Journeyman Cross has logged seven years in the reactor conduits of the Starlight Ocean, swimming directly in the coolant that is only non-corrosive to human skin and titanium. He knows every corner, every pressure curve. But because the fleet prohibits mixed-gender naked dives, he cannot get his Master's sign-off. Three female Seniors have rotated through. Three times, the regulations have held him back.
Senior Inspector Lincoln is his new supervisor, compact, hyper-competent, and unreadable. When a critical valve seizes, the only two available engineers must dive together into the Core-Gel. The fluid dissolves any barrier-suit. They go in completely bare.
In the absolute blackness, they communicate through Touch Code, a tactile language of taps and strokes on hyper-sensitised skin. They clear the valve, but Cross's larger body mass triggers oxygen starvation. Lincoln drags him into the high-gradient zone, where the only way to survive the oxygen toxicity is to burn it, together, in the dark, with their bodies locked as one.
Touch Code is a slow-burn sci-fi erotic novella about two engineers who discover that the most dangerous variable isn't the reactor. It's the person on the other end of the Touch Code.
Includes: Explicit verbal and tactile consent, neurodivergent-friendly sensory detail, close proximity through technical necessity, ordinary bodies, and a career-saving resolution.
Two more certified dives, Journeyman. And I don't grade easily.
Wordcount 12855
