The Passenger Ch. 05

Her final moan became a scream as she climaxed with me, and I felt her inner muscles contract around my pulsing cock as I shot my cum deeply into the most intimate part of her body, her hands gripping me tightly, the muscles in her legs taut as cables as she bucked and shook in my arms, her body rigid with the intensity of her pleasure as she came and came. My balls were wet with the juices that ran out of her, and her wails rang in my ears. I held her as we both rode out our mutual release, my pulsing cock deep inside her spasming pussy, the flood of my cum mingling with her inner fluids, and the heat of her body burned like a sun within her until it surrounded the head of my cock.

Eventually the wave crashed, then slowly receded, and the waters of our pleasure slowly grew calm again. Then I held her as her breathing gradually slowed and droplets of sweat trickled down her skin while my own perspiration dropped from my face and ran down my neck. Eventually that wonderful relaxation overtook us and we lay there, together, silently, breathing each other's breath, holding one another; the smell of our lovemaking surrounding us, until the heat of our bodies and the dampness of our skin slowly became part of the almost psychic unity that we felt right then.

This time had been different, somehow, and although neither of us said a word about it, we both knew that we both knew. For that brief eternity we had been truly one, not just in body but also in spirit, mind and soul, and that feeling remained with us. We were one, we would always be one, in a way that neither of us could put into words, but neither of us needed to.

And we both knew that Anne's doubts about her humanity were a thing of the past. The origins of our bodies might be different, but none of that mattered any longer. Synthetic or natural, created by design or by that statistical process that we call nature, based on micro-crystalline structures or carbon compounds... It was no longer important. What we had shared told both of us, without a shadow of doubt, that we were not only both very much alive, but also that we were one, that we belonged together, that we were parts of the same whole, and nothing else mattered.

* * *

I know it sounds a little crass to say that we fucked our way to Manaka, but that's basically what we did. Anne threw herself whole-heartedly into the adventure of rediscovering what she had lost, and her enthusiasm in bed was every bit as daring as it had ever been. I know she did wonder how much of her natural skills in that department stemmed from the original sex droid software, because she told me about it, but she soon accepted them as a given, and we both agreed that she was simply a natural. And, as before, her adventurousness stimulated my own, and we found many, many new ways to give each other pleasure.

In fact, Anne was on her back, her legs together and raised up all the way so that her knees touched her shoulders, with me kneeling in front of her, my knees apart, savoring the tightness of her hot, wet pussy in this position as my cock pistoned in and out of her with long, slow strokes, when the computer sounded the ten hour alarm. It was a good thing that had set it up to warn us well ahead of the reversion to realspace, because otherwise we might very well have missed it.

"Relax," I said softly. "We've got lots of time."

Anne grinned happily and continued to rub her clit. I moved slightly forward on my knees, my thighs on either side of her, pushing my hard length as deeply into her as I could, and she closed her eyes and rolled her head back as she got closer and closer to orgasm. I switched to the short, deep strokes that I knew would push her over the edge, and after a few moments she shook and cried out in her release. Her orgasm set off my own, and I felt her inner muscles grip my cock tightly, milking it for all it was worth as I spurted my load deep into her contracting pussy.

We slept until the second alarm woke us two hours later, then we cleaned ourselves up in the shower. We both needed it, sticky all over as we were with the dried-up juices of our lovemaking. The happy smiles on our faces wouldn't come off, though, so we left them where they were. I felt great, if a little exhausted, by the time I sat down in the pilot seat with a steaming mug of pick-me-up in my hand. Soon the caffeine worked its magic to the point where I felt up to the job of piloting the ship again.

Data started to scroll across the main computer display while we heard the energy section in the drive compartment come to life behind us as the jump capacitor began to charge. We strapped ourselves in and I ran through the checklist.

"Countdown starting," I said. "Hold on to your ass."

"I've got you for that," she said. "I like the way you hold on to my ass when the ride gets starts to get rough."

"Stop distracting your captain, my loyal crew. I need to focus here, and the thought of holding on to your ass while you ride me isn't helping."

She smiled, reached out and briefly squeezed my hand, but she said nothing. Good. There's lots of time to fool around during a flight, but there are also times when that sort of thing is a good way to get everyone on board killed, and knowing what's what can mean the difference between life and death. Anne obviously understood that, which comforted me.

With the board reading all green, the countdown reached zero and the jump capacitor poured all its grunt into the field coils. Space twisted and contorted around us, turning us inside out and back again. The luminous nothingness outside our forward viewport disappeared, and suddenly the Manaka system hung in space before us. Because Manaka's sun is so small and it creates a relatively minor gravity well, we had been able to revert to realspace much closer than what most other system would have let us get away with. I checked the short, medium and long-range scans that the computer had performed the moment we reverted. All clear.

"It doesn't look like much," Anne said.

I smiled.

"My, aren't we getting blasé?"

But she was right. The system of which Manaka is part only has three small planets, and its sun is small, dim, and tired. Manaka, the innermost planet, is an old world, and the people who live on such worlds tend to feel that age; as if they've been going through the motions for far too many millennia and it's time to call it a day. Even from space the little world, just visible off our port bow against the wan glow of its primary, looked run down and its general appearance was brown and dusty.

I transmitted our ID and standard request for approach data. The response was automated and brief: a homing beacon frequency and a transponder number; nothing more. The transponder would probably give us a final course and landing coordinates when we got close enough to need them, but the rest would be up to us. Manaka Traffic Control was most likely only a computer just powerful enough to keep approaching ships from crashing into anything, at least most of the time.

Which was fairly typical for a planet like this. In these old and declining backwaters you often get the feeling that nobody cares anymore. Customs formalities would be sketchy, if they existed at all, and port facilities would probably amount to next to nothing. Since we were obviously expected to look after ourselves, I set the onboard computer for a medium range scan every minute or so. If anything was headed our way, I wanted to know about it long before it got close to us.

"I wonder how Raz is doing," Anne said.

"He's probably here already," I said. "Let's find out."

I sent out a system-wide ID query for the Slowboat. I got no response. I sent it again. Still nothing.

"Hm. I guess he's not here yet."

Anne frowned.

"I hope he's alright."

<BOOKMARK>

"I'm sure he is," I said with a confidence I didn't feel. "Raz can look after himself. He'll show up soon."

Because Manaka's small and dim sun has a much smaller gravity footprint, our in-system flight was much shorter than it had been on approach to Ursa. Manaka's system is almost entirely clear of interplanetary debris and the two outer planets were on the other side and well out of our way, so our approach was pretty much a straight line without any deviations.

We homed in on the beacon, the sublight drive grumbling behind us as it continued to reduce our velocity. I plugged the landing coordinates into the computer as soon as we received them through the Traffic Control transponder, and the ship sang as we entered the upper atmosphere. We continued our descent and the ship began to vibrate as the density of the air gradually increased. The world below us still looked brown and dusty.

Our atmospheric descent was quick and smooth, and before long we saw a landing field ahead of us: a dun-colored expanse, pitted with centuries of drive exhaust and neglect. Two ships were sitting near the edge of the field, large and old clunkers from the looks of it, and a few small buildings were located at the opposite side. Other than that, the field was empty. And that was all the space port there was.

I extended the landing struts and the 'Pride's ancient repulsor field generator whined as it kicked up a large dust cloud from the soil below us. I decided to set her down on the side of the field closest to the buildings. When the board was all green and the ship had gone silent, I locked down the console and secured the drive. Outside, the dust slowly settled.

"Well, here we are," I said. "Manaka. On second thought, you were right. It doesn't look like much."

She peered through the front viewport, which was now covered with a thin layer of fine dust.

"So what's next?" she asked.

"Well," I said, keying for a bioscan as I got out of the pilot's seat. "First we check the outside air for composition and biologicals. Once that's done, we should report to whatever space port authority there is here. Or rather, I will do that. You stay on board. As soon as I'm out of the airlock you close it behind me and you keep it closed. When I come back, you open it for me, and for me alone. You open it for nobody else. If I don't come back, you wait for Raz."

I saw she was about to protest, but then she decided no to. Good.

"Are you expecting trouble?" was all she asked.

I shook my head.

"No. I'm not expecting anything at all. But still..."

"We plan for it anyway. Got it."

"Exactly. Now stop looking so worried. I'll be back before you know it."

She nodded.

"Alright. But be careful."

"I always am. Which is why I'm waiting for..."

The computer beeped.

"That. Bioscan checks out. No nasty microbes or toxins. Alright. Let's see what's out there."

On my way to the airlock I thought about what she'd said. Why do we always tell each other to be careful? It rarely changes the way we do things. I've never known anyone who did anything differently, simply because someone told them to "Be careful" before starting out. And yet we all say it, me included.

The landing field smelled the way it looked: dusty, old and tired. Directly overhead, Manaka's small sun peered through the dusty atmosphere without much enthusiasm. Its light was reddish and weak, as if the day were one perpetual sunset. When I reached the spaceport buildings, I found them closed and deserted. And from the looks of it, they had been so a long time. Only one of the signs on the walls was still faintly legible under the dust, announcing that all visitors should report at the front desk. Other than that, there was a lot of peeling plaster that had been white once, long ago, and a fair amount of dilapidated brick work. There was no front desk to report at.

"Ya ain't gonna find much there," a voice drawled from somewhere beside me.

I looked up. A man, apparently one of the locals, stood at the corner of the nearest building, leaning against the crumbling wall. He was short, humanoid, and his wrinkled skin was mostly brown. His clothes, which had also seen better days, were as dusty as everything else in this place.

"So where should I go?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Dunno. Place been close' fer years."

He spat at the wall, making a mark in the brown dust.

"Ya from the ship jus' landed?"

I nodded.

"Figgered," he said. "Been a while."

He nodded at the two ships parked on the far side of the field.

"Them ol' hulks bin sittin' there fer ever. Thoze ain't gonna go nowhere nohow, ya ask me."

He looked at me curiously.

"So whatcha carryin?"

"Cargo," I said curtly. "Are you the welcoming committee?"

He spat again.

"Nope. Just passin' time. Got lotsa that, ya know."

"Good for you. So what's the closest thing to authority around here? Chamber of Commerce, city hall, that sort of thing?"

He shrugged, then pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Try ol' Berk's bar, 'bout ten blocks down. Berk, he yoosta be mayor, ya know?"

"Used to? Who's the mayor now?"

My gracious host shrugged.

"Dunno. No one, ah guess."

"Right. It's been nice talking to you," I said. "You've been a positive fountain of information."

He spat again as I turned and walked back to the 'Pride. When I reached the airlock I turned and looked back. He hadn't moved.

"Any luck?" Anne said when I entered the cabin.

"Not much. There doesn't seem to be any port authority at all. It's a depressing kind of place. And very dusty. I feel I need a shower just after walking there and back again."

She smiled.

"Good idea," she said. "Let's get in there and I'll clean you up."

I smiled back at her, shaking my head.

"Tempting," I said, quite truthfully. "But no. From now on, one of us stays on watch at all times. We don't know the locals, and although they seem indifferent rather than hostile, we're not going to take any risks. Also, we need to keep an eye out for Raz. We need to know the second he comes out of hyperspace."

She looked disappointed, but she smiled and nodded.

"Aye, captain."

"We're not too badly lagged," I said, peering at the wan, low sun through the dusty viewport. "The local day matches our ship time fairly well. So why don't you take the first watch, and I'll take the next one."

"I'm going to be sitting here alone?" she asked without much enthusiasm.

"Yep. Welcome to the exciting life of space freighting. Four hours on, four hours off."

"Is this really necessary?"

I gave her a long look. She nodded in resignation.

"Probably not, but we do it anyway," she recited the mantra. "Aye aye, captain Bligh."

I shut her up by kissing her, then set the computer to surveillance mode. I also set an alarm to wake me in two hours rather than four. I was more used to this sort of thing than Anne was. Then I kissed her again and went to bed.

But I couldn't get to sleep, which is unusual for me. I normally deal quite well with four-on-four-off. It's like I flip some kind of internal switch and I can fall asleep and wake up almost on demand. But not this time.

It took a while before I realized what the problem was: sleeping alone didn't seem to work for me any more. Sleeping without her next to me; not feeling her warmth against me, not hearing her soft, slow breathing... It just felt wrong. But I spoke sternly to myself, and for once myself didn't talk back. When I fell asleep eventually, at least I did dream of her.

When the small auxiliary console beeped the computer's wake up call, the first thing I realized, even before I opened my eyes, was that Anne was not in bed with me. Then, in the foggy depths of my brain, memory restored itself and I sat up. It was time to relieve her at watch. I splashed some water on my face and keyed the door open.

Anne was sitting in the co-pilot's seat. On the screen in front of her a proximity indicator rapidly changed its reading, and she delicately played with the controls to keep it in check. But after a few moments the screen flashed red, and the console beeped in alarm. Then the display went dark.

"Damn," she muttered softly.

Then she looked up.

"Harvey? That's not four hours. What's wrong?"

I smiled.

"I thought you might want some sleep. Or some company. Is that a docking simulation program?"

She nodded.

"When Raz had me run those training simulations before we left Ursa, I noticed there were a lot more in there. I thought it would be a good way to pass the time. And I can use the practice."

"You weren't doing too badly, though," I said, punching an order for lots of hot caffeine into the autokitchen panel. "Docking is a rather advanced maneuver, but you were doing it like a pro before you crashed. All you need to do is to start decelerating a little sooner and you'll be fine. That's very unusual, my loyal crew."

"I just thought it looked interesting."

"Can I get you anything?"

She smiled.

"No thanks, I'm good."

I took the steaming mug from the 'kitchen and sat down in the pilot seat before taking my first sip. It made me feel better, the way that first sip always does. Outside the viewport the world had gone dark. The viewport's polarization would prevent outsiders from looking in, but our view of the field outside was unobstructed. Not that there was anything to see, of course. Manaka has no moon, and stars didn't show through the dusty atmosphere.

"I'll take over now, Anne. Your turn to get some sleep."

She looked at me, hesitated.

"Would you mind if I stay here?" she asked then.

"Of course not. Why?"

"So you won't be alone."

"I'll be fine, Anne."

"But I won't."

There was not much I could say to that, so I put my mug down, got up, and kissed her. She curled up in the pilot's seat and closed her eyes. I sat back down, sipped, and tapped the computer screen to bring up its library. Of course there was a lot of reading material, but unfortunately most of it was in Gawrran, a language that few humans ever master because it is all but impossible to enunciate the proper growls with a human throat. But, luckily, there was some in Interworld as well. I found an article on the new trade regulations for the western Core regions. Not exactly light reading, but it was something I would need to know about sooner or later, and I hadn't really had a chance yet to catch up on my professional reading, so now was as good a time as ever. But before I accessed the library display, I glanced at the docking simulation she'd been working on. It was one of the most difficult and most advanced ones in the computer's repertoire. And she'd almost pulled it off. She shouldn't have been able to, but she had.

The night passed quietly. I listened to Anne's slow breathing in the chair next to me, and I decided to let her sleep. Manaka's day is just under nineteen hours long, and its axis is sufficiently tilted to make for decent seasons. It was the middle of summer on the hemisphere where we had landed, so the night wasn't really all that long. Sunrise was a murky affair, dim and deep red in the dust-laden atmosphere. Outside the viewport nothing changed. Not that I had expected anything different.

The beep from the computer console woke Anne. She turned and stretched, looking damn sexy in the process.

"Good morning," I said. "It looks like Raz is here. Our ID has just been queried, and the request is from the Slowboat."

I keyed for the ship-to-ship comms, and Raz' ugly puss appeared on the screen. I was glad to see that the blaster burns appeared to have healed, although there were still some gashes in his fur, which hadn't yet grown back to cover the pink scars underneath.

"Raz! It's good to see you. What took you so long?"

"Prrrudence," he rumbled. "I had to be surrre Verrrgence didn't trrrace me herrre beforrre I contacted you. Althoughthe Prrride should not have attrrracted any attention, the Slowboat is anotherrr matterrr. But we appearrr to have gotten away cleanly."