The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Inana

It was almost too hot to breathe. Sweat dripped down her neck, off her aching tits, splashing onto her master’s big belly. Inana was too busy riding him to fan herself. His huge, hot hands encircled her waist as she labored to please him. Most men would’ve been long spent by now, but Master Gund had a harem of broken girl-toys and he kept them busy. While Inana fit right in, she couldn’t just coast on her charm.

She didn’t mind. For one thing, Nikki had fucked with her head for so long that she couldn’t mind much of anything. For another, her master of masters matched her bottomless sexual appetite move for move. It filled her with a twisted hunger.

She faltered on the upstroke, overcome by a fierce convulsion. A gust of wind invaded the room, signaling the approach of the nightly thunderstorm. She wanted to rest a bit, but those strong fingers at her back reminded her that she wasn’t done.

Inana almost looked down at him, but remembered he didn’t care much for that. Instead she took him to the hilt, ignoring the dull ache. He groaned, and she smiled at the wall. He tried to pull her closer, but Inana was the one on top, so she double-timed her hips and stared down at him. It was the perfect dash of sass: he squeezed her ass and yelled in climax.

Her back clenched a beat ahead of a sympathetic orgasm. Inana’s mouth fell open, then finally she could exhale again. The trigger trance crept up on her, as usual, and she went wobbly on cue. He hefted her up and dropped her into bed next to him. She was soaked, still panting, eyes wide with nothing; just the way her designers intended.

“It’s lovely to be back, innit?” he asked.

“Of course, master,” she purred breathlessly.

“Good. All that troublesome business is behind us now. Yes?” He was asking her if she understood that he wasn’t angry with her for escaping. That in fact she’d have the lucky privilege of joining his harem, until he worked out a new buyer. And that as much as he liked her, he still planned to sell her, because she was far too valuable to hold onto. There was an awful lot of subtext in conversations with her master of masters.

“Oh, yes sir.”

“There’s a girl. Now, just to be sure, we’ll make some adjustments to that lovely little head of yours.”

Dean

“This will be a super bitch,” Dean mused as he eyed the fortified compound through his binoculars, from the relative safety of the jungle’s edge. The heat lightning messed with the resolution, but this was a rich gangster’s home, all right: a lowlife’s dream of high class. There were poorly mixed architectural influences, bad color choices and ostentatious displays. But there were also sentries, watchtowers and lots of high walls.

“He keeps the windows open in his suite, but everywhere else, it’s air-conditioned,” Darice murmured. The desert girl was wilting in the humid air, which made him feel less like a wuss.

The moon of Hedras wasn’t really fit for human settlement. Summer sweltered forever on the side that faced Bolomine. But there would always be people who came to places like this either for the challenge, or because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. It made them tough. Gund had been born and raised here.

Dean wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I know I already told you, but if you’re not up for this, say the word.”

She shook her head as she eyed the hacienda. “Not while she’s in there. You’ll look after me, won’t you?”

On Pasharu, Inana had wandered the slave bazaar transfixed, her body advertising as her mind slept, serene. That’s how she’d been designed, anyway. But she’d also awakened enough to beg for his help via telepathy. Then there was Darice. He had rudely interrogated her in order to track down Inana, then she’d followed him around for a couple of days, begging to serve him. His failure to replace her former mistress as the shining new light of her slavegirl’s life had prodded her awake as well. And that’s when she had realized the magnitude of her sin against Inana.

Dean put the binoculars down. “Of course I’ll look after you. Are you still okay with the plan?”

She wore a black, skin-tight spacesuit liner, to suppress her involuntary pheromonal assaults. Even so, Dean kept glancing at her heart-shaped ass. She reached into her bag and produced a coarse black dress and veil—the unflattering garb of the hired help around here. “I’ll go in through the service entrance,” she recited. “You get in... However you get in. First one who finds her calls the other.”

The wind was picking up. Dean checked his pistols again, out of habit. “And when else do we chat on-air?”

“Not unless things go sideways. They can’t hear what we’re saying, but they may detect us saying it.”

He gave her a satisfied nod. “All right. Let’s go get her.”

Inana

She lay on a rough granite table, knees in the air, feet chained wide apart. The dank, reeking chamber looked centuries old, but had in fact been built only five years earlier—a detail she’d picked out of Master’s thoughts during a previous session. She knew better than to tease him about it.

Fake or not, this wasn’t a nice place to be. She’d broken fingers trying to get out of here. But now she stared at the ceiling, listening to her deep, relaxed breaths. Master would let her know if she needed to do something.

The room’s featured resident now rose up through a hole in the table, right between her open thighs. Inana couldn’t help it: she lifted her head to see. Its violet pod and luminous tendrils perfectly complimented the sickening green walls.

The dream plant stretched its vines as if waking from a nap, then ensnared Inana’s ankles. It wasted no time with its favorites. The purple head pressed against her sex, and she lowered her head. Even in her hypnotic haze, she didn’t want to see down there anymore.

Something hot uncoiled inside her. Thousands of tiny barbs stuck to her most sensitive place, tearing along her skin as the dream plant filled her with what felt like a yard of vine. She heard herself scream, but things went dark in her head, and she grew slick for the burning thing that ruined her. Her knees banged together as she came. The burning intensified, and she came again. She couldn’t decide if her screams were of rapture or torture. Either way, her throat hurt.

She undulated on the table as it began to fuck her. Endorphins flooded her body, kept her from fainting. Fat fingers brushed her soaked hair from her forehead, and strange thoughts pushed at her mind the way the dream plant had just nudged at her pussy.

Suddenly, she saw Dean, his face close to hers as he rested beside her, that first night on Pasharu.

Forgotten...

Next, she saw Dean’s back, upside down. He was carrying her to his ship after she’d been shot.

Lost...

Now she was padding around the Starless in nothing but a faded yellow tee. Dean was busy, and she was looking for something to eat.

Erased...

Then she was sitting on the beach on Ives III, reading a book, vacationing like a normal person.

Deleted...

They were in bed, listening to the rain after having sex for the sixth time that day. She wondered what would happen if she admitted she was falling for him.

Edited...

Inana convulsed on the damp stone table as another hot orgasm blasted through her. A languorous wave spread through her limbs. She didn’t mind that that the plant was still jiggling her around as it drained her memories.

She didn’t even care that she was bleeding.

Dean

Security was concentrated outside the apartment house, to keep out intruders. The girls padded lightly through the halls, giving him faint smiles and polite little bows as he went by. The poor things no longer knew what escape was.

He stalked the slave quarters undisguised, creeping up behind guards and laying them out. Each time, he considered exchanging clothes. One such guard lay at his feet right now, and here he was, thinking, “I’ll just check the next floor.” Soon they’d start waking up, and things would get interesting.

A tall redhead in a plain white slip stuck her head out into the hallway, noting Dean and the big, unconscious guy on the floor.

“Heard that, did you?” Dean asked.

She averted her eyes, shook her head nervously and disappeared into her room.

“Hey, uh...” He followed her inside, which caused her to drop to her knees and stare at the floor. “Is there a Xhian girl around here?”

She was nearly too scared of him to answer. “A-Are you looking for a companion tonight, uncle?”

“No, I’m...” He waggled his fingers at her as he fished for the words. An uninvited guest? Who needs to be dealt with severely for defiling your Master’s harem? “The boss told me to fetch the Xhian. Name’s Inana.”

She looked up at him, gave an eerie smile. “You mean the petite girl with the blue eyes who makes you dizzy when she walks by?”

“That would be her, yeah.”

“I think there’s been a mix-up, uncle. She’s already with the Master.”

Dean looked to the ceiling and bit back a torrent of curse words. “How long has she been gone?”

She giggled softly. “Since last night. None of us have had anything to do all day!”

He took deep breaths as he stomped off to find an out-of-the-way place. Touching his ear, he hissed, “Darice? You there? Change of plans.”

Inana

She felt clean. As she stirred in the cool sheets, a yummy high made her grin even before she opened her eyes.

Mmmm... Drugs.

A bath and the doctor’s cot meant she’d been good. She could sleep here a while, undisturbed. Master would probably ask for her again later.

She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows, loving how the cold air teased her bare ass. The movement made her dizzy, and she rubbed her eyes just to see the stars. Her stomach growled, but she’d been hungry for so long that she could ignore it now.

Behind her, the door opened and unwelcome light flooded in. Inana frowned. “I’ll just sleep if you don’t mind please, Doctor.”

“Is it you?” a strange female voice asked.

It was hard to roll back over. She squinted at the veiled woman in the doorway. “I dunno,” she slurred. “Who do you want me to be?”

The woman crossed the room in three steps, kneeled to take Inana tightly in her arms. “Oh God, li noura!”

Inana struggled to breathe. “Hey, I’m not your sister, lady!”

The stranger nuzzled her through her veil. “I know,” she soothed. “I don’t deserve to be, but I’ve come to get you.”

Inana felt woozy. “You could get in trouble just for being in here. Close the door when you leave, okay?” Darice tightened her grip, and Inana felt her start to sob. “Okay!” she warbled. “You can hug! Just please don’t kill me.”

Darice knelt on the floor to compose herself. She put her hand to her cheek. “Dean? I found her. Yes! What? Not so good. I don’t know what to do. Please hurry.”

Inana watched this impassively. “If you’re talking to yourself, maybe you should wait for the doctor.”

“Dean is coming,” Darice said. “Did they make you forget him, too?”

Before Inana could ask who Dean was, they heard voices outside. Darice put a finger to her lips, then vanished. Presently, Nikki and the doctor appeared, along with an uncle carrying a sizeable knife.

“Who the fuck were you just talking to?” Nikki asked. “Was he here?”

Dean

He’d gone back for the hat and jacket after all, which was good, now that everyone was looking for him. Maybe they’d detected his com chatter, or found Darice. He didn’t dare call her now, but at least she’d just told him where Inana was.

Smudging his face with a little mud—and there certainly was no shortage of that on this shitball of a moon—he tagged along with search parties until he was behind the doctor’s bungalow. A massive gray thunderhead was moving in over the jungle. Hidden in the clouds, his orbital coupe stood by. “Molly, you there?”

“Quickly,” the AI told him. “They’re triangulating.”

“I’ve almost got her. It’s air support time.”

“Affirm’. See that you find them both by the time I start blowing holes in things.”

That would be the trick, all right. Darice was hopefully staying out of trouble, and Inana was no doubt being moved. Then, a bit of luck: he spotted Nikki and some men going up the back stairs to the hacienda. One of the men carried Inana, who wore the off-duty white slip of the harem girls. The other was asking Nikki a lot of questions.

“Oh, it’s Mister Poole,” she assured him. “But I’ll know him when I see him. All I need is his head, if you follow.”

Dean smiled and began to follow at a discreet distance.

“He’s out of his fucking mind, coming here,” Nikki continued as they hurried inside. “Under the spell of this magic pussy...” This made the guard—a sinewy bald guy—chuckle nervously. Inana’s relentless pheromones were no doubt affecting him. “He could’ve bought three perfectly good girls that night, but this little Xhian witch... Well. The slave business would be better off without their kind. We’ll see how long she lasts before Gund tires of her.”

Dean chose that moment to disengage the safety on both his pistols. His targets had the good sense to freeze. “Jealousy. So unbecoming,” he chided . Thunder shook the walls as the first drops of rain hit the roof.

Nikki turned slowly, palms up. “Put your gun in your mouth and pull the trigger, my love. And let us put the next ten minutes of our lives to better use.”

Outside, Molly began her first strafing run. There was a lot of shouting, just as the evening torrential downpour began.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Dean said, lowering one pistol to her knee. “Why don’t you piss off, so... What’s your name, fella?”

“Jools,” the guard offered, his back still to Dean.

“Yeah, so Jools and I can work something out here.”

Nikki considered this. “Why don’t you—”

“Sorry, gonna cut you off there. I wasn’t asking, really. Nikki, what I mean—and I’m trying to make this real simple for you—is that I’m going to blow your fucking leg off if you’re still in my sight in five, four, three...”

Nikki promptly excused herself.

“Unbelievable bitch!” Dean said, friendly-like. “Jools, how do you put up with that?”

“Tell me about it.” Jools turned slowly, so Dean could see Inana.

She looked worse than he’d imagined. They clearly weren’t feeding her well. She was scary-pale, with lots of bandages in odd places. It took entirely too long for her to notice him.

He couldn’t help calling out to her. “Hey there, squirt!”

She smiled back at him. “Hi. Who are you?”

This was followed—as if it were really necessary—by a very sharp knife plunging into his back. He didn’t know how many men had crept up on him, but he was disarmed just in time for lots of blows to his person in a variety of places.

“Ooh!” winced Jools, as he shifted Inana in his arms. “Sorry ‘bout that, mate.”

Inana

All that noise... As if her head wasn’t already pounding. The meds were wearing off and everyone was running around and yelling. Fireworks were going off like there was a big, drunken festival in progress. To make matters worse, the uncle carrying her smelled like three stinky fat guys, and she had Nikki to put up with.

“I hope you’re happy,” the Madam told her as they made their way down to the cellar. “Your Master’s probably going to have to sell you to pay for all the damage you’ve caused, little shit.”

“I’m not the one setting off the fireworks,” Inana pointed out. “Oh, and go to hell, ma’am.” Being Master’s favorite had its perks.

“You enjoy yourself,” Nikki conceded. “Just remember, there are things I can do that don’t leave a mark.”

Her uncle grunted. At first Inana thought he was amused by the little catfight going on, but he started to sway, then she spilled out of his arms and landed hard on the steps. “Ow!” she cried, as the man tumbled over her and continued down the stairs for a good bit. There was bright red blood on her white slip. At least he’d had the decency to drop her before rolling to his death. She rubbed her elbow and looked up at Nikki, who was unusually quiet.

Then she noticed the crazy girl in the veil from before, a few steps up. She held a smoking, muzzled pistol. “Hello, Nikki. Do you remember me?”

Nikki regarded the violet-eyed girl in the dark worker’s clothes. “Shouldn’t you be cleaning toilets or something?”

“My name’s Darice. You took me from a passenger liner three years ago. I’d always hoped we’d meet again.”

“How nice for you.”

Inana could tell Darice was smiling. “You have no idea. What was it Inana said before?”

“How should I know?” Nikki complained. “She babbles on so.”

There was a pop, and Nikki’s hands went to her chest. Inana hid her face in her hands. “I think she told you...” Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! “...to go to hell. Ma’am.”

Inana inhaled deeply, shuddering, because there was even more blood on her and she was about to scream. Darice knelt swiftly and covered her mouth. “Shhh! I won’t hurt you. Like I said, I want to get you out of this place.” Inana settled for wailing into Darice’s palm, but something happened in her head. “Try to relax...”

She couldn’t seem to focus. Darice struggled to remind her of things that were just... Gone. There were places she’d never been, people she’d never met. All these images and thought-stories had a familiar shine, but there was nothing inside her to connect them to. She just relaxed and let Darice do what she was doing, until they both knew it wasn’t going to work.

So Darice tried something else. It was like a long arm reaching deep into Inana’s guts, and it felt about as pleasant.

What’s Rule Number One for Xhian girls? Darice asked.

Inana’s heart began to race. Please don’t. I’m so tired!

Rule Number One is that sometimes, we shouldn’t trust ourselves, Inana.

What’s that supposed to mean? she begged, even though she was starting to understand.

Most people can always follow their instincts. You and I aren’t so lucky. Right?

Inana shoved Darice away and clutched her head. She wasn’t safe here. Her intuition shifted around to side with her panic, and she felt nauseous.

She couldn’t trust herself because she wasn’t herself.

She wasn’t safe here. Inana vomited on the stairs, but luckily she hadn’t been eating much. Thick spittle hung from her lips as she stared at the concrete, gasping. She had to trust that she wasn’t safe. That, and...

“Darice?” she wondered.

Fingers wiped her lips, then gripped her arms, drawing her to her unsteady feet. Inana looked hesitantly into fierce, violet eyes. “One day you may forgive me for putting you here. It doesn’t matter. I’ll die before I let them keep you.”

Inana touched her cheek. “Ai-shala vekh, li noura.”

Dean

The fight had spilled over into some kind of trophy room, full of very expensive things—the kind of cheesy, high-dollar shit that an organized crime boss would want to show off in his home. Dean had his back to a shelf. His assailants waited on the other side of a big display case. He hoisted a glittering vase over his head. As expected, the eight guys trying to beat his ass—and having some success with that—took a step back. He hurled it at the stone floor, where it shattered impressively. Each time he broke something, the guys all squirmed while they thought about the hell they were going to catch later. It bought him some time. So far he’d unstuck the knife from his back so he could put it to use.

He’d also taken stock of things. Yes, he was going to need some stitching up. And something bad had definitely happened to Inana. He didn’t know about Darice. Molly was still wreaking havoc on the compound, and luckily she hadn’t begun working on the main house yet. As for how he was going to get everyone out of here alive... Well. He was going to need to break some more shit before he figured that out.

“Dean?” Darice called to him over the com. “I’ve got her! We haven’t been captured. What do I do?”

Half the men made another assault. Dean wasn’t particularly good at hand-to-hand, but he had a nice, sharp stiletto. He took a couple of blows to the ribs and one to the face, while sticking one of them in the neck. Not bad.

“Look,” he said to Darice. “I’m in a tight spot. Get Molly to pick you up and we’ll go from there.”

“What about you?” Darice asked. “Can I help?”

He was about to pick up another vase when someone clobbered him with a metal plate. He was being really careless about his blind spot today. He resolved to pay closer attention the instant his ears stopped ringing.

“You can stop breaking my things,” a familiar voice said. “You’ve got me to deal with now, boy.”

Mister Gund was a hell of a lot bigger than he remembered. He was fat, for sure, but not the jiggly, sitting around all day kind of fat. He was more of a built-like-a-train, you-don’t-want-to-get-in-a-fight-with-this-guy kind of fat. The other goons backed way off and so did Dean.

“I’ve been asking myself why you came all this way, Poole. Don’t get me wrong: you saved me a substantial fee, now that I don’t need to have you killed. But you couldn’t have come for the girl. Unless you came with enough money. No?”

“Dean?” Molly prompted in his earpiece. “I’m starting a run on the big house. There are other ships in the air, but they’re not a bother. Say something if you want me to stop.” Dean smiled for Mr. Gund. “Okay, then...” The building shook. A few ceiling tiles crashed onto the display case.

“Still,” Gund continued, pointing at the ceiling, “Obviously I can’t simply kill you and be done with it. So I’ll ask. What is it you want?”

Dean wiped blood from his mouth. Ran his fingers through his dusty hair. “You know? I guess I’m getting a little soft these days, because I did come for the girl. Why don’t you fetch her?”

Gund pretended to be amused. “Of course you did. I was just trying to keep things interesting.” His smile faded. “Here’s the thing: I have a real problem with fucks like you showing up at my place making demands. I’ve got your girl somewhere nice and secure, where all I’ve got to do is say the word and...” He put his finger to his temple. “Pffft! And if anything happens to me, her fate is the same. It seems we have a bit of a standoff, yes?”

“Dean?” Darice demanded in his ear. “Do you need help?”

“Sure looks that way,” Dean admitted.

“Then I would make an effort not to provoke me further,” Gund advised, looking at his damaged ceiling.

Dean smiled once more. “I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to call bullshit. Molly, pick up the girls and get them out of here. Copy?”

Mister Gund seethed momentarily. Then he pointed at one of his men. “Find them.” He pointed to another. “You. Give me that knife. Everyone bugger off...”

“Everyone?” Dean asked, pretending to leave.

Gund did a couple of practice swipes through the air with his weapon and grinned. “No. I plan to mount your skull on my gate, to warn off anyone else who wants to pay me a visit.”

The big guy could move. He was on top of Dean in an instant, and he knew his way around a knife. Dean labored to keep from getting stuck. Since this was clearly going to be a dirty fight, he tried a swift kick to the sack. Gund wheezed, but didn’t go down. It was enough time for Dean to lay open his left cheek.

Summoning some energy, Dean bounced on his feet. “You want to kill me or what?”

That earned him a good, jagged cut across the chest. Obviously vexed, the gangster went for his gut, but it was a feint. Instead, Gund ripped out Dean’s earpiece and punched him in the solar plexus so hard that Dean fell to one knee.

There was another loud explosion, a little too close by. A massive dust cloud billowed into the room.

Dean ran into the dust and waited. It didn’t take long. Gund slashed his left leg open. Dean found a hand and cut the tendons. Gund cursed and dropped his knife, but smashed Dean in the nose with his other hand, then disarmed him as well. Dean wanted to fumble around for his weapon, but there were only so many blows to the head he could take, so he moved toward the window, where he could see a little better.

“You don’t have a lot of blood left, Mister Poole,” Gund wheezed, as he emerged from the dust, carrying his knife in his good hand. “Let me relieve you of the rest of it.”

“You’re welcome to try, my friend,” Dean said, but he was just about done. He wasn’t too thrilled about dying here, but there were worse ways to go out. He’d given it his best shot.

The rain began to pour in through several holes in the ceiling. Gund moved with certainty and purpose. “Don’t worry, Mister Poole. I’ll make sure that your girls find a nice home.”

Oddly, an exit wound opened up right between Gund’s eyes then, and an alarming amount of skull and brain matter sprayed forth. It sure took his corpse a long time to crumple to the floor.

Darice stepped into view. She’d lost the veil and her hair was a wild, wet mess. Dean started to thank her, but noticed she was unarmed. Inana appeared next, holding the gun out in front of her by the grip, like she was definitely done shooting people. She dropped it next to Gund’s corpse, noting the wide dispersal of brains with a certain satisfaction. “No more tel-ling me what to do...” she sang to him.

Inana

She had to sit down for a while. Then the cute, skinny guy scooped her up in his arms and touched his forehead to hers. They were both covered in dust and blood, which were mixing together with the rain into something even more unpleasant. If she’d been a little stronger, she might have pushed him away. He sensed this and raised his head. “So we’ve met before?” she asked.

“We did. But...” He looked at Gund’s corpse.

She nodded. “He found me again.”

“Yeah... I’d say you settled up with him, by the look of it.”

She could tell that he was on his last legs, and since she didn’t want him dropping her, she changed the subject. “So you came here to get me?”

He seemed embarrassed. “That was the plan.”

Inana paged through her memories, checking to see if any of the guys she’d known had ever stormed a castle trying to rescue her. Nope.

“Okay!” she beamed. “Thanks.”

They laughed, but she started to cough.

Darice coughed, too, but it was to remind them she was still there. “Could we go somewhere less wet?”

“Sure,” Dean said, heading for the hallway, but Darice stopped him.

“We’re going to have to find another way out.”

“Okay. Darice?”

Her sister seemed eager to hear what Dean had to say. “What?”

He nodded at her. “You did real good. You know that, right?”

Darice regarded the bloody knight and his soaked, shivering fay. “You guys look terrible. C’mon.”

Dean

It took some doing, but he managed to get a Central Government cleanup team rushed to the compound, so they could deal with all the confused slavegirls wandering around the rubble. Molly made sure the Starless was gone by the time they arrived. Dean wasn’t too keen on trying to explain why he was taking two of the slavegirls with him.

Of the three of them, Darice came out unscathed. She roamed the ship, bored and restless, while Molly worked on the others. Inana was fairly easy to stabilize. What she needed most was sleep and food. Dean took the longest to patch up, but he’d seen worse. Inana bided her time napping, eating bowl after bowl of egg noodles, and working things out with Darice.

As he lay there, waiting for the strength to get up, he pondered his two problems. There was the Xhian girl he loved, who’d forgotten him, and the one who’d taken her away, then helped him to get her back. Neither of them really had anyplace to go.

He cleared his throat. “Mol?”

“Yes?”

“What am I supposed to do with them?”

He took the silence to mean she was mulling it over. “That’s a little vague,” she decided.

“I think you know what I mean.”

“Hmm. What to do with the two lovely Xhian women who’ve taken a shine to you... Whatever to do?” she teased.

“I’m trying to be serious, okay?”

“You’re no fun when you get the crap beaten out of you,” she complained. “Look. This is out of my area. You humans are going to have to work this out amongst yourselves.”

“Work out what?” Darice asked. She’d fallen into the habit of checking up on him after hitting the gym. This was the second time today she’d shown up sweaty, out of breath and sexy. Her brief white exercise garb, combined with the way she fussed over him, suggested a very uninhibited nurse.

All he managed to do was redden while she fluffed up his pillow.

“You want to say something to me, say it,” Darice suggested. “I won’t break.”

“I know. I’m just not sure it’s that important right now.”

She turned a chair around and sat on it, resting her arms on the back. “You mean how we all feel about each other? And what happens next? As the third wheel, I’m kind of wondering myself.”

Dean tried to sit up, eventually got there. “Okay, forget all that for a sec. Maybe I don’t officially work for the government anymore, but I’m still obligated to both of you, you know?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

“I mean that I’m at your service. Well, as soon as I can get up. Just tell me what you guys want to do.”

Darice rested her hand on her chin and stared at him a good long while. “I tend to be more into women, and you’re a little thin for my taste, but Dean Poole...” She played at devouring him with her eyes. “So are you asking where we want you to take us?”

“Maybe.”

“What about Inana?”

“Don’t know. She may not be interested this time.”

She smiled. “She’s interested. She’s just not in any shape to do anything about it yet.”

“What about you, then?”

“Am I interested in you? I thought we just covered that.”

“No, I mean—”

“I’m teasing you, dear. I won’t hang around and be a nuisance. The trick is to find someplace where I won’t have to worry about slavers.”

Dean frowned. “Can I just ask you something?”

She leaned forward until she had his eyes again. “I thought that’s what we were doing. Getting it all out there.”

“Where is there that’s safe for you?”

She gave him a sad smile. “Not home. Not anywhere I’ve ever been, except here.”

He nodded. “That’s kind of what I meant. I’d feel better if both of you stayed around. I mean, until you find something better.”

She looked at the floor. “That’s awfully kind of you...” Then it was her turn to blush.

“Not at all,” Dean said. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re not a third wheel. You’re family. Well, really hot family, like...” Darice just smiled, watching him dig himself deeper. “You know, I’ll shut up now.”

Inana

“So are you gonna make it?” Inana asked from the navigator’s chair. They were lounging in the cockpit, watching the ships queue for the gate as the Starless waited its turn. Dean had finally limped out of the infirmary that morning. Darice had promptly made herself scarce.

“No worries,” he said, though he winced as he shifted around in the pilot’s seat to look at her. “Are you?”

What could she say to him? She was lost, but she didn’t want to show it. Or did she? “It’s hard to talk about.”

“No doubt.”

“So!” she said, changing the subject. “You’re not kicking us out?”

He smiled. “Now why would I do that?”

“Yeah, I guess you’ve gotten used to having Darice around to change your bandages and feed you,” she teased.

“That’s nice and all,” he admitted, “but I’m partial to blondes.”

She got a queasy feeling, and suddenly she couldn’t meet his eye.

“Hey. I don’t mean to push. Sorry.”

She shook her head. “Dean, I know that I’m the one who came to you for help. And I pursued you. I just don’t know if I can live up to who I was.”

“Sweetie, you don’t have to...”

She shrugged as she rubbed her eyes. She was sleeping a lot, lately. “Maybe. I’m kind of sick of you knowing all about me,” she confessed. “Sick of you being so mysterious.” Dean laughed, but she waved him off. “It’s not fair! We’ve slept together, and you’re in love with me. I don’t even remember how we met. It makes my head hurt, all right?” She started to shake.

“I know. I know! Hey. Come over here.”

Warily, she approached him and looked into his eyes. Nothing happened. All she felt was disappointment and anxiousness. But then...

To her surprise, it wasn’t hard. She poked around shyly. Sure, he had his secrets, but somehow he knew how to make himself accessible. Well of course... He’d done it before. Soon indistinct shapes appeared. She recognized them as her own thought remnants, still bouncing around in his mind, just like with Darice. She didn’t possess the originals anymore and that made her want to cry. But there was something else. Maybe, Dean wished, if she saw enough of her old memories, they might be able to start all over.

Hmm, she decided. I think that would be nice.