Herd mentality

The morning after her first time, Jaisyl Smith emerged from Dustin’s quarters dressed only in panties and one of his larger shirts. She’d slept in late - her new husband (Her husband! She still wasn’t quite used to that thought…) having risen hours earlier to oversee the final stages of their return to normal space and the subsequent asteroid mining to allow them to replenish a few of their supplies before they proceeded with the jump to the quiet star that formed their next destination.

As she stepped out the door into the ready room, she’d not been thinking of anything beyond the previous night and their onward quest. As such, the loud cry of congratulations and the sound of several party-poppers going off made her jump with fright. Before she could fully bolt back into the quiet of Dustin’s private chamber, she found Rye’s hand on her arm. “Welcome to the club, princess. Ya have fun last night? C’mon, we’ve been waiting for ya for hours - you’re more of a sleepyhead than Emmz is at the moment… Oww!” The Rabyth trailed off with the complaint coming due to a rather expertly thrown biscuit bouncing off the back of her head, said projectile having emerged at some speed from the bundle of blankets that Jaisyl presumed contained the fox woman.

Sitting at the table, the princess glanced around. Almost the entire harem appeared to be there, besides Sammie who she guessed was with Dustin. Virtually nothing would drag that woman away from Sola’s flight controls, especially when there was difficult navigation to do - like weaving around an asteroid belt so they could strip it of useful materials. “It was…” she began, then paused. All eyes were on her, the assembled women leaning forward as she continued, “beyond what I had expected. I… Dustin is a very skilled lover. And insatiable, I might add.”

The bunny girl chuckled, and Yaerwen nodded in the golden-haired woman’s direction. “Blame bun-bun for that one. Exposure to her saliva over the years has done a number on our Dusty’s ability to get it up, much to our benefit. So, since our species have history apparently I’m nominated to be the one that gets to ask you - what’s next?”

Jaisyl blinked while the Rabyth woman glared at the use of the nickname. “Next…? What do you mean, what’s next?”

Trea’k sighed, setting down the cup of tea she’d been drinking. “What our resident gym rat is trying to ask is what do you plan to do about the rest of us? You did ask to join the harem, did you not? We presume you’ll want to spend time with people besides Dustin eventually, but do you want to just let it happen, hold a massive orgy, or maintain some sort of schedule?”

The princess could feel her face flushing as she tried to process the Vex’ess’s words. “Not an orgy!” She managed at last, before mumbling “at least, not at first” under her breath where only Rye who was sitting next to her could hear. Unfortunately, Rye proceeded to get a fit of the giggles and explain exactly what she’d just heard the princess say.

As the assembled women laughed, Meli’a reached out and patted Jaisyl’s hand. “Relax, sweetheart. You’re allowed to be a bit overwhelmed at this point. But we do need to know what you want to do, or if you want us to not be intimate with you at all…” the Velca paused as Jaisyl rapidly shook her head.

“I… I do want to… with you. At least, eventually. But I’ve got a whole lot of things I need to work out first. W…would it be alright if we just let things happen naturally?” The Tho’unn’s voice was soft and unsure as she spoke, a far cry from the haughty denouncements of degeneracy they’d all become accustomed to since she’d joined the ship.

“Wow. Dusty fucked the snob right out of of her,” Emely mumbled from inside her blanket pile. “Of course we’re okay with things happening naturally. Besides, me and Rye are pregnant, so we can’t really go all in on an orgy right now anyhow. Which sucks, because I am not gonna fully forgive you for being mean to sir until I’ve got you eating me out while he fucks you… and he mentioned you had some hang-ups about doggy style, so that’ll be a while.” Then, the redhead’s face emerged from the blankets and she smiled at the princess. “Sir did look rather satisfied this morning tho, so we’re good. You’re just not fully forgiven until then.”

As Emely returned to her nest, Meli’a patted Jaisyl again. “Emely is right. We’re all fine with letting things progress naturally - although, will you be joining us all tonight in the big bedroom? It would feel odd if you didn’t…”

Jaisyl bit her lip and nodded. “Y…yes. If everyone’s alright with me taking things slowly in there?”

While Jaisyl and the ladies were having their discussion, Dustin and Sammie were sat on the bridge, observing the shuttlecraft as they flew mining teams out to a range of asteroids. The plan was to process the material gradually, with close range scanning letting them target suitably mineral-dense asteroids to tow back to Sola’s cargo holds for refining over the hours of travel cross-system, and then the long jump to the quiet star. If all went well, the resources would be fully refined inside a week, but as there was no rush this gradual approach had been decided on as the best option.

“Another couple of hours and we should be good to head to the jump point,” Sammie observed, glancing down at the pilot’s terminal. “Assuming you don’t want me to punch it, we can either do the jump to this mystery star tonight or hover by the point and go in the morning.”

Dustin frowned. “Let’s do tomorrow morning. We’re not in a huge rush for once, and given we know weird stuff happens to Fractal craft on the transit I’d rather everyone was alert, just in case.”

The pilot nodded. “You’re worried about Fi-oh?”

“Yes. Well, not really, but enough that I’d rather not take any chances,” Dustin said, lounging back in his seat. “Based on the information we got, I get the feeling it’s only fully Fractal vessels that do the disappearing act. Given we know they use more advanced weave drives than us, my suspicion is it’s something to do with their drive tech that’s singling them out. Otherwise, surely some ships would have had computers or something that’d have led to them getting lost as well. It’s not as if the Arof haven’t sent a lot of probes over the years in the hopes of finding something worth selling.”

Sammie stretched and nodded before rising and walking over to where he was sat. When she got close, the dark-skinned woman grinned at her husband before leaning in for a hug. “Yeah, you’re probably right. And bun-bun said she’d rigged up some shielding in engineering that should block any kind of scans you can mention for Fi-oh to sit in, just in case. That said, not gonna complain about doing this flight on a good night’s sleep… assuming we get one with her imperial wifeness joining us in bed.”

Dustin was glad the bridge was lightly crewed, his cheeks flushing at the pilot’s words despite the fact that she’d lowered her voice to where he was pretty sure only the two of them had heard her. “I doubt she will keep us up, love,” he murmured in reply, adding “she’s got a whole range of hang-ups to work through, even if she is probably the second or third most eager woman I’ve met… but if she’s joining us tonight it will probably be just for sleep, unless I’m very mistaken.”

To his relief, the pilot decided further teasing wasn’t in order, wandering over to the scanners to check another batch of asteroids before dropping back into her usual seat. “Any thoughts about where we’re going after this next stop? Assuming the star is a wild goose chase, or whatever we find there marks the end of our time in this little area of space?”

“None what-so-ever.” Dustin grimaced as he said it, glancing up at the black void of space showing on the main screen. “The mission’s still the same - scout out new friends, look for folk living under the shadow of the Fractals, liaise with the fleet when we get the chance… but as for where we go next? Pick a star and head for it I guess?”