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?"

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For the next chapter in this story, see The Voyage of a Lifetime, Chapter Nine.

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