Privateer's Commission 2 -ch 11-

Chapter 11

Ralph poked at his left hand with his right. Pressing at the palm, then the tip of each finger, Ralph found that he could feel the pressure through it quite cleanly. It wasn’t what his hand used to feel like, but it was something.

The sensors in the hand were actually giving him feedback and enough feedback that he could tell what was happening.

“I shall assume that it’s as I said, and they are continuing to adjust and become more normal?” Liseth asked as she moved past him.

Ralph was currently sat on the couch in the ‘living room’ area of the ship and she’d just come up from the stairs. She had her hands held behind her back and was watching him as she walked by.

“I mean, yeah. Things feel… almost normal. Not quite,” Ralph confessed, watching the pretty doctor. “Why, Doc, want to experiment with me?”

“I love experiments,” she said, not stopping, her eyes not leaving him though either. Her smile appeared then. “There’s always such fun things to learn. I’m sure we can come up with some tactile tests to run to determine how things feel in your hand. Perhaps later, my Captain.”

Liseth finally turned her head away from him, though her eyes remained on him until her head was nearly facing forward. She had a way of moving and carrying herself that always left him a bit uneasy.

“Ralphy, the blackout timer is coming to an end shortly,” Xas warned. “About a minute. Rio is… she’s just about looming over her laptop in her room.”

Nodding his head at that, Ralph wasn’t really sure what to do about Marionette at the moment.

She was still not feeling well at all.

It’d taken them some time to travel to the position Rear Admiral Tolas had wanted their taskforce to be. During that Marionette had been affectionate often, but didn’t join his bed. She spent most of the time, laying in bed, doing ‘maintenace’ with the other women, or having the Doc tend to her.

According to what Xas and Liseth told him, with Marionette’s permission, Marionette was suffering an extreme reaction to the Longevity treatments. It’d gone from body flu to constant nerve pain or never ending nausea.

There was no treatment for it, other than treating the symptoms as well.

Ralph didn’t feel neglected by her, but he definitely missed her pressence, her warmth, and her care for his needs. It’d been a while since they’d shared a bed together and he was genuinely starting to feel a bit needy.

It didn’t help that Liseth gave him her high-brow flirting, Delilah was touchy-feely, and Winnie had gone back to how she’d always been. Once they’d gone into communications black-out, her flirting had resumed completely.

Winnie was devoting a considerable part of her energy into becoming ‘better’.

And was succeeding.

Getting up, Ralph toward the living quarters and hesitated outside Marionette’s door.

“Do you think she wants company, Xas?” Ralph muttered quietly. He knew the ship-locked AI heard everything in the halls. The microphone’s and cameras were far too sensitive and he suspected Xas heard and saw too much.

Xas’ avatar appeared on a screen on the other side of the ship. It was within Ralph’s view but at a distance.

She put her arms in front of herself in an X and shook her head.

Right.

She might not be feeling well again.

Nodding his head, Ralph instead went to the cockpit. He didn’t want to disturb her if she wasn’t doing well. She’d never hesitated in giving him anything and everything he asked for when she was feeling well, there was no way he’d press on her now.

Delilah and Winnie were in the pilot and co-pilot seats as he arrived. Liseth wasn’t here, which meant she might be checking on Marionette actually, or in her own compartment.

“Ladies,” Ralph said and took the weapon’s officer seat that Winnie normally sat in.

“Ralph,” Winnie murmured as she gently tapped at the pilot’s instrument panel. “You hear to tell me it’s time to let me take you back to my room, fondle your sack again, and you can call me mommy? Because honestly… I could really use the pressure release.”

Ralph chuckled at that, looked at the lovely weapons officer and considered it.

Genuinely considered what she was suggesting.

“You’ll be busy in a little bit with your recovery, won’t you?” he asked instead. “We’ll have a few hours of open com time.”

Winnie’s brow furrowed at that and she sighed instead.

“Probably. Being an alcoholic is fucking hard,” Winnie growled.

“You’re a recovering alcoholic, and you’re doing wonderfully, Winnie. I’m proud of you,” Ralph offered, reached over, and gently rubbed a hand against her back.

“Yeah, I’m doing good, aren’t I?” Winnie asked, a smile blossoming on her face. “Every day is a new fight though.”

“You’re doing great, Winnie,” Delilah agreed from the other side of Ralph.

“Then… you got this, Del? Ralph?” Winnie asked, her hands pausing over the screen. She turned her face to look at him.

“I got it, Winnie. Go,” Ralph just about ordered.

“Got it. Going. And you’re not allowed to flirt with Janey,” grumbled the sober and bright eyed woman. Then she grinned at him at the same time the ears on her head twitched. “Flirt with me. Only me. Janey isn’t allowed in the harem.”

Winnie reached down, grabbed Ralph by the crotch, then fled without another word.

Leaving Ralph somewhat stunned at the exchange and the suddenness of it.

“The hell? Is that flirting now? I mean, I can grab it like that too, damnit. If that’s flirting I’m the biggest flirt ever. I mean, I had my friggin’ face in your lap at the bar more than a few times. I was napping, but my face was on it. We were working, but still,” hissed Delilah from his left. “In fact it was pressed up to my ass at night. Almost every damn night. You cuddled me to death. Woke up with your morning wood wedged up into my butt-crack every morning.”

“Sorry,” Ralph said with a chuckle. He couldn't deny her words. He’d been unable to shake his new-found sleeping pattern developed with Marionette, when he slept next to Delilah on their Vannah mission.

Which ended up with him treating her like Marionette when he was asleep.

“You’re not sorry,” she growled.

“No, I’m not. You’re hot, built great, and soft in the right places. So no, I’m not sorry, though I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable?” Ralph tired as he looked at the screen.

“I wasn’t… so… whatever,” Delilah said. “Hey. Movie night tonight. You and me. In my quarters. Everyone else has a shift tonight. No point in doing it in the living room.”

That… uh… well.

Hm.

Winnie’s casual grab of his crotch had woken it up and Delilah’s words hadn’t helped. Ralph was having a number of memories of sleeping next to Delilah, or as she had said, her napping in his lap, at the moment.

“Blackout is lifted. Receiving communications and a packet from the admiral,” Xas stated, saving Ralph from having to respond to Delilah directly. “Oh hey, there’s a response from House Bertson. I read it for you, haha. They gave you the Privateer’s contract, a Letter of Marque, and formally stated they don’t care what you do.

“They did say they won’t pay you anything, but that you’ll receive awards and prizes for destroying enemy material and personnel.”

“A hunting we will go,” Ralph murmured and hesitated. “Send a note to the Admiral that we’ll be pulling away to tend to business. She ever get me that honey-do list?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure. I didn’t read the packet, haha. What, do I look like, your wife?” Xas asked. “You don’t treat me nice enough to be your wife. Or treat me dirty enough?”

Shaking his head, Ralph tapped into the packet and found there was an attachment specific to him. It was literally tittled ‘honey-do’.

When he opened it, he found it was more or less what he expected.

Intelligence if possible, resources if possible, and destruction if possible.

It was short, clipped, to the point, and left very little room for interpretation. It also exposed the Admira to a good bit of ‘ugly’ if Ralph got caught.

She was actively encouraging a Privateer to go attack another house that her own house wasn’t officially at war with.

At least not yet.

“Orders are blackout in one-day. Coms reopen in six days after that,” Delilah reported. “Closest point for us to slip into dark space is almost a day. We going to time our disappearance with that blackout?”

“Yup,” Ralph said with a chortle. “No one can point us out as missing, if everyone goes dark at the same time.”

Delilah nodded her head at that, then turned her face in his direction.

“Movie night? My quarters?” she asked, pushing the issue.

“Movie night, your quarters,” said Ralph after a long pause. It’d probably be better hiding in Delilah’s room than being out in the open area where Liseth, Janey, or Winnie could grind away at his control.

Being alone with solid and steady Delilah would be easier.

***

Shaking his head, Ralph held his hand up and gestured at the incredibly flat and thin television.

“The fuck?” he asked to no one. “The fuck? I… what? They want us to believe this? This ‘brilliant strategist’ couldn’t figure out they could just walk away? Holy hell.

“Right back to what I was talking about last week when we watched that feudal movie. A character can only ever be as intelligent as the author.”

Delilah snorted at that from where she sat on the bed next to Ralph.

Given it was her private quarters it was just a small bedroom. Much the size of everyone else’s quarters, other than Ralph’s. There wasn’t anywhere else to sit other than her bed.

“Come on, Ralph,” Delilah murmured, looking at him. “We’re barely halfway through and you’re already completely checked out.”

With a huff, Ralph closed his eyes, shook his head, then blew out a breath. He was just somewhat stressed and he could admit it.

They were heading back out into the black-space lanes and were going to commit to black-space war.

It’d be a lot easier than what they’d done under Calesat’s type of war, but it was still combat.

That and I’m worried and pent up about Marionette.

Though, it was really nice for her to ask me to come in and be part of her message to her parents. That was nice.

Kissing her was even better.

Damn crying shame she suddenly got dizzy and laid down when she started to pull my pants off.

Opening his eyes, Ralph looked back to the TV.

He felt like his emotions were being pushed and pulled by the situation. Marionette wasn’t doing anything deliberately to him, nor was she trying to toy with him. She was still the warm, affectionate, and charming woman she’d always been.

Just very sick.

Or so he thought.

“Yep, sorry, got it,” Ralph said and nodded his head. “I’m fine now.”

“Rio was right, wasn’t she?” Delilah asked. Ralph could feel Delilah staring at him from the side. “You’re strung out because Rio can’t get her job done right now. She was right.”

Get her job done?

She sees it as a job?

“Job?” Ralph parroted aloud, mirror his thoughts.

“Err, not job. She didn’t say job. I just meant—that is… uhm… what…” Delilah’s words trailed off while she stared at him.

Then, without much warning, she pushed him down. Her hand pressing to the center of his torso.

Leaving him staring at the ceiling for a moment before he looked down to Delilah.

Who was working at his belt buckle and zipper. Her fingers deftly unhitching the belt, pulling it free, then spreading it apart. His pants button and fly were then pulled down and open.

“Delilah?” Ralph asked, somewhat confused but also deeply aroused.

“Shut up,” she hissed as her fingers grasped the hem of his pants and boxers together and pulled them down. She didn’t stop till they rested atop his boots. “Don’t… don’t talk.”

<<Redacted because reasons.>>

“I needed that,” Delilah got out followed by a loud and long sigh.

Only to lean down and kiss him hungrily. Her lips hard pressed to his as she held him against the bed.

In that post release clarity, Ralph had some conflicting thoughts.

He was worried about Marionette would take this.

Because Delilah had said ‘job’, which meant Marionette viewed this as her job, perhaps. Maybe she wouldn’t mind what Delilah had done at all. Which given Ralph’s infatuation with Marionette would hurt.

Or, she’d be deeply offended that he didn’t fight Delilah off. That she valued Ralph as a romantic partner, and no tjust something she had to tend to. Something to take care of.

In either case, either situation, he felt like he was bound to lose something.

Marionette herself.

Or his fantasy of what she really was.

Delilah simply continued to kiss him.

And despite his thoughts, he didn’t resist.

Case in point he kissed her back actively.