Chapter 12: The ship meeting

-- February - Week 5 --

Lee had a shift to get through.

Damn, she had once laughed at Kyle’s ability to ‘fuck like a rabbit all night long’. However, after the last couple of nights with her hunky Lieutenant, she was beginning to believe Kyle wasn’t the only exception to the rule, after all.

From her experiences, having a guy get it up more than twice in one night was rare. She had never had one perform four times in fewer hours, and she really couldn’t remember how many orgasms she had.

In the past, she had been lucky to even have an orgasm. Let alone experience them to the intensity Sean could get her to. She remembered been accused of being frigid by one boyfriend.

For another thing, as a girl who had never particularly like giving blowjobs, she could happily suck on Sean’s delicious cock for ages as she had both nights. He was going to be a very hard habit to break if they ever had to go their separate ways. She’d never experienced someone so attentive to her needs.

Sean tried to apologise for his over-bearing behaviour in the dining room. Lee kept stopping and kissing him to get him to shut up. She had practically raped him once they got to her room. Who knew that a guy being protective of her turned her on? She had to smile.

He had apologised for coming to quick the first night they had sex together, yet, she had been coming right along with him. In Lee’s mind, Sean, sure as hell made up for any perceived quickness with frequency and quick recovery.

Nope, she had no complaints at all, as far as she was concerned his lovemaking was just perfect. Lee was also starting to think that this wasn’t going to be the quick, intense fling like she had feared.

She had been surprised when Gary had backed up Sean’s statements, about him not being into short-term relationships. Plus, a guy doesn’t go to the trouble to introduce you to his friends as his girlfriend, if he was planning to dump you the next morning.

Nor does a guy put on a caveman act to make sure all and sundry knew to back off, as she was with him. He could be quite intimidating, she decided. Lee giggled to herself, maybe she was fortunate to be aboard the Starship Fortune.

Lee and Jim both groaned. They found that half the general storerooms on levels five to seven were riffled and left in a mess again. They were supposed to go through the second jump in less than fifteen hours.

It was as if everyone had forgotten last-minute items, that they just had to have. It took them even longer to clean up than the previous night. They didn’t get up to hydroponics to fix Magda’s problems until nearly 06:30 hours.

On finding the stores in a mess, Lee flicked a text to the Captain. Because of the mess they had found, she had changed the passcodes again. This time only he, Andre’, Jim and she had the new codes.

She messaged that she hoped this didn’t inconvenience him, but the night crew had other tasks they had to do. Rather than spending the night cleaning up after the rest of the crew.

She also asked him if he specifically wanted anyone else to have the codes to contact her before the end of her shift. She hoped he got the underlying message that the afternoonshift had better start pulling their weight.

Since the mess had been created on their shift and it wasn’t just the scientists that had created it. She also hoped Sean had told him of her suspicion, that others were involved in the building of the still.

Lee took a very happy Miss Piggy up to the Dome. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of work left for them to do. They had to re-secure some of the nets. They had been removed when many of the top-heavy plants had tipped over in the troughs because the plastic clips had snapped.

At least they didn’t have to clean up the sticky jelly crystals, sand and gravel mix the plants grew in. The poor afternoon and night shift staff for hydroponics had done that.

Magda ran a tight ship up in hydroponics on her shift. She wasn’t happy that some of the instructions she had left for the day crew hadn’t been complied with. This had caused all the extra work for the afternoon shift and her crew. She intended to read them the riot act in the morning.

Unfortunately, people who have never experienced wormhole jumps before didn’t understand the importance of the procedures they were given, until after the event, when it was too late.

Lee knocked off only an hour late this morning. She and Jim had done a final inspection of the outer most sections while Magda went to meet the dayshift staff. Once they were happy, she returned Miss Piggy to their room.

After going and putting her tools away and signing off for the morning, Lee then went to find her Lieutenant. When she got to his office, Gary said she could go straight in. She was surprised to find the Captain with Sean.

“Hi Captain Clark, I hope you didn’t mind my presumptuous text this morning?”

“Engineer Gillian,” he greeted her and shook her hand warmly.

“Just Lee is good, Captain Clark,” she told him.

“Lee it is; thank you. Well, after a little chat with the Lieutenant, I fully understand the reasons for changing the codes again and restricting who has them. I have also spoken to Andre’. He agrees with you that we should not hand the codes out willy-nilly.”

“I also fully agree with you Lee that the nightshift crews should not have to clean up after other crews. We had a ship meeting this morning. I chastised everyone for their slovenly behaviour. It has gone beyond a joke,” he said, obviously peeved.

“The science contingency has been told in no uncertain terms, that no new material is to be removed from stores unless necessary, and they have to run it past me to get it. I admit they were not happy, but I have had enough.”

“Several members of the engineering crew were unhappy about not having the access codes. So, I have allowed Maria Gonzales to have access, as the stores are her responsibly during the dayshift.”

“If we need things for emergency repairs when we jump back out, she will still be available to retrieve them,” concluded the Captain, with a sharp nod.

“Thank you, Captain Clark, that might help reduce the workload. My crew were worried the Jump check schedules we have, weren’t being completed fully. If any system fails during a jump, it could be even more disastrous than loose cargo,” replied Lee.

“Oh, I fully agree with you, Lee. Getting this ship to its destination is my responsibility. I will not have prima-donnas endangering everyone else. This is why I have given you my complete support. I just wish the other people cared more about the ship than their own personal wants,” he sighed in disgust.

Lee could only agree with him and nodded. She had no time for people who considered their wants more important than the needs of the ship either.

“Now, onto other matters,” Nick frowned. “Professor Essco is still proclaiming his innocence. Lieutenant Watson said you should be able to identify the tools that the Professor had with him.”

Sean produced the tools, and Lee inspected them. She said, “Well, that is definitely the gas torch that was in the cupboard. See the ding in the top back corner. Jim dropped it the other night.”

Lee then looked at the tools. “As for the tools, these aren’t marked. That means they were reproduced in the replicator. Most of us tradies tend to mark our personal tools. We don’t like lending them to others either,” she concluded.

“They aren’t just spare tools from out of the cupboard?” asked Sean.

“No,” said Lee shaking her head. “Like I said, we tend to like our own tools, so we don’t bother keeping spares. That just means equipment, which can be left lying around where it shouldn’t be. Plus, we can always replicate a replacement if required.”

“Ah,” said the Captain, “That means there is a record of who replicated them.”

“Exactly,” imputed Lee. “Lieutenant, have you retrieved the logs, to see when the parts for the still were replicated?”

“I was going to ask Kyle yesterday, but I didn’t get time. I can’t access them myself for some reason,” he contributed.

“I’ll check with Kyle to see how they are going with the new calculations for the jump this afternoon. However, with four more jumps to do, he probably won’t get time to look into it until after we get to the perimeter of the Delta Pavonis system,” replied the Captain.

He looked thoughtful, “I don’t think it will do Professor Essco any harm to stay exactly where he is until after we get there and have time to sort this debacle out.”

Sean and Lee agreed with his decision. The Captain said his goodbyes and let himself out.

“So, I missed all the fun again?” said Lee. Sean lifted a questioning eyebrow. “The town meeting,” qualified Lee.

Sean laughed. “You were probably better off not being there,” he said. “Rodger guessed it was you who changed the codes on the storage areas. He was one of the first to complain to the Captain.”

On a grimmer note, he said, “He said some very unflattering things about you, my dear, and he is lucky I didn’t rearrange his face.”

“Bugger,” Lee expelled. “I really don’t like that guy, and he hates me, he is probably going to give me grief about it.”

“Don’t worry too much,” Sean came back. “The Captain covered your adorable arse.”

“He did!” Lee exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yep! He told Rodger in no uncertain terms that he had told you to change the codes. Since the nightshift crews found the mess after Rodger crew, had left the mess.”

“Oh, I bet Rodger loved getting his arse chewed out!” winced Lee.

Sean smiled, “Apparently, the Captain was still up when you sent your email at 00:30 hours. He went and had a look at the storerooms. He was really pissed off. He read the riot act to everyone at the meeting.”