The Initiative: Book One of the Jannah Cycle

by D. Brumbley

  “I assume it’ll be mostly things we already know. But I doubt everyone is as well-informed as we are. Some people might take a little more work to bring up to speed.” His hands tended to wander freely over every exposed inch of her whenever any inch of her was exposed to begin with. That moment was no exception, his long fingers leaving heated caresses all over her pale skin, still flushed from their recent exertion. “I’m also hoping we’ll get some recent data on Jannah and maybe some revelations about the flight path, but that’s just me.”

  “I would love to get any data they could give me about what to expect from training and from Jannah. Not that I think we’ll get much.” She shivered in enjoyment as his fingers traced over her skin. “You know, I’ve wondered if I would get past the novelty of how aroused I get being around you and being with you. I wondered if it would wear off once I’d had more than my fill of satisfying sex. I’m glad it seems I don’t have a limit and I haven’t gotten bored. Your touch still affects me the same as it did the first time.”

  “I’m always glad to hear that.” He admitted with another kiss to her shoulder, his hand moving to cup her breast completely, warming her skin before she had a chance to realize she was cold. “When we first met and you told me how limited your previous experience was, I was worried that we’d get into things and you wouldn’t really have much of an appetite for it. Imagine my surprise when we went seven rounds that second day and finally fell asleep from exhaustion.” He chuckled at the memory, only a few days old but already funny. “I’ve got no problem with you being insatiable. Just gives me more reason to work on satisfying you.”

  “If you were surprised, imagine how I felt.” Her breast responded to his touch, her nipple peaked beneath his warm hand, both from the cold and the stimulation of his touch. “You know so much. And you feel so good. It’s incredible.”

  “I hope it only gets better. For both of us. You’re incredible.” He hugged her back against him tightly, which pulled a moan from both of them. “I hope to keep surprising you in the future. Even after a week, I still haven’t shown you all of my tricks. Have to save some good ones for later.” His hands moved down over her thighs, inching them apart to emphasize how exposed she was to him and to the moon. “I hope if you find out there’s something you want or that you’re curious about, you’ll tell me. I do take requests.”

  “Mmm.” She replied at first as his hands moved over her thighs. “There are a lot of things I’m curious about, I’m sure, I just don’t know all the things to be curious about. I intend to study more about sexual behaviors once we get back to Seven.” She moaned again once his fingers teased her. “Particularly, I want to study first about oral sex.”

  “Giving or receiving?” He asked with a smile, pressing the conversation as always even while he was intent on teasing her. It had begun by him being impressed by how long she could maintain proper conversation, and had turned into a habit between them to talk things through as they were about to devour each other.

  Mercury writhed against him as he teased, but she still attempted to focus on the conversation. “Both. I want to learn about how to give it more, though, I think. It’s important to me that I know what to do. You already know so much about how a woman works. It’s not fair to you that I don’t know as much.”

  “You don’t need to question whether I’m satisfied or not.” His caresses over the rest of her body turned heavier as she writhed against him, and he loved how free things had become between them. Sex in zero gravity was very different from sex in a weighted environment, but he felt like he could take his time more in weightlessness. Things seemed much more sensual when all the body had to do was feel instead of focusing on how to hold itself up. “You know plenty about how I work and what I like. Especially since what I like is as much of you as I can get.”

  “Mmmm.” She said again as she enjoyed the feeling of his body against hers and his caresses over her skin. “Is it…” she started to say, before a jolt of pleasure interrupted her thought with a whimper. “Is it different for you, being with me compared to the other women you’ve been with? Other than my body being more accommodating. Certainly every woman must bring something different to the experience.”

  “It is different, but it’s hard to quantify how.” She could easily feel him getting hard again against her as he continued to tease at her while he spoke, his free hand closing over her breasts to press her against him as he grinned at her moans. “It feels less like you want something from me but more like you want something with me. Which is a big difference I had never really understood before. And it’s just…it’s still amazing to me and it’s still going to take a lot of getting used to the fact that you just don’t play games. Every woman plays games. With what they want, what they think they want, what they think you think they want, and how they go about getting it. It gets tedious. And you are anything but tedious.”

  “I’m glad you don’t think I’m tedious.” Mercury closed her eyes and got lost in his touch on her breasts. “I’ve never seen much purpose in playing games. Nor do I think I really understand how, honestly. Facts matter more than games. Twisting any kind of truth just to attempt to achieve an end seems like wasted time.” She moaned louder as one of his fingers circled one of her nipples. “That feels wonderful. Please don’t stop.”

  It was more specific than anything else he’d gotten from her previously, and he had no trouble obeying precisely, bringing her nipples more to attention. “I love winding you up. I can’t think of many things I’ve enjoyed more in my entire life than seeing you when you’re finally so horny you just turn and attack me. I love it.”

  Mercury tried to laugh, but the way he was touching her wasn’t funny in the least. It felt so good, especially when he found different ways to trace lines and patterns along her sensitive nipples. “Why…why is that so special?”

  In answer, one of his hands continued the caress she had requested on her breasts, while the other moved down over her waist to explore between her legs, further complicating the teasing he was doing. “I might not have known you for very long yet, but I do know you. In the rest of the world, the rest of your life, you’re as contained and controlled as anyone I’ve ever met. But if I can get you to go wild with me, break that control, maybe have you screaming about multiple orgasms, all those times…I cherish those times. Just because I know how hard it is to get them out of you. That makes them more than worth it.”

  Mercury could only groan in response as he got her feeling tense and needy, but it didn’t stop her from trying to speak. “You care…about me? Cherish…” she replied with a pant. “You said cherish.”

  “Damn right I did. And damn right I do.” He didn’t let up on his torment of her as he said so, kissing up along the back of her neck as he turned her inside out.

  Mercury was unable to speak coherently after seeing stars on top of stars, until an alert went off to signal final approach and she knew that she shouldn’t remain naked much longer. “I love spending all this time with you, Orion. Not only for physical reasons. I look forward to the life we’ll make together.”

  He spun her around in the pod to face him, hooking his legs with hers to give them leverage against each other to stay close, and kissed her thoroughly before he reached over to start helping her pull her jumpsuit into place. “You and me both. I look forward to coming home to you. I don’t look forward to leaving you all the time to go fly, but that’s the nature of both our lives. I just know I’m going to really look forward to coming home as long as you’re my home.”

  “I want to be your home.” She kissed his lips several more times and wiggled to get her suit back into place properly. It was strange to wear a jumpsuit after being used to other types of clothing, but she didn’t mind it. Mercury reached up and ran her fingers along his cheeks afterward. “You’re so gorgeous. I am going to write an excellent review about my matching experience.” Mercury smiled against his lips afterward and laughed.

  Her laugh
made him smile, as it always did, and he shrugged his way into his own jumpsuit, in which he was fairly comfortable, even though he would always be more comfortable when naked with Mercury. “Oh fuck yes. That program is getting a five-star review from me, that’s for damn sure. My matching experience…” he chuckled and leaned in to kiss her neck above the collar of the jumpsuit, groaning slightly at the taste of her and the warmth of her in his arms. “I am very much enjoying the experience of my match.”

  He kissed back up to her lips, the look on his face more serious as he looked her in the eye. “I want to marry you, Mercury. Before we go into the Initiative, before we get locked away and blast off to the other side of the galaxy, before anything else, I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine.” They had talked about marriage slantwise earlier, but never in any kind of firmly committed way. That had quickly become insufficient for Orion. “You’re easily one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, and I have a bad habit of letting good things turn into regrets that I let go or couldn’t hold onto. I want to hold onto you, make you laugh, make you scream as often as possible, and overall, make you happy.” He moved down in the cramped space of the pod so that it looked like he was kneeling against the base, his hands sliding down over her sides and her legs until he was looking up at her with his face at her waist, grinning broadly. “What do you think? Sound like fun?”

  His smile and his playfulness was infectious, and she nodded as he ran his hands over her sides and legs, since she wanted to marry him too. She knew it was fast, faster than she ever imagined possible, considering her original doubts. Now she knew how wrong she was, and for the first time, she was happy to be wrong. They still had a lot to learn about each other, but she wanted to learn it as his wife. There couldn’t possibly be anyone out there that was a better match for her, and even if there was, she didn’t care to find him. “It sounds amazing. I would love to be your wife, Orion.”

  His grin actually expanded, though it was hard to see how that was possible, and he slowly kissed his way back up her body before he got back to her lips, pressing her against the glass exterior of the pod to stay wrapped up in her a while longer. “I ordered your ring before we left Three.” He said between kisses, his hands resting on her backside to keep her pressed into him. “It should be ready by the wedding. I had to get it from a contractor on Prime to get what I wanted for you.”

  “You were that confident, were you?” She wasn’t offended by the fact that he had proceeded without asking her first, in fact, she was glad that he was so confident in their relationship. “When will our wedding be?”

  “Well, entry date for the Initiative is 11.15, which gives us another week for the remainder of our Introduction, and two weeks after that to get back to work and get everyone coordinated to attend. I figure we can have it 11.12 and have the weekend to ourselves before the Initiative begins that Monday.” Clearly he had thought things through, if he had already run those kinds of dates, and he shrugged through his playful smile. “You went to sleep early the other night and I had a bout of insomnia. I was awake for a while thinking of this stuff before I attacked you in your sleep.”

  Mercury continued kissing him after he broke down all of the dates and explained it all to her, partially because she couldn’t stop, but also because she appreciated that he had planned it all out and knew all of the answers to her questions immediately. She appreciated his take-charge attitude. It was refreshing to her. “That all sounds great. Perfectly planned out.”

  She looked past him briefly at the station as they got closer to it, but seeing it again left a flutter in her stomach and a taste of remembered panic in her mouth. She hated that the accident and the interrogation afterward had somewhat soured her excitement for being part of the Jannah project. “I hope this place has settled down. I’m nervous about being here.”

  “I have strongly mixed feelings myself.” He tried to keep his tone light-hearted as he spun her around and started strapping her in, kissing her afterward with a grin to make it feel a tiny bit kinky. They hadn’t tried anything with restraints or anything quite that creative yet, but they had only been together barely over a week, after all. “On the one hand, it’s where we almost died and things exploded and a lot of other terrible things happened. On the other hand, it’s where I met my wife. So you know. Give and take.”

  Hearing Orion call her his wife brought Mercury’s smile back to her lips, and she squeezed his hand afterward before he moved away from her seat. “Your wife. I really do like the sound of that. However, I’d like to keep my last name. My family line stops with me, and I don’t want to change things up with my patients and my current research. I hope that doesn’t offend you.”

  “No, not at all. Al-Jabbar is kind of a mouthful. I get it.” He gave her a reassuring smile before he pulled away out of her line of sight, and she could hear him working through the various controls to get their landing sequence under way. “You’ve got a lot that you’ve accomplished under Finnegan. I wouldn’t want to take that away from your family.”

  “You wouldn’t be taking it away. I just want to keep it. I’ve worked hard to develop my identity.” She smiled at him even as he worked, just because he had that effect on her. Frequently. “When my colleagues meet you, they’ll be stunned. I’m sure that they’re expecting someone who doesn’t smile quite as often as you do. I’m not known for being funny or clever or really even spending time with people who are.”

  “What are you talking about? You’re the cleverest person I know.” He had to stop responding as he maneuvered them around a few larger ships that were working on departing from the docks, but he managed to talk through his distraction. “And I’m really not that funny. But I’m glad you think I am. I doubt your friends will think I’m funny, though. Mostly people just tend to complain about how much their neck hurts trying to talk to me or make jokes about giants walking the Earth…”

  He stopped as they drifted farther away from the dock, so as to avoid hitting another ship that was leaving, and both their eyes were drawn to the gaping maw of destruction that was the scar left over from the breaking of Arm Four. There were still maintenance ships anchored all over the area, tethered technicians working on null-atmosphere welds along the length of the scar. By appearances, they were patching over the breach rather than trying to build on it with the intention of constructing a new arm in the future, but Orion imagined that was a temporary measure. Still, it was unsettling to see, and even more than the violence of the breach, Orion let out a low whistle at the extent of the damage. “This…wait, that’s not right.”

  Mercury was too stunned by the sight and the cold feeling that settled in her body at seeing it up close to register his voice at first. She finally looked away, though, confused by what he said. “What? What’s not right?”

  Orion hit a few pieces of the display, and highlighted parts of the structure while they drifted there, the station spinning slowly in front of them as they waited for their turn to dock. The main supports of the vast structure lit up as they would have on a schematic of the station, to show her where the arm had been anchored to the dock in the first place. “All the exterior junctions, yeah, clearly all those were blown to hell. You can see all the jagged breaks where the explosions were, all the way around the arm. Those were clearly blown up. And those would hold the arm on by themselves, they’re designed as triple failsafes. Outer ring, inner core, secondary core. But you see the inner and the secondary there…they’re not welding those or fixing them. They’re clean breaks. Which means those structures were cut. Cleanly. Before the explosion.”

  Mercury’s stomach twisted as she thought about what he was saying about the structure. “They did say that they were working on the arm before the accident happened. Perhaps they cut them so that they could be fixed? And they just…they thought that the arm could handle more than it could, and then the outer layer broke?”

  Orion felt his own stomach twist knots, but Mercury watched him shake
his head in the reflection of the glass. “When they work on structural repairs like this, protocol is that they work on half of a ring at a time. So if you’ve got three full rings, two of which are completely severed, that’s…either the worst breach of protocol I’ve ever heard of combined with the worst kind of coincidence, or it’s…not.” It was clear from his tone what he thought, but he moved the pod away from the site quickly once the path to the pod-dock was clear.

  Mercury was silent as he worked until they were nearly close to docking, and then she found her voice again. “So then if it was on purpose, then there has to be a reason why they’ve announced a lie. Clearly we’re not the only ones who can look at that and see what you saw, and we’re not the only ones who can understand what that means. So if they’re publicly lying, then either they know what happened, or they still don’t know and they’re trying to keep an investigation a secret while lying to keep the public from going into a frenzy over it.”

  “That pretty much sums up the available options.” He agreed in a dour tone, as he ran his fingers through the display to remove the traces of the operations he had performed in analyzing the breach scar. He didn’t need other people walking in behind him and seeing the evidence of his own investigation. That would raise questions he didn’t have a good answer for besides open curiosity. “And I’m not sure I’m a fan of any of those options. Either way, they’re lying, but one way they’re incompetent and the other way they’re…well, I don’t want to think about the other way.”

  “I don’t either.” She whispered, clearly distressed. “I simply cannot believe they would keep it from us unless it was for our own good not to know.” Mercury didn’t agree with withholding information, but she wasn’t in a leadership position and she needed to focus on what she was good at. Being a doctor. Not being a politician. “I have faith in the Consortium. They’ve given me so much.”