The Passenger

Live on a ship long enough and it becomes a part of you.

At first you are constantly aware of all the little sounds: the soft, high-pitched hum of the energy converters in the drive section; the endless sighing of the airscrubber; the occasional gurgling of the recycling units below deck or an actuator kicking in somewhere every now and then. But soon these sounds become normal, then subliminal... Until something changes. A brief fluctuation in energy consumption causes the pitch of the converters to warble for a moment, and you notice. A clogged filter in the ventilation system slows down the airflow, and you notice. An impending blockage (which is much easier to deal with than an actual one, trust me on that!) announces itself in the form of different gurgles in the recycler, and you notice. If anything like that happens while you sleep, it wakes you up and you immediately know something's wrong, no matter how deeply you sleep.

Which is why, whenever I sleep dirtside (which is to say, not on board) I have no trouble falling asleep, but waking up is always different. Even though I know I'm not on the ship, there is still that moment, halfway between sleep and waking, when I know that important sounds are missing from the background, and I wake with a shock followed by a panic-filled second or two before I realize where I am.

Anne opened her eyes and have me a worried look. I smiled to her to let her know everything was alright. We held each other.

"Good morning," she whispered.

"Yes, it is," I said softly.

I kissed her and we held each other for a few long, blissful moments.

"What had you so startled?" she asked.

"Not being on the Slowboat," I said. "It's just... different."

She smiled.

"At least I'm still here, captain."

"And I can't tell you how much that means to me, my loyal crew."

"Me too. Last night was wonderful," she said softly. "I hope we can have much more of that."

We swapped some more spit, and her hands explored my body, hesitantly at first, curiously, lovingly, then with more purpose. We lay there for a while as she snuggled against me, her naked skin against mine, and the touch of her hands gradually became more intimate. Then I gave her a final kiss, extracted myself from her embrace and sat up.

"I think we'd better get up, "I said. "Because it looks like we're in luck. I was going to tell you last night, but you, ehm... distracted me."

She smiled.

"I could say I'm sorry, but I'd be lying."

"Good. Anyway, here's the plan."

And I told her about having found the Slowboat in the spaceport register, and about the Starman's Pride, and about Raz, and about how incredibly it looked like we've been.

"But we're going to have to be careful," I said. "We've got to assume that Brax and his cronies are monitoring the network. So I'm going have to phrase this a little creatively and not raise any flags. We can't afford to use video, audio or even our names."

I sat down at the console and began to compose a regular class-two message.

"Let's see. To: private vessel Starman's Pride, care of captain Raz'Rwwrr Grllrrlrr. From... Hm. Let me think... I need something that he will recognize. Ah, I've got it. From: The offices of Mr. Rozzer Yevrah." I looked at Anne. "He used to call me Rozzer, in the old days. He never used my first name for some reason until we became close friends. Maybe it's a Gawrran thing. By the way, how are you with non-humans?"

"I grew up on a space station with seven different species," she said. "I liked it. But... Yevrah?"

"My first name, spelled backward. I reckon that shouldn't trip any automated surveillance systems, what with all the foreign names circulating around the spaceport."

I turned back to the console.

"Urgently requesting passage for Mr. and Mrs. Yevrah, to be collected from the address at which this message originates," I continued the message. "No response to this communication required."

I looked at it for a moment, then hit 'Send'.

"Well, if I know Raz at all, that should do it," I said. "So now we wait."

"How long?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Oh, I don't know, exactly. Assuming that he gets it immediately, it will take him at least an hour or so to get here."

Her smile spoke volumes.

"So we've got time, then?"

I nodded.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking?"

"Well," she started, "We could sit around and wait, getting all nervous and tense... Or..."

I looked at her, unable to suppress a smile of my own.

"Or?"

"Or we could find some other way to pass the time. I liked what we did last night. I wouldn't mind doing some more of it."

She stood before me, naked, and struck a classic pose: her weight on one leg, her other leg slightly bent, one foot just in front of the other. She raised her arms to put her hands behind her head, lifting her breasts. The whole thing accentuated her already stunning beauty. The curve of her neck, her shoulders, her collarbones... The roundness of her proud, full breasts; the curve of her narrow waist sloping into the voluptuous swell of her hips, turned to give me just a glimpse of one of her lovely buns, and her legs... Those long, lovely legs...

Damn, she was a sight to behold.

She took one step forward, slowly swaying her hips. Another step, closer to me. Her breasts moved as she did, tantalizing, inviting, promising... Her nipples had begun to swell and grew slightly darker as I watched.

I stood up from where I had been sitting at the hotel room's console and held out my arms. She abandoned her pose, stepped into my embrace, and we held each other close as she kissed me, hard, her hand behind my head. She moaned softly as I kissed her back, and her teeth ground against mine.

Behind me, the console pinged. For a moment it didn't register, caught up in our passion as we were. But then we broke our kiss and I gently disengaged myself from her embrace.

"That sounds like a response," I said, turning to the console. "Let's see... Yes, it is. He writes: Passage secured. ETA day after tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow?"

I smiled.

"Yes. That means in two hours. He's using a code we learned ages ago when we ran into a bunch of smugglers in the Dogan system, halfway down the Rift. Tomorrow means in one hour, the day after means two hours, and so on."

"So what do you say when you do mean the day after tomorrow?"

"Then you say, in one hour." I turned away from the console to face her. "Anyway, we've got two hours to kill. Maybe we should wait for him in the restaurant across the street. We should have some breakfast in any case."

She stepped close, melted her body against mine. The smooth, warm softness of her skin was a wonderful caress. Her nipples felt firm against my skin, and the fragrance of her hair in my nostrils was a heady perfume.

"I want something else for breakfast," she whispered.

"I can tell," I whispered back.

She lifted her face and my lips found hers. We stood there for a moment, holding each other, lost in our kiss. Then, still holding me, she took a slow step, pushing me backward into the direction of the bed. Another step, and I felt the edge of the bed against the back of my legs. She gently pushed me down onto the bed, put one knee on it, next to me.

"Anne..." I started.

"Ssshhh..."

I couldn't answer before she covered my mouth with a kiss, from which it took me a few moments to disengage myself.

"Anne... We really should leave."

"Yes. But there's time, and first I want breakfast."

She gently pushed me down onto my back.

"I got a taste of you last night, and I liked it a lot. And I want more of you."

For a brief moment she looked a little shy again, but then she smiled.

"I've heard about this and I've long wondered what it would be like," she said softly." I want to find out."

She straddled my legs and took my cock in her hands, making it very clear what she had in mind.

"This is a bad idea," I said to myself.

"So do something about it," myself said.

Anne traced the underside of my balls with her fingertips, sending small pleasure jolts through my groin. With the fingers of her other hand she circled the head of my flaccid cock.

"Yeah, I really should," I said to myself.

"But you're not going to," myself said. "And why doesn't that bother you? You've always been a sensible and cautious man, Harvey. Until now. You're totally out of control. What is this woman doing to you?"

Myself was right, but I had no good answer. Meanwhile Anne had begun to caress my cock with her fingertips, and the wonderful feeling thoroughly distracted me from my objections. She held my cock as it grew longer and thicker in her hands with every beat of my heart, occasionally touching its most sensitive spots by way of encouragement.

"Wow," she said softly. 'I love this. I love to feel you get hard."

She began to stroke my cock, which was reaching full hardness by now, and I could not stifle a soft moan. Then she bent down, stuck out her tongue. and very gently, very softly licked the tip of my cock. It twitched in her hand at the contact. Encouraged, she licked it again, running the tip of her tongue across the underside, then up and across the slit.

"Does that feel good?" she whispered.

"You have no idea," I said. "That feels incredible."

She smiled and licked her lips.

"Good. Because I want more than just a taste."

And with that she put her full, lush lips against the head of my cock. She moved them around, feeling, testing, tasting... I felt the tip of her tongue playing across the hole.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I there was a thought about how we didn't really have the time for this and that we really should be going, but I was way past paying attention to any of that. The feeling of her lush, wet lips sliding down around the head of my cock, circling the crown as her tongue played across the tip of me, firmly diverted my attention from anything else. If the room had gone up in flames around me right now, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Her lips slid further down around my cock, her tongue caressing all the right places and doing wonderful things there. She held my throbbing shaft in her hand as she gently sucked, then pulled her mouth slowly off me again, making a slurping sound. She giggled, but I could not suppress a moan as her fingertips found their way back to my balls. She took my cock back into her mouth, her slick, wet lips sliding across the head, and I felt the first stirrings of a massive eruption starting to pool in my groin as she began to bob her head up and down.

"Anne... Go... slowly..." I panted.

She backed off a little, which allowed me to come down a little from that perilous edge from which there is no returning. But soon her lips found their way around the head of my cock again, and this time she took me deeper into her mouth, and the feeling of the warm, wet tightness that enveloped me was out of this world. I heard someone moan and realized it was me, as her lips slid down and down around my cock, her head slowly bobbing up and down experimentally, taking me deeper every time, until her lips touched the base of my cock and I felt the tightness of her throat around me. The pleasure was irresistible, and I knew it was only a matter of seconds now before I would lose control.

She seemed to sense it, because she let me slip out of her throat until he lips caught behind the head of my cock. But then, probably encouraged by my moaning and the way I had started to squirm on the bed, she began to bob her head up and down again, caressing me with her mouth, squeezing me, deliberately coaxing me on, and I felt my pleasure rise and rise as the pressure built at the base of my cock. Then she suddenly sucked me, hard, and I felt the head of my cock expand in the vacuum of her mouth, her lips and tongue touching my most sensitive spots, and the rising gulf of my pleasure swelled until it became a huge tidal wave which roared on and on and...

And then the wave crashed and my orgasm exploded in my groin, my balls, my cock. With a huge cry I let go, the pleasure bursting out of me as I filled her mouth with fireworks, and I shook with the intensity of it as the explosion of bliss went on and on. My cock pulsed as it pumped the first thick spurt of cum into her mouth, then another one, and another. I emptied myself in her mouth, filling her, and the feeling was beyond description.

Only when she had sucked the last drop out of me she let me go, and I lay there, panting, until I was able to open my eyes.

"Wow..." was all I managed.

She put her arms around me and kissed me. I could smell my cum on her breath, taste it on her lips. Her smile was a mixture of hesitation and excitement.

"Did I do that right?" she asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Are you serous?" I croaked. "That was absolutely perfect. You are amazing."

I reached out and stroked her hair, her face, her shoulder, the swell of her breast. Her nipple was hard under my fingertips.

"Lie down," I said. "Let me to return the favor."

I slowly sat up, still a little shaky, and gently pushed her down onto the bed. I planted a gentle kiss between her lush breasts, then brushed that soft skin with my lips, following the curve of her breast until I reached the hardness of her nipple. I gently flicked it with my tongue, then I rubbed the tip of my tongue over its pebbled surface, and it grew harder as I played with it, pinched it with my lips, sucked it, licked it. I took her content sighs as a sign I was doing it right.

Then I began to move south, my lips traveling across her chest, her stomach, the swell of her mons. My hands followed my mouth, then ran ahead of it to caress her inner thighs when my lips reached the smooth skin at the top of her legs. She moved her legs apart, first a little, then spreading them all the way to give me access to the treasure that lay between them. As my lips moved in to touch those delicate folds at the apex of her spread thighs, the scent of her arousal hit me like a ton of bricks wrapped in velvet and honey.

I touched her pussy lips with my tongue, tasting the first drop of her nectar between them. My fingertips lightly stroked the outline of her entrance, and I felt the heat radiating from her center. I kissed her there, feeling her softness with my lips as my hands caressed her inner thighs. She moaned softly as I caressed her most intimate spot with my mouth.

I licked her nether lips, slowly, lovingly, and soon I felt them begin to flower open under my tongue. I moved up a little until my lips found her clit, and when my tongue touched that smooth little nub she moaned softly. With my thumb pulled up the hood of her clit, exposing the delicately pink, shiny tip. Carefully, ever so lightly, I touched it with my tongue, teasing it, caressing it. She moaned again, this time much louder.

While making love to her clit with my lips and tongue I moved my other hand to the entrance of her pussy, which had by now fully opened under my caresses. I stroked the engorged lips, felt the slippery wetness that pooled between them. My finger slipped between them and began to trace around her inner opening. She shuddered, and another loud moan escaped her as my finger slid into her entrance, slowly but deliberately, while my tongue and lips continued to play across the exposed tip of her clit, which had grown much larger and harder by now.

Then my finger felt the soft bulge that I was looking for. Gently pressing on it, I began to stroke it with my fingertip in small, slow circles, while my tongue did the same to her clit. She was very wet now, and my finger made soft, squishy sounds inside her. Her moans grew louder and more frequent.

I continued to do what felt right: licking her, caressing her, pleasuring her most sensitive spots with my tongue, my lips and my fingertips. Before long she began to tremble, and her breath suddenly came faster. As she got closer and closer to climaxing, my finger was engulfed by a wave of heat that suddenly spread inside her, and my hand got wet as her juices flowed copiously. She began to tremble, and her moans turned into wails.

Judging that the moment had arrived, I pulled on the hood of her clit, moving it up and down as my tongue rubbed its exposed, pebble-hard tip, and my finger moved faster. All of that had the effect I was aiming for: suddenly her muscles grew taut and she screamed as her pleasure peaked and then exploded inside her.

She shuddered, and then her back arched and I felt her inner muscles clamp down on my finger. She thrashed on the bed with the force of her climax, her cries of pleasure echoing through the room. I managed to keep my tongue on her pulsing clit as she shook. Her spasming pussy gripped my finger again and again, and with each contraction her juices gushed out of her, wetting my face and my hand before running down across her spread thighs and through the crack of her butt. With the tip of my tongue I continued to stimulate her clit, not without effort, and I couldn't say whether that gave her several back-to-back orgasms in a row or just one huge one that went on and on. Not that I cared; it was the result that mattered, and if her screams and the way her body shook with pleasure were anything to go by, the result was exactly what I had been aiming for.

Finally she started to come down. I backed off, giving her some time to recover, but moving my finger just enough to keep her engine ticking over. When she began to relax I resumed my caresses. Her inner flesh was much hotter after her orgasm, and the heat from her most intimate center radiated from her skin. Her breath came fast and heavy.

Slowly, gently at first, my finger caressed her insides, which were soaking wet now. Meanwhile my lips explored the entrance of her pussy, kissing her there, licking gently. At first I avoided touching her clit, which was partially hidden again under its hood, but every now and then I gently pulled on the skin just above it, stimulating that super-sensitive pleasure point ever so lightly.

She moaned softly, and this time there was something eager in that sound, which I took as an encouragement. I gradually increased the force and speed of my ministrations, and she moaned loudly when my tongue found her clit again. My finger made sopping sounds inside her as her juices flowed like a slow river. I added another finger to the first one, and the sounds she made when I began to pump both fingers in and out of her told me that I was doing something right.

"Yes..." she moaned. "Oh, yes, yes, yes...Oh... Oooooohhhh... OooooooOOOOOHHHHH!!!!

I felt her clit swell under my tongue as I pushed her on and on, her pussy gripping my fingers. She shuddered, convulsed almost, and I held her thrashing body as her juices spurted from her contracting pussy and hit me square in the face. I kept pumping my fingers in and out of her, my other hand keeping the hood of her clit pulled taut, and her climax went on and on. She wailed, sobbed almost, as wave after wave of pleasure tore through her shaking body. When I moved on the bed, I realized that my cock had become fully erect again, standing up proud and hard and ready.

I slowed the movements of my fingers and moved my tongue away from her clit until the violence of her continued orgasm began to subside a little. Then, withdrawing my fingers from her hot, sopping depths, I moved quickly. I sat up on my knees between her spread thighs and, leaning forward, I aimed the tip of my cock between the engorged nether lips. She was soaking wet, wide open and ready, and with one firm thrust I slid into her all the way, like a missile into a launching tube. She cried out with joy and pleasure and the need for more all at the same time. She hadn't quite finished climaxing yet when I slid my rock-hard cock into her as deep as it would go, and I wasted no time. I began to fuck her with long, powerful strokes, and it only took two or three of these to trigger a new wave of pleasure that swept through her like a tsunami. I put my hands on the bed on either side of her and continued to piston my cock in and out of her, harder than I ever had before.