Lost Worlds Ch. 01

It took three days away from the Victorian Star Empire, stranded on the uncharted tropical moon, before the first real cracks in the veneer of propriety appeared.

--

The first night, the four survivors were too exhausted to think. The HMS Intrepid had struck the asteroid in the afternoon, just before teatime. They had barely managed to cram themselves into a tiny escape pod before the reactor had cracked, vaporizing the ship behind them.

Their pod had crashed down in a lagoon, on a tropical moon orbiting a blue-and-orange gas giant somewhere in the fringes of the Cygnus arm. They had spent the evening dragging what supplies they could out of the pod, and trying to set up a rough shelter using the broad palm leaves and mossy plants of this new world. They'd watched the skies for other escape pods, others who might have survived their stricken ship. None had come.

They'd huddled close together that night, but Victorian society could forgive this. Miss Anabella Locke had done more heavy lifting that evening than she ever had before, that day, and when it ended she had to face the fact that her acquaintances on the ship were all gone, and that her parents would likely think her dead as well. Her maidservants Ciara and Shanti, and her footman Roger, were likewise weighed down by the tragedy. If Anabella clung to them, and wept on their shoulders just as they wept on hers, this was just an overabundance of grief, which was not improper.

--

The second day, they had risen and taken in their new accommodations. The tides had shifted during the night, exposing vast stretches of beach and stones covered with soft moss. The escape pod had sunk deeper down the seafloor, and was barely visible.

"Are they going to be able to find us, if the escape pod is lost entirely?" Ciara asked.

"Surely they will," Anabella said.

Roger sighed. "If the beacon works, they can track the beacon. But the beacon wouldn't come loose, and it wasn't designed for saltwater."

"We should find food," Shanti said. She wiped the sweat from her brow, then pulled her collar out. Her long dress, like all of their clothes, had been designed for the dry air of a spaceship, and it clung terribly in the moon's humid air.

They worked in pairs until noon. Anabella and Shanti found a quiet spot and assembled a simple lean-to, which would give them some protection if it began to rain. Roger and Ciara found a net and waded into the ocean, bringing back some fish to make into lunch.

"We'll need to find a source of fresh water," Ciara panted as she sat on a fallen log. "But at least we have some shade."

"I have to ask," Roger said. "The humidity is punishing. Would I offend you if I wore less clothing?"

Anabella was about to politely object when Ciara shrugged. "Can we trust you not to ogle us if we do the same?"

"Certainly," Roger said. He unbuttoned his shirt and jacket, then slid them off and set them carefully aside. Roger was lean, with a dusting of hair across his chest and a patch just above the top of his trousers. Anabella found her eye running up his arm, taking in the muscles of his bare shoulder, and she quickly closed her eyes. Ciara blushed a bit and looked away, and Roger chuckled.

"Are you laughing because I am blushing, sir?"

Roger shrugged. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ciara began unbuttoning her dress, one button at a time. She peeled it off, along with her undershirt, and stood bare-chested.

Anabella's breath caught and her heart raced. Ciara was gorgeous. She was a few inches shorter than Anabella and Roger, with more freckles than there were stars in the sky above. Her curly hair clung to her sweaty skin, and she pulled it back behind her with a sigh. Anabella blushed as she saw Ciara's full breasts, with their soft curves and light pink nipples. She blushed and looked away, and found herself looking into Roger's eyes as he did the same.

"You shouldn't laugh at people for blushing, Roger," Ciara said, as she shed her skirts, leaving herself in nothing but a single undergarment that covered little more than her womanhood. "It's not polite."

Shanti giggled. "It does look like fun, though," she said.

"It might be that," Ciara admitted.

Anabella stared desperately at Roger. His chest was a bit distracting, but he was the only other person who seemed embarrassed by these circumstances, and that made him her liferaft.

Shanti took the opportunity to strip as well, removing her dress and most of her undergarments. She took a knife from their supplies and cut her skirt off short, then slipped it back on. Anabella caught a brief glimpse of the black hair around Shanti's womanhood, and she felt her blush deepening. Roger caught a glimpse, too, and closed his eyes.

This was pushing the bounds of Victorian modesty, certainly. Any proper lady or gentleman would be shocked. And yet, give that proper lady or gentleman a day on the same moon, and they might easily do the same thing. It is hard to be proper if one dies of heat exhaustion, after all.

"You may look again," Shanti said. "But only if you promise to blush some more."

Roger turned to face them, and Anabella felt obliged to do the same. He managed to look both women in the eye, which Anabella considered something of a feat, but his blush deepened noticeably as he did so.

Roger noticed the uncertainty in Anabella's eye, and turned back to her.

"Are we making you uncomfortable, miss?" he asked.

"I..." she hesitated. "Yes, but I have no right to stop you," she admitted. "The humidity is beastly."

"You can do whatever makes you most comfortable, miss," Ciara said. "We won't judge you."

"You may ogle us if you wish," Shanti added.

Roger sighed as he trimmed most of the legs from his pants, leaving him wearing nothing but rather revealing shorts. "Such favoritism."

"Let's not tease her too much," Ciara said. "This must be difficult."

"You were teasing me mercilessly a moment ago," Roger noted.

"I believe you enjoyed it, sir," she replied.

Anabella took a deep breath, then reached for the knife. Her hand shook as she trimmed her skirt off, just above her knee, and kicked off the bottom portion. Rather than discard her shirt, she trimmed it as well, removing the sleeves entirely and revealing her midriff from her waist to just below her bosom. After spending the entire morning working in such confining clothes, the breeze on her bare skin was heavenly.

"There you are, miss," Ciara smiled.

Anabella could feel her blush returning. The others were polite, and kind, but none of her etiquette classes had prepared her for the challenge of addressing three friends, none of whom wore shirts. She decided that it would be polite to appear not to notice.

And yet, as the day went on, she found that pretending not to notice did not stop her from noticing. The four of them worked on searching the inland for water or other food, which had the habit of leaving her compatriots out of sight for the occasional moment, only to reemerge and remind her of what had happened.

Ciara was beautifully curvy, and her remaining article of clothing did more to accentuate her lovely posterior than it did to conceal it. From behind, it was barely larger than a thick belt. Ciara's freckles were concentrated on her arms and face, but they extended quite far up her legs and down onto her bosom, and a few of them spread onto her belly and her bottom. Anabella was glad that, at the very least, Ciara could not see her blushing when she noticed this last set.

Roger wore slightly more clothing than Ciara, but he was no less enticing for all that. There was softness and hardness alike about him, with muscles that showed when he reached for the fruit in the trees or pushed aside the undergrowth. Anabella found herself wondering what his embrace would feel like, whether the softness or the hardness would predominate. She blushed at this thought, too, but she noticed Roger glancing at the other two women and then looking away and clearing his throat from time to time, so at least she was not alone in her bashfulness.

Shanti was her own brand of enticing. She had pinned her lovely black hair into a rough bun, so every bit of her back was visible. Anabella found herself entranced by the way her muscles moved and the way her gorgeous brown skin shifted when she reached up to push the undergrowth out of her way. Her breasts were lovely, too, small and perky with dark nipples. Shanti caught Anabella glancing at them, once, and gave her a knowing smile when she blushed and looked away.

"I did say you were allowed to ogle, miss," she whispered, then stepped back into the brush and continued her search for a spring.

By the evening the group had located a spring half a kilometer inland. They ate a meal of fish and fruit from the strange native trees, and tried not to be distracted by their friends' near-nudity, and generally failed.

The conversation died out as they prepared to lie down for the second night. The nights did grow cool, so they planned to sleep close together for the sake of warmth, but their clothing was still uncomfortably wet. The area beneath the lean-to was only barely big enough for the four of them to lie down, and only if they held one another as they had the first night.

"I'll lie on the outside," Roger said.

"Facing which way, sir?" Ciara asked. Roger sighed, casting a skeptical glance in her direction, and Ciara smirked.

"You may want to pause your teasing so that we can sleep," Shanti said, stretching her arms above her head.

Roger looked at her, watching the way her shoulders moved as she reached upward, watching her bosom shift. He seemed to be considering saying something, but he decided against it and lay down at the edge of the lean-to, facing out towards the ocean.

"Do you want to be in the middle, miss?" Shanti asked. "It may be warmer."

Anabella thought of the previous night, and the comfort of feeling her friends' arms around her. But now, the idea of embracing them in the same way with so little clothing stirred a number of emotions, none of which she was quite prepared for.

"I'll take a turn on the outside as well," she said.

Shanti nodded. "As you like. Perhaps I'll sleep next to Roger, if only to stop Ciara from being such a tease."

Shanti lay down, pressing her body against Roger's back. Ciara joined her, setting one hand gently on Shanti's hip. Taking a deep breath, Anabella lay down behind Ciara.

There was more contact than she was prepared for, but she resolved that it was a necessity given the circumstances. She wrapped her arm around Ciara, her hand resting on Ciara's belly, and tried to stay calm and sleep.

Sleep was maddeningly elusive, however. Anabella could feel the others stirring, feel their legs shift as they chased sleep. Ciara's belly rose and fell with each breath, threatening to nudge Anabella's hand into dangerous territory on either side. She could feel a heat in her blood, her heart racing, and she knew of no way to still it.

She didn't know how long it took for her to drift off. She vaguely remembered long minutes of awkward shuffling, of being close and yet distant, before she eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

--

On the third day, they divided into groups once again. Anabella walked into the forest with Roger in search of wood for a more substantial dwelling.

"How are you doing?" Anabella asked, trying to take her mind from the sights.

Roger sighed. "Things could be worse. I hope Ciara and Shanti aren't teasing you too bad."

"They're mostly reserving that for you," Anabella said.

Roger blushed, slightly. "I've been friends with those two for...four years, now. They don't tease people they don't like."

Anabella was about to comment that they'd never teased her, but she realized it hadn't been possible. Anabella was a daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Epsilon Pegasi, and Ciara and Shanti were servants. Victorian society would never permit servants to be so frivolous with the nobility. So much had been closed off to her, and she had barely been aware of its existence.

They walked in silence until they found a tree that would serve their purposes. The escape pod had luckily contained a small hatchet among its tools, and Roger began the work of chopping the tree down.

Unfortunately, the work was hard to watch without growing distracted. Roger's shoulders rippled as he swung the axe against the tree, and sweat dripped down his back. Anabella's world, up in the Empire, had been so full of perfumes and bouquets and officers wearing unmussed uniforms that she'd almost lost sight of what people looked and smelled like underneath.

Roger stopped for a break, panting and leaning over the axe, and rather than imagine him panting in other contexts she picked up the axe herself. Her etiquette training had not at all prepared her for it, but she'd watched Roger enough to get the idea. It was hard work, but she found a surprising amount of satisfaction in her progress. When she paused herself, the work was almost complete.

She glanced back at Roger to find him blushing and looking decidedly away from her. He looked up when he realized she'd paused, though, and caught her eye.

"You're doing an excellent job, miss," he said quietly.

"Thank you," she replied. Blushing a bit herself, she went on. "Were you thinking of Ciara and Shanti?"

He hesitated for a moment, then answered. "No, miss."

By the time she understood, he had taken the axe up and returned to the work, leaving Anabella alone with her thoughts.

--

They dragged the log back to their campsite together. They didn't speak much, only to chart their course. Anabella wanted to reassure him that she wasn't angry or offended, but her heart caught in her throat every time she tried.

Ciara and Shanti had finished their fishing and begun clearing a place for a larger shelter. There still wouldn't be space for much more than a bed, but that would be far more comfortable than the beach. They worked together to split the log and erect supports for a roof.

The work didn't give Anabella an opportunity to take her mind off of her feelings, either. It required her to work closely with the others, which meant she couldn't look away, or stop thinking about them. She was constantly confronted with Ciara's profusion of freckles, and bare bosom, and knowing smile. She couldn't avoid seeing Roger's bare chest, or noticing his covert glances at the other women, or catching him looking at her. There was no way to avoid looking at Shanti, and trying to figure out if her expressions were teasing, or comforting, or just exhausted from their work.

They ate the last of the day's fish and fruit as the sun set, then trudged back to the lean-to. Anabella hoped, briefly, that sleep would come easier than it had the previous night.

"Roger and Anabella, it's your turn for the inside," Ciara said.

"I can take the outside again," Roger volunteered.

"Are you worried you're going to keep us up?" Ciara chuckled.

"Don't be silly, Ciara," Shanti said, glancing mischievously at Roger. "He's worried we'll keep him up."

Roger looked at Anabella, and she smiled sympathetically. "I'll share the middle with you, and I won't tease you about it."

"That's kind of you, miss," Roger said, slowly. Choosing to take him at his word, she lay down in the center, and Roger lay in front of her.

Shanti lay behind Anabella, placing her hand carefully on Anabella's side and pulling herself close. The warmth of their bodies was at once welcome and frightening. Anabella could feel her blood stirring once again, more than it had the night before, and she knew sleep would not come easily.

There was, at first, something of a gap between their hips, like a tiny island of propriety, the last territory the Victorian Star Empire still held on this world. It held for minutes on end as the four lay awkwardly, trying to quiet their bodies enough for them to drift off.

Ciara sighed heavily. Anabella imagined her mother shushing Ciara for disrupting their sleep, then realized how horrified her mother would be at the very situation.

"Are you awake?" Ciara asked, softly enough that Anabella couldn't tell at first who she was speaking to.

"Yes," Roger said.

"Me too," Shanti added.

"It's...difficult," Anabella said.

"Yeah," Ciara said. "So, here's what I'm thinking. We are all friends, right?"

"Yes," Anabella said.

"And since you're my friends, I would not think less of you if you, ah, wanted to take care of yourselves so you could sleep."

There was a pause. Annabella felt Shanti's hand stiffen.

Roger spoke. "I...I won't judge you, either, but I don't know if I can. In front of you, at least."

"But you're behind me," Ciara said, and Anabella could hear the smile in her voice.

"I..." Anabella hesitated. "I don't..."

"Have you done it before, miss?" Shanti asked.

Anabella felt her blush rising, knew that Ciara knew it even if she couldn't see it.

"Only with a pillow," she admitted.

Shanti wrapped her hand across Anabella's midriff and held her a bit more closely.

"Would you like me to talk you through it, miss?"

Anabella couldn't speak for several seconds. A part of her mind was screaming at how many rules of propriety and decorum she'd be breaking, on top of those she'd already broken. If she'd listened, perhaps she would have kept something of her Victorian purity.

Instead, she was wondering why she should not help her friends. No one would be hurt, if they proceeded, and no one else needed to know.

"Yes, please," she whispered.

"Alright," Ciara said. She rolled onto her back, then reached down and pulled her underclothes off. The starlight, and the light from the unnamed parent planet, was just enough that Anabella could make out the shape of Ciara's curly bush but not its color. Anabella glanced over to see Shanti doing the same, pulling her short skirt past her ankles and setting it aside.

Anabella took a deep breath, then pulled her skirt down with trembling fingers. She looked over at Shanti, who gave her a comforting smile, then glanced in the other direction. Ciara was taking Shanti's permission to ogle quite seriously, gazing intensely at Shanti and Anabella's naked bodies. Roger was looking at Ciara, blushing furiously, his gaze on her eyes.

"Miss Anabella took her skirt off and you aren't going to look?" Ciara asked.

Roger sighed. "You are making it harder for her by talking like that."

"And you, sir, are making it harder for her by keeping your pants on."

"Alright," he said. He unbuttoned his makeshift shorts, then carefully slid them down past his erect cock.

Anabella had never seen a man naked before. She stared at his shaft as it pointed skyward, a hundred questions and desires tumbling over one another in her mind. Roger turned in her direction and caught her eye, and she felt herself blushing but she held his gaze, her excitement overpowering her bashfulness.

"Are you alright, miss?" he asked.

"Very much," she breathed.

Shanti ran her hand down Anabella's side until she found Anabella's hand, resting awkwardly at her side. She interlocked their fingers, then pulled Anabella's hand up onto her thigh. Anabella looked over to see Shanti's hand taking a similar path.

"Take a deep breath," Shanti said.

Her voice was somehow both soothing and exciting. Anabella forced herself to breathe deep. She tried to keep her eyes focused on Shanti's hands, but she could already hear a soft moaning from Ciara, and see Roger's hand sliding up and down his shaft.

"It's easy to get distracted," Anabella murmured.

"That's okay," Shanti replied. "These are good distractions. Just move your hand over, and keep listening."

Anabella let her fingers slide down her own thigh and across her hair until they reached her lips. Her touch was such a specific instrument, compared to her pillow; it was a vehicle that she had little experience piloting. And yet, as she heard and felt Shanti sigh in pleasure next to her, she knew she had all the fuel she needed.