Sixth Sun Ch. 01

"Sir, you are leaving cryostasis. Please confirm your solution."

My skin felt like paper. I knew it would pass in a minute or two, but it's always unnerving.

"Three blue, Four green."

"Thank you, sir. Please confirm your intervals"

I had no idea how I managed to speak when my tongue was just a stiff piece of worn down leather covered in gravel, but the training kicked in and I gave her my interval. "Three, then eight. Interval repeats after seven, twice."

"Thank you, sir. Please be patient, this will take a minute."

I heard machines pumping not far away from my head, I felt light pressure from what I assumed was an IV in my left arm. My solution and intervals were printed on my chamber, but protocol is protocol. At least this time my wake up wasn't done by some old guy two weeks from retirement, judging from the pleasant voice.

"Thank you."

I started stretching my fingers. The air felt recycled, but not the worst I ever had. The bed was being raised so I could sit almost upright.

"You are most welcome, sir, please keep your eyes closed. The lights are dimmed, but you will be more sensitive than usual."

The eye covers were taken off by soft, delicate hands.

"I am the chief medical officer. Your vitals look good, are you ok to go through the rest of your wake up procedure with me?" A new voice, older, a bit raspy, but far from unpleasant.

"Hit me, doc."

"Name."

"Lucas Shaw"

The sound of fingers tapping on a screen.

"Vessel."

"ISS Guadeloupe out of Terra"

The sound of fingers tapping on a screen.. A pause. A tap. A pause. A tap.

"Rank."

"Engineer, civilian"

The sound of fingers tapping on a screen.

"Age."

"32 awake"

The sound of fingers tapping on a screen. The papery feeling when I rub my fingers against each other started to fade. I touched my chest and it felt like I was wearing one of those assless surgical gowns.

"Date of Birth?"

"November second, fourteen."

Fingers tapped on a screen. A pause. Fingers tapped on a screen.

"Which fourteen?"

"Sorry, twenty four fourteen."

Metal rattled and something close by was dropped. I turned to look, but opening my eyes was fruitless. Only blurry shapes.

"Sorry, doctor."

"It's alright, Hideko."

The doctor cleared her throat.

"Sir, please close your eyes"

She lightly put a hand on my left arm. I closed my eyes.

"Could you please confirm your date of birth for me again?"

"Of course, November second, twenty four fourteen."

Her fingers dug into my forearm a little bit, until I could feel her nails.

"You need to tell me right now that you're not fucking with me, Lucas Shaw."

I fluttered my eyelids until the thick gunk cleared. The woman staring at me through her square glasses was a brunette, long, curly hair tied to a ponytail slung over her left shoulder, next to the name tag on her lab coat.

- Dr. med. Iliana Galanis, CMO

"Look, doc, I have no idea what you mean, but I can assure you I am very much not fucking with you." I said, giving her my best "I don't know what you're talking about" expression.

"Hideko, get the captain to come down, alone, and lock the infirmary until she's here."

"Of course, doctor."

I looked over to who this Hideko was, the nurse who attended to me. She was a tiny Asian girl in light blue scrubs, with adorable features and long straight hair in a pony tail. She couldn't possibly be a hair over 4 feet 10. She looked at me over her shoulder like she's seen a ghost. Maybe a ghost from one of those romance novels if her flushed cheeks were an indicator, but still, a ghost.

"Doc, what is happening?"

"Sorry, Mr. Shaw. Can I call you Lucas?"

I nodded.

"Lucas, I need to understand something here. You should know that we picked up your vessel in bad shape. Where are you coming from and what was your destination?"

I decided to let this play out. I had enough questions of my own, but she seemed rattled and this appeared to be the wrong time to start finding out whose questions are more important.

"Of course, there wouldn't be a flight manifest. I'm doing a long distance supply run from the E-Tauri 5 gate construction site. The gate failed to initialize and I'm on my way to Boone's World to have a replacement part fabricated while the construction crew is on ice."

She stared at me with intensity, but below the surface she looked like someone who is holding their breath for too long but doesn't want anyone to notice.

"When was that?"

"We finished construction in seventy two and then I got in the shuttle."

I could see her clenching her jaw.

"Which seventy two?"

"Sorry, again, twenty four seventy two."

I can't say if she was having a religious experience or if the number 2472 is something she is really, really into, but she lost all tension in her back and shoulders and took a deep breath. She straightened her lab coat and hair.

"Doc, what's going on?"

"I'll need to run some tests, but I'll ask you to wait until the captain gets here? It's.." she was looking for her words. ".. it's a delicate situation."

"Am I in trouble?"

She shook her head and smiled.

"Far from it. I will need to draw some blood."

I nodded as she went to her cart and loaded a tablet up with syringes.

She was efficient and mostly silent during the blood draw. A chime was heard from the door to the infirmary.

"Will you let the captain in, Hideko?"

"Of course, doctor."

Hideko tapped the lock next to the door and in strode a woman in her late thirties, maybe early forties. I had an IV in my left arm and I was still getting blood drawn on my right, so I didn't salute. I'm pretty sure you don't salute from a medical bed anyway.

"Lucas, this is captain Jade Greenwood."

The captain was relaxed, hands in her pockets. "Howdy!" She said with a nod.

She got a patented Lucas Shaw grin, now that my facial muscles felt like they're working again "Lucas Shaw, pleasure to meet you."

She eyed the doctor, obviously enjoying herself. The look of someone who has a zinger prepared. "Look, Illi, Hideko told me to come alone, but unless you want to show me your dildo collection, I'm sure that's a little melodramatic, is it not?"

"Sorry, captain, just a second."

She said as she released the tourniquet and puts a plaster on the inside of my elbow.

The captain raised an eyebrow at the lack of reaction to the dildo collection jab. So did I.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm sure everyone is happy to have a guy aboard.." the captain clearly set up for another one.

"Jade." Doctor Galanis gave her a stern look and to the captain's credit, she kept the zinger to herself.

"What?"

"Mr. Shaw here is traveling from the gate construction site at e-Tauri 5 to Boone's World since twenty four seventy two. They put the construction crew on ice in the meantime."

The captain shifted her attention to me, but clearly was still talking to the doctor.

"He wasn't here?"

"No."

The nurse handed me a juice box with a straw.

"Here, drink this, please, it's for your mucus membranes."

It tasted vaguely like strawberry, if strawberries were eighty percent corn starch and twenty percent lies.

"Is he safe now?" Captain Greenwood gestured to... I couldn't really tell, everywhere?

"Last theta wave showed up on sensors 30 years ago."

"Is he... you know?"

"I have to run tests, take samples."

She broke out a dirty grin.

"Need volunteers?"

"In a sample container."

"Sometimes I can't believe how little fun you allow yourself to have."

"Sometimes I can't believe that you're the captain."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"Look, ladies, I'm really past the usual disorientation of waking up from cryo and I would appreciate if we could move on to the part where you tell me what the fuck is happening."

I looked at them from left to right. The captain, the doctor and the nurse.

Amusement, frustration and wide eyed wonder.

The captain had mercy on my soul.

"Alright, Mr. Shaw, strap in, this will get wild. When did you plan to arrive back at Boone's World?"

"Zhukov Drive travel puts that distance at about 26 years, so..." I squinted my eyes at her. "I really hope the current date is somewhat close to twenty four ninety eight."

At that point I wasn't remotely surprised that she shook her head.

"The chief engineer hasn't been able to do a deep dive on your vessel yet, but from what we can tell it's likely you lost propulsion outside the system and have been adrift for a few years."

"How few?"

The medical staff apparently found something captivating about their shoes this very moment because they both looked to see what's up with them.

"It's twenty seven eighty. You've been out there close to three hundred years."

That sort of sucked. In a way. When you sign up to travel a few decades via cryostasis to a distant solar system, you have long accepted that you're coming back to the future. I just didn't expect it to be this far into it. You spent a lot of time with psychologists and in preemptive therapy to get ready for it. But they wouldn't be this frazzled about me skipping this much time if there wasn't another shoe about to drop.

"Alright, that sort of sucks, captain, in a way. Something tells me the other shoe hasn't dropped yet."

She sat herself down by my feet, zipping open her flight jacket, obviously making herself comfortable for what's coming. She pulled one leg up on the mattress, and turned to me. I noticed her bright pink bunny slippers.

"Are those standard issue?"

She was confused for a second and then herself noticed her own slippers as if she had forgotten she's wearing them. She stifled a laugh.

"Oh, this is a civilian ship, you'll almost never see anyone with actual shoes outside of the mining deck."

The doctor cut in.

"And the infirmary. We're sticklers for hygiene here."

The captain was already moving on and apparently not having that conversation now.

"Anyway, so, yes, the undropped shoe is the Order of the Five Suns. Heard of them?"

I had no idea what that was.

"Can't say I have, captain."

"Alright, so the Order of the Five Suns was sort of a religious movement. They cobbled together some bits and pieces of all major religions to make a proper mess of it. You know, the Earth centric view of the old religions needed an overhaul." She's forming some imaginary snowball with her hands.

"So for some reason they got it in their heads that mankind really needed to see the magnificence of their vision, so they did a little light show. And by little light show I mean they dropped some radioactive elements into all five suns to give them a halo they really liked." The disdain in the delivery was slowly rising. "That was in twenty four forty eight. Now don't get me wrong, I like a good special effects show as much as the next girl, and to their credit, it was a remarkable feat. They had some real geniuses pulling that off. Problem is that the radiation from the suns cooked some essential parts of DNA. You like Italian food? Too bad. Tomatoes are extinct. Their DNA lost an irreplaceable part and they went."

She made a vanishing motion I'm sure was supposed to look like a magician had made it, but it looked more like awkward jazz hands. She gave the doctor a look of some kind, but she left her hanging for a second before she took over.

"And while it was random, it was universal. The theta waves attacked certain parts of DNA. Toucans have purple feathers now. All of them. Cats now have five toes. All of them. All of that is tragic, but the real kicker is this.." She took a deep breath "The real kicker is that male birth rates are going to shit. At first it started dipping slowly, but over time it got worse and it's getting worse faster with every generation. Twenty years after the five suns event birthrates male to female were maybe thirty to seventy, now we have to use fractions."

She closed her eyes, apparently trying to remember.

"If I recall correctly, mens' junk is so cooked that only one in five hundred people born is male. And you.. "

She pointed right at my crotch.

".. were not around to have your testicles nuked, if I understand the doctor correctly."

The captain cut in.

"That is my theory. I need to confirm that. Like I said, tests"

The doctor was clearly annoyed by having to repeat herself and getting interrupted, but this seemed to be a game they play often, judging from the back and forth.

The captain clapped her hands and got up.

"Fantastic."

She turned to me.

"Look, I know this is a lot. But I really need to know one last thing. The construction vessel, does that last 300 years?"

I saw where this was going.

"Power supply should be good for 500 years."

"And tell me Mr. Shaw, not that I don't care about the women as well, but how many men were on that construction crew?"

"I have a copy of the crew manifest on my ship. But if I do some quick math.." I did some quick math "I would say two hundred and fifty to sixty. Ish."

The two senior officers shared a very satisfied smile and without any desire to hide her abundant joy, the nurse just giggled and did some tiny happy claps like a six year old that found out there will be a pony at her birthday.

"How long will you need for tests?"

"I'd say an hour." The doctor wagged her hand.

"Alright, I'll send Bettina down to check in with you. Mr. Shaw, do you have measurements for the fabricator?"

Looking around, there didn't seem to be any personal effects of mine.

"Assuming my communicator is still working, I have everything on there."

"We'll check your ship, thank you." She had a look at her watch. "Full staff meeting in the mess at oh six hundred. Full dress."

"Full dress?" The doctor sounded incredulous.

"Iliana, pictures will be taken. History books and such. I'm not going to do that with Lana in a onesie."

The doctor got up, laughed, and straightened her coat.

"Full dress it is."

"Ladies, please take good care of our guest."

She said, patted me on the calf and left the infirmary.

I took a deep breath and took another big sip of my strawberry flavored torture.

"Ok, I'll somehow work my way through that, I suppose. Can someone tell me where the fuck I am?"

Doctor Galanis sat back down, while Hideko got busy with a datapad.

"Of course, Lucas. My apologies. The basics. This is the ISS Stonehenge, the most sophisticated mining ship that anyone had ever seen in the twenty sixth century when it was built."

"Mining ship?" I asked. "Mining ships have gotten pretty big if you managed to fit a gravity deck on it."

She laughed. "Oh, you wouldn't know. Hideko, can you stand by the door and turn off the Andersson panel right there?"

The nurse walked to the door, and fussed around with the control panel next to it for a few moments. You could hear a low popping sound, as if someone put a dent into an oversized tin can. Then she started to slowly float up and rotate backwards.

"Holy shit, doc. You figured out artificial gravity?"

"Well, yes, this ship would be way too small for a rotational gravity deck. They only do that on cruise ships these days, for the novelty factor."

The sound the panel made when it engaged sounded like before, but actually reversed. It was weird, because things aren't meant to sound like that. It didn't sound like a dent being buffed out, it sounded simply like the previous sound played back in reverse. Hideko deftly landed on her feet and went back to working on her datapad.

"Where were we? Yes, mining. We just scan rocks and pull them into open space and then the miners cut it apart for the good stuff. Rinse, repeat. A tour is about six months and we're currently two months in. The boat actually belongs to the captain, not a conglomerate. As to where we are, we're currently on the outer asteroid ring in the Boone's World system."

"Hang on doc." I held up my hand.

"How did you get so far out in two months?"

"Oh, we bapped here." She said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"After the Five Suns event, people weren't so much into deep space exploring, so we started putting more and more gates into the systems for convenience. We're close to gate 27 right now, so it's about two weeks from here to the gate."

I nodded, prompting her to go on.

"Anyhow, that's the cliff notes version. We have some tests to run." She turned around and put her hand on Hideko's arm.

"Hideko, will you be a dear and go to the fabricator and have Bettina make twelve sperm sample containers?"

She looked at me and blushed an even deeper red than before. "Of course, doctor."

"Tell her it's a medical priority job."

"Of course, doctor." She put down her datapad and rushed out of the infirmary.

Doctor Galanis rose and locked the door behind her. "Ok, Lucas, that should give us ten minutes. I'm going to be your best friend right now, so listen up."

I raised both eyebrows. "Ok?"

"Alright. So..." She closed her eyes. Deep inhale, deep exhale. She opened her eyes. "I know this is all weird and new for you, but it's even weirder than it sounds. Men aren't rare. Men are almost non-existent for most of these women. We may have a marginal number of men per women, but these men get whisked away into high society as soon as they show up on the ultrasound the first time. Their mothers get do-nothing jobs for rich business people and their sons get pampered up to the gills. None of that is their fault, but most of them don't come out heroes of the people on the other side. You look like you're some salt of the earth, grass fed, never disappointed his mother, handsome but not an asshole about it, helps old ladies over the street all around good guy. Right?"

She gives me a questioning look, to which I shrug. "Well, I guess I try?"

"Close enough. So write this down. If you were just any regular guy, the kind we already have, women would throw themselves at you. However, assuming that you actually have the magical testicles sent from on high," she continued and cupped my balls through the surgical gown. The realization what she was doing followed maybe half a second after she made contact.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I swear I don't know why I grabbed your junk for emphasis. I.. I.."

I took her hand and put it back on my thigh on which she had leaned before.

"It's ok, doc, who hasn't cupped my balls for emphasis? Happens all the time."

She stared out of a non-existent window on the wall behind me.

"Oh god, I'll have to file an ethics report on myself."

"Doc, it's ok, as I understand it, I'm not the only one for whom this is a lot."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Thank you, and I'm sorry, again. Where was I?"

"Testicles from on high?" I offered.

"Testicles from on high. Right!" she snapped her fingers as if I had had some stroke of genius.

"Look, if these bad boys work, mark my words, the universe will launch pussy at you with a catapult. There's no other way to put it. The second word gets out you exist, trillionaires will be on your tail and try to make you the centerpiece of their collection. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't want that, and if you do, I'm not asking you not to live in pomp and luxury. You'll have to figure that out. I haven't even asked if you're straight yet. Are you?"

I nodded and gave her a sheepish grin.

"Ok, so all that, you'll have to sort out yourself. But right now and here? Hideko is a working class girl, with a working class mom who got pregnant from a capsule because she won some lottery. She has a number for who her dad is, because they're anonymous. She just spent more time in the same room as a man than she had the rest of her entire life. I had a boyfriend for half a year during my undergrad and I can't mention that in public without everyone in earshot asking me to kindly shut up about that."

She took another deep breath.

"This is so wrong, but fuck it. I need to get a sperm sample out of you. You know, check your swimmers. I could get that with a syringe..."

I shot up in the bed and she put a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, hold your horses, I'm not gonna poke a hole in the sacred testicles."

I settled back into the cushion.

"Of course the classical version would be to give you a datapad with some nice porn on it and you extract that yourself. Though I have to say, most of the porn in the ship's database is tastefully shot lesbian porn with lots of dialogue."

I shrugged again. "I don't mind that, that would work for me."

To which she gave me a stern look. "Well, I was hoping that won't work for you. It would be an incredible ethics violation if a nurse on my staff were to lay a hand on you to help you with getting such a sample. However, and I am serious as a heart attack when I say this, I will crawl naked over broken glass for you if nothing of that kind happens that I am aware of. And how should it? Someone would have to explicitly ask her to do that. Do you understand, Mr. Shaw?"

I tried to keep as deadpan as possible. "Of course, doctor, it would be a tragedy if you became aware of such a thing."

Her deadpan was significantly better than mine. "Exactly, Mr. Shaw. I would hate to become aware of any such shenanigans."

"A question, doc. How should I extract the sample?"

"Any way you see fit, Mr. Shaw. However," she grabbed a box from the shelf behind her. "Should you use your mouth to extract it, please use the alcohol wipes before ejaculation. It would be difficult to run the test if your saliva was in the sample."

"Do I look that flexible to you?" we finally broke the deadpan and shared a good belly laugh.

The door chimed.

"There's a lot more you need to know, but right now I need a sample." She wiggled her eyebrows, got up and unlocked the door for Hideko.

"Is everything alright, doctor?"

"Just keeping out the gawkers. I'm sure word gets around."

"Of course, doctor." Hideko held out a tray with a dozen small containers to the doctor.

"Oh, you take care of that, I have to start the lab on these." She held up my blood samples.

Hideko looked panicked back and forth between the doctor and me and back to the doctor, who was visibly enjoying herself.

"But, doctor, I have never..."

"Hideko." She interrupted her. "Fertility care 101. You know the instructions? You know the protocol?"

Hideko looked down and nodded furiously while the doctor gave me a broad grin.

"Then go and get it done. I trust you, and when in doubt, always ask the patient what he's comfortable with and they will help you along. Nursing is what, grasshopper?"

"A dialogue, doctor"

"That's right, a dialogue. Ten minutes ago you did a little dance when you found out this man's testicles might be in working order, surely you can explain to him how and where you want him to empty them."

Hideko was as mortified as the doctor was having the time of her life.

"Of course, doctor."

"Please make sure to lock the door. I can almost smell the rumor mill attracting all the deplorables from the mining deck."

"From... from the inside?" Hideko was close to a panic attack from what I could tell.

The doctor put her free hand on her cheek and lifted her up to look her straight in the eye.

"Of course, from the inside. It would be absolutely unacceptable to lock a patient in the infirmary, right?"

"Of.. Of course, doctor."

"Toodeloo!" she said, waved with her hand holding the blood samples and stepped into the corridor.

Hideko looked into the hallway after her, as if she was expecting her to come back, reveal that it was all an elaborate prank and somehow save her from locking herself in with a patient who is about to crank out a sperm sample. After a few painfully long moments she realized no such mercy was afforded to her, put the tray down on a table and locked the door.

She picked up one of the containers and stood against the wall opposite of the foot of the bed, which seemed to be the furthest away she could be without appearing rude.

"Alright, so.." She fidgeted with the container "Well, we..." she looked down, then up, flexing her knees a little in frustration.

"Sorry," I said and held out my hand, "we actually haven't been introduced. I'm Lucas Shaw, I'm very pleased to meet you."

Visibly elated to do anything other than explain masturbation to someone easily 10 years older than her, she put down the container on the bed and shook my hand with both hands and did a little bow.

"Ikeda Hideko. I'm very pleased to meet you too, Mr. Shaw, it's a great honor"

I kept holding on to her hand and put my left hand upon hers. She had come all the way up to the top of the bed and I didn't want her to retreat back to the wall just yet.

"Can I call you Hideko?"

She nods. "Of course, sir."

"Will you call me Lucas? I would prefer if you did."

She very lightly shook her head no. "That would be very inappropriate of me, Mr. Shaw."

"Ok, we can get back to that once we get better acquainted. So, about that sperm sample..."

Her hand clamped down on mine. I'm sure she stopped breathing for a moment.

"Would you pull up a chair? I think it's better if you sit right here and we can talk about it."

"Of... of course, sir."

I let go of her hands and she grabbed the container, realized she'd need her hands to pull up the chair, put the container back on the bed and pulled up the chair, then picked up the container again and sat down next to me.

"Thank you, Hideko, this is much nicer."

She gave a tiny nod.

"Now, I'll let you know that I think I understand the basics of giving a sperm sample, and if you absolutely want nothing further to do with it, I can just go ahead and do the rest myself."

I'm sure the words 'sweet, go ahead then' weren't exactly part of her repertoire.

"However," I went on, "I have a suspicion that we would both enjoy it a lot more if you helped me along."

Her eyes became so wide she started to look like a cartoon character.

"Sir, I'm... I'm not sure I understand."

I tried to put on my most reassuring expression. "I think you do, but I appreciate that it's very difficult to just go on with it. Will you hold my hand?" I sat straight up and put my hand on my thigh.

She carefully snaked her fingers in my palm, as if to not disturb my hand in doing so. I gave her a gentle squeeze. I tried to make eye contact with her, but she was looking somewhere around my clavicle as if looking into my eyes would turn her into stone.

"You know, I noticed the way you are looking at me. I will apologize to you until the end of time if I'm wrong, but I think if I gave you the choice between getting the sample with my hands or your hands, we will get it with your hands."

She looked into my eyes for a split second and realizing I was already looking at her the same way, went right back to my clavicle.

"So, Hideko, what do you want to do?"

She started breathing heavy, still trying not to get turned to stone.

"You must be very nervous, right?"

She gave another one of those adorable tiny nods.

"Do you know what you want?"

Another nod. She pressed her lips together as if she was afraid of what would come out.

"I don't want you to think I'm pressuring you. I'm not going to ask again after this and if you don't answer I'll understand and I'll do it myself." I slowly rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb. "Hideko, tell me what you want."

"Please tell me what to do." Her lips trembled.

"That can mean very different things. Is it that you don't know what to do?" No reaction. "Do you want to know what I like? Or...?" She still hadn't shown any reaction yet. "Would you like it better if I told you to something for the sake of, you know, me telling you?"

She suddenly nodded and squeezed my hand.

"Ok, Hideko, I can do that. But that's a big responsibility. I can only do that if you tell me when to stop. Do you understand?"

She looked unsure of herself, but nodded.

"I can tell you don't like to assert yourself, but I need to know that you can do it. We can't do something you will regret later. Tell me something you don't want to do. Anything."

She looked at me for a second, and then looked at the floor and mumbled something I could barely understand.

"Hideko. Look at me and use your words."

"Don't put it in my butt." Came her slightly more assertive response.

"Thank you Hideko. You did very good."

She visibly shuddered.

"You are a very good girl."

She looked at me as if she started melting.

"Do you want to be a good girl for me?" I lifted my right hand to the side of her neck and started stroking her cheek with my thumb.

She put her hand over mine and slowly nodded in return.

I slowly stroked her bottom lip. "Suck on my thumb."

She looked down at the thumb for a second or two, clearly making up her mind and having come to a resolution, she took the first digit into her mouth just past the nail. I could feel her teeth against my nail bed.

"Cover your teeth with your lips."

She pushed further against my thumb, letting her lips roll over her teeth. I could feel the pressure of her teeth through the softness of her lips.

"Use your tongue and play with it."

At first she licked the underside of it, pressing the nail of my thumb against the roof of her mouth. After a while I pressed down with my thumb and she pressed her tongue against the nail, trapping the digit against the inside of her lower jaw. She started breathing heavily through her nose.

"So eager."

She slid all the way to the hand without hesitation until I could feel the back end of her tongue with the tip of my thumb.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" I caressed her cheek with two fingers.

She smiled around my thumb, grabbed my wrist and slowly started sliding back and forth, her tongue darting left and right while small drops of saliva were slowly running down my hand.

"Don't look down. Keep looking right at me."

Her eyes bugged out when she saw that I was pulling the surgical gown to the side. I took her free hand and slowly helped her sliding it up the inside of my thigh. "Just feel them. And careful." I grinned, "I've been told they're very valuable."

She slowed down without breaking eye contact while her fingers explored my balls. She was lightly cradling them, exploring the shape and how soft they are, but clearly afraid to break anything, which right now suited me just fine. I had already been rock hard for half an eternity, so I needed to move this along.

"Are you ready?"

She nodded, almost stopping the ministrations on my thumb but still maintaining eye contact.

I guided her hand upwards and wrapped her around my erection. "From the bottom up, not from the top down. You don't want to pull too hard on the foreskin."

With her hand in mine, we slowly stroked the shaft up and down a few inches, but always stopping short of the head. She was intensely focused on her task at hand, while still trying to keep up with her task at mouth.

"Do you want to do more?"

She just returned a nod.

I pulled my digit out of her mouth with a plop sound and she almost dove behind it to get it back where it belongs.

"Kiss me."

She already had pulled one knee on the mattress but now she jumped up on it with the second, put one knee between my legs and attacked my face without letting go of my erection. Not letting her lack of experience slow her down, she pushed her tongue against mine as we took turns exploring each other. She came up for air after what felt like an eternity, breathing like a steam engine.

"You're very excited, aren't you?"

She nodded.

"Sit on my hand." I said and put my hand on my knee, facing up. She scooted back and let me rub her crotch through the thin scrubs and panties, forgetting everything else she was doing at the moment. She already must have been at her limit because she exploded after just a few circling motions. Her fingers dug into my shoulders and her legs started spasming uncontrollably. I had to hold down one of her thighs not to get a knee in the balls before she collapsed against me.

It took her a few minutes of just kneeling on the bed, arms around my shoulders, her face nuzzled against my neck until she was able to sit back on her haunches.

"I am so sorry." She whispered, her hands still on my shoulders.

I was puzzled.

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm not supposed to do this."

"Did you do anything you didn't want to do?"

She shook her head no.

"Me neither. Don't worry about it."

She nodded to indicate she understood. I took her hand and put it back on my erection, resuming where we left off, slowly stroking myself with her hand.

"Look at it."

We both looked down. I never had complaints about my size, but I was never what you would consider porn star size. That being said, in her tiny hand my member looked absolutely obscene.

"You did that. I am so excited for you. I love seeing you enjoy yourself. Sex is like nursing, grasshopper."

Her demure facade cracked for a moment. She had a full on belly laugh, covering her face with one hand while still stroking my member. "A dialogue, Mr. Shaw?" she got out between laughs.

"That's right, grasshopper, a dialogue." We let the laughter run its course, until she was back to just staring down, fully engrossed in the moment, slowly licking her lips.

"Run your thumb over the tip."

She grabbed it with one hand at the base and the other at the top, slowly circling her thumb over the crown, spreading precum all over it.

I lifted her chin with one finger.

"Do you want to take it in your mouth?"

She didn't wait to be told, she just bent down and inhaled it like her life depended on it. She gagged and choked almost instantly, paying dearly for her enthusiasm.

I had to stifle a laugh and gave her some light claps on the back while she coughed up some of the saliva she'd gotten in her airways. "Hideko, go slow, it's ok, one thing at a time. You ok?"

She composed herself and apologized again. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what to do." Her lips trembled.

"Think of the thumb."

She smiled as she understood. She bent down again, slowly letting the tip push her lips over her teeth. Again, it's a perfectly normal penis, but going into her mouth it looked like we're not even the same species. She she explored it with her mouth like the thumb before it, slowly dragging her tongue back and forth, pressing it against the roof of her mouth, letting her tongue roll around the tip.

"Are you ok?"

She nodded and smiled without letting go of me.

"I'm very close, Hideko." I pulled the box of alcohol wipes from the table next to the bed. "The doctor said I shouldn't get your saliva into the sample." She had not explicitly said that, but I wanted to see her reaction.

She froze.

She's a very adorable nurse when she looks at you with a giant looking dick in her mouth while retracing her steps in her mind of how she got from the doctor telling her to get the sample to right now and the fifteen different ways the doctor could justify shoving her out of an airlock for the things she has done with her patient.

"Hideko, relax. She wants this for you. I think she loves you very much."

She slowly let my member slide out of her mouth and pulled a wipe from the box and started cleaning me while stroking me with the other hand. She took another wipe and carefully peeled back my foreskin to get the saliva that got trapped there. "Sir, let me know when you are almost ready." She grabbed the container and put it between my legs.

"Bend it up, not down." I said and grabbed the container, setting it down on my belly button.

She smiled and started stroking me faster and faster, getting in a good rhythm. I could feel myself getting close.

"Now, Hideko." I grunted.

She bent my penis towards my belly and kept stroking it at that slightly awkward angle until I erupted. I dug my fingers in the mattress and my toes curled while ropes and ropes of cum shot at the container. To her credit, Hideko hung on like a champ and managed to get most of it into the small container.

"You are such a good girl, Hideko," I said, taking the container from her hand and setting it down on the table "would you like to clean me up?"

She dove down again and took my deflating member in her mouth for a minute before licking up some drops of cum that had missed the mark. When she came back up, she saw the wipes I had pulled from the box and was holding for her. "Oh, sorry." She sheepishly started wiping down all the places her tongue had been.

"You'll hear no complaints from me, nurse Ikeda." I said.

The door chimed just as she had put the gown back in place.

I gave her a peck on the cheek. "Good girl"

She blushed, smiled and let the doctor back into the room.

"Do you have my sample?"

"Yes, doctor, here." She held out the sample container to her.

"Will you throw that in the sequencer and press start? I already made all the presets. And then get dressed, full dress uniform, you heard the captain."

"Of course, doctor." Hideko stepped out of the infirmary.

"One more thing, " the doctor held her hand into the door's proximity sensor. "Next time step away from the patient when they give a sample."

Hideko looked at where the doctor was pointing and saw a big, shiny, white glob of cum right on the front of her scrubs. All you could hear was a whimper and she turned around and left.

She let the door slide into place and stepped to the bed, holding out her fist, which I bumped. Doc seemed to be the best kind of wingperson.

"Let me take care of that." She dropped a stack of clothes on the bed and pulled my IV port. "I got to get dressed and then we have to check on your little swimmers." She seemed quite giddy. "Your communicator is two hundred years past warranty. Bettina is coming up in a minute to get you into a uniform."

"Thanks doc." I said peeling the top half of my gown down and putting on the grey track suit top.

"And Lucas," she said as she stepped out, looking back at me for a moment and putting her hand over her heart. "Over broken glass."

+++++++++++++++++

Thanks for reading! I hope you have as much fun reading as I had writing.

Any comments and votes you may have are immensely welcome. Chapter two will be a brief interlude before we meet the crew.