Author’s Note: This is a semi-sequel to ‘Eight Hour Overload’ but you don’t have to have read it to understand this one.
 
 

Dylan was brooding again. He’d been doing that a lot recently, the crew was too small to avoid someone whose presence was... unnerving. Exciting. Before, when he’d had this feeling he would assign the crewman to a different part of the ship or just avoid him. Dylan sighed, it was impossible to avoid his engineer and the man was too vital to the running of the ship to discard. He was just going to have to get over it. Easier said than done muttered a small voice at the back of his head. He recognised that voice: it was the same one that popped out every time he started to think about men...that way.

I like women he told the voice, I was engaged. I’ve slept with plenty of women and I enjoyed it.

Yeah you enjoy it as much as you enjoy using your hand. I know who you think about in the shower. Dylan blanked the voice from his mind and tried to concentrate on the engineering report in front of him, rather than the engineer who had handed it to him. After a few moments of reading about the improvements to the slipstream drive Dylan’s mind drifted to images of Harper climbing about on the casing, the way he nimbly manoeuvred through the cramped spaces of the ship... Dylan tossed the flimsy away and marched off the command deck.

"Dylan?" Trance’s voice followed him and he just waved her concern away. He just needed something to distract him. A woman, that’s all I need. These feelings will go away if I’m with a woman. He ignored the voice that said, Why? That never worked before.

Dylan strode down the corridor towards Beka’s quarters. Beka was the obvious choice: he knew that Rommie was attracted to him but he had taken note of the effect a physical relationship had had on the Pax Magellanic and he wasn’t eager for a repeat performance. No, Beka was the only woman on the Andromeda he could consider as a distraction from Him. Beka’s quarters were in front of him, he raised his hand to knock on the door but paused when he heard the noises coming from inside. Tyr and Beka! There was no doubt what the two of them were doing. From the gasps and moans he judged they were engaged in a relationship he’d been blissfully unaware of. Dylan turned away, the sounds of sex making his blood burn in anger and frustration. But not jealousy eh? You never really wanted Beka did you? You want Harper. "No!" he growled to himself as he wandered aimlessly towards Hydroponics. The smell of growing things would calm him down; it would remind him of his childhood.

Dylan entered the brightly-lit hydroponics bay. There was the faint smell of apple blossom in the air and he smiled, his father had grown the best apples on Tarn Vedra, he could close his eyes and imagine himself standing in the orchard.

"Crap!" Dylan heard Harper’s unmistakable tones echo through the room along with the sound of some sort of tool falling to the floor. Without betraying his presence Dylan moved through the foliage until he found a hidden vantage point from which to observe the young engineer. He held in an involuntary gasp as he saw Harper: the engineer was stripped to the waist and sweating. He bent over and picked up the offending tool that had caused his outburst and climbed back up to the atmosphere regulator imbedded in the ceiling.

Harper’s body was wiry, muscular without being overdeveloped. Dylan could see numerous scars criss crossing the young man’s back and tried not to wonder what they would feel like under his lips. The young man’s muscles bunched as he reached up into the machinery to adjust something. Dylan’s crotch had been tightening ever since his first glimpse of the sweating engineer and the thought of running his hands and mouth over that body brought his cock to full attention. Dylan moved back, further into the shadows and stroked the front of his uniform, his eyes never leaving the figure working above him. Quickly he unfastened his pants and his cock sprang free. This is so wrong said the voice of his conscience you can’t do this. Dylan closed his eyes and tried to regain control of his traitorous body then gave up. A few quick strokes and the image of Harper naked beneath him were enough to send his body over the edge and he came silently over one of Trance’s plants. Dylan cleaned up after himself and shakily left the room. You can’t deny it now can you? Harper is what fills your thoughts. He is the one you want. Dylan shook his head. I’ll get over it. But he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to.

<><><><><>

Five days had passed since the incident in the hydroponic garden and Dylan had spent most of that time avoiding Harper and trying to sort out his feelings. He hadn’t come to any conclusion but he couldn’t put off seeing Harper any longer. Relaying his orders through Rommie was unprofessional and time consuming. Dylan took a deep breath and tried to calm his heartbeat as he stepped into Harper’s workshop. Harper was working on the X-1, or trying to. He held a strange box with wires sticking out of it and jabbed at the casing half – heartedly.

"Hi Dylan" he said looking up, "I think I’m about to give up on this thing: I have no idea what half this stuff is or what it does." He jumped down to face Dylan, "So what’s up boss? I haven’t seen you down here for a while"

"I’ve been busy. I came down here to talk about the modifications to the environmental systems."

Harper rolled his eyes, "Oh boy! Where do you want to start? This ship was designed to support a massive crew and we have a crew of six. The environmental controls want to shut down non – essential areas despite the fact that we’re using them. Trance’s plants are sucking up all the CO2 in the air and we’re in danger of getting the oxygen gigglies. Shutting off the lights in hydroponics is only a temporary solution because soon the plants will start to die and then Trance will kill us. Not to mention the food problem. I’ve tried to reprogram the food dispensers but they just can’t seem to understand that we don’t need five tonnes of food a day." Harper shrugged, "I can fix some stuff but the plants are getting to be a real problem; we need to get some oxygen scrubbers to remove excess O2, I was in there the other day and I got light-headed just standing there."

Dylan twitched, that must have been when he... Don’t think about that now!

"Dylan are you OK?" Asked Harper, "You looked kinda strange there for a moment."

"Um, I’m fine. I suppose the excess oxygen could be the reason for the unusual behaviour."

Harper looked at Dylan, "What unusual behaviour?"

Dylan flushed, "Well Beka and Tyr’s relationship for a start."

Harper whistled, "Beka and Tyr? Wow, I didn’t see that one coming. Now I know why Tyr didn’t come back for a second helping." He shrugged, "And here was me thinking I was irresistible."

Dylan was stunned, his mouth hung open, "You and Tyr?" was all he could say.

Harper realised he’d said something that should have stayed inside his head, "Um, don’t get all bent out of shape about it; it was just a one time deal. Come on Dylan you keep us shut up together on this ship with hardly any outside contact, what do you expect?"

Dylan shook his head slowly, "I...don’t know, but I didn’t expect THAT!" He felt his face heat, "I didn’t realise you and Tyr felt...that way."

Harper grinned at Dylan’s discomfort, "Hey, any port in a storm."

Dylan made a noise in his throat and left the room. His thoughts were incoherent, now he felt jealous. Tyr had had what he desperately wanted. He tried not to picture the two men together and failed miserably. He leaned his burning face against the bulkhead and groaned.

"Dylan" he heard Harper say his name behind him. "Dylan, are you OK? I’m sorry if I shocked you. I guess High Guard officers don’t do that sort of thing huh?"

In reply Dylan swung around and pulled the young man into a bone – crushing embrace. Dylan’s mouth landed on Harper’s lips and his body went up in flames. Harper struggled for a moment and then relaxed against Dylan’s chest, his mouth opened and their tongues entwined. Finally they pulled apart to breathe.

"Well that was unexpected," said Harper. "How long has that been building up?"

Dylan had a dazed expression in his eyes, "Months, forever, I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve kissed another man."

"Ha, you’re kidding right?"

Dylan shook his head and leaned back on the wall, he looked up at the ceiling and said, "I always told myself that I preferred women. Whenever I felt attracted to another man I’d make sure I stayed away from him and then I’d go out and find a woman. But I can’t avoid you can I?"

"No, you can’t. Do you want to?" Harper had his head on one side and was studying Dylan intently.

Dylan was still looking at the ceiling, "I think it’s a bit late for that now, don’t you?"

"Way too late" said Harper stepping forwards and resting his hands on Dylan’s chest. "You can look at me you know. Your head won’t explode."

"No but something else might" said Dylan, an amused desperation in his voice.

"Oh!" Harper looked down at the bulge in Dylan’s pants. He grinned and placed his hand over it and squeezed.

"OH GOD!" Yelled Dylan as he came. If he hadn’t been wedged between Harper and the wall he would have fallen to the floor.

"Hey Dylan, I have to tell you that was the most enthusiastic response I’ve ever gotten from anyone, man or woman" Harper grinned up at him. Dylan was still in happy land and just grunted a reply. "So what now?" asked Harper, "My quarters are on the next level."

Dylan nodded, "If I can walk that far; for some reason I seem to have lost the use of my legs."

Harper laughed and pulled the staggering High Guard captain down the hall.

Neither of them noticed the hologram watching them.

<><><><><>

In Harper’s quarters Dylan felt strange: excited and apprehensive. He wasn’t sure how to behave or what to say. Harper, noticing his discomfort, handed him a glass of the evil-tasting whisky he kept for emergencies. "Here, this’ll calm you down. Or kill you" he added peering into the glass. "Castillians make really lousy booze."

Dylan sipped the whisky and made a face, "Are you sure this isn’t one of the industrial cleaners?" Harper laughed and took the glass back with one hand while he reached up to pull Dylan’s head down for another kiss. "Andromeda privacy mode" he pulled back long enough to say before reclaiming Harper’s lips. The kiss deepened and soon the glass had been dropped on the floor as the two men started tugging at each other’s clothes. Harper’s shirt came off easily but Dylan’s uniform was trickier. They giggled as he tried to untangle himself from the layers of clothing.

"You are wearing WAY too much," said Harper as Dylan finally wrestled his was out of his undershirt. Dylan smiled and sat down on the bed to take off his boots. Harper was already naked and Dylan felt dizzy: he had a perfect view of the younger man’s huge erection. Suddenly this all seemed too real: he hesitated, one boot off, the other in his hand.

"I...I don’t know if I can do this" he said, noticing that his hands had begun to shake, "I’m not..."

"Ready for this?" Asked Harper, sitting down beside him.

"Yeah" Dylan bowed his head and picked at the fastenings on his boot. He felt Harper shift on the bed behind him and tensed as his hands rested on his shoulders.

"This isn’t something we have to do today." Harper said in a soft voice, "Your first time with a man should be special. Not rushed."

Dylan opened his mouth to reply when an alert sounded in the hall outside the door. He leapt to his feet, "Andromeda what’s wrong?" Getting no answer he realised Harper’s room was still privacy sealed. "Privacy disengaged," he yelled as he pulled on his shirt and stumbled towards the door, "What the hell is going on?"

"I’m sorry to interrupt but I need Harper" explained the hologram popping into existence on the table, "There’s an unexplained build up of radioactive gas in the secondary heat exchange conduit. There’s a chance it could leak into the rest of the ship."

Harper jumped up, "I’m on it babe." He pulled on his pants and shirt and gave Dylan a brief but forceful kiss, "This...later" his eyes told Dylan that ‘later’ was going to be as soon as possible.

<><><><><>

Dylan was back on the command deck seething with frustration: the normal kind and the...other kind. The last twenty-four hours had been a never – ending series of minor but time consuming faults in Andromeda’s systems. Every time he thought he’d finished and could spend some time exploring this new thing with Harper another alert would sound and he or the engineer would be called away. It’s almost as if something is deliberately keeping us apart. That thought made his stop and consider the nature of the interruptions for a moment. Scowling, he went to check Andromeda’s records.

Half an hour later he had reached a conclusion, "Rommie, a word please" he motioned to the avatar to follow him out of the room. Rommie looked a little surprised but complied. They walked down the hall together, "Rommie I want to know what is going on"

"Going on?"

"You know what I mean: the catalogue of misfortunes the ship has been suffering recently."

"It is to be expected that after so many months without an experienced engineering team things will start to malfunction."

"Malfunction yes, sabotage no"

Rommie stopped in her tracks, "Sabotage?"

Dylan turned to look at her, "Yes sabotage; that’s what you call it when someone deliberately upsets the smooth running of an otherwise normal environmental system." He handed the flimsy to her, "The later attacks were more carefully hidden but the first was sloppy: radioactive gas? There’s no way that could have got in there by accident. Why Rommie?"

"I just wanted you to have time to think about what you were doing with Harper."

Dylan reeled from the shock. "And why would that be any concern of yours?" He tried not to see the flash of pain in Rommie’s face. It’s better for her to understand that there can be nothing between us now. I’ve left it too long as it is.

"This isn’t you, Dylan. You’ve never shown an interest in men before. And Harper of all people! Why him?"

Dylan sighed, he knew he was going to have to explain in more detail his feeling for the engineer or Rommie would continue her attempts to keep them away from each other. "Why don’t we go and get something to eat and I’ll try to make you understand."

Getting started was the hard part, after his first hesitant attempts to make his feelings clear he took a deep breath and poured out his heart to the avatar. She listened in silence as Dylan told her about all the times he had thrown himself into an empty relationship with a woman just to try to distract himself from his real feelings. Feelings that frightened him with their intensity. Women were safe: there was no loss of control where they were concerned. With men, however...Dylan told Rommie about the first time he’d felt that light-headed, dizzying sensation: he’d been fifteen and the object of his affection had been two years older. He’d tried to get the other boy’s attention but had only brought down derision on himself. The other boy had mocked him for his feelings and Dylan had been crushed for months afterwards. After that he had tried to forget all about it, he’d met a girl who liked him, was friendly and easy to talk to; it had been easy to drift into a relationship with her and to some extent it helped his emotional turmoil to be part of a couple.

"But you never got the same feeling with a woman?" asked Rommie.

"Never, the closest I came was with Sarah" said Dylan, "She was interesting but interesting isn’t the same as passion and love."

"Is that what you feel about Harper?"

"I don’t know how I feel about Harper yet. I can’t stop thinking about him. My dreams are full of him, I watch him doing ordinary things and I’m..."

"Aroused?" said Rommie, "Like in Hydroponics?"

Dylan blushed, he realised he must have been monitored during his moment of self – release. "Yes, just looking at him makes me hot"

Rommie nodded and stood up, "I understand now. I’m sorry I tried to get in your way. I wish things had turned out differently but I’m glad you told me this. There won’t be any more system failures, at least not deliberate ones."

"Good"

Rommie turned away and the looked back at Dylan, "I should tell you that Harper has finished the repairs to the venting modules and is on his way back to his quarters right now"

Dylan smiled at Rommie, "Thank you"

She smiled back and said, "I want you to be happy" and left.

<><><><><>

Dylan stood at Harper’s door, talking to Rommie had sorted things out in his head. He no longer had any doubts that this was what he really wanted; the irritating voice in his head had been silenced hopefully for good he thought. He realised that the voice had been his true self shouting against his deliberate blindness. He raised his hand to knock just as the door slid open, Harper stood in the doorway, he looked surprised to see Dylan standing there for a moment and the his face lit up with that Harper smile that made Dylan go weak at the knees.

"I was coming to see you. I thought I’d better hurry before the next emergency."

Dylan grinned back, "I don’t think there’s going to be an emergency for a while. I spoke to Rommie and she’s going to try to give us a bit of peace and quiet."

Harper raised his eyebrows; "You spoke to Rommie, about us?" He moved back to let Dylan into the room.

Dylan nodded, "Yes, the reason we had so many emergencies in the last day was because she thought I was acting strangely with you. She wanted me to stop and think about what I was doing."

"Rommie was jealous? I suppose it would be too much to ask that it was over me."

Dylan sat down on a chair and ran his hands through his hair, "You like women, don’t you? I mean you aren’t just in denial like I was. If Rommie had made you choose between her and me she’d have won, yes?"

Harper shrugged and looked uncomfortable. He sat down on the bed, "I’m not going to lie to you: I like women a lot, probably more than men usually. But it’s not a case of ‘all the women first and then the men’. I like some men more than most women and you definitely fit into that category" then he smirked, "It’s not just because you have this amazing ship that I can tinker with or the fact that I can probably get leave to attend every surfing event in the galaxy if I blow you right."

Dylan laughed and blushed at the same time, "Are you going to?"

"Going to what?"

"Blow me right"

"Oh yeah"

Harper slid onto the floor and crawled over to Dylan. He run his hands lightly up the other man’s thighs and stretched up for a kiss. Dylan felt dizzy and euphoric: this was what he had wanted for so long. Mentally he cursed the wasted years he’d spent trying to erase this part of his nature. Harper’s lips were soft under his and he parted his lips. The engineer’s tongue flicked across his lower lip and he moaned his desire. Harper’s hands moved to the fastenings on Dylan’s pants and swiftly undid them. Dylan gasped against his lips as the young man’s hands slid into stroke his cock. He was almost instantly hard.

Dylan lifted his hips for a moment as Harper pulled down his pants and underwear. He shifted slightly to give him better access and groaned in disappointment as Harper stroked everywhere except his throbbing member. Harper kissed a trail down Dylan’s neck and pulled at the catches on his uniform jacket.

"Too many clothes again, Dylan. I think the High Guard didn’t want any on duty nookie disrupting their routine." Dylan grinned at the mental picture of easy – access uniforms for those ‘have to shag the staff’ moments. He shrugged out of the heavy jacket and pulled off his shirt as Harper tugged off his boots. Son he was sitting naked under Harper’s admiring gaze.

"I think you have me at a disadvantage" he said gesturing at Harper’s fully clothed state. Harper just grinned and quickly stripped off his clothes. He moved in closer and ran his hands up Dylan’s torso.

"Wow, you look even better than I imagined, I didn’t get much of a look last time." Dylan gasped as Harper’s hands ran gently over his nipples. Harper moved in and kissed one of them and Dylan moaned as a burst of pleasure shot down to his groin. He could feel the younger man grinning against his skin and allowed himself to become lost in the sensations running through his body.

Harper pulled Dylan’s legs further apart and moved in closer, he licked and nibbled across and down his chest paying particular attention to his very sensitive nipples. His hands moved up and down, caressing Dylan’s muscular thighs. Slowly the stroking moved up higher until Harper finally cupped the larger man’s balls and gave them a gentle squeeze, his thumb stroking small circles at the base of his cock.

"Lean back," Harper said. Dylan settled back in the chair, his erection jutting out in the air. He stifled a groan as he felt his cock being licked from base to crown. Harper licked and sucked at the head making Dylan wriggle and then sucked a mouthful of the hot flesh into his mouth. Dylan almost came then and there: Harper’s mouth was hot and wet and the sensations he produced as he slid down the shaft were mind – blowing. His tongue swirled around as a hand and his lips stroked. The other hand was still on Dylan’s balls pulling them in a slow rhythm. Dylan held on until Harper sucked him deeper into his mouth, the feeling of the young blonde’s throat swallowing him sent him over the edge and he came hard.

When he’d regained his senses somewhat he looked down to see Harper licking his juices from his lips. It was an incredibly erotic sight and he slid bonelessly down onto the floor and wrapped his arms around his lover. My lover he thought, feeling a warm glow of affection. He kissed Harper and whispered, "Thank you"

"You haven’t seen anything yet" drawled Harper as he pushed Dylan down onto the floor and straddled him. The young man gazed down and grinned wickedly. First he ran his hands over the heated flesh of Dylan’s torso and then leaned over for a kiss. He sucked and nibbled at Dylan’s lips and then moved down to nip and lick the soft skin behind his ear.

Dylan gasped, "What about you? What do you want me to do?"

"Oh don’t worry, we’ll get round to me soon. I just want to make this memorable for you."

"I don’t think you have any worries there. I’ll remember this until the day I die." Dylan could feel himself getting hard again; the sensual pressure of Harper’s balls against his cock was wonderful. Dylan reached up and stroked Harper’s hair, then caressed his cheek and ran his hand down the man’s pale shoulders and across his back. He could feel the scars on Harper’s back. It must have hurt; I wonder who did that? He hated the thought of anyone causing marks like that on anyone let alone this man he suspected he’d fallen in love with. Yet another reason to restore the Commonwealth: so things like that won’t happen any more.

Harper’s mouth had worked down to Dylan’s nipples again; he was sucking and gently biting them into hard little peaks. He lifted his head, "Time to move to the bed?"

Dylan nodded and they climbed over to Harper’s bed. He noticed that Harper had put clean sheets on it and there seemed to be less clutter. "Did you clean up for me?" he asked

Harper grinned, "Laid in supplies too."

"Supplies?"

"You’ll see," he said pushing Dylan back down and snaking kisses down his body. Dylan gasped as Harper’s tongue wandered over his balls. He couldn’t believe how fast he’d gotten hard again. He tensed slightly when Harper stroked his anus; Harper moved his hand away and stroked down Dylan’s leg to tickle the back of his knee. Dylan giggled and Harper looked up, "Ticklish are we? That’s something to remember."

Harper moved back up, sliding his body over Dylan’s until they were face to face. They kissed and Dylan tasted himself on the other man’s lips. It was a heady sensation and he felt as if he might lose control when he felt their erections rubbing together. Just in time Harper moved away and Dylan groaned in disappointment. The reason for the distance was made clear when Harper sat back with a tube of lubricant.

Dylan’s eyes rolled back as Harper’s now slippery hand gripped his shaft. He was grateful to the younger man that he was taking control. This was way out of Dylan’s experience. He watched as Harper prepared himself by pushing first one lubed finger and then another into his tightness.

"Are you OK?" asked Harper. "You’re ready for this?"

Dylan could just nod as Harper slid slowly down onto him. Oh dear God! So hot! So tight! All thought was banished as sensory overload consumed him. Harper rode him slowly at first, adjusting his angle until he hissed with pleasure. They groaned in unison and sped up. Dylan just lay there and let Harper fuck himself on his shaft. He watched the engineer’s face as he pumped up and down; he looked so young in the throes of passion. The end came too soon as Harper came with a shout; the feel of cum on his chest and tight ass muscles contracting around him sent Dylan over the edge.

Harper half climbed, half slid off Dylan and they lay panting side by side. Harper waved his hand about until he located a box of tissues and wiped most of the cum from them. Then he curled himself against Dylan’s side, pulled a sheet over them and was almost immediately asleep.

Dylan was drowsy but the immensity of what they’d done kept him awake for a while. It felt so good to have Harper’s slender form wrapped around him. I think I’m in love with him. How does he feel about me? He never really answered the question about whether he’d choose me over Rommie.

On that disquieting note he fell asleep.

The End

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