Seeing Stars

  A part of Salvia regained sense and she scanned the water. The sensitive nerves in her skin picked up a rock formation just behind her. With one hand, she reached out and grabbed at a smooth outcropping just as Rhus penetrated her.

  The feeling was a shockwave rippling through Salvia’s body. Someone was inside her, the fruit of his slit burning her. With a shout, Salvia pushed against him. Her arms tensed against the boulders as she and Rhus set up a steady rhythm. With the rockface giving both of them a steady foundation, Salvia was able to wrap her legs around Rhus’ torso. The taste of her wetness rose in eddies from her groin, sweet and musky. She inhaled deeply, letting the aroma waft past the gill structures in her lungs, drinking deeply of her own arousal.

  Rhus appeared to grow even hotter, his hands roaming her body like searing plumes of steam. His fingers scraped against her small nipples and shards of pleasure rocketed through her. As he thrust, he lowered his head to her neck. Salvia convulsed as his teeth fastened on the nape of her neck. Shivers of sharp delight overcame her as she felt the points meet her skin, firing the nerves along her delicate flesh.

  Then they climaxed, both almost at the same moment, and the water was filled with ripples from their thrashing bodies. Salvia’s rich and intoxicating scent suffused the cool liquid surrounding them. Against her breasts, she felt Rhus’ torso expand as he breathed her in, drinking deeply of her arousal and carnal satisfaction.

  They were both silent for long minutes, their chests expanding and contracting as they tried to steady their breathing.

  “I…” He paused and swallowed. “I…did I hurt you?”

  Hurt her? Well, he did. A bit. Salvia let go of the outcropping and they drifted, turning lazily, through the dark depths of their world.

  When Rhus had driven into her, it was like a velvet-covered hammer invading her. She thought she caught the scent of a little blood in the water, but whether that was from his bite, or the onslaught of his delicious member, she wasn’t sure. The flesh on the inside of her thighs was feeling almost as tender as her pummelled sex but, strangely enough, she wanted to do that erotic dance over and over again. In fact, she could feel the pull of it in her sex, her groin like an independent person demanding, once more, the hard presence of Rhus.

  Of course she had known about sex. It had been part of her education during her training at the station, but she didn’t imagine that it would feel so…wonderful. Did Dr Faisbain know about this? And, if so, why hadn’t she said anything about something so pleasurable and habit-forming?

  “Salvia?” Rhus shook her shoulder gently. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she answered softly, burying her head against his shoulder. He was so warm and solid. And just like her.

  She sighed. “You didn’t hurt me at all.”

  The next month passed in an orgy of exploration and sex that made Salvia smile with anticipation the moment she woke up each morning. Living under a thin crust of ice, there was no ‘night’ or ‘day’ as normals knew it, but there was a predictable tidal system that Salvia used to govern her schedule. Rhus hadn’t got the hang of it yet, much like her during her first two months on Europa, and he was often slumbering peacefully when she woke.

  During those times, she would gently bob and watch him sleep. Dr Faisbain told her that her vision had been augmented and what normals considered pitch black would be only a light grey to her, still full of illumination for her to see by. Salvia hadn’t thought much of it until Rhus came along. Now, while still in their ‘home’ cave, she could appreciate the smooth planes of his body and his handsome features. At times when he was obviously dreaming, she would watch in delight as his skin shimmered through a rainbow of colours. But her gaze was always drawn to that sexy secret slit of his, a slight bulge hinting at what lay beneath. She had taken to waking him up by rousing a member of his anatomy first, running her tongue along that dark seam and coaxing out his smooth cock with long slow licks. The minute her mouth touched his most sensitive flesh, he would jerk awake. Sometimes that would start a wild chase through the ridges and stems of fairy-feathers that sprung up like wispy forests near the geothermal vents. At other times, they would stay in their cave, succumbing to the need for warmth and closeness. In all circumstances, it ended with sex.

  Sex! Toe-curling, reality-spinning, reason-abandoning sex. It had become a drug to Salvia, an exercise, a pleasure, an activity she couldn’t get enough of. It was enough for Rhus to merely graze a finger along her ankle while they were swimming or tap her dorsal fin with one toe to get her attention. The moment she felt his touch, a point of masculine heat on her bare lithe body, the animal arose in her, demanding satiation.

  She would have been embarrassed by the strength of her ardour…except Rhus was the same. In one month, they had already developed a system of non-verbal shorthand. Like her, he was getting adept at consciously directing his skin to project his thoughts, not just his emotions. There were times when he’d flash white with sexual promise then disappear into one of the deep ridges, daring her to come after him and claim his cock for herself. For her part, during times when she felt one part of her body deserved extra special attention, she would make that limb, and that limb only, glow white. With a wide grin, Rhus would begin by pleasuring that part of her body, licking between her webbed toes or rubbing himself against the smooth arch of her fin, deliberately teasing her with movements she couldn’t see until she could taste her own arousal in the water.

  Life, it seemed, was perfect.

  Until Rhus got the signal.

  Chapter Four

  “Ouch!”

  Rhus spun nervously in the water, his skin radiating contrasting shades of green and red. Salvia turned at his exclamation and headed in his direction. They had been examining a new vent that, Salvia told him, had appeared only a handful of months earlier. She was taking note of how an ecosystem developed around the recently emergent plume of hot water—what species developed first and what followed. Rhus found the work only somewhat interesting. His idea of exploration wasn’t tracking species of small animals but swimming free through all the oceans of Europa. The rich veins of colour running through the rocks and ranges of the moon fascinated him and he wanted to see if it was same everywhere or if certain minerals were concentrated in particular regions.

  He was examining a glossy vein of blue, tinted with black and silver, when a sharp pain hit him in his right arm. Alarmed, he turned around but saw nothing. No other marine creature had bitten him and it wasn’t Salvia playing a trick on him. For one thing, she wouldn’t hurt him like that. For another, she had been concentrating on something else.

  “What is it?” she asked, slowing to a stop beside him.

  Her beautiful face was marred by a frown and he restrained the urge to pull her close and kiss her.

  “There’s…” He rubbed his upper arm and felt embarrassed. “I thought I felt something, like someone hit me with a sharp stone.”

  “That must be the signal,” she told him.

  He still felt confused. “The signal?”

  “It’s when the station wants to see us.” The frown returned to her face. “Funny, I didn’t feel it. Are you sure you got it?”

  He twisted his arm so he could get a better look at the skin. It was smooth and unmarked, except for the tinges of yellow and pink now staining it. Blushing even deeper, he looked away. “I don’t know. It felt like a short, sharp pain. Maybe I was imagining things.”

  Salvia shook her head. “No, that sounds like a signal. Maybe it’s time for your check-up? I had a whole series of them when I first started swimming the oceans.”

  Nobody on the station had mentioned it before they released him, but Rhus nodded. What Salvia said made sense. Besides, she was looking unsure and he didn’t want to deepen her obvious worry.

  “That’s probably it. Um—” He paused. “What should I do?”

  Salvia laughed and did a quick twirl in front of him. “You go see what they want, of course! I still have
some work to do here but tell Dr Faisbain that I’ve found a new vent.” She wiggled the small silver recorder she was holding in her hand. “And tell her I’m taking note of all the new developments just like she taught me. I’m taking samples too.”

  “Sure, I can do that.”

  They kissed, mouths and torsos meeting in a flash of heat. It was torture to pull away but Rhus forced himself to. He didn’t want another sharp reminder from the station.

  He promised Salvia he’d be as quick as he could and shot off towards the station.

  His strength and endurance had improved in the past month. Although Salvia could still beat him in a marathon, he was the faster sprinter and his lack of breathing capacity wasn’t a problem anymore. He had been given ample rations when released but Salvia had taught him to store them and rely instead on the abundant life in the ocean. He knew from his briefings aboard the Nemo that the normals had been surprised by the amount, and diversity, of creatures living on Europa. When they had created Salvia, the company had been expecting to exploit the mineral wealth of the moon but the reality was more wondrous. And more complex.

  Rhus had been told that every university and government body on Earth now wanted to claim Salvia’s time so they could direct some of the exploration, classification and cataloguing of life on Europa. He had also been told how all that attention had gone to Salvia’s head, making her neglect her work in favour of fame on Earth.

  Like everything else he’d been told, it had made sense on the Nemo but Rhus wasn’t sure he now believed it. For a start, Salvia never mentioned anyone contacting her or speaking with her except for Dr Faisbain. And she seemed focused and happy with her work. He had tried several times to get her to talk about what life was like for her before his arrival, but she remained coy and elusive about that. There was clearly something that had happened that embarrassed her. While she was able to hide her emotions well, her feet were a dead giveaway and they’d blush while the rest of her body radiated a calm blue.

  Rhus wasn’t sure what secrets Salvia held, but he was determined to pry the information out of her when he returned from his trip to the station. After all, hadn’t he proved to her how much she meant to him? And he believed he meant something to her too.

  The distance receded and that funny little ticklish sensation in his head went away too. Rhus took that strange feeling as evidence of his feeling for Salvia. Through it, he was able to gauge her mood with unerring precision, no matter that she was trying to hide it. As he stroked back to the base sector, that link got weaker and weaker and he felt as if something was slowly being withdrawn from his life. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

  Rhus sidled up to the station a day later. It was glaring in its brilliance, with light pouring out of every transparent window and port hole. Rhus lowered his inner eyelid as he swam closer, wondering how the normals could see anything clearly with so much light around. It was blinding.

  Dr Faisbain was waiting for him at Hatch Number Two. She smiled at him but it looked tight and flashed on and off like one of the proto-squids from the deep ocean levels.

  “Rhus, how are you?” she asked.

  “Very well, thank you, Dr Faisbain.” The crew of the Nemo had been very conscientious in teaching him proper manners. “Is it time for my check-up?”

  “Well, we could do one since you’re here but…we wanted to see you for another reason.”

  “Oh.”

  Rhus hadn’t realised how well Salvia’s lessons had paid off until he was able to project a serene blue while alarms went off in his head. There was something not quite right about the doctor’s voice but Rhus couldn’t tell whether it was her choice of words, the tone of her voice or the fixed look in her eyes. A tremor of fear crept up his spine and he shivered slightly, making the tip of his fin quiver.

  “If you’d like to swim up into the hatch, we’ll secure you and take you to where we want to…talk.”

  Something was definitely wrong. Every nerve in his body snapped to attention and a part of him yelled at him to swim away as fast as he could. In fact, he was poised to do exactly that when his curiosity overcame his fear.

  Even if he did manage to escape, the normals could still hunt him down, either through the small automated drones the station had or the larger normal-piloted submersibles. Salvia told him how the drones had originally been used to track her expeditions all over that region of the moon. They could do the same to him. And, while they had to use bubble-shaped craft with tanks and robot arms to traverse the oceans and carry out more complicated tasks, such technology was also more than capable of following him. And then there was that pain in his arm. Rhus hadn’t liked it the first time he felt it and he was sure he wouldn’t like it any other time either.

  He could gain a brief respite from running away but the mature choice was to see what Dr Faisbain had to say. Rhus was painfully aware of how ignorant he was of much information to do with the company. With Europa.

  With Salvia.

  If there was one thing he needed, it was knowledge.

  Nodding happily, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, he swam up into the hatch and the waiting tube full of water.

  “Captain Haber!”

  Rhus had been moved to the main observation tank in the station. This was where he had initially been placed when transferred from the Nemo. Until he’d been let loose in Europa’s waters, he had thought it a cosy space. Now, all he could do was take steady breaths and try not to imagine the transparent walls closing in on him.

  He stared as the Nemo’s captain walked into the room.

  “You seem surprised to see me, Rhus.” Haber’s voice was light and friendly.

  Rhus blinked both sets of eyelids. “I’m sorry, Captain. It’s just, er, Salvia told me that shuttle captains don’t usually stay on the station for very long.”

  Haber reached for one of a line of chairs arranged along the back wall, dragging it forward as he spoke.

  “Salvia appears to know a lot of things, doesn’t she?”

  Four metres from the tank, Haber arranged the chair so it faced forward and sat down. Rhus felt like a specimen in a very small menagerie.

  “The problem is,” Haber continued, “she’s wrong more often than she’s right.”

  Rhus didn’t know what to say to that so he remained silent.

  “You’ve been on Europa for a little over a month, haven’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do you think of it?”

  Rhus didn’t have to feign an emotion. His skin surged a vivid blue and orange.

  “It’s wonderful,” he said. “It’s like a paradise for me.”

  “And Salvia?”

  Rhus was about to speak of Salvia in the same tones until it struck him that Haber didn’t like Rhus’ companion. Maybe he could do what Salvia had excelled at doing—keep part of himself a secret while he figured out what the normals wanted to talk about. Although he was new to such a game, Rhus decided to play along as best he could.

  “She’s…okay.”

  Even through the water, Rhus saw Haber’s gaze sharpen.

  “You don’t get along?”

  Rhus flicked a foot and it propelled him closer to the top of the tank.

  “It’s… I hate to say anything about Salvia when she’s around,” he said, shooting Haber a sideways look, “but she’s…impatient. Not very forgiving. When I first entered Europa, I wasn’t such a strong swimmer. She never waited for me.”

  Lies, all lies. Rhus was ashamed of the words that tumbled out of his mouth but he had the feeling Captain Haber was leading to something important. Rhus wanted to know what that was.

  “That’s unfortunate, Rhus.” Haber tried to pin a sympathetic look on his face but it didn’t fully mask his satisfaction. “I’m very disappointed to hear you’re not getting on well with Salvia. Yet, on our scans, both of you are seen to be very close together almost all of the time.”

  Rhus shot to the large front pane of the tank, spre
ading his webbed fingers along the cold glass as he looked at Haber. He didn’t have to feign the hint of green-hued desperation that lit his skin.

  “You don’t understand. She withholds information if I don’t cooperate. If I’m not there when she calls me, or if I don’t do what she tells me to, she leaves me out of things. She doesn’t warn me if a cave is dangerous or if a vent is about to erupt.”

  Rhus fervently hoped that what he was doing was the right thing. How could he even begin to repair Salvia’s reputation if he was mistaken and Haber was only after a candid assessment of how well they worked together?

  No, he couldn’t be wrong. Haber did hate Salvia. He was clear about that on the Nemo and it was even clearer now, etched deeply on the captain’s face.

  “In that case,” Haber said slowly, “I think we can come to an arrangement.”

  “Arrangement?”

  “The company has been unhappy with Salvia’s performance for a while now. And her attempt to hold us to ransom—pending your arrival, Rhus—has displeased top management.” Haber licked his lips. “We’ve come up with an alternate strategy.”

  This was it. The moment of truth. Rhus cocked his head to the side, pinning an interested expression on his face. And waited.

  “We’re ready to manufacture another person like you.”

  “Like me?”

  “A female. You just say the word and we’ll start creating her.”

  “To what end?”

  Haber slapped his knee with the flat of his hand. “Dammit, Rhus, didn’t you just say you didn’t like Salvia?” His voice was getting higher now, starting to move into a range that Rhus found comfortable to listen to, although he knew the normals did not consider it that way.

  Rhus nodded.

  “Well, I’m offering you a way out. For both of us.”

  Something clicked in Rhus’ brain. “You’re not just a ship’s captain, are you?”