Making of a Starship Captain Ch. 20

The Making Of A Survey Service Captain

By Gary L.M. Martin

[Note: This Science Fiction story is an intense character study with occasional sex scenes.]

The next morning, when Taylor got out of the shuttle on the dirt landing field, he found Survey Service Commander Andrea Farber waiting for him.

"Mike," she said, giving him a smile.

"Andrea," said Taylor.

"I was in the area and heard you were coming down," said Andrea. "How did your dinner with Natasha go last night?"

"It was fine," Taylor shrugged.

"Fine," said Andrea slowly, looking into his eyes. "Mike, you were there for two hours and fourteen minutes."

"Two hours... and fourteen minutes," said Taylor.

"I was concerned for you, Mike," said Andrea, her beautiful red hair blowing in the gentle morning breeze. "Nothing happens on this planet that I don't know about. Mike, that woman is a black widow spider."

"Everyone seems to have an opinion about Natasha," said Taylor. "I found her most... entertaining."

Andrea looked pained. "Mike, you didn't...."

Taylor gave her a confident smile. It amused him greatly to think that both Natasha and Andrea each thought that he had slept with the other. "Is there something I can do for you, Andrea?"

"It's the European Concession," said Andrea. "They have an agricultural development but are having trouble growing things. I'm no agronomist, but I know that Sophie has some training in the area. I was wondering if you could look into it?"

Taylor nodded. "I will. Right now I'm going to have a look at the Tiberian mine the Russians are operating."

"Oh, that," said Andrea. She frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"The Russians aren't having any problems with their mining operation. The main problem we're having are these quakes."

"I know. I've had Sophie run a geological scan. She's come up with nothing."

"I know. My science officer did too. But if these quakes get worse, the entire project may be canceled."

"Mining can sometimes trigger geological instability."

Andrea frowned. "My science officer has discounted that possibility."

"But mine hasn't," said Taylor.

Andrea gave him a cynical look. "Do you really want to plunge into one of Natasha's cold, dark holes?"

Taylor smiled and stepped closer to her. "Maybe I can warm it up."

She played with his collar a bit anxiously as she fairly melted under his smile.

"All right, Mike." She looked at him with concern. "Be careful."

********

"Michael, I vish to introduce you to Irina Vastirovika," said Natasha. "She vill show you everything you vish to see."

Taylor, looking at Irina, saw a few things he already wished to see. Irina looked to be about twenty years old, dark haired, and gorgeous. She wasn't shy about showing her assets either; she wore tight pants and a black shirt half open at the top, revealing her large Russian breasts.

"Hello, Captain Taylor. It is an honor to meet you," said Irina, extending a hand.

Taylor smiled as he shook her hand. It was warm and friendly. "Your English is perfect. Where did you learn it? Moscow?"

"No. Miami," said Irini, smiling.

"Irini studied business and law at the University of Equality in Miami," said Natasha. "You will find she is quite educated."

"I'm sure," said Taylor, smiling at her.

The mine was a half mile down. Taylor started to feel a bit claustrophobic as the lift went down and down.

"We used robot excavators to drill down this far," said Irina. "But it was worth it. The earth is rich in Tiberian."

"I saw the geological reports on Sheppard's Planet. They didn't show much, if any Tiberian," said Taylor.

Irina smiled. "Your Survey Service is skilled in many things, Captain. But they are not miners. The Russian Federation has much more experience in this area."

Taylor nodded. He noticed as they went down and down it got colder and colder. "Are you going to be warm enough?" he asked, nodding to her half open shirt.

Irina smiled again. "You will find that we Russians are a warm, hot blooded people, Captain. In any event, we will not be down here for long."

The lift came to a halt with a jerk.

They came out into a well lit mine. As they started walking, Taylor was surprised to see miners. He said as much. "You don't use robot miners?"

"Not here," said Irina. "The veins of Tiberian are much more subtle. Mining robots cannot efficiently tap into them. We use people to mine, even though it is more expensive."

Taylor nodded, trying to take in every detail as they walked down a shaft. The other thing he noticed was the absence of much activity. There only seemed to be a handful of miners in the tunnels where he and Irina walked. It seemed very much like an underused mine. Taylor knew that Tiberian was valuable in the construction of shipboard components, but could a mine this underutilized really be so profitable?

Irina talked with him while they walked. "Did you really travel in time to the year one billion, Captain?"

"I really did," said Taylor.

"That was so brave of you! I don't think anything could make me leave my own planet, and all the people I knew, for what was likely to be a one way trip to the distant future. How did you make yourself do it?"

Taylor took a deep breath. "It was out of a sense of duty, of obligation."

"Only the bravest people must join the Survey Service," said Irina, looking up at him with an admiring smile.

Taylor smiled back. "I don't think anyone is born with courage, Irina. It's like a muscle, that grows and develops over time."

She looked up at him with dark eyes. "Does that mean that you are not frightened?"

"Oh yes, we experience fear," said Taylor. "But we just learn to control our fear, rather than let the fear control us."

They reached a junction in the tunnel, with one way branching left and another branching right. Irina started to walk left, but Taylor stopped. "What about the other tunnel?"

"It is dangerous," said Irina. "There have been two rockfalls in the past week. A worker was injured."

"And yet I hear sounds of drilling from there," said Taylor.

"That is where some of the Tiberian is," said Irina. "But unless you are fully equipped in a hardsuit, it is not safe to go there. Come this way, please," said Irina, gesturing to the left branch.

Taylor followed her, but frowned.

"So tell me, Captain. How is it that a handsome man such as yourself is not married?"

"I am married," said Taylor. "To the Survey Service."

Irina laughed. "That is what Natasha told me. She says that Survey Service Captains have no time for love. Is that true?"

Taylor thought of Pam, and Jennifer, and Cherry Oteri. "Maybe it is."

They arrived at a drill site where they saw two miners working with laser drills. Next to them was an air bin where they were dumping in chunks of ore. Taylor picked up a rock off the cave floor. Sure enough it was shiny, like selenium.

Two people. There were only two people drilling in the entire mine, not counting whatever was going on in the other shaft.

********

Irina led him back to the lift. When they got inside, she pressed the button and the lift started to take them up. But before they had gotten half way there, the lift shuddered to a halt.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked.

Irina went to the controls. "The power is down."

"Down?" said Taylor. "Can we call for help?"

Irina pressed the comm button. Nothing happened. "No. We will just have to wait to be rescued."

"How long will that take?"

Irina shrugged. "Probably only a few minutes. There are people coming up and down all the time. When they see it's not working, they will get on it."

********

But it wasn't a few minutes. An hour passed, and then another. Taylor realized that they weren't going to be rescued imminently.

Meanwhile, he was starting to feel the cold. So was Irina, whose teeth was starting to clatter. She looked up at him. "Captain, you are right, I am not dressed for this. Would you mind?" She looked meaningfully at him.

"Sure," said Taylor, holding out his arms.

Irina gracefully flew into them. Taylor felt her large breasts pressing against his chest. She looked up at him and smiled. "Thank you, Captain."

"Call me Mike," said Taylor.

"Mike," Irina smiled. She snuggled up against him. "We were talking before about love. I felt so badly for you. As a Captain, you never have any time for love?"

"We make time, here or there," said Taylor.

"A man like you can probably have any woman he wants," said Irina. Taylor was acutely aware that her hands were roaming, behind his back, feeling, touching, caressing. She wanted him. The thought excited him.

"Not any woman," said Taylor. "But it might be fair to say that Survey Service Captains have a... wider range of options than some."

"I'll bet," said Irina. "Natasha was right about you."

"Right about me?"

"She said you were handsome... and sexy." She pressed her lips against his.

"What's going on here?" Restraint asked.

"I'm not sure, but it looks like a young woman with large breasts is trying to have sex with us in a mining elevator," said Judgment.

"Well, we shouldn't, should we?" said Restraint.

"Oh, we definitely should," said Lust.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Judgment.

"Isn't what obvious?" Lust asked.

"First Natasha tried to seduce us. When that failed, she brought in Irina, a lovelier, younger, and bustier version of herself," said Judgment.

"What's wrong with a little seduction?"

"She's a Russian spy!"

"So? Russian spies have orgasms too, don't they?"

Taylor found himself passionately kissing Irina. She was kissing him back. Her hands were roaming everywhere now, under her shirt, in his pants. She was rubbing his organ, making him hard. Taylor's hands were under her bra, squeezing her breasts. They were both getting rapidly more and more excited by the moment. Irina wrestled out of her shirt, revealing her large, well rounded Russian breasts. Taylor reached up to squeeze them again and then-

They heard a loud thump, as if something had landed on top of the lift.

And then the inspection hatch above them opened, and they saw the face of a Survey Service Marine peering down at them. "Is everything all right, sir?"

********

Both Natasha Romanov and Andrea Farber, as well as a squad of Survey Service Marines, some equipped with jetpacks, were waiting for them when the lift reached the surface. By that time Taylor and Irina were fully dressed again.

Natasha looked furious, but tried to hide it.

Andrea was blank faced until she saw Irina and then she visibly flinched, but she willed herself to be calm. "Are you all right, Mike?"

"Fine, thank you," said Taylor. "How did you know...."

"When you didn't show up for our lunch appointment, I became concerned" said Andrea, narrowing her eyes.

Taylor nodded. He had no lunch appointment with Andrea.

"So I went to Natasha and asked where you were. Natasha said she didn't know. I asked if it were possible that you were in the mine. Natasha allowed that it might be possible. I asked permission to take a team down to look, and what do you know? We discovered the lift wasn't working." She stared at Natasha without emotion. "Natasha's technicians spent several minutes trying to restore power, until my own officers took over."

"What was the problem?" Taylor asked.

"The main circuit breaker was switched off."

"Ve have been having trouble with dat," Natasha confessed. "It has been turning itself off lately on its own. I am most sorrrry for inconvenience, Mike. I trust Irina... showed you all you vished to see?"

Taylor nodded. "Oh yes."

********

As they drove away in Andrea's air car, she said, "Did that vixen get her hooks into you?"

"Natasha?"

"No, that other one with the big tits!" Andrea snapped.

"A gentleman doesn't talk about such things," said Taylor.

Andrea looked unhappy. "She's a spy, Mike. They all are. You shouldn't be mixed up with them in that way." She paused. "Did you discover anything which might be related to the quakes?"

"No," said Taylor. He turned to her. "Thank you for saving me from Natasha's dark, cold shaft."

Despite everything, Andrea chuckled, and kissed his cheek. "Anytime. I only hope I saved you from Irina's shaft as well."

********

Sophie Astor was waiting for him at the European Concession. Together they met with Martin Frontenac, the director of the European project: long, neat rows of greenhouses, all growing flowers, all of which were exported back to Earth in stasis.

"Flowers?" said Taylor. "Isn't it ruinously expensive to grow flowers and ship them twenty billion miles?"

"It is," said Frontenac. "But economic cost is not an issue here. In the EU, we are only concerned with increasing GDH."

"GDH?" Taylor asked.

"Gross Domestic Happiness," said Frontenac. "Do you know how much a flower can increase happiness, Captain Taylor?"

"Uh... I don't know."

"By nearly 20 Happiness points," said Frontenac.

"Happiness points?" said Sophie.

"The World Government has set out to quantify happiness, and has set up a fund to increase it as much as possible."

"Perhaps the World Government could increase happiness by dismantling the World Government," said Sophie.

Frontenac looked shocked.

"She's joking," said Taylor.

"No, I'm not," said Sophie.

"Yes she is. She's a Passive Observer," said Taylor. He twirled his hand above his head. "They're a little... different, you know."

"Oh," said Frontenac. He gave Sophie an uncertain look. "Well, unfortunately, we've been having problems. Our flowers keep dying."

"Why?" Taylor asked.

"From a lack of nutrients in the soil," said Frontenac.

"Surely you use fertilizer," said Sophie.

"We do," said Frontenac. "But our flowers keep dying anyway, apparently from a lack of nourishment."

"Perhaps there is something in the soil which absorbs fertilizer at an accelerated rate," said Sophie.

"That was our thinking too," said Frontenac. "But the first six months we were here, our flowers grew quite well. The problems we've had have developed recently, over the past two months. What would cause the environment to change so radically in such a short period of time?"

"I don't know, but we'll try to find out," said Taylor. He thanked Frontenac, and walked off with Sophie.

"Did you really have to be rude to the man?" Taylor asked.

"The idea of funding happiness is ridiculous," said Sophie. "It's just another insane power grab by the World Government. I was not being rude, I was educating him." She looked Taylor in the eye. "Perhaps I would have been rude if I intimated that you were mentally ill, right in front of Mr. Frontenac. Do you think that would have been rude, Captain?"

"I never said you were mentally ill," said Taylor.

"You made the universal hand gesture for mental illness next to your head."

"That wasn't the hand gesture for mental illness."

"What was it then?"

"It was... the hand gesture for someone who is intellectual."

"You know, I can always tell when you're lying. Your lips get thinner every time," said Sophie.

"Why are you so fascinated by my lips?" Taylor asked, stepping closer to her so their chests were almost touching.

"Perhaps because I am the only woman around you who listens to them rather than feels them," said Sophie, looking up at him entirely unintimidated.

Taylor slowly broke out into a grin. Sophie gave just the slightest, tiniest hint of one in return.

"You'll analyze the soil?"

"I'll analyze the soil."

********

Taylor was having breakfast with Andrea on the Scunathorpe.

There was no need for Taylor to have breakfast with Andrea.

There was certainly no need for him to have breakfast with her privately in her cabin.

And yet, here he was, again.

Andrea had invited him, and Taylor found he could not resist. This was now the third time he had dined in her private quarters. Taylor could resist Natasha. He resisted Natasha's lovely assistant Irina (at least, for a while), but he couldn't resist Andrea.

He was so attracted to her. They had known each other for years, on and off. Even though they had never been in a relationship, Andrea has been so attractive, even more attractive than Cherry. She had such a beautiful face, flowing red hair, and a bust which made such gorgeous curves on her Survey Service day shirt. He felt the tremendous urge to rip off her day shirt and bang her on the floor of her cabin right then and there and watch her mounds violently quiver and jolt forwards and backward with every thrust-

But Andrea was his friend. He wasn't going to seduce his friend. Was he?

"There was another earthquake this morning," said Andrea, pouring some juice into his glass for him. "Did you feel it?"

"No, I haven't been down to the planet yet. What was the severity?"

"3.2. No one was hurt. But they are coming more and more frequently, Mike, and we can't figure out why. Has Sophie discovered anything?"

Taylor shook his head.

"She's supposed to be the big brains, Mike. That's why we tolerate her grouchiness and blank expressions, right?" said Andrea.

"Just because you haven't seen her smile, Andrea, doesn't mean that Sophie doesn't smile. I get her to smile for me all the time," said Taylor.

Andrea leaned forward. "And how exactly do you get her to do that, Mike?"

They stared into each other's eyes. Suddenly, a connection was formed.

"Go on already, seduce her!" said Andrea's Restraint.

"You want me to seduce her?" asked Taylor's Restraint.

"She's crazy about you. She thinks about you all the time. Can't get you out of her mind. Just get it over with! Seduce her and help my Lust overpower me!"

Taylor's Restraint couldn't believe his ears.

"She wants you. She wants you badly," said Andrea's Restraint.

"Then let her have sex with Taylor," said Taylor's Restraint.

"No! She's engaged to be married. She needs...."

"An excuse, that's what you're telling me? She needs to be seduced so that she feels better about cheating on her fiancee?"

"Exactly."

"Well, Taylor feels reluctant about it too. He's not going to make a move until he's sure Andrea really wants it."

"But she's waiting for him to make the first move."

Taylor's Restraint gave a bitter laugh. "And here we have two people, madly lusting for each other, and neither will make the first move."

"The crew has started talking, Mike," said Andrea suddenly.

"Talking? About what?" Taylor said.

"About us," said Andrea. Taylor noticed her wrist was shaking.

"What are they saying, Andrea?" Taylor asked.

"You know," she said, averting eye contact.

"No, I don't," said Taylor.

Andrea found the courage to look up again. "My science officer keeps dropping hints how handsome you are. My second officer asks what it's like to dine with a living legend. And my first officer... my first officer says that he's very happy for me." She looked Taylor in the eye, and Taylor saw the hesitation, and the lust.

"Then... why do you keep inviting me to dine with you in your quarters?" Taylor asked.

As Andrea looked him in the eye, he saw that she was trembling. She leaned closer to his face, closer, closer, closer until their lips almost touched. Andrea had plush, gorgeous red lips. She pursed her lips, Taylor leaned forward, and....

Andrea pulled back. "I can't, Mike! I can't do it! I can't, so please stop asking!"

"Asking?" said Taylor. "I haven't asked you for anything, Andrea!"

"You have!" Andrea cried out, and she started rubbing her arms. "Every time you look at me, you're asking me for sex!"