[Mature for intimacy]

Day Twenty-three ∞ Early Saturday morning (PST)

WEAVER TOOK FIRST WATCH while digesting his meal. The sisters had retired to their ships along with their boyfriends, and the other men stretched out on the benches between the ships. But Eckstein was still awake, writing in his journal.

Weaver stood in the center of the dome and looked up. The area around their camp and vehicles was illuminated by he couldn't see what, but it was swallowed up by the dense darkness above. Casting his gaze around, he decided to take a round outside the perimeter.

He activated his helmet and exited the bubble. Skirting toward the back of the shield, he found a section of the smooth cavern wall. His headlights extended the circle of visibility, but it was only by his heads-up display he could ascertain where the cavern ended at the entrance shaft almost two clicks away. He reached the other side of the dome and continued past the gentle curve of what he assumed was the fore of the ship-in-the-making. It already rose two stories, and its surface was alive like a slick mud pool filled with busy organisms. Midway, he found an opening, and he shone his lights inside. Dots of minuscule movement glimmered as far as he could see into the dark.

He stepped back, about to continue his walk when his HUD alerted him of a movement behind his left. Swiveling to face it, he relaxed his arms. It was that strange girl bouncing toward him. She hadn't approached from a distance, or his HUD would have registered her sooner.

"Don't touch, don't enter," Artemae said with her unwavering cheerfulness.

Weaver hadn't planned to do either, even if he hadn't heard the instruction. "Funny, my wife says the same thing all the time," he said at the spur of the moment, curious how this girl would respond.

Artemae halted to look up at him and cocked her head. "You're not married."

"Yeah, true. But I'm guessing she'd—"

"Why would you say an untruth? It serves no purpose."

"I was just being sarcastic. You know." He lifted a brow. "Sarcasm?"

She tilted her head the other way. "Why?"

"Nevermind." He waved it off. "I have no intention of doing either."

"Oh." Then she smiled suddenly at him. "Okay." She studied him for two more seconds before she turned away to continue skipping. After a few paces, she left the ground, floated to the other side of the cavern, and disappeared, both from view and his HUD tracking.

Weaver grunted, shaking his head. He didn't think he'd ever understand that girl. Scanning the surroundings, he decided to continue his patrol by air.

∞

Refreshed and wearing T-shirt and boxers, Danny exited the hygienic. He stepped barefooted across the soft cabin floor to the sleeping bench where Mickmi sat sideways with legs folded, looking outside. Sliding up to sit behind her, he wrapped an arm around her. Her ribs heaved with a deep sigh before she relaxed against his chest.

Outside, the hull of the growing mothership stretched out of sight into the darkness. The two excavators formed an opposite boundary of visibility. Danny couldn't see a ceiling or any walls—it was as if the cavern didn't exist. On the left side of the viewport, a set of glowing numbers showed the external readings.

Stroking Mickmi's hair away from her neck, he asked next to her ear, "How long before it's operational?"

"I know not. But it will be long before it grows to its final size."

After a moment, she pulled away and turned to face him. "Are you ready for another lesson?"

Danny thought for a moment but found his attention drawn to the robe slipping off her bare shoulder, exposing the cream leotard-type top she called an environmental undergarment. A pleasant shiver shot along his spine, into his groin and arms.

"No. I think with all that's going on, I'm going to need a week to absorb all you've crammed into my head." He chuckled. "Could you close the window?"

Leaning forward, he met her lips with gentle, inquisitive pressure. She smiled and cupped his jawline before pulling away an inch with her forehead pressed against his.

"It is not a window."

"Right... But still." It being a one-way monitor didn't help the feeling that somebody could watch their intimate moments.

Mickmi waved her fingers. The entire cabin wall dimmed, and the view switched off, leaving the muted heads-up display.

She slipped off her robe as Danny pulled his T-shirt off and dropped it on the floor. When his gaze locked with hers again, he saw, for a moment, more than just his reflection on top of the glow in her eyes. For a moment, he glimpsed her looking at him through a laced veil, and words he didn't remember welled up from a distant past, "I'll be back for you."

He reached for her and squeezed her hands. "I'm back for you."

His brow furrowed. Why did he need to say that? The feeling of needing her to understand that, lasted only for a second as she studied him quizzically. Before she could say anything, he pressed her hands against his chest. The contact titillated his skin, and his heart swelled with emotion, the sense of energy expanding from him to include her, enveloping her. Reciprocal energy flowed from her as he cradled her face, and when her fingers found their way around his midriff to his back, a shiver shot through his entire being.

Kissing turned into exploration with mingling breaths. His hands slid down the curve of her neck to tease the straps off her shoulders. Then they sought to push along the edge of the material, but it wouldn't give way.

He needed to feel more of her skin.

Mickmi smiled in response against his lips and nudged him. His fingers found a sudden gap, but as he widened it, the garment fell apart. She pushed him away as she sat straight.

A breath escaped Danny as he stared at her. The garment lay parted around her waist, leaving her softly lit curves bare to him.

"Mi..." he breathed, mesmerized.

He leaned forward, but when he reached within two inches of kissing her again, she pulled back. He walked his hands on either side of her, following her as she reclined under him until the bed stopped her, and he caught up with her and locked with her lips. Her chest arched, pressing her soft mounds against his chest when he kept his weight off her. The gravity inside the ship was more than the moon's one-sixth, about half of Earth's. But feeling lighter didn't override his instinct that he might crush her if he were to lie on top of her.

Rolling back on the sleeping bench, he pulled her with him. She landed on top of him, her heated torso sandwiching him against the cool smooth material covering the padding. Their noses touched, her bangs tickling his forehead as she pushed her hair behind her ears.

They kissed with growing hunger.

Waves of electricity passed through him as they undulated, skin against skin, fingers and legs exploring, titillating, intertwining. Their abdomens moved together up and down—his expanded with his inhale while hers flattened with her exhale and vice versa in perfect unison. His nerves tingled afire. All thought vaporized.

They were one.

One skin... One breath... One heartbeat...

There was only one thing left. It swelled and pulsated stiffly between them against the layers of material confining and separating it from where it wanted to go. He slid his hands over her hips where the rest of her garment hugged her and started a slow, sensual massage, pressing her closer, harder. A shiver went through her and her fingernails dug into his shoulders as his lips wandered down her neck, seeking, tasting.

His fingers had found their way inside the lining by themselves when two knocks on the door jarred through him. Groaning, he paused as Mickmi lifted her head.

"Ignore that," he mumbled, pulling her back to nibble at her lips. "Whoever it is."

—I cannot, she replied in his mind, kissing him in return. If I, again, respond not, she will switch to protective mode.

"Aw, shoot. Couldn't you just tell her mentally?"

"I could. But communicating... with my mind filled with us, colored by this? I think not." Smiling, she slipped her feet to the floor, picked up the T-shirt, and tossed it to him as he pushed himself up on his elbow. She pulled on her robe and secured it around her waist. Then she sat lotus style next to him, facing the door as it slid open.

Artemae stepped in and looked from one to the other as the door closed behind her.

"Oh." She tilted her head. "So that's how it goes. I see your sudoriparous glands are active, your elevated temperatures, heart and breath rates, serotonin, adrenaline, dopamine... some oxytocin too."

Danny stared at her. "Where d'you get all that from? Sudoriparous?" The definition popped to the fore of his mind. She was referring to their sweat glands. He could feel the dampness on his face and arms, and from how the hairs prickled on his chest where Mickmi had rested skin to skin.

"I register in several bandwidths outside of your visual spectrum. You're producing a colorful cocktail of hormones, but I haven't analyzed them all yet. And I can also see a massive blood infusion in your reproductive organs. Are you going to copulate?"

A furious wave of heat flooded Danny's ears. In an attempt to be unobtrusive, he fingered his T-shirt inch by inch over his waning bulge as Artemae continued without pausing for breath.

"You should know my Queen will not reproduce—her ovulatory phase is still switched off and— Oh. Queen Lepantra, did you plan to turn it on? I don't think impregnation before the mission is a good idea when—"

"Artemae," Mickmi said with a stern note in her voice. "This subject is an invasion of privacy. And you may not take personal readings outside of the human-capable spectrum unless permission is given or it is an emergency."

"Oh." Artemae's face dropped. "Not even anonymously in a crowd?"

"We shall discuss protocol at another time, Artemae."

"Okay. My apologies, my Queen." She pressed her hands together and dipped her head. "My apologies, honored sir. It won't happen again. I've set up a privacy protocol for my sensors. I'm now confined to the six human-compatible senses when interacting with humans."

Mickmi nodded. "Thank you. Now, what wished you to speak to me about?"

"It's not important enough to disturb your privacy, my Queen, but you didn't respond to my hails. Nor did Deymos give me an adequate status response. I had to ensure your safety in person."

"That is a lapse in judgement on my part, Artemae. I apologize. I have enabled Deymos with an appropriate response now."

The door slid silently open behind Artemae, and she pressed her palms together again.

"I shall not interrupt your..." She hesitated, apparently seeking a word.

"We call it lovemaking," Danny said, hoping that would speed up her exit.

"...your lovemaking anymore." She tilted her head. "Interesting term, but I surmise appropriate in your case. I don't need to rest, so I shall continue monitoring both productions." Backing out, she added, "Goodnight."

Danny dropped back on the bed, chuckling. "Man, if I didn't know she's an A.I.—I mean, an S.A.I.*—I would've been mortified!"

Mickmi grinned and sank down beside him with her hand on his chest.

"Don't apologize," he continued. "But I should. I should've been responsible and had protection. I shouldn't have assumed—"

The fingers on his lips silenced him. —I am here too. I should have communicated my biological status.

Her robe parted as she slid on top of him and settled her head next to his chin. A deep breath expanded her chest, pressing it against his, smooth and warm, and he wrapped his arms around her. Their legs interlaced, but with the air gone out of him, he was content to just lie with her like this.

"These feelings, being close with another like this... this is new for me," she said softly. "I know it is not for you."

Staring at the ceiling, he found the memory of Marilyn a pale, distant mist. "True. But it never was— I never felt it quite like this. It's like... It's like I've known you before... like I've always known you." He contorted his neck to meet her gaze. "You know what I mean?"

"Aye," she breathed. "I sense that too."

He returned to the ceiling and sighed as a decision settled into his bones. "I don't know what it is, but I know how I feel about you. I think... I think this is not the place. We shouldn't do this here. It should be special." He kissed her on the only place he could reach, her forehead. "Besides, we have a lot of work to do, and we need good rest."

— ∞ —

Glossary:
*S.A.I. – Sentient Artificial Intelligence

© 2022 by kemorgan65