Mercury Retrograde

By the time she had worked her way up from her knees to the controls of A-Rig, the girl which had all but fallen head over heels in love with the Boss was little more than a distant memory. One that no longer even stung save for her own stupidity.

And she was now immune to seduction.

Too bad for the people who had things she needed on Mercury, that once innocent girl had learned from a professional just how to use seduction.

As Ace walked beside Rue back to her place he was sure he had gotten the better part of the exchange. He had taken a few bits of metal and some magnets and a bit of his sweat and put together a silly contraption that was little more than a one-shot weapon that all but crippled the robot that used it by robbing it of half its battery power. He was silently chuckling inside knowing that the other pilots --now that they knew her precious Butcher's Billy carried such a cannon -- would be ready for it. Here he had made something that was all but useless out of trash and it was going to get him a week of sex in the bed of what was, easily acknowledged, to be one of the sexiest and most unobtainable women on all of Mercury.

To Roulette walking slowly at his side -- her arm linked casually with his, her hip bumping his -- she had different thoughts and opinions.

The man beside her had been used. His brain and skills had just brought her what was going to be one of the most talked about victory in the limited class. If she never used the little railgun in a fight again it would always be there as the Hammer of Hell, poised to strike. A devastating fear that the pilot of every robot across from her would have to find the courage to approach.

That was worth a few nights of sex.

She hid her smile at the eagerness of his stride. How quickly he wanted to get there. How powerful the desire to see her naked was in his eyes. Ace, for all his normal blase attitude about life, was as eager as a schoolboy about to get his first piece. And Rue could see what he thought in his face. He would be a terrible poker player she knew. Here he was thinking he had talked her out of something valuable for his hard work when she knew he had gotten something she had once given away for a loaf of moldy bread and a smelly pallet in a corner to sleep on.

True that had been years ago.

Hell more than a decade, but to her, the value hadn't gone up any with age. She wasn't some fine wine, her hips weren't valuable stocks, and her tits weren't on the gold standard. To herself the days when she saw herself as something desirable were long past and that so many people here on Mercury seemed to still see her as such only showed Rue their substandard life and poor taste in women.

She hoped he didn't want to kiss her. That wet cigar breath she could smell would be as repulsive as being smothered in a bath in a busted privy.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

Roulette bed sheets stank of male sweat.

Tired and caught between the desire to get up and wash or to simply pass out and sleep in the stink, she lay looking at the unattractive rock ceiling of her bedroom.

As sex goes it hadn't been half bad.

Of course, by that same thought, it hadn't been half good either.

Ace had decided to become aggressive as soon as they stepped inside. With a force that had pushed the air from her chest, she had driven her into the rock wall and caught her in a crushing passion driven assault. Startled, but not really caring, Rue had simply rolled with the direction he was giving and met aggression with aggression. Her hands caught at his clothes even as he was pulling hers off. A grunted laugh was his opinion of this. With a snarl, he pulled her pants open and jammed his hand down into her crotch. His hard fingers cupped her and then he forcibly drove the tips of two into her.

Not at all wet or prepared for such an invasion she caught the back of his neck and lifted herself away from his hand. Rue vaulted up onto him, her legs wrapping his body and locking herself to him. With not even a stagger he drove his face between her cleavage and took the offered nipple into his mouth.

"Bedrooms on the left." Was all Roulette had to say to get him in motion again.

Tossed down onto her bed, she had played at getting away only to have the desire almost become real.

With a casual brutality Rue was all too familiar with, Ace caught the back of her pants and stripped them from her hips and down her legs. His weight crashed down on top of her pinning her to the bed. When his fumbling about her rear told her what he was planning and -- given that she was completely unprepared to receive such an entry -- the lithe woman turned herself under him and kicked her pants off her leg.

"Not at first," she said.

"You said whatever I wanted for a week. I want that ass," his words were a lust driven snarl.

"And you can have it ... when I say you can." Reaching between then she worked the opening to his pants and pulled his hard cock free. "Get me wet and revved up and sure, I don't mind too much a little backdoor play. But let me tell you once, and only once, Ace. This is still my show." Wiggling her hips she eased him into her and gripped his cock as tight as she could contract herself. "If I say no ... it's no. And when I say go, it's go. Got it, Ace?"

"Huh. Well, sure Rue. I guess."

Wiggling her hips, rubbing her bare ass into the mattress, she opened herself for his thrusts.

"Then go."

Over the next hour, Ace proved his endurance to Roulette if nothing else. A steady even pace, or a wild two-minute-long slamming hammer of epic male surrender, she had expected either one from him, but a slow building thrust that worked up a sweaty warmth... well, that was at least pleasant. His pubic hair wearing a wet rawness to her clit, her first orgasm was ... nice. The small release a relaxing pleasure rather than a mind-shattering wave of bliss.

After a bit, however, Rue began to grow a bit bored with her inactivity. Flat on her back sex wasn't her preferred form. She hadn't lied to Liam when she said she preferred to be on top. Given his single-minded thrusting she knew Ace here wouldn't be too keen on anything that broke his rhythm, so she signed inside and hoped he finished soon.

His grunting sweaty purge seemed to almost follow on that thought's heels.

Ace collapsed on top of her, another reason she preferred to be on top. This hot male blanket of flesh wasn't her idea of a good duvet. When at last he rolled over with a moan, the rush of cool air was welcomed. The wet feeling within her was not.

"Be right back."

Easing out of bed, she made her way to her bathroom down the hall. Leaving the light off, she avoided the image of herself in the mirror. Rue knew from the past that, at moments like these, a stare down with her own eyes wasn't recommended.

Purging herself of his seed, Rue cleaned herself up a bit and with a low sigh, made her way back to her bedroom. There was a thick miasma of sex and sweat hovering about the room. Ace was laying pretty much where she had left him, save that he had turned over onto his side. As she stood there watching he opened his eyes, looked at her in her naked glory and with a grin began to stroke himself hard for a second round.

"Come here, my little bird. We've got all night to play." His eyes went to her hips. "And I still want that plump prize."

Moving to the bed she folded herself into his embrace, both reveling in the way her body felt and disgusted at how easily she would allow herself to be used for such a purpose again. Again she counted the cost a small one for the arena glory she had earned, this night -- and the few nights to follow -- were but a small piece of mild unpleasantness to be enjoyed and to be endured.

When his heavy hand began to fondle her ass, Rue sighed.

Well, maybe he would be better at his job back there since he was so insistent of his enjoyment of that. The need to have a real orgasm was building inside her. Not some mild weak bust of pleasure but a body-shattering primal explosion, was hovering in her.

Calling to her.

His pawing of her breasts and ass led to his inevitable rise, and the slight pain of his penetration was enough to make her whimper: which seemed to be what he was after. That left him too excited to last long enough to bring her to what she was needing.

He dressed and left without anything more than a breathy promise to see her tomorrow night. Ace had fled almost as if he was ashamed of what he had done.

After his departure, in her terribly befouled bed, Rue had time to ponder if he was ashamed he had hurt her to get his own pleasure or that he had ever been with her? She was sure his shame had nothing to do with the fact he hadn't pleasured her to the same shattering-type release he had so enjoyed.

The sweaty male-funk finally made her choice.

Sliding her sore body from the bed, Rue stripped the sheets and -- with a wincing step -- took them to the sonic auto-clean. Then, even though the water-cost was going to be terrible, she took a true shower. The need to be clean was stronger than it had been in many of her seasons here on Mercury.

Yes, the water cost would be high...

... but not all the water flowing into the drain was from the shower head. The slow drip of tears off her chin and onto her breasts was an infrequent but steady waterfall till the shower ended.

Her bed wasn't a haven, Rue decided to find sleep on the padded futon in the main living area. The main vid-screen had her arena battle on repeat, and in that moment of glory, she drifted into dreams.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

By the end of two months, all of the crews had returned from the company flesh pots up in orbit. Their hard earned pay had vanished into the gravity well of the many company owned casinos, brothels, and drinking establishments.

Oh, sure Queen Mining made sure it's people felt they had gotten their value out of their time off. Happy crews being what they are, more easily controllable, Queen fleeced them in pleasant ways. They sent them packing back to the base camp to wait out their remaining downtime.

Broke, soon bored to death, they would be more than ready to get back to work by the time dusk rolled over the base camp and they could more easily be moved back to their still busy mining rigs.

Till then, there was the Arena.

Roulette's easy victory was not so easily repeated.

The limited robot class pilots seemed to take what she had done to be some kind of challenge to them all. They went after her with a vengeance. In a way, though it was what she had wanted. She never felt at her best when she things were easy. She didn't trust it to stay that way, and that lack of trust took her off her game.

As is, she welcomed them all.

Butcher's Billy, however, spent more time being repaired than it spent in operating condition. She began to bet money herself. She had to, the cost of parts grew with every battle she fought.

Axecutioner.

Foehammer.

Comedian.

Ect...

By the closing finals of this season, all had been torn to trash by the power of the "Mad Goat" and it's crazy pilot. Butcher's Billy now carried more bright weld scars than he had original armor. The robot also was now far more lethal than he had been at the beginning of the season.

Rue had resorted to a few more nights on her back and knees.

In the top of three of the limited league, she stood ready to take on the winner of a match between Hell's Own and the kilt-wearing robot Bannockburn. The two robots had been tearing each other to pieces for the last hour. A slow dragging type match that left the arena covered in shatter pieces of metal.

Normally Rue didn't care for such, but this time it was glorious.

There was a good chance the winner would be too damaged to even face Butcher's Billy. For once she stood a decent chance to win a season. The prize money from that would be enough for her to get Rabid Rabbit back into fighting trim.

For a moment she let herself dream of the impossible.

A bare brief moment.

The prize money for winning the unlimited class ... oh, what that could bring. A chance to crawl her way back up out of the howling darkness she had lived in for so long. To get off of this damn stupid planet and away from these damn stupid people. To go back home ... or at least to find a place to call home. A real home again.

Such thoughts always brought back memories of her parents. And such memories always kicked such silly pipe dreams to the side.

Her eyes on the screen, Rue watched the last moments of the fight. Hell's Own -- torn-half-to-slag -- had been finally caught by the only slightly better shape Bannockburn. With a stumble, the kilted robot drove a knee into Hell's Own and grabbed at the damaged robot's head. With a great wrenching, it tried to tear the thing off by the roots.

An incinerating burst of plasma fire erupted from Hell's Own and the fiery blast tore into the lower chest and exposed guts of the other robot. Tears began to appear in the metal holding the head to the shoulders of Hell's Own even as the flames ate away the shielding of the power core of Bannock. With a gout of flame that was white hot, the battery pack broke and erupted, showering Hell's Own with sparks and flames. At that same moment it's head tore away.

In a tumble of twisted metal, the two robots fell hand and hand into mutual destruction.

Rue smiled.

True it was a bit of a hollow victory compared to what she might have managed had the match gone another way, but any victory that paid the bills was good enough.

"Way to go there, boss lady." A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. "You just bagged me enough cash I can go back topside for a few more days."

Looking over her shoulder at Minnow, she gave the big mechanic a smile. "Didn't you get enough cheap ass and cheaper booze?"

"There is no such thing as enough of either of those. Hey..." Minnow bounced around and put his back to the bar next to her. "I saw something I think you need while I was ... well, sober-ish, I guess. You're still needing a computer core for Rabid Rabbit, right? A 99Hard-G data block, yeah? Well, I know where there is one." Minnow shrugged "It's not cheap, but hey what in life really is?"

"A 99-HG, you're sure it's a 99-HG?"

"Yep. It wasn't even out the wrapper. Came in on the last transport to arrive. Some vac-sucker had managed to snag it back on the Venus station, smuggled it out, and then his dumb ass pawned it to a fella I know up there for the money to make a better life for himself down here in hell anus."

"And your guy will sell it?"

Minnow nodded. "Like I said he's a buddy of mine and old pal from way back when. Look, you did me a good one just now when I get up there I'll have him give you a call. If you like his price, send him the cash and I'll lug back your data block next week when I get done ... dipping my wick."

"You know I can't turn that down, Minnow." At his grin, Rue nodded "Yeah, get me my data block." She smiled. "Pretty please."

"With sugar on top, Boss lady?"

Reaching into her shirt she pulled a folded stack of bills from within her bra and peeled off a half dozen of the bills.

"With sugar on top. Here, have a few good times on me, Minnow, and thanks."

Minnow waved the money away. "Nope, you already got me that much fun and then some. I'll do this for you because it's my pleasure to help you get back in the unlimited." The mechanic smiled. "Then I can bet my paycheck on you and get my ass out this dump when you win it big time. Right?"

Roulette smiled and nodded with an enthusiasm she wasn't feeling. "Right. Now get and don't be late getting back. Big Alice waits for no man."

"Ha! Just like my first wife. See you soon, Rue."

Watching her mechanic leave, Roulette allowed herself a moment to dream a dream similar to his. Then she stomped on that dream. Better to enjoy this moment's victory than to allow herself to climb a fragile ladder of desire. She had done that before and the fall from any rung was terrible.

A fall from the top would break her.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

A-Rig was ready for her crew.

After eighty-eight days of rest, recovery, debauchery, and robot battling the sun began to sink over the base camp and more and more the hellish temperatures outside began to slip down the scale. The cold night was coming and its non-gentle hand was robbing the planet Mercury of surface heat.

And the excavator rigs were approaching. Chasing the shadows.

Her people were hungry to leave.

And more than a bit broke.

Roulette was flush with cash for once, but she too was ready for the simplicity of life on the rig versus the multi-layered complexity of base camps social life. For the last few nights, her and Jack'o had been in planning conferences with Queen Mining Company consultants and surface geology specialists. They were poring over the data from this season's efforts and planning the best routes to take across the heat-blasted surface of Mercury to maximize the productivity of the many rigs. Making sure, where overlap occurred, it occurred for good reasons. There was also the need to plan for the divergence around the entrances to Base Camp One and Two. The need to lower the entrance platforms was growing with every passing season. Already the landing platforms for the skip flier was starting to take on a look similar to Devil's Tower back on Earth.

The current plan involved a lower airlock and gate being built, then a gradual removal of rock ore during one off season There had even been plans put forth of leaving both crews living on the rigs till they got one of the base camp entrances renovated. An idea that had been met with derision and laughter by the crews.

Gathering her things, cleaning her home so it wouldn't be a mess for when her co-inhabitants Lara Price returned and making sure Butcher's Billy and Rabid Rabbit were both secured in their cage and that the "Mad Goat" was as prepped for next seasons games as she could make him.

Also the many long radio conversations Rue had with Big Alice's "working" pilots also clued her in on how the big mining rig was currently performing.

Jack'o was not happy. Neither was Roulette.

A-rig was not running at the same high level of production she had been running at in their last season. At some point during the last two weeks of this current season, there had been a dramatic change. Minnow and Old Frank had equally both blow a gasket. The two mechanics were all but chomping at the bit to get back to Big Alice and start fixing what those "So-called wrench twisters" had done to their big beautiful rig.

Her carry bag over her shoulder, Roulette locked up her home and, with a last look back, headed for the elevators.

"Hey, Roulette! Wait up!"

Glancing around, Rue saw Minnow coming towards her at a limping shuffle that was his version of a run. He waved a black plastic box at her. With all the hassle and crap in the last week, Rue hadn't forgotten what Minnow was going to get for her. The uplink to his friend and the money exchange had gone smoothly. Minnow had however only returned to base camp from the orbital stations -- first by mag-lev train and then with hopper fly in -- only last night, so she hadn't had time to see him yet.

"And here you go, Boss lady. Hope it's everything you need it to be." He passed the plastic box to her. "Hey, have we heard anything else on Alice?"

Turning the box over in her hands, she had to fight the desire to immediately open it and run to Rabid Rabbit and install the thing. Instead, she pushed it into her carry all bag and settled it higher onto her shoulder before answering him "Nope, she's still running like her treds are stuck in mud."

"What have them two muddled heads done to her, I wonder?'