Chapter 140: 139. Overlooked

"The bottom line is it'd be a lot easier working on old boats like the Demeter if the schematics or blueprints were available," Tamsin commented after another gulp of her coffee.

"I suppose being built in the Imperium makes it kind of difficult to get your hands on the original design specs of a ship like this," Sarah responded. "It's an awful long way back to the shipyard where the Demeter was put together."

Our guest shook her head as she munched on another mouthful of bacon and toast. Then she explained, "It's not the distance that's the problem. We've been able to get schematics from Imperium shipyards in the past. For civilian vessels I mean, obviously nothing military. The real issue is age. The Demeter was already over a hundred years old when Gabe first visited my dad and I here."

"Even if she was the very last ship of her class to be launched," the ravenette mechanic added as she picked up her coffee mug again, "Most shipyards just wouldn't keep the records that long. Fifty years would be a typical 'planned service life' for a lot of civilian craft, and eighty years is about the maximum."

"I take it having schematics and blueprints would help in some way?" Jenny asked the two engineers.

All six of us were sitting around the dining table in the ship's mess, and five of us were enjoying the breakfast I'd just prepared. So far Cam and Jenny were the only ones fully dressed, and I could tell our AI was a little amused while the cat-kin maybe felt a little awkward or confused.

They knew Sarah and Rebecca and I were together, so they were kind of surprised last night when Tamsin and Sarah retired to our cabin while I accompanied the captain into hers. Our newest crewmate was even more surprised this morning, when our engineer and the local mechanic both emerged from our cabin looking a little dishevelled but very pleased with themselves.

Sarah was just dressed in panties and a tight t-shirt as usual, while Tamsin wore a borrowed nightshirt. And they both had smiles on their faces when they joined the rest of us in the mess. Then again Rebecca and I weren't much better. The tall redhead was dressed more or less like Sarah, while I'd borrowed one of the captain's nightshirts.

Our engineer swallowed a mouthful of eggs then nodded to Jenny, "Yeah schematics would definitely help. Tamsin and I have identified some likely spots where we could put in a hidden compartment or two, but right now the only way to know for sure is to start pulling wall panels or hull plates to verify what's behind them. If we had some blueprints or something we could avoid wasting time on any spots that we know won't work."

The AI seemed amused as she responded, "And apparently nobody's bothered to check the Demeter's computer? Ever?"

"The file is admittedly rather old," she continued with a smile, "A hundred and forty-one years to be precise, and there are bound to be some discrepancies due to all the upgrades and modifications made over the years. But there is a file, labelled 'Hephaestus Class Salvar / Tug / Light Freighter, Specifications Plans and Design Notes'. According to the metadata the file was added by the Dunalla Shipyard of Sentara-6, on Imperium calendar date fifth cycle, year three-forty-eight, day two-ten. That's three days prior to the Demeter's official launch."

Both Sarah's and Tamsin's eyes widened with excitement. The two looked at each other, then my blonde girlfriend asked "Jenny can you route that file to the terminal in our cabin please? I need to see this!"

"Me too!" our guest agreed.

Jenny nodded but I interrupted before she could respond.

"Not until you've both finished your breakfast," I stated as my tail twitched around behind me. "If you two run off to go look at engineering records it'll be an hour before you come back and the food will be stone cold by then."

Sarah gave me a sheepish grin, "Sorry Amanda."

"Thanks for breakfast Amanda," Tamsin added. "This is a lot nicer than what I'd have made myself at home."

Rebecca looked like she was trying not to smile as she asked our guest, "Don't you have to get to work soon? I really don't want to end up on Helen's bad side because my crew caused her newest employee to miss work."

The young mechanic's shoulders slumped as she pouted, "Yeah I guess. Helen wouldn't be upset with you if I was late though, she'd know it was my own fault."

The boss's lips started curling up into that smile she'd been holding back as she teased, "That's right, you're a big girl now and old enough to take responsibility for your actions."

Tamsin made a face and mumbled something into her coffee mug, while Sarah grinned. Even I couldn't help smiling a little.

"Sarah were you going to accompany Amanda and Cam into the city today?" Rebecca asked a few moments later. "Or did you want to talk to Helen about this smuggling compartment plan?"

Our blonde girlfriend replied, "I'll stick with you today boss. I'd like to be in on that conversation with Helen, and if we make a decision I'd like to speak with whoever's assigned to do the work."

"I wonder if I could sweet-talk her into assigning me to the Demeter," Tamsin commented with a thoughtful frown. Then she made a face, "I wouldn't be in charge of the project though, I'd just be an assistant mechanic. Most of the time it doesn't bother me, but now and then I get kind of frustrated having to pretend I'm inexperienced. Especially when I trained some of these guys, and now they're treating me like a new apprentice or something."

We were all pretty much finished eating by then, so rather than take the opportunity to tease her friend some more Rebecca suggested, "Tamsin, Sarah, why don't you two go get dressed. And I suppose you can have a look at that file, but try not to take too long. The rest of us will help Amanda tidy up the mess and galley, then we'll see about getting on with our plans for the day."

Nobody had any objections, so after a last gulp of coffee or bite of toast everyone got moving. With Cam Jenny and Rebecca helping it didn't take much time to get things tidied up, while the two mechanics went forward into our cabin to get dressed.

I joined them a couple minutes later, since that's where all my clean clothes were. Somehow I wasn't surprised to find neither of them had even looked at clothes yet. Instead they were both staring engrossed at the ship schematics on the terminal.

They didn't even seem to notice that I'd joined them, neither commented when I slipped off my nightshirt then visited the washroom to get freshened up. Nor did they say anything when I emerged and walked naked across the cabin behind them to the dresser, where I picked out a comfy and stylish outfit for my trip into town with Cam.

"Hey you two," I said after I'd finished getting dressed. "Tamsin you're going to be late for work. Sarah, is there anything I can get for you while Cam and I are in the city?"

That finally got their attention. The ravenette mechanic grumbled a bit as she moved to gather up her clothes from the floor next to the bed, while my girlfriend gave me a smile.

"No thanks love," she replied. "I think we're still hoping for a few days shore leave here, so maybe the two of us can do a shopping trip together later."

"Or the three of us. Or all of us," she added as she finally headed for the dresser to pick out some clean clothes for herself.

I nodded, "Good point. All right, try and stay out of trouble. See you later."

"Have fun cutie!" Sarah smiled back. "Look after Cam, they might be a little overwhelmed out in the city."

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"Of course," I replied as I exited our cabin.

The cat-kin was ready to go, so as soon as I joined them we bid Rebecca a good day then headed down to the main hold. I got behind the controls of the grav-sled while they took the seat next to me, and Jenny unsealed the ship and opened up the main airlock for us.

Soon enough we were fifty meters up and soaring over the landscape towards town at a hundred and twenty kilometres an hour. The cat-kin was fairly quiet as they stared wide-eyed at the huge metropolis before us.

I smiled, "It looks even more impressive during the day, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," they nodded slowly. "Rebecca said about two and a half million people live there? And this is just one of more than two dozen cities on this world?"

I shrugged, "I don't know the exact numbers, but that sounds about right."

The cat-kin continued to stare as they responded, "Wow. That's more people than all of Deveron-8, just in this one city."

"I know how you feel," I said as I gave them a sympathetic smile. "It was the same for me when I first left home. I went from a small settlement on a rural agri world straight into the Navy's medical corps academy. It was basically a huge military school, where the faculty and students outnumbered my home town by a thousand to one."

They were quiet after that, and when I glanced over I noticed they seemed a little anxious. So I tried to reassure them, "Don't worry about it ok Cam? I know where we're going, and the folks here are safe. You and I might attract a few stares because of our ears or tails, but nobody's going to bother us. And the people we have to talk to are all going to be nice."

"All right Amanda," they nodded. "Thanks."

Our first stop in the city was the same money exchange that Rebecca took Sarah and I to way back when we were still new to the Demeter. And when we got there I gave Cam the same explanation the boss gave the rest of us, about how the locals used ecks but preferred electronic money over the hard cash they used elsewhere in the sector.

My girlfriend and I didn't have any issues with it since we were used to Imperium credits, but Cam seemed very suspicious of the whole thing. To them money was always something tangible, and the idea of handing over a heavy solid bar - more than they'd ever had before in their life - and getting back a cheap lightweight plastic token seemed like a ridiculous concept.

They obviously trusted me though, especially when I did it too. I still had my token from before, but I loaded another five thousand ecks onto it since it was getting a little low on funds.

From there our next stop was the same custom clothes place where Sarah and I got most of our wardrobe. The same two sales staff were there, and Atni even remembered me from before. The cat-kin was wary again, especially at the idea of having to strip naked in the scanning booth, but once again I went first so they'd see it was ok. They were also excited to meet another non-binary person, so I left Cam in Atni's capable hands while Maia took care of me this time around.

She was surprised that I needed to be scanned again, and even more surprised when she realized the reason was that I'd shrank rather than grown. Maia didn't ask how it happened though, she just rolled with it. Meanwhile Atni was explaining things to Cam, in the same patient polite manner they used when they were taking care of me during my first visit.

After we were both scanned I ordered a few more items. I needed to replace a few pieces that got shot-up back at Ganvis, or blood-stained during one of the other altercations we'd experienced. And I ordered a few new things as well, stuff Maia suggested or that caught my eye when we were looking through the options on her computer.

It took Cam a while to make all their selections, and once again I was reminded of myself in a way. I was positive this was their first time having so many options, styles, and colours to choose from. Their first opportunity to choose their own look and try out something fashionable, instead of whatever was cheapest or simply available.

When it came time to pay they were curious about how the money token actually worked, then they took advantage of the scanning booth again to get changed into one of their new outfits.

"What do you think Amanda?" they asked as they emerged from the booth. They did a little twirl then asked, "It's not too girly is it? Or too colourful?"

They were dressed in black and purple striped tights, a black knee-length skirt, and a purple blouse with yellow highlights. The purple and yellow clashed slightly, but it was bright and colourful and kind of cheerful. And it was a huge contrast to the drab dull dark clothes everyone was wearing back at Ganvis.

"You look wonderful Cam," I told them with a wide smile. "I don't think it's too colourful at all. If you ask me, those are happy colours."

Then I added, "I don't know about being too girly? It might encourage more people to assume you're a girl, but if you're happy with it then that's all that matters. You look very pretty."

They smiled back as their cheeks coloured. "What about all the other stuff I ordered? Will we load it into the sled?"

Atni spoke up, "We can have it all delivered directly to your ship if you like?"

"That sounds good to me," I replied.

Cam seemed a little uncertain about that, but once again they trusted my judgement. So we let Atni and Maia know where the Demeter was and they promised everything would be delivered by drone within the hour.

From there our next stop was the same footwear place Sarah and I visited a half year earlier. Since becoming smaller some of my shoes and boots didn't fit right anymore, so I needed to get rescanned so I could have replacements made. And Cam of course needed some proper shoes and boots as well.

I also encouraged them to get some fun shoes too, and even suggested a few styles that might go with their new outfit.

The two of us made a few more stops after that to pick up some other necessities. In all it seemed like a fun shopping expedition, or at least I had fun. I hoped Cam did too.

The last place I wanted to visit was the local Vesfar Urox office, so I could check for any new messages from my sister. Cam opted to wait in the grav-sled since there wasn't anything in the communications office that interested them. Happily there was a reply waiting for me, so I paid the fee and got it transferred to my datapad. Then I hurried back out to the grav-sled, eager to see what Nissa wrote.

Except my excitement turned to dread when I reached the vehicle and found it empty. There was no sign of my cat-kin crewmate, nothing to indicate where they'd gone or what might have happened to them.

A cold heavy weight settled in my gut while my tail drooped down between my legs as the worry set in. Cam was alone, potentially lost somewhere in this huge city, and I was responsible.