The Marilona

"Last time I tried to watch an angel for ten seconds I almost fell off a treadmill," I muttered, my eyes watching her long, long legs as she kicked out into the passageway.

She spun around in the air to face me and crossed her arms, a look of mock outrage not doing a very good job of hiding her blush or her happiness with the compliment. I drifted fairly close to her, not touching close, but closer than would normally be considered polite on a ship. She didn't seem to mind, her arms uncrossing and her tongue wetting her lips quickly as her eyes darted to mine and lower.

"So, what do you do on this ship?" I asked quietly. My leftover momentum brought me very slowly closer until I reached up and stopped myself. I had drifted close enough that I was reaching partially over her head, our floating legs not quite touching.

"Maintenance, mostly," she replied, almost whispering. "I run diagnostics on the systems in the passenger areas and do visual sweeps of the hull for impact damage on the two tori furthest aft."

"Can I watch?" I asked, a smile turning up my lips.

"You want to watch me wriggle around in tight spaces?" she shot back, returning my smile with a cheeky grin of her own.

I let myself drift just a little closer, my leg brushing against hers and sliding along it with the movement until my knee rested against the inside of hers and I locked eyes with her.

"Yes."

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"So," I started as we slid through the air on our way further aft, "what's your name?"

It occurred to me around the time that we were leaving the exercise torus that I had no idea what her name might be. There was no indication of it on her shipsuit, which wasn't unusual on a vessel like this one. The crew wouldn't be THAT big, and when one group of people works alongside one another for decades or even centuries, remembering everyone's name isn't as much of a problem as it is in Fleet.

"I was wondering if you were going to ask," she said. I could hear the smile in her voice without turning to look at her. We glided side by side, a slower pace than what I'd set on the way to the exercise torus, but still efficient and quick enough that anyone not used to being aboard a ship would have had a difficult time matching.

"I was a little distracted by the, um," I paused to let my eyes sweep over her lithe form, being more obvious than necessary and eliciting a wide, blushing smile, "circumstances of our meeting."

As I spoke, her movements became more languid, adding some exaggerated sway and wriggling for my benefit and to my delight. As I watched her move, I realized she hadn't actually answered my question.

"Going for anonymous mystery woman?"

She laughed, a high, melodic sound that made my heart beat a little faster.

"No," she protested, turning to look at me, those loose strands of her hair waving about her huge, beautiful eyes. "But I am having a little bit of fun being enigmatic."

"Good," I said, smiling back at her. "I'm glad we're both having fun."

For the most part, following my mysterious ship girl around was uneventful aside from the conversation. She was very intelligent, very quick, and absolutely delightful to talk to. I hadn't realized how much I missed just talking to someone during the two weeks I'd spent more or less hiding out in my cabin.

It didn't hurt that she spent rather more time bending and wiggling around than was really necessary, making sure that my eyes were pretty much glued to one part of her or another for the next few hours. We moved quickly, her running diagnostics with an efficiency born from years of practice.

"I have to hurry through most of this," she said at one point, almost apologetically.

"Why's that?"

"Well, I got a little sidetracked by this fascinating unicorn, so we were about two hours behind schedule when we started." She looked over her shoulder as she spoke, her hands busy with the wiring and data ports behind a panel she had removed. When she caught my eye, she arched her back, bending at the waist and keeping her legs straight, toes pointed, pushing the narrow heart shape of her ass back at me and slowly moving it side to side before giving me a wink. Her eyes darted down my body, widening a bit when they reached the spot where my already tight exercise suit had become rather more snug, color rising to her cheeks and a bright grin flashing across her face.

"Glad to see we're both having fun," she lobbed over her shoulder before turning back to her work.

She finished up the maintenance checks in good time, the last few being simple status updates from the oxygen scrubber system, and turned to face me, floating in the center of the passageway. She slipped her fingers into one of the pouches and produced a small piece of plastic, shaped like a rounded triangular cup, and she rolled it around in her hand almost regretfully.

"I have to go outside now," she said quietly, her eyes cast down between our feet. "It was really lovely spending the evening with you."

"I have two questions," I said, drifting closer, stopping myself just a few inches from her, gently putting my fingers under her chin and lifting her eyes to mine. "Can you wait five minutes for me to come back, and can we do this again tomorrow night?"

Her eyes, which had been almost sad, lit up as she smiled, some small, happy twitch causing her to shift slightly in the absence of gravity, her body rotating a little forward along an axis anchored by my hand under her chin. Our bodies bumped together and I reacted without thinking, wrapping my free arm around her, my hand resting across the small of her back and holding her to me, keeping us from bouncing apart. The smile changed, keeping all the joy it held and adding something else, a gentle hunger that I knew was reflected in my own smile.

"Yes," she whispered, the fact that her lips were only a few inches from mine suddenly much more important to me than it had been only a few seconds before. "And yes. Yes to both."

"Good," I whispered back. I squeezed her to me gently, her lithe form so delicate and so surprisingly strong under my hand, her long body slender enough that the base of my palm rested on the back of one hip and the tips of my fingers rested just at the beginning of the curve around to the front of the other.

My fingers slid from her chin gently along her jaw line, tracing back along the delicate ridge to beneath her ear as her eyes half closed and her lips parted. Her head leaned into my touch and she let out a soft sigh.

I kissed her, my lips brushing against her lightly at first, feeling their incredible softness, their fullness against mine, discovering the feel of her kiss as her lips moved with mine. It built slowly at first, climbing a sort of exponential curve of passion until it was hungry and desperate, our tongues sliding over and around one another as our bodies pressed hard together, my hand pulling her to me as her long, graceful arms wrapped around my thick neck and one of her long, slender legs wrapped up and around the heavy muscles of my torso.

I don't know how long it lasted. I didn't care then, and I don't care now. It was one of the most erotic moments of my entire life, and if it had lasted forever I would've been perfectly happy.

We broke slowly, desperation and hunger giving way to softer, sweeter kisses until we simply held on to each other as we slowly tumbled and turned in midair, staring into each other's eyes.

"You have less than five minutes now," she whispered, a teasing smile gracing those perfect, soft lips.

"Don't move," I said. "I'll be right back. I have a surprise for you."

"I don't know how many more surprises I can take," she said with a light, sexy laugh.

I pushed away gently, letting my limbs slide across her as we untangled and stopped our respective tumbles. I grinned back at her, my smile the same one you find on any goofy kid's face when he figures out he likes a girl.

"Hopefully at least one more," I said. I pushed off hard, heading back down the axis passageway toward the torus that held my cabin as fast as I could, using the same speed and maneuverability that I would have used to rocket myself through a boarding action just a few weeks before.

When I retired, I was allowed to keep five things. One was the combat knife that I had carried on every mission. That was tucked away at the bottom of my bag, a sort of place of honored retirement from which I never expected to retrieve it.

The other four were packed with it, just not as far down. There was a small, compact case containing the two custom made Offship Operations Suits I'd used throughout my tenure, a pair of boots, lightweight, skin-tight reactive cloth with just enough circuitry in them to make the soles smart enough to turn the magnetism on and off as I "walked," an O2 Thief, a larger, custom fit version of the little triangular cup that my mystery ship girl had been fiddling with when she broke what she'd thought was going to be bad news, and a wide belt that held a clip for the O2 Thief and a thin spool of lightweight woven line, one end made into a loop that would fit around my wrist if needed, the other ending in six feet of SmartStrap that would react when it hit an object and quickly but gently wind itself around whatever it hit.

I snapped the belt around my waist, clipped the O2 thief into place on it, and pulled on the boots after kicking off the Fleet standard issue PT shoes I'd been wearing. It felt strange to be pulling on my combat boots after six weeks. Strange, but good. They were incredibly comfortable, though maybe less by design and more because they'd been my daily footwear for eighty years. I hadn't expected to wear them again so soon, and I was somehow happy and sad that I was pulling them on just for fun instead of to do my job.

I sprinted back out of my cabin, running full speed down the ring of the torus to the stairs, picking my angle carefully so that when I hit the axis I wouldn't lose all of my momentum. I rocketed into the central passageway, slapping my outstretched palm on the far wall to change my trajectory and try to keep full speed.

I made it back to my mysterious ship girl in four minutes. Her amused smile as I came flying down the corridor at breakneck speed was worth the slight discomfort of catching myself jerkily with the handholds, and I grinned back at her as I came to a stop a few feet in front of her. Her eyes traveled down my body again, stopping briefly on my belt before coming quizzically back up to mine.

"What's my surprise?" she asked, her lips twitching upward slightly.

I didn't answer, instead reaching down to my belt and unclipping the O2 Thief, holding it out towards her and pressing the tiny button hidden along the side. It hummed gently and then emitted a quiet hiss as it started pulling and compressing oxygen into itself.

"I can actually go with you, if you'd like," I said with a grin.

Her eyes widened as she held up her own mask, looking from it to me and back again.

"You don't have a suit," she said slowly, excitement tempered by uncertainty.

"I won't need it," I said quietly, drifting closer to her and looking into her eyes. "I'm Jovian. We have a few tricks up our sleeves."

I made sure she was looking into my eyes, then blinked my nictitating membranes. She started a bit, then grinned broadly and blinked her own, giggling a little and almost vibrating with excitement.

"I had no idea!" Her words started coming out in a rush as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me down the passageway. "That's incredible! Do all Jovians have vacuum modifications? Do you Walk often? Are those combat boots?"

I laughed at her enthusiastic interrogation, letting her pull me along, giving little kicks and grabs to help as we went.

"Yes, sometimes, and yeah, these are my boots from Fleet."

"You were Fleet?" she asked, her curiosity deepening while her tone indicated that something had just started making more sense to her. "No wonder you get around the ship so well."

"I'll take that as a compliment from a born spacer," I said. I meant it, too.

"You should, among other things," she said, looking over at me with a grin.

"I am more than flattered by your compliments and, um, attention," I said, smiling back at her and giving her delicate hand a gentle squeeze.

"Good," she whispered, squeezing back. "Very good. You know we won't be able to talk out there, right?"

"I was just sort of assuming you guys used a form of Voidsign," I said.

She actually stopped and stared at me.

"You," she said, very slowly, as though trying to wrap her head around something very big, "know Voidsigna?"

"Sort of," I replied. "Voidsigna is a slightly different version of what Offship uses. We call ours Voidsign, because creative naming of things isn't really our strongest area, and it steals a LOT from Voidsigna. It's simpler, and there isn't much tone to it, but connecting the two wasn't too hard when I was loaned out to a cargo Pusher that was carrying something for Fleet."

"Next you're going to tell me that you know Shippercant," she muttered.

"Datme co ama straagi," I said, shrugging my shoulders as the lilting, musical words came out, somewhat less musical and less lilting when combined with my deep voice and awkward, unfamiliar annunciation.

(That would be a stretch.)

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head before she started laughing, loud and long and full of joy, the first time she had done that, and I hoped to everything I could think of not the last. It was beautiful to see and hear.

(You've got to be fucking kidding me,) she said. (Where in the Void did you learn Shippercant?)

"I'm a little rusty, so bear with me," I apologized. She nodded enthusiastically, starting us down the passageway again, but more slowly, her need to get her inspection started quickly waning in the face of learning that this strange, lumbering giant could speak what was, for all intents and purposes, her native tongue.

(I told you a minute ago that I was lounged out to a cargo Pusher? Shit, LOANED out. Sorry. Anyway, I spent four months on a leg from Armstrong to the Belt. It was uneventful as hell, so when I was bored, which was all the time, I'd go bug the off duty crew. They taught me in exchange for me teaching them Gridkippen.)

(They must have REALLY liked you,) she said, smiling, her hand still in mine but just holding, not pulling anymore. (Teach me?)

(If you don't bang your head on a bulkhead,) I replied, grinning and winking at her, laughing when she gave me a mock look of indignation at my use of the Shippercant equivalent of "if you play your cards right."

(I bet I could talk you into it,) she muttered, a wicked smile crossing her lips as she gave me a sidelong look.

(I have absolutely no doubt of that,) I replied, blushing a little.

She laughed, and tugged my hand as we glided to a stop in a section of the ship I hadn't seen yet. There was an airlock, big enough to fit a couple of Lifers through side by side with room to spare, or squeeze one me through with some creative folding.

She let go of my hand long enough to put her O2 Thief in place, then gave it a squeeze before kicking into the airlock and cycling herself out. I waited patiently for it to cycle back, then put my own Thief on, smiling as it took a moment to adjust itself to my beard, and squirmed my way into the chamber. I felt my skin tighten as the air was sucked out of the space, my membranes sliding closed over my eyes, giving everything a slightly yellowish tint while filtering light across a variety of spectra. Anything too bright was filtered out, while at the same time things in shadow were sharpened and brightened.

The airlock rolled open to the outside, and I let my boots thump gently down before taking a deep breath and stepping out into nothing.

Her hand found mine again as soon as I stepped out, and we stood for a few minutes just looking.

I have always thought that stars were beautiful. From home, you don't see them often simply because there aren't a lot of windows on the space side of the Grid. On Earth, you can hardly see them at all because of all the light pollution. On a ship, you don't see much of anything but the ship unless you work on the bridge or get to spend some time on the rec deck.

Outside of a ship, though...

Standing on the side of a ship hurtling silently through space is the best view any human will ever have of the stars. Your speed is incredible, and you know that, but it doesn't matter. You might as well be standing still for all the difference it makes to that vast expanse. Space seems infinite, this never-ending sea of shining lights and bright nebulae, the milky cloud of the galaxy weaving itself through the background. Nothing that mankind can experience will ever be so awesome, so wondrous, so completely and totally humbling.

Her hand squeezed mine, and I tore my eyes from the unknowably vast beauty above me to rest them on the slender and delicate one beside me. She signed slowly, thankfully. Voidsigna is a LOT more complex than Fleet's dry, clipped bastardization.

(I have to walk a grid from here, to there,) she pointed to a small marker two hundred meters away, then another about a hundred meters from that, (To there.)

I nodded and squeezed her hand, walking beside her and pretending to help but really just spending most of my time watching her. The membranes' filtering gave her an otherworldly quality beyond even what she already had, the thin veins showing as darker lines, her pale skin almost glowing. I could trace the outline of her body perfectly against the blackness of space, see the graceful motion of her slender legs, the way her round ass worked as she walked, the taper of her tiny waist, the gentle swell of her small, round breasts, so perfectly proportional to her sleek frame.

I got busted again.

She just winked, her O2 Thief moving with the motion of what I knew was a smile, and squeezed my hand tight, her eyes locking on mine before returning to her task. It took about an hour, covering the area in ten meter swathes lengthwise before doing the same widthwise. I watched her the whole time, and she would catch my eye and squeeze, or stop and face me, her eyes traveling over me just as mine traveled over her.

She sent me through the airlock first, following behind me as soon as it cycled back. She took a moment to call in a quick report with her comm, her eyes burning into mine the whole time she talked, mine as alight as hers. When I heard her say she was going off duty, I took her hand again, this time leading her.

We started slow, neither of us speaking, both of us knowing exactly where we were going. Our speed grew as we moved, rushing through the passageways, need building with every moment we held onto each other's hands. The "night" cycle was coming to an end, the lights of the passageway starting to ever so slowly brighten in an imitation of sunrise when we hit the staircase and ran down it hand-in-hand.

I slammed my palm into the lock on my cabin door, it seeming to take forever to recognize the ridges and loops and whorls of my handprint before hissing open. I ducked through, pulling her behind me, elbowing the closing pad as soon as she was through and stepping toward her even as I drew her to me.

Our lips met and I lifted her, reveling in the sensation of her incredibly long legs wrapping around my thick waist, feeling her thighs grip me, her ankles crossed behind my back. I had never been with a woman whose legs could reach all the way around me with room to spare before, and I loved it, my appreciation growing and thickening between us.

One of her long-fingered, delicate hands reached down, stroking lightly along the outline of my cock, her eyes half closed as she pulled back from my lips and smiled, a touch of nervousness showing in the curve of her lips.