(Note #1: All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Note #2: Once again, all artwork included was created by Steve Rayner.

Note #3: And finally, thanks to volunteer Literotica editor TheNyxianLily for her help with editing.)

The crew’s sleep was interrupted by the buzzing of a wake-up alarm the captain had set up during the crew’s spacewalk. Groggily, Calley sat up and stretched her arms. The events of the previous day flooded back into her memory. It was difficult to believe so much had happened, but here she was, still surrounded by her nude shipmates. She was still getting used to how things had changed, but was excited and in a very happy mood as she followed her crewmates out of bed.

Alezanna opened the horizontal storage unit on the side of the bed and took out three robes. She handed a pink one to Calley and a grey one to the captain. The young spacer took hers but hesitated to put it on. She looked at the Bellixan and told her, “I can’t. I’m under orders to remain naked.”

“Did I say that?” Sal wondered aloud as he slipped on his robe. “Well, if I did, you can consider that order rescinded.”

“But I can stay naked if I want to, right?” she asked. This elicited a giggle from Alezanna.

The captain turned to the mechanic and observed, “It’s scary how quickly she adapted to her new situation.”

“Like only a true spacer can,” the Bellixan added before telling Calley, “You can stay undressed a little while longer. We could all use showers.” Turning back to Collondo, she asked him, ”Master, do you mind starting on breakfast while we wash up?“

“Good idea, pet,” he said before adding, “No dilly-dallying. We’ve only got an hour before we have to get going again.”

The trio made their way to the galley where Sal got started on cooking a quick meal. The two women headed towards the bathroom but Calley went past it after telling her companion she’d be along shortly. She made her way to the medbay where she went to the pharmaceutical dispenser. She took a glarobal acetate pill to ensure that last night’s copulation with Sal did not lead to a pregnancy. She then mixed some hormones together and injected herself with the concoction. This would prevent her ovum from being fertilized by sperm for the next three sub-cycles. It was the same treatment she had created for many female patients, including, most recently, Alezanna. But it was her first time injecting herself with it. She paused for a moment to contemplate how much her life had changed in the last day. But she did not allow her thoughts to linger, as she knew she didn’t have much time to waste.

She joined her female shipmate in the bathroom where Calley brushed her teeth before stepping under a shower spray next to Alezanna’s. She quickly began washing herself as her companion asked her, “How are you feeling after last night? Any soreness?”

“Not really. You and Sal took good care of me. No, I just had to stop by the medbay to make sure we didn’t get a new crewmember in nine sub-cycles.”

The older woman stopped washing her hair to look at Calley. “You weren’t on the cocktail?” she asked, referring to the hormonal mixture the medtech had just injected herself with.

“No. Didn’t need to be until last night. The whole thing came out of nowhere.”

“I didn’t see it coming either,” Alezanna agreed as she resumed cleaning her long hair. “But what about your period? The cocktail helps with the cramps.”

“My cramps never bothered me that much. It’s a Gynapsi thing.”

“Be careful who you share that information with. The Gynapsi have enough problems without every other woman in the universe envying your mild cramps and perfect breasts.”

Calley let out a chuckle and the two said nothing for a minute as they continued washing themselves. Then, Alezanna told her copper-haired shipmate, “You’re a lucky young woman. My first time was all fumbling, embarrassment, and disappointment. And, I think, more pain than you showed. It seems you had a much easier time of it than I did. Though I can’t complain, because I certainly enjoyed myself last night. We won’t be able to all be together when we get back underway because one of us will always have to be on watch in the cockpit. But that doesn’t mean the other two can’t have some fun on their own. Unless, of course, you’re not interested in being with me without Sal involved as well.”

“Oh I’m definitely interested! I’ll just need you to take it easy on me at first. My only experience with sex, aside from last night, is the dirty holo-vids and I never really watched the girl-on-girl stuff. So you know more about that than I do.”

“You overestimate me. Last night was my first time with a woman as well as yours.”

“Really?” the young medic asked in surprise. “You sure seemed to know what you were doing. I thought for sure you’d done it before.”

“Not with a woman, no. I’d never met one I wanted to make love to until you. Oh, I was attracted to a few in the past. But never enough to actually take any action on it. Of course, I’d evaluate a woman’s body when I was designing a dress for her. Sometimes, I caught myself evaluating a little more than I needed to. But before I altered your red one, it had been a long time since I’d made dresses for someone besides myself. And never had I let myself get emotionally attached to a woman.”

“Well, I’m glad I was the one you picked,” Calley told her. She reached out to take Alezanna’s hand and squeeze it. She wanted to pull her into an embrace but remembered the captain’s request that they not take too much time in the shower. She feared that touching her new lover’s naked body would lead to their passions rising. So instead, she let go of her companion and returned to washing herself.

“So am I,” Alezanna said. “Before yesterday, I’d never thought of sharing Sal with anyone . And I’d never imagined Sal letting someone else have their way with me. So it was definitely a night of firsts. Your first time and my first threesome. And while I don’t know for sure, I’d be willing to wager that the same holds true for Sal. I have difficulty imagining him with someone other than myself, let alone two women at once. Or even two men, for that matter.”

Calley summoned up her courage and asked Alezanna, “What does that make us now? Are we still friends or have we become something more serious?”

The veteran spacer turned off the water on her shower and began drying herself off. “Definitely more serious. I’ve had many friends throughout the cycles. But I care for you far more. When you said you fantasized about me yesterday in the cockpit, it drew out a whole slew of emotions I hadn’t realized were even there. I’m still taking stock of how I feel about you, but it’s definitely more than a friendship. We can sort things out in the next few days. Assuming we survive the rest of our trip, of course. There’s no point in getting tangled up in our feelings if we’re just going to end up as space dust by dinnertime.”

Despite the grimness of the scenario Alezanna was postulating, she had a slight smile on her face as she put on her white robe. She left the bathroom, leaving Calley to finish her shower. After a few minutes, the Gynapsi turned off the water, dried herself and slipped on her borrowed robe before joining her crewmates in the galley. She and the older woman ate a simple meal of sausage and eggs while Sal, having already finished, stepped away to take his own shower.

After their meal, the women quickly washed and stowed away their plates and the few pans the captain had left behind. That done, they made their way to the cockpit where Alezanna examined the navigation computer while Calley did a final check of the ship’s systems. Eventually, Sal rejoined them and took his seat at the pilot’s controls. With an eye on a chronometer display counting down the time, he asked his first mate (a title that now had more than one meaning), “How’s it looking, pet?”

Alezanna answered, “We’ve got enough navigation data to get to the next system, I think. The zaireon signals went beyond the sensors’ range. Let’s hope they gave us what we needed.”

“Should be enough to make our first jump,” Collondo said as he started flipping switches and firing up the engines. As the chronometer reading ticked away the final moments, he announced, “No point in waiting around here anymore. Might as well get this old crate moving again. Say goodbye to the Tayoel system, ladies.”

The starfield outside the ship’s canopy shifted as Sal fully turned on the Hi-Vel engines. Both Calley and Alezanna held their breath, waiting to feel the ship smash apart as it collided with something at high speed. Nothing happened beyond the feeling of the ship accelerating, so they both exhaled loud enough for the captain to notice. He spun his chair around to look at them and said, “You know, it’s not like anything we run into is going to happen at the start of our jump. It could happen any time. But it won’t, of course, because space is just one big mass of emptiness. There’s not much to do until we run out of nav data and have to stop and start the calculations all over again. We might wanna get started on repairs that we can do from inside the ship.

“There’s not much we can do,” the Bellixan informed him. “We used almost all our spare parts during our spacewalk. There’s really nothing we’ll be able to get accomplished until we reach Rangxu and get into a decent repair facility. Preferably one in orbit. I’ll check to see what the library computer knows about whether or not the planet has an orbiting spaceport.”

“It does,” Sal informed her. “A lot of ‘em, actually. I stopped there a couple of times before you and I met. Rangxu’s an important trade hub but the planet itself is pretty untouched. Our contact, Margie, is one of the few who has a dock on-planet. We’re supposed to drop off her cargo there but hopefully I can talk her into somewhere in orbit instead. There were over a dozen stations last time I was there and she has to have a dock on at least one of ‘em. I just hope we don’t go broke getting the ship moored and fixed up.” He turned to Calley and asked her, “What’s our current speed?’

She checked her instruments and announced, “Regular Hi-Vel speed. Same as we’ve always gotten. You were right, Alezanna. There was nothing wrong with the Hi-Vel engines. Lo-Vel speed and maneuverability may have taken a hit, but we can still skip across systems as well as we normally do. It’s a shame the entire ship wasn’t built like the Hi-Vel engine casings.”

“Gods forbid!” the captain said. “Promethean steel is crazy expensive, not to mention heavy as the seven Hells. The ship already drags its ass when we fly in gravity. If we were covered in Promethean steel, it’d be like trying to keep a brick in the air.”

“It’s true,” Alezanna agreed. “Even with our reactor behind them, there’s no way our thrusters could keep us aloft if we were that heavy. Better to be fragile and fast.”

“It’s served us well in the past,” the captain continued. “But if our Hi-Vel capacity is as good as it always is, that’s good news. It means, once we get the sensors up to snuff, we can start running cargo again even if our Lo-Vels are still banged up.”

“I still worry about the topside guns,” Alezanna advised. “We may have to replace one of the sets of cannons. Bad enough to be running slower than normal. If we get ambushed like that and undergunned as well, I wouldn’t like our chances.”

“No argument there, pet,” Collondo agreed. “But depending on how much this overhaul ends up costing us, we might have to start runs again before the ship is back in tip-top shape. You know as well as I do how much it costs to get parts for this crate.”

The dark-haired spacer nodded thoughtfully before proclaiming, “Well, there’s no point in putting the cargo before the motor. Let’s see if we can reach Rangxu alive before we worry about our finances. Why don’t you two let me take the first watch. I have a lot of thoughts to put in order.”

Sal quizzically arched an eyebrow at her but declined to question the mechtech about these thoughts. He looked over at Calley and told her, “I think we’ve been dismissed.”

He got up and moved towards the cockpit entrance indicating Calley should follow him with a nod of his head. She moved behind him and the two made their way to the common area. He turned to her and asked her, “Is there anything urgent you need to do in the next little while?”

“No, the systems I know how to fix would need me to be outside. And like Alezanna said, I just don’t have the repair parts I need to do much good. I don’t know if there’s anything going on in Rangxu that I need to inoculate us against. It’s weird to say, but for the first time in a very long while, I think we’re nothing more than passengers on this run.”

The captain nodded and told her, “it does feel strange not to have anything to do, doesn’t it? When we get to the next system, I’m gonna have to take some time to send out a new zaireon signal pulse and calculate our course again. But since it seems we have hours of downtime to fill, how’d you like to join me in the hot tub? I know we both just took showers, but I think a nice long soak will help your stress.

“That sounds nice. I think we all need to relax, what with how we’re traveling and, you know—”

“The state of the ship?” Sal finished for her as the two made their way to the bathroom. “Don’t let it get you down. When I first bought the Ravenfang, she was in far worse shape. I hadn’t refined my trading instincts yet but I managed to survive and build the ship up to a decent state. And I didn’t have a great mechtech at my disposal back then. Or, for that matter, a medic who can help out too. It’s not gonna be an easy time for the next few sub-cycles, but we’ll manage. You’ll see.”

Having reached the hot tub, the two shipmates removed the tarp covering it. Calley went to the water temperature controls and asked Sal, “How hot do you like it?”

“Three ticks below maximum.”

She adjusted the controls accordingly and stated, “That’s awfully hot. You want me to go grab some shellfish out of the galley?  We can cook it in here with the water so hot.”

“Old man, old bones, Calley. And these old bones like the heat. And speaking of things I like…”

He moved over to her and undid the sash of her robe. He took it off her, leaving her standing there nude. He looked her over with a look of appreciation on his face. She wondered what he would do next and was slightly disappointed when he moved away to hang up her robe on an elevated cabinet’s handle. He then removed his own robe and hung it up as well. He turned back to her and she saw his penis was hanging down in a flaccid state. He moved to her, took her right hand in his left and helped her into the tub’s water. It was still heating up but wasn’t too cold. He let go of her hand and moved into the water with her.

The two snuggled up to one another and she took his member into her right hand. “Leave it,” he told her. “Plenty of time for that later on. Right now, let’s just soak and talk.”

She let go of his hardening cock and said, “Okay, but y’know, the ship wasn’t what I was thinking about. Oh, I know we’re not in the greatest of shape, but I’m sure we can get out of the starcred trouble. Maybe I’m selfish, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we did last night.”

“I hope you’re not having regrets.”

“Oh Gods no! Whenever I thought about how I’d lose my virginity, I never imagined it could go as well as it did. To be honest, when I was on my other postings, I was half-convinced I’d end up losing it against my will. I tried not to think about it, but it was something that scared me a lot. Now that it’s done, not only am I happy with what happened, I’m looking forward to doing it again. But I’m not sure if I should be. I mean, you and Alez are together and I’m not sure how I fit into this now.”

The older man nodded and asked her, “Can I give you a piece of advice?” After she nodded, he told her, “Don’t think about this so much. When it comes to relationships, I’ve learned the hard way that the more you examine ‘em, the less you enjoy ‘em. Of course, that’s easy for me to say ‘cause, like you said, Alezanna and me are together. So I don’t have to think about what I have with her. I’ve known what it is for a long time now, and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. As for how you fit into it, you can fit in however you want. When you wanna be with me, be with me. When you wanna be with her, be with her. I know how she feels about you. I know how I feel about you too. Neither one of us is ever gonna turn you away. And I don’t think you’re gonna have a problem when Alez and I are together, will you?

“No, of course not. You make it sound so simple. Can it really be so easy?”

“Why not? I love Alezanna. And in the last cycle and change, I’ve grown to love you too. It’s the same with her. She may not have realized how she felt about you, but I could see it.”

“Really? She says she didn’t realize it until last night in the cockpit. When I talked about fantasizing about her.”

“Well, not to toot my own horn,” he said with a smile, “but I think I saw how much she loved you way before she realized it. When you admitted to fantasizing about her yesterday, I took the opportunity to get her thinking about it. Remember, I’ve had to learn how to read people pretty quick to help with my negotiations. It often helps me if I can figure out what they’re thinking and what they’re feeling. With Alezanna, I’ve had cycles to study what she does, why she’s doing it, and how she feels about a lotta things. No, she’s been in love with you for a while. When you broke down after Palcon and she watched over you, I could see it. And when I floated the idea of making you a partner, she jumped right for it. She wanted you to have that future with us. Not just for you, but for her too. She knew it was a way to keep you connected with us more than just being an employee.”

“What about you? When did you know you were in love  with me?”

“I’m not sure,” he answered before smiling and adding, “Seeing you in that red dress probably helped things along. And seeing your chest with your jumpsuit open yesterday didn’t hurt either.”

She let out a laugh and gave his chest a small slap, splashing some water in both their faces. “Men!” she admonished him with a smile. “Tits are all you care about!”

“Not true!” he said with mock indignation. “I also think about asses!” After Calley laughed at the admission, he added, “And starcred. I think about starcred a lot.”

She smiled at that before turning back to something he’d said before. “So if you knew Alez was in love with me back then, why didn’t you say anything to her about it?”

“Didn’t see much point to it,” he told her with a shrug. “I figured she’d realize it on her own eventually. And to be honest, it’s not like I spent a lotta time worrying about it. When it comes to matters of the heart, like I said, it’s best not to think too much. I spent a lotta time thinking about what I wanted from a relationship before my first marriage, and that turned out not to help me at all. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Of course, I was pretty much the same age as you back then, and I guess I understand why you think you need to analyze this. So if you have any questions or comments you wanna make, I’m all ears. Let’s get ‘em outta the way.”

Calley thought about it for a few moments and gathered up her courage. “Well,” she began, “there is one thing that I’ve been wondering about quite a bit. If we’re gonna be together, and I really want us to be, should I be calling you ‘Master’?”

The captain thought about it for a second before answering, “No, I don’t think so. That’s something I needed when Alezanna and I got together. And I still like hearing her call me that. But it’s different with you. I think it’s mostly because you’re younger than me. This is a new thing for me, being with a younger woman. Before you, every woman I was with was older than me.”

“Even your first wife? You made it sound like she was the same age as you when you talked about her.”

“She was an entire cycle older than me. Not an old maid by any means, but it still counts as being older. Zelder, my second wife, was two cycles older than me. Zelder the elder, as I used to tease her. And despite how Alez looks, you know as well as I do how much older she is than either of us. Even the prostitutes that I visited between Zelder and Alez were older than I was.”

“Sounds like you have a type.”

“Not really. With the prostitutes, it was simply a case that the younger ones cost more. I wasn’t interested in overpaying. This is gonna sound like a terrible thing to say, but I didn’t think a younger vagina would feel all that much better than a more experienced one. So why pay the extra cost?” He paused for a moment and then admonished himself, “Prophet’s breath, I’m a cynical asshole, aren’t I?”

She giggled and told him, “Yes, you’re a heartless monster. But you said you think about starcred a lot so I guess cheaper vaginas made sense to you.” Then, she turned serious and asked him, “Did I feel different?”

“Yes. I’d never been with a virgin before. Or any woman even close to being a virgin. The first girl I was ever with, who was not my first wife, incidentally, had had a couple of boys before me. The same goes with Charlocke, my first wife. No, you’re the first woman that I’ve had to be careful with. I didn’t hurt you too much, did I?”

“No. I’m not gonna deny it hurt there for a while, but I got used to it.”

“Good. But that’s why I don’t need you to be my pet or to call me ‘Master’. When Alezanna and I became lovers, I needed the security of being the dominant one in our relationship. Of course, I was already the captain of the ship, and with her being a crewmember, there was already a relationship there that I was comfortable with. I just wanted my personal one with her to be more or less on the same level. After two failed marriages, I just didn’t wanna be hurt again. I don’t know if I could’ve explained it back then, but I can see it now. It was a way to keep Alez from hurting me the way I’d been hurt before. And since then, it’s evolved to a much more comfortable little set of nicknames more than anything else. I trust her completely now, same as I do you.”

“I trust you too, Sal. With everything.”

He nodded before adding, “So I don’t need that kinda pet relationship with you. With you and me, I’m already the veteran lover here, as silly as that sounds. I’ve had more experience with relationships and it’ll be my job to navigate you through your first one with a man. And I figure Alez will do the same with your first relationship with a woman.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “But if I’m not your pet, and you’re not my master, what should I call you?”

“I like to go by ‘Sal’ most of the time. If we’re dealing with customers, ‘Captain’ will do fine.”

She gave him a slight punch on the shoulder. “Don’t joke! It was a serious question. Do I call you my boyfriend? My lover?”

“I like the sound of both. And in return, I’m going to call you my girlfriend, my lover, my sexy little minx and, in the heat of passion, I might even call you some more nasty things.”

“Oooh…” she purred. “What sort of things did you have in mind?”

“Never plan these things, Calley,” he gently admonished her. “Just let ‘em happen natural. Let’s see what kind of conversation we can have now that you’re a little more comfortable with sex. Sit on the edge.“

She did as he instructed by getting up, leaving only her legs in the steamy water. She lowered her behind down onto where the plastic tile met the edge of the large ceramic bathtub. The cool surface her posterior was on was a sharp contrast to the hot water her lower legs were still in.

He told her, “Open up your legs. I wanna take a good, close look at you.”

She smiled as she moved her legs apart, exposing her vulva to him. She had a passing thought that, just a few days ago, she’d have been mortified to do this with him. But now, she was happy to do it. He stared at her opening for a moment and then moved closer, extending his tongue and giving her slit a quick lick.

“No no no!” he said disapprovingly in an exaggerated posh accent. ”This’ll never do. That’s the problem with being intimate in water. Washes away your natural lubrication. If I tried to take you right now, we’d both end up being very chafed and uncomfortable. If only I could think of something we could do to fix this situation.” He paused for a moment before exclaiming, “Wait, I’ve got an idea!”

She laughed at his antics but was pleased that his tongue returned to her sex and began licking it in earnest. She looked at him with his nose buried in the pubic hair of her mound and had to admit she did enjoy the view. She was more relaxed now than she had been last night. And the sensation of his tongue exploring her folds was a very pleasant one. She closed her eyes to concentrate on it.  She couldn’t help but let out moans and sighs as he explored the most intimate part of her body. She was glad that her first lover was so caring, but also experienced. There was no hesitation in his actions. He was moving his tongue around, in and out of her tight opening and taking note of what seemed to please her the most. Very much the same way she had done to Alezanna the night prior. But this time, she was the one being pleasured and she was enjoying every moment of it.

“Oh Sal, Sal…” she cooed as the sensation flowed through her nerve endings. “I love you so much.”

He did not break contact with her vulva to answer her declaration. But this did not bother her, as she didn’t want him to stop what he was doing. It felt too good for her to care that he hadn’t responded with his own declaration of love. Anyway, his actions were more than enough proof of his feelings towards her. She had a brief thought that, when he was done, she would have to reciprocate by taking his cock in her mouth. But she didn’t have time to ponder the idea for long as she soon found it difficult to think any coherent thoughts.

She wanted to tell him how wonderful he was making her feel, but couldn’t articulate the words anymore. The sounds that came out of her mouth were a babble of gibberish. She moved her right leg to his back and rubbed it there. Was it because she needed to feel more of him, or was it to urge him to continue the wonderful things he was doing? She didn’t know and didn’t really care either. All that she knew was that she felt good, very good, better than she’d ever felt!

And then she felt it again. The feeling she had felt last night as the pressure built to a boiling point and she couldn’t contain herself anymore. She let out a scream of pleasure as her orgasm shook her body and caused her to buck her privates against Collondo’s face. He had grabbed hold of the back of her asscheeks to hold his face against her. It prevented him from being shaken away from the vulva he was pleasuring. She was grateful that he continued licking her through the eruption of her pleasure. She didn’t want the sensations to stop, though they did eventually ebb away.

When her senses returned to her, she opened her eyes to look down at Sal. He had stopped licking her but had placed his hand above her mons and was gently rubbing his thumb through her pubic hair. His eyes found hers and his mouth broke into a grin. It was clear that he had enjoyed giving her pleasure. And once again, she was determined to do the same to him.

“My turn,” she said as she began to shift back into the tub. Before she could do so, however, he stood up to put a hand on her chest, between her two breasts, to stop her. She could see that his penis was now erect.

“I don’t think so,” he said in a throaty voice. “Turn around. I wanna see how you like it from behind.”

“Oh!” she cooed. Despite his protestations that he did not need to be her master, she found he wasn’t shy about taking the lead in their sex. Not that she minded at all. These experiences were all new to her and she was happy to try new ways of copulating. She turned herself around and leaned forward until her hands lay on the edge of the tub, keeping her vulva above the water’s edge. The oral sex she had just received had caused her juices to flow and Sal had no trouble inserting his penis inside her despite his organ’s wetness.

Unlike the night before, he wasn’t as careful and methodical about his penetration. It still felt a little strange to Calley, having him inside her. But there was no pain this time out. She didn’t tense up as she had before and Sal noted this. He thrust inside her more aggressively and she encouraged him by hissing out, “Yes, like that, that’s good.”

He started pounding her with long, deep strokes, causing some of the water they were in to splash out of the tub. The angle of his penetration, she realized, was very different than it had been when he’d taken her virginity. She wasn’t holding him this time. His hands were around her hips as he moved in and out of her. It wasn’t as intimate as the previous night. However, she found that his penis was rubbing her in a way it hadn’t before.

“Oh Gods!” she moaned. “It’s good! It’s good! Dear sweet Prophet this is so fucking good!”

Encouraged by her declaration, Sal gave up any pretense at subtlety and started thrusting into his new lover quite hard. This is it! Calley realized. This is how he fucks. I’ve seen it with Alezanna, and now he’s doing it to me!  This was her last coherent thought for a while as she relaxed and concentrated on the new sensations she was feeling. She hadn’t lied when she’d said their coitus felt good this time. It did. She didn’t know if this was because she had gotten used to the feeling of a penis inside her now, or if the new angle of penetration was improving things. Maybe it was a combination of both.

She couldn’t see Sal as they made love, but she could certainly feel him as they continued on. Eventually, she heard his breathing speed up as his strokes into her quickened. Again, she felt his cock twitch as he ejaculated inside her with a grunt. He was not a vocal lover like Calley, so there were no declarations of love or how good she had made him feel. But as they both recovered from their coitus and their breathing slowly returned to normal, his left hand tenderly stroked her back. It was a gentle display of the love between them after their act of carnal passion. Eventually his cock fell out of her. She straightened up and turned around to give him a passionate kiss. Their arms wrapped around each other as they pulled themselves as close as they could.

Without letting her go, he broke the kiss and moved his head back so that he could ask her, “Since this is all kind of new to you, I gotta ask: Are you on birth control?”

She snorted, “Nice of you to ask after you’ve already had me twice. But yes, I took care of that after we woke up. You and I can make love all we want for the next sub-cycles. And beyond that, so long as the medbay stays well-stocked.”

“I’ll make damned sure that it is! Let’s get outta here and move your stuff into our room. From now on, the stateroom is just for passengers. You bunk with us.”

The two got out of the tub, dried off and covered it with the tarp again. They then mopped up the water they’d splashed onto the floor, exchanging looks of equal parts guilt and affection. Once that chore was done, the two put their robes back on and got busy moving Calley’s things from the stateroom to the room she would now share with her shipmates. Sal shouted to the cockpit that they were moving in Calley’s things and Alezanna answered back, “Of course you are.” The transfer didn’t take long. When she’d first joined the crew, Calley had been glad to have her own space for the first time in her life. But now, she was happy to abandon it if it meant sharing space with her lovers.

NEXT CHAPTER: Both the journey and the loving continue.