This choice: The Captains speak again 1 month later, and both notice changes in the other? • Go Back...Chapter #6The Captains speak again 1 month later by: Unknown "Another coffee, captain?"
Elizabeth grunted gratefully, taking the mug in both hands. "Thanks Liesel. Anything to report?"
The Chief Engineer shook her head. "Some minor repair work on the hull, a few circuitry issues, but nothing major." She brightened slightly. "The crew are definitely starting to adapt, thought. It only took us four hours to complete the system checkup this time around."
Elizabeth sipped her coffee, nodding approvingly. She'd noticed it herself, of course. After a month of high gravity, their bodies were gradually adapting, as the ship's doctor had assured her they would. It was still hard. Even just using the computer consoles was a calisthenics workout, and walking from one side of the bridge to the other felt a long hike in a weighted vest. But overall... things were beginning to get easier. Espcially the little things. Elizabeth hefted her coffee mug. A month ago it would have felt as heavy as an Olympic shot put. Now it was more like a small brick.
The Captain watched the muscle tone flexing in her forearm as she lifted the mug again. She smiled vaguely. You could say that for their new environment: it was easy to keep in shape.
"Perhaps the men have had more luck fixing their gravity," Elizabeth said, glancing at through the starboard viewport at their bretheren ship, which floated some two kilometres to their right. Though the Hippolyta and Dionysus travelled alongside one another through deep space, at a distance safe enough to avoid collision, communications between the two ships were strictly limited to brief monthly check-ins (other than in emergencies) out of concern that the two crews might get distracted.
"Maybe they've figured something out," she wondered allowed.
Liesel looked doubtful. As Chief Engineer, she'd been involved in the design of both ships, working alongside her opposite number for the men, Howard Stockford. As Liesel recalled, Howard had been far more concerned about cramming as many luxuries and amenities on the men's ship as possible, rather than bothering himself with the critical design features, resulting in The Dionysus becoming so huge and heavy that Liesel had had to wrack her brains and work late into the nights to figure out all sorts of expensive modifications to enable the vast ship to achieve lift off in the first place.
Modifications which had eaten into the budget for the Hippolyta, which had already been considerably smaller despite the crew numbers on each ship being the same.
Not that Liesel had a say in that. As Chief Engineer of the men's ship, Howard called the shots and was effectively her boss. "Just fix the issues, Lizzie," he'd said with a long-suffering sigh. "I have to go to dinner with the President."
Guess that's what happens when you appoint a Chief Engineer on the basis of his family ties to Earth's Ruling Council, Liesel thought grudgingly.
"Well anyway," Elizabeth said, breaking the engineer out of her reverie, "we'll find out soon enough." And with a grunt of effort, the captain dragged her chair over the the bridge's main console where, with a few heavy clicks on the keyboard, she entered the codes to hail the Dionysus.
****
"Sir... sir?"
David blinked groggily, slowly waking up to an unusual sense of pressure pressing on his abdomen.
For a moment thought the gravity was back on. But as his eyes adjusted, he realized he'd floated up to the ceiling and his belly was bumping gently against it.
Must've dozed off after lunch, David thought, smacking his lips on the memory. Roast shoulder of lamb, creamy potatoes slathered in rich jus, sauteed mushrooms, and strawberry trifle to cap it off. David burped contentedly and patted his lunch-distended middle. All that money they'd invested in the galley bots had been worth it. Sure, back on earth Elizabeth had been a good cook, but she tended to fill his plate with so many... green things.
David grinned. That was one of the beauties about this mission. No women there nagging them about healthy eating or diets. The galley bots would cook whatever the crew wanted, which meant no broccoli or carrots wasting valuable space in the Captain's stomach.
He was massaging said stomach fondly and wondering if he could reassign the head chef bot to his personal quarters after they landed, and somehow persuade Elizabeth to go along with it, when a voice rose up from below.
"Sir!" it repeated.
David looked down, irritated about being disturbed from his digestive siesta. "What is it Crewman Scott?"
Adam Scott saluted. "Sorry sir. Incoming transmission from the Hippolyta, sir."
The Captain groaned. Had it been a month already? Belching lazily, he pushed himself off the ceiling and floated down to his console. Like the rest of the crew he'd been getting better at moving himself around in the very low-gravity environment of the ship. It was kind of like swimming, just without any resistance.
"Get me a coffee," he snapped, tucking his legs into the sling beneath the console to keep himself from rising. "Whipped cream and three sugars."
Having gotten himself comfortably seated, the Captain sighed. "Accept -uurp!- transmission" he announced grandly to the computer's voice-activated controls.
Seconds later an image of his wife flashed up on screen.
"Hey babe," David grinned.
"Hello Darli-"
Elizabeth stopped, her mouth hanging open.
David frowned at her. "What... all that extra gravity weighing your tongue down too?" Wouldn't be entirely a bad thing! he thought.
While her husband chuckled at his own private joke, Elizabeth had time to collect herself.
"No... Sorry," She said. "It's just... your top, darling. It's..."
David frowned, following her pointing finger down towards his waist, and grunted in frustration. "Urgh, those useless laundry bots!" he grumbled, tugging at his "Earth Colonization Front - Captain" top in an attempt to get it down over the exposed part of his stomach. "They've.... nrggh!... shrunk all our ...unnf!... uniforms again."
Elizabeth watched the bare bulge of David's belly wobble as he fought to pull the skintight fabric down over it with a mix of surprise and amusement. Her husband had always been a bit of a softbody. Back on Earth, Elizabeth had to fight to get him to eat even a token portion of veggies. But this... this was different.
My darling husband has developed a potbelly, Elizabeth realized.
And apparently he wasn't the only one. For a moment later Elizabeth's eyes were filled with the sight of another swollen male stomach, this time thankfully covered, which entered the screen from the right. It was followed by the rest of Crewman Scott.
"Your coffee, sir," the crewman said, placing a massive mug next to the console, cream swirls rising from the top. "And a sample of the brownie bites you requested," Crewman Scott added, placing a sealed ration box with small magnets attached to the bottom next to the coffee. The Crewman lingered, as if debating whether to say something.
"Shall I get you a new uniform from the replicator, sir?"
David didn't reply. his face was buried in his coffee mug. Apparently struggling with his clothing had been thirsty work. A little pang of envy passed through Elizabeth as she listened to the thick, noisy gulps, which made it quite clear that, unlike her own plain black coffee, her husband's was packed with cream and sugar, two luxuries absent from the Hippolyta's food rations, but available in abundant supply on the Dionysus.
"Be quick about it," David snapped to Crewman Scott, wiping frothy cream from his lip. "And find me Stockford. We need to get this issue with the laundry bots sorted pronto."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, only to shut it again as her husband turned his attention to his snack box. She knew perfectly well that anything said to David while he was focused on food was liable go in one ear and straight out of the other. And so she simply watched, with rising eyebrows, as her husband fought to prize open the lid of the container.
"Stupid.. gghh.. thing!" he grunted, turning it one way and grimacing.
"Try the corner, dearest," Elizabeth lilted, trying to keep the mirth out of her voice.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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