[Note: This Science Fiction story is an
intense character study
with occasional sex scenes.]
Taylor was all alone.
With Mark gone, every single person on the ship had been incapacitated by the virus except for him. Taylor felt the tremendous weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
They were still 32 hours away from the rendezvous point, what Taylor
hoped
would be the rendezvous point when they exited the nebula.
Ship systems were failing more and more rapidly now. Taylor simply didn't have time to feed everyone and take care of the ship. He was now reduced to handing out meals room by room, quarters by quarters, only once per day, and they were no longer well prepared sandwiches, but handfuls of bread and turkey and whatever else he could find in the galley.
Taylor felt exhaustion taking its toll. He willed himself to be strong. He just had to hold out for little more than a day.
And then the life support system failed.
********
There was a problem with the oxygenerator. Taylor couldn't figure out what it was. Perhaps when his brain was in peak condition four days ago he could have figured it out. Now he was exhausted, sleep deprived, and slowly falling prey to the virus. All he knew was that it was... broken.
Taylor spent several minutes trying to understand the nature of the malfunction. He simply didn't have the training or the experience or the mental energy to deal with his problem. He slowly collapsed to the ground, his back sinking against a wall, and started to laugh bitterly.
As he sat, and laughed, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw Sarah Blade.
And this time, she wasn't alone.
Sara was nude, on her back, with her legs spread. And between her legs was a man, pumping way. It wasn't until Taylor craned his head that he could see who it was.
It was his former classmate, Bill Kenilworth!
"Uh, uh, uh, uh," Sarah grunted, smiling and bobbing her head every time Bill thrust into her willing vagina.
Then her eyes wandered and she noticed Taylor. "Oh, hi Mike." She gave him a friendly smile even as her body jolted with each thrust.
"Hi Sarah," said Taylor, in a guarded tone. "Whatcha doing?"
"What does it look like?" Sarah grinned. "Oh, Bill, baby, that's good, like that, just like that," she said, rubbing his hair. She turned back to Taylor. "You know Mike, when they caught me, they found out I was involved with several cadets, not just you."
"So I was told," said Taylor, watching Bill continue to pump between Sarah's legs.
"They made me name names, Mike. I had to, to avoid a court marital! Ug!" Her head bobbed from an especially strong thrust. "But I never gave your name up, Michael. Not you. Not ever!"
"I wondered about that," said Taylor.
Sarah's eyes were filled with nothing but adoration for Taylor as another man gave her vaginal intercourse. "What you and I had was
special
, Mike. I always knew you were going to be a great Survey Service officer. I didn't want to jeopardize that."
"I really appreciate that," said Taylor. He paused, watching Bill's buttocks clench and unclench as he made love to Sarah. "But that doesn't really explain why you're fucking Bill right in front of me."
"Me? I'm not fucking anyone, Mike," she said innocently.
"It sure looks that way to me," said Taylor, watching Bill as he groaned, getting closer to climaxing.
"Bill is fucking
me
. I'm not fucking
him
," said Sara, smiling mischievously at him.
Taylor sighed. "All right. Why am I watching Bill fucking you?"
"Because times change, Michael. You're no longer my fair-haired boy toy. You give up too easily."
"You wouldn't be referring to the fact that we're all about to run out of oxygen and die of asphyxiation in the next two hours, are you?"
"You got it, Mike," she said, pausing to kiss Bill and to whisper an encouragement in his ear.
"Sarah...." He sighed. "Maybe I could have puzzled a way to fix this if I were rested, and well. But I'm not. I'm exhausted. I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm too tired to think clearly. There's no way I can fix this."
"Why does it have to be fixed?" Sarah asked. She whispered something to Bill, and he started sucking one of her nipples. "Oh, yeah, baby," she whispered, smiling sexily at her lover.
Taylor said, "Well, maybe it has to be fixed because the oxygenerator is only four percent effective. That's not nearly enough to supply air to an entire starship."
"Who said anything about supplying air to an entire starship?" Thrust thrust thrust, thrust thrust thrust.
Taylor bit his lip and looked at her with confusion in his eyes as he watched Bill Kenilworth, still moving in and out of Sarah, kissed a trail from one breast to the other and back again while Sarah giggled hysterically. For an older woman, she had remarkably firm, round breasts that were very squeezable, and very suckable.
Taylor found it very hard to have a conversation with his former lover while she was fucking another man. Sorry, while she was letting another man fuck
her
. "We need the air for the crew."
"But not the ship," said Sarah, winking at him.
"But the crew is spread out all over the ship," said Taylor.
"And what if they weren't?" Sarah asked.
Taylor's jaw dropped open. If the entire crew were in one room-
"Say, the shuttle bay, for example," said Sarah.
The oxygenerator, even in its depleted state, might be able to supply enough oxygen if focused on one room.