King was speechless for a minute. "I don't think this is the best time for that," he managed.

"Are you kidding? This is the only time. If we weren't in this position I would never have got up the courage to ask you in a million years!" Simon stopped. "I'm sorry if that sounded incredibly offensive, I didn't mean it to."

"Uh."

"It's just that it's taken a situation like this to make me even consider the idea."

"What about when we get out though? How will you feel then? It could be really uncomfortable between us."

"I'm willing to risk it. After all, you don't even know who I am, do you?"

That gave King pause. Despite himself, he found the idea intriguing. It was rather like a fantasy come to life, an encounter with a stranger in the dark.

"All right, sit back and get comfortable," he found himself saying. It would certainly take both their minds off the cave-in!

King let his fingers run lightly over the other man's face, trying to discover what he looked like. His skin felt smooth apart from where his beard was starting to appear on his jaw, his hair was soft and cut short, eyebrows set wide apart above his nose which had a slight bump in the middle as if it had been broken at one time, and a mouth with firm, curved lips, slightly parted in nervous anticipation. King lowered his head and let his tongue play over Simon's lips. Simon didn't pull away, so he slipped his tongue gently inside his mouth, slowly tasting him, ready to back off immediately if the other man changed his mind.

For a long moment, Simon sat motionless and tense beneath him, then he relaxed with a sigh throughout his whole body and opened his mouth further, welcoming the kiss. His arms came up around King, drawing his body down tightly against his own so that they were both lying on the ground. Simon began to return the kiss, thrusting his tongue into King's mouth with fast urgent movements.

It was as if they'd set a match to a bonfire. Simon's hands were all over him as he took control, rolling them both over so that he was on top, moving to unfasten the other man's uniform so he could touch him. In a few minutes he had King naked to the waist.

King couldn't believe why this man had ever thought he was straight.

Reluctantly he wrenched his mouth away and gripped Simon by the shoulders. Both men were breathing hard. "Hey there, much as I would like to continue this, I'm going to call a halt. If I'm going to have sex with a man, I at least want to know who he is. Plus I don't have any protection with me. Do you?"

Simon protested automatically, "I wasn't going to..."

"Well it sure felt like you were!" King said, keeping his voice light. "A kiss is one thing, but I think you need to take some time out before you go any further. We'll be out of here soon enough, and I don't want you hating me in the morning! Come and find me on the ship if you want to continue from here."

"I can't do that. I'm straight, really. This is... an aberration..." His voice trailed away.

"Is it? Mmm... well. It's not up to me to say whether you are an om or not, but if I were you, I'd take some serious time out to reconsider!"

"No, really," Simon was backpedalling as fast as he could. "This is just an experiment."

"Is it?" King repeated and gave Simon a hard shove away and stood up, refastening his uniform, which was down around his hips. "Whatever. In any case, this lab rat has had enough."

Simon scrambled to his feet, apologising. "I'm sorry, King, I didn't mean to disrespect you. I was just being selfish, taking advantage of you."

"Yes, you were," King replied, evenly. He didn't only feel used, he felt hurt. How could the other man just deny the fire that had leapt between them? As if it had meant nothing? No, less than nothing; it hadn't even made Simon consider that maybe he wasn't straight after all. He stepped away from him and took a few deep breaths. "I guess it was partly my fault for playing this silly game." He took another breath and tried to lighten the atmosphere. "You know, right now would be a really good time for us to be rescued!"

Simon rested his forehead against the cold rock. What had just happened here? A minute ago he had had his tongue in another man's mouth and his hands in his pants. He had thrown himself into utter turmoil and deeply offended King. It had to be the darkness. That was it, the constant darkness had knocked him off balance. There was probably a scientific word for it, some sort of phobia causing irrational behaviour and disorientation. He couldn't possibly be homosexual—he was getting married in two months!