(Note #1: All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome and appreciated.
Note #2: Once again, all artwork in this chapter was created by Faith Desky.
Note #3: And finally, thanks to volunteer Literotica editor TheNyxianLily for her help with editing.)
“Okay,” Calley said as she joined her friend and they exited the room. “Are you ready to tell me what the surprise is today?”
“Soon.”
The two naked women walked on the path and Calley saw that it actually led to a gap in the hedgerow that she had failed to notice because of the angle of the hedges. She also felt there was far more moisture in the air than she was used to. Having arrived last night, and in a fairly excited state to boot, she hadn’t noted how close the large home was to the ocean. Now, Calley smelled the salt on the breeze and heard the sound of waves crashing on the surf nearby. As they crossed the gap, they stepped onto a dirt road. This was a new experience for the spacer. She’d grown up on spaceships and only visited planets with her boots on. The feel of dirt on her naked feet was strange. “Are we going far?” she asked her companion, wondering if her feet were up to walking on this unfamiliar terrain.
Daznee pointed to her right side and answered, “Just over there.”
Calley saw the path turned away from a raised grassy area ahead. Beyond it, the terrain dropped off a dozen meters as the ground met the water. Looking to her right, she saw the dirt path branched off to a more gradual decline until the grass tapered off and a beach stretched out further. The waves, as loud as they seemed to Calley, didn’t seem to be very large or hitting the beach too forcefully.
In the pre-dawn light, Calley followed her friend down the path to where it met the sand of the beach. Walking barefoot on the sand was another new sensation for the young woman, but she found she liked it. She wasn’t used to walking on a surface that sunk a little. She looked behind her and saw her footprints, a sight she’d never seen before. She and Daznee sat down a dozen meters away from the point where the water reached and the green-haired beauty told her, “I saw you looking at the sunset yesterday. It obviously made an impression on you if you took it as your stripper name. Well, I thought you might like to see a sunrise too. They’re both nice, but I like the sunrise better.”
“Why?”
“Look ahead. You’ll see in a minute why.”
Calley followed the woman’s instructions and looked over to the brightening horizon. It didn’t take long for the edge of the sun to appear and the sight took Calley’s breath away. She gasped as the fiery orb rose majestically on its way to its place in the sky. She’d seen sunrises and sunsets from orbit around a planet or station countless times. But seeing it from the ground was far different. She forgot about the strange feel of sand under her posterior or her feet, where she was or with whom. She simply stared at the sun, marvelling at how huge it seemed and how little everything else felt at that moment.
Beside her, Daznee stared ahead silently and let the vision wash over them both. She put her head on Calley’s shoulder and smiled. The spacer struggled to find the right words to describe what she was seeing and how it was making her feel. Finally, all she could say was, “Wow!”
“Yeah, wow,” the socialite agreed. “I set my alarm a few minutes before sunrise every day. Been doing it for cycles. Ever since we moved down here. Sometimes I hafta go back to bed afterwards but I never miss a sunrise if I can help it.”
“I don’t blame you. It’s so beautiful. Now that I’ve seen one, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. And you’re right. Somehow, it’s better than a sunset.”
“A sunset is an ending. Even if you’re a night bird like Spiroo, it still feels like time is finishing up. But a sunrise, that’s the promise of a new day. The hope that anything, good or bad, might happen before it’s over.”
Calley turned her head to look at her friend. “Daznee, I think you’re a poet.”
“No, I’ve just read a lot of poems, that’s all.”
Daznee saw Calley was looking at her and raised her head to give her a quick kiss. The Gynapsi tried to prolong it but the Vottonian pulled her head back. “Nope, that’s all you get,” she said. “We start going down that road and I’ll lose the day making love to you. I gotta work in a few hours.”
“Yeah, so do I,” Calley admitted wistfully. “The repairs are almost finished, but I still need to help Alezanna weld the hull back together.”
“How long’s that gonna take?”
“Not sure. I’m used to patching up people, not ships. Stitching together skin, not gerazin plating. I’ve learned a lot about starship maintenance in the last few sub-cycles. Had to.”
“And after the Ravenfang’s fixed up, you’ll be gone, won’t you?” Daznee said. She hadn’t really phrased it as a question, but more a statement with a distinct tinge of sadness.
Calley’s throat tightened up. In the back of her mind, she’d been aware that the day she’d be moving on from the Rangxu system was fast approaching. But she hadn’t wanted to give serious thought to it. For the first time in her life, she found herself wanting to stay somewhere. She liked being where she was. Not just watching the sunrise with Daznee. Going dancing with her friends. Flirting with the guys. Shopping for shoes she really didn’t need. Or just talking casually with everyone. The weeks that had passed since she’d arrived in-system had been busy but full of new experiences. She’d been living a far different life than she was accustomed to. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave it.
Finding her voice, she told Daznee, “I don’t know. I don’t wanna leave Sal and Alezanna. I love them. But I love…” Calley paused, her eyes flicking towards her friend, “…being with you. But also Mix, Yutag, all the guys. I can’t be in two places at once, but I really wish I could. I mean, I’ve been a spacer all my life. It’s the only life I’ve ever known, but…”
She tried to find the right words to continue, but it was Daznee who said, “But it doesn’t have to be. You could stay here. Rangxu takes in immigrants every day. Mix finds ‘em places to live, and with a level four biotech certificate, there’s not a hospital on any station around here that wouldn’t offer you a job. Or you could set up a private practice if that’s more your speed. You have so many options open to you here, Calley. There’s nothing wrong with the spacer life, but eventually spacers settle down, don’t they? You said even your shipmates wanna become farmers someday.”
“Sure. But usually after they’ve put away some starcred. Two thousand isn’t gonna last me long enough to really get on my feet.”
“Don’t worry about that. With my connections, I could find you a job tomorrow. You work there a while until you set up a better position or your own shingle. And if you wanna save money on lodgings…” She paused before adding, “…you could always just stay here with me.”
Calley was taken aback at the offer. “What’s your family gonna say?”
“Mom loves you. She hates people who grew up pampered. She likes working-class people. When she asks who I’m hanging around with these days and I mention you, she always says that’s a good thing. You’re not some hanger-on mooching off me and she knows it. You haven’t met my dads yet but I’m sure they’ll like you too. And besides, this place is big enough that I’m pretty sure it’d take a few sub-cycles before they’d notice you’d moved in anyway.”
Calley looked behind her and took in the size of the mansion. “I’ll say. I’ve seen smaller star cruisers.” she agreed. And then a thought struck her. She’d only taken in the environment in passing last night on the way to Daznee’s bedroom, but it was clear this was the home of wealthy people. “You brought Janite here the night you danced at the club, right?”
“Yes, but we didn’t come to the beach. She didn’t wanna get up in the morning. Why?”
Calley ignored her question for now and instead asked her, “And after that, she started to keep her distance from you more, right?”
“Yeah. Where you going with this?”
“Daznee, did you ever think maybe it isn’t you she was keeping away from? That it might have been the house?”
Her friend looked at her quizzically and then glanced at her home. “What’s wrong with my house?”
“Nothing. It’s really beautiful without being too extravagant. But it’s definitely a rich person’s house. To someone who grew up poor, it can be a little overwhelming.”
Daznee seemed surprised by her friend’s idea. “Do you think it’s too much?”
“No, but I served on starliners. Those are really fancy ships. Well, the passenger areas are, anyway. So I got used to going from a pretty ornate area to a more basic one. But if you aren’t expecting it, it can really turn your head around. Maybe it was such a shock to Janite that she drew back. I mean, what she said about dancing paying less than medicine last night kinda gave me the impression that she doesn’t make a lot of starcred.”
“No, I don’t think she does,” Daznee said as she recontextualized her night with Janite. “Shit, I think you might be right. Ever since Mom got into politics and won the election, I’ve kinda gotten away from how we used to live. I guess I kinda took everything for granted. I got used to the nice things it gave us. It never occurred to me that somebody else might find it too intimidating. I tried to get closer to her by bringing her here and instead I did the opposite. Crap.”
The social planner looked over her home again and heaved a heavy sigh. “But it’s too late to do anything about it now. This is where I live and it’s not like I’m gonna move out just for appearances’ sake. Besides, I like living here. It’s private, for one thing. There’s less than a hundred residences across the whole planet, and they’re all isolated like this one. Overall, we leave the ecosystem alone as much as possible. Well, except for one thing. You feel like taking a swim?”
“In the ocean? I’ve never done that. Is it safe?” Calley asked.
Daznee got up and pulled her friend up before they walked, hand-in-hand, towards the house. They didn’t go back the way they came. Instead, they headed towards a lower level of the structure that acted as a dock, complete with a fifteen-meter-long speedboat sitting idly in it.
Daznee didn’t approach the boat though. Instead, she opened a cabinet beside the dock and took out two beach towels. She also opened up an instrument panel and activated whatever it controlled. Calley couldn’t see what it was but the green-haired young woman explained. “There’s fish in the water, obviously. For the most part, they’re harmless but sometimes one of the larger predators comes along and they can take a big bite out of you. So the house comes with an underwater signal broadcaster that scares ‘em away. Doesn’t affect us at all, so we can swim safely all the way to the shoals. And when I turn it on, my friends know I’m coming so they head here to play.”
“I thought you said this place was isolated. You have more friends who live near here?”
“It is. My friends live in the water.”
Calley wondered what Daznee was talking about as the two returned to the beach. They dropped their towels where they’d been sitting and made their way towards the water. “Do you know how to swim?” the Vottonian asked her friend.
“Yeah. I learned on the starliners. They had pools aboard.”
“Good. The water here might be a little colder. You’ll get used to it though,” Daznee said as she stepped into a small breaking wave. Calley followed her and let out a little cry as the water surrounded her feet. The two moved forward more and soon their legs were entirely submerged. As Daznee had warned, the water was cold but not unbearably so. The teal-skinned woman started swimming further out and Calley followed. It was her first time swimming in salt water and she was careful not to swallow any.
They’d only been swimming for a few minutes when Calley heard a clicking sound approaching. She looked in the air to see if it was the local birds crying out but she realized the sound was coming from the level of the water. She looked around and saw a pair of fins approaching. She had a moment of panic before she heard Daznee call out, “Here come my friends! Just relax and let them take a look at you. They’re really friendly.”
Calley tread water nervously as a pair of aquatic creatures swam close and raised their heads above the waterline. Their skins were a silvery blue in colour and their eyes were black irises in white pools. They almost resembled human eyes. One took a look at Calley and seemed to be sizing her up.
“I thought you said the signal kept the fish away,” she said to Daznee who was swimming a few meters away from her.
“It does. These are mammals. Cetaceans. They breathe air just like you and me. See, they have blowholes on top of their heads. They talk too. That sound they make is them communicating with each other. And with us, if only we could understand what they’re saying.”
“And they’re not dangerous, right?” Calley said as she kept swimming in place, keeping her movements as small as possible, nervous about the cetaceans.
“Not at all!” Daznee said with a laugh. “Except sometimes they might butt their snouts in your buttcheek. They’ve figured out it’s the part of us that can absorb a little hit. And sometimes they’ll spit water at you as a joke.”
Calley looked back at the cetacean looking at her and reached out to it. It quickly darted away, splashing water in her face as it did so. Then it stuck its head out of the water again and let out a high-pitched whistling sound.
“It’s almost as if it’s laughing at me,” the Gynapsi observed to her friend.
“I think he is,” Daznee said, joining in with a laugh of her own.
“He’s a boy? How can you tell?”
“Look at the slits near his tail. If there are two slits, it’s a boy. Three, it’s a girl.”
Calley couldn’t see the slits Daznee was referring to, but figured her friend must know what she was talking about. She swam forward and the cetacean let her approach. It returned to making clicking sounds as she reached out to touch it. The young woman found its skin was very smooth as she let her hand trail under the water. Now that she was right next to it, she could estimate the creature was about a meter-and-a-half long. About as long as she was tall. It had a sleek body with a dorsal fin and one on the left and right undersides of its body. It also had a tail it could use to propel itself forward, though it was idle at the moment.
As Calley examined it, the creature suddenly swam away without splashing her this time. She followed it with her eyes for a moment until it submerged a distance away from her. She wondered where it had gone when suddenly, it jumped out of the water near where she’d lost sight of it. Its leap took it completely out of the water in an arc until it dove back into the ocean. It then quickly made its way back to Calley and stuck its head out of the water near her to let out a gaggle of clicks.
“Yes boy, that was very impressive,” the medtech told the cetacean. It slipped its snout under the water and brought it up again quickly, throwing some water at her. She responded by using her arms to splash water back at it. “You stinker!” she admonished it with a laugh.
“Look at the other one,” Daznee said as she swam up to Calley and the male cetacean. Calley looked in the direction her companion was looking in and saw the other creature jump out of the water as well. This second cetacean was longer, easily surpassing two meters, and it jumped much higher. Its leap took it three meters out of the water before its body twisted downward and it submerged again with hardly a splash. It then swam back up to the two women and, like its smaller compatriot, stuck its head out of the water.
Daznee stuck her hands out of the water and applauded the creature’s jump, and Calley joined in. “This one’s bigger, isn’t she?” Calley said, having spotted the three slits near its tail when the cetacean had jumped.
“She’s an adult,” the Vottonian informed her as she kept treading water, her movements more carefree than Calley’s/. “The male’s a juvenile. Still has some growing up to do, I think.”
The two women spent the next twenty minutes playing with their aquatic friends. Both the male and female cetaceans spat in Calley’s face and gently bumped her posterior at various times. The adult even allowed Calley to hang on to her dorsal fin as it swam a distance away and then returned her passenger to where Daznee and the younger cetacean were waiting for them.
Eventually, the Vottonian told her friend that it was time to go. Calley reluctantly said goodbye to the cetaceans who watched them go and then quickly swam away. Back on the beach, the two women dried themselves off and Daznee returned to the dock to turn off the fish-warding signal. Once she rejoined Calley, the two women returned to the bedroom and took a quick shower together to wash the sand from their feet and salt from their skins and hair. Daznee then wrapped herself in her towel while Calley put the clothes she was wearing yesterday back on. She opted for the more conservative underwear while she slipped the pair she’d danced in into her pocket.
The whole time, the two young women chatted about nothing in particular. Calley was mulling Daznee’s offer to stay in the house and wanted to stay away from the subject. The socialite didn’t mention it again, though their conversation didn’t seem as natural as it normally would. The idea of Calley staying on Rangxu was obviously on both their minds, and they were consciously avoiding the subject.
They made their way back to Daznee’s shuttle where the social planner got dressed in her work clothes for the day. Calley always found it a bit jarring to see her friend dressed in simple work suits as they didn’t match her outgoing personality. And yet Daznee managed to look professional without subduing her feminine beauty.
Once the Vottonian was dressed for the day, the pair adjourned to the cockpit and soon they were on their way to the Command One station. On the way, the two didn’t speak much. As more time passed, it seemed whether or not Calley planned to leave the system was becoming a more and more burdensome question.
Neither woman spoke of it until the shuttle had docked in the executive hanger. They left the ship and after locking it up, Daznee turned to her friend and told her, “Look, I know I kinda freaked you out with the offer to move in with me down there. But I want you to know it’s a serious offer. I started thinking about it a few weeks ago. I know you spacer-types love your freedom and I don’t wanna tie ya down.” She let out a nervous chuckle and added, “That’s the kinda thing I’m more into anyway, my queen.”
Calley smiled at the reminder of last night’s lovemaking. “I know, Daznee, and I’m thinking about it, really I am. But it’s kinda complicated. I wanna stay with you, but I don’t wanna leave Sal and Alez. I just gotta think about it, okay? I can’t just tell you right now what I’m gonna do. This is gonna need time and thought. I might even hafta stay on the ship tonight instead of going out.”
“Sure, that’s fine. I understand why you need to take your time. Besides, I’m not going anywhere. When you know what you’re gonna do, you know where to find me.” With that, she pulled Calley into an embrace and gave her a quick kiss. “And even if you have to go, you’re not gonna leave without saying goodbye, right?”
“No, of course not.”
“I dunno about ‘of course.’ You spacers can slink away like thieves in the night when people turn their backs on ya. I’ll give ya your space but don’t make me regret it, Calley Vanmussen.”
Daznee’s tone was of mock seriousness, so Calley promised her, “I won’t. Besides, you’re the governor’s daughter. If I tried to leave, you’d just send the militia to bring me back.”
“Damn right I would! One call from me and Mitchewl’ll shoot you outta the sky.”
They both chuckled and made their way to the lifts where they parted company. Daznee headed to the executive offices while Calley made her way back down to the larger hanger the Ravenfang was docked in. As she approached her ship, she took a moment to really look at it. It was her home, the first one she’d ever been able to name as her own. She wasn’t sure she was ready to leave it. In the last cycle, she’d come to love it like she’d done no other ship she’d ever served on. Sal and Alezanna had taken her in and saved her from a life of aimless wandering in poverty. Granted, she was still wandering, and her finances weren’t in the best of states after the asteroids in Tayoel. But she’d always felt she was making progress in building a better life for herself.
And that was what Daznee was offering her. A better life. She was right about the system being full of opportunities. Her Gynapsi background wouldn’t hinder her here. She had the skills to find very good employment somewhere in-system if she wanted. Mix would help her find a domicile if she wasn’t ready to move in with Daznee. With her friends and her lover, she knew she could make a good life for herself here.
She then considered her situation with her shipmates. She loved them. Losing them would break her heart. It wasn’t just that they’d done so much for her. She didn’t want to stay with them out of loyalty or a sense of obligation. She wanted to stay with them because they were such a good match for her. She loved Sal’s easy-going nature (except when negotiating a deal). She loved Alezanna’s pragmatic attitude and the caring side she kept hidden.
The more she thought about it, the more torn in two she felt. She tried to decide which path she should follow and found neither one more appealing than the other. Only one had an advantage. Staying alongside Daznee provided a certainty as opposed to being a spacer. Her two shipmates had talked about retiring someday. Maybe in a decade or so. Calley didn’t know where she fit in that plan. Did she have a long-term future with Sal and Alezanna? Or was she placing her cargo in a short-term hauler? Staying in Rangxu would provide her with a more stable long-term future. She wasn’t entirely sure what it would turn out to be, but she knew she could build it with the help of her friends. However vague that future might be, it was still more than she had with Alezanna and Sal.
With this realization in mind, she started to plan what she would do next. She would talk to her shipmates about their future together, whatever it might be. It might be early in their new relationship to ask about long-term plans, but it couldn’t be helped. She was at a turning point in her life and would have to chart a course for herself. And to do that, she needed the nav data. If nothing else, she’d learned the importance of that data in the last few sub-cycles.
She entered the ship and made her way to the common area. She saw no one. She listened for the sounds of her shipmates and heard some clanging noises coming from the aft of the ship. Making her way to the reactor room, she found Alezanna getting the welding equipment organized. The Bellixan was dressed down in a dull green jumpsuit. Despite it being a more practical than enticing garment, it was still undoubtably an Alezanna creation. It was obviously tailor-made for her and hugged her hips tightly. It still managed to show off her figure and made her look sexy despite covering her from her ankles to her neck. The mechanic looked up as Calley entered and told her, “Ah, there you are, dear. Ready to get to work for today?”
“Sure. Just let me get changed first. Is Sal around?”
“No, he left early this morning. In a good mood for once. Said he finally had what he needed to close out the negotiations with the Palsidians. Of course, he had to wait until the repairs were almost done before he finished up his end of things. I just hope his efforts were worth it. It’s just like him to lose track of the important work you and I did while he’s off chasing starcred.”
“Well, speaking of starcred, I made some for us last night. Two thousand.”
Alezanna seemed impressed by the news. She asked, “In one night? How’d you do that? Lucky streak at the gaming tables?”
Suddenly, Calley found herself embarrassed by what she’d done the night before. She nervously explained, “I went to a dance club, well, more like a strip club. They were having a competition for amateurs. I won the top prize.”
“I see,” the mechtech said with a nod. Her tone betrayed neither surprize or disapproval. “For that kind of starcred, there must have been quite a few competitors.”
“Twenty of us.” Calley swallowed before continuing. “I know it might be a little shady way to make starcred, but—”
Her older friend cut her off with, “Nonsense. You’re not the first woman to traffic her beauty and you won’t be the last. Hells, do you think, in all the time I was on the run, I never did it either?”
“You danced at a club too?”
“Not a strip club. But if they’re giving amateurs two thousand for one night’s work, maybe I should have. Here, go get changed and I’ll show you what I’m talking about.”
The two shipmates made their way out of the reactor room. Calley went to the bedroom to change while Alezanna headed to the ship’s common area. In the bedroom, Calley took off her clothes and slipped on a fresh pair of underwear, some grey socks and her brown jumpsuit. As she slipped on her boots, she wished her jumpsuit looked as good on her as Alezanna’s did on the taller woman. She had a passing thought of asking her to make her nicer outfits, but then remembered her future with the fashionable spacer was uncertain. She reminded herself that there was no point in musing on the subject until Sal got back and she could discuss it with both her shipmates.
She found Alezanna seated at the communications station off the galley looking something up. “Come look at this,” the dark-haired beauty told her as she beckoned the younger woman towards the screen. Calley moved to it and saw a series of holographic images of a beautiful, scantily-clad woman lounging around a brightly-lit bedroom. Her hair was only coming down to the small of her back, but the model was unquestionably Alezanna.
“Oh wow!” Calley said in amazement. She looked over the images and scrolled through them all. The later ones featured her friend in the nude. “You really look great in these! Not that that’s too surprising. When did you pose for these?”
“Not too long after I escaped Bellixa. I needed starcred and I wasn’t shy about my body. I just wish I’d thought to ask for two thousand like you did. I made significantly less, I’m sorry to say.” She let out a sigh before adding, “Gods, that was such a long time ago. I wish I still looked like this.”
“Shut up. You still look fabulous and you know it. Dressed or undressed, you’re the sexiest woman in the galaxy.”
The two heard the heavy step of spacer boots coming up the gangplank. Alezanna turned to say, “Hey Sal, come take a look at this. A little trip to a more…”
The words died in her throat. Calley looked over at her to see an expression of horror spreading across her face. The medic turned towards the ship’s exit and saw Sal there leaning against the wall, deathly pale. He was wearing his fancy ambassador outfit, but the vest was hanging open. The lower half of his white shirt was covered in blood. He was clutching his hand to his stomach as he tried to stop the blood leaking out of him.
NEXT CHAPTER: Stressful operations and tense negotiations.
Dr. Gorgo's Den 
Leave a comment