"That's one of the crew's quarters," Sara Jane said as Maybell looked around the room. "They're all pretty much the same."

"Which one does your crewman use?" Maybell asked, figuring she knew what the answer would be.

Sara Jane's smile confirmed Maybell's guess. "None of'em! She bunks with me!"

Maybell tried to stare down Sara Jane, whose smile only grew. "You are such a whore," Maybell said.

To that, Sara Jane whinnied, throwing her bleached white mane about. As Maybell rolled her eyes, Sara Jane furthered the confrontation.

"I used to be your whore, Bitch!"

Maybell only nodded, wearing a small grin.

"That got you to smile, at least," Sara Jane teased. "And you should be happy, what with my top-notch hooch in you."

"I'm always happy," Maybell said in a monotone voice as she walked towards the captain's quarters.

Sara Jane snorted on contempt, watching Maybell try the door to the quarters. Finding it locked, she punched a half-dozen key codes into the security pad. Her hands moved so fast that Sara Jane scarcely realized what was happening.

"What are you doing?" she asked, despite the obvious.

"I'm opening the door," Maybell replied as a matter of fact, trying another half-dozen codes.

Sara Jane stood with her arms akimbo, staring over Maybell's shoulder. "Well, I do know what the code is. You're gonna engage the lock-out."

"Nah. These things got overrides."

Sara Jane put a hand on Maybell to paw her out of the way. "Knock it off. Let me do it."

Just then, the door swung open. "I got it," Maybell said with pleasant dispassion.

Sara Jane used the hand she had on Maybell to shove her into the room. "I don't know how you do that…" she began.

"I know you," Maybell said over Sara Jane, squelching her commanding tone.

Sara Jane's tone continued. "Here's what I think you should see."

She threw open a door at the far end of her quarters. Maybell peered in from behind the hulking body of her friend, tucking her hands into her chaps and letting out a long whistle. Sara Jane stepped aside, to leave Maybell standing in the doorway of a luxurious Japanese bath. The walls were covered with faux Venetian marble, rich and dark and inviting. Indirect lighting made the room glow warm and kept it shadow-free, assisted by a mirror running the full length of one wall, set above two sinks.

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"Double sinks?" Maybell asked, surveying the room. "Where does the other door lead to?"

"To the other officer's suite!" Sara Jane boomed. "Your suite, Baby!"

With a gentle shove from a giant hand, Sara Jane helped Maybell enter. A narrow walkway separated the recessed bathing area from the rest of the room. On one end of the walkway was a glassed-in shower, complete with a bench and a handheld showerhead. Around the bath other way sat a bowl filled with spacefruit rations.

Next to the bowl sat a fey young wisp of a thing in a skintight, one-piece thermal suit, her bare feet dangling over the ledge of the bath. Of Celtic descendent, she appeared to be all human, with hair more fiery red than Maybell's. What the woman lacked in muscle tone she made up for in sinew, which writhed like steel cables under her skin as she idly swung her legs.

"Maybell, I'd like you to meet Kelles."

Maybell seemed frozen in place, until Sara Jane provided another helpful shove.

"Hi," Maybell managed, as her eyes followed Kelles' legs down the two steps leading into the tub.

"And Kelles, this is my best friend and our first officer, Maybell."

Kelles lowered her head to show Maybell respect. Below her on the floor of the bath, an oak bucket with a rope handle sat upon a stool. An assortment of bottled soaps and lotions filled the bucket, as did two wooden scrub brushes.

Maybell spoke to no one in particular. "I see controls for the hot and cold water, but I don't see any faucet."

"Mmm-hmm," Sara Jane confirmed. "Kelles, you wanna turn on the water?"

Kelles reached down near her shins on both sides, turning two knobs. Doing so activated another source of indirect light, which shone on the bathing area from a port high above in the ceiling. Also from the port, a hundred streams of water fell like rain into the tub.

Maybell needed no further shoves from Sara Jane. She walked to the edge of the first step leading into the bath, and looked up to watch the water fall.

"Can you launch this ship alone?" Maybell asked Sara Jane while staring at the ceiling.

Sara Jane whinnied in the affirmative. "Got the codes keyed in! We can go space-side right now!"

Maybell tossed her cowboy hat into one of the sinks behind her, descending into the rain while undressing. As her chaps and skivvies flew toward her hat, she tossed her access cards to Sara Jane.

"Have Gavin transfer my stuff to you. Tell him I owe him a roll in the hay when we get back."

Sara Jane shook her mane. She neighed and whinnied with delight, stomping her foot as she caught Maybell's cards. Maybell removed the brushes from the bucket and handed one to Kelles, keeping the other for herself. She then set the bucket in the water raining down, examining its contents while sitting on the stool.

She paused for a moment to look at Sara Jane. "Also give Gavin fifty cred for his troubles. He's a good man on Beta-Prime."

Sara Jane actually managed to make a human-sounding snort. "Already giving orders, and on my own ship no less. Ain't ya, Bitch?"

"You know it," Maybell said with distraction while picking through the bucket. Choosing a tube of soap, she looked up at Kelles, who was looking down in kind. "Are you good at taking orders?" Maybell asked, handing up her choice from the bucket.

"Yes Sir, Ma'am," Kelles said to the naked woman seated beneath her.

In the silence that followed, Maybell's scowl grew, convincing Kelles of the need to choose a different endearment.

"Bitch," she chose to say.

Sara Jane neighed and whinnied and laughed, clomping her boots on the floor as she walked away.