“Yeah” The girls said nodding slowly.
“Well, he wore it like a chip on his shoulder. His Commander wouldn’t give him any bridge time because he didn’t trust his attitude. The Captain offered him to me for my department. I turned him down. Based on what I was getting from his evaluation, he was going down fast.” Matt said glumly as he dropped onto the bunk across from them.
“He was getting pretty depressed.” Bounce said quietly. Then she moved over to the bunk Matt was on and put her arm around him. “It wasn’t your fault. We all know that all it takes is one screw up and were washed out. It sounds like he got lots of chances and didn’t get it together.”
“I know, but I still feel like I was responsible.”
“You weren’t.” Sparks said. “I know you.”
The three of them sat for a few minutes, Bounce rubbing Matt’s back while they sat in silence. The door whooshed open and a very tall woman with short brown hair stepped in. She had to be at least one hundred eighty centimeters tall. She wore the regulation blue jump suit, but above the slim waist, her chest seemed to straining the zipper nearly to the breaking point. “Hi. Ensign Light. I’m supposed to report to this billet?”
The girls stood up and looked at her. Matt stood up as well and extended his hand to her.
“Hi. Matt Molter. This is Lisa Briggs and Katelyn Sparks.”
Ensign Light snapped to attention and saluted. “Ensign Light reporting as ordered sir.” She snapped out crisply.
“At ease Ensign.” Matt said. The girls looked at Ensign Light and then back at Matt, confusion clearly etched in their faces.
“That’s the other part of it.” Matt said to the girls. “Ensign Light is being moved to my department to fill the vacant position after the loss of the Commander. The Captain thought it would be a good idea have her bunk with you two since I’m getting reassigned to a different billet as well. I’ll move my stuff when I get a chance, probably in a day or so.” Then looking at the Ensign he continued. “For the record Ensign, you didn’t get transferred because you did poorly in engineering. I requested you based on your exemplary record and your Commanders evaluations.”
“Thank you sir.” She said still standing mostly at attention.
“At ease Joan.” Matt said.
“Yes sir.” She said relaxing a little more.
“The Captain offered me a single billet, which I turned down. She transferred me to a billet with a couple other JG’s because of my rank. To be honest I really don’t want to move, but I think I’m going to have to. So while I’m still in here, rank has no meaning inside our quarters. Is that clear?” Matt said looking at the three of them.
“Are you sure sir?” Joan asked.
“Positive. Why?” Matt asked.
Joan reached up to her jump suit and pulled the zipper down, releasing the strain on the material covering two huge breasts contained in what Matt could only describe as an industrial strength sports bra. “Thank God. I’m so thin everyplace else that I can’t get a jump suit to fit right. It’s either too tight in the chest or baggy all over. As a result I take the too tight in the chest and try to leave it unzipped whenever I can.” Matt stared at her huge chest through the gaping zipper, now understanding the Captain’s comment. The cool suit worn inside the EVA suit was a skin tight fit. It was her choice if she wore a thin sports bra under the cool suit or if she chose to not wear anything, but a padded industrial strength bra would prevent the cool suit from doing its job. Matt had noticed that most of the larger breasted women preferred to not wear a bra at all under the cool suit, improving the cooling efficiency and not leaving them with, as one crewmember put it, ‘a small river of sweat running between her mountains’. If she was going to bear them every time she had to suit up she was likely to be distracting to the male members of the suit teams, if not to him personally. The girls went to work helping her settle in while Matt stood there staring, wondering what he had just done to himself.
Chapter 7 - Transit time
Matt woke in the night and rolled over slowly, careful to not push the body snuggled against him out of bed. Bounce and Sparks had taken to slipping into his bunk with him almost every night, depending on which of them was off duty. He never knew who he was going to wake up with. They were going to be disappointed when he moved to his new quarters. He wondered what kind of roommates he was going to have in his new quarters, as he rolled over he put his arm around the body next to him; his hand and arm laying across her chest and his face pressing against soft hair.
Morning came with the normal beeping of his watch, letting him know it was time to get up and moving. Bounce found his watch and pushed buttons until it turned off and then climbed down out of the upper bunk, padding mostly naked toward the head. Matt waited a minute or so and then crawled out of the bunk shaking the sleep from his mind.
“Morning, lover.” She whispered as she stepped past him on the way back from the head, giving him a gentle hug and soft kiss before climbing back into his bunk.
“Is that how it works around here?” Joan asked sleepily from the other upper bunk.
“Ohhhhhhh, yes.” Bounce whispered across to her.
“I may have to give that a try.” Joan teased as Matt headed for the head, shutting out the conversation with the door before it could get any worse. After taking care of business, he stepped into the shower tube and hit the button on the water control, letting the warm mist envelope him. After two cycles of the shower he stepped out and dried off before heading to his locker to get dressed. Joan was sitting on the edge of her upper bunk, her legs hanging over the side while she stripped off what little she had worn to bed in preparation for getting a shower.
“You know if you took a bit longer I could have joined you.” She whispered as she dropped to the deck and padded barefoot over to him.
“I don’t think that would be appropriate.” He whispered back as he pulled on a pair of briefs.
“Oh? I didn’t think rank mattered in here, and from what Bounce tells me it would have been fun. I have to admit I haven’t tried to do two in one of these shower tubes before.” She whispered as she slipped behind him, parts of her pressing against his back as she moved by.
“Well, you’re just going to have to take her word for it.” Matt responded, trying not to stare at her ample chest mere inches from his face as he bent over to pull his jump suit on. “The last thing I need is to get in trouble for having sex with an Ensign under my command.”
“Who said anything about sex? I just thought showering would be fun… sex comes later.” She whispered with a giggle, running her hand gently across his back.
“If you say so.” Matt said quietly as she stepped toward the head, her body silhouetted by the light from the cubicle before she closed the door.
Matt zipped his jump suit up and slipped on his deck shoes before heading out of the quarters to go get breakfast.
Matt was still eating breakfast when Joan walked into the mess. It was pretty obvious to him that she had skipped the bra all together, since he had left a note in her duty roster that they would be fitting her for a suit today. A number of guys turned to look at her chest straining against the material as she collected some food and sat down across from Matt.
“Looks like you’re about done already.” She said before taking her first bite of breakfast.
“Pretty much.” He answered as he finished the last bite of biscuits and gravy from his tray, washing it down with some disappointing reconstituted milk.
“So what do we have on the docket today, besides getting fitted for a suit?”
“We have to get you programmed for the weapons vault first off, and then we go down to the suit room. We have to teach a mandatory suit refresher to all the new personnel on the ship we have something like nine of them this morning. We’ll get you suited at the same time so you can teach some of these classes later on.”
“Sounds good to me.” She said before lowering her voice and leaning over the table
closer to him. “Besides, it gives me a chance to see that body of yours in the light this time.”
“Well, I hope you won’t be disappointed,” he mused.
“I’m sure I won’t be!” She responded with a devilish grin.
After she finished her food the two of them headed down to the armory, where Matt programmed the vault to allow her in, and issued her a side arm. During the process her zipper mystically moved lower a little at a time until a significant amount of cleavage was showing.
“Come on show off. We need to be in the suit room in less than five.”
“Yes sir!” she said in her best military voice. Then she winked at him before he turned for the door.
The two of them walked into the suit room to find nine more crew members milling around, and several NCO’s as well. Someone shouted ‘attention’ and the room snapped to attention.
“At ease!” Matt barked. “Good morning. Today you are here for mandatory suit training. By now each of you have met the training staff, done the classroom session on the suit capabilities and procedures. Is there anyone here who has not done that?” Matt asked the group. No one raised a hand or spoke out. “Very well. The mission today is simple. You will get sized and fitted for a suit. Once this is done the system will remember your size and any time that you need a suit it can recall the appropriate sized section. Also you will each be issued a cool suit. This will be yours personally and will be stored in a locker here in the suit room. Just a reminder, no loose clothing that can cause a wrinkle is allowed inside the hard suit. If you get a wrinkle in the wrong place a bladder can put so much pressure on it that it can do permanent damage. The cool suit is designed to be skin tight and its micro tubes will cool anywhere it contacts. It is intended to contact the majority of your skin. Also no metal is to be worn under the cool suit; it can cause a leak, which would be really bad news if you’re in space. If you’re wearing a bra with metal fasteners…” Matt said as he looked at the three female members in the group. “Lose them. Sports bras are ok, but if they are too thick and insulating you’re going to be out there with a really hot chest. Thin bra’s with no metal are acceptable. Once you go out the lock, there is no stopping to fix things, make your decision before you get dressed. Also remember, you don’t need support out there; the lock is at partial g and space is zero g. Once everyone is suited we will proceed to the number one air lock. Your task is to jet up to the spine of the ship, transit to the nose, wave at our nice pilots and return down the side of the ship to the air lock. Any questions?” Matt finished, looking over the group. “Very well. The NCO’s around you are here to help you. Listen to them and this will go much easier. Also remember that we keep the suit locker at one fifth g to make it easier for you to move once you have the suit on… If there are no questions, the specialist will give you your locker assignment. I want each of you back here in five stripped and ready to don a cool suit.”
Matt stood and watched as the group spread out to find their lockers. Joan moved toward one that was near Matt’s and began to unzip her jump suit. Several of the guys admired her large breasts as she unzipped her jump suit, letting them fall out. For the most part, the enlisted ranks didn’t pay too much attention to bare breasts, having had to go through basic training in mixed barracks. But some of the younger officers had less time in this environment, some of them only a few weeks, and it was still a novelty to be stripping in the same room as female officers. Of course the other side of that coin is that they also had less exposure to being stripped in front of strange females, and that included the two female NCO’s that were walking around in their cool suits, their naked bodies mostly visible under the mesh suit. Matt surveyed the group as they stripped down ; trying to get an idea of who was comfortable and who might have problems. Petty Officer Jenkins walked over to one of the men that was wearing boxers and paused in front of the young ensign. “You’re going to have to lose those, sir.” She said in a mater-of-fact tone.
“Yes ma’am.” He said, turning a bit red as he stripped them off. She turned so he wouldn’t see her suppress a smile as his semi-erect member sprung into view. Obviously getting naked in a room with women who were also getting naked was having an effect on him.
When they were all stripped to the appropriate point, they gathered back together at the air lock. “Ok. The next step is to go to the equipment locker and get fitted for your cool suit. The system has your dimensions from your flight physical. It will use those as a starting point. Try on what you get issued and we will adjust the fit from there.” Matt finished, pointing toward the open door at the end of the locker bay. Matt watched them file down the isle of lockers toward the equipment bay, Joan hanging to the back of the line, exaggerating the wiggle of her hips when she thought no one but Matt was looking. Matt stood back and watched as each person got a suit and then stepped to a line of benches to try it on. One or two needed adjustment, in particular Joan’s top was much too tight, and had to be exchanged for a larger one. It too did not fit properly and the NCO in the equipment cage told her to wait a minute. He headed back into the storage area, returning a couple minutes later.
“Here you go ma’am. Try this one. It was a custom we had made for another female officer that was proportioned similar to you.”
“Thank you, Specialist,” She said with a smile.
He returned the smile as she pulled the suit top over her head and down over her ample chest. The material and tube matrix had been tailored and fit around her breasts much better than the standard female top.
“Much better. Thank you again, Specialist!” she said flashing him a smile.
“You’re welcome ma’am.” He said as she turned and headed away from the equipment locker.
While Joan was getting her top sized, Matt made his way to his locker and quickly stripped and pulled his cool suit on. He walked to the front of the now spaghetti covered group and called them together.
“Ok. As you enter the air lock, hit the id scanner. The system will pick the appropriate parts for your suit, route them to a cage and then notify you of which cage it will be in. Remember that number. After you exit the lock, make your way to that cage and begin suiting. If you need help in any way, sing out. The NCO’s in the cage room are there to help you. Listen to them. They have done this hundreds of times. There is an easy way and a hard way to do this. Trust me; you want to do it the easy way. If there is a problem, or your suit pinches or binds on you, let us know now. After you go into space is the wrong time to decide it doesn’t fit right. Anyone have questions?” Matt asked loudly, pausing to see if there were any. “Ok. Head for the lock.”
Matt watched as each person placed their thumb on the scanner and the system issued them a cage number. The system was capable of suiting thirty at a time, but for training they were keeping the number down to ten, plus the five cadre. After they were all in the lock Matt pressed his thumb on the scanner, got his number and entered the lock, closing it behind him. He felt the gravity drop as Joan turned to face him. Her massive chest began to change shape as the gravity dropped, each breast rising on her chest and becoming more rounded. She winked at him, apparently knowing what the drop in gravity would do, and wanting him to get the full show. He had to work to keep other things from rising right along with her chest. Once the lock had cycled open, each person moved down the line to the cage they were assigned. There were six NCO’s working through the bay, helping each person that needed it. Matt waited until most of them were suited and had any problems ironed out before heading to his cage, quickly suiting along with the cadre that were heading out of the lock with them. Matt had gotten good at getting his suit on and going, and was beat out of the cage only by one of the more senior NCO’s. He snapped his helmet on, getting his displays and comm up and running.
“Ok. Let’s do a comm check. Each of you sing out your cage number and stay in front of that cage. The cadre will come by and give you a number, which will be your stick number for this exercise.” Matt said int
o his radio, following the same process used for almost all academy practical evolutions. He waited while each number was called off and the cadre pasted their number on. With all the chatter coming over the comm, it was impossible to identify people by voice, so as they stood in front of the cages one of the specialists moved from person to person attaching a large red number patch to the front and back of their suits, and another small one on their arm by the control pad. This allowed the cadre to identify each person by number, even at a distance.
“If everyone is ready, let’s head to air lock one.” Matt said, turning to walk toward the large airlock at the end of the cage room. The large airlock easily held the whole group. When the last person was in Jenkins cycled the lock door closed. “We’ve just entered coast phase. While the ship is coasting, we will be traveling at roughly six million kilometers per hour. This means we can go outside and since we are going the same speed as the ship, as long as nothing slows us down, we can change our speed relative to the ship and it will be just like the ship was standing still. If however, the ship were to suddenly have to accelerate or decelerate, we would be left drifting in space with no hope of rescue. With that in mind. If we get called to emergency return, that means to do so immediately. The ship will not be able to maneuver until we are all safely inside the lock. Is that clear?” Matt heard a chorus of ‘yes sir’s’ over the radio circuit. “Very well. Let’s prepare to EVA.” Then switching on the command frequency he called for clearance. “EVA one to command.”
Fleet Academy Page 16
