looked irritated. Before long his expression softened. “Sasha?” He asked quietly.
She nodded and took a few more tentative steps forward. “My real name is Alice.”
He pulled himself out of the engine compartment, took three long steps and caught her up in his arms. “I know,” he said quietly as he held her to him. “I missed you.” He was a large man, two and a quarter meters and still had the thickly muscled build of a colonist farmhand.
“I'm sorry I had to leave the way I did,” She pressed her head against his chest. How could she have thought he would be anything but kind to her?
“I understand. They got to me, put me away for a few weeks but turned me out when their machines told them I didn't know anything. I wouldn't have told them anything if I did.”
“I wish I could have warned you, told you to run. I was so worried but I couldn't look back.”
He turned her face up to look at him with a finger under her chin and gently wiped a tear away. “Hey, ease up. Everyone's fine here,” he whispered before kissing her slowly. Long moments later he picked her up and walked her straight up the entranceway ramp.
This wasn't anywhere near the reception she expected. “Didn't get married while I was away?” She asked, nibbling his earlobe.
“You're a hard act to follow. Haven't had so much as a weekender.”
“So you're just going to drag me to your cabin and have your way?” She teased, slowly drawing her finger down the center of her vacsuit, opening a slit down to her navel.
He took the bare metal staircase leading up to the berth three at a time. “Yup, might just keep you locked in there for a while. Don't want you getting away too soon.”
Alice feigned an exaggerated expression of shock and squirmed a little, his arms tightened around her knees and shoulders in response. “Oh no! What will I have to do to win my freedom?”
Bruce laughed as he stepped through the doorway to his quarters. “We're about to find out.”
Happy Landings
Ashley stood in front of the new materializer. It was her first time using one made primarily for dispensing food. The machine was smaller than the other dispensers in the galley, but according to Finn it was just like the expensive ones fast food places used. The Captain had one built into his command unit, he had loaned it to her a few times to make vacsuits for herself, but it couldn't do food very well. She had secretly tried.
“One serving apple sauce,” she ordered. It listed what she had requested on a small screen with various pictures showing different varieties. She selected one and it appeared a moment later. In one swift motion the spoon went into the sauce and then her mouth. “It tastes so real,” she whispered to herself as she savoured it.
Looking around to make sure the galley was still empty she put the small bowl on the table and looked back at the materializer. “Peach sauce,” she ordered quietly. The screen displayed only two varieties and after she selected one it appeared in a similar bowl. She picked it up and smelled it. “Oh my God, Vindyne employees ate like kings.”
Putting it down, she giggled and looked at the materializer. “Okay, now let's try something a little more interesting. Banana cream with chocolate sprinkles in one bowl with a larger bowl on the side,” her eyes went wide as the built in computer concocted an image on the screen that depicted what she was looking for. Ashley selected it and a moment later she carefully took it out of the machine.
With great care and precision she poured the apple sauce and peach into the larger, empty bowl simultaneously so they were each taking up half the space then she transferred the fluffy banana cream on top. She just stared at it for a moment, holding her spoon at the ready.
“Having a late snack?” Stephanie asked as she walked into the galley.
“Couldn't sleep anymore, kept thinking about the magic food machine.”
“You know this thing can make a pair of boots in a few minutes just as easily as it can churn out chow,” Stephanie said as she took a spoon from the cup on the counter and made to join in on Ashley's snack.
“Oh no you don't! I created it, I'll eat it!” she called out, holding her spoon up like a weapon.
Stephanie laughed and shook her head. “What is it anyway?”
“Peach sauce on one side, apple on the other, banana cream with sprinkles on top,” Ashley said as she took her first spoonful of apple sauce and cream. She rolled her eyes and sighed after a moment, enjoying her creation.
Stephanie thought for a moment and snapped her fingers. “Hot chocolate pudding cake,” she said to the machine. “With whip cream,” she finalized her selection and it appeared, steaming in an insulated bowl.
Ashley eyed the fragrant desert as Stephanie took a seat at the table. “I've never seen that before.”
“It takes hours to make from scratch.”
She slowly inched her spoon towards Stephanie's bowl. “Can I try just a little-”
“Is your spoon-fu good enough? This is a test you should not undertake I think.” Stephanie said as she took an exaggerated defensive posture with her spoon.
“Fine, I'll just try it next time,” Ashley pouted. “I shouldn't have more than one desert a day anyway. Regular fitness supplements only do so much in regular doses.”
“You've got that right. This pudding is going straight to my hips. Especially if we spend this much time in hyperspace between jobs.” She took a bite of steaming cake and pudding. “Then again, we could always have this machine add all our nutritional and physical maintenance supplements to deserts.”
Ashley's eyes lit up. “Nooo, you're kidding right?”
“Nope, too many alterations change the flavour though. We could experiment.”
Finn walked into the galley, glanced at the two women and their deserts then stopped at the materializer. “Chocolate flavoured meal replacement bar, eight ounces.” After a moment it appeared and he sat down.
Ashley and Stephanie just stared at him silently.
“What?” He asked around a bite of his snack.
“You could order any of twenty thousand dishes and you get an energy bar?” Stephanie asked.
“It's breakfast. We're coming out of hyperspace soon.”
Ashley checked the time on her small wrist computer and boggled for a moment. “You're right, it's a lot later than I thought.”
“You mean earlier. It's oh-four hundred.”
“Still night time,” she retorted as she slowly scooped a spoon full of peach and cream.
“Only if you're on certain worlds. Local clocks are all different than Coreworld Time,” Stephanie added.
“I still think it's night time. They call it night watch anyway.”
The three ate their snacks quietly, Finn and Stephanie enjoying foods they hadn't had in a long time and Ashley savouring something that she had only dreamt of.
When Finn finished his bar he ordered another and made his way to the bridge. Captain Valance was already there, looking over a hologram of a silver hulled ship doing combat with a carrier twice its size. It looked like a sleek antique vessel attacking a modern killing machine, only the antique was winning in brutal fashion.
“Good morning,” Finn said as he handed the meal replacement bar to him.
“It's still night cycle,” he replied as he rotated the combat scenario viewpoint.
“I've never seen a ship like that before, what's it called?” Asked Finn.
“The First Light. The database we stole from those old ships we're hauling says it's called the Sunspire now.”
“Looks like it's tearing that carrier to shreds, none of her fighters have a chance either.” The losing ship exploded outward from the center.
Jake stopped the playback and zoomed in to the impact area. “They must have thrown a couple hundred kilograms of antimatter at this thing along with God knows what else. Headed straight on as well, no fear or hesitation in the tactical approach.”
“That hull might be pretty thick, I hear they were paranoid when they built some of the long range ships a couple hundred years ago.”
