Starchaser Ch. 03: The Pledge

o/o

The Textile Lab doesn't seem like the business place it has always been on the few occasions I have been there. Usually I was there for something to wear on excursions to Earth. The standard uniform for the Academy at Farpoint was a modest design and I had not modified mine from the one worn during my Academy days. With Phased Transportation my uniform was made new every time I transported, usually internally from ship to ship staying within Starchaser to get from Bridge to Propulsion or wherever I wanted to go without taking the corridors and up-down tubes.

Noel's idea for her first uniform was not the standard design, a design which I think is the hottest on a female body. Her taste is something like I have seen in Earthbound adventure and COSPLAY fetish wear. Her choice was for a minimal body harness with removable bikini parts that fit onto the harness that does include thigh straps. The outfit will make her easily restrained and handled without having to grab onto her body. She didn't actually say it but she left me with the impression she likes the idea of me grabbing the straps so I can position her and I suspect it would be to hold her where I can thrust into her. Her choice is definitely erotic and excites me. My appreciation for my choice of new crew has just leapt beyond anything I had dreamed of, and this fashion was all her idea. I felt bad having to tell her that such an outfit would be impossible to embed the protective technology and we quickly went on to design our first uniforms that look like fantasy warriors in masculine and feminine form. I thought to Starchaser to make the harness for her without embedded technology for our sex play as a surprise with a low priority for production.

Starchaser began work immediately on the life support systems for the uniform designs. The new concept of joining the suit fields will take datastream time for information and consult with engineers. Being able to join the suits together in zero atmosphere with enhanced embedded field generators must have been thought of before as enabling them to function anywhere with a backup capability for mutual support in the event of a malfunction or a shut down to one the suits entirely would seem to be an obvious solution to enhance crew safety. I put the caveat in the Textile Lab subroutine that if the mutual support capability was not possible in the time available to package the concept to the datastream tagged engineering and crew safety and produce the uniforms anyway to full specifications that Starchaser can construct.

I had intended to show her the recreation tank next but Noel mentions she is fatigued and I think it is a good idea for crew rest, something new for me as until now I only had myself to consider. I find I am liking very much the idea of changing what I had intended because Noel needs us to do something different and there is no way I am going to leave her somewhere to sleep by herself. I have no idea if a new never before in space person would have a situation waking up by herself in an unfamiliar surrounding so the only thing for me to do is to go to bed with her. And I would rather be nowhere else than with my One, this is our new normal and it is everything I have ever wanted.

I think to Starchaser, 'crew rest period has started.' Crew rest initiates a protocol that only significant command level requirements will interrupt my brain waves until further notice. The protocol specifies that life signs are monitored but no neural connection is authorized to permit normal sleep, dreaming and restorative REM sleep to happen naturally. Any neural communicator activity awakens a sentient so the protocol makes it possible for the critical activity of sleep to occur without interference. I definitely want to dream about Noel tonight without Starchaser interrupting.

I lead Noel out of the textile lab and we walk to a crew quarters on the same corridor further into the middle of the port wing on this level, about as middle of the ship as middle can be in this section between top and bottom decks, between wingtip and main hull, and between leading and trailing edges. These crew quarters have never been occupied before. As part of the initial design for a community size crew on the first DS Cruisers, the design was never modified as crew size was reduced again and again.

We walk into the quarters and it is as fresh and untouched as a room at a five star rated luxury hotel. We pass by seats, tables, a cocktail bar, and a convenience kitchen. The bed in the inner room is round and glowing in soft white-blue dim light, heated to feel warm as we crawl into the middle of the mattress, and the bed itself is surrounded in a heated atmosphere bubble so our naked skin feels as comfortable as if under blankets.

I reduce the gravity so we are barely touching the mattress as we cuddle together kissing and snuggling, bodies touching. I can feel her molding herself to my body wrapping her arms around my torso and her legs around my legs. I hear her breathe in deeply and exhale a long sigh. I cannot help but yawn instead of sigh and then I feel complete relaxation. Dreams ensue and it is a while before I know I am asleep.

-/v-

Barrett is amazing of course, everything he does is just so amazing. Not only does he like the strappy harness I invented, that looks like a fuck slut fetish outfit, but then suggests we have another uniform with the life support shields, fields, oh whatever he called them that look like fantasy warrior outfits. He even is having them made so they can be merged when we want them to do it so our uniforms can join together and work like one. I'm suddenly feeling better because that would in effect make us able to life-raft for each other if one of our life support systems is compromised in some way and the other's suit would be able to protect us both, or work together that way. I have to remember to ask him about it because it seems like a very important idea to me.

Not only that but then he says we need crew rest and Ms. Textile Lab can make our clothes while we sleep. He takes my hand and we go out into the corridor and go a little further down away from the front of the wing to a doorway somewhere in the middle of this long corridor. Again it's not a real doorway but inside is the most fabulous hotel room I have ever been in. It has a sitting room and even a kitchen with a bar. Behind that is a bedroom with a round bed inside the round space. There aren't any lights on in the bedroom except what makes the bed glow all blue-white, glowing and cozy. It is so warm to the touch when we climb in the middle and even the air around us is warm, like the beach was before the sun went down.

I cuddle into him and it feels like we are almost floating, such a fantastic sensation. I cling to him with my arms around his body, my chest to his and my legs around his legs. I can actually reach behind his back without my arm being squished or with him really laying on my arm at all. It is so relaxing... I inhale deeply smelling our bodies, finding it totally relaxing and like the best, most perfect smell ever, and I exhale in a big sigh, I am in love and so tired.

=N=

Nothing in Space is ever at rest, with motion and energy, and movement is constant in complex forms. This is why a command is needed to initiate crew rest and the change of the levels of commands protocol that dictates what warrants an interruption of REM and non-REM sleep for the Captain. If the crew is also outfitted with neural communicators there are similar sets of conditions that apply to them for what warrants their waking after or with the Captain. A crew sleep interruption is never acceptable without the Captain already involved before or at the same time as crew notification.

The proximity net projected by probes that Starchaser placed outside the heliosheath becomes active again after Crew Rest is started. A disturbance is detected in the vicinity of the destroyed unidentified ship, the one tethered to its xenoprobe that is assisted by the Avalonian probe Starchaser fused to it to provide functional support. Starchaser has continued to monitor the probe since she fused her own probe to it, continuously monitoring the xenoprobe's activity with deep space and autonomously uploads the information to the Datastream cortex for Fleet information services. The proximity alert is also transmitted to Avalonian Combine vessels in near proximity to the Sol System and to Jet-Sprite and the LRSS en-route to assume sentry duty currently being performed by Starchaser.

With no other Avalonian Combine vessels on site, Starchaser logs her interruption of Barrett's sleep while simultaneously preparing to intercept at maximum rate to where they had been not more than 2 Earth days before without her new crew. The log records the Captain is awakened at 4 hours 23 minutes 42 seconds into restful sleep. Barrett made the decision during Academy protocol formulations class that 4 hours would be the minimum acceptable time for interruption of his sleep "for any reason that would have possible danger to the ship." Less than 4 hours is permissible "for any reason that has immediate danger to the ship."

o/o

Awakened so soon by Starchaser, I see Noel sleeping peacefully and totally relaxed with her body still wrapped around my body, she's as close to me as we can possibly be, somehow we impaled again with my cock in her pussy, something I don't remember doing and I suspect we just did it while she was sleeping too. I can feel myself swell inside her as Starchaser begins the information feed streaming from the Probe catching me up on the situation. It looks like whomever was monitoring the xenoprobe has come to find out what the disruption to their probe is about.

I think to alert Avalonian Combine Fleet Directorate and to send the Probe's streaming information into the Datastream for earliest notification of the intrusion by the unidentified actor. Starchaser informs me the information was already sent according to protocol for record and for relief vessels that are inbound to Sol System. For the first time I feel excited knowing that it is only a matter of time now until we are on our way to Farpoint Station. Excitement is something no neural communicator can capture, it is sentient and it is special, part of the reason why every Avalonian-Farpoint vessel has a sentient Captain. It is a quality not even Farpoint's ancient technology has ever replicated as determined by theologian discoveries made on Farpoint.

I hear Noel moan as I move and try to slip my cock out of her pussy so we can make our way to the bridge much earlier than had been intended for the planned tour. I know the protocols and before long we will have company in this backwater of the galaxy. It could take the unknown actor days or weeks to move onward towards Earth in the Sol System but any approach could become trouble with the presence of space directed telescopes that now populate Earth and its nearby space. Company refers to at least one DS Cruiser and possibly a Long Range Survey Ship. If Fleet Directorate had reason to want to send reinforcements then those assets would also be already on their way. The Ra War was not long enough ago to relax a defensive response for a small outlying star system like Sol.

Noel instinctively wraps herself around me tighter to keep my cock inside her core. I have never been in this situation before of being somewhere else in the ship during action stations and I cannot just Phase Transport to the bridge. With Starchaser having already configured herself for the response action using previous command guidance from Academy days to the last command given it will only take a new command to put us on course to where the probe is located. I review the plan neurally, think 'agree' then watch the exterior sensors as Starchaser immediately rotates in her stationary orbital position beyond Mars and accelerates at maximum. As usual, the trajectory is curving to where the disturbance is, allowing for a predetermined offset distance on approach and a full scan to be completed before an expected contact with what is out there.

The jump to hyperspace is of course completely visual with every molecule of Starchaser accelerated at the same rate and the universal clock ticks a millidegree before we drop out of hyperspace beyond the heliosphere. I have Starchaser effect a maximum Receiving scan of all wavelength bands and scan returns are set to be received as a single pass for a 'snapshot' of the situation. A Projected scan is normally made at a short range as that type of scan requires two way travel. Being about the equivalent of 1000 AU, or a thousand times the distance between the Earth and Sun, those scans take time to be received and processed for usable information.

To eliminate the intense burst of energy of a Projected scan, with enough energy that could disrupt less advanced technology and turn a mission from one of reconnaissance to rescue, the passive Receiving scan works with ambient energy, and as such the presence of Starchaser will likely go unnoticed. I decided again, as on the first foray a couple days ago, to establish an observe only approach and maintain a greater standoff well beyond the range that the xenoprobe and its tender vessel had demonstrated their awareness of Starchaser's presence of that last approach that resulted in the tender vessel destroying itself. I definitely want to avoid that happening this time as the tragedy of the intruder destroying themselves made it impossible to have any conversation with the occupants of that vessel.

-/v-

I'm having the most amazing dream, my man from the stars never really had a face before. Now I know I am dreaming and this time he does have a face and he is my Barrett. He is my man from the stars in my dreams and he is just as masculine but bigger than before and he is as amazing as the man who met me on the beach and invited me to go with him to the stars. He is fucking me and fucking me all over the place. I know I am dreaming because I cannot smell or taste the delicious buttercream frosting cum he is squirting into my mouth.

But the dream is disturbed and becomes a weird experience, like when having a nightmare and not wanting what is happening to try to change the dream or stop it. I can feel Barrett inside me and I can feel him swell then he starts moving to pull out. I know I am wrapping myself around him to keep him from pulling out and I can hear him and me, I am partially awake and waking quickly. I open my eyes and look at him. His eyes are closed but I can see him looking at the back of his eye lids and unless he is totally different from everyone else I have ever watched sleep, he must be as awake as I am.

"Barrett, is everything ok?" I ask in a whisper, my intuition telling me that he is awake and doing his Captain thing with Starchaser knowing his life is tied to his responsibility for his ship, his Cutlass Class Deep Space Cruiser, or more to the point, our Cutlass Class Deep Space Cruiser. I really want to know more about our ship because it is something I never expected to see or to be a part of in my lifetime. "Barrett if we need to go somewhere else then let's go." I loosen my legs around him and let him slide out which he does and his eyes open and I can see that glassy look but he is looking at me. He says let's go and I let him lead.

o/o

The most amazing thing happens, I hear Noel ask me if everything is okay. I can feel her loosening her legs that had been keeping me trapped inside her so I open my eyes. She is looking into my eyes while I'm still watching the exterior view when she says if we need to go we should. "Let's go," I whisper and we move together holding hands, out of the bed space and across the floor to the corridor. We are on the move.

"The tour is going to have to wait, I prefer to be on the bridge when at action stations." I decided not to explain much now because there is no reason to overload her with details. We run quickly past the Textile Lab to the leading edge corridor, to the central part of Starchaser, turning to the up-down tubes and stepping directly into the up side going to the top then step directly into the uppermost deck of the bridge. I lead her past the tactical planning stations to the command chairs with a view out the forward and side facing perimeter windows. Over the thin rail immediately in front of the command chairs is the expansive 3 deck open space of the multi-dimensional holographic navigation display, and lower levels of the bridge. I let her hand go and point to her First Mate chair next to my Captain chair, the seats are close enough to hold hands without reaching and labeled First Mate and Captain, she knows her place is beside me.

The view out the non-reflective windows is dark and not at all distracting from the holographic orb that occupies the empty space in the middle of the bridge surrounded by the upper and middle deck balconies and below by the holographic dish shaped projector in the lowest bridge deck. The view outside is the view outside Sol's heliosheath having made the jump while we moved from lower decks to the bridge. I voice command for Noel's benefit of knowing what is going on. "Zoom visual bands for the fused probe," and the effect is that of a large IMAX display showing the Starchaser probe fused to the xenoprobe and the long framework connection between the fused probes and the dead tender ship.

"OK, here's the situation." I say turning to look at Noel to give her her very first tactical briefing as First Mate of Starchaser. "Just before we met I received a proximity alarm for unusual activity here outside the Sol System Heliosheath, the place in deep space beyond where the Sun is affecting how things move in space."

"We got here a moment ago while we were moving between the bedroom and the bridge. Starchaser awakened me because a network of probes we have stationed out here detected a disturbance that appears to be related to this destroyed spacecraft there." I point to the image floating in the empty space of the bridge holograph. "That is actually our probe," I make the probe image glow momentarily, "that we fused to the xenoprobe," I make the xenoprobe momentarily glow, "to supply it with what it needs to continue sending information to whomever sent it out here. The xenoprobe had a tender ship until that ship attacked Starchaser. As we approached to see what they were doing, they responded in a hostile way and likely did not realize that their energy weapons were only going to destroy themselves. How that works is a DS Cruise ha's energy management systems that channel incoming energy across the hull to collectors and once our batteries are topped off, the extra energy gets redirected elsewhere. Because it was sent from them, the system is designed to automatically return it in the direction from which it was sent as would happen if we were docked on a LRSS to ensure no stray energy is spilled causing problems or damage. They apparently were either not ready to absorb the energy or deflect it or they have no defensive capability against their own design of weaponry. Knowing someone sent them out here, or why else would they be here, and they would be coming out to find out what happened to their ship, I used the destroyed ship's parts that were floating away to make a tether connecting the fused probes to the tender ship. As I mentioned I was expecting at some point something was going to happen out here and apparently that point is now."

I see her looking at me and then at the holographic image. "And now we wait, kind of like fishing. You might say this is the bait and we are waiting to see what the fish looks like that is attracted to the bait." I sit on my Captain chair and reach over, taking her hand, unable to resist looking at her gorgeous feminine body in all her beautiful curves. Her nipples are erect and firm adding to her looking stunning and poised. It crosses my mind that remaining naked might be our normal crew uniform as accustomed as I am to idle thoughts while waiting for something to happen that sometimes doesn't.