In the end, I’m well into the afternoon by the time I get back to Verus. Andy is already helping to carry fencing units out from the airlock when I come through and I’m pleased to see that he has a gun slung over his shoulder.

“How did the shooting go?” I ask as I approach him.

“Fine. It’s not difficult. Simon tells me I have a good eye and quick reflexes. We’re all pre-loaded with blue darts. We figured that we need to stop the predators. Anything else we should be able to scare off.”

“Yeah, sounds fine. Honestly, if we need to overdose some pissed-off smaller herbivore, it won’t be the end of the mission. Our safety is paramount right now. Where are we taking these posts?”

“The north side. We already have the corners in place. I was just acting as a transporter, fetching new posts from the airlock and down to the erection team.”

“Sorry again. Still not what you signed up for.”

“No, but it won’t do me any harm. Well, it is pretty tiring in this higher gravity, but exercise is good for us.”

“I’m not sure that anything is going according to plan down here. We seem to make one short step forward and then get knocked back a step and a half,” I mutter to him as we start carrying posts. The northern side of the fence is going well. They have eight posts in place out of only twelve needed for each side. I call up the map of post positions that Argus has worked out and we drop our load between the next two available spots.

“Well, I think setbacks are inevitable. Nobody has ever done this before – well, not for about 600 years since it was last done on Earth by Victorian explorers and missionaries.”

“No, I guess not. At least the fence installation is going quickly enough.”

Back at the ship, Toby and his assistant have returned in the second buggy. “Everything go okay for you guys,” I ask as we approach them.

“Yes, we found some nickel ore deposits that might be useful. There was one thing, though.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“We saw some more of your predators.”

“Oh,” I say with a little bit of surprise. “Some? Do you mean more than one?”

“Yes. What I assume was a family group. Male, female and two cubs. Cubs were about the size of a lion!”

“I dread to ask, but what were they doing?”

“Finishing their lunch. I think it was one of the big herbivores, but it wasn’t exactly easy to identify. Blood here is apparently red too, though and they have lots of it. We logged the position of the kill if you want to take a look yourself.”

“I see. We might take a look at the remains tomorrow, Andy.” He pulls a face at my suggestion, but eventually shrugs in acceptance. “Did they take much notice of you, Toby?”

“No, not really. We didn’t get too close, though. Probably never nearer than about 50 metres.”

“Well, that helps in a way. We need to see just how aggressive they are at some point. Have you two eaten yet?”

“Yes, boss. We had a packed lunch at the ore site.”

“Good. Can you both help with the fencing then, please? Argus has a plan linked. Maybe do transport with Andy and myself until we get them all out and then we’ll all help with construction and wiring.”

“Will we be finished tonight?”

“No, I don’t think so. We’re only working until the beginning of dusk. Then I want everybody back on Earth.”

Carrying the posts out to the correct locations is only a matter of walking at a steady pace, but the weight of them is every bit as tiring as might be expected in this slightly higher gravity.

Still, with four of us working in relays, we actually get all of them to the correct locations on the grid within a couple of hours. I leave Toby to start erecting more posts and Andy and myself lend a hand running cables and fence wires. Even so, as expected, we are not finished by the time the sun begins to touch the horizon.

A quick call across our implants allows me to order everyone back to the ship. One or two people ask whether they can just finish the task they are part-way through, but I make the decision to leave everything and pick up where we left off in the morning. Andy and I are the last two people into the airlock, making sure that we have gathered the whole crew up.

“Andy, are we eating at Miguel’s again today?” I ask as we pass through the gateway.

“Well, we can do, but whatever you like, really.”

“Well, I thought that I might cook for us?”

“Oh, that sounds good. That way we don’t have to make an effort to get changed. Do you like to cook?”

“Yes, I actually really enjoy it. I just don’t always feel like it after work and it isn’t always worth the effort for just me.”

“Fine. Your place then. It’s time to relax.”

“Yes, I’m beat.”

“Oh, Axios, can we have one of the conference rooms in the morning for a staff meeting, please.”

<Yes, Room B is available.>

“Great. Let all the staff know that there’s a meeting at nine tomorrow then.”

<Will do, Peter.>

 

“Andy, are you staying tonight?” I ask as we head down towards the small on-campus supermarket. “Do you need anything?”

“Do you want me to stay?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I’ll pop back to my place and grab some things while you shop, if you like?”

“Sure. Anything you don’t eat?”

“Asparagus, but pretty much anything else is fine.”

“Okay, see you shortly.” We’ve been walking slowly along, shoulders touching and I can’t resist leaning down to kiss him lightly on the cheek as we separate. He smiles at me as he turns and heads off in the opposite direction.

It takes only a few minutes for me to select the ingredients that I need. I’m going to keep it simple and plan to make a stir-fry. There’ll be quite a bit of preparation to do with the vegetables, but the cooking time will be minimal and I already have condiments and spices at the apartment. For protein I select some actual chicken. Not in the sense that it has ever been a walking about feathered fowl, but it is grown slowly and has a very similar texture to the living thing, despite coming from a vat.

By the time I make it back to the apartment, Andy is just arriving with a small bag in his hand. We walk inside together and I head to the kitchen area while Andy drops his bag in the bedroom.

“Can I help,” he offers as I place the ingredients on the counter.

“Sure. Can you shred some of these vegetables for me, please. I’ll marinade the chicken for a few minutes.”

I don’t think I’ve ever slipped so smoothly into domesticity before, if I ever really did with previous relationships. Andy is just so easy to be with. We just seem to mesh together and know what we need to do to get the job done.

I really do enjoy cooking, but it is sometimes too much effort to cook for one person and Miguel is only a minute or two away. With the two of us, it seems much more of an option and it gives us a chance to make small talk and get to know a little more about each other and what we like and don’t like.

Andy watches me as I prepare the marinade and comments that it already smells really good, even before the chicken goes into the bowl. “Are you following a recipe?” he asks.

“No, I tend to just make it up as I go along. A little of this, a bit of that. No measuring or weighing, just throw stuff into the bowl. I can make it to suit how I feel, that way. Speaking of which, spicy or not?”

“Maybe a little?”

“Sure. Somewhere in between then,” I acknowledge, adding just a pinch of cayenne and shredding one small green chilli, having discarded the seeds and white membranes. I throw the chicken strips into the marinade and give it a quick mix around before snapping a lid onto the bowl and chucking it into the fridge.

“That needs about half an hour or so to develop. How are the vegetables coming along?” I ask as I wash my hands.

“Done. What do we do for half an hour?” Andy moves to the sink and washes his own hands before reaching out to share the towel to dry them.

“Well, actually, I think I need a shower.”

“Oh, okay, sure. Go right ahead.”

“Actually, I thought you might like to join me?”

Now Andy smiles and takes my offered hand as I lead him towards the bathroom. I shed my shirt immediately, before leaning into the shower to turn on the water and adjust the temperature. Andy, also shirtless, reaches round me from behind, going up on his toes and kissing my neck as he unfastens the catch on my pants and slips an exploratory hand below the waistband.

My arousal is painfully instantaneous, my cock stiffening even before his touch. I turn into him, eager to embrace him and deepen our kiss. Accepting the change of position, his hands slip around my waist and gently squeeze my buttocks as he pulls me in to him. We manage to pause only long enough to get out of the rest of our clothes and step into the shower cubicle.

Once again, our bodies are pressed together, cocks rubbing against each other as we explore and kiss in the warm stream of water. Our hands each seem to find the other’s arousals at about the same instant and we both start to slowly and gently stroke in time to some internal rhythm.

“Andy…” I whisper between kisses.

“Hmm…”

“Fuck me…”

“Hmm…”

Andy slowly turns around me, keeping his slow rhythmic stroking of my shaft, but forcing me to release him as he moves behind me. His other hand slips down my back and into the cleft between my cheeks. Slowly his fingertip brushes across my hole, drawing a gentle series of rings around my opening before probing gently. I manage to adjust my stance slightly, feet a little further apart to give him more room to work.

When he lets go of my cock, I take over, sensing that he is using his now free hand to work himself as his first tentative finger now slips inside me. It’s been a while, but Andy knows just how to prepare me, slowly and gently probing deeper and, when the time is right adding a second finger alongside the first. He maintains a good rhythm that soon has me feeling ready to accept him.

I lean forward, away from him and use the shower taps to brace myself with one hand while I continue to wank myself with the other. Andy places a hand on my hip and, a moment later I feel the slight pressure as he places his tip against my now slightly gaping hole. Wow. I should have remembered from yesterday, just how fat his cock really is. Now, as the pressure builds and he pushes into me I get the full effect.

The feeling isn’t exactly painful, but Andy is clearly skilled and takes his time to push slowly and steadily into me. Once over the initial pressure of his first entry, it becomes easier for both of us and, realizing that I had stopped stroking myself, I start up once more. The overwhelming sense of fullness as Andy’s balls touch mine is incredible.

“Okay?” he whispers.

“Hmm… Slow and steady…”

With his right hand on my shoulder and his left on my hip, Andy begins to draw back before slipping fully back inside me with exquisite slowness and precision. It is such a deep rhythm that I don’t think I could ever maintain, but Andy seems lost in the motion. I can hear each of his deep breaths on the inward thrust and they seem so measured and precise. However hard I try to match this rhythm with my hand on my shaft, I’m finding it almost impossible.

I can’t help myself. I have to increase the speed of my hand, or I’m going to go insane. Andy senses my impending urgency and ever so carefully increases the speed of his thrusting. It’s as if we’re in a car rolling down a hill. The acceleration is minimal, but it is inexorable. As I speed up my hand, Andy speeds up the thrusting of his hips, somehow managing to maintain the depth of his trusts, pounding into my prostate on each stroke.

After maybe a couple of minutes of this, the pair of us are at fever pitch and even Andy's precise rhythm is beginning to break down into more frenzied strokes. “Coming…” I manage to pant as I release. Andy holds on more tightly, sensing my knees begin to buckle and, with one final thrust, he explodes into my spasming rectum.

My cock jerks and pulses in my now still hand as I feel Andy pump spurt after spurt of his own semen deep inside me. He moans as I contract tightly around him again and again while my orgasm goes on for longer than I ever felt possible.

Finally, both spent, Andy withdraws and turns me around to hold me tight to his chest under the stream of water from the still warm shower. Chins on each other’s shoulders, we stand for a few moments to catch our breaths.