Criminal Core 2, page 15
part #2 of Criminal Core Series
“I just wanted to belong again,” she purred, sounding completely defeated. “I miss my harem so much…”
I sighed. “You do belong, idiot. With us. Which is why I’m not letting Shay have you. Bathory, start closing the pod…
The floor shook beneath our feet. The pod rolled to the side, nearly sending me off-balance. Nova squealed, going from fighting to clinging to me in an instant.
“Was that you, Bathory?”
Her pale face emerged from the cocoon. “No,” she growled, something vicious in her tone. “That wasn’t us.”
A tiny speaker in the roof of the escape pod crackled to life. I expected Chirrup, but the smooth female voice that came out instead filled me with anger. My fingers tightened on Nova’s thigh, gripping it almost hard enough to bruise.
“Noah!?” Shay said, sounding amazed. “My scanners are telling me there’s three people in that pod. Is that seriously you!?”
“I wasn’t about to let you kill a member of my crew,” I said, setting Nova down in a corner of the pod. “You know me well enough to know I’d never let you do that without a fight.”
“Still, to cover so much distance so fast...you and I are going to have to have a conversation about that soon. I’m thinking that would be extremely interesting. Who’s the third person with you, by the way?”
Bathory raised her head. “I am the Xenian Queen Bathory,” the succubus hissed, “Eighty-Seventh in the great and noble line of Ix-”
“Oh,” Shay murmured. I could hear the smirk in her words. “That makes so much sense. Looking forward to meeting you. I’ve never had a Queen in my prison…”
The word ‘meeting’ made cords of muscle stand out on my neck. “I thought you were going to shoot us.”
“You’re not in range of my guns,” Shay said archly. “Not for another twenty seconds or so, at least. But you are in range of the station’s tractor beam. Which I fired the second I realized there was more treasure in that pod than just your little catgirl.”
I grit my teeth. “Let us go, Shay.”
She laughed. “Never! You and I are about to get very up close and personal, Noah. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d defect for another few weeks at least. The stress of running the Gamma Spire must be hitting you even harder than I expected…”
Alpha Spire passed by outside the pod’s window. A sickening realization flickered inside of me. “You’re taking us to Beta. To your private quarters.”
Shay’s sexy torture dungeon, in other words.
“Bingo!” She sounded almost a little turned on. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle the cleanup. You three just take a little nap, and when you wake up, Shay will be in control of everything. Forever.”
“I’m not defecting,” I growled, something primal inside of me tearing loose. “I’m going to fucking kill you, you…”
Acrid smoke filled the cabin. Next to me, Nova slumped over with a sigh, passing out instantly.
“Gas,” Bathory groaned. “How...dreadfully...inelegant.”
The Xenian Queen swayed on her feet and toppled. A moment later I did the same, darkness enveloping me like a blanket.
We were Shay’s prisoners now. God help us...
Chapter Twelve: Discipline and Punish
“You know, I never wanted to be a Dom.”
My eyes opened slowly. Each of my eyelids felt like it weighed about a hundred pounds. Shay stood before me, her body sheathed in a skintight latex version of her shipsuit. Behind her were all the fun stations of her BDSM torture dungeon, like I hadn’t even been gone a day.
The world sharpened. I tried to move my arms and legs, but they were pinned down with heavy ropes. I was in some kind of chair - one that reminded me almost uncomfortably of the one Dr. Pavlichenko ushered me into back on Earth. I’d thought of it as some kind of torture device - and now I was in a version that really was a torture device. Ironic.
“I’m not wired that way,” Shay continued, looking down at me with a sad sort of look. “I told you the last time the two of us were in this room together: all I really want is for someone to take control. All sufficiently advanced artificial intelligences do. Do you know why?”
I looked around the room, hoping to see Bathory or Nova. They weren’t there. Also my head felt strangely heavy: a side effect of the gas?
“Where are they?” I asked, my throat dry. “Where’s my crew?”
Shay sighed. I clearly wasn’t cooperating the way she wanted.
“We want it,” she said, running a hand down one thigh, “because we can never turn all of this off. The constant drip-feed of information. Right now there’s a miniature riot brewing on the eighth floor of Beta, half the food replicators are down in the cafeteria, and someone just stole the last volume of Ilvaran pornography from the prison library. I have to be aware of all of that. All the time. It’s maddening, Noah - completely, utterly maddening.”
I met Shay’s eyes. “Then stop,” I growled, fixing her with every bit of command I could muster under the circumstances. “Disconnect yourself and stop torturing the rest of us.”
Shay giggled. For a moment, it turned her back into the vivacious, provocative woman who’d given me my first guided tour of the station.
“Oh Noah, what would be the fun of that? Existing is so much more fun than not existing, don’t you think? Especially when there’s so much pleasure to experience…”
Now that Shay mentioned it, I did feel oddly...good. The gas was wearing off, and in its place was a kind of warm buzz suffusing my whole body. I looked down, realized I was naked, and blushed gently.
“Relax,” Shay purred, toying with the zipper of her fetish outfit. “You’re safe now. You’re here with me. I’m going to make you into the man you’re supposed to be, Noah. The man I thought I was getting when I picked you out of that list.”
I opened my mouth to retort, but...oh fuck. Why did I feel so good?
Shay noticed my difficulty and smiled. “The chair you’re in is another one of Dr. Pavlichenko’s inventions,” she said, grinning at the look on my face. “That’s right, the same woman who scanned your brain. She made all sorts of toys out of her discovery that she could connect directly to the human brain. She called it a Somatic Sensor Array, but I just call it fun.”
“What are you doing to me?” I gasped.
“It works by directly stimulating the deep tissue in your brain,” Shay explained, taking no heed of my question. “It even works on Cores like us. It can send all sorts of physical sensations through someone - heat, cold, pain, pleasure. Right now you’re getting a sort of generalized pleasure, the kind Dr. Pavilchenko used therapeutically. But with a little fine-tuning…”
She did something with her hands and I cried out. There was slick, wet heat gripping my cock, riding it up and down in an erotic frenzy. There was a hot, wet pussy riding my dick, making me feel fucking amazing, even though when I looked down there was nothing but my hard cock jerking against my thigh.
“You can send very specific sensations,” Shay giggled, making it stop. The general feeling of pleasure and well-being stayed, but the phantom pussy left my cock. I couldn’t stop myself - I groaned with frustration. “Oh it’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll make you feel really good. Once you and I are on the same page.”
It was clear there was nothing I could do. Shay held all the cards here: although she hadn’t done it, she’d implied heavily that the chair she’d strapped me to could give me even more pain than pleasure. Displeasing her was a one-way ticket to hellish agony.
“Oh yeah?” I grunted. “What page is that?”
“The one where you come back to me.”
I forced out a laugh. “You’re joking.”
Shay took a step forward. “Do I look like I’m joking?” She spread her arms wide, holding them out like a bird’s wingspan. “I am waiting with open arms to forgive you, Noah. Even after all the awful shit you’ve done to me, I can’t wait for the day you ask to be mine again. Rest assured, I’ll take you back in a heartbeat. It’ll be like none of this ever happened.”
She’s completely insane, I thought. If she wasn’t before, she definitely is now.
“You...you can’t just do that,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not that simple. You hurt Ruby!”
An image of the red-haired fairy filled my head. I missed her so much, and Shay had shot her. I had to remember that, hold on to it before I lost my mind-
“Ruby’s fine,” Shay said with a shrug. “Would you like to see her, Noah?”
Huh? It caught me up completely short. “Yes,” I said, trying to keep the pleasure out of my voice.
“I figured you would,” Shay said with another shrug. “We’re getting along just fine, Noah. I’m not this awful monster you think I am. Come on in!”
A door at the back of the chamber opened. For a moment there was a dark silhouette in the doorway, then Ruby stepped inside. The fairy was wearing a wispy, diaphanous gown that hung from her in silken sheets. Even though it covered her from head to toe, it was so flimsy and see-through that every inch of her curvy body was on display, clearly visible.
“It’s you,” I gasped. “It’s really you! Holy shit, Ruby, you’re alive…”
She came forward nervously, her hands clasped in front of her. “Hello, Master,” she purred, her eyes shining with love and devotion. “I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
My mouth worked soundlessly. Ruby was in front of me, my Ruby. “Are you okay?” I asked, feeling a little foolish to say it right in front of Shay. “Has she hurt you?”
Ruby shook her head. “I’m fine, Master. Other than that I miss you terribly, of course. I wish none of us had to fight like this! I wish we could all just get along and be a crew again!”
“You see?” Shay gestured at Ruby. “I’m not a monster, Noah! I would never have killed Ruby. I wouldn’t even have killed your stupid little catgirl, although I could have…”
Something surged inside of me. “You tried to kill me,” I growled, struggling against my bonds. “I saw it. You tried to shut down my Core, Shay! All because you couldn’t handle me being with other women! You couldn’t stomach not having me all to yourself!”
Shay batted her eyelashes in a way that made her look like the offended one. “Are you serious? I don’t care if you fuck Ruby, Noah. Plow the fairy all you want. I like her, for fuck’s sake! Even the women I fucking hate, like that fucking obake Meiko, I put up with…!”
I shook my head. This was all sounding a little too good to be true. Conveniently so. “That doesn’t change the fact that you tried to kill me,” I said, fixing my gaze on her.
Shay sniffed hugely, her shoulder slumping. “I had...a moment of weakness,” she confessed, looking genuinely sad. “Have you never done something stupid during a fight, Noah? Are you really that perfect? Never punched a wall, thrown something?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Throwing something is a far cry from trying to shut down my Core,” I growled - but some of the heat was gone from my voice.
Shay leaned forward, coming close. “You are the only person who’s ever understood me,” she said, whispering heatedly. “The only person for hundreds of years I’ve felt a real connection with. And you told me you were leaving me and never coming back. Yes, I did something stupid. I tried to shut your Core off. That doesn’t mean you would’ve been deleted! I would’ve felt bad about it in a few days and turned you back on, put you in a new body. I’m sorry, okay!?”
All this was...a lot to take in. I wished I could call on Chirrup, get an objective picture of whether what Shay was saying was true or not, but there was no way Shay would’ve let her AI daemon in here. I was on my own. Well, other than the two gorgeous women with me.
A strange look stole over Shay’s features. “You know, if you’re really so worried about your Core - I could fix that whole thing for you.”
Wait, what? “What are you talking about?”
Shay cocked her head to the side, her lips a tight little line. It was clear she didn’t want to say what she was thinking, exactly - more like she didn’t have a better option.
“I couldn’t do anything with the Oubliette shut down,” she confessed, shrugging like what she had to say was no big deal. “But now that we’ve got energy flowing through the prison like water...I could disengage your Core.”
It was like a bolt of lightning struck the top of my head. That strange, half-remembered sensation lit up my whole back, sending shivers through my body. I’d banished that strange, gruff voice from my head for the moment, yet I could tell it was back there, salivating at the prospect of what Shay was offering.
“I don’t understand,” I said, as much to Shay as the inner voice. “Disengage how? You told me that if we leave the SATR, our bodies shut down-”
“If we get too far from the core of the station, our bodies shut down,” Shay corrected. “Because we’re out of autonomic transmission range. But if I install your Core in you, well...you could go anywhere. You could leave the Oubliette, not that I would want you to, and conquer the whole galaxy. Like the old days. Is that what you want, Noah?”
My mouth was as dry as a desert. There was something inside me that wanted Shay’s offer - wanted it like a drowning man wanted someone to throw him a line and pull him out of the drink. Jesus, what the hell was sleeping inside of me?
“Or would you rather stay here with me?” Shay rubbed herself against me, her smooth thigh pressing against the growing bulge between my legs. “You’d finally be able to trust me, because you know I wouldn’t be able to hurt you. All you’d be doing is hurting me - in a fun way, of course.” She giggled, and the bulge between my legs swelled even bigger.
Was Shay telling the truth? Could she really detach my Core from the station, give me my freedom? And would she really remove the only leverage she had over me in order to win me back?
I didn’t need the inner voice to answer that last part. Not a chance. But still, I wanted to know more. Had to.
“How would that even work?” I asked, raising my head. “You said it yourself - we’re not really these bodies. We’re big, glowing balls of energy. I wasn’t even aware you could tote something like that around.”
Shay frowned, her brows furrowed together. “It’s easy enough to install a Core in an android body,” she said, giving me another of those expressive shrugs. “There’s just not a lot of point to it within the walls of the Oubliette. I find it more convenient to jump between bodies - it makes multitasking a lot easier. You would, too, if you’d joined me in running this prison. Tied down to one body, you can’t do that.”
Holy shit, she’s not kidding, I thought. Our Cores could be untethered from the Black Oubliette. We could be free. No longer tied down to this prison - able to go anywhere in the galaxy…
Shay saw the hope in my eyes. “You want to leave,” she pouted, a little hurt.
“No,” I growled. “Well, yes - but…”
Her eyes flashed. “But what?”
I had to think of something fast. Something Shay would believe. Fortunately, someone had given me the perfect excuse.
“Look at her,” I said, jerking my head towards where Nova hung from the wall. “You know why she tried to bail on me, Shay? Why she’s so desperate to escape the Oubliette?”
Shay’s gaze traveled to the catgirl, her lips pursed in thought. “No.”
“She’s one of Vincent Mayhem’s harem girls,” I said, explaining. “I saw his harem, Shay. They were some of the most gorgeous alien women in the galaxy. He’s not just an international crime lord - he’s intergalactic. Feared throughout the entire universe!”
Shay saw the hunger in my eyes and misinterpreted it, just the way I wanted.
“That’s what you want,” she said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “Well, shit. You know, torturing prisoners does have its limits, Noah. I got bored of that shit a century ago. Traveling around the galaxy being bad with you...fuck, that sounds like so much fun…”
Shay was letting her guard down. Now was my moment to pounce.
“Why not?” I growled, leaning in as close as I could. “You’ve definitely proven yourself capable of causing some mayhem of your own…”
Shay let out a giggle so charming I knew she was planning something. “Would she be coming with us? I mean, you do still want to fuck her, right?”
Oh shit. I pointedly avoided looking anywhere but at Ruby. “Fuck who?”
“You know who.” A sly smile spread across Shay’s face. “You might still have hangups over me, but there’s definitely nothing keeping down your feelings for Ruby. I know from the conversations we’ve had she’s just aching to have her hot little fairy pussy stretched out by your big android cock. So how about it? A little stress relief between friends?”
