Way-out Sexual Mission

As we move forward in our quest to explore and expand our knowledge of the solar system around us, there are certain urges that we take with us on our race towards the stars. Sometimes these override our higher moral values. Most often, they define us as humans.

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Dr. Susan Cannoni was nervous. This was the point in the mission in which she had to perform the docking procedure, and it had to be performed perfectly. An incomplete seal could, worst case scenario, mean sudden death for her and her crewmates, and could perhaps damage the Space Station itself.

"It's up to you, Dr. Cannoni," Bob intoned, knowing full well how much extra stress he was putting on her.

"Uh..." She mumbled the next word, but everyone, including Mission Control for this, SPX-31, knew what she meant. "...you, Bob." It was breaking protocol to address him by his given name as well, but at this point everyone had become much more casual, 19 hours since the launch. In truth, everyone was tired, not the least of which was the crew at Mission Control, at the Cape. They all wanted this part over, so they could shut down and leave only a monitoring crew, and the over-worked mission experts could go home and get some sleep. They had to be here now; in a half hour they could relax.

Susie would be able to relax, too, but right now she was acutely aware of the world watching her actions. Thanks to the audio delay, they wouldn't hear her banter with Major Bannon - Bob - but they were there with them on video, only a few seconds delay behind the capsule, in real time. Okay. She just needed to goose the number 3 jet very, very slightly... There!

She heard the satisfying click as the seals engaged fully. She'd been trained to listen for that sound, but it was a massive relief to actually hear it. It was good, wasn't it? She waited.

"Good job, Dr. Cannoni. I knew you could do it." Bob's approval had been given, and it meant the world to Susie in this moment, even though he wasn't high on her friend's list. He had to be, right now, though. She would spend the next 13 months working alongside him, along with Alan, the third member of the crew. And the full 6-member crew of the Station, of course; at least until some of them left for home in another week.

Home.

Susie was already lonely for home, and for her husband. This was going to be a long deployment! She had so much respect for Doug, for the way he supported her. For reminding her she was among the brightest and the best. And for making sure she knew that he would always be there for her. Her rock. When he told her she was beautiful, she knew it wasn't an idle compliment. He made her feel beautiful!

In truth, Susie Cannoni was extremely attractive. The media had homed in on her from the day it was announced that she would be one-third of the team. Reporters wrote glowingly of her movie-star looks; the less than respectable tabloids followed her every move. She couldn't go to church without them snapping pics of her in a dress. In her own yard, in shorts and a midriff top. Once, at the beach in a bikini, her ample breasts on display as she bent over to spread a blanket on the sand. 'Where did all these shots come from,' she wondered. 'Do these hyenas ever take a day off?'

It wasn't her fault she was pretty, nor big-breasted. She was also smart and ambitious. Her father had always told her she could be anything she wanted, and she had taken that advice to heart. It seemed like she had always wanted to be an astronaut, from watching the Space Shuttle missions on TV in her childhood. When funding for the STS missions was stopped, she felt devastated. Fortunately, the program had come roaring back in recent years. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and others had pushed the government into breathing new life into NASA, always considered the parent of space exploration. It had happened at exactly the right time for her.

She had been just 26, married with a doctorate in Biology, and with a rewarding job in the largest laboratory science company in the U.S., when the call went out for astronaut training. Now, a little more than a year and a half and a LOT of training later, she had just docked the most expensive flying machine in the world to the International Space Station! She released the breath she'd held for what seemed like an hour.

Alan - Dr. Martiniz - high-fived her as she began the shut-down procedure. "Great job, Suze," he said through the headset, winking at her as she looked at his face through the fishbowl lens of his helmet. She grinned back and said, "Thanks, Alan. Couldn't have done it without you."

From behind them, Bob's voice crackled. "Okay, okay. Are we finished with the pats on the ass? I want to get inside there and get out of this suit!" He sounded irritated at first, but then laughed. "I feel like I'm marinating in here!"

That was the thing with Bob, she thought. You never knew whether he was being straight with you or not. That was probably her biggest qualm about him; that, and the number of times she'd caught him looking at her during their training. When he made that remark about how she filled out a suit, her opinion of him shifted somewhat. Most of the time he was completely professional, but that moment... She felt she'd seen into the 'real' Bob Bannon. She didn't trust his eyes, and the way they lingered.

She flicked the last four switches, powering down the capsule, and leaned her head back for a moment. Looking out through the overhead port, she could see the deep blue of space past the various struts of the Station. It wasn't the first time she'd looked out at the stars and beyond, but it felt different, now. They were docked into their new home for the next year or so, and it looked so frail out here, among the vastness of space. Another wave of melancholy passed through her and she shook it off.

"Okay, shut-down sequence complete," she said. "Waiting on you, mothership."

A new voice came through their headsets. It was Dr. Emma Hong, the Chinese mission commander, who welcomed them to their new 'home'. "Hey, kids," she said in a jovial voice, "wanna come inside and play now?"

It was so nice to hear another woman's voice, Susie thought. Though they'd never met in person, they'd communicated a number of times through Mission Control. She seemed very nice. "I know I'd like to," she said, followed by similar remarks from both Bob and Alan.

As the crew leader of SPX-30, Dr. Hong had been very much an inspiration to Susie in those long months of training. She was in charge of her own mission, she was a recognized authority on space effects on the human genome, and she had come from a desperately poor region of China and made her mark on history. Susie couldn't wait to meet her, face to face! She wanted to ask so many questions, and to learn from her.

It was another hour before they were finally inside the 'facility', as the Station residents called it. Dr. Hong immediately went to Susie, once their helmets were off. "Come with me," she instructed, and pushed off towards the other end of the docking tunnel. Susie watched the doctor's tiny feet, clad in gray socks, as she floated away. Despite all the training, she was going to have to get used to this!

Bumping into just about every surface along the way, she somehow managed to follow the woman down the long series of tunnels that led into what would serve as the changing room. Dr. Hong waited, then secured the barrier behind Susie as she clumsily pulled herself into the space.

"This is one of the only places you'll have to yourself," she explained, pushing Susie's feet gently away, so she was facing her. "Let's get you out of that suit." With that, the two of them worked the bulky white suit off of Susie, leaving her in her sweats and an undershirt that did little to contain Susie's full breasts. "Oh, wow," the doctor commented, "you're prettier and... more full-figured than I thought you were."

Susie blushed. "Yeah, so I've been told a few million times," she remarked, then noticed the Chinese woman's figure. She was a little stocky, with breasts that looked smallish beneath the collared mission shirt she wore, but it was hard to tell. It seemed like she worked hard to conceal her body. Susie asked her about it, not willing to take the time to get to know her better before she could find out some of these things. There was so much she needed to learn, in such a short time.

"You..." The doctor began, then weighed her words carefully. "You're the only woman up here with 5 men," she said, "but you don't want to be a woman. I mean, you want to be like them, even if you're not. Believe me, it's difficult, and you don't always..."

Susie waited. Finally, the doctor looked her squarely in the eyes and smiled mysteriously. "You'll have to find your own way of dealing with it."

"Yes, but..."

Dr. Hong put her finger to her own lips in a 'shhhh' gesture, and said in a low voice, "What happens in space, you know?"

Now Susie was completely baffled. "Do you mean..."

Dr. Hong glanced once more at Susie's chest and grinned. "I hope you brought a couple of bras you really like," she said. "This is only the second time I've worn one in the last month, but I have a feeling you'll need to wear yours the whole time."

'Wow! Okay, that's something they didn't talk about in space training,' Susie thought. 'Okay, mental note: start wearing a bra. Especially around Bob.'

The two women spent a little time chit-chatting. Dr. Hong promised they would have time later; right now, there was a lot of orientation to be gone over. She showed Susie where she would sleep, for the time being. "There are only 6 sleeping spaces, and 9 of us right now. After we've gone, you'll have your own space," she explained. "For now, you'll just be in a bag, tied off to whatever's handy." She laughed, and Susie found her laughter infectious. 'So she isn't ALL business' she thought. Still, her previous comment made Susie nervous.

Dr. Cannon realized how tired she was when she dozed off during Greg Raymond's explanation of their daily checklist. She snapped awake when Alan took her by the arm and shook her slightly. He was smiling at her. Greg had stopped talking, and he acknowledged that they must all be exhausted. "Why don't you all get some sleep," he said, "and we'll go through this later."

"I'm sorry, Greg," she said, shaking her head. Her wavy hair floated across her face and obscured her view of his. She waited for it to fall away, but it didn't. She pushed it down and grinned. "This is all so new, and there's so much to figure out." She looked at her co-astronauts, who looked fresher than she felt. Bob's eyes seemed to be on her chest, as usual. "I just need a few hours," she said, turning away.

"Get some rest, all of you. There are six of us here to answer questions, for the time being. One day you'll all be the veterans."

Bob watched Susie's ass, clad in her sweats, as she pushed away. "SPX-31, out," he joked, and pushed after her. Perhaps too hard. He was upon her before they passed the first coupling in the next module. "Oh, sorry," he said, as her hand pushed his face away. It was suddenly up against her thigh, and she heard him inhale through his nose loudly as he floated backwards. He chuckled softly.

Susie sighed. 'It's too tight in here,' she thought, for not the last time.

The next week passed way too quickly. Susie's head was filled with the trivial things so necessary for their day-to-day existence up here, as well as setting up some of the biological experiments she would be tasked with conducting. The essentials, they had all been instructed on; life-saving techniques in the event of a shut-down of one of the systems, how to use the zero-G toilets, food prep. It was the little things that they had to learn: how to respect each other's space as they moved around. How floating things floated, and how to keep them where you wanted them. How, when your stomach felt bloated, not to pass gas until you were near an air intake. And, for Susie, how to keep her breasts, now much more buoyant than they were at home, from rising when she used certain muscles. 'Thank god for the bra' she thought, but keeping those underthings relatively clean was already becoming a problem, and she could foresee a time when she'd have to go bra-less, out of sheer necessity. The straps wore away at her shoulders, and her nipples were constantly being rubbed raw from moving around in the cups as she floated here and there.

Dr. Hong hadn't worn a bra since that first day they had arrived. Her nipples were nowhere near as obvious as Susie's, even in her thin cotton shirt. 'Lucky girl,' Susie thought. To make it worse, the Chinese woman sometimes worked in shorts so small they almost seemed scandalous to Susie. It was all a matter of comfort, she knew, but Susie had been conscious of her body her whole life. If she wore a pair of shorts like that, she'd look like a hooker! She was going to have to work at becoming, as Dr. Hong had called it 'one of them.'

The day had come. The three astronauts of SPX-29 were suited up, and were loading their few personal effects into the capsule that would take them home. Susie felt exhilarated to be taking on their part of the mission, but sad to see them leave. Especially Dr. Hong. They had gotten far too little time to bond personally, and Susie still had questions to ask the experienced woman about life onboard the Station. Her inquiries about the doctor's interactions with the rest of the crew had been rebuffed with that same mysterious smile each time, and a pat on the hand. "Each person is different," was the most she would offer.

"Dr. Hong, thank you," she told her, just before the hatch was to close. The woman hugged her one last time and whispered, "Have fun, and watch that commander of yours," then backed into the capsule, smiling.

On the third day of her biological experiments, Bob came back to her lab and announced, "How about you take a break, sweetie. You've been sequestered in here for too long." Susie looked up at him suspiciously. "Alan and Joachim are going EVA. What do you say to a walk?"

"EVA?" Susie let go of the curette she'd been holding, leaving it to hover in front of her. "You mean, outside?"

Bob grinned and said sarcastically, "Well, yeah. We've got antenna and solar array maintenance to do, and they're going to need another set of hands. Think you can pack all that into a suit again?" He was nodding at her breasts. She was bra-less today.

Susie blushed, knowing he could see her nipples clearly, in the white t-shirt she'd donned a few hours ago. She had wondered how long it would take before the comments started. 'Not long at all,' she thought, frowning. Still, as she glanced down, even she was surprised. They were VERY obvious! She could literally feel them hardening, becoming more sensitive to the fabric against them.

"Okay," she said, moving an arm in front of her chest to hold onto the bulkhead partition. "I've got a couple of things planned for EVA, too. Can I work on that stuff while I'm not physically assisting them?"

"You can do anything you want," Bob said smoothly. It was an innocuous statement, but the way he said it made Susie feel uncomfortable. He remained where he was, as if waiting for her arm to move again, but Susie turned away from him before letting go of the partition.

"Hit the oxygen now," Bob ordered, "and stay on it for at least 4 hours. EVA is at 0600 hours."

"Roger that."

It was a chore, getting suited up for the walk. There was an MA garment, like a large diaper, to get into, then she and Alan had to help each other into their EMU suits. Bob had assisted Joachim into his, and they observed the two 'newbies', making sure everything was done according to the manual. The other two specialists, Hoffmeyer and Dr. Hurst, readied the various tools they would be using, and made sure their cooling tubes were functioning properly. As Susie physically pressed her breasts down to ease herself into the confines of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, Bob quipped, "For God's sake, don't inhale!" It was an innocuous joke, but there was a truth behind it that left a knot in the pit of Susie's stomach. Her body seemed to be the elephant in the module. She wondered if Bob and the others talked about her when she wasn't there, and knew that they must. She was in the best shape of her life, and men noticed. She remembered Dr. Hong's strange statement - "What happens in space, you know?"

Despite all that, the extra-vehicular activity went smoothly, and Susie enjoyed the feeling of floating free among the stars, despite the tether. She conducted a couple of 'free-space' experiments, recorded the results, and stayed alert to the other two's needs. Alan, for his part, proved to be very capable. Joachim, the French scientist with SMX-30, was fussy and compulsive, but he seemed happy to allow Alan to work on the alignment of the solar array while he configured the DC adapters to maintain full power. Susie was glad she didn't have to know too much about that stuff!

Back inside, there was the ritual of getting out of the EMU's, and for Susie, trying to maintain her dignity while doing so. There were a couple of 'diaper' jokes, but nothing too risqué. She found, though, that her nipples felt like they were on fire as she pulled herself up out of the suit! Bob's eyes were on her breasts as they came into view, and she quickly covered up. A brush of her arm across her left nipple, though, made her flinch. They seemed to stay harder than ever in zero-grav!

Joachim, she noticed, was watching her intently. She slipped into her sweat pants, because they were the quickest and easiest to put on, and started making her way toward the back, and her sleeping module.

"Hey."

She turned toward the sound of Joachim's voice and waited by the hatch. He floated towards her, his hands propelling him fluidly and quickly. When he reached her, he swiveled easily to where he was standing before her, albeit with his feet on what should be the overhead. Susie craned her neck to try to look him in the eyes, a little disconcerted. 'Will I ever get used to this?' she wondered.

"So, what's up?"

He was awfully close, his nose almost against hers. He said in a low voice, "What's up? This is up." He looked down, showing her the lump in his shorts, then abruptly pulled them down to allow his cock to spring out.

Susie drew back, staring at it. "You must be..." she said, "I mean... You do know I'm married, right?" She was still staring at it, unable to look away. It was just so... right there! She hadn't realized how much she missed Doug's cock. Not just him, but his cock, and feeling it inside her. "I..."

Joachim watched her eyes as she watched his hand slowly stroking himself.

Susie couldn't get over how much this man's cock resembled Doug's. It was the same length, with the bulbous head that held a tiny bead of moisture at its opening. She could almost feel her husband inside her, the head parting her labia as he slid into her...

"No! No, no," she murmured, turning abruptly, as Joachim's lips brushed hers. She pushed herself through the airlock hatch, no idea where she was going. She only knew she was leaving the man behind her, holding his cock; the one she still saw in her mind. 'Oh, Doug,' she thought. 'I do miss you.'

Two weeks after that encounter, Susie slipped into her sleeping bag. Their 14-hour day was about over. She was exhausted, but strangely aroused. She always seemed to be horny lately! Her hand once again slipped beneath the waistband of her shorts. She'd played with herself every time she had a few moments lately, usually just before drifting off to sleep. All of her dreams were of making love. Strangely though, they usually began with Doug, but sometimes he morphed into one of the crewmembers: Alan, Joachim, or even Steve Hoffmeyer, whom she rarely interacted with. During those times she would wake up breathing hard, on the cusp of an orgasm. This morning she needed release.