"Now we play the waiting game," Honey said.
"You all can sit around and wait," Strawberry told her. "I have some studying to do if we are going to leave this system in one piece."
CHAPTER SIX:
Nothing much happened for a while as we waited for our opportunity to finally flee the star system. We remained undetected as far as we could tell. The saucy redhead studied her navigation guides diligently in the control room, barely taking any breaks to eat and pee. The dragons snored ferociously in the cargo hold causing undue alarm at times. And I made my rounds.
Aeren and Mixi remained together most of the time despite their separate room assignments. When they weren't resting they were learning. How to read English using their tablets. How to operate the food processors. The advanced bathing practices found on our ship. When I offered to help with that last one Vanilla nearly chased me off.
Teddy settled into his new room without complaint. The human designed bed sat as high as he stood tall, but his athleticism eliminated any need for a ladder or stairs. He too studied his tablet relentlessly, though there was only so much data available to him. Roughly once per hour he sought me out to see if there was anything that I needed him to do. His eagerness to contribute was a good sign that he wanted to stick with us for a while. To keep him busy I had him feed the dragons and the evil bitch that had been placed in his former cell.
Strawberry and I agreed that it was best to not let Sage out to use the bathroom like a civilized person. She would have to piss and shit in a pot just like the other animals. I supervised the doctor's lone visit to our former leader. It was important to put her mind at ease regarding the woman's health.
"Having second thoughts?" I asked Vanilla after we left the cargo area. She was the last person that I wanted to see get a new uniform. Her short white skirt was absolutely phenomenal at showing off her creamy smooth thighs.
"Why would I?' the doctor replied.
"I thought that maybe you two were friends."
"She was my commanding officer. Nothing more."
"You are okay with her remaining in the cage?" I asked.
"For now," Vanilla replied. As I began to wonder what she meant by that, she added, "It is best that she is sent off this ship as soon as possible. For morale’s sake if not for her own health."
I couldn't disagree with that.
I didn't ask anything of the good doctor except to keep the occupants of our ship healthy. The remainder of her time could be used as she saw fit. Though I never kept tabs on her, I knew she was spending much of her time studying and documenting tissue samples from the variety of alien life forms that we had aboard.
Her publishing her findings would reveal the existence of these creatures on our ship. That could be a problem and invite an investigation. However, that should be at least a year from now. A lot could happen before then. I decided not to worry about that particular problem anytime soon.
Strawberry offered to take a shift watching the monitors for activity during the night, but I wouldn't allow it. Once she was too exhausted to continue her studies she headed off to her new bedroom. All her possessions had been transferred over to the captain's quarters. We would have to rename that room to avoid confusion. It wasn’t like there a was sign outside the door.
That left a rotation of just me, Cinnamon and Honeysuckle to cover the control room's stream of scan data. I had originally planned to keep two of us on duty at a time, but the task was so boring. Honey offered to handle the job for the first three hours. After that, I would relieve her. Cinnamon was still the weakest of us due to her injury during my escape sequence from the caverns. I wanted her to get a full night's sleep. But it didn't work out that way.
"Can I join you?" she asked from the doorway of my bedroom as I lied there wide-eyed, unable to sleep. I, of course, invited her in. "I thought that you and I were going to be spending all our nights together."
"We are," I replied, scooting over to make room for her. "But I was assuming that you needed your rest."
"I can rest in your arms, you know."
"That is true," I said as I welcomed her head onto my shoulder. She was still dressed in her uniform, but no shoes. I pulled the cover over her wondering if I would be able to sneak out in a few hours without waking her to relieve Honey at scanner duty.
"Did you have sex with Honey in the caves?" she asked as she snuggled against my chest. There was no malice in her tone. However, combined with the Vanilla incident, I was sure that she was feeling insecure about our relationship. I didn't want to lie to her. If I did, I would certainly be discovered eventually. The two girls were very close friends and didn't hide much from each other.
"We did have sex," I answered tentatively.
"I can tell by the way she looks at you now. It must have been quite an experience."
"It was.... unique."
"She asked me for permission," she whispered after my reply. I knew that I wasn't doing a good enough job to make her feel better about her position. "She wants to
