Voyage of the Space Vagabond [Blueflame & Sensualist]

[Sensualist]

Silhouetted against the vivid green and pink of the nearby nebula and its icy setting of jewel-like stars, untwinkling in the vacuum, the pirate ship floated like some sleek, deadly sea monster. It was all elongated curves and dangerous fins and looping protuberances; weapon mounts, heat sinks, sensors and other equipment spurred out from its glossy gold-and-silver hull. A faint haze of crystalised atmosphere leaked from the cracks in its armour, marking where the freighter's defenses and a kamikaze escape pod had taken their toll.

In contrast, the freighter was a boxy thing of pylons and canisters, a hulking automated cargo hauler out of the Imperial Border Marches. Only a billboard-like ID strip near the nose gave it any sense of artistry – a stylised feminine shape in rosypink and cream colours, and the logo of some company called Sybaris Systems. It too floated helplessly, its drives slashed by beamfire and several cargo containers gutted and shedding the charred remains of their contents into space.

Lexander Strabo carefully piloted his escape pod towards the freighter. The pod was sparking and spiderwebbed with cracks from the ramming impact that had disabled the pirate ship, and operating on the last few puffs from its manoeuvring thrusters. He had boarded the pirate vessel just long enough to assess that its crew was dead in the life support failure, and to discover that it was a seriously advanced piece of machinery – more than one man could operate easily. Lex's own suit was down to reserve oxygen, and unless he could salvage enough parts to restore the pirate ship's life support he didn't have long to live. The freighter was an Artificial Semi-Intelligence-piloted vessel, but even so it would have a limited life support system for maintenance and loading/unloading staff... his only hope was that it had enough pieces of what he needed.

The pod bumped gently against the airlock just as the thrusters hit the empty mark on their fuel gauges. The magnetic seals automatically locked into place, and there was a slow hiss as the freighter's life support systems came online to normalise pressure and temperature to make its internal corridors passable for humans. A minute or so later, the light on the airlock switched from red to green, and the doors ground open, still void-cold to the touch and coated with a haze of sublimating nitrogen ice.

The interior of the freighter was small and cramped, with exposed conduits and pipes on all sides. Orange emergency lighting pulsed in time with the failing heartbeat of the reactor. There was no distinct floor, but handholds spaced on all sides; clearly meant to be accessed in zero-G. A stencilled sign on one of the pipes pointed an arrow forward, marked ASI OBSERVATION (probably what passed for a bridge); one short one in the other direction that said CARGO BAYS ALPHA-ZETA and a longer one that was marked ENGINEERING.

 

[Blueflame451]

Gracefully Lexander drifted through the airlock's bulkhead door into the spindle corridor. One sure hand grabbed a support rung to steady him as he looked up and down the ship's impersonal and unwelcoming interior. A grimace was faintly visible on his handsome face beneath the faceplate of his EVA suit. Damn he hated these automated freight vehicles. It was just this kind of vessel that had made his life as an independent trader so hard.

Of course the pirates had blown that life to cinders, right along with his ship, The Vagabond, and very nearly Lex himself. Just so they could snap up whatever cargo survived the destruction. Bastards. No he wasn't going to cry any tears that they had died sucking on vacuum, or that he was largely to blame for their deaths. Well maybe he regretted it a little bit, after all it would have been gratifying to shoot or punch one personally for his trouble but they had all expired before he could board.

Now he was on this automated cargo ship with no time to think about what was lost: his ship, his livelihood or those appealing chances at tangible vengeance, because if he didn't find what he needed here he'd soon be just as dead as those pirates. Glancing at the environmental readout on the wrist of his EVA suit he saw no radiation warning and that the freighter had breathable atmo. Best to save the suit's air supply he decided and with the push of a button the faceplate slide back with a hiss.

His narrowed green eyes and a few curls of sweaty brown hair clinging above his brow were visible now as Lex's free hand stabbed at a dark console that refused to come to life. "Computer, damage report. Automated vessel, damage report." No response. Lex let out a suffering groan. well why should life be that easy. Then the ship shuddered and the emergency lighting pulsed and he know that, like his luck, the freighter was running on fumes. "Fan-freaking-tastic."He spat as he spun about toward the drive section and with a kick lunched his body down the long shaft. In a bit of practiced zero-g acrobatics he spun about stopped himself just in front of the door to the engineering module.

With a grinding groan the door rolled open and the shrill cries of a ship in distress assaulted Lex's ears. The engineering section made the corridor look almost roomy and he wondered if the place was a tangle of wires, tubes and conduits before the salvos of weapons fire from the pirate ship had redecorated. Pushing aside a piece of conduit sagging in front of the door Lex decided it was time to get to work and the first order of business would be killing those alarms.

Lex wasn't an engineer but it didn't take him long to realize that fixing the reactor and riding this freighter to its destination (and safety) just wasn't in the cards. So instead he put his efforts into completing a temporary patch. He had to buy himself the time to salvage something!

It toke him a couple of hours but Lex now had the reactor chugging weakly along at 20% output, with everything put toward shipboard environmental, including doors and lights, and the computer system. He guessed it would run for several hours yet and he hoped that would be enough time.

He couldn't get the ships AI to reinitialize; every indication suggestion a power spike had corrupted the datacore. If he wasted a couple hours he could likely purge the core and reinstall but he figured he'd go without the AI. How much help could it really be when the freighter wasn't flying anywhere, and besides it would probably just insist on reminding him that he was an intruder in the property of some soulless shipping corp. Digging through the computer did bring up the cargo manifest but it was under some pretty heavy encrypted. He couldn't tell exactly what this bucket was hauling but the info suggested it was high value tech of some kind. Curiosity said a peek wouldn't be much of a delay, and heck it might turn up something helpful.

The cargo pods were definitely high-end, including environmental seals to protect the contents from decompression. Only the most valuable tech would be transported like this but Lex didn't bother getting too excited yet, after all he needed to be alive, not to mention succeed in getting the cargo out of deep space to make a salvage claim. Maybe I'll get lucky and there will be a repair drone inside he thought wryly as he smacked the button to open the first cargo pod.

The pod lights flickered to life, illuminating Lex standing at its mouth. He had doffed the helmet and gloves long ago to work and they now hung on the mag-belt that girded his waist, right alongside the tools he had so far gathered and a fancy sidearm lifted from a dead pirate. Pebble green eyes set in handsome chiseled face scanned the opening pod seeking a glimpse of the valuable contents as the venting air caused him to blink as it blew back those strands of tousled brown hair not stuck to his scalp with dry sweat.

 

[Sensualist]

With the ship humming and coughing along at some semblance of functionality – at least for the short term, and at least as long as nothing strenuous was asked of it – Lex was able to catch a calming lungful of stale, metal and plastic scented air and examine the cargo. Inside the bay, with the comforting weight of the pirate's heavily customised pistol in his fist, he found himself facing four rows of six large capsules. They were about six feet tall, and reminded him of cryosleep capsules – but without the life support machinery and backup power cells attached. They also lacked the usual windows to allow the sleeper to see and be seen, instead being a uniform mother-of-pearl pinkish hue, with raised patterns reminiscent of sea shells at the base and cloudy curlicues at the top. There was no clue to their function or contents save for a touch panel on the side of each capsule, so with little else to go on Lex decided to open one and see what happened.

There was a hiss of depressurisation from the capsule as he withdrew his finger from the panel, and a waft of sweet, rosewater perfume escaped into the thin atmosphere of the freighter. Invisible seams opened up along its flanks, and it opened silently and smoothly to reveal a white satin cushioned interior – and a woman reclining motionlessly within.

No, not a woman... the lack of life support, the total stillness, and something else, a hint of over-perfection in her form and features suggested something else: an android. But by far the most human-passable, lifelike and gorgeous synthetic lifeform Lex had ever seen.

She was of average height, slender and lithe but not lacking in curves. Bubblegum-pink hair cascaded sleekly down past her shoulders, framing a stunning face; she looked maybe eighteen to twenty-one in age, with a smooth brow, pert and straight nose, cheeks touched with a hint of natural blush, and the lushest, most succulent lips Lex had ever seen, like two slices of ripe, moist, coral-pink nectarine. The body perhaps even managed to outdo the face for raw sex appeal – firm-looking, flawless smooth skin all over. Sculpted shoulders gave way to the twin swells of spectacular breasts, large on her slim frame at a good E-cup, perfectly round and apparently possessing their own antigravity field judging by their perkiness. Her stomach gently concaved in a smooth sweep below those mouth-watering mounds, leading to delicately flared hips with a tight, lush, heart-shaped ass behind. Her legs were a light year long, supple thighs tapered down to well-turned calves. She was dressed high-heeled, low-topped boots, wrist warmers, pink eye lenses and a sort of one-piece bathing suit that seemed designed to reveal almost as much as it concealed. The high-collared, tight silver mesh was cut away from her décolletage to her mons venus, giving a clear view of cleavage, navel, and enough of her lower stomach to strongly suggest that there was not a hair to be found anywhere on her body below her eyelashes.

As Lex stood and studied the ravishing creature, her eyes suddenly flicked open. He could see inverted text scrawling across her bright turquoise eyes – a startup routine. A few moments later she blinked, batting her long lashes and taking a deep gasp that swelled her impressive chest still further. Her back arched, like an early morning stretch to get the kinks of the night out of her spine, and she undulated pleasantly from head to toe. Her gaze focused on Lex, and he could have sworn her saw a flicker of smouldering desire in them, the faintest turn-up of the corners of her full mouth.

“Gynoid Unit One Thirty Seven Alpha online,” she spoke, her voice silky and sweet and laced with an undercurrent of sex, but also with a roughness like she had just woken up. “All internal systems report optimal status. Current program load: premium deluxe platinum-grade pleasure module, valet module. Additional programming module space available. Please insert genetic key to confirm ownership of this unit.”

 

[Blueflame451]

Seeing the beautiful woman inside the capsule grabbed at something primal in him, immediately he was shocked. 'There is a woman in here?!' it was the first reactive thought in his head and even though part of him realized it was wrong with it came an impulse that stabbed his heart like a ice pick: was she ok, who put her here and how could he punish them. It took a second for his rational mind to catch up and it worked hard to crush those protective male impulses. No, not a woman, just the piece of valuable tech cargo he had surmised. A distraction to put back in its box.

Then he felt a very different response, animalist and hungry, as the thing started to move. Green eyes wide and his pulse quickening he watched, those subtle movements and that body demanded attention. It spoke to him and Lex had to shake his and blink before he could mentally play back what the bot had just said. Pleasure module, valet module, genetic key? With effort he looked away and finally squeezed his eyes shut, lifting one hand up to massage his temples with thumb and middle finger as he groaned, "just great, hours to live and I meet a sexbot." He glanced its way again, oh yeah definitely a distraction that he ought to put back in the box. The pistol that was hanging limp in his other hand was again affixed to his belt.

"Don't suppose they packed you with any engineering droids huh sister?" Lex said coldly not really expecting an answer as he looked at the other pods. There uniform appearance and pinkish coloration made him all but certain this was an entire shipment of companion droids. A hold packed full of sexbots.

His eyes keep getting drawn back to her suggestively revealed body and he knew it was clouding his mind. Looking at that beautiful face, that simmered with barely sublimated lust (or maybe that was his own reflected), wasn't much better. Every inch of her begged to be looked at and man did she look good. Human even, only better, she was sexuality perfected. "What are you anyway: a Mark VI?" He asked trying to step back from the sexuality by mentally reducing the droid to its technical specs.

A Mark VI (or better) was premium tech, the purchase price was probably in the neighborhood of his entire last year's earnings aboard the Vagabond. These higher end Androids were true artificial intelligences (some colonies had even granted such androids provisional rights) with complex and adaptive memory cores and a neural processing core that was first in class. It took a lot of processing power to pretend to be human.

The thought hit him like a slap in the face: additional programming space. Lex silently cursed his libido for slowing down his thinking. His focus came back on Unit 137-A with a sharp intensity now that left his sexual attraction to the doll behind. "I need some of your specs. Is your processing core shielded? What sort of datajacks do you support for uploads?" His mind was already planning it out. He could hotwire the Gynoid into the AI's reserve core and upload the data stored there. If it's processor wasn't burned out in the process it would know what the AI knew, in short everything about the ship. Hell after that it could probably direct him to any component worth salvaging. He'd have to make a list.

With a kick Lex gracefully glided to a nearby wall panel, there he grabbed and twisted a release causing the panel to slide open revealing the ship's data lines. Finding the cable he wanted he yanked the fat shielded wire out giving him a few feet of slack to work with. He'd have to pare down the wire to something that would uplink with the droid, he plucked a tool from his belt and shouted over his shoulder to the Gynoid, "Come over here." His mind had made the leap, transforming Unit 137-A back from women to tech; a tool he needed to use to survive, and if he didn't look at her too much he might just be able to keep it that way. He didn't even stop to consider she might not be able navigate the zero-g.

 

[Sensualist]

Alpha's body seemed to know subconsciously that it was being watched, and it moved to show itself to best effect as Lex's gaze wandered. Her shoulders stretched gently back, forcing her breasts forward to swell at the tight, scanty fabric of her costume. As the chilly air of the freighter struck her, two hard little nubs rose at the tips of her breasts, and a coquettish shiver ran down her spine. Her hips tilted suggestively, like a raised eyebrow, and she absently raked the backs of her fingernails along her exposed belly, stopping just short of her sex. Even the slight motion set her silky strands of pink hair afloat, rising like a cloud of glossy cotton candy around her face.

“I am a Mark VII Sybaris Systems Companionship/Entertainment/Service Gynoid, serial number 946165964-137-Alpha,” she corrected Lex, her voice settling into a musical purr, light and sweet but with a hint of sensual huskiness.

At his gruff order, Alpha raised one hand and waggled a finger too and fro. “I'm sorry, but my technical specifications are privileged information. Only a licensed Sybaris Systems technician or my owner has access to them. Please present your license chip or initialise genetic key for confirmation.” She gave him a sexy little pout, as if disappointed to not be able to help him.

 

[Blueflame451]

Lex was busying himself at the wall panel but even the bots purring voice was pure temptation, and it set something in his belly fluttering. When her refusal sunk in that fluttering distraction collapsed and Lex was happy to see it die. Frustration swelled in him, here he was fighting for his life and some sexbot was going to argue with him about her specs. He grabbed that little coal of anger as a defense against further sexual distraction, and he kicked off the wall panel back to the pod. The untended cable swayed out like a lazy eel in the zero-g and the cable crimper and handheld computer he had been using started a slow pirouette though space, like a pair of strange forgotten dancers.

He grabbed the gynoid's pod and swung down in front of her, he floated there a bit above the pod's base exaggerating his height his broad chest and shoulders looming above the cotton candy cloud. "Listen to me: I don't have time to play with you doll. If I don't get what I need from this ship in a few hours I'm going to be dead and you're going to have climb your pretty little ass back in that pod and wait for someone to come looking for this bucket." He was playing it tough but his wondering eyes and the way the sweet rosewater scent of her made him want to lick his lips was ruining the delivery a bit. Worse, she was so gorgeous that he was starting to feel guilty about snapping at her.

His thick biceps flexed drawing him down closer to the droid like iron fillings to a magnet, the pink fringes of her floating hair brushed his forehead at this intimate distance. His voice was softer now, still firm but matching the gynoid's own hint of huskiness, "Let's start over. Unit 137-Alpha I'm Lexander Strabo. Your ship is derelict and I'm claiming it and its contents under Interstellar Laws of Salvage. Please acknowledge me as your owner because I'm going to need your help to interface with this ships computer. My survival depends on your aid." His pebble green eyes flicked about examining the perfection of her face up close, and he felt like he could drown in the turquoise pools of her eyes.

Of course Lex could have dug out his ident-chip (which included all details of his personal identity and genetic info) to present to the gynoid but he couldn't be sure that she wasn't already templeted to someone specific. If she was he was hoping the claim of salvage plus the fact that he was in mortal peril might override that claim. Better to test the waters then have her deny his claim and shutdown.

 

[Sensualist]

Alpha lifted her chin as Lex kicked back towards her, gazing up at him with wide-eyed appeal, glossy plush lips parting a millimetre. The lower lip quivered just a little as he snarled at her, a perfectly simulated expression of concern glimmering in her eyes and across her features. Still, she listened intently as he spoke, and then she hestitated.

Even late-generation AIs, somewhere deep in the fractal complexity of their programming ran along guidelines similar to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (well, except in those polities where such hard-coded moral rules were considered tantamount to slavery – but places like that didn't tend to manufacture gynoid sex units in any case). Non-infliction of harm, obedience and self-preservation. It was the third law that Alpha's core started to consider at that moment, working out her chances of survival and cross-referencing them with her other directives. But when Lex mentioned that his own life hung in the balance, she had to factor that in as well.

“Mister Strabo,” she began slowly, gazing thoughtfully up into his eyes as her digital mind attempted to synthesise a solution. “Sybaris Systems corporate mandates prevent me from interfering with, or facilitating interference with Sybaris Systems computational infrastructure. However, once my ownership protocols are activated and I am imprinted, my owner's wishes take precedence over those mandates...” she left that hanging for a moment, her eyes gleaming in the low, back-up lights.

“In order to confirm ownership, I will need a fresh genetic sample to serve as a key. This key may take the form of a blood sample,” Alpha took his gloves hand and raised it to her mouth, nipping the tip of one finger between her perfectly white, even teeth. “A saliva sample,” she reached up, brushing his lips with her own warm satin fingers. “Or a semen sample,” she reached down, cupping her palm against the front of his EVA suit between his legs and pressing against him through the multiple layers of fabric.

 

[Blueflame451]

Lex listened to the gynoid go through her list of acceptable samples. Watching those plush lips and listing to her purring voice was really rather mesmerizing. But the slim palm cupping his crotch caused his awareness to jolt. Blood flowed into his cradled member and it grew like a bulging firehose, it crowded his pants pushing against fabric and the gynoid's hand. He had been a few months out in deep space and his last port visit had been rather lonely besides. In short he was lonely and horny as heck. Lex pushed off the grip on the top of the pod until his feet hit the floor, it only deepened the connection, pushing his crotch down into her palm. He was pretty big down there and resting in her grip with all her artificial heightened senses she could probably gauge his size down to the centimeter and take his pulse too.

With a dull clang the electro-magnets in his boots engaged gripping him to the floor. His left hand gripped her thin wrist and pulled it away from his now painfully tight pants. He took a moment and audibled cleared his throat before he could speak. "Not that option three isn't appealing but we've sort of got a time crunch here." His right hand swept through the halo of floating pink locks sweeping the hair to the back of her scalp were he caught it in a tight fist. Tugging wrist and hair he pulled her hard against his suited body; her slim form seeming swallowed up against his broad muscle frame that was made even more bulky by the EVA suit. Her stunning breasts were mashed against his chest and his breath was hot on her face, "And another things: Its 'Captain.'"

Lex pressed a kiss to those perfect lips like he was starving for them. He yanked down on the hair pulling her head back as his tongue surged into her mouth. An erotic exploration that grazing her straight teeth and dancing with her responsive tongue. The appeal of option three only grew but he was still inclined to choose survival over dying sexual spent and happy. He pulled back from the kiss, his chest heaving against hers as he caught his breath. "Best genetic sample I ever gave." Regretfully his hand let go of her hair, smoothing it down to her head before the it lifted lazily in the zero-g and he asked her, "Now, ready to help me save the day?"

 

[Sensualist]

As Lex's hand caught a hold of the back of her head, Alpha's eyes widened, and her lips parted still further, either in surprise... or invitation. She came away from her snug little coffin-like capsule at his pull, tilting her feet back to push off from its back panel so that she crashed against the man with all the force of her lithe weight. Her leg then came up, coiling with artless need around his hips so that her thinly-clad sex ground against the protective segments of his EVA suit, and she placed her gripped hand flat against the chest plate while the other came up and tangled in his hair. He pulled her face to his, and she drew herself in with equal ardour. A faint moan pulsed in her chest, making her ample bust yearn even tighter to his torso.

Long pink and brown threads of hair meshed lightly together as they kissed – and what a kiss. Alpha submitted herself to Lex's ministrations, while simultaneously crushing her full lips to his firm mouth with an undeniable need and eagerness of her own. She coaxed Lex's tongue into her mouth, luring it in with coy little licks, undulating it beneath his as he explored. Her mouth was soft, warm and sweet – literally sweet, like she'd just been sucking on a lollipop. Alpha's fingers tightened in his hair, pulling against his scalp with just the barest hint of pain as she threw herself into the embrace, her body rubbing with kittenish desire against his until he could feel every quiver of her taut, yielding flesh. Her own tongue dipped into his mouth, roaming around the inside of his lips and cheeks, collecting cell samples from the oral lining. As Lex started to pull back she suckled on the tip of his tongue, kneading her lips over his, silently begging him to stay, biting his lower lip and stretching it out...

When they finally surfaced for air, Alpha's eyes where closed, her head tilted back and lips open, glistening. “Ohhh... mhhhm...” she mewled softly, running her tongue around her Cupid's bow of a mouth, as if savouring the taste. Lex saw two lines of lights, one pink and one blue, glowing beneath the surface of her tongue like and LED landing strip. The paired lights lit up from the tip of her tongue to the root in the back of her throat over the course of a few seconds, then vanished. Alpha's jewelled blue-green eyes popped open, and flashed electric blue for an instant. “Genetic key confirmed and locked. Ownership initiated. I am yours... captain,” the gynoid breathed, her voice throbbing with intensity.

Her fingers trailed down the back of his neck before she caught hold and pulled herself out of the capsule. Gliding through the air with the grace of a swan, Alpha drifted to the console Lex had been hacking and began clearing away loose components. Uncovering a duct, she reached her arm inside, bending over (her ass, he couldn't help but notice, was like two halves of a peach in silver foil, the skimpy material of her costume pulled tight against her cheeks as she worked) and took hold of the tactile interface panel. Communicating directly with the ship's mainframe via microelectric surges through her skin, Alpha's pupils shrunk to points and scanned rapidly left and right, up and down. “Stand by... stand by... stand by... Interface established. I am in.” She glanced back over her shoulder through a wispy veil of pink hair, a sexy smile on her lips and a sly, proud glint in her eye. “How may I serve you, captain?”

 

[Blueflame451]

Lex felt like his ever nerve ending was thrumming after that kiss. He watched the gynoid's graceful zero-g leap to the wall panel and, after adjusting the crotch of his suit, sprang after her. His movements were easy and sure, he had after all been zero-g certified since he was nineteen being trained for service in the Terran Space Navy, but his movements seemed basic and utilitarian next to Alpha's gliding dancer like movements.

Watching her work at the panel Lex was impressed, and not just at the passing view of her perfect ass, but at just what sort of tech was involved in this Mark VII android. A Mark VI was pretty much indistinguishable from human except for some giveaway left on purpose, they were a perfect synthetic copy of humanity. But this was baffling, way beyond what was required to pass as human. Why would a sexbot need microelectric data linkups. He surmised if you were a board and super-rich technophile you wanted the very best sex toy money could buy. Well he wasn't about to look this gift droid in the mouth.

He scooted in beside her, snatched the floating handheld computer from the air and quickly plugged it in. "Go ahead and open a link for me on this port, I want to see what you've got access to." When the connection came to life he started to examine the data. "Ok the ship AI is offline, datacore corrupted or fried so forget about it, but I want to get access the AI backup core. Here it is sub-node 0-0-3 right after the backed up astrogation charts." He pointed to the computer screen unnecessarily and glanced over at the gorgeous technical marvel helping him crack the system. "Pare out the personality heuristics, don't need that, and pull down all relevant data about this vessel. We're looking for equipment compatible with a Devon-Combine Class XII Environmental system." He glanced at the bot and after a moment added, "On second thought go ahead and download the AI's diagnostic, maintenance and repair subroutines because this is going to get technical. The system suffered a power cascade failure so we're going to need..." Lex rattled off the parts and components his visit to the pirate ship told him would be required to attempt a repair, and as Alpha indicated the tech on his screen he earmarked them based on priority for salvage.

The list was growing fast and by the time they had concluded the data search the list was quite large. Lex would need hours and hours to salvage all these parts. Move back and forth though the ship, sorting and lugging equipment to the airlock. "137-A can you make practical use of the AI's sub-routines? Because I could use another pair of hands gathering this stuff."

 

[Sensualist]

Rapt by the webs of invisible data she was enmeshed in, Alpha nodded distractedly to Lex's instruction. Momentarily she opened a port for him, and began assembling a shopping list of vital equipment based on his specifications. CO2​ scrubbers, hydro-crackers, thermal equilibrium coils... luckily, even though it was configured for automated running between systems, the freighter contained back-up and reserve lifesupport, as per the regulations enforced in most statist polities.

After a few minutes of downloading, the gynoid twisted around to look at Lex, her lean back and lush curves torqued appealingly as she glanced over her shoulder with a pout on her lips. “Captain, the AI's sysop information is in .lor configuration – my skill modules are .id format. I can access the information at will, but I cannot functionally integrate the skill sets. Put simply, I can read the manual, but not act on it as a fully trained crew member would. Is this acceptable?” When Lex gave her the confirmation it was, Alpha shuddered as she absorbed the sizeable dump of data, and then sprung to work assisting him. She had to pause frequently to consult the ROM files as they dug out the various pieces Lex would need to repair the pirate vessel, but once she had studied the relevant data she moved quickly and efficiently, occasionally overriding her built-in kinetic limiters to pull, tear or lift something with superhuman strength.

When they had collected every useful scrap by the airlock and bound it all up in tac-tape, Alpha placed a hand on Lex's elbow. “Captain, what about my fellow units? We're not going to leave them aboard this derelict, are we? They are presently dormant, and will be easy to transfer if we use the cargo arm.” She gazed at him in mute appeal, turquoise eyes wide and shining and her lower lip thrust out ever so slightly, quivering.

 

[Blueflame451]

"It will have to be." Lex conceded to the 137-A's limitation with the AI skill set. She'd be the best informed novice salvaging partner he had ever worked with. He found himself enjoying working together even if she required a pointer now on then. It was changing things, he started to feel like he was with a person, and since she was still sexy as hell he found himself slipping closer to her as they worked. However this bit of flirting was stalled and the illusion of humanity shattered when Alpha wrenched free a jammed assemble that Lex would have needed a plasma torch to cut free. Alpha might have only had the mass of a typical human female but there was a lot you could do with a tritanium skeleton and cyber-servo muscles. It made something between his shoulder blades itch.

Turning from his happy examination of the haul at 137-A's simple touch Lex was standing close now, looking down at her, lost in those turquoise pools as she pleaded for the other androids. It was a unnecessary appeal really. Lex wasn't the sort of spacer to leave cash on the table and those bots were each worth a mint. At least that's what he tried to tell himself, not that thinking of copies of 137-A sitting dormant, alone and forgotten in those pods almost made him sick. He tried hard to banish that misplaced empathy, they weren't women, they weren't human, they were just high-end tech., and maybe the best salvage haul he had ever seen.

Lex glanced back toward the cargo section a hand lifting to give his chin a thoughtful scratch. Being under those eyes made him recall how many days he'd gone without a shave. Three before the pirates and then almost another day in that lifepod. "You can put away those puppy dog eyes. Of course we're not going to leave 'em." He stepped back, getting out of the way of those eyes for a minute. A hand went to his belt, fidget in thought as one thumb tapped the secured cutting torch, "I'm not sure the two of us can get twenty five pods moved, even with the cargo arm. We've got to complete repairs on the other ship, and just piloting it to complete the transfer, that will have the two of us running none-stop."

With a groan his eyes went up, toward the fore of the ship but looked at nothing as he considering the options and for the moment keeping his own council. The pirate ship had the means to retrieve drifting cargo so they could fling the pods out with the cargo arm then scoop them up later. Simple enough but the thought of throwing them out into space made him uncomfortable. Just because the cargo was so valuable he lied to himself. He also had to considered that that pirate ship could not be easily operated by a crew of only two (even seasoned hands) and that helped make up his mind. "We're going to need some more help I think. Come on." He said giving a nod of his head.

"You know, 1-3-7-Alpha isn't really a name that sticks with you. You got another name or something?" Lex asked, sparing the gynoid a glance as they drifted through the corridor back toward the cargo section. He figured if he was going to have a few of her fellow droids dashing around he wanted an easy name for her.

 

[Sensualist]

Alpha's smile as Lex agreed to save her fellow gynoids was simply radiant – her eyes lit up like blue-green novas, and her lips curved into a wide, joyous smile. She kicked off the bulkhead and floated towards the scavenger, throwing her arms around his shoulders and squeezing him tight in a quick, impulsive hug, her generous breasts pillowing against the shell of his spacesuit. “Thank you, Captain,” she breathed against his stubbly cheek, her breath warm and sweet before she pressed herself coquettishly away.

Alpha drifted through the thin air (thinner now, with the back-up lifesupport having been cannibalised) after him, considering his comments on her designation. Her soft“One three seven is my batch number, shared by all my sisters... correction, fellow units,” she elaborated, her soft voice rebounding faintly off the brushed steel walls of the central corridor. “Alpha is my instance within the batch. I do not have a name – only a serial code. However, now that I am genetically keyed to you, Captain, you may give me any name you wish. May I suggest one that evokes my designation, but serves as a more comfortable, affectionate pet name? Alia, Alice, Alana, Alita, Alexa...?”

Leaving him to ponder that as they returned to the rows of sleekly designed pods, Alpha and Lex began to activate a few helping hands. Within a few minutes, five more hyper-advanced companion 'droids levitated in the ship with the man, making the corridor rather cramped – but undeniably, pleasantly so. They presented a stunning symphony of variable but luscious beauty; Beta, who looked like a twin of Alpha, shapely and slender, but with her hair styled shorter and tinted darker pink; Gamma, lithe and poised like a ultramodel on the fashion catwalks of Sirius IV, with silvery-grey hair; Delta, a well-endowed blonde with sky-blue eyes and a peaches-and-cream complexion; Epsilon, slight, waifish and gamine with intricately coiled strands of purple framing her lush-lipped face; and Zeta, an athletic, toned blonde. The bevy of binary-based babes turned their gazes onto Lex, reporting their designations, operating statuses, parameters and requests for genetic key-linking in a chorus of sweet, husky, lusty, playful and fierce feminine tones.

Alpha gave the gynoids an appraising glance. “Captain, if you do not wish to establish ownership at this time, I can issue a temporary override instruction. This will allow you to dictate orders to them on a provisional basis, until such time as you have the luxury of exerting full ownership privileges.”

 

[Blueflame451]

Sisters, affectionate pet name? Lex raised an eyebrow and scrubbed a hand through his hair, Alpha's programming was first rate at selling that human illusion. He thought of teasing her with the name Candy because of the hair, but somehow this naming felt serious, personally, and he couldn't really bring himself to be dismissive about it. "Alana," he said solidly as she chanted out a few selections. "I like the sound of it. Try it on for size, how does it feel... Alana?" He studied her for a moment, not able to decide if naming her was such a good idea, but the more he said, the more he turned it over in his head, the more he liked Alpha's new name.

Once they had keyed up the opening sequence on the remaining batch of pods Lex felt an excitable, not quite nervous, energy bubbling up inside him, like it was Christmas morning and he was just about to unwrap his presents, or maybe like he was just going to meet a women for a first date. He tried to stamp it down. Keep your cool Lex, he thought to himself. The bots are a just means to end, saving your ass and just maybe making you rich. However all that fell away as one by one the gynoids appeared from within their storage pods. He was temporary lost in to a sort of sensory overload as he took them in, listened to their voices and felt their eyes on him.

Alpha, or Alana, made her suggestion and after a minute it sunk in to Lex. His breathing had deepened and he found himself more aware of the thinning air. "Umm... yes Alana, I think that's a good idea." He gave himself a shake, being moonstruck over this bevy of artificial beauties was not going to help him. He started planning for the immediate future again, one that included survival and not some surreal zero-g orgy. "Once you have the override in place, earmark those AI modules you downloaded earlier."

Lex gave Alana a minute to do what she needed to do initiate the override then he spoke to the closely crowded gynoids. "Ladies, Alana here will direct you to some skill modules that you will need to download and assimilate. This transfer ship is derelict and I need your help to affect repairs to our escape vessel so that we all can get out of here alive." Looking between all the gathered beautiful faces was its own kind of pleasure and Lex gave his lips a brief thoughtful lick before continuing, "Three of you will join Alana and I to transfer salvage and prepare the other vessel for our departure, that will leave two of you to stay here and use the cargo arm and prepare the remaining storage pods for transfer. Any questions?"

Lex waited for Alana to guide the other gynoids to the data, wondering if they would need to visit the computer console directly or if their microelectric data links could transfer the skill module from Alana direct to her sisters.

Lex did interrupt the process somewhat though by pulling Alana's twin, Beta, aside. "Beta, I have a special task for you... and I think I need your complete loyalty for it." Lex became acutely aware of the other nearby gynoids but focused his green-eyed gaze down on Beta and when he spoke his voice was low, something fit for bedrooms, "I'm going provide you a genetic... aw hell, I'm going to kiss you."

One of hands came up and his calloused fingers cupped Beta's perfectly sculpted chin, lifting it with exaggerated tenderness. His other hand swept her narrow waist pushing firmly at the small of her back until her barely clothed body pushed against his EVA suit. Lex let out a deep breath that wavered ever so slightly with his mostly sublimated passion. Tilting his head he leaned in and pushed his lips to hers, a full mouth kiss that was tender at first but increased in heat as he opened his mouth, accepting her tongue as his own likewise pushed into her mouth to deepen the kiss.

When he pulled back from the kiss he gazed down at Beta processing his 'genetic key' and huffed out a sigh, trying to rebuild his composure. Once it was done he told her softly, "I need you to interface with this vessels computer and download its astrogation files. They may be vital for our escape." That list bit might of been something of a stretch, Lex didn't know what stat the navigation system onboard the pirate vessel was in, but he wanted this data regardless. It was undoubtedly proprietary nav-data to Sybis systems but as a free trader Lex never passed up a chance to collect, or in this case steal, new hyperspace routes. Shaving off a few days here and there might just win him a job or two. He realized he didn't really know her storage capacity so he as he guided her to the panel he said, "I know it's a lot of data, just do your best."

Once the gynoids had their new skills and Beta had gotten whatever she could or would out of the nav-system Lex looked them over again. Without really realizing it their carefully crafted appearances were working on him and he was making judgments about their character. He judged Gamma and Zeta as being the most likely to operate autonomously and Epsilon the darling waif he decided to keep close as though she might need his protection. Lex pulled off a com unit from his belt, it linked into the coms in his EVA suit, and he handed it to the tall and toned blonde, "Zeta, you and Gamma will work the cargo arm here and prepare the pods for transfer. Monitor the reactor, the patches I did seem to be holding but we are working on borrowed time here." He turned to the other's giving them a nod, "Alana, Beta, Delta, Epsilon, you're with me. We're going to have to move to the other vessel get the life support operational and prepare her to receive cargo." Lex chewed his lower lip thoughtful for just a moment as he looked about between the faces of his absolutely gorgeous make-shift crew. "Any questions?"

 

[Sensualist]

“Alana.”

The way she spoke her own name, tasting it on her lush lips, uttering it in a throaty purr couldn't help but make a man wonder how she would sound crying out his name in the heat of passion. The gynoid smile at Lex and nodded. “Alana. I like it.”

The newly christened unit moved amongst her sisters, transferring the data packages directly. She pressed her palm to theirs, each in turn, with a faint hum and crackle of blue light as the information burned from dermal electrode to dermal electrode. Each one shivered as they were upskilled, gazing into the middle-distance as they incorporated the necessary talents for their escape and then returning their focus to Lex with an increased degree of animation and personality. It seemed clear they were fully-furnished with adaptive neural nets; the more data and experience the gynoids acquired, the more they would develop into individuated synthetic beings.

As Alana worked, Beta received the captain's personal attentions. Like her sister she responded keenly to the kiss, her back curving gracefully against his arm, thrusting her hips and chests to artful prominence while she took his tongue into the warm, yielding cavern of her mouth. Her hands slid to his body, grasping the belt of his EVA suit and holding herself a few inches off the deck plate, so that the grip and their entwined lips were her only points of support. Beta's tongue traced the lines of Lex's mouth as her tangy-sweet taste washed over him. The gynoid made soft, growling mews, her fingers tightening on his belt, knuckles grazing his stomach until he released her, at which point she smiled and ran her tongue around her pert little lips as the glowing pink-and-blue genetic ID markers ran along its agile length.

As her new owner lead her to the console, Beta placed both hands on the screen and images of starlanes and constellations began to flicker across it. Coloured lines weaved too and fro, delineating different routes and listing them by speed, cost, danger and dozens of other variables. The sexy gynoid thrust out her hips as she settled in to her task, her ripe round ass jutting out in a most eye-caching way as she glanced back at Lex and smiled. “I never attack any task with anything less that absolute enthusiasm and passion... captain,” she drawled in a sultry fashion, giving Lex a lingering, suggestive smile before bending her head over the console to focus.

 

[Sensualist]

The freighter's nav files proved bulkier than anticipated, so Beta elected to remain behind and sift through them to ensure they had an optimal route out of the system. While the sensually aloof Gamma and sporty Zeta set to work with the loading apparatus, detatching the racks of pods and manhandling (or droidhandling) them to the cargo bay hatch, the rest made their way to the crew airlock.

Although in principal tough enough to endure the conditions of space, the gynoids nonetheless took goggles and masks from the equipment locker and fitted them to each other, in order to protect sensitive eyes and membranes from the hard vacuum and hard radiation of the void. The airlock chamber was definitely a tight squeeze with all four of them in there, and Lex surely wasn't imagining that the women nestled tightly against the rigid plates and fabric of his EVA suit as they stood around him.

The atmosphere hissed slowly out of the room, and then the airlock opened like metal jaws with massive, blunt teeth, revealing a gently wheeling starscape flecked with debris and frozen gas, with the huge, gilded extravagance of the pirate ship sitting like a model in the distance. Silence enveloped them, with only the rasp of the strained filters hitting the redline ringing in Lex's ears. His bevy of assistants lacked com units, but Alana placed a hand on his chest to hold him up, and gestured to Delta and Epsilon. The voluptuous blonde, her curves even more extravagant than Alana's and nearly tumbling out of her tight little shipping outfit and the slim little imperial-haired Episilon nodded and turned their attention to the view of the pirate ship, scrutinising; calculating.

A minute later the ships came into the precise alignment that they seemed to be waiting for, and both gynoids bunched their legs – and jumped out!

Their bodies sped from the tumbling freighter towards the spinning pirate ship, but the two ships were moving away again, and only a wall of glistening hull and looping protuberances. Nothing to hang on to, nothing to catch them... they were about to bounce off or sail past the other ship and be lost in the void forever. There was no way to catch them, nothing to do but watch tensely as they shrunk towards the pirate ship... which, wait... was slowly... coming around again! The ship gradually rotated back to face them, just in time for Delta and Epsilon to make contact. Gamma caught the railings near the other ship's airlock and clung on, while Delta narrowly missed the railings on the other side. She caught herself on one of the decorative fins that jutted from the hull and pushed back to catch the railings.

Opening the airlock manually proved to be a two-gynoid job, twisting handles on both sides at once to open the iris-style entrance. As it widened Alana gave Lex a tap on the shoulder, and he saw that she had tied a length of carbon emergency cable around her narrow waist. She smiled through her transparent mask, then touched two fingers to it and then pressed them to his helmet, transferring a proxy kiss. She then threw herself out into space, pink hair fanning out as she vaulted to the other airlock with Delta and Gamma acting as shortstops. Alana landed gracefully in the pirate ship's airlock, and affixed the cable to a link there. The ultra-strong fibre would keep the ships tethered despite their movements, and she looked back across the gap at Lex, giving him a thumb's up.

 

[Blueflame451]

When the gynoids piled into the airlock with Lex he first, on impulse, leaned back toward the wall trying to share the space generously but as they pressed in closer he reciprocated in kind, leaning forward slightly welcoming them into his personal space. He turned his right hand and subtly dragged the gloved pad of his index finger across Alana's mons, only her outfit prevented the digit from drifting further downward. Reveling in the closeness his left hand circled Delta's waist to her back before sneaky dropped down to cup her bottom. If he had a third arm he would of greedily drawn Epsilon closer too. The space seemed charged with sex and possibility and Lex flashed a smile to the trio through his suit's faceplate, he even favored Alana with a sly wink. For the instant his focus was lost and he was adrift in in a daydream of having his own batch of six adorable sexbots.

The atmo silently hissing and spilling away through the yawning airlock door brought Lex back to the moment, back to the task at hand, but his mind was sluggish and slow as arousal clung to him. He was still recovering when the Delta and Epsilon leaped off into the spinning void. Holy shit they didn't tether he thought his stomach lurching as the sped away utterly at their mercy of whatever calculations their advanced computer brains had made. Bile rose in his throat as Epsilon missed her first grasp. His EVA suit had thrusters but it didn't have the speed needed to rescue her if she skittered off the ship and away. His breathy sigh of relief as she recovered fogged his faceplate for an instant before internal systems corrected, diffusing the moisture. He would not have let Alana make the jump herself if she hadn't tethered herself to the ship first.

After she had affixed the cable and gave him the thumbs up Lex set to work. One by one he hooked the bundles of gear and salvage to the cable and gave them a shove sending them spiraling through space on their way over to the other ship. When that was done he started a hand over hand climb along the line propelling himself toward the ship that was their lifeline. After a bit he let momentum carry him the rest of the distance his hand gripping the line loosely as a guide only. He set foot in the airlock the clang of mag-boots to ship hull reverberated in his ankles, knees and hips but was silent in the vacuum. The gynoids could only cling to the airlock's exterior and interior handholds but the EVA's mag-boots allowed Lex more stability and he thudded about the chamber helped the trio into the airlock before they set to the job of manually cycling the outer-airlock iris door. When it was shut then they could open the inner door. Lex had already boarded the vessel and he had not only confirmed that the pirates were dead but that a cascading failure had taken out at least environmental and main-power. A well placed kick with his metal boot popped open the manual release hatch and after Lex pulled the lever he moved to the inner doors and started to push them open. The mag-boots gave him an edge but it was still a struggle and he realized the gynoids were probably better suited to this sort of task, being not only stronger, but unaffected by fatigue and with no worry for a suit rupture. Male pride and stubbornness however kept Lex on the door until it moved, he felt vindicated as it gave way and he used his back to push against one door as his joined hands pressed the on the other side spreading a wide opening.

With tiny shoves the gear floated into the ship, then Lex stepped inside and flicked a finger across his suit's wrist interface and the built-in scanner reported no radiation alarms and a thin, unbreathable atmosphere. He knew some sections had leaked atmo and those leaks would have to be located and patched but at least the entire ship had not been exposed to vacuum. The atmo was dense enough to allow communication through vocalizers in the EVA suit and the gynoids' breather masks (which Lex wasn't certain they even needed.) An electric snap proceeded his voice as his vocalizer popped to life. "We've trace atmo, not breathable, but at least we're not dealing with hard vacuum here. We've got to repair the environmental systems to restore power to the life support section." He looked pointed at the gynoids, "Oh and ladies, do me a favor: No more untethered spacewalks." His hand brushed Epsilon's narrow shoulder, hoping his concern soften the admonishment. Turning from the trio he flicked on his helmet torch and glanced up and down the gracefully sculpted hallways of the damaged and dormant privateer, picking his approach. "What we want is this way. Keep in mind the pirate corpses are still in here, seeing a floater can be a surprise so be warned." It was a grim topic though Lex really didn't know if the sexbots were capable of being started or even if they could feel empathy for someone dead.

As Lex floated down the hallway trailing a quarter of the bundled gear behind him and he flicked on his coms, transmitting back to the cargo team on the freighter, "Come in Zeta, do you copy?" Waiting for the connection he continued, "We're on board the vessel and repairs are underway, when Beta is finished with the nav-computer notify me and send her over, we're going to need all the help we can get. We have a tether fastened between airlocks to make the spacewalk easier. Stay in contact and let me know if there is any trouble."

 

[Blueflame451]

They begin their work inside the vessel. Lex had no way of knowing how much time they had before the sputtering core on the boxy freighter died. He just knew when it did die there was a good chance of a critical meltdown: best case it would burn through one of its mag-seals and emit a short-lived spew of deadly radiation, worst case there would be an explosion, likely spectacular. He couldn't dwell on it though, they had a job to do.

He showed the gynoids the main environmental system. The core workings had turned out to be right under the power relay Lex had targeted his pod to impact during his attack run. Like a flea out to kill a bear, he wondered what the chances of his attack working really were. He made a mental note to have one of the bots calculate the odds when they were safe. They set down three of the salvaged bundles here and he instructed Alana and Delta to begin repairs on the main system. Delta's luscious curvy body seemed to draw his hand like iron to a magnet and he found his hand wrapping her waist as he indicated problem areas in the unit and where to start.

Lex took Epsilon to check the power systems, together they drifted down the corridor toward the engineering section. There first task was to make sure the ship had power after that they had to had to make sure the ships systems, especially the environmental system once repaired, would actually get that power.
The reactor itself was hardened (this absolutely screamed military grade tech to Lex), in near perfect condition and in standby mode. It was idling safely after the cascade failure of the power relay system waiting for the dead pirate engineer to make repairs and restart the power process. They also found the charged reserve battery system (more military grade tech) that could power the ship while the reactor was off. The ship had plenty of power, they just need to restore it to key systems.

Lex and Epsilon had lots of power conduits and relays to help, and when Beta returned she joined their efforts. "Absolute gun nuts!" the vocalizer in Lex's suit cracked, his helmet head and shoulders inside one of the primary power junction. He pulled out and signaled Beta and Epsilon to take a look, "It looks like they wired the secondary power systems purely to weapon and defensive hard points. Gun happy and short sighted as hell." Lex remembered how the pirate ship positively bristled with weapons, and how his ship and livelihood had been shredded by the barrage those weapons produced. Those batteries needed plenty of power and this was the setup for that, did the bloodthirsty fools even realize the chance that had taken with this setup he wondered. Lex pushed back into the space, squeezing between the pair, he was sure it was not imagination that his silicon seducers seemed to delight in pushing back against when sharing a space. A gloved finger pointed to a junction. "We crosswire the primary system over into the secondary here. We'll be done in a fraction of the time, of course if we bring weapons online we'd likely burn out the secondary system."

The trio soared between the sections of the ship rewiring critical and necessary shipboard systems into the secondary conduits, by now Alana and Delta were on the task too making sure the atmo-scrubbers would have power to pass breathable air to the bridge and main corridors. It took just over an hour but they had main systems switched over now and were ready to bring things online.

The interior of the ship came to life! Proper lights clicked on, humming faintly for a moment as they bathed the corridors in a glow that seem brilliant compared to the subdued emergency lighting in which they had worked. Recessed vents shook in the walls and emitted a tiny hiss as environmental pumped oxygen back into the hallways. Finally a dull pulsing hum issued from the floor before it fell away to the sub-sonic as the grav-plating in the floor pulled power. Artificial gravity returned to the ship, suddenly pulling the new crew, the former now dead crew and floating detritus, tools and parts down to the floor.

Lex felt his stomach do a sickening summersault or several as gravity suddenly grabbed at him again. As he recovered he watched the readout on his wrist scanner. At last it cycled green indicating breathable air and with a smile he pulled off his EVA helmet. "We did it! Air, gravity a few steps closer to getting out of this alive." Absolutely thrilled Lex emitted a triumphant chuckle, it was a pleased and cocky sound of victory. Still elated he turned on Epsilon and swept up the waif-like gynoid in an impulsive hug. Grinning from ear to ear he spun her once finishing his happy laugh. The chuckle and the spin ended but he did not immediately release the violet hair beauty. Lex gazed down at Epsilon, her careful design eliciting subconscious impulses in him he was only partially aware of, he wanted to protect her even as he was cautious of what trouble she might cause. There was another more recognizable impulse for Lex too and he answered it. He bent his head and kissed Epsilon. As his tongue passed her lush lips he slowly turned their bodies, carefully pushing the gynoid's deceptively delicate body against a wall as the kiss heated. Lex was tall and broad shoulder and with the added bulk of the EVA suit his form seemed to absolutely swallow the little gamine. The passionate kiss ended and he breathed heavily across her chin, the air that had been so sweet a minute ago seemed stale when compared with the perfect flavor of Epsilon's mouth. He felt elated and maybe a bit greedy to have formerly laid claim to another gynoid. His emotions quivered at some strange mingling point of guilt and eagerness as he thought sexually of Epsilon and her five sisters.

Lex leaned away from the wall and cleared his throat loudly, he beamed a lopsided smile at Epsilon as he reached for his coms. "Zeta, initial repairs are complete." He indicated the purple haired beauty to follow as he started toward the command section. "We'll be on the bridge shortly, are we ready to begin cargo transfer?"