Orbital Academy 05

"With a shove." Tess was speaking through gritted teeth, and Julia glanced at her radar, finding and following the pinprick of light that indicated Tess' ship. It was moving towards her fast.

"Tess what are you talking about, what are you doing?" she asked weakly, glancing up to see the orbital looming above her.

"Rookie Tess," Captain Appet's voice was official, her tone harsh, "this is a direct order, do not make the suicidal move you're about to make." Even though no one could see her, Julia shook her head,

"Tess don't do this, it's stupid."

"I'm not breaking off J," Tess' voice was clear, less static, "Captain. I'm sorry."

The spinning was making Julia feel sick to her stomach, but she looked at her instruments. Less than twenty kilometers out.

"Give her a shove and you'll both be done for Tess," the Captain's voice was gentle but firm, "I am ordering you to break off. I'm sorry Julia but there's nothing-"

"It's alright, " tears sprang suddenly into Julia's eyes, but she felt serene, "it's okay Tess, really. Break off. I'd rather I die than the hundreds in the orbital. And I'd rather die alone than take a squaddie with me."

"Just...I wanted to say something..." Tess' voice broke, "it's a cliche, but I don't think I can face this if I had to regret keeping it a secret." Black fog was swimming at the corners of Julia's vision, and a quick check of the instruments showed both that she was almost out of oxygen and that Tess hadn't broken off her course.

"Orbital A to Rookie Tess, break off! BREAK YOUR COURSE!"

"I'm ten kilometers away. Tess break off your vector or they won't be able to shoot in time." Her voice sounded thin in her ears, and Tess' response was even quieter through the dwindling oxygen that was fast being vented into space.

"I love you Julia. I've loved you since the first week we set foot on the orbital."

In a way it was helpful that Julia's mind was suddenly blank. It meant she didn't have the chance to respond in the last few seconds before the ships collided. There were shrieks of metal, sucking noises, something snapping so close that Julia wasn't sure if it was her ship or her body, and then there was sudden, blanketing silence.

***

Julia woke suddenly. Her head was pounding, and her entire right side felt stiff and throbbed. She let her gaze shift across the pale blue metal of the walls above and around her. *Sickbay,* she connected sluggishly. She took a careful inventory of her body while lying as still as she could. As far as she could tell, everything was intact, although her entire stomach and chest ached, and a glance downward confirmed that her whole right arm and hand were wrapped in rigid black plasticine.

"They're just broken," Tess spoke quietly from her bedside. Julia smiled, looking her squadmate up and down. The girl was standing, and besides the crutch she was leaning on she seemed in perfectly good health, "well, I think the word they used was 'pulverized', but they were able to put in some titrania replacement bones. After your body gets used to it, you'll be back to normal."

"Not a bad outcome for a wrestling match with a Drake," Julia grinned weakly.

"Could've been worse," Tess agreed, "by which I mean you could've been just a memory and some carbon scarring on my ship."

Julia scanned the girl's face, trying to discern what Tess was feeling, and only then noticed why her hair was pulled forward across her face.

"Your eye!" she exclaimed, sitting up and immediately wincing at the action. Tess raised a hand to the small black eyepatch over her right eye, the same color as her hair.

"Could've been worse," she repeated, and smiled again, "for what we accomplished-"

"Tess I can't tell you..." Julia's heart was racing, "I don't know what to say or what to do to tell you how grateful I am. How sorry..."

"Of course, J," Tess sat on Julia's bed, taking her good hand in her own, "you're my squaddie, I'm not going to let them blow you out of space like a rogue comet."

"I'm not angry at them. It was the right call for them to make." Julia leaned back again, the pounding in her head extending to her ribs, "but you...the call you made was so far beyond that. I hate to say it but you're probably going to be taking a lot of heat for that call. I-I owe you so much. I can't ever repay you for what you did."

Julia closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of soft cloth and cool pillow against the pounding in her head.

"There's nothing you have to do Julia," Tess squeezed her hand, "I would've done the same for any of them, really."

The full memory of her last few moments before the impact came back to Julia, and her eyes snapped open. Tess was looking down at her, affectionate in a friendly, open way. Julia had never thought of Tess in a romantic sense, but now that the thought occurred to her she was surprised to find that it wasn't repellent at all. Tess was a little bit younger than her, friendly, quiet. She was even attractive in a dark and wiry sort of way. *Would it really be so horrible, starting something with her?* The thought idly floated through her mind. She hadn't considered the thought of being with a woman before. Reluctantly, she dismissed the thought, at least for the moment. Any relationship that started out of obligation wouldn't be healthy, no matter how appreciative she was. *But maybe it wouldn't be so bad to show her a little bit of that appreciation...* She slid her thumb across the back of Tess' hand, enjoying the smoothness of her skin.

Her personal screen pinged from where it sat beside her bed, and Tess passed it over to her. The message that scrolled across it made her smile:

"There are easier ways to get attention you know. -Preston"

With a grin Julia tapped a response with her left hand, resting the screen on her legs.

"Nah, this wasn't that much work. I'm lazy. -Julia"

The response pinged back almost immediately:

"Well we're all sitting here waiting to get chewed out for this, but I'm glad to hear you're awake enough to be a smartass -Preston"

After a moment's thought, Julia tapped out another message.

"Will they need Tess around when they scold you? Or can she stay with me for a while so I can thank her? -Julia"

"'Thank her' eh? Woo woo baby. Yea they're leaving you two alone 'till you're healed up a little. I guess they don't realize you're healed up enough to bump crotches -Preston"

"Dumbass," Julia muttered under her breath, but she smiled all the same. *That's the Preston I know.* Grinning, she looked up from her screen at Tess. The dark-haired girl was looking down at the screen, reading the messages upside-down. .

"You don't have to do that, I didn't do it to be thanked," Tess said quietly, blushing, "I don't want you to get into anything because you feel indebted to me, that wouldn't be fair."

"We can talk about what we'll get into later," Julia smiled, reaching forward and hooking her good hand around Tess' neck, "for right now I just want to be your friend. A friend who wants to show you how grateful she is." She pulled forward, until she had the other girl leaning over her. Julia shivered as Tess' hair brushed against the sides of her face.

"You don't have to-" Tess breathed again, before Julia silenced her with a kiss.

Julia was surprised at how soft Tess' lips were. Even though she had her pulled forward, nearly on top of her, the younger girl was hesitant, reserved. She let go, breaking the kiss and looking up at Tess questioningly.

"Unless you don't want this-" Julia began quietly, but Tess had already leaned down again before she could finish her sentence, and this time there was no hesitation in her kisses at all.

While she hadn't considered the possibility seriously, Julia had always assumed that if she ever did things with a girl, the experience would be somehow gentler, softer, perhaps more tender. She was surprised when Tess' hands snaked up, suddenly running through her long blonde hair and pulling her deeper into the kiss. *Not soft...but different. Very different,* Julia thought somewhat distractedly. Tess was kissing her as if she had wanted this for her entire life, and Julia had to admit to herself that the effect was much more enjoyable than gentleness would be.

She was suddenly aware of her very faint scent, subtle, like flowers but with a dangerous bite.

"I didn't realize you wore a fragrance," she murmured, under the kisses that were raining down on her lips and cheeks and forehead. Tess stopped and looked down at her, smiling, and Julia smiled in return. Her thoughts were so jumbled and unfocused, but she was finding the entire thing so much nicer than she would've imagined. Tess' good eye twinkled, a more bright and vivid green than Julia had ever seen before, but the eyepatch sent a wave of guilt that dampened Julia's enjoyment a bit.

"No one realizes," Tess whispered back, her face inches away from Julia's, "which means right now? It's just for you." For some reason she couldn't explain, Tess' whispered words sent a tingle down the back of Julia's neck and spine. Her reservations gone, Julia reached up again, pulling her into another kiss.

Tess shifted to lift one leg and straddle Julia on the sickbay bed, and Julia was very suddenly aware of the heat of the body pressing against her; more aware than she would have been if it had been a man on top of her. Fumbling with her left hand, she had to try a few times to get ahold of the sealing tab on Tess' flightsuit, but she finally got a grip on it and pulled it down as far as it would go, down to the waist. The flightsuit parted in the middle as Tess hovered over Amiee, letting her see down the other girl's naked neck, her full breasts, and her stomach with the tiniest amount of belly. To her surprise, Julia found the sight quite agreeable. She was used to men with muscles and straight lines, but Tess' body was all smooth skin and curves. Tess reached under the bottom edge of Julia's shirt, her fingers dancing as gently as possible across the bruised skin of her stomach. She braced for pain, but the feathery touches were light enough that all she felt were the fluttering sensations that the girl was causing to grow within her.

Tess' fingers roamed a little higher each time they danced across her stomach, and Julia leaned back and closed her eyes. The caresses were so delicate and so careful that Julia couldn't tell when she had stopped just touching her stomach and when she had also started touching her breasts. The air in sickbay was just a fraction colder on her skin, and it was the only indication she had that Tess had lifted her loose hospital gown to look at her. Julia kept her eyes closed so that she wouldn't know where the next touch would fall, so when Tess grabbed a hard pink nipple between her lips Julia gasped at the unexpected pleasure.

"You're...really good at that," she looked down at Tess, who had begun flicking her small pink tongue around Julia's nipple with a wicked smile.

"You're not my first," Tess grinned,

"Well you're mine, so...be gentle...?" Julia wasn't used to being uncertain when it came to sex, but Tess seemed not to mind being in control. She gently bit the nipple in her mouth, and Julia gave a small squeak of surprise.

"How does it compare?" Tess' fingers were moving again, roving across her stomach, her other breast, gently at her neck, dipping beneath the hospital blanket to graze across thighs that were bare now that the gown had been pulled up. Julia was finding it quite hard to focus on the question, but she managed a response,

"Different. Unexpectedly different."

"Oh?" Julia's body tensed in anticipation as, without breaking eye contact or stopping her slow assault on Julia's breast, Tess slipped the blanket down until it was at her knees, "different in a good way or a bad way?"

"Different in a different way," Julia smiled in response, "less impatient. And a guy wouldn't have done that without at least taking a look at the goods."

"Oh I plan on taking a very good look," Tess had moved forward, licking and nibbling along Julia's neck, and she whispered her words directly into Julia's ear. The motion pushed the flightsuit directly against Julia's clit, and the direct stimulation combined with the teasing and the whispering were all too much. She tried to hold off, but the gentle teasing and the delicious sensations were overwhelming.

Julia grabbed the girl on top of her as she came, her body tensing at the suddenness of the orgasm. It wasn't the hardest she had ever cum, but the quivering throughout her body was enough to make her feel sore even as she arched and gave a quiet moan. She was still pressed against Tess, and she ground her pussy into the rigid material of the other girl's flightsuit. As the heat between her legs slowly subsided, Tess chuckled softly in her ear as she held her close, "well that was fast. Maybe I know your body better than I thought." The whisper and the sensation of her tongue against Julia's ear sent her over the edge again, crying out as her hips lifted from the bed. She stopped trying to keep her focus and instead embraced everything; the blissful thrills of pleasure coursing through her, the warmth of the girl on top of her, the scent of sweat and sex and flowers, even the aches in her stomach and chest. Finally she relaxed, spent, nestling against the covers.

"I swear it never happens that fast baby," Julia joked tiredly in an exaggeratedly macho voice, and Tess leaned back and laughed.

"Good," she replied. She moved as if to slide off of her, but Julia grabbed her arm. *Where do you think you're going...*

"I'm supposed to be thanking you, remember?" she said slyly, and she could tell that in spite of herself Tess wanted more.

"You don't have to- Oh!" Tess gasped, as in a smooth motion Julia slid a hand into her flightsuit.

"What if I want to?" Julia asked, enjoying the look of unhidden delight on Tess' face. She slid her hand further across the girl's small patch of hair. She could feel that it had been trimmed into some kind of design, and she made a mental not to ask or tease Tess about it at some point. In the meantime her hand went further, purposely rubbing it against Tess' clit as she gently and slowly explored between the other girl's legs.

"Oh my god," Tess moaned, her hips slowly moving back and forth as if against her will to grind her clit against Julia's wrist. Although Julia had enjoyed herself before, this was an experience like no other. Her fingers rubbed slow circles around Tess' slit, and even though she hadn't slipped them inside yet all three fingers were wet. Tess' face was heavy-lidded with an expression of such unbridled lust and enjoyment that Julia couldn't bear to wait any longer. She slid first one, then a second finger inside the girl on top of her, and the gasp she got in return made her grin. Briefly considering what she would like, Julia curled the tips of her fingers, pressing them against the walls of Tess' pussy, and then slid them all the way out again. Tess whimpered, and Julia pushed them back in, just as slow. The cues in the other girl were easy to read as she moved her hips in time with the gentle thrusting of Julia's fingers. Her pace staying even and steady, Julia leaned up, ignoring the pain, and kissed the hollow of Tess' neck.

Julia felt the girl cum, felt Tess' body trembling and felt her pussy clamp down on her fingers. For as loud as she'd been before, Tess orgasmed quietly, with a moan that was barely audible but left Julia with goosebumps all over. She felt thrilled at how wet her hand had gotten, at how well she seemed to know Tess' body without ever having thought about it. She slid her fingers out of the girl, surprised when Tess began kissing her again. The men she had been with were more the type to finish and roll over. it was surprisingly nice to have the small sensations, the tingles as her lips touched against skin that still tingled from the orgasm a few minutes before. The kisses continued, soft and light, as Tess gently and delicately slid her hospital gown down over her bruised body, and slid off of her to stand to the side of her bed. When she finally stopped, her smile made her entire face radiant. *I think I would do a lot to be the reason for that smile as often as possible,* Julia realized with surprise.

"So..." she said awkwardly, unsure of what that experience had meant to Tess, or to herself for that matter. *What do I say now? What do I do? Is this how guys feels with me when I'm done with them?*

"So...after months of fantasizing, I finally got to do you," Tess grinned.

"Was it how you imagined?" Julia asked, unsure of how else to respond. In answer Tess leaned forward, close enough that Julia could smell flowers and a dangerous bite.

"Everything I could hope for and more," she whispered, and the sound of it sent a shock from Julia's scalp all the way down to between her legs. Then in a smooth motion Tess slid her own sealing tab up, fastening the flightsuit back into place and grabbing her crutch from the bedside. With another radiant smile, the girl turned and walked out of the sickbay, leaving Julia panting, blushing, and entirely confused.