"How can I help you, Lieutenant?" I asked.

I knew her request would irritate me, but in a ship this small, with its limited crew, politeness was the only way to maintain sanity.

"Don't be like that, Parker," she schmoozed, purposefully leaving off my Ensign rank. "You know what I want, and you know it will be fun. We're doing our last jump in fifteen minutes, and it's probably my last chance at Sublime Eternity."

"There's six other men, and even two other women on the ship," I groused. "Go pester one of them."

She gave her wrist comms a hurried glance. "Please, Parker, it has to be you," she insisted. "Even if I thought a woman could get me there, Jones belongs to the Captain, and Katerina and Mark were long-term before we launched. Jimmy and Schmidt only have eyes for each other, and neither Pauly nor Jacobs had the skills to make it happen on the last few jumps. You're the only one left. Please?"

"It's always good to know where I stand, Lieutenant," I offered tightly. "Go ahead and try to convince me you were saving the best for last."

"Please, Parker, forget my rank," she purred. "Right now, we are just a man and a woman, and I need you."

"Please, Night, but I seem to recall that your rank was rather important to you when I offered a liaison at the start of this trip," I countered. "Besides, hyper-space jumps have always been instantaneous for me."

"You were asking for a lot more than a casual encounter back then," she complained, with another quick glance at her wrist. "Everyone knows that crews have to be free to switch partners while in transit. And S-E is all about the timing; we only have fourteen minutes. Come on, Parker, just say yes."

"Free like the Captain and Jones?" I persisted.

I had more to say, but her eyes tightened, and she said, "That slut bagged the Captain. Of course she won't let him loose, and she won't give him an excuse to wander either. Thirteen minutes, Parker."

"If you want a tumble, promise me a contract," I offered.

"A contract?" she asked incredulously. "Now?" She paused and her tone darkened. "Parker, this next jump puts us within weeks of our destination planet. After a week of testing to verify the explorer-drone data, it will take us a week on the ground to set up the Translocator Stargate. A week after that, we will be flooded with thousands of immigrants from Earth, immigrants that will look at the members of this crew like we are gods. You'll have your choice of thousands of women then. Hell, you can choose ten at a time if you wish! Why would you want a contract now?"

"For the same reason that I asked for a contract when we first launched eighteen months ago," I shot back. "Before I signed up for this trip, I was verbal-contracted with a woman, and the second she got a better offer, she was gone. I need someone stable in my life, and so it's a real contract, or nothing."

She stared at me for the longest ten seconds ever, and I could tell she was struggling to keep from glancing at her wrist comms. Her lips tightened.

"Six months," she offered.

"Twenty-four," I countered.

"Ten," she insisted.

"Eighteen, or nothing," I demanded.

She bit her lips. "Eighteen," she agreed, but amended, "but we don't sign until after the jump. There's no time now."

I gave her a smirk. "Tell me, Night," I teased, "is that your first or last name? And does it start with a 'K' or not?"

She failed to keep from glancing at her wrist. "I would ask if Parker is your first or last, but I don't care. Lose your clothes and lets see if you've got the equipment I need!"

Sometimes things go wrong during a jump through hyper-space. Usually the damage is minor, but sometimes it's catastrophic, which is why we were getting paid the big bucks. On our first jump, we had lost thirty percent of our heat dissipation system, so the ship's air ran on the warm side. There was no way to fix it, so the crew had resorted to wearing as little as possible.

Night was a smaller woman, with smallish breasts. Her idea of minimal clothes consisted of booties, shorts, and wide suspenders to cover most of her breasts. She wore her rank insignia right over her nipple to remind junior officers like me not to gawk.

Faster than I could even begin to move, she tucked her arms inside the suspenders, and then she was naked, and I had to stop to gawk. She seemed to be pleased with the way I was looking at her.

"Equipment, Parker," she teased as she reached to pull my t-shirt off. I was quick to remove my shorts.

"Equip this," I teased as I pulled her naked body close to mine, and I kissed her.

I don't know if her moan of pleasure was due to my kiss or due to the equipment that quickly lifted to readiness as she caressed it. I am quite certain I was pleased with the way she looked at my equipment as she pulled me onto my bunk. I also had to moan in pleasure at the way she kissed me in return.

Even though she had pulled my body over her own, she still held tightly to my equipment, and she also insisted on being in charge. She pulled me to the threshold, and then held me at bay as she made eye contact.

"Parker, forgive me for two things," she said plainly. "First, forgive me for rebuffing you, for which I now feel remorse. At the time, I felt that you were below my rank, and I had no idea how skilled you were at keeping our ship intact. I'm almost certain your gifted hands are going to handle me with just as much skill.

"Second, forgive me for not giving in to my desire to orally explore your equipment. I suspect I'm going to get very well acquainted with it after the jump. We only have nine minutes left, so please, let's focus on getting the timing right."

With that, her hand released me and slid to my hip, her legs lifted wider to invite me in, and I pressed forward to make myself at home.

With my first gentle thrusts, I asked, "Are you sure this Sublime Eternity thing is even real? The way jump ship crews take their lives in their hands with every jump tends to make them a bit crazy. Maybe the Eternal Orgasm during jump is a myth."

"Shut up and go faster," she ordered. "I've heard too many stories for it not to be real. And I felt something on the first jump, when I tried it with Jacobs. I mean, I only tried it with him once, because he was too rough, and then he came too soon. I pushed him off and then masturbated my way into the jump, only I was seconds too late. Still, that jump felt different, you know, longer. Fuck, use your teeth! Gently, but bite me!"

I had my mouth on her breast, and her nipple hardened as I teased it. I let my teeth scrape, and she cried out for more. I continued to pinch her nipples as I sat back on my heels, which lifted her hips and caused me to thrust even deeper inside her.

"I've heard tales of inter-dimensional beings," I teased. "They intercept the ship during jump, try to impregnate all of the women and the men, and then dump the ship back into reality. Maybe they keep the ships that go missing. Do you think those stories are true as well?"

"Fuck, Parker, slow down! You'll make me cum too soon!" she cried. "You don't have to believe everything you hear! People used to think that g-spots and multi-orgasms and female ejaculation were myths as well. Fuck! Just like that. Fuck, I wish I had fucked you when you first asked!"

As lost as she was in the pleasures that we were sharing, she still found time to fiddle with her wrist comms. She pulled me into an aggressive kiss, and her insides started fluttering around my driving shaft. Her comms gave a single short beep, and then in a mechanical voice started counting down from ten. The timing was going to be split-second close for both of us.

With a reality-jarring blare, my clock radio exploded into sound, and the tinny little speaker blasted out, "4, 3, 2, 1...", followed by the words of Peter Schilling's one-hit wonder as it launched its way towards 'coming home'. With a start, I reached over and hit the snooze button.

In the same reach, I grabbed a couple of tissues from the box and wrapped them around my aching shaft before it could make a mess. It only took two strokes for my wet dream to find completion.

Even as the surges continued, I looked sadly at the empty half of my bed, where my girlfriend of six years used to sleep.

"Ah, Lieutenant Night," I murmured, "how I wish you were someone real." As I rested my head back on my pillow, I added, "And damn these surreal and vivid dreams."