Author of SF and Fantasy erotica

1

There was only so much unpacking that Lilith felt was necessary at her current juncture. She had some eight crates of personal effects stacked up in one corner of the spacious captain’s quarters, including wall hangings, mementoes from home and some special clothing. But for now, the room was everything that it needed to be. Positioning herself at the tail end of the bed, Lilith put her hands on her hips and looked about her, sighing with satisfaction to herself.

The captain’s quarters on the Rune Carrier lay at the very centre of the big, silver ship, one deck down from the bridge and one up from engineering. It was a fair distance from the officer’s quarters and adjoining operational staff bunk rooms, which both lent to its prestige and suggested at its more specialised functionality. The room was a rough square with a wide bed at the far end. Lilith could have fit at least four playmates onto the great mattress without any of them feeling cramped. The uniform flatness of the silver-grey walls, the same material as the ship’s gorgeous exterior hull, was broken above the freshly made bed by a curved rise to make space for the systems beneath. The lights overhead were built into the ceiling, and Lilith had turned down the stark brightness of the default setting to a warm, intimate orange.

And then, because the room felt too expansive with so little to fill it, Lilith had unpacked her desk and assembled it against one wall. Curved wooden edges and fancifully embossed legs marked it as a work of art in addition to being her workstation. There was a terminal built into the surface that she had already tied into the ship systems, though the screen was currently inert. For now, all the table did was act as a display for a little collection of plastic items she had brought from home. Soft shafts, tight recesses. She hoped to make use of each of those at least once during her stint as captain on this revolutionary star-crossing vessel.

With a proud smile for herself, Lilith turned and took a seat on her bed. She was sweating from the effort of setting the heavy furniture the way she wanted it, but the results more than made up for a little physical labour. The captain had the privilege of a personal shower room, connected to the chamber through a subtle door opposite the main entrance, but she didn’t want to waste time with cleaning up just yet.

She brushed back a few loose strands of silken black hair over the subtle points of her ears, back into the ponytail she had fixed in place with a simple white ribbon. Lilith had already rolled up the sleeves of her red button-up shirt, also silk-smooth, and undone the first three fastenings to display an unprofessional level of cleavage. She ran her hands over the black skirt at her waist, feeling the soft scaling beneath, then lower to where it hardened at the edges of her thick lower body, the lengthy, serpentine tail on which she slithered. Her scaling was ruby red, like her mother’s, and the satin skin on her tight waist, bust, face and arms was cream and clear like her father’s. The bright yellow of her eyes was a more distant family trait, but it gave her attention a keenness that demanded reciprocation. The smile on her full lips, a powerful energy that made others want to follow suit. She was smiling now, in anticipation of the journey ahead. And of her next task.

Lilith turned to the work desk and rose her voice.

“Ship. Please activate workstation terminal and project onto the wall for me.”

The ship’s AI acquiesced. Lilith’s collection of toys made long, rounded shadows that obscured elements of the projection, but she was a smart girl. She could read from context. Rune Carrier’s operating software opened up for her in soft blue, asking which of its innumerable activities she wished to take advantage of today.

“I need a list of crew currently aboard.”

The projection blinked, and the list wrote itself up for her. Five names. Most of her bridge crew, no doubt getting themselves used to the strange systems of their new home in readiness for launch in the morning. Then there was one ensign, the girl from the Alignment. Lilith nodded to herself. Of course that one wouldn’t want to be part of the festivities on Reader Station with the rest of the operational crew. Her elders would have counselled her to stay out of the limelight. With only five souls aboard, the ship was almost entirely empty.

“Where’s my first officer, then?”

Apparently still in transit, the display told her. The ship bringing the mysterious Mister Albright out of the dark secrecy of RKON-controlled space was due to arrive in about an hour. He’d missed training, though his machine sponsors had assured her that he wouldn’t need his hand holding. However much the Readers protested his lateness, it was hard enough getting the synthetic thinkers to do anything at all. Let alone take part in history.

It was a shame, though. Lilith needed herself and Albright to get along, and the sooner they reached mutual understanding the better. They would be operating closely throughout the mission, and it wouldn’t do to start things off with a misaligned perspective. So long as he was here before morning, however, she would find the chance to straighten things out with him.

Lilith returned to the current crew listings and ran her topaz eyes down them once more. She had set this time aside for personnel interviews, and she would need that time with each of them eventually. But who to start with? In the end, it was an obvious choice.

“Please summon Tactical Officer Halcyon to my quarters.”

Lilith was still smiling.

When her guest arrived at the door to the room a handful of minutes later, the captain was still seated on her bed. She rested back on her hands, enjoying the way her curved posture emphasised her chest, and curled up her red lower half at the tail of the bed. In many ways, this was the part she enjoyed the most. The anticipation.

“Come.”

Halcyon of the House of Pinnacle, of the ancient and traditional Mountain’s Stellar Mandate, was a tall man in his mid-twenties, ‘late second shedding’ as his people put it. That made him Lilith’s junior by about five years. He was tall, with broad shoulders and tight muscle to match his military background. He had pulled back his shaggy, black hair, shimmering metallically in the warm light of the bedroom, into a loose knot, revealing a strong face with sharp features. His eyes were the colour of a burning forge, a redder tone than Lilith’s own. He also had the dusky skin of a warm climate’s upbringing, layered up the skin of his neck with the sharp, red scales of a dragon. Two ebony horns emerged proudly from his temple like the points of a warrior-king’s crown.

Like all of the bridge crew, Halcyon was decked out in a uniform appropriate for his home nation. The Mandate cultural navy suit was a shirt of skin-tight, black polymer hugging his arms and chest under a sleeveless, burgundy tactical jacket with an array of pockets. Loose, tan cargo trousers had been tucked into black military boots. A very good look that the tall man wore well.

Halcyon immediately fell into an attentive stance, tight and formal, which initially disappointed the captain of the ship. But then he gave a hint of a smile, boyish good humour showing through the formality. A smile that hesitated only slightly as he took in Lilith’s suggestive posture. They had spoken previously during the long hours of mission training on Reader Station, and Lilith had made sure to set the groundwork with a little light flirting, but she had never been quite this forward with him.

“Captain,” he greeted in a resonant alto.

“Officer Halcyon,” she replied. “At ease.”

He obeyed, hands folded behind his back and legs apart.

“More at ease,” Lilith chuckled. “Take a seat, why don’t you?”

The soldier frowned, his orange eyes glancing about him in search of a chair. They rested briefly on the workstation, catching on her little collection of toys with a visible start. His booted feet remained planted on the dull metal.

“I, uh… I think I’ll stand, thank you Captain.”

Lilith shrugged. “As you wish. I wanted to ask you here to get to know you a little better, is all, and I thought you standing like that might get a touch uncomfortable.”

“Thank you,” he repeated. “But I’m good.”

She regarded him closely, her eyes roving slowly up from his boots, and he took her attention with respectable calm. She knew the tactical officer to be a sociable man with a ready laugh and a quick wit. She also knew from the records shared by his home government that he was cool under pressure but short on temper, especially compared to his fellow bridge crew, a feature typical of the draconic people of the Mandate.

“It’s Hal you prefer, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “Absolutely, Captain. Only my old navy commander still calls me Halcyon, and I didn’t ever work up the courage to ask that old man to stop.”

“I do hope you don’t ever feel that way about me, Hal,” Lilith smiled. “I’d have you speak your mind with me, if you will.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“How are you finding the Rune Carrier?”

Hal grinned. “She’s a lovely girl. All her circuits run like lightning, and I’ve never seen such a clear SRS before. I just wish she wasn’t so, y’know, empty.”

“Yes, she does feel a little lonely right now,” Lilith agreed with a warm chuckle. “I’m also looking forward to having more people around me once we’re underway.”

“Right.” He wasn’t looking her in the eye. His gaze was affixed to a point just above her head. Lilith had hoped he would be a little less stiff by this point in their game.

“Come a little closer, Hal.”

“I, um…”

“Shall I order you?” she asked him with a challenging smirk. “Would that make it easier for you?”

Hal cleared his throat. “Not necessary, Captain.”

He took a step forward into her personal space, and the tip of her curled tail brushed gently at his boots. Her gaze rested meaningfully at her own eye level. It was hard to tell under the loose cloth of his trousers, but she thought she spotted a twitch between his legs.

“I’d like for us to be able to work well together, Hal,” she said. “As a member of my bridge crew, I’d like for you to feel comfortable around me. I find it’s best to set the expectation of a relationship like this nice and early. It saves us having to dance around what we expect from one another further down the line. What do you think of that?”

Hal nodded, still not looking down at her. “I also think clarity is best, Captain.”

“So, for example,” she continued, “I am a strong believer in enjoying my work. Our Rune Carrier mission is going to make history, and we are likely to create all kinds of era-defining ties with our distant cousins in the Forge galaxy, see unthinkable wonders of nature. But I can’t imagine taking any fulfilment from that without also enjoying my day-to-day. Let’s make history together, Hal, but let’s not neglect having a good time while we do. Can I get your agreement on that?”

He swallowed. “Yes, Captain.”

“Then come here.”

Lilith reached out, closing the gap between them, and hooked her fingers boldly into the waistband of his trousers. He only flinched a little, and allowed himself to be tugged near so that he was standing legs apart above the curl of her snake tail. Lilith gripped his clothing tight, her free hand sliding around the back of one leg and stroking him firmly.

“Captain,” he gasped lightly. “I really don’t think this is professional.”

“Oh,” she crooned in response. “I don’t really believe in ‘professional’. I believe in fun.”

She slid her hand down from his belt line with her fingertips. There it was. The unmistakable rise. She was glad to feel that he was proportional to his impressive height. The drakes of the Mandate were well known across the Accord for their physical gifts. Hal exhaled hotly as she clutched at him.

“Have a little fun with me, Hal,” she whispered. “Again, I can order you if that would help.”

Finally, he looked her straight on. His eyes burned brightly.

“Not necessary, Captain.”

“Good boy.”

His trousers came undone easily, and the tight boxers beneath fell with a tug of her fingers. He moaned aloud when her hand came to rest around the erect length of his shaft, and she felt the subtle thrust of his hips as she began to rub him. His skin was unusually hot, another feature of his species.

Hal closed his eyes, and she allowed herself a moment to examine him closely. He was not the first of his kind that she had enjoyed in this way, and she was unsurprised to see the delicate lattice of scaling above his penis and below his belly. Red scaling, just like hers. There was no doubt their two species held some ancient, shared ancestry. She understood this kind of pubic scaling was so Mandate males had some cushioning when they rode their mates with the vigour their kind had in spades.

With Hal thoroughly taken away by her ministrations, Lilith slid a hand up her skirt to reveal herself. She was loose and wet, as to be expected, and she allowed herself a little murmur of pleasure at the touch of her opening. Hal, curious, opened his eyes.

“I… um, Captain,” he gasped. “I’ve never… with a, uh…”

“Don’t be so timid,” she chided with a grin, tightening her grip in chastisement. By the setting of his jaw, she could tell he liked that. “You’ll find my kind to be very flexible. I think what you have will fit inside me nicely. Here, look.”

She leaned back onto the mattress of the bed, one hand on his cock and the other parting the soft scaling of her opening. His eyes latched on to it, transfixed.

“In here. Put it inside me.”

He was motionless, caught in paralysis between his evident desire and his lingering duty as a member of her crew.

“Now, soldier.”

She tugged, and he advanced, stumbling at the tail of the bed and falling forward atop her. Lilith laughed aloud as the last vestiges of decorum fell away from the Mandate officer, as he gripped her hair and kissed her neck vigorously. His horns pressed into the mattress. And at his waist, she guided him into her.

Hal didn’t need much encouragement. He thrust deep inside, feeling for himself the angles of her vagina, filling her with his length. Lilith opened her mouth and sighed loudly into his ear, and he responded with a primal grunt of enjoyment. A grunt that only repeated, louder, as her tail came up from the floor and tightened itself around one of his legs. Lilith wrapped her arms about his shoulders and held him against her, fingernails tight in the thin polymer of his shirt.

“Oh, fuck…” he gasped as he thrust into her. “Oh, Saints above…!”

“Mm, yes!” she agreed. “Yes, good! Good!”

Lilith bit down on Hal’s ear, which only inspired more intensity. The bed rocked with his motion, and the skin of her neck grew damp with the condensation of his breath. He was bound, heart and body, to her. Lilith tightened her grip on him as a shuddering wave of pleasure caught her up in its swell, as his cock pushed against the wet recesses deep inside her, and she cried aloud as the orgasm made its way throughout her whole being. Hal’s strong hands dug deep into the sheets of her bed as he came in unison with her, growling savagely into her neck. The sudden surge of heat inside her was intense, spectacular and achingly sensual. His load was heavy.

Lilith counted herself fortunate that none of her precious bridge crew were serpents of the Sceptis Sovereign Administration, as she was. She could drink all of Hal’s come, and she didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant. And he had not taken long. He must not have found anyone else among the bridge or ops crew to fool around with. Didn’t that make her feel special?

Lilith chuckled in satisfaction as his humping gradually slowed. He gasped desperately for breath, and for a long moment, the two of them lay in each other’s sweaty, heated embrace. When his breathing had slowed, she felt his face peel itself from her neck.

“So, if I may,” he whispered. “What the fuck just happened?”

“What do you mean?” she grinned, stroking his shining black hair with her fingernails. “Didn’t I say? I wanted to set the standard before we embark on our grand adventure.”

“You mean, we can do that again?”

“Oh, we most certainly will.”

Pushing up on his hands, Hal rose up over her. His umber eyes danced, and his smile was playful.

“Cool. I’ll enjoy that, Lilith.”

Then he winced suddenly as her hand tightened in his hair.

“F-Fuck!”

“Don’t forget your place in all this, now,” she teased, her smile savage. “I may not believe in professionalism, but you had better not mistake this as some sort of partnership. I am still your captain, remember? You came here to pleasure me. That’s all.”

His smile was gone. When Hal opened his eyes again, she saw hardness. Good, that meant he understood.

“Yes, Captain,” he growled.

“Good boy.” Lilith stroked his face gently, tracing the line of his ebon horns with her fingertips. “Take your time, but when you do leave, would you mind seeing if First Officer Marcus has arrived.”

“What?” Hal spat.

“And if he has, do send him to me.”

Hal clenched his teeth, and she met his anger with a fierce stare. And, eventually, he broke contact. Her victory.

When Hal had left, saying nothing, Lilith languished back on her bed with a wide smile. She ran a hand across her neck, picking up beads of sweat on her fingers. She could feel the weight of the come he had left inside her with the same hot satisfaction as after enjoying a hearty meal.

“Ship, show me a full reactor readout, please. Captain’s access.”

From her place on the bed, she took in the numbers of the Rune Carrier’s energy stores and nodded at the results.

“Excellent.”

2

The display overlaid on the inside of his eyes pointed Marcus in the direction of the Rune Carrier’s bridge as he left the primary airlock that connected the ship’s engineering corridor to the Reader Station dock. After all the fanfare RKON had put on for his recruitment, culminating most recently in his upload into a fresh human body, the quiet corridors of Reader Station, the Accord’s most frontier scientific research facility, had felt wholly underwhelming. Though perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing, Marcus thought. He wasn’t entirely sure he was ready for other organic people yet.

Empty passages on Reader Station gave way to an empty Rune Carrier as he made his way up the long slopes of the engineering deck, past vast storage chambers only partially filled by sundry and supplies, past technical terminals at major intersections, and past the long research laboratory that the crew would use to analyse and quantify the unknown of the Forge galaxy. Somewhere in all that were the building blocks of the massive stellar ansible, the grand communications array that would allow them to communicate with the Accord once they had found their way to the shores of the Forge. That was stage twenty of a hundred stage plan, of course, so Marcus didn’t have to worry about it just yet.

Up the slope and towards the bridge. He had to pass through a deck of operational bunk rooms first. The long lines of simple, bolted-framed bunkbeds held an air of anticipation for the multitudes of staff still to come. Staff that Marcus would soon be at least partially in charge of.

Then the officer quarters. Marcus stopped outside his own room, the second along the corridor and across from an empty conference room for crew meetings. The door looked like any other, but the overlay programmed into his cybernetics by his RKON caretakers labelled it as his own. Each of the other wide sliding doors was marked by the name of one of his new colleagues. For not the last time, he reckoned, Marcus wondered at how the all-natural officers of the Rune Carrier were going to get by without information beamed directly into their heads.

He started suddenly as one of the doors slid open. As he hurried to smooth down his fair hair and hide the wrinkles of his navy-blue uniform jacket, the creasing of his matching trousers, Marcus heard the soft sound of musical humming, and a scent. Salt?

He had already committed the basic profiles of his fellow officers to memory, so there was no need for his internal data to throw up the professional profile for Engineering Chief Marian Therese as soon as his cybernetic eyes recognised her. The pretty engineer was evidently hampered in her movement neither by the four thick tentacles sprouting from her lower waist, the means by which she walked, or by the blindfold of rubbery white fabric that covered her eyes. The former was true for all denizens of the aquatic League of Free Trade Worlds, though naturally they tended to prefer swimming to walking, and the latter, according to her profile, had been necessary since an accident she’d had as a child. In the two decades since, Therese had learned to sense her surroundings using movement in the air around her and vibrations in the ground or water. Marcus saw for himself the plastic implant held in and around one of her webbed ears that translated physical space for her through vibrations in the air. This impeccable spatial awareness made her the obvious choice for the ship’s chief engineer.

Therese’s gait had a tide-like sway to it that Marcus found instantly hypnotic. Her bob of curled, blonde hair bounced gently with her ambulation. Her tight, blue uniform bodysuit was made of water-repellent rubber. It left her shoulders and fingers bare so that her skin had an opportunity to properly breathe, and the firm fitting did a tremendous job of extolling her impressive chest. Lastly, Therese wore a long, flowing skirt of semi-translucent material around her waist that lay in frond-like strands between her tentacles while still providing freedom of movement.

The engineer paused as she turned out of her room and faced the bridge, her song coming to an abrupt end. She didn’t look his way, but she was clearly aware of him.

“Hm?” she asked the air. “Who’s this?”

“Um,” Marcus stammered as his throat tightened. “H-Hello. It’s me, um, First Officer Marcus Albright.”

“Oh, of course!” Therese spun like a dancer on her deft tentacles and clapped her hands together. Her smile lit up her face beautifully. “I should have recognised the smell of cold-work steel on you. Marcus! It’s so good to meet you!”

Therese’s immediate enthusiasm was a great relief for Marcus, who took her proffered hand and tried to calm his nerves. Her skin was soft for someone who had to spend her nights in a water tank.

“And you,” he said. “Good to meet you.”

“Did you only just arrive?” she asked him. “I don’t smell anyone else on you.”

“Um, that’s right.” Her profile didn’t mention preternatural smelling ability. He allowed his cybernetics to write a note to remind him of that. “My ship just came in about twenty minutes ago. I was going to see the bridge. And I have to check in with the captain.”

“Great, I was heading up to the bridge, too. I’ll show you!”

Therese maintained her grip on his hand as she turned and began to head up the corridor. Marcus had no inclination of telling her he already knew the way.

“How was your trip?”

“Oh, um, well enough. I only transferred into this body about seven hours ago, so before that I was transported digitally. I’m still getting used to, you know, having legs and… things like that.”

Therese didn’t turn her head his way as he talked, but the frown that crossed her pretty features was unmistakable confusion. And there was some discomfort in there too, he was sure. Marcus gave himself a mental slap on the back of the head. RKON alone stored its populace digitally. The machines of his home had needed to explain very carefully that, to the other Accord races, theirs was something of a ghoulish, unnatural existence. Untethered and ephemeral, denizens of the network.

“Is everyone else here?” he asked to shift topics. “It feels very empty.”

She laughed, and Marcus could feel her fingers tighten around his hand. “There’s a big party going on for the ops crew back on the station.”

“There is?” he said. “They kept that quiet.”

“You wanna go?”

“Not particularly.”

“I see.”

Why did the first person he met in his new career have to be a cute girl? Marcus was nervous enough as it was without Therese being cute. Though it was no struggle to remember that in fact the whole of the bridge crew was stunning, himself excluded. It would have been easy for Marcus to believe that everyone outside RKON was a beautifully crafted work of art, the same as it was inside the Earth simulation, looking just at his colleagues.

“Have you met the captain yet?” he asked. “I really should check in with her before we get too far underway.”

“Oh, Captain Lilith is great! You’re gonna love her.” Her grin was unmistakable, and Marcus allowed himself to laugh sheepishly along with the engineer’s teasing. “We’re all good friends already, actually. Since we went through mission training together and all.”

“Ah, right. It’s a shame I had to miss that. I’m not keen on starting this mission as an outsider.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Therese. “Everyone’s lovely. Hal’s so funny, and Miriham’s cool as you can get. And there’s me, of course.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you’re, um…”

“Hm?”

“Uh, never mind.”

Marcus felt heat crawling up from his chest to his throat. At this rate, he really would be the outsider. Weird alien robot Marcus, the antisocial freak. And he had to help command this crew. What on Earth had RKON allowed him to get himself into?

“Oh, one of the ensigns is here too, somewhere. I think she’s double checking our supply inventory for us.”

“Just the one?”

“She’s Alignment.”

“Ah.” Marcus nodded.

“She’s lovely, too. Such a shame she couldn’t get to know the rest of the ops team on the station.”

Therese’s brow creased above her blindfold, and Marcus nodded in response. The Alignment wasn’t an official member of the Galactic Accord like his RKON and Therese’s League. Their introduction to the rest of the galaxy some thirty years ago, just before Marcus had been born, had been fraught with tension and miscommunication. About the same as this current conversation, then. As such, it was easy to see why an Alignment citizen might be ostracised from the rest of the crew.

It was doubly a shame to him, as the people of RKON found the Alignment to be a fascinating culture, and really didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Maybe he could reach out to his fellow freak before they left, help her feel connected. That was his job, after all.

Marcus and Therese stepped up to the circular hatch leading to the Rune Carrier bridge. Therese relinquished his hand to operate the access panel, and he felt her absence acutely. He could have easily opened the door for them touchlessly using his cybernetics, and then they could still be holding hands. Oh well.

The bridge chamber was a long cuboid of space rimmed by tall, colourful screens of data. Marcus and Therese were at the back of the room, atop a tall platform that held the big, mechanical engineering station beside to the door, as well as the captain’s pedestal in front of the banister connecting upper bridge from lower. Down either of the slopes on the port or starboard, Marcus identified the controls for, from port to starboard, communication, navigation and tactical.

The biggest screen on the bridge was wrapped around the inside of the forward chamber wall. It was currently acting as a viewscreen for the outside of the ship. The majesty of space twinkled beyond, the bright star Arach silhouetting the Galactic Transmission Ring that Rune Carrier would be using to hurl itself out of the Accord galaxy and into the Forge.

And then there was his station. The XO panel was a wide digital screen on top of a bolted stand on the lower deck below and to the left of the captain’s position. From there, Marcus would be able to monitor all of the activity on the ship, if he chose, and fill in where other parts of the crew were lacking.

Communications Officer Miriham was at her station, though she turned with a curious frown along her slanted eyes at the entrance of Marcus and Therese. At least, Marcus hoped it was a curious frown. Miriham’s long, pointed ears and slender, petite frame marked her as a member of the Covenant of Tyrianogh, one of the Accord’s oldest species. Miriham vir Oberine vir Tyrian herself could have been anywhere from Marcus’ own age of mid-twenties, up to literal centuries, and as far as he knew her body would not change.

Miriham’s most striking feature was her long, sleek hair, coloured a vibrant purple. Marcus understood it to be a sort of hyper-scientific Covenant magic that gave her hair such a brilliant hue, likely chosen to match the sparkling amethyst of her eyes. The Covenant race, colloquially known in most galactic circles as ‘elves’, had technology that defied modern science, a by-product of their wild world of supernatural phenomena. Marcus’ people of the planet Earth had been astounded by their introduction to the species, which matched so closely some of their ancient folklore. Anthropologists from both cultures were still trying to unpick how it was they had ended up in one another’s stories.

The Covenant uniform was a forest green tunic that hugged Miriham’s slender waist and spilled down to the middle of her thigh. Her shapely legs were covered by tight leggings of dark grey, ending at her calves, and soft shoes that looked like the sort worn by a ballerina wrapped up her feet delicately. The cuffs of her sleeves, along with the high collar about her neck, were lined with gold scrollwork. But for all the charming finery of her outfit, Miriham’s countenance was starkly disapproving.

“So,” she said in the clipped, prim tones of a teacher. “Our first officer has decided to at last grace us with his presence.”

“Ah, don’t be like that,” Therese laughed. “Marcus couldn’t help being late and missing his training.”

“Is he in any way qualified?”

“I think he had all his training, like, downloaded into him, or something?”

“Y-Yes,” Marcus stepped in. “It’s nice to meet you, Miriham.”

“Quite.” Miriham eyed the human narrowly beneath her slender brows, before dismissing him to return to her own work. Marcus couldn’t help but wince. Despite their full head of height difference, he had already found himself quite thoroughly intimidated by the communications officer.

“You need anything to get set up?” asked Therese. Even with a blindfold covering her eyes, Marcus could tell she was sensing the mood.

“No, thanks. I should be alright. Though, have you talked much to the ship, yet?”

Therese’s lips fell into a puzzled grimace, and at the communications terminal, Miriham chuckled.

“We do not talk to this ship, First Officer,” she said.

“Oh,” he replied. “Sorry. I thought I’d read somewhere it had a nascent AI installed to cover background processes and subspace jump navigation.”

“So, you do have some understanding. But though the Rune Carrier is equipped with AI, it is not endowed of personality. Unlike your machine masters, no doubt.”

“You’re sure?” Marcus asked sadly. That would explain why it hadn’t been responding to his little conversational messages, like a program in the RKON simulation would have. It would make the Rune Carrier the first AI he had ever met that didn’t feel the need to chat. A real pity. Even if he never ended up getting along with Miriham, or never found a way to stop getting tongue-tied around Therese, he had been banking on the Rune Carrier providing some small companionship.

“I’ll just get set up myself, then,” Marcus said, stepping down the slope to the XO panel.

The terminal sprang to life as he approached it, and commands, sub-systems and suggestions burst to life across its glossy screen. An itinerary for launch had been set up by someone, likely the Readers Council technicians, that had final checks taking place over the next few hours before the night shift began. Then a photo op in front of the airlock for the Accord media. Then the launch itself. So close, now. Marcus found himself tapping his foot on the metal deck.

Around him, Therese and Miriham struck up a conversation about someone called Cain, who they had expected to be here with the captain ahead of the launch, and Marcus tuned them out. Navigating the system was straightforward enough, though the operating system had been designed for either tactile inputs through the touch screen or spoken commands for the AI to interpret. Marcus’ cybernetics allowed him to simply think what he wanted and for it to happen. He did this now, picking through the root files and registries to make sure he was up to speed on the software’s prime processes.

As he did, a little part of his brain that still dared to dream opened up a blank prompt with no destination and began to write in it.

[Hi, Rune Carrier. They say you don’t have a personality, but I’m not sure that’s true. I reckon you’re just shy, and I can understand why. I’m pretty scared by all this, too. I hope you don’t mind if I offer you a ‘good morning’ from time to time. And if you ever feel like talking back, I’d be happy to chat.]

He left the message there for the ship to acknowledge or delete as it saw fit and granted himself a little nod of self-satisfaction. He could dream, if he wanted.

“Oh shit, look who it is.”

Marcus instinctively signed off from his station as he turned away from it. Tactical Officer Halcyon of the House of Pinnacle looked even taller than he actually was while up on the bridge platform, though he was kind enough to squat at the banister so the difference between them wasn’t quite so ludicrous. The big, draconic officer extended his hand for Marcus and grinned companionably. Marcus tried his best to mirror it as he gripped the strong hand with its powerful, native heat.

“Marcus,” he greeted.

“Hal. Nice to finally meet you, mate.”

At last, someone Marcus felt he could actually get on with. Hal’s horns and glowing eyes gave him a fearsome first impression, but his toothy grin was infectious. Still, there was an odd tightness to Hal’s brow between his impressive horns, like he was busy working out a fiendish puzzle in his mind, and the collar of his sleeveless jacket looked to be stained with sweat. Had he been working out?

“You settling in alright?” Hal asked him.

“He just learned the computer won’t talk to him,” Therese replied, leaning companionably on the railing beside her colleague with a teasing grin.

“Oh, that sucks,” laughed Hal. “You gotta make some real friends instead, mate. Sorry to disappoint.”

“I-I’m not disappointed,” Marcus insisted, tugging at his jacket sleeves. “You all seem, um, really nice.”

“Thanks.” Hal winked. “Hey, listen. Skipper would like a word, if you’re free.”

“Oh, great.” Marcus nodded eagerly, though in truth he was only eager to get the tense first meeting with Captain Lilith out of the way as soon as possible, so he’d stop worrying about it. “I’ll head down there now.”

“Yeah, take the aft slope around by the lab sector. It’s a bit of a walk.”

“Thank you.”

Marcus stepped up towards the bridge hatch. At the banister, Hal had risen to his full height. Therese was sniffing the dragon’s clothing curiously, but stopped as he pulled away towards Marcus.

“Hey, mate,” Hal said in a low voice. “Listen, about the captain.”

Marcus turned to face him. There was a disquieting concern across Hal’s features.

“Yeah?”

Hal struggled visibly with his words for a moment. Then he sighed, and startled Marcus by slapping him on the arm.

“Just take it easy, alright? Ain’t nothing to feel pressured to do, yeah?”

“Alright,” said Marcus, not understanding at all. “Thanks.”

When it was clear the tall man wasn’t going to say anything further, he turned and stepped out of the bridge. ‘Take it easy’, Hal had said. Well, now he was more worried than ever.

3

“So,” Hal grinned. “What do we all think of him, then?”

Miriham shook her head dismissively, her attention on her work. In truth, the communications framework had essentially written itself, and there wasn’t much for her to do. Once the Rune Carrier arrived in the Forge, there was no telling what sort of comms software they would need to integrate with to communicate with the locals. They wouldn’t be using Accord channels, that was certain. She just needed to set the software to write ad-hoc signal coding as it was needed, and that was child’s play.

Still, it was better than allowing herself to gossip.

“He’s nice, isn’t he?” Therese said, leaning on one arm on the upper deck banister beside Hal. “He seems, like, really easy to talk to.”

“Sure, sure,” Hal agreed. “Just a shame about the… y’know.”

“He told me he’d only been in his body for seven hours.”

“Get outta here,” the dragon laughed. “That’s fucking weird.”

“So weird. Do I need to ask what you think, Miri?”

Miriham sighed. “I do not believe you wish to hear what I think.”

“That he’s got some secret machine agenda that’s gonna jeopardise the whole mission?” Hal asked, his mouth twisted into a grin. “That he’s gonna lead us all to some big facility to have us turned into cyborgs?”

She narrowed her eyes at the tactical officer’s jest. “Nothing quite so dramatic, I assure you. But I do wish we had some additional means of determining whether he is legitimate. I do not believe one of the RKON machines even has a voice on the Readers Council. And yet, their representative is second-in-command for the entire Rune Carrier? It beggars belief.”

Therese nodded, her pretty lips pursed. “But he does seem nice. It’d be worse if he was a jerk and secretly trying to kill us. I’m glad he’s kinda cute, too.”

Hal’s brow tightened. “He is?”

“From what I can tell, at least. Hey, if I’m wrong you don’t have to tell me. Let a girl dream.”

“Do I need to be jealous?” Hal asked, and Therese giggled in dutiful response.

“There’s space in my heart for the two of you, Hal. Don’t worry.”

Miriham suppressed a grimace. These two had been flirting non-stop since their training, though fortunately they had so far managed to maintain a professional decorum, just about. Had they even considered the potential issues around sustaining a relationship in this environment? Miriham doubted it.

“Speaking of,” Therese continued, folding her arms under the swell of her chest, “Hal, you have quite the scent of our dear captain on you. Has she been keeping you busy?”

Not the captain, too, Miriham groaned to herself. Captain Lilith’s leadership background in her home government of the Sceptis Sovereign Administration was beyond reproach, and Miriham had been very impressed by the serpent woman’s poise and composure. She desperately hoped she hadn’t misjudged her.

But where she expected a joking dismissal, perhaps some false modesty from the tall tactical officer, Hal instead looked away.

“It’s fine,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not a problem.”

Therese didn’t have the ability to send a concerned glance Miriham’s way, but by the shift of her shoulders she somehow managed it anyway. Still, Miriham didn’t know what she was expected to do about it. Hal’s problems were his own. And if they were the result of pursuing a romance with colleagues, they were also well-deserved.

Hal gave a heavy sigh. His smile was forced. “Right. I should get back to work. Y’know, do the officer thing. Is there anything I need to be getting on with?”

“Have you set up permissions on the tactical suite?” Miriham asked him.

“Um, have I what?”

“Go to your station,” she ordered with a frown. “I shall talk you thorough the process.”

“Cheers, Miri.”

“That is not my name.”

Up on the higher deck, Therese leaned forward on one arm, laughing pleasantly.

“Isn’t this nice?” she said. “Don’t we work well together?”

4.

Captain Lilith of the Sceptis-Minor Families was stunning. Where Therese had the soft, approachable aesthetic of the girl next door, Lilith was a potent, powerful force of sexuality. Her yellow eyes took in Marcus as she slithered around him, looking him up and down, and her sly smile was at once deeply flattering and wholly unnerving. The movement of her lower body, the long, red-scaled snake’s tail on which she moved, flowed and twisted. She was not short, but their difference in height gave Marcus a very appealing view down the front of her button-up shirt when she leaned forward. The human knew he was being measured and evaluated by his gorgeous captain, judged like a prize animal at some sort of fair. He also knew that he did not mind all that much.

“Not bad.” Lilith grinned, completing her circuit. “Not bad at all. I’m glad your bosses know how to put together a decent body.”

“Th-Thank you,” he stammered in response. “It is actually my body, I should say. F-Formed from, um, self-impressions in my digital state. I, uh, think I have physiological elements inherited from my parents, for example?”

“You don’t say.” Lilith’s rising eyebrow was teasing, and Marcus felt himself colouring at his cheeks. “Still, I was expecting a little more… metal? What is this?”

One slender finger prodded just below Marcus’ right eye. If he focussed, he could feel the dark pathway of circuitry beneath the skin, at once colder and hotter than the surrounding flesh.

“That’s my, um, sensory focus nodule,” he explained, hating the way the technical jargon threatened to sink the alluring, intimate atmosphere his captain had created. “It gathers data from my senses and passes it up to my brain for detailed analysis. It’s, um, like a pair of glasses but for my whole body.”

“Sensitive, is it?”

Marcus stiffened as she ran her fingertip along his cheek. She was standing very close. “N-Not especially. It’s, um, sub-dermal.”

“Of course.” Lilith chuckled. It was clear she was enjoying toying with him. Her eyes drew a line down his neck, along the straight shoulder of his jacket and down to his right arm. “If I were designing a body for myself, however, I might have chosen not to be quite so soft. Here, especially.”

Her hand squeezed his upper arm tightly, while her other slid around to his stomach. “And here.”

This time, Marcus needed a moment to compose himself before answering. His response was flustered and all too fast. “U-Uh, two things. One, there isn’t a stated need to possess significant musculature for what is in essence an administrative support role. A-And two, I don’t do all that much active stuff in the, um, the simulation so it was believed I might hurt myself if I was given an abundance of physical strength without having the wherewithal to make use of it safely.”

Mercifully, she released him, throwing back her head with a musical laugh and running a hand through her bound, black hair. “You really need to calm down. I can’t have you getting all silly each time I need you to perform for me. I do hope you aren’t this way during the mission.”

This hurt him. Marcus frowned. “I am more than qualified to perform my duties, captain.”

“Are you?” She grinned. “Do you have experience?”

“I do. My professional profile can attest to the same. I won’t let you down.”

“Do forgive me for doubting.” Lilith’s voice lowered to a husky whisper, and she inched her snake-like body closer. “I am sure my worries will be for nothing. Perhaps if you were to give me a demonstration of your skills? That would ease me, I am sure.”

He could smell her. Captain Lilith had a spicy, exotic scent that reminded him of wine. It was nice. “My… skills?”

“Yes, Marcus,” she sang. “Show me. Show me this.”

He started. Lilith’s hand had cupped his crotch. She squeezed his erection through his trousers, and suddenly thinking became very difficult.

“I want to see if you know how to use it. It’s a fresh body, right? You won’t have had a chance to test it? I need to see what it is capable of.”

She massaged him for a moment longer, her smile predatory, until his wits returned. Then he took her wrist. “C-Captain,” he said breathlessly. “This isn’t very-…”

“Professional?” Lilith rolled her eyes. “Why is everyone so obsessed with that word? I just want you to relax, Marcus. What is so unprofessional about that? I merely happen to believe in sex as nature’s great relaxant.”

“B-But…” Marcus swallowed as her fingers continued to tease his erection mercilessly. He wanted to argue that he was soft and timid where sex was concerned. There was a very real possibility that making love to Lilith now, if he was even able, would result in some very complicated, very distracting and very unprofessional feelings for her that would harm his integrity going forward.

Lilith’s keen eyes bore into his and seemed to read his thoughts. “It really isn’t a big deal,” she told him. “It’s just a bit of fun. I can promise that you’ll enjoy yourself. It will help us work closely together on our grand mission. And I don’t believe our species are compatible genetically,” she added with a wry twist of her mouth, “so you don’t have to worry about getting me pregnant. In truth, there really isn’t a downside to a casual fuck every now and then.”

She leaned close, almost a lunge, so her full lips brushed his. “Is there?” she breathed. “Marcus?”

No. No, there was not. And yet, something gnawed at him. Perhaps it was just insecurity, his inexperience telling him not to embarrass himself. But the voice was very persistent. Why him? Lilith could have taken Hal, a far better looking and likely far more sexually proficient man than himself. Was it his rank? Was this a political game? Was there another reason out there, somewhere, for Lilith to sleep with him? Some ulterior motive, that would require him to reconsider her proposition? Something his animal brain currently did not care to think about?

And then his vision sparkled. Marcus blinked as a brilliant, busy data overlay from the ship sprang forth across his eyes, covering Lilith with numbers and figures. He moved to dismiss it with a mental impulse, but not before he properly took in what it was he was looking at.

“What’s wrong?” Lilith crooned. “Seeing stars? I do have that effect.”

“N-… No,” Marcus replied. “It’s just… the reactor levels from engineering just showed up in my eyes.”

Lilith’s hand twitched on his cock, and she frowned. “Dismiss it.”

“Y-Yes. Only… this could be important.” He cleared his throat. “There’s an odd spike in energy going on in something called ‘Auxiliary Power’. I’m not… sure what that is?”

Her hand stilled. Her lips parted. “What?”

“Does that… make any sense to you?” he asked. “Is this… something we should be looking at? Captain?”

She released him. Spots of colour blossomed at her cheeks, which Marcus recognised as anger. Lilith seethed. “You should not have access to that data.”

“O-Oh,” he stammered. “S-Sorry. I didn’t know I did. It just… showed up.”

“Is that so?”

Lilith folded her arms, now a comfortable pace from him, and considered him anew. The bulge in his trousers was a ridiculous weight on the bottom half of his body. Finally, the captain sighed.

“Alright, then. I suppose it can’t be helped. I was going to fill you in eventually. Why not now?”

“Captain?”

“First Officer Marcus,” she replied, smiling resignedly. “You are aware that the Rune Carrier is a unique vessel, discovered in an archaeological excavation on one of the Declassified Worlds and believed to be a product of ancient Mythmaker technology?”

He nodded. Why on Earth was she talking about this now? “Yes. I am familiar. I believe the Mythmaker engine is, um, what will let us travel to the Forge galaxy via subspace, with some help from the Galactic Transmission Ring.”

Marcus found the mission to be quite poetic, secretly. The ancient, unknowable enigma of Mythmaker engineering, its creators long since vanished from the galaxy, married to the latest in Accord physics manipulation. The result, inter-galactic travel.

“Exactly,” said Lilith. “Rune Carrier uses Mythmaker technological processes in its navigation, and Mythtech is, as you know, incompatible with modern fusion drives. So, it requires its own energy source.”

He nodded. It was a significant blind spot in his technical data that he still wasn’t sure what Mythmaker energy looked like.

“And h-how is that relevant to, um, you and me?”

Lilith gave him a wide smile. “You and me, Marcus, is how we power the engine.”

“Wh-… What?”

“Ask Miriham some time,” she said. “Her people have an ancient understanding of a force they call ‘anima’. Perhaps not coincidentally, the same anima is how the Mythmakers performed all of their great wonders in the universe. Do you want to see?”

Her eyes had regained their smouldering heat, but Marcus couldn’t possibly back down now. The answers were close. He nodded.

“You still see the reactor readings?”

Another nod. Auxiliary Power sat at ‘nought-point-three’, whatever that meant, crawling negligibly upwards. And then Lilith moved. In a striking lunge she was upon him, her hands tight on his shoulders and pulling him down to her level. And her lips met his. The sound of her breathing filled his ears as she kissed him, hot and wet and passionate. She moved against him sensuously. She felt wonderful. Marcus felt himself draining away into her, his will subsumed by hers. And then she relinquished him with a playful gasp of air. Marcus stared down breathlessly at his captain, who smiled proudly.

“How do they look now?”

It took him a moment to understand what she meant. Bringing the engineering data into focus, he scanned it again.

“Um, another spike?” he said, his throat dry. “Larger this time. P-Point-five-three units?”

“Anima, you see, is the force of people,” Lilith explained. “The heat of understanding. The spark of emotion. Anima is what two or more people generate when they open themselves up to one another. You’ve felt it, I can tell. You can feel the electricity between us right now.”

He couldn’t deny it. Still, he was paralysed by the implication of her words. His mind reeled at what she was saying.

“Rune Carrier feeds on this electricity,” she said. “She consumes our passion and uses it to ignite the flame that will cast us between the stars. Isn’t that exciting?”

“I-…”

But whatever it was he had been planning on saying next died in his gasp. Lilith’s deft fingers tugged fiercely at the zipper of his unform trousers, and in a shockingly quick moment he was free. His firm length felt the chill of open air, and then the equally firm grip of the captain’s fingers.

“Watch, Marcus,” she whispered, brushing her nose against his. “Watch the power rise.”

And he saw she was right. As Lilith began to slowly pleasure his cock with her hand, he saw the levels on the Auxiliary reactor shoot upwards. Point-seven. Point-eight.

“We can fuel our own journey, and we can have so much fun while we do it.” Lilith’s words were heat against his lips. “What a gift the Mythmakers have left for us.”

The speed of her manipulation began to rise. Expertly, Lilith rid Marcus of his ability to think. All thoughts of denial burned away in the soft friction of her handiwork. He felt the need to protest, but when he opened his mouth, all that emerged was a strangled groan of ecstasy. Lilith smiled.

“We’re going to make such wonderful magic together, Marcus. If you just give yourself to me. Can you do that?”

She inhaled, drawing the breath from his lungs. “Give yourself to me!”

She kissed him again, and her tongue slid into his mouth as they made contact. He could feel her exploring his teeth, wrestling with him, delving, searching. Lilith moaned luxuriously. Her lips retained his saliva as she broke contact.

“Marcus…!”

He came suddenly and violently. His legs went weak, and he lashed out with his hands to grip Lilith’s shoulders. Still she tugged at him, and his semen flowed powerfully forth onto her wrist. Some of it dripped against the steel floor of the captain’s bedroom. Some of it landed on his boot.

But Marcus was beyond caring. His breathing was shallow, his face hot and his heart aflame. The part of him even now eager to do his job took in the sharp rise in the reactor readings. A full ten-point increase, exactly at the moment of his orgasm.

“Th-There’s so much,” he gasped witlessly, and Lilith chuckled.

“So much,” she agreed. “And think about how much more there will be once we all do our part. You and me. And the others.”

He finally thought to dismiss the readouts, but in their stead was the flashing lightning of his weary mind. He felt weak.

“The others?” he asked.

“We’re making history, remember,” Lilith remarked. Her eyes were on his cock as she slid her fingers around the fleshy tip, taking up the semen into her palm with expert efficiency. The sensitive skin twitched with her tickling. “We shall need everyone to do their part. Hal was more than eager, I can assure you of that.”

Marcus blinked. Was that why the tactical officer had been so tense? What was it he had said? ‘Ain’t nothing to feel pressured to do.’

“O-Oh.”

“Now, then. You will have seen that we can still top up our reserves a little more ahead of tomorrow’s launch.” Lilith handed him the weight of his member as she moved to the corner of the room. Her black unform coat had been cast atop a pile of folded clothing, and from one pocket she now removed a simple white handkerchief, with which she began to wipe her hands of his discharge.

“Why don’t you go and clean yourself up?” she said. “You can use my restroom, if you like. And then run and find… shall we say, Marian Therese next?”

“Therese?” he repeated dumbly. It took him a moment to realise he should probably put himself away.

“Oh, perhaps you’d like to stay?” she teased. “Her profile didn’t say anything about enjoying an audience in the bedroom, but I suppose as first officer that would be your privilege if she said it was alright.”

“No!” It came out a little too violently, so Marcus cleared his throat as he zipped himself up. “No. Th-That’s fine. I’ll… I’ll be…”

“Yes, off you go,” Lilith smiled. “And do come back again soon. I can see that you are very much up to the task of providing me with energy. My compliments to your creators.”

He felt small. He felt exposed. The only thing he could think to do was straighten out his clothes, swallow his pride and take his leave with a quiet bow. Lilith’s heated chuckles pursued him into the Rune Carrier corridors.

lonelyship