Black Rain Ch. 01

"No matter what happens," she moaned, bringing her mouth next to his ear as Ashton's cock began to swell with another orgasm, "no one will ever take tonight from us."

She licked his neck and nibbled on his ears as her pussy started to spasm and twitch around his shaft. Ashton brought himself halfway up to face her massive breasts. He took one sensitive nipple into his eager mouth and started licking and sucking her. They were very close to reaching their plateau together. Ashton began biting on her nipples.

"Oh John," she groaned, "Don't slow down baby... don't slow down..."

They fucked each other harder and faster as Ashton wildly tongued her delectable tits. Tishara threw her head back, her wet hair whipping to her backside in unabashed pleasure. Her soaking pussy was slurping at his cock, demanding his orgasm now.

"Oh fuck baby," Ashton closed his eyes tight as his balls tightened.

"Yes!" she screamed out, her face turned up to the sky as her pussy shuddered and grasped his cock tightly, "YES!"

They could not stop their momentum, even as their respective orgasms rocked their bodies. The sexual energy of their climax joined into one hot bolt of lightning and seared through them, fusing them into one person. Ashton cried out as he seized, every muscle in his body tight and frozen as his cum filled the reservoir of the condom deep inside Tishara's body. He groaned into her fleshy breasts, clamping down on her erect nipple with his teeth.

Tishara screamed as she rode the arc of her climax, still humping him and still face up into the night sky as the waves washed over their coupled genitalia. She continued to cry out into the darkening sky until at last the power behind their mutual orgasm began to recede. Her chest heaved up and down as she worked her open mouth back and forth, trying to catch her breath.

They remained this way for a while as the tide submerged their legs and lapped at Ashton's chest. She waited until his cock had deflated inside her and then let him slip out of her. She remained on top of him as the night claimed dominance over the day once more. Ashton ran his hands up her curvy hips and to her full breasts. He massaged them gently and said to her, "I love you

"I love you," she smiled down at him.

The computer began to lose the image as the captain stirred in his sleep. His vitals were high and his blood pressure increasing with each passing second. The A.I. prepared to administer a sedative when it detected aberrance in its functions. The command to sedate Ashton back into sleep was immediately recalled and the revival sequence initiated. The ship rocked back and forth violently, the sleepers unaware of what was happening.

The screen that had displayed the dream went dark as the cryo bay began to light up, the systems turning on one by one. As the A.I. set about identifying this new problem, it realized that Ashton had reacted before being woken up. It was almost as though he had sensed there was something wrong on a subconscious level.

***

In the starboard cryo-hold, the first tube in the long row of thirty opened slowly, the oiled servos whining silently as the heavy plexi-glass pod door rose into the air. The man inside stirred slowly, his naked body trim and muscular. He slowly sat up in the bed of the pod, rubbing his dark brown eyes as the machine next to him fed his body the necessary drugs to counteract the effects of cryo-sleep. His black hair was cropped short, his features strong and harsh, the lines of his eyes and mouth deeply creased. He seemed so much older than the age of thirty-five. He opened his eyes, and looked at his medical monitor.

He had been asleep now for two years, three months, six days, eight hours and fifty-three minutes. His health was still perfect, and despite the long period of time between when he had went entered stasis to now, there was no sign of any atrophy to his limbs or body. The drugs manufactured by his employer made sure of that. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stretched out.

"Computer, what is the current location of Haven?" he asked groggily as the drugs slowly began to wake him up all the way. He was happy to find that he was sporting a healthy erection as he moved to stand up. Many things had changed in the last hundred years for mankind, but a good eight-inch morning hardwood was a pleasant universal constant.

"Identification, please." The computer answered with it's simulated, soft female persona.

"Ashton, Captain John J.," he said as he walked to the computer terminal built into the primary bulkhead of the bay. He placed his hand on the scanner as the terminal lit up and scanned his fingerprints. He felt cold, and wished he had put on his underwear before getting out of the tube.

"Confirmed," the computer said, "Haven is seventy-seven days out from final destination."

Ashton frowned, scratching the coarse dark stubble on his face. "Why have I been brought out of cryo-sleep so early?"

"Haven was forced out of hyperspace thirty minutes ago."

"Cause?" he asked as he went to his locker at the foot of his tube. He pulled out his uniform, a dark blue flight suit and his black duty boots.

"Haven passed too close to another vessel in hyperspace. Evasive maneuvers created a system failure and caused an engine shut down as a safety measure to avoid overload. Engines restarted fifteen minutes ago at quarter power. Hyperspace generator is offline," the computer replied.

"So we're just cruising right now," he said to himself quietly, and then to the computer he asked, "Damage report?"

"Minor damage to port engine couplings, stress fractures in the sixth and seventh portside support columns."

Ashton pulled his boots on and zipped up his flight suit. "Identity of the other vessel?"

"Unknown design, unknown registry beacon."

"Alien in origin?"

"The vessel doesn't match any configuration used by the Terran Exploration Wing or any known military craft."

Ashton closed his tube and returned to the terminal. "We're too far out of regulated space to be meeting anyone we know. Wake the crew."

"Engineer Harmon and Communications Officer Paisley are already awake."

Ashton stopped. "What the fuck?"

"Please restate question."

"Why are they up before me?"

"Unknown."

Ashton felt himself becoming angry. "When did they wake up?"

"Six and half hours ago."

"So they were awake when the ship dropped out of hyperspace..."

"Affirmative."

"Computer, disengage cryo-sleep on the standing crew and give them instructions to assemble in the mess hall. Tell First Officer Lee to join me on the bridge as soon as possible."

"Understood."

Ashton stormed out of the cryo-tube bay and began walking to the bridge. No one was supposed to be awake yet, at least no one before him anyway. His boots clanked against the crosshatched metal deck plates as he furiously wondered why the hell those two would be up so early. And if the Haven had been side swiped by an alien craft, why didn't they alert him sooner? He reached the hatch that led to the bridge and found it was locked. He tried his personal override commands, and he could have spit nails when the computer reported they had been cancelled.

Ashton slammed his fist against the hatch. "Open up!"

The door did not move.

"Computer, is anyone in there?" he growled as he took a step back.

"Engineer Harmon and Communications Office Paisley are currently on the bridge. Would you..." the computer voice was cut off, followed by a steady hiss of static. Ashton shivered as a chill crept down his spine. The deck plates shuddered slightly under his boots, and he knew something was wrong. He turned and ran to the weapons locker.

***

Burning on the monitor above the main bridge windows, a warning light was flashing, the simple phrase, "COLLISION ALERT" illuminated brightly.

Robert Harmon sat down at the pilot's console, frantically trying to realign the navigational array. Sweat had beaded on his low, thick brow as his fingers danced over the control panel. The ship was shuddering now, and based on the trajectory of their course they had entered a gravity field. With the engines pushing at a quarter of their normal output, there was no way he could maneuver the ship away. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

His sabotage of the navigational array was only supposed to send the ship off course long enough to end the mission. The plan had been so simple, and he had planned for every contingency imaginable. Almost every contingency. How he could have known another ship would be so close to them at that moment and this deep into space was irrelevant now. If he didn't figure something out, he would die along with the rest of the crew and passengers.

"Shit," he hissed, "Shit!"

He could hear someone pounding on the door now. His heart stopped in his chest. If the crew found him here, they would crucify him. He looked over at the near naked body of Miranda Paisley. The blonde communications officer was still unconscious from her abrupt exit from cryosleep. She was still naked, and Harmon felt a momentary pang of guilt. It bothered him, but it was momentary nonetheless. Even in the midst of this disaster, he could appreciate her beauty and found himself wishing that he had ten more minutes of free time with her like this. The things he would have liked to do to her.

"I hate getting interrupted," he mussed. He hoped the drugs he had given Paisley would keep her under for a little longer. He didn't want to explain what he was up to, and he sure as hell didn't want to explain to her why she was naked on the bridge.

If all had gone to plan, the crew would have woken up to find Paisley on the bridge unconscious, the patsy for his brilliant plan. Harmon would have already gotten back into his cryotube and executed the program that would erase the security recordings and evidence of his treachery. But that was all by the boards now. One unidentified spaceship passing too close had set them off course by more than 75% in the absolute wrong direction.

The ship shimmied and moaned as the gravity pull became more pronounced. At the entry hatch, sparks lit and sizzled in the air as a blaster pistol set to high began cutting the door. He looked over his shoulder, fleshy lips pulled back over his uneven teeth. It had to be Ashton coming through, and if Ashton were there then Tishara Lee wouldn't be far behind. He placed his hand on the pistol he had had jammed into his uniform an hour ago, feeling the cool metal against his palm.

He didn't want to use it, but he would if he had to. He looked at Paisley and cursed, "Godammit..."

***

"What the fuck is going on?" Tishara Lee yelled as she appeared in the passageway behind Ashton. Her long dark brown hair was a mess, her uniform barely zipped up and her boots unlaced. The deck plates rumbled and vibrated beneath their feet as Ashton steadied himself against the bulkhead and concentrated on cutting through the bridge entry hatch.

"Harmon and Paisley locked us out of the bridge!" he yelled over the noise of the phased plasma energy cutting the metal. Sparks birthed and streaked to the deck in a hail of light. The potent, acrid smell of hot metal and ozone filled the narrow passage as he cut the thick metal. He didn't dare go too fast, for fear of cutting though one of his crew beyond, or even worse, the hull of the bridge.

"What?" she yelled, standing behind him, "How could they do that?"

"I don't know," he muttered as sparks burned his hands, "But we're two and half months out from Delta Site."

"Jesus," Tishara groaned, her eyes wide with disbelief, "How did that happen?"

"We were knocked out of hyperspace by some-" he was cut off suddenly by the collision alarms sounding. The sterile lighting of the passage suddenly went blood red as the Haven abruptly began to shudder, a low pitch whine building up from outside the ship.

"We're in a gravity field!" she warned him, her mouth hanging open.

"Warning," the computer announced, "Haven is entering a gravitational field at unsafe velocity and angle of decent. Please correct."

"No fucking joke," he growled as molten steel pooled on the floor and hardened. His heart broke as he cut into his ship, cut into her and mutilated her like this. Ashton would have cut himself before he cut his ship, and the pain of his actions now enraged him. He would have Harmon's balls mounted on a wall when this was done, and Paisley would be in traction for good measure. He saw he had only a few more inches to go before the heavy security locks in the door were cut, and he had to promise himself he wouldn't shoot them when he got in there. Time was against them as he wielded the weapon like some battlefield surgeon, cutting as fast as he could as safely as he could.

Haven began to tremble from her duranium infrastructure to the outer metal plating as the last lock gave way. With all their strength, he and Tishara slid the hatch open and were shocked to find Paisley sprawled on the deck, naked and unconscious. Ashton looked to the bridge windows and saw beyond the twin bows of his ship a huge, green planet growing larger by the second. Fiery heat distortions were already flaring on the hull as they entered the upper atmosphere.

The ship was vibrating badly now Ashton made his way inside, followed closely by Tishara. He had only knelt down beside Paisley when a hot streak of red phased energy zinged by his ear and burned a hole in the back of co-pilots' seat. He ducked and rolled away, taking cover behind one of the workstation alcoves. He squinted in the hazy light of the bridge, struggling to see who had shot at him.

"Harmon?" he shouted, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Alert," the computer reported, "Unauthorized weapons fire, main bridge, A-deck."

Another bolt of energy slammed into the console next to him, showering his backside with sparks. He looked to Tishara, who was in the doorway, her body pressed to the open frame and eyes wide. She looked to him and then over towards the starboard side of the bridge. He could see Harmon hunkered down in the corner, hiding in the shadows. The wildly shifting alert lights betrayed his chubby frame, his face a red expression of fear and panic.

"Get away from me!" he screamed and fired again.

"I have to get the ship back online, you asshole!" Ashton shouted at him, "Stop shooting at me!"

Another sizzling burst hissed by and exploded against the wall.

"I don't have time for this shit," he muttered and looked to Tishara. He didn't even have to ask her or think twice about her safety. They were one mind, and no one was more skilled and agile than Tishara Lee. The first officer steeled herself and then ran out into the bridge, drawing Harmon's fire. He was shooting erratically, and all it would take was one misplaced shot through the bridge windows to decompress the compartment and suck them out into the atmosphere of the alien world.

Tishara leapt across the center divide of the bridge and tucked into a roll, shielding herself as best she could. Ashton wasted no time, rising up as Harmon tried to shoot her. He leveled his pistol and squeezed the trigger. The blast took Harmon square in the chest, rocketing him backwards against the bulkhead. His gun clattered to the deck and spun away as he slumped to the floor. Ashton holstered his gun and flipped the safety on.

"Tishara, check him!" Ashton barked as he climbed into his pilot seat. Haven bucked wildly and nearly threw him from his seat, lurching and tilting violently as she careened into the atmosphere of the planet. The high pitch whine of the ship's hull tearing apart reached a gut-wrenching crescendo that reminded Ashton of a scream. Their trajectory was too steep to salvage now as the ship flamed from the heat and friction of the entry. The structure of the large vessel wailed and moaned as it began to buckle under the pressure.

"I need you, Tishara!" he yelled and he strapped himself. He flipped on the internal comlink to the rest of the ship and shouted "Listen up. To everyone awake, find a place to strap in and brace for impact!"

"You can't pull up?" his co-pilot asked as she buckled herself into the seat next to him on his right.

"No, we're committed to entry," he worked the controls of the ship as the burning upper stratosphere gave way to the lower atmosphere. Bright bluish pink sky and fluffy white clouds sped past in a blur, and beneath, a thick lush alien jungle rushed up to meet them.

"I'm launching a buoy," Tishara yelled over the death screams of the ship. From the aft quarter of the Haven, a hatch popped open. A small projectile launched from the failing vessel and sped back into space, carrying the last of the computer telemetry, the crew manifest and a sub-space radio beacon. It streaked away from the Haven as she plunged into the alien world, out of control and smoking.

"Buoy has cleared the ship," she reported.

"I have no fucking helm control," Ashton slammed his fist against the console, "Come on baby, work with me here!"

Tishara looked up from her console, "We're no where near any of the shipping lanes or the projected flight path."

"Shit!" Ashton growled against his teeth.

"We're losing oxygen, John," she shouted out, "A rupture on C-deck."

Haven emerged from the cloud cover as quickly as they had entered it, the clouds swirling and funneling as the ship sliced through. Ashton felt phantom pains of sympathy for his ship as her superstructure began to break and twist under the pressure of their uncontrolled descent. The Haven was howling her death knell as the computer readout showed him they were two thousand feet and closing from the surface. In a last ditch effort, he shut the engines down and fired the forward docking thrusters, which actually leveled the ship off some before the beveled edges of her forward hull began slicing through the tops of the thick, ancient alien forest.

The ship lurched as massive trees, some with trunks at least one hundred feet in circumference at the base smashed into the duranium alloy hull and were snapped away. Loud, baritone clangs and clashes sounded through out the ship, each impact slowing them down more as the ship lost its momentum. Ashton looked and saw Tishara covering her ears from the deafening noise. Their seats rocked and jerked, throwing them forward as the ship finally cleared the forest and sailed into a broad valley.

Tishara felt a wave of vertigo wash over her in the odd silence that followed the exit from the forest. She felt her stomach flip, reminding her of the roller coasters she had ridden in her childhood, that strange tingle just before the big fall. The bright green vegetation of valley sped below them and became a distorted mess as the Haven struck ground and began sliding across the valley floor. Dirt and boulders the size of houses were kicked up as the ship tore its way into the loose soil. The bridge erupted in a hail of sparks as monitors blew out and supports were snapped in two. The vibrations of the impact were making Ashton's teeth chatter as they skidded along, the impact riding like icy-hot lightning to the base of his skull and back down again. He could hear the massive boulders they had knocked into the air coming down on the hull and smashing in to it.

The port pylon bow, one half of the "U" shape to the Haven's design, caught on a lone tree. It was a massive, ancient thing that must have been over three hundred feet wide at the base. The weakened hull simply gave way and tore off, spinning out towards the forest, taking with it all thirty passengers in their cryo-tubes for that side of the ship.

Ashton felt his chair come loose from it's mooring in the deck. He tried to grab his console for support but instead lost his grip and flew across the bridge. Tishara was braced in her chair as she watched the dirt and boulders speed towards them and smash against the bridge windows. She prayed the reinforced plated plexi-glass would hold.