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  Horizon

  Diane Collier

  Copyright 2012

  Copyright © 2012 Diane Collier - All rights reserved.

  This Kindle book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

  Stars represent untold wonder and adventure for billions of people. Who has not looked up to the sky at night, to those bright, wonderful specks on the horizon and not dreamed of exploring them? Plenty of stories covered this for as long as humans have existed. The dreams of humanity reaching the stars stretch back as long as humanity has existed and possessed the ability to look upwards. No wonder why they reached towards them, before the march of technology brought them spacecraft, they would climb mountains, before they could survive that climb, they would climb trees, and if there were no trees, they would always look.

  Time marched on, eventually humans made spacecrafts and time marched on. They made it to the moon, and time marched on. They landed a rover on Mars, and time marched on. It kept marching on for them, and eventually, finally, they reached the stars, as dreamed by the very first human who stood staring up at the sky, and so any who shared his vision. Humanity eventually became a space faring race.

  It started with small craft exploring, then small stations, large ships, and large stations. Humans did what they do best, build, expand and improve. Finally, many years since the first man left a footprint from a crude spacesuit on the face of the moon, humanity could claim they had truly reached the stars. With any stations throughout the galaxy and space travel being a common occurrence, no one could deny that humans had nearly mastered space.

  Most people felt being in space made them free, it brought them a feeling of peace to know that there was almost no place humanity couldn’t go now. Instead of an unreachable plane, the stars had become a symbol of near infinity, and the unlimited potential of mankind.

  Aboard the space station Astral Horizon, there sat a young man staring out the window in his quarters. To him, the stars that symbolized freedom to so any others, brought to mind a prison. The stars reminded him of the wonder that he was missing on this station, the universe waiting for him, and he was stuck here paying off a debt. To him, the stars beckoned and called, taunting him, yet he was trapped.

  “Steven Marcus Clora,” an intercom crackled to life above his bed, causing him to shift his eyes upwards, “Come to the viewing room please.”

  Steve sighed, “Off to the meat market.” He spoke to himself as he stood up, putting on a decent outfit, he strolled out the door, some guys liked to rush, they wanted to be the first in line, even he’d been that way at first. At this point, Steve had become so accustomed to how things worked that he didn’t bother. The guys who went first rarely got picked; same went for guys who were too excited to be there. You needed just the right air of mystery about you if you wanted a chance at getting picked.

  The hallway on the way to the viewing room was lined with mirrors on both sides. This was intentional as it gave the people on their way to the viewing room a chance to smooth over anything that might make them less likely to be the lucky person picked.

  Steven glanced at himself in the mirror to confirm that he looked alright. Medium length chestnut colored hair fell from his head, held into a short pony tail, his skin a pleasant soft tan that he made a point of keeping up. The piercing brown eyes drifted down to his upper body, Steve wasn’t a big guy, being tall and lanky, it was actually a bit surprising to him how much work as he got. He really never would have guessed skinny men would be such a popular choice. His clothes were nothing special, some tried to get more attention with lavish outfits, but Steve found most of them to be gaudy. He really wanted nothing of the sort, he wore a simple blue dress shirt and black slacks, some things never went out of style.

  The journey to the viewing room was pretty short really, as fancy as they made the mirrored hallways and the lavish décor, most of it seemed to be there to make the place seem like more than it was. Considering the clientele the establishment catered to, it made sense to try and stroke their ego a bit. It was good for business, and if that meant making the place look a little gaudy, so be it. That was the doctrine of the management anyway.

  The end of his walk arrived on a grand stage, lit with spotlights, and he could not see the audience. That new recruits were easy to spot, they were the ones looking up into the spotlights, taken off guard by the brightness. By now, Steve had gotten used to this treatment, the trick was to not look into the blinding light like a moron, and most people figured that out after a time or two. The lights served the dual purpose of allowing the audience to see them in perfect clarity, and kept them from seeing the audience at all really.

  It was really about the money anyway, someone in the audience would call out a number and place a bid. Depending on if anyone else wanted to pick that person, a short bidding war might commence and then some lucky person in the audience would have a lovely night with some lucky person on the stage.

  Normally, the person in the audience was looking for a good fuck, unsurprising since Steve was a prostitute, but there were exceptions. There was once a burly guy who had hired him to fix the leaky pipes in his quarters. Literally, no joke! That was all the guy had wanted from him. Steven was still amused by the old fellow and occasionally showed up to see if he needed anything.

  The fact was, prostitution was legal on the Astral Horizon, it was a viable career and there was even fame to be had if you were really good at it. For Steve’s case however, it was a little different. Steve had collected himself a hefty debt gambling, and at that point, they take away your passport until you pay off your debt. Doing so on your back was just one of the options and it seemed to have the most potential to get out of the place the fastest, since the casino offered their own little ring of ladies and gentlemen of the night.

  Young Steven had neglected a very important detail in his calculations, the mindset he had that brought him here in the first place. He worked in a casino by the name of The Throwback, which meant he was around machines perfect for gambling when he got off the clock, so many checks he’d taken in, swore he’d save, and then give to the one armed bandit later, mumbling about how this time he’d hit the big one. Thus it was that Steve had fallen into a decadent rut. Spend all his money and get into debt to the casino, fuck strangers to try and build back his savings, give in to his urges and go deeper into debt. It’s easy to see why someone would have a hard time breaking out of it too. As the provider of services, you had the right to deny working for someone, but of course there would be no money for you if you did that. Naturally the casino provided clean clients and regular check ups for anyone in their employ, and if a client was abusive in any way, the deal was off and the contract terminated along with a hefty fee for the client that violated the agreement. One could see that The Throwback was a pretty classy place in how they handled what could be a somewhat messy business.

  The sex side of things wasn’t all bad either, on the contrary, Steve had been with some of the most beautiful people, and some of them he could scarcely believe would need to pay for the pleasure of what they did with him. Other clients were much less attractive, and much less talented, but those also tended to be a bit more rich and desperate, so it balanced out in the end.

  “Number sixteen, one hundred.” Spoke a man in the audience, it sounded like James, he was a regular, fifty was his normal opening offer, seemed his was really in need of TLC tonight.

  “Number sixteen, two hundred.” Came a husky feminine voice from towards the back of the seating, Steve didn’t know this one, but he knew that if she wanted to beat James, she’d have to do better than that.

  “Four hundred,” was James’s retort to her bid
.

  “Eight hundred.” The woman spoke calmly, there was a bit of mumbling out in the audience, bidding usually didn’t escalate so quickly.

  “F-fifteen hundred!” James called back, Steve had never gotten so much from one visit from James, he figured it was a combination of the man’s competitive spirit and the fact that Steve was without a doubt his favorite boy toy.

  There was a silence in the audience, everyone figured that had ended the bidding war right there, but there was a sudden sound of someone standing in the back of the room, stomping loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Five thousand!” the husky voice retorted.

  This development resulted in gasps of shock, usually only the best known trick turners would be able to get that much in one night and here was a woman he’d never met before, beating out a regular of his for just the evening with him. Even James couldn’t recover from that one, he might like Steve best, but he knew that if he couldn’t have him tonight, there would always be another night, he’d make due with one of the others.

  “Proceed to processing.” An impassive voice from a speaker above stated, business as usual for them, the house always got a cut of the money, and even five thousand was chump’s change to them.

  Steve on the other hand was doing the math in his head, if he took on this woman’s offer, he could get in on one of the midrange tables of poker or, Blackjack, or the slots, but maybe roulette would be-

  “Or you could pay off your debt.” He told himself, “That would put a huge dent in it.” He told himself, it wouldn’t pay it off, but it would certainly put a noticeable chunk out of his mind. Yet the same voice in his head would tell him that five thousand was good, but if he won a bit, if he had a lucky night, he could maybe double it. He knew full well it was that kind of thinking was what got him in this situation in the first place.

  Eventually he shook off his thoughts; he might not even get the money if the job was something he was unwilling to do and it’s best not to count your chickens before they hatch. Needless to say if the woman wanted to mutilate him or something he probably wasn’t going to have any part of it.

  Processing was always the most boring, yet tense things about the entire transaction. It was the first time he’d meet someone who felt the need to spend a lot of money for some time with him. It was always a little bit awkward to meet someone under those circumstances, but he’d become fairly used to it by now. He left to stage to go to the meeting room.

  The waiting was the most irritating part of the process for both parties, but papers had to be filed on both sides so that no one could sue the casino, agreements of what is acceptable and what isn’t, so on down the line. It appeased the paper pushers and Steve supposed that was good enough for him.

  Finally he was ushered into the room where the woman who’d wanted to spend the night with him sat. The room itself was unremarkable, just a room with two chairs and a table, fluorescent lighting illuminated her very well however.

  She was quite the sight, a fairly young woman, probably in her twenties, discounting of course the possibility of age reversal surgery. Her short hair was dyed bubblegum pink and it offset her green eyes nicely. She sat in the small chair across the table from him with her legs crossed at the ankle up on the table, leaning against the wall with her chair. A small smile graced her face as she looked him over. His eyes drifted down, she wore a black leather jacket open over a purple shirt, Blue jeans below that, he wondered why such a rough looking customer was here for him. He couldn’t see her figure very well under the jacket, but it appeared to be fairly slim.

  The lady smiled and sat properly, “Here’s my terms.” She spoke in the husky voice he’d heard during the showing. Being closer to it, he could hear that she had a slight accent, though he couldn’t quite place from where, “Look ‘em over and let me know if they are acceptable.”

  Steve picked up the piece of paper and looked it over, expecting something off the wall. They actually had a proper form for it, paper pushers be damned. The spots for relations, and talking were checked, and in the comments box she’d written, “Fuck then chat.”

  “Eloquent,” Steve smiled to her, “What do you want to talk about post coitus?” he was honestly a bit curious about this one, why had she paid so much to see him, why did she want to talk? Most didn’t want to talk right after doing the nasty.

  The woman’s smile became a little neutral, “Are the terms acceptable or not Stevie?” she asked in a coy voice, “If having sex with a beautiful woman for a massive amount of money is too much trouble for you, I’m sure I have time to go back out there and find someone else.” She speaks in a playful voice, leaning forward towards him slightly as she spoke.

  This woman was going to be trouble, he could tell, but damn if she wasn’t alluring. Just the tone of her voice and the way she moved, he was attracted, no doubt about it, he’d want to fuck her even if she hadn’t paid five grand for it.

  He leaned back in his chair, but gave a nod, whatever she wanted to talk about after the fun part would probably be worth it, “Yeah, I don’t see a problem with it. You have a name ma’am?” he asked casually, evoking a smile from her.

  “Just call me Kay.” She gave him a wink, “So where do we go from here Stevie?” she asked standing up and walking to his side of the table. Looking at her now he can tell that she does have a beautiful form under that jacket, the way she moved was just as alluring as the way she spoke.

  Steven stood up and smiled, “You have me for the night, we can get right down to business or we can go out and do some other things first, if you want a bit more of a dating sort of experience.” Something about this woman put him on edge a little, he wasn’t afraid, just intimidated. He started to wonder why when she spoke.

  “I’m in no hurry, let’s grab a movie or something.” She shrugged, heading out of the small room and looking back to him from the doorway, “Coming?” she asked when he lagged behind a little.

  Steve wasted no time after that, he got up, grabbed his things, and off they went. He informed her of the various theaters in the area, she picked one of the lower class ones when he mentioned it tended to have less customers. The walk was mostly quiet, Kay was content to just walk a couple steps ahead of him, her long legs carried her quite well and he had to walk at a quicker pace than usual to keep up.

  Eventually they reached the theater, it billed itself as the Grand, but what theater didn’t really? It was a bit run down, but that was understandable, it was one of the first theaters on the station. Inside they purchased some over priced popcorn and Kay selected a rather boring looking romantic comedy that even Steve knew was a box office flop, he wondered why she wanted to see something that everyone knew was a bad movie. Still, she insisted, and for the money she was paying, why not?

  They got into the cinema proper and found it to be empty, they took a seat in the middle of the auditorium and watched advertisements and pointless movie trivia, Steve knew a bit about movies, he guessed a few things right, but his attention was more on his companion for the evening, she sat cross-legged in the seat next to him with an unreadable expression on her face.

  They sat there for awhile, the actual movie was about to come on and no one else had come in. Steve guessed the reviews were right about the film, it really was the worst movie of all time. You know your movie sucks when only two people come to watch it.

  “…Well?” Kay asked, her eyes moving towards him, but her body was still, “We’re in an empty theater, think we should use the opportunity?” she smirked a little, her hand drifted over to his lap and rubbed gently at his crotch, “You didn’t think I wanted to see this shitfest did you?”

  Steve honestly did, but he knew better than to tell her, “Ah, you’re the type who enjoys a bit of a show?” He smiled to her, she didn’t reply as he slipped his hand towards her lap, only to find it blocked by her free hand.

  Kay face showed a grin, “Did I say you could touch me there?” she asked as she rubbed his crotch through his pant
s a little more firmly, it was having an effect alright, the spot becoming quite tight and uncomfortable to him, “I’m pretty sure I didn’t give you permission just yet.”

  It seemed to him that she must be the controlling sort as she undid his pants zipper and pulled out his member, rubbing it with a quickness that spoke of experience, it was firm in her hand within seconds, and she showed no signs of slowing down as it started to throb.

  Squirming a bit in his chair, he didn’t know why she felt the need to pay to give him a hand job but he wasn’t complaining, she was fantastic at it and she was getting him close to orgasm after only a minute or so rubbing him.

  Then she stopped, withdrawing her hand suddenly, and smiling at him, he looked back at her somewhat like a confused puppy. She just grinned, “Don’t you touch yourself, keep your pants down, and kneel before me if you would Stevie.” She spoke in a pleasant voice as she uncrossed her legs, “I feel like you should earn your keep, don’t you?”

  The thoughts that shot through Steve’s mind at the ran the gamut from being very horny, that being the primary thought, the secondary thoughts being just about every unpleasant name in the book he could call his companion for leaving him with a throbbing boner and asking him to service her first.

  At this point though, Steve wanted release and this was what she was paying him for, he got down on his knees in front of her and she grinned, she’d undone her jeans and slipped them down for him, her most private area on display now for him, “Now you have permission to touch me there.” She smirks, running a hand through his hair.

  This was something that Steve was pretty good at by now, he’d no shortage of female clients and with each one he got a little bit more experience. He wasted no time positioning himself to where he could lick or rub at his leisure, dragging her a little closer to the edge of the seat as he got to work, starting by rubbing her opening gently, teasing her the way she’d teased him. Turnabout was fair play after all, and after what she did, she deserved a little bit of teasing. Kay reacted a little more calmly than he expected, she stretched slightly and gave a bit of a contented sigh.