13 Degrees of Separation (7 page)

<===^===>

Mindy's mother Clarissa, chief of medicine on the ship
impregnated Jennie while in transit to Halced 6. It would be three months
there, hopefully she would be over any morning sickness when she entered the
second trimester. That was if the procedure took, it was their first on the
ship.

Shandra was there for the implantation. “This means you're
stuck on the ship until you pop,” Shandra teased. “No going out EVA or playing
around with anything radioactive while my bun is in your oven lady,” she said,
patting Jennie's tummy. Jennie made a face and stuck her tongue out at her
partner. “I'll have me some of that,” Shandra said, leaning over to French kiss
her partner.

“Mom, are you sure this is going to work?” Mindy asked,
looking at Jennie.

“The synthetic biology papers all say so. It's just a
matter of fusing one X gene from each parent and then inserting them into the
nucleus of an embryo. We've done that silly, it's already subdividing,” she
said, holding up the syringe with the embryo floating within.

“Wow!” Mindy said, eyes wide. “So, you really are an Oma,”
she said, looking at Shandra.

“Not yet but I'm looking forward to being one,” Shandra
said with a smile. She kept her eyes on her partner as the doctor finished the
procedure. Shandra stroked Jennie's face, eyes locked together.

“Ahem, it's done,” Clarissa said. “So you can get your legs
out of the stirrups and go back to duty or whatever,” she said, waving her free
hand as she checked over the notes on a tablet.

“Really? That's it? I feel robbed,” Jennie said, smirking.
Shandra chuckled.

“You'll be singing quite a different tune when the morning
sickness kicks in,” Clarissa said, smirking.

“Yeah, so not looking forward to that,” Jennie said. “I
still don't see why I'm the mother and you get to stay all trim,” she grumbled,
pulling her legs out of the stirrups and then setting her bare feet down on the
cold floor.

“Because my dear, I get sick and it effects the entire
ship. There are only so many helmsman to go around. Whereas with you,” Shandra
smirked as her partner went to get changed behind a screen. “Spoil sport,” she
teased. Jennie turned and stuck her tongue out at her once more. Mindy
snickered.

“Where as you my dear are one of a couple of hundred
engineers. Easily replaceable. I bet if we threw a rock they'd multiply all by
themselves,” Shandra said, winking at the teenage nurse and her mother.

“More than likely they'd build a catapult and throw the
rock back,” Clarissa replied absently.

Jennie came out dressed in her uniform and poked Shandra.
“Agreed. Okay, I'm ready. Time to get back to work,” she said, smiling. “Am I
glowing yet?”

“I don't know, I don't know if we got that gene sequence
right,” Mindy said thoughtfully. All three women turned to her. She shrugged
and then turned away. “We'll see won't we?”

“She didn't.”

“She better not of,” Clarissa growled. They heard Mindy
giggling. Clarissa shook her head and waved the two out.

Halced 6:

With holds half full they settled into Halced orbit and
opened their radio net to begin trading. They were met with surly responses to
their overtures to trade for their new manufactured goods. The locals preferred
to keep from becoming too dependent on passing traders. They wanted to make do
with what they had as much as possible.

The planet had been settled by a corporation that had been
into genetic engineering projects. It had been an off shoot of Lagroose
industries at one point, which had settled Eden in the Pyrax system. Their
ancestors had reverse engineered dinosaurs and had populated the planet with
them once it had been terraformed ages ago.

Dinosaurs and other resurrected or constructed species were
sometimes spectacular failures on some worlds, but on Halced 6 the civilian
authorities had taken a more conservative approach with management. Geneticists
had engineered mammoths and other Ice age animals for cold polar climates, but
also racing dinosaurs to create a sporting interest in the sector. Therapods
had been created as racers only, not generic mounts for public use. Also Skybax
fliers had been engineered for air racing, and water dinos for water racing.

Before the great fall the population had used nanites and
neural implants to connect to the beasts. Some had organic computers that were
passed down through generations. Most went wild after the fall. Some of the
domestic dinosaurs remained, they were bred and used as transport as well as
for running mail. In the past century as the hand to mouth situation had
finally relaxed the population had brought back old racing tracks and raced.

The crew went to the track and watched a relay race. It was
a complex affair, the natives had to pass through hoops in the air and on the
ground, each transition they had to pass a baton to the next on ground or in
air, and then finally water. Mindy and Dorah Dita cheered wildly when the polka
dotted dinosaur team they had fallen in love with won.

Faith picked up six new crew members. For the first time
none were human female, two were young men, one was a Gashg botanist, and three
were Veraxin. One of the men had been practically shanghaied by his lover, a
member of the engineering crew. She had put quite an effort into seducing him
into coming on board. Faith had talked the Captain into allowing it, if they
hadn't the young woman and her lesbian lover had made it clear they would both
leave the ship. That had opened the flood gates for the others to join the
ship's company. It would be a new experience for the crew. Since most of the
new members were dirt siders not spacers, a new experience for them as well.
“There's no telling where this may lead,” the Captain said, watching Prudence
lead her reluctant male lover down the boarding ramp of the shuttle and into
the boat bay. They were met by Evilan who gave Prue a deep kiss, then turned
and kissed Troy. The girls were all over the young man, making a few of the
watching girls giggle, and a few simper in jealousy.

“That's enough of that, this is a ship not a love boat.
Take it to your quarters,” the Captain called gruffly.

“We intend to Skipper,” Prue said, grinning as she kept
hold of Troy. The Captain snorted as Evilan felt the young lad up, making him
squirm and both girls giggle. Then they goosed him into motion. He was getting
a bit flustered as they passed, Evilan's attention and naughty whispers had him
bent over a bit. The other girls giggled at his expense.

“It's soo big!” One girl tittered after the trio had left
the compartment.

“I heard Prue had to use those metal cuff things to
convince him to come. She...” She stopped and cupped a hand to her friend and
whispered something naughty.

The girl stared, stepping back, wide eyed and slack jawed.
“No way!”

The other girl nodded in earnest.

“And he didn't pee in her mouth or anything?”

“No. But it took hours and hours to get him to agree. All
without letting him cum.”

“Not once? Torture??”

“From what I heard he enjoyed it. Or at least stopped
complaining... um.. oh hi Captain!” the girl said brightly, blushing scarlet in
embarrassment. “I um, didn't see you there,” she said.

“Carry on with your duties young ladies. Leave gossip for
later,” the Captain said gruffly. Both girls nodded and scampered off.

“Oh boy. Hope that lad can handle what's ahead of him. I've
got a lot of horny girls apparently,” the Captain murmured. Faith snickered at
her side.

<===^===>

When it came time to leave they did a roll call and came up
one engineering rating short. They had lost one crew member, she had gone on
ground side liberty the first day and hadn't been seen since.

The Captain refused to leave orbit until the young woman
had been found. The local authorities had refused to help, so the XO took a
security detail down to do a search. They located her through her Ident
implants. They found her body in a back alley, she had been mugged and stripped
naked by the homeless in the area. “Grams, from the look of her she's been dead
since the day we arrived.”

“Very well,” the Captain said as the crew got over their
shock and began to mourn. “Bring her home,” she said gruffly.

The young woman's body was given full honors and a spacer's
burial. Her quarters were reassigned to two of the new crew.

“As it always is, new life begins, and an old ends,” the
Captain murmured as they broke orbit for the New Haven jump point.

“You said something Captain?” Faith asked softly. The
Captain waved her off.

New Haven:

When they arrived in New Haven orbit they were unsettled
when they found out the high price for fuel. It was so exorbitantly high the
Captain agreed to let Faith, Jennie, and her engineers build a gas giant
refinery. Jennie however couldn't go EVA so she was stuck overseeing the
operation from the inside.

The star system had a double belt, easy to pick rocks. It
also had a moon in orbit of the planet New Haven. The cargo crew took their
shore leave on planet while the engineers went to work. Some grumbled about the
split, but they knew it was important.

Since the ship didn't buy as much fuel, the crew was amused
by the puzzled reaction on the ground. “What's going on?” Shandra asked,
confused. She'd come a long way as a hyper pilot, she'd grown in confidence as
chief helmswoman on the ship. She made an incredible team with Lessa. She
missed Jennie though, her partner was stuck on the ship, very much pregnant and
very much busy with the refinery project. She'd come down to escape Jennie's
grumbling about swollen feet and aching belly. She was going to have twins,
something they hadn't anticipated. Apparently more than one embryo had been
inserted. Clarissa had neglected to tell them that.

Still, the girls looked good on the ultrasound, and
Clarissa had reported that they had passed all their tests with flying colors.
Now they had to wait while the twins put on weight and then repositioned
themselves for re-entry.

“It's...” Vanessa the Purser closed her eyes. The puzzled
reaction was starting to turn to rancor from the natives. They didn't need the
animosity. “It's like this. It's called economics.”

“I know what economics are,” Shandra said, wrinkling her
nose.

“Right well, we carry a balance of trade where ever we go.
What we buy, what we sell, and the services we perform. Before we didn't do
many services. The balance for the rest was almost even. Sometimes we made a
profit, sometimes not. We can't survive for long if we don't of course.”

“Okay, following so far,” Shandra said as the other spacers
gathered around. She frowned, looking around then shrugged. The negative
climate was starting to affect the spacers, they were clumping together for
mutual support. That was a natural reaction. “Well, when we come, we buy fuel,
food, water, clothes, along with goods to trade at our next stop, or the stop
down the line.”

“Following so far.”

“So think about it. The admiral interjected a few things
that broke up that system. We have replicators now, which can recycle most of
our food and waste. We have supplies we've taken on from raw material, you know
asteroids?”

Shandra nodded. “And that's bad? Somehow I'd think it would
be good!”

“For us,” the Purser said. “But we're not trading for those
things down here now. At least not much, normally just the food and drink we
want that is fresh, or food, lodging, and drinks for the crew when they are on
liberty.”

“Ah.”

“So, the local economy isn't getting the credits. And the
biggest credits come from the fuel we bought. Fuel and water. Take that out of
the economy and everything goes out of kilter.”

“Ah,” Shandra said, now warily watching a pair of locals
talking. “So, without us getting taken by the fuel people we are hurting them.
And they don't like it.”

“We're not playing by the rules,” a woman said.

“Well too bad!” a spacer said angrily. “They've been
hurting us by raising the prices!”

“And those credits go into the pockets and into the local
economy,” Vanessa said, sighing. “I handed out the packages the admiral asked
us to do, that's gotten us some short good will, but I know it's not enough.
Just information isn't enough, people need to see results. They need to see, to
touch things, not just read it on a spread sheet,” she said.

“Barter. Balance of trade,” Shandra said. She looked
around, seeing the sea of angry natives. “Why don't we talk about this in the
hotel,” she murmured, using her hands to guide them away.

“Yeah,” another woman said, not looking happy and doing her
best not to look around. “I so don't like the look of the people around us
now,” she said softly.

That got the Purser and other girls nervous. Quickly they
moved their discussion to the hotel by the space port. “We have to do
something,” Shandra said. “Fix it. Or the next time we come...”

“I'm more worried about the people we've got abroad,”
Vanessa said. “I think I need to call the Captain.”