Chapter One

Even if he strained his neck, Michael Dubane could not see Earth out of his portal window. But it was out there, off the other side of the living quarters, filling entirely the portal windows of berths for people luckier than he. Nevertheless, its presence was made known. even in Michael's living quarters, by a comforting bluish glow permeating what you might call the horizon, bathing the muted pastel walls of his little room in a living, shimmering light.

This blue, this shimmering light, was the final parting embrace of his mother planet. Soon, the last transport ship will dock, unload its passengers and supplies, and sometime early tomorrow morning the Hi'iaka will fire its rockets and untether itself from the hold of Mother Earth, and he will never see his home again.

With his mind filled with melancholy, Dubane swung his legs off of his bunk and onto the small rectangle of floor that made up the totality of standing room in his private space. Two feet in front of him as he stood was the door to the common room; two feet to the left, a sink; two feet to the right, an overstuffed easy chair that together with his bunk were the only furniture to his name. Every available space on the walls of his tiny berth was taken up with shelves, and the shelves were full of books. Hundreds and hundreds of books, and even more stored unpacked in boxes under his bunk.

He loved words. He loved to read. He had ten thousand books on his tablet, of course, but he preferred the real thing; their weight in his hand, the smell of the drying paper, the sharp contrast of the dark ink against the mellow whiteness of the page. Even the choice of fonts and margins imparted some ephemeral meaning to the writing. And most importantly, tablets have a way of running out of power at the most exciting moment in the story, or, worse still, dying altogether. And he could not imagine his new life, and particularly not the next four months, without something to read. He would go insane.

Right now, he had two overpowering needs: to visit the bathroom, and then to get a cup of coffee. There was no toilet in his room; only the family berths were "en suite," the singles had to share bathrooms dormitory-style, one set of bathrooms for each living pod. His pod had six people, singles, living in it now, and the rest would be arriving on the transport ship that was to dock today, bringing the last of the travelers, as well as the last of the supplies and fuel for the long and lonely journey ahead. He'd seen the transport launch from Cape Canaveral, watched it on TV with his podmates in the common room as it began its quick but hard journey from Earth to the Hi'iaka, the mother ship, the ship that Michael sat in now, the staging vessel five hundred thousand feet above, that awaited their arrival.

Out in the common room, there sat Jake Smith, podmate and new friend, playing a video game. Smith and Dubane had bonded over coffee. Jake liked it thick and strong, and so did Michael. And so they figured it was destiny that brought them together in the same pod.

"Hiya, Mike," Jake greeted him.

Michael grumbled a reply on his way to the toilet, but was much more communicative when he returned. "Wanna go to the observation deck, to watch the docking?" he asked his podmate as he stood in the common room's kitchenette filling his mug with coffee.

"It's probably crowded already," Jake said, not taking his eyes off his game. "Andy and Rachel and the rest of 'em left a half-hour ago."

"I suppose."

"Let's watch it on the TV instead. Whaddya say?"

"Sure," Dubane agreed.

Jake paused his video game as Dubane sat down next to him on the couch. "Hey, check this out--" Jake said, then spoke in a louder, clearer, authoritative voice: "Lazy-ass TV!" The screen changed, from the video game to image an anime girl. "Switch to the ship's cameras!"

"I'm switching to the internal Hi'iaka station now," a placid computer voice announced in a soothing female voice from the TV speakers.

"I just programmed it to do this last night! Cool, huh? I had to give the television some kind of name, so..."

"And 'Lazy-ass TV' is the best you could come up with?" Michael just looked at the guy, shaking his head with a grin, as the screen changed to a view of the Mediterranean, the boot of Italy perfectly visible against the bright water of the sea, then further to the east, the Levant and the Red Sea and the Nile delta. A swirl of clouds obscured much of the land and the sea; Greece, Turkey, the Caspian Sea all concealed, the brown sands of Arabia coming into view along the horizon. Just visible in the foreground, at the far left of the screen, was the tail of the transport ship, slowly moving out of view. The footage included the crackling sounds of communications between the pilots of the transport and the bridge of the Hi'iaka:

"Steady ahead..." "Roger..."

"A half-hour, maybe, till they're docked," Jake said. He would know, this was the fourth docking he'd watched, having been on the first of the five trips of the transport ship that brought the people and supplies for this, the fourth voyage of the Hi'iaka. Once the transport had emptied itself of people, and of fuel and supplies, it would undock to return to Earth, and their voyage would truly begin.

As he watched the image on the screen switch to the scene of another camera, this one facing away from Earth, the transport slowly appearing into view, Michael remembered the excitement he felt at this moment, when it was him, ten days ago, arriving at the docking bay of the mother ship. Much of the excitement, and terror, of the launch had passed for him by this point in his initial voyage, and his mind was finally able to focus instead on the mission ahead. Three times the Hi'iaka, the giant interplanetary spacecraft, had ferried a hundred people to Mars. There were already three hundred colonists there, some of whom had been there nearly eight years now. The good Hi'iaka would continue its journey, over and over, ferrying a hundred people at a time, many months there, then many months to return after the people and supplies had been unloaded, where she would ease into her distant orbit around the Earth and refit and refill and return again for her long voyage through space.

The Martian biodome, the home of the fledgling colony, had been built to accommodate five thousand. It would be decades, centuries, before they reached that number, especially considering the rate at which the colonists were procreating now. There had been only three babies born on Mars thus far; the social scientists had expected a dozen and hoped for twice that. It was considered something of an dire situation now, and increasingly the selection of the newer colonists was made with this consideration squarely in mind. Odd, it was, to imagine the Hi'iaka as a sort of dating zone, to find a mate for your life ahead.

"You know anything about our new podmates?" Michael asked Jake, apropos of nothing.

"Yeah. A family--a mother and her two children..."

"Oh? No father?" So far, women were scarce in the colony, which exasperated the procreation problem. The GSA had focused with last-minute intensity on recruiting more women, having only marginal success. They also wanted couples already mated, though it was exceedingly rare for any to want to leave their homes and their children's grandparents to travel a million miles away. This family, this mother and her two children, must have been something of a coup for the GSA recruiters. A woman with children was a very valuable colonist indeed.

The women that had been recruited for this journey knew full-well that they would be expected to find a mate among the men at the colony, and that their reproductive success or failure would be a topic of great interest to the people of Earth. In some cases, the women were already betrothed, having courted with men from the colony, and even married already across the wide expanse of space in ceremonies that were broadcast worldwide, and that were a strange thing to witness as the "I dos" were separated by the fourteen minute time delay that communications from Earth to Mars present.

Maybe this new podmate, this mother of two, was one of these. Maybe she was already married to a colonist, or engaged to one. Not that Michael much cared, to be entirely honest; at thirty-five, he'd lived a mostly celibate life. The few women he'd been with were long since forgotten, and he'd left no progeny behind, nor anyone else to mourn his absence. The dearth of women at the colony meant that many of the men would not have mates, and Michael was perfectly content to be one of these.

"Yeah, no husband. I don't know what the story is," Jake answered his question.

On the television screen, the transport ship had covered half the remaining distance now in its long slow glide to the docking port. Enormous robot arms had began to unfolded, to carefully catch the transport and bring it the last few dozen feet into place.

"When do we launch?" Michael asked.

"1900, if all goes right."

The two men sat in silence staring at the television, contemplating the enormity of this in their own minds, as the robot arms reached out and found their holds, and began to gently guide the transport to the dock.

Eventually, once the transport was docked, Jake went back to his video game ("Lazy-ass TV, video game." "Switching to video game...") and Michael started reading, when the doors to their common room swung open. A porter pushed a full trolley in, and behind him was a harried-looking woman with two duffle bags over her shoulders and a rolling suitcase; behind her two children pulling yet more luggage. Michael jumped up and dashed over to the woman.

"Here, let me help you with that."

She gave him a forced smile, but a pleasant enough one for a woman whose face was otherwise stiff with stress. "Thanks," she said, slouching one of the duffles off her shoulder.

"I'm Michael," he introduced himself, as he relieved her of the heavy duffle and reached out to shake her hand. "Over there is Jake." Jake had paused the game by now and started over to help as well.

"Robin," she said, shaking Michael's hand as best she could. She nodded backwards, to one of the kids behind her. "Margaret," a girl of around eleven, tall and skinny with a mop of curly brown hair and darker skin than her mother, "and Charles," nodding to the other, a boy of around seven.

"Welcome to the hippest living pod aboard the Hi'iaka" Michael said to the kids with a pleasant smile. The boy just scowled, but the girl did her best to smile back.




A few hours later, he saw his new podmates sitting by themselves at a table in the cafeteria. The woman was eating her food without much spirit, the girl staring downcast at her tray with her hands in her lap, the boy vigorously playing a game on his hand-held.

Michael approached the table with his tray in hand. "Hello!" he said, as cheerfully as he could. "Remember me? I'm Michael, from your pod."

The woman looked up at him and smiled. "Oh, yes, you helped us with our things."

"That's right. Welcome to the Hi'iaka!"

"Thank you," the woman said. "Would you like to join us for dinner?"

"I'd love to." He set his tray down at an available seat.

"Margaret, Charles, say hello to Mr. ...?"

"Dubane," he said as he sat down. "But really, call me Mike, that's what everyone calls me."

The girl looked up momentarily from her tray, gave a forced smile, and said "Hello." She went back to her downcast staring.

"Charles," the woman said sternly to the boy. He set his game down for a moment and said "Hello" himself.

"Good to see you both again," Michael said. In the brief silence that followed, he contemplated these children's, and their mother's, lot. It must be enormously difficult to uproot your children like she has done, to take them away from their lives and friends and home and bring them on a voyage into the unknown. And for them, for the kids... It's hard to imagine. There were almost no children at the colony now, and few or none of Margaret's or Charles' age. What playmates their own age that they will have, will be among the hundred people on this voyage now. Looking about the cafeteria for a moment, he saw none. Suddenly his heart ached for these poor children.

"So what brings you on this trip?" he asked the woman. "What's your specialty?"

"She's a veterinarian," the boy piped up.

"Oh?" He looked at the woman. "I thought that colonists weren't allowed to bring pets?"

"They're not," the girl said authoritatively, looking up now. "Mom's a large animal veterinarian."

"Oh, I see." While there were no livestock in the biodome now, there were plans to bring some in, at least on an experimental basis. Protein amongst the colonists was a concern. As it currently stood, they were almost wholly dependent on shipments from Earth for their protein.

"And you? What brings you on the trip?" the woman asked.

"I'm a systems engineer."

The woman nodded, but the boy asked, "What does that mean?"

"Computers, networking, that sort of thing," Michael answered.

With this, the girl looked up. "Computers?" she said.

"Yes, it's my field. How about you, Margaret, what's your area of interest?"

She hesitated for a moment. "I don't know, I guess I like to draw."

"She's very good at Math," her mother answered for her. "And writing."

"Sweet, I love to write myself. So is there a school here, on the ship?" He hadn't heard of one.

"No," Robin said. "I'll be home schooling them. There's a school at the colony, though."

"But it's tiny," the girl added.

"Yes," her mother agreed.

"Well, if you need any help with the home schooling, help with homework or whatever, I'm entirely at your disposal. I always wished I'd been a teacher."

"That's very kind, Michael. I'm sure I'll take you up on it."

He turned to the boy now. "How about you? What's your specialty?"

"Video games," the girl piped up. This brought a smile to her face, a real one, the first he'd seen from her.

"Oh? Well then you'll get along great with my buddy Jake," Michael said.

Finally the girl began to eat her food, and the others at the table joined her, and there was relative silence among the background din of dozens eating and talking in the cafeteria. Michael took this opportunity to spend a little time observing them. The boy seemed chipper enough. Possibly even excited to be on this trip. He had sandy-blond hair and blue eyes and was eating now with voracity, shoveling the chicken and rice into his gullet. The girl was eating with much less vigor, but some of the sadness that had eclipsed her face seemed to have dissipated. She had darker hair than her brother, pulled in a dramatic part well to the side of her face and held across her head by a ribboned clasp. Her face was small and round, and her nose remarkably tiny. She had brown eyes flecked mysteriously with green.

Their mother, though, captured most of his attention. She looked like an interesting combination of both of the children, lighter hair and bluer eyes, but the same round face and little nose and pleasant, thin-lipped smile as the girl. If pressed to guess an age, he would have assumed Robin was mid-twenties at the latest, though that would not conform well to her having an eleven-year-old daughter. So late twenties, then, if she started her family early. While he'd always swore that he would be one of the celibate many at the colony, he found himself attracted to this woman. He was full of curiosity as to what her marital status was, but he didn't dare to ask. Oh well, best to assume that she is already claimed by some younger and handsomer colonist than he. It's for the best, really.

"So, are you excited for this evening's launching?" he asked, between bites of his curry.

"Oh yeah!" the boy exclaimed. "Space! Mars!"

The girl gave him a sardonic look. "I think it will be anti-climatic. I've heard you barely even notice that you're moving."

"Yeah, probably. I was thinking of watching from the observation deck."

"Oh, that's right, there's an observation deck, " the girl said.

"Is it cool?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, it is. Maybe you'd like to join me?"

"Oh yeah!" the boy said. "Let's!"

"I have a lot of unpacking to do," their mother said. "Why don't you take the kids? Get them out of my hair for a bit!" She added the last with a kindly smile at her children.

Michael wanted to protest. There's plenty of time to unpack! Four months, in fact! What he really wanted, was to get to know this woman a bit, and what better opportunity than a romantic evening in the observation deck watching the Hi'iaka launch?

But, he also thought to himself, perhaps the way to a single mother's heart was through her children. Plus, he might be able to subtly pry a bit of information from the kids, that he would be otherwise be uncomfortable asking of the mother.

"We'd better run if we want to get a seat. It's probably filling up already," he said, gathering up the plates and trays of his dinner companions.

"Okay," Robin said. "Behave, you two!"

The girl rolled her eyes at her mother as they all stood to leave. Michael took the trays to the cleaning station and the children followed him, after their mother had given each of them a kiss.

They made it to the observation deck in time to see the huge transport, still attached to the central drive module of the Hi'iaka, dispensing the last of the fuel for the mother ship. Large expanses of windows ringed both sides of the observation deck, one side looking spaceward with the transport in the foreground, the other side showing the most gorgeous view of Earth that you could ever imagine, lush dark greens of mountains, pale browns of deserts, and blue, endless blue oceans punctuated with swirls of white clouds. Monitors that hung around the observation deck showed people floating weightlessly back into the transport, the drive module being devoid of the artificial gravity of the spinning living quarters, as the last of the people who were not going on the mission disembarked onto the transport.

Through the windows, the transport rotated past as the living quarters spun, making for an odd viewing experience; the transport first appeared over the drive module on the leftmost side of the windows, rising for fifteen seconds to zenith, then "setting" for another fifteen seconds until it disappeared under the drive module and past the rightmost side of the windows. Then, a thirty-second wait while the underside of the drive module was visible, until the living quarters completed its full minute-long rotation and the transport appeared into view again. At first, it was difficult for your brain to put the entirety into a holistic view, and you had a feeling of vertigo. But only a few rotations of the living quarters were enough for the logic to manifest intuitively, and it took on an enjoyable aspect, not unlike looking out at the world from a carousel, or a Ferris wheel.

A few minutes after they arrived, as the transport swung back into view yet again, they could see the robot arms release their hold and fold back into the ship. While they waited for the transport to disengage, with the monitors showing the airlocks closing, they had time to talk.

"So, art?" he said to the girl. "What sort of art do you do?"

"Just drawing. Sketches," she answered.

"She's good!" the boy offered.

"I'd like to see some," Michael said.

"Okay."

"How about you?" he said to the boy. "Do you do art, too?"

"No, I mean, I'm not good at it."

"What are you good at?"

"Being annoying!" his sister giggled.

The boy reached across Michael in their seats and tried to punch his sister on the shoulder. "You'd know, Maggie," he said. "You're the champion of being annoying!"

"So you go by 'Maggie?'" Michael asked the girl.

"Yeah, usually."

"What about you, Charles? Are you Chuck? Or Chaz?"

"Mom and Maggie call me Charlie."

"Okay, I'll call you that, then. And you guys call me Mike, okay?"

"Okay."

"So seriously, what are your interests, Charlie?"

"Mostly games," he said. "And riding my bike, but I guess that's not going to happen much anymore."

"Well, there's a track here that you can use, and they have some bikes. It's not great but it's something at least. Maybe we can find a bike that fits you."

"Cool."

"And once we get to Mars, you can ride around in the biodome all you want."

"I like to ride, too," Maggie said.

"Good! Let's go to the track together soon and we'll get you both some bikes."

"Okay. Dad used to take me out riding, when I was little. Before..." Her words tailed off.

Despite intense curiosity about their father, Michael decided not to pry. Instead he offered, "Family bike rides are so much fun. I loved them when I was young."

"Yeah," Maggie said.

"He never took me riding," Charlie said. "At least I don't remember it."

"He did, though," Maggie said. "He had one of those kid seats on his handlebars."

"Look!" Michael said, pointing along with dozens of other people in the observation deck out the windows at the transport. Small rockets fired along its side, gently easing the ship away from the Hi'iaka. The monitors changed to a view of the control deck, where the captain and crew were calmly and methodically running through a long series of pre-flight checks. Through the windows, they watched the rocket slowly slide away.

"It must be hard for you kids to leave your friends and everyone behind," Michael said as they waited the half-minute for the living quarters to complete another rotation and the transport to appear in the windows again.

"It was harder on Grandma," Charlie said. "She was crying like crazy!"

"God, this must be really hard on her," Michael said.

"We'll still get to talk and stuff, though," Maggie said.

The transport came back into view, now floating well above the drive unit and slowly turning to begin its voyage back to Earth.

Several rotations later, as thruster rockets fired on the transport, quickly increasing its distance from the mother ship, the countdown to the disembarking of the Hi'iaka started. "T minus 600," a voice announced over the intercom.

"Ten minutes," Michael said to the children. Maggie's pretty brown eyes were wide, watching as the huge transport got smaller and smaller, disappearing into the distance. The room was suddenly silent.

"T minus 540," the voice over the intercom said, after what seemed like an interminable time. The kids' phones chirped.

"Mom's texting us," Maggie said, looking down at her screen. "She says she's excited, and she wants to know if we're behaving." She smiled and typed a response.

It seemed like an eternity before they finally began to feel the rumble of the enormous rockets in the drive module at the core of the Hi'iaka. A cheer raised among the crowd. Maggie reached a hand over and gripped her fingers tightly to Michael's hand, which momentarily surprised him, but brought forth from him an unexpected feeling of almost fatherly concern, and he gripped tightly back, and reached for Charlie's hand as well. The boy responded by gripping tightly as well.

"T minus 30!" the intercom squawked. The people in the observation deck began to count along. "29, 28, 27..." Charlie joined in with great enthusiasm, and Michael would have as well, but Maggie gripped even tighter to his hand and he felt that he should restrain himself.

The giant engines fired, lighting the sky behind the ship in reddish orange. "10... 9..."

The actual moment itself was exactly as Maggie had predicted. Disappointingly anti-climatic. The ship started moving, without much evidence of this other than the slight movement of stars outside and the captain announcing over the intercom, "And we are under way!" A cheer arose among the people in the observation deck, and Maggie let go of Michael's hand to clap herself. A few minutes later the crowd began to disperse. Michael and the kids walked to the huge observation windows and stood looking out at the stars and the distant transport, now little more than a speck against the blackness. On the other side of the deck, they could now see that they had moved further away from the Earth. Soon the entire hemisphere would be visible across the expanse of windows; in a day, it would be a globe no bigger than the moon as seen from Earth. In a week, it will be little more than a bluish speck among the stars.




"Whatcha doing?" Maggie asked Michael the next morning as he sat quietly reading a book and sipping his coffee. She flopped exaggeratedly onto the couch next to him.

"Reading."

She giggled. "Duh! Whatcha reading?"

"Oh, one of my favorite books," he said, holding up the cover so she could see. "It's a seafaring novel. I thought it would be good to read a book about a voyage as we start on ours."

"Cool!" She took the book from him and looked at the cover, a painting depicting Commodore Anson's fleet rounding Cape Horn.

"You know," Michael said, "you might like this book. It's kinda written for teenagers."

"Can I borrow it then?"

"Of course! You can read it when I'm done."

She held the book to her chest and gave him a thick-lipped pout. "Shouldn't I get to read it first?"

"Why should you get read it first?" Michael asked, with teasingly raised eyebrows.

"Because if you and Mom get married, I'll be your daughter, and you'll have to be nice to me then. May as well start practicing now."

"Married?" Michael said, genuinely surprised at the girl's suggestion, and maybe a little embarrassed, too. Were his intentions that obvious?

"Yes," she said. "Mom needs a new husband, and you're perfect."

"Perfect?"

"Come on, can I read it?" she pleaded, moving quickly passed the subject of marriage.

"I have a compromise proposal," he said.

"Yes?"

"I'll read it out loud to you."

"Yes!" She jumped up, then bounced back down onto the couch, immediately snuggling tightly against his chest.

She handed the book back to him and he opened to the first page and began to read. Eventually, Charlie joined them as well, at first non-committal about the story but then snuggling up to Michael as well and listening intently. An hour into the reading, their mother emerged from the family quarters and sat down on a chair across from them, smiling as she watched Michael read, and listening herself. He reached the end of a chapter and set the book down on his lap.

"That's enough for now," he said.

"No!" the kids protested. "Keep going!"

"No more for now. I've got to wet my whistle."

The kids giggled at the expression.

"Come on, Maggie," her brother said, "let's go explore the ship!"

"Okay," his sister agreed, "but only if Mike comes, too!"

"Kids," their mother admonished, "you can't make the poor man spend every waking minute with you!"

"You guys run off and explore," he said. "You don't want me along. If you go by yourselves you can get in all the trouble you want. If I'm with you, you'll have to behave."

They seemed to agree with this perspective, and bounced off the couch and said their goodbyes.

"Be back in time for dinner," their mother said.

"Okay. You're eating with us again, right, Mike?" Maggie asked.

"If it's okay with your mother." He looked over at Robin, who grinned, while also shaking her head.

"Of course it's okay with Mom!" Maggie said. And they were off to explore.

"Well!" Robin said in the aftermath of their exit. They both laughed. "It's very kind of you to be so nice to them."

"They're good kids," he said.

Robin nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "I've been worried about Margaret. She's been very unhappy."

"Yeah, it's got to be terribly hard for a kid to leave everything behind."

"Maybe it was a mistake to make them come."

Michael really wasn't sure how to answer, because he really wasn't sure whether it was a mistake or not. He knew the colony needed children of all ages, and so in that sense Robin's actions were for the greater good and were essential to the long-term vitality of the very place he was going to make his new life. And yet, there is the personal consideration, beyond the greater good. Each person on this mission had their own personal reason for leaving Earth. In fact, the vetting teams were highly interested in your personal reasons for wanting to leave; the last thing they wanted was a suicidal mission-member. But, they knew, and everyone else knew, too, that anyone who signed up had something they were fleeing. Something they wanted to leave behind. As Michael stared at the woman sitting across from him in the common room, he wondered, what is it that she's fleeing?

Seeing that he had no response to her previous statement, she let out a sigh. "I didn't have anywhere to leave them, though. My parents are elderly, my sister's a wreck, and Jordan's parents... Shit, I'm sorry to be unloading on you like this."

"No, don't worry about it, I understand. The mission needs kids, you know. And I suppose every kid that comes isn't going to want to, not at first."

She nodded. "I haven't seen Maggie smile in weeks. Months. I was just so pleased when she wanted to go with you to watch the launch, I was sure she'd just hold up in her bed and not say a word. And this morning... Well, it was nice to see."

He nodded, not sure what to say.

"She's... It was really hard for her when Jordon died. They were really close."

"He's your husband?"

"Yeah. He died three years ago now. That's when I decided to do this. I felt like I had nothing left on Earth to keep me motivated, you know? I heard they were looking for a vet, so I figured, why not?"

"Sure."

"But you know, I don't think it was fair to those kids. They'd just had their dad taken away from them and then I threw it all into a tailspin."

All Michael could really do was nod again.

"I'm talking your ear off. I'm sorry."

"Not at all, Robin. It's nice to have someone to talk to."

"I'm afraid not really much of a conversationalist," she said.

"Me neither."

She paused, apparently uncertain whether to continue. So Michael stood. "Hey, you want to go for a walk? You haven't seen the observation deck yet, right? We ought to be able to have a nice view of Earth from there."

Robin stood as well. "I'd love to go for a walk, but I don't think I'm up for looking at Earth right now. I'd probably start crying or something silly like that."

"Okay, how about I just show you around a bit instead?"

"Sure."

Michael put his hand on her back as they stepped out of the doorway of the common room and into the hallway beyond. The hand on her back was a little more familiar than Michael had intended, though not really anything more than a polite gesture, and he felt like maybe she needed a little human contact.

Almost as if in response to his touch, she continued with her soliloquy. "Once this trip was looking more like a reality, I started turning away from people, you know?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

"I just... I just didn't want to get close to anyone, you know? Since I knew I would just be leaving." He took his hand away once they were in the outer hallway. "And, I guess, I did the same for the kids, trying to protect them from getting too close to anyone. So... this is sorta new, different. I mean, the fact is that the kids seem to like you, and I just need to step back and let that happen."

"Sure. I'm sure it's really hard."

"I'm sorry if this is weird for you or something. I'm sure to you, they're just kids, and you're just being nice to them, like normal. But for them..."

"That's the next pod," Michael said, pointing through an open doorway into the common room of another living space. "The neighbors!"

Robin smiled at this.

"I don't feel like I'm just being nice to your kids," he said as they continued down the hall. "I mean, that's not all that it is. You and me and them, we're all in this together now. You know?"

She nodded, smiling slightly as she looked at him.

"I mean," he continued, "for me, I've always been a loner, I guess. I didn't have to turn anyone away when I decided to do this. There really wasn't anyone to turn away. And I figured this mission was perfect for me, 'cause I could just keep on being a loner."

"I'm sorry," Robin said. "I'll tell the kids to leave you alone."

"Here's the gym," he said, swinging a door open to a cavernous hall with a swimming pool and a basketball court and a track. "This is the very middle of the living quarters. The pods are sort of in two horseshoes around it, and the cafeteria and observation deck are right below us." He pointed down. "No, actually, I guess they're above us--" he pointed up "--only, on the other side of the loop. I find it's a bit hard to get my bearings around this thing."

They walked into the room together. "The weight room and exercise equipment are over here, and the changing rooms."

"Okay," she said.

"You know, a funny thing happened, though. I always liked being a loner. I never minded that I didn't have a family or anyone close. But here, I sort of feel different about it now. I guess, seeing you, and your kids... I really liked it this morning, reading to them. And last night, at the observation deck... It made me feel like I had, I don't know, a purpose? People who might actually rely on me?"

She gave a little smile. "So you don't mind it?"

He led her back out to the hall, and put his hand on her back again.

"I don't. I'd rather you not tell the kids to leave me alone."

Her smile got bigger. And he left his hand on her back for a moment longer than he should have. As they turned back in the hallway, the sound of running feet filled the air, and Robin's two kids came rushing around the corner. He quickly dropped his hand from her back.

"Hi Mom! Hi Mike!" they hollered as they sped passed.

"Kids! Slow down!" Robin scolded, but they were already well passed by then.




That evening, after dinner with Robin's family and a little time spent with the kids in the observation deck again, Earth now a shining blue orb, he and the kids snuggled up on the couch and he read some more of the book to them. Eventually, Robin told the kids--among much protestation--that it was time for them to get to bed, and Michael retired to his own room as well.

An hour later there was a gentle knocking at his door.

"Hi," Robin said as he opened the door and peered out to see who his visitor was, and finding her pretty face staring back at him. "I was wondering if... Wow, this room is really small!"

"Yeah, sorry..."

"I thought our room was small!" She produced from behind her back a bottle of amber-colored liquid and two small glasses. "I was wondering if you might want a nightcap? I don't know if you drink or..."

"Sure!" he answered. He started to walk out into the common room, where a handful of other people were sitting. Jake and another podmate were playing a video game.

"I was thinking..." Robin said, "maybe we could... just hang out here? In your room? There's so many people out there, and video games and shi... stuff..."

Michael smiled at her stuttered swear word. "Oh, yeah, sure, okay." He stepped aside to let her in, and gestured to the lone chair for her to sit down. She poured them both some of the brandy while he set up a little folding table and sat down on the bed.

They lifted their glasses. "To a new life," he said.

She smiled. "To a new life. I'll drink to that."

"So how was your first full day?"

"A little crazy, I guess. I'm still trying to get everything unpacked and put away in some semblance of order."

"Yeah, it took me at least a week, and I don't have two kids."

She sighed. "I don't think I could've got anything done if you weren't here to entertain them."

"I'm glad to help out."

She looked at him with a smile, but an otherwise serious expression, finished off her drink and set the empty glass on the little table.

"Another?" he asked.

"Oh hell, why not?" He filled her glass and she picked it up and took a sip. He finished his off and poured himself another while she looked at the shelves that lined his room. "You have a lot of books."

"Yeah, I like to read. I figured I'd need a lot of them for the trip, you know?"

"Sure. Nothing else to do for four months."

"Right."

"You didn't figure on having a couple of little squirts to entertain!"

"No, nor their mother."

She smiled at him again and he could see her pretty round cheeks flush a bit. "I'm easy," she said, then quickly added, "I mean, I'm easy to entertain!"

"I'm not very good at entertaining women," he said.

"No? You seem well-suited to the task to me."

"I never had a lot of success in the area, I guess."

"Maybe you just never met the right person."

Now he could feel his own cheeks blushing. "Could be."

"But listen to me talking," she said. "What do I know? I haven't been on a real date since I was a teenager."

"No? You never dated after your husband died?"

"Like I told you, I was pushing people away after that. I didn't want to get close to anybody. I didn't want to change my mind about this mission."

"Right," he said. "So... now... You think you can get close to someone now?"

She finished off her glass again, looking over the rim at him. "You have somebody in mind?" she asked with a little smile.

"Let's see," he said, grinning back. "There's Jake, he seems like a nice enough guy."

"Yeah, but he's not my type."

"No? What is your type?"

"I like a bookish man," she said.

"Yeah? Well, I like a woman who's into animals."

She smiled. "And I guess I haven't had this opportunity before, but I realize now that I think it's incredibly sexy when a man is kind to my children."

"I really like your children. And I'm not just saying that because I want to..." His voice faded off.

"Because you want to...?"

"Well, it's been a long time since I met a woman as beautiful as you, Robin."

"It's been a long time since I've met a man like you."

"Hmm. I guess that's good?"

She laughed. "Yes, it is." She stood up. "Now I'd love to stay and chat, but I probably should be getting back to my babies."

He nodded, standing up as well. "Maybe we can continue the conversation again tomorrow night?"

"I'd like that," she said.

"So would I."

Michael suddenly had an intense desire to give her a kiss goodnight before he opened the door, and she paused as she stood as well, as if she was hoping for the same. But like a goddamned schoolboy, he couldn't bring himself to do it, and sufficed with a brush of his hand against hers as she left his room.

Chapter Two

For Michael Dubane, the tiny room that made up the totality of his private space in the entire universe was a comfort. For some, it might have been a source of distress, but Michael had come to view it as a cocoon; confined but concise, drawing strength from its limitations, much like highly formal poetry. Even, he sometimes thought, as he lay with a sheet wrapped around his otherwise nude body, his little room was almost womb-like. A place of retreat for his soul to be nurtured in silence, and amongst the earthy smell and feel of his wonderful books.

The scariest thing for him about their pending arrival at the colony was the thought of giving up the personal space that had come to be so important in his life, not just aboard the Hi'iaka, but in his previous life as well, where he maintained a solitary existence in a tiny downtown apartment. In fact, so profound was this fear that for a year or more it had manifested in a recurring nightmare: The sky was red, the ground, yellow sand; as far as the eye could possibly see, in all directions, nothing but red sky and yellow sand. The meaning of the color was obvious enough; it was the vastness, the uninterrupted magnitude of the scene, that piqued his anxiety.

Normally at this point in the dream he would awaken in a cold sweat and a state of agitated fear at the horror to which he has condemned himself.

But this time, this night, this instance of the recurring dream, as he turned in a full circle to look at the red and yellow horizon, he saw that there was a person with him. A child. And then he saw another, and another, they seemed to be appearing out of nothing until there were several, a whole brood of children around him in the yellow desert. The children did not look frightened, nor unprepared and overwhelmed--the usual reactions he felt in this dream. No; they looked hopeful, confident, expectant.

He awoke from the dream this time with a smile on his face, and in need of a drink of water. He pulled on his pajama bottoms and hurried out into the common room. The room was dark, but a glow from the television illuminated the silhouette of a person sitting at the couch. He heard the voice of a young girl quietly whisper,

"Hi, Mike."

"Maggie?" he said. "What are you doing up?"

The TV was playing a cartoon, with the sound very low. "I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep," she said.

"You should try to get to sleep, sweetheart," he gently whispered.

"I know. But I can't." In the glow of the TV, he could see her look up at him. "Can you tell me a story? That's what my dad always did, when I couldn't sleep."

Well, he couldn't rightly turn her down, not after that explanation. So he walked over and sat down on the couch next to her, her round cheeks glowing in yellows and blues from the light of the television, and reminding him of her mother's face. She snuggled up against his bare chest.

"What kind of story?" he asked her.

"I don't know," she said, very quietly, almost a whisper. "Maybe about a princess?"

He liked the way it felt to have the girl press her face to his chest, the softness of her cheek against his skin, the humid warmth of her breath. He picked up the remote and turned the television off, and the room was completely dark. She reached her hand across him and laid it on his opposite side in a little hug, her arm across his belly and her hand on his lower ribs.

"Once upon a time there was a princess," he began. "What's your favorite animal?"

"My favorite animal?" she repeated softly.

"Yes," he answered. "The princess needs to have an animal with her, don't you think?"

"Um..." she said in almost a sigh, "I guess, a wolf."

"Okay. The princess had a wolf as her companion, a big wolf, dark and fierce and beautiful, and together they would walk in the woods and play games."

The girl's breathing had become soft and regular.

"One day when they were out playing, they came upon a group of bandits who were counting the gold that they had stolen from travelers the day before.

"'Ho ho!' one of the bandits said, 'what have we here? A little girl!' Because you see, they couldn't see the wolf in the trees.

"'Not just a girl,' another bandit said. 'She's a princess! We can kidnap her and hold her for ransom from her father, the king!' All the bandits agreed with this plan, but the princess would have nothing to do with this and unsheathed her bow and an arrow. Did I mention she had a bow and arrow?"

"N..." Maggie's little voice answered, barely more than the sound of her breath.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I'm not a great story teller. So yeah, she had a bow and arrow and was skilled at archery, having been taught by the finest bowmen in her father's army. The bandits laughed, they were drunk, and didn't think the girl would ever shoot them, until they heard the ring of her bowstring and an arrow struck a bandit between the eyes and killed him. Is this too violent? I'm sorry, maybe I should tell a different story."

Maggie made no response, just lay with her head to his chest and her arm across his belly, her breath measured and deeper now. Michael knew that she had fallen asleep, and he wondered briefly if he should awaken her and take her back to her own bed. But he didn't want to disturb her, she seemed like a sleeping angel against him. And so he sat there quietly, enjoying their closeness, until he himself faded off to sleep.

He was awaken several hours later by a soft voice saying, "Maggie, Maggie dear." He opened his eyes as the girl stirred against his chest, and he blinked, forcing his eyes to fully absorb what light was available in the dull morning dimness of the room, the ambient lighting programmed to mimic the arrival of dawn. The girl's mother helped the child to her feet, and Micheal stood himself as well.

"I..." He stammered, shaking his head briefly to clear the sleep from his brain and having difficulty forming a coherent thought. "I was just going to get a glass of water, and..."

"Shhhh..." Robin said, then gently put her arm around her daughter and escorted her into the family's berth. When she returned, she went directly to the kitchenette and began a pot of coffee brewing, then brought two fresh cups with her to the couch. She sat down next to Michael.

"She wanted a story," he began an explanation. "She was watching TV when I got up to get some water, and..."

"Maggie hasn't been sleeping well since her father died," Robin said. "I was glad to see her sleeping so peacefully."

Michael nodded, and Robin smiled at him. "I really didn't want to disturb her, or you, but I figured it wouldn't be so good if someone else found you. They might wonder. It was a little, well, intimate..."

By now, a couple sips of coffee in his system, his brain was finally working and he understood what she meant. "I was just..." He stammered, suddenly aware that, quite unintentionally, he might have hurt his chances for courting the girl's mother. "I just started telling her a story, and she fell asleep almost immediately. I wasn't sure what to do, and I guess before I figured that out, I just fell asleep, too."

"It's very sweet, how comfortable she is with you. How much she likes you."

He nodded, glad that the woman seemed to recognize that his motives were innocent.

"I think I told you how close she was to Jordon..." she continued.

"Right," he said, "her father."

"I think that ever since he died, she's been searching for someone to replace him. I haven't helped much, since I've been distracted with this whole mission thing."

He nodded his understanding.

"But it seems she's found the man that she's been looking for. At least she thinks she has."

He nodded again.

"I know that's unfair to you. Way too much pressure to put on a man who just met us a couple of days ago. But that's what she's like, I guess. She's a very passionate girl. I'll tell her to give you more space."

"No, no need to do that. I'm glad that she likes me."

Robin smiled sweetly, but pensively. "I'm worried that she sets her expectations too high."

Though his brain was still sleep-clouded, Michael was a bit taken aback by this comment. Did she mean that she didn't think him capable of performing this role for the girl? Lacking any appropriate reply, he said nothing. Robin seemed to understand his concern.

"That maybe sounded wrong," she said. "I don't mean that I think you'll disappoint her, just that... well, we've only just met, and it's too much pressure to put on you, so early in our relationship." Then she added quickly, "I mean, in our friendship."

He smiled at her this time. Her mention of their "relationship" had caused a certain unexpected stirring in his heart, a feeling that he had not experienced in many years. "Well," he managed to say, "I promise not to let her down. Or you, either."

This brought a genuine, squinty-eyed, cheek-flushed smile to her face. "Now," she said with the authority of someone who was changing the subject of the conversation, "I was thinking of going for an early morning swim in that pool you showed me yesterday. I could use some company."

It was a small pool, too small to effectively swim laps, but they did their best, Michael at his usual slow and prodding rate, Robin at a brisk speed that indicated that she probably swam competitively when she was younger. After, they sat together at the edge of the pool, feet dangling in the water. Although she was wearing an athlete's suit, he nonetheless couldn't help admiring the woman's fine physique. Strong and sleek, thin but well-proportioned. This was the second time his heart stirred that morning, somewhat less unexpectedly this time. But when he felt another stirring, beneath his swimming trunks, that was more surprising, and also more apparent through the tight fabric of his suit, which left little to the imagination. He slipped back into the water, in the hopes of concealing it and also making it go away. But Robin, apparently, had already noticed or at least could guess why he'd gone back in the pool. With a giggle, she lifted her foot and splashed water in his direction. He responded by splashing back at her, which brought her into the poll as well, and the two of them played chase for several minutes more before she finally climbed out again, breathless and smiling broadly. Michael hesitated to join her at first, since the game had done the opposite of what he had hoped more time in the pool would do, and his unwanted animalistic excitement would surely now be perfectly visible.

"I better get back to the kids," Robin said. "They'll be up soon, if they're not already. Maybe we can swing by the cafeteria and grab them some breakfast on the way back?"

"Sure," he said, resigned now to his fate and pulling himself out of the pool. He moved as quickly as he could to the changing room, but he could see from the gleam in her pretty eyes that she'd most certainly noticed.




Several hours later, he was sitting on the couch with his tablet open to a book, trying to concentrate on the dry text and not altogether disappointed to find the video game that Jake and Charlie were playing to be a distraction. Maggie walked into the room and sat down on the couch next to him. A respectable distance away from him, he noticed. He also noticed that she didn't say anything to him. She balanced a sketch pad on her knees and began drawing.

"What're you drawing, Maggie?" he asked her after a couple of minutes.

"Nothing. Just stuff."

"Oh, okay." When she didn't follow up with a further reply, he offered, "I'm reading a very boring book about macroeconomics."

"Macroeconomics?" she said. "What's that?"

"It's about how to run the economy of a country, or the whole world."

"Oh."

"It probably wouldn't make a great book for me to read to you."

"No," she said. "That's okay, though." She looked at him with a slightly sad expression. "Mom says I should maybe give you a little more space."

"Oh? What does that mean?"

"I don't know."

"I think she means that she's worried I might feel obligated to do stuff like read to you and tell you stories, rather than just doing it because I want to."

"Yeah," Maggie said.

"So if I tell you that I want to read you a book right now, not because I feel obligated, but just because I want to, then that's okay, isn't it?"

She bit her upper lip, the whites of her lower teeth showing. Then she grinned conspiratorially. "Yeah! Mom can't complain about that!"

"No, she can't. But first, let me see what you're drawing!"

Maggie turned her drawing tablet to show him her sketch, a nicely executed dragon sitting on a pile of treasure.

"Oh, cool," Michael said, taking the drawing from her hands to investigate closer. "This is good! It looks sort of like Smaug."

"Smaug?"

"Yeah, you know, the dragon in the The Hobbit." When she responded to this with a blank stare, he said, "Don't tell me you've never read The Hobbit!"

She shook her head, no. "I think I saw the movie once, but it seemed kinda dumb."

"Oh, the book is way better than the movie! I know we have a couple chapters left from the book we've been reading, but..." He stood up and dashed to his room to retrieve a copy of The Hobbit.

Maggie snuggled up to him again when he returned, with her sketchbook on her lap, and he began to read to her. When Robin came by a few minutes later, Maggie declared defensively that "It's okay, Mom, Michael said he wanted to read to me. I didn't ask him or anything."

This brought a smile from her mother, and she sat down next to Maggie. "The Hobbit, huh?" she said, looking at the scene from the story that her daughter was sketching while Michael read.

"Yes," Michael said. "I consider it almost parental abuse that Maggie has gotten this far in life without having read it."

Robin laughed. "Yeah. I guess it wasn't our thing."

They spent the better part of the day reading the story, with Maggie sketching, then taking a turn reading out loud herself, and Charlie joining them for much of it as well. But the kids did spend some more time exploring the ship, while the grown-ups shared a bottle of wine on the observation deck--he'd finally managed to convince Robin to join him there, since Earth was barely recognizable now--and talked about what the future looked like, four months away at the colony.

"It's hard to imagine, isn't it?" Robin said. "Only four hundred people, and no supplies or anything from Earth for another year."

"It's hard to even conceive."

"It's nice to have a friend, though," she said. "It makes it seem like less lonely of a prospect."

"I agree," Michael agreed, his heart going a little light.

They both stared out at the stars in silence for a moment. Three days since the launch, Earth was still visible behind the ship, though now only an undifferentiated bluish ball, and mostly obscured by the light of the Sun. But Robin preferred not to look at it anyway, so they'd spread a blanket on the floor in front of the starside windows instead. Because the only other people in the observation deck that afternoon were at the back windows, looking out at the disappearing Earth, they were relatively alone.

"To friendship," he said, holding up his glass in a toast.

She smiled and licked her lips. This motion, this small and delicate movement of her tongue, suddenly made him want to kiss her again. He regretted his inaction the night before, when he wanted to kiss her goodnight and she seemed to want the same, so he steeled himself, determined not to make the same mistake a second time.

"This is good wine," she said nervously, like she could read his intentions. She probably could. He wasn't good at this courting game, and tended to wear his emotions on his sleeve in any case.

"It is," he said, as he moved closer to her. She took another drink of the wine, a big nervous gulp this time, but by the time she'd swallowed it down, he was already pressing his lips against hers. They quickly broke the kiss, but neither moved away; they both just breathed excitedly with their mouths no more than an inch apart.

"I... I..." she managed to stammer, before he stopped her stammering with another kiss. This time their lips were together much longer, and their tongues ventured out in a small but intimate greeting.

"I'm sorry," he said, when he pulled his head away again. "Is it too soon? It just seemed right."

"No!" she said in a breathless whisper. "It's not too soon!"

They immediately went back to kissing again.

They didn't realize until too late that they had acquired an impromptu audience. Maggie made her and her brother's presence known to the adults with a polite clearing of her throat.

"Oh!" Robin said, pulling away and looking up at her children. "Oh! Hi!"

Charlie looked a bit confused, and maybe a little disgusted. But Maggie had a great big smile on her face.




"I told you," Maggie said to Michael with that same big smile on her face as they walked back to their pod, Robin walking ahead of them a few steps with Charlie by her side, explaining to him that it's okay for Mommy to have a boyfriend, it doesn't mean she loves Daddy any less. Charlie seemed mostly bored with the conversation.

"Told me what?" Michael said back to Maggie.

"That you and Mom are gonna get married."

"You're silly. It was just a kiss."

She smiled some more. "But you like her, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, she's very nice."

"And pretty."

"Yes," Michael agreed. "She's very pretty. In fact, she looks a lot like you."

This caused Maggie's face to flush a bit, but then she smiled broadly back up at him, and, in a moment of spontaneity, reached over and took his hand. "Will you like having me as your daughter?"

He smiled and shook his head a little. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Maggie. But if it were to come to that, I suppose I could tolerate it."

She grinned, big dimples forming in her little chubby cheeks. "You're teasing me!"

"I am," he said. "The truth is, I'd be extremely proud to have you as my daughter."

He could feel her fingers tighten against his. "I would be really happy to have you as my daddy."

He could see Robin looking back at them, taking specific note of the fact that Maggie and he were holding hands. "Understand, Maggie, we're still a long ways from that."

"I know. But I just want you to know that it'll make me happy."

It was the third time that day that his heart stirred.




After a late dinner that night, Robin insisted that the children get ready for bed before any further story-reading. "Okay," Maggie agreed, "but only if Mike reads to us in bed!"

This brought an admonishing shake of her mother's head, but a smile, too. Michael quickly and emphatically assented to the idea. He wanted to read more of The Hobbit himself.

Maggie was wearing a nightgown, pink with Disney princesses; Charlie, Superman pajamas. The girl insisted that Michael sit with her, in her tiny bed, and the boy climbed onto his own bed nearby, and Michael began reading The Hobbit again. Maggie snuggled up tight to him, her head on his chest just below his shoulder, his arm around her to hold the book. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but when Robin left the room, Maggie immediately set her little hand across Michael's chest as well, just below his pectoral muscle, her breath becoming a slow, deep, steady beat.

As Michael read, Maggie's little fingers began moving absentmindedly over the muscle of his chest, nothing more than a tender little innocent touch, a young girl getting close to the man she felt would soon be her father. Several times, as she lay quietly exploring his chest and listening to him read, her fingers passed over his nipple, which stiffened to the touch. He was surprised, shocked even, at the electric feeling her small fingers imparted on his nipple. And even more surprised, and definitely shocked, by the sudden swelling between his legs. He stuttered, losing his place on the page, closed his eyes to try to clear the reptilian parts of his brain of whatever evil thoughts they'd unwittingly conceived.

His body's physical reaction to the young girl's touch concerned him greatly, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her to stop. That seemed wrong; it's not her fault, and most certainly not her intention, that his body was reacting this way. She was just being close--intimately close, to be sure, but innocently so as well--to the man she presumed to be her future father, and he didn't want to discourage her or make her think that there was anything wrong, or especially anything sexual, about her desire for closeness to him.

And so, briefly shaking his head before opening his eyes again, he located his place in the book and simply tried to concentrate on the story and to force his body to temper its ridiculous reaction.

A half an hour later, her fingers now resting directly on his nipple, she had fallen asleep, her deep measured breath giving his own heart and lungs a hypnotic calming. He saw Robin sitting in a chair across the room--When had she come in? How long had she been watching them?--looking over the top of a book she was reading, or at least pretending to read, her eyes smiling at him.

"I think the kids are asleep," he whispered to her.

The woman nodded, then put down her book and walked over to Maggie's bed. She gently removed the girl's hand from his chest and kissed her on the top of her head. The girl briefly opened her eyes and mumbled something, then rolled over to her side, and Michael quietly slipped from her bed.

As Robin moved to Charlie's bed, to give him a goodnight kiss as well, Michael whispered "Goodnight Maggie" to the girl.

"Goodnight Daddy," she sighed, without even opening her eyes.

Robin turned to him then. "I think you and I have a bottle of wine to finish."

He smiled at her. "I think so."




The wine was largely forgotten. The bottle stood, a quarter full, two glasses beside it, on the little fold-out table in Michael's berth. The new lovers sat together on the bed, Michael's heart pounding when he put his arm around Robin's back, when she smiled up at him.

"Maggie has such a crush on you!" she said, with a happy teasing grin.

"You're crazy!"

"Oh com'on, you must have noticed." She leaned into him and gave him little kiss. "And I don't blame her. You're crush-worthy."

He kissed her back. "I'm sure she just sees me as a father figure."

"Yeah..." Another little kiss... "...and a girl's first crush is always her daddy, you know."

"It is?" His arm wrapped around her, pulling her into him. Their faces were together, her breath warm and sweet. In a moment of unaccustomed bravery, his hand moved to her breast.

She just smiled, and kissed him. "I suppose Maggie was too young when Jordon died. She adored him, but that's not quite the same thing. I hope it doesn't bother you?"

"Bother me?"

"Yeah, you know, when she calls you 'Daddy'...'"

"No..."

"...When she touches you like..."

"No, it doesn't bother me," he said quickly, interrupting her, not wanting to hear what she thought Maggie's touches were like. He couldn't help remembering how his body had responded to the girl's soft caress.

"Good." She kissed him. "And you know, Maggie's not the only one with a big crush on you." Her hand was on his leg, his thigh, moving up, while his hand gently massaged her breast.

"Oh?" he responded, the word lost as their lips joined again and her fingers found their mark, sliding along the warm thickness inside his pants.

"Daddy has a nice big cock," she whispered with a teasing grin.

"Oh..." he responded again, this time a long low groan.

Robin smiled and slid off the bed, kneeling in front of him, tugging impatiently at his pants. He helped her, quickly and fumblingly unfastening his belt.

A moment later, his pants were at his ankles and his cockhead was in her mouth.

"Jesus," she said, pulling off after a few little sucks. "I haven't tasted cock in years. I've forgotten what it's like to have a man in my mouth."

Michael would have responded that he'd forgotten what it was like to have his cock in a woman's mouth, if he could have spoken at all right then. Whatever small possibility there was that he might have responded was lost to another groan as she dove back down, engulfing his head entirely in her mouth, and bringing a hand up to stroke his balls.

Two minutes later, one hand wrapped around his shaft, the other cradling his balls, she pulled off again and looked up at him.

"What a beautiful cock you have, Mr. Dubane." She leaned in and licked him, base to tip, still staring up at him.

"Oh God," he whispered shakingly.

She grinned some more, and licked some more, then took him back in her mouth, sliding her head forward until she was half-way down his shaft, his glans burrowing into her throat.

"Oh shit..." He stammered, "...you're so good, Robin, you're so good at giving head!"

She pulled off, leaning back cheek-flushed and staring at his cock as it pointed right at her face. "Thanks," she said. "I had a good teacher, when I was young."

"Really?"

She looked up at him and nodded.

"It's important for a girl to have a good teacher," he said, wanting to know more, but unsure that he should ask.

She smiled. "It is. And lots of practice. That's what he told me, anyway."

Michael nodded. "Lots and lots of practice."

She had a big dimple-cheeked grin. "I'll practice lots and lots, I promise. But right now..." She stood, and he put his hands on her hips, pulling her into him.

And thus did the conversation end. The next words that were spoken, a minute or two later, their clothing piled together on the small patch of floor to the side of Michael's bed, the man on top of the woman, his cock sunk deep into her luxurious wetness, were a hoarse, whispered "Oh, Daddy!" as the forgotten wine glasses begin to slosh.

Michael hadn't been with a woman in, God, it must have been three or four years by now. He'd forgotten the wonderful feeling of a lady's velvety insides. He'd forgotten the comforting warmth, the welcoming wetness, the intoxicating aroma. But thankfully, he hadn't forgotten how to set a measured pace, and as their bodies intertwined, he made sweet love to her. Eventually, mindlessly lost in the joy of their passion, he finished inside her.

They lay naked together after, the forgotten wine now enjoyed.

"I'm not on the pill or anything," Robin said.

Michael nodded, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I was just..."

"Oh, I understand," she said. "I wouldn't have let you stop if you'd tried."

"I'll get some condoms at the commissary tomorrow."

"You really don't have to. Jordon and I had a lot of trouble getting pregnant, and it wasn't because he was firing blanks."

"Oh..."

"I'm sorry I'm always talking about him, even now."

"It's okay, I understand."

"And I'm sorry, I know it's stupid, to have an infertile woman on this mission. I'll understand if you want to find someone else."

"I don't want to find someone else," he said. "We'll just have to try really hard. Several times a day."

They both laughed. "I like the sound of that!" She reached her hand down to his cock, which began swelling again to her touch. "Hopefully Maggie didn't inherit her mother's fertility problems," she said, stroking him to fullness.

"Right, we can find her a nice man at the colony in a few years, and..."

"I think she's already found the man she wants." She grinned as she said this, then rolled over onto her belly and lifted her ass in the air.

"You're crazy!" he said, kneeling behind her.

She moaned into the pillows as he entered her. "Oh, Daddy!" she said. "Oh, Daddy, fuck me! Fuck me hard!"

Michael couldn't help noticing that her voice sounded remarkably like Maggie's right then, and while he'd never admit it to himself, the thought brought forth a sudden surge of endorphins, and he grabbed the woman's hips and began slamming in and out, with a vigor he hadn't experienced in many years.

Chapter Three

"The topology that I propose," Michael Dubane said to the image projected on the screen in front of him, in Conference Room Xenon aboard the mighty Hi'iaka, "involves three relays, one for communications with Earth, one for the station, and a third for redundancy, which can be switched to either channel when necessary."

He had to imagine the response of the three people in the conference room at the colony on Mars; he would not see or hear their response for another twenty three minutes and twenty-six seconds; nearly twelve minutes for them to hear him, and another twelve for him to get their reply. As it was, the image they were currently seeing of him was from eleven minutes and forty-three seconds ago, as was the one he was seeing of them.

It was a damned awkward way to communicate, but Michael was used to it by now, having spent the last year attending these meetings. Everyone involved knew it'd be much more sensible to just text chat each other, but the CIO of the GSA believed in face-to-face, he said so many times at lavish parties all over Earth. "The primary problem we have with IT infrastructure at Kakadu," Michael had heard the man say in his broken Bulgarian accent, using the given name for the Martian colony, "is a lack of communication."

No, Michael thought, the primary problem is how unreliable the infrastructure is. Mars, it seems, is a Harsh Mistress, especially if you are an outpost monitoring station, or a mining rig, and in need wireless contact with the colony, or with Earth, or both. As it stands currently when a rig goes silent, one of the crew has to suit up and take a rover out on what can be a very dangerous mission, sometimes alone or with another crewmate in the Martian desert for days, and depending on what the problem is when they get there and what supplies they have on hand, they might have to take parts back to the base for some impromptu repairs and head out into the alien desert a second time. This gave rise to Michael's mantra, which he'd been preaching for the last year: ruggedized redundancy. The Earth-side testing of the outpost comm equipment obviously did not test for nearly harsh enough conditions, conditions that sometimes last unremittingly for days or weeks on end. Not only did their tests need to be far more robust, but they must also assume that the equipment will inevitably fail, and so redundancy had to be built in at every step.

But, that's why there's people like Dr. Molov, who's job it is to say the things that politicians want to hear so that the funding keeps coming, because this shit costs a hell of a lot of money. And why there's people like Michael Dubane, whose job it is to do the actual work that actually needs to be done. The only downside is that, in order for Molov's words to be taken seriously by the politicians back home, his underlings have to do what he says publicly that he wants them to do... And, therefore, here Michael sat, staring at obsolete video footage from a million miles away, waiting for their mundane response to an issue that had already been discussed and decided long ago via email and text.

The interim wait, the interminable wait, for the reply from Mars gave Michael the opportunity to think. And while he sat still, knowing that his every move would be observed by people eleven minutes in the future, he pretended to be looking at some papers in front of him as if they were, if not interesting, at least important. But in fact his mind was wandering, to the favorite place for his mind to wander these days.

His and Robin's relationship had moved quickly from the cute flirtation of the first few days, to the nervous, excited exploration of each other's bodies, until, as is so often the case with new lovers, eventually settling into endless mind-numbingly beautiful sex. An unquenchable desire for each other. Confident, experimental, his body inexplicably able to perform as if he were fifteen years younger. Shuffling the papers before him in a pantomime of attentive thought for the viewers in the future, he tried to count the number of times he and Robin had made love: almost every night for the last two weeks since the Hi'iaka launched; those few nights that they had missed stood out most prominently in his memory for the aching absence. How many times had he cum inside her? Fifteen times at least, if he didn't count her mouth; maybe twenty-five, if he did. And how many times had she cum? How many times did he lie between her legs, lapping at her sex, tasting her womanwine?

He had to clear his mind of these sorts of thoughts now, for fear that he would instinctively reach down to his now-engorged cock while being observed eleven minutes in the future by his employees on Mars. Instead, he focused on the afternoon before him. Once this agonizingly dull, long meeting was done, he would go to the computer lab to help Charlie and Maggie with their schooling. In a sense, the kids weren't so much being "home schooled," as participating in long-distance learning--very, very long distance. A million miles of distance. Their future Martian teacher, Mrs. Habberdash or some weird name like that, assessed their progress online and participated as best she could in their instruction. Michael mostly served as technician, local tutor, and hall pass monitor--"No, Charlie, you just went to the bathroom a half an hour ago and you were gone for ten lousy minutes. I'm sure you can hold it until class is over!"

When they were done, the three of them were planning go to the gymnasium again to ride bikes around the oval. Physical education, part of a well-rounded curriculum. Michael couldn't wait for that, he'd been sitting in this damned conference room chair for so long now that his butt cheeks were going numb.




"You can't catch me!" Charlie hollered, furiously peddling his child-sized bike as he sped away from Michael, who put up a half-hearted chase while Maggie lapped them both, laughing as she did. Michael then left Charlie behind and chased after her, as around and around in the oval they rode, panting and sweating and having a hell of a lot of fun.

Afterwards, the bikes put away, they changed into their swimming suits and jumped in the pool. Michael felt decidedly self-conscious at this point, having only brought with him on the voyage his tight athletic suit, that left little to the imagination. Oh, how he wished he'd bought a swimsuit more suitable to playing in the pool with an eleven year old girl! But he steeled himself, determined to remain focused on being a father-figure to her. Fathers play in the pool with their kids, without all these ridiculous encumbrances, and damned if he couldn't do the same.

Maggie did not make his task easy. She looked nothing short of astounding in her little blue flowered bikini when she walked out of the changing room. He had to avert his eyes, feeling foolish; if he looked, he could not help but stare. She had the perfect little filly body: long thin legs, her skin a wonderful brownish cream; narrow hips, a taut belly leading to a tiny bra that lay flat against her childish chest. Michael tried not to gape at the beautiful vision; he tried his damnedest to treat her like nothing more than the child of his girlfriend.

She, however, did not return the favor. Maggie stared. She simply stared, unabashedly, right at his manhood, the shape of it displayed quite visibly through the tight suit. It wasn't exactly what you'd call an "innocent" stare; more like, curious interest. The young girl's stare undid all of his noble efforts to restrain his thoughts, and quickly, he was growing hard. He saw the young girl's eyes focus their attention as she witnessed the transformation though his suit, before he slipped into the water to avoid any further embarrassment.

Eventually, the swimming done, the three of them went together to the observation deck. They located Earth, a tiny blue dot now, and Mars, a reddish dot in the opposite direction. Then Maggie and Michael stood at the broad expanse of windows, looking at Jupiter through one of the available telescopes to identify its moons. Charlie looked through the telescope's lens occasionally, but mostly fidgeted, in withdraw like an addict, denied his video games until his homework was finished for the night. They found the Galileans through the telescope, but could see no others. Then they turned the telescope to Mars, pinpointing the location of the colony's biodome (not visible yet, not for several months), and trying, unsuccessfully, to locate the Martian moons.

"It will be soooo cool, to have two moons!" Maggie said.

"Won't it, though?" Michael agreed.

"I wonder what they're like?" Maggie asked, so Michael pulled up a web page on the subject and they sat down and read together, one head against the other, Michael smelling the chlorine of the pool in her hair mixing with her natural perfumes. Charlie joined them and they read aloud and showed him pictures. When the web page had been thoroughly consumed, Maggie scanned the stars out of the huge window with Michael's binoculars.

"There's so many stars," she said, with profound reverence. It was true; free from Earth's atmosphere (and from the light pollution that was now a sadly ubiquitous part of most Earthlings' experience of the stars), the display of the celestial heavens was awe-inspiring--the undifferentiated colorful glow of the Milky Way, the more precise pinpoints of neighboring stars. Added by an app on Michael's phone, they identified what they could among the heavenly bodies--Alpha Centaur, Mizar and Alcor; the Orion Nebula, the Magellan Clouds, Andromeda.

Astronomy lessons now finished, they met with Robin for dinner in the cafeteria, Maggie abuzz with delight at the afternoon's discoveries. "Maybe I should be an astronomer?" she said. "It's all so beautiful!"

Robin smiled. "There ought to be many opportunities at the colony for an astronomer."

"Do you think?" her daughter said, wide-eyed and bouncing excitedly in her chair. "I could study the moons! Maybe I could even go to the moons!"

"Wouldn't that be fantastic?" Michael said.

"You could come with me!" Maggie glowed at him.

Her excitement was contagious, even Charlie joining in. "I could go too!"

"We could all go, even you, Mama!" Maggie exclaimed.

Robin laughed. "I don't think they need a veterinarian on the Martian moons!"

Maggie contemplated this for a moment. "Probably not, but they would need a systems engineer, right, Michael?"

Michael laughed as well. "Maybe so."

"And then Mama would have to come, too, because they wouldn't make you to be apart, right?"

Michael reached a hand across the table to Robin's. "We wouldn't allow it!"

Maggie's face was a self-satisfied smile now. "No we wouldn't!"

Family rules dictated that the kids complete their homework for the day before Michael could read to them. Robin had acquired a small folding table and a set of folding chairs for their kids to do their homework,.and it now occupied what little space there was in the corner of their family room. Maggie sat down at the table and went right to work, but Charlie dallied all evening, despite having what Michael considered fairly simple homework--some basic arithmetic, a spelling list that consisted of few words beyond four letters in length, a paragraph to write on the functions of the US government.

Maggie's work was much more advanced, honors-level stuff, Michael thought, for a girl her age--algebraic equations, a presentation about their voyage, Russian vocabulary (Russian, being the second most common language at the colony, was required for all students; Chinese was, too, but those lessons would wait until they were physically there). Maggie set to work with purpose, regardless of the difficulty, and not more than a hour after dinner she was done and ready to join Michael for their nightly read-a-thon.

While he read, she sketched images of Jupiter and her moons, and of galaxies. Robin along with several of their adult podmates listened to the story as well, it becoming a ritual for all of them, and eventually Charlie did finally finish his work and joined them, disappointed to have missed two chapters.

When the reading session was done, Maggie insisted on a goodnight kiss from Michael. As he leaned over her bed to kiss her on the forehead, she lifted her face such that their lips met instead.

"Goodnight, Daddy," she said after the kiss.

Michael tried to act casual, despite being surprised and a bit disconcerted by the kiss. "Goodnight, sweetheart."




A half an hour later, Michael and Robin were engaging in some foreplay that involved the two of them attempting to find the proper angles for their activities, one set of feet hanging off the edge of the little bed, another set in the opposing direction against the wall. Robin's voice came up from between his legs, "This little bed sucks!"

"It dobs," was his muffled reply.

She sat up. "I think I'm getting a crook in my neck! This is seriously limiting my inventiveness!"

The both laughed, Michael sitting up now, too. "Well, we can't have that!"

She got a devilish smile, which reminded him of the conspiratorial look that Maggie sometimes got. "You know," she batted her eyes, "we have a perfectly fine double bed at our disposal in my room!"

Michael laughed again. "We do! It is always nicer when we put that bed to good use." It was, too--although they didn't make love in her room very often, they did it a couple times when they knew the kids would be away for long enough, and it was a much better experience. Michael would have to report back to the GSA--if you want single people to hook up aboard the Hi'iaka, you need to give them bigger beds.

That same devilish smile. "Let's do it! Charlie sleeps like a log, and..."

"Are you serious?" he asked. "Right now?"

"You do want me to be inventive, right?"

"Um..."

"Believe me," she said, her eyes twinkling, "you do!"

"What if we wake up the kids?"

"Oh, what the fuck does that matter, really? Just think of it like the sex ed part of the curriculum!"

He laughed. "That's an interesting way to look at it."

She was already dressed. "So are you coming or what, big guy?"

So they made love in her bed that night, in the dim light with the stars out the portal windows shining down on them. Charlie was pretty clearly asleep the entire time, and if Maggie woke up, she didn't make this fact known. But it seemed unlikely that she was able to sleep through the events; Michael was nervously quiet at first, but Robin seemed particularly animated that night, at once giggling like a schoolgirl, then moaning loudly. And inventive, she most certainly was, down between his legs and lapping at his balls, then moving lower to lick his anus. Then she climbed on top of him, turning her backside to him, and mounted him reverse-cowgirl style, bouncing the bedsprings with a loud and merry enthusiasm and groaning as she rode. Were Maggie watching, Michael knew, she'd see her mother's naked body in the dim light, facing her, breasts heaving, both her and Michael's hands between her legs as together they stroked her clitoris. And he knew the girl would also see his cock, sliding in and out of her mother's cunt, his balls bouncing below and shining wetly from Robin's cum as it flowed like a fountain out of her.

Having ridden him to several loud and shuttering orgasms for herself, and him to the brink of his own magical moment, she dismounted and crawled away from him.

"Do you want to fuck me, Daddy?" she said over her shoulder. "Do you want to cum inside your little girl?"

Grinning, finally getting into the fun--possibly because he was rather in desperate need of orgasm now--he reached out and grabbed her hips. She let out a loud sound of mock surprise, "Oh!" and scrambled away from him. "You'll have to catch me, if you want to fuck me!"

They played a silly little crawling game of chase on the bed, Michael's cock large and shining red and swinging side to side. She squealed with delight each time he caught her, and squirmed away, until finally she let him catch her ankle and flip her over onto her back. She giggled as she spread her legs wide, and he climbed on top of her and mounted her and fucked her hard, slamming in and out, until he finally moaned aloud himself and came, pent-up semen exploding out of him.

"Oh, yes, Daddy!" she hollered as he orgasmed. "Fill your dirty girl with cum!"

Yes, indeed, if the kids had been awoken by their sex, and surely at least Maggie had been, they would have gotten quite a lesson in human sexuality that night.

Chapter Four

The knock on the door startled him. Robin was teaching the kids, so they were in class for at least the next hour or two, and his other podmates never bothered him when he was in his room. Maybe it was Jake, looking for someone whose ass he could kick at some video game?

"Just a sec!" he said.




One of the finer pleasures in life, in Michael Dubane's opinion, was a truly good erotic story. Back home, he'd had a sizable collection of stories that he'd downloaded from his favorite online writers (and even a few that weren't so favorite), and he'd brought a good chunk of them along on the voyage. This afternoon, in the quiet of the kids off at school with Robin, and in need of a little release due to the unfortunate fact that Robin and he had been so exhausted after last night's Captain's Ball that they'd just kissed each other goodnight, without their usual hour-long sex romp, he decide to take a little "me time" and open up a story.

He could have swore he'd locked the door. I mean, it's hard to imagine that he didn't. That'd just be plain stupid.

But nonetheless, he barely had time to pull on his sweat pants before he saw Maggie's smiling face poking through the open crack in the door.

"HI Michael! Whacha doin'?"

He practically threw the tablet onto the bed, the best he could do since the story he'd been reading was still open, and tried to act casual, even though he could feel that his face was beet red.

"Maggie! I thought you were in class!"

"I was, but Mom and Charlie are doing some spelling drills, 'cause he sucks on the tests. She told me I could leave early, so long as I didn't bug you."

"And, of course, you're always so attentive to your mother's orders..." He tried to casually straighten things out in his pants, so that the quite obvious tentpole standing up between his legs would be a bit less obscene.

She giggled as she let herself into his room and closed the door behind her. "What're you reading?" she asked, spying the tablet on the bed. "More whatever-economics?"

"No! It's nothing!" he answered, in the most guilty manner possible.

She plopped down on his bed and picked up the tablet, scrunching her nose as she looked at the open document. "What is this?"

"Nothing!" he answered, doubling down on the guilty by quickly snatching the tablet away from her.

"Com'on!" She tried to grab the tablet back. "Let me read. it! What is it?"

"It's nothing! It's private."

"Private?" Suddenly Maggie's voice was lower, in both pitch and volume, and the smile on her face was gone. She sounded confused, even hurt, like the idea that they'd have private things that they didn't share with each other was something she'd never considered.

Now that really made Michael feel guilty. "Well, it's just... It's an 'adult' story."

"An adult story?" More of the sound of confusion in her voice, but no more hurt at least.

"Yeah, you know, adult stuff."

Her eyes were squinting, her nose scrunched up some more. "You mean it's like, a dirty story? Like porno?"

"Well, yes, I mean, we call it 'erotica.'"

Now the girl grinned. "You should read it to me! I've never read a dirty story before. I guess I didn't really even know that they existed."

"It really wouldn't be appropriate for me to read it to you."

"Come on! Here, I'll read it!" She reached out to grab the tablet, and he only made a half-hearted effort to keep it away from her. Once she had it in her hands, she rolled away on the bed, out of his reach.

"'Amber's long auburn hair hung around her face...'" she read.

"Maggie, seriously, it's not appropriate!" he said, trying to sound like a scolding adult. He climbed onto the bed and reached for the tablet.

She swung it away from his reach. "'...and she looked up at Sean with her dark green eyes...' Oooh she sounds sexy!"

Michael gave up on trying to get the tablet away from her and just let out a long sigh and lay down on the bed next to her. She turned and leaned the tablet against his chest.

"'The little cheerleader...' Oh, she's a cheerleader! Guys like that, right? '...reached out an inquisitive hand and wrapped her cool fingers around his engorged cock.' Oh wow!"

"Maggie," he said, shaking his head. "This is so inappropriate! If your mom found out we were reading this..."

"I won't tell her, I promise!"

"That's not the point. I don't like keeping secrets form her."

"I know," she said. But she kept reading anyway. "'She leaned in and gave the tip of his thick cockhead a kiss.'" Maggie paused, looking at the tablet for a second, like she was silently reading the passage again. "Wait," she said, "she kissed it?!?"

Michael just sighed and shook his head.

"'Then she dropped her jaw as far as she could, and her neighbor pushed his cock info her mouth.' He pushed it in? Into her mouth?!?"

"Yeah." Michael said, "seems like it."

"Do guys really do that? Do girls let them do that?"

"Yes, they do," Michael answered with an air of resignation.

"Does Mom do that to yours?"

"Maggie!"

"Does she?"

"I think we should read some more of The Two Towers now."

The girl smiled broadly. "That means she does! 'Cause you didn't say no!"

He just shook his head again.

"Oh my god," she said. "I can't believe Mom does that to yours!"

"Maggie, can we please go get The Two Towers now?"

"Okay. But promise me we'll read more of this sometime? I like it! I want to find out what happens!"

"Maybe."

"Promise!"

"Okay..."

"Yay!"

They read The Two Towers to each other pretty much the entire rest of the day, pausing only for dinner. At bedtime, Michael agreed to read to Maggie and Charlie for a few more minutes, once they were in bed, while Robin did the laundry.

"It's too bad you don't have that other story, you could read that to me now," she said.

"We can't do that, Charlie's right in the next bed."

"We could wait until he's asleep. Or we could read in your room."

"I think it would be best if we stick with The Two Towers for now."

Maggie sighed. "Okay." She snuggled up tight against him in her little bed as he began to read again, laying her head against his chest, then reaching her little hand over and setting it on his belly.

Michael knew by now that Maggie liked to touch him like this, when he was reading to her. And, were he to confess the truth (which he didn't do, not even to himself), he'd come to really enjoy these intimate moments with her. Not because they were sexually arousing--although her curious exploration of his chest and belly always aroused him physically in ways that he'd rather wouldn't happen--but because there was such an intimacy to it. A closeness that he'd never had with a kid before, that's for sure. Despite the fact that her touches were arousing, he remained convinced that her intent was entirely innocent. Just a girl who missed her real father and longed for closeness with a man who she hoped or believed was his replacement. And he was very happy indeed to be that man for her.

But this time, this evening, as they lay together in her bed reading The Two Towers with Robin away and Charlie turned to his opposite side, breathing calmly like he was close to sleep, her touch seemed a little less innocent. While he read, she gently and absentmindedly moved her fingers in her usual tactile exploration, feeling his belly button through his shirt, then her index finger finding a little gap between the bottom hem of his shirt and the top of his pants, there to make little circles through his belly hair. She explored the line of hair, up under his shirt to his belly button, then back down again to the waistband of his pants. When she reached the waistband, she spread her fingers out, her thumb and forefinger still under his shirt on his belly hair, the remaining fingers on top of his pants.

He tried his hardest to concentrate on the story, rather than her touch. But this proved almost impossible. Especially when those little fingers of hers on top of his pants began an exploration of their own, moving, lightly sliding, until inevitably the tip of her pinkie finger found what perhaps she had been hoping to find for all along. When this dainty little finger made contact with his cockhead, he stuttered in his reading. He reached his hand down and set it on top of hers, not wanting to admonish the girl but wanting to halt any further movement. She left her pinkie there, just in the barest contact with his cock; after a moment, he took his hand away and went back to reading the book.

The door to the family room opened quietly and Robin stepped in, a basket of folded laundry in her hands. With the appearance of her mother, Maggie immediately moved her hand away, leaving it higher on Michael's belly. When her mother left the room again a minute later with another basket of clothes, the girl slid her hand right back down, lower, even, than it had been before, all three fingers resting on top of his now-swollen head.

He reached his hand down again.

"It's probably time for you to go to sleep now, sweetie," he said.

She looked up at him, her beautiful bright brown eyes flecked with shining flakes of green and clouded in a glassy sheen. Her mouth was open slightly, searching, even begging, for her goodnight kiss. Almost without even thinking about it, he leaned down, and his mouth made contact with her open lips. Instinctively, he slipped his tongue out of his mouth and into hers. She kept her hand on his now-aching cock, and he kept his hand on top of hers, and their tongues flirted while they kissed until he finally pulled away.

Later, after helping Robin with the rest of the laundry, he made rather enthusiastic love to her while the children slept nearby, insisting that she call him "Daddy" throughout, which she did quite willingly, and in a voice clearly intended to mimic Maggie's.




"'The sweet auburn-haired teenager sat on her knees before her neighbor, the red and white pleats of her cheerleader's skirt splayed about around her, looking up at him with smoldering green eyes...' What's 'smoldering' mean?"

"It means, hot. Like, on fire, burning with passion." Michael couldn't help remembering the look in the young girl's eyes the night before, as she'd looked up at him with her lips slightly open in an expectant pose. That, he thought to himself. That's what "smoldering" means.

Maggie smiled. "She's burning with passion! I like that!"

"Yeah, so do I," he said, still lost in the memory of the little girl's look.

"'His cockhead filled her mouth entirely; she could hardly open her jaw wide enough for it to fit.'" She looked over the tablet at Michael. "Is it really that big?"

"Well, erotic writers tend to 'embellish' things a bit, I suppose."

She looked at him for a moment, like she was thinking of something to say in response--and perhaps remembering that she had some personal experience with how large his cock is--but then just nodded her head and looked back down at the tablet. "'But Sean didn't seem to care if he was gagging her; he had his fingers wrapped tightly in her silky hair and was moving his hips back and forth with powerful authority, sliding his cock in and out of her mouth.' Jeez, this is so dirty!"

"Yeah, maybe you should stop."

"No way! I want to find out what happens! Does he have sex with her?"

Michael shook his head in disbelief. "Trust me," he said, "they wind up fucking like rabbits."

A big grin filled Maggie's little face, cheeks pinkening and indented with two big dimples. "Rabbits?"

"Yeah, it means they fuck... I mean, they have sex... a lot."

"Because rabbits have sex a lot?"

"I guess."

"Do you and Mom fuck like rabbits?"

"Maggie! That's such an inappropriate question!"

She was grinning big. "That means you do, doesn't it?"

"Maggie..."

"I think you do fuck like rabbits. Actually, I know you do!"

"Maggie!" he exclaimed, suddenly red-face with the thought of how often he and Robin made love while Maggie slept, or pretended to sleep, nearby.

She set down the tablet and stood up from his bed, then stepped in front of him and sat down on one of his knees. She looked at him with her smoldering eyes.

"When are you going to ask her to marry you?" she asked.

"Well... we really only just met..."

"Aren't you supposed to be married before you have sex? That's what they said at church."

"Well, that doesn't really work in the real world."

She smiled. "Because you and Mom are so horny? Just like Sean and the cheerleader?"

He gave a little laugh. "I prefer to think it's because we like each other so much."

"So if you like somebody a lot, it's okay to have sex with them?"

Michael had to chuckle. He felt for the moment like he was under cross-examination at the hands of a skilled lawyer. Maggie Carlyle, esq. "Well, it has to be a special kind of 'like,'" was the best answer he could muster.

"A special kind of like? What does that mean?"

"I guess I mean 'love.' And trust, and respect."

"So you're in love with Mom?"

"I suppose I am!"

"Then you should marry her!"

"You know, Maggie, I think you're right. I think I should marry her!"

Maggie smiled broadly and gave him a great big bear hug, pressing her little body against him and kissing him on the cheek. "I love you, Daddy," she said.

"I love you too, Maggie."

She sat back, smiling, her face blushing. "And do you 'trust' and 'respect' me, too?" she asked, with that same lawyerly skill.

He smiled back. "I do."

"I trust and respect you, too," she said.

He reached out and put his hands on her cheeks, and moved his face towards hers. Their lips met, and she parted her lips just slightly as they kissed. He slipped his tongue into her mouth again.

When he pulled away, she whispered, "I think I have a special kind of like for you."

"I think I have a special kind of like for you, too, sweetheart."

"Is that okay?" she asked. "Can you have a special kind of like for both Mama and me?"

"I think so. I think a father ought to love his daughter."

"Yeah, but, like, 'special?' Like you and Mama? Like Sean and the cheerleader?"

He hugged her tight. "We don't have to think about all that. We can just be close."

She hugged him tightly back. "I like being close to you, Daddy."

"I like being close to you, too, babygirl."

She looked at him with her smoldering brown eyes, and opened her mouth just slightly, and he leaned in and they kissed again.




"So," Maggie asked him as they lay together in her bed that night for story time, "when are you going to ask Mom to marry you?"

"I don't know. I think I should make sure Charlie's okay with it, first." The boy was already asleep, softly snoring in the next bed over.

"I suppose."

"And we should make it special, don't you think? I want you kids to be there."

"Okay!"

"What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe a picnic in the observation deck?"

She smiled. "That sounds nice."

"I think it does, too. We'll plan it, once I've talked to Charlie, okay? But keep it secret until then."

She grinned at him. "I can keep a secret."

He grinned back, shaking his head in response. "Okay, back to the book. now?"

"Okay... Or... Charlie's asleep now. You could keep reading me that dirty story."

"I don't have my tablet, though."

"Oh, yeah. Maybe you could just tell me one?"

"Maybe. What about?"

She snuggled against him. "About a girl and her new daddy."

"Okay. Once upon a time, there was a girl, and she had a new daddy, and they were very close."

"Yes," she whispered dreamily.

"And her new daddy really liked being close with her."

"And she really likes being close with him." She reached her hand out and put it on his belly.

"And her daddy really liked it when she touched him, when he read her stories at bedtime." He put his hand on top of hers.

"She really likes touching him, when he reads her stories or tells her stories." She started moving her hand down, and he helped her, until her fingers were resting on his cock.

"He liked how his babygirl learned about his body when she touched him."

"She likes learning about his body."

"She made her new daddy feel very special, when she did that."

"'Special,'" Maggie echoed in a little whisper. Her fingers gently traced the shape of his erection through his pants, and then Michael saw her slip her other hand down her own belly, until it was between her legs, and she began to rub herself through her nightgown.

"He thought his babygirl was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen."

"Even sexier than her mom?"

"Well, her mom was awfully sexy. But she was awfully sexy, too."

"Did they do anything more?" she whispered, her breath cracking. "Did she kiss his cock?"

"He really wanted her to kiss his cock, but he just liked being close to her so much, that he didn't want her to stop doing what she was doing now."

"Is she playing with her pussy?"

"Yes, she was rubbing herself between her legs."

"She really likes playing with her pussy."

"Yeah, she really liked playing with her pussy," Michael said, "especially when she was with her new daddy."

"She's never played with her pussy when she's with her new daddy before, but she really likes it."

"He really liked it, too."

"Maybe someday, she could kiss her daddy's cock."

"He would really like it, someday, if his babygirl would kiss his cock. And he would kiss her pussy, too."

"Kiss..." Her breath was shallow now, and quick. "...her pussy?" She quickly bunched her nightgown in her hand and pulled it up above her panties, then slipped her hand down, inside them.

"Yes, he would kiss it, and lick it, and play with her clitty with his tongue."

"Oh, oh, oh," she began making a little quiet rhythmic noise, her fingers twirling inside her panties. The fingers of her other hand gripped tightly to his cock, and her little sounds increased, "Oooooh, ooooh, ooooooh!" and her body was quaking against him. Eventually, she let out a long, low breath and pulled her hand out of her panties. She lifted her fingers to her mouth and sucked on them.

"That was so sexy, little one," he said.

She looked up at him, still sucking on her fingers, then pulled them from her mouth and smiled and gave a heavy sigh. She still had her other hand on his cock, tracing its shape with her fingers. "That was a really nice story, Daddy."

"It was."

"Does her new daddy ever have sex with her?"

He smiled down at his babygirl. "I don't know."

"I think he does."

"Well, we'll have to tell that story another time. I think you're sleepy now, little one."

She nodded, her head against his chest, her hand still on his cock. "That happens to me sometimes," she said, "when I play with my pussy."

He kissed the top of her head again. "Thank you for doing that, baby. It was so sweet and sexy." She smiled, her eyes closed now. "Goodnight, Maggie."

"Goodnight, Daddy."

When Robin came into the room a few minutes later, Maggie was sound asleep, her hand still lying on his cock. Michael gently slid out from beside the girl.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly to Robin in a quiet whisper. "She just put her hand there when she fell asleep, and I didn't want to disturb her."

"I bet she's having sweet dreams," the woman said with a knowing smile. "And you don't need to apologize. I understand." She took his hand, and led him to her bed. "Just don't take advantage of her, okay? She's just a young girl. She's my baby."

"I won't, I promise." Michael felt a little pang of guilt, about the erotic story he'd just told Maggie, and the one they'd been reading earlier.

"I know you won't. You're a good man, Michael Dubane. It's just, she's curious, right? I mean, she obviously has a big crush on you, and she wants to find out what that means."

"Yeah..."

"And that's okay. I think it's perfectly natural. But it means she's vulnerable, too, you know?"

He nodded, not sure what to say, as they lay down together in her bed.

"I was just like her when I was her age. Totally curious, totally crushing. And... and totally vulnerable, too."

"Did he take advantage of you?"

"It's not like I minded, but, yeah, you could say that. He moved quick. Way too quick, I couldn't really even get my head around what was happening."

"I can't even really imagine what that was like."

She propped herself up on an elbow to look at him. "Don't feel sorry for me, it's just a part of me, you know? Part of what happened to me, what makes me who I am. But I guess all I'm saying is, just take it slow. Let things happen at her pace."

Michael nodded again. "I will."

"And that means, well, it means that probably, nothing will happen at all, you know? Because she's just a young girl and she doesn't know what's going on. It's just, like, play with her, right? Curious play, not something serious."

"Right, I understand."

"That's what it was like for me. Just play, just flirting. I didn't have any idea that he was going to expect anything more than that."

"Yeah."

"I think that's what young girls are like. They're just practicing, flirting, you know? They don't know what it does to a grown man."

"I think you're right."

"So if you just let her do her thing, just let her play and practice, then I'm fine with it."

"You got it," he said. "I'm totally on board with that, just let her play and practice."

"Exactly! Whatever happens, happens. And you just need to be ready to accept that nothing's going to happen."

"Exactly."

"And just so you know, Mister Dubane, I wouldn't trust anyone else I know with her, but I think she's okay with you. I trust you."

He gave a knowing smile. "Trust and respect."

"Huh?" she said.

"It's just a little inside joke Maggie and I have."

"Oh? You guys already have inside jokes? Maybe this is more serious than I thought!"

"Maybe."

"Well, I think that's sweet. Now, enough of this 'talking' shit. I bet Daddy's cock is aching, isn't he?"

"Maybe a little."

"Let's see if we can't do something about that."

Chapter Five

Maggie and Michael plotted.

It was virtually impossible for Michael to find a moment of alone time with Charlie, so that he could talk to him about the marriage thing. During the daytime, if Charlie wasn't in class or doing homework, he was parked on the couch playing video games with Jake; once they retired to bed for storytime, Charlie almost always fell immediately into a sound snoring sleep. So even if Robin wasn't around, Michael wasn't able to talk with him at all. So, Maggie and Michael had to plot about how to get the two of them alone for at least a few minutes.

"I still don't see why you need to talk to him about it," Maggie said. "He's not going to say no."

"Probably not."

"And even if he does, what are you going to say? 'Okay, I won't?'"

"No," he said, "but, I mean, it'll make things more complicated, right? And if they're going to be complicated, I want to know up-front. I don't want to 'pop the question' and then have that sort of stuff hanging over our heads."

"I guess. He's only seven, though, and annoying. I'll be so mad at him if he says no."

"I don't think you should be mad at him. He lost his father when he was a little boy, and that's got to be hard."

"I lost my father when I was a little girl, and I can't wait until you're my daddy!"

He put his hand on her knee. "I understand, Maggie, and I want you to know how honored I am that you're okay with this."

"Okay with it? I'm pumped!!!"

He couldn't help but smile, even though he tried to have a serious look on his face. "Yeah, but... I'm still, I still want to be sensitive to the fact that you must miss your father terribly."

She nodded, her smile going away for a moment, a rare look of pensive contemplation on the girl's face. "Yeah. I do."

"And I want you to know that I don't think I can replace him. I mean, I'm not trying to replace him or anything."

She looked at him, squinting her eyes. "Are you practicing?"

"Huh?"

"Are you practicing the speech you're gonna give Charlie?"

"What? No! I'm serious, Maggie."

She was still a little squinty-eyed. "Okay."

"I understand, and I really respect, how much you loved your father. It seems like he must have been a really remarkable guy."

She nodded.

"And a really good father, too."

She nodded again, looking at Michael with a serious expression. But, he couldn't help thinking, she was actually fighting off a smile.

"But I really love your mom, and I really love you, and I really love Charlie."

She couldn't hold back the smile any more.

"I don't think I can replace your father at all," he continued, even though he felt like he was fighting a losing battle. "But I do think that I can--that we can make a really nice family."

"You are practicing!" Now the smile was really big.

He laughed. "Maybe a little."

"Okay. You can practice. I'll pretend to be Charlie." She slouched back in the chair and crossed her arms, making a big pouting scowl on her face.

He shook his head in a mocking tease. "You are so silly, Maggie," he said. "Okay, I'll practice. Charlie, I want to ask your mother to marry me."

"No!" Maggie said.

"Oh come on, Charlie's not like that!"

"Yes he is! Okay, fine. Keep going."

"I really love her, and..."

"Do you have sex with her?" She couldn't help grinning, even though she tried to keep her pouting face on.

"Oh come on, he won't ask that."

She grinned fully now. "Do you fuck her? Do you fuck like rabbits?"

"This isn't helping, Maggie."

She giggled and sat up. "I'm just so excited! I can't wait until you ask her! She's so totally going to say 'yes!'"

"Well, I can't ask her until I get to talk to Charlie."

"Yeah, I know."

"And I need to figure out how to get alone with him."

"Yeah. Hey, I know! I'll ask Mom to go to the bathroom with me at dinner. Then you'll be alone with him for a little while."

"I suppose that'll work."

"Yay!"

"Speaking of dinner," he said, looking at his phone to check the time, "we should probably get going. Robin said she'd meet us there when Charlie was done with his test."




Maggie played her role perfectly; half-way into dinner, she told Robin that she needed to go to the bathroom. "Mommy, will you come with me?"

"Um, sure, okay," Robin said, obviously confused that the otherwise independent girl decided she needed her mother along for a trip to the bathroom. But, it worked. The two of them left, and Michael was finally alone with Charlie.

"Charlie," Michael said to the boy, "I think I might want to ask your mother to marry me, and I'd like to have your permission. What do you think?"

The boy just shrugged, looking down at his handheld.

"You don't have an opinion, one way or the other? Hey, would you put the phone down for a second? It's really important to me that you're okay with the idea."

He put his phone down and looked at Michael. "I'm okay with it, I guess."

"I know I can't replace your real dad, and I won't even pretend I can, okay?"

The boy shrugged again.

"But I really love your mom and I want to help her raise you kids. I'd love the chance to do that."

"Okay," was all the boy said, and Michael figured that was the best he was going to get from him.

"Maggie and I were thinking all of us could have a picnic on the observation deck, so we could all be there and all ask her together. What do you think of that?"

"Sure," the boy said, shrugging his shoulders again.




"Where were we?"

After dinner, Maggie had finished her homework quickly, and she and Michael retreated to his room while Robin stood watch over Charlie, making sure he was focused on his homework instead of a game on his phone.

"I don't remember."

"I do," Maggie said. "He was holding onto her hair and moving back and forth, remember?"

"Yeah, that sounds right."

The girl looked through the document on the tablet for a moment. "Here we go... 'Amber's mouth was warm, like a fresh-baked loaf of bread...' Loaf of bread???"

Michael shrugged. "Erotic writers run out of similes I suppose."

"Similes?"

"Yeah, you know, comparisons. 'Maggie is as cute as a button,' that sort of thing."

She grinned at him. "Are buttons cute?"

"I guess. It's an expression anyway. I suppose they're little, but very important."

That made her smile. "'...and as warm as the water of a steam bath. As he slid his cockhead in and out, spittle began to flow down his shaft and drip from his balls in a long silvery string.' Spittle? Like, spit? That's kinda gross, isn't it?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno, it's kinda hot."

"Really? You like it, when, like, spit drips from your balls?"

"I guess. Whatever. Keep reading."

"'Holding her tightly in place by the locks of her auburn hair that he had wrapped through his fingers, he pushed in deep. The little cheerleader's eyes went wide as she felt his thick head push against the back of her mouth. She looked up at him and saw his face turn red, and he started shaking, and he held his cock deep in her mouth as he let out a long, low, masculine groan. Suddenly she felt something warm and wet shoot out of him and strike hard against the back of her mouth, even firing down her throat.

"'Oh fuck!" He shouted...'"

"You really shouldn't read the naughty words," Michael said.

"'Oh fuck! Take my cum Ashley you little whore!' Wait," Maggie paused, scanning the story with her eyes, "isn't her name Amber?"

"Yeah, I think it's supposed to be funny. Like he forgot her name and called her something else."

"Oh. Is that funny?"

"I don't know. Maybe a little."

"Why did he call her a whore?"

"I don't know, sometimes guys say that sort of thing when they cum."

"Oh. Do you?"

"Sometimes."

"Do you say that with Mom?"

"Maybe, I don't remember."

"You don't remember?"

"I guess sometimes you don't remember what you say when you cum."

"Why not?"

"Because your body is so full of endorphins and stuff, I suppose."

"Endorphins?"

"Yeah. Hormones--chemicals that give you pleasure."

"Oh!" She smiled. "I know what you mean!"

"Yeah, you do!" He grinned broadly at her, and she grinned, too, her little dimples appearing on her blushing cheeks.

She looked back down at the tablet. "'He held her in place as he pumped his hot semen into her mouth...' So he ejaculated in her mouth?!?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." She looked a bit confused. "Do you do that?"

"Well, I like to."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It's nice."

"Do you ejaculate in Mom's mouth?"

"You ask the most inappropriate questions! What kind of eleven year old asks a guy a question like that?"

She grinned. "What kind of guy lets a eleven year old read a story like this?"

"The kind of guy who tried to stop her but she just did it anyway."

She giggled. "Well, I think you do ejaculate in Mom's mouth, since you didn't say you don't."

He raised his eyebrows. "Maybe."

"Does she like it?"

"I think so. She seems to." Michael couldn't help remembering the various times that her mother had shown his cum to him, rolling it around on her tongue, before she swallowed it.

"I hope she does," Maggie said. She got a dreamy smile on her face. "I bet she does." She looked back down at the tablet. "'When he finished, he pulled his cock out of her mouth, and the sweet little cheerleader looked up at him, closed her mouth, and swallowed.' Ooo, that's sexy! Does it taste good?"

"I don't know. I guess they say it's an acquired taste."

She looked thoughtfully at him for a second. "Do you think I'll like the way it tastes? "

"I don't know."

"Does Mom like it?"

"I guess so."

She smiled at that. "I think I will, too."

"I hope so. It's important to swallow it."

"It is? Why?"

"I don't know. It makes the man feel important, I guess. It's a way to let him know that you like him."

"Oh."

"So when you have a boyfriend, make sure you swallow it!" He grinned at her.

"I don't want a boyfriend," she said, looking down.

"You don't?"

"No. I... I mean, I do, it's just..." She raised her eyes, to look at him. "It's just, I know you're gonna marry Mom, but..."

"Oh, Maggie!" he said, reaching out to hug her. She gave him a shy little smile as he pulled her into him. "I love you, sweetheart, and I don't plan on letting the fact that your mom and me are married--I mean, assuming she says 'yes,' I don't plan on letting that change anything about you and me."

"Okay."

"Because what we have is very special to me."

This made her cheeks dimple with a big smile. "A 'special kind of like!'"

"That's right!" He leaned his head in and kissed her.

She climbed up on his lap, all smiles now. "Read some more of the story!" She leaned over and picked up the tablet and handed it to him.

He took the tablet from her and cleared his throat before he started reading. "'The next morning...' Wait, I'm just going to skip to the good parts."

"The 'good parts!'" she giggled. "You mean the dirty parts!"

He laughed. "I guess so!" He scanned the document for a second. "Here we go... 'Amber pulled her cheerleader sweater over her head, her braless beauties bouncing like two over-filled water balloons..."

"Water balloons? That's not very sexy!"

"Yeah, this guy's not really a very good writer. But I do like 'braless beauties bouncing.' That's kinda hot."

Maggie looked down at her chest. "I can't wait until I have something that can bounce a little."

"You're pretty sexy the way you are right now."

She smiled. "Still, I bet you wish I had titties."

"Nah, I special like you just the way you are." He reached out a hand and set it on her belly. She did the same, reaching her hand out and setting it on his chest.

"But you like Mom's titties."

"True. She has really nice breasts."

"Bouncing beauties!"

Michael smiled. "You could say that!"

"See? I want bouncing beauties, like Mama!"

"Sure, that's understandable. Most girls your age do, I suppose. But don't think for one second that you aren't sexy just the way you are." As he spoke, he moved his hand up, from her belly, to her chest.

"You really think I'm sexy?"

"Yes, I really do."

"I think you're sexy, too." She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Her fingers found his nipple through his shirt, and began tracing circles around it.

Michael looked back at his tablet. "'Amber lifted her pleated red and white cheerleader skirt,'" he read, "'showing Sean that she didn't have any panties on.'" His fingers found her nipple now, through her shirt, and together they softly touched each other.

"No panties! That's sexy!" she said.

"Uh huh."

"Maybe I should go without any panties sometimes. Would you like that?"

"In a skirt?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay." He looked back down at the story. "'She spread her legs...'"

"Ooooh, she wants to have sex with him!"

"She does!"

"She wants to 'fuck like rabbits' with him!"

Michael laughed. "'She spread her legs,'" he started again, "'revealing a bald pussy with a bright pink slit.'"

"Bald? Doesn't she have pubic hair yet?"

"I guess she shaves."

"Oh, right. Do you think I should shave mine, when I get hair?"

"I don't know."

"Do you like it when girls are shaved?"

"I guess, yeah."

"Do you shave yours?"

"I do. I shave my balls, and trim the hair above it."

"Oh. Then I should probably shave mine, too. I mean, when I get something that needs to be shaved. I don't have anything yet. I'm sorry I don't have any hair yet, or any titties. I know I'm too young for you."

"You're not too young for me, babygirl."

She smiled, both of their fingers still exploring each other's nipples.

"'Sean's cock was huge as he moved into position, throbbing and leaking,'" Michael continued reading.

"Leaking? What's that mean?" Maggie asked. "Why was it leaking?"

"It's called precum. That happens when a guy is really excited."

"Oh, and he's really excited, because he gets to fuck her."

"Right."

"I'm kinda excited, too," she said.

"Really?"

She looked down shyly, her cheeks going red. "Yeah. Sometimes... I get a little tingly."

"And you're a little tingly right now?"

She nodded. Then she reached her hand down and set it on her pants, between her legs. "And... I like to play with my pussy when I get tingly. Is that okay?"

Michael's breath caught in his throat. "Of... of course it is, Maggie, I really like it when you do that."

"I do, too."

He dropped his hand from her nipple, down her belly, sliding it over her hand. "Is it okay, if I play with your pussy a little with you?"

Her face was bright red now, and she nodded. Together their fingers danced between her legs. It took all the concentration that Michael had to go back to reading the story again.

"'His cock slipped into her swollen pink slit.'"

"Ooooh, he's gonna, he's gonna fuck her now!" Maggie moaned. "They're gonna fuck like rabbits now!"

"Uh huh. 'Amber was tight and hot and soaking wet, and he entered her easily, and started slamming in and out of her.'"

"Slamming," she said breathlessly. "Just like you do to Mama!" She slid her hand up a little, then slipped it down inside her pants. "It feels better," she said in a little whisper, "when I play with my pussy inside my pants."

"Is it okay if I put my hand inside your pants, too?" he asked.

She quickly nodded. "Yes... please..."

He slipped his hand inside her pants, joining her fingers as together they stroked her little clit.

"Ooooh!" she moaned in a high-pitched whisper. Again, Michael had to force himself to go back to the story.

"'Shortly Sean's cock began to explode..."

"Oh! Oh!" Maggie moaned, louder this time. "I'm gonna, I'm gonna...."

"'...and he pumped shot after shot...'"

"Ohhhh!"

"'...of cum inside the little cheerleader.'"

Maggie's body was convulsing now, tight up against him on his lap, both of their fingers vigorously rubbing her clitty. She was wet, very wet, and getting even wetter. Michael's fingers were soaked.

She let out a big sigh, her eyes glassy, as she slowly came down from her orgasm, her body shaking in little aftershocks as they continued playing with her clit. Then she pulled her hand out of her pants and stuck her fingers in her mouth, looking up at him. He pulled his hand out as well.

"That was so sexy, babygirl."

"Thanks, Daddy," she said. "It was..." She took a deep breath. "Really nice."

"I'm glad." Then he lifted his hand up to her mouth, and she took her fingers out and took his in, sucking on them.




The very next day it was, a month after their voyage through outer space had begun, with Earth now just a bluish dot only slightly larger than all the other dots, that Maggie spread out a blanket on the floor of the observation deck and the four of them, Michael and Robin, Maggie and Charlie, sat down for a meal that he'd ordered special from the kitchen staff, some pasta in Alfredo sauce with the best bottle of Italian red that the commissary had to offer. He poured Robin a glass, and one for himself, and then a little bit in another glass for Maggie. And while Charlie sat there already chewing on a piece of bread, and Maggie sat up on her knees with a beaming smile, he lifted his glass in a toast.

"What the heck is going on, you two?" Robin asked, looking from Maggie to Michael and back to Maggie again. "What is this all about?"

"He's gonna ask you to marry him, Mommy!" Maggie blurted out.

Michael just laughed.

"Are you serious?" Robin said, looking at him with her beautiful blue eyes wide.

"Yes!" Maggie shouted gleefully, bouncing on her knees.

"Well, this isn't exactly how I'd planned it..." He gave Maggie a teasingly serious look.

"I'm sorry," the girl said. "I know I was supposed to keep it secret, but not anymore, right? I'm just too excited!"

"Wait, you guys have been planning this?"

"Yep!"

Michael raised his glass again. "Robin Carlyle, will you make me the happiest man on Earth--well, you know what I mean, the happiest man in space I guess..." He paused. "Let me start over. Robin Carlyle, will you do me the honor of allowing me to be your husband and the father to your dear and wonderful children?"

"Oh my god, Michael," she said, and she started sobbing. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm a blubbering idiot right now." She tried to take a deep breath. Maggie handed her a napkin, and she dabbed at her eyes for a second. "Michael, I never thought..." She had to take another deep breath and wipe more tears from her face. "I never thought in a million years I'd meet someone who would make me feel like... Oh, Michael, yes, of course I'll marry you!"

Now Maggie was sobbing as well. Even Charlie had set down his piece of bread and was watching the goings-on around him. Michael wrapped his arms around Robin, then reached out to the children, and they all hugged.

"So..." Robin said, once the tears had abated a bit, "you were all planning this already?"

"Yeah, we'd talked about it," Michael said. "I wanted to make sure it was okay with the kids before I asked you."

She shook her head. "You're a good man, Michael Dubane. And I think you'll make a fine father, too."

"I just know he will!" Maggie gleamed.




That evening, he read to the kids again after they had gotten ready for bed, with Maggie in her little nightgown snuggled up against him while her mother sat at the little desk in their room, grading homework assignments, and Charlie fell asleep in his bed. When Robin finally got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, Maggie immediately reached her hand over to him and set it on his pants, once again feeling the shape of his cock under her fingers. She pulled her nightie up with her other hand, then slipped it down inside her panties. Almost instantly she was making an adorable rhythmic little sound, "Uh, uh, uh..."

Michael set the book, open face down, on his chest, and reached his hand down to join hers, in her panties and over her busy little fingers. He began stroking his middle finger along her slit. Her breathing grew immediately shallower and louder and she lifted her hips and began pumping them in the air. Wetness suddenly surged from inside her, and she moved her other hand up to the waistband of his pants and pushed it down, inside, until cool little fingers now touched the hot flesh of his bare cock. She let his finger take control of her pussy entirely, pulling her hand out of her panties and sliding it up her belly and under her nightie until she was rubbing her nipples. The fingers of her other hand gripped his cock, simply holding tightly to it, and she continued pumping her hips in the air, and her legs began to shake.

"Ooooh, Daddy!" she whispered. "Ooooh Daddy!"

The young girl orgasmed, a long, sustained climax. When she'd finished, she lay with her head on his chest, panting and occasionally whispering "Oh, Daddy," in a very soft and satisfied voice, while he kept his hand inside her panties, gently stroking her soft wet pussy, and she kept hers down his pants, just holding to his cock. And she began kissing him, covering his neck and cheek in little kisses.

"I want to kiss your cock, Daddy," she whispered.

"I want to kiss your pussy, sweetheart."

"I want..." His finger gently rubbed her clitty and she had to pause to take a deep breath. "I want you to do what he does in the story..." Another deep breath. "...and like you do to Mama. I want you to cum in my mouth."

"Oh, sweetie, that's so sexy."

"Will you, please? I want to know what it tastes like."

"I don't think there's time right now. Your mom will done in the bathroom soon."

"Yeah..." Breath... "Maybe she wouldn't like it."

"I'm not sure," he said. "Maybe not." He pulled his hand out of her panties and slipped it up and under her nightgown until he found a soft, undeveloped nipple, and gently massaged it in little circular rubs.

"But will you promise to do it?" she asked. "Soon?"

"I promise, sweetie."

The door to the bathroom opened, and they both quickly removed their hands from their compromising positions and he picked up the book and began reading again. Robin looked over at them with what seemed to Michael to be a knowing smile. A few minutes later, Maggie was asleep in her sweet orgasm-induced stupor, and Michael slipped out of the bed from beside, and underneath, her. He gave her mother a hug and a kiss.

"Since we're engaged now," he said, smiling teasingly at her, "maybe you want to wait until we're legal to have sex again?"

"Are you nuts?" she answered with a grin. "I'm horny as hell, and I think you are, too."

"Me? No, I'm never horny."

She reached her hand down to his cock. "Who do you think you're fooling? You're hard as a rock!"

"Nah, not me."

"I think Maggie turned you on."

"Maybe..."

She unzipped his pants and knelt in front of him. As she pulled his pants down and started sucking on his cock, he couldn't help but look over at beautiful Maggie while she slept, imagining how wonderful it would be to have her little lips wrapped around his cock, and to cum in her mouth, and to fuck her while she called him "Daddy." That's when he saw that Maggie's eyes were open. She was watching them, watching her mom giving head. And Robin gave her daughter another quality lesson in the sex education curriculum, sucking and jacking with remarkable skill until he exploded, then showing him his cum pooled on her tongue before swallowing.

Then they climbed on Robin's bed, and he took his turn, down between her legs, and gave Maggie another lesson, her mother's legs wrapped around his head as he licked and sucked and noshed her to a very loud and fulfilling climax. He wasted no time after she'd cum, he mounted her immediately, sliding his once-again hard cock into her open and distended cunt. He made love to her with vigor, knowing that his little girlfriend was watching the whole time. He did have to wonder, though, what the girl thought when her mother exclaimed in a loud whisper-shout, in her best Maggie-mimicking voice, "Oh Daddy! Cum inside me!" Which, of course, he did.

Chapter Six

Maggie and Michael plotted.

It was virtually impossible for Michael to find a moment of alone time with Charlie, so that he could talk to him about the marriage thing. During the daytime, if Charlie wasn't in class or doing homework, he was parked on the couch playing video games with Jake; once they retired to bed for storytime, Charlie almost always fell immediately into a sound snoring sleep. So even if Robin wasn't around, Michael wasn't able to talk with him at all. So, Maggie and Michael had to plot about how to get the two of them alone for at least a few minutes.

"I still don't see why you need to talk to him about it," Maggie said. "He's not going to say no."

"Probably not."

"And even if he does, what are you going to say? 'Okay, I won't?'"

"No," he said, "but, I mean, it'll make things more complicated, right? And if they're going to be complicated, I want to know up-front. I don't want to 'pop the question' and then have that sort of stuff hanging over our heads."

"I guess. He's only seven, though, and annoying. I'll be so mad at him if he says no."

"I don't think you should be mad at him. He lost his father when he was a little boy, and that's got to be hard."

"I lost my father when I was a little girl, and I can't wait until you're my daddy!"

He put his hand on her knee. "I understand, Maggie, and I want you to know how honored I am that you're okay with this."

"Okay with it? I'm pumped!!!"

He couldn't help but smile, even though he tried to have a serious look on his face. "Yeah, but... I'm still, I still want to be sensitive to the fact that you must miss your father terribly."

She nodded, her smile going away for a moment, a rare look of pensive contemplation on the girl's face. "Yeah. I do."

"And I want you to know that I don't think I can replace him. I mean, I'm not trying to replace him or anything."

She looked at him, squinting her eyes. "Are you practicing?"

"Huh?"

"Are you practicing the speech you're gonna give Charlie?"

"What? No! I'm serious, Maggie."

She was still a little squinty-eyed. "Okay."

"I understand, and I really respect, how much you loved your father. It seems like he must have been a really remarkable guy."

She nodded.

"And a really good father, too."

She nodded again, looking at Michael with a serious expression. But, he couldn't help thinking, she was actually fighting off a smile.

"But I really love your mom, and I really love you, and I really love Charlie."

She couldn't hold back the smile any more.

"I don't think I can replace your father at all," he continued, even though he felt like he was fighting a losing battle. "But I do think that I can--that we can make a really nice family."

"You are practicing!" Now the smile was really big.

He laughed. "Maybe a little."

"Okay. You can practice. I'll pretend to be Charlie." She slouched back in the chair and crossed her arms, making a big pouting scowl on her face.

He shook his head in a mocking tease. "You are so silly, Maggie," he said. "Okay, I'll practice. Charlie, I want to ask your mother to marry me."

"No!" Maggie said.

"Oh come on, Charlie's not like that!"

"Yes he is! Okay, fine. Keep going."

"I really love her, and..."

"Do you have sex with her?" She couldn't help grinning, even though she tried to keep her pouting face on.

"Oh come on, he won't ask that."

She grinned fully now. "Do you fuck her? Do you fuck like rabbits?"

"This isn't helping, Maggie."

She giggled and sat up. "I'm just so excited! I can't wait until you ask her! She's so totally going to say 'yes!'"

"Well, I can't ask her until I get to talk to Charlie."

"Yeah, I know."

"And I need to figure out how to get alone with him."

"Yeah. Hey, I know! I'll ask Mom to go to the bathroom with me at dinner. Then you'll be alone with him for a little while."

"I suppose that'll work."

"Yay!"

"Speaking of dinner," he said, looking at his phone to check the time, "we should probably get going. Robin said she'd meet us there when Charlie was done with his test."




Maggie played her role perfectly; half-way into dinner, she told Robin that she needed to go to the bathroom. "Mommy, will you come with me?"

"Um, sure, okay," Robin said, obviously confused that the otherwise independent girl decided she needed her mother along for a trip to the bathroom. But, it worked. The two of them left, and Michael was finally alone with Charlie.

"Charlie," Michael said to the boy, "I think I might want to ask your mother to marry me, and I'd like to have your permission. What do you think?"

The boy just shrugged, looking down at his handheld.

"You don't have an opinion, one way or the other? Hey, would you put the phone down for a second? It's really important to me that you're okay with the idea."

He put his phone down and looked at Michael. "I'm okay with it, I guess."

"I know I can't replace your real dad, and I won't even pretend I can, okay?"

The boy shrugged again.

"But I really love your mom and I want to help her raise you kids. I'd love the chance to do that."

"Okay," was all the boy said, and Michael figured that was the best he was going to get from him.

"Maggie and I were thinking all of us could have a picnic on the observation deck, so we could all be there and all ask her together. What do you think of that?"

"Sure," the boy said, shrugging his shoulders again.




"Where were we?"

After dinner, Maggie had finished her homework quickly, and she and Michael retreated to his room while Robin stood watch over Charlie, making sure he was focused on his homework instead of a game on his phone.

"I don't remember."

"I do," Maggie said. "He was holding onto her hair and moving back and forth, remember?"

"Yeah, that sounds right."

The girl looked through the document on the tablet for a moment. "Here we go... 'Amber's mouth was warm, like a fresh-baked loaf of bread...' Loaf of bread???"

Michael shrugged. "Erotic writers run out of similes I suppose."

"Similes?"

"Yeah, you know, comparisons. 'Maggie is as cute as a button,' that sort of thing."

She grinned at him. "Are buttons cute?"

"I guess. It's an expression anyway. I suppose they're little, but very important."

That made her smile. "'...and as warm as the water of a steam bath. As he slid his cockhead in and out, spittle began to flow down his shaft and drip from his balls in a long silvery string.' Spittle? Like, spit? That's kinda gross, isn't it?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno, it's kinda hot."

"Really? You like it, when, like, spit drips from your balls?"

"I guess. Whatever. Keep reading."

"'Holding her tightly in place by the locks of her auburn hair that he had wrapped through his fingers, he pushed in deep. The little cheerleader's eyes went wide as she felt his thick head push against the back of her mouth. She looked up at him and saw his face turn red, and he started shaking, and he held his cock deep in her mouth as he let out a long, low, masculine groan. Suddenly she felt something warm and wet shoot out of him and strike hard against the back of her mouth, even firing down her throat.

"'Oh fuck!" He shouted...'"

"You really shouldn't read the naughty words," Michael said.

"'Oh fuck! Take my cum Ashley you little whore!' Wait," Maggie paused, scanning the story with her eyes, "isn't her name Amber?"

"Yeah, I think it's supposed to be funny. Like he forgot her name and called her something else."

"Oh. Is that funny?"

"I don't know. Maybe a little."

"Why did he call her a whore?"

"I don't know, sometimes guys say that sort of thing when they cum."

"Oh. Do you?"

"Sometimes."

"Do you say that with Mom?"

"Maybe, I don't remember."

"You don't remember?"

"I guess sometimes you don't remember what you say when you cum."

"Why not?"

"Because your body is so full of endorphins and stuff, I suppose."

"Endorphins?"

"Yeah. Hormones--chemicals that give you pleasure."

"Oh!" She smiled. "I know what you mean!"

"Yeah, you do!" He grinned broadly at her, and she grinned, too, her little dimples appearing on her blushing cheeks.

She looked back down at the tablet. "'He held her in place as he pumped his hot semen into her mouth...' So he ejaculated in her mouth?!?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." She looked a bit confused. "Do you do that?"

"Well, I like to."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It's nice."

"Do you ejaculate in Mom's mouth?"

"You ask the most inappropriate questions! What kind of eleven year old asks a guy a question like that?"

She grinned. "What kind of guy lets a eleven year old read a story like this?"

"The kind of guy who tried to stop her but she just did it anyway."

She giggled. "Well, I think you do ejaculate in Mom's mouth, since you didn't say you don't."

He raised his eyebrows. "Maybe."

"Does she like it?"

"I think so. She seems to." Michael couldn't help remembering the various times that her mother had shown his cum to him, rolling it around on her tongue, before she swallowed it.

"I hope she does," Maggie said. She got a dreamy smile on her face. "I bet she does." She looked back down at the tablet. "'When he finished, he pulled his cock out of her mouth, and the sweet little cheerleader looked up at him, closed her mouth, and swallowed.' Ooo, that's sexy! Does it taste good?"

"I don't know. I guess they say it's an acquired taste."

She looked thoughtfully at him for a second. "Do you think I'll like the way it tastes? "

"I don't know."

"Does Mom like it?"

"I guess so."

She smiled at that. "I think I will, too."

"I hope so. It's important to swallow it."

"It is? Why?"

"I don't know. It makes the man feel important, I guess. It's a way to let him know that you like him."

"Oh."

"So when you have a boyfriend, make sure you swallow it!" He grinned at her.

"I don't want a boyfriend," she said, looking down.

"You don't?"

"No. I... I mean, I do, it's just..." She raised her eyes, to look at him. "It's just, I know you're gonna marry Mom, but..."

"Oh, Maggie!" he said, reaching out to hug her. She gave him a shy little smile as he pulled her into him. "I love you, sweetheart, and I don't plan on letting the fact that your mom and me are married--I mean, assuming she says 'yes,' I don't plan on letting that change anything about you and me."

"Okay."

"Because what we have is very special to me."

This made her cheeks dimple with a big smile. "A 'special kind of like!'"

"That's right!" He leaned his head in and kissed her.

She climbed up on his lap, all smiles now. "Read some more of the story!" She leaned over and picked up the tablet and handed it to him.

He took the tablet from her and cleared his throat before he started reading. "'The next morning...' Wait, I'm just going to skip to the good parts."

"The 'good parts!'" she giggled. "You mean the dirty parts!"

He laughed. "I guess so!" He scanned the document for a second. "Here we go... 'Amber pulled her cheerleader sweater over her head, her braless beauties bouncing like two over-filled water balloons..."

"Water balloons? That's not very sexy!"

"Yeah, this guy's not really a very good writer. But I do like 'braless beauties bouncing.' That's kinda hot."

Maggie looked down at her chest. "I can't wait until I have something that can bounce a little."

"You're pretty sexy the way you are right now."

She smiled. "Still, I bet you wish I had titties."

"Nah, I special like you just the way you are." He reached out a hand and set it on her belly. She did the same, reaching her hand out and setting it on his chest.

"But you like Mom's titties."

"True. She has really nice breasts."

"Bouncing beauties!"

Michael smiled. "You could say that!"

"See? I want bouncing beauties, like Mama!"

"Sure, that's understandable. Most girls your age do, I suppose. But don't think for one second that you aren't sexy just the way you are." As he spoke, he moved his hand up, from her belly, to her chest.

"You really think I'm sexy?"

"Yes, I really do."

"I think you're sexy, too." She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Her fingers found his nipple through his shirt, and began tracing circles around it.

Michael looked back at his tablet. "'Amber lifted her pleated red and white cheerleader skirt,'" he read, "'showing Sean that she didn't have any panties on.'" His fingers found her nipple now, through her shirt, and together they softly touched each other.

"No panties! That's sexy!" she said.

"Uh huh."

"Maybe I should go without any panties sometimes. Would you like that?"

"In a skirt?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay." He looked back down at the story. "'She spread her legs...'"

"Ooooh, she wants to have sex with him!"

"She does!"

"She wants to 'fuck like rabbits' with him!"

Michael laughed. "'She spread her legs,'" he started again, "'revealing a bald pussy with a bright pink slit.'"

"Bald? Doesn't she have pubic hair yet?"

"I guess she shaves."

"Oh, right. Do you think I should shave mine, when I get hair?"

"I don't know."

"Do you like it when girls are shaved?"

"I guess, yeah."

"Do you shave yours?"

"I do. I shave my balls, and trim the hair above it."

"Oh. Then I should probably shave mine, too. I mean, when I get something that needs to be shaved. I don't have anything yet. I'm sorry I don't have any hair yet, or any titties. I know I'm too young for you."

"You're not too young for me, babygirl."

She smiled, both of their fingers still exploring each other's nipples.

"'Sean's cock was huge as he moved into position, throbbing and leaking,'" Michael continued reading.

"Leaking? What's that mean?" Maggie asked. "Why was it leaking?"

"It's called precum. That happens when a guy is really excited."

"Oh, and he's really excited, because he gets to fuck her."

"Right."

"I'm kinda excited, too," she said.

"Really?"

She looked down shyly, her cheeks going red. "Yeah. Sometimes... I get a little tingly."

"And you're a little tingly right now?"

She nodded. Then she reached her hand down and set it on her pants, between her legs. "And... I like to play with my pussy when I get tingly. Is that okay?"

Michael's breath caught in his throat. "Of... of course it is, Maggie, I really like it when you do that."

"I do, too."

He dropped his hand from her nipple, down her belly, sliding it over her hand. "Is it okay, if I play with your pussy a little with you?"

Her face was bright red now, and she nodded. Together their fingers danced between her legs. It took all the concentration that Michael had to go back to reading the story again.

"'His cock slipped into her swollen pink slit.'"

"Ooooh, he's gonna, he's gonna fuck her now!" Maggie moaned. "They're gonna fuck like rabbits now!"

"Uh huh. 'Amber was tight and hot and soaking wet, and he entered her easily, and started slamming in and out of her.'"

"Slamming," she said breathlessly. "Just like you do to Mama!" She slid her hand up a little, then slipped it down inside her pants. "It feels better," she said in a little whisper, "when I play with my pussy inside my pants."

"Is it okay if I put my hand inside your pants, too?" he asked.

She quickly nodded. "Yes... please..."

He slipped his hand inside her pants, joining her fingers as together they stroked her little clit.

"Ooooh!" she moaned in a high-pitched whisper. Again, Michael had to force himself to go back to the story.

"'Shortly Sean's cock began to explode..."

"Oh! Oh!" Maggie moaned, louder this time. "I'm gonna, I'm gonna...."

"'...and he pumped shot after shot...'"

"Ohhhh!"

"'...of cum inside the little cheerleader.'"

Maggie's body was convulsing now, tight up against him on his lap, both of their fingers vigorously rubbing her clitty. She was wet, very wet, and getting even wetter. Michael's fingers were soaked.

She let out a big sigh, her eyes glassy, as she slowly came down from her orgasm, her body shaking in little aftershocks as they continued playing with her clit. Then she pulled her hand out of her pants and stuck her fingers in her mouth, looking up at him. He pulled his hand out as well.

"That was so sexy, babygirl."

"Thanks, Daddy," she said. "It was..." She took a deep breath. "Really nice."

"I'm glad." Then he lifted his hand up to her mouth, and she took her fingers out and took his in, sucking on them.




The very next day it was, a month after their voyage through outer space had begun, with Earth now just a bluish dot only slightly larger than all the other dots, that Maggie spread out a blanket on the floor of the observation deck and the four of them, Michael and Robin, Maggie and Charlie, sat down for a meal that he'd ordered special from the kitchen staff, some pasta in Alfredo sauce with the best bottle of Italian red that the commissary had to offer. He poured Robin a glass, and one for himself, and then a little bit in another glass for Maggie. And while Charlie sat there already chewing on a piece of bread, and Maggie sat up on her knees with a beaming smile, he lifted his glass in a toast.

"What the heck is going on, you two?" Robin asked, looking from Maggie to Michael and back to Maggie again. "What is this all about?"

"He's gonna ask you to marry him, Mommy!" Maggie blurted out.

Michael just laughed.

"Are you serious?" Robin said, looking at him with her beautiful blue eyes wide.

"Yes!" Maggie shouted gleefully, bouncing on her knees.

"Well, this isn't exactly how I'd planned it..." He gave Maggie a teasingly serious look.

"I'm sorry," the girl said. "I know I was supposed to keep it secret, but not anymore, right? I'm just too excited!"

"Wait, you guys have been planning this?"

"Yep!"

Michael raised his glass again. "Robin Carlyle, will you make me the happiest man on Earth--well, you know what I mean, the happiest man in space I guess..." He paused. "Let me start over. Robin Carlyle, will you do me the honor of allowing me to be your husband and the father to your dear and wonderful children?"

"Oh my god, Michael," she said, and she started sobbing. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm a blubbering idiot right now." She tried to take a deep breath. Maggie handed her a napkin, and she dabbed at her eyes for a second. "Michael, I never thought..." She had to take another deep breath and wipe more tears from her face. "I never thought in a million years I'd meet someone who would make me feel like... Oh, Michael, yes, of course I'll marry you!"

Now Maggie was sobbing as well. Even Charlie had set down his piece of bread and was watching the goings-on around him. Michael wrapped his arms around Robin, then reached out to the children, and they all hugged.

"So..." Robin said, once the tears had abated a bit, "you were all planning this already?"

"Yeah, we'd talked about it," Michael said. "I wanted to make sure it was okay with the kids before I asked you."

She shook her head. "You're a good man, Michael Dubane. And I think you'll make a fine father, too."

"I just know he will!" Maggie gleamed.




That evening, he read to the kids again after they had gotten ready for bed, with Maggie in her little nightgown snuggled up against him while her mother sat at the little desk in their room, grading homework assignments, and Charlie fell asleep in his bed. When Robin finally got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, Maggie immediately reached her hand over to him and set it on his pants, once again feeling the shape of his cock under her fingers. She pulled her nightie up with her other hand, then slipped it down inside her panties. Almost instantly she was making an adorable rhythmic little sound, "Uh, uh, uh..."

Michael set the book, open face down, on his chest, and reached his hand down to join hers, in her panties and over her busy little fingers. He began stroking his middle finger along her slit. Her breathing grew immediately shallower and louder and she lifted her hips and began pumping them in the air. Wetness suddenly surged from inside her, and she moved her other hand up to the waistband of his pants and pushed it down, inside, until cool little fingers now touched the hot flesh of his bare cock. She let his finger take control of her pussy entirely, pulling her hand out of her panties and sliding it up her belly and under her nightie until she was rubbing her nipples. The fingers of her other hand gripped his cock, simply holding tightly to it, and she continued pumping her hips in the air, and her legs began to shake.

"Ooooh, Daddy!" she whispered. "Ooooh Daddy!"

The young girl orgasmed, a long, sustained climax. When she'd finished, she lay with her head on his chest, panting and occasionally whispering "Oh, Daddy," in a very soft and satisfied voice, while he kept his hand inside her panties, gently stroking her soft wet pussy, and she kept hers down his pants, just holding to his cock. And she began kissing him, covering his neck and cheek in little kisses.

"I want to kiss your cock, Daddy," she whispered.

"I want to kiss your pussy, sweetheart."

"I want..." His finger gently rubbed her clitty and she had to pause to take a deep breath. "I want you to do what he does in the story..." Another deep breath. "...and like you do to Mama. I want you to cum in my mouth."

"Oh, sweetie, that's so sexy."

"Will you, please? I want to know what it tastes like."

"I don't think there's time right now. Your mom will done in the bathroom soon."

"Yeah..." Breath... "Maybe she wouldn't like it."

"I'm not sure," he said. "Maybe not." He pulled his hand out of her panties and slipped it up and under her nightgown until he found a soft, undeveloped nipple, and gently massaged it in little circular rubs.

"But will you promise to do it?" she asked. "Soon?"

"I promise, sweetie."

The door to the bathroom opened, and they both quickly removed their hands from their compromising positions and he picked up the book and began reading again. Robin looked over at them with what seemed to Michael to be a knowing smile. A few minutes later, Maggie was asleep in her sweet orgasm-induced stupor, and Michael slipped out of the bed from beside, and underneath, her. He gave her mother a hug and a kiss.

"Since we're engaged now," he said, smiling teasingly at her, "maybe you want to wait until we're legal to have sex again?"

"Are you nuts?" she answered with a grin. "I'm horny as hell, and I think you are, too."

"Me? No, I'm never horny."

She reached her hand down to his cock. "Who do you think you're fooling? You're hard as a rock!"

"Nah, not me."

"I think Maggie turned you on."

"Maybe..."

She unzipped his pants and knelt in front of him. As she pulled his pants down and started sucking on his cock, he couldn't help but look over at beautiful Maggie while she slept, imagining how wonderful it would be to have her little lips wrapped around his cock, and to cum in her mouth, and to fuck her while she called him "Daddy." That's when he saw that Maggie's eyes were open. She was watching them, watching her mom giving head. And Robin gave her daughter another quality lesson in the sex education curriculum, sucking and jacking with remarkable skill until he exploded, then showing him his cum pooled on her tongue before swallowing.

Then they climbed on Robin's bed, and he took his turn, down between her legs, and gave Maggie another lesson, her mother's legs wrapped around his head as he licked and sucked and noshed her to a very loud and fulfilling climax. He wasted no time after she'd cum, he mounted her immediately, sliding his once-again hard cock into her open and distended cunt. He made love to her with vigor, knowing that his little girlfriend was watching the whole time. He did have to wonder, though, what the girl thought when her mother exclaimed in a loud whisper-shout, in her best Maggie-mimicking voice, "Oh Daddy! Cum inside me!" Which, of course, he did.

Chapter Seven

"'The next afternoon, Amber expectantly straightened her pleated red-and-white cheerleader skirt, then rang Sean's doorbell.'"

Maggie was lying across Michael's little single bed in his "old" berth, where they had sequestered themselves from the bustle of the common room. She had his tablet balanced on her stomach while she read. "'She was shocked to see his wife, Tiffany, answer the door.' Wait," Maggie exclaimed, looking up at Michael, "Sean's married?!? He has a wife?!?"

"So it seems..." Michael answered.

"But..." The girl looked back down at the tablet, scrunching her little nose in disgust. "What an asshole!"

"Why's that?"

"He's married! And he's been fucking Amber behind his wife's back!" When Michael just looked at her, without saying anything, she defensively replied to his silence, "It's different!"

"What's different?" he asked.

"You and me. We're different."

"True. You're not a cute cheerleader."

She gave him a perused-lipped smirk. "I can dress like a cheerleader, if you want."

"Nah, I only want a real cheerleader."

"Rah rah rah," she said, sitting up and pretending to shake some pompoms.

"That's hot!" Michael said. "Too bad you don't have a skirt on like Amber."

"And no panties underneath?" she grinned.

"Mmm... That's so sexy."

"You're just like Sean!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes you are!" she said with a teasing smile. "You'd love to fuck me if I had a cheerleader skirt and no panties!"

"No I wouldn't! You just said that married guys are assholes if they fuck a girl behind their wife's back."

Maggie honestly looked hurt when Michael said that.

"I'm sorry, Maggie," he said. "I'm just..."

"It's different," she said defiantly again.

"I know. I was just..."

"Sean hardly even knows this stupid cheerleader. He just wants to fuck her..."

"I know, I was just teasing..." Michael tried to haul himself out of the hole he'd dug.

"...But you, you're my Daddy, and you love me. We love each other."

"Totally, baby, totally!"

"Besides, we haven't even, you know, we've hardly done anything. So it's not like we're going behind Mama's back. Not like Sean is."

Michael nodded in agreement, trying, probably unsuccessfully, to hide his skeptical look.

"It's just... I'm worried that Mama would be mad."

"Yeah. But she did tell me that she's okay with... with us, with what we do, so long as I don't pressure you or anything."

"She did? You guys talked about it?!?" Maggie's eyes went wide with embarrassment--although an astute observer would have noticed that a little smile had replaced the defiant, and somewhat unhappy, frown that had clouded her beautiful face for the last few minutes of this conversation.

"Don't be embarrassed, Maggie..."

"I'm not," she said. "It's just... So, she's not mad about it?"

"Well... I didn't tell her everything. I haven't told her that we're reading an erotic story..."

"What does she mean, about you not pressuring me?"

"I don't know, like, sometimes, men--older men, like, they put pressure on a girl, to make her do what they want."

"To make her, like, have sex?"

"Right."

"But you don't pressure me at all. We haven't even had sex."

"Right."

"So Mama can't be mad at you or anything, then, right?"

"Right."

"So, see?" Maggie said with the same air of defiance, now unmistakably twinged with a self-assured smile. "We aren't going behind her back at all!"

"I guess not."

"So you're not an asshole," she said, laying back down on the bed and putting Michael's tablet on her stomach again, "even if you do fuck me someday."

"I guess..."

"Now, I want to find out that happens to Amber!" She looked down at the tablet. "'"Amber!" Tiffany said. "Come in! Sean told me you'd be stopping by..."'"

-----

"So, Maggie was... awake, when we made love this morning."

Michael was standing in the water against the edge of the swimming pool; Robin was treading water in front of him, looking very shapely in her athletic swimming suit.

"Oh?" Robin said. "I'm not surprised. You were a little... enthusiastic."

"She touched me, while you and I were making love. She put her hand on my hip."

Robin looked at him, a bit squint-eyed, but then a smile broke across her face. "Oh my God that's so sweet! She wanted to be a part of it!"

"Yeah. I thought it was sweet, too. And... and then, I, like, lifted my leg, you know, to get a better position or whatever, and she... she moved her hand down, and under, and... And she touched my balls."

"Oh my God, she touched your balls? While you were fucking me?"

"Yeah."

"Jesus, that's so hot. What a little hussy my sweet innocent daughter has become!"

"I know, right?"

"You have that effect on the Carlyle ladies, I guess. I mean, on the Dubane ladies. You better be careful, or she's going to be wanting you to fuck her pretty soon."

"Yeah... She already told me that she wants to give me a blow job."

-----

"'Amber leaned against the kitchen counter, sipping the lemonade. The way Tiffany was looking at her was starting to make her feel a little uncomfortable. "So," Tiffany asked, "Did you have cheerleader practice today or something?"

'""Um, no, um, I mean, yeah," Amber stuttered her answer.' Oh I get it!" Maggie said. "She didn't actually have cheerleader practice. She put on the cheerleader outfit because she knows it turns Sean on."

"Right."

"Rah rah rah!" Maggie said with a gleam in her eye. Michael laughed. "I wish I had a cheerleader skirt. I'd totally wear it without any panties, just for you."

"That would be very hot."

"Speaking of hot, I think I should fast-forward to the good stuff!"

"You don't want to find out what happens with Sean's wife?"

"Not really. I want the juicy stuff!" Michael laughed pretty hard at that. "Oh, here we go! 'Then, while Tiffany stood watching, Sean sunk his thick throbbing fuckstick into the cheerleader's flowing quivering cunt...' Oh my gosh!"

"Yeah, it is a bit over the top."

"Yeah..."

"This guy's not a great writer."

"No? He seems pretty good to me. And I know your fuckstick throbs!" She had a big smile.

"It does?"

Maggie nodded, grinning. "Last night, when you ejaculated. It definitely throbbed."

"I think I've felt your pussy quiver."

"Did it quiver, when we were playing with it?"

"I think so," he nodded, "yeah."

"That's because I was thinking about your fuckstick."

Michael grinned. "You like calling him that?"

"Yeah! I feel sorta dirty, when is say it."

"I like it when you talk dirty."

She smiled. "My cunt quivers, when I think about your... your big strong thick hard hot throbbing fuckstick."

"Jesus, Maggie, that's so hot! You'd be good at writing erotica!"

She smiled some more. "Daddy's huge fuckstick was so powerful, so fat and swollen, that babygirl's soaking... um, uh, palpitating cunt, wanted, no, longed to have the full length of him inside her." Maggie grinned triumphantly when she finished that sentence.

"That's so good! We should write this down."

She sat up and smiled excitedly. "We can write our own dirty story!"

Michael took out his phone and started typing. "'...babygirl's soaking, palpitating..." he recited as he typed. "Palpitating's a good word."

"Thanks! I don't really know what it means."

"It's like a heartbeat. Like an excited heartbeat."

"Oh! Like my heart is beating in my cunt! That's exactly what it's like!"

"God you're so sexy! But 'cunt' isn't a good word, it's too vulgar."

"I like it. It's like 'fuckstick.' It makes me feel dirty when I say it. Cunt." She giggled. "Do you like my cunt, Daddy? Do you want to fuck my little cunt with your big manly fuckstick?" She giggled some more. "Writing naughty stories is fun!"

"You're awfully good at it," Michael said, typing away. "It's making my fuckstick get hard."

"It's making my cunt get wet and... and, palpitate, too. But you don't like the word 'cunt.'"

"No, it's not cute enough."

"Cute?"

"Right. We need a cute word."

"Like what?"

"Like 'kitten.'"

"Kitten? That is cute! 'Babygirl's kitten purred while Daddy's, um, lion roared.'"

Michael laughed. "Good! 'Daddy's lion roared,'" he recited, typing, "inside babygirl's little purring kitten.' I've always liked 'little lady.' 'Babygirl's little lady welcomed Daddy's gentleman inside her.'"

"Hmm...".she said with a giggle. "How about my 'little cheerleader?' Rah rah rah!"

"How about your 'little princess?'"

Her face lit up in a huge smile. "Oh, I like that! And if mine is a princess, that means that yours is a king! Because I'm your daughter!"

"Perfect!"

Maggie grinned, cheeks dimpled and pink, and she looked down at the tablet in her lap. She read silently for a moment, then recited, "'Then her daddy slid his thick throbbing king-cock into Maggie's flowing quivering little princess...'"

"Nice! What's next?"

She looked back at his tablet and read some more. "The girl--Maggie, I mean... Maggie moaned as he entered her; long, low, sustained, animalistic, her primal desire splashed across her face...' What's 'primal' mean?"

"Um, it means, like, instinct?"

"Oh, okay."

"But don't read the story, make it up yourself."

She pursed he lips thoughtfully. Then she sat up, her legs dangling over the edge of the bed. "Daddy's sweet little innocent babygirl cheerleader really wants to kiss his big huge powerful king-cock."

"Does she? Really?"

And Maggie nodded.

-----

"She actually said that?!?" Robin's eyes were wide as she treaded water right in front of Michael. "She told you she wants to give you a blow job?!?"

Michael nodded. "More than once, actually."

"Oh my God, she is a little hussy! What'd you say?"

"Well, I didn't want to tell her no..."

"Right. What guy would turn down a blow job from a cute eleven year old?" She smiled teasingly at her husband.

"It's not that... Well, maybe that's a bit of it. But, I really don't want her to feel... I mean..."

"So, what, are you asking for my permission?"

"I guess," he answered. "Or just... keeping you informed?"

"Well," Robin said, moving towards him in the water, "I certainly don't blame her for liking her daddy's cock." She reached a hand down, cupping it over his member, giving a squeeze. "He is a fine specimen." She looked around the empty exercise room for a moment. "You know, there's nobody around, and... I've always wanted to give a blow job underwater..."

"You have?"

She just smiled, took a deep breath, and ducked under the water. In a moment, his trunks were at his knees and his cockhead was once again enveloped in the comforting warmth of his wife's mouth, her silky tongue lapping at his glans. She brought her hands into play, one massaging his shaft, the other fondling his balls. Two or three sucks, and she came up for a breath, her eyes twinkling mischievously as inhaled and dove back down.

By the third or fourth time, she surfaced and took a big deep breath, then plunged down, engulfing his cock, leaning into him and swallowing, taking his head down into her throat. Once he was deep, she rocked her head back and forth, his cockhead sliding inside the tight wet confines of her throat. She pulled off and surfaced, taking a few huge panting breaths, and went back down again.

-----

"Her daddy stood up..." Michael said as he typed on his phone, standing as he wrote. "...and babygirl got down on her knees..." On queue, Maggie climbed off of the bed and knelt in front of him. "And then babygirl unbuttoned his pants..." Maggie reached her hands out and fumbled with the buttons of Michael's pants. He helped her; once they'd gotten him unbuttoned, he continued writing and reciting. "Eyes twinkling, babygirl pulled her daddy's pants down..." Maggie reached both of her delicate little hands up to his waistband, and pulled his pants down. She stared at the large pole standing up inside his boxers, then reached her hands out and felt him through his underwear.

"Babygirl really likes her daddy's fuckstick," she whispered, not looking up, just staring at the bulge in his shorts. "It makes her cunt quiver when she touches it."

"It makes her kitten palpitate."

"It does."

"Next, babygirl pulled down his underwear."

Maggie reached up to the waistband of his boxer shorts and pulled them down. His cock sprang free as his underwear fell. Maggie stared, speechless for a moment, simply absorbing the sight of Michael's bare cock in front of her. She lifted her eyes to look up at him. "And then, babygirl kisses her daddy's king-cock."

Michael stood above her, watching, staring down, as she leaned in and kissed the tip of his cockhead.

"Then babygirl gave his cock lots of kisses, all over..." Michael answered, breathless, forgetting entirely about typing now, watching as the little girl kissed down one side of his shaft, and up the other side, back up to his head again. Then she kissed down the topside, until her nose was in his trimmed pubic hair, and up the bottom side, covering every millimeter of his manhood with tender adoration.

"And she kissed his balls, too..." he whispered, and immediately Maggie was down, little pecks all over his scrotum.

"And... and she licked..."

And Michael watched Maggie's sweet soft pink tongue venture out from between her lips.

-----

Robin worked his cock with diligence and perseverance, surfacing for air, diving back down, ten times, twenty times, jacking him continuously as she did, until finally she got him off, down under the water, lips wrapped around his thick, pulsating--palpitating--head, coaxing out every drop of cum that her husband had inside him. When he had finally finished dumping his load in her mouth, she resurfaced and, opening her mouth wide and careful to not spill a drop, took a huge gulp of air. Eyes shining in a merry smile, she showed him his semen pooled on her tongue.

"You hab my 'ermission."

"Huh?" Michael said, confused.

Robin closed her mouth and swallowed. She smiled at him. "You have my permission," she said again. "If Maggie wants to suck your cock, it's okay with me."

-----

It was more than a poor man like Michael Duane could take, watching his new daughter, adorable little Maggie, lick his cock with her sweet. soft inquisitive little pink tongue, starting at the base of his shaft and dragging her tongue up, slowly, tasting every bit of him, until she reached his cockhead. There she made little circles with the tip her tongue and lapped at his hole, tasting the foamy dribble of precum that was oozing from his over-excited cock. Then her tongue slid back down, down to his base again, and lower, and the little girl gently glided her sweet pink tongue over his ballsack, briefly cradling each of his testicles in the concave curve of her tongue.

Michael couldn't possibly take another second of this, one of the most amazing erotic experiences of his life. Moaning "Oh, Maggie," he reached down and wrapped his hand around his cock and began jacking. She sat back on her knees for a moment, watching as he masturbated right in front of her face; then the girl looked up at him with her brown eyes wide, and stuck her tongue out, licking the tip of his head, licking his little hole, as he feverishly stroked himself.

"Oh, Maggie," he groaned, "Oh my little babygirl!" He reached his free hand out and put it on the back of her head, wrapping his fingers in her hair, gripping, holding her tightly in place.

And then he came.

His legs shook as he stood in front of her in a long, sustained, heaven-and-earth shattering orgasm, his balls clenching, his king-cock fuckstick throbbing, the first shot of cum building, building, firing, exploding out of him and splattering against his young daughter's beautiful soft lovely smiling face. Her eyes went wide, she sat back in surprise, but he kept her in place as the second shot spurted from him, huge and forceful, and painted her face in warm sticky semen.

She was smiling broadly when he'd finished, down on her knees, looking up at him, sperm dripping from her cheeks and nose.

"And then her big beautiful wonderful daddy ejaculated," she said. "All over her!" And she started giggling.

Michael was grinning wide. "And Daddy really loves his babygirl."

"And babygirl really loves her daddy!"

Chapter Eight

Second Lieutenant Salem was looking sharp, as she always does, in her starched dress whites, skirt appropriately ending just below her knees, bright white hajib tied smartly around her head and her blouse buttoned tight to her neck, an ample bosom unconsciously attracting Michael's attention as it raised a battalion of medals above her chest on her left breast pocket. The bright gleam of her perfectly white uniform was an interesting contrast to the dark hue of her skin. She was tall and muscular, shining dark eyes and a terse professional smile that showed white teeth behind glistening dark pink lips.

She stood straight as she entered the room, looking at the occupants from one to the next, from Michael, to Maggie, to Charlie. Michael set down his copy of The Return of the King that he'd been taking turns reading aloud with his two new children, who were nestled up against him.

"Captain's compliments..." she said smartly, with the lilt of an Arabic accent, her English nevertheless fluent. She stood at ease before the civilians, hands clasped behind her back and her legs slightly open, with her chin held high upon her long straight neck. "... and he would much appreciate if the Dubanes and their children would join him at the flight deck to see something interesting."

Maggie jumped up. "Oh my God the flight deck!!!" Even Lieutenant Salem of the super-starched dress whites couldn't help smiling at the girl's reaction. "Com'on Charlie! We have to dress nice! We're going to the flight deck!"

With a happy, if bewildered smile, Charlie climbed off the couch and followed his sister into the family's room. Once there, Maggie's words to her mother, who was working at the computer, were perfectly audible from the common room. "Mama! Hurry! We're going to the flight deck!"

Michael stood and gave Lieutenant Salem a sheepish grin. "I guess Maggie is in favor of the idea."

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant answered, her serious demeanor undermined by just a hint of a little chuckle.

"Can I get you a cup of coffee while we wait?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Dubane, that would be excellent."

The two of them sat for a few minutes, sipping their coffee. He'd not had such a personal interaction with the lieutenant before, and he found her surprisingly charming when she let her hair down a bit, an ironic expression given that not a wisp of hair was visible beneath her hajib. While the two of them drank the coffee, they discussed their lives back on Earth, the life that Michael was leaving behind forever, and the life that Lieutenant Salem was returning to in about four months time, where she was to be granted extensive shore leave while others oversee the reprovisioning of the Hi'iaka for her next trip across the galactic sea. Shore leave which was badly needed, because the good lieutenant's mother was sick, and there were so many things for her to do at home. The conversation made Michael wistful for a normal life again. Even for the pain and sadness that sometimes accompanied it.

In a few minutes, the other three members of the Dubane family emerged, Maggie, looking like vision from a dream in a pink and white striped sundress, Charlie in a button-up and fumbling with his tie. Robin was smartly dressed as well in a businesslike navy blue skirt suit.

"Daddy!" Maggie said, with a air of exasperation. "You need to change into something nicer, too!"

Michael gave a shrug and a sideways glance to Lieutenant Salem, who smiled her glistening lips in response. "I was just keeping our guest company," he said as he stood. "I'll be back in two seconds."




Lieutenant Salem led the group to the bank of trams that lead down the shaft to the center of the living quarters. The last time any of the passengers had traveled in these trams was when they'd first arrived on the Hi'iaku, some two and a half months, and 20 million miles, ago.

Trams they were called, but it was a funny word for them, since the motion was vertical, like an elevator, rather than horizontal like a train, as they traveled down the shaft to the central axis of the living quarters. Once there, they disembarked from the vertical tram and boarded another, a horizontal tram this time. The occupants were strapped into their chairs, but still felt the odd lift of weightlessness as they traveled for a few minutes along the shaft of the spacecraft until they arrived in the axis of the Hi'iaka's second huge spinning wheel, this one turning in the opposite direction of the living quarters. From there, into another vertical tram, and up to the flight deck.

Second Lieutenant Salem gave the Captain a sharp salute upon entering the room. "Ah!" the Captain said, returning the lieutenant's salute with, "As you were, Salem." Then he extended his hand to Michael and Robin, then Maggie and Charlie. "Welcome to the flight deck."

For once in her life, Maggie was silent, staring at the large windows that looked out onto the stars, then her eyes flitting to the various screens and monitors displaying the ship's vitals. The flight deck was mostly empty save for a cluster of uniformed officers and sailors standing around a computer terminal, where a man in a light blue jumpsuit sat typing furiously.

"We're honored by the invite," Michael responded, himself wide-eyed as he absorbed the room.

"I trust Lieutenant Salem was accommodating for your needs?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Robin said. "She's wonderful!"

"A little overly formal with the civilians," the Captain said, casting a sideways glance at the officer, with what may have been a bit of a teasing smile, "but we're working on that."

"Not at all," Michael said. "Very polite."

"Well, you've come on a good day," the Captain said with a friendly smile. "I've got some interesting news that I'd like to share with the children."

Maggie finally found her voice. "Oh!" she bubbled with delight. "What is it?!?"

The captain smiled, like everyone does when encountering the whirlwind that is Maggie Dubane. "We've discovered a new asteroid," he explained. "Seaman Urick," he said to the man in the jumpsuit typing on the keyboard nearby, "bring up the view from aft camera one onto the main monitor, if you will."

"Aye aye, Captain," the man responded, then with a quick movement of the mouse and a few deft clicks, the large central screen was filled with the dim image of an oblong floating rock.

"Welcome to the first civilian view of what we are affectionately calling Hi'iaka Two," the Captain said. "It's only a working name, since there is already a moon of the dwarf planet Haumea named Hi'iaka. We'll have to come up with something better eventually."

"Maybe Charlie and I can come up with a name!" Maggie said, staring at the screen reverentially.

"Maybe so!" the Captain answered. "But for now, its official designation is 2031AZ."

"Is it going to crash into us?" Charlie asked, with a glimmer in his eye filled with both excitement at the prospect of it, and a bit of fear as well.

"No, no," the Captain said. "It's currently ten thousand miles away."

"Ten thousand miles!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Yes," the Captain said. "But Seaman Urick is plotting a course that ought to be able to take us much nearer to it, at which point we hope to launch two of our drones for a close inspection."

"Oh!" Maggie further enthused. "Will you get to walk on it? Like, in a space suit?"

The Captain laughed. "No, the only space suits we have on the Hi'iaka are only sufficient for repair work on the ship. You have to be tethered to the ship when you wear them. Besides, the asteroid is only eleven miles long, and maybe two or three across. It might be odd to walk on such a small surface."

"I'd love to walk on an asteroid some day," Maggie said.

"We'll then, I hope you get the chance. Speaking of which, it's a minor thing in comparison, but if we get permission from the GSA for our change in course, I was hoping you children would do us the honor of launching the drones."

"Oh my gosh seriously?" Maggie answered, eyes wide.

The Captain smiled with a merry gleam in his eye. "I will keep you apprised of the status of the mission, and hopefully sometime tomorrow we will have you back here for the launch."

"Hooray!" both of the kids shouted, to smiles all around the control room.


Michael's brain hurt.

He had just completed another marathon hours-long meeting, with his superiors back on Earth and his future employees on Mars. The time lag to Earth was now close to ten minutes, and his superiors were a thoughtless pack of asswipes, arguing among themselves about pointless crap while Dubane and the Martians sat twiddling their thumbs. It seemed like the pricks had completely forgotten that there was anyone else on the phone call, and frankly, they probably had.

It was a cluster-fuck of a meeting, and all he could do was rub his aching temples and look forward to the time, only a few days away now, that he'd be able to hold a decent conversation in-person with his reports without interfacing with the damned Earthlings, and then set about solving some actual problems.

But, as usually happens eventually, the interminable meeting finally ended, and Michael Dubane was walking down the hallway back to his living pod. He knew that the kids were in the classroom with Robin, and his plan was to get a beer from the fridge, retire to his little sleeping berth for some privacy, and enjoy a little porn before taking a nice long well-deserved nap. A couple minutes later, beer in hand and a terse greeting to Jake and a few other podmates watching TV, he made his way to his bedroom while contemplating what among his favorite videos that he had brought from Earth, would he peruse that afternoon.

"Hi Daddy!" a little voice squeaked as he unlocked and opened the door.

"Maggie! I thought you had school today!" The girl was sitting in his chair, a sketchpad on her lap and a pencil in her hand.

"We did, but I guess Mama had something she had to do, so we got done early."

"Oh, okay." Michael wondered what it was that Robin was up to. It wasn't like her to miss any classroom time.

"Charlie's in our room," Maggie continued, "being totally annoying like usual. And since Mama told me to practice some art, I thought I'd just come in here."

"Cool!" Michael set his beer, untouched, on a shelf and sat down on his bed, happy for the company of his favorite eleven year old, but faintly disappointed that he couldn't enjoy his porn like he was planning. "Whatcha drawing?"

"Nothing!" she said quickly, suddenly clutching to sketch pad to her chest.

"Oh come on now, we don't have any secrets from each other!"

Maggie looked offended, like it had never occurred to her that she and Michael would have secrets that they didn't tell each other. "It's not a secret!" she blurted out. "It's a present!"

"Oh! A present for me?!?"

The girl relaxed a bit. "Yes, a present for you. It's not done yet, though. It's almost done."

"Can I see it? Or do you want to wait until it's done?"

"You can see it, if you want to see it."

"Only if you want to show me."

Maggie lowered the sketch pad from her chest, then turned it around to show Michael. Oh the page was a pencil drawing of a girl, nearly complete. The girl was wearing a cheerleader outfit, and she had her skirt pulled up to her waist, and her legs spread open. A pair of panties ringed one ankle, and her pussy was just a bare little slit between her thighs.

"Wow," Michael said, rendered nearly speechless.

"Do you like it, Daddy?" Maggie asked him, with a hopeful smile. "I thought it could be for our story! You know, like, an illustrated story? Maybe I could make other pictures too!"

"It's so good, Maggie!" Michael said. He paused, looking at the picture for an extended moment with dawning realization. "Wait, is the girl... she you, isn't she???"

Maggie was grinning broadly now. "Yes! You think it looks like me? I really tried. I had to look in the mirror to draw myself, that was kinda hard. I even had to pull my skirt up, so I could draw my pussy!"

"Oh, wow," Michael said reverentially, still staring at the picture. Then, with another bout of dawning realization, he looked up at Maggie and noticed she was wearing a skirt. Granted, not a cheerleader skirt, but it was pleated, and short, and adorably cute on her. "Are you... you mean, you don't have any panties on right now?"

Still smiling, the girl's cheeks went a little blush. "No!" She lifted a leg, showing a pair of pink panties ringed around her ankle, just like the girl in her self-portrait.

"Oh god," Michael moaned.

"You really like it when girls don't have any panties on, don't you, Daddy?!?"

"Only really sexy girls."

"Do you think I'm sexy, Daddy?"

"God yes!"

Maggie's check were pink. "We should write more of the story!" she said.

"We should!" Michael quickly took out his phone.

"And then babygirl lifted her cheerleader skirt..."

Michael could do nothing but stare, licking his lips like a horny old man, as Maggie lifted her skirt and spread her legs. Just like the picture. He'd never seen anything more lovely; pale pink lips, bald and chubby, hinted at even pinker insides.

"I wish it really was a cheerleader skirt!" Maggie giggled. "...and babygirl showed her princess to her daddy."

Michael typed, and spoke. "And her daddy thought his babygirl had the prettiest princess he'd ever seen."

"Really? Even prettier than Mama's?"

"Both are pretty in their own way."

"I think Mama's is very pretty."

"So do I!"

"I know you like hers! You put your kingcock fuckstick in it every night!"

Michael laughed. "You are silly! But still, yours is pretty, too, babygirl."

"Thank you, King Daddy," she said with a little demure smile.

"After her daddy admired his babygirl's princess for a little while," Michael spoke and wrote, "he looked her in the eye and asked her a question." Michael looked Maggie in the eye. "Would you let me kiss your princess, babygirl?"

Maggie's face went very red. "Do you want to kiss my princess, Daddy?"

"Yes, I do."

"Babygirl told her daddy that she would love it if he would kiss her princess!"

Michael took the sketchpad out of Maggie's hands, and set it down on the shelf. Then he helped her stand, and set her onto the little bed. He climbed onto the bed himself, above her on his hands and knees, and kissed her forehead, then kissed the bridge of her nose. When he next kissed the tip of her nose, Maggie giggled.

"And Daddy kissed his babygirl," he said, and kissed her on the lips.

She sighed excitedly as he moved down to her chin, then her neck. When he kissed her breastbone through her shit, she reached down and quickly pulled the shirt up, above her nipples. Michael admired them closely for a moment--dollops of light pink cream rising up just slightly from her flat chest. He blew lightly on one, then moved to the other and blew on it as well. Maggie lifted her chest, willing him to kiss them, but he did not. Instead, he moved to the side and lifted her arm and kissed each one of her fingers.

"Daddy..." she sighed, as he kissed her hand and her wrist and her forearm.

"Yes, babygirl?" Her elbow, her bicep, her shoulder.

"I was hoping..." she said in a shaking whisper. "'Babygirl was hoping... that her daddy would...'"

Michael climbed over to the other side of her, lifting her other arm and kissing a finger. "That her daddy would what, little one?"

"'Kiss her nipples!"

He quickly kissed up her arm, then across her chest. He kissed around one of her nipples without touching it, then around the other.

"You're teasing me, Daddy!" Her voice was cracking as she whispered. "Please?"

"Please what?"

"Please kiss babygirl's nipples! Please!"

With that, Michael put his lips right on one of Maggie's little buds. "Oooh!" she moaned, lifting her chest to him. He sucked the nipple into his mouth, flicking his tongue over the stiffening nub. He moved to her other nipple and did the same, then kissed her breastbone, then her belly, then her belly button. Expectantly, the girl pulled her skirt up to her waist.

Michael sat up and moved to the down the bed to Maggie's feet. He lifted one foot and kissed her toes, each in succession, big to little.

She sighed. "You're teasing me!"

Without responding, Michael slowly worked his way up from her foot, kissing along the way, to her knee, then the inside of her thigh. She spread her legs, sighing more, and he paused, holding his mouth just an inch above her kitten. He blew gently on the girl's little slit, then looked up at her.

"Is there something that I've forgotten to kiss, babygirl?" he said.

"Daaaaaaddy!" she whined.

"Oh, right..." He looked down and blew on her pussy again. "Your other leg!" And he moved back down to the foot of the bed and picked up her other foot.

"Daddy!" she whined again.

"What, babygirl?" he asked as he kissed her toes and her foot and her calf.

"Daddy, don't tease me!"

"What do you want, babygirl?"

"I want..." The girl was panting. "I want you to kiss my princess!!!"

Michael kissed her inner thigh, working very slowly, kissing up and up, until finally his face was above her baby pussy again. She lifted her hips, quite literally pushing her pussy against his mouth. "Oh, Daddy!" she said loudly, when his tongue flicked out and licked the length of her slit. Her legs were shaking already, and Michael could taste her wetness against his tongue, and it was the sweetest taste he'd ever experienced, nothing like any pussy he had tasted before. Maggie's was like candy, like nectar, like flowers. His head swooned and his cock pulsed at the taste.

When his tongue found her tiny clitoris, she moaned aloud again, "Oh Daddy!" and she kept moaning, "Oh Daddy!", over and over, and began rocking her hips to the motion of his tongue, pressing herself hard against him mouth. "Oh Daddy oh Daddy I love you!" she shouted, her legs lifting into the air and shaking. But then she covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm too loud!" she said, muffled beneath the hand, and started giggling. "Oh god Daddy!" She giggled and giggled, and shook and shook, until finally she pushed him away. "Too much!" she said, giggling some more.

Michael sat up and grinned at her. "Did you like it?"

"Oh, yes!" she answered, breathlessly. "Daddy, I loooooved it!"

He smiled at her, picking up his phone and typing. "'Daddy, I loooooved it!' babygirl said to her daddy."

Maggie giggled. Then she reached down between her legs. With her index fingers inside her pussy lips, she spread them open. "Babygirl wanted her daddy to see inside."

"Oh god," Michael said.

"Do you like it Daddy? I saw a lady doing this in a porno picture once, and I really liked how dirty she looked!"

Michael took a deep breath, staring at the glistening pink of the inside of Maggie's pussy. He nodded. "Yes," he answered, amazed at how the girl seemed to have read his mind--did she somehow know that he had come into his room planning to look at porn today? And that his favorite pose, the greatest pose of all, was a girl with her legs spread wide, holding her pussy open?

"I can be your porno girl, Daddy! You can take a picture!"

"Oh god," he moaned again.

"I'm serious!" She hooked two fingers from each hand inside her lips, and pulled her pussy open even wider. "Take a picture! I want you to!"

Michael took several pictures.




The announcement came during dinner that evening. Two announcements, actually, one over the intercom system of the Hi'iaka, the other delivered much more intimately to the occupants of the Dubane family's table in the dining room.

"This is Captain Ruebark," the intercom speakers rang out, "with a message from the bridge. Two days ago, observations from the deck discovered an unidentified asteroid-like object that we now believe to be a distant satellite of Mars. We have requested permission from the Global Space Agency to deviate from our flight plan to allow us to pass close enough to the satellite that we can launch probes for scientific investigation. The GSA has approved our modified flight plan..."

The Captain continued, explaining that they should be within visual distance of the satellite by tomorrow morning, and be in a position to launch the probes by tomorrow afternoon. He also explained that the flight plan deviation would not delay their arrival into Martian orbit by more than two hours; they still expected to be in orbit in just under three days.

"Oh!" Maggie exclaimed. "I hope the Captain's still planning to let us launch the probes!"

"I'm sure they are!" Michael answered

A live video of the newly discovered asteroid was projected onto the main screen of the cafeteria, and dozens of people crowded around the image, talking excitedly. The kids jumped up to join them, and Michael stood, but Robin was still seated, and looked up at her husband. "Wait a sec..." she said. "There's something I want to..."

She had a serious look on her face, and Michael knew instantly that something was up. What it was, he wasn't sure, but his brain flooded with guilty feelings. Had she somehow found the pictures that he took of Maggie that afternoon? Holy shit, this could be horrible!

He sat back down, his heart thumping. "Come on Daddy!" Maggie shouted at him as she was already skipping away.

"I'll be there in a sec," he answered.

"No, kids," Robin called after the children, "I want you here, too. I have something I want to tell you!" Michael was a bit bewildered by this; she still looked serious, but gave the kids a sweet little smile. It didn't seem likely that she was going to dump him now. The kids were clearly as confused as their new father about what their mother wanted, but they dutifully slunk back to the dinner table.

Robin took a deep breath and flashed a serious smile to Michael, when they were suddenly interrupted by Lieutenant Salem in her starched dressed whites. She gave a salute, more to the children than the parents.

"Captain's duty," she said, "and he requests the presence of the Dubane children on the bridge at eleven hundred hours tomorrow morning."

"Oh yay!" Maggie said, wiggling in her seat. Charlie joined her in her excitement. Lieutenant Salem couldn't help but smile despite her efforts to look stern and official.

"Excellent!" Robin answered, which received a once-again straight-faced nod from the lieutenant.

"I will arrive at your pod at 10:45 and escort you to the bridge," she said.

"Perfect."

With another nod, and a sharp about-face, Lieutenant Salem left their presence.

"Now," Michael said, "what is it that you were going to tell us, Robin?"

Chapter Nine

"Now," Michael said, "what is it that you were going to tell us, Robin?"

Robin had a serious look on her face, her eyes locking onto Michael's for a long several seconds, then flitting to the kids, then back to Michael's.

"I have some exciting news..." she finally said. Pregnant pause... "Michael... kids..." She looked again from her husband to her children. "I'm... We're... I'm pregnant!" she squealed. "We're going to have a baby!"




The sex that night was as good as it had ever been, for Michael at least. Something about knowing that the woman he was fucking was carrying his baby inspired him to new heights. Or, depths. Robin seemed to be as enthusiastic as her husband, and maybe even more so, not even waiting for the kids to fall asleep (or, at least, for Maggie to pretend she'd fallen asleep), nor caring at all whether their podmates could hear her through the thin walls of their sleeping quarters. Up on her hands and knees, her husband's strong warm hands aggressively gripping her ass, she groaned aloud, "Oh God Michael! Oh Daddy! Bathe our new baby in your cum!"

After ten minutes of solid bed-thumping sex, she herself pulled away from him and sat up on her knees. She turned to face him, and grabbed him by the wrists. "On your back, mister!"

"Oh really?" Michael answered.

"I'm gonna fuck your brains out!" She twisted his wrists, and he let her, turning him onto the bed. In an instant, she was on him. In an instant she was sliding her slick pregnancy-enthused cunt down his cock. She held him down onto the bed by his wrists, locked almost painfully tight in her fingers, and began to ride him at a slow and deliberate pace, her eyes glassy and turning up into her sockets. Eventually, the initial passion of her sudden and newfound dominant aggression subsided somewhat, and she was looking down at her husband with something closely resembling focus.

"So," she said, panting, sliding, "are you really excited about this? About the baby?"

"God yes," Michael answered. "I can't even believe how lucky I am."

"Lucky? It's all skill, mister! You're just so virile, my eggs never stood a chance against the torrent of sperm you keep shooting into me every night!"

Michael could only groan in response, as his wife drove down hard on his cock, pulled up quick, drove down again.

"You gonna give me more of that sperm, Daddy?"

Michael grunted a guttural "Fuck!" and lifted his hips in response to her next downward thrust. But rather than give her husband the last couple hard pumps that would have opened the gates of orgasmic paradise for him, she pulled off completely.

"Oh god," he moaned in unrequited urgency.

Robin smiled, and kissed him, gripping his wrists even tighter. "Does Daddy need to cum?"

"Oh god yesss!" Michael hissed.

"Maybe Maggie can help you out with that," Robin said, leaning over him with her face right in front of him, grinning big.

"Oh, Robin," he moaned. "Come on, get me off!"

"Hold your horses, Mr. Impatient," she said. "First you have to tell me, has she sucked your cock yet?"

"I don't kiss and tell," he groaned.

"Look here, little boy," his wife hissed above him. "Do you want Mama's pussy? You wanna cum in my slutty cunt?" She leaned back, wiggled her ass until his cockhead felt the warmth of her slick lips.

"Ugg... Yes!"

"'Yes,' you want pussy? Or, 'yes,' she's sucked your cock?"

"Both!"

She pushed back, onto his cock. "Oh god," they both groaned in unison. Robin started rocking. "Was she... was she good? Did she swallow?"

"I think... I think she... Oh fuck!"

"Oh, Michael! Bathe our baby with your sweet semen!"

"Oh god!" he groaned again.

"I love you, Daddy! I'm so happy to be having your baby!"

"Ooooh fuck!"

Michael had what was definitely, without any doubt, the best orgasm of his entire life, pumping ten shots into his wife while she rocked up and down on his hips.

They lay together in the afterglow. "So, you really are excited about this baby?" Robin asked him.

"Oh, god absolutely. I never even dreamed... Robin, you've made me so happy. I can't believe how lucky I've been, and now this!"

"Maggie seemed happy, too."

"Yeah, she's excited as hell to be a big sister again. She's convinced that it'll be a girl."

Robin laughed at that. "Sure, she's always wanted a little sister. I hope we don't disappoint! But Charlie... Do you think he's excited? I couldn't tell."

Michael nodded thoughtfully. "He's a hard kid to read sometimes. Keeps his thoughts and emotions to himself."

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "I think part of it might be that he's confused, and embarrassed. I'm not sure he totally understands the mechanics of it, you know? Jordon died before he was old enough to, you know, have the Dad-son talk about the 'birds and the bees.' And I was just too self-occupied after that." Michael nodded thoughtfully, and Robin continued. "Besides, I guess I'm not sure he's old enough, even now."

"Yeah... I don't really think it's about him being old enough for it or not, is it?" Michael said. "It seems to me he's got a real-life lesson in human sexuality on his hands."

"I suppose you're right. It's just so awkward. He'll be totally embarrassed, having his mom talking to him about penises."

Michael might not be the sharpest tack in the box of office supplies, but he was able to take the hint on this one, and he grinned. "Luckily, the kid's got a dad again now. I suppose it's my fatherly duty."

Robin snuggled up to him. "You're so sexy when you're being a daddy," she murmured, closing her eyes.

He kissed his wife on the forehead. "And you're sexy when you're carrying my baby!"




"So, Charlie..." Michael Dubane said to his new son, as they sat alone together in the family berth the next morning. "I was hoping to talk to you about what your mom told us yesterday--about how we're having a baby."

Charlie looked at him blankly.

"What do you think about it?"

Charlie just shrugged his shoulders. Typically hyper-communicative Charlie!

"Are you excited to have a little brother or sister?"

Another shrug.

Michael took a deep breath. "I was thinking..." he stammered. Of all the things that he'd imagined himself doing in his life, having a conversation with a seven year old boy about the birds and the bees had not even remotely entered his mind. He had no idea what would be the best way to approach the discussion. All he could do was just barrel ahead. "I was thinking I might talk to you a little bit about the process." Shit, "process?" It's like he's talking to one of his reports about configuring a network! "About, like, how it happens, and what's going to happen now."

Charlie looked at him with an expression that dripped with dread, embarrassment, and not a small dose of resignation to his fate. He was probably expecting this was going to happen. Maybe he would have been more comfortable if it had been Robin rather than his new father?

Michael took another deep breath. "So... about how it happens... You know how men, boys and men, like you and me--" He hoped that by personalizing it a bit, he might win Charlie over... "--have penises, right?"

Charlie's face was just painted with embarrassment. Michael could tell that the last thing in the world the kid wanted to do was have a discussion about penises. But what choice did he have, but to double down?

"And... and women, girls, have vaginas, right?"

Charlie nodded at this, pretty much the first reaction he'd had other than extreme embarrassment. Maybe the word "vagina" sparked a little bit of interest for the kid? That's a good sign.

"Well, men... they make sperm, they make sperm in their testicles, that's what men make to make a baby." Michael felt like he was stammering like a fool. "When you get a little older, you'll make sperm in your testicles."

Charlie's expression had returned to its previous painful embarrassment. Whether or not he might have been interested in discussing vaginas, clearly testicles were not on the short list of topics he wished to exchange opinions on with his new father.

"And women, like your mother, they make eggs. It takes both a sperm from the man, and an egg from the woman, to make a baby. And you have to get the two together, right? You have to get the sperm and the egg together. And to do that... well, to do that, the man puts his penis inside the woman, inside her vagina, and then puts the sperm in--ejaculates the sperm out of his penis and into her. Does that make sense?"

Charlie nodded, although it wasn't entirely clear that he was telling the truth. Michael felt like he was doing a terrible job of describing any of this to his son.

"In order to... to get the penis inside the vagina, the penis gets--well, it gets an erection. It gets stiff, and, and, it grows longer. And the vagina gets, well, it gets wet, like, lubricated, so that the penis can go inside it." Michael paused awkwardly, ostensibly to see if the kid had anything to say, but also to try to whet his increasingly parched mouth. Hearing no questions from Charlie, he continued: "After a little while, the man ejaculates his sperm--it's more than just sperm, it's called semen, which is liquid, a kind of cloudy white liquid that has lots of sperm in it. The sperm itself is tiny, microscopic, and there's like a million sperms each time a man ejaculates."

Michael was reminded of how a stumbling drunk might describe sex. Oh well, onward ho!

"And then inside the woman, the sperm and the egg meet in her uterus. Sometimes the uterus is called the womb. And when the sperm and the egg meet, the egg is what we call 'fertilized,' and then it will grow into a baby. First it's an embryo, then a fetus, and it grows inside the woman's, its mother's, uterus. The uterus feeds it and provides it with blood and oxygen and stuff. That's what's happening to your mother right now. Then, after nine months, if you're really lucky, the baby is born. The woman gives birth to the baby."

Dead silence from the boy across the table from him.

"I know that was a lot to absorb. Do you have any questions, or anything you want me to clarify?"

Charlie shook his head, but he looked like he wanted to say something. Michael raised his eyebrows, hoping beyond hope that he might be able to inspire the kid to open up a little bit.

"Sometimes..." Charlie said, "sometimes my penis gets hard."

Wow. A breakthrough! Michael was extremely happy and proud at this moment. It's like they're a father and a son!

"Yeah, that happens to boys your age sometimes. It'll happen more, a lot more, as you get older, especially once you're old enough to make sperm. You'll get hair around your penis, that means that you're old enough to make sperm."

"Yeah, I know about the hair. Pub..."

"Pubic."

"...Pubic hair."

"Right."

"Why does the penis get hard?"

"That's so that it can get in the vagina."

"No, I mean... What... What makes it get hard?"

"Oh!" Michael suddenly realized that he'd been completely "mechanical" in his description. Time to bring it back down to reality... "Well, you get hard--a guy gets an erection--when he's turned on, I mean, like, when he's sexually excited. Like, for me, when your mother and I are kissing, or when we touch each other in special ways, I get an erection."

Charlie nodded. "Mine gets hard sometimes when I touch it."

"Exactly! So does mine. And I want to make sure you know that it's perfectly okay for you to touch it like that. I do that. All men do, and most women do, too. It's perfectly normal and natural and okay to touch yourself like that."

"Okay."

"And when you get a little older and start making sperm and stuff--"

"And get hair."

"--right, and get pubic hair, you'll be able to make yourself cum--to ejaculate, to get the sperm to shoot out. You can do that with your hands. And that's perfectly normal, everyone does it, and it's not anything to be at all embarrassed about or anything."

"Okay."

"Now, there's lots more stuff that I want to tell you about, like birth control--"

"Birth control?"

"Yeah, that's what you use if you have sex and you don't want to have a baby. I can tell you all about--"

"But you and Mom wanted to have a baby, so you didn't use birth control?"

"Well, not exactly. We're very excited to be having a baby, but we weren't exactly planning on it or anything. You're mom--she's struggled with fertility problems. It was hard for her and your dad to make you and Maggie. It took a lot of work and they had see doctors and stuff. So we--your mom and me--we really didn't expect to have a baby and we didn't use birth control because we didn't think it mattered. But we got lucky!"

"Oh, okay."

"I'll tell you more about birth control when you get a little older. There's lots of stuff to consider, but not now. I've already told you so much you're probably a little confused."

The boy nodded a bit.

"And also, it's almost time for Lieutenant Salem to come get us so we can go to the flight deck! But Charlie, just remember, if you have any questions at all, you can ask me anything, or your mom, too. Or Maggie, she's old enough now that she knows some of this. Any of us will be happy to answer your questions. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay! Now let's get ready to go launch some drones!"

"Okay!"

All things considered, Michael was pretty happy about how that conversation went. And, he felt, or at least he hoped, that maybe Charlie had opened up to him a bit and they might be a little closer now. That would be a very nice, very special, very unexpected outcome of all this.




Second Lieutenant Salem was exactly on time. Small surprise there. And looking sharp in her starched dress whites and her starched white hijab, in such sharp contrast to her ebony skin. The kids bubbled with excitement as they walked with her down the hall to the trams, Maggie even taking the lieutenant's hand. Michael wondered, as he watched the two of them holding hands, what the lieutenant thought of this. She was so formal, it must be strange for her to interact with someone as informal as Maggie. Or, maybe she liked it. Probably, she liked it. She was still a young woman and no doubt at some point in her life she would like to have a family; Maggie's sweet, trusting demeanor would certainly convince the sailor that being a mother was a fine and beautiful thing.

Behind them, Michael and Robin held hands as well.

"So how'd it go with Charlie?" she asked him.

"It went great!" Michael answered.

"Really?" Robin seemed genuinely surprised. "That's awesome! "

"I really feel like we bonded. He even told me that his penis gets hard sometimes, when he touches it."

"Oh my god that's so cute!" Robin said.

"I told him that it's okay if he touches it, that it's nothing to be embarrassed about, that everyone does it."

"You are such a great father!" Robin said, wrapping her arm around his back.

"I don't know about that. It's more like, Charlie is a great kid."

"You're perfect. For him, and for me!"

"I hope so!"

A few minutes later, the family arrived on the flight deck. It was crowded--the entire crew was present, both officers and enlisted personnel huddled around various consoles or standing in small groups. There was also a team with several cameras, filming and taking still pictures of the goings-on.

The Captain smiled warmly, if a little formally, when Lieutenant Salem announced them. Michael noticed with some uncomfortableness that the cameras had all been turned onto them.

"Hello, Dubanes," Captain Ruebark said, walking up to them and shaking Michael's hand, then Robin's, then the kids. "Sorry about the cameras in your faces..." He looked askance at the crew members, huddled around the five of them with the video equipment. "This is being broadcast live on Earth."

"Live?!?" Maggie said. "We're TV stars!" She waved to the camera, then was overcome with a rare moment of shyness, and ducked behind Michael.

"Seaman Urick," the Captain said, and the sailor in his blue jump suit stepped forward.

"Yessir!"

"Why don't you explain to the children what will be happening with the drones."

"Yessir." The sailor turned to Maggie and Charlie, and as the cameras recorded his words and beamed them back across the endless darkness of space, to Earth, where they were heard by undoubtedly a billion people about twelve minutes after they were actually spoken, he explained:

"We'll be launching two probes, two drones, this afternoon. The first, I believe we will have Margaret launch the first one, correct, Captain, Sir?"

The Captain nodded.

"So that probe, the first probe--" the sailor seemed to be stammering a bit, nervous in front of the cameras perhaps. "--we have named 'probe M,' which is short for 'Margaret.'" Maggie's face lit up in a smile and the sailor, all seriousness until now, smiled himself. "'Probe M' is programmed to attempt a landing on the surface of the asteroid, or, excuse me, the moon. 'Probe C'--I'm sorry, I should have said, that's what the second probe will be called, short for Charles of course, is programmed to go into a psuedo-orbit." He turned to Charlie--the boy, not the probe. "We call it a 'psuedo-orbit' because there is not enough gravity from the moon to cause the drone to go into actual orbit. Instead, the drone is programmed to use its thrusters in such a way that it will circle the moon as if it were actually in orbit."

"Oh, you don't have to call it 'the moon' anymore," Maggie said. "I know what it's name should be!"

Michael saw the Captain's eyes sparkle at the charm that Maggie had. "Excellent, Margaret, and what should the name be?"

"Hopoe!" she exclaimed. "I looked it up. Hopoe was Hi'iaka's best friend. Plus it sounds like 'hope,' which is nice."

"Well!" the Captain exclaimed. "I think you are correct, Margaret, that is an excellent name for our little moon. We don't have the final say, but let's commence to calling her 'Hopoe' from now on, unless and until the official governing body of Naming Things tells us otherwise."

Seaman Urick nodded, smiling slightly. "The primary disadvantage to our psuedo-orbit," he continued with his explanation, "is that we will have to use fuel to stay in orbit around the--around Hopoe. The drone will run out of fuel after about two days, but during those two days we will be able to do a great deal of observation from about 100,000 feet above the surface."

"But we'll have lots of observations from 'probe M'--from my probe, right?" Maggie said, or more exactly, asked. "How long will probe M last, on the surface of Hopoe?"

"We don't know what exactly will happen with probe M," the sailor said. "We're hopeful that we can slow it down enough that we can make a soft landing on the surface of Hopoe. But it's possible that the landing will be too hard, and the probe will be destroyed. Or, that the probe will simply bounce off of the surface and into space. Or both. But at least we'll have footage of the approach and even of only a few feet above the surface, and this will be immensely valuable for us, even if the drone is subsequently destroyed."

Seaman Urick pointed to a monitor, displaying the Hopoe. "It is our hope that the M probe will land here, in this relatively flat area. That's where we believe we will have the most luck having a successful landing. The C probe will orbit in this direction--" He made an oblong circle that bisected the moon at about a 45 degree angle.

Maggie and Charlie both nodded. "Oh, okay," Maggie said.

"Now," the Captain interrupted them, "I'm afraid it's time for us to proceed. The launch window is not terribly large and it is rapidly approaching. Follow me, Margaret, Charles."

Maggie was beaming, Charles looking a bit bewildered, as they followed the Captain, and the cameras followed them, to a bank of computer terminals. Seaman Urick stepped forward and pulled two chairs back slightly from two of the terminals, and indicated with a formal sweep of his hand that the children should sit down.

"Margaret," the Captain said as the children sat down, "you'll launch yours first. When the countdown completes and we're in the launch window, just touch the screen where it says 'launch.' That's pretty easy, huh?" Those in attendance laughed, but Maggie just looked up at the man, wide-eyed, nodding. "Charles," the Captain continued, turning to the boy, "your job is harder. What I want you to do, is, after Margaret has launched her drone, you count for thirty seconds, you know, 'one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.' When you get to thirty, launch your probe."

Charlie nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay," the Captain said. "Seaman Urick, how's the launch window looking?"

"Sir, two minutes 39 seconds, Sir," the sailor said, looking up at a digital clock above the monitors.

The next two minutes proved frustratingly long, especially for the children and the camera crew, who were desperate for some action. But both parties had to settle the Captain making small talk with the kids--"Are you looking forward to your departure for Mars, Maggie?"

"Yes!" Maggie said. "I can't wait. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the Hi'iaka, but it will be nice to be on Mars!"

"Are you looking forward to being in a real school?"

"Yes!" Maggie said. Charlie shrugged his shoulders when the Captain looked at him for his answer.

"How are your studies, Charles?" The Captain asked in a grandfatherly tone.

"Fine," was all Charlie said.

"Good, good..."

"Captain," Seaman Urick said. "Ten seconds to the launch window."

"Yay!" Maggie hollered.

The cameras crowded closer. The sailor started a countdown--"Nine, Eight..."

"Don't forget, Charles," the Captain said. "Count to thirty, after Maggie launches hers."

Charlie nodded.

"Three... two... one... launch window is open!"

Maggie touched the screen, as instructed. From one of the monitors you could see a small tuft of smoke from a port on the side of the Hi'iaka, then the yellow-orange glow of fire, and a small object shot out of the port. Meanwhile, Charlie was counting out loud, "...three Mississippi, four Mississippi..." When he reached "thirty Mississippi," he touched his screen, and the monitor showed the same tuft of smoke, then the fire, and the probe launching from another port. All eyes in the flight deck were now looking at the monitors that displayed the flight of the probes.

"What now?" Maggie asked. "How long?"

"It should take about three minutes for the probes to arrive at the Hopoe," Seaman Urick answered as he sat down at the console next to Maggie. After a few seconds of vigorous typing, he announced, "Probe M's on board camera is now on monitor seven," and one of the large monitors above the assembled crowd flickered and then displayed a view of Hopoe, only a faint grayish dot in the distance not much bigger than it appeared outside the port window, but growing noticeably with each passing second. Then, the sailor announced, "And probe C on monitor eight," and a similar vision of Hopoe appeared on the next monitor.

"Ship-wide monitors?" the Captain inquired loudly, to whatever sailor was the appropriate one to ask.

"Yessir," another sailor answered. "Monitor one."

"Excellent."

The next three minutes were a complete contrast to the previous two; whereas those seemed to drag on forever, these were over before you could even catch your breath. There was a great deal of activity on the floor of the flight deck--sailors and officers flitting from one console to the next, talking, pointing; monitors displaying the increasingly large and clear view of the moon, and all in attendance staring in anticipation. After what seemed like no more than a second or two, Seaman Urick made another announcement. "Probe M commencing position reversal in three... two... one..." The image on monitor seven suddenly shifted, Hopoe disappearing from view as the probe flipped 180 degrees. But then the sailor adjusted the camera, and the moon again appeared on the monitor, now filling the screen entirely, its pock-marked surface visible in exciting detail. At the same time, you could see that the probe was desperately firing its thrusters in an effort to slow its approach. To an untrained eye like Michael's, this did not appear to be very successful, and the moon's surface approached at a frightening clip. And then, monitor seven simply went black.

"Probe M has made contact with the surface," Seaman Urick said, busily working at his console.

"Status?" the Captain asked, staring, like everyone else.

"Unknown, sir," the sailor answered. "No communications with the probe yet."

"Oh no!" Maggie said, looking over the sailor's shoulder at his console. "Did it crash?"

"We'll see," the sailor answered. He looked up at the monitors. "Status of probe C?"

"Initiating orbit," another sailor answered.

Seaman Urick watched as monitor eight showed the progress of the second probe. A few seconds later, it crested the opposite side of the moon.

"There she is!" Urick said, pointing up at the monitor where a new pock-mark appeared with a bit of shining metal in the middle. "Probe M remains in contact with the surface! Can someone get us a close-up of that?"

The camera zoomed in on the probe, but the view was fleeting, as probe C continued its orbit. Nevertheless, probe M appeared intact.

"And..." Seaman Urick said, "We have communication! The probe appears to have survived the crash!"

"Yay!" Maggie hollered. "But, why can't we see anything?"

"It would seem that the camera is buried in the dirt," the sailor answered. "Don't worry, now that we're communicating, we should be able to solve that problem."

"Great!"

"But meanwhile, we've got to focus on probe C for now. He's going way too fast to be able to sustain this orbit for more than a few more minutes." Three other sailors crowded around Seaman Urick's console, and they set to work.

"Well, children," the Captain said, "you've done excellent work today! But for now, it would probably be best if you leave the sailors to do their work."

"Yes," Robin said, "we should be going now and leave your men and women to their duties."

The Captain nodded in her direction. "You can observe their progress from any monitors in the ship, and we'll have you back here for more observations if you're interested.

"Oh yes! Yes, we're interested!" Maggie enthused.

"That will probably need to wait until we achieve orbit around Mars, since that's another pressing need that will be presenting itself in the next day or so."

Looking out the window, it was a little hard to imagine that the tiny red dot in the distance would soon be as large as the Earth was back before their voyage began, and that the Hi'iaka would soon be orbiting their new home. Despite this event's fast approach, It would still be a very long time before they would set foot upon the surface of the planet--they were scheduled to be on the final of four transports, and it would be three weeks at least before their time would come. Space travel is an odd thing in that regard; there is a lot of waiting to be done.

"Well," Robin said to the Captain, "thank you so much for the opportunity to be here for this event, and for taking time out from your busy schedule to accommodate us."

"Of course," the Captain answered. "I know I speak for the rest of the crew when I say that having your children on our flight deck is a pleasure we all look forward to."

There were a lot of smiles on the faces of the Dubane family, as they followed Second Lieutenant Salem back to the shuttles, and back to the living quarters.




"Mama said that you had 'the talk' with Charlie yesterday," Maggie said to Michael the next afternoon as they sat together on the bed in his old single berth.

"She did? That seems like the sort of thing that ought to be private."

"She had to tell me, because I wanted to go in and hang out with you but she said we should leave you alone."

"Ah, okay. I just don't want him to be embarrassed."

"I won't say anything to him, I promise."

"Good." Michael could tell that the girl understood. "I know you won't."

Maggie sat up. "So did you tell him about how your king cock gets all hard?" She was grinning big by the time she finished the sentence.

"Not in so many words," Michael responded, grinning, too. "But..."

"Did you tell him that a guy slides his big hard throbbing fuckstick in and out of a girl's sluthole until he spurts his babyseed into her cum-guzzling womb?"

Michael laughed. "You are so over-the-top, Maggie!"

"I bet you didn't. I bet you said 'penis' and 'vagina' and 'erection' and 'semen.'"

"That's right."

"Booooring! Oh, and, Mama had a talk with me, too, while you guys were talking."

"She did?"

Suddenly Maggie had a serious look on her face. "She told me I don't ever have to do anything I don't want to do."

"Right..." Michael sounded a bit confused. After all, Robin had repeatedly told him that she trusted him...

"Don't worry," Maggie said, apparently reading his mind. "She totally said she knows you're not going to make me do things. She's worried about me, not you. She thinks I might put pressure on myself to do things, you know?"

"Sure, that makes sense."

"She said that if there's anything I don't want to do, I should just tell you, and you won't do it."

"Right, absolutely."

She continued to have a very serious look on her face. This was a new side to Maggie--not the usual playful silly girl he'd gotten so used to over the months of this trip. "So if I tell you I don't want to do something, you have to not do it, right?"

"Absolutely, Maggie." Michael wondered nervously what exactly his little girlfriend had in mind. What sort of second thoughts was she having about their sexual relations?

"Do you want me to tell you what I don't want to do?"

"Yes. I promise I'll totally respect your wishes." He was surprised how his heart was starting to race.

Maggie took a deep breath. "Okay." She paused, looking right at him, her lip even trembling a bit like she was as nervous as he was. "I... I don't want to not have sex with you."

"Wha...?"

"I don't want to not fuck like rabbits with you!" Maggie was grinning big now.

"You are crazy, Maggie!"

"Now, you just promised that you wouldn't do what I don't want to do, and that means that you have to have sex with me! You have to fuck me like we're rabbits!"

Michael just shook his head and laughed.

"Is your fuckstick getting hard now, Daddy?" She gave a big grin. "I mean, is your penis getting erect?"

"Yes. Yes he is."

"Yay! My vagina's getting wet, too! I mean, my sluthole's getting all sloppy!"

"Nice!"

"You like a sloppy sluthole, don't you, Daddy?"

"Sloppy slutholes are splendid," Michael said.

"Fiery fucksticks are fantastic!"

"Dirty daughters are..."

"Delightful!"

"I was thinking 'devilish,' but 'delightful' is good, too!"

"Oh, Daddy," Maggie said. "I think... I think I'm ready. I think, I mean, I think I don't want to not have sex with you anymore ever again!"

Michael reached out to his new little eleven-year-old daughter and she fell into his arms and he lay down on the bed, pulling her with him, on top of him. She immediately started grinding herself on his cock through his pants. Their lips met and their tongues entangled, and while they kissed, Michael reached down and lifted Maggie's skirt above her ass, and begin pulling her panties down. She lifted herself off of him slightly so that he could get them, then sat up and reached down and began unbuttoning his pants. The moment she had them down his thighs, she climbed up and sat down. Her eyes rolled back as her pussy--indeed, the girl's sluthole was sloppy as hell--splayed around the thickness of her daddy's cock and she ground against him. She ground her hips forward, so that her pussy left a trail of wetness along the underside of his cock as she moved up, and then left another trail as she moved back down.

"Oh, Daddy," she whispered as she moved even higher, until his anxious cockhead was smothered in her lips.

"I love you, Maggie," he said quietly.

"I love you, Daddy," she whispered back, as in perfect harmony they pressed their hips together, Maggie backwards, and down, Michael forwards, and up, and his cockhead slipped in between...

Michael's phone rang with the tell-tale ring-tone of a incoming call from Robin. Good god, what horrible timing! For two seconds, maybe three, he ignored it, his cockhead positioned just at the tiny entrance of his daughter's little sex. No fucking way am I taking that call! But then his senses got the better of him: Robin was visiting the medic right now, and a phone call could only mean one of two things--something was wrong, or she was standing right outside the door of his old berth and didn't want to barge in out of concern that she might find her husband and her daughter in flagrante. Either way, he probably ought to take the call.

"Maggie," he said, as tenderly as he could, "it's your mother... I should probably answer..."

Maggie nodded, sliding the lips of her sloppy sluthole back down his cock.

"Hello, Robin?" Michael said into the phone.

"Hi, Michael. Um, you should probably come here, to the medic's. There's something..."

"Shit, Robin, is everything okay?"

"Yes, everything's fine, don't worry."

"Okay, I'm on my way." He hung up the phone. "I'm sorry, babygirl," he said to Maggie. She just nodded as she climbed off of him.




"We just got off the phone with Doctor Huan at Kakadu and, don't panic or anything, everything's okay, but she's a bit puzzled about some of the tests, and..."

"You see," the medic said to Michael, "I'm just a field medic, I don't really know what I'm doing here. I guess we never envisioned having a woman get pregnant during the flight."

"Sure, okay," Michael said.

"Doctor Huan doesn't think there's anything wrong or anything, but she wants me down as soon as possible, so that we can make sure."

"Sure, that makes sense."

"So they've moved us up to the first transport, and they're accelerating that one, too. Which means we have to leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!?"

"Right."

"I don't... we're nowhere near ready to leave!"

"I know." Robin gave him some puppy-dog eyes, looking remarkably like Maggie, when she does the same to him. Michael knew what she was angling for.

"You go down tomorrow," he said. "Take the kids. I'll stay up here and pack everything up and take a later transport."

"Oh, thank you, Michael! Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"I'll miss you! We'll miss you!"

Michael smiled. "I'll survive, I promise."

"Alright then," the medic said. "I better get on the horn to the Captain."

"Okay," Robin said, hopping off of the examination table and taking Michael's hand.




"But... But Daddy will be lonely without us!" Maggie protested over dinner that evening, their last dinner together as a family aboard the Hi'iaka.

"I know," Robin said, her voice full of sympathy, for Michael's plight, and also for Maggie's. "And we'll miss him terribly, too."

"I'll be fine," Michael said. It's only for a few weeks, maybe even less than that."

Maggie sat back with a sad, confused look on her face. But the look suddenly changed to a conspiratorial smile. "I know!" she exclaimed. "I'll stay here with Daddy! I can help him pack, and he won't be so lonely then. You and Charlie can go down tomorrow, and Daddy and I will come a bit later with all our stuff!"

"Well..." Robin said. "What do you think of that idea, Michael?"

Michael could barely contain his actual opinion, which was that this was a wonderful idea. A fantastic idea! "I think that'd be nice," he managed to say in a passably neutral tone. Even still, despite Michael's nonchalance, he noticed his wife give him a particular look out of the corner of her eye.

"You okay with it, Charlie?" Robin asked her son. Charlie shrugged.

"Okay then. You be good Maggie, promise? Promise to help Michael pack? It'll be a lot of work!"

"I promise! I totally promise!"

Chapter Ten

"Do you miss Mama?" Maggie asked Michael as she sat on his bed in his tiny single berth, holding some books she'd taken off a shelf.

"Sure..." he answered, a bit puzzled by the question. He reached out for the books she held in her lap. "I mean, it's only been a couple of hours, but..."

Maggie handed over the books. "Are you worried?"

"Worried?" he said, taking the books and staking them in a box. "Worried about Robin and Charlie? I don't think there's anything to be worried about." That wasn't entirely true; there's all sorts of things that could go wrong when the transport enters the Martian atmosphere. But as he looked at Maggie's sweet face, he could see that she was troubled. "The crew is good," he made a stab at reassuring her. "They've done this dozens of times. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Are you worried about the baby?"

"Sweetheart," he said, in his most comforting tone, "I'm sure the baby will be fine. Hey," he added, after a momentary pause, "why don't we stop packing for a while and go watch the landing from the observation deck?" He hoped that might help her with her nervousness--make the situation seem more like reality, and not like some distant mysterious thing.

"Okay." she said, giving him an uncertain smile.




The observation deck was crowded already with many of the remaining occupants of the Hi'iaka who were there to watch the landing. And, it glowed. Much as the observation deck had glowed a comforting, motherly blue when Michael had first taken Maggie and Charlie there, four months ago, to watch the final departure of the transport as it returned to Earth, so now it glowed a pale reddish-yellow, comforting still in a way, especially for travelers weary from four months in space, though not, for some reason, quite as motherly. Out the broad expanse of windows on the planet side, one could see many of the features of the Martian landscape that Michael and Maggie had grown familiar with by now from their studies, and from examining them through the telescopes on the observation deck. Some were obscured by clouds now, but they could see the polar caps, Olympus Mons, the great canyon Ma'adim Vallis, the channels and rivulets that were once mistaken for canals and that inspired so many early science fiction writers to dream of life on Mars.

The biodome below, that place that will soon be their new home, was not visible without a telescope, except for when she was shrouded in the darkness of the Martian night. Then, a faint electric glow could be seen from even as far away as the Hi'iaka in orbit 500,000 feet above the surface. Similarly, the transport herself was now too small, too far away, to be seen with the unaided eye, though the Hi'iaka's cameras tracked her flight and the image was projected on the monitors, together with images from a camera affixed to the bottom of the transport--images of the reddish surface of the planet rapidly passing underneath; Michael could imagine Robin and Charlie seeing that same vision of the planet's surface through the transport's windows.

The transport was now completing her third and final transitional orbit, and had slowed her speed, relative to the planet's surface, dramatically. But she must brake even more to make her touchdown, and this was the focus of the crew of both the Hi'iaka and the transport, their voice transmissions playing over the intercom, regularly charting her progress and her speed.

Then the monitors displaying the image from the transport switched to a forward-facing camera, and ahead in the far distance, you could see the landing station, not much more than a three mile long paved runway with a couple of buildings to house the controllers and the plows--plows for sand, not for snow--and some buses poised to unload the passengers from the ship and whisk them the ten or so miles to the biodome.

"Ten minutes to touch-down," a voice cackled over the intercom.

"Rrrroger," came the answer, the pilot of the transport giving a long, trilled "r." Maggie, who had been absolutely silent since the two of them had entered the observation deck, reached over and took Michael's hand, without breaking her stare at the monitors. He realized, as she gripped tight, that while he flattered himself with the belief that his marriage to Robin had filled a hole in Maggie's heart--and maybe it did, in some ways--in truth it must be very hard for the girl; Robin and Charlie were really all she had anymore. Michael was little more than an interloper in her life at this point, and while he hoped to be something more significant than that to her, he was reminded, as she stared at the transport and the landing station that Maggie was still a little girl, facing the possibility of being without the two people that she had relied on entirely for comfort for these many years since her father had died.

It was a long ten minutes, watching the landing station gradually grow from a tiny vision in the distance into a very present reality, the buildings starkly white against the undifferentiated reddish sand, while dad and daughter tightly gripped each other's hands. Eventually, a new voice--a Martian's voice!--broke into the cackle of the intercom.

"All clear for landing."

"Rrrrrroger."

The transport touched down, and almost instantly on touchdown, three enormous parachutes deployed from its behind, and the vehicle slowed dramatically.

"Touchdown!" the transport's pilot's voice cackled, and the observation deck broke out in cheers and applause. Maggie finally took her hand from Michael's, to clap as well, then turned to her new father.

"See? They're safe!" she said, beaming. "I knew they would be!"

Michael just smiled.




"Hello, Dubanes," Captain Ruebark said with his hands behind his back, as he stood before their table in the cafeteria an hour later, "or, at least,.those of the Dubanes who remain with us."

Michael stood and reached out to shake the captain's hand, then Maggie did the same, which caused the captain's eyes to sparkle.

"Do you miss your mother, Maggie?" her asked the girl.

"I'm okay, but Daddy misses her lots!"

Michael rolled his eyes in her direction, and the captain laughed.

"Will you join is?" Michael said, gesturing to an open chair at their table.

"I'm afraid I'm on duty right now," the captain turned down the offer. "However, I would like to request that Maggie grace the flight deck with her presence tomorrow, together with her father of course, The probes'--"

"Yes!" Maggie enthusiastically interrupted Captain Ruebark.

"--batteries are about to wear out, and we plan to send Charlie's probe into a tighter orbit to capture more data before it goes silent."

"Yes!" Maggie answered again, in case the captain hadn't heard the first time. Which seemed unlikely. "We will, won't we, Daddy?"

"Yes, of course," Michael said, smiling along with the captain at Maggie's unbridled enthusiasm.

"Excellent. The crew would not have you miss this. Does eleven hundred hours work for you? That should give us enough time."

"Yes!" Miss Enthusiastic answered.

"I'll have Lieutenant Salem escort you then."

"Perfect."

The captain having left them for his other duties, Michael looked at a nearby clock. "Oh shit," he said, which caused Maggie to giggle, "your mom said she'd call at 7:30. We gotta run!"

A few minutes later, dad and new daughter were snuggled on the couch in the main room of their living berth, Michael's tablet perched on his lap, his wife and son on the screen.

"So how was the flight, Charlie?" he asked the boy.

"Awesome!" Charlie bounced up and down with excitement, and then started making "Vroom vroom" rocket-ship sounds to accompany his hand flying like a rocket-ship through the air. This made Maggie and Charlie both giggle.

"Yes," Robin said among the noise, "Charlie really enjoyed it."

"And you?" Michael asked her.

"Oh, it was fine. I was mostly glad when it was over and we got to start settling in. Maggie, you're going to love our new house! They did up your room so nice!"

"I can't wait!"

"My room's cool too!" Charlie continued his enthusiastic soliloquy. "The curtains and bed sheets are all Commander Laser! How did they know I love Commander Laser???"

Robin and Michael, and Maggie, gave each other a knowing smile while Charlie made some "zap zap" laser sounds. The kid was clearly very excited.

"Well, I'm thrilled that you like it there so much, Charlie!" Michael said to his new son. And it was entirely true; this excited enthusiastic boy bore almost no resemblance at all to the quiet, inward child that he'd first met on that fateful day four months ago. You'd almost think he was Maggie's brother after all! And his excitement was infectious. He made Michael feel excited for the time, still three weeks hence, when he and Maggie would join his wife and son and begin this new and crazy life of theirs.

"Mama," Maggie said, when the chatter about Commander Laser had died down, "what about the baby? Is she okay?"

Robin patted her belly. "Oh, don't worry about this kid. She--or he--" she added with emphasis-- "takes after her big brother and big sister. She's a fighter. A little trip in a spaceship doesn't faze her at all."

"I'm not worried, Mama!" Maggie said. "But I think Daddy is."

Michael laughed, and Robin laughed, too, no doubt understanding exactly the meaning behind Michael's laugh. But she played along. "Don't worry, Daddy," she said. "I've got an appointment with the doctor tomorrow, and I'm sure it will go great."

"Will you call us right after the appointment?" Maggie said. "I mean, for Daddy, so he doesn't worry."

"Of course I will, baby."

"Don't forget, Maggie," Michael said, "we're to go to the flight deck at eleven o'clock."

"You mean, 'eleven hundred hours,'" she corrected him, with the air of a season sailor.

There proceeded an explanation about the pending flight deck visit, and a promise from Robin to keep calling after the appointment until she gets ahold of them, followed by more general conversation, until the parents, if not the children, determined that it was time to get ready for bed. When Maggie joined Charlie in protesting that it was too early for bed, Robin said, "You have a busy day tomorrow, Maggie, you need to get some sleep. If you get ready for bed really quick, maybe Michael will read you a story."

"Okay Mama!"

Robin gave her a sweet smile from a hundred miles below. "Talk to you tomorrow, then, okay?"

"Goodnight Mama."

"Goodnight, sweetheart," Michael said to his wife, "and goodnight Charlie. Be good!"

Charlie gave him a sleepy-eyed nod, and the video feed ended.

Maggie looked over at Michael with a conspiratorial smile. "You have to read me a bedtime story!" she said. "Mama said so!"

"Okay,' he answered, hoping to quell her excitement while they were still in the common room. "Let's go get ready for bed then."

"Okay!" Maggie answered over her back, already dashing to their family berth.

Once Michael had joined her and shut the door, Maggie gave him her conspiratorial grin. "So we're going to read a dirty story tonight, right?"

"I suppose we could!"

"Yes, we could," she asserted. 'First, though," the girl added, still with that conspiratorial grin, "I have something to read to you!"

"You do?"

"Uh huh!" She pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. "I wrote this yesterday," she said, then cleared her throat and started to read:


"Daddy misses Mama
Because she had to go away
So tonight he can't have sex with her,
Like they do most every day.

But Daddy has a daughter,
His princess babygirl,
And princess special likes her daddy,
He makes her heart go swirl!

Princess has a special place,
A kitty that quivers and purrs.
It's probably not as good as Mama's,
Because it's littler than hers.

And Daddy's fuckstick is really big--
She isn't sure that it will fit,
But she dreams that it's inside her
When she's playing with her clit.

So Daddy, don't you worry,
It might be a little tight
But you can fuck your princess--
I'll be Mama for you tonight!"


Michael just stood, stunned, mesmerized, for a moment. His silence seemed to disappoint Maggie. "Do you like it? You don't like it. I know it's silly..."

"Maggie," Michael managed to reply, "It's really beautiful and sexy and..." he reached out to her, and she smiled, still looking a bit uncertain, but then, when he added with honest enthusiasm, "Come and give me a hug, my little erotic poetess!" her smile broadened and she fell into his outstretched arms. He allowed her momentum to compel him backwards onto the bed, and once they were prone, he held her down on top him, her legs on either side of his hips, and kissed her on the top of her head.

She lifted her head to smile mischievously at him. "I'm an erotic poetess!" He noticed that she was moving her hips, sliding her pubis against what she surely discovered was the inevitable erection in his pants.

"You are!" he said, moving his hands down to her ass to encourage her.

"Should I write more naughty poetry for you, Daddy?"

"Yes, you should!"

"I like my Daddy's kingcock fuckstick," she said, grinning,
"It makes my cumhole quiver... What rhymes with 'quiver?'"

"Shiver?"

She grinned even more. "When Daddy fucks my dripping cunt,
I start to shake and shiver!" she finished with a triumph.

"You are SO good!" Michael said with shining eyes. "But baby, if you're at all worried... If you're worried that it won't fit, or that it'll hurt..."

"I'm not worried, Daddy. That was just for the poem."

"Okay," he said, not entirely convinced. But he lifted his head to kiss her, and while their tongues flirted and he enjoyed her taste, she went back to her grinding, with the encouragement of his hands still gripping to her ass.

"Do you remember what happened the last time we were like this," Michael asked her after their long, wonderfully wet kiss, "except we didn't have any pants on then?"

She nodded. "We were interrupted." She gave particular emphasis to the word "interrupted."

"That's right. Maybe we should take our pants off now."

Before he had even finished the sentence, Maggie slid off and lithely, unceremoniously, pulled off her pants and panties. When he had done the same, more clumsily, she climbed right back on top of him. Michael reached down with one hand, the other firmly on an ass cheek, pulling her forward so that he could lift his cock and bring his anxious head into contact with her welcoming slit.

"I don't think we'll be interrupted this time," he said.

"I hope not!"

He rubbed his cockhead up and down, and she pushed her hips back, and his head slipped in between her lips.

"I love you, Daddy,' she gasped.

"Oh, princess!" he moaned.

"I know I'm not as good as Mama," she said, "but I want to learn."

"Don't worry..." He was gripping his cock; she was pushing back on it, hard. "You're perfect, Maggie." And just as he said those words, his cockhead pushed through what little resistance her hymen offered, and he was inside.

"Oh Daddy," she whispered, laying down on him entirely, her whole upper body barely covering his chest, as he began rhythmically lifting and lowering his hips, driving deeper with each thrust, her burning cuntlips sliding wetly half-way down his shaft.

And then the two lovers lay together, the man holding his little angel tight, the angel's eyes closed tight and her lips pursed tight, the only sound the soft squeaking of the bed springs and their breath, unified together in rhythm with the springs.

And indeed they were not interrupted this time. Their lovemaking proceeded, the man gentle and cautious, the girl inexperienced but willing, her little pussy tight and warm around his aching cock. His cock thick and hard and hot, and filled her full, fuller than she ever imagined or dreamed that she would feel. Eventually he decided that it was time to finish; her vagina, originally soaking wet, was drying now, and even while the friction was exciting to him, he knew that it was causing her discomfort, if not outright pain. So he hugged her, holding her tightly to him, and began a more rapid pace.

"Princess," he whispered, "I'm gonna cum."

She grunted as her father now delved deeper, his cock impaling her with its full length. She opened her eyes, just little slits, and turned to look at him.

"Are you gonna..." she asked breathlessly, "...are you gonna call me a whore when your cum?"

"Do you want me to?" he asked, equally breathless.

Smilelessly, she nodded.

"Oh Maggie," he said, feeling the boiling of his pending release, "you're my little whore!"

"I am, Daddy, I really am!" And now he felt a new feeling, her pussy loosening, and a sudden gush of wetness flowing as if by magic, bathing his cock, bathing his balls, even bathing his anus.

"Maggie!" he said, much louder, slamming deep into her newly-lubricated cunt, "you're a whore! You're a fucking whore!"

And then the boiling erupted into a fiery explosion, shot upon shot, his aching balls filling his princess, his daughter, his babygirl fucktoy whore.

The act now completed, he held her tiny body tight on top of him, his cock continuing to throb deep inside her as it made sure to give her every last remaining drop of semen. A minute later, she gingerly moved forward, and he slipped out.

She rolled off and smiled uncertainly up at him. He kissed her. "I love you, Maggie," he said.

"I love you, Daddy," she answered.




Many hours later, Michael emerged from the blissful cocoon of a deep and restful sleep. He couldn't remember going to sleep, he couldn't remember when he and Maggie had moved up the bed to the pillows. But he remembered the sex. Oh god yes he remembered the sex! His cock still tingled with excitement of taking Maggie's virginity, from the feeling of being inside her--the tightness, the warmth, the gushing wetness. As he looked down at the still-sleeping girl, at her peaceful, beautiful, youthful face, her head against his chest, an arm draped across his belly, he very clearly remembered the sex. How long did they make love? It must have been at least ten minutes, far longer than he'd intended, longer than a man ought to be inside a girl for her first time. But it was gentle, for the most part, and there was such an intimacy, such closeness, their two bodies united as one, not simply in the usual sexual union of cock and cunt, but everything--their bodies tight against each other, the synchronicity of their breath, even their heartbeats matching stroke for stroke as if they were one being.

And she came, didn't she, right as he was cumming? Even their orgasms were synchronized! He remembered how her pussy had loosened, how her cum had sloshed out of her, soaking his balls, when he called her a little whore. He reached a hand down--he was still naked from the waist down--and felt his scrotum; still sticky, pubic hair still matted, and he smiled at the recollection of his little hussy daughter, the little cum whore. Still in the sleepy euphoria of the memories of their sex, he looked at the clock.

Shit, it was already almost nine o'clock! Lieutenant Salem would be here in two hours, and they hadn't had breakfast yet!

Carefully, he lifted her head and moved it to the pillows. Other than a sigh, she did not respond, and he slipped out from under the bedsheets and went to the bathroom to relieve his bladder and take a shower.

He emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, naked, drying his hair with a towel. Maggie was sitting up now, still in the shirt that she had been wearing when they made love the night before, nothing below. She grinned excitedly at him.

"I wrote another naughty poem while you were in the shower!" the erotic poetess exclaimed.

"You did?"

"Yep! Wanna hear it?"

"Of course!'

She picked up the crumpled paper that had the first poem she'd written on it, turned it over to the backside and straightened it on her lap, then read:


"Daddy and me and sex last night," She looked up at him, smiling,
"He took my virginity.
I know Daddy loves his princess,
Because he came inside of me.

I still feel his cock in my pussy,
I feel his sperm in my sluthole,
Daddy fucked me hard last night,
With his big thick Daddy pole.

I sorry I'm not like Mama,
And I'm not a cheerleader either,
I'm sorry I haven't got titties,
And my kitty doesn't have fur.

But I'm happy you like me anyway,
I'm happy that you don't mind.
I'm happy you like to cum in me,
I'm happy that you're so kind.

I'm happy I'm not a virgin now,
I'm happy that you were my first.
I'm happy you like to have sex with me,
And fill me until I burst.

Now Daddy, I'm your little whore,
Use me anytime!
'Cause I want to fuck like rabbits,
But 'rabbit's' a hard word to rhyme!"


Michael laughed, and Maggie smiled trimphantly.

"That was beautiful!" he said.

"I can tell that you liked it!" She grinned, looking down at his cock, which had grown to half-staff during her recitation.

He laughed. "So, Maggie, it's already past nine and we haven't even had breakfast..."

"I know, I overslept, I's sorry Daddy." She sat back and gave a little-girl pout.

"It's okay, princess, but now you've got Daddy all worked up with your naughty poem."

"Worked up?"

"That means it turned me on."

Maggie grinned, looking down at his now fully-swollen cock. "I can tell!" She looked back up. "You used to be disappointed that I wasn't a cheerleader, but now that I'm an erotic poetess, you're happy!"

He laughed and tossed aside the towel he was using to dry his hair and walked up to her. Standing next to the bed, he said, "I imagine you're too sore for sex this morning..."

"I'm okay, Daddy."

Michael wasn't sure she was telling the truth. "...and besides," he continued, 'I don't think we have time to make love."

"Pro'ly not. I'm sorry."

"But I think if we hurry, we might have time for a quick blow job before breakfast."

Her face lit in a big grin. "I promise to get ready really quick!" She crawled towards him, then paused. "Amber always gets down on the ground when she uses her mouth with whats-his-name. Is that what you want me to do?"

"A girl ought to be on her knees, looking up at the man, when she sucks cock."

"Okay!" Maggie climbed off the bed and knelt in from of Michael. Without saying a word, she opened her mouth wide.

With a hand on the back of her head, and the other holding his cock around the base, he directed his head into her. The warmth and wetness, and the soft tactile skin and muscle of her tongue, was a thrilling thing, like it always is for a man, and he let out an involuntary groan, which brought a twinkle to Maggie's eyes as she raised them to look up at him. At the same time, she raised her hands, one cradling his balls, the other wrapping loosely around his shaft. He kept one hand firmly on the back of her head, and the other joined her hand around his cock, and together they began to masturbate him while he started rocking his hips, and with each inward motion, as his head drove deeper into her mouth, she gave him a sweet welcoming suck.

It was an exquisite blow job, her inexperience obvious but not distracting--mostly because she'd read all about how to give proper head in their erotic stories, and had been dreaming of it for so long now. But as exquisite as it was, it was also fast. He was definitely concerned about the time, and as much as he would have liked to have his little daughter spend ten or twenty minutes experimenting, he felt duty-bound to finish with plenty of time for them to get ready for their command appearance on the flight deck.

So to that end, he had his fingers tight around hers and gave her a quick, hands-on demonstration of how to get a man off. She played the part of Amber the Cheerleader as best she could, petting his balls and working miracles in her mouth. The two of them made him cum together; after what couldn't have been more than two or three minutes, he let out a gruff grunt, tightened his grip on the back of her head, and let loose his load.

Maggie was a trooper, and with Michael's strong hand holding her in place, she took the first mouthful of her life. When a thoroughly satisfied Michael pulled back, she just sat there for a moment with her jaw dropped and her tongue slightly out, looking a little shocked. A viscous glob of semen began an oozing drip from the tip of her tongue, and she sucked it back in, closed her mouth, and swallowed.

Michael patted her on the top of her head. "That was awesome, Amber," he said.

"Rah rah rah," Maggie answered, waving pretend pompoms, still down on her knees.

They both laughed, and Michael helped her stand. "Do you like me better as a cheerleader, or a poetess?" Maggie asked.

"¡Los dos!"

She smiled. "Cheerleader Maggie goes 'Rah rah rah,'
Which makes her Daddy go 'Ha ha ha!'"

"Not bad, Rhymemaster MD! Now throw on some clothes and let's boogie to the cafeteria."

"'Boogie?'" She pulled off the shirt she'd worn to bed, and the two of them started throwing on some clothes. "You're silly. Nobody talks like that anymore."

"Let us move rapidly then," he said.

Maggie giggled. "Okay Daddy!"

They held hands as they walked to the cafeteria, which brought smiles to the faces of the people they passed in the hall. Michael got Maggie and him some pancakes while she commandeered a table, and when he found her, she was scribbling on a napkin. He sat down, and she looked up with her usual conspiratorial grin.

"What now?" he said with an exasperated tone.

Maggie leaned forward, smiling, even more conspiratorial. Looking down and the napkin, she began to read,


"Daddy likes my naughty poems,
They get him all worked up.
But I slept too late this morning
And we didn't have time to fuck.

But Daddy wanted a blow job,
He said we have to hurry.
And I promised I'd get ready quick,
'Cause I don't want him to worry.

So Daddy used my mouth today,
Like he always does with Mum,
And I helped him to ejaculate,
And swallowed all his cum!"


Michael smiled and shook his head.

Chapter Eleven

"Welcome to the flight deck, Miss Dubane, Mr. Dubane," Captain Ruebark said, as Lieutenant Salem--she of the starched white dress uniform--stood by at ease after handing them over to the captain's care. "I trust your mother is good? And Charlie?"

"They're fine!" Maggie replied, with her usual unaffected charm. "Charlie loved the flight down on the transport, he was all 'Vroom, vroom...'" she imitated Charlie flying his hand through the air as if it were a space ship, which brought chuckles to some of the assembled crew, a rare break from their formal demeanor, and also brought forth a stern look around the room from Captain Ruebark. "Mama has a doctor's appointment in just a little while to get the baby looked at."

"Routine, I trust?" said the captain. "Nothing... no concerns?"

"Nope! Mama says the baby's fine. She says the baby takes after Charlie and me, and is a fighter."

Beaming smiles all around the room, though no chuckling this time.

"We'll be following that baby closely, you know," the captain said. "We consider the baby 'ours.' One of the family, if you will. The first baby conceived aboard the Hi'iaka!"

Maggie beamed. "I'm going to tell her all about the Hi'iaka and all about all of you," she said. "She'll know all about how great you all are. Or him--or, 'he will'--'cause it might be a boy." That was a rare confession from Maggie that she didn't actually know the gender of the baby.

"We will be very honored if you would do that," the captain said. "Now, shall we proceed with out mission for the Hopoe? Seaman Ulrick, status please."

"All systems go, Captain. Window opens in three minutes forty."

"Margaret," Captain Ruebark said, "I'm afraid this isn't nearly as exciting as the last time we had you here with us. Hopoe is in opposition to us--which is to say, on the opposite side of Mars from our current position, so we cannot view any footage from our ship-board cameras, and in truth there's nothing much for you to do. But the crew very much wanted you here--they consider these probes as much yours and Charlie's as they are ours. And they requested that I ask you to give Seaman Ulrick the order to begin the course change for Probe C, when we are within the window."




"Aye aye Captain!" Maggie said, standing up quite straight and lifting her knuckles to her forehead, just as Lieutenant Salem does. Everyone in the room smiled.

"Seawoman Johnson, please give us the video feed from probes. Monitors one and two

"Yessir," the seawoman answered, and suddenly the assembled were looking at Hopoe again, two views that were quite well-known to all Hi'iakians by now--one at ground level from Probe M, showing a dull gray landscape as far as you could see, pockmarked with craters of various sizes. Some still the offending space rock that caused them sitting in the middle of the crater, where it landed millennia ago. The other monitor, displaying the video feed from Probe C, provided a full view of the oblong, potato-shaped moon.

"There she is," Captain Ruebark said. "Our last views of the surface."

"He," Maggie corrected the captain. The captain gave her a puzzled look "Hopoe's a boy." Then she quickly added, "sir."

The captain smiled. "Good point, Astronomer Dubane. Seaman Ulrick, status?"

"Window opens in thirty seconds."

"Are you ready, Margaret?" the captain asked.

The girl nodded, with a serious expression. Everyone in the room stared at the monitors; the one displaying the video feed from Probe C was now also showing the time remaining before the window opened. Maggie bit her lip, watching the numbers. When they eventually reached zero, she spoke in a loud, steady voice, "Seaman Ulrick, please change the course of Probe C."

"Aye aye, Captain!" the seaman said. A moment later, the view on the monitor began to tremble as rockets were fired on the probe; it settled again after about ten seconds. "Captain Dubane," he announced, "course correction completed.

"Well done, seaman," Maggie said with a grin.

"Well now," Captain Ruebark said, "I think we have just witnessed the first order issued by a woman destined for a long career in command of space exploration missions!"

"Huzzah!" the assembled sailors cheered, with much grinning, and no scolding look from the captain this time. Maggie flushed, but held her head proudly high.

"Now all that is left is to watch Probe C gradually move closer and closer to the surface until her batteries die and she collides with the moon. Seaman Ulrick, when do we expect the collision?"

"Oh eight hundred hours tomorrow morning," the seaman answered.

The captain turned to Maggie. "Do you think you'll be able to join us? Or is that too early?"

"Yes, sir, Captain, sir," Maggie said. "We wouldn't miss it, right, Daddy?"

"Absolutely!" Michael answered. 'Or, absolutely not, we wouldn't miss it." And then he added, "Ma'am."




Back at their residential pod, after riding the trams up and down again, Lieutenant Salem announced, "I'll be here to escort you to the flight deck at 7:15 sharp tomorrow. Roger, Captain Dubane?"

"Aye aye, Lieutenant," Maggie said.

The lieutenant suddenly snapped to attention, standing tall and straight and looking over Maggie's head with a blank stare, lifting her knuckles to her forehead. She stood statuesque until Maggie did the same in return, standing straight and saluting the lieutenant. Then Lieutenant Salem clicked her heels and did an abrupt, smartly-executed about face and walked out the door. Michael was impressed by how she'd pulled this off without so much as cracking a little smile. The woman was good! Although in truth, he thought to himself, he wasn't sure he had ever seen the woman smile.

Michael barely had time to get a cup of coffee before his phone jangled from an incoming video call. Robin's face lit up the screen, and he and Maggie sat down on the couch.

"Mama!" Maggie said to her mother's smiling face.

"Hello dear," Robin replied from a hundred miles below. She was sitting in an examination room at the clinic, wearing a hospital gown. "How was your trip to the flight deck?"

"Great! I got to give a command to Seaman Ulrick to change the course of Probe C. Captain Ruebark said that I'm gonna have a long career as a captain of space exploration missions!"

Robin laughed. "I'm sure you will!"

"How's the baby?" Maggie asked. "Daddy's been worried."

"The baby is just fine. Dr. Gupta says everything is normal. They're just doing some standard tests. Here, look at this!" She held an ultrasound image up to the camera.

"What's that?" Maggie asked.

"It's a picture of the baby,!"

Maggie looked closer at the screen, squinting. "It is? I don't see anything."

"It's still very tiny, but Dr. Guota says that this"--she pointed to a whitish-gray spot in the middle of the image--"is the baby, and she's doing just fine."

"Cool!" Maggie said, squinting even closer at the small image of her future sibling on Michael's phone.

"Oh, here's the nurse now," Robin said, "I better go. Talk to you again soon! Love you! Miss you!"

"Love you too, Mama!"

"Love you too, Robin," Michael quickly added before the call ended, "and we miss you and Charlie!"

"Well," Michael said as he put his phone back in his pocket, "I think you need a bath, Maggie, and then we should spend some time packing."

"Okay!" And she dashed into their bedroom.

By the time Michael had put his coffee cup in the dishwasher and joined Maggie in the family suite, she was already naked and climbing into the tub. She'd left the bathroom door open, and he could see her little bare tush from across the room. It was an adorable sight.

He walked to the doorway and leaned against the frame, watching.

"Hi Daddy!" she said when she lay down in the water.

"Would princess like her Daddy to help give her a bath?"

"Princess would love that!' she answered.

Michael rolled up his arm sleeves and knelt next to the tub, picking up a bar of soap and lathering his hands. He began to wash her nearest arm.

Maggie giggled when he got to her armpit. "That tickles!" she said, squirming.

"Sorry!"

"It's okay, Daddy!"

He lifted her other hand and began washing the arm, and she squirmed and giggled some more. Then he rubbed his soapy hands on her shoulders, and her neck, and when his hands moved down to her chest, she sat up slightly and arched her back, as if presenting her nipples to him. As his fingers made contact with the soft pink flesh, he felt her little nubs stiffen to the touch. But he also felt something more. Something different. Michael knew Maggie's nipples well; he had touched them and kissed them and played with them many, many times. But today, he felt something different. Where once there had been only flat nipples against a flat chest, he now felt a little bulb beneath her soft skin. He rolled the tip of his fingers around in a circle, feeling this new development, a tender sphere of hidden flesh an inch across, and not a half inch high.

And he realized that he was experiencing the very first moments of his daughter's breasts, just beginning to bud.

"Daddy,' she said softly, "that feels really good."

He continued making circles with his fingers, feeling the tiny buds. "Maggie," he said, as softly as her, but with an air of reverence, "I think your breasts are starting to grow."

Her face was bright red. "I think so, too," she said, in a breathy whisper. "I noticed the last couple weeks that they were changing. It feels really nice when you play with them. It makes me..." her voice trailed off, turning into a breathy moan, and she closed her eyes.

Michael slipped a soapy hand down her belly, and as it passed over her pubic mound, Maggie spread her legs, and he ran his fingers up and down her reddening slit. Then he slipped his middle finger lower still until he was gently rubbing her anus, up and down, pressing just slightly, then little circles around the puckered flesh.

"Oh Daddy," she whispered, her face even redder and her eyes open in only tiny slits. "Oh Daddy..."

"I think you're clean now, baby."

Breathing hard, she looked at him with glassy eyes, and nodded.

He lifted the thin small girl from the tub and set her on her feet, then rubbed a terry towel over her naked body. As he did, he carefully observed her little nipples, and indeed he could see now that they were standing out, just slightly, almost imperceptibly. She saw him staring, and smiled, and lifted her hands, placing her palms and fingers just under her nipples, her thumbs above, and lifted the nipples just slightly. Michael, watching her, gave a heavy sigh.

"Daddy likes my nipples," she said.

"Daddy likes your breasts," he answered.

She moved her hands up and down just slightly. "Daddy likes my bouncing boobies," she said with a big grin, "just like I'm a cheerleader and they're Amber's." Michael reached a hand behind her and gave her bottom a little playful swat.

"Follow me, young lady," he said, leading her into the bedroom.

"Aye aye, Daddy, sir!" She grinned impishly, snapping to attention, staring off at some unspecified point like Lieutenant Salem does, and lifting her knuckles to her forehead.

Michael turned back, and was presented with a vision of pure loveliness. Maggie with her signature mischievous smile, brown eyes twinkling, her cheeks still flush from the warmth of the bath and from her daddy's touch. Standing as she was with her shoulders back and her chest puffed out, it was as if she was intentionally displaying her nipples for him, her changing nipples, her growing breasts. And he could see their new shape, almost imperceptible unless you were a man who had seen them many times these last few months, who had touched them and kissed them and had memorized their every little goosebump, their every little crease, and now he could see them rising so very slightly, her pale teats held up a half inch above her flat chest. And his eyes wondered down, down her skinny belly uninterrupted until the girlish rise of her pudendum and the cleft, the pale, hairless cleft disappearing between her legs.

"I don't believe that's a regulation uniform you have on, sailor," he said.

"No, sorry, Daddy, sir," she answered, her knuckles still at her forehead. "But Captain Daddy likes it when I'm dressed like this."

He laughed, and returned her salute, and then walked out of the bathroom, Maggie following behind.

"On the bed, sailor," he commanded.

"Are you gonna have sex with me, Daddy?' she asked as she climb onto the bed.

"No."

"No??"

"No." Michael was standing next to the bed now. "Come here, princess."

She crawled over to him, and got up on her knees. He put his hands on her sides and pulled her closer, then leaned down and kissed a nipple.

"Oh Daddy," she whimpered, as he opened his mouth around the nipple and his tongue explored this new, exciting shape. A new thing to memorize. When he moved to her other nipple, she lifted her hands to her chest and cupped them underneath her breasts, like she had done in the bathroom, lifting her nipple to present it to his mouth.

Her nipple was like the sweetest candy in his mouth.

When he stood back, with his hands still on her sides, he turned her. She playfully hopped around on her knees until her back was facing him, and he put a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed her down, until she was on her hands and knees. With her ass facing him, the mirrored rises of her outer labia puffed out between her legs, pale and turning light pink as they met together at her cleft. He put his hands against her inner thighs and pushed her legs open, her knees spreading. Now the pink cleft widened, showing even darker pink, and her ass cheeks opened, displaying the pale pink, crinkled flesh of her anus.

He knelt down next to the bed and kissed her pussy, then licked the length of her slit. As his tongue pushed in, he tasted the sweet saltiness of her insides, and she moaned and dropped down to her elbows. Still inside her folds, his tongue slipped wetly down, parting her clitoral hood until the tip of his tongue met the tip of her stiffening nub and he twirled around it, then slid his tongue back up, up the length of her lips and beyond, flattened as he found her anus, licking and licking her adorable baby asshole. Maggie was moaning softly and her legs were shaking as he now used the tip of his tongue to push into her little hole. In and out, he tongue-fucked his sweet daughter's ass.

Then he slid back down to her clit and sucked it into his mouth, holding it gently with his teeth while his tongue flicked, rubbed, twirled, and little Maggie came, a long, sustained orgasm, moaning and shaking as her daddy made love to her with his mouth.

When he finally pulled his face back from her, she looked at him, her face now against the bed, her eyes pleading. Smoldering. "Daddy, please fuck me now," she said.

Michael stood, and dropped his pants, and holding tight to her narrow hips, he entered her easily, his cock sliding into the hot tightness of her vagina. She groaned at his entrance, inhaled sharply when he pulled back, groaned again when he pushed in deeper. And then Maggie began to cum again, an endless orgasm that lasted the entire time that Michael fucked her.




"'Sean pulled his still-throbbing member from Amber's used cunt," Maggie read, sitting cross-legged on the bed, surrounded by boxes in Michael's single berth as he packed away his books, "and the cheerleader felt a thick glob of his man-goo ooze out of her distended hole and slowly dribble down to her anus...' Oh!" she interjected, "I felt that!"

"You did?"

She nodded. "Uh huh."

"Did you like it?"

"It felt really dirty. I bet Amber feels really dirty right now."

"Probably."

"She is dirty! And so am I!"

"Daddy's dirty girl."

She giggled, then went back to reading. "'He rolled off of her and lay down next to her and spread his legs. His now half-hard cock was sticky with the girl's cum, and his own.

"'"Do you want me to clean you now?" she asked him, although it was obvious what he wanted. He didn't answer, just reached over and grabbed the top of her head and pushed her down. When her face was at his studpole...' Studpole??"

"Yeah," Michael laughed. "This writer needs to put away the thesaurus. Or get a better one."

Maggie giggled. "'When her face was at his studpole, her tongue flicked out and he began to lick him, all over...' Wait, she's cleaning him with her tongue??"

Michael shrugged as he picked up another stack of books. "I guess so."

"Is that something girls do? Does Mama do that?"

"No, that's not something your mother has ever done, not to me at least."

Maggie looked thoughtful for a moment, then went back to the story. "'Amber's sweet soft pink tongue licked up and down his shaft, and she tasted herself, her cum mingled with his, and then she moved her tongue down to his balls and licked them clean as well.' Wow, Amber's soooo dirty!"

"Yeah, I'll say."

"That's all there is in this scene," Maggie said. She scrolled the page for a bit. "Wow, does this story ever end?"

"Some writers just keep going and going," Michael said, "like they never want to stop. I think they fall in love with their characters and can't imagine the story ever ending."

"I can see why the writer would fall in love with Amber. She's just so dirty, it's so much fun to read about her!"

"Yeah, but it's more fun when you tell your own story."

She grinned. "The one about the princess, and her daddy king with his big studpole?"

"Right!"

"Daddy King kissed princess's nipples and it made her pussy quiver and gush," she said, "and she begged her daddy to fuck her. And when he was done she felt his cum leaking out of her fuckhole, a big thick gooey glob of Daddy cream sliding down to her butthole."

He smiled at her.

"You like that, Daddy, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Are you in love with the princess?"

"Yes, I am."

"You don't want the story to ever end, do you?"

"No, I don't."

"I don't either!"

"But for now, we should probably go to dinner."

"Okay!" Maggie jumped off the bed, standing on what little available floor there was. She was wearing shorts and a little teeshirt, and Michael was suddenly aware that he could see the shape of her nipples, her tiny bumps poking up through the shirt. Gonna have to get the girl a bra soon, he thought to himself.




The best thing about dinner was that the televisions in the cafeteria were showing Hopoe, as seen through the camera of the C probe. The probe was noticeably closer to the moon's surface now, and occasionally someone back at the flight deck would focus the camera on a particular surface feature--a crater, or a rock, or a crevasse.

"Daddy," Maggie said as they took their trays to the conveyor belt that led to the dishwasher, "can we go swimming? We haven't been swimming in ages!"

"Of course we can, pumpkin! Let's go get our suits."

Maggie took his hand as they walked out of the cafeteria and into the hall leading to their pod. It was good, Michael reflected, that she was well-known for being such an affectionate girl, and especially an affectionate daughter, and that everyone knew they had a very close relationship. This made their handholding seem quite natural, normal father-daughter stuff, and not the public sign of a torrid private sexual relationship. To outside observers, it was merely a charming and innocent sweet girl showing a need for closeness with her mother's new husband, not a potty-mouthed eleven year old nymphomaniac and a man who couldn't keep his hands off of her.

Michael Dubane, once a lost and lonely man who set out on a voyage to a distant land with not even a thought or a dream for any sort of physical or spiritual renewal, had somehow lucked into not just one profoundly fulfilling relationship, but two. More than two, in truth, when he considered Charlie and the little spot of life in that ultrasound his wife had showed them.

Father and daughter changed into their swimming suits in the changing rooms at the recreational deck, met by the pool, and ran, holding hands, to the water, cannonballing, laughing as they did. Maggie's bikini was now just a bit too tight on her; the girl had definitely grown since the first time they'd swam together, and now when she stood up in the pool after they'd jumped in, he could see those little nipples again, sharp as they stiffened in the cool air.

They swam together for the better part of an hour, then sat in the hot tub for ten minutes, veritable prunes when they got out.

"Let's get some dessert now," Michael suggested, remembering a row of little slices of cake he'd seen in the cafeteria. "We can take it to the observation deck!"

They sat on a bench in the yellow glow of Mars, staring out at their new home, eating the cakes, Michael drinking an espresso. Maggie talked about the future, with the sort of unbridled enthusiasm and optimism that only a child can have. "What should we name the baby?" she asked, and then proceeded on without waiting for his answer, "I can't wait to tell her about the Hi'iaka and Captain Ruebark and Lieutenant Salem and Seaman Ulrick and everyone! Do you think I will really be a space explorer some day? Will you come with me when I go?"

Michael just sat, grinning, listening to the young girl talk and talk. There's nothing in the world, well, in the universe, that he liked better than listening to Maggie Dubane talk.

Eventually the lights in the observation deck began to fade, indicating that it was sundown in some sense of the term, and they picked up their things and wandered back to their pod.

Certainly not a sweet and innocent girl now, Maggie was anxious for their second night of sexual debauchery since Robin's and Charlie's departure.

"Daddy," she said, when they were alone together in their family berth, "take your clothes off."

"Yes Ma'am!" he answered.

She giggled. "That's right, sailor," she said in an authoritative voice, which was particularly amusing coming from such an adorable eleven year old girl, "I want you in your regulation Daddy uniform!"

"Oh? What's that?"

"Nothing! Naked!"

"Yes Ma'am!" he said, starting to undress. 'But what about you, Ma'am?"

"What's the regulation uniform for a space explorer?" she asked with her impish grin.

"I suppose a space suit of some sort," Michael answered, followed quickly with a "Ma'am."

"Well, I don't have a space suit. So what's the regulation uniform for a daughter?"

"A cheerleader outfit, Ma'am," her daddy answered, to Maggie's giggling delight. He was naked now, his cock standing at attention to salute Miss Captain Dubane.

"And no panties!" Maggie added.

"That's right, Ma'am!"

'But I don't have a cheerleader outfit, either," she pouted.

"Then you need to be naked, Ma'am."

"I suppose that's only fair," she agreed, and began disrobing herself.

Michael lay in the bed, and nude Maggie climbed on to join him. Kneeling next to him, she leaned down and kissed his nipples, sucking on each one and running her hand through his belly hair and down to his swollen cock. She looked up at him.

"Daddy,' she said softly, "when we were swimming, I could see your studpole through your swimming suit, and I got really hot. I wanted to kiss him."

"Will you kiss him now, Ma'am?"

She smiled. "Yes I will, sailor."

Maggie's little mouth began to give her Sailor Daddy's cock sweet kisses, from the tip of his head to the base of his shaft, and down to his balls, and back up again. And her little pink tongue came out and she began to lick, gentle little licks around his head. She lifted his shaft and licked down the topside, his cock as long as her entire face, then returned to his head, her pink tongue looking tiny compared to his bloated mottled-red glans, and she giggled as she made him twitch when her tongue teased the spot right below his hole where the ridges of his crown meet together. Then with her signature puckish grin, she dribbled spit down the length of the underside of his shaft and, looking up at him with big blue eyes, licked, and licked, up and down, smothering his cock in wetness until Sailor Daddy groaned in blissful agony. Once she'd brought the poor man to this place, she moved down to the place where shaft meets sack, and gave it as big a kiss as her little mouth could muster, an open-mouthed, spittle-dripping kiss. Then down further, to the wrinkled skin of his scrotum, tongue licking, nose nuzzling, spit flowing, eyes up and staring at his face.

And then down even further, to where ballsack joined with flesh below, and further still, and he lifted his hips and spread his legs and her sweet delicate tongue lapped over his asshole, and she dribbled spit and licked and licked while Michael squirmed and groaned. She seemed to never want to stop licking her daddy's ass.

But eventually she sat up and smiled as she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. "Did you like that, Daddy?"

"Oh god yes," he said, his voice cracking.

"It's very dirty! I felt so dirty when you did it to me, and I feel even dirtier now." She was smiling. "Amber never licked Sean's butthole."

"No, I don't think she did."

"I'm even dirtier than Amber!" she exclaimed with obvious pride. "And she's the dirtiest girl ever! That makes me the dirtiest-er! No, the dirtiester-est!"

Michael laughed quite hard, but Maggie put and end to his laughter when she climbed on top of him, reached down, lifted his cock, and sat gruffly down on it.

"Uggg," she groaned. "Daddy... your studpole is so big and thick..." She put her hands on Michael's chest and she began to rock, his cock gradually sinking deeper and deeper into her until her ass cheeks settled on his thighs and she stayed there for a moment, tensing her kegel muscles, squeezing him inside her almost painfully tight vagina. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her face went instantly dark red, and she lifted herself on her knees, quickly plopped back down, then up again, the entire time squeezing him with the muscles inside her in rhythm with her pumping.

Maggie rode her daddy long that evening, ten minutes at least, wetness flowing from her then entire time, until finally Daddy came. When he was done, she pulled off of him but did not dismount, instead settling her leaking little cunt on his stomach, her hands still on his chest.

Once she'd made a proper sloppy mess of Michael's belly, she climbed off, leaned over, and began to lick. She licked the cum from his belly, then down to his cock, cleaning his shaft completely, then down to his balls, bathing them with her tongue, then down further, and further still,.down to his ass. And little Maggie Dubane, daughter-sweet, space explorer, flight-deck-charmer, erotic poetess, potty-mouthed nymphomaniac, licked her daddy clean.

When she was done, she climbed up to him and smiled. "I cleaned you," she said, matter-of-factly.

"You did!" he answered.

"Now you know I'm the dirtiester girl ever," she said.

"Daddy's dirtiester girl," he said, putting his arm around her and kissing her on the top of her head.

Her eyes were closing sleepily already. "I love you, Daddy," she said.

"I love you too, my babygirl."

Epilogue

Michael's single berth, what he had once considered his private cocoon, his retreat into a comforting loneliness to which he had with gladness resigned himself, was now completely empty. The rows upon rows of books were gone, packed into boxes and carted away by the porters to the transport's hold.

The family berth was similarly empty, save for the two rolling suitcases that he and Maggie had reserved for those items that they needed for their last days on the good Hi'iaka. The beds still had their sheets, at least the double bed for Michael and the single for Maggie--the single kept out of a sense of decency and secrecy, so that the porters didn't raise their eyebrows at a father and his daughter sharing a bed.

The ship was nearly empty now as well, the first three traversals of the transport having taken most of the travelers down to the biodome, down to what will be their new home for the rest of their lives.

The probes on the newly-discovered Martian moon Hopoe had ceased their transmissions weeks ago, Michael and Maggie on the flight deck to observe the fiery end of Probe C, and the much less climactic end of Probe M as well, with the mission scientists on Earth extolling the valuable data that they had gathered.

And Michael and Maggie were together in bed, making love, as they had so many times during the last three weeks. Maggie had declared a few days earlier that they had indeed "fucked like rabbits;" that Michael had cum inside her twenty-six times ("I counted!"), and in her mouth at least ten times ("I counted that too, but I lost track."). And she had cum on his mouth an untold number as well.

Maggie's growth had continued during these weeks, her nipples now more pronounced than they had been on that first day that he and discovered their buds. But even yet more exciting for her father, they had risen from her chest atop tiny mounds of flesh, little more than a hint of breast that no one but such a careful observer as he would notice--an careful observer who had examined every millimeter with his eyes and his hands and his tongue. Maggie was proud of her little breasts and wanted him to see them constantly; her favorite thing was to cup her hands under them and hold them up for him to kiss.

Tonight she wanted to make love missionary. "I like it best when you're on top, Daddy. That way we can hug and kiss!"

Michael had other designs though, and throughout their long, forty-five minute lovemaking marathon, they switched positions often, rotating through them all--Maggie on top, Maggie on her knees and elbows, Maggie on her side with Michael behind her, Maggie sitting on her desk with her legs spread wide.

This night was bittersweet for Michael, because though he knew that the days of endless lovemaking with his daughter were coming to an end, he also longed to be with her mother. Maggie's baby breasts were exciting for him, but Robin's were full and beautiful, and no doubt fuller now from her pregnancy, and more beautiful. And he loved his daughter's pussy, so tight and small and inexperienced, but his wife's cunt was a beautiful thing as well, hot and open and well-versed in milking her husband's cock.

But now, his mind was not preoccupied with such thoughts. Now, he was with his daughter, and loving her. Their parade of positions was finished and they were back to the original, to missionary, and she was clearly exhausted, and so he finished, one last glorious orgasm inside his daughter before they left behind the good Hi'iaka forever.




Lieutenant Salem met them one last time to take them through the chain of trams to the transport dock. No other residents were given the honor of the third in command giving them an escort; for most, or all, of them, their escorts were the porters. But the Dubanes held a place of honor in the hearts of the crew, and even perhaps especially in the heart of Lieutenant Salem. The handsome formal woman had certainly been smitten with Maggie's infectious smile and boundless enthusiasm, and when Maggie had given her a big sweet hug upon the lieutenant's arrival at their now-empty living pod, the woman had displayed the rarest of things on the Hi'iaka, the rarest of things in the universe--a smile on Lieutenant Salem's face, when she returned the girl's hug with enthusiasm enough that Michael was convinced of her undying affection.

Now as they approached the docking doors to leave behind the good Hi'iaka forever, they saw ahead of them the entire crew--Captain Ruebark, Seaman Ulrick, all of them, standing in a line, and as Michael and Maggie walked past, they saluted. Maggie returned their salutes, laughing, which brought smiles and even laughter to some of their faces as well. And then Captain Ruebark stepped forward and shook Michael's hand, and turned to Maggie, but before he could extend his hand to her, she barreled into him with a hug as grand as the one she'd given Lieutenant Salem before. The captain laughed with delight.

"Godspeed to your two," he said. "Give Robin and Charlie our love."

"Thank you for a most enjoyable four months, Captain," Michael said, then turning to the crew, "and such a professional crew!"

"We'll miss you all!" Maggie said.

"We'll miss you, too," Captain Ruebark replied. And then the last two passengers on the fourth voyage of the good Hi'iaka, a voyage across 150 million miles of space, a four month trek and yet the voyage of a lifetime, passed through the docking door and left the ship behind forever.

A half an hour later, the Hi'iaka's giant robot arms carefully grappled to the transport and slowly, gently, with almost motherly concern, edged the spaceship away from the docking port, turned the ship to face towards Mars, and let loose her hold.

Comments

Nickname Date Feedback
Anon 03/22/2021 Thanks for that sweet & tender story! And blessed be the wife & mother who loves her daughter and understands her first steps on a life's journey.
Anon 03/21/2021 I've been reading your stories for many years, The Voyage of a Lifetime has been one of my favorites. I'm glad to see it completed.

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