Exigence: Book Three of the Prison Ship Sheol Saga, page 11
With a shake of my head, I tossed the perverted appendage toward the pair and muttered to myself, “Horniest species in the universe.”
Mara laughed and pointed a half-mocking thumb at Ceres.
“Not even close.”
The dryad shot her a glare and then straightened into a dignified pose.
“We are in complete control of our urges, thank you very much.”
The naiad rolled her eyes and looked meaningfully out at the ring of painfully beautiful women that had been watching all this unfold.
“Uh huh, hey mister, use that fancy eye of yours and count how many of her daughters you see compared to the total.”
I gave her an unimpressed look at the bossy note in her voice, but soon found myself slightly curious, so I shrugged and let my bionic eye run the analysis.
“Eight to one, dryads.”
Mara grinned victoriously at Ceres, but the buxom woman just tossed her hair imperiously.
“Children are the light of existence. Adding more joy to the universe is not ‘horny’, it is the highest form of dignity and virtue.”
Mara rolled her eyes.
“Oh yeah, the sweatiest and moaniest of virtues,” her voice suddenly became a husky imitation of Ceres’ “Deeper, daddy, deeper! I need your d-d-dignity all the way inside me! Fill me up with all your hot, creamy virtues!”
Pantomime complete, she turned to look at me with a grin as if waiting for a laugh, but I shot a deadpan look back at her with one eyebrow raised. Her grin dropped and she glared at me.
“Come on, that was funny!”
I gave her an incredulous look.
“So, in your head, you imagined I was going to be the guy that helps you mock her…” I looked over at the absolute smokeshow of a woman who was watching my response with a wide-eyed innocence and vulnerability that hovered on the precipice between a puppy fearing a kick and a lover preparing to tackle you into your bed. I shook my head in astonishment as the full effect of her charm finally hit me without Lilia’s chemical interventions to mitigate the impact. I had to look away to finish my sentence. “Her.” I gestured emphatically at the now smiling dryad. “For wanting to have my babies? Do I look damaged to you? What kind of romance movie paper-mâché cutout villain of a man would do something like that?”
Mara’s eyes lidded and she huffed at me, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Maybe... Fine.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes, but before I could complete the motion, Ceres had re-attached herself to me with even more vigor than before. I keenly felt her breasts flatten against my bicep and shoulder as she leaned in to kiss my cheek, then purred a single word into my ear.
“Dearest.”
This time she said it less like a term of endearment, and more like a fact. She hovered there a moment longer and her next words sank into my brain and settled in to build themselves a little anticipatory homestead.
“Word and deed. Even when memory has fled, truth remains. I accept, beloved. Again.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but as with every other time she got this close, I wasn’t really firing on all mental cylinders and my give-a-damn was fully out of commission.
“I- am glad?”
She nodded and winked, then pulled back again to give me a chance to collect myself. Her hands ran down the front of her dress ostensibly to smooth it, but the effect just pulled the fabric tight against her skin and highlighted the rather obvious signs of her arousal.
I closed my eyes for a long moment, overwhelmed by desires that would unquestionably derail the rest of my day, or in a more perfect world, the rest of the week. But for now, there was too much to do and too little time to do it in. Since there was nowhere for me to look that didn’t contain a painfully beautiful face or flawless feminine curve, the only real escape that remained to me was inward.
As much as my position might be eminently enviable, it was also exhausting. The effort of will alone felt like holding every muscle in my body in a constant state of tension, struggling continuously not to make any mistakes that might damn more of my friends and crewmates. These weren’t just casual encounters with pretty girls at a bar. Each of these women represented unknown power bases within the ship I supposedly controlled, and each of them had their own set of interests and machinations that I was not privy to. With my hold on the Sheol as tenuous as it currently was, I couldn’t afford to make new enemies within my own walls.
As a result, in the short span of what was maybe half an hour, I’d already exhausted much of my already thin mental and emotional reserves. I felt like I’d already worked a double shift for the day and it was time to hit the showers and throw myself into my bed, but I hadn’t even completed the first item on today’s to-do list.
Deep breath. Next things. Go.
I looked down at the two sealed packages in my hand and then handed them to Ceres.
“These were gifts from Ophelia, a… mycoformic entity that has taken over the 42nd floor and declared it her domain.” I glanced at Ophelia’s three ambassadors before adding a diplomatic addendum to the statement. “…with my blessing. She and I have come to a mutually beneficial accord.”
Ceres turned toward the Mori family and bowed low at the waist. The three women matched her bow with neutral expressions on their faces.
“It is a great pleasure to greet you. I am very fond of mycoforms. In many ways, they are the backbone of all that lives. Please give your lady my deepest regards.”
It was interesting to observe how differently the elder dryad dealt with matters of state between other matriarchs after experiencing the way she went about them with me.
Straightening and turning back toward me, her expression instantly regained its previous warmth.
“You wish me to examine them for you, dearest?”
I nodded.
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
Ceres smiled and her expression shifted subtly.
“That is a great deal of trust to place in me, Admiral.”
I shrugged, doing my best not to look embarrassed at the implication.
“I can’t think of a more qualified expert on the subject, and I like to think I’m a good judge of character.”
Ceres’ smile didn’t shift, but her eyes took on the unsettlingly predatory look I’d seen before in the chapel. She quickly broke eye contact and looked down at the boxes meaningfully.
“May I?”
I nodded.
“Please do.”
A hesitant voice interrupted us from behind and to the side. Suzuko had a hand out and a concerned look on her face.
“Master Greye, I do not think my mistress would appreciate another woman opening her gifts to you. She can be… jealous in her affection. No matter how distant she may seem.”
I frowned, mulling it over for a moment.
“I understand your concern. But I suspect she also wouldn’t think much of a leader that blindly ingested a second-hand narcotic from someone they’d only met once without testing it first. Still, for the sake of propriety…”
I walked over to Ceres and took the first box out of her hands and held it up to her as I carefully peeled back the seal over one corner. The dryad’s head tilted slightly in a curious manner before she leaned in closer for a quick sniff of the contents. Her perfect nose suddenly crinkled up and she looked like she was suppressing a sneeze. I quickly resealed the container.
A few moments passed in silence as everyone watched the elder dryad mull over what she had just ingested, then she reached out with the other box and gestured for me to hand her the one in my hand. We exchanged boxes and she opened the same corner on the box she’d taken from me and ever so gently exhaled into it before sealing it back up again.
I lifted an eyebrow at her by way of a question and she smiled at me.
“A lovely gift. Almost entirely benign. You should inhale it before sleeping tonight.”
I didn’t miss the qualifier.
“Almost entirely?”
She nodded.
“It just needed a little adjustment to make it less… invasive.”
I frowned.
“And now it’s entirely benign?”
She nodded demurely and gestured toward the other box. I let the topic drop since I planned to have Faia analyze the thing later, anyway, just to be doubly redundant in my paranoia. Reaching down, I lifted the corner of the lid on the second box and the process from before was repeated.
“Oh… how interesting. What a fascinating mutation on that strain. I wonder if it will work… oh!”
She laughed and shot the Mori women a knowing look before gesturing toward the second box and once again exhaling into the opened corner. I watched her closely, and not just for the obvious reasons this time.
“Something wrong with that one?”
She smiled at me and shook her head.
“Nope. Perfect.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly, sensing an unspoken qualifier this time.
“Perfect now.”
She didn’t answer but the corners of her eyes crinkled ever so slightly in amusement. I glanced over at the Mori women, but their faces were expressionless and unreadable. They did seem to be staring rather intently at Ceres and the other nymphs, however.
Not wanting to create an incident, I handed the first box to Reverie and then tucked the second one under my arm.
“Very well then, let’s bestow Ophelia’s gift on the fallen eisheth before the graves are filled in and the tomb is sealed.”
I stepped toward the edge of the ring of nymphs with a confidence I didn’t necessarily feel. Regardless, when I neared the edge, the beautiful women in front of me parted with all the subtle grace of a changing tide and I proceeded back to the memorial. When I arrived, I opened the box and bid all of the women present to take a pinch of the fine spores that lined the container and bestow them on one of the fallen.
Once everyone present had taken their small offering to the mass graves, I followed with my entourage in tow to watch the impromptu ceremony. As small puffs of spore dust rained down on their still honorees, the dead flesh of the women began to shift where the spores landed. I watched the nearest one closely as a protrusion formed on one of her crossed forearms and quickly extended into the vaguely phallic form of a mushroom. The first was followed by several more until a small bouquet of hooded mushrooms with intricate lace lattices had formed like a little orchard over her arms and hands. A moment later, those mushrooms and their lattices began to glow with dark shades of red, blue, and purple light. It had the feel of a mournful Christmas display, celebratory and beautiful, but sad.
I nodded my head. It felt… right.
Turning toward Suzuko and her daughters, I bowed low at the waist.
“Please give your Mistress my regards. Her gift was perfect, and well received.”
For a moment, I thought I caught a glimpse of surprise on Suzuko’s face, but she immediately covered it with an equally deep bow that both of her daughters mirrored.
“Uh, mister, um… Admiral Taker, sir…”
I straightened and looked up, then up again at the sorrowful face of a durren woman in an orange jumpsuit that strained to contain her enormous curves. She had tears in her eyes and looked like she needed a hug, but I honestly wasn’t sure how I’d manage such a thing, even if it had been proper to do so. The woman was well over nine feet tall, and she had two compatriots with her that were each larger still.
I settled for a nod and a sympathetic smile.
“Mr. Greye is fine. We are all just here to mourn and pay our respects, today.”
The woman nodded once and pointed at herself.
“I’m Clem, and these are my sisters, Daisy and Bo.”
The two exceptionally large women nodded, the tallest of the trio, Bo, letting out a slight sniffle from more than twelve feet up, if you didn’t count the extra six inches or so she got from her horns.
I nodded to each of the women in turn, then looked back at Clem.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. What can I do for you, Clem?”
The towering durren sank down to one knee and bowed her head low in front of me. I had to fight my instincts not to back away from her horns as they hovered inches from my heart.
“Mr. Greye, sir, we uh… we couldn’t get any flowers for our sisters and we just don’t feel right about it. We were wondering if… uh, if we could have some of the pretty mushroom flowers you brought to give ‘em a proper send off and show our regard for ‘em.”
My first instinct was to agree. It was a sweet gesture and there were plenty of spores left in the box. But those spores had come from Ophelia with a specific purpose in mind. I glanced at Ceres with an unspoken question in my eyes. The dryad smiled and leaned in to kiss my cheek yet again.
“Such a sweet man. It isn’t meant for any physiology other than eisheth, but it won’t hurt them, either. May I?”
I held the box out to her and she took two large pinches of spores with three fingers and move to the three durren women, pouring three equal portions into the palms of each in turn and adding a soft smile and kiss on the cheek for each as she did.
The three gigantic women thanked us both profusely and then wandered toward the largest mass grave. When they’d gone, several more women from a variety of races approached with the same request and each time, Ceres gave them pinches of the spores in the box. When the short queue finally cleared, I walked back toward Erin’s tomb. It was time to put this dark chapter of the Sheol to rest.
As I stepped up to the decorative archway that was the one and only entrance to the burial structure, I turned and looked over the crowd that had formed and was rapidly expanding out from the tight half circle that surrounded me. It felt like something needed to be said here, but I wasn’t sure what. I fought to keep my face stoic and neutral as my mind raced to find the right answer.
As if in reply, the ship gently groaned under a slight heading adjustment and an image of the day I stepped off the orbital ring at Zephyr into the cargo hold of the Sheol popped unbidden into my head. I nodded as the image changed and expanded into all of the things that had happened since then.
I looked out at the crowd, pushing my voice out from the diaphragm so they could all hear me.
“This ship is a machine of war and the pinnacle of its trade. It is a killing machine, but one that was tasked with a noble purpose. To harness her inherent capacity for violence to defend the vulnerable against the predations of the universe, and she performed that task for the whole of her life until the day she faced the inevitable fate of all exemplary things. She became obsolete. Newer, more compact and specialized weapons platforms came online and she was recommissioned, but this time with a much darker purpose. To restrain and punish the condemned. A necessary task, perhaps, but one that was corrupted from the very start by those who controlled her.”
There were mutters throughout the crowd, but nobody interrupted, so I continued with a bit more confidence as the wheels really began to turn.
“When the ashtor came for Zephyr, the Sheol re-awakened to her original purpose and protected the defenseless, fighting to her very last gasp despite the fact that she was vastly outnumbered and without her shield or her garrison. She won that fight at great cost, only to be attacked by those she had fought to save, and subsequently forced to betray her original purpose as a result of their actions. Effectively making her complicit in the deaths of billions.”
The crowd had grown silent again, and the mood darkened considerably.
“As if that weren’t degradation enough, within its walls, the few fortunate souls lucky enough to have survived the great wounds inflicted upon her, decided to start killing one another. Throwing away the last full measure of mercy that was granted to them in pursuit of petty vendettas. All of this…” I gestured toward the rows of graves behind me. “…in the name of an irrational, self-destructive hatred and a need to force everyone else to share it.”
The women gathered in front of me seemed on the verge of collapse. The shadows that pressed down on the assembly almost seemed tangible in their weight, and they created a sense of hopelessness that pervaded the room.
I nodded and let a hint of a grim smile show through.
“But those servants of death are gone now, and we remain. We’ve purged them from our ranks along with the corrupt officials that turned this ship into a place of unending torment and cruelty, rather than one meant to punish and rehabilitate. What are we then? Nothing? The broken remnants of people who have shattered under the weight of tragedy? Or are we the hardened survivors of countless disasters? Formed by unspeakable pressure, beaten and forged by great violence and deprivation, tempered in frost and flame, doused in the blood of our enemies, and battle-tested against the darkest forms of evil.”
I was still amazed sometimes by the power of the right words spoken to the right people at the right time. From the depths of darkness, the mood in the room almost immediately reversed. Still grim, still heavy, but hardened. Women stood straighter, spines stiffening, jaws clenching in pride and determination. The change was remarkable, and it was exactly what I’d wanted to pull from this tragedy.
“What force at arms has suffered like we have suffered? What militant culture has faced such deep and determined degradation and come out the other side unbowed? Who has been kicked more and yet risen each time to spit blood and sin again?”
If the setting hadn’t been so macabre I think they would have cheered, but as it were, a murmur of agreement rolled through the crowd. Even the nymphs seemed angrier and more determined, and I was fairly sure most of them were new here.
I mentally shrugged. This is what I wanted; I wasn’t about to point out any logical flaws in their emotional reaction. I could already see the cohesion setting in. Watched them all move closer to one another both metaphorically and literally. The crowd packed in tight, getting as close to me as they could without crushing their sisters. Yesterday, I’d had to threaten them to bring them back into order. I suspected that was the last time I’d have to do so. They all so desperately wanted something to cling to, something to identify as and to claim as a point of pride. Something that made all of the suffering mean something.
