CHAPTER 10: ENTANGLEMENTS

Planet Sanjiva, primary satellite of Omega Cygni a.k.a. "Naraka" in the Cygnus Star Region
Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," Dylan-Alpha Canyon near outer edge of community border
Emergency campsite of the "Shadow Hearts" space raider clan

Oslo Tupolev sat on his parked airspeeder bike upon the main deck of their base hovership, and stared at the paltry collection of vehicles that was all the air power left of the Shadow Hearts clan. Out of the forty guys that had started the last raid, seventeen was all that came back. Seventeen guys, all injured, worth about ten aerovehicles, all damaged, some barely functioning. Add on a flyer pilot, a shuttle pilot, and seven base ship crew, and that was all that was left of the clan on this whole planet.

He wondered if his command would survive this. He figured there was a good chance the boss wouldn't simply cut off his head for this debacle, not after all his years as a fine leader and all his years before that as a superb raider. But would the boss let him keep his command? The men all trusted him and were deeply loyal to him, that would count for something. Of course, there were a lot less men now, and they probably weren't quite so loyal and trusting of him any more. Aedon would be furious, that was not in doubt. With the loss of the entire space garrison as well, the clan had suffered a staggering blow to both resources and manpower, and it would take years to recover to their former strength, assuming they ever did. There was a pretty good chance his days as raid leader were numbered.

There was movement behind him; the hovership captain was coming by. Tupolev didn't acknowledge him.

"Well, sawbones doesn't think anybody's gonna croak, that's something at least. But he wants at least a couple weeks rest before you send them out again," said Captain Jeriko.

Tupolev didn't reply, just continued staring at the remaining raider vehicles.

"You probably want a few days to try to patch those things up a bit anyway. I sure wouldn't want to fly anything with as much bullet holes as those, and definitely not into combat. You are planning to go back into combat, right?"

Tupolev briefly considered what would happen if he let this insult against the clan go unpunished. Getting whipped in battle was bad enough, but slinking away with his tail between his legs afterward? Aedon would definitely cut off his head for that.

"Ganon was right, poor bastard," said Jeriko after a moment. "We should have scouted these assholes first, figured out what they could do. They weren't no lightweights if they could waste the whole space force. They had the smarts and the firepower, and they played us like a tin fiddle."

How very nice of him to use the collective "we," when it was Tupolev alone that was responsible for this disaster. The commander had had just about enough of this conversation.

"Get this fucking ship moving," said Tupolev softly. "Set up a patrol system where you circle the colony, hiding by day, moving by night. If one of those starfighters landed a bomb on this ship right now, the clan would be finished. I want vehicles and men patched up and ready to raid in one week, got it? One week! We're going to make those colony bitches regret the day they were born. They'll be trying to give us those mercs on a silver platter by the time I'm done with them."

"Now we're talking!" said Jeriko with an evil smile. "You planning on another big raid? Or more hit and run like?"

"Hit and run," answered the big pirate. "Them mercs can't be everywhere. And once bitch bodies start piling up, the mercs will feel the heat from their little bosses. Why the fuck are you still here talking to me, Jeriko? Make it happen!"

"Alright Tupe, I'm on it. We'll make them suffer but good," promised Jeriko, and he withdrew.

Tupolev considered his words, feeling gloomy and bitter. Jeriko had promised much the same before the last raid, and yet it was they, not the colonists, who had suffered. In truth, he did not know if the next time would be any different.

x x x x x

Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," central colony complex
Level 5 East: conference room 5-13

They were all here in the briefing room, sitting around the round table: Piers Pappagallo, Tristan O'Hara, Nikola Kano, Hans Brinnlitz, Amon Pistor, Dameon Aedon, and Jack. Their employer, colony director Anemona Sagan, was also present, as well as their former boss Eve Owan. Pappagallo gave them some time to finish munching sandwiches from the considerately provided platter before he started the debriefing.

"I know you're all tired," Pops started, "but it's important that we have this meeting. We need to hear each other's after-action report, and we need to discuss with our boss what we're doing next. Aedon, do you need a menu or something?"

That last comment was directed at the young merc with the big katana and long black hair, who was on his fourth sandwich. There was a large, conspicuous dressing under one eye, and he kept his bandaged left hand under the table. He looked up as Pops addressed him and blinked.

"Wha, wha? I'm hongy!" he protested around a big mouthful. Harry and Brinnlitz smiled and shook their heads with amusement, and Eve suppressed a giggle.

"Alright, let's get right to it," said Pops, with a disparaging glance at Dameon. "I'll start with my report. For me, the ball started rolling when we first detected the orbital station and starfighters over the planet…"

Pappagallo laid it out briefly and concisely. He detailed their ambush in space, his role in the evacuation of the outlying colonists, the setting up of their trap for the pirates, and the successful battle that followed. He was very modest about his role in the progression of things, omitting that almost all the planning and successful execution of their actions had stemmed from his leadership.

The golden-skinned Eve didn't miss that, and when Pops asked if anyone had questions, she put up her hand.

"If I may say so," she said, starting to glow with pride, "none of this would have happened without Pops! It is a logical certainty that we owe our freedom and even our lives to him. Pops, you are the best thing that ever happened to this planet, and to me. Thank you for everything you have done!"

"Hear, hear!" exclaimed Aedon, and he jumped to his feet and started to clap, minding his injured hand. "To Piers Pappagallo, great leader, grumpy father-figure, and peerless warrior!"

"Hey knock it off!" protested Pops, leaning over to swat the young man with his cap. But the damage was done; Harry and Eve jumped up and applauded immediately, and one by one everyone else joined in, even Kano and Jack.

"Alright, alright, thank you and all, now sit your asses down," Pappagallo shushed them, and they slowly ceased clapping and took their seats.

"Am I seeing this? Little miss, I do believe you made the General blush!" Harry teased.

"Gunstars do not blush," Pops grunted, referring to a spacer nickname for Aerospace Navy top guns. "You want to thank somebody, thank yourselves. Kano was a deciding force in every battle he was in. Brinnlitz's gunnery skills kept my ship in one piece, more than anything else. Jack got us on this planet to begin with, and his holograms kept us safe while we talked to the pirates. Pistor was the tech whiz who made the whole ambush possible, and I couldn't have organized anything without Harry and Dameon. And we haven't won this war yet, so don't get to thankin' too early or you may regret it later. Are we ready to go on?"

"Sorry Pops," Harry apologized. "I'll go next."

Harry's perspective was mostly from the seat of his starfighter, from planetfall to present. His account of the battle in space was brief but thrilling, as was his account of the battle for Threshold. He mentioned his organizing of both the colonial evacuation and the ambush of the pirates, as well as his training of the combat volunteers, but he gave most of the credit to Pops and to the colonists themselves.

"Sorry for being so short," he said at the end, "but the really interesting stuff didn't happen on my watch, and I know that's what the General wants to hear."

"You're talking about the bizarreties on the outskirts," said Aedon. "Well I'll get mine over with next, I didn't get to see any of that directly."

Unlike Harry and Pops, Dameon was prone to embellishment. He managed not to do too much of it, giving a glowing but mostly accurate account of his achievements in the space battle and the evacuation, including the brief skirmish with the pirate airskiff team at dawn. Pops listened closely to the details on the skirmish, pressing Dameon for any more details on the aggressive animal Kano had reported and if he'd seen any unusual precursors in the foliage. Aedon then talked about his efforts organizing the colonists for the battle and his brief work helping Jack set up the hologram transmitters in the control room. However, when he got to his own role in the actual battle, he was surprisingly modest. Pappagallo let him finish his report, then held up a finger.

"What about that thing in the battle?" Pops asked.

"What thing?" Dameon asked, acting all innocent.

"You know what I'm talking about," said Pops impatiently. "That thing where you jumped off your skiff. The thing that gave you those injuries."

"Oh. Uh, that thing."

"Yes, do tell us about it. I've been hearing about it all day," said Sagan, with some anticipation.

"Ah, well, it's probably not as heroic as you've heard it told," said Aedon, grinning self-consciously. "I was on Pops' rover manning the smartgun turret, and I ran out of ammunition. Then I saw a downed pirate skiff through my thermals, the small kind with two men. A couple of colonial warrior women had attacked them but the men somehow shot through the smoke and got them first. I told my partner to get close, and I uh, got off the skiff and fought the raiders on the ground and won. Nothing to it."

"You got off your armoured vehicle to fight two armed men up close?" said a surprised Harry.

"Why did you disembark? You had your sidearm, didn't you?" asked Brinnlitz, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, well… I tried that first. I emptied my pistol at them. I, uh, missed. They didn't even notice," said Aedon, blushing. "They had shot one of the girls in the leg and one in the chest, and they were about to execute the one with the leg wound. I didn't have time to think, so I just drew my trusty blade and jumped off the rover at them."

"You jumped at them. With a sword." said Pistor, speaking slowly, incredulous.

"It worked, didn't it?" Aedon pointed out.

"Did you really cut off both their heads with one swing?" asked Sagan curiously.

"God no. I landed on top of the one pointing the gun at the girl. Cut him from shoulder almost to crotch. The other one rushed me with a machete. I almost didn't free my sword in time. The machete man was the one I beheaded."

"Well young man, nothing you've said makes you sound any less heroic than I've heard," smiled Sagan.

"Well, I paid for it. Machete man gave me these." Aedon used his injured hand to point to the wound under his eye, which went down all the way to his ear, and the others realized for the first time that Aedon's bandaged hand was missing its smallest finger. "Knocked me on my arse, almost claimed my eye along with my finger. He should have won that fight, really. I don't feel particularly heroic."

"Oh no! Are you in pain? Why was your finger not reattached?" cried Eve, aghast. Aedon waved a hand to calm her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. The finger got lost on the battlefield, but the Doc patched me up. I feel nary a thing."

"Don't you ever take that kind of risk again," Pappagallo said, his voice dark and intense. "Throw the sword, run them over with the vehicle, do anything. We could have lost you, and then a lot more colonists would die."

"But Pops, I saved them!" the young man protested. "One was lung-shot, but I got to her in time to give CPR! I kept her breathing until the battle was over and help came. And the other would have gotten it in the head! They're going to be fine, Pops! Doc Ryszard patched them up fine! If I get to save two lives with every finger I lose, well you might as well chop my hands off right now!"

"Well done."

Everyone looked at him as Kano spoke for the first time. Aedon's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Really?" Dameon almost whispered. "Even though I botched the fight?"

The serene-faced combat master nodded with respect. "It is what I would have done in your place."

"Well, I'm not about to question Kano's judgment. Good job, kid," said Pappagallo grudgingly. "I'd rather you didn't do that again, but I shouldn't be questioning your judgment either. Just don't let it go to your head."

Aedon was euphoric with pride as the other mercs nodded their heads to him or congratulated him. Eve came right up and hugged him, and Director Sagan shook his hand. Suddenly, he started to feel fairly heroic.

"Okay Kano, I'd like to hear your report next," said Pops, and the combat master nodded.

Kano spoke briefly about the space battle, the evacuation, and the battle for Threshold, just a simple list of things he saw and things he did. Then he went back to the incident near the end of the evacuation, his encounter with the spider creature.

"I had very little opportunity to examine the organism," he said. "I saw it sitting still briefly, then flashes of it as it attacked me, then as a disintegrating corpse. It appeared to have features of both arachnid and mammal, with segmented legs, a fleshy body, two rear pouches that may have been venom sacs, and a long segmented tail. It was extremely fast and strong, capable of jumping large distances with speed and accuracy, and it did not seem affected by my kicks. After I shot it down, it appeared to start disintegrating, and a large quantity of yellowish liquid came out of its body with noticeable force. This liquid rapidly melted through the metal bridge. I do not know if it was venom or blood, but even if it wasn't venom, the fact that the animal can produce this liquid at all suggests that its venom would be just as dangerous. That is all I can accurately report on the matter."

"That's all? Brother, I thought you only saw it in glimpses! How can you get all that detail and call it accurate?" asked a somewhat bamboozled Harry.

Kano looked at him, unperturbed. "I have eyes. I know how to use them."

"You saw no sign of it before it attacked? Nothing unusual in the environment?" Pappagallo pressed. Eve was following everything that was said with great interest.

"I noticed a collapsed cave further down the shelf, but I saw nothing else that stood out." Kano answered.

"A collapsed cave?" mused Brinnlitz. "Really now." Jack raised his great helmeted head and started paying attention, and Brinnlitz did not miss that.

"What?" asked Pappagallo, frowning.

"I saw something like a collapsed cave at one of the homesteads I was evacuating," Brinnlitz answered. "Specifically, the Rostov homestead, where I first saw the infestation I reported to you. It was in the basement, the most heavily infested part of the house. I didn't pay it any mind, I just thought it one of the unfinished walls. That's the only thing I can say in my report that you haven't heard already."

Pappagallo had his finger to his temple now, frowning. Harry noticed and spoke up. "Come on General, don't keep us in the dark. What are you thinking?"

"A collapsed cave near the spider. A collapsed cave in the infestation," he said. "Is the infestation related to the spider? Are they using caves to travel and spread? I'm wondering if those three things are connected."

"Tell us about the infestation," said Eve impatiently to Brinnlitz. "What did it look like, or smell, or feel? Have you seen anything else like it here?"

"It's difficult to describe, you have to see it," said Brinnlitz. "Dearie dear, let's see. Tubes is the simplest way to put it. Many many tubes, some small as threads, some large as pipes, spreading over walls, floors and ceiling. But there's also something like flesh, and bone, and rusty metal. All of this blends together in complex sculptures that would be frankly unsettling to most. There is a dank, musty smell. My infrared viewing mode and communications did not work properly in proximity to the stuff. And there was a distinct… fearfulness about the place. An unnatural feeling in the head and body, dreamlike and frightening. I would hazard a guess that this infestation secretes a mind-altering substance of some kind, perhaps as a defense mechanism."

Eve and Sagan looked at each other, puzzled. "I've never heard of anything like this in fifty years of surveys," said Sagan.

"I've never heard of anything like this anywhere," said the Arcturan planet surveyor.

Amon Pistor had put his arms about him as if suffering from cold while Brinnlitz recounted his observations, and some of the mercs noted with alarm that the small man was shivering.

"Pistor? You look like you've got something on your mind," said Pappagallo gently. "Why don't you share it with us?"

"It's nothing. I had my comms and nightvision putter out in a house and I felt that unnatural fear just like Brinnlitz. Then there was another house that was full of the infestation. The earth caved in by that house and I fell in, and my partner saved my life with a rope. You all know the rest already."

"Now wait a minute brother," said Harry, just as gentle. "Something got to you pretty bad on that mission, and I don't have to be a shrink to see it's getting to you now. Did you see something in the house? What happened in that cave-in? What did your partner save your life from?"

Pistor took a deep breath and got control of himself, his empty coolness coming over him like a comfortable blanket. He relaxed, began speaking in a wooden, unemotional fashion.

"It was dark down in that cave, and full of that infestation, and my nightvision didn't work. You all must know by now I don't like the dark. There's more: with all that stuff all around me, the fear effect was stronger, and I believe I started hallucinating. I saw something from my childhood, a… dog thing. Engineered animals like that killed my parents and almost killed me. I blew the place apart trying to kill it and couldn't take it down, which one would expect if it wasn't real. And after my partner got me out of there, I used a couple of grenades and collapsed the cave for good. That's everything, I give my oath on it."

"So, nearby a homestead full of infestation, you fall into an underground cave full of more infestation," said Pappagallo thoughtfully.

"I see where you're going with this, General," said Harry, grimly. "Where there's caves, there's infestation."

"It is a logical progression," said Eve. "It is a good thing there are no caves near colony central."

"But there may have been such caves near each of the infested homesteads with missing families," said Brinnlitz. "Madame Director, I think you should consider the possibility that your kidnapped colonists may actually be in these caves. Perhaps lured in by mind-altering gases, where they venture in deep and collapse, feeding the infestation with their bodies. Perchance an expedition into the caves…"

Pappagallo held up his hand. "That's going too far. We don't know if the caves have anything to do with anything yet, let's not go off on wild flights of speculation without any actual facts. Right now, everybody is in central where there are no caves or infestation, and nobody's going anywhere near that stuff until the pirate threat is over and done with. I suggest we table this issue for a later time. We don't even know whether us mercs can help with that, we're not scientists or doctors."

Eve looked rebellious, but she nodded her assent.

"I know you have trouble talking, but do you have anything to add Jack?" Pops asked the giant armour-clad spacer. Jack turned his big helmet to look at Pappagallo and stared at him a long moment, then he played a recording of an intense male voice.

"One does not simply walk into Mordor. There is evil there that does not sleep," said Jack.

The mercs looked at each other. Eve shuddered.

"Well that was decidedly unnerving Jack, but it gives us little in usable information or suggestions," said Aedon pointedly. "Do you have anything useful to say?"

Jack simply lowered his helmet.

"Alright then," said Pops. "Let's go on to more pressing things than after-action reports and conjecture. The big one of course, is what are we doing now."

"We've broken the pirate occupation, and we've armed you and trained you to defend yourself," he said, looking to the two women. "The pirates have too few men and vehicles to regain control of the colony, they can only hope to weaken you with guerilla tactics now. We've achieved an important victory, but we're not done yet."

"You can't go back to your homes, you would be easy prey for the remaining raiders. If we leave, they would regain air superiority for their remaining dropship and flyer. With their bombing capability, they could well regain control of the colony. And the elder Aedon himself is going to show up sooner or later with his attack cruiser. How are we going to deal with these problems?" he asked, now looking to the mercs.

"Seems to me we have to finish off the ground forces," said Harry. "We have to take out the flyer and dropship at the very least. And every raider is going to be a threat until he's dealt with, we need to get every one. Sorry, but nobody can go back to their homes till we've secured the colony."

"We've already provided for that," said Sagan. "Nirvana Tower was built back when the air was still toxic, it was home for everybody back then. Nirvana has enough quarters, hydroponics, and recycling capability for every colonist left on the planet. We can stay here indefinitely, and we've already organized for it."

"Excellent!" said Pops, with satisfaction. "We might be here a while, and our job is a lot easier if we only have to protect this one place. We can break up our task into three or four jobs: protecting this place, taking out the pirate flyers, taking out the ground forces, and destroying the cruiser when it shows up."

"If I could add to that?" asked Pistor, and Pops waved him to continue. "Those pirates have taken a lot of slaves. We have some of their collars, and I've been looking at them. I think I can make a transmitter that will send a summon command to every slave collar."

"Wait a minute," said Harry, frowning. "Aren't those collars designed to kill the wearer if they get tampered with?

"Well, yes, but this command is already built in to summon the slave to the owner," explained Pistor. "I just need to hack it so all the collars get called by the same remote. It's going to have to be short range, we don't want those poor people trekking hundreds of klicks, but it could make a rescue attempt much easier. We just have to get to the slave camp when there's few or no pirates there, and if they're all here doing hit and run attacks…"

"I get it, we need to do this quickly," said Pops approvingly. "Good idea Pistor! We'll work on that tomorrow."

"I also have something for you to do," said Sagan, rubbing her hands nervously. "I've talked things over with the other women, and we've agreed on another task for you, a very important task." When Pops nodded to her, she continued.

"There's been no official census, but I understand that there's about two hundred of us left. There's a few young boys, a few elderly men. There's around fifty girls under fourteen years, and thirty or so older women. That leaves about one hundred women and girls of child-bearing age, and no men. With so few males, we're looking at the end of Threshold colony in a generation. So, put simply, we need your babies."

"Wait, wait, just wait a minute here…" interjected Pappagallo, but Sagan pressed on relentlessly.

"You all were contracted to save this colony from destruction. Well, that's exactly what you'll be doing, because without men and children we will end up a ghost town, as sure as if the pirates killed us all. Go and see Doc Ryszard immediately after the briefing and have the spacer sterilizer capsule taken out of your arm. And from then on, whenever a Sanjivan woman asks to spend some time with you, don't ask questions, just go to her quarters and sleep with her. I'm sure you'll enjoy this duty. Understood?"

"And you have to ejaculate into her vagina at least once!" Eve piped up, causing some amused smiles around the table. "In fact conception would be much more likely if you were to ejaculate several times into…"

"Look, this was not part of the contract!" interrupted Pops angrily.

"I just explained how it is part of your contract," answered Sagan, calm and sure. "And I'm not asking. I'm ordering you to have sex with any woman who asks for it, is that understood? Sanjivan women are famous for being both pretty and hot-blooded, you won't have a problem."

"You're also required to have an ardenol capsule implanted," Eve piped up again. "It will improve your libido and recovery time so that you can have intercourse with great frequency, and it will also increase your sperm count…"

"Look here, we did not sign up to be breeding stock!" Pappagallo snarled.

"Ah, General? If I could?" Harry motioned beside him, and Pops leaned close so they could talk in private.

"They're offering to pay us, house us, feed us, and give us all the nookie we can handle!" Harry said quietly. "This place is paradise man! Why are you so against it? What's the problem?"

Pappagallo glared at him, then answered "It's the principle of it. I don't like being used."

The old merc sat up straight and spoke to Sagan again: "You don't get to ask us to do anything you want. You can't ask us to become farmers, or give up a kidney, or get married to who you designate. We are combat mercenaries, hired to liberate you and protect you through combat, and that's all we can do for you."

"But you are also men," Sagan retorted. "I'm only asking you to do what men do! Look, fine. I'm willing to make some exceptions. You want to request to avoid this duty, tell me why, and I'll decide on it."

Kano looked at her. "I'm sterile."

Sagan blinked. "You are?"

Kano nodded and sat back. Sagan frowned.

"And you wouldn't be making this up to get out of the job?" she asked suspiciously.

"Solar radiation," he answered. "One too many space missions."

Sagan stared at him, considering. She didn't consider for long.

"Request denied," she said, folding her arms. "Radiation may have lowered the number of sperm in your semen, but if you put out enough of it there's still a chance to get a girl pregnant. Report for duty as usual, but you'll need to have sex several times with each woman to increase her chances…"

"No," said Kano calmly. Sagan narrowed her eyes.

"That's not a request, mister," she said warningly.

"Fire me," he suggested. The colony director glowered at him.

"Well, I'm sure most of us will try our best at this arduous and thankless chore," said Dameon Aedon with a lopsided grin. "But Jack is obviously ineligible because of his illness, and me, well, I don't see too many Sanjivan widows lining up to bear children to the son of the man who made them widows."

"Jack, yes, but you? You'll be surprised at how many Sanjivan ladies will pull in their horns for you, especially after what you did for us today," said Sagan, showing a glimmer of a smile. "We don't believe in demon's seed, and the apple has dropped far from the tree in your case anyway."

"I'm not sure if I understood all those metaphors, but it sounds distinctly like I'll be finding it difficult to preserve my celibacy in the coming days," Aedon mused.

"Let me make it clear to you," said Sagan primly. "Request absolutely denied. If a Sanjivan girl gives the order, report for duty between her legs and get to work on the double! Anything else?"

After the laughter from her little crack faded, Hans Brinnlitz raised a finger and spoke up.

"Even if I wanted to oblige you madame, which I don't incidentally, I wouldn't be capable of performing. I'm only wired for men, I fear," said Brinnlitz, which got quite a few raised eyebrows.

It wasn't exactly true. He was actually bisexual, but that wasn't the point. Brinnlitz was like a praying mantis, who could not help but slay whoever he mated with. He had been celibate for over a decade and was perfectly fine with that: killing lust and sexual lust was one and the same for him, and he had no lack of satisfying killing in his life.

"I do understand your population plight however," he continued, "and I am willing to provide a sperm sample if you wish."

"It would make things much easier, but I don't think we can use it. Am I right?" said Sagan, looking to Eve, who nodded.

"We have neither the equipment nor the expertise to perform sperm freezing and artificial insemination," explained the Arcturan woman. "If a woman wants to become pregnant in Threshold, she shall have to get her sperm the old-fashioned way, fresh from the penis."

Harry and Dameon almost fell out of their chairs laughing. Jack and Kano didn't seem to see the humour in what she'd said. Pistor and Brinnlitz chuckled and shook their heads, and Pops put his hand on his face and rubbed his eyes. It seemed that when Eve Owan stuck her foot in her mouth, she stuck it in to the knee.

"What did I say?" asked a puzzled Eve. She loved talking about sex, but didn't understand a whit of Terran sexual humour. "You do have functional penises, do you not? Penises that ejaculate viable semen when sufficiently…"

"Yes, yes they do," Sagan interrupted hastily. "Point taken, Eve. Let's move on. Anybody else with a problem?"

"Yep, me," said Pappagallo. "I'm old and stodgy and I'm just plain not doing it. You don't like it, fire me."

"Obviously I can't fire you, Pops. But we need you to do this most of all," said Sagan with a pained expression. "You're the one most responsible for our freedom and happiness. I've talked to so many women who need to thank you for that, who need to be close to you, who desperately need to take you into their bodies and make you feel good, I don't think they'd give a damn if you left the blocker cap in your arm. You're the most desired man in Threshold. I'm strenuously advising you to make love to those girls, Pops. It's a matter of morale for the colony."

"I'd be feeling pretty flattered if I were you, General," Harry commented. Pappagallo took off his cap and scratched his graying head.

"I'll think about it, all right?" he conceded, in cantankerous fashion. "But no goddamn promises!"

"Just don't think for too long, Pops," Sagan cautioned him. "There are some extremely horny girls out there that are going to get whipped into a froth waiting for you to make up your mind."

"Well they can just froth on then," Pappagallo growled. "How the hell is it that all these women went into heat when we got here anyway? Weren't those pirates abusing you sexually? How is it you want to go anywhere near a man after what they did to you?"

"You aren't the pirates, for one," Sagan pointed out. "And yes, there are lots who are traumatized and won't come near you. But there are much more women who were lucky enough to escape the pirates' attention and have been without a man for years. There are more who were abused but recovered, and more still who just want a baby. And there's a sizeable lot who want to soothe the pain with a good man's touch, girls who deal with stuff by getting randy. All of those women are the ones who want you."

"Christ." Pops shook his head. This was the weirdest situation he'd come across in all his long years of freelancing. "Is there any goddamn thing else?"

There were no other items of interest, at least none that couldn't be addressed tomorrow, so, yawning and stretching, the mercs headed to the door of the conference room.

As soon as the door opened, the mercs were greeted by the surprising sight of quite a number of Sanjivan colonists waiting outside the door. They were dressed markedly different from their usual colonial jumpsuits, all flowing short-skirted gowns and dresses, and their hair was nicely done up and makeup applied. The atmosphere was festive, effervescent, yet quietly simmering with passion too. The women were rejoicing inside, celebrating the best thing that had happened to them in three long years of misery. And all two dozen of them hoped to do some vigorous celebrating with the opposite sex, with those who'd made this celebration possible. In short, they all looked set up for one sweet party, and doubtless more than a few were hoping to get a head start on the Threshold procreation program.

Well, everyone was all dolled up except one. As the mercs halted and gazed out the double doors in surprise, a shout boomed out from a powerful pair of lungs.

"Hey! Dameon Aedon! Yeah sword boy, you!" the muscular Brigid Wulcan yelled out. Aedon froze, looking a bit like a deer in the headlights. Wulcan shoved through the well-dressed crowd and grabbed his arm. "Get fucking over here! Move it!"

As Aedon was smartly marched off toward the elevators, Harry laughingly waved goodbye to him.

"Good luck, brother! Hope you come back alive!" the hat-sporting merc called out to his younger compatriot. But then, just as suddenly, Harry discovered a girl under both his arms.

"Hi Harry, I'm Bettina," said the young, pretty blonde girl in the blue microskirted dress.

"And I'm Heidi," said the younger, prettier girl with flaming crimson hair and flowing pink gown. "We like you."

"And we'd like you to bunk with us," added Bettina Kupfer.

"We're really sorry for being pushy, but we really have to insist," finished Heidi van Vehmendal.

"Whoa! Well I guess I got no choice then! I'm bein' swept off my poor feet!" Harry winked at the other mercs as he was led away. "Folks sure are friendly 'round here!"

"No."

Kano's voice was somehow tranquil and immensely forceful at the same time, and it stopped the women in their tracks as the bolder ones tried to sneak under his arms like they'd done with Harry. He swept the small crowd of females with a steely-eyed gaze, settling a moment on an extremely petite woman who stood out for her brown skin, then he turned and walked unhurriedly to the stairwell exit.

None messed with Jack, of course. His fearsome appearance and size notwithstanding, even the most adventurous lady colonists balked at courting a leper. Brinnlitz deftly sidestepped into the wide space given to the giant spacer and held up a hand to the women.

"Dear dear, we're not the most cooperative of paramours, are we?" said the sniper sympathetically. "Jack here obviously values his privacy, and I'm afraid I'm only configured for men. You'll have to look elsewhere, my dears."

There were quite a few "awws," and many long-lashed eyes watched in disappointment as the handsome black man escorted Jack to the elevators.

Amon Pistor was the next of the mercs to come out, and like the two girls with Harry, Gina Gerhardt was just as assertive, quickly swooping through the crowd to put her hands on Pistor's shoulders.

"Since we're partners already, you might as well bunk with me," she told him coolly. "We'll be on the same shift so we can wake each other up."

Pistor just stared at her. The leggy, shapely woman was wearing white stockings with heels, and a tiny white slit-dress which was so sheer he could see the colour of her nipples. Gerhardt was a little too square-jawed and curvy for a holovid starlet perhaps, yet she was so gorgeous it was dizzying to him. After all those celibate years, this was the magnificent creature that had boldly claimed him. He had gotten used to being alone, being empty. Now there was a fierce burning in his loins, and he wasn't sure that he wanted it.

The smiling Gerhardt put her arm around his shoulders, and they walked off to the elevators. They were an odd couple to be sure, a tall, glamorous blonde, and a short, professional-looking merc. Yet somehow, their outlines seemed to fit against each other rather nicely.

Before Pappagallo had gotten near the briefing room door, the most beautiful female on the planet rushed around the table and seized his arm to walk with him. Pops stared down at Eve, but didn't push her away. When he came out into the hall, the golden-skinned Arcturan stared fiercely at the other women with her big luminous eyes, and the old merc was left alone. He made an imperceptible sigh of relief.

Pops was the last of the mercs to go, and the women around them either went "aww" in disappointment or applauded Eve for landing the biggest catch. Still, everyone was too happy to be sore at missing their chance at a date. The music and the drinks were downstairs, the first community celebration since the day the pirates had come. They were all going to have a good time tonight; Threshold was coming back to life.

"Thanks boss. I didn't need all that nonsense after a day like this," Pappagallo said to Owan once they were inside the elevator.

"You may thank me properly in my quarters, Pops," she answered, matter-of-factly. "And I need to thank you strenuously for everything you have done for us all."

"Nope. Sorry, Miss Owan," he said firmly. "You're my boss, you're half my age, and you're not even my species. And even if you weren't all that, all I plan to do tonight is sleep like the dead. The only thankin' that's going to happen is what we say right here. Understood?"

Eve stared up at him with her beautiful eyes, taking in all he'd said, processing it, determining response. Then she answered him by suddenly stepping in front of him and hugging him tight around his waist, resting her downy-haired head on his chest.

"Thank you," she said, nuzzling her cheek against his chest, pressing her firm breasts snugly against his upper belly. Again, Pappagallo didn't push her away. He awkwardly put his arms around her and patted her back. He honestly couldn't tell if the girl was just unabashedly affectionate like a little kid, or if she was slyly seducing him. Hell, she didn't follow human rules, maybe she was doing both.

Eve noticed even before he did.

"Pops, are your hands shaking?" she asked, twisting her flexible neck around to look back over her shoulder, down at where his hands were resting on her back.

"Hm. That's odd. Well I gotta mosey on now," said Pappagallo casually as the doors opened to the habitation floor, going cold inside. He started to step out but Eve thrust out her slender arm to bar his way and slapped the emergency stop on the panel, closing the doors.

"Let me see," she demanded, grabbing one big callused hand. "This has happened before?"

"Just now and then, when I'm tired. Look, it's nothing," said Pappagallo, annoyed, trying to pull his weakened arm away as gently as possible. Eve swung her arm over his and stubbornly gripped his forearm under her armpit as hard as she could, and she began massaging his hand in both of hers. To his amazement, the shakes started to slow down, in both hands, and strength started to return to his arms.

"I want you to see Doctor Ryszard tomorrow," she said, gazing intently at his hand. Her massage was turning distinctly tender now, her long delicate fingers caressing and entwining with his. "At the very least, you're severely stressed. We will go to my quarters at once, and I shall engage in some gentle sexual…"

"It's nothing!" he snapped, his arm now strong enough for him to yank it away from her. He smacked the emergency stop button to deactivate it and then hit the open button. "Good night Miss Owan!"

And he stalked off down the hall toward his assigned quarters, leaving a hurt and worried Eve staring after him from the elevator.

Pappagallo found his quarters, locked the door with difficulty, and slumped into bed fully dressed. Refusing a woman that lovely inside and out, that took a lot out of a man. Right now, he wanted her so bad he could barely think. And she knew his deadly little secret now, what would come of that?

Pops raised his hands to his eyes; they were barely shaking. Her touch had somehow been soothing and electrifying at the same time. What the hell was going on? What the hell was she doing to him? He put his hands to his face and made a sound halfway between a growl and a groan. He was so tired his bones ached, and so aroused it would be ages before he could fall asleep. Damnable Arcturan. He was too old for this shit.

x x x x x

Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," central colony complex
East: personnel elevator D

Dameon Aedon stood beside his partner Brigid Wulcan in the elevator, and wondered what offense he had committed. Wulcan was fuming, muttering to herself. Suddenly she turned to Aedon.

"I was going to kill you!" she snapped at him. The young man took a step back. Wulcan stared at him, a mix of emotions blazing in her eyes.

"I was just waiting for it. As soon as you looked at someone funny, bang! Back of the head. And I would have my revenge. But you just fucking had to turn out good!"

Wulcan thumped Dameon in the chest with her closed fist, again and again with each expletive. "You had to be fucking brave! Had to be fucking kind! Had to fucking jump off the skiff fucking through the air to save a girl with that fucking sword like you're some fucking holovid hero! Had to be fucking everything that he fucking ain't! Fuck!"

"Ah… milady? Have I upset you? Or pleased you? Or upset you by pleasing you?" asked Dameon, thoroughly confused.

"Shut the fuck up," Wulcan said sharply as the sliding doors opened to level nine. She grabbed his good hand and marched him out into the personnel quarters area.

"You're bunking with me, sword boy," she said briskly as they walked. "You can meet my son."

"Well why didn't you say so?" said Aedon, breaking into a smile. "Thank you for putting me up, milady! I would love to meet…"

"Shut the fuck up! You just had to be fucking polite too!" Wulcan cut him off.

They came to a door, room 9-18, and she led him in, none too gently at that. The quarters inside were roomy and welcoming, with many doors, obviously intended for a large family. There was only one person in here though, a sad-eyed boy of about fourteen.

"Ezra, this is him. The fucking hero himself. Dameon, that's my boy Ezra," said Wulcan.

"Hi Ma. Hi Mr. Aedon, I'm glad I can meet you," said the boy politely, utterly the opposite of his foul-mouthed mother.

"Come on, sword boy," said Wulcan, and walked off into one of the doors. Aedon hesitated though, and turned toward young Ezra.

"Ezra, if I may ask, how do you know my name?" the young merc asked curiously.

"Ma talked to me about you, and some other people did too," said Ezra. "We know about you and your dad, and how you want to set things right. You're making Ma swear more than normal. That's a lot."

"I can quite imagine!" Aedon smiled ruefully. "And, why am I making your Ma swear exactly? Is it just because of my father?"

"She's mad because she wants to hate you and you're not letting her," the boy explained. "Since she can't hate you, that means she has to… aw, Ma!"

Ezra smacked his hand over his eyes in a gesture of exasperation. Dameon turned to see that the boy's mother had come back into the main living area, and his eyes widened.

"Stop walking around naked, Ma! You're embarrassing me!" Ezra protested.

"Ah shaddap you fainting fanny, it's nothing you ain't seen already," Wulcan pooh-poohed her son, as she stood before Aedon as bare as the day she was born. She wasn't exactly the most attractive of women, being in her forties and rather butch-looking with brown hair in a buzz-cut and a sturdy, thick-waisted figure. However, she somehow managed to be well-muscled and curvy at the same time, with heavy breasts, wide hips and round buttocks offsetting her brawny limbs and torso, and there was a certain earthy sensuality in the contrast. Aedon found himself growing rather aroused at the sight of her. She might come across as a brick shithouse with her clothes on, but she definitely wasn't hard on the eyeballs with them off.

"Hey hero! You're keeping me fucking waiting. Get the fuck in here."

Dameon gingerly followed Wulcan through the door, trying not to stare at her broad, muscled bottom as it gently swayed in front of him. His arousal was getting to the point of discomfort.

"I didn't realize you Sanjivans didn't have a nudity taboo," he chuckled, a little nervously. "A little warning would have…"

"Will you shut the fuck up?" Wulcan cut him off again. She'd been leading him to the double bed in this bedroom, and was now facing him with her arms crossed under her massive high-set breasts, tapping her foot.

"Get your clothes off already. Come on fuck, let's go," she urged him.

"Uh, milady, there's no other bed in…" Dameon started.

"Call me 'milady' again and I'll slap your mouth sideways!" Wulcan interrupted him. "My name's Brigid, got it? Fuck, do I have to do everything myself?"

"My dear partner, if I didn't know better, I would think we were preparing to, well, be intimate," said Aedon cautiously, flinching a little as the woman started roughly pulling off his clothes.

"Christ almighty! At last! He has a brain!" Wulcan declared, then she slapped his hand as he started to help her with his gunbelt. "Fuck you! You weren't fast enough so I'm doing it! Just fucking hold still or I'll rip 'em off!"

"Brigid, what exactly do you want?"

"If you have to know, I'm getting my revenge on your pa," she answered as she continued to work. "I can't fucking kill him because you and your pals will probably blow his ass up in space, and I can't kill his son because you're a fucking grade-A sweetheart. So I'm getting my revenge the same way your mom did."

"Your pa took my boys from me, so you're gonna give me one back. I'm gonna pop out his grandson, fucking love the little bastard to death, and raise him to be decent and kind and strong like you. I'll turn the little shit into everything his psycho grandpappy hates. That's the sweetest fucking revenge a woman can ever get."

"You… you want to have… my child?" said a dazed Dameon, staring down at her as she squatted before him to open his pants.

"Holy shit, you didn't get much of your pappy's brains, did you?" said Wulcan impatiently. "Yes-Dameon-Aedon-I-want-you-to-get-me-pregnant-so-I-can-give-birth-to-your-baby. And even if I didn't, I'd still want to hump your brains out, you dopey fucking sweetheart! Haven't you heard a word… oh fuck me!"

Wulcan had just started pulling down Dameon's trousers, and as his rigid sex sprang out in front of her nose she let out a little cry of delight.

"You got a nice hard one for me, eh?" she said excitedly, taking hold of the shaft and stroking it in her fist. "Sword-boy's a good name for you, this thing feels like it's made of steel! I bet… oh fuck me! Gimme!"

Before Wulcan's eyes, a glistening droplet welled up on the tip of the jutting extrusion. The woman promptly seized the whole bulbous head in her mouth, sucking greedily as drop after drop oozed onto her tongue. They stayed that way for a while, Wulcan kneeling before the lithely muscled young man, clutching at his rump and rhythmically bobbing her head while he hissed and sighed in pleasure. Finally, she released him with a smack of her lips.

"I haven't gotten any of that sweet stuff in three fucking years," she said, licking her lips. "You taste good, sword boy. So now that you're bare-assed and all riled up, are you gonna fucking reject me now?"

"No… Brigid. I'm… happy," said Aedon softly. He had always known that he wanted to have children, and he had also been quite aware that his mission would likely claim his life before he'd had the chance. Furthermore, Brigid Wulcan was surprisingly delicious to the eye when her clothes were off, and he rather liked her despite (or perhaps because of) her rough edges. And if her son was any indication, she wasn't a half bad mother either. If he was to have children, he wouldn't mind if it had to be with her.

"It's very sudden, but I want this. I will serve thee gladly," said Dameon.

"Well stick it in and serve me hard, sword boy," Wulcan said, starting to smile. She gently pushed him down to sit on the bed, and sat beside him to caress his sex. "This ain't gonna be easy, you know. I'm an old lady with an old womb, so you'll have to blow a lot of loads into me before I catch preggers. And I mean a lot. It's gonna be the best fucking job you ever had. And you know what? You can just keep on blowing loads into me after I catch. See how fucking nice I am?"

"Well I for one find the idea of being your personal boy toy rather pleasing, but I suspect the other women who want babies might not be so pleased," Aedon noted.

"Yeah, we know how to share on Sanjiva, sword boy. The girls can have you in the day when you're off-duty, but your evenings and nights are mine. So whaddaya say sweetie, you itching to pump momma full of baby gravy or what?"

"Ah, Brigid love… you marched me in here before I could go see Doc Ryszard. I still have the blocker cap in my arm," said Aedon sheepishly as the woman stroked and fondled his stiff part with both hands.

"Oh. Well, doesn't matter," she said dismissively. "It's been years since you had a woman, right? You'll need to squirt out a load or two just to unclog your tubes. And I don't care anyway because it's definitely been fucking years since I had a man. I want some cream in my crack, I don't care if it ain't primed."

"Can I… touch you?" the lad asked, tentatively raising his hands towards the older woman's breasts. Wulcan rolled her eyes and made a growl of impatience deep in her throat.

"After I sucked your cock for ten minutes and while I'm stroking your cock right now, you have the nerve to ask my fucking permission before you touch my tits? Do I have to do fucking everything myself?"

She grabbed his hands, minding the injured one, and yanked them to her heavy breasts. Her puffy nipples were so large that they weren't completely covered by his palms.

"That's it, come to momma," Wulcan sighed as he started stroking her. When Dameon leaned in to kiss her, she closed her eyes and tilted her face upwards for him, and her kisses were unexpectedly gentle and tender. When he slid his hand down her broad belly to run his fingers through her luxuriously thick triangle of dark hair, she immediately leaned back and spread her sturdy thighs for him.

"That's it, go on! Stick your finger in deeper, she ain't gonna bite!" the woman encouraged him as he fondled between her legs. "Christ, I'm such a runny mess down there. If I don't get some penis in there soon I'm gonna soak the bed. Aw shit, no Dameon! Stop it! I want your cock in me, not your fucking tongue!"

Against her protests, the young man pushed Wulcan flat on her back and spread her legs wide, burying his face between her thighs and enthusiastically licking and sucking on her fleshy folds. She rested her legs on his broad shoulders and stroked his long hair, rolling her quivering hips under his tongue as he forced moan after moan from her lips. After a time, he came up for air and started clambering atop her, but Wulcan stopped him, rolling him to the side and onto his back as she got on top straddling his hips.

"Nuh-uh. Me on top, sword boy," Wulcan admonished, reaching down to guide him in as she lowered her hips and impaled herself. "You don't know it right now, but you're real tired sweetie. Let momma do all the work. And when you're done shooting all your stuff into me, you just let go and fall right asleep. I'll have breakfast cooked up for ya when you wake, and you can bend me over the kitchen table for dessert. Do you like that? Your little man sure liked that, I can feel him twitching in there… oh yeah… there we go… oh baby…"

It really was quite ironic. Pretty much the only time Brigid Wulcan stopped saying "fuck" was when she was in the throes of lovemaking.

x x x x x

Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," central colony complex
East personnel elevator A

The one known as Jack looked curiously at Hans Brinnlitz as he followed her into the elevator. She pressed the button for the shuttle docks at the very top of the tower, and the human didn't put in a different destination for himself. He just stared at her looking up and down her armoured form, even bending forward at one point and sniffing her armour at the top of her thigh.

"What is your major malfunction?!" barked a male voice out of her vocoder.

"I never had a chance to be near you till after the battle," Brinnlitz murmured. "My oh my, you're a fascinating creature of many contradictions, Jack. Your limp, for one. When you are in company, it is quite pronounced. But it seems as though the pain mysteriously eases when you are distracted, or need to hurry, or have no one immediately near you. How is that?"

He had Jack's full attention now, the body language of the giant form focused exclusively on him. Brinnlitz smiled and loosened his shoulder holster.

"Ah, caught your interest have I? Well here's something that caught my interest. That weapon in your shoulder, did you design it? It looks and smells distinctly like a plasma weapon, but the smallest plasma guns anyone can come up with need entire starfighters to be built around them. Yours could fit in a pistol. It seems to have no ammunition or cooling limitations. It can be used rapid-fire or in splitting clusters, and the bolts somehow follow their targets, as if a guidance mechanism could survive being immersed in a ball of superheated plasma. Just to give you an idea how special that is, consider that Weyland-Yutani would pay you millions of adjusted dollars for the design, and if you turned them down they would send all their finest assassins to take the device from you. Interesting that you just threw something like that together in your workshop, no?"

Jack made a buzzing sound, then played a spliced recording. "With this grand technology/I do what I must."

"Mmm. Then there's the matter of your ship. You must have the best emissions-masking system ever made to do what you did out there in orbit. And to destroy that station so utterly, you must have nuclear weapons aboard, yet no missile or radioactivity was observed anywhere near the station, before or after its destruction. And then there's the impossibility of holding position and still staying stealthed in the middle of a deadly debris field. Decidedly… unearthly, wouldn't you say?"

"With this grand technology/I do what I must," said Jack again. Tension was beginning to show in Jack's body language now.

"Then there's the matter of your smell," said Brinnlitz, tapping his nose. "You don't have the distinctive smell of a Denebi rotter. No, more like the smell of a rotter's clothing, perhaps built into your armour. When the organisms that cause the smell are dead and decaying, they produce a slightly different odour. Have you discovered the cure for necrosis by any chance? No, don't answer that."

"That's not the smell I'm most interested in. There is a warmth to your smell that I would know anywhere. It is very strange given your size, but around you, I smelled… a woman."

Jack made a new sound, a low clicking hiss. Brinnlitz noted that with interest as he continued.

"It was a strange smell, subtle and unfamiliar, but not some leftover like your rotter's rags. I smelled it again just now. And when I started paying closer attention to you, I noticed the thing that gave you away. It's the wider pelvis, it produces a different gait. Limp and lurch all you like, you just couldn't hide that tiny little wiggle in your arse when you walked. You're a giant woman, Jack."

The hissing didn't stop. After a moment, Jack played a new spliced quote over her hissing. "Gosh darn, I guess you got me!/Who would have thought under all that armour Samus was a woman?"

"Indeed! But that's not the best part," Brinnlitz smiled. "I sense something in you that can't be discerned by the five senses alone. You see Jack, I'm a predator by trade, I hunt men for my living. But it's more than just my job. In my very soul, I am a predator. And I know my own kind."

Jack's hiss grew sharp. Brinnlitz pressed on regardless. He was still smiling, but the smile had turned distinctly feral.

"In your heart of hearts, you too are a predator. I can feel it. You too know the anticipation of the hunt, the thrill of the chase, the glory of the kill. But there's a difference between you and I. You don't have my taint, my sin. I hunt human beings for my sport, my cannibalistic sport. You've done so too, Jack, but you feel no guilt about it. Because you are not human."

With a terrifying roar, Jack surged forward and grabbed Brinnlitz by his black jacket, slamming him into the wall of the elevator with his legs dangling high above the floor.

"Aha! Not so… crippled… after all… are you?" Brinnlitz said, with some difficulty but still smiling that vicious smile. "My dear… hunter… do you… really think… catching me… would be… so easy?"

Jack looked sharply downward as she felt something touch her throat. Brinnlitz had a heavy pistol in his hand, and the barrel was resting lightly beneath her jaw. The scientist was aghast. Where had he gotten this weapon? How had he drawn it without her noticing? There was no possible thing she could do now that a simple trigger pull wouldn't defeat.

Growling softly, Jack slowly lowered Brinnlitz to the ground and released him, and she stepped away from him.

"Don't worry Jack, I won't tell anyone your secret," said Brinnlitz with a wink, sheathing the pistol back in its shoulder holster. "I know you wish to exist among us unnoticed, for whatever reason. There is no reason for me to betray you, and you would hunt me down if I did. You would make a powerful enemy, which I'd rather not have. I just had to know for myself."

Jack made a strange series of clicks in her throat, then played a recording of a child's voice: "You make a terrible friend, mister" followed by a man's voice: "But he would be the worst enemy to have."

Brinnlitz chuckled softly, then nodded toward the open door of the elevator. They had just reached their destination.

"You were going to your ship for the night, no? Don't let me keep you." He made a shooing motion. Jack stared at him a moment longer, then turned and lurched off into the docks, limping for the eyes of the colonists on watch.

Brinnlitz watched her leave, the elevator doors eventually closing to cut her off from view, then he let himself go and threw his head back with euphoric laughter. His body was trembling, his skin tingling down to his fingertips, and he was light-headed from the thrill. For a moment there, he wasn't sure if Jack was going to rip him limb from limb, and the fear and subsequent triumph over her was absolutely sumptuous. Pressing the button for habitat level, he touched his wire headset to stop the audio recording with a sense of deep satisfaction.

He hadn't actually known for sure whether Jack was inhuman or not, only a creeping suspicion that all the clues indicated something much bigger. But he trusted his instincts, and they hadn't betrayed him. Jack herself had proven everything he'd asserted. He had successfully bluffed an alien creature, and he had the proof of it. Now, what would he actually do with this information?

He supposed he would have to hold on to it, he hadn't been lying when he said he didn't want to make an enemy of Jack. But should it become useful for others to know, or if the creature became a problem, he would quickly disseminate his recording and participate in the witch hunt that would follow. He doubted anything actually said on the footage would make much of an impression, but that roar she had made? No human could make a sound like that. The implications were staggering.

Oh yes, these were exciting times.

x x x x x

Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," central colony complex
East personnel elevator B

As they stepped into the elevator and began their ascent, the usual numb coolness came over Pistor, and the pressure in his groin receded. The merc looked at his scantily-clad partner, and then silently took off his waistcoat and put it over her shoulders. Gina looked at him with surprise.

"Don't you like it?" she asked him. "It's the sexiest dress I have!"

"It's very beautiful. You're very beautiful. But you don't know me, partner. You don't want to know me. You don't want to do this," he said tonelessly.

"No, don't do it!" she exclaimed. The woman faced him, put her hands on his shoulders, her face intense and desperate. "I can feel you going away from me! Don't do that Amon. I want you to come back. I want you… to be with me."

A hard look came over Pistor's face. "Partners have to protect each other. So that's what I'm doing. I'm protecting you from me."

Gerhardt opened and closed her mouth, searching for something to say. Pistor forged ahead: "You're a sweet girl, Gina. That's why you shouldn't be with someone like me. I'm all seedy bars and whorehouses. You deserve better than me. Go back to your quarters. I'll find the room they gave…"

"I was a slave before. Did you know that?" she interrupted him. Pistor froze, raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"The pirates took me the first day and put a nerve collar on me, and because of the way I look, I got conditioned to be a concubine," she said, quite matter-of-factly. "I don't remember much because of the collar, and I'm kind of glad for that, you know? Because I do know that I would have done anything for them. Because I'm so pretty, big bunches of them wanted to have me at the same time, and I begged for more afterwards. Being pretty isn't so great sometimes."

"When our men attacked the pirates, I got left behind by mistake. I wandered around searching for my masters, and when one of the colony skiffs found me I didn't want to go with them. I fought them, but they saved me anyway. After they got that thing off my neck, I didn't feel anything for a long time. I slowly got my emotions back, but I knew I would never want a man again. I was done with men, done with sex. I didn't hate them or anything, I still cared for my little brother and old Doc Ryszard and all the good men we have left. I just didn't want to be close to any of them ever again."

"Then you guys came along, and suddenly we had a chance to strike back. I was so happy when I was picked to be a partner for one of you, because I knew I would have my chance to pay them back for what they did to me, for what they did to all of us. And then I met my partner. You."

"I saw myself in you," Gina said to him, her voice thick with emotion. "You're stuck in that shell, and it makes you empty inside. I know what that's like. I was there. I wanted to help, but you wouldn't let me, it was too soon."

"So I got to see what you were like, and I could tell that you cared despite it all. The way you talked to people, the way you worked so hard to save them, the way you fought even though you were afraid. We went through hell together, and that's the best way to really get to know somebody inside. And I saw what you were like, and I liked it. A lot."

"Then that awful thing happened that scared you so badly, and you hugged me. And something amazing happened when you hugged me, something amazing for both of us. I felt you coming out of your shell, just for a second. And your arms were so strong around me, and your sweat smelled so good, I just started to tingle between my legs. I didn't even notice it at first. I thought I'd never want a man again, but then you hugged me, and I wanted you."

"I saw you working your ass off for us before the battle, and I saw you fighting for us in the battle, and I saw you protecting us after the battle. And after that I really wanted you. Every time I looked at you I started tingling between my legs again, I dunno, like an itch just urging and urging. I was so horny for you I went into a washroom a couple of times and rubbed myself off to get relief. And that's how I feel now, looking at you now. After all those years, I can feel desire again, and boy I'm feeling a lot of it right now!"

"So don't you dare tell me that I don't want you, partner!" she said sticking her face almost nose-to-nose with Pistor's, her fists on her hips, her lovely eyes blazing. "I want you, and that's something so special to me, you can't even imagine it! If you don't want to sleep with me, fine, but don't deny me my desire, and don't deny yourself yours! Do you understand me!?"

Pistor stared at her silently a moment. Then he wordlessly took Gina's face in his hands and kissed her. Her hands jerked spastically at her sides for a moment, causing the waistcoat to fall off her shoulders to the floor, and then her arms wrapped tight around him. Finally he broke the kiss.

"I do apologize, partner," said Pistor hoarsely. "I pray it doesn't bother you unduly to bend to kiss a short man."

Gerhardt answered by pulling him close and forcefully kissing him back, pressing her large, jutting breasts against him. He put his arms around her, slid his hands up the back of her dress to stroke and fondle her curvaceous bottom, slid his fingers lower to caress the soft wet lips between her thighs. She quickly spread her legs apart and arched her back, sticking out her bottom to fully expose her nether lips to his fingers.

"I can feel your hips trembling," he said after, squeezing her rear as it quivered under his touch. "Are you excited?"

"Excited?! I've never been so turned on in my life!" she hissed. The man knew what he was doing, and her body seemed to be making up for the last three frigid years all at once.

They barely made it to her quarters; Gina kept stopping repeatedly for more kissing and fondling on the way, and she got herself so fired up Pistor was at times wondering if she was going to rip his clothes off and jump his bones right there in the hall. Once inside her quarters, she really did start tearing off his clothing, and there was the inevitable pause when she got his pants down.

"Wow. This really doesn't belong on you," she said, quite befuddled by the enormous male organ jutting out of the small man. It seemed nearly the length and thickness of her forearm, straight as a ruler and hard as iron in her hands, with the hanging pouch stretched taut and bulging with broad heavy orbs. It was a little akin to seeing a toddler wielding a rocket launcher.

"I get that a lot," said Pistor, somewhat dryly. "As I have been so told, God took the inches that should have gone to my height and put them on my length instead. Do you like it?"

"Nah. It's too big. I don't like it when I can't get the whole thing in my mouth."

That didn't stop her from trying though, and to her credit, she managed to get a fair bit of it in. Pistor smiled, reached down and stroked her bobbing golden head, and let her run the show. They'd both been deprived a long time, but she was a far more passionate creature than he.

Eventually she stopped and pulled her flimsy dress over her head while Pistor was unbuttoning his shirt, and as he removed the last of his clothing, she went to her bunk and got on her hands and knees with her back to him.

"Get in the saddle, cowboy," she commanded, sticking out her shapely bottom at him and waiting expectantly. It wasn't the most romantic way to begin a relationship, but she rather doubted the man's great truncheon of a penis would fit inside her body any other way, and she was in no mood for gentleness. Scarcely able to believe it, Pistor got on his knees behind her and slid his hands over the plump, firm cheeks.

"This little filly wants to go for a ride, eh?" he asked. The woman playfully neighed like a horse and wiggled her rear in his stroking hands.

"Mount up, partner! I like to be ridden hard and put away wet!"

The merc was quite happy to obey. They groaned together as he pushed in, and Gina eagerly pushed back at him as he began squeezing his oversized organ into her body. He had little difficulty despite his size; the girl was so wet she could have taken an artillery shell. Pistor pushed in deeper and deeper till their bodies pressed firmly together, and he started grinding his hips against the woman's squirming bottom with great pleasure. He loved it when they weren't afraid of it, and he loved it even more when they were deep enough to take in the whole length of it. This one was a keeper.

Pistor started thrusting, steadily thumping his hips against his partner's bottom, holding her waist and gently pushing and pulling. He was loving every second, loving the feel of her around his shaft, of the sight of her swaying before him, of the sound of their bodies smacking rhythmically together. Anything would have been good after so many years of abstinence, even with a bored prostitute as he would have expected, but wild sex on all fours with a drop dead gorgeous blonde who cared about him and lusted madly for him? When had he ever been that lucky?

As much as Pistor was enjoying himself, Gina was loving it even more; she was so excited that her whole body was tingling, waves of sensation radiating from between her legs all throughout her skin. She could do nothing else but moan and sway, jabbing her rump back at his thrusts, writhing in his arms when he reached around her to stroke the front of her body. She could only hope he wouldn't think her some kind of wild slut, because right now, she was too riled up to stop.

They moved slowly at first then more and more vigorously, till the woman's buttocks were slapping furiously against Pistor's pumping hips. Gina writhed and thrust herself against the man behind her, secretly embarrassed that she was being so noisy and fervent, but he was prodding her to frenzy and she couldn't help herself. She felt like her body was on fire.

"I can't keep this up… much longer," the merc panted. He was amazed he lasted as long as he did, it was so good and it had been so long.

"Come for me Amon! Fill me up!" she hissed.

Clutching at her waist, Pistor drove his whole length all the way in and pressed his hips tightly against his partner's upturned bottom, and she felt long spurts of warmth inside her with each shudder of his muscled body. They both gasped and grunted as they spent together, then he reached around her and pulled her up with him as he sat on his heels, and languidly stroked her breasts and belly while they panted together and shared the afterglow.

"That was so beautiful… so special… oh God it was so good," panted Gina, reaching back to stroke his hair. "I came so many times… I wish I could make you… feel as good… as me."

Pistor just smiled and kept petting her while he caught his breath. The only possible way this experience could have been any better for him was if he had been losing his virginity in the process. When most of one's sexual fulfillment came from cheap whores, something genuine like this was a memory to treasure.

They slowly separated and collapsed onto the bunk, and the woman cuddled up to Pistor and fell asleep immediately. He gently caressed her and considered her words. He had triggered some sort of awakening in this traumatized girl, it seemed. He didn't know what to think of that, he was no healer. There must have been all kinds of passion bottled up in her just waiting to get out, and he had been the crack that broke the dam. So where did that leave him? Empty, cold, murdering, uncaring Amon Pistor?

Pistor looked at Gina's lovely face nestled into his chest and felt… an odd stirring deep in his chest. What was that? Did that mean something? He didn't even know, and he wondered to himself: could he really be a fulfilling lover to a young, beautiful, loving, passionate creature like her? It was unlikely; his coldness would make her drift away in time, he was sure. But in the meantime, let come what may.

As Pistor started drifting off himself, he distantly wondered if they could be effective partners and fervent lovers at the same time. He had no doubt of his own self-control, but he did not know about Gina Gerhardt. She was a very passionate woman, that was abundantly clear, and passion and professionalism did not coexist easily.

x x x x x

Weyland-Yutani terraforming colony "Threshold," central colony complex
Level 9 north: personnel block, living quarters 9-43

Tristan O'Hara woke up in one of the nicest ways a man can wake: sandwiched spoon-style between two beautiful, naked young women, laying on his side with one in front and one behind him.

Well content, he snuggled there for a little while and caressed their soft bodies a while before finally admitting he wasn't about to fall back asleep. He carefully sat up so as not to wake them. His morning erection slid out from between the redhead's slender thighs and sprang up proudly against his belly, and he looked at it in surprise. After the workout it had been through last night, the thing had the nerve to look him in the eye next morning?

Carefully rising to keep from waking them, he looked around at the clothes scattered over the floor and realized that some of his clothes including his pants were in the bed under the women. Well that was all right. Harry swiped his hat off the floor and put it on. He had the piece that mattered.

There was still a couple of hours before his shift started. The days were long on this planet, thirty hours a cycle, and he still had a bit of rest period left over. Pops had them on a rotating schedule with one merc and one starship pilot always on active duty and no more than two mercs sleeping simultaneously.

Harry got busy at the kitchenette. There were a lot of unfamiliar foods he didn't recognize, fresh local stuff, but he knew pre-made flapjack mix when he saw it. He got the coffee machine going and started cooking. Least a gentleman could do would be to make his hostesses some breakfast.

The girls had been watching him from slitted eyes ever since he sat up, and Harry heard them when they started to giggle.

"Morning, ladies," he said cheerfully, turning to look at them. "What might it be that has you so amused?"

They giggled harder. He made a show of looking down at himself, then up at his hat, then winked at them.

"Oh that! Well, I guess a bloke wearing nothing but a cowboy hat cooking breakfast with a big old woody might look a tad out of place, wouldn't it," he grinned, and he put his hat aside. A man shouldn't be wearing a hat while cooking or eating anyway.

The smiling women looked at each other and played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors, and Harry noticed.

"You figuring out who's getting the first coffee?" he asked, as they both got up and came over to him.

"No, silly! We're seeing who gets you!" said Bettina in a 'well duh' manner, while Heidi squeezed between him and the cooking heater and squatted down in front of him.

"Keep cooking," ordered Heidi, then she took his rock-hard organ as deep into her mouth as she could.

"You didn't seriously think we were going to let a stiffy like that go to waste, did you?" said Bettina, stroking Harry's muscled rump as the merc let out a groan of intense pleasure.

"Well you see ma'am, if you do that, I can't concentrate on cooking for you," said Harry good-naturedly as shudders of sensation went through him. The blonde was the more voluptuous of the two, but as if to make up for it, redheaded Heidi was the more enthusiastic.

"That's okay, I'll help," said Bettina, enjoying the sight of him trying to cook while being pleasured. "You're sweet for doing this, but we're the ones going to take care of you and that's how it is, okay?"

"You'f dom sho much fo' ush alyeady," said Heidi, speaking around her mouthful, much to Harry's amusement. "Da leash we cam do ish take care o' you mow."

"Didn't anybody ever tell you not to talk with a full mouth?" chuckled Harry, tousling her bright crimson hair.

Heidi van Vehmendal was actually secretly shocked at her own behaviour. She had been shy and conservative beforehand, and was just learning how to enjoy lovemaking with her boyfriend when the pirates came and took all the men's lives. The intervening years had been filled with pining loneliness, and now, after the euphoria of the battle and the triumph of claiming perhaps the most handsome of the mercs, it was as though something had snapped inside her. She was feverishly horny, ready to do anything and wildly eager about it, and she was having explosive multiple orgasms for the first time in her life. She didn't care what anybody might think about her, didn't mind sharing Harry with another woman. She didn't even care if she got pregnant or not; if a baby was going to come, then let it come. All that mattered was this wonderful feeling, and Heidi was enjoying it so much she barely had time to wonder at herself.

The merc did his best to cook till he couldn't concentrate any more, then as Bettina took over, Heidi got up and bent over the sink for him, thrusting out her perky bottom expectantly. She was already lathered up and slippery between her thighs, easily yielding to his inserted finger, so Harry gladly took his place behind her and entered her immediately. He reached around to stroke her plump breasts as she lewdly rolled her bottom against his belly, and noted to himself that a man could happily get used to having a warm wriggly body in his arms and a snug, slick hole to thrust into on a regular basis.

That was the trap, he supposed, the velvet trap that they hoped would end his wandering days here on Sanjiva. Who knows, maybe it would catch him. The galactic fuel shortage could well turn out to be a permanent state, and if he had to be marooned, this was a pretty nice place to be marooned on.

The two enjoyed a brief but intense session while Bettina finished up cooking, then after a little wiping up the three sat down to breakfast. Harry listened to the girls banter with each other, enjoying their animated chatting and goofy little fights. At one point he broke in, curious about the greenish-tinged eggs that had been served.

"What kind of eggs are these? They're good, but they're not chicken."

"Ask the biologist," said Heidi, pointing to her roommate.

"There aren't any chickens or birds on Threshold," said Bettina. "We haven't gotten to that ecological stage yet."

"These are from an eel," Heidi broke in, unable to resist, giggling slightly at Harry's flabbergasted expression.

"A giant eel, Anguilla gigantis. It's genetically engineered to provide eggs and all kinds of meat. We call it the farmer eel," explained Bettina.

"You think the eggs are good, wait till you try the bacon," Heidi added.

"Are you sure you two aren't sisters?" asked Harry with a laugh.

"No, just good friends," said Bettina, smiling back.

"Why do you ask?" asked her roommate.

"The way you talk hither and thither and finish each other's sentences, you're almost like twins," said Harry. The smile abruptly dropped off his face. Now he'd done it. Made himself think about Liam again.

"Harry? What's wrong?" asked Heidi, noticing. Bettina, sitting beside him, looked at him in concern.

"Ah, well. Well," said Harry, clearing a throat that felt momentarily like it was full of gravel. "I was born a twin brother myself, truth be told. He popped out three minutes after me. My little brother and me, we used to talk back and forth like that too. He died a long time back, but I still miss him. I still feel him sometimes, you know?"

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry Harry," said Bettina, saddened, putting her arm around his side, and her roommate said much the same.

Heidi ran her hand through her crimson hair, than asked tentatively: "How did he die?"

"Heidi! Shut it!" said Bettina sharply.

"No it's all right. I like telling his story now and then. He died a hero, I'm hoping somebody remembers that after I'm gone," said Harry. "I gotta tell a bunch of my boring life story for it to make sense though, you up to hearing that?"

Both women nodded, eyes bright with curiousity. Harry smiled.

"Me and Liam were born in the core worlds, and we went to a private flight academy, a good one. We were in the top ten best graduates, the bugger beat me by one percent of a grade. We signed up as escort pilots for Weyland Yutani, and over time, we got to be the best there was at it."

"It's like we were psychic with each other, we knew exactly what the other was going to do and we had the best team tactics there was. The two of us could take on half a dozen bandits at once, and pick them off one by one while they didn't get a single hit. We had whole Company shipping divisions fighting over us for high risk convoys. Man, those were the days."

"Then the company decided they wanted more out of their top pilots, and we were assigned to active combat, attacking whatever the Company thought a threat. We were told we were going after weapon shipments, narcotics, terrorist cells, corporate espionage, that sort of thing. We knew most of that was hogwash, and the secrecy and massive paychecks proved it. But we were loyal Company employees, so we made ourselves believe the official line. We made like the employee motto, 'do what they tell you to do, and don't ask'. I can't even guess how many innocent people died because of us. We weren't protectors any more, we were paid killers."

"The last straw came when we got assigned to take out a passenger liner. They said it was a troop ship in disguise, but we knew for a fact it wasn't, just another ship full of a rival corporation's employees. We were done."

"Liam and I took all our money and our most important stuff, and we stole our favourite starfighters and made a run from the starbase we were stationed at. Our own teammates were scrambled to take us out. We couldn't bear to kill these guys who'd saved our asses so many times, so we just tried to run. I made it, he didn't. Liam took a missile meant for me. He was my little brother, I'd been watching out for him all our lives, and then at the end he gave his life to save me."

"I didn't try to blow the whistle on the Company, you know that never works. I just ran and kept running till I was outside of ICC space. I've been scratching out a living as a freelancer ever since, up until the fuel crisis put all of us spacers out of work. I've had a few wild adventures, but I've never been half the pilot I used to be with Liam on my wing, and I'll probably never be again. That's pretty much it."

"You know, this is the first time I've been on a company world in a long time. Hope you guys don't decide to cash in on the bounty," said Harry with a wink, breaking the somber mood.

The two women smiled, and Bettina lightly punched the merc's shoulder.

"All I know is that you're somebody who stopped the men who were hurting us, and you saved two hundred of us," said Heidi seriously. "You're a hero to us, and nothing else matters."

"And if your brother saved your life so you could do this, then he's as much a hero as you," added Bettina.

"It would warm his heart to hear that if he were here," said Harry fondly, then he gave the girls a sly look. "'Course, if he were here, he'd probably be too busy with you to notice. You know, me and my brother made an art out of going to bed together with one girl. We liked to take our time with them, and keep taking turns until they passed right out from the pleasure. We would have had a field day with you two."

The women looked at each other and shared a giggle.

"Well seeing as he's not here, maybe the two of us can make you pass out instead," said Heidi with a wicked grin.

"Much as I'd like that, I do have to be on duty in less than an hour," Harry pointed out. "Passing out would tend to interfere with my showing up on time."

"Ah hell. You two got me all worked up from watching you. I want my turn," groused Bettina, reaching under the table to fondle Harry's sex. She reacted with some amazement when she felt it swelling in her hand.

"Are you sure you didn't get the ardenol capsule implanted already?" she asked. "I've never been with a man who could get hard so many times naturally."

"It's been a long time," said Harry nonchalantly. "I've got a lot of juice backed up."

"Well let's see if I can relieve you of some," said the blonde woman suggestively.

As Heidi went off to take the first turn in the shower, Bettina led him to her unused bunk, and she sat down in front of him and vigorously sucked his half-swollen erection till it was fully stiff and serviceable again. Then she pulled him down atop her, wrapped her legs around his waist as he entered her. Harry kissed, sucked on, and lightly bit her breasts as he worked, and she arched her hips up at him and sighed with enjoyment.

Bettina Kupfer couldn't believe the lover they had found in this merc. He was skilled, and virile, and gentle, and unhurried, and there was nothing of the hungry uncaring urgency you'd expect from a wandering man. And he was good-looking, and a gentleman to boot - what a prize! He was like something out of a romance holo! She unashamedly loved having this vagabond prince atop her, or under her, or behind her, and all points in between, and the long years of abstinence and everything that had happened recently just made it all the more sweet. She would be proud to have this man's baby, and she wanted a baby so very badly. It rankled a bit to have to share him, but at least it was with her best friend, and if they hadn't coordinated they might very likely not have caught him at all.

As for Harry, well it hurt to think of his lost twin brother, but sometimes it was fun to remember the things they had done. One thing was certain; Liam would have a big smile on his face if he was here, and so would Harry when he showed up for work today.

x x x x x

Tapana Badlands west of Threshold community border
Original base camp of the "Shadow Hearts" space raider clan

It had been a few days now. Pappagallo had wanted to scout the slaves' location sooner, but Pistor didn't have his summoning remote ready yet. Pistor was working like a dog, repairing colonial weapons and salvaged pirate weapons, redesigning Sanjivan manufacturing robots to build new weapons and ammunition, building spy cameras to install into the guide beacons throughout Threshold's canyons, and making the remote itself. He wouldn't have it ready for a few more days yet, and both Pops and Brinnlitz were getting impatient.

"Let's go alone, old man. You and me," Brinnlitz had suggested. "If all those colonists have these personal data transmitters implanted, we stand a chance of picking up the slave PDTs if we do a low search pattern. We have to scout them, right now. We need to know where they are, and whether they're starving, or guarded by the raiders, or…"

Brinnlitz left that unsaid, they both knew what he was talking about. They needed to know if the slaves had been attacked by big fleshy spiders. They needed to know if the slaves were even alive.

Pops narrowed the gain on his ship's sensor instruments and decreased altitude a little more. Their scout mission was underway, and had been for some time. It was still morning, but the sky was dark with storm clouds. Ionic interference was fouling up his instruments, and colonial PDTs had a low range to begin with.

"Not too low. Else the canyons themselves will start to block your reception," Brinnlitz advised from the copilot's chair, laying back seemingly idly with his feet up on the console.

"I know," said Pops irritably. This would have gone much better if he'd brought the other two starfighters along for a coordinated search, but stripping the colony of its air defense was utter folly. They would just have to do flybys of terrain suitable for a large camp, and hope for the best.

And, against all odds, that hope was borne out.

"There it is! There, yes!" Brinnlitz sat bolt upright in his chair and pointed to Pappagallo's readout. Through the static, there was a faint, flickering cluster of dots, and a corresponding beeping sound. They were almost on top of them.

"Got it! Marked!" said Pops with satisfaction. Their luck was continuing to hold. "Let's find somewhere to head down. The storm should have masked the sound of our jets."

"Not too close, old man! I need to reach them unseen!"

"Do I look like a greenhorn to you?"

"Just making sure. Early onset of senility could strike any time," deadpanned Brinnlitz as he unstrapped himself and got up to head to the loading bay.

"Yeah, yeah, go boil your shirt."

A rainstorm was starting to come down, much to Brinnlitz's pleasure. Rain would mask both the sound and the sight of his approach. Pappagallo brought the gunship down in a canyon several kilometers away, and still hovering at the top of the canyon, opened the loading ramp. A repaired pirate mini-skiff flew out and engaged turbojets immediately, and Brinnlitz pointed the skiff toward the campsite and glided forth, slowly and quietly.

"You sure you don't want me down there backing you up?" Pops radioed to him.

"None else on this planet save perhaps Kano has the stealth skills I require," Brinnlitz radioed back. "Besides, I work best alone. Find somewhere to put down and stay on station. I'll keep you posted."

The sniper flew until he was just barely in view of the enemy camp, and he landed on an adjacent cliff. From the telescopic lens on his rifle, he could see that the pirates had set their base on a large plateau, doubtless a good spot for aerovehicles taking off and landing. He could see the remains of an airfield, with a small control tower and landing area, exo-loaders, maintenance equipment and so forth. There were no vehicles or flyers present. Besides the airfield was that which he'd come for, the base camp itself. There were rows upon rows of sturdy prefabricated tents and one especially large tent, with supply containers all throughout. There wasn't anyone in view, although that was understandable with the heavy rain coming down.

No, wait. Brinnlitz turned his rifle sights to a sign of movement. There was a woman, lovely and dark-haired, wearing nothing but the slave collar on her neck. She was walking around a group of tents and checking inside, and the sniper watched on till he realized she was just circling and circling and checking the same tents. Her face was blank and her eyes half-closed and drugged-looking, and she was showing signs of malnourishment. It was a terribly pathetic sight. The merc's finger tightened on the trigger as he contemplated putting her out of her obvious misery, but he got control of himself with some effort. She was not his target.

There didn't seem to be any targets here for him though. He could see no sign of raiders. Brinnlitz switched to thermals and confirmed the presence of heat outlines in the tents, appearing mostly to be female. That wasn't good enough though. He needed to be absolutely sure that there weren't any hostiles among the slaves.

Brinnlitz took his mini-skiff and engaged the hoverjets, inching forward quietly for some twenty minutes till he had crossed the gulf to the plateau. He was flying at a level much lower than the top of the plateau, and he set down at a ledge he had previously marked during his survey. From there, he climbed his way up the cliff face with his rifle and equipment on his back, using only a pair of pitons to aid him. It was an easy climb to him, the rugged rock face presenting many handholds and footholds, made only a little more entertaining by the pouring rain making things slippery. He didn't think of the kilometers-long drop beneath his feat, indeed, he barely even noticed it.

He climbed onto the plateau and got going, readying his silenced pistol as he moved. Using the patches of giant ferns for cover, Brinnlitz approached the camp unheard and unseen. He cleared the airfield first; no one in the tower or among the equipment. Then he moved to his objective, the tents. He came to the first one and unfastened the entrance flap, and silently nudged the flap open with the long silencer on his pistol barrel. He confirmed: one scantily-clad collar-bound female slave, slightly malnourished, curled up in a foetal position on the bunk.

The soaking-wet sniper entered the tent and squatted beside the bunk to examine the former colonist. He froze, realizing that the woman's eyes were open, or rather half-open.

"Shh. I'm from Threshold. I'm a friend," he whispered to her, ready to grab her mouth of she tried to scream. "Can you understand me?"

Her eyes slowly widened and focused on him. "Master?" the woman asked hoarsely.

"No. A friend from Threshold," he told her. "I'm here to help you."

Her eyes slowly unfocused and returned to their half-open state; the green light on her collar flickered as it zapped her brain and spine with whatever neurostimulant charge it deemed appropriate. Brinnlitz sadly stroked her long blonde hair a moment, getting it out of her eyes. He was not immune to compassion.

"Don't worry love. We're coming back for you. You will be free again soon," he promised her. The woman made no reply.

Unfortunately, when her collar was removed, he knew she wouldn't be thanking them for it. It would be a long hard journey breaking her addiction to the stims and deprogramming her into a human being again. But it was better than the half-conscious non-life she was living now. It had to be done, it was the only thing that could be done. No one deserved to be caged. Especially not within their own minds.

The sniper's hand abruptly went still, in the vicinity of the woman's neck. Compassion warred with darker feelings within him. He could strangle this slave right here, right now. No one would know, no one would miss one more slave. Even if the body was found, it could well have been the pirates, who could say? Only he would know. It would be his own delicious secret. His hand drifted lower, and he could feel the blood throbbing in the woman's arteries. His mouth twisted, fighting not to smile. Oh dearie dear.

Moments later, Brinnlitz moved out, and began checking the tents one by one. The women all seemed to be somewhat malnourished, but they didn't seem dehydrated at least. He eventually finished his foray and was satisfied there were no hostiles present, and he radioed Pappagallo.

"Brinnlitz here. I've finished my sweep. I confirm no hostiles present. There's approximately forty women here, all reasonably healthy and mobile. They're not going anywhere though, their collars have them almost paralyzed. They're hydrated, but I don't think they're feeding themselves properly. We don't want to leave them out here too long."

"Roger that. Are you ready for pickup?"

"Affirm. You can come straight here to the airfield, there's… wait… standby."

Brinnlitz's razor-sharp senses had picked up something, and he wasn't sure what. He froze in place, holding his pistol at the ready. He stayed there, still as a statue, for a long moment. Then he heard it again, difficult to hear over the rain, just a sort of soft pattering behind him, like the scampering of a rat. He spun on the balls of his feet in an instant, making not a sound as he pointed his gun at… nothing. The sniper still wasn't entirely certain if it was just the rain he was hearing, but his instincts were warning him that something wasn't right. So, he silently moved in the direction where he thought he'd heard the sound emanate from, toward a nook between two tents.

It was dark in there, made worse by the rain and cloud cover, and he saw nothing in there when the lightning briefly flashed. Brinnlitz turned on both his infrared eyepatch and the small flashlight on his pistol and checked the gully again. Still nothing. He stayed there unmoving for a full minute, then two.

"Brinnlitz? What's your status?" came Pappagallo's voice in his wire headset.

"Nominal. Thought I heard something," said the sniper, slowly. "Come and pick me up at the airfield. And Pappagallo… Pistor needs to move his arse. These women would be completely defenseless if one of Kano's spiders strolled in."

"Roger that, Ranger is inbound. This calling gadget will be Pistor's only project from now on, should shave off a few days. ETA to airfield is five minutes, see you there."

Brinnlitz made his way to the airfield. He really hadn't seen anything to put him on alert, but he kept his pistol ready and sneaked noiselessly to his destination, as though expecting hostiles around every corner. He trusted his instincts.

It was truly bothersome that the slaves had to be left here. The neural collars would immediately kill their wearers if they detected anything awry, so the mercs really had no choice but to leave them there until they had the pick for that particular lock. If it was up to him, he would stay behind to protect the women till their rescue, but he knew the old man. There was no way he would be allowed to stay out here alone and vulnerable for forty souls while there was a whole colony of over two hundred to defend.

All Brinnlitz could do was resolve to do a thorough headcount when the rescue took place, and trust the number wouldn't turn out to be zero.

x x x x x

Author's Notes:

Hoo-boy. This is my first time publishing erotica, and man, I'm nervous. On the sliding scale between fluffy romance and gross porn, where does my flavour of sex fit in? Too anatomical? Too crude? Not enough tenderness? Not enough spice? Arrgh! I just hope the erotic element adds to my overall story and doesn't take away from it or (gulp) ruin it for readers. There's actually a scene with Pops and one with Kano as well (yes, you heard me, Kano), but I snipped those for the next chapter; this one was getting too long and too sex-heavy. Too much sex is just like too much action: it can cause burnout.

This chapter is obviously where my story and that of The Magnificent Seven part ways. There's still going to be ongoing references to M7 and Seven Samurai, but the events from here on will be all of my own devising. Yeah, that's kind of nerve-racking too. They're biding their time, but expect to see more of the Xenomorphs next chapter. The pirates are almost done; the true enemy is about to reveal itself. Please read and review, and if it sucks, don't be too hard on me, okay? Enjoy!

- SA