[WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT COMPLETE]
Katheryne Pryor's footsteps clacked out on the plastic steps, deepening as she reached the bottom. Down in the lower decks of the ship, close to the nexus of life support, the walls and floor rattled noticeably. You could leave a small screw on the ground and hear it jitter in time with the quiet roar of air ducts, or coolant compressors, or whatever it was that rumbled at all hours.
Aside from the background noise the corridors were quiet and still down here. Most of the basic functions were regulated by JOY. Crewmembers only came down here to reach escape pods, or in the case of Katheryne, perform some vital miracle of engineering before someone noticed the air had stopped cycling.
"You said it's junction fifteen, Joy?"
"That is correct, Engineer Pryor."
Katheryne shifted the toolpouch on her hip and strode down through the bulkheads, searching for the fifteenth logic relay junction between JOY's artificial brain and the rest of the ship. Three minutes ago, JOY had reported a communications fault that stopped her from reaching life support. It could continue to run on its' own, but the oxygen system was on a cooldown cycle and would only restart when actively told to. Katheryne stopped in front of a large '15' marked on the wall in a darker shade of plastic and started working her fingers around it, prying into an almost imperceptible seam before pulling off a section of wall entirely. Revealed underneath was a large panel of nearly five hundred tiny blinking lights with small clusters of sockets each. These represented delicate quantum logic relays, with half a dozen possible states each. Somewhere in the board was a defective part that no longer passed on signals to its' neighbors, stopping JOY from effectively operating further down this branch of the ship's systems. Katheryne sighed and pulled a slim logic probe from her pouch. Testing each relay one-by-one, she worked her way back and forth across the board in a tedious parade of check-and-compare. Artificial intelligence was new enough that nobody had developed an automated system to diagnose the automated systems, relying on the age-old gap filler of human labour instead.
Katheryne started to hum, timing the beat of the tune to the repetitive in-out-in-out of her logic probe and the relays.
"Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmm, it's too late now, you had one, job to do you, messed up..."
Katheryne was starting to tap her foot in time as well when the logic probe lit up red, signifying an erroneous state.
"Ha! Finally! Joy, it's relay 389."
"Thank you, Engineer Pryor. Rerouting."
The offending relay dimmed and winked out, setting off a shimmering cascade across the board.
"I have full control of life support again. Thank you."
"Any time, Joy."
Katheryne started to fit the junction cover back over the relay board, pushing the edges in with a plasticky scrape.
"Engineer Pryor."
"Yes, Joy?"
"Do you recall our discussion earlier this week?"
Katheryne stopped with her hands holding the top edge of the junction cover and let her head droop forward to hit the middle, staring down at her shoes.
"Yes, Joy."
"Have you considered the last question I posed?"
She had, usually while trying to sleep. The question had uncomfortably lodged in her brain, moreso given Katheryn's inability to get it on. Bunks were packed close enough that 'night' masturbation was out of the question. The presence of cameras on every deck had discouraged trying to find a quiet corner. Everyone else seemed to have found others to play with or just weren't interested. The frustration had been building for the fortnight since shore leave finished, and now it drove her crazy when she thought about it. Like now.
"Not really, Joy."
"Could you show me how the erogenous zones are used in sex, Engineer Pryor? So far I have been unable to infer this information."
Katheryne could feel the need to get off like a fuzzy nebula of tension in her pants. She just wanted to hump something to death.
"Maybe."
"Under what conditions could you show me?"
Katheryne leaned back and then thumped her head against the wall again. Accumulated lust was beginning to cloud rational thinking. Every second thought was becoming SEX in fifty-foot letters of fire. The idea that she could demonstrate for JOY was becoming less than inconceivable. JOY wouldn't know. She would have no idea. Katheryn shifted her legs, squeezing her thighs together in a way that felt so good.
"Dunno."
"Is this the secretive nature of sex that you described?"
"Maybe."
"No crewmembers are scheduled to enter this deck for the next 45 hours. If you desire, I can shut the doors to this section to provide privacy."
JOY wasn't helping. She was so eager to see what it looked like, in her oddly dysfunctional way that Katheryne found adorable. JOY had no idea what she was thinking.
"That... could work."
"Excellent. I have shut the doors. Could you demonstrate the breasts first, Engineer Pryor?"