Voyages Ch. 02

Camp Stubbs:

Nonny emerged from a pool below small falls, fed generously by springs much higher in the headlands; beyond that the really rugged country began. A fire laid sheens of orange flicker over her wet, muscular form. There were no soft planes on that body but she was pleasingly made and curved in all the right places, as deadly in the bedroom as in combat.

Nonny strode past the campfire where small red husked nuts roasted, turning brown then darker, on a flat rock beside a Fauxglass(tm) flask of water bubbling hesitantly. She pushed aside a branch, vanishing into a shuttle wedged between trees. Tops roped and pulled close concealed it from all but direct view. Reappearing with a Vacfiber(tm) towel, she dried looking into the inky sky of Portsmouth Prime, gone dark not an hour ago; it still held the silver gem that was the planatary station moving unhurriedly across the tree tops. [i]Not long now.[/i]

Sitting crosslegged on the towel and easing the nuts from the hot stone, She husked and ground them in a mortar drawn from a leather pouch and added it to the flask. She smiled as the water turned dark; a heavy fragrance that much resembled coffee filled the air. She lay back to watch the sky.

From the pool came the furious sounds of Smithblaster(tm) fire. Steam rose in heavy clouds; presently Blynd came stumbling in, lugging a large fish, partially decapitated but surprising intact, considering.

"Doy, look what I caught, Nonny; fresh meat for supper." Stubbs bounded from the underbrush, nose drawn to the scent of flesh. Blynd shifted his catch protectively, pointed accusingly. "Mine."

Crewman Stubbs moved back, placing the fire between them as Nonny and Blynd prepared the fish, placed it to broil, then got in a wrestling match over the use of Nonny's Vacfiber(tm) towel and ended up rolling in the dirt to be covered in twigs and leaves. Movements became slow and sensual. Nonny held Blynd close, a hand behind his head and the other locked around a stiff member, eyes on his.

"We're cocked and locked," she whispered.

"Ummm, totally green," Blynd replied. "uhh, standin' by, heh, oh, oh, who's dhat?"

A shuttle landed just long enough to let Sallybot get out before continuing its long ascent back counter-spin to the Hoochie. Sallybot sat beside them, eyes scanning over bodies with her usual preoccupation, then propped Non's head on a perfectly turned thigh and smoothed her hair.

"All stations standing by, Toi Nonny." SALLY's voice reported through the bot. Non settled back, pulled Blynd atop her, drew him inside and squeezed.

"Begin operation 'Orgasm'," she said solemly. Blynd pumped away with an enthusiatic start to the mission while she looked wistfully upward, waiting.

"Foreplay!" Chyna sent over the command circuits and began sending the 14 available shuttles to transport the revelers downward at set intervals.

Downtime:

"Here we go! Guns, our ride is here," Maestro said, slapping the W.O. on a shoulder and helping him afoot then packing aboard the second shuttle, the first already headed down hill. He looked up as they fell away, back at the party under the Impervious(tm) dome and wondered if he'd remembered to close his tab with the Autotender(tm).

Nonny saw the first of the Hoochie's shuttles drop lower than the star of the orbital station, far enough to be lit by the light of the setting sun; one became two, then three, then a string of golden beads fell that would begin arriving in 20 minutes to be quickly unloaded and set aside before the next showed up. Her voice raised softly in the fire light.

"Oh we drunken comets, fall to earth,

lay shattered in green fields,

drowned in blue seas,

lost forever, cosmic fly speck,

shat from space to bathe and breed,

seed the far off cosmos in our search for Eros.

They shared the fish equally with Stubbs and had time for a quick wash before work began.

Poolside:

"Service!" an Intern squaddie yelled above the rowdy party-goers, turning to take the next order from the sea of arriving liberty personel. His pink tutu looked ludicrous on the otherwise nude marine. Thaycher joked that he had the legs to pull it off.

"Service!" the crowd hurled back then spent waves of laughter to fall into the sound of many having a hellova time. The 34th shuttle set down, disgorged more to join the many before moving as the next slowed to deliver its load and return topside for more. Aboard the 34th shuttle, the 2nd crewman wrestled the last two of the suits free of storage bins, ready to drop and return to its place in the chain of rapid transit.

SALLY entered the thoughts of the planetary A.I. finding everything pretty much as she left them. She introduced herself as the outside consultant contracted to recover missing items and asked the A.I. to perform the computer equivalent of saying 'Ahhh'.

Harry picked up his mail off base and hurried to a postage stamp sized park spaceward to read it. Setting on a vacfibre(tm) bench he glanced about the tiny patch of green, then the heavily shielded primary, dim behind the Impervious(tm) dome.

Shuttle 34 landed at Camp Stubbs, unloaded swiftly and returned to the line ascending.

Nonny and Blynd dressed in the last two suits and began humping the others through primal forests and harsh terrain to the wiper packing facility only four clicks away. They each carried one and Sallybot one under each arm, managing the first round trip in only forty minutes. Sixteen more times and the really interesting work began.

Harry opened a Pepsi(tm) and broke the seal on the heavy stationary, beginning to read with a silly smile of enjoyment, rapt attention to occurances back home, and silent amusement at some odd story.

[indent]Cousin Saphira is on a long holiday and intends to stop to see you by the time this letter posts at Prime. She would never have been able to afford the trip, but she is friends with friends of some Royals that had a near empty ship to fill.[/indent]

She went on with other newsworthy tidbits. It was Spring there, crocus peeking and a few green leaves about. He read back but no mention was made of the ship's name.

"SALLY?" Harry said absently, thinking about cousin Saphira's ass numbing penchant for wanderlust.

"I'm very busy Captain."

"Ah, okay; call me soonist. I need to talk to you."

"(kiss sound)" and she was gone, back to mind of the planet A.I. Harry was left to wander in apprehensive meditation to his face to face with Colton in light of this new development.

Maestro was holding stripper auditions while the band jammed nonsense; cheers and drunken shouts of "Service!" greeted the last of the liberty party setting foot on the ground.

"All down" came Chyna's call over command and common channels. Running toward the last two shuttles, one a Standard(tm) and the other an old proper Captain's gig weadled from the stations motor pool to bring the ship's complement back to 16 again. Chyna took it out to an airlock abeam of the Hoochie and left it for Harry. He sprinted up the gangway, paused long enough in the passageway outside the common areas to add a bit to the Lightpaint(tm) sprayed grafitti there, then dropped down planet in the last shuttle.

The hangarbay closed behind him, sealing for underway flight along with the gangway door. Inside all peripheral ammenities ceased. Vacfiber(tm) sighed and died with a polite cough; dust motes danced over the fabric with its passing, briefly, in the cascade of extinguishing lights that left the ship silent and dark except for one small indicator on the Bridge console. SALLY sent most of herself into the Planet's A.I. It made a grunt of electronic discomfort; she spoke reasuringly.

"Hold still; this will only take a minute."

Nonny and Blynd stopped for a drink and piss before starting another trip.

"Doy, man that feels good." He took another drink of cold brown liquid and passed the flask to Nonny. Replacing his helmet he turned to Nonny as she drained the beverage then sighed with blissful relief as Vacfiber(tm) siphoned away her urine. "Um, ready to go again, Nonny girl?" She put her helment on and gave him a friendly head butt, threw a suit across her shoulders and ran away into the forest. He struggled to his feet again, picked up another and set off after her.

Bon Voyage:

A steward poured tea while Colton watched impassively. Harry picked at the felt fine Vacfiber(tm) top of the briefing table while processing new information. Not only the original lost princess was missing. Apparently, her yacht carried many of the bored gentry from among her friends. Inquiries were underway but no one was sure just who they all were. Harry unfolded the letter still clutched in his hand and passed it to Colton.

"Read forward from where it says, Cousin Saphira." The lights blinked.

SALLY caught the station's systems, slipping from the control of the A.I. as it fell into reboot. She partitioned the downlink to the planet and took control of system monitors and safeguards; a door at the wiper packing plant clicked open. Sallybot began moving combat suits into the facility and staging them for insertion.

Wiperfall:

Three real days and fifty wiper days later, the Hoochie entered normal space some distance from a planet orbiting a yellow star. The 68 MKVII Banger(tm) combat suits were again in the hangarbay, delivered officialy by a Royal Navy tug, some racked, most piled on the floor in the haste to get underway.

"Wake up sleepy heads. Captain and Toi to the bridge, come. Lit date 1222. (kiss sound) 18 hours from orbit. Initiating long range survey. Department heads report when manned. All Interns not assigned assemble in the gally." Harry stumbled onto the bridge, slouched in the Captain's chair, punched up a cup of coffee, and settled back. Chyna called from a screen.

"Toi Harry, do you really need me there?" Behind him the hangarbay was alive with movement as crewmen made sense of the mess left.

"Damn, Chyna, do you sleep down there? What's your priority? And good morning; you beat me to work." His wry smile was returned.

"Morning, Toi, lots of stuff to do. I wanted to start assigning and fitting these suits, so I did rush here." He made a motion behind him at the workers. "Great buncha guys. I'd put them in for extra rations but it looks like a long time before we need to limit consumables."

"We are fat as Cuddles' beeves," Maestro announced as he walked in, waving to Chyna's image, then looking out of the Impervious(tm) viewport. "Where are we?"

"And twice as pleased, Toi Maestro; here is our current location." SALLY caused several views to show across areas of the viewport. Harry looked back at Chyna.

"Carry on; yell if you need anything." The screen went blank with no farewell. He turned back to stare out of the viewport, sipping coffee and listening to the conversation with half an ear. The first cup became the second with still no sign of Nonny and Blynd.

"SALLY, where are the heroes of operation Orgasm?" A screen showed a view of a control room in one of the ship's four light second cannon where the missing Toi were busy moving heavy objects with the aid of Sallybot. Crewman Stubbs watched. "What are they doing?"

"Weapons upgrade, Captain sweety, one for each combat suite (kiss sound) I got new optics as well. Oh! Contact just entering orbit with the as yet unnamed planet, still far away but easily seen with my pretty eyes." Screens displayed eyes fluttering sultry as one. "Holding seperation."

"Where is it?" Maestro asked, looking to the screen used before that winked saucily then changed showing different perspectives as well as us/them combined plots.

"What now? Busy already?" Thaycher strolled on the brdge with coffee, barefoot, bearded, and still wearing a Hawaiian shirt from the party. He marked the plot on the big screens then the others showing Chyna's wondering face, alerted by SALLY, looking into the bridge again and Crewman Stubbs vocalizing silently from the screen revealing Nonny and Blynd, still busy installing equipment.

"Morning Captain," he said as his glance stoppped on Harry.

Good morning, Mr. Thaycher; you know nobody rides for free. Do you fancy a job?"

"Anything, Harry; something commensurate with my skills?" His face held a wise arsed expression.

"Exactly my thoughts. Shipwide SALLY, I'd like you all to greet our new Social Director, Ustiss Thaycher, Ustiss?" The W.O. grinned out of screens all over the ship.

"It's going to be a blast working with you lot. I'll be waiting to hear your suggestions. In the meantime perhaps we can get Maestro to play something festive while I sort out our activities." Calypso music began to play. Thaycher gyrated for a moment then waved goodbye. "Ta,ta." Shipwide screens returned to normal functions, however shipboard routine was interupted by spontaneous dancing.

"About time you got to work," Maestro taunted from before the Impervious(tm) viewport.

"I've been on holliday, you Fay git; listen, here are my thoughts. Let's get my squad busy bringing the upgrade guns online. Maestro and I will help Chyna make some sense of that mess in the hanger bay. Also, let's light the Hoochie up like a bordello and see how that ship responds."

"Sounds good," Harry nodded. "Chyna, two more warm bodies?"

"I'd appreciate the help; thanks Thaycher."

It was the coxman who saw it first, the gaudy bauble aglitter as light crawled planetward at last revealing the inbound craft.

"Commander, you gotta see this."

"Heh, more fools too far away from home and no sign to say 'there be dragons here'. Wake the boy's, same as before."

"Contact is moving to a higher orbit, Toi. Twelve hours to weapons range when the new armament is done." SALLY updated the plot screens.

"Outstanding." Thatcher blurted. "Let's go make new friends."

***