#why no she's completely unrelated to any libertarian SF authors

[ununniliad]

The Old Spacer's Song Singing "Fuck You, Earth"

Leftenant Radison had worked his way up, step by step, over the heads of his fellow trainees; when he'd ratted out the men selling pot and homemade porn, he'd become the sargeant's favorite. He always scored number one on both marksmanship tests and sanity tests, he took hazing with grace and dished it out twice as hard, and he followed the rules to the letter, helping expose and drum out those who couldn't hack it. He was the number one fighter pilot of Capitatriarchy Base H-728.

And none of that mattered when his S-Fighter exploded into stargas! Because of her!

But who was she? She was the number one ace-pilot of the spaceways! The number one fly in the ointment and the number one gnat stinging the Capitatriarchy! She was Jezebel Harble, tough-as-nails transgender princess of the spaceways!

"That was stupid of them!" cheered Vance Sputnik, astral dreamer, hanging tight to the safety pressors! "In the face of your jinking and switching, they were sitting ducks!"

Jezebel shook her head, her purple ponytail sparkling in the light of ion beams. "Harble's Law, kid, there ain't no such thing as stupidity! The Capitatriarchy of True Earth doesn't care how many of their goons they waste if they can close their claws around us - and it's still closing in!"

Suddenly, a thoughtspark glimmered in their minds! .o(Gay MacRainfall on the line from the Sparkling Homestead!)

"Gay! Never thought I'd be so happy to hear your televoice!" Jezebel flew a crazy figure-eight, S-Fighters crashing into each other in the wake of her ship, that mode-morphing polyfighter, the Queer Bedfellow!

.o(Same to you, you crazy slut! Did you manage to snatch the treasure?)

.o(It's in our back pockets,) telechirped Vance, using his affinity with the Rainbow Stream that flows between all truly open hearts to send an image of it in their hold!

"But not for long, if Militindustry Incorporate has anything to say about it!" Jezebel's hands ran across the cybronic interface, the guns of the Queer Bedfellow pulsing infraviolet! "And for all the firepower Alonza installed on this babe, we're still outnumbered, thirteen thousand to one and climbing!"

.o(Make that thirty thousand!) teleyelled Vance, hands to his forehead. .o(Capital ship is chugging thru astral space right for us!)

.o(Then it's time to do something *really* stupid,) telesaid Gay, their mental voice scintllating in the high-dopamine range. .o(The Sparkling Homestead is going to open the hearts of every S-Pilot in a forty-klick range!)

"WHAT!?" Jezebel nearly ran straight into a transgravitic mine, juking out just in time! "Gay, it's too dangerous! Engaging with such resentful, closed, hate-filled hearts is gonna drain every spoon you have - and then some!"

.o(This ain't a democracy, Jezebel, it's an anarchist commune! You may have been President of Old Earth for two whole weeks, but in this polyfamily, your concern is noted, appreciated, loved - and filed in the wastebasket!) Gay telespoke with ultrasubconscious passion. .o(We've already formed the Pentacle Heart - centered on the thing we collectively love the most!)

"So why ya formin' it on a stuffed crust pizza," muttered Jezebel, blushing furiously. "All right, all right - but on my mark! I'm diving right into the heart of the storm!"

.o(A whole-ass masochist like you wouldn't have it any other way!) Jezebel and Vance could feel the spectral energy coruscating on the edges of Gay's words. .o(We're charged with hedonism and hope! On your mark!)

Jezebel drove the Queer Bedfellow through a torrent of coherent light and charged particles, closing in on the command wing at a hundred times the speed of sound! This would require thought-perfect timing! She readied the call just below the surface of consciousness, to trigger the moment she saw the glow of the Head Oppressor's gleamaward! "And..."

.o(MARK!)

Psychic love shot across the cosmos faster than light, faster than darkness, faster than conscious understanding! It burst across the cold thought-shields the Capitatriarchy enshrouded their agents in - burst and burrowed, digging in towards their hearts! And those hearts responded, reaching desperately for the light, for love, even as the conscious minds enclosing them fought against the kind intrusion!

Jezebel kicked the Queer Bedfellow's astral engines into overdrive! Vance caught onto the powerful hyperthought, guiding the ship on a path down the Rainbow Stream right towards home!

But they weren't out of the starwoods yet! The S-Pilots were trauma-trained to keep attacking even as tears poured from their eyes and painful hope beat against their breasts! Jezebel poured every erg of piloting skill she had, and every drop of love she had for the Queer Bedfellow, into bobbing and darting through the eye of the storm!!

Gay screamed wordlessly! .o(cold) .o(resentment) .o(pain) .o(one way) .o(doesn't matter) .o(Doesn't Matter) .o(Give Up) .o(GIVE UP!)

Tears flowed from Vance's eyes, nails digging into his hands as the psychic stream funneled thru his brain! "...hurts..."

Jezebel kicked backwards! Feet on the controls, she grabbed Vance's face and kissed him passionately! "Don't give up on me, motherfucker!" she murmured into his mouth, and grabbed his crotch, squeezing tight!

"Mmmmmmnh!" The screaming delight of a single moment burst across his brain, channeling back along the Rainbow Stream into his family, and back outward into the Incorporate forces - cracking hearts left and right, ion banks going silent as pilots and controllers alike wept for a lost life!

They flickered past the edge of the gravity well, locked hard onto the astral stream, and BOOSTED across the cosmos in a wink and a flash!

Another televoice came over the connection, softer, tired from struggling, but satisfied with a hard, worthwhile accomplishment. .o(queer bedfellow, do you read? this is maxine. gay's all right but needs to introvert. how are y'all?)

Jezebel set the autopilot with her big toe. "Just fine, Maxine." She lifted Vance's soft, brain-pummeled form out of his spacechair. "We're gonna do the same. See you at home."

.o(see thee soon!)

Two relative hours later, the Queer Bedfellow eased into the docks at the hidden asteroid known as the Sparkling Homestead. The hatch opened by itself, and Gay, sipping on a cannabis smoothie and stretching, made her way inside. "Jez? Vance? How ya doin?"

A pile of blankets and pillows lay in front of a crystalline statue depicting Aphrodite Hermes in loving union with themself. Vance's head was sticking out, and he finger-waved to Gay. "She's fast asleep, as ever after one of these really hard ones."

"Awwwww." Gay knelt down, running her fingers thru Jezebel's hair. "Good job. We'll alert the Tellurians we got their artifact back from the museum."

"Hey," Vance said, "What do you think she'd say if I told her she's my hero?"

Gay chuckled. "She'd say she's just another old spacer, and that you're a soft-hearted nerd."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Big tsundere."

"I know, right?" Gay leaned in and kissed Jezebel's cheek. "Sleep tight, princess of the spaceways."