Daughters of Demeter

"What if they notice the broken seals on one of the containers?" I asked as I gathered up the dishes from breakfast.

Rebecca shrugged, "I've patched it as best I can, I think it'll pass a cursory examination. With a little luck, they won't notice the seal's broken until they go to open the container themselves. By then we'll already be on our way."

She continued, "We're going to change things up a little this time, just in case. We'll visit Fuminja Beta first and top up the fuel tanks, so as soon as we've made the delivery at Fuminja Epsilon we can get out of the system."

By that point I was already cleaning the pans and the rest of the galley, but I nodded "Good idea."

"Sarah," the captain asked as she looked to my girlfriend, "You said you can manually operate the ramp right? I'll want you with me down in the main hold. We'll be armed this time, but not visibly. Tuck your side-arm under a jacket or something, and we'll have a shotgun and carbine out of sight down there too. We're not taking any more chances."

"Yes boss," Sarah replied as she had a sip of her coffee. "As I recall the external docking gantries they have there aren't very sturdy. The shell probably won't even stand up to an HDLI round. It's not going to take much to cause a decompression."

Rebecca agreed, "We'll keep that in mind."

"Like I said before," she added, "I think this delivery will go like usual. Lebeau won't have told them anything, he's probably waiting for them to tell him we're overdue. So we make the delivery, pick up the next shipment, and be on our way. The shit won't hit the fan until they've sent him an FTL saying the one container was tampered with and both secret compartments were empty. With any luck we'll be long gone by then."

Sarah asked, "We're heading straight to Mel's shipyard after this, right?"

"When we leave Fuminja we'll set out at Jump-0 for the mining colony," the captain decided. "Just in case anyone's tracking us, it'll look like we're following our usual route. It might not work, but with luck they'll be expecting us to show up at Regulon-4 after a dozen days in transit. And as soon as we're under way, we'll get your fancy scanner and have a close look at the cargo. Make sure there's no more bombs or anything."

I grimaced at that thought, but I was glad she wasn't taking any chances. I asked, "How long will we spend en route to Regulon-4?"

Rebecca shrugged, "A few hours? We won't waste too much time, just till we're well clear of Fuminja. Then we'll drop Jump-0 and set course for a level one jump to Rolandan-2. We should be at Mel's shipyard in time for dinner tonight."

Once I had everything cleaned up from breakfast I got myself another cup of coffee then sat back down next to Sarah. I was just getting comfortable when Jenny came around the corner from the aft corridor, and all three of us turned to stare for a few moments.

I was positive she was using her HPD, but she looked like her android body. She was a bit shorter, a lot curvier, her face matched the android, and so did her hair. Except instead of pink or light purple, the fringe on her hair was white.

The other difference was her clothes, which I didn't recognize from either her normal holographic image or from the outfits I'd seen her android wear. She was now in a knee-length black skirt and a light grey sleeveless blouse. The black sandals on her feet were the only familiar things on her, they looked like the ones she wore yesterday during the tests.

She moved to her usual seat and settled into it as she greeted us, "Good morning. Sorry I'm late, I've been monitoring the conversation through the intercom so I'm already aware of the plans for our visit to the Fuminja Cluster."

The captain responded first, "Good morning Jenny. What does the white fringe mean?"

Our AI crewmate smiled slightly, "White is when I'm using the HPD."

"You changed your normal appearance?" I asked. "I thought the idea was to make the android look like you?"

She grimaced, "Originally yes. Between the time constraints and after having worked on other aspects of the chassis, I've decided that's not a practical solution. Much easier to change my virtual appearance to match that of my new body."

Sarah pointed out, "Pretty much the same as the three of us right?"

"Indeed," Jenny agreed. "So this is the new me. Whether a hologram or an android, or even within my capsule through the neural link, this is how I look from now on."

I asked, "Are you going to be ok? How are you adjusting?"

"I'm fine Amanda, thank you for asking. I have the advantage in this case, that it's not too difficult to change my own software. No adjustment period necessary," she explained.

"Good to know," Rebecca acknowledged. Then she drained her coffee before getting back to business, "While we're at Fuminja I'd like you watching the sensors and monitoring comm frequencies Jenny. Sarah, you'll be with me down in the main hold. Amanda, you'll be in the cockpit handling the pilot duties."

"You want me to fly the ship through the asteroids?" I gulped.

She stated, "I know you can handle it. You'll do fine."

I wasn't so confident, but I nodded slowly. "What if things go bad during the delivery?"

The captain replied, "Jenny if you detect a pressure drop, close the main airlock as fast as you can. Amanda, you can listen in on things through the intercom. If it turns into a fight, get us the hell out of there. Break their docking clamps if you have to, the Demeter's got more than enough power."

"Ok..." I grimaced.

With all our plans set, Rebecca got to her feet. She glanced at Sarah and said, "Time for you and I to get dressed and armed."

Then she looked at me and added, "You can stay casual if you want Amanda, since you'll be in the cockpit the whole time."

"You need to maintain your reputation of facing danger without any pants on," my girlfriend stated with a grin. That turned into a smirk as she teased, "Or lose the nightshirt and work on your other reputation of flying naked?"

I felt my cheeks burning, and the grin on our captain's face didn't help any. Even Jenny seemed amused rather than uncomfortable. I finally grumbled, "Shouldn't you two be getting ready?"

Sarah giggled as she got to her feet, then she and Rebecca headed forward to get dressed.

"Shall we head to the cockpit?" Jenny asked once we were alone.

I was still blushing as I nodded and stood up. She followed quietly as I made my way past the cabins. I unsealed the cockpit doors, then when I entered I avoided looking at the patched window for now. I took my seat and strapped myself in, then checked over the displays while Jenny sat at the engineering station.

A couple minutes later Rebecca joined us. She didn't bother taking her seat since all the controls on that side of the cockpit were offline. Instead she just stood behind the pilot seat, where she could keep an eye on what I was doing and out the windows.

On schedule the ship dropped from Jump-0 and we found ourselves on the edge of the Fuminja system. The captain let me handle everything, though she gave me some guidance when I wasn't sure what to do. And she was encouraging, with positive comments now and then.

For the most part it was fairly routine, like last time our approach brought us in above the orbital plane so I didn't have to fly through the asteroid belt until we were nearly there.

With my attention on flying the ship, Rebecca moved closer and leaned past me to take care of the communications duties. She got us a vector into the port, and I had my sensor screen set to her preset for this system.

My heart-rate seemed to double when the course brought us down into the asteroid belt. It wasn't all that different from the last time we were here, except this time I was the one flying the ship. I was tense and anxious, and I kept one eye on the windows and the other on the sensor screen.

Above and beyond flying through an asteroid field, the other source of stress was I'd never docked or landed the ship before. The boss was still there standing next to me though, and she calmly talked me through both the asteroids and the docking procedure.

By the time the ship was securely docked at Fuminja Beta my hands were sweaty and my fingers ached from gripping the controls so tightly, but I'd done it. The ship was safely docked, the engines at idle, and I could relax for a little while. At least until it was time to rendezvous with Fuminja Epsilon, which would add its own level of stress ontop of flying through asteroids and docking the ship again.

"Good job Amanda," the boss said as she gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Keep alert, but otherwise you can take it easy while me and Sarah handle the refuelling."

"Thanks boss," I sighed as I slumped a little in my seat.

Rebecca headed aft, and she sealed the cockpit doors behind her as she left.

Jenny had been quiet for most of the approach, but she finally spoke up. "I agree with Rebecca, you did very well Amanda."

I thanked her as well, and asked "You're monitoring things in the hold?"

"Yes," she replied. "If you like I can patch the intercom through so you can listen in? You can watch on the monitor too, I can patch the main hold's camera through."

"Ok," I nodded.

The sensor display in front of me switched to a wide-angle view of the main cargo hold, while the intercom speaker came to life. Sarah was visible on the monitor, she was sitting on a small crate next to the airlock controls. She had the control panel open and some wires were trailing out of it, she had some small tools in hand as she was working on something.

Meanwhile Rebecca came into view, carrying a carbine in one hand. She loaded a full magazine into it then cycled the action once, before setting the weapon out of sight on a shelf on the left. Then she moved across to stand next to Sarah, and produced a shotgun from a hidden spot on the shelf above my girlfriend's head. The captain checked that it was loaded, then tucked it away again.

Finally she told Sarah, "If you're ready open it up."

"Aye-aye boss," my girlfriend replied. She was fiddling with wires instead of pushing buttons, but I saw the main airlock doors start sliding open while the ramp began moving very slowly.

The ramp took more than twice as long as usual to fully open, and by the time it was down there were a couple dock workers looking impatient as they waited outside the ship.

The audio was a bit muffled but it sounded like the captain apologized for the delay. She handed over some cash to pay for the docking fees and fuel, and that was about it. The refuelling process happened outside the ship, an automated fueling arm connected with a fuel terminal on the port side of the Demeter.

The whole process was actually fairly boring, but I was glad for that. Rebecca and Sarah were both sort of chilling down in the hold while me and Jenny watched and waited in the cockpit. It took almost an hour to get our tanks up to a hundred percent, then Rebecca exchanged words with a dockhand. And finally she gave Sarah the order to seal up the ship.

Raising the ramp was even slower than lowering it. The cargo airlock doors were closed while the ramp was only a quarter of the way up. Meanwhile Rebecca left Sarah working alone in the hold while the captain came back up to the main deck to join Jenny and myself in the cockpit.

"We're all done here," the boss told us as she stood behind the pilot seat. "Get us clearance and a vector to Epsilon, then let's get moving."

Jenny cautioned, "The cargo ramp isn't fully raised yet Captain."

Rebecca nodded, "I know, but the airlock's sealed. Consider this a test run, because as soon as we've made the exchange at the research lab I want to be out of there ASAP. We'll button up the ramp while we're under way."

I grimaced but nodded, while Jenny handled the comms.

As soon as we got clearance we disengaged the docking clamps and I carefully backed us away from the port. My display was back in sensor mode again, and I carefully brought the ship about then followed the vector up and away from the asteroid belt, before arcing back down again on a course for Fuminja Epsilon.

It was a short hop, only about forty-five minutes to get from the port to the private facility. Rebecca had to speak on the comm to get us final docking clearance, then as soon as that was done she headed back down to join Sarah in the hold while I finished docking the ship on my own.

As soon as we were safely parked and the engines were on standby Jenny switched the sensor display back to the hold camera again. The intercom speakers were still live, and we heard Rebecca's voice as she spoke to Sarah.

"We're going to be departing the moment we get clearance," the captain said. "Or sooner if this turns ugly. Either way, be prepared for the ship to move as soon as the cargo airlock is closed. We'll close and seal the ramp under-way."

I couldn't see my girlfriend's face but I recognized from the tone of her voice that she was grimacing as she replied "Yeah I noticed, we left the port before I had the ramp secure."

The ramp was already on its way back down again while the cargo doors opened. The captain moved to watch and wait. When the ramp was finally clear two dock hands were visible waiting in the connecting corridor.

They had a grav-assist cargo sled with them, with a pair of shipping containers on board. I let out a quiet sigh of relief when I saw that, it basically meant this was probably going to be a standard cargo exchange just like the last time we were here.

One of the guys commented about the slow ramp, and Rebecca told him we had some mechanical difficulty. The guys both noted Sarah working on the control panel, so they accepted the explanation then came on board with the cargo.

Jenny and I watched as the two new containers were left in our hold, then I held my breath as they picked up the two we were delivering from Lebeau. Fortunately neither of the men noticed one of the containers had tampered seals, and they turned around and headed back off the ship with the cargo sled in tow.

The moment they were clear Sarah had the ramp start slowly rising, while the main airlock doors began sliding shut. Rebecca stood there just inside the doors watching the dock hands. As soon as the airlock was sealed she headed for the ladderway as she called, "Jenny get us clearance, Amanda get us moving as soon as we're cleared!"