Quarantine Run Ch. 02

Trying to sleep on the first day out from port is always difficult. You get used to a sol cycle even if it isn't your own and your body doesn't wanna break from it just because you're in a lightless metal canister being flung through a dimensional shortcut corridor outside the fabric of normal space-time. The ship jittered occasionally as it caught an ion cloud and surged forward, but that wasn't what kept him laying there awake.

He'd signed on to the UHA Armada as a way to escape his backwater world on the rim of the Canis Major Dwarf Cluster. Roughly the size of the original Sol planet of Pluto his world had taken to terraforming a little too well and had become swampy. Their exports were mostly minerals, but they also sent out massive amounts of animal pelts as well. Daxos father had been a hunter by trade, their family spending months in the rural undeveloped wilds of the southern hemisphere of the world, stacking camen and Beaver as high as the hull would take, and rarely seeing another soul. Enlistment had been a shock to his family, but for Daxos he saw it as a way to see more than swamp, and eat more than lizard and beaver. Truthfully, he'd scarcely had a meal as good since. Turns out not every world grew spices as well as his home, or was as rich in sodium chloride.

When the UHA recruiter found out he was an experienced hunter he was given his choice between the 12th infantry and the 13th extermination fleets. Feeling he'd rather be shooting at shit that didn't shoot back he went with the 13th, and boy what a mistake that was. Humanity rarely came into conflict with sentient Xenos (or Aliens as they were once called.). They viewed us mostly the way you'd view a poor child on the street, with compassion at best, indifference more often than not. Their technology so far eclipsed our own, the worst they'd usually do was toss a crum our way. The Infantry mostly put down bandit rebellions, wannabe planetary coups by small militias, that sort of thing. The 13th on the other hand dealt with hostile non-sentient xenos. Apex predators, hives of scavengers and omnivores, parasite infestations, etc. Daxos didn't dwell on it too long, sufficient to say in his time with the 13th most his squad had been wiped out by an acid-blooded xeno hive species, and he'd lost his left hand and his right foot to them. Though the military supplied living-metal prosthetics that were as good or better, and gave him a medal for outstanding bravery for the trouble.

Thassa'd been his squad lead for a while then promoted to platoon lead. She'd quickly recognized the talents of a young soldier who'd spent his formative years tracking prey, hunting game, and who had experience not being at the top of the food chain. She'd insist on him coming with her whenever she went in the field, even going so far so as to work rotations so she never went in the field without him. At first he'd hoped it meant his feelings for her were reciprocated, but over time he realized she just saw him as talented. After the incident on Rabiah 2. A hive meteor of a species humans had dubbed "Demon Ants" had crashed into a terraformed world and started pouring the 3' long dog sized insectoid fuckers out like a kicked fireant hive. 13th was called in but by the time they got there most of the settlements had been overrun or abandoned and only about 35% of the planet's population survived. It was a hellish field to be on, Daxos shuddered in his bunk just thinking about it.

When they'd gotten out of the military after the battle, Thassa requested discharge due to the psychological impact of the men she'd lost in the battle, Daxos receiving medical discharge due to his missing foot and trigger finger; Daxos had intended to head back to his home. But Thassa told him that she needed her most loyal soldier by her side, that she intended to buy a freighter with her retirement and go into business for herself, and she'd need a good First Mate. He'd agreed, seeing another chance to see the stars, maybe this time with a little less cosmic horror. "Young, Dumb, and thinking with your cock" He muttered to himself as he turned onto his back again. He heaved a heavy sigh and reached over for his cart, hitting it and drawing a long breath of sweet salty smoke and intoxication. It settled him just enough for him to close his eyes and center, and allow him to drift off to sleep.

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"So, You wanna talk about it?" Nylea asked, not looking up from her console as she checked Calix's shift logs, looking over the current readouts and entering her own data into the logbook. Daxos sat in the captain's seat at the helm, staring at the view wall displaying what amounted to a tourist brochure of whatever human inhabited nebula they were currently blasting through. Mankind loved windows and viewports, space didn't, especially warp corridors. They'd given up trying to make it work eight centuries ago and since then it was rare for a ship to fall apart in warp. Now there were cameras and sensors for docking, drones for when those went down, and a bigass viewscreen for the captain to watch space fly by outside of.

"Do you think I wanna talk about it?" He asked with a huff, running his fingers through his hair. He'd had Nylea do the handoff alone and informed the captain he'd be a few minutes late to start his shift over the intercom to avoid seeing her face to face and try to dodge the fight he knew was likely coming. He suspected she'd do the same in the morning. As confrontational as they both were, neither enjoyed hurting the other.

"Yes, You'll pretend you don't to maintain the image of the stoic, maybe even try to convince me I'm wrong when I say that this isn't just a job you're quitting, it's a relationship you're breaking up, but in the end you'll crack. Because we have twelve hours of staring at the fucking in-warp screensaver and nothing else to talk about unless you wanna tell me those war storries you keep so close to your chest." She said knowingly, finally looking up and affixing him with those piercing emerald eyes of hers. He turned from her out of both frustration and a need to dodge her heavy gaze. "Alright. I can wait" She muttered in annoyance as she stood and walked over to another console and began working on it. The bridge was technically designed for a crew of four to operate at a time but it was rare for them all to be on shift at once outside of docking or flying manually between worlds in the same system. They also preferred to use the remaining four crew rooms to shuttle passengers and make some extra cash. Daxos finished his log reports and kicked back, pulling up the latest Gunslingers of Gromiah novel on his data pad and settling in for a long shift.

"It's just that... You two have been desperately trying to hide that you're fucking for three years, as long as I've been on the ship. Seems weird to have a public breakup from a relationship like that and keep it professional afterwards..." She muttered, loudly enough for him to hear just as he picked up his place in the book. He resisted comment, keeping his focus on the fictional tales of hard men on the frontier of a massive newly terraformed world, with ferns as tall as terran redwoods and unknown xeno species around every corner. "I mean, she's hot, you're... ruggedly handsome. It's not like Calix and I haven't noticed you two sneaking into each other's quarters while on shift or sneaking off when we're in port. I've been on this crew for three years and you've been together all that time. You're gonna toss that over a job?" She asked, still not looking at him. Daxos sighed and tossed the data pad onto the console.

"We're not together, we've never been together. I've asked, I've tried, but she doesn't want to 'Mix Business and Romance'. Yes we've fucked, No we're not together. So the only thing I'm 'Throwing away' over a job is a fuckbuddy and what I thought was a friendship. Do you have any more questions?" He grunted, glaring at her. Nyliea stared at him definitely and smirked.

"How big's your dick?" She asked, without breaking eye contact. Daxos couldn't help but sputter with laughter at the sudden off color question, breaking the tension that had been rising in the room since the start of their shift. Nyliea smiled and laughed as well, and for a moment things were back to normal. They finished up their logs and Daxos headed to the kitchen to get them their morning meal. As he passed through the crew quarters he could hear noises coming from Thassa's quarters, meaning she was still up at least, but he dared not disturb her so he quietly passed and entered the salon. The older woman who'd asked about medication before was sitting at the table eating some sort of meal, it smelled good, but looked mostly like a red brown mush. He waved at her in passing and he nodded, heading to the galley and pulling out two of their cryo locked meal packs and turning the microwave on. He tossed the meal packs in and set it to cook them before returning to the salon momentarily.

"Ma'am if you don't mind me asking, why go to a quarantine world with some kind of brain worm that only affects women?" He asked casually, noticing some trash on one of the sofas and picking it up for the compactor. She regarded him with a quiet suspicion for a moment before settling back onto the bench and crossing her hands.

"I'm a hundred and twenty four son, I'm due to die any year now. That Brain Worm has kept women alive and in their prime for 400 years in some cases. If I can milk a few more centuries out of this world at the cost of not having my sons visit... well they were always shitheads anyway" She chuckled. Daxos tried not to smile as well, tossing the trash down the chute. "What about you, what makes a man travel to a planet he's not allowed to enter?" She asked.

"I... Just do the job. If the job is drop supplies at a quarantine world I do it. They say I'm not allowed off the ship? Just less work for me" He responded tactfully, avoiding any mention of the conflict within the crew.

"Here I thought you might be just another silly man chasing stories of a quarantine planet full of beautiful women... eager to be the one eyed king in the land of the blind. Or chasing the stories of Breeder Fever" She smiled genuinely. She must've seen the confusion on his face because she spoke again unbidden. "Supposedly the parasite that inhabits the planet, that artificially extends a woman's life, also makes them extremely fertile and plays havoc with their sex drive when exposed to male pheromones. I think it's mostly horny sailors gossip, nonsense men tell themselves in their bunks. Still... you'd think if there were no issues the UHA would've approved the worm for galactic distribution if it can extend a woman's life that much..." She said conspiratorially, waggling her eyebrows. Daxos must've had a stupid look about him because she snorted pretty hard before taking her bite of food. Daxos tried to smile and nod but he knew it didn't reach his eyes. He headed back up to the bridge with the food without another word. He set the plate in front of Nylea and sat down at his own console, blowing on his meal before digging a fork into it.

"I was serious about that dick thing, whatcha packin? We talking like a Pradanine fuel cell or can of spray cheese? Ooh or the tubes you get cookies in? You hung that good?" She asked, shoving a bite of food into her mouth and then talking through it. Daxos waved her off, trying not to snort out the nutrient dense meat-mush that passed for MeatLoaf in flight.

"Nothing super impressive. Think can of spray cheese but put a strawberry on the tip" He chuckled. Her eyes went wide and she laughed, nearly knocking her food over. "What?!" He demanded sheepishly.

"A strawberry? So wait like are you... holy shit are you cut? I thought that was outlawed on core worlds?" She said, looking around conspiratorially. Daxos nodded and made a snipping motion with his fingers as he chewed another bite.

"I wasn't born on a core world, and it is unless you're a member of The Tribe. We've been doing it for six thousand years before the UHA was founded, we'll be doing it long after. Ask Thassa next time you see her she'll tell you I'm not lying, though I'm sure it'll start a shit storm... which could be funny" He snorted, scooping up a pile of meatloaf and mashed potatoes and cramming them in his mouth.

"There's not really a dick size for me to reciprocate with" She shrugged, taking a bite of her own food and polishing it off before tossing it down a compactor chute.

"You hear the rumors about the parasite? Apparently it makes women live forever but turns them into like... Baby Crazy Zombies" He snorted, taking his own last bite and then sliding the tray down the chute. Nylia laughed and pulled up the holonet on her tablet, looking over the info on the planet with an amused smile.

"File doesn't say anything about porno zombies. Just says the long lived nature of the women makes overpopulation an issue if "reckless excessive breeding" is allowed. Which makes sense if people are hanging around for almost half a century." She muttered, before she tapped another icon and her eyes went wide. "Oy Oy Oy This is..." Daxos stood and crossed the bay to watch the video she'd pulled up and he tried not to jump back. A man was fending off four women desperately trying to grapple him using a broomstick, they were naked and busty in the way only AI Models and ToyDroids were, with heavy sloshing tits and wide hips.

"The fuck are you watching?" Daxos asked, as one of the girls managed to snag the broom and yank it away. Another dove on the man and yanked his shorts down, while a third grabbed his arms and pinned them. The fourth enveloped his cock eagerly in her mouth and sucked it hard before climbing on top of him and mounting his cock. She began to ride him furiously, the others waiting patiently for their turn and fighting his diminishing resistance with their almost superhuman strength.

"It claims to be a video of a Quarantine Breach. Some private shuttle craft burne through atmo in an attempt to "Expose" the conspiracy. This was the last footage from his cockpit livestream before it went dead apparently. UHA officials made a statement saying it was a porn parody, dude burned up in Atmo and this was something he recorded beforehand. But like... That's fucking wild." Nylea mumbled. Daxos shifted uncomfortably, both from his growing erection and from the suddenly ominous feeling about their voyage. He walked back over to his console and sat down, but he could see that Nylea was watching more videos and looking up pictures of women infected with the virus.

"Ya... you three just worry about keeping quarantine procedures. I'm not eager to be gang banged anymore than I wanna be locked into running deliveries to this backwater for the rest of my life." He muttered, turning back to his own tablet.

"Nobody wants your strawberry spray cheese bro... other than the captain I guess. But seriously this shit is wild. I could be a three hundred year old sex symbol all for the low low cost of a brain worm? Shit. Not the worst deal I've ever heard" She smirked, contributing further to Daxos unease.

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He dodged Thassa again at shift change, making sure he was in the galley when she headed up to the cockpit. It was a cowards move, but frankly he couldn't be fucked to care. He was done, done with it all. He was already plotting his exit from the crew and everything. The longer he sat with what was going on, the worse he felt, the more doomed the whole thing seemed. The trip, the mission, the whole fucking experience. He wanted his swamp.

"You look rough," Calix muttered, fixing up their morning ration of artificial coffee. The real shit would only grow on certain worlds, and cost nearly as much as a month's fuel, so they settled for whatever synthetic crystals they could get. He'd never developed a taste for it, but other soldiers lived off the shit.

"I'm 20% scar tissue and metal. That's true any day" Daxos muttered, grabbing a small box of cookies he kept stashed high enough on the shelf that none of the crew could reach it. Calix visibly made note of the location to check for snacks in the future, but concealed it by reaching for powdered creamer.

"Rougher than usual. You wanna talk about it? Not like Thassa stopped bitching about it all last night..." Calix was a gossip, they'd want every detail of the drama, and while Thassa may have been more than happy to give it to them, Daxos had no intention to. He shrugged and moved towards the salon, but Calix stepped in his way. "I don't give a shit about your relationship drama. I give a shit about my paycheck and safety. Both of those are in jeopardy as long as she's flying mad and they're almost guaranteed to go up in smoke if you leave. Tell me what she's gotta do to fix this so I can relay the message and not have to look for a new crew"

"I've been with that woman for nearly a decade between service and this ship, if someone could change her mind I would've done it by now. Gestures would be meaningless at this point because I know they're hollow.... I've put my life on hold to be with her long enough, the ships sailing away without me after this run. What you do after that is up to you, she's a good captain, I have no doubt you'd be safe and keep making money if you stuck around" He muttered, before pushing past them and heading to his quarters.

"This doesn't have to end like that" Calix called after him, but Daxos simply raised a steel middle finger and slid past the passengers toward his bunk. Once inside he shut off the lights and stripped, grabbing the cookies and sacking down onto the bed.

He took a drag off his cart, leaned back, and thought back to the first time Thassa had used sex to twist him to her cause. Back in the barracks on Senalor E. A small farming moon, famous for their ability to grow Pumpkins and gourds large enough to turn into houses due to their near constant daylight and their years long summers. It had been a simple enough infestation. Carrion feeders that had become too accustomed to humans being their only source of refuse via the refuse and compost piles, who'd then turned into pack hunting predators. Humans were unfortunately obsessed with preserving non sentient xenos where they could and they'd become just a bit too friendly with the locals. After eliminating the problem individuals orders had been to sit tight and monitor behavior, to see if the species as a whole needed to be preserved in specimens and then purged from the wild.

But Thassa as the commanding officer of the ground forces didn't wanna wait. She'd seen what the snarling beasts were capable of. Heptapods built like Tarantulas with keratin fibers more akin to porcupine quills than hairs, and mouths like worms on the bottom of their thorax. 2.5 Meters across and standing just over a meter off the ground they were terrifying. She'd seen the gore of a small family farm wiped out by the creatures. She wanted them gone and wanted to be off the world But command wouldn't give the order without four breeding pairs in captivity, and traps were proving relatively ineffective.

So the beautiful young officer came to her favored scout and trapper with a proposal. One fuck, any hole, any way he wanted, for each breeding pair he brought in. She'd seen the way he looked at her, knew he'd accept. Hell he'd relished the challenge. When the platoon had deigned to call him Sargent's Hunting Hound he'd taken it as a badge of honor instead of the ill natured teasing it was meant as. And sure enough he'd had two breeding pairs trapped. He wanted their first time together to be special, romantic even, so instead of claiming her holes one at a time and planting his flag like a lesser man, he asked her to fuck him how she'd like to be fucked. To show him how to please her.

She'd taken him to her bunk, kissing and sucking his chin and jawline, running her hands over every inch of his scar covered flesh like a curator studying a museum piece. He'd felt seen. He'd felt worshiped and appreciated. She'd stripped his clothes, trailing her nails over his skin and dragging goosebumps to the surface wherever she'd gone. She'd shoved him down onto her bunk, a firm hand on his chest projecting authority rather than force, and had him stroke his stiff cock as she stripped agonizingly slow. Her coat, then her pants, her shirt, then her underwear, lastly her bra, exposing every inch to his hungry sight.

She'd climbed atop him slowly, using a spit slick hand to lubricate his cock as she guided it to her cunt entrance. She'd demanded his eye contact as she did. "Don't look there... look at me. Meet my eyes soldier" She'd whispered huskily as she slit his girth into her. She gasped slightly, making him preen with pride, and took a moment to accommodate him and slicken with her own arousal. "Big Man" She groaned on her first rock of her luscious hips. She sped up slowly, laying a hand on his chest for balance. He grabbed the sheets to control the urge to just fuck her quickly and desperately as he craved. After a few moments like this she'd begun to dig her nails into his chest.

"Grab my tits" She ordered. He didn't need to be told twice, his hands shooting to the small perky globes and luxuriating in their soft texture and the feel of her hard nipples. He gently pinched and squeezed them, eliciting more moans from his superior. "Just like that. Good Boy" She groaned, her nails digging even further into him and knotting themselves in the hair on his chest. She started to speed up, her own fucking becoming aggressive, her pussy spasming around him when she stopped bouncing to grinding for a moment, pressing her pleasure button to his pelvis and rocking back and forth with need.

"Don't you fucking dare cum until I do" She ordered, speeding up even more and grinding even harder, her spasming becoming rhythmic and her thighs around his waist clenching even harder. She let out a scream and sank her nails into his flesh, ripping them downward and drawing bright red blood to the surface. Daxos had groaned and gritted his teeth, desperately trying to hold off his own orgasm but fighting a losing battle. Without a word Thassa slid off of him and began stroking his cock towards her face. He groaned at the thought of painting this beautiful powerful woman with his cum. Marking her as his forever more, and he erupted, blasting a powerful load of cum across her face and into her hair. She jerked in surprise, but managed to catch the second shot on her face and tits and the third and subsequent shots across her chest. She'd smiled up at him covered in his cum, and licked it off of her face. "Good Boy" She'd purred in the most sexual voice he'd ever heard. After that first time, he was hooked, and had the other required beasts trapped and packed for transport within the week. And having realized sexual motivation could get him to move mountains it became Thassa's routine to dangle herself in front of him whenever she wanted something.

Thinking about it now, he wanted to wrap his hand around his cock, but he also just wanted to jettison his quarters and be off the ship that much faster. He was confused, angry, and most of all he was frustrated.

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"You sincerely, genuinely, and with all knowledge and foresight seriously fucked up this time" Calix muttered, setting the mug of coffee down in front of the captain and assuming their spot at the nav computer. Thassa didn't acknowledge them for a moment, checking the settings on the helm and calibrating the chair to her smaller frame. When she finished she looked at the navigator with disdain. As if she didn't already know that she'd fucked up. Daxos had been ducking her, the atmosphere on the ship was rife with distrust and anger, and every day that went by she regretted taking this job more and more.

A quarantine run was a dangerous prospect at the best of times with a crew in synch and on task. A crew falling apart, passengers on board, a captain and a first mate who weren't speaking. "I made my call, I can't go back on it now. What do you want from me?" She muttered angrily.

Calix snorted and sipped their coffee, tapping a few buttons on the nav computer and shaking their head. "You know the only way this crew ever flew was with Daxos balancing out that hard head of yours? He's what made every bad decision you swore by and wrong call you refused to admit happen. The man is a miracle worker. And not an ugly one either. I can't blame you for keeping him around but did you really think there wasn't gonna come a day where he snapped the leash? When he realized you were stringing him along and there was never gonna be more than this?" They asked, their voice carrying a certain edge to it that Thassa didn't care for. She tried not to let her rank as captain drive her ego, but insubordination had always rubbed her nerves raw.

"I wasn't... My relationship with Daxos has always been a blend of professional and personal. I wasn't stringing him along, I always told him exactly where we stood. The fact he chose to read more into it than was there, that's his choice not mine. The fact he's now throwing a temper tantrum about this..." Calix sputtered their coffer and spit a little onto the floor.

"Oh bullshit. Lie to yourself if you want but don't lie to me. Everyone on this ship knew he was in love with you. And everyone on this ship but him knew you used it to get your way with him. To motivate him to do the impossible for you. And we all let it slide because it benefited us, but now it's turned and he's gonna walk away. So what I want you to do doesn't matter. What you have to do is fix this shit, or this is gonna be our last run." they muttered angrily, turning back to the console and turning their back to the captain. Thassa bitterly sipped her coffee, gritting her teeth. She had earned every victory, whether through her efforts or those of the crew. The captain was the head of the crew after all, to whom else would the credit for a victory go? And the disrespect that everyone seemed content to show her was only insulting that further.

"I am the captain of this vessel, and I'll do what I must to keep it flying" She hissed under her breath.