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Runaway: Chapter 9: First Interlude

The deep silence of space, the vast distances between heavenly bodies gives the mind perhaps too much time to wander. Even amongst the small crew of the Gallito, the background hum of the engines, and small noises of electronics and ducts; and especially if you are not used to space travel, one's mine will wander and feel suddenly lost. In my case, I was lost to more than just the vast emptiness and the loss of situational awareness that comes with knowing that barely a few millimeters of the skin of the ship are between me and as close to perfect nothingness as possible. For the first time, I did not know who I was.

I used to be a human, male, in great debt, wishing to continue my studies. I am now, female, an anthro skunk, in a new debt to a company, and forced to study all manner of things. I was a recluse, a social outcast, not good at any kind of social interaction. I am now... What do I call myself? Outgoing? More sure of myself? Friendly? Part of me, somewhere back in my mind, revisiting the scant few days from my escape from Earth tries having an argument with itself. On one side, "Making up for lost time" and on the other, "Slut."

I tried, sometimes desperately, to keep myself on the plan of getting to know Jaden first. To become friends. I worried how much my scent must be teasing him as much as the heat-like effects of desire were affecting my brain with the desire to let the herm have his/her way with me. Logic would easily say, that on a small ship, sex is one of the more available relaxation tasks.

I did not try to avoid him. My schedule wound up avoiding him simply because the list of tasks I was given was so long; from being poked, prodded and scanned in the medbay; studying all manner of corporate policy; then studying nearly enough subjects in full or part to know how to build, operate, and repair a ship or station; exercise plans to keep strength up in the low gravity environment and make sure my body was adapted correctly; deep meditation to test my psionic potential. In the end, I felt exhausted after each task with barely a break between to eat or use the restroom. Our meeting chances were best at mealtime, though the close quarters of the ship keep any conversation private. The ship knew, not that we tried hiding it, that the two of us were on route to being a couple. This was made worse by the often stares as people watched for gossip like a living soap opera or racy novella.

Two weeks in, the journey taking longer as we were re-directed several times by added deals for transport and corporate re-decision, and we were headed to dock with a station instead of a ship. The small station did not even really have a name. It was a mining foreman outpost in an asteroid belt. This meant that the station was little more than a hollowed and sealed asteroid with a few hundred meters of scaffolding extending from it and supporting a corridor tube attached to an airlock. Inside was likely a small common area to provide some meet and greet form of relaxation with visiting parties. Most ships that were transporting supplies in or ore out would dock directly with the mining ships themselves to reduce overhead and maintenance on keeping a pressurized structure. Not to mention being able to avoid stray asteroid fragments and other stellar dust.

I was watching the station come into view from a port viewport, wondering what life would be on such a place and if the asteroid base I was assigned to would be anything like this one. Mind wandering far from my duties I did a double-take as the now familiar baritone voice announced, "I bet you're eager to get off ship." Bodhan paused just long enough to not let me reply. "Sadly, for security you need to stay on the ship, as if you are not even on board." I looked up at him, a bit stunned in disbelief, but he got the hint and continued, "The corporation sent some word that the cartel that wants you isn't giving up. They don't know you're on this ship, and in part that's why we've been bouncing from place to place and taking longer in getting you to the destination. Don't get me wrong, most of this is for the lab's security, not yours; and I don't ask too many questions. But they think, and I have to agree, that it would be hard to have spies on all the ships we've docked with in the first place to not only find you, but verify your non-presence. To this end, they think that if there are people looking for you, they're likely on any of the closest stations to Earth. This asteroid outpost is closer than it seems in the grand scheme of hyper-spatial travel. Our docking and transfer of goods will have handlers from the base visiting the ship. While we'll be docking with the cargo bay, not the personnel bay, there won't be as heavy foot traffic, but we can't chance it. Not yet. Not till you're so familiar with crew and the ship that no-one would think twice that you're anything but a deckhand."

He paused, staring out the porthole and seemed to recall his own early forays into space travel, sympathizing with the wandering mind, the eagerness that while long enough in the past was not possible to forget. "We're hiding your things in plain sight by spreading them about the ship. Most of your things are common enough apart from the data and locks on them that they won't seem obviously out of place. We'll get them recollected when it's over. You'll be hiding in a room we don't use often and have good reason to keep off limits. We've hidden many things there before, and will continue to do so. The only hiccup, and one I don't want to think about, is if we wind up forced to pick up another passenger. But we're brainstorming how to handle that should it arise, as unlikely as it is." He looked down at me and smiled. "You can trust us. You may not know this yet, but each of us has something in our past we don't want outsiders to know; and many of us know each other's. Safety in numbers - of a sort." He patted my shoulder and proceeded toward the bridge.

I looked back out the porthole and found myself devoid of the longing to get off the ship. Rather, I was now piqued as to what secrets the crew had, but not eager to find out. If they trusted me, they would tell me. I heard Bodhan talk to someone but did not look to find out who. When the arms wrapped around me with a loving hug from behind, I knew who it was, and found myself leaning back fondly into the gecko's embrace.

"Captain's given us all the heads up, but before we get into any closer visual range - in case someone chances using a telescope to look through every window - it's time to get you into hiding." Jaden whispered into my ear. I could recognize the difficulty of seeing anyone looking through a window, but it was still possible. I let myself be led away to a side passage, then down a nearby maintenance ladder to the lower deck. I expected to head toward the engines, figuring there would be more nooks and crannies to utilize for hiding back in the cargo area, or among the engineering components, but instead he led me forwards.

We stopped just after passing an offset door that was marked clearly as the captain's quarters. The small opening contained a maintenance ladder, smaller than the one we used to get to the lower deck. Jaden turned around while I waited in the corridor and interacted with a control pad I could not see. There was a click and part of the ladder and far wall swung away into a cleverly hidden dark room. Jaden went inside and indicated me to follow. The room was completely black, but before my eyes could adjust to make out any details he closed the door. Once I heard the soft click and seal as the door self-locked, the lighting slowly raised itself up to a low, but quite usable level.

The room was nothing like I expected. It was not that I expected much, my thoughts were perhaps of a small corridor to smoosh myself into and try not to make any noise. But every room on the ship I'd experienced was utilitarian, made for the purpose with barely any flair. This room was nearly an assault on the senses, yet somehow seemed to fit perfectly. It was hard to pick out a single surface, apart from the door, that had any resemblance to the rest of the drab painted ship. Cloth remnant strips of every color and pattern hung from every surface. Some looked plastered to the wall, some were draped. The myriad colors and textures made picking out details difficult. Cushions, a hammock, and finally a trunk with bare essentials (ration packs, water, and waste disposal) furnished the room. The pads of my feet were in heaven from the soft velvety covering of the floor and a memory came to mind of an old science fiction film, whose buxom protagonist had velour and faux fur covering every surface of her ship. I could see that not only was the room hidden, but even a vaguely person shaped lump would be hidden within the cloth without a difficult and tedious search.

"More comfortable than I expected." I understated.

Jaden laughed. "Welcome to my quarters."

"Your quarters? This looks like storage, or originally designed to be storage, and seems odd for a hidden room to be someone's quarters."

"Ah.. well.." he started, before heading to one of the hammocks, and flopping down onto it, indicating I should sit on a neighboring one. "In the original designs, this was an equipment room. The access port was in a different location. Since then, and I don't know if the captain did the modification or just re-modified what was already done, the room was emptied of its components, the hidden door was put in, the original door sealed. On the schematics it's listed as bulkhead space and the original equipment still intact and unlikely to need repair. Because the original equipment was noisy, the room was equipped with all manner of sound dampening and EM shielding and other things that make it a good smuggling spot." He paused briefly as we felt a small shudder as the braking thrusters fired, followed by a deadened thunk as the docking clamps took hold. "So, this will bring us to how this became my quarters." I nodded, then adjusted my position to lay down and watch him.

Jaden seemed different as he reminisced internally, as if trying to decide what part of his personal history to convey. He smiled more broadly and took a deep breath relaxing himself. "As I've already expressed, I'm fairly young. I had a lot of issues with school, mostly from other schoolmates who could not handle my vibrant colors, personality, or gender. I can be a bit of a nerd, good at my studies, good at most athletics. It was tryouts for the gymnastic team that revealed what I - not that I really tried hiding it - was as a gender. Before then, most people thought me male for lack of cleavage. But in the changing room, even with an attempt to explain cloaca anatomy, they could not accept that I was male, and..."

He trailed off at the painful memory and I reached out a hand to touch and hold his arm. "You don't have to tell me everything if you don't want to." He shook his head rather violently.

"I need to tell you. I don't know why, I just do. They pinned me down, intent to find out for themselves how anatomy works, and spread me open. I think they were confused more than anything. It hurt, I bled a bit. But the photos they took, they passed around, and after a bit of research determined me to be a herm. Granted, I always knew I was one. During the summer the year before my chest had budded a bit from hormonal shift, and to this day sometimes I show a bit more." He paused. I looked at him, hand still holding his arm in reassuring presence. I saw him blush and could imagine myself him imagining what he would look like with a bit of visible breasts. "I tried to weather it, but it continued to get worse. I then talked to the guidance counselor, and found I could test my way out, though she thought it unlikely for me to succeed without at least another year. I studied hard for a month, convincing my parents to call me in sick for quite a bit of it and went to the exam." He chuckled a bit, though not from amusement or pride.

"You failed?"

"No, I passed with a perfect score. So they thought I had cheated. I demanded my papers and they wanted me to go back to school. So I went to a different agency, took the test and passed it with a perfect score. They also got notification that I had already taken the test with a perfect score days before at a different agency. So they thought I must have cheated again. When they came to talk to confront me, I was not in the best of moods, so I told them to retest me right now with a new set of questions that have never been used before and watch me. I don't think they knew what to do. So they did what I asked. It was hard for them to refuse monitoring me, if I had cheated they'd figure out how, if I hadn't then they would have had every opportunity to detect it and either failed or proof I wasn't cheating. So they set it up for the next day.

"I went to the exam location, they searched me for electronics, took my tools and handed me everything I needed of their own supply. I took the test and once again proved I could achieve a perfect score. I half contemplated changing an answer to be wrong, but could not bring myself to do so. In the end they gave me my GED and let me go on my way."

"Seems a difficult way to do things." I said smiling, my hand having started idly running up and down his smooth furless arm. "But I'm glad nothing bad came from it. What did you do next?"

"Well, I tried getting into college, but though I passed the entrance exams and proved myself capable, they didn't want to take someone as young as I was at the time. Job searches were tricky due to labor laws for people under a certain age, regardless of having a diploma. Then I found the captain, he had just lost a member of his crew, she had retired, and needed a navigator. He wasn't certain about it at first, but being on a tight schedule, he told me he'd give me a shot. One trip, and if I messed up in the slightest, I'd be returned or dropped off wherever. If I performed correctly, then I'd be a full member of the crew."

Jaden paused for a while, looking down at me, before finishing. "During the trip I was quartered in the guest rooms, we picked up more crew and the mouse family grew. When it came time to make me official and give me a room, all the main crew rooms were full. I had found this secretive area and asked if it could be mine, the captain didn't see a reason not to. And the rest is history."

I smiled back, "Well, I'm sorry you've had some rough spots, but I suppose we all do." More dulled sounds reverberated as cargo was shifted. I caught myself holding my breath and chuckled quietly, not wanting to give away our position.

Jaden smiled and took my hand in his and smiled. "Don't worry. The room is fairly soundproof. We actually hear more from the outside than the outside can hear what's going on in here. The door is triggered to turn off the lights on touch of the handle, in which case toss a cloth over yourself, and we should blend into the background.

"And that will work?" I asked skeptically.

"It should." He paused a moment before adding, "Well, that's what the captain said. I've never had to. the door has not been found."

"You know, you haven't said why you would need to hide." At this he shied away slightly.

"My homeworld has a mandatory military service. Everyone's supposed to perform one to two years training and duty before moving onto jobs. They don't tolerate excuses, or absentees. Since I left school early, I would have had to wait till I was the correct age before serving, but I was in space. From everything I've heard, for some, the bullying is worse, and not very well publicized, but deadly. I would revoke my citizenship, but... The colony rules are fairly strict about that as well. Without marriage or a job, and a huge residency, they will ignore it." He took a breath, and looked into my eyes for reassurance. I smiled, lost in those worried pools. "I don't know how long before they'd stop looking, and I don't want to risk asking, even on a secure terminal or through a courier, so I continue to hide. The captain doesn't care so long as we are friendly, and do our work." I'm not sure what drove me, but I got up, and climbed into the same hammock, and with some jostling wrapped myself around the cool skinned gecko.

He continued to shudder. I hadn't noticed from the slight distance, but after a moment calmed, and both of us a little drained by the experience, chose to toss a couple sheets of the frilly silk over us, and fell asleep for a nap.

It was the loud thunk of the docking clamps releasing that woke us up. Having forgotten that we had put the sheets over us, the darkness made us think the door had opened and we embraced, staying still and barely breathing. After a long time of the darkness we felt the more familiar tug of the ship's engines kicking into a full burn that we understood and breathed again. It was then that I felt his arousal pressing gently between us. I tried to not move, to not let slip I had noticed and just looked into his eyes, hoping mine twinkled a little in the darkness.

It felt like an eternity that we laid like that, embraced by the near cocoon of the hammock and silk sheets. Held fondly in each other's arms before his hand moved ever so slightly to increase the embrace and my lips sook out his. Once again we barely moved, or rather we moved so slowly it might have appeared freeze-frame to an outsider. His hands and arms softly pulled me closer, my tongue tip grazed his lips. I slowly lifted a leg to wrap around his waist as his hand wandered slowly down to my hips and in the fluid motion his manhood pressed even more firmly against my belly. The motion bade me realize, and I might have expected this, that he was not just well endowed, but like many other reptiles, had a pair of hemi-penes. The thought turned me on even more, so I pulled him closer, feeling my bosom press against his chest, his cocks slipping upward slightly under his uniform rubbing my belly.

The haze of passion grew, and I was barely aware of his hands starting to slowly undress me; the sound of the clothing falling to the ground and the cool sensation of his skin as I undressed him at the same time. Our bodies moved like two snakes coiling, sliding, rubbing and leaving little surface not untouched. Even undressed, we continued the slow caress. The sensation of his soft smooth leathery hide under my fingers in contrast to my soft fur; his cooler body temperature apart from his cocks as they left trails of warm pre against me. At the same time we both slipped a hand to the other's privates. Mine slipping between his cocks to the slit they emerged from, finger tips playing about before slipping a bit lower and letting them graze over the edges of his labia in time with his caressing mine. Unspoken we mirrored each other's movements well, our breathing and moans even seeming to be in time.

The synchronization was broken slightly as we changed the angle of our kiss, my hand slipping up and wrapping about the base of both his cocks, bringing them together as I slowly moved my hand toward their tips, feeling how they became larger then tapered back down till I felt the knobbly spines nearer the much thinner tips. His hand spread, two fingers caressing my outer folds, spreading them apart while the inner fingers delved softly and deeply inside me. Somehow our teasing found each others sensitive spots again in sync, and we both moved together till both his cocks were at my entrance, knowing I'd be filled tightly, but when we pressed our hips together it was pure bliss.

He spread me wide, I could feel the stretching, but it felt wonderful. His cocks tugged sideways, trying to spread me wider in my tunnel. I squeezed behind the lower bulge as he pulled back, making him gasp and break the kiss. I smiled at him, and he plunged slowly back in. I don't know how long we kept at it at that pace, nor do I recall exactly when we rolled so I was on my back until I felt him lift my legs up, my knees over his shoulders and saw the wry grin on his face as he increased his pace. Each new thrust harder than the last. His cocks felt rock hard, almost as if the pumping, the suckling of my pussy on his bulbous base was drawing more blood into his impressive tools. Some part of me wanted him to keep growing, to stretch me so that no one else could satisfy me but him.

His spikes started to bulge with each draw back, grabbing, tugging at my folds and making me cry out loudly from the different sensation. Each thrust had them grow a bit larger, pointier as he neared his peak, but drew me to my orgasm faster than he approached his. I cried out and arched back, my pussy gripping his cocks tighter than I thought possible. He did not pause, the knowledge he had brought me to orgasm made him work me harder, faster, elongating my orgasm as I cried out, panting, nearly whining from the sensation. He seemed close, but then he slowed, holding deep and slowly drawing out, keeping himself from releasing too soon as he again suckled my lips, kissing me deeply for a long movement while my orgasm subsided.

When he broke the kiss he held deeply, and his grin was someplace between lust and evil. He brought his hands behind my knees, lifting my rear from the hammock before he smiled again. He let one of my legs rest on his shoulder as he brought his hand down, and slipping back far enough I thought he'd pull out, he maneuvered one of his cocks out of my pussy. I couldn't feel the tip re aim but his thrust forward drove himself back in, but one cock was now in my rear. I shuddered hard and he pulled back, letting both cocks pull out, his hand keeping them aimed before ramming back in. I could feel the sensation bringing a new orgasm on me as he kept it up, pulling slowly backwards before letting his cocks free, my nethers feeling the kiss of the cool air just before he slammed back in. He felt huge, even with only a single cock in my pussy. He returned the hand to my knee, lifting my rear off the bed and started to pound me hard and fast, no longer pulling out, but I could feel his heart beat throb in his cocks and knew by the way he closed his eyes he would not last long.

To me it felt like an eternity, riding the high of the motions, but it was likely only a minute or two, the few dozen desperate thrusts before he slammed his hardest, grinding his hips against mine and released his seed up into me. I felt the pent up flood of the gecko who probably hadn't had a partner for quite some time. The barbs dug into my flesh as he started pulsing, the base grew a bit, not as big as a canine knot, but enough to help seal his seed in. He panted, arching back with each pulse, nearly painfully grinding his hips against mine, pushing my legs back farther than was easily comfortable. His flow seemed to slow, and I looked up into his eyes as he opened them, the glaze of passion present but wearing off. He grunted hard as he slowly pulled out and I felt something hot and viscus ooze out of his cocks as he pulled out, pressure splattering it all over my fur before he let go of my legs and slumped down atop me. I felt over full, and didn't think he had pulled out, as I felt spread by his cocks still, but I felt them slip up against me. His reptile nature having splurted out a plug to keep his fluids in me, and keep me spread wide open. Exhausted from the effort we fell asleep in earnest this time.