He laughed and lifted his mouth. “Baby, you don’t get off that easy.”
It was hard for her to vent her frustration with her mouth full of man-meat, but she groaned.
“Take your time, Caph,” Aaron grunted, keeping his thrusts slow.
“I’m having fun.”
“You ain’t the only one,” Ford said.
Every stroke Ford took brought another low moan from Caph, and his cock throbbed in her mouth.
After a few minutes, Ford grabbed Caph’s hips. “Someone better do something soon, or I’m gonna go off.”
“Gotta love that sweet ass of his,” Aaron said.
“Yeah, man, you know I do,” Ford agreed.
Emi neared desperation, dying for release. She whined and wiggled her hips, trying to get them to let her come.
Aaron kissed the nape of her neck. “Maybe you should let her come, Caph. I can’t hold out much longer.” His voice had dropped, husky with passion.
She moaned in agreement.
Caph’s gifted tongue and lips worked her clit. The familiar fireworks started, sending her over. She sucked Caph’s dick deep into her throat, triggering his climax.
The chain reaction set off Ford and Aaron, and a few minutes later they were all panting, breathless, trying to recover.
“Welcome to Mars, sweetie,” Ford snarked from somewhere behind Caph.
They all laughed.
Chapter Fifteen
Emi stood out of the way, watching while Ford and Caph supervised the loading of cargo and equipment. She loved this part of their personalities, the all-business attitude they had when working.
They could be playful and funny and definitely sexy, but their confidence and dedication comforted and reassured her.
Most of the equipment was totally foreign to her. One piece was a landing vehicle that could be launched from a special hangar bay at the front of the cargo hold. It functioned as a small ship and as a land vehicle. Aaron assured her she’d get a chance to practice with one on Mars before they left.
The Martian day was only slightly longer than an Earth day, but they were still running on a twenty-four-hour Earth cycle. Their day cycle started in the middle of the Martian night. Aaron decided to switch them over to the Mars cycle for the duration of their stay, giving Emi time off to sleep away some of her nervous tension. They would be on Mars for at least four weeks, possibly longer, allowing them time to run final systems checks and fully test the solar arrays under low atmosphere conditions. There was no set departure date, taking some pressure off of them.
Emi was both thrilled and terrified by the thought of exploring Mars, a place she’d only seen in books and vids. Five other complexes were connected to the facility they were docked at by a series of transport tubeways, partially buried tram routes that allowed safe and easy movement between the locations. The other Martian settlements were reachable by ground or air transports.
She wanted to sightsee, especially to visit the huge agricultural dome, but Aaron set some ground rules. “I don’t want you going alone, hon.”
“Why not? Isn’t it safe?”
The men exchanged a glance. “It’s safe enough, but not everyone around here is chipped. I’d rather not risk it,” Aaron said. “There are some private transient freighter crews that pass through, and while the risk is low, it’s still there.”
“Okay.” There was something more, she sensed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He took her hands. “I don’t want to scare you, Em. I just want you to be careful.” Left unsaid, he didn’t want a repeat of the Dry Port incident. For weeks after, at least one of the three men practically shadowed her if she left the ship, with the exception of her time out with Donna and friends. They didn’t smother her, but she felt protected.
Her first trip outside the docking facility took place three days after their arrival. Ford volunteered to go with her to the agri-complex.
“Dress warm, sweetie,” he said. “It’s usually a little on the chilly side here, even in the middle of the day.” The journey to the agri-complex took an hour and two tram transfers. And Emi saw her first non-human species, treaty races who were allowed access to the Mars facilities and even had their own diplomatic domes on the planet.
Many species couldn’t safely travel to the Martian surface, even fewer to Earth, because of atmospheric, gravitational, and other concerns. The few that could were biologically similar to humans.
Conversely, humans couldn’t safely set foot on many of the treaty planets either due to biological or atmospheric reasons. A diverse series of space stations allowed for diplomatic and commercial contacts, where vastly different species could interact in safety and comfort. There were currently forty-two intelligent, sentient treaty races, and fifteen known sentient non-treaty races. Not hostile, but who opted not to mingle with the other races for a number of reasons.
There were only three known hostile races, but because of the size and number of treaty races, they were legislatively isolated, with a coalition force policing the boundaries to keep them from causing trouble.
As part of her studies, Emi had learned about the most common treaty races she might encounter. “That’s a F’ahrkay?” she whispered to Ford as they sat on the tram. The thin, willowy man sitting ten rows ahead of them was approximately seven feet tall, with a bluish tinge to his pale skin.
“Yeah,” he whispered back. “I actually think I’ve met that guy before. You don’t see many of them shore-side. They’ve got their own orbiting space station.”
When they debarked the tram, the F’ahrkay man was nowhere to be seen. Ford took Emi by the hand, following signs in multiple languages until they reached the agri-complex. The half-submerged dome was a self-contained environment, including weather. A variety of species of plants from Earth and elsewhere grew in carefully controlled settings. They had to pass through a decontamination room on the way in to prevent outside pathogens from infiltrating the ecosystem.
“This is amazing!” Emi stopped and stared, looking up at fifty foot tall redwood trees flanking the entrance.
“Genetically modified to survive here,” Ford said, following her gaze. “Wait’ll you see the produce section.” Familiar selections from bananas to citrus, as well as unfamiliar species from other worlds, were carefully labeled. Interactive signs allowed visitors to pick their language. They also offered a variety of classes, including modified cooking and baking, as well as how to preserve fruits and vegetables grown on-board.
“Can I sign up for these?” Emi asked. She’d been persistently vexed by baking bread and cakes on board once they left Earth.
Despite meticulously following recipes, she had only produced three edible baked products. She could cook nearly anything else and it frustrated her.
“We need to ask Aaron,” he said, studying the brochure, “but I don’t see why not. It won’t interfere with our schedule.” They spent five hours touring the complex. On the way back to the ship, they stopped at a commissary and picked up groceries, including fresh meat and vegetables grown on Mars. An isolated, self-contained livestock dome provided fresh beef, pork, poultry, eggs, milk, and farm-raised fish of various species for human Martian residents.
They were almost back to the docking facility when a woman’s sing-song voice reached them. “Oh, Foooord!”
“Aw, fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?” Emi asked.
He shook his head, a gesture she knew meant he’d tell her later.