He howled in fury and slammed a thick wall of anger at whoever was digging in his head.
Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star
11
A fist of moldering, acidic rot closed around his mind. “Bad boy,” it hissed. “Give me!” Barbed burning things squirmed through his wall of anger and burrowed deep into his mind, eating their way into his thoughts.
He screamed and shoved away from it. “Get out! Get out of my head!”
It didn’t let him go. “Give me, now!”
“No!” He writhed in an acid bath that tore his thoughts to shreds and ate the pieces. He thrashed in the tank and tried to scream.
Hands grasped the acid things and pulled them away. “Nav-pilot, stop!” Niobe’s mental voice vibrated with anger and terror. “You’re causing damage!”
Aubrey gasped in shuddering relief. The liquid in the tank hid his tears.
“Bad boy! Give me what I want!”
“Nav-pilot, not this way!” Niobe moved between them, pushing the acidic touch from his mind. “Give me access, and I’ll get it for you.”
“How?”
Comfort spilled across Aubrey’s mind. Erotic pleasure spilled down his spine and poured into his cock. He froze in shock. “Niobe? What are you doing?” Her presence filled his mind and molded around him with the powerful sensation of flesh against flesh. His body responded. He couldn’t stop it. “Niobe!”
“Oh.” The nav-pilot purred. “Seduction.”
Sensation raced through his body. Phantom kisses and caresses that he could feel, but weren’t there. He fought the drugging pull of rising climax, but his body wanted the pleasure of release she was offering. “Niobe, please! Don’t do this to me.” His balls tightened with urgency. He was going to cum, and when he did, she would take whatever it was the nav-pilot was after. “Niobe! This is rape.”
“I know.” Her mental voice echoed with regret and entered him.
He came, bucking hard. His mind opened under the whitewash of blinding pleasure.
She speared deeper into him, burning him with searing delight.
He shuddered and felt climax rise again. “Niobe, don’t!” He tried to fight his body’s animalistic reactions and couldn’t. “Niobe, please!”
“I’m sorry, Aubrey, but they will have your compliance, or they will kill you. I will not let you die.”
He came again, screaming into the liquid.
* * * * *
Time passed marked by dreams of swimming through an ocean of stars
punctuated by stronger dreams of sex. Aubrey fought against the visceral pleasure pouring into his body, knowing that his mind was being taken while he cried out in release.
12
Morgan Hawke
Niobe’s sweet nature made it difficult to fight her. She had to be the gentlest ship-mind he’d ever had contact with. Her affection and desperate sorrow throbbed against his mind every time she brought him to unwilling release, but her conviction that she was saving him from certain death made her continue.
He pleaded with her to let him go, to let him die.
She wouldn’t. He was the only thing she had, and she would not let him go. She pleaded with him to forget them, to just let go and let them take what they wanted.
He would not stop fighting. What they were using him for was wrong.
She knew and regretted it deeply. He could feel how she ached with every death her ship caused. But she took him anyway.
Interstellar Service & Discipline: Lost Star
13
Chapter Three
Aubrey awoke feeling the liquid bubbling around him. They were draining the tank. His head cleared the fluid, but his eyes still refused to function. He could hear voices, but his ears were too full to make out what they were saying. He sucked in a breath to ask what was going on.
His body revolted, and he spewed viscous gunk from his mouth and nose. His head, lungs, and stomach ached long before he was done. The air was ice-cold compared to the warm bath of the tank.
He was released from the harness and pulled from the tank naked. Aubrey counted four hands, so two people. He collapsed into their hands, too weak to lift his head.
He was lifted onto an anti-grav table and floated somewhere. Moments later, the table stopped and hot water sprayed down on him.
He jerked in alarm.
Hands held him down on the table. They washed every inch of him in the most impersonal manner possible. After a humiliating eternity, the bath finally ended, and Aubrey was helped upright, then onto his feet.
He wavered off balance between them. His ears abruptly cleared.
“There, that wasn’t so bad.” The voice was deep, an older male.
“At least this one isn’t augmented to hell and gone.” The second voice seemed even older and also male.
“According to medical, he’s not augmented at all. If he was augmented, we could have used force cuffs to hold him upright.”
Aubrey smiled sourly. “Sorry to disappoint you.” It felt strange to use his mouth to talk.
14
Morgan Hawke
The first man snorted. “Oh, so your ears are working after all?”
“Yeah.” He shivered. “But my eyes are all messed up.”
“Tank liquid.” Fingers dug into his left upper arm to keep him balanced on his feet, and turned Aubrey to the side. “You look wasted, but your muscles appear to be working just fine.”
Aubrey rolled his eyes. “My muscles are not working fine. I can barely stand.”
One of the men snorted. “You’ve been getting some kind of exercise in there, or you wouldn’t be able to stand at all.”
Aubrey frowned. All those dreams of swimming through stars… Had he been exercised while he slept?
The water collector went on with a loud howl, sucking all the moisture from the air in seconds.
Aubrey shivered. It was cold in the room. He was shoved forward between the men. The tile under his bare feet became metal plate, and he was
