And here is Chapter 3. yaaaay * * * In the darkness, Nathan was laying awake on Tiera's couch. His mind wandered, finally taking the time to fully consider his current situation. It all seemed hopeless, and pointless. This world isn't mine. I don't belong in this time. The age of man has come and gone, and I am just a relic. Footsteps broke his thoughts, the lights came on. Tiera stood in the doorway. "Can't sleep?" She asked "No, mind is everywhere." Nathan said quietly, turning to face her. He was surprised to see she was naked, more surprised though, to find himself thinking that she was beautiful. "Why are you up though?" "I usually sleep in several 2 and 3 hour blocks." She dropped on to the couch next to him. "And I figured you'd be having a hard time sleeping, considering the drastic changes you're dealing with." "Good guess." Nathan sighed, staring at the opposite wall. "I was expecting to come back to a different world. Just before we launched, the president gave this speech, how we would be gone for so long, and things would change, progress would be made. We were all prepared for changes, even major changes. But.. this, this is something else entirely. We figured though, regardless of changes, we'd at least have each other. But, I'm alone." "I'm sure it's not much consolation, but you have me." Tiera said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "That means more than you think." Nathan turned to look in to her eyes, and made the conscious effort to keep them there. "I would be completely lost here if you hadn't helped me. It's just that you're not human." "Yeah. Not human." She took her arm from around his shoulder, a hint of a growl came in to her voice. "Do you think yourself superior, because you are human? Or are you just afraid of me because I'm not?" "No Tiera, that's not it." Nathan said, thinking Open mouth, insert foot. ".. Well, honestly, a little bit of fear. Of all your kind. I'm just a human, your kind was genetically engineered to be killing machines, you're faster, stronger and more agile than I'll ever be. And it used to be that I had the advantage of being smarter than people like that, but you are at least as smart as I am, and far more in touch with the current technology and events. "Where does that leave me, Tiera? I already have people who want to kill me, just because I'm human. I know I won't be able to defend myself from them. I'd be lucky to last five seconds in a fight with one. I am completely at the mercy of those around me. I'm a prisoner here, even if I'm not." "I'm sorry that this lot fell on you." Tiera said coldly, standing up. "But you're not going to get anywhere if you sit there and cry about how inferior and helpless you are. Do you want me to just hand you over to Kilin? Kilin is known to be cruel, he won't just kill someone, he will defeat them, dominate them, humiliate them. Then, when all is said and done, if you're lucky, he'll kill you. "Think about it. If everyone who was ever out classed, out numbered or was just scared gave up, where would your race have gotten?" With that, Tiera walked out of the room, killing the lights. Shove foot in mouth until it comes out the other end. Nathan sighed and fell over. And why is it so fucking cold? * * * "Warden, we got trouble." The com squawked, the sound of fighting could be heard in the background. "Yeah, what else is new?" The warden asked with a sarcastic tone. "Prisoners are rioting in blocks E-R, things are getting messy." "How many guards you got down there?" "Maybe a dozen left standing." "Signal a retreat and unleash Plissken," The warden ordered, "I'm sure he'll enjoy the romp." "Yes sir!" The cell was dark, hot and humid. Just the way Plissken liked it. Here on Phobos, life was good, if you were the biggest, meanest predator on the rock. And that is exactly what Plissken was. He'd lost track of how old he was, he figured it was around 90 years. Most of it, he had spent on Phobos. Most prisoners died within a few years of Phobos, but not him. He knew he couldn't escape, and that if the prisoners took over, the prison would lose it's supply shipments. So it was in his best interest to just sit tight, and wait, time was one his side, snakes lived to be over 300. After killing a few guards, and a few more prisoners, Plissken made a deal with the warden, so long as he got accommodations, he wouldn't kill anyone unless they attacked him first. Since then though, he had become a guard in all but name, when the shit hit the fan on a riot, he was let loose and people got back in their cells, fast. The approaching footsteps told Plissken that that was happening again. Days like this, he loved being a prisoner on Phobos. The door to his cell swung open. He slithered out, taking a snap at the guard, just to scare the kid, before grabbing his two swords "Where's the riot at today, kiddo?" "E-e-e t-t-through R... S-s-sir..." The kid was terrified of him, perfect. Plissken slid through the corridors, faster than most would expect for a beast of his size. This was his cell block, the best behaved one in the place. Cell Block A. Everyone knew, you didn't cause problems in block A, people who did tended to vanish. Several voices called out from cells he passed, things like "someone is in trouble now." And the like, but Plissken paid them no mind. Plissken pushed the door open for Block R and slide over to the intercom, activating it before saying, "Good morning, kiddies. Plissken is in the house now. I have permission to start killing anyone who isn't in their cells, so by all means, keep right on rioting." The resulting shouts of dismay and sounds of people scattering let him know it worked, but there were still plenty more to deal with, and so he slithered from the entry way in to the main block and flung himself in to the fray, swords swinging about with abandon, the occasional blunt object would hit him, but it didn't hurt much, besides, his healing rate was high. Blades slashing, body parts flying, the occasional person crushed by a massive tail, or impaled on a pair of sword-like fangs, and then flung across the room, these were the very reasons that Plissken had been sent to Phobos in the first place, that and his taste for women. He watched the crowd for a female, any female, it had been far too long. When he finally spotted one, he made note of her taste, and cell block and number. He would come back for her, after all no one would say anything, people are sent to Phobos to die, even most of the guards. It took the better part of an hour to clear the rioters, and Plissken knew it would take the clean up crew the better part of a month to finish cleaning it all up. He lost track of how many he had killed, but he could tell that the riot held a good chance of taking over the command center. Before he was called in that is. On his way back through, he stopped to pick up his girl, a tall strong tigress, she would put up quite the fight, just the way he liked it. She started screaming and carrying on as soon as he grabbed her, so he ripped her shirt off and stuffed it in her mouth, it vexed him when they started screaming before he got started with them. "Riots cleared kids." Plissken said with an evil hiss that gave the guards waiting just outside of block R chills. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a date." Back in his block, Plissken set his swords down outside his cell door and slithered in, the guard outside giving him an odd look. The young wolf set to guard cell A1 sealed the door and locked it. That was the first time he had seen the occupant of that cell, and he hoped to every god he could name that it was the last. From inside the cell, he could hear voices. "Now, little girl, this can end two ways. One, I break your neck and you don't feel a thing. Two, you die a slow, agonizing death as I use you in ways you cannot even imagine before I eat you while you are still alive." "I think I'll take the first option." "It's not that easy. I ask you one question, if you get it right, you die fast." ". . . Ask it then." "Why was I named Plissken." There was a long pause, followed by a faint. "I don't know." "Wrong answer." The following sounds frightened and sickened the guard. And also got him rather aroused. He lost track of how long it was before they finally ended in the sounds of bones being crushed. * * * Nathan was seated at Tiera's computer, going back over the logs from Freedom 7, trying to find any clue as to what happened. Tiera still had a job to do, so he was alone, which at first it surprised him that she trusted him in her home. Then he realized he was the only human on a space station, and she could easily track him down anyways. He was just about to give up on the logs and check Tiera's book collection for something to read, when the door hissed open. "Hi Tiera." Nathan said as he turned to the door. "Wait, you're not Tiera." The hulking minotaur stepped through the door and chuckled. "No, no I'm not." "Well, Aerix was it?" Nathan said, rather nervously. "Tiera isn't in right now." "I know she's not." Aerix rumbled, seating himself on the floor, mainly because the ceiling wasn't quite tall enough for him. "I came here to speak to you." "Err.. Okay." Nathan eyed the door and realized he couldn't get out it without getting in arms reach of the minotaur, and figured the minotaur could probably out run him anyways. "I heard you managed to piss Tiera off last night." The minotaur sounded more amused than anything. "Not that it's that hard to do. Don't worry Nathaniel, I'm not here to hurt you." "That's a relief. But, why are you here then?" "To warn you that if you hurt Tiera, I'll kill you." The minotaur sounded dead serious. "Not to argue," Nathan said, "but don't you think she's more likely to hurt me?" "Physically, yeah. She's bigger than you, stronger than you, and has pointier teeth." The minotaur laughed. "But I mean mentally. She's a lot.. ah, softer than she seems, but she's the only family I got, so I don't like seein' her hurting." "I don't have any such intentions." Nathan said, thinking for a moment on how that kind of thing was usually meant, at least in the 21st century. "I'm not even sure why you felt you had to tell me that. Back home that referred to taking advantage of a girl sexually, and then leaving her when you had your fill." "That's what I mean." The minotaur nodded. "Then.. uh.. Why warn me? I honestly have no intentions of even having sex with her." Nathan shrugged. "I'll admit there is the curiosity as to what it's like. But a one-night stand has never been my style, and I am sure she'd not be interested in a human." The minotaur chuckled. "A wolf like her, it's like being wrapped in a woman and a warm fuzzy blanket at the same time." He headed for the door, then turned back for a moment. "Just keep in mind what I said." Nathan nodded, and then went back to scanning over the logs. It didn't take long for him to decide better of it, and make a note as to where he was and close them. Bookshelves, what have we got. Wow, a lot of stuff from the 20th and 21st century. Some of these were kinda hard to find when I was alive. Mostly sci-fi and fantasy. He looked lower on the shelves, things looked less disturbed down there. Hmm, technical documents. Now we're talking. What's this? Advanced Exoskeleton Armor? Nathan grabbed the tech manual for AEA, and dropped in to the couch to read it. He wondered briefly if that was still the kind of thing that got you laughed at, reading tech manuals. He really didn't care, and besides, this kind of thing would help him adjust to the current world. Maybe he could improve on it, anyways. * * * Tiera took her lunch in the mess hall, which was usually fairly quiet, most just ate on the move, after all, processed protein bars, fortified with every vitamin you need didn't exactly require you to sit down and eat. Besides, you wanted to focus on something else because they tasted like shit. But Tiera wasn't in the mess hall to eat, she was there to think. Until Kasa showed up. Kasa was a black wolf, slightly younger than Tiera. She was also the most annoying and talkative thing on the space station. "So I heard the human is staying with you?" Kasa asked. Tiera barely nodded. "Did you have sex with him last night?" "What?!" Tiera jumped, not expecting that. "Of course not, and it's none of your business what goes on behind closed doors anyways!" "Oooh, over defensive." Kasa grinned. "Did you want to?" "No." "Did he want to?" "I doubt it, he's a human." Tiera growled. "He's more worried that I'm going to eat his face." "I bet he wouldn't mind it if you ate something other than his face." Kasa continued. Tiera blushed under her fur. "Kasa, shut up." "Oh, I get it. You wand to eat something other than his face." The red began to show through in her ears and muzzle, where the fur was thin. "Kasa, go away." Kasa grinned. "Whatever you say." And bounced off, Tiera was sure that in a day everyone on the space station would have heard that she had a crush on the human. "May as well not deny it if it's true." Tiera said to herself with a sigh. "Too bad he's not going to be interested." With that she rose and headed back to her post, guard duty on a non-combat post. The most exciting things that ever happened were the occasional brawl, which she wasn't to get involved in unless they began damaging the station. On her post, her mind began to wander to the events of the prior night. Then to how they could have gone. Lost in day dreams, that's how she spent most of her days, nothing better to do in a floating tin can. Near the end of her shift, her daydreams were interrupted by a small white paw waving in front of her face. "Ello? Tiera? You alive? Guess not, I can't do perverted things to a corpse. Shame." "Mrf, hello Kit. What brings you here?" Tiera asked. "Well, we got a message today about someone wanting to purchase the derelict craft." Kit pulled a disk out of his pocket. "And this came for the human, along with it." Tiera took the disk and nodded. "Thanks, I'll make sure he gets it." "No problemo, boss." Kit said, and then headed back towards his desk. "Say, Kit..." Tiera said after a moments pause. "Yeah?" Kit turned back to her. "When you meet a male you're interested in..." Tiera began, trying to find the right words. "How do you find out if he's... equally interested in you, without exposing yourself to the negative reaction if he's not gay?" "Never really think about it." Kit shrugged. "I just kinda.. get to know them and get a feel for it, and make subtle moves until I'm sure." "Thanks Kit." Tiera nodded. "Sure." Kit turned back around to return to his desk, again. Tiera checked her watch. A hour to go. Might as well go back to dreaming. Only place that's the only place it'll ever happen. * * * And here ends chapter 3. Pretty soon I will try to have 3.5 up, which will be what happens inside Plissken's cell. Like I said at the beginning, I won't be putting the detailed yiff in to the main story, because.. honestly I find it clutters a story if it's full of sex. And the story is being written for more than just Yiffstar readers.