Page 28 of Bred

I don’t know what’s inside those torpedoes. It takes a few minutes as they travel deeper inside before they detonate with twin flashes of bright light and colorful cloud. The entire mass moves in space, contorting and contracting like a real sentient being. Does it like it? Does it hate it? Does it hurt? Is it feeling pleasure?

The nebula is growing, pulsing, expanding. I sense nervousness on the bridge. I’m wondering why.

Talon’s eyes brighten. “Helmsman, do you have thrusters ready?”

“Yes, Captain!”

“We should leave now, sir.”

I don’t see who is speaking. I’m too busy staring.

“In a moment, Mr. Esar,” Talon says. “I want to be certain we are successful.”

“The nebula will destabilize if we are. We don’t want to be within several lightyears when that happens.”

“I’m aware of the effects we’ll have on the nebula if we’re successful, but a gentleman always stays until he is certain the lady is satisfied.”

“Sir, the satisfaction in this case would carry enough radiation to...”

“Enough, Mr. Esar,” Talon snaps.

“Sir, we’re detecting instabilities...”

The nebula is rapidly changing shape and size and even I am starting to share the crew’s anxieties about being so close as what was a pretty little pocket of swirling colored gases in space becomes a writhing behemoth producing great arms of churning material.

“Let’s get out of here! Full power!” Talon finally gives the order, a second too late.

The ship rocks back and forth violently, throwing the bridge crew around the command space. I am no exception to the chaos. I lose my footing and am hurled from where I’m standing nearly all the way across the bridge. The only thing that stops me slamming into the screens are Talon’s hands catching me around the waist. He hauls me back into the captain’s chair, holding onto me tightly as the ship bucks around in the wake of the nebula’s orgasm.

“We should really get some seatbelts for this thing,” he drawls in my ear, as my fear becomes exhilaration and the bucking of the ship becomes a ride.

Talon is not afraid. He’s not even worried. He lets out a deep laugh, a sound of pure joy and I feel his excitement course through me. There is a sense of momentous achievement at having seeded the nebula, seeing the beginnings of new stars and therefore new planets, new life taking place before my eyes.

Now that we are fully underway, there is a sense of incredible acceleration along with the turbulence. I know we travel at great speeds, but I have never felt the full power of the vessel until now. It charges through space like a stallion and we are riding along with it. Suddenly, it seems as though the Virility itself has a purpose, a desire, maybe even some kind of sentience.

Weeks ago, if you’d asked me if a spaceship could be conscious, I would have denied even the chance of it, but my conversations with Luca have led me down a path of thought that makes me wonder if perhaps it is possible for a machine like this, one so complex, one with a purpose, might qualify as being alive.

“That was actually hot,” I admit when we slow down and compose ourselves.

“Of course it was. And now you see the appeal,” he smiles broadly, his expression rakish and proud. “Millions, likely billions of lives will arise from that act.”

“Wow.”

“Indeed.”

He drops a kiss on my lips. “I’ve never done this with a lover on board,” he says. “It’s quite invigorating to share the experience.”

I feel myself blush. I am his lover, as well as his captive, and there is warmth in his voice, real connection. He is proud, but his pride is coming from being able to share what he does with me. I realize, with no small amount of shock, that he cares what I think. He wants me to approve.

This is a moment of vulnerability for him, and I am swept up in it with him. I wrap my arms around his neck and I kiss him back. This is madness. I don’t know if he’s my captor or not anymore. I don’t know if I am captive. I don’t know what I want. Who I am. All I know is that my body cries out for him, and that I will not be satisfied until he takes me thoroughly and completely.

Fortunately for me, he does just that.

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