Chapter 17: The fourth jump

-- February - Week 5 --

Lee woke for the fourth time by having her breath slammed out of her chest.

At least she’d had her normal six hours of sleep, and she could live with that happily. She hugged Miss Piggy to her and waited for the transition. Thank fuck, there was only one more jump planned for this week.

This time they were bounced hard, and when they dropped, Miss Piggy landed hard on Lee’s chest, causing Lee to grunt in pain. “You madam, are getting heavy,” she said to the distressed piglet.

After letting the piglet out, Lee performed her chores and ablutions and then she went up to the diner, for some light snacks to tide her over until dinner.

The Captain planned to stop jumping for several days again, so the crew can have a break. The Doctors were also concerned that the jumps were not good for their current patients as they had acquired several more after this last jump.

The cartographers and astronomers also needed to get a better handle on where the planets and any asteroids were likely to be in the solar system they were about to enter.

They may have to plan a more zigzag path once they could plot where the most interest features were supposed to be. They were now close to four light-years from Delta’s sun.

Lee arrived at the diner and went to grab a coffee. She noted a group of scientists had pushed several tables together to make a large conference table, in the middle of the diner. About sixteen people were sitting around the table.

Lee observed it was mostly the navigators, astronomers, cartographers, mathematicians, physicists and the chemists who specialised in the study of the atmospheric and space sciences.

Lee also noticed Kyle and Sandra, who was an atmospheric physicist with a cross-discipline in chemistry, were present. Lee suddenly realised that she hung out with some scary-smart people.

While she had a couple of degrees herself, in many ways, she still thought of herself as just an electrician. She liked to dabble in other fields as it suited her or to increase her understanding, of the way electricity and other systems worked or didn’t.

“Lee, come and join us,” called Kyle. She watched him get up and add another chair between him and Sandra for her.

“No, it’s alright, you people are obviously solving the woes of the universe,” she smiled and nodded at the group.

“Exactly, that is why we want you,” added Sandra, pointing to the empty chair.

“Me! I’m just a dumb electrician what can I contribute?” She asked in surprise, as many of them had nodded their acceptance of her to the group.

Kyle said, “Sit,” and he pointed to the chair beside him in a manner that Lee knew meant that he really wanted her to join them.

Lee shrugged her customary shrug, “Okay, I just need to get some snacks first.”

As she turned towards the snack fridge, Andre’ appeared from the kitchen with two large trays. “I’ll put them on the table for you, Lee,” he said.

Snacks solved, Lee grabbed her coffee and then headed for the table and joined in. Andre’ took a smaller side plate balanced on top of one of the trays. He put it in front of Lee, leaving the big trays for everyone else to pick over.

“Damn Andre’, you are really spoiling me,” Lee smiled up at him.

Andre’ beamed and kissed her on the top of her head and said, “Enjoy,” and sauntered off happily.

Lee looked at the plate with six water crackers on it covered in wonderful goat’s cheese and topped with large oysters, spring onion slices and a dash of Tabasco sauce. Kyle went to snag one, but Lee splayed her hand over the plate.

“Not a chance in hell boyo’. These are mine, and they taste divine,” she said.

Those closest to her laughed, while everyone else was busy emptying the trays and drooling over Andre’s entrées. He really was an excellent chef.

They had got lucky when he had volunteered for the trip. He had been working in a famous restaurant in France when he heard of the expedition and convinced his wife Larina to come with him. So far, he had been enjoying cooking for the crew and the more relaxed atmosphere of the ship.

“You’re welcome to them, Lee,” shuddered Sandra.

“I must admit, they are not as good as fresh off the rock, but I have always loved oysters,” Lee responded before popping the first into her mouth and chewed with ecstasy on her face.

“A sea-food lover?” Professor Nickolay (Nicko) Veselovsky inquired. He was the lead astronomer. He was a big, robust man in his mid-forties. While his Russian heritage was distinct, he had scored good genes, and he was quite a handsome man.

Lee swallowed and then replied, “Selectively, I also love Queensland mudcrabs and calamari. But I’m not a big fish eater, except for maybe Tasmanian Salmon. Now that is fish worth eating if cooked right.”

Dr Ezekiel (Eze) Cheboi a cartographer of African descent, contributed. “You should try grilled eel, from the Great Lakes in Africa,” he said and then kissing three fingers. He was a small man not much more than 155cm tall, with ebony skin, short, black and tightly curled hair, and a ready smile.

Nicko took over the conversation. “Wonderful food aside Lee, we must thank you for fixing the drives,” Nicko said solemnly.

‘Here, here’s’, were heard from around the table and most of those present were nodding in agreement or smiling at Lee.

Lee shrugged and displayed her palms, “Hey guys, I was just doing my job.” Kyle and Sandra both shook their heads and smiled at her. She always said that to any praise involving work.

Eze adds, “We must also thank you and your crew for picking up after our slack. We,” he gestured around the table. “Tend to keep our own work areas tidy but tend to forget about others.” He bowed his head to Lee.

“But I was...” Lee was cut off by Kyle and Sandra, who finished her sentence for her, “ ... only doing your job.” There was general laughter around the table, then more eating.

Lee was feeling a little embarrassed by the praise that she didn’t really think she deserved. She decided to shrug it off and filled her mouth with another oyster cracker instead and was thinking that she was going to have to do something nice for André.

“So Lee,” Kyle started, coming to Lee’s rescue again as he knew she hated being the centre of attention. “Have you been enjoying, waking up at 15:00 hours?” he asked.

Lee looked thoughtful, “Not particularly. Miss Piggy is getting heavy, and she damn near crushed my chest today.” Lee rubbed her ribs between her breasts.

“We should dial the damn gravity compensators down and the inertia one up before we jump,” she said off-handed before popping another oyster into her mouth.

The table silenced suddenly. Lee found sixteen pairs of eyes looking at her, shocked. She swallowed. “What did I say?” she asked, perplexed by the shocked looks.

“Bloody hell!” Professor Ian Christian, a physicist, expelled. He looked around the table. “That could work, it really could, and you can dial down the compensators. If the base gravity was lower before we jumped and the inertia one reacted faster, we wouldn’t try to overcompensate so much.”

“We would barely feel it. It would be more like going over a wave at sea. We could then retune them slowly, over a couple of minutes, so everyone could re-adjust without being slammed about,” Ian continued excitedly.

Ian turned to Lee, “Hell, Lee! You’re a fucking genius. Why no one thought to do it before, I don’t know.” He stared at her, shaking his head in disbelief at the simplicity of the solution to a problem, which had been driving everyone crazy.

An excited hubbub started around the table, as everyone wanted to contribute to the discussion.

Kyle grinned and leaned over he kissed Lee on the cheek, “I agree, you’re a fucking genius, and I am proud to be considered one of your friends.”

Sandra kissed her other cheek, “I second what Kyle said.”

Lee shrugged in her usual manner but smiled and then popped the last oyster in her mouth. She was silently ecstatic that people considered her a friend. She didn’t think she was a genius, but if it made everyone happy to think so, who was she to disillusion them.

Someone else would have eventually thought of the solution she had come up with. It was logical, after all. She, however, was not used to having many friends, as she had tended to be a loner. Now she had some good ones, as well as an exceptional lover.

‘All was good,’ in her little world, as Kyle would say. Lee brushed off her fingers and finished her coffee. She stood up, “Then my job here is done,” she said with a cheeky grin.

She nodded at the table and headed off to the gym.

Lee left the excited talk behind her.

The group were busy trying to work out how best to go about reprogramming the compensators. Also, what this meant with regard to how they could then proceed with the rest of the jumps. Lee guessed that Kyle would have another late night tonight.

Lee was in the gym and was just about to do her kata when her minder chimed. “Lee, here,” she answered.

“Where are you, my love?” drawled the sultry baritone that made a shiver run up and her spine.

Fuck, she wished she knew how he did that to her. “I’m in the gym,” she commed back.

“See you soon, beautiful, Sean out.”

Lee smiled. She was into a second set when Sean sauntered into the gym a few minutes later. He was dressed for the gym, so he’d obviously decided to join her workout.

“Imagine my surprise when you told me you were here,” he said, as he did some stretches and then started a kata of his own.

“How so?” she queried and changed positions.

“I was going to ask you to workout with me when I called,” replied Sean as he moved into his next position.

“Great minds think alike,” she quipped, smiling at him.

“I am honoured to be included into so exalted company,” he parried, with a bow.

“Exalted?” quested Lee with a frown, looking at him.

“I was passing through the diner on my way to you. Then Kyle, Sandra and several other very excited scientists bailed me up. They told me of my Red Lady of the Night’s latest rescue,” he grinned back at her.

“Shit,” said Lee halting her moves, making Sean laugh harder. He came over to her and wrapped her in his arms. He then proceeded to kiss the living shit out of her. Lee was breathless when they came up for air.

Sean looked down at her, “You truly are the most extraordinary woman that I have ever met.”

Lee shook her head in the negative, “Shit, I’m not that special. I admit I’m good at my job, but otherwise, I’m just pretty ordinary, even boring.”

Sean put his hands on her arse and pulled her into his body, so her lower belly and hips were plastered to his raging hard-on. “My love, there is not an ordinary, boring bone in your sexy body,” he said, before kissing her senseless again while he rubbed her with his cock.

Lee, at last, pushed out of his arms breathing hard. “I wanted a workout, but I wasn’t planning on that sort just at the moment,” she breathed.

“Bugger,” he said, “and here I was deluded into thinking you found me irresistible.”

Lee cocked her head and gave him a saucy grin, “No, I think you are going to have work for your reward. Poles?”

Sean shrugged, “Well, since you blew my plans out of the water, I have nothing better to do.”

Lee laughed and went and collected her favourite pole. Sean also collected a pole, and they each went to a corner and worked through some practice moves.

“Do you want pads, Lee?”

“Oh, I don’t think you will get in that many shots. Maybe the helmets at least, I don’t want to accidentally knock your pretty teeth out,” she grinned cheekily, with her head cocked at him.

Sean lifted his eyebrows at her. He went and grabbed two helmets and two chest plates. “At least put this on for me please,” he said. He handed the smaller padded vest that protected their chests and backs to Lee, not wishing to hurt her.

Lee put the pole between her legs and accepted the vest. Once they were covered, they faced each other across the mat and bowed. Sean attempted the first attack, aiming at her left leg.

Lee quickly parried then struck a lightning blow just above his left knee, before dancing away. “Don’t baby me, Sean, I have done this before you know.”

Sean, still smarting from her smack, realised this Lady intended to give him a workout. He decided he had better start taking her seriously. Sean started a set of jabs and swings to test out her weaknesses.

Twenty minutes later, he was still looking. Lee had run rings around him. He thought he was pretty good, but he had a feeling he wasn’t in this lady’s league. She moved so fast she would hit him before he even registered where she went.

“Just how long have you been doing martial arts for?” he asked, breathing hard. He tried another strike, which she effortless deflected and then tagged him again.

“Hmm ... about twenty-two years,” she nonchalantly replied. Sean, astonished by her answer, didn’t see her pole swing around and stab into his chest. The next thing he knew, he lay on the mat, trying to drag a breath into his throbbing chest. He looked up at her concerned face.

“Sorry,” she said. “I missed that you were not prepared.”

They were distracted by clapping. The couple suddenly realised that they had an audience. They had been so focused on each other that they hadn’t heard the others come in. Gary, Juanita, Terry, Penny and three other grunts who were off duty were sitting in the small stand behind them.

Anita Flue’ the nightshift plumber, had also joined them. She had come in to do some running on the treadmill. Distracted by the display, she had joined the people on the bench.

Sean groaned, rubbing his aching chest, “You were just playing with me, weren’t you?”

Lee grinned and shrugged her shoulders, in that maddening way that she had, making Sean just want to kiss her in spite of the pain. Gary put out his hand to help his boss up, shaking his head at him.

Juanita had a shit-eating grin on her face, “Boss, she could have killed you about fifty times in fifty different ways.”

Terry added, “She pulled her punches so many times I wanted to scream at her to just put you out of your misery.” Everyone else laughed and agreed.