Aaron flipped the drain lever. “Yeah, and let’s get in there and do them,” he playfully growled. He leaned over to kiss her again and his stiff cock brushed against her leg.
She grabbed it, slowly stroking him. “Anything you say, Captain,” she teased.
They spent a long night making slow love to her and each other.
When she drifted to sleep in Aaron’s arms, Caph and Ford were still at it. The next morning they were all in bed, snuggled tightly together because it was a little smaller than their one at the ship.
Ford winked at her. “You okay?”
She did a quick inventory. “You did good,” she whispered. “I’m not a bit sore anywhere.”
“Good.” He kissed her. “It’s not fun if it hurts, and I don’t think you’re into kink.”
She tried to stifle her laugh, but Aaron awoke, his hand cupping her breast. “Someone go turn off the window sim,” he groaned. “I want a few more hours.”
Ford leaned over her and kissed him good morning. “Wish I could, but that’s a real window. Reality calling—we’ve got a ship waiting.”
Caph stirred, stretched. “I have to admit I love the tub, but miss our bed. I feel like I’m going to fall out.” Aaron and Caph headed to the bathroom first, and Ford took the opportunity to hog Emi for a few minutes. “You really okay?”
“I’m fine. Wonderful.” She gripped his hand and pressed her lips to his palm, flicking her tongue against his flesh. “I feel great.”
“Tomorrow the countdown begins.” His blue eyes studied hers.
“You nervous?”
“Of course.”
He smiled. “Good. I’d be worried if you weren’t. We all get nervous, it’s pre-flight jitters.”
“I’m not scared, though.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of. You know we’ll take care of you.”
Ford was always the easiest for her to read. She didn’t know why, but he was. And right now she felt his love, his protective urge¯and not the slightest hint of jealousy for the other two men. Sometimes she sensed a little envy from one of them if they were busy and couldn’t spend time with her when another could, but never jealousy.
“I know.”
Chapter Fourteen
As their time on Earth shortened, Emi had dinner with Donna and a few other friends one evening. Then it was back to the ship to immerse herself in last-minute details.
Her job, after ensuring the sick bay and hydro lab were all set, was to help the men as needed. Mostly with last-minute inventory, loading some equipment and supplies, and running through pre-departure checklists. She still wasn’t clear on the sequence of events. Ford filled her in one afternoon as she helped him go through an engineering electrical panel, checking circuits one final time.
“They use hover lifts to move us out of the dry dock to the launch pad. From there, the heavy lifts, we call them tug boats, take us up.
We can’t use a jump engine here, it’s too populated. A ship like this isn’t designed to land and take off unassisted on a planet like Earth, we’d use up too much energy against the gravity trying to lift ourselves. Once we’re up about five kilometers, the orbital docking station takes over with a tractor beam and does the heavy lifting for us. Then we can negotiate our way to the designated berth.”
“But how does the grav-plate system work? I still don’t understand that, and I watched the stupid vid at least three times.” He paused and thought about it. “It keeps us and everything else on this boat from floating around once we’re in zero G. We won’t be at full gravity, so it’ll feel like you lost about fifteen pounds all of a sudden. It’s enough to keep stuff in place. It’s designed to run off either the gennies or the solar arrays on the ship’s skin. If we’re close enough to a star, it’ll feed off that. If not, the ship’s engines run it. I don’t know the exact details of why it works, something to do with creating an artificial gravitational field.” While Aaron spent a lot of time in engineering, one of Ford’s primary duties was engineering and defense, while Caph oversaw life support and weaponry systems. The three men overlapped in most areas, vital with a crew as small as theirs. They gave her small reading assignments every day to help her learn the ship’s systems, afraid of overwhelming her.
The morning they were scheduled to leave, Dr. Graymard met with them in his office and gave them a final briefing and well-wishes. “I’m sure you’ll all do well.” He leveled his gaze at Emi.
“Relax. You have a lot to learn, but you know your job inside and out, and that’s all we can ask of you at this time. Give yourself a break.” She forced a nervous smile. “Thank you.” She stood on the bridge and watched the men work, going through final checklists as the dry dock crew prepared to disconnect their utility umbilicals from the facility. While fully loaded with basics such as food, fuel, water, and other essentials, they still didn’t have a complete payload for their expedition. They would pick some of that up from the orbital hub, the rest from the Mars station once the shakedown cruise was a success. The men were focused, professional, business-like.
After a half-hour, Aaron looked up from his station and nodded to Caph. “Looks like we’re ready.” He signaled the dry dock crew. Emi watched as they slowly moved out of their berth. She’d been standing behind Aaron’s chair, her fingers wrapped around the back. They tightened, her knuckles white, as the cavernous facility was slowly left behind.
The tedious process took over four hours just to clear the building.
She tried to keep herself busy but kept returning to stand behind Aaron’s chair. Once outside on the tarmac, they progressed a little faster until she saw the launch pad ahead, heat waves shimmering off the asphalt in the bright afternoon sun.
Aaron reached back and squeezed her hand. “This is it, baby girl.
You okay?”
She nodded, unable to move or take her eyes from the front ports.
Ford and Caph called readings back and forth to each other and Aaron as they set up the systems for the lift and ran through final status checks. Then, the last order.
“Close front plates,” Aaron said.
Ford nodded, and the plates slid into place over the front ports.
Almost immediately the built-in vid screens came to life, nearly duplicating the view without the real light shining in.
Emi saw the tugs waiting for them on the launch pad, six of them.
Aaron pointed. “The lift process takes about ten hours, and they’ll stay with us as back-up when the tractor beam takes over.” Going into space. It didn’t seem real.
Emi didn’t feel it when the lifts loaded them onto the tugs.
The com link signaled. “Tamora Bight, this is lead tug, Desert Sun. Captain, are you ready?”
Aaron looked at Ford and Caph, who nodded. Then he turned to Emi, and the smile lighting his face washed all her fears away like water down a drain. The emotion she felt from him, a different kind of almost pure joy, easily overcame any hesitation on her part.
All of the men were happy to be going back to space. This was why, even after the horrors they lived through, they returned to their job.
Because it was their life, and they loved it.
“I’m ready,” she whispered.
He pulled her into his lap and flicked the com link. “Desert Sun, this is Tamora Bight. Take us up.”