“Stacy?” I asked out loud.

  I was still in the isolation pod. Tratsa had been by to let me know my scans were still coming back all clear, and they were looking to let me out of my tuna can in another hour or so. I was anxious to get out of the cramped quarters for more than one reason, and the biggest one wasn’t even the claustrophobic nature of the thing closing in on me.

  No, it was the thoughts racing through my head.

  “What is it, Tommy-bear? Do you want some more music? Some more help in relaxing?”

  I couldn’t help but smile. She’d been very attentive the whole time I’d been in here. I think that close call with the Ktonshi spooked her almost as much as it did me. My self actualized AI friend had been doing her absolute best to try to find ways to help me relax, which had actually helped at first, but as the initial shock wore off, my nature as an engineer took over and…

  “No, well, actually, maybe something ambient. Nothing too intrusive, okay?”

  “Sure thing Babycakes” she said, and i caught a hint of a low, mysterious ambient tickle the edge of my hearing, hinting at an evening in a rainforest. “That good?”

  “Yup, perfect.” I chuckled. I was pretty sure she pulled it directly from one of my playlist files, it sounded like one of the ones I used for when I was dealing with exam anxiety back in university. “But I wanted to run a couple things by you Stacy, before they peel me out of this tin can.”

  “It’s not made of Tin, Tommy, it’s composite…”

  “It’s an expression, hun.” I chuckled, then took a deep breath. “How much can you do through my implant exactly? I’ve been sensing you’ve held out a bit on its functionality a bit. Just to be clear, I’m not upset if you have. I’m wondering because I’m hoping you might be able to help me with a project.”

  Silence. There were times when Stacy went quiet like this before answering a question, especially if she was unsure how I, or one of the others, would react to the answer, especially after I’d had a heart to heart with her about letting Boudya into my quarters while I was changing. It had occurred to me while stewing in her over the past few hours, that for a being that was essentially a super advanced computer the size of a medium sized asteroid, for her to spend even a minute deep in thought, considering her answer, it was an extremely considerable amount of time for her.

  “You won’t be upset?”

  “I can’t promise I won’t be ticked off at all, but I promise I will try to be the most reasonable Thomas I can be in discussing the matter if it upsets me. Is that sufficient? I really want to see if you can help me with an idea though, so as long as you can’t like, take over my body or anything, I’m sure it’ll be minor”

  “No! Nothing like that!” she hurriedly assured me. “I’d never do that to you Tommy! Even if I discovered the implant allowed that unintentionally, I would never do it without your permission. I’d put a lockout on it!”

  “Thought so. So?”

  “Well, it’s now almost fully connected to your visual cortex as well as your auditory centers, meaning I can fully see what you see, but also, I should be able to integrate a H.U.D. directly into your vision.”

  “Huh.” I responded, thinking about that. “That could be really useful in situations where I don’t have the usual equipment handy. But the info you’d feed me would be rather limited wouldn’t it? Unless you were extrapolating it from external sensor feeds, like say, from the Elegance?”

  “Yes, I could definitely take telemetry from the Elegance and extrapolate it to be meaningful from a Heads Up point of view for you. That would require you to be within a certain range of the ship, otherwise the usefulness of the data I could feed you would be extremely limited.”

  “What about if I were to, say, integrate more in the way of a sensor suite into my EVA suit?” I carefully mused. “It’d be nowhere near as powerful as what the Elegance has available of course, but…”

  A very brief pause, then “Oh, I am fairly certain I could do that!” enthusiasm taking hold of her voice through the pod’s speakers. “I just tested it to see if I could access the suit’s medical telemetry through the implant instead of through the usual comms connection, and I can!”

  “What about controlling any of the suit’s systems?” I asked, “Could you, say, activate the suit’s integrated HUD system?”

  “One moment…” After about a minute, the HUD sprang to life. “Yes! It took a moment to map the connections, but once I did, it was pretty easy. Some of the system configs in your suit are still kind of clunky Tommibear. They require me to do some adapting to giobhioni networking protocols.”

  “We’ll have to work on that, then, if we’re going to do what I’d like to do.” and with that I smiled, “I’m likely going to need the Commander’s permission for this project, however, but I don’t want to be hanging my ass out in the black like that again without someone covering it for me…”

  Stacy seemed to catch on to my idea immediately. “I’ll cover our backside anytime you want Hot Stuff! And I’ll do my best to convince the Commander to allow access to whatever systems you need!”

  Tratsa embraced me as I stepped out of the pod, leaping up onto me and kissing me soundly. “I did not appreciate you worrying me like that Thomas!” she snarled at me, “I’ll be having a word with the Commander about solo EVAs in the future!”

  I smiled at her, my hands moving to support her by cupping her well rounded ass, “Believe me, it wasn’t any more fun on my side, mon doudou”, I told her, mischievously throwing in a french pet name I’d been contemplating using for her for a while. I wasn’t sure if the translator would catch it or not, but if it didn’t, it’d make for some fun.

  I saw her blink when I said it, and open her mouth to comment or ask, but I didn’t give her the chance. I kissed her again to derail her, then said “I have some ideas to help with that issue, cause sure enough I’m likely going to have to do other EVAs, and I want someone watching my back when I do!”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Indeed.” I heard Jophixa’s say, and looked around Tratsa’s head to see her standing not far away, looking at the two of us with a raised eyebrow. “From now on, there will be no solo EVA’s, no matter how minor.” She gave Tratsa and I another pointed look, and coughed, “I’m relieved that there was no sign of the Ktonshi contagion infecting you Thomas. I know you’ll want to get cleaned up and rested, but I still expect you in my office for our debriefing at the usual time.”

  I frowned at her for a moment. Her ears were doing something I hadn’t seen before, they were seemingly held in a casual, neutral position, but I could just make out a twitching motion in multiple directions. The movement was so small I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not. “Yes Ma’am.” I told her. “I’ll be there. I have some things I would like to discuss with you regarding gear for any future operations, with your permission, I’d like to discuss it then.”

  She nodded, then turned and left the shuttle bay.

  I looked back at Tratsa, about to ask about the ears thing, when Boudya stepped into my peripheral vision and asked “You gonna hog him all day Tratsa?”

  For her part, Tratsa let out a ringing laugh that had just a tiny hint of that braying quality that was upfront and unapologetic in Jophixa. I was quite curious if that sound was biological, cultural, or something else, but just couldn’t bring myself to ask.

  Tratsa relaxed her arms from around my neck to indicate I should let her down, and I gave her ass a quick squeeze -earning a throaty laugh in the process- before gently setting her back down on the deck. As soon she stepped back, Boudya’s long, slender arms were wrapped tightly around me, crushing my face into her chest.

  “That was altogether too stressful.” She said, grabbing me by the ears, pulling my head back and kissing me just as enthusiastically as Tratsa had moments before. “I also agree, you have backup out there next time, even if I have to volunteer myself! And I will be joining you in your quarters tonight. No arguments!”

  I felt my eyebrows rise into my hair. “Umm…ok?”

  Both her and Tratsa erupted in laughter and hugged me again. “Face it Thomas, your life isn’t going to be boring anymore.”

  I glanced over in the direction Jo had gone. “Ain’t that the truth.”

  Tratsa and Boudya both said they wanted to help me get cleaned up back in my quarters, but were unfortunately going to be on duty. With our guest, Lt. Giselle Kintzel, still under observation in her own quarantine pod, Tratsa was required to be close to the medical monitors.

  Boudya was committed to a session in engineering with Stacy, running through basic Giobhioni principles in order to help get her up to speed. I remembered how she was about studying back in university, and if she hadn’t changed, she’d rather cut off fingers than skip out on a class. When she left, I had handed her the flight recorder to lock up in engineering, and headed to my quarters.

  And so I was left to get cleaned up on my own, with orders to take some time to decompress before meeting with the commander. I found the solitude strangely a relief. You’d think I’d have had enough solitude while cooped up in the pod, but there was also something to be said about not being crowded in. My quarters might have been larger compared to the other accommodations on the ship, but it wasn’t as enormous. With just myself present, however, it felt luxurious after hours being confined to such a tight space.

  I was ensconced in the lounge I kept placed by the large viewport, dressed only in the casual kimono like robe Tratsa had given me, simply watching the swirling patterns of hyperspace flow by, when Stacy reminded me of the time. “You don’t want to be late for your meeting with the Commander, Tommy-cakes.” she said, jolting me out of my meditating, “Your close call out there put her on edge, and she might just take it out on you.”

  “Yeah, she seemed a bit off earlier.” I said, quickly getting to my feet and hurrying to the built in closet where my clothes were. “Ugg. I don’t suppose this…what was it Tratsa called it again? A ayatsa is appropriate to wear to a meeting of this type with the Commander, is it? It seems like such a waste to put something else on, just to take it off again after the meeting, but Tratsa never said anything about it or whether it was like a human housecoat, only to be worn at home, or if it was acceptable casual wear outside.”

  “The ayatsana is casual clothing that can be worn outside one’s personal abode, yes.” she explained, a slight hint of laughter in her voice, “and since you were off duty before the meeting, the Commander should not get upset about it, by strict regulations. I would advise wearing some pants underneath it however, along with shoes. I love seeing those fine, fine legs of yours any chance I get, but that is a bit too informal for regulations, I’m afraid.”

  “Pants, yes, good call,” I said, pulling out a pair of lightweight black pants that would go well with the base colour of the Ayatsana, then I checked myself in the mirror quickly after slipping them on. I had to admit that the fine embroidery on the ayatsana, stylized to look like ship schematics over a star field background, matched with the black pants, looked pretty sharp. Might even pass for formal wear in certain human cultures.

  Satisfied, I quickly slipped on my ship boots, tidied my hair and beard, and headed for the door. “If Boudya shows up before I get back, go ahead and let her in, okay Stacy?”

  “Sure thing Babykins”

  “Come.”

  When Jophixa’s office door opened, I stepped inside to find her standing at the viewport, staring out at the swirling clouds of hyperspace just as I had been not that long ago. She had her hands clasped behind her back, and was standing with a rigid stillness that I’d never seen in her before. “Reporting for our scheduled debrief Commander.”

  “Good.” She responded, not moving from her place at the viewport, “For a moment there I thought you were going to be late. Please have a seat, the niktcha has already been prepared, and the graptak should be well steeped.”

  “Thank you ma’am.” I said, taking the usual seat on the outside of her desk. “I wanted to get right to it, with your permission Ma’am, regarding the issue of backup on any future extravehicular activities. As I said in the shuttle bay, I have an idea regarding that, and even have some initial proposals written out. It will make sure I, at least, will always have back up on such excursions.”

  “Oh? I take it this proposal will in some way involve Stacy?”

  I hesitated. The inflection in her voice was odd, just like her body language, and was worrying the hell out of me. What was going on? “Yes Ma’am. Stacy and I ran a couple of tests while I was in the pod, and it seems that with this implant she designed and arranged to get into my head, she can patch into nearby devices - directly through it. She doesn’t need to bounce through the comms of the Elegance. I think that if I were to add to, and increase the resolution of, my EVA suit’s sensor suite, she’d be able to be right there with me, with a full spherical view. If I were to add some kind of a small arms weapons turret system on a back mount, she could cover my back whenever I’m off ship.”

  “Hmm.” the odd tone in her voice had lessened some. “And with Stacy’s computing power, she’s unlikely to be distracted, even if she appears to be distracted by flirting with you.”

  “Yes Ma’am. Though we discussed that. We know that in situations like that it should be one hundred percent professional. She has promised to leave the flirting ‘at home’ so to speak, just as she has been while I’m on duty.”

  I could see her nod her head, though she still hadn’t turned to look at me. “Commander? Is something wrong?”

  “Wrong? Not at all Mister…” she had finally turned around while she was speaking, and stopped cold when she saw me, eyes going wide for a moment, then blinking hard.

  “Commander?”

  Her mouth moved a couple times as if she were about to say something, but decided against it, before finally saying “Thomas, what are you wearing?”

  I glanced down at myself. “Umm, an ayatsana Ma’am?” I told her, feeling bewildered at her reaction, “Tzaki Tratsa had it made for me for casual wear. I’d already gotten comfortable in it in my quarters and was loath to change. I asked Stacy if it would be objectionable for me to just wear it to our meeting, and she said it’d be ok - though she did make sure to mention pants would be required. Why? Am I wearing it wrong? Or did Stacy misinform me? Stacy! If you…”

  Jophixa raised a hand to halt me before I went further, “No, she didn’t misinform you. It’s fine, it was just - unexpected.” She took a minute to give me a good looking over, “And no, you’re wearing it right. Looks good on you, I… Oh fuck it!” And with that, she hurried over to me, and threw her arms around me and hugged me with a strength that anyone that did not know her would have been shocked by.

  I was still shocked, however, just not by the rib cracking strength of her hug. No, I was taken aback by the sheer emotional strength behind the embrace. Not only were her short arms doing their best to desperately crush me, but he was pressing her face into my chest with a fierceness that left me startled. I had seen Jo direct many emotions at me, anger, frustration, disappointment, disgust, wariness, but never this. What even was this? Desperate worry?

  Hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around her in return and just sat there for a moment before saying “I’m okay Jo, I’m still here, I’m safe. And we’ll make sure we take precautions for next time so whoever goes out has someone watching their back.”

  Finally, she looked up at me. “Thomas. It’s been a long time since I’ve worried that much about someone under my command. Certainly not someone who was a friend.”

  “Hey,” I told her, bring a hand up to muss up her hair, feeling the stubble of growth where she usually had it shaved at the sides. “I understand”

  Pulling away from me, she gave me a look that said clearly she didn’t think I did understand, but then it morphed quickly into annoyance as her hands went to her hair. “Void damn it Thomas. You are lucky I have a brush in here, or I would have to beat your ass for that! If I leave this office looking like this, the crew will make assumptions.”

  Blinking at her, stammered out “W-what? No they wouldn’t!”

  She shot me another disgusted look and shook her head. “Sure. Tell yourself that. Now, tell me about your plans for this weapons platform for your suit.”

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