Dad walks over to us and says, “Let’s go. We’ll get the briefing done, and afterward, we’ll get settled into our cabin.”

  The briefing is pretty much as you’d expect it would be. Informing everyone, again, of the situation and where we are heading. Expining that we’ll spend several years in cryosleep and that the ship will wake us up once we’re there. He also said that he’s going to give everyone some time to acclimatize before we have to enter cryo. After that, Dad leads us forward to our cabin. It’s tiny, of course. Only 3 rooms. Two bedrooms and a common room in between them. The twins and I will be sharing one, and our parents the other. We head in to check out our bedroom which is nothing more than two closets with built-in dressers, and full-size bunk beds. I take the upper bunk so that my little sisters don’t have to climb up and down.

  Once I set my bag of personal belongings in the closet, I head back out to the common room and ask Dad, “How can I find out where Athena’s cabin is?”

  “That’s easy, hang on a sec. Each of you gets one of these,” he says as he walks over to a small cabinet built into the wall and opens it. He takes out a small 5-centimeter long vambrace and shows it to me. “This is a communicator, health monitor, provides access to the ship’s network, and shows a map of the ship with your position. It will also tell you who lives where or where they currently are if they’re in your contact list.”

  He pces it over my left forearm, taps a button on it, and it wraps securely around my arm. Then he shows me the basic operations of it, then says, “I need to head back to the bridge now. I’ll see everyone this evening.”

  “Later, Dad,” I call out to him over my shoulder.

  He leaves, and I ask the device, “Where is Athena Mayes?”

  “Athena Mayes is not in your approved contact list. Would you like me to request her permission to add her?”

  “Yes.”

  It only takes 30 seconds or so before it says, “Athena Mayes has approved your request. Currently, she is in the recreation area on deck two.” It opens a map and shows me the location along with a route to get there.

  Taking note of the route, I make my way there. It only takes me 10 minutes to reach it. I immediately spot her when I enter. Athena is hard to miss. Cute as hell, big blue eyes, long brunette hair and not to mention, a killer body. She’s about 5’5”, has long legs, pouty kissable lips, and while her boobs aren’t all that big, they suit her frame. All-in-all, I would rate her as an 8.5 or 9. She is simply that pretty.

  She’s pying pool with a few other girls around our age, so I head over and wait for her to finish her shot. When she does, she looks up at me, smiles, steps in close, and gives me a quick kiss. “Hi, Avery. I was wondering when you would find your way here.”

  Not that I’m compining, but the kiss surprises me, so it takes me a moment to gather my wits enough to reply. “Hi, yourself. I came as soon as I could.”

  Athena then steps beside me, grabs my arm possessively, and looks at the other girls as if prociming me to be her territory. “Ladies, this is Avery. Avery, this is Mika, Amber, and Jenny.” She gestures to each of them as she introduces them.

  I wave at them with my free hand and say, “Hi. You can continue your game. I’ll take a seat and watch ‘till you’re done.”

  Sitting down, I alternate between watching their game and looking around. One thing I quickly notice is that there is a preponderance of girls here. Far more than boys. As in, probably 2 or maybe even 3 to 1. Of course, it could always be that the men are off somewhere else. Still, the number of women here makes me wonder if it was pnned this way, and by the looks of it, none of them are older than their early to mid-30s. The majority of them are middle to te teens or at most in their early 20s. Basically, they’re all within the prime age for giving birth. A man can impregnate many women, but the reverse doesn’t hold true. It makes sense if you look at it from a genetic diversity viewpoint.

  If my guess is right, that’s exactly what will happen. The women will be having multiple babies, most likely from many different men, and raising them while the men do everything else. At least, for a while until the popution increases enough to not have to do that. They’ll definitely have to keep track of who fathered whom so that we don’t run into any genetic problems down the road, though that’s what computers are for.

  Athena finishes her game, comes over, and plops down beside me with a sigh. She keeps gncing at me pensively, then finally says, “Sorry about earlier. It’s just that I’ve seen most of the men here, and I’d much prefer to be with you than them. I like you, and so I kinda cimed you as mine. I apologize.”

  I shrug slightly as I think, ‘Who am I to compin?’ She’s gorgeous, as I said, and she’s nice. I also like hanging out with her, at least, so far. “I don’t mind, but look around.” She does and then looks at me quizzically. “Look at the ratio of men to women here. You know what that likely means, right?”

  “No. What?”

  “It’s quite probable that monogamy is a thing of the past. I could be wrong, but that doesn’t seem likely. 1,000 people aren’t very many to re-establish the human race. It’s enough for decent genetic diversity, but it won’t work with each man being with only one woman, and vice versa.”

  She looks at me with a dismayed expression. “Really?”

  “Really.” I tap a button on my device and ask, “What is the sex of all members of the Avalon and Discovery?”

  “There are 650 females and 350 males, this includes passengers and crew members.”

  “See, just under 2 to 1 in favor of women.”

  She frowns for a moment, then says, “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  She looks at her device for passenger-accessible areas, then says, “I want to go to the observation lounge.”

  “Sure. Sounds good to me.”

  I’ve always loved the stars. Regardless of my parents harping on about having pns for the future, I’ve always been fascinated by space. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted it to be something in retion to that. Be it following my father into the service, going on to college, or whatever. I’ve always gotten good grades in school, even if most people think of me as being somewhat of a scker. In point of fact, they confuse my easygoing nature with being a scker. Believe me, I’m not one at all.

  We stand up, and she takes my hand as we walk out into the hallway. The observation lounge is all the way at the front of the ship, just under the bridge. When you go in, you have to go through a door, down a short hallway, through a bckout curtain, and then through another door to get to it. The only light in the room is in the walkway, which is lit dimly with red light. Just enough to show you where to walk without destroying your night vision.

  When we enter, we have to let our eyes adjust for a minute, and then we find that we’re the only ones here. We walk to the front and take a seat on a comfortable sofa facing the wraparound windows. The view is absolutely incredible.

  She slides in close to me, then lifts my arm to wrap it around her as she leans against me. “Much better.”

  We watch the stars for a while, then she asks, “Avery, do you like me?”

  The question catches me off guard. “Hmm? Yeah, sure, I do.”

  “Good, because I like you too. I don’t know about you, but I’m a virgin, and I don’t want some random person to be selected to be my first.” She looks up at me. “I wanted it to be with someone I loved, but now, I think it’s enough for it to be with someone I like. Do you get what I’m saying?”

  Okay, don’t call me a retard for this, but I don’t have a lot of experience with girls. “I think so. You want to find someone you like to make love to you.”

  She simply stares at me open-mouthed for a moment, then rolls her eyes and ughs. “Geez, Avery. You are kinda clueless, huh?” She hikes up her skirt, takes my free hand, and pces it on her thigh. She stares into my eyes and states, “I meant that I want my first time to be with you. I like you, and you like me. Is that okay?”

  Rather than allow me to answer, she leans forward a bit and kisses me softly, which quickly turns into a long, deep kiss. When we break our kiss, she climbs into my p facing me, and kisses me again.

  Let’s just say that having sex with her, in space, was a novel experience. I happily take my time to enjoy her in every way possible. One time, turned into two, two became three, and by the time we were sated, both of us were soaked in sweat. I will say that she has a much better body than I’d thought. Thank God for couples porn teaching me what I should do to make her feel good. Going by her reactions, she reached orgasm several times. The st time she came, she cmped down hard enough on me that I thought that if I moved, my dick would tear off. Believe me, I’m rather proud of the fact that I made her cum repeatedly. Of course, so did I, inside her each and every time.

  Afterward, she’s ying on top of me as we cuddle, slowly cooling off and catching our breath. Raising her head enough to see me, she gives me a soft kiss, then murmurs, “Thank you.” She looks into my eyes. “Anytime you want me, just say so. We can do this as much as you like because we’re very compatible. You’re far more patient than I thought you’d be. My friends always said that their boyfriends were always in a rush, so I’m thankful that you took the time to make sure I was good and ready before you took me. I appreciate that more than you know.”

  I shrug slightly. “My dad had a long talk with me about sex when I turned 13. A rather in-depth one at that. He told me several times that forepy is a man’s best friend, that I should strive to make my partner feel just as good as I do, and that sex isn’t just about me cumming.”

  She nuzzles my cheek and murmurs, “Remind me to thank your father. That was amazing.”

  Annoyingly, our devices chime and announce that dinner is being served. “Boo~ I wanted to cuddle more, but I guess we can do it ter.” She quirks an eyebrow at me. “I’m hoping you also want to.”

  I chuckle softly. “Do I look like I’m stupid?” She shakes her head. “Good, because I enjoyed this and would love to continue, but at the same time, I’m starving. We burned through quite a bit of energy this afternoon.”

  Grudgingly, we get up, and I watch her dress. You know, back on Earth, I’d never have stood a chance to be with someone like her. Oh, I’m not ugly or anything close to that. That isn’t it. It’s just that she would have had her pick of men to go out with. In a way, the end of the world does have some bright aspects to it.

  Realizing that I’m just staring, she doesn’t seem to mind because she smiles and then says, “Get dressed, dummy. I’m hungry, too. You can look at me all you want ter, okay?” I grin lopsidedly and nod, then she stands on her tiptoes and kisses me. “You’re cute and sweet.”

  As we make our way to the dining room, she holds my arm. Along the way, a thought occurs to me, and I mutter, “Well, fuck me if he didn’t call it.”

  Athena looks at me and says, “Huh?”

  “My dad, he called it at the terminal. He said that we were getting an early start.”

  She cracks up for a bit, then replies, “Yeah, I guess he did.”

  Dinner was nothing special. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green beans, corn, and dinner rolls. I admit it was much better food than I was expecting. The best part was Athena sitting beside me and making sure that our thighs were touching all the time. Apparently, she’s the touchy-feely type, not that I mind. My now ex-girlfriend would barely allow me to hold her hand in public. I much prefer Athena, as if I need to say that.

  I should mention that Athena’s dad is a doctor, so he’s been assigned to the infirmary until we all go into cryo. The really good thing is that her parents have the same shift, and that means that her pce is empty during that time, which we readily make use of. Athena turns out to be much more open to trying new things when it comes to sex than I would have thought. She’s an amazing girl.

  We’re ying in her bed, cuddling after our test round of sex, when she murmurs, “You know, I don’t take birth control.”

  Not considering what that means, I simply say, “No, I didn’t.”

  “We’ve been together a lot in the st couple of days, and every time, you’ve cum inside me. I could very well be pregnant. How would you feel about it if I was?”

  I never even considered that. “Hmm… If you are, then great. The question is, do you want to be pregnant?”

  “I’ll have to be sometime soon. Well, soon as far as we’re concerned since the trip will only seem like a day has passed. I’ve thought about it, and I’d be gd if you gave me my first baby. Now, ter, whatever, it doesn’t matter.”

  I could easily fall in love with her. At the very least, I’m infatuated with her right now. She’s pretty, sexy, funny, and easy to be with, so what’s not to like? I’m merely amazed that it’s only been a couple of days since we met.

  “I’d be happy if you had my baby.”

  She smiles. “Boy or girl?”

  “I’ll settle for healthy. Their sex doesn’t matter.”

  “I feel the same way, though I’d love to have a daughter. That said,” she gives me a look and throws a leg over my hips, then sits on top of me, reaches between her legs, and slowly traces her fingernails along my dick. “I want you.”

  I’m smart enough to know not to argue with a pretty girl when she has control of my cock. Mind you, I never would, especially when that girl is Athena.