Author's note: This story is set in the universe created by 3D artist Dizzydills. While you don't need to read through his works to understand this story, it can help!
Thanks to Bianca Rose and Borsten for editing this story.
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Part I: Processing
When Sylvia Summers arrived at the automated outpost, she could instantly see the problems that lay ahead of her. The machines looked shot. Drones designed to complete tasks stuck with their tasks, despite being nowhere near their station. Storage facilities, while functional, were leaking. She could see a couple sparks here and there. "I really fucked up badly, didn't I?" was all she could think.
Here on the colonial planet of Cwmbran (of course the planet had to be colonized by the Welsh, she muttered), Sylvia was on a special assignment from Omni-Tron and the Federation. The outposts ringing Colwyn Llyn were not functioning properly. She needed to fly reconnaissance, and examine and repair the outposts. Investigate possible cases of sabotage if necessary. A simple enough assignment.
Then she got to the planet, and was dismayed. Colwyn Llyn was not some bay like it was on Earth but an inland sea the size of China. There were quite a few villages surrounding the sea, but little in the way of landmasses in it save a relatively small island in the northwest called Aewyr Lelog. And there were dozens of outposts to contend with.
This was going to be a long mission.
Of course, Sylvia hadn't anyone to blame but herself. Not two weeks before, the Federation caught her in what others would consider a compromised position involving the flora on Planet Z95. Normally, her actions would have resulted in a dismissal and possibly jail time, but Sylvia was one of the best pilots out there. So they decided to send her to this backwater colonial planet to "clear her head." Even if her curiosity and desire got the better of her, any subsequent actions would likely have minimal impact to operations.
Besides, as far as Omni-Tron knew, Sylvia was not the type to fuck robots.
* * *
It wasn't until about the third outpost when she got extremely bored.
The process was rather simple: Fly her scouting ship, which also contained repair equipment, to each outpost, running diagnostics while in the air. Once landed, identify the problematic equipment and fix either manually or automatically with the help of repair drones. Sometimes she had to get her hands dirty to fix something the drones didn't have the means to do. Then, run a full diagnostic, repeating the process again if there were further problems until everything gave a green light. If she was lucky, it would take no more than the entire day to complete. Most of the time, she was there a few days.
As it soon became evident, there was no sabotage at all, but corporate incompetence of the highest order. Omni-Tron "scored" Cwmbran in a trade deal that also included what was now one of its most productive mining planets. It had barely shown any interest in the planet, as early observations found very little evidence of the resources they specialized in. They plopped their observer outposts around Colwyn Llyn in less than a week, a quarter of the time it usually took for a resource exploration mission to set up, at the lowest possible cost. Every possible corner had been cut, as Sylvia saw: Bad electrical connections, faulty drone subroutines to minimize programming, necessary equipment being idle since installation. In some cases, the outpost was sending probes and drones in the opposite direction.
It was an exercise in tedium. Every day, Sylvia would wake, eat from supplies she got from villagers she traded with, then spend several hours working on an outpost, cursing whenever some obvious mistake showed up and needed fixing. Then, she'd sleep in her bunk, only to get up the next morning and repeat the process.
Technically, she was to work six days a week on this, but she was given no deadline, nor was her time being tracked. Her only major provision was that she was to stay on the planet until she finished (which could take a few months, at least) or until she received a recall order. Sylvia rightly suspected Omni-Tron wanted to keep her occupied until they could smooth over her "incident."
With no real company - the drones she worked with had very limited functions outside their parameters, and she wasn't allowed to bring anyone with her on this trip - most nights ended with her frustratingly fingering herself or using a toy or two she brought, thinking about all her prior partners. Orgasm wasn't a guarantee, since she was usually tired.
* * *
On her day off sometime later, after a resupply and trade at a village a couple kilometers from shore, she went to the pub to chat with the locals. One of her questions: Why wasn't there anyone near Colwyn Llyn?
The male villagers merely pointed out that Omni-Tron, who owned Cwmbran, didn't really want people exploring that area until they could confirm what resources were in the sea. They weren't against villagers visiting or swimming, but they wanted contact kept to a minimum.
Villagers had to go through ridiculous bureaucratic processes just to even fish, and when the yields weren't particularly great, they decided to leave the sea alone. They were aware of some sentient, discerning aliens living underwater. But after initial contact, they kind of left each other alone, since there was little to gain from interaction.
However, the women in the village, seeing her, decided to corral her over and gossip. They asked why she was on the planet. Explaining what happened on Z95 to them after much cajoling, they merely laughed. Seeing Sylvia as someone they could relate to from the vast reaches of space, they started sharing their own sexual escapades, both human and not.
Sylvia was stunned at first: Colonists acting all pervy like it was nothing? That's unusual. They were usually either uptight or extremely political. Still, she was grateful to finally find some comfort among these girls, seeing them as libertine as she was. She shared a few more tales of her own, including her first experience with her tutor Mr. Taylor as well as visiting her beloved Xilo's homeworld, with lusty laughs and blushing all around.
Finally, one of them asked Sylvia, "Have you taken a swim in the sea?"
Sylvia responded, "Umm, no. Haven't felt a need to. Why do you ask?"
The women sat there, stunned. Then they all said in hushed tones, "You have to take a swim while you're here! It's amazing!" They all giggled. "Best experience you'll have. The water's great!"
Sylvia was suspicious. Swimming in the sea? The last couple outposts, she had seen
nobody
taking a swim in Colwyn Llyn. Though she never spoke with the villagers until now, it seemed off. In any case, they were implying something "fun," but it felt like a trap. "What do you mean? None of you brought this up before. Why now?" Her voice took the sternness it had with the men.
"Oh we just thought..." said Erin, one of the women close to her age. "We just thought you already did. It's kind of our secret bond here. We don't talk about it, we just...know." She paused. "It's why we can talk to you like this."
