Thanks for reading. How does humanity define "Home"? Is it a place? Or is it just where you have people who care for you? What would we do if we were forced to make decisions as a race about where Home is?
*****
Sanira slowly eased the bottom half of her pressure suit down over her hips and pushed it in a bunch down her legs, sighing in pleasure as the bulky garment drifted away in the microgravity environment of the work module. She stretched, relishing the absence of the suit; it wasn't actually heavy, but wearing one for a ten-hour shift outside was exhausting.
She just floated there for a moment, the only sounds her own breathing and the ever-present whir of the fans circulating air. Sanira almost felt like she could nod off, but after a moment a sour odor wrinkled her nose and she opened her eyes to find that the top half of her suit had floated up almost to her face. The suit was grimy with asteroid dust and reeked of sweat just like everything else in the work module, including the people.
With a sigh, Sanira nudged the suit toward its rack by the airlock, then twisted to turn towards the small 'fresher installed at the far end of the module and shoved off gently towards it with the toes of one foot. As she soared the three meters to the fresher, Sanira ran a finger down the sealstrip of her body stocking, opening the closure from the base of her throat all the way down until an unruly tuft of jet-black hair peeked out at the bottom.
A real shower would be a pleasure, but of course it had been months since Sanira had enjoyed one of those. Still, she felt a little tingle of anticipation as the amber light at the top of the 'fresher cabinet came on in response to her approach; it would be good to be clean. She easily stopped herself in front of the off-white cabinet with the fingers of one hand, while the other tugged a shoulder free of her body stocking. The light turned green just as she finished peeling the sweat-stained garment from her legs.
The flesh of Saniras' nipples pebbled and hardened in cool air of the work module as she reached forward and keyed the control to the the 'fresher doors. The doors popped open to the left and right and a small drawer slid out of the bottom of the cabinet. Sanira stuffed the body stocking in and pushed it closed with a "click". A low hum came from the drawer as the 'fresher began cleaning and sanitizing the engineered fibers of the garment. That done, Sanira reached into a pocket on the right-hand door and pulled a warm, slightly-damp wipe from the dispenser.
A soft rushing sound began as the 'fresher pulled air into a small return vent in the middle of the cabinet. The slight suction pulled in moisture and detritus, so that it didn't float around the work module and also helped keep the user from drifting away as they scrubbed themselves.
Sanira briskly rubbed herself with the wipe, starting with her face, neck and hands calling out "mirror" as she worked lower. The back wall of the 'fresher obediently polarized into a reflective surface, allowing Sanira to see what she was doing. She lifted her arms, scrubbing vigorously to clean sweat and grime from her olive skin and the soft black hair in her armpits, then wiped her chest and underneath each small breast, shivering once when she brushed the hardness of her small, dark brown nipples.
It was against the rules, but Sanira pushed the wipe into the disposal slot, then pulled another wipe from the dispenser. She quickly scrubbed from her toes up her legs and to the sparse bush of fine black hair between her thighs. Sanira quirked a little smile at herself in the mirror as she paused, carefully wiping her outer folds clean then gently scrubbing down and underneath through the cleft of her rounded ass. It was supposed to be perfectly sanitary to use just one wipe to clean your whole body, but sometimes a girl just needed to really feel clean. Besides, at the last shift change, Ravi had given her that particularly sad face that he always seemed to wear after a week or two of nothing but his hand, and Sanira was in the mood to show the poor fellow a little mercy.
Sahakari society generally had a very relaxed attitude about human sexuality, and the major families involved in the space program tended to be even more progressive than most. As a result, the majority of the work module crews were mixed-gender, aside from a few teams assembled from same-sex or bisexual-preference crewpersons. There were even a few sibling crews and although most members of the program preferred not to think too much about what those crews got up to amongst themselves during their six-month work rotations, it wasn't considered a big deal. Plenty of people had experience with light sexual play amongst siblings and cousins during their budding years and parents seldom worried much about it as long as it didn't persist past the middle teens.
"Off" said Sanira to the 'fresher; the unit obediently shut down its suction system and the mirror returned to plain white bulkhead. The cleaning drawer popped slightly open, revealing her fresh bodysuit, but Sanira ignored it for the time being and, holding onto the second wipe, gently pushed away from the machine. She had a little 'housekeeping' to attend to first.
Smiling, the nude woman paused by the airlock long enough to push the top and bottom halves of her pressure suit into their racks. Satisfied with the "click" of the suit pieces locking into place, she rotated so that her feet were against the bulkhead and pushed off towards the open hatchway to the hab area of the little two-person work module.
She sailed through the hatchway and into the dimly-lit interior of the hab area, glancing to her left and seeing Ravi zipped into his sleep bag as she expected. Sanira suppressed a giggle as the sleeping man softly snored; Ravi denied ever snoring and being the scion of a family with a long diplomatic pedigree, Sanira had never pushed the matter. Besides, they rotated opposing ten-hour shifts working outside, with only a few hours a day together, so it was a rare occurrence for them to ever try to sleep at the same time.
With a nudge of her toes Sanira pushed herself over to the food storage area, popping open one of the doors and reaching inside to retrieve a flex-fiber container of santra juice and a protein bar. Sakahari space crews got the vast majority of their calories and nutrients from fortified liquids, like the juice, because of the ease of liquid storage and waste disposal in low-g and zero-g environments. The santra juice was Ravi's favorite, but Sanira knew that he always enjoyed solid food like a protein bar after exerting himself.
A moment later, Sanira was floating beside Ravi's sleep bag, patiently waiting for his alarm to go off. Right on cue, the insistent tone of his alarm chimed through the hab module and Ravi began to stir.
Sanira watched thoughtfully as Ravi woke; the low gravity made his boyish curls even more pronounced, making Ravi look more like a teenager than his actual age of twenty-seven. His skin was several shades darker than hers, although their thick black hair was almost the same tone. His eyes were certainly more heavy-lidded than hers, with a little crescent of darker skin underneath. The darker skin and darkness under his eyes were genetic leftovers from the old caste system; Ravi's family was a respected one but mostly due to long association with hers. Only a couple hundred years ago, she would not have been able to even acknowledge him in polite society.
Finally, Ravi opened his eyes, stretching inside the sleep bag. "Good morning Sani" he whispered, smiling a little when she lifted the juice into his line of sight. He zipped his bag halfway open; Ravi's bodysuit was unsealed down to his waist, revealing his lithe, hairless chest. He sleepily reached out and gently plucked the flex-container of santra juice from her hand, then took a long, grateful pull from the drinking tube. "Ahhh, that's good."
"Is it?" Asked Sani as she nudged away from the the floor, lifting her nude body up into Ravi's full view. She chuckled aloud when Ravi suddenly coughed, stray droplets of santra juice floating this way and that as the startled man took in the sight of her fresh-scrubbed body.
"Yes, it's quite nice" he managed to croak. He let go of the juice container, leaving it to drift away, then hurriedly zipped his sleep bag the rest of the way open to reach for her. "To what do I owe this delicious surprise?"
Sani gave him a little smile as Ravi hooked one hand on the curve of her hip, gripping the frame of his sleep bag with the other so that he could tug her towards him. As she bumped gently into his smooth chest, Sanira made a show of reaching up past his head to tuck the protein bar into a pocket above the sleep bag, one soft breast wobbling directly at his eye level. She fought the urge to squirm as she felt his warm breath tickle her dark areola.
"Well, we have both been working very hard this rotation Ravi and I know that you always do more than your share" with that she pulled her hand back down, moving the tempting breast from his face. "It's been awhile since I last made time to show you some affection, why don't you let me pamper you a little bit?"
A huge, toothy grin split Ravi's face, and Sanira felt an erection rising inside his body stocking. Ravi was a few months older than Sanira, but she had always viewed him much like a little brother and his joyous smile always warmed her. Like most major Sakharan families and their supporters, theirs shared communal places for child-raising, with the children of the leading families and those of the lesser families spending hours together every day. In Sanira and Ravi's case, they had even shared the same wet nurse, often each suckling a tit and playing with one another's' hands and tugging the nanny's long braid while they nursed.
Honestly, she didn't find Ravi particularly attractive; he had never been the one to make her heart skip a beat, or to sweep her from her feet. But she knew him so well and as they grew and went through the usual adolescent experimentation with their bodies, familiarity made it easy to trust and care for one another. Ravi had shown himself to be a considerate sex partner, with plenty of patience plus a very nice cock. And as adults in the space program, having a work partner on a six-month shift with his sense of humor and willingness to understand that she wasn't up for play all of the time was invaluable. Ravi often countered her tendency to be too serious and he naturally deferred to her, which kept things orderly.
