http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/ Don't read if under 18 or illegal in your little corner of the world, like you'll listen. This should appear only on my site http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/ F3, Futanari Palace, Pal's archive site, through Pal's yahoo group, on Pal's Forum... well, it basically should be wherever Pal's stuff is. Also at the Grey Archive, and some other places they might end up, they know who they are. This is copyright me, so don’t call it yours. Feedback can be left here. I created all the characters, they are all fictional, and any relevance to anyone living or dead, is incidental A big thanks out for both Theromen and davidka1, who have beta tested this chapter. Their help has been integral to getting it out so quickly. BTW there is plenty of different portions which have been reused by numerous science fiction shows movies and books, including nanotechnology, rapid pregnancy, and various scientific mumbo jumbo, which I will try to keep to a minimum. (Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish…) THIS CHAPTER contains futa/mast Chapter 19 Dependency Giselle walked down the corridor, playing back an audio feed she had recorded during the meeting that she kept coming back to. The same device used to display the information during her presentation had recorded it. It was just an exercise she learned in school, to track what she didn’t explain well enough that questions would arise. Terra had asked why they were specifically chosen to help, and it was the answer that she kept coming back to. ‘And if we can save your mom, then we can solve the problem of the Martians possibly getting the nanobots technology,’ she had the recording loop the playback. She listened to it over and over, committing it to memory. For someone who was so secretive, who was being so cloak and dagger about things, this Nadia Bodarko let something slip so easily. ‘Was this her secret?’ she wondered to herself. She had listened to the entire presentation twice, and this was the only piece that she questioned. ‘What was it?’ Giselle thought. She had trained for years to do what needed be done. She had learned computer systems more advanced than government computers, she had spent countless hours in zero gravity, she had memorized thousands of government employees, former employees, elected representatives, all the way up to past prime ministers. She had learned so many protocols of the resistance for how to contact whom, how to plan out what. She had learned about countless technologies, both completed and those being researched, and had been bolstered not only by numerous leaks in the Martian government but by information from the Earth government’s own information agency! ‘The way she said it was so blasé, as though it was something everyone knew about…’ she thought to herself, ‘…unless it is something I should know about.’ Turning the corner, she kept her stride, thinking on further. ‘Stop the Martians getting the technology, why stop them? They are supposed to help the Martians, but what technology is it?’ she asked herself. Giselle had looked into the information that she had, but she didn’t know what to make of it. The infamous Thomas Pope was a noted scientist, but did he make these nanobots? Was that what she meant? He had degrees in almost every kind of applied science, and while many of them were honorary she didn’t doubt that if applied he could merit the degrees themselves. But Nadia didn’t say, ‘If we save Tom Pope’ she said ‘If we saved your mom’. ‘How would she matter?’ Giselle asked herself. Did she simply mean if they were to save both? Could it be such a small thing? Giselle had investigated Kyle Byrne along with Mori Yoshi, and Nadia Bodarko. Everything she found seemed too obviously doctored to her, but to keep Terra Byrne completely unrecorded seemed like an amateur move, so much better to doctor a bland and boring report. ‘Was she another scientist, a test subject, or just someone who knew too much? Or was she just a witness they wanted to get rid of?’ She resigned herself to returning to work, there were a half a million things to be done, and unfortunately most of them were jobs she thought beneath her. * One of the problems with the ship was that so much of its electrical circuitry was in disrepair before the engine died. The ship used only a fragment of its output except when accelerating, and even then there was still an abundant supply of power. The ship was designed to haul massive amounts of heavy machinery, but it now carried less than half of what had been designated for it to carry. Naturally it could carry more, they just had to make adjustments for time, fuel expended, and what was necessary to sustain the crew. And oftentimes most importantly the delivery date. Most of the circuits in the ship had blown at some point in time, just from general wear and tear, or due to the electrical surges, which happened frequently during the ship accelerating and decelerating to and from a planet. When the circuits were blown, the ship’s automatic repair system would kick in, and divert the flow of the energy from dead circuits to relays, which would activate numerous backup circuits. The issue is that instead of the power going from point A to point B, it would keep cycling back and forth through the relays until they found a live circuit. The ship had several layers of energy grids, and if the primary power grid was dead at one juncture it could be rerouted into a secondary grid in one area, while staying on the primary power system elsewhere. This came to be particularly useful when several systems all over the ship were down, as the autonomic systems would simply reroute the power to any of the five grids that were functioning. Now that the engine was dead, the energy that was being expended by the autonomic systems was overtaxing the already limited supply of energy, and so David was one of many who had to go back and forth from various stations and try to determine which were dead, which were alive, and do the work themselves. Despite them having been used as such, the automatic system wasn’t designed to change things on a permanent basis, and wasn’t designed as a long-term fix. A ‘stopgap’ as it was. David sighed as his mind began to daydream. He couldn’t help but fantasize about Terra while his mind was occupied with dull repetitive work. Sure, he found both Nadia and Yoshi to be gorgeous women, but nevertheless his wandering mind kept returning to Terra. Visions of her filled his head, of her face, her smile, her beauty. Her comely body with its sensual curves, her large perky breasts David had already accidentally come into contact with, her round saucy bottom that David couldn’t keep his eyes off of as she walked on by. How his hands longed to touch her body, to feel her delicate skin, to… “David, you know a bit about science, maybe you might help me out,” Giselle said, dragging David’s mind from the daydream. “Huh, err, yes, I mean uh, what do you want?” David asked, pulling his weary body up from a computer panel. He was so caught up in his fantasy he felt like someone had caught him in the middle of masturbation. He was thankful he wasn’t sporting a boner. “I was just doing a little homework, and one of the girls mentioned something I didn’t know about, what’s a nanobots?” Giselle asked. “Well, that’s simple,” David said, bracing his back against the wall for a moment. “It’s the multiple of nanobot.” He shrugged his shoulders and made a silly face. “Don’t sass me,” she said, lifting up her arm as though to backhand him in a playful manner. “Uh, well, I think it’s basically like, a really small robot,” David said, moving his index finger and thumb as close as possible. “I remember seeing some show where they made nanites that were like, some kind of killer plague. They put the stuff in everyone’s drinking water and turned them into zombies.” David said, imitating the movements of a zombie. “It was an okay movie, and that was the one where the actress showed her…uh, acting talents…” he said, scratching the back of his head, realizing Giselle probably didn’t want to know about how nice her rack was. “How do they do that?” she asked, flipping her recorder on. She didn’t expect to get much information from him, but if nothing else it might help down the road. ‘I’m grasping at straws anyway’ “I dunno, maybe they fit inside of you and make your brain mush. I think I saw some other movie where scientists made tiny robots that spread and covered the whole world, eating up all of the resources. It was called ‘Gray Goo’ or something. Why is it so important?” he asked. “Oh, it’s not, when they said it I didn’t want to sound uneducated. And I didn’t want to have to ask Sergio if he knew what it meant, the last thing I need was to hear it from him,” she said, shaking her head. “Not that he probably knows anyways.” “Oh god, the last thing I want to do is ask him about something. What, do they have some gray zombie-bots?” he asked, starting to become interested. “Huh? Oh, no, at least I don’t know,” Giselle said, starting to concern herself that she might have just piqued David’s interest as well. ‘The last thing I need is for him to start asking questions, and arouse their suspicions’ she thought. “I think that they want to save the guy that has them, or knows how to make them, or something.” “That’s a first, you not knowing something,” David said, giving a brief chortle. “And a last too, thanks Dave,” Giselle said, as she started to move. She looked over at him, really taking stock for a moment. “You doing alright?” “Ah, I’ll be fine,” David said nonchalantly, hoping that Giselle wouldn’t start up. “I thought I told you to keep off those stim packs,” Giselle said disapprovingly. ‘He’s gonna work himself into an early grave’. “It looks like you haven’t slept for months David, you can’t keep doing that to yourself,” Giselle said honestly. “I’ll be fine, really,” He said. Giselle was one of the few people on the ship that actually knew the extent of his reliance on the stimulant packs, as she had become a sort of ‘Ship’s Medic’. It had been so long since he had started using them he didn’t remember coping before he was using them. “You know I just don’t want you to burn yourself out, right?” she asked, doing her best to try to sound sympathetic, and not condescending, or parental. “I know, I’ll be perfect, don’t worry about it,” He said, trying to reassure her. He had a real fear that she could fuck up his ability to procure the stimulants. “Just promise me you’ll get some sleep soon, okay?” Giselle asked. She honestly wished that the problem would go away, that somehow he could see the light and kick his habit by himself. “Yeah sure, right after a sixteen hour day,” he said glumly, not really meaning it. He would have agreed to wrestle a tiger by himself to get her off his case. “Okay,” Giselle said, shaking her head as she left. She decided then to do something to try to help him. Although she had only met him a short time ago, she cared enough for him that she didn’t want him to overdo it. The stimulants weren’t designed to be used so constantly, they were probably ripping his body into bits this very moment. ‘I remember when I was young and invincible too.’ * Gary Bodarko drove his car far too fast away from the government building. After having compiled the report, he was to go through a debriefing, as is the normal protocol after interrogation of a criminal for the charges of treason. He was informed that he was to debrief a secretary, which in and of itself was an insult, as charges of treason should be brought up to the head of state. He had spent hours on a plane and arrived at the parliament building, only to discover that he had a meeting with the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Planetary Security. The man was nice enough, he was polite and had given him his full attention, asking specifically about certain aspects that most often were overlooked by some government officials. He was well briefed on the subject and even shared some information that Gary lacked. He had brought a special lunch, which was well made from a little place around the corner, not government food. The two had a pleasant enough meeting, and he was on his way. But they never should have met. This was information which should never have seen by the Prime Minister. ‘The Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Planetary Security my ass!’ Gary thought, speeding up. A part of him, a very small part, felt better with each passing kilometer. He thanked whatever genius German had crafted the autobahn. ‘A highway with no speed limits, no wonder the Germans make such powerful cars’ he pondered. He spent his own money to rent a real car, not some powerless light government issued vehicle. He knew his reassignment was coming, and that it would be a particularly undesirable one. He planned to have a meeting as soon as he could, but he also knew that he was being watched, and could not meet with Solomon, or even contact him, without endangering their entire backdoor communications network. Gary didn’t know how far reaching Solomon’s information network ran, but he did not want to either test it, or be removed out of it. Solomon had spoke of his reassignment in their last meeting, but only briefly, and Gary didn’t like the sound of it. He had given him emergency contact procedures. However Gary could only imagine what they would entail. ‘Probably toiling in a rice paddy in China and hoping that nobody found out who the old white man was’ He thought of his granddaughter, who was in a jail cell as his speed increased. She would most likely get off on a technicality, which was of some relief to him. She had never been sworn off on that specific information, and thereby never knowingly breached government secrets, which was a loophole, so long as the information wasn’t delivered into the hands of known or suspected enemies of the planet. ‘Although the news media might as well be’ he thought to himself. He knew that Michelle would spend a long time in jail during the processing and filing time. Anyone charged with treason was held until the result of the trial, as any guilty party would flee if freed. It wasn’t fair for the innocent but it was the only way it could be done. He had seen to it that she got the best public lawyer, who was able to get her a private room in a medium security jail. She would be safe. How long she would spend would be determined by what his daughter could accomplish. It would almost be worse for his granddaughter if Nadia and the rest did succeed, as without proof to the contrary, the case could be dismissed much more quickly due to a lack of evidence. Gary sighed to himself, not really knowing why he helped Nadia leave. He felt for Terra and her parent’s abduction. He had admired Tom’s skills and his genius, and all the work he had done to help the planet. He didn’t want the Martians to use the nanites, let alone find them. He was not a heartless man, and if they could help solve the problem on Mars he would sleep easier at night. None of those reasons summed the truth behind getting the three of them out, at the cost of his reputation, and possibly his job. No, the real reason that he helped them go was simpler than that. Nadia Bodarko wanted to go. His daughter was going to go, by hook or by crook, she was going to manage some means of getting there, assuming he didn’t have to arrest her beforehand. He only wished that he had the chance to say goodbye, and that he could have heard her say the one thing that he had missed for over ten years. Even after having grown up, she would say it, and simply reminiscing about it could make the corners of his mouth turn upward, albeit slightly. He simply wanted to hear his daughter call him daddy once more. * “Sergio, I want to talk to you,” Giselle said, looking at Sergio. His face was pale, his eyes glossy and sullen, and he smelled of alcohol again. She did not look forward to this meeting, she knew that he had been taking the damage to the ship personally, but she felt that this was something she needed to bring to his attention. “Oh, yes?” Sergio asked. He wasn’t in the mood to talk much right now, the prospect of finding Flynn’s body weighed heavily on his mind. He had been putting it off as long as he could, but he felt it was disrespectful to the dead to ignore him any longer. ‘And I have to stop being such a pussy about this and deal’ “I wanted to talk to you about David and his sleeping situation,” Giselle said plainly, not wasting any time. “Oh, well, so long as nobody is being hurt I don’t see why we have to talk about it,” Sergio said. ‘Why the fuck do I have to talk about two teenagers right now?’ he wondered. “Someone is being hurt, David is suffering from it,” Giselle said, shocked at his blithe reply. “I didn’t think you were such a prude,” Sergio said, lifting an eyebrow. He personally just let people do as they wished, and if David was spending the nights with one of the girls, he felt it was within his rights. ‘All the more power to him’ “What do you mean prude? He hasn’t slept in days, and he’s abusing the stimulants again!” Giselle shouted, her voice filled with concern. She realized momentarily that shouting it out loud was probably not the best idea, as David could be around any corner, even though he was supposed to be on the other floor he had a knack for eavesdropping. “Oh, you mean the stimulants?” Sergio said, surprised. “Why, what did you think?” Giselle squinted her eyes. Usually she knew things ahead of Sergio. “Nothing, nothing, I’ll talk to the boy about the stimulants,” Sergio said, rubbing his beard. ‘Maybe a drop or two will get him some sleep. If nothing else, it wouldn’t hurt him and that redhead.’ “Do you have any idea how much he’s been taking?” Giselle felt as though he wasn’t really getting the point she was trying to lay out for him. “No, I’ve been trying to keep the ship together with bailing wire and chewing gum!” Sergio said crossly. “I said I’d talk to him about it and I will!” “Sergio, this is a big problem,” Gisselle said, stopping him in his tracks. “So is the ship,” he said grumpily. “I’m sorry, I’ll talk to him, he’s going to see me when he finishes his shift, then I’ll take care of it.” Sergio’s dulled mind attempted to recall what spirits he had stored in his room. ‘I think I have just the thing’ * Nadia woke up late in the morning. At least that’s how she felt, for all she knew it was two in the morning or five at night, or any other time of the day. But her body had that weariness that comes from too much sleep, almost a kind of rest hangover. Her muscles weren’t sore from over exercise, instead from a deficiency of exercise, and she lacked the desire to do much for fear of giving Giselle something new to snoop over. She rolled her body in midair, missing the days when she had a pillow and blanket, when she could roll over and fluff the pillow, get the cool side against her head while pulling the blanket up to her neck. Just to have a bed that she could lay in, that she could rest and be comfortable in. She finally gave up on more rest, and unlatched her body from the bed. She looked over at Terra and yawned. Terra was reading her bible, sitting in the lotus position in the middle of the room, her hair floating aimlessly in space. What she was reading wasn’t any of the books of the bible however; she was following her family tree for generations, imagining in her head the previous propagations writing the family line for hundreds of years. Her name seemed so insignificant, the ink was hardly dry. But it was there. “Morning,” Nadia said, rubbing her eyes. “I don’t think its morning, actually without a sun I don’t think it could be morning,” Terra pointed out. “I guess so,” Nadia said. “What’s that smell?” she asked, inhaling a new scent. “Oh, well, last night I went over to David’s room, and he loaned me some of this cologne stuff. David gave me a whole bottle of it, and he told me I could use it to help with the smell. He also told me about a French shower, but I don’t know if I want to do that. Oh and he fixed my flower, well not fixed it but he set up some kind of special pot that lets the dirt stay together and gives it the, photons I think he said, that it needs to grow,” Terra gushed. “Oh, okay,” Nadia said, her half sleeping head propped up by her hand was definitely not getting everything. ‘She sounds like a schoolgirl fawning over some crush…wait, oh no’ Nadia sighed. “You went over to his room? Why?” “Oh, well, I was awake last night, and I wanted to go to talk to him about, you know, about his friend dying,” Terra said. “Is he still bottling everything up?” Nadia asked. “Yes, yes I think so. He acts like he’s completely fine, like he doesn’t have a problem with anything,” Terra said. “I, I don’t know, I think that maybe he is okay. He doesn’t seem like he’s doing that badly,” Terra said, her face full of optimism, of hope. She didn’t want to see anyone suffer, and the prospect of it simply going away seemed all too perfect. “It won’t be pretty,” Nadia said. “I’m going to the galley, I need something to eat.” “I haven’t eaten yet,” Terra said, her stomach feeling empty. “I don’t really like the food.” “Be thankful you don’t drink the coffee,” Nadia replied. She pushed herself from the bed, and her body dropped down towards the magnetic boots that had never moved an inch while the two of them had slept. “I’m ready,” Terra said, closing her book. She deposited the bible in the top drawer of the desk. She knew it would float around, but she felt comfortable that she would know where it was, if nothing else. Exiting the room the two of them walked through the hallway, Nadia wiping her red eyes. Despite all the sleep she got, she seemed to feel restless, like her energy was constantly expended. She didn’t know if it was the result of lacking sunlight, keeping one step ahead of everyone her, or just being in space, but she seemed to be struggling to keep her body going. Terra opened the door to the galley, and was relieved that the place was empty. The food was almost entirely processed and freeze dried. Nadia had told her once that she thought some of it was ‘spoiled’. She walked over and grabbed the only breakfast food she found passable, it was something called a breakfast burrito. It had some of what she thought it was meat, some rice, egg and some cheese wrapped around a flower tortilla. She looked down at the burrito and shook her head. She remembered fondly back to her grandmother’s blueberry pancakes drowning in syrup, as her mouth began to salivate. It seemed like so long ago now, but only a little time had passed. It was the distance that made the memory seem so far off. She placed the food into the oven, and waited for Nadia to put her food in before turning it on. “What did you pick?” Nadia asked. “Breakfast burrito,” Terra replied, watching the orange glow of one of the oven element go on. “I picked chicken and vegetables, maybe you made a better choice,” Nadia frowned. She wasn’t a big breakfast person, usually coffee and a muffin. Back when she had been a full time doctor, she didn’t even drink coffee on days when she had surgery, as the slightest movement could mean the difference between success and failure. She started the coffee maker before returning to Terra. Looking at the oven, she said “I don’t know if this thing is working, only the top half of is on.” “It’s probably the power, we’ve had malfunctions all over the ship,” Giselle said as she walked in. “We’re working on things, but there’s more things broken than there is time to fix it.” “Oh, um, okay,” Terra said. “If, if I knew how to help I would, but I don’t know anything about the ship.” “It’s fine, I wouldn’t trust anyone who didn’t know how to touch the ship,” Giselle said. “But thank you for offering,” she added, emphasizing the ‘you’. “Give me a break,” Nadia said. “I can’t deal with you before I get coffee.” “I’m sorry, we can’t all sleep in,” Giselle said. “That’s a shame, what are you doing exactly? I’ve seen everyone else going back and forth, running around to fix the ship, and I haven’t so much as seen you lift a finger,” Nadia shot back. “Oh I’ve kept busy,” Giselle said. “I’m sure you have, I’m sure you have,” Nadia said. She turned her back to Giselle, as she looked at the food. It said it was done, although she doubted it, and turned the knob once more. “So, you’re a doctor, can you answer me a medical question?” Giselle asked. “Oh?” Nadia asked, never turning her back towards Giselle. “Well I figure a smart doctor like you ought to know, what are nanobots?” Giselle asked. Nadia’s body seemed to freeze at the mere utterance. She willed her face stoic as she turned around to Giselle. “A what?” Nadia asked, trying to keep her voice steady, as her body language betrayed her spoken words. “And if we can save your mom, then we can solve the problem of the Martians possibly getting the nanobots technology,” Nadia listened to a tinny recording of her voice. “Terra, the breakfast is done, would you bring it to our room while I wait for my coffee please?” Nadia asked, her voice unwavering. “Nadia, are you sure?” Terra asked, her voice filled with uncertainty, not only of Giselle and her possible knowledge of the nanobots, but also of what Nadia was going to do. “I think I should stay.” “I’ll just be a minute,” Nadia said turning her head towards Terra, flashing a smile. “Trust me, everything will be fine.” “Okay,” Terra said, carrying the two meals in her hand. They were lukewarm, but she didn’t seem to notice, she was too concerned with what was going on between the two women. Part of her wanted to be there, to support Nadia, to help her in whatever way she could. The other part of her wanted desperately to leave, to avoid the possible argument. Nadia had asked her to leave, and although she felt an instinctive desire to stay, she wanted to follow Nadia’s wishes. She looked back once at Nadia, who was still giving her a smile, before she left the room. “So fine, she’s gone, what’s a nanobot?” Giselle asked, feeling smugly secure in her own self confidence. “Listen to me because I won’t repeat it, you are going into some dangerous stuff,” Nadia said, the anger in her voice was unmistakable. She walked over to where Giselle was standing, looking her straight in the face. “Stop this now.” “I’m going to figure it out,” Giselle said. ‘She’s scared, I’ve got her where I want her.’ Giselle thought. “You have all the information that you are going to get. And what is it exactly?” Nadia asked, leaning over to her. “Me recording the name of something whose name you don’t know, let alone understand?” “I didn’t know anything beforehand, and now I’ve learned a lot. You have a secret, and the more I look into it, the more you try to hide it, the more dangerous it seems to be,” Giselle said. “And who decided that you were queen of Mars?” Nadia asked. “Just stay out of our business.” “Oh, and now you are concerned about Mars? You want to keep this technology away form them, why is that I wonder? What is it exactly you’re here to stop the Martians from getting? I’m going to figure it out,” Giselle insisted. “No, you won’t, there’s nothing else to figure out. It’s as simple as that,” Nadia replied. “If I don’t figure it out from you, I’ll figure it out from someone,” Giselle said, looking at the door. “Maybe that redheaded little girl.” Nadia’s eyes flared, if a vision could eviscerate Giselle’s vital organs would color the air crimson. Nadia’s hands flew forward, grabbing Giselle by the collar of her shirt. She had moved too fast for Giselle, who wasn’t expecting a doctor to attack her. The force of her lunge pulled Giselle’s feet up from under her, releasing her magnetic boots, as Nadia pinned her against the wall, a feat less impressive without gravity in space. “If you so much as touch one hair on her head, it will be the end of you,” Nadia said, feeling Giselle’s body kick and struggle against her hold. Their bodies were close, denying Giselle the kind of force she would need to accomplish a release. She stared right into Giselle’s eyes, her face so close she could feel the struggling gasps escaping from her mouth. “If she so much as says you were looking at her funny, I will fucking end you!” Their heads both turned a moment later as the door swung open. Nadia was worried, she was afraid that Terra had returned. She felt some minor relief as she saw David come in. He was instantly confused at the scene before him, and did a double take, confused as to whether or not he was daydreaming again. “Uh, hi,” he said awkwardly, ready to dash out the door. His fight or flight instincts were definitely telling him to run. He had just come in for something to eat before he reported to Sergio about the effected repairs. “Don’t get between me and my coffee,” Nadia said, letting go of Giselle and grabbing the cup. “Let me know if you need to see a doctor.” She didn’t say another word as she left the galley, leaving David and Giselle staring at one another. * “Good my boy, good,” Sergio said, after listening to David read off a list of all the repaired relay points. The entire crew had been pulling double shifts, and it had been paying off. They were ahead of the schedule that Sergio had set. Of course, having experience with failure he had planned that something would go wrong. He still believed that something would, but if that were to happen, he knew they would be able to contend with a minor setback. “Basically it’s one floor down, all the rest to go,” he said, handing Sergio a pad. “That’s good son, that’s good, come in for a minute,” Sergio said, motioning towards his room. “I apologize for the mess.” “It’s alright, is there something I can do for you? Because I kinda want to relax for a little bit,” David said, not entirely sure what Sergio was doing. “Good son, it sounds like you need to relax,” Sergio reached into a drawer, trying to find a bottle, or rather a specific bottle. “What do you mean?” David asked, getting defensive. “It has come to my attention that you have, let’s say, used the stimulant packs once or twice?” Sergio asked rhetorically. “Fucking Giselle,” David muttered under his breath. “I don’t get in your business boy, sufficed that you keep your nose clean and keep the ship going, what you do is what you want,” Sergio said, finally finding what he was looking for. It was a thirty year old bottle of scotch, the real good stuff. He was ashamed to have to give it away to a boy who would probably drink swill. The bottle itself was new, the booze inside was not. It had a special tip, which would allow someone to pour it into their mouth, without having to come into contact with the tip, and keep any excess booze from coming out. “Look, it’s not a problem, I just pulled a double shift and I worked like twelve hours yesterday, what I do in my own time is my own business and I don’t have to explain anything, it’s not like you’re my,” David began to defend himself. “Tut tut boy, I really don’t want to hear it anymore than you want to protest it,” Sergio said. “I just want it to end, you hear me? Wean yourself off, go cold turkey, quit and come back when everything is fine, it’s your choice. What I truly wanted was to share a toast,” Sergio said, taking the bottle. He frowned at it, thinking ‘Such a shame to store such booze in plastic.’ “A drink?” David asked, caught off guard. While he had no doubt that Sergio had plenty of alcohol stored, he never imagined the drunkard would offer him up a single drop. Not many would offer a sixteen year old alcohol, even though he was less than two years from the legal drinking age. “To absent friends, eh?” Sergio said, handing the bottle to David. He pulled his flask out, and leaned it towards David. “To absent friends,” David said, clinging the bottle against Sergio’s. He took a gulp, a large one, feeling the stinging burn from the alcohol in his mouth. He tried best as he could to swallow it all in one gulp, but he couldn’t. Alcohol went down one’s throat differently in zero gravity, and David struggled to get his mouthful down after three attempts to swallow. “Now, let me give you a little advice, eh? There’s nothing wrong with finding solace at the bottom of a bottle now and then, and just as misery loves company, so does happiness. Maybe a redhead with a nice body as company, eh?” Sergio snorted a laugh out. “Sergio,” David said, his throat still stinging from the alcohol, “She just came over to talk, alright? I was there to fix her—“ “Right, right, talk, of course lad, a gentleman never tells,” Sergio said, putting a finger to his lips. “Just tell me, is she coming over to, er, ‘talk’ tonight?” “Yes, and she’s really coming tonight to talk, not ‘talk’” David said, using quotation fingers. “Good, good, then keep the bottle,” Sergio said. “Now get going, I’ve got things to do.” “Keep…the bottle?” David asked, puzzled. ‘There’s got to be a handle of booze in this!’ he thought to himself. “Come on now, I haven’t all day,” Sergio said as he motioned towards the door, wishing despite all else that he need not do what had to be done. David was just happy to get out while he was ahead. * Yoshi sighed to himself as he rubbed his eyes. He had long forgotten about sleep. The work he had been so focused on for so long had been a completely draining experience, both in his time and in her personal strength. He kept coming back to two different things, but neither one made sense. The first was a matter of the oncoming trajectory of the asteroid. He was by no means an astrophysicist, but it was simply a matter of math. The incoming vector that the asteroid that had struck Mars’ moon Phobos, had entered in an impossible angle for it to be natural. But there was no way that anyone had the kind of sheer energy to move a planetary body in that manner. ‘Tractor beam my ass’ he thought to himself. The second was the matter of the manner in which the moon had disintegrated; it was scientifically impossible for it to break along that line. The gradual deterioration of a moon’s orbit into the Roche limit would mean that it could break up certainly. But the moon’s orbit deteriorated at such a rate that made it impossible. The moon wouldn’t begin to break apart into rings, it would collide with the planet, and killing off a good numbers of them in the same way the dinosaurs were killed off. People of course would stand a better chance, especially with Earth nearby, with some technology plant life might even be sustained and the food chain could, at least in theory, survive. Yoshi was depressed, to say the least. As a scientist, he was used to having problems, but he was used to being able to solve them. Historically he never worked well in a group, and was used to solitarily tackling difficult problems. But that was always inside a comfort zone for him. Laboratories filled with computers and test tubes in a clean sterile environment while he ordered interns and students around like a king ordering his servants. Laboring around floating pads alone in zero gravity and unable to get new information or test his hypothesizes was far from his comfort zone. Even working with Tom was difficult for him, as he was always second fiddle, and although he hated to admit it, rightly so. He was able to console himself that the work was for the best, and he might get the kind of recognition only few scientists ever receive. ‘And a couple people remember Buzz Aldrin’ he thought. Trying to deal with the scientific matters was difficult. Trying to deal with the changes in his body was more than difficult, and coping seemed impossible. At first it was like a new toy. He had breasts, and a vagina to explore, a new penis, a young virile body with perfect skin and no flaws. He had only gotten one chance to explore his body with another. ‘Oh Amy’ he thought to himself. She had a certain je ne sais quoi about her. Perhaps it was the fact she was the most beautiful woman he had slept with in far too long, or perhaps it was simply his first conquest in his new body, but the memory of the night, well, at least the evening the two had shared was his fondest memory since his transformation, and one of the few that he had truly enjoyed. He didn’t think it was love, no, it was simply lust. Yet with his new body he felt the same wild oats he had desired to sow as a young buck, however now he wasn’t quite a buck. He felt like a stranger in his own body, like he was sleeping inside of someone else’s skin. He had next to no time to cope with the changes to his body before they went up in space, and coping with the change of being in space was difficult enough without changing genders. He envied Nadia, who had at least had the chance to talk to Kyle, and Tom, who knew what being so feminine was about to begin with. To simply tuck something away was one thing, for him it was as though becoming a new person. She had Terra, and the two of them could at least pair off together and be girlfriends. He considered Nadia a colleague, heck, a friend in all honesty, but this was something that he was hesitant to talk about. It was different for Nadia, who had met an entirely new person in Terra, but he was still Mori Yoshi below the skin. The same perverse skirt chasing old man’s soul was just in new skin, or rather skin that looked new. He got up and stretched his weary legs, how long he had sat there staring at information he couldn’t recall. He took his forehead in his head, holding it as he felt his brain ache. ‘Stupid hair’ He thought to himself, trying to wipe it away from his face. With his transformation into a futanari, his entire body had become feminine, except for down there. He had tied his long hair that went down to his ass when there was gravity, but now twin ponytails floated and hovered about. He made a mental note to cut it short. ‘But not butch,’ he decided, holding his hair vainly for a moment in the mirror, ‘I don’t want to look like a bull dyke.’ Looking into the full-length mirror, he grinned at his body. He had the kind of figure that he would have lusted after to no end a week ago, hell he would lust after it today, but to exist within its shell was a completely different experience. He turned around, admiring his firm curvy backside. He was wearing a tight red once piece suit, he used to have one he bought to run in the mornings. He never wound up running, he would just wind up drinking coffee and reading the news in it. The last time he went jogging was to escape the rain en route to his car. He hadn’t bothered with panties or a bra, both of which he found constricting and unpleasant. Unzipping the one piece down to his belly button, he looked at his breasts once more. At first they just seemed like something for show, like wearing a nice tie or a suit or something. He had objectified women like almost any other man, and breasts were simply one of a few erogenous zones to desire and arouse. But to feel them now on his chest, to realize how real they were, it was different from just wanting to grasp a breast, or nibble on the nipple. It was his erogenous zone, it was his breast to be cupped, his nipple to be suckled upon. Lowering the zipper to the end he opened the garment and crawled out of it. He examined his body in its full splendor. He frowned at his form, it wasn’t just the breasts that vexed him, it was his entire self. Not that he was an Adonis before, but he was no longer masculine. He had the wide curvy hips of a woman, the small stomach of a girl, and the breasts of a goddess. The sole lingering remnant of his manhood was, appropriately enough, his manhood. It had grown some, which he was proud of. If he were to have only one last piece of masculinity, he was consoled by the fact that it was bigger than average. Before he had only been five inches, but at nine he was sure he would satisfy any woman who he was with, although it wasn’t attention from the women he was concerned about. He noticed the looks, the stares, the attention the entire crew had sent his way. At first to him it was like being the most popular kid in school, but now he felt like he was always under the microscope. The attention was nice, but he would drop dead as soon as desire after a man, he just wasn’t built that way. He wasn’t homosexual. ‘Or maybe I am gay,’ he thought to himself, realizing his more feminine form. At first he had argued that he was still male, but looking at his truly feminine form, he could no longer deny that he was truly feminine. He cupped one of his breasts in one hand, savoring the feel of the soft delicate flesh. His nipple had begun to harden quickly, and he licked his lips. it seemed like a lifetime ago when he had been with Amy, and he hadn’t gotten any release since. He needed release, not just sexually, but to ease the stress. His hand reached down as he explored his body. He had never bothered shaving his pubis before, and though he had hair down there, it was a small bush, neatly kept although not by him. He bypassed his penis, and began to feel his tender pink slit. He had never imagined having one, and even while having sex before he didn’t have the opportunity to truly explore his new feminine orifice. It was wet, that was the first thing that his mind fixated on. Wet and inviting, more so than any other woman had been to him, because he was accepting himself inside of himself. His fingers massaged his labia, his head moved slightly as he enjoyed the small circular wipes. He felt his cock throb, seeming to grow harder and longer with each heartbeat, bouncing by itself. Inserting the tip of his finger, his body twitched involuntarily. He had never penetrated himself, other than a colonoscopy, the idea in and of itself had seem repellant. Yet now with his newly grown sex, insertion had changed from some form of homoeroticism to an entirely different experience. Pushing in slightly, he rubbed the tip of his finger up and down against the walls of his virgin sex. The tightness was to be expected, but he had never been on the receiving end of this pleasure. He lifted his leg as he floated in space, giving his hand better access. Beads of succus flowed from his exploration, glistening in the luminescent light from the room. Yoshi let out a satisfied moan as he felt his finger brush up against his clitoris. He had known in some distant manner that the clitoris was the only organ on the human body that existed only for pleasure. As his mind was reeling from the pleasure the small nub elicited, he became much more intimate with the organ. Around and around he massaged it, his fingertips more than lubricated with his own juices. He pinched it gently, his legs quivered from the pleasure he was savoring. Grabbing onto his already hard cock with his other hand, he moved his fingers back to the soft folds of the outer lips of his pussy, slowly working one finger in gently. Grasping his manhood with the other hand, he began slow deliberate strokes, working them in concert with his finger. His head pulled back, he was in ecstasy. Waves of pleasure rippled through his body not just from his manhood, but also his soaking womanhood. He slipped another finger in, surprised at the ease that his body accepted it, indeed desiring it. He could feel his hard cock ache in his hand, but found his body reacting more to the sex between his legs. He picked up his pace, starting to ram the two fingers in and out of his tender virginal pink slit. His fingers thrust powerfully in a circular motion, pushing up against the walls of his pussy. ‘My pussy,’ he thought to himself, feeling his body grind against his hand. He was humping his own cock in one hand and fingering his honey pot in the other, and finally his body could take no more. He could not stifle his screams of pleasure as he came. The duality of a futanari offered the duality of orgasm, and his mind was could hardly deal with the two ripping through him. Rivets of cum bubbled up from his balls, blasting off like rockets in flight and shooting into the air, hovering about. His legs seemed to go out from under him as he felt gushing jets of succus flow from his pussy as he twitched and trembled from the awesome feelings of pure pleasure. Both organs pulsed and convulsed in one long chain orgasm, shaking him to his very core. He grinned, looking at himself in the mirror and thought, ‘Maybe this ain’t all bad’ * David put the bottle down in his lap, he truly didn’t understand why in the hell Sergio had bothered to give it to him. He grinned looking at it. Five hundred years of progress had done nothing to drain youths desire to be rebellious. He had gotten drunk before as a really young kid, and paid the price, twenty five smacks on the ass and a month grounded. But that was some cheap booze his father had caught him sneaking away. This, this was the good stuff. Top shelf booze, as it was sometimes called, although the flavor suffered from being inside a plastic bottle, but glass wasn’t something that functioned well on a space ship. There were no glass containers or cups, the windows were comprised of a transparent plastic. Even the mirrors had a microfilm protecting cover in case they were to shatter. ‘It’s just him trying to keep me off of the stimulants. I can’t blame him. Just give me a new toy to play with, if nothing else this’ll knock me out if I have enough of it.’ He thought, swirling the plastic jug. ‘Or maybe it was all about Terra,’ he thought to himself. He smiled as he thought onto the girl. She was beautiful, to say that was like stating the sky was blue, and he was captivated by her looks. He couldn’t say whether his long tenure in space was the cause but he found himself fantasizing about her. At first she had seemed so…strange to him, but now she had seemed so innocent to him, like she was experiencing everything for the first time, like she wasn’t self centered or just looking out for herself. The concept was so different to him it was like a breath of fresh air. His grin drooped down as he looked at his drawer. There was a stimulant pack, just waiting for him. He had gotten into the habit of taking them so regularly he hadn’t thought about it really, it was like a smoker lighting up a cigarette. ‘Maybe I’ll just take one more, for now at least’ David thought to himself. ‘Sergio probably wouldn’t notice, and I can just play it off to Giselle as pent up exhaustion. Hell I don’t even have to give up completely, just hide it a bit better. Take a day or two off, just wean myself off it a bit so it’s not so obvious, yeah, just a minor set back. Just falsify a couple reports in the computer, give someone a stim here and a stim there, change the inventory maybe, shouldn’t be a problem, and once I’m on Mars I won’t have to worry about them looking over my shoulders, nobody will notice.’ He thought to himself. ‘Except Giselle, she would notice, she would look over it like a hawk, especially now that she’s been talking to Sergio about it. She would check, everyday probably. I’ll have to be smart about it…that’s it, fill up the old packs, make it look like nothing has happened, like nothing has changed.’ He thought. ‘And I’ve got this,’ he thought, sloshing around the contents of the bottle, ‘And a beautiful redhead coming over tonight.’ Looking over at the plant, he realized how much work he had to do, and he put the plastic bottle in the drawer, on top of the stim pack. ‘Once more won’t make a difference,’ he rationalized to himself, as he reached into the drawer and took it out. * Terra looked at her bible, not really reading it, constantly looking up nervously at Nadia. She had hoped that Nadia would simply fall asleep like last night, and she could go to David’s room. She didn’t think that there was anything wrong with going there, but just as she didn’t think there was anything wrong with sneaking to Nadia’s room back at the facility, there were some things she didn’t want known. She didn’t feel like back then, but she didn’t really know how to feel. She had been looking forward to seeing David, but she couldn’t explain why really. She had a normal enough day, if somewhat boring. With the power outage there was little that could be done. There were no movies, no television, no video games, not that Terra or Nadia had any. They had a pad each but there was nothing on them really, Terra had begun writing a diary, but she didn’t have a lot to put in it. She and Nadia had spent most of the day talking, but they were trying to ignore the elephant in the room. “What is it?” Nadia asked, looking over at Terra. “Um, nothing,” Terra said. She didn’t really have anything in particular to say, so she felt like she was being honest. “Is this about Giselle?” Nadia asked. “No,” Terra said. “Terra, honey, I’ll tell you what happened. She threatened us, okay? She said she would figure out about the nanobots from someone, if not me, then you. So, so I, I got angry,” Nadia said, feeling shame at her earlier action. “I know it wasn’t right, I know it was stupid. I’m sorry.” “Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t know,” Terra said. “I didn’t hurt her, I barely even roughed her up a little, and I’m ashamed of it,” Nadia said. “If, if you didn’t hurt her, I mean, I just hope your doing the best,” Terra said. “I just couldn’t, I couldn’t imagine anything happening to you,” Nadia said, shaking her head. “I, I have something I have to show you.” Nadia got up, and walked over to a drawer. She had crammed a number of the bland standard issue clothing in the front of the drawer, and had to move them out of the way first, before coming to it. Terra’s eyes grew wide with fear as she saw what Nadia had taken out. It was a gun, her mother’s gun to be specific. Nadia had taken it along during the car ride, smuggled it aboard the ship, and had stowed it away in her room. “I don’t want to see it,” Terra said, turning herself around. The very thought of guns, of weapons, of tools of death or destruction were frightening to her. “Listen to me Terra, I’ve never used a gun in anger, I’ve never hurt anyone with a gun,” Nadia said, trying to calm Terra down. She held the gun along the barrel, pointing it towards herself, with the safety on. She walked over towards Terra, whose back was still facing her. “I’ve helped people who have been shot by guns, fixed them up, seen them die. I don’t want to hurt anyone, I only tried to scare Giselle a little, and it was wrong. I, I don’t know why I did it. This is serious though.” “I know it’s serious!” Terra shouted. “I was there too, I saw what guns did to you, what they did to Yoshi, and I hate it! I can’t, I can’t hurt someone like that.” “It’s okay Terra, you don’t have to, I don’t want you to, I just, I just want you to know how to use it, if you ever have to, if something ever happened, just to defend yourself. Guns don’t kill people Terra, the people holding them do,” Nadia said, recanting the oft said phrase of the pro gun lobby. “But the guns make it a lot easier,” Terra said, turning around. Even seeing the metal of the grip nauseated her. “I’m going to go for a walk.” “Terra, don’t, don’t go,” Nadia said, instantly regretting bringing the gun out. She had merely wanted to show Terra what it was, where it was, how to use it in the long shot that she had to. ‘I should have known how she’d react’ Nadia thought. “I’m, I’m okay,” Terra said. “I’m just I’m going to go take a walk.” “Okay,” Nadia said, hiding the gun behind her back. “I’m really sorry honey, I just seem to keep screwing everything up, but I just want to do the best for both of us.” “I know Nadia, I really think you are doing what’s best,” Terra said. “It’s hard for me, but I know it’s got to be hard for you as well. I’ll be back,” she said, turning around and hugging Nadia. She kept her hands high, only inches above the weapon Nadia was hiding. “But I don’t want to see it again.” “You won’t,” Nadia said, kissing her on the lips for a moment. “I promise.” Nadia cursed herself, feeling foolish to even bring the subject up. ‘There I was, trying to prove to her how stupid I was to use violence, and then I pull out the gun.’ She thought to herself. She wasn’t trying to scare Terra, if anything she was trying to make her feel better, safer. Nadia had grown up in and around military bases her entire life, traveling more than she wanted with her father, constantly changing schools, changing houses, changing friends. She had grown up learning about the dangers of the world, the dangers of the other world, the possibility of armed aggression. Having a firearm was always a source of security, a source of safety. It gave her the feeling that ‘If you were going to attack me, I can fight back’ ‘But that’s not how she grew up’ Nadia realized. Guns to Terra were just scary, they were the thing that attacked, that hurt, that filled Nadia and Yoshi with bullets and nearly killed them, that killed countless guards that night. To Nadia guns were what kept you safe from the evil out in the dark. To Terra guns were the evil in the dark. Terra walked out the door, smiling at Nadia before she closed it. She wasn’t very upset, not really, but she didn’t like the gun. She believed in Nadia, she trusted her judgment, but she couldn’t reconcile her fear of firearms, even if they were there to help. Terra took a deep breath as she looked down the hallway at David’s door. She didn’t have anywhere else to go really, but she felt a little guilty just saying she was ‘going for a walk’ She didn’t lie, not really, but she found herself omitting the truth sometimes to spare people’s feelings, to hide things, and she couldn’t help but wonder whether or not that was in and of itself some kind of falsehood. It was as though she could get the same desired result without having to actually lie. She rapped twice on the door, waiting for an answer. She felt strangely anxious as she waited for the answer. She could hear him shout “Its open!” from inside. She opened the door and saw David laboring over the plant. “Oh, hey,” he said, turning around towards Terra. “I’m almost done, it’s just gonna take a little bit.” “Oh, okay,” Terra said. “I can come back later, if you want.” “No no, is okay, just take a seat,” David said, patting down the chair next to him. “Are you okay?” Terra asked, noticing his slurred speech. “Oh yeah, I’m great,” David said. “I think I got to put this down though,” he said, putting the bottle on the desk. As it floated away he tried to put it down a few times before giving up on it. “What is it?” Terra asked, grabbing the bottle. It was a rather plain bottle in and of itself, blue plastic with a black screw on cap, but otherwise nondescript. “The good stuff,” David said, grinning. “Go on, try it.” He encouraged. Terra unscrewed the cap, and sniffed the bottle opening, nearly snorting in some of the contents. She shrugged her shoulders and turned the bottle upside down, squeezing on the plastic side to force the drink in. She began coughing moments later as she tried to choke down the scotch she had squeezed down into her mouth. She had wine once at Nadia’s, but only a glass of that sweet drink. She had just poured down more than four shots of it at once. Her throat was sore, hoarse as she felt the burning tinge of the alcohol running down. She felt bile in the back of her mouth as she struggled to keep it down. It didn’t just stop there, the scotch lingered in her mouth, drops of alcohol floating aimlessly, stinging her throat for longer than it would on Earth or Mars. “Wow, you’re a big drinker,” David said, grinning. “What is that?” Terra asked, wiping her mouth as she attempted to keep the contents of her stomach there. “Scotch, at least I think,” David said, taking the bottle from Terra’s hand. He eyed it for a moment, as though he would determine its contents by look, before taking a swig of it. “Ugh, why, why did you give me it?” Terra asked, scraping her tongue against her teeth as she tried to get the burning flavor off of it. “Oh, it helps,” David replied. “It helps.” “With what?” Terra asked. “The pain,” David sighed as he stared out into space. “The pain,” he repeated, before turning his head towards Terra. “Sit down, sit down.” “Okay,” Terra said, starting to feel a little lightheaded, and was relieved as the stinging sensation seemed to dissipate. “I’m almost done working on this,” David said, holding it in his hands as he presented it to Terra. “Just gimme a few minutes.” “Alright,” Terra said, looking around the room. “So hey, uh, your uh, girlfriend, I mean uh, friend, uh,” David struggled to get out. “You mean Nadia?” Terra offered, as her body began to sway back and forth slightly. Her body felt warm, fuzzy in a good kind of way. “Yeah, uh, she was like, gonna kill Giselle today or something, what’s up with that?” David asked, taking a swig of the bottle. “Oh uhm, she, she asked a question she shouldn’t have, then said something she shouldn’t have,” Terra said, doing what she could to omit the details Nadia had instructed her. “Oh, like, ‘what’s a nanobot?’” David asked, repeating Giselle’s earlier inquiry. “’It’s classified,’” Terra said, doing her best imitation of Nadia before giggling. David laughed with her. He didn’t understand the impersonation but found her laughter infectious. He handed the bottle to her before saying “You know, I couldn’t help but wonder about two you, you know, I mean, uh…” “Wonder what about us?” Terra asked, taking a quaff from the bottle. The second time she had marshaled the size of her drink, and found it easier to stomach. It tasted alright, and after the first time it went down easier. “You know, about, err, never mind,” David said, feeling ashamed at asking the question. He attached the plastic finishing on the front end of the pot, and screwed it in. he worked in silence for a moment, putting on the finishing touches before clapping his hands. “There, it’s done,” he said, presenting the flower to Terra with a grin as wide as the day was long. “Ohh, thank you!” Terra said, taking the flower and looking at it, it hadn’t looked nearly as good since Tom had given it to her. She sniffed the flower, although all she could smell was the cologne on both of them. She put it down on the desk, not noticing as it began to float away, and gave David a big hug. He didn’t think his smile could get any bigger, he felt warm and fuzzy and wrapped in her arms he was happy. “It’s, it’s nothing really,” Dave said modestly as Terra’s grasp eased itself. He grabbed the bottle, not even needing to take a drink yet. “I needed something different to do, a change from fixing the whole ship…” "I thought the ship hurt," Terra said, pounding her chest as she imitated Sergio "In here." David could not contain himself as he joined in laughter with Terra. Her smile, her jubilation seemed infectious to him. He took a gulp from the bottle before passing it to Terra. "The ship is, well, it's an old stolen under funded undersupplied piece of shit!" He shouted out the last few words, giggling with Terra. "It's a matter of, well it's like a car, and the fuel cells of the car don't make the engine go. So like, the engines work still, but the fuel cells are pretty dead. Basically, if someone wanted to come and fix this sucker, it could be fixed, but they would have to fix the WHOLE fuckin' engine room, from the way it looks.” “Then what are we gonna do?” Terra asked realizing that was bad news, even if she didn’t quite comprehend everything. Although she absentmindedly knew she should be more concerned, she was so nonchalant as she tilted the bottle once more. “Oh, well, that’s why we’re conserving power, we’ve got backup battery power, but we gotta use that for, when we get to Mars, we gotta like, slow down. In space, we’re always moving, the ship moves because of its inertia, so since there’s no gravity, we can’t uh, we can’t stop like on a planet, so,” David said, noticing he blank stare Terra was giving him as he babbled on, “So yeah, sorry, it’s hard to turn it off sometimes.” “How long will it be until we get there?” Terra asked. Like most people, she didn’t care about the specifics of technology, she just wanted to know about its application. She took another drink, after a time she found the taste to be tolerable, and the feelings were certainly worth the small discomfort. She found that so long as the gulps were manageable, everything went down fine. “Not too far off now, I suppose,” David said, taking the bottle from Terra, and looking at it before he took another drink. “I can’t wait to get there,” Terra said. “Why, why are you going there exactly?” David asked. “My mom, she’s, she’s been taken to Mars,” Terra said, looking at the bottle, as she felt all the joy from the moment seem to drain away. She took the bottle to her lips once more, taking twice as long of a gulp this time. “Oh, uh, I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” David said sheepishly, accepting the bottle that Terra seemed to almost force into his hands. He took a quick drink before passing it back. “It’s alright,” Terra said. “I’m, I’m having problems with it, but I’m learning how to deal.” “It’s gotta be hard on you and your dad,” Dave said. “I don’t, I don’t really have a dad,” Terra said, looking at the ground. She could feel the tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes, but she couldn’t will them to stop. “Oh god, I’m sorry, I’m such an asshole, I didn’t, I mean, I’m sorry,” David said, trying to draw Terra back from the precipice of weeping she was so dangerously teetering on. In his exhaustion the little mental filter that worked to stop him from saying stupid things was off. “Its okay, it’s okay,” Terra said, taking another double drink. “So, I guess I won’t see you soon then huh? I mean, after you take us to Mars, you’ll be back off right?” “No, I told you before, I have unfinished business. Besides, well, you know, I gotta see a doc” David said, shrugging his shoulders. He was tired, and drunk, and felt his weary body starting to give out on him. Were he alone he would have taken another stimulant pack, but he didn’t want to in front of Terra. ‘Too many questions best left unanswered’ he thought to himself. “No, I don’t know, what do you mean?” Terra asked. “Oh, I mean, well, you were outside the engine room right along with me, hell, your floor was right below, you must have been exposed to even more radiation than me, I just assumed,” David said, realizing he never asked. “Assumed what?” Terra asked, still not understanding what David meant. “I just assumed you were sick like me,” he said. The two sat there in silence for a moment. “What…?” Terra began to ask, her in curiosity kept in check by her concern for him. “Cancer,” David said, reaching over for the bottle. It was beginning to empty, he could tell. There was a piece of plastic on the outside, when pushed down it would push up a small connecting piece of plastic which in and of itself would push up a plastic plate, and reduce the amount of air left in the bottle, making it easier. He took three long drinks in succession. “I, I don’t really know a lot about it,” Terra replied honestly, but by his bleak outlook she could tell it was serious. “I have throat and lung cancer, and leukemia, which is cancer of the blood. Basically the cells in my body divide too fast and they’re not right, your girl, err, your friend should explain it to you pretty easy. I got it pretty bad, but only a few days ago, and I should get it checked out early enough,” He didn’t really believe his words but he said them nonetheless. He took another two hard drinks and passed it to Terra. “Not a lot of people get cancer anymore…ever since they stopped using microwaves and cellular phones, the cancer rate dropped.” “But isn’t everyone sick on Mars?” Terra asked, imagining how hard it would be to get medical help. She took a couple more hard drinks from the bottle. “Oh, I guess so…but this isn’t the dark ages of…what was it she said? Radiation therapy I think…was what they used to …I dunno…” he said, sighing. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, while he strove to keep them eyes dry. He was failing at both. “Nadia’s a doctor, she’s helped a lot of people, and, and maybe she can help you?” Terra suggested. ‘Nadia would help him, she’d have to, and he could be good again, he could be safe and healthy’ “I guess,” David mumbled, trying to keep his eyes open. “Can’t fix ship without tools, can’t…help people…without medicine…” he muttered, as he felt his body lose its fight against exhaustion. His head slumped back leaving his mouth wide open Terra looked onto David’s slumbering face, noticing the tears forming in the corners or his eyes. She felt for him, although she didn’t honestly understand why. She wasn’t sick, she hadn’t ever been sick, and she didn’t think she would become sick. She was by no means immortal. She was just much more resilient to others in that sicknesses, or injuries, would heal quicker. Yet here he was, sick, and possibly dying. He was the very image of human frailty, of the fragility that she was incapable of. Mars was a sick world, a world full of people all seeking Aesculapian attention. Medicines of any kind were in short supply, she knew, and she reasoned that hospitals would naturally be filled past capacity. She had no doubt in Nadia’s abilities, her skills as a surgeon, even though she had never even seen them in action, yet she remembered David’s last words before slumber. She knew Nadia would help, she just knew it in the pit of her soul, but if Nadia didn’t have the tools to help, the medicine and the medical systems necessary, she knew that it wouldn’t matter. ‘Without medicine, he can’t be healed.’ She thought. ‘Or could he?’ she questioned herself, coming to a realization. In her body was… ‘A cure’ she thought. The nanobots coursed through her body. ‘If they kept me safe, then, maybe…’ she considered. David had been truthful in saying that she and Nadia were there with him, and had spent even longer in their room being exposed to the radiation. Giselle had remarked about how unbelievable it was that neither of them were ill in any way. ‘It must be the nanobots’ Terra thought to herself. She had promised to Nadia not to discuss it, and she had managed to maintain that promise, despite Giselle’s inquiry in the galley, and even when David had asked earlier. ‘But now I can do something, I can act to help someone’ Terra thought to herself. For so long she had damned herself for her inability to take an action, and yet here was the opportunity to do something that mattered, to do something that was important, that would make a difference, that would save a life. She needn’t do much to save a life either. Her promise to Nadia was that no one would find out about them. ‘If it just goes away…’ she thought to herself. ‘If I can just give him the nanos and never tell him about it, maybe, just maybe, he could just be healthy and…happy.’ she walked over to him, looking down at his crooked head. She worked the courage up and finally decided to do it. Taking his head in one hand, she held his chin open with the other. Scraping the saliva off of her mouth, she gave him a long and deep kiss, depositing as much as she could delicately in his mouth, doing her best not to choke him. Despite not having read the story, she half expected him to raise like Sleeping Beauty. Lifting her head she looked down, smiling as she felt a sense of accomplishment. She stumbled her way out the door, almost falling over her feet a few times as she left him there sleeping. She wanted to pick him up and put him on the bed, but she didn’t think she could even try without hurting him. She managed to make it to her room quickly enough. “Hiya” she said as she opened the door. “Hi…are you okay?” Nadia asked. “I’m better than okay, I’m drunk!” Terra announced, pleased with herself. “Drunk? How?” Nadia asked. She had been worried about Terra, afraid something had happened to her. She didn’t want to leave her, but she was concerned something might happen, especially with Giselle. “Dave had some of the good stuff,” Terra said, beaming with pride. She undid her boots, and pushed off the ground, sticking her arms out like a superhero flying through the air. “I’m tired.” “You, he, we’re gonna talk in the morning, you should sleep this off,” Nadia said, closing the door before turning the lights off. ‘I swear I’m gonna figure this out.’ * Sergio took a deep breath, and donned the helmet. It was the last piece of the suit, designed specifically to protect a person from radiation exposure. The suit as a bit tight on his stocky build, but that was the least of his concerns. His chest was heavy, as he set out to complete the task that was his duty. He walked to the elevator, and entered the computer code necessary. The floors that were without power, without atmosphere, were all locked out, in order to protect people from accidentally hitting the wrong button. Of course, it also kept people from prying into the rooms of the others and going where they weren’t supposed to go. Picking up his blow torch, he stepped into the elevator, wishing that he needed not do what had to be done. It was his duty, he continued to try to convince himself. In all honesty, his ship wasn’t a military institution, it wasn’t some kind of ship with a rigid hierarchy or set protocols. But in this case, there were few that really ought to go and do it, and among them he felt it his responsibility. It was something he dreaded. Death wasn’t entirely alien to him; he had lost friends, family, and his parents, as people who live long enough normally encounter death. Yet it wasn’t dealing with death itself, it was playing the part of the mortician, of being the first to see the dead, of having the unfortunate task of finding the body that he feared. The elevator hummed quietly, it seemed to him strained. He cared for the ship, he felt like it was a part of him, and to hear it wounded hurt him as well. Were it any other time, he would have enacted some repairs, or done something to fix the problem. But now, now there were more important things. He stood there for a minute as the elevator stopped at the floor where the engine room was located. ‘I should have had a drink,’ he thought to himself, ‘Just one for courage.’ Putting on the oxygen feed he opened the door, bracing himself mentally as best he could. The hallway felt odd, it was the same one that he had gone by a thousand times, but today it felt different. Perhaps it simply held the bad memories of what had happened, or the stigma of leaving Flynn’s body there, as he now came over to collect it, too late to have done much of anything. Instinctively he checked the metal handle of the door, but the heat had sealed it shut before. He took the blowtorch, thanking himself for the foresight to return the oxygen to this room. If he hadn’t, the torch could not have been lit, and even if the surrounding oxygen would have sufficed, it would have been burnt up or sucked into the engine room, which had been decompressed. The decompression was of the utmost importance, as if the coolant had touched the extreme heat of the nuclear vessel with oxygen, it would have superheated, and anything combustible in the room would have caught on fire. Now it was costing the ship some of its precious energy to reestablish oxygen levels inside. Lighting the tool, he went to his work. He labored there for almost an hour straight, stopping only on occasion to stretch his body. He had at first attempted to cut a hole using the existing door as a guide, but the door’s reinforced armor made that more difficult. His only other choice was to cut a crude entrance from the wall next to door. He had at first intended to cut only a small area and crawl in, but upon inspection of his radiation suit he knew that any kind of cut could mean his own personal demise. Sergio pushed the makeshift metal doorway in and looked at the room. It was unremarkable, truly, and everything was almost normal looking. There was some remaining coolant, which was being sucked into the atmospheric filter. That was going to need to be completely gone over to get it back to working condition. The nuclear vessel had overheated, and melted much of the metal below it. The casing of the reactor had sunk almost three feet down, partially into the floor, and had expanded when the coolant had hit it. The real difference in the room was the presence of Flynn’s lifeless body. It was near the atmospheric filter, banging against it like the plastic scuba driver had against the water filter in Sergio’s childhood aquarium. Sergio bit his bottom lip and advanced towards Flynn’s corpse. His clothing was covered in coolant, as was much of his skin. Sergio could see from some discoloration on his clothing that he had lost control of his bowels, as any deceased person does. Sergio sat down in a chair, his legs starting to shake. He held his hand in his head, knowing that even with his radiation suit on he wasn’t invincible, and needed to fix things. He turned his head, looking at the instruments. ‘How could this be?’ Sergio asked himself, looking at the instruments. The core temperature was giving out a perfect readout, displaying that there were no problems whatsoever. If the instruments were running correctly, it should have shown that the core was far below the normal temperature range for normal nuclear reaction. If it had been damaged during the accident, it should have displayed that the temperature range was far into the danger zone. Sergio moved his arm, checking the particle detector, which was in essence a tool used to detect, track and identify radiation, both from its source and where it’s going. Shocked did not begin to describe the look on his face when he checked it, displaying readouts in the normal range. Again, if it were operating correctly, as with the core temperature, it should be going crazy with all the radiation being let out. If it were broken during the accident, it too would be broken and stuck where it was at the point where it ceased to function. The explanation, while not forthright, might have been a number of things. It might have been that the instruments had been broken for some time. It might have been that Flynn had done something in order to disable the normal internal passive scanners that would have collected the information. It might have been a simple problem in the computer interface between the analog equipment and the digital readouts. ‘It might be sabotage’ Sergio thought to himself. He was pushing the extent that he would be safe, and he knew that he needed to complete what he came here to do. He reached his body out, taking Flynn’s lifeless corpse. Flynn’s lifeless eyes stared at his. He moved his hands, the fingers of his gloves trying to move his eyelids to close them, but they were frozen in place. Tears formed in the basin of Sergio’s eyes as he dragged the body to the airlock. There were few airlocks on the ship, and for good reason. They were incredibly dangerous pieces of equipment. They could cause decompression and endanger the lives of everyone on the floor of the ship. They provided for easy disposal of bodies or evidence, whether intentional or not. Most importantly, if broken, they were damned near impossible to fix. Pushing Flynn’s body into the airlock, he typed into the computer the code, which unlocked the airlock commands. He closed the door, looking at Flynn’s body for one last time. With a heavy hand his finger sank, pressing the button. A moment later the airlock opened to the vacuum of space, sucking Flynn’s body out a moment later. Sergio watched, why he did not know, as Flynn’s body flew out, getting smaller and smaller until he was as small as the stars surrounding the ship. ‘It might be sabotage,’ Sergio thought to himself again as the outside doors of the airlock returned to normal, figuratively closing the door on Flynn’s life. (This file was created by SomeRandomBastard (at) yahoo (dot) com, so send all flames there. Don't use without permission, and don't claim it's yours. Spread freely as long as this and the disclaimer above as well as the story entirely are untouched, unedited, and worshipped for the holy script they are not.) A critique, comments, flames, any responses are welcome, if they are pro, and then I'll consider making more. Don't be a jerk; send me a simple 2-minute or less message saying, hey, this was good. Thanks. Wow, so hard. http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/