No Time for Seconds

April 29, 2009 on 1:41 am | In SS-ERD, Serial Story | No Comments

Neve closed her eyes and pillowed her face in the crook of her arm, listening to the ever-present hum of the Mercy’s engines.

Her bed-mate kneaded a knotted muscle between her shoulders and murmured, “You’re still tense.”

“You’re looking for a reason to go again,” she mumbled. “No time for seconds.”

“Sex is a proven relaxant.” Dr. Richmond West worked the heel of his palm over the muscle. He succeeded at loosening it but the physical relief did nothing to distract her from problems she had to solve outside his quarters. And now that she had allowed them back into the front of her mind, she couldn’t shake them again.

“I need to meet with Enchev.” And ask him again to stop fighting me on the system upgrades necessary to our mission. Gathering her knees beneath her, she rose from the bed and stepped into West’s lightbath. The sanitizing cloths he kept bore a masculine fragrance, much different from the stock in her quarters, but better she smell like a clean man than a recently-screwed woman. Maybe the spice and tang of West’s scent would give her an edge with the med systems engineer who continued to resist her command.

When she emerged, West lay stretched upon his bunk with his arms folded behind his head. His skin gleamed, dark like young Earth-grown mahogany. He hadn’t covered himself. His penis, still thick, slow to recover from recent release, pointed toward the sculpted muscle of his abdomen. She ignored the display while she zipped into her uniform, a close-fitting jumpsuit with the Mercy’s insignia imprinted on the back. The stripes of her rank and the stars that marked her years of service – three white stripes, thirteen silver stars – were silk-bonded to her sleeve. Thirteen years, and only six months of them serving aboard the Mercy. She grimaced, wondering whether she’d ever settle into an authoritative mindset.

She hadn’t risen in rank as quickly as some of the more ambitious service men and women. Neve did things slowly and with deliberation, making sure she knew all she needed to know, had tested and tried all that she needed to test and try, before reaching for a new challenge. She was a climber, not a jumper. This assignment was one she wouldn’t have asked for, but her superiors had insisted upon the promotion with thinly disguised threats of demotion if she didn’t rise to the next level. The Galactic Service didn’t encourage stability among its ranks. They called it stagnancy.

“You need to be more intimidating, Neve,” West remarked as she wrapped her braids into a knot at the base of her head. “Enchev isn’t going to cooperate if you ask him to cooperate. Learn to give orders.”

“The way you bark at the nurses?”

“If I didn’t bark, they wouldn’t hear me over their gossip.”

She rolled her eyes and stabbed a pin into the thick mass of hair she’d gathered. “I make a laughable dog.”

“You make an easily cowed dog.”

“I’m not afraid of Enchev,” she said flatly.

“Then mark him for insubordination and power down the systems so we can move along with upgrades. We don’t have anybody in urgent care right now. The crew is healthy and can withstand reduced-function life support systems for six hours while you install the fuel converter. The sooner it happens, the sooner we can proceed with our next assignment. The fewer people will die from non-treatment.”

West rose from the bed and stood behind her. “What certification do you need from Medical? I’ll supply it. Kessler will sign off as well.”

“Defense is fighting the shut-down, too. We’re in safe space right now so I don’t understand the resistance.” She turned and squinted at West. “You should dress.”

He winked. “I’m still hoping to change your mind about round two.”

“Uh-huh.” All business, Neve brushed past her friend and casual lover. She paused to step into her boots, then headed for the door, saying over her shoulder, “I overheard one of the nurses making plans to corner you later. You should rest and recover some of that energy you just used up. But first you should get me Kessler’s agreement. Hruk’s authorization would be even better.”

“I could satisfy you and the nurse,” he replied, but his voice was distant, moving away from her as he made for the lightbath.

Neve smirked and left his quarters. Her mood deteriorated as she descended to the systems deck. West had a point that she didn’t like to concede. She did allow Lieutenant Commander Grigori Enchev to get away with more than he should. The medical systems expert would sacrifice the mission in order to maintain complete control over the medical equipment he monitored and regulated. She had to end his resistance now, though. Meteo-epidemiologists estimated that plague would work its way into the atmosphere of New Juneau within twelve revolutions. At their current rate of travel, the Mercy wouldn’t outrun the blast. Reports indicated New Juneau only had enough immuno-chem to shield approximately twenty percent of the world’s population, which meant plague fall would kill the remaining eighty percent within thirty revolutions.

The loss of life wouldn’t stop with the population of New Juneau. The small planet’s rich, fertile soil made New Juneau a major source of food staples. After plague fell and wormed through the populace, diseased remains would contaminate food products season after season until Galactic Service’s antiseptic teams were able to clear the dead. Who knew when they could be scheduled?

Even though the agricultural world was a small one, plague terrorists had chosen their target brilliantly.