Greetings and welcome back readers. In this chapter the Lady Lex finally gets underway, Jesse works hard to prove his worth, and Johnny Cooper makes everybody wonder what Captain Hatcher sees in him. We also manage to learn a little about the rebelious cadet CO. This is a Douglas chapter. Have fun reading. And thanks for the e-mails. -Douglas and Ben
The Boys of the Lady Lex Chapter 18 "Shakedown" Written By Douglas DD and Benjamin TC
The Lady Lex hummed and vibrated as she eased her way through Mothball Graveyard. While the boys occupied a command seat they each had their main crew equivalent ready to take over at the slightest hint of trouble. The sense of pride in the boys was evident to all. For the first time since they had been dumped on the old relic the boys, from those in the command chair to those on the lower decks, started to feel a real sense of accomplishment. For some, feeling the ship starting to move through space was one of the greatest feelings they ever had. One of those was Johnny Cooper. Never had he felt such a power and excitement. He wanted to break out in a grin it felt so good. His dick was rock hard from the excitement pulsing through him. He was in charge of a starship. He, Johnny Cooper, was the person with the power.
Captain Hatcher watched Johnny. Johnny was his project. He saw a lot in Johnny that Johnny didn't see in himself. He could see some of his older son Mark; the confidence, the ability to lead, the beaming show of pride at accomplishing something. After the food fight he had come close to relieving Johnny of his CO duties. He was glad now he hadn't.
Originally, the Lady Lex's little shakedown cruise was going to be manned strictly by the regular crew, but Commander Creevey, Colonel Stone, Dr. Daniels, and Eli had all pleaded that boys get a taste of what it means for the starship to move. They argued successfully that the boys needed to start becoming intimately connected to the ship as an almost living entity rather than seeing it merely as a prison. Yes, they weren't really ready, and yes the class schedule for the week would have to be changed to train them quicker, but the results would be worth it. Captain Hatcher was at first reluctant to agree, but found it difficult to turn down the combined arguments of his fellow officers and friends. He knew as soon as he saw the looks on the faces of the boys, saw the shades go on his nephew's face, and heard the music, that they had made the right decision. A corner had been turned. The road to travel was still long, but now there seemed to be a purpose to the trip.
Ben watched as TJ fed his calculations into the computer, using TJ's readings to set his course. Ben found that all the deficiencies he thought he had in math were just the mental block his father had always told him they were. The numbers in front of him were real, and they almost talked to him as he read them to set his course. Douglas watched his instruments and the view screen carefully, knowing that Mothball Graveyard was full of drifting ships and debris, and part of his job was to be sure they avoided even the smallest collision.
Captain Hatcher had debated not turning the ship over to the cadets until they left the graveyard, but he also instinctively knew that the act of starting the ship was an important one and one necessary to give the boys a sense of ownership over the Lady Lex.
The only noises was the whir of the life support system and the hums and beeps of the instruments. The silence was broken by Lieutenant Commander McKay, the ship's regular operations officer. "Cadet Daniels, do you see the freighter off to port?"
Douglas checked his panel and the view screen and realized he had been paying too much attention to Ben and not enough to his own job. "Helmsman, three degrees to starboard and 5 degrees up," he barked to Ben.
"Excellent adjustment, cadet."
Douglas went quickly from embarrassment to beaming with pride at his change. All the work was paying off.
Johnny Cooper looked at his own screen and his readouts. The figures he saw had been provided by his navigator, TJ. He could see the big picture of the yard. "Helmsman, set the course to 212 degrees mark 70."
"Aye, sir." Ben made the necessary adjustments. TJ double checked Johnny's course against his own just to make sure nothing was misinterpreted. The Lady Lex moved proudly through Mothball Graveyard and out into wide open space.
Captain Hatcher leaned over and whispered something to Johnny. Johnny smiled and gave the order, "Impulse engines to eighty percent." The rest of the boys in the bridge smiled. They were going to start opening her up. The ancient engines were going to be asked to start showing their stuff. The vibrations increased, the stars in the view screen moved faster, and the Lady Lex worked to show there was a lot of life left in her yet.
Ely watched Ryan carefully as the boy studied the instruments. Ryan was his chief engineer and had proved to be a quick study. He had picked Captain Hatcher's young son Jesse as his assistant, and it had proved to be a good choice. Ely knew that Jesse's love of theater and music, his preference to read a book rather than hit a baseball, and his slim, almost effeminate body, kept him out of his father's favor.
Captain Hatcher was not only his commanding officer, but his friend. As much as he loved and respected the man, he didn't approve of how he handled his sons. He had decided long ago, however, not offer an opinion when it wasn't asked for. That didn't stop him from aching when he heard the captain constantly praises his older son Mark, who Ely saw as a spoiled prick, while belittling his younger son, who wanted so much to please his father, no matter how much he hid that desire. Jesse was a sweet boy, and deserved better. Ely had gone out of his way to help Jesse in the fine points of engineering, and a bond had started to form between the two of them. Ely hoped that at some point he could use that bond to start forming something similar between the boy and his father. He had hoped Jesse being on the Lady Lex while Mark was gone on the "Orion" might help Hatcher notice his younger son more, but that turned out not to be the case. He had heard about the remark Hatcher had made about Jesse when Jesse was picked as assistant 7th grade leader, denigrating Jesse's leadership abilities. It had been totally uncalled for. Ely sighed. He hoped Jesse could win his way into his father's heart, but if he couldn't he knew the day was rapidly drawing close when he would be forced to risk his friendship for Steven Hatcher by standing up for his son.
The impulse engines started to hum louder. The order had come down to start opening them up. Ely watched as Ryan, Jesse, Ian, Parker, and Alan scurried around checking instruments and readings. Chief Anderson watched them carefully and kept his eyes on the banks of instruments.
"Sir, are the engines supposed to sound like that?" Jesse asked Ely.
Ely listened to the increasing hum of the engines as they revved up to the demands of the bridge. "They sound fine to me, cadet. What's the reading on the fuel flow gauge Cadet Thumbleton?" Ely asked Ryan.
"One twenty-five PSI and steady," Ryan called out. "No, wait, it just flickered."
Now Ely listened more intently to the engines. He detected a very slight quaver about every eight or nine seconds. Jesse had been right, the engines were not running smoothly. He called Alan over and asked him to check the fuel level on fuel cells the next level down. He had Chief Anderson go with him and watched and listened.
"Good job, Cadet Hatcher. You have excellent ears."
"You need to be able to listen carefully when you're on stage. I guess it's just a habit."
Interesting, Ely mused. The very skill his father would belittle has proved to be very useful in the engineering bowels of a starship. His communicator beeped. It was Alan.
"Sir, there seems to be a blockage somewhere. The fuel flow is wavering a great deal here."
Ely sighed. It wasn't an unexpected problem on this old dame. The fuel cells probably had residue left in them that was getting caught up in the pipes that fed the engines. Even with all the cleaning they had done, there was a lot of gunk that had built up from old fuel that had been left in remote corners of the fuel cells. He was going to have to shut down the engines and find out the source of the blockage. The problem would have been detected soon as it got worse, but Cadet Hatcher's early discovery was going to save them a lot of time. By detecting the blockage early he would be able to figure out exactly where it was and would be able to loosen it up with thinner. However, he was going to have to shut down the engines for a half hour or so, which he knew would take away from the sense of triumph. But better now then in deep space later, and better a half hour than three or four hours, which would have been the case had they not detected the problem early. Good job, Jesse Hatcher, he said silently. I will make sure your father finds out about this.
Ely asked Ryan what a Chief Engineer should do now. Ryan said to shut off the fuel flow at the source. The boy has been studying his stuff, he thought.
"Excellent, Cadet. Make it so."
Ryan gave Alan the order to shut the valves where the fuel pipes left the fuel cells. Ely could hear the engines wind down. As he hit the Comm button to explain to the bridge why he was shutting the engines down, the lights flickered and the power died. All that was left on was the emergency lighting. The Lady Lex was now dark and drifting.
Johnny saw the comm indicator on the arm of his chair light up. He reached down to answer it when he felt a sudden change on the humming vibrations of the ship, followed by darkness, then the emergency lights coming on. Before he could react the hum of the engines ceased entirely and he could tell the ship was without power.
"Fuck!" he said aloud.
"Keep calm, cadet," Captain Hatcher admonished quietly. "Think about what to do next, calmly and quietly."
Fucking piece of shit derelict, Johnny thought to himself. I knew this was all too good to be true. I knew it was all fake. I don't know what I got so excited about. The adrenaline rush and resulting boner he got from it were gone, replaced by a sense of dread and betrayal, as well as the fear that he had suddenly been taken out of his element. All the bravado in the galaxy was not going to help him now. He had no clue what had just happened, why it had happened, and what he was going to do about it.
The captain had told him to think. How could he think when he was put in charge with this piece of shit starship where everything was old and nothing worked. As he stewed in his seat he heard Mike's voice from the XO station.
"Do you want me to contact engineering, sir?"
Johnny said nothing, waiting for Captain Hatcher to take over, but the captain remained silent. Hatcher had a pretty good idea that the problem wasn't serious. After all there no alarm bells going off indicating explosions, smoke, and flame. This was a good place to see what some of these boys were really made of, so see what was cockiness and bravado, and what was the ability to function under pressure. In other words to see who talked the talk, and who walked the walk. At the first sign of serious trouble he would take command.
Douglas had already gone to the engineering station to check the instruments. He knew the big heavy kid sitting at the station was named Joe and that he was a freshman. Other than that he knew little about him. Like most of the Lady Lex boys he was bright, but his lack of athleticism and his weight had kept him from being picked for a shuttle crew. Joe looked at the instruments as if they were something written in Kritonese.
"Can you tell anything?" Douglas asked.
"No," Joe said trying to hide his panic.
Douglas looked at the instruments, but he had no clue as to what they said either. The regular operations office stood silently. He know what they said, and knew the readouts weren't complete enough to tell the entire story. It would be awhile before the boys were experienced enough to understand that not all the answers lay in a bridge instrument panel.
Meanwhile Johnny continued to ignore Mike's question.
"Sir, do you want me to contact engineering?"
"The power is out. How the fuck are you going to contact engineering?" Johnny finally answered.
Mike shrugged his shoulders and showed Johnny the personal communicator he was holding in his hand. Johnny felt himself flushing. He was blowing it again. He wanted out of here. He wanted Captain Hatcher to take over and kick him off the bridge. He was tired of being in charge of something that didn't work. He wanted to get his new Mustang gang together and screw the rest of them. He wanted to be really in charge, not some puppet of the captain. But as much as he wished it, the captain said nothing.
Mike buzzed engineering. Ryan answered the call.
"Hey, Ry. What's going on down there?"
"I was just getting ready to buzz the CO. The power failure cut our first communication to the bridge. Can I talk to Johnny?"
Mike looked at Johnny, who was sitting pale and frozen in the command chair. "You can tell me. I'll pass it on."
Ryan wasn't sure what was going on up the bridge, but knowing Johnny he had a feeling it wasn't good.
"As far as the engines going down, we have a fuel blockage in fuel cell two. The CE and I are going put some cleaner and thinner in it. He figures it's some old gummy fuel that wasn't cleaned out totally."
"And that caused the power failure?"
"No. As far as we know it had nothing to do with the power failure. We don't know what caused the power failure." Ryan used the pronoun `we' even though it was Eli who had figured everything out, but he figured it sounded good for his boyfriend to think he knew what he was doing and knew what he was talking about. "We should have engine power back in about ten minutes. Then we'll check on the power problem."
Mike nodded, then, realizing Ryan couldn't see the nod, gave him his thanks and told Ryan to keep him informed. He then relayed the information to Johnny.
"Any orders, sir?"
"Um, no, sit tight until we get engines and power back. I guess there's nothing to do and we're not in any danger." Johnny could figure that much out, because if they were in danger the regular crew would have taken over a long time ago. Now there was nothing to do but fume. If the bridge crew had been his gang he would have joked with and insulted a couple of them to keep them loose. At least he would have done that with the old Mustang Gang. Those were good times. He was good. He could get them in and out of anywhere. He knew alarms, how to bypass them and work them. He knew locks. He knew who had what worth stealing, and how to hurt the bastards who had had a hand in killing his big brother, who had taught him so much. Craig had been all he had. Craig had showed him the ways of crime, but he had shown him more. He'd shown him how to lead a gang, how to handle people as well as things. He's shown him how to jerk off, and how to fuck a girl. He was not only his big brother and mentor, he was the father the two of them never had. He had let Johnny tag along with his Mustang gang from the time Johnny was 8 and Craig was 13.
But Craig had one big weakness. He was an addict. When he wasn't leading the gang he was partying, drinking hard liquor, smoking weed, popping pills, and in the end injecting hard drugs into his bloodstream; drugs that were sold to him by so many of the so-called respectable businessmen in the city. By the time Johnny was 13, Craig was a full blown addict. He stole to get the money to pay for his drugs. Ironically he sometimes stole from the very people he later purchased his drugs from. Johnny had pretty much inherited the leadership of the Mustang Gang, and Craig had become a liability. Johnny let the gang slide as he tried to help his brother. Their mother was a prostitute who took little interest in her boys, and like her older boy was an addict. They both were sure they had different fathers, though their mother couldn't tell them exactly who their fathers had been. But she never tired of telling them how being pregnant was bad for business. So why didn't you just have an abortion? Johnny would tell her more than once, a question met by silence-a question that was never answered.
Just before Johnny turned 14, Craig died of an overdose. He died in the back room of Arnie's Liquor and Herb emporium. The owner told the police Craig had broken in to steal booze and that he had never seen the boy before in his life. Johnny knew better. He knew Craig had purchased his drugs from Arnie, or whatever his name was. It was about this time he met Mike and Ryan. TJ had met them in school, and like so many kids, they were bored. Joining up with Johnny, TJ, and the rest of the gang sounded exciting. Mike was 12 and Ryan 11 at the time, but the entire gang had become younger. Mike quickly proved himself to be adept at planning, and Ryan had an incredible mechanical and electrical aptitude. The two continued to live the life of good students, good kids, and members of youth teams, while becoming more and more involved in the Mustang gang.
Johnny had been able to get Mike and Ryan involved by telling them that they would be robbing from the people who robbed from kids. And they would start from the asshole who had robbed his brother of his life. But after a couple of years Johnny grew tired of being a do do-gooder. He started to remember the blank-eyed addict his brother had become rather than the special friend he had been. He started to tire of being poor and having nothing, and started getting the gang to steal for profit again, especially his own profit. When Mike, Ryan, and TJ threatened to leave the gang, he merely forgot about them and set out on his own, failing to realize how much he had come to rely on their unique talents and clear headed thinking. It wasn't long after that he was caught and sentenced to a youth detention facility. By this time Mike, Ryan, and TJ had formed the Donkey Gang, and went back to taking from the assholes of the world.
Johnny was placed in one of the toughest facilities in Texas. He was just short of 16, well built, cute, smooth, and the target of some of the older, tougher boys. He gave up his ass to them, but not willingly. He fought them all the way, and after six months the older boys learned to leave him alone. He was no longer worth the price that had to be paid for a romp in bed. As they left the facility he climbed up the ladder of seniority. He learned how to be tough from them, He learned how to stand up to and insult authority. He learned how not to give in to anybody. He also vowed not to force himself on any boy the way those "faggots" had on him. He would have ended his sentence there, but one of the counselors took an extra interest him. Like Captain Hatcher he saw something buried deep in the boy, an intelligence, a caring, and a vulnerability that had been pushed deep inside the boy by the rottenness of life. The SFA was all icing on the outside, but so much of the inside was rotten to the core. The counselor had Johnny transferred to a school, but not until after he did something that was the final blow to any trust Johnny might have had of what adults or life had to offer. Then a funny thing happened on the way there-things changed and he ended up on the Lady Lex.
"Are you still with us Cadet Cooper?" Captain Hatcher's voice brought Johnny out of his reverie.
"Yeah, I'm here."
The Captain ignored the insolence. He would have to deal with that later. Right now he needed to get Johnny out of himself and get him in charge of the situation.
"Do you have anything to add?"
To add to what? Johnny thought. I have no idea what's going on and I don't really give a fuck.
"Sir," came Mike's voice. "Engineering says the engines will be online in just a couple of minutes." And to think I used to like and respect him, Johnny thought. Then I find out he and Ryan are faggot boyfriends. Like this whole ship is full of faggots. I had my share of that in juvie. They can all rot for all I care.
"Doesn't do us much good without power," Johnny heard himself saying. He didn't want to talk, didn't want to get involved. But somehow, the fact he was sitting in this chair seemed to keep him coming back to his position of CO. Well then, why the fuck don't you just get up out of it? he asked himself. But he stayed, waiting for whatever Donkeyfag had to say next as he talked to his faggot boyfriend.
"They will get to that as soon as the engines are online."
"Why not get power first?" Ben asked.
"Because you fix what you know first in case the two problems happen to be interconnected," Captain Hatcher answered. Ben nodded, satisfied with the answer.
Down in engineering, Ryan and Eli closed the last connection between the feeder line and the fuel cell. Eli had Alan open the valve and the pressure went up and held steady. Eli had Chief Anderson and Ian start up the impulse engines, and he could soon hear their satisfying purr as they came online and idled. The feeder line appeared to be cleared out, but now they had to deal with the issue of the power failure.
The ship's power did not come from either the impulse of the warp engines, but from a separate generating engine. Eli went down a deck to where that engine was, with Ryan and Jesse following him. The engine seemed to be operating. Chief Anderson was checking out gauges.
"The generator is on order. Everything on her checks out."
"Then we need to run a complete system diagnostic," Eli said. "Let's put the disk in the computer and get is started."
"It can't be the entire system," Jesse said.
"And why not, young man," Eli said a bit impatiently.
Jesse ignored Eli's tone of voice and went on. "Because we still have gravity."
"And just what does that have to do with...," Eli caught himself. Shit, he thought, I was so concerned with the impulse engine problem and making these kids realize I know a hell of a lot more than they do, I forgot one of the basics of this profession. Figure what is working and what isn't working and go on from there. He looked at Jesse with even more respect. Out of the mouth of babes, he thought. Steve Hatcher doesn't know what he's missing in this boy.
"Of course. You're right." Eli corrected himself. The power for the gravity generator came from the generating engine. If the engine was defective, or if something was wrong with the main power cable, then not only would the lights be out, they wouldn't have any gravity either. Eli remembered the day the old generator failed and the boys had found themselves floating around the ship. At the time it had been an emergency, with bruised, bumped heads, and a couple of broken bones. Now it was one of the days the boys loved to talk about the most. They took pride in telling the best story of how they survived the day of sudden zero gravity. The next time the ship underwent zero g was planned. It was the day the new ASG 7000 gravity generator had been brought online. It meant going two hours without gravity, but this time the boys had been prepared and given things to do in the zero g environment. It was good practice for them, as well as fun, since they knew how to handle the situation.
Now he had to think about why there was no electrical power, but they still had gravity. They also had life support, but life support had its own backup and could function independently. The answer had to be in a junction box. Power was going to the gravity generator but not to anything else. If it had been the opposite he would have suspected the computer had tripped the gravity generator off for some reason. Instead the generator was running but nothing else was. Could it be a problem with the computer instead of the computer actually doing its job?
He climbed up a ladder to the second engineering deck to log into the main computer console. Ryan was already there typing in some data. Jesse, who had skittered up the ladder ahead of Eli, was looking over Ryan's shoulder.
"Yeah, that's the problem all right," Ryan said. "I knew it had to do with the impulse engines. Why else would the power go down at the same time we started to shut down the engines."
"You figured it out good," Jesse said. "Let's tell Eli."
"Tell me what?" Eli asked. Both boys turned their heads.
"Ryan figured out what the problem was," Jesse said proudly.
"Oh? And just what kind of theory did he come up with?" Eli asked skeptically.
Ryan swiveled on the office chair and said, "I think the power going out was connected to the impulse engine."
Eli smiled and shook his head. "I doubt that, Ryan. You're misreading something."
"No he's not," Jesse said. "Look at what he found. He's right."
Ryan explained that since the systems on the "Lexington" had been mothballed for so long, not all of the circuits were reading things properly. A lot of them had been jury-rigged by Eli and his engineering crew. When the impulse engines came online, the computer was misunderstanding the readings, and thought they were coming from the generator engine. So, when they started to shut down the impulse engine, the computer, thinking the ship was losing electrical power, shut down all systems and rerouted life support to it's backup, all in order to protect the gravity generator and keep it running. A gravity generator took up a large source of power, and the ASG 7000 used a great deal more than the older generator had.
Eli looked at Ryan's readout screen and nodded his head. The boy was right, that was exactly what happened. I must be getting old, Eli thought. These kids have been a step ahead of me all day. Once again one of them was right. The computer had indeed shut down the system thinking it needed to protect the gravity generator.
"If we tell the computer to quit confusing the impulse engine with the generating engine, we should be okay. I'm just notsure how to key it in," Ryan said.
Good lord, Eli thought, there is something one of these kids can't do? Eli replaced Ryan at the console and typed commands into the computer. The screen shifted, the readouts changed, and the lights flickered on. Eli would have to put in a more permanent fix later, as well as compensate for the fact the new gravity generator used up a lot of extra juice, but the fix he put in should keep them going for a couple of days until he took care of the issues.
"Well done, gentlemen." After watching Jesse and Ryan at work, Eli was actually beginning to think the Lady Lex might have a chance when the Olympics started. The boys on board may be the dregs of SFA youth, but you couldn't tell that by their brain power, and Ryan was a prime example of that.
"Jesse, your dad would be proud of you. You and Ryan figured things out quite quickly." Not that I wouldn't have figured it out, I'm just amazed they beat me to it.
"My dad will say I was lucky," Jesse said bitterly. "Then he would tell me that while I was down here in the engineering hole, Mark would have been up in the bridge taking charge of the ship. There's no way I can win."
Eli shook his head and made a mental note to have a chat with Steve Hatcher real soon.
In the bridge, a cheer erupted as the lights came on and the control panel screens once again lit up. Ryan called up right afterwards on the ship's comm to let them know everything was in working order and they could once again engage the impulse engines. Mike acknowledged the message. Johnny told Ben to engage the impulse drive and resume their course setting. Somehow it didn't seem the same this time. No adrenaline, no boner, no rush. He did it because he was sitting in the chair. For the period they were down he had felt helpless and not in control. That didn't happen when he was running his own gang. He was always in control when he was doing that. Yeah, getting the old bitch going was a big rush, but it wasn't what he was all about. Making life miserable for a few officers in this ship, not to mention a few cadets, that was what he was all about, and he couldn't wait to get going.
The rest of the shakedown cruise went routinely. Captain Hatcher gave Johnny some tasks and tests for the bridge crew do to, and the ship responded well, as did the crew, all but Johnny that is. His heart didn't seem to be in, which confused Hatcher, because he more than anybody had detected the pride and eagerness that had swelled up in Johnny as they started pulling out from the Mothball Junction.
After a couple hours of tests and maneuvering, tests of both the ship and its cadets, Hatcher gave the order to return the ship to the Junction. He let the boys take it in as close to the main space station as he could, until the amount of ships and debris proved to be too much for their experience level. He thanked them for a job well done, and the regular crew brought the "Lexington" to within a few thousand kilometers of the space station. Except for the plugged fuel line and the surprise power failure, the first voyage of the Lady Lex in twenty years had been a huge success, with both the ship and its cadet crew earning passing grades.
When the Lady Lex traveled in space, the cadets would all be busy. They would be manning stations, standing watches, attending class, tending to assigned duty tasks, having free time, and all the other things that they would be doing on a normal day. But that was the future, and this was now-this was the maiden voyage of a ship so many men, boys and women had put their sweat and heart into. It was a voyage that should never have happened, but it did. The boys who did not have specific assignments were given permission to find a room with a view port and watch as the Lady Lex made her proud way out of the Mothball Graveyard. The images from the view screen in the bridge would also be beamed into the cabins. Classes for the day were canceled, but of course Harrison Wolfe had left each of his students with an assignment. He asked them to write about the emotions they felt the moment the starship started moving.
Nipper and Andrew were two boys who had no assigned duties during the brief shakedown cruise. They decided to experience the trip from the "Lady Hawke", which was docked outside the Lady Lex. The "Lady Hawke" was larger and more comfortable than the small shuttles the cadets used. Those shuttles had seating for the crew of six, as well as two extra seats. They were all functional seats and the boys were looking for both privacy and comfort. They hoped nobody else would come up with the same idea, but after Andrew and Ben's adventures the other cadets wanted nothing to do with climbing on board a strange shuttle. Some of the cadets did board their own shuttles, but only Nipper and Andrew had the idea of using the comfortable seating on the "Lady Hawke".
"I guess you're the expert on this ship," Nipper said with a giggle.
"Shut up," Andrew said, and he put a kiss on Nipper's lips. Nipper eagerly returned it. Both boys knew that sitting on a small couch watching the stars go by was not the main reason they were on the shuttle. Sure they had to watch the start into space so they could describe it and their emotions for their demanding English teacher, but they had more in mind over the two hours the shakedown cruise was supposed to last. They adjusted the couch so they could look out of the center, and largest view port on the side of the shuttle. Nipper cuddled up closely to his friend and kissed him hard on the lips. Andrew kissed him back, only more lightly. Both boys had learned something about kissing from their older brothers, but they had a great deal more to find out.
Inexperienced or not, the kissing turned them on, their preadolescent boners pushing out their uniform pants. Nipper stopped kissing and pulled off Andrew's tunic, and started rubbing his hands along the boy's smooth back, chest, and belly. His hand circled the boy's dime sized pink nipples, making them hard. The kissing became more passionate, and more expert, as the boy got into what they were doing. Andrew pulled off Nipper's tunic, and now their hands were exploring each other's upper body. Nipper's hand rubbed along Andrew's boner, feeling it through his tented out pants.
Their passionate making out was interrupted somewhat when they felt motion as the Lady Lex started her shakedown cruise. Nipper and Andrew held hands and concentrated as much as they could on the scene outside, the moving stars, the other mothballed ships seemingly floating by, and the smooth motion of the shuttle that was attached firmly to the starship. Both boys remained hard and turned on, both shirtless, holding hands, ready to touch and kiss each other again.
Nipper and Andrew both wondered to themselves just how they were going to explain their emotions in their paper for Harrison Wolfe.
"Horny," Nipper said.
"What?"
"Mr. Wolfe. For his paper on how I felt when the Lady Lex started up."
Andrew giggled. "That's what I was going to say."
Sometimes Nipper swore he and Andrew could read each other's minds, and by saying little they still were saying a lot.
The boys took off their shoes, then resumed their making out, once again rubbing each other's upper bodies, kissing passionately, allowing their hands to wander down below the waist bands of their lover's uniform pants, touching each other's genitals both inside and outside of their pants. It didn't take long for both of them to peel off the pants. They both wanted to be naked the moment they stepped onto the shuttle, but neither wanting to appear too eager. Now they were both naked, hard, touching holding, feeling.
Even wrapped up in each other they could tell the ship was speeding up. Even isolated in the shuttle they could feel the light vibrations from the hull of the Lady Lex and she started to accelerate. Suddenly the vibrations stopped and the lights went out. Emergency lighting came on, but the shuttle was still mostly dark. The boys had not turned much lighting on when they had boarded because they didn't want light to reflect off the view port. But now, except for one small light recessed in the ceiling, the room was dark.
Andrew got up off the couch and found his way through the shadows to one of the pull-out beds in the wall. One his unplanned trip he had become an expert and unlatching them and pulling them down quickly.
Nipper got up from the couch and came over to the bed.
"I wonder what happened to the lights?" Nipper asked.
"Don't worry about it," Andrew said as he got on the bed, pulling Nipper on it after him. "If it's a big problem, we'll find out." He grabbed his hard 4 inch cock and said, "Now this is a big problem." He and Nipper both started giggling hysterically like the two little boys they were. It didn't take long, however, for a couple of well placed feels and a kiss and touch to get their attention back to each other. It didn't take long to for them to remember what it was they wanted to do.
Andrew got down on Nipper, putting his steel hard 4 incher into his mouth. Nipper twisted and groaned.
"Nipper, I want you to put it in me."
"You mean in your butt?"
"Yeah, in my butt. I want to feel you in there."
"I don't know how."
"You just put it in there."
"You mean just jam it in?"
"I guess."
"Won't it hurt?"
"Not from you. You could never hurt me. Please, do it. I'll make it wetter, then it will go right in."
Andrew put Nipper's dick into his mouth again, spitting and slobbering on it.
"How do I get it in you. I mean how are you going to let me. I mean, I don't know what I mean, how are we gonna do it?"
Andrew instinctively raised his legs, exposing his pucker to his lover. Nipper could make it out in the dark and pushed his cock up against it and pushed. Andrew grunted some, feeling some pain as Nipper kept pushing. He was wet enough to slide in, but not wet enough to make it easy. Fortunately he wasn't big, with the cocklet of an 11 year old. Small, thin, but incredibly hard, and it didn't take much for him to push himself all the way into Andrew's butt. Andrew moaned, loving the feel, loving having the boy he loved so much inside of him. Andrew's hot tight ass around his dick was one of the most wonderful feelings Nipper had ever experienced. His entire body shook with pleasure.
Nipper started making some experimental thrusts, causing Andrew to grunt and moan.
"Does it hurt?" Nipper asked,
"NOOOOO," Andrew wailed. "Keep doing it."
Nipper went back to his thrusting, sliding his dick in the hole, sometimes hitting Andrew's sweet spot, a couple of times sliding out and having to guide himself back in. He and Andrew started to get into a rhythm, Nipper thrusting harder, grunting on each thrust, hearing Andrew moan and say his name. It didn't take long for the horny boy to have an overwhelming dry cum as he made a hard thrust as deeply as he could into Andrew's ass. Nipper's moaning cum was all it took to take Andrew over the edge, his body shaking with the force of his dry orgasm.
Nipper collapsed on Andrew, both boys breathing hard. Nipper kissed Andrew, and said breathlessly, "I love you, Andrew."
"I love you, Nipper."
The power came back, the ship started moving, and the two naked boys held on to each other, unable to let go.
Jake Masters got up out of his double bed on the "Honey of the Stars". The space yacht was orbiting Kriton, ostensibly on a trade mission. He turned and looked at the naked boy who had shared the bed with him. Very sexy, Jake thought, very sexy indeed. Maybe better than most of the women I've had, maybe. Certainly as good as most. Definitely experienced for a 12 year old boy.
Jake had slept with man women, many boys, and many men. He loved sexual conquests, and saw Matt as one of his best. His attempt on the raider had backfired because of the wrong approach. Once he found the right approach, Matt had become a willing conquest. Lonely, frightened, in need of a friend, he was perfect for a romp in bed. Last night had been their first sex together, and Matt had clung to him like there was no tomorrow.
Funny how I am, Jake thought. I have fucked anybody I could since I was Matt's age, maybe even a little younger. But the two times I was married, I never cheated on my wives. No, they divorced me for other reasons, like never being around. The life of a smuggler is a tough one, he thought with a smile. And I never touched my boy, Kalon. That would have been wrong, wrong, wrong.
Kalon had given him satisfaction in other ways, especially his amazing piloting abilities and his confidence in himself. Kalon had been an incredibly cute boy, and though Jake never considered touching him sexually, he never hesitated to give him a hug. Besides, it didn't take long to see that Kalon was completely heterosexual. By Matt's age he already had the girls crawling into bed with him. In fact he never touched any other boy the entire time he was raising in training Kalon. And what was his reward for that? Kalon joining the SFA. He was having a tough time forgiving Kalon for that. He didn't consider being in the employ of Admiral Whitaker the same thing as being an officer in the SFA fleet. Me and Whitaker have something in common, Jake thought to himself. We're both slime balls.
Jake showered and dressed. He opened the wall safe and took out a long, narrow gun and tucked put it into the lined compartment of his bag. As he prepared to leave, Matt opened his eyes.
"What am I doing here?"
"What do you think you're doing here, lad? You're naked and in my bed."
Matt blushed. Jake pulled back the covers, causing Matt to blush even more.
"You're beautiful, lad, not to mention damned good in bed. Jake never takes anyone inexperienced, and you're as good as anybody."
Matt shook the sleep out of his head and remembered the night before. Jake had been kind and gentle to him. It seemed strange to have his big, hairy body next to him, but it wasn't gross like he thought it would be. Jake had been seducing him all week, he knew it, he figured he wanted it, but he would make Jake pay to get him into bed. He was not about to make it easy.
"Where are you going?"
"I got a little mission now, lad. But Jake will be back before the day is out."
"Can I sleep here again tonight?"
Jake smiled as the boy sat up, naked, with morning wood. If I didn't have to do what I have to do, I'd be staying here, he thought. He's that good.
"Sure ya can. lad. And if you're lucky, Jake might even sleep with you."
Jake left the cabin and headed for the ship's shuttle bay. He now had to take care of business on the surface of Kriton.
Since the yacht actually had some company trade representatives on it, who were unaware of the intrigue going on, a legitimate trade meeting could actually be scheduled. For the representatives, the trip to Kriton was a pleasant surprise. They had actually planned to stop off at Hawkingworld. They had been told Jake Masters represented the interests of the SFA, making sure the Kritons played fairly.
Discussions were proceeded by a lunch and the opportunity for everyone to get to know each other. Jake circulated through the gathering, nodding and exchanging small talk. Jake had the gift of gab, and loved to use it. What he didn't like was being dressed in business clothes, but it was necessary. At one point, he disappeared momentarily with his business case, then returned. His circulating eventually got him into a conversation with the Earth Ambassador. He was fearful the Ambassador might send his number two man, Matt's father in his place, but fortunately he felt any meeting with the Kritons at this point in their relationship required his presence.
Jake exchanged small talk, took a step away, reached into his pocket, and palmed the small needle shaped gun. He pushed on the tip, and a thin needle popped out. He stepped back, thanking the Ambassador for the talk, at the same time driving the needle into the Ambassador's leg. The Ambassador felt a twinge, like a bee sting, and dropped his hand to feel it. Jake had already taken the needle out, and he felt nothing. However, a powerful drug was now at work, and in less than twelve hours, the Ambassador would be dead of a heart attack. Jake's mission accomplished, he prepared himself to listen to two hours of boring talk.
As lights out approached all of the boys, save those on watch, were in their cabins. Not only had the Lady Lex done her shakedown cruise, but for the first time the showers in the cabins had hot water. Some boys were not sure which was more important.
Trevor stepped out of the shower in his cabin. He didn't bother to cover himself up. Ian couldn't help but notice his roommate's nakedness, especially since it was turning him on. He also took great pains to make sure Trevor didn't notice him noticing. Trevor, however, wanted Ian to notice, and was disappointed when he got no response. His dick was semi hard, and he could easily make it hard with the slightest touch or thought.
Trevor knew what his twin brother Andrew and Nipper had done in the shuttle that morning. Andrew was never shy about sharing his sex life with him. He also suspected something was going on between his older brother Ben and Douglas. So why couldn't he get anything? What was wrong with him that nobody wanted him?
Well, Johnny Cooper wanted him, even if it was for thievery instead of sex. Johnny never quit reminding him how disappointed he was that he never was able to steal the candy. Trevor was unhappy that Johnny was adding the boys from the "Fagin" into the gang. He wanted to be the original and only member. Well, now he would have to be the best, and to be the best he would need to learn the art of stealth from Harrison Wolfe. And to do that he would have to finish the books the English teacher had loaned him. The books were hard, but the end result would be worth it. What he learned from Harrison Wolfe would make him the best thief in the new Mustang gang. He crawled in under the covers, naked, thinking who needed sex when they can be a criminal and get noticed.
Ian watched Trevor's naked butt disappear. Trevor turned out his light as Andrew's evening "Taps" played over the ship's communication system. Ian turned out his light, and then quietly jerked off, thinking of his naked roommate, and wishing Trevor had come into his bed instead of his own.
Because they came from different sources, only three of the twelve student shuttles were the same kind and model. The rest were all different. A couple were almost brand new, but most were old. Two were almost relics. But only one of the shuttles had an electronic timer clicking away the seconds under the pilot's control panel.
To Be Continued.