On my back on the floor, I felt the vibrations spring back to life. A few hours after embarking on your first flight, you get so used to the low hum of the engines that your mind filters it out... until it stops. In this cramped maintenance shaft, it seemed louder than ever.
I finished mounting the panel and let my arms fall to the side, relaxing into the mechanical massage. Newer ships don't have this noise anymore, the dampeners are now tuned well enough to pick up the slightest vibration. But I liked it. It told me that things were going to be okay, even with the systems as badly damaged as they were.
Artificial gravity cut out just as I turned over to move. You never realize how heavy your head is until suddenly, you don't have to support it anymore and bang it against the cover plates, which were luckily thin enough to give a little.
"Sorry, James!" came Lisa's voice from upstairs, which I could no longer tell from downstairs. I hoped she would hear my grumble, even though I was happy I wouldn't have to crawl the whole way back out of the tube.
Upon grabbing hold, I noticed my own eyes staring back at me in the distorted reflection of the panel. In the side light, my eyes looked even darker than usual, and I needed a shave. I decided that I liked it. Could be worse.
Upon launching myself gently down the tube, I pulled my bandana over my head, keeping wild hair from drifting into my face. Zero-g is an unsettling feeling at first, but once you get used to it, it makes navigating through the ship a smooth and effortless thing.
It wasn't much of a ship, but it was mine and I was proud of it. Maybe one day I would join the front line of exploration, but for now I was saving money by hauling things between solar systems. Things like the prototype machine in the cargo hold.
I remembered to check the load straps, hopefully the loss of gravity didn't bang the device around too much. I tried to remember if I had left any tools that might now be floating around the room. While I was there, I could have another look at the package, I had a few guesses as to what it actually did.
I grabbed a handlebar and made a sharp turn towards the cockpit, but as I passed the central hallways, I stopped myself. Lisa had crawled up the ladder -now sideways for me- and had stopped halfway to check the cables for damage. Her feet were towards me and the very sight pulled me right out of my thoughts.
I decided to take a small detour and pushed myself off ever so lightly. Gliding through the tube, I brushed my fingers along the walls to make slight adjustments to the flight path. The implants in my bones made them quite heavy, but when gliding this slowly, the softest touch could change a course.
Her feet passed my field of vision. I briefly wondered why she bothered with socks in those sneakers, poking out between the comfortable seal of her pants. The parts of her clothing were meant to compliment each other, but she threw that right out the window with socks. I couldn't imagine why she bothered with the expensive one-piece suits in the first place, though I wasn't complaining.
Lisa was a hard worker and her legs showed it, even when they weren't supporting her. A feeling of guilt crept into my stomach as I admired my employee's body drifting by, as if that was what I had hired her for.
Her age was honestly the only reason why she worked for me; Competent as she was, if she had been a few years older, I would have been working for her instead. I was happy to have found someone as driven and smart as Lisa, before she had a chance to pilot her own ship and make a career.
My dilemma faded quickly when her rump came into view. Suppressing a sigh, I traced her curves as they passed in front of me. Lisa was intelligent and competent, yes. Her suit was better quality than most things on this ship, yes.
But right now, all I saw was her gorgeous ass and the fabric hugging it tightly. The only thing that could beat my love for her backside, was my admiration for her work.
I let that thought linger as I followed the swell of her hips and curves of her back. She had broad shoulders, I noticed, but at this point my view was cut off by her brown ponytail, drifting in all directions and tickling my face. I had hoped to pass her stealthily, but I was afraid she would back up enough to notice my presence.
"Hi," I said matter-of-factly in her ear, and launched myself away from her startled flailing with a wide grin. Skillfully, I maneuvered myself towards the cockpit, deaf to the swearing behind me. We would be ready to resume course soon.
--
Lisa plopped down heavily in the co-pilot chair beside me, nearly spilling her tea. Booting the data screens, she set her cup down on the nearest horizontal surface, hidden right behind the tilt indicator. But I did notice, and reached through the hologram to set the cup down in a safer spot, giving her a stern look. She didn't seem to catch on.
"Life support is back online," she said, stating the obvious. She knew I liked that, redundancy makes a dangerous job a whole lot less dangerous.
-"So we may live another day," I grumbled, flipping through the menus of the starboard screen. "And return the favor to those damn Belgians who upgraded our battery grid." I literally punched the throttle.
Lisa looked at me with some concern. "There's no way they could have known, James. If anyone, it was my fault..."
She said more, but I wasn't listening. Instead, I wondered what it was about Lisa that sailed her right past my guard. When she spoke, I listened. And when she spoke the truth, I hated her for it.
I flicked the player and the music abruptly resumed where it had stopped when Lisa's "intelligent" tea cooker decided it didn't like the battery modifications and started a resonance feedback loop.
--
"Two hours," I shouted after Lisa as she walked away with a wave. This station was known for its shopping floors and though we were in a rush, Lisa's help saved me plenty of time to give some of it back to her, in the form of shore leave.
I had to pick up a few things of my own, which gave me a convenient excuse not to go with her. I treated myself with a few more seconds of ogling before turning on my heels.
I looked around as I strolled through the station, and hopped from one transport beam to the other. Very few people actually lived here, most were tourists who considered shopping at a space station a status symbol.
This was actually a science station once, a robotic guide had told me, repurposed into District S as we know it today. Quite well, I had to admit. The oversized clothing stores weren't my style but any place like this had its own back alleys, where the interesting little shops were, fixing, modifying and selling electronic and bionic trinkets, tolerated by the law.
It takes a special type to do my line of work. Facing agoraphobia is difficult, and anyone maintaining a ship has to get over it. Space suits have improved a lot over the years but they still feel claustrophobic, while at the same time, the space around you seems to want to suck you in. Without thrusters on your suit, all you had to do was let go, and before you knew it your ship would be just out of reach, and you would drift off, ever so slowly, into the void.
I stopped to look through a window, at the dozens of hand-held devices. While we are space grunts and proud of it, we are also nerds.
All the bravery in the world couldn't compensate for technical knowledge, when it comes to difficult descents or slingshot maneuvers, where numbers are your friends and equations your tools. This was the part that Lisa excelled in more than anything, though she didn't mind doing some heavy lifting, either.
I caught myself daydreaming of her doing exactly that, and snapped back to a stubby man looking at me from inside the shop. I entered, but took my time.
What was it about Lisa that was getting under my skin? She looked pretty, but so did my last assistant and long story short, that one taught me not to judge a book by its cover. Not in this line of work. But Lisa...
"What do you want?" To the point, I like that. I looked into his beady eyes and gave a curt nod.
-"An RF scanner, going below 118 megahertz." He stared a moment longer before mimicking my nod and turning his sweaty self away from me.
