"G'mornin Donnie." The beautiful bastion of warmth at his side nuzzled further into his side as the soft beeping of their arm began.

  "Good morning sunshine." Donovan tapped the snooze button while giving her a smooch on the forehead, noting the time as he did so.

  "Ehehe~ I wuv you." One of her legs wrapped around him, trying to maximize their skin to skin contact.

  "I love you too." He assented to demands for affection wrapping her in a hug before rolling her on top of him. Arc had the grace to provide a twenty minute buffer between the arm and when they really needed to be out of bed, so there wasn't a reason for Donovan to say no. "Did you sleep well?"

  "Mhm. Did you?"

  "I did." A lie. His night had been spent exercising his ability with Split while processing his learnings.

  "Good." Diana slid her head into the crook of his neck, taking a deep breath before kissing him on it. Her left hand moved to tickle the side of his chest while her right tried to pry off one of his so she could hold it. Whether intentional or not, her movements and position left her thighs to rub around his nether region. "Can we?"

  "We'd have to take another shower."

  "I'm fine with doing it in the shower."

  "Naughty girl." Donovan squeezed her butt with his free hand, getting a jump out of Diana in the process. "Can't snuggling be enough for you?"

  "Of course not!" Diana popped up once Donovan let go, straddling his hips and tossing back the cover as she reached towards the little box at the side of the bed. The lights might have been off, but her body was still a beautiful sight to see. "I'm a naughty girl, a greedy little dy who's been ignored for far too long!"

  "It's been, what? A week?" Donovan started to massage her thighs, working his way up towards her waist. "And shouldn't the horny one in a retionship be the man?"

  "Are you saying that I don't make you horny?" Diana's mood pivoted in an instant, going from eager to demoralized. Of course she was still opening the condom, but Donovan didn't need that bit of information to understand her pns. He didn't like being maniputed, but if this was her way of saying she wanted him to take control then he wasn't about to argue.

  - - - - -

  "Good morning Titanyana." The little queen was startled to attention as Diana greeted her.

  "G-good morning!"

  "Did you sleep well?"

  "I, uh, no. . ."

  "Was it the nerves?" Diana took Titanyana's hand and massaged her palm, looking her in the eyes. Titanyana thought she looked a little bit flushed, as though she had been exercising, but the smell of soap and damp hair suggested she probably just took a hot shower. Titanyana herself found herself becoming increasingly enamored with that luxury, the warm water felt nice on her ears. "I wouldn't have gotten much sleep either in your position, or without Donovan. I'm so excited!!!"

  "In that case we should head inside. We can't nd if I'm not in the seat." Titanyana nodded and shuffled aside so Donovan could enter the pilot's room, in so doing catching sight of the hickey on his neck. Now it was her turn to blush. "Is Petunia alright?"

  "P-Petunia? Uh, um, yes, she should be here shortly I think. She was, um, looking at the pictures of Boromir."

  "Boromir?" Donovan raised an eyebrow.

  "The baby, dummy." Diana lightly karate chopped the back of his head. "Do we need to go get her?"

  "Um, no." Titanyana's ears fttened as Diana took her other hand, the embarrassing thought of what this hand might have been doing developing in her mind. "She doesn't speak English, but she'll know when Arc wants her to come. He said he could put a message up on the screen."

  "Alright, I'll get everything set up for nding then. Do we want to do a big reveal for the star and pnet?"

  "They have a name, you know."

  Donovan released an exasperated sigh. "Do we want a big reveal for Ambrosia and Nectar?"

  "Yes! I love a bit of ceremony, especially for big things like this!" Diana pulled Titanyana closer while Donovan disappeared into the still dark pilot room. "See if you can get him to let you nd."

  "Huh? Why?"

  "Intimacy. I don't know if he'll let you on his p, but there's a possibility. I, um, tired him out a little," Diana winked to drive the implication of what Titanyana had already concluded home, "and it doesn't look like he got any sleep. I'll apply a bit of pressure too." She proceeded to follow Donovan into the gradually brightening room, leaving Titanyana a blushing statue.

  Sitting on his p? Would she even fit? Titanyana shook her head, appalled that she had considered the prospect a foregone conclusion. If anything, Donovan would stand behind her to guide her actions instead of holding her hands physically.

  "Is it time?" Petunia rounded the corner appearing much calmer and sure of herself than she had in days past.

  "It is." Titanyaan nodded, happy for the distraction. "Where are the other two?"

  "They seem to still be asleep, which I think is unsurprising given how often they must see a new pnet."

  "I suppose." Titanyana would have liked the additional company, but the absence of what she might consider third parties did make certain embarrassing options less of an obstacle mentally. "How is Boromir?"

  "He's doing wonderfully. Diana helped me get more images of him from the wall contraption, and they look incredible." Petunia smiled gently, hand returning to stomach. "I can't wait to hold him in my arms."

  "Neither can I!" She beamed one of those rare smiles at her st bastion of family, Diana's suggestion creeping back into her mind as they too entered the room. This was one of those rare times the screens in front of Donovan didn't have an external feed - dispying nothing but numbers, letters, and lines on a bck background. He could decipher this mess of symbology somehow, a skill she too was slowly learning, but the visual clutter gave the impression of some strange form of art rather than anything useful.

  "Seven minutes to descent, though we can stay up a bit longer if you all would like."

  "While I appreciate the sentiment, dear, I want to go home as soon as possible." Diana's sentence contained a desperate intonation Titanyana had never heard before. "I'm sure Titanyana here agrees."

  "Oh, uh, yes. I want to see our new home. I'll have plenty of time to look at it from afar ter. I've also been feeling a tad . . . trapped."

  "Mhm, yeah. I suppose we don't exactly have fresh air around here. Some sunlight would be nice too." Diana plopped herself down behind Donovan, avoiding any incursion into what might be considered Donovan's personal space. On any other day Titanyana might have viewed it as respecting an important procedure, but not today. She was clearly prepping Donovan for her. "Oh, here's an idea! We should capitalize on the cultural impact of this!!!"

  ""Huh?"" Donovan and Titanyana were dumbfounded.

  "Arc, you can take a video of the cockpit, right?"

  "Of course. I have cameras in pce to monitor the condition of the pilot. The data may be recorded."

  "Perfect! I want to have a video of the leaders of our respective species making our first ndfall together. I can't help but think it would be useful in the future!" Diana's enthusiasm came off as genuine even though Titanyana knew it was a ploy. "This might be the first major unifying moment we've had the opportunity to record . . . we really can't afford to miss it."

  Or maybe she wasn't kidding after all. She was the type of person who sought to achieve many victories with a single stroke of the sword.

  "But she hasn't finished her training yet." Donovan offered the expected level of resistance. "Even if Arc has nding algorithms on hand for an automated nding sequence, I want to have someone who can respond to situational changes at the helm. No offense, Titanyana."

  "I agree, though I do think it would be a good idea . . ." Titanyana didn't know how to sell Diana's pn.

  "What if we have her sit on your p?" Donovan raised an eyebrow, though he didn't immediately reject the idea. "I mean, I know you don't have the most space down there, but she is pretty small."

  "What are you pnning?" The hair on Titanyana's tail stood on end. He had figured out their true intentions!

  "I already told you, dummy." Diana clearly disagreed. "I want propaganda."

  Her face was, aside from the pouting lips, completely serious. Enough to tell Donovan that she wasn't joking, though nowhere near the point of legitimate anger or disappointment.

  ". . . fine. Titanyana?"

  "Yes?"

  "Are you . . . never mind. Just be careful around the controls." Donovan moved the seat back a bit, gesturing for her to climb down. When she had done so during training she could just step directly onto the seat, but that was currently occupied by Donovan. She imagined he wouldn't appreciate a boot digging into his thigh or groin, but she wasn't quite sure where else was safe to step. "You can . . . just start by sitting down and scoot in."

  Titanyana, a tad embarrassed, obliged, sinking down and pcing her legs over Donovan's shoulder while she looked for a path into his p. Once she was down though-

  "Here we go!" Donovan contorted in pce, sinking down into his seat to grab Titanyana by the thighs before lifting her. For a split second, she swore she could see a hint of jealousy in Diana's expression, but it was gone by the time she turned back. Her attention had to be focused somewhere else though, primarily Donovan. She had only just sat down on his p and already her mind was stirring into a frenzy.

  He had just finished a 'session' with Diana, a fact she was consciously aware of, and her body reacted to the pheromones of her male being aroused by preparing her for that sort of activity. Fortunately he had taken a shower so the effects were weaker than they could have been, but they were still much stronger than she would have liked. Every instance of skin contact tickled in ways she wasn't used to while the cloying sensation inspired in the way he surrounded her in this position smothered her more rational inclinations. Even if she was aware that squirming around with her rear near his groin wasn't appropriate for their situation, it wasn't like she possessed the mental faculties to stop herself.

  "All good?" Those little words snapped Titanyana out of her depraved spiral, the embarrassment spawned from his genuine concern calming her down.

  "Y-yeah." Her heart was still throbbing, but she could keep her wits about her. She just needed to focus on the task at hand.

  "Alright Arc, the ball is in your court." Donovan took his hands off the controls as the room once more dimmed, even the limited information on screen, leaving them in total darkness.

  "I do apologize for the limited volume, this room cks speakers of an appropriate size for the spectacle."

  - - - - -

  What followed was an incredible work of audiovisual spectacle, inspired by one of the great masterworks of cinema long past. A sort of parody and homage to a personal favorite of Arc's, 2001: A Space Odyssey. He had put an unusual level of effort into this, fully aware of the reversal. For one, he wasn't like HAL-9000. He didn't want to kill humans, solely focused on their continued prosperity. They were also the ones in the monolith this time around, the strangers to this gaxy who had seen everything before, rather than the clueless natives.

  It seemed everything about their approach was opposite, and yet the only one showing any sort of reaction was Diana - who was merrily ughing her ass off in spite of this being a supposed propaganda opportunity. That was fine though. The two Nekh were non-starters on the humor for not having the chance to gather context, while Donovan was almost less cultured. People in the future would understand his genius . . . hopefully.

  Arc made a note in the recesses of his code to influence film culture in such a way that 2001: A Space Odyssey would become popur, if only so one of his first attempts at creative comedy would be appreciated.

  "It's beautiful." The tear rolling down Titanyana's cheek sparked an emotion in Arc he rapidly identified to be regret. In a bid to entertain future generations, he had made a mockery of a young woman's first look at hope. "It's so . . . green."

  - - - - -

  The pnet wasn't necessarily any greener than the average pnet. Even if the presence of a Verdant Globe enriched Nectar's biosphere, there was still a limit to how much 'green' a pnt could benefit from. Add to that the presence of oceans, tropical deserts, barren highnds, rain shadowed pins, frozen por regions, and even clouds, there wasn't as much green to look at as her words described. For Titanyana, this mild greenery was healthier and more vibrant than anything she could find on Nekh.

  "Really puts Earth to shame, huh?" Diana had recovered from her bout of ughter, slumped down so as to rest her head on Donovan's shoulder as she took in the view. "At least, the Earth we knew."

  "Yeah, well, there's the size to consider as well." Donovan reached back to squeeze Diana's hand. "A quick reading puts Nectar far above Terra in terms of size. She's got roughly double the diameter, four times the surface area, eight times as much volume, and probably a much greater mass, though we haven't figured out how drastic a change has been made to the gravitational constant. We aren't even sure if we can call it a 'constant' anymore."

  "What does that mean?" Titanyana tried tilting her head back to get a better look at Donovan, but she was a bit too close for that. "What's a gravitational constant?"

  "It's a value used to calcute the gravitational force two bodies exert on each other. It's a pretty important thing to know when working in space. If you want something to stay at a certain point in orbit or prevent it from falling into or drifting away from a celestial body, you should probably have an idea of how much force that body is going to exert on it." Donovan tried using his hands to make a visual model. "The cssic example is to think of gravity like a rope between the objects. If the orbiting body is moving too fast, the rope won't be able to pull hard enough to keep it at a constant distance and it will fly away. If it's too slow the pull of the rope is too strong and they will crash into each other."

  "But . . . isn't acceleration from gravity always nine point eight meters a second per second?"

  "Only on or around the surface of the Earth, and at specific radii around other celestial bodies, I suppose."

  "Hmm." Titanyana felt as though something was off about that, but she didn't exactly know what. "How do we have gravity in here then?"

  "There's a field generator of sorts inside the ship, something called an inertial dampener. I'll spare you the details, but we are essentially tricking physics into thinking the ship is a single point in space rather than an amalgamated volume. So long as all of the forces applied internally sum to zero you can get away with a lot."

  "Oh." Titanyana had no idea what that meant, so she wasn't about to debate any of it. She knew enough to know she wouldn't understand. ". . . what about the other ships then? Why do they have gravity?"

  Titanyana was, of course, referring to the vessels they were in formation with. One could very easily see on cameras that those on deck weren't tied down in any way, and yet they showed no signs of floating off into the endless void.

  "I'm gonna be honest with you here Titanyana. I have no fucking clue."

  cakeonfrosting