SS Mordicai
Tali slept, or tried to sleep, naked in a sleeping bag zipped upright on the bulkhead. Her quarters had formerly belonged to a mechanic named Oswald… she'd found his diary and read through it, what a tragic, uninteresting life Oswald had lived. She decided that he'd probably prayed for death at times, but that was not the reason sleep had recurringly been denied her, she had other issues. Seeing Jena in her workout togs had made it difficult to maintain her casual bearing, though in the end she'd been betrayed by her own nipples, which found it downright hard. She'd flushed red and insisted that she be allowed to pedal the gravity bike around it's axis first, so that she could depart all the more quickly, still she could see Jena when she closed her eyes. Every time she thought of it, she felt the same thrill as she had the first time she'd kissed a girl, sending a tingle down her spine.
She quietly moaned and let her hand find the sweet spot between her legs, but the stimulation she provided herself provided no relief, not when the real deal was so close, only a few compartments away. She'd dropped subtle quips about women-on-women congress before that Jena hadn't responded to, or if she did it was merely to roll her eyes and change the subject, but she'd never denounced it, and that drove Tali to distraction.
"Fek!" She cursed and found the sleeping-bag zipper. Once floating free she opened the bun her hair was in and let it float, tickling her shoulders. She curled herself into tuck and starting spinning in the narrow compartment, just because she enjoyed it, after several revolutions she straightened out and spread her arms wide, letting conservation of angular momentum slow her to a gentle tumble that ended when her bare feet hit the bulkhead next to the viewport. "What am I going to do?"
She squatted and looked between her legs, out the viewport, hoping the stars between her feet might provide an answer, but none was forthcoming. Talk to her, Tali thought and snapped her fingers as she smiled. The answer suddenly was easy.
"It wouldn't bother me so much if I new she wouldn't want me," She said and pushed off and drifted across her quarters to the locker where her clothes were stored. "But what if she does want me? I'll have to look good."
Tali found a clean jumpsuit and decided it was enough. She dressed quickly and left through the compartment hatch, drifting toward the bridge.
"Apex Titan. Apex Titan," Jena muttered to herself and paged down through the holo-display listing the merchantmen confirmed in Sol system. The ship's computer was simultaneously running the name through it's data-cores, looking for any match. When she came to the end of the list she sat back and ran her fingers through her hair. "No Apex Titan."
Jena stopped the playback of Huxely's testimony after listening to it for the third time, removed her headset, then rubbed her stinging eyes. She'd come up with no more revelations than she had after the first and second reviews.
The bridge of the Mordicai was dim, lit only by the glow of instruments, and quiet except for the infrequent radio intercept from passing ships and the subharmonic rumble of the engines. She reclined in the command chair, alone in the compartment, the watch schedule that Tali compiled had her pulling double-shifts for the next 48 hours. A Customs Authority frigate was expected to rendezvous with them sometime inside that window.
She retrieved the headset and donned it, then touched the switch labeled with white tape marked "detention" and said, "This is Lieutenant Mitchell. How's the situation down there?"
"He's sleeping," Came the reply from Electrician's Mate Johnson, one of the replacements sent over from Constellation hours before, one of the two guards she'd ordered to be watching Huxley at all times. "Just like he was last time you called us, ma'am."
"He may only be pretending to be sleeping," Jena corrected. She'd made a point to call down to the security area every 15 minutes, partially to keep herself awake, partially to keep the guard detail on their toes. "Remember that he's the only suspect in the butchery of twenty-nine of his shipmates. He might be looking to raise his count by two more. You get me, Ephram?"
"Yes, ma'am, perfectly," Ephram stuttered with what Jena took to be nervousness. "If he breaks wind we'll put it in the log."
"Just watch him." Jena said and closed the comm-channel. She looked down at her Krono-Tek and noted the time of her next check-in. Once the Customs Authority takes over I'm going to sleep for an entire day, she thought and sighed, then I'm going to get something decent to eat. She turned as the sound of a pressure seal breaking drew her attention aft. Tali stood at the top of the ladder attached to the overhead, waiting for the hatch to open completely, a thermal jug slung over one shoulder, gravity provided by engine thrust kept her anchored to the deck as she climbed up into the bridge.
"What are you doing here?" Jena said as Tali moved to lean against the console beside the command chair. "You're supposed to be bunked out right now. You need your rest. Especially if you're going to relieve me in another six hours."
"I couldn't sleep," Tali said and unslung the thermal jug. "You know how those things are. You close your eyes and all you can see are the same things waiting for you right where you left off."
"What was it?" Jena said as Tali opened the jug and the smell of hot coffee wafted out. She poured a small amount into the lid, a zero-g safe cup, and handed it over the console. Jena accepted the cup and cradled it in her hands, absorbing the warmth from it, although the ship was slowly being returned to normal tempertures, the bridge was still chilly.
"Nothing important," Tali said and removed a similar cup from a cargo pocket of her pressure suit. She sighed as she poured coffee into it. "I'm sure I'll get over it."
"I'm sure you will," Jena said and let a smile slowly crease her face. "Is there something that's been bothering you?"
"Just what happened to everyone," Tali said and sipped from her cup. "I'd hate to be on a cruise with someone who has a homicidal brain-burn… especially when it happens so randomly."
"Don't worry about it," Jena said and took a gulp from her own, a large one that burned her mouth as it went down, coffee went flying as she coughed. "Smleck."
"How can I NOT worry about it?" Tali said and waved a hand at the deck. "We have a guy who qualifies as a mass murderer if we can prove he did it… and there are more people like him out there."
"Fleet tests everyone for DSA," Jena said and tried to work a soothing tone into her voice. "You… me… everyone. They wouldn't have let us on board a ship if we were even susceptible… you know that."
"I know," Tali said and nodded. "But what if the tests were wrong? The thought of even having an episode scares the hell out of me. I'd rather go out an airlock without spacesuit rather than go after my shipmates. What if… what if I jumped you sometime?"
"I wouldn't let that happen," Jena said with steel resolve. "There are treatments for it. Serenity, I don't know what our version of it's called but there's that too, worst case scenario I'd put sedate you and put you into cold sleep until we got to a colony someplace that's not in deep space… or I'd get you back to Earth. Don't worry."
The computer chirped then, a signal that it had found a match, Tali looked over Jena's shoulder as she touched a symbol-key that would display the contact. It was a text format report of a pirate attack.
"What's this?" Tali said and both leaned in close to look. Jena began reading to herself.
"A traffic-control advisory, the Apex Titan was officially declared lost in Eridani system today after radioing in a pirate attack one week ago. The Apex registered freighter was declared overdue on fourth-day/third-shift prompting a search by local militia forces which revealed found no trace of the missing ship. Until more information becomes available, its cargo and crew are presumed lost… FlashNews. Look at the date: twenty-one-eighty-four. That means it happened seven years ago."
Tali turned and felt her breath rebounding from Jena's ear, their faces close, she could feel her heart pushing blood.
