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  Matt made his way from the room with the rest of the officers, the EVA team bunching up and shaking hands around. “I don’t know about any of you, but I haven’t eaten in nearly twenty hours. How about we get some food?”

  “Sounds like a good idea.” Lieutenant Brody said. “It will give us a chance to get to know each other a bit better.”

  “I agree.” Lieutenant Yang said as she turned and headed down to the officers’ mess.

  The four of them entered the mess and gathered what food they liked, in Matt’s case a huge helping of some kind of beef patty with gravy, mashed potatoes and some kind of green vegetable, all liberally drowned in more gravy.

  “A bit hungry Lieutenant?” Lieutenant Brody asked as he sat down next to her.

  Matt looked over at her tray containing a small amount of a chicken salad and a large helping of vegetables. “I’m starving. Is this a meal for you or just a snack, ma’am?”

  “Actually, Lieutenant, it’s my main meal of the day.” She replied.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to imply...” Matt said.

  “Yes you did, but that’s ok. Since we’re going to be working closely together, you can call me Tina.”

  “Good to meet you Tina.” Matt said as Lieutenant Yang sat down with them

  “Well, it’s good to see you two are getting to know each other. I think it would be best if we stayed on a first name basis for the next few days. I’m Kim.”

  “I’m Ron.” The Chief said, the first time he had said anything. “Does anyone know why I’m here?”

  “I’m afraid that would be my doing, more or less.” Matt said.

  “How’s that sir?”

  “Well, I suggested we have a security officer that had a lot of strength and intelligence. I guess they chose you.”

  “Well, I am the martial arts instructor, and graduated the top of my NCO school and security schools.”

  “If you don’t mind my asking, why aren’t you an officer candidate then?” Tina asked.

  “Sorry ma’am. I never really wanted to be one. I was happy taking orders and passing them along, not thinking them up.”

  “Well, you’re stuck with us now.” Kim said. For those of you that don’t really know me, I’m Lieutenant Kim Yang. I work in medical, but my expertise is exoscience and exobiology. Lieutenant Molter, I don’t think any of us don’t know about you. Would you like to add anything to the rumor mill?”

  “Well, just for the record, I didn’t really lift and throw the shuttle two miles when it crashed…” Matt said with a chuckle.

  “No but we know how big some parts of you are.” Tina said under her breath.

  “What did you say Mister Brody?” Kim asked quickly.

  “Nothing ma’am.” Tina responded quickly.

  “Look folks. Let’s get this straight. If you want to say it, say it. If it’s important, say it. We have no way to know what we’re going against, so let’s just cut the crap and figure out how we all fit together. Now, Tina, what did you say?”

  “I was talking to myself, but I said we knew how big some parts of Matt were.”

  “Oh.” Kim said, trying to stifle a laugh.

  “I’m sorry Matt.” Tina said. “I didn’t really mean it.”

  “Don’t worry.” Matt replied. “Since we will be working and suiting together there won’t be much to hide, so we might as well get it all out in the open. The young lady that spread that description of me was a little overzealous in her estimations.”

  “That’s not how I heard it sir.” The Chief said with a grin. “I heard that you were a pretty hot topic down there. Someone said they were lining up to get training from you.”

  Matt shook his head. “Does everything on this ship revolve around the rumor mill?”

  “Are you kidding? It’s the most accurate information for this kind of thing. I happen to know for a fact, that you’re the one that got the Captain to open the zero g gyms for extracurricular practice.” Kim said. “It was just after that vid of some guy in the shuttle banging away in zero g with a cute blonde officer. Pretty steamy workout.”

  “Yeah. I remember someone running a pool on who it was. Did they ever confirm who it was?” Tina asked, looking at Matt who was slowly turning red. “Oh my God… It wasn’t, was it? I thought that was really just a rumor.”

  Matt nodded his head slowly.

  “OH GOD! Now I understand!” She said

  “Understand what?” Kim asked.

  “Someone in engineering enhanced a frame of the video and made a 3D model and was selling latex versions.”

  Kim looked at her with confusion.

  “You know! His, er, thing!” She said blushing as much as Matt was.

  “OH! Is that where they came from? Oh my God!” Kim said, then looking over at Matt a sudden look of shock seeing his reddened face. “I’m really sorry. I had no idea. I mean you’re kind of a legend already, so I never really put any stock in the fact it was you. The video was really too dark to tell. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s ok.” Matt mumbled, trying to go back to eating his food. “I suppose I’ve heard most of it before.”

  “I’m sorry.” Tina said, rubbing his back. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Maybe I can make it up to you somehow.”

  “It’s ok. Thanks for the apology though.”

  “Well I see we have all bonded nicely.” The Captain said as she walked up and stood next to the table. “Do any of you see any problems working together on this?”

  “No ma’am!” they each snapped out in chorus.

  “I didn’t want an academy answer. I need to know if the personalities match up.”

  “I don’t see a problem ma’am.” Kim said to her. “Lieutenant Brody and I didn’t realize quite how famous Lieutenant Molter is on the ship. I don’t see it affecting our work though.”

  “Good. Carry on then.” She said, turning and walking briskly away to the food table.

  “Ok. Let’s get down to work. What do we need to do to get ready?” Kim said.

  “Have any of you used energy or projectile weapons?” Matt asked.

  The chief of course raised his hand slightly, but the two women sat without moving.

  “Well, first thing tomorrow we need to work on weapons. Let’s meet at zero eight hundred at the armory and we can get things going.” Matt said looking around at the group. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a nurse to see.” Matt finished as he stood up and left the table. The two women broke into giggles as he walked away, probably over his discomfort.

  Matt made his way down to his cabin and pressed the ID pad to let himself in. It was fairly dark in the room, but Matt’s eyes adjusted quickly. A young blond lady, partially wrapped in a blanked was sitting on one of the bottom bunks.

  “Is that you Lieutenant Sinclair?”

  “If you’re going to keep coming into here when I’m naked, you better start calling me Sue.” She said as she pushed her blanket off her shoulders, revealing that she was indeed naked.

  “Is Jenny here?”

  “Oh pooh. I was hoping you were here for me.” She said with a mock pout.

  “Is Jenny here Sue?” Matt asked again, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

  “Yes Jenny is here.” Jenny said in her now familiar British accent, as she stepped out of the head, wearing only her panties. She walked over to see him and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a long gentle kiss. “So what do I own the pleasure of your company at this early hour? I didn’t expect you off duty for a couple hours yet.”

  “Just wanted to see you.” Matt said, pulling her close to him.

  “Well then, let’s get a bit more comfortable, shall we?” She said, letting go of his neck with one hand and gently pulling on the zipper of his jump suit.

  “You’re the nurse.” Matt said quietly, letting her pull back far enough for her to get his zipper down and push his jump suit off his shoulders. It didn’t take long for them to remove what remained of each other’s clothi
ng and climb up into Jenny’s bunk. They made love slowly and gently, their quiet noises in stark contrast to Sue’s grunting and crying as she pleasured herself below them with her toy. Matt held Jenny close as they enjoyed the afterglow of their lovemaking.

  “Attention all hands. This is the Captain.” The rooms’ intercom squawked out.

  “Here it comes.” Matt said quietly to Jenny.

  “As the rumor mill probably has told everyone, we are preparing to make a high velocity transit. What you probably don’t know is why. Deep space radar has detected what appears to be an artificial object headed toward our solar system at high velocity. Because of its trajectory and speed, we are the only ship capable of intercepting it. To accomplish this we will have to make a slingshot around Neptune at more than point one five light speed in six days. That has never been done in a ship this large before. It means a full six day burn at ten g’s. There will be parts of the ship that are off limits because the systems can’t compensate for this kind of acceleration. Those will be posted off limits by engineering. Those of you who regularly work in those areas are aware of them, and are instructed to vacate them now. We will be going to high burn in ten minutes. For those of you who are math whizzes, you have probably figured out that we will be using nearly all our fuel to get there and won’t have any left to brake. Well, you’re right, but this will not be a one way mission. Fleet launched a deep space tanker at maximum burn ten minutes ago. In order to catch us they are running it unmanned at over thirty g’s. It will catch up with us a few hours before we make a slingshot turn around Neptune, giving us two hours to transfer special supplies and fuel. I know this is going to be difficult on the crew. I also know that there is nothing this crew cannot do. Good luck to all. Prepare for burn starting in ten minutes. That is all.”

  “Oh my God.” Jenny said in shock, “Point one five light speed?”

  “Point one seven actually.”

  “You knew about this?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Do you know what that kind of speed could do to us?”

  “Well, I know there will be some time dilatation, why.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

  “What she’s talking about is that the trip out here was only a fraction of that speed, and you saw how the female population was affected.” Sue said from the lower bunk.

  “Ok, so?” Matt said quizzically. He really didn’t understand what the girls were so upset about.

  “The medical research has had some indications that it’s the time dilatation effects that drive the women’s hormone levels up. There were two women and three men on the ship that made the point four test run a few years ago. It was only a four hour ship time run, but all reports showed that the women were sex craved lunatics within the first hour, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. The men were also affected. They indicated that their libido and desire levels were also elevated. Not as high as the women’s but it was enough that the whole crew was sexually distracted nearly to the point of non-functionality.” Jenny explained.

  “So what you’re saying is that we’re going to see worse sex issues than on the trip out here?”

  “Not just worse.” Jenny said quietly. “A lot worse. Within the first few hours we will start to feel the effects. By the end of the first day we will be bouncing off the walls looking for sex.”

  “This doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s not.” Jenny answered him as she pulled his face close to hers and gave him a gentle kiss on the nose. If I were you, I’d find a safe place to hide. Given your current fame, and the amount of attention you seemed to get on the way here, I think you’re in for a long week. These young women like Sue are not going to be happy using a rubber toy with the real thing walking around.”

  “Ohhhhh” Matt groaned. “I was kind of thinking that I wanted to be with just you.”

  “Awwww. That is so sweet!” She said kissing him on the nose. “I would like that very much, but I think we better be realistic for a second. You’re not going to be able to fend off all the advances and to be honest, at the speed we’re talking about you’re not going to want to. So I won’t blame you if you end up playing bunny rabbit with a bunch of women that aren’t me.”

  “Oh Good!” Sue called from below. “You can start with me any time!”

  “You are just a dirty young girl!” Jenny called back with a laugh. “We haven’t even started accelerating yet and you’re already trying to get him to bed.”

  “Can you blame me?” She called up with a giggle.

  “No I can’t blame you, but you’re also the one who pulls a blanket over her tits every time he walks in the room!” Jenny said, slipping her hand between them to stroke his chest.

  They were still getting a bit intimate exercise when the intercom squawked. “This is the Captain. Stand by for acceleration. All restricted areas to be cleared now.” The voice changed to that of the current communications officer on the bridge. “Prepare to fire. 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Firing. Acceleration at point five g… one… two… three… five… eight… ten… ten point seven… eleven point one stabilizing at eleven point one one.” The Captain’s voice came back on. “This is it folks, were on the way. In know this is going to be hard on the crew, especially the females, so let’s just do the best we can. I know this crew is capable of doing this mission, and we will do this mission. Captain out.”

  “Well…” Jenny said quietly to Matt, as he still lay on top of her, “Since you obviously know more than your saying, why don’t you fill me in. What else aren’t you telling me?”

  “The object is believed to be either a ship or probe. We think it came from or through the Wolf359 system about forty five years ago based on its current speed and trajectory. We’re going to EVA to it and inspect it, and if possible, go in and find out as much as we can about it.”

  “And the 'we' includes you?” She asked with a bit of a squeak in her voice.

  “Yes. Myself and three others.”

  “What else aren’t you saying? Besides it being dangerous?”

  “We only have four hours once we match speed to investigate it before we have to change course to use the sun for a braking maneuver. If for some reason we don’t get back within that time, the team will have to be abandoned.”

  “Oh God Matt!” she cried, wrapping her arms tightly around him and pulling him down to her. She wrapped her legs around him as well and pulled him as tight to her as she could and kissed his neck, tears welling up in her eyes and running down her face. “I don’t want to lose you!” She whispered, trying to keep her voice even in spite of the emotions that were suddenly welling up inside her.

  “You won’t,” Matt whispered back, pulling his head back far enough to kiss the tears running down her cheek. “I have no intention of being stranded on a probe with no hope of rescue.” Matt felt her body tremble under him and pulled her tighter while her emotions flowed over and she began to cry more openly.

  Chapter 10 - Preparations

  Matt felt pretty good walking out of his cabin. He had spent the long night in bed with Jenny, the two of them enjoying what each had to offer to the other, both of them sharing the emotional attachment that was growing stronger between them by the day. He headed to the armory, walking in just after Trina had arrived.

  “Hey Matt! How are you doing this morning?”

  “Pretty good, how about you?”

  “So far so good. Your buddy Kevin stopped by last night for a while. He’s a real cutie. Pretty damn good in the sack too.” She giggled.

  “Well, I’m glad he was able to take care of you.”

  “Oh he did!” she said, her mind clearly wandering back to whatever it was they did together.

  “Well, let’s get at it… I’m on the EVA team that’s going to go over to the object. The Captain wants me to pick two people to man the rail guns the whole time we are within contact range of the probe. I want you and Joan on that de
tail. You and she can start some training routines to make sure you’re sharp and ready. You’ll need to talk to security about the duty rotation. I want the two of you to take a joint eight hour in the mid-day so you can run practice simulations. We can’t do any live fire at this accel rate, but you can still do the sims.

  “Got it.”

  “I also need you to service up four of our best Mark six pulse guns and four pushers. We’re going to need two extra packs for the six’s and four projectile packs for the pushers per person. I want them to be multi tagged. The rest of the team should be down in a few minutes.”