Reaction Time

“So tell me Pamala, how are you,” asked Tara Dayton, looking across the table at Pam Sheldon.

“Honestly, I’m doing great,” Sheldon responded confidently while she brushed some of her long, brown hairs from her face. She was wearing her habitually stained dark-red jumpsuit, which was open down to the naval, and a white singlet underneath.

“I’m glad to hear it, Pam. I’ve been very impressed with your work so far. Your dedication has been noticed I can tell you. By me, and by the company,” Dayton told her, watching her face as she did so. Sheldon was a tough person to read, but Dayton knew more than she let on.

“Thanks Tara, I appreciate that. A lot, actually. It’s wild, being out here, on this adventure,” Sheldon said earnestly.

“So the mine: it looks like it’ll deliver eh,” Dayton asked, raising her eyebrow a hair.

“I think so! At least, as far as all my sensors are telling me anyways,” she said, beaming with confidence.

“I believe them if you do,” smiled Dayton.

“Hehe thanks,” giggled Sheldon, who almost imperceptibly blushed after the laugh. Dayton smiled inwardly, knowing why Sheldon had blushed. It made her feel powerful and in control to know.

“Tell me, Pam, what’s the next step,” she asked, placing her hand on her chin.

“Today? Oh I dunno. I was just finishing writing my report when you called me up here and well, I guess we know what’s under mine two, so I’ll start finding a location for mine three.”

“That sounds very optimistic,” said Dayton, smiling warmly, not letting on that she knew Sheldon was lying. She knew exactly what Sheldon was doing when she messaged her.

“I know I am,” continued Sheldon, “the vein richness looks very promising, the ore looks to be high quality, I do believe, Tara, we have found ourselves some uranium.”

Dayton watched Sheldon speak with the confidence and exactness she had come to expect from her chief of mining operations. She had brought a map with her, and she stood next to Dayton and pointed out exactly where each find was on it before sitting back down.

However important they were, it wasn’t uranium mines that had made Dayton call her to the office.

“So, Pam, tell me about Liz,” Dayton instructed.

“Not bad for a SpaceY,” responded Sheldon, “she seems to be a good worker. Honest, so far at least, dedicated, honestly can’t find a fault.”

“Loyalties?”

“Hard to say,” conceded Sheldon. “Like, we know her team is gone. Maybe that helps, maybe they’re martyrs to her. I don’t really know, but for now it seems like she knows what side she’s on.”

“Ok… good to know,” Dayton said, watching Sheldon’s reactions intently. How much can I trust her, Dayton wondered, looking over her desk at the smiling brunette. Fifteen minutes earlier, Dayton had been watching the tall Canadian on her cameras riding Lyndon Carson in his room. Dayton sent the message to come see her in her office right as Carson came inside her. She'd timed it that way, and she could smell his musk on Sheldon when she stood next to her.

“She’s a cute little thing,” Dayton said with a smirk. She shifted in her seat; watching Sheldon and Carson fuck had made her very wet, and her panties were still damp.

“Heh, yeah, she is. Plus new blood too. I bet the boys are happy,” Sheldon said with a grin.

“I’d think so,” Dayton agreed with a chuckle. “What has she said about her lost ship? I can imagine she has thoughts…”

“She hasn’t and I haven’t pushed it, honestly,” Sheldon admitted. “I uh, I think she’s got some… trauma, I guess? It was pretty messed up so far as I can tell and I guess I’ve really just been trying to give her space to mourn.”

Interesting, thought Dayton. Sheldon wasn’t supposed to know it was Dayton that had assigned her to this task, so is she being mindful of security, or is she really being cautious with her? It made sense to Dayton that Sheldon would lie about fucking Carson, but not this, security concerns or otherwise. She decided she must be telling the truth and moved on.

“That makes sense,” Dayton said with a curt nod, and added, “good of you to keep an eye out for her wellbeing.”

“Thanks Tara,” Sheldon said. “It really makes you think ya know? Like, that could have been us or something.”

“Well to be fair, ours is a much safer venture, but yeah I do think of that too,” Dayton admitted.

“She may have been a SpaceY, but she is first and foremost, a Martian, ya know? One of us, even if she doesn’t think so,” ventured Sheldon, who Dayton thought had the expression of someone who thinks they just went to far.

“She is,” Dayton said with a slow nod, deciding not to press the issue. She liked that Sheldon was sufficiently trusting in her to venture such a suggestion but also didn’t want to encourage it. It was Green Mars versus the rest of the world, not Martians versus Earth.

Dayton watched the little brunette’s face change. She looked relieved but was doing her best to not show it. It almost worked, Dayton thought, and it was interesting to her that Sheldon wanted to push her a little. Food for thought.

“Anyways,” Dayton said lightly, “thank you again for coming here so quickly. I’m very impressed with your work Pam.”

“It was no problem at all Tara,” Sheldon said with a smile, and she stood and headed to the door. Dayton watched the confidence in her stride as she walked out of the office. When the sliding door shut with a clunk, she opened her computer and hit play on the recording. The video was muted at first, but Dayton turned it up just enough that it wouldn’t be audible beyond her desk.

It was just loud enough that she could hear Sheldon’s moans as she rode Carson. Dayton watched as Sheldon’s face contorted in pleasure and she moaned, while staring almost directly into the camera. Under her, Carson was laying on the bed, naked, while she bounced and twerked on him until he started to groan loudly in a way Dayton knew very well. This was the moment, Dayton thought, smiling with satisfaction, that she had sent her the message. The moment when she knew that Carson was pumping his seed deep inside her.

“Fuck that’s Tara,” Sheldon half-gasped, half-moaned on the video. Still straddling him, she leaned over to the pile of clothes next to the bed and pulled out her intercom. Carson, still gasping, lazily groped her tits while she tapped out the message that Dayton knew read ‘omw.’ She watched Sheldon slide off Carson and a stream of cum dripped out of her as she did. Carson grunted with apparent satisfaction seeing the mess he made. “I gotta go hun.”

“That much of a hurry,” Carson asked, pulling a sheet over his naked body.

“For the best, I was done that report a while ago but that stuff with Liz…” Sheldon said in the video while she pulled her panties on. Carson nodded. She leaned over Carson and gave him a kiss, then she looked up at the corner of the room where the camera was.

“Hm, that’s interesting,” murmured Dayton. She hadn’t noticed it watching the first time, but that was the second time in as many minutes she looked directly at the lens. “What’s she know?”

“Base, this is Rocket Two, over,” came Li’s voice over the speaker in her office that was connected to the main command radio net.

“Rocket Two this is base, send,” responded Alain, who was handling daytime communications with the expedition.

“Base this is Rocket Two, we’re ready to go here. Permission to launch?”

“Permission granted Rocket Two, safe flight and we’ll see you in a few hours,” Alain told them. Dayton thought they needed a new name for the rocket. Something for when everyone is back. She looked back at the screen and switched the video fed to live. She clicked on the feed that showed the kitchen, where Elizabeth Davis and Sam Hayden were chatting.

“How’s working in the kitchen treating you,” he asked gruffly.

“It’s gud,” the little Scot, who was cleaning a pot said cheerfully, “it’s a nice little hab you got here. We got here, I guess.”

“I bet you expected more people around eh,” Hayden asked.

“Yeah, much more,” she said, nodding. “This wasn’t exactly my intended role either but that’s fine for now. It’s better than… well… being dead.”

“I hear ya,” Hayden said, nodding. He started to make himself a coffee and Dayton turned off the audio to that feed and clicked on the one in the botany hall where Carson was talking to Sheldon.

“What’d she want,” he asked.

“Wanted to know about Liz mostly,” she said. “I told her about the mines, she seemed happy.”

“Why’s she asking about Liz,” Carson asked sourly, “doesn’t she trust me?”

“It didn’t seem formal, just more like asking if it seemed to me like she was settling in,” Sheldon explained.

“Glad she didn’t message you five minutes before,” he said with a smirk.

“Shut up,” Sheldon hissed urgently at her lover, “just cus Hans isn’t here you can’t just… shut up, OK?”

“Sorry sorry fuck,” Carson grunted.

“Good,” Sheldon said coldly, and excused herself. Dayton closed the camera feed. The security AI would give her a summary if she missed anything, she reminded herself.

It wasn’t long after she’d closed the video program that she heard the door to the science lab outside her office open and close. She opened her office and stepped out to see Sam Hayden’s handsome figure standing in front of the experiment table.

“Oh fuck,” he exclaimed, “hey sorry Tara I didn’t know you were… hi. How are you?”

“Sorry Sam, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m good, just catching up on some paperwork. What’s all that?” Dayton indicated to the rocks Hayden had placed on the table.

“Oh this is for Pam. She found some ores in these that her computer isn’t properly identifying because they’re not the usual ones,” he told her, gesturing at the rocks.

“Not the usual ones,” Dayton asked, somewhat confused by the notion.

“Like, they’re not exports like uranium or lithium and they’re not workable metal products. Computer says it could be a bunch of stuff so I’m running a test,” he explained.

“What does she think they are,” Dayton inquired.

“Not dangerous,” chuckled Hayden. “No but seriously, she said that. Said me knowing what they were could effect the test, so she didn’t tell me anything besides that.”

“Not gonna lie, I’m a little jealous Sam,” Dayton said with a laboured sigh.

“You can just have one of the rocks,” he chuckled, no need for jealously.”

“Jealous of you doing real science, dumbass,” she chirped. “I’m up to my neck in bullshit right now. Corporate wants me reading and commenting on all these proposals and fuck me if they’re not all completely unworkable.”

“Like what,” Hayden asked.

“Like this one here,” she gestured to the computer behind her desk as if she had just been working on it, “some asshat in Houston says they want a forestation plant built. We don’t have seeds that will grow in the cold yet, but he wants a forestation plant? Idiots.”

“Dumbasses,” Hayden said with a sympathetic nod.

“Anyways, enjoy your uh, rocks, and I’ll enjoy Professor Dickmuch’s twelve-page essay on the viability of walking to Mars instead of using a rocket.”

Hayden laughed heartily. Dayton walked slowly back into her office, flashed Hayden a smile, and closed her door. She sat down in front of the computer and reopened the camera program. Her crew, minus the four out on expedition, were all busy working away in the little squares of video around the habitat

The suggestion that Dayton told Hayden about had been read and answered a week earlier. It was useful to her that it was head office that was keeping her busy. The last thing she needed was oversight from the crew, least of all the science crew.

Dayton leaned back in her chair and smiled. Her conversation with Sheldon was all about reaction time. Get her at her most **** moment and see how quickly she did her bidding. Dayton hadn’t expected she would be so quick that she would respond with Carson still inside her. Dayton hadn’t said it was urgent, and she wondered: did Sheldon come that quick because of loyalty, ambition, or because it thrilled her to show up with Carson’s load inside her?

“All three maybe,” Dayton muttered aloud, addressing the only person she actually trusted.