/******
* The year is 2222.
*
* Cassie and seven tourists are trapped on board a starship that
* made an interstellar jump, with no pilot. To make matters worse,
* none of them know where they are or how to fly the ship and it's
* on a collision course with a star.
*
* Determined to not die a virgin, Cassie makes the decision to
* sneak off and have a late-night rendezvous with one of the tourists,
* a man in his sixties that she didn't even know a few days ago.
*
* Hey, beggars can't be choosers.
*******/
--Chapter 6--
Cassie awoke to Nadine gently shaking her shoulder. Her heart leapt up into her throat at first, fearing that she was somehow in trouble for last night's encounter. However, she was simply offering a small plastic cup with little bit of water and a handful of chips.
"It's the last we have. After this, there's no more food," warned Nadine.
Cassie cautiously accepted both, handling them like they were valuable antiques, feeling guilty that she was having the last of the rations. She paused and offered them back, "I think Elizabeth or Alex should have them," she said with a smile.
Nadine smiled back at the sentiment and shook her head, "They already had their share. Besides, it's not as though we have very long..." Nadine's words trailed off, her eyes becoming misty with tears.
Cassie looked towards the cockpit and then back towards the rest of the passengers. It appeared as though everyone was awake. When she saw Phil, she immediately began to blush, recalling the events of last night. She looked away quickly as to avoid making eye contact.
Nadine noticed Cassie's strange behavior, asking in a very motherly manner, "Is everything alright dear?"
"Oh, yes. Yeah. I'm fine. I just...I should check on the cockpit," Cassie replied as she got to her feet, knowing full well that there was no reason for her to inspect the cockpit.
As she neared the cockpit door and peered inside, the small room was flooded with light. She had to squint her eyes and when she did her heart sank. A large yellow star, not much unlike the Sun, was in the distance off the port bow. She had learned that term from her training handbook.
She smiled briefly at remembering the term, but this elation quickly faded. Looking down at the displays, a red "Proximity Alert" warning was silently flashing across all of them. She walked back towards the rest of the passengers, a solemn expression on her face.
Cassie stopped suddenly in her tracks, her shoes squeaking on the metal floor.
She broke out into a run towards the others.
"Everyone!" she shouted excitedly, "I think I know how to save the ship! Or, well, at least maybe..."
Conversations died down and silence fell upon the room as eyes turned toward her. She looked around the room at each of the passengers, looking away quickly from Phil. They were desperate for any glimmer of hope, and were eager to hear what the young tour guide had to say.
"I remember something from physics. If we can make a force in one direction, then an equal, but opposite force must follow."
All she got back were blank stares.
"And what do you propose we use to create such a force? All of the consoles are locked out," inquired Phil.
Cassie turned to face him, pushing down any feelings of embarrassment.
"We launch the port escape pod."
More silence. Some of the passengers exchanged glances of confusion.
"You know, that might actually work..." Phil replied with a hint of hope in his voice.
Some slight smiles started breaking out, looks of cautious excitement.
"It wouldn't get us out of trouble though. We would still have no control over our direction AND we are out of rations," he added.
The embers of hope that had started to glow were quickly stomped back out.
"However, if I can look over some of the navigational screens...We might be able to time the jettison in such a way that we can at least head towards something habitable. It would be a crash landing, and there's no guarantee such a place even exists within a million miles. The odds are extremely unlikely, but they're certainly better odds than flying into a star."
The rest of the day went on pretty much like all the others: sitting around, looking out the windows, trying to ignore the hunger pangs, chatting with one another.
Phil spent most of the day in the cockpit going over various navigational displays, scribbling on a piece of paper with a pencil, trying to calculate when they should jettison the escape pod for the best results. He was still in there, long past when everyone else had laid down to sleep.
As she slept, unbeknownst to her, one of Cassie's eggs had become ripe, bursting from her ovary, beginning its journey towards her womb. Cassie was now fertile. And given her age - extremely fertile.
Cassie awoke sometime during the middle of the night to a thud coming from the cockpit. Being that her "room" was the closest, it appeared that it had only disturbed her.
She took off the blanket and squeezed past the partially jammed cockpit door. Inside she found Phil, shaking out his hand from slapping the console a little too hard in excitement.
"I've got it!" he exclaimed, noticing Cassie enter the room. "If we launch the escape in exactly 5 hours, 23 minutes, and...," he paused to look at the clock, "45 seconds, we might be able to hit this moon," he pointed to the display. "It may not look like much, but the displays indicate it might have water, which means it might have life."
Cassie couldn't contain her excitement. "Really!?" she said loudly, then remembering everyone was asleep, repeated it again, this time much quieter.
"Really," Phil answered with a smile.
Cassie threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "That's wonderful!" After a few seconds it clicked just what was going on. She quickly backed away from the hug, trying to act like nothing had happened. "Ahem, so," she stammered, "about last night..."
"Don't worry. It'll be our little secret. A one-time thing," he replied, trying to preempt her.
"No, no, no. That's not what I meant. It's just that..." Cassie tried to figure out how to word what she was going to say, or if she should even say it.
Phil waited patiently as she worked over the words in her head.
"I'm still really turned on and..." her cheeks flushed, "Well, I mean we don't know if this plan will even work and..."
Phil gave a slight, understanding smile, "I see."
Cassie could feel the excitement coursing through her body, could feel herself start to become wet at the thought. Perhaps it was instinct, or intuition, or maybe a change in her hormones, but she wanted it so very badly; when she thought about the fact that she could get pregnant, it just turned her on more. "It's not as though I'll be alive long enough for it to matter," she figured. The biological need and desire burned hotter than ever inside of her.
Cassie blushed and and smiled back, trying to conceal just how excited she was.
"Shall we?" asked Phil as he stood up and took her hand, leading her quietly out of the cockpit and back towards the stairs down to the lower deck.