Details Matter

This very mild story is more of a space romance than anything else. It is nothing like what I was going to write, but that's the way my brain works. I start a story and suddenly I am there within it rather than writing it. It's a very good story, but if you are looking for a lot of kinky sex, you can give this one a pass. If you just want a neat SciFi story, however, read on.

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WARNING

! This warning is possibly not needed for this particular story, but I am including it because it is needed for most of my stories.

If you decide to read other of my stories make sure that you read the disclosures and warnings at the beginning of each story.

All of my writing is intended for adults over the age of 18

ONLY

. Stories may contain strong or even extreme sexual content. All people and events depicted are fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Actions, situations, and responses are fictional

ONLY

and should not be attempted in real life.

All characters involved in sexual activity in this story are over the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18 or do not understand the difference between fantasy and reality or if you reside in any state, province, nation, or tribal territory that prohibits the reading of acts depicted in these stories, please stop reading immediately and move to somewhere that exists in the twenty-first century.

Archiving and reposting of this story is permitted, but only if acknowledgment of copyright and statement of limitation of use is included with the article. This story is copyright (c) 2024 by The Technician (Technician666@Gmail.Com ).

Individual readers may archive and/or print single copies of this story for personal, non-commercial use. Production of multiple copies of this story on paper, disk, or other fixed format is expressly forbidden.

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The UTCSS Neil deGrasse Tyson moved slowly through uncharted space. Technically it wasn't uncharted, but no Terran ships had ever traveled into this relatively barren area of space. Through the years, the United Terran Confederation had sent many drone ships into this sector to explore and report back on gravitational fields, small asteroids, and any anomalies that might be present. But no crewed ships had ventured into the area because nothing of great value or importance was detected until one Junior Grade Scientific Specialist back on Terra Nine noticed something very awry in the drone data. Several stars seemed to "wink out," as she described it, as the probes moved into the area.

"It is as if something is blocking the sensors," Midship Alfreia deLong said as she reported to the scientific panel. "But as the probe approaches whatever it is that is blocking the sensors, the blockage seems to disappear." She paused to await the murmuring from the panel to die down and then said firmly, "I believe this might very probably be the XFari home world."

Now it was exclamations and loud conversations which filled the room. The Chief Scientific Officer pounded with his gavel on the tabletop and called for order. When quiet had finally returned Alfreia continued, "My theory is that the sensors from the XFari home world are slightly less sensitive than the sensors on the probe." She pointed to a chart which she had displayed on the wall. "I think that there is a sweet spot just before their sensors pick up the probe where we can see them... well, not actually see them, but see that something should be there. Anyway, there is a short time between when the signals first sweep across their planet and when they begin warping those signals around the planet so that it is undetectable."

"That is impossible!" one Fleet Admiral sputtered.

"So is shape-shifting," Midship Alfreia replied firmly. "But I have checked the sensor readings from every probe sent into this sector of space. The oldest ones show nothing, but once the probes were equipped with the Chandrasekhar sensor, the invisible planet becomes visible... so to speak. I repeat that this is most probably the XFari home world."

The United Terran Confederation had been at war with the XFari for several generations. It wasn't an actual war or the Confederation would have won it years ago. Nothing in the known galaxy could match the military might of the Confederation. There was a mandate of peace through all of the inhabited planets of the Confederation, but history had taught them that peace comes through strength. So, despite having never engaged in a war against any other people, the defensive... or offensive... capabilities of the Confederation were almost mind-boggling. There had been some minor skirmishes against pirate groups hiding out on this or that asteroid, but such threats to interstellar shipping were soon eliminated. The XFari, however, were something else.

It took years to figure out that the occasional sabotage and misdirection of vessels was not internal or the result of pirates. The first clue was... or should have been... that none of the cargo carried by the missing drone ships ever reappeared in Confederation markets. Occasionally someone would be arrested for committing acts of sabotage but every one of those saboteurs escaped through incompetence or carelessness... or so it was thought. Then one of the interior surveillance videos at Base Station Alpha Three caught an image of a captive stripping naked and then melting under the door of the interrogation room. Hallway cameras caught him forming back up dressed as one of the guards. Once in the hallway, he walked calmly away. After that, every suspect... for anything... was held in a containment field. But even that wouldn't hold the shape-shifters. They would press themselves up against the field and then flow through it as though it were thick water, leaving their clothing behind.

"It is like a dog fighting fleas," one UTC Fleet Commander said angrily. "They aren't a real danger, but they are irritating as hell."

The XFari were enough of an irritation that the United Terran Confederation Space Ship Neil deGrasse Tyson was ordered to "do something." Doing something meant traveling toward "Planet X" and hopefully discovering how to deal with the XFari threat.

Planet X was the name given to the invisible planet which Midship Alfreia deLong claimed to be the XFari home world that only she could see. Actually, it was very probable that some of the other Junior Grade Scientific Specialists might also be able to detect the planet. The JGSS were, after all, chosen for their ability to detect patterns and their willingness to spend hours... days... or even weeks inspecting minute visual or other data for anything that shouldn't be there.

Alfreia was everything that the UTC desired in a JGSS and moreso. She was almost incapable of normal conversations. It was only when presenting information from her studies that her sentences were anywhere close to Terran standard, though there was still a dialectal overlay that reflected her upbringing on Terra Nine. Most of the time she did not speak at all and wore noise canceling headphones which blocked out all outside sounds, including attempts at conversation. She would communicate only through message pads. This was so common that her immediate superiors were almost in shock that she actually spoke to the scientific panel rather than using the text to speech voice from her pad.

The trip to the XFari home world was scheduled to take several months. Alfreia tried at first to be a regular part of the crew, but even with a private room, the noise and chaos of the crew areas overwhelmed her. She requested that she be allowed to bunk down in the Science Review Station which was buried deep within the bowels of the ship and more importantly was sound isolated from the rest of the ship.

There were three JGSSers besides Alfreia on the Neil. One of them, JGSS Matthew McMasters, was already sleeping in one of the small, disused rooms which connected to the Science Review Station. The other two JGSS, Juliana Cabrero and Michel Esposito, shared a room in the crew quarters.

Despite his records clearly stating that he was male, Michel was often assumed to be female because of the spelling of his name. He refused to change the spelling to the Terran standard, Michael, because he was named after his grandfather... who was named after his grandfather... who was named after his grandfather, and so on through a long family history. Juliana and Michel had shared rooms before, first at the UTC Space Academy and then at several duty stations. They had found that it was easier to just accept the shared room than it was to convince various bureaucrats that they had made a mistake. Most of the crew assumed that they were roommates with benefits, but the only benefit between Juliana and Michel was that they understood each other and left each other totally alone.

Matthew and Alfreia, however, became more than just almost roommates in the Science Review Station even though they had separate, private rooms. Except for going up to the mess hall for meals, they spent their entire day in close quarters to each other reviewing incoming scientific data. After a couple of weeks something very strange happened. At least it was very strange for Alfreia. Matthew spoke to her... and to her absolute amazement she answered him. Both of them spoke very softly and with a steady, non-accented rhythm to their speech that others normally found almost unbearable... but they both loved it. And after a few more weeks, they began to love each other.

It wasn't intentional. They were attempting to manipulate a three-dimensional presentation of the sector that the Neil was approaching. There are eight controls which are required to properly present, rotate, expand, and filter the holographic display which appeared around them. Sitting side by side at the control panel, it was almost like a techno-nerd version of Twister as they reached for this or that control attempting to bring the projection into perfect clarity.

Finally Alfreia saw it. The stars were blazing with all their glory, and there was a black dot in the middle of a minor solar system. She felt a warm glow of satisfaction and then realized that her face was pressed up against Matthew's. He also felt very warm. One thing led to another and they found themselves standing up inside the holographic display of planets.

Alfreia wasn't a virgin, and apparently neither was Matthew. They kissed deeply as they stood motionless and let the holographic stars and planets pass through their bodies. "We are like the ancient gods standing in the darkness of space," Matthew said softly as his hands moved beneath Alfreia's uniform blouse.

"Weren't the goddesses always naked?" Alfreia moaned softly as she pulled her uniform top up over her head. One of the realities of the low gravity of space travel was that no support was needed for a woman's breast, especially a young woman such as Alfreia.

Matthew pulled off his own uniform top and again they pressed their bodies against each other as their tongues explored each other's mouths. There was nothing hurried about their transition into love-making. They were both as slow and deliberate as they were in everything which a JGSS did.

Matthew slid Alfreia's uniform slacks to the floor and then she did so for him. Now they were standing slowly rubbing their bodies against each other and moaning softly in each other's ear. Alfreia laughed softly as a sun passed between their faces. Then she reached down and slid her panties to the ground. Matthew didn't laugh, but he also slid his underwear to the floor.

Perhaps it would have been more comfortable to go into one of their sleeping quarters, but the thick sound padding of the floor in the Science Review Station was almost as comfortable as their beds and the slight improvement in comfort could not compare to the opportunity to make love among the stars. It was geek love heaven.

After that, if either of them asked the computer to run the Matt-Alf simulation, it was a not so subtle hint that they wanted to once again make love among the stars. As the rest of the crew had realized, subtle hints didn't work with JGSSers. If you didn't say it straight out, they didn't get it. A hint that you wanted to be by yourself didn't work. You had to say out loud, "Please leave." The crew also came to understand that such directness did not upset a JGSS. Things you couldn't say to most fellow crew persons you had to say out loud to a JGSS.

Alfreia and Matthew used his room once or twice for their love making. The first time the room was very disorganized, or at least by Alfreia's definition of organized. There were bottles upon bottles of energy and sports drinks stacked everywhere. The second time, Matthew had tidied up the room and everything was put away and neat.

When they used Alfreia's room that was not a problem. Everything was always tidy and neat and in its place in Alfreia's life. It was something that drove others who had to work with her almost crazy. If she set her pad down on a table or control console, she would very carefully check that it aligned exactly with the orientation of the surface edges. When someone would look askew at her or make a comment, she would always say firmly, "Details matter." She said that so often that other crew persons would calm each other down when her exactness was wearing thin on them by holding out their hands as if pushing something down and saying softly, "Details matter to some people."

Finally, as the Neil was approaching the XFari system, JGSS Midship Alfreia deLong requested a private meeting with Captain Ashikaga. Her request, as usual, was in writing. What was not usual was that it was encoded. The decryption key was sent through a separate message using a totally different communication channel. Decoded, the message said simply, "We need to meet in the war room."

The war room was a special command station on the Neil. There were monitor stations for all of the defense and attack functions of the ship, but more importantly for Alfreia, it was triple shielded and sealed. Captain Ashikaga was waiting for her when she requested permission to enter the room.

"What was so important that we had to meet here?" he asked, slightly agitated, as soon as the door and shields were in place.

"We have at least three XFari aboard the Neil," she said in a very measured voice.

"Are you sure of this?" Captain Ashikaga almost sputtered. His face was becoming red with his contained rage.

"Yes," Alfreia answered, "but it is an opportunity, not a threat. I think that we may be able to open diplomatic and trade negotiations with the XFari."

The captain stared silently back at her.

"Unless," she said, "your orders were to destroy the planet."

The captain's stare intensified.

"There have been no overt threats," she continued. "No personnel have been killed, hurt, or even significantly endangered."

She spread a large sheet of paper out flat on the table before continuing. "What has happened," she said pointing repeatedly at the figures on the sheet, "is that certain ships... with certain cargos... were delayed so that their cargos... or portions of their cargos... would have to be sent on in drone ships. Some of those drone ships were diverted under some kind of cloak to the XFari home world."

"Why?" sputtered the captain.

She laughed and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Then she became very serious and said, "I will be able to be sure of what I now suspect and reveal at least one of the XFari at the staging meeting you have planned for next week." Alfreia then said firmly. "But that meeting has to be moved into this room and the triple shields have to be engaged without anyone in the meeting knowing you have done so."

"I guess I have to trust you," Captain Ashikaga said slowly. "You are the one who discovered this invisible planet to begin with."

The following days were very difficult for Alfreia. She withdrew into her room and cut herself off from everyone. She sat pouring over ship's manifest data and even personal manifests for crewpersons aboard the Neil. She was totally absorbed in her work. She didn't even come out when Matthew started the holographic Matt-Alf simulation of the stars.

"Is it something I have done?" Matthew asked her through her closed door.

"No," she replied. "It's something I have to do. I have a major presentation for the staging meeting and I need to prepare."

"OK," he answered. Then he added, "You know that I love you and will support you in whatever you have to do."

"I know," she answered. Then she added, "I love you, too." Matthew thought he could hear her crying softly as he turned away from the door.

One week later sixteen crewpersons from the Neil met in the war room. The original plan for the meeting was for only twelve of the crew from various specialties to meet and discuss final details of the... contact. But now those twelve were joined by four security officers who stood silently against the walls of the room. Hopefully this would be planning for a contact situation, but as Alfreia had feared, Captain Ashikaga had been given sealed orders that authorized the use of deadly force up to and including the destruction of the planet.

"Before we begin," Captain Ashikaga said in his deeper, more projected, command voice, "Scientific Specialist Midship Alfreia deLong has asked to make a special report." He then noisily slid back his chair so that he could turn to face her while seated. Others may have noticed that the captain seemed rather clumsy in moving his chair, but no one... except Alfreia... knew that the captain's actions were to mask the slight hum of the triple shields coming on line.

"Thank you, Captain Ashikaga," she began. Her speech was abnormally normal. All trace of Terra Nine dialect was gone. Someone who knew her very, very well would recognize that this meant that she was under a great deal of stress. She continued, "I would like to begin by sharing some things which I have observed or deduced about the XFari. Firstly, I would like to say that they are peaceful. And they have... or had... technology much more advanced than current Terran technology. And they have teleportation technology."

She had to pause to let the sudden murmuring die down. "That is how," she continued, "they are able to appear... and disappear... at various places throughout Terran space."

She looked around the room for a moment and then continued, "But teleportation changes things. And some of the XFari were changed into shape-shifters as they teleported from place to place. I believe that change was passed on to their children so that a portion of the XFari people were born as shape-shifters."

She looked at the medical personnel and said, "Then something happened. Perhaps it was a home-grown plague or perhaps it was a virus or bacteria that was somehow brought back to the home world by the teleporting explorers. In any case the majority of the population was destroyed. Only the shape-shifters were immune to the plague."

There was again a pause to let the murmuring die down before she looked directly at Matthew and said, "But the shape-shifters have two genetic problems. One, they have a very slow metabolism and have difficulty moving rapidly... or perhaps even staying awake. And two, their bodies do not produce the electrolytes needed for proper brain function."

"Captain Ashikaga," she continued, turning to face him, "the only cargo that was common to all of the drone ships which disappeared were energy drinks and sports drinks."

The captain interrupted noisily, "Do you mean all of this has been about caffeine and electrolytes?"