Angel 6.0 Episode I Concubine: Chapter 3

I wasn’t stealthy anymore. Running hard after two days with almost nothing to eat or drink took all my strength and energy, everything I had. I grunted and cursed as I fought the grav-spin to reach the place where I ruled, where I could face the mangy fucker in the open instead of being chased through the rabbit holes of the station.

His growls and scrapings drew ever closer. Cats were amazingly fast.

Finally I reached the maintenance tunnel that connected to the hub. I put on a burst of speed and the grav-spin resistance lessened by the second. I dived and slammed through the grating to fly out into the forty meter wide, open air hub cylinder, breaking the bonds of grav-spin as I reached dead-center zero G.

Sharp claws latched onto my ankle.

The slashing pain hit me hard, but in seconds the euphoria would be just as intense. I kicked out with my other leg and broke his grip. The plastisteel girders came up fast and I braced myself for the jarring impact on my hands as I shoved off sideways. The Warrior sailed past me, clawing at my back as he yowled until his skull cracked on the plastisteel.

He bounced off the girder and flew back out into zero G, dazed, shaking his head. I hit the catwalk below and used it as a spring board to launch straight for the Warrior floating helpless in the center of the hub. He never saw me coming from below.

He clawed at the air, his legs wide open. The Gran wore only the slightest clothing, like a skirt of sorts. No underwear to protect his fist-sized furry balls. Cats had the same basic anatomy of humans, right down to the genitalia dangling between his legs.

I hit him with all the strength and momentum of my body. My fist crushed scrotum and ground into his pubic bone, mashing his most vulnerable parts. He yowled like a Cat being skinned alive. He puked a stream of gruel out into zero G and curled into a ball of whining agony. The contents of his stomach floated listlessly in the air as the Warrior tried to protect his smashed testicles, his sharp teeth gritted in pure torture.

I deftly avoided the Cat puke and kept flowing upwards with my momentum, into the bottom of the other catwalk. Again I spring-boarded into a flip, right back at the mewling Warrior. When I tagged him feet first, I kicked as hard as my legs could push. I put everything I had into that blow, and sent the beastie spinning off into the low G sidewall of the hub cylinder.

He slammed the wall in a yelp of pain and tumbled down as grav-spin took hold. His claws fought to grip the sides of the drop tube leading down to the ring levels, but he couldn’t get a purchase. I heard the echoes of his high pitched yowl all the way down until the thud of his body hitting the outer ring frame cut the noise short. A hundred foot drop and the Cat didn’t have a maglock to break his fall.

Bye bye kitty.

A snapping command drew my attention to the catwalk below me where Captain Cronin and several other Warriors held long metallic staffs pointed in my direction. I was coasting through the air slowly headed out of the center. I gradually let myself be pulled into the low G. Their staffs functioned like rifles as the Cats fired at me several times. No plasma discharges –they shot some kind of netting.

I barely slid out the way of their nets as grav-spin took hold and I fell into the drop tube. No time to mess around on this one. I let myself fall hard, gaining speed, putting distance between us as fast as possible. At ten feet from the ring framing I activated my maglock against the wall and jerked into an agonizing swing into the side access corridor. I landed in the corridor in an ungraceful tumble and gritted my teeth as my shoulder ligaments snapped and popped with the strain. I counted down the seconds of burning agony until the euphoria flooded in.

The bliss felt so good I almost came. I staggered to my feet, high, swaying. My arm wouldn’t do what it was supposed to – dislocated. Wasn’t the first time, and probably wouldn’t be the last. I pulled my useless left arm up and slowly rotated and pushed until the shoulder popped back into socket. The grinding pressure of my shoulder slapped me with another splash of euphoria and put a huge grin on my face. I checked my ankle where the warrior had sliced into me. The bleeding had stopped, and it was already healing. As long as I took it easy for a couple hours I’d be fine.

I trotted off down the corridor, happy enough to whistle. “I rule this fucking station. Cats think they can take me. Whatever!”

I’d never let them corner me.

* * * *

As a precaution, I took the time to hit a thorough sonic shower and changed into a light blue jumpsuit borrowed from one of the janitor’s work lockers. I couldn’t risk the Gran picking up my scent again.

Clean and refreshed, I slipped into Carver’s office and snagged his tab. He had most functions of the station available on his tablet, but I needed to be near him so his Ident would activate all the security stuff. Without Carver close by, I had limited access on his tab but I was able to turn on the hallway motion sensors. Immediately, blinking indicators popped up by the laboratories. I struggled with the lockout sequence on the hallway cameras.

Every person born Earthside or Colonial had an Ident implant – except me. I was never officially born. I was created. According to Earthside and Colonial systems, I didn’t exist. The only way I could access Earthside media was via Carver or D’Anton, when they gave me permission, or when they didn’t know I was using their tabs within a ten meter radius of them.

I couldn’t get past the limits on Carvers tab, so I raced through the ducts to the lab, where I knew he was locked away. I just needed to get close enough for his Ident to register. After a few minutes of quietly working my way across the lab, Carver’s tab lit up with authorization and I activated all the hall cams to find the Gran marching down the corridor to the docking bay. All of them, the entire security force, and the Captain himself.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I had only killed one Warrior. I hadn’t even tried to kill him, not really. It was dumb luck. Why would they give up and leave so easily? I thought these creatures were predatory hunters, I thought they prided themselves on their rituals of glorified combat.

One dead kitty and it was over? Maybe the Gran weren’t so badass after all.

It could be a trap … they knew I was watching and wanted me to come to the docking bay to see them go. No way. Not this Angel. I was staying hidden until I could make certain all the Gran had shipped out.

* * * *

After watching them leave the station, I returned Carver’s tab to his office and made my way to my special hiding spot. I waited two hours for the idiot to find me in our secret place – a cabin near the hub, once a maintenance room. A year ago he’d set the room up with a mattress and cot, then restricted general access codes to the door. Only I knew the code. Only I had ever slept on this mattress. The bed still smelled of the last time we were together, a few hours before the Gran had arrived and turned our lives upside down.

Carver let himself into the room and latched the door closed behind him. Tired and weary, he leaned his forehead against the wall. “I knew you’d be here.”

My lover wasn’t exactly a genius, but I knew he’d figure it out … eventually.

“Where else would I be?” I came to him and ran my hands over his strong back and shoulders. I loved the feel of his well-muscled shoulders when he was on top of me, inside me. I kissed the back of his neck.

He turned to me, and instead of a grin, his face was somber, serious. “When they returned to their ship they took several doctors. They have Chianen, Rogers, and Christoph. Captain Cronin promised to kill one prisoner every six hours until you are delivered to them. We have four hours before he kills the first hostage.”

Horror struck me silent. My heart squeezed with the vice grip of Carver’s words. His face turned dark, brooding and dangerous. “I don’t know how to fix this, Angel.”

Tears ran down his dark skin, and my own vision blurred with the hot tears in my eyes.

I never had reason to cry apart from physical pain – a fleeting experience. This pain was like nothing I’d felt before. A twisting agony clawed at my heart and guts, like a powerful hand squeezed the life out of me. I could hardly speak. “What … how can they do this? What about the treaty?”

He came at me and slammed me against the wall. His arms pinned me with his strong grip on my shoulders. “The Treaty was our only salvation from slavery! The Gran adhere to the agreement as long as we keep them supplied with what they want. If not for this godforsaken cloning installation, the Gran would be parked in Earth orbit right now, stealing every man, woman and child to ship off to their slave labor mines across the galaxy.”

“But we won the war! They offered us the treaty.”

His eyes dropped away from me, and he laughed, a dark mocking sound. “Did you ever ask yourself why Earthside would agree to sell the Gran human clones for slave labor, if we won the war?”

I had wondered about that.

“Angel, you can’t believe everything people tell you. We are liars. We lie even to ourselves.”

“The treaty keeps the Gran from attacking Earth?”

He nodded. “You have angered the Captain. You killed one of his soldiers. They are vicious Warriors. They want blood for blood. It’s their way.”

I tried to interrupt him. “He was trying to kill me –”

“It doesn’t matter, Angel. The Gran hold all the cards in this deal. Our operation exists to serve their demands. If we don’t…”

The fear of losing everything I had ever known gripped my chest. The fear of losing Carver hit me harder still. I had imagined several distinct futures where Carver and I were together, in a real relationship, not this secretive half-life we shared. All my hopes and dreams fell away in the face of a torturous existence beneath the whip of the Gran.

I had no way to imagine what my life would be like with the Cats, or why I should go on living. I was an experiment, a subject, a biotech investment in human evolution. I was a thing to be studied.

The experiment was over.

What purpose could I serve to mankind as a slave laborer for these inhumane Cats?

As my world reached the end of its cycle, all that mattered anymore was the feel of Carver’s powerful body beneath my fingers resting against his chest. I needed to feel him one last time before it was over. I needed him now. I kissed him and melted into his body. He responded and slipped his wonderful, warm tongue into my mouth. His hands found their way around my ass and squeezed.

He broke away from our kiss, that darkness still in his eyes. “There’s no time. You must go to them.”

“Make love to me, Carver. Show me what might have been.”

His eyes flicked to the bed, and back to me. I took away his ability to say no when I unzipped his pants and slipped my hand inside. He tried to pull away, but I held onto his hardening cock and he could not escape me. When I dropped to my knees and suckled gently on the soft, beautiful head of his erection, he stood still in my mouth.

I unzipped the front of my jumpsuit all the way past my crotch and revealed that I wore nothing underneath. His eyes glazed with desire as I wet his cock again and he hardened to full-size. He was so large he simply couldn’t fit in me without lubrication. Once more I pushed him back onto our bed and straddled his legs as I guided all that hardness inside me. My vision blurred with tears and I sank all the way down, little by little, stretching to accommodate him inside me one last time.

“Oh god, Angel, I think I love you.” More of his beautiful tears ran down his perfectly sculpted dark skin.

His tears and his final admission of the truth left me speechless. I rode him, slowly, grinding him deeper and deeper inside me, my head buried in the soft curls of black hair on his chest. I sobbed with an outpouring of love, joy and emotions I had never experienced before.

Here in the end I loved him more, I loved him with such powerful intensity. My love for him consumed me. When I convulsed around his wonderful erection, his seed spilling inside me, his hands clawing at my back once more, I knew this was the height of my life. This one moment made it all worthwhile.

I could go to the Gran, to an untimely death, to whatever fate awaited me in the cold darkness of space. I knew love. Real love. I was not just a thing to be studied. I was more than the subject of an experiment, more than the sum of my DNA.

Carver loved me, and I loved him in return.