“What was it like,” Mike said to Laura, “living where the stars were only up as opposed to all around?”
They drifted at the outer ring, pressed against the cold filament-heated windows, staring out at the stars. Laura had once lived on a planet. Michael never had. The idea of stars being present only when he looked up was alien to him. The idea of up was alien to him.
Laura shrugged. She had known him for two years. Her faint reflection in the duraplast window gave her the image of a pretty girl—light brown hair that trailed behind her in a quiet streamer, breasts perky as all breasts were in weightless space, large dark eyes, like the dark blue of the sky as the last vestiges of sunlight finally died. Slim shoulders, narrow hips, a face still slightly rounded, not yet smooth planes and gentle curves. Nothing special, she thought. “I dunno. It was different. I can’t describe it.” She’d tried to, many times over the past two years; she couldn’t. “You look away from the ground and there are stars. And sometimes, in the daytime, you can’t see them at all, because the sky is purple.”
“Purple,” Mike mused. He could never get over that. He was taller than she; weightlessness lent itself to stretching and growing. He kept his honey-colored hair cropped short. He had beautiful gray eyes, always alight with curiosity and excitement. “Why that color? It’s said the sky on old Earth was blue.”
Laura shrugged again. “I don’t know. The gaseous composition of the atmosphere, I guess.”
“Did it smell differently,” he asked. If she answered, he wouldn’t be able to understand. The air of Alidar IV, where she had lived for fourteen, years had had a damp smell, perfumed with the faint sweetness of plant life. The air on the Sentinel station, where she lived now, was cold and biting, sterile and lifeless. It was a scientific station, gathering the raw materials needed to run the manufacturing plants on Selora IX. The only place with plant life was the hydroponics bay, a cold unglamorous place where the plants looked lifeless.
“Yes,” she said shortly. She liked talking about her home planet, and he liked listening, but he never understood. He couldn’t understand. He had lived on a space station all his life. Gravity was just a scientific principle to him. She stared out at the shining stars, cold and lifeless. Pinpricks of blazing light in the darkness, trying to burn her away. The stars that were her home, now.
“Laura…” Mike said, and his voice was pained. She smiled to herself. Mike was such a nice guy. She knew he hated hurting her. It was nice sometimes to have someone worried about her. Not that she wanted him to go into conniptions every time she did something dangerous, but…
“I’m sorry,” she said, and at least he understood. She got upset at the strangest things. She knew she did. Her mother said she was odd, she ought to get prescribed for neuropharms to neutralize her behavior. No one liked Laura very much; she was volatile and temperamental, too much so. No one liked Laura… Except Mike, who understood actually a lot, unless you started talking to him about planets.
“I guess I ought to steer clear of planets, then,” he said, brushing her shoulder with his hand. He wasn’t supposed to do that; cohabitation between members of the opposite sex was regulated on Sentinel station. It was hard to find time alone. She liked being alone with him. The station was cold and impersonal; a tritanium and duraplast protecting them against the endless loneliness of space. Corridors of impersonal plastic; scientists, like her parents, rushing from lab to control center and back again. The only life on the entire station was Mike.
“No,” she said, “if you’ve still got questions, I’ll answer them.”
She felt his surprise against her back. “Oh. Well… I don’t know.”
She smiled. He didn’t know a lot, sometimes.
“Uhm…” said Mike. “What’s the biggest difference between gravity and weightlessness?”
She had to think for a minute. This was not a question he had asked her before. He always made her think; bless him. “The nature,” she said after a while. She smiled sadly. “There’s no plant life here, no animals, no wind, no clouds. No rain.” She shook her head. “It’s so sterile.” Her gaze went back to the stars.
She became aware, gradually, of Mike pressed up against her. The Sentinel station spun very slowly, but it was enough to create an outward pseudo-gravity; which was why ‘down’ on the station was considered to be in the direction of the outer ring. At the outer ring itself the outward force was strongest, and if a person wasn’t careful they’d find themselves slowly mashing into the wall—or whoever was between the wall and them.
Which had happened to Mike when he moved to float behind her.
She liked the feeling of him against her back, his breath on her neck. He had always been a great deal more than a friend to her—she didn’t have normal friends, she either had total strangers or people who were very, very close to her—and she liked being near him, but she wasn’t sure if this was as near as she wanted to be.
The first sex she had ever had had been with a complete jerkoff named Trent Adams who had paid absolutely no attention to her. He’d tweaked her breasts a couple of times and then just shoved his cock into her and pumped. When she’d felt his cum inside her she’d been repulsed; how could this asshole treat her like this? Fuck her and leave his seed in her and then leave without even a kiss. Later she had learned to masturbate and had her first orgasm.
“Actually,” she said suddenly, impulsively, “maybe orgasm instead.”
She felt him jump behind her; it was possible to jump when you were weightless. She realized suddenly that his body was pressed into hers, firm and warm, and it was very erotic. She enjoyed teasing people with her sexuality sometimes, but she’d never actually considered fucking someone. Not on the station, at least. But suddenly, the proposition of fucking Mike seemed pretty nice.
“I don’t know,” she continued. “I’ve never had one up here. Not yet. But I imagine fucking is different in space.” She knew it had to be.
She could feel his hard-on against her ass, pushing, solid. She wondered what his face must look like, made herself look out into space instead. “What do you think?”
He spoke in a strangled voice. He was sweet; she wondered if she deserved him. “I don’t know, Laura. I’ve never been on a planet before.”
She smiled. “I know that, silly.” She fidgeted a bit beneath his body and Mike jerked backwards, giving her time to slip out. She pushed herself down the corridor, towards the center of the station.
“Where are you going,” he said.
She fabricated an excuse. “I’ve not yet eaten,” she said. “I want to get something to eat.” She wondered if he’d pick up the double entendre but didn’t really care if he didn’t. She was preoccupied.
Mike watched her slim form drift down the corridor and tried to deflate his erection. Over two years he’d never known Laura to be so directly sexual, to talk like that. It turned him on. She turned him on. He was a physical creature; he enjoyed being close to people, touching them, even casually. Laura never seemed to mind, despite the strict regulations that, it seemed, were designed entirely to thwart him. He remembered her fine, brown hair brushing his cheek, her firm ass against his cock. He wondered how large her breasts were; bra was unnecessary in space, or he could’ve just asked the computer. Computer terminals knew everything. He already knew her exact height, weight, clothing size, but terminals had to be fed information before they could regurgitate it out again.
In a stupor he pushed himself off the wall, heading back to his own room. He needed to be alone, because Laura had him hopelessly turned on and he would have to jack off to get rid of his hard-on. The corridors were thankfully deserted; his penis stuck out and made a tent of his pants. Anyone would know.
In his room he strapped himself into his bed, which was on the ‘down’ wall, lubed himself up and went at his cock quickly. A funny thing: there was very little pleasure in his masturbation. He hoped it wouldn’t be the case when he actually had sex. As he stroked his cock, dull red and swollen, he imagined Laura, smiling her bewitching smile; laughing, which she rarely did; undressing herself in front of her, slowly, which she would probably never ever do. He imagined fucking her, banging her, bringing her to orgasm, and his cum burst free of his cock and floated free, drifting slowly towards the opposite wall. He was breathing hard, panting, almost. Laura’s moans echoed in his imagination.
The door opened with a mechanical whoosh. Laura stepped in. Her gaze went first to the whitish sticky gobs that sailed serenely out the door into the main living quarters beyond, and then to his cock in his hand. It took her a scant second to understand what had happened.
