The Golden Crunk of Cringle Read online

  *

  Daneb and Pira robbed every ship they'd ever stowed on right before leaving. They'd been caught stowing twice, been caught stealing food once, but had never been caught on one of their big heists. That was in part because even a short trip was four to five days, so they always had plenty of time to plan. They also had a system of signals and used synchronized counting for coordinated efforts.

  "You don't even know what it is," Pira said annoyed.

  "So you think we shouldn't try to steal it?"

  "I didn't say that. Even if it's something else, which it likely is, then it could still be worth stealing."

  "I think it's the GCC, which means it's worth a lot. Is it worth getting caught?"

  "I don't see why you think the risk is so high," she said.

  "Because, you assume we can climb back up this shaft if we get stuck in the vents on the lower level."

  "It only goes to the lower level. We can climb three meters."

  "Fine. Maybe we'll make enough this time to buy passage on a ship. I'm really curious what he has anyways."

  "Me too," she said with a grin.

  Erie went for his snack early again the next night. They waited until he returned to his room on the far end of the upper level then snuck to the kitchen. After grabbing a trio of ration packs and a little something fresh from the refrigerator because Daneb was feeling bold, they made their way back to the vent entrance and then down the stairs to the hall with all the doors.

  Daneb paused and held up two fingers, which meant a twenty count. Pira nodded her head a small amount as she counted. By twenty there was no sound, so they peeked around the corner. He looked left, she right. They switched, touching eyes briefly. Pira gave him an inquisitive look, and nodded toward the left hall. He knew the subject of her question. The door across from the vent was open, same as before, no light. He sliced the air horizontally with his right hand, which meant it wasn't a concern. He'd specifically listened for rubbing, and hadn't heard it. He nodded, and they proceeded to the vent.

  Pira peeked into the room while he unscrewed the bolts. Once he finished, he turned to see what she was doing and she gave him a curious look. It was only a glance before she propelled herself up into the vent. She no longer required help getting in. Daneb attached all four bolts to the vent and climbed in behind her. He then finished the bolts from the back, and they moved away from the hall.

  Pira was in front, and the vents were too narrow for him to get by her, so she was in control. They slunk on their bellies to an intersection, and then went right. When they came to the next grate, Pira stopped and peered through the slats. Daneb listened, but couldn't hear anything until he heard the suction of the toilet. Pira moved on, but Daneb stopped long enough at the slats to see Terry exit the bathroom.

  The next opening they came across was a room with the lights off and the door shut. A woman and man were arguing. He thought it was Jax and Sot. They were the ones he'd overheard speaking of mutiny.

  "What the fuck is it, really?" the woman asked. "Some kind of Kregal tech that sucks out your soul?"

  "I don't know. I told you. Anytime I even knock on the door he screams at me to leave him alone."

  "Did you talk to Quinn?"

  "I did."

  "And?" the woman asked impatiently.

  "He said he doesn't know what it is either. He can't find anything in the database on either it or the symptoms."

  Pira moved past the opening so they could both listen.

  The woman let out a long sigh. "Maybe I'll ask Davers about it when we dock."

  "Davers?" the man asked with apprehension, maybe contempt.

  "It's not like we know anyone else on Ben-2. Besides, he works for Big Charles."

  "Butt Butt Chuck?"

  Daneb wasn't sure who Butt Butt Chuck was, but the two were silent for a moment, so he tapped Pira on the leg twice, indicating she should move on.

  Traversing vents on their stomachs was slow and difficult. They both had plenty of practice and the ship was destroyer class, so it wasn't that large, but it still took them a couple of hours to explore the extent of the lower level. There were two good exit points, one into a storage bay, and the other into a bathroom that appeared unused. Neither was near the stairs.

  Vent systems weren't complicated. Most went straight to a couple of destinations with as few turns as possible. Intersections were rare, so once they'd cover the entire area, Daneb had a mental map of the vent layout. He was sure Pira had the same. The next step was to scope out a few hallways, and then they would have a complete mental map of the lower level. Checking hallways was always a risk, so they exited into the unused bathroom since it was more isolated.

  "See," he whispered when they were both standing on the dull gray tile. "They were talking about the GCC."

  "You don't know that. They could still be talking about anything. All we know is that they don't know. Can't draw much of a conclusion from that, now can we?"

  He knew they couldn't, but he was drawing a conclusion from several conversations, one of which actually mentioned the GCC. He shook off his disagreement with visible effort, and went to stand near the door. He held out two fingers and slowed his breathing. When he got to twenty, he pulled the door open enough to see in one direction. It was clear, so he pulled it open a little more, and stuck his head out. The other direction was also clear, so he moved aside without letting go of the door and Pira took her peek. Then he closed the door, and they both stepped back towards the center of the bathroom.

  "You?" he asked, meaning did she have a complete mental map of the lower level.

  She considered, seemed to be looking inside her skull, and then shook her head. "You?"

  He shook his head. He had an idea of the basic layout, but not a full picture, not without guessing, and guessing was no good.

  They cautiously exited the bathroom and headed left. A short L hallway led to a room with a few boxes. Daneb nodded at the boxes and Pira went to them without question. She was a handful sometimes, but while they were working, she was a pro. She caught every nuance and always knew what he wanted.

  While she searched the boxes, he stood by the door listening for footsteps. When she finished, she crept over and touched his arm, which caused him to jerk in surprise. The corner of Pira's mouth rose in a triumphant and knowing grin. He nodded toward the boxes. She shook her head, which meant there was nothing of interest.

  The hall to the right was narrow and possessed only two doors, which were both locked. It followed the curve of the hull to the storage bay and the other good exit vent, which connected part of their mental map of the lower level. Daneb could only see one way the rest went, but they wouldn't know without checking. Even with a complete map, they hadn't found the boss's room. It was well into the night and almost everyone was asleep, but they couldn't just open doors. Some doors squeaked and some people were light sleepers. While they might be able to walk the halls unobserved, the chances of opening even a few doors while remaining unnoticed was low.

  Daneb pulled Pira behind a stack of the crates in the storage bay. They all looked like standard issue space equipment, so weren't worth checking.

  "I think this hall leads back to the passage that was on the right when we first came in."

  "It does."

  "Are you sure?" He was growing to accept Pira was better at mental mapping than he was.

  "It does."

  "The boss's room?"

  She shook her head.

  Daneb nodded towards the hall, indicating he wanted to continue, and she nodded agreement. They chose each step with care and passed all the closed doors until they came to a bend in the hall. Daneb did the standard count before sticking his head around the corner. It was as expected. The hall joined with the right side of the crew quarters.

  They tiptoed past a door on the left, and Daneb stopped just shy of a second. There was a strange smell coming from the room. He turned to Pira and crinkled his nose, hoping she would understand
the new signal. She tilted her head back slightly, then to the right, and flared her nostrils. She gave him a puzzled look, and then slowly nodded agreement.

  Daneb pressed his ear to the door while processing the smell. It was somewhere between body odor and sewage, but a foreign scent in the background was downright intoxicating. He inhaled long breaths of the curious aroma while listening, but he couldn't hear anything through the thick old military doors.

  After getting Pira's agreement that they should enter, he turned the knob as slowly as he could. It spun a fair distance without resistance, which meant it was unlocked. He glanced down the hall in both directions, gave Pira a quick nod and opened the door wide enough to insert his head.

  A man was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, staring right at Daneb. His pants were around his ankles and he was manically pulling and tugging his discolored member. Blood smeared his swollen phallus, his hand, and both thighs. A golden cube sat on the palm of his free hand, raised to the level of his eyes.

  Daneb froze in place. The man made no indication that he saw him, though he appeared to be staring right at him. Pira tugged at Daneb's shirt, but the smell was stronger inside the room, so he shook her off. The funk of old sex mixed with sweat and excrement stung his nostrils, but that other smell emanated directly from the golden cube and it was calling him. The man seemed to be offering the potent object and Daneb could think of nothing better than possessing it.

  Pira pushed the door aside so she too could see the source of the smell. The man in the chair still made no objection. Daneb glanced at her, saw she was also looking at the cube, so pushed his way into the room. She followed and closed the door.

  The man continued to tug at himself feverishly. Daneb stepped closer but paused when the man grimaced, let out a small moan, and ejaculated drops of blood.

  The smell of the Golden Crunk of Cringle filled Daneb's head. He had to have it. He reached out to it and Pira grabbed his other arm. She made a weak objection just as he made contact.

  The room fell away as the smell filled his mind. Touching the object sent shivers through him, which all ended at his prick. He was thrusting his hips before he knew what was happening, penetrating a fine young specimen bent over in front of him. The boss was sucking Daneb's second penis, the one that came out of his leg. It didn't interfere with his thrusting, and heightened the experience.

  Daneb's third dick seemed to have come off. He was trying to stroke it, but since he held just the shaft, there was no resistance. He tried to place the third member into his belly button, which seemed the likely place to reattach it, but it wouldn't stay. Just as he turned it around to try the other end, the first orgasm hit and he jettisoned from all three members. It felt so good he thought he might pass out, but he fought through it and continued thrusting.

  His third phallus found its home in his belly button, and he began to tug at it, just as the man giving him fellatio continued to tug at his own. Daneb continued ramming against the backside of the person bent over in front of him, but he was never quite deep enough and it was never quite hard enough.

  Everyone's free hand clenched the sparkling golden cube. It was just as alluring as the rest of the action, so Daneb's eyes darted feverishly from one carnal scene to the next and always back to the cube. When he felt another orgasm coming on, he locked his eyes on the cube, the golden presence at the center of his pleasure. The feeling that welled up threatened to spew all of him from his trio of cocks, and he let forth a guttural moan.

  Then the cube was falling. Somehow, it had slipped from all their hands. Daneb grabbed at it, and then again. It was falling so slowly, but he couldn't catch it. Then it hit the metal floor of the boss's room with a deep twang.

  Daneb snatched the cube up and pressed it against his genitals instinctively. His painfully stiff member released again, wetting his already soiled trousers. In a brief moment of clarity, Daneb dropped the cube down his shirt. That was where he held everything, but as it tumbled, each corner burned brilliant ecstasy into his skin. He pulled his shirt out, and allowed the cube to fall to the floor again.

  The boss coughed up creamy foam when he reached for the cube. His chair tilted forward until it tumbled over with a loud thud. The man let out a moan, and then released the greatest, most putrefying fart the pair would ever witness. It came out fast like full lungs expelling all their contents at once and smelled of rotten death with hints of feces.

  As a pool of blood formed under the spent man, Daneb turned to his companion. What he saw was a frightened child, not his mouthy, mostly grown sister. The rotten stench burned his nostrils, but cleared his head long enough for him to realize they needed to leave the area. He nodded to Pira, and together they quickly searched the room.

  As soon as Daneb saw a small box sitting on the bed, he knew its purpose. He snatched the golden cube up, saw the odd etching on the outside, and rubbed it on his genitals again. He had intended to put it directly into the box, but he couldn't get past the urge to rub the symbols on his manhood. He was still hard from the last encounter.

  Daneb was sailing through a massive cloud of breasts, dragging his face and one hand along them while using his massive cock as a rudder. Then his face stung terribly, and he was back in the room.

  Pira picked the cube up with a piece of cloth, stuffed it into the box, and put the box down her shirt while he stood there in a fog. As soon as he was reoriented, he pawed at the front of her shirt, pummeling her small breasts and tearing one of her buttons free. She slapped his hands away, stepped back, and observed him worriedly.

  When Daneb realized he was erect and batting at his little sister, he turned away ashamed. The pool of blood around the boss had grown to such an extent that he seemed to be floating on it. Seeing the blood helped untangle his mind farther and reminded him of the thud the chair made when it spilled the man onto the floor.

  Daneb asked Pira with motions if she'd found anything. When she declined, he rushed to the door, counted a hurried twenty, and emerged from the room. They continued straight down the hall to the stairs, passing two open doors, and then slipped into the hall with the stairs without counting. At the top of the stairs, he did his usual count, and then they hurried back to the safety of the vent.

  Upon arriving at their spot, Pira removed the box from her shirt, and put it behind her.

  "I'm-" Daneb started, but was unsure what to say. He didn't know what Pira had seen when they touched the cube and wasn't sure exactly what he had seen. "Sorry."

  Pira met his eyes for a moment, and then cast her gaze into the down shaft. He waited for her to respond, but she didn't.

  Sleep wasn't easy, but he focused on the hum of engine, and eventually found it.

  *

  Daneb woke to the sound of people arguing.

  "..has it gone? Huh? It's not like it grew legs and fucked off," a woman said. She was pissed. Her voice was too raspy to distinguish.

  "Maybe that's what it does. Grows wings and flies away," Quinn said.

  "Don't be a fucking idiot. Someone on this ship took it."

  They were in the engine room, so it was easy to hear what they were saying.

  Daneb reached out and touched Pira's leg. Startled, she pulled away and gave him a look of contempt. That the one remaining member of his family could look at him with such revile, stung.

  "Do you think Terry took it?" Quinn asked.

  "Maybe. He's been acting weird since we picked that thing up."

  Pira scooted farther into the vent, where the box containing the GCC was sitting. She then peered out the slats.

  "Go question Phil. He's up most nights. Maybe he knows something."

  Phil was the man Daneb called Erie.

  Quinn left the room, and the woman, who Daneb believed was Jax remained. Pira sat for a while, staring out through the grate.

  "Well," Daneb asked in a whisper when she returned.

  "She's gone."

  "Jax?"

  Pira nodded annoyed. r />
  The ship was still moving, which meant they hadn't arrived yet. They knew the arrival day, but not the time, which meant it could be in one hour or seven.

  "I think we should exit first instead of waiting like usual," he said. "They might stay on the ship for a while looking for it." He didn't want to name the thing for fear it would increase his already considerable desire to possess the cube.

  Pira seemed to consider his suggestion, but stifled a response. She looked down at herself for a long while, and when she looked up her eyes were soft, sad. "Ok. If that's what you want."

  Everything was quiet for a while. Their proximity to the engine hid their own voices, but also hid the sounds of the crew. If they were searching or questioning people, they weren't doing it in the engine room or the adjacent hall.

  The hum of the engine became a weaker bur, signaling the ship was slowing. Daneb led Pira down an auxiliary shoot to the vent across from Erie's room and the helm. It was the closest vent to the exit, and should allow them to hear the ship couple with the docking port.

  As Daneb scooted closer to the end of the shaft, Erie came into view. He was sitting on a chair thumbing through an old box of index cards. The chair was in the hall outside the helm, right in front of the exit. Whether they knew someone else was onboard or not, it was bad news for Daneb and Pira.

  Pira gave him a concerned look, and he crossed his index fingers in an X, meaning the way was no good.

  The cargo port could serve as a secondary exit, but he was doubtful they'd use it, or if Ben-2 even possessed multi-dock capabilities. It was one of the oldest stations in that quadrant of space. It was originally an outpost, but was expanded and then later abandoned after repeated raids. At some point, it turned into a station for criminals, but even that was before Daneb was born.