Chapter 4: Settling In

-- January - Week 1 --

Everyone was busy settling in and getting used to their new rosters and routines.

The scientists were busy setting up their labs. Crew members were working through lists of last-minute things to do or finding where items, parts or equipment that they needed had been stored. The helm crew concentrated on getting them to the first jump point.

The favourite pastime of the personnel was spending their time getting to know who else was aboard. For the unmarried, the preoccupation was on availability and approachability of the person who had caught their eye. Those who were shy or felt they were not attractive to others spent more time with their peepers in their off-duty hours.

Peepers got their names from the slang of ‘eyes’ or ‘IES’ the acronym for the Interactive Educational Shades. The fact many adults used them for viewing pornography also contributed to the name of peepers.

Primarily, playing of vid’s, scrolling or reading and simple button pressing was controlled by eye movement and blinking. Sub-vocal commands that were picked up by audio chips could also be used. They also had special gloves that could be used for sensory activities, keyboard actions, playing games or working in other document types.

Viewers of pornographic material also found other uses for the gloves, but we won’t go there. Let’s just say that the use of the gloves for those activities was frowned upon in public places, especially the rec-room or lounges.

Lee was on Shift Three, covering the times from 00:00 hours to 08:00 hours, the night shift. Although on a spaceship, there was no such thing as night. The hallway lights weren’t dimmed to simulate night because spaceships ran twenty-four-seven.

Only the lights in the dome, the livestock cargo bay and outside Lee’s room were dimmed for ten hours between 19:00 hours to 05:00 hours, for the animals and plants. Interestingly they did dim the lights in the dome lounges, and certain people liked to take advantage of this for trysts.

However, humans are conditioned for different times of day and night. This meant that most of the crew who were not on duty were mostly asleep when Lee was working. Or at least they were in a cabin even if it wasn’t their own, during most of Lee’s shift.

On the first night out, Sean had to confiscate a bong. A group of the younger element had decided to have a leaving home party and fired one up in one of the cabins. A new genetically altered cannabis had become popular in recent years. Due to its diminished side effects and health-related issues, you still got a good hit from it, and it was cheap and legal.

The problem was that this ship was smothered in smoke detectors, sprinklers and alarms. It was a non-smoking ship. Sean, Lee and several other members of Lee’s engineering team turned up to find six very wet members from the scientific and support teams.

The hapless victims were banging frantically on the cabin door trying to get out of the sealed room when Lee and Sean turned up to find out what the problem was. Lee had to reset the alarm and the sprinklers before they could open the doors.

The fire alarm gave the people in the room one minute to evacuate before the room was sealed. This was to contain the spread of fire or if the room was decompressing for some reason. In their altered state, they didn’t react quickly enough to the alarm. Hence, they had become trapped in the room.

The smoke exited the cabin and filled the hallway. Lee had to increase the flow of the air-conditioners to clear the air of the sweet, cloying smell. Her TA (trade assistant) Jim Hoyle collected the cleaning robots to suck up the excess water and dry the carpets in the room. Fortunately, the sprinklers hadn’t been on long enough to flood over the door lip and into the hallway.

Sean was not impressed, and he told the crew that if they needed recreational drugs, to go see the doctor for ones that didn’t require burning first. He also informed them they had a meeting with the Captain in the morning, and they would be responsible for cleaning up the cabin.

The six people got their first taste of an upset Army Officer.

Lee’s next adventure was the piglet.

On the second morning aboard when Lee went to enter her room after her shift, she tripped over a ten-week-old piglet in the hall. She then spent the next twenty minutes scurrying around the corridor, trying to catch it. She then had to calm it down to stop it squealing once she had it.

Lee entered the animal hold to find out where the piglet had come from. She found that one of the movable fences that formed the pens wasn’t locked down properly. She put the piglet back into the pen with her sisters and fixed the fence. She left a note in the Vets log to inform them why she had been in the animal enclosures.

That night, not long after starting her shift, Lee received a call to rescue someone who had supposedly locked himself out of his cabin. Lee had replaced two malfunctioning palm locks the night before, so she didn’t think anything of it.

When she got to the man, she was surprised by who it was. She had found Professor William Essco, the head of the scientific division of the mission. Except that, he wasn’t trying to get into his cabin but his assistants, Debora Smith. When Lee turned up, he was standing in the hall stark naked.

Essco was banging on Debora’s door, demanding that she let him back in. As Lee walked down the hall, she had to hide a smile. She was watching his lower extremities and his saggy arse, bouncing up and down each time he banged on the door. Putting on her most polite face, she asked him what his problem was.

“The cow kicked me out and won’t give me back my clothes,” he bellowed. He banged on the door again. “Open this fucking door, you stupid whore,” he screamed.

Lee took a step back after smelling the alcohol on his breath. She also decided this wasn’t her problem. She said quietly into her minder, “Comms call Lieutenant Watson for me, please.”

“Lieutenant Watson here, what’s the problem?” he answered almost immediately.

“Lieutenant Watson, this is Engineer Gillian. Can you please come to room L3-4 please?”

“What the fuck are you calling him for?” bellowed the Professor, turning towards her, aggressively.

Sean’s voice came back over Lee’s comm, “Shit! I’m on my way.”

Essco turned back to the door. “Debora, you stupid bitch, I demand that you open this door,” he shrieked at the door.

Lee stepped back further from the enraged, drunken professor. Essco stopped banging on the door, breathing heavily. He turned back to Lee and eyed her up and down, making Lee’s skin crawl. “Fuck this shit. If I can’t fuck the whore, I’ll fuck you. I like redheads,” he said with a sleazy grin.

He stepped forward and went to grab Lee by the jumpsuit. Lee reacted instinctively. She grabbed his wrist with her left hand before his hand made contact with her chest. She twisted his wrist around and down, forcing him to turn away from her. She continued the twist until his arm was up behind his back.

She gripped his other shoulder with her free hand, and then she shoved him hard into the steel wall, banging his head against it. “I recommend that you settle down and behave, Professor,” she snarled at him in a quiet yet cold menacing voice.

It is not smart to pick on someone who had trained in several forms of self-defence and who is younger and fitter than you are. “Let me go, you fucking butch bitch. I bet you’re a dyke,” screamed the struggling professor.

He was wiggling and trying to make her let him go, to no avail. “Don’t you know who I am? I’ll have your arse in the brig for this. I’ll personally come down and rape it for you every night, bitch,” he screamed, spraying the wall with his spittle.

Lee ramped up the twist on his arm. He let out a squeal of pain as he continued to struggle, but she said nothing. She hated dealing with drunks. She wondered if it was only the drink, causing his strange behaviour. He sure needed his foul mouth washed out with soap.

“That is not a very nice thing to say to a lady, Professor Essco,” growled Lieutenant Watson as he strode towards them.

Lee glanced at the approaching officer. She released the professor and stepped back out of his range.

“This bitch dyke attacked me. I want her locked up,” screeched the professor as he rubbed his right arm and aching shoulder.

“Professor Essco, why are you standing in the hall outside of your assistant’s room, naked?” asked Sean in an intimidating voice. He placed his hands on his hips while looking down at the man sternly.

Some sense of reason finally returned to the pissed and pissed-off professor. He suddenly realised he was not in a tenable situation. He was standing naked in a well-lit hallway. He placed his hands over his genitals, for the little they needed to cover.

“Debby and I had a minor misunderstanding,” he whined at Sean. “Then this bitch came along and stuck her nose into my business,” he berated Lee. He was trying to stand tall and was sucking in his guts to look more dignified. A hard thing to do while standing starkers in a hall, swaying with drunkenness.

“Engineer Gillian?” Sean queried, raising an eyebrow at Lee.

Lee looked at the Lieutenant, then at the professor. Touching her minder, she said, “Helm?”

“Yes, Lee?” replied the voice.

“Please state the last job that I was sent to, Officer Sung?”

“I sent you to room L3-4 as the man said that he was locked out.”

“Officer Sung, please state the names of the assigned occupants of L3-4?” Lee waited a few seconds for the reply, while Sean and Essco looked on.

“Hey! Who was trying to get in? There are two women listed for that room, Debora Smith and Sandra Wills. Do you need Lieutenant Watson, Lee?” fired back, Officer Sung.

“Thank you, Officer Sung,” cut in the Lieutenant while looking at Lee, impressed with her handling of the situation. “I am also on the scene.”

“Okay, Helm out,” the disembodied voice answered.

At this point, Debora decided it was safe enough to open her door. “The bastard hit me, I warned him never to hit me. I want him to stay the fuck away from me,” she spat, as she wrapped a very flimsy semi-transparent dressing gown around her naked body.

“And I heard what he said to her. If he ever comes near me again, I’ll do more than push him out into the hall naked,” Debora snarled as her arms tightened under her impressive breasts.

Lieutenant Watson wiped his hand down his face and then straightened up to his full height. “Enough, enough, I’ve heard enough. I want all three of you at the Captain’s office, 09:00 hours in the morning and don’t be late,” he barked.

“Miss Smith, please give the Professor his clothes. I will escort him back to his room,” he said more politely to Debora. She nodded at Sean and went back into her room.

The professor started blustering and professing his innocence as he finally realised the situation had gotten way out of his control. Debora returned with his clothes. The Lieutenant held up his hand and told him, “Keep it for the Captain and please get dressed.”

Lee and the Lieutenant both got an eyeful of luscious breasts as Debora’s gown dropped open when she threw the pants and a shirt at the professor. He didn’t like jumpsuits, not having the physique to look good in one.

Lee looked at the Lieutenant with raised eyebrows. She noticed he was trying to hide a smirk behind his hand. “Thank you, Lieutenant Watson,” she nodded at Sean.

She turned to Debora, “Debora, I hope the rest of your evening is more pleasant. I had better get back to my duties,” Lee said.

She then walked off, shaking her head and wondering what was next.

Lee headed back to her workshop.

She logged into the office console, to view what other jobs had been posted by Bill for her crew to do. The engineers didn’t tend to use the peepers when working, preferring the thin flexi-pads or a desk console as they were less of a distraction. In addition, they often had to have other devices such as safety glasses and face shields on their heads.

Lee found another email from the loser who had been harassing her before they left. She wasn’t happy to discover that he was on the ship but had suspected that he would be. Unfortunately, she hadn’t located where he was logging in from. She suspected he was using logins from old construction crew members to send her the email.

Lee sent the email to the ‘Loser’ folder, where she was storing them for evidence if required later after she had dealt with him. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with his shenanigans, right now.

Sighing, she scanned the emails from Bill to pick her next job.

09:00 hours found Debora and Lee waiting outside the Captain’s office.

The Lieutenant came to the door and let them in. “Where is Professor Essco?” he asked.

Lee and Debora looked at each other. Lee replied, “He must be running a bit late.”

Debora snorted and added, “He would be late to his own funeral.” They both smiled at the quip, while the Lieutenant tried to keep a straight face. He escorted them into the room. The Captain handed both the girls a copy of Lieutenant Watson’s report.