The Cold Steel Mind by Niall Teasdale

bays, and there were few facilities for visitors. Most people coming to Corax were headed for longer-term accommodation in the Torem Enclave, the military base, or corporate housing facilities. There was a small transit hotel, however, and that was where the three of them had encamped, taking just one room which did cut down on costs, but also made the inevitable group sex easier. The room had one thing that Aneka wanted to use as soon as she saw it: a really good shower.
    The Garnet Hyde had perfectly efficient showers with running water, but they were cramped and designed to use the minimum of water to the maximum effect. Here there was lots of space and, while the lowered gravity made the drops bigger and slower, Aneka stood under the jets and sighed as she was gently rained on. Ella would likely want to join her at some point in the trip, but for now Aneka was last in, alone, and could take her time.
    Finally turning off the water, she engaged the other neat feature of the cubicle and turned slowly to allow jets of warm air to dry her before grabbing one of the over-fluffy towels you only find in hotels to finish her hair and walking out into the bedroom.
    ‘Nice?’ Ella asked from her position sprawled on the bed.
    ‘Gorgeous.’
    Shannon was sat at the room’s terminal, looking at several windows of information. ‘There’s a floor show on at Feathers,’ she said. ‘It’s a little rougher than Copperhead, but a lot more fun. The naval staff tend to go there. Copperhead is… more corporate.’
    ‘You know this place then?’
    ‘I used to run shuttle flights to and from New Earth for a while. Got to know Corax reasonably well.’ She gave a wistful sigh. ‘I was fucking this big marine who was stationed here for a while. Not much brain to speak of, but a huge cock. Both are advantages when you’re a telepath who likes it a little rough.’
    Aneka and Ella laughed. Aneka said, ‘Okay, you’re the expert so Feathers it is. What sort of clothing is appropriate?’
    ‘The usual,’ Shannon replied, shutting down the terminal. ‘Minimal.’
    ~~~
    Minimal was something Ella took very seriously. Her skirt was at least two inches shorter than Aneka’s, maybe an inch shorter than Shannon’s, and her top was a strappy, wrap-around affair which would have been tight and moderately revealing even if it had not covered her breasts in nothing more than fishnet. Since she was a little self-conscious about her height relative to Aneka, she was in black, platform pumps with a little ankle strap. Apparently Aneka’s lesson on ‘less is more’ had not sunk in yet. To be fair, Shannon was not a lot better in a Plastex mini-skirt and an Ultraskin bra which was at least opaque, though the uplift on it showed off her magnificent breasts rather extravagantly. Aneka had elected to wear her basque, which she liked, and a skirt Ella had persuaded her to buy which was short, and largely semi-transparent lace, but it still managed to hide what was beneath effectively.
    That explained many of the looks the three women got as they walked through the tunnels and plazas which made up the main habitat of Corax Commercial Station, the central hub of activity on the moon. The hotel was on one edge of it, next to the spaceport, and the bulk of the area immediately beside those buildings seemed to be either shops or offices of some sort. The entire structure was low, generally no more than a single storey in height, but built like a maze. There were some taller structures built under domes which sometimes broke the surface of Corax to show the grey sky above. Most of them seemed to belong to one company or another which had research facilities in other parts of the complex. A couple of the larger domes were more like public parks or plazas, and that was where the majority of the looks from those standing around were obtained.
    Feathers had its entrance set into the side of one of these plazas. It was out of the way, off the main areas of