In the distant future, deep in the northern hemisphere of the Milky Way Galaxy, a long oval-shaped starship hurtled through space at many times the speed of light. This was the S.S. Daedalus on a mission to observe the convergence of a black hole and dwarf star. It was far away from any territories where galactic conflict was taking place and thus had few weapons and mostly academic staff.

The S.S. Daedalus was in fact an educational vessel for aspiring researchers that still had not graduated from the Galactic Academy. To be selected as a member of its crew meant one was the best of the best and had a bright future ahead of them in their chosen field of study. It also gave the future stars of the academic community the chance to create social connections with one another as they journeyed through space for three years together.

Having already spent a year exploring the Stars everyone had acclimated to the new environment. However, things were not peaceful for everyone, while journeying each student was also required to complete a thesis based on experimentation. For many this was easy and they just needed to crunch data received from the ship’s ordinary sensors. But for Issac Omell this had caused him days of anguish.

As the acclaimed ‘most gifted’ Astrophysics major on the ship, he was expected to be a cut above the rest. It had been like this since he was a child. It had long been made clear to him by his family and supervisors he had to be exceptional.

There were many aspects that led to this. His parents were trendy astrophysics themselves and expected him to be as good if not better. He came from Terrain II, one of humanity’s earliest colonies, and the people of his world carried an innate dignity about them. His home world had idolized him for years as he broke records and aced exams, everyone expected him to continue this thread. He was also one of the first subjects of the Human 3.0 Project. A genetic modification program was founded in his home world with the goal of engineering the most elite human race efficient. The project received a lot of scrutiny from humanity’s traditionalist faction and thus he was expected to be better in every way. Beyond all of this was his own drive and passion for his craft, he wanted to contribute to the human race and knew as the best he had the duty to spearpoint new developments.

It was a heavy burden for a young man of 19 and with all of this weighing on his mind he had spent countless hours preparing for the astral anomaly due to take place only a month away. His mission was to test a new probe that he had been constructing by hand, designed to test a theory he had on gravitational wave behavior and dimensional flux. If the reads from this anomaly matched his theory he would have the groundwork for a new calculation that could greatly improve the effectiveness of space travel. But first, he needed a working probe.

For the sake of his project, he had put everything else apart for the first year of the voyage and now the finish line could be seen in the distance.

—

As per usual, Issac Omell woke in his small room early and quickly turned off the alarm with a wave towards a holographic screen.

A female voice then spoke in a pleasant tone, “Good morning Isaac, you have three messages and two uncompleted tasks.”

The black-haired and golden eyes young man yawned and stopped up responding, “Thank you computer. Who are the messages from?”

“Lead Science Officer Hanssen, Student Jacob, and Student Sara. Shall I play them for you” The voice informed him in a steady tone?

Issac considered this and responded, “No need. Tell Officer Hanssen I’m still on schedule and he has nothing to worry about. And tell Sara she can just kill by DnD character off, I won’t have time to join them anytime soon. I’ll hear Jacobs later.”

“The messages have been sent. Today’s breakfast is rehydrated proton biscuits and vitamin water. Will you be eating?” The computer gained a curious and even scornful tone having been coded to be abrasive when people don’t follow procedures.

Having not eaten breakfast for five days now Issac knew he couldn’t get away with it much longer. He sighed and responded, “Fine, I’ll eat but make it quick.”

A panel in the wall next to his small table opened and a meal tray was pushed out. He took a step forward smelling the food but then looked down at his pajama pants. His dick was hard as stone and poked firmly against the fabric. His residual sleepiness had prevented him from noticing this at first but now he could feel an itch in his veins. After a second he looked up and went to the table knowing this was because he forgot his medicine the previous day. After taking a bite of food he spoke out, “Also get me my pills.”

From the same pale a small cup with two capsules was pushed out. It had been forever since he had forgotten to take his pills but things had just become that busy. He quickly swallowed them and then returned to eating the food filling his hollow belly.

The medication itself was a neural sedative meant to restrict his response to hormones. A side effect of the early stage Human 3.0 project was a enormous increase in one’s primal instinct. This affected attention span, one’s sensual acuity, emotional potency, and Sex drive. By trying to heighten the human brain function to get a super genius, they had ended up heightening everything. It was a defect that had been worked out for people like Issac; it was a daily hindrance kept in check by medication.

In mere minutes he could feel the medicine take effect as his boner subsided and his mind grew tranquil.

Once done eating Issac put the try back behind the pale and got up. He stripped off his sleeping outfit, becoming nude. For a moment he observed his abs, tone thighs, and penis that had regained its flaccidity. Like most elements of his body it had been genetically designed to be superior to ordinary humans and he wondered briefly it was a shame he had never gotten to use it. Life had been too busy for him to discover a lover and his medicine didn’t help.

Putting these thoughts out of his mind he retrieved a skin-tight bodysuit made of sleek plastic material, colored grey with blue highlights. Once he put it on and zipped it up, the outfit highlighted the athleticism of his body hugging his balls, abs, and other muscles. The garment had many protective properties and was the standard uniform for all the students on the ship.

This was because in addition to the S.S. Daedalus being a ship of science, it was also meant to be a match-making environment. The governing council had long wondered it a shame for the genetic benefit of geniuses to be lost by breeding with inferior mates. They couldn’t very well force marriages or try to control people’s breeding habits but they could control certain variables. Like so it was highly encouraged for people aboard the Daedalus to not only make friends but to date and have Sex. If couples formed then the governing board had gotten what it wanted and if not it still left the scientific community much more intimate.

Issiac had been approached a couple of times early on but girls quickly found they would get nowhere with him. He had long had the reputation of being an aromantic study maniac and his heavy workload only served to further prove this point. Thus while his friends and fellows were off having fun, fucking, and finding Love, he was in his lab.

He didn’t intend to stay this way forever but at least until he got the data he needed he couldn’t afford distractions.

After grabbing his data pad and other supplies and leaving for his lab space he could also start to feel his emotions turning grey. His worry and excitement both turned bland as the main side effect of his medicine took in, a general sense of emotionlessness. By the time he was in his lab he was at his usual blank state everyone had long accepted as his norm.

He was the first person on the floor and quickly arrived at a back room where a ten-foot-long, torpedo-like device sat with wires and parts protruding from many open panels. Eagerly he set to work programming, wiring, calibrating, and testing.

The Lead Science Officer Hanssen, an older man like most of the permanent crew, stopped by to check on him but quickly left him to his work. That day Issac was elated to make an unexpected discovery while testing which would save him lots of time in the coming weeks. He even contemplated messaging Sara about not killing off his character.

A few of his friends and astrophysics fellows stopped by and he changed a few words with them. No conversation lasted longer than three minutes which was pretty usual for him while on the work floor. He had lunch delivered to him and dinner as well before finally calling it a day. The last thing he did was hook his prop up to the computer to perform an overnight simulation.

Even with his supposedly genetically superior brain Issac still had a enormous headache after so many calculations. He headed for his favorite spot to relax, the showers.

To further induce Romance and lust the student showers were both gender fluid and very open. There were three thin poles with five Shower heads coming off them geometrically. At times they would be very busy but at this point in the evening most people were doing activities, hanging with friends, going on dates, or fucking.

When Issac entered the room he was the only one present though he didn’t really care. At the academy, the rules were pretty similar so he had gotten used to being open with his body. At the same time after a year together their cohort had gotten closer and less worried about such things. Privacy only became meaningful if a married couple wanted alone time to copulate and even then it wasn’t that essential of a matter anymore.

History books said people used to be extremely sensitive over others seeing their nakedness and that Romance was once idolized as a complex ritual. This was until the space age when there were far more colonized than people. A baby boom like never before took place and customs like marriage were pushed to the side for many years. This was also a dark age of rape and savagery that was only put to rest after the Galactic Civil War. Once the Galactic Council took over order was restored and people were returned their right to romantic and sexual independence. Still, historians claim in the eyes of our ancestors back in the first couple millennia of the Common Era present-day society was still ‘open and unrestrained’.

Issac had never really cared about this. In his eyes, if people got along they would be friends. If they felt like it then Sex was only natural. If two people found they loved one another then they would commit to each other for the sake of procreation.

All of this was far from the young man’s mind as he applied soap to his hands and massaged his scalp with them. He let the warm water run over his naked and muscled frame and let out a sigh.

—

He had not even been under the water for two points when a voice called from behind him, “Hey Issac, make more progress on your prob.”

“Yeah, I thought the power flux calibration was going to need to be redone each time but my out variability is so low I only need to apply basic parameters.” He looked over to his closest friend thus far on this voyage, Jacob Khan.

Jacob was truly something to look at and had a very strong create and perfect muscles. His skin was tanned and his blond hair highlighted his blue eyes. He was so masculine one might think he was a security officer and not an aspiring mathematician. The two had become friends the day they met and got along like peas in a pod.

The handsome male stood across from Issac so they could talk and smiled as he turned on the water, “That’s great, you think you’ll have time to join the campaign again.”

Isaac shrugged at this, “I don’t know, I’m running a simulation tonight if it goes well maybe.” He looked his friend up and down, noticing Jacobs’s hard boner, and asked, “Who’s got you riled up this time.”

The mathematician was one of the ship’s most notorious playboys and would swing for both men and women. Still, he took his short relationships seriously and was rumored to be amazing in bed. Issac could still vividly remember when they had tried being more than friends many months ago. While Jacob had been ready to go Hot and heavy, his body simply wouldn’t respond even when he was off his medicine. Thus they concluded Issac wasn’t into men and given how important Sex was to Jacobs being, settled as very close friends.

“Sara again, we were making out for like an hour then she kicked me out.” The blond stud gave a helpless shrug.

Issac smirked at this and responded, “I told you she’s a menace. She’s going to toy with you till you’re mad.”

Jacobs’ eyes became a bit fiery, “Now that doesn’t sound too bad.”

They both laughed at this and Isaac then asked, “Any plans tonight.”

“Not really,” Jacob responded while rubbing soap on his body, starting at his chest and moving down. He raised an eyebrow and inquired, “Bro Time.”

Issac smiled at this, “Bro Time.” His head was filled with happy memories of the two of them reading books, playing video games, and doing numerous leisure activities the ship offered. He then added, “He can try and finish that level from last time.”

Jacob nodded, “Sounds great.” His soapy hands reached his cock and he added, “Give me a quick second.” He began to stroke his erect shaft, his hand and arm rapidly picking up speed. Issac was used to this scene and the two had even masturbated together though his medication rarely left him in the mood for such pleasure.

The muscled stud let out a growl-like grunt as he orgasmed, his cum flying onto the wet floor. Right after this, a slightly teasing female voice called, “I’m not interrupting anything, am I.”

Issac and Jacob turned to see a nude brunette with short cuddly hair and perky breast walk into the hall. The former of the two responded in kind, “Just hormones for brains over here, getting rid of some pent-up frustration. You’re Emily from particle physics?.”

Although they had been traveling for a year their crew size was nearly 600 so it was hard to be on a first name basis with everyone. That was especially true for Issac though, this girl happened to be as renowned as he was. While he was the Human 3.0 genius, she was the Human 1.0 prodigy. There was only a handful of Human 1.0s on the ship and most were at the bottom of their class. Emily was the exception and was deemed to be as talented as Issac was in her field despite her genetic disadvantage. She likewise was a chaste person electing to only have Sex with someone she loved which people had eventually found almost impossible. Not only was she genetically inferior she had a tendency to tease and make fun. Her few relationships hadn’t gone far and she never really cared to pressure new ones.

The young woman turned on the water at the same pole focusing on Issac, “Yup, that’s me. You’re Issac the workaholic from astrophysics?” Issac nodded as she turned to Jacob and smirked, “And you’re Jacob the Horny dog from mathematics.” She then turned back to Issac looking him up and down. His body was hairless apart from the top of his head, he was well muscled though thinner, and had slightly pale skin. She then added, “You’re really cute, want to hang out.”

Issac was a bit surprised at this and evaluated her as well. Her hair was now wet but its curly mess remained. Her face was strong-willed but also soft and delicate. Her skin was smooth, breasts a little small but round and looked springy. Her hips had well-proportioned padding but weren’t vulturous while her crotch was shaven clean revealing the dainty lips of her Pussy. On a whole, he had had to admit she was his type, and even on his medicine caused a bit of heat to flush inside his mind. He met her confident gaze and responded, “You’re not so bad yourself, but I’m really busy.”

Emily snorted slightly and retorted, “Come on, we’re young. Partying all night and working all day is what we’re supposed to do.”

She had heard about Issac before and caught a glimpse of him from time to time but hadn’t expected the rumors to be true. His voice was monotone and lacked all emotion while his words were logical and straight to the point. He made her think of a Vulcan from old human lore. Still, he was cute, more than that he was Hot. When she was late to Shower due to a simulation taking longer than expected she hadn’t expected to meet him. But when she first saw his nude figure something inside her had nearly yelped with attraction.

Naturally, if they didn’t click she wouldn’t need to think about it again but you had to begin somewhere and it had been a while since she had last courted anyone.

The hottie responded to her, “I’ll keep it in mind if I get any Free time.”

Emily pouted at this though Jacob suddenly spoke up, “Actually I’m pretty sure you’re Free tonight.” Issac was surprised at this as his friend continued, “I remembered I need to reduce a couple of formulas I got from my supervisor. Bro Time will have to wait.” He met his friend’s gaze and glanced at Emily with his eyes suggestively.

Jacob knew his friend well; they were probably closer than brothers and talked about everything. Issac rarely showed interest in either girls or boys mostly due to his medicine but there were signs he gave off. Right now Jacob could tell Issac liked this girl probably more than he knew and as a Bro wasn’t gonna let the opportunity slip away.

Emily caught the drift while applying soap to her hair and smiled, “Great, want to go to the VR room.”

Issac glared at his friend but then returned his attention to Emily, “That sounds good to me.”

The gorgeous girl appeared very happy and chimed, “Great I’ll wash up quickly.” She did move quickly while Issac found it difficult to remove his eyes from her body. After a while, she giggled at his struggle and responded, “You can look at me all you like, I’m looking at you after all.”

Issac swallowed and responded, “Oh, ah, thanks.”

Jacob had finished washing at this and declared, “Well I’m clean, you too have fun fucking.”

He left, giving Issac one last meaningful look while Issac himself snapped, “Get out of here.” His friend and Emily both chuckled at this.

Now that they were alone Issac felt a twinge of fear and awkwardness in his heart. A growing panic in his mind was interrupted by Emily who asked, “Am I really your type?”

Issac was surprised by this and responded, “Definitely, why do you ask?”

Emily glanced at his lower body and said, “Well I’m naked and showing, logically speaking if you liked my body you’d be hard.”

Issac looked down at his flaccid, circumcised shaft then back up to her face a bit embarrassed, and responded “Oh, sorry. I’m on medicine that limits my hormones. I’m definitely attracted to you.”

He realized his last sentence was a bit much though Emily seemed to like it though she then gained a sympathetic expression, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. If I may, why are you on medication?”

Issac turned off the water and responded, “Don’t worry about it.” He then added, “I’m an early model Human 3.0, they miscalculated the hormone amplification ratio. It made me smarter but it also elevated everything else. If I don’t take my medication daily I’d be a mess.”

Emily nodded though was inwardly surprised, she had never heard any of this before and felt sorry for him. Her family were hard-core Traditionalists though she didn’t mind people who chose genetic modifications for their children. Still, she couldn’t help but pity Issac who had been hurt by the system and could never be really fixed. She looked him in the eyes and said, “I’m sorry that sounds terrible.”

Issac shrugged his naked figure now appearing surprisingly innocent, “I don’t really mind. Plus I’ve been double dosing my pills to help me focus on work for a while. Normally the side effects aren’t that bad.”