Transport Ship Arrowhead Ch. 02

"Not happening," Barret snapped. "Vas and I were married in a Terran ceremony. That makes her an Earth citizen. And Earth has no extradition treaties with the Imperium!"

Viraz bared his teeth. "Stay out of this, little human," he growled.

"Come into my office and we'll talk about it, Captain." She glanced over at Vas and Barret. "We'll talk later, James. Get your wife out of here." Karin did an about face and stormed into her office, followed by the Geddryn and a small army of armed guards. Barret allowed himself a small grin. He knew that while an irate Geddryn would be scary to most, a pissed off Karin Remick was worse.

Vas nearly collapsed in relief when the office door closed. "Come on, hon," Barret said. "Let's go to our quarters so you can rest." Vas nodded in agreement.

As soon as Vas laid down on the bed in their quarters, exhaustion overcame her. After her encounters with both Antis and Viraz, and after telling Barret about what Antis had said to her, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. When Vas awoke several hours later, she was alone. A light coming from the open bathroom door told her where Barret was hiding.

The bathroom was luxurious; it was the size of the quarters Vas and Barret shared aboard the Arrowhead and the guest quarters combined. The shower itself could easily hold three people. Vas could see Barret's naked body through the transparent shower doors, the water running down his rippling back. She quickly stripped off her clothes and joined him.

Even though the shower was quiet, Barret didn't hear Vas come in; he was too absorbed in relaxing under the hot water to notice anything.

The shower had a strip of water jet panels circling the entire chamber. Motion sensors dictated which panels were active. The water would literally follow the bather no matter where that person was in the shower. Voice activated controls turned the water off and on and adjusted the temperature.

Barret didn't know he had company until he felt a pair of arms wrap around his torso and a familiar pair of breasts press up against his back. "Hey, sweetie," Vas whispered in his ear.

"Hey yourself. You feeling better?"

"Much." She rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed the feeling of his body against hers as the hot water cascaded over them both. "I'm sorry, James. About earlier."

Barret loosened her grip enough so he could turn around and face her. "Why are you sorry? Your friend acting like a jackass wasn't your fault. And neither was that Geddryn acting like, well, a Geddryn."

Vas looked up and gave him a weak grin. "Sleeping with Hix was my fault. I didn't know he wanted me to leave you for him."

"Exactly," Barret said. "You didn't know. I'm mad at him, not you." To prove his point, he leaned in and brushed her lips with his. What was supposed to be a small kiss quickly escalated. Vas coaxed his mouth open and invaded it with her tongue. Barret responded by grabbing her ass and gently squeezing her cheeks. Vas could feel his cock growing against her.

Vas broke out of the kiss and called out, "Seat." A surface large enough for a grown humanoid to sit on extended from the far wall. Vas ushered him over to at and made him sit. Then she dropped to her knees and took his cock in her hands.

Slowly she stroked its length; all eight inches from base to tip. Pre cum was already starting to gather at the top of its mushroom head. Vas scooped it up and licked it seductively from her finger, savoring its taste and his reaction. Vas could see the desire building in Barret's face. She knew what he wanted, but she wanted him to ask her for it.

Barret saw the devious look in Vas's eyes. "You're gonna make me beg, aren't you?" Vas nodded with an imp like grin. There were worse things to beg for than one of Vas's blowjobs. "Please, Vas," he said. "Suck me."

"That'll do." She attacked his cock with an almost zealous fury. Mouth and hand worked in unison, up and down. Vas twisted her hand as she stroked him, and swirled her tongue around the head. Barret's hips bucked as Vas worked. She knew it wouldn't be long, so she released his cock and playfully flicked its head with her tongue. "What do you want?" she coyly asked, already knowing the answer.

"I want to cum in your mouth."

"What's in it for me?" She gave him a slow lick from balls to tip.

Barret gave her an amused look. "I'll return the favor."

"Fuck me till I can't walk and you've got yourself a deal." Vas didn't even wait for an answer; she quickly enveloped his cock again and sucked it greedily.

"Yess," he hissed. Barret grabbed hold of Vas's head; a sure sign that he was about to blow. Vas sucked harder and pumped faster, making Barret's cock pulse. A geyser of hot cum erupted in her mouth and washed down her throat. After swallowing the last mouthful, Vas looked up at her very satisfied bond mate. The look of gratitude on his face for a blowjob well done helped Vas put her earlier sexual encounter out of her mind.

"I see you enjoyed yourself," she said. She rose to eye level and kissed him deeply, wrestling his tongue with her own. Vas never relinquished her hold on Barret's cock; her constant squeezing and stroking made it stand at attention once again.

"Your turn," Barret said.

"Uh uh," she replied. "You can eat me later. Right now I just want you to fuck me." Vas climbed on his lap and impaled herself on his cock. She immediately started riding him like a madwoman; bucking her hips wildly. "Fuck me, James," she urged. "Fuck me hard!"

Vas thought Barret was going to do just that when he grabbed hold of her ass. Instead he stood up, spun around, and pinned her against the wall, causing her to cry out in surprise. Vas held on to him for dear life as tightly as her arms and legs would allow. Barret planted his feet and pushed into her pussy with an intensity she had never felt before. Vas yelped with each thrust.

Barret was slamming into her like a piston. His lady had asked to be fucked, and he was going to deliver. Vas came almost as soon as Barret pinned her. Her wet, trembling body was difficult for Barret to hold onto, so he pressed her harder against the wall. Vas gently bit into Barret's shoulder to keep from throwing her head back and smacking it against the wall.

Even though Barret had already cum, he knew he wouldn't last long; Vas's tight, throbbing pussy was more than he could take. Barret felt that first tingle of climax starting to work its way up his shaft.

Vas's body never stopped convulsing. She didn't know if she was having several small orgasms in a row or just one big one, and to be honest, she didn't really care. Barret tightened his grip on her ass and started pounding her even harder. He threw his head back and let out a feral roar as his cock exploded violently. Vas felt every spasm as Barret's dick emptied itself inside of her.

Finally, those constrictions and undulations ceased. Vas slowly and tentatively disengaged her legs from around Barret's waist, bringing her feet back down to the floor. She was so shaky that she just let herself collapse. Barret dropped next to her in a breathless heap.

Vas fell happily into her mate's embrace. "That," she panted, "was incredible!"

Vas and Barret were both in much better moods when they met Dismer at the Singularity Lounge. The steady flow of alcohol helped them relax even more. When Barret told Dismer how Vas's diplomatic experience was making his delivery business more profitable, the earlier resentment she felt about being a so called "delivery girl" quickly vanished.

At one point, Barret had excused himself to the restroom, giving Dismer and Vas a chance to talk privately.

"I can't thank you enough, Vas," he said. "Alu's death hit him really hard. That's when he bought the Arrowhead, you know. I think he was planning on being a space hermit to hide from everything."

"I'm still trying to convince him that we need to get a house so we have someplace other than the ship or hotels to stay at between jobs," she said with a smile. "He's just too damn stubborn for his own good."

"That he is." Dismer reached out and took Vas's hand. "I make no secret that I see James as family. I love him like I would a brother. Do me a favor, and keep doing what you're doing. Keep making him happy. I know that Alu would thank you herself if she could."

After dinner, Barret and Vas retired back to their quarters for a well deserved good night's sleep. The next morning they would be off again, this time to deliver several hundred of the newest model artificial intelligence matrices to a shipyard in the Tref system. Vas would take that opportunity to convince Barret to replace the AI matrix in the Arrowhead with one that could actually think.

Vas was sitting in the main room of their guest quarters reading a message Antis had left under their door when the chime rang. Karin Remick, dressed in a black business suit, was at the door. She smiled and said, "Endira Vas, I presume. It's good to meet you without a bounty hunter making threats."

"Likewise, Administrator," Vas replied. "Please, come in."

"It's Karin, Ms. Endira, and I can only stay a for a few minutes." She looked around the room. "Is your husband here? Or would you prefer if I called him your bond mate?"

Vas smiled. "You can call me Vas. And as for James's title, either or works. He's in the bedroom making sure he didn't forget to pack anything."

As if on cue, Barret came out of the bedroom carrying a duffle bag. "Karin," he said in surprise. "What brings you by?"

"I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't have any more trouble with the Geddryn. I showed him your records, Vas. Since you're married to an Earth citizen, that makes you an Earth citizen. It also makes you off limits to those bastards. If they try anything again, you're well within your rights to put a plasma bullet between their eyes." Karin chuckled at the surprised look on Vas's face. "Not that I'm advocating it. Just putting it out there."

"What did they want with me?" Vas asked.

Karin sat down in the nearest armchair and took a breath. "Honestly, we don't know. I understand wanting the High Chancellor and the rest of the governing body. That could help the Verokk solidify their claim to Muldax Prime. We can't figure out why they're going after the diplomatic corps. I'll let you know anything I find out."

"Thank you," Vas said. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 1018 hours. "When are we supposed to leave?"

"1345 hours," Barret replied. "Why?"

Vas held up the note that had been left under their door the previous evening. "As much as I don't want to, I need to deal with this. I was just making sure we had the time."

Facing the Geddryn again was more appealing to Vas than talking to Antis, but she knew she had to figure out what he'd been thinking. He wasn't acting like the Antis Hix she knew all those years ago, and she wanted to know why.

People change, but not that drastically, even with their home planet being taken away from them. No, Antis was acting like someone was trying to steal his mate from him, when in reality he was the one trying to do that.

Antis Hix tried to embrace her when he saw Vas at the door. The scowl she wore made him rethink that. She held up the note he'd left her and said, "You wanted to talk. So let's talk."

Living up to its name, the Arrowhead tore through its faster than light corridor on its way to the supply depot to pick up their shipment to the Tref system. Vas had been unusually quiet since her meeting with Antis, and Barret knew better than to pry.

They boarded the ship, launched, and went FTL in silence. They ate dinner and went to bed in silence. Now Vas was staring at the ceiling in their quarters. Barret had long since fallen asleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She slipped out of bed and made her way to the mess hall.

Vas had developed a fondness for an Earth drink called coffee. She knew it was meant to be a pick me up, but she also knew that sleep wouldn't be coming for her tonight. So she sat, in silence, with a steaming mug in her hand. She was so engrossed in watching the steam swirling off the black liquid that she didn't notice she had company.

"You drink that and you'll be up all night," Barret said as he pulled up a seat.

"I'll be up all night even if I don't drink it."

"You want to talk about it?"

Vas set the mug down. "He loves me," she said. "Hix, I mean. He's been in love with me for years and only bonded with Clua because I wasn't there. She figured it out and left him."

"And he thought that you did the same thing with me." Barret leaned back in his chair. "He thought that once you two met up again you'd realize that you were destined to be together, and you'd run off to live happily ever after."

"It's funny," Vas said, almost to herself. "I did love him once, but I didn't know how to tell him. When we were in the academy together, I wanted to bond with him so badly. We were only nineteen! We were too young to bond, and deep down I knew that. Besides, I wanted to see the universe. After I joined the diplomatic corps and went off world, we drifted apart. He never let me go." Vas looked at Barret and gave him a weak smile. "Besides, it's not like he ever made a move outside of getting me into bed."

"He thought I took you away from him." It wasn't a question. Barret recognized the look on Antis's face when they met.

Vas took a sip of her coffee. "Yeah. The fact that you're an alien didn't help either. He never understood why I wanted to leave Muldax Prime and see other worlds. I told him that's why we would never have worked. I don't think he understands."

Barret went to the replicator and got his own coffee. "You feel up for an early breakfast?" he asked.

"That sounds nice." Vas said. She realized that was getting a little hungry. "Could we have that bacon and eggs you were talking about the other day?"

"Absolutely." The walls Vas had built up in recent days were starting to come down.

The Arrowhead flew silently through the maelstrom of trans luminal space while its occupants enjoyed their breakfast. It may have been a small, primitive, antiquated cargo ship, but to Endira Vas and James Barret it was more than that. To them, it was home.