Chapter 30: 30. Briefed

As soon as I woke in the morning my heart started racing, but I had a happy smile on my face and I could feel my tail trying to flap back and forth under the blankets.

Sarah was laying next to me, and the feel of her warm soft body against my own was something I was sure I'd never get tired of. My nightie was laying on the floor next to the bunk, along with her t-shirt and panties. Despite how good I felt, my cheeks still turned pink as I looked at our discarded clothes and thought about last night.

"Morning Amanda," Sarah whispered softly as she opened her eyes.

I realized she was probably awake before me, she just didn't bother getting up right away.

"G-good morning Sarah," I stammered quietly as my heart raced even quicker.

She stifled a giggle as she leaned closer and gave me a kiss. Her lips lingered on mine a lot longer than our first kiss, but not quite as long as some of the others we'd shared since then.

When she finally pulled back she smiled warmly, but her cheeks took on a pink hue as she said "Thank you for last night. I ah, I really needed that. I hope you enjoyed it?"

I nodded slowly, "I did. A lot."

"Good!" she grinned, then she rolled over out of my bunk and got to her feet.

She reached both arms up as she stretched, and I lay there quiet for a few more moments admiring her beautiful naked body.

After a half minute or so she finally finished stretching. Then she gestured towards the door, "We should go see what the captain has in store for us today."

I still hadn't taken my eyes off her gorgeous body as I replied "I think maybe she'd like us to get dressed first..."

"Really?" she asked. A naughty grin settled on her face, "I'm not convinced. I think she'd be totally ok with us revealing a lot more skin."

My cheeks went bright red, but before I could respond Sarah added "Anyways she's already seen us both naked right? When we first got out of Jenny's Re/Gen capsule, remember?"

I continued to blush as I pointed out, "She wanted us armed while we were on this world. I think she'd prefer we were also dressed."

The cute engineer conceded "Yeah ok, maybe while we're planet-side she'd be happier if we were dressed."

I finally got up out of bed and moved to the wardrobe then started getting dressed. A moment later Sarah stood next to me and pulled some clothes out of her side of the dresser.

"Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable," she apologized. Now her cheeks were slightly pink too. "I'm not sure what's got into me lately? Maybe a combination of youth and hormones."

"It's ok," I replied, though I was still blushing.

By the time we were both ready I was fully dressed, in leggings and a long loose top and some comfortable shoes. Sarah had got as far as panties, a bra and a small t-shirt, and that seemed to be all she was going to wear for now.

We emerged from our cabin together and headed around the corner to the ship's mess, where we found Piper and Jenny already waiting. The captain had a mug of coffee in her hand and a little smile on her lips.

"There they are," Piper grinned. "Good morning you two."

I felt my cheeks colouring, while Sarah smiled "Good morning captain, good morning Jenny."

The engineer went straight to the auto-chef and got herself some coffee, while I moved to the counter and started getting things out to prepare breakfast. With all the fresh food we got on board yesterday, I'd already decided we were going to have something nice this morning.

Within a few minutes I had some thick-cut bacon frying in one pan, eggs cooking in another, and bread toasting under the grill in the oven. The captain continued to enjoy her coffee as she waited, and Sarah got out plates and cutlery and set the table.

"Here we go," I said once the food was ready. I dished out a serving for the captain, then Sarah, and finally I put some of my own plate. "Sorry Jenny, I know you can't actually eat but I still feel bad every time I cook and you're left out."

The AI smiled, "It's quite all right Amanda. I appreciate the thought, but it would be entirely wasted on me."

I noticed as I took my seat that there was a fresh mug of coffee waiting for me, and realized Sarah must have got it for me when she set the table. I picked it up and had a sip, then smiled "Thanks Sarah."

She grinned back at me but didn't respond as she was already enjoying her food.

"Thanks for breakfast Amanda," Piper said as she got started as well. After a forkful of egg she added, "You and Sarah made a pretty good team this morning."

I couldn't help exchanging another glance with the cute engineer. We were both smiling at each other, and I felt my cheeks starting to go pink again. Then I realized Piper was watching the both of us with a sort of knowing smile, and my cheeks went from pink to full-on red.

After that I spent the next few minutes focusing on my meal and trying not to meet anyone else's eyes. I was positive the captain already knew what Sarah and I got up to last night, and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about that.

There wasn't much conversation as the three of us enjoyed our breakfast. Neither Piper or Jenny even commented on Sarah's lack of pants or shoes. That left me wondering if maybe she was right about our captain being comfortable with a little more skin on display than I'd have guessed.

That thought left me blushing yet again as I wondered what the four of us were going to do to keep us busy during days-long flights from one world to the next. And I hadn't forgotten how our boss acted sort of coy when Sarah asked how she passed the time alone during those transits.

The three of us were all nearly finished eating when Jenny spoke up and broke the silence.

"We've just received a transmission from Mr. Lebeau," the AI announced. "We are to expect the arrival of his cargo by mid-day today, and he expects it to be delivered at the 'usual destination' twelve days from now."

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Our captain nodded as she washed some bacon down with a gulp of coffee, "Sounds good. So we're still employed, and still following our regular route. After breakfast I need to wrap up some business in the city. I'll only be an hour or two, I ought to be back here before Lebeau's guys show up with the goods."

"On the off chance they get here before I'm back," she added a moment later, "Amanda and Sarah you two can oversee them bringing the shipment on board. Should be another two containers, they'll stick it in the main hold then leave. There's no money changing hands, no other instructions. Sarah, you should probably put on some pants first and I'd like you both armed just in case."

"Ok boss," Sarah smirked. "I take it we'll be leaving once the shipment is on board?"

"Right," Piper responded. "And once we're en route you can dress however you like."

I kept quiet, but I was grimacing at the thought of having to deal with Lebeau or any of his thugs while our captain was absent.

After breakfast Piper left the ship to take care of whatever that last thing was on her agenda. I cleaned up the mess and took care of the dishes while Sarah finished getting dressed. Then the cute blonde headed aft into the engine room, and I followed to see what she was up to.

Jenny came along too, and we both watched quietly while Sarah took some time to look over the ship's vital machinery.

"This is the power-plant here," Sarah said as she lifted some maintenance covers on the large piece of equipment that dominated the upper deck of the engineering space. "It's literally the ship's beating heart. The two engines outside are her main drive system, and the jump-drive is on the lower deck. But none of that will do a damn thing without the power-plant. It also feeds the ship's computer, sensors, life-support, everything else really."

I nodded slowly, "And what are you doing with it?"

With the maintenance covers open I could see an almost-bewildering array of conduits, pipes, and cables all wrapped around a central core. And our engineer was leaning inside it, with her arms buried almost to the shoulders as she seemed to be digging deep into the nest of connectors, fuel lines, and power feeds.

"Just a little TLC," she replied with a smile. "Or pre-flight check-up, if you want to sound technical. I'm making sure nothing feels loose or worn."

Jenny commented, "There's over seventeen hundred sensors that check for any problems automatically and in real-time. And with a lot more precision than a human hand."

"Yep," Sarah agreed. "And the Hammersmith had about six thousand sensors on her engines. She still managed to blow a plasma conduit before any of those sensors noticed there was a problem. I knew the thing was overheating, even if it wasn't hot enough to trip the sensors. I was getting ready to shut it down for maintenance when the damn thing blew up in my face."

That didn't actually fill me with a lot of confidence, knowing the Demeter was even older than our previous ship. I asked, "So how's it feel? Everything ok?"

The engineer nodded as she finally pulled her arms out of the machinery. "It's all good. Believe it or not I think this gear's in better shape than the Hammersmith was. Captain Piper obviously takes her regular maintenance seriously, and doesn't cut any corners."

"She did say that Mr. Lancaster and his shipyard did good work," the AI commented.

Jenny and I continued to watch as Sarah gradually made her way around all the equipment in the engineering space. When she finished her inspection of the upper deck we went down on the lift and Sarah repeated the whole thing with the equipment on the lower deck. By the time she was done she'd checked out the power-plant, jump drive, life support, power distribution subsystem, computer connections, artificial gravity generator, and every other piece of machinery or equipment crammed into that space at the back of the ship.

The engineering inspection ended about the same time our captain got back to the ship, and as soon as I saw Piper I knew something was bothering her. She didn't seem angry or upset, but she definitely looked like she had something serious on her mind. Whatever it was she wasn't interested in discussing it, so none of us pressed her about it.

Lebeau's shipment turned up not long after that, a flat-bed grav-sled landed in front of the ship with a couple burly dock-hands on board.

Piper and Sarah took care of that while I stayed up on the main deck with Jenny. It took less than thirty minutes for the two small shipping containers to be loaded into the main hold, and once the goods were stowed the two guys got back on their grav-sled and left.

With the cargo secure Piper sealed up the ship, then she and Sarah joined me and Jenny in the ship's mess. The captain got herself a drink, me and Sarah did the same, and all four of us ended up sitting around the dining table.

After a sip of her drink Sarah asked, "So what's next boss? Are we ready to go?"

"Pretty much," Piper nodded. She looked thoughtful for a few moments, then said "It's been a long while since I've done a pre-mission briefing, but it feels appropriate since we're all here."

She took a moment to collect her thoughts, then she gave us the run-down.

"Once we've left Ecclestone's World we'll make a twelve-day level-zero jump to the Fuminja Cluster. We're never there more than a few hours, just long enough to offload the shipment, load up the new cargo, and top up the fuel tanks. From there we're going to use Jump-1 to the Hammersmith. We can afford to spend up to eight days there, picking and choosing what we want to salvage. From there, three days at level-zero jump will get us to the mining colony at Regulon. Then another six-day trek to Rolandan-2, where we'll visit Mel and offload salvage. And finally a level-one jump will bring us back here."

There was a pause where she had a gulp of her drink, then she finally said "It's thirty-three or thirty-four days round trip, with four stops along the way. As soon as we're done these drinks we'll get started. Any questions?"

Sarah and Jenny both shook their heads quietly. I didn't have any questions either, but I found myself looking around the table at my ship-mates. I couldn't help thinking about what an odd and unlikely group the four of us were.

Our enigmatic captain Rebecca Piper was something of a jack of all trades. She owned the ship and had operated it solo for the past six years. Despite being at least sixty years old she looked like a tall attractive twenty-year-old woman with dark fiery red hair and piercing emerald green eyes. She was calm, confident, quiet, and occasionally seemed dangerous. But I'd also seen her act friendly and caring, and she had a sense of humour. She'd been a loner for a long time, but she was making an effort to get over that.

Jenny appeared the oldest of the group. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, with shoulder-length wavy blonde hair, blue-grey eyes, and a slightly tanned complexion. In truth she wasn't even human, she was an AI who could only join us at the table thanks to a holographic projector drone. Her past was as mysterious as Piper's. All we knew for sure was she'd been salvaged from a ship that was wrecked in a war a few centuries ago.

Our enthusiastic, optimistic, mischievous engineer Sarah looked like an eighteen-year-old girl. She was average height, slim, with long sunny-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a pretty face. She was almost always smiling, and had a habit of playing with her long hair. She was my friend, cabin-mate, and as of last night she was also my lover and possibly my girlfriend.

Then there was me. I was the youngest member of the crew, I was shy, anxious, occasionally timid. I was also trans. My position was ship's medic, cook, navigator, and maybe the ship's mascot. I was a petite eighteen-year-old foxgirl.

All four of us came from different places, different worlds, and we were all very different people. About the only thing in common was we'd all survived shipwrecks, and we'd all ended up on the Demeter.

This antique interstellar tugboat that looked like a giant pot-bellied dung-beetle had become our home. And as I looked at the other people around the table I couldn't help thinking of them like friends or family.

And I'd never felt as happy or as comfortable anywhere else in my life as I did right then and there.

~ The End (of Book 1) ~