Chapter 8
Lost In The Mist © 2015 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 8.
+60 days.
I handed the joint back to Jimmy, feeling the weed settling in. I was behind the counter of his booth, lounging on a stool, taking a well-needed break from all the repairs I'd been making on my ship.
"So then, I tried using a squeegee, and the stuff ate it!" I busted up, we laughed hard together. I was explaining to him my disaster cleaning up the nanobots a couple of months prior.
"That's hilarious. So... when can we go for a spin?" His silver eyes were still disconcerting, but I was getting used to them. He had said they were great for making eye contact, I certainly believed it. I saw him wag his tail while he stared at me, and I knew the unspoken thoughts in them. Don't just take me for a spin, take me with you.
I shook my muzzle. "Soon. There's still a lot of problems. They say ships are never complete, merely abandoned."
Jimmy took on a lopsided grin. "Wow, that's deep." He suddenly sat up a little straighter, eyes even less focused than before. "Hey. Guess who's here?"
I looked around, seeing the usual crowd milling about. I could swear that these same people just aimlessly walked around the labyrinthine maze, day in and day out. I didn't see anyone near us.
"No, stupid. Here, at Yoshi. Mist. He just pinged me."
"Mist?" My grin vanished, and then came back even bigger. "Well, I'll just have to go say hi to him now, won't I?"
"Yeah, um. You sure you know him? Cuz, uh." He paused. "I've asked around. Some people said he's tied into some slavery networks. Not exactly the best person to know." Hah! I couldn't wait to pass that on to Zach, show him how well his espionage was staying under wraps.
"I'm not surprised you heard that. There's a lot more. I'd like to tell you, but. Just like my last boyfriend, there's certain things I can't talk about." I grabbed the joint and took another big hit, exhaling the smoke up into the air through my nose. "Where's he at? What docking station?"
"Thirteen, Level 2. You going to go see him now? I'll tell him." Jimmy reached under his counter and brought out a leather strap. "Wanna borrow my leash?" He pointed it at my collar with a big grin.
I laughed, pondering what Zach might say about that. "No, no. Not with him. In fact, I should probably take this off, even." I started fumbling with the buckle on my collar, and then hesitated. "No, wait. Fuck it! He can just bite my ass if he has a problem with it."
Jimmy shook his muzzle. "I don't think he'll have a problem with it. You apparently know him better than me, but... stuff like that was actually what piqued his interest in you. I sorta... told him about what's in your sheath. We were talking about 'sites, and I asked him if he could sell me one. He said he would do better than that, and give me one for free, but that it was a package deal. He said I wouldn't like what it came with." He paused, "I'm rambling..."
I considered that for a moment, trying to make some sense through the haze of the THC. "Well, he's trying to find out where they come from, that much I can say. He's very interested in finding suppliers."
"Him and me both..." He stared down at my sheath and panted.
I gripped his ears and forced him to look me in the eyes, trying not to laugh. "Jimmy, you don't want one. Ok? Trust me!" I pushed his muzzle away and ruffled his headfur, turning to leave. He was like the little brother I never had.
"Hey." He held the joint out. It was a lot smaller than when we had started. "One for the hyperdrive lane." I took it, burning my finger pads trying to get the last bit. I flicked it into a drainage grate.
As I walked away, I realized I was going in the wrong direction, towards level 1. I came back and looked all serious as I walked by his booth. He knew I was retarded and pointed at me while laughing. I almost fell over, trying to hold it in, whee.
I rang the airlock door outside 13-2.
A deep voice answered, "yeah?" I didn't recognize it, but there were a lot of new crew on The Hahkota.
"It's Keman." The airlock sprang open.
I wandered through, thinking about what I wanted to tell Zach. A part of me was still angry with him, but another part of me was happy. It felt good that I was respected so much. A part of me was even glad to be away, I had always wanted to rebuild a starship. But every single part of me craved Sinclair like a steak after a week of fast. I missed him so badly. Sometimes, he was all I could think about, and I was inconsolable, feeling such a great loss without his instruction. Jimmy had been there for me during those times, listening and comforting me. I kept the truth of the matters vague, but I could still talk about being owned. Being apart. He never hesitated closing up his shop to take me back to his small apartment in Yoshi. He'd get me blitzed, we would talk it through, and I felt better.
I was still very high, and I knew I was going to talk a lot, that was for sure. Zach would smell the weed on me, and he was the type who avoided recs. Too little stability in his past to accommodate them. But I didn't care. I'd start out angry, and then let on how happy I was.
I looked around, and noticed I wasn't actually on The Hahkota.
Uh oh.
I suddenly felt incredibly stupid and embarrassed; it felt like I had just walked into the bitch's restroom. I quickly did a 180 and hoped I could leave before the owner noticed. The inner door slid shut right in front of me. It clicked, status lights winked red, locked. I turned around and put my back up against it, raising my field of view to stare at: not-Zach.
He was certainly the biggest Siberian Husky Rhenthar I had ever seen in my life, easily as tall as Sinclair was. His fur was stark white with jet-black markings pouring down over his muzzle, like a puddle of ink had spilled on his head. Intelligent green eyes the color of a welding laser stared at me from within the dark.
"So you're Keman," he said. His voice was deep, and his scent was pleasantly dominant. "My my, a wolf. How unique." His gaze followed every inch of my body, and his eyes widened when they converged on my collar. I tried to think coherently through the weed. I've insulted him by walking in here, like this. He's locked the door, should I say something about that? I couldn't decide, my paranoia was doing all the thinking. I worried. How presumptuous it must look with me walking in here with a collar on. I tried to play it cool, it was all I could do.
"Hi, you must be Mist. I'm so sorry, barging in here like this! I thought you were. Someone else." He was still staring at my collar, and I pointed up at it. "This? It's nothing, um..." A lot of Rhenthar were highly offended by such things. C'mon, think of an excuse!
Mist walked up to me before I could say anything more. He passed right through my personal boundary of comfort to stand close to me, well within the invisible wall of protection all Rhenthar have. I stared up into his eyes in surprise, feeling the urge to look away, but not daring to. I pushed my back harder against the door, thinking that was a topic I needed to bring up, soon.
"Yes," he said. "It is nothing." He tugged on the "D" ring at the front, the part a leash attaches to. "A collar without a lock isn't really a collar at all, it's just a toy. Still," he turned it so that it was perfectly centered on my neck. "It gives my eyes a taste, tells me what you like. And I find that... absolutely fascinating."
I waffled between flattery and genuine fear. The combination was pushing my buttons, oh yes, and the weed had me horny in its grip. He was a Husky, a really big one, and that did it for me more than anything. Maybe it's because that was the first breed of Rhenthar I had ever seen, but his was my favorite. I stole a glance down at his big sheath, and my tail came up between my legs to cover mine. I stared back into his eyes, big pools of green with pupils large enough to see my reflection in. I swallowed hard, and put my ears sideways, finally looking away. The first step in submission.
He smiled, his scent turned approving. "Makes me wonder what other things you like. Activities which you might enjoy, perhaps things we could enjoy together." His paw knocked my tail out of the way and he gripped my sheath down at the base. He suddenly pulled his hand away, quickly, and his eyes narrowed. "You really are 'sited," he said, shaking his head. "I figured Jimmy was just full of so much shit. Who put that on you?"
"Er. Nobody I want to talk about, right now." The topic made me defensive and embarrassed. I kinda liked the way things were going, a moment ago. "It's not that bad, I have a way around it."
Mist barked a long, deep laugh, holding his paw against my ribs to steady himself. He leaned some of his weight through it, pinning me to the door. Not that bad? And you have a way around it? Oh, that... is a terrible crime, in the making." He growled for a moment, a deep sound that I felt as much as heard. He shook his head in disbelief. "Forgive my anger. You're not mine to punish. But if you were, Keman. I would make very sure you lacked such liberties," he said, sniffing inches from my muzzle. I felt embarrassed, and his eyes opened wider, dawning recognition. "You like that idea?"
Of course I did. I had almost thrown the stimulator Sin had given me, out through the airlock, numerous times. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. While I loved not being able to paw myself off, I loved being able to paw, just a little bit more.
"Um. Er. Hurf." My ears went flat, I couldn't lie. I stared down at his deep chest to avoid his eyes. Submission felt like a long lost emotion, and I was welcoming it back. His attitude set my sheath on fire. Yes, I've been bad, punish me. I almost said it.
"Keman. There's something here I need to show you." He put some real growl into it, this time, and immediately turned around to walk deeper into his ship, giving me no opportunity to object. He barked, "this way..." as he vanished around the corner.
I stared after him, feeling my heart drive both my brain and my dick. The door behind me was still locked, I could ruin the mood and show him that I was some damaged freak who always needed a way out. Or. I could go and see what it was that he wanted to show me. Which was probably the whole length of his prick. My tail flitted around at the idea, it had been a long while. I followed his command, and went after him.
He was waiting beside a door, and after he punched in a few buttons on a control panel next to it, it slid sideways. I narrowed my gaze, staring up at him, knowing that I smelled like distrust.
"I didn't tell you to enter. Only look. What do you see, Keman?" I sought answers in those green eyes of his, but saw only dominance, pleasure, and lust. Three tasty emotions.
I turned my head and looked inside. It was just a small room with a bed in the middle, pressed up against one wall. I saw that the bed was covered with something that had the sheen of a tight weave, resistant to claws and fluids, perhaps. I saw no pillows or blankets, but there were a few things sitting on it. A thick black hose was coiled up near the foot, it strangely entered the mattress at the end. Near the head was an odd-looking device, primarily composed of two curved pieces of metal hinged together at one end. It was butterflied open, with thick glossy black rubber coating the sides that faced each other. A peculiar yellow tube trailed out from between the halves, about a foot long and as thick as my little finger. Two stubby, black projections stuck out next to where the tube attached, each a few inches long. I turned and looked at Mist, noticing the intensity of his gaze. He was watching my reaction closely.
I shrugged. "So you're a little kinky, too?" I smiled, showing some white.
Mist gripped my shoulder, digging his claws in a little too tightly for my comfort. "Unbelievable. All that. Means nothing, to you? You've never seen a setup like this before?"
I splayed my ears in discomfort. "Um. No?" I looked again, and this time I noticed a collar right next to the metal device. It was split open, and a chill shot down my spine when I saw that it had gold nubs facing inwards all along the inside. The hallway grew brighter as my pupils expanded, but I tried to cover up my reaction. It was hard to do, feeling his claws on my shoulder like that.
I turned my attention to them, then his eyes. My scent had changed in just a few seconds, and the look I gave him said that if he didn't take his paw off me, he was going to lose some of those fingers. Gimme those fingers...
He read me well, and let go with a disarming smile. But the curiosity didn't leave his eyes, nor all the scrutiny and thoughts that were in them. The weed was wearing off, and things were beginning to feel awkward. That was a slaver collar, and didn't Jimmy say something about Mist being a part of some slave networks?
Maybe I needed to get out of here, and I would go through him on the way to the door, if need be. I wasn't looking for another owner, I already had one, as far as I was concerned.
"Hey... you know, I'm working on a ship right now. I left some repair processes going, how about we meet up at another time?" I boldly reached forward to squeeze the base of his sheath, which was firm in my paw, he grunted. "Maybe you can show me what all that's about?" I hooked a thumb toward the bed.
He pressed a button on the control panel, and the door slid shut. Along with it, my fears. He flashed me a million credit smile, or perhaps it was something more predatory. I was trying not to look, as if it didn't matter.
"Of course. Maybe we can try this again, under different circumstances. Maybe when you're in a more... malleable mindset." His scent of disappointment was obvious, yet welcome. If it had been anger, I'd have run. I would later realize I should have ran, anyway.
I followed him back to the airlock, keeping my distance and glad to be behind him. Something about him didn't feel right. My ship had only cosmetic repairs left, for the most part. It was time to put Yoshi into my radiation wake.
The outer airlock opened and Mist gestured towards Yoshi's transit tunnel and beyond. As I walked by him, he reached out and ruffled my headfur. It felt good, his touch calmed my defenses, made me realize the weed's paranoia was probably leading me down the wrong path. Now I'll go back to my ship, alone, and paw myself off. I'll be angry with myself for missing out on some fun.
"See you around?" He asked, smelling hopeful.
I nodded and wagged my tail, turning to look at him with something lascivious, a look he could remember me by. I felt something sharp jam into my neck, a high frequency screech ripped through my nerves, and my legs gave out. I fell to the floor in a pile of fur and bones. From the tips of my toes to my fingers, everything shook. I could barely move, I glanced around in shock, trying to call for help. My vocal cords twitched like the rest of me, I couldn't make them function.
I spotted one of Yoshi's security cameras, and though my vision was blurry, I thought I saw it swivel towards me. Then Mist dragged me inside by my feet and the airlock snapped shut. I kept trying to pull up my wetware's comm suite, but I cycled way past it into other areas. Windows were opening rapidly, further obscuring my vision. Notepads, helpfiles, random letters and numbers skittering across all of them. Mist hooked a paw under my collar and slid me towards the room I knew we were headed to. My wetware finally coredumped, flashing a few fatal errors before winking out. Fuck!
The door slid open and I choked more when he picked me up by my collar. Biothane was made of nylon-reinforced polyurethane, it wasn't going to break. He dropped me onto the bed's spongy surface, on my back. I sank into the surface, still twitching and trying to reach what he had stuck in my neck. My claws only brushed at it, then my throat, shoulder, and my other arm. I grabbed at anything and nothing.
"See. That you didn't recognize this, at first, just blew my mind," he said, uncoiling the black hose and forcing its end up against the tip of my sheath. The hose wrinkled, collapsing under vacuum, then it slid inside, around my whole dick. I felt it lock in place behind my knot, then some sort of catheter forced its way up inside me, quickly reaching my bladder. The parasite twisted around in discomfort, but the pain it created was only distant compared to what had my attention.
"That says to me, you're someone very special... someone has put some serious money into 'siting you. And then you act so... normal! About it all. It's almost like you were made for this. I don't know who let you go, or how you got away, but this is where you belong, oh yes." I was still shuddering, but I dimly became aware of my bladder emptying.
I pawed at Mist, struggling to push him away. My efforts were weak and disorganized, he only laughed. "But, then you saw something in here you recognized! And I think I know what it was, yes I do... quit that!" He punched me hard in the stomach, and I gasped, trying to curl into a ball.
He had no trouble unfolding me, I had no strength to stop him, and his muscles were huge. I grabbed his wrist, though, trying with my other hand to claw out his eyes while he pried at my jaws, forcing them open. Ungh, no! I couldn't even bite down, trying to keep my muzzle shut. I saw him pinch the end of the yellow tube between two fingers until it crunched. It slowly expanded into the shape of a ball at the end, my eyes went wider with fear.
He took the ball and shoved it into my mouth, feeding it towards the back of my throat. I could only barely bite down, and the ball was blocking my airway, I couldn't draw any air with it there.
"Swallow, Keman... be a good boy... swallow for Mist. You can do it..." He rubbed my throat and squeezed my muzzle shut.
I couldn't even pull air through my nose. I coughed and sputtered, he pushed harder on the tube, and it edged further into my airway. I heaved and gagged, coughing, almost swallowing it, just to get it out of the way.
Because that's what he wanted me to do, I refused that, at least. I felt it getting bigger by the second. It was too big to swallow, now, way too big. I heaved again, but he pushed on it harder, and I still couldn't breathe. Oh, Dog, I need to breathe... I need to breathe!
Silence, time seemed to stand still. He was waiting and the clock was ticking. My body tensed up, further and further.
Fuck it, I swallowed, and it hurt. It went down, though, quick.
That was a big mistake.
As the ball sank toward my stomach, it pulled on the tube and yanked the device up onto my face. The ball still needed to go deeper, in order to reach my stomach. It wasn't done growing in size, and it already threatened to rupture my esophagus. The protrusions on the inside of the device were hard up against my nostrils, and I grabbed at the thing before they went inside. I was still twitching, but I held it there, pulling on it while intense pain grew deep in my chest, above my stomach. It felt like a heart attack, it doubled and tripled. I pulled on the device as hard as I could, my body heaved with my jaws wide, and I gagged some more, the tube was tight against the back of my tongue, but I couldn't pull it out. Mist was right there in my ears, laughing and speaking words of encouragement.
"Push it on all the way, Keman. Quit fighting it! The pain will stop once you force it the rest of the way on. The tubes go in your nose, no, no. It can't come back out! Do I have to do this for you?"
He grabbed the front of the device in his paw and shoved it onto my head, making the tubes slide painfully into my nose, while I gasped one last inhale. They were slippery but tight. When they bottomed out, two things happened quickly. The pieces of metal snapped shut around my jaws like a bear trap, and the ache in my chest was suddenly gone. I couldn't breathe at all, though. I pried at the device, trying to pull it apart, but it must have locked itself. Nausea battled for my attention, the tube was still tense against the back of my tongue, and it prevented me from pulling the whole thing off my face.
So that's what it was.
The muzzle from hell.
It had no straps I could claw, tear, or break.
My lips were too tight, I couldn't breathe through my mouth. I started panicking in a weak, obscure manner. I sucked as hard as I could, to draw a breath through my nose. My body shook from all the effort, on top of what he'd put in my neck that was still tearing my nerves apart.
Mist pulled a length of braided steel hose from a reel hidden in the wall above the bed.
"Here's your air, Keman..." He dangled the pointy tip in my field of vision, right in front of my eyes. My need to breathe had sharpened my awareness to razor precision; time was passing even slower now. He unbuckled my collar and tore it off with an expert motion of his wrist, and tossed it behind him. He pointed at the metal collar resting next to me on the bed, and I stared at it, then him, with very wide eyes. I was becoming frantic with need; I clawed at the muzzle and scratched at it, breaking the tips of my claws off on its metal surface. It didn't budge.
"Put that collar on, Keman. Only then will I give you your air." I lunged at the hose, and he lifted it cruelly out of my reach. A countdown timer was ticking away in my head, and the nearer it reached zero, the more I would do anything to get another breath.
Panic screamed at me, getting harder to hold in check.
If I put that collar on, I would kiss everything goodbye, including Sinclair. And if I didn't?
I'm dying.
Don't do it!
No... Oh, Dog, I need air. Anything to get air, just do it!
The primal urge to breathe finally took control fiercely, I saw my paws move, they weren't even my own, they shot out and grabbed at the cold metal. I struggled to pull it around my neck, still shaking, almost too weak to close it. The ends leapt together on their own, striking each other hard enough to claim a small bit of finger pad. The collar chimed in a peculiar manner, it was nothing like my last. It tightened down on my neck, all on its own.
Mist came through with his end of the deal, the steel braid found my paw, and I frantically jammed it at the end of the muzzle, poking and prodding, trying to make it fit. It clicked into place and I pulled in a deep breath through my nose. The breath of life never smelled so sweet, literally.
As I pulled a few more breaths, I could smell that it wasn't just air. I pulled at the hose and it detached from the muzzle, but couldn't breathe again. My mind started to blur, it wasn't just air...
"Oh, you don't want it anymore? Here, I'll take that back..." He reached for the hose.
I clicked it back into place, drawing another couple of breaths. I had no choice. I started to feel weightless, it felt good, too good. I fought the sensation, focusing on my hatred. My ears popped, the collar warmed up.
Mist yanked the neural stimulator from my neck with a sharp twist. It was almost dead, but I still felt everything in my body let go, I lay there motionless, gaining reality, and at the same time losing it to something else.
"Transfer of ownership complete, Keman. Now you're all mine."
I turned and stared at Mist with a combination of hate and fury. I was still fighting the drug, but even I couldn't hold out for too much longer. It was threatening to sweep me up in euphoria that even the most bitter of minds couldn't resist.
"Don't give me that look..." Mist's expression grew distant, then he refocused on me. "What the..."
Sinclair stepped into my field of vision, seemingly from the shadows in the room, but there were no shadows. He held a claw up to his muzzle: "Ssssh." My eyes went very wide, he stepped through the bed and peered closely at Mist. My breaths turned shallow and rapid, I whimpered again and again. Whimpers for him, though they were muted through the muzzle. Please, help me... oh, Dog! Am I hallucinating?
Mist grabbed at the collar around my neck, violently rotating it in order to stare at its little screen in disbelief.
"I don't fucking believe this! What do you mean, already owned? Piece of shit Mark Six!" He glared up at me, muzzle just inches from mine. "What are you looking at? You think this is funny?" I shook my head quickly, trying to hide my relief after seeing the ghost of Sin.
"You're looking at the rest of your life, Keman. This is where you belong, you were made for this, and this was made for you!" he said, gesturing with a sweep of his paw around the empty room. His hand swept right through Sin, almost as if he was pointing at him.
Sin smiled at the irony, showing way too many teeth. "He's right, little one. Just hold tight, cuz I'm coming for you." He leaned forward and snarled at Mist. I started whimpering again, uncontrollably. I just couldn't stop, not after hearing him say that.
Mist ignored me. "Ship! Plot course to nearest jump station, best speed, depart now!" He stared up at the ceiling.
Two beeps, a female voice. "Cannot comply. Docking clamps not responding."
"I don't care. Blow them!" A hollow crump rang through the hull, I felt a lurch before the inertial compensators came online. A queasy sensation built in my chest, and I knew we had just jumped into FTL. Sinclair vanished at the same time.
Mist got up and walked to the doorway, turning to face me. "This door won't be locked, Keman," he said. "Won't be necessary. Come on out, wander around. Only one place you can breathe, and you know where that is. I'm going to figure out what's wrong with your collar, then we'll see everything in that interesting mind of yours." He grinned a predatory smile. "Together, we can learn what needs to be put in there to make you perfect for me." He walked out.
I rolled over onto my stomach and choked, then heaved. My stomach was trying to push the ball back up, but it couldn't. I felt high and distant. I pulled on the muzzle, and as soon as it began to slide forward off my head, painful nausea spiked. I gagged again, only it was much worse than anything I had felt before. A continuous spasm tore at my stomach, it felt like I was going to break some ribs. I couldn't breathe, the pain lessened briefly and then I heaved again, tears streaming down my eyes from the effort. I seated the muzzle back in place and took several quick breaths. Holy shit, the ball was too big to come back up.
"Zeek. Mist's ship is preparing to enter warp. Follow?" Zero asked, glancing at his readout display in front of his seat, on The Hahkota's bridge. She was cloaked, and hunting. Watching prey run was making him itchy.
"Of course, stay right on his tail. Let me know when we're near his destination," Zeek said. "I'll be in my ready room." He walked through the doorway at the far end.
The Hahkota charged up its space folder and leapt forward, random photons bouncing off her hull for a split second, on its otherwise invisible surface.
A pair of Yoshi's pressure bay doors began their slow process of opening. Moisture and air rushed out through the widening gap, the interior hadn't been evacuated. They were only a few inches apart when an actinic blue blade of plasma erupted from within, vaporizing them in nanoseconds, along with a section of the starbase that was further away. Explosive decompression hurled debris and bodies into the cold vacuum of space. The Jefferson pulsed her maneuvering thrusters and backed out of the repair bay, her shields left glowing white metal everywhere they touched.
Her main engines fired again, this time in fusion mode. White veined with purple erupted from the concentration cones, bright as the sun and extending for hundreds of miles. Like a long sword, it carved through a corner of Yoshi as she turned and accelerated. She leapt into space, heading the same direction The Hahkota had warped, stretching out to infinity and then disappearing from local existence.