“You can ask,” she responded as she turned and exited the room without answering.
Vladimir watched as Doctor Sorenson and the rest of her team exited the room, still in shock at her response.
“You’d better get started,” the chief laughed, looking at the list in Vladimir’s hand. “It looks like you’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Vladimir turned and looked at the chief, a look of betrayal on his face.
“Oh, Don’t be that way, Vlad,” the chief insisted. “Maybe you will learn something new? They are very smart people! This Doctor Karlsen has written many interesting papers on field generation!”
“Bah!” Vladimir exclaimed, wadding up the piece of paper and shoving it unceremoniously into his pocket. “Lucky for you, he has beautiful daughter!”
The thin blue beams of light dancing about Nathan’s body flickered out, the hum of the machine fading along with them. With a slight jolt, the narrow platform Nathan was lying on started sliding out of the medical scanner and back into the empty room. As the platform came completely out of the tube, Nathan sat up and looked toward the control room window above.
“That’s it, we’re all done. You can get dressed now,” the technician announced over the loud speaker.
Nathan hopped down off the platform. The scan was the last of a series of tests each of the crew had to go through as part of their pre-flight physical by the ship’s chief medical officer. It had taken several hours to complete, requiring him to dress and undress several times. But it was a break from the back-to-back simulations that the captain had been putting them through for the last week.
The simulations had been brutal, with every possible problem that the programmers could imagine being thrown at them. In fact, there had been a few that Nathan was pretty sure didn’t even comply with the known laws of physics. The only saving grace had been that at least his arch nemesis, Ensign Taylor was being put through just as much hell as he was. Only she seemed to be coping with it a lot better. Nathan was sure that when the time came for her physical, they would discover she was not entirely human.
Wearing nothing but his underwear, he made his way across the cold, bare floor to get to his pile of clothing sitting in on one of the chairs. As he started to put on his pants, the door swung open and Ensign Nash walked in, fully clothed, a big smile spreading across her face when she saw Nathan standing there with a surprised look on his face, not yet half dressed.
“Well, well,” she teased as she removed her shirt. “Doesn’t this seem familiar?”
Nathan freaked, looking up to the control booth, sure that the technician overheard her remarks.
“Relax, Ensign. He can’t hear us,” she whispered as she tossed her shirt on one of the chairs and started removing her boots.
“Look, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Nathan said. “You know, since we saw each other at orientation. But the training has been crazy and…”
“…Don’t sweat it,” she smiled as she wiggled out of her pants, leaving nothing covering her but panties and a sports bra.
Nathan was suddenly reminded of that night, staring at her reflection in the mirrored tile on the wall of the anteroom in his father’s home, as she was pulling her skimpy evening dress back on.
“I got what I wanted,” she told him, stepping toward the scanning platform. She hopped up on the platform and laid down, calling out to the control room above. “Let’s get this over with! It’s freezing in here!”
“Alright, then,” Nathan said. He pulled his shirt on, collected the rest of his things and made a beeline for the door, adding “I guess I’ll see you around, then.”
Jessica just smiled a satisfied little smirk as the scanner platform began sliding her into the scanning tube.
Most, if not all of the Aurora’s skeleton crew took their meals at the same time while they were still in port. It was probably the only time they would ever be able to dine together in large groups once the ship was underway, and the captain thought it would promote bonding amongst the over-worked crew. It had been something that his wife had insisted on when his children were growing up, and for the most part it had worked as his family was still close despite the fact that they were always separated by vast distances. Nevertheless, most of them still broke up into groups of two, three, or four, as one might expect, sharing conversation with the few friends they had made in what little free time they had during this hectic period.
The galley itself was not yet completely operational. The hot and cold service lines were installed, as were most of the cooking appliances, but there were no cold storage units installed other than a few temporary refrigerators brought up from Earth to serve in the interim. Because of this, they couldn’t keep much in the way of inventory on board. Most of their food had to be prepared planet-side and shuttled up to be reheated, which was another reason for everyone to eat at once.
“She is unbelievable!” Vladimir complained as ate. “She is, how do you say, a real ball buster, yes?”
“Yeah,” Nathan laughed. “That’s how you say it.”
“Ensign, I need this, Ensign, I need that! She always needs something! And when she gets it, still it is not enough! He paused to take another bite of food. “I spend three days waiting on this wretch of a woman.”
“What are they doing?”
“I have no idea! Can you believe? All I know is, they need tremendous amounts of energy. And they are doing something outside, on the hull. With the shield emitters, I think. I don’t know. They don’t tell me anything. All I know is that this woman is making me crazy!”
Nathan had not known Vladimir for very long, just over a week. But he had never seen him so worked up about anything. He was usually very easy going, letting everything roll off of him. “If she bothers you that much, why don’t you ask to be reassigned?”
“I cannot,” Vladimir explained, shoveling more food into his mouth. “The chief chose me, personally. Besides, this woman, she is beautiful!”
“Ah, now it makes more sense,” Nathan exclaimed.
Vladimir looked at him funny. “No, you do not understand.”
“Oh I understand, alright,” Nathan laughed, as a message came through on his comm-set. “Hold on,” he told Vladimir, keying his mic. “Ensign Scott.”
“Captain wants to see you in his ready room right after chow, Sir.”
“Understood.” Nathan’s expression suddenly soured.
“What is it?” Vladimir asked, seeing the change in his friends mood.
“The captain wants to see me.”
“This is bad?”
“I haven’t been doing so well in the simulations,” Nathan admitted. “I think I might be getting fired.”
“Nathan,” Vladimir explained, “In the military, they do not fire you, they reassign you. They could demote you as well. But you are already only ensign. And that is the lowest rank an Academy graduate can have, I’m afraid. So he cannot demote you. But he could give you really bad job. Like, maybe waste processing plant.” Vladimir shuddered at the thought of the place.
“Thanks for the pep talk there, Vlad. You’ve really cheered me up.”
“What are friends for?” he responded as he finished his meal.
“Well, I might as well get this over with,” Nathan decided, rising from the table.
“Think positive thoughts,” Vladimir advised him. “And keep chin up, always look strong and confident.” Vladimir moved closer and lowered his voice. “That way, no one knows you are scared like little bunny.” Vladimir laughed and slapped Nathan on the back, sending him on his way.
“Ensign Scott, reporting as ordered, Sir.” Nathan stood straight as a board, eyes straight ahead. The one thing good about standing at attention was that I made it easier for him to hide how nervous he was.
“Ensign Scott,” the captain began. “At ease.”
Well at least he’s still calling me ensign. That’s a good sign.