What Happens in Orbit

When she got out to the main area, only Amola was there, fiddling with some parts on a table. She turned to Cora, turned away, then looked at her again.

She seems nervous. Maybe embarrassed?

Cora realized that she was still naked.

"Oh-" She started to speak, waiting for Amola to reach for her tablet. When she picked it up and hit a button, Cora spoke again. "I'm not upset about what happened with Mitri. They weren't angry at you, were they?"

Amola listened to the tablet's translation, and nodded before replying.

"Tor is very angry."

Like Mitri, she spoke in a whisper. Cora liked the way they treated her, and she had a feeling that Mitri would have stopped if she asked her to. In her mind, there was no reason for Tor to be that upset.

"That's not good. I'll go talk to them. Are they up there?" She pointed up to their door, and Amola nodded again.

Cora turned and began climbing to their room. It was pitch black in there, forcing her to squint until her eyes adjusted. Mar was on one side of the room, Tor on the other, with the crate behind him. Both seemed to be asleep, but when Cora settled down next to Tor, he stirred. Eyes still closed, he reached for the wall and pressed a panel there, turning on a dim light. Cora watched him, concerned, as he pushed himself into a seated position. Tor reached for her, brushing aside her hair to survey the bite marks on her neck. He hadn't even fully opened his eyes.

"Tor." Cora whispered, turning off the light and pushing him back down onto the bedding, laying against him. "I'm okay."

He wound all four of his arms around her. "That can't happen again." Tor murmured, sleep still heavy on his voice.

"Were you worried about me?"

He grumbled, holding her tightly.

"Is there anything I can do to help you stop... being angry?" He huffed in response.

Cora reached up and brushed a finger up his neck. He didn't respond, instead taking a shaky breath.

She heard Mar chuckle. He was propped up on his side, watching them. "He's feeling territorial and is too embarrassed to tell you."

Tor glared at him, shifting. Cora quickly got up, hoping he wouldn't lunge at their companion. She faced Mar, preparing to lecture him, but Tor pushed her from behind, hard.

Cora, unprepared, fell facedown into the bedding. "Hey!" She tried to sit up, but a hand pushed against her upper back, pinning her down.

Oh.

Her heart began to thump. Mar was watching, amused.

Tor pulled her hips up, bringing her knees under her.

"It makes him so angry that you don't smell like him anymore."

Cora waited for Tor to snap back. Instead, he ran his tongue up from her clit to her opening, burying it inside her. She squeaked, burying her face in the bedding. When he pulled it out of her, she tried to stifle an impatient whine.

"She will." He replied simply, pressing the tip of his cock into her. Cora liked this, maybe a little too much. Mar's eyes stayed on hers, but his hands went elsewhere. On the edge of her vision, she saw one of his hands moving slowly, up and down.

She reached out to him, gesturing. "You can-"

He shook his head, stifling a laugh as Tor growled. "Oh no. He'd probably bite me."

Between recovering from the eggs and Mitri, Cora hadn't been stretched out in a while. As Tor eased into her, she couldn't help but make the most undignified noises. Last time, she'd been dripping wet. This time, she could feel every inch, every beat of her own pulse. The last few inches stretched her to her limit, making her voice crack as she moaned. "Too big, you're too big-" Cora managed to gasp out, her eyes crossing.

Tor hummed thoughtfully as he pulled out of her.

"

I'm

too big?" He looked over at Mar. "You're going to be doing that all night."

Mar sighed in agreement.

Tor pushed back into her, rougher this time. He hissed something under his breath, just loud enough for Cora to hear.

Mine.

Without thinking, she moaned a

yes

. Tor leaned down, growling in her ear. "It was not a question."

Fuck, that's hot.

She giggled, feeling her legs go weaker still. He increased his pace, slamming down into her. The angle was intense. Cora pushed against the floor, straining to raise her hips against him. In response, he leaned forward, thrusting hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. She came without warning, her surprised swear turning into a shameless wail. But he didn't stop. There was a mess running down her thighs, pooling around her knees.

Struggling to focus, she glanced up at Mar. The amusement had left his expression. Now, he just looked hungry. She quickly spiraled into orgasm again, shaking. Tor wrapped two arms around her waist, pulling her upright and against him. His remaining two hands were atop her shoulders. Cora had no time to think, as he immediately slammed her down as he thrusted upwards. "Fuck!"

Mar huffed a sigh. [Don't break her, now.]

Tor didn't seem to hear him. He was pounding mercilessly into poor Cora, who could only gasp out her moans. When he finally came, he slammed deep into her. It didn't spill out of her like it normally did.

Tor set her back down before flopping to the side, exhausted. Mar eyed her, trying to temper his hunger with concern.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, eyeing his still-present erection before hopping over to straddle it, casting a glance back at Tor. He nodded, settling into the bedding.

As sloppy and wet as her pussy was, it was still a struggle to make Mar's cock fit again. "I'm surprised you're ready to go again this soon."

Cora tilted her head at him, confused. "Why?"

"Well, the last time one of their kind did what Mitri did to you, they were out of commission for weeks."

She was intrigued now. He rested two of his hands on her hips, pressing her down. Cora wanted so badly to focus on what she was doing. Unfortunately, she was too nosy for that.

Tor cut in. "Are you talking about the time your old friends tried to steal from Amola?"

Mar grimaced. "I wouldn't put it exactly like that. On my last job, we were working with her to find something. Two of my

crewmates

went through her things and were caught. And then tried to fight her."

Huh.

Cora thought about how much bigger Amola was than her daughter, and blanched. Mar was eyeing her.

"You weren't doing something similar, were you?"

"Huh?" She paused, confused. "Wait a damn minute. No!" Crossing her arms, she huffed. "I was wandering through the maintenance tunnels and ran into Mitri. And she asked me to follow her and I did."

"See? I was right." Tor crossed his arms. "Cora isn't an idiot."

Mar glanced over at him sourly. "I never said that she was."

A dull ache in her legs reminded Cora that she was supposed to be doing something. She'd been holding herself up. Now she relaxed, moving her hips in tiny circles. Their gazes returned to her.

I didn't think I liked being watched.

"Here." Mar sat up, pulling her under him. "Let me help." He slid back into her, carefully.

Cora was sore from Tor's rough treatment, but she found herself wanting more. "You don't have to be careful."

"Mm. There's a word for someone like you in our language, but I don't know that it has a direct translation."

Tor interjected. "Whore."

"Excuse you! That's no-" Cora's attempt to fuss at him was cut off when Mar, obedient, stopped being careful. "Oh fuck, oh fuck-"

He leaned down, burying his face against her neck. "On our planet, it's- it's considered one of the worst ways to behave, acting territorial," he murmured. "But I don't think I care anymore, not if you don't."

"Hmm. No, I actually kind of like it," she giggled. "But don't tell Tor that."

Tor laughed and Mar shook his head. "I think he already knew."

He turned his attention back to Cora, using his second set of hands to pull her hips up in line with his. Watching her face, he eased into her.

"Come on, please." Cora begged, pushing against the ground.

Mar sighed, looking down at her. He didn't move. "When are you going to learn?"

With a quiet

huff

, Cora stopped struggling and waited.

"Good." He shifted, still keeping a tight grip on her. "Now tell me exactly how you want me to fuck you."

Her ears began to turn red. "I- well-" Cora chewed at her lip, looking away. It was one thing to make demands in the heat of the moment. This was something else entirely.

Mar was still watching her expression, amused. "What was that?"

"I want you to be rough with me. A- as rough as you want." Her voice quivered.

"Hmm. Why?" He began moving, stopping when he was halfway inside of her.

Cora could feel his fingers twitching, pressing into her skin. "Because I like it? It feels good. And- and I want you to feel good, too."

"Okay. Like this?" Mar slammed his remaining length into her.

"Yes, please," she keened, struggling to keep her eyes from crossing. He dropped down to rest his elbow on the ground next to her head, picking up the pace. Over the pulse pounding in her head, Cora realized that he wasn't breathing hard.

He's not even struggling.

He was using the kind of excessive force that she loved, like it was nothing.

He's been holding back this entire time. That's... that's really fucking hot.

At this thought, the tension in her body peaked, and she came hard and fast.

"Good," he murmured, his voice cracking slightly. Cora expected him to slow down, letting her catch her breath. He didn't. The pleasure began to overwhelm her, and she gave up on keeping her eyes uncrossed.

I'm glad they gave me that medicine. I'd be in so much trouble otherwise.

She could feel exactly how much he was stretching her. It was still almost too much.

Mar was in her ear now, a faint growl punctuating every thrust. One of his hands left her hip and wrapped around her thigh. "Oh, Cora," he sighed. Somehow, she could feel his pulse.

He's close,

she thought hazily as she felt his grip tighten. Without warning, he pinned her hips to the floor and began pounding into her. The word

merciless

couldn't even begin to describe it. At some point, Mar had the good idea to cover her mouth, for which she was thankful. She was still in the throes of orgasm when he finally came, so it was hard to feel anything through the tremors. But as her delirium faded, she realized he was still inside of her. Her lower stomach was swollen again. "Oh, jeez." Cora poked at it. "That's... that's a lot of cum."

"And you told

me

not to break her." Tor was facing them, resting his head on his arm. "If she ends up carrying again, you're helping, Mar."

Mar was still catching his breath, refusing to move. "

Obviously,

asshole, I would anyway. I'll be honest, right now, I'm more worried about how much of a mess this is going to make."

Tor waved a hand at him. "We're washing all this soon. Just come lay over here."

They all ended up sleeping next to the egg crate, Cora snuggled between the two of them.

After waking and tidying herself up, Cora joined her crewmates in the main room. There weren't day and night cycles on this ship like she was used to. Instead, every few hours, the lights would dim. They had just brightened again. Amola was speaking to Mar, who in turn translated. She was pointedly ignoring Tor, who was refusing to look at her.

"We're picking up some stuff at the next spaceport. This one is smaller, but still oxygenated. We can all get off the ship for a while."

Cora frowned. "What about the eggs?"

"Mitri is staying on the ship. They'll be safe."

"Hm." She didn't want to argue, but she couldn't shake her anxiety.

"It'll be good to stretch your legs. We're going to go get some hot food and wander around while Amola does business."

That

did

sound nice. Amola's ship didn't have a kitchen like the old ship, so they'd been making do with cold rations. Cora never complained, but she desperately missed hot food.

Amola held up a neat roll of fabric, letting it unroll from her hands before gesturing to Cora. She walked over, letting Amola put it on her. She tugged at it until it settled into place.

"Good?"

Cora realized that it was a hooded cloak, made from a soft, woven fabric, something like linen. "Oh! This is nice! Thank you!" She pulled it around herself. "Is this so nobody can see me, or-?" She trailed off, looking up at them. Mar nodded. "Humans aren't supposed to be out this far, they're really not supposed to be taken off Earth at all-" He swore, swiping a hand down his face.

"Supposed to be?"

He seemed hesitant to respond. She turned to Tor, who had crossed both sets of his arms. His expression was unreadable, but there was a hostile edge to it. He glared at Mar. "You knew this entire time?"

Mar covered his face. [Look, I-] Tor grabbed his arm, pulling one of his his hands down.

"Speak so she can understand you."

"I had assumed that everyone knew about the code and decided to ignore it!"

Cora turned to Tor, reaching up to hold his face. It was difficult and she had to push herself up on her toes. "Tor, stop. Just take a step back."

Perplexed, he took a single step back, raising his arms.

"Agh, no. I mean just stop being scary until he explains." She turned back to Mar, who was gritting his teeth. "Mar, I'm not gonna be angry at you. What code?"

He sighed. "My entire job, previously, was breaking the intergalactic codes.

Of course

I'd have to know about them. Several of the planetary governments came together and made laws, like 'leave the planets that haven't gotten interstellar travel', leave them alone. And that includes humans. Humans especially, because they've got so much potential in the eyes of the big council. And certainly don't take anyone from these planets, experiment on them, or do anything especially

nefarious

, weird word by the way, like try to develop a program to cover up the fact that we were forced to execute half our population because of a lie!"

Tor threw his hands in the air. "

Now

you believe me? I make the effort to teach you your own history and you couldn't even tell me that I'm breaking intergalactic code on my first mission out of orbit!"

The two began bickering. Cora looked over at Amola, apologetic and confused. She clicked quietly, tapping at the tablet in her hand. Stepping back over to her, Cora lowered her voice. "I'm sorry."

"Do not be sorry. Like many other civilizations, their planet was colonized by the Foshar, hundreds of years ago. Not many truly know what they have done." She was pausing often, stopping to translate each sentence for Cora. "How many cultures they have destroyed. The only reason that they are given consideration by the galaxy is due to their economic strength. They control many of the imports and exports that other planets rely on."

"Do you know what lie Mar was talking about?"

She nodded, taking on what looked to be a pained expression. It was hard to tell.

"The Foshar have a society ruled by a monarch. There was no unified government on Roshak, not until they made contact. The individual families banded together, presenting a

very

hostile front. They had no interest in what the Foshar were offering. It took them years to splinter these families, eventually convincing many that the females were hostile, naturally violent, and were holding their society back from experiencing wealth, and growth. That's the lie. There's nothing wrong with any of the females on their planet. Their only 'flaw' was that they were built for protecting their families. You've seen one, yes?"

Cora nodded. "On a video call." She chewed at her lip. "But something still isn't making sense to me."

Amola focused all her eyes on Cora, settling down into a chair. Cora sat next to her.

"If being genetically female doesn't predispose you to violence, then why- I don't know if they told you what happened to the other missions. Why were the other subjects turning so violent?"

"They had not told me about the other missions."

The others stopped fighting, freezing in place.

"There were tons of other missions. I remember ours being Mission 12. Several of the missions were terminated because their subjects turned into these terrifying- they were like killing machines. One of the missions had no survivors, and it was one with tons of Roshak and only one subject."

Mar spoke up. "We had, ah, decided not to tell her that, we didn't want to worry her."

Cora stood, her temper flaring. "That wasn't your choice! Her daughter is on this ship! Regardless of whether I'm dangerous or not, you can't fucking do that to someone! Definitely not someone kind enough to help us!"

"Cora." Amola spoke, patting her chair. "I'm not angry."

"Well, I am. You two, look at me! We can lie all day to the people that want us dead. But when someone opens their home- their ship, however you want to call it, when someone shows us kindness, we don't lie to them!"

Mar opened his mouth, ready to argue, but Tor swatted at him, quickly saying something in their language. Then he turned to Amola.

[I'm sorry. This situation hasn't been easy for either of us. But we shouldn't have lied.]

She waved a hand at him. [I'm sure your friend told you what happened the last time he was on my ship.]

Looking over at Cora, she reached out and patted her hand. "Do not worry. If you decide to..." Amola picked up her tablet, translating a few words. "If you decide to become a problem, I will take care of you."

Cora thought about what that would look like, as her brain formulated a response.

I think I'd like to become a problem.

She almost said this aloud, but caught it at the last second.

Instead, she let out a quiet, pleasant

ah.

Mar gave her a funny look, waving at her. "Let's go get some food."

He lead them into an open-air restaurant, with tables and various shapes of chairs scattered under a cloth overhang. There was music playing, from a live band near the counter. The menu was massive, set up above them like any restaurant on Earth would be, with pictures of the food. Certain sections of it were in different languages, one of which was the script everything on the ship was in.

Cora squinted. "Do you have to be able to speak that particular language to order those?" Tor turned to Mar, also curious. He nodded. "Certain species can't handle certain ingredients and this particular port caters to nearly a hundred different species. You can always ask, though, if you're unsure and might want something from a different section. They take their service seriously because this is a port that hosts meetings for interplanetary relations." He pointed to an employee wearing a green badge. "That's who we talk to."

Suddenly, Cora was nervous.

Why am I nervous? It's not like I'll be doing the talking. They won't even be able to see me over the counter.

"Mar, can you order for me? You know I'm not picky."

Confused, he tilted his head down at her. "Picky? I don't know about that."

"Oh- 'not picky' means that I'll eat whatever I'm given and won't ever complain."

Mar nodded. "That's fi-"

"Cora, please complain if you don't like something." Tor interrupted him, placing a hand on her head. "We don't know enough about your kind to know what will make you sick. Really not liking a food is a good indicator that it's something you shouldn't eat."

"That- Huh. I hadn't thought about that." Cora looked up at Mar, who seemed embarrassed.

They ended up with three of what Cora would call

samplers

, with several small portions of food on each massive plate

.

It was Tor's suggestion, after Mar found himself too worried about their human to make a choice.

Their table was closer to the band than Cora would have liked, but the volume meant that there weren't many others near them. She was expecting the music to be unfamiliar. Instead, the rhythm was comforting. She waited by the table until Mar found a taller stool for her and helped her onto it. Like on the ship, they used forks. They were longer than what she was used to, but they were definitely better for reaching across the table.