Fact was most of the lights in the old unused chain stop compartments had even been allowed to burn out without being replaced making for a spooky ride to the delights of kids when they finally reached the age when they were allowed to use the chain. Everyone aboard the Star Queen had forgotten if they had ever known, the original name or use for that section of the ship the peeling coverings of tape hid before it had become a bulk chemical storage tank deck. No one had a clue that hundreds of years before, upper class passengers could pay to ship their personal aircars with them across the stars in a ring of parking spaces between the inner and outer hull before they met just below the cargo decks. That was until the upper class started using newer and faster ships between the systems on the Star Queen’s scheduled stops. In time the ship had been rebuilt from a luxury liner with 2,000 passengers to a mass transit ship to haul over 3,000 along with bulk chemicals in the old car parking compartments when freight was lean making the ship more versatile. But in time even that was not enough.
The Tramp Family had bought the ship and had added food producing decks converted from the passenger baggage storage deck using ships sewage water to feed the plants and purify the waste water replacing the original water recycling equipment. Using a couple of the tank compartments to store the run off that was too much for the ship’s original fresh water tanks to handle. Few Tramps ever hauled bulk Chemicals anyway in fixed tanks. The permits for fixed ship tanks for planets where expensive and usually required stopping at the delivery planet first to be inspected before hauling bulk chemicals in fixed tanks to it. Since most Tramps rarely saw the same planet twice in the same year, most Chemicals were hauled in portable truck sized container tanks only requiring universal permits. Plans had been proposed to convert the chemical tanks into additional farm decks along with a dozen other proposals but nothing had come of any of them as advances in farm production using the growing number of crewmen for labor kept up with demand of the growing crew.
As the population had grown the farm had grown going from fixed plots to moving trays to increase production. Then when the original ships water tanks and remaining purification systems had deteriorated to the point they were no long usable anymore, the ship had started using more and more of the bulk Chemical tanks to store fresh water in. While the farm purified the water at a slow steady rate. They soon started carrying extra water in the tanks just to insure they did not run out in the daily hour long surges that happened across the ship when 6,000 people flushed their toilets or showered at the same time. First in the morning and then again at the end of their work day and again for dinner and then before bed.
That was until the ship needed to enter the outback through a gateway planet that had a list of ship requirements that included a certified ship’s water recycling system. The ship’s council finally came up with the funds for the hull maintenance crew to rebuild the old water storage tanks and to purchase a new/used water purification system that was a couple hundred years newer than the original even if it was still from a ship’s junk yard. Having to store a thousand tons of water was no longer needed and the donut ring of tanks were soon all but emptied.
The massive ring of Chemical/ Fresh water storage tanks and what to do with them went back to being just another heated debate topic in the council between expanding the farm or creating more cabins for the growing crew, while the cargo lobby did not want the added weight of either, since they had just gained a thousand tons for paying cargo after getting rid of most the water as the new systems took the load over the last couple of months.
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“Mark, my security program is putting a red flag on a small video camera that was placed outside your dorm compartment hatch and a matching video camera in the overhead above the chain pedestal control panel. Both using the same frequency. None of the other officer dorms have a similar surveillance device. With everything that has happened around you lately making it very likely that you are the subject of the surveillance. You should be careful Mark.”
“Ya sure Mickey, whatever you say.” Mark went back to kissing Dian as he squeezed her butt on the cramped platform as they descended down through the decks.
The platform stopped at the Farm section of decks and Dian broke away jumping off the platform making a bee line through the hatch and the narrow plastic paneled flexible air curtain with Mark close behind her.
The Farm decks were mostly deck to overheadshelves containing rows of hundred foot long belts with trays holding the roots of the plants in shallow nutrient troughs. Sections of each belt moving at different speeds increasing the distance between plants as they grew bigger. The grow lights started barely above the closely spaced trays of seedlings, raising up as the plants slowly grew and spread and moved along the belt, always staying just above the tops of the plants. What would have been empty space between the rows of belts, along walkways, around work tables and equipment nooks, were filled with fruit trees and berry bushes depending on the available room. Genetically engineered to produce several crops a year as the weather and length of days were individually controlled around each tree and bush to simulate shortened yearly production cycles. Each ripening fruit tree or bush was timed to mature at a different time than the rests to produce a constant flow of produce using artificial pollination machines.
Mark chased Dian through the maze of the farm. Ducking in and around the hundreds of fruit trees and berry bushes. Skipping around tall rows of corn with light sheets dangling between the rows and narrow bushy tomato plants. Hiding behind multi layered stacked belts with potatoes dangling below the netting sprayed with nutrients while the wide leaves of the squat plants above soaked in the energy from blanket thin grow light panels only inches above the table nets. The heat of the deck combined with the lower oxygen, high CO-2 content of the air, was great for increasing plant and food production. But making the couple start feeling giddy as they chased each other through the seeming deserted deck that was usually crowded during day working hours. Sneaking around the few workers wearing breathing masks they saw.
“Mark. You need to put a breathing mask on with all the exorcising you have been doing. Dian is showing the same responses and needs a mask as well.”
Mark continued to run after Dian as she tripped falling onto the end of a low belt of wheat with the last few rows at the end of the belt ready to be harvested. The two of them rolled across the belt flattening the bio-engineered short dry stalks with large head clumps of grains.
“Oops, we are in trouble now darling.” Dian giggled as Mark tickled her giggling himself. “We better get out of here before we are caught.” She giggled some more panting.
“Mark you need to put on a breather. You were supposed to put on a breather when you walked onto the deck.”
“Don’t be so serious Mickey. No one wears a breather just walking through the deck. There is plenty of oxygen as long as you don’t start doing physical labor. And we ain’t working.” Mark panted as he rolled over on his back and stared up at the light panel only a couple feet above them. “Wow, this sun really looks strange Mickey.”
Dian turned over and tickled Mark then jumped up. “Last one into the water is a ground pounding dirt bag.” She started running through the next compartment only to bump into the side of another set of stacked tray tables growing rice as she made her way down the passageway.
Mark climbed up and started chasing her toward the hatch they had been heading for when they had gotten sidetracked. Bumping into just as many things as Dian was ahead of him, making him giggle more and more as his breath became more labored.
Dian disappeared through the curtain at the hatch and down the ladder. Mark followed hitting the side railing and slide down more than stepping. Getting his bearings at the bottom after a few seconds, he raced out the hatch. He looked ahead across the platform hanging out over the water with the bottom of the tank 4 stories below. Catwalks took off to the sides about 20 feet from the core hull running towards closed hatches in bu
lkheads leading to other tanks around the ship. A ramp right next to the core hull angled steeply down toward a series of platforms on its way to the bottom of the tank far below. Not seeing Dian down either catwalk or the ramp he stopped and stood there for several seconds looking for her. He decided that she had jumped in already, cloths and all as he started to strip his tee-shirt off. He rapidly walked toward the edge thinking of diving over the edge to catch up to her.
The few seconds of fast heavy breaths of air with a normal oxygen content was already clearing his head as he realized (with Mickey flashing an impossible to ignore warning as she screamed at him), that the gloomy tank was almost completely empty as he approached the edge. The water level was only a couple of feet above the deck far below. The empty tank was just registering as he suddenly became worried that Dian had already jumped like him and his friends had done many time in past years. Knowing that the tank level fluctuated wildly over the day as water usage varied across the ship he was not surprised he did not see any water right away. The constant water fall of purified water across from the platform streaming into the tank had always left the tank with a good 10 feet of water in the bottom. Only now the water fall was gone with not even a trickle though he could see the corrosion and deposits of minerals and rust streaking down from the old jagged pipe that remained.
With Mickey making sure he knew the tank was all but empty, he did not notice Dian as she leaned against the bulkhead next to the hatch he had come out of, still panting while stripping off her clothes.
Dian suddenly rushed up to Mark tickling him as he pulled his pants off and then she lunged for the edge of the platform. “Last one in is a Groveling beast.” She yelled looking over her shoulder at him instead of where she was going.
It took a half a second for Mark to react and start to move and reach for her. Having to finish pulling off his pants to do it. Dian started to dance looking over her shoulder, giving Mark a chance to catch up as she teased him wiggling her bare butt at him. Getting closer and closer to the edge.
“No Dian! Stop!” Mark tried to yell but he was not sure what came out of his mouth. “Tank’s Empty!” He finally got out as Dian approached the edge ready to jump.
Dian’s face changed color as she heard Mark’s warning and looked around and down. She had placed her feet with her toes hanging over the edge, bent over waving her butt at him exposing herself teasingly as she prepared to jump. Already starting to dive when Mark yelled at her. She looked around down at the water level fare below and immediately put on her breaks trying to stop. A scream coming from her lips but she was already falling forward. It was impossible to stop. She had no place to step to get her balance as her body kept going. Flailing her arms as her upper body tilted farther out into empty air, gaining speed.
Suddenly she felt something grab her arm painfully from behind and jerk her back toward the platform. She watched in shock as her feet slipped off the edge and she landed on her butt at the edge of the platform with her legs dangling down toward the water far below.
As the pain of Mark forcibly grabbing her ran up her arm, she realized that Mark was beside her as he sailed past her out into the open air toward the water far below. His legs slapping the deck of the platform next to her but going too fast to stop as he fell away from her head first, picking up speed in a perfect dive. She suddenly realized she could see an old silted personnel hatch on the bulkhead far below to the side of the compartment that told her the water was only a foot or two deep and if Mark hit that shallow water in a head first dive, he would break his neck killing himself instantly if the trauma to his head did not do it first.
Mark suddenly tucked his legs into his chest as he grabbed his knees tumbling him around until he stretched out again with his body parallel to the water. He held his arms and legs spread out while arching his back just in time to hit the water with a big splash arching up all around him as he slapped his hands down creating their own splash.
Shocked, Dian watched the water settled back to the surface as a wave ran out toward the sides of the tank leaving Mark covered with water for a few seconds until he floated up face down in the water.
Jumping up still naked her boobs flopping, she started running down the wide ramp that ran down the side of the tank with short platforms every 20 feet of ramp length or (6 feet of deck height) that kids had been using for as long as she could remember as a beach. Launching inflatable rafts and floats and having parties as the water level constantly changed with the wonderful water fall in the back ground that was not there anymore. She ran taking longer and longer strides as her speed built up leaping halfway across each the level ramps with single leaps. Only a couple of levels above the water she flung herself off doing a belly flop into the shallow water and then high step running back to Mark who had yet to move as she knelt beside him.
Grabbing Mark she rolled him over and realized that he had had his breath knocked out of him so he had yet to take a breath of water with his breathing muscles and diaphragm still frozen from the trauma of the impact. Bending down she blew a good breath into him as she held him in her arms. Tears running down her eyes she blew a second time into him, filling his chest even though his muscles were still trying to rebel. And then he started taking the short breaths his traumatized diaphragm would let him as his eyes opened and she started to relax.
A few minutes later she was kissing him with her legs wrapping around him as they finished another wonderful round of love when they heard laughing from above and then Mark grabbed her and roughly jerking her to the side as a big splash erupted where they had been laying, followed by a good thump as the long heavy object hit the deck the water covered.
Looking up they saw Chet and two friends leaning over the top platform looking down at them. “Damn Collins. I missed you.” Chet shouted. The three of them started down the long ramp. “Swim on back to the ramp before you get tired and drown moron.” Chet’s two Cronies had long pipes held in their hands. “I want to show you how I appreciate you filing charges against me. Hell I can’t believe you did not die with your friend when he fell off the platform. Damn clumsy of him taking you with him.”
Mark realized that Chet had thrown his pipe down the 5 short stories but it did not even dawn on him to pick it up to use himself.
Dian started to stand up in the shallow water but Mark pulled her back down not being that gentle in his haste to keep Chet from realizing that the water was not that deep. “That is all right Chet. I already know how much you appreciate everything I do but this time I am just going to have to tell you to go fuck yourself unless you three want to have an orgy right here and now as we watch.”
Dian turned to him shocked at the way he had handled her and what he had said. “Why are you antagonizing him Mark and let me go I am leaving.”
Mark shook his head as he forced her to remain prone and started whispering. “He is going to kill me and you as a witness. That is why they brought those pipes along to use as weapons. He already tried once with the pipe that almost hit us a few seconds ago.”
“That is crazy talk Mark. People don’t do those things aboard the Queen. Now let me up.” She demanded but Mark held tightly onto her rapping his legs around hers, forcing her to swim in the two foot shallow water using her arms.
“Chet. You really don’t have to kill me. I will testify that we were simply old friends playing.” Dian started wiggling trying to break Marks hold on her as she turned red. Getting pissed.
“No Ass hole. I still have to kill you and your bitch as a witness. Just to make sure you don’t pull anymore of your stupid tricks.”
Dian suddenly quieted down as her mouth dropped open in shock.
“Tell you what Chet. If you let us go, I will pay for your dad’s truck and drop the charges.”
“You think I am that stupid. You come down here at this time of night where I can kill you without anyone finding out about it and expect me to believe that you had a sudden change of heart and simply let you go?” Ch
et smiled from ear to ear. “After all the times I have beaten you up over the years you think I am that stupid.”
“Well then at least let Dian go, she never did anything to you. She even helped you when I kicked your butt. You owe her that. She hasn’t seen anything yet.”
“I don’t owe that bitch anything but tell you what, if she sucks my dick and let me shoot her up making her forget even her parents to become my sex slave, I suppose I could let her live. That depends on how good she is sucking my dick while you watch.” Stopping on the next platform up from the lower deck as he pulled out his dick for her to see rubbing it to make it hard. “Swim on overhear bitch.” Turning to one of his buddies he whispered. “As soon as she finishes me off, you can beat her brains out with your pipe. Just make the first hit a good hard one so you don’t make a mess with a second swing. We will put Collins fingers on the pipe when we get a hold of him after he drowns. Make it look like a murder suicide.”
“Hey I want her to suck mine too.” Said one of the goons.
“Forget it. I don’t share.” Then looking at his disappointed face. “I will get you a special girl in Dads whore compartment when we finish here.”
Dian’s face turned white as Mickey made sure she heard every word.
Chet turned back to Mark. “Besides if you really cared about her, you would have died with your little buddy when I blew you two over the side of A hold’s ramp. Damn smart of you using a zero Gee tether line no one could see as a safety line but you aren’t going to be that lucky here.”
The tank deck was divided into a dozen wedge shaped compartments forming a donut around the core of the upper engine rooms. Each compartment had hatches lined up one over the other at levels corresponding to the platforms along the ramp Dian and now Chet and his buddies were standing on. The open hatches connecting the now missing decks in each compartment with the ones next to it. Now left open allowing the water to flow between compartments with the bulkheads acting as baffles to keep the mass of fluid from adversely affecting the ship if it sloshed from side to side. Only the top platform still had part of the original deck running across the top of the compartment held up by rods dangling down from the overhead forming a catwalk with rails added.
Tramp Wars: The Enemy Page 55