by S. W. Gunn
“Cut all of the relay blocks and let’s see how it does in the real world.”
“Affirmative.”
Immediately the sensors began to scan the space that they had passed through and the results were exactly as he had predicted.
“Johnathan your improvements are working how we estimated they would. We are able to scan over three times the distance we could before. It also appears that the amount of detail and accuracy is also far superior to our old sensors. I am showing a factor of 3.6 of improvement.”
He beamed proudly. It was worth the effort and now he would have to repeat it three more times. Pondering for a moment about it he decided to do the forward sensor array next. He could build a new one, replace this one and install the new one into this sensor array’s position. That way he would have a fully functioning one ready to just install on the forward sensor array right away. A light flickered on his watch to let him know he was receiving a call on his holo-projector. He tapped the activation button and an image of Lead Engineer Mugabe. He was a dark skinned man with closely cropped black hair, a round face, and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a dark gray work tunic.
“Technician Fischer what did you do to the rear sensor array.”
“Sir I completely redesigned it and rebuilt it.”
“Forward me your specifications. I wish to review your design.”
“Yes sir.”
The holo-projector terminated. Johnathan played with the computer on the sensor array and after collecting all of his information he forwarded the designs to the Lead Engineer. His watch beeped with an awaiting message. After he finished with the computer he read the message from Rose. It said ‘Great job love you!’ He still had an hour and a half before his torture session with her so he went to requisitions to get material to make another sensor array. He could not take down the forward array for a day so he would have to make a new one first.
“What is the plan now?” Mark asked.
“First I’ll make a second array. Once it is complete I’m going to test it and install it into the rear sensor array. Then I’ll take the functioning one and quickly install it into the forward sensor array’s position.”
“Very wise. We want to limit the time the forward sensor array is down.”
“It should only take me about twenty minutes to take out the old one and install the new one. Let’s go requisition the parts. I want to get the fabrication started so it will be done tomorrow after my morning abuse session.”
“At least she rewards you after the abuse right?” Mark asked.
Johnathan was certain he heard more than a little sarcasm in Mark’s tone of voice. He was quite impressed with how easily Mark seemed to be able to express emotion with his voice via a loudspeaker.
“Let’s go.” Johnathan said grumpily before starting out towards the exit.
He could hear Mark’s podium activate as he followed behind Johnathan. They went to the requisitions office and after a bit of convincing he was able to get the materials that he needed loaded onto a dolly. After wheeling the dolly to the reprocessor he programmed it to give him the exact replica of the sensor array it had made the day before. First thing tomorrow he would be able to take the finished product and get right to work. Another glance at his watch let him know he had about ten minutes before Rose was supposed to meet him at her quarters. Walking as quickly as he could, he headed there so he could change clothes. He heard Mark’s wheels rolling behind him and once they got into Rose’s quarters Johnathan headed into the bedroom. To his surprise Rose was already there. He had expected her to be wearing her workout clothing but instead she was wearing a very complex looking outfit that appeared to consist of several layers, she even had long gloves on. Every part of her body was covered by her outfit except her head. Her hair was pulled upwards and into a tight fitting bun on the back of her head and she was wearing an unusual looking round cap. The whole outfit was a light greenish blue color.
“That’s an interesting outfit.” He told her.
Giving him a wide grin she stated, “It’s part of an experiment. Get dressed for a work out.”
Quickly getting dressed he took her hand as she began to walk out. It felt odd holding her gloved hand. She guided him to the command gym. After they went into the gym she played with the control doors. He guessed that she was locking the door.
Speaking loudly she said, “Mark please disable the cameras in the command gym.”
Over the speakers Mark’s voice kicked out, “Affirmative. Task complete, have fun Rosemary.”
With a chuckle she stated, “Oh I will.”
Johnathan was starting to think it might be too late for him to escape. Rose walked over to the racks and picked up two modulators. She handed them to him and as he took them she played with the settings, which made them heavier than the last time they were there.
“We’re going to play a little game today.”
Her voice seemed to be usually seductive for the setting.
“Alright.”
“You will perform each set of the exercises that we did last time. I noticed a limited amount of motivation on your part so I’m going to provide you with motivation to perform each set properly.”
She paused for dramatic purposes, which he guessed may have been to gauge his reaction. He was quite curious what her idea of motivation was so he raised an eyebrow at her.
Continuing she said, “Every time you complete a set correctly I’ll remove a piece of clothing. If you fail to perform a set correctly I will put a piece of clothing back on. If you can get all of my clothing off we’ll stop and you can do anything you want to me right here in the gym.”
He chuckled as he thought to himself that she was quite good at finding a way to inspire him. Walking away from him she went to the fitness computer and played with it before a holo-projector shot out an image of the first exercise.
“Begin.” She said firmly to him.
Copying the exercise, he performed the ten repetitions that were displayed. She smiled seductively at him as she reached up over her head with her hands and lifted her hat off her head, which she then casually tossed aside. He quite liked this game. The projector began displaying the next exercise, which he copied. This time she removed a glove. As time passed he was successful in getting a good amount of her clothing removed. She was now only wearing a bra and her skirt, which he guessed was hiding only a pair of underwear. Unfortunately his arms were extremely fatigued. Her outfit was many more layers than he had initially thought. The next exercise started and he struggled through the third repetition before his arms gave out as he tried to lift his arms upward to copy the move.
She clucked her tongue at him before saying, “So disappointing. You were doing so well and I was certain that you’d be taking me on this floor soon but...”
Bending over she picked up her top and slipped it back on. He was flustered and refused to quit now. The next exercise began and he ignored his muscles, which begged him to stop, while copying the exercise.
Once he finished the repetition she stated, “I was rooting for you.”
She slowly removed her top, exposing her bra once again. At this point he refused to not win this game. The next exercise started and he put everything he had to complete the repetitions. He was getting exhausted had but he was able to finish the exercise. Rose wickedly smiled at him as she slid her skirt off. He was surprised by the underwear she was wearing. It was thin, lacy, and appeared to be nothing more than a small patch of cloth with a few strings holding it all together.
“Do you like them?” She asked running her finger across the top of her underwear.
He nodded at her. The next exercise began and he found himself much more capable of finishing the repetitions. She reached back and after some playing with the back of her bra she unhooked it before slipping it off, exposing her bare chest. At this point he had enough of the game so he dropped the motivators, which thumped loudly as they hit the ground, before strolling up to he
r and pulling her into his arms. She laughed loudly as he kissed her.
* * * * *
After a shower they went to get dinner at the primary cafeteria. This time they were serving a stew that was made up of small chunks of the protein bar, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, and spinach. It was all poured on rice before served. He found it a little bland but some salt and pepper spiced it up just a little. As he sat down Rose gave him a grin.
“What is your next meeting?” He asked her.
Chuckling she informed him, “I’m free tonight, which is a rare change of pace.”
“Oh that’s great. I was hoping to spend time with you.”
“What do you call what we have been doing?”
He chuckled before saying, “Well the sex, meals, and sleeping are nice but I’d really like to just spend time with you.”
“Not enjoying your time in the gym?” She asked.
He shook his head at her which she responded to be laughing.
She asked, “What would you like to do?”
“Mark wrote a sonata that he wanted me to play it so I thought that I’d play it and you could hear it. Unless you have something else you’d rather do.”
“That sounds lovely. I’m going to have to spend some time with Mark correcting his programming about philosophy.”
Johnathan chuckled. That was a conversation that he knew he would have to find a way to avoid. They continued to eat dinner and once done she took his arm before they headed back to her quarters.
Mark was waiting for them and as they entered he said, “Welcome home.”
Before Johnathan could say anything Rose said, “Thank you Mark. I was impressed with the results of you and John’s efforts.”
“Thank you Rosemary. I cannot take much credit as I only came up with the initial idea but Johnathan was the one who expanded and executed the plan.”
Chuckling Johnathan responded, “It was a team effort. I’m just happy it worked so well. Hoping to have all of the sensors replaced soon and then we’re moving onto the energy storage systems.”
He slipped off his boots and walked from the living room into the room where all of his equipment was stored. His violin was sitting in the small box he had made for it. Gently removing the violin and the bow he walked back out into the living room. Mark was sitting in the middle of the floor and Rose sat on the couch with her legs folded under her while leaning into the arm of the couch.
“Alright Mark let’s give this sonata a try. Hopefully I don’t mangle it too bad on my first go.”
Mark chuckled before his holo-projector flickered and the sheet music appeared. Johnathan took a moment to read it. It looked quite complex. Lifting up his bow to his cheek he began to struggle through the song. Between several mistakes he was finally able to fight his way through and complete it. Rose clapped politely once he finished.
“Sorry I mangled it.” Johnathan stated.
“It was pretty though.” Rose interjected.
He nodded before Mark replied, “Thank you. I worked hard to try and emulate much of other pieces into what I felt was a good composition.”
“Emulate?” Rose asked.
“Indeed Rosemary. I looked at many of the greatest historical pieces to assemble my sonata.”
She frowned, which Johnathan responded to by frowning as well. He was very confused as to why she would be upset. The sonata was a lovely piece he thought.
“Mark I think you may have missed the point of writing it.”
“How so?”
“Music is about emotion. You need to write from your feelings.”
“I had not thought of that Rosemary. I guess that I need to go back and rethink what I am doing?”
“Don’t look at any other music and just let your emotions guide you Mark.”
Johnathan had not really thought about it either but Rose was right. He turned around to take his violin back into the storeroom, making sure to be extra careful with it as he stored it.
As he walked back towards the living room he heard Rose say, “For Nietzsche his views were based on a more modern society.”
Johnathan stopped in his tracks, thankfully out of view of Rose, and slowly backed away towards the storeroom. The last thing that he wanted to do was get involved in a discussion about philosophy. After taking a moment to think he realized that setting up his reprocessor to make the fine parts for the sensor array should give him something to do while they prattle on. Sitting down he got to work playing with his reprocessor. He reached over a few times into various containers in order to get spare parts to be reprocessed. Once he finished the task he listened for a moment and could hear them still talking so he decided to play with some parts for Mark’s hydraulic arm. After he finished the sensor array tomorrow he wanted to finish the arm.
“This is where you were hiding.” A voice said from the door of the room.
He looked up to see Rose standing at the entrance.
“Sorry you guys were talking so I figured to get some things accomplished.”
She reached out with her hand before saying, “Come take a bath with me.”
Taking her hand he stood up as he stated, “I’ve never taken a bath before.”
“It’s one of the few pleasures that I’ve had in life until I decided to strong arm you into moving in with me. Now I get to spend several hours a day torturing you, using you as a human heater for my hands and feet, argue unsuccessfully with Mark about philosophy, and lots of great sex. It’s been quite an improvement on my life.”
With a chuckle at her comment he said, “I’m glad you’re happy.”
Leaning into him she wrapped her arms around his midsection as she replied, “Very.”
Walking with her they went into the bathroom. She let go of him before strolling up to the large tub, which she played with a few of the controls. Water began to rapidly fill the tub.
“Take off your clothes and climb in.” She instructed him as she began to remove her top.
He moved as quickly as he could to strip down before climbing into the tub. The water was a bit on the hot side but it felt wonderful. It came up to the middle of his chest. Rose finished undressing before climbing in with him. She was sitting in front of him facing towards him. Reaching out she grabbed a large sponge, which she then dipped into the water before tenderly rubbing it against his chest. It felt really good, especially when she slid onto his lap and rubbed the sponge on his back by reaching her arms around him.
Bringing her lips up to his ear she whispered, “How does it feel?”
“Amazing.”
She shifted slightly and he felt her softly kissing his neck.
Slowly she kissed from the base of his shoulder up to his ear before whispering, “I bet you’d love to make love to me right here in this tub wouldn’t you?”
She gyrated slightly in his lap, which left him very distracted. He nodded at her, which she responded to by sliding off of his lap and passing him the sponge that she was holding.
“You’re going to have to earn it.”
Chuckling he took the sponge from her.
After dipping the sponge into the tub and as he brought it up to her neck she asked, “John what was your family like?”
Slowly rubbing the sponge along her shoulder and down her arm he answered, “I don’t remember them as well as I would like but my mother was very kind and sweet. She worked in the hydroponics bay after I started at the education center. I believe that she was very worried for me.”
“Worried?”
“I don’t know if you noticed but there are a few more men than women on the ‘Skybound’.”
“I did.”
“Well I guess that she figured because of my introverted personality I might not find someone special.”
Rose laughed loudly before stating, “She was wrong.”
“I’m certain that she would have been quite happy.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No.”
“And your father?”
Johnathan frowned before he answered, “I only ever got the feeling that he was disappointed in me.”
Rose grabbed his hand before asking, “Disappointed?”
Giving her a nod he replied, “Yes. My father was the primary navigator and third in command of the ‘Skybound’. I think that he wanted me to be on a command track. When he found out that I was just a computer technician he seemed to be very disappointed.”
She frowned at him as she reached out with her hand to caress his cheek.
“I’m sure he’d be proud if he knew what you’ve become John.”
He shrugged at her as he reached around her with the sponge to massage her back with it.
“What about your family?” He asked her as he brought the sponge slowly down her back.
“Well I had an older brother but he was born on Earth.”
Johnathan nodded. Her tone of voice let him know that she was probably quite upset about having her brother die along with everyone else. The first year aboard the ‘Skybound’ after the incident was quite difficult for everyone since the oldest surviving person was only a year or two older than Rose, who was two years older than he was.
“My father was the First Officer when the incident happened. I know that he loved me dearly, I was his princess, and when I was fast tracked for command he couldn’t have been any happier. My mother worked in the primary cafeteria as one of the cooks. I think she was probably just happy that I was so popular.”
“Two opposites.” Johnathan interjected.
“Yes we are. I’d have it no other way. Aren’t you supposed to be using that sponge to convince me that making love to you in this bath tub is a good idea?”
Laughing loudly Johnathan pulled her by the hips onto his lap.
Chapter 8
Once again the alarm woke Johnathan early. He groaned loudly as he sat up. He was going to have to access her computer so he could disable the alarm clock. Rose popped out of bed immediately. He was still surprised with her energy, especially after their late evening.
