I was alerted to the glitch nearly in real time by our on-board system. Consequently, it was no surprise at all to me when about 28 minutes later, a request came up from ground control to check it out. The secondary high-gain communications system had experienced a transitory anomaly. Ground control could not just say 'glitch', that wasn't sufficiently obfuscating, instead, we had 'transient anomalies'.
As the name implied, the secondary high-gain communications was a secondary system. We had used it early on in the mission to increase our bandwidth for things like interviews with the press and sometimes special family events. However, once the latency became too great, the antenna itself had remained stowed and the support equipment was placed into standby mode.
The system was in the central module. It was shielded to be sure, but not to the extent that the habitat and command modules were. It was probably not a micro-meteor impact as there was no sign of an atmosphere leak in the central module. My best guess was that is was probably a stray high-energy cosmic ray and that the anomaly would end up being classified as 'unknown'.
The central module was somewhat unusual. It was made using the same basic construction as the other modules, however, there were many more permanent handholds and footholds resulting from it being designated a permanent float zone. The habitat and command modules spun to generate an approximation of gravity, but the central module did not, partially so that the antennae pointed homeward and partly so that the outer modules had somewhere to rotate around.
Getting into the central module was a curious experience. You started climbing a ladder from the command module to the first of several weigh points. Each weigh point had it's own sealed access hatch and the first assent section required additional fall arresting safety equipment. I had some earphones in and was listening the 'Abbey Road' to pass the time. It was hard to believe that in 2041 this album still stands up so well.
The penultimate hatch was the fun part as it represented to transition between the spinning and stationery sections. It could be tricky for the uninitiated, but I'd done this trip many times and I made it through without a problem.
Upon finally reaching the last access hatch, I decided to just float and listen to 'Here Comes the Sun' with my eyes closed for a few minutes of solitude before proceeding. Once the surreal introduction to 'Because' started, I reluctantly opened my eyes, pushed-off a wall and gently floated over to the hatch.
The hatch to the central module opened outwards. OK, I suppose that technically the hatch to the module connecting to the central module opened inwards, but it had the same overall effect. I looked through the viewport, as per procedures, and saw that the hatch was unobstructed.
You could imagine how unprepared I was for what I saw next. As the hatch opened fully I was greeted with the sight of a shapely naked buttocks tumbling in front of me mid-somersault. This was followed very shortly thereafter by the hairiest outer lips that I had ever seen in space. Actually, the only outer lips that I had seen in space. As the owner's body continued to tumble, her widely spread legs, hands resting on her knees, sixpack abdomen, decent breasts, head and then eventually her back were presented to me before restarting with her buttocks and those gorgeous hairy outer lips.
"What the fuck?" I said caught somewhat off guard.
"Oh fuck! Sorry, we didn't expect visitors." said a disembodied female voice.
Slightly embarrassed, my naked cremate flailed uselessly in zero G continuing to tumble. She'd been in microgravity before and had trained thoroughly on how to handle most situations. Unfortunately, being unexpectedly caught naked by one of your crew mates was not a contingency that had been covering in training.
Her random panicked movements had only made things worse. Instead of just tumbling, she had now added some rotation to her predicament and the breasts and gloriously hirsute vulva that she was probably trying to conceal now came spectacularly back into view.
"We?" I asked removing my earphones.
"Yes sorry," the woman floating in front of me started, "Genevieve and I like to come up here from time to time and hang out 'au naturale' as it were."
"Nice work Gretchen. He didn't have to know that I was here too!" Genevieve said sounding more that a little peeved.
"Can you, um?" Gretchen asked.
"What?" I replied not knowing what she was asking.
"Can you either turn your back or stop me from rotating?" Gretchen said.
"No," I said as I ducked under her and floated into the module closing the hatch behind me in the process, "this is the best entertainment that I've had for weeks."
"I'm glad that you find this so funny." Genevieve said trying to cover her breasts as I floated past her. Oddly, her pubic hair was plainly visible.
"Funny? No, not funny, just familiar." I replied as I grabbed the closest handhold to the secondary high-gain unit.
"What do you mean, 'familiar'?" Gretchen asked finally managing to stabilise her spin with the help of a handhold that she manage to hook on to by one finger.
As I slipped my feet into the foot restraints and started to bring the system out of standby, I said, "Ladies. I grew up in a nudist household with three older sisters."
I paused for a few seconds to glance over my shoulder to see their reactions before proceeding, "I can assure you that there is nothing that you can do that would shock me.
"Nudist?" Genevieve asked.
"All the time?" Gretchen added.
"Well," I said, "we did wear clothes when we left to the house to go to school and do the shopping, but inside the house, yes, we seldom wore clothes.
"Really? All the time?" Genevieve confirmed.
"Mostly." I started, "Sometimes in the winter months we would wear jackets, but only in the morning when it was really cold."
"Three older sisters hey?" Gretchen said.
