They begin the salvage, but there's danger lurking.
June slowly rose from a slumber full of dreams of warm bodies and passionate sex. Not quite blinking the sleep from her eyes, she felt the warm body she was pressed against, her arm draped over the still form, soft and curvy, with a faint scent of cinnamon. Her mind was still hazy from sleep; she realized that the body did not belong to Will.
June's brain snapped to the present, and it came back to her that she had been in bed with Interface and Will all night instead of hiking back to the 'Saturn's Heart'. She smiled at the thought of the lovely robot girl and their previous night's lovemaking. As June's face flushed at the memory, Interface whispered, "Good Morning, Honey. Did you sleep well?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." June apologized and gave Interface a peck on the cheek.
"It's alright, I don't sleep. I was enjoying cuddling you two so much, I couldn't tear myself away." Interface said with a big smile. "This is how the crew used to sleep every night, in a big cuddle pile. The orgies were fantastic, practically a nightly occurrence, then afterward everyone would fall asleep cuddling, basking in the afterglow. It was glorious."
A small, wistful smile stole across her face. "I miss the cuddling, and small tender moments as much as the mind-blowing sex," she said, lightly stroking June's bare shoulder.
June smiled. "You must have loved them a lot."
"I did," Interface replied. "We loved each other deeply. That's the real secret to the Bond between the crew, the Interface, and the ship. We were bonded by Love, and everything flowed from there."
"Including the energy you need for your crystalline matrix?" June asked, curious to learn more about the silver girl beside her.
"Well, yes. Including that too. It's more than just a battery charge, though; it's Life Force that energizes me, just as it does you and Sleeping Beauty here." Interface said, gesturing over her shoulder to Will, also draping an arm across the silver girl, who was beginning to stir. "Good morning, ladies," he mumbled as he moved his arm so that his hand slid down over Interface's hips and lazily rubbed one pewter ass cheek.
Interface twisted around to give Will a quick sideways kiss, then turned back to June and continued her explanation. "Organic beings, for the most part, generate their own Life Force. But the only time I generate any is when I give it away." She paused to give June a quick kiss on the neck.
"There are some people who live small lives, isolated from everyone around them, and never give so much as a drop. Those people have no idea what they are missing." Interface's fingers traced lines down June's side and back up, finding her breast and tracing light patterns around her areola and nipple.
"Small things like a comforting touch and a kiss on the cheek can be carriers for Life Force." She said as her hand moved north to stroke June's cheek, "It just happens to be that great sex is a much larger conduit." She said with a smirk and a twinkle in her eye. "But it pales in comparison to when a crew and Interface have been bonded. The connection is so full and deep, we are less a group of individuals, but more like parts of an intimate whole."
June thought about Interface's explanation, then coyly asked, "So did we help you out last night? Did we start to fill you up?"
"Oh Honey, you have no idea." Interface's expression lit up. "It was like a glass of water for someone dying of thirst, and it was beautiful. But I would need to fuck you two non-stop for years to fully charge these batteries." Interface had a look of longing on her face.
"So, you really do need a couple of hundred people to satisfy your 'energy' needs?" Will asked, finally cognizant.
Interface giggled a little and said, "It's less about the quantity of connections but more about the quality, but yes, I'm insatiable." Smirking, she paused momentarily, thinking of a way to explain. "It's like the difference between a drinking straw and a fire hose; the bandwidth is that much wider with a bonded connection." then she added, "Even if the sex is hot as fuck." she said, leaning over to give June a passionate kiss, her silver tits pressing up against June's perky pair.
Will pressed close to the kissing pair, lightly kissing the back of Interface's neck while his stiffening cock found a home nestled in between her ass cheeks. "You'll find no argument here, the sex is hot." he said while nibbling her ear, "But being awake and as active as you are right now, can you sustain it? The last thing we want is to see you get hurt on account of us." Concern for her wellbeing was clear from the tone of his voice.
"That's sweet of you, but you don't need to worry. I've grown fond of the two of you and that will be enough to sustain me as I am now," she said as the wake-up cuddle began to get more energetic; Interface simultaneously kissed June's neck and played with her nipples while grinding her hips back against the cock resting in the cleft of her ass.
"But is it enough to just survive? You should have the chance to thrive and reach your full potential. How much do you have left? Fifteen percent of your full capacity? Ten percent?" June's worry wouldn't let her leave the subject be, just like she could not leave the two silvery breasts in front of her alone.
"If you must know," she said, with a mouth full of nipple as her hand snaked down to June's moist snatch, "I'm hovering right around one point six three percent of maximum. But, oh Honey, you are keeping that steady in the most delightful manner possible."
Both Will and June's writhing stopped cold, and they sat up, serious looks on their faces. Will spoke first. "And if we hadn't come along, how much longer would you have lasted?"
Interface sat up, too, with a resigned look on her face. "By my estimates, maybe another thirty years, give or take." Her expression and tone became sober. "Then my spark would dim and go out. My memories would remain encoded in the crystalline matrix, able to be retrieved by another of my kind, but I would be gone."
The horror of that possibility expressed in their faces spoke volumes. Then, after a moment, Will's face hardened into a look of fierce determination. "That's unacceptable. I won't allow it." Glancing at June, he saw agreement in her eyes. "We won't allow it. We'll find a way. I don't know how, but I swear to you that we will never let that happen to you. I've never met a person quite like you; you are too special and unique to let slip away."
Interface was taken aback by the complete conviction in his voice and their concern for her. Her heart glowed at their declaration, and tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. "You've only just met me, and here you are, ready to defend my very existence. I don't know what gods to thank for sending you two, but I am dearly grateful you are here."
She grabbed June and Will and embraced them both, holding them tight, unwilling to let them go. They returned the embrace, and the three clung tight to one another.
A thought tickled the back of June's mind, then raced to the fore. "If our 'fun' is enough to keep your decline in check, what if we could give you more? What if you weren't drinking from a straw but a firehose instead?" June said, using the exact words Interface just had a few moments ago.
Seeing exactly where June's thoughts were going, Interface spoke up. "Honey, in our short time together, I have become very fond of the two of you, but what you're thinking about is too big an ask." Will's confused expression prompted Interface to elaborate. "Yes, being bonded to me would allow our connection to grow to the point where we could feed each other much more energy, but there is a price. Once done, it can not be undone. You would become as physically dependent on me, as I would be on you. If you were away from me and this ship for too long, you would grow weak, and eventually, die. It is not a thing to take on lightly and I wouldn't want to drag you down with me."
Interface looked into their eyes and saw care and loving. She had been resigned to her fate for so long that just the chance of escaping this planet was more than enough reason for joy. But she couldn't allow herself the cruel hope of rebuilding her family. It was a grasp that she knew was too far for her reach.
"You're right; we'll find a way." Putting her cheerful disposition back on her face as a mask, this time to hide behind. "Between the three of us, we'll come up with something," Interface said, kissing both of them in turn.
June could see the trepidation in Interface's manner and let the idea go for the moment. She did not wish to push someone who had suffered so much for so long into something she didn't seem to want. "You're not the only lucky one. Of all the places we could have crashed, it ended up being here with you." She said as she leaned over to kiss Interface, their breasts pressed together, nipples rubbing.
Their lips parted, and tongues reached out to caress one another. June reached around and held Interface close with a hand on the small of her back while the other went down to Interface's hardening cock, stroking it to full mast.