A black Range Rover pulled up outside my house. A tall man got out, he was wearing a black suit and sunglasses. Sunglasses in Yorkshire? No, that wasn't right, that wasn't right at all. I think we saw the sun about two weeks ago, and I forget how long it was before that. He walked up my drive and knocked on my door.

I left my security chain on, and I opened my door.

"Ma'am, " he said in a North American accent, "Professor Pierce, Professor Mrs Mica Pierce?"

"And who is asking?" I queried.

"Ma'am, I have been asked to collect you and take you to Fylingdales for a conference, an international conference."

"I don't know anyone at Fylingdales."

"No Ma'am, but they know of you, and I have been asked to escort you there as a matter of urgency. I can wait a few minutes for you to collect your passport, which you will need for security."

"I may not wish to come." Well, of course I would go, this was like something out of a Hollywood film, but he didn't need to know that.

"Ma'am I am advised that refusal is not an option."

"Don't be ridiculous, this is England, you have no jurisdiction here."

"Ma'am, " he said, "if you could just answer your phone please Ma'am."

At that point my mobile phone started ringing, it was on the table where I had left it when I went to answer the door. I left the door open and walked to the table and picked up my phone.

"Hello."

"Professor Pierce, I have the Prime Minister for you, " a clipped voice said, There was a click and then I heard his unmistakable voice, so familiar from TV.

"Professor Pierce, your country needs you."

"What for? This is ridiculous, I am just a languages professor, Fylingdales is all spies and cold war and stuff, I know nothing of that."

"Professor, it is the nearest very secure location to you, we need you to join a conference there, I cannot say anymore on this line, please go with the Operative that has come to collect you. You are not in any trouble, but your country might be and it needs your expertise."

"Who will feed my dog?"

"I will phone your mother personally as soon as we finish this call and ask her to feed Maisie. I will also ask the King to invite her to a Garden party at the Palace"

Shit alive, he even knew the name of my dog. Mother was a full blown Royalist, she would love the Palace. Me? I was more leaning towards being a Republican by nature. The Royal family did nothing for me.

"Okay."

"Thank you, please do not text or phone anyone and say where you are going, this is very important."

"Okay, Christ this is like something out of James Bond."

"Goodbye Professor Pierce, " the line clicked and that was that. I had spoken with the Prime Minister.

After a boring drive I was escorted through the Fylingdales boundary gates, gapped double gates, I think they call it a tiger trap, and then driven to a low building where a man came out to collect me, it seems the man who had driven me did not have authority to enter the building. The building had a huge concrete construction on top with circular indentations in it. I vaguely knew it was some sort of radar array and that was it.

Inside I was escorted through brightly lit corridors to a dimly lit large conference room. At one end was a large screen with a number of people displayed, and there were around ten people in the room sat around the table.

"Professor Pierce, " a man said, "if you could sit here, there is a briefing pack in front of you."

I sat at the indicated seat and opened the bottle of water that was by the briefing pack and took a sip, this was heady stuff. I flicked through the pack, it really was quite technical, the gist was that we had pretty much made first contact, and that the Canadians had a rocket ready to launch to investigate.

It seems the Canadians and their space industry was very much under the radar compared to the Americans, Russians and Chinese, and under the radar was very much a prerequisite. The public suspecting first contact could end up with riots and loss of control. Little was said that could indicate anything untoward.

The conference was hosted and chaired by the American Secretary of Defence. Head of Space Force America was also there, as were some high up technical bods from Canada, Russia, China and the UK. I was surprised by how small the actual group of people in the know were, and also how unknown some of the people were. There were none of the usual faces that come out as talking heads on TV when something interesting happens.

It turned out that Voyager 1 had sent some disturbing transmissions back that had the scientists in a tizzy, a neutrino pattern that Voyager should not be able to detect. Further signals came back that could only be artificial, intelligence made, but no intelligence on Earth could have made them. The fact that there was extra terrestrial intelligence could not be denied.

A while ago Voyager 1 had left the heliosphere, a sort of invisible boundary that encases our solar system and acts as a protective shield, deflecting harmful cosmic rays and other charged particles that come from outside our solar system, and so safeguarding Earth and its neighbours. That was all I knew, but it seems the EI (extraterrestrial intelligence) was the other side of the heliosphere boundary.

What was it? The scientists were intrigued, they couldn't explain it, and that made governments nervous. The problem was that Voyager 1 was over twenty five billion kilometres away, and even with a constantly accelerating nuclear propulsion unit, it would take over a year's spaceflight to get to it and find out what was happening.

Once whoever got to it, then their messages would take around a day to get back to Earth. So we were looking at over a year, assuming we left today, to find out what the hell was happening beyond the heliosphere.

Key questions where why they hadn't, whoever they were, crossed the boundary, what did they want, and what could we learn from them? By learn from them I took that to mean exploit. For me the unspoken and unasked question was, were they a threat to us?

Talking went back and forth for a number of hours. Refreshments were bought into the room and there were a small number of comfort breaks and eventually a consensus was arrived at. The proposed space craft to go and explore would have room for two people, a physicist and a linguist. The physicist had just won out over a biologist, but it had been a close run thing.

The conference wound up and I assumed that I would be taken home, my head buzzing with words I could not say, knowledge I could not share. I was picked up by a similar car that dropped me off, but I noticed that we went a different way out of the base.

"Where are we going?" I asked the driver.

"RAF Leeming miss, " he replied, his eyes never once wavering from the roads.

"Why are we going there?" I asked.

"Miss, I am just the driver, I was told that is where you are to be delivered to, and that is what I am doing."

I hadn't even heard of RAF Leeming and google on my phone told me little more than it was an operational air base able to deliver logistical requirements globally, basically a logistics hub. Why the hell they wanted me to go there was beyond me. I sat back in the car seat, closed my eyes and dozed. It seems my life was not under my control.

I was met at the gate and escorted into a waiting area and an armed man stood by the exit. I was, so they told me, going to Canada. I didn't want to go to Canada, I wanted to go back to my house in Bingley, I wanted to go back to teach my students at the University, but apparently what I wanted was irrelevant. My country needed me in Canada and so that is where I was going.

I was not going on a nice commercial flight, no, I was going by military transport. Functional rather than comfortable, and it was around a ten hour flight, my amusement at what had originally seemed like a Hollywood film had turned into a nightmare, and to say that I was annoyed was an understatement. It wasn't that I didn't ever want to go to Canada, I had never even thought about going there, I mean, who does?

Arrival in Canada was at what I presumed was one of their military bases, there was no customs exchange, a piece of paper was stamped with something and I was told to keep it with my passport, then I was whisked away to some large facility out in the middle of what looked like a forest. I was shown to a room and told to get some rest, I would be collected at 0700. To be honest I had little idea of what the time was, everything had been a whirlwind.

In the room I found a suitcase, actually one of my suitcases from home, and it was full of a selection of my clothes. How the hell had they done that? I assumed when I was in the conference at Fylingdales. I was so far behind with what was going on. My brain was running at around the speed of sound, but my body was exhausted. I used the ensuite bathroom and fell naked into bed and awoke with someone banging on the door and calling my name.

It was damn early in the morning and my head was humming, I needed coffee. I fell into the shower and after drying myself and washing my teeth I threw on some clothes, a simple skater dress over my underwear, some flat shoes and I headed off to find breakfast.

It seems Canada is like America, sugar is added to everything, bread, cereal, milk; all has added sugar, my God. I got the canteen chef to make me an omelette stressing that I wanted no sugar adding, and I sat at a table and stared forlornly at my breakfast.

"Morning English, " a voice said. Its owner sat opposite me and smiled.

"Er, hello, " I replied.

"I'm Dan, Dan Weikowitz, Professor of Applied Sciences at Harvard."

"Oh, okay, er, if I'm English, does that make you American?"

"Yes, I suppose it does, but you are the only English Gal here. Have they told you anything?"

"Nope, not a damn thing. I was in a conference in England, and when I thought that they were taking me home, they whisked me off to a military base and flew me here, I fell into bed and poured myself into breakfast."

"I was in that conference but from Houston, but I managed to keep my mouth closed, which as anyone who knows me will attest is a pretty rare event."

I smiled, he was intelligent, and amusing, and I was a stranger in what to me was a strange land, a friendly voice was welcome. I finished my omelette and drank my frankly awful coffee. The north American people are so proud of their coffee yet it is vile and awful, they need to come to Europe and drink proper coffee. Oh well. I bet even the bottles of water are sweetened.

"I think that we are being summoned, " Dan said as he nodded towards the door. I turned and looked, a man was coming our way, beckoning.

"If you will both follow me, " he said as he got to our table, "we are ready to begin."

"Begin what?" I asked.

"Your training."

I looked at Dan, and he looked back, he seemed as clueless as I was. I shrugged and got to my feet and followed the flunky out of the room. We went along a couple of corridors and then found ourselves in a room about twenty feet square. There was a huge display screen at one end and chairs dotted around the room. Each of the chairs had one of those small fold up tables that I was familiar with from Uni, and on four of the tables there was a large folder and a pen and a highlighter.

"Pick a seat with a folder, " a woman said. I hadn't noticed her when I walked in, and I did not recognise her at all, I didn't even know if I should. As I was taking my seat there were some sounds behind me, I turned around and saw two more people enter the room. One I recognised, he was Professor Ashok SanDhir, a linguist like myself, a little older and very accomplished. The person that came with him I had no idea of, but Dan smiled at him.

I had an inkling, perhaps he was a scientist like Dan. Interesting.

"Okay people, " the woman said. "I am Herta Bloenguit, I shall be undertaking your training and acclimation."

"Training and acclimation for what?" I asked, unable to keep my quiet any longer.

"The trip, " she replied.

"What trip?" Dan asked just as I had been about to.

"The trip to the aliens, " she replied.

There were gasps from all four of us, I think I managed a 'what?'

"Look everyone, I thought that it had been obvious from the conference, we have to send suitably knowledgeable experts, and you four are the leading experts in your fields. Dan and Mica are first choice, Ashok and Jerry are shadows and will go if for some reason the primary can't go."

"Well, here is a reason, " I said, "I have no intention of going on a spaceship anywhere, I mean it is at least a two year journey, I am not an astronaut and I never wanted to be, shit, I even hate flying."

"That is what the training is four. I have two weeks to teach you enough and then you take off, time is tight because of the relative positions of Jupiter and Saturn, we will use their gravity to boost your speed. We think we can get the journey time down to ten months." Herta stared at me, I wasn't going to be bowed.

"No, just no. I have been basically kidnapped. I have no intention of going."

"Professor Pierce, you have no say in the matter, you are going, and quite possibly the future of humanity depends on how much you learn over the next two weeks. This is not a holiday to the Bahamas, this is the future of humankind and you are our best hope, you and Dan."

My brain was in turmoil, I was furious, this was worse than a Hollywood film, I was in no position to go on a spacecraft, I had students to deal with, I had Maisie to think of. I didn't have a partner at this time, my last relationship had ended six months ago, and I had not been in a hurry to find a new one, but never the less, this was just wrong.

I was sitting there chuntering to myself and suddenly realised that Herta was stood in front of me.

"You have no choice Mica, " she said, "I am not joking when I say Humanity is depending on you, the thing is, no one knows, apart from a couple of heads of state, and that is it. We have no other options. The best two options are in this room and the next best two are also in this room, there is no third options. Now, will you get your head out of your ass and start working."

Dan was smiling, Ashok and Jerry were looking relieved, relieved perhaps that they were second choices, or relieved that they didn't have the might of Herta facing them down.

I shrugged. "I need decent coffee, not the crap your canteen serves, I need espresso. Then, and only then I might be in a position to agree."

"Professor Pierce, you haven't grasped the situation, you are in no position to make demands."

I just stared at her. After a moment she turned and went to a desk at the side and picked up a phone. "Get an espresso machine and beans pronto, " she said into the phone. I suppose I had a small victory. It wouldn't last long.

The next two weeks were fourteen hour days of technical learning about the spacecraft interspersed with fitness training, apparently ten months of constant acceleration would take a toll on the human body, and they needed me as fit as possible. There was no more to learn about the aliens, everything known had already been discussed at the initial conference. Copies of everything would be available digitally in the spaceship.

The spaceship. It was already in orbit, they didn't want to launch anything from earth with a nuclear propulsion unit; the spaceship had been assembled and tested in orbit. We were to be transferred by a conventional space rocket launching from the Churchill Range in Manitoba which I had never heard of. Apparently, the Canadians have been a bit tight lipped about their space accomplishments, but they can and have launched from Canada into orbit.

The spaceship that was to take us outside the solar system was predominantly an American affair, the Americans kept launching from Canaveral and Space City Texas on an almost daily basis, so frequently that people almost stopped taking any notice, that was how they had got the components into orbit unnoticed. Secrets in plain sight. The Canadian launch would hardly be noticed, and it would not be remarked upon. 'Just a defence satellite' would be the answer if anyone asked.

The day for fitting the spacesuits was a day of horrors frankly. Basically I had to be naked, and there was a catheter to 'fit' as the suit was going on. There was no room for embarrassment, and in space Dan and I would have to take the suit on and off and so we would have to get used to seeing each other naked. As for faeces, well, make sure you are empty before take off, and there was a sort of toilet in the spaceship, again no privacy.

We would spend most of our time inside the spacesuit, taking it off every day to clean ourselves with the specially provided wash wipes. We would help each other, I expected mostly our backs, and then presumably get back into our suits. Wearing the suits was standard instruction, just in case of issues. Keep your helmet close was the rule.

Launch day was upon me before I even knew it. It was an 0547 launch, so up at 0347 to get kitted out. We had flown by helicopter to the launch site the day before, abluted and had an early night. We didn't have to worry at all about the take off, there was a Canadian astronaut controlling that, we were just passengers. Her name was Sandra and she had flown two prior missions. If I am being generous she looked 'functional', if you know what I mean. If you don't, I am being generous about her looks.

A lift look us up to the crew module at the top of the launch vehicle, I didn't look down, I am not that good with heights, I just carried my pack and followed the man and did what he said. I sat in my designated seat and did up all my straps and plugged in my comms chord and my air supply. A man then came and checked everything, closed my visor and gave me a thumbs up and a pat on my helmet. No going back now.

I could hear all the chatter between Sandra and ground control, and all of a sudden the countdown. At zero there was a tremendous sound and then it felt like I was being kicked in my back. The only thing that went through my mind was that if something went wrong it would probably be very quick and painless.

After a short while I noticed it went quiet, 'that's the sound barrier passed then, ' my brain told me. There was a non stop dialogue from Sandra, talking about max q, and MECO and SESU and all manner of technical stuff that I had been told about and was too wound up to understand. At one point the pressure in my back stopped and I realised I was weightless, and then the kick happened again and I was heavy again. That would be when the engines for the second stage started.

Sandra docked us with the spaceship, that was about fours hours after we had launched, most of the time was spent chasing down the spaceship and catching it, it was apparently in a trans polar orbit. Once docked, Sandra ran a number of system tests and then left her seat and opened the docking hatch.

Dan went through first and then me and finally Sandra. She watched as Dan went through the systems, he had been designated pilot to my relief, and then she bade us all good luck and left, locking the hatch behind her.

Dan and I spoke over the comm system, and I could also hear Dan talking to Mission Control in Houston. Now we were on the spaceship, Humanity 1, control was from Houston, prior to that for the rocket Launch it had been Churchill Mission Control. They provided a backup function should anything go awry.

There were a few hours of checks that Dan mostly did, I had a few to do as Mission Support, and they were all listed in a folder, yes very old fashioned, and marked as done with a probably very expensive pen that worked in zero gravity. All done. It was time, time to leave Earth behind.

It wasn't the painful launch of the rocket from the ground, this was more a steady increase that just seemed to keep on getting more and more intense, it wasn't long before it exceeded the pressure on my back from the rocket take off, and it kept on going, no respite, 'You will get used to it, " Herta had said. I wondered at the time how many spaceships she had been in.

Time went on and on, I was not familiar enough with Einstein to know if time was going faster or slower than I was used to on Earth, but now after a week of acceleration Dan and I were travelling faster than any human had travelled. Familiarity, the breeder of contempt, had us out of our spacesuits more than we were in them. We basically lived in underpants, I didn't bother with a bra, my boobs were just that, boobs. Half the world had them, and also, half the space ship had them.

I was looking out of one of the ports, amazed as always at the vast number of stars I could see, far far more than I ever saw on Earth and Dan came up and looked over my shoulder.

"Pretty isn't it, " he said.

"Scary I think is the word. I remember seeing a photo of stars taken by the Webb telescope that had hundreds of stars in it, only they weren't stars, they were galaxies each of which had billions of stars, it is difficult to comprehend."

As I spoke I think I bent a little more, my bum going a little further back, Dan leant a little further forward, and we made contact, his groin, dick and all, pressing against my buttocks. That of course would be fine, the thing I noticed though was his dick getting hard and pressing more against me, and his breath, his breath changed into light gasps.

I could have straightened a little, I could have moved forwards a little, but I didn't, the truth is I was enjoying the feeling of a hard dick pressing against my body.

"I'm sorry, " Dan said.

"What for Dan?" I replied.

"Being inappropriate."

"Don't be daft, " I said, turning on the spot so I was facing him. I looked down and his underpants had an impressive bulge, so much so that their waist band had actually pulled away from his waist. I looked down the gap.

Dan looked at me, looked at where I was looking and then his hand reached out and held my face, tipping it up to face him. He leant forwards and his lips touched mine. That was the point of return or no return. I reached down and slipped my hand into the gap and held his dick. No return.

His dick was very hard and whilst not a porn star dick, it was a good length and thickness. I eased his underpants away and down, trying to use one of my feet to push them down his legs. I got them about to his knees. His fingers grazed the crease of my fanny through my underwear and I sighed, 'that' sigh.

"We are both grown ups, " I said, "we know what we are doing, let's make sure that there is no tension." With that I pulled my knickers down and off letting them fall to the floor under the enforced gravity of acceleration. This was to be no languorous affair between lovers on a tryst. I turned around again and pushed my bottom out and back towards him.

I felt his dick nuzzling between my cheeks and then he dipped down and found the spot, his dick slipping easily into my fanny, more easily than I would have expected, I was, it seemed, rather moist.

"Oh God, " Dan gasped as he reached my depth, "you feel so good."

"You don't feel so bad yourself, " I managed as my breath was taken away by the unexpected coupling. I had just assumed that we wouldn't, that we would remain detached and professional. Now I was wondering why we waited so long. Dan began to shag, his dick moving in and out of my fanny, the rim of his dick, my first ever cut dick, sliding across my internal bumps and ripples.

He began to go faster, his pubis slapping against my buttocks, my gasps echoing around the capsule in the age old sound of copulation. This first time was simple, but I knew it was only the first, that we would progress beyond simple intercourse, that I would suck him, that he would lick me, this was now a given, we had nine months to explore each other's bodies, me safe, my tubes having been tied some years before.

Harder and harder Dan went, my pressures building higher and higher, my long forgotten pleasures flowing though me, tensions in my body approaching breaking point, and then Dan thrust harder than before, pushing in hard and as he pushed I felt his ejaculations inside me, his balls filling my fanny, flooding my womb, his mouth grunting his orgasm as my own let loose, pleasures flooding through me, my breath lost and then my scream of release.

I rarely orgasm, almost never with vanilla sex, was it the occasion, or was it something else, I didn't know. Dan's dick slipped from me with a gurgle. I clamped my hand over my fanny and made my way to the toilet, I didn't want to drip everywhere. Well now, that was the metaphorical cat out of the bag, there was no going back I guessed.

After I had cleaned up, and put a small plug of wet wipe inside me, I went back to retrieve my knickers. Dan was holding them and proffered them, I took them and pulled them up.

"Well, " he said, "that was kind of unexpected, I mean, I am not sorry, but I never even thought of it, it isn't that you are unattractive, I am digging myself a hole here, because you are, but, well, to be honest, Aliens, kind of took my focus, you know."

"Yes, but not too deep a hole, me either, I have seen you naked of course, as you have seen me, but, as you say Aliens."

The next few days we were back as we were 'before coupling' and I didn't give sex much of a thought, and then Dan said something.

"We will be turning the engines off as we swing by Jupiter, " he said, "do you know what that means?"

"Weightless?"

"Yes for quite a while, at least an hour. The computers will run the ship, we will have nothing really to do."

"Weightless you say."

"Yes."

"I wonder how many people have, you know, done it weightless."

"Not many, although I bet the Chinese will have done it, but they would never say."

"You are probably right."

And that was that, nothing more was said, but the seed of an idea had been planted, what would it be like to shag when weightless. There were really two options, shag and find out, or shag at least twice to confirm what we found out the first time. Shagging would have to occur.

I spent a while going through the various items on my checklist, fewer than Dan had, and every one had passed every time I checked, but they still had to be done, and they did at least help pass the time and relieve the boredom. I had decided that I would use my personal area of the computer on board to write a diary, but as nothing changed day by day, it soon became boring and I gave up. Perhaps I could write a novel instead.

As we approached the time of weightlessness I went and used the toilet and then gave myself as thorough a wash as I could. I noted that Dan did the same just before me, he had a lot more to monitor than I did as we approached zero gravity.

"Are you strapped in?" Dan asked, "two minutes to go."

"Yes, I am ready for whatever may happen, " I replied, he could take that to mean what he liked. We had decided that we would not wear our space suits, it seemed pointless.

When the engines cut off there was a sudden lessening of pressure on my back, and my stomach felt like it was doing summersaults. After a minute or two everything inside me settled. I glanced through the porthole and saw the edge of Jupiter, it would soon fill the view as we swung closely by and its gravity would exert itself on the ship. Due to physics that I didn't understand we wouldn't be affected inside the ship, but the ship would be.

Dan undid his straps and pushed out of his seat. He floated slowly into the centre of the cabin where he came to a halt. I undid my straps and pushed off to join him, and soon we were holding each other in a sort of no man's land. It felt weird and a little exciting. I reached down and held onto his dick, it was firming up very nicely.

Using my hands to walk down his body I found myself at crotch level and it was time to go further than we had before. Last time had been vanilla, this time I intended to go fully cosmopolitan. I opened my mouth and sucked his dick in. My tongue rode along his shaft, again no foreskin was a new experience for me, and his dick pressed past my tonsils and into my throat. As I bobbed Dan moved away and back, it was the effects of no gravity, nothing to hold him in place, and my legs were flopping around with nothing to do.

I could hear Dan gasping as I sucked his dick, my tongue running around his rim before pushing him in deep and then pulling him back for more tongue work. I ran a finger nail along the seam in his balls and then as it got underneath and touched his perineum, Dan gasped loudly and his buttocks clenched. It seemed Dan enjoyed a little back door contact.

Dan pulled my head from his dick and worked his way down my body until he was at my crotch. As his tongue made contact with my crease I wrapped my legs around his neck to try and help stop him wandering away. His dick had acted like an anchor for me, I had nothing similar to offer.

"Oh fuck yes, " I gasped as his tongue licked my nubbin, pleasures shot through my body, flowing everywhere, the lack of gravity made no difference. My buttocks tightened as my pressures grew and I knew that I would soon be climaxing and care would be needed if I were not to snap his neck in the throws of passion.

His fingers ran around my entrance, teasing and then lightly probing, my fanny petals fluttering as he began to push gently inside me, my fanny walls slick with my juices, my anticipation high, my pleasures in full flow. Dan began to move his fingers in and out and I had the odd sensation of moving back and forth as his fingers entered and left me.

"God, yes, " I gasped as my pressures grew and grew and I knew that would not be long. Dan moved his mouth a little and sucked my clitoris into his mouth, gripping it between his teeth, my pleasure bot going into full drive mode, I felt like I was creating my own gravity and then my legs tightened, my back arched and I shrieked, I gasped, my fingers clutched at his hair and my orgasm exploded through me, limbs flopping, nothing touching me except his fingers and teeth.

He eased away and then walked up my body, his dick snagging at my crotch. I kissed his lips, tasting myself on them as I reached down and lined his dick up with my entrance and then flexed my hips to absorb his dick within me. Dan flexed and pushed, and with no gravity we almost fell apart, but Dan had his hands on my buttocks, and we stayed coupled.

Dan began a slow shag, as he pushed in my body tried to float away, but for our hands holding each other we would have quickly parted. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his dick sliding in and out of my fanny, his rim scraping along the walls of my fanny, my muscles gripping him, my hands digging into his back, his into mine.

My pleasures were flowing as fast as ever, my pressures rapidly building again, my crotch felt on fire as my electrics fizzed. Dan's movements had the effect of slowly edging us towards the edge of the capsule, I tried to rotate us so that we would touch down feet first, but with nothing to work off against, I had no success, it looked like it would be heads and shoulders that would touch down first. It would be a slow collision, but our mass still counted against us, even though we had no weight.

Pleasures flooded my body taking my thoughts away from any pending collisions. His dick eased in and out, passing over my ripples, his rim scraping first the one way and then wiping the other. My toes were curling, my electrics were fizzing and Dan was thrusting, his actions getting a little more energetic, our coupled bodies began to tumble slightly, his gasps joining mine in filling the otherwise silent capsule.

He thrust in hard, his dick holding, my fanny feeling the cool of his spurts, I gasped, my pressures released and I screamed my orgasm just as my back collided painfully with the side of the capsule, I didn't care, my pleasures were flowing, my body was on a high, the impact could not distract me.

We slowly uncoupled and I managed to grab a handhold on the capsule wall and pulled Dan to me. I used handholds around the perimeter and got myself to the loo where I managed to clean and plug myself, the downside of a woman is we get all the emissions.

We pulled our underwear back on and managed to make our way to our seats and strapped ourselves in. Dan had warned that there might be some small adjustment firings and that they would cause small effective pockets of gravity. We were better in place rather than free floating.

It was a few months later, a few months of boredom interspersed with occasional copulations and the never ending checklists. We were past Neptune and heading towards the outer reaches of the solar system, much further than any human had ever travelled, and only a few Earth space probes had ever been this far or further.

I heard something, I turned to Dan, "sorry, what did you say?" I asked him, I hadn't really been listening and didn't hear what he said.

"Me? Nothing, I thought it was you."

"Well, now that is interesting. You heard something?"

"Well yes.""And so did I yet neither of us said anything. We need to check the comms equipment." I was a little worried, if we were both hallucinating then not only were we in trouble, but so, by default, was Earth. We spent a good thirty minutes checking the comms equipment, our checks interspersed with occasional words that came from nowhere.

"Mica, " Dan called, "suit up. Just in case."

We had agreed, oh months ago that we would only wear our spacesuits in the event of an emergency, and in Dan's mind us hearing voices was an emergency. I spent about fifteen minutes getting into my suit, about five of which were applying the damned catheter, my only consolation was that Dan would have to do the same. I had no idea which of us would have the most trouble, either way, it had to be done. Eventually we were suited but with our helmets open. They could be snapped shut in a second. We both plugged in the comms cables so that we could easily talk should we have to shut the visors.

The words I was hearing made no sense. I could not get any degrees of sense out of them. As far as I could tell they were in multiple languages and not in anyway connected. I shut my visor for a moment, I don't know why, I think I wanted to shut out the distraction so that I could concentrate on what I was hearing. The moment I shut the visor all the words stopped.

"Dan, " I called over the comms channel, "shut your visor."

He looked at me and I saw him close his helmet and then nod his head.

"Interesting. The voices have stopped."

"Yes, " I replied. "I am going to open mine to see if the voices start up again, don't open yours, not yet, you are more important than me, you are the pilot, so let me take the risks, if indeed it is a risk."

"Okay, " Dan said and he remained facing me, the gold reflective coating on the visor meant I could not see his face.

I undid the catch and opened my visor. The words flooded in again, seemingly more intense, or was it simply that they were more noticeable after the period of silence. I spoke to Dan, "I can hear them again."

"I can't he said, they are not coming over the comms."

I also realised that the words were inside my head, they were not audible.

"Dan, the words are telepathic, not audible. I think that you should keep your helmet closed for a while. I wonder if it is the Aliens trying to communicate."

"We are a couple of weeks away from the boundary, " he said, "Interesting if it is them. I agree that I should keep my helmet closed. But if you want me to listen, I will, but I would prefer only one of us had our helmet open at any moment. We don't know what this is."

"Agreed, a problem for me is that I cannot record the sounds and listen to them on playback to try and make sense. I am going to use my console and write the words I hear down. If you bring up the same file, then you can see the words, together we may be able to make sense of them."

"Yes. Okay. Ten minutes, okay, then close your helmet and we will look at the words and see what they might mean."

I opened a shared file and started writing.

Visitor

Dimension

Distracción (Distraction -- Spanish)

Resource

vaste stof (solid - Afrikans)

Old

Kodai (Ancient -- Japanese)

Travel

Zhànjù (Occupy -- Chinese )

Stars

Zashchishchennyy (Protected -- Russian)

Time

Deleo (Destroy? Latin)

Beginning

That was all I could get. There were other words in languages that I did not recognise. I wasn't especially sure of the Japanese and Chinese words. I shut my visor, the sounds evaporated from my mind and I spoke to Dan.

"There were more, but I did not recognise them, I don't know every language, probably only around twenty or so."

"Well done, I only know French and English. I have to say, those words, they do sound a tad threatening."

"Yes, to you and I, but what we do not know is where they have come from, if they are the aliens, do they actually understand our words or are they just repeating words that they have heard? And if not the aliens, then what the hell are they and where the hell are they from?"

"I am going to open my helmet and listen for a few minutes. If the worst seems to be happening, close my helmet for me, okay?" Dan it seemed was determined to have another listen.

"Yes Dan, of course, " I replied. I got close to Dan so that I could snap his helmet to if required.

Dan undid the catch and then opened his helmet.

"Fuck it's loud, louder than before I am sure, " he said, almost gasping.

"Louder and all I can hear are what I would call threat words, of those I understand anyway, no sensible word structures, just words. Okay, that's enough."

He closed his helmet again and then I heard him sigh with relief over the comms.

"I guess that we are in our suits for the duration then, " he said, "no more space nookie."

"We have experienced it, I have the memories, once we are on our way back and we get past Neptune again we can resume normal activities." It did seem to be on the far side of Neptune that the voices started, I guessed they could only reach as far as Neptune. I had kind of decided that they were coming from outside the heliosphere and their power could only push so far against the solar wind, but that was a guess that I kept to myself.

After two weeks of living in our spacesuits we were at the heliopause, quite what would happen when we crossed it was beyond us. It would take us as long to slow down as it had taken to get here, no one had mentioned that, basically our journey was going to be twice as long as anyone had suggested. I think they knew, but it was too inconvenient a truth.

"Are you ready?" Dan asked, "we are about to go beyond the heliosphere, cross the heliopause and find out what is happening."

"Yes. I am ready. Again, once in interstellar space, only one of us opens their helmet, okay?"

"Yes, and as our linguist I suggest that you be the one to do it first. However, if you would prefer it to be me, then I am cool with that."

'We could pick lots' I thought, but no, logic said it should be me.

"I agree, it will be me. Just tell me when."

We sat for about an hour as we monitored our instruments and then Dan said, "that's it, we are now beyond the sun's protection."

I hadn't felt anything, but the readings on our instruments told the full story, no solar particles, weird readings that made no sense but were similar to the results that both Voyagers sent back.

There was a sudden violent shaking, my seat restraints all that stopped me flying about, it lasted for about five minutes and then stopped. I realised that we were in zero gravity, I looked at my instruments, Dan looked at his.

"Have we stopped?" I asked, "only my instruments say we have."

"So do mine, Jesus, that was something that we hit, whatever it was, God I hope the ship isn't damaged, that was a mighty punch we took."

"I am opening my helmet."

"Okay Mica."

I undid the catch and opened my helmet.

EARTHLINGS

DANGER

WE MUST DEFEND

YOU MUST CEASE

I slammed my helmet shut. I relayed to Dan what I had heard.

"How come they know our languages?" Dan asked.

"Well we have been transmitting signals for over a hundred years, they travel at the speed of light, so, basically they could have been listening to them for a hundred years, or, and here is another idea, they can't, but they are stimulating our brain with ideas which our brains are translating for us."

"Well the transmitting sounds more plausible, but to be honest your brain idea could equally be the case. Are you going to try and communicate?"

"Yes, but they are so loud in my head."

I opened the catch and lifted my helmet again.

WE MUST DEFEND

YOU MUST CEASE

WE ARE NOT SOLID

TRANSMISSIONS DISRUPT US

I interrupted, well I tried to.

'Who are you?' I thought, 'where are you from?'

EARTHLINGS

DANGER

WE MUST DEFEND

YOU MUST CEASE

The message seemed to be on repeat and then the voices in my head stopped repeating.

'Not from here.'

The voice was quieter much less shouty. I was repeating what I heard so that Dan could sort of hear.

"Where from, can we see you, do you have a spaceship?"

'You would not understand where from, we have no physical form, we need no vessel, your transmissions cause us pain and will kill us.'

"We cannot stop transmissions, our entire life on Earth depends on it."

'The we will have to stop it.'

"You can't stop it." Well, at least I hoped that they couldn't stop it.

'We cannot cross into Sol space, the boundary does not let us past, but we could find something to send to Earth that can pass the boundary and would stop Earth.'

Perhaps our suits were acting the way the heliopause acted and somehow inhibited them. Dan was waving at me, I shut my visor, their sounds and voices immediately stopped.

"We have to stop them."

"Agreed, but how?"

"I have an idea, let me speak to them, you keep your helmet closed, okay?"

"Yes of course."

I watched as Dan opened his visor and saw his face recoil as he must have been bombarded with their voices in his head. After a while I heard his voice.

"We could help you."

I could not hear their reply, and as tempting as it was to open my helmet, I dare not. I had to keep my hands near to Dan so that I could slam his helmet shut at the first sign of issues.

"You could travel in our space ship, that will protect you from Sol."

Another pause.

"How much space do you need, volume I mean?"

Another pause.

"Could you fit inside our space suits? We cannot hear you when we wear them, so I presume that once inside with the helmets sealed, you would be safe from the solar activity, we could take you to Earth and deep underground, we could work on a solution together."

Another pause.

"Okay, let me talk it over with my colleague."

Dan reached up and closed his visor, we were back on comms only.

"They bought the idea."

"Er, okay, but how does that solve anything?" I was confused.

"If they go into the suits, then they will be trapped."

"Okay, but what then?"

"They will no longer be a threat."

"What do you suggest we do with them? We can't let them free on Earth, and in space the sun will harm them."

"I plan to jettison the suits into a close solar orbit. They will never be able to leave and they will never be able to harm Earth."

"Bloody hell."

"Of course, once we shut them in, there will be no more communications."

"No, so we can't learn anymore?"

"No, but Earth will survive."

"Agreed, we need a code word."

"For what?"

"Closing the helmets at the same time and shutting them in."

"Pluto."

"Pluto?"

"Yes Dan, it was demoted from being a planet, let's use its name to save humanity."

"Okay, but this could all go wrong, we will both have to take our suits off, then fit the helmets back on with the visors open so that they can enter, and then on Pluto we basically lock them inside. If we can't hear them in our heads, the plan will have worked."

I didn't really need to think about it, I simply started taking my suit off, their voices immediately inside my head. I tried not to think back at them I dare not let the plan cross my mind lest they discover it. I tried mentally singing songs to distract my brain.

'ONCE WE ACCELERATE YOUR VESSEL AGAIN, ' their voice said loudly, 'WE ONLY HAVE A SHORT TIME TO GET INTO THE SUITS AND FOR YOU TO PROTECT US FOR THE JOURNEY.'

I didn't answer, I kept singing songs. I sat the suits in the unused crew seats at the back of the cabin, we would still need to strap ourselves into our seats for their acceleration of us, especially if it were to be as violent as our slowing down.

WE ARE STARTING ACCELERATION the voices said, and as prepared as I thought I was, I really wasn't. It was as if a weight of several tons had been placed on my chest, my boobs felt inverted, I could not breath, what air had been in my lungs was pressed out, and I was pretty close to blacking out, and then it stopped.

PROTECT US

I managed to move and to close the helmet as Dan did the other. I fell to the floor I had no strength, Dan looked to be in as poor a shape.

'Can you hear us, ' I thought to the Aliens, no response.

I crawled and with an effort beyond what I thought I was capable of I got back into my chair. Dan was already in his and he set the computer to take us back to Earth and home.

I lapsed into sleep or it may have been unconsciousness, either way I was out of it. When I slowly came round I wasn't sure where I was, my thoughts were scramble. As my eyes began to focus and I saw the controls and the walls of the capsule I began to remember and realised where I was. Dan had either not slept or had come around before me, he was looking at the control panel in front of him.

He looked across at me, "welcome back, " he said.

"Did you sleep?" I asked.

"Yes, although I suspect it wasn't sleep. I was out for about an hour, you a little longer."

"That was some acceleration, " I said.

"You're not kidding, at this speed we will be back at Earth in four months, longer if we want to slow down."

"If we want to?"

"We have on board the most dangerous cargo ever known to mankind. Do we really want it on Earth?"

"Oh. I see."

He had a point. A very valid point.

"Could we jettison them into space?"

"We could, but they are in our spacesuits, we don't have an airlock, only a hatch."

"Right. Yes. I see."

"Let me think on it."

"Could we stop, dock, transfer to another vessel and then remotely send this ship somewhere it can't be recovered?"

"Such as the heart of the sun?"

"They are too dangerous to live, would they, could they survive the sun?"

"I don't think so, the solar wind affected them badly, don't forget they couldn't get beyond the helioscape."

"Shall we do that then? That would be genocide wouldn't it though?"

"I think survival of all life on Earth is more important."

"Even wasps?"

He laughed and went back to his console. I wondered if that would work, if Mission Control, if Governments back on Earth would agree. I closed my eyes, I was still shattered from the acceleration.

"Gravity is going to change and feel weird, " Dan said.

"Oh?"

Yes the ship is facing the wrong way, we are actually moving forwards. I need to use the thrusters and turn the ship around so that we are able to use the engines to slow down."

"Do we need to do that now?"

"No, but sometime in the next three months, if we want any hope of stopping."

"Okay, let's leave it. If Earth doesn't agree, then we might not be stopping anyway."

"Okay."

I fell asleep again, I awoke a little, I dozed, and I slept. I think it was pretty much out of it for about twenty hours. When I finally came around properly I had funny feelings in my body. My crotch was throbbing, my heart felt as if it were racing. I looked across at Dan, he was in his seat with his eyes closed, but his dick was hard.

Were we both aroused? Was something affecting us? We had crossed back across the heliosphere and were approaching Neptune and should be beyond any alien influences. I got up and checked the space suits, they were all fine, all seals intact, so I doubted it was anything to do with them.

I went across to Dan and knelt beside him and took his dick in my hand. I gripped his shaft skin and slowly moved it up and down, Dan mumbled something. I bent forward and ran my tongue around his rim, he squirmed a little in his seat. I flicked my tongue upwards as I moved around his rim, and I held his balls, squeezing them just a little, enough to get his attention I hoped.

"God I thought I was dreaming, " Dan said from somewhere above me.

"Nope, only your horny spacewoman astronaut. I am incredibly turned on."

"God almighty, me too, my dream was torrid, and it involved you."

"Good" I said flicking his rim with my tongue, "that is as it should be, I am an interstellar hottie that wants your body."

"It's yours, have it, do what you will with it."

"Oh, don't worry, I shall."

I opened my mouth a little more and sucked his dick into my mouth, my tongue resting beneath his shaft, my mouth applying suction as my fingers moved back behind his balls and pressed along his perineum. No free of gravity fun now, but there was plenty we could do within the constraints of gravity.

"Ease your bum forward on the seat, " I said, my voice muffled by the meat of his dick in my mouth.

Dan slipped forward and that was what I wanted. I pulled my fingers back to my mouth and used my dribbling saliva to lubricate them, and back at his anus, I pushed, not ceasing, not relenting, I simply applied pressure. Dan's legs moved and twitched and tried to part even more, he was acquiescing, not rejecting, and there was a small gasp and I was inside him. Two fingers pushing in, first knuckle, and then second and then my whole fingers were inside. There was a small area of tightness at the base of my fingers, and then nothing, the rest of my fingers were in a cavern.

I left my fingers as they were, they would come into play later, and eased his shaft from my mouth and resumed my flicking of his rim. I blew into the hole at the end of his dick and then licked his glans, pressing and then lightly dabbing, and then pressing again. He was squirming a little as his pleasures flowed. I opened my fingers inside him, and he started a si contacted his bowel wall.

"Oh fuck, God, Jesus, oh shit, " he gasped, moving, writhing in his seat, a jet of his spunk shot from the end of his dick, catching me unawares, blasting into my left nostril, almost causing me to cough. I am made of sterner stuff. I licked the end of his dick clean, a slightly metallic flavour, and eased my fingers from inside him.

He pushed my gently away, "Jesus you are a minx, " he said, and then pushed me back to my seat. "Sit, " he said, "I want your fanny."

I sat as far forward on my seat as I could, my pegs as far apart as possible and Dan knelt before me and leant forward, I closed my eyes. I felt the breath as he blew along my crease, and then his fingers as he eased my lips apart, my pleasures flowed rapidly as his breath tickled my inner labia and my valley floor.

I gasped when his tongue found my entrance and circled it, its tip pressing slightly in towards my opening before receding and dabbing at my fourchette. I felt his mouth around my fanny and his lips pursed and he blew, inflating my fanny and then as his mouth pulled away my fanny delated, farting fanny breath into the capsule.

His tongue moved very slowly along my valley, pressed at my urethra, briefly blowing as he had into my fanny, and then moving up and dabbing my nubbin. My pressures ramped up, my pleasures flowed like the outfall of a great damn, my buttocks clenched, my fingers dug into the seat, and I gasped loudly.

He dabbed, he probed, he licked and as I was trying to focus my attention on my nubbin I suddenly realised fingers were pushing into my fanny, opening, closing, wiggling, stretching. His fingers rubbed across my bumps and ripples, each one magnifying the sensations of utter pleasure. Tensions tightened, electrics fizzed and flowed, my nipples tightened and my bum lifted.

I screamed, loudly, shrieking like a banshee as my orgasm erupted, exploding through my, tingles at my toes, in my ears, along my fingers, my nipples pulsing, my mouth wide open, my jaw stretched back. My brain grasped that he had eased away and my body slowly relaxed, the blood no longer pounding in my ears, my fingers pulling out of the seat padding and my back settling back into the seat.

Dan stood back and smiled, "we have three months of this, " he said.

"I'll wear you out before then, " I answered laughing, the truth was that I would probably break before him. If I was to be horny constantly, then I hoped that he was up to the job, Lord help us if he fell and dislocated his jaw.

Neptune was next, and then Uranus, each having an effect on us, their gravity impacting on the ship. Was it their gravity that was playing havoc with my desires? I didn't know, I just knew that I needed Dan's dick inside me before he set the controls for the heart of the sun.