The Void Of Forget Me Not

*Deep Star Explorer Class ship Temperate Void, Kepler-11 planetary system, 2000 light-years from Earth*

"Darvish!"

The request popped into the man's line of sight -- bold, translucent letters floating in mid air, emitted by the communication implant located in his earlobe. He ran his fingers through his shortly cropped, reddish blond hair and he nodded. Sensors in the implant measured the motions of his head and projected the rest of the message.

"There's a tangle for you. Please report to private action pods, deck 4."

Darvish nodded a second time, acknowledging the request and the message disappeared. He looked at his forearm and a sub-dermal display indicated his operational tour was minutes from being officially over. Thankfully, he'd logged extra hours to his daily tours so finishing early would not be flagged as derelict behaviour. Orienting himself as he floated in zero g, his bare feet touched the the ceiling of the chamber and he jumped away, gracefully somersaulting mid-course and landing feet first on the floor. Upon landing, he tapped a small plaque atop his left hand and presser fields filled the chamber, simulating 1 g of gravity.

Darvish looked up and considered the holographic structure he was working on: a series of rendered planetary systems with highlighted areas of local space around select planets. He was the newly enlisted secondary mapping specialist on the Gate Keeper Alliance Explorer class ship Temperate Void. The ship and its sisters were the result of a fragile collaboration between the Alliance and the Earth Commonwealth. Darvish himself was fresh out of training and recruited for his exceptional understanding of hyperspace flux dynamics. He work station was a zero g chamber equipped with holographic emitters, allowing him to interact freely with in three dimensions with maps of the expanding hyper-gate network.

"Save," Darvish said and the chamber's a.i. saved the map in its current state. He then slid into his grey work tunic and boots and summoned a map of the ship and he left the chamber, following the navigation route leading him through the 5 kilometre long, cylindrical boat. Explorer class ships had 15 decks separated in a dozen sections -- the lower sections were dedicated to the manufacturing and assembly of hyper-gate arcs while the mid sections were for science and lodging and command and control whereas the top levels were for engineering, flight decks, and armament.

As Darvish neared deck 4, greeting his colleagues and occasionally saluting his superiors, he pondered anxiously who might have made the effort to establish a tangle with the Void.

@@@@@

There were a dozen private action pods on the ship -- vertical canisters designed to hold an individual. They were usually reserved for higher ranking officers and occasionally to primary mission specialists. But incoming tangles were allowed, especially since that meant the sender was paying for the privilege.

Darvish placed stood before the gateway to the pod chamber while a series of small security protocol robots, not larger than fruit flies, landed on his hands and authenticated his identity with a DNA reference. The massive, metallic doors then opened and he stepped inside. The pods were placed in a circle and in the centre of the chamber was a glowing sphere about a meter in diameter. Two conduits, one from the ceiling and the other from the floor, fed raw plasma energy into the sphere -- occasional arcs of energy flashed across the chamber. Darvish swallowed hard as he watched in awe as the powerful quantum computer that ran the private action pods hummed menacingly as the disturbance he represented.

"Kenton Darvish, Mapping specialist, secondary," a rigid voice said from his right. Darvish saw a ubiquitous grey service android, featureless and emotionless.

"That's me," Darvish said, instinctively holding out his hand to the androgynous automaton. It took him a few moments to register that the android was not going to return his handshake.

"Please disrobe and enter the action pod directly in front of you," the android requested, indicating an open cylinder. Darvish removed his tunic for the second time today and moved tentatively towards the open tube. The interior was made of stark and cold steel.

Darvish raised a wagging finger and pointed at the pod and said, "Listen, this is the first time I ever ... tangled. How does this thing work, anyway?"

The android tilted its head to the right, apparently analyzing the question -- or demonstrating its annoyance at such a pointless question -- before answering.

"Once you enter the pod, it will seal and fill with a neuro-conductive fluid. The fluid is oxygen saturated and nano filters will allow the O2 to pass into your lungs without damage -- you will not drown. Then, the quantum state share module will include you in the entanglement process and you will simultaneously be connected with the original share module on Capsys station, orbiting Jupiter. It is a form of interstellar instant messaging."

Upon hearing the word Capsys, Darvish's heart skipped a beat and an immense smile washed across his face as a wave of happiness coursed though him. He dismissed all trepidation and entered the pod. The front half lowered itself and sealed him in. Part of the pod was transparent so he could be monitored by the attending android. He nodded frantically, hoping to show the android to get on with it -- the android tapped the pod and subtle green lighting filled the space while a shower of cool fluid flooded the pod. As the level of the fluid reached his mouth, Darvish took a series of quick pants, ridding his lungs of excess air. When the fluid was beyond eye level, he opened his mouth and let the thick fluid fill his lungs. Darvish shook and he struggled against the pressure in his chest and his brain's instinctual fear of drowning, but it lasted only few seconds when the shock dissipated. The ebb and flow of the fluid mimicked the flow of air and he gave the android a thumbs up.

The android nodded back in acknowledgement and looked down at a control pad it had been holding. After it punched a sequence of coded commands, the sphere at the centre of the chamber began to hum and a thundering arc of blue energy struck Darvish's pod -- the fluid around him lit up as billions of small packets of solidified data broke down the quantum state of a single particle located at the Capsys station over 2000 light years away and transferred his over the quantum void. For Darvish, the effect was like being caught in a sandstorm where he existed in every grain at a slightly different point in time while knowing that he was the storm and that his existence was the total of these endless possibilities.

As his consciousness reassembled in the ephemeral conduit that was quantum entanglement, his hopes were realized as he recognized the gossamer figure standing before him -- her name was Tamara Rennic and he loved her.

@@@@@

Tamara -- Tammy -- Rennic was the daughter to a powerful family that was heavily invested in space exploration, but whereas it seemed natural for her to fall for someone who had their head in the stars, her parents considered Kenton Darvish to be below Tamara's standing in the Earth Commonwealth elite.

But that mattered little now as she was facing Darvish in the strange place that was the quantum entanglement conduit. Their conscious avatars moved about each other like figures comprised of ethereal smoke and solid light that exploded with splashes of colour whenever they came into contact. They floated and danced around like mysterious alien birds engaged in a mating dance.

"Tamara!" Darvish exclaimed, his lips forming the words as waves of light travelled across his body.

"Hey baby!" she answered. Her smoky limbs intertwined with his and their lips met -- an explosion of energy radiated across the quantum void.

"Tammy, why are you here?" Darvish asked as her cloud-like form triggered within him the sensation of her small, pert nipples pressing against his chest. "Wherever here is -- I've heard tangles can be highly unstable."

"I know," Tammy sighed. "But its Valentine's Day back on Earth and I saw there was going to be a brief window. How could I not want to see the man of my life, at least for a few minutes?"

"Valentine's -- I totally forgot about that. People still celebrate that?"

"Yes, dumb ass," Tammy smirked -- the expression was like a shattering rainbow. "But only by people with roots beyond the Second Rising."

"So you're here to tell me you love me?" Darvish asked as he touched her gossamer hair. Tammy closed her eyes and bit her lower-lip when his lips touched her forehead. "I seem to remember beating you at that one."

Tamara pushed away from Darvish and floated before him, turning her back to him and hugging her shoulders

"Tammy, I didn't mean ..."

Tammy faced him and she bore a strange smile, full of excitement and trepidation. "I have news. Good news, I hope."

Darvish watched as Tamara's conscious avatar seemed to grow and fill the void all around him -- a light like a nascent star glowed from where her stomach would be. The imagery was familiar to him, but it was the words he needed to hear.

"I'm pregnant, Kent. Six weeks."

Tamara gazed at Darvish's quiet form while a spark of red and green embers formed within his chest before expanding through his limbs. As he glowed, she was enveloped in his exultation at the thought that she carried his child.

It was then that their conscious avatars merged, packets of memory and sensations colliding and circling and merging as tangible identities became fluid possibilities. His memories of adulthood working on interplanetary transports became her childhood while her dreams of conquering a kingdom of dancing stuffed animals that shimmied to reggae became the memories of how he came to lose his virginity. But there was a focused point where chaotic paradigms surrendered to a shared memory of an emotional singularity.

*Capsys station, opposite orbital plane of Ganymede, Jovian lunar system, six weeks earlier*

It was the eve of Darvish's transfer to the Temperate Void -- Tamara had kept to herself as the date of his departure neared and that evening she'd spent extra time researching an archived seminar by an obscure lecturer named Brecht. Darvish's rack sac was prepped and he was waiting for her in order to spend a last night together -- he had made a dinner of exotic pasta and greens with a bottle of her favourite red wine made from hydroponic vines grown in Dyson trees that were seeded on long orbit comets that circled the Sun.

But when Tamara wasn't in by nine pm local schedule Darvish had had enough and decided to partake alone of the luxury he had reserved for the both of them -- a deep, steaming bath of Earth imported sea water.

At eleven, Tamara Rennic opened the hatch to the habitat suite she shared with Kenton Darvish and wished that maybe he had spared her and had left early, without saying goodbye. Goodbyes had a habit of becoming permanent and the thought of Darvish strapped in to a capsule and catapulted by a rail gun towards a hyper-gate to cross the maelstrom of hyperspace, and finally to be caught by a retainer field 500 light years away chilled her more than the vacuum of space beyond the hull of Capsys. But under the muted illuminations, she saw the meal on the table and she saw his sac on the floor.

Damn.

She never said it, but she loved him -- but she was infuriated with him because he told her of his assignment only a week before shipping out. Tamara knew he loved her as well, despite her family's prejudice against non Earth-born humans. She hated herself for being angry at him when he put up with so much more bullshit.

Sighing, she wondered where he was as she tapped a small, bio-adhered plate of metal behind her left ear. It was a link to the station's civilian a.i. and she had just activated her privacy mode. The plates on the dining table were covered with conservation fields and the wine breathed while waiting in a decanter. She noticed a bottle while she removed her green cloak -- she picked the bottle up and her jaw dropped almost immediately. It was a bottle of Dyson-Halley Merlot, 2171 -- her favourite and one of the priciest wines sold in the outer system. Tamara tossed a lock of her flowing brown hair over her unadorned ear and caught a whiff of an almost forgotten smell.

It was salty with a hint of other minerals. "Seawater?" she wondered aloud.

Tamara walked tentatively towards the rear of the suite -- it had a port that faced outwards and the polarized glass was set to clear. It caught the reflection of Sol off the the vast array of panels that powered the station while Jupiter and its moons filled half the view. It was ever a breathtaking sight until she crossed into the washroom. The floor had been reconfigured to support a pool big enough for two people in its centre and the diamond-glass floor, ceiling and walls were made transparent, giving the impression to be walking out into space. The pool was filled with steaming seawater and there was Kenton Darvish, asleep as he orbited the largest planet in the solar system. The sight of his naked, lean and toned body in water with a backdrop of stars and Jupiter had a surreal effect -- she felt that she was watching an ancient Greek god sleeping outside Olympus.

Tamara dreamily disrobed, tossing her dark blue dress and black leggings in a corner and laid down on the warm floor and dipped her fingers in the equally warm water. Beneath its wavy surface, Darvish's muscular thighs and ripped abdomen moved slightly as he slept. His head was leaned back and his mouth was ajar. Tamara looked down her own athletic form -- long legs and lightly flared hips and buttocks; small but firm breast with equally small but immensely sensitive nipples.

Tamara longed to feel Darvish pinch her nipples and feel him fill her with the cock that rested placid beneath the water's surface. Blue lighting emanated from sources embedded at the corners of the room and gave the water a shimmering quality and she realized that this was going to be the last time she sees Darvish for at least 6 months -- her anger dissipated and she reached into the water, caressing his circumcised cock. It grew almost instantly under her soft touch.

Tamara began to slowly stroke the sleeping man's erect penis while she ran her other hand over her taut nipples and down towards her shaved pussy. She raised a leg, exposing her labia that she gently parted, allowing her puffy pussy lips to pop out. Her fingers found the edges of those petal like folds of flesh and a shock of pleasure shot from her loins up to her nipples and across her chest to her tips of her fingers. She pulled her hand away and it was covered with hr juices -- she couldn't remember the last time she was so aroused, so quickly, to receive him into the depths of her hungry cunt.

Tamara worked Darvish's cock while returning her other hand to her pussy -- she stroked him, starting from his balls up to the tip of his cock and back, giving his balls a nice squeeze. Darvish shifted, causing the warming seawater to ripple while his breathing became erratic, sighs replacing his inhalations. Her fingers had parted her pussy lips and she has penetrated the slit of her pussy, finding the soft nerve cluster adjacent to her clit that she was teasing with her thumb. The combined actions of her long middle finger and her thumb rapidly pulled Tamara towards orgasm. As her body shook under the mounting quake of pleasure, her grip on Darvish's cock tightened but lost its trance-like rhythm -- those erratic motions stirred Darvish from his blissful rest and eyes opened to the sight of Tamara reaching a blusterous orgasm where she unleashed a torrent of fluid as she ejaculated.

During her entire sensual trial, Tamara never let go of Darvish's cock and he felt his own pleasure mount as his balls tightened and he feared she might inadvertently pull him in the wrong directions. But when he tried to push away, Tamara held him tight.

"No baby," she whispered as she got into the water, straddling his lap. "I'm sorry for how I've been acting." She kissed him hard, her tongue seeking his with hurried desperation as his cock rested against her ass crack, just beneath the water.

"Tammy, I should have told you earlier..." he started but she shushed him by lowering herself onto his manhood, the water caused a suction action that dragged contact between the walls of her cunt and skin of his cock, enhancing the experience of the fuck.

"I don't want to think about that," she said as she took his hand and placed in on her breast -- he pinched it and she moaned, making the walls of he cunt spasm around his cock. "I just need to feel you in me, Kent ... just fuck me."

"Yes," he moaned, grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her mouth to his.

"Yes? Just fuck me?"

"Yes ..."

Tamara began to gyrate her hips as she rode his cock, the water they rested in splashing onto the transparent floor -- the station had shifted and amber flares sometimes coloured the chamber as gold segments of the solar panels caught the stellar light. The reddish spot of the inner moon Almathea could be seen transitioning across the Jovian face, racing above the benign bands of tumultuous gasses.

Darvish occasionally caught sight of the planet but much more enjoyed watching Tamara's face as the friction of his cock in her pussy made her lips tremble and her eyes flutter. When her body rose high on his cock, he caught a nipple in his mouth while he squeezed her breast until he was back in her and he then connected to her mouth. Despite the water, he could feel the disparity in temperature between the juices from her cunt and the heated seawater.

Darvish began to thrust against Tamara's down strokes, driving his cock farther into her pussy. She gripped his shoulders and raised herself on her knees and he grabbed her hips and using the wave his motions created in the water, he propelled himself into her, his entire body flexing to ensure she could feel every centimetre of his cock.

"OH GODDESS YES! YES!" Tamara screamed as Darvish's furious pace pushed her over the edge and she came for the second time, adding her ejaculate to the water.

Darvish was breathing hard and sweat dribbled from his scalp and his heart pounded delightfully at the knowledge that Tamara had come for him. She disengaged from his cock and wiped his sweaty brow and caressed his closely cropped, reddish hair.

"Goddess, you're drenched," Tamara said with a worried furrow of her brow. Darvish allowed her to guide him to the edge of their seawater pool and she prodded him to sit on the edge while she remained in the water. Seated as he was his cock was level with her chest and she delicately rubbed it across the pale flesh between her petite breasts, enjoying how the tip of manhood felt against her hard nipples. She gazed into his green eyes and then kissed the tip of his cock. Darvish shuddered when he felt her thick lips graze the length of his shaft on one side while she used her tongue on the other. When she reached the tip of his cock, she graced him with a slow choreography of swirling tongue and kissing lips while she laid a hand on his balls and gently worked them while her other hand stroked his shaft, complementing the effort of her mouth.

Darvish gripped the edges of the pool as a swirling sensation of bliss draped itself across his senses just as the shadow cast by a massive interplanetary transport moving parallel to the 100 km long Capsys station darkened the chamber. In the shadow, Darvish surrendered to the sweet sensation of having his most intimate limb at Tamara's mercy. A fire ran across his skin and his cock was the handle to the brazier that held the passion that burned him. The shadow from the transport passed and Tamara's brown hair was flowing madly as her bangs touched the salty water. Her hands were on his thighs and her head was bobbing wildly the length of his shaft -- Darvish could feel his cock strike the back of her throat and it made him grow ever closer to his release.