Kelly yawned, flying over the last rows of trees before the residential area of Venus Hill. Tiredness began to make itself felt and the flycab reacted as protocol, making the cloche vibrate and shaking the taxi driver from the numbness.

“Apparently you're not the only one who's tired, Pip”

The little man had curled up in it little green house, and it didn't answer, nor did Kelly comment any further. She took one hand off the cloche, took a pill from a compartment of the dashboard and swallowed it, waiting for the stimulant to take effect in a few seconds. Immediately the taxi driver felt the tiredness vanishing, lighting a fire of pure energy within. She felt, now, she could drive all night long if necessary. 
Kelly hated those pills. The mixture of concentrated caffeine, synthetic adrenaline and who knows what other stimulants were almost a must to drive at night, but the side effects could be... insidious. The taxi driver felt energetic when she took them. Maybe too much: she immediately felt a strange heat in her brain and her thoughts ran fast and faster. 
Kelly pressed on the accelerator, far exceeding the speed limit, and passed the rich holds under her, following the GPS to its destination.

The flycab landed on a large landing pad just outside an elaborate iron gate. High mute trees surrounded the circle of light projected by a solitary streetlight and the silence filled the place. There was no one waiting. Not a soul to receive her. Kelly puffed, fearing a joke. It happened, sometimes: bored or stoned girls or both of them, who just wanted to make a fool of a honest worker.
The gate had not even an intercom, or the box of a night watchwoman to ask for explanations. The woman was about to restart the engine and take off, when a doubt lit her mind. She lowered the window and exclaimed to the void around her flycab:

“Hello? Is there anyone?”
“Yes? Can I help you?”

Kelly jumped on her seat, barely holding back a scream for the scare. The figure of a tall and beautiful woman, in butler's livery, suddenly appeared next to the flycab door. A subtle aura of blue light surrounded her, and her vacuous, soulless black eyes stared at her waiting for an answer. The damn hologram of the AI running the villa had come very close to causing her a heart attack. Very close. Kelly suppressed her instinct to swear at them and brought a hand to the chest. Her heart was wildly beating, as if the stimulant she had taken was not enough to make her more jumpy.

“I'm... I'm here to... “She murmured. Then, clearing the throat, she repeated “I am of the Spacecare flycab line. I'm here for a call to this address -
“Wait here, please”

The hologram vanished and the taxi driver abandoned herself to the back of the seat, still heartbroken by the fear. She brought a hand to the heart, trying to calm it down. "Damn" she thought. Those stimulants were great for staying awake at night: they made her feel ready, alert. Too bad she wanted to say a peak of adrenaline for every little stimulus. Kelly didn't have time to finish the fourth long breath, and the hologram reappeared next to the flycab.

“The lady is currently busy. Please wait and be patient until she is finished”

Said that, with a horrific aphonia, the AI made the hologram vanish, leaving the flycab only in the circle of light of the nearby lamp. Kelly tapped her fingers on the cloche, far from being patient. She wanted to accompany the client soon wherever she wanted to go and then go home to drop on the bed. Instead, she had to wait for the time of the last rich snob of her shift. The woman sighed, resigned: it was part of the job.
Kelly was already thinking about how much to raise the price of the race when she heard a rustle to her right. Her eye fell on Pip, who stood up and was now clutching the bars in its fists looking at her as if she were asking why it was taking so long. 

"I know, hon" said Kelly, sighing and touching the bars of the cage with the tip of the index, where Pip licked it a couple of times.


The woman pulled her finger back and Pip squeaked, happy and serene before snuggling back on its bed in the plastic box. Kelly smiled, thinking of how sometimes she envied the little man. A simple being, with few simple and clear needs. It had no worries about the future; about the fact that wasting too many hours of sleep and doping itself with stimulants would make a living hell the next shift. It shouldn't have been worried that losing it performance would make it lose money. That it would face a thousand expenses. That it couldn't plan its life beyond the end of the following month.
All Pip needed was a little food, a little sleep, some warmth and the cuddles of anyone who was willing to love it, to be happy. For a woman, life was intolerably more complicated.

Bright voices from the property and a series of lights on the path beyond the iron gate distracted her from her thoughts. Quickly, Kelly unbuckled her belts and got off the flycab, ready to welcome the client and take her luggage. Two hundred meters further away, the door of the big villa opened wide and two women came out of it. One of the two, barking at the other, was short and dark-haired, with olive skin wrapped by a silk vest. This flew on the legs that tried to keep up with the taller woman. Much taller: long, slender legs, as well as the torso and arms. Kelly could tell at a glance that she was a native of a low gravity environment. Mars, maybe... or even the Belt. Both poor areas of the Solar System, which made her presence at Venus Hill and her fancy clothes something very unusual. 
The woman dragged behind a very heavy trolley and walked fast, determined to ignore the smaller woman who panting and barking behind her trying to maintain her speed.
When they both approached, Kelly took a few steps in their direction. The tall woman placed her hand on the plate in front of the gate and it began to open, but the other placed her furious hand on it and closed it with force, grabbing the woman's blouse violently.

“Yue, stop!” growl “I won't let you leave. You're my wife!”
“Vivian... leave me alone” the woman replied with a faint voice, broken by tears

The tallest woman turned to Kelly, to escape the gaze of the landlady. She had the innocent beauty of an angelic face as a child, framed in long, ruffled brown hair, on the body of a woman over two meters tall. But it was a vision injured by a freshly stopped crying and an unequivocal red mark on her cheek. She moved away from the gate and crossed the arms around her own body, holding it in an hug given to herself. Every vowel that  her wife threw at her was a jolt that made her instinctively retreat from her.
Her fear of Vivian couldn't be clearer than that.

“I... can't stay here anymore” she said, almost whispering
“You're gonna be here. You're not going anywhere until I say so. And where would you like to go then? Where did I find you in that fleasy village? In an apartment you can't pay here in the city? Without me you are nothing, Yue!”
“I...h...I have m...money”
“Don't make me laugh. You can't handle all of this. Outside my house you won't be able to walk for a meter, alone”

Yue retreated, not noticing the suitcase behind it, and fell on it. Her lips trembled and the eyes became shinier. Vivian looked at her, calming the breath. She brought her hand under the Yue's chin, lifting it with a tenderness in stark contrast to the anger of a few moments earlier and moved a strand of her hair away from her cheek, smiling.

“Yue... We had a fight. It's normal in a couple. It happens. Now we go home: I'll make you a hot chocolate just you like, we'll curl up on the couch and watch an Olofilm. Whatever you like. What do you say?”

Yue looked up at Vivian, losing herself in those feline eyes, as if hypnotized. She saw her smile, without any human warmth, trying to draw it to herself. For a moment, a single moment, Yue was tempted to give in to her invitation. Returning to a routine that a part of her was terrified to abandon. But then something changed in her eyes. Her head snapped back, evading Vivian's gentle touch

“No, I... I can't. I won't do it again: I have to leave this house and...and you. I made a mistake leaving my family, my girlfriend... my planet, for you!”

The woman fell heavily on the pavement, thrown to the ground by the volent Vivian's slap. She covered her face, bursting to tears, while the
little woman, much more imposing than her true stature, stood over her.

“You ungrateful little bitch. After all I've done for you, after all I've given you!”

Kelly had seen enough. Maybe it was the stimulant that gave her the necessary courage or maybe just the sight of an injured woman in trouble. The taxi driver kicked the gate, which opened up quickly and hit Vivian hard. Kelly felt the dry snap of her nose breaking and just afterwards the woman was thrown to the ground, beating her head on the pavement not far from Yue.
Kelly was bashful, shocked by what she had just done. It all happened so fast she couldn't even blame her instincts. She stayed for a few seconds panting in anger, staring at that small, thin body that was twisting on the lane. Then she offered a hand to the other woman, who was more shocked than she was, and made her raised, holding her arm around her back.

“Come on. We have to leave before she recovers”

Yue didn't answer. Supported by the taxi driver, who just arrived at her breast, she limped up to the car in the parking, dragging the trolley behind her. 
Kelly threw the suitcase in the trunk, closed the door to the woman and quickly jumped into the flycar, taking off in less than a minute.
Standing a few meters above the ground, the taxi driver heard Vivian's yelling, overwhelmed by the sound of the engines. Kelly pushed the pedal all the way down and left, leaving behind only dust and shouts.

************************************



A few minutes later the flycab left Venus Hill for the countryside around. Lower green hills wavered between smaller houses and cottages, pond estates and more modest groves. Kelly landed the aircraft, upsetting the foliage of three leafy trees that would cover her flycab. 
Her heart was beating madly. The tiredness, the stimulant... and now that. 
Her shaking hand touched under the joystick’s column, where a simple illegal switch turned off the flycab’s transponder. She slipped on the seat like a dead body, while her hand fell along her body. Kelly was trembling, barely holding a scream of fear and frustration.
She had thrown a rich woman of Venus Hill to the ground. Worse, maybe she had smashed her face. But she had acted of instinct. Under the effect of stimulants. 
Yes, perhaps that would have saved her. She would have explained everything and... or not. They would sue her, they would drain her credits, fire her. She should have gone back to Earth to her mothers and...



“Oh good Goddess, what have I done!”
“You... saved me”

Kelly turned to the passenger. She looked at her, shy, afflicted, but grateful, with her hands between her knees, her shoulders closed and two borning tears into the eyes; on her face, there was still the sign of the slap received. While she was much taller than her and filled the aircraft with all her stature, she seemed much smaller at the moment. Much more helpless. Needy for protection.
Kelly turned forward, closing her eyes. Part of her was, after all, proud to have saved her. A small part, suffocated by the realistic one that blamed her for her impulsiveness.

“It was... just duty, ma'm.”
“Well. You still saved me. Thank you”
“You're welcome - replied Kelly, exhaling exhausted - Where does she want to be taken?”

The passenger didn't answer. She looked at her own hands, left between her knees, as if they could give her the answer.

“Do you have a destination? A place to go?”
“No, I... I was just thinking about getting out of that house”

Kelly turned to look at her. She was trembling, frightened. Warm tears fell on her red cheeks and it was clear she couldn't think clearly. Kelly turned off the taximeter, got out of the car and opened the door of the passenger. She looked up, taking refuge in that comfortable, though exhausted, glance

“Listen to me. You're upset. We both are. I've finished my shift and I can take you wherever you want to to to tidy up your ideas. Just give me an indication.”
“Or... wherever I want?”
“Everywhere. Really”
“But I really don't know where to go. I have little money in my account and... and Vivian will surely have blocked the one in common and…”

Kelly dropped her head on her chest, frustrated. A night that was supposed to end into an usual routine had turned into the plot of a four-rate romance novel. That woman was upset, while she was tired, supported only by stimulants and didn't think clearly. "Good" she thought. 

“At home”
“What?”
“At my home” she repeated “I can take you to my place”
“But…”
“It's not a big apartment. Certainly not as big as the villa you'll be used to, but it's a good place to recover. And tomorrow morning we can think about what to do”
“I... thank you. All right” 
“But first” said the taxi driver, shaking her hand “I'm Kelly. Kelly Wilcher”

The passenger flashed a shy smile, drying her aching cheek with the back of her free hand.

“Yue Yen”

**********

- Vivian Lockdale? That Vivian lockdale? - Kelly asked shocked
Yue nodded and Kelly almost lost her flight balance. 
Vivian Lockdale was one of the most important businesswomen on Island 1. Not as wealthy as other multibillionaires and politicians of the solar system, but still essential to many of them. Her company was engaged in the extraction, refining and transportation of ice from Ganymede and Titan. She practically supplied water, oxygen and hydrogen to all the space bases of the system, as well as playing an important commercial role in Mars' endless terraforming. But more importantly, Vivian Lockdale had appeared several times on the half of the System news reports for embezzlement, illegal acquisition of smaller companies, bribery and even a couple of cases of piracy facilitation. All these accusations are always dropped before they even land in a court, thanks to the protection of women who found her services indispensable. 
She was a treacherous, shrewd woman who wasn't used to losing what she considered to be her property. If half of what Kelly had heard from Solnet's news and blogs was true, breaking her face made her a heroine for half the solar system. And a fugitive for the other half.

Yue's story was no less reassuring about that woman. Born into a poor family in Chéngshì, in the southern hemisphere of Mars, the mothers were both workers and Yue would have continued to work at the factory if Vivian hadn't noticed her during a visit. From that point of view, Kelly could understand her. Yue was a real beauty. 

Vivian took her, carrying her around as if it were a jewel until, just two years later, she made Yue the happiest woman in the solar system with a royal wedding. 
But the more the marriage continued, the more the curtain of good life and sumptuous gifts rose to the truth: Yue was nothing more than a Vivian's property. She was tied to a woman who treated her as a status symbol, an object to be flaunted just right an astroyacht or a precious dress. She had a royal income, which she used for herself and to give her mothers a more than decent life, but she could never have her own money, a purpose in life. She couldn't have had the daughters she wanted so much, because Vivian didn't want them - and worse than anything, she couldn't have had a personal opinion. Since she had the courage to speak out, time before, the idyll had collapsed like a castle of wet sand. 
At first they were just harsh words: it can happen in a wedding... who doesn't say something she can repent of? Then came the lovers: being ignored, not being touched anymore.
When Yue tried to do the same, she got her first slap. Then another, week later, followed by expensive jewellery. 
Before a year had passed since the first fight, Yue's routine became a symphony of alternating beats and gifts and long, tense silences.
There's no point in going to the police: some laws don't seem to apply to the rich. She had no friends she could call to. Vivian had never allowed her to have any. 
Yue had long been trapped in that cage of gold, crystal and terror, and the first time she had the courage to escape that house, Kelly had intervened by doing what she would never have had the courage to do.

*************

The flycab landed on the platform's parking area next to Kelly's apartment building. The night was quiet, as can be a modest suburb of an orbital colony. The taxi driver opened the door, but stopped instantly. Yue opened her door too and opened the mouth to thank her savior for the umpteenth time when she was silenced by this last one. Kelly looked out of the taxi, frightened by the taxi driver's concern.

“What happens?” she asked

Kelly pointed to the alley behind the building that led to the street. On the building next door, the reflection of blue and red flashing lights alternated unmistakably on the brick wall.

“The police never come to this neighborhood” Kelly sentenced, swallowing the lump that held her throat.
“Well... maybe... they're doing a simple check. No?”
“At 3:20 in the morning? After your escape? In a neighborhood that they systematically avoid?”

Yue closed the door, collapsing to the seatback. She looked at Kelly's shoulders, which were moving imperceptibly. Sufficient, however, to convey the growing anxiety she felt. There could be a denunciation against a taxi driver. After such an aggression, any citizen, honest or not, would report it. Or the situation was worse than expected and Vivian was using her connections to solve it in her own way. The way a rich, influential woman solved things. Kelly had a chill: whatever the reality was, she didn't want to find out. Not that night.

“Maybe I am paranoid. But I don't want to risk”

Kelly closed the door, turned off the position lights and flew away, out of the city, thanking the goddess for having had the mental clarity to turn off the transponder.
Neither of the two women spoke, while the taxi passed buildings and condos. Yue was scared, confused and grateful. She thought that silence maintained the delicate balance between anguish and embarrassment. Kelly was just worried. A whirlwind of thoughts swirled in her head and she no longer knew which to listen to.
Vivian Lockdale was a dangerous woman. You don't get out of all those incriminations without being clever and full of connections. And breaking her nose with a gate and taking away her wife had certainly not been well inclined to her.
The police under her house could actually have been a coincidence. A call for noise or a checkup. But could it be? How many times, to the news followed in the bars she had commented how much the police of Island One was in the hands of the powerful people? Of the rich ones that she and her colleagues chauffeured around?
They were the usual bar chatter. Chatting about a truth far from everyday life. But now that same chatter was about her. Could it really just be paranoia?
She landed the taxi on the shore of Greater Lake, the same one she had admired a few hours earlier from the panoramic terrace on the other side of the station. Kelly looked up, at the upside-down hill that hung over the vault of Isola Uno and sighed. Less than an hour had passed, and in those few minutes her life had been disrupted. She got out of the flycab and let Yue down. At a command given to the dashboard, the seat backs disappeared, moving downwards to fill the spaces between them and forming a single low-floor. 
Kelly opened the trunk and pulled out an old wool blanket and two flat cushions. It was an equipment that many taxi drivers had in their vehicles: you never knew when a shift would end too late to drive to home.

“Here we go. It won't be comfortable, but at least we can sleep under a cover. And by tomorrow, we hope to have a bit clearer ideas. I'm just sorry that the floor is not softer”
“Thank you” Yue answered smiling at her and taking one of the pillows “But I slept in worse places when I was a child”

She undressed her clothes, which she folded carefully and, placed them under the pillow, entered the taxi, crawling on the floor until she found her place. Kelly's eyes fell on her slender, toned body and swallowed, trying to look away from Yue's ass. For a moment, she blush and immediately understood what had attracted Vivian to her. She also took off her clothes, bending the jeans and the shirt under the pillow to increase its thickness. Remaining just in underwear and bra, she crawled next to Yue and threw the blanket over them, crouched under it. 

Lying beside her, Yue saw Kelly, still blushed, who was looking up to the woods behind Venus Hill. 
She smiled.

“You don't have to be embarrassed, you know?  I know I'm... beautiful.”
“Me? Embarrassed?” Kelly replied “No, it's just that…”

The taxi driver turned around and got lost in Yue's green eyes. She had to make an effort not to look at the clear skin that descended below the blanket, the shapes that filled it with sinuous curves. Her heart began to beat in the chest faster than it had done in that fatidical hour, and under the blanket she felt the warmth of the two bodies burning up her skin.
“Yes, I do. Excuse me” she admitted “I'm still overwhelmed by the adrenaline, the fear, the tiredness. It's stupid to think of... Don't... don't mind to it. Let's sleep”

Yue saw the woman close her eyes. She still felt her heart hammering in her chest. It hadn't stopped running for a moment since she had abandoned her wife. 
She had abandoned Vivian. She still couldn't believe it. Just over an hour earlier she had called a taxi in the grip of anger, fear and the desire to escape. She hadn't planned anything: she just wanted to get away from her oppressive golden cage. She hadn't even hoped to take that taxi. Perhaps part of herself hoped that Vivian, risking to lose her, would change. That she treated her better, that she returned to love her as, at the end of the day, she had never done.
But Kelly answered the call and made her escape a reality. And now Yue felt she hated that part of herself.
She looked at the little woman lying in front of her, almost naked under the same rough blanket. 
Kelly didn't have a sensational body. Tonic, well-proportioned like any other woman's, of course, but equal to that of many others. The gentle and slightly elongated face was adorned with a rebellious hair, long on one side and shaved on the other one and a sharp and regular nose. In another life, at another time, Yue wouldn't have looked at her twice. But that kick at the gate, which had freed her from that monster of her wife... that protective action of her, that knowing what to do despite the heavy stress...
She felt she had feelings for her. Something that ignited that belly heat that she hadn't felt in a long time. Since she kissed the other girls under the clumsy silhouettes of Deimos and Fobos.
The woman opened her eyes and found Yue's eyes looking at her.

"What is it?” she asked.

Yue moved forward, placing her lips on Kelly's. 
The stunned taxi driver opened her eyes by instinctively retracting. Yue followed her, prolonging the kiss and immediately the little woman surrendered, blushing even more in front of the Martian.
When their lips diverged, Kelly brought a hand to her own, while Yue's eyes remained fixed on the woman's.

“Yue... that's wrong”
“Didn't you like it?”
2No, I... yes. I liked it, but we shouldn't” Kelly answered by gently pushing the woman's shoulders.
“Why? Is it because I'm married?”
“Because we're tired. Overwhelmed by adrenaline. Afraid. It's not a good way of... forging a relationship.” 
“I don't want a relationship. Just a little warmth. Just a little intimacy. Is it really that wrong?” asked Yue, begging for a negative reply.

They were both exhausted. They really were. Yue had been trying for months to ask for affection from a cold, self-centered and selfish woman. But Kelly...
Kelly was tired. Tired of her recent breakup with her girlfriend. Tired of having to carry rich, spoiled brats up and down the city. Tired of having to smile and reverence anyone for a salary that evaporated in front of the thousand bills of a very expensive city. Tired of having to maintain full efficiency, supported only by stimulants and fear of being fired. She embraced the Martian, took her to herself. Her lips clenched in a deep kiss, long desired by both of them.

Only a few seconds passed and Kelly felt Yue's fingers sliding over her belly. She felt the pressure of her hand on her navel,then on her womb. Kelly jerked, separating herself from the kiss. Yue's fingers touched the soft hair on the taxi driver's pubis and descended, descended again until they found the warm touch they were looking for.
Kelly moaned, biting her lip, while Yue played with the little pearl that had already emerged between her legs.

“M...more...C...continue”

The Martian obeyed and after a few moments felt the touch of the taxi driver's small hands touching her breast, slipping under her bra. She felt her playing with her nipple just as she did with the little clit between her fingers. 

“Mmmhm…” Yue moaned “your hands... are so delic...AAAAAH!”

The Martian screamed suddenly, kicking under the rough blanket. Kelly reacted by screaming too.

“What is it?! Did I hurt you?” exclaimed frightened, portraying the hand from the woman's big breast
“S...something between the feet! I've got something between my feet!”

Kelly grabbed a corner of the blanket and pulled it away, throwing it against the taxi doors. When she discovered their naked bodies, the woman slipped her gaze along Yue's beautiful legs. At the end of them, stuck between the big toe and the second finger of the Martian, a familiar figure twisted and cried, frightened. It pushed uselessly against the pink skin, unable to escape the grip that Yue had instinctively tightened on the small body.
Kelly brought a hand to her chest. Her heart almost burst out from the fear.

“Pip?!”