“James?!” Kara’s warbled voice cut through the fog and suddenly and unwillingly dragged him nearly kicking and screaming back into the realm of consciousness.

It took him a good couple of seconds to comprehend who she even was and why she was hovering so annoyingly close to him. Wiping his eyes furiously of sleep, Rorik cleared his throat and slowly found his voice as he sat up on the dingy little cot. “Hell of a way to wake a man up. But at least you didn’t smack me again.”

“Oh no, I did. You just didn’t seem to mind as much this time.”

He eyed her disapprovingly as he drank in the unwelcoming spartan environment of the stolen ship. Its relative unfamiliarity did little to ease his groggy transition into complete wakefulness. The cold, rigid, controlled air made his arms shiver slightly and the terrible rumbling of his nearly empty and pleading stomach didn't help much either.

“Remind me to get you back. What’s going on?” Rorik finally continued.

“You were talking and moaning in your sleep, like…a lot. It was kinda funny at first, but you were having way too good a time towards the end there. Thought you were about to bust a nut or something.”

Rorik thought hard to recollect the hazy contents of his dream and it gradually rematerialized in his head like an imaginary collage. As Kara had implied, it had been a lustful fantasia, a steamy vision so potent that he could still vividly feel the residual excitement of the cerebral simulation. But as realization continued to seep into his mind, he remembered that the focus of the dream had been no one other than Kara herself. An intimate fantasy of such libidinous vigor that he almost felt embarrassed by how much he’d enjoyed it. Their tongues and bodies had been so well intertwined that the mere memory of the pleasure he’d experience made him shiver even more.

It wasn't the first time he'd dreamed of her, but the intensity had been ridiculous.

Getting a solid grip on his emotions he avoided her gaze for a moment and tried to subtly cover his visible arousal with the thin, cotton blanket. But it didn’t completely conceal the outline of his still erect member.

A humorous suspicion crept onto Kara’s features, almost as if she could read his mind. “So…who were you dreaming about?”

“Uh…Cass, why?”

“Hmm, interesting, but no I don’t think so. The name I heard didn’t sound much like Cass or Cassandra.”

His stomach dropped and he cleared the remaining flehm from his throat. “Either way, is it really any of your business? Want to know my horoscope while you’re at it too?”

“Nah, I just could’ve sworn it sounded a lot like my name,” Kara smiled cunningly. “But that would be crazy right?”

He’d thought he’d awoken to a simple game of checkers, but she was playing fucking chess.

“What? I mean I don't think crazy is the right word, but it sounds like you were the one dreaming,” Rorik fibbed as convincingly as he could. “I’m telling you that you’re mistaken.”

“Oh come on, it’s not a big deal James, it’s just funny. We all have weird sex dreams from time to time. Do you really expect me to believe that I misheard you all seven times? Oh, Kara.” She moaned and then laughed heartily as she slapped her knees.

While part of him found it just as humorous as she did, the last thing Rorik wanted to do was feed her already considerably inflated ego. She would never let him live it down if he admitted to anything. The very thought of her occupying some distant corner of his mind, even subconsciously, would only add to her arrogant and competitive tendencies. “Yeah I do actually, maybe you should clean your ears out more often, might have some gunk built-up in there,” Rorik cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject. “Any sign of the Gizotso?”

She knelt down to lean against the bed and study him, clearly not fooled one bit by his hastily constructed redirection. “You're a pretty good liar James…but you’re not half as good as you think,” Kara got so close that her breath warmed his nostrils and if either of them had leaned forward they would've kissed. She jutted a thumb back towards the starboard hatch. “But we docked with them a few minutes ago. I was about to wake you when you started wet-dreaming or whatever you claim you were doing.”

Rorik leaned back and shot to his feet past her, equally eager to escape the conversation as well as the tight confines of the tiny vessel. “Welp, instead of sitting here talking about baseless accusations and stupid dreams, let’s get out of here shall we?”

“Aye aye…whatever you say.”

The airlock cycling process took a few minutes longer than he would’ve liked, until the Gizotso’s inner door opened and the rather stale, but strangely comforting air of its interior greeted Rorik’s welcoming nostrils. A cool, and much needed inhale instantly took some of the stress and weight of the past few days off of his shoulders. And as they started down the hall discussing their next move, he took a passive interest in counting the plethora of new bullet holes lodged into the rusty bulkheads.

“Well, whatever his reasons were,” Kara continued as she walked ahead of him. “They’ve got to be important.”

“I agree, but that’s not going to make finding him any easier. And unless the other ships’ have been circle-jerking this whole time, they’ve got a good lead on us.”

“It’s not a race, as long as we contribute to the search, you shouldn’t catch any real flak from Rikor.”

Rorik glanced at her. “I know, but you will from the Council. Like I said, they want excellence from you even if it's completely unobtainable.”

“I’ll do what I can, exile definitely sounds like no fun. But I’ll be damned if I’m jumping through hoops like a circus animal for those self-righteous bastards every five seconds. Why we even still need those ancient relics is anyone's guess. Ask any wolf with a half decent head on their shoulders, something needs to give in the upper-ranks and sooner than later.”

“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir lady. Hell if we do manage to find the Primum, he might just be able to do that.”

Kara nodded absently. “Yeah, he’s zoned out a little in later years, but he’s always had a good head on his shoulders. I wouldn't be here without him.”

“Oh I remember. It often comes to mind when you’re getting on my damn nerves.”

“Oh, well speaking of getting on people’s nerves? Before I forget?” Her tone was more chipper than it had been a second before.

“What’s up—?” He started cautiously.

Kara spun on her heel and rocketed a clenched fist into his gut, making him burp and instantly drop to a crouch. “If you go in my boot again, I promise you’ll have nightmares about me instead, capisce?”

“Yeah…I’d probably have one every time I'd go to sit down,” Rorik said between teeth clenched in a grimace. “Dude, that was definitely more than half as hard.”

“Well, I’m almost not perfect, I don’t always get it exactly right.”

“Well…for future reference!” Rorik punched her in the groin, and she dropped to her knees next to him with a grunt, hunched over in pain.

“The vagina?!”

They both groaned on the ground like dying animals, until a tall, lanky crewman jogged out into the intersection and craned his giraffe-like neck curiously towards them. He awkwardly stared back and forth between them for a few silent moments, his confusion etched plainly upon his thin, gaunt features.

“Can we help you?! Go do something important, you mutant brachiosaurus!” Kara shouted in between grunts of pain.

The man started at a fast pace back the way he came.

“No, go the other fucking way you gawking bean-pole!” Rorik yelled as he rose to his feet. “Faster, unless you like extra duty!” The crewman broke out into a hurried hobble and desperately stumbled clumsily around the corner.

They bellowed genuinely in unison as they started limping forward again, leaning onto each other for support. Any remnants of the tension from aboard the stolen ship had instantly melted away.

“Feels almost good to be back on this rust bucket.” Kara said, her tone casually elated.

Adrax sauntered around the next corner next, with a smug smile on his face, his eyes tired and his curly red hair ruffled messily atop his head. “You two are loud enough to wake the dead, but it’s damn good to hear your voices.”

“Yours too, how are things going here?” Rorik asked as he finally straightened.

“They’re going. I’ve got the bridge at the moment, working a double to give Cass a break. Unless you want me to wake her up?”

“Nah, I’ll go talk to her,” He felt a tingle of excitement run up the length of his spine at the words. “Got something to discuss with her anyhow.”

“Ohhhh.” Kara added teasingly.

“What are you twelve?”

“At heart.”

Rorik shook his head disapprovingly and started to walk past them before stopping and turning. “We’ll take over at shift change Adrax, I’m too exhausted to be of any real use right now. I’m assuming you guys already started extrapolating the telemetry?”

“Yeah, got a decent bit charted out, but with the database's limited and outdated mapping data for the Core, we’re probably guessing more times than not. New stations, ports, and all that.”

“Well, we can at least guarantee that most of the planets that were there are still there. Not like there’s a bunch of people flying around in a giant, gray, planet-killing baseball or anything.”

Adrax looked back and forth between them, his brow curled in confusion.

“I think he’s referencing some old nerd movie neither of you were even alive to see when it came out.”

Rorik chuckled. “And that fact makes me feel slightly less like a dinosaur for once. But anyway, when you get back to the bridge, have the helm to set a course for the nearest possible destination Adrax, as fast as we can. I’ll see you two later.”

“Sweet dreams, James.” Kara offered teasingly, but he purposefully resisted the urge to take the bait. And as he turned at the end of the hall, he inadvertently heard the faint traces of their continuing conversation.

“How ya been?”

“Uh, good Kara, good.”

“Send a message to whoever’s on the bridge, I’m sure they can handle putting in some silly little coordinates…I need your help with something a bit more urgent.”

“Uh, anything in particular?”

“Oh very particular, it’s in my quarters, I’ll show you.”

“I don’t know…last time was a little rough even for me.”

“Oh butch up, you’ll get used to it. Dicks are like horses, you gotta saddle them, ride them, and sometimes break them in.”

Fucking yikes.

---

The sound of wrapping knuckles on her door jolted Cassandra awake and she wiped at her eyes as she looked at the clock. Her anger boiled with every annoying subsequent knock.

What part of do not disturb didn’t Adrax understand, it better damn well be an emergency.

“What?!” She shouted as the door snapped open, but her anger washed away when she realized it was James, not Adrax standing in her doorway, a sly smile playing on his lips.

“Is that how you always answer your door?”

“I…close enough actually.”

He wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her passionately as they slowly drifted back into her room. Cassandra returned it with equal vigor, joyfully caught off-guard by his incredible excitement. Their tongues searched every nook and cranny of each other's mouths with curious abandon. And after a few pleasure filled moments, she gathered the will to finally pull away.

“Where’s this coming from?” She asked happily as she gently rubbed his stubble. It’d grown a decent bit the past couple of days, and it was probably a day shy of a full beard. She hoped that a razor and some shaving cream were in his near future, because she wasn’t quite sure if she liked it or not.

“Well, my little vacation reminded me of what we’ve been talking about and how important a solid relationship sounds to the both of us. I get taking things slow, but we don’t want things to screech to halt either, do we?”

Cassandra beamed happily up at him, moving in to continue their kiss when her brain finally registered the origin of the very strong scent emanating from all over his person. She sniffed him intently and a surge of rage built in her gut. Before she’d really even thought about it, she roughly pushed him into the wall with a thud.

“Ow,” He exclaimed as his head cracked off of the metal. “Look I like rough stuff too, but at least give a guy a warning.”

“Fuck you! You come in here with all that lovey dovey bullshit with her scent still all over you!”

Rorik seemed genuinely surprised. “What? I mean, of course her scent is still everywhere, we were elbow to elbow the whole time,” He sniffed at himself. “I even took a shower.”

“That only makes it worse! You don’t get that much of her on you just by standing next to her!”

“Well yeah, maybe it’s because of us,” He paused and exhaled deeply. “Having slept…in the same bed, but—.”

“So you admit you fucked her then?!” Cassandra had to restrain herself from launching full-throttle at him like an out of control freight train.

“No! I didn’t say that,” He rubbed his nose. “We slept physically next to each other, but we didn’t do anything. Plus the motel room was a little on the small side—.”

Cassandra chuckled humorlessly as she walked back towards her bed. “So basically you’re trying to say you think I’m stupid?!”

“No I’m not, but I think you’re being a little stupid right now!” James snapped back. “This is exactly what happened the last time! You assume something is happening and when I try to explain things to you, your ears shut like fucking blast shields and you refuse to listen!”

“Because I’ve heard the same bullshit over and over and over again James, so excuse me for being rightfully paranoid!”

He visibly calmed himself before his beautiful amber eyes regarded her sweetly. The warmth of them slowly and frustratingly stripped away her resolve, piece by piece. “I didn't do anything, Cass. And if my word means so little to you, then maybe we should just stop it here…before it goes any further. We’re too old for this shit.”

She scoffed as she paced in place and as she studied James, part of her wanted him to be lying so she could continue being furious. But the other, more logical and understanding part of her saw the truth and genuinity in his soft stare. The burden of her anger finally washed away and yet again, she instantly felt like a jackass for not having control over herself. “I…sound like a teenager, don't I?”

“Only a little bit. But I know it’s simply because you’re a passionate person,” He smiled as he cautiously reclosed the gap and slowly wrapped his strong arms back around her. “Plus, sometimes you gotta act a little young to feel young right?”

“That’s no excuse…me going off the handle can't be pleasant to deal with. I’m sorry.”

“Well, I sure don't like the yelling part, but the way you wrinkle your nose when you're pissed is pretty damn cute. Almost makes it worth it.”

Cassandra smiled fondly and tried to recreate the expression. “Like this?”

“Nah, it's more like this,” He scrunched his nose up into a ridiculous looking expression. “If you don’t look constipated, you aren’t doing it right.”

“Shut up! I don’t look like that,” Cassandra giggled, a bit more girly than she liked, but she felt the intensity of his affections more strongly than ever before. “Okay, but I’ve…can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything.”

“Would you be okay, if I talked to her about this?”

A hint of annoyance flashed in his eyes. “So you don’t believe me then?”

She wrapped her arms tighter around him and stared deeper into his soul. “I do believe you, I’ve…just been taken advantage of and cheated on a lot this past century. Believe it or not, I’m an overly trusting person at times and I hate how much it has emotionally affected me.”

“Who was stupid enough to cheat on you?”

“Plenty of dumbasses, men and women. Do you know how hard it is to find a wolf who can keep it in their pants for more than five minutes these days?”

James rubbed at his nose. “I do.”

“But I’ll only go if it’s okay with you, I just want to put this burning insecurity that racks my brain day after day to rest in its grave. I think this might help in some weird way.”

He sighed and glanced curiously around the room before looking back at her. “You’re just going to go talk to her, right? I don’t have the energy to get in between you two, I’ll just call security, have them whoop both your asses and let you cool off in the brig if it comes to blows.”

“I’ll just talk to her, I promise.”

James seemed to heavily consider it for a few moments, and then reluctantly relinquished her. “Fine, I’ll be waiting here when you get back. I think we’ve got a lot to talk about and iron out.”

Cassandra kissed him gently. “When I get back, we aren’t going to be doing much talking.”

He smiled sincerely. “Well…if she’s the one who starts shit, Kara might look right hand dominant, she’s not,” Rorik rubbed at his gut for emphasis. “Remember to watch out for her left.”

 

The sound of wrapping knuckles on Kara’s door broke the relative silence of the sparse corridor. Relative was the most apt word, because the inside of her quarters had been anything but quiet when Cassandra arrived. The sounds of a male voice’s girlish screaming came to an immediate halt as she first knocked.

“Shit, who is that?”

“Heart sounds familiar, but I don’t know, go check.”

“Hey, it’s your room lady.”

Cassandra thought she recognized the other voice, but quickly dismissed the notion. After a few seconds of rattling around passed, the door finally whooshed open. Kara's muscular and slender body stood in the entrance way, fully and unashamedly nude. Sweating and panting, she was clearly more than displeased with who she saw standing on the other side of her door.

“Oh, what the fuck do you want?”

Cassandra smiled as she pushed past her. “To talk.”

“Talk? Can’t it wait until the morning?”

“No, actually.” Cassandra said dryly as she took in Kara’s annoyingly more spacious quarters, before her eyes settled on the also fully nude man lying in her bed with a stupid smile on his face.

“Hey uh, Cass?”

“Adrax, and here I thought you were supposed to be on the bridge…where I frackin left you?” She asked rhetorically and hushedly between clenched teeth.

Kara walked in between them and held up a hand. “If the rest of the officers on the bridge can’t handle things for half an hour, they should be stationed somewhere else. You came here to talk to me, so hurry up and spit it out, you ruined my orgasm.”

“Directness, probably the only quality of yours that I actually appreciate. So I’ll be direct in kind, did you sleep with James?”

“You fucked the Captain?” Adrax chuckled. “Well no, that actually doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Both her and Kara turned to stare into him.

He quickly cleared his throat and slowly rolled over to hide under the covers.

Kara turned back with a wicked smile. “No, I didn’t, unless dreams count. Why did he say that we did or something?”

“No, but your scent lingering all over him potentially tells a different tale.” Cassandra said evenly, choosing to ignore whatever she meant about dreams, she was more concerned with reality.

“Hmm, well that tends to happen when you share the same beds for a couple of days. Maybe if you bothered to smell his dick before you came over here running your mouth you’d know I wasn’t anywhere near it.”

“Damn, that’s crazy.” Adrax interjected, his voice muffled by the comforter.

“Hey, Adrax?” Kara asked without looking over. “Maybe you should go check and see if my bathroom sink is still working, yeah? That is technically why you’re here after all.”

“But your door doesn’t close and I’ll still be able to hear what you say anyway—.”

“Adrax!” The two of them shouted in unison, still focused on each other.

“Fine, fuck!” Adrax shouted sheepishly, as he jumped up to walk to the bathroom, his member flapping randomly with every step.

Kara scoffed as she sat at the edge of her messy bed. “Look, I’ve got very little patience for this soap opera bullshit. We didn’t do anything and even if we did, why do you think I’d actually tell you?”

“Because, even though I don’t know you that well, I know you’re a vindictive bitch and would love rubbing it in my face.”

“Oh…how very analytical of you—but for the last fucking time, nothing happened. Nothing sexual at least.” She trailed off tauntingly.

Cassandra squinted viciously. “Enlighten me.”

“No. It’s none of your damn business. All you need to know is that James is all yours. And at least for the moment, I don’t have any inclination to try and rip him away. We’re simply friends, and you’ll just have to get over that.”

She walked to loom over Kara, their faces mere inches away from each other. The palpable, yet silent violent excitement that bounced back and forth between them like refracting radio waves was beyond exhilarating.

“Are we gonna fight or kiss?” Kara asked calmly.

Stars, she wanted to tear her apart. To rip her from limb from limb!

But then she remembered that she promised James she'd stay cool…so for now, she took a decisive step back. “Just tell me what happened and I’ll leave you alone, that’s what you want isn’t it?”

“A tempting offer.”

“Don’t confuse it. It’s an ultimatum.”

Kara rubbed at her nose, and it agitated Cassandra just how reminiscent of James it appeared. “Look, for him, I’ll play nice, just this once,” She shot to her feet and walked around while wiping sweat from her forehead. “Yeah, things got a little heavy between us, sure. We had a very intimate moment, a moment that was a long time in the making, blah, blah, blah. And if he’d been willing I’ve no doubt it would’ve become something physical. But he wasn’t and it didn’t and here we are.

“Well, continue, it’s just now getting interesting.”

Kara smirked slightly. “That’s it, all there really is to tell honestly. That goofy, mop-headed fuck likes you for some stupid reason, so either go and secure your man or stay here and start a fight we both know you’ll lose. Should be an easy enough choice, even for someone as pig-headed as you.”

Every fiber of Cassandra’s being wanted to prove her wrong and wipe that smug smile off of her face. But once again, with great effort, she remembered to rein herself in. Like James before her, she begrudgingly recognized the ring of truth in Kara’s words, despite her condescending tone.

She bore into the vice lieutenant maliciously one last time and without another word she turned and walked back out the door. Small droplets of warm blood drew from in-between her clenched fists.

But before she’d made it far, she heard a faint and disgusting conversation echo back from the room.

“Adrax…mommy’s getting the paddle...and the reins.”

“Oh, fuck!” Adrax shouted concernedly.

Fucking yikes.

 

“Hey, how’d it go?” Rorik asked as he casually sorted through the variety of chocolate candies positioned around her nightstand. Having quickly made himself at home, he lay comfortably atop of her sheets, eating the sweets with the torso of his gray uniform unzipped and wrapped around his waist. Revealing his wonderfully muscular chest and broad shoulders more aptly.

She reluctantly tore her gaze away as she walked further into her room. “What did you ever even see in that twisted, contemptuous, bitch!?”

“Gonna have to be a bit more specific.”

“Kara!”

“Oh yeah. But more importantly, do you have any more mint chocolate lying around here?”

She turned angrily towards him, but said nothing.

“Okay, fine, keep your claws in. If mint’s your favorite, I’ll settle for milk chocolate.”

“I’m serious James, I still believe what you were saying before, but she’s just…awful!”

“Look, if you let her get under your skin, she’ll pick at you for the fuck of it, I honestly don’t think she can help herself. But enough about Kara. I’ve seen and heard enough of her the past few days to maybe last another thirty years. I want to talk about you, talk about us.”

Cassandra huffed out her remaining frustration and ran her fingers through her dark brown hair while she sat at the end of her bed. Her bright, pastel blue nightwear contrasted greatly with the dark gray of her soft comforter. Its soft fabrics rippled with every minor movement.

James sat up and scooted over to hold her tightly around her waist. “Look, now that we can get back on track for the mission, we’ll probably have a whole new slew of problems waiting for us on the horizon.”

“So?” She asked, her voice much calmer now.

“So, no point stressing yourself out by making problems out of perfectly avoidable issues. Whether they be a person or not.”

“I know that,” Cassandra glanced woefully at her feet. “You must think I'm so immature? I wasn’t always like this, I just can’t seem to help myself sometimes. The stress of being out here probably isn’t helping, I'd rather be on the ground.”

“Most of us do, but I’ll help wherever I can. And yeah, prolonged space travel is draining in and of itself,” James kissed gently along the length of her neck, bringing to life an army of goosebumps that forced a quiet exhale from her lips. “So we should be doing everything in our power to alleviate our worries.”

Cassandra reached a hand down and gently rubbed at the front of his trousers. James' considerable bulge got harder at her very touch and staring at the size of it made her breathing turn shallow. “What sort of alleviations did you have in mind, Captain?”

“Oh you know, the usual. A good diet, getting in some exercise, a full night's rest,” He paused and lifted her chin to stare affectionately into her eyes. “Plus, getting thoroughly fucked every once and a while can’t hurt either.”

----

Laying Cassandra gently down on her pillow, Rorik undid her pants and pulled them off with a quick tug, softly kissing down the length of her smooth, bronzed belly as he did. She giggled in anticipation as he brought her undergarments down to her ankles and rigorously began some of the most eager and passionate cunnilingus he’d ever performed. The tantalizingly sweet flavor and pleasant fragrance of her womanhood made him even more aroused, and he had to tilt partially onto his side to make room for his enlarging penis. He sat up a little and lifted her ankles impatiently over his shoulders and behind his back. Holding her legs in the air as he promptly went back down on her.

Cassandra moaned and gasped gratefully with every well-practiced stroke of his fingers and tongue. Back and forth he went all the way down, nearly licking the bed sheets, and then slowly all the way back up. She gripped tightly at the sides of his head as he went along her clitoris and slightly pulled at his hair, trying her best to push his tongue deeper and deeper into herself.

Eventually Cassandra steered his head back up towards hers and leaned forward to whisper salaciously into his ear. “Fuck me,” She sucked on his ear softly for a moment. “Thoroughly.”

Rorik shifted into third gear and began hastily removing his own clothes. She scooted closer, laughing happily as she looked at him unwaveringly while he slowly entered her.

“Fuck!”

“Fuck!” She echoed in a low growl of pleasure, her expression both accusing and sexually elated. Then she wrapped her arms around him as he steadily drove himself deeper and deeper into her, until their pelvises tenderly met. Rorik held it there a moment and laid his chest perfectly flush against her extravagant, supple breasts.

The begging moans of pleasure that continually escaped her lips and the frantic motion of her hands grabbing at his back was driving him insane. Her claws came slightly out of their own accord and the pain of their sharp points digging into his flesh made his head reel back slightly. But she quickly grabbed his wayward face and rammed her tongue down his throat.

Rorik started steadily, building up his rhythm second by second. She brought her head up onto his shoulder, resting it there as his momentum increased. He was going in and out of her fast enough to rock the squeaky metal bed frame back and forth violently. The warmth and tightness of her made him grunt and groan, and he could already tell it would be an uphill battle trying to keep himself from cumming.

Then…she whispered into his ear again, her tone silky smooth and charged with ecstatic excitement. “Harder, James.”

Yeah…he wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight.