The long haul ship left orbit and started to go faster. I glanced at Rhubin and thought about reinforcing his body to help with the strain, and I saw that he had a huge smile on his face.
I guess he's enjoying it. I thought and looked at the other two people. Neither the man nor the woman seemed to be bothered by having their bodies weigh six times its normal weight. They were checking readouts and flicking switches with only a little difficulty.
I closed my eyes and only used my Detect Presence technique and saw that they were glowing a little more than normal, and I realized that they were either reinforcing themselves with Presence on purpose or their brains were doing it automatically. After almost twenty minutes, the contents of the ship, including us, caught up to the ship's new speed and the pressure on us lessened.
The blonde woman hit a button. “We're almost at equilibrium.” She said and her voice came out of the speakers above my head. “We should be out of the planet's gravity well in three minutes.”
“Hot damn!” A crackly voice responded out of the speaker by her hand. “We'll really get cooking then!”
“Donny, cut the chatter.” The man in the center chair, the captain, said with his finger on a button.
“Why? This is a blast!” Donny responded.
“We're trying to impress our Order guests.” The captain grumbled.
Donny's laugh sounded harsh from the speaker. “They're paying us for transport, not a show!”
The captain sighed and started to look my way, then changed his mind and kept looking forward. “Just check the cargo when we're in open space.”
“Sure thing, boss!” Donny said.
If he had turned all the way, he would have seen my smile. I thought. The three minutes passed quickly and I no longer felt heavy.
The woman touched the button again. “Equilibrium in three... two... one. Okay, we're all green!”
There were three successive clicks from the speaker by her hand and she nodded.
“Three crew members all respond A-Okay.” She said and hit the strap release on her harness. “Whew! We're finally on our way.”
“How are the jump coordinates shaping up?” The captain asked and released his own harness.
“We've had a solution for the Lagrange point since we entered the system.” The woman said as she hit several buttons and pulled three different levers. “As long as we stay on course, the computer only needs to check the reference points and it won't need to recalculate.”
The captain nodded and touched the button to speak. “All right, everyone. You know the drill. Let's get to work.”
“Is there anything we can help with?” I asked and hit the release on my harness and stood up, then Rhubin did the same.
The woman stood up and came over to us. “It's just a quick sweep to see if we have any stowaways.”
I looked at her with raised eyebrows, and she chuckled.
“You're wondering why we didn't check in port?” She asked, and I nodded. “People can hide just about anywhere. After going through twenty-five minutes of acceleration like that and not being strapped in? Would you be able to hide successfully?”
“Yes.” I said, and it was her turn to look at me with raised eyebrows.
“Enough small talk.” The captain said and walked over to the hatch. “Either sit still or help.”
“We're right behind you.” I said. Plus, it'll be great practice for my Detect Presence technique.
When we reached what I had thought was the lobby the first time I saw it, the central shaft, all of the large metal hatches were open throughout the ship.
“Good god.” I whispered as I looked 'down' the shaft. I didn't see the woman's reaction to my words; but, I did hear her take in a sharp breath.
“Be careful stepping out.” The captain said and held onto a handhold and stepped into the open air and floated there, then he pulled himself along the large double-wide ladder to the 'top' of the ship. The woman told us to start at the middle floors and to work our way back up to the cockpit. She also warned us to not overdo our movements.
“Rhubin's a great pilot.” I said. “I'm sure he's had lots of experience in zero-g.”
“What about you?” The woman asked.
“I'll be fine.” I said to her as I stepped out into the central shaft without holding onto a handhold.
“Hey, wait! You can't...” She stopped talking when I stopped about four feet out and turned around in mid-air to face her. “How are you doing that?!?”
“The Presence and I have been friends for a long time.” I said and held my hand out. “Rhubin? Need a launchpad?”
Rhubin laughed and stepped out as he took my hand, then he turned himself upside down and pushed off towards our designated area to search. I hadn't moved at all and the woman stared at me.
“Ma'am?” I asked and held my hand out to her. “Need a boost?”
The woman stepped forward and took my hand. “My name's Luxea.”
“I'm Ullir.” I shook her hand and her whole body moved with the motion, which made her laugh. “I guess I do have to be careful with some movements.” I said with a smile.
“That would be wise.” Luxea said. “I'm going down to the lowest level.”
“Mind if I walk you down?” I asked, and she chuckled.
“I'll take your offer, just so I can see what you're going to do.” Luxea said and pulled herself in close to whisper. “How old are you?”
“I'm physically sixteen.” I whispered back, and she widened her eyes. “I've had some... bad experiences.”
“I... see.” Luxea said and smiled a little sadly. “Then kind sir, please lead me to my destination.”
I put my arms around her and her face flushed slightly red at my tender touch. I knew some things about manoeuvring in space, mainly from science fiction shows, so I used a little bit of Presence to nudge the back of my feet. Luxea's grip on me tightened as we rotated in place and I pointed our heads 'down' to where we wanted to go.
I was tempted to use the Levitation technique; but, I knew that would be way too powerful with no gravity to counter it, so I used Stealth instead. I smiled as the flow of Presence went down my legs and pushed out through the bottom of my feet, as if I was directing the sound of my footsteps away, and it was enough to give us some good velocity. I stopped using it once we were moving, and her eyes stared into mine.
“H-how are we going to stop?” Luxea asked when we were halfway down the central shaft. She sounded worried, and I smiled at her.
“I'll catch us.” I said.
“How?”
“I'll use the reverse of a child's training technique.” I said. “Instead of grabbing and lifting a ball with Presence, I'll catch and lower it instead.”
Luxea looked at me with confusion.
“We're the ball.” I said.
“Ohhh.”
I chuckled and when we neared the lowest deck, I did just that and 'caught' us and lowered us to the deck.
“That was... I... I don't know what to say!” Luxea exclaimed.
“That was the perfect thing to say.” I said. “What hatch do you want to go to?”
Luxea didn't say anything for a moment, then she pointed to the right.
“I hope you don't find anyone.” I said and carefully turned her around and very lightly pushed her. Luxea floated over to the hatch and grabbed the handhold, then pulled herself into gravity. She quickly turned around and looked at me again, so I smiled and used the Levitation technique and launched myself up the shaft like a rocket.
“By the goddess!” Luxea exclaimed.
I chuckled and used Presence to rotate myself, then used the Levitation technique again to stop my momentum. I floated up to the floor of my designated search area and nudged myself over to the side of the shaft and stepped onto the deck.
Okay, here we go. I thought and closed my eyes. My detection range wasn't much larger than normal; but, I could 'see' all around me and that took some getting used to. If I didn't concentrate hard enough to add the proper colors and shapes to everything, it was like walking inside a wire-frame world. If you weren't careful, you could lose all sense of perspective. I had been doing it for about a decade by this point in time, so my mind had a firm grasp on how things were supposed to look.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I searched three floors at a time and used the available maps on the bulkheads in the central shaft to find my way around. I hadn't been in a large spaceship before, so I knew there were hidden dangers that I needed to be wary of. I was glad that my Detect Presence technique meant that I didn't need to enter any of the rooms to check their contents and that significantly sped up my search. I even had time to enter all of the information into my datapad.
I moved up to every third floor and searched them, which overlapped Rhubin's search, and I quickly made it back up to the cockpit before anyone else. I sat down on the jump seat I had used during the ship's acceleration out of port and patiently waited. It took over an hour for everyone else to make it back up to the cockpit.
“Ullir! There you are!” Rhubin said when he saw me. “What happened to you?”
“I finished searching the ship an hour ago.” I said.
“Ha ha!” Rhubin said. “Such a kidder.”
“I'm not kidding.” I said and held up my datapad with the improvised ship's schematics on it and I marked all the places I had searched. “I didn't find anyone.”
“Let me see that.” The captain said and walked over to me and held out his own datapad. I sent him the necessary files and he quickly scanned them. “Damn, boy!” He said and chuckled. “Where have you been all my life?”
“I was four when The Order killed my parents, kidnapped me, and held me captive on their home planet.” I said and was greeted with complete silence. “Don't worry. It's not a secret or anything.”
Rhubin sighed. “Ullir, you can't just go around spouting these things.”
“Why not?”
“It's a rogue mentality to state things regardless of the consequences, that's why.” The captain said. “Are you a rogue, boy?”
“In the eyes of The Order, yes.” I said, and everyone stared at me. “I'm just being myself, though.”
“Ullir.” Rhubin sighed again.
“It's best to get it out in the open.” I said and stood. “A member of The Order went rogue a year ago and stole something precious to me. I defied the council and left, thankfully before they could initiate me into their organization.” I looked at their shocked faces. “Now I'm on a mission to hunt down a black horned blue-skinned alien bastard called (Undecipherable).”
No one said anything, so I turned and looked at the captain.
“Captain.” I said and saw his surprised face. “We don't have to go to the Shara Nebula like The Order told you to.”
“Oh, thank the Goddess.” Luxea said. “I hate going there!”
“Everyone does.” A woman's voice said and I looked at her. She had her brown hair tied up in a bun on the back of her head and she was the first person I had seen that wore glasses. “Some might even call it a phobia.”
“Are we really going to listen to this guy without any proof?” The young woman with her red hair tied up in a ponytail asked. “If we don't go there, we could be charged with defying The Order!”
I guessed correctly that this was the melodramatic Cassie and smiled. “Rhubin? That's your cue.”
“Oh, no! I've been coerced by a rogue!” Rhubin said in a scared voice that was a perfect copy of how he had said it to me inside the shuttle. After a moment, everyone laughed, even Cassie.
“We should record that.” The captain said with a bark of laughter. “All right.” He turned to his crew. “You all know that going there was a major diversion from our normal shipping route and we were going to suffer a significant delay in our shipping schedule because of it.”
“The compensation The Order offered barely covers the late fees and penalties for not delivering on time.” Luxea said. “I'm all for skipping that part of the journey, especially since we would have to come back here to get the money.”
“I wanted to see the nebula with my own eyes.” Donny said, and the rest of the crew glared at him. He chuckled and held his hands up in surrender. “That's okay. I'll keep my curiosity to myself and vote with you guys.”
“Pussy.” Cassie said and looked at the captain. “I reluctantly have to agree that we won't make any money and we'll lose some reputation with the new clients if we have to pay them to take the shipment they ordered.” She said. “I'll vote with the majority here, Dad.”
Dad? I thought and looked back at the unremarkable man. He was completely generic in every way, so I looked back at Cassie to compare them. She had a nice figure, even in the loose jumpsuit, her face was quite striking and she looked to be about eighteen. “Your mother must have been very beautiful.” I said out loud by mistake and Cassie's face turned bright red.
“She really was.” The captain said and turned to me. “I'm glad someone else besides me can see her in my daughter.” He said and held a hand out to me. “I'm Adurus. People call me Rus.” He said and pointed to his daughter. “That's Cassiopeia.”
“DAD!” Cassie yelled, her face still red. “Not my full name!”
“Sorry, sweety.” Rus said and pointed to the man beside his daughter. “The bald guy is Donny, obviously.”
“Hey.” Donny said. “I hope it's fun being on the run with you.”
“That's kind of an odd request.” I said, and he laughed.
Rus pointed to the woman with glasses. “That's Evelyn. She's our resident med-tech.”
“Hi.” Evelyn said. “I agree with the others. I might get to use my skills for more than just cuts and bruises if we're on the run.”
“Yep! I definitely like these people!” Rhubin said, and several of them chuckled.
“Last, but not least, is Luxea.” Rus said. “The best first officer a captain could have.”
“Here we go.” Luxea rolled her eyes. “You can butter me up all you want, Rus. I'm still not sleeping with you.”
“You'll give in one of these days.” Rus said in what he thought was a seductive voice. It wasn't.
“Geez, Dad!” Cassie exclaimed. “Keep it in your pants! What are our guests going to think?”
“Speaking of us.” Rhubin said. “I'm Rhubin, shuttle pilot extraordinaire, and this is Apprentice Ullir.”
“Just Ullir.” I corrected. “I can change into some normal clothes now that I don't have to wear these ridiculous robes anymore.”
“Are you sure?” Rus asked. “Wouldn't being an Apprentice help with looking for (Undecipherable)?”
I shook my head. “If he gets word that The Order is looking for him, he'll run or go into hiding.” I said. “Now, if it was someone who was curious about a rogue that managed to get away from The Order and perhaps wanted to join him...”
“Ooo, sneaky.” Rhubin said. “When do we start building your fake identity?”
“We just did.” I said, and he chuckled. “You don't happen to have normal clothes on the shuttle, do you?”
“Nope.” Rhubin said. “I could only get pilot uniforms, Order robes and Apprentice robes.” He said. “I've got a storage crate full of each of them.”
“We have tons of crew jumpsuits onboard.” Rus said. “You're welcome to help yourselves to them.” He turned to Cassie. “Why don't you take them to their sleeping compartments and show them where the spare uniforms are.”
“All right. Fine.” Cassie sighed. “I'll show them around and then I'll be the Rogue Ambassador for the ship.”
“That's the spirit!” Rus said.
“Dad, I was joking.”
“I don't care, Ms. Ambassador!” Rus laughed. “You're stuck with the job now! Ha ha!”
Cassie rolled her eyes at her father and looked at me. “You heard him. Let's go.”
“Yes, Ms. Ambassador.” I said in a completely serious tone of voice and walked over to her. She was only a couple of inches shorter than me and I stopped in front of her. She looked into my eyes to see if I was joking, and I gave her serious eyes back.
“Does the job come with additional pay?” Cassie asked me.
“I don't have a source of income at the moment.” I said, then chuckled. “I guess I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.”
“You really did just strike out on your own, didn't you?” Cassie asked me, and I nodded. “Then... for the first little while... until you can get your feet under you... I'll wave my ambassadorial fees.”
“That's mighty kind of you.” I said. “I'll be in your care until then.”
Cassie stared into my eyes for a moment longer, then she turned away and walked to the security door. Both Rhubin and I followed her and she took us down two levels to the crew compartment and opened the door. We went inside and she pointed to the closest hatch.
“Single man bunk and clothing storage for one person.” Cassie said and pointed to the one next to it. “Double bunk with clothing storage for two people.”
“I spent a year staying in a guard barracks once.” I said. “I'm going to pass on sharing a room.”
Cassie looked at me and I thought I saw disappointment on her face.
“I'm passing, too.” Rhubin said. “More privacy if it's a small room with a single bunk.”
“Exactly.” I said.
Cassie smiled a little. “Okay, that I understand.” She said. “You're going to want the first one and the hatch on the end.”
“I'll take portside.” Rhubin said and walked down to the hatch on the end. “I like having a room with a view.” He said. “I'll go out to the shuttle later and get a few replacement uniforms for myself.”
“That means this one is mine.” I said and tapped the hatch closest to the central shaft. “Now I just need clothes.”
“Right here.” Cassie said and stepped to the wall opposite my new quarters and touched an unlit panel. She opened it and pulled a lever, and a section of the wall popped out and slid aside to reveal a large closet that was full of jumpsuits, gloves, helmets, towels, bed linens, and a whole bunch of other things. She looked at my height and then at the racks of jumpsuits.
“This should fit.” Cassie said as she picked one and then handed it to me.
“Thanks.” I said and looked over the contents of the closet. “I don't see any underwear.”
“Wh-what?” Cassie blinked her eyes and looked into the closet.
“The jumpsuit cloth seems a bit too rough for me to wear completely nude.” I said, and her face went a little red as she turned her head and looked back at me. “Hold on, you're completely nude under your jumpsuit?”
“N-no.” Cassie's face turned fully red as she lied.
I reached out and put my hand on her lower back as I felt Presence gathering there. She must be sensitive in this spot. I thought. “I'm not making fun of you. If you like that kind of thing, it's okay.”
“I...it's not... I was just in a hurry to change and...”
“I said it's okay.” I said and made small circles on her back. It was something Emari did to me sometimes, during a particularly difficult lesson, to calm the Presence within me. It's funny how little things like that stick with you. I thought. “There's no need to be embarrassed.”
“But... I'm... and you...” Cassie kept looking into my eyes and I was sure she could feel the tingling of Presence at the base of her spine.
“You want me to give you a hug after I get changed, don't you?” I asked.
Cassie caught her breath and she tried to hide her slight shiver.
Her flow of Presence is quite strong for someone completely untrained. I thought as I turned her body towards me and stepped close. “Is there underwear hidden somewhere, or will I have to... do what you're doing... until I can get some from the shuttle?”
“I...” Cassie took in a breath and let it out. “I'm sure that... there should be some... in one of the drawers.”
“Shall I step back and watch you look for some?” I guessed, and she didn't even hesitate in her response.
“Y-yes.” Cassie said. “I think... you'd like that, wouldn't you?”
“Very much.” I said, playing along with what I thought was a bit of a fetish for her. “I appreciate beauty whenever I see it.”
Cassie took in another breath and nodded slightly, so I let her go and stepped back to stand next to my sleeping compartment's hatch. She tried to keep my face in sight as she turned around and started to check the top drawers.
“I doubt they would be in there.” I said, playing along. “Try one of the bottom ones.”
“O-okay.” Cassie said.
As Cassie bent over, her jumpsuit pulled up tightly and she didn't try to bend her legs at all to ease the tension in the cloth. It formed snugly over her shapely backside and gave me a great view between her legs. She looked up at my face and I made sure that I was staring right where she wanted me to, and I saw her visibly shake and a dampness started to form where I was looking.
Cassie moved along and was opening drawers at random, without even checking the contents, and she was quite aroused by the time she had opened the last drawer. She stood up with her face bright red and she turned to look at me as she leaned against the open closet compartment.
“It seems I might have to go without underwear.” I said.
Cassie closed her eyes took several breaths to try and calm down. When it looked like she was getting herself under control, she spoke. “I guess so.”
“I'm going to need a shower, too.” I said to tease her.
Cassie gasped and put a hand over her crotch. “Oh! I... I... I need to go!” She said and quickly walked over to the hallway hatch and stepped out and disappeared from sight.
“Damn, Ullir.” Rhubin said. “How the hell did you do that?”
“I'm not sure.” I said. “I just... when I touched her back, I could almost feel what she wanted.”
“I'd ask you to teach me that trick if I thought you could!” Rhubin laughed. “By the way, there's piles of underwear for both men and women in the third drawer there.”
“I know.” I said, and we both laughed.