The next few days offered precious few opportunities for Reece to broach the proposal. The trio took a couple of days for the new task of preparing the station for re-entry to sink in. They used the time to move the pre-packed plants back to the garden and got back to work keeping the station maintained. It wasn’t easy as half of a skeleton crew, but they managed. Using the additional time, they also increased their workouts to get their bodies as ready as possible for the surface. After a week of the brutal workouts, Pasha came up with an idea.

“Why don’t we increase the spin of the station?” he suggested before explaining his thought process. “The extra gravity will speed our progress. You see, we’ll be fighting heightened gravity through all our training and daily activities. It isn’t just about increased weight training, but working the body harder throughout its entire daily schedule. They’ve done studies. The increased gravity will help increase muscle mass, decrease fat stores, and increase our heart capacities.”

“That sounds great,” replied Reece as he considered the possible issues with running the station faster. “There is one potential issue though. Increasing the gravity will also increase the internal temperature and humidity of the station. We could compensate for it, but we’re a little low on coolant. How much faster do you want to run it?”

“I was thinking about twenty-five percent to start,” replied Pasha. “Would that work?”

Reece did a quick calculation in his head.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be too bad,” he told them. “It would increase the temperature by about five degrees Celsius and humidity by eight percent. If anything, the plants would love it.”

“Has this study ever been done on humans?” asked Aika.

“I don’t think so,” replied Pasha. “However, most experts agree that the theory is sound.”

“Alright, fine. I’m in,” she responded. “However, even if it does work, it will only be temporary. Once back on Earth, we’ll lose the benefits after a couple of weeks.”

“That’s true,” cut in Reece. “Still, the first two weeks will be the most critical to our survival

“Okay,” smiled Pasha. “We have a consensus. I’ll spin her up right now.”

The first several days were grueling. The extra effort to do everything on the station made Reece not mind the few EVAs he had to do. They gave him a short break from the perpetual pull of centrifugal force that they used to imitate the gravity of Earth. He did feel that his strength had steadily increased between each of the EVAs. Pulling himself along the crisscrossing rungs of the station had become increasingly easier.

They had decided on one EVA every six days to break up the work. By the fourth EVA, Reece had inspected the entire station and had liberally sprayed the poly-foam over all of the points that he deemed were a potential weakness of the station. He also took the time to smooth out his added poly-foam. That’d help reduce friction. It wasn’t pretty, but it would help protect the station from the extreme heat of reentry.

Once that was finished, he reinforced what would be the leading edges of the station as it plunged towards the Earth. This would help protect against the superheated shroud of plasma. The shroud would cause an extreme increase in temperature as the station entered the atmosphere at such a high velocity. While each of the smaller space shuttle’s exteriors was designed to virtually eliminate this problem, the space station had no such benefit. The only saving grace was that the station didn’t really need to completely survive all the way to landfall. Reece considered all of this while working on the station’s exterior, smoothing out the latest poly-foam reinforcement.

He also thought about talking to Pasha. He wasn’t into guys, but the idea of a threesome didn’t bother him either. He also agreed with Aika. They had left Pasha out due to their own passion, so it would be nice if he got to play too. Besides, Reece thought it would be kind of fun to bring Aika to greater levels of ecstasy than any single partner could’ve managed on their own. He needed to find a good time to talk to Pasha.

Smiling to himself, he put his tools away and moved on to the next area in need of patching. It took him two more EVAs after that and nearly all the poly-foam they had on the station, but Zhengzhou International Space Station was finally about as ready to survive reentry as he could make it. He still hadn’t propositioned Pasha.

Despite that, Reece and Aika’s sex life still had to adapt. The added weight made some positions untenable and they both found themselves sweating more. Reece had thought it was deliciously rigorous before. The added gravity made it a real workout. He had just taken a break from an intense lovemaking session and left Aika napping while he went to check control. Pasha was there, reclining in the chair at the control console. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Anything else simply made them sweat too much. Reece just wore a black tank top and a matching pair of shorts himself.

“How’re you holding up?” asked Reece.

“Not too bad,” replied Pasha as he looked back at Reece.

“Wow, buddy!” exclaimed Pasha as he took in Reece’s sweat-covered figure. “It’s no mystery what you were just doing. Do you two even need to hit the gym module anymore?”

Reece felt his face warm, but he couldn’t deny the obvious. He was already flushed, covered in sweat, and probably smelled of sex too. He figured this was as good a time as any to pass on Aika’s proposal to the lonely guy.

“Yeah, sorry about that. It’s not really fair to you is it?”

“It is what it is,” replied Pasha. “I’m just glad that some of us are getting some action. We’ve been stuck up here for far too long.”

“What if I were to suggest that you could get some action too?” asked Reece somewhat awkwardly.

“Really? Do you think Aika would be okay with it?”

“It was her idea,” replied Reece. “So, what do you say?”

“What do I say?” asked Pasha incredulously as he stood up and hurried over. “I’ll show you what I have to say to an offer like that.”

Pasha grabbed Reece’s head with both of his hands and planted a kiss full of pent-up passion and not a little desperation right on his lips. Reece was taken aback. He wasn’t expecting this. As he gathered his thoughts, he unconsciously pulled away.

“Oh, whoa whoa whoa...hold up Pasha,” stammered Reece. “I may have given you the wrong idea. I didn’t know you were into guys. Aika was just interested in having a threesome.”

“Ah, okay. Bummer. Still, I’m in. It sounds like fun,” said Pasha, recovering. “Forget this ever happened. By the way, I’m not so much into guys as I just don’t gender discriminate. I like people who are smart, sexy, funny, exciting, and generally nice. So, yeah... I’m pretty much up for anything with you two.”

“Well...alright then,” said Reece as he wondered what he had gotten them all into. “I’ll let her know.”

“How about now?” asked Pasha impatiently.

Reece thought about it a moment before replying.

“Okay, but she may not be ready for it right now,” explained Reece. “If that’s the case, we’ll need to hold off for now.”

The two men returned to Reece and Aika’s room in the old officer’s quarters. Aika was lying naked on the bed, half-covered by a white sheet. Reece motioned for the other man to wait as he approached the bed. Sitting down on the mattress, he leaned into Aika’s sleeping form and rubbed her shoulder.

“Hey, hon,” he whispered. “Are you awake?”

Aika moaned sexily before she opened her heavily lidded eyes and looked at Reece.

“This had better be good,” she warned. “I was in the middle of a really intense sex dream. I hope you’re prepared to pick up where my dream left off. I really hate blue clit.”

“Well, remember when you asked me to invite Pasha?”

“MmmHmm?” she purred, a curious look in her eye.

“He said yes...and... he’s here right now. Do you think you’re ready for this?”

“Oh, more than ready,” she replied as she sat up. The sheet fell from her torso as she looked back and forth between Reece and Pasha. “Just so you know, I’m going to wear the both of you out.”

Reece and Pasha just smiled as they removed their shirts. As the three came together, Reece could feel Pasha checking him out as much as he was checking out Aika. He shrugged it off and the two men took turns and worked together to give Aika a time to remember. It came as no surprise to Reece that she did indeed wear them both out. Hours later, they all had fallen asleep together despite the heat and sweat from their combined bodies.

When Reece awoke, Aika was cradled in his arms, and Pasha was pressed up behind her with his hand resting on Reece’s right ass cheek. Reece just chuckled to himself and rolled his eyes. Carefully removing the wandering arm first, Reece woke the two of them up.

After their marathon session the previous night, they were covered in dried sweat amongst other things. They all enjoyed a shower together, wandering hands extending the shower time much longer than usual. Reece hadn't felt that clean in years and they all an extra spring in their step afterward. Feeling refreshed, they each grabbed some toast and eggs for breakfast and chatted as if it were any other day before getting back to work.

Reece barely even noticed the extra spin of the station by this point. He broke a sweat easier than normal but didn’t notice any other ill effects. When asked, Pasha and Aika were noticing the same minor side-effects of the increased gravity.

After a month and a half of work and training, they had gotten used to a twenty-five percent increase in gravity, so they let Pasha bump it up to thirty-three percent. The temperature went up two degrees and the humidity another three percent. They fought to get used to the new levels as they continued readying the space station for its fiery re-entry. The time had passed quickly as they trained, worked, and enjoyed each other. It was usually just Aika and Reece, but Pasha would join them from time to time.

Through it all, they continued planning to make their landfall a success. Success was defined as survival in this case. Now that everything was checked, double-checked, and triple-checked, time slowed to a crawl and they found more time to be together. Reece had finished his half-dozen EVAs a while ago, so almost everything they did on the station was an intense chore as they labored against the increased gravity.

“Why did we agree to this again?” Reece asked Aika as they finished their fortieth daily workout regimen in a row and were heading to the showers to clean up.

“It’s only thirty-three percent,” replied Aika as she watched Reece strip off his sweaty grey tank top. “Besides, it seems to be working, at least on you. I think your six-pack has become an eight-pack.”

Reece couldn’t argue. He was in great shape before, but he had now acclimated to a third more gravity than normal. He could see the differences in their physiology. All three had gained noticeable muscle mass and they seemingly had no excess fat stores.

“Yeah, don’t expect me to be able to keep this up once we’re on the surface. We’ll be too busy trying to survive to have time for daily workouts,” Reece explained to her.

Aika laughed. “Don’t worry, I love you for more than just your big muscles,” she teased.

“Hah, hah, hah,” came Reece’s sarcastic rebuttal. “By the way, you’re looking even more toned than usual yourself.”

They watched each other as they stripped down for their shower. Despite his fatigue, he needed her right now. She must have felt the same because she walked right up to him and kissed him passionately. They ended up extending their workout for another half an hour before they decided they’d better shower. Reece couldn’t explain it, but he felt better and better each day, especially after sex.

“We should end every workout like that,” breathed Aika.

“I think I could wrap my head around that,” laughed Reece.

Hopping in, they continued their sexual banter in the showers. Once they had finished up, they went to find Pasha in control. Reece felt abuzz with the sexual energy Aika had given him. If he didn't feel so great, he might have thought it almost supernatural.

As they walked into Control, Pasha eyed them both, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. "Looks like I missed out on a good one," he laughed. "I don't know how you two do it, especially you, Reece. I'd be a dessicated corpse by now."

They all laughed, Reece and Aika letting the levity wash away any embarrassment they may have felt. Despite their jovial mood, Reece was ready to get back to business. Fully energized, they had things to do before they could get off of the station which had slowly become their prison.