Starry Starry Ride

The proximity alarm pinged, and Zena looked up at the bridge's main navigation display.

"Ten seconds to reversal", a calm female voice announced. Zena sighed and strapped herself into the pilot's chair.

"You can skip the countdown, Shan", she said curtly, as she waited for the ship to revert to realspace. Exactly ten seconds after the alarm, the ship shook and her stomach lurched as the artificial gravity generator struggled to compensate for the sudden change in the ship's mass and inertia. Then it was over, and she sighed.

"Space travel..." she muttered. "Sign up and see the universe..." Yeah, right.

"You did get to see a part of it", Shan replied. Zena snorted.

"Yeah, some trip. There and back again. Fly through forty-seven systems, drop probes and hyperwave relays at opposite ends, and on to the next. Exciting job, huh? A robot ship could do it."

"You know very well that in the initial program none of the robots succeeded, and that of the original sixteen only two were heard of after the second system they visited", Shan said primly. "Robots just aren't flexible enough."

"Eight years", Zena went on, ignoring Shan's words. "Eight fucking years, five down and three to go, with nobody to talk to but a computer."

"You knew that when we left", Shan reminded her.

"I know I did, damn you! I just never thought it would be this bad, OK? And I didn't know that you would get up my nose so badly either! A heap of overprogrammed computer hardware with no personality is not much company, do you know that?" Shan said nothing.

Zena punched for a standard long range scan and looked up to the main display. "OK. What've we got?"

Shan brought up a flattened map of the system. Yellow dwarf star, late G2 type, maybe a little on the hot side. Eleven planets, two in the biosphere, the inner one with an oversized moon. The perfect configuration. In spite of herself she felt a trace of excitement as she studied the display.

"Looks promising", she muttered.

"Yes", Shan said. "That's why it was selected in the first place."

"Look, I know you're a computer, but I'm not stupid, OK?" Zena growled. "You know as well as I do that there's no telling. Or have you forgotten our second drop?"

"My memory banks are in perfect working order, thank you", said Shan with a very convincing imitation of sarcasm. "And you had as little way of knowing that that star was instable as I did."

"Until your spectral readings turned out to be way off and it started to blow up in our faces, yes", Zena said. "So what does this one look like?"

"Spectral scan and neutrino patterns all normal", Shan reported. "Ready to drop the first relay."

"Go ahead", Zena said, and a low, almost subsonic

echoed though the ship as the clamps released the hyperwave relay. She watched on the screen as the barrel-shaped capsule stabilized. Diagnostic data scrolled across the bridge's main display as the relay powered up.

"All systems online and functioning normally", Shan reported."Relay orbit well within parameters. Ready to enter the gravity well."

"Proceed", Zena said.

After so many times it had become nothing but routine: drop a relay on the way in, drop the probe in-system, then drop another relay on the way out again. The relays would skim the edges of the system's gravity well in a circular orbit and forward the probe's data through hyperspace. The orbits of the relays were critical: too far out and cometary debris would slowly decay their orbits over the millennia; too far in and the star's gravity would distort space enough to block the hyperwave carrier. But Shan was designed for such a job, so for her it was nothing much.

Zena keyed in the sequence that made the top half of the hull transparent. The ceiling seemed to vanish and the naked stars looked down on her. It was fairly dark out here, of course, but the ship's indirect interior lighting didn't interfere with the starlight.

"What's the particle count out here?" she asked. "Low enough to turn sideways?"

"Yes, but barely. I'd advice you to wait."

"Do it anyway", Zena growled.

"As you wish", Shan said primly. She would of course log the order for the usual periodic squirt transmission though the relay they'd just dropped. Well, fine. Fuck the psych guys at mission control. The ship began to turn slowly, and the system's yellow star slowly swam into view until it was almost overhead.

"Far enough", Zena said.

Shan stopped the ship's rotation.

"Stable", she announced. "Zena, you make me do this each time we're insystem. Why?" Zena sighed.

"Because I want to see the star", she said.

Shan did not reply. Zena leaned back into the pilot's chair and wearily closed her eyes. She knew that Shan had no emotions, but she'd come to know her simulated personality all too well.

"Go ahead", she said with resignation. "Tell me I'm not making any sense."

"You must admit that that reason does not seem logical", Shan began. "You can observe the entire system on the nav display in excellent detail."

Zena slowly shook her head.

"No, Shan", she said patiently. "Not observe. See. With my own eyes." Again Shan said nothing.

"Forget it. I can't explain it. If you were human, you would understand. I think."

Zena unstrapped herself from he pilot's chair, got up and stretched. Nineteen hours before the first probe drop. She felt tired and depressed.

"I think I'll get some sleep", she said.

"You have been sleeping more than usual for the last two weeks", Shan replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired", Zena said. "Tired of this flying shitcan, tired of this stupid routine, tired of you."

"Biosensor readings show that you're physically healthy", Shan said. "Voice stress and semantics analysis however indicate that your mental state is deteriorating. I suggest a mild combination of relaxants and antidepressants."

"Fuck you", Zena growled. "I'm just tired. Wake me in four hours."

She left the control cabin and flopped down on her bed without bothering to undress. She closed her eyes.

* * *

Relax... relax... Zena felt tense all over; she just couldn't help it.

Relax... She willed herself to think of the things that used to soothe her. She imagined herself lying on a white beach, under a great blue sky, bathing in warm, gentle sunshine. That usually did the trick, but now it only hurt, and a fresh wave of homesickness rushed through her. She felt tears burn behind her closed eyelids. Sleep wouldn't come.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck", she said with soft intensity, and she banged her fist against the wall. Her arm felt strangely heavy.

She sighed again and opened her eyes. Tears ran across her face. She turned, and again she noticed that she felt strangely sluggish. Damn.

"Shan", she said. "What are you doing?"

"In spite of your denial, my diagnostics package indicated that you needed a relaxant", Shan said, her synth voice without a trace of guilt.

"So you had the recycler release it into the air", Zena said. "Great. Can I still get up?"

"Yes, you can, but sit up slowly", Shan said. "I shall reduce the dosage if you feel weak."

"Yes, do that. And lower the gravity by twenty percent. What about that antidepressant?"

"Why don't you have a drink of water?" Shan suggested.

Zena sighed. No point in arguing with a computer that's in control of your life support system. A glass of water appeared at the outlet of the autokitchen. She sat up, moving carefully in the reduced gravity, her arms feeling rubbery and clumsy. Still she managed to get to the 'kitchen and drink without spilling a drop. No way to tell what Shan had put in it.

"How long until this relaxant stuff wears off?" she asked Shan.

"About fifteen minutes. I suggest you lie down again."

"No. I want you to reduce the gravity slowly to zero over the next three minutes while I step into the shower."

"As you wish", Shan replied. "And Zena...."

"Yes?"

"I think it's time for you to use the Chair again."

Zena said nothing and stared at the wall. Then she shook her head.

"No", she said curtly.

She felt strangely lightheaded as the ship's gravity slowly dropped. She carefully made her way to the shower cabin and began to strip off her coverall.

"I just want a shower, nothing more."

She stepped out of the coverall and pushed it into the laundry chute. The movement was enough to lift her off the deck now.

"Keep gravity at this level for three minutes, then reduce to zero", she said as the stepped into the shower cabin and sealed the watertight door behind her.

"As you wish", Shan said.

Zena keyed for her favorite shower program: starting with a soft, lukewarm spray from all sides, then gradually increasing with hotter needle sprays and a massage. The shower cabin started to fill with droplets. They were strangely sluggish and wobbly in the low gravity. She sighed as the hot water enveloped her. When she sensed another slow drop of gravity, she keyed for even hotter water and a low-intensity shower. The water clung to her body as she floated weightlessly in the shower cabin. A breathing mask popped out of the side wall and she put it across her mouth and nose before the water covered her face. Then she drifted, a huge blob of warm water with Zena floating weightlessly in the middle.

"Interrupt shower program", she said into the mask. The shower cut off and she closed her eyes. This was one of the few good things about space travel.

She felt strangely content. Probably the effect of the stuff that Shan had slipped her, she thought. Well, not much she could do about that. She felt her mind calm and her body relax. Her limbs felt almost fluid, her body dissolving into the warm water. God, it felt good. A warm pleasure infused her, flowing through her legs, her belly, her breasts, which were now unnaturally high upon her chest in zero gravity. She felt her nipples grow hard, and a tantalizing sensation began to build between her thighs.

She didn't know for how long she'd been drifting like that when she became aware of a strange sensation at the tips of her breasts. She opened her eyes and saw two low intensity massage sprayers aimed at her nipples. As she watched, a third one extended from the wall and aimed itself between her thighs. A soft but insistent spray started to play across her groin.

"Shan, damn you! What the hell are you doing, messing with my shower program?"

"Don't you like it?" the computer replied.

"No", Zena lied.

A human would have sighed.

"Zena, do you know how long it has been since you last used the Chair?"

Zena said nothing.

"Twenty-seven days. I think that has something to do with your present state of mind."

"You're improving", Zena said sarcastically. "When we left Earth, you would have said twenty-seven days, four hours, thirty-one minutes, eighteen seconds, mark."

"You're evading the issue. Will you use the Chair?"

"I already said no."

"I ask you to reconsider", Shan said.

Zena grunted. Computers.

"Stop hosing down my cunt and tits and I'll think about it", she said curtly.

"As you wish." The shower heads cut off and retracted. "Do you want me to resume your shower program?"

"Do it", Zena grunted.

A hint of gravity returned, and the water that enclosed her slowly started to flow down along her skin. Zena took off the breathing mask, and a medium intensity spray came on to rinse her as the gravity slowly increased.

"Keep gravity at fifty percent", she ordered as the water cut off and a blast of warm air hit her.

"As you wish."

The shower cabin quickly dried up as the water vapor was pumped out to be recycled. The transparent walls slowly cleared in the warm, dry air, and Zena looked thoughtfully at the curved plastic contraption outside that was the Chair. Molded to the exact shape and size of her body, the Chair was made to fit her like a glove. Designed to provide as intimate a contact as possible, the Chair had been made only after the tiniest folds and wrinkles of Zena's entire front and back had been scanned. The end result reminded her vaguely of a motorcycle.

The Chair. It appeared somewhere on the budget as a 'sensory stimulation unit'. The med techs were more honest and called it an 'auto-erotic stimulator'. Pilots just called it the Chair.

Her eyes followed the lines and curves of the white plastic. If you'd take a woman and press her firmly into a mound of soft clay, front first, you'd get an imprint just like that. The saddle, which formed the central part of the Chair, was an exact negative of the inside of her thighs, her pubic region, the cleft of her buttocks. Recesses at both sides of the Chair fit the insides of her spread thighs exactly, with supports for her knees and feet below so that she could sit on it with her legs spread wide and her knees drawn. The central part of the saddle curled up at the front to cup her groin. The center pad was covered in a soft pliable material, with slits that hid a variety of animated dildoes, plugs and vibrators.

The front shield of the Chair was a similarly negative shape, molded to provide an exact fit to the front of her upper body, lacking only an imprint of her belly button. It had curved recesses to support her arms on either side, a chin rest with adjustable forehead support on top, and twin cups that fit her breasts exactly. Those cups were crammed with all kinds of interesting devices as well, and the whole conductive surface of the thing was of course full of sensors and nerve end stimulators.

All in all, it was exactly what it looked like: one huge sex machine, designed to provide the best sexual stimulation possible. And after all these years Zena still had mixed feelings about it. There were times that she was glad to have it, even if she resented the cold efficiency of its designers a little. But there were also moments when she hated the fact that she needed it. And of course it was only a machine, emotionless and dead. The stimulation it provided was infinitely better than what she could do with her own hands, absolutely. But especially at the times that she needed it most, what she'd really want was a lover's tongue, his kiss, his arms around her, something that wasn't only warm, hard and throbbing (the machine could do that) but that was alive as well.

The blowdry finished, she opened the door of the shower cabin and stepped outside. She ran a hand through her closely cropped hair (long hair could be dangerous in zero gravity) and walked past the Chair to sit down on the bed.

"Well?" Shan asked.

"I said I'd think about it", Zena said. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.

A soft humming sound from the Chair made her look up, and in spite of herself she couldn't help laughing. Shan had activated the Chair, and a slim, long dildo extended through the slit at the front of the saddle. It pointed upwards like an obscene finger, shiny in its coat of lubricant, and it hummed softly as it vibrated.

"Oh my god! The Chair has a hardon!" Zena chuckled. "Poor thing..."

She sighed in resignation.

"OK, Shan, you win. I give in... But just don't push me, OK? Let me do this at my own pace for a change."

"Of course, Zena", Shan said, skipping the usual 'As you wish' response just for once. The dildo retracted.

"And put the Chair in the center of the cabin deck while you're at it. And I want the entire hull transparent, including the floor."

Shan complied without saying anything. The Chair started to hum, then moved slowly forward on its air cushion, and the entire ship seemed to vanish as the hull and floor became transparent. Only the controls, the engines, the life support section and the furniture in the living quarters remained visible as isolated objects that appeared to float in a vast amount of nothingness. Stars blazed all around her, the system's own yellow star a tiny sun overhead.

* * *

Zena got up and walked over to the invisible wall that was the outer hull. The emptiness out there seemed to pull at her. She took a step back until the light from the overhead glow tube reflected against the transparent bulkhead at just the right angle, blotting out the void, and she could see herself reflected in the inner surface of the bulkhead.

Even after all this time on the ship she still looked passable, she though. No, correction. She looked damn good. Two hours each day on the ship's exercise machines saw to that, as did the efforts of a nagging computer to balance her diet against the energy readings from the biosensors.

She studied her reflection, dimly visible in the soft light. Her luscious breasts were full and firm, and even in full gravity they didn't sag. Now, with the ship's gravity at only fifty percent, they looked even fuller. Her nipples were soft pink buds, just visible in the dim light. Her waist was slender, her belly tight, her buttocks firm, her thighs supple and muscled. All in all she had a great figure... and nobody to admire it.

"Turn off cabin lights. Zero gravity", she said softly.\

Shan complied without comment, and the lights dimmed until the cabin was only faintly lit by the stars outside. The tiny sun overhead had grown noticeably larger since they'd entered the system, and the amount of light it gave off at this distance was almost as bright as that of the full moon back on earth.

As gravity slowly dropped to zero, she felt her breasts rise and her internal organs shift. Weightlessness always made her feel good; strangely carefree and content. The pressure on the soles of her feet eased until she lost contact with the floor.

Ventilation slits in the floor and ceiling opened with a soft click, and a gentle stream of air at her exact body temperature came out. Zena smiled faintly. Of course. Shan exactly knew her routine by now, so she anticipated her need for a gentle air current to keep her right where she was, floating there in front of the transparent wall. She remembered the first time when she'd fallen asleep in zero gee and woken up at the other end of the ship. Without gravity the normal air currents and even her own breath were enough to move her around.

She let the relaxation take her, a dreamy smile on her face. Alright... She might as well enjoy it.

Slowly her hands rose to her breasts. She ran the tips of her fingers across the outer curve, then she cupped them in the palms of her hands. A delicious, almost electric tingle ran through her as her fingers found her nipples and slowly rubbed them. She felt how the pink buds swelled under her caress until they stood out clear and hard. She sighed, staring into the void. Then she closed her eyes and reached down between her legs.

Her fingertips slowly ran across the slit of her hairless pussy. Hairs were a nuisance in space, and it would have been better if she'd depilated her scalp as well, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to do that.

The tip of her index finger gently probed between her labia, felt the moist warmth inside. She moved down her other hand as well and started to caress herself there, until she felt herself start to get wet.

She held apart the lips of her pussy with one hand and slowly slipped the fingers of the other between them. Then she moved up to the top of her folds and found her clit. She carefully pulled up the hood and spread a drop of her own juices over it. She began to rub gently along the shaft, pulling the sheath up and down in a slow rhythm. She felt the little button swell and grow hard. She knew that if she had a mirror she'd see the sheath slowly retract and the little head of her clit peek out from under it, hard and pink.

She started to stroke herself more firmly now, running up and down across her wet pussy, only touching her clit in passing. With her other hand she moved back up to her breasts and pinched her nipples, first one, then the other. She sighed deeply.