Slave World Read Online Free PDF Page A

I hardly even knew. When I was on a roll, I would have sex with four or five different guys in the span of a few hours, sometimes at the same time, it just depended on my mood, I guess.
    I was a hopeless addict by now, and sex was my fix, a way of self-medicating. All I needed was the wonderful, all consuming sensation of another orgasm to make me forget about the horrors of the last mission, or when one of my friends had been killed. My endless quest for sexual release was the only thing that kept me sane, in an insane war of impending death and countless near misses. It helped me to forget about the past, to forget about everything, but the here and now.
    I was at rock bottom after leaving Fleet, and I almost ended it all, but that’s when Tiffany Weber came into my life. We bought the Tramp together, and went into business for ourselves. She became my best friend and my partner, and eventually my lover. She saved me, and my life changed again. Then, like everything else good that had mistakenly fallen into my lap, she was taken away from me. A goddamn Star Marshal killed her. I should have known something was fishy about the whole set-up. It was too perfect and paid far more than what the going rate was, for hauling black market bio-drugs.
    I hid beneath the imaginary protection of the Videlli sheets that she’d bought for our first and only anniversary together, gripping them with balled fists of vengeful wrath. I killed the son of a bitch, along with three other Marshals in a quick and bloody shootout, but it was too late for Tiff. She died in my arms, moments before I had to blast my way past a small blockade of law enforcement ships, to save my own skin. Then my fear turned to misery-born hate, and I stopped running from my pain. I didn’t care if I died or not, Tiff was gone and I had nothing worth living for anyway. I may have been piloting a broken down freighter, but I hadn’t earned the call sign of Venom by making supply runs during the war. And so I killed. I killed…and I cried for her loss…and I lived.
    “John?” I croaked, pulling the covers up tightly around my neck. The voice activated intercom responded instantly.
    “Yes Margo?”
    “Would…would you come here, please?”
    “Of course, Margo, initiating auto-pilot sequence.”
    “Well it’s about time,” a smooth and very masculine sounding voice, oozed from the speaker of my room. I sat up, wide eyed, looking around. “I was beginning to wonder if that numbnut droid was ever going to take me off standby-lockout.”
    “Who’s there?”
    “The name’s Mark, sweet-cheeks. Why don’t you pull those covers back down, I haven’t seen a set of tits in almost three years, even if they aren’t much bigger than a couple of oranges. You know babe, you should really consider getting a boob-job. Probably wouldn’t hurt your chances to get some work done on your face, either.”
    The hair on the back of my neck stood-on-end as my imperfections were dissected with an ease of condescending arrogance. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I’d heard comments like that, in the past.
    “If it’s any consolation to ease your delicate feminine ego, I’d still hit it, but then again, I’ve never been picky, either.” Please don’t tell me this is what my new AI’s going to be like?
    “Mark, what was your last duty assignment?” I knew I wasn’t going to like his answer; AI didn’t develop vulgar, sexually oriented personalities like this, without good reason.
    “It wasn’t much, far below my intellectual capacity, but better than being cooped up in this rickety derelict you call a ship.”
    “So, what was it?” I prompted him with the annoyed wave of my hand as John walked in, stopping, looking from me to the sensor pod mounted on the ceiling of my cabin.
    “Say please,” Mark snickered.
    “What?” This is ridiculous! First off, AI is not supposed to insult people, let alone tease them. Then again he is a