“Good,” said the captain. “Are there any other pregnant crew or children on board?”
“No pregnancies, sir,” said Pickle. “Just one baby.”
“Is it a boy?” the captain asked brightly.
“No, sir. It’s a seven-and-a-half-month-old girl named Libby. She and her mother, Susanna, are doing great.”
“Then focus on running the section, Pickle,” said the captain. Turning her chair towards Connie, she said, “And I expect you to work on getting us some male human DNA.”
“Yes, sir,” said Connie.
“Next!”
“Yes, sir, my name is Brooke Reed, and I am the physical fitness section commander.”
Brooke had a slender, boyish face with short blond hair that was parted on the side with bangs over one eye. She had small ears and a small nose. She had a space between her two upper teeth, but despite this space, she was very attractive. She was full of energy, every pore in her body oozing fitness.
“What’s your status, Commander?” asked Captain Kriss.
“Everything is secure, sir. No damage and no injuries.”
“Good,” said the Captain. “Let’s keep it that way. What are your crew numbers?”
“Four others and myself, sir. We are fully staffed,” Brooke stated.
“Good. We need to name you as well. But that can come later,” said the captain. “Next.”
“Well, that would be me, Captain,” said Smitty. “I’m your first mate and I command the bridge and navigation under you, sir. And we have eight crewmates under us. So including you and me, that makes ten, sir.”
“If my numbers tally up correctly, that makes ninety crew on board,” said Captain Kriss.
“Plus the baby and mother in Med Bay,” said Pickle.
“Okay, ninety-two, then,” snapped the Captain.
“Yes, sir,” said Pickle.
Just then Connie lifted her hand. Immediately her smell became airborne.
“Put your hand down, Connie,” commanded the Captain.
“But you forgot one.”
“Who?”
“The stowaway,” winked Connie.
“That cat has no business on my ship. You better catch that little bastard,” Captain Kriss said, spinning her chair to look Merc in the eyes.
“Everyone, listen up,” barked the first mate. “The Captain doesn’t care if you’re sweeping or monitoring the reactor. All jobs are vital. Go back to your sections and do your jobs. Dismissed!”
“Smitty and Connie, stay here,” ordered the Captain.
Soon the room was empty, leaving only the three.
“Connie, you are having a mandatory bath, and the first mate here is escorting you to the shower pod.”
“But captain!” stammered Connie.
“Silence,” yelled the captain. “Dismissed.”
The stainless steel doors closed, leaving the Captain in deep thought. Pulling her drawer open, she lifted out the bottle and a glass and poured herself a shot of scotch. It burned the whole way down.
Chapter Seven
“Stop pulling on me!” Connie yelled.
“Captain’s orders,” barked Smitty.
Smitty had a viselike grip on Connie’s left arm and was holding her own nose with her right hand. The smell coming from Connie was making Smitty’s eyes water.
“Almost there,” said Smitty. “If you would bathe more often, I wouldn’t have to drag you to the shower pod.”
With that, Smitty opened the shower pod and stuffed Connie inside, clothes and all. A soapy substance was misted all over Connie, followed by eighteen nozzles spraying the inside of the entire pod. It looked like a high-tech car wash.
Connie thrashed around like a wild caged animal at first, but then she gave up. The whole process only took about five minutes. Opening the hatch, Smitty reached in and pulled Connie out. It was like a miracle. No smell. Just a hint of jasmine.
“My god, you are human after all,” Smitty said with a smirk. She guided Connie towards the grooming station. It looked like an inverted urinal mounted on tracks. Smitty pushed Connie up against the wall and pulled the hood down over her head. Connie touched the front screen and chose a conservative short hairstyle. A sensor kicked on, sucking Connie’s hair straight out, like metal filings stuck on the end of a magnet. Then a blue laser wand sculpted the hair to the style chosen. A light suction sound indicated the cycle was done, and the hair and water from the shower pod were recycled in the garden.
Pushing the hood up, Smitty was amazed. “You look like an entirely different person. The captain won’t know you.”
Connie rolled her eyes and kicked off towards her belongings pod. Once inside, she opened a long cylindrical compartment, revealing a rolled-up damp cloth. Tenderly, Connie unrolled it into her hand. A smile lit her face when she saw what was inside.
“My little buddy made it,” she whispered. Quickly, she rolled it back up and put it into her pocket. Entering the main hallway, she hummed quietly to herself, unaware of the stares from the passing crew. No one recognized her.
Chapter Eight
The purring was deafening inside the infant pod. The vibrations shook the white quilted blanket wrapped around baby Libby. She awoke to see two big eyes, a pink nose, and huge black whiskers looking down at her. Meowing as if to say It’s about time to wake up, the cat started making biscuits on Libby’s tummy. Libby giggled and reached out to grab the cat’s tail. With that, the cat stretched and arched his back. He looked enormous, but Libby was enchanted.
Then something amazing happened. The cat stood up on his back legs and bunted the glass cover with his head. With a swish, the glass door slid open.
Jumping up, the cat turned around and looked at Libby: Well, are you coming? But Libby was fastened in securely with a safety harness, and even a smart cat couldn’t open that. With a leap, the cat was airborne and left Libby’s view. The glass panel slid back, and soon the baby’s eyes grew heavy as she fell back asleep.
Chapter Nine
Leea was putting away dishes in the kitchen. She hated her job.
I’m too beautiful to be stuck in the kitchen, she thought. Why can’t I be in another section of the ship, like the gym? She could see herself training all the women on board. That would be fun.
Just then, Spuds bumped into her, causing Leea to drop a stack of dishes that floated away. With speed and precision, Leea caught all the dishes before they chipped or broke on the bulkhead. She wanted to cuss Spuds out, but Spuds was her commander.
Leea wasn’t good at taking tests, but she knew who to butter up to. She flashed her beautiful smile. “Sorry, Spuds, didn’t mean to run into you.”
“It’s okay, dear, it was my fault,” replied Spuds.
“Commander, I’m not feeling very well. Can I go back to my quarters and rest?” asked Leea.
“Are you sick, dear? Maybe you need to go to Med Bay,” said Spuds.
“No, Commander, my stomach is just upset.”
“Okay, but as soon as you are better, get back here for cross-training as per the captain’s orders,” said Spuds. With that, she kicked off towards the exit.
Simpleton, thought Leea. I’m going to look for that bitch who attacked me.
With that goal in mind, she headed to Med Bay. The doors swished open and in walked Leea. At the exact same moment, the cat jumped through the doorway above Leea’s head.
Leea’s eyes were focused on the infant pod, and she never saw the cat. Like a detective, Leea scoured the room for clues. But she couldn’t find anyone or anything lurking.
With a shrug, she wandered over to look at the baby. She activated the shield release and reached in to pick up Libby. At just that moment Susanna came into the room.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Don’t wake my baby. How dare you come i
n here and touch her.” Susanna protectively grabbed the still sleeping Libby. “Get out!”
And surprisingly, without a word, Leea left.
“Wake up, sweetheart. It’s time to eat,” said Susanna.
Libby opened her eyes and smiled at her mother as she began to suckle.
“My, my, you are covered in orange hair,” said Susanna. “What did that woman do to you?”
Chapter Ten
Connie entered the garden without being noticed. She floated around looking for just the right spot. Bingo, there it was: a natural curvature in the ship, where several rows of mature corn were growing. She looked around to see if she was alone. No one. She squeezed between the last row of corn and the hull. Squatting down, she pulled out her rolled-up prize: a twelve-inch-long multirooted pot plant. She dug a hole in the organic soil matrix and inserted the root, then carefully pushed the matrix around the plant’s stem to hold it.
“There,” she said with delight. “Grow for me.”
Two large unblinking eyes had watched the entire thing. The cat was sitting in the tall ripened corn looking down at Connie, his orange coat camouflaged perfectly. Connie had no idea her secret wasn’t a secret anymore.
Connie left the garden, leaving the cat to explore. He knew all the garden hiding spots well. A short while later, the garden doors opened, alerting the cat, who watched intently as Leea came shuffling along, singing a melody that could be heard echoing throughout the garden. It was hard to believe that huge voice came out of such a small woman.
Soon several garden crew members followed Leea and sat down around her like mesmerized schoolchildren caught in Leea’s spell. Reaching up, she pulled a ripe peach off of a branch and started to eat it. Its wet juice flowed down her chin and dripped onto her breasts. Smiling, she looked at the young women at her feet. “My, what sweet, beautiful things there are to eat in the garden. Would anyone like to taste my peach?”
“Yes, please,” said several voices.
“One at a time,” said Leea as she pushed her peach into an open mouth. She repeated this until the peach was gone, then reached up and plucked another ripe one off the same branch.
“Here is more, my beautiful girls,” she said in a sultry voice. “We should all sneak back here at night and go swimming in the moon pond.”
“Yes, let’s,” said a crew woman.
“Okay, my sweets, it’ll be our little secret. Let’s plan on meeting back here in a couple of weeks when things settle down with our cross-training,” said Leea.
“Yes,” murmured everyone on their way out, leaving Leea alone in the garden. She found a bucket and proceeded to pick the ripest peaches, removing their seed and squishing them into the bucket with her hands.
The cat watched in fascination. What was she up to?
Chapter Eleven
“Captain, may I come in?” asked Susanna.
“Yes, of course. Thank you for coming so soon,” said Kriss.
Susanna walked into the captain’s private quarters with Libby in tow at the end of a tether that her mother wore around her wrist.
“So this is the beautiful baby I have heard about,” said the captain with true warmth in her voice.
Libby smiled at the captain. The captain got up from her desk and picked the baby out of the air. She kicked back to her desk and sat down. Nodding towards a chair, she asked Susanna to be seated as well.
“The reason I have asked you to come and see me personally is to make sure you fully understand the gravity of our situation,” said the captain.
Susanna’s eyes grew large and she nodded her head.
Looking down at the baby, the captain said, “This may be the last person in existence one day. So it is vital that she knows all of Earth’s histories and is educated about everything on board.”
“Yes, I understand,” said Susanna.
“Good,” said the captain. She kissed Libby on the forehead and passed her back to Susanna. “I want you to find the chief science officer immediately and have Libby fitted with a learning visor. Understood?”
“Yes,” said Susanna.
“Good. The ship is hers to explore.”
Chapter Twelve
A bright glow bathed Brooke’s naked body while she ran with a five-pound dumbbell in each hand around the inner hull of the gym. With sweat beading all over her body, she breathed with the rhythm of an endurance runner. Up on the floating monitor, the LED screen indicated she had run four miles. These monitors were mounted on drones that hovered above each crew member as the women exercised. The drones ran complete fitness screenings and recorded all biological data, acting as a personal trainer. They counted reps, said words of encouragement, and even signaled a red alert to Med Bay if an emergency occurred. The drones could also be muted so that only their LED screen could be read. Brooke had chosen that option on this particular day.
Brooke was wearing the latest in running shoes, with skinlike thin uppers with a space polymer microsole that had friction grips. They were so light you couldn’t even feel them. The only sensation was a callouslike vibration from the friction grips as they contacted the track. The pair Brooke was wearing were nude colored, and if it weren’t for the company logo on the side, they could have been mistaken for real feet.
The ship’s hull in this section rotated on itself, creating adjustable gravity. It was this pull that allowed Brooke to run around the track of the hull. The entire track was lined with ultraviolet tube bulbs that painted Brooke’s body with a tanning-bed glow. With her breasts bouncing and her arms pumping, she sprinted the last mile easily. Slowing to a fast walk, she jumped straight up into the air. This action broke her free from the gravity of the track. In almost zero gravity, Brooke swam to the center of the gym. It looked like a school’s jungle gym, with welded stainless steel pipes, racks, ladders, and rings. Brooke pushed the two dumbbells into a rack with other dumbbells. They made a clipping noise as the rack magnets held them into place.
Turning around, she pushed off to the juice bar suspended in the middle of the gym’s axis. The girl behind the bar smiled as Brooke held on; there were no gravity belts here, since everyone was naked to get their dose of vitamin D from the UV bulbs.
“What is your drink of choice today, Brooke?” asked the bar girl.
“My regular,” said Brooke.
“Coming right up,” said the girl. She dispensed several bland-looking powders into a plastic container and shook it as if she were making a martini. She sprayed it with a liquid chemical, closed the lid, and shook it again. This time it changed to a red color, the liquid popping and bubbling. She punched a clear gravity straw into the side of the container and handed it to Brooke.
“One strawberry ATP energy drink, as usual,” said the girl.
Sucking the thick goo into her mouth, Brooke said, “I can’t wait till we get some fresh fruit from the garden to liven it up a little. These old space ration drinks taste like the thousand-year-old MREs the marines used to eat on Earth.” She dried her body off while hanging on to the bar. “Not many crew exercising today.”
“No, not right now,” said the bar girl. “But around five there will be more, Commander.”
As she hung there, Brooke watched a crew woman running around the track. Brooke couldn’t take her eyes off her. “Wow. Who is she?”
“I don’t know, sir, but I know what you mean. She has a beautiful voice as well.”
Just then the girl leapt off the track and, breaking the gravity barrier, headed their way. As she got closer, both women couldn’t take their eyes off of the woman’s snake tattoo.
“Hello, ladies,” Leea said. Brooke and the bar girl greeted her back. Leea was breathing hard, her breasts rising and falling as she gasped for air. The mouth of the snake looked like it was trying to devour the moving breast. Only the snake’s tongue stayed firmly planted on Leea’s nip
ple.
The glow of the UV lights, Leea’s sweat, and the loud euphoric blast of the gym’s music were intoxicating. Leea could already tell by the look on both women’s faces that they were under her spell. She slowly dried off her body.
“Holy crap,” exclaimed Brooke.
Leea looked up, expecting the women to be looking at her, but they weren’t.
Her spell broken, Leea looked with irritation in the direction they were staring. And behold, she saw a large orange cat running on the track.
Chapter Thirteen
Connie was deep in thought. You could tell because her eyes weren’t focused on anything. The one real eye’s muscles always would relax when Connie was in this state, which allowed the eye to turn slightly inwards. So slightly that the crew would stare at her to see if it was crossed. She usually had this same expression after smoking pot. But today it wasn’t caused by the latter.
“Commander, please look at me,” said Pickle. “Commander!”
Just then, Connie’s eyes came into focus.
“Yes, yes, what is it?” said Connie with a look of frustration.
“Commander!” yelled Pickle.
“I hear you! Stop yelling at me!”
“Sorry, sir, but I thought I had lost you,” said Pickle.
“Lost me? Are you daft? I’m right here,” said Connie.
“Sir, I have good news. We miscounted the crew. We actually have seven more crew members,” said Pickle.
“What? How? That’s impossible,” said Connie.
“We forgot the cadavers,” Pickle beamed.
“Ah, yes, three pig fetuses, three cat fetuses, and one human,” said Connie. Her eyes got that faraway look. Then, suddenly, the light came on again. “And the human cadaver is male!”
Chapter Fourteen
Captain Kriss picked up the tattered old picture in the metal frame and traced the outline of her father’s face with her index finger. She brought the glass to her lips and kissed it. “I miss you, Dad,” she whispered.
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