Flesh eating flora had never been a sight I expected to be excited by, and yet, there I was, relieved to gaze upon potentially deadly plants. And there Arana was, throwing herself at me and nearly sending us back down the hole the troop created using the laser cutter or whatever. The device created a perfectly man sized hole all the way down, and a little further. Zavir was enthusiastic about the laser.

“Don’t scare me like that again, you bastard.” Arana kissed my temple then my cheek then full on the mouth.

Good thing I washed my mouth out, but I still didn’t think she’d like to know where I was not that long ago. Or, well, no, she would love to hear the details while scrubbing her mouth clean.

“I should say the same to you. We could have lost you back there.” I used an arm to return her hug and gave Ryker, who stood behind her, a thumbs up. Lilea had her flamethrower out, ready to attack if need be and Zavir was hugging the laser like a newfound lover.

“I would have been a goner if not for you, and the captain,” she said with no idea why I really shot and I wasn’t about to tell her. “The captain more than you, of course. If my face was burned, I would have eaten yours.”

“Noted.”

Iylene tended to the captain. They used another med spray that put a sense of relief across his features. Iylene brought half our troop, explaining the other half continued their duties to the east side of the habitat so we didn’t muck up our schedule entirely. Roys congratulated them on their quick thinking, then leaned in to whisper something.

Roys ordered us to head back. Iylene brought the rover near the plant where we got separated. That was as far as they could bring it into the jungle. We would make it back to the rover long before nightfall, so long as we kept up a decent pace. Roys was fine thanks to the fresh coat of med spray. We managed to travel three clicks away from the habitat in the caves, one click to the south so we almost circled back.

According to Arana, the flora that attacked us backed off ten minutes after we fell in. The fire exhausted it because, afterward, they approached the flora without it reacting. Actually, Arana pushed Lilea toward it, otherwise none of them would have got close. They returned to the habitat before nightfall, as Roys ordered, which I expected him to give me a harsh look for but the captain hadn’t looked my way since I sucked him off.

Ah, so now he got shy. Weirdo.

We returned to the habitat without issue where the remaining troop waited. They barely gave me the opportunity to shower, wanting to ask a thousand questions I promised to share answers to after washing up and a hot meal. Over that meal came the questions, seeing as Roys wasn’t out there to join in.

Tareik, our senior medic, took Roys to the cradle to get his back sorted out, leaving me to explain the flora attack. Ryker reminded everyone that he already shared the tale. My story changed nothing, but he was a shit story teller. My rendition had the troop on the edge of their seats.

Yes, I embellished the tale of the giant centipede thing and yes I said the glow worms attacked us and I saved Roys. He wasn’t there to say otherwise, so tough luck. I did leave out the oral sex, although the details would have gotten plenty of them hot and bothered whether they wanted to admit it or not.

By the time the tale ended, Roys wandered out of med bay wearing a shirt that—somewhat—fit him. The color returned to his cheeks and he didn’t move as sluggishly as he had in the cavern.

“Sounds like you owe Lucky a drink, cap!” Soldiers called over their laughter and bickering.

Roys kept walking. “Don’t trust a word he says. He probably lied through his teeth.”

The barrack doors shut and he was gone.

“You pissed him off again, didn’t you?” Ryker asked.

“I did much more than that,” I replied, chuckling, feeling the abrupt urge for something cherry flavored.

“Details.” Ryker pulled a cigarette out of his jacket in offering.

He knew I didn’t have any because I got drunk on Main and smoked the last of mine the day before we landed. Gesturing toward the group, I had everyone lean in, knowing damn well others listened too.

“We made sweet, sweet love,” I cooed, causing all of them to release a range of disagreements and complaints. I hugged my arms around my chest. “Under those glowing little worms, I simply couldn’t stop thinking about his worm and that sweet hole of his.”

“Lucky!” Ryker shouted. Arana was the only one listening with rapt attention.

“Then there we were, lost together in the dark, exhausted and hungry in a myriad of manners.” I threw a hand over my temple and fell back on the chair. “I simply couldn’t resist his temptation!”

“I hate you. So much,” said Zavir. He and Lilea got up to pretend they weren’t part of our group.

“So I ripped off the captains clothes and fucked him raw.” I moved in to make kissy faces at Ryker, who slid the smoke over and gagged when I whispered, “He’s a screamer, by the way. Oh, Lucky, yes, right there, just like that, please!”

“You know what, take the whole pack.” Ryker threw the pack, got up, tossed the lighter at my head and left.

Snickering, I popped a smoke between my lips and lit it. Arana remained, not bothering to hide the message she sent to her girlfriends requesting nudes. I looked at her. She looked at me.

“Your story made me horny,” she admitted as the commlink flashed. Her girlfriends replied offering a video call instead. Arana stood. “Excuse me, I have business to attend to.”

“Make it quick. I’m hitting the hay early.”

She looked between me and the pack of cigarettes. “Finish that pack before you come to the room.”

I blew out a plume of smoke. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes.”

Arana puckered her lips and knew better than to argue. “Done.”

Then there was only Iylene, who had listened intently, as they normally did. They munched on flora that must have come from outside and was, apparently, edible. As usual, their expression hadn’t changed from apathetic even with my riveting rendition. That freakishly long tongue of theirs spun around the flora to yank into their mouth whole.

“No wonder the captain was limping. You should know how important it is to use proper lubrication for anal sex and he was previously injured. It was wrong of you not to control your urges,” Iylene said simply.

“I was joking, dear.” I laughed and offered them a smoke.

Iylene accepted and let the cigarette hang from their mouth. I lit it for them, chuckling when they said, “I see. How unfortunate. Passionate fornication would have made your ordeal much more pleasant.”

“Can’t say I disagree.”

Together, we smoked and I stashed the pack in my pocket. I half expected my commlink to go off with a message from the captain saying to keep my mouth shut about what happened. He seemed the type to freak out, even if he was a more than eager participant during. But Arana’s fifteen minutes were up, seventeen, technically, and there was no message. Saying goodnight to Iylene, I headed back to the barracks to get some early shut eye where I knocked on the door.

“Enter!” Arana called and I did so, hesitantly. She laid on the top bunk, her clothes strewn on the floor and blanket held tight under her arms. “I appreciate your thoughtfulness toward my needs.”

“So long as you remember this the next time I need a little alone time.”

“What really happened down there?” She rested her hands on the railing of the bed and her chin on top of them.

“I gave the story,” I replied while tugging off my clothes.

“You gave some of the story. Something happened with the captain.”

“Yeah, he put up with me, alone, in pain and hungry, for nearly two days.”

She tapped her chin. “True, it is a miracle he didn’t commit manslaughter. I probably would have.”

I fell into bed. My body hadn’t felt exhausted until the moment my head touched the pillow.

The bunk squeaked from her leaning over the railing. “Nothing happened? Really?”

“Nothing of importance.”

The captain may argue otherwise. He hadn’t said a word to me the entire trek back. Wouldn’t look at me, either. Probably got turned on.

That was the last thing I remembered, chuckling to myself, then falling into a deep slumber.

I wasn’t sure when I woke up. My body ached in all the wrong ways. My stomach growled furiously and I rubbed a pound of crust from my eyes.

Rolling out of bed, I found myself alone. Checking my commlink, it was well past noon. There was one message from Roys giving out his usual orders. My team departed at 0600 without me.

Apparently, giving good head had its perks.

Roys left, though, as I was the only person at the habitat. Droids cleaned, did the laundry and such. One whipped up lunch for me and I spent the afternoon on the Viz or napping all the while considering Roys’ peculiar order to let me stay behind.

In the end, I settled on two options; he either expected me to use the incident to get him reassigned or he was being nice to try and have another go with me.

I’d let him squirm a little longer, though.

That evening, the troops returned as razzled as ever, that time carrying two soldiers to the cradle. Apparently, they ran into a fern-like forest where the ferns were full of razor blades that tried sucking the blood from its victims.

“Vampire ferns,” one of the guys called them, and apparently catalogued them as such. The survey team would probably get pissy over us trying to use any unscientific names, but the name would certainly stick. All the dumb ones did.

“You are lucky,” Ryker said when he dropped in the dining area across from me. “It was the hottest it had ever been today. I thought my skeleton was sweating inside of me.”

He cast Iylene and Lilea hateful looks because their species didn’t sweat.

“That is my name,” I said, watching the troop file in.

Roys entered last. Like the others, a layer of sweat caused his shirt to hug him in all the right ways. I devoured that eye candy in earnest, thought once more that he may look my way, say something, send a message, but he remained too shy to do so.

“Did you really fuck the captain?” Ryker asked.

If I didn’t have any self control, I would have spit out my food. Instead, I chewed nice and slow, mouth open. Ryker, accustomed to my disgusting behavior, thought nothing of it. He laid out his hands on the table while Zavir and Iylene fell on either side of him. Arana and Lilea sat by me.

“I cannot think of another reason for why he so kindly let you off duty because that must have been a pain in the ass to explain to corporate. They want us out there even if we’re missing a limb or two.” Ryker jabbed a thumb in Venny’s direction, who literally lost his arm and was expected to return to work the next day.

The cradle healed the wound, but he couldn’t get a regrowth until he returned to Main and corporate saw no reason to send a prosthetic when there was a high chance it would break while on tour and they’d have to keep replacing them. Not to mention the mental load, so yeah, corporate wasn’t exactly keen on missed work hours and Darmin was too drunk to listen, care, or argue with them.

I smiled. “Me neither. I guess our sweet love making was just that good.”

Ryker faced Zavir, who had practically melted onto the table. “Is he being serious? Can you tell?”

“I don’t care,” Zavir wheezed, all four arms splayed across the table like a scientist's specimen.

I didn’t much care for the conversation either. Ryker tried, and failed, to get more information. Telling them about what happened could potentially lead to Roys’ relocation. Corporate, technically, forbade relationships between superiors and their subordinates. That never meant they fired anyone, or that it didn’t happen in droves. I didn’t want Roys relocated, though, not while I could still have some fun with him.