He liked to think he surprised her as he leaned forward to press his lips against her own. Normally such a move might have been beyond him, given the height advantage most Shil’vati possessed, but Kernathu was short enough that he could reach her without using his toes too much.

She froze, naturally, and for just a minute he might as well have been making out with a statue for all the difference it made.

Then it was his turn to be surprised as a thick tongue slipped between his lips and into his mouth. With surprising aggression, the powerful organ burst forth, writhing about with such aggression that his cheeks almost bulged as it licked across them. It even came dangerously close to the back of his throat, and he might have pulled back if it weren’t for the two hands that came up to grip his shoulders.

Instead, he felt himself held in place as his mouth was positively assaulted by the amorous alien’s squirming tongue. Which, while hardly the worst experience of his life, hardly ranked in the top ten best either.

"How was that?" Kernathu asked, as she finally let go of him, tongue retreating from his oral cavity with an audible slurp. “It says guys like a long tongue online and that a good kiss has lots of it.”

Jason absently wiped his mouth. “It was… fine?”

This time, when he moved toward her, he made sure to keep his wits about him, lest he end up being ‘pinned’ again. “Though you can afford to go a bit slower. Enjoy it.”

The woman’s cheeks flushed a deeper blue as his hand guided hers to between his legs, her fingers cupping his bulge of their own volition, giving it just a tiny squeeze.

“You’re, uh, hard,” she whispered.

He nodded. “That’s usually what happens when a guy kisses a pretty girl.”

“You think I’m pretty?” she asked.

Even as her hand was cupping his erection, his own slid beneath her top to grip one of her nipples.

“Hot too,” he murmured, enjoying the surprisingly feminine squeak elicited she let out as he pinched down on the dense cluster of nerves. “Damn hot.”

“No one ever said that to me before,” she murmured. “I mean, dad said I was pretty, but none… none of the boys my age…”

Her words trailed off as he laid butterfly kisses along her collarbone, enjoying the shivers he elicited from her as he did. “Well, their loss is my gain.”

It didn’t take much to lever Kernathu down, and soon the pair of them were laid across the floor; the Shil’vati on her back and topless, with Jason atop her as he positively mauled the moaning woman’s breasts with his lips and probing fingers. Breasts, that while not as massive as many of her contemporaries, were apparently compensated in sensitivity for what they lacked in size.

“You’re, ah, going to leave a mark,” the woman gasped as he nipped at the sensitive flesh around her areala. “People will know.”

“Good,” he grinned. “I want them to know.”

Even as he spoke, he found himself moving downward, laying small nips and licks across the woman’s flat purple stomach, before reaching the waistband of her jumpsuit. With a single motion, he tugged it down – a task made slightly difficult by the fact that it was trapped between Kernathu herself and the floor, but he wasn’t a marine for nothing. The muscles in his arms were more than up to the task.

“Eek,” Kernetahu yelped as her pussy was exposed to the open air.

“Someone’s excited,” he said, seeing the rivulets of fluid practically pooling between the woman’s spread thighs. He chuckled as his fellow engineer looked away in shame. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed by. If anything it’s a compliment.”

“Really?” she asked, glancing at him, as if searching for any signs of deception.

“Really.” He nodded. “So allow me to repay the favor.”

Before Kernathu could say another word, he’d dipped between her thighs, tongue moving to slide across the drenched outer lips of her cunt. A cunt that tasted a little saltier than he was accustomed to when dealing with Shil’vati, something he attributed to the presence of sweat. Which was only to be expected, given that they’d decided to spend their free time playing video games down in the engineering room.

Which, while cooler than might be expected, was still possessed of a dryer heat than was strictly comfortable.

“Oh Jason,” Kernathu moaned. “That feels-”

The sudden shriek was as loud as it was unexpected. One moment he was blissfully entwined in a bounty of feminine flesh, the next he felt a brief sense of vertigo before he felt himself hitting the metal deck with a loud grunt of exhaled air.

Not that he heard it, due to the aforementioned shriek. Which vanished just as quickly as it had come.

“What the fuck was that!?” he shouted to no one in particular as he woozily levered himself upright.

“Fuck!” Kernathu grunted from where she’d landed. Between one eye blink and the next, the Shil’vati was up and moving, yanking closer her jumpsuit roughly as klaxons started to blare.

“Pants back on now!” she shouted, the previously shy girl completely gone as her fingers danced across a nearby monitor.

He was already moving to obey before the girl had finished, instincts honed at the Crucible coming to the fore. Rezipping his jumpsuit was a task made slightly more difficult by the raging erection that had yet to realize it’s window for use had passed.

“All crew to action stations,” Tisi’s voice called over the comms. The woman’s tone was calm and measured, but their was no missing the slightly harried energy in her voice. “All crew to action stations.”

Something bad had happened.

Something very bad.

It didn’t take an engineer to realize that blaring klaxons, a loud shrieking sound, and the momentary failure of the ship’s artificial gravity heralded nothing good.

He was already making his way over to a nearby console – wiping away some of the remnants of Kernathu’s excitement that was stuck to his chin as he did. “Do we know what happened?”

“Something hit us,” Kernathu stated simply. “High energy lance strike to the rear thrusters.”

That was doubly bad.

Part of him had been idly hoping they’d been… struck by debris or something. A laser to the thrusters however spoke of deliberate enemy action. Which enemy? He had not a clue.

“Hela?” a small part of him wondered unbidden.

Even a casual glance at the technical readouts on the monitor in front of him told him that those thrusters were now little more than slag. Nothing short of time in a dedicated repair bay was going to fix that.

“What do we do?” he asked.

Ostensibly, he and Kernathu were part of the repair team, which meant they should theoretically already be moving to repair propulsion, given that it was one of the priority systems.

Hell, it was the priority system. In space combat, speed was life. And they were currently dead in the water.

“Nothing we can do,” she said, visibly trying to appear calm and in control. “Whoever hit us came straight out of phase almost right on top of us.”

Jason frowned. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

The Whisker spent most of its time in the area around the refinery, but it varied those locations regularly. All in the name of avoiding the aforementioned event; a ship coming out of phase within weapons range.

“Maybe they got lucky?” Kernathu shrugged distractedly as she started to run diagnostics.

Or they knew exactly where we’d be at this point in time, he thought.

“That’s not what I’m worried about right now though,” the woman continued. “What I’m really concerned about is why we’re still having this conversation and not breathing vacuum?”

“Cheery thought,” Jason laughed nervously.

“Reasonable thought,” Kernathu chuckled back, just as jittery. “Whoever hit us very deliberately disabled us. The question is, why?”

She went silent, focusing on the task before her.

I think I might have a hunch, Jason thought, his fingers skittering across the screen in front of him. Quickly, he had the ship’s external sensor data in front of him.

Sure enough, the screen displayed a contact – tentatively dubbed as hostile – hanging just twenty kilometers to the Whisker’s rear. Even as he watched, it began slowly burning toward the nearby refinery.

“The Grinshaw’s Maw,” he breathed, more resigned than surprised.

“Yeah, not a terribly creative name for a pirate ship,” Kernathu murmured distractedly. “They usually go for something like ‘Blood-Soaked’ or ‘Merciless’.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her in surprise. “It’s- you know it’s not a pirate ship, right?”

The woman looked surprised. “It’s not?”

“It’s Hela’s ship,” he said.

“Who?”

“Tisi’s friend?” he said, only to receive an owlish look. “The merchant?”

The mystified look he received might have been funny in different circumstances. Christ, he wasn’t that bad, was he?

Even as he thought it, he knew he definitely was. The only salient difference between him and Kernathu was that his species and gender meant he got involved in the lives of others whether he wanted to or not.

“It’s… never mind,” he sighed. “The point is, they shouldn’t be attacking us.”

Did Pernora do something? he wondered.

They hadn’t seen the woman since she’d left via the Olfactory, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t made her way back to Gurathu. There were alternate routes she could have taken. Though if she had, and then attempted to arrest Hela, the fact that the Maw was out here and attacking them suggested something had gone wrong.

He shook his head. There was just too much he didn’t know here. Which he supposed was part of the problem with deciding to take a ‘hands off’ approach to the investigation into Hela.

“We’re getting an incoming call.”

Jason perked up. “You can see that?”

Despite the circumstances, the purple woman looked a little sheepish. “Not normally…”

So, she had a backdoor to the bridge. Surprisingly ballsy for the usually quiet woman. Rather than comment though, he just stepped around to see what she was seeing.

Which Kernathu took as tacit acceptance, as the screen lit up to show both Tisi… and Hela.

“Hello Tisi,” the merchant sing-songed from on screen.

“Hela, what the hell is going on here!?” Tisi roared. “You just fired on my ship. On an Imperial naval vessel. I can’t even…” His captain visibly calmed herself. “If this… if this is some kind of twisted joke, it’s so far out of line I can’t even begin to describe it.”

“No joke I’m afraid,” Hela said, her wide sharklike smile softening just a bit as she stared at her friend. “No, I’m afraid this is altogether much more serious.”

“Scans of the Maw are complete, ma’am.” Glider’s voice came from off-screen.

Tisi glanced down to her right for just a second, before pausing and twisting to give the sensor readouts her full attention.

“Hela? Were you attacked?” she asked finally. “This… the Maw’s limping.”

The other woman just shrugged. “In a roundabout way, I suppose you could say I was ambushed.”

“Is that why you attacked us? You thought the refinery had already fallen?” Even as she asked the question, Jason knew his captain didn’t really believe it. But she was searching for a reason, any reason, to excuse why her friend had apparently attacked her out of nowhere.

“Nothing of the sort,” Hela said, ruthlessly puncturing that small hope. Which, in a roundabout way, could be considered a sort of kindness. “I just needed to make sure you and the Whisker stayed out of the way while my ship refueled.”

The merchant leaned forward in her seat, a certain hardness in her eyes. “Make no mistake, I could and still can blow that tiny tin can of yours out of the void. The only reason I haven’t is out of consideration for our girlhood friendship.” She leaned back again. “Do not test me on this, Tisi.”

Tisi stared openmouthed at the other woman, shock coloring her features, before finally she visibly pulled herself together. A cold mask fell over her face as she stared at the other woman through the screen.

“So, it wasn’t pirates that attacked you,” she said slowly. “For whatever reason, it was an Imperial action that damaged your ship, and now you’re running somewhere.”

“The Consortium is lovely this time of year,” Hela said airily. “I have a few contacts there, and enough valuable cargo on board to keep me comfortable for a while. Plus, I still have the Maw, even if it’s not in the best shape at the minute.”

Jason felt his guts twist at the mention of cargo. Given that he had some idea as to exactly what – or whom – that cargo was. He tried to ignore that and focus on the real import of what had just been said. With those words, Hela had basically just admitted exactly why she was wanted and why she’d obviously had a run in with the Imperial authorities.

Something Tisi was quick to pick up on.

“Traitor,” she ground out.

“I prefer to think of myself as an opportunist,” Hela shot back with a wave of her hand.

“I can stop you,” Tisi said. “You get within a hundred meters of that refinery and I can blow it sky high.”

Jason glanced at Kernathu. “I thought the refinery was armored?”

Given that it was a giant container of rather volatile materials, it only made sense that it was well protected. So much so that Jason had no idea if the Whisker’s rather middling weapons would be able to puncture them. At least, not before the Maw turned around and wiped them from the void.

“We have a detonator tied to the refinery,” Kernathu said slowly. “We’re supposed to use it if a hostile fleet jumps into the system, before we jump out.” She glanced at him. “It also serves as a dead man’s switch, which I think might be the real reason this Hela hasn’t destroyed us already.”

Jason frowned. “So Tisi could blow the refinery at any moment?”

His fellow engineer nodded slowly. “She could, but then we’d have nothing stopping Hela from killing us all.”

“Her childhood friendship with our captain?”

“You think it would?” Kernathu asked with such genuine hope that he actually felt bad.

“Uh no,” he said. “I was mostly joking.”

Everything he knew about Hela told him that, while she wouldn’t enjoy it, she’d have no issue whatsoever killing him, Tisi and the rest of the Whisker’s crew if they crossed her. Which was why he’d been more than a little surprised that she hadn’t done so prior to learning about the dead man’s switch.

Suddenly this whole crippled but not dead thing, made a lot more sense.

He only felt worse as Kernathu positively deflated. Fortunately, he didn’t have to dwell on that long as Hela continued speaking on screen.

“You could, but I believe that would officially be the end of my consideration for our friendship, Tisi,” Hela said. “And while I’ve no doubt you’re quite willing to die for the cause, are you willing to make that decision for the rest of your crew?”

Tisi just glared at her former friend.

“I thought not,” Hela said. “That was always the difference between our families.”

“…Do you need anything else before you refuel and get out of my life?”

Hela planted a delicate finger on her chin, as she listened to a muffled voice off screen, before turning back to the camera. “My gunnery officer has requested you burn a few kilometers closer to us and the refinery itself. Apparently, at this distance, you might be tempted to blow it and the maw to the sea of souls before we finish refueling.”

The subtle wince Tisi displayed suggested she was thinking of doing exactly that. Not that Jason could blame her, he’d been thinking the exact same thing, after all.

It was the obvious move.

“In case you have forgotten, you destroyed our thrusters,” Tisi deadpanned. “We’re dead in the water.”

Hela cocked her head to the side. “Come now Tisi, we both know you’re an atrocious liar. I might not be entirely cognizant of the specs of that little rust bucket of yours, but even I know that your front and side maneuvering thrusters are more than up to the task of moving measly few kilometers.”

Though not enough for us to escape or build up enough speed to break into phase, Jason thought.

“And if I refuse?” Tisi asked.

Hela sighed, as if she was speaking to a particularly slow child. “Then I start putting holes in your ship until you comply. I can’t imagine it would take more than three shots before someone aboard suffered a fairly horrible accident.”

Tisi grit her teeth, powerful fingers gripping her arm rests. In the end though, she sagged, glancing over to Glider. “Do as requested. Use thrusters five and six to burn toward the station. Slowly.”

“As you command ma’am,” Glider said, a hint of reluctance and relief in her tone.

Which Jason didn’t blame her for either. He hadn’t exactly been enamored with the notion of Tisi refusing either, even if it meant giving that bitch Hela exactly what she wanted.

…and putting them within fatal distance of what was effectively a gigantic bomb.

Even as he watched, the Maw followed after them as it burned closer to the fuel depot.

“My thanks.” Hela smiled. “Now I have one more request before I sign off.”

“Haven’t you done enough?” Tisi asked. The woman tried to sound angry, but in the end it came out more tired than anything else.

“I can promise you Tisi, it’s just one last thing.”

“What?”

“Could you send Jason over to me?”