Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2021 21:01:00 +0100 From: Andrew Passey Subject: Andromeda Three Part Ten (Young Friends) (Science Fiction) Jess was right, the shuttle's autopilot took control and I felt the engine fire and we started to move. "What now?" I asked Dix who was pouring over a screen intently. "There's a few planets around and this baby can travel surprisingly fast. However the ship seems to want to go to the closest one which is that beast over there!" I looked over to where he was pointing and I could see a red looking planet in front of us that didn't look too far away. It was no Earth that's for sure. No nice blue planet with seas and land masses. All we could see was red and the odd flickering. "Scans seem to suggest that it's not ideal but I guess our proximity to it made the shuttle choose it. Potentially toxic atmosphere. Violent storms. But plenty of land to land on so we won't end up squashed in the centre of a gas giant!" Dix said, trying to find the positives. "How long till we get there?" I asked. "Not sure, maybe a couple of hours?" "I'll tell you what?" "What?" Dix replied, sounding a bit stressed. "I could really do with that wank!" We both fell about laughing until tears ran down our cheeks. The joke had really released the tension we felt. We were still shit scared but it reminded me and hopefully Dix that at least we weren't alone. We had each other. We stayed strapped in for the journey to the planet. I wasn't sure if we had to and I was busting for a piss after a while but it seemed safer. We passed the time by talking about our lives before the ship. "Did the adults know what was going on at your home? All the um..you know sex stuff?" Dix asked me "Possibly but they were so disengaged they didn't care one way or another. We barely saw them. They'd dole out jobs to the older boys and that was it. A proper nurse would staff the medical centre occasionally and she must have known that some of those sore arseholes she had to deal with were caused by fucking but then again what were they going to do about it? It was just part of life there. They didn't care about us at all." Dix looked at me sympathetically, " That's tough. I can't believe that sort of thing is going on when there is so much money around the place." "The rich get richer and want more money. The people at the bottom like me get left behind. Or have to bottom to stay alive!" Dix looked at me quizzically and I smiled, "bottoming is a sex term. If you think about it you can probably work out what it is." "Oh," he said with a blush. "You might think it's weird that I joke about what happened in the home and about being fucked but humour is one thing they can't take away from you. It helps me if I laugh it off. I guess there was none of this sex stuff going on at your school?" I asked knowing the answer already but keen to change the subject away from me. "Ha, I wish. Nah my school was very academic, not much for fun. Mixed sex but I didn't get any unsurprisingly although older kids got together. There were a lot of stuck up arseholes at the school though. And the ones that made fun of me." "Those wankers or the small cock brigade as I like to call them!" I said with a smile which caused Dix to smile too. He sighed loudly, "I had a few really good friends and I really miss them." "I can tell but at least you've got me now." "Thank fuck for that even if you do fart too much!" Dix giggled and it set me off. It was so nice spending time together I could almost forget what dire trouble we were in. Almost apart from the fact the big red beast of a planet was filling up the cockpit window. "Um Dix?" I started to ask a question that was definitely on my mind, "how does the autopilot know where to land on the planet? Like say it was Earth there's a massive difference between landing in London or New York than say in the middle of the Atlantic or on top of Mount Everest or an active volcano." "Well basically what it does is use all it's instruments to triangulate data to create an array that has a few optimal outcomes and chooses the best option from that once it's removed all negative variables," Dix said confidently. "You don't know do you?" "No fucking idea. I just hope it knows what it's doing!" We laughed at that in a slightly manic way. We both really hoped it knew what it was doing and our lives were in its hands. The planet now filled the cockpit screen and I guessed we were getting close to breaking through into the atmosphere. I hoped the autopilot knew to make sure we came in at the right angle as I had no desire to spend my last minutes alive with the shuttle being burnt upon entry. There was shuddering and screeching metal as we clearly hit the point of no return. I held on tight and closed my eyes, not wanting to see outside. Then the shuddering abated slightly and I guessed we were through to the atmosphere. "What a view Starboy! Open your eyes!" Dix said. I did as he said and looked out on...nothing. Well just a lot of red with the odd flicker of lightning.. "Sorry I was joking. Have we entered hell?" He asked without humour. Red light filled the shuttle punctuated with flashes from lightning. This was certainly not some new Eden we'd found. The shuttle started shaking as lightning flashed around us and I'm not going to lie. I don't think I'd ever been more scared. The noises and crashes of electricity outside didn't help and neither did closing my eyes. I hoped we were just in a violent storm rather than this being how the planet was, otherwise our stay was going to be very miserable. Actually at the moment I was more concerned it was going to be short...and fatal. "I can't see a fucking thing but I think we're descending, FUCK!" Dix shouted as I guess a lightning strike hit us causing the ship to glow and the power to dim. "We're losing power! We're going down!" Dix said hyperventilating. "Fuck!" I said. "I don't want to die!" "Well me neither! Is this one of those strange new worlds you wanted to see!?" Dix asked with gallows humour in our terrible situation. At that point the power completely failed and Dix started randomly mashing buttons. Then with a whirring sound everything came back to life and the shuttle's engines kicked in. Suddenly the air briefly cleared slightly and I could see what I thought was ground coming up fast. The shuttle veered upwards and used thrusters to slow us but we were still coming in too fast. With a thud that shook the pod and us violently we were down. I banged my head on the chair and found myself losing consciousness. I drifted out wondering whether I'd wake back up. I don't know how long I was out for, probably only seconds. I woke to the sound of Dix shouting "Starboy! Wake up!" at me and I felt gentle slapping on my face. I opened my eyes and groaned. Dix smiled at me, "Well I don't think we could exactly call that a smooth landing! But we made it - just. Anyway we're here. Well such as it is. Let's hope we aren't here long. I really fucking hope this is just a storm and finishes soon." I completely agreed. Now we were down the wind was howling and picking up what I guess was sand or dust which peppered the shuttle making it sound like it was being scoured clean outside. Dix checked the instruments and whistled loudly, "A very cosy -80C outside at the moment. With wind speed off the scale and air toxicity seems to be fatal without a helmet. There should be some stored under the seats, Ah there we go. Not that I'm going outside anyway!" I watched as he brought out a couple of small helmets for us. I did think we should have worn them for landing just in case but it was too late now. He was right though. No point going outside in this storm. The air toxicity and temperature made me pray that the integrity of the pod would hold. Now we had landed I liked to think of it as the pod not the shuttle. It sounded more homely and I guess it sort of was. We still had a toilet and shower although I wasn't totally sure if they would work if we weren't connected to the ship. However it was time to find out as I was desperate for a piss. "Don't flush if it's a piss, I need to read up to see if it all still works without Andromeda Three's water supply. I think we have a water tank that will just recycle but after that lightning hit I don't want to overload the power." Dix said which made total sense. I did as he suggested and came back to the main room. I'd had enough of the cockpit and it's depressing view so I sat on one of the chairs feeling a bit overwhelmed. Dix was opening various boxes and drawers looking for various things we might need. I guess keeping busy kept his mind off things and he came out of one box looking triumphant. "Enough food for a month here! Well if you can call these rations food anyway!" He said throwing packets on the table. I examined them, "to be honest it sounds better than the shit I had to eat back on Earth at the home. At least there seems to be nutrients in there! Um, what happens when we run out after thirty days?" Dix shrugged, "We'll have been rescued well before then. If not then we choose which of us gets eaten by the other one!" "I choose you. You've got a bigger sausage than me!" "True!" Dix replied with a grin, "and we all know you like to eat sausage! Sorry, that was insensitive of me." I laughed, "Don't be sorry! If we don't laugh....well then we'll probably cry." The storm lasted the rest of the day, such as it was. It was an uncomfortable experience as the noise was really unsettling and kept us both on edge. We managed to eat some edible food although we decided to forego our bedtime shower as Dix wanted to wait until the storm finished to do some tests. If it ever did. That did mean I never got to have that wank and I hoped it wouldn't make me too horny. So we stripped down for bed as usual. I'd asked if we should keep our suits on but Dix said they were uncomfortable to sleep in and whatever happened we'd have time to get them on if things went wrong. This seemed a bit foolhardy to me but he seemed to know what he was doing. "I suppose we don't have to share a bed as one of us can have the other room," I said not wanting to sleep there but also wanting to give Dix the opportunity. "Um well one of us could but.....we should um, be in the same room together in case something goes wrong." I was fine with that and we climbed into bed. "Lights" I said and the room was black. We lay in bed in the dark, the roaring of the storm outside keeping us awake. "Starboy?" Dix said softly, breaking the silence. "Yes Dix?" "I'm scared." "Me too," I replied. Dix then shuffled close to me and we cuddled up. It was nice and the body warmth was comforting. I lay there for a while then Dix shifted slightly. I felt his soft dick on my leg and tried to ignore it. I then giggled to myself. "What?" Dix said softly. "I can feel your cock on my leg and I was thinking...." "Thinking what?" "It being there is like the elephant in the room!" "Very funny," he said sleepily and before long he was snoring softly. I lay there for a while thinking, sleep was a long time coming. The roaring of the storm and the crashing of thunder and lightning kept jolting me awake every time I dozed off. Eventually though, I fell asleep.