Celestial Space Tours Pt. 01

/******

* The year is 2222. Human civilization has advanced to the point of

* interstellar space travel. In fact, traveling in space has become as

* mundane to some lucky people as driving on the freeway. Medical

* and engineering triumphs have improved the quality of life for all.

* However, there are just some things about humans that will never

* change...

*******/

--Chapter 1--

Cassie groggily opened her eyes and peered at the glowing display of the clock across the room. She rubbed the sleep from them and squinted until she could finally make out the blurry numbers. "0437 hours," read the green LED display embedded in the wall: the only source of light in the dark cabin. There was still at least another couple hours until she would need to wake up for her shift aboard the Raven. She peered over the railing of her bunk down at her roommate, Amber, who was still sound asleep; she had today off - lucky.

Cassie rolled back over and laid her head back down on her pillow. Her thick, red hair pooling under her as she stared up at the metal bulkhead ceiling. She closed her eyes and recalled the sight of her parents waving goodbye as the door on the transport shuttle sealed shut. That shuttle that brought her up to the Copernicus Space Station, one of the many stations orbiting the earth.

"I sure am going to miss mom and dad," she thought to herself, reaching up and trying to touch the ceiling as if reaching back for them. "Even Jeremy, the little brat." She thought fondly of the times she had had with her little brother, even if he could be annoying on occasion. The thoughts brought a smile to her face.

Cassie was eighteen years old, had just graduated, and had found a summer job - something her father had been adamantly insisting upon since the day school ended. She figured a job at Celestial Space Tours was a pretty good gig, especially since she was going to be going to college on Mars come autumn; might as well get used to being on spaceships and packed in tight quarters.

She lay there in her bunk, listening to the hum of the ventilation and life support systems aboard the space station. Normally they would probably be the kind of thing to lull her back to sleep, but at the moment it was just a reminder of the hostility of space. Cassie could tell her anxiety was high and that she was not going to be falling back asleep any time soon. Her first trip acting as primary tour guide was today.

Sure, she had practiced with Mrs. Higgs, her supervisor, and even gone out on the ship once to see how Amber did things. Cassie admired the confidence and poise Amber demonstrated as she pointed out different celestial bodies. However, this time it'd be different - it would be just her and a handful of tourists and nobody there to help her out if she fumbled over her words or forgot the name of a planet.

Cassie sighed and quietly climbed down from the top bunk. Amber shifted under the covers some as Cassie tried to feel around on the floor for her socks.

"Screw it, nobody is going to up at this hour anyway," she muttered quietly to herself. She shuffled to the door and waved her hand in front of the sensor. The door hissed open and the sterile, white light from the hallway flooded into their cabin. Amber groaned and rolled over and Cassie quickly stepped out into the hall, the door sliding closed again behind her.

She shielded her eyes, holding her hand out in front of her face as they adjusted to the bright environment. Cassie blinked a few times and looked down the hallway in each direction; sure enough there wasn't a soul in sight.

Cassie started walking down the hallway in the dormitory section, passing by the banks of doors leading to other rooms like her own. Her steps were nearly silent as her bare feet padded down the steel floor of the hall. The metal against her bare skin was cold and uncomfortable.

"Really wish I could have grabbed my socks," she muttered to herself.

Luckily, she was at least wearing her matching, fuzzy, pink pajamas that her mom had gotten her as a gift when they found out she got the job. "They'll keep you warm up there," Cassie recalled her mother saying as she opened the package.

An idea popped into Cassie's mind as she passed by the restrooms.

"A warm shower would feel amazing right now," she thought to herself and walked into the large bathroom.

Banks of stalls were along one wall, sinks along another. A set of lockers sat adjacent to a communal shower area - not exactly the most private setting, but at this time of night she figured she should be fine.

She opened up a locker and pulled her pajama top up and over her head, tossing it inside. Next, she pulled down her bottoms, along with her yellow and white striped underwear, and stepped out of them, putting them in the locker and shutting the door. Cassie turned the key and removed it, putting the elastic band the key was attached to around her wrist.

The overhead lights illuminated Cassie's bare skin with a pleasant glow. As a ginger, her complexion never really varied from its current shade of pale white. Cassie looked down at her pert breasts where her pink nipples stood erect from the cool air inside the station.

She examined her naked self briefly in the mirror and even though she wasn't the prettiest person she'd ever seen - she thought she was pretty cute. Her straight red hair hung down just below her shoulders. She was petite and rather slim. Her neatly trimmed bush matched the fiery color of her hair and contrasted nicely against her fair skin, forming a furry triangle on her mound, tucked between her legs.

Goosebumps started forming on her arms and legs and she hurried over to the showers. Cassie waved her hand in front of the sensor and wonderful, warm water erupted from the shower head, splashing down noisily on the tile in quiet bathroom. She closed her eyes and stepped into the stream of water, letting it wash over her and warm her cold extremities.

Cassie was in the middle of shampooing her hair when she heard footsteps entering the bathroom. "Eek!" she thought to herself as her heart began to race. The public showers were bad enough, but there was also the additional fact that the whole floor was co-ed.

"Were those from a man? A woman? No, no it definitely seemed like they were heavier, like from a man."

She turned away a bit, trying to be as decent as she could be in such a vulnerable state. After rinsing the shampoo from her hair, the suds had washed away from her face and she could finally open her eyes. She peeked back over her shoulder.

"It WAS a man!" she confirmed in her mind.

He was standing under another shower head a bit further down and had his eyes closed as his head hung down in the stream of water. He was bracing himself against the wall with one arm, clearly quite drowsy still.

She took the opportunity to have a little peek.

"I mean it's only fair," she thought to herself, "he probably ogled me when he came in."

The well-cut man stood at about 6'2" or so, the muscles on his legs and back quite visible under the rippling water. She had a great view of his sculpted ass and could see his cock and balls hanging loosely as he leaned slightly forward. He was quite large, even soft.

The stranger lifted his head and opened his eyes, Cassie quickly turned away and exploded in embarrassment. She felt her face flush and wondered if he had seen her looking. However, the rest of her shower went on pretty routinely and he never said a word; she figured he was probably half-dozing and barely even noticed her.

"Too bad," she thought to herself, a little bit disappointed.

It's not that Cassie was the type to sleep around or anything; in fact, she hadn't actually even had sex. However, lately she had noticed more and more that her body had been kicking into overdrive, raring to go.

As she toweled off, she could feel the slickness between her labia. She must have been hornier than she had thought. She gathered up her clothes and held them under her arm, a plain white towel wrapped around her naked body. Cassie stole one last glance at the naked Adonis in the showers as she stepped back out into the hallway and hurried back to her room. Luckily she didn't come across anyone else on the way back to her room.

Once in her room, she quickly slipped into some new panties and put on her uniform for work: slacks and a red polo shirt with a Celestial Space Tours logo embroidered on the front breast pocket. She found a pair of blue and black striped ankle socks and pulled them on before stepping into her sneakers. She glanced over at the clock on the wall: 0510.

"Crap," she thought to herself, "I've still got nearly two hours to kill."

She put her hair up into a ponytail, clipped on her name badge, and headed back out into the hall, heading for the cafeteria.

There were a couple other people scattered about in the large room, sitting at different tables.

"I guess I wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping," she remarked to nobody in particular.

She used her ident card to purchase a muffin from the vending machines and sat down at a table by herself. As she ate her muffin, she went over the notes she had taken which were still crumpled in her pants pocket from yesterday: the names of various stars, planets, constellations; when they would appear on the tour; what to do in case of an emergency.

--Chapter 2--

A melodic "ding-dong" rang out from the station's PA system, signalling it was 0700. Cassie walked briskly through the halls, trying to find her way back to the shuttle dock through the maze of hallways, bulkheads, and corridors. The space station was still relatively unfamiliar and not the easiest thing to navigate. She followed the various signs and arrows on the floors, eventually coming upon a doorway reading, "Shuttle Tours Dock." Her supervisor, Mrs. Higgs, was already there, tapping away on a handitab, a hand-held tablet they used for managing the various tour group schedules.

"Good morning Ms. Higgs!" Cassie said cheerfully. Ms. Higgs looked up and smiled at her.

"Good morning, Cassie. Excited for your first tour?"

"Yeah! Well, and a bit nervous," Cassie admitted, looking down.

"Oh don't be dear - you're going to just fine! You're a natural!"

Cassie looked back up and smiled at the compliment - at least someone was confident in her abilities.

"The first group is already lined up and ready to board," Mrs. Higgs noted, nodding over to the queue of tourists before returning to her work on the handitab.

"Right!" Cassie confirmed and hurried over to the line, ready to welcome tourists to the shuttle. With Cassie in position, Ms. Higgs tapped the "Open Gate" button on the handitab and the gates swung open. The tourists started to shuffle forward and Cassie greeted them cheerfully and with a smile.

"Good morning ladies and mentlegen...er, gentlemen."

Her face flushed red as she bumbled her words, hoping it wasn't an indication of how the day was going to go. The tourists smiled or lightly laughed off her misstep.

"Whew, they all seem pretty nice at least," she thought.

Cassie gestured towards the ship. "This, is the Raven, and it will be your home for the next few hours as we take you to the stars!" The tourists "oohed" and "aahed" at the ship, even though it was nothing particularly special: just an old transport vessel that had been retrofitted with a large viewing window and repurposed for tours. The word "Raven" was neatly painted on the side of the ship in big, yellow letters, just behind the cockpit windows.

Cassie walked over and unlocked the airlock of the ship and grabbed a handitab from a shelf just inside the entrance.

"I'll scan your ident tags as you board," she instructed and the guests started to line up again in front of Cassie.

"Good morning!" she cheerfully greeted the first guest, an elderly woman in her eighties with a small red clutch purse. The woman held out her ident card, allowing Cassie to scan it before walking through into the airlock for the shuttle. Cassie tried to catch the name of each guest as they entered: "Always try to greet the guest by their name," she recalled from the company handbook.

"Okay, so that was Agnes," she noted as Agnes' name and picture flashed up on her handitab upon scanning her ident card.

Next, was a family of four: the parents were maybe a bit younger than her mom and dad, but not by much, maybe in their mid-thirties. In tow they had their son and daughter. Their son was probably about thirteen and their daughter was around four, if she had to guess.

"That boy's just about Jeremy's age," she acknowledged with a smile as she waved them on through, missing her little brother.

She had spotted that the mother's name was "Nadine" when she scanned them in but missed the father's name. Luckily, she heard Nadine excitedly proclaim, "Oh, Grant! This is just the best surprise vacation ever! You remembered how much I love the stars!" Their daughter, Elizabeth, seemed mesmerized by all the lights and activity around her, excitedly babbling as she held her mother's hand. On the other hand, their son Alex looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the universe; his eyes were bleary and he looked extremely tired. He probably wasn't thrilled to be up so early.

"Okay, so dad is Grant, mom is Nadine, boy is Alex, girl is Elizabeth" Cassie added to her mental list.

There were only two more guests waiting to board: an older man named Phillip, looked to be in his fifties, a few years older than her father and another elderly woman named Gladys, around the same age as Agnes.

"I guess it figures there wouldn't be that many people on the early morning tour," Cassie remarked to Mrs. Higgs who nodded in affirmation. "Probably also why they were all a bit older too," Cassie thought to herself.

Once all of the tourists were aboard, Cassie entered through the airlock and typed in her code on the keypad by the door. A red light above flashed and a klaxon sounded as the big, heavy doors of the ship started to close. With a final CLUNK and hiss of pressurized air the doors sealed shut.

Cassie reached to her hip where she had clipped on her radio and clicked it on, bringing the microphone to her mouth. "Greetings space travelers and welcome to Celestial Space Tours! Today we will be showing you all around our solar system! By using our jump drive we're able to go millions of miles in just the blink of an eye!" she recited verbatim from the company handbook. She looked around at each of the tourists as they looked back at her.

"Here goes!" she thought to herself.

With a jolt and another clunk, the shuttle detached from the station and used its thrusters to navigate out of the hanger bay doors.

The Raven, wasn't a particularly flashy ship.

From the airlock where they entered through there's the main observation deck with a large window providing views to the outside. On either side of the main deck, there are two curved staircases that head down to the lower deck. The lower deck had a lavatory and a little snack bar area with several tables and chairs setup in front of another set of observation windows. However, during the early morning tours, the bar wasn't tended and only minimally stocked.

Back above, past the main observation deck, a narrow hallway led to the cockpit and a small storage area. When Cassie boarded the door to the cockpit was already closed.

"The captain must have already been in there...I wonder who's flying today?" she pondered, waiting for the ship to finish maneuvering away from the space station.

Once they had moved away from Copernicus, they started to fly towards the moon. The guests looking out the big window, pointing at different things, as Cassie told them facts about the moon and its history.

"The Americans were the first to land on the moon in 1969, over two hundred years ago, during the Apollo missions. Now of course nearly every space-faring country has a colony on the moon," Cassie spoke in her best, clear voice. "There were skeptics who thought the whole thing was staged and recorded in a studio, but just look at us now!" Cassie gestured around at the space ship, space station, and the moon with its many colonies. The guests politely laughed at her joke.

KA-CLUNK.

The ship shuddered and the constant, reassuring hum of the engine faded away. Everyone looked around, wondering what could have caused the sound, including Cassie.

"Warning: unscheduled jump drive activation," a computer voice alerted throughout the ship. Red warning lights flashed and the guests started to panic a bit, looking towards their novice tour guide for some kind of sign about what was going on.

"Plea...please remain calm everyone. Take hold of something. I will find out what's going on," Cassie said in the most reassuring voice she could muster as she went towards the cockpit, clicking off her radio as she did. Before she could even get halfway down the corridor the ship lurched and the stars outside the main observation window became a blur. Cassie fell flat on her ass with a thud and the tourists in the back screamed in fear.

The ship had jumped.

--Chapter 3--

The loud whir of the jump drive wound down and the normal hum of the engines resumed. Cassie nursed her elbow which she had slammed against the floor when she fell. She stood up and marched towards the cockpit.

"Excuse me, sir?" she pounded on the locked cockpit door.

No response.

She knocked, harder this time, hard enough that her knuckles hurt.

Still nothing.

By now Grant had also rushed over to find out what was going on.

"There's no response, I...I don't understand. We weren't supposed to jump until way later," Cassie explained to Grant, just as dumbfounded as he was.

"What about the captain?" he asked.

"I don't know...the door...it's locked."

Elizabeth's cries could be heard echo down the hall from main observation deck. Grant was fuming.

"Who does this asshole think he is!? Someone could have gotten seriously hurt!" he yelled. "Open up!"

No response.

He looked around and saw a crowbar strapped against the bulkhead along with some other emergency equipment. He grasped it and yanked it from the straps holding it and immediately began to pry at the cockpit door.

After about three minutes of straining and grunting, finally a latch broke free and the door slid open partly. As Grant peered into the cockpit, a look of confusion came across his face, and his mouth and eyes grew wide.

"It's empty."

"What!? That can't be!" Cassie pushed him out of the way and peered inside.

The cockpit was indeed empty. The consoles were on, there were lights flashing that she didn't understand, but no pilot.

Philip came up behind Cassie, peering over her into the same vacant cockpit. He glanced down at the monitors.

"Well shit," he calmly stated.

"What!? That's all you can say!? We have no pilot!" protested Cassie.

"That ain't the half of it," Philip again stated with an unnerving calmness, "our course is plotted straight into a star." He pointed towards one of the monitors, the navigation display.

Cassie's eyes grew wide with a new terror as she looked where Philip was pointing.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, looking to Philip for answers who clearly knew more about the current situation than she did.

"Nothing we can do," he remarked, "Unless of course you know how to fly a starship?" he asked in jest. "I don't even recognize this sector," he continued, nodding to the monitors. "I doubt any radio communications can reach us, at least not for many years."

Cassie turned around and sank down against the partially ajar cockpit door, doing her best to maintain her composure.

"How long do we have? You know...until we..." she asked in a meager voice.