Ice Commander Page 6

  ‘Save your air, skipper, I’ll do the talking.’ I switched from suit intercom to transmit. ‘Mayday Rigel, runabout returning with casualty. Skipper’s suit’s been holed! ETA five minutes.’

  ‘Rigel copies Mayday!’ It was Steiner. ‘Get her back here right now, Carter, no delay! I’ll have medics standing by in the hangar.’

  It’s almost impossible to find a leak in a spacesuit, especially while trying to fly a runabout. The best I could do was look around her boots – the most likely place where a razor-sharp ice rock would do damage. With an emergency patch hovering, I searched her boots to no avail. She was out cold now. My heart lurched when I saw red lights flashing on her suit breast plate.

  No! I can’t lose her now!

  I almost ran down the medics in the hangar. Together we grabbed the lifeless suit, hustling it into the airlock, the doors snapping shut behind us. As soon as the pressure came up, we sheared off her suit, which was already freezing on her.

  Everything came off.

  I stared at her breasts.

  No tattoo!

  ‘Whatsa matter, Lieutenant? Never seen a pair of tits before?’ whispered a medic, angrily.

  ‘Has she got a chance?’ I croaked.

  ‘Don’t look like it, chief...’ He showed me his portable analyser. She was flat-lined everywhere. ‘Still, you can never tell – once we get her to sick bay...’

  ‘We have to get her back!’

  In the zero-G float we pulled her to the sick bay in seconds. Her naked body jerked with high voltage as they tried to stimulate her but it was no good.

  I cried, shamelessly; some of the crew did too.

  But who was dead? Laura? Eve?

  ‘No need for that, Carter,’ said Steiner, already in command, ‘you did OK.’

  * * *

  Under Steiner’s command, we accelerated away from Dawkins II to resume our interrupted schedule. As far as everyone but me was concerned the captain’s body lay in the ship’s morgue, awaiting autopsy.

  That night in my cabin I couldn’t sleep.

  I vaguely hoped for Laura or even Eve to make an appearance but neither did.

  Where is Eve?

  Does this mean Laura has died in her duplicate body? I have to find out.

  I dressed and crept through the deserted ship. Only the officer of the watch on the flightdeck would be awake. I opened the door into the ship’s small morgue. I had no trouble finding Laura’s drawer, there were tributes lying on top, a written plaque in the shape of Saturn and artificial flower woven around the handle. Our captain was much loved by the crew.

  Dreading that I would now find a woman with a tattoo, I pulled open her drawer.

  It opened too easily – it was empty.

  A hand touched my shoulder.

  Shit!

  The woman in the patient’s dressing gown had the captain’s body. Smiling, she showed me her tattoo.

  Thank God!

  ‘Eve!’ I let out a breath of relief, my heart still thumping.

  ‘I remember my suit losing pressure, Frank...Then I found myself freezing in that drawer. I just grabbed this gown from the sick bay. I was just going to call you. What the hell is going on?’

  ‘Some sort of Laura shenanigans. It was her body they tried to resuscitate. She worked a switch with you somehow...saved your life... ma’am.’

  ‘Now I really believe in Laura.’ Eve frowned. ‘Hell, I hope she’s OK.’

  So did I.

  Steiner was not best pleased with the captain’s miraculous recovery, but there were precedents for people waking up in morgues. The crew were overjoyed.

  The doctor examined the captain to find no ill-effects – just the tattoo:

  ‘That’s odd, I don’t remember seeing this yesterday.’

  ‘It’s easily overlooked, doctor. You’ll find it noted in my fleet records.’

  Our Captain decided it was time to return from our eventful mission and return to Titan, now we had used our one and only Grand Slam – countermanding Steiner’s decision to resume the original schedule. Steiner was not happy.

  I was. I wanted to find that other tattoo.

  Ice Witness

  Captain Eve Dawkins lowered the massive bulk of the Rigel onto the Titan City landing pad so gently that it was difficult to detect the precise moment of contact. As Science Officer I wanted to applaud this amazing woman. All I could say was a crisp, ‘Nicely done, skipper,’ as she shut down the main Commuter drive, ceasing our violations of Newton’s Third Law.

  It had been an eventful cruise. Way out in the Oort Cloud, that distant ‘Realm of Ice’ surrounding the solar system, a comet that now bore her name was slowly being deflected from possible Earth impact by a device we’d planted upon it.

  She smiled across at me. ‘Thanks, Frank.’

  First Officer “Sneerer” Steiner merely scowled, probably still cursing his luck. Eve’s miraculous survival of a spacesuit accident had deprived him of a golden opportunity for permanent command.

  But I had another reason to admire my shapely boss. We’d reached our home port. Once off the ship she commanded she’d promised me...Well, it’s complicated but I already knew her to be a foxy, sensuous lover, via a female entity – the enigma “Laura” – who had duplicated the captain’s natural body and by that action, brought me very close to the real Eve.

  We’d chosen a discreet time to meet up at the wave pool – night-time, with the light of a full Saturn shining down on our bodies, the soft planet-shine filtered orange by Titan’s cold, thick atmosphere outside the dome. Within that protecting dome, the low-gravity water waves pushed into the few bathers’ bodies like slow-motion Caribbean surf.

  I spotted her in the opposite end of the pool. She had chosen to go naked as I and several others had in this adults-only enclosure. I saw her breasting a tall wave that slowly broke as it pushed against her, lifting her bosom level with her arms as she splashed against it. I heard her laugh of utter joy. She waved. It was good to see her really relaxing after coping with Steiner’s brooding presence aboard ship.

  I dived in, cutting through the next approaching wave. Underwater I saw her lower body, glimpsing the inviting triangle of natural hair between her thighs, territory where I had yet to venture. Come to that, I had never even kissed her; that would have been inappropriate on the ship she commanded.

  Now all that would change, I hoped.

  ‘Titan,’ she’d promised me, ‘once we are on Titan.’

  I surfaced beside her. She looked gorgeously free of care with her bright eyes and wet, chaotic hair.

  ‘Hey, Frank.’

  ‘Hello, Eve.’

  We stood, just in our depth between waves. She came closer and held my waist with both hands. As she was naked already, I almost forgot the strange formality that had been necessary between us. I glanced down at her left breast and checked that a small tattoo of Saturn resided there – just under that pretty nipple. That showed me that this was indeed Eve and not Laura.

  My arms went around her. Our lips came together, our mouths opened, tasting freshness. I drew her body closer while our tongues mingled.

  I felt her body tense – just slightly – maybe because the next slow wave was upon us, thrusting me against her. Although not erect, she would be aware, as I was, of my friendly cock pressing against the smooth skin below her navel. We were still in a public place, after all; enough intimacy for the moment.

  The kiss ended naturally and she looked up into my eyes.

  ‘I’m still wondering about Laura. I owe her my life.’

  ‘She’s not put in an appearance since she swapped places with you in that spacesuit, Eve, I swear it.’

  ‘But she must be around somewhere. You don’t survive 30,000 years just to die rescuing someone
in a punctured suit – someone you don’t even know.’

  ‘Oh, she knew you pretty well, Eve, enough to fool me for a while. But just as she could form a duplicate of you, I’m sure she can get out of that without losing her grip on life.’

  ‘So where is she?’

  ‘When I was with Commander Hamilton on Saturn V and saw Laura in her earlier form, the only thing that made any sense to me was that she somehow resided in the Commander herself – except when she chose to make a replica from her genome.’

  That replica was always different to the original – the same age but newly cast, without the marks of life’s experience – the Ice Commander’s platinum hair, or in Eve’s case, an innocent breast tattoo.

  But she was suddenly frowning.

  What did I say that upset her?

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘There are lots we have to talk about, Frank.’

  ‘That can wait, can’t it, Eve?’

  ‘Not really. I know I said we’d be cool once on Titan but...’

  ‘Someone else?’ I said quietly, not wishing to hear the answer.

  ‘Well, it’s more about me...’

  This was getting worse. She hadn’t eliminated someone else and there was something bad I should know.

  ‘Get your things, Frank, and cheer up, for God’s sake! We’ll go up to my apartment.’

  Looking down at the wave pool from her senior officer’s quarters, I was oblivious to the fairyland of lights that marked the warm avenues of Titan City, or even the fainter lights of Port Titan outside the vast dome – where the floodlit Rigel rested like a beached whale, smaller craft and freighters docked nearby further emphasising her bulk.

  What does she have to tell me?

  I turned as she came in with drinks. She’d changed into a sexy black evening dress, the plunging lines emphasising the ivory of her neck and shoulders. I was in T-shirt and shorts – normal Titan City attire. (Might as well have a tropical climate under the dome, when it’s -200 outside, the designers had said.) Now, on top of my worries, I felt decidedly underdressed.

  ‘You look fantastic!’ I took the offered glass.

  She smiled at the compliment but was not to be diverted. ‘You mentioned Commander Hamilton.’

  I nodded as I sipped.

  ‘There is no easy way of saying this and you have to know...’

  The Ice Commander?

  ‘I fell in love with Laura Hamilton when we were both cadets. We used to be quite an item, until...’

  I was stunned. What were my chances now? But I kept thinking: ‘Until the Betelgeuse II disaster?’

  ‘Yes. As you know, being the only survivor changed her so much. Not only did she turn grey overnight, her whole joyful personality evaporated, to be replaced by the iron hardness of a woman who blames herself – however irrationally – for all those lost lives, someone who must never make a mistake again.’

  I knew that so well from my time on Saturn V with her. But she had made a mistake, one that required me to rescue her. She had been furious with herself for this lapse. She’d commanded me to punish her with a merciless strapping across her naked buttocks, something I’d carried out while her head and hands were securely out of view in the Saturn Observation Dome, leaving her lower body exposed.

  ‘Then it’s important for you to know something, Eve. The “Laura” who first came to me on Saturn V was, effectively, the commander before she changed – raven haired, bubbly...loveable. I fell for her too.’

  She looked at me with bright eyes. ‘Really? Do you think that Laura would appear again – in that original form, if Commander Hamilton were nearby?’

  Hey, that’s an idea!

  ‘She might...But I don’t think Hamilton ever leaves her ice moon.’ Clearly, the idea excited both of us but this revelation could be a fatal blow to Eve and me getting together. I wondered if my gender was going to impede a relationship with my captain – along with everything else.

  ‘That dress – have you plans for this evening?’

  She put her drink down and approached me, her breasts moving independently, separately swathed in the black velvet that looped down from her long neck.

  ‘Yes, I have, Frank.’

  ‘Do I need my tuxedo?’

  She smiled that foxy, brown-eyed smile of hers. ‘Oh I think we could rub along well enough without it.’

  She tugged at my shorts.

  Delighted, I got the message.

  I lost the shorts and T-shirt – not the sexiest of garments, and kissed her again. This time there was not a trace of resistance, despite an over-friendly cock rising between us, brushing against the black velvet.

  Previously, with Laura emulating, I’d undressed an identical body from flexisuit or full OSF captain’s uniform but there is something very special about undressing a woman in evening dress – she’s already close to being naked.

  Our tongues mingled while our fingers explored. My hands ran down her naked back to the taper of her waist, then moved out over the velvet that clung to the double swell of her bottom. I allowed my fingers to spread out over the globes of yielding flesh that moved as she scissored her thighs.

  Her hands mirrored mine. I could feel her grip clench my naked buttocks while my erection grew hard against her taut belly.

  My hands slid out around her hips, briefly held her waist, then, following the line of the dress that held them, rose to the outside of her full breasts. I had seen theses genuine items before as an ID check but now they were to be revealed for more pleasurable purposes. I separated them from the dress.

  Maybe too big for one man’s hand, they stood out to me in the low gravity. I concentrated on the Saturn one, lifting her to my lips with both my hands surrounding the cool breast flesh. Her nipple stiffened where my tongue licked; my fingers squeezed around the surrounding mass.

  ‘Ohhhh...’

  She groaned while I gave her some very firm tit-handling. Then I shifted across to the other, undecorated breast.

  That was when she held my cock, causing me to sigh in turn. She gripped me with both hands. While she bent forward I allowed one hand to remain half-cradling a generous breast, while my other pushed the remains of her dress over the creamy fullness of her bottom.

  She wore no knickers; the evening dress had been a simple and sexy prelude to our love-making.

  We had been standing in the low gravity, now we allowed ourselves to drift slowly onto the carpet, she turning around south as we dropped.

  I landed gently on my back.

  Eve’s full lips parted to softly kiss and then take in the top of my cock, while her breasts filled my sky.

  My gender is not a problem, then.

  This was the same voracious woman I’d glimpsed via Laura, now at full strength in this our first encounter.

  We sucked deliciously on each other for a few moments, then, she lifted her foxy eyes to mine. ‘I have more plans for the evening.’

  She led me into her gym.

  It was a luxury, low gravity gym – as befitted her status. I’d seen one before but I’d never considered the possibilities of the various ropes, straps, bars and other devices attached to the walls and ceiling.

  Eve obviously had.

  I guess she toyed with me and one way or another for the next 20 minutes or so, strapping my limbs to the walls in various positions, the pressure building within my balls (yeah, I know that’s not strictly correct – but that’s how it felt) until my desire to finally surmount Mount Eve was overwhelming. But I was beginning to worry if penetration was ever going to occur, given her apparent sexual orientation. It worried me more when, after opening some oil, she oiled my left thigh and not my standing cock who was begging for the treatment.

  ‘What’s the plan, Eve?’


  Smiling, she touched her fingers to her lips – then started to oil my cock. I groaned with pleasure but still felt disappointment. I wanted to enter my Eve, not have her relieve me.

  But then she positioned me against the wall, right leg strapped vertically up the wall bars, left leg strapped to a bench pointing into the room, my body needing little support in the low-grav. Facing away, she climbed astride my left leg, her tits brushing my knee, her labia swollen with desire...

  And right there was the second, more intimate tattoo! – the one she promised to show me one day. It was a comet, subtly drawn, its long tail curving around, just outside the right side of her vulva.

  In long, slow movements, she began to rub her clitoris against my oiled thigh.

  Gradually, she backed her open bottom up to me. My cock was standing vertically. I pushed him down level with my left thigh towards the approaching, half-opened pussy, the concave tail of the comet. The cockhead engaged with her lips, opening them wider. I thrust at the same time as she pushed back, penetrating sideways into her mysterious depths.

  ‘Ohhhh!’ she cried out, almost in pain.

  ‘Ahhhh!’ was my response to this very different but delicious, sideways-on feeling.

  Slowly she slid back and forth, riding my thigh, looking back at me, her round tits hanging down on either side of my leg as I fucked her for the first time. I knew at once that this was it. She had me. I would not last much longer. She was rubbing her wet clitoris along my thigh while deeply penetrated, moaning softly.

  ‘I’ve got you now, Frank.’

  She had, but like a lady, she played it out, listening to my sounds, timing her final ride until her stallion was exactly ready...through the trot, then the canter...

  Then, when I started to cry out she hit the full gallop, plunging her arse back and forth along the lubricated length of my shaft.

  My legs so wide apart, I felt deliciously free to hammer into her double time, her bottom quivering with each impact. The pressure mounted, mounted...I felt her vaginal muscles bear down on my sliding cock as I started exploding into her, every few seconds, my semen shooting into her, in warm, high-pressure spurts.