Aetheria
by
Jason Crow
Chapter 12 – Shelter
We were quiet as we walked down the stairs. Basement eight was the deepest one the base had, and it doubled as a bomb shelter slash panic room. Since no one knew what could happen, a shelter was mandatory when colonizing another planet. I didn’t think it would help us one bit when a colossal meteor would hit us, but it was the smartest thing to do other than get off the planet.
Nadia opened the door, and we went inside. I closed the door and pressed the button marked ‘seal,’ and lots of loud clicks and clunky sounds filled the room as a big wheel on the door turned. The wheel looked like one you’d find on an airlock in an old spaceship, and it was evident we were locked inside.
I looked around and was pleasantly surprised by how the room looked. It was big and had several separate rooms around it. We were standing in the main living area, but there were doors all around it. As we checked them out, we learned that most of them were bedrooms, but there was also a big kitchen and a control room.
“Maybe this room is still operational,” I pointed as Nadia walked up next to me.
“Let’s see.”
Nadia fiddled a bit with the computers, and after about a minute, she pulled up a screen with a countdown timer and looked worriedly at me. It didn’t take a genius to know what I was looking at.
The clock was currently at twenty-five hours, eight minutes, and thirty-two seconds. A little over a day…
“Well… shit!” I mumbled.
“You can say that again… And it has a possible impact percentage of seventy-nine percent.”
“That’s relatively low, isn’t it?”
“Still freaking high if you ask me.”
I sat down and felt utterly defeated. Nadia looked at me, and she looked even worse. We started talking about everything that had happened. Like, why did we even go to this remote planet in the first place? About how it threw everything it had at us in an attempt to kill us. What the odds of an earthquake followed by a destructive meteor were. We figured that the chances of winning the lottery twice in a row were probably higher.
The more we talked about it, the better I felt. I was with the person I loved most, and the fact that we were about to die didn’t even bother me that much anymore. I was with Nadia, and we were together. That was all that mattered.
“We need to find a way to use that antenna to contact the Zephyr. But I just don’t see a way to do it. We can’t possibly point it towards that ship, and It’s way too underpowered,” Nadia said after we were quiet for a couple of minutes.
“Then we need to think outside the box.”
“I’ve tried to do that ever since we got here, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t find a solution!”
She sounded very frustrated, and I couldn’t blame her. I felt exactly the same, although I realized I had started to give up. But I didn’t want the love of my life to die! And then and there, right at that moment, I found new energy to try and fix the problem. Nadia just couldn’t die! I simply wouldn’t allow that. I wrecked my brain for a couple of moments, and suddenly, an idea popped up. Two actually.
“We’ve still got plenty of time to go out, right?”
Nadia looked puzzled at me, pointed at the screen, and nodded.
“Look. We can’t write a message in the sand outside, right?”
“Yes. We talked about this. The rain will wash it away before we can finish it.”
“So… Morse code!” I said excitedly.
Nadia didn’t catch on, so I continued, “We place rocks outside. It’s not too much work, and we only need twelve rocks. Three short, which are three rocks. Then, three long, which are two rocks each. And then three rocks for the last three shorts. S.O.S.”
Nadia looked expressionless at me for a couple of moments and then mumbled, “That might work, you know? It’s a bit of a long shot, but why not? Are you okay with wearing an exo suit again?”
“I don’t see why not. The last time was an accident, but this is exactly what the suits are made for. So… no. Not a problem!”
“Bisque…”
“And there’s another option,” I said and paused dramatically, but when Nadia rolled her eyes, I said triumphantly, “The water collection drones!”
Nadia shook her head, “I checked them. They can’t carry people, and there’s no life support on board. Not an option.”
“I know! But… hear me out. I saw buckets of paint in the hallway on the way up. We can paint text on one of them and then hope someone will read that when they board the ship to dump the water.”
“Another long shot because it’s a fully automated system, and people hardly ever come back there,” she said, and after a short pause, she continued, “But it’s better than nothing…”
“Let’s go! There’s still some daylight left, so we need to get going.”
I got into the exo suit, and I had to admit that it did feel a bit odd. But as I got to work, this feeling quickly disappeared.
As I was putting the rocks together, Nadia managed to redirect three of the water transport drones to shore. Telling them that they needed repairs was enough. After she had painted the text, ‘Aidan and Nadia still alive – send help!’ On each of them, they went back to their original task of gathering water and flying to the Zephyr.
“Now what?” Nadia asked after we were done.
“Dunno. I guess it’s best to go to the shelter and just wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“Don’t,” I said softly, feeling her fears, “we tried everything. They’ll come for us. And if not, that shelter might save our lives.”
“Tomorrow morning, we can actually see the meteor from here…” Nadia said, looking up.
“I hope to be off this planet by then.”
We headed back to the base and went into the shelter. After I sealed the door, Nadia grabbed a big toothpaste-like tube for each of us that contained our dinner. We didn’t need to heat it because when you unscrewed the cap, it warmed itself. We flopped down on the couch, where we squirted the gooey substance in our mouths.
“It tastes great!” Nadia said, surprised. I could see her actually lighten up a little.
“It does!”
After we finished our ‘dinner’, we sat on the couch opposite to each other. I was toying with my coms, and Nadia had picked up a magazine from the coffee table. I was so engrossed in my coms that I didn’t notice Nadia scooting over. She laid herself against me and sighed deeply.
“We are going to die, aren’t we?” she whispered.
“What!?” I replied loudly, “No! Of course not! We are goi-“
“Stop it, Ay! Don’t. Just… don’t. We are not going to make it, and you know it.”
“But…” I half-heartedly tried.
But I knew she was right. Deep down, I knew this for a while but was too afraid to admit it to myself. Nadia just had the guts to say it out loud. I saw a tear roll down her cheek, and I felt my eyes water. The inconvenient truth was that we weren’t going to survive this.
“I… I don’t wanna die, but now that it’s, you know…, I’m glad I’m with you,” Nadia said between soft sniffs.
I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye, swallowed a lump in my throat away, and nodded.
“I love you…” I whispered as it felt like the only thing to say at that moment.
Nadia moved up and kissed me tenderly on my cheek. After that, she whispered a soft but heartfelt “I love you so much!” in my ear.
I sat there thinking about all the things I still wanted to do but were never going to happen. I would miss out on so many things! I’d never fly my own spaceship, never be a systems engineer, never have children, and I’d die without having… Oh wow! We’d both die as virgins.
Nadia shifted next to me, and I hesitated. Was this the right moment to bring this up? Why was this on top of my mind at this moment? Shouldn’t we only be concerned about saving our lives? I was SO confused.
“Ay?” Nadia asked softly.
“Sup?” I asked and kissed her on her head.
“I… will you, I mean…” she cleared her throat, “will you please have sex with me?”
I was stunned by her question. How did she know I wanted this, too? Why did she have the courage to ask where I didn’t?
“I… I was…” I stammered, “Nevermind! Yes! I would absolutely love to!”
“Really?” Nadia asked excitedly.
“Of course! I love you, and everything we have done so far is amazing! So why die as virgins?”
“You’re so romantic,” she chuckled.
Neither of us moved for a few moments. I felt my dick throb in my pants from anticipation and decided we needed to do this. So, I got to my feet, and as Nadia eyed the tent in my pants, I offered her my hand. She grabbed it, and I pulled her to her feet.
I didn’t know why, but it felt right to lift her from her feet and carry her in my arms. As I did this, she immediately wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder.
She was heavier than I anticipated, so I was glad it was just a short walk to the bedroom. I lay her gently on the bed and looked at her. The look on her face was a mix of sadness, eagerness, anticipation, and excitement.
Before I could do anything, she sat up and started working on the button and zipper of my pants. It wasn’t rushed or extreme lust that drove her. She was just getting me ready by undressing me. As my pants slid down my hips, I pulled up my shirt.
I was now standing in front of my sister in just my tented black boxers. Nadia didn’t know what to do next, so I reached down and pulled at her shirt. She caught on and lifted her arms to help me. By now, she knew I was terrible at bras, so as I dropped her shirt, she quickly unclasped her bra and dropped it on the floor.
I moved myself down, kissed her tenderly on her lips, and pressed softly against her upper body. Nadia knew what I meant. She lay back down on the bed and looked at me. Her whole body language oozed trust, and she looked magnificent, lying there topless with her nipples hard as erasers.
I kneeled on the bed with one knee and opened her pants. As I pulled at the legs, she shimmied her hips sexily, and her pants came off quickly enough. She smiled coyly at me as I hooked my trembling fingers in the waistband of her white cotton panties.
I stood back up and looked down at my now-naked sister. I was freaking out about what we were going to do, but seeing how she looked at me with a warm but nervous smile, calmed me down considerably.
I unceremoniously dropped my boxers, and my boner wiggled in front of me as I got back on the bed between my sister’s spread legs. I lay my body down on top of hers but made sure my dick was nowhere near her pussy. It was a bit awkward like this, but because this was our first time, I didn’t want to rush things.
My face was inches from hers, and we looked deep into each other’s eyes. Nadia wrapped her arms around my body and pulled me closer. This meant my dick now lay on top of her pussy, but she didn’t seem to mind one bit and even moaned softly when we touched.
I moved my face down and kissed her deeply. Nadia’s hands roamed all over my back, and her soft touch sent shivers down my spine. After kissing like this for a while, we broke it and opened our eyes. This was it! We didn’t need words or anything. We simply knew what to do and what the other one wanted.
I pulled my ass back a bit, and my dick dropped between her legs. I reached between our bodies, grabbed my dick by its base, and pressed my dickhead against my sister’s opening. The tip slid in a tiny bit, and her pussy lips wrapped around it and kept my throbbing member in place.
“I love you, Ay!” Nadia whispered.
I pushed my hips forward and felt myself slide slowly into the most wonderful place ever. The slick, velvety sleeve surrounding my dick was like nothing I could ever imagine.
We kept looking at each other as I entered my sister. Slowly but steadily, more and more of my dick was surrounded by her warm, soft skin. Nadia’s look lost her focus a few times, and her soft, almost whimpering moans urged me on. I had expected some resistance, But after what seemed like forever, I had penetrated my sister completely.
My balls rested against her underside, and my pubes pressed against hers. I even felt them tickle a bit. I lay completely still, unsure what to do next.
“Oh… wow!!” Nadia whispered, “This is…”
A tear formed in the corner of her eye. I was afraid I was hurting her, but a barely noticeable smile on her lips told me this was something different.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, still a bit worried.
“It’s… we are going to die. And here we are, doing something we should’ve done a long time ago! I… I love you so much, Ay!”
“I… I love you too! I wish we had more time together.”
“Me too. Let’s just enjoy the time we have left, okay?” Nadia said and moved her hands on top of my ass to urge me on.
I didn’t need any more encouragement. I knew what I had to do, and my instinct took over. I started pulling back, and a tingle shot through me as I did. Nadia hissed loudly and arched her back.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked and stopped moving altogether.
“No, no! It’s bisque… keep going, please!”
So, I pulled back further. I didn’t want to pull out too far and leave my sister’s pussy, so after a few moments of pulling out, I pushed back in. I heard myself moan as the feeling in and around my dick intensified. Nadia also groaned as I pressed my pubic bone against hers.
I pulled out again, but this time, I pulled out too far. My dick slipped out, and Nadia looked almost pleadingly at me. I managed to get back in with just a slight movement of my hips and pushed in swiftly.
Nadia and I moaned simultaneously as I pressed hard against her again. I pulled out again and pushed back in without issues. Out and in again. And again.
“Ohhh… yesss…” Nadia hissed.
I was so focused on making my sister feel good that I almost didn’t notice the tear rolling down my cheek. It was weird feeling sad, excited, and horny at the same time. I didn’t want to lose my sister. I wanted us to have a life together. But here we were, expressing our love and devotion to each other for the first and last time in our young lives. It was a tear of sadness and happiness at the same time.
My hands were beside her head as my body lay entirely on top of hers. This way, I could feel all of my twin sister’s body as we lost our virginities to each other. Nadia’s hands left the top of my ass, and each of them snuggled into mine. Our fingers interlocked, and as I looked into her eyes, I realized I had never felt closer to another person in my life.
But it didn’t take long to just focus on the fantastic feelings on my dick. Nadia already had the telltale signs of her approaching orgasm, and I felt the pressure build between my balls and butthole. I was thrusting in and out of my sister at a steady pace. I had only slipped out once and knew now exactly how far I could pull back. I liked long and steady in and out thrusts, as opposed to the short and rapid ones I tried briefly.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” Nadia panted.
I knew she was in the endzone now. Our hands left each other, and she wrapped her arms around my upper body. They squeezed me tight, and she wrapped her legs around my lower body, pushing me in even deeper that way.
But I was quickly approaching the point of no return myself. I wanted my sister to have the best first time I could possibly give her, but I started losing control myself. I slammed harder into her with every thrust. And even though my ass didn’t have much room to move anymore, I managed to make them count.
My entire groin tingled intensely, and just when I thought I was going to cum, Nadia groaned, and her body started convulsing. She slammed her eyes shut, and her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’.
Despite my internal promise to give her the best orgasm she ever had, my own urges took over. I kept pistoning in and out at the same pace and tried to stay ahead of the approaching tidal wave my orgasm was going to be.
As Nadia came, the feeling around my dick became almost unbearably amazing. Her moist, soft, and squishy pussy was squeezing and massaging my dick in such a way that I just couldn’t control myself anymore. With one last powerful thrust, I slammed deep into my sister.
My balls pulled up, and every part between my ass and the tip of my dick felt like it was on fire and frozen solid at the same time.
“Aaanngghh!!” I grunted as the first spurt of cum left my dick.
Nadia hugged me even tighter as the cum left my body and coated my sister’s insides. Her mouth was close to my ear this way, and her soft, “ohh yeah… I feel your…aaahh” gave me goosebumps all over.
My dick was still twitching, but no more cum came out. Every time it twitched, Nadia’s pussy gripped it firmly, which caused my dick to twitch again. After this happened a few times, we giggled. As I regained my breath, I moved my dick in and out one last time. I lifted my head as I did this, and we looked intensely at each other. I leaned in, and we kissed tenderly before I reluctantly pulled out and lay down next to my sister.
Immediately, she cuddled up and lay her head on my chest. I was so overwhelmed by my first time that I didn’t know what to say or do. I wasn’t a virgin anymore, but I wasn’t proud or excited about it.
“Thank you,” Nadia said softly.
“No! Thank you!” I replied, feeling weird about being thanked for having sex.
“Can we do this when… you know… ‘IT’ hits us?”
“Good plan! We’ll go out with a bang,” I said seriously.
“Do you think it’ll hurt much? Dying, I mean…”
“Dunno. If you look clinically at it, I don’t think so. When the meteor hits, the air will become so hot it’ll actually turn into a fireball. That’ll vaporize us instantly. And if, by some miracle, we’re out of the fireball zone, the debris flying around will be enough to crush us within a millisecond.”
“You thought it through, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I did. I don’t want you to suffer. I even considered suicide by swallowing pills or something. But the meteor will kill us way faster, I reckon.”
Nadia sniffed, pressed herself tighter against me, and said in a heartbreaking tone, “I don’t wanna die, Ay!”
Tears flowed down my cheeks as I tried comforting her. But the whole concept of our upcoming death was also too much for me. We both lay there crying our eyes out and trying to find some comfort in each other.
“We’ve still got a little over fourteen hours left to live. I don’t wanna sleep the rest of my life away, but I’m tired. Can we nap for a while?” Nadia asked after the tears dried out.
“Sure thing. Computer! Please wake us in four hours,” I said.
Nadia got comfy beside me, moved her hand down to cup my balls, and whispered, “I love you, Ay.”
After a couple of minutes, her breathing deepened. A few minutes after that, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’
The sound of annoying beeps pulled me back to the land of the living. I blinked a few times, and it took me a couple of seconds to realize where I was. Nadia was lying against me, and her hand was still cupping my balls.
I wasn’t woken by the alarm I set. These were different beeps, and I hadn’t heard those before. As I was waking up, Nadia stirred next to me.
“Wh… whsdr!?” she grumbled.
“I think there’s something wrong,” I said after clearing my throat.
Nadia has always been quicker at waking up than I was. She let go of my balls, rubbed her eyes, and got to her feet. She gave me just enough time to scan her ass and boobs before she headed over to the control panel in the other room.
I quickly got up and followed her. On the monitoring screen, it was clear that something was wrong with the Terra site. The site itself didn’t seem offline, but all the telemetry readouts were gone.
“Nadia pressed some buttons, opened up a couple of other windows on the computer, and mumbled a soft, “What the..”
“What’s wrong?”
“Dunno. I can’t explain it. Everything is up and running. There’s just no more telemetric data coming our way.”
“Is it broken?”
“That’s what’s so weird. There’s still a constant data stream, but the computer can’t make any sense of that data.”
Nadia fiddled some more on the computer. I tried to figure out what she was doing, but this was what she was trained for back on Earth. Just like I was prepared for all sorts of outdoor activities. Nadia obviously knew what she was doing, and I pulled up a chair for her to sit on.
“Thanks,” she said as she sat down, never taking her eyes off the screen.
I got us a drink, sat down next to her, and watched her do her magic. I was glad the beeps had stopped, but other than that, I thought it was a waste of time. Why try to save the Terra site when it would be destroyed anyway in a couple of hours? But Nadia was busy, and it took her mind off the big rock that would kill us, so I figured it was good. And I liked watching my naked sister, and I had plenty of opportunities now.
About half an hour later, I figured it was enough. But right when I wanted to open my mouth, Nadia whispered, “That’s it!”
I perked up, sat up straight, and asked, “What?”
“One sec.”
I was annoyed about being kept in the dark, but I knew her too well to say something. She wanted to double-check this.
She turned her chair to look at me, and with a smile on her face, she said, “I think we’ve got a way to communicate with the Zephyr!”
“No way! How?”
“I’ve analyzed the data stream coming in, and it’s the source code for an application. I’m compiling it now to see what it does.”
“But… how?” I asked again, missing the big picture here.
“Okay. I think it’s like this. Bear with me. The Zephyr receives information from the terra site, so they know how the planet is doing before landing or sending specific equipment from Earth.”
“Okay…”
“This is a very, very narrow band and only suitable for sending text in small pieces. But that’s enough since we only need that telemetry data, and not even in real-time. I think someone at the Zephyr reversed the flow and reprogrammed the telemetry system so it can relay its communications to us.”
“Oh wow!” I said, realizing my mouth was open.
“Pretty clever, yeah,” Nadia said and turned to face her monitor as the progress bar on her screen was approaching 100%.
“Now what?” I asked anxiously.
“I’ll see if I can run the program. I don’t have a clue what it is. It might also just be a simple document wishing us good luck.”
“No!”
“I’m kidding,” she chuckled. And after a short pause, she continued, “But it can be. Although I find it hard to believe that they would put this much effort into it.”
“Let’s see,” I said as I toyed nervously with a couple of my pubes.
Nadia’s eyes briefly went to my fiddling fingers, and the corners of her mouth moved slightly upward. It was barely there, but I noticed. I didn’t care at that moment because I just had to know what the application was all about.
“It’s done!” Nadia said and started clicking and typing away.
I saw her moving some files around, edit a couple of text files, and finally, she opened the freshly compiled application.
“It’s a chat app!” she said excitedly.
I looked at the screen where a clunky and rudimentary chat app was showing. The top half of the screen was for the other side, and in the bottom half, we could type our text.
“Type something!” I exclaimed, “Let them know we’re here.”
“What should I type?” Nadia asked and looked very indecisive.
“Anything,” I answered, trying to keep calm.
“You do it,” Nadia said as she moved the keyboard my way.
I immediately started typing. If this was what we thought it was, this was our only and final option.
Hello?
I expected I had to wait a while for a response, but less than two seconds later, a response showed up.
Hello! Aidan and Nadia?
Yes! We’re still on Aetheria.
We know! We saw your Morse code. Your parents are very worried about you. How are you?
We’re okay. We survived the quake and lived inside the remote site for a while, expecting the main base to come and rescue us.
I see. We couldn’t do that. We thought you were dead. We simply didn’t have the time, people, or equipment to go and check.
I know. We saw how the main base is doing.
It took a while for another response. Nadia and I looked at each other, and I shrugged.
“Ask if they know more about the meteor,” she said.
I thought for a moment, nodded, and held my fingers above the keyboard. But before I could type anything, the Zephyr started typing again.
Your father and mother are here and want to say hello.
Hi mom and dad! Surprise!
Nadia giggled next to me and said, “You can’t say that! They were worried sick!”
The undertone in her voice was one of amusement, so I said, “Of course I can! What are they gonna do? Ground me?”
I turned my attention back to the monitor. Two lines were there that almost made me tear up.
They say they love you. And they’re sorry.
Sorry for what?
Sorry for leaving you behind.
Don’t be sorry! You did the only logical thing!! Really! It’s NOT YOUR FAULT!
Nadia placed a hand on my shoulder and gently squeezed it. I knew she felt the same about this. They thought we were dead, had one option to leave the planet, and gave it their all to find us from up there. But most of all, they never gave up.
They thank you for saying that.
And we mean it. How about that meteor? What’s the status? We kind of don’t wanna die, you know?
The meteor is still coming our way. In approximately 10 hours, it’s here.
Shoot!
Yes. But there’s been a development. Due to the gravitational pull of one of the other planets, its path had a tiny correction. It’s still going to be too close to call, but it might miss us.
And now what?
Now that we’ve established contact with you guys, we’re going to make some necessary course corrections to get back into low orbit. Then we can send down a transport to pick you up.
REALLY??
Yes, really. But during this time, we’ll have to go offline again, unfortunately. This radio won’t work in low orbit.
How much time?
It’ll take us roughly four hours to complete the maneuver. Then another thirty minutes for the transport.
We’ll make sure we’re outside near the landing zone.
That would be great because the inside dock is broken. And we don’t have very much time to spare because we need to get out of the way so the meteor or the impact on the planet won’t hit us.
Don’t worry. We’ll be ready.
Perfect! We’re starting the maneuver in five minutes. Anything else?
No! Glad you’re coming for us!
See you in a couple of hours then. Be ready! Zephyr out.
“OH MY GOD!!!” Nadia shouted and slammed her body into mine to give me the tightest hug known to men.
Tears were flowing down my cheeks from excitement and joy. When Nadia looked at me, she was also crying. But these were good tears! Without saying anything, we moved in close, and kissed each other firmly, our wet faces pressed together.
“We’re going to live, Ay!”
“Yeah… we’re being rescued thanks to you!”
“Don’t be silly!” Nadia said sternly, “If you didn’t put those rocks out there-“
“If you weren’t this smart to decipher that data stream, we’d be hopelessly lost,” I interrupted.
“Stop saying that!! WE did it. You and me! We! Together.”
I didn’t want to hear it, but when she said it, I knew she was right. We had both played our parts in this. I decided to drop it and to change the subject.
“So… Do we need to prepare anything? Should we go outside already, just to be sure?”
“Nah. We’ll only need our suits. Maybe grab some clothes and other personal stuff from our room?”
“Good idea,” I said, “I’d say we’ve got about three and a half hours to kill before we head out, right? I reckon we better be outside too early rather than too late, right?”
“Yeah. It is better to wait outside for an hour than miss the ride because of a stupid error like a leaking suit or something. With an hour to spare, we’ve got time to fix it.”
“Bisque!”
Nadia started putting on her clothes. This reversed striptease in front of me never got old, and I stalled with putting on my own clothes just so I could watch this.
As she pulled down her shirt, hiding her little black bra from view, I started putting on my clothes. I made a little show of adjusting my chubbed-up dick inside my boxers as Nadia watched intensely what I was doing. I wasn’t an expert at this. Far from it, actually! But I felt a tension in the air I couldn’t quite place.
“Ready?” I asked as I held my finger above the button that opened the door.
End of chapter 12
Copyright 2024 – Jason Crow
All rights reserved
Tandem res suspiciunt. Salus prope est
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