Cait and Rhys has retired to the crew cabin, leaving the bridge unattended, though Cait had piped the alarm system to the shipwide intercom so they’d be alerted if anything happened. She drifted into her bunk and raked her hands through her hair as she settled into place on Rhys’ left, awkwardly regarding him as he sidled alongside her. She still wasn’t sure how she wanted this to progress, her mindset had not really changed with regards to becoming more involved with him but something about the potential threat to them had made her more open to compromise. Even if she was emotionally incapable of wanting to make herself feel vulnerable or connect with someone, she wanted to give something back to Rhys. Maybe she was living vicariously through him. As they floated side by side a couple of feet apart Rhys’ eyes wandered over her.

“How do you want to do this?” He asked.

“Let’s take things slow.” Cait suggested, unsure of what she was capable of offering him physically. Rhys nodded and placed his hands on her hips, pulling her close. She braced her hands against his chest, looking down in sadness as she was reminded that while she could touch him, she couldn’t feel. The prosthetics communicated pressure to her brain, but it was not the same. She wondered if there was any way that Rhys would understand that if she explained it.

Rhys picked up on her sadness and raised her chin with a hooked finger before caressing her cheek, trying to read her thoughts.

“We could just talk for a bit.” He suggested.

“I don’t think that would help.” Cait said with a slight shake of her head. She ran her hands down his stomach and deftly unhooked his webbed belt that cinched his loose fitting pants around his waist, while Rhys reciprocated by peeling her singlet up her body. She hesitantly raised her arms to allow him to peel the garment up her body, her large full breasts gently bobbing against her chest.

Rhys’ eyes scanned down her body, lingering on her chest. She could tell his eyes were drawn to the focal point of her nipples and was content to let him take his time. Then his gaze wandered further south and she instinctively moved a hand to cover the scars across her belly. He locked eyes with her for a moment and she gave her head the briefest of shakes, indicating she didn’t want to talk about it, which he acknowledged with a nod and pulled her against him. Her breasts pressed against his chest and a shiver went through her body in spite of their combined warmth – or maybe because of it. She folded her arms under his, her hands holding him close as he gently stroked her back, his fingertips caressing her spine, sending another shiver through her. She felt his fingers find the numb scar tissue on her back that matched the trio of puncture wounds on her lower torso, where metal shrapnel had passed directly through her and his touch there made her tense up with anxiety until he realised and moved on.

Cait ran her hands down Rhys’ back and started to push his pants off and he helped by using his feet to kick them off into a corner of the room where they came to rest, then started to return the favour, lifting her up slightly so she floated eye to eye with him and gauged her response as he began to pull down her shorts. Cait placidly allowed him to remove her shorts, a small part of her rationalising that it was because she’d already displayed herself earlier when she was defiantly trying to drive him away in a fit of anger. Nonetheless once her shorts were off she pressed her legs together, instinctively trying to hide and conceal her hairless mound and lips from view. She had taken to having laser treatments to remove her body hair ever since she started working in space, as often personal grooming was problematic and it meant she didn’t have to worry about it on longer missions. Right now, that decision made her feel quite exposed.

Rhys took her by the hips and held her at arm’s length as his eyes drank in her now fully nude body. She casually regarded his cock which appeared to be sitting at half-mast already – or maybe that was just the lack of gravity. She hadn’t really looked at it last time, as she’d been more inclined to disassociate from the experience. She looked back up to his face, his expression expectant but his demeanour one of patience. Cait remained still for a long time as they drifted a couple of feet apart, unsure if she should wait for him to make the next move or if he was waiting for a signal from her.

“You can touch me, if you want.” She said gently.

Slowly he reached out and took her by the arm, for which she suppressed a flinch, and pulled her close. She could feel his cock rub against her thigh as he cradled her face in his hand and kissed her gently. She was reluctant to reciprocate at first – the gesture seemed too familiar and intimate, and had the potential to involve emotions she wasn’t inclined to process, but gradually she closed her eyes, eased into it and returned the kiss. She was aware of her coffee breath but that didn’t seem to bother him. As they kissed she felt his hands trail down the side of her neck and his fingertips traced the ridge of her collarbone. Rhys inverted his hand and ran the backs of his fingers down her chest until he was gently stroking the mound of her breast, slowly zeroing in on her nipple which had responded to his touch by tightening and growing hard, the usually near colourless areola blushing into a pale rose pink. Cait clung lightly to him as he turned his hand again and grasped her breast, his long fingers gently squeezing, feeling the fullness of the sizeable globe, and Cait imagined she could feel him grow harder against her thigh.

Abruptly Rhys released her breast and moved his hand down to the back of her thigh, pulling Cait upwards. She bent her leg and her back arched as Rhys broke off from the kiss and brought his mouth to her nipple, sucking it gently. She let out an involuntary surprised moan as his tongue massaged her nipple and bit her lip in embarrassment before remembering that this was supposed to feel good, and that Rhys would, if anything, take any noises she made as encouragement. Maybe that was the problem – she wasn’t comfortable with the growing realisation that she needed this, perhaps even more than Rhys did.

After spending some time with one nipple in her mouth Rhys moved to the other, still holding her behind her thigh keeping her leg crooked so that it cradled against his waist, his definitely fully erect cock rubbing against her other leg whenever their floating bodies drifted together. Then she felt his hand creeping up her leg and she quivered in a mix of nervousness and anticipation as his roaming fingertips moved towards the private area between her thighs. She looked down at him, realising her arm was cradling his head against her chest. He looked up at her watching for any objection as his fingers grazed her hairless pussy lips. She let out a gentle gasp at the soft touch which Rhys took as encouragement to continue. With a single finger he delved gently between her soft folds and stroked gently, the tip of his finger finding the entrance to her vagina which he stroked gently, teasingly, before probing around to find the tiny bump of her clitoris. She held her breath for a long moment as he gently stroked it, before his finger delved back to her opening and she felt the tip of his finger enter her the tiniest amount before returning to her clit and she realised he was using her own moisture as lubricant. She felt breathless, her anxieties bubbling to the surface again as she realised how far things had progressed already, and that if she allowed Rhys to continue she would be obliged to reciprocate.

Those concerns must have shadowed her expression somewhat and Rhys moved his hand back to the more neutral zone of her thigh, resting it there.

“Is everything ok?”

“It’s just been a long time for me.” Cait tried to reassure him.

“We can stop.” Rhys said with as much sincerity has he could muster, but Cait knew it was the furthest thing from what he wanted to do. Cait shook her head and pulled herself closer to him, kissing him gently as he moved his hand back between her legs. She gasped again as he slid a finger inside her, feeling her muscles automatically grip snugly around the surprise visitor. He moved his finger in and out for a minute before pushing a second in, eliciting another soft moan. Rhys then pulled his fingers from her and went back to massaging her clit using her juices to keep things smooth as he used the tips of both fingers to massage her in small circles, occasionally sliding his fingers down to pinch the nub gently before going back to the circular motion. Before long Cait was trembling and Rhys had clamped her leg between his thighs as he worked his hand to keep her from writhing away from him. Cait could feel his balls rubbing against her thigh as Rhys unconsciously thrust at the air, his swollen head occasionally bumping at her hip and she felt a momentary pang of guilt that she could not reciprocate for him, keeping her hands to herself but to brace herself against his shoulders, watching the intent look of determination on his face as he drove her steadily towards release. His eyes flicked to her face and she knew her expression was full of need, nearly desperation, and it was somewhat humiliating to let him see her that way.

“Please don’t stop.” She whispered, her voice cracking slightly.

Rhys continued his ministrations. He grasped her breast with his currently unoccupied hand and ran his thumb in circles over her nipple. She could feel that it, as well as her clit had swelled and grown hard under his relentless touch, and he had begun to apply more pressure to her clit in response. At times it was almost felt too rough but that only served to fuel the pleasure. Suddenly, she arrived at her peak. Her breath caught in her throat and she extended her legs flexing her muscles and arching her back as an orgasm hit her like a truck. Her thighs were shaking as the pleasure radiated out from her clit sending tingles through her body like little bolts of lightning. She released the breath she’d been holding with a moan of relief that almost sounded like she was in pain, followed by her panting for breath, high pitched moans punctuating each gasp. Her back spasmed and a second wave hit her as Rhys continued to gently circle her clit with his fingers, clearly trying to ease her down.

Mission accomplished, Rhys gradually eased her hands off her, noticing that every touch tickled and made her jolt in her currently heightened state. She floated limply in the middle of the room for a minute until she reached out to steady herself against the bunk and face Rhys who was waiting expectantly, casually stroking his cock with the hand he’d been using to pleasure her, while looking at her naked body.

“Hope you don’t mind.” Rhys said, with only a slight edge of sheepishness. Cait just shook her head and pulled herself down to her bunk, holding herself in place on the edge with her thighs spread to display herself to him. He moved in front of her, holding onto the upper bunk with his left hand as he stroked with his right, positioning himself between her spread legs to give himself the best view of her various attributes. Cait watched him stroking his cock just a foot away from her pussy lips and in her post-orgasm giddiness momentarily thought about what it would feel like it she just invited him to close the rest of the distance and enter her, but she wasn’t ready yet, even if it seemed like Rhys might have been holding out hope that it would happen given that using her hand was out of the question. But she could compromise.

Reaching out she put her hand on his arm to stop him stroking himself and pulled him closer to her. She guided him so that his cock was about level with her breasts then leaned forward and took the head of his cock in her mouth. Rhys let out an appreciative sigh as her warm mouth closed over the head and she began to use her tongue to liberally swirl as much saliva around it as she could, taking a few inches into her mouth before withdrawing and running her mouth down the sides, using her lips and tongue to push as much saliva along the entire length of the shaft as she could before taking the head in her mouth again, using her tongue to stimulate the glans as she built up more saliva.

Then she took her mouth from him and looked up as she leaned back a little and held her breasts in her hands, inviting him into her cleavage.

Seemingly surprised, but hopefully not disappointed, that she didn’t want to continue using her mouth on him, Rhys eased himself into position and slid his saliva-moistened prick in between Cait’s firm but yielding breasts, enveloped by her soft warm skin. Cait began to manually move her breasts up and down, encouraging Rhys to thrust gently between them as the fleshy globes massaged him. Saliva was not an ideal lubricant for this purpose so it quickly began to dry out and it was more like her breasts were moving around his cock like rollers rather than providing him a slick crevice to slide through, but Cait compensated by lowering her chin to her chest and parting her lips, the head of Rhys’ penis clearing Cait’s cleavage and entering her mouth to receive a fresh basting of spit each time he thrust upwards. It took them a couple of minutes to find the right rhythm as neither of them had done this before, but after some initial missteps Rhys was clearly enjoying himself as he tit-fucked her and Cait began to detect the taste of what she assumed was some pre-cum leaking from Rhys’ tip. She considered reminding him to warn her when he was about to finish, but decided to just let it happen – come what may.

It wasn’t long before Rhys announced “I’m close”.

“Ok.” Cait responded simply in a brief moment her mouth wasn’t busy.

Encouraged by her approval Rhys put a little more vigour into his next few thrusts and they turned out to be his last. He placed a hand on the back of her head to keep it down as he pushed his cockhead between her lips and kept it there, his shaft twitching and pulsing between her breasts. Cait obligingly kneaded her own breasts, massaging the shaft to help Rhys along as he began to spurt, a thick load coating her waiting tongue. She let him hold her head in place until he was done, his body gently shuddering against hers as his seed trickled into her mouth. When he finally released her head she swallowed then released her breasts and leaned back, withdrawing into her bunk a little. To her surprise Rhys pulled himself in after her and she tensed up a little as he drew alongside, but allowed him to slide his arms around her and pull her into a spooning position as they floated a few inches above the pad. She was acutely conscious of his softening cock pressed against her bare ass. Although she still carried anxiety about being naked with him, especially now that they’d relieved their respective sexual tensions and she was left with just her vulnerability, the moment still felt right and the silence grew into a long and comfortable one – though eventually she had to address the elephant in the room.

“What are we going to do?”

“About what?” Rhys queried reflexively. In fairness, there were a few matters currently tabled.

“Our possibly impending doom.” Cait said, much more mildly than she felt about it. She eased herself out of Rhys’ arms and drifted over to her clothing locker, pulling on a fresh singlet and shorts, vaguely aware that Rhys was watching her do so.

“I thought we agreed there wasn’t really anything we could do. If we’re going to get attacked and possibly hijacked, there’s nothing we can do to avoid it.”

“What if we dumped the cargo?” Cait suggested as she finished pulling her clothes on. “It’s risky, but if we detached it to reduce mass we could burn the engines to gain some speed, and we’d have improved manoeuvrability if we meet someone out here.”

“And lose the cargo?” Rhys queried as he reclaimed his pants and slid into them, doing up his belt.

“Firstly, we know that Aspire was attacked and or hijacked, so we could be facing a situation where it’s the cargo or our lives anyway.” Cait said, counting off on her fingers. “Secondly, Newton’s first law of motion dictates the container will maintain course and momentum with or without us attached to it. We can clear the dead zone, transmit our findings and get assistance to reclaim the cargo when it catches up with us. Worst case scenario the container is jacked by whoever is out here and never makes it to Jupiter, but at least we do.”

“How much time do you predict we’ll gain? We already performed a full burn to get to our top cruising speed.” Rhys noted. “Once we overcame the initial resting mass of the cargo and gained momentum our speed was really only limited by the power output of the engines.”

“True, but mass is still a factor. The time gain could be negligible, maybe a day, two max. And there’s still the manoeuvrability aspect to consider. We can alter course, diverge from the cargo’s route. As the less valuable target they won’t be able to track us both.”

Rhys gave it some thought then nodded.

“Reconnecting with the cargo on the other side is going to take some pretty audacious flying but if this stunt transforms us from sitting duck to lame duck then it’s worth a shot.”

“Ok.” Cait nodded. “I’ll need you on the bridge to manage the decoupling timing from the secondary engineering terminal while I trigger the boost. Is everything set back in the drive room?”

“If I tune this rig any tighter the strings’ll break. Let’s do this.”

They barrelled down the hall towards the bridge, Cait strapping herself in at the navigation station and waking the engines from standby to warm them up while Rhys stood at an all- purpose terminal that had limited engineering access, checking the coupling systems. They worked in silence to prep the systems and check the ship.

“All set, Captain.” Rhys called, his thumbs poised over the switch that would trigger the decoupling process.

“Set to burn, detach on my mark.” Cait ordered as she slowly began to dial up the engine, watching the thrust increase to a notional threshold that would clear them of the container once they were no longer tethered to it. The computer wasn’t designed to predict what they were trying to do so it was hard to provide a countdown but her mind suggested another fifteen seconds as she watched the meter creep upwards, and when she was sure she began the count.

“Five.” Cait warned. “Four. Thr-“ She was cut off by an alarm triggering from her panel, a high pitched shrill that pierced her skull. She pulled her hands from her console scanning the instruments for the source of the problem, Rhys turned to watch her from his station.

“What the hell?” Cait asked aloud.

“Cait, the sensors.” Rhys pointed. Cait unbuckled herself from her seat and pulled herself over to the sensor station, silencing the alarm and reading the logs.

“We got pinged.” Cait said solemnly. “That means we appeared on someone’s sensor sweep.”

“Then whoever is out here knows we are as well.” Rhys said, abandoning his post to join here, reading the logs over her shoulder.

“No doubt about it.”

“Do we know how far away?”

“Not until they show up on our sensors or hail us.” Cait shook her head. “But it won’t be more than three or four days. Probably less if I missed them in my earlier sweep.”

“Scan again.”

“Knowing isn’t going to help us.” Cait sighed. “We’re already too late.”

“So what now?” Rhys asked.

At that moment, the comms panel lit up and a chime alerted them to a signal. They were being hailed.

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