Fleet Academy

by M. Scott Cottrell

  “Roger roll terminated. Lock one coming open.” The communications officer said as the ship gently stopped rolling and the massive door of air lock one slid open for them.

  Matt gently jetted them into the lock and waited for the rest of the team to enter. “Jenks, close us up.”

  “Aye sir!” She said as she jetted over to the controls and punched in the appropriate codes, closing the door and bringing the gravity back up to the lock to normal. The mid door opened and Matt helped Tempe walk into the lock, holding her steady while Jenkins closed the door and pressurized the lock. As soon as the inner door opened, they were swarmed by technicians and medical personnel. Tempe was led by the hand out of the airlock to a portable suit rack and carefully unsuited. The medics going to work on her face and eyes as soon as her helmet was off. The rest of the team waited while she was carted off to the infirmary before they walked to empty suit racks and stepped in.

  Matt walked silently toward the suit room lock, wondering how bad Tempe was.

  “It wasn’t your fault sir.” Jenkins said as she caught up with him. “It was just a stupid accident.”

  “Most accidents are.” He responded. “I’m going to go up to the infirmary and see how she is.”

  “You better put some clothes on first then sir.” Endez said to him, catching up while they waited for the lock to cycle open. “You don’t want the whole ship getting a bird’s eye view of all your best parts.”

  “Thanks Endez. I can always count on you to try and cheer me up.” Matt said with a crooked smile.

  “No problem sir. And if you have some free time later, I can think of a few things to do with your best parts.”

  “You got it Endez.” Matt said. “If I need someone to squeeze my tush, I’ll come find you.”

  The three of them cycled through the lock and changed back into their jump suits. It was only a few minutes later that Matt was walking into the infirmary, finding Suzi Wong sitting behind the desk. “Hey Suz. How’s Tempe?”

  “They’re still in with her sir. If you want to wait, I’ll make sure the doctor comes out to see you when he’s done.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll wait.” Matt said, finding a chair across from the desk. He watched Suzi get up from the desk and walk into the back of the infirmary, her cute butt wiggling enticingly. She returned a few minutes later, her breasts clearly bouncing around unsupported under the white jump suit. “Doctor Clark will be out in a few minutes.” She said with a smile as she walked back over to the desk and sat down behind it. Matt was pretty sure that she had unzipped her jump suit several inches while she was gone, which was already fairly far down when he walked in. She sat down behind the desk and smiled at him, her fingers idly sliding up and down the edge of the open zipper, pulling it far enough over for Matt to easily see a good portion of her breast, confirming his suspicion that they were indeed unsupported. Just sitting there watching was having a significant effect below the belt, causing him to have to make an adjustment, which brought a satisfied sigh from Suzi.

  “Lieutenant.” Doctor Clark said loudly as he walked out from the back, breaking both of them from the visual connection they were sharing.

  “Doc. How is she?” Matt asked as he stood up to meet him.

  “Not good. She has severe flash burns. I’m pretty limited on what I can do here. We will have to get her back to earth and a more capable facility to work on her retinas. Until then she is going to have a significant amount of blindness. How much is hard to say. We’ll have to give it a few days and see how much comes back. Other than that she’s perfectly fine. I think we’ll keep her here for a few days and see how her eyes progress.”

  “Ok. Thanks doc. Can I see her?”

  “Sure. Come on back.” He replied in an almost fatherly tone.

  As they walked into the room Jenny was sitting by Tempe’s bed, gently taping small white gauze bandages over both eyes. “You have a visitor.” She said quietly to Tempe.

  “Really? Who?” Caitlyn asked.

  “It’s me.” Matt said quietly as he stepped beside the bed. The doctor patted Matt on the shoulder and then retreated out of the room.

  “It’s nice of you to come see me sir.” Caitlyn said somewhat businesslike.

  “Hey. What did you expect? I think you just got hurt so I would have to come visit you in here again.” He responded jokingly.

  “Yeah, that’s right.” She said finding his hand with hers and squeezing it. “I’m sorry I screwed up the mission sir.”

  “You didn’t screw the mission. It was an accident; any of us could have had it happen to us. I’m surprised that it didn’t happen to more of us.”

  “Well, I still screwed it up, so besides letting you down I’m blind. What am I going to do now? Who’s going to want me like this?” She asked, tears leaking from under the white bandages.

  “Hey now. I didn’t hear doc say you were blind for life… All he said was you have flash burns. Your sight may come all the way back, and once we get you home there’s lots the doctors can do with eyes now. You just wait, you’ll be flashing the guys your next trip out and be seeing well enough to watch them bulge.” Matt said with a chuckle.

  “You really think so sir?”

  “I know so Caitlyn.” Matt said, leaning down and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Now you get some rest and get better.”

  “Yes sir. When I get better you promised me slow and easy, remember?” She asked as she moved Matt’s hand with hers under the covers to her bare breast. “You’re not going to back down on that are you?”

  Matt looked over at Jenny, who was sitting quietly by the bed. She gave him a quiet smile and nod. “Don’t worry Caitlyn. I won’t back down. You get the best slow and easy I can give when you’re back up and around.”

  She smiled at Matt and pressed his hand harder to her breast squeezing it with both of their hands. “I can’t think of a better reason to get better sir.” She said quietly before she let go of his hand.

  Matt leaned down and kissed her on the cheek gently. “You get better and we’ll go spend some time in the zero g gym. I seem to recall that you wanted to try that out with me.” He whispered.

  “Yes sir, I did.” She said before turning her head and pulling his back down her face, finding his lips with hers by feel. “Looks like I gotta get my sight back first, I can hardly kiss. God knows what I look like.”

  “You look like the beautiful woman you are. Now you get some rest.” He said stroking her hair.

  “Yes sir.” She said quietly, letting go of his neck and letting her arms fall to the bed.

  Matt walked out of the infirmary, receiving a hug and kiss from Jenny, who trailed him out.

  “That was sweet of you.” She whispered.

  “What was?”

  “Making her feel good that way. It’s important to a woman to know that she’s still a woman, even if right now she can’t see herself in the mirror.”

  “Well, she still is a woman, and a good looking one. But not nearly as good looking as you are.” He said, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight to him. “So how soon do you get off?”

  “Ohhhhh… I’m on duty until eighteen hundred, but you can get me off right now.” She answered, pushing his arms down from her back and letting his hands rest on her firm butt. She placed her hands over his and stepped backward, pulling him toward the bathroom across the hall. She unzipped her jump suit and pushed it down her body even before he had the door closed. It would have been obvious to anyone walking near the bathroom in the next ten minutes just exactly what was happening inside. The only one that was there to notice was Suzi, who stopped and stood outside, rubbing her hands over her body as Jenny cried out in pleasure inside the small cubicle. She promised herself to pay Matt a visit once she was off duty at sixteen hundred.

  Matt walked out of the infirmary and headed up to the bridge, sure that by now they were getting close to firing the rockets on the tanker. It wasn’t his responsibility, but just
the same, he really wanted to be there when it happened. Matt stepped onto the bridge and walked over to the weapons station.

  “Mister Molter. How is Specialist Tempe?”

  “Sorry ma’am. She has flash burns to her eyes, otherwise she is fine. Doctor Clark said there wasn’t much he could do till we got back to Earth.”

  “Understood, thank you Lieutenant. You two have had a number of close calls out there. I’m sorry this one ended up the way it did.” The Captain replied warmly from her seat on the bridge. “Communications put me on ship wide please.”

  “Aye ma’am. Ship wide.” The red headed communications officer replied crisply.

  “This is the Captain. We are about to dock the tanker in our tail cones. Once we are in place we will fire its rockets at maximum thrust. We expect that to give us a good ten plus g deceleration. Since this is at the limits of some systems, all zero g locations and large spaces are off limits until further notice. Thrust in approximately ten minutes. Captain out.”

  “Ship wide off, ma’am.” The cute Lieutenant JG said to the Captain while making eyes at Matt.

  “Thank you Lieutenant.” The Captain replied. “Ok Mister Kispan. We’re in your hands now. Please be gentle or we will be spending the rest of our days out here.”

  “Aye Ma’am.” Susanne said from the pilot’s seat, directly in front of the Captain’s seat. From where Matt was he could already see small beads of sweat appearing on her dark skin, making her forehead glisten as she concentrated on the small thruster panel and camera images. “Just like sitting on a big dick.” She whispered to herself as she coaxed the Saint Claire into position, her main engine bells gently sliding down a set of three cone shaped protrusions on the bow of the tanker. “Ok engineering. Free the gimbals.” She said sharply as the tankers supports slid deep into the bells. There was an almost imperceptible twitch in the ship as the tanker mated fully into the engine bells. “Got it! Engineering, lock the gimbals.” She called over her shoulder to Commander Emerson, seated at the engineering panel. “Ready to fire ma’am.” She said to the Captain, never taking her eyes from the small video monitors in front of her. She gently continued to coax the tanker toward the Saint Claire, her fingers dancing over the thruster controls, keeping the two ships from floating back apart.

  “Very well pilot, Throttle up the tankers engines to one hundred percent.” The captain replied, her voice as calm and stable as if she had just ordered the cook to bring her a second cup of coffee. In reality the order she had just given would, in the next thirty minutes, and particularly the next two or three minutes, mean life or death to the entire crew.

  “Roger…lighting off the tankers engines at ten percent thrust.” Susanne said in a clipped tone. “Engines running at two percent…five percent…holding at ten percent.”

  To Matt is seemed like an hour, but in reality, the whole process so far had taken less than five minutes.

  “Very well pilot.” The captain said reassuringly.

  “Throttling up… twenty percent… all systems functioning normally… thirty percent…fifty percent… slight twitch in the control jets, but I can stabilize it… seventy percent…ninety percent… ninety eight… one hundred percent thrust. All systems responding.”

  “Thank you pilot. Nav. How does it look?” The Captain asked Lieutenant Briggs, seated at the navigation console.

  “Slightly off the track, but still within tolerance for the insertion orbit.” Bounce responded back to her.

  “How much correction?” The Captain asked.

  “Alpha minus two point two.”

  “Copy that, Pilot, can you bring us back down two?”

  “I’ll try ma’am. It’s not very stable.” Suzanne replied, the sweat on her brow growing worse by the second, her fingers flying across the small control touchpad that was coordinating the tankers steering thrusters.

  “Nav, what’s our delta v?”

  “Looks like point oh two c per hour.” She replied quickly.

  “Eng, what’s the tankers fuel state?”

  “Down to thirty percent. Estimate another fifteen hours.”

  “Thank you eng.” The Captain answered, sitting back in her chair as calmly as if she were sitting on a porch sipping ice tea. “Nav, how’s the track?”

  “We’re coming back nicely.”

  “Thank you. Ok people, we have a long time on this flaming candle. Let’s keep awake.” The Captain swiveled in her chair to look around the bridge, as much surveying her people and domain as giving each of the crew a chance to see the cool confidence etched in her features. “Nav, what’s the track look like?”

  “We’re on the line within two percent. Current velocity is point two four five.”

  “Thank you nav.”

  For the better part of the next day things were going to be tense for the pilots and engineering but routine for everyone else. Matt headed off the bridge and down to his quarters. It was nearly fifteen thirty hours and he had been up since oh four hundred and was exhausted. After stripping down he crawled under the covers and was asleep almost as fast as his head hit his pillow.

  Suzi let herself into his cabin using her medical override. The lights were set to their lowest setting, giving just enough illumination so she didn’t bump into things. She stood for a long time in the darkness allowing her eyes to adjust the room slowly coming into her view. She unzipped her white jump suit and tossed it on a chair, stripping her panties and shoes off as well, leaving her completely naked. There were no lights on in the sleeping area, but there was enough light bleeding over from the living area to tell that Matt was lying on the bed asleep. She stood at the foot of the bed and gently pulled the blanket and sheet down toward the foot, uncovering him inches at a time. His light colored skin showing up more clearly against the contrasting dark sheets as her eyes continued to adjust. She stood and looked over his naked body enjoying the view before stepping around the side of the bed. Gently, so as not to shake the bed too much, she climbed over him, her head pointing toward his feet.

  Jenny let herself into their quarters. The lights were off, so he was probably asleep. She unzipped her white jump suit and let it fall to the deck, stepping out of it as she skimmed her small white panties down her legs and off in the same motion. She was tingling between her legs with anticipation, their previous encounter just taking the edge of a serious desire to ravage him. She smiled to herself as she thought about the great sex that they had last time she woke him this way. She slipped around into the sleeping area, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. He saw Matt asleep on the bed, but things didn’t look right. She stood and waited for her eyes to adjust, the seconds passing slowly, and the image growing more distinct. Soon she was able see that he wasn’t alone in the bed, a second person sprawled half across him, her lower half clearly positioned over his pelvis. The dark hair and contrast in skin color between the two told her what she needed to know. Her former roommate had beaten her to the punch. No matter, she was pretty sure Matt was up to the challenge of satisfying both of them.

  It was practically the middle of the night when Matt, Jenny and Suzi walked the corridors headed for the officers’ mess. On a ship, there is always food available for the crew members working all kinds of shifts. The girls filled trays with generous portions of biscuits and gravy, while Matt chose some kind of egg and sausage dish, having to choose between dinner food and breakfast food. Matt joined the girls at the table, who were already sitting and giggling.

  “So what do we do now?” Suzi asked.

  “I don’t know about you, but after we eat, I’m taking my man back to bed and getting some sleep. I have duty at oh nine hundred.” Jenny replied.

  “You’re going to spoil the rest of the night.” Suzi chided.

  “Nope. You already had plenty of recreation before I got there, so you can just let me have him back now.

  “Spoil sport. I think we should ask Matt what he wants.” Then turning to look at Matt she asked him in her best bedroom
voice. “So stud… do you want to go back and sleep or would you like to go another round with a hot horny woman?”

  “To be honest, I had just barely gotten to sleep when you woke me up. I’m bushed. I think I’ll choose to curl up with my wife and get some sleep.” Matt responded, leaning over and kissing Jenny on the cheek.

  “Spoil sport.” Suzi said with a fake pout.

  “Don’t worry Suz. I’m sure you can find someone to fill your need.” Jenny said with a grin. “In fact, here comes one now.” She finished, pointing to Kevin walking into the room and heading toward the food table.