Chapter 2

Colin followed Bill into the departure terminal with his single piece of hand luggage slung over his left shoulder. All of his other possessions had been packed up the night before and had been forwarded to the shipping company. Hopefully they should already have been loaded onto the ship for the journey home.

Home!

The planet Dundaff was home, the planet that he hadn’t seen for over three years; the planet where his family had made their home fifty years ago at the urging of his grandfather. He’d decided long ago that his grandfather had made the right decision, even if it had made his home life a little more rustic than it would have been on Montrose. The way things were panning out at the moment his own grandchildren, if he had any, would have a much higher standard of living than he could have hoped for if the family hadn’t made the move.

“I’m glad Wendy agreed to stay at home,” said Bill dragging Colin’s thoughts away from his home world. “She’d have been in tears by now and making hell of a scene.”

Colin smiled in understanding, Wendy could get emotional and Bill had always found it embarrassing. Just like the time she’d bawled her eyes out at a barbecue when an injured bird had died in her hands. Everyone else had been pretty blas?about the event but Wendy was all for having a state funeral for the poor thing.

“You know she thinks of you as the son we never had, don’t you?” said Bill.

“I, uhhh,” began Colin before he ground to a halt. What do you say to a man who’s effectively told you he considers you his son?

“Oh don’t worry,” said Bill, “We both love the girls but Wendy always wanted a son and when you came to stay with us she adopted you.”

Robin and Hazel were two and four years older than Colin respectively and had been away at college for most of the time that he’d been staying with Bill and Wendy. The fact that they were away studying had been what freed up the space for him to stay in their small house.

Hazel was training to be a doctor and had completed training on Montrose before moving on to Earth for advanced paediatric training. Robin had gone against all of her mother’s wishes and had joined the military. After college on Montrose she’d completed the year long junior officer’s course at the staff college back on Earth and was currently serving her first tour as an officer with the Imperial Marine Corps.

That one daughter was trying to save lives whilst the other took them had always amused Colin when he thought about the two girls. That and the fact that he’d have had no problem taking either of them as a lover. Robin had come home after Staff College for a visit and her fit well-honed body was a sight worth seeing. Hazel had been around when the seventeen-year-old Colin had moved in to the family home and her soft, curvaceous body had fuelled his fantasies for many an evening.

The two of them reached the departure gate and Colin handed over the chip containing his details and turned back to Bill.

“Bill, thank you for all that you and Wendy have done for me,” said Colin; “it’s been...”

“Oh forget all that,” interrupted Bill as he wrapped his arms around the younger man. “Just take care of yourself and make sure that you stop by and see us whenever you’re in this neck of the galaxy.”

Colin returned the hug and felt his eyes begin to water, Wendy wasn’t the only one who could get emotional it seemed.

“Sir, your flight is being called,” said the reception bot, “If you would please make your way to the gate.”

Colin stepped back and offered his hand to Bill who grasped it firmly, “I’ll see you around, Bill,” he said.

“Make us proud, Colin,” said Bill, “and come back safe.”

“I will,” agreed Colin as he hefted his bag into a more comfortable position and stepped through the gate and headed for the shuttlecraft that would carry him away from Montrose.

The Peitho was a Canopus-class freighter that belonged to House Graham’s merchant fleet. Along with her sister ship the Suadela she’d been modified to allow her to move people as well as freight and served the role of ferry to several out-world systems that House Graham dealt with. Primarily they were asteroid mining stations but there were a couple of moons and one other planet that had an agricultural settlement that provided fresh produce for the people of Montrose.

The Peitho could, as in this case, make alterations to her normal routine to accommodate the needs of her passengers, at a price.

The basic Canopus-class freighter was a common sight in most areas where humans had settled, whether as part of the Imperium or beyond its borders. It was a versatile ship that had quickly gained a reputation for robustness and sales had moved along briskly - most House shipyards had taken out licensing agreements to build the ship themselves leading to many different variations of the basic vessel.

At one hundred and ten metres long, thirty-two metres wide and twenty-one metres high overall she tended to look a little slender when compared to many other ships but her engines were efficient and the load she could carry made her economical to run on short hops. For this journey she was carrying eighteen passengers, most of who would be leaving at their first stop, the mining station owned by Galaximine.

The purser greeted each of the passengers at the shuttle hatch and checked their documentation chip against the ship’s manifest. After checking in, each of the passengers was escorted to their cabins by a member of the crew.

“This way, Sir,” requested a fembot dressed as a maid, who, it appeared, had been assigned as Colin’s guide.

Colin smiled as he followed the undulating posterior of the robot and briefly wondered if she was available for anything more than maid service. Looking at the body the bot was fitted with gave him the impression that she was a modified sex model rather than the more mundane household model. Having just finished college, at which he’d practically abstained from any sort of sexual by-play, he was now starting to feel the return of all of the hormone driven urges that a nineteen-year-old in the prime of his life would feel.

The maid ushered him through a cabin door that carried the number two on it and proceeded to show him around the cabin, including the refresher cubicle.

“My name is Marion, Sir,” said the bot before she indicated the screen on a desk that had been crammed into one corner of the cabin. “There is a list of the services that housekeeping provides to passengers available on the terminal. Just call if there is anything I can do for you,” she finished with a smile.

With that she turned and left leaving Colin to unpack his bag in what was to be his home for the next two weeks.

Scanning the computer revealed that the maid bots were indeed available for personal services and Colin grinned as he booked Marion for an evening’s entertainment on the night before his journey’s end.

The information available on the terminal included a plan of the ship areas that the passengers were permitted to visit; they included an in-board lounge, a dining room and, surprisingly, a viewing lounge above and behind the ship’s bridge. He contemplated asking for permission to visit the bridge itself but decided he would have enough of that sort of thing when he had his own ship.

Satisfied that everything was packed away Colin headed for the lounge hoping to meet his fellow passengers before the ship broke orbit. Leaving the cabin he nearly ran into another of the maid bots, the only difference between her and Marion was the shade of brown used for their hair, in all other details they appeared identical.

“I’m sorry, Sir,” apologised the bot though it had been Colin who had been in her way.

“Forget it,” Colin replied, “I was just heading for the lounge.”

“I’m Mary,” replied the bot, “Allow me show you the way.”

Without waiting for a reply the bot headed off and Colin once again found he was following the delightfully swaying posterior of a robot.

“Here you are, Sir,” responded the maid, “If you need anything else please give me a call.”

“Thank you, Mary,” replied Colin as he entered a well-appointed lounge. He glanced around and smiled approvingly at the Old World charm of the room. Considering it was on a modern spaceship it had been done out to look like the pictures he’d seen of the steamships of Earth. There was wood panelling to shoulder height all around the room. Half a dozen crystal chandeliers suspended equidistantly around the room provided lighting.

In one corner of the room was a bar with another maid bot stood behind it casually cleaning a glass. As no other passengers were present Colin crossed the plush dark carpet to the bar.

“Hello Sir, I’m Mindy,” said the robot by way of an introduction, “How can I be of service.”

Colin suppressed his immediate thought and asked “Do you carry any alcohol free beers?” instead.

“We have Bulldog Bitter and Eiskan Pils, Sir,” responded Mindy as she set down the glass she’d been cleaning.

“I’ll have an Eiskan please,” ordered Colin, “Put it on cabin two’s tab.”

The bot turned away and Colin took his time to admire the view she presented. Someone associated with the spaceline appeared to have obtained a job lot of fembots and had pressed them into service as maids on their ships. Given that they were being used to offer sexual services to passengers as well as carry out routine domestic work implied that someone had gone to the trouble and expense of updating a basic sex bot’s programming to include domestic duty sub-routines.

The bot before him was somewhat shorter than his one hundred and eighty-three centimetres say about one hundred and sixty centimetres and on looks alone he’d guess she massed somewhere between fifty-five and sixty kilograms. With the modern composites that were being used in bot construction they were on the upper end of acceptable weight scales for a human so sixty would be about right.

Being based on a sex model bot she had an ample bust, at least a ‘C’ cup, and everything else, coloration, attitude, etcetera was designed to titillate the male of the species. There were male models of the sex-bot for women but Colin had never knowingly met one. The only difference between Mindy and Marion was again hair colour with Mindy’s actually being a shade darker than Marion’s.

“There you are, Sir,” declared Mindy placing a half-litre frosted glass of amber liquid before him.

“Thank you,” said Colin retrieving the beer and taking a sip. His ‘Ahhh’ of appreciation was all that needed to be said.

As he set the glass back on the bar two more passengers entered the lounge. The two gentlemen looked like clones of each other dressed as they were in grey business suits. They glanced around and headed for the furthest corner from the bar, one of them indicating that he wanted serving.

Before they were seated Mindy was out from behind the bar and crossing the room with the same sensuous wiggle that her sisters had already demonstrated. Her ten centimetre high heels were sinking into the plush pile of the carpet but didn’t affect her ability to move smoothly.