by Unknown
"Harder, please—harder."
She squeezed him so tightly as he strained to press himself ever deeper inside her.
Stardate 3527.6.24 – Seven a.m. – Amy's Cabin
When Amy's wake-up chime rang Mario was already gone. He had gotten up, dressed, and kissed her goodbye an hour earlier. Men were not permitted in female country, as her portion of the ship was called, between the hours of six in the morning and noon.
She rolled over and pressed her face into the pillow that Mario had used. She inhaled the mixture of scents he had left behind. She recognized the fragrance of his aftershave and his musky sweat. He had sweated a lot as they made love.
"All right, all right," she said to the air when the chime sounded a second time. She got up from the bed.
She punched the button on her coffee dispenser and moments later, her morning cup appeared, complete with sweetener and cream. While these latter two ingredients were artificially created chemicals, the coffee was real. One thing the Space Service had always insisted upon was that each crew member received one cup of real coffee each day.
Amy blew slowly into the steaming cup and took two small sips. She pulled on her fluffy robe and picked up her toiletries. Coffee cup in hand, she exited her cabin. The communal washroom was at the end of the hall.
"Ooh la-la," Ruth's voice greeted Amy as she entered the washroom. "That was a rocking hard night—two big ones!" Ruth was not talking to Amy. She was continuing the ongoing conversation about their nightly orgasms with Belinda. "Ricardo does know how to wind me up, kissing me all over." She highlighted the last comment with a tug on the curly hair adorning her Venus. "And then, he let me ride cowgirl," she sighed.
Amy considered how it might be to have Mario kiss her down there, but she couldn't imagine how it might feel. And she had no idea what 'ride cowgirl' meant.
"Mmm, well, mine surely rocked the ship," Belinda answered. "We did doggie and I had to hang on tight to the bed." She swooned and fanned her face. "So, the ship's gyroscopes will need realignment this morning."
Amy tried to avoid her eyes and wondered what 'doggie' meant.
Two other women entered the washroom and joined in the morning banter. Amy smiled, but did not enter into the conversation. She never did. She had never been able to talk about sex, but mostly it was because she had never had an orgasm to brag about. That was, she had not had one before. Her smile broadened as her body recalled the rush of pleasure—the flashes of fireworks—the tingling, toe-curling spasms. She had lost count of the number of times she had made love during her life, but she clearly remembered each of the half-dozen men she had been with. Expecting that her six partners could not all have been deficient in their equipment or skill, Amy had decided that the fault was with her. While she enjoyed the sex acts, she never had the explosions of pleasure described by the other women. She had thought about discussing her troubles with a doctor, but the concept seemed too embarrassing.
After her spanking, Mario had made love with her and she had climaxed for the first time.
Was it the spanking?
Amy was a scientist and knew that coincidence was not causation. But she would have to experience a spanking again. Mario's shift had rotated away, and now C-shift was aligned with the women's D-shift. She would have to find a way to get her other two boyfriends aboard the ship to spank her.
The other women hung their robes on the provided hooks and entered the showers. Alone, Amy opened her robe and examined the reflection of her bottom in the mirror. Fortunately, her butt was pristine. There was no evidence of Mario's spanking. She closed her eyes and remembered the stinging smacks of his hand. They had stung, but it wasn't exactly pain. As he spanked her harder, the burning swats somehow became pleasant. She'd welcomed his firm hand spanking her bare bottom. Mysteriously, she was comfortable as he pinned her to his lap. She writhed and squirmed and kicked, but she had never been so tightly bonded with him—not even when he was inside her.
And then, he was inside me.
He had been so gentle when he first filled her, but she was driven to be taken harder. She had pressed her hips into his thrusts and used her feet to encourage him to drive deeper. With frantic energy, he had pumped himself into her channel—again, and again, and again. The strange energy had built within her core. She had wrapped her arms around him in an effort to melt into his body. Reliving the experience, her breathing increased as she recalled the rippling muscles of his back. She remembered reaching into the thick curls of his hair and inhaling his musky scent.
That's when the fireworks began! Oohh, yes…
Amy opened her eyes and glanced around. She was grateful that no one had observed her brief reliving of the evening. She hung up her robe and followed the others into the steaming shower.
Returning to her cabin, she munched on a protein bar and got to work. Breakfast was available in the mess hall, but she was not interested in company. By now, the ship's crew would all know of her violation on Hydrus-4. Her friends would try to be supportive, but she had no interest in enduring the stares and taunts of everyone else.
Who else knows about Dr. Wilhelm's spanking practice?
Amy had no specific work location and did most of her work using the computer access terminal in her cabin. She sat down, punched it on, and began to write the report for the Interplanetary Council that Dr. Wilhelm had assigned. Using the simulation programs on the Carpenter's main computer, she tracked the alien population's evolutionary path and the potential impacts of her blunder. Assigning probabilities to these, she completed her conclusion that a significant impact to the population's genetics was possible, but unlikely. However, the data left her no room to avoid concluding that an impact upon the specific herd was almost a certainty. She had created a religion for the future population of Hydrus-4.
She chuckled, remembering Mario's remark that she was destined to become a goddess.
This potential religious shift had an additional concern. Studies had shown that populations with deity worship of a god with the power of life and death created more cohesive societies and faster technical development. Amy had definitely appeared as a deity with the power to give life. Despite the alien population's primitive communication ability, there was no doubt that the story of her appearance would be retold and would enter into the community's permanent history. Therefore, this specific herd of the species would develop faster as a result of her action. The bad news was that the other herds would develop at the prior, natural rate. In a thousand years, this population would have a stronger social network and advanced technology relative to the majority of the species with the identical genetics. This disparity would create a stratified culture of slaves and masters for many thousands of years.
With a sigh, Amy ended her report with a recommendation that the planet be revisited to assess the damage in a few hundred years.
She dressed and headed to lunch, and to her dreaded afternoon meeting with Professor Wilhelm.
Stardate 3527.7.03 – Two p.m. – Ship's Theater
"Amy, are you prepared to present the anthropology report for Corvus-3?"
Her jaw dropped, and she stuttered, "Yes-yes, sir."
She was amazed that Professor Wilhelm would assign this task to her. During the week since her blunder on Hydrus-4, they had met daily to complete their report to the Interplanetary Council. They had concluded that the population was intelligent, and that lanthanum mining would not be permitted. Other than her penance report, there had been no mention of her violation of the Interplanetary Council's mandate. Amy had been left wondering whether or not she had lost Dr. Wilhelm's confidence, and her position as leader of the ground anthropology team. While he had allowed her to be his eyes and ears on the ground, he had always taken control of their presentations. With this assignment, he was clearly stating that she had retained his full confidence, and he was going to use the meeting to display that confidence to the entire crew.
The Carpenter was still in hyperspace as the s
hip transitioned to the next star system on their tour, Corvus-3. Their arrival would not be for another week, but now was the time for the ground crew to begin its preparations. This meeting was the first in a series toward their next planetary exploration. In this meeting, the individual teams would present the meager amount of known information about the planet, and the members of the ground crews would be assigned. While a significant honor, her role in the presentation would be slight. There was little information known about any potential alien population, and she was always assigned to lead the anthropology crew. Nonetheless, she was thrilled to have this opportunity to demonstrate to her peers that the Hydrus-4 event was officially behind her.
The meeting was held in the Carpenter's theater. Amy and the other ground team leaders sat on the small stage. Professor Wilhelm had left her to her own devices as he sat in the audience—albeit in the front row. Although she was not technically a member of the ship's crew, she stood stiffly as the captain entered and took a seat on the stage. This was unusual. He was the captain of the ship and its operating crew, but he had no authority over the ground teams. His job, the job of the ship, was to move the ground crew from planet to planet.
The Ground Control Officer gave an acknowledging nod to the captain, and opened the meeting. "You all know that we are here today to discuss Corvus-3." He introduced each team leader and Amy attentively listened to each short presentation.
"From the long range examination of the planet's spectral reflection of its star's illumination, it has been concluded that Corvus-3 has oxygen and water vapor in its atmosphere. Additionally, from its orbital location, it is presumed that it has liquid water on its surface. Therefore," the biology team leader concluded, "it is almost certain that Corvus-3 will contain flora and fauna life."
The mineralogist had no information. He announced the members of the team that would search for lanthanum and sat back down.
Amy's report was next. She stood and, with deliberate strides, walked to the podium. She looked over the gathering of her friends and colleagues. This was the first time she had addressed the entire ground crew. She nervously licked her lips, and said, "There has been no electromagnetic emission detected from the planet thus far. Therefore, it is assumed that whatever animal life may exist, it is not sufficiently intelligent to have achieved advanced space travel.
"We will make further evaluations at the medium hold point to determine the extent of technical development of the potential population." She did not see a need to specify that the medium hold point was one million miles from the planet. "Assuming that no emissions are detected from that location, we will enter orbit and complete a close range scan with the drones." She concluded with a list of the other members of her team, and turned to leave the podium.
"Not the extreme hold point?" She had not seen who had asked the question. She had not expected any questions and momentarily glanced at Dr. Wilhelm. He was watching her attentively.
"Ah, no. As I said, we did not detect electromagnetic emission. If the planet contains intelligent life, they have not developed space flight. It is unnecessary to make an observation from that far out."
Amy was actually disappointed in this lack of space flight development. If it had been determined that the citizens Corvus-3 possessed were advanced, then the Interplanetary Council's guidelines would have permitted contact between the humans and the aliens. In this case, the Carpenter would have paused at the extreme hold point to see if they were detected by the aliens. If they were observed, then they would initiate contact. Amy would have had a major role in this most historic event. However, it would have been their goal to remain undetected as they surveyed the surface for lanthanum. If the mineral was not detected, they would quietly depart the system, leaving actual contact with the aliens to a future mission. If the mineral was detected, they would expose themselves and negotiate a means to trade some material or technology that the aliens wanted for the lanthanum that the humans were after.
"Yes, but isn't it always safer to pause at the extreme hold point to verify the observation?" Now Amy saw who was asking the question. It was a junior member of the meteorology team. She recalled that his name was Tom, and that she had refused his request for a date two months earlier. She guessed that he was trying to get into her good graces, and her pants, by making her look good before the ship's company.
"In many cases, that may be true, but—" she began.
"I believe the captain will be addressing this issue more specifically in a moment," the Ground Control Officer interrupted. "The short answer is that the extreme hold point is at the fringe of the planetary system. We have a reason to hurry with this planet. Thus, we will proceed directly to the medium hold point."
"So, Miss Toller, you are certain that we will not be making alien contact here?"
Amy licked her lips and again stole a glance at Dr. Wilhelm. He nodded ever so slightly.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Donner." She now understood why Tom was pressing this point. He was extracting some revenge, trying to raise the Hydrus-4 issue. However, he was on the verge of appearing ridiculous. "Or, rather, no," Amy corrected herself. "Er, what I mean to say, is that we are certain they don't possess space flight capabilities. Therefore, we are not making any contingency plan to establish contact with them—if there is anyone intelligent at home at all."
This last quip elicited a chuckle from the room.
"Therefore, the ship will remain in hyperspace until we have reached the medium hold point," she continued. "If they are intelligent, but haven't achieved space travel, then this point is still far enough away to ensure that we cannot be detected by whatever weak radar systems they might possess. Of course," Amy continued, "From the medium hold point, we will again examine the spectral emissions from the planet to ascertain the technology level of the population. If any emissions are detected from this location, it would indicate that they are intelligent and no mining will be permitted. We will then quickly depart." Amy swallowed. "Either way, we will not be meeting with anyone on this planet."
Finally, she left the podium. As she passed him, she momentarily locked eyes with the captain. His stony face offered no clue as to what he might be thinking. She had only spoken with him once. With a few words, a genuinely warm smile, and a brief handshake, he had welcomed her to the ship's company. He had showed her the brass plaque commemorating the ship's namesake, Commander Scott Carpenter. "He was an astronaut," the captain had said. Amy didn't know what an astronaut was, but she didn't ask. "He was the first man to manually fly a spaceship," the captain continued. "He was also the first spaceman to disobey orders, and he never flew in space again." She had seen the captain many times after that meeting, but they had not conversed. After the Hydrus-4 incident, she had wondered if her fate would be the same as Commander Carpenter's.
As she returned to her seat, she felt his eyes upon her.
Is he thinking of the Hydrus-4 incident, or the curves of my bottom?
At the conclusion of the individual reports, the Ground Control Officer turned the podium over to the captain. Amy stared at the man's back while he spoke. She admired his slender, muscular physique, tightly packed into his jumpsuit. His broad shoulders tapered to his waist. As he was a little less than twice her age, she imagined what it would be like to be bent over his knee with her bottom held high. She wondered if he was adopting Dr. Wilhelm's practice and was spanking his errant female officers.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am taking this opportunity to ensure that you are all aware of the special circumstances of this star and its planetary system." He paused to ensure he had everyone's attention. Amy was certain that his very presence would attract the audience's rapt interest. "This star represents our furthest point away from home. While this alone has some significance, my point in addressing you is that we are at our closest point to the Barbas' home planet of Caprus-2." He paused again and examined the faces of the audience. "While we have no knowledge of their activity in this system, we must expect that
they could be operating starships in this area."
Like every citizen of Eden, Amy knew of the Barbas and their perpetual warring behavior.
In the beginning, all of the humans had lived on a single planet known as Earth. No one knew exactly what had happened, but the population fractured into diverse, warring communities. When Noah Abrams invented the Lanthanum Star Drive, the sum total of the planet's lanthanum supply was used to create twelve starships. These were sent to twelve different planetary systems to expand the human race. Ten of these were apparently lost. Only her own people and the Barbas survived. The knowledge of Earth's location had been lost.
Amy's branch of humanity arrived at Pegus-3 over a thousand years ago. They named the planet Eden, and it was rich in resources, with a lush variety of plant and animal life. The humans had pushed out the primitive, native population—hence the directive from the Interplanetary Council to never again interfere with local populations.
The humans lived in peace and luxury, and forgot much of their roots as hundreds of years passed.
The Barbas arrived at their destination, Caprus-2, and found a desolate, inhospitable planet. However, they lacked the resources to leave and explore deeper into space. The planet did have oxygen, water, and some plant life. Thus, they were able to eke out a meager existence—to survive. Their life was hard. Bitter about their plight, they returned to humanity's former warlike state.
While Eden and Barbas had no contact with each other, or any other population, during the passing centuries, the Barbas had retained the knowledge of the location of Amy's ancestors' destination: Pegus-3. As the Barbas struggled to survive, they managed to regain the technology of interstellar travel. The Barbas were driven to migrate to Eden.
Two hundred years ago, the Barbas arrived at Eden. After a few tense exchanges, they were welcomed as long lost brothers. However, the Barbas had not intended to be guests. They intended to take control of the planet and to enslave Amy's ancestors. The population of Eden was able to overthrow the more technically advanced Barbas with sheer numbers. Tens of thousands of people gave their lives to attack and kill the few hundred men that arrived in the three starships. The people of Eden launched their own initiative to regain the technical advantage, and the secrets of faster-than-light space travel.