entered the bar further, kicking the door closed behind him. He moved over to the waitress and leaned in, looking into her brown eyes. "Wanna REALLY thank me?"

The waitress nodded with a grin, and dropped to her knees, unzipping the redheads' pants and letting his six to eight inch cock spring loose. She leaned in a bit, closing her lips around the tip of his cock and bobbing back and forth. The redhead groaned a bit, raking his fingers through her hair as she sucked him. She moved her tongue all around the redhead's cock. Soon enough, his seed shot out into her mouth, she swallowed the best she could, a bit of it leaking out her mouth.

The redhead grabbed the waitress and took her over to the bar, dropping her onto a swivel chair. He lifted her shirt up over her 36C breasts, and put his hand around one, massaging her pink nipple with his thumb. He pushed her skirt up a bit and, when he saw she wasn't wearing and panties over her shaved pussy, rammed into her. His hips pumped into her, his cock rubbing into her cunt. She moaned as she was fucked on the chair, lightly nibbling his earlobe. 

Her screams were loud when she orgasmed, her fluids dripping onto his cock. His own orgasm ensued, his seed shooting into her cunt. He pulled out of her, pulled his wang back in and zipped himself up. He moved towards the door, then stopped when she yelled out to him.

"What's your name?"

He smirked at her, then muttered the answer a bit. "Just call me Graves." And then he kicked open the door again, exiting.

He dropped onto one of the parked choppers, starting it up and revving the engine a few times, a loud rumbling noise announcing its presence. He pushed out of the lot with his foot, then sped off into the night.

[Thanks for getting this far. It's my first story, so send feedback please.] 

Graves Does Hollywood



It was pretty hot in the Desert. The sun was just rising. Anyway….so, when we last left our friend Graves he had just "borrowed" a Chopper from a couple Harley Davidson followers. Well, he was in this hot desert, the sun coming out from over the horizon behind him. He hadn't changed much since we last left off, except for now he had shoes. Not just any shoes! But cowboy boots! 

Well, much to his delight, the desert had only one road to go on to get to good ol' California, which, by some sort of Geographical mistake in existence, was only miles ahead! Graves revved the engine on the chopper a couple times, the engine roaring to life a few times, and did a sort of wheelie move, then sped towards the great state. 

Within hours an hour Graves was cruising through the streets of Hollywood. He looked rather awkward wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cowboy boots while riding a chopper through the city streets, well tough titty, he was Graves, hear him roar. Looking around, Graves suddenly brought the chopper screeching to a stop. Cars behind him all screeched to a halt as well, a few crashing sounds announcing the fender benders, which he had caused. A few people behind him began to scream, yell and curse as he moved the chopper over to a sidewalk, which just happened to be a fire lane.

"Excuse me, sir" a near by policeman shouted to Graves. "You can't park here. Sir? You can't park here, you can't park h-…" 

Graves had completely ignored the cop, walking past him and waving him away. Graves entered a building through a revolving door, just above the door a large sign read, in big black letters "Closed for the day: Music Video Shooting" but Graves had no intention of staying outside. Inside, it appeared to be some sort of office building. Graves could hear noises coming from the second floor, that would be where the video was being shot. He quickly jogged over to and up the stairs.

At the top there were only two choices. A large set of black double doors, or a Corporate Maze. Graves stood there for a moment, sniffing the air. He jogged over to the double doors, kicking them open and stepping in. 

Once inside, he saw all sorts of cameras and lights and other assortments of expensive equipment. In the middle of it wall, Britney Spears was dancing and singing on a desk. She was wearing gray pants and dress shoes, along with a white dress shirt with no sleeves that ended just above her midriff, she also had a black tie on. A large black man came up to Graves, tapping his shoulder. Turning, Graves saw that this man was twice his height and weight easily, not to mention he had a Browning High Power tucked in his belt.

"You can't be in her right now, mister, we're shooting a music video." The Man said. Graves raised one finger to his lips. "I'll be just one minute" he responded then turned, grabbing a light off the ground and sprinting towards the young pop star.

"This is for all the horrible music you made me sit through you redneck slut of a whore!" Graves raved as he sprung into the air, still holding the light. As he came down, he swung the light, the pole connecting with the side of Britney's head and promptly knocking her out cold. More to the point, to the ground. Graves dropped the light and cackled. Though, the advancing security team interrupted his fun.

While any sane person saw armed men approaching them as a bad thing, Graves saw it as more fun. He jumped off the table and booked towards a window. Graves had to dodge a few grabs from the security to make it there, but he got to the window and jumped into it. He went through very easily after he extended his shoulder, shattering the glass and plummeting towards the Earth below. But then something else shattered below him.

When Graves hit the ground, he was there for less than five seconds before a feminine voice ripped through the air and stung his ears with a scream. Graves sat up, his palm pressed against the side of his head, blood dripping from between his fingers "It's okay! The pavement seems to have broken my fall" he sarcastically remarked, realizing he was actually on pavement. "Gravey?" another voice asked, this one male. Graves eyes instantly opened, looking in the direction of the voice "Stiffy?"

Where Graves was looking was a tall man, about 5'11'' in all and looking middle aged. The man was wearing a nice blue suit, and behind him, more high tech looking recording and lighting equipment. Great, another movie set. But Graves grinned at the middle-aged man in front of him and stood, speaking "Nice to see you again, Jon."

"You too, Jimmy." The man responded as Graves stood. "James 'Gravey' Graves. When was it last? The Eighties?" the man asked. "At least" James said then asked "What's happening here?"

"Remember that job I was going after when we last parted ways? Well, Hollywood liked me and gave me a job. Haven't you seen any Jon DeRais movies?" James shook his head in response. "I don't watch movies, remember?" Jon nodded. He was about to say something else before he was interrupted by the whining sound of police sirens. "What'd you do now?" he asked James. 

"It's a long story, got a place to hide me? James answered calmly. Jon nodded "Around back, there should be a stack of boxes, there's a hidden door behind it you can hide in." to which James said "Right"

Seconds later James was in the back of the building, entering the hidden room and slamming the door shut. Inside it was just a small room with wooden flooring and walls, there was a small light in the roof dimly lighting the room. James chuckled a bit, then suddenly his eyes turned totally black. His skin turned a shade of light gray, and his clothes disappeared, along with his hair and fingers and toes, His knee's snapped backwards, the opposite way that a persons knee's would behind, his hands became the same color gray as his skin and extended two long finger-like appendages.

James was no longer human. He was about seven feet tall now, gray skin and black eyes with no nose. His feet had the same appendages as his hands did, and he had no eyebrows. Two thing gray flaps of skin hung over the back of his head like a cloth. His inhuman eyes dared to the door as it opened.

Jon stepped in, shutting the door behind him as he did so. "It took some fast thinking but I got the cops convinced you ran the oth-….the hell are you doing!?" he exclaimed when he saw James. James responded only by a series of clicking noises with his throat. "I don't care if you needed to heal, you have any idea how much trouble you would be in if the Mother Brain knew you were reverting on Earth? Honestly...." Jon said, acting rather normal about all of this.

James once more took a few minutes to turn human in appearance again. "So the cops are gone?" James asked. "Yes." Jon answered "And there's someone I want you to meet, Jimmy, she's right up your alley"

"My alley?"

"Yes, your alley"

James shrugged a bit and followed Jon as he exited the room. The apparently alien duo crossed the building back to the filming set area. People were doing various jobs or taking a break by now, two people in the middle were reading scripts. One was on a box, a girl, a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, the ones you only find in Hollywood. Jon went to the two in the middle, motioning for the man near the girl to leave, then waving James over, to which he promptly did.

"James, I'd like you to meet the actress in my movie, and a great friend, Tara Reid. Tara, this is my old friend Jimmy Graves, we've known eachother since we were both ankle biters back in the Sixties." Jon introduced the two, Tara sliding off the box and grabbing James hand. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Graves." Tara said. James lightly kissed the back of Tara's hand. "The pleasure is all mine. And please call me James, or Jimmy. I hate formalities." James responded in a polite manner. Tara nodded, Jon had walked off by this time, leaving the two to talk, which they did for a few hours, taking out time for Tara to shoot a few scenes.

By Ten O' Clock that night, the two were best friends. They hit it right off, telling eachother about their lives[James obviously neglecting to mention to her he wasn't human], and things of that sort. Now the two were outside the set, sitting on the hood of a car and talking. "So, what's it like being almost thirty-five and unemployed and not married?" Tara had asked. James smirked a bit at her question "Well, fun most of the time, but lonely. What's it like being almost twenty-six and a recently almost married actress?"

Tara smiled at James. "Hectic, most of the time, but lonely." She mocked him. There was a long moment of silence before James broke it. "Wanna go see a movie or something?" he asked anxiously. She shook he head at him "No thank you."

James looked away. This wasn't going to stop him, he was Graves! He looked at her again with an evil grin on his face. "Wanna make one?" his mischievous tone kicking in. The only response to this was a kiss from Tara. 

James simply took the kiss from her, his tongue sliding into her mouth as his hands danced down the sides of her body. He kicked his boots off into the night, as did she with her shoes, her hands moving to unbutton James shirt. When she was done she slide it off his body onto the hood of the car, exposing his well-ripped body. James own hands unbuttoned and unzipped Tara's pants, sliding them down and exposing her legs to the night, along with her black thong. Tara slid off her own shirt and tossed it onto the ground, her perky breasts bouncing out, her pink nipples instantly coming erect at the cool night air. 

One of James hands cupped her breast, his thumb massaging her nipple. Tara moaned at this, and removed her only undergarment. James had removed his own pants by now, and his erect cock was pressing against Tara's bare crotch. Tara grabbed his penis, sliding it into her awaiting sex. "Oh god…." she moaned out as he entered her. 

James hips began to thrust into hers, Tara letting out a few more moans as he did so. "Harder" she moaned more, James obeying when his hips went into her harder. Within moments Tara was clutching James shoulders, screaming as she orgasmed, her fluids dripping out onto the car along with James. Tara rolled off of James onto the hood next to him, breathing heavily, their bodies glistening with sweat.

She took a minute or two to catch her breath before sliding off the car hood. She was delighted to see James was still hard from their recents actions. She quickly took his cock into her mouth, her head bobbing up and down as she sucked him. Her tongue moved around his penis as she sucked, James giving moans of approval up above. Again James orgasmed, his cum shooting out of his cock and into her mouth, dripping out when Tara didn't swallow it. 

When James sat up, Tara watched as he got off the hood of the car and pulled her over, pushing her onto the hood with her ass open for assault. Which it was, she knew when she felt his cock at her ass cheeks. She bit her lip a bit as he rammed his cock into her ass, not ever having been fucked this way. It felt good eventually, and she began to moan. "Fuck, harder, harder! Fuck! Oh god fuck me harder! HARDER! OH GOD!!" her screams echoed through the night as she felt him cum into her ass.

Tara climbed onto the hood once more, sliding her pants on. James was beside her once again, looking down at her with a grin as she sat up. "James, I know we've only known each other a day. But, I love you"

Put your tray tables in the up right and locked positions, assume crash positions, strap on life vests. Nothing in this universe or the next could have prepared James for that. All the cash and riches in the world wouldn't have, not all the power or immortality. To all this, James could only say: 

"Okay"

[Second story, first one about a celebrity. Keep the feed back coming, give and opinions, advice or criticisms you like, you won't hurt my feelings]



Graves Gets Even



[This story contains pretty graphic scenes of rape and violence. A semi-turn in style for my stories, especially because of the short length. But if your reading this right now, your favorite trouble maker is still around]

Tara tiredly made her way up the stairs to her hotel room. She had listened James ramble on about Estella Warren for long enough. After the day of shooting, make-up and rehearsing, she needed a nap. Once at the top of the stairs she walked down to the end of the hall, opened up the door and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

"What a long day…" she said with fatigue in her voice. She took off her shoes and tossed them aside and collapsed onto her bed to fall asleep.

1

She was awoken much later by a noise at her door. She didn't know if it was late or early, but if it was James asking for a bottle of rum again [he had done so in the past] she was going to personally castrate him. She opened the door, and was then shoved back into the room by strong hands. She hit the ground and looked up with a semi-frightened look on her face, what she saw was a simply large shadowy figure close the door.

Tara couldn't speak, she was too afraid. The figure grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her up off the ground and tossed her onto the bed. The figure approached her. She could have screamed or ran or at least called for help, but she was paralyzed with fear.

One of the figures large masculine hands clamped down over her mouth, the other undid her jeans and pulled them off along with her underwear. Then the hand reached back and Tara heard an unzipping noise. She would have screamed now if she could have, but no. The faint outline of a penis could be seen protruding from the large hulky shape and was moving towards her.

The mixed terror and pain she was feeling defied words. As the figure ravaged her small body, his hands fondling her breasts and ass. Crying too hard to scream all she could do was let it happen. Eventually when the person was done, they left as calmly and quickly as they came.

Tara, crying, curled up into a ball and wept.

2

People were walking in and out of Tara's room, most of them were apparently cops. Tara was on her bed wrapped in a blanket, Jon was standing next to her in his ever-present blue armani suit, and Jimmy was sitting on a table looking like a statue. "So you didn't see anything on the guy? No hair, no eyes, no nothing?" Jon had asked

"No, Jon. It was too dark and I was too a-….it was too dark." Tara explained to him in a rather quiet almost child-like voice. Jon put his hand on her shoulder gently "Sorry Tara. But don't you worry, we'll find this guy and when we do, he'll be someone's prison bitch for the rest of his life.

Tara slightly smiled. "Thanks Jon. Thanks for being my friend." Jon simply nodded at her. After that, Jon looked over to James who had been strangely quit the whole time. "Something wrong, Gravey?"

It took a moment for James to respond, but he looked up at Jon and shook his head. "No, sorry. Hey Jon, I'm gonna go meet this guy." Then he stood and walked off calmly. As he left Jon called out to him "Good luck, Jimbo"

Tara looked at Jon in a confused matter. "How is he going to find him, Jon?" she asked. Jon suddenly looked kind of worried. "Well…" Jon trailed off before asking her "Remember when James told you he wasn't human?"

3

James walked down the sidewalk with his hands shoved in his pockets. The place he was walking in wasn't very crowded, probably because it was about Six AM, but there were still a good amount of people walking around. Suddenly James stopped in mid step as if he had shit his pants. His head perked up and he looked around. 

James grinned. He was looking at a large burly man, either fat or muscular with black hair. The man was about 6'5'' and probably no lighter than three-hundred pounds. James quickly sprinted over to the man and drop kicked him. The both hit the ground. 

As they got up, the guy looked angrily at James, who was very small next to him. "The hell are you doing!?" he screamed. James was behind the man so fast he couldn't react. James grabbed the guy and put him in a headlock. "This is for Tara Reid asshole!" James screamed as he punched the man in the head repeatedly.

4

Back in Tara's Hotel room, Jon was sitting near a table with a phone on it. Tara was lying on her bed almost asleep, there were no more cops around. The phone rang, Jon, who was closest, picked it up.

"Hello? Ah, hello Officer Johnson. You did? Great, yeah. What? You found him how? Really? My god. Well, thank anyway officer, yeah, I'll tell her. Bye."

Jon put the phone back on the receiver and looked at Tara who was sitting up. Tara asked "What is it?" 

"Well." Jon again. "They found the guy who attacked you, DNA testing on the Semen they found on you bed. They were on the way to the guys house when they found him laying on the sidewalk. He was beaten pretty badly."

"My god." Tara said. "Do you think it was…James?" Jon groaned. "It wouldn't surprise me one bit. 

Meanwhile, out somewhere in the city, James walked down the street and laughed.



Graves Returns



[Sorry I haven't written in awhile, I've been in the Hospital a little over two months. Anyway, without further adieu…Graves Returns!]

Well, Jimbo had been hanging around Jon's movie set for awhile, hiding out from the cops as best he could. After the meeting with Tara on the hood of the car, things went downhill. All James could remember is something about "Tara, I can't go out with you, I'm an alien being sent here to document human beings and learn about being one so my race can take over and use humans and slaves." And then his head started to hurt, then he realized Tara had smashed a brick into it. Wait a minute, where'd she get that brick? Anyway, it had been pretty good the rest of the time.

James ran into Jon's warehouse, sirens could be heard in the background. Jon groaned and looked James up and down "What'd you do this time?" he asked. "Turn on the T.V." James said. Jon walked over to a table and flipped on a small antenna TV straight out of the sixties, there was a news reporter on, the words "SPECIAL REPORT" were running on the top and bottom of the screen

Report: Good evening ladies and Gentlemen. The manhunt continues for a man in the streets of LA after he attacked Teen Popstar Britney Spears and beat her with a crutch while she was exiting the hospital for an attack on her months earlier. If you have any information on his whereabouts or identity, please inform the Police Department, Thank you and goodnight.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Jon shouted, Jimmy wincing in the background. Suddenly and almost out of nowhere, Tara Reid sprinted past James and Jon over to a cellular phone which rested on a table. James simply stood wide eyed as she picked it up, turned it on and started to dial the police. With incredible cunning, speed and intelligence, James realized that would be bad! More to the point, he'd probably end up with a size seven ass hole by tomorrow if she ratted him out! "YAVOLE!" James screamed and almost shot into the air, eventually coming down and dropkicking Tara, knocking the phone out of her hand. 

A few feet away, Jon caught the phone and put it to his here. "Nine-One-One emergency" the voice on the other side said. "Sorry, false alarm" Jon answered the Dispatcher and clicked off the phone. All the sudden Tara screamed and James went flying through the air and into some boxes, a loud crashing noise announcing his landing.

Then, muffled from inside the newly formed pile of boxes a muffled voice came out "Damn woman! You could have killed me!" That was obviously James.

"That comes next!" Tara screamed and charged over to the pile of boxes. Jon ran up behind Tara and grabbed her upper arms, trying to calm her. Eventually Tara cooled down and walked back to her trailer. "Is it safe to come out?" Jimmy asked from inside his makeshift cave. 

"Yeah, come on out." Jon answered him. One of the boxes fell off as James climbed out. "I need a drink" James groaned. "But you're a wanted man, remember?" 

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, this is Earth, not everyone looks on this planet, you know? You'll be arrested the second you walk off this set,."

"Not necessarily" James grinned. His hair began to darken, eventually turning black, his eyes turned brown as well. Jim waved to Jon as he exited the warehouse…

The Rust Blade Pub, Three Hours later….

Graves shoved open the door and entered the crowded bar, looking around. It was filled with people drinking, eating, unwinding from their day. James walked over to the bar and dropped onto a swivel chair. When the bartender asked what he wanted, he ordered a bottle of fosters, then muttered the phrase "Australian for beer" as the tender walked over to the tap. 

When his drink came to him, Jimmy grabbed the cup and chugged it down in less than thirty seconds. Looking around he saw something that struck him, a woman, who could have guessed it? James tapped the shoulder of the person next to him, the person looked at him questioningly.

"Yes?" The person asked. "Sorry, but is the woman over there who I think it is?" James asked. "Yeah" the person said "That's Estella Warren. God, Planet of the Apes sucked." and went back to his conversation. James ordered another drink, chugged it, and made his move.

He stood and walked briskly across the bar to a table in the back, he pulled out the chair, sat down and 

grinned at Estella Warren "Hello, my name is Jimmy Graves and I'm going to be your friend."

Estella Warren was Five Foot Nine, blonde hair, blue eyes and pink lips, almost perfect. She wore a blue sweater and a black mini-skirt with black ankle boots. Her brow arched slightly "Excuse me?" she asked. "I'm going to be your friend"

And it went on from there…

For another three hours the two talked, Jimmy being one of those blessed with the gift of gab, he even got her to open up about her personal life. "And I sat there, my friend burst through the door of my room and started screaming 'Where did you go!?' " Estella said and laughed a bit. "So…." Jim more grunted then said "Mind if I ask you a personal question?" to which Estella responded "Oh, I'm doing research for a new movie. It's about a kind of a loner girl who sleeps with guys and kills them." 

"Really? Who's directing it?" James asked

"Jon DeRais." Estella said. 

"Want to make your own movie right now?"

James and Estella quickly got up entered the men's room. By now, James was holding Estella up by her legs which were wrapped around his chest, her hands were holding the sides of his head as she kissed him. They crashed into on of the stalls, Jimmy dropping onto the toilet and kicking the door shut. Estella stood, pulling her shirt off and revealing her perky round breasts. She dropped to her knees and undid James' pants, letting his fully erect cock spring out. Estella dropped on his lap. Her skirt rode up her sides, revealing her thighs and he fact she wasn't wearing any underwear. Estella moaned as James entered her, she began to thrust against him and arch her back in pleasure.

"Oh god" Estella moaned out loud as she thrust her hips against his. "Jesus, god, oh god" she continued to moan.

James leaned forward, letting his lips closed around Estella's nipple, which caused her to throw her head back in pleasure. James began to grind his hips against Estella's, his penis grinding deep within her vaginal walls. Eventually, as the two ground against eachother, Estella screamed out in her orgasm, the both of them coming to a rest and breathing heavily. "That was amazing, James" Estella said between her pants.

"Were not done yet." James grinned as he said that. 

In a quick motion, James pulled out of Estella and stood up, pressing her up against the stalls wall. He turned her around and then shoved his penis into her anus. Estella's face momentarily twisted in a grotesque look of pain and agony, but then eased out as Jimbo thrust into her from behind. As shed rocked against the stalls door, James had his hands resting on her hips. He worked them up her sides slowly and to her chest, cupping her breasts. His thumbs began to rub them in a circular motion around the stems of her nipples. Estella was gasping and moaning now, with every thrust she wanted to scream like she had earlier but kept herself from doing in. James grunted from behind as he came, shooting his seed into her. James pulled out of her and zipped himself up and dropped onto the toilet. Estella dropped into his lap and the two shared a passionate kiss. James stood and watched Estella dress herself, and the two exited the pub hand in hand. 

When James saw Britney Spears' walking down the street by herself, James grabbed a broken bottle off the ground and chased after he along with Estella.



Graveyard Fun



It's a calm autumn night, unusually warm but nice. The moon is already up and full. I'm walking with you in silence. There's nothing more to talk about after dinner. Just a comfortable silence fills the air. We come upon a darkened alley and you drag me in behind you. Pressing me against the wall, you kiss me and I can feel your cock straining against your jeans. I moan in ecstasy, wrapping myself around you. We hear footsteps on the street outside and pull ourselves deeper into the shadows. Following the alley out, we find ourselves outside the gates of the local cemetery. You give me that devilish smile of yours I love so much and run across the street. Opening the gate, you steal away into the darkness, leaving me behind. I hear your laughter in the night and try to follow the sound but I'm getting lost amongst the gravestones. I'm finding myself deeper and deeper in the night. I can't see anything but the streetlights highlighting the tombstones and angels. Suddenly I'm grabbed from behind, a hand covers my mouth, keeping me from screaming. But I recognize the feel of those arms around me. 

You pull me back against you, further into the darkness and the cover of trees. "Scream and I'll kill you." I nod once to let you know I understand. You come from behind me, pushing me against the tree. My jacket is ripped off of me and I hear it fall to the ground a few feet away. Your lips find mine, pushing me hard against the tree. The bark is digging into my back but I like the little bites of pain. I feel you kissing down my neck and try hard to hold back a moan. Your hands are under my shirt, clawing at my sides and hips. I arch to let your hands find my back. Your nails scratch down my back and I can't help but whimper slightly. The look in your eyes tells me to keep quiet. I bite my lip to keep from being loud. Suddenly I feel your hands at my pants pulling them and my panties down. The cold air hits my thighs and I shiver slightly. But suddenly you've grabbed me and bent me over a tombstone. I feel your hard cock sliding into my soaking wet pussy. I try to keep as quiet as possible. I don't want to alert the caretaker. You keep one hand over my mouth, just to be sure, and the other on my shoulder. I feel you pounding away at me. I'm getting so close to cumming but I want to wait for you. Your thrusts are getting harder and your breathing is heavier. I feel you clawing into my shoulder and back. You're growling and I'm praying we're not found. Suddenly, I'm cumming and feeling yours drip down my thighs. We're both out of breath but before we can relax a flashlight sweeps across the graveyard and we're forced to hide in the shadows. Someone has spotted us. Quickly we grab our clothes and make a run for it out the back exit. 

 

Before we can make out of the graveyard, we hear a sound off to the right. I look over but can see nothing. The cool fall wind picks up and there's something in the air. I feel a soft caress against my bare shoulder and turn to smile at you but you're not there. You're still holding my hand on the other side. I can swear I hear footsteps behind me but there's no one in sight. Suddenly I feel the faint touch of fingers stroking my cum-soaked pussy. I arch and my legs tremble. From the back gate you give me a look but for some reason I can't answer the question in your eyes. You walk towards me, as if to help me walk home. You get about three feet away but can't come any closer. You push against the invisible force and hear a quiet moan fill the night. 

The feeling of fingers leaves me and suddenly I can see your cock growing hard again. Your eyes are closed in ecstasy and your hands have formed fists. Slowly I reach out, wondering what my hands will find between you and me. Shockingly I feel cold skin. But there's no one there. As I stroke downwards I find the curve of a woman's back leading to her smooth ass. I'm so lost in the feel of her cold skin and the oddity of it all. I glance back up at you and notice the look in your eyes. The look that says you're enjoying this too much to even wonder if we should stop. I drop my clothes, my other hand still stroking her back. My finger suddenly slips into her ass and another moan fills the night. I smile at her pleasure and start fingering her ass. I reach around and fondle her breasts while she continues to blow you. From the look on your face she seems to be doing a great job.

Off to the left is a low tombstone. I force the ghost onto her back and she goes back to sucking on your dick. I kneel in front of her and use my lips and tongue to find her pussy. I slowly start eating her out. Apparently she's had other "visitors" to her graveyard recently, I can taste another guy's cum here. My tongue plunges in and out of her soaking wet pussy while you pound away in her mouth. I can hear her gagging from having your cock shoved own her throat. 

"Let's switch," I say, looking up at you from between her legs. You pull out of her mouth and come around. I stand at her head, spreading my legs and slowly lowering on to her face while watching you slide into her. Her tongue feels so good sliding into my cunt. With such a long tongue, you must have had a good blowjob. She finds my clit and starts to abuse it, flicking it with her tongue and lapping at it. I look up to see you pounding away in her pussy. It's odd to watch this but arousing as well. I reach down and play with her breasts, squeezing them and tweaking her nipples while she continues to eat me out. I can hear you start to groan and it matches the moans coming from her. I watch as all three of us cum together. I grind my pussy into her face, making sure she licks up all my cum. We hear one last moan when I cool wind swirls around us and then....nothing.

"I guess she was a whore before she died too," I tell you smiling. 

 

Before I can even begin to think about picking up my clothes, I hear footsteps heading towards us. I look up to see if you've heard it as well and see the chocked look covering your face. I stand up and follow your gaze but my mind doesn't want to believe what I see. There is what looks like a man lumbering towards us. As he comes closer, he passes through a clearing in the trees and the moon shines enough light on him to get a good look. He's not really a man at all but a corpse. Out of the shadows come more. Some men, some women, but all zombies. Their clothes are tattered and barely holding together. The two women I see are licking their lips and staring at you, looking you up and down as if sizing you up for dinner. And who knows, maybe they are. The men, three of them, head towards me. Even from here I can tell they're "happy" to see me. There's nowhere to run to, I'm backed against a statue and they have me surrounded. 

The man directly in front of me pushes what's left of his pants down and his cock springs out. Thankfully it's still intact although it has begun to rot. The other two follow suit and walk even closer to me. I look past them, trying to find you and ask for your help. But I see you've been pushed to the ground. One woman is blowing you, the skin of her cheek is gone so I can see the tendons working as she sucks you off. The other is trying to smother you with her pussy. When I focus back on the men in front of me I find they've gotten closer. One lies down while the other two force me on top of him. He slides easily into cunt from all the cum you've left. I moan as he bucks into me, going as deep as possible. Suddenly I feel my ass being lifted into the air so I'm in doggystyle over the zombie. The second one slides into my ass, grunting and pushing hard. I scream out in pain and ecstasy. I've always wanted to be taken by two men at the same time. The third one kneels in front of me, over the one on the ground, and forces his dick into my mouth. He's so long that I immediately gag. He pulls out slightly but just enough to where every time he thrusts in I gag slightly.

I look over to make sure you're ok and find that the girl zombie that was blowing you is now riding you. You seem to be enjoying. Her breasts keep bouncing and it looks like one might fall off. Quickly you grab them both, squeezing them tight and keeping them from moving too much. A loud moan escapes my lips as the two zombies thrust into me at the same time. I can't believe this is happening but I'm enjoying it too much to beg for them to stop. I start blowing him hard, sucking on his dick while the other two pound away in my ass and cunt. It feels so fucking good to have them both in me and I can't help but grind against them both. The one I'm straddling reaches up and holds my tits. Pieces of his skin are falling off but at the moment I don't care. From across the graveyard I can hear you moaning and I know you're getting close. I look over with the zombie's cock still down my throat and see that you're taking one doggystyle while the other is sucking on your balls.

The two zombies in me start pounding harder and faster. I spread my legs wider and moan while I suck on the zombie's dick harder. He starts cumming in my mouth and I swallow it on instinct. The other two are thrusting into me as hard as possible. I know they're getting close. I look over at you and our eyes meet as you cum into her cunt and the two zombies fucking me fill me with their cum. I scream out as I feel the zombie cum slide down my thigh and through my slit. I fall off to the side of the zombies and lay there as I watch them lumber off. I glance over at you on your knees while the two girl zombies join the men and leave. What a night it has been.



Graveyard Shift



Mason came into the store about 11pm, having decided to work the overnight shift for the 24 hour fast-food restaurant he had just recently become manager of.

Having come in through the back, he could go into his office without anyone noticing. He was watching the camera placed on the front lobby. The first things he noticed were the redhead and the blonde who were working the front register and the drive-through. Both of them were gorgeous and both of them were stacked. They made the fitted purple and teal uniform top look really good, as well as the purple, tight fitting pants. Both their zippers were low, revealing a healthy amount of ample cleavage. 

The blonde was shift leader, so he got up, leaned out his door and called her to come to his office. Her name was Crystal.

She came pretty fast, and he closed the door behind her as she walked in.

"Have a seat." Mason said, patting a space next to him on the brown leatherette loveseat.

Crystal dropped into the spot without hesitation and Mason noticed how her breasts jiggled as she did. He smiled.

"I'm going to be working tonight with you, okay?"

She nodded and smiled. "That's good. I wanted to meet you."

He slid closer to her. "You did?"

"Yes." She watched him, smiling as she followed the path his eyes were taking over her. "Tani said you were cute."

"Tani? Ah yes, the day shift leader." Tani had been fun.

"She said she really likes working when you're on."

Mason put his arm around Crystal's shoulders. "Good. I like Tani. She's a very good employee."

Crystal looked at him. He smiled down at her, gazing into the deep cleavage between her large breasts. "I think you'll be a very good employee too."

Crystal nodded. "I want to be."

Mason leaned into her and covered her mouth with his, his free hand cupping her breast and caressing it. Crystal moaned, squirming, as he used the arm around her shoulder to press her into him. He pulled the zipper of her top down to her waist, pulling it open. Crystal gasped, as he moved his mouth down to nibble at her neck before licking between her breasts, and grabbing them and squeezing them. Crystal was going to say something, but instead gasped again and moaned. Mason began to nibble the soft flesh swelling from the cups of her silky teal bra, twisting the tips of her nipples through the thin fabric. She squealed and he chuckled, pushing one cup down, and moaning slightly as her breast sprang free. He caressed it, manipulating her flesh with his fingers before he lowered his mouth to her nipple and began sucking.

Crystal groaned, squirming, thrusting her chest up, into his face.

Mason quickly unfastened the front-hook of her bra, freeing her other breast. He reared back a moment to take in the sight of Crystal's gorgeous naked breasts, quivering with each panting breath she drew, nipples hard and raised, begging to be sucked. "You've got some great tits, Crystal." he muttered, tweaking one.

She squealed.

He chuckled again, and began sucking on her second breast, playing and squeezing the first. Crystal continued to writhe beneath him, moaning and gasping softly. "Yes." Crystal breathed then, "Suck me... please..."

He grinned, sucking her harder. Crystal groaned loudly then, squirming. Thrusting a hand under the waistband of her pants, he found his way into the thin panties she was wearing and into her pussy. She was very wet and hot, which made him chuckle. Raising his head, he pulled out his hand, and made quick work of her sneakers and pants. Her panties were a teal silk thong, and soaking wet by now.

He went back to working her tits, which brought fresh groans and gasps from her, sliding one hand into her soaking wet panties, and up into the slick warmth of her pussy. Thrusting one finger inside her, he was rewarded with a loud gasp and groan, and a bucking of her hips. Pushing in two, then three fingers, Crystal gasped louder, thrusting against his hand. He continued to suck and bite at her now bouncing breasts, feeling his cock twitching, hard against the restraints of his pants, aching to get out and into Crystal's hot, wet pussy.

He yanked off her panties, and pulled back from her intoxicating tits. "You're hot and wet already, Crystal." he said. "You like fucking?"

Crystal moaned softly. "Oh yes. Will you fuck me now?"

Mason stood up, rubbing his cock through his pants. "Sure. First though, I want you to promise you're not going to wear a bra under your uniform, and no panties for a week. I want you to be available to me whenever I want." His cock twitched at the idea.


Crystal nodded. "Okay. Will you fuck me now?"

Shucking his pants, he slid back onto the couch with her and pulled off his underwear, relishing Crystal's moan as he uncovered his hard, thick cock.

"Ooh..." Crystal breathed, running her fingers over him, making him groan. "I like that...." She licked her lips, playing absently with one ample tit. "I want to suck it. Fuck my mouth first?"

Mason growled. "Yeah. Do it." He grabbed her head, forcing her down to his engorged cock. She giggled, giving him chills and making his cock jerk, slid to the floor between his legs, and covered his cock with her mouth. She began to suck him immediately, rubbing her tongue over the silky warm flesh, stroking him with one hand as she got him good and slick, the other hand finding its way down between her legs. She began plunging four fingers into herself as she slid him between her lips, slowly at first, suckling his flesh, enjoying his groans and short spasms, then gradually faster, until she was slurping him loudly, plunging him in as deeply as she could, her chin banging against his balls. Her other hand worked herself, slapping wetly against the soft, thick, hot flesh between her legs.

Mason was thrusting hard, fucking her mouth, but determined not to come until he was inside that hot, dripping wet pussy of hers first.

Finally he got the control to grab her head by her voluminous waves of blonde hair, yank her head back and groan, "No... I want to come in you."

Crystal nodded, gasping and licking her lips. "F-Fuck me hard..." she breathed. "I like it rough..."

He smiled, and grabbed her, shoving her up against his desk, presenting her round pink backside to his solid, engorged member. Grabbing her hips, he slammed himself into her pussy, relishing the scream and moan that came from her. He began to move, banging her with his own hips, his balls slapping against her ass with each thrust. She groaned and squirmed beneath him, and he could see her breasts shaking as he pounded into her. They banged against the debris on his desk, her nipples brushing endlessly against the keys of his computer keyboard. She was gasping, screaming and squirming as he fucked her, begging him to do it harder and harder.

He accommodated her, pounding her pussy with his hard cock, watching her writhe, enjoying the feel of her, wet, tight, slick, and very, very hot. He groaned, feeling the height of the pleasure coming on. He thrust faster and harder, Crystal's paintings and screaming taking on a hoarse note, which he noted with immense pleasure and satisfaction. She was still squirming and thrusting against him.

"Fuck me... oh yeah... harder, harder, harder! Please... please.... fuck... please, oh... fuck... FUCK!"

He lost it then, and came, filling her up with his come, continuing to slam until he couldn't take the sensation any longer. Crystal groaned, squirming, and finally he pulled himself out.

She slumped atop his desk, and he dropped back onto the sofa.

Finally, Mason said, "You're a good little fuck, Crystal. A very good employee."

She quivered on his desk, and pushed herself up, turning around. He grinned at her as she removed her top and bra, sat next to him on the sofa, and began kissing his face and neck, her hand wrapping around his limp member and caressing it. "I can be even better. You can fuck me again. Whenever you want. I'm better than Tani."

He chuckled, and tweaked her nipple. "You're a good fuck, Crystal. Not right now, though. Put your uniform back on, without the panties or the bra, remember."

Crystal sighed. "Are you sure? I can suck you off while you work."

He smiled. "You have work to do, Crystal. When I need you, I'll let you know."

She slowly pulled on her pants, then put her top back on, slowly zipping it until her breasts spilled from it like melons, and rubbed those tits up against him. Mason looked down and them and licked his lips. "Crystal, you're teasing me. As good as your big tits are, and as much as I love playing with them, you have to be a good girl, and put them away for now. Go back to work."

Sighing, Crystal slowly covered each breast, zipped her top up a little, giving a nice view of her cleavage, and stood up.

Mason grinned. "Go work now."

She licked her lips. "Anytime you want me..."

He nodded.

She opened the door and slid out.

***

Jon watched Crystal go into the back for more napkins. She'd been restless since the manager called her into the back. He followed her. She wasn't wearing a bra now, and he was pretty convinced she didn't have panties on either. Just looking at her, with her zipper practically down to her waist was making him hot. And a couple of other customers, who were his friends, had noticed her ample tits too. They mentioned them to him on his break.

He walked up behind her, and touched her shoulder.

"Hey, Crystal."

She looked at him, flushed and a little breathless. "Jon. Hi."

He gazed longingly at the exposed flesh of her tits. "Something up with you?"

Her breath came a little faster. "Yeah." She stepped closer to him.

He could smell her now, musky, sexy perfume and sex. "You fucked the new manager, didn't you?"

She stepped closer to him. "Does it matter to you?"

He looked at her. "Naw. Can I touch your tits?"

She brushed her breasts up against him. "Ooohh..." she moaned softly, "Yeah..."

He grabbed her top and pulled it open, running his hands over the large, soft globes with their deep pink nipples, whose tips were hardening in his hands. She groaned loudly. "Oooohhhhh.... yeah.... that feels sooo good...."

Jon felt his body spasm and his cock was straining against his jeans. He ran his rough hands harder over her soft, trembling tits. "God Crystal, you're so hot..."

She pressed into him. "I need fucked again... I'm so turned on... I can't think... all I can think about is sex..."

Jon groaned. With one hand, he yanked her pants down, and with the other, pushed her up against the storage room wall. His fingers brushed over the silky dampness of her pussy, and he groaned again, louder. With the same hand, he pulled open the front of his jeans, and pulled his cock out as quickly as he could. Crystal's hands found him, and pushed his jeans and underwear down, giving his member much more freedom. She squealed as she wrapped her hand around his hardness. "You're so big and hard... I need that in me, fill me up with your big, thick cock, Jon..."

Jon's fingers found her, and poked inside, three, four, five... he bent a little to shove his hand into her, hearing her gasp and squeal, and he groaned himself, fucking her with his hand first, watching those huge tits bounce almost hypnotically. Finally, he pulled his hand out and moved to shove his cock into her.

Crystal groaned, guiding him in, feeling her body stretch to accommodate that thick, hard shaft. She thrust her hips against him, gasping, as Jon began to knead and suck her tits. She didn't even have her uniform completely off. Each thrust pushed her against the wall. "Hard..." she growled in his ear, "Fuck me hard Jon! I'm so full of you... fuck me hard! Hard!"

He snarled back, slamming into her, making her tits slap against his face. Her nipples were hard and swollen, and he began nipping at them, enjoying her cries of pleasure as he continued to pound.

On the camera placed in the storage area, Mason watched the whole scene with a smile. He was getting hard again just watching them, and was considering calling Crystal in to take care of it when she was done, when on another monitor, he saw the auburn-haired front cashier talking to a group of college guys. A couple of them were touching her, trying to cop a feel. She was going along with it while trying to take their order, but it was difficult. One guy got a good squeeze of her breast and she gasped, but didn't slap him or look mad. She smiled and giggled a little.

"C'mon, Amber. Just a little look?" the guy said, "It would make our night. There's nobody else around right now. Give us a show."

Amber giggled again. "I'd get in trouble."

Another guy grinned. "No you won't. I hear the new manager likes pretty girls working for him. He'd probably like a look at those gorgeous tits of yours too."

Amber looked around. "Maybe." she said slowly, playing with her zipper.

There were five or so guys, and they all began trying to convince her. She pulled the zipper down an inch or so, and her confined breasts began to push out of the tight uniform top.

"Oh yeah..." one of the guys said, reaching out to caress the flesh that was slowly revealing itself. "Come on baby..."

Amber moaned a little, pulling the zipper down a little more.

Mason found himself leaning over, watching with interest, as the sounds of Jon and Crystal's fucking came to him from monitor #3.

Slowly, Amber pulled the zipper down, revealing two large D cups covered in a violet satin demi-bra. The guys groaned a little, and Amber giggled, making them chuckle. The guy caressing her moved his hand quickly, and unsnapped the catch in the front of her bra, and Amber's exquisite tits popped out, to her gasp and the cheers of the guys.

Mason grinned, watching her.

Someone had a camera and took a picture.

Amber blinked, then smiled, her nipples immediately hardening.

The guy who had unfastened her was beginning to grope her, as was the other guy who'd successfully copped a feel, and Amber was moaning as they worked her tits, beginning to squirm a little behind the counter.

Mason wondered if they just might all try to grope her in the lobby of the store, or maybe try a gang-bang? He thought that would be really interesting, but maybe not so good for business. Of course, it was 2 am by now, and the windows of the store were shuttered, but the door was still open.

A couple more pictures were snapped as one of the guys bent to suckle her tit, and another moved in to grope her, while one climbed over the counter and came up behind her. She moaned, squirming, when he pressed himself to her ass, and began to push her pants down.

Mason chuckled. At least one was going to try to fuck her.

She wriggled as her pants were removed and her panties were yanked down. "Ooohh... no, don't try to.... ooohhh god!" The guy behind her had sunk his fingers deep into her wet pussy, and she was squirming again, moaning incoherently as some two guys were now noisily sucking her tits, and the guy behind her was probing her with his fingers, pushing deep into her and twiddling her clit at the same time. She was leaning over the counter now, presenting an enticing picture for the guy with the camera, who was snapping pictures left and right. Mason figured the camera was a digital one by all the pictures that he was taking.

"Oooohhhh...." Amber moaned again, "No... don't fuck me... I'll get in trouble..."

The guy behind her chuckled. "I don't think you will. You're giving him too hot of a show, Amber. Let me fuck you, then the other guys will. Your new manager ought to love that."

Amber groaned, squirming. "We're in public..." She squealed as one of the guys sucking her nipped her. "I... ooohhh, yes, that's it... no... I-I can't... yes! Oh god! Yes! OH... FUCK..." She began writhing, twitching and spasming as the guy behind her expertly worked her pussy and clit. The other guys chuckled, watching, while the one with the camera climbed over the counter and started snapping pictures of the guy fisting her and playing with her clit. He slammed his hand into her, making her scream each time, bouncing her tits.

Mason had freed his cock and was rubbing it, watching. 

Crystal and Jon had changed positions and were still fucking each other.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Amber screamed, and came, hot liquid gushing out of her pussy all over the hand of the man fisting her. He laughed, dropped his pants and slammed his thick, hard cock into her with no delay. Amber screamed again, squirming. After only a few minutes of intense pounding, he came, Amber came again, and the other guys were beginning to look very uncomfortable.

Amber was squirming as her tits were still sucked and squeezed, and as the guy behind her withdrew, the guy with the camera came up, and still clicking, hilted himself in her dripping, hot pussy. She groaned, squirming as she was fucked from behind a second time, and came again fast and hard.

There were three guys left, the ones playing with her tits, and as the second guy to get satisfied pulled out, the one who groped her first grabbed her and helped her up onto the serving counter next to her register.

He grinned. "You still have three more customers to serve, Amber." he chuckled, dropping his pants and climbing up next to her. She grinned. "Service with a smile." and began kissing him. They kissed and groped for a few minutes, completely aware of the greedy eyes of the two currently unserved customers and the satiated eyes of the satisfied ones, then he rolled her on top of him and entered her with a hard push. She gasped and wiggled a little, then began to rock on top of him, groaning a little. Then one of the other guys climbed up behind her, unfastening his jeans and withdrawing his cock, as the other brought over a chair, mounted it, opened his pants, and presented his member to Amber's hot, panting lips. She immediately began sucking him, as he rocked and groaned, the back of the chair braced against the counter. The man beneath her grabbed her swollen breasts and began to knead and twist them, as the guy behind Amber buried himself in her ass.

Amber's scream of surprise and pleasure came out as a muffled groan, making the guy in her mouth groan as well, and the three of them began pumping her, slowly at first, then gaining speed until all four of them were panting, grunting and groaning with effort and pleasure.

Mason groaned and let go, coming all over his leather chair, as he continued to watch Amber service her customers.

Finally the guy in her pussy came, then the guy in her mouth, then the guy in her ass. Amber moaned loudly as she was filled to the hilt with come. She swallowed, continuing to suckle the cock in her mouth until the young man couldn't take any more and reluctantly pulled out. She kissed him as he slid free, and dropped her head to kiss the man under her. They kissed deeply for a while, as the guy behind her pulled free. She was crouched on top of the guy, with him deep inside her as she finally stopped kissing, and rolled off of him. He sat up and grinned at her.

"I like the service here." he said, tweaking Amber's tits. "Very friendly."

Amber smiled. "I like to satisfy my customers."

"I'll say." Mason said, leaning against the wall, by the door leading to the back offices.

Amber jumped up.

Mason smiled. "Don't worry. You're not in trouble."

"Really?" Amber said as the guys scrambled to get back in their clothing.

Mason looked at her with amusement and lust. "Are the customers happy?"

Amber grinned. "Yes."

"Then there's not a problem."

The college boys left several 20s on the counter and left, waving at Amber. Amber started to fix her clothing.

"Wait." Mason picked up the money. "Don't do that yet."

Amber looked at him.

"Don't wear a bra or panties under your uniform." He picked up her panties from the floor and smiled. "Our customers are mostly guys from the college, and obviously they appreciate nice tits and a fine ass on a girl. Let's make sure they're happy."




Graveyard Shift



Rick hated the graveyard shift. He hated it with a passion. Working at what everyone called the Sleazy G gas station, for the midnight shift, was something any young twenty-one year old guy could really spend a summer without! 

But, here he was. Plugging away at numbers for the accounting books out of sheer boredom, something he wasn't obligated to do but may as well finish or he'd fall asleep. 

Suddenly his reverie was broken by the sound of dance music. A red sports car, top down, revved into the station, techno tunes blaring from the hi-fi amps and subs the small red car was hiding somewhere in its innards. 

Rick sat up and peered out the window of the small white dingy clerk's box. 

Driving the car was a blonde girl, probably about Rick's age. She had a friend with her, a girl with light brown hair. 

Judging from their make-up and clothes, they were the kinds of girls that hit the clubs a lot, probably intending to do that tonight. 

The blonde got out of the car, purposefully swinging her hair over her shoulders as she walked over to the self serve gas pump. She was wearing a short latex bolero jacket and a pair of tight black leggings that had small tassels. The tassels hung from her waist and had tiny silver bells attached to them, so that her every step probably jingled, except the music was much too loud. 

As she bent over to open up the gas port on the side of her car, Rick watched her smallish round breasts peek out from the front of her jacket, which he now realized was quite undone. She wore nothing underneath, and her tits came forward as she leaned over the back of the car. 

She flipped her hair to the far side so she could force the nozzle into the hole, and that was when she started to slowly lick her very full and darkly painted lips. 

Rick watched, grateful that the clerk's box hid all of his body behind the wall and counter. He stared at her out the window, watching as her tongue slid around and around, top lip to bottom lip then back up again. 

Rick gulped and finally tore his eyes away from the blonde to see what the other girl in the passenger seat was doing. 

The car was only slightly forward from his booth, so he could peer down into the low red vehicle and see exactly what the brown haired vixen in the passenger seat was up to. 

She had on a tight leopard-print dress, low cut in the front and short on her thighs. From where she sat, she could look up and see Rick quite clearly. 

And she had been watching him. 

Now that she had his full attention, she smiled up at him and blew him a kiss with her lips, as her hands pulled at her dress. She was laughing lightly as Rick's eyes went wide and her dress top went lower and lower, until he could almost see the dark circles of her nipples. 

Rick's fingers gripped the counter edge tightly. He wasn't sure if he should be pulling away or leaning forward more. 

She put her feet up on the dash infront of her, forcing the tight hem of her dress to slide further back up her thighs. With her dark brown eyes on Rick, she put her hands on her dress and began to tug it higher and higher, exposing more skin. 

Then, just as the dark curls of her privacy were beginning to show between her legs, the driver side car door slammed shut. Rick jumped. The two girls laughed and sped off, the vigorous beat of their music trailing behind them and fading quickly to nothing. 

They hadn't paid for their gas. 

"Fuck," Rick said, swallowing several times. He glanced at the clock. It would be hours before the manager came in to check the books and do the night's cash count. 

Rick knew he'd be replacing the money for the gas the girls had stolen out of his own pocket, before the manager came in. He held his head a few moments, trying to get the sight of the two vixens and their exposed flesh out of his mind. Then he grabbed a clipboard and pen, and left the booth, locking it behind him. 

Rick walked over to the gas pump, shifting himself in his pants. His cock was hard and it was making him uncomfortable in his tight jeans. 

Damn, those two chicks were hot. Why don't we ever have hot chicks like that around here? he thought, writing down how much gas they had taken and the price. 

Suddenly, there was a soft purring noise, the sound of a finely tuned engine creeping slowly closer and closer. Rick turned around. 

It was the red car. The girls were back, music off, car coming quietly up to where Rick was standing. 

For several moments, no one spoke. Rick stood infront of their car, blinking in disbelief and wonder. And the two girls just stared at him, smiling wickedly. 

Finally, Rick made to move out of their way. 

"Wait," the blonde called. 

She backed her car up and parked it in the shadows behind the deserted clerk box. Then she and her companion got out of the car's front seat, and climbed in the back. 

They beckoned to Rick. 

"C'mon," one said. 

"There's no one around for miles and miles." "Come on, we felt bad about not paying for the gas." "Let us pay you back...our way..." 

In the darkness of the shadows around the deserted gas station, Rick could see them touching each other and moving against each other. 

His breath came hard and his mouth felt dry. 

Should he do this? Who would know? No one would. If anyone asked why the security camera showed he had been out of the stall, he could just say he was checking out a problem with the pumps. The tape would show him moving off to one side and out of the camera's view, nothing big about that. 

Rick shook his head, and licked his lips. 

Fuck it, he thought, and jogged over to the car. 

The blonde opened the door on her side, pushing the driver seat forward and pulling Rick by his hip onto the seat between herself and her friend. 

"There, now, let us do all the work." "We won't bite, unless you ask." The two girls giggled, one on either side of Rick. One took the clipboard and attached pen from him and threw it out onto the gravel outside the car. Then both sets of hands were pulling at his clothes. 

They pushed Rick to stand up, and he did, closing his eyes as they undid his jeans and pulled them down to his ankles. Then they lifted his feet up out of his pants, shoes and all, and turned him around. 

He could hear them cooing and squealing in delight as they took in the sight of his rigid hard cock. He knew he was well endowed, he'd never had a problem with chicks before. But in his short sexual history, he'd never done anything so wild as this. It made him even hotter that these two babes were staring at him and making happy pleased sounds. 

Rick looked down, watching as both mouths quickly moved toward his cock. Soon, both their tongues were dueling over his shaft. He'd had blow jobs before, but never anything like this. 

In unison, the girls reached their hands up and guided Rick's fingers into their hair. He ran his fingers through their soft curls, stroking their heads as they lathered his cock with their lips and tongues. 

Mmm, he thought, closing his eyes and moaning loudly as one of them moved her mouth to his balls. She was licking at lapping at him, and the feeling was so incredibly. 

Then one of them was fully sucking his cock, and he began to pump his hips forward and back, forward and back, forcing himself in and out of her mouth. Her lips were divine. He didn't even care who was doing what. He just knew it felt so good. 

"Do me," one of them said. 

Rick opened his eyes. 

The darker haired girl was leaning back in the seat. She had pushed the passenger seat forward, giving Rick room to kneel between her legs. She had spread herself wide for him, pulling her dress up to just beneath her tits. 

"Hell yeah," he said softly. 

Then he moved himself between her thighs, and quickly thrust his cock insider her tight sheath. Her hands ran over his chest, her nails dragging across his skin. 

The blonde girl put her hands on her friend's tits, pushing her top down and lifting out the heavy mounds. Rick watched, pumping, while the blonde pulled and teased at the other girl's titties, tugging hard on the nipples. 

Soon, Rick could feel the dark haired vixen beneath him cumming. Her cunt stroked his cock, and he thrust into her deeper and deeper. She moaned and squealed, shaking and trembling and squeezing her eyes shut. 

Finally, she was done. Rick pulled out, panting, sweating. 

"Now me," the blonde said. 

Rick had definitely never fucked two girls before. This was just too much. 

The blonde got on her knees on the back seat, facing away from Rick. She pushed her ass out towards him, wiggling it. Then she pulled her leggings down to the backs of her knees. She was naked underneath. 

Quickly Rick slipped over to her, patting her ass boldly. Then he pulled her back to him by the hips and impaled her on his long, thick shaft. Soon he was buried deep inside her, and fucking her wildly from behind. She clung to the back seat, gripping it tightly and forcing herself back against him hard, each time he pushed forward into her. 

She loved it hard and deep, and groaned and moaned as Rick slammed in and out of her tight hole. 

Then, she was cumming. Again Rick's cock was milked sweetly by a woman's orgasm. 

And he still hadn't cum himself. 

Breathing hard, Rick pulled out, looking down at the girls. He couldn't help it. He began to stroke himself. He wanted his hard-on to stay, to never end. Everything felt so good right now. 

"Come here," beckoned the brunette. 

She pulled Rick down, turning him so he landed on his backside on the seat. Then both girls leaned forward, gobbling over his dick. He closed his eyes, hands in their hair again, gripping tightly. He felt the dueling tongues, heard the frantic slurpings. 


Then they pulled off of him. He looked up. 

The blonde climbed into his lap, her pants completely off now, her long legs bare and sleek. She faced him, her jacket open, and promptly shoved his hard cock inside her cunt. Then she began to bounce up and down in his lap. 

Rick put his hands up inside her jacket, squeezing her small tits. He cupped one in each hand, caressing them as she bounced. 

After a few minutes, she got off of him, making Rick whine. But quickly, the brown haired girl replaced her. 

"I have something better in mind," the dark haired vixen said. 

She turned away from Rick, holding onto the seats infront of her as her ass rounded out towards Rick's face. 

The blonde came close, stroking Rick's cock firmly, slowly, then holding it still as the ass of the brunette slowly began to descend. 

"I know what she's thinking," she said, aiming Rick's cock. 

The next thing he knew, he felt the tight pucker of the brunette's ass hole meeting the head of his cock. The rim of muscles that started the tunnel was ever so tight, tighter than anything Rick had ever imagined possible. It was like a small condom, constricting around his cock head as the girls forced him into the brunette's tight ass. 

Hot warm flesh enveloped Rick's cockhead. And he groaned, loudly. Then the brown haired girl forced herself even further back and down his shaft, taking more of him inside. The further in he went, the more heat he felt, the more he was constricted. 

Suddenly, she sat down completely, and Rick was buried deep in her ass. She stayed still for a few moments, giving Rick time to adjust. Then she carefully leaned back against him, pulling the top of her dress down. She took Rick's hands and put them on her tits, giving him her fresh round mounds to play with. 

"Let me get in on this," the blonde said, squirming her way into the front of the car. 

She was between the two front seats now. Rick began to rock his hips, slowly forcing his cock up and down inside the girl's incredibly tight ass. Then he felt the hands and fingers of the blonde. 

She was playing with her friend's pussy. He could feel her fingers, at first, as she soaked them in the girl's cunt. Then Rick felt the awesome sensation of her tongue as she slathered over the other girl's pussy. 

The blonde ate out the brunette while Rick fucked her sweetly from behind, grinding and rubbing himself along her canal. The brunette came several times, and each time, Rick got to enjoy the feel of her juices slipping down over his balls, only to be lapped up eagerly by the blonde. 

Finally, he couldn't stand it any more. He had to get off, and it was going to be a doozy. 

"Move," Rick said to the blonde, who promptly obeyed. 

Without pulling his cock out of the brunette's ass, he pushed her forward between the two front seats until she was on her hands and knees, awkwardly. He knelt on the backseat, gripping the edges of the two front seats. Without holding the girl at all, he had her wedged firmly, unable to move. 

Then, he began to pound into her ass. Hard, hard, hard, Rick fucked her tight steaming hole, his cock beginning to swell. 

As he rammed into her, she squealed, in pain and pleasure as Rick's dick got thicker, moved faster, became hotter. 

Then he was cumming. He buried himself to the hilt in her tight asshole, spurting into her. Quickly, he pulled out and buried himself in her cunt for a few moments. Then, just as the last drops were gushing out of his cock head, he pulled out and jerked himself off all over her ass and backside. 

The girls cooed and ahh'd then. Everyone was exhausted, panting. Rick wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirt, and the blonde fished around the backseat of the car for an extra shirt or a towel. She cleaned her friend off, then wiped at Rick's spent cock. 

He smiled at them, then pulled his pants up. Then he helped himself out of the car. 

"Wait!" called the blonde. 

"What's your name? What's your phone number?" 

Rick laughed, walking away from the girls. Then he stopped and turned around to face them, smiling as he picked up his clipboard and pen. 

"Well," he said, scratching his head. 

He couldn't stop grinning. "I work tomorrow night. If you come by at the same time, maybe we can share." 

Then he shrugged and walked away, and the girls drove off into the night, their loud music blaring as they disappeared down the highway. 



Graveyard Shift



Amber got her bra off and put it on the counter before she decided to put her pants back on.

Mason watched her, wanting to fuck her right now, but deciding not to, just yet. She began to fasten up her top, and he stopped her, reaching out and caressing her breasts. "Nice." he said, flicking her nipples and watching them harden, appreciating the soft moan she made. "Very nice."

"Mmmmm...." Amber said as he continued to massage her breasts. "Ooohhh... that's getting me hot again..."

Mason leaned down and suckled her nipples, one after the other. "Not just yet." He said as he straightened. "You've just had five. Go on break."

Amber stepped towards him. "I can go on break in your office. Suck you off, if you don't feel like fucking me. You can fuck my tits. I'd like that..." she whispered heatedly, "I'm still really, really hot, and I need someone to help me get off."

Mason grinned. "Not right now, Amber. I want to fuck you hard, and I will, but not just yet. Go on break. You'll get me tonight... if you're a good girl now and do what I say."

Amber smiled, zipping up her top. "I can be a good girl. I'll do what you say."

Mason chuckled as he watched her walk back towards the locker and training room. "Don't get yourself off, though. I want you hotter than you are right now before I fuck you."

Amber sighed. "I don't think I can work like this."

"Crystal is."

She sighed again and went into the back.

Mason picked up her bra and ran her damp panties through his fingers, grinning as he headed to his office to add them to his collection.



Gravity Capture



SolMax Prison

Ajax paced around the small exercise court of the reception area, 50 feet beneath the cratered surface of the asteroid Pallas. The British had loitered in the capture area long enough to participate in war games, but on the return to Earth had stopped to turn him over to the SolMax guards, who took him into custody. 

“Move up, convicts!” A guard got his attention with a shout, rapping his shock-stick on the clear plexi-glass door separating him from the others that have been taken in ahead of him. “You’re next.”

When the door slid open, the guard waved his baton toward the recesses of adjoining chamber and Ajax shuffled forward. As the door closed behind him, he could see three men waiting for him ahead; two were guards, one was dressed in a white lab coat. The biggest, ugliest one had a head that resembled a rotten squash and carried a scanning tool; when he lifted it and stepped forward. The name on his ID tag was Brawny.

“Spread your legs,” Brawny said in a soft voice that seemed out of place coming from such a beast of a man. He swept down each leg when Ajax complied. “Now strip.”

Ajax nodded and began unzipping his dirty, patched flight suit. He got it half way off before Brawny acted, lifting his shock-stick and giving Ajax a wallop; the blow landed just above the kidney on his right side and sent a wave of agony rushing through him. Ajax growled with pain and dropped to his knees.

“You listen to me, convict,” Brawny said quietly, intently, right into his ear. “When myself or any member of the staff gives you an order, you’re to carry it out immediately, not next feking week. When I say strip, you’d better move like you’re catching fire, are we clear?”

“Yes,” Ajax mustered as an assistant pulled him to his feet. “Very clear. Sorry, sir, it won’t happen again.”

“I’d advise against it.”

Once the pain subsided Ajax quickly complied. His clothes were bundled up and pitched into a chute as he stood naked before the three. It was good that the prison was overheated.

“Now put your hands against the wall,” Brawny said, using his shock-stick to point out the barrier in question. “Keep your legs spread wide.” He turned and jerked a thumb at Ajax. “He’s all yours, Doc.”

A man in a white lab coat snapped on latex gloves and stepped forward with an auto-injector, inoculating him with a multi-vaccine in silence. Brawny’s assistant came forward with a stack of clothing; seven bright-red, folded jumpsuits, seven gray t-shirts, seven pairs of half-socks, seven pairs of drawers… the only clothing Ajax would be allowed for the duration of his stay. The last procedure was a sweep with a handheld scanner for objects hidden in body cavities.

“He’s clean.” The doctor said and put the scanning device away. “Take him away.”

Ajax got to keep his boots. One jumpsuit fell out of the stack as the assistant shoved the pile into his arms, there was a bar code emblazoned on the front and back; the code that would take the place of his name.

“Get dressed,” Brawny ordered and Ajax hastened to comply. As he donned the undergarments, Brawny gave him a hard look, inspiring greater speed. “Always remember one thing, convict. I’ve got my eye on you.”

“Kinkaid, Melvin- let’s go.” A SolMax administrator called from where he was waiting, behind a one way revolving door at the far end of the chamber.

“Yeah, sure.” Ajax said as he left Brawny glaring at his back and pushed through the door. The administrator escorted him into the virtual courtroom where the holographic image of a magistrate, uplinked from his comfortable chambers on Earth, presided. Justice was quick, he was found guilty and given the mandatory sentence; eight years, all pending the reception of the condemning evidence that had been collected.

At the rear of a long column of other convicts, Ajax was led into a large room filled with various recording devices, all arranged in a circular pattern along the walls. As he followed the circuit, one machine took his retinal scan, another a sample of his DNA, a third took his picture-front, then profile. One man vigorously resisted the efforts to extract a blood sample.

“He’s going to the DeepCore.” Was circulated among the prisoners assembled for in-processing. After ten minutes of struggling, a medic with a strong sedative was called in and the in-processing continued. 

Ajax and the others going to general population were lined up in front of the lifts that would take them to their habitation areas. The prisoners going to heavy security, further under the asteroid’s surface, were already being shuttled below in pairs. Only the lift marked “DeepCore”, the one that fell four kilometers to the maximum-security area, had no one waiting to take the long ride down. 

A loud commotion at the rear of the line brought him back from his contemplation of what the bottom was like. Someone had broken free and was being subdued forcefully by the guards. The noise got closer with every heartbeat.

“No! You can’t take me down there! I’m as good as dead down there… do you hear me… dead!”

The wild prisoner who had resisted the earlier attempts at DNA scanning had come out of his drug-induced lethargy and was making life difficult for his guards, who had him hog-tied with a pair of carbon-fiber cuffs. The guards, fully outfitted in rigid Marine body armor and armed with snub-nosed assault rifles, carried the malcontent by both arms into the lift marked “DeepCore."

As the doors of the lift closed, Ajax watched the guards drop the man and jack a live round into the chambers of their weapons. He could hear the screaming protests as the lift began its four-kilometer journey, growing more and more faint as it sank lower toward the hell he imagined the DeepCore to be.

After several minutes, the doors to the DeepCore lift opened and the two guards stepped out, one holding a blood sodden-cloth to his face. The other dragged the lifeless form of the convict they had been charged with escorting behind him.

“What in the hell happened down there!”

The watch supervisor was the first one on the scene and he was angry; a casualty in the lift meant more data-work. The injured guard pointed at the corpse on the floor.

“This waster wouldn’t go.” The guard said.

The gleam of metal inside the lift caught Ajax’s eye while the guard related his story. There were aluminum shell casings scattered across the lift floor.

“What do you mean he wouldn’t go?” The supervisor said and waved over a pair of convicts wearing orange work-suits. They lifted the body at the head and feet and carried it out of sight. At SolMax, dead convicts were charitably incinerated.

“He wouldn’t go. We hit the halfway point and he went nuts, broke he restraints we had on him and attacked me… tried to claw my eyes out. We had to put him down, and by the way, they aren’t paying us enough to do this.” The guard took the cloth away from his face and pondered it with a look of disgust, giving Ajax a look at the deep, bloody furrows that marred the man’s forehead and cheek. Noone had it easy in SolMax.

“The company’s aware of your concerns. They'll be brought up at the next shareholder’s meeting. Now go to the infirmary and have that looked at,” The supervisor said and gave the pools of slowly cooling blood left by the dead convict a last glance before he turned back for his office. “Somebody clean this goddamned mess up.”

"Get moving, convict." A stern voice from behind him said and delivered a hard shove. Ajax stumbled forward in his restraints and tried to keep from dropping his prison issued garments. Once his balance had been restored, he realized that the line had been moving while he cogitated. As the elevator doors closed in front of him, his last view of the surface was of two gray-haired, old men vacuuming up the blood.

His cell was small, four feet wide and just large enough for him to stretch out on the thin mattress of the bunk along the left side. He could stand comfortably upright but the ceiling was only a few inches higher and he instinctively bowed his head when he stepped inside, the solid plexi-glass door slid shut behind him. Several ventilation holes were drilled along the top and bottom, none large enough to put his fist through. A slot in the middle was just wide enough to accommodate a meal tray.

Underneath the bunk was a table made of hard resin and a square block of the same material that served as a spartan chair. The commode rested against the back wall, underneath the foot of the mattress. He dropped the pile he carried and collapsed onto the bunk, feeling cartilage in his spine pop as he stretched out. The screen on the wall across from the bed snapped on.

You are being monitored. 

The message on the screen changed every five seconds.

You are being recorded.

From the scuttlebutt that he gathered, if he behaved, they might pipe in a movie or a show from Earth to help alleviate the boredom. Most other means of venting were prohibited and the penalty for doing prohibited things was severe. 

Damaging or destroying SolMax property is prohibited, twelve days in the deepcore. Inciting violence is prohibited, thirty days in the core. Assault on Solmax staff or other inmates is prohibited, ninety days in the core. Failure to heed directives of Solmax staff is prohibited, sixty days in solitary confinement.

The schedule for feedings and exercise periods was posted on the wall next to the door. This was his home sweet hell for the next twenty-nine hundred days, each one of them an eternity. 

“Two-thousand-eight-hundred-and-ninety-nine days and counting,” He said and laid his head back on the thin pillow as a tear streamed out the corner of one eye. “I’m not gonna make it.”

He was startled by the rap of a guard’s shock baton on the door of his cell. “On your feet convict, your exercise period begins in twelve minutes. Look lively now.”

***

Sol-3/Earth

Geneva

“The seat of Earth sat on the shore at Geneve-Plage. In a time of manufactured mountains, it was a marvel of the age. The gothic base soared nine hundred feet above the Lac Leman. Its transept spire rose even higher to a point twixt dusk and dawn.” Lilli said to herself, letting the English/French roll over her tongue. She spoke those languages and five others fluently but never used them. ComLan was the interstellar language of business. 

"This court will come to order!" A bailiff in red Renaissance garb hollered from the center of the floor and thumped his partisan. His words were instantly translated into a dozen languages and issued from speakers placed around the wide hall. He stood upon the United Nations of Earth seal, a mosaic circle of colored tile forming the flags of every member nation around a four-pointed star, inlaid beneath the witness stand.

Lillith Trevor, Lilli to her few friends and bitch to the rest of the human sphere, turned when she heard the locks turn inside the doors at the back of the courtroom, a sharp, metallic snap of steel-on-steel that echoes through the hall. 

"How long do we have?" Lilli said in a whisper. The packet ship waiting at the Procyon jump point would initiate transit on schedule, with or without her summary report of their legal efforts stored onboard in the mainframe memory.

"Twelve minutes. Even with transmission boosting, our signal is still going to take some time to get to the courier," Stephan said evenly. As her executive assistant, he was paid very well to think of the little things she didn’t have time to. "That’s on the safe side.”

"Transmit the briefing I wrote up last night." Lilli said as she watched the judges milling in the anteroom and checked her Krono-Tek. 

"But there's been no official announcement." Stephan said. He was efficient and wore his pinstripes smartly, but he took no chances. He always asked before he moved, even when he already knew what her response would be. It had been nice at first, but Lilli was beginning to despise his lack of initiative. 

"If we don't send it now, we could miss the courier. Like I said, on my call. Send it." 

"You're the boss."

“Yes, I am.” Lilli said. He knew how to follow orders though, she noted with satisfaction. Stephan opened his datapad and contacted their communications subsidiary while the bailiff knocked his partisan again. 

"This court will come to order!"

The viewing galleries hanging above the central hall were the main source of the clamor, filled beyond capacity with a standing crowd that moved, people jockeying for a better view of the proceedings.

"All rise!"

When Lilli got to her feet, she caught the eye of the big shark on the Transterran team, who gave her a confident smile and a thumbs up. He had assured her that their case was solid-to-the-core. She had planned around that being so. If it was not, the official Transterran line will be "no comment."

The justices filed from their deliberation chambers onto the tile court. By tradition, the senior judge came out first, Justice Salise Monjupu. The others had split rulings and left it up to the senior man. Monjupu took eleven days to review evidence and make up his mind.

Because worlds literally turned on the outcome of the suit, the delay was expected and justified, most likely a respite just to give the EuroCon time to get their things in order. 

The conservative business outfit she had chosen for the day provoked a dry comment about a funeral from Stephan. It had been appropriate. The first surprise of the day was that the European Confederation had crumbled.

Monjupu sat and resumed the trial with a rap of his walnut gavel. Robotic hover-cameras tagged with BBC, PGN, and the symbols of other news networks darted about the line of seated justices, angling for the best view.

"Be seated." He said, adjusted his microphone with palsied hands, and cleared his throat. "Before the court delivers its decision, I have a statement. Because this is precedence, I have taken the time allowed to me by section nine, article four of the Terran Charter and reviewed the arguments of both parties."

“The courier'll get to Procyon before this windbag gets to the point.” Lilli whispered as she opened her handbag and withdrew a small box of Zep-Lyks. She shook two out of the dwindling supply and palmed them into her mouth. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner had passed in waiting. When the mint hit her tongue her stomach complained for more.

"What cannot be denied, is that on the eleventh of March, Twenty-one-sixty-three, the European Confederation did approach Transterran Corporation for the purpose of acquiring capital to pay for new arms and munitions. This capital was granted in good faith under the conditions outlined in file one-one-seven, and purchase files three-five-zero-one through five-eight-seven-seven show that this capital was used to good effect."

She checked the Kronos again. The courier was on its way to home office in the Procyon system. 

"When repayment of said contract came due, the hard currency reserves of the European Confederation, hereafter known as the “EuroCon” were at a level insufficient to meet contract obligations, in so defaulting on the agreement."

“Now they’re taxing us to death!” An angry voice called from the EuroCon side.

“Order,” Monjupu said and rapped his gavel. The gallery fell quiet. "Despite the recent collapse of the European Confederation, I cannot overlook that prior to this, the Transterran contract had been ratified by all twelve branch officers of the EuroCon and by delegates of all twelve EuroCon extra-solar colonies. 

“Precedence for the continued liability of former member states is well defined in the Terran Charter, section twenty-eight, paragraph eighteen. Rulings in States v. Northern Combine and United Kingdom v. Tachyon Industries show that, despite a change in policy or management, a new government or corporate state retains the contractual obligations of the former. No new business is to be conducted until they are settled, such is the extent of the law."

Monjupu took a sip of water and read on.

"We have reviewed Transterran's claim and found it to valid and well-within the boundaries of propriety."

“We did it,” Lilli said under a smug grin. Transterran's claim was valid. “There’s no way they can rule against us.”

"What are we going to do? Give these devils our homes? That's all we've got left!" Someone gave a pensive shout from the EuroCon section. Monjupu thumped his gavel. 

"I will have order." He said, sternly looking out over his glasses. He swept his fingers through his sparse hair and cleared his throat.

"We have also reviewed the settlement proposed by the former EuroCon states in file one-two-one-seven-seven and found that lacks the provisions called for in the terms of the original agreement," Monjupu said as he shifted sheets of hard-copy. "Our decision is for Transterran under the settlement terms outlined in file one-two-one-seven-seven. The European Confederation forfeits all goods detailed in purchase files three-five-zero-one through five-eight-seven-seven. Service and other non-material expenditures will be repaid by transfer of exploitation rights to Transterran for the period until the debt is repaid. The matter of Transterran versus Avalon colony will be resolved in arbitration. These proceedings are closed."

Cheers erupted from the Transterran supporters gathered behind them.

“Lilli, you did it!” Stephan cried out happily and lifted his arms to embrace her. He frowned as she lifted a hand to his chest and pushed him away.

“They did it to themselves.” 

***

Polar orbit

Jena took an elevator up the hub of Freedom Point station and then a tram down a spoke to the gravity decks spinning at 9.8 meters per second. After six weeks, she still got off on the wrong level and searched for half-an-hour before she realized her error; the orbital base seemed to be made of nothing but gray pipes and infinitely long stretches of corridor rotating around the core.

After finding the appropriate section, she followed the faces she recognized to the right compartment. The rest of Constellation’s command crew was already there; heads turned when she came through the hatch. 

"Jena! Over here!" Tali called from beside an empty seat. Jena waved and began working her way down the row of seats toward her. “Christ and Allah… what took you so long? I almost thought you weren’t going to show up.” 

“I didn't want to leave anything out of my post-ex report." Jena said and wearily collapsed into the chair.

"Me neither. I rewrote my analysis three times before anything made sense,” Tali said, shrugged, and wrinkled her nose in what might have been irritation. “I wanted to say more, but what do I know, I'm just a navigator."

"I know what you mean," Jena said and looked around for disapproving glances cast her way. "Did anyone ask where I was?”

“The captain’s not here either.”

“Stellar.” Jena said and closed her eyes. “That’s the best news I’ve heard since we got back.”

"Commodore on deck!" A loud bark from the door-guard prompted Jena to her feet as a shrewd looking man with the Union Jack on the sleeve came through the hatch. Between captain and admiral in rank, he radiated command presence with stern brown eyes that had seen much, and forgotten very little. Crites followed behind him, looking out over his subordinates and staring down the few willing to meet his gaze.

Jena kept her face forward and took a calming breath as she heard the captain slow beside her. Natural instinct dragged at her eyes, urging them to the corners of their sockets for a look to see on whom his attention fell.

“Be seated,” The senior officer said once he had climbed the stairs onto the stage and taken the podium. “For those of you who do not know me, I am Commodore Leslie Spencer. I have almost fifty years in allied service and several combat tours; mostly during the Neo-colonial War and while assigned to the blockade of the Procyon system during the uprising there.”




Gravity Capture



He turned almost in afterthought, contemplating the multi-media control pedestal in the deck beside him. He scrutinized the color-coded buttons on the pedestal until he found the one he was looking for. Motors quietly hummed as massive bulkhead panels slowly began retracting into the overhead.

“I should very well imagine that I’ve spent more years in cold sleep than most of you have years,” Spencer said and chuckled. “I'll warn you now that it stays with you, the chill that is. It settles into your bones and never leaves. I suggest you all pack a coat."

There was scattered laughter. Controls for the overhead lights were on the pedestal and he dimmed them to a more comfortable level. Once he was content with the atmosphere the Commodore took his place at the podium again.

“It seems like just a week ago you all arrived from your primary training sites,” Spencer said. “Now you all are set to take the new cruiser Constellation on her maiden voyage. Remember, the frontier is no easy place, dangers abound on even the most civilized worlds.”

Spencer leaned forward over the podium and sought out the eyes and attention of the younger crewmen. Jena felt him looking through her as his gaze swept over her section.

“If you’re not off protecting supply convoys from pirates and EuroCon raiders, you'll be watching your mates back while you’re off snapping holopics on liberty,” He said sternly. “Your only duty is to your vessel and shipmates, do you understand?”

Heads around her nodded.

“Those frontier thugs look for you when you've had too many pints, or too much stim. They consider you all easy marks- especially on whatever world you’ll get to first. You all are not stupid people, if you were, you would not be here. Exercise common sense and mind the schedule and you all will do fine."

Spencer poured himself a glass of water from a pitcher hidden from view and wet his lips, set the glass down again and said, "The only part of my career I take exception to is the lifetime I slept away in transit, wasted dreaming irrelevant dreams, so many years gone and not even remembered. When I came back from the frontier, my children had grown up and started families of their own; other loved ones had passed on without my having a chance to say goodbye. I came back to a world I did not remember… and that did not remember me.”

He spoke the last part under his breath but the wireless microphones arranged throughout the compartment caught every whisper and amplified it to reach every ear. Spencer continued. “The circumstances of my own case are exceptional. Most of you will probably return home after your obligation expires. Ten years is not so long, but for those of you who choose to make the vacuum-fleet your career. It will become your family, your life, everything you are. If given the choice to do it all again, I would gladly, and I will tell you why.”

The panels concealed a spectacular view of the Earth, which was revealed, as the pressure doors retracted, in its glowing splendor. Spencer half-turned and extended his arm, palm upward, almost seeming to be supporting the Earth with one hand.

“There are other jewels out there, like this one, and on them mankind thrives. We prosper, mocking those doubters that said we could never do it, our colonies are monuments to our triumph.” The Commodore said as he stepped up to the multimedia pedestal and depressed another glowing button in a row of the same. Doors opened in the ceiling and on the stage, lowering and raising holographic projection domes into position. He watched them move into place and said, “I’ve looked over the records collected during the Frontier Strike exercise. Now perhaps someone can tell me what happened?”

Lt. Florez triggered his signal-light. He had been furious at the outcome of the fight, considering a draw to be the same as a loss. Jena shared his feelings.

“Yes, lieutenant?”

“Sir, with all due respect, is it possible that the exercise was just a little unrealistic? Their turret-mounted beam weapons shouldn’t be cohesive enough to engage a target at the range they first engaged us but they still were able to unmask outside of our weapons range and deliver accurate fire.”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean, Lieutenant. Please explain.”

“We had to close to normal range before we could engage them and that’s when we took the critical damage that knocked us out of the fight. If anything, we should’ve been able to get off the first shot since our power-plants, targeting arrays, and weapons are superior.”

Spencer patronized him with a look.

“Take care never to assume you know the capabilities of a foe, especially not in close combat with EuroCon cruisers, you run the risk of assuming wrong. Once you know your opponent, weaknesses can be found- his and yours. I was aboard the Resolute at Fifty-one Pegasai. We found ourselves separated from the main battle-line, engaged with the Nova Talon,” He said. “In those days, the E-cons still gave their warships pretty names. The Talon was scoring hits on us at better than eighty thousand kilometers… does anyone know why?”

Jena triggered her own signal for she knew why. An exhaustive analysis of the battle got her top marks during her specialty training; though Spencer seemed to ignore her. 

“No? It’s because they use longer emitter tubes for their beam weapons… a different design philosophy. Their energy weapons are accurate at longer ranges but are also made vulnerable by the length of the emitters… ours do more damage at short and medium range and are less vulnerable because we protect them within armored turrets.”

“The EuroCons know it as well,” Crites said as Spencer took a breath, turning in his seat to give Florez the hard eye. “So why should we expect them to close in when they can snipe at us from outside of our weapons range?”

“Yes, captain, quite right,” Spencer said and fiddled with his multi-media controls. Holoforms of Constellation, Independence, and Audacity appeared at eye level. "We have capital intelligence on the EuroCon Frontier Force, especially the big fleet yards around New Haven and New Saxon. The Grendel is approximately equivalent to an early model Republic class.”

Now it makes sense, Jena thought. The Admiral Hood was an early model Republic-class. A signal light came on in front of Bradley.

“Sir, what do you estimate our chances of meeting one of these new types in combat?” Bradley said when he was acknowledged. Spencer took a drink before answering.

"The ultimatum that Transterran has issued to the European Confederation, states that they begin seizing the assets of member governments unless the balance of EuroCon debt to them is paid off by the end of the fiscal year. If the Euros default there will be chaos, mark my words.” 

“With all due respect, sir, that doesn’t answer the question.” Bradley said and sat down after Crites turned in his seat and delivered a stern glare.

“All Transterran is waiting for is a ruling from the world court,” Spencer said. “If the court decides that the company’s claim is valid, it supercedes the rulings from the regional jurisdictions, then Transterran will have the legal right to collect what is theirs and enforce the terms of the original contract. You’ve all heard the reports of the arms factories that Transterran has acquired; they’re preparing to do it by force."

Jena opened her datapad and keyed a quick note; "When do we leave?" and passed it to Tali, who smiled as she typed a response. "T minus 72 hours. FRONTIER OR BUST!"

Jena smiled back and offered a thumbs-up while Commodore Spencer droned on. 

"Next question please. Lieutenant Mitchell, I believe.” 

Jena stood at attention in front of her seat.

“Sir, was the proper response to protect the beacon or engage the OpFor blocking force?" 

"Be careful, Jena." Tali cautioned out of the corner of her mouth as her eyes darted back and forth, gauging the reaction of the Constellation staff. 

“Your orders were to sweep through control zone Omega in support of the beacon station,” Spencer said. Crites turned in his seat and fixed her with his piercing stare as she mustered the breath to continue. “Next question.”

“Sir, second, what was the proper response to fighter attack when already engaged?" She rattled off as quickly as she could. Crites appeared to lose interest and turned to whisper a comment into Ellison’s ear, something that drew a quiet chuckle.

“Single main battery firing to cover the secondary weapons powering up," Spencer said. She and Crites had both been wrong. "Don't look so glum, Lieutenant. Surviving to fight another day is by no means a failure. Any other questions? No? Good, let’s get started.”

An hour passed while Spencer delivered the evaluation compiled by his office. The feed from the holographic projectors showed the track of every ship and its status as each salvo was delivered. Jena nearly fell asleep twice in that time. Unsatisfied with the results of the evaluation, she was nodding off a third time when Tali delivered a subtle elbow to the ribs to wake her.

“Thanks.” She whispered and blinked away the sleep to see that the Spencer had gathered his folders and was heading for the door. Captain Crites took his place at the front of the group. Everyone jumped to attention as the senior officer departed.

“Group dismissed!” Crites barked and the tedium was finally at an end. Jena had seventy-two hours before reporting back to Constellation for embarkation. With nothing else pending for the day besides packing, she headed for her favorite place on the whole station.

She had a spot on the galley/observation deck from which she could see a quarter of Alpha Station, with the beautiful Earth as a luminescent backdrop. The naval base, as well as Luna, occupied the L-5 orbit around the planet. Luna, with golden-domed colonies built into the craters covering its surface, was just coming into view on her left. Liberty Station, the civilian space-dock, moved in a lower, faster orbit and was just disappearing over the opposite horizon with its attendant flotilla of tankers, freighters, and transports.

From that place, Jena could make out the lines of her ship, as well as USS Independence and RN Audacity, all hard-docked to free-floating gantries. Numerous frigates and destroyers were out behind them she knew, but she could only make out their flashing anti-collision lights.

A destroyer with a name in Cyrillic glided past the windows as Jena sat and switched her attention to the menu. Ships from every nation in the Combine fleet and others paid call to the station. Workmen in baggy spacesuits scaled the hub, held down with magnetic boots. 

“It was a mistake to put him on the fast track so quickly. We should keep him here where we can keep an eye on him.”

“Why do you say that?”

Jena was close enough to hear the conversation going on at the table behind her. The first voice sounded like Commodore Spencer. She was so engrossed with the view of the Earth and all the activity that she did not notice him arrive.

“It’s many things, little things. Certainly he runs things by the book but add in something that the book doesn’t cover and he hesitates. In a combat environment that’s death. He has no talent for improvisation.”

“Admiral Hagen thinks that he’s flag material. That must count for something these days.”

Are they talking about Captain Crites? Jena thought and quickly dismissed that possibility. She tried to detatch herself from the conversation but could not.

“Invite Admiral Hagen to come down and have a look at the training tapes. I should imagine that they would give him a good laugh, or a good worry.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“You know me, Edward, I'm so often prone to exaggeration.”

Whomever Spencer was talking to laughed at his snide remark. Jena feigned a visual sweep of the panoramic view and caught the reflection of the man behind her; Admiral Edward Mallory, commander of the NorCom 2nd Fleet.

“True. So what you’re telling me is that, after scouring our command schools for the best talent to support him, he still can’t hack it?”

“No, I’m not telling you that at all. His support would carry the ship surpassingly, it's what they've been trained for."

"Then what's the problem?"

The chair behind her squeaked as Spencer got to his feet.

"He won't let them,” He said. “If you ask me, he’s been behind a desk too long, find another one for him."

“I find that a bit extreme.” Mallory said.

“Edward, you wanted my opinion and there it is," Spencer said. "His TACO handed him a fabulous setup today and he still shagged the bleeding poodle.”

“So what would you do?” Mallory said.

“It’s no matter what I would do or say. It has been made very clear to me that my views no longer matter," Spencer said, bitterness creeping into his otherwise stoic tone. "I have my pension and a cubicle on Centauri Prime. I’m through with all of this.”

“Fine, so if you were me, what would you do.”

“Relieve him," Spencer said. "From what I hear, he’s also a bloody wretch to his crew. A pity, because they’d make anyone else look like your John Paul Jones.”

“You know I can’t do that. It’s political now. There are too many in Washington that want this," Mallory said. "The late senator Crites still has a lot of powerful friends, including Admiral Hagen. His son can’t make admiral without a frontier cruise.”

“Politics has no business in war, Edward, you know that,” Spencer said. “If you must go through with this, ensure that there are no fleets placed under his direct command and hope that he doesn’t get his crew killed, or CrusRon twenty-one.”

“It’s out of my hands." Mallory said. "Besides, the only way to pull him from his command slot is to get an order from the Combine Legislature. There's no time."

“A tragedy,” Spencer said and gave a heavy sigh. "I'm off to the bogs. If the serving machine comes, tell it to wait."

“Sure thing, Leslie.”

“Ahem,” Someone, male by the sound of his voice, was clearing his throat, trying to get her attention as Spencer brushed by him. “Ahem.”

She looked up over the top of the book at the man. He smiled at her when she met his eyes.

“Can I help you?” Jena said more curtly than she’d intended. 

“Do you mind if I join you?” He said. “I hate to bother but all the rest of the seats seem to be taken.”

He swept his arm around the compartment, to demonstrate that his statement is true enough if she cared to check. 

Jena did so, then focused on the man addressing her. He was a pilot, judging by his flight suit, about the same age as her or slightly older, and wearing Commander’s bullets. She searched for his nametag and found it underneath his unit patch, the kind with the mottoes she usually found sexist or macho, but occasionally clever.

VF Two-twenty-one, “In thrust we trust,” how typical. She thought and fought a sneer. His unit mascot was a cigar-puffing cowboy astride a huge rocket. She smiled at the blatant phallic reference and motioned the man into the seat across from her.

“Please, Commander Hogan. Have a seat. We can’t have men of your rank standing around like the hired help, even if they are robotic.”

“Call me Dale,” He said and sat. "Or Hurricane. Rank is too formal for this place here."

He smiled and extended his hand. Jena took it, her fingers hurt by the press of the silver ring on his right hand, University of Regents, class of 2188. She had graduated from Vandenburg two years later. The inset stone was deep red, perhaps a garnet. She checked for a ring on the other hand. There was none.

“Jena Mitchell. What can I do for you, Dale?” She said and hesitantly shook his hand as she saw his eyes widen. 

“Vandenburg volleyball. You were one of the captains.”

“Yep. That was me.” She said, reaching for her pendant, the Vandenburg Delta-V for victory. She found that it was showing and tucked it under her collar.

“I thought you were supposed to go the Eridani games?” He said with a puzzled smile and leaned forward on his folded arms. “By my count they should still be going on.”

“I was, but I got hurt. I landed bad going for a dig and tore my ACL . I didn’t make it back in time. Things happen.” Jena said. She kept her tone light but she was still wary of this man. He seemed nice but sounded too much like a used robot salesman, and worse, he knew a great deal about the past she was trying to forget. 

"What tournament was it?" He said, as he examined the label on the wine-bottle and shook his head disapprovingly.

“Queensland Commons.”

“You don’t need any more of this wine then,” He said and laughed, setting the bottle back on the table. “It’s been sitting in a cask in Sydney for eight years.” 

“Where have you been?” Jena said, leaning back to give the steward-bot room to set down her plate. The smell of it made her stomach growl, but Hurricane took no notice of it. 

“My squadron got called to do the flight tests on the F-twenty-eight," He said as the steward-bot arrived. He held up the bottle for it to scan and put a finger into the air to indicate how many more he wanted. "We’re deploying on the Ranger.”

A reservist. I should’ve guessed. She thought. The sides of his head were closely trimmed but hair still grew down over the tops of his ears, not by much, but it was still out of regulation.

“I’m on Constellation, sir,” She said, working her mouth into a polite smile. “We’re headed for the frontier too, but I wasn’t aware that they needed any reserves for this deployment.”

As a rule, Jena had little respect for reservists and their lack of proper military bearing. On the other hand, they had little worry about political infighting among officers, and the members of a given unit were often as close as family. She decided to give him a little slack. He was amusingly bold.

“Neither was I two days before I got called up,” Hurricane said. “And it’s Dale, we’re all just sailors here.”

“True enough.” 

“I don’t know how well you take advice but you should lighten up, Lieutenant,” Hurricane said as he leaned forward and shook his head. “You look like you got the weight of the world resting on your shoulders. You don’t have to be Power-Girl all the time.”

“Thanks for the advice, sir.” She said. “But I gave up on super-heroes a long time ago.”

“Call it my instinct for debilitating helpfulness,” He said and shrugged. “Take it how you will. It’s just seems like too much stress can turn you real ugly and that would be a shame.”

“I see,” She said and attempted to shift the topic away from herself. “I didn’t think we needed to call up any help for this deployment. Is there a war going on they only told reservists about?”

“I’m on the production team for the new advanced superiority fighter, I got my degree in Aerospace Engineering ELP." Hurricane said as he looked off toward the bar to see if his order was being filled. "They were going to send me anyway for flight tests on our new design, so they activated my unit to keep from having to pay my company to contract me out.”

"Impressive," Jena said. "I hope you're not one of those ten percent that had a nervous breakdown because of this enhanced learning process.”

"Not me," Hurricane said and grinned with just a hint of smugness. "I even graduated three months early, my balance is just fine." 

“So why did you join?” She said, taking her knife and cutting into her steak. It is near-meat, but it smelled like good near-meat. After the outbreak of Bovine Blood Pox, the price of real beef had rocketed out of the range of most citizens.

"It was part of my contract," Hurricane said. "ELP isn't cheap. You?"

"I don't know where to begin," Jena said and tried to pin-down a single motivation but could not. “I guess there were a lot of reasons.”

"Pick one."

“I’m not very good at small talk,” Jena said after several uncomfortable seconds. “It’s too much like talking about nothing.”




Gravity Capture



“The exercise today then.”

“Two heavies and a ship-of-line. I had everything ready to go before our CO came in. He’s had some combat time but you couldn’t tell. He makes easy mistakes. It cost us the engagement.” 

“Yeah, I was there,” Hurricane said and smiled as Jena’s jaw dropped. “We were piggybacked onto Warspite when you guys showed up. I thought we did a pretty good imitation of the Seydlitz and her fighter group but, come on, we weren’t that good.” 

“Try telling that to the good captain,” Jena said as anger raced through her. “Let’s just say he’s the type that thinks he makes all the right moves, even when he doesn’t.”

“Too bad. I’ve heard you can do a lot with an Intrepid-class.”

“He was with the blockade fleet during the Octavian intervention, I assumed he knew what he was doing,” Jena said. “How many sorties did you fly today?”

“Three sorties," He said. "On the last one we caught two squadrons of F-nineteen’s off of Kitty Hawk and some British strike bombers from the Home Fleet.”

“How did you do?” Jena said as she chewed before remembering her manners and lifting a hand to cover her smile.

“We caught them while they were borking some destroyers in the commercial lanes and clobbered them pretty good, that was the last one of the day. The 'twenty-eight is sierra hotel.”

"Shit hot, huh?" She said and lifted her glass for a bemused sip.

Hurricane shrugged. “If that’s how you want to put it.”

“I hope so. From the things I’ve been hearing, it’s going get a interesting when Transterran gets the injunction that allows them to start seizing Eurocon assets.” 

“If they get the injunction.”

“You don’t think they’ll get what they want?” Jena said and pushed her plate away, her near-steak only half-eaten.

“I’m not a lawyer and they don’t pay me to worry about it." Hurricane said and checked the large Krono-Tek on his wrist, then his face fell. "I need to get going… post-ex debrief at eighteen-hundred. It’s been nice, Jena.”

Hurricane drained the contents of his glass and got to his feet. He gave his IDC card over to the steward robot and, despite Jena’s protest, instructed it to put the cost of her meal and the bottle of wine they had shared on his account. Her objections were token; he could afford it.

“I assume that we’ll get some leave time once we get to Mars, at least a day or two of it. I’d like to see you again.” He said and held out his hand.

“I’d like that.” Jena said as Hurricane took her hand, making her briefly think he was going to deliver a kiss to it. Instead he shook it gently, a pleasant deviation from the bone crushing grips she’d endured from other men.

“See you on Mars then.” Hurricane said and turned away, shouldering his way through the flow of people.

“Hey, flyboy.” Jena said and he stopped.

“Yeah?” He said over his shoulder and threw his hips back to avoid a steward-bot with a fully-laden tray.

“What’s the difference between God and a fighter pilot?” Jena said and smirked at the puzzled look on his face.

“I don’t know,” He said and shook his head. “What?”

“God doesn’t think he’s a fighter pilot. You get it?”

Hurricane smiled briefly and then was gone, making a bee-line for the lift, lost in the milling crowd.



***

SolMax Prison

Ajax pulled a tray from a spring-loaded cart of the same and queued up behind the rest of his block-mates in the slop-line. A scoop of rehydrated potatoes was slapped down onto the tray by a surly trustee, followed by a scoop of what was supposed to be meat. The only recognizable food group came from a fruit-bowl. The selection changed daily and each person in General Population got a piece. If the prison did something to make the Administrator unhappy, the first thing to go away was the fruit.

He picked out an apple and set it next to the rehydrates on his tray. Each meal was proving to be a new disappointment; near-meat patties smothered with rancid cheese served on buns long gone stale, small piles of undercooked noodles covered with tomato-flavored paste instead of sauce, the best he could do was not think about what he is eating. Each prisoner got the nutrients required by law, but they were served in the most unappetizing forms the Administrator could think of.

Ajax found an empty seat and tore his water-ration open. They put something in it to keep the inmates passive, he was sure. Water is all they were allowed, required, to drink. The guards in riot armor walking the shooting gallery overhead carried canteens but he never saw them refilled from the common supply.

"You're in my seat." Someone with a deep voice said from behind him. Ajax chewed a bite of synthetic spud and half-turned to see whom the voice belonged to. It was an obese man with a putrescent odor and an angry scowl on his flat, pock-marked face. In the exercise-yard, Ajax heard some inmates call him “Chunk.”

"There are other seats, friend. Find someplace else, I'm eating here." Ajax said. The inmates sitting around him shook their heads in disbelief and a few slid away to find new tables.

"I'm not your friend, shit-bird, and I'll tell you once more, you're in my seat." Chunk said and dropped a heavy hand drop onto his shoulder. Ajax wanted to pummel the fat puke and finish his meal, but rule number four prohibited fighting. One punch was worth thirty days in the DeepCore.

"Fine. Take it." Ajax said and suppressed the primitive voice urging him to smash, smash now. He picked up his tray and got to his feet but was spun around before he could get his back straight. The force of it nearly sent him off balance but his water ration and the remains of his meal clattered to the floor. Chunk set his tray down on the table and glared at Ajax instead of taking his seat.

"I don't think I like your attitude, shit-bird. I don’t like you at all." Chunk said and something inside Ajax snapped.

"Well, I guess today is my lucky day then, Chunk." 

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Because you stink. Is that because you're afraid to shower or afraid you'll drop the nozzle?" 

"You just made a big mistake," Chunk said and delivered a push that sent Ajax stumbling backwards. "First I'm gonna hurt you, then I'm gonna take you down. You’ll be ass-meat for the prison hags before this shift is over."

Chunk balled his ham-sized fists and lunged. Ajax easily eluded the first rush, but to his surprise, a crowd had formed around the two. The guards will intervene after the first punch, Ajax could see that they had stopped pacing and were watching the exchange. He kept up the barrage while Chunk recovered. 

"You'll have to do better than that, Chunk. The only thing I see you trying to catch is your breath." Ajax growled as he circled. The perimeter was closing as more inmates pushed in to see the action. Soon he would have nowhere to go.

"You're dead!" Chunk bellowed furiously. Rolls of flab jiggled as he came forward again. "You're dead!"

Ajax evaded the assault, but only barely. Chunk gathered himself for another rush but slipped on the mess that Ajax never had a chance to eat.

Chunk fought for his balance and Ajax saw his chance. He left forward and drove a foot into Chunk’s knee. He felt something go pop when the strike landed. Chunk howled in pain and dropped to the floor. 

"Break it up!" 

The fight circle was rapidly dispersed as the guards pushed their way in. Ajax managed to deliver a satisfying kick to Chunk's face before they arrived.

"Freeze!" A guard ordered from someplace close behind him. 

"This guy threatened to kill me. I was only defending myself. You can ask these guys, they saw it." Ajax said as he froze in place. 

"Quiet, convict! Get your hands up!"

"You claim self-defense. Is this true? Who will testify?" Brawny said as he pushed his way through the circle. The few that spoke up offered ignorance. Nobody saw anything, they all watched, but they saw nothing. Brawny faced Ajax and took out his barcode scanner.

"Prisoner five-one-nine-eight-three, you have been notified of the penalty for inciting violence and because you choose to disregard it, I will see it carried out." 

"What! No! I didn't do anything wrong!" Ajax yelled as he realized the implication. He tensed as two guards grabbed his arms from behind.

"Log! Prisoner five-one-nine-eight-three! Code four! Transfer to DeepCore! Thirty days!" Brawny shouted to the computer that controlled the facility. It acknowledged the log update with a tone and made the necessary notions to the proper file.

"No! You don't understand. I was only defending myself!" Ajax howled in protest. “Ask your people! They saw it!”

"Save it for the core, convict." The larger guard said as he takes out his shock-rod, and rammed it into Ajax’s belly. The high-voltage charge cramped muscles from his waist to his chin and doubled him over in pain.

"Take him away." Brawny said and sternly directed his shock-rod towards the lifts. Chunk laughed as Ajax was dragged away hoisted, between the two guards, on his own petard.

Carbon-fiber cuffs kept Ajax's hands firmly secured behind his back and the two guards accompanying him had their weapons pointed his direction.

"So what do I do when my thirty days are up?" He said to hide his apprehension. The lift dropped down a shaft 4 kilometers long.

"Shut your bosh!" The larger guard said and elbowed him in the back hard enough to send him face first into the elevator door. Ajax felt his nose crunch and then something warm running over his lips. Nearly blinded by the reflex tears that flowed from his eyes, he wiped the stream on his sleeve and saw red.

"No gabbie unless gabbed to, understand, convict?" The smaller one said in a squeaky voice and rammed the stock of his rifle into Ajax's midsection, dropping him to his knees and then to the floor. Ajax felt the toe of a heavy boot slam into his side, blasting the air from his lungs, then another, and another.

"We stop being cozy when you break our rules." The larger one said as he delivered a final kick. While Ajax struggled to catch his breath, he noticed that the feeling of motion had stopped. When the lift doors slid apart, he got a rats-eye view of the DeepCore.

“That’s right,” The smaller one said. “So keep quiet or it’ll be more of the same.”

The elevator opened to an empty chamber separated from the rest of the level by a containment wall constructed of thick, gray bars. There was a one-way, revolving gate that only allowed passage from the vestibule into the level proper. The guards lifted him to his feet and threw him against the grid.

Ajax groaned as he fell against a metal bar, which opened a gash under his left eye. The larger guard pinned him in place with a forearm against his neck, grinding his face into the metal while the other unlocked the cuffs, then they spun him around to face them.

"Thirty days, convict," The larger one said. "You got thirty days to decide where you want to serve out the rest of your sentence."

"Yeah, and it only gets worse from here, so be good." The smaller one piped in as he stabbed a finger into Ajax's chest. Both guards laughed, then pushed him through the gate with enough combined force to send him stumbling out the other side.

"Wait!" A shrill voice called out from deeper in the level behind him. "Wait for me!"

The guards raised their weapons in alert. Ajax shuffled back until he touched coarse stone. Someone small and emaciated looking ambled out of the darkness and stopped at the bars of the containment wall.

"Don't leave without me." He sobbed and reached his spindly arms through the bars.

"Is that you, Sully?" The larger guard said as he lowered his rifle and took a closer look. "It is you. Boy, you look like rad-waste."

"No fuzz, Sully," The smaller one said and laughed. "If they ever let you out of here, they'll have to declare you a bio-hazard zone."

"My twelve days have been up," Sully said as he clasped his hands together and pleaded. "Take me back to the surface."

Ajax looked him over with the eye not swelling shut. The man was filthy. In fact the whole level smelled vile.

The guards smirked as they watched him, then the bigger one took the shock-rod off of his belt and used it to electrify the bars. Sully yelped and retreated.

"Your lift date was yesterday, Sully. You know the rules. You miss your lift date and you get left until the next guy goes up."

"No." Sully whimpered and collapsed against the wall.

"Thirty days, Utburd," The bigger one said, rapping on the bars with the shock-rod to get Ajax's attention. "Now you know the rules, too."

"Utburd," The smaller one said with a sneer. "Dookie-bird is more like it. Try not to get yourself killed, dookie-bird."

"Don't leave me!" Sully pleaded one last time as the guards filed into the elevator, but the doors slammed shut without him. The lights in the chamber went out when the doors closed. Ajax collapsed against the wall and in silence, let wretched tears rolled down his face. Four kilometers was a long way to fall.

Ajax picked up his head and the felt the tears falling from his eyes. There was a faint noise coming out of the darkness. It sounded like a wolf's howl and came from deeper in the level. Then he heard it again- it was primal and he shivered as a sudden chill passed.

"What the fek is that?" He said, surprised at how loud his own voice sounded. Then he heard others.

"Lupus is its name," Sully said from across the corridor. "It must have heard the lift come down. We have to go.”

Ajax followed the voice to where Sully crouched against the wall.

"What do they want with me?" Ajax said in quiet anger. It should have been Chunk dealing with this dook instead of him.

"They're the welcome wagon," Sully said. In the darkness, Ajax was unable to tell if he was frowning. "They got a fruit basket and a book of coupons for you."

"Those probably aren’t the only things," Ajax said. “I think I’ll pass.” 

"Good for you," Sully replied. "Follow me if you want. I know some places where Lupus doesn't go."

"How do I know you're not going to take me right to him?" Ajax said, letting pensiveness creep into his voice. 

"Because you're my ticket back to general population," Sully said. "If something happens to you it might be months before they send someone else down. Are you coming or not?" 

"Yeah. It sounds like the place to be."

"Don't fool yourself, new meat," Sully said as he groped for Ajax's hand and placed it on his bony shoulder before he led off. "This is the DeepCore. You're only down here for thirty days. There's some things down here for life that ain't human no more."

"So what are you here for?" Ajax said. The wispy beard he saw before the lights went out looked more than a month old.

"Failure to follow directives with a damaging SolMax property on top of it," Sully grumped. “They really know how to stack on the bogus charges around here.”

"What did you do?" Ajax said and stumbled over a rock that Sully had avoided. His eyes were still adjusting to the dark the other man had long grown accustomed to.

"I left a present in the administrator's coffee cup while I was on kitchen detail," Sully said. Ajax could sense satisfaction. "You should've seen the look on his face."

"Was it worth it?" Ajax said as more howling echoed from the darkness ahead. Sully gave an amused snort.

"Oh yeah."

“So do they beat the shit out of everyone they bring down here?” Ajax said. “Or was it just me?”

“Only the ones that don’t get humble, meat.”

"New meat!" Someone shouted from far back in the corridor behind them. Ajax froze when he heard the voice. "We're comin' for ya, new meat! Ain’t no place ya can run!"

A boogeyman called from someplace in the darkness he was putting behind him.

"Lupus is probably mad as a hungry dog that you weren't where you was supposed to be when he got there." Sully said and cackled before breaking into a dry cough.

"How much further?" Ajax said as Lupus began howling madly, followed soon after by the rough voices of his pack. 

"It's just ahead, meat,” Sully said as he started moving again. “Don't get your umbilicals in a tangle." 

As Ajax's eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, he could see that the tunnels were smooth- industrial symbols and arrows had been painted on with a phosphorescent compound that faintly glowed.

"What was this place?" He said as they turned right and started down another dim, endless corridor. Wherever they were going, the air circulation seemed to be improving.

"Did you just fall off the boat, meat? Apex settled the first colonists here to work a mine,” Sully said as he felt his way along the wall. “Once they took out all of the Gadolinium they could reach, they closed the mine and sold it to SOLCorp. This is what's left."

Sully led him through a wide opening into what looked to be a large common area- Ajax heard the quiet buzz of conversation and infrequent laughter. All around him were dark forms huddled together. A few people lifted their heads to scrutinize them as they passed.

"It’s a regular town meeting.” Ajax said when he realized that there were over a hundred others clustered about. Sully found a open space and dropped with a sigh. Ajax lowered himself and leaned back against the hard stone wall. He felt more tired than he could ever remember.

"Lupus don't come here because the trustee won't let him," Sully said and curled into a ball. "Him and his boys are big and mean but we got them outnumbered. Remember that, meat."

"What's that?" Ajax said and stretched his legs out in relief.

"Even the lowliest, most insignificant slime has strength in mass, so be nice. You never know when you're going to need the help."

Ajax took a deep breath of the thick atmosphere and probed the gash on his cheek with grubby fingers.

“Thanks for the tip,” Ajax said, deciding that the bleeding had stopped. It would probably take a couple days for the swelling to go down. “That slime’ll get you every time.”

"You just remember our deal, smart-guy."



***

55 Cancri

Zebra Station



“Miller, I think we got a glitch in the system.”

"Gremlins again? We just had the system flushed." Senior sensor-tech Miller murmured to himself as the high, peeping tone that meant a contact had been detected came through his headphones. He reached forward to increase the gain from the deep search network and scrutinized the data-feed. Something had tripped the number 12, 22, 32, and 42 sensor-buoys, a displacement wave moving at full transit speed, slanting past the station. He stabbed at a button next to his screen marked "VTA" and sat back while the computer did its work.

"This has got to be an error." He said quietly. If the readings he got back were accurate, the contact had initiated transit from a point inside the Big Deep. Miller activates the signal analysis/recognition system and waited for the return. His eyes widened with shock when it comes back.

"Watch officer to station twelve. Watch officer to station twelve, please."

The alert signal came through his earphones again. Another contact had been detected, in transit, and on the same trajectory as the first.

"What is it, Miller?" Lt. Kelly, the officer on duty, arrived at his station in moments.

"Sir, I think you'd better see this. Two detects just tripped the outer DSS line at high transit speed. Initial event time is at H plus six and running. Vector analysis indicates that transit initiation came from someplace inside the rift. The only end system along that line is Pi Ursae Majoris. If that's their destination, they'll arrive there at H plus twelve-thirty-five."

Another detect, then another, triggered more alert tones in his headset. 

"Contact, contact. Same as before. Initial event time is Hour plus six point zero seven, H plus six point zero eight, on the same trajectory."




Gravity Capture



"They're heading for New Haven? Miller, have you washed the contacts through the SARS?"

Lt. Kelly sipped soy-caff from a thermal mug and peered over the lip of it at the sensor display.

"Yes, sir. Analysis says that the first contact was EuroCon for sure, sir. SARS identified the jump signature as the… the Meteor." Miller said and cringed as Lt. Kelly gasped, then choked on the swallow of soy-caff he had just taken.

"Meteor? That's impossible. Run it again."

"I did, sir. It came back the same. Contacts two, three, and four have been cataloged as Seydlitz, and Kormoran two-four." 

"Those ships belonged to Five Kreigsmarine. They've been declared lost." Kelly said. Miller leaned away from his display screen so the watch officer can see the data with his own eyes.

"I understand that, sir, but I ran an error check and it came back negative. Those contacts are authentic."

"Do we have an exercise laid on?"

"No, sir. Frontier Strike isn't scheduled to start for another forty-eight months."

"Then tell me what they are instead of what they aren’t.”

"Sir, the only group we have coming is Task Force Romeo, but they aren't due for another eleven cycles. I'd bet a month's pay that Five Kreigsmarine shot the Big Deep and that was them heading back to New Haven."

Lt. Kelly tapped a code into the vid-com next to the display and then drummed his fingers impatiently. The Zebra Station OIC appeared on screen. 

"Admiral Riviera."

"Lieutenant Kelly here, sir, in sensor control. Our control zone has been breached. The computer identified the contacts as heavy elements of Five Kreigsmarine.”

“What?” Admiral Riviera said, his eyes growing wide. “What happened?”

“They came out of the rift at full transit speed and went right by our sensor line on a vector for Pi Ursae Majoris. Initial event time is at H plus six point one-three. "

"Did you run an error check on the system?"

"Yes, sir, twice. Both times negative."

"Packet all available data from the event and send it out on the next couriers to Sol, Forty-Seven Ursae Majoris, and Sixty-one Virginis."

"Yes, sir." Lt. Kelly said and wondered what, exactly, the admiral wanted to hear. He wasn’t the sort of man to believe in ghosts.