More Terrible Than Chains Page 2

  “You’re the one with the rank, not me,” Forest demurred.

  “As the mate of the Captain of this vessel, not to mention my co-wife, you’re entitled to nothing but the best also. You have several cubs to look after too, so you’re going to need all these rooms,” Rosepetal countered.

  “You won’t get any argument out of me there, Rose! My travels with Midnight were pretty comfortable, but just adequate for taurs like us. I’m more than happy to have this much room.”

  Rosepetal’s voice purred with amusement. “Pegasus is a pretty big ship. We can spare the space.”

  “I noticed how big it was. I’m going to have to study the layout of the decks to make sure I don’t get lost! I don’t have the advantage of the regular crew in being familiar with Fleet ships.”

  “I’ll assign a yeoman to you to make sure you get orientated and the cubs are adequately cared for in your absence. In fact, I might as well assign Yeoman d’Armand. She already looks after my daughter and keeps Kayla from getting underfoot when I have to be on duty. She’s very good with children.”

  “That sounds like a very good idea to me. I’ll get started on the unpacking in the meantime. Hmm, have you seen our elusive mate anywhere? I thought he might be here when I arrived.”

  Rosepetal smiled. “Knowing Boyce, you’ll probably find him down in Engineering, going over the upgrades personally. You know him. You can promote the man out of the engineering department, but you can’t take it out his blood!” Both laughed at that. They knew how much he still enjoyed taking a hands-on approach to everything, but it undoubtedly made the regular crew nervous when a Fleet Admiral came digging into equipment that they’d already checked over.

  Rosepetal turned to leave, but paused at the doorway to say one more thing. “Just a reminder, Forest. Unlike the Star Corps vessel you were on previously, this is a military ship, and discipline is much tighter. When you’re on duty, and pretty much anytime you’re outside these staterooms, I am Commander Silpurr, not your co-mate Rosepetal. Don’t presume on familiarity unless it is offered first. If I give you an order, it is not subject to debate or vote. The same should be true with Boyce, although he’s been guilty of many appalling lapses of his own, but when you’re his rank you can get away with a lot more!”

  “It’s okay, Rose, I understand. Hopefully I won’t slip up,” Forest replied soberly.

  Rosepetal nodded, then left the room, the door whooshing shut automatically behind her.

  Forestwalker looked around and realised that the room was too quiet. ‘Now what are those little troublemakers up to?’ shi thought, then headed for the bedroom in search of the twins.

  ***********************************

  Rosepetal, or more precisely Commander Silpurr now, headed for her office. Her mind was turning over the ramifications of having Forestwalker on the crew this mission, but she didn’t foresee any major dramas. However, to forestall some possible problems, she made sure that the first thing that she did when she got to her office was to contact Yeoman d’Armand and assign cub-minding duties to her for the first watch. She then picked up the PADD laying on the desk, displaying the roster of new crewpersons assigned to the Pegasus. She’d gone over the records of the new people and had been satisfied that they would fit in well in their new assignments… all except one. The Pegasus had need of a new Assistant Chief Medical Officer since their previous one had been promoted to another ship. Doctor M’Lai Saarath had come with high recommendations for her medical abilities, but with a personal history of strange incidents that had followed her from ship to ship. The trouble was that most of them were sealed under Personal Privacy, leaving Rosepetal with no information to go on when evaluating her new medical officer, and why so many had frequent problems with her. Therefore she had left orders for the doctor to report to her office before commencement of the voyage so that she could do a personal evaluation, and she was due very soon. Rosepetal was reviewing M’Lai’s qualifications when the door chimed.

  “Enter!” she ordered.

  The door slid quietly open to reveal a Caitian female, the doctor Rosepetal had been expecting… only not quite what she had preconceived. There was nothing unusual about the tan fur that covered her evenly as far as could be seen, and her long, glossy reddish-brown hair and tail-tuft were attractive but quite normal. However, while Rosepetal’s height of 157 centimetres (5’ 2”) was very tall for a Caitian, M’Lai towered at 193cm (6’ 4”), a totally unnatural height for any Caitian. Nevertheless, Rosepetal had seen tall felinoids before, both Terran morph species and the even taller Rakshani, so that initial surprise was quickly put aside for the sheer disbelief of M’Lai’s other outstanding attributes. All Rosepetal could think of was the human term because Caitian didn’t really have an equivalent – she was absolutely stacked! The medical uniform that she wore was obviously straining to contain breasts that simply did not grow that big on Caitians normally. Rosepetal had a modest bust by human standards, yet in the upper sizes by Caitian standards. She felt totally flat-chested next to M’Lai though. This hardly seemed to be a Caitian; more like an amazon!

  M’Lai waited patiently, quite used to the reaction from Caitians and Terrans alike. When she felt that the commander had gotten enough of an eyeful, she moved over to the desk, saluted, and said, “Lieutenant M’Lai Saarath reporting, sir!”

  Rosepetal shook off the shock she was feeling. She had a suspicion that she already knew part of the reason why trouble followed this person. “Sit down, lieutenant. I need to discuss a few things with you.”

  M’Lai nodded and sat down on the indicated seat, slipping her tail through the slot designed for people with that appendage in mind. “If I may, sir, I think I can save us both a lot of time and explain a few things about my… unusual nature.”

  Rosepetal glanced at the uninformative PADD that she was holding, then put it aside, crossed her arms on the desk in front of her and leaned forward. Her ears swivelled to focus on M’Lai. “I’m listening.”

  M’Lai took a deep breath to start a familiar story. “Until the time that we females start the growth spurt that signals the beginning of our adolescence, I was an absolutely normal child. That soon changed though when my parents realised that I was growing much faster than everyone else. At first they were pleased that I was growing into such a big strong adult. That changed when I didn’t stop growing, and neither did my breasts. When my first estrus came, we all knew something was definitely wrong. I nearly went out of my mind with sexual desire. The stress nearly killed me, and only prompt medical attention saved my life. While recovering though, I was subjected to a battery of tests to discover the cause of my condition. They eventually discovered a benign tumour in my brain that had been overstimulating the gland that controls growth. Because of its location, doing something about the tumour was excessively risky, but eventually they were able to devise a procedure to deal with it, but not before I reached this height.”

  “And that bust size?” enquired Rosepetal.

  “Yes,” M’Lai acknowledged. “My height wasn’t the only thing that was greatly enhanced. And yet, my physical attributes are not my biggest problem. Commander, the information that you haven’t found out about me, because it’s locked behind Privacy protocols, all revolves around my biggest problem – I am a clinical nymphomaniac.” M’Lai saw Rosepetal’s eyes open wide in surprise and let her digest this information for a moment before continuing. “Parts of my brain were affected also, mostly in the pleasure centre. That area is about three times the size it should be, and any sort of sexual stimulation has a far stronger effect on me than for any other Caitian. Before we knew it, I was hooked on the ecstasy of sex. I literally crave it constantly.”

  “How can you function like that though?” Rosepetal asked, genuinely concerned. “Couldn’t the medics do something about it?”

  “Of course they did. I had several options. Firstly, surgery to reduce the part of the brain that was doing this to me. The dangers are obvious – damage to areas that shouldn’t be touched, not enough done, too much, or worst of all, total loss of the ability to feel pleasure.”

  “The skill of brain surgeons is quite great. Surely the risk was trivial?”

  “While their skill is great, they’d never dealt with something quite like this before, so there was plenty of room for error. Besides, I didn’t really like this option at all.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because to me it would be depriving me of something positive. How would you feel if someone took away over half your ability to feel pleasure?” Rosepetal shuddered at the very idea. “Sure, I had far more than was normal, but to me this was normal. I might lack control, but by the Goddess, I really enjoy it.”

  Rosepetal wasn’t entirely sure that M’Lai shouldn’t have tried the procedure anyway, but obviously she hadn’t, so, “What other options were there? Drugs?”

  “Yes, exactly. The medics eventually found a combination of drugs and hormone treatments that would dampen my sexual desire without destroying my ability to feel pleasure. I have an implanted drug-delivery device that delivers the medication as required, and will need to use it for the rest of my life unless some new procedure is found. Even so, I walk the knife-edge between control and total lack of constraint. Too much of the drugs impairs my brain functions, so I must be judicious in their use.”

  “I’m guessing that occasionally you have slipped up and that accounts for the… incidents on the other starships?”

  “Unfortunately, you’re correct. Times of exceptional stress coming at a bad time of my sexual cycle can overload the system, and once that happens, I no longer have any inhibitions and my judgement is no longer very rational And while some captains have understood and sympathised with my problem, they’ve all fel
t that I’d be better off on some other ship than theirs.”

  “How did you end up as a medical doctor though? And in Star Fleet?” Rosepetal asked curiously.

  “Not surprisingly, my constant trips to the hospital to deal with the tumour, etcetera, got me interested in the medical profession. However, it’s because this was the biggest hospital of the capital city, Kt'trr'nass, it was also used for sick visiting aliens. I saw my first human there, soon followed by many other species. I was absolutely fascinated by them, and this eventually led me to pursue a career in medicine specialising in exobiology. I did exceptionally well, which attracted the attention of Star Fleet which offered me a position as a starship medical officer. I took it immediately. It was a dream come true for me.”

  “That makes sense. And I suppose being a medic allows you to monitor your own condition better too?”

  “Yes, that’s true,” M’Lai agreed.

  “Well, that isn’t enough for this ship, lieutenant,” Rosepetal said sternly. “You will apprise the Chief Medical Officer of your medical needs and what is necessary to maintain your control. While I can’t order you to disclose subjects specifically covered by Privacy protocols, I strongly urge you to take advantage of doctor-patient confidentiality and fully inform Dr Kelly of all aspects your condition.” She added to herself, ‘It’s a good thing Dr Kelly is a female also!’

  “I’ll do that, sir,” M’Lai agreed, unsurprised by the orders.

  “Good. I need to be able to rely on all my crew, and I don’t want to have any incidents like they had on the other ships. I don’t expect miracles of you, M’Lai, but I do demand that you do everything within your ability to see that your problem does not interfere with your duties. Is there anything else that can be done to this end?”

  “As a matter of fact, the counsellor on the last starship I was assigned to had recommended trying martial arts as a form of self-discipline just before I was transferred. He felt that it could help supplement the drugs, and help at those rare times when things went wrong.”

  Rosepetal mulled this over in her mind, then nodded. “I agree. Therefore I’m going to assign you to classes with our Chief of Security. Lieutenant Commander Midnight holds these classes daily after first shift. I expect you to attend every day for the first week, until or unless the commander recommends otherwise.”

  “Understood. Is that all, sir?” M’Lai queried.

  Rosepetal nodded. “I think that should do for now. I think I have a handle on you, but I’ll be keeping my eye on you.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, lieutenant, I’ll just be getting up to speed on all your quirks, just as I do with any other crewmember. I think you’ll find that you’re hardly the only unusual character that we have on this ship. The Pegasus seems to attract some oddballs for some reason, but the crew is stronger for its diversity. Welcome aboard.” Rosepetal rose from her seat, holding up her left hand palm-forward in the Caitian manner, rather than the official Star Fleet salute.

  M’Lai stood also and placed her left hand against Rosepetal’s. “Thank you, Commander. Believe me, I’ll be doing my best.”

  Rosepetal nodded, then lowered her arm. “Dismissed!” M’Lai turned and headed for the door. As it slid open, Rosepetal added, “And please, do try to get a uniform that fits a little less… snugly.”

  ***********************************

  Leanna’s rut had been finally satisfied, to her immense relief, although fucking a corpse was only moderately bad on the list of the least pleasant things she’d had to do in her life. Only then did she push the comm button that would bring the paramedics to the mansion. She then took the glass of water that was by the bed and emptied the remaining contents into the en suite bathroom's sink, replacing it with fresh water. She made no attempt to hide the pills though. They may have been the cause of his death, but her master had provided them, not her. She knew what they were though, and she also knew that they were illegal because they had serious side-effects; lethally serious. That she was unlikely to survive for long without him was almost inconsequential to her, but she wasn’t quite ready to give up her dreams now that her greatest hurdle had been overcome. She heard the sirens of the approaching emergency vehicle and went to meet its crew at the door. As she opened it, she shifted her expression to that of a confused, dimwitted sex slave. Two human paramedics jogged up to the door with a load of equipment.

  “Who called for paramedics? What is wrong?” he demanded of the little fennec slave.

  “Leanna call,” she replied in the baby-talk typical of exotic sex slaves. “Master said he sick. Master not wake up now.” Let the humans think she was little more than an idiot fuck toy. They wouldn’t even dream of the fennec fox being smart enough to even think of acting against her master. Even now they were being distracted by her exotic nature as she was still completely nude. Slaves rarely were allowed to wear more than a breechcloth or shorts, and often nothing at all in their master’s home.

  The first human tore his eyes off Leanna, then ordered, “Take us to him!”

  Leanna did so, offering no other information or help. They quickly realised that he was beyond reviving. “Bloody idiot pet must have waited too long to call us,” said the one in charge.

  “That’s what you get when you rely on animals instead of humans. Hey, get a look at these!” He picked up the bottle of pills. “Looks like ‘stallyons’. I think we’ve found our cause of death.”

  “Damned spoiled brats. They have everything, but they’re still not satisfied. Oh well, better call in the cops. Take a few blood samples for them to test.”

  Leanna smiled to herself. The paramedics were making the case for her. Now her only problem was what they would do with her and the other household slaves now that their master was dead. She doubted that it could be anywhere near as bad as serving her deceased master though.

  ***********************************

  Forest had learned when Midnight finished hir shift, and shi wanted to see hir about a minor matter before shi started the martial arts class. As usual, Midnight was trying to convince hir mate to join the class too.

  “You know I’m a lover, not a fighter, dear,” Forest demurred with a sly smile.

  “A fat lot of good that did you when dealing with that nutcase with the bow last month,” Midnight replied seriously.

  “Next time I promise to hide rather than attack, okay?”

  Midnight rolled hir eyes and was about to argue more when the first of hir new students arrived. It was difficult to tell who was more surprised. Midnight had never met such a big Caitian before despite having met quite a lot during hir years of service. Forestwalker, who hadn’t met any other Caitians besides Rosepetal before, merely looked at her curiously, and admired her gorgeous bust. M’Lai was wearing a bodysuit that allowed flexibility and some protection, but left little else to the imagination. M’Lai had seen chakats before, but remarkably had never had direct interaction with one yet. However, she was familiar not only with their biology, but she also knew their tactile nature and proclivities. As she felt the familiar feelings welling within her, she wondered if Commander Silpurr had made a mistake assigning her to this class.

  Midnight turned back to Forestwalker and gave hir a hug. “We’ll talk about this more later. I’ll be done in about an hour if you want to have dinner together.”