Dana let the pounding water wash her cares away with the blood and grime of the loading dock. It felt good to be free and not have to look over her shoulder, at least for now and she was going to take full advantage of that starting with a long shower. She still had questions, like why had Xacks landed the ship to get rid of bodies. It would burn extra fuel to get out of the planet's gravity, not that it mattered, having saved at least that much from having cheated the earths gravity.

Still there was something up with the Bug and she wasn't the kind of girl to let it go. Besides the Throracian fascinated her, Dana had friends who told tales of their prowess, the earth having developed some strange subcultures since their arrival. It wasn't something that Dana had ever craved, to experience something unworldly and for sure, a lot of people were traditionalists about it. That said she considered herself free of that way of thinking, so why did she have to think about it at all. She knew it was safe, despite the rumors and scare campaigns run by people who were idiotically opposed to even the idea. If Xacks had been human she would have had no problem using him to fulfill her needs.

Turning off the water and letting the dryer lift the water from her naked body Dana made her decision. Throwing on some comfortable clothes she made her way back to the hold. With Knapp gone their was no reason to be lugging cheap wine across the galaxy. Retrieving a bottle she made her way back up to the ships controls, the last of her inhibitions reasoned from existence.

"Do you always work naked?" Dana asked as she flopped into the copilot seat behind the complicated control panel with a bottle of wine.

"That depends on how cold it gets but mostly yeah." Xacks replied to her question. "We don't have the same hang ups you do."

"I don't have hang ups." Dana said getting comfortable in the chair.

"Into Knapp's wine already?" Xacks eyed the bottle

Dana smiled as she uncorked the bottle and took a swig. "Have you worked out where we are yet?"

"Sort of." Tapping a smaller screen, Xacks opened a vast main display. "Judging by the rotation it should have landed us about here." He pointed to a galaxy which he then zoomed in to show the system.

"So what now?" Dana asked taking another swig.

"Well its a long haul if we go back to earth and it will be a slow trip. That's if you want to go back?" Xacks said with a hint of adventure.

"We can't just dimension jump back." Dana put it to him.

"We could if we had a multidrive. Mine only goes one way."

"Why? What is in that direction?" Dana asked content to nurse the bottle to herself.

"Home, girl... My home."

"Home as in home world?"

"Yeah." Xacks clicked lightly showing more emotion for his home planet than she thought he would.

"Do you want to go back there?" Dana asked, seeing a side to him she didn't expect.

"Your not the only one running away from home, you know." Xacks clicked a laugh she had not heard before. The range of his language was always surprising to her, let alone his ability to learn other races lingo to boot.

"So what choices do we have?" Dana asked.

"With a one way drive... Not many." Xacks kicked back. "Our best bet is to keep jumping until we reach a place that affords us a means to our destination."

"So basically we are off on an adventure then?" Dana relaxed into the co seat. "Are you going to tell me why we landed here on this planet?"

"No." He shut her down coldly.

"Well that's a little hard." Dana teased him

"I'm a little hard." Xacks joked back.

"But I hear that's the way you like it."

"Where did you hear that?" Dana feigned surprise, knowing full well the pilot had overheard her captor as he had cuffed her.

"Is it true?" Xacks pushed her further.

"What that I like it rough?"

"That you like to be dominated?" Xacks asked with a glint in his eye.

"As if you could." Dana challenged knowing full well that Thoracians were all hermaphrodites and that power play was as important to them as the act itself. "I had a friend once who told me Thoracians are soft, that they can't get hard as such."

"Hard enough for you girly." Xacks mocked her back.

"She said it was like being stuffed with an over cooked squash."

In an instant she was propelled forward by powerful hands, her cheek held fast against the cool flat display. Bent awkwardly over the control panel the alien held her fast with four sets of hands. Trying to twist free she found herself pinned everywhere that mattered, powerless to the Thoracian she exhaled sharply in a minor defeat. She preferred to control from beneath anyway.

"If you want it, why don't you just ask?" Xacks whispered perched over her shoulder.

"Fuck me!"

Without another word, strong hands worked on her clothes, slowly peeling back fabric to gain access, never once releasing the tight grip that held her. She quivered as he teased her with his tenderness, hands groping and fondling her. Just when she thought she would have to beg for it, he began to slide free and indulge her. It was every bit as good as she had heard and she couldn't help but smile when his rhythm made an almost familiar noise of crickets in the night.