J.W. McKenna

Slave Planet

Chapter 1

Pure oxygen, mixed with stimulants, hissed into the cocoon surrounding Capt. Kathryn Dyson. The dark-haired woman didn’t move at first, “sleeping the sleep of the dead,” as space boomers called it. Finally, her eyes fluttered. She stirred, her tee-shirt shifting over her breasts. She opened her eyes and looked around, confused, groggy.

Awareness returned slowly. Her eyes opened wide, then narrowed as she focused on the panel near her right hand. Green. Good, she thought. It’s not an emergency. The cocoon was designed to wake her if something had gone wrong during the long flight. A green board told her that she had been awakened on time.

Kate hit the switch, venting the oxygen and allowing it to be replaced by ordinary air. Another switch caused the cocoon’s lid to hiss open. She spent a few minutes getting her bearings, then struggled with her straps to free herself. As she sat up, she smiled wryly at the paper panties that remained bunched by her left hand. Cryosleep required many long months motionless while the ship hurled through empty space. NASA, in its wisdom, decided that cloth panties might cause yeast infections during the long slumber. Paper panties that breathed were the official sleepwear, which most women grudgingly accepted.

Kate, however, didn’t buy it. Rather than wear the damn things, she preferred to “go bare.” Since she was captain, she would be the last to sleep and the first to awaken. It was her right to wear what she wanted—or to wear nothing at all.

She tossed the panties into the trash recycler and paused to look over her sleeping crew. The four remaining cocoons were reading green. Good. She didn’t really trust these damn things any more than she trusted a soda machine to give her correct change. She walked the line, checking the faces of each of her crew. All were women, dressed in tee-shirts and those silly panties, their long legs partially obscured by the darkened cocoons. They would be awakened soon. In the meantime, there was time to check out the ship and their journey.

Kate half-floated, half-padded barefoot to her quarters, cogniscent of the low gravity. On long trips like this, the gravity field was kept weak until they approached their destination. There was no need to waste energy. Now, just days away from the unexplored system, the gravity field would strengthen until their “land legs” returned in time for exploration—if the opportunity presented itself. A big if.

She took a quick shower. A space shower was quite the experience for those not familiar with the procedure. Water was a premium on board, so showers consisted of a blast of droplets to wet the body, followed by a scrubbing down with a special soap, then another blast to rinse. A fan sucked the mixture away. Kate never quite got used to it and she had been an astronaut for twelve years.

Walking naked from the shower, she relished these few minutes alone. A long space voyage was an exercise in forced civility with one’s crewmates. NASA selected the crew, and Kate didn’t find their personalities fit in all cases—but they were all professionals and would make this trip successful. They had to.

Kate paused, standing there in the nude, thinking about Brian and the last time they made love, so many months ago. Her nipples hardened in the processed air. Kate unselfconsciously touched her breasts, pretending it was Brian’s hands stroking her. Her mind easily recalled the evening, as it was just a few nights ago as far as she was concerned. Cryosleep has a way of compacting time.

She smiled and let her fingers drift down to brush her smooth mound below her navel. She felt a little naughty... Here she was, captain of NASA’s most expensive ship built to date and she was seriously thinking of…well, no, she wouldn’t. Would she?

She should get dressed, she told herself. Many things to do. Her mind betrayed her, bringing up the image of Brian next to her in bed, his hard muscles a contrast to her soft curves. He was hard somewhere else as well, she remembered. Brian had been deliciously unabashed, encouraging her gaze upon him. If anything, it made him harder. His cock was a very nice shape—thick and veiny with a bulbous head that could make her salivate.

Kate remembered leaning down to kiss it, knowing that these sights, these actions, would have to last her for nearly two years—longer for him. His smell enveloped her, a musky, sexy, piquant scent that caused the lips of her wet slit to part in anticipation. As her mind wandered back to that day, so did her fingers now, down past her bare mons, letting them dance along her sensitive cleft. She could feel herself getting wet. Kate eased down onto the closed toilet seat.

Brian had thrown his head back as she took him into her mouth that night and now Kate threw her own head back against the bulkhead and closed her eyes as her fingers traced a gentle track along her moist cleft. Already her clit poked out of its tender prison. She had sucked Brian’s sweet cock, enjoying the sensation, the musky smell of him, until he whimpered and touched her head. “Wait,” he had breathed, “I want to be in you.”

Kate had laid back on their bed, relishing the way Brian had crawled over her like some sort of beast, his hardness swinging like a club underneath him. She spread her legs for him, welcoming him. She had been so wet, her cunt gaped. Her fingers, remembering, opened her cleft now and rubbed the little pearl inside.

OK, she told herself, maybe starship captains do masturbate after cryosleep.

Brian had placed the tip of his cock at her hot core, then paused, looking down on her. “When you’re in space,” he said softly, “remember this moment.” Then he pressed himself into her, slowly, making her feel every inch. He slid in smoothly, so familiar, so much a part of her. This time it did not feel like the love-making of “old married folks,” sixteen years into their relationship. They were literally star-crossed lovers who would soon be torn asunder. The orgasm that had rocked her was made sweeter and sadder because it would be the last one they would share for a long time. Of course, it wasn’t. They had made love twice more during the night, like teenagers discovering sex for the first time.

Kate let the pad of her finger stroke the wet clit, dipping in for the slippery fluid. She remembered Brian taking her in front, from behind and again on their sides. She concentrated on the image of his cock thrusting into her again and again as she rubbed herself, faster and faster. In minutes, it gave her the climax she so desperately needed. “Oh god!” she shouted in the tiny bathroom. “Oh my god!”

She sagged back against the bulkhead. I wonder if this makes me a member of the million-mile club? She laughed at herself. “Oh, Captain Dyson, you wicked, wicked woman.” Her voice sounded hollow in the silent ship. She was glad no one could hear. “OK, back to work.”

As she shrugged on her pink bikini panties—non-regulation, of course—and the blue NASA coveralls, she reflected on how much this trip meant to her and to Earth. The U.S.S. Letanya carried the first all-female crew sent out to further the exploration of the Andromeda galaxy. Since 2053—the year faster-than-light drive had been invented—men had had the privilege of jetting around space, getting the glory, while women were reduced to mere back-up roles. In the twenty-two years since that first flight, only eleven women had been included on trips. It was time to let a woman captain an exploration, America demanded.

But why stop there? Lobbying by women’s organizations and Congress finally convinced NASA that an all-female crew could be a public relations boon. It was decided the latest warp-drive ship, the Letanya, would be manned—er, womanned?—by an all-female crew. Capt. Kathyrn Dyson, the eldest and most experienced at 38, would lead the mission, along with four of the top female astronauts and scientists NASA had to offer.

Kate was very proud to have been chosen for such an honor, yet she still burned over the memory of her briefing at NASA headquarters in Houston. She had been called to the office of Admiral James Hunter, the decorated and beloved godfather of warp-drive exploration. It was Hunter who had gone out with Jerry Roth on the first mission to explore Andromeda, the closest galaxy at 2.2 million light years away. Without warp drive and cryosleep, such a trip would not have been possible.

After six months in stasis, Hunter and Roth awoke to a wonder never before seen by human eyes except through distant telescopes—new planetary systems, and with them, new opportunities to find life. Andromeda is a huge galaxy, one-and-a-half times as large as our own Milky Way. It stretches one-hundred-fifty thousand light years across. The astronauts had just two months to explore a handful of the thousands of suns that whirled around in the galaxy. The starship could not land on the planets they came across and the crew had no shuttle craft, so all their explorations were done with probes sent to the surfaces below.

New minerals, bacteria and plant species were discovered on one of the planets. On another world, they found some reptiles and amphibians. That they found no intelligent life didn’t matter to NASA. After charting a tiny fraction of the system and exhausting their probes, Hunter and Roth returned to Earth as conquering heroes.

While they had been gone a little over a year—twelve months traveling and two months exploring—Earth had aged two years. It was Einstein’s theory proven fact. This just made their safe return all the more remarkable. Ticker tape parades greeted them. Roth later left NASA to head a multinational corporation, and Hunter rose to head the agency.

His past glory didn’t excuse his treatment of Kate Dyson when she was brought in to accept the assignment. Hunter told her he had been under pressure to approve the “all-girl” mission, as he kept calling it. He thought it was a bad idea.

“I’ll tell you right now, I’m against this. What if you girls get stuck out there? Are you going to expect us to come rescue you because you’re women?” he asked her as she stood in front of his desk, trapped between conflicting emotions. She was thrilled to be given the job, yet despised this Neanderthal who thought women needed rescuing.

“I wouldn’t expect treatment any different than you give to the male astronauts,” she had said, keeping her voice neutral.

“Damn right,” Hunter said. “But think how that will play out at home. You get your tits in a wringer out there and we don’t do anything, we’ll look like uncaring jerks. This mission could be a disaster that sets NASA back 20 years.”

Kate’s face burned, but she said nothing for a moment. She had to be careful. She was willing to endure this abuse if it meant getting the assignment. “We won’t let you down,” she said lamely.

He stared at her. He knew he was being bullshitted. “I’m going to announce this all-girl mission tomorrow. I’ve got no choice. My Congressman made that very clear. The crew’s already been selected.” He handed her a folder. “But I’m telling you right now it’s imperative that you don’t fuck up out there. The space program depends on it.”

“We’ll be careful, sir.”

Hunter pointed a stubby finger at her. “Off the record, I’ll tell you this: If you get hung up out there, don’t call us up and cry for help. That will just make things worse. It’ll be better for the space program if you do an Amelia Earhart out there. If we hear from you, it’ll be like the Rochester all over again.”

Kate cringed inwardly. The U.S.S. Rochester was NASA’s biggest failure since the Challenger explosion in the 1980s. Manned by four men and a token woman, the Rochester rocketed off into the Milky Way galaxy eight years ago for a mapping mission and ran into some kind of trouble. The only radio message Earth received said they had “hit some space debris” and were attempting to make repairs.

There was a hue and cry to go rescue them until scientists pointed out that because of the lag time and the space-time continuum, it would be another six months before a ship could reach them. By that time, either they would be long dead, or they would have already returned to Earth, provided they were able to make repairs. The rescue mission would have squandered already tight resources. That didn’t make anyone feel any better, but because the captain and most of the crew were men, America decided they could fend for themselves.

Unfortunately, they were never heard from again. Their fate remains a mystery to this day. Every anniversary of the launch, the media reminds the public of this failure and headlines ask the annual question: “What Happened to the Rochester?” A parade of “experts” would speculate on how they met their grisly end. Everyone at NASA was sick of it and most had known the Rochester crew personally. It just didn’t do any good to keep dwelling on it.

Kate knew what was at stake when “girls” were allowed to take the newest starship in the fleet out for a quick spin. If they succeeded, they might be able to shut up assholes like Hunter. If they failed, they’d prove the bastards right.

This mission would be exceptionally crucial because it represented just the third time that a crew would attempt to land on any “Class M” planet it discovered. Advances in technology had made this feat more practical. After all, why travel two million light years or more and not visit a planet? Probes could only do so much.

In the two previous landings on planets in Andromeda’s many solar systems, astronauts brought back a treasure trove of information. To date, however, none had discovered intelligent life. That remained the Holy Grail that each new crew hoped to find. Kate wanted to be the first. That would really prove the mettle of her “all-girl” crew.

The trip had an inauspicious beginning. Once the announcement was made, it didn’t take long for wags to dub the new ship the “Lesbanya.” Ha ha. Kate didn’t recall the first small star ship, the U.S.S. Dickson, after the popular, pro-NASA president, being called some rude name just because it was led by four men. Following the “Lesbanya” crack came the jokes about PMS, women drivers and the number of suitcases they’ll need on the two-year trip.

Kate felt the weight of not only the world on her shoulders, but also that of women’s rights. One hundred fifty years after women got the vote in this country, and they’re still considered “too delicate” for certain jobs. Kate was determined to prove them wrong.

She glided to the cockpit and strapped herself into the chair. Checking the controls, she found they were on course, on time. Coming out of warp in five hours, just ten thousand kilometers outside the section of the Andromeda system they were to explore. She ran through the diagnostics, checking every control, system and section. It took her ninety minutes before she could breathe a sigh of relief. Remarkably, the ship was shipshape. Kate smiled.

“Maybe we ‘girls’ can handle this after all,” she murmured aloud. Of course, so far, the ship had done all the work.

The control panel beeped. The other crew members were being awakened. Kate wanted to be there.

Chapter 2

Kate stood by the cocoon as the air hissed into it, releasing her second-in-command, Commander Allyson Egerton. Of all the women in the space program, Kate was glad NASA had assigned the smart, funny, self-deprecating redhead to the crew. She had met Ally eight years ago and the two hit it off right away. Kate couldn’t have picked a better, more qualified “No. 1.”

She waited until Ally’s eyes fluttered open, then grinned at the groggy crew woman. “Reveille was,” Kate made a show of looking at her watch, “214 days ago, commander. You planning on sleeping through the entire trip?”

“Sorry, captain. Forgot to set my alarm,” Ally smiled back and allowed Kate to help her from the cocoon. She pulled at her panties and grimaced. “God. Can’t wait to get out of these.”

Kate smiled. Ally took one look and said, “Oh, tell me you didn’t, captain.”

Kate laughed and wagged her finger. She had told Ally many times of her distaste for the paper panties. “Careful, that could be construed as insubordination, No. 1. However, I will tell you that being the captain gives one certain small prerogatives, including the right not to wear the god-awful things.”

Ally laughed. “You’d change your tune if something had gone wrong and you were awakened half-naked twenty years in the future by horny scavengers.”

Kate smiled enigmatically. “After twenty years in space, they’d better watch out for me.” She wondered what Ally would have thought about her little “self-help” session a while ago.

Ally turned serious. “How we doing, sir? Board green?”

Kate nodded. Though some female commanders preferred to be called “ma’am,” Kate hated the term—“sounds like a whorehouse madam or a librarian,” she’d say. Over the years, “sir” had become more gender neutral, and Kate’s crew learned early to call her by that respectful title. “Everything is perfect. We’re about two hours from the end of warp, coming in on course, on time.”

The commander breathed a sigh of relief. While Kate had told none of the other women on board about Hunter’s conversation, she did share it with Ally, so they’d be on the same page if anything went wrong. Both women knew they were really on their own out here.

“Well, I’ve got about twenty minutes before the other capsules open, so with your permission, captain, I’d like to take a quick shower and get more presentable.” The capsules were timed that way so the superior officers could be in uniform before the others woke up. It bolstered the chain of command.

Kate nodded. “Have everyone join us on the bridge when they’re all freshened up.” She turned away and headed back up the corridor.

One hour and fifteen minutes later, the crew had gathered on the bridge. They chatted with each other like old friends, though they had been together just four months before liftoff. Seven months in cyrosleep can make a person downright chatty, Kate supposed.

She looked them over, as if seeing them for the first time. Because the crew was so small, everyone pulled double duty except Kate. Allyson, in addition to serving as second-in-command, used her knowledge of computers to ride herd on the electronic systems.

Greta Hanson, a cool, tall blonde, served as the mission commander and the geologist. She hoped mightily that they would find a Class M planet that she could explore. As mission commander, she would lead the away team.

She was a good two inches taller than Kate and she used her physical presence to her full advantage. She was competent, but opinionated. Greta had a response to nearly every command. Kate was already tired of her. However, Greta had the credentials—a hot-shot pilot who had served three trips on previous missions.

Beth Reyes, the medical officer and anthropologist, was a tremendous asset to the mission, Kate thought. She had been a surgeon before joining NASA to satisfy her urge to visit the stars. Beth was far more than just another EMT on board. Kate didn’t think there was anything she couldn’t handle. A short, heavyset Latina, she had long dark hair that she normally kept up in a bun. Today, however, she wore it down after her long slumber and the brief shower to let it air dry.

Kate liked the woman—she had a good sense of humor and was eager to help the team. Kate knew if she ever got to pick her crew, Beth would be her second choice, right after Allyson.

The final member of the crew was Lt. Commander Jorja Smith, the engineer and botanist. It was her job to keep the ship running smoothly—or “hot, straight and normal,” as she liked to say. At six-feet and a muscular 180 pounds, Jorja was taller than Greta and outweighed the slender Swede. Jorja called herself “big boned” and she lived life with the same appetite she had for a good meal. With the freeze-dried food out here in space, she claimed she might waste away and became a runway model when she got back.

Kate liked the woman because she wasn’t flashy about her competence like Greta was. And the engineer never tried to intimidate the captain with her size. She completely trusted Jorja to fix any problem with the ship—Kate just didn’t want any problems on this mission.

Kate called the chit-chat to a halt. “OK, listen up. We’re about to drop out of warp and into history. You all know the importance of this mission. I want nothing to go wrong. We’re going to take this one step at a time. Please double-check everything as you go.

“I know you all would love to be the first to find intelligent life. So would I. It would really put us on equal footing with the other astronauts.” Everyone knew Kate meant “men.”

“But it’s more important to me that we do our jobs and return home safely than find anything at all. That being said, I’ll be keeping our fingers crossed, the same as you.” Kate looked at the chronograph. “We’ve got thirty-five minutes until the end of warp. We want to be strapped in and have every system checked out. You know we might run into a debris field as soon as we arrive, so I want to make sure the shields are at maximum.”

“The power from the warp engines should switch over automatically,” Greta put in.

Kate tried not to show her annoyance. “Yes, I know. I want Jorja to monitor that process closely.” She wanted to add, “because it’s her job, not yours,” but she knew Greta was just being Greta.

“There are seven planets in the Denoba system, as you know. The sun is similar to ours, so we might get lucky. We should drop out of warp about ten thousand kilometers from Altair, the outermost planet. We’re going to probe the first two, as we already know these gas giants can’t support life as we know it. And the two planets closest to the sun are likely too hot. When we approach the fifth, fourth and third planets, in order, we’ll take more time. Keep your fingers crossed.”

The captain glanced over her display panel. “As you know, NASA regs require everyone to have a quick checkup after a prolonged warp sleep, so as soon as we finish our reports, I’ll want Dr. Reyes to begin calling us one-by-one into sick bay.”

“Will there be time for personal messages home?” Beth asked.

Kate nodded. “I know you’re missing your families. After I give the report, you can tell your families how much fun you’re having up here.” There was nervous laughter.

Because they were so far away, communication was difficult. It took messages one hour and forty-two minutes to reach Earth and a similar amount of time for a message to return. That meant it would be at least three-and-a-half hours before NASA could respond and far longer for any personal messages to arrive from the families.

Being that far from home sobered the crew. They were completely alone out here.

Chapter 3

The Letanya dropped out of warp on time, only zero-point-four degrees off course. They were far enough out so they didn’t risk running into anything and Kate quickly corrected the heading.

The sight before them was breathtaking. The gaseous planet, Altair, glowed green and gold in the viewport. To the left, and twenty five thousand kilometers farther away was Baran, its rings spreading out three thousand kilometers. The Denoba sun, still 130 million miles away, shone so brightly Kate had to deploy filters.

“Golly, will you look at that,” Ally breathed.

“Ladies, how does it feel to be the first humans to see this sight?” Kate asked. The crew just stared in awe. A long minute passed. “All right, let’s man our stations. I’m going to check in with NASA. I’ll bet they’re getting anxious right about now.”

Kate dialed up the radio-telescope transmitter, making sure the dish was pointed precisely at Earth. One tenth of a degree of error and the message could miss the planet entirely. She swung the overhead camera until it could see the viewport over her shoulder and took a deep breath.

“Letanya calling Houston, Letanya calling Houston,” she began. The intro was a mere formality—a holdover from the days when you could expect immediate response. “This is Captain Kathryn Dyson of the Starship Letanya. We have dropped out of warp, on time and on location in the Denoba system. All boards are green. I repeat, all boards are green. You should be receiving our initial telemetry …now.” She pressed a few buttons on her console. Position, ship status and other key data are routinely sent on a sub-carrier wave along with the audio/video.

“In a few minutes, we will begin our explorations. Right now, we are looking at the two outermost planets, Altair and Baran, of the seven-planet solar system. We will be sending you data as we go, of course. We expect to explore this system and two more, as planned.

“On a personal note, I’d like to tell my family that I’m doing fine after our long sleep and miss them a great deal. Brian and Donnie, I know you’ve been waiting a long time to hear from me,” she glanced at the chronometers along the top of the panel, “approximately one year and two months. To us, of course, it’s been seven months, although it feels like merely a long winter’s nap.” The crew laughed nervously behind around her. It was strange, realizing that everyone on Earth was aging so rapidly compared to them. “I can’t wait to hear from you and I look forward to coming home safely to you in about a year or so.

“Now, I’d like to turn the camera on Commander Allyson Egerton, so she may say a few words to her family.” Kate switched the camera to the one over Ally’s chair. Her No. 1 began talking to her family. She listened, quietly as each of her crew in turn told their loved ones how much they missed them.

It was such a tremendous sacrifice to come out here as explorers. Until warp speed could be increased dramatically, these long trips were an unfortunate necessity. Kate imagined it was probably the same for explorers of the New World in the 1700s, sailing off into the vast ocean in search of riches, not to return for years.

By the time the crew each had a chance before the camera, more than thirty minutes had passed. Kate told NASA they would be looking forward to hearing from them in another two hours or so and signed off.