Parallel Extinction (Extinction Encounters Book 1) Page 11

  He passed his physicals. He passed his mental fitness evaluation with top numbers.

  However, he did not receive a passing grade from those who were close. It was as if Fred Comani was a man that they knew not at all.

  Space drew him more strongly than ever—a man with no hope, yet still alive, moving forward; the coldest scientist. Alone.

  The note, which he carried with him in a locket around his neck to this day, lay against his heart, buried under his shipsuit, under the hibernation suit. This was the note that had been delivered twenty years before. It said simply: Your daughter will be born to me in eight months.

  It had been the best news… the cruelest news he’d ever received.

  CHAPTER 16

  EVENT: DAY 7, 1410 UT

  Departure was imminent.

  Taylor had been getting to know the ship from the comfort of her cabin, surfing a virtual tour she’d discovered. Sitting in nothing but her panties, the ship’s holographic crew moved around her, men and women, all so good-looking in their uniforms. It was like one of those naked-at-school dreams where everybody acted as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

  Predicting a period of bored inactivity during takeoff and throughout the acceleration, she’d tried to rest up for the coming activities but she couldn’t relax. Just as with her stunts, anticipation pushed energy through her body.

  Taylor found a setting that turned one wall reflective. Removing her last bit of covering, she modeled for herself, appreciating the wonderful effect that micro-gravity had on her body. Her breasts stood out so nice and full and her skin took on a smoothness that she never saw on Earth. It gave her face a kind of cherubic quality, belying her real nature. Even to herself, she was irresistible.

  Restless, she pulled out her z-vellum and went over the limited details of the mission. It was vague, and for the first time since her meeting with Garrison and Sergeant Amio, as she got past some of the excitement and anticipation, she realized that her role had not been outlined in any of the data that she had received or downloaded. Before she got too far with that concern, her Vid screen beeped. The noise made her jump. With the lack of gravity she lifted from her seated position on the bunk. New programming kicked in as her toes flexed automatically, feet pushing to the floor—oops, no boots. “Shit!” she exclaimed aloud as she moved away from the floor and bunk, adding a backward spin. She landed, like a cat, on the ceiling. Oh, it’s soft.

  Relieved, she pushed her feet down to the actual floor, keeping her hands on the low ceiling, and moved to the terminal cubby. Being naked, she pressed the “Privacy” portion of the blinking response button and Lev’s face flashed before her. He couldn’t see her, but a bolt of that familiar erotic electricity shot through her. “Hi. It’s Jest, right?” he asked informally, to confirm what he already knew. She made an acknowledging noise. He went on, “Did you know that we don’t have to use the Slinky?”

  The slang term was familiar but Taylor she couldn’t quite remember what it meant. The ensign explained that in order for ships to traverse the higher and lower space-dock levels, two “safe passage” portals had been built for ships. Many spacers referred to the spiraled Targeting Laser Rings as the “Slinkys”, but the reference was lost to pre-Obliteration history. The half-a-kilometer wide tunnel extended through the debris sphere for five kilometers. The lasers targeted particles from micro to macro. He told her that BUMP’s special engine protected the ship from space debris.

  She asked, “Interesting, and I need to know this why?”

  “Well, it’s about the gravities that we get to immediately experience just before the captain turns on the drive…” He interrupted himself, “You know if you hit that button that says ‘SHOW’ I’d be able to see you.”

  She retorted, “Um-huh, I guessed how that worked.” She decided to tease the soldier for his impertinence, “It’s just that I’m not wearing anything at the moment. Completely naked.” The reaction was what she wanted: a look of eagerness crept over his face as he took a moment to contemplate his response. Her skin prickled.

  Ensign Hahn one-upped her. With a conspiratorial grin he dove on the point he’d been edging toward, “Ever fooled around during takeoff?”

  Taylor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What?” She gaped at his image. Even with her teasing, his forwardness caught her off guard.

  Lev repeated his question unnecessarily as she tried to formulate a response. Sex in freefall was not entirely new—with a protesting Garrison in the cramped Bullet air lock privy—but in takeoff? It had never even occurred to her. What would that be like? With the additional gravities it sounded like it would be more work than play. She took advantage of the moment afforded to her by the man’s audacious suggestion, turning the idea over in her head: Gravitational pressures applied to certain parts of the body… Maybe there could be something to it. But she’d barely had a conversation with this man. Despite her eventual erotic intentions, she was on the fence.

  Before she could say no he pushed into her momentary silence. “There aren’t a whole lot of chances for it,” he baited the hook, “and you seemed like the adventurous type. We probably should continue this conversation offline, no matter what you decide. Why don’t you come to my quarters?”

  “Well, I’m not sure about the first thing but you could show me your quarters. I don’t think we have time before departure though.”

  “It’s no problem. I have a second crash web. Can I call you Taylor?”

  “Yeah... or TJ. Okay, I’ll come down. See ya’ in a minute.”

  She brushed a finger across the “End” spot on the screen, and his face flashed off. “Hmmm.” Her body was tingling. She fished in her bag for the body scents she’d picked up on-station, just in case, and dabbed some on in all the right places. Her anticipation built as she slipped her form-hugging jumpsuit and boots over her nakedness.

  * * *

  Outside his quarters she still debated whether to pursue this man’s desire. The door slid open. She looked up at Hahn who stood in front of her with that same smile. Past him, she could see his Vid screen, and her image standing in the hall outside his door.

  “Come in, TJ.” The eagerness in his tone was plain.

  She looked back at his face. His excitement was contagious and she laughed out loud at his lack of subtlety. Taylor decided that it didn’t bother her in the slightest and stepped across his threshold. The door slid closed.

  For a moment, he just stood and grinned at her like a little boy with a secret. The silence extended. Finally, she asked, “Is this where the tour starts?”

  Levinson’s smile turned into an amused laugh, and he quipped, “Welcome to my own little slice of Vegas.” With mock grandeur and a flourish of his hand, he stepped aside and indicated his bunk, over which his accel-web was stretched.

  “I see,” Taylor replied with a weighing tone to her voice. “You know, Ensign Hahn, I haven’t agreed to your proposal.” She swept the small room with her eyes. “And by the way, I don’t see a second harness. Maybe I should go.” Deftly, she maneuvered back into the controlling position of this interaction.

  “No, no,” he said quickly, and pointed back at the bunk, “it’s there, too.”

  Stepping over to the full-body security assembly, she looked more closely. Grabbing the web, she then noticed that it was two together, forming a semi-taut cocoon. Not only that, but the security fastenings had been modified, leaving only one point of connection on each end, instead of three, destabilizing it. Further, he’d added swivels. She pulled the closest edge of the hammock-like setup tight toward her, and then quickly pushed down in a throwing motion. It spun rapidly around a tight centerline, and expanded in its horizontal pirouette to reveal the two separate slings as they ballooned apart.

  “Doesn’t look too secure to me,” she said dubiously.

  “Oh, it’s great! I use it this way whether I’m
with someone or by myself. I used to love the amusement parks when I was a kid. It kinda’ reminds me of that.”

  “Uh huh, so what’s the sexual fascination here?” she asked bluntly. This was getting more interesting, though she didn’t let on just yet.

  A serious look came over the ensign’s face, like a teacher to a student. “See, Taylor, it’s really a physics thing. When you get two people in there, and then add three Gs of acceleration, you get some real closeness, if you know what I mean.” He gave her the conspiratorial look. She winked in return, which brought back his excited grin. “Anyway, with the spin factor that you just saw, you get two places in each revolution where the two bodies in question have an opportunity to move apart—when at right angles to the acceleration—and of course, together again as the rotation brings them one over the other.” His tone shifted to outright hunger. “Are you beginning to get the picture?” He swept a salacious glance up and down her body.

  Taylor, being Taylor, found herself not only intrigued by the man’s ingenuity but also decidedly turned on. Stepping a little closer to him, she started with mock scientific pretext. “What you’re saying, is that you’re using ship’s thrust… for your thrust.” She finished with a quick thrust of her hips. His breath caught audibly, and she continued, letting her voice slip to a sultry, breathy shade as she let her excitement begin to show. “I got the picture, Ensign, nice and clear.” She moved against his body and locked one leg between and around his.

  Passion flared hotly between them as they undid each other’s flight suits. To Lev Hahn’s delight, Taylor’s fine body was not eclipsed by undergarments. The suits went down around their ankles, and slipped off with their boots. Clothing and boots automatically migrated toward a gecko-vac wall, where the loose clothing was securely retained. Love in freefall ensued as they alternately explored each other with hands, lips and tongues. His muscles were cut and firm under her touch, and his hardness teased between her legs as he licked and stroked her nipples. Crotches rubbed on thighs and knees and fired their arousal further.

  Lev produced some warming gel from somewhere and massaged it into Taylor’s rippled but aching abs, and up over her prominent breasts, with gentle squeezes. Taylor’s unusual body chemistry was ramped up by her intensifying arousal, and the lotion practically steamed off her hyper-heated skin. He made appreciative sounds, enjoying her tone and hot smoothness, as he moved down to tease her navel with his tongue. She answered him with soft moans and little quivers as he tickled her belly with his licks. The combined warmth of the gel and his mouth dissipated any memory of sore muscles. He darted his tongue lower, to her trimmed, narrow strip of pubic hair, then back up. It was a torture of unfulfilled expectations. She was so wet and ready when Lev reoriented them to a drifting missionary position in the center of the small space. He locked his eyes with hers. Her head was light, her breathing, rapid, and her body buzzed from her face to deep between her legs; her orgasm was on a hair trigger. She widened her eyes and dialed open her pupils until her irises were just fine turquoise circles.

  His own eyes widened at that but he did not break stride; he reached down between her thighs… Taylor took quick, shallow breaths, then she held it, stalling her climax. A shudder went through her as she waited for his hand to slide up into a deeper exploration. Instead, he unexpectedly spun her, spinning himself as well in the equal, opposite reaction, so that they were like two ‘copter blades spinning within inches of one another.

  Surprised, she let her breath out in a yelp. Lev was a spinning blur before her, with alternating glimpses of his wide smile and his ankles flying past her face. As she took more quick breaths, just as abruptly as he had spun her, he stopped her with a sudden, and carefully placed grip, leaving her looking at his ankles. That moment was brief, though, as he grabbed her ankles and yanked her legs up, spreading them at the same time. Without warning, he buried his mouth in her wetness.

  “Oh my God!” she screamed, part in shock, mostly in out-of-this-world ecstasy. Reflexively, with both hands, she grabbed his hardened cock, which dominated her view, and held on as waves of rapturous overload exploded from her center, convulsing her.

  Somewhere in her consciousness an echo of the “all secure” alarm floated. The ensign deftly maneuvered them into the dual crash-web, reorienting their bodies to the missionary position. He kicked off the wall and got the webs into a spin, and then, with a surprised gasp of his own, he slid into a searing hot Taylor. Moments later, as he moaned and pumped in and out, Taylor answering with her thrusts, the gravity came on hard. Every subsequent thrust was deeper and harder, and the web spun and spun of its own accord. The whirling world, piled on top of repeated orgasms, was like no experience she’d ever had, and it brought her to screaming ecstasy. It was the ride of her life. In the buzzing afterglow, TJ decided that it had to be right up there with her best stunt ever.

  * * *

  As they drifted and slowly turned in the contracted web, back in the freefall-field generated by the ship’s special drive, they held onto each other, savoring the moist warmth between their bodies. The sweat evaporated and cooled their backsides, exposed through the webbing.

  “Lev?”

  “Umm?”

  “Tell me about your friends on board.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  Taylor couldn’t get Chris Friday out of her head. His perfect features had floated before her mind’s eye at times during her sexual odyssey with Lev—when she wasn’t overwhelmed with her own ecstasy. Garrison’s face had also come into her mind but she’d quickly shut it out, still too angry with him and not about to let him spoil her fun.

  She had to know something about Friday though. She wanted to be subtle after all, still in bed with her present lover.

  “Tell me their names.”

  “Okay, let’s see, Sam, Randi, Kris, Kati...”

  “What are their last names?”

  “Ummm, well... uh, let’s see…” he scrunched his eyes closed, then opened them and explained, “I’m trying to see their suit patch in my mind. I guess I don’t know any by memory; I haven’t bothered to permanently upload the girls’ last names. Didn’t really need the data, they aren’t in my unit.”

  “Girls? Those are all women?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “They’re onboard?” Her voice was full of suspicion.

  He remained nonchalant, “Yeah.”

  “Let me guess. They’ve all had the pleasure of your little amusement park.”

  Mistaking her tone, he responded, “Don’t be mad, Taylor. I try new things with some of my girlfriends who are willing to experiment. That spin trick didn’t come without a few bruises, you know. I have to grab you in just the right spot so I spin you instead of throwing you. After the first time I tried that trick, I wrapped blankets around the hard edges. Now that I’ve got it down, don’t need ‘em. I finally talked Randi into trying it again.”

  She chuckled. “Lev, I’m not mad. I think it’s great that you’re open-minded.” As fun as it had been, Taylor was retrospectively disappointed in the lack of spontaneity; it robbed some of the thrill from the memory. She didn’t enjoy stunts more than once. She needed the thrill of danger, which was gone once she knew she could actually succeed at whatever the stunt was. Practicing something just wasn’t part of her reality. She planned carefully; she executed; she celebrated. Some of her fascination with Lev waned.

  “Great, TJ. I thought I’d read you right when we bumped in the hall today. I’m usually pretty good at that. So, I have a question.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I can’t figure out what you’re doing on the ship? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad, as you can tell, but I can’t pull up much on you, and, from what I can get, I don’t get your connection to this mission. So I’m curious.”

  So it wasn’t just her. Taylor didn’t want to appear in the dark on this, so she play
ed it as mysterious. “Well, Lev, I’m sure someone will tell you—when you are supposed to know.” And then, tell me. This was starting to bug her. She needed an answer to this question, regardless the fun she planned on having.

  Chris Friday pushed again to the fore of her mind. If Lev didn’t know, then she doubted another ensign would have any more information. But she still wanted to meet him. “So then, Mister Open-Minded, what can you tell me about Chris Friday?”

  CHAPTER 17

  EVENT: DAY 7, 1030 UT

  She was embarrassed for him.

  Then she stopped herself. Dominique couldn’t start thinking of him that way. Not if she and Captain Bartell were to successfully share this mission.

  She was disappointed, though. Her effect on the man was all too clear. Yet she knew from his SBMMP service record that, while being the youngest captain ever, he quickly garnered respect. The crews of both of his commands during his term of service had taken to him strongly. In each case he had developed a razor sharp team with brilliantly coordinated abilities to take ships nearly unscathed, with pirates crews alive to stand trial for their crimes.

  It was unconscionable that he would subjugate his excellent skills to his lust. While it was likely that he would respond in an emergency with all the experience that he had within, she did not intend to crew with him under that assumption. And she strongly suspected they would have an opportunity to test his response.

  She would need to do something to change the dynamic. Logically, the change should start with her appearance. It was the only thing to which Bartell could be responding: they’d exchanged barely a few words. It was a familiar reaction.

  Dominique enjoyed the gift of her attractiveness and she would not typically think to subdue her beauty. Why should she bother? But this was an unusual and critical control issue, specific to this mission: he was her sole crew.