The Bright Side of Midnight

By Angela Fiddler

Pleasure or pain? The Dose. On paper, it’s a mild mood enhancer that takes the edge of drudgery and keeps workers happy. But people are killing to get it and dying of an impossible disease to make it. Tavish has come home to the corporate mining colony of Midnight to find the cure, where his allies and enemies are not who he expected. His quest will take him from the sickness that threatens his nearest and dearest to inside Alpha Site where the man who controls the colony pushes him to his knees and the edge of his boundaries. Will the bright side of Midnight be Tavish’s ruin or salvation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela
• Release date: Aug 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310214653

Angela Fiddler

Angela Fiddler is the occasional pen name of Barbara Geiger. Barbara didn’t learn that she had lived in three out of the four Northern Alberta towns that had a known or suspected Wendigo attack until well after she’d moved south to Lethbridge. She grew up loving ghost stories and pony books, and spent most of her summers on the British Columbia coast, where she fell in love with the ocean.As Angela Fiddler, she has written The Master of the Lines series as well as Cy and his sex demon problem books. As Barbara Geiger, she has written The Tempest trilogy, starting with Coral Were his Bones, which exists in the same universe as the Middlehill series, starting with Changeling, as well as various other novellas and short stories.When she’s not following the exploits of selkies, sex demons and vampires, she writes epic fantasy and makes the occasional foray into science fiction and short stories.

Book preview

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF MIDNIGHT

by Angela Fiddler

Copyright 2008 by Angela Fiddler

Smashwords Edition 2014

*****

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and is meant to be enjoyed by adults.

This book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment, and may not be re-sold.

Editor: Kris Jacen. Originally published in Space Escapes by MLR Press.


Cover image based on Planet Xiroph by Daniel Lombraña González on Flickr, CC-BY-2.0.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

About Angela Fiddler

Angela’s other books

Read an excerpt from Coral Were His Bones

Chapter One

The stained print of the organism, dyed purple and pink and blown up to poster size, was almost beautiful. Tavish had spent hours staring at it. It had a calming effect on him. It was too bad that something so pretty infected the lungs of miners digging in the depths of his home colony.

Tavish looked out the window to watch Midnight’s approach. Midnight was growing off the portside viewer. It wasn’t an actual porthole; he didn’t even know if he had a room on the outside of the ship, but the display showed the murky, dusty planetoid to its best advantage, such that it was. He looked back to the stain, and pressed his fingers against the glossy finish.

The door slid open silently. Such easy convenience was one more thing Tavish was going to have to get used to not having. Midnight was nothing but a mining colony and comforts such as automatic doors were a waste of precious energy. He had to go back, not just because the Black Lung was only found in the mines of Midnight. His education had been mostly financed by the colony; he owed them his service. He wasn’t exactly like one of the miners bought and paid for body and soul from the company, but he was close.

Royal entered, dressed in a white uniform, impeccably tailored, and immediately moved to the rumpled blankets on the lower bunk. He was immaculate, but then he always was. Tavish supposed he started fucking Royal just so he could break up the chestnut hair from its usual casing. He was certainly pretty enough to have caught Tavish’s fancy. But once he’d been caught, it hadn’t really been what either of them wanted.

Oh, leave it, Tavish said as Royal put the bottled water next to the bed. We’ll be landing in an hour or so.

That’s what I came in to tell you, Royal said. He began clearing the textbooks and tablets off the table. The magnetic field would hold everything down no matter how bumpy the landing was, and despite himself Thomas couldn’t stop the stab of annoyance flashing inside him. He took the tablet away from him and kissed him, just to get him to stop touching his things.

That’s what you pay me for, Royal said. Remember?

You’re my lab assistant, Tavish said. Not my mother, not my housemaid.

What part of my job description includes cocksucking?

That’s not a part of your job at all, Tavish said. Royal had said it teasingly, almost, but it rubbed Tavish’s already raw nerves. He pushed the button on the stain sample and the casing went soft enough for him to roll it up and stow it with the rest of his belongings.

You love that thing more than me, Royal said. His voice was still light, but his eyes weren’t, not in the slightest. Tavish pretended not to see it. He sighed, and took Royal’s hand. We have an hour, you said? he asked, the brightness in his voice as manufactured as the view screen up against the wall. They almost deserved each other.

When they were both in school, both finishing off their doctorates, Tavish had been at the head of the class and Royal somewhere in the middle. So when Tavish had been offered the job, personally asked over holo by Midnight’s governor, Patrice himself, he’d asked Royal to come with him as his assistant. He’d honestly thought Royal would refuse the job as being beneath him, but Royal hadn’t.

On the three-week voyage over, this feeling of incompatibility grew. Royal made a brilliant assistant. His powers of observation and anticipation ensured that everything Tavish could have possibly wanted in the temporary workspace they’d been given was met. Only that level of care had also carried over into the bed, and that was the last thing Tavish wanted. The more care and concern Royal showed, the less Tavish wanted to screw him.

Royal kissed him, pulling him back to the now. Shall we have sex? He placed his hands on Tavish’s chest. Because Midnight was a corporate mining company, everything had to come from the company. That included workers to work. In order to control the numbers, colonies were usually kept monosexed. He and Royal hadn’t been lovers before they left for school, and once they arrived at the co-ed university, Royal had several women as companions. Tavish had made a half-hearted pass at him late one night when they were both working on the organism’s genetic map, and he was surprised when Royal had accepted.

It hadn’t been an easy three months, and as they both graduated and were packing for their return, Royal had become snappish. Whenever he looked at Tavish, he seemed to look through him. Tavish knew he was thinking of running, and had been almost disappointed when Royal had turned up for the ship’s departure. Once they were on the ship, however, the overly-caring Royal returned with a vengeance. Tavish almost preferred the old Royal; at least he had had spunk.

How do you want me? Royal asked, pulling Tavish out of the memory. Tavish blinked, once, and shook his head. Tavish didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to discuss it or draw diagrams or play twenty questions. He put his finger on Royal’s lips.

I want you quiet, he said.

Royal nodded. He pulled off his tailored uniform and stood naked in front of Tavish. Royal looked better in the uniform than without it. Not that there was anything wrong with his body, it had just already begun to take the characteristics of a person who worked inside at a computer all day. The too white skin combined with the slightly bowed shoulders was something a tailored uniform could hide.

Royal’s cock was already hard. Tavish pushed his finger into Royal’s mouth, making him suck it, but stopped Royal from dropping to his knees.

Let me-- Royal began, but Tavish shook his head.

Royal didn't fight him. He sucked Tavish’s finger, hard, moaning and Tavish pulled his finger out. He opened his mouth to make a begging sound but kept quiet when Tavish looked at him. Tavish licked his lips, and brought his wet finger down over the tip of Royal's cock.

I could-- Royal cut in.

Tavish covered Royal’s mouth with his hand.

It was over between them. Royal’s eyes widened, sensing it, too. Tavish didn’t stop jerking Royal's cock. He knew there wasn't enough lubrication but the spray had already been packed. Besides, from the way Royal's hips were moving even with the rough touch of dry skin told him Royal no longer cared, one way or the other. Royal's eyes were closed, so Tavish stared past him, to the holo screen and watched the ship in its carefully planned fall to Midnight’s surface.

He let Royal pant and groan, grasping onto his shoulders. Tavish kept the pace up, exactly how he knew Royal liked it, and let him come all over the floor. He kissed Royal on the forehead. It’s done, he whispered.

Royal jerked free, the bad news fighting with the endorphins for control of his face. He took three deep breaths before he had control over his throat. I know, he said.

Tavish swallowed. I’m sorry.

Royal slowly pulled his uniform back on. His hands shook. I knew it wasn’t going to last.

If you’d rather return to the university, I can pay for it. I don’t want you to think that I dragged you here under false pretenses. You’re good enough for the job, and I’d still like to work with you.

Royal turned, and stared out to the growing hologram of Midnight. I never wanted to come back, he said. But I owe them seven years of work. I’d rather work with you than in a mining clinic.

I was surprised you didn’t try to run, Tavish said, quietly.

Royal’s shoulders tensed. I wanted to. But he knew as well as Tavish did that there was nowhere to run to. Without his accreditation, which belonged to Midnight until it was paid off in full, or his papers, he’d just be another non-citizen trying to find a job at whatever questionable place that would overlook his lack of paperwork. He turned. But I thought at least I had you to go back with.

Tavish relaxed, not realizing how tense he was until he felt the knots of his shoulder release. He was about to say he was glad he had him to go back to, too, when Royal looked at him. He was smiling, but the distancing look was back in his eyes. There was no way to read anything behind its chill. Tavish suddenly wanted Royal out of his room.

Royal left, as quickly and quietly as he’d come. They were landing anyway. Tavish lay down, glad that he hadn’t taken Royal to his bed. The static field molded to his skin as he lay down, more secure than any old-fashioned belting-in system, and when he woke up again, they had landed.

He came back to the clanks and groans of a ship locking itself into place. He sat up. The only side effect of the static field was an exceptionally dry mouth. That was what the bottled water was for. He cracked the seal and downed half of it, but the lining of his throat still felt parched. He got up and brought the bottle with him.

It was a hard landing on the surface, no tendering necessary, but there was still a queue to exit the ship. He saw Royal, further on in the line. Tavish didn’t call to him. Royal didn’t look for him.

It was going to be an interesting year.

Midnight’s landing pad hadn’t changed. The advertisements up on the walls just demonstrated newer versions of personal air purifiers and sleeker transporters.

Tavish’s return was somewhat mitigated by the new hospital wing, visible from the hill as they stepped through the controlled air flow. The unconditioned air of the colony was dry enough that Tavish stopped a few steps from the exit pathway and downed what remained in his water bottle.

The rolling hills to the west, rich with the symbiote arochos, were a deep red and orange. Before he’d left, there had been huge forests of stone trees. Arochos grew from the stone like land coral, creating huge pillars of stone that branched out like trees to gather in sunlight. Arochos had a rudimentary photosynthesis ability. Behind him, the huge ship with its slick lines and iced-over metallic sheen looked, rightly so, as if it came from a different planet.

The Alpha Site was to the north, and somewhat optimistically named. There were no other settlements on the colony big enough to even have a name. Not yet, at least. But the city was big enough now that the controlled air bubble no longer contained it all. Considering how dry Tavish’s lungs were from standing just a few minutes in the raw, unprocessed air, he didn’t envy those who worked outside the bubble and had to travel through the dryness every day.

Inside the bubble, what had been crowded when Tavish had left was now stuffed tight. The original rows of