Just where Enki's tracking system said it would be, Viral thought with some satisfaction as he caught sight of the Dai-Gunzan, the noonday sun blazing on its formidable bow. Still, he hesitated. With two and a half days' leave in store after his first week of solitary patrol, Viral had thought he would be relieved to be within sight of lunch and leisure. Instead, he found himself strangely reluctant to return.
He flicked on his monitor, which revealed General Thymilph cramming papers into a folder. The apeman scowled at him impatiently.
"What's the problem, soldier? It's about time you got back to base. That fancy gunmen too much for you to handle?"
"No, sir!" Viral gripped the controls a little more tightly. "But because I'm new to piloting Enki, I'd like to practice some more manuevers before returning to base—if I have your leave, sir."
The apeman grunted. "Well, you've got dedication, I'll give you that. I'm headed off to lunch. If you want a couple more hours in the field, feel free."
"Thank you, sir!" Viral couldn't hold back his smile as the screen winked out.
Never had he operated a gunmen that hummed along with such precision, with such oiled grace, Viral reflected as lunged into his next sword form. Hell, despite his own skill with a blade, he'd never piloted a gunmen that could wield a weapon more refined than a club. By contrast, Enki was like a second skin, an extension of his sword arm, but vastly more powerful than he could ever hope to be on his own. Those curs who had pantsed him his first day aboard the Dai-Gunzan would certainly agree on that last point, he thought sourly. Little did they know that it was only the inherent dignity of their position—which they seemed to have forgotten—that kept him from pursuing them. He surged into a flurry of strokes. Nobody would dare to pants Enki.
When practicing sword forms had lost some of its luster, Viral was drawn to make the most of what time he had left and explore the hills to the south, opposite the sandy and frankly rather boring plains he'd spent so much time patrolling this past week. The terrain gave him more of a workout than he'd planned for, with hillsides sliding away beneath Enki's feet and gaps appearing before him, unseen until almost the last moment, but he and Enki between them were more than up to the challenge. Still, he was breathing hard by the time they made it to the summit of the highest hill.
Grinning in triumph, Viral steered Enki around—and sucked in his breath. He hadn't realized how high they had climbed. The land spread out around him, as many-colored as the jeweled mosaic walls of the bathhouse he'd frequented back in Teppelin. Massive boulders lay scattered like chips of sandstone, interspersed by sapphire pools that had somehow managed to survive in the shadows they cast. A large, smooth stone to his left reminded him more than a little of the ass of one of the bathhouse girls, he thought, amused. Was that improbably verdant ravine, then, equivalent to the mold growing on the floors? Better not to stretch the comparison too far, he decided.
This was in a sense his territory, Viral realized, a part of the area entrusted to him in the endless patrols for humans that came crawling out of the earth like so many ants. In the coming months he would get to know all of it like it was his own. He relished the thought, and he had his assignation to Enki to thank for it. He wondered if his own skin would ever be big enough for him again.
His uniform, come to think of it, was feeling rather tight at the moment. Viral shifted his hips uncomfortably and fiddled with his waistband. It must be his recollections of the bathhouse doing it, or the steady thrumming of Enki's engine. It was certainly a more pleasant sensation than the constant chugging of so many other gunmen he had ridden. And it wasn't as though anyone was here to see...
Viral glanced over at his monitor. It remained off, and General Thymilph was infamous for his lengthy lunch breaks.
A sigh of relief escaped him as he slid the zipper down and sprang free of the confines of his uniform. Surprisingly, it wasn't the cute little catgirl at the bathhouse that came to mind as he stroked, but the land itself, in all its rolling hills and mahogany glory. He didn't have to imagine it so much as project himself down into it—exploring the floors of crevasses he has merely sidestepped today, piloting Enki along that bushy ravine to find the hidden spring that was surely the source of its fertility. He would clamber among the rocks and discover all their secret places, uncover caves and plunge through them—however tight their confines—to the depths of the earth, then rise up with the explosive heat of a volcano, driven by Enki's powerful legs pistoning beneath him.
The more he wandered in his mind, the harder he became, spurred on by Enki's encouraging vibration, like a woman humming around his cock. Truly, he reflected, panting, this gunmen would take him anywhere he wanted to go. His thoughts lingered over the sleek lines of Enki's construction—refined, smooth, polished, perfect—and he came with a violence that rocked him back in his seat.
Coarse laughter rang out over Enki's speakers—General Thymilph's, oh shit—and Viral came back to earth with a thud. He quickly sat forward, stuffing himself back into his uniform, and had just managed to slide his zipper up when the general appeared on his monitor. Thymilph was laughing so hard he wheezed, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
"Forgot about the speaker system, did you? So much for soldierly dedication!"
So much for plausible deniability. Thymilph waved his hand, still guffawing as Viral sputtered red-faced apologies. "Don't worry about it, soldier. You've given me a better laugh than I've had in a long time—not to mention excellent blackmail material if I ever need to wring some extra work out of you."
General Thymilph was letting himself be influenced far too much by that scorpion general, Adiane. "Thank you, sir. Your lenience is more than I deserve." Viral bowed his head, as much to hide his burning cheeks as anything.
"Just remember to save a little of that for the ladies back home, lover boy," Thymilph said with a sly grin, and his face disappeared from Viral's screen.
Viral sagged back in the cockpit, limp with relief and humiliation both. The general's final words nagged at him, though, and he smiled.
After all, what woman could he ride the way he rode Enki?