Maya
Maya hurried after Commander Chaos as he led them down a narrow corridor that twisted and turned this way and that, and the sound of water grew stronger with every turn. Finally, he ducked through a half-opened set of doors.
It was dark, except for the soft glow of bioluminescent plants clinging to the walls.
“Stay right there,” Ranek said. “I see the controls. They should still be working.”
There was the sound of his footsteps behind her, followed by that of a large switch sliding into place. The lights turned on, and she covered her eyes momentarily at the sudden change in illumination. Then the lights dimmed ever so slightly, and her eyes adjusted.
She gasped at the magical scene before her. It wasn’t like the public baths at Reka 5 with its manmade pools where one could choose the temperature and scents. This was a natural hot spring, the pool spanning almost the entire room. The ones who’d come before them had strung up what Maya recognizedas Tallean work lights across the ceiling, the warm glow of them crisscrossing over the bubbling water.
Warm curls of steam greeted them, along with a scent of damp stone mixed with a mineral note. The air shimmered faintly above the water, the heat rising in soft waves that made the cavern feel like a hidden sanctuary.
The pool itself was a generous size and sat in a natural hollow, its smooth surface occasionally broken by tiny bubbles. A faint glow emanated from beneath the water, as if the minerals were catching and reflecting the artificial light strung along the cavern's ceiling.
There was no rotten-egg smell, so this was not a sulfur spring. Warmth emanated from the pool, and she wondered if it was still safe to use. There were several benches scattered around the pool, and old signs reminding miners who once used this natural wonder to take all their belongings. They must’ve used it to soak away their pains and soreness after a long shift.
Maya loved the baths at Reka 5. Sure, she had been self-conscious about being naked in front of everyone at first, but you know the saying, when in Rome. It helped that both Tallean men and women had a healthy appreciation for all types of bodies, because here was the thing: she was curvy, but she was the wrong type of curvy for Earth media.
She didn’t have an itty-bitty waist with voluptuous hips. She didn’t have the type of ass musicians waxed poetic about. No. She was boobalicious. And big breasts usually also meant big backs, rolls, and a poochy belly. Sure, she had a nice ass too, pert and rounded, but she didn’t have that waist-to-hip ratio that somehow made it into chart-topping songs once a decade.
She used to be self-conscious about it. But that had mostly disappeared after living at Reka 5. Sure, there were biologicalreasons for the waist-to-hip ratio preference, but most of the hype was societal, and Talleans just didn’t have the socially engineered preference between types of curvy. It wasn’t just the alien men either, but the women as well. They thought her as beautiful as she was. And that made all the difference.
It could also be that they had much freer sexual beliefs. There was none of this silly idea that a man who had a lot of notches on his bedpost was a stud and a woman was run through. Instead, both sexes were expected to get out there and test for compatibility until they found “the one.”
Of course, some of the transplanted humans at Reka 5 still held onto Old Earth beliefs. It was easy to ignore them.
There was a loud splash as Commander Chaos leapt in.
“Chaos! No!”
She worried that the spring would be too hot or dangerous. But the dragus pup just paddled away, looking ridiculously happy, his close call with the toothy alien Tribbles forgotten.
She sighed and rubbed her temple, reminding herself that she had been a puppy trainer at a chain pet store, not an alien species expert, and that his behavior was in no way a reflection of her. Back on Earth, she had recommended clicker training for all the puppies that had difficulty following commands normally. But she’d learned early on that clicker training simply did not work for dragus. They had to want to do what they wanted to do, or else the clicker would just get ignored, no matter how much they wanted the food or the praise that came after it.
Well, at least he was in the pool and not running down a random tunnel. She sure hoped that there wasn’t anything dangerous in the water. And she didn’t mean large predators,because the pool was small enough that she doubted anything large could survive in it, but she didn’t want to be dealing with any unknown alien bacterium or parasites come morning.
Ranek was already kneeling by the pool, his comm unit in his hand.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Testing water safety.”
She stepped closer and saw that there was a small attachment to his comm that he’d dripped some water onto.
“There,” he said after a beep, “it is not only safe to use but filled with minerals that are good for our health.”
“Really? So I can take a soak?” she asked hopefully. After the day she’d had, she really needed one.
“I will secure the area,” Ranek said with a grin, clearly just as excited as she was to join the dragus pup in the pool.
It wasn’t long before Ranek returned, his clothes coming off and giving her a show of his sexy body even as he stepped into view. She grinned, stripping off her still slightly damp clothes as well.
“Last one in is a rotten egg!”
She was just kicking her pants off when she suddenly found herself swept up off her feet and pressed against Ranek’s muscular chest. Not expecting it, she let out a squeal and threw her arms around his neck. Then Ranek was stepping into the steaming water with her in his arms.
At first, the spring was a tiny bit too warm, but she got used to it quickly, and by the time Commander Chaos was doggy paddling over to say hi, she had already decided that it was perfect.
