Chapter 143: 142. Universal

Things went more or less according to plan over the next few days.

Sarah and Cam got the small personal safes installed in all the cabins. My cute blonde girlfriend and I each had one to ourselves and they were both hidden in our closet. Same with Rebecca, she had one in the closet in her cabin. The two crew cabins lacked closets, so Jenny and Cam got theirs installed beneath their desks. And we had a spare stowed on a shelf in the hold incase it was needed in the future.

The shipyard staff completed their part of the work in the lounge around mid-day, then they moved down to start on the job in the secondary hold. Then once our mechanics were finished installing the smaller safes they took over and completed the first secret compartment installation. Sarah gave us all a demonstration of how it worked that evening, after Helen's employees left and the ship was sealed up for the night. After that we moved all the strongboxes of cash up from the lower deck and got them stowed away in the new secure space in the lounge. And finally, Rebecca distributed all our pay from the salvage job.

It took another half day to wrap up the work in the secondary hold, and during that time Cam talked Sarah into working on the grav-sled to add a third row of detachable seats in the back. Meanwhile Jenny received a half dozen packages delivered to the ship, which she described as spare parts and further upgrades for her android chassis. Some of those went into the ship's workshop, while the rest were put away in her cabin.

After the work was all wrapped up the boss met with Ms. Ortega one last time, to inspect the work and pay for everything. That was the last of our business with the Freeborn Shipyard, so we left there for the very short flight over to the nearby city and its spaceport. And that marked the official start of a few days of shore leave for all five of us.

We didn't actually do much with the rest of that day. Jenny Sarah and I stayed with the ship while Rebecca took Cam to the same place that did my custom e-suit so the cat-kin could get theirs modified to accommodate their ears and tail. It was evening by the time they got back to the ship with the customized suit and neither of them felt like going back out again, so I made us all dinner and we had a quiet night on the ship.

Our first full day of shore leave was much more fun. We took another trip out to that wilderness river valley, so both Cam and Jenny could experience it. And even though Rebecca Sarah and I had already seen it we still enjoyed going back. We did the same sorts of things, including the dramatic waterfall fly-by on the grav-sled, then we flew the length of the valley above the river. After that we found a different picturesque little clearing to set down for our picnic lunch.

The cat-kin seemed to enjoy themself, and they were amazed to see so much fresh water just running free over the landscape. Apparently even pre-drought Deveron-8 didn't really have much in the way of open rivers. According to Cam, any available water was pretty much completely diverted to support agriculture and irrigation right from the source.

Jenny enjoyed it at least as much as Cam, maybe even more. As a Re/Gen AI she never expected to leave the virtual confines of her capsule, let alone go off-ship and experience nature first-hand. While the rest of us were eating she actually slipped off her shoes and socks then wandered around the clearing and even a little ways into the woods, so she could feel the grass and earth under her bare feet.

That seemed to have a profound affect on the android. She barely spoke the rest of the day, but whenever I looked at her she had a wide smile on her face. She seemed incredibly happy, which in turn made me happy too.

As the day gave way to evening we headed back to the city for dinner, but our AI crewmate opted to return to the ship instead. Partially because going to restaurants would always be awkward for her, but also because she still had concerns that someone on this world might recognize her as an android sexbot. Or a "Synthetic Companion, Platinum-SX model 6900" as she preferred to call it. So she stayed with the Demeter while the rest of us went out and had another nice dinner in the city.

Our second full day of shore leave was also the start of a couple days off for Tamsin, so she contacted Rebecca and made arrangements to meet up with us. The idea was as a local she could show us around to interesting places we might not have found on our own, but neither Rebecca or I had forgotten what Sarah said earlier.

Jenny opted to remain with the ship again, but the rest of us headed out around mid-morning to meet Tamsin.

The ravenette mechanic was dressed up for the occasion, instead of her work clothes she was wearing a provocative outfit that consisted of a short dark green skirt over grey and black patterned tights, and an electric blue scoop-neck blouse. Her hair was done up nicely and she had some pretty make-up on. And finally some cute heeled boots finished the look, along with a black purse that hung from her shoulder by a narrow strap.

The rest of us were dressed up too, but not to the same level as our host. Rebecca was in a casual slacks and blouse combination, same with Sarah. Meanwhile Cam and I both wore cute and comfy sundresses.

"So what do you have in store for us?" Rebecca asked after we got all the greetings out of the way. The boss let her eyes trace up and down over Tamsin's outfit before adding, "I'd guess 'dance club' but it's too early for that."

Her friend grinned, "That's later. For now I had a fun idea? Feel free to say no, but you might enjoy it and I figured you wouldn't have experienced anything like it before."

"It's got a bit of an educational aspect to it," she warned, "And may be meant for a slightly younger audience? But I thought it sounded like fun."

Rebecca smiled, "Then let's go check it out."

All five of us climbed into our grav-sled, with the boss and Tamsin up front while Sarah and Cam sat together in the second row, and I settled into the newly-installed seats in the very back. Soon enough we found ourselves at a nondescript building on the far side of the city. Some advertising screens and holograms out front promised an unique and exciting experience. And while there were other people around, it definitely wasn't packed and it didn't seem like a touristy kind of place.

"So what exactly are we in for?" Sarah asked as we headed inside. "This doesn't look like the type of venue that attracts a lot offworlders."

Tamsin smiled and led us across the lobby as she explained, "No it wouldn't. Like I said, it's as much educational as entertainment? And to be clear, none of the tech they use is revolutionary. Or even all that new. But they put it together in some interesting ways, and I've heard it's a fun ride."

I looked to Tamsin and asked, "It's a ride?"

"Sort of," the ravenette mechanic replied.

By that point we were at the check-in counter. Looking around the interior I saw more ad screens and holograms, and I couldn't help noticing that most of the other people here appeared to be families or groups that were primarily older children or teens. Then again, considering all five of us looked about eighteen years old we didn't actually stand out too much. We were probably only two or three years above the target demographic in fact.

Meanwhile our host addressed the young man behind the counter, "Five for the Grand Universal Tour please. And we'd like to make that a private tour, just the five of us."

"We're taking a tour?" Rebecca asked.

Tamsin nodded, "Of the universe, yes."

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She took care of the fee, which came to almost a thousand ecks, although it sounded like the 'private' part was what made the price so high. The guy behind the counter looked like he was in his twenties, and he seemed a little amused about the five of us being there. Then again he also seemed to be checking all of us out, especially Cam and I with our ears and tails, as he asked for our names so he could put them into his terminal.

Then we were each given a personalized 'boarding pass' card hanging from a lanyard that we were supposed to wear around our necks. A woman dressed like a flight attendant from a passenger ship directed us into a waiting room styled like a spaceport lounge. We only had a short wait before another flight attendant took us to the start of our tour.

By that point I was expecting a mocked-up mini spaceship, but instead we were led through a large six-sided door into a smallish hemispherical room. The interior was made up of numerous hexagonal panels, while the floor was a metal grate through which we could see the other half of the sphere.

Five fancy-looking comfortable reclining chairs were positioned against the wall opposite the door. Rather than resting on the floor they were each attached to the wall behind them by a meter-long post. And each of the chairs was equipped with a safety-belt. By that point it was fairly obvious that the flooring was going to go away at some point, so we'd be stuck on the chairs until the tour was over.

The attendant ensured we were all comfortably strapped down to our seats, then advised us not to unbuckle until the tour had ended. Once we all acknowledged that she exited, and the big door swung shut behind her.

"What exactly have you gotten us into Tamsin?" Rebecca asked as the lighting quickly dimmed to leave us in pitch-black.

The two of them were seated next to each other, with Tamsin at the far left then Rebecca to her right. Sarah was in the middle, I was to the right of her with Cam beside me on the other end. And the seats were set right next to one another, so we could easily carry on a conversation. In fact we were close enough to hold our seat-mates' hands if we wanted.

Tamsin replied by quoting some advertising, "It's a unique experience spanning time and space..."

Her voice trailed off as the floor quietly retracted away, leaving our feet dangling. Then I felt the faint sensation of artificial gravity coming on. That ramped up, or down depending on how you looked at it, until we were almost weightless. At the same time a bright point of pure white light appeared in the centre of the room, yet somehow it didn't illuminate any the walls. In fact we could only barely see each other, despite how bright the point of light seemed to be.

"Ok now I get it," Sarah commented. "They're using a mix of holograms and artificial gravity to simulate space travel?"

Before anyone could respond a female voice-over began, and for the next hour and a half the five of us went on a literal tour of the universe. It started with the very beginning, the singularity at the moment of all creation. Following that we witnessed the appearance of matter in the form of hydrogen and helium gas. Then came the birth of the very first stars, which led to the first galaxies.

None of the 'educational' stuff was that new to any of us, except maybe Cam. It was still fun though, having it presented in an interesting new way. It was like flying through space without a spaceship, and by carefully manipulating the artificial gravity field in conjunction with the holograms and the sound effects it was actually really convincing at times. Like we felt the tug of a supermassive star trying to pull us in, then the outward push when it went supernova. That was followed by a stronger tug as we got just a little too close to the resultant black hole, skating around the event horizon before slingshotting out into deep space again.

The whole thing was compelling enough that the five of us barely spoke during the entire 'tour'. The audio and visual effects on their own were quite captivating, and although the antigravity thing was perhaps a bit of a gimmick they managed to use it rather effectively. Even the voice-over narration was well done.

Eventually the 'tour' brought us back to our own galaxy, which we flew through from one side to another at impossible speed. We only slowed or stopped long enough for the voice-over to call our attention to well-known or popular star formations or other astronomical objects. We crossed the farthest border into Imperium space, and apart from some brief pauses to look at a few well-known or important core worlds we raced past a thousand star systems before arriving at the frontier.

From there it only took about a minute to reach the Gorath sector, where we floated around familiar sights like Ecclestone's World and Regulon-4. We took a detour through the Gorath asteroid field which was actually kind of exciting, dodging asteroids and planetoids at high speed, before finally returning 'home' to Rolandan-2.

When the tour came to an end the hologram slowly faded and gravity was gradually returned to normal. The five of us found ourselves seated in that spherical chamber where it all began.

As the lights came on I noticed a lot of smiles on my companions' faces. Cam especially seemed to have enjoyed the experience. Their eyes were wide and tail stood up behind them as they mumbled, "Wow. That was really neat!"

"Yeah," Sarah agreed. "It's funny but that kind of rekindled my love of space? After living and working on ships for so long I'd almost forgotten that sense of excitement and adventure."

When I looked to the left at my blonde girlfriend I also noticed Tamsin was holding Rebecca's hand in her own. In fact the ravenette mechanic was sitting as close to our captain as she could get without unbuckling her safety belt.

"I hope everyone liked it?" Tamsin asked, as she reluctantly let go of the tall redhead's hand. "Rebecca, Amanda?"

The boss nodded as the metal grate floor came up into place below our feet, "It was fun. Definitely not the kind of thing I'd have done on my own."

"Same," I added. "It's a creative use of the technology, I think? I assume they have other applications too, not just that one tour."

By that point we'd all unbuckled and got to our feet, as the door opened up. Another 'flight attendant' was there to lead us all out towards the exit. Which was conveniently located in the gift shop, where they sold all sorts of souvenirs. We got to keep our 'boarding passes' and lanyards too, which was a nice idea and a cute memento of the experience.

Tamsin replied to my question as we wandered around the gift shop, "They have a few other programs. I think their most popular is a 'tour through time' of Rolandan-2? It's the same idea as the universe tour, but it starts with the birth of the Rolandan system and focuses on our world exclusively. I think it's a complete geological history, up until the first settlers arrived? Then it goes into the terraforming and everything since then up to the present day."

"I might actually come back and do that one myself at some point," she admitted with an embarrassed smile.

We all made it through the gift shop without spending any more money. Then as the five of us headed to our grav-sled Sarah asked Tamsin, "So what's next on the agenda for today? I'm sure you have more fun plans for us?"

The ravenette mechanic had moved alongside Rebecca again, almost close enough to get an arm around our attractive amazonian captain. She stayed next to the tall redhead as she looked at Sarah and smiled, "Oh, I have a few ideas in mind."