Terror in the Void (Causeway / Graphic)

The UEF science vessel Sayakura was little more than a repurposed Solforce Recon frigate, a cheap hand-me-down given to the Survey Department as the result of budget cuts in the wake of the Tannhauser Gate failure. An entire region of space had been cut off from the humanity's core worlds, and the resulting economic downturn would likely be felt for many years to come.

And thus the crew of about a dozen, all women, were stuck in a cramped, rusty old bucket surveying comets in deep space when they had signed on to explore the vast reaches of a wondrous universe in sleek, state of the art starships.

Yawns and bored shuffling were common on the bridge, until one of the young women noticed a peculiarity on her console; a signal that did not match anything of Earth origins.

Amanda Reed adjusted her glasses as she studied the readings. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a short, tight ponytail and her fingertips played across her console's keyboard, trying to analyze the foreign signal. With a degree in xenolinguistics, Amanda had had very little to do during this trip. Comets and asteroids did not tend to have writing carved into them, and empty space did not speak in strange tongues. Still, the position was a vital one, and at last she had a chance to use her skills.

"What's the story, Reed?" asked the captain, Mira. She was tall, with flowing wavy red hair and an athletic physique. She was one of only two crewmembers with military training, and her command style reflected that. This was not to say that the captain was some stupid meathead, though. Mira was also an accomplished astrophysicist.

"I've isolated the signal and I'm running it through pattern matching algorithms now, trying to see if anything comes up. It's a relatively short repeating pattern, so it could be a distress signal or warning beacon. I can't quite tell for sure." The linguist could hardly keep the excitement out of her voice as she added, "Whatever it is, it's definitely not human."

"I've located the source of the signal," the navigation officer, Keiko Yamashura, said. The woman of Asian descent wore her hair short and straight. "A low-powered object, approximately two hundred KM at..." she rattled off a set of coordinates.

Said object then appeared on the monitor. It was roughly cylindrical, a dull gunmetal with sharp-looking antennae projecting from the bottom and sides. Mira said, "Looks like some sort of probe, or automated beacon." She looked at her console. "No dangerous radiation or out of the ordinary energy readings. Prep the grappling arm, and bring us in."

Keiko maneuvered the ship close enough to the alien object for the grappling arm to pick it up and bring it into the cargo hold. "Reed, Karynski, you're with me," Mira said, as she stood up and headed for the cargo hold. Karynski, the brunette science officer, accompanied her.

Amanda and Gabriella Karynski stood up from their stations and followed the captain. Gabriella, or Gabby as most people called her, was thin and waifish, with long black hair in a long braid and freckles on her pale face. As a computer engineer, Karynski was a logical choice for this mission. She was an expert in both hardware and software, and would hopefully be able to interface with whatever computer system was on the beacon.

As they walked down to the mostly-empty hangar where the beacon would be stored, a muffled moan from one of the crew quarters reminded Amanda of why vessels on long missions like this tended to be crewed by members of only one sex. Many people (mostly prudes who were still unaware that homosexuality was a common thing) thought it was a measure to help prevent shipboard romances, which had a reputation for creating problems for crews. The real fact of the matter is that most commanders had no problem with crewmembers having romantic or sexual encounters, and the real reason most ships were unisex was for a far more practical reason: raising babies in space was not something most ships or crews were equipped to deal with, and it was really hard to wind up with pregnant women if they never had access to sperm.

As a result of this, most deep space missions resulted in same-sex experimentation between crewmembers, and the general consensus among the captains of such missions was that so long as it didn't interfere with the crew's performance, what they did in the privacy of their own quarters was their business. Amanda herself had had a few casual encounters with other members of the crew, and had quite enjoyed them, though she had to admit there was something about male company which she sorely missed.

The alien object was being guarded by the second crew member with military training, Security Officer Townsend. No one knew the stern, African American woman's first name, as she hadn't told anyone. The former Solforce marine kept to herself, and had earned a reputation amongst the crew for having a stick up her ass. Right now, she eyed the object warily, brandishing a pulse SMG.

"At ease, security officer," Captain Mira said. As they approached, they saw that the object's surface was covered in writing, some sort of strange, geometric glyphs. "Reed, what do you make of this?"

Reed adjusted her glasses, studying the glyphs for a moment. "Hard to say, though it bears some similarity to Murabian script. Let me try to match it with the signal." She pulled a datapad out of her uniform pocket and tapped the screen a few times. The pad was connected to the ship's wireless net, and she had an interface to her bridge console already set up. "Ah! I think I may have something!" She looked from the screen to the glyphs, then back again.

"Okay, I think it says roughly... I can't read the first word, it's some kind of proper noun, I think... 'forbid enter beyond...' and then another word I don't know what to make of... 'here far not obey numbers.'" She blushed. "Sorry, the translation's a bit rough. From what I can tell, the first word is probably some authority that is forbidding passage beyond this point. Something... is not far from here, and we should obey the numbers... Let me check... and... yep! The transmission is broadcasting something that looks like it's probably a set of coordinates. I might be able to decipher them eventually, but there's not a lot to work with."

"Sounds like a border marker," Townsend said. "Probably announcing their claim to this region. We should probably put it back and move on to the next system."

Mira rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Hold on. Beacons like this are usually a part of the network, and broadcast a much stronger signal. We should've detected this a lot sooner. Karynski, find out how old this device is. It's likely whoever put it here is not around anymore; we may have stumbled upon a potential xenoarcheological site. Reed, get those coordinates, and send them to Keiko as soon as you have them. I'll send a report back to Santiago Station."

"Yes, Captain!" the girls chorused, though Townsend looked none too happy about the decision.

Once Mira had left, Karynski crouched down beside the beacon. "Let's see what we've got here," she muttered as she pulled out her multitool and used it to open one of the access panels.

Amanda circled around the pod, looking for more writing and inputting data into her datapad. "Hey Gabby, if you see any glyphs in there, show them to me, okay? I need as much information on this language as I can get."

"Sure thing!" the techie replied cheerfully, peering inside and flashing her light around the inside of the beacon. "Ewww... gross!"

"What is it, Gabby?" Amanda asked, coming around to look over her shoulder.

"Looks like this thing wasn't properly sterilized before it was launched. Look at that..." The computer engineer shone her light on a patch of strange, dark-colored stuff that resembled a kind of fungus.

Townsend, who had decided to stand watch in case the beacon posed any kind of a threat, decided to chime in. "Don't touch it, whatever it is. Could be a biohazard."

Gabriella ignored the warning, going to reach inside. "Chill out, it's long dead, and this thing ain't shielded. Solar radiation would've killed off any life forms long before we got here."

Amanda grabbed her hand. "Maybe Townsend's right. We should hold off until we know what this is."

Townsend tapped her comm. "Townsend to captain, we have a potential biohazard down here. Recommend the area be quarantined immediately and that we get a xenobiologist in here to check it out."

What the women didn't see, was a tiny patch of the fungus detach itself from the beacon, and crawl down the outside, eventually making its way to Gabby's shoe. It stuck on the underside of the arch, hitching a ride as she walked away.

Mira's voice came over the comm, in a resigned tone. "Very well. I'll send a team down." The remaining fungus, the long-dead husk the living patch was hiding inside, was cleared by the xenobiologist, an icy German blonde by the name of Dr. Jaeger, who took it to her lab.

That night, Reed left her station with the computer still decoding the coordinates, as well as the additional data that Gabby had extracted from the beacon. As she was getting ready to retire to her sleeper pod, as cramped as anything else on this ship, there was a knock on her cabin door. Gabby was there.

Amanda opened the door and smiled at her fellow science officer. The linguist, preparing for sleep, was dressed only in a flimsy nightgown, and she blushed a little. "Oh, hey Gabby, what's up?" Amanda asked, a little puzzled about her arrival. Gabriella was still in her uniform, and seemed a little... off. Nervous maybe?

"H-hey Amanda... Can I come in for a bit?" Gabby asked. She definitely sounded nervous.

Amanda raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Okay..." she said, stepping aside so Gabby could enter her quarters. "Is something wrong, Gabby?"

"Well... it's about that beacon we found today... Uh... have you had any luck with cracking that signal or the coordinates?"

Amanda paused before answering. "Well, I had a little success. I found out that the beacon was broadcasting more than what was written on the pod. It's not a lot more, but it might give us some more information. I've only gotten back some garbled text, though. Nothing that makes any sense yet. Why do you ask?"

Gabby twirled a bit of her hair between her fingers. "Oh... well, it was something that I found in the umm... the coding in the..."

Amanda had never seen Gabby this nervous before. In fact, it looked almost like she were talking to someone she was really infatuated with...

Gabby suddenly reached out and grabbed Amanda, and pulled her into a kiss.

Amanda's eyes went wide with surprise as she felt Gabby's lips against her own. She hadn't realized Gabby felt that way about her. She almost pulled away, but... She felt a flush of heat rising in her, and she decided to go with it, kissing Gabby back with passion that surprised even her. Not knowing what was coming over her, Amanda wrapped her arms around Gabby, pulling the other girl deeper into the kiss.

At last, she did pull away, just briefly, and blinked, looking into Gabby's eyes, blushing a little and smiling. "Wow... uh..." She was breathing hard, surprisingly aroused by what had just happened. It had been awhile since Amanda had... been... with anyone, and apparently her body was craving this more than she'd realized.

Gabby stared into her eyes, her expression one equal parts vulnerable and lustful. She slowly unzipped the front of her own jumpsuit uniform, revealing her red brasserie, which also had a zipper in the front. Once she pulled her arms out of the suit's sleeves, resulting in it hanging from her waist, Gabby unzipped her bra, slowly pulling it open to flash her breasts at Amanda.

Amanda giggled. "Oh, wow, Gabby... You're taking this a little fast!" She did not sound displeased. Gabby was quite easy on the eyes under her uniform. This did seem a little odd, but Gabby had always been a pretty direct, cavalier sort of person, so maybe it wasn't out of character for her.

Amanda squirmed a little. Despite all the feminist talk about how breasts aren't supposed to be sexual, she never could help but find herself turned on by them. Maybe it was because of how sensitive her own were. She bit her lower lip as she looked at Gabby's. They were quite... shapely. She couldn't quite tell just yet, but she thought she might be getting wet just from seeing them.

Gabby still did not say anything, just took Amanda's hands, and guided them up so that they cupped her breasts. Gabby did in fact have a some rather shapely bosoms, and they were soft and perky to the touch.

While Amanda had Gabby's boobs in hand, Gabby began to tug off the flimsy nightgown she was wearing.

Amanda's breath caught as she felt her nightgown slipping away. Gabby's soft flesh felt wonderful in her hands, and she only reluctantly moved them so that Gabby could get the nightgown over her shoulders. With the sheer fabric gone, Amanda's own breasts were now out in the open. Though a bit smaller than Gabby's, they were no less shapely, with very small, cute nipples adorning them.

She eyed the techie's own nipples, and she couldn't resist any longer. Taking hold of one breast , Amanda leaned forward and lowered her mouth to Gabby's nipple, sucking gently, then swirling her tongue around the areola, then flicking, then sucking again. Amanda was surprised with how aroused she'd gotten in such a short amount of time, but she wasn't going to argue with it. This felt amazing and right, and she just wanted more.

"Ohhh~..." Gabby moaned, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. She stood there a few moments, simply enjoying the attention Amanda was giving her nipple with her mouth. Then, she finished removing her jumpsuit and panties, standing there in the nude. She wrapped her fingers around the waistband of Amanda's panties, and began tugging them down.

Amanda took in the sight of her nude colleague and grinned. "Damn you're hot..." She began to feel a little self-conscious about her own appearance. Though most people would have probably thought of Amanda as quite pretty, she could think of every flaw on her body, and felt a little inadequate next to Gabby. She blushed and allowed her now sodden panties to be pulled away, revealing her tiny slit.

She swallowed, trying not to think about her insecurities, and gazed into the lustful eyes of the beautiful girl in front of her, biting her lip again. "So... you wanna join me in my sleeper pod? There's not much room, so we'll have to get very... close..."

Gabby placed a hand on her shoulder, and walked her over to the sleeper pod. By the look in her face and her body language, it was apparent that Gabby did not feel the same way Amanda did about either of their bodies; she was not shy about hers, and did not seem to mind Reed's body in the least. Gently but firmly, she pushed the linguist into the pod, then got in, laying on top of her. The pod door shut on top of them, sealing them in a soundproof environment.

It was only at this point, their nude bodies pressing against each other, that Gabby smiled. "So... how long has it been?"

"Too long..." Amanda's voice quivered as she felt Gabriella's soft skin pressed against her own and looking up into her beautiful eyes. She was so wet she could feel her juices running down her thighs. She needed this badly. The blonde reached up and pulled Gabby into a deep, passionate kiss, running her hands all over the other girl's perfect body. Her hands found Gabby's shapely ass, and squeezed, forcing their hips closer together as she writhed in pleasure.

This time, it was the brunette's turn to get in on some titty action. Gabby grabbed one of Amanda's breasts and began to suck on the nipple, teasing it and swirling it with her tongue. She did so for quite a while, occasionally switching breasts, until both of Amanda's nipples were engorged, ridiculously sensitive and covered in saliva.

At this point, both women were completely overcome by desire. Gabby, the one on top, the positioned herself inbetween Amanda's legs and pulled the blonde's knees up, so that Amanda's quim was raised up and pressing against hers. She then began to hump up against her, grinding the two women's pussies into each other.

Amanda began to moan loudly. Her breasts were extremely sensitive and they were one of her most erogenous areas. She had even made herself cum once just from touching her nipples, so the sudden stimulation was heavenly. She bucked her hips upward toward the other girl, loving every second of what was going on. She reached up to tug gently on Gabby's braid as she writhed in ecstasy beneath her.

Gabby began to stare passionately into Amanda's eyes, as she rubbed the other woman's nipples with her fingers and ground her pussy into Amanda's. The brunette gasped as Amanda tugged on her braid, moaning and cursing in building ecstasy.

When Amanda came, Gabby came with her. Unfortunately, that's when things began to go wrong. Instead of throwing her head back and making sweet noises of passion, Gabby's body seized up and she grabbed tightly onto Amanda, pinning her in place. The engineer's eyes and tongue bulged out, and she began to groan as though more in pain than pleasure. Most disturbingly of all, was that her abdominal region began to bulge and make strange noises, as though there were something alive in it.

Amanda, dazed after her orgasm, didn't realize at first what was going on. Then she noticed the pained look on Gabrielle's face and she began to get worried.

"Gabby!? What's wrong? What's going on?!" Seeing the bulging and hearing the noises, she tried to push the computer engineer away, sensing danger. She began to feel claustrophobic. The sleeping pod which had forced the two girls into intimate closeness just minutes ago now felt cramped and confining as she tried to escape.

"Erruuugggh..." Gabby groaned, clinging tightly to Amanda's shoulders. The gurgling noises moved downwards, towards Gabby's sex. The lips of her vulva spread apart, and a thick, transparent rope of living slime oozed out of her vagina, waving and feeling around like a pseudopod. It quickly found Amanda's sex right below, and forced its way inside, beginning to ooze down from Gabby's abdominal cavity to Amanda's.