Chapter 4

I wonder if this is an abuse of power, Jane idly mused, dragging her carbon scraper across the nose of her cruiser. She had been pondering the question for the past few hours, as the rookies complained and joked and chatted around her. The problem is that on the one hand, I can't resist a man who knows his way around a cruiser and can keep it clean ... but on the other, any pilot worth anything will have that knowhow...

Jane finally decided that these mechanic exercises were for the rookies' own good. Everyone appreciated a squadmate who knew how their ship ran, man or woman. Thus, she reasoned, smashing a chunk of charred carbon from the intake valve with satisfaction, forcing the rookies to learn the ins and outs of their cruisers isn't an abuse of power at all. Well, no more than normal.

Although no one had actually accused her of overstepping her authority, Jane couldn't exactly say she had been easy on her set of rookies since they had gotten there four months ago. She couldn't even say she'd been fair to them. From the first day, she had been as tough on her rookies as she would have been on any of her pilot or captain friends in a squad. She had held her rookies to standards impossibly high, then gently advised and guided when they failed to reach those goals.

The other captains frowned and tutted, timidly offering her advice. The rookies under other captains gave her rookies pitying looks in the hallways, and gave her terrified glances whenever they saw her. Her rookies complained to her whenever they had the chance ... but...

They're good. Jane thought with pride, far better than I was as a Rook. Maybe better rookies than any of us were. She glanced around the hangar, its huge space littered with the nine docked ships of each of her rookies in addition to the one she was sitting on. When she saw that Tess was using the wrong tool to clean the lower thrust drive, Jane waited for a moment, watching out of the corner of her eye. She didn't have to say a word; within a few moments Jackson tossed his mecaspanner from halfway across the hangar, calling out "Heads up Tess."

With barely a glance in his direction Tess snatched the tool from the air, her extensive reflex training making the action second nature, barely worthy of comment. She looked at the instrument in confusion for a moment, then made the connection and started to work on the lower thrust drive again.

They really have no idea how impressive their progress has been, Jane half-marveled, They spend all their time together, they're clueless about how far ahead of the other rookies they really are.

Jane, on the other hand, was not clueless. In addition to her own memories of her awkward first year at the Academy, she had a bigger picture that let her compare. On the first morning of every week, the captains assembled in the Capitol Lounge, a huge and comfortable retreat only open to captain-level and above. Officially the weekly meeting was to schedule the station's facilities, to make sure that no room or equipment would be in conflict for the rookies. Unofficially, by this time the entire orbital had already settled into a routine, and there were few scheduling changes needed from week to week. The captains met to confer with each other about their rookies. It was up to each captain to determine what their rookies should be learning, and at what pace, but the truth was the captains often felt just as lost as their charges. Comparing and contrasting rookie groups was a good way to make sure they were doing alright, and to reassure themselves that their groups wouldn't be too far behind their peers when they graduated to pilot-level.

Jane's rookies weren't too far behind. They weren't even in the same league. In every stat, everything measurable, they outstripped their yearmates by so far that the charts might as well have tracked them separately. The other captains had first viewed Jane's numbers with disbelief, then suspicion, and finally had simply dismissed her group as too out-of-the-ordinary to use as a model. Jane was both disgusted and amused by the varieties of excuses the other captains came up with to explain her rookies' successes away:

"They're going to hate the whole Academy at this rate"

"You'll burn them out by pushing them as hard as you do"

"What good are top quality rookies that graduate as husks?"

"You don't have to overcompensate Jane, no one really believes those rumors about you falling in love with your rookies."

It had been Captain Leftrain, "Lefty", who had made the last comment, and Jane gripped her scraper tighter at the memory of it. His comment had left the room in an awkward silence, but no one spoke up in her defense, and he had just stood there with a smug look until someone had changed the subject.

Since then, Jane had remained silent about the progress her rookies were making. The other captains hadn't pushed her on it, and she now came to the meetings to observe and take note. In private, she began comparing her Rooks' stats against pilot-level stats instead. Most of them were doing quite well even for pilots.

Jane sat back and rubbed sweat from her grimy face with an equally grimy sleeve. She glanced over at Marcus, bending over the wing to clean their flaps, and mused at the irony of having such dirty thoughts about a man who was cleaning. It's about being attracted to competency, she decided, that's what's so hot. That young man is going to take care of his ship. He won't be caught off guard by a part that sticks or a piece that rattles. He'll know every bolt on the vessel he's trusting his life to. Some flyers were content with simply assuming the deck scrubs would handle that sort of thing. Some flyers paid for the assumption with their lives.

"Remind me again why we have to do our ship cleanings ourselves?" Jackson grunted, jerking Jane out of her reverie. "The other captains don't seem to think it's very important," he was rubbing down his ship's canopy with ditric acid, keeping his hands clear as it ate away at everything but the metal fastenings and the clear plasticine canopy, "the other rookie squads just let the scrubs handle the cleanup."

"The other rookie squads?" Jane leaned back on her heels. She noted out of the corner of her eye that Marcus was glancing at her rear as she did so, and she struggled to keep a smile from her stern face, "let me tell you something Jackson, let me tell you about the other rookie squads-"

"Sure they do things differently," Aimee broke in, deepening her voice in a mock impression of the Captain, "but that's their captains' decision, not theirs, and definitely not yours..."

"IF their captains," Julia and Preston had both joined in from their spots on the hangar, and Jane was fast losing her struggle against cracking a smile, "want to train up pilots that can't handle real flyin', that's their business. But I'm gonna train me the BEST. DAMN. ROOKS. This Academy has ever seen!" each word chanted in unison was accompanied by dramatic wavings of various tools and instruments, and Jane broke down and laughed. The three rookies struck exaggerated poses that were apparently supposed to be her, leaving the rest of their squaddies in hysterics around the hangar bay.

"Alright, alright, you all know the speech so fuckin' well, maybe it'll actually sink in one of these days," Jane pretend-grumbled, a grin still on her face, as she turned back to her own ship and got back to work.

By the time the speakers buzzed a muted tone that marked the hour, most of the rookies had successfully cleaned their ships, and the ones that had finished were helping the others. As Jane had hoped, most of them had encountered and noted several small issues with the cruisers along the way. They slowly drifted out of the hangar in pairs or threes, and Jane walked over to Marcus' ship, where he was putting his tools away very slowly, waiting for her.

"You have the next hour free don't you?" She asked, plucking up a tool he had put in the wrong place and setting it in the correct slot in his tool panel, "do you want to stay around here and have some fun?"

"Here?" Marcus asked, surprised, casting his gaze around the hangar. Jane affectionately watched his beaded dreadlocks click together at the motion, and turned to look at the familiar room with him. It was wide and open for multiple small ships or single large ships to take off and land. Clear plasticine walls on either end made the whole giant room appear as if it open to space, and made the hangar seem exposed and free.

"Sure!" Jane grinned, "this is probably one of my favorite places to have sex!" Marcus looked shocked, as she knew he would, and she chuckled as he looked around, alarmed. The other rookies had already left, leaving them alone in the huge echoing room.

"Maybe you shouldn't say that so loud..." He suggested, nervously

"If you don't want me to," Jane gave him a quizzical look, "but I hardly think it's a huge secret. You don't think your squaddies have put two and two together by now?"

"They might not have..." Marcus shifted uncomfortably. Jane was often surprised at how naive the young man could be. She had known many rookies over the years, but Marcus was the first to make her feel like she was dealing with someone young. The thought made her feel vaguely uncomfortable, but she pushed the feeling aside.

"Come on Marcus, you disappear at the same time I do, and afterwards I'm in a good mood and you've got that 'I just had a woman' grin on your face, your squadmates aren't idiots."

"So you've had sex in this room before then?" Marcus hastily changed the subject

"Mmm," Jane smiled, walking lightly over to the clear plasticine wall, "there's just something about that vast, huge expanse, and all those beautiful sparks of light. It's so serene and beautiful, something about it turns me on like nothing else. That's why its my fantasy to have sex in a cruiser sometime." She didn't mention that she also enjoyed masturbating in her cruiser. She had learned the hard way that that particular bit of information led to more teasing than it was worth.

"Well maybe someday we can do that," Marcus said, joining her by the see-through wall, "I mean probably not this year, since my off-orbital trips are pretty closely monitored, but sometime in the next few years maybe." That was another thing that had been putting Jane off lately, Marcus' newfound propensity to talk about the future, always including the two of them together in it.

Please, please by all that is holy, she mentally begged, searching his face as if she could read his true feelings there tell me I'm just paranoid and that this schoolboy doesn't have a crush on teacher.

"Come fuck me," Jane said finally, not responding to his comment but taking him by the hand. She led Marcus between one of the cruisers and the plasticine wall, so they were hidden from the rest of the hangar deck, and she was facing the stars. With a smooth practised motion she slid her uniform pants down her legs, watching him over her shoulder as he admired the curves of the backside he had been staring at before. She grinned as she bent over to give him a better view, leaning against the invisible wall and spreading her legs slightly until they were hampered by the pants pooled around her ankles. There was already a glistening patch between her legs, and she winked at Marcus, "we only have an hour you know, so are you going to stare all day or are you gonna stick your-"

Marcus had yanked down his pants before she even finished speaking, and only waited long enough to position himself behind her. Jane enjoyed the young man's eagerness; she wasn't overly fond of being teased, especially when they were rushed for time. He slammed into her, rough and fast. She grunted as she was pushed against the plasticine wall. This is what it should be, she thought, her lips parting as she gasped, just like this, no fluff or window dressing, just his warmth inside my wetness, over and over and over... The clear screen was cold against her hands, but she didn't mind. She let out a breath as she pushed back against him, taking his last few inches inside of her.

For a second they both stood there, completely still, Marcus buried inside of her, both of them looking out on endless expanse of space. Jane knew what he was feeling, remembered the first time she had looked into the void while bound with another person. It was dizzying, and the emptiness seemed to suddenly surround her and make every feeling much more intense. Marcus pulled away and slammed back into her, and she pushed her hips back obligingly again. She was so aware of the feelings in her body, so aware of the sensations, and above all so aware of the infinity that spread out in front of her, that when Marcus spoke she was almost startled.

"I can see why you like this room," he panted, his thrusting growing faster and rougher as it always did.

"Hush, shut up," Jane breathed, grinding against him and smiling as she tried to settle them into a rhythm, "listen to the silence." He had broken her experience, but she tried to ease back into it. Grabbing his wrists from her waist she stood straight, pulling him with her, so that her breasts and stomach pressed against the cold wall. His inexperienced hasty motions pressed her entire body against it, then away again, sending shocks of alternating cold and pleasure through her.

Jane would've been able to tell that he had finished even if she hadn't heard his rough breathing in her ear. His warm length pulsed in her body, and she could feel him releasing inside her, the sudden hotness contrasting with the almost unbearable coldness against her breasts. She reached behind her and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him just a little deeper as his hips bucked. He started to pull back, but she held him fast.

"Stay," she whispered, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of his breath against her neck, "we have a while if you want to go for round two in a little bit."

"I'd like that," he whispered back, and Jane smiled, eyes still closed. She leaned her head against the coldness, enjoying it as well as the warmth of his body pressing against her back and her butt, and from his soft cock still inside of her.

"I didn't understand what you meant about the stars," Marcus said quietly, "but it makes sense now."

"A lot of guys don't get that. I use words like 'void' and 'endless dark', and they think it's morbid and grim. It couldn't be anything farther than that, it's so, so beautiful."

"It makes me feel pretty insignificant, compared to that."

"A little I suppose. But that can be good sometimes. As a way to put all your problems in perspective. There's no drug or stimulant anywhere near as good as sexual release while surrounded by the stars."

"There's more to it than just release though, isn't there?" Marcus asked, "I mean, you have a lot of sex."

"I have a lot of problems."

"Maybe ... maybe I could help you with that?" Marcus' voice was just a whisper now, but Jane wasn't quite sure how to take his words. Did he mean what they were doing now? Or was he referring to something deeper? Paranoid, or crush? Her worrying was interrupted by a deep pulse of pleasure, as Marcus slowly hardened inside of her.

"Mmm I think you could help too," she smiled, moving her hips in small circles that rubbed his length around within her body.

Jane let herself drift off into the feelings of pleasure and depth, watching a far-off comet and taking in the spikes of light as Marcus pushed in and out of her unevenly. Her fingers slipped across the smooth wall as her legs started trembling, and her breath came out in gasps. The only sounds were their heavy breathing and the soft sounds of sex. The only thing that existed was her, Marcus, and the stars. She was close, so close, but Marcus's pace was so uneven that she couldn't quite finish. Just a little more ... oh god just a little more

He slipped all the way out of her, then moved his length higher, pressing in against her other hole. Is he trying to ruin the moment? Jane thought, annoyed, and she shot a curious look over her shoulder and lifted her hips higher so that he slipped back inside of her. As they settled into the same pace, she tried to adjust her mindset back into the blissful peace of the stars, tried to feel once again the all-encompassing all-embracing-