Chapter 1: Lee

-- 04-01-2094 --

Lee Gillian brushed the stray, long, dark auburn curl back off her face.

She tucked the errant curl behind her right ear. She absently rubbed the ruby in the stud that was tucked under the top fold of her slightly pointed ear, as she checked for the final time that her port and the boxes were sealed and addressed. The decision on what to take on the voyage of her life had not been easy.

The number of personal possessions of each crew member had been limited. It wasn’t that they didn’t have space for more belongings; it was more to restrict the number of useless things one could bring. Lee shook her head in bewilderment at some of the stuff that her friends insisted were necessities.

“Stuff it,” she muttered. As long as she had her favourite books, the rest really didn’t matter to her way of thinking.

Lee had never considered herself a girly-girl. She rarely wore cosmetics, the latest fashion clothes or lots of jewellery, so she really didn’t need to take much else other than a few personal items and her tools, and they were already on the starship.

The Starship Fortune was the largest discovery vessel built to date. It was expected that its maiden voyage to the Delta Pavonis Star System and back, would take two years to complete. It was due to leave that evening, being Monday, the fourth day of January 2094.

The Fortune was docked at the Armstrong Space Station which orbited the Moon. Fortune was equipped with the latest replicator-recycler technology. Necessary items such as toiletries (soaps, toothpaste, brushes, shavers, deodorants, shampoos, make-up, etc.), towels and sheets, outer clothes, shoes, socks and underwear could be dialled-up from the replicator interfaces as required.

Since Lee mostly lived in her work jumpsuits or the regular exercise clothes when off duty, other personal toiletries and clothes were not required to her way of thinking. Her dirty clothes and used items could be placed in the recycle hoppers. You could go wash your personal clothes if you preferred not to wear recycled items, but it was faster and easier to dial-up new things when you needed them.

Lee looked at the two boxes of books. She knew her books were considered obsolete, but they were her one indulgence. She could download most of the books from the extensive library that was stored electronically aboard the ship. However, Lee’s grandmother had inspired a love of books in her at a young age. She loved the feel of the paper and flipping the pages as she read.

Lee, who was currently stationed on the Moon, moved the suitcase and boxes outside the dorm room, ready for pick-up by the couriers. She flipped the courier company a message to come to collect her luggage and then keyed in the code to lock the door for the last time.

She had organised for the rest of her possessions to be placed in a long-term storage unit back on Earth until she got back. It wasn’t a lot of stuff, but they were items valuable enough for her to keep. Lee checked the minder (an interactive multimedia device) on her arm for the time.

‘Time to go,’ she thought.

Walking away from her old life, Lee headed towards the grav-station.

The trip on the grav-train, to the meeting for the final briefing for the voyage, was short. The station in Gamma Dome that Lee was headed towards was close to the building she required, so she didn’t have to walk far, once she got off the train.

Upon arrival, she looked around the crowded conference room. Lee spied her new supervisor, Ben Layard and several other people from the engineering crew that had worked on the construction with her and her friend, Kyle Vella. She moved over to the group. “Hi guys, all packed and ready to go?” she asked the group in general.

“Lee! So, you decided to come after all,” Ben exclaimed as he turned towards her.

Lee smiled in response to his outburst. She knew she hadn’t been Ben’s choice. She was considered a last-minute addition to the engineering crew of the ship. Her predecessor, Armid, had been involved in an incident three weeks before, during the final construction phase of the Starship Fortune. He was now spending the next three months of his life in a Critical Burns Unit.

Ben had picked another Electrical Engineer to replace Armid. However, the hiring committee had overruled his choice. Lee thought her gender, age and single status had a lot more to do with the decision. Her expertise and the fact that she had just spent the last year working on the fit-out of the spaceship hadn’t swayed the Selection Committee the first time.

“Wild horses and threatening emails couldn’t keep me away,” she replied drolly. She watched the reactions of the surrounding men. She noted Rodger Bartlett’s startled look and his eyes flicking to Ben.

Rodger wasn’t a bad looking bloke if you liked them pretty and slim. He was in his late twenties and about 5cm taller than Lee’s own 175cm (5’9”). He had short, dirty blond hair, pale blue-grey eyes and his pallid complexion hinted that he didn’t get out in the sun much.

Lee didn’t know Rodger well, although they had worked together for the last six months. The few times they had interacted, she hadn’t been impressed with the quality of the man or his work. He had a bad habit of whinging and complaining about the slightest of things. He also tended to talk to her tits rather than her face.

“You got threatening emails?” inquired Kyle, who also had the nickname of Rabbit. He and Lee had been friends for over three years, even though she wouldn’t sleep with him. Kyle’s specialities were computer and robotic programming, mathematics and astronautic navigation, but he wasn’t a stereotypical nerd.

Rabbit was shorter than Lee, at 170cm (5’7”). His handsome Italian looks, classic body shape, winning smile, and natural charms were hard to overlook. Lee had heard rumours that he was a popular bedfellow of both genders and that he was an energetic partner, hence the nickname.

“Yeah, apparently someone wasn’t happy about my selection,” Lee replied nonchalantly, while she watched for a reaction. This time, Rodger had better control, and he simply looked down. None of the others seemed to have a negative response to her statement.

Ben raised an enquiring eyebrow when Lee caught his eye. “Don’t look at me, I simply thought that Battelle was a better fit for the team,” he replied.

Lee made a note of this mainly because he said, ‘the team’ and not ‘the job’. She knew her credentials made the bloke Battelle, look like a first-year apprentice compared to her. She had three Engineering Degrees, Astro-Electrical Systems, Mechanical and a combined Electrical and Electronics Degree.

Lee had also completed the trade related apprenticeships for all three of her degrees, while she studied. However, the trade time for each had been only half that of apprenticeships of a century earlier. This was due to her position with UNSEC (the United Nations Space Exploration Collaboration).

Lee decided to let her interrogation go. She felt she had made her point and knew pushing any harder would simply put the malcontent on the offensive. The team talked about general concerns and the latest gossip while they waited for the meeting to start.

Lee let the chatter wash over her as she looked around.

The group had been standing around for about five minutes when the soldiers walked in.

Lee’s eyes lingered on the tall, broad-shouldered and dark-haired Lieutenant. He had lovely bronze-toned skin. She watched as he scanned the room, assessing everyone in it. While he had a no-nonsense look about him, she noticed the laugh lines around his very sexy mouth and eyes.

Lee didn’t normally go for the soldier type as she generally found most of the officers were arrogant bores, except for her Granddad, of course. As for the rank-n-file, they thought that they were God’s gift to humanity. The female soldiers were no exception.

Lee was intrigued by the fact that the troop was from SOER (Australian Army Special Operations Engineer Regiment), which was attached to UNSEC. She wondered how it was that they had drawn the short straw. Most soldiers assigned to Starship detail found it very boring.

‘Grunts,’ she thought. She had once pondered how they got that nickname. Her grandfather had explained it was because they did the ‘grunt’ work. He might have sworn like one, but he wasn’t a ‘grunt’ because he had been an officer.

Lee suddenly felt that she was being watched intently. She flicked her eyes around the room. They ended up back on the hunky Lieutenant. If she had kept going a little more to her left, she would have encountered the second set of eyes, which were also watching her.

‘God damn! Those cobalt blue eyes are compelling,’ she thought as she looked the broad-shouldered, slim-hipped, 190cm tall, Lieutenant up and down. Interestingly, she didn’t get the feeling that he was trying to strip the clothes off of her as many blokes did.

Chapter 2 »