Making of a Starship Captain Ch. 06

[Note: This Science Fiction story is an intense character study with occasional sex scenes.]

Bill Kenilworth didn't drop out that day.

But Natasha Romanov did, and it wasn't even Sergeant Chappie who scored the kill.

It happened in the quiet space of the Galactic Physics classroom.

After they got the results of their third quiz, the teacher, Captain Waverly, asked Natasha to see him after class.

Then, two hours later, as Taylor was getting ready for dinner, he saw Natasha, wearing civilian clothes, saying goodbye to people as she lugged a heavy virtual suitcase.

"Natasha, what happened?" Taylor asked.

"Galactic Physics, that's vhat happened," said Natasha, smiling sadly.

"Did they drop you?"

Natasha shook her head. "They asked forrr my RFD. I gave et. I failed three quizzes in a row. It didn't make any sense for me to stay any longar." She looked up at Taylor. "I'm sorry ve never got the chance to get to knauw each other better."

"I'm... I'm sorry too," said Taylor, shifting uncomfortably. The wall he was leaning on had suddenly grown warm. "What will you do now?"

Natasha shrugged. "Go home to Putingrad. Find something else to do. It's a small galaxy, Michael. Maybe ourrr paths will cross again, eh?"

Taylor agreed that they would. He watched her leave, as she lugged her heavy virtual suitcase.

Taylor felt an arm on his shoulder. It was Cherry Oteri. "Did you miss out on a big opportunity, Michael?"

"I, ah, I was just saying goodbye," said Taylor.

Cherry smiled. Taylor was so easy to embarrass! "Everyone said she was a spy for Russia, you know. But if she was a spy, you'd think they would have sent one that knew more galactic physics than she did, right?"

"Right," said Taylor. He looked concerned, deep in thought.

"Dinner's on. Are you coming?" Cherry asked.

"Yeah, sure," said Taylor, still looking distracted.

********

Natasha's unexpected departure had created some uncomfortable thoughts in Taylor's mind. Taylor realized that it could have been him lugging a big heavy virtual suitcase to the exit. His grades in Shipboard Mechanics were especially worrying.

But now he was receiving personal tutoring from his instructor, Lieutenant Commander Sarah Blade.

The first time Taylor reported for his tutoring session, he was incredibly nervous. Should he bring flowers? No, flowers were for a date, and this most definitely was not a date.

But he was going to the Lieutenant Commander's personal quarters! He decided not to bring anything.

If it had been anyone else, a male teacher, or even one of the other female instructors, Taylor wouldn't have been nervous, or at least, not as nervous as he was. But there was something about Sarah Blade, something... decidedly sensual about her. About her smile. About the way she looked at him. Taylor wondered if it was all in his mind, if he were imagining the attraction he thought she might feel for him. He sincerely hoped so.

When she opened the door, Taylor blinked. She was dressed in civilian clothes. Gone was her blue and black military uniform. Now her raiment was as white as Taylor's cadet uniform, only what she was wearing was much more form fitting. He could clearly see every outline of her full, round breasts, every contour of her nicely shaped ass and joining between her legs in the tight white blouse and pants she had put on.

"Michael, good to see you. Come in, close the door, have a seat," she said, turning and striding towards the living room. Michael took a deep breath as he watched her ass cheeks clench and unclench and her hips sway as she walked across the room. "Are you coming, or shall we have your lesson at the front door?"

Mike, remembering what she had said, closed the door and came to the sofa. It was soft and white and luxurious... just like her. In his mind, her sofa had SEX written all over it.

"Would you like something to drink?" She said, going into the kitchen, which was open to the living room.

"Drink?" Michael asked.

"You know, a liquid beverage. It's ingested, down the throat. Some wine, perhaps?"

"No!" he said hastily. Too firmly, perhaps. "No thank you," he said, trying to soften it a bit.

Sarah shrugged, pouring herself one. "I find a little wine helps me focus, sometimes. Too much, of course, has decidedly different effects." She smiled at him, and he blushed.

She sat down on the sofa. "Would you like to sit down, or go over your assignment standing up?" Her tone was critical, but her eyes were filled with mischief.

"I'll sit," said Taylor. For a moment, he wrestled over where to sit. Too close to Sarah could be... dangerous. But too far could offend her.

"If you're that afraid, you can sit on the far end of the couch. We can toss the Pad back and forth to each other as we work," said Sarah.

She was taunting him, shaming him. Taylor sat down right next to her.

"Much better," she said, giving him an appraising look. "Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes," said Taylor, and he was relieved when they spent the next ninety minutes talking about Shipboard Mechanics, and only Shipboard Mechanics.

Maybe he had just been imagining things. Maybe he had just misinterpreted Sarah's flirtatiousness. Sometimes flirtation meant just that, flirtation, nothing more.

And yet... as Sarah tutored him in the finer points of Shipboard Mechanics, some part of Taylor sensed that something else was going on.

Sarah ran him through some of the problems from his last test that he was unable to solve correctly. She explained how the different control panels interacted throughout a starship. She looked Taylor in the eye. "Have you ever heard a starship called a 'she', Michael?"

"Sure," said Taylor.

"That's because starships are a lot like women," said Sarah, in a soft, seductive voice. Taylor noticed she had luscious red lips.

"Ma'am?"

"You have to understand how their bodies work," said Sarah. "And you have to know how to treat them right. If you operate their controls in the right way, they'll do whatever you want."

Taylor noticed that Sarah had sparkling green eyes that smiled at him.

"Now, let's trace that pesky circuit that's been giving you so much problem." They dove back into the mechanics of shipboard operations, and went through some more examples. There was one problem from his homework that Taylor couldn't solve. A malfunctioning console. He had tried to do a diagnostic with a probe, but it didn't tell him anything useful.

"That's because you didn't put your probe in the right place," said Sarah, giving him a little half smile. "Here, let me play with your Pad and I'll show you."

Taylor let her manipulate his Pad. "You see, you were using the probe to test this circuit here. But what you really should have been doing was testing that circuit... there. You were putting it in the wrong hole." She smiled at him, and Taylor shivered. "All right, Mike, you try it now."

Taylor used his finger to indicate the place on the schematic where he wanted the probe to go. "Nothing," he said, looking for feedback.

"That's because you didn't do it correctly," said Sarah. "You can't just plunk your tool in and out like that. You're jabbing the tool into a hole like it's some sort of... thing you just jab into holes with." She smiled as she saw Taylor flinch and look down guiltily.

"No, part of this exercise is teaching you how to properly use your tool, how to manipulate it properly," said Sarah softly.

"That wasn't in the instructions," said Taylor.

Sarah looked in his eyes. "There are a lot of things that aren't in the instructions, Michael. You have to figure them out yourself."

Taylor stared at her eyes for one heartbeat, two, three, four, five. He found himself starting to breathe heavily.

"Here, let me guide you. May I?"

Taylor nodded.

She lifted his finger, and then gently put it down on the right spot on the Pad schematic. "Gently. Once, twice, thrice. Once, twice, thrice. Like a little tapping. You see how the diagnostic data is flowing in, once you pull the probe in and out, in and out, just like that? You're probing different samples of the data stream, and collecting more data that way." She kept moving his finger. "In... out... in... out.... Just... like... that. Do you see it, Michael? Do you?"

"Yes, yes I do," said Taylor joyously. He looked at her, and he felt like they weren't just solving a problem, but that they were sharing an experience together. Somehow, while working on the driest, most mundane subject imaginable, he was having a sensual experience with his teacher.

"Good," she said, smiling as she released his finger. "I think that's a good start for a first session, don't you?"

Taylor nodded, and tried to hide his disappointment that the... probing of the schematic had come to a sudden end. He felt like he should say something. "Lieutenant Commander, I want to thank-"

"Please," said Sarah, cutting him off. "Sarah. When we're off duty, you can call me Sarah."

"Ah... ah...." said Taylor. He felt it was so terribly, terribly wrong to call his teacher by her given name. Sarah could clearly see the struggle within him.

"Try it," said Sarah. "You can do it. Say it. Saaaa.... Raaaaah."

"Sa-rah," said Taylor, taking a deep breath.

"Try it again!" said Sarah.

"Sarah," said Taylor, a little more calmly.

"Good, try one more time!"

"Sarah," said Taylor, sounding almost normal now.

"Good," Sarah smiled at him. As he got up to go, Sarah said, "Michael, excuse me for asking this, but have you ever kissed a girl?"

"Uh... sure... Sarah."

She looked at him for a long moment. "Maybe you should think about kissing a second one, someday."

********

Even a long, cold shower didn't make Taylor's thing shrink after his first session with Sarah. It pointed up accusingly at a 45 degree angle no matter how much cold water he rained on it. Sarah excited him terribly. Mike had to tell himself it was all in his mind. She was just being flirtatious with him. He was misreading her apparent interest... right?

"I'm hot for Sarah! Did you see the way she looked at us?" Lust said.

"She's just being a flirt," said Ambition. "In any event, if we want to get kicked out of the Academy, the fastest way we can do it is to fool around with one of our teachers."

"Who would ever know?" Lust asked.

"The Survey Service would know," said Ambition. "If you need sex, why can't you do it with someone who won't get us into trouble? Cherry's nice, and she likes us."

"Cherry's pretty, and she's our age. But a normal girl like her could never be attracted to us," said Inadequacy.

"So you're saying that because we were abused by an older woman, we can only be attractive to older women?"

"It's the taint of Sister Audra. I can't imagine any normal woman in our age group being attracted to us," said Inadequacy.

********

All of a sudden, Taylor became a deputy instructor without realizing it. He was at the firing range one day, shooting targets with a number of other cadets, when he felt someone behind him. His eyes widened as he saw who it was.

Commandant Renton. The blind Commandant.

"Don't let me distract you, young man. Please continue," said Renton, staring at him with sightless eyes.

Today they were working on moving targets. Taylor hefted his compression rifle and aimed at a distant target, which was slowly moving from left to right. He focused, concentrated, adjusted his aim slightly as Major Shalikashvili had taught him, and pulled the trigger, once, then twice, then a third time.

"Three out of three!" said Commandant Renton. "I'm glad I was here to see it. What is your name, young man?"

"Cadet Michael Taylor, sir," said Taylor. He watched Renton with anticipation. Would Renton remember him? It had been eleven years since they had sat together, in that traveling compartment on the Arcturus. There was no reason for Renton to remember his name, not after all these years-

Renton smiled. "Good work, Cadet Michael Taylor. Vasily!"

Major Shalikashvili came forward at a run. "Sir?"

"This man is every bit the crack marksman you described. I think you can put him to greater use, can't you?"

"Sir? Yes sir!"

And so Taylor became a deputy weapons instructor. He found himself helping Andrea Farber lead her targets. He taught Mohammida Najjar to aim down her sights. He taught John Cambell how to breathe right before he fired. And then there was Cherry Oteri....

Major Shalikashvili was standing over her, shaking his head. "You've missed five targets out of five, Cherry. You might be useful in battle if we go to war against elephants, or the side of barns."

"I don't know what's wrong, sir! I'm aiming as best I can!"

"What's wrong is that your best isn't good enough." Shalikashvili looked up. "Taylor!"

Taylor trotted over. "Sir?"

"I want Cadet Oteri to be able to shoot four out of five targets by the end of this session, or I want her RFD. Get one or the other from her, please."

"Sir, yes sir," said Taylor.

As Shalikashvili turned away, Taylor saw Cherry looking up at him with panic in her gorgeous, round, half Chinese eyes. "I'm going to fail, Mike! They're going to flunk me out!"

"You're not going to flunk!"

Cherry was in full panic mode. "Yes I am! I'm not going to suddenly become a marksman in the next-"

"You're not going to flunk out!" Taylor gave her a steely glare.

"All... all right, Mike," she said, lowering her head.

"Let's find out what's going wrong," said Taylor. "Fire your weapon."

Sophie aimed, and fired, and missed. As she did so, Taylor watched her closely.

"Again." She fired again.

Taylor nodded to himself.

"Michael?" she asked.

Taylor wet his lips. "Cherry, Are you aware that you're blinking and jerking your body slightly as you fire?"

"No, am I?" She seemed genuinely astonished.

"Yes."

"I'm totally unaware of it. What can I do, Mike?" She looked imploringly at him for help.

She's so pretty.

"Well, for starters, let's see if you can keep your eyes open when you fire. I think that might help."

Taylor spent the next thirty minutes working intensively with Cherry. He was very conscious of the fact that he had to look her in the eye as he talked to her. He had to wrap his arms around her as he showed her how to hold her compression rifle. He felt her warm back pressing against his chest, and the outline of her Survey Service bra strap pressing against his man-nipples. He smelled the flowery scent of her silky half-Chinese hair next to his face. He felt her soft elfin hands underneath his as he showed her how to hold her weapon. But he did it all professionally, competently, without a single stutter.

"Just look at him," said Ambition, as he watched Taylor instruct Cherry. "He's like two different people."

"He's confident, he's bold, he's in command," said Love the Survey Service.

"But then there's that other side of him," said Ambition. "The weak, nervous side around girls."

"But Cherry is most definitely a girl."

"Thank you for pointing that out," said Ambition dryly. "It's keyed to situation. Mike is confident when he needs to be confident. We have to figure out how to bring out more of this side of him."

Twenty minutes later, Cherry said, "I'm not ready, Mike!"

"You are ready," said Taylor, in a deep voice that made Cherry shiver.

"What if I miss the targets?" Cherry asked.

"You won't," said Mike. He raised his voice "Major Shalikashvili?"

The Major returned. "So, what do we have, Mike? Can she hit the broadside of a barn?"

"I think so, sir."

"Let's find out. Let's have a run of six, shall we? Corporal, rack it up!"

Cherry aimed her compression rifle at one of the moving targets. She aimed, and fired, and then again and again, until she had fired six shots. She held her breath as she put the warm compression rifle down, and stood up to look at Major Shalikashvili.

For a moment, his face was impassive. Then he said, "Six out of six. Not bad, Oteri." He turned to Taylor. "You two work well together."

"Thank you, sir."

"It wasn't a compliment, just an observation." And he turned and left.

Cherry hugged him. "Thank you, Mike!"

"You're welcome," he said, grinning widely as he felt her breasts pressed against his chest. When he pulled back, he couldn't help but notice that her nipples were erect, and sticking out through her shirt.

********

Over dinner, Mike continued to puzzle over what Commandant Renton had said. "He said he saw me hit the targets."

"A figure of speech," said Cherry.

"Then how did he know I hit the targets?"

"He heard it," said Sophie Astor flatly.

"How could he hear me hit the target with a compression rifle?"

"It makes a different sound than if it hits solid ground," said Sophie.

"No one could detect a difference that subtle," said Taylor.

"You'd be surprised," said Sophie. "What's that you've got there, a little tin of gelatin, and a little tin of chocolate pudding?"

"Yes," said Taylor.

Sophie closed her eyes. "Eat one, and then the other."

"What?"

"Just do it," said Sophie.

Taylor looked at Cherry. Cherry shrugged. Taylor picked up his spoon, and took a bit of gelatin, and put it in his mouth, and started chewing.

"Gelatin," said Sophie.

Taylor looked at Cherry. Cherry looked as astonished as he did.

Taylor took another spoonful of gelatin, and chewed on it.

"Gelatin again," said Sophie. "I told you to try both of them. Now try the pudding."

Taylor frowned at Cherry, who frowned back at him. He tried the pudding.

"Good. The pudding." And Sophie opened her eyes.

"How did you do that?"

"Anyone trained as a Passive Observer can do that. You are so focused on the overwhelming sense of taste and vision that you have become almost blind in your other senses," said Sophie. She looked at the pudding and blinked slowly. "I think I will have some pudding as well. It should make for a fascinating taste experiment." She got up to go and get some.

As she got up, Andrea Farber sat down and took her place. Cherry's face clouded over.

"Mike, what you did on the range today was incredible!" Andrea said.

"Thanks, Andrea," said Mike, blushing a bit.

Cherry looked at Andrea. Andrea was gorgeous. She was a redhead with thick, luscious hair, sparking green eyes, high cheekbones, and plush lips. And her breasts... they were larger, more rounder than Cherry's, and Cherry couldn't help but notice Taylor not-not looking at them.

"Listen Mike, next time we're at the range, do you think you could show me, how you do it with your thing?"

Show me how you do it with your thing? Cherry wanted to strangle her.

"S-sure, Andrea, that would be fine," said Taylor.

"Great," Andrea grinned. She smiled at Cherry and got up and left. Cherry noticed Taylor staring at her well rounded ass as she walked away.

"Mike?" said Cherry. "Mike?" she said again.

"Huh, what?" said Taylor. "What was that, Cherry?"

"I was just thinking, how you helped me out and all in small arms training," said Cherry. "And I was wondering if I could do anything for you. You... you mentioned the other day that you were having trouble in Galactic Physics."

Taylor wasn't doing terribly in Galactic Physics, but neither was he doing as well as his classmates. The subject was an order of magnitude more complicated than Particle Physics, and he was very much aware that Galactic Physics had recently brought down Natasha Romanov. The same could easily happen to him.

"I've been doing some struggling with it," he said candidly.

"Would... you like to struggle with me?" Cherry asked. She blushed. "I mean, I could tutor you. A bit. If you like."