"Hey. Your number's been called," the director announced, the chrome vault door still emitting a soft mechanical hum from opening a moment before, leaking the blinding hallway light into the softer, dimly lit palate of my quarters.
"Ah--" A pathetic noise squeezed out of my throat. Fuck! I winced, yanking my sweater further down my body to cover-up any subtle sweat stains. "Hello, ma'am. Received."
Fuck! Fuck! My boss, the only person with an all-access card. It was the daily allotted free time after dinner and before curfew, and I'd been actively literally fucking masturbating.
My heart lurched as a peak of pleasure was reached, and I wriggled to reduce it, feigning respectful shifting into a more upright sitting position.
The vibrator up my vagina thrummed even softer than any of the spaceship's automation or electronics, slick and wet against my underwear and a deliciously tight from my angled hips upon the cushioned stool, hands gripping onto either side of the desk around my keyboard.
I ripped them away with speed to rival hyper-drive, and folded them politely in my lap, and swung the spinning chair to face her with the guiltiest air of utmost respect.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," she smiled, clearly thinking I was jumpy, oblivious about the deeper pleasure she'd interrupted. Go away. Go away. I couldn't turn it off without reaching for my phone, and that would be so suspicious--
"Don't worry," I shrugged, forcing a small, genuine laugh at the absurdity. Worry. Get out. Leave, please. I wasn't so close to orgasm anymore while embarrassed out of my fucking mind. "I was just reading up on the other species we've made contact with."
And it was true. My projector was absolutely littered in various paged with small-print text in English and ten other different alien languages about the new entries to the Class-A Intelligent Life Database.
The planetary location and history, the different recorded cultures, languages, and evolutionary history, physical description and attributes, political affiliations, and, in limited quantities, information on mating rituals, characteristics of arousal, and reproduction capability with other species.
And--her words sank in.
Oh. Oh! My number was called. Oh--shit. Okay.
I would be the human scientist making the first clinical-setting sexual contact between us and the newly consenting species, lapis tentaculum, or roughly stone tentacles, the scientific name approved by the species for human use. These ones were hybrid carbon/silicon-based, with a hard, chemically rock-like inner system, sort of like a skeleton formed with holes reminiscent of honeycomb. Soft, tentacle-like tissue permeated the protective inner latter and the humanoid body structure was more reminiscent of octopus flesh than human flesh. At least, that was the interesting scientific facts of the matter. I'd be describing things more--more--
Unique sensations I'd--neither of us had experienced. Alien reactions and responses to stimuli. New appendages humans weren't capable of. Would it be gentle? Rough?
It would be my first time with another species. I wasn't opposed to it, the opposite, actually, which is why I volunteered for this organization. Most of my alien exposure was with fellow crew-mates, but we weren't allowed to get involved.
"You are excused of all regular duties until observation hours tomorrow. Relax, shower, read a book. We joint-dock the ships, and then you have until the end of the day with their selected specimen in the observational chambers. If you want to leave early, you may."
Heat ran down my body at the hours and hours that entailed, and the vibrations in my core became far more prominent. I tried to shove it down. "So long?"
Usually a few hours were allotted.
"She wants to chat and get to know you first, and your profile has a high emotional capability rating and--oh, you'll love this. She's been meteorite-racing in a community club for three years now."
"No way!" I had been racing by myself and with others for like, five, and I even had a small plastic medal from a company-sponsored challenge. It was one of my favorite weekend activities.
"Exactly. I don't think anybody wants a formal timer to go off if you two are actively busy after chatting."
Yes, sure. That would be awkward. Most times, three hours were allotted for the experiment as a formality, because it tended to take half an hour at most before they politely called it sufficient.
We would--it might not be so cold, then. Sometimes it was like that, awkward to observe and surely more awkward to carry out--instantly and wordless and cold and clinical.
We would talk. Get comfortable. Like the lunch dates I'd been on and how my favorite hook-ups began--the tension would rise because we were there for a reason. We might get closer and closer while we chatted--she'd place a hot, damp hand--hand-equivalent and pull me close and we wouldn't even care about the two-way mirror and it would be real, and--
The buzzing between my thighs had me biting the inside of my lip, hard, and for a frenzied second I considered chucking something at the highest ranking official on a highly important ship in deep-space to get her away. Maybe the empty coffee mug, or my mouse, or my half-empty tub of lube so she got the idea.
No. Not yet. Not yet.
The vibrating was persistent and heartless and building, building, against my will.
Stop. Stop. I could--I could hide the twitching if it happened, surely. I could--I squirmed.
"What's-what's her name in our language?" I cursed the stammer and felt heat in my cheeks. Not yet. Not yet.
"She's translated to Eve. Her profile was received. Think of her as another young woman--she/her and female-equivalent. So no reproduction compatibility--the species is just consenting to observation of sexual arousal. No pregnancy risks."
"Yes, ma'am."
She nodded. "Anyway, full debriefing is on your projector. View at your leisure. I'll leave you to rest."
"Got--got it."
She lingered a second too long, and stepped back into the hallway, the vault-like door closing shut and plunging the room into the cozy dim lighting once more. And privacy.
I lunged for the phone like a madman, turned off the vibrator, and slid off the stool to kneel and pulled it out, whimpering only a little at the sensation.
It was over. It was done. I was desperate--I wanted to shove my fingers around my clit and turn it back on, and to a high, high setting to make up for the unexpected high-stakes interruption in the edging session, to feel good again and chase it, but I--
I think I better save it for tomorrow. Something--something in me really hoped it would be worth it. Something more in me knew it would be worth it.
...
A curtain overlaid and, for now, blocked the two-sided mirror. When it was gone, it would reflect the room back to us, and provide a window for the others.
A window for us leaked in the gentle light of the vast stars and warm-silver galaxies beyond the ship's reach.
The floor was soft, thick carpet, as comfortable as everything else.
It struck me I never paid attention until I was inside.
The large chamber was pale-cream upon the walls with rich brown and red furniture and fixings, with universe-famous artwork plastered on the walls, and a primitive television playing generic instrumentals in the back.
The big couch cushions were soft and thick, the leg-rests extending out to mimic a bed if the experiments so desired. It paled against the king-sized mattress, comforter impossibly thick and adorned with rich, inviting autumn-toned pillows and blankets, drawing the eye to the center of the room where it laid. Dark reds and burnt oranges and yellows and hints of rich purple made me feel like I would be laying upon the warm, delicious-smelling breezes of a beautiful fall day on Earth. The palate must have also been catered to the coral environments of Eve's largely marine society.