The accommodations were far better than Ruby had hoped, three hundred fifty square feet of living space complete with a stunning view of the Earth through the nearly floor-to-ceiling window on the far wall. The door shut behind her as she entered, her bags already sitting on the couch which took up the space beneath the window. Directly above her was a loft where she would sleep. The rest of the living space was sparse, meant for her to fill.
She crossed to the couch, pushed a bag to the floor, and sat. Raft was the first orbital colony in existence, a dare to the universe and a prayer for the human species. At fifty-one, Ruby had hardly dared hope she would live long enough to experience a breakthrough such as this, and now here she was, a functioning part of the Raft colony. Earth looked gorgeous out the slowly orbiting window, a view Ruby doubted she would ever find mundane.
A glance at her empty kitchenette made her stand.
“Ready to explore, doctor?” she asked herself, moving back to the door. The sight of her pale, slightly wrinkled skin as she placed her hand on the latch made her pause, then laugh. This was exactly where she wanted to be.
* * * *
There was less gravity in the marketplace and Ruby stood adjusting for a few minutes, taking in the multi-level shopping area with one long glance. The pictures and videos sent back to Earth really didn’t do the place justice. Spanning a large section of the very center of Raft, the marketplace was a hub of activity. The noise was loud and excited, like the din in a popular mall, and Ruby allowed herself to be caught up in it. She decided she would wander first, see what the place had to offer, before picking up a few supplies.
She bought a coffee in a degradable cup and walked, taking in the variety of restaurants, the retail shops. The marketplace was very much like a mall in a way, with the exception of the various services scattered throughout: a dental practice, an optometrist office, a veterinarian. Raft thrived on the swell of scientists sent to keep it running and the wealthy people who invested in the colony—Ruby had heard their living spaces were even more impressive than her own.
As she passed the veterinary practice, a woman and son pushed past her, what looked to be a Savannah cat in the boy’s arms. Ruby stepped aside for them, though she doubted they paid her much notice.
“It had better not be Dr. Barrett’s day off,” the woman, white, middle-aged, and pinch-faced, was saying. The boy, about twelve Ruby guessed, glared.
Ruby doubted it was the same Dr. Barrett, but her heart fluttered for a moment all the same. The memories she had…she smiled to herself and lingered, finishing her coffee. She’d had a lot of lovers over the years, but there was one who would always hold a special place in her mind. She wouldn’t be surprised if somehow Jennifer Barrett was here—they had run into each other enough over the years. What was one more place?
After disposing of her cup, Ruby filled a canvas bag with eggs, vegetables, spices, a bottle of wine, even a small selection of chocolates from a tiny specialty place at the very edge of the marketplace. Although she would need more than just food, she decided to return home, tired from the long space flight and the buzz of the marketplace.
The Savannah cat ran across her path on her way back, nearly tripping her. She moved out of the way as the boy followed, then turned back to see where the mother was. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat.
Standing in the entrance to the veterinary practice and nodding calmly to the pinch-faced woman was Dr. Barrett. The Dr. Barrett Ruby knew and loved. She froze, unable to keep from staring. It had been years, but Jennifer still dazzled her. Long black hair braided and pulled back from her round face, russet skin smoother than Ruby’s was now, expression calm yet hiding amusement—Ruby knew her well enough to know that. She stepped closer before she could stop herself.
“Yes,” Jennifer said to the woman. “If my scanners were operational, I could use the GPS in Sandy’s chip to locate her on the colony. But I’m told those won’t be completely up and running for another six weeks at least. Something to do with having to install more tech on certain floors with high living standards. Apparently everyone wants to move in ahead—”
“But what are you going to do?”
“Direct you to law enforcement. I’m sure their scanners are running fine.”
The woman muttered something and stalked off, and that was when Ruby’s eyes met Jennifer’s.
“Jen,” she said, crossing the last few feet between them. It was suddenly very hot, which was odd, since Raft was kept at a temperature Ruby generally found to be a little too cold.
Jennifer smiled, then turned and entered the veterinary practice. Ruby followed.
“Why am I not surprised to see you here?” asked Jen, once they were away from the flow of the crowd.
Ruby set her bag down on a chair in the waiting area. The place was empty—not even an office worker was present. She and Jen were a step apart.
“I felt the same way when I heard there was a Dr. Barrett at the veterinary practice.”
Jen smiled and gestured to the small room with spread arms.
“I finally got old enough to consider settling down. What do you think?”
“You need more staff,” said Ruby, closing the last bit of space between them. She reached up and brushed Jen’s cheek with a hand, trailed her fingers down Jen’s throat. She was treated to a familiar touch in return when Jen rested her hands on the small of Ruby’s back, nearly on her ass. “Who knows what can happen when there’s no one around to look out for you?”
“No one around to keep me from behaving unprofessionally, you mean.”
Ruby couldn’t help it. She had to kiss her. God, she loved their easy banter, how they just seemed to fall together perfectly, again and again. Her heart pounded and she reached up to brush against Jen’s face, but Jen was thinking of other things. She led Ruby around, hands fully on her ass now, until she was nearly at the desk. Jen’s hands moved lower, to Ruby’s thighs, and before she knew it, Jen had slid her onto the desk and was wedged between her legs.
Ruby didn’t care that anyone could walk into the waiting room right now.
“Come to dinner with me,” said Jen as she pulled away from Ruby’s lips and rested their foreheads together. The palm of her hand pushed into the sea of heat between Ruby’s legs as she spoke. “Tonight? Seven?”
“Whatever you want,” breathed Ruby, pressing herself against Jen’s hand, wanting more.
But Jen pulled back, smiling knowingly. “If I don’t stop us now, we’ll do something where anyone can walk in on us.”
“And?” asked Ruby. That hadn’t exactly stopped them before. She could list off a good number of daring places they had been together, from a conference table minutes before people arrived to a courtyard in broad daylight.
Jen’s eyes sparkled. “And you want to keep pushing our luck?”
“You don’t?” Ruby leaned up, took Jen’s face in her hands, kissed her. “You have exam rooms back here, right?”
Jen didn’t have to be asked twice, something Ruby loved about her. She counted herself lucky as Jen stepped back and offered a hand. Ruby slipped off the desk, pleasantly tense, and heard the door open. Immediately Jen put her other hand on top of Ruby’s.
“I’m sorry,” she said, switching into her vet persona as a man entered with a cage. Ruby swallowed back her lust and tried to look sad rather than angry. “But you did the right thing. It was time to let Kerfluffles go.”
Ruby didn’t know what she wanted more—to make out with Jen or laugh—but holding back her amusement made her eyes water. Ruby nodded, unable to respond, and though Jen looked completely sympathetic, her fingers traced light, tantalizing patterns over Ruby’s wrist.
“Thank you, Dr. Barrett,” she finally managed, and turned to go. If the man with the cage thought it was strange for her to leave with a bag of groceries, he didn’t look it. She left Jen to her next patient and retreated back to her place to rest up for the evening.
* * * *
There hadn’t been much for Ruby to unpack, but she was glad now she had brought a few nice outfits along rather than donating them all before leaving Earth. She had the same flattering skirt and blouse combo she’d worn a few years earlier when she and Jen had met at a solar system exploration convention. She smiled at herself as she got dressed, remembering the feel of Jen’s hands sliding up her legs, the thrill of being in her late forties and still getting away with wild sex in a bathroom during panels.
She and Jen had always been that way, colliding into each other one place or another and simply exploding. Ruby was not sure how exactly it had happened—for a while in their twenties they had tried seeing each other, but it just hadn’t worked out. They had their own paths and different life goals, which brought them together now and again, but were just not compatible. It was as though they had orbited each other their entire lives, always linked and yet never close.
Ruby smiled, watching her crow’s feet grow more prominent in the mirror. She was paler than normal, a result of recent years spent mostly indoors. She hoped Jen would remember her outfit. At a tone from the door, she turned.
“Sorry I’m early,” said Jen when Ruby opened the door. She wore clothing Ruby remembered, too, from about five years ago, black with splashes of purple, like the universe. “I didn’t specify I would drop by, so I wanted to catch you before you went off looking for me.”
“Come in?” asked Ruby.
Jen smiled at the offer. “We’ll skip dinner altogether if I do that.”
“I have food.”
“I wanted to take you out,” said Jen, making her protest face. Ruby could never deny her when she asked. She supposed there wasn’t any reason to—they’d had precious few meals together over the years that weren’t part of some group of intellectuals.
“Then I put myself in your perfectly capable hands,” said Ruby.
Jen’s eyes glittered as she led Ruby out. “Are you insinuating something?”
“I’m always insinuating something.”
“I’d love to hear the specifics, but we’re in public,” said Jen, her point proven when they passed a family in the corridor. She led Ruby to one of the nicer restaurants in the upper levels of Raft, with a view to the galaxy beyond. Ruby could barely believe how breathtaking it was. Jen ordered a bottle of white.
“So,” she asked once their wine had arrived and they had both figured out entrées. “Taking an early retirement, Dr. McCullough?”
Ruby could not help but grin.
“Retirement? What’s that?”
Jen sighed, but it was a pleasant sort of sigh. She swirled her wine, looking relaxed and happy. Ruby could not take her eyes off her, even with the stunning view of the galaxy to their right. There was no comparison. No comparison at all.
“What’s your current project?” asked Jen. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Ruby sipped her wine, debating what to say. She hadn’t been planning to leave Raft. She would have enough work to do here the rest of her life, groundbreaking work, and she knew it would only be increasingly difficult to travel. No, for once in her life, she was going to stay in one place.
“Talking about work,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Is there nothing else we can talk about?”
“Maybe I’m curious about you being here. I’m beginning to think you’re following me, how often we bump into each other. Going to defend yourself?”
“You must be following me,” said Ruby. “I had a place on this colony before they opened applications to fill missing positions.”
“And I haven’t?”
Ruby smiled.
“I guess we’re both too good at what we do.”
Their food arrived and Jen set aside her wine.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re here for. I’m legitimately curious. What’s there to do with linguistics here?”
Ruby poked at her couscous. She’d explained this to relatives and friends, too, who seemed equal parts distressed she was leaving for good and jealous she would be able to live on Raft while they would likely never even be able to visit. Unlike them, she was aware Jen wasn’t being antagonistic.
“One of the exciting things about Raft,” said Ruby, knowing Jen would understand, “is how it gives us such a great ability to research and document things as they’re occurring, like we could never do with any other kinds of settlements in history.”
“I completely agree,” said Jen, nodding. “With the kinds of tech we have today, what we can track, organize, and understand is like at no other time before. The data…” She trailed off.
“Exactly.” Ruby felt her pulse pick up again, a mixture of excitement at someone getting what she was talking about and how hot it was that person was Jen. “I’m here with a team of sociologists and other various cultural specialists to track in real time what exactly shifts in a colony community, how it defines itself, separates itself, distinguishes itself from any place on Earth. What it chooses to keep and toss out when it comes to influence—Raft isn’t completely isolated, everyone here has internet, satellite, so forth. We’re anticipating some distinct, fascinating aspects to unfold.”
“It’ll be interesting considering the populace here is mainly intellectuals and the insanely rich.”
“And various staff.” Ruby paused to refill their wine glasses. “We already have clear class distinctions.”
“But even staff is highly educated,” said Jen. “People would kill for any job here. The only people I’ve met who don’t have a Master’s are children or those still in schooling.”
“It will be interesting to track that over the years, too.”
“Sounds like a lifetime’s worth of work.” Jen looked distant now and Ruby became uncomfortable. If she was truly going to stay here like she planned, the days of her and Jen bumping into each other might be over.
“Your turn,” said Ruby, wanting to go on the offensive. “Tell me all the secrets you have about Sandy the Savannah cat, or I’ll leave you with the full bill.”
Jen smiled, the distant look immediately gone. Ruby loved that smile. She wanted to wake up next to it.
“I believe I said I was treating?”
“I’ll think of another threat, give me a moment,” said Ruby as Jen sipped at her wine.
“Hold that thought for when we’re naked later. I’m pretty sure Sandy’s problem is she doesn’t like Raft. Most of the animals have been presenting with anxieties, behavior problems, or they’re eating less.”
“Oh, that’s unfortunate.”
Jen nodded, set her glass down.
“Yes, and that’s mainly why I’m here. There are actually going to be quite a few veterinarians and animal specialists here on Raft—it’s crucial we figure out how various creatures fare on the colony and what we can do for them. We still don’t have good answers to questions regarding fertility, development, or even things like how animals react long-term to the atmospherics.”
Ruby nodded. This had to go beyond novelty pets.
“Which is important for raising food animals. The eggs I bought today were shuttled in from Earth,” said Ruby.
“We do have several chicken populations in different areas of the colony, but it’s too soon for results. I heard there was still debate about whether we should have bees and other vectors on board, or go for genetically modified crops that don’t need pollination. And don’t get me started on fish.”
“I won’t,” said Ruby, smiling and pushing away her plate. “But listen to us, talking about work when we should be flirting and starting on the foreplay.”
Jen leaned forward, looking smug. “This is foreplay,” she said.
Ruby laughed. “Want to order dessert to go and take it back to my place?”
* * * *
The moment Ruby closed the door, Jen was all over her, kissing, touching. Despite all this time, her hands, her lips, felt comfortable, felt right. Ruby managed to set their dessert on the counter before Jen kissed her all the way across the room and to the couch. Outside the window, Earth turned slowly, so slowly—the planet they had both left behind for a new beginning here. Orbiting above their past, it was almost easy to imagine being with Jen like this regularly, like they had tried and failed to do decades earlier.
“I missed you,” said Jen through her teeth as she bit Ruby’s bottom lip and pulled.
“It’s been too long. A year?”
“Two.” Jen moved closer on the couch and slid her hands along Ruby’s legs, up her skirt. Her touch tingled like the twinkle of a thousand stars. “Remember what happened last time you wore this?”
“Mmm.” Ruby dove in for another kiss. Her hands moved up Jen’s arms, taking their own personal inventory of Jen’s body. They stopped to caress her breasts through her shirt and Jen breathed in sharply, tickled the sensitive skin behind Ruby’s knees. Jen twisted, pushed Ruby down on the couch on her back, straddled her.
“Lucky the couches in this place are so large,” she said, mouth at Ruby’s neck. Her hair cascaded down and around them and Ruby slipped her hands up under Jen’s shirt. She would never get too old for this. She only hoped it wasn’t their last time.
“Do that thing you did last time,” breathed Ruby, hoping it came out more like a sexy gasp than a plea.
Jen pulled back, grinning, and descended. Ruby rolled briefly and grabbed the lube she had set out near the couch before changing. She almost felt guilty the Earth was looking on as Jen pushed up her skirt, kissed her inner thigh.
“No panties?” asked Jen, her breath curling around Ruby’s thigh as she slowly kissed her way up.
“You make me feel young and rebellious.”
Jen laughed lightly.
“You’ve always been young and rebellious. I never made you that way.”
Ruby wanted to protest but Jen was spreading her legs wider now, sucking on her labia, first one and then the other. Instead Ruby laid back to enjoy herself, feel Jen’s tongue on her, prying gently, then intensely. When they were younger, they did it quickly, desperately, fingers finding clits in the privacy of a back room at a party, or grinding up against each other on a bench in a park in the dark. Even when they had been dating early on, attempting a relationship, they had been forced to see to themselves more often than not. Conflicting schedules, long hours.
Jen flicked her tongue across Ruby’s clit, steadily, slowly, nothing too intense yet. Ruby yearned for more, body striving toward it, and then Jen slid a lubed finger up inside her, pulled it back, slid two fingers in. Ruby’s breath caught. In all their years together, she had only felt Jen inside her recently, far better than any toy they had tried, much closer.
Jen slid three fingers in, worked her, sucked harder. Ruby loved it, heard herself mumbling something to Jen but not sure what it was. The Earth seemed to spin above her head, she had no idea which way was up, or even if there could be an up here, swirling in the stars, circling the past. Jen pulled the three fingers out and, after a moment with the lube, slid everything in.
Ruby gasped. With Jen’s mouth around her, Jen’s hand in her, she came hard, hearing it echo up through her throat as she arched against the couch. Jen wouldn’t let her be, though, mouth still working her until Ruby pushed the woman away with a foot on her shoulder.
“Damn,” said Ruby, looking down at Jen, whose eyes were glittering. She pulled her hair back over her shoulder and surged up toward Ruby’s face, other things on her mind. Ruby met her eagerly, tasting herself on Jen’s lips, on her tongue. What a full kiss this was, Ruby leading now, massaging Jen’s breasts as she went, twisting the nipples through the cloth. Jen had her pants undone and her hand buried in them, but Ruby growled into her mouth.
“What?” asked Jen, panting hard.
“I want to taste you. I want to make you come,” said Ruby.
Jen shifted immediately, losing her clothes to the floor. She moved to straddle Ruby’s face, to tangle her fingers in Ruby’s hair. “Like this?”
Ruby nodded, letting Jen guide her where she wanted. She smelled better than Ruby remembered, but then, she always did. Ruby ran her hands up Jen’s dark thighs, searched with nose and tongue, tried to do to Jen what Jen had done to her. She teased with her mouth, caressed everywhere with her tongue but the clit proper, drawing out sensation over the hood, deep where Jen was warm and wet and smelled like dreams threading through galaxies. They would think later.
Jen’s hands grasping Ruby’s head increased their grip, guided her. Ruby took the direction, swirled her tongue where Jen indicated, stopping on the motions that made Jen gasp and put a hand out against the couch to brace herself. She repeated, not daring to change anything she was doing now that Jen was letting out the most amazing moans. When she stiffened, Ruby made sure to hold her tight, to not let up, until Jen’s voice gave out and she pushed Ruby’s head away.
When Jen sat back on the couch, eyes closed, savoring their closeness, Ruby moved forward and kissed her. Jen smiled when she pulled back.
“Dessert?” asked Ruby. “I have a bottle of red.”
Jen began laughing. Ruby stood up, kicked off her disheveled skirt, and moved to open the degradable to-go containers and pour the wine. She couldn’t help but grin herself when she returned to the couch with two glasses and snuggled up to Jen, both naked from the waist down.
“Damn, we’re getting old,” said Jen, accepting the wine and sipping at it.
“Based on that encounter, we’re not.”
Jen gave her a little nudge with her shoulder, set her wine aside for the chocolate raspberry tart.
“Dr. McCullough, who else but old women cuddle with their shirts still on, eating post-coital chocolate?”
“Don’t forget the wine.”
“Right,” said Jen, and took another drink of hers.
They finished their dessert in lighthearted, satisfied silence and lingered on the couch working on the bottle of wine, looking out at the expanse of stars and the large marble of the Earth. Ruby wondered how long it would take to get used to never going back, the knowledge she’d seen her last lake, last mountain, last sunset. She wondered why she wasn’t sadder about it, and wished she and Jen could lounge like this forever, or at least the rest of their lives. Maybe she was getting emotional. Beside her, Jen sighed.
“What?” asked Ruby, raising her head.
“Can you believe how far away we are?” asked Jen, swirling her wine. “I hope it doesn’t mean the people here on Raft forget their connection to people on Earth.”
Ruby didn’t know what to say about that. She breathed out.
“It’s going to take me some getting used to,” she said at last. “But I’ll remember to track that, if I can. In myself, too. I’m not going back.”
Jen tensed for a moment, then moved to top their glasses off.
“No? What’s there to stay for?”
“Where’s there to go? This is it. I can’t get any better new research if I tried. And, like you pointed out, I am getting old now.” Ruby breathed out. “But I could definitely get used to a view like this.”
“Me, too,” said Jen, but when Ruby glanced over at her, she was looking into her eyes, not out at Earth. Something in Ruby’s gut lurched.
“You can’t be planning on retiring here,” she said.
Jen smiled, leaned closer to nuzzle Ruby’s neck. “Retirement? What’s that?” She paused. “Everything you say about yourself applies to me, too, you know. There’s going to be nothing else that can really compare to being the first to document and observe animals long-term on a satellite colony. I wasn’t planning on going back, either.”
In the pause that followed, Ruby’s mind raced. She didn’t know what to think, didn’t know whether Jen was suggesting anything or just stating a fact. Funny how all their dodging around over the years had led them both to a place where it would be difficult to hide from each other for long.
“I guess we’ll bump into each other more than I was hoping,” said Ruby.
“Much more,” said Jen. “Even…”
“That didn’t work out the first time,” said Ruby, remembering the fight they’d had, how they’d parted. The reason why they had spent so many years hooking up and then avoiding each other, always drawn together, ever wary. Neither of them had liked the breakup.
“We were barely twenty-five then,” said Jen. “Still so young. Clearly you could never stay away.”
“More like you couldn’t,” said Ruby, giving Jen’s foot a little kick with her own.
“Well, maybe it’s time.”
Ruby buried her mouth in her wine. Her heart raced as if Jen had just said she was going to fuck her again. To spend the rest of her days with such an amazing woman…
“Interesting neither of us were planning on going back down.”
“It’s time,” said Jen, setting aside her wine. She took Ruby’s hand with both of hers. “Ruby. Please. I would love to share Raft with you for the rest of our days.” She paused. “But before you move in with me, you should know we’re going to end up with rescue pets. A lot of them. Probably several cats, maybe a dog, some of those chickens…”
Ruby couldn’t help but smile at her. Jen was right. They were old enough to know what they wanted. It was time to stop orbiting.
“How could I turn you down?” she asked.
Jen was grinning now, too. “You never could.”
THE END