"I spy with my little eye, something devoid of all light, sound, and life."
Jackson's joke wasn't all that funny, but Julia and her squaddies all chuckled nervously. As if the vast expanse of space in front of them could be ignored, when in only a few minutes they would all be careening out into it on the most dangerous flight of their lives.
Julia was shaking her leg up and down, venting nervous energy while her fingers drummed across the armrest of her cruiser. The hangar was filled with the noises of hissing steam and the voices of the scrubs below checking gauges and ticking off final flight checklists, but even so Julia felt very alone. She flicked her comms transmit button, keeping the channel open,
"We should have flightsigns," she commented lightly, "in the stories pilots always have code names like 'Big Rig' or 'Hotshot' or 'Red Five' or something."
"That's a good point," Alex's voice crackled across the radio, her light and chipper tone a dead giveaway that she was apprehensive, "Captain, looks like we'll have to scrap this mission."
"Mission cancelled due to lack of necessary flightsigns," Jackson chuckled.
"You'd better come up with flightsigns damn fast then," hearing the Captain's calm voice helped settle Julia's stomach a bit, knowing she would be flying with them.
"I'm all in favor of giving Aimee the callsign 'Squad Pet' and making her our mascot," Marcus suggested, and the sqaddies chuckled again.
"'Squad pet' or 'Li's pet?" Preston asked slyly. Julia grinned. Aimee and Li had been spending an awfully lot of time alone together. The whole squad knew about them, but only Preston would call them out on it. Julia also knew she would be the only one to find his quip amusing. She and Preston had the same sense of humor; one that tended to offend the other squadmates. *Bunch of pussies,* she thought.
"Preston, a little much," Missy commented, her voice even softer than normal.
"Alright, my bad Aimes," Preston apologized good naturedly. Julia still wasn't used to that, the swaggery young man taking the cue of the tiniest and quietest member of the squad. He had been much nicer to be around since the two of them had started dating, but Julia sometimes missed the swagger and bravado. That, and it was nice to have a squadmate who laughed at her snarkier jokes.
While the apology had apparently satisfied Aimee, Li was apparently not as willing to forgive his crack;
"Hey Preston I'm just curious, how does it feel to be whipped by Missy?"
"What? Missy you've got a whip and you've been holding out on me?" Preston joked.
"I'm saving it for a special occasion," Missy's timid voice transmitted, and after a moment of shocked silence the channel was full of genuine laughter.
"Orbital A control to hangar bay, attention hangar bay. Bay doors are opening. All non-flight personnel please clear hangar floor." The announcement over the official channel quelled the laughter. Julia's stomach clenched as the scrubs moved out, leaving only the double line of cruisers stretching across the room. A slow moving ripple was the only indication that the huge clear wall of the hangar deck was moving, exposing the hangar to space. *This is really happening. I'm really doing this. We're about to take on a Drake.* She took deep, steadying breaths as the canopy of her cruiser clicked shut, sealing her up the ship. The steady hiss of air recyclers helped her regulate her breathing as she stared ahead at the back of Jackson's cruiser.
"How is everyone holding up?" she asked, just to hear her squadmates' voices. Her foot kept tapping against the thrust pedal, too lightly to activate it, but enough to comfort herself with its physical presence.
"Scared out of my skin, J, scared out of my fucking skin," Tess' voice answered back, and Julia smiled in spite of herself.
"'J'? Are we seriously doing the flightsign thing?" Aimee laughed.
"Roger that Squadpet," Tess imitated the clipped and official tones of Orbital A control, and Julia's grin grew even wider.
"I can't tell you how much I want that to not catch on-" Aimee began, before the real Orbital A cut her off.
"Orbital A control to squadron, attention squadron. Scanners show that the Drake has broken the fog surface. You are cleared for takeoff. Repeat, cleared for takeoff."
The double line of cruisers lifted from the hangar floor in unison, and Julia let out her held-in breath in a whoop, her voice joining several of her squadmates'. They shot out from the hangar in twos, the takeoff smooth and perfect after their countless training runs over the past several months. As Julia's ship slipped into empty space, as smooth a takeoff as anyone could ask for, her nervousness began to melt away. She settled into formation with barely a thought, calmer than she expected to be.
"Okay Rooks," in the stillness of space, without interference from the orbital's electronics, the Captain's voice came through crystal clear in Julia's cockpit. "This is going to be just like any training run. Navigate to the target, fire at the sweet spots, and take it out. Only differences are that this target can't shoot back, and we won't be navigating within a kilometer to it."
"Plus, you know, the possibility of death," Jackson added. Julia's stomach lurched.
"Not gonna happen," the Captain replied reassuringly, "Trust me, I personally know pilots who have taken down Drakes that weren't as good as you Rooks are. The academy wouldn't have suggested you for this if they thought you couldn't do it. Plus you get a pretty orange pin after your first flamer Drake kill, it'll really bring out your eyes Jackson."
Julia grinned, reassured, as she punched a short range destination into her computer. The computer hummed while it compared her destination to those of her squaddies, and lit up 'ready' after it corrected to prevent collisions.
"Alrighty Rooks." The Captain's voice was tight, excited, "I'm taking us in." Her ship strained, and Julia was slammed back into her seat and held there by the acceleration, as the cruisers made a jump that would've taken them five minutes at full speed to traverse. Suddenly the ships decelerated, and then they were there, within visual range of the Drake.
"Hoooooooly fuck," someone breathed on the radio, but Julia was too awestruck and terrified to identify who.
The Drake hovered just a little ways away from the fog, close enough that its tail still hung in the rippling waves of it. It was clearly waiting for them, and it noticed them the second they stopped accelerating, maybe even sooner. A pointed, reptilian head swung around to face them even as their engines quieted. The smooth silky movements of its long neck made it seem more like it was floating in liquid than in space, an illusion made even more confusing by the slow motions it made with huge stubby arms, as if treading water. Even at the distance Julia was holding, the things red eyes glowed so brightly in its head that it seemed like the creature was staring directly at her.
The Drake's pale orange scales caught the light as it unfurled two huge wings, spreading them wide and exposing their dark orange leathery skin.
"Okay, enough gawking," the Captain snapped, "you've seen it, now shoot it!" Her voice broke Julia out of her reverie, and a hundred jets of light shot across the dark star-filled sky as the entire squad opened fire on the creature.
The Drake slammed its wings down in a sweeping motion and shot forward, propelled despite the lack of atmosphere by some mystery that the scientists still hadn't been able to explain to them. Against all logic or physics the Drake banked suddenly, twisting its body and soaring at a sharp angle away from the path it had just been on.
"Alright ladies and gents," Captain Appet's voice was grim over the speakers, "you've seen the whole playbook. We fire, it dodges. Keep it up until you can land a shot or two, and stay a full kilometer away from it."
Julia found it hard to believe that a few shots would be enough to bring the beast down; from wingtip to wingtip it was roughly the length of three of their ships laid end to end. As she squeezed the trigger and watched her shots fall wide, the Drake swinging around them effortlessly, she hoped the Captain was correct. *It's going to be hard enough to land just those few.*
The cruisers had been jetting towards the beast at full speed, and Julia watched the console carefully as she unleashed her rounds, making sure the distance stayed outside of the dangerously close range. The creature watched the ships as they moved around it, giving it a wide berth. Its beady eyes seemed to size each ship up as they passed, and Julia shivered. There was too much deep and danger in those eyes; even from this distance she didn't want the thing looking at her. Julia broke away at the same time as the rest, swinging around and letting her squadmates in the back take potshots at the Drake.
Faster than she would've thought possible, the creature whipped its body around and burst into motion again, following Marcus' cruiser as he swung around.
"Marcus he's on you!" Julia kicked her thrust into full gear and broke formation, swinging to follow the Drake. Marcus' cruiser blew into full speed, but it slowly accelerated to match, wings moving awkwardly out of sync with its motion.
"If someone could attract his attention..." Marcus' voice was tense, but he kept control of his ship, swinging it from side to side to buy himself precious seconds, "...I would be very grateful."
"We're on him, we're on him, he's just not breaking off," Julia muttered through her teeth, as Tess, Alex, and Aimee fell into formation with her, taking brief shots when they were sure they wouldn't hit Marcus.
"Marcus, if you can I need you to change course," the Captain said, and Julia marveled at how even and calm she sounded. "If you lead the Drake too close to one of the orbitals we risk him breaking off and attacking it instead."
"Better me than the orbital eh?" Marcus' voice was glum, but still tight.
"That's the job, Marcus," Julia said quietly, loosing a few more shots and mentally swearing when they went wide, "we all signed up for this."
"Listen J, if I don't make it-" Marcus began, but before he could finish the sentence one of Alex's shots landed on the Drake's shoulder. The beast tumbled through space, no longer following Marcus as he pulled his ship off in a different direction. It's mouth was open wide as it spun in the air, releasing what would have been an ear-shattering shriek if it had occurred somewhere with the atmosphere to propagate the sound.
"You got it!" Julia shrieked,
"'Course I got it!" Alex laughed, "the Drake thinks he can mess with Appet's A squadron and keep both its wings?"
Sure enough, as the Drake somehow stabilized, Julia could see that the shot had cleanly separated the creature's wing from its shoulder. It floated a ways off, knocked away by the tumbling. The Drake itself was still matching their speed in front of them a few kilometers off, but flapped awkwardly and turned to watch them.
"Slow down, Rooks, you're gaining on it," the Captain warned, and Julia glanced at her instruments, startled to note that she was indeed coming dangerously close to the kilometer distance. She slowed her cruiser, widening the distance between her and the monster that was floating at roughly the same speed. Aimee, Alex, and Tess were following suit, so the four girls kept in the same formation.
The Drake stopped.
Julia's mind seemed to freeze as adrenaline kicked her in the stomach, and time seemed to slow down. In a handful of seconds, too many thoughts ran through her head to process. The first thought was that it simply wasn't possible. Objects in motion stay in motion, and out here in the void of space, with no friction and barely any gravity, it was incredibly difficult to slow down, let alone come to a complete stop. The second thought was to note just how big the creature was. She was so utterly dwarfed by this creature...they all were. It loomed, filling her entire view even as she slammed her thrusters in reverse.
*We're within a kilometer,* Julia realized belatedly, redundantly. There was screaming over the radio, but she couldn't focus on anything but the Drake's eyes. They weren't the eyes of a dumb creature, or even a creature of instinct or learned cleverness. The eyes that looked down at her, with an amused wrinkle in their corners, were evil. They were malevolently intelligent. They were laughing at the squad. They were laughing at her.
The creature lazily reached out an arm as the four rookies shot past, and closed its claws around the back of Julia's cruiser. With a horrible, wrenching feeling, the entire craft slammed to a stop. The restraints pulled tight, buffeting Julia so hard and suddenly that her breath was knocked out of her. Her vision darkened, but she dimly saw the other cruisers swerving to miss the monstrous beast, with just a moment to make the adjustment.
It took a few horrible, painful attempts before Julia was able to gasp in an agonizing breath. Time no longer seemed slowed, but her head spun with the confusion of the moment. Her comm was screaming, her squadmates yelling at her to boost out of the thing's grip, shouting at each other to take a shot, asking what to do. Her stomach lurched as the cruiser was lifted up, and she could hear the metal behind her shrieking as the Drake's claws dug in with a tighter grip.
Her mind slowly clearing, Julia began to panic, slamming her fist into the eject button even though she knew that the mechanisms would've been crushed already. The Drake had lifted her to face-level, watching her struggling through the clear but splintered plasticine canopy. Ignoring the creature watching her, Julia struggled to think of options. Without much hope she squeezed the trigger, but a faint clicking was all that resulted. *Nothing. There's nothing I can do. I'm going to die,* she realized. She looked into the Drake's eyes, trying as hard as she could to stop her shaking. With a deliberate and slow motion, the creature opened its jaws and spewed a jet of fire directly at the cockpit. Julia screamed, covering her face with a gloved hand and bracing herself for the searing heat, but the flame extinguished the instant it left the Drake's mouth, smothered by the lack of oxygen in the reaches of space.
"Marcus, Jackson, Alex, swing to your left and take your shots," the Captain's voice, just as measured and even as ever, silenced the shouting over comms. For a moment Julia's cruiser was silent except for her panicked breathing, then Captain Appet's calm commands continued, "Preston, Missy, Aimee, fire from its planet-side. Tess, you and I attack from the direction of the orbital. Julia," Julia took deep breaths as she focused on the Captain's voice, "Julia, stay calm. Its flame can't hurt you, and it's too stupid to crush you completely. It won't be able to dodge attacks from three different directions." The creature suddenly swung Julia's ship around, so hard that the pull smacked her head against the chair. "Orbital Academy," the Captain's voice seemed suddenly strained, "if you have measures to take this thing out before it becomes a threat, now would be the time to enact them."
"Orbital A to squadron," the reply seemed amused more than worried, and Julia's helplessness warred with a feeling of rage at whoever was on the other side of those coms, "just to confirm, your team cannot handle this Drake on your own?"
"Captain Leftrain, this isn't the time," the Captain sounded tense, and Julia clutched the armrests of her cruiser to keep her hands from shaking, "We can handle it, but the Drake is too close to the orbital. I'd rather be over-cautious than leave ourselves open to orbital damage." Julia glanced to her right as the Drake adjusted its grip with claws almost as big as she was. It was true, the orbital was far closer than she had assumed. It wouldn't take long if the Drake decided to fly for it, and she hated to think what it could do with its claws to the mechanisms of the orbital.
"We're in position," Preston's voice was just as calm as the captain's, and through the fear Julia felt a surge of pride in her friend. He had lost the arrogance, but the confidence and determination was still there. It helped to hear the assuredness in his voice.
"Ready on this side," Alex sounded more worried, but Julia didn't blame her. Tess didn't say anything, but she must've given the Captain a sign of some sort.
"Attack," Captain Appet ordered. From the corner of her eye Julia saw the jets brighten from the others' engines, but her attention was focused on the Drake. As if it had heard the order, the monster was staring at the Captain's ship. Its head was reptilian, but the twisting at the corners of its long mouth reminded Julia of nothing more than a cruel smile. It drew back its scaled arm, swinging her cruiser in a lazy arc, then hurled the entire ship at Orbital Academy.
The tumbling motion was sickening, but Julia fought against the nausea and panic. The ship was moving slowly, but more importantly it wasn't being held by a monster, and she focused on the controls and instruments rather than spinning view through the cracked canopy. The distance between her and the orbital was roughly fifty kilometers. She wasn't moving as fast as if she had been using her engine, but it wouldn't make a difference if her cruiser ran into the orbital. Julia yanked the thrust forward, but the Drake had been holding her ship by the engines; she wasn't surprised when her trajectory didn't change.
"Julia, can you hear us?" Aimee's voice was faint on the comms, but audible.
"Engines damaged, non-responsive," Julia's voice was grim. A slight hiss told her she was venting air, and she pulled her respirator over her face. "I can't even use an airpush to change direction, I'm leaking."
"Orbital A to squadron, attention Rookie Julia. You're on a collision vector with the orbital at 40 kilometers and closing, please confirm you are without propulsion," the voice on the communication *was* sounding worried now.
Julia took a deep breath, calculating in her mind. A collision between her cruiser and the orbital would cause a pressure break, even if she assumed her fuel cells didn't explode. In the very best of cases, a crash would mean the loss of a dozens of lives, and the damage could cause hundreds more to be without food or water or vital supplies depending on where she hit. It wasn't really a question.
"Confirmed, orbital," she took another deep breath, "you're going to have to shoot me down-"
"No!" someone screamed over the radio, and cries and protests from her squadmates filled the comm. As she spoke again the chatter quieted,
"Squaddies, my ship'll do too much damage to the orbital," she felt surprisingly calm, as her cruiser continued its slow spin. She glanced at the instruments; thirty kilometers.
"Orbital A to squadron, attention Rookie Tess," the orbital's communication was beginning to crackle as she drew closer to the instruments, but Julia could still hear it through the interference, "Rookie Tess, your current vector will take you in range of our attack, please correct your vector." The spin of Julia's ship brought the Drake in her view just as several bolts of light clipped it, sending it tumbling.
"Orbital A please hold your fire," Tess' voice was focused and tight, "I'm correcting Julia's course."
"Orbital A to Rookie Tess, please re-transmit last message. How...how exactly are you going to correct the course?"
"With a shove." Tess was speaking through gritted teeth, and Julia glanced at her radar, finding and following the pinprick of light that indicated Tess' ship. It was moving towards her fast.
"Tess what are you talking about, what are you doing?" she asked weakly, glancing up to see the orbital looming above her.
"Rookie Tess," Captain Appet's voice was official, her tone harsh, "this is a direct order, do not make the suicidal move you're about to make." Even though no one could see her, Julia shook her head,
"Tess don't do this, it's stupid."
"I'm not breaking off J," Tess' voice was clear, less static, "Captain. I'm sorry."
The spinning was making Julia feel sick to her stomach, but she looked at her instruments. Less than twenty kilometers out.
"Give her a shove and you'll both be done for Tess," the Captain's voice was gentle but firm, "I am ordering you to break off. I'm sorry Julia but there's nothing-"
"It's alright, " tears sprang suddenly into Julia's eyes, but she felt serene, "it's okay Tess, really. Break off. I'd rather I die than the hundreds in the orbital. And I'd rather die alone than take a squaddie with me."
"Just...I wanted to say something..." Tess' voice broke, "it's a cliche, but I don't think I can face this if I had to regret keeping it a secret." Black fog was swimming at the corners of Julia's vision, and a quick check of the instruments showed both that she was almost out of oxygen and that Tess hadn't broken off her course.
"Orbital A to Rookie Tess, break off! BREAK YOUR COURSE!"
"I'm ten kilometers away. Tess break off your vector or they won't be able to shoot in time." Her voice sounded thin in her ears, and Tess' response was even quieter through the dwindling oxygen that was fast being vented into space.
"I love you Julia. I've loved you since the first week we set foot on the orbital."
In a way it was helpful that Julia's mind was suddenly blank. It meant she didn't have the chance to respond in the last few seconds before the ships collided. There were shrieks of metal, sucking noises, something snapping so close that Julia wasn't sure if it was her ship or her body, and then there was sudden, blanketing silence.
***
Julia woke suddenly. Her head was pounding, and her entire right side felt stiff and throbbed. She let her gaze shift across the pale blue metal of the walls above and around her. *Sickbay,* she connected sluggishly. She took a careful inventory of her body while lying as still as she could. As far as she could tell, everything was intact, although her entire stomach and chest ached, and a glance downward confirmed that her whole right arm and hand were wrapped in rigid black plasticine.
"They're just broken," Tess spoke quietly from her bedside. Julia smiled, looking her squadmate up and down. The girl was standing, and besides the crutch she was leaning on she seemed in perfectly good health, "well, I think the word they used was 'pulverized', but they were able to put in some titrania replacement bones. After your body gets used to it, you'll be back to normal."
"Not a bad outcome for a wrestling match with a Drake," Julia grinned weakly.
"Could've been worse," Tess agreed, "by which I mean you could've been just a memory and some carbon scarring on my ship."
Julia scanned the girl's face, trying to discern what Tess was feeling, and only then noticed why her hair was pulled forward across her face.
"Your eye!" she exclaimed, sitting up and immediately wincing at the action. Tess raised a hand to the small black eyepatch over her right eye, the same color as her hair.
"Could've been worse," she repeated, and smiled again, "for what we accomplished-"
"Tess I can't tell you…" Julia's heart was racing, "I don't know what to say or what to do to tell you how grateful I am. How sorry..."
"Of course, J," Tess sat on Julia's bed, taking her good hand in her own, "you're my squaddie, I'm not going to let them blow you out of space like a rogue comet."
"I'm not angry at them. It was the right call for them to make." Julia leaned back again, the pounding in her head extending to her ribs, "but you…the call you made was so far beyond that. I hate to say it but you're probably going to be taking a lot of heat for that call. I-I owe you so much. I can't ever repay you for what you did."
Julia closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of soft cloth and cool pillow against the pounding in her head.
"There's nothing you have to do Julia," Tess squeezed her hand, "I would've done the same for any of them, really."
The full memory of her last few moments before the impact came back to Julia, and her eyes snapped open. Tess was looking down at her, affectionate in a friendly, open way. Julia had never thought of Tess in a romantic sense, but now that the thought occurred to her she was surprised to find that it wasn't repellent at all. Tess was a little bit younger than her, friendly, quiet. She was even attractive in a dark and wiry sort of way. *Would it really be so horrible, starting something with her?* The thought idly floated through her mind. She hadn't considered the thought of being with a woman before. Reluctantly, she dismissed the thought, at least for the moment. Any relationship that started out of obligation wouldn't be healthy, no matter how appreciative she was. *But maybe it wouldn't be so bad to show her a little bit of that appreciation…* She slid her thumb across the back of Tess' hand, enjoying the smoothness of her skin.
Her personal screen pinged from where it sat beside her bed, and Tess passed it over to her. The message that scrolled across it made her smile:
"There are easier ways to get attention you know. -Preston"
With a grin Julia tapped a response with her left hand, resting the screen on her legs.
"Nah, this wasn't that much work. I'm lazy. -Julia"
The response pinged back almost immediately:
"Well we're all sitting here waiting to get chewed out for this, but I'm glad to hear you're awake enough to be a smartass -Preston"
After a moment's thought, Julia tapped out another message.
"Will they need Tess around when they scold you? Or can she stay with me for a while so I can thank her? -Julia"
"'Thank her' eh? Woo woo baby. Yea they're leaving you two alone 'till you're healed up a little. I guess they don't realize you're healed up enough to bump crotches -Preston"
"Dumbass," Julia muttered under her breath, but she smiled all the same. *That's the Preston I know.* Grinning, she looked up from her screen at Tess. The dark-haired girl was looking down at the screen, reading the messages upside-down. .
"You don't have to do that, I didn't do it to be thanked," Tess said quietly, blushing, "I don't want you to get into anything because you feel indebted to me, that wouldn't be fair."
"We can talk about what we'll get into later," Julia smiled, reaching forward and hooking her good hand around Tess' neck, "for right now I just want to be your friend. A friend who wants to show you how grateful she is." She pulled forward, until she had the other girl leaning over her. Julia shivered as Tess' hair brushed against the sides of her face.
"You don't have to-" Tess breathed again, before Julia silenced her with a kiss.
Julia was surprised at how soft Tess' lips were. Even though she had her pulled forward, nearly on top of her, the younger girl was hesitant, reserved. She let go, breaking the kiss and looking up at Tess questioningly.
"Unless you don't want this-" Julia began quietly, but Tess had already leaned down again before she could finish her sentence, and this time there was no hesitation in her kisses at all.
While she hadn't considered the possibility seriously, Julia had always assumed that if she ever did things with a girl, the experience would be somehow gentler, softer, perhaps more tender. She was surprised when Tess' hands snaked up, suddenly running through her long blonde hair and pulling her deeper into the kiss. *Not soft...but different. Very different,* Julia thought somewhat distractedly. Tess was kissing her as if she had wanted this for her entire life, and Julia had to admit to herself that the effect was much more enjoyable than gentleness would be.
She was suddenly aware of her very faint scent, subtle, like flowers but with a dangerous bite.
"I didn't realize you wore a fragrance," she murmured, under the kisses that were raining down on her lips and cheeks and forehead. Tess stopped and looked down at her, smiling, and Julia smiled in return. Her thoughts were so jumbled and unfocused, but she was finding the entire thing so much nicer than she would've imagined. Tess' good eye twinkled, a more bright and vivid green than Julia had ever seen before, but the eyepatch sent a wave of guilt that dampened Julia's enjoyment a bit.
"No one realizes," Tess whispered back, her face inches away from Julia's, "which means right now? It's just for you." For some reason she couldn't explain, Tess' whispered words sent a tingle down the back of Julia's neck and spine. Her reservations gone, Julia reached up again, pulling her into another kiss.
Tess shifted to lift one leg and straddle Julia on the sickbay bed, and Julia was very suddenly aware of the heat of the body pressing against her; more aware than she would have been if it had been a man on top of her. Fumbling with her left hand, she had to try a few times to get ahold of the sealing tab on Tess' flightsuit, but she finally got a grip on it and pulled it down as far as it would go, down to the waist. The flightsuit parted in the middle as Tess hovered over Amiee, letting her see down the other girl's naked neck, her full breasts, and her stomach with the tiniest amount of belly. To her surprise, Julia found the sight quite agreeable. She was used to men with muscles and straight lines, but Tess' body was all smooth skin and curves. Tess reached under the bottom edge of Julia's shirt, her fingers dancing as gently as possible across the bruised skin of her stomach. She braced for pain, but the feathery touches were light enough that all she felt were the fluttering sensations that the girl was causing to grow within her.
Tess' fingers roamed a little higher each time they danced across her stomach, and Julia leaned back and closed her eyes. The caresses were so delicate and so careful that Julia couldn't tell when she had stopped just touching her stomach and when she had also started touching her breasts. The air in sickbay was just a fraction colder on her skin, and it was the only indication she had that Tess had lifted her loose hospital gown to look at her. Julia kept her eyes closed so that she wouldn't know where the next touch would fall, so when Tess grabbed a hard pink nipple between her lips Julia gasped at the unexpected pleasure.
"You're...really good at that," she looked down at Tess, who had begun flicking her small pink tongue around Julia's nipple with a wicked smile.
"You're not my first," Tess grinned,
"Well you're mine, so...be gentle…?" Julia wasn't used to being uncertain when it came to sex, but Tess seemed not to mind being in control. She gently bit the nipple in her mouth, and Julia gave a small squeak of surprise.
"How does it compare?" Tess' fingers were moving again, roving across her stomach, her other breast, gently at her neck, dipping beneath the hospital blanket to graze across thighs that were bare now that the gown had been pulled up. Julia was finding it quite hard to focus on the question, but she managed a response,
"Different. Unexpectedly different."
"Oh?" Julia's body tensed in anticipation as, without breaking eye contact or stopping her slow assault on Julia's breast, Tess slipped the blanket down until it was at her knees, "different in a good way or a bad way?"
"Different in a different way," Julia smiled in response, "less impatient. And a guy wouldn't have done that without at least taking a look at the goods."
"Oh I plan on taking a very good look," Tess had moved forward, licking and nibbling along Julia's neck, and she whispered her words directly into Julia's ear. The motion pushed the flightsuit directly against Julia's clit, and the direct stimulation combined with the teasing and the whispering were all too much. She tried to hold off, but the gentle teasing and the delicious sensations were overwhelming.
Julia grabbed the girl on top of her as she came, her body tensing at the suddenness of the orgasm. It wasn't the hardest she had ever cum, but the quivering throughout her body was enough to make her feel sore even as she arched and gave a quiet moan. She was still pressed against Tess, and she ground her pussy into the rigid material of the other girl's flightsuit. As the heat between her legs slowly subsided, Tess chuckled softly in her ear as she held her close, "well that was fast. Maybe I know your body better than I thought." The whisper and the sensation of her tongue against Julia's ear sent her over the edge again, crying out as her hips lifted from the bed. She stopped trying to keep her focus and instead embraced everything; the blissful thrills of pleasure coursing through her, the warmth of the girl on top of her, the scent of sweat and sex and flowers, even the aches in her stomach and chest. Finally she relaxed, spent, nestling against the covers.
"I swear it never happens that fast baby," Julia joked tiredly in an exaggeratedly macho voice, and Tess leaned back and laughed.
"Good," she replied. She moved as if to slide off of her, but Julia grabbed her arm. *Where do you think you're going...*
"I'm supposed to be thanking you, remember?" she said slyly, and she could tell that in spite of herself Tess wanted more.
"You don't have to- Oh!" Tess gasped, as in a smooth motion Julia slid a hand into her flightsuit.
"What if I want to?" Julia asked, enjoying the look of unhidden delight on Tess' face. She slid her hand further across the girl's small patch of hair. She could feel that it had been trimmed into some kind of design, and she made a mental not to ask or tease Tess about it at some point. In the meantime her hand went further, purposely rubbing it against Tess' clit as she gently and slowly explored between the other girl's legs.
"Oh my god," Tess moaned, her hips slowly moving back and forth as if against her will to grind her clit against Julia's wrist. Although Julia had enjoyed herself before, this was an experience like no other. Her fingers rubbed slow circles around Tess' slit, and even though she hadn't slipped them inside yet all three fingers were wet. Tess' face was heavy-lidded with an expression of such unbridled lust and enjoyment that Julia couldn't bear to wait any longer. She slid first one, then a second finger inside the girl on top of her, and the gasp she got in return made her grin. Briefly considering what she would like, Julia curled the tips of her fingers, pressing them against the walls of Tess' pussy, and then slid them all the way out again. Tess whimpered, and Julia pushed them back in, just as slow. The cues in the other girl were easy to read as she moved her hips in time with the gentle thrusting of Julia's fingers. Her pace staying even and steady, Julia leaned up, ignoring the pain, and kissed the hollow of Tess' neck.
Julia felt the girl cum, felt Tess' body trembling and felt her pussy clamp down on her fingers. For as loud as she'd been before, Tess orgasmed quietly, with a moan that was barely audible but left Julia with goosebumps all over. She felt thrilled at how wet her hand had gotten, at how well she seemed to know Tess' body without ever having thought about it. She slid her fingers out of the girl, surprised when Tess began kissing her again. The men she had been with were more the type to finish and roll over. it was surprisingly nice to have the small sensations, the tingles as her lips touched against skin that still tingled from the orgasm a few minutes before. The kisses continued, soft and light, as Tess gently and delicately slid her hospital gown down over her bruised body, and slid off of her to stand to the side of her bed. When she finally stopped, her smile made her entire face radiant. *I think I would do a lot to be the reason for that smile as often as possible,* Julia realized with surprise.
"So..." she said awkwardly, unsure of what that experience had meant to Tess, or to herself for that matter. *What do I say now? What do I do? Is this how guys feels with me when I'm done with them?*
"So...after months of fantasizing, I finally got to do you," Tess grinned.
"Was it how you imagined?" Julia asked, unsure of how else to respond. In answer Tess leaned forward, close enough that Julia could smell flowers and a dangerous bite.
"Everything I could hope for and more," she whispered, and the sound of it sent a shock from Julia's scalp all the way down to between her legs. Then in a smooth motion Tess slid her own sealing tab up, fastening the flightsuit back into place and grabbing her crutch from the bedside. With another radiant smile, the girl turned and walked out of the sickbay, leaving Julia panting, blushing, and entirely confused.
***
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