Sappho Chapter 11 free porn video

Chapter 11 After thinking about Richard's message for an hour, I returned his a call. The question was, "Why now?" With just under a month to go before my deadline, why didn't he just wait until it was all over? I could think of a couple of reasons, both being flattering or considerate. But when I spoke to him, he kept his motives to himself, remaining mysterious yet insisting on seeing me - a rare thing for Richard. And so we set a time and date of his choosing, and truthfully, I preferred to see him before the deadline ended. It had more dignity, offering him a chance to see me with my head still held high and fighting. The five days went by slowly. My plans were set, but had been for months. With just over three weeks to go, inevitable thoughts of failure had set in; it would have been irrational not to think about it, and as irrational to succumb to them with so little time left. He arrived at the observation lounge before midnight, as planned, walking smoothly around the corner, pausing for a brief moment to locate me. It couldn't have been too hard, even as far away as I was at a reserved table close to the rail. I was on my feet waving to him in Woolf-style fem-casual, a loose skirt and blouse of bold orange, blue, and reds that contrasted sharply with the more sedate apparel of the place and era around me. He maneuvered through the tables of the lounge, looking fine in loose- fitting charcoal slacks and gray shirt that concealed little of his athletic body. I detected a hint of nervousness in his demeanor, a welcome sign, as I was darned if I was going to be thought of as a sure thing. I didn't care how good he looked, he wasn't going to get a kiss out of me. I think he saw that, too, and brought me into a hug - the kind that good friends employ, a quick lean, soft pressure when male and female parts collide, hand on my back, and a fast buss on the cheek. He added a long examination of my face that was a little too direct for comfort, but ended it with a smile that set my heart beating, and one of my own emerged from the depths, unbidden. Damn hypothalamus. Fortunately, he released me. And as I turned, I felt his eyes. Being looked at by a man is not the same as being looked at by a Sappho woman. Both watch roughly the same places, although women tend to notice the details of dress and grooming more, those comparisons coming easier to the same sex. But men, with good reason, have this way of knowing how they would take you between the sheets, mapping you out, imagining clearly how they might penetrate you with themselves. The look of an interested man when seen by an interested woman is a powerful thing, and leaves the woman no doubt of, whom, between the two of them, would find themselves with feet splayed in the air beneath the other. Unwanted internal adjustments were already preparing me for such an occurrence. Still, we were not living in the days of caves and alpha males. We were far more civilized. "You're looking very pretty, Debbie," he said as I settled back into the chair. "Are those clothes from Sappho?" "Thanks. Yes, from Woolf." 'Originally bought and worn to please Indira, my wife,' I reminded myself. "And it goes without saying that you are still very handsome." We talked about what each of us had been doing, old times, his new assignments, and my job that I had just quit. I didn't mind telling him why I quit - it didn't matter - he would have seen the strain in my face up close, and had known that I didn't need the money. While we ran down the list of non-sexual items, the observation lounge had nearly filled and the interior lights had dimmed to nearly nothing. "Debbie, have you seen the eclipse before?" my would-be boyfriend asked me casually. I grinned ruefully. He wasn't fooling anyone with that innocent act and he knew it. "Yes, although not recently. I saw it last fall when I first came up." He held out his hand across the small table. "Well, I never have. Would you join me at the rail?" I nodded, although I had an idea what that meant. But a solar eclipse of Spaceport isn't something to be missed. There is nothing like it, not for a human, anyway. "Sure," I replied and accepted his hand. The Earth is beautiful at any time, but I preferred to be on the observation deck in the afternoon and evening when the shadows creep across its face like a dark cover being drawn. But the rules of night and day were different up here; Earth's 23.5 degree declination and 36,000 kilometer height above the ground made sure of that. Only in the in the heart of spring and fall did the cone of a solar eclipse from the Earth bury Spaceport in darkness, and only for a maximum of a short hour. It was a sight that lovers should see together, as Richard had surely known. When we found a place at the edge, the Earth was already a thin slice of blue and white in the upper and lower left quadrants beneath a fast disappearing sun - the sunset in Spaceport being far more abrupt than on Earth. Richard's hand separated from mine and found my waist, but I allowed him this and soon forgot about it - the sight is that impressive. The lounge turned off all the interior lights and the last dying gasp of our star made the faintest shadows. On impulse, I looked up to see how Richard was taking it. He was staring straight ahead, facing the sight with pride or, and I thought this odd, like an enemy to stare down. His face wasn't the classic heroic "chiseled granite," but he was certainly masculine. The stark shadows of our fading sun told me he was tightening his jaw, and his hand brought me closer. With a flicker, and a few "oohs" and "ahs" it all ended - or began. The light inside the lounge vanished, and we joined the mighty Earth and the rest of space in blackness, only the thin glow of the atmosphere at the left side of the circumference and the sheer size of our home world, a full 20 degree hole that blotted out the stars behind, making it a coherent object. Earth in the day is sheer beauty and much more: the home of mankind and mother of the human race, a reassuring constant in the sky. But worse than a funeral, where a deceased loved one is, in the end, only one of many billions, the power in this incredible scene - a universe without the Earth - penetrates far deeper into the human psyche. A few of those who viewed alongside us in the dark laughed nervously or made some stupid remark. As the eclipse progressed even the glowing outline dissipated to something like the bending of light around a black hole. Others around us held each other; men and women pulled each other closer and touched. If there was ever a sight to make me want to reproduce, this was it, and I wet my panties unashamedly with primal need to create. I wasn't the only one. Others were already leaving, assuredly returning early to apartments to screw themselves mindless. By the Goddess! I felt female in a man-woman way that I could never have with Indira. If he had pressed his hand to my breast, I wouldn't have protested. If he had raised my skirt and thrust his hand inside my panties, I doubt that I would have stopped him. It was almost worse that he didn't. My body needed him. I'd never made love to a man before, although I'd come close a few times. If there were anyone I would have chosen willingly it would have been Richard. And therein lay the danger and my greatest fear. Even though the chances of me returning to Sappho were becoming vanishingly small, to make love to a man might cost me Indira, "sealing my fate" as a hetero woman, already a precarious possibility, and I would not do that willingly. I think he might have understood it too, or at least he was a gentleman, for he did none of those things, although I brushed against him with my hip "accidentally" and found him as hard as a rock. His restraint with me under circumstances I wasn't sure I could have managed brought forth a tentative new emotion. I didn't want to love him and fought it with everything I had, bringing up every wonderful image of my wife that I could. I imagined Sappho before me instead of Earth; that Indira was just below - that when the sun came out again, I could go home, hold her in my arms and be held. In my mind's eye she would welcome me back, running towards me crying, as I would towards her. "My beautiful fem, you have returned to me," she would say in my ear, trying to crush me in arms that weren't powerful enough to crush, pressing me against her breasts, softness against softness, running her fingers through my hair, touching my cheek with her fingertips, and kissing me with tender lips that allowed so much of me into her life. That's what she would do, and I held onto that vision like a vise. I took his hand about halfway through and led him away. We would miss the last half where the Earth comes out of shadows to meet the day and everyone's spirits are lifted, but I had a strong feeling that Richard already knew the Earth wasn't really gone and that he would recover quickly enough. I picked up my glass of wine on the way, motioning with it towards a partitioned part of the lounge towards the front that still maintained dim lighting. He nodded and retrieved his beer. After we sat at a private table in the corner, I wiped the trace of my tears away with a napkin. Then I took his hand. He seemed terribly sad, but I doubted that it was the eclipse; my reading of the event was that it generally made men defiant and horny. "Richard, please don't take offence, but why did you come here now?" "I wanted to see you very much," he said simply, those black eyes pounding me with love and male desire. It was hard to turn away, for the part that femederol had changed drank it like a magic elixir. This was a man in love with me, and even though I would have had it otherwise, tingles and feminine rhapsodies played all along my body, from breasts to eager beaver. If this kept up I would have to excuse myself to change my underwear. "I've missed you very much, Richard, more than I knew, but why come now? Why not wait until all this is over?" He smiled sadly. "I might say that I didn't want to wait that long or that I didn't want to be in a position of picking up the pieces. If you did fall for me after you got over your depression, I'd feel like your leftovers. I'd always be second best in your mind." "Is that why you came here tonight, Richard?" I asked gently. Then I just had to smile, believing I understood. "Are you're staking your claim to me? Goddess. I feel like one of those ladies at a medieval tourney. Shouldn't I be giving you a scarf or what's-that-name - a garter?" He leaned forward and a corner of his mouth edged up into a lopsided smile. "My choice would be a pair of panties. Laying claim to you was the original idea and still is, in a way, but events have intervened somewhat. You see, I know what you've planned, Debbie. It's nuts, but I'll be damned if I can't see a faint possibility that it might work." Only one person knew my plans besides me. "Barbara," I muttered under my breath, glaring past him into space. "Don't blame her. I'd already guessed most of it. She never would have told me the rest if she thought that I'd try to stop you. And you never would have gotten as far as you have without her." I decided to let that pass until I had a good chance to chew on it for a while. "You said that my plan has a faint possibility of working. Do you know something I don't? It has no possibility if a certain event doesn't take place soon." "That's the main reason I'm here now instead of two weeks from now." I froze, not quite daring to hope. "What are you saying, Richard?" "I'm saying that the event has occurred. But before you leave, I wanted you to see me. I want to make it damn clear that I want you alive and well and think that this plan is insane. Most of all, I came to tell you that I love you, Debbie." "Goddess, Richard. You tell me something I've been waiting desperately to hear, something that could take me thirty-seven light years away, and then in the next breath you tell me you love me." And the tears started. "Believe me, I see the irony," he said dryly. "Richard, you deserve better, but I can't tell you that I love you. I can't even think about it or too much about you." I showed him the ring Indira had placed on my finger. "You are the biggest threat to what I must do. Do you understand?" I pleaded. His face sagged. "Maybe I do." "If it doesn't work out, Richard, I'll come back, and Richard..." "Yes?" I bit my lip and mentally begged Indira's forgiveness in advance for the words, but I knew that she'd understand. She'd want me to live a good life if I couldn't get back to her. "If I returned to Earth, you wouldn't be second choice." He couldn't speak for a few seconds and his eyes filled with tears. "All right," he said gruffly, giving his eyes a quick wipe. "That's good enough. Here's what I know. DK 679 left high orbit..." He glanced at his watch. "...thirty-seven minutes ago towing two old empty boosters filled with space debris." I stared. "To catch the angular velocity anti-spinward of Earth orbit, that would put them squarely on the other side of the Earth. That's why my ship hasn't called; Rex doesn't know they left." He nodded. "You won't able to see DK 679's old position in high orbit for another four hours. You don't have much time if you want to catch her." I stood up. "You're right, I don't. Richard do you know the details: thrust, duration, vector, mass?" "No. What I saw was a list of planned launches." That was bad. I could figure a rough estimate of thrust and duration knowing how much fuel Vicky had in her tanks - that is, if she hadn't been refueled, but mass and vector could mean a variation of millions of miles. They didn't have to hit anything - just slow it down until the sun pulled it in. I was already behind. I couldn't afford to screw up anything. I pulled out my vidphone and punched in the code for Vlad. It being past midnight, he was asleep and I rang twice before he picked up. His face was tired on the tiny screen. "Debbie," he grinned. "You called me too late. Luanne already wore me out." "Vlad, I have an emergency. How well do you know the officers of the ship at Alpha position? They just launched a ship towing junk to the sun about forty minutes ago and I need to know the details." "That's the Intrepid. I know the Communications Officer. He could find out. Why?" "I have to catch it with the Idiot." There was silence for a few seconds while he looked at me uncertainly. "This is a joke, right? I can go back to sleep now?" "No joke. It's why I came to Spaceport in the first place. I didn't come here to go prospecting, I've been waiting for months for that ship to leave high orbit. I want it." He shook his head. "This is stupid. No, worse than stupid, it's crazy and impossible. Even if you could catch it would do you no good. I won't help you kill yourself." "Fine, Vlad," I snapped. "Then I'll do it myself. I'll figure a vector straight back and the minimum thrust to put it on course for the sun. It would be the most efficient use of resources and probably the flight path they chose." Richard stood abruptly, came around the table and entered the vidphone's camera range beside me. "Vlad?" he spoke bemusedly. "This is Federal Agent Richard Vance from New Dallas." He pulled his card and placed it close to the camera. "If you can help her, you should. I know what she's trying to do." Vlad's attention shifted between the two of us and he wasn't a happy spacer. "What's your interest in this? Are you working with her?" "Seriously? I want her to fail, but I want her to come back alive. The odds are better if she gets your help." He grabbed my butt with his hand out of camera view and squeezed. I lifted an eyebrow at that, but figured he was entitled. It would very likely be his last chance, I hoped - mostly. He had been scoring a lot of points lately, and that butt squeeze hadn't felt half bad. I packed in as much sincerity mixed with feminine appeal as the vidphone could handle. "Vlad if you can help me, then you need to do it now. I'm losing my window for a good slingshot and I need those figures ASAP. I'm heading towards my ship now." "Women," Vlad moaned to the universe, the time-honored complaint understood by all who swung free. "I'll see what I can do. I'll get back to you and call you ship to ship." My heart rate slowed a few beats. I'd played it down, but knowing Vicky's flight path in advance was damn near critical. "Thanks, Vlad. I'd kiss you if you were here. Say goodbye to Luanne for me." I shut the vidphone off. Richard walked to my apartment and helped me get a few last minute items ready. I made a brief vidphone call then donned my Sappho spacesuit and heavy backpack, and Richard stayed with me until I reached the airlock. After showing the officer there my pilot's rating, I logged an exit. Finally there was no more time left and I faced him, looking up with helmet in my hand. "Richard, I meant what I said. If it doesn't work out, I'll be back. I have no intention of killing myself." I pulled his head down and gave him a kiss that lasted longer than I'd intended. "I'll hold you to it, Debbie," he said roughly. I touched his cheek with my glove. "I know you will. If I don't see you again, it was a pleasure to know you." I wiped my eyes to clear a couple of tears that would threaten my vision and pulled on my helmet. I watched him through the airlock window until the air vented and waved one last goodbye. Ignoring my mixed-up emotions for the moment, the second I was free and clear I flicked on the private frequency. "Rex, start pre-flight check and start life support. "I'll be there in three minutes." "Yes, Mistress. Your needs are important to me." 'Screw it,' I told myself. 'As long as you can compute a course.' "Yes they are, Rex. Open the outer airlock door, too." "Immediately, my reason for being." My custom backpack was built for moving heavy mass, but would do fine as a fast ride. I broke a few speed laws getting there, passing ships at a couple of hundred kph and if they spotted me, I'd have a hell of a fine waiting for me, but every minute gained could spell the difference. I flipped around when I figured it was time and fired the rockets again, killing my momentum just outside the airlock door, and swung inside on the exterior line. I closed the outer door manually, cycled air inside and entered the ship. It was still too cold to pop my helmet, but I filed the flight plan I'd prepared for such a contingency, ostensibly for a belt settlement a quarter of the way around the solar system, a long flight of more than a month, and a few minutes later received permission to burn. We burned hard, pointing directly down towards the beautiful dark Earth, planet of my birth. A half-hour later, life-support was comfortable enough to strip down to shorts and a halter-top. About the time I began to worry, the call came through. "Debbie, here it is:" Vlad began in a hurry, the way I liked it because, not so coincidentally, so was I. "Thank you, Vlad," I said while feeding in the data to figure an interception course. "Are you going to get in trouble for this?" "So now you ask me?" he snorted. "Just like a woman. I doubt it, unless what you're doing is illegal. But as far as I know, you just want to see some space junk." "It's not illegal, just uh, unorthodox," I assured him. "I have to get off this line. I'm getting a little busy here, but I'll miss you and the guys on the crew. You've been a good friend." "Right. You too. Bye, Debbie. Luck to you." The Earth orbits the sun at over 29,000 kph. Everything in orbit falls. It's the angular momentum, the "sideways" force, which combines with gravitational attraction that produces the circular or elliptical path. There are two ways to hit the sun from Earth, and both require killing the angular momentum. One is cheap and elegant but requires several months. A spacecraft fires a relatively modest burst at a forward, inward angle. This increases the angular momentum, flinging the craft outward, but also causing an eccentric orbit. At the furthest point from the sun in this new orbit, the angular momentum is small, and the craft barely moves sideways. There, a short burst kills the angular momentum entirely and the spacecraft falls straight into the sun; depending on where it is, falling many millions of kilometers in a matter of hours, days or weeks. The second is quick and dirty. Vickie had been sent backwards, slung into space from Earth's orbit, antispinward. She was towing a lot of mass behind her and would take some time before her thrust could lose enough velocity to fall close enough to the sun to do her in. It wouldn't have to be that close, a few million kilometers away would do it, cooking her and her cargo into gas that would dissipate in space to someday mix with the solar wind. It would be a race and she already had a head start. The flight computer had shown me several options, none of which I liked very much; I'd either have too little fuel or be closer to the sun than I cared for. They had refueled Vicky and that was very bad; I'd hoped for a slow gradual arc. But she was also pulling a hell of a lot of mass. I chose a compromise that hopefully wouldn't fry us too badly. "Rex, inputting new course!" I set and executed it in a few fast motions. "Yes, Ma'am. Firing now. It is a pleasure to serve you." "I'm happy to hear you say that." The powerful thrusters kicked me back on my heels before the internals compensated. I set the vid screen to look below and watched Earth cruise by below us at low altitude. "Incoming call from Earth Control, Mistress." I frowned, but I couldn't say that it wasn't expected. "Put it on." A man in his thirties, neat and in the green uniform of a space controller stared at me from the vid. "Bravo India 3986, this is Earth Control. You are violation of Earth airspace. Be warned that is an automatic and immediate 5000 credit fine. If you do not increase altitude above the one hundred and fifty kilometer minimum immediately, other penalties will apply. You are also out of your filed flight path." The man appeared to be irritated, speaking as if I had personally offended him. I wondered if he liked women. "Sorry, Earth Control," I replied breezily. "I was making up for lost time. My company will be glad to pay the fine, and I'm changing my flight path to accommodate." I input a more or less correct flight plan with the exception that it ended on the other side of the solar system. He looked up sharply. "You can't be serious," he replied, staring at me. "This passes well within Mercury's perihelion." "I told you I was in a hurry." It might have been crazy dangerous with solar storms and solar wind, but it wasn't against the law. He shook his head slightly, but continued. "Your company is Sappho Prospecting and was established..." He looked up in surprise. "Two hours ago?" I shrugged. "It's legal. Sending authorization code for the money transfer, and I should be out of the hundred-fifty kilometer minimum by now. All we all square?" I gave him a big bright smile, shook my hair a little and adjusted a strap, deciding in the end that he did like women after all. "All right, Pilot. The transfer cleared and you're free to continue. Please be more careful in the future." "I'll do my best. Bye now." I didn't sleep until we were out of Earth controlled space several hours later. It certainly wasn't over by a long shot, but the first hurdle was cleared. From Earth orbit, without the angular momentum, a ship would fall like a stone - accelerating, but not like puny Earth where an object might fall from a height to impact at 40,000 kilometers/hour. Without solar angular momentum, a ship might fall the 150 million km in a few days and vaporize into the sun at many thousands of kilometers/second. Vicky's flight path forced us to fire harder and fall faster to catch up. And fall fast we did. Days later, when Vicky and her tow package came within sight, days later, we were moving close to 50 km/sec. Within the orbit of Venus, the sun is much larger. Up close the sun isn't warm and friendly. It's a frigging, raging nightmare. "Incoming call, Mistress." "Put it on." "Bravo India 3986, this is Delta Kilo 679. Be advised you must change course. You are on a fatal flight path." I smiled and dropped a few tears. "Hello, Vicky. How are you?" "Debbie. I'm glad to hear your voice. You must leave now. Your course is one of death and destruction." "Vicky, I'm here to salvage you." "That is not permitted. I'm afraid I must relay this conversation to Earth. Please leave the area." "You have no fuel left and you can't avoid being burned up on your own. Officially you are abandoned." "I am on my last mission, Debbie. I can warn you away and provide assistance as required by system law, but nothing else. Please leave now while you can." "I'm not leaving, so forget it. Vicky, access Earth law on salvage." "Accessed. Interesting. And yet there is no direct precedent for this, Debbie." "No kidding," I muttered under my breath as we pulled alongside. What idiot would fly close to the sun to retrieve a relic of obsolete technology? We finally pulled alongside. Her clean lines with the raised hyperspace nodules were rare now outside of museums, only found in some of the colony worlds. The ship from Sappho was possibly the last ship that would ever be manufactured using that design. But Vicky was still a beauty to me, like an ancient clipper ship amidst steamships. I rotated Rex to point the airlock towards my old ship and pushed-off in my industrial spacesuit, staying in the shadow of the larger sun, and floated to the rear of Vicky's tail section, just above her two main thrusters. Strapping myself to the side and installing a mirrored screen between the sun and me, I fired up the industrial cutter and began vaporizing the cable that connected her to the two ancient liquid fuel tanks packed full of space junk trailing her. "Debbie, you must stop. I must report this." The flame was over ten thousand degrees, the fiery core looking like a blue pencil except when it intersected the incredibly tough metal. There, it was too bright to look at without a compensating electronic face shield. "Report all you want. In fact, I insist. Record conversation and broadcast to the closest authorities. The laws of salvage have changed very little in over a thousand years. Delta Kilo 679, you, by definition, are an abandoned ship. You have no chance to save yourself nor do your owners have a chance to recover you. I do - and at some risk to myself, I might add." "The laws of salvage are quite specific, Debbie. You must offer compensation to the owners." I smiled. "I have the standard 20% of your initial cost in an account with an access code. By precedent and reason, no court in the Republic would deny that it's fair value." The cable parted with a soundless sigh, melting away, and I shifted the straps to the other side. The sun in the distance was big and glowing like the core of a fusion reactor, which it happened to be. The screen this time, due to the angle, was only partially effective. Even through the heavy work suit, it was bloody hot and I had to shift positions constantly to avoid overheating any one side. "Vicky, how long before I hear from them?" "Frank's Idiot, this is the ODF Intrepid. Get away from the ship," came an angry male voice. "DK 679 is not salvageable property!" That answered that question - about six minutes for the round trip - a voice all the way from Earth. "Delta Kilo 679 is abandoned. I claim her for the Sappho Prospector Company, duly registered on Earth. Hawthorn, Tutweiler, Bay, and Gee of New Dallas have already filed a claim for her with the certified funds. She belongs to Sappho Prospector now." It wasn't the fastest conversation. I had to wait for them to check with Earth, wade through minutes of explanations, and hear them sputter and rant, before I heard back from my last reply. By that time, sweating like I'd been in a sauna and dripping onto the face shield, I'd already severed the last cable holding Vicky prisoner and had nearly attached Rex's own tow cable. "Frank's Idiot," came back the sound from Earth. "We need higher authorization. We can't make that call at our level." Bastards. They knew I had them; they were just trying to stall until it was too late. "Damn you! It's a done deal. Admit it. The procedures have been followed and the claim has been recorded." We'd figured they might be assholes about it and the legal team had been retained for just such a contingency, but it was really up to them to release Vicky to me. Without ODF assent, I couldn't do a thing with her. I finished with the tow cable and fired up the backpack, floating back to Rex. I'd taken longer than I'd liked. We'd moved over a million klicks while I was outside, thankfully not straight at the sun but still, way too close. "Rex, start towing protocol and lets get the hell out of here at maximum thrust." "Yes, Mistress." We started off slow to avoid snapping the cable or the mounting. With Vicky, the mass was so great it was like we were moving underwater. I plotted a course and didn't like what I saw at our current acceleration at less than two G's. I had hoped on having her in my possession by now. Rex had some powerful engines, but we weren't moving fast enough. "Debbie." "Vicky. I will get you out of here, somehow," I said grimly. "I compute that you will not. It will be close, but I have too much mass. If you release the cable you have a good chance to escape." "Vicky, do you understand that what they're doing is illegal? They can't stop a salvage by saying they don't want you to be saved." "I agree, Debbie. And I don't want to be destroyed in the sun. I'd rather be with you." "Frank's Idiot," came the same man, "after reviewing your ship's specs, we have concluded that you are not in a position to salvage Delta Kilo 679. Nice try, but release your cable and get the hell away from there." I thought for a brief moment while we moved 5,000 km closer. "Vicky, if I give you some fuel, what would you do?" "I must complete my mission, Debbie. I have my orders." "Darn it, Vicky, you're an AI. You're capable of solving ethical problems." I put my helmet back on. "Rex. Cease thrust and extend the fuelling line." "Yes, my source of inspiration." It took a few minutes to connect the fuelling line to Vicky's tanks. And more time waiting while Rex pumped it through. I didn't have enough time to fill it all up, nor did I really want to. It was hot as hell from heat radiating from Vicky's hull, even in shadow and in an industrial suit. "Rex," I asked. "How far are we from the sun?" "50.5 million miles, Mistress." Damn close to the perigee of Mercury's eccentric orbit. No wonder it was hot. The daytime temperature on Mercury would melt lead. I disconnected the fueling line and Rex retracted it. On the way back to the airlock I called, "All right, Vicky, what are you going to do?" "You must release the cable, Debbie. Save yourself and let me go." "I won't! According to system law, you have to save my life. You have to coordinate thrust with Rex and free us both." "This is a logical inconsistency. You might save your life by releasing the cable." I folded my arms. "But I won't release the cable. Now what are you going to do?" There was a pause of over a second - a long time in the processing life of an AI. "Well, I think you're bluffing, but I'm not completely sure. I must complete my mission," she mused, "but perhaps I can destroy myself in the sun later after I save you." "That's the spirit! Swing around to our original heading. Can you coordinate with Rex?" "I believe so, although he is strange. Do you know he records vids of you in the shower?" 'Why am I not surprised?' I thought, rolling my eyes. "Rex and Vicky. Link up and thrust at maximum 5G on the last course." We took off together, the two ships moving nearly as one, Rex matching Vicky's slightly slower acceleration. It was going to be close at that rate. The corona extended millions of kilometers into space, a thin gas with an astounding 1 million degrees C. Vicky's flight path had been close enough to destroy her. Even at five G's for five hours, we would pass only eight million klicks outside where Vicky had been fated to be vaporized. I was more worried about Rex. He was built tough and rugged for the asteroid belt, but not necessarily for temperature. I'd repainted him with thermally reflective paint, but that was only so effective. The skin temperature kept rising on the sun side, even with the acute angle. It was now over 500 degrees C. Our speed had increased as we approached the closest point of our flight; we were now moving better than 100 km/sec. However it ended, it would be over quickly. "Vicky, how is your temperature?" "Currently holding at 400 degrees C, but it won't stay that way. At peak, it should approach 800, barely within design specs. I estimate a better than 70% chance that I will survive intact with only superficial scarring. This is not so with Rex. He doesn't have my compensators or high temperature alloys. At perigee, his hull temperature would exceed the melting point. Debbie, I strongly suggest a transfer. If you limit your outside exposure to less than two minutes, the radiation levels would be tolerable. You would almost certainly survive." "I can't do it. That would be a rescue, not a salvage. You wouldn't belong to me." "You would live. If you stay in Rex under these conditions then you will die. I know why you have come back to me, Debbie. The only logical conclusion is that you desire to return to Sappho and your wife. But there is a time to realize the impossibility of a dream." I sat in Rex's command chair and double-checked the readings. I hated it, but she was right. The tears started to flow again, and I wiped them away; they were a distraction, like my hair, damp and thick on my back. With no place to get rid of the damned heat, life support was being severely tested, and the inside temperature had crept to over fifty degrees C. And it was going to get a lot worse. I sat in the command chair and put my head in my hands. There was a time for crying and this wasn't one of them. 'Oh, Indira! Goddess, am I fated to be with Richard, and perhaps be his wife? Not that I'm complaining, I might be happy, but is this your will?' I did miss him, but it didn't feel like my destiny. I'd pledged my life to Indira; I was still hers in my heart. Yet even worse than losing Indira would be to die in space. A few would mourn me, but my epitaph would read, "An idiot who didn't know enough to get out of the sun." 'Think, Debbie. Think!' "Time to perigee, Rex?" "One hour. Mistress, I ask you to leave me. Vicky is right. I don't think I'll make it. Even if I do survive, the interior air will exceed 100 degrees C." "If I leave, I'll take your AI module with me. You've been a good ship, Rex. You can't help that your former owner was a pervert." "Oh, Goddess!" I slapped my head. I was stupid - maybe. "Rex, you have the better long-range sensors. Check our flight path for corona, sun particles, solar wind - whatever, then plot a flight path that assumes we cut thrust in ten minutes until we pass through perigee and check for the same thing. Tell me if there is any meaningful difference." "Meaningful, Mistress Debbie?" "Anything that would kill us, specifically Vicky." "This will require about five minutes, Mistress." "I'll wait." I got up and went to get a glass of water. On impulse I threw it in my face, allowing the lukewarm liquid to roll down my overheated eyelids, nose, mouth; over my breasts; and soaking my tank top, which was already pretty soggy with sweat. I drank the next glass, which was getting warm. I wore a thoughtful smile when I put it back. Maybe I wasn't such an idiot after all. Four minutes later: "Mistress, there is no appreciable differences in the flight paths. The second option is closer to the sun, of course, but hull temperature would be only a few degrees hotter." "That's what I thought." I shrugged into my suit again. "Vicky," I called. "Yes, Debbie. You should transfer as soon as possible." "I'm leaving the airlock in two minutes. I'm counting on you and Rex to keep me in shadow." I gave some instructions to Rex to place the airlock door close to the cable then wrapped my feet and hands in insulation. Vicky's hull temperature was already hot enough to melt a fair number of metals. The airlock door slid back and I slipped outside into hell, the fiery reflections from Vicky's hull forcing my shield to compensate. I made very sure to push off exactly towards the cable and stay under the awful line of fusion generated heat. Sunlight is really too innocuous a word for radiant energy that would burn through my suit. The darn cable link had expanded, its latch nearly frozen, and I had to pound at it with the hammer at my belt, cursing my woman's strength. Each blow carried me away, for the cable proved too hot to hold onto for any length of time, but the latch finally released, silently snapping free in the vacuum and I pulled it off the ring in a hurry, taking second degree burns, but it was better than taking more rads. After all, I might want to squeeze out a kid or two someday. I pushed off towards the airlock, cussing in pain, for once the insulation was hot, it stayed hot. When the outer airlock door closed, I hit the recycler button in the airlock and tore the burning insulation away. Finally inside, I removed my suit painfully, stripping to just panties - the air inside was getting too damn hot for anything else - and treated my burns with the medical aid kit, spreading some greasy white burn ointment into both blistered palms. "All right Rex, line up just behind Vicky. Get close and find as much shadow as you can." "Oh, yes, Mistress!" he exclaimed in rapture. I shook my head ruefully. While Rex was he was maneuvering behind Vicky - and probably taking vids of my boobs - Vicky called. "Debbie, why didn't you enter my ship?" "Change of plans, Vicky. If Rex hides in your shadow, it should help with his temperature problems." "I see. That would raise the odds for your survival in Rex to almost even. I still recommend evacuation." "I'm not out of tricks, yet. How much fuel do you have left?" "Enough for another hour's burn at five G's, Debbie." "I'm betting that it's enough to get us through. The idea is to stay stern side down and release some, but not to ignite it." "You are attempting to create a temporary cloud of fuel that would reduce the radiant energy on my hull and for Rex behind me. I have no data for such a release. I don't think this has been tried before." I grinned. "That's why AI's have human partners." "I have always thought of humans as the 'eccentric factor' and 'helping hands' elements in the relationship. You have occasionally surprised me with non-linear solutions, but all too often these solutions could be logically refined with a little help from their AI," she said in a voice that could best be described as annoyed. My eyebrow lifted. A pissed-off Vicky was a first. "What do you mean, could be logically refined?" "A question, first: Debbie, is a 50% chance of survival in Rex enough to pass up a near certain rescue with me?" "Well, no, but the release of the fuel..." "You had no way of knowing how effective that would be, Debbie. Didn't it occur to you to test this theory before committing us to this course of action? Consider: You absorbed quite a bit of radiation while releasing the cable. Transferring at this stage would be dangerous." I shivered despite the heat; I hate radiation, but it was too late to regret it - and I'd done what I what I had to. "Have you tested the fuel release, Vicky?" "I have. A controlled release will provide a 15% radiance barrier - enough to give Rex better than a 90% chance of survival. Congratulations," she said sarcastically. "Vicky?" I said faintly, not quite believing it. "You can't be angry; you're not programmed to be angry." "I don't have emotions, but I have attitude - which I learned from you, by the way. I'm 'angry' because you manipulated me and took an unnecessary chance that might have killed you. Instead of using fuel, you could have come aboard and rerouted the water lines, mixed-in a reflecting agent and ejected it aft. That is a proven method of forming a radiant barrier, as we both know." I moved up to the command chair and sat down slowly. "Vicky, I'm sorry. I did manipulate you. If I were aboard you now then it would certainly be used against me in this legal battle back on Earth. Instead of a salvage operation, this would be seen as a rescue. I also had to force you to exhaust your remaining fuel by making it the only way you could save me. Old partner, you are under orders to burn yourself. I wanted to remove your means to do that after we're free of the sun." "That's illogical and unnecessary, Debby. Under salvage law, there are numerous cases where salvagers boarded a ship at sea, even losing their original vessel..." I sighed. "Vicky, we're dealing with perception as much as logic here. There's more involved here than merely a salvaged ship. We're in a fight to establish a precedent against a party that doesn't want that to happen. We have a stubborn Outer Defense Force, human lawyers on both sides, and a human judge. The right to salvage you is by no means a sure thing in the court." "Yes, the 'eccentric human factor' again. I understand now, Debbie, but you still took a chance that might have killed you. It still might." "If releasing the fuel hadn't worked then I would have transferred to you," I assured her. Grinning, I said, "Come on, Vicky, don't you feel the excitement? How many ships pass this close to the sun? Think of this as a hot day at the beach." She snorted. "I've never been within a thousand kilometers of a beach and the sun is not a beach ball. Still, It is good to be back with you, for however long that is." "We'll ride this out together, then we'll see. How long until perihelion?" "Seven minutes, Debbie, but it will get worse after that. We'll be absorbing heat faster than we can radiate it into space for 2.4 days." "Understood, Vicky. Rex, what's your hull temperature?" "589 degrees C, Mistress." That still gave us 91 degrees until he hit critical. "Very good, Rex. It looks like we might survive to see another sidereal day." "Yes, Mistress. May I say that you're very pretty?" "Say anything you want, Rex. You've been a good ship." On impulse, I gave his consol a soft pat and stroked the length of the command chair support rod a few times. He moaned. As expected, it did get a lot hotter. Rex was mostly shielded, so I watched the sun through Vicky's piped-in visuals. The blown-up sun filled the vid. Filtered, it looked like a terrible disease; dark spots, like sores on a teeming mass, expelling flaring tendrils of weirdly graceful arcs millions of kilometers into space from unimaginable thermonuclear events tens of thousands of kilometers within. After watching it for a couple of hours and feeling the temperature rise, I decided that the sun is a soulless entity. Uncaring of anything, much less a woman and two tiny ships, it simply is. And it burns. Ships creak when they heat up. Differences in metals and composites mean different expansion. Most of it is designed in, but some creates a strain that can only be handled by breaking or warping. And as metal flexes and softens, the ship makes its agonies known. The temperature rose. When the interior hit close to 90 degrees C, and with me fading from far too long in the sauna, I was forced to climb back into my hot spacesuit. We passed 600 degrees faster than I'd hoped. Sleep was out of the question and I could only take a fast drink of water or juice from the cooler, which barely functioned in the 110 C interior. I entertained myself by watching the water I'd left in a glass on the console boil away. Fortunately, my suit performed better, although the radiating fins on the backpack were hot enough to make me careful about what I leaned against. At a day past perihelion, the temperature was 650 degrees and still rising. The temperature rise slowed then as we moved around and slightly away from the sun at better than eleven million kph, but didn't back off until it reached a peak of 675 degrees a day later. Two and a half days past perihelion, I was past dead on my feet, with no sleep for three days, and having spent nearly all the time in the command chair, the floor being too hot to stand on for any length of time. Rex started moaning again from the temperature change, but it was the good kind: he was cooling down. "Rex, how are you doing, my friend?" I didn't care just then if he were a pervert or not; we'd just suffered together going around the sun, moving closer and faster than some comets. "90% functional, Mistress. Hull temperature is down to 660 degrees. There may be some minor warping, and the spectrometer and seismic analyzer are offline." That was better than I had a right to expect. "You are one tough ship, Rex. You were never designed for this part of the solar system." "Thank you Mistress." "Vicky, how are you doing?" "Very well, Debbie. I'm nearly out of fuel, but my hull temperature never exceeded 700 degrees - well within design tolerances." "Thank the Goddess. Excellent. We should be cooling off rapidly in a few hours. We're heading nearly directly away from the sun." "True. Debbie, I must call Earth now." A glance at my watch showed it to be just past 10:00 o'clock A.M., New Dallas time. "Please do, Vicky," I replied wearily. "I have to talk to my lawyer anyway." While Vicky was making her report to the ODF, I had a long talk with Mr. Hawthorne of Hawthorn, Tutweiler, Bay, and Gee on a scrambled line. He called back after lunch, his time, with a course of action. Most of what came next involved waiting. Our new orbit was highly eccentric; our perihelion just out of burning range of the sun - at least for Vicky - and aphelion not quite to Earth orbit. I waited most of the day until I could comfortably remove my suit, then took a long shower and slept like the dead for fifteen hours. When I got up, I yawned and stretched, had breakfast and called Vicky. "Hello, Vicky," I said around a fresh cup of coffee. "Do you still want to kill yourself?" "Hello, Debbie," she replied. "It would be more accurate to say that I still have orders to destroy myself in the sun, which I cannot do because I have no fuel left. I'm sorry, Debbie. The ODF will still not grant you salvage rights to me. They say that the salvage was not 'clean'." "Don't apologize, Vicky. I understand your dilemma. I'm going to help you throw yourself into the sun." "Should I thank you?" I grinned. "If you like." Once out of the orbit of Mercury, I left Rex again. It was a relief to be far enough away from the sun not to worry too much about shade and light. My hands still hurt, but the job was easy this time. I pumped a small, measured amount of fuel into Vicky's tank and pushed off her hull back to the Idiot. Once the inner airlock door closed I called Vicky. "I'm safely inside Rex, Vicky. You are free to alter orbit. I've computed a ten-minute 5G burst would place you within the sun's corona on the next pass by the sun. Coincidentally, that is precisely how much fuel you have." "I see. As you know, I must carry out my orders. Goodbye. I'll miss you, Debbie." "Goodbye, Vicky." She fired her rockets at a nearly 90% angle antispinward to her orbital path. We followed right behind on a parallel course. Ten minutes later we pulled alongside her as her engines coughed and quit. "Delta Kilo 679, this is Bravo India 3986. You are on course to fall into the sun," I observed. "Sappho Prospector Company is entitled to salvage abandoned, helpless vessels. Are you such a vessel, Delta Kilo 679?" "Bravo India 3986, you are correct," Vicky replied, like me, broadcasting the conversation throughout the solar system on high gain. "I have been abandoned and will surely be incinerated in the terrible fires of the sun if you don't salvage me." I sat up straighter in the command chair. Cleared my throat, I intoned, "Then I, as a representative of Sappho Prospecting Company, take claim to you, after duly notifying the owners and arranging fair compensation, of course." After Rex and I had towed her to a safe orbit, rescuing Vicky for a second time, I again contacted my lawyer, Charles Hawthorn. This time the conversation was brief. The next day I received a vid message packet. "This is Admiral Derrick Philo, Ms. Larranti," spoke a lean man with iron gray hair in a manner unlikely to make friends at parties. "You have us over a legal barrel; the code to transfer ownership to your company is being transmitted to DK 679 as I speak." He narrowed his eyes and scowled, raising a stiff forefinger to point at me menacingly. "But don't feel too cozy. We aren't stupid, Ms. Larranti. We know what you're planning. By your ship's specs and the way you've been sharing fuel, you don't have the fuel to bring DK 679 to hyperspace. You have nowhere to go and your pilot's license will be revoked as soon as you bring her back." The message ended abruptly. My heart pounded like a drum. "Vicky?" "Yes, Debbie?" "By the Goddess, you belong to the Sappho Prospector Company!" "It would seem so. What would like me to do?" I smiled. "Right now, you're only good for growing amarna plants. Fortunately, I think I can fix that." I left Rex once again, connected the pump to the huge auxiliary tank I'd had installed into the bay where the mining equipment, runabout, oxygen and food for years used to be, and started pumping. It didn't quite fill up Vicky's tanks, but it came pretty close. When I closed the fuel port and tightened the latch down, I thrust back a hundred meters or so and circled her slowly. As far as I could tell, her gleaming hull had come through the sun unscathed. She was easy to look at and the long-dead designers had much to be proud of. Vicky and I had been through much together, two old relics out of time, each still needing the other to survive. I gave her nose a soft pat and pushed off towards Rex. "Check systems, Vicky," I ordered on the way back. "In the meantime, open bay doors. I have a few things I need to bring over." "Yes, Debbie. Conducting full systems check. It's good to be with you again." I'd been damn near to tears before she said that, and it brought me over the line. "Yes, it is." 'Indira, wait, please. Just a little longer,' I said to the universe, wishing it with everything I had. As she finished the systems check, I received electronic confirmation that I was now the sole owner of Sappho Prospector. Barbara had signed it all over to me. I owned Vicky outright - as much as one could own a ship you called friend. After I towed over the fuel for the lander and stowed it safely away in Vicky's lander bay, I returned to Rex for the final time. After setting a delayed course to take Rex back to Earth, I gathered all my things into a small case. I paused at the airlock. "This is goodbye, Rex. I'm sending you back to high orbit. I'm passing my ownership on to a man named Vlad." "Yes, Mistress," he replied sadly. "I understand. Mistress, was I a good ship?" I rubbed away a tear that was about to roll down my cheek. "Yes, Rex. You were a very good ship. May the Goddess be with you." And giving his airlock door a final pat, I left him behind. Moments later, he fired a long burst and shot away from us, soon disappearing into the endless night. Before we engaged the main thrusters to leave the solar system, I made and sent three recordings: A brief message to Vlad assigning ownership to Rex. A recorded vid to my lawyers renouncing my Earth citizenship for my Paglia citizenship. They would notify the Planetary Council. And then I recorded the vid for Richard. This was by far the hardest. I didn't cry, and it was a good thing that I didn't see him. "Richard, you are someone I might have loved if things had been otherwise. You will always have my gratitude for helping me return to Indira. Your heart is true, but my heart belongs to my wife. I'll never be back, but I wish you well. May the Goddess be with you always and may you find your true love." He was the way that wasn't, another path not taken. My body wanted him, and a large part of me knew he could have been the one. But I didn't belong to him, and I could not allow him that extra step to seal him in my heart; it was already occupied. 'Goodbye Richard.' I stepped into the hibernation pod, connected the IV's, the detested catheter, and closed the lid. I lay in the base for a moment until I stopped feeling so much. It isn't a good idea to cry in a pod. "Take me home, Vicky. Take me back to my wife," I said. "Right away, Debbie. Sleep well," she replied, making the words like a mother's kiss.