Trouble's Tales
Cloak and Dagger

by Kittiara

Stardate 2398.30

Trouble padded down the hall, lost in thought; she carried notes and presentation materials for her Master, following him a few steps behind. He had called a staff meeting to discuss a new problem that faced the Brethren, but even with her position in the pirate group's intelligence department, she still had no idea how he was going to handle the problem. He obviously had an idea, he certainly had enough notes and hand-out hard-copies, but he'd told Trouble nothing.

The group gradually assembled, Ben from operations arriving a little early, talking with the lion in a corner as the others filed in. Trouble's nominal boss, the elderly fox that ran the intelligence department, came in a few minutes late, and just sat at the end of the table, drinking coffee. When the lion and Ben finished, the lion called the meeting to order.

"We have a new problem," he rumbled. "After the raid on the fueling station, we thought we could let things quiet down for a while, that we'd be able to rebuild our forces without significant interference. However, Senator Grant, one of two Imperial senators Elysium sends to the Senate on Central, has been making wild accusations there, trying to drum up support for a permanent Imperial presence in the Elysium sector. She's been calling the Imperial fleet cowards, fools and idiots for not having prevented the destruction of the fueling station, and as you can guess, she's not making many friends among the fleet. However, there are those factions that are beginning to listen, perhaps if for no other reason than to use this as an excuse to shift fleet assets from their sector to this one. Obviously we need to remove Senator Grant from the Imperial Senate as soon as possible, to silence her." The head of logistics looked up. "And what of the other Imperial senator? Won't that one demand something be done about the disappearance of his colleague?" The lion chuckled, "Senator Gurion is a bit more liberal-minded and open to reform than Senator Grant is. In fact, we believe he might already have secret agreements with the burgeoning Rebel movement on Elysium. Of course, ever since Grant ruined his family over a decade ago, the two have been bitter, almost violent enemies … There's a very good chance that Gurion would celebrate Grant's sudden disappearance. And an even better chance that he would not want to 'stir things up' in the Elysium sector until he'd secured whatever power he could, especially if he's already in the rebel's pocket."

"So how do we take out Senator Grant?" the leader of the second wing asked. The lion grinned and gestured to Trouble's boss. The old fox cleared his throat and rose to his feet. "We've discovered that Grant is back on Elysium to handle some, ah, 'business'. She'll be returning to Central a week from Tuesday on the Burgess Star. Unfortunately, she usually travels incognito. We have plans to intercept the liner near the Certes system, at which point we hope to 'remove' the good senator, along with any other notables on the passenger list. The ship will be ransacked, the other passengers robbed, all in true pirate fashion."

Ben nodded thoughtfully. "That system is fairly far into the Empire, a good ways from our normal operating area, but I suppose we can handle it, with some careful planning ... It will certainly be one of our boldest operations to date. But if she travels incognito, how will we know who to kidnap? For that matter, these days, most important personages using public transportation travel incognito. They obviously hope that in the event of the ship being taken by pirates they'll escape being held for ransom, a fact that continues to amaze me, as everyone knows their business insurance will pay for their ransom."

Ben paused for a moment, thinking, and then continued, "Since the team boarding the liner will only have a limited amount of time, they won't be able to play twenty questions with the passengers trying to figure out who's who. Doesn't this pose a problem?" The lion grinned. "We hope to have all such important personages identified by the time we take the ship; you see, we're putting a couple of agents on board the ship at the stop after Elysium. It'll be their job to ferret out who's who. And as to why so many travel incognito, maybe they have high deductibles; I don't know."

The commander of the (remaining) capital ship squadron wondered aloud who they were going to send onto the liner to figure out this little piece of information, and even as she said it, Trouble felt most eyes turning her way. Looking up at the lion she saw him nod. "I hate to put Trouble in harms way again; her face is becoming all too well known, but she's probably the best furr for the job. And obviously she can't go alone. I've hired a free-lance, a specialist. This furr comes very highly recommended, and I certainly hope his fee reflects his qualifications. He's highly skilled at defeating surveillance systems, planting bugs, and ferreting information from computer systems. If it comes to that too, he's also a skilled assassin. While Trouble will actually be in charge of the operation, her cover will be that of his slave. He'll be a rich dilettante, heading for the casinos on Central." Turning to Trouble, the lion's face grew grim. "I'm counting on you to identify Senator Grant. I'd hate to have to destroy the ship and kill everyone on board just to eliminate her, but I will if I have to."

The meeting droned on for some time as they worked out the logistics involved for a distant operation. It took comparatively little time for them to settle on a way to get Trouble and her partner to the Draison Station, where they'd board the Burgess Star. What happened after that, would be up to Trouble and her partner; a few suggestions were made, and some "tools" were specified, but largely it would be on their initiative.

When the meeting was over, the lion led Trouble through the station to a guest room in the living quarters; he inclined his head to the door and said, "Your new partner is in there; for obvious reasons we're keeping his presence here a bit of a secret. The fewer that know who he is, the better. Trouble nodded, and as the lion turned to walk away, she knocked on the door. A faint "enter" echoed from within and the door slid aside to permit Trouble to step into the room.

The first thing Trouble saw as she entered was a rather large male panther, standing a dozen feet inside the door, arms crossed. Before she could speak, he growled softly, "So you're the slave at my 'disposal' for this mission? Not too bad …… But if you're to accomplish the tasks I want you to, you'll have to do more than just look good. Lets see what you can do". And with that, he stepped forward to wrap one large paw in her hair to force her to her knees. Trouble was just about to object, to say that while she was playing his slave for this mission, she was the lion's slave, and that he had put her in charge of the mission. However before she could frame those words for speech, he had dropped his pants, and was using his grip on her hair to rub her muzzle against his crotch. Trouble struggled for a moment, his scent filling her nostrils, her cold nose rubbing against his shaft, but she found his grip tight, his arms powerful, and quite before she knew what was happening, she found the head of his cock in her mouth. It was difficult to fight her conditioning, to go against her training, and thinking that she'd straighten things out later; she started stroking his shaft with her tongue as he forced more and more of it into her throat. He roughly fucked her face for a while, and just when Trouble thought she was getting close to bringing him off, he yanked back on her hair, dragging his cock from her mouth. Without a word, he forced her lower, until her head and shoulders were almost on the floor; holding her there, he moved around behind her to forcefully stuff his cock, still dripping with her saliva, into her pussy. He purrrrrred with satisfaction as he found her quite wet. Still holding her hair, one paw on her shoulders to keep her down, he proceeded to take his pleasure, fucking her hard. Trouble, for her part, did her best to squeeze him with her "inner paw", tightening her vaginal muscles around his shaft, and he seemed to like that, moving harder, and faster. Just as Trouble was about to climax, he leaned way over her, to fasten his fangs around the back of her neck, both paws going to squeeze her tits roughly. Trouble howled at the feel of his fangs on her neck, at the feel of his claws on her breasts, and bucked hard against him as her climax claimed her; this was obviously what he was looking for, because as Trouble moaned and shook, her vaginal muscles spasming around his cock, his orgasm shook him, his cock filling her with his hot cum.

After a moment, he released her neck and straightened. Pulling out slowly, he once again dragged her around by the hair to present his slick cock to her muzzle. Knowing what he wanted, what he was demanding, Trouble licked him clean, even as she was catching her breath.

When she was finished, he smiled and pulled her head up, to kiss her softly. "He was right, you are good. I think you might just do for what I've got in mind. Of course, you'll have to be the sexiest and most alluring slave there ever was for this to work." Trouble blinked at him, and shook her head; "Now wait just a minute … I'm supposed to be in charge of this mission! And for what to work?"

They argued until it was time to leave for the shuttle to Draison Station. They argued almost the whole flight, much to the amusement and then the annoyance of the flight crew. Trouble wasn't about to admit that he was in charge, and he wasn't about to admit that a slave could be in charge. They argued about their plans, their equipment, and their disguises. Trouble admitted to herself that this freelance named Tand certainly knew his business, and that he had some good ideas, but vowed never to give him the satisfaction of learning that. She did freely admit he was good in bed, but he acted as if this was no major revelation, that it should be obvious.

They finally stopped arguing after they checked into their room on Draison Station. There they were met by the team of makeup artists the lion had arranged for. Trouble was led into one of the bedrooms by a lady squirrel, while her husband, a lepine, worked on Tand in the sitting room. The first thing the lady squirrel did was to strip Trouble of everything but her collar; she would have taken that off too, had there been a way short of a cutting torch. They decided that Trouble's long hair was too nice to cut, and the squrrel pinned it up to work on the rest of her. Taking out a set of powered clippers, she proceeded to trim Trouble's short fur into a very stylish cut. "I think you'd look good as an ocelot," the squrrel chittered, "although with your body shape a puma might work … but they're rather plain. You're too small to be a leopard, and much too small to be a tigress or a lioness … " Trouble nodded. "Lets go with the ocelot, then." The lady squirrel smiled and nodded, "I'm glad you agree with Tand; he thought it would be perfect for you." Trouble stifled a growl. As she watched the lady squirrel slowly dye her fur to an even golden brown, Trouble thought, Obviously these artists are at the top of their profession. Before long, the squirrel had dyed in the distinctive black markings of an ocelot. The last step was to dye Trouble's platinum blonde hair a rich reddish brown that went well with her new fur color. Trouble looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. "I trust this is all waterproof?" The lady squirrel nodded. "Your fur will have to grow out for you to look like a cheetah again, and that should take some time." She giggled. "Of course, you'll look a little strange in the process."

Trouble found that Tand had been trimmed nicely and dyed to resemble a leopard. Looking him over she felt that he looked almost perfect, certainly more than good enough to pass casual examination … and even if someone thought he might not be a leopard, well, everyone important traveled in disguise anyways ……

The following day, the Burgess Star docked at the station. Before Trouble could dress for their "grand entrance", Tand again grabbed her, taking her hard, fucking her roughly. When he'd finished, he refused to let Trouble clean up, permitting her only to brush her hair, and don her dress, insisting that anyone who looked at her would know she'd just been fucked, and that this would increase his aura of power, and her aura of sensuality. Trouble wasn't so sure about that, but as she pulled on her dress, she was sure that anyone downwind of her would know exactly what they'd been up to.

Tand led Trouble onto the liner, passing through the large passenger airlock. Tand was wearing a semi-formal outfit in black, his layered lapels transitioning softly from red to gold. At the end of Tand's silver leash, Trouble followed meekly, attired in a shimmering light brown dress that complimented her fur. The halter style dress was only nominally "decent". It was backless, its sides, as it passed from behind her neck, descending along her flanks, showing considerable expanses of the sides of her breasts until it met again just under her tail; the neckline however was loose, more hinting at her breasts as she walked than revealing them. The skirt was short and flouncy, the moving fabric hinting at what was below. In all, Trouble thought she looked fantastic, and she enjoyed the covert and overt stares of the furrs they passed as they made their way to the liner.

The deck officer accepted Tand's tickets, his eyes never leaving Trouble, as he fumbled for the access cards to their stateroom. "Uh, you understand, Sir, that the Burgess line does not provide separate quarters for slaves in transit," he mumbled. Tand took the proffered key cards and nodded. "I wouldn't expect to pay the full fare and then place my slave in some kennel." The officer nodded and ignored the next set of passengers as he watched Trouble's ass sway as they walked away.

Trouble's eyes, on the other paw, were wide, as she gazed at the opulence of the liner. The Star was a little on the elderly side, but had a reputation for never having been surpassed for sheer luxury. She marveled at the cut glass windows in the corridor doors, and the flocked wall coverings. They even had tapestries. She couldn't wait to see what the grand ballroom, or the main dining salon looked like. She also couldn't wait to see what the bathroom in their suite looked like; she certainly felt like a long hot soak in the tub before their charade got underway for real.

The suite was every bit as luxurious as she thought it might be, and she oooohed as she walked around, looking. Tand, for his part, ignored his surroundings and started unpacking his bags. Trouble shook her head as she watched him covertly; either he was used to such luxury, or where he was truly didn't matter to him near as much as the task at paw. Slipping a few discrete objects into his pockets Tand straightened. "I think I'm going to go down to the lounge and get a look at some of the other passengers. I also want to get a 'read' on the crew's attitude. I'll be back in time for the second sitting for dinner, and I'll expect you to be ready, and wearing that two piece burgundy outfit." Trouble nodded and as he left; she padded off to the bath, to ooooh and ahhhh some more, before sinking into a steaming tub the size of a small pool.

Tand found a seat at the far end of the bar, where he could watch the door, and the comings and goings of the guests. The lounge was paneled in dark, rare woods, subtly lit, and very elegant, but Tand's eyes were only on the other passengers. One of them was his quarry, and he would figure out whom before their rendezvous. Over the course of several hours, Tand talked to a number of distinguished furrs, some of whom had seen him enter with Trouble. Most of these complimented him on how his slave looked, and a few even wondered if she behaved as well as she looked. Tand replied politely, doing what he could to build the mystery of the exotic creature that was his slave. All of those he talked to were male, and as such, obviously not the senator, unless, he thought with a grin, she'd wear one hell of a disguise. Dismissing the possibility of a gender change for the mere purpose of a trip, Tand took another look around the lounge, noting the few females present. Still, he thought, most of those I've talked to would appear to be personages of note. You can disguise the body, but disguising the mind, the personality behind the face is always much more difficult. The rich, and the powerful have a way about them that will show through, unless they're VERY good.

Trouble had finally dragged herself from the bath; true to their word, her fur dye job was as pristine as when it had been applied. After drying her hair, she braided it into a very long single braid, with a gold ring woven into the very end, the way her lion liked it. She purrrrrred, thinking of him, as she added a few pieces of jewelry, and then turned to lay out her outfit. The top was little more than a fancy bib that barely covered her breasts. The matching skirt had wide slits up either side, making it almost look like a silken loincloth; still, it was well done, and she felt it made her look marvelous. Leaving it on the bed, she turned, nude, to the room's data terminal. Attaching a few of the devices they'd brought, she accessed the ship's database and started searching for clues to the identities of the other passengers. Of course she couldn't find out much, but her idle curiosity covered the worm program that she had quietly uploaded. The worm would work surreptitiously, slowly investigating, and with luck, penetrating and negating the defenses of the ship's computer. Trouble hoped that by the time the pirates showed up, she'd be able to mess up the Star's computer so bad that the ship would be defenseless.

Tand was just returning to the stateroom when he felt the ship shudder, the internal gravity fields fluctuating as they undocked from the station. As he entered the door, he noticed Trouble's nude form at the terminal. "Find out anything?" he purrrred. Trouble shook her head no, "Nothing that they don't want you to know, but then, I didn't try too hard. Didn't want to raise any red flags; on the other paw, the computer took the worm without problems. With luck, that'll do our work for us." Tand nodded. "I'll see what I can do a bit later; right now, we need to get ready for dinner. Come here." Trouble rose and padded over to him, wondering if he wanted to give her that "just fucked" look he seemed to like so much; instead he opened a drawer and took out a small spool of almost invisible monofilament. Carefully he tied one end to Trouble's left nipple ring. Measuring out about eight feet of the gossamer thin translucent thread, he cut it, and then tied a similar length to her other nipple ring. Trouble watched curiously, standing straight, figuring out that when he wanted to, he'd explain. Finishing, he told Trouble to put on her skirt, which she did. He carefully coiled the loose ends of the monofilament, and tucked them carefully into the waistband of her skirt. Grinning at her, he told her she could now put on her top. That took Trouble just a moment, and after checking her appearance in the mirror, she turned to Tand to let him clip his silver leash to her collar. Then they were off to dinner.

"No, that's completely unacceptable," the Maitre'D glared back at Tand. "Sir, it simply is not proper protocol to seat a slave at the table with their betters!" Tand growled, leaning over the elegantly uniformed fox. "I don't care what is or is not proper; your purser demanded I pay the same fee for her passage as I paid for myself; accordingly I will see her receive all the amenities that I myself receive. Dammit, I paid for her seat at the table, and she will take it."

Trouble could see other passengers staring at them, some amused, some horrified. Finally, the Maitre'D relented and escorted them to their table. Tand gestured to the seat directly opposite him, and unclipping Trouble's leash, she padded around the table to take her seat. As she did so, she noted the eyes of at least three other slaves, kneeling on cushions behind their owners, watching her covertly.

"You know, that might just encourage her to think beyond her station," a wolf seated across from Tand said, as Trouble took her seat, eyes downcast. Tand just grinned. "Oh, I have ways of keeping her in line. Trouble, pass me those things under the table". Trouble wasn't sure what he meant, but passed him the monofilaments anyway. That must have been the correct response, as Tand said nothing further. He made small talk with the couple on his left, his paws doing something under the table. After a moment he looked back at the wolf and grinned. "I'm sure you'll come to understand both my insistence at her sitting at the table as well as my, ah, guarantee of control". The wolf sipped his drink as if saying, "We'll see." Tand smiled and reached for the water pitcher on the table; as he did, Trouble gasped and suddenly leaned forward. Trouble suddenly realized that he'd tied the ends of the monofilament to the rings he wore on either paw; when he'd reached for the water pitcher, the line to her left nipple had suddenly gone tight! She knew better than to make a sound, but even so, a small gasp escaped her. The wolf took a look at the pained look on her face, and then at Tand, and grinned wickedly. "Oh, well done, sir! I see now that your insistence on having your slave there was merely to further demonstrate your mastery of her. But tell me, how do you do it?" Tand grinned and shook his head; waving his paws as if gesturing grandly as he talked, he made
Trouble sway from side to side in response to his motions. "It's Magic," he purrrrred. By now he had the attention of everyone at the table, including the Maitre'D, and they all watched closely. Trouble noted that some, like the second officer, sitting at the head of the table, wore looks of extreme distaste, while others, especially those with slaves kneeling behind them, gazed with rapt fascination. One lady, a black panther halfway down the table seemed particularly interested in how it was being done. From the corner of her eye, Trouble also noted that the slaves that had given her the harshest looks for being permitted a seat at the table now had looks approaching pity, and to an extent, fear, on their faces.

Tand spent the rest of the meal talking animatedly, and Trouble's only respite was when he was actually eating. From what little food she managed to get into her mouth, she found the cuisine excellent, and she smiled a wry grin as she thought her current circumstance would at least help her to maintain her waistline. Throughout the dinner, Trouble noted the black pantheress seemed particularly fascinated every time Trouble let out a little squeak or mewl in response to Tand's gestures.

After desert and coffee, the wolf opposite Tand suggested that they swap slaves for the evening. Tand glanced at the voluptuous otter kneeling behind the wolf and nodded slowly. "My only requirement is that she be returned undamaged." The wolf smiled and nodded. "Have no fear, sir, have no fear." Trouble was a little piqued that their hunt would be delayed by an evening, but shrugged it off, telling herself they should still have plenty of time, and she had a reputation to generate, bait to lure the attention of the elusive senator. This wolf seemed just the sort to regale everyone in the bar with tales of his night with Trouble …

The wolf was tastefully dressed, his clothes reflecting obvious wealth and sophistication, and yet as he led Trouble down the ship's corridor, there was a spring in his step that reminded Trouble of a young boy with a new toy. As soon as they were through the door to his stateroom, he turned to unclasp Trouble's leash, and as soon as he had done that, Trouble sank to her knees before him, to nuzzle at his crotch as she worked at undoing his pants. He seemed delighted with her eagerness, and let her slide his pants down his legs, her tongue licking avidly at his sheath. Before long, his maleness was rampant, throbbing, and Trouble's head rocked back and forth as she worked his length in and out of her willing mouth. It didn't take long at all before he was spurting, filling her mouth with his seed. Trouble made a point of letting a little of the sticky white stuff escape the corners of her mouth, as if the flow of his jism was more than she could swallow. Grinning, she looked brazenly up at him, to lick at her lips. "Good," she purrrred, "now that we've taken the edge off, you'll be in better shape for what's to come." He raised an eyebrow at that, but followed as Trouble took him by the paw, to lead him to the bed.

Tand led the wolf's slave back to his quarters, where he instructed her to strip, and to kneel in the middle of the room. After pouring himself a drink, and calmly removing and folding his clothes, putting them away in the closet, he returned to look down upon his charge for the night. Padding around her slowly, drinking in her curves with his eyes, Tand nodded to himself. "Tell me, Slave, what you like, and what you dislike." The otteress blinked, her gaze properly downcast; it was obvious this was not what she was expecting. After a moment of thought she replied, "Master, I like to be licked, and I love to be tickled, and I especially love when the two are combined." Tand nodded. "And your dislikes?" The slave hesitated for a moment before replying, "Master, I dislike anal sex, and I despise nipple clips." Tand nodded slowly, and turned to fetch some rope.

Trouble moaned softly. She was astride the wolf's hips facing his feet. His cock was buried to the hilt in her pussy, his knot stretching her. She mewled and moaned and writhed as if he were the sexiest thing in the known universe. And he loved it, drinking it up; his paws were on her hips, just holding her lightly as she did her best to move, to stimulate him. She'd already brought him off a second time, having pulled him down on top of her, her legs widespread, encouraging him to show her what a stud he was, and he had complied. Soon, she thought, he'd cum again; then she'd have to resort to more exotic things to get him off, but she was sure she could. It was her intention, her plan, to fuck him to exhaustion; to leave him so sore he wouldn't be able to pester that cute little otter fem for a week …… Grinning, she concentrated, rippling her vaginal muscles around his shaft, milking him, and as he groaned in pleasure behind her, she knew it wouldn't be long …

Tand looped the end of the rope through a convenient eyebolt in the ceiling, and brought the loose end down to the kneeling slave. After finding the padded cuffs, he fastened one about each of her wrists, and then tied them together with the rope. Turning and pulling on the other end, he pulled her to her feet, to let her stand. More rope was used to spread her legs widely, and then he increased the tension on her paws, making her rise to tiptoes. Leaving her to sway, for a moment, he turned to reclaim his drink. Taking a minute to finish it, he paused to remove a rather large feather from one of his cases. He smiled as he held it up to her view, noting how her eyes widened, and grew bright as she gazed at it. Without a word, he sat on the floor between her feet, making himself comfortable. "Now I don't want you to move a muscle or make a sound; if you do, you'll be punished with the things you like least." And with that, he lifted his muzzle, to slowly drag his rough feline tongue over the otteress' prominently exposed sex.

Trouble grinned at the softly snoring form of the wolf. Getting him to take her in the ass had brought him his fourth climax, at which point he demurred, threatening to chain her to the foot of the bed if she didn't cease. Trouble begged him not to do that, and settled down to cuddle him, not even being allowed to stroke his fur. It took but moments for him to fall asleep. Trouble watched his face, especially his closed eyes, waiting for REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when she knew he'd be most difficult to awaken. Assured that he was down for the count, she slipped from the bed to start searching the room. His briefcase was unlocked and contained all sorts of interesting documents, including a memo on a Transstar Inc. letterhead describing the company policy on senior corporate executives traveling in less than secure areas. It even talked about the lengths that the company would go to to ransom them from undesirables. Trouble did her best to memorize that portion, as well as memorizing all the names of associates on that particular portion of the journey. The wolf wasn't traveling alone … And the group should not only be able to give the Brethren all sorts of interesting business and financial information, but should be worth a pretty penny in ransom as well……

Not a bad night's work, she thought to herself as she returned to the bed to snuggle up against the wolf, to try and get some rest.

The otteress let out a soft moan as she climaxed yet again. The combination of Tand's tongue within her pussy and his feather on her clitty was driving her mad, and to be forced to hold still and stay quiet was more, much more than she was capable of. She'd long since lost count of the number of climaxes she'd suffered through, and at this point, suffer was exactly the word that applied. He'd been nestled there, between her thighs, licking at her patiently for hours. Her writhing and her moans so far had taken her to the largest vibrator he had, crammed up her ass and buzzing fiercely, and the sharpest clips she'd ever felt, fastened nastily to her nipples. As he heard her moan yet again, Tand tsk-tsk'ed in disappointment and reached up to hang a second weight from her left nipple clip. He then turned back and continued licking at her drenched sex, as the feather found its way up to tease her navel ……

In the morning, Trouble delighted the wolf with another round, this time talking him into taking her standing up in the shower. They were both still a little damp as he led her to breakfast, making it just before the dining room was closed. Tand sat in his usual seat, the otteress kneeling behind him with a most strange look on her face. Trouble was fairly bouncy this morning and as the wolf handed her back to Tand, she shot a wicked grin at the otter lady, as if to say, "Isn't he great?" Tand and the wolf caught the look and both just shook their heads. Later, as they departed the dining room, they heard the wolf talking to some of the others at their table, "I have got to tell you about that slave, Trouble! She's got to be the most ……… "

For the rest of the morning, Tand and Trouble toured the great liner. Trouble followed Tand meekly at the end of her leash, and kept watch when Tand stopped to plant a bug, or sensor. Some of the devices were supposed to be able to focus on conversations on the other side of heavily insulated walls, and while Trouble had her doubts, she felt she'd best keep an open mind. They returned to their stateroom just before lunch, Tand feeling that in order to keep up appearances, he should change his outfit; after all, the idle rich would never be seen at lunch wearing the same outfit they'd worn to breakfast. He had Trouble change into a skimpy one-piece dress, covered in cut-outs, barely concealing the things that should be concealed in polite society. Before they left, however, he bade Trouble squat, and as she spread her legs, he slipped two items into her pussy. Trouble grinned at him, "Ben Wa balls?" Tand just grinned and shook his head, "That and more; you'll see at lunch."

Again, Trouble was seated across from him, but this time, the looks from the Maitre'D and the others at the table were more of curiosity than of shock at his social faux pas. They were past the appetizer, awaiting the main course, when Tand quietly removed a small remote control from his jacket pocket. Holding it in his lap he thumbed a key, and Trouble yelped in surprise as the Ben Wa balls suddenly started jumping about within her. She literally had to grip the edge of the table and bite her lip to hold still and keep silent. Of course, all heads turned to look at her, and then to look at Tand; this time, he had no problem in revealing what he was doing, holding up the remote for all to see. "This is a little toy I picked up over in the Haladees sector. It does all sorts of things …… " And with that he handed it to the lady seated on his left. "Here, why don't you give it a try …… " Trouble watched warily as she studied it for a moment, and then looking up at Trouble, pressed two buttons at the same time. Trouble yelped and straightened in her seat, almost rising from its surface as the two Ben Wa balls changed shape, lengthening inside her, to form a massive shaft filling her pussy. As the device was passed from paw to paw, as those around the table experimented with the settings, Trouble yelped and squealed, and moaned, as the balls changed shape, vibrated, grew very cold or very warm, or even gave her sharp little electrical shocks, or a combination of them all. The mysterious lady down the table held the device the longest, trying all sorts of combinations, before passing it on to the next person. Trouble awwwwed as the device was passed over her head, to everyone's glee. Pity they wouldn't let her get her paws on it … And again, through lunch, she barely found the time to get anything to eat.

After lunch, Tand decided that they should take a dip in the pool. Trouble objected, saying they had much too much information to go through from their listening devices and from what the worm program had found as it worked its way through the ship's computer, but Tand just tsk-tsk'ed and said he had it covered. Of course when they got to the pool, Tand insisted Trouble swim nude, and again she found herself enjoying the stares and attention of most of the males and some of the females present. As she was slowly doing laps, swimming on her back, she realized that Tand was sitting on a lounger, apparently working on a lap-top computer. After a few more laps, she rose from the pool, and stalked over to recline on the beach towel she'd spread out next to Tand. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that the laptop was relaying in text the pickup from the various bugs they planted. It looked like he was conducting business, but was actually monitoring the bugs!

Dinner, and yet another outfit. This one was gauzy, filmy, and mostly transparent, only slightly cloudy over her nipples and crotch. To Trouble's amazement, he did nothing to her before they set off down the corridor; however, at their entrance to the dining room, Tand took the Maitre'D aside and slipped him a rather large credit note. As they walked to their table, Trouble noticed they were early, mostly ahead of the other passengers seated at their table. Tand whispered to Trouble, "I've arranged for us to sit next to a couple I think might be our quarry; I wouldn't put it past the senator to travel with a male, pretending to be husband and wife. Towards the end of the meal, I want you to spill your wine on her. I'll take it from there." Trouble rolled her eyes, but could see where this was going, and decided it might work.

The couple turned out to be a middle aged wolverine and his cougar wife, nicely dressed, but with an understated look. Trouble enjoyed the ability to eat normally, but still watched what she ate, knowing that to yield to temptation might only mean increased time in the gym as she struggled to keep her figure. She kept her gaze downcast and spoke only when spoken to.

Still, she seemed to be one of the main topics of conversation, the wolf from the previous night having spread the most amazing tales. Trouble grinned to herself as the events of the night before were so grossly exaggerated. As coffee was being served, Trouble contrived to spill her entire water glass down the lady cougar's front. The dress she had on was simply too nice to ruin with the wine, and she was afraid that the coffee was too hot. As it was, the cream colored fabric turned nearly transparent as it got wet, and Trouble caught Tand smirking, before he rose from his seat to snarl at Trouble.

"I do apologize for that," Tand said for what must have been the fifth time, as the wolverine tried to dry off his wife's chest. The look on her face was somewhere between embarrassment, outrage (more directed at her husband, from the way he was rubbing at her) and possibly just a hint of pleasure (at the way he was rubbing at her). "I absolutely insist that you take that miserable excuse for a slave and punish her soundly for being so clumsy!" The husband and wife exchanged looks, something passing between them, before the cougar muttered, "I don't know ……… " even as her husband nodded, "Yes, I think we'd like tha … Ah, um, I think that would be most fitting; thank you."

Trouble kept her eyes downcast as she followed the couple at the end of her leash. Husband and wife kept exchanging looks as they walked towards their stateroom, the husband holding Trouble's leash as if it might shock him. As soon as they were through the door to their stateroom, Trouble knelt like a good slave should, awaiting instruction …… The husband and wife whispered together for a moment and then she departed for the bathroom. The wolverine stood there for a moment as if undecided, and then with a wry shake of his head muttered, "You'll have to excuse us, we're new at this. Slavery is not practiced much on Tecja where we're from …… but we do find this deliciously …… decadent. Now, ah, I want you to strip naked, and then resume your position." As she pulled her dress off, Trouble grinned to herself. Either these two are very good actors, or they're not who we're after. I don't know what they think "punishment" will constitute, but I bet I have more fun at this than they do……

The cougar fem emerged from the bathroom, wearing a bustier and very scanty panties, her long hair let down, obviously doing her best to look sexy. Her husband devoured her with his eyes for a moment, and Trouble got the impression that he was very much in love with her. For her part, she kissed him softly and then turned to look at Trouble. "Now, Love, what shall we do with her?" she purrred.

Trouble struggled with the position; she was on paws and knees, with her chest lowered towards the floor, her head tilted way back, to lick upwards into the cougar's pussy. Her husband was behind Trouble, grunting as he slowly worked his cock in and out of her ass. If this is their concept of "punishment", Trouble thought to herself, anal sex, and cunnilingus; not exactly the worst fate that's ever befallen me …… I don't know where Tecja is, but I got a sneaking feeling they're pretty straight-laced, and this is being horribly wicked for them…… Trouble grinned to herself and swirled her tongue up, deep into the cougar fem's pussy, stroking places she knew would make her moan. As she did so, she tightened her ass around the wolverine's cock, bringing him to a momentary standstill as he panted hard!

Tand listened to the goings-on in the couple's stateroom; he'd neglected to give his standard warning about returning Trouble without permanent damage, feeling such a statement would be out of character for someone offering her up for punishment. Accordingly, he felt honor bound to monitor, making sure that they didn't do anything too outlandish to the slave. Still, from what he was hearing, it was more what Trouble was going to do to them ……

Trouble giggled as she rode the wolverine's cock; things had loosened up considerably, and she was now making suggestions, acting more as a teacher instructing eager students, than a slave being punished. The wolverine was flat on his back, and Trouble was astride his hips, facing his wife, who knelt astride his head, gasping and moaning as he licked at her, under Trouble's direction. Trouble, for her part, softly caressed the cougar's breasts, teasing her nipples, and kissing her occasionally. I think they're really going to get into oral sex, Trouble thought to herself.

Tand yawned as he listened with half an ear to the goings-on. He was more interested in some of the transcribed information from some of the other bugs that he'd planted as they scrolled across his computer screen. Hmph! he thought to himself, for what must have been the twentieth time. Some punishment! Still, he'd found out that the couple was fabulously wealthy, from even wealthier families. Apparently high society on Tecja demanded years-long engagements, and this couple were newlyweds on their honeymoon. "When Trouble gets finished with them, they'll have stories to tell their grand-kids all right," Tand mused. "Especially if she hands them over to the pirates."

Trouble purrrred as she deep-throated the wolverine's cock, his wife paying close attention, her own nose inches from the action. Every once in a while Trouble would stop to explain what she was doing and why, giving the poor male much needed respite. Always, with a grin, Trouble would resume again, until finally she demonstrated her own mastery, by tilting her head way back, straightening her throat, and sliding his cock all the way into her mouth, and down her throat, to his wife's startled amazement. He came violently, as Trouble's throat muscles rippled along his shaft, as Trouble swallowed again and again. When he ceased spurting, Trouble pulled back to gasp for air. "Now that's a technique that takes years of practice to do right; but I think you have to admit, its worth the effort." The wolverine just nodded, and turned to grin at his wife.

Tand finally turned off the audio and picked up his bag of burglary tools. They're going to keep that up all night, and I've got things to do; if they were going to hurt her, I'd have sensed it by now," he thought. Grumbling, Tand slipped from his stateroom to go make some modifications on the liner's security systems. Following that, he checked out some of the cabins high on his "likely suspects" list. In most of them, the occupants never even knew he was there, but in one, he was forced to withdraw. The mysterious lady at their table was moaning in her bed, the harsh buzz of a vibrator filling the air ……

They led Trouble to breakfast at the end of her leash, chatting like old friends. The wolverine gave Tand a sly grin as he handed the leash back, and the cougar gave Trouble a kiss. "Hope to see you later," she purrrred and Trouble just nodded, a sly smile on her face. "Yes Ma'am, I'm sure you will." Trouble knew her meaning would be completely misunderstood by everyone except Tand.

They spent the morning reviewing the takes from the worm program in the ship's computer, and from the various bugs and eavesdropping devices Tand had planted. While they uncovered many interesting things, such as one of the females they'd pegged as a likely target actually being a transvestite, they came no closer to identifying their quarry.

Over the next few days, Trouble found her way into several beds. Some of those who took her treated her as a slave, demonstrating their mastery in acts of bondage and humiliation, and some, like the wolf, were merely after the sex. None of them stretched Trouble's limits to any significant extent. During the "other" times, Trouble worked with Tand to slowly narrow their list of suspects. Gradually names were stricken from the list of "most likely" suspects, and only a few were added. Time, however, was running out.

The bear had approached Tand as they were on their way to dinner. With many a glance towards Trouble, the two whispered together. From the look on his face, it was obvious that Tand didn't like what was being said, but somehow, the bear was able to convince him. As they resumed their walk towards the dining room, Tand whispered to Trouble, "Eat lightly. You're in for a scene tonight that could be demanding. I'm sorry, but to have refused would have been out of character." Trouble just nodded and shrugged.

After dinner, Tand handed Trouble's leash over to the bear, who in turn handed her over to a rather muscular rabbit. She was taken to a room off of the liner's gym, where she was told to strip, and was then handed a harness to put on. She fiddled with its buckles and straps, drawing an impatient glare from the rabbit. Finally she had it on, and he went over her, tightening this buckle, or adjusting that strap. The harness criss-crossed her body from her collar to her crotch, securely holding a rather massive dildo tight to her mons. However, it left her pussy and her anus uncovered. Finally satisfied, the rabbit applied a generous pawfull of lubricant to the dong, and to Trouble's pussy and ass, making her rise to tiptoes as he jammed a well greased finger up her backside. Taking her by the leash he led her through the door and into the gym.

There were chairs set out for the spectators around a large wrestling mat. Along one side, a number of female slaves knelt, all similarly attired. The bear strode into the center of the mat and addressed the group. "Tonight" he growled, "our slaves will wrestle for our amusement. The goal for them is to bury their tool in either the vagina or the anus of their opponent, 'pinning' them. Extra points for the anus. The competition will be single elimination, with the losers being punished and the winner rewarded. While there are no rules, conduct that might permanently damage an owner's property will be severely dealt with." To emphasize that point, the bear held up a shock stick, its surface crackling with energy. "I will act as referee. Are there any questions?" As was typical, the bear looked towards the owners, and not the "competitors".

Trouble watched as the first two "contestants" were led into the ring. The raccoon fem and the squirrel fem both looked like lightweights, and they both looked terrified. After a moment or two of circling each other, a light brush from the bear's shock stick convinced them that they'd best try something, and with a yell the raccoon dove towards the squirrel. She, however, sidestepped and as the raccoon landed flat on her face, the squirrel pounced, landing on her back. They were well lubed, and as the squirrel yanked up the raccoon's banded tail, her dildo drove harshly into her ass! The raccoon screamed and clawed at the mat as the squirrel did her best to pin the larger female to the floor.

The bear separated them, roughly pushing the raccoon towards the far side of the mat, where she was made to kneel. The squirrel was given a moment or two to catch her breath and her dong was given a fresh coat of lubricant, and then the next contestant, an equine morph was led to the ring. The mare was considerably larger than the squirrel, but seemed to be slower and more clumsy; still, she wasn't about to make the mistake the raccoon fem had, and was more cautious, doing her best to try and grab the squirrel. She, on the other paw, kept dancing away, trying to get behind the mare, to nudge her in the back of her knees, to make her fall. She connected twice, but the mare was large and strong enough to recover before she hit the mat. Finally, the squirrel leapt on the mare's back, holding on around her waist, and as the mare spun about, trying to find a way to shake her, the squirrel triumphed, driving her dong hard into the mare's pussy.

Again the referee separated them, sending the mare to join the raccoon. Next, the squirrel faced a wolf fem. This one however was stronger and faster than she, and it wasn't long before the squirrel was on her stomach, on the mat, the wolf bitch slowly forcing the dildo into the squirrel's ass.

The wolf faced Trouble next. Trouble circled the wolf bitch warily, the dong wiggling from side to side as she moved. As she'd watched the previous match, Trouble had gotten the impression that the wolf was an enthusiastic competitor, delighting in her ability to dominate her opponent, but that she'd never really been trained to fight. Trouble, on the other paw, had been trained to fight. But she couldn't show that. A slave that knew how to fight was a slave that couldn't be allowed to live; too dangerous. As such, Trouble had to move very carefully; she didn't really want to be punished for loosing, but she also didn't want to be "put down" for winning either. As they circled and feinted, Trouble had a thought, she acted as if she was slipping on a greasy spot on the mat; by now a good bit of lubricant had hit the surface of the wrestling mat, and footing was becoming chancy. Circling back to the same spot, she eeeped and went down, but as she did so, she swung about, as if trying to escape; as she swiveled, this served to knock the feet out from under the wolf, who went sprawling. Cheetahs are fast, and Trouble was able to recover and pounce the wolf; still, it was a struggle. She fought hard, wriggling her bottom, making it hard for Trouble to jab the dildo home. Finally, however, she zigged when Trouble zagged, and as Trouble grinned, the wolf howled with dismay as the dong slid roughly into her pussy!

Trouble's turn to pant, and be relubricated, as the next contestant, a mink fem, was led into the ring. To Trouble's delight, the smaller fem only put up a token resistance, fighting back just enough to escape extra punishment. Trouble rewarded this easy victory by sliding the dildo into her pussy, when a shot at her ass would have been possible.

Now Trouble faced the final competitor, a tigress who moved with all the grace of a natural predator. Again they circled, but this time none of Trouble's tricks seemed to work. She failed to sweep her feet out from under her, the tigress nimbly jumping over her legs. Attempts to grab were blocked by both contestants, as they danced back and forth over the mat. Finally the tigress caught one of Trouble's wrists, and used it to spin her around. Catching the other wrist, the tigress brought them both together behind her back, raising them, forcing her to bend over. Still, Trouble squirmed and bucked, but after a minute the tigress' other paw grabbed her tail at the base, and moments later, she felt the big feline's dildo push into her pussy. The crowd applauded softly and the bear called, "Fuck her with it; show us what you can do with her!"

The tigress growled low in her throat, and maintaining her grip on Trouble's wrists with one paw, and her grip on the base of her tail with the other, slowly started to work the dildo in and out of Trouble's pussy. Her movements were quick and jerky, and her grip was all but lifting Trouble off the floor, making her teeter on tiptoes, wobbling back and forth, her breasts swaying with each thrust. It wasn't long before Trouble was moaning, however, and as she writhed through a climax, the crowd applauded politely yet again.

The referee grinned at the tigress. "As the winner, your reward is 'a night off', a night to do whatever you want with our 'runner-up'. Just as obviously, her punishment is to be your slave for the night. Return to your quarters and do with her as you will." The crowd chuckled as the tigress took the proffered leash, to clip it to Trouble's collar, and without preamble jerked Trouble through the exit to the gym.

As soon as they were out of sight, the tigress seemed to deflate; looking around to make sure they weren't observed, she whispered to Trouble, "I hate doing that!" But before Trouble could reply, or even frame a reply in her mind, they heard someone coming, and the tigress pulled her along to one of the dressing rooms. There, they stripped off their harnesses, and reclaimed their dresses. It must have appeared a strange sight, one slave leading the other, but nothing was said as they made their way to the tigress' Master's cabin. There, the tigress led Trouble to a small bedroom adjacent the Master's suite, again seeming to visibly relax as soon as the door closed. Trouble, still playing her part, knelt on the floor as soon as the door closed. The tigress looked at her for a moment, and then knelt in front of Trouble, using one paw to raise her chin, gently. "You know what I want, little one? You know what I seek for my evening with you? Truth be told, I just want a hug, and someone to talk to." Trouble smiled, and leaned forward to give the big tigress a hug, holding her tight.

"I think the slave conditioning they tried to impart just didn't quite take," Bethany, the tigress, said. "I was trained at a small facility on Engleside, and, well, I've just never been as happy as some of the other slaves I've run across. How about you? You seem to fit into the role rather well, perhaps even enthusiastically, if some of what I've been hearing is correct." Trouble laughed, "Oh, I admit I've got my moments. I'm not sure how happy I really am; most of the time I don't even have time to think about it. I think what the Academy and I went through did to me was more to warp my sexual desires …… I've come to love good sex, and in some cases even kinky sex. I don't have enough pride left for 'humiliation' to be practical; that kinda thing just kind of rolls off my back, as long as it isn't too painful. I think I've just kinda adopted the attitude that there isn't much I can do about my situation, and until there is, I'm not going to worry about it much. I'll just take what pleasures I can in life. And speaking of which …… " Trouble grinned and crawled up the tigress' body to kiss her softly, her paw again squirming between the big feline's thighs. "Oh! Oh Trouble! Oh, you are insatiable," Bethany purrrred; still, she didn't object, or make any move to stop the movements of Trouble's paw ……

The following morning, Trouble made her way back to Tand's stateroom. She made a point of limping, and acting as if she'd had a rough night; after all, both she and Bethany agreed, they had reputations to uphold, no matter what they might have thought of them. Trouble found that Tand had spent the night doing more of his "breaking and entering", gathering all sorts of interesting data, but gaining no further clues. Again, the mystery lady had been "involved", this time with a borrowed slave, and Tand had not been able to discern anything about her.

Trouble groaned, walking quite bow-legged, moving very very carefully as the previous night's "Master" led her back towards the Dining Room, and her return to Tand. This particular ferret had been much more into B&D than any of the others that Trouble had run across on the ship, and had kept her well tied in a variety of strained positions all through the night. She'd learned nothing about him, except that he was imaginative, and rich enough to afford all sorts of highly specialized toys, like the dildo that spurted freezing cold jets of fluid. But the one that took the cake was the device he had fitted her with just prior to leaving his cabin for breakfast. As Trouble hung from her wrists, her legs held wide apart by a spreader bar, he had shown her a rather elaborate chrome and rubber butt plug. It had the usual tapered shape, gradually growing to a wide point and then diminishing quickly to a constricted point, such that she could not force it out of her ass. However the portion beyond the constriction was more than the usual flared base; it had a tang of metal, at right angles to the plug, ending in a collar or short sleeve of bright metal. With great glee the ferret had greased up the butt plug and slowly forced it into her behind. He had then taken a metal rod and inserted it into a hole in the base of the butt plug; as he did so, Trouble felt that portion within her expand even further as the metal stretched the rubber. She gasped as she heard this rod lock into place with an audible snick. There was no doubt now that the butt-plug wasn't coming out without a key of some sort. And probably an owner's manual too. The ferret had then shown her a shiny chrome dildo, bullet shaped and smooth, reflecting her own distorted image. This he also lubbed up and slipped through the metal collar attached to the butt plug's base, deep into her pussy. Again she felt, more than heard, the dildo snick into place. Releasing the device, Trouble moaned at its weight, the metal tugging at her ass and pussy! "You'll notice," he laughed, "that the butt plug and dildo portions are at angles to each other; their tips should almost be meeting within you. A most intimate grip; it can't fall out. In fact, it can actually support a bit of weight …… " And with that, he grasped a ring welded to the piece of metal separating the two devices and tugged lightly. Trouble's eyes went wide and she mewled as the steel and rubber tried to pull her crotch downwards! The ferret had then snapped the end of her leash to the ring, and otherwise released her, to lead her nude, through the corridors of the starship.

Tand hmmmmmed as the ferret showed off the device, finally insisting that Tand retain it for future use with Trouble, making sure that he had the key. Tand shook his head and instructed Trouble to kneel on the pad behind his chair, as there was no way she could sit down with the device implanted, and he wasn't about to create the spectacle of trying to free her in the dining room. For her part, Trouble was glad to kneel, such that the weight of the cruel device was supported by the floor. Again, she noticed the sympathetic looks of the other slaves kneeling nearby.

It wasn't until breakfast was over and Tand was sliding back his chair to leave, that the mysterious lady black panther padded over to talk to Tand. "You know, that really isn't the best way to leash a slave like her," she purrrred. "I'd be glad to do her up properly, if you'd like. Just let me have her until this time tomorrow, and I'm sure you'll be delighted with the result." Trouble moaned inwardly; all she wanted was the key to this damn thing and a hot bath … still, they'd been trying to find out more about this enigmatic passenger for days, and had failed miserably; it might be worth it to spend the day with her …… Finally Tand nodded his head. "All right, you can take her, provided she's not harmed." The pantheress nodded and with a purrrrr, bade Trouble to rise, to lead her proudly towards her cabin.

As Trouble followed the pantheress, again being very careful how she moved, she came to the conclusion that she wasn't really a black panther, but a puma with a very good furcut and dye job. Again, not surprising, considering the circumstances, but just one more detail of circumstantial evidence. The lady's first order of business was to take the end of the leash connected between Trouble's thighs and clip its chain, midway down its length, to a ring bolt in the floor, forcing her into a squat. A rope from the ceiling to her collar forced her to crouch uncomfortably, muscles straining, not quite with the backs of her thighs on her calves. With her paws bound behind her back, Trouble struggled between tugging fiercely at her sex by trying to rise, and choking herself by trying to descend. The lady purrrred, "I'll release you only after you've licked me to a climax, so you'd best be quick." With that, she stepped forward, raising the hem of her dress to present her bare sex to Trouble's muzzle.

Trouble complied, licking urgently as the muscles in her legs complained bitterly. As she licked and nibbled, her tongue flashing here and there, she discovered that the lady had her own set of piercings, with several sets of rings in each labia, as well as a clitty piercing. Wriggling these, teasing them with her tongue, Trouble discovered, was the key, and as her tongue made the rings dance, she was rewarded by the sounds of the lady above her experiencing a wild climax. True to her word, before she collapsed backwards onto the bed, she unhooked the rope from Trouble's collar, allowing her to kneel, and to rest.

After a bit, the lady raised her head to look at Trouble. "You seem to be every bit as good as they say you are; before we proceed, crawl over here and do me again. Take your time, make it last, as when we finish, the real fun begins … " Trouble didn't doubt her in the least, and moving over to the bed on her knees, she bent to her task, tongue slowly teasing and nibbling, slithering between her labia, driving deep, until at last her mysterious "Mistress" yowled at the top of her lungs as another climax overtook her.

Again, Trouble knelt as the lady rested. While Trouble hoped she'd take a nap, giving Trouble some time to nose around (literally, with her paws bound behind her back), it was only a few minutes before the pantheress rose, to strip off her dress, tossing it casually aside. She rebound Trouble's paws in front of her, making sure the restraints were tight. These she hooked to the rope dangling from the ceiling, and raised Trouble until she was balancing on tiptoes. Fetching ankle cuffs, she proceeded to put those on Trouble, and then use more ropes to raise her ankles towards the ceiling, spreading her legs far apart. Her tail was not ignored either, a leather strap tying its tip to the back of her collar. When she was done, the lowest part of Trouble was her ass, with her sex very prominently displayed.

The lady pulled up a chair, sitting so that her nose was almost touching Trouble's sex. Trouble hoped for a gentle touch, or perhaps even a little tongue, but instead she received an examination that would have done a gynecologist proud. "I'm glad to see you have a vertical piercing of your clitty, dear," the lady purrrred, "otherwise we might have to start over …… You're lucky that you have the anatomy for this too; so many girls have such tiny clittys, so well hidden, but then, given your current, ah, 'station', I guess it's not that much a surprise …… Now, all we have to do is …… " Trouble groaned as she watched the lady rise, to remove a folded kit from one of the dressers. This she unfolded on the bed revealing everything she'd need to add another piercing to Trouble's already considerable collection. Returning to Trouble, resuming her seat, the lady deftly removed the barbell currently holding Trouble's clitty piercing open. As the shaft of the barbell was removed, Trouble felt the cold sting of antiseptic. The lady then carefully inserted her piercing needle through the existing piercing in Trouble's clitty, and then pushed it further, driving it through the hood that normally protected her sensitive little nubbin. Trouble gasped and mewled but knew better than to move a muscle. She felt the lady swab her with more antiseptic, obviously wiping away what little blood there was. Some other medicine was applied, something Trouble thought she recognized by scent; the healing accelerator that the Academy had used when she'd been previously pierced …… Then the needle was replaced with what felt like a longer, heavier barbell, the lower ball under her clitty, making it stand up a bit, the other on the outside of her hood …… As the lady turned to put away her implements, Trouble swayed a little in her bonds; she could really feel the weight of the larger barbell down there in every little movement she made.

The lady let Trouble down, releasing her legs first, then her arms, retying her on the floor, on her back. The rest of the afternoon was spent with this pantheress making use of Trouble, sometimes squatting over her muzzle, to let Trouble lick her to yet another climax, sometimes the lady would raise Trouble's ankles, to use a vibrating strap-on dildo to fuck her in the ass. The only high point of the afternoon was when Trouble got a real good look at a normally unseen portion of the pantheress' anatomy, a spot high up on the inside of her left thigh, immediately adjacent to her sex. As Trouble licked, she discerned there, under the fur, the red of a birthmark, supposedly the identifying feature of the senator. The story went that once a rather kinky lover had shaved her sex, to enhance their sex, and the birthmark had been uncovered. That makes the rest of this worthwhile, I guess, she thought to herself as the lady shivered through yet another uncounted climax.

Trouble was led to dinner by a leash attached normally to her collar. She wore a loincloth, with a plethora of the senator's jewelry, looking the proper barbarian. The senator had replaced the barbell through her new piercing with a rather large, if thin ring, the ring passing through her hood as well as her clitty. The ring was large enough to cause a small bump in the hanging fabric of the loincloth, plainly visible should anyone care to notice. And many did. Worse, the ring held a jinglebell, and as Trouble walked, tinkling sounds emerged from under the loincloth, further drawing attention to it. Tand raised an eyebrow at the spectacle, but the senator, thinking he was curious about the standard leash, just smiled and told him to wait for tomorrow. Trouble did manage to give Tand the look that said that yes, she'd identified this lady as their quarry, and with that, Tand settled into his chair, to eat his dinner quietly. For her part, the senator fed Trouble an occasional morsel from her plate as she knelt behind her chair.

When they returned to the senator's quarters Trouble was again tied, this time in a kneeling position, her long hair tied to her ankles pulling her head way back, her muzzle pointing at the ceiling. A perfect position, the senator said, for Trouble to lick up into her hungry pussy …… The night was filled with the senator again making use of Trouble, in one fashion or another.

At one point in the night, the senator placed a small black box between Trouble's ankles. "How much electrical engineering do you know?" she asked. Before Trouble could answer she chuckled, "Silly question for a slave. Never mind. Basically what it boils down to is: shake a field, get a current. shake a current, get a field. That box between your thighs is a bulk storage magnetic media eraser. It produces a shaking field at about sixty hertz. And you'll notice that when I turn it on, it has the most marvelous effect on your piercings …… " Trouble moaned as the rings in her labia and clitty started to vibrate. "Of course, I've made some modifications, but before I show them to you, I want to make sure you're tied tight!" After checking Trouble's bonds, making sure that she'd stay in the kneeling position, that she'd stay in position over the box, she pushed a rather large plug gag into Trouble's mouth, buckling it tight behind her neck. "You see," she purred, "the box will vary field strength and frequency randomly; it should shake your piercings very nicely. Of course, some of the higher frequency field oscillations will induce a significant current, and that might heat up the rings some, but I'm sure you can take that." With a grin, the senator kissed Trouble on the forehead and turned out the light as she crawled into bed.

Trouble panted as her labia and clitty rings vibrated. Initially it was barely felt, more like a buzz, but after a minute, things got a little rougher, the jinglebell on her clitty ring starting to dance. Trouble panted harder, and then moaned as the vibrations, stimulating her so directly drove her to a sharp climax. They didn't stop though. Through the night, the vibrations grew stronger, and weaker, but they never stopped. Occasionally she'd be jerked from her orgasmic haze as the rings heated up, but that never lasted too long. The climaxes flowed through Trouble's soul, rippling through her like strings of exploding firecrackers, until sometime in the wee hours of the morning, overloaded with pleasure, she fainted.

Trouble yelped into her gag, jerking upright, coming awake suddenly, painfully. Blinking, she saw the senator straightening a wire in each paw. Apparently, she'd gotten a jolt from some sort of battery pack, delivered across her nipple rings. Like caffeine better, she thought crossly, as the senator untied her, and massaged feeling back into her limbs. Still, there's no doubt, she thought that WILL wake you up! The senator told Trouble to stand, with her knees well spread, and reaching down, she removed the clitty ring. A quick examination showed the accelerant had worked correctly and that her new piercing was ready for what the senator had in mind. The heavy barbell appeared again, the senator sliding the shaft through her clitty piercing from below. However this time, the end link in a fairly heavy chain, with links made of bar over 4mm thick, was pushed between the upper surface of her clitty and the lower surface of her hood. The barbell shaft was then driven up through the piercing in her hood, and the oversized ball screwed onto the end of the shaft. The senator then reached for a pincer-like device, each end of the pincer pushing on the ends of the barbell. Suddenly there was a buzz and an incredible heat, and Trouble HOWLED until the senator shoved a pawfull of ice chips against her crotch. Trouble howled again. "That welded the barbell together, dear; now you're permanently leashed!" Dropping the length of chain that she held, Trouble's knees almost buckled as the full weight of the chain, from pussy to the floor, hung from her piercing!

Trouble padded, nude save for her collar, a ball gag, and the wrist cuffs holding her paws behind her back, through the corridor at the end of the senator's leash. The small parade drew stares from everyone they passed. Upon reaching the dining room, the senator handed the end of Trouble's leash to Tand with a flourish. Tand's eyes grew large, as the implications of what had been done sunk in. The senator, watching his face, mistook it for wonder, and purrred, "Yes, isn't it marvelous? I thought you'd like it." before turning away to take her normal seat. Trouble caught Tand's eye and made a minute "not here"-type motion. Tand was too flustered to do more than eat his breakfast in silence, Trouble kneeling behind him on a mat.

He didn't have any choice but to lead Trouble back to their stateroom with her new leash. As they left, Trouble heard one of the other slave owners asking the senator to fix his own slave in the same manner .…… The instant they were within their own stateroom, the door closed, he turned to grab the links just below her, to take the weight. "Good Lord! What has she done to you?" he growled. Trouble just shook her head and mumbled into her gag. Tand fumbled, trying to hold the weight of the chain with one paw, while undoing Trouble's bound paws with his other. Once free, Trouble relieved him of his burden, holding the chain herself, as he undid her gag.

"Whew!" Trouble exclaimed as Tand withdrew the gag. "That was a large one; made my jaws ache. Oh, don't look so shocked; this isn't that big a deal! I admit I could do with a lighter chain, but it's very stimulating, in its way."

Tand just shook his head. "Lets get you out of it!"

Trouble sighed. "Can't, she welded the barbell together. We'd need some small cutting tools. Besides, that might lead to complications. You have an image to maintain, you know." Tand, nevertheless, bent to give the situation a much closer inspection, making Trouble purrrr from time to time. Rising he shook his head and growled. "That is not what I consider returning you undamaged. She's going to pay for this!" Trouble chuckled. "Oh, rest assured, that she will. Now, lets see, I bet if I loop the end of this chain through my collar, I can take almost all the weight off … "

Tand ordered room service for Trouble, as she'd missed lunch the previous day, had a rather "light" dinner, and had missed breakfast as well. The crewman who delivered the tray stared at Trouble with wide eyes as she knelt demurely on the floor by Tand's bed, the chain pooled between her thighs, until Tand chased him off with a growl. After eating, Trouble went for a long hot soak in the tub, hoping the chain was rustproof. Later she and Tand reviewed the progress of the worm program; it certainly looked as if it had completely infiltrated the ship's computer. Only trying it would tell for sure though ……

An appearance had to be made at dinner, and Trouble had come up with a compromise that seemed to be acceptable to Tand (he'd wanted to use an energy weapon to sever the chain only a few links from the piercing, but Trouble had vetoed that). Wearing a halter style dress with a plunging neckline that descended well below her waist, the chain led up between her breasts to pass through a wide ring on her collar, and then to Tand's paw. A jerk on her chain would cause her to bend, perhaps double, as the distance between clitty and collar was shortened, but normally only the weight of a few links would be on her piercing. Of course, those swaying links were keeping Trouble quite hot, something that Tand said was more than apparent from the look on her face. At dinner, several of the other Masters examined her closely, to Tand's stony silence. They seemed to find the matted fur of Trouble's thighs, slick with her own juices delightful. Again, more than one approached the senator with requests for assistance with their own slaves.

After dinner, Trouble was panting by the time they made it back to their stateroom. "Damn swinging chain's driving me wild," Trouble moaned. Tand just grinned. "I offered to take care of that." Trouble nodded and shrugged, "As soon as we're home, gotta do something a bit different …… but it can wait until then. Right now, I'm more concerned about becoming desensitized. At this rate, shouldn't take long. But I'm sure, if I can get shed myself of this thing for a while, that'll reverse itself …… But in the meantime, stud, get over here and 'put me out of my misery'." Tand just grinned ……

Over the next few days, Tand loaned Trouble out to several select passengers; true to her suspicions, the swinging chain was keeping Trouble very hot, and as such, she was in great demand. One of these, an auditor for a major interstellar corporation, had a new toy; he liked to torment the slaves that come under his sway, and tying Trouble to the bed, he slid a powerful vibrator into her pussy. Fastening a ring gag in her mouth, he turned it on and sat back. "This is a voice activated dildo; the more noise you make, the more powerful the vibrations." As he talked, the dildo rumbled in her pussy nicely, making the links of her chain jump. He grinned as he clapped his paws and at the sudden loud sound, Trouble jumped, the dildo going wild in her pussy for an instant. The night was most strange. He loved to just sit there and watch Trouble struggle; she tried hard to keep silent, but it seemed the infernal device could hear her heartbeat, she'd start moaning and that would drive the dildo which would drive her moans, which would drive the dildo to a higher level, which in turn would drive her to screams. The cycle would only end when she passed out, fainted dead away from overstimulation. By morning she was hoarse, her voice a mere whisper, and she'd chewed her lower lip bloody and raw, trying to stay quiet. Her "Master" loved it, and told Tand so at great length, making sure Tand took the dildo for his own amusement.

For the rest of the trip, all Tand had to do was to threaten Trouble with that dildo to make her behave.

Arrangements had been made for Trouble to be loaned out to yet another couple, again, obviously traveling incognito, again, obviously either rich, or powerful, and perhaps both. He'd been fuming for several days over what the senator had done to Trouble. He knew that Trouble was fascinated, repulsed, and very much stimulated by what had been done to her. She was putting up a brave face, but Tand could tell she was worried what might happen when the lion got a good look …… And the senator had not, in his opinion, returned her as he had instructed, "undamaged". That alone was worthy of his vengeance.

After dinner that night, as Trouble was led away, Tand moved silently up behind the senator. "I seem to be free for the evening, and I was wondering if you might like some company," he purrrrrred into her ear. She smiled and leaned back against him. "I have some business I have to take care of, but perhaps you could come by, say, at 2300 hours?" Tand purrrred and kissed the back of her neck, and moved off, to head back to his cabin to prepare.

Once back in his stateroom, Tand checked the progress of the worm program, the transcriptions of his listening devices, and a quick look in on the postage stamp camera he'd hidden in the couple's suite. He'd gone to the trouble to hide a fairly large device there, and the three dimensional output he was getting was quite good. In fact, he could probably sell it …… Trouble was tied in a most interesting and unusual fashion, being forced to pleasure both male and female, and while it looked uncomfortable, she seemed to be in no danger. Turning off the sound but letting the image run in the background, he turned to prepare for his rendezvous with the senator.

He'd brought a very rare, very sophisticated and quite nasty assassination method with him, something that he felt was uniquely tailored to this situation. Something he'd picked up well outside the Empire, and probably not even known in these parts. Removing a small vial from a hidden compartment in one of his cases, he removed three minute seeds, handling them with tweezers. Dropping his pants, he proceeded to take his cock in his paw, and holding it carefully, he used a swab to apply a viscous pink liquid just inside the urethral canal, in the "eye" of his cock. Letting this set for a moment, he then proceeded to place the three seeds, carefully handling them with the tweezers, within the pink goo. Grinning, he knew the first time he ejaculated, the seeds would be deposited within the senator's pussy, where temperature, pH, and hormones would soon let them germinate. Pulling up his pants, with a wicked grin, he left his stateroom, headed for the senator's suite. Of course, he thought as he walked, this only works as the rendezvous with the pirates is less than three days off; I wouldn't want to actually kill her with this. If all goes well, she'll have the scare of her life, and still be alive by the time we get back to her.

The senator opened the door to her suite, wearing a negligee that was all but transparent, the shifting silver haze of the fabric as it slid across her body transitioning from very slightly opaque to almost clear. It set off her black fur very well, Tand thought as he bent to kiss her softly. Skillful he was in plying her, his caresses and his kisses making her smoulder, making her want him even more, until she could stand it no longer. With her paw wrapped around his eager shaft, she led him to her bed. His ministrations had set her on fire, and she was determined to see that fire quenched with Tand's cum …… in time. She knew a thing or two as well, and was able to moderate his lusts, keeping him at the edge, at the peak, but never quite going over as they changed from this position to something more exotic, to something more exotic still, as they explored each other's repertoire of sexual skills. She was almost standing on her head, her shoulders taking her weight, an ankle in each of Tand's paws, as he drove his cock down into her from a standing position. The position was strained and complex, and exciting if for no other reason than its unusualness, and it was then that Tand lost his control, howling as his cock exploded, throbbing as his cum filled the pussy of the senator; she in turn added her voice to the chorus. Tand had given her several climaxes so far this evening, but feeling his cock throb and spurt, especially at this angle, was enough to send her to Nirvana yet again.

Tand was tempted to take his immediate leave, but the senator's paw was wrapped possessively around his cock, and the way her chest heaved as she panted was most alluring …… Before long she purrrred, delighted that she'd stroked him to hardness yet again. "So, what do you have in mind, now, my lady?" he purrrred. "Mmmmmmm, perhaps a game of chance, a simple cut of the cards; looser is the slave to the winner for the rest of the night." Tand grinned, "As long as it doesn't leave this room, I suppose I'm game; but I get to cut the cards." She shrugged, "It's an honest deck; go ahead and shuffle. When playing, I enjoy either role …… " Tand grinned and softly shuffled the deck, letting her cut the cards, and then shuffling again, and in the process quietly using an old magician's trick to palm a card. She cut, showing the 10 of hearts; when he cut, it was the king of diamonds. The senator smiled, and slid off the bed to kneel before him, whispering a quiet "Master …… "

Tand adopted a stern look on his face. Moving to the senator's toybox, he selected merely a long piece of soft rope. He tied her, with complex knots on her knees, wrists tied to either side of her waist. The end of her long hair tied to her bound ankles, tilting her head back. Wordlessly, he walked over to her, to present the bobbing head of his cock to her mouth. Just as wordlessly, she opened her mouth, to worship his cock with her tongue and lips and mouth, until with a groan, he spurted down her throat … Twice more he made use of the senator, once tipping her on her face, to thrust into her ass. After sitting her back up and pulling a thick slave hood over her head, cutting off sight and sound, he quietly searched her suite, finding little except some sealed memory crystals that he dare not try and read. Yet. Removing the hood, he used her mouth once again, this time spraying what little cum he had left over her face and chest. Dressing slowly he smiled down at her. "The way I've tied you is not all that strict. With a little effort I suspect you'll be free, say, in an hour or two. Or twelve. Should be just in time for breakfast, this day, or next. Perhaps I'll see you there … " With a final kiss, he quietly let himself out of her suite, hanging a Do Not Disturb sign by the door.

The senator struggled against the ropes. She'd already gotten two of the complex knots undone, and she was sure it was just a matter of time before she was free. Devilish of him, she thought, to do this to her, but still, in her own perverted way, she loved it. As she squirmed around on the floor, she paused for a moment, thinking she felt something move in her pussy. Ridiculous, she thought; he'd left no toys within her, and that, in a way, was a pity ……

Trouble was returned to Tand at breakfast, the couple that had borrowed her looking a little tired and exhausted. Tand just smiled. The senator was notably missing from breakfast.

The senator mewled, struggling with increased urgency at the ropes. "The bastard sure did use enough" she groaned as her fingers fumbled with yet another loop. Something was definitely tickling her down between her legs; it was almost as if an insect was crawling over her fur … A large insect … In fact, it felt as if it had moved from her pussy down to her bound ankles … She squirmed and struggled to get one paw free, the knots seeming to grow tighter the more frantic her efforts to get free.

To Tand's amusement, Trouble had taken a nap; a nap that had extended through lunch and was threatening to overrun dinner … he'd have to get her up soon. After all, they had an appearance to make at dinner, and he was most curious to see if the senator put in an appearance.

The senator was mewling quietly, her eyes squeezed shut tight. Something was moving over her bound ankles and thighs, something that seemed to originate in her pussy … and it was growing. All efforts to move to the comm panel had proven fruitless; she was too well tied. Tendrils were moving over her hips, and if she didn't get her paws free soon, they'd be trapped as well. Scared out of her wits, she redoubled her effort.

Trouble politely covered her mouth as she yawned; it was all catching up with her, and she was exhausted. Her outfit was a simple black dress, again in a halter style. Its front was conservative, from the mid-thigh hemline to her neck; the back, however, was bare from where the top tied at the back of her neck to the base of her tail. The chain was fastened to the back of her collar, giving her a gleaming silver stripe down her back. Tand thought it looked striking. He would, she smirked to herself. Can't wait to get home and get shed of this thing she thought for the thousandth time; it's all well and good for an occasional something, but 24 hours a day, all day long, is simply too much. So far, Tand had turned down three requests for Trouble for that night, saying that she needed some rest, and implying that he needed some time with her himself. Again, he noted the senator's absence.

Senator Grant mewled softly, frightened out of her wits; she'd finally gotten one paw free, inches ahead of the growing tendrils, only to have them trapped by the thorny vines as she tried to free her other paw. She was slowly being encased in green thorny vines, some sort of weird mutant plant growing from her own vagina! She had ceased struggling long ago, the thorns being much too sharp. Again her mind turned to the big leopard, and she wondered if he could have been responsible? She thought as much, but wondered HOW???

It was about three in the morning when the room's terminal chimed. They were both awake and waiting, figuring it was about time. The ship had detected a transmission from nearby, something faint and encoded, and the worm program had notified Tand and Trouble. The pirates were here.

"Sir, I saw it there for a moment, a burst transmission, but there's no ship on sensors." The comm officer looked curiously at the second officer, currently the watch officer. The latter shrugged, "Sometimes you see strange things in space; keep an eye out, but if it doesn't repeat itself, I wouldn't worry about it." The comm officer turned back to his console, thinking the second officer was dismissing it to lightly. He thought that it was a cloaked military vessel practicing stealth approaches to their vessel. While this was annoying, what he considered "very poor form", he too wasn't particularly worried. After all, pirate activity was something seen on the frontier, not this deep in the Empire; and besides, everyone knew the pirates couldn't afford military style cloaking devices ……

Trouble watched as Tand instructed the worm program to play back the sensor reports for the last two hours, feeding them to the ship's crew, blocking out all real events. He also instituted a program to reclassify all SOS messages to a priority that would see laundry lists transmitted first. Shutting down the comm systems entirely, or even deleting messages would raise too many alarms, but merely pigeonholing them should keep the airwaves quiet.

The pirate cruiser decloaked less than half a light second away, and moved in rapidly. The only way the liner could have spotted them was if someone was looking out a viewport ……

Tand issued commands through the worm program to unlock all airlocks and to lower all but the navigational shields. He also threw in some miscellaneous instructions, like turning off all the hot water heaters, and decreasing the temperatures in the freezers in the galley to the point where everything therein would be rock hard. This of course raised alarms on some engineering panels, but the graveyard shift tagged it as a simple computer glitch, to be handled later.

The pirate vessel launched fighters and shuttles as it closed with the hapless liner, still undetected. The fighters patrolled the area, making sure they wouldn't be disturbed, while the cruiser and the shuttles headed for the massive liner's airlocks.

As the hull rang with the pirate cruiser docking, Tand told the worm program to shut down the higher functions of the liner. The worm had already rewritten all the command access codes. No, the passwords required to completely control the ship had not been changed, that was too difficult; instead, the commands needed to access the password acceptance routine had been changed to random gibberish. A statement from the captain such as "Computer, this is Captain John Luke Discard. Authorization code Alpha one one alpha" would receive the computer equivalent of "huh?" On the bridge, the crew was frantic, but nothing seemed to work. A tech in engineering whispered to his mate, "Now that wasn't a computer malfunction! We're being boarded!" The mate chuckled and shook his head. "No pirates in this sector; don't worry. Probably just another damn dril l…… " Tand grinned as he instructed the worm program to shut down the ship's drive.

The pirates boiled through the main airlock, both inner and outer doors opening at the same time, to the great surprise of the handful of ad-hoc defenders. Rapidly, the pirates spread through the ship, securing the bridge, and engineering. An announcement followed over the intercom, by the ship's captain, stating that the ship had been taken by those pirate scum, the Brethren, instructing all passengers to remain in their staterooms, and not to offer resistance. He went on to state that if ransoms were paid, no one should be in danger. Ben grinned when he finished and retrieved the laminated card the captain had been reading from. "Very nice, sir, and thank you," he growled.

Trouble looked at Tand and shrugged. "You know, none of them know what we look like …… "

Tand checked the worm program and noted that no SOS had even been sent; the commands to scramble the command sequences had worked very well. They watched the terminal for about 20 minutes, before the door banged open and two rough looking pirates stalked in, to motion them out into the hall. There, they joined a line of other passengers, staring in shock and horror at the pirates. One particularly rough one stalked up and down the line, leering at the finely dressed females. Trouble was still wearing her black dress, and with her back against the corridor wall, appeared conservatively dressed. The pirate stopped in front of her, leering, thrusting his face into hers. "'ere now, you're a pretty one! I bet you'd luv for me to take you for a quick ride …… " Trouble smiled, "Why Jackson L. Quinn, you know I've always enjoyed your attentions!" Both Jackson and Tand blinked. Trouble smiled, "Tell me, Captain Quinn, has Mark gotten the lateral thrusters on your ship fixed yet, or are they still hiccuping every time you try to land?" Jackson's jaw dropped, and he spluttered, "How …… what …… who?" Behind Jackson, Reggie chuckled, pushing the incredulous pirate aside to look Trouble up and down. "My, Luv, I do admit I like you as an ocelot! But in any form, its good to see you again!"

Tand growled. "Now wait a minute, that's my slave you're talking to!" Reggie grinned and pulled a short swort. "Was your slave, you mean," and with that, to the shocked and outraged screams of the other passengers, the big rabbit morph drove its point up under Tand's ribs, a gush of blood spattering them both. Tand gasped, and grasping the hilt with both paws, collapsed. Reggie gestured and two of the pirates dragged the body to a nearby airlock. Tand's body was thrown into the open lock, and the system cycled. When the lock's inner door opened again, it was clear, except for a bloodstain on the floor. Reggie grinned and clipped a lead to Trouble's collar; giving it a jerk, he pulled the startled cheetah/ocelot off, laughing.

Tand dusted himself off in the shuttle mated to the outside of the airlock. Grinning he examined the sword; it truly was a marvel. With the blade extended it looked real, but with the least pressure, the blade collapsed into itself, to form only a small lump on the hilt. As it collapsed, a bladder of someone else's blood was ruptured, spraying out. Grinning at the startled shuttle crew, he shrugged, "Doubtful they'll go looking for a dead furr, eh?" With a grin he settled into a vacant acceleration couch to try and get some rest.

The lion was surprised when this ocelot fem pounced him, throwing her arms around his neck to kiss him hard; an instant later her scent told him that Trouble had been found, and his arms wrapped around her, holding her close. It was then that he found the chain attached to the back of her collar, and a scant few moments after that, that he found its terminus. "A gift from Senator Grant; yes, she was identified; would you like for me to take you to her?" With a deep growl of assent from the lion, they were off.

As they were moving down one of the corridors, Trouble caught something out of her eye. Growling, she snatched her own leash from the lion's startled paw to stalk over to one of the pirates and rap him across the back of the head with it. He turned in shock and rage, only for Trouble to growl in his face, "MISTER PRESTON YOU ARE BOTHERING FRIENDS OF MINE! YOU WILL CEASE AND DESIST IMMEDIATELY!" The pirate stepped backwards, even as Trouble pursued, until he came up against a wall. Trouble growled at him for a minute, showing fangs, and then turned to the cougar and wolverine couple that had been cowering under the pirate's bullying. Taking their paws in her own, Trouble said, "I do apologize for his actions; sometimes they get into the 'role' of being a pirate just a little too much, take it too much to heart." Shooting a withering glare at the offending pirate, Trouble turned back to smile, "But I promise you they'll behave from now on. I'm afraid you're going to have to be our guests for a while, and yes, it will most likely be expensive, but you'll be well treated, I promise, and … " she grinned widely, "Think of the tales you'll have to tell your grandcubs!" With that Trouble grabbed the nearest section leader she could find to issue some detailed instructions. The section leader glanced up at the lion, who nodded almost imperceptibly, and the section leader straightened, to turn to the couple. He actually bowed and kindly requested the couple to accompany him.

The lion raised an eyebrow at Trouble as he reclaimed the end of the leash. Trouble just shrugged. "Friends I made; they're just sweet people, too … innocent for things like this." The lion nodded. "We'll try and minimize their distress; that's not why we're here, but I still suspect they'll get an eyeful in the months to come." Trouble sighed and nodded and led the small party off down another corridor.

The senator jerked as she heard her door slide open. She was breathing rapidly, shallowly; the vines had encircled her chest, and her throat, constricting her harshly, making breathing difficult. Of course, the constriction was no more than a tight corset, but in her panicked state, it seemed much worse. The vines had bound her much tighter than the original ropes had, and in a dozen places, thorns had left drops of blood on her fur; still, she squirmed, ignoring the pain, to look beseechingly at Trouble as she came in the door.

Trouble stopped two steps into the suite, staring at the vine-encased form before her, eyes wide. The lion moved around her, to shake his head at the slowly wriggling form. "Well now, there's something I haven't seen in a while," he growled. Trouble looked at him. "What is it?" The lion just grinned. "Just something I ran across a long time ago, far from here. I suspect your, ah, former Master had a paw in this … "

Turning to the senator, the lion raised an eyebrow. "You know that plant growing in you is slowly going to tighten until you suffocate, don't you?" The senator gave a little squeek and shuddered. "Now," the lion continued, "we can leave you here to a horrible fate, or we can take you with us to see if we can get this thing off. I'd planned on merely holding you for ransom, but if we have to go to all the trouble of curing you of this horrible problem, I think we'll have to look for a greater return … "

The senator tried to talk, but one vine had gone between her jaws, a thin, thorned gag, while others had wrapped around her muzzle, holding it closed. Still, her eyes beseeched the pirates to help her. The lion shrugged. "Was that a yes or a no?" he asked Trouble. After a minute of listening to the muffled noises emerging from the senator, the lion shrugged. "come on, Trouble, I can't understand her, and that thing is much too contagious; we'd best just leave her. As they rose to go, the volume of sounds coming from the senator increased by an order of magnitude, as did her writhing, fresh spots of blood forming where the thorns dug into her. The lion looked at her and then sighed. "Oh, all right." Turning he gestured to three of the pirates watching. "You three, take her to sick bay in the cruiser, and be careful; those thorns are sharp!" When they'd carried her off the lion grinned at Trouble. "Yes, that would have killed her, perhaps in another two days. And no, its not contagious, or even that hard to get rid of, I think. But I bet she's so scared she'll do whatever we want, just to get rid of it. I suspect we'll learn a lot from her." Trouble looked at him, aghast. "You knew this would happen??" The lion shook his head no, "To tell you the truth, I was as surprised as you were. Probably as surprised as she was. Still, I'm not beyond using it to my advantage."

Trouble spent considerable time, passing by all the passengers, directing the ones of value or significance to be taken aboard. She smiled as she directed Bethany the tigress to be taken, to her master's obvious confusion. The wolf who had taken her the first night smiled as he and his business associates were selected. "Ah, what the heck, I didn't really want to go to that marketing meeting anyways," he chuckled as they led him off. Finally, all of value that they could acquire had been gleaned, and the pirate cruiser undocked. It was just before they cloaked, that they transmitted the worm program's self destruct code, returning function to the stricken ship.

The trip back was quite and uneventful, the cloaked cruiser never registering on the sensors of any ship, military or otherwise. As they traveled, however, they monitored the message traffic having to do with the Imperial response to the pirate raid. The fleet was in an uproar, more because a ship that deep in the Empire had been taken than that Senator Grant was among the missing; they certainly weren't going to miss her. Trouble had regained her "pirate" outfit, the worn camouflage pants, and the abbreviated combat vest, with the chain brought up in front, and then looped around through the belt loops as an ad-hoc belt. It almost looked right. Almost.

The first night, the lion gathered Trouble from the cruiser's CIC (Combat Information Center) where she was trying to catch up on her intelligence work. Leading her to his small cabin, he proceeded to use her, roughly, forcefully, reestablishing his position as her Master. Stripping her quickly, once the door had closed, he wrapped his paw in her hair, driving her to her knees, and as he dropped his own pants, he used his grip to force her head against his crotch. Trouble for her part, had missed him, and it took no urging at all for her to lick and nuzzle, until his cock stood hard and proud. Not letting her take the initiative, though, he roughly fucked her face, forcing her further down, tilting her head back, driving his cock into her mouth, and down her throat, until with a roar, he came explosively. When Trouble had licked him clean, he bent to the task of tying her, on her knees, collar locked to a tie-down ring in the floor, ass held high. By the time he'd gotten her tied the way he wanted her, he was hard again, and he proceeded to fuck her hard in her pussy, his balls swinging forward to slap at her mons as he drove hard into her from behind. The chain, dangling straight down, swayed with the force of his thrusts and its motion, transmitted straight to her most sensitive parts, combined with his rough thrusts, brought Trouble to climax after climax. The rest of the night was spent with him tying her in this position or that, mostly on the small bed, as he proceeded to move through every possible variant of the sex act that he knew of. Somewhere in the middle of the night, the distinction became blurred as to who was servicing who, and morning found them wrapped in each other, the chain tangled amongst bodies and limbs.

On the trip back, Trouble spent a good bit of time with the prisoners, gleaning what information she could obtain. The wolf and his associates seemed to treat it all as a grand adventure at company expense, and Trouble and her ad-hoc intelligence staff gained a great deal of information on corporate dealings, mergers, buy-outs and such (and still she felt he was leaving the company-specific "dirt" out, but ... ). They even complained good-naturedly about their accommodations (a bunk room), the food, and the "entertainment" (i.e. the lack of Trouble's availability to them). She spent some time with the newlywed couple, doing her best to calm them down. She even found some time to talk to Bethany, the tigress.

"You understand I can't promise anything," Trouble said to Bethany. "The way it works is that any pirate that sees anything he or she particularly fancies, they put in a bid for it against their share from the raid. High bid takes the merchandise. I know how much you dislike your current status, and I'm willing to make a bid for you, but you've got to pay me back that amount before I can release you. Sound fair?" Bethany nodded and shrugged. "More than fair; it's the first hope I've had in years, but the way my luck runs, something will happen to screw it up." Trouble just hugged her and headed back to work.

Most of Trouble's "interview" time was spent with the senator; they were slowly pruning back the weird … growth in exchange for answers to questions they had. The senator was still terrified, and was being very cooperative. The fact that the sap from the growth was horribly acidic and tended to burn her when they pruned back a vine only reinforced her sense of panic and distress. Tand had told them how to do away with the parasite, when they'd felt they'd gotten as much information as they could, and it was amazingly simple …… Still, they were playing it for all they were worth, with the attending medical personnel (and Trouble) actually wearing space suits for fear of "contamination" around the senator.

Trouble was delighted to be back at the asteroid base. The cruiser was a good ship, but it was just too cramped with all the prisoners on board. Besides, she'd started taking a good bit of teasing and some good natured complaints about the noise level coming from the lion's quarters each night. As soon as the prisoners had been transferred, and all was secured, Trouble went down to Supply, to find Zassa. She had a question that she needed answering, and besides, any excuse to seek out the vixen …

Zassa was buried in inventory forms, and was delighted to find an excuse to take a break; she and Trouble stole away to a supply locker, where their conversation turned to caresses and then kisses and then some wild girl-on-girl sex. Of course that too led to Trouble telling Zassa all about where the chain came from, and all the related stories. Exhausted, sated, and pleased with what she found out from Zassa, Trouble went to talk to Ben, as her plan for the newlywed couple slowly came together …

Mark looked at Trouble closely as she sat on his desk, knees spread widely, the hem of her dress raised to her tummy. The lion and several others looked on as the engineer examined the fused barbell, and the chain still fastened to Trouble's most sensitive parts. "Well, the first part is to remove the chain; that's no trouble (with that he grinned up at Trouble, happy with his pun). Yes, it's a hardened alloy, but I have things that will make short work of it. The barbell is another story. It'll have to be cut off, and while it's only surgical steel, and not all that hard, getting it out without hurting Trouble will be … 'touchy'." Again he grinned. Trouble looked at the lion and he gestured to Mark, "We trust you; go ahead." Mark nodded and got out a special pair of gloves and what looked like a small roll of thread. "This is a single molecule monofilament; it's extremely fine, and extremely strong. And because of its extreme thinness, extremely sharp. As you can see its coated in a more normal polymer so it can be handled; however it'll cut through almost anything known."

Mark threaded one end of the thread through the last link of the chain, and then wound the ends around special synthetic diamond handles. The force he exerted seemed to be almost nothing at all, but suddenly the chain fell to the floor, one half link still tucked between Trouble's clitty and hood. This Mark carefully removed, saying, "You have to be very careful; the edges are extremely sharp … " Mark then threaded a blunt curved needle with the thread and moving very carefully, slipped it where the chain link had been. Trouble squatted, holding herself carefully, as Mark lined up the thread just so, and then gave a gentle tug. Nothing seemed to happen, but the loop of thread was now completely visible, a small distance from Trouble's body. Leaning forward, Mark plucked the top half of the barbell from where it was visible, letting Trouble recover the lower half. Trouble and Mark exchanged grins and then she kissed him in thanks. Halfway through the kiss, however, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she found the lion holding a captive bead ring, with a jingle bell. Looking up at him he just smiled and nodded, "This one isn't permanent, but I don't want those piercings closing up. Use this for the time being. Trouble just sighed and bent to the task of inserting the ring. As she walked out of Engineering, following her master, she had to struggle to keep from giggling at the jingling sound she made as she walked, or purrrring at the pleasant sensations.

The wolverine looked up from the slip of paper Trouble had handed him. "This is outrageous! Yes, I know we've been kidnapped by pirates, but this ransom demand is ludicrous!" His new wife, the cougar looked over his shoulder in concern, one paw touching his arm as if to reassure him. Trouble just grinned wider, "Yes, I know its rather steep, but here's what you get in the package … "

That night, the doorbell chimed at the newlywed's quarters. The wolverine opened the door, expecting to see Trouble or one of the other pirates, probably come on a matter related to the ransom. Instead he found a sultry vixen, wearing only a collar. She grinned up into his startled face and said, "Hi! I'm Zassa; Trouble thought that I ought to come by, that there might be a few things that I could do for you, maybe even a few things I could teach you …… "

Trouble was just finishing compiling the report on Senator Grant. They'd learned some amazing things before finally ridding her of the parasite. It seemed all she had to do to get rid of the thing was to drink copious amounts of cranberry juice. As with a mild yeast infection, the cranberry juice changed her system pH just enough to make the environment hostile for the parasite's well-being and it had gradually withered and finally died, allowing them to remove the roots from where they'd found such an intimate purchase. The senator, thus liberated, had been sent to a surgeon that worked occasionally for the pirates; she'd received just enough cosmetic surgery so that she'd never be recognized as the missing Senator Grant. Her breasts were now larger, and her ass was a fuller, heart shape, while her waist was reduced some. Her cheekbones were more prominent, and her ears were moved back just a touch. They'd even used bone grafts to lengthen her legs a bit, giving her the "leggy" look that so many males loved. The overall effect was striking. As she'd demonstrated at least some submissive tendencies to Tand, she was now on her way to a sex slave training facility several sectors removed, destined to become a gift from the lion to Jenka. Trouble grinned at that, knowing Jenka would know how to handle her (and knowing that she'd be treated at least reasonably well). As she passed the data crystal to her boss, the old fox that ran the intelligence department for the pirates, the lion walked in, swinging his leash.

Trouble was a little surprised, as she knew the lion had meetings that evening, but followed meekly enough as he led her to his quarters. Maybe he just wants a quickie, she grinned to herself, but as they entered, and she saw Hinoki kneeling on the floor, she knew something else was up …… The lion had Trouble strip off her dress, and then sit on the edge of the bed; he knelt between her thighs, removing her clitty ring, and replacing it with a barbell of the type so recently removed. As he inserted it, he slipped the ring at the end of a strand of pearls through the shaft, between her hood and clitty. Using the short strand of pearls, only about a foot long, as a leash, he tugged Trouble to her feet, and led her over to Hinoki. The lion had her kneel facing him and reaching down, he clipped the other end of the strand of pearls around the Prince Albert piercing in Hinoki's cock. This ring was in the very end of Hinoki's cock, just visible at the opening of his sheath; it entered the "eye" of his cock, the urethral canal, to emerge from the bottom of his shaft, just below the "eye". With the two tied together, the lion rose to padd towards the door. "Felt you two needed some quality time together," he purrred. As he passed through the door he called, "You two have fun; see you in the morning," and then the door closed and he was gone.

Trouble grinned at Hinoki and without saying a word, she rose a little on her knees to rock her hips back and forth, the pearls going tight between them, then slack, then tight. She purrrred as the pearls tugged at her clitty, and grinned as the whole thing was having an obvious effect on Hinoki, his cock growing hard, expanding out of his sheath, adding its own tension to the short rope of pearls connecting them. Trouble reached out a paw to stroke him lightly running the tip of one finger along his cock, until, as it reached the head, she thrummed the tight strand of pearls, the motion making them both gasp. Hinoki, for his part, just grinned wickedly and slowly leaned back, further and further, until he was reclining on the floor. Trouble of course, had to follow, the tension on her clitty forcing her to move forward, to crawl over his body. She purrrrrred and rubbed herself against him for a while and then rose, to sit astride his hips. As she sank down, he took his shaft in paw to rub the head of his cock against Trouble's sex, the ring barely parting her labia. He found her quite wet and eager and within a moment or two, he'd raised his hips from the floor, to spear his cock into her dripping pussy.

Trouble gasped, eyes wide as the pearls rippled against the walls of her pussy. The rope of pearls connecting them was just a little longer than his cock; as he thrust into her, the pearls were dragged along. But as he lowered himself, for a moment, the pearls remained stationary, rubbing against his cock, only moving slowly downward within Trouble's pussy until he thrust up again. His thrusts moved the pearls back and forth slightly within Trouble, a surging back and forth that she found delightful; and of course, there was a small loop of pearls descending from her clitty before disappearing within her pussy, that swung madly back and forth, adding to the delightful sensations. Trouble rode his cock slowly at first, and then with increasing vigor, until her juices were dripping from the bottom of the loop of pearls, to drip on his tummy.

The unique sensations drove her to several very nice climaxes before Hinoki lost control, his cock spurting powerfully within her. Trouble purrrred and rippled her vaginal muscles around his cock, milking his spurting shaft, as the presence of the pearls only made the sensations more interesting. Again, the feeling of his cock firing wadd after wadd of his hot cum into her drove her to yet another climax, and she fell forward, to lay atop him, panting hard.

Maneuvering, tied together like that, was difficult, but as the night wore on, Trouble and Hinoki contrived to fuck each other in several different styles. Trouble admitted she liked it best on paws and knees, with him driving hard from behind, letting his cock and all the pearls slide out on each stroke, before he rammed them all home again. Hinoki professed to like the "wheelbarrow position", where he held Trouble's legs up, as she supported herself with her paws. He almost had her doing a pawstand, driving his cock down into her pussy … In the morning, the lion found them on the floor, cuddling, both snoring softly. He didn't release them until after they'd not only showered, but also cleaned up the various spots on the carpet (and of course more spots on the carpet were created in the process, much to the lion's amusement -- they didn't finish, to be released, until they'd almost stopped serving breakfast).

The wolverine sighed, and shook his head, frustrated. "Its OK," Trouble soothed. "I know flying this thing isn't like the civilian or commercial ships you've ever handled; remember too, its supposed to have damage. Now lets try it again … "

Trouble hurried down the corridor to find Bethany. The tigress was slumped in a seat in the slave kennels, looking very unhappy. As Trouble sat down beside her, Bethany looked up. "Told you something'd screw it up." Trouble shook her head. "So someone out-bid me. No big deal, these things happen all the time. Come on … " And taking Bethany by the paw Trouble tugged her to her feet and pulled her down the corridor, heading for Accounting. The only clerk there looked up in surprise as they charged in. Trouble leaned over the counter. "I want to find out who put in the winning bid on Bethany here." The clerk shrugged and then leaned to one side to look at Bethany. "I don't even have to look that one up," the young ferret said. Gazing curiously at Bethany he continued, "The boss discovered that she has accounting skills; he's the one that out-bid you. And to be perfectly frank, I'm glad. I need all the help down here I can get … "

The lion looked up as Trouble charged into Ops, towing the tigress behind her. Most of the Ops crew knew that look on Trouble's face, and started to surreptitiously move towards the exits, including some of those that had console duty. Trouble stopped just in front of the lion and growled, "Tell me why you outbid me for Bethany! Dammit, I made her a promise!"

The lion blinked. "You were bidding for, ah, Bethany, is it?" If he knew what was going on, he had a great "innocent" routine, Trouble thought, but she also wouldn't put that past him. "Yes. I know for a fact that Bethany does not care for this life, and I told her that when she had paid me back the purchase price, I'd set her free. Now I find you've outbid me!" The lion just made a small "oh" sound and nodded. "The prospectus said that she had been an accountant. Cutthroats, corsairs, and hot-shot pilots we got coming out of our ears. Engineers we have enough of. We've even got enough deep space miners for the cover operation. What we sorely lack are good, honest accountants. Even you know that! Wasn't anything personal, honest. But I tell you what, given the promise you made, I'll make you a promise in return. When we've accomplished our 'corporate goal' of eliminating the corrupt Elysium government and re-establishing a just and honest system, whether the people of Elysium elect to outlaw slavery in this sector or not, I'll free her, and you too. All the slaves in this operation. And that's a promise."

Bethany grinned. "I can handle that." Trouble just stared, her mouth open. "Now go on, you two; we've all got work to do. Trouble, you get Bethany squared away with Sammy down in Accounting. I'll leave her in your nominal care; for the time being, you're still 'First Girl'. Now go on, scoot!"

Bethany and Trouble had almost left Ops, Bethany half-leading the dazed Trouble, when the lion called to them. "Trouble, you know I don't mind you talking to the rest of the crew like that when it comes to your job in intelligence. But you should know better than to take that tone with me. That has earned you a punishment. Now go on, back to work". Trouble blinked and combined a nod with a shrug as Bethany tugged on her paw. When they were safely outside Ops, Bethany hugged Trouble and purrrred. "Comes as a shock that you might ever be free, eh Trouble?" Trouble just shook her head. "I don't know … I honestly don't know that I want to be free … especially if it means leaving him … I gotta think about this …… "

It was later that night, that Trouble, Zassa, Hinoki, and Bethany, all nude save for their collars, reported to the dormitory that housed the wolf and his associates. They were due to be shipped out the next day, their ransom having been paid by their company's insurance carrier, and the lion had decided to reward their patience. He couldn't do much about their accommodations, thought the food was fine the way it was, but figured that he could give them one more shot at Trouble, as a way of reminding her of her "station", as punishment for her "attitude" shown earlier in the day. As he didn't want Trouble worn to a frazzle, he directed her to gather "reinforcements". And they were needed too, as the wolf and his associates had gotten particularly randy while their company's insurance carrier had tried to negotiate the price down with the pirates. However, they were still polite, and a very good time was had by all. The following morning Trouble kissed the wolf goodbye at the airlock, still nude, as they boarded their shuttle, and she noted with a wry grin that they were all walking funny ……

Trouble had a small addition to her punishment, and after sending a rather sleepy Zassa and Bethany off to their "daytime" jobs, and Hinoki off to bed (lucky bastard had a second shift job this week), she stopped by the caffeteria to pick up a breakfast tray. Tand had been holed up in a visitor's suite, staying out of sight, furthering the "dead" legend that had been created to cover his part in the little deal, and the lion thought that he too, should be rewarded for his patience ……

Tand didn't seem surprised when Trouble showed up with his breakfast. Trouble was prepared for another display of his "mastery", but to her pleasant surprise, he was polite, even charming. As he ate his breakfast, they chatted about how things had been progressing, although Trouble was unable to draw him out as to his future plans. Trouble still wound up being "desert", the two of them making love in a variety of positions, styles and given the limitations of his stateroom, a variety of places. By the time she left, just before lunch, it was her that was walking funny, and yawning to boot.

No one seemed surprised when she padded into the intelligence office wearing only her collar, yawning widely.

They were all gathered in the cafeteria to watch the daily news broadcast. Trouble's little project had spread a bit through the organization, and everyone was interested in seeing how it had come out. Sure enough, just after the financial reports, as they turned to the "local color" stories, there a reporter was interviewing the newlywed couple in front of a very battered raider ship, in the middle of Rostarnok's main starport.

"Yes, it was a horrible experience," the wolverine was saying. "The pirates are all beasts, and the things they did to us could not possibly be mentioned in polite society …… " At this the pirates hooted and yelled, knowing full well what Trouble and Zassa had participated in …… And on the monitor, it looked as if the wolverine's wife was having a hard time suppressing a smile. "We managed to evade their internal security sensors, and steal this ship … " he went on, "As you can see, its heavily damaged; we had quite a battle as we fought clear of their ship." In fact, a pirate cruiser had released them quite a ways away, in a spot where they'd be certain to be found, no matter how poorly the ship was flown, or how inaccurate their navigational skills. All, of course, upon receipt of the ransom, handled discretely through the wolverine's banks. "What will you do now, Sir?" The reporter asked. The wolverine grinned, "Why, we're going to have our ship here overhauled, and then we're going to fly her home! A trophy as it were; yes sir, a trophy! No more liners for us! And the next time pirates cross our bow, we'll be ready! Oh! Yes, I'd like to say one more thing. There were several of the pirates that we'd like to, um, 'cross swords' with again. Should anyone ever capture a cheetah named Trouble, or a vixen named Zassa, I'll offer a reward of one million credits for them turned over to us. Only if they're alive, however! And the cheetah may be disguised as an ocelot …… we have, ah, 'unfinished business' with those two." In the background, his wife just nodded, what could have passed for an evil grin on her face.

Trouble just stared as a bounty was put on her head. Of course, the pirates hooted and yelled, each claiming they'd turn Trouble in for the bounty themselves! The lion, standing nearby, just chuckled. "Now that was a real nice thing for them to do." Zassa turned to look at him. "Nice? How do you figure that was nice?" The lion grinned and gestured to Trouble, "Can you figure it out?" Trouble just nodded slowly, "We gave them something for their money …… instead of merely ransoming them, we basically made them heroes-for-a-day, and more importantly, in their straight-laced society back home, we gave them something to talk about. A honeymoon that they could brag on for the rest of their lives. They've just set it up so that if the Elysium government or the Empire ever do capture us all, Zassa and I will at least live, handed over to those that will see no further harm comes to us. Why I bet they'd be delighted to have slaves that were a part of their story!" Zassa blinked at Trouble, and mouthed a small "oh". The lion just nodded.

"And that brings me to something else," the lion rumbled. "Trouble, you are becoming much too well known for these 'undercover' operations. Too many people have seen your face, as well as other memorable portions of your anatomy. I'm afraid that mission was your last. From now on, you'll just have to arrange to have missions like that conducted from your position on the command staff."

Trouble shook her head, and it was plain to all that she didn't think much of the idea of being chained to a desk. Then the murmurs of the crowd rose a bit, as the latter part sunk in … Trouble looked up into the lion's face, "Did you say …… " He nodded, "Yup. Think you've earned it, and I doubt anyone here will say otherwise. You're now in charge of Intelligence Operations. You'll run all the field agents, and funnel the FurInt data to your boss, who aside from being head of Intelligence will also head up the 'technical' means of intelligence gathering." As the crowd broke up, many found their way by to congratulate Trouble.

Trouble saw Tand off at the airlock. He was making a quiet, unheralded departure, especially as most thought he was dead. "I guess you really are the boss now, Trouble," he purrrred. "If you ever need my services again, you know how to find me." Trouble rose to tiptoes to kiss him goodbye. "You take care of yourself, you scoundrel, and yes, I suspect we'll see each other again." And with that, he cycled through the lock into the waiting ship, and was gone.

Trouble took a pass through the intelligence office on her way back from the docking bay. Things were quieting down nicely. Grant's successor had not yet been named, but the remaining senator was making more noise about a new economic initiative, than about pirates. Everything seemed to be getting back to normal, and for the moment, the Imperial menace seemed to have vanished.

Returning to her master's cabin, Trouble showered and washed her hair. Taking the time to brush it until it shone, she padded naked back to the foot of his bed. She'd saved the chain the senator had fastened her with, and now, once again, she put the last link in place, using the barbell the lion had given her. The other end she locked firmly to the foot of his bed. Kneeling there, the chain in a glittering silver pool between her knees, she awaited his return.

The surprise on his face was short lived, being displaced with interest, possibly hunger. Without a word, he padded over to Trouble, to stand before her. Equally silent, she undid his pants, removing them before licking softly at his sex, teasing him with her tongue until he was hard, until he was throbbing. He lifted her to bend her over the footboard, from which he took her from behind, the chain rattling noisily with each thrust, the swaying links driving her to climax after climax. He paced himself, slowing almost to a stop on three separate occasions before speeding back up; by the time his orgasm claimed him, Trouble was panting, almost mindless, lost in a sea of pleasure.

Later they cuddled, drowsy, on the bed. "Been thinking about that promise you made," Trouble mumbled. The lion softly stroked a finger across her belly. "Not much of a promise, you know; you got all the money you need to buy your freedom now, and then some …… " Trouble rose to one elbow to look at him, "I can do that?" she gasped. He laughed and nodded, "You never did read the handbook, did you?" She just shook her head no. He grinned and stroked his finger a little lower until he encountered fur slicked with her juices and his. "So, whatcha gonna do?" She grinned and leaned over to kiss him softly. "I happen to like it here. I don't want to leave, now, or even when or if we're through with what we're trying to accomplish. I don't want to leave you." The lion smiled, perhaps a touch of sadness on his face. "I'm pleased you feel that way, but sometimes we don't always get what we want. We'll see how you feel when everything's through, if we get that far; but in the meantime, did you ever think that after that wild night, you might be carrying Hinoki's cubs? You're both cheetahs and he can get you pregnant. You got that, and him to think about too, you know." Trouble nodded slowly, and then shrugged, "I know the Academy had a way to prevent pregnancies, but you're right, if they were putting something in the food, it should be well out of my system by now …… Hmmmmmmm. I'll have to think about that. And him."

A while later, Trouble purrrred as they cuddled. "Think I might put that money towards a raider ship of my own … " From her position, with her head on his chest, she didn't see the look of concern that passed across his face ……

End of Chapter 18

Chapter 19

email Kittiara