Space Relations Pt. 20

"Could you have possibly chosen a hotter place to land, baby?" Cruz asked. He was the second person out of the ship, right behind the captain, and already he was frowning at the hot and heavy moisture in the air. "Will you pardon me, while I go back inside for my suntan lotion?"

Thor ignored the comments, as he was double-checking the air quality with a hand held chemical analyzer. The results matched the readout from the ship's computers. The air on Zeus lacked standard density, comparable to being at a high altitude on Earth, but it was entirely breathable.

"We're in the shade, Cruz." Washington said, looking up at the huge, leafy trees that surrounded them. Already, they were coming across several anomalies the ship's sensors didn't adequately prepare them for. The trees had trunks the size of Earth houses and were as tall as ten story buildings.

"We might be in the shade, baby, but my armpits are as moist as Margo's middle when she gets at hold of a cucumber."

"I heard that, you little man." Margo said, from her spot standing beside the Space Relations hatch. The other two women from the crew came out right after her. "How about you find a wet cucumber under your pillow the next time you lay down?"

"How ghastly!" Cruz cringed. "Captain, order this lesbian to behave while we're off the ship!"

Like Thor before him, Washington ignored his science officer. He faced the three women, all of who were looking around uneasily. "Are you sure none of you wants to come with us?"

The shy Willow simply shook her head, while Mary was slightly more vocal.

"I have no idea what the thought patterns are of the people out here." The pretty blonde admitted. "I don't want to suddenly walk into a crowd of them. If you bring one at a time back I'll try to read them, but not a whole bunch all at once."

That much was true, Washington acknowledged. There were times when Mary's psychic abilities would become overwhelmed if too many people were around, let alone an entire group of unknown aliens. He glanced at the biggest woman on his crew. "Margo, what about you?"

"I'm just the cook around here." Margo shrugged. "What do I know about exploring new planets and shit? Besides, I have two hot pieces of ass to look after right here."

"Get behind me, lesbian!" Cruz shouted at her.

"No, you get behind me." Margo replied, before she poked her tongue into the side of her mouth and leered at Willow.

"Captain, tell her to stop looking at me that way." Willow requested.

"You can look at me that way." Mary smiled saucily. "Oh, yeah! I like it!"

"Captain, you have to do something about this." Cruz worried. "Margo could infect the others with her biological dysfunction. Theoretically, we could return to the ship and discover them all with ugly butch haircuts like the one Margo has."

"Enough." Washington stilled them all. "Willow, I will be leaving you in charge while we're out."

"Aww!" Margo griped. "Why not me?"

"Willow will be the highest ranking member of the crew once we're gone." The captain emphasized. "We'll be gone for two hours. Once we have gathered specimens of the local flora and surveyed what we can of the landscape, we'll make our way back here. Willow, stay near a communications console while we're out exploring."

"I sure will, Captain." The brunette said, as she scurried over the man's side. She pecked him on the cheek. "Be careful out there, hubby."

Washington grinned back. During the adventure on the Groombridge 34 system, he had married according to the local customs of one of the planets there. Barbie was his first wife, and in the case she could not bear children, Willow wedded him as a willing back-up. In the short time he'd been married, he had yet to consummate his marriage with Willow, but this was mostly because Barbie was such a jealous woman. In fact, his first wife liked teasing him about his second wife, as far making Washington promise that he wouldn't lay a hand on Willow until Barbie gave him permission.

Because they were beaus, usually anyway, Mary walked over to give a more intimate kiss to Cruz. This left Margo and Thor glancing at each other.

"Come here, you big lug." Margo waggled her finger. "You wanna wrestle naked later?"

"I thought we were out of vegetable oil?" Thor asked, as he made his way before the big woman.

"You're right, we almost are." Margo frowned. "We'll just have to go Greco-Roman with the whipped cream then. Give me a kiss, you big, hunky barbarian."

Once the three men received their intimate farewells, they checked their belt-clipped radios and plasma pistols. Next, they hoisted their expedition packs onto their shoulders and strapped them across the waist. Cruz waved, Thor grunted, and Washington pointed in the direction they were going. A couple of minutes later, all three men had vanished into leafy green shrubbery that was as tall or much taller than they were.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Willow asked.

"Why not?" Margo replied. "They've got guns on them. Believe you me; whoever gets a shot of plasma up their ass is going to have second thoughts about messing with our good captain."

"We've been cooped up inside the ship forever." Mary said. "How about we bring out the lawn chairs and sunbathe? I want an all-over tan."

"Mary, you're giving me tingles, you little hussy." Margo flirted.

"Think of it as my way of protecting Willow." Mary wiggled her head saucily. "If you want a piece of her, you'll have to go through me first."

"But I can't ever get past you!" Margo complained.

"Tough titty, bitch." Mary winked. "Willow, you either sunbathe naked with us, or we're going to make you."

"I have to stay by a comm, in case the Captain calls."

"No you don't." Margo made a face at her. "There's a comm right by the hatch. All you have to do is set the dumb thing on speaker. Now get in there and go grab your chair, because I'm not bringing it out for you!"

Willow anxiously looked at Mary.

"If you don't do it yourself, we're going to make you." The blonde tart said.

"Okay, fine!" Willow blurted out.

The moment the woman turned to head inside, Margo reached out to slap her butt. Willow jumped, squealed, and right after ran into the ship for safety.

"Do that to muah." Mary said.

Margo went ahead and smacked her butt, causing the shapely blonde to start bouncing up and down on her toes. "You liked that, didn't you?"

Mary poked her tongue out, before she too ran back into the ship.

"Do you think the girls will be all right, Captain?" Cruz asked, after about half an hour of exploring.

"Stop thinking about them and keep your eyes open." Washington answered. He was holding one end of a tape measure up while Thor walked around the circumference of a very large tree trunk with the rest of it. "You're letting yourself get distracted."

"You're right, Captain." Cruz nodded. He'd been taking pictures of insects earlier, finding creatures that looked like ants, bees and termites, but in an unusual array of colors and all about five times larger than their counterparts on Earth. It terrified him to think of a spider with proportions like that, but so far they hadn't stumbled upon any spider webs. "I'm just a bit nervous about being out here, baby. It isn't often that we go where no man has gone before."

"You should be excited about that." Washington said.

"Captain, I've run out of tape." Thor announced, the big man unseen thanks to the huge bulk of the tree.

"Give me one!" Washington called back. "Cruz, I'm going to mark this tree with my plasma gun. After that, I'm going to walk around the tree to where Thor is so we can finish measuring this giant. You stay right here so we'll know where the starting point is."

"You don't think the inhabitants are giants, do you?" The science officer asked.

"I guess we'll know when we run into them." The captain said, before walking off around the edge of the tree. "I'm coming to you, Thor."

Cruz noted the plasma scar his superior had left on the tree. He turned to consider the foliage around them. There were proto-ferns with leaves that had wavy edges and were a good five feet long, and vines snaking along the ground around the giant trees that were thicker than Earth logs. Even the dirt below their feet was unusual. It wasn't dirt but something else; a sort of silt made of old volcanic basalt that was exceedingly fertile. He could compare the soil to what was found on the islands of Hawaii, where foliage was just as fertile and rich with nutrients.

Maybe giants were hiding in the trees, Cruz considered, glancing up at the branches that started up at fifteen to twenty feet above his head. After taking into account how big and sturdy the branches were, and how their branches stretched out to other branches from other giant trees, he wondered if there could be an entire ecosystem up there like the ones found in tropical rainforests on Earth.

"Incredible." Cruz murmured to himself. "An entire cross-section of species could spend their entire lives in these trees, without ever setting foot on the soil here. It would be a minor catastrophe if one of these trees simply fell down. Well, a major catastrophe actually, for the animals that live in it. Who would have ever imagined that a giant tree falling down could be an Extinction Level Event for its inhabitants."

He thought he heard Thor and Washington calling to each other from somewhere on the far side of the giant tree. Maybe they'd run out of measuring tape again. If they had, that meant the tree was at least two hundred feet around. Cruz took a few steps to peer around the edge, seeing neither of his shipmates.

The science officer spun around, however, when he heard a distinctive knocking of wood on wood. In his mind, he tried to fathom what could have been causing that noise. "An intelligent being, surely. Of all the rotten luck, what if it is a Neanderthal species or a Bigfoot or something of that ilk?" He retrieved the radio from his waist. "Captain, can you hear that? We have an unknown creature making an intelligent noise out here."

"That's a negative." Washington answered. "We can't hear a thing on our end. What kind of sound is it? Can you localize it?"

"Uh, no, I can't." Cruz replied, after glancing around all over the place. "It sounded like something striking against a tree trunk, like wood hitting wood. I only heard it twice. It's stopped now."

"I didn't hear anything either, Captain." Thor's voice came in next.

"Well, I'm sure I heard it." Cruz insisted. "Something is out here besides the three of us! I'm telling you that right now!"

"We didn't say we didn't believe you." Washington said. "Give us about two more minutes and we'll join up with you."

By the time the others walked up to him, Cruz had heard the same tapping again. He pointed in the direction he thought it had come from.

"That tree is two hundred and fifty feet around." Thor marveled, as he logged the statistics into his hand-held computer. Let me get a bark sample before we go. Did you want to see what was making that noise, Captain?"

"It might be safer to survey the area from the ship." Washington thought things over. "Do we know what's in that direction?"

"I've got a local map on my 'puter." Thor replied, as he found the right app on his device. "It's not the greatest map, though. It's the best I could put together from the video we took before we landed. There is a land depression a short distance away. That would be a short ravine and probably some stream of water running through it. My guess is that it would be just past a mile's walk."

"We can go there and back in the time we have left." Washington said.

Once Thor had his bark sample, and Cruz had taken a sample from one of the log-sized vines, the trio started off again. They walked in a tight wedge formation, with the captain in the lead and his two crewmates flanking him on either side. Often, the men would pause, look and listen for any sounds, or for signs they were being followed. They all heard the wood tapping several minutes later, and adjusted their course slightly in that direction.

"How long have the guys been gone?" Mary asked, back at the ship.

"One hour now." Willow replied. She was sitting on one of three lawn chairs, but the other two chairs were empty. Instead, Mary and Margo had set out blankets on the coarse grass and were lying down nude on their stomachs. Willow couldn't help but compare Margo's big, beefy ass and Mary's curvy buns to her own slender figure.

"You're looking at my butt, aren't you?" Margo asked.

Willow half-smiled back. "I can't help it. I'm just not as brazen as you two are. I'm too shy to even take off my clothes in front of you."

Willow sat on her lawn chair, still in full uniform and with both a plasma gun and a comm radio on her lap.

"After all the stuff that goes on inside our ship, and you're too shy to walk around naked?" Margo teased her.

"You need to relax, girlfriend." Mary added. "I can sense that you want to take your clothes off, but you aren't quite ready to..."

"Don't read my mind." Willow warned.

"I'm not reading it!" Mary laughed. "I'm just sensing how nervous you are, that's all. We're all girls here, you know. You can tell us."

Willow felt so embarrassed she shifted in her chair, looking off in another direction. After sulking for a couple of minutes, she revealed, "I almost let Cruz eat me out one day, but I stopped him before he took my panties off."

"Why would you stop him?" Mary giggled. "He can do wonders down there, ya know? I know what I'm talking about!"

"Are you extra hairy down there?" Margo asked.

Willow's eyes widened with shock. "No! That's not it! Are you visualizing me naked, Margo?"

"Maybe."

"Well, stop doing that! You don't have my permission to do that!"

"I don't need your permission to think, little girl."

"Come on, Willow, what's the story?" Mary asked. "You've been with us from the beginning. What's the big deal?"

"I'm not ready to talk about it." Willow clammed up.

"When you are, Cruz and I are ready to listen." Mary said. "You come to us first, sweetie. We'll get you straightened out in no time, just like we did to Braxton the Bitch. We made her nice, didn't we?"

"I'll say." Margo remembered their epic adventure on the Starship Neptune. "I was getting ready to pound that bitch into hamburger for a minute."

"We don't do that kind of pounding around here." Mary replied, as she turned her body around to lie on her back. "We do the nice kind of pounding."

Margo smiled at the words, as she glanced over at Mary's curvy body. Because she was so close to the blonde, it was easy for her to reach over and drape her thick arm over Mary's waist. The blonde didn't push her away, and she didn't put a halt to things when Margo started playing with her breasts, either.

"Your little man isn't here to get in my way." Margo said, coyly.

"Does that mean you're going to try and convert me into a carpet-muncher?" Mary giggled. "Cruz will be so mad at you when he gets back!"

"I know he will." Margo smiled and slid her body closer to Mary's.

"He's going to want to hump the lesbian right out of me." Mary laughed. "That could take hours and hours, if I keep telling him there is still a little lesbian left in me."

Margo sidled her body next to the blonde's. Her big milk jugs drooped down on Mary's smaller but very nice C-cups. "Are you going to stop me?"

"Am I stopping you now?"

Margo's needy hand left Mary's breasts and went for a look-see between her legs. The blonde shuddered when one of Margo's big fingers found her. "You're always so wet, Mary. Every single time!"

"I know." Mary said, as she spread her legs wider.

The bigger woman pushed a second finger into the blonde, not caring that Willow was still sitting there and watching them. When Mary started purring, Margo couldn't help crawling over the smaller woman.

"You're almost as big as Thor." Mary commented, before Margo's big face started crowding in on hers.

Margo enjoyed messing around with Mary. She liked running her hands through Mary's blonde hair, and feeling how soft Mary's lips were against her rougher mouth. Back on Earth, and even on the Space Relations at times, Margo liked to be the aggressor and would often wrestle with her intimate partners until she could subdue them. This is how she acted with Mary at first, until Mary, and yes, also that dastard Cruz, had worked her over so much that she discovered a softer way of lovemaking. Margo thought the feel of Mary's body squirming under her sensational. She liked how their breasts were pinned together, and also how Mary ran her hands over Margo's wide back and butt, and how Mary squeezed her legs on Margo's sides. This whole kissing and caressing deal was not how Margo previously made love, but she had grown to enjoy it.

"You're so big and heavy." Mary said, as the ship's cook moved her head away to let them both catch their breaths. "You make me so hot!"

Margo felt delirious. She started kissing Mary again, before she squeezed her hand between their bodies. Two fingers she pushed into Mary's hot cleft, more rapidly than before. She caught Mary's gasps against her face, and flowing into her open mouth. In moments, Mary had turned her face away and was panting out in orgasm. That was one of the sweetest sounds a rough girl like Margo had ever heard.

Cruz and Mary were more sex counselors than they were science officers. They'd tutored Margo into recognizing signs from her partners and into reacting to them. Back before she'd met those two, Margo would have finished up a similar romp quickly and basically forced her partner into sexually appeasing her. Once that was done, she would have gotten off the bed and left to go on with her day without a care in the world. Not so with Cruz and Mary. With those two, everything was reciprocated in kind.

As Mary's climax started to fade, the blonde pushed for Margo to get off. Margo went on her back, with Mary giving her a shower of kisses and a continuous volley of caresses. Mary would kiss Margo's lips, before moving down her throat and to her breasts. She would continue her kisses down Margo's abdomen until she reached the honey pot between Margo's legs. At that point, Margo would have to decide if she wanted her carpet munched, or if she wanted to get Mary on top of her so they could eat each other out together.

But they didn't have all day, Margo considered. The guys would be back shortly, so the usual progression would have to be cut. When Mary slid her lips to Margo's throat, the bigger woman took Mary's hand and put it between her thick thighs. Mary's fingers were just as good as Mary's tongue, Margo thought, as she felt two of them slipping into her body. This was the big difference between the women. Margo was clumsier when it came to using her hands. When she found a good rhythm, she moved faster and faster until she provoked a climax from her lovers. Mary, by contrast, always remembered where Margo's hot spots were. Mary found her groove and kept working at it, prolonging Margo's pleasure in a way only she and Cruz could do to her. Mary could keep that same slow pace for a whole hour, provoking Margo into a long series of enjoyable orgasms.

"Willow couldn't handle it." Mary said, after she'd glanced around for a second. "She went inside already. We'll get her later, yeah?"

Both women giggled, before Mary's tender fingers started up again. There it was, Margo felt, a nice orgasm ready to pop out of her. She took a deep breath and moaned, holding on tightly to Mary's arm as heavenly bliss began to ebb through her. One day, Margo thought, one day she'd get as good as Mary, so that she could give the naughty blonde the same sort of service that Mary was giving to her.

"Thermal scans are still picking up several life forms nearby." Thor announced, as the men forced their way through teeming bush. More and more, the big Viking had to use his plasma gun to clear a path for them.