The Tales of The Aurora Pt. 04

Still wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't notice the hatch door opening and closing to my workshop. As I turned around, he stood there in all his glory. Looking at him closely, he was starting to look like a wolf. His once short hair was starting to grow out, and was also starting to grow hair on his face.

"Hey, Emma, how's it going?" he asked, as he approached me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, while getting my things, trying to put something between us.

"Well, I came by because I am usually here at this time," he gestured to the digital display on my desk, noting the time.

I was so wrapped up in my little dilemma that I hadn't noticed how much time had passed. Looking at it, I could not be around James, not with everything going on in my head.

"Sorry, but I cannot look at your stuff today, I have to find some hardware components that are stored in the cargo hold,'' I explained to him.

What I said isn't entirely a lie. The 'Ice Queen' requisitioned me to upgrade her cell scanner. Something about needing it to observe the DNA, or cellular structure of a blood sample, but it was not a high priority, so I left it on the back burner. Deciding to use that as an excuse, I grabbed my hand-terminal and bolted towards the door.

Before I could leave, James spoke, "Do you need any help?"

In my mind, I said to myself, 'No dummy, I don't want to be near you right now,' but all I said to him was, "I am good. It is not your job to help out, so why don't you go on and hang out with Ava or Grace."

I was about to leave the room, but he spoke again.

"I don't mind helping. Besides Grace said she was working on LETA, and I am not allowed to be with her when she is working on ship systems. As for Ava, she is busy with dinner preparations and asked to not be disturbed..." He paused, waiting to see if I was going to respond to something. When I said nothing, he continued, "I could use the distraction, there are so few things for me to do on this ship, so if I can help just to occupy the time, then please use me as you see fit."

I thought about what he said. He was acting like nothing was wrong, like it didn't matter. I didn't know if I should be relieved, or hurt by that. In any case, I should try and act like everything was normal. If I pushed him away then he would know something was wrong, but at the same time, I didn't want to be near him. With the last bit of reluctance, I told him that he could come and help, but he was not allowed to touch anything without my permission. With that, we left for the cargo hold.

I always hated looking for something in the cargo hold. It was just as big as the one filled with the GFC stasis pods, but instead of rows of big metal tubes, there were rows and rows of storage and shipping containers. Besides transporting the pods, we also transported other materials, packages, and a few other pieces of equipment that the Alexandrea system needed. The cargo holds also housed utility and replacement parts for repairing the ship's systems. RTC tends to pack a lot of spare parts for their ships; so much so, that one could practically build a small ship, with all the spare components currently stored in this room. Because of the vast storage, finding and retrieving items was a whole ordeal, and to make matters worse, they didn't consider a four-foot-ten person to do it all by themselves. Even if I wouldn't admit it, having James here was a big help. I still kept my distance from him, though. I was still thinking of a way to broach the subject, of the time I had his penis in my mouth. The worst part about it was, that he wasn't as unnerved by it as I was. You would think having your dick sucked by someone warrants some form of conversation, but to him, it was nothing. Like I was nothing.

Thinking about it was starting to infuriate me, and when he tried to make small talk, all I would do was give him a few-word response. It wasn't as if I was trying to be mean to him, but I just didn't know what to do. It was so frustrating that he could cause me to act like this. Having no words to say, no answers to the complicated question that was right in front of me. Angered by it all, I was rushed through the storage bins. Doing so recklessly, and in my state of mind, I did not notice that the storage crates were off-kilter, or the fact James was yelling for me to watch out. By the time I noticed, the heavy crates were starting to tumble down, heading towards me. Then in a flash, I was pushed forward and ended up in a barrel roll.

Listening to the loud crash of storage bins, I realized that somehow I was far away from the disaster. Still trying to figure out how I ended up where I was, I realized that something was on top of me. A large shadowy form was wrapped around me, encompassing me within its grasp. Feeling the heat coming off it, and the rushing heart rate, I realized that it was James who was on top of me. He was the one who saved me from being crushed alive. Feeling his heart rate, and the heavy breath, he must have gone full sprint trying to get to me in time.

"Are you... okay?" he asked slowly, while he tried to catch his breath.

Feeling him encompassing me like that, brought me back to the show with Legoshi having Haru in almost this same position. Panting and out of breath, but still had me within his grasp, but only this time, instead of devouring me, he was protecting me. It felt nice to be in his embrace. It felt like nothing in the galaxy could hurt me. It's amazing how I didn't want James to be anywhere near me a few moments ago, and yet, right then, I didn't want him to leave -- all I wanted was to feel protected forever. Yet, I couldn't, and I realized that I was taking too long to answer.

"Yeah, I am all right. You saved me," I said, while reaching out towards him, feeling the warmth and the strength within his arms.

"Well yeah, I can't let some heavy boxes damage that beautiful mind of yours," he said, with a little chuckle in his voice; which in turn, caused me to chuckle as well.

"Do you really think my mind is beautiful?" I asked him, sheepishly.

"Of course, your mind is beautiful. Emie, your mind is a true masterpiece, and losing it will be a travesty to the entire galaxy," he told me.

His remarks left my cheeks blushing, but something else he said also brought another chuckle to my lips.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked, with some confusion in his voice.

"Oh nothing, it's just that my mother used to call me Emie," I told him, with a smile.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know," he apologized, for no apparent reason.

"Oh no, it's fine. Actually, it's kinda nice being called Emie again," I said, turning my head towards him and flashing him a small smile.

Realizing that he was holding onto me for too long, he finally let go of me, and helped me to my feet.

The disaster pile wasn't as bad as I thought. Only a few storage bins fell over, and while it wouldn't have killed me, it would have earned me a long stay in the Med Bay. We got to work cleaning up the mess we made, all the time, I was trying to figure out what to say to him. He did save me, and he at least deserved an explanation as to why I was so cold to him earlier.

So with all the courage, I could muster, I spoke to him. "Hey James, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"Sorry for the way I have been acting towards you. I just didn't know what to say after what happened back in my workshop," I explained to him.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that," he said, while placing one of the bins back in place.

I asked what he meant.

He said, "Well, I figured, given it was your first time being with a man, that you might be embarrassed by what happened."

Looking at him, stunned that he knew why I was acting so differently towards him, I asked, "Why didn't you say anything?" trying to get some answers out of him.

"Well, I figured that you needed time to process everything, and when you were ready, you would come out and say something. So the only thing I could do was keep doing things that we normally do, and wait until you were ready."

Still stunned by the whole thing, I realized James was not acting as if nothing happened; he was just giving me time, and some space to come to terms with it. Then he waited for me to broach the subject with him. I had been such a fool, thinking James was finished with me once he had gotten what he wanted.

"Sorry, James. I guess I should have just come out and said it," I told him.

From there, we carried on with the clean-up. It went surprisingly quickly, especially with James being there, lifting the heavy bins back on top. Then we found what we initially came in for, and we were about to head towards the cargo hold hatch, until I spoke up once again.

"James, I hope that I am not overstepping, but could we continue from last time. You know. The things that we did together," I said, while looking away, trying to hide how red my cheeks were.

"Sure I don't mind, but if only you are okay with it -- and you don't go cold-shoulder on me, afterward,'' he said.

His request was reasonable, so I agreed to it. Then just before we stepped through the hatch, I gestured to him to come closer to me. I wanted to show my appreciation for saving me. I reached out and wrapped my hands around his neck, and then stood up until I was on my tippy toes. I planted a sensual kiss on his lips. I felt the warm sensation coming from his mouth, and it was almost intoxicating. He brought his own hands to my waist, and with little effort, he'd pulled me closer, embracing me within his scent. The taste, the smell, the strength, and the warmth of him was so grand, that a part of me wished for the moment to never end. With reluctance, I broke the kiss, and smiled at him. I couldn't believe that I had been so confused and angry with him, for something I did. From then on, when it came to him, I would not overthink things, I would just do them. So before we left towards the ship's passageways, I slyly brushed my hand against his crotch and left with a coy smile.

As I headed back to my workshop, I had to come up with something to do with James, when we were alone. Plus, I needed to know if he was doing anything with the rest of the crew. I had a feeling that he and Ava were up to something, since they both were getting rather close. I didn't mind if he had, or even with Grace. The one I had trouble with, was the 'Ice Queen'. I would not let that bitch outdo me. If she was having fun with James, then so should I. Then I remembered our little hidden surveillance cameras. We hadn't taken them down yet, and I wondered if Grace was using them.

'Maybe I should look into that, and see if anything interesting happens,' I said to myself, as I headed down the hall.

Chapter 15

James

"Hey, Master, whatcha doing?" my floating fairy, Kora, asked me while in the room.

"Oh you know, trying to make some improvements on you," I shot back, while still working at my desk-terminal late at night, or whatever is nighttime on this ship.

"Why change me, Master? Am I not perfect just the way I am?" she asked, while she floated in front of me.

"Of course, you are great, I am just trying to make you better," I replied.

"So what are you doing, Master?" she asked, while taking a perch on my shoulder.

While Kora was implanted in my head, she still couldn't read my mind. She could only see what was happening on a chemical level, like emotions. Still, though, I tried to keep her in the loop; not just to satisfy her curiosity, but to keep track of my progress.

"I am trying to write a script that will allow you to pair to any wireless device," telling her, as I ran the script through a compiler.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because, you can freely download yourself into any nearby devices using the already installed transmitter in my brain. You know the one the GFC personnel used to receive your reports. Since it's there, I might as well use it," I said, explaining my reasoning.

Despite how simple it sounded, it was a complicated piece of code. The problem was that Kora was just too big to be transmitted through wireless transmissions.

"What seems to be the issue?" she asked.

"Well to be crude, you are too fat," I said, sticking out my tongue at her.

She protested and said she was not fat, and that she had curves in all the right places. To be honest, talking to her like that always put me at ease. To have someone you can talk to, and feel like you were not talking to a machine was what probably kept me sane, all these years.

"Anyway,'' I said, trying to continue where I left off. "If your programming is to be sent via a transmission; even with your ultra-compression software, it still would be too much data."

"Maybe you should ask Grace. She has been doing fine, looking under my hood, so to speak," as she said that, she flipped up her skirt to reveal her dark thong panties.

She always did this when our conversation led to something sexual in nature, but what could I do, that was how I programmed her.

"Yeah, maybe. Oh by the way, how is she doing with everything you have shown her?" I asked, after I decided to take a break and shut down my terminal after my fifth compiler failure.

"She is doing more than good, Master. Every time I show her one of your escapades, she is always left on the floor shaking from cumming too much. I mean you should have seen her when you took Ava in the shower, she came quicker than any other time I have been around her," she explained, in vivid detail.

Thinking to myself, imagining how our shy, little friend would look quivering in ecstasy. "So do you think she is ready to take things further?" I asked my fairy friend.

"Unfortunately, no. She is curious, but if you try anything on her, she might run away."

"I can't have her running away from me, not that I would force her to do anything. I may be a lot of things, but a bastard I am not," speaking out loud, while contemplating my next move on Grace. "I think we should ask for Ava's help in this. I know she loves her, and maybe with a friend there, Grace might not run away. What do you think, Kora?" I asked, while she was sitting on my knee like it was a ledge.

"That might work, but you will have to be subtle about it. Do it all at once, and you could overwhelm her," she shot back, while she was lazily kicking her legs.

"I understand, Kora. Besides, there is no point in rushing things," I told her.

After noticing the clock, I realized it was time to get moving. Getting up from my chair, I gathered everything I needed, including the package Ava gave me after dinner.

Kora looked up at me, she asked, "Master, are you sure it's time?"

"Yes, Kora, it is," and with that, I left my room in the dead of night. Not a sound could be heard from down the passageway, and just like that, I was swallowed into the darkness.

Elizabeth

Night shifts could be brutal, especially for a small crew like ours. A person had to be awake at all times, in case of any emergency. Rogue asteroids, systems failures, or in the worst case, piracy. Since our routes were so out of the way, the only way they could intercept us, as if they knew the routes ahead of time, and if they did, this ship was more than ready to eliminate any threat that came our way. That being said, since everything was pretty much being maintained by LETA, that just left me nothing to do. The night shift was handled by switching people off every six hours. Looking at the time, it was about 11:30pm, and I still had more than four hours to go. With nothing to do since I had already finished all of my reports, and read through my stash of e-books several times. All I could do was wait and think. That left me with my thoughts on James.

After so many weeks, I still hadn't found a way to socialize with him. There was no doubt that with his presence, the morale on the ship had greatly improved. Even Dr. Blake had been making more of an effort to interact with us. It was one thing to interact with your crew, but it is hard to interact with a passenger. With a crew, you could ask how their jobs were going, but with James, I could not seem to find a topic that I could broach with him. Thinking about it would only just lead to more headaches, and I didn't need that in the middle of my shift. Looking at the time, I decided to do a crew count, to see where everyone was at.

"LETA, how is the crew doing tonight?" I asked our ship A.I.

"ALL CREW MEMBERS ARE CURRENTLY IN THEIR CREW QUARTERS. CAPTAIN, PASSENGER JAMES PEIRCE APPEARS TO BE NOT IN HIS QUARTERS," LETA informed me.

"Where is he?" I demanded, while getting up from my chair.

"JAMES PEIRCE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE GFC CARGO HOLD, DECK 5, PORT SIDE."

A wave of panic set in, fearing James was trying to do something with the other pods. I rushed out of the door with my hand-terminal, and a baton. In case he did something I would call a ship-wide alert to subdue him, and lock him away.

It only took a few minutes to get there, but my mind was racing.

'Was this all part of his plan? Was he trying to free more of his friends? Was he trying to sabotage the ship?' All these thoughts ran through my mind, as I made my way through the ship.

Slowing down to a halt, I made my way to the intersection. I wanted to catch him in the act. That way I would have sufficient proof that he was up to no good. Reaching the corner, I slowly peeked around the edge, but instead of him doing something that he shouldn't, unfortunately, all I saw was just him, sitting there looking out one of the ship's bay windows. Even though this was a spaceship, windows were placed throughout it, so the crew did not feel like they were stuck in a metal casket. He was just sitting there; gazing outside at the starry sky. It looked like he was doing nothing, but looks could be deceiving. So with soft steps, I approached him. He hadn't noticed me, and at closer inspection, it looked like he was holding something. Still making my approach, I was almost in visual range of what he was holding, until I stepped on a loose floor panel. A low squeak rang through the dead quiet passageway.

James quickly hid what he was looking at, and turned around to face what was behind him. It took a bit for him to adjust his eyes to the shadowy figure. Once he realized who it was, he spoke up.

"Oh, Captain Lane, I didn't know you would be up at this time."

He looked a little flustered, like he was hiding something, but looking around, nothing looked out of place. Still, though he shouldn't be out at this time of night.

"It's my turn to perform the night shift, and what are you doing out here Mr. Pierce?" I asked, taking on the air of authority.

"Oh, well, I couldn't sleep so I was stumbling around until I found this view.'' He was pointing out the large window by the sidewall.

Normally, you would only see stars on the outside, but this time a bright, gaseous nebula could be seen in the distance. A nebula is mainly a cloud of dust and vapor that floats in an area of space. Usually composed of basic elements such as hydrogen, which is why nebula could also act as a nursery for newly-formed stars. One of the unique byproducts of a nebula is not its scientific value, but its aesthetic beauty. So many colors, yellow, greens, and other blended colors, really shine in the vastness of the darkened space. I must say the nebula James was looking at, was quite breathtaking, but that was not entirely the reason he was here.

"Mr. Pierce, you know you should be in your room during the night shift," I told him, while looking down at him, trying to figure out what he was doing here.

He looked at me and he kind of shrugged his shoulders, and said, "You are right, Captain. I know I shouldn't be here, but I couldn't sleep; I couldn't miss this chance to see this view," he said, gesturing towards the nebula. "Come and take a seat, and please, call me James," he said, while patting the spot next to him.