Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:58:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Amanda <mandagl@yahoo.com>
Subject: Starlight Lover Chapter 1 (Ff,Mast,ped,cons)

	I am Kirstin Melchovic, I captain the Nova Princess,
a freighter I converted from a passenger vessel after
taking over the mortgage on it. Five years of my life
had been poured into the ship making runs from Earth
to Mars or Europa even out as far as Century Station
in the Proxima Centaury system.  Mostly though I ferry
Ice between Europa and Uranus. I hardly ever took
passengers, being that I had only my own state room,
my engineer's quarters and four rooms I'd kept just in
case. Besides the flight was not very comfortable
since most of the ship had to be kept below freezing
to preserve the ice.
	My ship was large enough that I could carry
sufficient ice to restock a station's fresh water for
at least six months with current recycling technology.
Of course like all things the ice routes would
eventually dry up due to better treatment facilities
and I'd have to find a new type of cargo to haul.
	Two hundred years ago on Earth there were people that
ferried goods around the various territories in what
must have been large vehicles for the times. They were
called truck drivers in North America and basically
that was really all I was.
 	My life was really simple. Gerald, my engineer kept
to himself back in the engine room. I might only see
him once or twice in a month. I entertained myself
with ultrawave programs or virtual reality and I liked
the solitude. I'd had a few lovers, once upon a time
I'd had a girl in every port but in the ten years I'd
been serving on and now commanding freighters I'd lost
interest in women as a whole. Not that I'd gained
interest in men, no and if I had Gerald was right
there. No, he had to content himself with the Betty
he'd pulled out of the scrap heap on Mars. For me,
things just never seemed to click with any of my girl
friends.
	After salvaging her, Gerald had wiped the Betty's
memory. Most of them had a huge storage capacity and
the lion's share of it was filled with ways to
pleasure us humans. Not `Mindy' as he called her. She
had the basic hooker program running, it was in her
ROM after all, but he'd nearly filled her drive with
engineering information and ship maintenance. Leave it
to a gear head to turn a Betty into an engineering
assistant.
	I didn't mind the extra hands though. I didn't have
to pay her, and her AI wasn't as plastic as most bots.
She could cook and had some basic conversation built
in so once in a while I'd have dinner with her. I even
slept with her one night, taking my engineer's
suggestion that I `get laid'. It was way to artificial
for me. Not only that, even though she could really
scream and squirm, I knew she wasn't actually able to
cum.
	As I said, pretty simple. Boring to some but just
right for me. I mean you really don't want to much
excitement during space travel, as it usually means
something life or death is happening.
	My troubles though, if they really could be called
that, started after picking up two containers from the
Demos observatory over Mars. The observatory really
had no facilities to speak of. Just enough living
quarters for the astronomers. But it had a huge port
as it had originally been used as a base station for
getting goods off of and on to Mars.
	The containers were actually living quarters modules
headed for Europa and since I was due to pick up a
shipment of ice there I thought why not get paid for
the trip. Once the containers were loaded the Dock
Captain called over standard radio to clear me for
launch and I was on my way.
	Everything from here on would be done on ultra wave
radio. It took a lot of power from the ship but faster
than light communications was critical even in
intra-system travel.
	Ten days out and at a speed of around one hundred
eighty six miles per second Mindy said something that
puzzled me. I was in the mess having dinner and she
was cleaning the kitchen when she turned around,
tilting her head to the side. "Will the girl eat with
you tomorrow?" She asked. I'm sure the lift in her
voice was suppose to sound like she was confused, but
she could neither mimic the expression or the tone.
Questions meant something did not compute though.
	"What girl?"
	"Female, approximate age ten, hair blonde, four feet
three inches tall. Eye color could not be determined."
	"Did you see a girl at the station?"
	"The young female is traveling with us in the cargo
hold. She has requested that I do not reveal her where
abouts but I must know if I need to prepare more
food."
	"Mindy damnit, when were you going to tell me about
this?" I snapped.
	"I was not Captain, as the female requested. However
she stated that she is hungry and I must now prepare
her food in accordance with directive two."
	"Directive two?" I didn't really understand robotics.
	"I can by no act or omission of an act allow harm to
come to a human."
	"Yeah yeah." I got out of my chair, heading for the
cargo hold. "And for fuck sake Mindy ask Gerald to
explain ship's protocol to you."
	"As you wish Captain."
	I made my way down to the hold as quietly as I could.
I didn't want to scare the child. I crept through the
first set of living quarters, checking closets,
bathrooms, everything. If the kid had been there she
hadn't left any sign. I went in to the second set
container and in the first room I found a small
sleeping bag and a pile of trash, mostly candy
wrappers and chip bags. The kid was missing but she'd
been there.
	I snuck through the container until I came to the
last room in the set. As quietly as I could I entered
the room and went to the closet. With a deep breath I
opened the door.
	I almost didn't see her huddled in the shadowy corner
of the small closet. There she was though, pretty much
as the Betty had described her.
	"What's your name?" I asked crouching down to be at
eye level with her. The girl just stared at me,
shaking either from the chill in the air or fear. "Hey
kid, what's your name?" She almost seemed like she
didn't understand the question. "Nombre?" I was
getting annoyed at this point. "Hey! Your name kid!"
She jumped when I shouted.
	"S-Star." She stuttered.
	"Well Star, you're in some real deep sewage, you know
that don't you?" I was only half telling the truth.
Legally I could have put her out the airlock but that
wasn't me. Especially not with a child. There was
something more going through my head. What could be so
terrible to a child that she would stowaway on a ship,
especially with the risk involved. The risk of being
found, or worse, being on a ship that doesn't maintain
life support in the hold. My ship was a conversion, it
wasn't possible to dump the air in the hold, I wish it
was, it'd save a lot of power. And who knows what
might have happened to her if she'd boarded a deep
space vessel. Some of the crews of those ships didn't
have women. Some didn't even have Bettys on board.
	"Why are you on my ship?" I asked the girl as we sat
down at the table in the mess.
	"One ship's good as `nother." She said.
	"No, not really. You're lucky to be alive. What if I
sealed the hold and blew the atmo in there? You're
blood'd boil and your head would pop." I folded my
arms across my chest. The girl was dirty but even
under the dirt I could see how pretty she was.
	"What're ya gonna do with me?"
	"I don't know." I answered honestly. "I suppose put
you up in quarters and ship you home when we get to
Europa."
	"No! I don't wanna go home! Please anything else, you
can give me to the police or even keep me here, I can
be real helpful, but don't make me go home, pleeease!"
She was begging.
	"What's wrong with home?" I asked, hearing the
desperation in her voice piqued my curiosity.
	"Dad died bout three years ago. Now mom just drinks
or smokes Tril all the time'n she fucks people to get
money. We been thrown outta three places cause she
couldn't pay the rent cause she spent the money on
drugs. She even said I'm older now and it's time I
earn my keep. She said she gonna make me do what she
does to get money. I don't wanna do that, I hate all
those gross men. They're all dirty from the mines, and
drunk and they're mean."
	It might have been a lie. The girl might be making
this up but, but she might not. Legally I was
Kidnapping her if I didn't turn her over to the
authorities when I got to Europa. The Federation had a
strangle hold on the system. Everything was charted,
cataloged, monitored and taxed. But the tighter they
held on the easier it was to slip things by.
	My ship was equipped with a transponder that had
encoded within it's signal, my license number, cargo
and passenger manifest and crew compliment. Highly
secure, trusted at all the major checkpoints, and very
easy to replace with a jacker. A completely
programmable transponder that would say whatever I
wanted it to. A good jacker, like the one I had, could
cost a year's pay but was undetectable even with
microscan. Basically even the best forensics couldn't
tell the difference between a real transponder and one
that had been replaced. Not yet anyway. My transponder
was nearly always legal, but it wasn't to tough to
reprogram it to show the kid as my daughter.
	The hard part came in her PIC. Personal ID chips were
harder to tinker with, mostly because the data was
encrypted with one thousand twenty-four bit
encryption. It didn't matter much, I seriously doubted
I'd even need to add her information to the jacker.
They rarely did bio scans at check points. Most of the
time they were just in a hurry to get you out of the
docks.
	My departure scan was on the net by now though so it
was better not to change anything at all, otherwise I
risked raising the eyebrows of some over paid, over
weight federation transport officer. Most of them
could care less what you were hauling as long as it
wasn't undocumented explosives or weapons. But there
was always that one, the new gung-ho guy trying to
make a name for himself.
	"Why should I believe anything you've told me?" I
asked the kid. She sat silently for several minutes
before she turned in her seat and pulled her shirt up
over her back. Her back showed several bruises as well
as some much older scars, even one that seemed like
she might have been cut with a blade. I still didn't
know if she was telling the truth but it was obvious
that the kid had been through something rough in her
life.
	The girl pushed her shirt down as she turned back to
face me. "Mom was high about a week ago and she tried
to make me fuck this man, I told her no. She beat me
bad. But I got away, I ran. I hid in Old Town on Mars
until I caught a ship up to the station and then I
found you."
	I sat quietly for several minutes, contemplating the
girl. I found myself wishing I'd installed cryo
chambers. It'd been nice to be able to just put the
kid in one and let her sleep all the way to Europa.
"We'll you've met our Betty, Sorry, Mindy." I finally
said.  "Gerald is the engineer. You could be on the
ship for a year and never see him. I haven't seen him
since we left Earth docks about a month ago."
	"You'll let me stay?" She asked sounding a bit
excited.
	"You know I can't. I can get you to Europa, maybe
even get you in with some people that can help you but
I have a ship to run here, I can't have a kid around."
Something in me went out to the girl though. If I
turned her over to some of the shady people I knew on
Europa she might well end up in just as bad a
situation as she'd come from, and there was little
doubt she'd be turning tricks by the time she was
sixteen. I knew a forger though. Some one that could
rework her PIC for her. We could legitimize her being
on my ship. A niece or cousin or something. She could
even attend class via the ultrawave.
	I couldn't believe what was going though my head.
This kid, this stowaway already had me thinking of
ways to keep her on my ship. Expensive ways at that.
Reworking a PIC could easily cost more than I'd make
on my next run. There was something about her though.
Like I'd said, she was pretty, and there was something
in her eyes. I felt for her, I felt myself draw to
protect her.
	"If I stay I can cook and clean and stuff."
	"I have Mindy for that. And I don't have to feed or
pay her." I told the kid.
	"I'll do anything just don't send me back." She plead
with me.
	"Fine... For now. We'll figure this out when we get
to Europa." Legally speaking I should turn her over to
the law at the next check point. Stowing away was a
serious crime. She was a kid though and in all reality
couldn't understand how serious what she'd done was.
	"First things first. I guess I need to get you a
room, and you are in dire need of a shower." I led the
girl out of the mess and to the elevator. We went to
the upper deck, the passenger's area. I gave her a
small state room and left her there while I made my
way down to the engine room.
	"Captain!" Gerald said with some enthusiasm as I
stepped into the room. "Mindy said I need to explain
ship's protocol to her. What'd she zero on?"
	"Well, we had a stowaway." Gerald raised his
eyebrows.
	"And she knew?" I nodded my head. He look
embarrassed. But this was a situation even I wouldn't
have thought to explain to a robot. "You put'em out
the airlock?"
	"Course not." I snorted.
	"Man? Woman?"
	"A kid." I answered. Gerald rolled his eyes.
	"Well I ain't no fuckin' baby sitter." He said.
	"I just wanted you to be aware in case you saw her
around." I left him there and headed up to the bridge.
	My bridge. More than my stateroom, was my heaven. The
ship basically flew itself once you set the course. I
just loved to sit up there and watch the stars.
	I was absorbed in my thoughts and the stars just
outside my portals when the comm chimed. I rolled my
eyes and tapped the transmitter. "Yeah?"
	"I'm lost." I heard Star's little voice come back
over the comm.
	"Okay, what does it say on the bulkhead above the
comm pad?"
	"Four twenty seven G."
	"I'll be there in a minute." I closed the comm link
and stood up out of the pilot's seat I normally
occupied when I was in the con. I went down to the
passenger deck and found Star sitting on the floor
patiently waiting for me. "I guess I need for you to
follow me around for the next couple days until you
learn your way around." I held out my hand and helped
the girl to her feet. I showed the girl where my
quarters were as well as Mindy and Gerald's.
	Once Star was sure she could get from her room to
mine I took her up to the bridge. I'd never allowed a
passenger on to the bridge before. I don't know why it
was that this kid showed up and suddenly there were no
rules any more but that is what seemed to be
happening.
	Now clean, her blonde hair still wet and falling
around her face. I found myself staring at her. She
stood looking shyly up at me with her shining blue
eyes. She was actually a beautiful little girl. "Are
you hungry?" I asked. The girl nodded her head. The
more I had looked at her the more nervous she seemed
to be getting. I pressed the softkey on the comm panel
and waited to hear the chime. "Mindy can you bring
some sandwiches up to the bridge?" Several seconds
passed before Mindy said she'd be up in a few minutes.
	"Are you married?" Star asked, obviously trying to
break the ice.
	"No. Never met a girl that seemed to be able to stand
me long enough for that."
	"I had a girlfriend once." Star said absently. "We
kissed alot. It was nice I guess."
	"Really?" I said trying to sound interested.
	"She was kinda like a boy though, like she had a
short spiky hair cut and she always kinda dressed like
a boy."
	I smiled to myself as she described the little butch
girl. I thought it was cute. I was actually not having
to fein interest so much. I found myself growing
interested in the child. I was about to ask her some
questions about her girlfriend when Mindy came through
the hatch holding a plate with several small
sandwiches on it.
	"She's pretty for a robot." Star said looking up at
Mindy.
	"Cybernetic artificial humanoid." Mindy said dryly.
"I am made up of human flesh grown over an
endoskeletal structure with a syntho-organic neural
net as my central processor."
	Star starred blankly at her for a moment before
taking a sandwich off the plate. "Ok your pretty for a
Cyber human thingy."
	"Thank you. And if you are interested I am programmed
in multiple same sex techniques."
	"Mindy!" I tried to sound angry but I was laughing
too hard. It was no surprise that a Betty, especially
one that had been on board a ship for most of her
life, or existence or what ever they call it, would
not know what a child was outside of the most crude
understanding. "Mindy, she won't need that type of
service from you."
	"Yes captain."
	"Just leave the plate. You can go."
	Mindy left me there alone with the girl. I ate my
sandwich quietly, watching the child. I had not even
known her a day but I was feeling a bond with her
already beginning to grow. Whether or not everything
she said was true was becoming less important. What
was important was that I wanted to do something for
her. I wanted to take her in. It just seemed funny to
me how quickly it was all happening.

Chapter 2.

	Fifteen days out and we were holding behind a
passenger liner. The Federated System Liner Queen
Elizabeth was passing through the first of two check
points between Mars and Europa.
	A flash of light indicated the liner's engines
re-ignighting. Within a few seconds it began to move
forward slowly. It was hard to see much detail. In
space, lines could be hundreds of kilometers long. The
passenger liner, huge ship that it was, was hardly
visible to me at a distance of five kilometers, the
minimum safe spacing dictated by Federation law.
	The comm popped and chimed. "Nova Princess, proceed
to dock two fourteen A."
	"Acknowledged." I responded. "Star, you need to head
for your quarters." I said to the girl.
	Star nodded and silently headed through the hatch and
toward her room. It took about twenty minutes to get
to the checkpoint. I eased in to the dock and waited
for the docking ring and gang plank to attach to the
ship.
	The metallic thump echoed through the ship. Any
second now a dock officer would be calling on the
comm.
	"Captain Nova Princess, state your cargo and
destination."
	I hit the responder button on the comm. "Living
quarters to the Europa colony." This was a formality.
If he was following normal protocol he'd already
received this information from the transponder.
	Several seconds passed. "Please transmit current
logs." Something else he would have gotten
automatically from the transponder. He was just trying
to catch any discrepancies.
	I turned the pilot's seat around and slid it to the
computer console where I called up the logs and sent
them through to the dock officer across our comm link.

	"Logs received. Thank you Nova Princess. Disengaging
docking apparatus." I sat back in the seat and closed
my eyes. I had to admit I was nervous. It was
extremely rare to be boarded, but well, Murphy's law
and all. "Captain Nova Princess, you are free to go,
dock officer Reading out."
	I turned my chair back around and engaged the reverse
docking thrusters. I felt sweat on my brow as I backed
away from the dock and turned the ship back out toward
open space.
	Once we were under way again I left the bridge and
headed down toward the rooms to retrieve Star. I
didn't like the Martian run very much. It was the only
one in the system with two check points. The one we
had just passed and a second where it intersected with
the Jovian route from the inner planets. That was the
one that worried me. Lots of smuggling went on between
Earth and the moons of Jupiter. The officers tended to
be a little more attentive to details.
	"Star." I said quietly as I tapped her door. A moment
passed and the door slid into the bulkhead and I found
myself looking down in to her pretty face. "Would you
like to go up to the observation lounge? We could take
some sandwiches and have kind of a picnic." I offered.
The little girl nodded her head.
	We prepared some food and went up to the observation
lounge. It was a huge glass bubble, a room with
several lounge chairs that allowed one to sit back and
just stare up at the stars. We sat down on the floor
and quietly ate our sandwiches while looking out at
the majesty around us.
	"Does this ship fly faster than light?" She asked me,
her eyes fixed on Orion.
	"I have a slip stream drive. We can get up to L
seven."
	"Seven times the speed of light?"
	"No, light speed times itself seven times." I moved
closer to the girl. Over the past few days we'd become
quite close. I liked her. She was a sweet kid but
there seemed to be more to it. It was a bit
frightening. I was beginning to think that I was
attracted to her.
	Just a hundred years ago the mere thought was a
terrible taboo but things change. Especially since the
invention of the first Bettys. These days about one in
five of them was a child. It was still seriously
looked down on but pedophiles had rights, some of them
even enjoyed relationships openly.
	If I really was feeling what it was I thought I was
then it was not the end of the world. But I really
didn't want to be a pedophile.
	"Do you liked being here?" I asked the girl. As much
as I didn't want things to be the way they were, I
felt an overwhelming urge to pursue it.
	"It's pretty." She said, still captivated by the
stars.
	"It is. But I mean do you like being on the ship?"
	Star looked me in the eyes. She smiled and tilted her
head shyly. "I love it." Star leaned close to me and
put her head against my shoulder. "I love you."
	I tried to smile but my mouth had gone dry. I sipped
at the synthetic wine I had brought with us. I was
trying to think of a way to approach the girl. I
wondered to myself how they did it, how did people
start these types of relationships?
	I moved around until I was in front of the girl. I
put my hands on her knees and smiled down at her. "I
like having you here." I told her, sounding shaky. I
was nervous. She'd run from a situation where she
would have been forced in to prostitution. I didn't
want to make her run from me.
	Without any idea what the right way to do this was I
just leaned in and pressed my lips against hers. I
only held the kiss for a moment before I sat back to
judge her reaction.
	"Why'd you do that?" She asked me.
	"Because I like you." I pushed a lock of hair from
her face. "It's not like with your mother though. I
mean you don't have to do anything you don't want to."
	Star didn't say anything, she just leaned forward and
wrapped her arms around me. I pulled her close,
stroking her back. It was really nice, sitting there
holding her, surrounded by stars.
	Finally relaxing a little I moved her back and kissed
her again. Longer this time, parting my lips and
flicking my tongue against her lips. Star sat back
smiling. "I like kissing you." She said.
	"Me too." I wanted so much more from the little girl
now. I wondered how far she'd be willing to go. Gently
I caressed her body, running my hands over her chest,
down to her hips and curling my hands around to hold
her ass. The feeling of some one so small, such a tiny
lover excited me more than I wanted to admit.
	I had to be gentle with her. I did not want to
frighten her or take things to far too fast. Above all
I had to make sure that she had time to say no.
	Gently I caressed her tiny body through her clothes.
It was an unbelievably powerful experience. This
little girl was awakening things in me I did not know
had existed.
	Suddenly I realized that it all made sense. All the
women, all the girlfriends, things had never worked
out because they were not what I wanted in my heart.
This was it though. This was what I wanted. Having
this little girl at my side, touching her, making love
to her, this was what I had been seeking all along.
	I paused, looking down at her, trying to smile.
Timidly I reached out and tugged at the zipper holding
her jumpsuit closed. I looked down at her flat chest.
Her young flesh was beautiful. My eyes traced down her
body to her belly. It was so perfect, so smooth and
flat.
	With Star's help I pulled the jump suit off of her.
She lay before me wearing only a high cut pair of
panties. Underwear that seemed strangely mature for a
girl her age. The child swallowed hard as she studied
my reaction to her. "You have to take off your clothes
too." She said, sounding nervous.
	I nodded my head. To put her at ease I lifted my
shirt over my head, then slid the shorts and thermal
leggings I normally wore off. Now I sat in front of
her in nothing but my panties. I reached for her
panties and tried to pull them off but she resisted.
	"You first." She said. Again I nodded. I'd forgotten
how self concious Martians could be. The colony had
originally been settled by Mormons. Christianity was a
distant and nearly forgotten religion now but at least
on Mars some of it's moral trappings were strong. I
leaned down and kissed her mouth before sliding my
panties off and tossing them to the side. Star looked
relieved. Seeing me naked, she lifted her bottom and
allowed me to take her underwear off.
	I began slowly, kissing from her lips down her throat
and over her chest. She had only the slightest
softness in her tiny breasts. Still everything felt so
right. Having this pretty little girl as a lover was
more natural than any other affair I'd had.
	I found myself hesitating, nervous, as I kissed her
protruding hip bones. I was aching to taste her young
sex but I was afraid she would stop me, that she would
loose her nerve.
	Finally I found my courage and made my way down her
body, coming to rest between her legs. I glanced up at
her over her mound. She was looking down at me,
smiling. With a smile I pushed forward, pressing my
tongue against her clit and sucking it into my mouth.
I felt the girl tense, she pulled her knees up
slightly and sighed. As I lapped at her tiny clit and
caressed her body, teased her nipples, lavished in the
feeling of her soft skin she moaned and writhed.
	I felt a tiny hand in my hair and noticed that she
had begun to buck her hips. She seemed to gasp with
each breath, begging for more.
	Suddenly She arched her back and pushed her soft sex
towards me. I sucked hard on her clit, then slid a
finger inside her, causing her to gasp and tremble. I
could feel her walls spasming around my finger, and
she jumped with each one. It was more erotic than
anything I'd ever experienced, feeling a child climax
at my touch.
	Eventually she relaxed and laid back against the
deck. She took long deep breaths, her eyes blank and
fixed on the stars outside. I laid next to her, gently
stroking her stomach, circling around her cute little
belly button.
	"Should I do that to you?" She asked. I wanted her
to, oh did I want her to, but I just smiled and
shrugged. I didn't want to rush her, we had another
twelve days out and I was already finding myself
thinking of ways to keep her on the ship.
	Star sat up and with a silly grin and kissed me. The
little girl began kissing down my neck, working her
way toward my breasts. I could tell that she was
working up her courage. If she was even half as
nervous about this as I was then I don't know how she
was managing to concentrate.
	Star finally reached my sex and paused, starring at
me. She glanced from my vulva to my face and turned
away blushing. "I did this to my friend once." She
confessed. "But this is different."
	"You don't have to do anything angel." I assured her.
	"I know, but I want too."
	Finally the little girl closed her eyes and leaned
in, reaching out with her tongue and touching my sex
tentatively. Slowly she became more courageous until
finally she was lapping at my clit, sending wave after
wave of pleasure throughout my body.
	Sex had always been something I could have taken or
left. I had had many women in my life but I enjoyed
something else in the relationships. This was
different though. I wanted to hold her, to cuddle her
close to me. I wanted to kiss her and feel her little
body against mine, but unlike with any woman I'd ever
been with, I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to
feel her body tremble with orgasm under my fingers. I
wanted her to touch me the same way, to lick me, kiss
me, to push her tiny fingers in to my waiting body.
	The orgasm was building within me. She had slid
several of her fingers inside of me and was working
them in and out while lapping at my clit the best that
she could.
	It raced from my loins through out my body. I nearly
screamed, panting, moaning as I orgasmed, once, twice,
and to my great surprise a third time before little
Star pulled her fingers from my body and slid up to
lay next to me.
	We dozed next to one another for some time. Now and
again I would find myself suddenly awake, looking out
at the stars with my little lover pushed hard against
me. Her warmth comforted me.
	In one such of these wakeful moments I found myself
contemplating what it would take to get the girl's PIC
reworked. I knew I had the money, that wasn't the
issue, but finding the right person to do it, some one
that could make it undetectable, that was the trick.

Chapter 3.

	Check point number two. Mindy was sitting next to me
on the bridge, she was busy sending the logs through
the comm link while I was explaining the presence of
an undocumented child aboard my vessel to a doc
officer who'd decided a bio scan was in order.
	"...I told you she was a stowaway."
	"Why didn't you report her at the previous check
point?" He asked me for the third time.
	"Because I didn't find her until after I was
through."
	"That is inaccurate Captain, we found the child prior
to entering the first check point." Mindy corrected. I
tapped the mute key on the comm.
	"I know this Mindy. I am ordering you not to answer
any questions about the girl until further notice.
Nothing Mindy, except her name." The Betty nodded her
understanding and I unmuted the comm.
	"We'll be taking her in to custody." The doc officer
finally announced. My hart froze. That was the last
thing I'd wanted to hear. Technically he was allowed
to take her, but because she was on my ship etiquette
dictated that I could decide what to do with her
between the moment of finding her and when I reached
my final destination. What made me most nervous, I
hadn't made any entry in the logs about her. It was my
hope that he would not take the time to go through my
logs as carefully as he'd gone through everything
else.
	"Please officer miles, come aboard and let's discuss
this."
	"Federation law is very specific." He shot back at
me. There was a pause, a long pause, "prepare to be
boarded." He finally said.
	I was not normally relieved when dock officers
boarded my ship but in this case, I felt it gave me
some hope of keeping the little girl. Either way
though, I could see that I would be in this docking
bay for quite some time to come.
	Twenty minutes passed before the doc officer appeared
at the airlock portal. I tapped the soft key on the
console and the door released with a loud hiss. The
officer stepped on to the ship. "Permission to board
Captain?" It was not a request. Federation law
provided that I had no choice but to let him on.
	"Of course." I answered with a polite smile.
	"Doc officer James Miles." He offered his hand and I
shook it.
	"Captain Melchovic."
	"Well captain, you asked me here so I assume you're
going to plead for me to leave the girl in your care?"
I nodded my head. "Federation Law says she's a
prisoner, and due to her age, she'll be returned to
her family."
	"If you'd talk talk to her you'd see that she doesn't
want to go back."
	"Look I know the rule of thumb so to speak, on
stowaways. Most captains either put them out an
airlock or work them as slave labor until they get
where they're going. I don't want either happening to
a kid." The officer said in a less firm tone.
	"Neither would I. I'm going to take her to Europa and
we'll get her back to her mother from there." I tried
to assure him.
	There was a long pause as he seemed to contemplate
his options. "I'll tell you what. I'll let the girl
decide what she wants, but either way we have to
contact her family to let them know she's all right."
	"Thank you." I gasped. Relieved that he wasn't being
a hard ass about the situation.
	"Get her and meet me back here, we need to go in to
the dock and sign some paper work."
	I hurried up to Star's room, then ushered her back
down to the airlock, a fifteen minute trek even with
me rushing the girl. When we finally got back down to
the airlock, we found Officer Miles sitting down,
smoking a cigarette. I didn't mind very much that he
was, I simply found it rude that he didn't bother to
ask.
	The officer dropped his cigarette on the floor and
crushed it with his heavy boot. He then smiled at Star
and took her hand, leading her to the airlock. I tried
to follow but he stopped me. He then closed the door
and began talking to Star. I knew what he was asking
her. Had I hurt her, had I raped her, Had I forced her
to work and so on. I wondered to myself about the
rape. We had not slept together since our picnic and
Star had grown a bit distant. I wondered if perhaps
I'd gone too far too fast.
	After what seemed like an eternity they both entered
the ship again. Officer Miles did not seem happy but
Star was smiling.
	"Well I don't approve of the relationship the two of
you have but since your not breaking any laws there's
really nothing much for me to say. Thus we're going to
go put in a call to her mother."
	We walked through the airlock and down a long hall
before coming to an office. The dock officer gestured
to a pair of chairs in front of the desk before taking
his own seat. He taped the pad in front of the
computer console then opened the top drawer of his
desk and withdrew a PIC scanner. He leaned across the
desk and scanned first my PIC then Star's. A moment
later he was placing an ultrawave call to Mars.
	I wondered what time it would be back on Star's home
planet. It didn't matter though because her mother
answered.
	"Hello I am Federation Dock Officer James Miles. We
have your daughter here with us. Apparently she stowed
away aboard a ship and is now about three quarters of
the way from Mars to Europa."
	"They didn't put the little bitch out an airlock?" I
heard a gruff, sleepy voice come back across the
connection.
	"Ma'am we need to know when you'd like to have her
shipped back?"
	`Shipped Back!' I thought to myself. He had said he
would let me keep her until Europa if she wanted... If
she wanted, I wondered if she had told him she didn't
want to stay with me.
	"I don't want to go back!" Star shouted, sending a
wave of relief through me.
	"And I don't want her." Came the woman's reply,
having heard her daughter. "Let her slave away on a
ship, maybe then she'll appreciate what I did for
her."
	The dock officer looked upset. He was silent for
several moments. "Ma'am I cannot take custody of her
without your authorization. I am sending a document
through to you now, please review it then put your
print on it." He finally said. He tapped the soft keys
on the pad and several silent, agonizing moments
passed before the computer chimed, signaling an
incoming file.
	"There, she's your problem now." The woman abruptly
closed the connection.
	"Well, what a lovely lady." The officer scoffed. "She
has deferred temporary custody to the Federal Transit
Authority. And since I am the officer in charge, I am
willing to turn over that custody to you. Star seems
happy on your ship and has told me that she wants to
stay with you. But this is only temporary custody, you
have ninety standard days to file for full custody or
she will be sent back to her mother." The officer
pulled a tablet from his desk, tapped a few lit
softkeys and presented it to me. I read over the
document it was displaying before pressing my thumb
against the interface pad.
	"She's all legal now?" I asked.
	"You have to enroll her in school, provide for her,
basically for the next ninety days she's the same as
your own kid. I'm leaving the pad with you, the print
has been recorded. It will provide the information you
need to file for permanent custody. I don't suspect
you'll have any trouble getting it..." He looked at
Star, "I'm sorry kid, you really got a bad deal when
it came to moms."
	"I have Kirstin now, I don't care about her anymore."
Star said with a smile.
	We walked slowly back to the ship and closed the
airlock. I felt good, very good. Star really did want
to stay, and now, at least for a little while, I
didn't have to do anything shady or illegal to keep
her.
	We made our way up to the bridge and called over the
comm for clearance from Officer Miles to get under
way. He cleared us immediately and within an half hour
we were heading in to open space.
	I walked Star down to the galley and called over the
intercom for Mindy to join us. I also asked our
engineer, but I knew he wouldn't come.
	"Captain, I will prepare the evening meal." Mindy
said as she stepped in to the galley.
	"Grilled cheese and tomato soup." I told her. "So,
Star... Your really sure you want to stay with me
then?"
	"Uh huh." She mumbled.
	"You know you'll have to go to school now right?" She
nodded her head. We'll get you enrolled tomorrow
morning. "You know I only have you like this for a
little while. We'll have to actually get a federal
court order for me to keep you forever."
	"I know. I heard. I was sitting right there
remember?" She sounded annoyed. And rightly so, I was
treating her like she wasn't the bright little girl
she was.
	"Sorry."
	We sat quietly waiting for Mindy to finish cooking.
When she finally served the meal Star tore in to the
food like she hadn't eaten in a week.
	"Star." I said, trying to get her attention. "You
know, we haven't been spending much time together
since our picnic. Did what we did, well did it bother
you?" I asked.
	"No." She crammed the sandwich in to her mouth.
	"You're sure?" I said. She nodded her head.
	"I was embarrassed. You saw me naked." She said
around her food.
	"Oh." I tried to sound matter of fact. "Well, it's
okay you know. I mean you saw me naked too. Besides,
you shouldn't be ashamed of your body."
	"I know, I'm just shy." She said, her eyes on her
plate.
	Jupiter is huge. You really can't appreciate how big
it is until you see it looming before you, while
you're still four days out. It's massive, taking up
three quarters of the forward view port. By the time
we were within standard radio range of Europa, it
would be all you could see out the port. I reached
over and tapped the operations softkey, then slid the
powerlevel indicator for the forward magnetic
deflector all the way to full. The deflectors normally
ran about one third power, enough to deflect normal
cosmic radiation around the ship, but Jupiter radiated
at a much higher level. By the time we reached Europa
we would be operating the shield at one hundred twenty
percent of maximum. I set up the automatic monitor to
keep raising the shield level as rads increased,
overriding it and allowing it to exceed the design
limit. The shields would hold like this indefinitely,
as long as there was fuel to turn the engine, but in
all truth, I really needed to upgrade my mag
deflectors. It was on the to-do list and now with the
kid on board it seemed to be gaining in priority.
Maybe I would accept the twenty four to thirty six
hour delay and do the upgrade while I was in port.
Time to think about it later, I had four days before
I'd arrive at the Europa docks. It would be another
two waiting to get loaded and if I was lucky I might
be able to get the shield updated during that time.
	One day out...
	I switched from ultra wave to standard radio and
began a search on the local network for some one that
could upgrade my shields. It took me an hour to find
some one that could do it while I was docked.
	From the bridge I went to Star's room and asked her
to come along with me while I inspected the cargo. I
thought it would be nice to spend some time with the
girl but I also wanted her to help clean up the mess
she had made in the living quarters before I found
her.
	The cargo hold was fifteen hundred feet deep, nearly
one half mile long and another twelve hundred feet
wide. It would take more than just a moment to get
down to the living quarters which took up less than a
standard city block. My ship was not very big however,
not until one attempted to maneuver in Europa station.
My ship was a Vigo class cruiser, the largest type
allowed in the docks. Anything larger had to orbit
above Europa and ferry passengers and smaller goods
via shuttle. Large cargo could be docked the old
fashioned way. Not a major problem really, until it
came to refueling the nuclear engines, or hydrogen
cells. While in the docks, the docking apparatus
included fuel lines. Refueling was automatic. For the
really big stuff. Ships as large as thirteen miles bye
eight miles wide bye three deep, the fuel had to be
ferried out and it was costly. The nuclear fuel tanks
on the big ships were often larger than my whole ship.
A break for us smaller haulers, since it made cargo
deliveries to one of the Terran System's oldest ports
far to expensive for the large vessles. About the only
Jupiter class or larger ships that ever went to Europa
were passenger liners.
	There was always talk of expanding the upper levels
of the Europa ports to accommodate the largest vessles
but as yet, no docs had been printed. Honestly it was
not in the large hauler's interest to work within the
Terran system. Short runs to Mercury, Mars, Earth or
Neptune and Uranus simply did not yield high enough
profit to be worth taking. The large haulers were
designed for intersystem travel and that was what they
were best at. Sixty person crews, luxury
accommodations, bettys for each person. It all cost
the same amount whether the ship took the fifteen day
jump to Century Station, or the fifteen day trip to
Uranus. Even the fuel cost was similar since the
slipstream did not require the engines to burn once it
was entered.
	"Quite a mess you made here sweetie." I said as we
stepped into the room she had spent the earliest part
of the trip in. "Well lets get to work. I loose pay if
these things aren't perfect when I deliver them." That
wasn't exactly true. There was no damage to the unit,
it was just wrappers and such. It would fall under
normal cleaning.
	"I'm sorry." Star said, looking ashamed.
	"It's okay angel, we'll just clean it up and no one
will ever know." We got to work. There wasn't much to
do. We were finished within twenty minutes and headed
back up to the bridge. "How do you like classes?" I
asked her while we rode the lift. I was lucky, most
smaller ships did not have lift systems that could
move throughout most of the ship. Mine did. It had
been a passenger vessel so such minor conveniences
could be expected.

Chapter 4.

	Europa... Originally it was established as a research
station in the later part of the twenty first century.
They bored in to the ice, eight miles to the ocean
below. The world, at the time just Earth, hoped to
find smart little fish swimming around, communicating
and using some kind of technology. No such luck. There
were however thermal vents at the bottom of the sea
around which whole ecosystems had developed. Europa
had life, under intense pressure and heat.
	Europa Station as the ports and main hub were most
often referred to, had many things. Two shopping
malls, hundreds of bars and Betty houses, repair
shops, drugs, and a zoo. The zoo featured animals from
Earth mostly, but there was a section dedicated to
those creatures found under the ice of the little
Jovian moon we now orbited. There was also a museum
with thousands of exhibits. Star and I were headed
this direction. We would muse as the little crab like
animals, jelly fish and squid like creatures from
Europa, and then I would take her to see the extra
terrestrial fossils. skeletal remains found under the
Martian surface. They were strange animals. Mostly six
legged for those rare ones that moved on land, or odd
little snake like fish creatures I suppose most like
eels. It seemed evolution had not had much time to get
the fish out of the sea.
	We had the time to see all of it. Our cargo had
shipped out early on another transport, and we would
have to wait an extra two days, four total, in port
for another load to be ferried to the station from the
planet below. Pissed does not cover the emotion I felt
when Europa Ice and Water informed me that my
pre-arranged load was gone. I felt a little better
when they agreed to pay a six hundred cred per day
penalty for having me sit.
	The better part of the day was spent with Star and I
starring wide eyed and all the strange creatures.
Animals from Earth that existed no where else in the
solar system except this zoo. Animals from Europa
crawling around the high pressure tanks. We saw
mummies from ancient Earth and fossils from Mars. We
even spent an hour taking a virtual tour of the city
of Los Angeles as it was in the mid twenty first
century before it was inundated by the sea during an
tectonic shift. And Tokyo. The Japanese city wiped out
by an early twenty second century tidal wave. Hundreds
of thousands of artifacts adorned a cavernous one
square mile room. There simply wasn't enough time in a
single day to see everything the Zoo and Museum had to
offer.
	We rode a transport from the zoo back to the ship.
Once aboard I walked with Star to her room. There at
the door I paused. I didn't want the day to end, even
though I was exhausted from all the walking. I knelt
down and looked her in the eyes. "Did you have fun?" I
asked. She nodded furiously. With a smile I leaned in
and kissed her. She kissed back, her lips parted and
her little tongue awaiting mine.
	"Can we do it again?" She asked me.
	"Of course angel." I stood and walked with her in to
her quarters. The lights automatically came on when
the door opened and the room was brightly illuminated.
"Computer, lights to half." I said. The computer
chimed, indicated that it had understood the command.
The lights dimmed. "Think you won't be so shy now?" I
asked. Star smiled up at me.
	We made our way to a sofa that stood in the middle of
the front room of her quarters. She had left the video
system on. I tapped the softkey on the viewer's
interface pad and it shut off.
	I sat down on the sofa and pulled her backward in to
my lap, wrapping my arms around her waist. "I sure
have wanted to hold you like this for a long time
now." I told her.
	"I like it." She told me.
	I turned her around on my lap and we began kissing.
Softly, gently. I loved the feel of her soft little
lips against my own. I unzipped her jump suite. The
only item of clothing she owned and slid it from her
shoulders. I made a mental note that we would go
shopping first thing in the morning for her.
	Star seemed less shy, less embarrassed. I don't know
if it was that I'd already seen her, that she felt
more comfortable with me, or if the lower light made
her feel better, but she did not make me strip before
she could be coaxed out of her clothing.
	Once I had her undressed I went to remove my own
clothes but she pushed my hands away and began
fumbling with my zippers. I took a little longer when
all I wanted to do was hold her naked body against my
own, but it was worth it to feel her warmth pressed
against my skin.
	I caressed her entire body. I gently pinched her
nipples, kissed them, lapped at them. I rubbed my
hands over her back, her bottom and hips. I loved the
way this little girl felt. She was softer than any
lover I'd ever had. She felt so lovely, so delicate I
could hardly contain myself.
	Finally I eased my hand between her legs and began to
massage her clit. She closed her eyes and let her head
fall against my shoulder as I rubbed my fingers over
her clit in slid them inside of her wanting sex. She
was wet. I wanted to pulled my fingers from her vulva
and lap her honey from them, but I continued to rub
her, continued to stimulate her, to make her moan and
huff.
	Little Star gripped my arm tightly and pulled herself
against me. She moaned, wined and squealed as an
orgasm ripped through her little body.
	When it was over Star fell back against the arms of
the sofa and dozed. She was to tired to go on, the day
had been to much for her. I ached to feel her touch
but I didn't have the hart to wake her.
	I slid my hand in to my panties as I looked down at
her sleeping face. I ran my fingers over my clit and
slipped them in to my self. I was soaked, my fingers
we instantly wet as were my underwear.
	I rubbed myself, wanting to draw it out as I looked
down on my beautiful little lover but I was already on
the verge of climax. My orgasmed washed over my like a
tidal wave, sending waves of pleasure throughout my
body. I trembled and convulsed with each wave.
	Finally spent I slipped in behind my darling Star and
draped my arm over her waist. "I love you little
angel." I whispered as I drifted in to sleep.