Stonerager Chronicles
By 2Charlie
This is a science fiction series that happens to include occasional erotic scenes. If you have not yet read chapters 1 and 2 of this series, I highly recommend going back to do so before you read this chapter.
All characters in this story are of the age of majority.
Chapter 03
*****
"Prime," Dutch called out to his ship's AI as soon as he'd finished getting dressed, "do you have access via any of the data we've recovered to the full design for the sleeper tubes? Please confirm in either event. If so, I would like you to synthesize a few for us, if you have the information to do so."
Pheebs called out to him from the water closet, "Have you decided what you will do with the iShan'tal prisoners, then?"
"Just making sure I have all options available, dear. Too bad we're not a sailing vessel. We could drop them off on a deserted island and be rid of them, harr harrrr," he said, adopting the pirate voice once more, knowing it amused her when he did so.
"Oh, please. You would probably make them walk the plank or something," she giggled, rinsing off before exiting the shower.
"Send them to Davey Jones, arrrr!" he threatened, waggling his eyebrows at her in a goofy way as he delighted in watching her brush her silken pale hair from her beautiful copper-hued face.
He took a long, lustful look at her as she brushed her teeth. God damn, he thought, he was definitely a lucky man.
Turning back to his pad, he saw a message from Prime confirming the availability of design specs, but lack of raw materials. "Prime, please locate the nearest source of materials needed, and add an estimate of time required to complete the synthesizing of the tubes."
"A route to the nearest source of materials needed has been added to your HUD on the flight deck. Time to complete is approximately twenty minutes per tube once we have acquired the necessary materials."
"Thanks, Prime. One last request - can you please ask Janice to prepare three sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches for our guests, along with three cups of orange juice?"
Pheebs looked over at him while pulling on her pants. "You plan on feeding the prisoners before we eat?" she asked him curiously.
"I grew up on a horse farm in Kentucky, sweetheart. My dad taught me to always feed the animals before I ate. It always made sure I was quick about my chores," he winked at her, with a faint smile and a faraway look in his eyes.
"I'll meet you in the galley afterward, though." He leaned over to her, giving her a quick kiss and inhaling her deeply before he turned and left their quarters.
Swinging by the galley, he picked up the prepared food, juices, as well as a half-dozen napkins and put them all on a tray before heading back out toward the brig.
Standing stoic in front of the hatchway to the brig was one of the repurposed security droids. He made a mental note to add physical markings to them soon so that they could differentiate between the two droids. "Good morning. Have our guests been behaving themselves?" he asked the droid conversationally.
The droid immediately snapped to attention, responding quickly to Dutch. "Approximately once per hour at different intervals, each of our guests has performed a physical inspection of their confinement, likely searching for a means to escape. I have detected no forms of verbal communication, however."
Nodding to the droid, he approached the hatch, and the droid pressed the panel beside him, opening it so Dutch could enter. As he entered the brig, he saw all three of the women standing in front of the clearplaz doors to their cells, watching him as he approached.
"Good morning, ladies. I hope you slept comfortably," he lied. "I brought you some breakfast, so please step away from the portal so that I may pass yours through to you."
He stood there waiting until each of the prisoners silently stepped away from the small access hatch to the side of the cell door. One by one, Dutch opened each hatch on the outside and placed the food, beverage, and napkin into the waiting bin. Once he had closed the final bin, he stood back and looked at each of them. "You may retrieve your food. I hope it is to your liking. I will be back in a little while to speak with you. In the meantime, enjoy your breakfast." Smiling, he turned to walk away.
"Wait," one of the women from the K'vetch called out to him. Turning, he looked at her with one eyebrow raised, silently waiting for whatever she had to say. "Why did you attack our ship, and why are you holding us prisoner?" she demanded of him, anger flashing across her lovely face.
"Let's have this conversation on full bellies, hmm?" he replied, again with a disarming smile, before turning and leaving them in stunned silence.
*****
Entering the galley, he smelled bacon and eggs. "Mmm, mmm! Something smells good!" he grinned as he saw Pheebs working over a pan on the cooking surface.
Without looking over her shoulder, she asked him, "You are going to interview them again after breakfast, correct?"
He nodded, then verbally responded, since she'd not been facing him. "That's the plan, yes. Although one of us needs to move the ship over to harvest raw materials we need to synthesize the sleep tubes."
"I can do that after we eat. In the meantime, let them wait a little longer. I have never tried to cook for my man - just wanted to give it a try, at least once."
He got them both glasses of orange juice from the synthesizer - he made a mental note to start keeping some ready foods and beverages in the cooler for times when the synthesizer might be offline - and sat at the table, watching appreciatively as her backside wiggled while she worked.
A sudden noise to her right startled him until he realized she'd actually toasted some bread.
How odd,
he thought.
She could have synthesized toast but instead synthesized bread to toast it.
Turning to one of the nearby tablets, he pulled up video footage of the brig. Checking on the prisoners, he saw that only one had eaten - one of the two from the K'vetch acting as the canary in the coal mine for the others. He caught sight of something odd which made him rewind and zoom in - the other prisoner from the K'vetch was doing something with her hands, barely noticeable. Her fingers were curling and twitching, almost spasmodically. He might have chalked it up to nerves until he observed Alisia making similar movements with her hands.
"Prime," he said softly, not wanting to disturb Pheebs, "are you able to see the hand movements that the prisoners seem to be making? I believe they are communicating surreptitiously. Are you at all able to decipher any meaning behind these hand movements?"
"Affirmative, Captain, I can see the hand movements. Looking back over the period of their captivity, I believe that the prisoners have been communicating throughout the night. Unfortunately, without a primer, I am unable to discern what they are communicating."
"Understood. Please make a recording of all of their communication so that you can continue to analyze, just in case you get a break that leads to translation."
Pheebs walked up just then, carrying a dish that smelled great. "Are you whispering to me behind my back?" she asked him with a bemused grin on her face.
Setting the tablet aside, he looked like she'd caught him with a hand in the cookie jar. "Guilty, your honor," he responded in jest, eyes twinkling with his humor. "But seriously, I had noticed the prisoners were using some sort of sign language to communicate and was asking Prime to see if she could work out a translation. Didn't want to distract you while you were working your magic."
Returning to sit across from him with her plate of food, she looked at him with an obvious question in her eyes. Realizing he had not yet tried the breakfast, he looked down at the food in front of him and was pleasantly surprised. She had scrambled the eggs and added in shredded cheese, which tasted great. The bacon was crispy but not burnt - he enjoyed crunching it as he took a bite. And the toast was perfect - not too dark, and well covered in butter.
"You sure this is your first time, Pheebs? Everything is done quite nicely and tastes great!"
Pleased by his compliment, she began to eat her portions, smiling to herself as she did. She was surprised at the pleasure she felt from something so simple as a compliment from her man, especially when she'd hoped to have pleased him. She was definitely going to do special things for him more often!
"So, it seems clear that Alisia is somehow in league with them," Pheebs said in between bites. "The big question now is what was she doing on Ganymede?"
Turning back to his tablet, he once again asked Prime a question. "Can you review the data Pheebs captured while scanning the room down on Ganymede where we found the sleep tubes?"
Prime responded immediately. "Affirmative. I have access to that data."
