Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “For some fancy pants strategist you seem off your game,” she teased, laughing and he hugged her.

  “In matters of the heart it's best to let the lady lead. She knows what she's doing,” he said with a smile.

  “That I do,” she said smugly getting to her feet. She pulled on his arm. “Up. Play later. I still planning on kicking your ass.”

  “Oh really?” he said getting to his feet. “Who's going to tend to it later?” he asked. She blushed as the shot went home.

  “Cute,” she growled dropping into a horse stance again. Her eyes flashed. She made a come on motion with her extended hand. “Let's find out shall we? Best two out of three.”

  They walked arm in arm to her quarters sometime later. She didn't say anything, just stepped in and then turned. “Come here,” she said, grabbing the front of his coverall and pulling him in. As the hatch closed behind him she traced a heart on his chest with her fingertips and then pulled his head down for a long lingering kiss.

  When the kiss broke she smiled up at him, eyes twinkling. “Do we have to do this with an audience?” she asked.

  “Sprite take a walk,” he immediately said. Sprite gave him a wink on his HUD and then blinked out. “There, better?” he asked. He didn't mention Proteus or Defender.

  She grinned and started kissing him, tearing at his clothes. He laughed, and soon concentrated thought was forgotten in the heat of the moment.

  They made love all night long, she was surprised by his stamina. “I told you I can do this for weeks,” he teased, getting ready for round three.

  “You're pretty spry for an old guy you know that?” she asked. Her respiration had finally dropped from a hard pant to something more regular. But apparently his wandering hands were affecting her once more.

  He grinned. “Oh goddess of space you're serious! Oh goddess, what have I gotten myself into?” she asked in mock despair. He didn't believe it for a minute, she had a lazy half smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around his head to pull him closer for a rather thorough kiss. When the kiss broke that smile reappeared. She had her eyes half lidded, perspiration cooling all over her body. Time to warm it up once more.

  “Oh? I thought it was the major selling point,” he teased, playing with a nipple, her respiration picking up as he tenderly stroked it.

  “Oh, it was,” she said with a throaty purr. “It was.”

  “I'm going to have an interesting set of bruises later,” she said, getting off him sometime later. He chuckled softly as she stroked his bare chest. Her fingers played with his chest hair, occasionally running across his rock hard abs. He knew what she was doing, she was testing him, playing with him like a cat with a mouse. There was no way he was going to... he flinched a little as a fingernail touched a sensitive flank. Damn her... She grinned a little. Shit. Now she knew he was ticklish. Great.

  “Worth every one,” she purred, lying down beside him. Her arms and legs tangled with his, he kissed her and she relaxed. “Now, if you don't mind, we mere mortals need our rest.”

  “Sure,” he said. “I'll just wait until you're ready.” His arms folded under his head. He whistled, looking up at the ceiling innocently. “Are you ready yet?”

  “Oh you!” she slapped him with a pillow laughing. He laughed as well, tickling and playing with her. After a few minutes the play fight wound down and she rested in his arms. “I give up, too tired.”

  “Ah....”

  “Later. I mean it.”

  “Yes dear.”

  “And don't you forget it,” she breathed, voice softening. He smiled, stroking her hair. It felt incredibly soft, even with his enhanced tactile senses. She was one in a million. He wasn't sure where their relationship was going, if it even was a relationship. Best to think about such things in the morning he yawned and then let Morpheus take him.

  He woke after his customary six hours. She was still out, snoring in a cute soft way. He stroked her arm gently. She had one of his under her. He snorted, flexing it a little. It felt good, the natural feel of having someone else to comfort over your own needs.

  “You like her don't you?” Sprite asked on his HUD.

  “Of course I do,” he said softly, lying on his back, right hand cradling his head. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Admiral did you feel like you were being used? That she did it to get close to you?”

  “Not in the slightest. I thought about it briefly, but her bioscans were normal across the board, no signs of subterfuge.”

  “Which matches my take on it as well. However you realize this can't be a serious relationship correct?”

  “Sprite?”

  “Seriously Admiral. Sex is sex for you organics. A form of bonding, stress relief, and procreation. You definitely needed the relief.”

  “Sprite?”

  “I don't think she felt used, not after that performance.”

  “Sprite?” his voice dropped into a warning tone.

  “Sorry Admiral, you were saying?”

  “My personal relationships are off limits remember?”

  “Sorry, It's well...”

  “We're tied together, I know. And we're friends. Just don't stick your virtual nose in too far.”

  “Noted.”

  “Hmmmm.” He looked over to April who was stirring a little. He smiled and turned over again, free hand stroking her hair gently. It trailed down her arm, caressing it. Blindly she reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled it over her. She held on as he tried to pull back. After a moment he chuckled at her ploy and relaxed. Some things could wait. For now, the entire ship, hell the entire universe could wait.

  Chapter 16

  “So, where do we go from here?” Irons asked as they showered together. She rested her hands on his chest, fingers twining into his chest hair. He'd found out some interesting things about her, including just how far down those freckles really went.

  When he'd tried to play connect the dots she'd done her level best to beat him into submission. It hadn't worked of course but the frisky horse play had been fun and invigorating for both.

  “You want that discussion now?” she asked, sounding a little dismayed and amused. She hated getting her hair all wet. It made her feel vulnerable and self conscious. Though his wandering hands were something of a bonus. They did wonders scrubbing her back and soothing all sorts of aches and pains... and tending to the glowing embers of desire in her. Damn he was good.

  “Just trying to figure out the ground rules. Boundaries and such, you know,” he kissed the nape of her neck making her close her eyes and sigh softly in contentment. Her own hands wrapped around his waist, holding him close to her.

  “Ummmm...” she said thoughtfully and then stood on her tip toes to kiss him. He smiled down at her. His eyes twinkled as she stroked his cheek. “You're sweet you know that?”

  “And you're stalling,” he said, smile growing. His hands however were stroking and caressing. Hers were twined behind his neck.

  “Ummmm.” She really didn't want to think about this now. Why did he have to choose now to have this conversation?

  “I think we covered that part,” he said, hands getting naughty. She gasped at the pain and intrusion. “Oh, sore, sorry.” he said, rumbling a chuckle.

  She smacked his chest with one arm and then looked up into his eyes. He looked down with laughing eyes until her own mock annoyance turned her frown upside down. His mischievous smile was infectious. He leaned down and then kissed her forehead. “We'll go with it. I get it. Don't over analyze or anything.”

  “Bingo,” she murmured huskily, drawing his lips down to hers once more.

  “So what's on your agenda for the day?” she asked, smiling coyly as he looked up. She was fully dressed, but brushing her hair. He felt a glow at the after image her supple body burned into his retina. She had the zipper down again. He'd found out what lay behind all those zippers. Just covering it up did tantalizing things, they begged to be opened once more.

  He felt r
elief as Sprite put the ship's sitrep up on his HUD. “Um, oh ah, school mostly. We've done what we can to the sensors. The captain wants to test and calibrate them before we jump so they are working on that now. I'm on call in case of a problem actually.”

  “Ah.” She nodded, then frowned prettily. “He's delaying the jump? I thought we were going to jump?”

  “Just for a shift. Eight hours to make sure the sensors are tuned and ready to go. We don't want to go blundering in hyperspace believe me. Flying around with a myopic view is one thing, but going in with sensors that are messed up is suicide.”

  Calibrating the sensors was going to be a pain. He had an idea, set up tripods on the hull along with markers launched into space. Possibly even using the shuttles. They knew the dimensions of the shuttles of course. With those four ideas they could get a rough field calibration in place. It wouldn't be the best, but it would improve the ship's eyes a great deal.

  Unfortunately all that would take a bit more than one shift to accomplish. He'd sent a memo off to Bailey and the sensor watch several days ago. Bailey had been waiting on approval for it. He'd seen the approval for the project in his inbox while he ate breakfast with April this morning. From the testy response Bailey had used as a follow up, he was eager to get started.

  She blinked at him then her lips twisted in a wry smile. “Okay, I understand that.”

  “Besides, it gives the crew time to check everything over one more time. And time to process the material's we've got in our holds. The fuel I mean.”

  “Oh.”

  “We can wait on processing the raw materials until we're in hyper.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not?” he asked amused. She looked at him in confusion. He grimaced in embarrassment. “Sorry, I thought you knew. When you're in hyper you can draw energy from hyperspace. The higher the band the higher the amount of compression and higher amount of energy. That is why when we get to Beta we can drop the fusion core to forty percent or even standby mode if we've got a particularly dense energy cloud.”

  “Energy...” Her pretty brow wrinkled in thought. For a spacer she wasn't well versed in hyperspace or space travel. Of course she'd been on Anvil her entire life...

  “Electrons and gravitons. It's complicated.”

  “I gathered that,” she said dryly. He chuckled.

  After a moment he caught her raised eyebrow and cleared his throat. “See when we get to hyper and get to the right octave the fusion reactors or in this case reactor since Destiny only has one primary...” he grimaced at that and then shook himself mentally.

  “Anyway, the drive is running on it's own so we can skim off power to power other things. Like say, the replicators.”

  “And since we're getting power for free it powers the systems? So we can make more things?”

  “Right. I'm planning an entire package of things this round. A general purpose package to help bootstrap colonies up a level. Everything from simple things like simple tools and texts, to generators and satellites.”

  “Like we gave Agnosta?”

  “Well, yeah, but that, well...”

  “Was your doing. I know.” she came over and hugged him. They kissed for a moment. “I ever thank you for being a generous and forgiving spirit?”

  “Generous?” he asked amused. “Forgiving?”

  “Yes.”

  When he started to protest she tickled him. His arms dropped to his sides to try to defend his vulnerable flanks but she dug in with a will, taking full advantage of having the upper hand.

  Their legs tangled and he went down with a whoop. She looked down at him with a self satisfied, smug expression. After a moment she climbed on top of him and began to kiss him again, this time a lot more serious.

  “We'll never get anything done this way,” he protested between kisses.

  “Works for me,” she said huskily.

  “Nanites are evil,” a student said, jutting her chin out. The Admiral sighed, trying to think of a way to respond that wasn't the same as before. He crossed his arms as he thought and the class debated.

  The class was in the small class room. He'd almost gotten bumped to the multipurpose room by a scheduling conflict. But the Yoga class had decided to try the Dojo one more time since Ed had called for an all hands sweep of deck three, freeing up the time in the Dojo apparently.

  That was good. He didn't see why the yoga club needed to meet here in the class room. It was silly. They liked to stack all the chairs and equipment against the walls or out in the companionway and then leave it after they left. That meant a class coming in had to put it all back before getting settled. It was causing a bit of bickering with the senior staff.

  He'd managed to escape April's clutches only through sheer exhaustion. She'd fallen asleep some time ago so he'd taken the coward's escape and snuck out, leaving a note and sending her replicated artificial flowers. Typically the moment he'd hit the public areas of the ship on his way to get some nourishment he'd been mobbed and dragged off for a late class.

  Apparently Bailey had gotten the message that he was occupied. His last video call had a wink and smirk of approval in it. Sprite had sent him a text message stating that she was helping with the sensor calibration project. That had alleviated that guilt. Still he wasn't looking forward to being ribbed unmercifully by the chief when the simian got them together alone. Being ribbed by Sprite on his HUD in public was bad enough.

  He had about a dozen people there, including the medic. People would come by and then stop in the doorway. After a minute or two they would either move on or come in and take a seat. He looked over to Bryan and then nodded. “Does anyone know how regeneration works?” He looked around the class as they settled down. Only Bryan nodded, the rest shook their heads.

  “Miss, Chantra right?” he asked the blond with the long braid. She blinked in surprise at being involved in this discussion, she hadn't been the one to initiate it. “Have you ever had regeneration?”

  She grimaced and nodded, rubbing the back of her right forearm. “Ah, I see you have. No scar right? Healed in days?” he asked. She nodded.

  “Then you have nanites to thank for that,” he said firmly but quietly. She blinked at him, wide eyed.

  “But, but, I thought it was the energy...”

  “The blue or red glow?” the Admiral snorted. “That's to let people know nanites are at work. Nope, it's all nanites.”

  “I think I'm going to barf,” she said, pale. He shook his head as others looked at her or away.

  “Regeneration started by taking grafts from people, skin, muscle, or bone from one place, then transplanting it to the damaged areas, integrating the tissue and then inducing mitosis. It evolved over time.”

  “Connective tissue,” Bryan said with a nod. The Admiral looked over to him with a nod.

  “Doc is correct,” Irons said. The medic blushed. The young man was still uncomfortable being called doctor. “They found that when you strip donor connective tissue...”

  “Extracellular Matrix or ECM,” Sprite said helpfully.

  “Right, ECM of cells then laid it over the damaged area right after an injury you could induce the body to rebuild that area before it forms scar tissue to cut it off.” Behind him a holo of ECM appeared. It was a spongy material filled with voids.

  He turned and pointed to it. “The body gets signals from the ECM to fill the voids. It sends stem cells to these voids and fills them. Muscle for muscle, bone for bone, skin for skin.”

  “Early on they discovered that if you spray injured tissue with stem cells of the same type it would induce mitosis and severely reduce scar tissue. But adding the layers of ECM to damaged or missing tissue expanded that.”

  “A more natural example is exercise,” Bryan said with a shrug. The class and Admiral looked at him. “When you exercise to build muscle you do so by stretching and tearing muscle tissue. When you sleep at night your body releases stem cells to repair the damage. In doing so it builds up the area to make it mo
re resistant to injury.”

  “I didn't know that,” Chantra said with a blink. She had paused near the door.

  “Why do you think it aches when you exercise?” the medic asked with a soft smile.

  “Oh.”

  “So where do nanites come in to this?” Chantra asked, brows knit.

  “I was getting to that. You see, scientists in the twentieth and twenty first century discovered that some animals can regrow limbs that were cut off. Most notably the Terran salamander. When they isolated the genetic sequence of the repair ability they modified a virus to add it to the human body at the site of a missing limb.”

  “Blastema,” Sprite said helpfully, prompting him.

  “I was getting to that as well,” the Admiral sighed.

  “You're taking the long route.”

  “I know that. It'll be worth the trip. Just give me a minute here,” he grumbled. Sprite's holographic avatar crossed her arms, pursed her lips and then rolled her eyes to the class.

  “As I was saying, it forms a Blastema then the limb is grown. But it takes weeks.”

  “Try months. Or years if it is an entire limb,” Sprite replied.

  “Exactly,” the Admiral nodded. “Which is where nanites come in. nanites come in several forms. Some are organic. Modified organic structures designed to do specific tasks. To accelerate the healing process nanites were sent in with donor tissue. Or they would harvest donor tissue from the body itself.”

  A few of the students shuddered at that. He grimaced. “I know what you're thinking and trust me, it's not as bad as you think. First, the nanites target excess fat tissue.” That made a few of the women sit up in appreciation. “Right,” Irons snorted.

  “They strips the ECM from excess fat tissue, then migrates it to the injured location. Meanwhile other nanites break down the fat cells and harvest stem cells of whatever is needed. They stuffs the somatic stem cells with food materials from the broken down fat, then induce mitosis. They do it over and over, then pack the ECM with the resulting cells.”