The Captain's Heart CH 56 (Patreon)

“And this is the readout for deck three of the civilian housing section,” the technician explained. Jeremy now had enough of the technical

“And this is the readout for deck three of the civilian housing section,” the technician explained. Jeremy now had enough of the technical language he’d wanted to familiarize himself with the control; and most technicians understood English.

“And part of your job, when you’re assigned at this console, is to manually smooth power spikes, as well as coordinate with repairs so they can investigate points that aren’t behaving as they should.”

“Exactly, Engineer.”

Kelsirians used nowhere near as much automation as humans did, Jeremy was discovering.

His tablet buzzed, but he ignored it in favor of watching the graphs, numbers, and lines that told the technician what was happening with the power in the part of the ship they were responsible for.

“What’s the usual response time from repair, if something fails?”

“It depends.”

“On?”

“Well, the severity of the failure.” The technician fidgeted. “How close or how busy the repair packs are.”

She wasn’t hiding something, or hoping he would miss a lie. Technicians were upfront with their mistakes. It had surprised him, considering how Thuruk talked about the Engineer being gruff and not having patience for stupid mistakes.

So, why was she—

“It’s over,” someone whispered in his ear and he jerked, spinning, pulling his tablet and raising it to…

Thuruk looked at him, a smile forming.

“Don’t do that, Thuruk.”

“Then don’t do what you were doing, Jeremy.”

“What was I—you used my name.” He’d yelled, trying to get Thuruk to stop it with the Engineer while they worked, and that hadn’t worked.

“The shift is over. I messaged you about it. You shouldn’t be keeping her behind.”

The technician looked at the floor. Right. Rank meant that she wouldn’t tell him her shift was over. “I’m sorry, you should have told me. Thank you for answering my questions.”

“It’s nothing, Engineer.” She didn’t flee, the way he’d expected, base of her clear discomfort. She didn’t even hurry to leave.

He motioned to an arriving technician. He’d have to go to their station, but he’d be able to—

Thuruk lowered the arm. “The shift is over.”

“I just need him to—”

The Kelsirian sighed. “This isn’t how it works. The shift is over. Now is the time to live.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Jeremy stepped into the other man’s space. “What if I decide to spend that time living with you?” He grinned at the confused expression. He barely felt the oozing discomfort, and that made him press on with the joke. “The office is mine. Maybe we can get to know each other well enough you’ll give me an even shorter name to call you by?”

It definitely wasn’t fear in Thuruk’s eyes, but incomprehension. Maybe he couldn’t understand why Jeremy would hit on him when he was married, and he had Gralgiran in his life. Which made this even funnier.

He laughed. “You should see your—”

Thuruk glanced over Jeremy’s shoulder and his expression went deadpan.

He glanced and hurried to move away from the other man. “It’s not what it looks like,” he hurried to tell his Heart.

“You mean it isn’t you enjoying your friend’s company?”

“Not like that!” Man, did that sound lame. “I mean, you don’t have to worry. I was just teasing him. He has a mate, and I have you. I wouldn’t have…” His Heart’s amusement kept him from finishing.

Gralgiran placed a hand on his cheeks. “I have no doubt all you were doing was teasing him. And that if he’d objected, your friend has the training to prevent you from continuing.” He smiled at the other Kelsirian. “Isn’t that right, hunter?” Was that a hint of a threat in the tone?

“Yes, Alpha.”

The smile was filled with delight when it returned to Jeremy. “See?”

His objection that Thuruk hadn’t initiated this died in his throat. “What brings you here?” He’d apologize to his friend at the start of the next shift. If he caught him before he the ranks came into effect.

“I have a surprise for you.” He offered Jeremy his arm.

He mouthed a ‘I’m sorry,’ over his shoulder, which seemed to confuse Thuruk, and took the arm.

The route Gralgiran took him along was the expected one to return to their quarters until they walked past the final turn.

“Where are you taking me?” This couldn’t be punishment for being unfaithful. He hadn’t even done anything. Wouldn’t had done anything. If Gralgiran had showed up even a minute later, all he’d have seen was he and Thuruk having a laugh at the situation.

“You’ll see.” The smile was enigmatic, and Jeremy wasn’t sure he trusted it. As the captain, Gralgiran had to know every room on the ship. He could probably take them to…what, the brig? Without even having to ask for direction.

Would explaining what he’d been doing help, or make him come across as working too hard at covering up a truth?

Why had he found these situations so funny when they happen in a romantic comedy?

There were a few more turns, then they stood before a door. Gralgiran motioned for him to open it.

Was he really going to get him to open the door to where he was going to be punished? Well, if he had hurt his Heart enough to deserve some sort of punishment, he’d take it like a man.

He tapped the panel, then entered the…. He looked at the Kelsirian couch, the snuggle seats on each side that were to the left of the large room. The wall, which displayed a star field. Ahead, a corridor lead further in.

“I don’t understand.” What kind of punishment was he going to receive here?

The hands squeezed his shoulders, and Gralgiran nuzzled his neck. “Welcome home.” He urged him forward.

“But our quarters are back there.”

The first door on the left was the shower room, and at the back, two closed doors. A few paces further in, on the right, a door was opened, revealing a bedroom. The next door on the left was an office, the one after that another office, but this one had.

“Is that a drafting table?” He was at it before Gralgiran replied. He activated it, then brought up the menu and its capabilities. He didn’t have all the technical understanding yet to make out everything it did, but just from what he could read, it was more advanced than the one in his lab on the station.

He turned. “This is for me?”

Gralgiran smiled, leaning against the door frame. “And for me. This way, I’m hoping to avoid breakfasts with you paying more attention to your tablet, trying to understand what you wrote in the night than to me.”

Jeremy ran at him, then before he thought better of it, jumped, wrapping his arms around the Kelsirian’s neck and kissing him. His legs went around the waist, then a hand was on his ass, holding him up. Their tongues rubbed together as they moved from muzzle to mouth. They moved, and Jeremy didn’t care where to. The motion rubbed their erection together, and it felt good.

His ass was on a solid surface, and his hands into Gralgiran’s pants. The fasteners were magnetic, and strong enough they didn’t easily come undone, but they gave as his hand reached the hard cock.

Gralgiran grunted and thrust.

Jeremy pulled away. “Tell me you have lube,” he panted. While his Heart grabbed his pants from his feet, he undid his. He took them off with a couple of ass bounce on the drafting table, Then Gralgiran was back between his legs, his hand glistening, and a hungry look in his eyes.

He nodded, and the hand moved between them. The fur brushed against his cock, and a shiver traveled from there, up his spine to the center of his pleasure center. Then his balls were pressed between him and the arm, the finger moving between his cheeks, slicking them, then pressing against—

“Stop!”

Fears flooded him. The pain would be unbearable. He wouldn’t be human, he wouldn’t be a man. He wouldn’t—

The arms that held him were gentle.

He pressed his head against Gralgiran’s chest.

“Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck,” he said. “Fuck!”

“It’s all right, Jer. We will attempt this again. The war isn’t lost.”

“It’s not okay,” he growled. “I fucking want this. Why can’t my fucking mind get with the program?”

“What they did to—”

“Don’t, okay? Just don’t.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. I keep doing this to you and it’s not fair.”

“I am a patient hunter. I will be here when you win the war, and I will help you celebrate.”

Jeremy chuckled. “I hope you guys have stuff like sick days, because I’m keeping us in bed all day when that happens.”

Gralgiran rubbed his muzzle against his cheek. “I look forward to that day.”

“Thanks for being patient.”

His Heart chuckled. “I still do not understand your need to be grateful for that.”

“Just accept it, okay?”

“Always.”

    *

Jeremy turned, still reading through the list of boards he needed to find in the office’s system so he could print them, and nearly collided with the wall.

“What the….” He looked around. How was he not in the corridor leading to engineering? He brought up the map, and even before he’d taken in the details, he remembered.

He’d moved. The path he’d memorized from their quarters to engineering wasn’t valid anymore. So where was he?

He wasn’t so far off, three turns and he’d be back on track.

He turned as a Kelsirian left a room, and an odd smell reached him. Well, odd to him, for being on a ship. The smells of woodlands were one he associated exclusively with Earth, the woods behind his parent’s house.

The door opened as he stepped to it. Where the control panel would be was a banner, like the one he’d seen at some intersection, but without the flower on it. This was a plain banner.

Unsurprisingly, the room was large. It was more humid than he expected, and along with the smells, were faint sound of leave rustling in the breeze.

Banners hung on the walls. Close to a meter wide, one and a half in length. Each with a design. An arrow, like the one in his and Gralgiran’s bedroom, an eye, a nose pad, a mess of lines, the claws of Gralgiran’s name sake. And so many others.

He didn’t have the names that went along with the designs, but he felt like he should. Maybe it was something that came in one of the last two language implants, maybe they felt familiar because the previous ones had some detail that made no sense at the moment without the rest.

He came to a stop, after a slow circuit, before the banner with the mess of lines. The one with the eye was to the left, on the right the banner bore a Kelsirian skull. He hesitated, then touched the banner. The material had the feel of hide, with rough hairs. He found the start of a line and traced it.

“What’s this all about?” he whispered, his finger moving through the mess, heading for—he startled at the vibration of the pad in his hand.

If you and your Heart are having too much fun, call this your off day so we know not to bother you.

Got lost, he replied to Thuruk’s message. Found…

He looked at the banners surrounding him and was reluctant to share where he was. It was irrational. Kelsirians had to visit this room all the time. This represented their gods.

He erased the word. Heading there now.

Maybe that was why he didn’t want to mention it. He wasn’t Kelsirian. These weren’t his gods. He didn’t even believe in gods. Maybe it would be offensive to Thuruk to know Jeremy had been here.

    *

Thuruk acknowledged his arrival with a nod, then returned to work.

“I’m going to be in the office, Thuruk. The sooner I find the designs so I can print them, the sooner we can finish repairing the reactor.”

“Yes, Engineer.”

Jeremy watched the quiet exchanged that followed. The technician at the station next to Thuruk seemed to be what, mocking him? The way she focused on her work, after noticing Jeremy, supported that. He decided against demanding an explanation. They were adults, and he had work to do.

The filing system was…not how Jeremy would have structured it. He moved files around, arranging them by categories first, then chronologically. It was easier to start with what he was looking for, instead of when he’d built the file. It meant he needed to open each one, then had to work out what it was so he could categorize it properly. It was slow, but down the line, it would streamline any search.

And it was how he found himself staring at the schematic for a print design for a conical item, with a slight bend in it and faint ridges, and two spherical bags at the base.

A cock.

Why was there the schematic of a cock in here? Wasn’t the Engineer a professional?

Whose cock was it? The Engineer? The dimensions made it larger than his cock. Maybe larger than Gralgiran’s? He hadn’t measured it, so without putting his hands on it, he wouldn’t—he looked at the printers. It wasn’t like he couldn’t work while it printed.

He sent the file to the printer, and it whirled into function.

And it wasn’t like anyone would come looking in the Engineer’s system, right? Rank and all that. Once he had checked if it was bigger than Gralgiran’s, he’d dump it into the recycler, and all evidence of his inappropriate use of engineering equipment would be gone.

He’d categorized three schematic when the ‘done’ message appeared on the screen.

He was oddly nervous as he opened the printer. More so when he took the printed cock out. This was so not something he should be doing during work. The first thing that registered was how natural the material felt. Other than being too cold, it could be flesh. It could be an erect Kelsirian cock. The second was that it was definitely thicker and longer than Gralgiran’s.

Satisfied, he dropped it in the recycler and returned to work.

What would the numbers be for Gralgiran’s cock?

He could measure it when he saw him after the shift. The idea of holding it, analyzing it was tantalizing, and followed with images of a Kelsirian driven out of his mind by yet more teasing he couldn’t spend.

He shoved the oozing discomfort in the box, but still decided he couldn’t put Gralgiran through that.

And he didn’t have to. He knew what the cock felt like in his hands, and he had a schematic with dimensions he could alter. It was just a question of bringing them down until it felt right.

    *

The fifth print was the right one. Once held against his skin until it was body temperature, stroking it felt just like stroking his Heart’s cock. Enough, he ended up hard himself.

He set it aside. He had work to do. And he shouldn’t enjoy himself like that with a replication of a cock when he’d have the real thing when he returned to their quarters. And where he’d probably freak out again the moment it came close to his ass.

He couldn’t keep doing that to him.

He eyed the cock.

What if…

He set the lubricant to print.

If he freaked out in the privacy of the office’s toilet, who’d know? He could practice until he beat that instinct of repulsion into submission, and when he again brought Gralgiran to a level where he’d take him. He would enjoy it. Enjoy being fucked by his Heart.

And then, maybe he’d fuck his Heart in return.

If Gralgiran let him.

Did he even bottom?

Did Jeremy top?

Was Gralgiran expecting him to? Not to?

The ‘done’ message appeared on the screen.

One thing at a time.

Right now, it was time to start the final leg of this war against the programming Omar and the commander had forced into his head. He didn’t care how many battles it took. He was winning it.

Outline section 

No outline

Addition 

End of shift, Thuruk isn’t formal anymore. He won’t let Jeremy work past the end. Jeremy is able to use the drafting table and the printers.

They move to new quarters.

Show them trying it again.

Jeremy and a banner room.

Jeremy and using the printers as a way to help to fight the programing.

Jeremy and coffee withdrawal. Have Xenial mentioned. Have Jeremy’s visit the Quartermaster

Another ‘passage of time’ chapter.

Used this one to establish that Jeremy is making himself familiar with how things are done, which is in line with him wanting to know how things work. Also have them moving into their new quarters, and another attempt at sex.

Jeremy in the banner room is something I’ve been wanting to make happen for a bit, and this was a perfect opportunity.

And with access to a printer and the prodding of a design, I figured Jeremy would take things into his own hands when it comes to fighting for his sex-life/