On Trackless Seas

Chapter 13

"Oof." The breath was knocked out of me by a particularly clingy blonde Eru woman. "Welcome back, you two."

"It is good to be back, Lord husband."

Nia didn't respond, instead just inhaling my scent where she had buried her face in my stomach. I wrapped one arm around the blonde and held out the other. Visa took the invitation for what it was and joined us in a hug. A moment later, we were joined by Inumi hugging the two other women from behind.

Alice made her presence known by hugging me from behind. I sent her a look and she asked, "What? I didn't want to feel left out."

"Fair enough," I conceded. "So, what do you two want to do, now that you're free?"

"Explore the bonds of our love."

I rolled my eyes at the expected response from the horny Eru. Inumi added, "Have sex."

Nia's muffled voice came from the area of my stomach. "Explore the ship."

"Let's do that last one," I agreed.

"And then can we…?" Visa asked hopefully.

I rolled my eyes as I let go of her and tried to separate myself from the impromptu group hug. "Maybe later."

"Yes!" Visa cheered quietly.

Nia let go, but grabbed my hand immediately after and I began leading the group towards a lift. "I haven't actually explored that much myself. I'm still exploring the original ship interior. Everything outside of that is as new to me as it is to you."

"Allow me to guide you all, then," Alice smiled as we entered the lift and it went up, and then forward—not that there was any sense of movement, given the inertial dampeners or whatever tech Alice used (‘‘Inertial dampeners’ is fairly accurate,’ she answered the unasked question,) but there was a display panel set into the wall beside the door that showed our position in the ship as we moved through the network of turbolift tubes. "We're not in any sort of a hurry, so we can take our time and enjoy the scenery."

And there was scenery to enjoy. With ship-wide spring in effect, all the leaves were bright green, the floor of every corridor was a bed of thick, soft green grass, interspersed with flowers, clover, moss, and the occasional small animal (biological maintenance drones, really—but then, the living ship had its own ecosystem). The smell of spring was heavy on the air. The sky through the trees was a bright blue and the sun was warm. It was nice.

You could almost forget that if you just reached out far enough you could touch a bulkhead in the corridors. That the sky, sun, and everything beyond the little strip of area in each corridor was part of a very accurate hologram designed to give the illusion that the halls were larger than they were. But then, that was the point. It was not quite a holodeck, but it didn’t need to be. And Alice mentally told me that a holodeck was well within her technical capabilities, but it was of little point when she could just stick our computer brains in a virtual reality simulation of any environment.

The lift opened up onto a short plateau and I blinked as I took in miles of forest, grassy field, and even a lake in the near distance. The sky above seemed to go on forever. My computer brain brought up my body's onboard sensor suite and I blinked at what I found.

"Alice… This place is huge." It looked like she had taken our little private garden in the old section of the ship and scaled it up massively, beyond the bounds of the Whisper’s physical hull, actually.

The AI chuckled. "You didn't think I'd squander space expansion now that I've got the upgrades installed, did you? Why only increase the internal size of cargo areas and places to store the Eru population and their things? This entire level is open. One continuous space, just under 80% of the ship's length and width." As she spoke, she beamed data directly into our machine brains that generated something like a hologram, detailing the ship's layout. A strip along the top, the entire uppermost deck, was highlighted.

"Externally, it doesn't take up a huge amount of space, but space on any ship is at a premium normally. With storage expansion and smart matter to reconfigure things as needed, I can cheat on most space requirements. Internally, the space has been expanded by a factor of ten. It's big enough to have its own weather cycle."

"It's amazing," Nia breathed in awe.

Visa nodded. "Truly a work of the gods."

"Are those sheep?" Inumi pointed into the distance.

"They are," Alice confirmed. "I've flash grown several different types of domesticated and wild animals native to Eruvia here. There are rabbits, sheep, deer, various birds, fish, and small predators to keep them in check."

Alice led us off the plateau and onto a trail through the forest. "The lake isn't far," she assured us as we walked. "In addition to various animals, this level also contains vegetables, nuts, fruit trees, and other edible plants. I generally produce fruits and vegetables from my plant body for consumption with meals, but these are all native to Eruvia and, well, I thought it would be more enjoyable if you could gather your own food from time to time."

"Alice, thank you. We appreciate all the work you've put in to making us feel at home."

The shipgirl grinned down on the little blonde. "You are very welcome, Nia."

"Where did all the soil come from?" Inumi wondered as we walked.

"Eruvia. From the ocean floor, mostly. But I did get some choice pieces of topsoil from uninhabited areas. I beamed them onboard before we left."

"So we're walking on a little piece of home," Nia murmured, earning a nod from Alice.

"Almost like we never left, in some ways," Visa added quietly, reverence in her voice. "Truly miraculous."

Alice led us through the forest, to the lake, where we found a house built just back from the sandy bank. It looked like a combination of stone and wood, but experience told me it was probably smart matter.

"And here we are. Surprise!" Alice gestured theatrically at the house. "Because of the way things are set up, if we need to I can detach the Whisper's original section from the larger section of the ship. Both have their own independent power, life support, drives, and other systems, so it's really more like I'm docked with a larger version of myself… The point being, on a smaller ship without spacial expansion, cabins are a necessity if you expect to take on any crew. With the larger size and spacial expansion, however, there's no point to not using some of that space for a few luxuries. Especially if they'll lead to increased mental health and lower stress levels overall."

"Admit it, you just wanted to play house," I joked.

"Maybe, my captain," Alice smiled.

The Eru girls all took off at a run, eager to explore what would be their new home. Or our home, I suppose. "Thanks."

"Of course. Nothing we do can't be done here, aside from testing heavier weapons. You'll still want to use the firing range for that—I made sure there was one nearby. A cellar door behind the home leads to underground storage and a sealed hypermatter testing chamber. But I know you like having dedicated rooms for things and the idea of a bridge on a space ship is appealing, even if you don't necessarily need one. So we can use it when situations call for it."

"More 'anticipating my needs?'"

"Always." Smirking, she added, "I ,anticipate you're going to need the space soon anyway. Those three are already taking about thawing out some groups and families, along with clergy and various functionaries. A trial run of their little three-fold government experiment. Enough for a little community. This area of land could easily support a population of more than a hundred adults plus children, so it’s not impractical to do it. I had wanted this space as our own little private land, but… I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea to actually have a small community. People do better in groups, and it's easier to raise children in a community."

I blinked. "Children? I thought you…"

"I did, but they're going to try to talk you into knocking them up. So, do you want my honest opinion?"

"Sure."

"You should do it. It may be years before we find a suitable planet for resettling the Eru. The one we're heading to may not pan out for a variety of reasons. Your reasoning for not wanting to yet is sound, both what you've told them and the things that have gone unsaid. I know you're not ready for that step yet and that's fine. It's human. But you shouldn't keep them waiting indefinitely."

I considered the shipgirl at my side as we walked towards the little rustic looking house. "What do you know that I don't?"

"Lots of things," she answered simply. "But I think, based on what I've seen from the transmissions as we get closer, that both of these races are spacefaring and potentially hostile to outsiders. I'm picking up energy emissions that match general weapon signatures from both planets."

"But if we're getting them two days out at our speed, even with the way subspace extends sensor range, they're years old."

"Exactly. They've had time to improve since. Probably not enough to cause problems for me, but definitely enough to be a problem for each other."

"And the guys in charge of this place or whatever, they didn't put a stop to it?"

"Probably not. Who knows why? I'm closer to you mentally than I am to theoretical projections of forerunners. It's like an ant trying to guess why a human does the things he does. My point being, the planet we're heading towards is essentially in No Man's Land between these two worlds. It's positioned to be used as a forward outpost or staging area for or against either. And if they haven't found it yet, when they do you can be sure they're going to want to. If we put the Eru there, then eventually…"

"They'll be slaughtered or enslaved," I finished for her and Alice nodded. "So, probably best we don't put all their hopes on this one. We'll go in, have a look around, maybe explore a bit, then vacate. Sound good?"

"That sounds like a plan, captain."

Holding out my arm in invitation, I waited just a moment before Alice took the hint and molded herself against my side. "Now let's go see this home you've made for us."

"Of course."

“And Alice,” she hummed turning her head up to look at me. I took her chin in my hand and leaned down, kissing her lips and drawing a sigh from the woman in my arms. “Thank you. I don’t say it enough, I know.”

“You don’t have to—”

“But I should.” Shifting my hand down, I settled it on the curve of her full ass, then squeezed. “Let’s break in the bed tonight.”

The shipgirl blinked. “You mean…” I nodded, and her face lit up in a beaming smile. “I knew I’d wear you down eventually.”

***

Alice practically vibrated in her chair as she waited, time seeming to crawl along at the register of higher CPU cycles for all that the few short hours between showing Kyle and the others to their new home and dinner. And now that she only had a few more minutes to wait, the crawl seemed to be getting worse.

It was awful. But she had patience. She had waited this long—years, and years, and years—so there was no reason to fret for these last few minutes. But she was so nervous. Anxious. Excited. Aroused. Longing. Lonely. And a storm of other emotions, all rolled up into a mess she could barely decipher.

This is ridiculous, she finally decided. She was a ship—part plant, part machine. Her humanoid body wasn’t even truly biological! It shouldn’t affect her this much. And yet… here she sat, catching her human body bouncing its knee again and having to still herself before she completed the motion.

Conversation went on around her as Nia, Visa, and Inumi tried to convince her captain to impregnate them soon, but he adamantly refused. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t budge on this any time soon. He had dug his heels in and it could be months or longer before he agreed. Alice wasn’t really paying attention. Oh, sure, she would go back and review everything later so she didn’t miss anything, but right now she just let their voices wash over her as she waited—

Kyle stood up and Alice’s eyes and sensors tracked the movement, beginning with the thought that they were done and it was time, to the signal from his bio-brain to lever himself up out of the chair, to the way his eyes shifted to her form and the way both his bio- and computer brains lit up with fondness, affection, and dare she say love for her. Also, lust. Lots of lust.

He wouldn’t admit it yet, but she really had wormed her way into his heart by being persistent. He wasn’t the sort of man who would speak of his feelings often, let alone when they first surfaced. He had to question everything, treat them as suspect, and work through accepting them as real before he would acknowledge them—let alone act on them. And she had seen the whole process at work.

Kyle took one of her hands and pulled Alice up from her chair. A moment later, she was surrounded by Eru as Visa took her other hand, while Nia and Inumi pressed themselves to her sides. It made walking a little awkward, but Alice adjusted as they moved back to the master bedroom. It’s finally happening!

She had waited so long. Resisting had been so very hard, when his mind was right there, connected with her own at a surface level but not a true joining between Captain and Ship. But she knew he wasn’t ready for that kind of intimate connection. Even the connection they had was too much for him at the start. Kyle valued the sanctity of his mind and Alice had violated it without knowing, right from the start, putting a sour note on what could have been an amazing partnership if she hadn’t overreached. It had taken months to build up trust from that mistake. Months of showing him that she wouldn’t abuse the privilege to see into his mind, or when she did ‘abuse’ it it was to his benefit or in ways that he could appreciate—becoming a constant presence for him, always there and always a co-conspirator to his secret thoughts.

Alice was pulled from her musings as Kyle kissed her lips, the sensation sending a tingle through her body starting at the point of contact that radiated down, running straight to her nipples and clit. Alice’s tight uniform dress shifted away, its mass joining the rest of her body’s mass, leaving her nude form exposed to their eyes—and hands apparently, as three sets of Eru hands began stroking her lovingly.

“You’ve done so much for us, Alice. Let us show you how much we appreciate everything you do,” Nia smiled up at her, blue eyes shining with adoration.

Alice’s legs hit the edge of the bed and she allowed herself to be pushed down onto her back into the silky smooth sheets and fluffy blanket, the soft mattress of smart matter adjusting under her body from soft enough to sink into to firm enough that it wouldn’t make what came next awkward. Kyle came with her, his clothes falling off around him as he settled between her legs. Inumi and Nia laid down beside her, their bodies molding to Alice’s arms and legs as their lips plied kisses on her skin and their small hands trailed up and down her body. Visa appeared at her head, the horned Eru looking down on her with a lusty leer, her emotions radiating her own special kind of religious fervor as her violet eyes took in Alice’s curves.

“To worship our Lord husband’s angel—what a joy this will be,” the dark haired woman murmured, before leaning down and claiming Alice’s lips with her own.

And then she felt it, the head of Kyle’s thick cock brushing against the plump, puffy vulva, sliding up and down the crack of her wet slit and brushing her clit. Alice saw sparks behind her eyes. Taking hold of her hips, Kyle guided himself to her entrance and slowly thrust forward. Alice moaned as he split her open, his cock piercing her depths and filling her up in a way that she had never been before, but Alice knew was just right. Like she was made for him alone. And while that was literally true considering her humanoid body was made with his dimensions in mind, she meant more in the spiritual sense.

She reached out for him every way she could. Her arms and legs circled Kyle’s body, her legs locking behind his hips and her arms around his neck. Her body’s pseudo-biological brain reached out with tendrils and tentacles of its psyker powers, caressing his mind and slowly enveloping it. Her computer brain’s data link connected to his. Her ship body’s soul reached out and oh so gently wrapped itself around Kyle’s own, feeling the way it quaked at the unfamiliar sensation, before hesitantly, fumblingly reaching back towards her own half on instinct.

Kyle hilted himself fully inside her and Alice’s brains stuttered briefly, her humanoid body locking up in orgasm as parts of herself that had been locked away since her creation came awake, options opened up to her, and she felt complete for the first time—only now realizing just how bad the loneliness had been, like a gaping, Captain-shaped hole in her very being.

Her minds came back to the present, feeling the wonderful sensations that came with fully joining with her intended Captain but not crippled by them as she briefly had been.

Alice’s human body wept with joy as she shuddered, three sets of small lips kissing her own and the false flesh of her body as Kyle fucked her slowly through her orgasm, his pace never wavering as he smiled down on her trembling form—amusement, happiness, and fondness for her clear in his thoughts and emotions. She wanted more. Everything he had and would give her, and so much more—

Kyle chuckled, reaching out and gently easing Visa back from where the Eru woman had been exploring Alice’s mouth with her tongue. “Needy shipgirl,” he accused.

“Yes,” Alice sobbed as Visa’s small hands came up and wiped away her happy tears. “I need you. Always and forever, in every way. My precious captain.”

His hands ran from her hips, up her sides, and back down to her thighs. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need, Alice. I promise.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, feeling his sincerity in his mind and soul.

“Visa,” he gestured towards the Eru woman, who nodded and straddled Alice’s body, sliding down to sit on her stomach. Then, the small, nimble fingers of one of the Eru woman’s hands found Alice’s clit and began working it over as the small woman’s other hand stroked across Kyle’s body while he kept up his steady pace within Alice. He reached out to Inumi and Nia with his computer brain, telling them what he wanted, and a moment later Alice had two small, hot little mouths wrapped around her nipples. Wet tongues lapped and swirled around and over her nipples as the girls’ mouths sucked on her.

Kyle picked up his pace within her, gripping her hips tightly as he increased the force of his thrusts. Alice knew what he wanted. He wanted her to come for him—frequently and hard. He wanted to make her a sweaty, red faced, panting mess of woman. Alice couldn’t find it within herself to deny him.

One of the benefits of a body made of smart matter was that she could change it on the fly, so she took full advantage. With a bit of mental focus, she adjusted the inside of her cunt to conform to Eru biology—namely, giving herself an internal clit. Her eyes rolled in her head at the new sensation, but she didn’t stop there. Alice increased the sensitivity of her nipples, mouth, tongue, skin—every erogenous zone on her body. Her nipples and tongue became like little clits. Her skin became one giant pleasure center. Even her hair adapted to grow nerve endings within the hair itself, which wouldn’t have been possible with normal hair given that it was just keratin and only alive at the very base.

More than that though, she knew his tastes. His sexual preferences and kinks. Exactly what sort of things excited him and what got him off. A bit of playing with her body and pseudo bio-brain, enhancing some muscle groups here, adding some new nerve tissue there… Unlike true biologicals, or even artificially created mostly biological bodies like Kyle’s and those of the three Eru women, Alice didn’t produce waste when she ate or drank. So even though she had intestines and a bladder, they stayed empty.

Until Alice used her body to create fluid to fill hers with, then tied it to her orgasm response above a certain threshold. Which, given the newness of the sensations, she hit immediately.

Alice’s body responded to the new stimulation beautifully.

Clear liquid fountained from her body as she came, spraying Kyle’s lower belly and catching Visa in the splash. Her captain came hard, filling her false womb with his seed and leaving Alice wishing she could bear his children. Not yet, but soon, she reminded herself of the custom body cooking in her core, right beside Kyle’s original body—and now those of Nia, Visa, and Inumi.

Kyle came to a stop, reaching down and running one finger through the thin, somewhat stringy spray of something that was mostly mucosal fluid and water, with a few… extras for fun. Bringing it up to his nose, he gave it a sniff and raised his eyebrows, before bringing it to his mouth to taste. Visa did the same, letting out a quiet, “Mm.”

“Alice,” Kyle began, as Inumi and Nia both shifted around to see what all the fuss was about. “What did you do?”

The shipgirl grinned. “I adjusted my body a bit. Since this isn’t a biological body, merely a mass of smart matter shaped like one, I can change things internally at will.”

“And this?” he asked, scooping up another quickly congealing dollop that became stringy between his fingers.

“Water-based lubricant, mild stimulant, and aphrodisiac with the proper chemicals for scent and taste—”

“Milk chocolate though?” Kyle sent her an amused look.

“Want something else?”
 
 He rolled his eyes. “It’s fine.”

“More than fine,” Inumi murmured, having worked her head between their bodies and begun licking at their flesh.

Kyle pulled away, only for Nia and Visa to share the task of cleaning his cock, while Inumi dove into Alice’s snatch with gusto. Alice giggled as the brunette licked away at her, reaching down and scratching the dog girl’s triangular ears as Kyle groaned at the other two’s efforts quickly causing his cock to rise to the occasion again.

Her captain and fledgling crew were happy and loved. She was complete in a way she hadn’t realized she could be. Her long years of solitude had come to an end, finally, officially. Permanently.

Alice was content.