Morning

The next morning, Dustin woke to two things. One was Meli staring at him, her eyes sparkling. The other was her hand slowly stroking his cock. Blinking off the last of his sleep, he looked up at her. “Last night was amazing Dustin. I’m sorry I struggled with your language towards the end though.” She said, seeming genuinely worried. “So I thought I’d give you a good wakeup by way of apology.” Dustin blinked at her words even as she moved to straddle his now very hard cock, aligning it with her slit before sinking down with a satisfied moan. Caught off guard somewhat, Dustin gasped instead of replying as Meli began to set a gentle rhythm with her hips. “Meli, I…” he moaned, even as she rocked back and forward - but before he could continue she leaned forward and locked her lips to his.

Deciding to just go with the flow for now, Dustin thrust up into his lover as she continued her slow riding of him, and it wasn’t long before their kiss was broken by their moans. Meli had been right about how intense it was with Velca women on the top - or possibly it was just a combination of her being amazing and his just having woken up? Either way, it took surprisingly little time before Dustin grabbed her hips and pulled her down hard onto him as he flooded her with his cum once more. In the aftermath, he gazed up at his lover a little awestruck before he found the words to speak. “Damn, Meli. Ok. First of all, you don’t need to apologize for getting fucked to the point you can’t speak a second language. Second, that is a hell of a way to wake up - I’m going to need a minute before we can go jump in the shower. Third, you’re going to need to start teaching me to speak Velcan so I can understand what you’re saying when you can’t manage English.”

That last comment caused the woman still seated on his deflating cock to blush before she slowly climbed off. “I… will endeavour to provide you with a primer of Vel’c’ah, although you should not take everything I say too seriously. A lot of it is said in the throes of passion and…” She genuinely seemed concerned, ears flickering erratically and so Dustin took her hands. “Meli.” Then, when she didn’t slow her worried babbling, he spoke again “Meli. Stop. I am not going to judge you for what you say when we’re intimate - but it’d be nice to know if you’re telling me to go harder or softer or stop or whatever. Besides, as you said, the closest translation of our relationship into human terms is that you’re my girlfriend. My very attractive, just woke me up to fuck me, is happy that my job basically forces me to build a harem, is the best fuck and to be honest looking like she’ll be one of the closest - in non-sexual terms - relationships I’ve ever had girlfriend. In other words, I’d have to be so fucking dense you’d need to keep me on a lead to make sure I don’t wander out an airlock to risk losing what we have here. By human standards, I’m officially a lucky bastard. And, for the record, I looked up a translation for that. Ort’ess’a N’vech.”

Meli’s babbling and blushing stopped, and she giggled at that, her ears flickering into light amusement and away from the half-panic she’d had before. “I think you meant Urt’ess’a N’vech. Ort’ess’a would imply that you were also something you most definitely are not, given the fact that I am very glad of that contraceptive right now.” Now it was Dustin’s turn to blush as the woman continued “but thank you. I will do my best to teach you my language. Though you are not the only one that feels lucky - that was half my concern. I am not… exactly attractive by Velca standards, and you are something else as far as I’m concerned. I believe there’s a human metaphor about a panther that got access to some dairy that would apply?” That caused Dustin to scratch his head for a moment before he realized what she had intended.

“The cat that’s got the cream, I think you mean.” He said, grinning even as Meli slid out of bed in the direction of the shower. “I see. Well that is what I meant, yes. And I believe cream is also human slang for something else - in which case I definitely got the cream.” She grinned as she said it, before darting into the shower before Dustin could reply. He slumped back onto the pillow as he heard the water turn on. “What the fuck did I do to get this lucky?” he asked the universe, before straightening up and stretching. The room was warm, so he could dig out clothes for the day while Meli showered; they did have things to do besides spending the day in bed together after all.

After the passion of the night before and the intimate awakening of the morning, the rest of the day was far duller. The pair had showered then ate breakfast together - Rye messaging in to say that she would be eating in engineering as she’d had a brainwave when she woke up and would join them for dinner instead - and then split up to do their own thing. Dustin attempted to compose a communication to star command, but every time he got to discussing the crew he found he got stuck. Neither was easy to discuss - he was pretty sure Axworth knew about the more intimate aspects of the mission, the general was nosy enough and also tight lipped enough to have found out and not mentioned anything - but how to describe the capabilities of the women under his command.

Eventually he sighed and took a walk, wandering down to part of the ship that the three of them hadn’t used much yet. The viewing deck, a great window into space with low seating was technically part of the environmental systems area - but practically formed the final part of the main crew section of the ship alongside the formal mess and the relaxation and exercise suites. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of crew the room was deserted, and Dustin stared into the black void dotted with distant starlight for what seemed like hours until Sola interrupted him. “Apologies captain, but we are ready to take our next jump and I need to close the viewing deck shutters. Do you wish me to pause the jump?” Dustin shook his head, turning away from the mesmerizing nothingness. “No, go ahead Sola. I’m done here now anyhow.”

Heading back to his ready room, Dustin settled into a chair and brought up the memo. Once again, the problem of how to describe his crew needed to be wrestled with - but it seemed that staring into nothing for a while had helped. He focused purely on their competence, that was the trick. “Meli’a, our chief science officer is a capable individual demonstrating a good grasp of both practical and theoretical skills for the mission. We are currently following a flight path suggested by her in conjunction with the ship’s AI. Sola, the AI is performing to an above average standard, with a good grasp already of the needs of the crew. Rye, our chief engineer is demonstrating that everything we were told about the Rabyth was if anything an understatement. Her engineering skill is exceptional, and I have firm belief that she will have resolved the issues with our incomplete systems within the next few weeks if not sooner. As for myself…” here he paused again, tapping his fingers on the table before continuing. “I feel like I am developing as an officer. It is a challenge to have the responsibility of looking after my crew, but for the first time in my life I feel like I am doing what I was meant for - and as such I can finally throw myself fully into my work. Our next crew member will be recruited from the Feliax in around a month if all goes according to plan, and barring any significant changes I will update Star Command at that point.” With that, he signed the memo and primed it for transmission as soon as they dropped out of weave-space.