The Voidqueen's Cradle - Chapter 1

This is a story I started working on around a year ago but never did more with, other than the unfinished start of a 2nd chapter. Now I've realised however that people might actually read the things I write, there's a bit of desire to poke at it again. I'm pretty pleased with how it looks having gone back to it, so it's been tidied up for readers to see. I'm treating it as a pilot chapter and keen to know how much appetite there is for more along these lines.

A F/F sci-fi story, it was envisaged as something much darker than the stuff I've written for either Picture Perfect or Upstart's Knight, with themes like corruption planned to feature heavily. No serious content warnings for this one though.

Lemme know what you all think. If you want to see more it'll probably need some likes and comments/messages to help encourage me :)

******

‘Apotheosis’

Shreya’s mind touched on the word and she knew the thought was only half her own. The presence in her head had no term for it, just the outline of an idea, and so she’d reached for it and given it a name.

‘That’s what it’s doing to me. I’m going to become divine’

She’d struggled against it at first, god knows she had, everything about this had repulsed who she was. And she’d been so fucking scared. But now…

Her pussy sang as she slipped a hand to it, fingers finding new ways to delight across the profanity of her flesh. It had made her want this and nothing delighted her more. The thought of how it had claimed her and remade everything she now was cried like a chorus in her mind. Even touching on the awe inspiring totality of the idea felt akin to worship.

At her whim, the tentacles fucking her body increased their pace. Dimly she could feel Sabine’s mind, just a trace, the other woman was out there, still fighting against the inevitability of it all. Soon they’d be one and like Shreya she would realise how right it felt to lose, her soul would beg to give in and also be snuffed out in the service of something so, so much better. But for now Sabine was alone, afraid and aroused and she tasted incredible.

Defiled, Shreya leant back, skin flush against the void, and dreamt of stars being born as she came.

***

“Alto Nomad this is the CS Antioch responding to a category 1 distress call please copy.”

The Antioch’s flight deck was drowned in red from the planet, close enough now to Marduk IV that the gas giant was beginning to well up outside the viewport, malignant and bloody against the void. There was no sign of the Alto Nomad itself yet, still much too far out for the naked eye, even with whatever extra mass its fabricators had managed to produce. But the anomaly itself certainly was, gouged in black and purple across a thousand miles of the lower atmosphere the initial probe data said it should have been impossible. An angry electromagnetic roiling wound which sensors indicated went as deep as the planet’s core without somehow simply tearing Marduk IV and every surrounding body apart. The Nomad had been meant to be the start of a decade long project to answer just why that was. It hadn’t even been in orbit a week before the distress signal came.

Despite practically sitting on top of Ensign Reyes, within the deck’s confines, it was only with the benefit of the vox-bud nestled in her ear that Vega Amadi was able to hear the specialist’s attempts to signal. Such was the surging of the Antioch’s engines as it laboured to slow them from full FTL in time for intercept.

“Alto Nomad this is the CS Antioch responding to…” Vega heard her start to try again, only for the coil whine of the gravitic dampers to kick in, static forming in her ears in place of words.

“It’s ok Cass,” she said, placing a dark skinned hand on Reyes’ shoulder to cut the younger woman off. “How far out are we?”

A small wrinkle appeared on Reyes’ brow as the analyst double checked her console. It was her first active flight and Vega could see that the academy’s maxim of check twice, answer once was still fresh in her mind even through the stasis sickness. She watched as Cassandra chewed her lip, making the petite hispanic woman look amusingly cute as she did so, even in the harsh glow of the planet, and far too green to be out here.

“I’m not 100% Captain...the anomaly is throwing up enough interference that getting an exact read on our distance to the Nomad is tough. 92 and a half minutes? 93?”

Vega chuckled at the diligent precision. “Rounding to 90 would have been fine, Cass. Try one more time then just cycle the broadcast across the usual frequencies, we’ll keep it by the book.”

The Nomad’s two crew members were probably under anyway. Whatever had happened to the Nomad to cause it to issue a Category 1 distress signal would likely have been bad enough for them to place themselves back in stasis until help showed up. The thought of the pods caused a knot of nausea to clench then relax in Vega’s chest, tension playing at her temples. The stasis agents from her own spell under still felt heavy inside her, thoughts half full of lingering preservatives her body had been pumped full of. Not that the oppressive light and gnawing sense of tension were exactly helping either. She was definitely going to need to Flush at least one more time at this rate, but wanted to at least get their approach set up first before leaving Cass while she handled that.

They’d been in FTL a little over 2 weeks to get to Marduk and the Alto Nomad, a deeper and longer spell than most people enjoyed coming round from, Vega definitely included. Breaking light speed was hard, really hard. The consistency with which The Commonwealth had even managed to get the smallest of ships crossing hundreds of lightyears was a step beyond miraculous. But the physics involved were still too much for a body to handle. The solution was stasis, to smother the fragility of their human existence under energy fields and surfactants for the trip until the worst horrors of snapping reality could be shrugged off. Well, exactly half of a solution anyway.

For reasons no-one had quite managed to resolve yet the stasis process played differently with the hormonal and physiological differences between the sexes. If you were a woman the process was tolerable, if uncomfortable, no-one was exactly meant to enjoy being preserved from the inside out. The early attempts at doing it with men however were characterised by psychosis and seizures at best, with total cellular breakdown at worst. And anything long enough to actually reach another system was tantamount to a death sentence. Of course research was still ongoing but for the last 50 years the balance of humanity had shifted on its axis with female crews pushing human endeavour at the reaches of the galaxy while their sons and fathers remained stuck on earth. Right now the interstellar was a woman’s domain.

“No-one home?”

Kai’s voice was followed by the flight engineer herself through the tight hatch from the ship’s hab module, flashing pale cleavage from the half fastened front of her flight suit. A small light on her neural implants blinked slowly, indicating she’d just Flushed, meaning no doubt Xinyi wouldn’t be far behind her. Even in the endorphin afterglow of a Flush the Antioch’s engineer still took pause as she took in Marduk IV for the first time. Running a hand through the shower-damp red of her undercut she hesitated, for a moment, and watched as a continent sized corona discharged from the anomaly, before eventually clambering across Cass to her own flight harness. On her implant another light briefly blinked to life as her adrenaline spiked.

“No response yet,” Vega noted, attempting to affect a sense of control as CO. “It’s a Cat 1 call, they’re probably in their pods.”

“Right, because even stasis is better than having that as your fucking neighbour I guess.” The day Kai Rossi-Lang stopped swearing every other sentence was the day Vega would actually start worrying about her. She did actually take the time to pull the zipper on her suit the rest of the way up however, prompted into the barest sense of professionalism. “Anything from their AI?”

“No,” Vega shook her head. “I was just about to get Reyes to try and patch Lilith over, unless she’s already one step ahead of me.” She already knew the answer to that, having watched over the rookie’s shoulder as she’d keyed in the inputs to have Antioch’s own AI attempt a transmission with the Alto Nomad. In response to her statement a small holographic globe stirred into existence in the middle of the deck’s confines, the serial LF981 visible across it’s equator as it politely found the one spot to float where all three of the present crew could see without any needing to crane their necks.

“The Nomad’s AI appears to have been deactivated shortly before the distress signal was transmitted manually, I’m having no response on peer to peer channels.” The voice of LF981, or Lilith as the Antioch’s crew had taken to calling the near sentience of their AI, was deep, smooth and with the barest hint of an Arabic accent that Vega had picked out for her, insisting it played well with the nickname. Among other reasons, she’d been aiming for re-assuring yet personable with the choice, and as Lilith’s voice soothed directly into her vox-piece it was hard not to applaud her own taste.

“Life support systems appear functional still within the vessel’s core modules. No critical system damage detected. Fabricated mass however is in excess of 800% of expected. I’m attempting to send a schematic to you now Cassandra.”

With speech limited to the vox and the sticky residue of the stasis come down lingering in her head, Vega had to make sure she had heard that right. 800% didn’t seem close to reasonable. With current FTL engines unable to manage payloads much larger than a couple of terrestrial trucks bolted together, fabricator ships like the Alto Nomad were the answer to how to establish any sort of permanent presence where it was needed. A two woman crew could harvest material locally to establish a forward base, or a geosynchronous research station above a malevolent planetary anomaly, but that was a slow, uncomfortable job that could take months. Working at 800% would mean…

The diagram that gradually began to resolve on Reyes’ screen reminded Vega of an article she’d read about teratomas, cancerous collections of hair, teeth, bone and other tissue growing where they didn’t belong inside a body. She could just about make out the ship’s slender, ordered scaffolding at the centre of things but the fabrication that had happened around it looked like god had gone mad in stone and metal. Miles of debris from Marduk’s orbit had been repurposed and spun back out again into a chaotic mess of semi-organic seeming chambers and protrusions. Some structures began to form then simply stopped, or burst from the surface of the mass like half breached ribs, while others formed pockets in which gases from the planet had cooled in great cystic pools.

She felt cold looking at it, without immediately quite being able to put her finger on why. What the Nomad was doing was totally aberrant to how it should be functioning, but Vega couldn’t shake the uncomfortable sensation that there was the hand of some design or purpose to it.

“What the fuck…” Kai was the first to break the silence.

Dimly Vega was aware that Xinyi had emerged onto the flight deck behind her, pausing at its entrance rather than make her way to her seat, as if doing so would draw her further into the crimson lit discomfort of whatever the hell she was looking at.

“What is that,” Xinyi asked, the slight flush that had been on her cheeks disappearing quickly.

Lilith’s response reminded Vega of why AI had a reputation for understatement. “That appears to be the Alto Nomad, Dr Werner.”

Xinyi leaned across her captain to get a closer look at the holo with a sense of morbid fascination working through the images in a way Vega had seen her look over scans and pathology slides. Like Kai her hair was damp and this close Vega could smell the fresh hint of standard issue soap on her, beads of moisture from a shower still clinging to her neck where she hadn’t taken the time to dry properly. As she reached out, lights on the display responded dutifully, highlighting sections as she traced a finger through the air, mumbling to herself about morphogenesis and fibonacci spirals. Vega couldn’t help but wish the hint of awe in her voice wasn’t there.

A few feet away Cassandra had gone quiet, an intense look on her face as she scrolled through readings. She was back to biting her lip, ‘check twice and answer once,’ playing out on her face again. But this time with an added sense of unease at whatever it was she wasn’t vocalising. Vega caught her eye.

“It’s probably nothing…”

“You’re here to be my analyst Cass,” Vega reassured her. “To see the patterns the rest of us are too slow to notice. Right now I need speculation”

The slow nod of assent made Vega sure that whatever the young woman was about to say wasn’t going to be something she was going to like.

“So, the schematics are only limited, right? What we’re seeing here is the fabricated structure, iron, carbon, silicates but that only accounts for about 85% of the mass and…levels of carbon dioxide are way higher than they should be. Not to mention these odd heat signatures…”

Next to her Xinyi got whatever Reyes was pushing at and abandoned her admiration of spirals to hurriedly pull up the same dataset that the ensign was looking at. She mumbled to herself again, but this time it was in Mandarin and the immediate meaning was lost to Vega beyond the strain of disbelief in her voice. “Captan, she’s saying she thinks some of this is actually organic”

“Not unreasonable,” Lilith interjected. “But some of these readings feel implausible. At this distance I have to caution that there could be factors contributing to anomalies I haven’t corrected for.”

Agitation coiled up inside Vega. “Is that the most likely assessment or an AI attempt at reassuring us?”

There was a beat of delay before Lilith responded, the sort that characterised an AI grappling with a problem or dilemma that wasn’t simple enough to solve instantaneously. Cassandra wasn’t the only one taking the time to double check what she was looking at. “If you pressed me I would say that Ensign Reyes’ hypothesis is somehow the most likely.”

Vega exhaled. Looking out the view screen Marduk IV grew larger with every minute as they slowed towards it. For a moment she thought she saw a spec cross in front of the anomaly and she had to remind herself that they were still too far away for the Alto Nomad to be visible. Not that the half formed knowledge about what might now be waiting for them stopped her mind from trying to imagine it out there. She was very aware of the weight of anticipation on the deck, cloyingly thick as she realised that the others were waiting for her to be the one to speak and not for the first time she found herself wondering how the fuck she ended up allowing herself to end up in command.

“We need to know more,” she said finally, taking the time to attempt to at least give some impression of authority.

“There’s two crew members on that ship who felt the need to send a distress signal and we’ve not even got an assessment of what exactly is going on yet. Kai, you’ve got post FTL checks that need doing, make sure nothing is about to fall off my ship and have us ready to accelerate back out of here if needed. Cassandra, I want you to do a log entry and bundle up what data we’ve got ready for a subspace broadcast in case shit gets out of hand. Werner, work with Lilith as we close in and try to give me a picture of what we’re actually dealing with here.”

No questions, just nods of confirmation all around and focus half elsewhere. Not that Vega blamed them, right now if someone else came and took her chair and started telling her what to do she wouldn’t be doing any different. The freedom that came with someone else taking charge.

As for herself, Lilith did her the favour of saying it out loud.

“Captain Amadi, your implants are indicating a concerning level of latent neurotropics still. I recommend performing another Flush before the side effects become any worse.”

Vega sighed, the pressure in the back of her neck had started to become intolerable. Nor were the floating black spots beginning to form in her eyes every time she glanced up at Marduk encouraging either. She despised the timing. Stepping away right now felt a little like a dereliction of duty, as if she was running away and leaving her crew to it. But if she didn’t handle this she wasn’t going to be much use to anyone.

She made the mistake of catching Kai’s eyeline, the engineer taking the opportunity to try and break the tension with humour at her expense.  “You know I’ve never known anyone who’s needed to Flush as often as you, if you want a few pointers on how to blow the cobwebs out properly I’d be happy to give you a hand.” Xinyi scoffed, and even Cass smiled. She might have been the punchline but Vega was grateful that it felt like some of the air had come back into the room.

“I’ll keep that in mind…” she withered back, squeezing her way towards the exit. “You’ve got the flight deck while I’m gone Werner.”

“Try not to have too much fun”

Vega had never been especially fond of the term Flushing, it always seemed to just dance around what everyone knew they were talking about. The need to purge the various imbalances in neurochemistry and brain function left with an assisted blast of oxytocin, dopamine and all the other good stuff was just a fancy way of dressing up mandatory post-stasis orgasms that the implants tinkered at the edges of. Her growing headache meant she wasn’t about to argue with results however even if it meant fighting down the guilt of leaving the crew to manage things while she disappeared to rub one out for a second time in the last hour.

The grey of her flight suit was already half off by the time she’d made her way through the series of airlocks into the hab module’s confines, the generous dark curve of her tits exposed to the slight chill of the scrubbed air, causing thick black nipples to stiffen from the cold more than any arousal. People would always joke that having to get off on the job must be one of the biggest perks of interstellar travel, but at times like this, tense and with her focus definitely elsewhere, Vega found the struggle to get in the mood an imposition. Not that her surroundings helped either. As a kid her parents had renovated an antique RV and travelled with her and her sister across the Pan African Union in long sweltering summers, characterised by wanderlust and broken aircon, and even that ancient vehicle had had more space than the Antioch’s hab module. Not to mention softer bunks and the lack of the dull smell of ozone and engine coolant that were ever present on the ship.

Briefly she glanced at the steel frame of the shower cubicle tucked away in the far corner, before realising that Xinye and Kai had doubtless just been Flushing each other in there and discarded the idea. It wasn’t uncommon for crewmates to handle that sort of thing together, but being outside that particular arrangement left Vega wondering exactly which surface the asian woman had been railed up against more often than she was really comfortable with.

Softly, a musical chime in her vox buds indicated a private comm channel opening as Lilith’s voice eased in. “I’m sorry Vega, I know you’d rather not be doing this now.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, lying. “Gives me a little enforced privacy to try and clear my thoughts before we deal with whatever that thing is anyway.”

Lilith’s response to that was apologetic. “Actually, my readings indicate Ensign Reyes is going to need to perform a second Flush in around 18 minutes time so you’re on a clock.”

The mental image of Cassandra masturbating came to Vega’s mind, idly causing her to run a couple of fingers across the gene-mod white of her trimmed pubes and down to the smart piercing that nestled against her clit, setting it to a pleasant buzz. She’d got a good look at the latina back in the decontamination showers on Arcturus Station. Not strictly the type she would normally go for but she had an adorably slight body and an abundance of tattoos that Vega hadn’t guessed were lurking beneath the bookish woman’s flight suit. And that left her wondering what the girl was like with her hair down. She even considered briefly whether Cass would want to share Flushing with her, but a mixture of professionalism and being 90% sure that the younger woman was straight meant the notion was passed over almost as soon as it came to her.

“I could generate some videos with actresses similar to Ensign Reyes if that will help?”

Lilith had obviously picked up the spike of arousal at the thought of Cassandra, but tailor made porn meant to evoke her new subordinate didn’t immediately strike Vega as being particularly classy. Instead she sighed, resigning herself to the need to get through things quickly.

“Shit, no. Please don’t do that. We’re on a closed channel right? Just fire up personality profile Amadi-3 for me. You can probably get me there in less than 18 minutes right?”

There was a heartbeat of delay before Lilith’s voice kicked back in. It had only changed subtly, but it was enough for Vega to immediately feel like the air had been sucked out the room and left her mouth dry. “I’ll do it in ten, Vega,” the AI drawled, words like caramel in her ears, saying her name with a seductive warmth that made her knees want to buckle.

In a slow wash of blue light the hab module’s holo projector clicked on, taking several seconds to resolve into a slightly hazy, cerulean tinged figure of a woman in front of her. AI like Lilith weren’t sentient, just a good approximation, and as such it wasn’t unusual for users to create specific personality profiles derived from their core identity for different purposes. But if challenged Vega would have denied just how long she’d spent tweaking and perfecting the version of Lilith that existed entirely for her own gratification.

The hologram moved close enough to Vega that she could almost kid herself that there would be physicality there if she reached out to touch her. Despite standing almost 6 feet herself she’d programmed this representation of Lilith to be a few inches taller, getting a quiet gratification from being looked down on. Her form matched the slight accent to her voice, evocative of the Terran middle east and uncomfortably similar to the girlfriend she’d had through 3 years of flight school that she refused to admit she’d never quite got over.

The projected form of the bondage harness that over emphasised the full shape of the form’s curves however was a later touch, rather than anything that had come out of that particular relationship. The product of the deep dive into her own sexuality that seemed unavoidable in the bars and sex clubs that passed for downtime in interstellar space. Likewise the rings that pierced Lilith’s nipples, framing a chest Vega had obsessed over getting right.

“Hello Number 3.”

“Hello Vega.”

Just the way Personality 3 could whisper her name was enough to start dragging her attention away from the mission, leaving her wishing hard light projections weren’t eternally 30 years away from viability and that the plushness of the hologram’s lips were something she could kiss. Lips that curled up in a seductive, demanding smile as Lilith continued to talk.

“You don’t have much time and you’re still thinking too hard. I need you to stop being a captain and start being a whore for me.”

Lilith punctuated the command by reaching out an intangible hand towards the slickening folds of Vega’s crotch. While the veiled light of the holo itself was intangible, the AI hooked directly into the controls of the piercing there, causing the motor to whirr gently in imitation of contact. At the same time she felt the neural implant on the back of her neck kick in response to her sparking arousal, a slight twinge of electric discomfort that caused her to crane her neck as Lilith started a feedback loop of endorphins.

It was impossible to stay reluctant like this, or even try and her body refusing to let her mind fixate on anything other than the immediacy of things in front of her. Every time she tried to form a  thought that stayed straight for more than a second things would kick up just briefly enough to sweep it away as Lilith made her lust dance. In her vox she heard a needy whine and took an extra instant to register that it was even her who made it.

“Good girl.” Fuck, the praise was almost better than anything the implant was doing to help her  along. “What are you?”

“I’m your whore Lilith.”

The stimulation of her implant and piercing both ramped up hard in response to the statement, rewarding her for it. Vega gasped, grabbing out at a hold on the bulkhead to steady herself while her crotch bucked, desperately trying to find purchase on the air that wasn’t there. Dimly at the back of her mind a thought sprung up reminding her to question once they were back at dock quite why this sort of thing was the most reliable way to get herself off.

“Again.”

“I’m your fucking whore.”

Groaning, fingers racked at her own nipples, hands not quite able to take the full heft of her chest in one go as she groped and tormented herself until the breath caught in her mouth. The holo leaned in, still not close enough to break the illusion but near enough that the sound of Lilith’s need filled breath close against her ear felt authentic, causing her cunt to twitch in gratification.

The buzzing against her clit eased up and it was only then Vega realised her eyes and been squeezed shut, opening them to realise Lilith had taken a few steps backward across the room to perch provocatively upon the edge of her bunk. The slight spread of the hologram’s legs was maddening, bearing just enough that she wished dearly she could do more than just imagine how Lilith might taste or to feel the firm pull against her hair as the AI demanded worship. At the base of the bunk, alongside a shapely blue leg, the light on the footlocker blinked, Lilith electronically triggering the unlock so the facade popped open.

“Collar and plug. Get yourself on the bed for me.”

Mentally Vega wondered if there was time for that, or how long she’d already burnt up humping at the air, or how needy, frustrated and wrung out this was going to leave her feeling. She could have questioned it, but the AI was in charge right now, and she obediently slid the draw open as instructed without second thought.

The collar was the first to go on, a single black choker band the width of Vega’s hand that just barely fit about her throat as she clicked the clasp in place above her implants. The plug took more work, although less than she’d be willing to admit without embarrassment, a small dab of lubricant all it took to slide it between the tight curves of her arse with a degree of practised ease and reassuring sense of fullness.

For a moment Lilith lingered as Vega lay back, taking a moment to regard the human woman. Vega knew it was an algorithmic affectation, Lilith’s neural net knowing her well enough to pause for maximum impact. It wasn’t real. But her heart still caught for a beat as the hologram regarded her.

“You’re spectacular,” Lilith whispered as she manoeuvred herself to appear on top. Vega knew objectively it was true. Like most of those picked to leave the Sol system she was a paragon of humanity. Her parents had come from enough money for her to have had the full triple hit of gene mods; before birth, just after puberty, and the final round of cosmetic ones as she went to college that had tweaked her hair to a fashionable white, her eyes to lilac and every dimension exactly how she idealised herself. But money couldn’t buy away the gnawing sense of imposter syndrome or the doubt that she needed to justify every curve and inch of toned muscle.

Lilith slowly rocked her hips, the plug responding to mimic a small thrust in Vega’s ass, causing her self doubt to slip away with a whine. Then another, firmer, pulsing deeper. And another.

“I would never get tired of fucking you…”

Illusory hands reached up to Vega’s neck as the AI talked and she felt the collar squeeze in kind, constricting gently so that the air caught in her chest. Lilith let her gasp then squeezed again. Their eyes locked, the notion that somehow this wasn’t real completely lost in Vega’s mind.

“Owning you.”

The piercing on Vega’s clit thrummed enthusiastically alongside the plug in her ass, massaging her need with every imitated thrust as Lilith picked up the pace. Her cunt drooled, need dripping across the sheets..

“My teeth on your tits.”

Vega braced herself against the confines of the bunk, hands pushed against the narrow fixtures as she rode out the attention. Around her throat the collar constricted and released, slightly longer and firmer with each press of the phantom hands.

“My lips on yours.”

Her head felt blank, a mess of hot arousal and need that pushed aside whatever coherent thoughts she’d been wrestling with before this started. The implant stirred, Lilith playing it like an instrument with each thrust and choke, bolstering every spike and surge of her senses until Vega thought she was going to drown.

“Loving you like the whore you are.”

Vega wanted to scream, but a long press against her throat bottled up the noise as her body climaxed. She shuddered, buckled. The intensity of it all felt like there was nowhere for her to release the wave crashing over her body as the Flush washed through her. She waited for the come down but Lilith kept going, no release from the release, full and heavy until the world dimmed at the edges and…

Everything dropped away as pain seared up her implant. Her vision swam and went black as visceral panic crashed against the lingering swells of pleasure. It felt as if she’d suddenly been plunged underwater and she kicked out, mentally pushing desperately for the surface but having no way to know if her body was responding.

She saw Marduk IV, the dull red of the planet full of a hate so palpable that it welled up in her mouth, metallic like blood.

She saw the anomaly, the yawning wound in the side of the planet crashed and churned with every confusing pulse and spasm of sensation in her body.

She saw herself, writhing at the heart of something huge and horrific and unknowable as tentacles caressed her flesh, defiled her holes, her face contorted in obscene bliss. And in watching herself the feelings of pain from her implant turned to pleasure as she saw her body shift, impossibly. It distorted, as if viewed from a kaleidoscope, becoming gloriously, inhumanely profane until it finally seemed to blossom open entirely, coming unbound from reality…

Vega came again, and this time she screamed.