Fantasy The Cuntlocks of Gnip Gnop

"Don't do it, Michael!" said Sophie. She looked so helpless, standing there completely naked with her green slime covered tits and black pubic bush exposed to the world. "Please, just go!"

Taylor turned and stared at Pralor. "In the Survey Service, we don't leave our people behind." He turned to the giant Gnip. "Let's do it."

They fought. The giant had a curved sword, and swung it emphatically at Taylor. Taylor used his screaning ability to dodge most of the swipes, but one time his foot stumbled on a rock behind him and the blade caught him on the side of the arm.

"Michael!" Sophie cried, as a vertical cut appeared down the length of Taylor's forearm. It started to bleed profusely. Taylor grabbed his injured arm, wincing in pain.

The giant grinned. "I hope you live long enough to see me gnip your woman! She will enjoy the size of my mighty gnip inside of her!"

"That woman is MINE!" Taylor roared, in such an amplified tone that Sophie's eyes went wide. Taylor lunched forward and launched an open palm attack with all his might. It had almost no affect on the giant. He barely stumbled. It was as if Taylor had hit a ferroconcrete wall. Taylor was thrown in the opposite direction and landed painfully on his back. Something hard jammed against his back underneath him and he winced.

The giant stood over Taylor with his giant sword and cackled. "I will cut your legs off and let you watch as I gnip your woman."

He raised his sword and-

"Gnip this!" Taylor cried, pulling his lost compression pistol out from underneath him and firing smoothly at the giant in one move.

The compression pistol was set to setting 12. The giant's head blew apart like a melon. The headless body stood there for a long moment, swaying in this direction and that, before falling to the ground at Taylor's feet with an enormous thump.

Taylor slowly and painfully got up, still clutching his compression pistol. "Any other objections?" he asked. The Gnips respectfully stepped back.

"Michael!" Sophie, still completely naked and covered in alien sperm, flew into his arms. She kissed him all over. "I love you I love you I love you! You were so brave! I love you so much!"

"Easy, easy," Taylor laughed. "You didn't passively observe this battle, did you?"

"Fuck passive observing!" Sophie growled, kissing him hard.

Taylor smiled and put his uninjured arm around her. She wrapped her own arm around his waist.

"I think this concludes our negotiations," said Taylor.

"Not quite."

Jessica Hale stepped out of hiding from behind a boulder. She was dressed once again.

"Jessica, get back to the ship."

"No, Captain," she said.

"Jessica, I'm giving you a direct order," said Taylor.

"And I'm disobeying it," she said. She walked over to Pralor. "You are ready to negotiate now, aren't you?"

"Negotiations," said Pralor. "Yes, we will negotiate."

"I thought so," said Jessica. "Captain, you can take the women back to the ship. I'll continue our negotiations here."

"Are you crazy?" said Taylor. "The minute I leave they'll just enslave you again!"

"No!" said Jessica. "They won't. You forget, Captain. I have a Future Prediction. I will conclude a treaty with the Gnips and get the most important job imaginable. Nothing you can say will prevent me from reaching my destiny."

"Jessica, you're going back to the ship if I have to carry you over my shoulder," Taylor growled, taking a step towards her.

"No!" Sophie grabbed his arm. She looked into his eyes.

"What?"

"Let her go," said Sophie. Her hazel eyes were determined. She squeezed his uninjured arm. "Let. Her. Go."

The motto of the Survey Service was "Leave no one behind". But as he looked into Sophie's sexy eyes he realized he could deny her nothing. He slowly nodded.

"All right," said Taylor. "But stay in close contact with the ship."

"I will," said Jessica, rocking back and forth on her heels with a smile. Her confidence had returned. "Have a safe trip, Captain. I'll see you soon."

Taylor nodded and walked with Sophie back to the ship. In addition to his injured arm he had also sprained an ankle, so the going was slow. When they got back to ship, Susan, who was wearing a flight jacket but nothing else, her pear shaped tits bobbing in and out, ran over to them. "Captain, you're injured!" she cried, reaching for the medical kit.

"Never mind that," said Taylor. "Get us out of here!"

"What about Jessica?"

"She's staying behind."

"What?" said Susan.

"Commander, I gave you an order!" Taylor roared. It pleased him when Susan rushed to obey, her bare ass turning to face him as she ran for the pilot seat. In moments the shuttle was launching into the air.

Taylor winced as Sophie applied bandages. "Hold still," She said sternly. "Captain," She added, which made him smile.

When they got back to the ship, Sophie, covered only in a thin blanket, insisted Doctor Sane examine his wound. When they got to Medical, Doctor Sane neutralized his nerve endings and examined the wound, cleaned it out, and slowly laser stitched it. "You were very lucky, Captain. If it had been an inch deeper, I would have had to operate," he said.

"I feel lucky," said Taylor, smiling at Susan and Sophie. "Now examine them."

"Captain-" said Sophie.

"A full examination, for both of them."

"Where are you going?" Susan asked.

"I'll be on the bridge."

Taylor entered the control room. The crew actually clapped. Somehow they had heard what Taylor had done on the planet, how he had fought several gnips and won the freedom of the women held hostage. Perhaps Susan had commed them when she was alone in the shuttle. The same bridge crew which had seen him humiliated for the past two weeks now saw him once again as their hero.

"Did you really fight three of them to the death, Captain?" Galloway asked.

"No, that's an exaggeration," said Taylor. "There were only two. But one of them was a giant."

"A giant!" said Mushy, looking amazed.

"That's how I got this," he raised his bandaged arm.

Taylor basked in the admiration of his crew. It felt like everything was returning to normal. "Hail the asteroid," he said.

The image of Pralor appeared. "Greetings, Captain or Michael."

"My name is Captain Michael Taylor."

Pralor shrugged. "As you wish."

"Where is Jessica? I'd like to speak to her."

"The one you call Jessica is a little busy right now, Captain. Gnip!"

"I'd still like to speak to her."

"Gnop!"

Mushy gasped and the entire bridge crew was shocked by what they saw.

The holoimage expanded to show Jessica, once again totally nude, on her hands and knees with one Gnip's penis thrusting in and out of her mouth and another Gnip, with his hands on her ass, thrusting vigorously back and forth between her ass cheeks.

"What have you done? She stayed behind to negotiate!"

"And we are negotiating!" Pralor grinned. "Or do you have another word for it? Your language is so confusing. At first you sent the females down to "negotiate", as you call it. So we negotiated with them. Then you got angry and changed your mind and took two of the females back, but seemed to change your mind again and left this one with us. She is a very pleasing gift. Our Nub Nubs fit perfectly inside of her and her tight body helps us produce a lot of Gnop."

"She is not a gift!" Taylor. "She is a Commander in the United Survey Service, a very important job!"

"No longer. She is to become one of the elite foreign concubines of our Emperor, so she may Gnip Gnop the Imperial Nub Nubs," said Pralor. "That too is what you might a call a very important job. In fact," he turned to watch Jessica sucking on dick and being taken from behind, "you might say it is the most important job she will ever have."

The most important job she will ever have. That's what Jessica had said her Future Prediction was all about. But surely she couldn't have meant... this?

"Let me speak to her."

"Gnip! I am sorry, Captain, but her mouth is fully occupied at the moment. Again I must thank you. Goodbye, Captain or Michael. Gnop!"

As the image faded, Taylor got one last look at Jessica Hale. She had a look of intense pleading in her eyes as a large sausage like cock poled in and out of her mouth. Help me, she seemed to say.

And then the image faded.

"I'm going back down there to get her," said Taylor grimly. Jessica had betrayed him, and was also blackmailing him, but none of that mattered. The Survey Service didn't leave people behind.

"Captain, you can't!" Mushy cried. "They'll kill you!"

"She's not worth it!" Galloway growled.

From the looks in their eyes Taylor could see that the rest of the bridge crew agreed.

"It doesn't matter," said Taylor. "She's one of ours and I have to get her back." He stood up from his command chair and was about to go to the door when Mushy cried out.

"Captain! The asteroid... it's gone."

"Gone?" Taylor said. He looked at the viewscreen. It was empty. "What's it's velocity? Course?"

Mushy shook her head. "You don't understand, sir. It didn't fly away. It simply vanished."

"Impossible!" said Lieutenant Penfold. "Recheck your sensors!"

"I have," said Mushy. "The asteroid... it's simply gone!"

Taylor slumped back in his chair. Jessica had evidently sealed her own fate.

Taylor was in Medical, listening to Dr. Sane's report. Susan and Sophie sat to the side, fully dressed now, the green alien sperm washed from their bodies and their hair freshly combed. But they both looked wide eyed and disturbed.

"I examined both Commander Cleary and Commander Astor... sorry, I mean, Ambassador Astor," said Dr. Sane. "They were roughed up a bit but are in generally good condition, except...."

"Except what?" said Taylor. The women looked embarrassed. "What is it, Doctor?"

"Something has been done to their vaginas," said Sane.

Susan blushed mightily.

"What?" said Taylor.

"Their vaginas are sealed," said Sane.

"What?" said Taylor.

"Our vaginal lips are sealed together," said Sophie. "I cannot urinate. If we cannot find a way to urinate, we will eventually die."

Susan bit her lip and looked down, feeling incredibly ashamed.

"What is this?" said Taylor.

"The Gnip Gnops used us as prostitutes, but wanted to regulate access to our bodies," said Sophie. "They used some kind of technology to seal our labias when we were not... not in use."

"Yes, yes, you should see the keypad," said Dr. Sane.

"Keypad?"

Sane gestured for Sophie to turn around. Then he tapped the back of her neck lightly. A holographic keypad appeared, the buttons labeled with alien symbols.

"What is that?" Taylor cried.

"I don't know," said Sane. "Some kind of combination lock which governs access to her vagina, I think."

"Can you remove it?"

"I don't know how," said Sane. "I've never heard of holography grafted to a person's body."

"Can you decipher the code?"

"Unlikely," said Sane. "We've tried a number of combinations with no results." He pressed a few keys and alien symbols appeared above them. "There are nine different possible alien symbols, but the worst problem is that we don't even know how long the correct combination is. It could take millions of attempts to find the right one."

"Time we don't have," said Sophie.

"Can you operate... to open their labias?" Taylor asked.

"I could... but I'd have to remove their entire labias. They, they would be scarred for life," said Dr. Sane.

Taylor saw the look of pleading and terror in their eyes. Susan's lower lip was trembling.

"There must be another way," said Taylor.

"There is, Captain," said Susan. "My captor opened up my... my vagina.... using the keypad. But I saw that Jessica and Sophie's captors did something different."

"What, what did they do?" Taylor turned to Sophie.

Sophie looked uncomfortable. "They... they rubbed the tip of their penises against my labia in different directions. Some combination of which unlocked my vagina to them."

"Did you happen to see the combination?"

"No," said Sophie. "And my impression is that there was a different combination for each of us. They... they called it a cuntlock." She hung her head, feeling deeply chagrined.

"You wanted to see me, Captain?" said Susan.

"Yes," said Taylor. "Come in."

The door slid shut behind her.

Susan stared at him expectantly.

"I think I may be able to help you and Sophie," said Taylor.

"How?"

"By figuring out the combination to your...."

"My cuntlock." Susan bit her lip.

"Yes," said Taylor.

"But... there were so many possibilities on the keypad on the back of my neck...."

"Which is why I think it would be easier to do it the other way, if you're willing," said Taylor.

Her eyes went wide. "You...."

"Would rub... the head of my penis... against your sealed... vagina," said Taylor carefully. "I'm not making any guarantees, but I might be able to free you. Is this something you are willing to try, Commander?"

She nodded quickly. Of course.

But she just stood there, looking anxious.

"We'd better get undressed then," said Taylor.

"Yes, we'd better," said Susan nervously.

Taylor took of his dayshirt. Susan took off hers. The cups of her breast control collar were stamped with the spaceship and sun logo of the Survey Service. She reached behind her and unhooked it. Her breasts came free. They were pear shaped as Taylor expected, looking like ripe fruit just aching for the picking.

Susan caressed her breasts nervously. "I always wanted you to see my breasts, sir. But not like this."

"I understand," said Taylor. He removed his pants. Susan did the same. They stood their in their underwear, also marked with the spaceship and sun logo in the groin area. Taylor saw her pause. He sensed her nervousness. He held her hand. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"No, I want to!" She smiled at him. "I always have!" And then she lowered her panties, revealing a surprisingly bushy red triangle of pubic hair which Taylor found very sexy.

"You... you're very pretty, Susan," Taylor had to say.

"Really?" She smiled shyly. "Thank you, sir!"

And then Taylor removed his own underwear and Susan gasped.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You... you're so long." She stared at how his penis hung down below is testicles. "Not, not that it matters, sir!"

Taylor smiled and extended his hand. She took it. They sat down on his bed together. But then they both realized the immediate problem.

"You... you probably need to be hard to do this, right?"

Taylor nodded. "If you don't mind watching," he reached out with his hand and started to rub himself.

"No!" Susan pushed his hand aside and gripped his penis. "I want to do it!"

"You do?"

"It's the least I can do!" Susan said. "You saved my life, sir!" She reached over and grasped his penis. They both realized the door she had opened. As Susan gulped, she started to move her dainty hand up and down. "Like this, sir?"

"Yes," said Taylor. "And when you're touching my penis, you can call me Michael, Susan."

"M-Michael," she smiled shyly at him. "I've... I've always wanted to do this for you... Michael."

"I know," said Taylor. "But...."

"Regulations, I know!" Susan gained some courage and smiled at him even as she gripped his penis tightly. "Sir, I want to tell you, I'm so incredibly sorry."

"For what?"

"For what?" she repeated, her eyebrows shooting up as she masturbated him. His penis was getting harder in her hands. "For being so fucking awful to you! When I saw you giving in to Jessica like that, acting like a cuck, I hated you. I despised you! I treated you terribly." She swallowed visibly. "I didn't know you were just waiting for the right time to deal with her."

"There's nothing to apologize for, Susan."

"But sir-"

"Nothing," said Taylor firmly, as she continued to rub his penis.

Susan felt how large he was getting in her hand. "You're so big!" She looked into his eyes, and liked what she saw, and leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. "Sorry, sir. I shouldn't have done that!"

"Apology forgiven," said Taylor. "I think you've done it."

"Done it? Oh." She looked down. Taylor's penis was now rock hard in her hand. "That's really big sir! Bigger than John's!"

Taylor sighed and suppressed a smile. He gently pushed her down on her back and spread her legs. Susan had a bright red triangle of pubic hair, as red as her vaginal lips which were locked up tight. He leaned forward so his penis was only a bare inch from her labia. "Are you ready, Susan?"

She nodded.

And then Taylor started to rub her cuntlips with his penis. Susan gasped. "Monkey, monkey."

"What?" said Taylor.

"They... they did something to us, to make us aroused. It's wearing off but... I still feel it a bit," said Susan. She gasped again as Taylor rubbed the head of his penis against her cuntlips.

"Sensitive?"

She nodded.

"Sorry," said Taylor.

"Don't be!" she cried. Susan was getting increasingly aroused as she watched Taylor rubbing his long, hard shaft against her. She imagined what it would be like to feel that extra-long penis inside of her. Compared to him, John Galloway's penis was that of a teenage boy's. Taylor seemed to be concentrating intensely as he first moved his penis from left to right, then up and down, then left to right again. He seemed to be trying to follow or create a pattern.

"Sir, how can you possibly figure out the right pattern?" she asked.

"There's something you don't know about me. Something no one knows outside of Survey Service Command except for Sophie. If I tell you, you can't tell anyone, not even John."

"Of course!"

Taylor continued to rub his long, manly penis against her. "You know I traveled to the year one billion. But we stopped along the way in the year 500,000. That's where we lost Jessica's sister, Jennifer. That's also where I was drugged with an alien isotope which changed me."

"Changed you how?" she asked, her eyes still fascinated by the sight of her Captain's long shaft rubbing against her.

"It gave me an ability. They called it screaning. It's kind of like... I can sense things, the true nature of things," he said.

"I don't understand." Susan was mesmerized by her Captain's enormous shaft. If only he could unlock her so she could feel him inside!

"I can look at a planet and sense if there's something wrong with it. Sometimes I can sense when people are lying or have a hidden agenda. And when I look at your vagina... I can sense the outlines of a pattern."

"You can?" said Susan.

"Yes," said Taylor. "The problem is, while I clearly see the pattern, like lines of force, I don't know the order of it. It is eight separate moves and I am trying to figure out the order of it." Taylor concentrated hard, staring at the bright lines he screaned which overlapped Susan's pussy lips. He moved his penis left and right, up and down, up and down again and again, moving back and forth, making her gasp.

And then, without warning, Susan's pussy lips parted! It was the most beautiful sight Taylor had ever seen!

"Ah!" Susan cried. "Did you do it?"

"Yes," said Taylor. "I think I did it!"

"Thank you, Captain!" She embraced him with a bear hug. He felt her pear shaped breasts pressing against him. "Thank you my dear, dear, Captain." And then a hug turned to a kiss, and a kiss turned to several kisses, and then she was rubbing her body against him, rubbing her newly freed vagina against his rod, desperately attempting to draw him into her.

Taylor, demonstrating an enormous amount of self control, gently pushed her away.

Susan looked incredibly hurt. "Please, Captain! Michael! You saved my life! I thought I was going to die! You risked your life to save mine! Please, let me thank you, Captain! It's the least I can do!" she cried.

Taylor frowned. "I can't."

"Why?" She was crestfallen. "Don't you find me attractive?"

Taylor felt a tightness in his chest and his heart was thumping as he stared at Susan's body with his hard and tingling penis. "Susan, I find you incredibly, incredibly, attractive."

"You do!"

"Never tell anyone, especially Sophie but... yes. You're gorgeous!" he said, staring at her breasts. It was obvious what the central focus of his attraction was.

Susan smiled and blushed, feeling terribly pleased, and terribly womanly.

Taylor sighed. "Susan, there's something you need to know. I never really told you what happened between me and Jessica. I was weak, and I let her seduce me. We had sex, and she blackmailed me."

Susan's eyes went wide. "Really? I thought she had some kind of hold over you but never realized-"

"That's what happened. And that's why I can't sleep with you."

She ran her hands over his shoulders. "But Captain." She searched his eyes with her own. "Surely you realize I'd never do that to you!" Tears started to well in her eyes.

"Of course not!"

"Use your screaning ability or whatever. Verify I'm telling you the truth?"

Taylor shook his head. "Dear, sweet Susan, I don't have to do that. But don't you see? It doesn't matter. All it will take is one disgruntled crewmember to report us to Survey Service Command and both our careers will be over. Or maybe the disgruntled crewmember will simply blackmail me, like Jessica was doing. Do you understand?"

Susan's naked shoulders slumped. "I... I guess so." She licked her lips. "But... I feel this enormous... need inside me... the alien conditioning... I guess I'm still a bit affected by it...." She looked at him pleadingly.

"That I can help with!" said Taylor.

"You can?" she said, brightening.

"Just a moment," said Taylor. He pressed the comm. "Calling Lieutenant Galloway."

"Sir, this is Galloway."

"Mr. Galloway, I need your assistance. Please report to my quarters."

"Sir? Yes sir."

Susan scowled at him, crossing her arms as Taylor hurriedly got dressed. "You can't be serious," she said. She looked odd with her arms crossed over her naked breasts.

"I am. You'd better put this on." He tossed her his bathrobe, which she instinctively caught.

By the time John Galloway arrived, they were both dressed.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?" He looked from Taylor to Susan with confusion on his face.

"Yes, John," said Taylor. "Susan was... confined... by an alien device which we have managed to remove from her."

"That's good," said Galloway cautiously.

"But... there is still a remnant of their mental conditioning inside her."

"Conditioning?"

"Susan needs easing, Lieutenant," said Taylor. "Do you think you can help her out?"

John Galloway's eyes widened as he realized what he was being asked to do. He put on a giant grin. "Sir, yes sir!"

"I thought so. I have a matter to attend to. You can both have the use of my quarters for an hour. Will that be sufficient!"

"More than sufficient, sir! Thank you, sir!"

"Very good," Taylor smiled. He turned to Susan. "Have fun."

"Thank you... Captain," she said, giving him an extremely interesting half-angry and half amused look, just as the door slid shut behind them.

"Monkey, monkey, who's got the monkey?" said Sophie, as she squirmed underneath him.

"Sophie, you need to hold still," said Taylor, as he tried to aim his penis at her cuntlips.

"Sorry, Michael."

They were in her quarters. Both of them were completely naked. Taylor was rubbing the head of his penis against her vagina. He had remained stiff after his encounter with Susan. The thought of sleeping with his young, sexy second officer with the perky pear shaped breasts had been intensely arousing for him, and he had amazed himself by showing the self-control to resist the temptation.

"I haven't seen you like this in a while," Taylor murmured, momentarily glancing at her firm, nuclear tipped breasts, while rubbing her cuntlips just below her dark pubic triangle.

"Nor I you," said Sophie, struggling to sound calm, as she tried not to get excited by the sight of Taylor's enormously long penis rubbing against her locked cuntlips. But the remnants of her conditioning left her terribly, terribly aroused.

She tried to think of other things. "Tell me Michael, how did you know that the telekinesis of the Gnip Gnops would not work on you?"

"I don't know," said Taylor, as he traced patterns with his cockhead over Sophie's locked up cuntlips. "I just had a feeling."

"A feeling?"

"I think it may be related to my ability to screan. I feel my abilities growing. I'm starting to think that my ability to screan is not simply an ability to interpret things. It's... it's giving me a sense of what I'm capable of, what I might be capable of doing."

Sophie gasped as Taylor ran his penis head vertically up and down her pussy slit.

"Sorry."

"No need to apologize," she said hastily.

Taylor noticed that Sophie's nipples were hard and erect. It's the conditioning, he told himself.

"Why did you tell me to leave Jessica behind?" Taylor asked as he continued to search for the pattern with his cockhead.

"I... I don't know," said Sophie. "Like you, I simply had a feeling."

"A feeling?"

"A feeling that we would be rid of her," said Sophie.

"Acting on a feeling? That's not something a calm and logical passive observer would do."

"No, it's not," Sophie agreed, as she watched Taylor's long and hard penis rubbing against her cuntlips. Oh how she wanted to feel his cockmonster coursing inside her!

"What about Jessica's prediction?" said Sophie.

"What about it?" said Taylor.

"You told me she got a Future Prediction that she would become captain of the Immortal. Instead she became a sex slave for an alien race."

"Not... exactly," said Taylor, making her gasp again as his penis moved horizontally and then back again over her pubis. "She said that she was told she would get the most important job of her life. Right before the asteroid winked out of known space, Pralor told me that Jessica would become the Emperor's whore, which he called 'the most important job of her life'."

Sophie gasped, her eyes widening. "You think that's what her Future Prediction meant? Surely they must have known-"

"She also told me that she had gotten the prediction by blackmailing an analyst at Moudy's."

"Blackmail!" Sophie gasped again, as Taylor's penis rubbed her cuntlips up and down vigorously, indirectly stimulating her clit. "Do you suppose-"

"That the analyst she blackmailed purposefully gave her a misleading prediction? It's not..." he rubbed his penis left to right, "beyond....." he rubbed his penis right to left, "the realm...." he rubbed his penis up and down her cuntlips, "of possibility." And as he rubbed his penis more intensely, Sophie's cuntlips opened beautifully like a blossoming flower, and Taylor's cockhead naturally dipped into it.

"Yeahhhhh," Taylor growled in a low voice, as the head of his penis teased in and out of Sophie's vagina like a swimmer's head going up and down for breaths out of water.

Sophie flew into his arms and kissed him even as he fully penetrated her. They started making love so naturally, so organically, that neither of them questioned it. It just felt so meant to be!

"Oh Michael!" she moaned, as Taylor moved deeply inside her. "I missed you so much! I missed this so much!" she cried, looking down as she was richly impaled. She watched with shock and awe as Taylor's long tube steak moved in and out of her tight love hole.

"I did too, Sophie!" Taylor whispered fiercely. "I love you so much! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too!" she cried, embracing him in a bear hug.

Sophie and Taylor made love. It was a dramatic experience for the both of them. It had been six months since they had last touched each other in this way, six months since they had last made love on an alien space station intent on using them for its own breeding program. But this time they were making love for no one's agenda but their own.

Sophie's face and eyes had a dreamy like quality to it as Taylor moved his long, hard rod in and out of her vagina. Her nuclear tipped breasts were proudly hard and erect, her thick red nubbins fueled by the same cold fusion implants which kept her breasts hard and firm without a hint of sag. Her areolas were bright red and taut betraying the extent of her arousal. Sophie hugged and kissed him furiously as he made love to her, clenching her legs tightly around his waist so she could feel him so deeply inside her. After a time she no longer knew here she started and he ended. They were one four legged organism, united in being pleasured and bringing each other pleasure.

It was more than an hour, much more than an hour, when Taylor got up and got dressed and returned to the control room. When he got there he felt all eyes on him. Susan Cleary was already there, as was John Galloway.

"Commander, has your... situation... been resolved?" Taylor asked carefully.

Susan pulled down on her dayshirt reflexively. "Yes, Captain, thank you for asking. My situation was handled... quite adequately, I would say." She cast a glance at John Galloway, who grinned back at her.

"Very good," said Taylor. He sat in his chair and crossed his legs and activated the comm. "Chief, do we have full power to the engines?"

"Aye sir," came the voice over the comm.

"Mr. Galloway, set a course back for Earth."

"Yes sir. Course plotted."

Taylor pointed a finger at the viewscreen. "Engage."​