Meadows of Heaven (5/23)
Chapter 5
Jeff managed to keep his promise to Jensen, arriving back at the palace with just enough time before dinner to bend the young man over the same chair in their sitting room and fuck him till Jensen came in thick spurts all over the rich fabric.
"Good boy," Jeff murmured in Jensen's ear, thrilled to feel him shudder beneath him. "If we shower together, that'll save some time."
Jensen turned his head and raised an eyebrow. "And conserve water."
"Mmm. I do want to try out that tub sometime before we leave." Jeff thought of how the hot jets would feel against his sore back, especially as he fucked Jensen in the water. He loved how Jensen looked with droplets of liquid beading on his body.
It wasn't till they were in the shower that Jensen brought up how he had spent his day. "I learned a lot about how things work here. Misha is a good teacher."
Jeff paused in his soaping of Jensen's back. "Perhaps you should give the report to the captain tonight."
Jensen shrugged. "I'm sure you learned plenty yourself." He leaned back, his ass brushing against Jeff's dick. "There's one thing though?"
"Oh?" Jeff replied, taking the hint and running his hands over Jensen's chest and belly, tracing the navel piercing with one finger.
"Can't think when you do that," Jensen gasped. "Duke Adrian's sub, he's the queen's son. And I don't think he's happy at all."
Hmmm, that was something to watch out for. Jeff knew there had to be layers of politics in this city, every bureaucracy had hoops to jump through, people to bribe. He and Jensen had to be especially careful, ignorant of exactly how the balance of power fell in Harmony.
Dinner that night had gone exactly as the night before, with Jensen joining the other subs in serving the doms. However, when it came time for dessert and the floorshow, apparently it was Duke Adrian's turn to entertain the masses. Given what Jeff had learned from Jensen only moments before dinner, he was especially wary when Adrian took the center of the circle.
"All of our subs," Adrian began, making eye contact with the crowd as he spoke, every ounce the consummate public speaker. "have their special skills and abilities. We saw a lovely demonstration of that last night, thank you, Duchess Claudia."
Jeff noticed that Adrian didn't thank Misha and really, that wasn't fair, since the sub had done all of the work. He extended his leg a bit for Jensen to lean against, comforted by the simple touch, knowing Jensen was so close, just at his feet.
"I thought it a special treat for our guest," Adrian tilted his head in Jeff's direction, "to see what the subs of Pasdar district are capable of."
With those words, Jeff remembered what Alona had told him earlier. The subs of Adrian's district were masochists. A sick feeling started up in the bottom of Jeff's stomach.
"I give you Mistress Albaney." Adrian gestured with a flourish to one end of the great hall, where a woman decked out from head to toe in black leather stood, the handle of a long tailed whip in one hand. "Known throughout the Royal district for her hand with a whip."
Albaney strode into the circle, giving a haughty nod to all of them. She stood with a military straight stance on impossibly high heels, her dark hair braided into a severe bun. If he had to base her character on her looks alone, Jeff would almost be frightened of her.
"And I give you my sub, Peter," Adrian held out a hand towards his seat, where Peter had knelt. At his words, Peter unbuckled his kilt and crawled across the floor till he reached his master's feet. He kissed the tips of Adrian's fingers before the duke stroked his hair. "Throughout Albaney's entire demonstration tonight, Peter will not make a sound. Except for breathing, of course."
Even Jeff realized something about that didn't sit right with the rest of the doms. There was something arrogant in Adrian doing this, giving his sub over to someone else for this display. And Jeff couldn't protest, he had no power here, although he flickered his gaze over to the queen, to see what she thought about all this. Her face was closed and carefully blank, lips set in a thin straight line.
"You may begin, Mistress." Adrian stepped back a few steps.
Albaney held out one hand and something shimmered into existence behind her, Jeff recognized the object from his own quarters, two large planks of wood set into a giant X. She held out the handle of the whip to Peter and after he kissed it, ordered him to stand and take his place. When Peter reached the giant X and stood flush against it, bands appeared around his wrists and ankles, anchoring him in place.
Jeff couldn't see the sub's face from where he sat, though he had a perfect view of that smooth pale back and rounded buttocks. He wished could see Peter's face so he'd feel better about this whole thing, know that this was something the sub wanted.
"I will count the strokes," Albaney stated to the group, drew her arm back and let the whip fly. "One."
Jeff hadn't expected there to be blood. Nothing he had seen on 328 had prepared him for this, the bloody mess of Peter's back with each stroke of that woman's arm. Back on the ship, when they were training, Jensen had told Jeff he didn't much care for blood play. "I'll probably pass out," Jensen had said.
Now, he felt Jensen tremble, though to the outsiders, he held his posture, still and serene. Jeff reached out and tugged Jensen up, so his head rested in Jeff's lap and faced away from the mass of crimson dripping down Peter's back.
Most disturbing was the silence, how Peter made no sound but ragged gasps, his breath coming harder and heavier the longer this went on. Jeff didn't think he could withstand it himself, no way would he be able to keep quiet under that.
Adrian had kept his gaze on his sub the entire time, except for when Jeff pulled Jensen's head into his lap. Then the duke looked their way and Jeff swore the man had licked his lips. Of course, Adrian might just be enjoying what Albaney was doing to Peter; Jeff could see the tent in the Duke's leggings.
"Twenty," Albaney called out, and then dropped her arm, finally counting out the last stroke. She moved to release Peter from his bonds, keeping a strong hand on his arm as he fell to his knees. After a few moments of heavy breathing, with silence still ruling the great hall, Peter seemed to compose himself and crawled to his master's feet.
Now Jeff could see the tear tracks running down the boy's face.
And when Adrian pulled Peter's face to his crotch, Jeff nearly interrupted everything right then. What kind of fucking gall did this bastard have to do that to his sub and then expect a blowjob in return? Jensen must have felt the tension in Jeff's muscles, and he signaled him quickly, 'do nothing.' Was this kind of thing normal?
After Peter had finished, marked with his master's come on his chin and chest, and blood on his back, the crowd applauded, as they had done for the conclusion of Misha's scene last night. Jeff hoped he wasn't imagining that tonight the applause wasn't quite so vigorous.
"As you can see, the subs of my district are specially trained," Adrian said, directing his comments in Jeff's direction.
That's not all I see, Jeff thought. He didn't speak, he didn't trust himself not to speak his mind.
"Duke Adrian," Claudia spoke up after Misha had whispered in her ear. "I'd like to offer Misha to escort Sub Peter to the healer."
Adrian's expression darkened at her words, but he only inclined his head. "Of course, Duchess."
Jensen tugged on Jeff's clothing, and he spoke up. "Would it be all right if Jensen assisted Misha?" he directed his question to Claudia, not Adrian. "It looks like a two-man job." Jeff doubted Peter would be doing any walking for a while, stars, he could barely stay on his knees, his body swayed and his arms trembled to hold him up.
"Excellent suggestion, Commander," Claudia said and so it was done.
***
Jensen marveled that Peter managed to stay upright until he and Misha succeeded in getting the sub out of sight. Once they reached the lift, Peter collapsed and began to shake violently.
"It's all right, Levi," Misha murmured, stroking Peter's hair gently as the elevator moved. "You'll be all fixed up soon. The healer will take good care of you."
"Is this normal?" Jensen asked, not wanting to sound as appalled as he felt.
Misha turned a sneer in his direction. "No master would have someone else whip his sub in front of a crowd for entertainment! Not even for punishment! And then to not even call for the healer, to leave it to my mistress!"
So Adrian had acted in as bad form as Jensen had intuited. Good to know. He knelt next to Misha, noting how Peter felt warm and fevered to his touch. "You had her call for the healer," he said.
"Someone had to," Misha said. "A sub can die from a bad whipping."
"Albaney knows her trade," Peter choked out. "She would have called for it, had your mistress not."
"Hush," Misha said, just as the doors to the elevator opened.
Peter had to lean heavily on both of them in order to make it out of the elevator and Jensen wondered why there wasn't an easier way, to just magic up a stretcher like everything else in this place. Although, seeing the panicked expression on Misha's face, Jensen figured the other sub hadn't even thought of it.
"What in Harmony's name is this?" someone exclaimed. "Why didn't you contact us on the tele?"
Jensen turned to see a sub he didn't know coming towards them. The man wore a black collar and was clad entirely in white. "Set him down here. Mistress!" he turned and bellowed.
"Micah, what are you. . ." A woman appeared in the doorway, dressed in white like the sub, and terribly lovely, just like everyone else here, with blond curls around her cheeks and large dark eyes. "Levi?" she gasped. Straightening her shoulders, she took command of herself. "Micah, Misha, and you," she turned on Jensen, "get him on the examination table. Quickly."
They lay Peter face down on the low table Micah had motioned to earlier, stepping back as the woman approached. She pulled something from a drawer and held it against Peter's arm, Jensen guessed it was some kind of injection.
Peter sighed in relief. "Thank you, Nicci," he slurred, before his eyes fluttered closed.
She brushed his hair out of his eyes, her gaze going soft for a moment before she turned her gaze on Jensen and Misha, her eyes now hard. "What happened?"
"His master had Albaney have a go at him," Misha said, not hiding the anger in his voice.
"There should have been a healer on standby," she snapped. "What was he thinking? I had nearly gone for the night!"
"I would have been here, mistress," Micah put in from attending Peter. "Sub Theo is still recovering from his broken ankle."
Nicci waved a hand at him. "That's not the point. And who are you?"
Jensen swallowed, startled at suddenly being regarded by this fierce woman. "Jensen," he said. "Oh, sub to Commander Morgan," he added as an afterthought. "We're from the stars."
"The green-eyed sub," she murmured, and Jensen wondered how much of a reputation he had. "At least you're not one of Adrian's."
"You'll keep him here, won't you, Healer Nicci? At least till tomorrow?" Misha turned his wide blue eyes on her.
"He may have to stay a few days for observation," she growled. Nicci turned back to the row of instruments alongside the examination table. "I'll know once I run his vitals." She turned away from them, after getting what she needed to know from Misha, they were now beneath her notice.
Misha tugged on Jensen's arm and pulled him away, towards a sink in the back where they washed the blood off of their hands. Jensen hadn’t even noticed, in their haste to get Peter here. He'd told Jeff he had a problem with blood, and now he wrinkled his nose, the scent of it making him nauseous. The crisis had passed and now Jensen could freak out all he needed to.
"Nicci will take care of him," Misha told Jensen as he led them back to the lift. "She's as good a healer as her mother, and her mother was the best."
Jensen took another glance before the doors shut, saw how the woman held some kind of device over Peter's back - a skin sealer, perhaps? He'd like to get another look at the medical technology, see how much advanced they were compared to what the UP had. Only he hoped to visit under much better circumstances.
As the doors opened once more, Jensen wondered if all the doms were to give demonstrations to their group each night. If so, it was only a matter of time before Jeff was expected to put Jensen on display. Jensen's stomach clenched and he wondered if they were ready.
***
Maggie hated wearing the air masks, how the edges of it caught around her ears and left indentations on her nose. However, they hadn't gotten the life support up and running on the ship yet, so the air was stale and not helped by just the one shuttle bay door they'd managed to figure out how to open. Devine had sent another shuttle down, filled with more scientists and equipment to analyze and package up this new find. And to Maggie's delight, her own part in the discovery hadn't been missed and she'd been able to poke around at the computer innards.
"You haven't managed to get this bucket of bolts up and running yet?" Whitfield's muffled voice interrupted Maggie for a moment.
She looked over at him from where she sat on the bridge, underneath the navigation station, the panel open and wires spilling out. "The problem I'm having is their computer talking to our computers." Maggie pointed to her tablet. "I'm going to have to rig up something to connect it to a port."
"Piece of cake for you." Whitfield moved over to slide into the captain's seat.
The ship was wonderfully outdated, filled of furniture and decor that hadn't been seen in hundreds of years. Maggie fingered the leather on the seat behind her, marveling that it hadn't rotted away, probably since the ship had been airtight. They needed to preserve this stuff, ASAP.
"Just because I detected the energy reading doesn't mean I'm a miracle worker," Maggie told him.
"If the power's out," he jerked his thumb to point behind him, where the other technicians were looking to hook a power source to the main reactor of the ship. "Then where's the reading coming from?"
"Here." Maggie pointed to her screen. "The last remaining power was directed to the main computer, to keep the information viable, I guess for whoever found the ship."
"Or just something they found pretty darn important before they cleared out that colony we found on the other side of the valley."
Maggie's head snapped up. "What?"
"Found the ruins of a settlement, full of stuff that was standard for back then. Pre-fab houses, old wheeled cars and all that shit."
"If that's the original colony, then where did the city come from?" Maggie wondered out loud. While she spoke, her fingers wrapped the stripped wires together and shoved them into a standard tablet connector. Hopefully she'd managed to get all the correct leads.
"Aliens, remember?" Whitfield snorted. He sat up straight as her display came to life.
Maggie grinned, scrolling through her tablet, now finally able to access the ship's main computer and all of its records. "There is a shitload of stuff to go through here. Years and years of logs."
"What's her name?" Whitfield jerked his head towards the roof, indicating the ship. They hadn't cleared enough of the hull to read the designation, if one even existed.
She touched a button on her display. "The Raleigh," Maggie said. "They called her the Raleigh."
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Epilogue