Firefly

Chapter 9

"Why are we here?" The planet that had a processing plant for the cargo they had just sold and got paid for to deliver it had a clothing store.

"Gloves." Kate had never even thought of it before until Liz had brought it up. However, if gloves were all it took for her to be more comfortable with being a slave in places she had no business being, it certainly sounded simple to her.

"Gloves." Rick was having trouble keeping up but he followed her to the women's section and watched her look over every type of gloves. "Work gloves?" He really didn't expect her to do any work that would require them but her delicate hands could use a pair. Kate, though, wasn't paying any attention to him.

Then he watched her slip on a pair of gloves that almost reached her elbow. Kate thought they actually didn't feel so bad so she took them off, handed them to Rick, and kept looking. Rick looked at the really long black gloves and didn't get it. "Why these?" They didn't look very functional to him.

"To cover my tattoos," Kate replied but that was the only pair she could find that she liked. There were a few others but nothing really caught her attention.

"Cover your tattoos." Rick was catching on. "In that case follow me." He walked to a totally different store.

"Rick, this is a jewelry store." Kate liked it but she wasn't much into wearing jewelry.

"Yeah, here try this one." Rick handed it to her and has to help her. "You put your middle finger through this part. This part goes over the top of your hand and this goes around your wrist." Rick put it on for her.

Kate looked at it. It was a little loose and when it moved part of her tattoo became uncovered. But it worked, so now she liked jewelry.

"Is there another one?" Kate had one on each hand and this one was all gold plated and the center over her hand had this little pearl in the center.

"Not like that, I don't think." Rick looked around. "What about these two? They look like they're both sewn instead of gold jewelry." Rick handed her those two. "Maybe gold on one hand and glove on the other." Rick didn't know, he was a guy.

"There look to be a couple more singles but none look like twins." Rick didn't see much else.

Kate had all three and her gloves. "Can I have all of them?" She meant the ones in her hands including all of the others. She could figure out which ones worked with what she was wearing later.

"Of course. We just got paid." Rick didn't bat an eye. Kate smiled and lifted up on her toes to kiss him for it.

They barely made it out of the store before Kate put on both of the white ones so she could try and hide her tattoos. She twisted her hand and while it didn't cover all of it all the time, it did a pretty good job. They most definitely did not go with what she was wearing now.

"Happy now?" Rick asked her and saw her smiling as she nodded. "You want to try that dance and a dinner again or maybe beer and a pool game?" he offered since he knew where to do both.

"Beer? Pool?" Kate questioned since she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Pool, it is." At least he knew how to play pool which was something he couldn't say about dancing. "You can keep those on for this." That had Kate smiling again.

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Kate had chosen to wear the darkest clothes she had for this beer and pool date. That meant that she could wear on black glove on one hand and her new black hand jewelry with a red rose sewn into it on the other hand. It had a loop for her middle finger, a black fabric medallion that covered most of her tattoo, and it was secured to her wrist to hold it in place.

"What do you think?" Kate spread her arms wide and spun in place.

"I…I think it's a lot of black," Rick said.

"You don't like it." Kate deflated. She really wanted him to like it. She wanted him to like everything. It was important.

"Maybe a different belt and different shoes. …Maybe?" Rick suggested hesitantly.

Kate yanked her belt off and threw it onto her old bed since she didn't sleep above Rick any longer. She slept in his bed with him, naked. It only took her one night to get him to sleep naked, too.

Next she kicked off her shoes and went searching for replacements.

A moment later and she was back. She had a silver chain for a belt to go with black jeans, her black top and she kept the black glove and black hand jewelry with a red rose and had changed out her black shoes for red high heels.

"Better?" She had chosen all black so that she would just disappear and others wouldn't see her or her tattoos and look at her like they had last time. This was the opposite of that. With the color she was going to stand out.

"Good enough to kiss," Rick informed her which had Kate smiling.

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Kate wasn't actually feeling all that bad after walking to reach this place. Stepping into it her nose was instantly assaulted. She wasn't willing to say it stank and that it was horrible, but it was strong. "What's that smell?" Kate rubbed her nose thinking that might actually help but it didn't.

"This is a bar with pool tables. It's all about beer, alcohol, and a little food. People have gotten drunk here for years. Spilled everything you can think of in here and it starts to get soaked into the wood floors. People have gotten sick here, gotten into fights here, and gotten blood in places. It has history."

"Have you been here before?" Kate inquired.

"This particular place, no. Places just like this one, countless times." Rick had gotten drunk more times than he liked in places like this.

"I'm the only woman here." All she saw was men.

"And everyone's going to love you. Just like me." Rick headed for the bar not noticing that Kate wasn't moving.

"He loves me?" Kate already loved him but she didn't have the strength to tell him. She was a slave and they didn't fall in love with anyone.

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Kate was sipping her beer that was a little reddish in color with a beige top while Rick's beer looked black with a brown top. There was also a plate of something called chicken wings in front of them.

Kate had been told to watch them play pool so she knew how it worked. One person got solids and the other got the stripes and until you were done you couldn't do anything to the 8 ball or make your cue ball go into any pocket. First one done and the 8 ball wins.

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Kate soon found that it wasn't as simple as it looked. Getting the white ball to hit the other ball where you wanted it to so that that ball went where you wanted was a trick she was still trying to get a handle on.

She also didn't dare try and hit the ball nearly as hard as Rick was hitting it. Though he seemed to have the same problem. However, his ball or balls went farther than any of hers did.

"Anywhere?" Kate asked him as Rick put what was called the cue ball, that was the white ball, into a pocket when he wasn't supposed to.

"That's the rule." Rick watched as she put it right where she wanted to. She shot and promptly put her ball and the cue ball into the same pocket.

"Can I do that again?" Kate asked him since that hadn't gone the way she'd wanted it to.

"Nope." Rick picked up the cue ball and put it where he wanted to. His ball went into the pocket and his cue ball kept going. "No, no, no, no." Rick watched as the cue ball hit the 8 ball and knocked it in also. He put his hands on the side of the table and bent his head low.

"I thought you weren't supposed to do that?" Kate questioned him.

"You're not. Not until you run out of balls. It means you win," Rick grumbled.

"I WIN!" She still had a few balls to hit. "Really!" Kate was all smiles. "Can we do that again?" She wanted to win again.

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Kate was having trouble walking and didn't understand why. Her stupid heels refused to work properly and she was hanging onto Rick. But she was also laughing a little and she was really happy.

She had only one the one game out of three but she had had fun. Even better, people were watching her but she didn't feel that they were watching her because she was a slave. Her tattoos were mostly covered and no one had said anything.

She had even gotten used to drinking beer. Even if she hadn't finished the second one.

"Rick, can we have sex when we get home?" It was partly because of her tag but mostly it was because she loved all the sex. He didn't rape her. He didn't something else even if she didn't have a word for it.

"All night long if you want." Rick grinned.

"Really!?" Now Kate was walking backwards while pulling Rick along to get him to walk faster. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going. Suddenly her high heels started working perfectly for a change.

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Kate slowly blinked her eyes open and saw familiar things. But for whatever reason she wasn't next to Rick and that just wasn't acceptable so she began to roll over so she could snuggle in closer and maybe go back to sleep.

Though as she did she noticed that her head was killing her. Every beat of her heart seemed to be happening in her head. What was worse was that now that she had noticed her head was killing her it caused her heart rate to increase and that only made it worse.

Still, getting closer to Rick was all she wanted so she kept going and willed feeling him next to him would make her head stop pounding. She shortly found that being next to him made her feel better but it did nothing for her head.

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Finally Rick woke up and smiled at her. Then he frowned. "What's wrong?"

"My head." She had been willing for it to go away but it refused.

"Hangover. Sounds like you need to drink less alcohol." He didn't remember her drinking all that much but maybe what she'd drunk was too much.

"Stay here I'll get you something for your head." Rick got up over her and went to medical to find her something.

"Here, take this and drink." Rick handed her something after getting her to sit up. "Give that about an hour." Rick kissed her head and headed for the shower.

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Rick was in his chair thinking about where to go next. The Rim was filled with all kinds of things and places to go. Though the Browns had been out here for a long time, even they hadn't searched even half of it. He was working on a plan.

Suddenly he found hands being wrapped around him from behind. "Feeling better now?" Rick asked her without even looking since it had to be Kate.

"Yes, thank you." Rick felt her kiss his head. "Where are we going?"

"Frankie's two loads have given us some money so I'm thinking of doing a blind scan in this area here. During the war we built a lot of places out in the Rim for all kinds of things. Maybe they're empty and maybe they're not. Abandoned military hardware can potentially be worth a lot.

"We don't use fuel so we can loiter around out there all we want. Scan everywhere we go. Maybe we'll get lucky. We've got the food and water. Sound good enough to you?" Rick asked her.

"Anywhere is good." Kate didn't care. She already had what she wanted. She had him.

"Better sit down and buckle up then so we can get started." Rick felt her arms leave him so he took a quick peek. "Are you still naked?"

"Yes!" Kate's smile was wide. Her head felt great but thanks to her headache they hadn't had sex this morning and she was missing that this morning.

"Okay, but if we crash it's because you distracted me with your sexy body," Rick warned her.

Kate just smiled and put on her headset. She liked listening to him talk to someone so they could leave and learn the words they used. She smiled when she heard they were cleared for FTL and listened to him tell them his destination then the tunnel showed up in front of her.

What she wanted to do was put away her headset and drag him at least as far as one of the sofas in the living room. However, she knew he would make a course change. It was one of his rules.

Kate listened to him change course. She sat back so now she put her headset away, unbuckled herself, helped him unbuckle, and took him back to their bed. She needed him and she had to have the sex that only he could provide.

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It is three days later

Over the last three days Rick had realized he'd created a monster. Thanks to the drug he had pumped her full of and now she was no longer ashamed that she needed so much sex and wasn't afraid to ask, he was paying the price.

Totally drained, Rick was sitting in his chair and was certain he stood no chance at getting another erection any time soon. But Rick felt arms come over his shoulders, hands find their way under his shirt and start stroking his bare chest. "Rick," Kate cooed into his ear and nibbled on it a little. Yeah, he had made a mistake alright. He did still have her. She wasn't pushing him away and he was falling in love with her. And he had no thoughts of killing himself. He just had to find a way to survive her insatiable desire for sex.

"We've reached the Rim. It's time to exit FTL so you need to sit down and strap in."

"Already?" She'd been naked for the last three days and when Rick hadn't been able to be inside her he'd put his head between her legs and satisfied her with his lips and tongue. But she wasn't done yet.

"Better hurry." Rick felt her take her hands away and heard her sit down and strap in. "Here we go." Suddenly both of them saw the tunnel go away and was replaced by blackness.

"I don't see anything," Kate stated as she looked out the windows or whatever they were made of.

"There aren't any artificial suns out here," Rick said. "We're going to have to do this the hard way."

"Which is?" Kate didn't know what the hard way was.

"We fly strictly by scanner. We need to avoid any asteroids and not slam into any planet-sized pieces. I have lights but they're limited in what they can show out here. Space has a tendency to suck everything up," Rick told her.

"So what are we looking for out here?" Kate queried.

"Well for starters we're going to search for any power sources or anything that's different," Rick explained. "Something that isn't just another rock."

"Can I help?" She didn't know how to fly but she had watched those red dots, so maybe she could do that again.

"You can try." Rick was willing to let her watch. He twisted around as much as his straps let him. "You want to watch this screen here and also this one." Rick pressed panels to get two of her screens to be right.

"This one is power. You'll get an alert if it finds anything. The other one is the same scanner as last time. That one you watch for any red dots." Rick turned back around and adjusted his straps.

"Got it." Kate tried to put one eye on one screen and one eye on the other and sat there.

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What Rick hadn't told her was that flying this way was way boring. All she saw when she looked up was mostly a lot of black unless their lights hit something that was close enough to be seen.

"Here." Kate handed him a sandwich to eat but didn't have anywhere to put his drink so she held onto it. She would just eat hers later.

"You really think anything is out here?" Kate hadn't seen anything in hours.

"Anything's possible. The war didn't reach out this far. The Alliance didn't dare leave their core planets that unguarded so only Browns ever really came out this far. Anything could be out here." Rick kept eating when he had a chance, doing his best not to slam into something.

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Kate had left him and had gone to bed to get some sleep. Though sleeping in what was now their bed wasn't all that easy when she was in it alone. She finally got up, put her arms down his chest, and sneaked her hands to feel skin.

"Rick, please come to bed." She needed him. Yes they had spent almost all three days in bed having sex but now she had gone an entire day without him.

"Can't, there isn't anywhere to just stop out here. Some of these are moving and if I don't watch they'll hit us which would be bad." Rick's weary eyes went from screen to screen.

Kate moaned and let her head rest on his shoulder. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. She could satisfy herself but Rick was so much better at it.

"Sorry." Rick groaned. "See what you've done to me!" Thanks to her he was violating his own rule.

"Sorry." Kate smiled since she'd said it on purpose this time. "Just be careful." Kate kissed his cheek and retreated to their bed where she used her fingers to relieve herself.

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They had been out here for three solid days and Rick was almost dead on his feet. Or ass since he was still sitting in his chair. He had yet another cup of coffee that Kate had made for him and was watching everything as he sipped it since it was new and hot.

"Rick, what's this?" Kate pointed at something on her screen, not thinking that Rick couldn't see it. However, that got Rick to switch to one of her screens so he could see for himself.

It had him sitting up straight. "It's a power source. I think. But why does it look like that?" Then suddenly it was gone. "Great! Where did it go?" Rick tried moving his ship a little to see if that would help. It didn't.

"I'm going to try moving us a little closer. Here hold this for me and watch it, it's hot." The cup wasn't but if she spilled it on her bare skin it was going to hurt.

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Kate watched her screen and was pretty sure he was getting closer and closer to what looked like a small moon in size. Easily smaller than the place that had that mine they had been to twice now.

Rick was actually thinking of landing on it, however, there was just something off about this place. "It looks like metal to me." Rick couldn't believe it even though he was looking right at it.

"HEY! Where did it go?!" Just like that it was gone and in its place was space. Then he got a signal for a power reading somewhere else. Just as soon as he managed to make it to that area then it disappeared on him just like last time.

Rick decided he's had enough of this hide and go seek moon. He extended the landing gear and landed on it instead. Activating the magnetics, he was a little surprised that he was now attached to whatever it was.

"I need sleep first before I start making mistakes. Then we're going to have a little look around. Something's going on here and I think we need to figure out just what it is. I think we're close though so we shouldn't have to go far." Rick got up to head for bed. He'd set up an alarm on the scanner in case anything came their way.