Aly in Space Ch. 07

I knew Kat and Mark would be checking out the real playroom for at least a little bit, and the increasing slipperiness between my legs demanded attention before my horny ass was back under scientific observation. Having shut the door to our privacy room, I made my way to the bed with clamped thighs. I could feel my puffy labia slipping against itself from my growing moisture.

Before even reaching the bed, I stripped my jeans off my ample rear to flop on the bed frustratedly. It really was more often a curse than a blessing, having such an insatiable sex drive. Especially when there was no one to help me manage it. I thrust two fingers into my very wet pussy to give myself a rough jumpstart.

My fingers squelched in and out as I took a few deep breaths. Mark and Kat almost seemed confused that I didn't have a boyfriend (or girlfriend), but it's not like I had a line waiting at the door. A dull throb started inside me as the walls of my pussy pulsed around my thrusting fingers, only just beginning to squeeze. I would love to fill this pussy with a big, girthy cock, or bury my face in a mountain of cleavage, but none had offered themselves.

As my pussy started to spasm in earnest, I reached my other hand down to gently pinch and rub my clit already peeking from the hood in arousal. Oh god... that was good.... I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, flat on my back on the soft bed, legs bent above me and sprawled open while my hands did their work.

And maybe if I had just been looking for sex I could've found something--not that I even knew how--but that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the passion and vulnerability that having sex with someone you really loved was supposed to bring. I loved Kat and Mark, but that clearly wasn't going anywhere with either of them, and right now I just needed these raging hormones to settle down till I found the right one.

The spasms were stronger now, each pulse clenching my fingers inside me. God I loved having something in there to squeeze. I would've brought a toy, but I assumed with only one bed in here and it only being three days that I wouldn't even have an opportunity to use it.

My brow furrowed in pleasure, as rational thought began to slip. Warmth prickled up my face, my toes curled, and my pussy gripped my sloshing fingers like a vice. I felt the telltale arch of my back with each firm contact with my clit, now an inflamed, engorged little bud. Burst after burst rose toward the surface, and I had to muffle the squeaks and moans that would've otherwise filled the room.

Suddenly my head jerked up, eyes wide, mouth silently gasping, as the climax flooded my body. My clit was on fire, and my entire torso clenched and rocked as my pussy devoured the fingers deep inside, for a moment immobilized. The burning warmth spread from my sex down to my toes and up to my face as I trembled in pleasure for a few brief moments.

As the fire slowly started to simmer, I could remove my hands from their work, flopping back to the bed. My chest rose and fell as I panted heavily, feeling the last few spasms work their way out of my body. I would need a short breather before putting my pants back on and washing my hands. Thankfully, this room was private, and Mark and Kat were nowhere to be seen yet.

When my body had taken a few moments, I sat up, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. Pants. Bathroom. I took my time on the toilet before washing the sticky cum off my fingers. My face had a slight sheen of sweat, so I splashed some cool water and dried with a towel. Hopefully that would keep me stable for a while.

I emerged from my privacy intending to join Kat and Mark in the playroom, curious how accurate the simulation would be. On second thought, considering how the simulation went, maybe I was safer out here. Valitor, Zentylk, and several technicians were consulting at one of the lab's stations, and Yevn was at her ledge seemingly deep in thought. When she saw me, however, she waved brightly.

I walked around the lab to hop up to Yevn's ledge and chat.

"Did you enjoy the playroom, Aly? Well, the simulation of the playroom. Although you could go visit the real one whenever you like. I think they even have the same number of mushrooms," Yevn began.

"I loved the playroom," I said. Yevn sat cross-legged on the floor (her ledge didn't even have chairs on it), so I joined her in kind.

Yevn nodded. "We could tell." She placed her hand on a dormant panel in front of her which hummed faintly at her touch. A faint blue line lit up the console under her touch, and she pulled her finger along it, narrating as she went. "We saw a sharp intake in respiration and heart rate when you realized the mushrooms were more springy than the rest of the ship, although that spike settled soon enough, yielding to a general increase from the physical exertion. It appears that both falling and almost falling have a very similar physiological effect on you in particular. Are you afraid of heights?" she paused, looking at me.

"One, yes," I answered, "two, can you tell all that from your console there? Or do you just remember?"

"Yes to both. When I pull up the record of the simulation, I feel a faint reproduction through my own contact with the console, enabling me to not only view the record visually, but comprehensively based on any of our sensors. And I remember. What our species lacks in EM Capacity, we more than make up for with Intellectual Capacity. But honestly, I think you all have the better trade-off. What I wouldn't give for an EM Bond of 7...."

She said it casually, continuing to scroll through the simulation, but this was the first time I had ever heard her go silent mid-conversation. The absence of words was just as telling as the furrow of her brows as she continued to make notes from the record. I wanted to ask, but given how forthright she had been up till now with everything else, I decided to respect her quiet now.

The group down by the lab was starting to disperse, with Valitor heading off to his office, and the rest busying themselves with their work. I saw some of the techs adjusting a panel, then glancing up to the empty field, as they tweaked their controls again.

"Yevn, is this lab expensive?" I asked after a bit.

Yevn tilted her head in thought. "Developing the mechanisms did indeed take many years and many minds and many resources, so I supposed you could say so. But the basic science was developed over a generation ago."

"What about upkeep?" I continued. "Doesn't it cost something to keep it running and do all the simulations and adjustments?"

"It does keep our technicians very busy, but everything on this vessel was properly balanced before our journey." In her usual way, she did not hesitate to explain further. "Our biological systems onboard are fully recyclable and almost entirely self-sufficient. We can shape, mend, repurpose, break down, or refine almost anything on the vessel. It has proved most effective for longer-range journeys, and even moreso for research missions where we may not know the particular needs in advance. Adjusting the lab or machinery takes time, significant expertise, and manual effort, but outside of what we ourselves must do or 'pay'? Not a thing."

"Can other species do this? What were your neighbors called again...?" I couldn't quite remember.

"Ilyvians. And yes, to different degrees. Even you humans are beginning to learn very mechanical repurposing. Cut a piece of glass, melt it, shape it, melt it down again.... And I am confident you will eventually learn to perfect these processes with less byproduct waste."

As Yevn explained, I noticed again how all the furniture, machinery, panels, etc, seemed to grow directly from the ship itself. I still didn't have a clue how they managed it, like, with psychic power or something else--it seemed far too tactile for just mind control--but it did make good sense. Hopefully we "sweet humans" would live up to Yevn's good faith in us. She talked about us like we were adorable little critters, but her infatuation with humans was, ironically, adorable to me as well.

I stayed chatting with Yevn until Mark and Kat's laughter alerted me to their arrival back from the playroom. Kat saw me and called up to me. "There you are, Aly! We were wondering where you were. You didn't want to check out the playroom? It's bouncy...!" she teased. And, I know she was probably referring to our first visit to the ship where I was obsessed with testing the bounce of everything, but it definitely could be construed another way, and I blushed yet again.

"I'll check it out some other time. We're here for three days, right?" I called back.

Mark and Kat waved, then began wandering around the dome, arms locked together, Kat leaning against Mark's shoulder. They were so sweet together. Even if I did twinge with a hint of loneliness while watching them.

"You're sad," Yevn said after a moment. Her voice was both gentle and questioning.

I attempted to brush it off, turning back to the lab. "Oh, it's nothing. Nothing that can be helped anyway." A fake smile made it halfway up my face, before Yevn's hand gently touched my back.

In that instant, I noticed two things: first, I felt... cool--like I might feel walking through the woods in the early morning when dew still blankets the ground and mist rolls through the trees--and calm. Second, I saw Yevn's face flicker with sadness then recognition. The cool comfort, plus what I could only describe as a spontaneous mirror of my own loneliness in Yevn's face, sent pinpricks of tears to my eyes unbidden.

Yevn immediately withdrew her hand and apologized. "Oh I'm so sorry, that was thoughtless of me. Please don't cry, Aly, I promise I won't invade like that again, I just wanted to understand what you felt, and I--"

I blinked back the tears with a light laugh. "No, no, Yevn, it's fine. I just wasn't expecting that. What was that? 'Cause you did something there, didn't you." She had already admitted to such, but I didn't have a clue what she might've done.

"Oh, yes. I did. Um--I really am sorry--"

"Yevn!" I interrupted with a laugh, touching her arm. "Really. It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong." I made eye contact with her with a smile, trying to reassure her. I waited till her shoulders dropped their tension before trying again. "I promise I'm just fascinated. What did you do just then? I know you can tell me," I teased, trying to trigger one of her information dumps.

"Well, it was really just a small thing, although probably one of our more invasive measures--Valitor might not be happy with me--but it was so enlightening, and I swear I didn't know it would be so effective--"

She caught herself just on the cusp of a rabbit trail and refocused. "I was trying to explain earlier, how we and our vessel are connected. The panel from earlier where I read your record of the simulation, you remember how I could experience the record more than just visually. I actually experienced within myself--to a small degree--the readings we took of you. Yes?"

"Honestly, I mostly just thought of it as you reading a book but with other senses. Was it more than that?" I asked.

"Perhaps.... Tell me, when you read books, do you 'see' pictures or 'hear' sounds in your mind as they happen? Not really, of course, there's always a degree of detachment, assuming we experience it similarly, but you know the concept?"

"Yeah. I know the concept. I personally 'see' the most compared to other senses, but I know for my brother he's just the opposite. But yeah, I'm with you."

"Yes, well, when I touched the machine, I 'saw', 'felt', 'heard', 'touched' whatever the ship had picked up from you, but obviously in that detached way, much like reading a book with all the senses like you thought. So that part is correct.

"But the real difference is that while a book may metaphorically carry the voice of the author, the book does not physically grow its own mouth with a tongue, teeth, and saliva. Our machines do. The same things that let us see, smell, and taste are also what let our lab and probes see, smell, and taste--and in fact better than we ourselves can, if the one recycling has enough training. Let me show you."

Yevn reached over to her desk to pluck a small mushroom from the surface. "This is just a plant, as is almost everything on this ship. Go ahead and shine that bright light directly at this mushroom," she said, pointing to a bioluminescent ball on the desk.

Only one part was lit up, so I could direct it like a flashlight.

"See? The plant does nothing. Now shine it in my face. Watch how it affects my eyes."

I held the light right up to Yevn's eyes, whose pupils immediately contracted from the brightness, even causing her face to flinch back a bit. "Sorry."

"Oh no, that was intentional from my instructions. You saw the reaction? The narrowed pupils? The involuntary flinch?"

I nodded.

"Okay, so now, give me one second with this plant here--I'm really not an expert at recycling, but I should be able to get this down...." She concentrated on the mushroom until very faint spots of light pulsed through the mushroom, starting from where she held it between her fingers, like a much weaker version of whatever Zentylk had done to her with the starfish thing during our first visit. "Okay. Now shine the light back in my eyes--trust me, it'll be fi--ow--and now on the plant that I have just given light-sensory vision."

It wasn't obvious, but I swear the little mushroom flinched when I brought the light close. I pulled the light away and back again several times, now noticing that the flinch was almost a tiny shrinking of the mushroom cap away from the light.

"So... that little plant can now... see?" I asked, confused but kind of also amazed.

"Very rudimentarily of course. It can only detect that there is light and that it should (in this case) recoil. Most plants that photosynthesize have a similar but opposite capacity--heliotropism--as your own scientists have discovered, but for the sake of demonstration I made it more instantaneous and severe for you to observe.

"Now, my skill in sequencing, as we call this, is barely capable of more than this. The technicians down there, however, as well as Zentylk and Valitor, and especially anyone in the Science Division back on Ruki--they can do wonders! Then run not only the lab, but almost everything else on this ship. With enough time, effort, and know-how, they could turn this little guy," she gestured to the mushroom, "into something resembling a Cheeto. Or so I've heard. I can mostly only read things right now, or use things other people have made. At least till I progress in my training."

"May I?" I asked, reaching for the mushroom.

"By all means."

Yevn passed me the plant, and for all I could tell, it was just a plant. But even in my hand, it still shied away from the light. I repeated the test several times before realizing Yevn's explanation had gone on without me.

"Woah, woah, woah," I interrupted. "Sorry, I got a bit behind there. What are you talking about now?"

"Sorry, Zentylk says I ramble a bit. Um, I was tying all this back around to what I did when I touched you, which was your original question."

I nodded along, now with her again.

"Our lab can measure your stress levels because we ourselves can sense cortisol levels in the air near us. I could feel your tension while you watched Mark and Kat walk away. But physical contact can tell us so much more than the air around us can, which is why we want you three in the lab where our gaseous sensors can touch you. And, I wanted to know what exactly you were feeling, so I reached out to you. I didn't expect it would be so strong or so personal, and I should have asked permission first."

Yevn fiddled with her hands, clearly remorseful for what I gathered could have been quite an invasive touch after all.

"So...." I hesitated. "When your face got sad like that... that was because you felt the sadness I was feeling?"

Yevn nodded. "That tightness in your throat, the way it pulls your mouth down and your eyebrows together, the tension through your body of wanting to move but also feeling trapped by weight, that pain in the center of your chest."

"You felt all that from a touch?" I asked quietly.

"You felt all that from a glance," Yevn said just as quietly. "And I'm sorry. Sorry for prying, and sorry for your pain. I won't do it again. And... I'm sure Zentylk and Valitor would love to hear how effective that method of research could be for us, but I won't tell them if you don't want me to."