Ecstasy of Gold - Ch. 8

The Priestess resigned herself to death as the raider started to undo her clothes. She did nothing to stop him, giving up. Her battered body wouldn’t allow her to fight back, barely trudging along with life. Before she felt the fabric start to loosen around her body, she heard a crack of thunder. The heavy, vicious raider fell on top of her.

“Thank you…” The other raider said as Hunter walked into the room, holding his smoking revolver. “He was going to…to…” Hunter didn’t hesitate to fire another shot, killing the other man instantly. He spun his revolver, putting it back in its holster. He walked over and pulled the large raider off the priestess.

“I know you cannot understand…a word I say…but…please kill me…” She pled with him. Hunter walked over to her, standing over her briefly before he knelt down next to her.

“I can’t do that, Priestess…” He looked down at her belt. It had her name stitched into it in a shining blue thread. “Yu’lena. I’m not going to kill a High Priestess.”

“You…You speak my language?” He nodded. “I am dying…they have my maidens…and…and…”

“Shhh…” Hunter picked her up, carefully holding her close. “You’ll live longer if you don’t speak…Save your energy…”

“You…you have the taint of great evil upon you…” She put her head against his chest. “What did you that was so evil…that has you enveloped in such a shadow? You will surely go to hell…”

“We can talk about that later.” He said calmly. With the life he lead, Hunter had accepted he was going to go to hell a long time ago. “Save your strength.”

“My maidens…they are…”

“We’ll find them, now SHUT UP.” Yu’lena thought it was extremely rude of Hunter to yell at her like that, but she understood in the long run. She could feel herself passing out, just letting it happen.


Kelli could feel everyone’s filthy, judging gaze on her skin as they waited for the all clear signal in the shelter. She rubbed her shoulders, then looked down at herself. She still had her jumpsuit zipped all the way up. It was like she was broadcasting her guilt. It wasn’t her. It made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. She unzipped her jumpsuit, pulling it down to her waist and tying the sleeves around her. She had worn an even skimpier tube top than usual since she planned to have herself covered up all day. It felt good to have people staring at her for the right reason again, not realizing they knew nothing about what happened between her and Hunter. It was an oddity to see Kelli clothed so much.

Tasha and Constance came over and sat down next to her. The shelter didn’t have many chairs, but it didn’t matter. If the room did have enough chairs, it would pose the risk of the crew and the chairs being thrown around like a giant blender. Constance put her hand on Kelli’s.

“I talked to Hunter for you. He said he was sorry, and he wouldn’t have slept with you if he knew you were a virgin…” Constance spoke quietly and gently so that no one else could hear her. Truth was Kelli could barely hear her, focusing hard to.

“A lot of good that does me now…” Kelli growled. “It’s not like my virginity will just magically come back! Once it’s gone, it’s GONE, and he’ll never be able to say sorry enough to bring it back.” Constance scratched her head slightly. “You know? It’s like your appendix. Once someone fucks out your hy…” Tasha cleared her throat loudly.

“Okay, okay! No reason to get overly dramatic, Kelli…” She waved her hands.

“It’s just a medical term, Natasha. Grow up.” Constance still didn’t understand what she was talking about, flattening out her dress slightly. She thought of her words carefully before she continued.

“Kelli…Hunter said something, and I’d like to check it…” She leaned in close to Kelli. “Have you…had…” She whispered it in Kelli’s ears. She could barely say the words normally, but the whole situation made it all the more awkward.

“Well, yeah…but…I didn’t like it.” Constance blushed, sitting down and looking at the ground. “What?”

“You…you can’t lie to a telepath…” Constance whispered.

“I didn’t! It was for them. You think I could protect my virginity for so long without giving my boyfriends SOMETHING?” Constance didn’t say anything, just looking at the ground. “So what if I did like it? There’s no law against it.”

“Just because…you hadn’t…properly, doesn’t mean you’re a virgin…”

“Like you have ANY right to criticize me!? You’re a filthy whore!” Constance could hear the thoughts of everyone in the room focusing on her. Almost everyone heard Kelli yell. “Don’t you dare criticize me, whore!” Constance started to cry, tears sneaking out of her eyes.

“KELLI!” Tasha tried to yell over her. “SHUT THE HELL UP!”

“Do you even know the name of ONE man you’ve fucked?”

“I…I…” Constance looked around, feeling everyone’s thoughts. Countless thoughts of what she had done and if she would do it again. A handful of the crewmen were thinking about hiring her. “I’m sorry…” Constance got up and ran out of the shelter. Tasha stood up.

“Constance, WAIT!” Tasha’s pleas couldn’t stop Constance. She was running in a blind fit, crying a river of tears as she went. “You bitch…You goddamn bitch…”

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” Kelli said, folding her arms.

“Go to hell, you goddamn idiot! She didn’t CHOOSE to be a prostitute! It…It’s like she was raped a thousand times!” Tasha ran after Constance, trying her hardest to catch up with her.


Ariis swung her hammer again, smashing through a heavy locked door. The room inside was almost pitch black. Men rushed down the hall on either side of her. She fired a rocket down one side, spinning her hammer to the other side and firing her last rocket down the other, clearing out the men. She walked into the room. She slammed her fist against her chest, turning a light on her shoulder on. She gasped at what she saw. There were a number of young Rae maidens chained to the wall with heavy shackles and collars.

They were all naked, battered, and laying on the ground. The spots on many of the maidens were dead black, telling her they were long dead. Their lifeless eyes staring off in every direction told the tale of what happened to them all. There were only a pair whose spots had any light left in their spots at all, but it was only a faint shimmer. One reached her hand out to Ariis, pleading with her for help in her lyrical language, an incredibly saddening song. Ariis reached her hand out to her, but the maiden collapsed to the ground. Her spots went out in a blink, dying forever. The other maiden was comatose, staring lifelessly at the ceiling.

Ariis ran over to her, kneeling down at her side. She put her hand on the side of her face, pulling back once she realized her armored and clawed glove was frightening her. She pulled her glove off and put her hand back on the side of her face. The maiden grabbed her hand, whining slightly. She formed a link with Ariis’ mind so that she could communicate with her.

“Kill me…Please…kill me…” Ariis knew what had happened to her, and understood why she wanted to die. Ariis solemnly nodded. She took a small weapon off her belt. It was a curved weapon that fit into her palm. A device extended out between her fingers so there were two on either side of it. She squeezed it in her palm, a bolt of plasma going around the device, curving around her fingers and extending out to an energy blade along the device’s center prong.

“Close your eyes…It’ll be quick…” The maiden shut her eyes. As soon as her eyes were closed, Ariis lunged, stabbing the plasma blade into her just right so that it was an instant, painless death. Ariis stood up, swearing in her native language. There were no words in English to explain the pure and unbridled rage she was feeling. She turned off her plasma blade, putting it back on her belt. She grabbed her hammer, putting another clip of ammo into it. She put her glove back on, swearing a storm as she rushed out into the hallway. She was going to find and kill every single raider on the ship and kill them as violently as she could. She didn’t care what happened to her. The raiders just had to pay.


Hunter almost had Yu’lena back to the shuttle. It was rather uneventful, but that all changed. As he was about to turn a corner, a massive spray of gun fire shot around it. He jumped back, getting Yu’lena to safety. He put her down on the ground, carefully propping her up against the wall. He got out his small plasma rifle out and put a battery clip into it. He peaked around the corner, firing at the raiders, but a massive spray of gunfire chased him back again. He looked back at Yu’lena, cringing slightly.

“Only one option…” He pulled one of the four cylinder-like grenades off his belt. He held it in his hand, weighing it slightly. He grit his teeth. “You don’t have a pacemaker, do you, Yu’lena?”

“Pacemaker?” Hunter realized it was a stupid question. The Rae had nothing as sophisticated as a pacemaker, or even the internal combustion engine. Still, he was somewhat hoping she’d have one so he’d have an excuse not to use his grenade.

He pulled the pin on it and threw it around the corner. The grenade skipped on the ground, shedding the metal cylinder around it. It revealed an intricate device underneath with many intricate spinning sections. They all had small lights on them that shone brighter and brighter until they sent off a wave of blue light. The lights in the hallway flickered and died and the gunfire from the enemies stopped. Hunter walked around the corner, drawing his plasma rifle again. He fired bursts from his plasma rifle, quickly mowing down all of the raiders without any problem. With all of them gone, he put his rifle back on his belt.

“Well, that makes three left, I guess…” He scooped up Yu’lena again, getting her to the shuttle as fast as he could. He didn’t know for certain if the Ecstasy of Gold had emergency transporters or not, but knew they were against Yu’lena’s religion. Still, it’d make things a lot easier.


Jessie was sitting on the bridge of the Ecstasy of Gold. He was furious at Karen for getting them into this mess, but it hadn’t cost them much. He could live with the minor injuries his soldiers were getting taking out the crew of the raider ship. They were trying to be merciful, but the raiders weren’t giving them very many options. As he sat, waiting for the report of the complete and total capture report from his crew on the raider ship, he saw a section of lights on the ship flicker out and go black.

“Huh…That’s weird.” Before he could ask what it was, his communicator rang. He recognized the ring tone. It was Tasha, no doubt about it. He had set her song to a simple, but light and cheery song on his communicator. He spun his communicator open, smiling slightly. He bought that communicator because it twisted open instead of unfolded, loving the gimmick.

“Hello, Tasha. What’s up?”

“Dad,” her voice was obviously upset, and he could tell she was running somewhere, “I want Kelli off our ship!”

“What?” Jessie knew that Kelli occasionally bugged Tasha, but not to the extent that she wanted her gone. “Why?”

“She called Constance a filthy whore, Dad, in front of EVERYONE!” Tasha sniffed slightly, rubbing her eyes. “Constance was so ashamed, she…she…Constance is really upset…I…I can’t work with someone who hurt Constance so badly…”

“I understand…” Jessie rubbed his forehead. “You’d have to pick up a lot of slack. I mean, A LOT. Between the two of you, we have top mechanics all day, and…”

“I KNOW, I just want her gone…” Tasha sighed. “You didn’t see her cry, dad…She…She really hurt Constance…”

“Alright, Tasha…I’ll…I’ll get rid of her.” Kelli, despite the fact that she was socially stupid, was one of the best engineers around. Kicking her off the ship for any reason seemed intensely stupid to him.

“Thanks, Daddy…” Tasha took a deep breath. “I…I’m going to try to find Constance if you’re looking for me…She needs someone right now.”

“Alright, just try to be home for dinner.”

“I’ll try.” No sooner had he closed his communicator did it ring again. He spun it back open.

“Hello.”

“Captain,” It was Patch. He had no special ringer because he had never called him before. “I should let you know that Mister Hunter has brought someone into my med bay from the raider’s vessel. A Rae Priestess to be precise.”

“So? What’s the problem?”

“It will take considerable resources to save the priestess’s life due to her injuries and it’s very risky…”

“JUST SAVE HER! God…” Jessie closed his communicator and groaned. He needed to have Tasha reprogram Patch so he wouldn’t need to be told to do things that might be resource heavy.