Walking a thin line

Walking a thin line

by Ishtanchuk Fazmarai


As the Mackinaw class exhumer "Puffbag Major" landed at the decadent station, Yiole Gionglao reserved a  table at one of the few restaurants still open. Even in high security space, some places are but deserted, seeing few movement and the quality and amount of services resent. Most stations depend upon traffic to thrive, and the Bleak Lands are, well, a bleak place to entrepreneurs.

Yiole Gionglao waited for the decanting process to end, and coughed until the last pod goo had exited her lungs. The breathable liquid was enhanced by nanites to have a extremely low viscosity, but nonetheless the lungs treated it as a menace and overreacted in their attempts to replace it with air. Overall, was not a nice thing to watch, and most capsuleers don't allow anyone see them that way, bent over, their head below their lungs, coughing painfully as pod goo and saliva drop from their mouths. Obviously and disgustingly human.

Yiole Gionglao walked to the shower and cleaned up her body from all remains of the pod goo, then waited for the air jets to sweep the water and dry her skin. She giggled as the strong air jets tickled her and then walked to the small closet holding her clothes, the same ones she had worn before undocking. Albeit she could had hired an apartment, she used a generic Captain's Quarter to cut expenses on a operation that was not as profitable as expected. Good mineral depots and markets are usually far apart, with so many miners digging everything they can, and travel time was hurting her opportunities.

Walking along the quiet corridors of the station, Yiole Gionglao reached the restaurant, a place with a high flown name which usually served Gallentean cuisine to a mix of station employees, commoners and occasionally capsuleers. With the habit of her years in the security business, Yiole Gionglao looked around the place but couldn't see anyone known. Then she picked a table and sat facing both the main door and the corridor leading to the lavatories, and ordered the plat du jour, which would be deemed a mix of vegetables and two types of meat everywhere, but there had a complicated Gallentean name.

As she waited for her order, Yiole saw a man exiting the lavatories, and she felt a hunch even before seeing his face. Then the man looked around himself and saw Yiole Gionglao. Albeit being Achuran, she was tall, voluptuous and muscular, and so she hardly could be mistaken for some other Achuran. And the man didn't mistook her, as his eyes opened wide in surprise and said:

"Yiole Gionglao! Oh my, it's you!"
"Henri", answered her as she stood up. The man walked to her and confidently braced her waist, kissed her lips and grabbed her ass.
"My good, what a surprise! And how WELL you look! You're gorgeous!"
"You too look well", muttered Yiole. Yet she was startled, as Henri Kugtenon was unusually slim and his clothes were oversized. And, of course, he was in the middle of the Bleak Lands, of all places in New Eden.
"Come to my table, Yiole! There's so many things to talk about!"

Yiole followed him reluctantly and noticed how at least two of the patrons raised an eyebrow to see that impressive woman following the weird guy in the large clothes. Henri kept saying nonsense on how surprised and how pleased he was to meet Yiole, but he soon noticed her silence and waited until both were served their orders -plat du jour for two, sprinkling water for Yiole, and the infamous house wine for Henri. He took a long drink from his glass and then asked:

"And, what are you doing here?"
"I am mining, currently" answered Yiole
"My God! Mining again! And what about your... projects?"
"My projects?"
"Yes, if you're mining, then I assume..."

Yiole smiled briefly and twisted her body and head so Henri could see the upper plug on her neck. When she looked back at him, he was visibly shocked.

"You are a capsuleer?"
"Yes. I am mining, in command of a Mackinaw"
"Wow. I am... surprised. Pleasantly surprised, I mean. I could never had figured... I mean..."
"Don't bother, I know that, from your perspective, this may come as a surprise"
"Not so much. I know that you are determined..."
"Very determined, yes. This didn't came easy"
"My, how the world changes... I recall when Madame Hetaria introduced you..."

Yiole recalled, too, as Mme. Hetaria's name triggered her memory... from a earlier point than Henri's. A point where she was in an office, standing before Madame Hetaria. She was a Gallentean woman in her eighties, dressed elegantly in a fashionable style suit to her age.

"Well, my little flower, don't shy up now. Please, remove them", said the old Gallentean woman.

Yiole Gionglao unstrapped her brassier and removed it, then pulled down her panties and placed them on the same chair as her clothes. Embarrassed, she crossed her arms over her bosom.

"Arms to the sides, please, my little flower. This. Now, turn 90 degrees and let me see you well from the side. This way, exactly. Let's see you back... right..."

Yiole Turned around slowly, as the aged eyes of Madame Hetaria scrutinized her body.

"Well, my little flower, just one little thing more. Please, seat down on that couch and spread your thighs."
"I... err..."
"Please do it, my little flower, everything counts. Yes... this way... but on the other end of the couch. My little flower, please help me, I need a good light to see you. Yes, that's it. Just one little, little thing more and we'll be done"

Yiole waited as Madame Hetaria stood up, and felt her heart rushing as the old woman approached her.

"Please, seat a bit closer to the edge and let me have a close look...", said Mme. Hetaria, and as Yiole did it,  she bent down and put her face just a few centimeters above Yiole's hips.

"That's it, thank you. Now relax and dress again, my little flower. Did you already had those tattoos? I mean, before looking for our school?"
"Yes, I had them before... from when I worked at the mines."
"It's OK, they're a nice funny touch. Alpha and omega and your minet between... See, there is no reason to be nervous. You wouldn't be doing this if your psychological tests weren't correct. But we have a certain reputation, and we need to ensure that nothing comes as a surprise. If a girl needs deodorant, better we learn that soon, don't we?"

For some reason, of all the interview, if was that sentence what Yiole reminded best. It was then when everything became real, and the plans acquired a sense of tangible reality. She was really doing it. She was actually talking to Madame Hetaria (real name, unknown), owner and director of Madame Hetaria's School for Escort Ladies. She only accepted "amateurs", with a psychological profile apt for top class prostitution. Her courses usually lasted two school years, but she had a intensive course, costing 30% less, which lasted only one year. And yet that year would take most of Yiole's savings... much, much more than what a qualified worker could earn in the same period. For an instance, the equivalent to two years of underground mining in a barren planet, which Yiole had done until the female miners established a mud wrestling league. As it grew popular and stakes rose, a overly zealous competitor made a illegal move and Yiole landed on a tool and smashed her ankle. Once she recovered, she met the miner in a lone corridor and crushed her thorax with two mortal blows learned from the military, piercing her lungs with several broken ribs. The miner almost drowned in her own blood before reaching the hospital, and Yiole lost her job and had to spend most of her service bonus paying for a settling. Then she moved to Gallente space and set up a plan to stop the string of failures that had her removed from a military school at 11, a civilian industrial arts school at 16, the Gallentean Junior Feminine Mud Wrestling Federation's League at 18, several jobs both in Caldari and Gallente space, and eventually the mines.

Back from her memories,  Yiole looked at Henri, who said:

"Usually I wasn't very active at Mme. Hetaria's job list. Yet when there was some special girl as I like them, she would ask me to... well. Allow her to reach cruise speed. Be her first protector. Do you remember, Yiole?
"Yes, I remember. You both were pretty convinced that it was a good arrangement."
"And you too. How did she called you? Little flowers? And she trusted some of us to make you bloom to your potential."
"I recall that. You were truly ecstatic and barely could wait until we reached your car. And certainly you deemed that your apartment was too far to wait"
"Huh? Oh, yes, that was... well, you were... you are so hot! How old were you? 22, 23? My, when you removed your shirt... that was like glory"

That was a way to put it. Yiole only had known her "protector" for twenty minutes, after an introduction with Madame Hetaria. He was obviously aroused and no matter her efforts, Yiole still wasn't in the mood when he ordered her to undress, after taking his limousine and sealing the back compartment. Certainly he was ecstatic; Yiole was aware that she was unique in her promotion, as other girls equally tall and curvy hadn't worked out their bodies and weren't as muscular as she was after undertaking heavy duties for years. Yiole saw him almost literally drooling as she removed her shirt and released the clasp of her front closure brassier. Later, Henri turned to be able to be patient and delicate, but the first impression as he climbed on her at the back of his limousine was not good.

Hoping that she was distracted, Henri stared at Yiole's bosom, to no avail as she was wearing a modest T-shirt and her flight jacket on top of it. Then he looked up and met Yiole's eyes, as cold as two blue icicles under her black fringe.

"Houm... anyway, those were good times. Your idea... it was a nice suggestion. Security assistant. And you would keep assisting me while I was in bed". Henri smiled lewdly, and added: "Did you kept doing it? Because that was my suggestion when I introduced you to Barrizan"
"Yes, I kept doing it, with Barrizan and the next ones."
"And... how many times...? How many protectors did you had?"

Yiole looked at Henri. Or what was left of him. His limousine. His apartment. The country house. The seaside apartment in a exotic planet. Traveling along. Attending to meetings and then having a quickie between appointments, or making love passionately by night. He was used to the way Madame Hetaria's School readied the apprentices. Just he wasn't really interested in the escorting thing. He wanted sex on demand, and he would pay a salary plus the usual gifts, posing as if the silent Achuran woman was just a security officer, and then, invariably, letting be understood that she “surveyed his security” in bed to. But as Madame Hetaria had said, Yiole wouldn't had been accepted if she didn't fulfilled the psychological requirements to be a prostitute and survive it. When she finished her studies successfully, Yiole Gionglao was a extremely well prepared and exclusive harlot, and one with a plan.

"Yiole? How many times...? If I may ask...", insisted Henri
"Five. Counting you, I had five employers -she stressed the word- over three years. I used the security officer cover with all of them. And each one was a step forward".
"So you followed your plan?"
"Yes. Wealthier and wealthier, and the last one came with a capsuleer course paid at the SAK"
"SAK? I don't get this"
"School of Applied Knowledge. It's a Caldari corporation"
"Oh yes, of course. So you... worked... for three years and then became a capsuleer?"
"Essentially yes" -muttered Yiole.

Essentially. Despite the inconveniences. The jealousy. The misunderstanding of what was private and what could be shared to friends, with or without a payment. The stupid attempts to hook her to drugs. The struggle against lost virility. And even a petition to carry a baby... the list of five wealthy men thinking Me, Me, Me, I, I, I, without regard of her own plans. Convinced that their millions and billions were buying, not just skills or a body, but also a soul. What can you do for me, always. Come here, do this, do that, put yourself this way or that other, and now take my dick and also my ideas on how and why should you live from now on. Be my whore, be my friend, be my property. I am bloody paying you.

Then she had to walk a thin line. Apply careful appeasement. Keep the distance. Promising and under delivering when necessary, and then going the extra mile The delicate balance to not lose sight of the line and keep their interest until they could lead her up and up... until one of them had the contacts, the money, and was gullible enough to be convinced of turning away his precious whore and let her become a superhuman capsuleer. He actually believed that she still would be his after the conversion... as if it all was just a sophisticate perversion for his own pleasure. Wit apparently dwindled once fortunes were to large to be expressed with a digit in each finger of the hands...

"Well, all is well that ends well... how it is to be a capsuleer? Is what you expected?"
"Houm. Look at me. I am doing what I want, when I want, because I want."
"But that's not all, right?", said Henri, and for the first time, he seemed capable to think on something else than whatever lusty memories he had from the months Yiole spent with him.
"Are you talking from experience?", asked Yiole.
"Well, I guess that such could be said... you work hard, and then want to do what you please, but then... people, time, circumstances, the Universe... they won't oblige. And you wonder, what's the purpose, where's the problem? Is it in me? So you keep trying..."
"Is this why you are here?"
"Why I am here? With this gaunt face and the oversize clothes, you mean, right?"
"Well... it's a disguise...?"
"Heh. No. It's not a disguise, but for real. I am broken. Beyond broken, actually"
"What happened?"
"Custom Offices. I invested heavily... too heavily... on Interbus' foreign trade options. The next big business, custom offices outside of granted space. But capsuleers thought differently"
"My god... you mean that you bought stock options on lowsec COs?"
"Yes. Bought them with everything I had left. And they all were blown in a few weeks, replaced by capsuleer owned ones... and nobody gave a shit. One bastard from the Bureau almost laughed at me. I deserved it, maybe."
"You used to be a careful investor..."
"Right, wasn't I? But then... well, I went astray. Nothing was enough and I blamed it on shyness. So I dared and dared, then lost and lost,  and here I am, at the end of the rope."
"Looking for business?"
"I have it. I'll be back on track, so don't worry. I am so glad that your plans worked..."
"If there is something a capsuleer could do for you... I could..."
"No, don't worry. Seriously. I am following a plan, my plan. My line, as you used to say"
"Your line..."
"Yes. My line. Silly me, I couldn't tell that you were walking your line. But I am so glad that you succeeded."
"I made it to the end, yes. And now I am almost immortal..."

Henri looked at Yiole with merciful eyes. Probably he wasn't in a situation to feel pity for anyone, and Yiole just let him have his chance.

"I wish you luck, Yiole. I wish you find your line again"
"I wish you too, Henri. Good luck and walk your way up"

Henri waited until Yiole stood up and was about to leave, then he said:

"Yiole! I'll be here a few days more. If you think that we could meet again..."
"Maybe, but there is a man, Henri"
"Oh, of course... how couldn't. Stay well, little flower"
"Stay well, Henri".

Yiole paid her lunch and Henri's, and before leaving the restaurant saw him serving himself more wine and emptying the glass in a single gulp. Then Yiole bit her lower lip and walked away.