Chapter One
Davies
“Spacedock Alpha Tango Delta Fiver to Min-VesPalmarian Rubayne. Confirm approaching speed neutral drift, and set your docking beacon to axis Whiskey Delta 3. Over.”
I confirm our incoming drift velocity before I punch in the beacon’s frequency. “Spacedock Alpha Tango Delta Fiver, this is Min-VesPalmarian Rubayne. Confirmed, docking beacon set to axis Whiskey Delta 3. Approaching speed neutral drift on axis. Over.”
“Min-VesPalmarian Rubayne, we will commence final tractor engagement approach on your mark from five, over.”
“Confirmed. Please hold for my mark, over.” I walk the stylus in my hand from finger to finger as I sweep through the docking settings on my nav panel one last time. Then I engage my nav docking lockout of everything except comms, life support, and shield systems, and set my bridge master nav panel override lockout so some dumbass in the first shift doesn’t fuck with it because they don’t bother to pay attention or even scan the logs to see we’ve docked. Lastly, I check everything once more for luck.
I’m not really superstitious, but I also believe in not screwing with what’s been successfully working for me during my entire career.
Here we go.“Min-VesPalmarian Rubayneready for final tractor engagement approach and docking. Prepare for my mark.” I tap the stylus in my hand on the console in time with my words. “Commence in five…four…three…two…one…mark.”
I feel the subtle jolt that I know none of the other dipshits on board, except maybe McMurtry down in Engineering, will ever even notice, even if they were awake.
My panel’s green all the way across, so I sit back and wait. I don’t have much to do from now until the end of my shift, except maybe jerk off. We’ll be another hour, at least, before they have us secured in a berth on the Maxim Colonies space station in orbit around Pfahrn. Right now, I have the conn because I’m the only one awake and it’s not like they need anyone else for this unless I have to scramble the crew for awe’re gonna diekind of emergency.
Jerking off sounds like a great idea, actually. I tuck the stylus behind my ear to keep it out of the way. I don’t want to lose it because it’s my lucky stylus.
Yes, I know that sounds cheesy. Especially when I have ten more of them tucked into one of my storage totes. My theory is if I have extras, then I won’t losethisone.
My hand’s already working its way inside the waistband of my trousers when the intercom chirps.
Engineering.
Figures. I hit the button. “Goddammit, McMurtry,” I lightly say. “Don’t you ever farking sleep?” I should have known he’d wake up.
There’s always a slight burble in his speech as his translator kicks in. “We in tractor?”
“Yes, we’re in the tractor.”
“Okay. Everything else good?”
“Yeah, everything else is good. Go back to sleep.”
He burbles something at me I think might have been an insult, but the intercom connection cuts off from his end before I can totally make it out.
McMurtry could’ve checked his control panel to see what was going on for himself. Sometimes, I think the ornery Onyx likes to fuck with me and annoy me for funsies. Just like I think sometimes he deliberately fucks up his Standard when he’s talking to me, to make me laugh or get a reaction out of me.
He’s got a top-notch translator augmentation, for chrissake.
That’s okay. He’s good at his job, and it’s not like I’m fucking him.
Anymore.
That was a little over a year ago, not long after I first joined this crew.
Hey, don’t judge. We were both horny and drunk, he gave good head, and could do amazing things with that prehensile tail of his. I was never really sure if what I did worked for him or not, but we hooked up off and on for about three weeks. It was a pretty dreary shore-leave because of dry dock repairs, and adequate pickings at that particular far-flung station were slim for both of us.
I regret nothing.
Except that night with the Carmidian barmaid a couple of years back. Not because of anything she did, but because I think she was sort of sweet on me by the time we finished, while I was only interested in the one time with her.
Mostly because I didn’t realize she was asheuntil we were midway through our tryst, and even I’m not rude enough to leave someone hanging if I start something with them. I regret it if she got the wrong impression about me.
Plus, I was very,verydrunk. Normally, I’d only go for a male, except…
