Story: Unexplored Space

[frogs_of_war]

This story was longer than I planned. As I wrote I estimated it at first 300, then 500, then 1000 words. Luckily I only went 142 over. Of course when the time came to cut, first it was hard, but the closer I got to my goal the easier it was. So I used some of the cuts to flesh out bits that needed a bit more.

Hopefully it's not too confusing.

Title: Unexplored Space
Length: 1k
Summary: Sex with an alien (who's sleeping with your ex) is great, but the pamphlets don't tell you everything.




Tore glanced up from his work. Abraq. Finally. He closed down the screen and gave his full attention to his approaching lover. "Have you been avoiding me?"

Abraq shrugged. "I have a job, you know."

Assistant to the Chiel ambassador, but that hadn't kept him from mingling with the crew. And spending nights in Captain Draven's bed. But not the last two or Tore would have talked to him there.

"You weren't avoiding me?"

Abraq licked his full lips. "Now why would I do such a thing?"

Chiel weren't created to attract human men, but to not need them. Still they were attractive, Abraq more than most.

Abraq ran dark fingers over Tore's space-bleached skin. "Did you miss me?"

What a thing to ask? "Yes. Always."

Abraq grinned. Tore wanted to kiss the smile away. This was serious. "Can we go somewhere quiet?"

Abraq nodded. He was freer than usual. He took Tore's hand and entered Tore's room without glancing around first. He sat on Tore's bed and spread his legs.

Tore moaned at the invitation. He fell to his knees and rested his face against Abraq's belly.

"Draven is an asshole."

Abraq laughed. "That's already been established."

Tore and Draven had dated at the academy, but broke up so Draven could work his way to captain. Last month Tore, newly single, had transferred to Draven's ship only to find Draven hadn't told his current lover.

Things had been tense between Tore and Abraq until Tore had explained that he wasn't trying to break Abraq and Draven up. He also wanted to spending nights with Abraq.

Abraq had gone straight to Draven with that and Draven had told him to go ahead. So he had.

Tore was trying to be the better lover, but not succeeding. "When we were together last time…"

Abraq nibbled on Tore's ear. "When I let you seed my bud."

The bud deep inside him, down the canal that not only invited Tore inside, but refused to let him leave. Tore could live there forever. A place that Abraq hadn't let him touch before that night.

"I…" Tore sighed. "Seeding your bud was my goal. I went to Draven to gloat."

Abraq ran his hands down Tore's chest. "You are the first inside me there."

Chiel had other places get pleasure and ways to give it. Tore hadn't yet enjoyed them all. Tore closed his eyes. Abraq unzipped Tore's jumpsuit and stuck a hand inside. Tore grabbed it. He was having a hard time thinking as it was.

Abraq pouted. "You explore all of me, even places never touched before and I can't even reciprocate?"

Yes, please. Tore took a deep breath. "Draven wasn't surprised."

"He knows what a good lover you are. He's never even attempted to run his fingers across it, let alone get it ready for entry."

The memory of being held…

Not now. He needed to think. "He told me something."

"What?" Abraq kissed Tore's neck. He was a different man than the one Tore had carefully seduced that first time. Even last time Abraq had started out stiff and over-thought everything. If he was thinking now, it wasn't with his head.

"I've read that if Chiel lack a certain mineral, you can't breed."

"It's only available on our home world."

"Draven made sure the ship was supplied. It's been in all your meals."

Abraq sat up. "My meals? Not the other Chiel?"

"That's what he said."

Abraq flopped back on the bed.

Tore crawled up beside him. "Are you angry?"

"Relieved. I'm not crazy or a defect."

"No." Tore rested a hand on Abraq's belly. "Do you think?"

"Yes." Abraq laid a hand over Tore's. "Your baby."

"Our baby. Draven will have to wait to father your next."

"He doesn't want to father my baby. He wants me to carry his. He's jerk.” Abraq sighed. “But we love him."

Tore pulled Abraq close. "We do."

Abraq grinned. "Did whatever you read tell you that Chiel get… frisky when pregnant?"

"Something about nutrients. Wishful thinking on the author's part?"

"No." Abraq's hands were paradise.

When Tore had slept off the exercise, Abraq was still beside him. Another reason for Tore's good mood. Tore kissed Abraq's cheek. "I'll tell Draven the news."

Abraq moaned. "Just come back soon."

"I will, sweetsome."

Tore went up to the deck. "Draven, can you spare a minute?"

The crew bristled, but Tore had always called their captain by his given name. Why stop now?

Draven led him to the Captain's Ready Room. "You don't have to. I know who in my crew spies for the Chiel."

All eyes went back to their tasks.

Tore leaned on the desk. "So the ambassador's people know about you and Abraq? Isn't that a secret."

"They sent him to me, but I'm not supposed to know. They'll present him as a bride when the trip is over if I 'foul' his body with a half-breed child. You've succeeded, I take it?"

"You bother telling Abraq you were going to knock him up?"

"And let him know that I want to keep him?" Draven waved that away. He could always run rings around everyone else intellectually. And he was the hunkiest hunk. But still a jerk.

Draven ran a finger down Tore's neck. "I can taste you now?"

"Abraq hasn't said."

"Then I'll come by tonight after you've got his bud fed. He'll say yes."

Abraq would. Tore could hardly wait. But… "You do plan on feeding this bud? I'd feed yours."

"You will. All of them." Draven claimed Tore's lips then stepped back. "So you'll need the practice. Rumor says that carrying young is good for Chiel. Keeps them young and healthy. Should we put that to the test?"

Draven had taken command of a family ship by request, but how'd he gotten a Chiel ambassador with a pretty young assistant to travel on his ship? Or had he just jumped on the happy coincidence?

Tore would never know.