Location: New Earth, Beta C3-100 galaxy
Year: 2756

Tobias Palebloom, a 27-year-old gray wolf, took a drag of his cigarette at the spaceport. Dozens of commuting spaceships zoomed by in the distance, on their way to deliver goods and passengers. He was waiting for his private passenger to arrive. A young university student that arranged a space flight to his university’s graduation ceremony in the Zeda-13 galaxy. Given his ship’s speed, it’d take at least eight hours to travel to that far away galaxy.

A short figure approached with a large rolling suitcase in tow. Tobias flicked his cigarette to his feet and snuffed it out under his heel. “Hey, what’s up? I’m Tobias, your pilot.” He greeted him and extended his hand. His passenger, a prepubescent cat cub with pure white fur, passed by without glancing at him. “Uh, nice to meet you too.” Tobias said and entered his spaceship with the cub. He hoped the boy wouldn’t be another difficult passenger.

The interior of his spaceship was deteriorating and a little messy. Some of its electronics and equipment were out of date. “Ugh. This place is filthy. Where’s your sense of professionalism?” The boy asked. He looked around the spaceship and his face scrunched. His gaze eventually turned to an unamused Tobias. “Right. My name is Aleksandar Zbelovok. Age 10, blood type O, born in the year 2746, height—” Aleks’s introduction was cut short. “That’s really neat, Aleks, but we’re behind schedule. There’s a private cabin the back. You can put away your stuff there and relax.” Tobias said and shooed him away.

Tobias entered his cockpit and prepared to launch. He flipped a variety of switches, calibrated his G-Diffuser system, and radioed the flight deck. “This is Alpha niner-five-six, prepared to launch. Destination: Planet Veneria, in the Zeda-13 galaxy.” He said. “Flight Deck Zeta, reading you clearly. Permission to launch granted.” The flight deck commander spoke over the radio.

The second-to-last item on his flight checklist was scratched off. Now the final thing to do was alert his passenger. He switched the radio’s channel over to internal and spoke, “This is your captain speaking. Launching in t-minus 10 seconds.” The most fun of flying was blasting through the planet’s atmosphere and entering the vastness of space. He pulled back on his flight controls to bring his thrusters’ power up to maximum thrust. “Let’s do this!” He said and disabled the magnetic locks holding the ship in place.

The spaceship shot off horizontally across the bright blue sky before slowly angling upward. The intense vibrations of the ship made Tobias’s heart race as usual. “This … is … fucking … awesome!” He said. Unbeknownst to him, Aleks was sitting in the co-passenger seat.

“Do you always get this excited?” Aleks asked. Tobias looked over at him, shocked. His little moment alone was in the presence of a total stranger. Aleks continued to stare at him with a curious expression on his face.

“Sorry about that,” Tobias said, “I’ve always wanted to fly through space since I was your age. So, I get a little excited every time.” He tried to not embarrass himself further in front of this university-attending prodigy. But what he said was true. He always dreamed of spacefaring since he was a cub himself. Zooming through the blackness of space, in search of adventure, excited him dearly.

“This is why I’d rather fly myself,” Aleks said and looked slightly annoyed, “I received my license a year ago, but I still can’t travel because I’m not 18. Ridiculous…” He said and looked outside the ship into space.

Tobias looked over at him in disbelief. He’d tried to get his space pilots license for years since he was 21, and this prodigy got his at age nine! “W-wow. Last year, huh? Must’ve been difficult.” He said. (“No. Fucking. Way! I hate geniuses…”) He thought.

Aleks looked back at him unamused. “Difficult? Don’t be ridiculous. The difficult part was my instructor looking down on me because I’m not old and useless like the rest of his students. But I showed them all.” He said. “Enjoy your fun. I’m going back to my cabin to study.”

With the whooshing and locking of the cockpit doors, Aleks was gone, leaving Tobias all to himself again. “What a douche…” He said and got back to work piloting the ship.

Hours later, Tobias lounged on one of the lobby’s pleather couches, watching TV. He’d never admit it, but traveling through space was easy since every ship is equipped with an advanced autopilot. Rarely did anyone manually fly their ship nowadays. It just wasn’t efficient given the advancement of AI over the centuries.

He absentmindedly flipped through the stations in search of an interesting show. Dozens of channels flashed by as he pressed on the remote. One channel caught his attention. A naughty video of a dragon sucking his co-star’s hung wolf cock. He looked around for any presence of Aleks nearby. After looking left, right, down, and up several times, he watched the porno with an aroused interest.

A naughty idea came to mind. What if he jerked off to it right then and there, while someone’s in his spaceship? He unbuckled his belt and undid the metal button of his jeans. (“Well, it’ll be alright if I finish up quickly.”) He thought.

Before his plan could come to fruition, a massive explosion shook the ship violently. “What the fuck!?” He yelled and got to his feet. Alarm lights flooded the area in red and the klaxons blared their warning alarms. He quickly ran into the cockpit and peered at the ship’s status panel.

He was quickly joined by Aleks. He didn’t appear spooked despite the tremors and alarms. “Let’s see … click here, check this … what the hell’s going on!?” Tobias said. Whatever was happening, he couldn’t figure it out. The lessons on diagnosing ships and handling emergencies from his academy days eluded his memory.

“Hey, genius,” Aleks said and showed him his tablet. The ship’s diagnostic screen was on it. “You flew into an asteroid belt and we were struck. Good job.” He said. True enough, the tablet was showing major damage to the ship’s G-Diffuser system along with the power generator.

Tobias looked at him irritated, but that was cut short by a strange feeling in his body. He looked over at a nearby planet and saw it was quickly becoming bigger in his view. “Wait a minute … are we getting closer!?” He asked and got into the pilot’s seat. He desperately pulled back on the steering wheel to try and maneuver away from the planet, but the ship wouldn’t respond.

“Why are you doing that? There’s no point. You’ve doomed us.” Aleks said matter-of-factly. He had a point. Impacting with the planet would result in a slim chance of survival. And if they did survive, the ship would likely be too damaged to take flight again or sustain the life support systems.

Tobias realized their fate was most likely sealed. Just in case, he activated the radio system. “Mayday! Mayday! This is Alpha niner-five-six! G-Diffuser systems offline, impact with planet X-159 imminent! Requesting immediate rescue!” He pleaded to whomever might be listening. Seconds passed by anxiously until static came through the radio.

An unknown voice broke the silence. “Alpha niner-five-six, I read you. This is Wolf Talon. Please repeat. Planet X-59?” The man over the radio asked. Tobias pressed the radio button and clenched his fists until his claws dug into his palms painfully. “Planet X-159! I repeat, Planet X-159! Please help us!” He yelled into the microphone. “I’m having ... hard time ... you. You said … 59?” The man’s voice faded away and the ship’s interior lights shut off.

“Fuck…” Tobias resigned. He collapsed into his chair and watched the planet in view become larger and larger. It was a beautiful blue with oceans, clouds, and forests covering its surface. He never thought the last thing he’d see was a planet before colliding with it. “Hey idiot, let’s go.” Aleks said and left the cockpit. His voice snapped Tobias out of it.

“Hey, wait up! Where are we going?” Tobias asked while following him. The boy led him through the ship’s lobby and its corridors into the back.

“Did you buy your license or are you always this dense?” Aleks asked. “I looked at your ship’s specs. While you don’t have any escape pods—great job, by the way, really smart—this model does have doomsday pods. If we get in one, we probably won’t burn up in the atmosphere or get ripped to shreds on impact.” He said and entered the doomsday room. Tobias had completely forgotten about that room.

There was only one pod inside, but it should be big enough to accommodate an adult and a cub. “You seriously only have one? Your model comes with three. What did you do, sell them?” Aleks asked.

“Well, last year was tough, and I needed to repair my ship or I’d be out of a job…” Tobias admitted. (“Dammit. I should’ve bought escape pods at that expo. I knew it!”) He thought.

“That’s a shame.” Aleks said and opened the doomsday pod. “I’d say thank you for flying me, but look at where that got us.” He said and entered the pod.

The ship shook violently and didn’t stop shaking. By now, it must’ve entered the atmosphere and started to burn up. “No, you don’t, you little shit!” Tobias yelled and got into the pod next to him. He quickly shut the door and anxiously waited for impact.

The shaking only got worse as time went on. Would that pod be enough to protect them from the cataclysmic impact? He didn’t know, but all he could do was hope. A few seconds later, the ship hit something massive and everything in the room went flying. Tobias would’ve worried about the damage to his ship if dying wasn’t a bigger concern.

Both guys were pressed hard against the north end of the pod as the ship skidded along the planet several hundred miles per hour. “Oh God, I don’t want to die!” Tobias shouted. His scared shouting was impossible to hear over the deafening sounds of terrain being uprooted and the ship’s exterior scraping into the ground.

Eventually, the skidding slowed down to a halt until they were firmly planted into the ground. Tobias couldn’t believe it at first. They survived crashing into a planet! “Holy shit… We fucking did it! Fuck yeah!” Tobias shouted.

“S-shut up! My ears!” Aleks yelled at him and clenched his ears. Tobias had completely forgotten that they were in a sealed metal doomsday pod together. His screaming must’ve echoed back and hurt his ears.

“Sorry, kid. Well, let’s get out and see where we are.” Tobias said and disengaged the pod’s door. They got out and observed the state of the doomsday room. Despite a bunch of supply crates having smashed into the room’s walls and denting them, there were no visible damages. They exited the room and walked into the lobby. All of its furniture was wrecked and it was in disarray.

“Well, I’m going to have to get a job as a crewmate again… Fuck, it took me years to buy this ship.” Tobias said somberly. In a quick ten minutes, his dream job was ripped from his grip and his ship was wrecked beyond repair.

The two examined the rest of the rooms together. Just like the lobby, in most rooms, all of the furniture was destroyed and scattered around the room. The last room to check was the cockpit. The once beautiful view of a blue planet was replaced by a cracked windshield caked in mud and tree branches. Tobias flipped the ship’s control switches and tried the radio. Nothing responded to his actions. If the circuitry wasn’t wrecked, the lack of power had to be a problem.

Tobias sat in his cockpit’s seat. He didn’t have any intentions of desperately trying to get the ship running, but he did have to think of a plan. If his preflight stock checking was correct, they’d have enough rations for at most a week. The hardest obstacle would be radioing for rescue. He tried before impact, but the damned pilot got the planet wrong.

Something had slipped his mind. Oxygen! He quickly held his breath. With no life-support systems, the two could’ve been breathing in the planet’s unfiltered harmful gases! Aleks looked over at him blankly. “Stop that. I checked the planet in the Codex of Known Planets. It has a similar atmosphere and ecosystem to the planet we live on. We’ll be fine.” He said.

Tobias sheepishly smiled and took a few deep breaths. This kid really did think of everything. If it wasn’t for his plan earlier, he probably would’ve slammed into one of the ship’s walls and broken his spine, along with his other bones. He felt a little embarrassed to ask a kid for help, but he was clearly smarter. “Hey, kid—I mean, Aleksandar—can you repair the radio? I’m sure that guy’s ship is still nearby. If we can contact him, there’s a chance he’ll send for help.” He said.

Aleks put his thumb to his chin and started speaking. “I already thought of that. First, I would need to repair the power generator. Then I’ll need to calibrate the radio to signal through the planet’s atmosphere. A transmission that strong might sap the ship of its last energy cells. In that case, if help doesn’t arrive we’ll most likely parish unless we can figure out how to forage and hunt for food. Maybe then we could—.” He was cutoff by Tobias. “Uh, okay then. I’ll leave it to you. Thanks.”

Before Tobias could leave the room, he was stopped by Aleks. “Wait! For this plan to work, I’ll need you.” Aleks said. He stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips.

Tobias gulped. He’d never tried to fix anything because the concept of working with electronics made his head spin. But if they were going to stand any chance of surviving, he’d need to try. “Yeah, sure. What do you need?” He asked.

Aleks smirked at him. “I need you to go outside and scout. There’s work that needs to be done on the exterior. If there’s any predators lurking outside, I’d rather you got mauled to death instead of I.” He said.

Tobias looked at him blankly. He sighed and pried open the exterior door with his bare hands. Outside, it really did resemble his home planet’s surface. The forest they crashed into was full of life with birds, squirrels, and butterflies skittering away. He peered outside back and forth a few times until he was sure it was safe to exit. He pulled the ramp out and gave Aleks a thumbs up.

Several hours passed as Aleks worked on fixing the ship’s power grid and Tobias explored the surrounding area. Eventually the planet’s two suns set and they both retired inside. Some of the work on the grid was completed, but it’d still be days before it was sufficient enough to boot up the ship.

Tobias wondered if his parents were worried about him. He was expected to ferry his passenger in eight hours and return. Even though he knew that people would report him missing, he knew not to get his hopes up. There’s no way anyone could retrace his flight path and magically happen upon this alien planet.

He sighed and returned to his room. The only thing that could take some stress off was his favorite pastime: jerking off. He took off his jeans, shirt, and leather jacket. He sat on the edge of his bed and took out his personal bottle of lube from his wooden nightstand … that was nearly destroyed thanks to the impact. 

A couple of squirts of lube onto his palm, and he was hard at work stroking his hard cock. He imagined meeting tribal avians on this planet. He’d get integrated into their tribe and thank them by getting on his knees to suck their tapered avian dicks. The more he got into his fantasy, the less he paid attention to his surroundings.

He blew out a warm, hard breath and looked around the room. That’s when he saw him. Aleks had been standing there for an indeterminate amount of time watching him! He quickly covered his canine cock with his sheet and acknowledged him. “A-Aleks! What are you doing in here!?” He asked.

Aleks looked at him with an unsure expression. “Masturbation, really? We’re in a life or death situation and you’re doing that?” He said and paused for a moment to think aloud. “Hm, well I suppose it’s important to keep one’s stress levels under control in order to keep a level head. That’s the key to success.” He said.

A devious thought came to Tobias’s mind. If he might die here, he may as well try to get his dick wet one last time. “Uh, yeah, that’s right! In fact, you can help me. Think of it as a team-building experience.” He said. He uncovered his throbbing dick and pointed at it.

Aleks got closer and examined the adult wolf’s large cock. Its size and appearance were completely different from his own small humanoid penis. “I’ll consider it. How can I help you?” He asked.

Tobias grinned mischievously. He stood up and moved his dick closer to the cat cub’s mouth. The boy was just the right height to suck him off without needing to stand on anything. “Oh, it’s easy. Just, uh, put it in your mouth and suck on it for a while. That’ll really help with my stress levels.” He said.

Aleks looked up at him unamused. “So, you want me to orally copulate with you? You do realize that I’m ten years old and a cub, correct?” He asked.

Just like that, Tobias was caught with no way of explaining or lying to him. Before he could think of anything to say, Aleks spoke once more. “Well, okay. But only because this will be a learning experience for me. I’ve never mated before.”

Aleks took Tobias’s dick into his hand and examined it. It was 6.5 inches long, a little on the slim side, and very warm to the touch. With it firmly in his hand, he moved it around to different angles and examined it features. The giant knot at the base caught his attention. “This must be your copulatory tie. I’ve read that males use it to knot their partners in order to ensure a greater chance of successful pregnancy.” He said.

Tobias felt like a science experiment being studied by a scientist. He’d never felt more exposed before. Without further waiting, Aleks put half of his shaft into his mouth and started sucking on it. He winced at its musky, salty taste but kept blowing him.

The warm, wet kitten’s mouth sent chills down Tobias’s spine. This was his first time with a cub and he was enjoying every second of it. “Ah… Good boy.” He said and patted Aleks’s head.

Aleks looked up at him grumpily and took his cock out of his mouth. “Talk down to me one more time and I’m leaving.” He said. Nothing pissed him off more than people only seeing his age and not his character.

“Right. I’m sorry.” Tobias apologized. Another naughty idea came to his mind. Aleks had studied a little about sex, but it was obvious that he didn’t know everything. “You’re doing a great job, though. But you forgot about something. Both mates need to, uh, take their clothes off.” He said.

Aleks put his dick back into his mouth and thought for a moment. Every depiction of sex he’d seen involved both participants being nude. He didn’t feel very comfortable being naked with a stranger, but whenever he attempted something, he made sure to do it correctly.

Aleks stepped back and took off his suit pants, dress shirt, and bow tie. Tobias knelt down and grabbed his discarded briefs. He sniffed its crotch while stroking himself. Aleks didn’t appreciate having his underwear sniffed, but he allowed him to. “If I’m correct, you’re sniffing them because genital musk is an important aspect of identifying a mate’s virility. Right?” He asked.

Tobias continued to sniff them for a few seconds more before tossing them onto his bed. “Hm? Oh, yeah. That’s right. By sniffing your undies, I can tell you’re a perfect match for me.” He said and observed the nude cub’s body. Just by looking at him he could tell that he wanted to do plenty with him. Though, it’d be hard to do anything more than “relieve stress” the way Aleks wanted to. Anything more might tip him off about his lewd intentions.

Aleks noticed Tobias’s rude staring and covered his crotch. He glared at him silently before going back to sucking his dick. Tobias patted and rubbed his hair as he allowed the cub to suck his cock. All he could think about now was pulling him onto his bed and fucking his tight ass proper. But that would need to wait.

Minutes passed as Tobias edged into his mouth. He gently grabbed his small head and thrust into it as he got his fill. Mouth fucking the bratty cub was a thrill to him. Now that he thought about it, the prospect of being stuck on an alien planet all alone with a cub was arousing. His pace quickened as he reached his limits. “Here … we … go!” He said and ejaculated into Aleks’s mouth. Thick strings of cum shot out of his cock down the boy’s throat.

Aleks wrestled his head out of Tobias’s grasp and hacked and spat out his seed. “Disgusting!” He yelled. No matter how many times he spat, he couldn’t get the taste of musky semen out of his mouth. Tobias sat on the edge of his bed and caught his breath. He felt a little bad about finishing in his mouth, but it was always hard to control himself when he orgasmed.

Now that he was satisfied, it was time to do something for the nude kitten in front of him. “Thanks for that.” He said. “Now bend over on the bed. It’s your turn.”

Aleks didn’t know what his intentions are, but “orally copulating” with him certainly made him a little curious about mating. Instead of protesting as usual, he did as ordered and bent over on the bed. He felt Tobias’s hand lift his tail before pressing his warm tongue against his exposed asshole. “What are you doing!? That’s disgusting!” Aleks complained.

“Stop being stuck up for once in your life and let me do my thing.” Tobias said and started rimming him. He spread the boy’s cheeks and gave his hole a thorough licking with his wide tongue.

Aleks clenched the bed’s sheets with his hands and endured the rimming. “M-my books didn’t include a-anything about this!” He said. Tobias ignored him and continued to lick his asshole all over. Next, he moved his tongue down to his perineum before ending at his balls. He licked his scrotum while stroking his little prick.

Against his own wishes, Aleks was enjoying Tobias’s devious tongue bath and reach around. He never knew that such a filthy act could feel so good. Tobias pulled away a minute later and turned him around. “Now for the best part.” He said and took his stiff prick into his mouth.

Tobias pulled him in closer so he could take every inch of the boy’s cock into his mouth. While sucking, he reached behind Aleks and grabbed his ass. He stopped sucking for a few seconds to speak to him. “Mm… Maybe if you weren’t studying all of the time you’d get to know more about mating.”

Maybe Tobias had a point. All of his life, he’d been told that he was a cut above the rest. So, he spent all of his free time studying and honing his mathematical skills. Now that he thought about it, every cub his age went outside and formed friendships with each other while he stayed inside all day. He felt a little ashamed after his retrospection. But, maybe there was still hope for him. He met Tobias today, and together they spent time pleasuring each other.

Aleks snapped himself out of it and tried to focus on Tobias’s blowjob. The man hungrily sucked his aching prick and started to finger his asshole. Watching his head bob back and forth started to make him aroused. He knew they shouldn’t be pleasuring each other because of their ages, but that made their forbidden relationship all the more thrilling.

Before long, he was at his limits. “A-ah! I-I think I’m—is this an orgasm!? Why does it feel so weird!?” Aleks asked him. Tobias looked at him with bedroom eyes and continued to suck. Aleks tried to pull away, but Tobias grabbed onto his butt harder. He had no hope of separating his prick from his mouth.

“T-Tobias!” Aleks yelled in ecstasy as he experienced his first orgasm. Tobias plunged his middle finger into his asshole and continued to suck. Slowly, his erection went flaccid after it tried to ejaculate his non-existent semen. Tobias eventually gave him some space and stood up.

“Well? How’s that for relieving stress, huh?” Tobias asked smugly. He dried his mouth of his saliva and smirked at him. After all of the unthinkable things the two just did together, Aleks couldn’t say anything in return. Instead, he put his clothes back on and made his way to the door. Before he could leave, Tobias spoke again. “Are you sure? You can sleep in here If you want. The life support systems are still down. Which means no heating.”

Once again, he had a point. Aleks changed his mind and closed the door. “Fine. You have a point. Our body heat will naturally keep us warm through the icy night.” He said. He got into bed with his outfit still on and Tobias joined him, fully nude.

“Are you sure you want to sleep in that? I don’t mind if you sleep nakey with me.” Tobias said. He got under the sheets and pulled Aleks’s pants and underwear down past his feet. Next, he pulled apart his dress shirt and threw it over the side of the bed. “Much better.” Tobias said and cuddled with Aleks.

Aleks resisted his playful gropes and disagreed with his plan. “I think it’d be better if we both stayed clothed. There’d be less heat loss if we aren’t naked.” Tobias paid him no mind and kept playing with his hardening prick.

“If you say so. But if we’re wearing clothes, I can’t do this.” Tobias said and disappeared under the sheets. He moved his head down to Aleks’s crotch and took his prick into his mouth once more. He massaged his small balls between his fingers and put his fingers into Aleks’s mouth.

“I thought we were done with—get your fingers out of my mouth!” Aleks said and bit Tobias’s fingers. “Ow!” Tobias cried out. Aleks may be young, but he could still unleash a painful bite with his little sharp fangs.

Despite biting his fingers hard enough to draw blood, Aleks allowed him to continue his “oral copulation” underneath the sheets. The experience wasn’t as intense as his first time receiving oral, but he still found it pleasurable. Eventually, he stopped lying on his side and moved onto to his back so he could spread his legs for him.

The two didn’t get much sleep that night as they were too preoccupied with “relieving stress” together over and over again.

A few days later…

The two worked hard together to get the ship running again. Well, Tobias tried to help despite his inexperience, but ended up delivering snacks to Aleks whenever he got hungry. They both entered the cockpit again with hope in their hearts. With a flip of a switch, the ship hummed back to life. Its monitors also powered up and flashed critical warning signs.

Tobias sat in the cockpit’s seat again and gulped. If his attempt to hail for a rescue again failed, the two of then might be doomed to die on that planet. He looked over at Aleks, unsure if he should continue. “What are you doing? Hurry up in case the power dies.” Aleks scolded him.

“Right.” Tobias said. He pressed the communication button and spoke into the radio. “Ahem. S.O.S. If anyone can hear this message, we crashed onto planet X-159 days ago. We don’t know how much longer our power and rations will hold out.” He said. He let go of the button and waited anxiously for a response.

Through the static eventually came a man’s voice. The two looked at other with pure excitement. “Ho-ly shit. You guys survived?! This is Wolf Talon again.” The pilot from before spoke to them.

“Wolf Talon! This is Alpha niner-five-six. Requesting rescue! I repeat, requesting rescue on Planet X-159!” Tobias spoke into the microphone desperately. He hoped their power held on long enough to broadcast their S.O.S.

“I read you loud and clear, Alpha. I’ve got your coordinates on display. I’ll be there roughly by 17:00 hours. But I’ve gotta know, why didn’t you jettison out in an escape pod? How in the hell did you guys survive impact?” Wolf Talon asked.

Aleks gave him a disappointed “I told you so” look and rolled his eyes. Tobias shrank into his seat, embarrassed, and got back onto the radio. “Haha, uh, about that, all I had was a doomsday pod.” He said.

The man sounded surprised at his explanation. “No shittin’? I heard they call those things coffins. I’ve never heard of anyone surviving in one of those. What with almost everyone turning into soup in the past.” He said. “Well, I’ll be there later, promise. Just gotta finish delivering these power cells.” With that, the radio went silent.

As promised, the man showed up in the afternoon in his own spaceship. Two black ropes fell from a port underneath his ship while it hovered above them. They each grabbed their own rope and were quickly pulled up into the ship. Inside the ship was the captain along with a medical crew from a nearby relay station. “Welcome, you two! I’m Captain Julian Talon. I’m sure glad we made it in time!” Julian said and shook their hands. “I brought some medics from the Beta Romeo relay with me. They’ll make sure there’s nothing wrong with you. Just in case.”

The medics examined their bodies individually in private rooms in search of any sustained injuries. Luckily, they were both in great health despite narrowly surviving both a meteorite impact and crashing onto a planet. Tobias’s spaceship had to remain on the planet along with his life’s belongings. The number of credits it would cost to tow and repair it far exceeded the cost of a pre-owned spaceship.

Both Tobias and Aleks got along well enough with their savior’s crew. Though, now that they were in the company of others, they couldn’t fool around like they did when they were alone. In the company of strangers, Aleks naturally clung to Tobias. He wasn’t a fan of him either, but he preferred familiarity over socializing with the crew.

A day later, they were both safely back on their home planet. Julian wished them well on the docks. “Stay safe you two. By the way, sorry we had to leave your ship behind, Tobias. If you’re looking for work, look no further than Wolf Talon Co. We can always use a resourceful man like you.” He said.

Tobias shook his hand one last time. “Thank you so much for helping us out. But to be honest, I didn’t do anything. It was my buddy here that fixed my ship.” He said and rested his hand on Aleks’s shoulder. Aleks didn’t like being touched, but he allowed him to. Just this once.

Julian scratched his neck from the awkwardness of his confession. “No foolin’? Well, good on you, son. You’ll go far in space, trust me. As for you, Tobias. My offer still stands. A man that used to run his own spacefaring business is more than capable in my eyes.” He said.

His assurance made Tobias feel better about these disastrous past days. “I’ll hold you to it, sir. I could use some help getting back on my feet after everything that’s happened.” Tobias said.

Tobias and Aleks waved goodbye to the crew as they prepared to blast off. In a few seconds, the ship took off and disappeared far away into the night sky again. Now it was just them all alone on the docks. The night sky above them was breathtaking. Though, after their adventure, space was the last thing they wanted to think about.

Now that it was time for them to part ways, Tobias wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, I’m going to call for a taxi. Thanks for getting us out of that jam… And for thinking of using my doomsday pod.” He said. He used his phone to order a hover taxi to take him to a hotel. Now that his ship was never to be seen again, he’d need to find a new abode soon.

Aleks blushed and looked away. “Whatever. You would’ve done that too if you weren’t dumb.” He said. He could see his own breath in the cold winter weather. At least it was warm like springtime back on that planet. Here, he could barely feel his fingers.

“Here.” Tobias said and draped his leather jacket over him. Aleks looked up at him and blushed harder. In this freezing weather, Tobias was generous enough to give away his only protection from the cold. Aleks looked away and didn’t say a word. Tobias couldn’t get a read on whether he was grateful or annoyed as usual. “You can keep it. Haha, I used to think of it as my captain’s jacket, but, you know...” Tobias said. From this day forward he was no longer a captain. A somber thought that never left his mind.

In the distance, a yellow cab pulled up and honked its horn. “Sorry you missed your graduation ceremony, by the way. Ha, I’m such a shitty captain… Take care, Aleks.” Tobias said and walked away. He got into his cab and drove away. Aleks wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t work up the courage to. Would he ever see him again? He didn’t know, but deep down he wished he would.

He sighed somberly and stuck his cold hands into Tobias’s warm leather jacket. “Hm?” He could feel a scrap of paper in its right pocket. He took the paper out and read it. “I hope you get a redo on your ceremony. If you ever need help with some ‘stress,’ call me: xxxxxx-xx-xxxxxxxxxx.” Tobias left him his phone number! Aleks couldn’t help but smile ear to ear out in the cold. The feelings he made him feel … he’d be able to explore them with him in the future!