Daughters of Demeter

Fortunately Rebecca approved of my and Jenny's initiative. If we hadn't found a cargo she'd have been looking for one herself, so we saved her the trouble. Which meant she was able to spend our last day of shore leave with her old friend, who was on her second day off from the shipyard.

Sarah and I took care of the cargo when it arrived, we got it loaded and secured off to one side of the main hold, then the two of us took the grav-sled out into the city. We invited Cam as well, but the cat-kin decided to stay with Jenny and the ship this time. And Rebecca was busy with Tamsin, so Sarah and I got to have some private time together, which was nice.

Our first stop was the Vesfar Urox building, so I could send my message to Nyssa. I congratulated her on starting school and wished her luck with her courses. And without going into any details I also warned her that I might not be able to write her back for a while.

After that Sarah and I did a bit of shopping. Unsurprisingly my mischievous blonde girlfriend wanted to stop by the 'red light district' again, to pick up a few more toys to keep us occupied when we had down-time on the ship. Then we stopped for a nice lunch, before finally heading back to the ship.

It wasn't exactly a date, but it was nice finally getting some time for just the two of us before we had to get back to work again.

After we returned to the ship Rebecca let us know she'd be off-ship for dinner, so the rest of us could do our own thing. The boss promised she'd be back before it got too late, then she and Tamsin got in the grav-sled and headed off.

Cam Sarah Jenny and I agreed to stay in for a quiet relaxing night on the ship. I made us a nice dinner, then true to her word Rebecca was back just as the sun was starting to set.

The captain was alone, having dropped Tamsin off at her apartment. And with that our time on Rolandan-2 came to an end. The ship was sealed and the grav-sled stowed, then we began making preparations to lift off as night settled on the spaceport.

By that point the six-day jump from Rolandan to Regulon was fairly routine for all of us, except maybe Cam. Sarah kept the cat-kin busy though, our two mechanics spent the next five days working on an updated version of the ship's schematics. She wanted the new blueprints to include all the upgrades and modifications done to the Demeter over the years, and I had a feeling it was going to take her more than a few days to complete that project.

Speaking of projects, Jenny spent most of the trip working on hers as well. She did most of the work herself, but the AI enlisted Sarah's help on our last day in jump. Her replacement power and data bus was ready to be installed, which meant powering down and partially disassembling her android body.

Cam offered to help with that too, but barely lasted a half hour before fleeing the workshop and joining Rebecca and I in the ship's lounge instead. According to the cat-kin, Jenny's partially-disassembled body was a little too unnerving for them. Rebecca sympathized with that, she didn't want anything to do with 'android surgery' for exactly the same reason.

Speaking of Rebecca, she and I were the only ones who weren't busy for the bulk of the trip. So the two of us spent most of the down-time together, which involved a lot of relaxing and cuddling and petting my floof. Among other things.

Jenny's 'operation' was a complete success so she was able to join Rebecca and I in the cockpit when we came out of jump at Regulon-4. The boss and I were in our normal seats while our AI shipmate sat behind me, and our two mechanics were back in the engine room.

"Why don't you take us down this time?" Rebecca suggested, after we received clearance and a vector from the local port controllers.

I glanced to my right at her and asked, "Are you sure? You keep saying this is a really difficult landing."

The tall strong redhead nodded, "The actual landing can be tricky, but I'll be right here with you. You can pass it back to me at any time. The descent should be fairly easy though, so you can take us down."

"Ok," I nodded slowly as I took the controls and switched my navigation display over to our assigned descent vector.

It actually started out easier than I expected. Since Regulon-4 lacked an atmosphere that was one less variable to deal with, instead of fighting high-altitude wind the only thing I had to contend with was gravity. And that was predictable, unlike weather.

I was still a little uneasy as we descended below the surface and into 'The Crack', but kept my focus on the flight controls and the vector I was following. Things got a whole lot harder as the colony came into view and we had to slow right down to line the Demeter up with the correct landing bay. And like before, the open bay doors looked much too small for our ship.

It felt like the difficulty level had skyrocketed, as I held the Demeter hovering over the kilometers-deep chasm below us while trying to turn the bow towards the colony and side-slip the ship to align it with the waiting landing bay. My eyes were constantly moving between the windows and my displays, and I could feel the tension ramping up across my shoulders and the back of my neck.

"How are you doing Amanda?" Rebecca asked softly. "Would you like me to take it from here?"

"Yes please," I replied immediately, while I kept all my concentration on maintaining the ship's stability.

A moment later she said, "I've got it. You can let go now."

My hands shook slightly as I eased them off the controls, then I let out a long sigh of relief as I sagged back into my chair.

"You did great Amanda," the boss said as she eased the ship forward into the landing bay. "This is one of the most difficult landings, and you got us ninety-percent of the way here."

I knew that last ten percent was a lot harder than the rest of the process, but I still felt my tail wagging a bit at the praise. My cheeks coloured slightly as I replied, "Thanks boss."

A minute or two later we were safely landed, and the bay doors were sliding closed behind us while we went through our checklist. Not long after that we had the engines shut down and the landing bay was pressurized, and we were just about ready to offload the cargo.

"Will I be accompanying you into the facility again captain?" Jenny asked as we all got up from our seats.

The boss replied, "If you like? Amanda I'd like you to accompany me again too. We'll leave Cam and Sarah on the ship."

"Perhaps Sarah would like to go in my place?" the AI offered. As we made our way aft towards the mess she added, "I'd prefer to remain with the Demeter."

Rebecca nodded, "That's fine, you don't have to come along. Sarah do you want to come with me and Amanda? Cam I'd like you to stay on the Demeter with Jenny if you don't mind."

"You mean after all this time I finally get to visit the mining colony?" our blonde girlfriend asked with exaggerated enthusiasm as she and Cam entered the mess from the opposite direction.

I couldn't help smiling, "Prepare to be underwhelmed."

Meanwhile the cat-kin just nodded quietly, accepting the captain's decision. They didn't seem that interested in visiting the facility regardless, so I was sure they were happier staying behind with Jenny.

"You can both prepare by getting your side-arms," Rebecca stated. "Then meet me in the main hold in two minutes."

She added to our other two shipmates, "We shouldn't be long. Two or three hours at most, I think."

"Be careful," Jenny responded. "I'll be monitoring the comms channels."

Unloading the cargo went about the same as it did the last time we visited the mining colony. We opened up the main airlock and lowered the ramp, while the rest of the ship remained sealed off. After a brief wait the large secure cargo doors set in the grey stone wall at the back of the landing bay opened up and a couple dock hands came in with a flatbed grav-sled and grav-assist loaders.

It didn't take long for them to move the three pallets out of our hold and onto their sled. Then one guy drove that back out while the other one hooked up the fuel line to top up the Demeter's tanks.

Once everything was finished we sealed up the ship then Rebecca led Sarah and I out of the landing bay and into the long connecting corridor. Like I remembered, it was all just bare grey stone with conduits pipes and cables bolted directly to the wall or hanging from the ceiling. There was a cargo lift at one end, and a normal lift at the other.

The boss led us to the second one, and that brought us to the 'Promenade' level. She let Sarah know, "This is the main concourse, it's pretty much the only place guests need to visit. There's not much call for a tour, you can basically see everything there is to see from right here."

Our blonde girlfriend nodded slowly as she looked around at the large rectangular space. She commented, "I'm guessing most of the miners here are men? Hence the need for all the ah, adult entertainment venues?"

Rebecca looked like she was trying not to smile as she replied, "I assume women are generally too smart to take up a career as dangerous as zero-atmosphere mining."

"Anyways let's go get paid and take care of the port fees," she added. "Then we'll visit the general store."

That actually went better than it did on our last visit. There were no lengthy delays or hassles this time, Mark was behind the counter again and he recognized Rebecca and I. That didn't stop him from looking us both over, along with Sarah, before he handed the boss our payment for the delivery.

Our visit to the port authority office went just as smoothly. It only took a minute or so for Rebecca to pay the docking fees and the fuel cost, then we were finally ready to take care of our real business on this world.

The boss led Sarah and I in through the doors of the general store, and up to the counter where Doc Linnz was relaxing in his chair. There was no datapad this time, he didn't appear to be watching his 'vids' today. He did seem to be snoozing though, so he didn't notice us approaching until Rebecca slapped her hand loudly on the counter in front of him.

Linnz flinched and his eyes snapped open as he demanded in his thick accent, "What! What is it?!"

Almost immediately his expression shifted from irritated alarm into a wide smile. He almost jumped to his feet and stood across the counter from us as he exclaimed, "Piper! You're back! And you've brought two of your beautiful crew to see me again! Amanda it's lovely to see you! And who is this other beauty? I'm a lucky man to have such visions come all this way just to see me!"

"Sarah this is Doc Linnz," Rebecca did the introductions. "And Doc, Sarah's my engineer."

Our girlfriend smiled, "Hello Doc, nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you!" he laughed. Then he became more serious again as he looked to the boss, "I assume you've returned to continue our conversation from last time?"

Rebecca nodded, "I have a case of that fancy Charentais stuff. I need to deliver it to Fuminja Epsilon, ideally to Dr. Kelsonian herself."

Linnz sighed and ran a hand from his forehead over his head through his hair to the back of his neck. He looked torn for a few seconds as he rubbed the back of his neck, then finally asked "It's the real thing? Not some local knock-off? That couldn't have been cheap."

"It wasn't," the boss replied. "You said if I got the booze you'd get me access."

The middle-aged man sighed, "Yes my friend, I can. I've sourced cases of Charentais XXO for her in the past, when she's requested it. I can tell her I've come across some at a price I couldn't pass up, and thought she might appreciate the bargain."

"I assume you'll want to recover at least some of your investment," he added, "So I'll instruct her to have payment there for you when you arrive."

Rebecca nodded, "Sounds good. So you send the message, then we make the delivery? Or do we need to wait until some sort of confirmation from you first?"

Linnz hesitated, "Are you ready to do this now? Dr. Kelsonian is not the sort of woman to wait for a courier using Jump-0."

"We need to put in at Ecclestone's World for supplies first," Rebecca stated. "We can use level-one jump there, then another Jump-1 to the Fuminja Cluster, but we're going to need a couple days in the meantime."

Doc rubbed the back of his neck again before nodding, "I can work with that. I can say I have a line on the case but it's not in my possession yet. I'll say I have some strings to pull, but there will still be a clock running. Do you want me to make the call?"

The boss looked at me and Sarah for input, so I nodded quietly. The cute blonde shrugged, "It's your call boss. Whatever happens, I'm with you all the way."

"Thanks," Rebecca smiled. "Both of you."

She turned towards Linnz again and said, "Do it. If you can swing it, ten days would be good. But let's say, four days is the quickest we can do."

"Ok my friend," Linnz sighed. "Go and browse or something, give me a few minutes."

The boss smiled and motioned for Sarah and I to follow her. We ended up wandering up and and down the aisles of the store, but I couldn't help keeping one ear directed at the front counter. Unfortunately there wasn't much for me to hear. Doc Linnz pulled out his datapad and tapped out a message, which I assumed had some sort of link to an FTL transmitter.

After a few minutes of browsing he called for the three of us to come up to the counter again, where he was still holding the pad. "Dr. Kelsonian has agreed to accept the case, but she requires delivery in five days. She said if you can't get there by then, she's not interested. And she agreed to pay four bars for the case, which I'm sure is less than you paid, but again it was the best I could do."

"Good enough," Rebecca replied. "Thanks Doc. What do I owe you for all your help?"

Linnz sighed once more and shook his head, "Keep your ecks. I don't know what you're up to, and I don't want to know. Just promise me you'll be careful, ok Piper? I've met a lot of people in my time, and I can tell you're one of the good ones."

"Thanks Doc," the boss gave him a grim smile. "I'll do my best."

He nodded, then looked to me and Sarah and added "You two look after your boss! And your other friend, Jenny was it? Look after yourselves! Beauty such as yours should be protected!"

"Don't worry Doc," our cute blonde girlfriend responded with a grin. "We'll be watching the captain's back. And her front, and sides too."

That got a laugh out of the old man. Then he gave us all a look, "Aha! Now I understand! You're more than just crew, aren't you! You are all very lucky, let me tell you!"

Rebecca just rolled her eyes and smiled as she gestured, "Amanda, Sarah? Seems like we're on a deadline, so we'd better get moving."