"Marsala's Mad Tryst" by Abraxas 2010-12-28
One thousand miles above Venus, the ship orbited gently around the cloudy orb - its rustic, swirling colors reflected brightly against the vessel's dark windows and dusty surface. The Great War had ended and the process of rebuilding the world had begun. Everyone everywhere was tense and anxious.
Marsala stood before the closed doors of Nara's quarters. He held a wine bottle in one hand while with the other he knocked. No answer - he was about ready to turn around and run but at the same time he knew he could never bring himself to do it again. It had taken him the whole day to work up the nerve and courage to see her - he could not quit so easily.
He opened the doors and inside he found that the room was lightless except for the soft glow of a table lamp in one remote corner and the image of Venus that broke through the unblocked windows. He walked across the floor, by a pair of old gym socks whose light stench offended his sensitive nose. He kicked them out of the way - they flew across the air to the side of a bowl from which a black cat heartily ate the mashed body of a dead fish.
The cat yawed and alarmed the concealed pair at the remote corner - he saw the shadowy silhouettes of their heads turn to face him.
"Marsala?" Nara asked, somewhat shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, I, um," tense and nervous, he kept his eyes on the floor, not looking directly at her. "I didn't know you had company - I'll come back later."
"No don't," Nara said, getting up. She let her SNES controls hit the floor. "Zero and I were just playing an old game."
"I'll leave if you two want to be - alone," Zero said, catching a glimpse of the shinny bottle of wine the neosapien held in nervous, giddy hands. "We'll do this again sometime," she continued, already at the door, giggling under her breath.
Marsala had turned his face to the exit when it opened and closed to let Zero out - anything to keep from looking at Nara herself. He felt like a fool - like a complete and total fool. He heard her walk toward him - slowly he angled his face to meet hers.
She stood next to him, her small, frail body rising up to his massive chest. She took the bottle from his strong hands and thought about it for a moment. He was about to say something but in that stuttered voice - she cut him off.
"I never knew you thought of me that way. Maybe I should go change my shorts."
"Take them off," he said, stopping himself too late. "I'm sorry, Nara, I'm just so nervous, I can't control myself. I..."
"I understand." She put the bottle on a nearby table top. "Lately, I've been a little nervous around you, too." She took his shaking hands into hers. "The thought of your naked body heaving over mine."
"Nara!"
She looked into his face: "Tell me you never think of that."
"I have but I'd never do it, never in a million beers. Years I mean."
Tenderly and gingerly he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer to the growing heat of his body - she felt something a smiled.
"I think of you all the time, Nara," he stroked her long, yellow strands with his twiddling fingers, "your naked body and the naughty, naughty things I'd do to it."
"Oh you sweet thing!" She rubbed her check up against his breast, feeling his nipple grow hard and erect. She broke away from him only slightly. "Let's get started," she said, already taking off the top of her uniform.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't be silly - come on - surely you know we have to be..."
The door opened to reveal Bronsky - the fattish man faced the well-lit hall outside. "You're even more of a redneck than I am and that's quite a stretch!"
"Wolf?"
"Nara?" He looked into the darkness of the room, peering through the murky shadows. "Oops, am I in the wrong place!" He burped and the smell of Jack Daniel's spread across half the ship. "Marsala - what have I stumbled into! Oh, god, the images, the images! Ahhh!" He ran back, hollering and waving his arms in the air, fleeing in terror.
The doors shut and the room was dark again - now naked, she approached him.
"Come on, you're not embarrassed," she teased him, petting his growing excitement. "I wouldn't think you have anything to be embarrassed about."
Overwhelmed by his unscratched itch of carnal desire, he picked her up and pressed his lips onto hers. For what must have been an eternity they kissed and, breaking way, they pranced about the room giggling, touching each other in lewd and obscene ways. She tackled him.
"Wow, you're strong," he said, not really resisting.
"Ah, you forget I have a black belt."
She began to undo his clothes - and then the phone rang.
"Who would call at a time like this?" she asked.
"Don't," he said, trying to hold her arm back. "Let it ring."
But, alas, the phone answered itself - JT's smiling face glowed in the flat glass of its view screen.
"Nara? Nara, I know you're there," JT said.
"JT? Yes?"
"Look, what you and Marsala do in your own time isn't none of my business - but you could try to keep it down in there. Everyone on this side of the ship can hear what's going on in there and quite frankly we are disturbed."
Marsala was flush red with embarrassment.
"OK," Nara said.
The screen went black - the two lay side by side on the cold floor, kissing.
"So that's it, right? This is what terrans do?"
"We're just getting started."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you know how it works?"
The neosapien looked stunned, silent.
"Come on, surely you must know."
"I don't."
She sighed and rolled him to his side.
"OK, then this is..."
Again the door opened: "Nara! Nara!," Kaz shouted, "you have to see this! It's incredible! Bronsky..."
The pair on the floor rolled their eyes and sat up.
"Oh, oh, I," he stammered. "Rocked your world yet? I mean, um," he smiled beet-red, his hand over his mouth, "I'll..." he turned around and vanished into the hall.
"I guess this wasn't a good idea after all," Marsala said.
"The night's not over big boy," she jumped atop of him.
The world went black and in a sudden rush Marsala 'awoke' again. He was in his vehicle, alone. He looked around but Nara was no where to be seen - she had yet to return from the ruins of her home.
"Nara," he sighed - then felt a certain wetness, a draft, too. He looked down: "Oh, no," he lamented, "that's the fourth pair of shorts I've ruined this week."
END