Toybox #17: Lost Paradise 4.2 (Patreon)

Stephanie gave a timid smile as she stared at her step-daughter. "Hey, Andy…"

Adam, meanwhile, looked away and turned his body from her to hide his sudden, urgent erection.

Andrea looked between the two and blinked until her vision cleared. "Where…What…" A sudden blush crept to her cheeks, and she moved quickly to cover herself. "What the fuck…" She looked around the catwalks and, slowly, with measured breaths, calmed herself. "We've landed, and I just got thawed out, but this isn't following protocol. You two shouldn't even be awake yet if we've…" She looked at the two in mixed awareness and growing concern. "Oh no. We've crash landed, haven't we?"

Stephanie's smile lingered, but the fear showed in her eyes. "We believe so," she admitted. "On the other hand, I think we made it to the planet, even if we didn't make it safely. Right, Adam?" She looked at her son, saw his burgeoning erection, and then returned her attention to Andrea. She offered the young woman a jumpsuit. "I didn't know your size."

Andrea held one arm over her breasts as she took the jumpsuit from Stephanie. She looked at the tag. "This should be fine," she said, and she stood with her back to them. Holding to the rail, she stepped into the jumpsuit on shaky legs and then zipped herself up. Her puffy nipples showed through the jumpsuit without a bra, but he assumed her family would either not notice or would be proper enough not to comment. The suit was a little tight around her ribs, but she figured she could find another later.

"There, all done." She turned to them and looked at them. Adam still had his back to her, but she didn't push him. She made eye contact with Stephanie, who was still blushing. "Are you two okay?"

"Just…fine," said Stephanie, who seemed distracted by Adam. She finally looked Andrea in the eyes again. "We're sorry that we had to wake you like this."

Andrea touched her damp hair and ran her fingers through it. "Better to be woken up at all," she said delicately. "Is anyone else up yet?"

Stephanie shook her head. "There's a malfunction that is keeping us from waking up very many people at a time. The batteries seem to be having trouble recharging. It takes about a week to get enough power to pull someone out of cryotherapy right now."

"A week? And you chose me?"

Adam smiled at her over his shoulder. "You're the smartest person I know, sis."

Andrea beamed at the compliment, and Stephanie seemed briefly jealous before she smiled, too. "I'm glad you're finally talking, kiddo," said Andrea, and she messed Adam's hair before he recoiled. Andrea looked at Stephanie again. "He's acting awful shy."

"It has been…difficult," she said. "Do you have any idea what is going on?

"A few but it might be nothing I can fix. I'm a not a computer engineer but a programmer. I have some practical knowledge in terms of building and take apart hardware, but software is my domain."

"…And…that means?"

"It means that if we don't have enough power to use the computers, then I'm a bit out of my depth." Adam and Stephanie both visibly deflated, and Andrea quickly tried to assure them. "Look, look, I might be able to do something, and if I can't, I can help us find the people who did. Remember, I was part of the design and assembly crew." When both perked up, she smiled, and then she leaned against the rail and sighed. "How long have you two been living on the ship like this?"

Stephanie and Adam exchanged glances, and Adam blushed and looked away. "A bit over a week, actually," she said.

"With just the two of you, in a darkened ship that won't work." She looked around the vast cryohold and grimaced. "That must have been boring."

"It hasn't been that bad," Stephanie said, and she smiled. "It's given us time alone, which has been nice."

Andrea gave Stephanie a timid smile. Stephanie has always been kind to her despite everything. She looked at Adam, who still had his gaze averted and was standing in a strange way, as if he was trying to sink into himself. She reached up and messed his dark hair. "You have always been a mama's boy."

"Hey," whined Adam, and he shoved her hand away. They both felt a strange buzz within their guts and their loins when they touched, and Andrea quickly averted his gaze.

"Don't tease him too much," laughed Stephanie, and she sighed. "Well, let's get you something to eat before we see what we can figure out." She passed Andrea on the catwalk, though there wasn't much room for her to fit. She was a few steps ahead when she looked back at the siblings. "Are you two coming?"

"Yeah," said Andrea, her gaze fixed briefly on Adam. She thought she could see him through his jumpsuit, but his manhood seemed improbably large, and she felt weird even considering it. She blinked and shook her head. "We're coming, right, Adam?"

Adam nodded quietly and followed her down the catwalk. As they followed Stephanie back to the storage room where they had been staying, Andrea felt like Adam was staring at her ass but did not look to check. Which was good for him, because if she had, then she would have caught him doing it.

Adam was never an extremely talkative young man, but hew as uncharacteristically quiet while they ate. Stephanie did most of the talking as she informed Andrea of what happened, and Adam filled in details when prompted. Andrea could tell something was wrong, but she didn't know how to approach it. Something had happened between Stephanie and Adam, but she didn't know what, and she couldn't parse out if it was related to the strangeness of the overall event itself.

She remembered Adam being nervous about the journey. He was a timid boy, and he was going only because the rest of his family was going. Now, with the ship crashed, Andrea felt personally responsible for all of it. After all, they had only gotten their places on Seekers because of her involvement with the creation of the ship. For Andrea, it was a place to restart her life. She had not expected her father to accept her invitation, nor had she expected him to drag their entire family along.

The meal was nothing but dried food from pouches. It didn't taste good, and it turned her already queasy stomach. She ate enough to keep Stephanie from nagging and turned away any seconds by expressing worries about running out. "Hopefully, we'll have a proper colony up soon," said Stephanie, who had not wanted to come and had quite vocally argued against it. She didn't know how such things worked, but Andrea had some idea, and she was not optimistic.

"Hopefully," said Andrea, and she left it at that.

After that, they went about turning the storage room into a makeshift bed chamber. To that point, Adam and Stephanie had slept on the floors and in the open. At Andrea's suggestion, they had made private, gendered bedrooms by stringing up sheets and twine between two sections. Adam's side would have the door, but their bedside would have all of the supplies. After that, they got out some extra cloth and blankets since they figured they wouldn't have to share for long.

"And that'll be good for when we wake up Eugene," said Andrea with a smile as she and Adam finished fastening the tether to a support beam at the top of the room.

"Eugene," repeated Adam curiously.

"Yeah. He's who we should wake up next. He young, but he's a real whiz of an engineer. A little quiet. I think you two will get along."

Adam nodded but otherwise remained quiet. There was definitely something wrong with him, and Andrea was worried.

Afterward, Andrea returned to the space she and Stephanie had partitioned off for the two of them. It was strange sharing a space like this with Stephanie. Though Andrea had known Stephanie since adolescence, she has never thought of Stephanie as her mother in the same way she thought of Adam as her brother. It was not for a lack of effort on Stephanie's part. Stephanie had tried hard to fill that space, but the knowledge that Andrea had a mother, as poor of a person as her mother was, always got in the way.

"It'll be like camping," said Stephanie warmly, but Andrea could not agree. Camping was not enforced in this way. It was a reprieve that could be escaped within the space of a long drive at most. It was plug and play, and this might not end.

She didn't argue, though, and gave Stephanie a warm smile as they prepared for sleep.

Andrea had worried that she would not be able to sleep considering that she had just woke up from the longest sleep of her life only a few hours ago, but she fell asleep quickly. She did not stay asleep, though and was roused only a short time later to find the lamp on Adam's side of the room on and two silhouettes over there. She could hear Adam and Stephanie whispering to each other in the darkness.

"You seem like you need help."

"I can handle it, mom."

"No, no. Sweetie."

"But Andrea…"

"Is asleep." A pause. "You look like you're in pain."

"Ah! Mom."

The shadows against the sheet shift and dance. There are body parts which Andrea cannot recognize, and she attributes it to fatigue. Her mouth is dry. She needs a drink but cannot reach for one. Her body is still paralyzed and her vision drifting.

"Mom. We…We should stop."

"Mm. Why?"

"Andrea could…"

"Fine."

The silhouettes stood but the shapes were wrong. Adam had a horn but it wasn't on his head. Andrea's eyes closed and when she opened them again the door was open.

"But she will be more worried if we're not here, so we need to hurry."

"Mom…"

"As your mother, I insist on helping you, sweetie. At least until we can get a doctor to look at you."

A doctor, Andrea thought, but the words were not sticking. She drifted off again as the door slid shut, and when she woke in the morning, she had almost none of that still in her head except for the dancing shadows and the improbable shapes. All of it seemed so surreal that she assumed it was a dream, and she had no reason to suspect otherwise. Both Stephanie and Adam were asleep in their sleeping bags by morning time, right where they should be.