"Let's fuck," I said.
"What! We just did that an hour ago, twice," she said, incredulous.
"I'm highly sexed," I explained.
"Then how did you get into this business?"
How, indeed.
My Dad was a belt miner all his life. He'd flown an old singleship out of Phobos, and stayed with the family down on Mars between flights. He made a pretty good digit, enough to retire on when he was just 80 and take Mom to live on Luna. My sister was much older than I was and doing well in real estate in Marineris, so Dad left the business to me. I guess it seemed natural to him that I'd fly professionally like he had, because I'd taken a degree in Nucleonics and served my UN term piloting polar ice freighters. Dad was convinced there was a good future in mining the asteroid belt. He pointed to the cities building up rapidly all over the system. They all needed steel that was too expensive to lift from Mars. His argument made sense, and I'd agreed to give mining an honest try, though I wasn't sure I was cut out for that life.
Seven years later I'd had three profitable expeditions out of four, pushing iron twice and ice once. The money was good, but it was maddening living alone for eighteen months at a time. I was only thirty six years old, and the self-service sex life was driving me crazy. I was ready to quit. Then my webAgent found an open command position with Mitsashi TransCorporate. Mitsashi T.C. was a gigantic multiworld company that ran a modern fleet of deepships. They hauled twenty times as much as my old four-banger could, faster too. They also had the latest total immersion holographics and massively parallel Artificial Intelligence systems. But the perk that attracted me the most was the roomy lifesystem that supported two people. I figured I could net a lot of digit in a few years in relative comfort, then kiss the belt goodbye forever and teach.
So I leased Dads ship to a belter friend and booked passage to Mitsashi Planetary Operations on Vesta. The transfer out was uneventful, all the women were attached and their partners were vigilant. I used the time to study systems manuals the company had lasered me. Then I spent 4 busy weeks on Vesta getting oriented in the deepship simulator and having neural inducers implanted to interface with the total immersion subsystem. I'd tried the public domain versions of this at the arcades, of course, but the implant version has to be experienced to be believed. The 360-degree holo projection suite, combined with five-sense direct nerve induction, resulted in an incredibly realistic sensory experience. Used in navigation, mining operations, and entertainment, it was an important development for space travel.
They gave me ten days in drydock to familiarize myself with my new ship and introduced me to Audra. The company wanted her to accompany me on my first run, though I could refuse if we didn't hit it off. Audra was in her early forties, with deep, dark blue eyes, a slightly heavy but curvaceous figure, and a quick smile. Her hair was black and worn very short; most belters found it was easier to care for in low gee. I found myself attracted to her strongly, the company had researched my preferences well. She had training in compsci and graphics arts and she was a pilot too. It clicked at once. I had ten days before launch to see if we were compatible, in ten minutes we were in the bunk together.
Three months and 110 million klicks later, Audra and I cruised at 0.05 gee on a star-hot hydrogen exhaust. Our hull had been peppered with high speed gravel twice, with no damage as far as I could tell. Scary, though. The target was H19345, a low grade pallasite orbiting two degrees above the ecliptic plane that had been charted earlier by a company saildrone. It was only 40% metal, and wouldn’t net us high digit, but it was a sure thing. The plan was to run a standard crack and stack, unless we found something heavier on the way out. To that end Audra had the radar and lidar cycling at maximum output off the capacitor banks, while I lounged eating a handmeal.
"There's nothing up here," she said, changing the subject, "not even dust."
"Relax,” I replied, “we’re guaranteed a rock on this trip. That’s much better than prospecting, like I used to. Besides, the newbies never get the juicy runs, you know that." I killed the electronics journal I had been reading. She was sitting at ops, scowling into the holodisplay and running her hands over her naked thighs. We had agreed to dispense with clothes while onboard, and she was looking quite delectable. "If you don't close your legs, this fritter isn't the only thing that’s going to get eaten," I ventured.
"A growing boy needs his vitamins," she said, smiling at me in seductive surrender. We released our belts and pushed towards each other, meeting in a floating kiss at the center of the cabin. I filled my right hand with her mound, slipping my middle finger into her slit. She moaned into my mouth, putting one hand on my back and reaching for my growing cock with the other. We masturbated each other for a dozen rotations, slowly falling to the deck in the light gee.
“I want to show you some redecorating ideas I've been considering,” she said, “Computer, execute sim Audra six.” Instantly we were on a log platform built onto a massive tree, high above a fragrant tropical rain forrest. Waterfalls roared in the misty distance, their white spray clouds spanning half the horizon. Large pink birds wheeled and screamed by the hundreds through the endless blue sky above us. I was wearing a shimmering black silk kimono. She wore yellow and brown body paint only, her eyes cat green. The holos had painted her into a magnificent human jaguar, her muscles rippled under my hands. She laughed and bared her teeth, raking her fingernails down my chest. She had outdone herself this time. I was astonished at her skill.
