The Psionics Guild Read online

  Perad didn’t look surprised by Cai’s caution in any case. He moved quickly from the airlock to the portside corridor and headed aft. He moved with a surety that made Cai think he knew exactly where his chambers were. He must have studied the plans for this class of ship, Cai surmised. He studied the man.

  Perad was short, thick-boned and stocky. His skin was a handsome shade of bronze, the kind of bronze that comes from exposure to sunlight. His hair was tightly curled and dark, either black or a very dark brown and puffed out away from his head. So the skin tone isn’t entirely sunlight. It never failed to amaze Cai that even after centuries of space travel, there were still some distinctly racial features. Although most people claimed decidedly mixed ancestry, traces of old earth origins still popped up, such as Perad’s very African hair.

  The man’s build was easy enough to explain; he had the heavy, squat build of a human born on a planet with heavier-than-earth gravity. Such as Hevetich, the colony planet the space station and naval yards orbited, which boasted almost two full Gs on the surface. Perad could easily be a native Hevetian.

  Cai sent the open signal to his door as Perad approached and stood to greet his guest. As a full Astrogator, he theoretically outranked the local guild chief, but Cai was new to his position and Perad had been at his post for over twenty years. He didn’t want to get on Perad’s bad side if he didn’t have to.

  Perad walked into his chambers and paused, looking around. His gaze found Cai, and once Cai nodded an acknowledgment, Perad made his way over to where Cai stood. He stopped a comfortable distance away and offered a short bow, the Guild equivalent of a handshake. “Astrogator Cai, a pleasure.”

  “Guild Chief Perad, welcome aboard.” Cai returned the short bow then waited, preferring that Perad make the first move.

  Perad cleared his throat and glanced significantly at the couches, a glance that Cai ignored by remaining where he was, standing beside the enormous computer console that, while technically redundant, remained a useful tool for Cai. Perad appeared to sigh as he returned his attention to Cai. “Usually, my first meeting with a new Astrogator is a social affair, and although I wish I could claim I was here entirely for social reasons, that would be a lie. I’m here because we, the Guild, are gravely concerned by certain rumors about yourself and Captain Steele.”

  “What rumors might you be referring to?” Cai kept his tone level, even affecting a hint of boredom.

  “It is said that you and Captain Steele are enjoying carnal relations.” Perad appeared uncomfortable, even mildly horrified, by the very idea.

  “Oh, that’s no rumor but cold fact,” Cai replied. He crossed his arms over his chest and leveled a cold gaze on Perad. “We are also legally married, in a fully binding and well-witnessed ceremony, so my carnal relations with my spouse are, frankly, none of the Guild’s damned business.”

  The guild chief’s mouth gaped open, lending him a startling resemblance to a fish. “You...you admit to it?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? We’re married.”

  “This is highly improper,” Perad replied, drawing himself up to his full meter and a smidgeon stature. “We require you to break off your relations with this man at once. We will demand that admiralty assign a new captain to Laughing Owl, one with the necessary experience to command and one who has the proper respect for the Guild.”

  “And if I refuse?” Cai drummed his fingers against his arm, glaring at the guild chief while he entertained a vision of kicking him out of the nearest airlock, one without a shuttle at the other end.

  “If you refuse, by the time I’m...we’re done with you, you’ll be lucky if you’re permitted to fly a prison barge. You won’t be permitted to remain in the Corps, and you can forget ever advancing in rank in the Guild.”

  Cai smiled a little, and Perad took a step back. As calmly as if he was discussing what was being served for dinner in the mess, Cai said, “You’ve delivered your...the Guild’s message. Now get off my ship. You have five minutes to comply; after that, I will activate my internal security system, enter your biometrics and authorize the AI to shoot you on sight.” The airlock where the shuttle was docked was seven minutes away at a brisk walk.

  “Wait! You can’t—”

  “You’re still here? The clock is ticking. I suggest you hurry. Good day, Guild Chief.” Cai turned and walked into his bedroom, closing and securing the hatch behind him. He watched Perad’s hurried departure through the ship’s sensors. He had no intention of carrying out his threat, of course, but Perad didn’t know that.

  * * * *

  The meeting with the cryptologists finally broke up. Admiral Nbuntu had made Nick available to all of the departments working on Laughing Owl’s data on the theory that since Laughing Owl was in the repair dock, Nick had nothing better to do. As a result, he was in meetings from early morning station time until second night watch every single day. At least Cai would be awake, waiting for him. His groin stirred with anticipation of their reunion, and Nick slipped into the lavatory. He entered a stall, latched the door and reached a hand into his pants. He quickly got a hand on his balls, still trapped in their cuff, and gave himself a squeeze.

  He drew in a sharp breath of surprise when what felt like an electric shock cracked across his scrotum and up into his core. He disengaged his hand, wondering if it was something he’d done, when the sensation repeated itself, this time cracking on the head of his penis and racing down the engorging shaft in a unique mixture of pleasure-pain.

  Do you like this? Cai’s voice asked.

  Nick was relieved. If Cai was asking that, it meant the Gator was the cause. It has potential, Nick thought back. He shuddered as another shock was delivered to his balls and opened his pants to let his aching erection out. Okay, I admit it, I do like it. He wrapped a hand around his cock as Cai delivered a second shock to it. The electricity made his hand tingle and his penis engorge further. He stroked himself. Is this okay?

  Yes, you can play with yourself. More shocks were delivered to Nick’s cock and balls, all with different levels of intensity so that Nick wasn’t able to guess how strong the next shock would be. A tickle against his puckered anus warned him of what was coming next, but he still gasped as he felt something entering him, working its way into him and then expanding until he felt uncomfortably full. Whatever it was deflated slightly then started pumping strongly.

  How are you doing this? Nick asked from wonder and surprise, not from anger. He was really enjoying having Cai playing with his body long distance. It made him feel both owned and loved.

  I’ll tell you later, Cai relied, clearly amused.

  The invisible dong inside him started thrusting harder and faster, in time to the small shocks Cai continued to deliver to Nick’s cock and balls, until Nick was wildly humping the air, gripping the walls of his bathroom stall and panting heavily. A single, strong shock was delivered to him through the invisible dong, and it was enough to bring Nick to his knees from the strength of the orgasm which ripped through him. The sense of Cai withdrew—the invisible dong faded away to nothingness and the last tingle of electricity traced across his balls like a farewell caress.

  Cai’s mental voice whispered, That’s just a preview of tonight.

  Nick looked at his hand, filled with the aftermath of his pleasure. Impulsively, he wiped it on himself, on his penis, his balls, his pubic hair and left it to dry. Cai’s semen would have been better, but he was sure Cai would appreciate the submissive gesture for what it was, a statement of love. He picked himself up off the floor, fixed his pants and went to the sink to wash his hands.

  A short time later, he said his farewells to the last of the distracted code specialists and headed out of the science section. Hevetich station was a wild assortment of modules connected by reinforced docking tubes, and it wasn’t easy, or fast, to get from one end of the station to the other. Since the whole mess floated securely in the coveted L5 position, no attention had been paid to the placement o
f the modules in relation to anything else, resulting in a chaotic, organic system that defied rational explanation and frustrated Nick every time he had to figure out how to get back to his ship, which was berthed in module R12 and was located on the lowest level of the station and on one of the outer edges.

  He threaded the maze as quickly as he could, eager to return to Laughing Owl and the promised pleasures Cai had implied. He left Module M6 by the green-checked tube, heading for Module C20, when he realized that something was wrong. The end of the tube was blocked, and it shouldn’t be. He tried to access the station net to find out if something was happening and felt a cold chill when his implant informed him there were no connections available. He turned around immediately, mentally charting an alternate route, and found his path blocked again, this time by three large men dressed in black.

  He didn’t ask questions; he triggered his hyper-reflexes and prepared to commit whatever mayhem was required to secure his escape. He also tried to reach for Cai but found that channel blocked, too. He leaped into action, going for the closest of the three. He didn’t get there. The man furthest from him raised a peculiar gun with a dish-shaped muzzle and triggered it. Every one of Nick’s muscles locked up and every bit of wiring within him went dead. He landed at his target’s feet, completely paralyzed, limp and utterly helpless, trying to draw in air and finding that he couldn’t.

  Panic gripped him as the three men clustered around him. His mouth was opened, and Nick felt a tube being shoved down his throat. Sweet air rushed to fill his lungs, and Nick stared at the oval bladder in the man’s hand that was the only thing providing him with breath. He was lifted onto a hard board, strapped down and the tube in his throat was connected to a longer, flexible hose that disappeared out of Nick’s line of sight. He felt a needle enter his arm, and soon, the world faded into something inconsequential. When they placed him in a standard cargo tube, eight feet long by two feet wide, he felt no concern. It didn’t bother him when the tube’s lid was closed and latched, either. The sweet air kept pushing its way into his lungs and the enjoyable lassitude continued to fill him, and everything was just fine.

  He felt the jostling, only distantly, as his tube was moved. It was kind of nice, like rocking in a hammock, and he couldn’t wait until he was laid at Cai’s feet like a Christmas present. This was all part of Cai’s plan, he was sure of it; his husband was just proving to him that he was in charge and that he could take Nick whenever and wherever he wanted. The jostling stopped, and he’d almost fallen asleep when he felt the sudden acceleration of a ship under motion.

  Where am I? What’s going on? He tried to reach for Cai but couldn’t find him. His natural shield must be flaring up again. A new wave of pleasant dizziness flooded him, and he relaxed again, daydreaming about Cai publically fucking him in a sun-drenched plaza on the planet Sparta, where slavery was still legal. He was naked, a collared slave, bent over with his face pressed to the ground as Cai slowly and powerfully thrust in and out of his body. Along the edges of the plaza stood his family, Evie and Gilly, and all his friends from the Academy, and all the men under his command. Everyone was smiling and cheering as Nick was reborn as a fully trained Spartan slave by submitting publically to his master for the first time.

  Chapter Three

  Cai checked the station sensors yet again and found nothing. When Nick had first faded from his mind, he’d assumed that Nick’s natural shields had flared up again, a frequent-enough occurrence that Cai was no longer alarmed when it happened. He simply waited. But Nick didn’t return. When Cai was positive that Nick should have been back aboard already, he reached out for Nick and met that same absence he’d felt earlier. This time, he wasn’t content to wait, and he hacked into the station’s net in order to locate his captain. Unfortunately, the sensors hadn’t picked up anything. Nick had vanished.

  Patiently, he backtracked to the last time he’d had positive contact with Nick and started checking the sensor records one by one. Eventually, after hours of searching, he found something. Module M6’s cameras showed Nick entering the module at one end then leaving through the tube leading to Module C20, but there was no record of Nick arriving in Module C20. Cai dug deeper and, after a couple hours of reprogramming and coercion of the station AI, discovered a team of men entering C20, waiting for a period of time then leaving with a standard cargo pod.

  The timing was suspicious. They arrived in the module well before Nick entered the connecting tunnel and left well after Nick should have emerged from said tunnel. And no matter what Cai did, he wasn’t able to get any sensor data from inside the tunnel. He gleaned what he could from the data he was able to get. The team of men was all of a type—large, strong, dressed in black...and all had the Guild logo on their shirts.

  Cai immediately contacted the Guild house on Hevetich. He wasn’t at all surprised when Perad answered the call.

  The man’s smile was cold. “Astrogator. State the purpose of this communication.”

  “My husband has been abducted by men wearing the logo of the Guild. I demand to know who authorized this action, and I demand that Captain Steele be returned to me immediately.”

  “You are in no position to make demands, Astrogator Cai. You have violated several of the Guild’s rules, and I am doing what is necessary to protect the Guild’s reputation from your...impropriety. If you have any sense at all, you’ll drop this matter at once and hope I don’t call you up on charges before the Guild for your threat of the other day. You can forget ever seeing Captain Steele again, that matter is completely out of your hands, and you are completely out of line and will face Guild discipline for your actions and deplorable behavior. Good day, Astrogator.”

  Perad ended the call before Cai could get another word in, leaving him staring at a blank screen. He tried calling back immediately, but the Guild house refused his call. After a moment’s contemplation of that blank screen, Cai placed a second call, this time to Admiral Nbuntu.

  A young non-com answered the call. “Admiral Nbuntu’s office, how may I assist you?”

  “I would like to speak with Admiral Nbuntu,” Cai said. He had purposely attached ID data to the data stream so that the office would know exactly who he was. He watched as the woman’s eyes widened slightly as she scanned the incoming data.

  “Of course, at once, sir.” The screen blanked for a moment, and then, Cai was looking at the admiral.

  “Astrogator Cai, I don’t often field calls from Gators. Is there a problem?”

  “My captain has been illegally abducted.” Cai sent the sensor data, along with his analysis, across in a single dump.

  Nbuntu was quick to accept the package, but for the moment, all he did was glance at the analysis. “Why would the Guild act against him, Astrogator?”

  “Because we are married, and the guild chief is a first-class prude who doesn’t approve of Astrogators being in love with anything other than themselves.”

  “But it was a legal marriage,” Nbuntu replied, his tone surprised. “And Perad is objecting?”

  “Yes, sir. I intend to complain to my guildmaster, but in the meantime, I was hoping you could assist?”

  Nbuntu rubbed his chin. “I would prefer to stay out of this for now. You’ve got time enough to go through proper channels. I’ll make sure Nick isn’t being harmed. If anything changes, if there’s a threat to his life, then of course I’ll help.”

  Cai realized that was probably the best he could get for now. Admiralty would be wary of making an enemy of the local Guild house. It was frustrating, but there wasn’t anything Cai could do about it. “Yes, sir. Thank you. Cai out.” He closed the connection and sat back with a frustrated sigh. Even if the Guild stopped blocking him from Nick, odds were they were taking him to the planet, and that was well out of even Cai’s telepathic range.

  * * * *

  The first thing Nick was aware of was that his mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton and scoured with sand. He tried to swallow
, but there wasn’t any spit to swallow with. Next, he noticed how heavy he felt. Every motion was an effort, and he immediately reasoned that he had to be on Hevetich. The third thing he noticed was that he was stark naked and lying, uncovered, on a hard surface.

  “He should be waking up,” a man was saying as he slit his eyes open to discover that several men stood around his body.

  “He’s awake,” replied a squat heavyworlder with an impressive afro. The man reached out and tugged on Nick’s ball-cuff. “I saw your eyes open, slave. Stop pretending.”

  “Not pretending,” Nick croaked against his dry mouth and throat.

  The squat man gestured, and the first speaker shoved something cold and slimy into Nick’s mouth and rubbed it around. Surprisingly, it helped a little. Nick was able to swallow in relative comfort now. The squat man told him, “I am Guild Chief Perad. You have been taken into custody for violation of Guild regulations. Your mind has already been scanned, and you have been found guilty of violating the body of an Astrogator. What happens next is up to you. Originally, we had thought to mind-wipe you and send you to the Guild labs to be reconditioned as an adjunct, but this,” and he tugged on the ball-cuff again, “gave us another idea. We could use a slave to cook and clean for us. You would also be expected to pleasure any guildmember who requested it, of course.”

  Nick did some rapid thinking. When he’d been a young man, struggling to support himself and his sister in the face of his father’s drunken indifference, he’d sold his body for money, so the idea of strangers using him wasn’t repulsive but merely something to be endured.

  If he was mind-wiped, Cai would never find him. Even if Cai located his body, he’d be gone, utterly and completely destroyed. The Guild would break every neural connection his brain had then reconnect the cells in the specific pattern of an adjunct. His body would be nothing more than the vehicle which carried his computer brain, no longer an independently thinking being. He had to prevent that, had to buy Cai the time to find him and rescue him, but...no. He wasn’t going to give these assholes the satisfaction. He wouldn’t freely give them what was, by rights, Cai’s. “Go fuck yourself,” he rasped.