The Passenger Ch. 02

I had no idea how she managed to get it so right, how she managed to do exactly what she needed to do at precisely the right time. All I knew was that I came in her mouth like never before.

It took a while before I came to my senses. I felt completely satisfied, and a lazy, mellow feeling permeated my entire body. Eventually I managed to focus my eyes, and I felt a wide, silly grain slowly creep across my face. I felt good. Happy.

"Hey there," she said, looking up from where she sat on her knees beside me.

"Hey yourself," I managed.

She smiled and licked her lips. Her eyes twinkled. Then she bent down, took my now flaccid cock in her hands and put it back into her mouth. She gently licked it, cleaning it, wiping it with her lips as she withdrew. I gasped at the sensation. When she was done, she carefully put it back into my flight suit and closed the fastener. Then she got up, bent forward, and kissed me. I could taste my own cum on her lips and tongue.

"That was awesome," I said. "Thank you."

But she must have seen something in my eyes.

"What s wrong?" she asked.

"I shouldn't have let you do this," I said softly.

Her smile was gentle.

You could have told me to stop."

"I tried. But..."

She looked at me for a moment, her smile grew even sunnier.

"That is one hell of a compliment. Thank you."

"Thank you. But..." I sighed. "Don't get me wrong. It was amazing. You are amazing. But... Please don't do that again. Not lot like this, I mean. Not when we're at the controls. Not in-system."

The expression on her face sobered, and then she nodded.

"Alright," she said.

The turned and walked to the autokitchen, where she punched a a pair of steaming mugs.

"I know I shouldn't have." she said. "But... It's just that..."

She hesitated.

"Just what?"

Returning from the 'kitchen, she handed me my favorite high-test caffeine brew. She looked at me for a long moment before she took a sip.

"I guess it's a little silly," she said. "If I tell you, will you promise not to laugh?"

"Of course," I said, taking a sip myself.

Gods, it tasted good.

"Harvey... When we land, I'll have my job to do, and you've got the ship to look after. We're almost certainly not going to see each other for at least a week, maybe longer. I just..."

She took a deep breath.

"I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't forget me, that you wouldn't forget what we have here."

"Forget? How could I? Anne, I haven't known you all that long yet, but I do know that I love you. And I'll miss you terribly while we're apart, but I want us to be together again as soon as we can manage it."

"And then?"

"Then, if you still want me, we'll fly this tub together."

I held out my hand to her. She took it.

"I know this is all going a little fast," I continued. "But I think we can have a future together."

This time it was my turn to hesitate while I gathered my thoughts.

"I've been thinking a lot about how I don't want to lose you," I said. "I can't remember the last time when I felt this way. Being with you feels so... right. Yes, we've got amazing sex..."

"Awesome sex."

"Mind-blowing sex."

Her smile turned positively naughty.

"It's not just your mind I like to blow, my love."

"I know, and right now I wish more than anything that I could return the favor. But..."

"You could bend me over the instrument panel."

"Yes, I could, but that's not what I'm trying to say here. I'm trying to be serious."

She held my gaze for a long moment, her face unsmiling. I looked right back at her, trying to look serious. I managed to hold my stern expression for all of three seconds before I cracked up.

"Alright," I laughed. "Maybe I'm too serious. But what I'm trying to say, my love, is that what I feel for you goes way beyond the sex. Incredibly wonderful as it is, what I want more than anything is for you to be happy and for us to be together. For the rest of our lives, if we can. Maybe we can't, I don't know. But I want us to give it the best try we can."

The look in her eyes melted my heart.

"I'd like that," she said, very softly.

"Then stop worrying about me forgetting about you, my silly crew. Because for you not to be on my mind... Well, that would take a lobotomy. At the very least."

I held out my hand.

"Come here," I said.

She stood next to my flight chair, but I pulled her closer. She lifted one leg over mine until she straddled me. I pulled her toward me to kiss her, and she kissed me right back, a long, slow and deep kiss, full of love and passion and want for more.

"We shouldn't be doing this right now," she whispered, a little later. "You're breaking your own rule."

I smiled wryly.

"Yes, I know. That's happening a lot lately. You seem to be a bad influence on shipboard discipline."

She gave me a last, quick peck and lifted herself off me.

"Then I guess you'd better focus on flying this ship, captain."

"Aye aye, my loyal crew."

She caressed my face, then sat down in her flight chair.

"I love you, Harvey."

"And I love you, Anne."

Ahead of us Ursa had changed from a disc into a blue, fluffy ball. It was much larger than I expected it to be. I must have spent more time not paying attention than I realized, and once again I silently reprimanded myself. Myself told me that I should have known better to begin with, and he wasn't wrong.

As I keyed the appropriate sequence, the navigation computer pinged, and the display told me that it had received a remote control request from Ursa Traffic Control. I sighed, then I keyed 'OK'. I hate leaving my ship in someone else's hands, especially someone who's safely on the ground, but it was either that or change our landing into a parking orbit and pay through the nose for refueling to go somewhere else. And none of that was an option.

"If whoever is down there messes up our approach, I'm going to make sure we crash on top of him," I said to myself.

Myself wholeheartedly agreed.

I watched like a hawk as the navigation computer scheduled its course corrections in response to the commands from Traffic Control, but we started our final approach without so much as a shudder. Ursa continued to grow larger before us, and soon we could make out a hazy envelope of atmosphere. White fluffy clouds started to become visible, then the outlines of continents. Ursa's large moon, so common to habitable planets, was partially visible behind the planet, which made our approach that much simpler because we wouldn't have to maneuver to avoid it.

The sublight drive continued to whisper and occasionally grumble behind us, reducing our speed to a fraction of what it had been. Then the first humming vibrations of atmosphere ran through the ship. There was a slight buffeting in the upper layers of the atmosphere, but that was all. After a while, the landscape below us began to flatten out. We were coming in on the day side, which was good. Landing in a time zone that is more or less congruent with your own ship's time is so much easier on the body.

Details began to form on the ground below us as we continued to descend, until we could make out the huge spaceport complex ahead of us through a slight haze of cloud. The ship banked, rounded the space port, and headed for a blocky section of buildings on the outskirts of the complex.

We continued our final descent, reducing speed all the while and occasionally correcting our course, until we were headed for a landing slot between two low, sprawling, rectangular polycrete buildings. We hovered for a moment, then the jacks extended the landing struts from the underside of the ship with a whine and a clunk. The computer lowered the ship foot by foot, then inch by inch, until the struts made contact with the surface of the dock and the shock absorbers whined as they gradually took the weight. When the indicators lit up all green, I punched the sequence to secure the drive and all nav systems. Then, as per regulations, I locked the console.

We had landed.

* * *

Over the years I've come across all kinds of people, both human and non-human, and I've been exposed to just about any kind of strange looks, smells, mannerisms, fashions and local customs you can think of. I've learned to take them all in stride (well, most of them, anyway) and I've rarely had any problems. Yet I took an immediate dislike to the small, gray man who met us on the dock's polycrete loading platform.

More than anything, he was... gray. His clothes were light gray, his hair was medium gray, his shoes were a darker gray. His eyes were gray, and even his skin was particularly colorless, with an almost silvery grayish sheen. He seemed to exude grayness.

He consulted the data pad in his hand, then looked up.

"Good day, captain, ehm, Ross. I am Controller Fech. You and your cargo are expected."

He gave me a small, perfunctory bow, then looked at the ship.

"We will be ready to unload your ship in a few moments," he said.

His behavior irritated me, especially the way he ignored Anne completely. But, business being business, I tried to hide it.

"Good day, Controller Fech. Thank you for the use of your landing facilities. This is miss Anne Ryder, your technician."

"Pleased to meet you, Controller Fech," Anne said formally.

Fech glanced at Anne, then quickly looked down at his datapad. He seemed embarrassed.

"Ehm... Yes. Miss, ehm, Ryder," he said. "Ehm... Yes. Of course."

He fiddled with his datapad, then turned back to me.

"I'm sure you will want to take your ship to be serviced as soon as possible," he said.

"Yes, thank you," I said, a little curtly.

For some reason Fech set my teeth on edge. Which was unusual, because I rarely feel this kind of irritation in dealing with other people. Maybe it was something in Ursa's atmosphere? The air of a planet always smells funny at first, right after you land and exit the airlock. Ursa's atmosphere was one hundred percent safe for us, without any harmful gases, trace elements or microbes, but a planetary atmosphere is always unique, so you have to get used to different temperatures, density, humidity, atmospheric compositions, ion levels and smells, every time you land. And of course every world's normal flora, fauna and microbiology that make up its biosphere are extremely complex and subtle.

Sometimes that can have unusual effects. Unusual degrees of ionization can put you on edge. The local inhabitants' body chemistry, which may mimic certain pheromones and other chemical cues, can also influence a visitor's response, moods and behavior. Even the local sunlight can be a factor. But somehow I didn't think that was the problem here. It was Fech himself who irritated the crap out of me.

"There's no hurry," I continued, putting on my all-business face. "I will be on Ursa until miss Ryder has concluded her business with you. Then she will leave with me. For how long will she be busy here, do you think?"

Fech looked up, a look of consternation in his eyes.

"Oh. Ehm... Yes, of course. I, ehm... I will have to notify my supervisor."

He looked down at his datapad, tapped something on it. The look in his eyes was worried and furtive.

A few moments later a door in the polycrete wall by the side of the loading platform slid open, probably in response to Fech fondling his datapad, and three men stepped out onto the platform. One was dressed in a regular brown business suit. He was a smallish, non-descript man who would have blended in with the crowd in most cities on most planets. The other two behind him were larger, broader, more massive. They wore dark, utilitarian vests and trousers made out of some sort of heavy fabric. They had "security goons" written all over them. Bodyguards? Maybe.

"Harvey," I said to myself, "Be careful."

Myself agreed, having come to this conclusion even before I did.

"Yes. This smells. Watch your back," he said.

Inwardly I nodded, that being a strategy I had already decided upon.

"Controller Fech, what seems to be the problem?" Business Suit asked.

Fech seemed relieved.

"Ehm, sir, captain Ross intends to stay and take, ehm, miss, ehm, Ryder..." and he gestured to Anne, "...back with him when he leaves."

Business suit glanced at Anne, looking vaguely amused.

"I see," he said.

He pursed his lips, apparently thinking about it. Then he nodded.

"Why don't we go inside," he said.

The goons left his back, took up positions behind mine. I liked this less and less.

"First I need to supervise the transfer of my cargo," I stated.

Business Suit smiled thinly.

"Yes. As I said, let's discuss it inside."

This time it sounded even less like an invitation. As if to make the point that acceptance was not optional, the goons behind us took a step forward.

"What's this?" I demanded.

Business Suit gave me another pencil-stripe smile. It never reached his eyes.

"Please. Inside," he repeated.

He turned and began walking back to the door.

The goons ushered us in. They reminded me of a mobile heavy construction unit I'd once seen run out of control; moving slowly but irresistibly, calmly plowing through whatever buildings happened to stand in its way.

Something here was very, very wrong.

Not having any choice, we followed Business Suit through the door, entering a drab hallway with bare polycrete walls. The door slid shut behind us with a loud clang, followed by the whir and thump of heavy mechanical latches locking shut.

"I repeat, what is this?" I said, angry now.

Business Suit looked at me, as if trying to make up his mind about what to do with me.

"Maybe I can help," Anne said. "I'm here to assist you with the integration of your environmental control systems. I assume the Radix branch has sent you all the particulars?"

Business Suit turned to look at her.

"Alright," he said. "First let's deal with this."

He took a small rectangular box out of his pocket, pointed it at Anne, and pushed one of the buttons on its front panel.

Anne froze.

I mean, she really froze. She just stood there, motionless as a statue, her eyes open, not blinking, her mouth half open as if she was about to say something, like a frame from a 3D show on pause.

"WHAT THE F..." I started to shout.

One of the goons grabbed me from behind. It felt as if a steel girder wrapped itself around me and held me immobile against a polycrete wall.

"What the hell have you done to her?" I screamed.

Business Suit switched on his thin smile again, but only for a second.

"Nothing unusual, captain Ross," he said. "I simply put it on hold."

"Put WHAT on hold, you filthy..."

Once again the goon behind me prevented me from properly expressing myself.

Business Suit raised his eyebrows.

"Put what on hold? Why, this unit, of course," he said, glancing at Anne.

He looked back at me, raised his eyebrows.

"Could it be that you didn't know? Didn't you even suspect?"

He smiled his thin smile again.

"Well, I think we can consider that a successful field test."

"I repeat, WHAT THE F..."

"Calm yourself, captain Ross. It's quite simple. This unit was never your passenger. It was part of your cargo."

He looked at me curiously, as if to gauge my reaction.

"This is not a human being," he said

The look on his face became slightly amused.

"This, captain Ross, is a droid."