Chapter 21 - Close Quarters

Two things I really ought to have considered before making a move on the cute knelfi girl. First, women talk. Second, women are competitive.

Apparently, Shearah was blushing ear to ear as she spoke to the other women on board about our ‘time’ together, but the others, in the spirit of gossip, dragged the sordid details out of the poor girl. Fortunately, I didn’t come off in a bad light, at least as far as my treatment of the girl was concerned. Putting in the effort to seduce her and give her a good time rather than just take her definitely made me look good in their eyes.

Unfortunately, some of the words I’d said had gotten repeated to the others. I’d called Carissa a ‘work of art’ and Cali ‘the embodiment of lust’. This had those two wondering why the knelfi girl was the first to get my ‘attentions’, instead of them. Oh sure, it isn’t like they necessarily wanted my attentions, but seemingly passing them over, after praising them, got them fired up.

Even Jaynie and the Princess got involved! Well, Jaynie mostly got dragged in because of Cali, as the two were shaping up like they were going to be good friends. The Princess, on the other hand, was apparently just bored. The fact that she was the same age as most of the other girls only added to the lure of friendly banter. Both she and Jaynie wanted to know what I thought about them, now.

The problem, of course, was that I was on a ship that was suddenly very small, and we had little in the way of other entertainment, since we were kindof rushing out of our last port. That meant I was trapped on board the ship with five women who had nothing better to do than gossip about me, and my prowess.

Of course, my using the Power Booster on myself had some effect on this. The ‘Euphoric Fluids’ buff apparently made my body fluids into a natural drug, of sorts. The saliva on my tongue worked Shearah up more than she could have imagined. Climaxing inside her had literally blown her mind. I’d have to be careful who I slept with in the future, but that did nothing to help me in the present, as I had four girls who were pestering me about how the Knelfi had gotten the best orgasm of her life.

Anyone who tells you that women can’t be as bad as men when it comes to sex is a goddamned liar. And when I tried to turn the tables on them, and said that I’d give it to them if everyone else watched, the women acted like I was the main attraction at a bachelorette party.

Which is why I was now in my ‘home’ space, having retreated to my cabin after a six-person orgy somehow broke out on my ship. I just hoped the performance calmed the girls down, because I still had another day before we got to Alpha Centauri. After doing a quick review, I decided that the latest vid for my stream didn’t need any major editing, since I hadn’t discussed anything I didn’t want people knowing, and the sex would make for a nice draw on my stream.

I took a breath, and then dove back into the game. I had found out early on that when one ‘logs out’ in Dreams, your character doesn’t disappear. The AI has some kind of ‘avatar’ system that runs your character, based on your playstyle. It was limited in responses and actions, but could at least defend itself from attack with your skills. Unfortunately, your skills didn’t go up while the avatar was up, so you couldn’t have it grind for you. When you logged on, you got what was basically a compressed memory upload of everything that happened.

Thankfully, I was ‘resting’ for the time I was out of game, so the transition wasn’t that bad. I’d talked with Jaynie and Cali about it, and it seemed that the more that happened while you were out, the harder it was to adjust. That alone would give the long-term users an advantage over the people in the EVA-01 Pods, when they became more common. The time dilation could be problematic, if you had school or a job to deal with out of game.

Checking my HUD, I saw that we had thirteen hours before we hit Alpha Centauri, and my debuff counter was on forty hours and falling. There were no notifications from Raven about ship matters that needed my attention, and I had already reviewed the upgrade plans the others had given me for the infirmary and the rec area. Oh, yeah, that bit of ‘activity’ got me a few notices, as well.

Seduction has increased to 11/100. +2 CHA Judge Intentions has increased to 4/100. +1 WIS You have gained a perk: Stallion You are able to ride with the best of them, and continue on well past when others might drop out. +10 END In Character actions have gained you: +5 END, +5 CON, +4 CHA, +2 DEX, +1 STR Constant physical activity beyond your limits has given you the Fatigued debuff. -10% to all actions, +10% to all Stamina and PP costs. Duration: 8 Hours.

An orgy sounds like a great time, especially if it is one guy and a bunch of attractive women. There’s been millions of pornos with scenes like that, and millions more crappy fanfictions about it. What they all leave out is that it is a lot of work keeping up with five women when you’re the only guy in the orgy. Without game states or a game body’s constitution, there’s simply no way I would have held up long enough to satisfy them all, a fact reflected by the perk, and the stat gains. And the debuff. That was what finally convinced them to let me go get some rest.

That was nine hours ago, so the debuff had faded, thankfully. I sighed as I made my way down to the cargo deck. I had a bunch of weapon skills I hadn’t developed, because I didn’t have the time for it. We didn’t have the space, currently, for melee practice, but I could at least train my ranged attack skills.

I was moderately surprised to see Princess Sheila standing at the firing range, practicing with the shotgun I’d given her. She didn’t say anything at first as I moved into the lane next to her, and started practicing with my weapons. Quickly found out that skill XP doesn’t go up nearly as fast when shooting static targets as it does when you’re in combat, but building muscle memory couldn’t hurt. I cycled through all my weapons, including some additional gems I’d found in the ship’s armory. Namely, a second shotgun for myself, as well as a bow and some old-school kunai knives.

Shiawase Arms Psyber Monsoon
Type	Shotgun	Rank	Uncommon
Damage	40 – 50	Damage Type	Impact
The first of its kind sold to the civilian market, the Psyber Monsoon is a psyshot shotgun. Select fire allows for either solid psyslug rounds or for psyshot rounds. Psyslugs have increased armor penetration. Psyshot rounds cover an area, and ignore part of the target’s Physical Defense, but do less damage against armored foes. Durability 40/40 10 shot magazine (costs 25 PP to recharge) Psyslug – Ignores 20 Energy Armor. Psyshot – Spreads up to 2m at range of 4m. Reduce target’s physical defense by 20 for defending against this attack. Treat Energy armor as being +20 current value.

Nymphwheels Supremacy Bow
Type	Bow	Rank	Uncommon
Damage	STR*0.5 – STR*1.5	Damage Type	By Arrow
A hybrid bow created by a coalition between Human and Gauz armorers, this bow is capable of firing solid arrows as well as using arrows made out of Psy. Solid arrows can come with a variety of arrowheads for various effects, but are limited to ballistic trajectories. Psy Arrows, on the other hand, fire at straight line of sight, ignoring wind and drop due to gravity, but cannot be used to fire indirect attacks and are limited to a single type of damage. Requires: DEX 80 Durability: 25/25 Psy Arrows: Costs 5 PP per arrow. Piercing Damage, resisted with Energy Armor. Range: 45 meters. (Arrow dissipates after that range.) Solid arrows: Damage depends on arrowhead. Range: Varies with environmental factors. Some arrows may be recoverable.

Kunai
Type	Throwing Weapon	Rank	Common
Damage	10 – 30	Damage Type	Piercing
An ancient design made with modern materials, this blade is made from a solid piece of Nu-Steel, and is designed to be thrown at a target. However, at need it can also be used as a melee weapon, as a cutting tool, or even as a climbing aid. Range: 5 + (STR/10) meters Durability: 60/60 Use Blades skill for Melee. +5% to assist Climbing or related skills.

Pistols has increased to 6/100. +1 DEX Longarms has increased to 4/100. +3 DEX Archery has increased to 4/100. +3 STR Thrown Weapons has increased to 4/100 +3 STR

At some point, the Princess had stopped practicing with her shotgun, and was watching me train. When I went to recover my kunai again, after that had dragged on for about half an hour, she spoke. “You confuse me, Captain.”

I checked the weapons over, to make sure they were in good shape, and then looked over to her. “Oh, what’s confusing about li’l ol’ me, Princess?” I had a good-natured grin on my face, since this would probably be an interesting discussion.

Sheila gathered her thoughts, and then said, “You are impossible to predict. You saved me, even before you knew who I was. And yet the first thing you do on the station is purchase a group of slaves, including one of your own kind. You hire another Nomad, and then kill a group of them, except for one you enslave and send off to whore herself out for your profit.”

“When the Yakuza came to try and claim me, you responded with brutality and recklessness, but when we got to the hangar, you were cold and efficient, even knowing that the station security would be closing in on us. You treat your AI like a person, even though there are only three sentient AIs in known space. And you used actions that are frankly insane to escape from a Navy destroyer.”

She paused, and then said, “And then there’s the display from earlier. You allow your slaves and crew to run wild, and I’ll admit they caught me up in their pace as well. It was well within your rights to do whatever you liked to the slaves, and yet you allow them to wheedle you and complain and draw you into acts that, while I don’t doubt you enjoyed, left you weakened for hours afterwards.”

I grinned, and said, “Well, Princess, I won’t deny that having five beautiful women fighting over my affections, especially when one is royalty, strokes the ego just a bit.” She blushed, and I continued, “But my interactions with the crew, both slaves and free, are pretty easy to figure out. I dislike using the Stepford protocols, so I’m not going to trap them in their own bodies like that. And I figure they’ll work harder and better for me if they are happy than if they are resentful to me. So long as they don’t endanger myself, the ship, or each other, there’s no harm letting them have some fun or blow off some steam.”

“All right, I can see that. Daddy always said that maintaining morale was important to keep the rank and file in line, otherwise you were going to end up with trouble.”

“And he wasn’t wrong, either. Now, the rest? I can’t believe you’ve never read a story about a charming rogue who sees a damsel in distress and swoops in to help her out. Well, guys like being the charming rogue as much as women like having someone step in and rescue them when they are in danger. Very romantic notion, that we all enjoy picturing ourselves as a lead role in at some point.” The Princess was definitely blushing by now.

“I bought the slaves because I had the credits to do so, and I needed a crew. Not just because it is easier to run a ship like this and take jobs if there is more than just me, but also because it would get very boring spending days or weeks alone in hyperspace. Having company is a good thing, I think.”

“As for the thug-ette, and the Yakuza? I’m generally a nice guy. You attack me or mine, though? Then I’m gonna have to show you whole new realms of pain and destruction. People come at me with peace, I’ll be peaceful. People come at me looking for a fight, I may not start it, but I’ll damn sure finish it. Whatever it takes.”

I saw the Princess shudder at that, and I stepped closer, reaching one hand out to tip her head up to look at me. “I’m a dangerous man, Princess, but only to my enemies. For my friends, I’m a great guy, honest.” I looked down into her eyes, and whispered, “Tell you a secret, though. I really enjoyed the ‘fun’ earlier. You taste divine.” Blushing, she opened her mouth to speak, but I silenced her with a kiss, as she melted into my arms.

I like being Captain.

Previous Chapter                                  Table of Contents                                      Next Chapter