Slave (8 page)

he asked. “Something she wore or touched frequently?

Something I could get her scent from? I am not the best tracker that I know of, but it may help us to find her.”

I shook my head. “No, not a thing,” I replied. “Just her photograph, though she probably looks quite different now. She was only nineteen when she was taken and she would have matured some by now. I wonder if she even remembers me.”

“You remember her, do you not?” he inquired. “I am certain that she would not forget you.”

I nodded. “You’re right, of course. Though it’s possible her memory might have been erased. I’ve seen stranger things done to people.” Like putting rings through their genitals to control them, for example. I shuddered slightly at the thought of just how much that must have hurt my poor Cat!

It was odd that I still thought of him that way:
my
Cat.

Like
my
dog, or
my
goldfish. I shouldn’t think of him as a pet, I told myself. He was free; I didn’t own him—and didn’t really want to, even though it was a given fact that I would treat him better than anyone else ever had. I hoped whoever had Ranata was at least a benevolent master—though if the Statzeelian male I had seen was anything to go by, I couldn’t have too many realistic expectations along those lines.
“I am certain that you will find her unharmed,” he said, possibly assuming that my shudder had been because of my sister and not my Cat. There it was again:
my
Cat. I was thinking of him as my pet, which made me wonder if he would prove to be as hard to leave behind as my dog had been when I’d left home for a life in space. I also wondered what he would do once we found Ranata and his obligation to me was fulfilled. Would he take his forty credits and disappear, or would he follow me home like a stray dog? It was probably better for everyone if our ways parted— although if he truly wanted to stay with me and would keep on rubbing my neck like that…I might just decide to keep him.

It was the next logical question, so, what the hell, I went ahead and asked it. “What will you do once we find her?”

“I do not know,” he replied slowly. “I would like to avenge the deaths of my people, but I am only one man.

I cannot fight an entire civilization alone.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, Cat. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, you know. You could just spread the word. Does anyone else know who was responsible for the destruction of your planet?”

Cat shook his head. “I do not believe so,” he replied.

“If it were known that I knew, I do not believe I would still be alive. I would have been hunted down and killed by now.”

“Okay, now you’ve got my attention!” I said dryly, twisting around to look up at him. “Come on, out with it.”

“Out with what?”
Either I was gonna have to stop speaking in Earth idioms, or he was gonna have to learn some of them.

These constant explanations could get old. “Tell me what you know about who it was that destroyed your planet,” I said carefully.

“I do not know what they are called,” he said. “But they are an ugly, evil race, with fur-covered bodies and long, pointed snouts and vicious fangs.”

“And really, really nasty, huh?”

“Yes.”

At least he understood the word “nasty.” I wasn’t sure I could explain that one, unless I referred to his Cylopean master as an example. Of course, that guy was way beyond nasty, and anyone who would destroy a planet would be, as well. Sounded familiar, though, sort of like— “Nedwuts!” I exclaimed. “They were fuckin’ Nedwuts!”

“What are Nedwuts?” he asked.

“The gang of slimeballs that kidnapped my sister were Nedwuts!” I explained. “I’ve always felt that the lot of them should be rounded up and interned on their own damn planet!” I said hotly. “They cause trouble wherever they go—although I must admit that completely destroying a planet would seem a bit ambitious for them.

Mostly they’re just petty thieves and sadistic little bastards, but sometimes they’ll do much worse things—

for a price.” I looked up at him and went on earnestly,

“Listen, Cat, if you want me to help you kill a few of them, I might actually consider it. I know I’d like to kill the ones who took Ranata!” I shook my head in disgust and spat out the word again. “Nedwuts!”
Cat seemed to focus on the most peculiar things.

“What is a slimeball?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes, having to laugh just a bit. “Sorry, Cat. That’s another old Earth expression,” I replied. “I’ve made sort of a study of them. That one refers to…well, a ball of slime. You know what a ball is, don’t you?” He nodded, and I went on, “Well, slime is goopy, slippery, sticky stuff that really grosses you out.”

I was losing him, I could tell. My explanation was making it about as clear as mud. Then I realized I shouldn’t be giving him the literal meaning, but the figu-rative one, instead.

“A slimeball is a real creep, Cat. You know, someone you can’t stand to be around? Dishonest, greasy, sleazy—that sort of thing.”

The light came on in his eyes as he caught my meaning. “So it is a bad thing to be a slimeball?”

“Well, yeah!” I said. “I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to be calling me a slimeball! It’s just about as bad as being called a blob of Redjbeck snot or a pile of Felderf dung—although I personally consider them to be much worse, and Nedwuts probably fall into that category, but it’s just quicker to say slimeball.”

I had collected quite a few other expressions in my travels—some of them quite colorful once you understood the reference. I still preferred the old Earth expressions, though. I knew some that dated back well over a thousand years, but, hey, when something works, why drop its usage just because it’s old? I’d dug up lots of interesting idioms, some of which I’d attempted to revive, though they lost a bit of their punch when the
person you were speaking to had no idea what you were talking about. Of course, you could insult someone and smile while you did it, and they’d never even know they’d been slammed. An odd hobby, I realize, but out in space, sometimes there’s not much better to do than go through the literary database and read old texts. Occa-sionally the translator on my computer balked, but it was a way to pass the time.

Cat merely nodded, seeming to catalog this information away for future use. I wondered if he knew just how many euphemisms there were for that erection of his, which was still there, by the way. I also wondered what it would take to make that boner disappear—well, short of being stunned with a pulse pistol, that is. It hadn’t looked like that when he’d been unconscious. If he could manage to keep it up, he would be very popular on Statzeel when he wore the crotchless trousers that the males of that planet seemed to favor. I would probably have to beat the women off of him, or at least spray a wide stun-beam with my trusty Tex.

Well, at least I felt a little better! A bit of laughter always helps, though I’d had to look real hard to find humor in some of the situations I’d been in. Of course, Cat could probably relate to that, too. I couldn’t see him laughing about being bought and sold, for example— unless the slaves all got together later and made fun of the imbeciles out there bidding on them, which might prove to be amusing, though certainly one of the darker forms of humor.

I looked over my shoulder again. Yep, he was still there and still had that raging hard-on, which wasn’t
appreciably smaller than the one he’d gotten out in the plaza. I guess the genital restraint hadn’t been as restrictive as it looked, after all. “Cat, what on Earth am I gonna do with you? You won’t wear clothes and you stand around looking like something out of a holographic porn shop! Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“No,” he replied, with a shake of his mane.

“Well, surely there’s something else you haven’t done for a long time that you might like to do now.”

“I have already done all of those things.” He resumed his deep, soothing massage of my back, neck, and shoulders and began purring again.

“I suppose I could stun you,” I suggested. “It seemed to help the last time.”

“But I would not like that.”

“I didn’t think so, but at least your dick wasn’t so hard while you were out.”

“You do not like it when my ‘dick’ is hard?”

“Picked that one right up, didn’t you?” I said approvingly. “No, I don’t like—well, it does look very nice, but I really can’t…”

“Tell my why you cannot,” he persisted. “Do you have another mate?”

“No, it’s just that being with men messes up my thinking,” I explained. “I screw things up when I deal with men on anything other than a strictly businesslike basis. I just don’t handle it very well. It’s like someone who can’t hold his liquor, you know?”

He understood that last reference, at least. “It intoxicates you?”

“Yes, something like that.”
“Jacinth,” he chided softly. “It is
supposed
to intoxicate you.”

“Well then, I guess I just don’t like being intoxicated,” I grumbled. “I don’t drink much liquor as a rule, either. I…lose control, and I don’t like not being in control.”

His purr took on a musical, laughing note. “But you
are
in control. You control me,” he said. “I am your slave.”

“Not anymore!” I insisted. “I let you go, remember?

You are not my slave!”

“But I think I would like to be,” he purred. “I believe I would like for you to tell me what to do for you. Things that would please you.”

If he didn’t stop that incessant purring and quit massaging my back in that deeply sensuous fashion, I really
was
gonna have to stun him again! He moved closer and leaned over me, sliding his hands down my arms and across my upper chest.

“If you’re my slave,” I countered, “I should be able to tell you to stop then, right?”

His mouth was right next to my ear and the purring was driving me insane. “You could tell me, but since I am not really your slave
,
I do not have to listen.” His lips found my earlobe and he nipped it gently, pulling it through those sharp teeth of his. He sniffed my neck.

“You smell of desire,” he murmured. “I have not smelled it in many years, but I have not forgotten it.

You smell like a female of my race, Jacinth. Just exactly the same.”

I felt his tongue sweep across my skin: hot and wet and so very, very delightful.
“You taste the same, as well,” he said against my neck.

“Come and mate with me, my beautiful master, and I will give you joy unlike any you have ever known.”

A likely story!
Of course, I only
thought
that, though, because I seemed to have lost the power of speech all of a sudden.
Oh, God, he’s doing it to me! I’m losing
control
…. He rubbed his cheek against mine, the way a cat will do when seeking a caress, and he followed with more of his body, stropping himself against me, making me wish he was doing it against my bare skin. Encircling my head with his hands, he brought my lips closer to his own and licked me firmly across the mouth until my lips parted in a sigh.

Kissing must have been an established Zetithian custom, for he certainly seemed to know how to do it—

teasing me with his full, sensuous lips before delving deeply into the recesses of my mouth with his tongue as though he would find sustenance there. The sweep of his tongue across my own sent a warm gush of fluid from between my thighs which he must have smelled, for his purr grew even louder, becoming mingled with a deep, throaty groan—a groan which came from
me
.

I felt him take my hand and bring it up to wrap my fingers around his stiff shaft. I could feel the blood pulsing through it and thought about how he’d been abused. Poor Cat, he’d been hurt so much! Could I really refuse him this one, simple thing? All thoughts of my sister or my business or anything but Cat left my head completely. He had me now: it was going to happen, no matter what, and this was what I feared the most. This loss of will, of choice, of control. I felt my will slipping
away as instinct took over and I grasped him firmly in my hand, caressing his strong cock as he pushed against me, fucking my hand with that fabulous cockhead. I was just about to surrender completely when the proximity alarm went off like a siren.

Not my own personal proximity alarm, mind you, but the ship’s.

“We’re coming up on Statzeel!” I gasped, releasing my hold on his cock and spinning around to reach the controls. “I’ve got to cut in the orbital engines or we’ll crash right into it!”

Cat backed away and I shook my head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs out of it. You see! I chastised myself. This is what comes of getting too close to a big, horny tomcat! I should have insisted that he put on some clothes and then locked him in the hold. Or better yet, thrown him in the stasis chamber!

My fingers hesitated a moment as they switched from the hot, pulsating hardness of his penis to the cold, smooth surface of the control panel. It took a moment to adjust, and then my fingers began to fly over the console. There were too many distractions with him on board! What if I’d been underneath him at the moment of orgasm when that alarm went off, I chided myself. I can’t do this right now! I need to focus! Fun and games must be put off until later, when I’d found Ranata and had somehow managed to set her free. Of course, if I made him wait that long, Cat would undoubtedly decide that he preferred Ranata, just like everyone else, and this whole thing would be a moot point.
Because, after all, I only smelled and tasted like a Zetithian female; Ranata probably looked, smelled, tasted, and felt like one. Hell, she probably even
sounded
like one! I let out a long sigh, thinking that there was a lot to be said for spontaneity, and also that timing truly
was
everything. I probably could have come up with at least ten other clichés to apply to this particular situation, but I was too pissed off at the time to think of them.

What was I thinking to let him get so close? Was I feeling sorry for him, sorry for myself, or just plain willing to let him fuck me senseless and make me forget everything and everybody for a little while?

Maybe a little of all three, I decided as I heard the engines switch over. Statzeel loomed before us on the viewscreen, less than a million kilometers away, and I noted that it was a very attractive planet when viewed from space. The way my informant had described it to me, it sounded a lot like the whole world was one big planet-sized version of Hawaii, and it looked a lot like Earth from up there, all greens and blues and swirling clouds. I guess if you had to be a slave, it was as nice a place as any in which to live out your servitude.