“Hi Patty, have a seat. You can call me Cynthia and this trouble maker is my trainee Ensign Sparks.”
“I guess that means you moved out?” Sparks asked with a pout.
“‘Fraid so.”
“What’s this suit training tomorrow morning we’re scheduled for?” Cynthia asked.
“The Captain wants all the shuttle crews to get class three suit training.” Matt answered as he took a bite of his food.
“Class three suits?” Cynthia asked with a questioning look.
“Yeah. Those are the old emergency balloon suits.” Patty piped in.
“Oh, those old things? Do we still even have 'em in inventory?” Cynthia asked.
“Not only do we have them, they are up to date and serviceable. All the shuttles are going to be fitted with them.” Matt told them.
“I thought they got rid of them for weight years ago.” Cynthia said.
“I don’t know what the original decision was, but the Captain doesn’t want to have a repeat of Mars, so she wants the shuttle crews to be able to handle a no air emergency.” Matt said as he dug into a large slab of turkey.
“So we’re going to train on them?” Sparks asked skeptically.
“More than that. You’re going to don one and go into the airlock with it.” He said.
“Crap. That isn’t going to be fun.” Sparks said. “The instructor at the academy called them idiot condoms, because only an idiot would ever put one on and hope it worked.”
“I did it today, it’s not too bad. They do really work.” Matt said.
“That explains a lot.” Sparks said. “I heard from Trina that she went down to find you and you were a bit busy with Petty Officer Jenkins, and she was more than a little underdressed.”
Matt looked startled. “What did she say?”
“Just that Jenkins was naked and helping you to get the same way…out of a suit.” Sparks said.
“Ohhhhh… Were you being a bad boy?” Cynthia chided with a crooked grin.
Matt looked back and forth at the two of them. “Look, what is it with women around here. It seems like the favorite past time is to talk about who’s getting who and finding someone to do it with.”
“Hey, no reason to get testy.” Sparks said. “If you don’t like the attention, just say so.”
“Let him go.” Patty said. “We just got done having a long talk about how horny all the women seem to be in space.”
“Yeah. I found that too.” Cynthia said. “My first tour I felt like I would screw anything hard, now I’m a bit more discriminating. I could still go several times a day if the opportunity allowed it. I think that’s why there are so many women in the program. We don’t get that on earth and it’s hard to walk away from once you’ve experienced it. . And these transits really bring it to a head for some reason. Maybe it’s the high velocity or something, but I have to say that I’m always hornier when we’re doing an interplanetary coast.”
“You’d think the guys would eat it up.” Sparks said looking at Matt.
“It’s a training thing. They get taught to have one girl at a time and some of them can’t handle two or three; or more.” Cynthia chided a blushing Matt.
“Well as long as I can find it, I plan on getting it!” Patty piped up. “I mean, thank God for mixed berths.”
“Yeah.” Cynthia said. “I think it was started by some dirty old man who wanted to see lots of t and a, but ended up being a boon for the women in the fleet. I think we outnumber the men on most ships, and once the hormones get flowing we can be pretty uninhibited.”
“You can say that again.” Patty said enthusiastically. “I’ve seen women walk between quarters naked and even in work spaces a few times. Hell, even I went without my bra all day once.”
“Now that’s saying something.” Sparks said. “I mean with the size of your hooters…”
Patty reached across the table and slapped her arm playfully. “No teasing in front of the men.”
“Ok, girls.” Matt said standing up, his face and neck pink after the conversation he had listened to. I have to go check on Trina. She should be just coming on duty down in the armory.”
“Ok Matt.” Sparks said with a wink. “See you later!”
Matt walked off, leaving his half eaten food on the table as he retreated and headed down to the armory.
Trina was seated at the desk completing paperwork on a data pad when he walked in.
“Oh good you’re here.” she said. “I have a question.”
“Now, if we take these suits here out of inventory to install in the shuttles,” she said pointing to the screen, “what are you going to use for training?”
“Ouch. I didn’t realize so many of them were unserviceable.” He said leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen. “What’s the status of this group down here?” He asked pointing to the screen.
Trina typed the appropriate commands to get into the service files for the indicated suits, and quickly got a security warning. “You’re going to have to authorize access to these files.” She said.
“Ok. Close your eyes.” Matt said as he reached an arm around each side of her to type his pass code.
“Hmmmm, you smell good.” She whispered to him, putting her hands on his arms, pulling them closer to her own body.
“At ease Trina.” Matt said quietly, pulling his arms back away. “This isn’t the time or the place for this.”
“Why not?” She asked quietly.
“It’s just not appropriate.” Matt said. “I know you like me and I like you, but with you working under my chain of command, we can’t have a relationship. Friends are fine, but we can’t let it get to be more than that. Ok?”
She turned around in the chair, looking up at him, tears welling up in her eyes. “You’re sure?”
“I’m afraid so. I’m sorry Trina.”
“What if we weren’t working together?”
“Then things would be a lot different. But for now we have to live with what’s in front of us. Maybe some time in the future, we can have something more. But not right now.” Matt told her quietly
Trina reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face closer to hers. She gently kissed him on the lips, allowing him to return it. They stayed locked in the embrace for long seconds, each of them temporarily lost in the sensations and feelings they had for each other. Finally with resignation, they both pulled back from the kiss. “Just something to remember me by, then.” Trina said, her voice choked with emotion.
“Don’t worry, you are quite unforgettable.” Matt said, still leaning over, his face inches from hers.
“I hope so Matt Molter!” She said, her voice wavering slightly. Then abruptly she pushed him back and practically ran out of the office, leaving him standing, staring at the empty chair. He dropped into the chair heavily, wondering if he should, or even could have, done that differently. He was torn between what he felt for her, which was quite strong, and the need to set themselves apart because of their duty on the ship. He sat for a long time pondering his feelings before he finally decided that if he did what he wanted, both of them would be in trouble.
Hours later Matt made the crisscross trip back to his cabin, walking in to a dark and empty room, pausing to think about Trina. With a sigh, he undressed and took a shower before flopping onto his bunk still naked and turning on the vid screen. He found a decent action movie in the archives and settled in to watch it, dropping off to sleep long before it ended.
The next morning Matt got up and dressed quietly, making sure not to wake his roommates, and then headed down to the suit repair office to see if Jenkins was there. He lucked out and found her sitting at the desk working on repair and status reports. “Petty Officer Jenkins.” He said,
She shot to her feet. “Aye sir!”
“At ease. I have a job for you if you want it.”
“Yes sir, what can I do for you sir?” She said in a businesslike manner.
“I have all th
e pilots scheduled for class three suit training, and I need someone certified to conduct it. I checked the records and found you were one of the few that are still certified. Would you mind helping me handle those training sessions?”
“Certainly sir!” she said, “I’d be happy to help you sir, as long as I get to be naked with you some more.”
“Thanks… I think!” Matt replied with a shake of his head as he headed out to go to the bridge.
Chapter 8 - The Ropes of Command
Matt arrived on the bridge and looked around. The Captain was sitting in the command seat with a frown on her face. Trina saw him walk in and motioned him to her station.
“We have a problem. One of the four forward cannons went off line last night. I’ve run all the systems checks I can but it looks like a hard failure of the rail gun control pack. The only way to fix it is to go outside and do it.” Ensign Forester reported to him.
“Very well. I’ll have to EVA and work on it.” Matt said.
“Lieutenant Molter, may I see you in my cabin please?” the Captain called emphatically as she got up and walked off the bridge.
Matt cringed, wondering what he did wrong and followed her out and into her cabin.
“Mister Molter. Are you in command of your department?” She asked sternly.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Then why are you trying to do everything yourself?”
“I don’t understand ma’am.”
“You’re doing all the suit training?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“And now you’re going to EVA to make repairs that any qualified Ensign can do?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Lieutenant. You’re not an Ensign any longer. Your job is to train your people to do their jobs, not to do it for them. Select a detail to make the repairs. Do you understand me, Lieutenant?”
Matt snapped to attention at the last line. “Yes Ma’am!” he snapped.
The Captain shook her head. “At ease, Lieutenant. I didn’t mean for you to “go Academy” here. You are a junior officer, but you’re not a plebe or an Ensign. You need to start learning how to be a commander. I think you have it in you. Now you need to start learning what it means to command. Do you understand?”
“Yes ma’am.” He said more softly and visibly relaxing.
“Good, now how are things going other than those two items?”
“Fine ma’am.”
“Fine? Let’s see, you moved out of a billet with one in your direct chain of command and now you’re rooming with three female officers of equal rank. I take it you have figured out what high speed transits do to women?”
“Yes ma’am. I have been experiencing the effects.”
“Now that is a novel way to put it. The faster we go, the worse it gets. I suggested that you get your own cabin because I expected that the effects would be hard for you to handle; with three women in the same room and no chain of command or rank concerns in the way. Now how is that going?”
“It’s going ok ma’am. It’s not something I can’t handle, besides, I really would rather not take the commanders old cabin.”
“Very well. Now, I have had the engineering department complaining. It seems that there have been sporadic outages of the grav system in a number of sets of quarters. It seems that you started a trend.”
“Ma’am?”
“With your escapades in the shuttle. Most of the outages have been traced to deliberate disconnects. I presume that the women that have been watching your video have been deciding to give it a go as well. Do you have any ideas on how we might deal with this?”
Matt looked at her practically in shock.
“It’s ok Lieutenant, you’re not in trouble… I just want to know how you might deal with this problem if you were the ships Captain.”
“Well ma’am.” Matt said after a long pause to think. “Disconnecting the grav field and dampers is flat dangerous, so it needs to be stopped. Stopping the women in their current state of hormones will be difficult at best. I presume that the reason it’s happening in quarters is to keep them from ending up on video like I was.”
“That’s a good guess. But how do you solve the problem?” The Captain pushed.
Matt thought for few moments. “I think a space that is set up for zero g without security cameras in it would be best.”
“Continue.”
“Take the security cameras out of the zero g gym rooms. That would give three rooms for them to sneak off to that would be safe.”
“Very good Lieutenant. That is a creative and safe solution that takes care of your crew while still maintaining ships security and safety. That’s how a commander is supposed to think.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Now, we have been in here long enough for the bridge crew to decide that this isn’t just an ass chewing session. It wouldn’t have looked good for me pull you off the bridge and then let you go back and change your orders; it could have done considerable damage to your command authority. Now if we go back you can issue whatever you want and it won’t look like you were told not to do it the way you intended.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Very well. Dismissed.”
“Aye Ma’am.” Matt said, turning on his heel and walking out.
He can go a long way if he tries. She said to herself as she closed the door. I might just have to try that zero g workout myself some time. She thought with a chuckle.
Matt walked onto the bridge and strode over to Trina. “Ensign Forester, schedule a detail for the end of your bridge duty to make the repairs on the rail gun. I would like for you to be in charge of the EVA.”
“Aye sir!” she said crisply.
“Very good. Carry on.” He said as he turned and headed off the bridge. Matt made his way back down to the suit room to see how the training was going with Jenks. He strode into the room just as Cynthia was stepping out of her jump suit, leaving her wearing nothing but a very tiny pair of panties. Well look who’s finally here!” She said with a huge grin, tossing her jump suit onto the table. “I thought the three of us were going to have to get naked without getting to enjoy the view of you doing the same!”
“Well, thank you for the compliment, but I have no doubt that the three of you look much better naked than I do.” Matt said surveying the three of them, Jenks completely naked and Sparks and Cynthia in only underwear. Cynthia stepped toward Matt and slid an arm around his body, pulling the two of them together as her other hand started to slide the zipper of his jump suit down.
“Well, let me help you get out of this and we’ll just see if you look as good as I think you will,” she said quietly as her hips pressed against his, her hand pulling his zipper down farther, exposing more of his chest only inches from her own.
Matt reached one hand up to hers, stopping her from sliding it down farther, his other sliding around her body and stroking the small of her back. “I would love to continue this, but you have some training to do, and I, unfortunately, will not be joining you.”
“You know, that’s a shame,” she whispered, “because after we get done we could share a shower tube. It would be fun to wash all that sweat off each other, wouldn’t it?” She leaned herself against him trapping his hand in the soft valley between her breasts as she brushed her lips across his, breathing out softly so he could feel her hot breath on his lips. “What do you think? Would you like to finish taking what little I am still wearing off and helping me take a shower, just the two of us?” she whispered so quietly he could barely hear her.
“That is a very tempting suggestion, but I really do have something else I need to do.”
“Well, I’ll let you go if you promise to share that shower with me later, and maybe after that we can share a little bit more?”
“I don’t think I can refuse that invitation.” Matt said with a small sigh.
“I didn’t think you could,” she whispered as she brought her lips back to his, pressing them gently against his in a
soft sensual kiss. She held the kiss for several seconds before allowing their lips to separate and their bodies as well. “Don’t forget now, you promised,” she said breathily as she stepped back.
“I won’t,” he answered quietly, his heartbeat pounding in his ears.
“So you won’t be joining us?” A naked Jenks said from where she was leaning against the table, her arms crossed under her perky breasts, her dark green eyes flashing a touch of jealousy at him.
Fleet Academy Page 19