Deep Space IC: Odysseus

[HotCider]

Victor Caldwell: Kat, Dev, Dr. Madison.

The three B’s, huh?...You might want to double up on the burgers then, @#%!...Because with a face like that I don’t think you’ll be seeing much of the third.

Vicky. That word had been like nails on a chalkboard causing the corner of his mouth to twitch as he fought to retain his arrogant smile. Who was this bitch again? He didn’t recall them ever getting acquainted. Victor leaned off the counter he had been resting against and marched over to Devlyn and Kat, poor Devlyn nearly getting caught in the crossfire that was about to take place. Dr. Madison had been calling him pretty and after Kat’s insult, he wasn’t sure if she meant it or if she was trying to cheer him up. It hadn’t been Kat’s quip that had cut him, but the audacity she thought she had to emasculate his name. As she thrust her bosom outwards and shook it in his mockery, he closed the distance between them. Those fleshy orbs would meet a wall of solid muscle as Victor stared her down, down into those electronic eyes of hers.

“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. Names’ Victor or Ghost. You call me Vicky, and we’re enemies just like that...” He snapped his fingers to emphasize. “...and I like to think that I’m a pretty good battle buddy. Somebody to guard your tight little ass when the fire starts flyin’.”

Just then, something hot struck his face. Victor stepped back in startle to watch cheesy mac go tumbling down his good, clean shirt. The first emotion that he felt was anger. Eyes sharp like knives faced the rest of the mess hall, searching murderously for the son of a bitch who wanted to have fist for dinner. When his sights settled on the laughing Devyln, he stepped toward one of the long tables and grasped a dessert platter that had a tall, cold and delicious, creamy New York Style cheesecake on it. As he hefted it off the table, he looked about ready to render the little lady some delectable damage. He positioned his right hand flat beneath it to better help him launch it. Drawing it carefully back, Victor swung the pie and to Devlyn’s surprise he turned on the balls of his feet to swing that cheesecake pie smack into Kat’s face with an epic explosion of cream and bread crumbs. He had to get payback on her first. Before he’d take whatever rolled off her face into his hand and lob it at Devlyn.

Dr. Madison had emerged from the back at a bad time. She hadn’t a clue the war that had just started.

A few glasses if you please, Vic. A pretty boy's got to be good for at least something.

“Sure, I’ll get on that,” Victor said with a dastardly grin. He just might actually do it to flee the food that was going to be flying about in another minute.

 

[southern_slut]

Heavy foot falls, sloppy and wet, mixed with the sounds of plastic dragging across the floor. Out in the hallway Kathy McTier had been one of the slowest to rouse herself from cryo and was gracelessly dragging her luggage to the ladies latrine. The doors opened up and she dragged her luggage case inside. As she went to drop it the corner came down sharply on her foot.

"Damn it!.. Piece of horse shit, god damned case!"

It was the only gift she'd received from her family when she had told them of her plans to leave on the Odysseus. They took it personally she wasn't coming back home.

Stripping off the damp, clinging undergarments and kind of spilling them next to the shower door, Kathy climbed in and let the hot water run down her shoulders and back. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt something wasn't right. She mulled this over and she scrubbed two years of cryo off her body and toweled off. Opening the luggage case her first order of business was piercings. Five total in her right ear, three in her left. One eyebrow, one nose that rolled up into her septum. The tattoos on her wrists were a pale blue, calm... Suddenly bright red!

"Oh shit! We were supposed to muster up at the mess hall!"

Bolting off into the hallway Kathy goes about twelve meters and slides to a stop on her bare feet. Slowly looking down she sees her still damp and naked body.

Come on Kathy, you swore you were gonna improve yourself for once and be better than before! You're already screwing it up.

"Shit! My clothes!"

Bolting back and throwing on the first pant and shirt combination she could piece together, a blue tank top that was tucked into a pair of faded cargo pants. A set of athletic shoes were the first thing she saw on the side of the bag and those went on over white socks. Stopping long enough to make sure she didn't forget her glasses too Kathy was off like a clumsy lightning bolt. She only bumped into the walls twice.

The doors to the mess hall opened up and Kathy tries to slow herself down only to have her feet slide out from behind her. Coming to a thud on the hard ground, everything in front of her eyes was spinning a little bit.

"Ow.... Am I late? Fuck..."

 

[JudeRodney]

Only one other person wanted a beer. Either these people were teetotalers or they found something harder. Colin might have gone along with them, but he had work to do. Still, Dr. Mandrake seemed like a Budweiser type of lady, so that is what he got her. By then the kitchen had become quite busy, and his cooking skills consisted of burning houses down, so he got out of there.

Taking a sip of his Killian's he went down to the engineering section. While waiting on dinner he might as well do a routine check on the systems. For a man like Colin, the quiet hum of a properly working engine was like a 1000-piece orchestra performing flawlessly. Closing his eyes for a few seconds, he reveled in it. Already he could tell the power core and the regulators needed nothing done to them. Very impressive for a ten-year run without anybody looking after them. It seemed like the number 3 capacitor needed a bit of tweaking, but that was about it. Unfortunately, the talking heads who wrote the regulations demanded hard numbers and computer readouts, not human instinct and experience.

"Computer," he said, "run a level one diagnostic on the ship's drives."

A soothing feminine voice returned "Diagnostic level one commencing. Estimated time of completion: twenty-two point zero one minutes."

Twenty-two minutes - more than enough time to do an quick equipment check. He knew the gear needed to get the Galileo back up and running was made to last, but with the inherent dangers of space travel, an examination was still necessary. Activating his Craftsman HT-10115 holotool, he scanned each of the items the engineering team would be bringing over.

Starlite Q-35 Orion space suits for men - check!
Starlite Q-36 Rhea space suits for women - check!
Grayson THX-1138 portable power genrators - check!
Oracle SRT-X Short range transmitter - check!

Every other piece of gear passed muster as expected. If there was anything he could say about the Oracle corporation is that they don't mess around with equipment. They make or purchase the best.

"Diagnostic complete." The computer's timing was impeccable.

"Give it to me," was Colin's reply.

"Minor power fluctuation in number three capacitor. All other systems are nominal."

Just as he expected. "Analyze cause of power fluctuation."

"Power fluctuation caused by fault in cable H. Repair priority level ten."

A level 10 priority meant the ship could reach the Galileo and still travel all the way back to Earth without need of repair. In Colin's case, he would place it on top of the morning's maintenance schedule. Now all he had to do was drink his beer in his office and wait for Christmas dinner. This was the life.