Happy Friday night. The weekend is coming, and I am looking forward to it. I am giving you a free chapter read of my book Star Dancer available from Amazon in Kindle or paperback. Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoy the read. After the free read you can click the book cover and read more at Amazon or purchase the Kindle or Paperback. Enjoy, see you Monday with a new blog, Dell…
STAR DANCER
Copyright 2018 Dell Sweet all rights reserved.
Cover Art © Copyright 2018 Dell Sweet
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your bookseller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
LEGAL
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or incidents depicted are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual living person’s places, situations or events is purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, print, scanner or any other means and, or distributed without the author’s permission. Permission is granted to use short sections of text in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic print.
Day 63
Star Dancer
Exercise room
“Spot me?” Mike asked. He was lying down on the back press bench where they were taking turns doing sets.
“Spot you?” Petra looked around the exercise room. “On what? I didn’t see free weights.”
“That’s because free weights are not allowed. The last place you want to be injured and alone is in space. So, no, no free weights; I mean on tonight’s poker game… Beating me the way you do is just wrong: I think I deserve a handicap because you’re a pro.” Mike said with a lopsided smile. He palmed the bar and pushed it upward adding ten repetitions to his set.
“A pro?” Petra laughed as Mike rose from the bench. She laid back on the bench herself and palmed the handles. “How is it that you didn’t get on your game when you were in the service? It’s practically all that happens in the down time; and down time is practically all that happens.” She grunted and pushed the bar breathing hard as she added ten more repetitions to her own sets.
“Nice,” Mike said, “but you don’t have to keep up with me.”
“Not trying to keep up, trying not to beat you at this too,” Petra said. She pushed out five more reps and then rose from the bench.
“God you are awesome, Petra.” Mike said,
“Don’t you dare whistle,” Petra said.
“Whistle? Wouldn’t think of it,” Mike said, glad that he had curbed the urge to whistle when he found himself pursing his lips. “It was dice… On my ship it was dice. That was the game base. Had a C.O. who had it bad for cards, don’t know why, but every time he saw a deck of cards he confiscated them.” He lowered himself to the bench, grasped the bar handles and took a deep breath as he began his reps; letting his breath out slowly as he did.
“Dice?” Petra looked disbelieving.
“Dice was my vice.”
“Dice was your vice… Uh huh… Poker is poker. I think I’m being conned,” Petra said with an equally lopsided grin.
“Dice are totally different,” Mike said. He took a deep breath and pushed out four more repetitions.
“Than cards? How so?” Petra asked. “Shouldn’t hold your breath.”
“Well, you have to throw them from your hand; you can’t hold them like cards. Um, they have only one through six…” He frowned and pushed out the one repetition he owed, breathing slowly as he did.
“Oh, I see, no aces, no kings or queens.” Petra said as she nodded in mock understanding.
“Right, right. Tough game, cards. I really think I need that handicap. I mean I’m the captain, how is that going to look if I lose to the navigator?” Mike asked.
“Right… I think it would look like you couldn’t match my game, but I’m not sure who there would be to care about it. I suppose I could send security a message down the pipe… Maybe they would care.”
“You would tell Baylor that I lost to you?”
“No… No… Maybe,” Petra teased.
“Hardcore, Petra, hardcore….” Mike said.
“Maybe you just need more incentive to win,” Petra said.
“Like what?” Mike asked.
“Steak dinner at Twenty Seven,” Petra said.
“There are no steaks to be had at Twenty Seven, at least not where we’re going.”
“Damn. I was hoping for something besides gruel or noodle like things,” Petra said.
“Oh, there is good food, just no beef… Maybe synth beef… You’ve had synth beef?” Mike asked.
“Can’t say that I have had the pleasure,” Petra said. “I have had soy burgers. It’s a staple in the service. I suppose you ate your share of those.”
“My God, I had almost managed to block those out,” Mike told her with a grimace. He smiled as he rose from the bench and surrendered it to Petra. “I ate those things even after I was out. I thought by now they would have moved on from those to something else.”
“No. They changed the way they look, the ingredients. No more mystery meat additives to give it that meat taste. All soy…” She settled her shoulders onto the padding and grasped the bar handles. “But you, mister, are trying to get me off track. There can’t be any handicap because I think you are sandbagging me… I think you are good, the stakes just aren’t there to give you incentive.” She pushed out a set of eight before she had to stop. Three quick breaths and she pushed out the next three, grunting hard as she did.
“Me? Sandbagging,” he shook his head and smiled… “Damn, you are an animal… Okay, what are the stakes if they can’t be steaks?”
“Credits? Cold beer? Star dust?”
“Star dust is a real thing,” Mike said as he took the bench. “What did you get?”
“Eight and three,” Petra told him.
“God… I don’t know if I have that in me.”
“It’s not a contest,” Petra said.
“Good thing,” Mike said and laughed.
“Star dust is worthless,” Petra said. “I’ll bet if you were playing for your pants your game would suddenly get better.”
Mike laughed, caught himself and looked at her. “Okay… That means you are playing for your pants too, though… And shirt, and, uh you know.” He pushed out four repetitions and ran out of energy. He lay back breathing hard.
“Bra? Panties? Are you suggesting we play strip poker, Cap’n Mike?” Petra asked.
“Cap’n Mike… I like that Cap’n Mike,” His face was red but smiling. “Um, you suggested it; I just uh, um expanded it.”
“Ha ha, expanded. All I said was if you were playing for your pants you would suddenly play better. That is not strip poker. That is…”
“Me playing without pants? Sort of like you would if you lost a hand in strip poker?” Mike asked.
“Sort of like I would? Do you plan on winning my pants now?” Petra asked.
“Uh, I was speaking as if it… I didn’t me you, I should have said me, or I would,” Mike sputtered.
Petra was laughing. “You are so easy.”
“And you are so mean,” Mike said smiling. His forehead was shiny and two spots of red rode high on his cheeks. “Cold beer?”
“Hell no. Do they even have cold beer on Twenty Seven?”
“My buddy Tom makes his own brew. Let me tell you it is good. Better than any Earth beer I have ever had.”
“That’s hard to believe. I’m fresh out of Earth. There are some good beers there.” Petra said.
“Okay, maybe not, but still damn good.” Mike said.
“Nope… Pants. I mean, just look at the way your interest jumped when I said it… Suddenly you didn’t care about the handicap,” Petra said.
“You mean I’d be playing for my pants with no handicap at all?”
“None.”
“Wow… But then again you would also being playing for your pants? You sort of slid out of answering that. That would be the deal, right?”
“Pants for pants.”
“Well, um that means…”
“Yes, bra and panties, but that means t-shirt and boxers, and no extra layers.” Petra said.
“Man, I feel like I am getting the game right now… You sure you haven’t played this game before? And how do you know I wear boxers? I mean…”
“I’m observant. A good navigator has to be. Besides we do laundry together.”
“Oh yeah… So really? You don’t think a game of strip poker would be, oh I don’t know, sexist?? Mike asked.
“Sexist? What is that?” Petra asked with a straight face.
“You know…” Mike started. He stopped speaking when Petra lowered herself and straddled the bench he was reclined on. She lowered her weight to his hips, rocked back slightly and took a deep breath.
“What… What are we doing?” Mike asked. His breath seemed gone all at once.
“I think we are skipping the beating around the bush part,” she looked as nervous as Mike felt. “I… I really wish you would say something because I’ve never…” Mike sat up, pulled her to him and kissed her. The kiss seemed to go on forever, neither willing to break it. Petra pulled back, smoothed her hair and then spoke.
“I’m really sweaty… Sorry,”
Mike laughed. “So am I … Take this to the showers?”
Petra nodded as she rose from the bench; one hand entwined in Mike’s own and pulled him to his feet. She led him to the showers.
Day 128
Star Dancer
Deck 14
There were twenty six people standing solemnly in the huge cargo bay. They had piped in air for the occasion and that had taken several hours to accomplish. The body lay before them, already nestled in the waste tube. The cargo bay rarely ever had air and because of that there were usually no odors. Things spilled from cargo containers lay undisturbed for months.
Petra looked around; amazed at how derelict the space seemed. This space was not heated; the ship had no provision for heating the cargo areas and only limited ability to add an atmosphere. The waste tubes in this bay were one of ten sets ship wide and were used sporadically. Typically everything was recycled, but the occasional odd waste would be ejected out into space; or the rare burial would utilize the tube to complete. Mike had told her there had never been a burial on Star Dancer. Once a crew member had died and they had been close to IO and so they had simply transported the body to IO and turned it over to the Fed crew there. That was as close as he had come to death on his ship in over twenty years of operating intra space. She glanced over at him now. He was faced away from her, eyes downcast. He lifted his face and turned to her as though he had felt the weight of her eyes on him. He smiled, the first smile she had seen in a few days.
Mike had heard from Baylor two weeks before concerning Leeds, the man whose body was nestled in the tube. He had never fully recovered from the CO2 poisoning. Baylor believed it was genetic, some predisposition that had shut down the man’s kidneys and lymphatic system to start with. It had probably begun that process with every one of them, but fresh oxygen had immediately reversed the process leaving no damage. For whatever reason Leeds’ system had continued to degrade; destroying his organs one by one. The ship had no real medical bay, no medical staff for that matter. There were two medical officers within the Fed staff, but they were strictly low key: Bandages and aspirin types. They did have access to an extensive database and radio links to any medical assistance they needed either ahead at Mars, back on Earth or anywhere else they needed. And that was helpful, but it wasn’t experienced hands on help like a star cruiser with a fully equipped medical bay would have.
They had autopsied the body, she knew. Mike had not wanted to talk about it. He had been silent and moody from then on. The autopsy was not to provide answers now, but at Twenty Seven when they arrived. The internal organs, brain, blood samples were all in cold storage on deck zero, waiting. Baylor looked around and then stepped forward.
“Service life is not for everyone,” he began slowly in a measured voice. “Jason Leeds had been in the service for a little more than three years. Fresh out of active service; and all of that time was aboard Star Dancer. He found a place he liked. A pace of life that suited him and he stayed with it.” He cleared his throat and then continued.
“He came to me last year and talked to me about staying… He knew it would cost him a Star Cruiser, but he knew a Star Cruiser would take him away from Earth, Mars and the places he loved so much… He had no family; no other considerations… I told him to go with his heart and he did.” His eyes raised from the stained and scarred decking.
“One of the finest men I have had the privilege of commanding and one I never had a single bad write up for, bad words with and that is the way I will remember him: A military man to the end.” He looked around the room at the others. “If anyone would like to add anything.”
Two others stepped forward and spoke as Petra listened. Friends who added even more to the understanding of a man she had never met.
Mike had never met him either. It was the way things worked on intra cruisers. The crews were Fed, the ship crew was isolated from what they did day to day. There were never times where the two intermingled, she thought that was wrong. Mike did too, they had talked about it. It was probably what most upset him, having worked with a man who knew his ship, experienced several trips and yet they had never talked one time. He was not even sure he had ever met him. There was just something fundamentally wrong with that in his opinion and Petra agreed with him.
Mike was thinking about throwing it all in after the second trip out, the trip out that would put her into the end of her contract and buying a Star Cruiser. He had not asked her to come with him, but the offer had been made without words. In fact the offer had been made for a lot more than just a job. The offer was there for a partnership that would include all they would do together. She had not answered. She had not trusted herself to answer.
She had been entering flight coordinates a few weeks before and had found herself instead evaluating him: She had slipped into thinking about it without being aware of it, and Mike’s voice had bought her back from her thoughts. She had flushed deep red and tried to shift her thoughts away from their current state. He had been talking with Baylor on the Com link. And she had watched him, listening to his voice, and she had known right then that she had already answered the unasked questions in her own mind. She had no idea when she had answered them, but she had; it only remained to tell Mike…
Michael Watson is the captain of an inner galaxy cruiser: He Purchased Star Dancer and has spent the last twenty years running people and supplies to outposts within the confines of the Solar System… #SciFi #StarTravel #DellSweet Click the cover below and read more!
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