Flung Out of Space (and Time)

"Bonjour mon amour," I kiss Jenna on the cheek, waking her up. From here on out we need to be in the habit of speaking in French so I start.

"Bonjour amoureux," she grins and sleepily replies.

My brain is flooded with all the info that Mother downloaded for me. I get detailed histories of the church and the French settlements of Canada. We will have to be weary of a war called the French and Indian War between competing powers France and Britain. It split many of the native tribes that these European settlers would go on to destroy. These disparate tribes took sides with the very people who would annihilate them and their culture. Accessing this info breaks my heart and angers me. Mother has pinpointed the exact date, September 21, 1758. We will be not far from Quebec where the following year there will be a prominent battle for the city, one that would kill both commanding officers. The three of us eat in silence and then Nero walks in.

"Good morning to the three of you, in the lab I have prepared period appropriate clothing as well as material supplies for you as best I could. The drop ship is fueled and ready to go whenever you are."

"Very well, thank you Nero. There's no sense in wasting time, everyone report to the lab and let's get prepared to depart." I order.

This dress is clunky, heavy and restrictive. I hate it, I hate the boots and I hate the corset underneath it. Jenna lucks out, she has a far simpler shirt and pant made of deerskin. At least I'm not the only one who looks uncomfortable as Fenster also looks miserable in his thick wool jacket and pants. He looks uncomprehendingly at the traps that he has to carry into the ship. Jenna has taken immediately to the bow and arrows Nero gave her, though, looking at them in amazement as she pulls the string taut and lets it fly. The sting cuts through the air and a smile spreads across her face. How he was able to fabricate wood items is beyond me but he's managed to do it. Nero straps into the driver's seat of drop ship and I take the one next to him.

"Ok, listen up, I know this is not something we signed up for. I know we're dealing with loss and guilt over what happened yesterday. Well, not yesterday, but you know what I mean. We were put in this situation without our consent and will have to make do with the cards we were dealt. This crew is the best I've ever worked with and we WILL make it through this and we WILL get back home."

"Great fuckin' pep talk, Cappy." Fenster snidely comments in English.

"No more English, Fenster and keep that shit in check," I snap back in French.

The drop ship disengages from the Elagabalus and we float above this absolutely stunning planet. To our left the sun lights up the ocean, its blue so bright and so vibrant that it hurts my eyes. To our right the planet is covered in complete darkness and that is where Nero steers the ship. The front windows light up in brilliant oranges and yellows as we breech the atmosphere and the ship drops past the clouds and into the darkness. Nero navigates without lights and the ship descends softly lands in a dark field. In front of us I can see the shadow outlines of a tiny cabin and the thick woods behind it. The three of us stumble in the dark and the night air is cool. Inside the cabin the air is musty and I walk right into a cobweb. I let out a shriek and wildly waive my arms to get the cobwebs out of my face.

"Our fearless leader," Fenster mumbles, again in English.

"Francois, Francois, dear Fenster," Jenna says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, get used to it." I regain my composure and retort.

Outside I hear the drop ship take off as it leaves us for the safety of space and the Elagabalus. Inside my eyes adjust to the darkness and I can make out a bed along one wall and a fireplace against the other. Making my way over there I find some wood and reach out to check its dryness level. Finding it dry I set to lighting it. Once it is up and running the fire lights up the entire room and reveals the squalid nature of our new lodgings. The floor is packed dirt and the bed is barely a pallet. Tomorrow I'll have a ton of work to do just to get this placed cleaned up. Luckily I see a second pile of blankets on the floor so Fenster will sleep there. There's also plenty of cooking utensils so there's no worry there.

"Ok, Fenster, you're in the pile on the ground. We're gonna rest up some more and get started at first light. Jenna, you and Fenster will head out into the woods. Lay the traps and kill anything you can so we can eat tomorrow. Fenster will take the ax from the corner," I pause and point it out to him. "And bring back firewood. Meanwhile I will be cleaning this place up and making it livable. Mother says there is a stream nearby so we will have water."

Fenster grumbles about having to sleep on the floor but curls up, facing the corner, while Jenna and I climb into bed. I don't think anyone really slept and soon a gray first light shines in through the window. The fire has burned low but not too low, keeping the room warm and giving off the softest of lights. After giving Jenna a kiss to her cheek I stand up and go open the front door to let fresh air in and extra smoke out. Making a circle around the tiny wood cabin I find a stack of cut logs. My ears fill with the sounds of birds chirping and insects buzzing. I'm stuck by how fresh the air is out here. No exhaust stinking up the air or the smells of modernity. I carry some wood inside and start working on getting the fire built back up.

"Wake up Fenster, it is time for you and Jenna to head out." I order and nudge his pile of blankets.

He groans and starts moving. I take a pot and head out of the cabin. I follow the directions Mother gives me and find the stream. The water is cold, ice cold and it stings my hands as the pot fills up with water. When I lug it into the cabin Fenster looks at me and the look chills me to the bone. He's taking pleasure in seeing me in this subservient role. Jenna is the only person I submit to and that is because I chose to. Part of me wants to tell him to wipe that look off of his face but he walks out the door instead. I take a cup from the wall and fill it with water and hand it to Jenna. She takes it down in three large gulps. When done she grabs me by the waist and pulls me in close for a kiss. It surprises me and when her tongue enters my mouth I moan softly. It ends as quickly as it started and she heads out.

The next two days are long and hard. Jenna is out hunting and Fenster cuts wood while I cook and keep up with the cabin. Because we're all not used to such physical labor as soon as night falls, and it falls quite early, we all pass out quickly. By the end of the first week we've settled into a routine. There is enough food stored and cured to last us, the trap lines are working perfectly, Jenna is a natural hunter and trap setter, while Fenster has cut us enough wood to last a couple of weeks should a storm blow in and force us indoors for weeks at a time. Jenna and I are in bed and laying on our sides. As the fire starts burning low and Fenster's intermittent snoring fills the room I feel Jenna's left arm slip under my neck and her hand press firmly over my mouth. A flush of passion rips through my body.

"Don't make a sound," Jenna whispers her order into my ear then she gives it a nibble. Her breath is hot on my cold neck. It's an order and I will obey my mistress.

Her right hand works its way down to the hem of my undergarment and centimeter by centimeter she tugs it upwards. With each tug I feel the anticipation building up in me. Jenna's tongue is tracing circles on my neck. The undergarment has been pulled up and over my waist and my body aches for her to be in me but she waits. Her fingertips brush past it and my body quivers in sheer desire. My chest starts heaving and my nipples press hard into the thin undergarment. Her hand is hovering just above my waiting sex, I want it so bad that I push my hips back. Instead of pushing back into her hand my backside just presses into her hips. The tip of her tongue is on the top of my shoulder and when she bites down her finger slips into me. I moan loudly into the palm of her hand, which muffles it and doesn't wake Fenster. In and out, Jenna moves her finger in a slow and steady pace that builds me up quickly to the precipice of orgasm.

Jenna's thumb traces my lips and I suck in on it. I let out a few moans while my lips are wrapped around her thumb. When I feel like her hand is going to pull out of me I place both hands over hers and press down. It plunges into me and my thighs also do their part and bear down on her hand. As I get closer the faster my moans come and the more my hips start rocking back and forth. If I wasn't sucking on Jenna's thumb we'd be making a ton of noise but these restrictions make this particular game hotter.

"Umpf, umpf, umpf!!!!" I muffle into her thumb.

My body falls limp back into hers. Jenna gives a soft kiss to my neck and pulls both hands out of me. Her right hand rests on my stomach and we both let out satisfied sighs. As that warm, floating feeling sets in I hear Fenster rustling in his pile of blankets on the floor.

"Jesus Christ, you two have no fucking shame," he mutters angrily.

We say nothing and all three of us fall asleep. In the morning Fenster is already up and has left the cabin. When I go to fill the pot with water I find him shirtless, angrily chopping wood. He doesn't look at me as I walk past him. Above us the sky is grey and heavy with impending rain. We're going to have to stay indoors today. When I get back Fenster is still at it, sweating profusely.

"It's going to rain today, Fenster. As soon as it starts you head inside. I'll be working on a rabbit stew for us to have today."

He acts like I didn't say anything to him. The last thing we can afford is for him to get sick out here. The drop ship cannot just make runs down here whenever we want. Not only must we conserve fuel but we also need reduce the risk of exposure. I push inside and find Jenna sitting cross legged on the bed. Her eyes are closed and she is meditating. I swallow my misgivings about Fenster's deteriorating behavior and focus on dinner.

Chapter Five: Resentment, Overflowing

The rains didn't come the day but during the night while we slept. A heavy, constant rain falls for almost a week straight. A week trapped indoors with Fenster all day and all night became a living hell for the three of us. If Jenna and I sat next to each other or cuddled on the bed he would glare and sigh loudly. He rarely used French and kept to grumbling curses in English. If he caught me giving Jenna what she refers to as "hearteyes" he'd slam his fist onto the table or kick the wall as hard as he could. Anything he could do to make everyone as uncomfortable and as miserable as he was. Jenna and I would whisper to each other but he would not speak to us directly anymore. At night I heard him grumbling to McMannus. Because we were on top of each other for six days straight I really couldn't talk to Jenna about how bad I thought he was doing. If we were on the ship I would have put him under stasis for the duration until we got back and Company doctors could examine him. Since we weren't we just had to deal with it.

"Fenster," I tried after six days of barely speaking. Outside the rain was still falling steadily, turning the field around us into a quagmire. He had been staring into the corner for over an hour.

"What do you want?" He demands without looking over at Jenna or myself at the table.

"You're scaring us. Come sit at the table, have some more stew and tell me what's going on with you. We're less than a month in and we need to last at least another five if not another eleven. Winter's coming and we're going to be spending a lot more time cooped up in this cabin, just the three of us."

"What's going on is I have to answer to your unprofessional ass, that's what!" He whirls around and glares at us. "All day and all night you two are lost in your own fucking romance novel, giving each other come fuck me faces and then trying to screw like teenagers at night when you think I'm asleep. You've been doing this shit for years and it drove everyone insane. I don't know why the Captain allowed it."

"He voiced his displeasure but he ultimately had no say in it. It's not expressly forbidden by Company guidelines. We're trying to be respectful by waiting for you to go to sleep and cannot, and will not, act like strangers for your comfort. Start acting like a goddamned adult and grow the fuck up. You don't like taking orders from a woman? Don't like having to serve under a lesbian? Well, too bad cuz you have to. When we get back you can request a transfer and I will gladly fucking release you. Until then you will stop the pouting baby act, are we understood?" I pause for him to respond back, when he doesn't I continue. "Good, because we need you to shake out of it. I know he was your friend and I know that you're beating yourself up over what happened with Markos but it was not your fault. Do you hear me? Not your fault in any way, shape or form. Markos illegally sent us on runs for the Confederation Fleet. None of us had military training and yet he put us in the position of participating in a raid in rebel territory. He put that gun in your hand when it never should have been. We are a commercial crew and he dropped us into a war zone. Forgive yourself or at least get it together until we get home."

He silently gets up and sits at the table. The tension is not quite diffused but it certainly does lessen. When we wake up in the morning the rain has stopped and Jenna and Fenster head out early. For the next month it rains off and on and the three of us settle into our discomforting routine. Fenster continues to glare at us when he thinks we're not looking and his resentment fills the room. I get an update from Nero, the device is charging and it really does look like it's going to take a good eight more months to fully charge it and get us home. A cold spell descends upon us and the rain turns to snow. It lasts for just a week before melting off but we learn that all three of us will need heavier coats or at least a blanket or two and to get that Jenna and Fenster need to head out and get themselves either a bear or something large like that. Jenna has her arrows and Fenster has a musket that they found on a dead man a few weeks ago. He only has a few rounds and Mother downloaded the knowledge to operate it to him. It shoots wildly so he needs to be close but won't need to aim much. My day is practically sailing by when Nero calls out to me not long after mid-day.

"What is it, Nero?"

"Mother is detecting contact between Fenster and locals. A Monsignor is trying to talk him into joining the French Army and he is talking about the disrespectful wife and half breed living with him."

"Won't he need to wait till spring to actually join?"

"Yes, but he has made it official now, so you will have to deal with this. The Monsignor will show up when the snows clear and expect to find Fenster. He has hate in his heart and is directing it against you in particular. Mother has been worried about his mental state."

"I share Mother's concerns. He's struggling with what he did and what happened during the raid and has not reacted well to our current situation. Can Mother find us a new place to live?"

"Well, Mother believes that no matter where you are Fenster will become a problem. I can siphon off enough power to run one stasis pod, it will lengthen the time period you and Lieutenant Hwang will have to spend on Earth, though."

"Jenna and I will survive on our own, I will detain Fenster when they return and notify you. Once night falls you bring down the drop ship and we'll get him into stasis until the return home. The Company can then deal with him then."

I spend the rest of the day nervously pacing the cabin. There's no telling how Fenster will react to our plan. Light is falling when Jenna comes into the cabin, alone. She's empty-handed and stops dead in her tracks when she sees the look on my face. She rushes over to me and pulls me into a hug.

"What's the matter, love?" She asks, voice full of concern.

After telling her what Fenster has done and what we need to do she goes stone faced. He's put us all at risk, especially since he talked about how unruly the women in his home are behaving. She knows how much that puts us all at risk. We steel ourselves and wait for him to come back. A heavy stone deposits itself in my stomach and stays there the whole night. He doesn't come home as a light snow starts to fall. Mother informs me that he has made a small camp not far from here and seems to have bedded himself down for the night. If he doesn't come back in the morning Jenna and I will have to head out and find him. We take turns sleeping and keeping watch. When first light comes Mother informs me that he's on his way back. When he walks in Jenna and I stand up from our spot on the bed. She'd fallen asleep with her head on my shoulder and jolts awake when he kicks the door open.

"What the hell, Fenster?" I demand. "Where have you been?"

"Don't act like you don't know where I was. I wanted a single night away from you twats, is that a crime?"

"Your recklessness has put us all in danger, Fenster! What the fuck were you thinking when you joined the French Army? They're going to show up and expect you to enlist when the snow melts! You've informed the local religious leader about how unruly your wife is. That man is going to show up. Need I remind you that we were not to interact in any meaningful way with the locals? You've jeopardized all of our safety!"

"So what?" He shrugs his shoulders.

"So what? So what? We now have to put you in stasis and Jenna and I now have to rough it for far longer because Nero has to divert power from the device to power your stasis pod, thats what!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you, I'm done. Done, you hear me? Done, and nothing you can say will change my mind. I'd rather join a losing cause and die than take one more fucking order from you. I'm going to leave now and spend the winter in a local logging camp and then report for duty. Just try and stop me."

He turns to leave and Jenna reaches out to grab his hand. As she's pulling him towards her he throws his fist out and catches her in the ear. The hit pushes her back and I charge forward. It's hard to really move or fight in this dress but I kick out my leg and it hits him square in the groin. He doubles over and I wind my arm back to punch him but he is able to hit me first, in the stomach. I gasp as all the air is forced from my lungs. Jenna runs up and punches him across the face. The force of it pushes her back to him and she stumbles to the ground. I force myself to run forward and tackle him. We tumble to the ground and he lets out a loud grunt. I'm on top of him but he is punching me in the side and hard. Jenna scrambles over to him, still on the ground, and brings the back of her foot down hard on his throat. He lets out a loud cough that's full of blood as Jenna takes his arm in between her legs. Grasping him by the wrist she pushes the arm as hard as she can to her left. The arm snaps right below elbow. Blood spurts from the wound, the bone has pierced the skin, in heavy gushes. Fenster starts shrieking and thrashing underneath me. A surge of energy courses through him and he flips me off of him. Jenna sprawls backwards at this thrashing.

I land on my back with a thud and more pain to my battered body. He's scrambling to his feet and rushes over to me. His left arm hangs limp and the arm drips blood. Before I can get up he's straddled me and has his remaining working hand around my throat. I'm batting at his arm but it's not making much of a difference. He doesn't quite have the strength to close my throat but it is uncomfortable. Behind him I see Jenna sneak up behind him and takes his head in her hands. She snaps his neck and his body falls limp to the ground. When his hand leaves my throat I take in a couple of huge, deep, ragged breaths.