Across the Event Horizon
#2 of Deep Space Exploration
The morning briefing was a bit awkward. It was Violet's first since she and Jack had gone to the resort station, and she hadn't exactly come back the same fox. Of course, nobody said anything, they all had too much respect for her. She trusted this crew with her life, but, nonetheless, she was nervous.
"You okay, hon?" Jack rested a hand on her shoulder, he could always sense when she was uneasy.
"Yeah, it's... nothing" She lied. She didn't have the words to express her anxiety. Even if she could, he couldn't help right now.
He could tell she was lying, but he knew better than to press it. He wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace.
"5 Minutes till boarding" a voice came over the PA. The rest of the crew grabbed their bags and started toward the ship. They hesitated at the door to make sure Jack and Violet were alright.
"Um... captain?" Dr. Iris Chambers, the team's navigator, shot Jack a look of concern.
"You guys go ahead, we'll catch up." Jack sent the team off, taking a moment alone with his girlfriend. He held her tight and kissed her forehead. "You sure you're okay?" he reiterated, "We can get another engineer to cover if you need some time off."
"And leave you on your own for 3 weeks?" She looked up into his face and playfully slapped his ass. "Not after last weekend."
"In that case, we better get going, because-"
"1 Minute till boarding" the PA interjected.
"Right, sorry" She kissed his cheek and quickly gathered her things. They both knew the ship wouldn't leave without its captain and chief engineer, but that wasn't an excuse to hold up the mission.
They jogged down the hallway and out onto a long metal catwalk suspended in the hangar. As they crossed the threshold, they entered the hangar's reduced gravity field, their stride became bouncier and he reached out for her hand. The voice came again over the PA "Now Boarding, Deep Space survey 0-1-9 mission to the Antari system. Launching in T minus 10 minutes."
The crew waited patiently on a small boarding platform next to the ship as Jack and Violet finished their approach. It'd only been a few weeks since their last mission, but their ship had been upgraded significantly in the interim. None of the crew had been aboard yet, and they'd agreed to enter together as a team.
"All aboard!" Jack shouted over his shoulder, waving the crew on, as he hopped onto the ship pulling Violet by the hand behind him. They tumbled onto the floor and shared a short kiss, then got up, dusting themselves off.
As Jack approached the helm, a holographic projection sprung to life in the hall.
"Greetings!" the translucent sparrow chirped. "I am DSCM-019-F, your ship's friendly S.P.R.O. Surveillance Protocol and Resource Operator. You must be Captain Marshall, I've heard so much about you!" She extended a hand.
"Hi. Can I actually..." he stared at her hand for a second, uncertain if it was possible to actually touch her.
"Oh, right." She put her hand down. "I forget I'm not corporeal sometimes."
"Right." Jack scratched at his beard, his eyes lightyears away trying to comprehend the concept of an administrative AI 'forgetting something', "so, the bridge is this way?" he gestured, hoping to leave this awkward encounter as far behind him as possible.
"Yep, just at the end of the hall." She nodded before blinking next to a door labeled 'Bridge'. "Feel free to look around, just be ready for take off in 8 minutes and 22 seconds."
Jack went straight for the bridge to begin his preflight checks, leaving the rest of the crew to explore their newly upgraded vehicle. As the engineer, Violet was naturally curious to inspect the engine room. She popped open the hatch nestled into an alcove on the starboard side of the hall and floated her way down the ladder, giddy to inspect the new machinery.
She'd had a few weeks to geek out over the technical specifications of the new engines while they were being installed, but seeing the freshly rebuilt engine room for herself was an entirely different experience.
The two massive ion thrusters at the stern were capable of propelling the ship up to 100?C, the cold fusion reactor under the catwalk could put out an exajoule under maximum load, and the complex and intricate new hyper drive was almost too much for her to take in.
"Excuse me, Dr. Fawkes?" The ship's AI popped up right in front of her.
"Ahh!" Violet screamed, caught off guard by the chipper bird interrupting her examination "What?"
"You're needed on the bridge, we're launching in less than two minutes." The bird explained before taking a small bow and disappearing again.
Violet, still a bit disoriented, stopped inspecting the engine room and hurried up to the bridge. The rest of the crew were already seated though only Jack actually looked ready for launch.
"Remind me-" Came a deep, growling yawn,"why these missions have to launch at 6 AM?" Lieutenant Carter Nash, the ship's weapons specialist, took a sip from his mug and grimaced.
"Because, Lt. Nash" Jack retorted, "Some of us have actual work to do on this trip."
Everyone except the cheetah chuckled. He buried a scowl into his coffee.
"Get ready, we're about to launch" Jack cleared his throat. He flicked a switch, dimming the lights in the cabin. The now dark room was illuminated by a thirty second countdown timer appearing on a monitor above the viewport.
"T minus 30 seconds to launch." The PA announced. On that signal, the large gateway at the far end of the hangar began to glow with a piercing azure hue. Violet could hear the thrusters powering up below them. It was like a symphony of whirring machinery.
10 seconds. The ship began to hover in place, its supports pulling away. The air within the gateway started to swirl and pulsate.
As the timer reached zero, the gateway tore open crackling and roaring, clutching at the space around it and pulling on anything that wasn't nailed down. The ship leapt forward across the event horizon. The G-Force pushed them into their seats, Violet thought she might pass out. Less than a second later, they emerged just at the edge of the Antari system.
The ship came to a sharp rest, it deccelerated safely, but safe didn't always mean easy. The AI popped up with a chirp "Greetings, crew! Welcome to the Antari system." She popped over next to the window and gestured at the star in the center of the system "That's Antari, a red giant.
Violet's head was spinning, this was her first time traveling through a wormhole in her new body. Clearly she needed to do some more conditioning.
"Vi, you ok?" she felt the familiar clasp of Jack's hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, just not used to the G-Force in this body." she felt faint, but having him there was reassuring.
"Alright." he rubbed her shoulder slightly. In an instant, he snapped back to full on Captain mode. "You have your assignments, get to work." he barked.
Everyone headed off to their stations. Jack remained on the bridge with Iris to begin plotting their survey route. The ship's cook, a young serow named Ollie, went to prepare lunch. Violet returned to the engine room to continue inspecting the upgrades. Everyone had their duties, except Nash.
He meandered out into the hall. As much as he hated to admit it, Jack was right, he didn't have much to do unless they ran into trouble. He usually didn't mind, on shorter missions it gave him time to workout and read while he waited. But trapped on a three week voyage with no sure guarantee he'd see any action, he was already bored.
Their ship had been retrofitted to be as comfortable for its crew as possible, but that didn't mean they had room for a dedicated workout space. He supposed it was a fair trade off to have a full kitchen and luxury bathroom, but it left him with very few options of where to spend his time. Seeing no better option, he made his way to the kitchen to grab a snack.
As he walked through the door, he spotted Ollie putting the finishing touches on a platter of sandwiches. While it was possible to fabricate food, they needed a cook around to do the actual preparation to ensure proper nutrition and flavor. Ollie could make anything delicious. While they were distracted with another dish, Nash stalked over behind them and reached out to steal a sandwich.
"You think you're sneaky, don't you?" They'd spotted him without even turning around. If there were any risk in this situation, he might've been embarrassed, but he had a good two feet on them and at least 20 kg.
"Sorry, everything just looks so delicious." He replied with a chuckle as the goat turned around to face him, knife still in hand.
"You talkin about the sandwiches?" He took another step closer, he was so close that they had to bend back to look up at him.
"And if I'm not?" He put his hand on the wall behind them, his fangs glinted as the overhead lights reflected off his toothy grin. They put both hands on the counter and lifted themselves back onto the counter, their heart pounded in their chest.
He leaned in, throwing his free arm around their waist. His lips met theirs first, rugged and firm. His breath tasted faintly of tobacco and burnt coffee. They reciprocated, their lips soft and timid, a puffy cloud on a warm meadow. In a clearly practiced maneuver, they wrapped their slender legs around the muscular feline's waist and pushed themselves further back.
The chef tossed the knife a safe distance away into a readied dish tray, then brought their hands to the cheetah's lower chest, tearing at his tight fitting t-shirt. The cat, not about to be outdone, moved his arm from the wall to grip the back of their head. At the same time, he moved his other to the task of removing the serow's pants.
By now, both were half-naked and intently focused on what they were doing. Their movements were so furiously passionate that Ollie accidentally knocked the platter of sandwiches onto the floor. They hardly noticed.
Nash tossed their pants aside into a heap and immediately put his free hand to good use. His muscular fingers teased at their lips through their panties. They stopped kissing just long enough for a slight whimper to escape Ollie's lips.
"You like that, Antlers?" the cheetah grinned as he brought his lips to the side and gently kissed their neck. "Want me to keep going?" His breath was warm and mild, his words were a gentle caress against their tender ear.
They didn't say a word, they were far too overwhelmed to speak. They nodded as hard as they could then buried their head in the fur on Nash's shoulder.
Nash read the message, loud and clear. Without hesitation, he sunk his teeth into the serrow's supple shoulder. His bite was soft, despite his sharp teeth he didn't break the skin. He'd clearly had a lot of practice at this.
Ollie let out a sharp squeal which melted into a moan. A shiver ran down their body as a wave of pleasure rolled down them.
"You okay?" Nash pulled back slightly to check on them. The squeal made him mildly concerned, but not so concerned as to stop his fingers' delicate work.
Ollie, still unable to speak, did their best to provide a thumbs up and a head nod. Again, Nash understood and continued what he was doing. He bit into their shoulder, a bit harder this time.
With his hand already pleasuring them, he pulled their dripping wet panties aside and slid two fingers inside. He threw his other hand to the task of unfastening his fly. A few clumsy tears at his underwear later, his thick cock burst from his pants.
He pulled his fingers back putting the tip of one claw to either side of their clit. With his other hand, he grabbed them by the hair, he knew exactly how Ollie liked to be handled.
Once again his voice came like a hot breeze against their tender ears. "Do you want me to fuck you?"
They let out a little whimper, the sensation was almost overwhelming. They did their best to hold out, he'd have to try harder than... their thoughts trailed off.
"Nnnnnn fuck me..." The words cascaded off their tongue, almost an afterthought.
"What was that, Antlers?" His words tugged just as delicately as his fingers.
"Fuck me, please." They let out a sound, half shout and half moan. With permission granted, he threw a muscular arm around their back and lifted them off the counter.
They grasped out for his face and drew him close, they could taste their own sweat on his lips. His tongue lashed powerfully at theirs.
They kissed furiously as he slammed them onto his waiting cock, their hungry lips devouring every inch. They let out a gasp as he pressed deep and hard against their tight walls. At the same time, he slammed their head against the wall. It was a good thing they were air tight, or the sound would've carried to the bridge.
Ollie moaned as he thrust hard and deep he bit their neck for good measure. Every inch of their body quivered with an overwhelming pleasure. They could feel him pressing hard against their insides, harder, faster.
"I'm close." Nash grunted, his cock still pounding away at them.
"Fff- Fuck" They let out breathlessly, their speach stuttering as he bounced them "M- me too"
He pulled their hair firmly and brought their lips together. They bit down on his lip as he came inside them. As they kissed passionately, they came too. They stood there in the afterglow for what felt like an eternity.
"Excuse me, Captain Jack would like an eta on-" the S.P.R.O. chirped having just now materialized in the corner of the room. "I will come back later." she blurted out confused before blipping back out of the room.
"We should-" he panted, pulling his cock out of them "we should clean up."
"Probably, yeah." they replied with a short kiss. A stream of cum pooled onto the floor below them.
He held them tight as a poignant silence filled the room.
"After round two?" he said after a moment with what he probably thought came off as a charming smirk. He loosened his grip as they unwound their legs from around him and put their weight back on the ground.
"You're lucky you're cute." they pushed him back with one hand and knelt down.
He grabbed them by the hair and yanked them back. They let out a small whimper of delight.
"What do you want?" he growled, slowly stroking his cock.
"F-fuck my throat." they whispered coyly.
"I can't hear you." his voice rumbled dark and smooth. He pulled their head again, they loved the way it felt.
"Fuck my throat... Please." they tacked on sheepishly. a bit more forcefully this time as they hungrily eyed his cock still dripping with the mix of their cum.
"Louder" he demanded, teasing at their hair.
"Please shove your co-" he interrupted them, his cock slamming into their open mouth. He yanked their hair with a ferocious vigor, the whole of his length slipped comfortably down their throat.
The mixture of both of their cum and Nash's personal musk left a rich, salty, taste on their sensitive tongue. The feeling of him ripping at their hair was almost too much. They used one hand to steady themselves and put the other to work on themselves.
They fingered themselves quickly but tenderly, like whisking a meringue. The contrast of delicate against rough melted them. Just when they were about to cum, Nash pulled his cock from their mouth.
He let out a mighty roar as his cock erupted with stream after stream of hot cum. They caught two or three in their mouth, the rest made a sticky mess of their upper body.
Their hands continued their delicate work for a few more seconds before they came as well. Nash grabbed their hand and pushed their sticky dripping fingers in their still cumsoaked mouth. The flavor of their cum mixing drove them wild as they eagerly gulped it down.
As they laid on the floor together in the afterglow, Ollie's eyes drifted to the platter of sandwiches sprawled across the floor.
"Jack's gonna be pissed he had to wait for lunch." Nash laughed, he'd noticed the platter as well.
"Something tells me-" they huffed, breathing heavily and licking the last traces of cum from their lips, "he'll forgive me."
He kissed them tenderly and tousled their hair. Their well kept beard tickled at his chest as they cuddled.
"We should really clean up now." They said, much more sincerely than before.
"Yeah," he looked into their one eye that wasn't glazed shut, "you're gonna need a shower."
"You say that like it's my fault." They giggled.