How quickly a person's fortunes could change. Only ten minutes previously I was sitting in a prison cell, awaiting my execution, and now, here I am standing, trembling before the desk of the Supervisor himself.

The Abomination is what they call him behind his back, though no-one dare say it, or even think it, to his face. They say he can read minds, or at least sense one's hopes and fears and desires, no matter how hard you try to hide them. Can he sense what I am feeling? Part of me hopes so, because I want him, so badly that my legs shake. I am afraid, but it isn't fear that causes my tremor. The burden of hiding my secret is so heavy, that part of me longs for my execution, to be able to finally put it down.

"Your service record is appalling" said Scorpius, his voice cool and musical, "subversive behaviour, insubordination, criticising your superiors, clumsiness so extreme that you've been suspected of sabotage three times, then there's your laziness, persistent lack of punctuality, and habit of forming emotional attachments to your work-mates, in spite of being sent to remedial indoctrination twice.

'I'm due to be executed soon' I thought, 'why did he send for me, to give me a good talking to?'

Scorpius continued, "So many conduct demerits I haven't time to list them all. Why you haven't been executed before now I can't imagine. And I've taken a look at your school record also, you tried to escape four times before the age of ten."

' Almost made it the last time' , I thought to myself with a twinge of pride.

"Anyone reading this would think you didn't want to be a Peacekeeper." Scorpius said, leaning back in his chair. I stole a glance at his face, an expression of mild amusement was on his lean, cadaverous face. From this position I could see the fearsome cod-piece nestled between his long, lean, leather clad thighs, rumour had it that this awe-inspiring construction concealed some monstrous deformity inherited from the Scarren side of his genes. I found myself recalling other rumours, some of them very unpleasant indeed. I dropped my gaze respectfully back to the floor.

"Look at me" his cool voice commanded.

I raised my head and looked straight into his cool grey deep-set eyes, the sockets blushed with purplish red.

"Good" said Scorpius, "There's not many who can meet my eyes, perhaps the prospect of approaching death gives you courage."

I moistened my dry lips, if the rumours of his insatiable sexual appetites were true, maybe I'd at least get a shag before I died. I had never been fond of sex, lying on my back with me legs in the air whils some not-too-ugly Peacekeeper male shoved away at me, whilst I waited to feel something more than mild arousal had proved so frustrating that I hadn't bothered for several years now, yet this.. hybrid with the grotesque face was turning me on, strongly. Something about the stark lines and planes... or was it the shadows around his lovely eyes.. no.. it was his mouth, which parted now to show his serrated teeth, and the shocking pink of the moist flesh, within the thin yet luscious black lips. And, I must be honest, the ripe prospect of his swollen cod-piece.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked, suddenly emboldened.

"I think you have guessed part of the reason" said Scorpius, making me blush. "But only part of it. You see, I have just been given a once-in -a-lifetime opportunity." Suddenly his expression brightened "I've been given my own base".

He seemed to expect some response for me, but I didn't know what kind, so I just nodded politely.

"I have been given complete authority on the Gammak base, including my own choice of personal staff. " Scorpius paused to touch my service record on his desk.

"I need personal staff who'se primary loyalty is to me... your record shows that you have great capacity for personal loyalty, and, when you are not being slyly subversive, you are a good worker. "

'Is he offering me a job?' I wondered

"That's right, I'm offering you ...a series of interesting positions. Ostensibly you will be my domestic assistant, your official duties are to prepare my meals, and keep my private quarters in order. In reality, your job will be to provide me with a convenient outlet for my.. excess energy."

'Oh gods!'

Scorpius stood up, black lightning made flesh, the leather of his body-suit creaking ominously as he came around the desk, and walked slowly towards me with predatory intent. He was behind me now, his breath brushed the nape of my neck.

"My work is important, and demanding, it requires that I keep a clear head and if I am to concentrate, I cannot allow my.. animal passions to distract me. "

His hand brushed my shoulder, lingeringly.

"The tales of my capacity are.. slightly exaggerated, but only slightly. Although you are strong, sturdy, and your spirit is stubborn, you may find that what I require of you will be too much for you". He sucked in his breath with a tiny hiss, and his hand slid down to my elbow, then round to cup my right breast, my nipple hardened against his strong gloved palm.

"Mmm", His hand clenched, making me moan and arch back against his body..

"Does the prospect please you?" Scorpius murmered, his voice had a rumbling, purring quality. "I warn you, I am a stern and demanding master, think carefully, if you are not willing to satisfy all of my sexual commands, you can always go back to your cell and await your execution. Do you consent to serve me?"

"Yes", I breathed.

"What was that?. You must answer me properly"

"Yes.. master"

"No need for that, we both know who has all the power here, you must call me Scorpius" he corrected me calmly.

Scorpius released his hold on my breast and stepped away from me. I turned to see what he was doing.. he was just standing, watching me with speculation in his slate grey eyes.

"Do you see that door over there?"

"Yes.. Scorpius"

"Go through it.. Take off your clothes, and wait for me. You'll find a cot if you wish to lie down, and a convenience, should you need it."

I went through, as he commanded, scarcely noticing my surroundings. After using the convenience, I stripped off the horrible green boiler suit that I have always hated, and my heavy boots, then my shapeless, once white underwear. One of the only things that made me wish I had made it out of tech grade and into the military arm was the decent clothing they were issued with. Having to spend a lot of time with other soldiers was the downside. I hated them so much I broke the arm of the last one that struck me... funny how with all of the rumours about Scorpius's cruelty and perversity, no-one had ever seen him strike a subordinate. Amongst a people that held it perfectly acceptable to strike inferior grades, (usually low-ranking techs), that was quite unusual behaviour.

I waited, and waited some more, then sat down on the metal framed bed, little more than a cot, really, with a standard issue grey blanket and pillow. It was bolted to the floor, with bars at the head and foot. It was surprisingly comfortable, much more so than the rough pallet that I had slept on to wait my death. Now I was waiting for something almost as fearsome. I told myself that my body may be still a prisoner, but my mind was free. Yet - Scorpius had such a power around him, in my mind everyone else seemed grey besude him. In my soul I knew that he alone had the power to truly conquer me, between my legs I already felt that he, unlike my previous lovers, could actually make me come.

The door opened and he appeared, making the rest of the room seem so unreal. I jumped to my feet.

With frightening rapidity, Scorpius came up to me, placed one hand between my breasts and pushed me firmly onto the bed. He grabbed my knees and pulled my legs roughly apart. I felt the cool leather of his glove against my thigh, and gasped in shock as Scorpius forced two of his fingers into my vagina. I squeezed my legs together, to try to stop him, it wasn't that I didnt want him to enter me, I just wasn't ready for it so soon.

He pulled his hand away and sighed.

"Are you going to resist me?"

"No, Scorpius".

"Then get on the bed, and open your legs, and keep them open." he said sternly.

I obeyed, and he got on the bed beside me, resting on his side.

Again his hand went between my legs, this time he penetrated me with three fingers, my internal muscles spasmed around him. Scorpius gave a little sigh of plaesure and rested his helmetted head against mine briefly. It was a strange, sweet little moment, and then he said "I intend to pleasure you repeatedly. There was a hint of delicious anticipation in his voice. He thrust his fingers in deeper, i gave a sharp little scream at the sudden intensity of it.

"You may cry out, in fact it will add to my pleasure if you do." His fingers slipped out of me, and presently, without any fumbling about, he found my clitoris with his first two fingers and proceeded to rub it gently. O gods, it was so much better than I had hoped. He paused and got to his knees, moved on the bed to kneel between my thighs, which gaped as I strove to open myself to him. Scorpius thrust three fingers of one hand deep inside me, and returned the fingers of his free hand to my clit, he rubbed slowly, allowing the pleasure to build gradually. The sides of his fingertips made a slight channel, which slid over the sides of my clit, as well as covering the tip, he was stimulating me much better than I had ever done to myself. The cool, almost scientific detachment of his expression was more erotic than any passion than I had seen before, and when he looked at my face and parted his lips slightly, I seemed to feel him looking into my mind, and enjoying the mixture of fear and desire that he found there.

Scorpius bent over me, and sucked one of my red, swollen nipples, the sensation made me cry out, inspiring greater response from my clitoris, and my vagina, where he continued to finger-fuck me. He grazed the tip with his serrated teeth, and as he moved to plunge down on my other nipple, I noticed for the first time his black gums. It aroused me still further, and I murmured his name as his clever, strong lips pulled over the unbearably sensitive tip. Scorpius's fingers speeded up, inside and out, and he sharply bit my nipple. I came, screaming his name, thrusting my hands against his shoulders, with passion, not resistance. Which he understood, giving me a twisted smile as he withdrew his mouth and looked into my eyes. There was a bead of blood oozing from my nipple, but I just didn't care.

As the incredible spasms between my legs began to fade, Scorpius resumed masturbating me, merciless and insistent, seemingly insatiable for my orgasm, forcing me to two more shattering climaxes, as his fierce hot mouth worried at my nipples, punctuating the relentless waves of pleasure with sharp jabs of equally enjoyable pain. Sucking up the blood that oozed from their tips with obvious enjoyment, though his breathing increased only slightly.

Eventually he let me rest, for fifty microts.

"Now it's my turn to come". Scorpius said, standing up with one swift movement. "Turn round, I want you on all fours."

I obeyed, my legs trembling with aftershock.

Scorpius reached under the bed, and produced a purple glass jar. Then got back on the bed and knelt behind me. I heard but could not see him unscrew the old-fashioned lid of the jar. I felt something cold and gelid being smeared over my anus. Panic struck through me, this was to be no straightforward lovemaking. "No!" I shrieked, and tried to kick out at him, but only succeeded in skittering a little up the bed before his hand grabbed at my pony-tail, and jerked, yanking my head painfully back. I screamed and tried to turn and strike him, but all my efforts earned me was the choking grasp of Scorpius's other hand around my throat.

"You will keep still or I will hurt you" Scorpius growled, his voice suddenly startlingly deep and harsh, terrifyingly different from his usual melodic tones. I froze, and his hand on my throat relaxed enough for me to get some air in to my acheing lungs.

Scorpius too drew in a breath, seemed to be gathering himself together. He released my pony-tail, and, still grasping my throat in his other hand, he rearranged me into my former position, pushing my legs open.

"You have consented to relieve my sexual needs, accepted my offer of a better position than you could have achieved by your own efforts, and enjoyed my attentions on your pleasure centre. You will not deny me my fulfillment now." said Scorpius, his voice cool and melodic again. "If you promise not to resist me, I will release your throat, if not....you may return to your former position, which, if I recall correctly, was not as comfortable as this one. Nod your head if I have your promise."

Weakly, I nodded my head. Promptly Scorpius kept his part of the bargain, and I could breathe freely again.

Again his gloved fingers returned to my anus, and, quite gently, I felt his gloved fingers begin to work the gel inside me. As I said earlier, my experience of any kind of sex was limited, I now add, I had never been sodomised, so just the feel of his fingertip pushing its way into my virgin asshole was quite painful, yet there was a tingling there, almost pleasant.

"This ointment contains a mild local anaesthetic", said Scorpius, "I have no desire to cause you more pain than is necessary for the attainment of my pleasure. Fortunately my mixed ancestry renders me immune to it's effects, or it would considerably reduce the sensitivity of my own sexual organs."

I heard the unsnapping of his cod-piece, which capacious object was placed on the pillow in front of me. Oh gods! How big is he really?

He shuffled closer to me, his hands went round my thighs, adjusting my position to better suit his purpose. I felt the tip of something long and thick between my vaginal lips, and was flooded with relief as I realised that he didn't intend to sodomise me after all. Presently I felt something else - what was it? - pressed between the cheeks of my ass. As Scorpius's awesome penis probed at the entrance of my cunt I felt his hand against my buttock cleft, adjusting something, the warm nub of that something now pressed against my greased anus. He pushed, tilting his hips, and his prick entered me deeper, and that warm something pushed it's way painfully past the rim of my sphincter. It was much too big to be his finger. As Scorpius continued to penetrate me, before and behind, deeper and deeper I finally realised. The rumours about the deformity that his awe-inspiring cod-piece concealed were true. Like his reptilian Scarren ancestors, Scorpius had two penises. And both of them were being driven deeper and deeper inside of me with a steady push from his powerful hips.

I was so grateful for the anaesthetic that he had given me, otherwise the pain would have been unbearable. As it was, I felt that I was being torn in two. Scorpius gave a soft grunt as the flesh of his lower stomach settled against me.

"Please, please be gentle" I begged him.

"This time" he said "I am being gentle, when I cease to be, you will know it"

"I've never done this before" I said.

"I know, and I find that fact most stimulating." purred Scorpius. He jerked his hips and I shrieked.

"Poor child, yet I shall have some pity upon you." Scorpius said, and his fingers came round, pushed their sweet way between my fur and found my clit. He stimulated me a little, and leant over my back, till I could feel his breath on my neck. Theis caused his penises (peni?) to pull out of me a little, but only briefly. he gave an experimental thrust and I shrieked again, not entirely with pain this time.

Scorpius crooned and stroked between my shoulder blades, and then began to frell me with deep, regular rhythm. I couldn't help but cry out again, and again as Scorpius took his pleasure inside me. How he was pleasuring me! I'd never felt such intensely before, those clever fingers, those terrible, delightful organs of pleasure and pain that he was thrusting into me! And those sharp, deadly teeth, now buried into my shoulder! I would carry the mark of them on my flesh for weeks to come, on my soul forever.

I came, and Scorpius thrust the fingers of his free hand into my mouth, partially stifling my frenzied cries. I heard him give a deep, rumbling groan, felt it in the muscles of his slightly convex belly. I came again as his breathing increased, he gasped, I was making him climax, and found pride in that too . His hips pounded, he was loosing the rhythm as he found greater strength, and he came, growling fiercely. warm streams jetted from his two stiff cocks, flowing inside me and spilling out of me.

Suddenly Scorpius flung both of his arms around my waist, pressed his crotch into me as hard as he could, prolonging his orgasm. His slick black leather fingers continued to finger me, and I could only gasp, and come again, knowing how the spasming of my vaginal walls made him feel. Suddenly I was grateful for that something extra inside my ass, because, in a very true sense, Scorpius had just taken my virginity away, I had given this wonderful, dreadful creature something that no-one had ever had before, and never would again, I vowed.

Paradoxically, I began to cry.

Scorpius's now limp peni slipped from me, facilitated by his copious, clear semen, and he laid himself down beside me on the bed. I collapsed and turned beside him, and he gazed with curiosity into my face as I continued to cry.

"Why the tears?" he asked, "You are not sorry that I took you" it was a statement of fact, not a challenge or a question.

"I'm sorry", I said, trying to control my sobs, it's just .. too intense."

Scorpius gave a swift smile of understanding. "I understand, an involuntary discharge caused by an excess of pleasure. Something similar happens to me when I overdo it. I expel my cooling rod. It's a safety measure, designed as an emergency discharge of heat when I drastically overheat."

He talked about this unique peculiarity as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"You will have to learn to change the cooling rod for me, Niem, my nurse will show you how. It's quite easy" said Scorpius. "Until then, I shall have to be careful not to let that happen, so I will only frell you.. twice more on your first night. There are a number of variations I would like to try, and a few refinements that I would like to teach you. The way that you resisted me was.. charming, but if I have to break you in every night, I will become a little bored."

Scorpius patted my belly, almost affectionately, "And now, I am becoming aroused again.. I will require you to make sheaths of your hands to begin with."

I looked down and saw his peni for the first time, my tears rendering me unable to see clearly before. They were beginning to rise again, blushing a pale lilac, his dark blood under the creamy blue-white flesh. The upper part of this fearsome set of weapons was smaller than the one below, by about two inches, moisture oozed slightly from the darkened slits that tipped the ripe fruit of his two glans. I wondered what it would taste like. Then, with a shudder of lasciviousness, I realised that if he frelled me face to face with his lower one, the upper would rub against my clit, giving me even greater pleasure than before. I found myself hungry for him again. As my hands closed about his now hardened sex organs, Scorpius asked "Do you know you have a very pretty mouth?" and smiled a twisted smile.

It was at that moment that I realised that Scorpius intended to kill me.

Fortunately, he had decided to frell me to death. It could take some time.

Oh my dear Master, oh, my sweet abomination!

PART 2

I am bored out of my skull.

The little grey room next to his quarters is now my home,

Today, he didn't require my sexual services, only that I fetch his breakfast, which took but 2000 microts, and remove the remains of his breakfast, which took another 2000 microts.

This bare, bleak room in which I wait to receive his commands, contains nothing but my cot and bedding, a water faucet and a convenience; it is slightly warmer than the prison cell that I once occupied, and my cot is fairly comfortable. The food is edible, and my "official" duties are light. As for my unofficial duties, well, when he demands satisfaction, he gives it in equal measure. But he doesn't require them all of the time, he doesn't even require them every day. And when he has no orders for me, I have nothing to do but wait. I've been waiting for some time.

This is sensory deprivation, and I think I will go mad from it.

I sit on my cot cross-legged and daydream, I think about my past, the good and the bad, and dream about a future. And, of course, I dream of Him, about the things he has done to me, and the things he may let me do to him in the future. I know about his psychic abilities, but can he possibly know I fantasise about riding naked on his strong, ridged back? About sitting on his rudimentary tail and being jiggled so that I come from being rubbed by those magnificent scales? I think I would just die of embarrassment if he knew. Amazingly, I masturbate, because just the memory of his lovemaking turns me on; but also because there is nothing else to do. I used to think that I was frigid... but Scorpius has turned me into a nymphomaniac.

I wish he would come back and frell me, but already I am learning that he can go for several days without wanting sex. I'm so bored I think I would even be happy if he ordered me to clean his floor, for it would be something to do.

Boredom has always been my greatest enemy.

As a small child, before I became a Peacekeeper, I was frequently bored. My parents were farmers on one of the Colonies, and I was confined to the house and the kitchen garden most of the time. I had learnt to read quite early, but my parents, though far from illiterate, had few books, and those I was allowed to read I read from cover to cover, many times over. Upon starting to log-on to Internet school, (upon reaching the age of four) I dreamed of all the fascinating things I would see, hear and read about, but found my lessons boring, and, once again my reading was limited to those few programs that the net nanny authorised as suitable for me.

Boredom subsided when I learnt to access my Grandfathers internet account, (for he kept his password tucked behind the holograph of his sister; and therefore it was quite easy for me to snitch it); and used it to read up on all sorts of interesting subjects, of which ancient history was my favourite, followed by the sciences. However, my time on the house terminal was limited by many things: the need for me to do my schoolwork; the need to vacate the terminal if my parents, grandparents or older brother (fortunately something of a simpleton, although kind and helpful); the chores that I had to do around the house and farm, increasing in number as I grew older, which in time included supervising my two younger siblings when my other relatives were too busy.

How I used to resent those claims on my time! I loved my family, and they loved me, but I found them so dull and unimaginative. I was often frustrated, and dreamed of the day when I would be old enough to leave the farm, and move to some large city, perhaps one of the commerce planets. I so longed to explore the universe and it's marvels, meet aliens, discover something no Sebacean had ever known of before, and then come home in triumph, bearing the wondrous thing I had discovered. And my family would say "we're sorry we called you a useless dreamer."

There is a saying: be careful what you wish for, it may come true. I longed to leave the farm and go somewhere else, and one day it happened. Not all Sebaceans are Peacekeepers, many Sebaceans don't even like Peacekeepers; and for the most part, they despise the ordinary civilian Sebaceans. Normally, Peacekeepers breed there own members through eugenics programmes; but sometimes they recruit from the civilian population. This usually happens when war results in serious depletion of Peacekeeper numbers. Then they have a recruitment drive. In practise this translates in visiting the poorer and less influential Sebacean colonies and intimidating the local population into giving up a certain number of it's young children to Peacekeeper care. Some parents are quite happy to part with one of their excess offspring, some do so only under fear of the consequences of refusing; others fight to keep their children out of Peacekeeper hands: these usually die. They take their "recruits" so young because we are supposedly easy to indoctrinate, to control. Our personalities unformed, our interior resources too weak to enable us to resist the programming.

I was quite happy to be selected. Of course I was scared to be leaving my family: I wanted to leave the farm; just not so soon. But I believed I would be going somewhere where my lively and eager mind and curiosity would be appreciated, where I would be properly educated, my intellect nurtured... and no more housework! My parents ultimately had little choice, but they did agree that it would be a splendid opportunity for me.

I cried when I left, for I was barely six. I consoled myself with the thought that I would no longer be bored.

How wrong I was!

Indoctrination was the most boring experience of my life. Come to think of it, less boring than sitting in this grey room, for at least I have the liberty to dream. Apparently, Peacekeepers are the most intelligent, resourceful, brave, virtuous etc. etc. etc. in the entire Universe, and everyone else is Dren. Indoctrination is simply sitting for hours in draughty halls, whilst this lesson is repeated endlessly, in interminable variations on the same, monotonous theme. Then, we have to repeat it back to our instructors. Even my dim older brother made a more intelligent conversationalist than the average Peacekeeper; with no opinions other than the ones they are taught; with no culture to speak of; no literature other than tales of Peacekeeper battles; no music other than "stirring" martial music; and no art apart from the occasional mounted body part hacked from some hapless enemy on the battlefield; I soon found myself more bored than I ever was on the farm. I missed my books, I missed my family, and I even missed the egg-laying birds that it was one of my chores to feed every night.

So, I started trying to escape. My first pathetic attempts were easily foiled, resulting only in detentions, loss of privileges, and my being watched closely,; spied upon by teachers and fellow pupils alike. So, I decided to exercise some cunning, pretended to knuckle down; and with my natural strength and agility, I was accepted for Warrior training in the end of my ninth cycle. With everyone saying how my attitude and performance had improved, I was encouraged in my desire to become a fighter pilot.. Exercises in the flight simulators proved that I had quick reflexes, and my willingness to practice for long hours, without shirking or complaint, earnt me much approval, and a prediction from my sim flight tutor that I would go far. This might have actually come to pass, after a fashion, were it not for my impatience; always my weakest point.

Instead of waiting until I reached the age of twelve cycles, when, height permitting, I would be allowed to train on a real prowler, instead of a virtual one; I decided to use my well honed sneaking skills to procure myself a pass to the flight deck. I had already been able to get passcards for terminal access, and also for the various doors between my dormitory, my classrooms and any place where suitable terminals can be found; all this to indulge my passion for reading. It never ceases to amaze me about how careless people are about their passcards, and passwords. unless they have access to high security facilities: like weapons stores, docking bays and laboratories; they tend to be very forgetful of these things, counting on security staff to recognise them anyway. Many keep duplicates in easy-to-get-at places, in case they should lose the originals; and, if one is lost, it tends to be assumed that it must have fallen out of a pocket, and been swept up as rubbish by the DRD's. As passcards ARE frequently dropped and swept up by DRD's, I found the recycling tubes a rich source of useful cards.

The bleeping of my single-channel coms unit interrupted my reverie. It could be none other than Scorpius, so my heart leapt within me. He ordered me to come to his Office, and, with a quick pause to straighten my plait, I hastened to obey. It was nice just to be able to leave my little room. I hastened along the dimly-lit corridors, still needing to stop and think at each junction about the direction I needed to take, I became aware of how other staff had changed in their attitude towards me. I was no longer dressed in my drab tech uniform: Scorpius had provided me with new clothes, made to his taste, and proclaiming to all who saw me that I was now part of Scorpius's retinue, and as such, only need fear other, more permanent members of his retinue, and Scorpius himself.

I was now dressed in skin-tight black leather trousers and black leather corset style top, pleased, but at the same time embarrassed by the way the low cut neckline exposed the upper slopes of my breasts almost down to my nipples. Even more embarrassing was the zip that bisected the crotch of my trousers all the way from front to back... it's purpose being so obviously sexual that I was sure everyone was staring. There was also a short, bolero style leather jacket, which helped keep my arms warm, but which I was unable to zip up, it being just a fraction too small. As a tech I was used to being ignored, except when some menial maintenance task had to be done, or when some bored warrior felt the need to torment and humiliate someone, and I was the only low status "victim" to hand. Now, no-one dared touch me, or give me orders. Yet, I was still not at ease, because I was so accustomed feeling on the verge of being "found out"; or at the very least, singled out for the sport of some warrior or high-ranking tech who, (perhaps following a dressing-down by his or her own superior), felt like re-establishing his own sense of self-worth by trying to take away mine. Perhaps this would fade with time.

By the time I made my way to the laboratory complex, (this being a combined military and scientific facility), I was feeling gratified by the fact that no-one had stopped me, or demanded to know where I was going. I also began to speculate upon the parameters of my new status. As no-one had challenged me so far, I wondered if I would be able to leave my room, and Scorpius' quarters, when he hadn't called for me. Would Scorpius object, so long as I wasn't neglecting my official duties; so long as I was available to respond promptly to his call? If so, would I be able to rescue my own contraband portable terminal and screen from the maintenance pod where I had stashed it inside a defunct DRD?

I was approaching Scorpius' office, just off the corridor leading to the cloning lab, when I saw the person responsible for sentencing me to death, approaching me with his usual stolid, plodding gait. Commander Branig; Head of Security for the whole base, who consequently outranked Scorpius himself. I had to walk close by him in order to get to Scorpius' Office. I did not want to meet this man, for I know how his petty, status obsessed mind was totally outraged by the way I had behaved. I knew Branig would bear me a grudge because I had escaped the Death Penalty by the aegis of Scorpius; would possibly bear Scorpius a grudge too.

The officer whose arm I had broken was known to be a favourite of his. This favouritism so blatant as to be just short of being classified as a Private Commitment, i.e.; "A relationship between two or more people, sexual or otherwise, in which personal loyalty transcends and supersedes loyalty to Peacekeeper goals and ideals." It covers friendships, family ties, and stable sexual relationships; and is defined as potentially or actually treasonous, depending upon whether or not the said relationship has actually interfered with "Peacekeeper goals and ideals", or just might possibly do so on a future occasion.

Was there anything he could do to vent the spleen, for which he was notorious, upon me? I asked, as I forced myself to keep on walking towards him. A threat perhaps, or maybe an accidental blow to the ribs, or heavy foot upon mine. No? Perhaps an insult or an "I'm keeping an eye on you, waiting for you to step out of line". To my amazement, Branig didn't even glance at me; gave no sign of having recognised me; though I knew he never forgot a face; or an offence. So, my status truly had risen. Once I had passed him, my thoughts turned to a new , and more interesting subject. Just what did Scorpius want me to do for him? O how I hoped that it was something sexual.

It wasn't, at least; it wasn't quite.

"Change my cooling rod", Scorpius ordered, without lifting his eyes up from his portable screen.

He was sitting in the big red leather chair, pushed back a little way from his desk, with his feet up on the polished surface of the mock ebon wood. You could tell it was some kind of resin, and not real wood because of the uniform repetitiveness of the grain. It seemed so wrong somehow, that he should have artefacts of an inferior quality around him: Scorpius was so obviously deserving of the best of everything.

I looked around the room, saw the storage box on a side table. Scorpius's silent and unobtrusive nurse had showed me how a few days ago. I went and opened the box, and chided myself, because, naturally, I had to remove the now defunct heat-saturated rod first; then put it into the refrigerator compartment of the storage box for recycling.

Scorpius was waiting for me. Standing beside his stark beauty took my breath away, as always; I focused on remembering the sequence of light bars that I needed to press in order to open the compartment. I had memorised it correctly. With the eerie sound of a high-speed drill, the rod holder spun out; a slightly glutinous fluid dripped from the helical metal struts. Then, tentatively, afraid of hurting him, I slipped the hot rod out of its holder, my fingerless leather gloves protecting me from the heat of the thing - hot from being buried in the depths of his remarkable, fascinating brain.

I realised with a shock that the sticky, reddish fluid on the rod, and now on my hand, was Scorpius's cerebrospinal fluid. Seeing that he was occupied with the strange text appearing on his portable screen, I sniffed the rod, smelt.. meaty. I slipped it into the cold reservoir of the box for re-charging, and, after I had done so, I surreptitiously licked my fingers, tasting his brain juices and.. oh my! It was quite delicious, tasting somewhere between blood and his own clear semen, which I hungered to drink again.

Damn it! I was horny again.

"Why are you taking so long?" enquired Scorpius.

"Sorry", I blurted, and hurried to take a cold rod from it's box,

"That isn't what I wished to hear, I want explanations, not apologies."

Scorpius grabbed my wrist in his hand, twisting it so that I almost dropped the cold rod onto the floor.

"..I...I was licking my fingers", I blurted, terrified of his anger.

"You were eating my cerebrospinal fluid?" He growled, his voice shockingly deep.

I backed away, certain I had gone too far this time.

Scorpius threw me back against the table, grabbed my hair in one hand, and tore open my zip and his cod-piece with the other. As he frelled me brutally, I realised that my cannibalisation of his precious juices had aroused him, rather than angered him. He seemed oblivious to the fact that his rod holder still protruded, unfilled. Surely that must be causing him some considerable discomfort, I thought.

In spite of the delicious feelings caused by Scorpius's unique genitalia, to say nothing of the hump and thrust of his lean, slick black-clad body, there was something I wanted more than his sex right now. Daringly, I put my right hand up to his chin, and, as he was so preoccupied with jamming himself fiercely into my cunt, I tilted his head sideways, and tried to gaze deep inside his own gaping orifice. there was so little light, and the metal struts of his rod holder were in the way. The entrance to his skull was rimmed with a thin line of metalloid ceramic, just beyond that I could see something membranous, slightly ragged, lining the hole in his brain, into which the apparatus would fit once the rod and holder were intruded. It seemed as if the cooling unit was sealed away from the rest of his brain by some sort of membrane.. artificial - or grown from his own natural dura mater? Then why the leakage of CSF? In my mind I traced the path of the apparatus through his brain. It must go directly into his limbic system! I realised with excitement; no wonder he's so cold emotionally.

Scorpius tore his chin from my grasp.. I had been holding it quite tight, I realised. had I hurt him? His rhythm hadn't faltered, so I suppose I couldn't have. I had a strong urge to put my fingers into the crimson, moist orifice leading into his skull. Scorpius hissed and I suddenly remembered how sensitive he was to my thoughts. I do hope he didn't "read" that. He was much closer to climaxing now, I could feel it in his stomach, as it sucked in. Scorpius hissed again and thrust the fingers of his gloved hand into my mouth; reawakening my need to penetrate him in some way. So I sublimated, and pushed two of my fingers into his hot, moist and sharp-toothed mouth. I climaxed at that point; and, shortly afterwards, Scorpius came also; sucking furiously on my fingers, on which some sticky remnant of his CSF still clung, . His body froze as his peni pumped copiously into me, my fingers slipped from his mouth, and he rumbled deep, a warm purr of contentment, before sinking his teeth into my shoulder, still scarred from his previous bite.

I was still holding the cold rod in my hand.

"Now you may insert the rod" Scorpius said, coolly unplugging himself from me. "Don't even think about putting your fingers inside me".

So he knew. Ah well, he didn't seem too unhappy about it.

I obeyed, and touched the rim of the external auditory part of the cooling apparatus, listening to the lovely sound of it whirring back into the hot dark recesses of his miraculous brain.

I got up from the table, went to the cleansing unit, and got a disposable cloth to wipe myself with. As I brought another cloth over to him, intending to lovingly clean his treasures, and possibly coax them into another stand.

Scorpius snatched the cloth from his hand "I'll do that.. I know you hope I'll want to use your delightful body again.. but " and he managed to look stern and indulgent at the same time "You are here to serve my needs, not I yours." I could not resist one more loving look upon his nakedness as he dried himself, then replaced the cod-piece. He handed me the cloth to dispose of. I salted it away between my breasts to sniff later.

He returned to his chair and picked up the portable screen from the floor where he had dropped it, but didn't resume his research Instead, Scorpius looked at me with a hint of detached, non-sexual curiosity.

"I sense there are questions you wish to ask. Well, I am feeling indulgent.. you may ask" He said.

I didn't know where to begin.

"My time is valuable, do not waste it" He warned.

"How did they manage to put that into your brain without damaging it?"

"The surgeon who operated on me displacing neural tissue, by putting it into the cerebral ventricles."

I was fascinated beyond the point of discretion. "But wouldn't that result in a shortage of CSF?"

"Not at all, my choroid plexi are not located in the cerebral ventricles, but only in the fourth ventricles, and there are also two more choroid plexi located in a further aqueduct in my thoracic spine. You must have noticed I have a slight hump there."

I did, and found it desirable..

"My spine is far sturdier that the Peacekeeper norm", he said, without a hint of pride.

"But what about the risk of infection? What with your brain opened to the atmosphere so often... I mean, even the air scrubbers don't keep the air sterile"

"There is a membrane which keeps the cooling apparatus separate from the actual cerebrum, should any breach occur in the blood-brain-barrier, for example by rough handling of the apparatus itself..." Scorpius glanced reprovingly into my eyes, thrilling me even as it chilled me. "... there is my powerful immune system, which is more than adequate to tackle any micro-organism, whether viral or bacterial, that may inadvertently span the breach".

"But.. I thought the components of the immune system were excluded from the brain by the blood-brain barrier!" I exclaimed, surprised.

"In Sebaceans this is true, but as you know, I am only part Sebacean." Scorpius looked into my eyes again, and smiled, a sweet, rather friendly smile. Then he pounced. " Now I have a question.. how did you, a mere tech, know that? "

"I - er read it somewhere."

"How? Your remit does not include studying neurology"

At my low rank, I was only authorised to access peacekeeper indoctrination and propaganda programs, plus those terribly tedious dramatisations of great and glorious Peacekeeper victories ( PeaceKeepers never had ordinary or little victories, only great and glorious ones.)

I had to think of a convincing lie fast, and try not to think about how much I hope he won't notice my dishonesty

"Don't lie, I'll know"

Some hopes

Or I could refuse to answer... or

That's it! I'll think about how beautiful and terrible he is, or about what a fantastic fuck he is, attempt to distract him... oh, what the hell.

"I stole your predecessors access code", I answered.

"How?"

"I was called in to fix his convenience at one time, he wasn't there, so I looked under his desk drawer"

"You weren't left alone in the room, surely?", Scorpius was incredulous.

"Only for a brief while, his aide was there most of the time, but he had to go out to speak someone, he said, but he was gone for at least 2000 microts" I remembered at the time I could hardly believe my luck; and spent most of that interval wondering if I wasn't being set up in some way.

"His aide must have been very lax in his attitude to his work"

"His aide was usually stoned" I replied, with a half-smile, "But then, so was your predecessor"

"Ah yes, that would account for his inexcusable ineptness; without which, I would never have obtained this post" mused Scorpius. "You will not gain my access code so easily. I keep it in my head, a place to which you will never have entry."

Pity you don't keep it in your cod-piece, I thought, mischievously. In spite of the magnificent frelling that he had given me just a few thousand microts ago, I did so want him again.

"However, I am impressed by your ingenuity, as well as by the ends to which you put it", said Scorpius. "I will see that you are issued with your own personal terminal, screen and access code, so that you may pursue your studies in your own time."

"Oh, Scorpius, thankyou"

Scorpius gave me a little, indulgent smile, moistening my thighs from across the room.

"Do.. you want anything.. else from me.?" I said, hopefully.

"My lovely, I find you very enticing; but you forget, that you are here to gratify my sexual desires, and not your own. I could very easily waste too much time enjoying your various... charming attributes. At present, I must make a manifest for my journey to the Gammak base - a tedious task, but one that I cannot leave to anyone else."

For a moment, Scorpius looked tempted to exercise his masterly rights; then he simply said "Go away", in such an abrupt fashion, that I did.

I took the long way back to my little room, making use of my new-found freedom, but there was now no need for me to rescue my own terminal, and there was nothing much of interest here, except for the cloning labs; and I knew I would not be allowed there.

Back to my little room, to sit and wait for my beautiful and terrible new master to call on me; and for the time for my afternoon meal of food cubes and water, for my stomach was starting to feel a little empty.

To my delight, the Terminal and screen was delivered to me just after I returned; Scorpius' orders were obeyed promptly, after all. The password was already set up on the screen, and I promptly changed it. "Neurology, fiction or Ancient History?" I wondered, then decided that, as Scorpius would probably demand access to my private files at some period, I had better stay away from the potentially sensitive subject of ancient history, with it's hints of the Peacekeepers lowly, and somewhat shameful origins. I plumped for fiction instead, and discovered that there was none available; I would have to retrieve my own terminal after all, and unload my own set of contraband non-Peacekeeper story files, snurched many years before on my one-and-only trip on a cargo vessel to a commerce-planet. I had thought about escaping then, but my courage had failed me. I was quite glad I hadn't now.

I decided instead to explore the parameters of my terminal, and found, in spite of the absence of fiction, a remarkably wide range of non-fiction options available; even a few strategy games. I was playing a game of "Black and White" against one of the dimmer AI's, and beginning to break even when Scorpius returned, entering my room with quiet grace.

"How comfortable you look", Scorpius remarked as he joined me on the bed. I switched off my screen, and tucked it under the bed.

Scorpius reached for me, and took my wrists in his powerful hands, wrenching my arms apart. "Indulge me", he said.

I swung my legs up onto the bed, and with one knee he forced them apart. Ah, a fantasy of his, I realised.

Scorpius took both my wrists in one hand, and reached down to uncover first his sex and mine, and then back to his former position. I pretended to struggle now: unable to move my arms at all, I thrashed my legs, as if trying to throw him off. Scorpius bore down on me with bruising force. I bit his chin, and this made him hiss, a sound that could have been either pleasure or annoyance. Pleasure, I think..... for I felt his lower penis was unrelentingly hard as it poked blindly at my bush. I writhed, pretending to deny his hot sex access to my inner sanctum, whilst all along I longed to have it rammed into me. But of course, Scorpius knew that.

Scorpius released my wrists suddenly, and I grabbed at his head, as if pushing him away. Then, fearful that I might cause him real pain, I pushed at his shoulders instead, then ruined the effect by crying out "That's it, Scorpius! That's it", as the head of Scorpius's cock found the burning hole that longed for him so much. Scorpius gave a harsh sound of triumph as his hips thrust forward, plunging himself deep into me. I gave an exultant cry as his upper penis scraped moistly over my clitoris, sending shockwaves of pleasure through me.

Again he seized my wrists, and held them down on the pillow as he frelled me, fiercely.

I thrust up against him, and soon was sobbing with ecstasy, coming against his moist hardness; and Scorpius came with me, his face pressed hard against my cheek as the spasms wracked his body. Scorpius released my arms from his cruel grasp, and I flung them around his neck, and held him close, and realised how much he strove to please me, even as he pleased himself.

We lay, clasped, cock in cunt, my arms soothing his back, a dry kiss from his lips pressed against my cheek. There was a peace and a serenity in us both, for a while.

PART 3

Life proceeded: my days were spent mostly in the little room just off Scorpius's private quarters, reading extensively from my portable screen; interrupted occasionally for me to fetch Scorpius's meals, or supervise the DRD's as they cleaned and polished the floor. And my nights... satisfying his imperious sexual urges. Life had never been so good for me: sex and study, and a little light, recreational reading - for I had successfully retrieved my fiction files from their hiding place. Yet the fear that these days would end surfaced from time to time. Paradoxically, the thought that they would never end also troubled me. I still longed to leave the Peacekeepers behind.. oh to see alien worlds, to walk on the surface of a planet.. to experience sunshine, wind, or even rain again. To meet with minds that weren't bent on mindless conformity, the despicable struggle for status; or strangled by propaganda. Sometimes even Scorpius himself seemed to be some mindless Peacekeeper clone, how he could bear to serve the interests of people so spiritually dead, so intellectually null and void?. How could he keep up his air of civility towards people who called him "that hybrid abomination" or "a shameful mistake" behind his back.. even as they fawned on him to his face?

Naturally I didn't tell Scorpius any of this. Let my body always be his, but my mind and soul belong to me alone. As for my heart ....

The daily cycle drew towards it's close, the timepiece on my personal screen told the passing of time. I showered and braided my hair to wait for his return. It was possible that he wouldn't want me, of course. . I returned to my cot and my screen, and passed the time by flickering through the inventory of Peacekeeper territories, a roster of planets "colonised" or "requisitioned",; consisting mostly of a list of economic resources; but some entries would have pictures - I found one of a windswept terrain of broken granite, clumps of vegetation sprouting through crevices in the stony land. There in the distance some kind of ground bird stood, its beak profiled against the sky, which, in contrast with the grey and green earth, swirled gold and flame-orange and blue above. It was bleak, and beautiful all at once. I gazed at it with longing.

I raised my head to see Scorpius, looking at me, his deep grey eyes enigmatic. I hadn't heard him enter, in spite of the creaking sound that always accompanied his movement.

I came so close to speaking my truth, so close to saying to him "Let's leave here, run away with me.. tonight my love". But, I didn't.

Scorpius seemed to know what I was thinking and feeling, for as he joined me on the bed, rolling me over onto his back, he whispered to me "You hate Peacekeepers, don't you". I nodded as he fastened his serrated teeth delicately into my neck, just below my ear. "So do I", was his startling response. I turned to look directly into his eyes, a question on my lips, but he put a gloved fingertip to my mouth and said..."Shhh".

Scorpius bent his head to my bosom, and his hands slid around my back to pull apart the fastenings of my leather bustiere. With his tongue and teeth he pulled my breasts out of the loosened cups, drawing a little blood, before teasing at a nipple with his warm, slippery tongue. After he had made it stiff and reddened, he turned his attention to the other, and hardened it nicely. I moaned under his attentions; and he surprised me by raising his head and licking my cheek. For the first time, I kissed Scorpius's soft black lips, amazed at their sweetness as he parted them and let my swirl my tongue gently into him. He responded with a "MMM" and tightened his arms about me, pressing his long, lean, leather and vinyl clad body against me. I put my arms around his strong back, and caressed his shoulder-blades, and, as he continued to kiss me, stabbing his tongue into my mouth. On impulse, I caught hold of his little curved tail in my fist.

Scorpius sprang upright, shocked, an involuntary growl of anger coming from him; startling me. he collected himself, however, and asked, his voice deadly calm. "Why did you do that?".

"Because.. because it was there" I stammered, "because its cute"

"Cute?" he asked.

"Adorable" I said, and the answer seemed to mollify him. Scorpius rested down beside me again.

"I didn't mean to hurt you" I apologised.

"You didn't hurt me" said Scorpius, his face seemed abstracted, as if he was remembering something unpleasant. I stroked his chest, feeling the nub of one of his nipples through the vinyl. "No-one has dared to pull my tail since I was of low-rank". he said eventually.

I hadn't actually pulled it, but never mind.

"Scorpius"

"What"

"If you hate the Peacekeepers so much, why don't you escape?" I asked, adding silently 'and take me with you'.

"Because I hate the Scarrans far, far more." was his answer.

Scorpius was still far away in his mind, and I realised that it must have been so hard for him as a child, Peacekeepers really hate hybrids, for all their willingness to create them, and to use them if they can. So, when he was too young to defend himself, his so-called peers must have taken some of that hatred out on him. I caressed his chest with the flat of my palm, and eventually the brooding expression left his bony face and he turned to look at me.

"Scorpius," I hesitated "May I touch it again?"

Scorpius gave a short sound, that may have been suppressed amusement. "You may", he replied at length, "But gently", and he turned and took me in his arms again.

I reached and touched it, feeling its springy quality under it's leather covering.

"Can you move it?" I asked.

"No", he said abruptly - was he embarrassed? I stroked it's length, paid a gentle attention to the underside where it joined into his back with my fingertips, then my hands went down to clutch at his firm buttocks, for he had slipped his tongue into my mouth again.

Scorpius returned his attention to my full breasts, licking the nipples again, before settling on one and suckling upon it for a few minutes. I caressed the back of his long, graceful neck. Then he stopped, and pulled off my bustiere completely, and began to kiss down my belly, slithering his body, serpent-like, down the bed. Scorpius's tongue flickered into my navel, and his strong hands undid the clasp of my belt, and he pulled my leather trousers from me, then tore my thong off with one swift move of his hand, stinging my hips with the snap of the waistband..

Scorpius, held my hips still in his hands as he tongued his way down to my bush, I was quite breathless, was he really going to? .. Oh Gods.

Scorpius clasped a thigh in each of his strong hands and gently but firmly pulled my legs apart. I propped myself up on my arms to watch him as he kissed the inside of each thigh. Scorpius nuzzled his face into my bush, probing with his tongue inside my moistness, then found what he was looking for, what I so hoped he would find. His slippery tongue tip brushed the hard pearl of my clitoris and I jumped, giving a small shriek of surprised pleasure. He certainly knew where to go!

Scorpius put his hands to my bush, parted the furry lips and spread me wide open, giving a small moan of pleasure at the sight. He inhaled my scent, his nose touching my clit, I strove to press up against him, but he held me down.

"Have a little patience" Scorpius said with a smile. "We have all night."

He buried his head between me legs again, delving his tongue into my vaginal canal to taste the wetness, obviously relishing it. I heard a sucking sound coming from him, felt the sharpness of his teeth as he nipped at the inner folds. Scorpius looked up at me with pleasure-widened eyes, and pressed his thumbs on either side of my clitoris, pulling back the little hood, and making the tiny pink organ stick out like never before. Scorpius licked at it, once, and paused, then licked it again, and paused, and; finally, when I could bear his teasing no longer, he went to work on it in earnest.

I thrashed and moaned as Scorpius lapped delicately at my clitoris, as he varied the strokes of his agile tongue, now up and down, now round in little circles; and now, devastatingly a superfast side to side flicker. I screamed out as the orgasm hit me, clutching at the air, for I could not reach him. When the spasms passed away, Scorpius stopped, but only for an instant; with a cool look at my face, he bent his head again, and returned to his appointed task. Soon I was crying out anew, as his clever, relentless tongue circled and swirled rapidly over my sensitive bud. Now I was sure that Scorpius would stop, but he was quite merciless, on and on he licked, his eagerness apparent in the slight tremor of his shoulders. the sensation was almost painful now, and in desperation I grabbed at his helmet, and tried to prise his fierce, hungry mouth from me. Scorpius looked up at me, and gave a frightening growl, determined not to relinquish his helpless plaything. then bent his head to my cunt again. I surrendered to him, and let him do what he wanted. The intensity of the sensations frightened me, oh but there was no way of denying the exquisiteness of them! The sound of his lapping tongue filled my ears, hot, so hot as he went at me, till I came a third time, and passed out.

When I came to., Scorpius was gently bathing my cunt with a moist towel. When he saw I was awake he gave me a smile, and threw the towel on the floor. I scooted up in bed, my head and shoulders resting on the headboard. Scorpius got onto the bed, straddling my torso, his big cod piece aimed straight at me face. "Now it's my turn", he said, and snapped the fastenings of the leather cup, revealing his glory to me.

Scorpius was only semi-erect, but I would soon remedy that. I cupped his heavy balls in my left hand, took the shaft of his lower cock in my hand, and, pausing to inhale the heavy musk of him, I teased the foreskin fully back from the glans, exposing its hardening meat, a drop of fluid oozed from the slit, which I lapped up carefully. I lavished my tongue over the ripe plum of his lower penis, whilst curling the upper one lovingly into my hand, feeling it too harden. Scorpius rested one hand on my shoulder, the other on top of my head, and I lovingly took the shaft into my mouth. There was no way I could take it all in, and fortunately Scorpius didn't make me try. He preferred me to do most of the work with my hands, using my lips and tongue to titillate the two heads. I sucked slowly on him for a while, then released his testicles and caught hold of the lower shaft. With the probing tip of my tongue, I explored the gaping slit, loving the intermittent flow of lubricant out of his urethral opening. Scorpius gasped as I began to masturbate him, sucking first on the upper one, then on the lower until he began thrusting into my face, my hands slipping up and down on the hot firm shafts, whilst endeavouring to take both heads into my mouth, a difficult task, the objects concerned being of different tasks. To get a proper blow-job, I thought, he really needs two people sucking on him simultaneously. Scorpius's right thigh began to tremble, a warning sign of the impending explosion. Scorpius's emissions were always copious, from a previous experience of masturbating him whilst he was leaning against his desk I knew he could hit the far wall with his ejaculate. Therefore I did not resist when Scorpius grabbed at my hair and roughly wrenched my mouth from his engorged glans, he tilted his body down slightly, so that his semen, when it came, splattered forcefully on my neck and between my breasts, hot and frothy. As Scorpius's body jerked in time with the spurting seed, some of it hit my right nipple, and hung there, before dropping down onto my belly. Scorpius gasped, and one of his hands lovingly stoked my hair. Soon the gushes turned to trickles, the trickles ceased altogether, and, as his delicious peni drooped, and bowed their sweet heads, he got his breath under control.

Scorpius dismounted from me, and lay back on the bed. I went over to the washbasin and began to sponge myself down. Then went to the drinking faucet and brought a large glass of water to him, knowing that he was often thirsty after coming. Scorpius drank, and lay back, relaxed, his eyes closing. I lay beside him, gazing at his face with shameless adoration. I kissed his cheek, just beside his eye, and the kissed the hard, scaly skin in his eye socket, then ran my tongue over it. Scorpius gave a contented sigh, his lips parting softly. And then he was asleep.

After looking at him for a while, I got my portable screen, and began to read; noticing, before I did so, how he hadn't replaced his cod-piece, and his formidable sex-weapons lay bare and sleeping, all their creamy blue-white lusciousness exposed to my gaze, and the cool air of the room, I realised with a start. After a while the coolness would cause him pain. I was able to gently replace the cod-piece without waking him, though he did stir and give a soft, animal-like moan in his sleep.

I nibbled on a food cube and read for a while, and in time, Scorpius awoke. He had the remarkable talent of going from fast asleep to wide awake within a single moment, a talent I did not share.

"There is a box beside my bed, go and get it." Scorpius ordered. I scrambled to get the box, which, I remembered from my first session with him, contained the lubricating anaesthetic he used on my anus before sodomising me. Was he going to do that again?

I brought the box back and gave it to him. Scorpius got off the bed, ordered me onto it, and took the box from me. He opened it and took out a pair of objects that I had never seen before. They looked like scissors, only with circular pads on their ends instead of blades. Silvery objects joined together with a length of chain

"Do you know what these are for?" asked Scorpius.

Wordlessly, I shook my head.

Scorpius took one of my rosy nipples between finger and thumb, and rolled it to a peak, the he did the same to the other, Then, in ritualistic fashion, he moistened his fingertips with his saliva, and used it to wet my nipple, he did the same to the other one. Then, he attached the clips to my nipples, pinching them painfully. Before I could get used to the pain,; he grabbed the chain between them and shook it gently, causing pleasure/pain to shoot through me.

With a vicious grin, Scorpius said "Did you think I had finished with you so soon?"

I had, actually.

"Oh no, my dear, I've only just begun." he said.

Scorpius got on the bed, and took something else from the case. It was a silver metal box, and he opened it and showed me the contents. They looked like surgical instruments, like long, thick needles, only with silver balls at their ends instead of syringes. The smallest was barely an inch long, and the longest, a frightening six inches. "These are urethral pins" said Scorpius. He pointed to the smallest, "This one is for you." and then to the longest "and this one is for me". I winced, surely he didn't mean me to put the whole length of it into him!

"But this isn't what I want you to use tonight." Scorpius put it back into the box, and instead brought out a five inch black rubber dildo. In front of my startled eyes he covered it with anaesthetic lubricant, only instead of inserting it into me, he shut the box and rested it on the closed lid.

Undoing his cod-piece again, Scorpius pushed my legs open and mounted me, thrusting his already erect lower cock into me. He began to frell me, slowly and deliberately, causing the moist head of his upper penis to massage my clitoris, gently but firmly in time with his shallow thrusts. I clasped my arms around him.

"Lower", Scorpius insisted.

I cupped his firm buttocks.

"Lower still."

Now I grasped his upper thighs, just below the curve of his voluptuous ass.

Scorpius pulled apart the snap fastenings over the flap of leather that covered his anus, exposing it to me. I needed no further instruction, but let my fingers delve inside, stroking along his perineum, before finding their way towards the soft, puckered entrance to Scorpius's bowels; hesitating in case he should object.

"What do you think I keep the vibrator for?" he purred "You surely don't think I need it to please my sexual partners?." He thrust in painfully deep, to emphasise his point. "I need... ultimate penetration.. take the dildo, and frell me, my dear."

Hesitating, scarcely believing that he really meant me to do what he had just said, I took the greased rubber pole and gently moved it between his legs. Gingerly I probed for the gap between the leather, found it, and began to search for the pearled ridge to his inner sanctum. Scorpius reached down behind him, grabbed my wrist, and firmly guided my hand and the hard rubber tool to it's desired goal.

I pushed it, and it entered him, slowly at first, but once the gnarled entrance had been breached, it slid in a lot more easily. Scorpius gasped as I penetrated his asshole, and sunk his teeth into my shoulder. He sucked the flow of blood, and then, with his other hand, he took the chain connecting the two clamps on my red, swollen nipples, and put it between his teeth. It tugged rhythmically as he frelled me. In my turn I frelled his hot little hole, gently at first, for fear of hurting him, then more vigorously, as he was clearly enjoying it.

Scorpius frelled me, and I frelled him, him pumping into me, me pumping into him; waves of pleasure from his lower cock pounding the neck of my womb, and his upper cock belabouring my clitoris with tiny, springy blows as it bounced in time to his glorious rhythm, my nipples jerked deliciously by the chain held firmly between his bared, serrated teeth. Scorpius's breath began to hiss in and out, and I realised that he was closer to orgasm than I was. Before I could slow down, he came. A deep rumbling cry burst from his black lips as he came, spurting inside me, his asshole spasming around the black rubber cock, held in my hand, thrust into his willing body.

With a metallic clang, the cooling-rod holder sprang from his cranium, steaming, and dripping with his cerebro-spinal fluid. In some depraved fashion, this visual stimulus was all I needed. Pleasure fell over the edge into ecstasy; I came, crying out his name, so far gone with my orgasm that I couldn't get the last syllable out, my enraptured cunt spasming repeatedly around his already softening cock.

"Get the rod", Scorpius cried out, as his sex slipped out of me, he rolled to one side, to let me get out of bed. I ran to find the box with the cooling rods, and swiftly changed it for him. After I had done so, Scorpius clasped my waist in his arms, and rested his seamed cheek on my bosom for a while, releasing my nipples, which felt quite raw, from the cruel instruments of pleasure that he had fastened onto them.

Standing up, Scorpius urged me onto the bed. With a tender solicitousness that surprised me, he found the towel, wiped my thighs, and then soothed my aching nipples with his mouth, sucking them very gently until the pain subsided. Then he covered me with the blanket.

"Goodnight" he said.

He left me, to return to his own bed, in his own quarters. I was so thoroughly satisfied by his mouth and sex that I fell instantly into sleep... and dreamed.

I dreamed that I was sitting in some sort of chair, Scorpius stood watching me, his face dispassionate. Niem stood by his side. "she is mad" she said, and I knew that she was right. And I dreamt that Scorpius mocked my lowly status, and I dreamed that he, my darkangel, did not want me.

I woke in my narrow cot, with tears streaming down my face.

This bleak, empty, joyless and loveless world had but three things in it for me, my love of neurology; my secret files of myth and story and ancient history; and Scorpius. I got out of my bed, wrapped my blanket around me and, daringly; padded through to Scorpius' private quarters, to his bedchamber.

Scorpius awoke, called up the lights to their full strength and asked "Why are you here?"

"I want to be with you" I said.

"I don't require your services now." he said coldly

I so didn't want to go back to my cot alone, the nightmare waited there for me.

"Shall I satisfy you by command?" Scorpius asked me, softening slightly.

"No ... no that isn't it" I blurted out "I just don't want to sleep alone...please"

Scorpius stared at me for what seemed an age, the, to my amazement I saw a tiny flicker of what looked like compassion on his face... perhaps even empathy. Then he said. "You may lie beside me and sleep, tonight. Nothing more."

I scampered up onto the bed beside him. Scorpius moved to one side slightly to give me room, and I lay beside him. Scorpius slept without any bedding, so once I had lain down, I spread out my blanket over us both.

Scorpius looked at me quizzically, then said. "I sleep without bedding because my bodysuit gives me all the warmth I require. This blanket is quite unnecessary."

"Sorry," I said "instinct".

"Instinct?", questioned Scorpius.

"It's instinct to want to nurture the one you...." I bit my next word off and swallowed it, saying instead " are having sex with".

I couldn't bring myself to take the blanket from his body, even though I knew he didn't need it. Scorpius didn't ask me to, but instead he called down the lights to his preferred twilight, and settled down to sleep.

I did likewise, requiring nothing more than this, to be beside my ... oh, I am such a coward! I can't even admit it to myself! To lie beside my beloved.

Presently, sleep began to creep up on me, but not, as yet, upon Scorpius. He was worrying at something in his mind. Eventually Scorpius said "It is not instinct to want to nurture the one you are having sex with, nurturing is only given to those for whom the feeling is much deeper"

Does he know? I wondered, finding myself hoping passionately that he didn't. The desire for sex is fundamentally a superficial desire, belonging only to the body and the senses. Deep only by illusion, frequently transitory... I smiled to myself, thinking it impossible that I could fall out of lust with this most beautiful of men. So when you give yourself sexually to someone, the body and the senses only are compromised, laid bare. But if you give your heart? What is compromised then?

Scorpius said nothing, and seemed to be listening into the dark.

"Scorpius I.."

"Shhh", and then he bent his head towards me, and kissed my mouth.

Tenderness is the most powerful weapon of all.

Scorpius lay back, and was asleep within minutes, and I followed him down.

I woke later in the night, for I dreamed that he was watching me with pain on his ravaged face. But my Scorpius still slept.

It came to me then, that this was the dream and the dream was the reality. If this is a dream, please let me never wake up, I prayed fervently. If this is delusion, let me never be cured! V Scorpius shifted in his sleep, his hip pressing a little closer to mine. I opened my eyes to look upon his sleeping face; shadowy, yet visible in the dim light. With his features relaxed in sleep, his angles sharpened by the mind, artificial twilight, he looked very young, pure somehow. sleep had erased all his pain, his cold, hard aloofness, his bitterness; there I saw all the possibilities for all the love and happiness and wonder, denied to him for so long. I wanted to kiss him then, but I didn't want to disturb his peace, knew his awakening would bring it all back. It is true that I loved his cold, scaly hardness, the force and magnificence of his personality; the wild, fierce joy of his rigid sex ramming into me. But this.. this vulnerable being that slept beside me.... I would die to protect you, my love. I vowed silently.

I did not kiss him.

I did not wake him.

I slept beside him throughout the cold dark night.

PART 4

I313 stumbled to her feet, her life in ruins, shattered beyond repair. 'All a dream' she murmured, 'delusion' . The peacekeeper tried to gather her thoughts, but somehow she just couldn't cope with the enormity of what she had been told. For a while, it seemed the delusion would claim her again, but the Soul-Killer's words ripped into her mind "We are not lovers, we have never been lovers", over and over, the Soul-Killer's mouth, blasphemously like her own beloved's spoke into her devastated face "we have never been lovers", "we have never been lovers" "we have never been lovers". The reality of it, that it had all been a cruel trick, forced itself upon her screaming, agonised soul.

Gathering her strength together, 1313 began to pace the cell; with each step she grew stronger, and so did her resolve.to cheat the Soul-Killer. When she was sure she was strong enough, she leant against one wall, straightened up, got into a runners stance, with her head bent down. Desperation gave her the strength she needed.

1313 ran full tilt at the opposing wall, head first.

The force of the impact shattered the dura mater inside her skull, blood burst in upon her brain, before a few seconds had passed, a massive sub-dural haematoma ending her consciousness forever.

I awoke with a scream of horror, to find my Scorpius shaking me, not ungently.

"Open your eyes" I smelt the leather, I screwed them shut.

"Morgan, Morgan, open your eyes", there was a note of pleading, of .... of fear (!?) in his voice.

"Scorpius!" I screamed, and He spoke "You were having a nightmare, and now it's over, and you are quite safe, believe me."

I opened my eyes, the light was on full, and Scorpius was looking at me with concern on His strong face; concern which turned to dry amusement when He saw I was fully awake, and focused.

"You don't think that anything could hurt you with ME around, do you?" He asked.

"No, only the nightmares"

"Maybe I can do something about that" He said. "Now that I have decided that you are to share my bed from now on; I can't have you disturbing my sleep."

I realised that my face was wet with tears only when He began to wipe my cheeks with the edge of the blanket

"Perhaps if you tell me your nightmare, I might understand how best to help you"

I did.

"This Soul-Killer, he actually looked like me?" asked Scorpius.

I nodded.

"Then I think I know the answer to your nightmare" said Scorpius. "He is the projection of your inner belief that you are undesirable. All your life you have met with abuse or rejection from those to whom you turned for ... satisfaction" his black lips gave a wry smile, "Now that you have me to fulfil your needs, a part of you just can't believe in the truth of your happiness, hence the nightmares".

I looked at Scorpius, not convinced.

"Come now", he said, stroking my arm, "Did you ever believe that you would be wanted by me? Fulfilled by me? Isn't there a part of you that thinks this is all too good to be true?"

I nodded.

Scorpius smiled his approval. "Say to yourself, each night before you sleep, and several times during the day "I belong to Scorpius, Scorpius is my lover, and no-one shall take me from him."

Then, fiercely, Scorpius clutched at my upper arms and said, in a deepening voice "No-one shall take you from me". His hands pushed my legs apart, and removed his cod piece. Consumed with sudden lust Scorpius began to mount me. I received Him with joy as He eased His cock into me, sighed as He bit gently into my throat, and abandoned myself to the sweet pleasure of frelling with my love, of feeling His delight in me, of knowing He wanted me and ... and... and... oh the sight of His dear, beautiful face as I came, as He felt my orgasm with His empaths mind.

"No one shall take you from me" He snarled as he joined me in the rapture of combined orgasm.

Later, as we lay entwined in the sweetness of afterglow, Scorpius said to me "That creature from your nightmare wasn't really a Soul-Killer, you know. Just a poor fool who didn't realise the value of what he had." Scorpius gave a small sound of amusement "He actually refused your gift? Do not mistake me for such a fool as that. You and I must take our pleasures where we can, my dear."

Scorpius lay back on the bed, his bed, OUR bed from now on. My hands caressed His face, adored the purity of His exquisitely white skin, the delicious seams of His cheeks, and the scales near His deep grey eyes. For a while Scorpius basked in my affections, so obviously enjoying Himself that warmth flooded through me. How sweet it is to please your lover!

"This is most pleasant, my dear, but I have work to do, and I want you to continue with your studies." Scorpius said, gently disengaging my arms " I do approve of your strategy games, however. They improve the sharpness and quickness of the mind, so don't abandon them. But," He got up from my prone body, and reached for a towel beside the bed. "I want you to try yourself against a more powerful AI from now on, you may become slack if you anly play against inferior opponents."

Having been given permission to enjoy myself all day, I began to smile.

Scorpius dried his limp peni and found His cod-piece and replaced it.

I got up also, and found my clothing; scrambling into them as I realised that I was hungry, and that it must be time for me to fetch His breakfast. He had gone over to the side table on which He kept His personal screen, and was sitting down and reading something that apparently had Him totally absorbed.

I folded the blanket and replaced it into the little room where I usually slept, then went to get His breakfast - green bread, fried sliced giant mushrooms and a selection of lightly seared vegetables, and my breakfast - three of the ubiquitous dark red food cubes, and returned. Today He had me sit alongside Him as He ate, and He gave me some of the mushrooms to eat in front of Him, instead of allowing me to snerch the leftovers whilst I pretended to dispose of them. Not that He often left His meals unfinished.

I spent the day on my personal screen after He had left for His laboratories. Reading, studying, and getting beaten repeatedly by the Grade 4 AI. As there were 23 grades of AI, and grade 1 was the lowest, I did feel a little demoralised. Nevertheless, I plowed on, having gotten my teeth into the problem. And whilst I was still losing by the time Scorpius returned, much later than usual, It was taking the AI much longer to beat me.

I had been so absorbed in the "games" that I was oblivious to the time, and the hunger pangs that were churning my gut. Until my Scorpius returned, that is.

I went to the kitchens and brought back our respective meals. Scorpius and I ate hungrily. For him there had been provided a dark meat stew, and several chunks of green bread, with whole grains, and; a real delicacy, sprite-egg custard, with a side-dish of assorted sliced friut. I was supposed to confine myself to just a bowl of stew and a piece of ordinary unleavened wafer, but Scorpius gave me a piece of bread in exchange for the wafer, and allowed me several pieces of fruit to dip in the custard. I had never eaten so well since I was inducted into the Peacekeepers.

I loved to watch Scorpius eat. Although his appetite was healthy, His table manners were immaculate, He never dropped or spilled food, or overfilled His mouth, but so clearly relished every drop, even the dry, favourless wafer.

Afterwards, Scorpius wanted to know my performance on the strategy games. I told Him, ruefully; but He praised my for making progress; then, to my surprise, He asked me to play with Him. And He didn't mean His dick.

We sat on opposing couches, my screen on the table between us. We played "Black and White", we played "Boundary Builders", and "Hunters and the Hunted", and He beat me at every one. Far from scorning me because of it, Scorpius praised me for my valiant efforts. "I've beaten every opponent I've played against in the last twelve cycles, AI or Sebacean", He explained, "And you show promise" and then Scorpius sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, surprised at His sudden change of mood.

"What you could have been, if you had been properly trained" said Scorpius.

I looked at Him, stunned.

"Your gift with neurology, the way you have subverted and hacked your way into records and through locks... the way you broke that trained warrior's arm. You have impressed me tonight, for I have noticed that while you have always lost, you have never made the same mistake twice." Scorpius touched my cheek with a single, shiny black finger. "But your last escape attempt made sure that you were condemned to menial work. After that, there was no way they would train you for anything better than that."

"Bbut Scorpius, I liked being a maintenance worker," I protested, "Apart from the occasional bit of bullying, people leave you alone; so long as you do your work. There's a great freedom in being beneath notice, you know".

Scorpius came to sit beside me, and put His arm around me. "You were never beneath MY notice", He said. "I read the service record of every single worker here within the first few days of my arrival. I was deeply impressed by that last escape attempt of yours, and you were so terribly young." Scorpius stroked my cheek, then nuzzled His mouth against it. "In fact, you reminded me somewhat of myself" I moved around to kiss His sweet black lips, and tease them apart with my tongue.

Scorpius and I twined our tongues for a while, and then He heats up. Scorpius grabbed my shoulders in His powerful leather grip, and pushes me back down onto the couch. Scorpius plunges His mouth onto mine, then withdraws to grip my shoulder in His teeth. My hands clutch the back of His neck, and i fling my legs around His waist. His awe-inspiring cod-piece grinds into my crotch. He slides one strong arm around my waist, and lifts me up, standing now on His feet. With His other hand He bends me back, then plunders my bustiere, lifting my breasts roughly out of their cups, pinching the nipples till they are red with suffused blood. He lifts one breast up towards my face, and bends to suck painfully hard on the nipple.

"Scorpius! oh my Scorpius!" I moan, hot and wet with lust.

Under my buttocks I feel his hand, fumbling at the zipper, opening me up. His cod piece is now off, and He raises me .

"Hold on to my shoulders" Scorpius demands, I obey. He catches my hips in His strong hands, and manoevers them carefully, pushing me away, then pulling me onto his rigid lower sex. The smaller upper one leaked onto my pussy, moistening it still further.

"Frell me, frell me hard!" I demand, suddenly, daringly imperious.

"As you wish, my lovely", He responds, and, still gripping my hips, he does so, still standing. I press my breasts against Scorpius's lean hardsoft torso; my nipples, ravaged by His fingers and his cruel, delightful mouth, rubbed and jogged against the ridges that ran the length of His costumes trunk. His secondary penis jiggles against my engorged clitoris,whilst the main article pounds my cunt with short-stroked blows.

I scream with ecstasy into His face as I come, and He responds with a harsh hissing sound, an aerosol of tiny saliva droplets covering my face, falling into my mouth. I lick my lips, seize His mouth with mine, feel His tongue lapping at mine. I slap at His buttocks, encouraging Him on, murmuring "That's it, that's it my lovely darling, give me your best shot"

Scorpius's knees buckle slightly when He shoots His magnificent load into my still spasming cunt; but He does not fall. My clitoris spasms in renewed frenzy as His upper penis deposits it's smaller, less forceful trickle onto it. His orgasm slows, and, gradually, gently, he puts me onto my feet again.

"Tomorrow I shall have many things for you to do. I expect you to be busy collecting several small ..... resources from various parts of the station, for we shall depart for my new Base the day after" Scorpius said, as we lay down together, a little later.

So soon?

"Now you must sleep" he said.

Panic flared within me, I did not want to sleep; for if I slept, I might dream. Scorpius sensed my fear and soothed me.

"Lie down", he ordered. So I did, flat on my back with my hands folded on my breasts, still tense. Scorpius settled down beside me and licked my cheek lovingly, once, twice, three times; then he nestled his face into my neck and whispered into my ear : "You're safe with me".

And I fell asleep straight away.

I didn't have any nightmares that night, but He did.

I was woken about half way through the night by His stifled groans, his body twitching violently. I called up the lights part way, and his eyes flicked open, but his eyes were still glazed, unseeing. Scorpius was still locked into his nightmare, as I had been earlier.

I held Him in my arms, stroking his helmetted head, murmuring soothing words to him, such as "there, there," and "Youre' safe here" and then "No-one shall hurt you" as if He were a frightened child. Presently Scorpius came back to Himself, and shoved away from me, staring intently at my face. Anxiously I gazed into His suspicious grey eyes, and He gazed back, searching. Then, as if He found what He was looking for, He relaxed and sat up in bed.

"For a moment, I thought you were mocking me, but you're not" He said.

"Why should I?" I replied "You didn't mock me, when I had a nightmare".

Scorpius sighed, and settled back down, turning His back to me.

I ventured my courage "I - I know they hurt you, when you were a child", I stammered.

"How can you know that" He said, sounding somewhat dubious.

"Because that's what they do, hurt anyone who is different" I said "I got hurt lots, just because I was born a free Sebacean, so they must have been a whole lot worse to you"

"Yet I survived" said Scorpius. "And now I have power, position, and many of those who tormented me, now have to call me Sir, and fear me."

I smiled, pleased to hear of His victory "Yet you don't have a reputation for taking revenge".

"Ah," said Scorpius with an air of triumph, "It is more than enough that they live in fear of what I might do. I must confess that I get quite a thrill out of watching them try to hide their fear, and their desire to appease me: none of them ever succeeds".

I put my arms around Him, and one of His hands reached up and covered mine. I snuggled my face into the back of His neck, inhaling the warm leather smell of Him.

"Sleep now", He ordered, "We both have a busy day tomorrow".

"Yes, Scorpius", I sighed happily, safe beside my beloved.

We slept right through to the sound of the alarm.

*********

Scorpius had been right about it being a busy day. From the moment we had finished our breakfast to the moment we sank down onto the couch to go to sleep, I was on my feet. Running here to fetch this, running there to fetch that; carrying stuff to the docking bay or to the laboratory facility for the inspection of Niem or Scorpius - before carrying it to the docking bay. I was so run off my feet I didn't have time to worry about anything.

"Tomorrow, we rise early to start to the Gammak Base" said Scorpius, when the day eventually ended and I was lying beside Him in the warm dark. "No longer will I be subject to the daily authority of others" (He was referring to the Director of the Base as a whole, and the Head of Security),and then he sighed "But I will still be accountable to Peacekeeper command. Fortunately they will be thousands of light years away, and entirely dependant on long-distance communication...through authorised channels".

That night, our last on this base, there were no games, and no sex, just deep, blissful sleep. And no nightmares.

PART 5

The following morning I was out of bed immediately the alarm woke us up; at Scorpius's insistence. I would have loved to stay there for a cuddle and some sex, but Scorpius told me that there would be time enough for that once we were aboard the carrier. Until then, would I please not try to tempt him into delaying our departure. He kissed me chastely on the forehead, to take the sting out of his words. Soon I was showered and packed for our departure. I had not much to carry, it is true. A spare set of leathers, some spare sets of underwear, my personal screen, and my stack of contraband files; which, thanks to Scorpius, were contraband no longer, but legitimately mine.

Soon I was in the port area, standing behind Scorpius and Niem, and surrounded by a party of technicians: all of them hand-picked by Scorpius for their skills, potential, or general trustworthiness. I felt intimidated by them, though none offered me so much as a nasty look, and some had been pleasant enough to me in the past.

Also coming with us were a handful of security staff, commandeered from the base. The one whose arm I broke was not among them, fortunately. Branig was there, however, watching the proceedings. The carrier itself was held in stationary position out in space, and it was necessary to transfer first onto a transporter vessel in shifts. Scorpius and Niem and I were on the first shift. I could not help but shoot Branig a triumphant glance over my shoulder as I ascended the ramp. This was not his plan for me. If he had his way, I would have died weeks ago, a pulse through my brain, my corpse incinerated. So, Scorpius had used his influence with the Peacekeeper Command to over-ride my death sentence, and 'requisition' me to his delightful service. I felt happy to be leaving this base behind, and looked forward to my new life on the Gammak base.

Little more than a quarter arn later, I disembarked in the hold of the carrier. I stood back at a respectful distance as the carriers' captain, an impressive-looking grey haired, battle scarred warrior-woman, introduced herself to Scorpius. Niem instructed me to take mine and Scorpius's personal luggage to our new quarters, and a young soldier was assigned to guide me.

Our temporary quarters consisted of one large, bare looking room. To my surprise, it actually had a bath sunken into the floor, covered with a ceramic lid that lay flush with the floor unless commanded to rise. The same was true of the bed, and of the tables. There was only one chair, plush dark grey velvet, standing alone at one end of the room. My own assigned bed was a narrow, air-conditioned box behind a sliding panel in the wall, next to the pull-out convenience. Yuk!

"I don't expect you'll have to spend much time in there", said the soldier, with a wink. I certainly hoped not.

The soldier left me, and as there was no unpacking as such to do, I put Scorpius's two leather bags by the chair, and slung my own pack into my "bedroom", and lounged on the bed with the door open, playing Boundary Builders on my portable screen.

For the next few days, Scorpius and I stayed in his quarters. Between bouts of energetic or languorous sex, we played games on the screens, and read. Scorpius was reading up on wormhole theory, mainly the theses of rival scientists, and consequently, he laughed a lot; and, very occasionally, threw his screen down in disgust.

I divided my time between neurology, and mythology; when I wasn't playing with Scorpius. Unfortunately, precious though our time together was, I began to suffer from cabin fever. He was able to go out and mingle with the technicians and crew (though he did complain that they were uninteresting company), whilst I, having no errands to do, had to make do with jogging around our quarters whilst he was out. Round and round like a cobrat in a wheel, only in the horizontal plane instead of the vertical.

On the plus side, because of the strategy games I was playing with Scorpius, I was not only able to beat the level 4 AI, but the level 5 one as well.

I was over the moon when Scorpius told me that we were to stop by on a Commerce Planet, to purchase supplies of various resources that would otherwise have to be transported from so far away that it would be ages before we got them There was a long list of technical supplies, and as for Scorpius's personal needs....

He said to me "I want you to run an errand for me, it is a personal one, so I can't justify sending anyone but a member of my private staff; and Niem has some adjustments to make to my Aurora Chair."

I listened expectantly.

Scorpius gave me an indulgent smile; "I want you to go and buy for me five small measures of safferan, I find the flavour irresistible, but it is expensive and difficult to obtain. I have information that says a shipment of herbs and spices arrived here three days ago, and is on sale in the Lesser Trading Hall".

I smiled broadly. "You mean, I get to go planetside?"

"Indeed, and you may explore to your heart's content, just make sure that you return before the ship is due to depart. I cannot delay our time of departure, not even for you." Scorpius bent His face to mine slightly, and for a moment I thought he would forget the fact that we were in front of the transporter and kiss me.

Instead he gave me a credit chip, and said "You may have the change, to spend as you wish, except for the six forbidden cargoes, of course."

I thanked him, glancing at the tally screen briefly as i put it in my belt purse. 200.00, it read. Frell! that safferan must be really expensive! I thought.

The transport ship took us planetside, in a journey taking less than an arn. Throughout the short journey, I was in the rear cabin, two minor ranking military personnel travelled with me. Their job was to guard the ship, to make sure it was not stolen from the spaceport whilst it was parked. They did not speak to me, nor I to them, which suited me just fine. I was looking forward to being planetside again, though it had been years since I had felt earth beneath my feet, instead of metalloid ceramic.

Scorpius travelled in the Officers cabin, in greater comfort than I had. It suddenly amused me that with all the talk about self-sacrifice and the cheerful endurance of hardship in the service of the Peacekeepers, the higher ranks were reluctant to forego their comforts.

The commerce planet's gravitational field was tangible even through the transport ships' dampers. As there were no windows in this cabin, The deceleration was all that there was to tell me that we would be landing soon. I picked up my backpack, checked that my belt purse was secured, and buttoned up my jacket.

50 microts after landing, I was ready to disembark. Officer Mainz handed me a mapcard, warning me that, because of the temporary nature of some of the buildings, the data was not 100 percent reliable, but it should get me to and from my authorised destination with no difficulty.

Scorpius was still in the officer's cabin, so he was not there to object when Mainz demanded to see my credit chip. I handed it to him, hiding my resentment, for I knew that curiosity was the only reason he had for demanding to see it.

Mainz's eyebrows rose. "He must be a fool to trust you with so much", he said, handing it back to me with a dubious air.

"Why don't you tell him so?" I asked, sarcastically; expecting a rebuke at least for my impertinence.

Mainz said nothing; to my surprise, he actually blanched slightly; then stood aside to let me climb down the landing steps.

The light seemed impossibly bright at first, it made me squint. Then there was the coolness of the breeze, just on the comfortable side of chilly. My feet felt strange on the syncrete of the landing ground, and I had only advanced a few metres towards the clearly marked townside exit when a wave of agoraphobia swam over me.

'The sky's too big' I thought in sudden panic. I fought it down, and advanced towards the exit on somewhat unsteady legs, taking deep breaths to calm myself.

The sight of a lanky, insectoid alien in iridescent blue felts coming towards me did nothing for my nervousness, at first.

As it approached me it noticed my slight shrinking and said "Its alright, I'm not carnivorous", in a surprisingly sweet, musical voice.

I smiled, suddenly happy. "Thankyou", I said, with sincerity, and walked steady and smiling towards the exit.

Such inappropriate behaviour for a Peacekeeper! We are instructed never to smile or be friendly to aliens. I didn't give a frelling dren.

Planetside!

The sky was a pale greyish pink, not displeasing, bright rather than dim, and the inconstant breezes carried a wide range of scents, pleasant and unpleasant. I passed out through the perimeter wall of this, just one of the official spaceports dotted around the planet's only settlement.

Once outside, I just stood and stared. Such a jumble of odd-shaped buildings, arranged only nominally into streets. The predominant building style was grey mud-brick style syncrete, squareish, with flat roofs; but there were brassy-looking domed buildings too, and what looked like bell-tents covered with tiling, and indeed, far too many styles to mention. And then the aliens! I saw a pair of blood trackers, and over there a Sheyang, and a few more of the insectoid types, plenty of free Sebaceans, of course, and countless other species that I couldn't identify. But I was not here to stop and stare, I reminded myself, and got out the mapcard.

The mapcard showed only a small part of the Settlement at a time. The route to my authorised destination was tinted in red, and my own position was marked with a black dot. The end of the route which was nearest the spaceport was the only visible end, the other was off the map somewhere. So I headed along the prescribed route, enjoying the sight of the black dot that was me moving along the map, and the pictured streets roll into view over the edge of the map. After I bumped into a furred alien with a gruff voice, who told me to "Watch where you're going, Peacekeeper!", I decided to do just that. Of course, there was nothing to stop me venturing from the prescribed route, save the fear of getting lost.

I had four arns to spend, before having to board the transpoter again, so I decided to dawdle, to watch the scenery. Along the roadsides, at irregular intervals, there were stalls set up, with a variety of goods for sale, some displaying crafted items, pottery, jewellery, that kind of thing: some displaying vegetables, fruits and unnamed things to eat. The soil here was very poor, but that didn't stop a number of farmers scratching out a living, growing things to sell to the huge number of merchants and travellers who came here.

The route proved inadequate only at one point, where, what the map showed to be a square of sand-garden proved to be a mass of shacks and tents so dense that I got briefly lost in the morass, able to see my 'dot' clearly displayed on the map, but unable to find my way through the shantytown walls to the opposite exit from the square. A handsome young blue-skinned woman directed me safely through, and then offered me her sexual services for a small fee. Thankfully, she did not become abusive when I declined.

Eventually, the mapcard showed me that I had arrived at my destination. The red stripe had ended.

'If this is the Lesser Hall, what must the Great Hall be like?' I wondered, awed.

It was by far the largest building I had seen so far. It was also the first building made of natural materials that I had seen since I left my home planet. Dark brownish-grey stone, the door and window rims carved in serpentine patterns; it was of one tall storey, but as wide as five transporters laid end to end. And, to be frank, it was a bit smelly.

I went in through the first entrance that I saw, and was delighted to find that it had a glassed roof! Dirty and grimy in some places, clean and clear in others, it nevertheless let in a flood of light to illuminate the stalls and booths below.

The first herb and spice stall I approached had no safferan, neither had the second, but the Delvian merchant there directed me to another Delvian stallholder who happily sold me what I had come to buy, and took the credit chip to insert into his debiting machine, and, having deducted the price (which I had not asked), returned the card to me.

I looked at the tally screen, and nearly dropped the card. I couldn't believe the amount of credits that were left on the chip! There was almost nineteen thousand! Surely Scorpius hadn't meant me to have all that? Surely. But then I recalled his facility with numbers, compared with my ineptness. It just wasn't possible for him to make such a mistake; so obviously, he must have meant me to have it.

At that precise moment, it didn't occur to me to wonder how come Scorpius could afford to give away such a huge amount of money, because I was too busy thinking of what I could spend it on. Why, I could live comfortably on one of the colonies for two years with this amount.......in fact, I could probably buy passage to one of the colonies with this money and still live comfortably for quite some time. Or I could even travel to another Commerce planet in a different system, and live there. There were always traders willing to transport people, no questions asked, providing they had enough room in their ships to fit them in.

The last time, (which was also the first time) I was on a commerce planet I had contemplated stowing away on just such a merchant ship, with only the fear of what the captain and crew might decide to do with me if I was caught,to prevent my escape. I remember, as a young Peacekeeper, hearing a tale of how a certain young woman, tired of the life of service and discipline stowed away on a merchant ship, and when the Captain discovered her, she sold her to the Scarrans for medical experimentation.

But this time, I could pay for my passage, for Scorpius had given me almost nineteen thousand credits.

And if I bought my passage to another Commerce Planet, in another system, I would never see Scorpius again. At this thought, a pain of tremendous proportions shot through me. No, I could never leave Him, not after all the kindness he had given me; not after all the warmth and support, and tenderness and affirmation that He had given me. Not after Scorpius had taken my bleak and loveless life, and filled it with richness and pleasure. No, Scorpius, I said to Him in my heart, I will never leave you, not until the day I die.

Then I smiled to myself. I'm going shopping!

Tucking the packet of safferan into my backpack, and the credit chip safely into my belt purse, I began to scan the immense and bewildering array of stalls in the Lesser Hall.

I wanted a coat, I decided. It was chilly here, and a darkening in the sky suggested that if nightfall was not approaching, then rain was. And I wanted some sweets, and, most of all I wanted info chips. Fiction ones

Eventually I found a coat that I wanted, one that fitted me loosely and comfortably, but also had an elegant swirl to it. Black leather, very like a Peacekeeper coat in it's basic shape, only a bit wider, and lined with a purple silk-fleece; purple synth-stones sprinkled irregularly along a two-dench strip surrounding the hem, collar and turn back cuffs. It was less than a quarter the price of the safferan. I wore it, and found that, with my Peacekeeper clothes mostly concealed by the sumptuous coat, people's attitudes towards me became generally less wary.

After that I found a sweet stall, and bought myself enough sweets to half-fill my backpack and last me for half a cycle...well, maybe the third part of a cycle. Then I was tempted by some fruit and herb teas, some of them made with natural produce. Now I was ready for some serious chip buying. One problem, nowhere had I seen any chips for sale.

I asked around and soon found out that there was a specialised Media Market a quarter-arn walk from here, and I soon got directions to it. As I still had three arns left, I decided to go and find it. I wondered how many chips I could buy with the credits I had left. Hundreds, thousands, if I wanted.

I decided to try and find the Media Market, I had only one proviso as I set out on my quest - that I would never venture so far from the authorised route that the red line onmy mapcard disappeared from view.

I found the Media Market with very little trouble, but the red line was near the edge of the map. Here I was as myself close to heaven as it is possible to get - outside of my beloved Scorpius's bed. It was an open market, really a selection of covered booths, and canopied stalls; most of which had an index computer at the front to facilitate browsing. Most had hard copies in a variety of formats and alphabets; or you could pay to have selected files downloaded directly into your computer. As I didn't have my personal screen available, I chose the third option, I bought a half-dozen insertable cards, compatible with my screen, and spent a happy arn-and-a-half paying to have files copied onto them.

"Tales of the Ancients?", one unspecified alien said, "Yes, I have many. But, you are a Peacekeeper, aren't you"

"Shhh!" I said, half laughing.

"After contraband? That will be expensive" he/she/it said.

"Not contraband" I said, truthfully "I have permission, so don't even think of stiffing me."

"I wouldn't dream of it, my mates would koney even as I bought it, but, you never know. I decided that, if it was genuine, I would hide it among my mythology files under a different name; knowing that Scorpius was mystified by my interest in mythology, and would never consider browsing among it.

Then, with my desire for acquiring files satiated, and a lifetimes worth of reading stuffed into my backpack, I decided to head slowly back to the spaceport, via the Lesser Hall , so confident that I could find my way back that I didn't bother checking my map chip. Thinking only about the purchases I had already made, and trying to decide if I wanted to spend more credits, or save it. Not that I'd have much of an opportunity to buy something I wanted in Peacekeeper company, I had no interest in Ras'Lak, or in drugs. The inevitable happened, and I found myself lost. My mapcard showed every street, more or less, but not all at once; and I had no idea how to navigate with it. Would I just have to wonder around until the red line re-appeared on the mapcard? No, surely it was just down this street here.... surely.

I was just about to stop a passing stranger and ask for directions when I noticed a familiar, elegant, shiny black figure ahead in the distance. Scorpius!

Somehow I couldn't just call out his name. I decided to speed up and try and catch up with him. So, I hurried my pace, no longer bothering to check my mapcard, for I knew that Scorpius couldn't possibly be lost. We could walk back together, we could maybe stop somewhere and have a meal. But the crowds thickened slightly, enough to slow me down, enough to cause me to fall behind. Way ahead, a laughing group of aliens passed in front of my sight, and when I had passed through them Scorpius had disappeared!

I headed up to the point where I had last seen him, but saw only blank syncrete wall, a fragment or two of dirty paper clinging to it, and some graffiti in an unknown alphabet. What had happened to him, where had he gone?

'There must be a flush wall.' I said to myself, 'or perhaps a trapdoor.' I began to examine the wall more closely, looking for a hairline crack, or a lock recess.

Suddenly the wall opened, and a Sebacean faced me, so did the pulse pistol he was holding. "You'd better have the frelling password" The Sebacean said.

I stood, gaping like a fish, until he grabbed me by the throat with his free hand and dragged me in, before I could react.

The flush door clicked close behind me. And I expected to die.

"Leave her, she is with me" Scorpius said.

I found myself in a small but splendid corridor, it's walls lined with purple and blue ceramic tiles, a frieze of pointed arches decorating it at ceiling height.

Scorpius gave me a dry smile, as he pulled me to his side. "Keep quiet, and remember your position" he said, reprovingly. But I don't think he was really angry with me.

The Sebacean, tall, grey haired, and dressed in skintights of ridged silver-grey, led us through into a blue and cream painted room with a number of stringed frame-chairs in it.

Scorpius refused an invitation to sit down, so I stood with him.

Instead he wordlessly handed the grey man a credit chip.

"Three hundred thousand credits." remarked the man, inserting the chip into a debiting machine which he picked up from an earthenware side-table. "You will soon be one of our most valuable customers."

"Two hundred and ninety thousand, after Natira has taken her cut", corrected Scorpius.

"Yes, of course, and not forgetting the transportation fee".

"Naturally. And how is Natira?" asked Scorpius, not sounding particularly interested.

"Rich", answered the man in grey.

He returned the now emptied credit chip to Scorpius, who tucked it into one of the hidden pockets in his surcoat.

"Take the long way back to the street" instructed the man in grey. "The back exit"

Scorpius led me through a curtained door, into a less colourful back corridor, and out into the alley, without a backward glance.

"Who was that man?" I asked.

"Someone I want you to forget." replied Scorpius, tersely.

"I'll try", I said.

But I did have a question. "Scorpius.." I began.

"Yes, you may ask."

"Is he a spy?"

Scorpius laughed, and turned to me, his eyes amused.

"Would you betray me if he was?".

"Of course not!", I was indignant.

"He's a representative of a shadow bank; I have a small account with them, just in case I should ever lose favour with Peacekeeper Command." Scorpius. "And I want you to forget that, as well".

"Yes" I replied. 'So he's been skimming funds from his budget!' I thought, and then wondered why I was surprised. I had suspected for some time that Scorpius had a hidden agenda.

The alley twisted for a while, and I followed him, not having a clue where we wre going.

We were just about to round the corner onto the main street when something struck me, pushing me roughly into the wall, which impacted on the right side of my head knocking me into a daze.

Scorpius was strong, much stronger than any Sebacean, than any two Sebaceans; but the Scarran was stronger.

My head ached from where it had struck the wall, and my vision was hazy, yet I could hear Scorpius's grunts of pain, and then.. oh Gods.. a choking sound. I shook my head to clear it, stumbled to my feet, and saw.

Scorpius was on the ground, the Scarran squeezing his throat, a hazy smoke of some kind exuding from it's fish-like mouth....

I screamed and launched myself onto the enemy's back, striking at it's face. It completely ignored me, just kept squeezing Scorpius's throat. It was going to kill him first and then turn and kill me.

I never will know quite how I steeled myself to do it, but I did. Grasping the Scarrans forehead, my fingers found it's eyes ..... and dug in.

The Scarran screamed as the rubbery sacs burst under my fingers, and raised itself, spinning around wildly to try and shake me off. The world hazed, and I let go, involuntarily with one hand, to see Scorpius, charging at the Scarran, a small but deadly knife in his hand. He rammed it into the Scarran, who stopped moving and sank down onto his knees. I let go with my other hand, and crawled over to the wall and retched, the contents of the Scarran's eyes sliming my fingers.

The streets had become deserted, no-one had wanted to become involved, but this was for the best.

Scorpius gathered up my spilt packages, put them into my backpack, and dragged me to my feet, quite roughly, and marched me, still reeling, into a side alley. when I was next completely focused, we were in a dim bar; two glasses of iced gworm tea in front of us.

"Well, I did hope we could go and eat somewhere." I quipped.

Scorpius gave a snort of amusement. "You are amazing" he said.

"I do my best", I was feeling elated, now the danger had passed.

Scorpius passed me a length of disposable wipe, and I nearly threw up again as the moistened tissue cut a swathe through the viscous black and green slime congealing on my fingers.

He looked carefully at my right temple. "You'll have a bruise there for a while." he remarked, "Fortunately your hairline will cover it, and the redness of your ear will soon fade."

"Was.. that thing lying in wait for us?" I asked, after I had cleaned my hands.

"Obviously, " said Scorpius, sipping the gworm tea. "the question I would like answered is, did he know I was going to visit the depository, or did he just see me enter by chance and decide to lie in wait for me because the opportunity was too good to waste?"

"I have no idea"

"I didn't expect you to have" He said. "And what about you? How did you come to find me?"

"Coincidence", I answered, and explained.

Scorpius then said. "Of course, you can't mention the incident to anyone, or I would have to think of a lie to explain my presence in that part of town. As it is, if the natives haven't sold the corpse for spare parts, the presence of one dead Scarran in a crime ridden settlement would not automatically be attributed to me". He gave me a warm glance. "Or to you".

He clasped my hand briefly, warmly. "Without your timely intervention, we would almost certainly be spare parts ourselves by now."

I acknowledged this with a small bow.

Scorpius and I drank our iced tea and presently made a meal of two "Don't Ask" skewered kebabs and roka chips, washed down with high-calcium carbonated water.

Then we walked back to the Lesser Trading Hall in companionable silence, as dusk and the light rain (which had been threatening for arns) began to fall.

There I bought myself two spider-silk shirts as he examined some metal artefacts of unknown provenance, before going onto a booth that sold used circuits. And there he told me that he would like us to arrive back at the transporter separately. I didn't ask him for an explanation, but clasped his hand discretely in parting; then followed the redline route back to the spaceport. In spite of the ordeal of the fight in the alley, and the horror of it's lethal outcome, I felt good. happy.

You don't seem pleased to see me, Mainz", I quipped, as I passed him on the way to the rear cabin.

He gave me an honest reply, with a rueful countenance. "I had a bet that you would run away with the credits".

"Really? Who with?"

"With Niem" was his response.

I was surprised and gratified, so Niem didn't hold me in complete contempt at all!

The transporter returned to the carrier on time, with a full complement of passengers. Upon it's arrival in the landing bay, Scorpius went off to the Captain's chamber, where he was to have his evening meal

I returned to Scorpius's quarters, and shut myself in to my coffin-like bed, turning up both the light and the air-conditioning; and proceeded to copy my newly purchased files into my personal screen's large-capacity storage. To my delight "How to Subvert the State" proved entirely genuine, as far as I could tell with a 500 microt scan.

Later that evening, long after we had left the Commerce Planet, I lay on the big bed with Scorpius in post-coital bliss. I licked lovingly at his eyelid and cheek, drawing sweet little murmurs from his luscious mouth.

"Did you give me all that money to see if I would run away?" I asked him, presently.

Scorpius put his arms around me. "I didn't believe that you would 'run away', not for an instant. I know what's in your heart, my lovely." and he kissed my forehead tenderly.

"Then why?" , I said, "why give me all that money, why did you make it so easy for me to leave you?"

"So that you would know that you were staying with me of your own free will;" Scorpius explained. "To demonstrate to you that although you had the opportunity to escape, you would rather stay with me. So that you would never come to see me as your jailer. Only as your lover".

"And my boss", I added.

Scorpius smiled "With your service record, and your hot temper, my lovely, how else could I keep you alive, except as my personal servant? As I believe I said to you only a few days ago.. what you could have been if you had been given proper training, if you had been allowed to study, and rise. If it hadn't been for your last escape attempt, I believe you would occupy a very high rank now. Either as a technician or as a soldier"

'But I despise the Peacekeepers too much for that.' I thought.

Scorpius stroked my cheek "I know you hate the Peacekeepers, I know you feel safer hiding in the shadows, and, perhaps you can serve me better that way. Yet, I would have you acquire all the skills you can. "

"If you hate the Peacekeepers so much, I am surprised that you don't hate me". He said, after we had kissed for several more microts.

"But, you've been so kind to me", I protested, "And, and I.. want you so badly".

Scorpius smiled, and grazed my cheek with his tender mouth.

"Yet, the work I will be doing on the Gammak Base will benefit the Peacekeepers immeasurably, if it succeeds." Scorpius gazed at the ceiling, "which, providing I am given the resources that I need, I shall do."

I must admit I wasn't particularly happy with the aims of his work, the military edge that wormhole technology would give to the Peacekeepers would enable them to spread their tyranny throughout far more systems than they now governed, and make resistance even more difficult... and yet, if the Scarrans developed it first, if they got the edge. As many, if not more people would suffer. I remembered the murderous assault upon my beloved and shuddered.

Scorpius sat up and turned to me, and took my upper arms in his hands. His face was grave.

"I need you to promise me something." He said.

"What?", I asked, my mouth dry. I said, with equal gravity; "I promise I will never try to hinder your work, Scorpius".

His slate-grey eyes bored into mine; and then, he kissed my forehead. "Thankyou" he said, his voice a soft, caressing whisper.

END