by HR Ringer
There was soft breathing in her ear, the slow rhythm of a sleeping person’s chest rising and falling against her back. ‘Where am I…?’ she thought, until memory kicked in. The evening before… Xiùlán… it was Xiùlán’s nude body close behind her, ‘spooning’ her back, long legs tangled with her own, one arm under Sam’s head in place of a pillow, the other arm draped over her side, warm muscular forearm against her stomach and chest, hand lovingly holding one of Sam’s breasts, also nude, as was the rest of her body.
Sam had to pee; not wishing to wake her sleeping companion, she carefully placed her own hand over Xiùlán’s and pressed it more firmly against her breast, enjoying the sensations aroused by the feel of her lover’s hand on her body. She sighed as she started to pull Xiùlán’s hand away so she could get out of bed; this effort was rewarded with a heavy sigh in her ear, followed by a whispered, “Máfanle, wǒ de ài?” [麻煩了，我的愛？- Trouble, my love?].
Xiùlán turned her head slightly and softly kissed Sam’s ear as she gently squeezed the breast she was holding.
“Hafta pee… be right back,” Sam replied as she elbowed her way up to a semi-sitting position. Xiùlán’s hand stayed on her body, trailing down from her boob along her ribs, coming to rest at the crease where her thigh met her body at the hip. “You don’t make answering nature’s call very easy, Ms Yuán.” She looked into the deep pools of dark brown eyes, studying her through slitted lids in the dim light of the compartment, ‘…like a tiger in the shadows, waiting to pounce,’ she thought, before swinging her legs over and getting to her feet, smiling as she felt that loving hand slide around to her butt and down the back of her leg.
She thought, ‘I could so get used to this!’ as she took the few steps to the compact toilet compartment. She inwardly cringed as the sound of her stream brought to mind a horse pissing while standing in a shallow creek.
Thinking back on the events of a few short hours ago as she wiped and stood, she flushed the toilet and washed her hands. They’d both crowded in here last night, exploring their love further as they took turns washing the sweat from each other’s bodies with damp washcloths before going to bed. It had been Traynor’s idea for them to sleep nude.
Opening the door, she tiptoed back to Xiùlán’s bed and eased herself under the covers. Xiùlán was now lying on her other side, back towards Sam, covers pulled up over her ear, apparently sound asleep. 'Damn! Just like that.’ Reflecting on the speed with which Xiùlán had returned to her slumbers, Traynor snuggled up to her bare back and thought, ‘She’s a perfect fighter… able to go to sleep quickly, take advantage of any opportunity to rest.’ Reaching over Xiùlán’s side, Sam snaked her arm under that of her lover’s in order to place her own hand on a breast. Xiùlán, stirring slightly at this intrusion, responding by placing her own hand over Traynor’s and pressing it tenderly towards her chest. A whispered “Gǎnjué hěn hǎo, sà mǐ. Wǒ ài nǐ.” [感覺很好，薩米。我愛你。- Feel(s) good, Sami. I love you.] was all the indication Sam needed that this beautiful woman had completely accepted her as a companion. Traynor smiled, whispered, “Wǒ yě ài nǐ,” closed her eyes and was almost instantly asleep.
*** 2179/08/20, 0752 ***
“Zǎoshang hǎo, wǒ de ài,” [早上好，我的愛 - Good morning, my love.] Samantha cracked open an eye to see who was whispering Mandarin centimeters from her ear. She was waking up for the first time in the arms of her newfound love… the feelings of happiness and contentment, anticipation of a life together with this fascinating woman, all converged in her mind as she laid there facing her, their arms around each other and their legs relaxed and intertwined. Sam placed a kiss on each of Xiùlán’s eyelids, smiling as they parted ever so slightly to reveal dark eyes, calmly regarding her in the dimness of their sleeping area.
“I have no idea what you just said,” Traynor whispered in response, “but I’d love nothing more than waking up to those words in my ear every morning for the rest of my life.”
A gentle kiss on Sam’s cheek. “Zǎoshang hǎo, wǒ de ài,” came the whispered reply, “means ‘Good morning, my love’.” This was followed by another gentle kiss. “Xiànzài yǐjīng wǎnle. Shàngxué shíjiān, wǒ de ài.” [現在已經晚了。上學時間，我的愛。] Another kiss, then “That means ‘It’s late. School time, my love’.” She hugged Sam tightly to her, enjoying the feel of her nude body against her own; longing and arousal and need all playing out in her mind. “Last night was the best night of my life, Sammy,” she said softly, before finishing in a voice tinged with shyness, “Couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present. How’d you know what I needed?”
“Just a lucky guess, based on your frustration level with your last hacking attempt.” Sam reached up to place her palms on Xiùlán’s cheeks. “I love you, Yuán Xiùlán. I cannot imagine having any life without you being a part of it. Sounds crazy when I say it out loud, but it’s the truth.” Sam searched her dark brown, almost black eyes. “Xiùlán, I promise you that no matter what happens in future, wherever we go, whatever we do, no matter how many light years separate us, I will always… always… love you.”
Xiùlán almost replied with a joke, but instantly changed her mind; it was obvious Sam was baring her soul just as she had bared her body. “I love you as well, Samantha Traynor. I don’t think I realized until this very second how special you’ve become to me. I am sorry I scared you so badly on Monday… I should have used a different method.” Xiùlán reached up between them, placed her fingers on her lover’s cheeks and applied her lips to Sam’s in a quick little kiss. “Time to get ready for classes, wǒ de ài…lots to do today.”
Reluctantly, she untangled her legs as she playfully brought her hands down to fondle Sam’s breasts. “I think I finally understand why men find boobies so fascinating, Sammy. They’re nice to touch, to massage. Much more fun to play with yours than my own,” she giggled.
Sam was enjoying the attention, but grabbed Xiùlán’s hands and snarked, “Much more fun for you means much more horny for me, Luv! We’ll be her all day if you don’t stop, and damn! I can’t believe I’m being the responsible party here! Go on, get up. They’re all yours tonight… hell, every night, I promise.”
Xiùlán forced herself to release Sam and let her get up so she could use the toilet. Xiùlán unhurriedly stretched and rose from the bed. She straightened the covers, then performed her deep breathing exercises before beginning her Tai Chi movements.
Traynor opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom to see her lover out of bed; more intriguing to Sam was the sight of a still completely nude Xiùlán going through her exercise routine, a form of Tai Chi called Neigong. Watching her cross her arms in front of herself as she brought them up and stretched towards the overhead was making Sam horny all over again. With her arms up, Sam admired the woman’s chiseled abs before Xiùlán leaned forward, bending at the waist to wrap her hands around her ankles.
As she returned to an upright posture, she brought her hands up and crossed her forearms in front of her, took a deep breath and exhaled it through her mouth.
She spotted Sam and smiled. “All done in there? Must be my turn.” She took two more deep breaths, exhaled each through her mouth, then walked up to Sam and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug. “Since we are committed to each other, I will inquire about cohabitation accommodations for us… may even be able to get a larger space with a full bath. I’m going to add to your work load as well. No time this morning, but I want you to learn some form of Tai Chi. It’ll be a great use to you in future.”
“If you don’t let me go so we can get dressed, our only future will be a one-way shuttle ride back to Earth.” Sam kissed her, then smacked her butt and said, “Get going, xùnliàn zhě.”
* * *
*** 2179/10/01 ***
In the 42 days since Xiùlán had consummated her love for Samantha Traynor, she had finally gained enough mastery over her omni-tool and knowledge of computer servers to enab
le her to hack into them, leave instructions or malicious code or both, access and extract sensitive information, and exit without leaving any trace of her intrusion or presence. Of all the recruits in their class, Xiùlán and Samantha were the only two people able to so completely dominate the computers and servers presented to them. Xiùlán knew Sam was the reason she herself could claim that mastery.
It had taken many long evenings of instruction and coaching by Traynor for Xiùlán’s efforts to finally bring her the success that came so easily to her lover’s clever mind.
Unfortunately for the talented pair, their abilities had drawn some negative attention from the few people that were totally unsuccessful at electronics intrusion, namely, Joesiar and his minions, three guys (to call any of them ‘men’ did a disservice to the gender) whose very existence called into question the wisdom of natural selection.
Traynor, after not having seen Joesiar since first of the year due to changing class requirements, was confronted by him in a passageway before her first class after lunch; she had been walking fast and not paying a lot of attention to what was in front of her until Joesiar planted himself in her path, causing her to nearly collide with him. He roughly pushed her back and said, “Hey bitch, why don’t you watch where’n’ell yer goin’?”
Fortunately for Sam, she was now a lot more knowledgeable about how to defend herself physically and mentally from bullies like the pale-eyed miscreant standing in front of her. She surreptitiously engaged her omni-tool’s audio recorder and answered in a condescending voice, “I’m sorry. Would it have been too much trouble for you to have walked on the other side of this 6-meter wide passageway?”
“Well now, yeah, it woulda been too much trouble. Ya see, I don’t think you belong here with decent folk,” Joesiar said. “You an’ dat fuckin’ chink friend of yourn think you’re so damned smart, acing all dem computer classes. Way I figure it, yer cheating to get dem scores. No one’s dat good. Both’o’ya shoulda been booted out da nearest airlock on the way up here from Earth. Now yer breathin’ air dat’s rightfully mine, forcing me and my pals to breath what you exhale. I don’t think dat’s right, do you?”
Traynor chuckled. “You’re joking, right? Joesiar, that’s really funny. I could swear you said…” Traynor laughed again in spite of herself, “…you ‘think’, not once, but twice. I find the concept of you?… thinking?… absolutely ludicrous, to say the least.” She shook her head in disbelief as she chuckled again – the sound of it sending chills up Joesiar’s weak spine, not that he’d admit it to anyone. “Too bad for you, Joesiar – I’m not scared of you, and I’m not going to back down…,” she continued as she added a truly menacing tone to her voice, “…so get your goddamned ugly face the hell out of my personal space before I remove it for you.”
Joesiar’s face turned beet red as he looked at the minion standing behind her and said, “Grab her, Hobie. I’m gonna teach dis bitch a lesson in manners!”
Hobie decided he would take advantage of the opportunity and grab a handful of Traynor’s breasts as he started to snake his hand over her left shoulder. What happened next made Hobie wish he’d never met Joesiar or Traynor, as she swiftly bent forward at the waist while throwing her right leg backwards at the hip; this lifted Hobie off his feet as Traynor’s lower leg flew up between his legs and made full contact with his nuts. As Hobie bent forward with an exclamation of surprised pain, Traynor swiftly jerked her right arm back and up into his face, breaking his nose with her elbow. He hollered something unintelligible as he grabbed his bloodied face with one hand, lost his balance and fell on his side, curled up in a ball holding his damaged gonads with his other hand. Traynor crossed her arms in front of her as she calmly returned her attention to Joesiar. Head tilted, one eyebrow raised questioningly, she asked in a voice still full of menace, “You were saying…?”
Joesiar proved his ability to think on his feet was virtually non-existent by rushing at Samantha with both arms raised and spread wide as if to grab her. She responded by leaping straight up in the air, arms positioned straight out to either side with hands partially folded towards her wrists, forefingers and thumbs extended, lower legs drawn up underneath her body in the form of a crane taking flight.
As her hips came level with Joesiar’s head, she lashed out with a brutal kick, striking him square in the chest with the sole of her right boot; the staggering impact halted his forward momentum and sent him back two steps as she touched down lightly in front of him.
Traynor’s kick had been powerful enough to knock most people off their feet. Joesiar bent over for a moment, then stood back up just in time to catch Samantha’s extensively practiced snapping three-punch combo full in the face. The first punch broke his nose, causing a rivulet of blood to begin trickling out of each nostril; her second punch hit him square in the mouth, resulting in more blood as his teeth cut the inside of his lips. The coup de grâce was an uppercut to his chin… this snapped his head back and dumped him on the floor as if he’d been a marionette with strings suddenly severed. Traynor brought her fists up to her chest, took a deep breath and released it, then lowered her arms to her sides.
She sent a speedy text to Xiùlán, then quickly shot several photos with her omni-tool; with the audio she’d recorded during their conversation, she felt she had more than enough to get Joesiar dropped from the program, if she hadn’t killed the bastard. She crouched next to his still form and used her omni-tool to check his life signs – he still had a pulse, so his hard head had saved him this time. She noticed blood on her knuckles as she put in a call for medical support, closed her tool and leaned against the corridor wall to slide to a squatting position, knees at her chin. Bringing her hands up to look at her knuckles, it didn’t really surprise her to see blood on the backs of both.
She grimaced as she attempted to make a fist with each hand… they were going to need some treatment. Better get an antibiotic shot as well… no telling what kind of germs were on Joesiar’s face.
A crowd of recruits had already gathered when Xiùlán arrived; medics were preparing to transport Joesiar to the infirmary, along with a still bloody Hobe. “What the hell happened, Sam,” Xiùlán asked in a voice full of concern. “Thought you were on your way to an omni-tool weapons class.”
“Joesiar thought he’d teach some bitch a lesson… you think he was referring to me?” Sam asked innocently, then added, “Pretty disrespectful for an Alliance recruit, don’t you think?”
Xiùlán looked at Joesiar bloody face as the medics finished applying medi-gel and hauled his still unconscious form away on a stretcher; Hobe shuffled along pitifully in their wake. “You… did that?” Xiùlán pointed after the injured pair. “You actually dropped… both of them?” Shaking her head, she grinned and said, “You are certainly not the same Samantha Traynor I crashed into last December. Wángbā dàn!” [王八蛋！] She grabbed her friend and hugged her tight. “I am so proud to call you my xuéshēng, Sammy! Gāisǐ de!” Xiùlán grabbed her friend’s hands, felt the blood on her knuckles and drew back, alarmed. “Sēn měi, nǐ de zhǐ guānjié! [森美，你的指關節！– Sammy, your knuckles!] We need to get those injuries treated.” Before Sam could answer, Xiùlán brought out a small container of medi-gel from a thigh pocket and applied a bit across the knuckles of each hand. “This’ll help until you see the medic…,” she said.
They were interrupted as their group lieutenant, Olivia McKenzie, walked past the still gathering crowd and stopped in front of Xiùlán. Sam and Xiùlán both snapped to attention and saluted. Returning the salutes, McKenzie observed, “Just what in the name of God’s green Earth happened here, Serviceman Yuán? Looks like someone…,” she paused to look around her at the walls and floor, “…or a couple of someones, lost a lot of blood!” Hands on hips, she glared at Xiùlán, waiting for an explanation. The surprised look on the lieutenant’s face when Traynor moved past her friend to stand in front of her was priceless. Traynor activated her omni-tool and started speaking as the au
dio recording transferred to Lieutenant McKenzie’s omni and the storage cell of Sam’s own personal extranet account.
“I just sent you an audio recording of our conversation from the moment I apologized to Serviceman Joesiar for nearly running into him; I am also downloading the last fifteen minutes of the security cam video showing this passageway. Seems six meters isn’t enough space for him to peacefully pass by someone walking in the opposite direction, Ma’am.”
Several of the young women standing behind Sam snickered at this, drawing a ‘hairy eyeball’ look from McKenzie. Sam noticed a number of the women gathered here had previously been targets of Joesiar’s racist and misogynistic taunts as she continued, “Joesiar expressed his unhappiness that I was breathing air he felt was rightfully his; he instructed his companion standing behind me to grab me so he could, quote, ‘teach dis bitch a lesson in manners’, end quote. His companion, Serviceman 3rd class Hobe, attempted to grab my breasts as he reached over my shoulder; his reward was possibly ruptured testicles and a broken nose, which is the source of the blood behind me.”
Applause erupted around her at this, with much hushed discussion about men and pigs being cut from the same cloth. McKenzie raised a hand for silence as she asked, “How in hell did you obtain security cam footage…” she looked at her own omni-tool, “…from two cameras?”
“I hacked the servers, Ma’am.”
“I don’t expect the security chief will be pleased about that, Serviceman Traynor!” McKenzie replied huffily. “How in hell did you manage to hack into the system so fast?”