I pressed my hand to the plate, watching as the pad energized and glowed green. With my ID confirmed the airlock field began to thin and fade. Before me was the semi-transparent umbilical that connected to my ship some fifty yards out, one of the few places where natural zero G still existed and could be enjoyed.
I was off on another routine trip, my third since graduating the academy, my first outside our home group of core planets. My first solo long range hyper jump mission. Okay, it was only a courier milk run but I was keyed up and bubbling with excitement at the prospect.
Beth, the ships MI system, greeted me as I swam across the gap, savouring the few moments of weightlessness as I watched my lock door slowly swing out to accept me.
"All systems are green, we have permission to lift off and proceed to the jump point," Beth's mellifluous voice informed me as I boarded.
"Thanks, Beth," I acknowledged, collapsing my suit field and unclipping my helmet and the re-breather as the tell-tale green light illuminated.
I made my way slowly up through the command pod, still feeling the sexual glow of my previous night's escapades. It was a pity I couldn't invite my escort of last night along. The blow job she'd given me this morning was still making my cock twitch again as I thought about that prehensile tongue of hers.
The single seat looked welcoming as I entered the bridge, the displays and view screens already fired up by Beth. I took my seat and began to run through the check list, paying special attention to the pods that contained the scientific equipment that was the purpose of my trip.
They were reliant on my power feed for their own grav and environmental controls, sealed by customs before reattachment and 'None of my businesses.'
I noted that the other pod was fully pressurized and only a half G, probably exotic fruits or something equally expensive. The shipping manifest had me dropping it off at Climax, deep inside the Crux Empire, another first for me.
My checks complete, I asked Beth to tell control we were ready to go hot and request push off. On my monitor I could see the umbilical tunnel detach and shrink back into the station, leaving just the cradle. Then the cradle gave us the ten foot push out into free space.
I waited the patient minute to drift the hundred yards or so till I got clearance for manoeuvring jets. Looking back at the station, I could see the alpha class liner berthed beside me, the long fat living pod nestled into a structure ten times my size.
Beth used the jets to manoeuvre us, sending us skimming up the side and out over the top, out the quarter mile to the 'live' zone. My target star was currently shadowed by the planetary disc so my departure would be a dogleg, looping around to the anointed way out of the gravity well to where the hyper drive could be safely engaged.
I sat back in my pilot's seat watching the screens as Beth drove the outward leg aiming for the closest orbit that would give us the parabolic fling onto the new course. The sun grew larger every time I looked at it while I studied the display with the court recording for my full lieutenant exam, the ethics of discipline being the current topic and the subject of a five thousand word minimum essay in my weeks study leave when I next landed on a federation base.
The questions had no answer, only value judgements on the witnesses who gave evidence, a little more like an ethics test than the disciplinarian one it purported to be, excepting we also had to recommend a sentence where guilt was proved.
I spent an hour stop starting the video and capturing my thoughts before I wandered off to my cabin to relax and read nineteenth and twentieth century novels, seeing how technology interacted with lifestyle as it developed.
I found it more interesting than the video casts and films of the time. Radio was good for a time at the beginning but drowned itself in banal sponsorship except for the BBC. Right now I was enjoying a rerun of Gulliver's Tales and still finding amusement in the hidden meanings.
Beth interrupted me some hours later as she prepared to take the ship into the next stage of our journey. I watched the screens as she tickled the attitude jets to keep us centred on the grid and in the green.
I sat there a while, contemplating the three week hyper jump, diving through quantum space while time stood still around us. Shortening my normal life by those 'extra' three weeks, the least reward was the boost onto space pay and a fat wallet when you got leave with somewhere to spend it.
An hour or so of idling and I felt like a snack and made my way up to the main replicator in the 'mess', a cubby hole with a counter under the face of its chamber and a wall mounted bench seat opposite filling the rest of the room.
Wedged next to it was the medidoc section, an automated treatment centre. And then the toilet with the rest room/rec area with its long circular wall taking up the lion's share of the rest of the level. Above me were the two cabins, mine and the guest cabin.
My domain extended downwards, courtesy of the tube, through the cargo section and into the drive section, another area that was 'None of my businesses.' I knew better than to think I could mess with the Tesla drive; it was esoteric physics and way beyond my understanding.
I dialled up coffee first then a double cheddar and red onion on granary, and took them through to the rec area, sitting and letting my thoughts turn introspectively. Three weeks solitary, then a day's layover for cargo transfer then another four day jump to a hub station for my other drop off.
I'd taken the six week isolation test in the academy but this was the real thing and still had an edge of sharpness to it.
I popped back down to have a quick check on how we were going, see if we were tracking the natural parabola yet. Beth was down to millisecond of arc as the sun tugged us forward, looming ever larger on the port bow.
I felt the routine descend as I settled into the command chair and watched as Beth tweaked our course till we were nanosecond accurate then shut down the engines. We wouldn't need to restart them till we'd finished the ride.
My circadian clock was coming to bedtime, left to drift during the six week of my test I had worked to a twenty five hour cycle, and I wandered off to take the tube up to my quarters to read myself to sleep.
Morning arrived and I checked in on Beth after showering, wearing only the obligatory medivest and enjoying the relief of not having to wear anything else. We'd past perihelion and were outward bound with Beth still keeping us on the true track, accelerating to fifty G's as we drove to the jump point still a day distant.
Satisfied, I made my way back up for breakfast, then on to a coffee and some retro music from the eighteenth century. Beth interrupted.
"Choi." Her voice commanded my attention.
"Yes, Beth?"
"I am receiving a revival warning signal from one of the capsules."
"What?" I jumped in, unfolding myself from the chair and striding for the tube.
My heart leapt into my throat as I thought first of pirates and dismissed them, thinking next of some malfunction. Nevertheless I would go armed, and I needed to put some trousers on. Instead of descending I ascended and dressed and took my stunner.
Beth had located it in the pod bound for Climax, the half G one. I'd never been to the cargo level since I'd strolled the ship on assuming command. Warily, I rode the disc down to the connection ring and the tunnel to the suspect pod.
Beth had a multi armed maintenance bot there before me. It broke the seal while Beth overrode the door security to open it for us. The pod was virtually empty. I'd twisted myself though the ninety degree gravity shift and stood with six capsules in front of me, each locked in its cradle.
As I walked to them I saw the one flashing, the red light demanding attention.
"Beth?" I asked tentatively. "Tell me what I'm seeing."
I looked directly at the control panel.
"It is a standard hibernation capsule to avoid time loss during jumps, usually when people are making several hops," Beth informed me. "The timer will open it in forty-seven minutes."
It was tied down to the cradle for the journey; it needed freeing up if it was to open soon. With the help of the bot I soon had it laid on the floor and ready to pop. The other five with it were all coded and told me nothing except to confirm good health.
I half sat, half leant on the capsule, watching the countdown timer. As it neared time I rode the disc back up the lift shaft for two coffees, returning with minutes to spare to see the cover release and retract. Inside fluttering her eyes was a redheaded beauty, dressed in a halter top and shorts.
I watched her, fascinated, as she stirred and sat woozily up.
