Curled up against our tall strong amazonian captain was definitely one of my favourite ways to wake up, and there was a happy smile on my face as I snuggled a little tighter against her muscular naked body. Her left arm was around me and she responded by pulling me a little closer, which made me even happier.
Meanwhile Sarah was curled up against Rebecca's right side, and when I stole a look past the boss's lovely chest I saw my other girlfriend looked every bit as happy and content as I felt.
The three of us enjoyed the quiet cuddling for another few minutes before Rebecca sighed, "We ought to get up. We need to get dressed. Our customer and his cargo should be here this morning..."
Her voice trailed off as Sarah and I both had the same idea at the same time, and our hands started roaming over the boss's chest and between her strong firm thighs. And between the two of us, we managed to keep Rebecca in bed with us for another hour or so.
Like all good things our morning fun eventually came to an end. We shared some final hugs and kisses before the boss got up and headed naked for the door.
"Get yourselves up and dressed ok?" she asked. "I'll see you both in the mess in thirty minutes."
With that she walked naked across the corridor then disappeared into her own cabin. Sarah and I reluctantly followed her lead. Thirty minutes was nowhere near enough time for me to shower and dry my tail, so I quickly freshened up then got dressed while my other girlfriend took a quick shower.
By the time she emerged I was already on my way out of the cabin and on my way to the galley. Jenny was up of course, she was seated at the dining table in the mess waiting for the rest of us. We greeted each other as I got started on breakfast. We'd eaten the last of the leftover BBQ for dinner the night before, but that was fine because it meant I was cooking with the fresh quality supplies we brought on board the other day.
Rebecca joined us a minute or two later, she got coffees for the two of us, then got a third ready for Sarah as well. And our other girlfriend arrived shortly after that, then set the table before joining Jenny and the boss at the table.
When the food was ready I served it up then joined the others at the table.
"I forgot how good your cooking was when you got some quality ingredients," Sarah commented with a smile. "Eighteen days with a passenger on board might not be so bad if we can eat like this every day."
I glanced at Rebecca. When we got back to the ship yesterday neither of us mentioned the conversation we had at that bar, and it didn't come up last night either. And I realized, the boss never really confirmed for sure she was going to take my advice regarding a level-one jump.
She was focused on her breakfast and didn't respond to our engineer's comment, so I figured I should keep quiet about it as well. We'd find out soon enough whether it was going to be a long slow level-zero jump or a quick level-one transit.
We were just finishing up our meal when Jenny announced, "I believe our customer has arrived. A large flat-bed grav-sled has landed outside the ship."
Rebecca got to her feet as she said, "I'll go take care of that. If he's got as much cargo as he said then it might take an hour or so to get everything loaded."
"I'll take care of the dishes and the washing up," Sarah volunteered. "Amanda, why don't you stick with Rebecca?"
"Thanks Sarah," I smiled.
She'd been doing the cleaning ever since she got in trouble with the captain, and I couldn't help thinking she'd assigned herself to 'kitchen duty' to try and make amends. And I was positive she suggested I accompany the boss so I could get a feel for that part of the job. Managing cargo wasn't a big deal when it was just one or two cartons, but several large cargo containers was a lot more complicated.
As usual for this world we were both armed just in case, and I watched quietly as the boss opened up the main airlock and lowered the ramp. Sure enough Jace Wheeler was waiting outside, and next to him was one of the biggest cargo sleds I'd seen. There were four large cargo containers stacked on the back, and next to them stood two burly guys with anti-grav manipulators.
Jace greeted Rebecca and I, then I basically stayed out of the way on the starboard side next to the airlock controls and watched while everyone else did all the work.
The four containers each came off the sled one at a time. And before each one came on board Rebecca had Jace show her the manifest then open the container so she could visually inspect the contents. Once that was done the containers were taken through the main hold and into the secondary. The captain made sure nothing was placed too close to Jenny's capsule or the shelves on either side of the hold. All four containers ended up in there, stacked two side-by-side on the floor and the other two ontop of them.
Then while Jace and the dockhands got back on the sled to go get the next lot me and Rebecca started securing the first four containers. The bottom two were strapped to the deck, then the top two were strapped to the bottom two.
It took forty-five minutes before our customer was back with the second batch of containers, and the whole process repeated before they departed again to get the final batch of the shipment.
All in all it took about three and a half hours start to finish to get the ship fully loaded. And when we were done the Demeter was very full. We had four containers in the secondary hold and ten in the main hold, including the two containers of disaster relief we'd been carrying around since the Hammersmith was wrecked way back when.
Jace grabbed a duffel bag from the cab of the cargo-sled then paid the two guys who handled the loading. He came up the ramp to join me and Rebecca, we were both standing next to the airlock controls at that point.
"So that's it," our customer said. "Are we all ready to go?"
"Just about. Two things we need to take care of first," Rebecca replied. She gestured at the large gun strapped to his right thigh, "First, that stays down here in the hold. And if you have any other weapons on you or in your gear, they stay here as well. You can pick them up again before you leave the ship."
"Understood," he replied. He didn't seem upset or surprised that the boss wanted him to surrender his weapons.
Moving slowly so as not to alarm either of us, he carefully pulled the gun from its holster. I was no weapons expert but once I had a better look at it I was positive it was a cut-down rifle. It looked like the stock had been cut off leaving a pistol-grip, and the barrel was shortened as well. Jace ejected the magazine and cycled the action to show the weapon was unloaded, then he handed both to the captain. Next he pulled a knife from a hidden sheath in his right boot, and handed that over as well.
"That's it," he stated. "I have some spare magazines in my duffel, but no other weapons."
"Thank you Mr. Wheeler," the boss stated. She set the gun and knife on the shelf next to her, then looked back and him and said "The second thing is payment. Sorry I have to do this, but considering the circumstances I'm going to have to collect the pay in advance."
Jace nodded, "Yeah I can't say I blame you. Considering the situation, last thing you want is to fly me there then find out I don't have the money."
He had the payment in his duffel. It only took a moment for him to get it out, then he handed her four bars and four of those big five-hundred-eck coins.
Rebecca thanked him again then gestured to the ladderway at the aft of the hold, "Amanda why don't you take Jace up to the main deck? I'll seal up the ship and be right behind you."
With the ship packed to capacity the hold felt positively cramped. There was just a narrow space to walk down the starboard side, and the containers were stacked three-high so it felt a bit dark and gloomy too. It actually left me feeing a little anxious about our take-off and landing. The ship creaked and groaned enough empty, I couldn't help worrying how she'd handle under a full load.
Jace hoisted his duffel onto his shoulder then followed me up the ladderway, while the ramp and main airlock closed behind us. Rebecca caught up to us a few seconds after we reached the main deck, then we showed Jace to his cabin.
"Your choice of bunk," the boss said as we showed him the cabin. "You've got the cabin to yourself, and your own washroom in there. Telling you up front there's only three places on board you have free access to. That's your cabin, the mess, and the lounge. Everything else is off limits and will be sealed up. Me and my crew are going to be busy for the next couple hours, so if you need anything now's the time to ask."
Our passenger set his duffel bag down on the floor next to the bunks then glanced around at the cabin. He shook his head, "This is fine. Thank you captain, thanks Amanda. I'll make myself comfortable in here for take-off, then maybe you can show me around the galley and lounge once we're under way."
"All right then," Rebecca replied as she and I left him there.
We found Sarah and Jenny still waiting in the lounge. The boss stated, "Jenny you're in the cockpit with me and Amanda. Sarah, let's get the engines warmed up and ready to go."
"Yes boss," Sarah replied as she got to her feet and hurried aft.
Jenny followed Rebecca and I, and the three of us got into our seats up front and started powering-up the various navigation and helm systems.
"Shall I seal the sensitive areas of the ship now?" Jenny asked.
The boss responded, "Isolate the lower deck please Jenny. We can leave the upper deck open for now, but we'll lock it down once we're en route."
"Done," the AI replied a few seconds later. "The airlocks and ladderways are all sealed, and I've closed and sealed all bulkheads on the lower deck."
"Thank you Jenny," Rebecca stated.
Within a few more minutes there were a bunch of green lights indicating the power plant and engines were all ready to go. The fuel tanks were full, and my navigation screens showed the usual chaotic traffic in orbit. The sky overhead and around us was clear though.
"Captain," Jenny commented a moment later. "According to the internal sensors we are at ninety-two percent capacity. The engineering display here indicates that is a 'warning' condition."
"Acknowledged," Rebecca replied. She didn't have anything else to say about it though.
I frowned, "Is that going to be a problem? Um, not that I don't have faith in the ship but we've never had it so full before. Or at least, not since me and Sarah came aboard."
The captain replied, "It'll be fine. We're under a hundred percent, and there's a margin of safety ontop of that. The Demeter can probably handle up to twenty percent over capacity. It just means she's going to be more sluggish getting off the ground, and she's going to handle worse in gravity."
"It'll also factor into your jump plot," she added. "We'll worry about that once we're in space though."
"Ok," I nodded slowly. I was still worried though, and couldn't help cringing when we did finally take off.
The boss handled it, which I was very happy for. I watched and monitored the situation along with Jenny, and I could both hear and feel the ship and engines struggling as we fought against gravity to get the ugly old space-bug off the ground.
The ship needed over eighty-percent more thrust than usual to get us in the air, then once we were clear and away from the city Rebecca pushed it to nearly full power as we started climbing skyward. And like I figured, there were a lot more creaks and groans and rattles, and they seemed even louder than usual.
Happily nothing went wrong, despite my fears the ship made it out of the atmosphere without any trouble. Rebecca kept manual control as we flew past the orbital platforms and the other various craft circling the planet. And once we were well clear of Ecclestone's World and all its traffic, the captain said the words I was hoping to hear.
"Amanda, please plot us a level-one jump to Deveron-8."
I grinned, "Aye-aye captain!"
As I got to work she added, "Don't forget to account for the increased mass. You can get the adjustment factor from the engineering data."
"It's one-point-one-three," Jenny stated.
"Round it up to one-point-one-five," Rebecca said. "Better safe than sorry."
I nodded as I continued working on my jump plot. The increased mass, increased distance, and the fact that I'd never visited our destination before meant it took me about twice as long to work out the plot. And needless to say, when I was finished I had the boss double-check my work.
When she told me it was good I was pleasantly surprised, and I couldn't help feeling a bit proud. Even though I was trying not to smile I knew my tail was swishing back and forth behind me.
Rebecca glanced back at my wagging tail and grinned, but she didn't comment on that. Instead she reached out and lifted the protective cover on the jump control as she said, "Here we go."
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Curled up against our tall strong amazonian captain was definitely one of my favourite ways to wake up, and there was a happy smile on my face as I snuggled a little tighter against her muscular naked body. Her left arm was around me and she responded by pulling me a little closer, which made me even happier.
Meanwhile Sarah was curled up against Rebecca's right side, and when I stole a look past the boss's lovely chest I saw my other girlfriend looked every bit as happy and content as I felt.
The three of us enjoyed the quiet cuddling for another few minutes before Rebecca sighed, "We ought to get up. We need to get dressed. Our customer and his cargo should be here this morning..."
Her voice trailed off as Sarah and I both had the same idea at the same time, and our hands started roaming over the boss's chest and between her strong firm thighs. And between the two of us, we managed to keep Rebecca in bed with us for another hour or so.
Like all good things our morning fun eventually came to an end. We shared some final hugs and kisses before the boss got up and headed naked for the door.
"Get yourselves up and dressed ok?" she asked. "I'll see you both in the mess in thirty minutes."
With that she walked naked across the corridor then disappeared into her own cabin. Sarah and I reluctantly followed her lead. Thirty minutes was nowhere near enough time for me to shower and dry my tail, so I quickly freshened up then got dressed while my other girlfriend took a quick shower.
By the time she emerged I was already on my way out of the cabin and on my way to the galley. Jenny was up of course, she was seated at the dining table in the mess waiting for the rest of us. We greeted each other as I got started on breakfast. We'd eaten the last of the leftover BBQ for dinner the night before, but that was fine because it meant I was cooking with the fresh quality supplies we brought on board the other day.
Rebecca joined us a minute or two later, she got coffees for the two of us, then got a third ready for Sarah as well. And our other girlfriend arrived shortly after that, then set the table before joining Jenny and the boss at the table.
When the food was ready I served it up then joined the others at the table.
"I forgot how good your cooking was when you got some quality ingredients," Sarah commented with a smile. "Eighteen days with a passenger on board might not be so bad if we can eat like this every day."
I glanced at Rebecca. When we got back to the ship yesterday neither of us mentioned the conversation we had at that bar, and it didn't come up last night either. And I realized, the boss never really confirmed for sure she was going to take my advice regarding a level-one jump.
She was focused on her breakfast and didn't respond to our engineer's comment, so I figured I should keep quiet about it as well. We'd find out soon enough whether it was going to be a long slow level-zero jump or a quick level-one transit.
We were just finishing up our meal when Jenny announced, "I believe our customer has arrived. A large flat-bed grav-sled has landed outside the ship."
Rebecca got to her feet as she said, "I'll go take care of that. If he's got as much cargo as he said then it might take an hour or so to get everything loaded."
"I'll take care of the dishes and the washing up," Sarah volunteered. "Amanda, why don't you stick with Rebecca?"
"Thanks Sarah," I smiled.
She'd been doing the cleaning ever since she got in trouble with the captain, and I couldn't help thinking she'd assigned herself to 'kitchen duty' to try and make amends. And I was positive she suggested I accompany the boss so I could get a feel for that part of the job. Managing cargo wasn't a big deal when it was just one or two cartons, but several large cargo containers was a lot more complicated.
As usual for this world we were both armed just in case, and I watched quietly as the boss opened up the main airlock and lowered the ramp. Sure enough Jace Wheeler was waiting outside, and next to him was one of the biggest cargo sleds I'd seen. There were four large cargo containers stacked on the back, and next to them stood two burly guys with anti-grav manipulators.
Jace greeted Rebecca and I, then I basically stayed out of the way on the starboard side next to the airlock controls and watched while everyone else did all the work.
The four containers each came off the sled one at a time. And before each one came on board Rebecca had Jace show her the manifest then open the container so she could visually inspect the contents. Once that was done the containers were taken through the main hold and into the secondary. The captain made sure nothing was placed too close to Jenny's capsule or the shelves on either side of the hold. All four containers ended up in there, stacked two side-by-side on the floor and the other two ontop of them.
Then while Jace and the dockhands got back on the sled to go get the next lot me and Rebecca started securing the first four containers. The bottom two were strapped to the deck, then the top two were strapped to the bottom two.
It took forty-five minutes before our customer was back with the second batch of containers, and the whole process repeated before they departed again to get the final batch of the shipment.
All in all it took about three and a half hours start to finish to get the ship fully loaded. And when we were done the Demeter was very full. We had four containers in the secondary hold and ten in the main hold, including the two containers of disaster relief we'd been carrying around since the Hammersmith was wrecked way back when.
Jace grabbed a duffel bag from the cab of the cargo-sled then paid the two guys who handled the loading. He came up the ramp to join me and Rebecca, we were both standing next to the airlock controls at that point.
"So that's it," our customer said. "Are we all ready to go?"
"Just about. Two things we need to take care of first," Rebecca replied. She gestured at the large gun strapped to his right thigh, "First, that stays down here in the hold. And if you have any other weapons on you or in your gear, they stay here as well. You can pick them up again before you leave the ship."
"Understood," he replied. He didn't seem upset or surprised that the boss wanted him to surrender his weapons.
Moving slowly so as not to alarm either of us, he carefully pulled the gun from its holster. I was no weapons expert but once I had a better look at it I was positive it was a cut-down rifle. It looked like the stock had been cut off leaving a pistol-grip, and the barrel was shortened as well. Jace ejected the magazine and cycled the action to show the weapon was unloaded, then he handed both to the captain. Next he pulled a knife from a hidden sheath in his right boot, and handed that over as well.
"That's it," he stated. "I have some spare magazines in my duffel, but no other weapons."
"Thank you Mr. Wheeler," the boss stated. She set the gun and knife on the shelf next to her, then looked back and him and said "The second thing is payment. Sorry I have to do this, but considering the circumstances I'm going to have to collect the pay in advance."
Jace nodded, "Yeah I can't say I blame you. Considering the situation, last thing you want is to fly me there then find out I don't have the money."
He had the payment in his duffel. It only took a moment for him to get it out, then he handed her four bars and four of those big five-hundred-eck coins.
Rebecca thanked him again then gestured to the ladderway at the aft of the hold, "Amanda why don't you take Jace up to the main deck? I'll seal up the ship and be right behind you."
With the ship packed to capacity the hold felt positively cramped. There was just a narrow space to walk down the starboard side, and the containers were stacked three-high so it felt a bit dark and gloomy too. It actually left me feeing a little anxious about our take-off and landing. The ship creaked and groaned enough empty, I couldn't help worrying how she'd handle under a full load.
Jace hoisted his duffel onto his shoulder then followed me up the ladderway, while the ramp and main airlock closed behind us. Rebecca caught up to us a few seconds after we reached the main deck, then we showed Jace to his cabin.
"Your choice of bunk," the boss said as we showed him the cabin. "You've got the cabin to yourself, and your own washroom in there. Telling you up front there's only three places on board you have free access to. That's your cabin, the mess, and the lounge. Everything else is off limits and will be sealed up. Me and my crew are going to be busy for the next couple hours, so if you need anything now's the time to ask."
Our passenger set his duffel bag down on the floor next to the bunks then glanced around at the cabin. He shook his head, "This is fine. Thank you captain, thanks Amanda. I'll make myself comfortable in here for take-off, then maybe you can show me around the galley and lounge once we're under way."
"All right then," Rebecca replied as she and I left him there.
We found Sarah and Jenny still waiting in the lounge. The boss stated, "Jenny you're in the cockpit with me and Amanda. Sarah, let's get the engines warmed up and ready to go."
"Yes boss," Sarah replied as she got to her feet and hurried aft.
Jenny followed Rebecca and I, and the three of us got into our seats up front and started powering-up the various navigation and helm systems.
"Shall I seal the sensitive areas of the ship now?" Jenny asked.
The boss responded, "Isolate the lower deck please Jenny. We can leave the upper deck open for now, but we'll lock it down once we're en route."
"Done," the AI replied a few seconds later. "The airlocks and ladderways are all sealed, and I've closed and sealed all bulkheads on the lower deck."
"Thank you Jenny," Rebecca stated.
Within a few more minutes there were a bunch of green lights indicating the power plant and engines were all ready to go. The fuel tanks were full, and my navigation screens showed the usual chaotic traffic in orbit. The sky overhead and around us was clear though.
"Captain," Jenny commented a moment later. "According to the internal sensors we are at ninety-two percent capacity. The engineering display here indicates that is a 'warning' condition."
"Acknowledged," Rebecca replied. She didn't have anything else to say about it though.
I frowned, "Is that going to be a problem? Um, not that I don't have faith in the ship but we've never had it so full before. Or at least, not since me and Sarah came aboard."
The captain replied, "It'll be fine. We're under a hundred percent, and there's a margin of safety ontop of that. The Demeter can probably handle up to twenty percent over capacity. It just means she's going to be more sluggish getting off the ground, and she's going to handle worse in gravity."
"It'll also factor into your jump plot," she added. "We'll worry about that once we're in space though."
"Ok," I nodded slowly. I was still worried though, and couldn't help cringing when we did finally take off.
The boss handled it, which I was very happy for. I watched and monitored the situation along with Jenny, and I could both hear and feel the ship and engines struggling as we fought against gravity to get the ugly old space-bug off the ground.
The ship needed over eighty-percent more thrust than usual to get us in the air, then once we were clear and away from the city Rebecca pushed it to nearly full power as we started climbing skyward. And like I figured, there were a lot more creaks and groans and rattles, and they seemed even louder than usual.
Happily nothing went wrong, despite my fears the ship made it out of the atmosphere without any trouble. Rebecca kept manual control as we flew past the orbital platforms and the other various craft circling the planet. And once we were well clear of Ecclestone's World and all its traffic, the captain said the words I was hoping to hear.
"Amanda, please plot us a level-one jump to Deveron-8."
I grinned, "Aye-aye captain!"
As I got to work she added, "Don't forget to account for the increased mass. You can get the adjustment factor from the engineering data."
"It's one-point-one-three," Jenny stated.
"Round it up to one-point-one-five," Rebecca said. "Better safe than sorry."
I nodded as I continued working on my jump plot. The increased mass, increased distance, and the fact that I'd never visited our destination before meant it took me about twice as long to work out the plot. And needless to say, when I was finished I had the boss double-check my work.
When she told me it was good I was pleasantly surprised, and I couldn't help feeling a bit proud. Even though I was trying not to smile I knew my tail was swishing back and forth behind me.
Rebecca glanced back at my wagging tail and grinned, but she didn't comment on that. Instead she reached out and lifted the protective cover on the jump control as she said, "Here we go."
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