Part 3 (2/2)
The time might well come when this one would welcome such a reward, too.
49.In the meanwhile .. .
He returned his cap-and-ball replica to his belt. Smiling only a little, using only his fingers on tied-off, blood-filled nipples, Manjanungo began again to torment Val.u.s.triana See, agent Prime of TGO.
4.
”D'you think you could give her a bit more attention, Karm?”
Pak rolled his eyes at his captain. He wanted to say, She wearing you down, old-timer? and he didn't dare. ”Ahm, well...”
Lortice sighed and made a helpless gesture. ”I've just got to run the s.h.i.+p and monitor comm-all communications.”
”Uh. d.a.m.n. And I never thought I could get too much of a good thing. Maybe we could get the mate to do her share?”
”Lady Seerava only likes men-or boys,” Lortice amended, and added, ”our mate cannot qualify, Karm.” As a matter of fact I'm not sure that Najendra qualifies as a female either . . . I think she must have been fissioned, rather than born. Meanwhile he saw Pak roll his eyes, and the captain said, ”Holy Vike, lad, it isn't as if she isn't a luxuriously desirable woman!”
”And a voraciously desiring one who makes a man feel used and d.a.m.ned near raped,” Karmal said, giving his captain a dead-eyed stare. He had an idea that he had probably just named the reason why Lortice needed to monitor the comm so badly that he'd no longer have 50.51.time for the ever-ready Seera. And only three days out from Jorinne, at that!
”Look here, Cap'm. We have three charming Jarps on this s.h.i.+p and they're pining away for the dear lady. Can't we try that? A sort of relief unit?”
Lortice had looked at him, and looked some more, contemplatively, and sighed. That night Lady Round-heels made it with her first Jarp, despite what her brother-in-law had thought. And her second. The captain saved back Vermillion, just in case. It came Ver-million's turn the follow afternoon. Lady Seera was crazy about ”him” too. (She called all three of the aliens ”he” and ”him.” Technically speaking, the hermaphrodites from planet Jarpi were its. Each was overequipped with two b.r.e.a.s.t.s, one t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, one ovary, and one each smallish p.e.n.i.s and v.a.g.i.n.a. Also bright, bright red hair above violently orange skin and coltish legs.) The three Jarps also took to Seerava like-well, like Jarps to any s.e.xual partner. Jarps were like that. (Lady Roundheels, Karmal Pak mused, should have been a Jarp!) And now . . .
Now three more days had pa.s.sed with her imprisoned, along with her monumental ”guardian,” and Pak was actually considering making some sort of pa.s.s at s.h.i.+p's Mate Najendra. And the three Jarps were making unhappy noises. Lortice, Karmal, and Najendra held a Meeting.
”The trouble is that I don't really want to deny either milady or my Jarp crewmembers,” Captain Lortice said, crossing his legs and trying to look comfortably relaxed.
”Simple,” the input came. ”Get her out of that hole of a hold.”
52.”It's just that I can't see how we can remove her from that hole we never should have put her in to begin with, and into a cabin-without having to fight off the Juggernaut. That may well get us a hysterical Lady Seera or worse. He's been in the family for ages.”
”I've been in mine for quite awhile,” Pak said, ”and I don't fancy the thought of that man-mountain slinging me right through the nearest section of hull.”
The quite-short Najendra crossed one baggily-draped leg over the other. Karmal blinked at the bulge of her calf. He shook his head. No, no-he was blinking at the way the orange pants worked against her bright green tunic! Did the idiot always have to choose articles of clothing that hated each other and her?
”Why not drug the next meal we pa.s.s in to her and the Juggernaut,” she said. ”When they're both horizontal, we go in and remove her. Put her in a cabin and let one of the Jarps be there to console her when she wakes. We might even give what's-his-name-”
”Boroboodhi,” Pak said, dragging it out sarcastically.
She nodded. ”We might even give the Juggernaut a bit of a wiping off and a change of clothing while we're at it. I smelled him on the tray when Vampy brought it back today.”
”Hey, good idea!” Karmal Pak said, with the most enthusiasm he'd shown for days. ”You're really quick, Najendra. Extra bright!”
She gave him a brief sideward glance from those weird pale eyes that let him know she knew he was working to get on her good side and that she wasn't at all interested. Lortice meanwhile sighed and gave his handsomely graying head a brief shake.
”We are plotters, mutineers, pirates, and kidnap- 53.pers,” he said. ”Unfortunately, we do not have a sign of a drug onboard this s.h.i.+p!”
Karmal would have laughed aloud except that the statement was a negative. There went Najendra's plan.
”Pardon me, Captain,” she said, leaning a little forward. ”But we do have drugs...o...b..ard. Every s.h.i.+p does. Aside from the Heaven High I smell on Pak now and again, Lewuvul has a superb s.h.i.+pdoc. Any s.h.i.+pdoc is well equipped with various drugs. Surely a powerful sedative is among them. And tranqs.”
”Just how do we get 'em out of a self-contained automatic daktari unit,” Pak almost blurted, anxious to be off the subject of the quality filter-tipped marijane sticks he smoked only in private. d.a.m.n the woman! And she just would not call him ”Karmal,” either, but always maintained that distance by referring to him only as ”Pak”-and sometimes as ”steward.”
”We ask SIPAc.u.m!” Lortice did blurt, and with a merry smile he swung to the puter-link in his cabin.
Despite the luxuriousness of Lewuvul's equipment and appointments, its s.h.i.+p's Inboard Processing And Computing Unit (Modular) was not the vocally interactive kind. The captain had to key in his queries. He did, while Pak and Najendra waited almost breathlessly.
Eventually SIPAc.u.m ”decided” that the need was great. It actuated the cybernetic medical unit-s.h.i.+p's daktari or s.h.i.+pdoc-to yield up some of its treasure. The trio hurried to the smallish cabin in which rested the self-sealing cylinder that formed a sort of coffin-like hospital/doctor/nurse for any patient laid in it. They found that it had already obligingly decanted an unnecessarily large quant.i.ty of non-addictive somnoquik.
Ten mins later the excited trio was excitedly relaying the plan and new regime to the excited trio of Jarps. Six- 54.teen mins later the mutineers, in their great kindness, slid a couple of pla.s.ses of strong drink in to the prisoners. The strong drink was a.s.sinibasca, the excellent Joser corn-based whiskey, and this time it was a lot stronger than that.
While berbun-and-water was not Seera's drink of choice, she needed a drink. Here was a drink. Seera drank. So did Boroboodhi, though d.a.m.ned if the behemoth didn't wait for her gracious permission!
Three mins later he was bent anxiously over his longtime employer's widow, who had pa.s.sed out. He lasted an incredible min and a half longer, obviously fighting the drug and setting medical history for resistance. Then Boroboodhi crashed to the deck like a toppled gantry.
Within three mins the totally limp Seera was out of the makes.h.i.+ft holding tank. In it, Vampy and Serendip swiftly stripped and bathed the giant, all the while tootling and tweetling to each other while they worried about how fast he might regain consciousness. A Jarp's long thin tongue in its little round mouth in a long thin jaw gave it a language of whistles and trills rather than words. All three on Lewuvul understood Erts, the language of humans-who called themselves the Galactic race, Galactics. All three possessed translation helmets that enabled them to be understood, in Erts. No one liked it much when they switched off those transla-helms, naturally. Captain Lortice thought it best not to object, within limits. The rule was that the Jarps kept the system of straps and studs on their heads when on duty and/or in the presence of the three Galactics.
Having seen to the lock and taken other security precautions, Vermillion and Najendra stretched Seera on her own bed in her own luxuriously appointed cabin. Then they gathered those things she might use'as effective weapons.
55.”We should bathe her,” Vermillion suggested, looking hopeful.
”Negatory,” the hardly attractive s.h.i.+p's mate said, with a shake of that whacked-off hair. ”After three days in that dreadful tank, think how much she'll enjoy bathing herself, Vermillion-and don't tell me how much you would enjoy doing it for her.”
Her wink surprised the Jarp, who had been a slave not so long ago and had been befriended by few Galac-tics. Maybe this homely Galactic was h.o.r.n.y, Vermillion thought, although it detected no pheromonal output. Well, if she continued to be so nice, the sacrifice could be made.
”However-you will be here when she wakes, Vermillion, and maybe she'd love for you to join her in the shower.”
”Lovely thought,” its translahelm said. ”It is hard to imagine how I can contain myself until then, s.h.i.+p's First!”
”Call me Mate, s.p.a.cefarer Vermillion-and do contain yourself. The elixir of pleasure, when deferred, is twice as sweet as that gulped hurriedly.”
It put that long, pointy-chinned, round-mouthed face on one side. ”An old saying among Galactics?”
”Among some of us, pos. And it's true, too.”
”Shall I remain here to watch over her?”
Again she smiled. ”Not right here-not necessary. Unfortunately we had no idea which of them would drink from which pla.s.s, so both were loaded with enough of the drug to put Boroboodhi away.” She checked the chron sewn into the cuff of her gra.s.s-green tunic's long, severe sleeve. ”She will not awake for at least eight hours. Sorry, Vermillion. I do need you at the con, though.”
Vermillion cast a round-eyed glance at the woman 56.they had neatly covered with a battened-down sheet. Vla, the b.u.mps, curves, and mountains under that pale lavender sheet!
”Good,” the Jarp said. ”If I had to stay here with her this way for eight hours I'd go stark screamin' fobbo!”
”So might she, when she wakes,” Najendra said, ”if she's alone. We'll loud-monitor the cabin for sound. In any case, you'll come back here in-let's say seven hours.” She held the door open for the Jarp. ”All right?”
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