Having worked so hard to engage her, to break down the shields around her heart, I found my own barriers failing, as well. I had pledged to myself that if there was any way to do it, Valka would be my first, but that promise was lost in the chaos of my thoughts and emotions. Right then, I wanted Shirley, and I wanted her badly enough to let all my other promises fall aside.
“I want this,” I said. “Not for the Scouts, not for training, but for us. For you. For me.”
I kissed her again and she returned it with passion. Her hands moved over my neck and through my hair. Nothing about her said she wanted me to hold back.
I thrust in.
Her breath came sharply in, as did mine. All the times she had pleasured me with her hands, with her mouth, even between her thighs or between her breasts—nothing was as sublime as the feeling of her soft warmth wrapped around my cock. I moved slowly, savoring every moment.
“Challers,” said Shirley, “you have to . . . oh . . . you have to stop.”
“It’s too late now.”
“No . . . Challers.” She whispered between sighs. “Listen . . . oh . . . you have to stop.”
I paused my slow thrusting with my cock buried to the hilt. I could feel her pussy squeezing me with pulsing spasms around my shaft. She wasn’t making any move to stop me. In fact, her hips were tilting up to admit me.
“We’re already doing it. Just let it happen. Let go.”
Then I felt her hand on my chest. “Challers.” She was mustering her will, calming her voice. “Stop. You have to stop.”
I rolled onto my side next to her. To keep going like that would have been rape. “I don’t understand. What good is it to stop now? We might as well finish.”
“No, Challers. There’s something transcendent about the first time, something special that can never be recaptured. We can’t squander it. We will have that time, I promise you. It just can’t be now. I’m sorry.”
I heard genuine regret in her voice, but whether it was regret at letting things go too far or that we had to stop, I couldn’t tell. Probably both. My hands drifted over her body. I could tell, just from touch, that she was still very aroused. Her nipples were taut and her body was almost hot to the touch.
Her hand found my erection and caressed it. “I’m sorry to jerk you around like that. Can I make it up to you?”
“Does that mean what I think it means?”
“Yes. How would you like it?”
“Your breasts,” I said, my voice stolen by a fresh wave of heat.
She pushed me onto my back and I felt her warm, soft breasts enfold my cock. I was too aroused to care what she used, as long as she did something to ease my ache. After only a minute or two, I gasped and jerked, and splashed her chest with cum.
When I was done, she pulled away.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“Just getting some water to rinse this off.” I heard a few splashes of water, and then she snuggled up next to me, still a bit wet.
“You don’t need to, ah, have an orgasm yourself?”
“No, I’m fine. I’m happy right here.” She squeezed me, and as sleep crept up, it occurred to me that I was, too.
I awoke to find light filling our mossy bower, the rays filtering down between the leaves of the shrubs that surrounded us. The foliage was still too dense to just push through, but it was a simple matter to crawl out into the shallows of the river and stand up.
I bent down and tugged Shirley’s ankle. “Come on, wake up. Dark shift is over.”
She emerged, bleary-eyed and hair tangled, with leaves and bits of moss stuck to her here and there. We looked around. Now that the lights were on, we could see that we were only a few feet away from a road.
Shirley looked around and pointed off in the distance. “I’m pretty sure that’s where the entrance to the academy is.”
“We should get walking, I guess.” My stomach growled.
Shirley chuckled. “Or maybe find something to eat.”
I looked in the direction of the closest wall of the ring. “What else might be nearby?”
“Most of the folks who live here at headquarters work in support jobs. There are factories manufacturing spare parts, food processing facilities, that kind of thing. We should get back to the academy, though. If we find a console somewhere, I’ll call to have someone come out and pick us up.”
We started walking back in the direction of the academy. The ring shape of the oxygen deck allowed us to see the route to take, so there was no chance of getting lost. Several large robots came by as we walked, but when we tried to wave them down, they just kept on going.
We held hands.
Walking with Shirley was totally different from walking with Valka. She didn’t have just one way of staying close. We walked hand in hand, or elbow to elbow, or sometimes with an arm around her shoulders. It felt wonderful, free, like she and I were the only people in the universe.
A voice suddenly called out from behind us. “Ey, out da way!”
Something large and orange flashed past us, careening wildly down the narrow path. It skidded to a stop, throwing up a cloud of dust and nearly tipping off of its three wheels. It settled back down and a bald head poked up over the top of the machine.
“Hey, you folks in trouble?”
“Yah,” said Shirley. “We need a ride. Can you call the academy for us?”
“Nope. Radio’s broke. Climb in the back; I’ll give ya a ride. Where ya goin’?”
“The academy.”
We clambered into the little cargo area behind his one-seat control couch. It was half full of greasy boxes of tools and barrels of lubricant. As dirty as I was, I didn’t want to sit on any of it. Instead, I stood up and gripped the framework overhead that held a ladder and some poles. Shirley took a place next to me.
He screwed up his face and clucked his tongue. “It’s a little outside my duty zone, but I suppose I can give you a ride. Name’s Joco Gata. You?”
We lurched into motion and sped off between the fields and orchards.
“I’m Captain Shirley Smith, and this is Cadet Challers Dizen.”
“Ohah, you’re Scouts?” The man handled his little vehicle like a maniac. We held on tight as he bounced along the track and made idle conversation. “So why you folks naked?”
Whenever he looked over his shoulder to get a look at Shirley’s boobs, he swerved precariously to the right.
“We went for a swim and got carried downstream. By the time we got back onshore, it was too dark to see, so we just waited for the lights to come back on.”
“Heh. Must have been some swim.” He gave me a wink and went back to leering at Shirley.
The fact that he was right made his leer even more embarrassing. For the first time in a long time, I felt ashamed, not just for myself, but for Shirley, as well.
“Ya know, I used to be a Scout, years ago.”
“What happened?”
“Turns out I wasn’t really good Scout material. But I’m good with robots, so they let me stay on as a tech.”
“Do you miss going out in space?”
“Sometimes, but I’m happy here. I got a comfortable place, got lots of robots to mess with, and I get to meet interesting people.” He winked at me and gave Shirley another lurching leer.
My stomach growled.
“Ya hungry? My lunch is in the red box back there; you can have it if you want.”
I ignored another gurgle from my midsection. To eat, I would have to let go, and no food was worth the risk that would entail. “No, I’m fine.”
The road dipped down near the river, where our clothes were still scattered on the grass.
Shirley pointed over his shoulder. “You can let us off right over there.”
The little truck skidded to a stop, nearly throwing us back in the water. I leapt out, more than a little glad to have my feet back on the nice, stable deck. Shirley waved to Joco as he spun his little machine around and sped down the road.
We pulled our clothes back on.
I shook my head, watching him disappear in the distance. “What a creep.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Shirley. “I think he had his own kind of charm. He certainly seems to be enjoying life.”
“Enjoying looking at you.”
“Really, Challers. It’s one thing to get jealous of someone who might, in some perspective, be a threat to you. But him?”
“I’m sorry. So easy to let those feelings take over, you know?”
She gave me a hug. “I know all about letting feelings take over, Challers.”
Valka’s image stared at me across the little desk. It seemed that she was even more drained than before, tension twisting her features.
“Challers, I’m worried about Masters. He’s turning inward. Not really talking to me, not really opening up. Could you ask Shirley if something happened while they were together, or maybe if he said anything to her about something before they were together? I’ve tried everything I know to reach him.”
Her gaze dropped to her hands, clutched together in front of her. “I know you don’t like Masters much, or at least, my relationship with him, but I’m kind of stuck with him and, well . . . I hope you understand. I need to get through to him.”
The message cut out and I slumped back in my chair. My first thought was, “How dare she? Wanting me to help her get closer to Masters?”
Then Shirley walked into our quarters and put her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek. “Another message from Valka?”
At that moment, I knew I had to help her. How could I deny Valka the kind of relationship with Masters that I had with Shirley? I squeezed her head to my cheek and then rose to my feet.
“She wants my help,” I said.
“What kind of help?”
“I’m not sure. I need to figure out how to give her what she needs.”
“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“Actually, there is. Can you tell me what it was like on your cruise with Masters?”
“What do you mean? It was a cruise. We were just delivering mail most of the time, making the circuit from station to station. Not really much of a big deal.” She turned away, and I could feel a tension come over her.
“There’s more you’re not telling me.”
“I’d . . . I don’t think it’s proper to compare one partner to another. I’m sure Valka will do fine with him.”
I stood behind her and put my arms around her, hands resting lightly on her belly. “I don’t think you’re sure at all.”
“You’re right. Masters is . . . wounded. Somehow. It happened during his stay at the academy, but I swear, I don’t know what it is. I tried to get through to him, but after a while, it just turned out to be easier to let him be. Whatever was bothering him seemed better left buried.”
“Valka seems to have picked up on that. She’s trying to get past his defenses and having a rough time of it. You never looked into the matter?”
“What could I do? We were out on our cruise.” She sighed and her shoulders slumped.
“There’s more you’re not telling me.”
She gently pulled my arms away from her and stepped into the fresher. “I really shouldn’t. It’s not my place to talk about him. It’s between Valka and Masters, really, to work this out.” She picked up a washcloth, wet it under the tap, and ran it over her face.
“This is for Masters and Valka. If he’s as wounded as you say, he’s not capable of making this work between the two of them. She needs our help.”
She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. “The woman he arrived with . . . Cassandra. She was reassigned by headquarters halfway through the academy.”
“Reassigned? To where?”
“I don’t know. He never found out. It’s a secret. Completely need-to-know.”
I stepped closer and put my arm around her. “It hurt you, to see him in such pain, closing himself off like that.”
A tear ran down her cheek. “Yes. It was like . . . it was like living with a walking corpse. He walked and talked and made all the right movements, but there was never a connection there. I think he decided that if he couldn’t have Cassandra, he wouldn’t have anyone.”