Red light flooded the space that I'd ended up in after my afternoon-into-evening exertions with Captain Kimma and Master Sergeant Y'Jaan. I was stuck to the wall in a spacer's hammock and had a bit of a time untangling and detaching myself.
"Commander Deck to Medical," a soft artificial - I thought artificial - voice chimed into the space in front of me. Four strobing strips of soft amber guide-lights marched towards the hatch to my left.
My balls were sore and full as all fuck. I knew I'd orgasmed magnificently and multiple times the night before, but literally nothing had cum of it. It was all still backed up in my balls and they ached something fierce. And they sure as heck wanted to get it all out.
Damn the Imperium and their dirty tech!
More, I felt like a gooey rag. My body was taut and refreshed after the exercise and a full night's sleep. I felt in fighting trim, but my skin felt tacky, and my mouth could use a good scrub with a bore cleaner.
"Can I grab a fresher first," I ask the air.
The maybe-artificial voice responds, "Request logged." Then, after a moment, "Confirmed, Commander Deck. Please proceed to medical and report to Colonel-Doctor M'Raatha as soon as you have completed your ablutions."
"Okay. Thanks."
The hatch that the guide lights are pointing to is vaguely in the direction of where I remember the freshers being. I kick off almost accurately, but I'm still getting my space-sense back. I manage to only bounce gently off one wall before I make the hatch. It dilates for me and I correct my course to the left with one hand on the coaming. The guide lights in the hall flicker then stop as soon as I turn towards midships.
"I see you know your way to the freshers, Commander," the sultry voice resumes. "I'll show you to medical when you're done."
"Thanks, uh - ship?"
"Please, call me Artemis," the voice purrs. An ethereal hologram of a voluptuous not-quite naked but not really clothed Terran-type female appears in the air ahead of me. She's projecting into my implants, I realize.
"I am the squadron's distributed AI," she says, floating in a perfect lotus position in my middle-vision. "Now that Artemis Down is docked with Artemis Main, I am fully integrated again and I can provide you any information, supplies, or services you may need across the reach of the entire squadron."
"Oh. Great. Thanks, uh... Artemis," I reply.
"De nada, duck," she giggles. "Anything at all," she adds for emphasis. A not-quite naughty smile curls the corner of her thick, ruby lips.
I reach the fresher and Artemis swipes her avatar to the top-left corner of my visual field to let me negotiate the mechanics. I strip off my ship suit and stuff it into the recycler. A fresh clothing packet appears in a slot above it.
I slip into the fresher, pull a bite stick into my mouth and clothing grab a couple handfuls of goo from the dispenser and start lathering myself up.
Artemis seems to watch as I do. I know - or suppose - she's got sensors all throughout the ships and probably elsewhere besides, so it shouldn't bother me, but the image of her avatar watching me reminds me unavoidably of her omniscient regard.
I lather all over and come finally to my still-perky morning wood. I slather my balls and cock with the goo and Artemis raises an eyebrow. "Remember, Captain said no ejaculating, so be careful," she teases.
l spit the bite stick out, near the end of its cycle. "I'm just cleaning it," I protest.
"So I see," she teased.
"Do you have to watch," I asked.
"I'm always watching, everywhere," she admits. I think back to my encounter with Y'Jaan and Captain Kimma yesterday and wonder how much of her was paying attention to that.
"You know what I mean," I say, waving a hand at where her avatar would be if it weren't just a projection in my implant.
"I thought you'd appreciate some company, and maybe some feedback," she giggles. Her avatar swims and enlarges into my central field of vision. She slides one hand down her belly and between her folded legs. Then she spreads her legs wide, her fingers covering where her sex would be and rubbing convincingly at her crotch.
"You. I... How do you even...," I stammer.
"What? You've got an objectively hot body, Commander. Any girl can appreciate that."
"I've just never had an AI rub her virtual pussy for me before," I tell her.
"Stick around, Sexy! I can do lots more with you."
I didn't pause to consider that much further. Rather, I started to think a whole lot about that and about the possibilities of a cybernetic hook-up with this objectively sexy and definitely interested AI, but I forced myself to stop and think about the engineering problem.
"Artemis, you're linked to the squadron's neural net, right?"
"I am monitoring and on call for all one hundred twelve biological squadron members, four major vessel AIs, thirty-two duty craft systems, four autonomous orbitals, and all squadron sentient and semi-sentient systems, Commander."
"Full bio and affect on the biologicals, yes?" Finished with the lathering up, I hit the gellit button and enjoyed the warm blast and the sensation of the fresher gel doing its work on my dirty birthday suit.
"Yes, Commander."
"You've seen me naked. Call me Aylen when we're in private, huh? At least when you're finger-dancing on your huhu while you watch me fresh."
She giggled at that. "Yes, Aylen."
"So, tell me. Seven females currently on the dropship, yes?"
"Eight," she corrected, "Lance Sergeant Hobyn arrived this morning and is with First Officer Syung now."
"Correlate medical readings for all but Sergeant Hobyn. Select data twelve hours before my arrival and compare to current readings. Analyze."
Scrolls of data points reel through my upper right field of vision and Artemis' avatar plants her chin in one palm contemplatively, still rubbing idly at her virtual sex with the other.
"All show elevated levels across these markers," she says as a sheaf of medical charts pop to the front of the data scroll.
I crack the now semi-solidified fresher gel casing and start to peel myself out of it, feeling refreshed and clean. "Put a word to it," I tell Artemis.
"The whole crew is significantly hornier now, Commander. Aylen," she corrects herself.
"Uh huh. Run diagnostic. Correlate the elevations in the squadron members' readings and your own subroutine catalog over the same time period."
It hardly takes the space of a breath. "Aelyn,
I
am significantly hornier as well, judging from the relative prevalence of subroutines concerned with sex, sexual functions, sexual interactions, interspecies sexual compatibility; key chemical, biological, and neuro-electrical indicators of sexual..."