by M. D. Cooper
“And probably more than you want,” Sera added.
Cheeky stood and pulled Nance up after her. The two woman left and Sera following them out into the corridor; Cheeky cast a grin back at Sera as she guided Nance into her cabin. Cheeky always loved a project.
Cargo passed through the corridor and into his cabin, grumbling that Thompson must have cheated to win so fast, and that he didn’t even know where his nice shoes were.
Sera had to admit that the prospect piqued her interest. She reached the airlock in less than a minute where she found a ubiquitous silver cylinder.
Sera did as instructed, and felt the distinct tingle of a large volume of nanobots passing into her body.
Her arm began to feel full as the canister emptied. From the weight difference she guessed that almost two kilograms worth of nano were flooding her. A prompt appeared from the bots, requesting access to her core brain to nano interface—apparently to upgrade it.
Despite slight misgivings, she accepted, curiosity winning out over trepidation.
Her interface programming was updated and Sera immediately felt greater clarity regarding to the state of her body. She had always thought that her implants gave her very fine-tuned control over physical state, but now she realized that it had always been a blurry image at best. She could now introspect and adjust every muscle, every gland, even her individual cells down to their DNA.
Sera felt her skin begin to tingle and then itch. It wasn’t like the searing pain when she first tripped Rebecca’s DNA-based trap, but she held her breath, afraid it would get there. The feeling worked its way from her toes up her body. It didn’t stop at her neck—where her glossy black skin ended—but crept up her face and over her head.
She peered at herself in the airlock’s glass window. Her entire head was now also covered in the glossy black skin. She could even feel it on the inside of her cheeks.
A second later a new interface appeared in her mental HUD. She explored its options, realizing that she now had full control over both the color, sheen and texture of her skin.
“This is incredible…” she whispered to herself. “Cheeky is going to be so jealous!”
She changed her flesh from black, to a pewter grey, to a light pink, and then realized it didn’t all have to be the same color. She experimented with dozens of combinations before changing her skin back to something near her original coloring, though more reflective.
Sera’s thoughts bunched up as she wondered what Bob meant by ‘divined.’
His wording was curious, but Sera pushed it from her mind. She had dallied long enough and still had to find the right outfit.
THE CALM BEFORE
STELLAR DATE: 10.28.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Two and a half hours later, Sera was standing in the galley, preparing a cup of coffee, when Flaherty and Cargo came in. Cargo wore his formal grey suit, which he often used for more important trade meetings, and Flaherty wore the high collared, black suit she remembered him sporting several times before their exile.
“I didn’t know you still had that,” she said softly.
Flaherty shrugged. “I figured it would come in handy someday.”
As he spoke, his eyes settled on her and he joined Cargo in an appreciative stare before shaking his head and moving to the counter and busying himself with a drink.
She had changed the color of her skin to something approximating a natural tone, but from her jawline down it gleamed and sparkled. Above it was as close in texture and shine to real skin as she could manage.
The gown she wore was a deep red, ankle length, armless sheath; which had an embossed white polymer vine—complete with flowers—running up her right side, around her waist and ending under her breasts. Long, red gloves, which reached her armpits, finished the look.
Her hair was pulled up into a knot on the back of her head, from which it cascaded down her back in long curls. Several wisps framed her face, which bore light, yet well accentuated makeup.
“Do you like the dress guys?” She asked while moving forward to sit down at the table. Her left leg completely exposed with each step.
“Looks great,” Cargo grunted and joined Flaherty at the counter.
“Why does the boss have to be so sexy?” he asked Flaherty quietly.
“You’re lucky,” Flaherty grunted. “I’m practically her uncle.”
A minute later, Thompson walked in to grab a drink and stopped dead in his tracks.
“Holy cow, Captain. That’s quite the dress. Plan on seducing the Intrepid’s captain or something?”
Sera laughed. “That would be quite the twist wouldn’t it?”
“Be a good laugh,” Cargo chuckled. “I wonder what Tanis would think.”
A wave of guilt and frustration washed over Sera at the thought of Tanis, but she pushed it from her mind.
Thompson sat down at the table and grinned at the other two men in their suits. “You guys ready to go be bored?”
Cargo gave Thompson a rather undignified hand gesture and Flaherty simply grunted as he sat and took a drink from his mug. Sera caught Thompson stealing a glance at her breasts as they gleamed in the light, before his attention was grabbed by cough from the entrance. They all looked up to see Cheeky enter the wardroom, followed by Nance.
Thompson rose to his feet, his eyes wide as he took in Nance. Without a word he ran from the room.
She hadn’t taken her eyes off of the two women, and neither had Cargo, nor even Flaherty, though he was hiding much of his face behind his coffee cup. Sera had been expecting Cheeky to wear something that would require a shawl to cover, but her pilot had surprised her yet again.
Cheeky wore a long silk dress in a shade of light gold that set off her hair. It was sleeveless and cut deeply, displaying her ample cleavage. It was tight a
cross her body and down to her knees where it fell loosely in a shimmering cascade. She spun slowly after entering the room and the whole dress seemed to slide and dance on her skin.
Her hair was swept up in an elaborate configuration that caused small tendrils to spill down on the sides of her face, the rest seemingly suspended above her head in a gravity defying display.
Nance was equally stunning in a light blue silk dress, also sleeveless, with a tight bodice and swaths of silk draped artfully across her stomach. From there it fell nearly straight, its satin folds reflecting the light as she moved side to side, causing the fabric to sway and caress her hips. Her hair was down, its soft even curls flowing down her back, with light blue hair clips holding it back from her face. She wore several bracelets and a pair of high heels fastened by thin straps.
“Wow,” Cargo finally said aloud.
“Wow is right!” Sera exclaimed. “Suddenly I feel like I may be underdressed. You girls going to a dance I didn’t know about?”
“A girl doesn’t get much of a chance to dress up in this line of work,” Cheeky said as she spun again. “Besides, after what Nance picked out I couldn’t be outdone.” She beckoned for Sera to stand up. “You don’t quite match though; you’re all glossy while we’re all shimmery.”
“You’ll have to shine as best you can next to my radiance,” Sera grinned. “I rather like this look.”
Nance pointed to the slit running up to Sera’s hip. “You’ve been around Cheeky for too long. That’s not exactly formal.”
Sera laughed. “You’d be surprised how many worlds would consider this too much clothing for formal.” Even so she ran her finger down the seam, lowering the slit to mid-thigh. “Better? Any lower and I’ll only be able to take four inch steps”
Nance nodded.
They waited several more minutes for Thompson to return. He was wearing his deep blue naval uniform from his days in the Scipio military, and his hair was actually brushed nicely and pulled behind his ears. He was blushing furiously as he entered the wardroom, with everyone’s eyes on him.
“I…uh…” he stammered as he stopped in front of Nance. “I was wondering if you’d let me escort you.”
Nance flushed as well. “Me?”
“Yeah. If I’d known you were going, I would have lost to Cargo. I’d really like to take you.”
The smile that spread across Nance’s face transformed her from the slightly nervous looking woman she had been a minute ago to a radiant beauty. “I’d love for you to escort me.”
“We should go,” Flaherty rose and extended his arm for Sera. She slipped hers into his, and a happy memory of the first time she had done that came back to her.
“Oh what is this?” Cheeky said as Thompson and Nance filed out past her into the lift. “Since when am I the only one without a date?”
Cargo looked like he really didn’t want to be left out, and Sera shrugged. Why not, if Sabrina wasn’t safe here, where could she be.
“Cargo,” she called from the corridor. “Sabrina says she’ll be fine. Come on with us.”
He almost ran out of the wardroom and joined them in the lift. When it disgorged them onto the ship’s main deck, he took Cheeky’s arm and the group exited the airlock onto the Intrepid’s deck.
Their escort turned out to be Tanis, who stood waiting beside a groundcar in a crisp blue uniform. Her left breast was nearly covered with service ribbons and medals while no small number of foreign service medals adorned her right.
“Wow, that’s one chest full of metal!” Cheeky said with a grin as they approached. “The ship’s been a bit too quiet without you around.”
She embraced Tanis, and then it was the general’s turn to stare in wonder.
“Nance?” she asked. “I didn’t recognize you at first. You look amazing!”
Nance smiled, a beautiful expression that filled her eyes with happiness. “Thanks. One of your bios helped me with my phobia—I don’t know if you knew I’m terrified of germs. I can now go out without that damn suit.”
“I had my suspicions; I’m really glad to hear someone helped you out. Who was it?”
“Her name is Terry, she works with a rather odious man named Dr. Philips,” Nance replied.
“I see her on the roster, though I’ve never had the opportunity to meet her,” Tanis said. “I’ll see if I can do something nice for her sometime.”
Tanis looked to Sera and an awkward moment passed between them before Tanis held out her hand.
Sera’s breath caught.
“Come,” Tanis gestured for everyone to enter the groundcar. “We’d best not keep Earl waiting.”
The car ride was short and brought them back to the maglev station from which Sera had disembarked yesterday. They boarded the train and rocked in their seats as it accelerated rapidly down the line.
“Whoah!” Cheeky exclaimed as the car left the Intrepid’s hull and raced across one of the structural arcs.
“The train we took yesterday didn’t do this,” Thompson added. “You guys are nuts,” he said to Tanis.
The general chuckled. “You should take one to the stasis bays sometime. There’s no track for the last hundred meters to the cylinders. You just line up and shoot into a moving hole.”
“You realize this is supposed to be a starship, not a high-risk amusement park, right?” Thompson said while shaking his head.
“Was pretty common back in our time,” Tanis said with a shrug. “We didn’t have inertial dampeners, so speed and finesse didn’t always go hand in hand. On a ship this big—and most stations for that matter—you want to get places? That’s how it’s done.”
“I really want to see that stuff someday,” Nance said wistfully. “Even if it means going to Sol.”
“I’ve had my fill,” Tanis said quietly. “I’ll never go back there.”
No one spoke for the rest of the ride, and Sera saw that the train stopped one station further from the bridge than it had the day before.
The platform was wildly different than any of the stops she had seen yet. It appeared to be more of a food bazaar than a maglev station. A huge ring of vendor’s stands and restaurant facades surrounded the platform. Servers—both robotic and human—walked amongst the throngs, offering samples and hawking their menus.
“Your…starship has a food court,” Sera stated the obvious.
“It has several dozen. This one is left over from construction. Some companies bid for the rights to set up restaurants in the ship and when we left we didn’t bother removing the facilities. It makes an interesting forward mess.” Tanis threaded her way through the tables and Sera followed with her crew.
“Slow down a bit, these heels are not made for this typ
e of maneuvering.” Nance called from behind.
Tanis obliged, slowing her pace.
“I thought it would be more formal than this,” Sera said, half expecting to see a couple of tables pushed together with the captain at their head.
“Don’t worry, it is. We’re just taking the back way in.”
They passed the crush of tables and slipped between a pair of short-order restaurants. From there Tanis led them into a long corridor. The smells in the food court were pleasant, but the smells coming down this hall were nothing short of delectable. She held open a door and everyone filed through into a large, well-appointed kitchen.
Within, directing battalions of chefs, was the largest man Sera had ever seen. She considered he had to be at least three hundred pounds. She had seen a lot of heavy worlders—or mod freaks—who were large, or strong, but this man was not like that. She could only think of him as a jovial mountain of jelly.
“Tanis!” He rushed toward the general and Sera worried for a moment that he would simply bowl her over. He managed to stop short and wrapped her in his massive embrace. “Tanis! I am so glad you are back. When Priscilla told me, I was beside myself with joy.” He looked over her shoulder. “And who are these beautiful people gracing my kitchen? The ladies all look good enough to eat if—I weren’t so full from sampling this evening’s meal.” With that he wrapped he arms around his belly and laughed.
“I thought you were never full, Earl,” Tanis replied with a warm smile. “This is Captain Sera; she’s here helping us out with our current little problem. The others are her crew, the people who helped save me.” Tanis introduced them all in turn, and the chef cast his smiling gaze over the throng.
“Welcome to my kitchen Captain Sera and Sabrina’s crew!” he bellowed as he slipped around Tanis with a grace Sera would never expect a man so large to possess, and wrapped her in an embrace as well. “It is good to meet you. I had despaired that we had entered a time of ruffians and evil men with those ungrateful wretches out there.”
Sera wondered if he meant outside the Intrepid, or just anywhere outside of his kitchen.