(Content Warning: M/F Sex)
The next morning, Tech got up before the rest of his crew, dressed, and grabbed his backpack. He looked over to see Hunter still asleep on his bunk. Tech thought briefly of waking him, but decided against it.
The pine forests made the morning cool still, the damp air coming off of a nearby ridge, flushing his fair cheeks. It did not take him long to make it to the top of the ridge, where a small clearing of trees allowed him to view the forest below. He immediately knew who to send a message to.
"Dr. Drummer? Come up here," said Tech, over on the radio comms, "Sjael? You can see a better view of the forests, and some more of the vegetation in the valley. This will be an excellent place to study the pH balance in the soil."
"It's good to hear you," Sjael said, her voice somewhat reserved, "I thought you would be too mad to join me again on my sampling."
"Mad? Why?"
"From what I said last night?"
Tech frowned. "You said a lot of things last night. Which one do you mean?"
"What I said about clones and the army that you served with. I had no idea, I should have been more sensitive than that. I'm sorry."
"You already apologized last night, so there is no need to repeat yourself. Now, come up here, you will appreciate the potential for data gathering here."
Within minutes of his call to her, Sjael arrived, carrying a large backpack, which she immediately took off and began unloading. Tech noticed, with a small smile, that she not only carried multiple meters, but also a small computer.
Before she started setting up the pH meters in the clearing, she placed the computer on the side.
"Do you mind if I look at it?" asked Tech. Sjael nodded, too busy looking at her meters to pay him close mind. Tech picked the computer up, and turned it on. Immediately, files began appearing, detailing the locations, chemistry of the soils, temperature, and moisture of the locations Sjael had mapped out. It's organized, but the data could be better managed into different files, thought Tech with a nod, not a problem for me to fix.
Tech suddenly heard a click. Turning around, he saw that Sjael had her comms device out, and had taken a picture of the site...with him in it.
"I do not think that would be a great picture of your research if I am standing in it," he said. Sjael looked down at the device, and gently shrugged.
"You can be cropped out, and besides, you're too handsome not to have in my pictures. Not with that skin and that bone structure."
"I personally would not put it in my report, regardless of how I look," Tech quipped back.
"Good thing you're not the one conducting the research, then," Sjael said, her tone filled with sass. Once she had finished planting the pH meters, she walked up behind him.
"Tech? May I put my head on you?"
"I do not see any reason not to," he replied softly. Sjael placed her chin on his shoulder, and took another picture, this time, of the ridge behind them. Tech kept looking at the meter, and the different numbers regarding the data that Sjael had already been gathering before they met.
But he loved the feeling of her right behind him, and her soft skin against his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Sjael took a few pictures of herself on his shoulder as well.
"Tech?"
"Yes?" He closed her computer and turned to her.
"Please kiss me."
Before he knew it, Tech was on the ground with Sjael, his tongue in her mouth. He began wrestling her pants off, and she his. As she laughed, he kissed her neck, and spread her legs before quickly entering her.
"Hold up, bosmang," said Sjael as she grabbed Tech by the shoulders as he began grinding into her.
"What? Am I doing something wrong?"
"No. I just want to do the riding this time. Flip over, on your back."
Tech listened, and let the Belter straddle him. He arched his back and clutched her hips as hard as he could. Sjael moaned his name as she rode him, and Tech grunted as they both climaxed quickly in the dirt.
When they were finished, they both quickly put on their pants and shoes. Sjael laid next to him, as they both stared up at the sky. It was silent, except for the sound of a few birds in the distance.
Tech looked down at Sjael's fingers, lazily crossed across her slender torso.
"All of your tattoos are of chemical chains...what about that one?" He asked, pointing to a thin black line that encircled her left ring finger: Sjael covered it up quickly.
"It's nothing."
It's probably nothing, Tech thought, just an impulsive marking. People get them all the time.
"Actually, that's not true. It's my wedding band."
"Wedding band?" Tech asked as he sat up, his chestnut colored eyes wide behind his goggles, "You're married?"
"Well, almost. We had been together for years. His name was Toivo. Toivo Saavedra. I think I might have mentioned him before. He's been on and off my mind."
"What happened?"
"He asked me to marry him, when I finished my PhD at University of the Outer Planets a few months ago. I was beyond ecstatic, even though my family hated him, especially my sister. Papa thought he was, and I quote, 'too dumb and pretty', Mama hated that he wasn't a doctor or an engineer, and my sister couldn't stand his swagger, attitude, or lack of education. But I didn't care, so I went and got this done, I was just so excited to be his. By the time it healed, he had fully joined the OPA—the Outer Planetary Alliance— as a pilot, part of the Free Navy, our rebellion against the Inners."
So...like a Separatist, thought Tech grimly, but it's a different galaxy. I'm sure it's different.
"Toivo told me not to come along with him, but I ignored that. I packed up all of my things on Ganymede, didn't bother renewing my lab position, none of it. I was willing to follow him, put aside research, but..."
"...but?"
"It turns out he had another woman the whole time. A serious one, his other fiancée, they had an apartment together on Ceres and everything. She was an OPA fighter, a big groupie and pirate for the Inaros faction, and he joined the OPA so he could become the pilot for her ship. So, off he went. And when Toivo dumped me at my sister's place on Ceres, he gave me the most disgusting lecture about how he couldn't be with someone like me, who didn't fully commit to the cause and who wasn't as passionate as she was."
"That is an incorrect observation on his part, clearly," Tech snarked, "After observing you with your plants—and how you gather data and talk about your research –I can assure you you are anything but 'not passionate."
The clone had never even met this man, this Toivo, but he felt himself already strongly disliking him, in between his Separatist ideals and his casual cruelty. He could not see her, but Tech sensed that Sjael was smiling at him.
