Two weeks later, Katie finally brings it up. Two weeks of tolerating my extra touches, my extra cuddles, and some achingly desperate sex; Katie finally asks.
“How are you really doing Penny. I’ve been trying to support you without asking, but it doesn’t seem like enough. So I’m asking, how are you, and what do you need?” Katie looks troubled and now I feel bad.
“I’m so sorry hon, I don’t mean to put my distress on you. I just though that Melissa would be the last person to bail on me. It hurts Katie. It reminds me of all the reasons I’ve protected my heart in the past, and I’m trying so hard not to just hang all over you while I mourn. I know you get touch saturated, but I’ve really appreciated your tolerance lately.”
Katie sighs as she sits next to me on the couch and pulls me into her lap, my back on the arm rest, and my face next to hers. “Penny, do you remember that week we were studying together?”
“Yeah, we spent a lot of time together physically, but we didn’t really do small talk or life stuff.”
She huffs with a smile, “Yes. But when we were in the same room, you were always touching me. Leg against mine in the study room, hand on my leg at a restaurant, holding me like a monkey as we slept.”
“But you have saturation issues?” I interrupt.
“That’s my point Penny, and it is one of the reasons I got so scared on Copernicus. You are my only exception. Did you know I was annoyed that you hadn’t asked more about my life? I would have been looking for a way out from anyone else, but for you, I just wanted farther in. After seeing your steady involved relationship with Melissa, I realized that I was afraid for the wrong reasons. You’re not the kind of person that gets so lost in someone that you forget yourself. And oddly, I feel the most cared for, when we work next to each other and you dote on me that little bit.”
I can’t help myself, her speech is so sweet I have to kiss her. “Thank you Kay. This means a lot.” I want to ask a favor, but she kind of said it was alright to? “Do you have work you can do where I can be in your lap and work too?”
She pulls me into a hug and kisses the side of my hair. “I do, but let us do that at our beach lounge. If I’m being sentenced to touch you all day, I want your skin against mine.”
“I love you so much” I gush as I hug her. “Want to have the V’tek marry us when we get back to Astoria?”
“We’ll see how you feel when we get there, Penny. You’re a little overwhelmed right now.”
I nod into her shoulder just before she pushes me off to get changed.
Each day is a bit of a struggle for me, but Katie letting me be her backpack helped a lot. When I went to help Beecham install the thrusters (because Melissa bailed on that too) he let me use his forge to make six Titan Steel rods for my sundering order. When I get back to the island, Katie argues with me about the Magitech interface for the warp system for a while and then we have satisfying angry make-outs.
The last week before Kay and I trek back to Astoria, I finish my Gem engraving and enchanting order and get a message from Naval Reactors.
/Penny, Amice is being an ass and has convinced enough people to not let you work on our space ships. Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Interior are willing to part with the Atoll for 500 mil and a promise to clean up the radiation./
I forward that to Katie to see what she can do and keep reading.
/The administration doesn’t want to commit to anything until your promise of un-throttled deliveries are realized. So we’re at least a year away from dealing with you again officially./
What a good old dude.
/Copy Rich. We have some interested parties that we can trade the dollars for, so prep the island sale friend. Other than that, Keep an open comm Admiral. You’ve got a friend in the Empire./
When I send that response, it really feels like I’m heading home. I’m saying my last goodbye, going toward my future. I ping Beecham and he straight calls me.
“Hey Admiral, I was thinking.”
“Do you have the appropriate protective gear on?”
“Ha ha. Funny, ma’am. Anyway, I can’t leave the system with only the LP array, so I wanted to check out Ganymede to see if the aether was better around Jupiter? Maybe set up an outpost?”
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“I like that idea, Chief. I like it a lot. But we won’t have the system Ansible online for most of a year. I’ll authorize the funds for a Ganymede outpost, but you won’t be able to transport it in place until after the build in Andromeda finishes.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ve got to put together a crew first anyway. I want a shipyard, so why not start collecting like-minded folks?”
“I leave the system in your care Chief. I authorize you to be the first ever Astorian Navy recruiter.”
“Damnit. No good deed hey Admiral.”
“Sadly true Chief. Sadly true.” I thumb in a provisional budget for Ganymede Outpost and leave it to him to ask for more when he starts setting up for it.
>P] Alright love, anything you need for 210 days? Last call for travel snacks. [<
>K] I have a list of purchases for when we get into Astoria’s ansible range, but until then. I’ve ordered foods and cocktails for me for the trip. [<
Tessa, have you uploaded to Bikini Station?
I have and so far, Parallel Minds is holding out.
Seems like our boxes are checked. I’m in our indoor shop, cleaning up some sand-allergic devices and collecting the pieces I need to work on the way to Astoria. I summon the Indulgence and start loading Katie’s and my projects on the elevator.
When I finish, I find Katie in her shade dressed in nothing but panties—her preferred state. My mouth waters a little and my core warms, but I decide to behave and just pull her chin for a lustful kiss.
“I’m mostly naked, I was hoping for more.”
“Oh no! Did I miss a signal, I though your pale tits just wanted some sun!” She smacks my leg with the back of her hand. “Fine, I was tempted, but if you load the last of your stuff, we can leave almost a week early.”
She perks up at that and stands to retrieve her wares. Watching Katie talk to herself, and maybe her AI while half naked and carrying stuff is endearing and makes me want to keep her. Like forever ever.
Six hours later, Katie is finally done prepping for launch and she’s still in her underwear.
“Katie, put a suit on or I’m Not taking you.”
“You wouldn’t dare”
She’s right, so avenue the second: “Fine, I will knock you out, dress you and leave traces of my blood all over so you never forget how much we need each other.”
“No need to get nasty Penny. I’ll do it, sheesh.” She reluctantly puts her Officer jumpsuit on, sans bra just to tempt me. Or spite me. Could be both.
Katie and Atropos are smooth co-pilots and we don’t say anything while we spin up for launch.
/Brahae, this is ASS Indulgence, leaving Sol on an offset, parallel departure. Interference query, over./
/No interference, Indulgence. Out./
Heh, they’re still cross with me. Stupid head-strong captains. Any case, we out. It takes us a few hours to get out of Moon range, but at 2g’s it doesn’t take long.
/Last check before Kepler, energizing Warp ring./
/I’m looking to solidify my mutation Penny, No shield for the short jump?/
/No, Kay. I order a Galaxy fruit or something. Chaotic aether is not safe./
/I want a non-linear mutation hon, will the fruit help with that?/
/Have you been directing your efforts and track toward your mutation goals?/
She pings me affirmative, and I return her ping.
Seats, suits and supplies SAT, initiate warp sequence Kepler, Tessa.
I reach over and tweak Katie’s obviously anxious nipple. A chastisement for her sense of attire. Maybe a seal of approval, but she stays stoic as we warp. Once we’re through though she un-buckles and pounces on me. I emit a dignified Empress squeal, and then engage in several undignified activities.
“Your sickness okay? My shielding isn’t perfect.”
“I’m great Penny.” She pants.
“Why don’t you have a nickname for me Kay?”
“I do, but I don’t know how you’ll take it.”
“Really? I fucked you with the ring you gave me and you’re unsure?”
“If you frame it like that it sounds dumb. In my mind I call you little Pixie.”
You bitch. You know I don’t like it when other people call me little or Pixie. But maybe that’s why she’s never said it.
D’awww. She’s such a freaking cutie. “I don’t hate it when you say it. And it seems my mutations are heading that way.” I sigh, “Much that I hate the smallness, I don’t hate the magical fey aspects.”
She picks me up and cradles me. “Is it bad that I would miss this?” I pull her face shield off and kiss her.
“No babe, but it may not last forever.” I giggle like an idiot. I like being smaller than Katie. But only Katie. I’ve accepted that the vampire giant will always be able to cradle me. Ugh, I am so smitten with her.
We do nothing responsible for our two-day recovery in Kepler. Our long warp to waypoint 2 has me taxed for shielding, but I’m functional. I want to pull a supercharged warp to skip a whole system but Atropos and Katie have ulterior motives.
They want me fully recovered to do a day of survey in the Hades system when we get there. I protest, but they remind me that the V’tek Community have likely begun their settlement of the moon by now. Elysium has a very high concentration of Aether and I wouldn’t mind a stop there anyway. Just standing on that moon feels good. I worry that Katie will want to come with and trigger a mutation even though I promised her a fruit.
We jump to the system I named after Hephaestus’ workshop and it’s just as sedate as it was last time. I doubt I’ll ever put up a meaningful colony out here, but a traveler’s waystation wouldn’t be unwelcome. I tell Katie that we’ll only be here for a few days and then we’ll warp to Hades system.
We warp into Hades and quickly fall into orbit around the system's collector of the largest moons. I drop Katie off on Asphodel where the ansible is and tell her I’ll be back in the afternoon. When I pull into orbit around Elysium, a semi-mechanical voice issues through my headset telling me the coordinates of Elysium Grove and where to land my shuttle.
I quickly check my settlement data, while Tessa takes care of the landing, to confirm that the Grove is in fact registered as a vassal settlement to the Astorian Empire as administered and governed by the V’tek Collective. Established two months ago, having filed the forms mere weeks ago, It appears that everything is in order and V’tek’Clor’s enthusiasm appears to be genuine.