The Thief

“I think maybe you should just get out and socialize more… so the people stop thinking of you as engineering genius and automaton and start think of you like I do.”
“And what do you think of me?”
“As Jack, my friend,” she responded.
“And what do you think of me?” Fred asked in a metallic voice that mirrored Jack’s.
“The jury’s still out on you.”
Fred simply cocked his head slightly to the left and then went back to reading Jack’s PDA.
The door chirped, but Larissa didn’t wait for an answer before barging into Jack’s cabin. He’d finally gotten his own place when people had started to drop by Tyler’s quarters and leave him large gifts for preferential treatment during the transition period. His new residence had somehow been “lost” in the new registry.
“I knew I’d find you here. I think we’ve got a problem.”
“Since when is that new?” Jack said, rolling his eyes.
“What’s up?” Ofelia asked as she accepted the beam from Larissa’s PDA.
“2,759,” Larissa stated. “That’s how many people we had aboard The Hope.”
“Yeah, Mrs. Edwards’ latest grandchild was the last one born. I know we’re supposed to be around four thousand, but with the Decompression, we lost a lot of potential growth.”
“Yeah, so why have we only requisitioned housing for 2,747?”
“I don’t see what you mean. We don’t have…” Ofelia did the math. “Twelve homeless people on Eden 12.”
“According to the survey I just completed we do. There are twelve people listed in the roster that don’t have quarters. Not only that, but none of them are related. It’s not like we just missed a family or two. None of them are married or have children.
Ofelia looked at the list. Something immediately seemed off. “Charles Browning, Stephen Shelley, William Clemens, Francis King, Jo Austin, Samuel Bronte, Jasper Rowling, Mary Fforde, Charlotte Shakespeare, Jane Dickens, Elizabeth Eliot, and George Fitzgerald.”
“I’ve never met any of them, but their names sound familiar,” Jack said.
“Oh really? Well, it gets weirder. According to the logs… they joined the crew about ten years ago. All at different ages,” Larissa said.
“In mid journey?”
“Yeah, and they’ve been requisitioning supplies ever since.”
It finally occurred to Ofelia what Larissa was hinting at.
“These are all Old Earth authors. Shakespeare, Dickens, Austin… the first names have just been switched around. Obviously someone wanted more supplies and figured out that adding twelve people to the computer registry was an easy way to get more than their fair share. The question is who?”
Larissa smirked. She knew the answer. “Well, all you have to do is check the delivery address of the requisitioned supplies.”
“The Bar,” Ofelia read aloud. Rex had been stealing supplies from the colony for ten years. There was something seriously offensive about it. It felt like a personal attack. After all, the ship did have a brig, but usually it was a place to sober people up, or cool them down. Other than that, serious crime was unheard of on The Hope. In ten years, there had never been a murder, a terrorist attack, or a major theft. They were a single community that relied on each other for survival. And Rex had taken advantage of that. As far as Ofelia was concerned, Rex No Last Name should be taken to the brig and locked away for good.
“I’m going to go have a little chat with him,” she bit out.
“Ooh, can I come?” Larissa asked, getting excited at the possibility of a blow up.
“Maybe I’d better come too,” Jack said.
“Where are we going?” Fred asked.
“You three are not going anywhere. I am going to the bar.” Ofelia turned and nearly walked into the door when it didn’t open fast enough. She was going to give Rex a lecture like he’d never received before, and he was going to sit and take it, and then go to jail for his crimes.


As Ofelia walked toward The Bar, she had a strange feeling that she was being followed. She turned quickly, fire in her eyes to find Fred standing in the middle of the dirt path that ran outside several offices. From the dust rising to his left, he was not alone.
“Jack!” A head popped out from a doorway.
“Man, Fred. I need to teach you how to duck.”
“Quack, quack, quack!” Fred was drawing a lot of attention to himself. Jack didn’t take him out into public very often, and a quacking metal man was something to see. At least that would keep Jack from following her. Ofelia didn’t need an audience when she yelled at Rex. Things always tended to go not the way she wanted around him.
Ofelia left Jack trying to explain things to the forming crowd. At least he was getting some socialization. When she entered the bar, she’d forgotten how dark it was. On board the ship, all the light was regulated. It was difficult to get used to a time schedule where the sun rose and set after living on a spaceship for twenty years. Sleep cycles were slightly different here, as Eden Twelve actually took 26.5 hours to revolve on its axis, making the days and nights longer than on earth. Rex kept the bar darker than the regular lighting on the ships, and stepping from the bright afternoon sun into The Bar temporarily blinded her.
When her eyes adjusted, she saw six guys hanging out at a table playing cards. Val was at the bar, flirting with Rex. When the six gentlemen saw Ofelia, they paused their card playing and took a good long look. Ofelia knew them as the D.O.’s – the Decompression Orphans. They were the six lay abouts who’d never successfully recovered from the loss of their parents and the freedom of living on their own at the age of fifteen through seventeen. At one point, Ofelia had felt sorry for them, but after she realized that they had no intention of becoming successful members of society, despite any extra care, she lost interest in them completely. She ignored them and approached the bar. Val gave Ofelia a dirty look as she stirred her drink.
“Rex, can I talk to you for a minute?” The tension in Ofelia’s voice must have given her away. Val smiled. No girl came to sweet talk a man with murder in her eyes.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I’d rather we found a more appropriate place to talk,” Ofelia said, staring pointedly at Val and then at the D.O.’s who were still staring at her.
“Does this have anything to do with peaches?” He was trying to embarrass her, and he was succeeding.
“No. It’s official business that I’m sure you’d rather have discussed without an audience.”
“All right. Why don’t we just head into my back room?” Rex pointed to a door behind the bar.
“As long as you don’t expect me to vault over that thing.”
Rex pushed a button under the bar and a panel slid over revealing an opening. Rex offered his hand, but Ofelia refused it and walked through towards the door.
“Usually I have a hard and fast rule of customers staying on the other side of the bar, but I’ll make an exception in your case.”
“Like I said, it’s official business.” Ofelia didn’t want him to get any other ideas of why she was heading into his back room. Though once he figured out that she was there to have him thrown in the brig, he was probably going to be a lot less friendly.
She stepped into the back room. As he closed the door behind him, Ofelia tried to pry her eyes off a prominent piece of furniture.
“Why is there a bed in here?”
“I tend to work irregular hours. It’s just easier this way.”
“What’s easier?”
“Sleeping?”
Ofelia took a deep breath. She was already getting off track. She stared at the shelves laden with supplies… like the ones he’d been stealing. She felt the angry twitch returning. That was better. Anything was better than thinking about the bed.
Crap. She’d thought about it again.
And the peaches.
Double crap. Supplies… no good supply stealing thief… that was it.
“I had a conversation with some members of the crew today. Dickens, Austen, and Shakespeare.” That was a good start. Until she realized he was now staring at the bed. “Do you know them?”
“Sweetheart, don’t beat around the bush, just say you’ve finally figured out that I’ve been requing extra supplies for ten years.”
“So you admit it?”
“It be a bit stupid not to. I’m just surprised it took you that long to notice.”
“Maybe we just didn’t expect people to be stealing supplies in a community where everyone’s welfare is so dependant on the whole.”
Rex actually laughed. “Sweetheart, communism was a seriously failed system. Human nature just doesn’t gel with it.”
“I’m not talking about communism,” Ofelia said. She was definitely trying to keep her voice down and his hands off his throat.
“Yes you are. Everyone does their share of the work and splits everything equally. Sounds all nice and pretty, but human greed messes it up every time. And we sure as hell aren’t created equal.”
“Of course you are. Everyone’s equal.”
“Little captain’s daughter hasn’t any idea of what the real world is like. I do. I actually lived there.”
“I know Earth had its problems, but things were getting fixed… and just because my mother is famous doesn’t mean that I got treated any differently.”
“I don’t see anyone offering me a peach. You think you got all the freshest food by chance?”
“I didn’t steal any of it.” Rex was starting to lose his cool. He was getting closer and closer, invading her space.
“I was trying to run a business, which is difficult when there’s no money on board. And I don’t care what any idiot crack team of Earth civil engineers decided, humans need a place where they can get drunk, cry in their beer, go slightly crazy and blame it on something else.”
“Oh, and so that makes your lies okay.”
“We were under populated and oversupplied. You show me one person who was hurt. You show me one person who went hungry because of me. I spent most of my childhood hungry, hopping from one bad situation to the next. I know what it feels like… and trust me, no one on the ship was underprivileged. I risked a hell of a lot by sneaking aboard, but I’d rather be here than anywhere else, and if you want to yell at me for cutting some red tape, then go ahead.”
Ofelia was starting to feel sheepish. Rex was right. Whether Mrs. Edwards wanted to admit it, The Bar filled a need, and Ofelia’s mother had realized that when she’d allowed him to set up shop, and left him alone to do his own thing. She probably would have even given him more supplies if he’d requested them.
“Why didn’t you just ask for it?”
Rex sighed the sigh of a beaten man and looked down at her. Ofelia suddenly couldn’t breath.
“I learned a long time ago that if you want something bad enough, you’re just finally going to take it, and say damn the consequences.”
She knew it was coming. She’d seen him coming, felt his hand on her waist. Ofelia thought she was prepared for his kiss. She wasn’t.
The kiss wasn’t playful like the one in the lift, and it wasn’t tentative like their first. It told her that he’d decided to nail the captain’s daughter and damn the consequences. The captain’s daughter couldn’t think of any objections. Ofelia couldn’t think at all.
Ofelia simply leaned into him, and put her arms around his neck. Rex’s hands boldly explored under her sweater, unclasping her bra. She moaned as the pad of his thumb teased her nipple. She moaned again when his hands left her.
“Sweetheart, you’re going to have to let go, if I’m going to get this thing off you,” Rex said, tugging at the hem of her sweater. She giggled and stepped back. Sweater and bra disappeared quickly, though there was a slight pause as she tried to pull his shirt off at the same time. He simply laughed at her impatience and swatted her hands away to do the job himself.
Suddenly Ofelia wished she’d put on prettier underwear that day, but Rex didn’t seem to notice the functional gray undies as he efficiently peeled them off with her trousers. Rex began to undo his own zipper, but Ofelia batted his hands away playfully. He chuckled and let her take down his pants, using his hands for other things.
Once his trousers were at his ankles, Ofelia felt free to explore him. She ran her hands over his hips and up his well toned back. Despite running the bar, he must have spent a lot of time in the gym. He pulled her close for another kiss that sent her spinning by the time he broke it off to wander her body with his lips. Rex hadn’t shown much interest in the bed. Tyler would have been under the sheets as soon as they’d undressed. Why the hell was she thinking about him? There was nothing to compare here, and that extended to all areas.
“I’m ready if you are,” she said, knowing full and well that the evidence of his readiness was pushing against her, full staff.
“No need to rush,” he said, but he did sit down on the bed, pulling her with him onto his lap. Her legs straddled his on either side, opening her, taunting her with the promise of being filled.
Rex took advantage of the position to take her nipple into his mouth. His tongue sent sparks of pleasure from her nipple to her toes and back again. When his fingers found her center, she nearly exploded. Rex gave her other breast the same attention as the first, but it was swiftly becoming inadequate.
“Please.” It was only one word, but he knew exactly what she was asking for.
“No need to beg, sweetheart.” Rex shifted his legs onto the narrow bed and she rolled with him. He placed her back on the bed and rose above her. Ofelia put her legs around him, but he still delayed.
“Last chance to say no, sweetheart.” Exasperated with his teasing, she bit him on the shoulder. He was still laughing when he claimed her mouth and her body. His laughed turned into a groan as he thrust into her, all humor leaving him. He set a rhythm that quickly spiraled Ofelia into release. Her nails dug into his shoulders and she sought to find the balance between the need for his kisses and the need to breath.
Just as Ofelia reached orgasm for the second time, Rex moaned and arched his back in climax. He collapsed on her for a moment, her arms and legs still tight around him as he caught his breath.
Ofelia didn’t let go. She didn’t want it to be over. She didn’t want him to pull away and tell it was nice and then fall asleep. At least she knew he wasn’t going to ask her for a marriage date and ask for six kids.
Rex kissed her again, and she began to relax. He rolled his weight off of her, but not away. Instead he pulled her to him, her head laying on his chest. There was something soothing about the way her head moved up and down slightly with his breath. Tyler had never liked touching after sex… something about sweaty bodies sticking to each other. Rex didn’t seem to mind. In fact, his thumb was absently stroking her thigh. After such satisfaction, she wouldn’t have thought that such a simple gesture could cause such sparks.
Ofelia giggled. She now had a serious reason to turn Tyler down. He was a crappy lover.
“What’s so funny?” Ofelia looked up to see Rex smiling down at her. Telling him that she had just compared him to Tyler would either make him mad, or make him gloat.
“Nothing.”
“Oh really? I have ways of making you talk.” He walked his fingers up her thigh to her rear end.
“Sounds promising.”
“Just give me a few more minutes to recover.”
“You mean like doing that again?”
“Hell, yes.”
“In a few minutes?”
“Yes… unless you have more pressing matters that demand your attention.”
“I… umm…” It occurred to Ofelia that Jack and most likely Larissa were probably sitting out in the bar waiting for her to emerge… not to mention Val. The encounter would be full colony gossip in less than an hour.
“You do have more pressing matters?” He sounded like a kid who’d been promised a candy bar and then been denied.
“I came in here to yell at you.”
“Yeah, you do that a lot,” Rex said. He rolled her over, crawled off the bed and was shoving his shirt in his pants before Ofelia could complain.
Rex tossed her sweater onto the bed and she got the picture. She finished dressing in silence. When she finished, she realized he’d been leaned against a shelf watching her. He shook his head with a poorly suppressed grin on his face.
“If you have any hope that the people out there won’t figure out that we just made love, you’d better squash it. They’ll take one look at you and know exactly what we’ve been doing.”
“Well, we’re both consenting single adults. They’ll just have to mind their own business. If I choose to have a one night… afternoon stand, then that’s my business.”
Rex closed the distance between them and kissed her firmly.
“If you think I’m going to be able to keep my hands off you from now on, you’d better think again. I plan to put my hands on you soon and often.”
The prospect thrilled Ofelia, whether it was practical or not. She was already finding holes in her schedule.
“And I’m not the type of guy that likes to share.”
“Share what?”
“You. With anyone else… and you can expect not to share me with anyone else.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“Good. Because if Tyler Crosby touches you, I’ll punch him in the nose.”
“I’m not sleeping with him.”
“That’s right. You’re sleeping with me.”
“I meant before I was sleeping with you. I mean I was, but then I wasn’t and after you, the idea of sleeping with him is laughable.” Rex raised his eyebrows at this comment.
“Crap. I wasn’t going to tell you that.”
“Oh, I think later tonight I want a full explanation of how I’m better than Crosby. Especially after I show you a few more of my tricks.”
“You have more tricks?”
“Haven’t even scratched the surface, sweetheart. C’mon. Time to face the music.” He unlocked the door and grabbed her hand. As soon as both of them were in full view of The Bar patrons, whose number had grown considerably in size, and included both Jack and Larissa… and Tyler, Rex pulled her into his arms and took his time applying a toe curling kiss.
“I think that answers your questions,” Rex shouted to the bar crowd. He kissed her earlobe gently and then whispered, “I’ll be expecting you for dinner. My place.” Rex opened the bar panel and Ofelia stepped out and left The Bar, too much in a hazy afterglow to pay attention to the murmurs and stares.