Ahmed Hardi scanned the stack of transport crates with his phone. The cargo the robots had loaded into the short-range shuttle matched the manifest. "That's it. We're ready to go."
"Good." Becca Cohen glanced at her wrist terminal. "We're ready to launch." She smiled at Ahmed. "You're very efficient." Her smile widened. "I like that in a man."
Ahmed was a slender handsome dark-skinned man with short curly jet black hair, a closely-trimmed beard, liquid brown eyes, and a shy smile. He was only 25 standard years old and felt very lucky to be working for Black Sky Mining Corporation, the biggest mining corporation in The Belt. Admittedly, he was a sub-sub-contractor for BSMC, employed by Chandra Technical Services AG, but that was very good for a young electronics engineer.
"I think we're going to work together well." Becca put her hand on his butt, giving him a instant erection. "Very well."
Becca was a short wide woman, with big breasts and a pleasant face. A livid scar ran from her forehead to her chin and bisected her right eye, which was a high-res Zeiss Ikon model. Her knees, lower legs, and feet were gleaming black carbon fiber and she moved with the grace of a gazelle.
At first, her appearance had startled Ahmed, but her warm personality had dissolved his shock after a few minutes. He was no stranger to injuries, anyway. As a young officer in the Kurdish Defense Forces, his mother had been severely wounded defending the Turkish frontier and he'd grown up seeing her scars.
Becca was the Engineer on the Asteroid Prospecting Ship Skydancer. She'd taken him to supper last night to discuss his assignment: upgrading the ship's drones. They'd eaten at a nice, but not super-expensive restaurant a few decks below the rim of the BSMC headquarters disk. He'd joined her in drinking a bottle of wine. He usually abstained from alcohol, but wasn't that observant a Muslim.
She'd been friendly, polite, and professional, but Ahmed had sensed a definite heat in the way she'd looked at him. He'd felt it too, as an uncontrollable bulge in his underwear. Deep space crews had a well-deserved reputation for lusty behavior during their brief times in port.
Ahmed's last relationship with a woman had ended three months ago when she'd been transferred back to Earth. He rented a coffin--a low-gravity space near the spindle just big enough to sleep in--and used community facilities. That didn't do much to attract women. He'd been approached by a few men, but he wasn't interested in men.
After the meal, Ahmed had gone back to his coffin. Becca had said she was going to her hotel, but he'd seen her taking the turbo lift to the section of the disk that housed the dockside bars.
He'd tried to sleep, but couldn't stop fantasizing about Becca. After a restless hour, he'd given up and paid to access one of the porn channels. Masturbating hadn't been very satisfying and his climax had been messy: long streamers of cum exploding from his straining cock, sailing upward in the lunar-strength gravity, and splashing the flatscreen mounted over his thin sleeping pad.
Their magnetic boots clicked on the deck plates as they entered the shuttle and walked forward to the cockpit. Becca took the pilot's chair and Ahmed sat at the copilot's station.
Automatic handlers moved the little ship through the airlock and out into space.
"Home again," Becca whispered. Ahmed tore his gaze away from the velvet blackness glittering with hard unblinking stars to look at her. "It gets in your blood," she said. "Once you've spent enough time in deep space, planets and space stations are confining."
Ahmed found the void overwhelming. It was Allah's way of showing him how little he meant to the universe. But yet...
Becca studied him in the dim cabin lights. "I see it in you. You belong here too."
"Well... Perhaps."
She laughed and gave his thigh a friendly squeeze. He hoped she didn't notice his erection, but suspected she did. "You'll see. It'll just take some time." She tightened her grip on Ahmed's thigh as the main engines came to life and a gentle force pressed them back in their chairs.
The engines cut out after two minutes, leaving them weightless. "On course for Asteroid Prospecting Ship Skydancer," the AI said. "Range: 1,237 kilometers. Estimated travel time: 43 minutes."
"All right." Becca slid her hand up Ahmed's thigh. "We can just relax and enjoy the ride."
Becca's hand on Ahmed's thigh was blazing hot. He put his hand over hers and said, "Come here. I want to kiss you."
"Oh yes!" Becca ran her fingers over Ahmed's crotch bulge and then unstrapped from the pilot's chair. She released her stubs from the prosthetic legs and drifted over to Ahmed, catching the back of the pilot's seat and gracefully spinning to face him.
Ahmed gathered Becca in his arms and pulled her to him.
