Chapter 1 Inspection and Watch
“Welcome on board the Kathy Lee Bates, Erin Kess,” said her contact, who had identified himself as the third mate on this crew when he had her sign the papers. John, she thought? Or maybe James. It was a human name; even though the male was Thanonian and looked as if he’d gotten to his officer position after years as other hard career choice. “Make sure you get to medical straight away. The Chief Mate’ll get you started out and then send you down to engineering. And no, I have no bloody idea who the hell Kathy Lee Bates was. Probably some chick back in the dark ages who was worth being named after once on a time or three.”
“Thank you, head to medical, meet with the chief mate,” Erin Kess replied, doing her best to keep the half smile from consuming her face.
Any way off the station was a good way forward, she kept telling herself. How bad could a 6 month cruise on a mining tender be? Did she even know what mining tenders did? There certainly had been nothing imposing about the third mate’s offer to take her on the as a crewmember. Of course, since she was half a head taller than him, it had been hard to be intimidated by the green male. This feeling held until her booted feet touched the deck of his ship. Then it became instantly obvious she wasn’t in familiar territory.
“And don’t go wiping nothing on the way till you know what should be wiped and what shouldn’t; hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” Erin nodded. “Medical is?”
“Forward one ladder, then up to the oh-three deck, starboard side of the passage. If you see crew quarters, you’ve gone too far and may end up doing someone’s laundry for your entire tour with us to make up for the trespass.”
“Got it,” she replied, not liking the glint in his eyes when he mentioned laundry. “Don’t get lost.”
“Ever,” he threw back over his shoulder, heading forward on the main deck. She’d try to follow the order. Starboard was which way? Right. Must be right. Port, red, right, return; yet ships always leave, so it’s the opposite.
Up three decks of clean ladders, and spotless rails, she felt better about her choice. Not a bit of grease or grime had she seen. Horror stories about ship life had, of course, made their way to her ears over the years. Dirty trash scows, horrible smells, dangerous food. Rats the size of wagon wheels. This ship seemed to be an exception. Someone cared for her.
“But then again,” she mused. “Maybe it’s new?”
Or maybe they just had a fantastic cleaning crew? It was her understanding that most of what a wiper, the lowest entry level engineering rating on a ship’s crew, was clean up stuff, change filters, and do crap work. Still, the pay was better than what she’d been getting at a kiosk on a dead-end space station.
She’d clean if she had to. And the prospects if she tested up rank were quite good. Either way, Erin found herself at a door marked Medical and not in some passage of cabins with tags on the doors in alien fonts as she’d feared. Trying to keep her head up high and shoulders back, she pushed her way through the door and let it swing shut behind her. After all; she hadn’t gotten lost!
The medical bay was small, compared to those on the station she’d lived her life. But that was to be expected with a ship barely four hundred meters long. Eight beds, only three of them made, one piled with boxes with numbers on the side wrapped in esha bags. One clean room to a side with a plastic airlock. A bunch of lab stations on the forward wall, and a pair of desks, covered with document tablets, all with little lanyards locked onto a rail against the wall.
“New wiper?” said the only inhabitant of the room. A taller than average human male wore the same bland colored jumpsuit as the third mate. And he was handsome, too. “James said you’d be a blonde. He must have gotten confused. Set your bag down there by the door.”
“Erin Kess,” she said, dropping her computer bag to the deck and then crossing the three steps and extending her hand, trying not to color.
“Chief mate,” he said, taking her hand, but not really shaking it. “Take your shirt off.”
He had released her hand and turned away to the bench behind him, fiddling with something on an instrument tray.
“Excuse me?”
“Take your shirt off, Erin Kess,” he repeated, turning back with something she recognized; a standard medical version of an id chip reader. She swallowed. “You had been overdue a physical. Which James seemed to have missed. Your medical records are rather shitty for a station chick. Actually, I’d call them out right atrocious, even for a back sky station. So I’ll have to take the lab work costs out of his check. He will not be happy about that. We have to give you a full inspection anyway as part of bringing you on board, but the full physical is a bit more invasive. Take off your shirt; or I’ll do it for you.”
Erin took a half a step back, sputtering. “Isn’t there a doctor who does this sort of thing?”
“On a ship with less than thirty crew,” he smiled a disarming smile. “Oh, please. Look at the emergency plan next to the hatch behind you if it makes you feel better. You’ll notice my responsibilities include medical. The master’s got some certs under her belt; but none of them human. We only sail with a company doc if we have a science party with us. Usually, they get into more trouble than the crew. Issue reading instructions most of the time.”
She turned to look at the papers on the wall next to the hatch, but found herself suddenly grabbed at the waist. And before she knew it, her shirt was over her head, her back against a bed, and her bra was halfway up to her neck. The chief mate had the “medID” scanner pressed against her chest, just below her breasts. Her hands were wrapped up in her shirt. And the bastard had a smile on his face the size of a small moon.
The scanner beeped, and he let off the pressure, setting the tool into a cradle. “Take the bra off, too. Like I said; you don’t have a full physical in the last eight years. And that’s not good, lady.”
Erin swallowed, her mind struggling to figure out what to do. He was right. She was behind with her checkups. And she remembered vaguely something about medical fitness on the contract James had made her sign. Swallowing her modesty, she finished extracting herself from her shirt and bra, while the chief glanced at the results from the scan of her medical chip.
“Well, nothing bad on the record,” he said, turning back to her, and bringing his hands to her forehead. “Kess? Doesn’t look like you’ve been on any ship before. Decided station life is not suitable? I couldn’t stand it myself.”
The chief lowered his hands to her neck, feeling her lymph nodes, and then pushing her head left and right, taking a step closer in the process and looking at the roots of her hair, and then in her ears and eyes and nose with a small magnifier held between his left thumb and forefinger. He tossed the magnifier back to the instrument tray with a clank, but didn’t step back.
Slowly, he ran his hands along her neck to her shoulders, and then brushed his right hand across her breasts to meet his left on her right arm. He ran his hands along her arm carefully, checking every inch, front and back, flexing each joint, and then almost caressing her right hand between his. Between the handling and the air, Erin realized her nipples were hard as marbles. She had no illusions about her color; she had to be quite flushed. He swept his hands to her left arm and did the same inspection there.
When finished with her left arm, he set his hands on her shoulders.
“Turn around,” he almost whispered. She did, fearing that he was intentionally teasing her. Yes, she needed this inspection. Yes, she had signed permission for them to give it; but he wasn’t exactly being professional, and he was male. His hands kneaded the back of her neck, then swiped over her shoulders, prodding and pushing gently. They came to a stop on her waist. Then he slid his arms around her and up to her neck, beginning to swirl over her chest, focusing more than necessary in her mind on her breasts.
“James must have been mistaken on that account too,” he said, his breath in her ear. “You’re not blonde and you have small breasts.”
She said something smart in response, but he pinched her hard. His hands settled at her waist again. She felt herself shaking with mixed fear and something closer to anticipation. His left hand vanished from her side, then dropped a needle on the bed in front of her.
“You know,” he said, hugging her again with both arms. “You aren’t exactly making this easy.”
“I,” Erin started. “Your bedside manner isn’t exactly normal for a doctor!”
“Medical technician certification,” he sniffed. “We do things a bit differently. And you seem to like it.”
Erin gasped as the man suddenly slid his hands downward, catching both her pants and underwear and getting them both to drop below her knees in one move. A second later, and his right hand was pressing her face down to the bed, the needle in his left. She felt a stab in her left thigh, and then a burning sensation as the needle’s contents entered her tissue.
He let her back up slightly, and she tried to stand straight, only to become quite dizzy as the drug crashed through her system. As her world steadied, she realized she was mostly naked, being held up entirely by this all too forward male’s arms.
“Even small breasts must be examined,” he whispered, releasing her only for a moment against the edge of the bed to acquire a larger hand scanner. The cool metal electrode pressed to her chest below her left breast. “Left arm above your head. I’m sure you’ve done this before.”
“Not quite in this position,” she spoke, trying to figure out how things had ended up where they were.
“I’m sorry, this will probably be uncomfortable,” he said, then pressed the scanner’s bar against her chest and flipped the switch.
It was uncomfortable, as her last scans had been, almost a decade ago. But his left hand around her waist, his chest pressed to her back, somehow made the pain less of a burden. Even though he seemed to taking liberties with her personal space, she had to admit that the flattening her breasts with a metal rod wasn’t as painful as she had remembered.
After finishing with her right, he twisted the bar around and touched a few pads on the body of the scanner. “This probably won’t hurt as much,” he said, joggling her forward on the bed again, but stepping back. Erin closed her eyes, hearing the squirt of gel from a tube hitting the metal probe. His left hand settled on her left buttock, and a moment later, the metal probe, slightly warmed by the time against her chest, and goo from the gel, slid into her. He held it still for a few seconds, then stepped away to the instrument tray.
Just as Erin was trying to gather her whits about her enough to stand, she was hugged again, with the chief mate’s hands capturing her left arm, and attaching a band over her biceps. A second needle pressed into her elbow, finding a vein with almost no hesitation in the prick. The vial on the needle attachment filled with her blood. “The tracer should have had enough time to circulate by now,” the CM said.
Once more, she felt him leave her space and almost felt a chill at the disappearance. Having to hold on to the bed’s edge, she turned to face him, her ankles still tangled in her pants.
“It’ll take a few hours to run the scans through the proper systems. I’ll have the initial analysis done before we leave port. That should give enough time to make sure there’s nothing going on with you that would make having you aboard too dangerous.”
“Well?” Erin asked, crossing her arms over herself.
“Well, no, actually you can’t get dressed,” he said.
“Really? Why not? Isn’t the exam finished?”
“Oh, it is,” he replied. “But I realized I forgot to turn on the video feed to the ship’s mess…” He finished, reaching for some switches on the console next to the instruments.
“Don’t you dare!” Erin cried, yanking for her pants, and almost falling over in the process. By the time she had her shirt halfway over her head, the CM was laughing hard.
“It’s just the scanner download feed,” he said, waving at the bank of switches. “Oh, but the look on your face, Erin. I think it’s going to be quite fun having you around!”
Somewhere between mortified and still slightly turned on, Erin didn’t quite know how to respond, so she just sat there, glaring at the CM while he finished entering some commands into the console. Her bra was still on the bed behind her. It hadn’t quite made its way back into her hands in her dash for the shirt. She wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of trying to put it back on.
“I saw that,” the CM said, glancing up at her out of the corner of his eye.
“What?”
“You just glanced behind you. Ya, you forgot something. Well, I’ll make it easier on you,” he said, half a smile, only a quarter moon this time, playing its evil. She could tell he was staring right at her chest. Erin glanced down, then hugged herself a little tighter. “Ya, easier.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“It’s simple. Well, mostly simple. You have small breasts. And you can’t seem to keep track of your bras. So I’m going to make dealing with your clothing assignment easier. Part of my duties include such assignments. So I will assign none of that garment to your rations. It shouldn’t be much of an inconvenience to you, in all reality.” A chit spit out of the top of the console, and he picked it off the printer and held it out to you. “Your billet information.”
Erin rolled her eyes. “I’m trying hard not to make this whole incident into something which shatters my opinion of males. Can you make this any worse?” Erin shook her head as his smile broadened, and he moved to drop the chit into the hopper bolted to the floor. She held up her hands. “Wait, never mind. It’s obvious that you can. And would. Just gimme the chit.”
“If you say so, Kess,” the CM nodded, extending the chit to her for a second chance. She snatched it. “As you wish. I’ve been generous with the number of shirts. So if you wish to double up, that’s up to you. I’d prefer if you didn’t for obvious reasons,” he smiled again, looking down at her chest. “But considering your size, it may be the easiest thing you can do to keep males interested in you from a distance.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Erin complained.
“That’s why everyone is anywhere; actually.”
“Can I go now?”
“Sure, to engineering. Find the second engineer. She just got on watch. You’ll be the 2EN’s personal slave,” the CM smiled. “Actually, you’ll be that entire department’s personal slave for a while. I’ll get back to you when I can. We have a rough cruise ahead of us. With any luck, there will be plenty of time to make sure and get you sorted.”
“What do I call you?”
“Chief Mate Dave,“ he said, turning on the charm and shaking her hand. “This ship’s a little weird, as we don’t have a bosun slot. So I end up doing quite a bit more than normal for a first mate. Hence the “chief” part. Anything that comes or leaves this ship via the quarter deck or the fantail is my responsibility. Anything that’s in front of us is the captain’s. And anything that’s behind us is the chief engineer’s.”
“Got it.”
“Now go find the 2EN,” he said, the smile dropping off his face so fast she felt like something walked over her grave. “And Erin; be safe. Whatever you do, this is a dangerous ship to work on. Use your head. From your test scores, it looks like you have one. The first thing on this ship is to stay alive. You can have whatever fun you want if you can figure out how to fit it into the two bookends of ship life. Safety, and the rule.”
“What rule is that?”
“The people who own this ship do not care if any of us live or die. Their rule is law out here. We each have a small part in making sure that the law is interpreted such that we get back to port. If someone says duck, you fucking kiss the deck like it’s your mommy’s breast. If someone says stop, you freeze faster than a flash lock. If someone yells make a hole, you vanish. If someone says run, you get your ass through a hatch faster than light.”
Erin swallowed.
“Got that Kess?”
“Yes,”
“Good, now go find the 2EN and get off my deck. Don’t forget to suit up.”
Erin reached for her bra, but the CM stopped her hand with his. “That stays with me,” he grinned. “After all; you’re not allowed it.”
“Is it allowable to say I’ll get you back?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Why the hell do you think I’m doing this in the first place?” he folded up her bra and shoved it in his back pocket. “It’s not that I enjoy seeing your small bits or anything.” The grin was back on his face. He gave her a shove toward the door.
“Bastard,” she said, trying to not smile while she said it.
“That’s the idea, Kess.”
She grabbed her bag and left, still trying to make sense of the entire encounter. Now to find the second engineer.
Chapter 2 Drill Schedule
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” came a shrill female voice from the passage behind her. Erin stopped with her hands on a hatch handle. She thought she’d been going to engineering. That’s what the door said, after all.
“Looking for the 2EN,” Erin replied, her hand back to her side, turning to look back down the hall.
“Not like that you’re not,” said the woman. Erin couldn’t figure out how old she was. There was just something off about her appearance. Obviously female, yet strangely undeveloped. The closest thing she could think of was that this female had somehow gotten old without aging. Even the way she walked was off. Erin guessed the CM wouldn’t have even bothered playing his clothing assignment trick with this woman. And on her shoulder were the letters, “2EN”. Figures.
“I see I’ve found you,” Erin replied, trying a smile on this strange-looking person.
“I see you can read,” the lady sniffed. “New wiper. Get new clothes first. And then I guess one of us will have to walk you through suit drills.”
“I have certs,” Erin replied.
“Doesn’t matter. Ship and station suits aren’t the same. We still have to certify you on our gear to our standards. Although it will be painless because of your station crap. Maybe more painless than your medical exam, I’d guess.”
“How many people are going to know about that?”
“You have absolutely no idea what things are like on a ship; do you?”
“I’m Erin Kess,” she replied, changing the subject.
“Of course you are; we’ve all checked our mail. I’m not Erin Kess. And the only person Erin Kess should be worried about right now is Erin Kess. Laundry, down three forward one. Then find your rack, get your computer on the net. Then suit as you can and find me on the fantail. We’ll walk through everything we can before they clear the deck in an hour. Don’t dally.”
“Yesm.”
“If you call me ma’am, I will cut your bones out.”
“Sorry,” Erin replied. “Then what do you want me to call you?”
“2EN works,” she replied, turning away and heading aft. “Or Bates. They always call me fucking Bates. Might as well have you do it, too.”
“Fucking Bates, it is,” Erin said under her breath, taking off to find the laundry. Minutes and three decks later, she had verified what the CM had done to her uniform ration. Six sets of normal wear clothes for under suits or around the ship, three sets of workout clothes, two triple thickness working jumpsuits with reinforcements, and two sets of sheets for a bed she had yet to find. Plugging the chit into the laundry machine, had spit out a string of information on the screen. Half of which she hadn’t a clue how to read, but she was pretty sure she’d picked the room bunk, and if she read the plank next to the door showed by the line, the lifeboat she was assigned to.
The first thing she noticed, pushing open the hatch to the place she’d be sleeping for the next 6 months was, there was an overwhelming smell of vinegar. She had the top bunk, which was verified by a person asleep on the bottom bunk.
Snips
Note: What follows outlines snips which will work into the next chapters.
Erin Kess has a broken medID chip. The panels pass on CM’s first assessment. Some scene with him looking at them and having a conversation with the captain about the requirement for minor surgery and when it should happen. Also, some scene where she gets a little sick, but seems “okay” on the scanner. It bugs him again, and he keeps looking, not trusting the medical ID chip’s reports.
Then they get a science party (second tour after port call. So call it 50-55 days in.) CM asks the company Doc to take a look, but it’s kind of denied as being a problem. Then Erin gets sick again; he pushes, argues with the doc, finally makes the call and heads back to port. She continues to decline; the port call saves her life.
Definitely, the wiper lady has a problem with a cancer bit starting. (Probably breast.) CM pulls her aside at one point and gives her the news. They also have to at some point decide whether to head into a port early, arrange for stuff to be delivered, or just wait it out about getting her some stronger meds. I think he ends up making that decision, but it’s after the initial issues.
Their mission is a maintenance and worker ship for mining operations on a systemwide level. Some of their job involves science and exploration in the way of careful mapping. Mapping and sci-tech is done using some onboard instrumentation, and some towed arrays. Similar to what Kira mounted for her mapping bit in a companion book.
Another major part of the ship’s tasks involves setting sensor lines and grids around entire star systems. This is perhaps the most dangerous. Running a spool of very thin wire in cross sections and orbits is a HUGEly dangerous task. A spool with tractor spinning at speeds comparable to SS velocities is insane. One problem will be when something goes wrong with a spool op and the second engineer (a mostly mechanical lady, sim to chi w/ green ls) gets torn. When this incident happens, the MC was standing right next to the engy and gets her suit damaged, but not breached. (Probably hurt.) (It’s soon after that the decision has to be made about meds or let her chance recovering on her own.)
The most grueling work, but not as dangerous, is the maintenance of lines used to guide automated bots in some fields.
Most of this story will tell about the life of a ship worker working her way up the oiler/wiper ladder and getting trained as a third engineer. It will take place on a 6 month cruise. There’s some sex, some violence, a few deaths, a lot of cool cutting edge technology and bad interactions with the sci party, and a lot of hard work. Bad food, good fun, and most importantly, boredom in the dark.
