Dead Star Dockyards

"Hrmm . . . rmph." Diana's eyes fluttered as her body began to wake up. She didn't want to do anything today, she didn't have to do anything today, so there was a pretty decent chance that she would be permitted to lay under the covers for a little bit longer than usual. Diana knew that all this pampering on the behalf of others wasn't doing her many favors, if she wasn't careful this laziness might become a habit. "Mmmneh."

As she came to her senses, Diana gradually realized that she was feeling a bit hotter than normal. She wasn't feverish, though the possibility did scare her for a moment, so it was probably something inconsequential. Had Cherry changed the sheets recently? Maybe she had added an extra one, or perhaps one of the sheets was just heavier . . . Nope, they were the same as before. There had to be something else.

"Hm?" Her attempts at movement were restricted by something. A weight wrapped around her, pulling her back every time she threatened to move away from it. The end of her struggle coincided with the weight squeezing her chest. "Donny?"

Diana moved a hand up to meet the arm wrapped around her, pushing herself backwards into his embrace as she did. For most this would probably seem like an odd thing for her to do, but this was a rare occurrence for Diana. She almost never had the opportunity to lay in bed with him like this, be it before falling asleep or after she had awoken. Diana didn't feel hurt by that, there was plenty of time for them to flirt throughout the day, she just treasured the time they spent in bed together a little bit more. It was a rare commodity, made all the more valuable by how comfortable and intimate it was.

Exerting a moderate level of effort for how groggy she was, Diana managed to turn herself around in Donovan's embrace.

". . . still asleep?"

Face to face, Diana couldn't help but notice his eyes were shut. When was the last time she had seen him asleep? Was it during their visit to the Inner Sanctum? No, what happened then couldn't really be called 'sleeping'. The last time she had seen him asleep must have been when they were aboard the Oberlux.

Cautiously, she moved her head forward to give him a kiss. It really wasn't anything more than Diana pressing her lips to Donovan's, but she made it last a long time, only stopping when she got dizzy from his scent. He had gotten back late last night, no doubt because of his trial, and it was clear that he had not taken the time to shower. She couldn't really consider it oppressive, though it was undoubtedly stronger than the scent he usually left behind in the morning.

For once Diana had the chance to make a move on Donovan, unhindered by his annoying ability to derail her plans, and her mind went wild with possibilities. Kisses? She could probably risk a few more before he woke up. Rubbing up on him wouldn't be a problem either. The real questions bouncing around inside of her brain had to do with the limit of what she might be able to get away with. Obviously something like drawing a mustache on him was off the table, he would probably wake up from it. Her considerations ignored the fact that she had no markers with which to perform that act, so it was pretty fortunate that she convinced herself not to go through with it by other means.

No, Diana had to keep her ideas simpler. There had to be something she could do with her body alone. A Wet Willy perhaps? No, that was probably a little bit too 'icky' and 'childish' to be considered flirty, same with the fabled Dutch Oven (not that she could do it in the first place). Perhaps groping his butt a bit when he woke up? It wasn't harmful, nor was it particularly gross, so it should be the perfect little action to shock him, right? 

Diana shook her head as she moved down, resting her head beneath his chin. Donovan wouldn't respond to something like that, less because he was a stoic and more because he just didn't care about that sort of thing when it came to deal with her. He was the hardest type of person to pull a prank on, someone indifferent and used to the antics of the person performing them. If she wanted to really get a kick out of him, she would need to do something bordering on unsafe.

Trying her hardest not to disturb the sleeping beast, Diana removed her clothing.

There were only three articles to slip off - underwear, pajama bottoms, and one of Donovan's precious few T-shirts - so she didn't have to wiggle around too much to get it all off, though she did pause for a second once she remembered that Donovan could potentially snap awake for far less. Fortunately it would appear that he wasn't operating on 'pilot' mode at the moment, there was some leeway regarding how quickly she could move. 

There was not a chance in hell that Diana would be able to remove Donovan's pants though. Forget waking him up, she couldn't even lift him enough to move them. Instead she would have to jostle him around enough to wake him on her terms before proceeding.

"Oh, condom, right."

Diana and Donovan hadn't really 'gone at it' since that first night in the interests of preserving those little rubber covers. They only had 100 of them to begin with, Donovan having made it clear that he would not partake in the act unless one was available to them while still at the Academy. Diana didn't exactly remember how many they had spent night one, but that didn't really matter as much at this point. There were still (probably) over 90 left, so she could afford to blow through one or two right now couldn't she? She would have to do some quick maths to confirm her theory.

They would be here for five years. She could reasonably assume that for their last year here, Donovan could be convinced to do the deed properly about three months before graduation to avoid straining her academic and diplomatic activities while giving them a reasonable head start on 'repopulation'. Given that this year was pretty much halfway done (probably closer to a third) she thought it simpler to assume that she was working with four years at 400 days a year to counteract the missing time, so 1600 days? Being generous to herself and saying that she still had about 100 rubbers left and that each 'sex' would only use one, that meant she and Donovan could go at it about once every sixteen days.

Was that right? Was that really all she could afford if she wanted something approaching a 'consistent' sex life? Of course Diana didn't think that she would be able to accept one shot per session, two probably being the minimum allowable number in her eyes, which meant that they would only be able to get dirty once every month.

Forget Diana, was that healthy for Donovan? As far as she could tell, 'that' was a good way to relieve 'masculine stress', which would probably keep him from getting too violent or abrasive with his men. She wasn't forgetting that there were ways to go about it that didn't require a condom, she just didn't trust her ability to control herself in the future. 

What she had forgotten about was Titanyana, someone who immediately came to mind after she pulled the long plastic box off of the bedside table. Optimally Diana would prefer Titanyana to be in a relationship with Donovan before graduation rather than after, more of a time concern than anything to do with the academy really, which meant that there would probably be a point where Titanyana needed to get in on the action as well. Depending on how early this happened, Diana's 'chances' would drop by a pretty sizable margin.

Feeling a little guilty for subconsciously wanting to put off the Donovan♥Titanyana plan for a while, Diana opened the box.

click

"While I encourage the furthering of an intimate relationship between the two of you, I feel obligated to inform you that he has only been asleep for about an hour now."

"Arc?"

"Yes, that is me. Regardless, I would put off sexual activities for a few hours so that he may get a proper amount of REM sleep. If you are truly so sexually frustrated that you must wake him now, I will not have an issue with it, I simply wish to remind you that while he may be coherent during that time it does not bode well for his health in the immediate future."

"I-I'll keep that in mind, Arc." Diana sighed. She could wait a few hours, probably. "Thank you."

Arc did not respond. While normally she would expect a 'You are welcome' or a 'It was not a problem' from someone, monitoring and guaranteeing their health was it job. Arc did not feel obligated to accept thanks for doing the job it was designed for, least of all for something as simple as informing Diana of Donovan's condition. 

Her eyes returned to the condom box, the remaining square packets neatly arranged in their own little slots like some sort of trading card collection. This prompted Diana to think about how she would be delegating this invaluable resource once again . . . until she stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Is . . . is this really how I'm using math for the first time here? Really?" Diana could not remember a time since before the Oberlux where she seriously used math for anything relevant in their day to day life. Setting aside Arc - a literal hypersuperdupermegacomputer - for the time being, Donovan could do math in his head in a minute that could take her an hour to figure out on paper. She just didn't ever have a need to.

And yet here she was, contemplating the merits of using calculus for sex. Was this really what her life had come to, coitus calculus? A wry laugh escaped her as she though about it.

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, nothing serious. I was just trying to figure out how often Donovan and I could, um, copulate, if we wanted to keep it at a steady pace until graduation."

"That seems like an incredibly serious statistic to me. What number did you get?"

"Well, um, the answer I reached was about once every month. Is that bad?"

"Quite. Research suggests that a healthy young couple such as yourselves should normally be engaging in such activities more than once a week to keep hormone levels in check. I do not know if or how that has changed since the Great Csillacra rebuilt you, but I imagine that your concerns over his scent may be tangentially related to this. His testosterone levels are likely to be through the roof."

"R-really?"

"I had been working under the assumption that Donovan was becoming more irritatable these days because he was failing to properly rest himself, however this seems like a much more impactful factor. Moving forward, I think it would be better for you to be a little bit more aggressive in the bedroom."

"B-but we don't have the contraceptives for it . . ." Diana and Arc both fell silent.

All they had was what was in the box. She had checked for natural alternatives through the Arboreal Maiden, looking for some form of spermicide that was used somewhere in the galaxy, only to be met with a negative response. They did exist, they just weren't guaranteed to work on the two of them. 

"The Great Csillacra has agreed to supply us with a moderate amount of latex for rubber to aid in our early industrial efforts. I will attempt to secure a small amount of it for use in condoms."

"Oh Arc, you don't have to do that!"

"The Trawler was initially designed without the inclusion of rubber. I am certain that Donovan could be convinced to leave certain components uninsulated if we really start to run low. It isn't like we won't be able to get more at a later date."

"But the Nekh-"

"A few hundred grams of rubber will not impact the number of Transport craft built. Cruel though it may be, I value your health and intimacy far more than the lives of a few Nekh." Diana's face fell into her pillow. Why did she bring up the Nekh? She knew what Arc would say. She knew Arc's priorities would not stray from its directives! "I should also be more active in ensuring he is able to fulfill his duties in the bedroom. He is often still working when you fall asleep isn't he?"

"And he is training with Titanyana by the time I am awake, yes."

"Hm. In that case, I believe it would be a good idea for me to occasionally restrict his access to the software required to work. The stress relief and rest that should provide him may improve his efficiency overall. I believe it reasonable to assume that his combat prowess would increase with ample rest."

"I-I guess. I just don't want to spoil our future plans because I was a little bit selfish in the -" Diana was suddenly pulled backwards, "EE -" and had her mouth covered to silence her screams. It took a few seconds for her shock to wear off and recognize what was happening, neatly coinciding with the point Donovan released her from the kiss.

"What's this about restricting my access?"

"I apologize for waking you up so soon Donovan. Please go back to-"

"Arc."

"In the future I plan to restrict your ability to perform certain tasks from time to time. I would like for you to rest during that time, and to pamper Diana."

"P-pamper?!"

"Fine, I'll allow it. From the sound of it, I'm not convincing you otherwise." Donovan gently lowered himself down, pinning Diana to the mattress with his body weight as he gave her another kiss. "Besides, we have a good chunk of the urgent industrial planning out of the way. We need a better picture of our deficiencies if we want to plan further."

The tablet Arc was speaking from gave off a little beep, Arc's way of saying he understood. It was also a sign that he wouldn't be 'listening' anymore. Technically it would still be able to hear them, it just wouldn't 'remember' anything that went down. It was as close to 'in one ear and out the other' as was possible for a computer.

"Now, I think it's time I punish you." Donovan turned his attention to the reddening woman beneath him. "Don't you think it's a little foolish to conspire against your victim while he's right next to you?"

"D-D-D-D-Donny! Honey! Please!"

- - - - -

Donovan kept his eyes lightly shut as laid in bed. Diana, still breathing heavily, was using his shoulder as a pillow as she snuggled in between his arm and chest. This was considered to be harsh exercise for Diana, while Donovan hardly considered it a warm up. In all honesty he wanted to go a bit longer, but he could tell that Diana was not prepared for it.

Besides, despite his assertions to the contrary, he was starting to feel fatigued.

"You're a meanie." Diana declared between breaths. "Just a big hulking meanie."

"Maybe, but I'm your meanie, aren't I?" Diana turned her head and nipped at him for teasing her even further, an action which earned her a squeeze from Donovan. "I should probably get some sleep, shouldn't I?"

"Mhm." Diana wiggled herself in a little bit more. "How did it go?"