15. Jessina
15
JESSINA
T hings went well during the next worm hole jump—there was no time dilation, thank She of the Four Faces. Also, Gurflug never returned to the bridge, so none of us had to smell his stench, which was nice. By dinner time I was feeling positively optimistic.
As I had at lunch and breakfast, I managed to sit by either Snuffy or Yorrin. Both the cabin boy and the pilot were safe territory—I still didn’t trust any of the other crew members. Most of them were Brutes, almost the size of Turk himself. But while several of them gave me lascivious glances, and Jerx glared at me, they left me alone except for a few catcalls.
I almost felt that the situation was under control…until it was time for the communal shower.
I waited until Gurflug had stripped and gone to the shower to undress myself. I had to take off everything—even the compression tank—which I didn’t like at all. But I couldn’t keep it on—the other crew members would ask why I was wearing clothes in the shower.
The Synth implant was still doing a good job—when I looked down at my naked body I saw a flat chest, tiny nipples, and a small but serviceable-looking penis curled against my thigh. But when I touched myself, I could feel my breasts with their large, sensitive nipples and of course, my mound.
I felt incredibly nervous as I stepped out of my quarters with the towel wrapped around my waist. I wanted to wrap it much higher, of course, but if I did that, not even the Synth implant could disguise the shape of my breasts under the cloth. So I had to go basically topless with only the hologram illusion to shield me.
The shower room was much louder than it had been the last time I’d seen it. All ten showers were running at once and each of them had a single crew member with others waiting their turn. The sound of splashing water and deep male laughter echoed off the tiled walls and the astringent scent of harsh breelo soap filled the air.
I tried not to look—as much as possible, anyway. I had only seen a male naked in my life once and that was only briefly when a guy I’d met at a party got me drunk and tried to attack me. Luckily, my big brother Slade had been there—he had literally ripped the would-be attacker’s head right off. I wished I had him here with me now for protection.
I still had nightmares about that incident, but nothing could have prepared me for seeing male equipment swinging freely and naked men all around me.
I thought about gravitating to Yorrin or Snuffy like I did during meal times, but didn’t males like to be left alone when they showered? I didn’t want them to think I was interested in more than a friendly way—it might not work out well for me. It might even make the rumors that I was a “Catamite” worse.
So, reluctantly, I decided to just hang around the fringes of the group and take the closest shower head when it became available.
I kept an eye out for trouble, but Jerx and the other big Brutes who had given me problems were at the far end of the tiled room, using the shower heads furthest from me. None of them were paying me any attention. I could only hope it stayed that way.
I did notice—though I tried not too—that Jerx was even hairier naked than he had looked clothed. It almost seemed like he was wearing a fur coat that covered his chest, arms, neck and back. The fur even went down his thighs and as for the gnarly black tuft that poked out from between his legs—well, I tried extra hard not to look at that.
Tearing my horrified gaze from Jerx, I saw Gurflug—he was impossible to miss. He was taking up two whole shower heads himself…or he would have been, if he had been actually standing under them. Instead, he was right at the edges of the spray, barely letting it hit his legs, which looked like they had some kind of mold growing on them. No wonder he smelled so bad, I couldn’t help thinking—the male was a walking yeast infection!
Just as I was wondering if I would ever get a turn, the two crew members closest to me finished their showers and left. Which left me with two free shower heads to choose from.
I picked the one closest to the door, hoping that no one would come stand beside me. This seemed to be the nearest I was going to get to having any kind of privacy in the shower.
Feeling incredibly vulnerable and exposed, I hung my towel on the hook beside me and stepped naked under the spray. It wasn’t quite hot enough for my tastes, so I reached out to adjust it when a familiar voice said,
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, boy.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin and when I looked up, Turk was standing there—stark naked—in front of me.
“Here—were you trying to make it hotter? It’s really fucking touchy—it can scald you if you’re not careful,” he said to me.
Reaching out one long arm, he began to adjust the water temperature of my showerhead while I tried not to look at his big, wet, naked body.
It was a losing battle. I had never seen Turk undressed—though I confess I spied on him from time to time when he spent nights at my father’s house with Slade. He was a sight well worth looking at.
His pearly gray skin was glistening with water droplets and his bare body seemed to be covered in muscles. There was a light patch of black curls between the flat disks of his nipples—nothing like the forest of fur growing on Jerx—and it led in a thin trail down his flat abdomen to his?—
“There you go—how’s that?” His deep voice made me jerk my head up to look at him. He was looking down at me intently and I could see the water droplets beading on his bronze horns and broad shoulders.
“Oh, er—fine. Thank you, Captain,” I squeaked, wishing my voice wouldn’t come out so high.
“It’s all right, Cass—I’m not going to bite you,” he rumbled. “Just didn’t want you to scald yourself.”
“Thank you,” I said quickly. And then I couldn’t help adding. “Er…I thought you had a shower of your own in the Captain’s quarters.”
“I do. I just wanted to come down and set a good example for the crew.” He spoke loudly and looked at Gurflug as he did, who was staring back at him warily.
Pointedly, keeping his face to the room instead of to the wall, Turk backed up until the spray from the shower head beside mine was spraying right on the top of his head. His thick black hair was soon soaking and he took the opportunity to squeeze some of the shampoo out of one of the wall-mounted dispensers and began to wash it.
As he did, he kept an eye on Gurflug. The message couldn’t have been more clear—‘ this is how you clean yourself. This is what I expect of you.’
Turk didn’t say anything out loud—he didn’t have to. Reluctantly, Gurflug edged into the shower spray and began to wash his hair. From the color of the water that ran down his legs and into the drain, I wondered if this was his first time ever using shampoo. It was dark brown and disgusting—I was glad I was across the room from him.
But the fact that Turk was concentrating on the huge Galafruxian allowed me to sneak more peeks at his muscular body.
I had never dreamed of seeing him like this—naked and wet…muscular and glistening—and I have to admit the sight took my breath away. I allowed my eyes to travel from his broad chest to his tight abs and down his long legs. Then my gaze wandered up again to his shaft and I sucked in a breath.
Goddess above, how did he even use that thing? It was huge. Even though it wasn’t erect, it dangled down along his thigh like a sleepy snake, making me wonder how he could fit it into a woman at all.
Of course I had heard stories when the maids were talking about how a Brute could “prepare” his woman to receive him, but I had never managed to get any really juicy details before they saw me and stopped talking. I wondered all over again how?—
“Hey, navvie—you’re sure as fuck gettin’ an eyeful of the Captain’s shaft!”
Jerx’s voice broke my concentration and I quickly looked away. The whole shower room erupted in laughter and I felt my whole body go hot with a blush. Oh Goddess of the Four Faces, what must Turk think of me now?
But Turk didn’t join in the mocking. He just said,
“Cut it out, Jerx. Leave the boy alone.”
“Right, Captain.” Jerx gave him a salute, which looked strange in the nude. “Just thought you ought to know your little pet there is a prick peeper.”
“I am not!” I said hotly, before I could stop myself. “And even if I was, I couldn’t see yours because of that disgusting forest of hair! Haven’t you ever heard of a razor?”
There was surprised silence for a moment, and then another burst of laughter—this time Jerx didn’t join in. His face grew dark but he only pointed a finger at me and said,
“Later for you, navvie.”
Then he wrapped his towel around his waist and stalked out of the shower room, his bare feet slapping on the tiled floor.
Turk frowned down at me.
“That wasn’t very smart, Cass. There’s a pecking order aboard the ship—you’ll need to learn to get along with the rest of the crew if you expect them to trust you to navigate for them.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Pointing out that Jerx had started the altercation would sound childish and immature. So I settled for nodding my head and murmuring,
“Sorry, Sir.”
Turk sighed and shook his head, flinging droplets of water from his horns with the motion.
“Never mind. You’ll learn—I just hope it isn’t the hard way.”
Then he turned off his shower and wrapped the towel around his waist. He gave Gurflug one last stern look—the big Galafruxian was reluctantly soaping and scrubbing his body, having finally finished with his hair—and then left the shower room.
All this time, I still hadn’t done more than soap myself—mostly my arms, because I didn’t want anyone to see me washing my invisible breasts. It occurred to me now that I needed to wash my hair and get out of there. I wanted to get back to the room and change into my pajamas before Gurflug finished and went back. At least he might smell marginally better now that he’d taken an actual shower instead of just letting the water spray his legs a little.
The shower room was clearing out by then so I quickly shampooed my hair, reflecting as I did so that the only good thing about having to cut it was how much faster I could get it clean. When I’d had longer hair, shampooing and conditioning it and then giving it various oil and cream treatments could take over an hour. Now it was a five-minute job. I could just?—
“Hey there, Catamite. Now that the Captain’s gone, how ‘bout you and me have a little fun?”
The familiar voice stopped me dead in my tracks.
It was Jerx and he was right behind me.