This is a re-edit of the story. Thank you kenjisato for your time and effort in making my story better. Without you then it wouldn't be as good as it is now.
Chapter 4
Elizabeth
It had been over a week since James had come out of his pod, and nothing noteworthy had happened since then. I already filed the report about the incident, and asked for instructions on what to do, from the home office. But because of our present location, transmitting a reply from headquarters would take a few weeks. I had to decide what to do about him.
I had been noticing some quiet conversation from Ava, Emma, and Grace, but I chalked that up to their morbid curiosity toward our uninvited guest. At least Grace seemed to be opening up a bit more to her fellow crewmates. Sasha had also been acting strange after his first physical exam and training session, but when I asked her about it, she just said she was trying to find a way of interacting with him because she has no idea how to interact with a human male. I felt like it was not the whole truth, but if it was something relating to the ship or its crew, then she would have spoken up already. So as it stood, I let the matter drop.
Dr. Blake had been spending a lot of time in Med Bay, but nothing new there, either. I was planning on visiting her to get an update on James' condition, and maybe also get her opinion on what to do with him, since she was in charge of his health care.
James, so far, had been the perfect passenger, never complaining, or harassing Sasha, as he was escorted from his room, gym, and restroom, for showers and everything one does in the bathroom for over a week. Having thought about it, he was probably bored. There was neither reading material nor movies to watch, in his room. He must be aching to do something to pass the hours in the day, I thought, I know I would.
The time might have arrived to see our would-be passenger. It was time to speak with him; a week was too long for not getting to know him. The more I knew about him, the better I would be to make my decision about his stay on the ship. After I would talk to him, then I would talk to Dr. Blake, and would go from there. I just hoped that weird feeling I felt when I first met him wouldn't resurface when I saw him again.
James
The week on this ship had been at an agonizingly slow place, if it was going to be like this for the rest of the trip, then I would be climbing the walls, going mad. There was nothing to do in my crew quarters, the only thing they had was a computer terminal, but it was under a restricted access. I could try to hack into it, but that would not look too good, if I tried.
I was hoping to speak with the captain, to allow me to walk around the ship and stretch my legs; at the very least, to ask for my stuff that GFC shipped with me. 'Then I wouldn't be so bored being stuck in here. With my stuff, then I could watch or read my anime/manga collection on the media drive, or work on my blueprints, or work on h...' My train of thought was interrupted when the door to the crew quarters opened and in walked my personal escort and prison guard, Sasha.
"Get up, the Captain wants to see you."
'Well I didn't want to keep her waiting,' thinking to myself. I got up and went with my prison guard, 'one day, I will get past that stony exterior of hers, and when I do, it will be glorious.'
I thought I was going to meet the Captain in the mess hall or the med bay, I didn't think I would meet her on the actual bridge. It was not as impressive as I thought it would be. They did have stations, I guess for the rest of the command crew, but no big monitor screens, no flashing light, or no holographic star chart to tell us where we were. The one thing it did have, was a Captain's chair, that sat right in the middle of the room, strategically placed so the captain could look at all stations by the swivel of her chair.
The one big feature of the bridge was, that it had one giant panoramic window that took up the entire front wall. If there were any doubts that I was not in space, this view would have shattered them; 'I'm in actual space,' I thought to myself in wonder.
"Best view in the house isn't it?"
Snapping out of awestruck, I turned to find the captain was standing in the corner, with an amused smirk on her face. "First time in space?" she asked me.
"Ahh yes it is. To be honest, I was having a few doubts I was in a spaceship."
Looking at the captain, she was in the very same uniform when I first saw her. It was mostly a dark-navy-blue jumpsuit, with orange accents, and the ship's name imprinted on the back. It was very similar to Sasha's jumpsuit, the only difference was the captain had a gold badge with wings hanging just above her ample left breast. Captain Elizabeth Lane, still looking just as beautiful if not more so, than the first day I met her.
"Well, I'm glad I can confirm that you are in fact in space." she said, while taking a seat in her captain's chair.
"Actually, not my first time, no, but this is the first time I've seen it," answering her question again.
She had a confused look on her face.
"I know I've been in space because ships like this, have transported me to various facilities throughout the galaxy. I just never wake up to notice it."
"Ohh, that's right. Well, since you've seen space, what do you think about it?"
"Insignificant," telling her, with a straight face,
"Excuse me, what do you mean 'Insignificant'?" she replied, emphasizing the last word.
"Well look at it. Space is a never-ending dark void. If we, the human race, were to disappear tomorrow, would the Universe even notice? By my guess, the human race and our many years of space travel, all the planets and stars we have seen; it is probably not even a drop in the bucket." I finished my rant.
"Hmm, never thought of it like that, but luckily for me, I don't have to think about the universe; only what happens on this ship. Which brings us to you."
"Really, and what do you have in mind for me?" I asked, holding my breath.
"As it stands right now, for the foreseeable future you will be a passenger on this ship. Our ship's engineer, at the moment, can't seem to fix your stasis pod; so we cannot put you back. The next best thing, is to try and make your stay here, a little more bearable."
"Well if I think about it, maybe you can allow me to leave my room whenever I want, no offense to your XO over there, but sometimes, I just want to go out and stretch my legs, without her watching me all the time," I said, to get that big ask out of the way.
"Sorry, I can't do that. There are strict regulations about untrained people walking around on the ship."
"Well, maybe you can train me, that way you are upholding your regulations, and I can come and go as I please; especially, when I have to go to the bathroom. It's mortifying to ask someone to go to the bathroom, especially late at night," telling them with a pleading look in my eyes. I was glad to see the Captain was taken aback by that last part.
"I can see what you mean. How about this, let's table this for now, and wait until Dr. Blake tells us your test results. After that, we will bring up training you to work on a spaceship," she said, with a pointed look on her face.
'Well, at least she didn't say no.'
"Is there anything else we can do for you?"
"Well you can get my personal effects that should be in storage; they always transport our stuff together. There is plenty of stuff for me to be entertained for a while," I asked, figuring this was a reasonable request.
"We can do that. I'll have our engineer bring them to you, once she can locate them," she said, allowing a sigh of relief in my mind.
"Thank you, it will help a lot when I'm stuck in my room," I said, slightly bowing my head.
"No problem. Why don't you head to the med bay, I believe the doctor has more tests to run on you. Once she has the results, we will revisit the no escort policy," the captain stated, before dismissing me from the bridge.
"Okay, no problem, and thank you for everything," I said, before walking off of the bridge. I thought to myself, 'That went better than I had planned. If I were to play my cards right, I could finally be free from my room. And she was reasonable and somewhat pleasant to be around; maybe soon, we would have more one-on-one talks. But for right now, those projects in my storage locker, could tie me over until we revisit the issue. Now it's time for me to focus on my sexy doctor.' I wondered how far I could take it, this time around.
Chapter 5
Aletta