Weightless Ecstasy Ch. 05

"No worries," Idris replied. Diego gave them a nod as he coasted to a side bulkhead, leading with his mesh bag. His head was still full of data from shake-table trials. He would devise many structures on Mars, drawing upon his skills in architecture and civil engineering to balance efficiency and safety for the red planet's gravity and surface strength. He was more impatient than most to get to real work on-planet.

After sealing the hatch and confirming their exclusive time together, Idris said, "I mean, look at them. They made the rounds, aimed for their favorites, couldn't make the cut, went after second choice, third, working down through the losers' bracket, and now here they are, settling."

Diego shed his jumpsuit and stuffed it in the mesh bag, slowing himself down when he found he was doing it roughly. Don't snap at Idris, he told himself for perhaps the hundredth time. I want a blow and a butthole, and if I tell him to shut up, he'll get all whiny and mopey and might play the Iran card. Diego didn't believe he'd had it all that easy, growing up and coming out in LatinX Los Angeles, but he knew that was nothing to what Idris experienced in Tehran, staying closeted in a country where he could be killed if he'd acted on his true nature.

"And it's even worse for us," Idris said with a resigned sigh. "You're not my type. I'm not yours. We both go for Northern Europeans. So, Florian, fifty years ago. None of the other males on board even hint at bicuriosity."

Diego spun to face him, and faked it. "But I want you now, Idris." He knew that his ardent look wouldn't distract attention from his flaccid dick.

Idris's eyes nonetheless widened. Diego was tall, and lean-muscled, and had less body hair than Idris, which helped overcome what type he was. And hearing that he was wanted, sincerely or otherwise, turned Idris's heart to mush. Quickly he stowed his clothes, pushed his nude body through a grid gap, then even more quickly pushed the other way to get the tether cuff he had forgotten.

"Wish I had leather," Idris muttered as he hugged Diego. "X-PAN is so strict about mass and volume of personal items."

"That's nothing," said Diego, warming to his partner. "You have no dependencies. This is the longest space voyage ever, so we have rules against potable alcohol, recreational drugs, and nicotine. X-PAN was generous with implants to deal with cravings, and conditions like diabetes, but plenty of candidates with untreatable conditions had no chance to get here."

Idris sighed. "I'll have to settle for you spanking me with your bare hands."

From what Diego had seen, Idris hadn't outed himself completely after emigrating to Canada. He still had family in Iran. The Revolutionary Guard had been formally disbanded, but its members still enforced morality when opportunities arose.

Diego enfolded Idris in his arms, and nibbled his ear. Idris had a good male scent, and Diego got himself worked up on it.

They both made an effort to be vers. What exasperated Diego wasn't whether he was top or bottom (terms that needed to be revised for zero gravity), but how he defaulted to being the calm, centered person in this coupling. He had much more fun putting on his teasing, flamboyant demeanor around the crew's straights.

They shared a long kiss, and each dick was slowly stroked by firm fingers, and it began to matter less who was what type.

Diego was starting to slide his torso along Idris's, when the latter pulled back and said, "Fly with me!"

"Hmm?" asked Diego, disoriented and now erect.

"I'm a pilot. Do you have any idea how boring it is to spend a shift at the controls of this hulk? I look for hazards out there, make sure the laser boost doesn't affect the ship's balance, take readings on internal mass shifts, blah blah. When I flew from Earth to orbit, I could feel the motion!"

Diego smirked. "So you signed up for this mission and you don't like weightlessness?"

"We'll still be weightless," said Idris, making adjustments to his cuff tethers. "But we'll add momentum. Detach your tethers, I'll drive."

Each with an arm around the other's back, they pushed off from the grid and soared in a curve directed through Idris's tethers. Idris whooped, flipping them over, changing their direction into another soar. Diego laughed, and wondered why he'd mostly held still in here, 'swimming' in straight lines, just for exercise, and doing little more than rolls and turns during sex.

He also saw that Idris had a stiff, reddish erection.

"You okay just flying?" asked Diego.

"Couple more moves." Idris was breathing quick and hard. "Then we become the Good Ship DoubleSuck!"

Idris flexed tethers to get them into more roller-coaster and thrill-ride moves, with spins on redirections, twists, and front and back rolls. Diego's own excitement built, getting him to the edge of his motion tolerance, which was high on the scale of X-PAN's testing for spaceflight. He kept his grip tight on Idris, and was surprised at how strongly Idris held him.

Then, in the middle of a flat move along the ERV's long axis, Idris reached to grab Diego's far side, and with quick hand moves spun his body to put them face-to-groin. Each secured legs around shoulders and gulped the other's prick, just before Idris swooped them away from the grid. A tether grazed Diego's shoulder, the only sign of Idris' distraction.

Diego tried to prolong the effect, sliding a hand along Idris's balls and perineum. Remembering an earlier statement, Diego slapped Idris's left buttock hard.

"Wooowww!" yelled Idris. "This is your pilot speaking! This is my passenger spanking!"

Diego got in two more spanks before Idris gushed into Diego's mouth, while grunting around Diego's prick. There was enough novelty in this action that Diego wasn't yet at his highest plateau, and Idris pulled away his mouth to say, "My ass, please! Reset at the grid!"

Idris stopped them at a grid cushion. "You're a newbie," he said. "Reconfiguring front-to-back is too intricate to do with someone without experience."

Which made Diego wonder, Who on this ship isn't a newbie at fucking an ass in flight? But he was glad to hold still as he locked his legs around Idris's and reached around to grab his chest.

"Right after takeoff," Idris said with a tremble. They pushed away from the grid, Idris began another soar, and Diego's cock split the pilot's cheeks.

Idris howled as Diego pumped, and threw in a "More more!" now and then. Saliva worked pretty well, but by the third spin Diego felt too much tightening.

"Gonna be now," Diego called.

"Yeah!"

Diego stiffened harder as his spurt began, driving him deeper into Idris's rectum, where the hot clench shot spasms through Diego's whole body. He bellowed, arching his back, just as Idris backflipped near the grid, tumbling them both in the direction Diego leaned. The thrill ride and the cum reinforced, and Diego's voice zoomed up an octave.

Idris didn't seem to react any extra while Diego spewed, but droplets hit Diego's thighs, so maybe there was a mini-cum. Whatever, when the spots faded from his eyes, Diego felt that he was now able to tolerate more of Idris's chattiness. Until, of course, the next time he actually heard it.

Diego was a bit dizzy by the time they were sliding into the same showersuit. He said, "You have to show me how to do that."

Idris tsked. "You ever been through pilot training?"

"No, but—"

"Let me be the top on this, Dr. Santamaria." Idris said. Then, laying the patronizing on thick, "Maybe you'll learn a little, someday."

Diego had to chuckle at the way Idris had redefined 'top.' "I have to say, that's the most fun I've had up your sorry ass."

Idris raised his hands above the level of the 'suit as the disinfectant sprays began, and made finger-quotes. "And you've given me something to remember fondly while I 'fly' this 'ship.'

They were dressed and about to leave the ERV when they were surprised by an announcement voiced by Captain Guret.

"Attention all personnel. There will a broadcast from Earth in exactly one hour, concerning everyone here. Please be awake at that time, and attend as it arrives. Shifts will be adjusted to rebalance sleep periods."

***

The Common Zone held eleven people, roughly its comfort limit for most of them. Ten more gathered in the ERV. The rest paid attention from their duty stations.

Jessamyn Hillaird was shown on ad hoc viewscreens. She was in her workshell, and looked out at her audience, but her body was turned towards the right, the center of her 'shell. She acted as though even this announcement wasn't getting all of her focus.

"Hello to my wage slaves, and to you ivory-tower types who should never forget how lucky you are to be doing this. I have the dubious privilege of telling you the upshot of our dirty-movie controversy. This video is self-erasing, so nobody on Earth will ever get wind of it.

"Nobody gets everything they want, not even me, but everybody gets something, except maybe the prudes. There's supposed to be an old saying about half a loaf, but I'm not going to look it up.

"Sex will be broadcast from the ERV in my ship, but only by your two heart-attack candidates, which might add a little excitement. Dr. Olambayo and Dr. Eisenbach will perform, so to speak, at least four days out of every five, thanks to her being way past menopause, I guess. The imagery will be A.I-massaged so they'll look young and hot, appealing to ageists, like me. Maybe later there'll be live sound, with their actual voices, for anyone who wants a blast of cognitive dissonance.

"Marketing has worked out that this will draw 31 percent as much revenue as there'd be from all of you doing all of you. This takes into account the fact that these lovebirds will stay on Mars, so we'll have no hot video on the ship while it returns home. But the video will be sold in small chunks, so we could spread it out to cover the return trip. Just to show that we did our due diligence, we checked the market for them banging in Martian gravity, looking like their real selves, and we got the answer you might expect.

"Because this requires the ERV to be usable, we won't cut back the laser bursts all the way. But we're still going to save money, and make you give up something. From now on the ERV will be on for four hours, then off for four, repeated ad infinitum. With standard physical fitness as the top priority, and the broadcast sex the second, you can still get in there for whoopee, without video, but not as often or as long. If some of you want to bang while there's also exercising, that's up to you, and whoever's sweating without having fun. Your Captain can have that scheduling headache.

"The money raised from this will make it possible for five extraterran missions, smaller and shorter than yours, to be staffed and launched in the next six months. The main one will be the trip to Venus orbit, with an automated station left there when the ship returns. The other seventeen pipedreams will have to wait. Every ship will have a mini-ERV, about a third of the volume of yours, and everyone chosen for these missions must agree to have their ERV sex acts videoed and broadcast. Their dodge is that they don't have to agree to have sex in the ERV at all. What happens in a sleepwrap stays in a sleepwrap, until it's sanitized.

"ISEC insists that physical attractiveness will not be a criterion in its selection process, and I'm all yeah whatever, because I'll decide on X-PAN's crew selection. Which means neither smart-and-ugly nor beautiful-and-stupid will get in. I'm not trusting any ship of mine to incompetents. Only to smart, beautiful exhibitionists.

"This grand compromise has all the strength of a soap bubble. If you whiners throw another work stoppage, or complain to your supposed fans, I'll cut back the laser. Now get back to work and enjoy your historic voyage to another planet. Over and out."

The immediate reaction in the Common Zone was a voiced murmur with no apparent meaning. Subra looked across at Teresa, who despite an orientation difference of about seventy degrees, met his eyes. They used handholds to get close, and face to face.

"How big is your loaf?" he asked.

"That's a pretty personal question," she said with a smirk. Then, "I never pass up an easy laugh."

"So you're in a laughing mood?"

"Not to be confused with satisfied. Your company now has a policy that anyone who leaves Earth has to fuck in public. ISEC might cave on that too."

He smiled. "Don't count on space scientists having long careers as pornstars."

She raised an eyebrow. "You know something?"

"My company president didn't divulge everything."

After glances along all three axes, Teresa whispered, "Are you going to make me seduce it out of you?"

"That would be my choice, but we can't get into the ERV for two days." He did an all-directions glance of his own, then edged towards an empty corridor. She followed. The crowd noise dimmed below the level of the air vents.

He covered the side of his mouth with his hand, to block the view of a safety cam. "ERV sex is a stopgap, to get money flowing now," he said. "X-PAN is working on an Earth-orbit porn enclave, and eventual tourist resort, but it was at least two years from opening. Hillaird wants to keep it a secret, for as long as possible, from X-PAN's cadre of investors who are fundamentalists." He made sure she could see his smile. "With your fusion system available, X-PAN could move assets around to open it in less than a year, with top-shelf porn stars who are immune to motion sickness. Keep that in mind as you negotiate. I will lust for you forever, Teresa, but once X-PAN Pleasure Palace One opens, few people, if any, will pay to watch you have sex, in any gravity."

"So I'm still meat," she said, not amused. "Now, I'm just too cheap to sell."

He got serious. "Soon, scientists will again be expected only to do science. That includes us, here, because the Earth-orbit venue would open before we leave Mars orbit. This may not be happening out of respect or decency, but it will happen."

She narrowed her eyes, and got to a question she'd puzzled over for hours. "Did you sell your boss on the Anissa and Florian Show?"

"I am one of a teeming multitude within X-PAN, with no assurance of influence over anything. Does it sound like Jessamyn Hillaird values the opinions of others?"

"To me, Jessamyn Hillaird sounds like a blowhard constantly putting on an act."

Then Teresa saw what she was looking for: a slight twitch near Subra's left ear. She smiled.

"Subra, every person ought to be the foremost authority on one's own self." She set a finger lightly where the twitch was. "But there are some things that might only be known by...someone else. Someone who can observe you during moments of, shall we say, exertion and recreation."

His eyebrows lifted.

"We can leave this topic now," she said, "and you don't have to admit why you were at that meeting. You can conclude that I'm insulted and disappointed, and I can conclude that you're timid and ineffectual. If that's how you like it." She drew back her finger. "Or, you could take a chance on me thinking that you forged a compromise on an issue where I insisted that I wouldn't give ground."

He opened his mouth, but she pressed the finger against his lips and continued. "I could take shy, timid Subra for granted. But what about innovative, decisive Subra? Will other women start moving in on my action?"

She withdrew her finger and reached for a handhold. Free to speak, he now couldn't think of what to say.

"I'll be in the ERV in two days," she said. "If you join me, you'll have to reveal which Subra you are, and accept the Teresa you'll get."

Then, supposedly as part of her withdrawal, she moved her posterior within a centimeter of his face as she launched herself along the corridor.

(The end)