"Oh, shit," I wailed, looking at the sensor readout.  I rescanned the planet surface, looking at the recessed monitor, shaking my head in disbelief. "This can't be right," I whispered under my breath. I scrolled through the list of scans available and scanned for energy signatures. "Shit," I exclaimed again.

I beckoned Collette over to me. She read the look on my face, "what's wrong."

Sadly, I replied, "everything," my voice somber.

I hit the buttons necessary to transfer my readouts to the large view monitor.  The beautiful orbital view of the planet surface, the white clouds congealing into long streaks racing around the planet, floating in the stratosphere, disappeared.  In its place were the sensor readouts I had been silently cursing. Three sets of blinking lights flashed along the left hand edge of the screen.

"What are those?" Collette asked, sure of the answer, but wanting my explanation to be certain.

"Those," I began,  "are energy readings."

"And those," Collette asked, indicating the upper half of the view screen.

"Life form readings."

Collette took the seat centered on the bridge, staring at the large display and the information displayed. "You mean?"

"Yes, the planet is inhabited."I reviewed the sensor logs we took two years ago; the readings have changed.

Collette turned her head to look at me. She was wearing her white jumpsuit, indicating her status as captain of the vessel and ruler of the men aboard. I was dressed in a white gown, a leather strap encircling my waist with my requisite dildo hanging from it. "So, they are not indigenous life forms?" she asked.

I nodded.

"What do the energy readings represent?"

"Best I can tell," I began, my face somber, "weapons fire."

Collette was silent, looking at the screen. She slowly shook her head, "this means" her voice trailed off.  Still staring at the screen she turned to me, "call the department heads to the conference room.  Have them meet me there in twenty minutes."

"Yes, ma'am," I nodded, turning to obey.

* * * * *

The small screen in the plush conference room flashed to life.  It displayed the information that Collette had digested earlier. There were eight women in the room, the leaders of all of the shipboard departments.  Each was wearing a jumpsuit, Collette in her white one, the rest wearing yellow jumpsuits.  The jumpsuits were comfortable and a throwback to the planet we left years ago. Now, however, each of them women were equal, only Collette's was different, indication her status as captain.

"It appears," Collette reported, indicating the blinking indicators on the screen, "that the planet we chose is no longer uninhabited."

The women murmured in shock and denial. Collette paused as the talked among themselves, taking in the knowledge.  When the talking faded to a muted whisper, Collette continued, "there is more," she said, her lips tight, her brow furrowed, "it appears if we land we could put ourselves in the middle of a claims war. From what we have been able to ascertain from our position in our polar orbit is that three different alien races are staking claims for this planet.  We have picked up weapons fire, both light energy and incendiary."

"The battles we have witnessed are centralized on the largest continent, near the eastern shore.  We can land as far from them as possible, in the hopes that their battle doesn't  include us, but that hope seems silly. There will be a winner in the claims war, and they will lay claim to the planet. If we land, we may find ourselves in the unenviable position of trying to start our society anew while battling for our survival with an alien race."

The women looked at Collette, their faces blank, staring unbelieving. Some began to shake their heads and then they began to shout to be heard asking what our options were. Shouts rang out to "fuck the aliens," and I had to smile at the domineering spirit echoing of the pristine walls. The woman in charge of engineering called out, "what are our options."  Her question was the one that the meeting had been called to answer.

"Well," Collette shouted to be heard. The room quieted down and Collette continued. "As I see it we can land, try to begin our new lives here and take our chances with the alien cultures battling below. We can move on. "

A voice called out, "where is the next closest habitable planet?"

"To the next planet that appears to be uninhabited.  This planet," Collette continued as if the interruption had not happened, "is about a year and a half back the way we had come. We have found two planets closer, but we have reasoned that that is where the aliens have come from, as we had not noticed them on our voyage. Thirdly, " and her voice dropped as if she was leery of mentioning it, "is to contact the aliens and stake our own claim to the planet."

Murmurs erupted again as the women shouted, each trying to voice their opinions.

"Ladies!" Collette shouted, calming the boisterous throng. When they were silent Collette continued,  "What questions do you have?  Then when they are all answered, we can vote on a course of action."

Collette went around the room.  The first question was posed,  "do we have the resources for another year and a half in space?"

Hydroponics answered,  "Yes," she replied,  "We have the means to grow whatever food we need.  We can stay in space indefinitely, as far as food and water goes, that is."

The woman in charge of celestial navigation asked a harsh question,  "how do our weapons compare?"

Collette looked at her as if she had just proposed the obvious. Barbara McNaught, the woman in charge of engineering looked at me and I stepped forward to answer the question, from what we have been able to tell studying the weapon scans of the three alien races; our weapons are superior.

That seemed to decide our course of action. "Land," Barbara voted immediately.

"Land," Jennifer Dvdorak, the woman who had asked the question seconded.

"Land."

"Land."

Each woman voted to land, our superiority prompting our decision.

"Very well," Collette acknowledged. "We will land.  We have plotted three likely landing points and have decided that the one here," and she pointed to the view screen. I changed the display to show a topographical map and Collette indicated a location just below the equator. "It isn't the furthest point from the altercation of the aliens, but it seems to be the most hospitable for setting up our new utopia." She smiled as she said the last word.

The meeting broke up and Collette and I returned to the bridge. The crew was ready to land, three men manning the control panels, their white tunics and hanging dildos now a commonplace view. Collette indicated the landing point and the pilot plotted the course. Collette sat in her leather bound chair and activated the announcing system, "all hands, prepare for landing."

She gave the command and we dropped out of orbit, easing through the atmosphere with ease.  The ground grew larger in the view screen. We dropped through the clouds, descending through the thick air. We dropped lower, falling above a large ocean, racing towards the rapidly approaching coast.  We continued descending, finally leveling out just a few meters above the flat ocean.  We could see waves breaking on the blue water, a view that reminded us of home. We followed the breakwater towards the coast, the ship slowing as the shoreline approached.

Mountains were visible in the distance, providing a beautiful backdrop to our chosen home.  The pilot punched some buttons and the landing gear locked into place. The clearing along the ocean appeared that we had chosen and with a gentle thump we landed on our new planet. Cheers rang out through the ship, giddy sounds of happiness.

We are home,  Collette announced, her voice carrying through the ship.

* * * * *

Collette stood at the gangplank, looking at the steel plate as it gently descended towards the green grass of our new home. The plate hit the ground and Collette slowly walked down the gentle slope until she was standing beneath the ship. She walked out towards the beach and scooped up a handful of the crystalline sand.  The air was warm, the ocean raising the humidity to an almost uncomfortable level. Collette pulled in a lungful of air, savoring the sweet taste of the fresh air instead of the artificial oxygen generated in the ship.

She spoke into her communicator and gave the command to set up camp.  Immediately the surrounding area became a flurry of activity as everybody poured from the ship.  Large portals opened in the skin of the ship and tunic clad men used hoverjacks to remove the prefabricated houses that had been prepared during our long voyage.

The sun was high overhead and it was a beautiful sight, far better than the artificial light that had been assaulting our eyes for the last two years.  I assisted in unloading the walls of our home and began to assemble Collette's house. I laid the thick planks for the floor overlooking the beach, the mountains behind us.  I floated the walls into place, locking them into place with strong magnetic fields.  I assisted some of the other men in hauling their roofs into place and they in turn assisted me in dropping the roof onto Collette's home.

In less than three hours we had set up our town, each of our homes arranged in a semi-circle with Collette's house the centerpiece. When all of the prefabricated homes were in place we began hauling the niceties of our life into place. We unloaded our beds and the rest of the furniture from our berths. Our clothes, jumpsuits for the women and white tunics for them men found their new homes.  We hung pictures on the bare walls and before the sun set our houses were livable.  We had artificial lighting in the houses until we could set up a more permanent power arrangement using the ship as our power source.

From our home Collette and I watched the sun set on the ocean, the sky lit up in a fiery display of magnificent beauty. "We are home," she said to me, watching the waves lap at the shore, the sailor sky a delight to behold.

"Yes," I smiled.

She took my hand and led me to her bedroom, "we should christen our new world, don't you think?"

I understood her meaning and agreed whole-heartedly.

I unzipped her jumpsuit and pulled the white fabric over her shoulders, baring her body to my gaze. I undressed her slowly, softly kissing her skin as it became open to my eyes.  I kissed her neck, her shoulders and her breasts, dropping the jumpsuit. She stepped out of the jumpsuits legs and stood naked before me. I escorted her to her bed and climbed between her parted thighs.

I tasted her sex, my tongue parting her silken folds to slide between the gentle lips.  She was breathing heavily, her eyes shut to savor the feeling of my tongue between her legs.  I massaged her pussy with my lips, pleasuring her body. My hands caressed her thighs, sliding along her aroused body. I lapped at her sex, savoring the pleasure her body displayed.

My tongue danced playfully against her clit, flicking the hard nub of excitement with abandon.  Her breathing became pants of excitement. Her hands grabbed my hair and held my face against her hot sex as she came loudly.  Her fingers pulled my hair and I hissed against her sex. She screamed in excitement, pulling my hair as she forced me against her pussy.  Her breasts were heaving when she released me, breathing heavily.

"Welcome home," she whispered, pulling me up to lie next to her.

"Home," I echoed, smiling at the word. With a smile I asked, "What are we going to name the planet?"

"Collette's world," she laughed at her joke.

And I laughed with her.  Tomorrow would bring new challenges as we struggled to make life begin anew on a foreign world.  And thousands of miles away a battle raged for dominance over the planet that we had just colonized. New challenges, indeed, I thought.

Together we drifted off to sleep.