Chapter 3

I dare say I was not much company during the nearly two hour flight to our first stop. Towards the end, though, I was looking out at scenery not so very different to that back at base. It occurred to me that we would probably have to make up titles or names for the different places. We didn't even have a name for our base. Was it 'home'? Or... 'Headquarters'? 'Home Base', maybe?

"Lieutenant..."

Anya looked at me strangely for a few seconds, but then responded, "Yes, sir?" in a neutral tone.

I took a deep breath. "Sorry. Anya."

"It's ... difficult, isn't it, Hex? Do you know why the Colonel ... sorry, Brigadier ... assigned me this job?"

"I know what he said." I replied. "I don't think it was his real reason and I don't know what that was. But I was going to ask..." She smiled and tipped her head in invitation to me to continue. "It occurred to me that I didn't have a name for where I live."

She thought about that. "I think of where we come from as 'Base'," she said, "and where I live as home. I never thought about needing any other name."

"Home," I mused. "Home ... is my little flat in Scotland, near Edinburgh. At least..." I broke off as it was apparent we were losing height and about to reach our destination.

The couple at the first stop showed us the data they'd collected thus far and several small rodentoid creatures they'd caught. We watched as they weighed, measured and scanned them.

The senior, a woman, held up a squirming creature that closely resembled a grey squirrel.

"It's a squirrel," I said.

"It is." She put it on the ground, and after a couple of seconds it disappeared into the undergrowth. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised it it was mutually fertile with Earth types. We'll need to be careful about that. The DNA is astonishingly similar."

That was the first time I actually saw one of the creatures I heard rustling about in the long grass. Later, as Andromeda got more grounds-keeping bots on line, and the undergrowth was trimmed down, we'd see more of them.

We moved on to another site. It involved crossing some mountains, which were high enough to be topped by snow. The lower slopes were forested, so even had there been any fauna large enough to see from a thousand metres, we probably wouldn't have seen them anyway.

At the second site, the investigating pair were accompanied ... should that be hindered? ... by Cassandra Wright. They had much the same data as our first stop with the addition of several reptiloids and a selection of insect types.

"It's a very delicate balance," Cassandra inserted into one of the conversations. "Particularly in view of the possibility of cross-fertilisation."

"Nobody doubts that," I agreed. "Rabbits, rats, pigs and dogs."

"We're thinking bison and deer, perhaps," commented one of the staff ecologists. "Bison would be better for the prairie type environments than cattle. Once they're established, some top predators, tigers, perhaps, that are threatened at home. We do need to take steps to prevent inadvertent introduction of pests."

We stayed at that site the first night. Andromeda had opened up dwellings for us all. The scientists were settled after a couple of weeks. As I entered the place I was going to spend the night and looked round, it could almost have been the same place as ... home? The ... art-work was different, but that was all, really. Anya had preceded me and as soon as the door closed behind us, headed for the annexe.

I headed below, thinking I'd take a shower; I headed for the bathroom, leaving a trail of sweaty clothes behind. The cool shower was refreshing and I felt much restored by the time I emerged. The ubiquitous maintenance bots had cleared away the clothes I'd strewn around, so I shrugged and got out the kimono-like garment I'd got used to for wear before bed, and headed upstairs.

Anya was waiting, dressed in her short denim mini-skirt and loose blouse. "I fancy ravioli," she said with a smile. "Romy assured me we could have a decent wine with it, too."

"Sounds good," I agreed. "I hadn't really thought about it." I hesitated, and we both stood there for a minute or so. "You look good," I said.

She dipped in what might almost have been a curtsy. "Why, thank you, kind sir." She turned away and headed for the kitchen and replicator.

It wasn't quite a silent meal, as we talked desultorily about the findings we'd been shown, but there were longish periods during which neither of us spoke. The silence was a little strained, somehow. I popped a pocket of ravioli in my mouth, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed.

"This is good," I said. "I don't think I've tasted anything quite like this before."

"Granny's recipe," smiled Anya. "Granny was born Italian, so I was brought up on a real melange of cooking styles. She taught me, well, this sort of thing, and Andromeda programmed several recipes into the replicators. I miss cooking, sometimes."

"Oh?"

"There's not too much opportunity, usually. In the field, if it's necessary to cook, it has to be simple stuff. That's better than rat-pacs, of course. Once Earth-type vegetables are established here and we've got a handle on edible native species, I hope to do some more proper cooking, if I'm still here, of course."

"Why wouldn't you still be here?"

She looked at me with that patient expression women wear sometimes. "Tours of duty aren't indefinite. I know I'll be here another year, but after that?"

I didn't much care for the idea of Anya Katsinski moving on. In fact, it occurred to me she wasn't the only one who might have to move on. I didn't know what to say about that, so I let it go.

We finished our entrée, polished off the bottle of wine, and Anya produced Gelato Affogato, which was a perfect end to the meal; the bitter coffee contrasting with the ice-cream to make a burst of flavour in the mouth.

"That was marvellous, Anya. Thank you."

"Would you like coffee to finish?"

"I don't think so, thanks." I was torn between my attachment to Romy and the attraction I felt for Anya. It wouldn't have been any problem had not Romy been pushing me, making it clear she thought I needed a human partner, clear that she thought Anya would be a suitable candidate.

"Hex, I..." Anya broke off. Then, after a stiff pause, "I'd better be off to bed."

"Okay. Sleep well, Anya. And ... thanks for a splendid meal and ... charming company."

Our eyes met and there was another long pause before Anya nodded, wished me, "Goodnight," turned, and went off to her bed. That left me alone, undecided whether to congratulate myself on avoiding awkwardness or to kick myself for not trying to move our relationship on a step.

The next stop was on the coast. As we were at the equator, it was warm enough to make the sea inviting. However, the couple working there didn't think that was a good idea.

"There're things out there I don't care to share the ocean with," one of them said. "We've got photos..."

They did have photos. The attraction of the sea was greatly diminished by the time I'd looked through them. The ecology of the sea was, indeed, undamaged by the original inhabitants of the planet and having looked at the photos of some of the denizens, I didn't want to share an ocean with them, either. We looked at their data, had a bite to eat, and left the second continent for one of the larger islands.

The other 'eco-freak', Petrus Jackson, was there. Strictly speaking, it was a large atoll, not an island, with a shallow lagoon in the middle. The lagoon was almost completely isolated from the ocean, the connection little more than a trickle. Andromeda having no moons, the only tidal effects were from the sun, and that not much. Twice a day sea-water rose high enough to enter the lagoon, then drain away. That renewed the contents, but permitted only relatively small creatures to enter or leave.

I decided to put off the duty part in favour of a swim. I hadn't thought to pack swim-trunks, but when I said that, the resident couple laughed. "We don't bother with suits, just sand-shoes so we don't step on anything poisonous. Some of the creatures in the lagoon could be quite dangerous if you got a spine in you. We've been very careful. Very careful."

I don't have a problem with my body, but I'm not very used to public nudity. I was wavering on the verge of backing out when I saw Anya's eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Okay."

"You'd better undress indoors and put some sun-screen on," the senior scientist told us, "the sun may not feel hot, but it'll burn you just the same. Especially if you've not had much exposure recently."

What I hadn't expected was that Anya immediately began to shed clothes the moment we were out of the sun, revealing her trim, toned figure, honed to perfection by training and regular work-outs. Her most striking feature as far as I was concerned was her breasts. You know how sometimes small breasts are, well, small, and stick out or droop? Anya's weren't big in terms of how far they stuck out, but together the clearly firm mounds covered most of the width of her chest, their modest curves – absolutely zero droop – perfectly in proportion to the rest of her athlete's body. I stared.

"Like what you see?" Anya's voice contained amusement, but also nervousness. "I thought we were going to swim?"

"My God, Anya. Of course I like! You're gorgeous. I didn't expect you to just strip off in front of me, that's all."

"Didn't seem much point in separating when we'll both see everything when we go out, and it's a lot easier to lotion each other than try to lotion ourselves."

She had a point. Two of them, in fact, as the situation clearly was having an effect on her. I decided to go with the flow and stripped off myself. As soon as I was naked, Anya was busy smoothing lotion on my back and shoulders, face and arms. Of course, she didn't stop there. By the time she'd finished and I was thoroughly coated, I was erect. Very erect. She handed me the bottle.

"Your turn. Don't miss any."

As if I would. She felt every bit as good as she looked. I left the good parts to last and spent longer than strictly necessary on those lovely tits, without a murmur of protest. By the time I got to her pussy, it was very wet and as I stroked across her clit she orgasmed loudly and I had to support her for a minute or so. That was nice, too. Then she dropped to her knees in front of me and swallowed my cock before I had a chance to think about it. I'd never been deep-throated before, and it was on top of a very sensual and sexy experience. I didn't have a chance to hold back and two, three, four pulses of semen shot into her throat.

"Oh, wow."

She pulled back and held me in her mouth, gently, as I got flaccid. "There. Now you can go out without embarrassment. At least, without much embarrassment," she said, finally releasing me.

I took her hand and helped her to her feet, cupped her chin in one hand and bent down to kiss her. "Thank you. That was ... awesome."

"You don't mind?"

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "When I have time to think about it, I might feel guilty. Just now, I feel pretty relaxed. Your nipples are still spiked, though."

She coloured. "Thank you so much for pointing that out. Come on. Let's go..." and preceded me through the door.

She was waiting for me outside, still in bodyguard mode; her eyes were darting around checking what I assumed to be a threat-free environment.

"We need sand-shoes," she said as she led the way to the other building.

We found shoes that fitted well enough, and made our way to the lagoon. The other three had clearly been swimming and were on their way out of the water as we waded in. The shoes proved to not spoil our enjoyment. I'm not a great swimmer, but it was pleasant to be immersed in the salty water that was just the right temperature for comfort. Anya, however ... must have some dolphin genes. Her swimming was clearly in a different universe to mine, cutting through the water like an Olympic competitor. After about ten minutes, though, she came over and began to tease me with fleeting touches; she was just too quick for me to much more than flounder around. In the end, I just kept swimming. I did not mind at all what she was doing, though I did wonder about the others, what they might think. And ... what might Anya be expecting of me?

Tired, I headed for the beach, Anya at that moment a few yards behind. By the time I was touching bottom and beginning to wade out, she was nearly up to me, and as I reached the beach, she was in her position behind and, in this case, slightly to my right. We walked towards the others. Jackson stepped forward, his right hand extended. There was something wrong, but I was too happy at the prospect of some sort of truce to worry, and reached out myself.

What happened next happened all too fast to register at the time. I have since pieced it together, fitting my own impressions together with the accounts of our two staff ecologists. I may have things slightly out of order.

Anya's shoulder impacted my side, causing me to stagger and almost fall. Jackson's left arm was coming up and hit Anya's side. Her scream of pain coincided with the impact of the side of her hand on his larynx and the two of them collapsed; Jackson obviously struggling and failing to breathe, Anya ominously still. His hand released a small object in order that both his hands could reach futilely for his neck as he went blue.