Hunting Grounds

Chapter 8

Kate extracted herself from Rick and walked naked into the bathroom to take a shower and start her day. She could feel his eyes on her bare ass, but then he had seen everything already and had touched literally every part of her right down to her toes.

The shower was once again a little strange. It felt more like air than water and yet she did feel herself getting wet in the shower. She came out nearly dry so a towel wasn't really required.

Looking in the mirror she saw a smiling Kate Beckett looking back at her. She had initiated sex and she wasn't sorry, not really. Rick wasn't just easy on the eyes and built, he also wasn't bad in bed.

She had planned it out before she had started. She had given him a blowjob first thing. The theory she was using that most of his sperm went down her throat instead of inside her looking for an egg. Thus she was reducing the chance of getting pregnant. In their limited search they hadn't found condoms and she certainly didn't carry birth control pills around with her. What woman did that?

As she looked in the mirror she asked herself if she would have sex with him again? The answer to that was yes.

She found a comb and used it on her hair. But what she didn't find was a toothbrush or anything that looked like one. So she used her finger instead. It sort of worked; at least it was better than nothing.

Walking out she found Rick standing right outside equally naked and she couldn't help herself from looking down for a moment.

"No toothbrush," Kate told him. She watched him lean down and she tilted her head up and kissed him back.

"Get suited up. We're going to search this ship all day today. We need to know where everything is even if we don't know what it is." Rick went around her and into the bathroom. He needed to do more than just shower.

"Morning breath," Kate called after him.

"Sorry," Rick called back. Kate was smiling as she searched for her clothes only to realize her bra and panties were still inside the bathroom. So she waited till she could hear the shower and retrieved them while taking a peek at his naked body in the shower.

Kate was putting on her vest when a naked Rick walked out and began to get dressed. She tried to give him some privacy by not staring at him, but she liked his body so she kept sneaking peeks at him.

She checked her sidearm and lifted her rifle. She ejected the clip, looked it over and slapped it back in, and left the safety on. While it might be alien in design it mostly worked like theirs.

Rick checked all of his weapons and even had his original weapon over his shoulder. "Ready?"

"Ready." Kate lifted her weapon into a ready position. She met him at the door but he didn't open it. Instead he was looking at her. "What?"

"Are you sorry about last night?" Rick needed to know. He knew she had started it but maybe she thought it was a mistake.

"No! You play your cards right and it might happen again." Kate tried to keep from grinning at him and bit her lower lip.

"Neither am I. Now let's see if we can survive this place and get home somehow," Rick said.

"Deal." She didn't want to be here in the first place let alone stay here.

[_] /\ [_]

They just couldn't seem to find a way to reach the rear of the first lance so had to go forward. As they did they ran across access hatches that were actually easy to open.

"That's a big weapon." Rick knew a weapon when he saw one. It almost was like looking at one of those WWII weapons on a battleship or something. It was just he didn't yet see how the ammunition was loaded.

The opposite side of the hallway was all storage. So far everything in each storage room looked ruined to both of them. "No vacuum seal for this stuff." Rick dropped what he had in hand back into the container.

"I'm betting my period is coming up soon. They had a female captain and yet I didn't find anything in her room. That and I need a toothbrush," Kate stated.

"Toothbrush. Alright, we can search the crews quarters. As for the other I don't know what else to tell you," Rick said. Kate knew she would think of something. It was just a tampon instead of a makeshift pad would be preferable.

[_] /\ [_]

They hadn't found anything really useful down this lance so they had moved over to the opposite side. Unfortunately this side was a duplicate of the other side. Weapons on one side and storage on the other. This storage side looked more like parts for something.

Kate was holding something she had found but didn't recognize. "A part for something, maybe?"

"They would need to bring spare parts for repairs with them and yet it looks like they chose to abandon the ship. So whatever is here wasn't enough to fix whatever went wrong." It was all Rick had. "Toothbrush?" he asked her and saw her shake her head.

"We can spend the rest of the day searching the crews quarters after we eat something if you trust their food. If not we only have the two MREs." Rick was hungry and willing to risk it.

"Like we have a choice." Kate knew they had to risk it or starve to death. At least so far she didn't have diarrhea and her stomach felt fine. "Now if I could just find some coffee." She didn't want to start yelling at Rick because she was having withdrawal. Add to that if her period was coming it might come with cramps making her even more uncomfortable.

"I wouldn't hold my breath about finding coffee. That might be an Earth drink," Rick warned her and saw her glare at him for that.

[_] /\ [_]

This time Kate tried what was probably breakfast while Rick tried her lunch. "It looks a little different," he mentioned, looking at hers since he had eaten breakfast last time.

"Different meat, perhaps. I did use a different card," she said.

"What you get is based on your individual card? Interesting. What if you're vegan?" Rick thought that was a little funny and chuckled a little.

"It still all looks Jetsons to me." Kate picked up what she was betting was eggs and taste tested it first before actually eating it.

[_] /\ [_]

After a restroom break they were back to actually searching the box area of the ship between the two lances looking for things they could use.

"What do you think? Toothbrush maybe?" Kate held it up after taking it out of its base and turned it on except the only thing that came out was air under pressure.

"The shower's a lot of air so maybe," Rick said and found one of his own. "So is there toothpaste?" He looked around for something that looked like it.

Satisfied they moved on. "Exercise room!" Rick's smile was a mile wide. It was how he kept his body in great shape. A person couldn't just expect to build muscles and keep them doing nothing. "Looks like I know where I'll be spending some time if we stay here long enough."

"So what's this space?" They entered the room next door and looked around.

Rick gave his opinion of this room. "It's a game room, I'm thinking. That computer said long distance so you need to be able to keep the crew happy. Give them some downtime. Except I don't recognize anything.

"This is it, too. I think we've seen everything." Rick looked at Kate.

"Suggestions?" So far this ship felt safe. They had potable water, safe food, clean air, and weapons.

"I'm thinking we get that computer interface to help us," Rick replied. "We eat that Jetsons food, keep our room, and based on what that computer tells us, we decide what to do then. This place feels safe enough. I'm thinking whatever happened happened fast and killed a few of them but not all of them. They abandoned their ship in a shuttle that was likely behind that door that opened to the outside. Instead of a landing bay it was attached to the side of the ship."

"That all makes sense. I wonder what they're doing back home?" Kate was afraid of what her dad would do. He turned himself into a drunk after losing his wife so what would he do when she didn't come back?

"Losing their minds, most likely. If we vanished as quickly and easily as we think they're not going to have much to work with to find us. Given we aren't even in the same system any longer."

"I never saw myself as being an astronaut let alone be hunted on an alien planet," Kate admitted.

"All I know is that whoever they are, they're good, really good. We're going to need to be extremely careful when we go back outside. If my team and I were on a mission we would have night vision goggles so I'm betting they have something similar. Anyone that can get from system to system is far more advanced than we are. Meaning a lot better weapons." Rick was pretty damn sure he had reason to fear them.

"How do we counter that?" Kate was a cop. Rick was the Navy SEAL here.

"We move only during the day and hide at night. Someplace that will hide our heat signature. We need to talk about that." Rick was willing to include her thoughts on it.

"Are you done for today?" he asked her. "Looks like we've seen everything. We can go eat dinner and retreat to our room. Get some sleep and try to get that computer interface person on our side and work for us."

"I'm not really hungry but sure. Maybe I'll see what dinner is like this time." Kate lifted her weapon to get ready to leave.

"You could try one of the other cards. Might serve you less and not fill you up," Rick offered.

"It might serve me oatmeal too, so no thanks. I'll stick with the first officers card." Kate just wouldn't eat it all.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick touched the screen to wake it up and instantly heard, "Computer Interface."

"Is that your name?" Rick queried since it didn't sound like much of a name to him.

"I am a computer interface."

"That's a terrible name," Kate told it. "You need a name since we're not calling you computer interface. Now I need to think." Kate stood there and tried to think up a name. Finally she opened her mouth and then closed it. "No, doesn't sound like you." Kate killed that idea.

"It sounds female if that will help," Rick mentioned and saw Kate glare at him since that was obvious.

"SAL 9000 is terrible name. No, we need something softer, more feminine, and prettier," Kate told both of them. "I got it. Rosie." Kate loved it the second she thought of it.

"Rosie?" Rick questioned her. Rosie wasn't a computer. She was a robot.

Kate defended her choice of names. "Rosie was kind, helpful, and just what we need right now."

"We need to have a talk about you and cartoon shows." Rick looked at her wondering if maybe he'd misjudged her. She was cracked. He watched her stick her tongue out at him.

"So, Rosie, what can you tell us about the planet that we are on?" Rick inquired. "If it isn't a secret." So far everything with her was a secret.

"This moon was designated as Melt 6. It is uncharted. That is why we are a scout ship. It is located in system designated MP434," Rosie explained.

"So never heard of Earth or the SOL system?" Rick made sure.

"Correct," Rosie answered.

"That's not good. It means we don't know where we are or where Earth is. Making getting home more difficult." Rick sat back in the chair and felt the hole in the back meant for a tail.

"The people that brought us here know," Kate pointed out.

That got Rick turning to look at her. "Attack them?" He wasn't sure if he was shocked, impressed or worried.

"We don't know. Rosie doesn't know. So unless you want to spend your life in this ship on this planet, do we have a choice?" Kate asked him.

"What do you know about this planet besides a designated name? Lifeforms, ship locations, anything?" If they were going to do this he wasn't interested in going in blind. Even on any mission he had and his team had gone on they had something.

"I have no information on lifeforms on this planet. A scan was done before the accident and there were at that time two small ships sitting on the planet. One was near this location," Rosie told them.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Rick liked that and was all set to ask for a map of that location when Kate asked a question.

"What was the accident?" Kate asked. "We have found dead bodies scattered everywhere. The captain of this ship was found dead in her bed. It was like people just up and died where they were at the time." Rick gave her credit for that question.

"I do not know the cause exactly, however, our power cell utilizes a material that can emit gamma rays," Rosie explained.

"OUCH!" Rick didn't like the sound of that. He shared what he knew about gamma rays. "Ionized radiation. Only very heavy shielding can stop them. They can damage bone marrow and internal organs. Even a mirror can't deflect them and they can even pass between atoms in a detector. Nasty stuff."

"You don't have shielding? Are we in danger just being here?" Kate had no plans to die on this planet least of all from gamma rays.

"All main power is down. Our main power source went into shutdown and a shield was lowered over the core to prevent further release. However, the damage was done. The chief engineer ordered everyone into the shuttle and they escaped the ship for the FTL trip to the closest base according to what he recorded," Rosie said.

"Guess that answers that question. Enough gamma rays hit the right sections of your body and you're dead," Rick added. "So can you teach us how to do a scan of this planet since you said you have no direct control over this ship."

Rosie broke it to them. "I can but it will do you no good. Most systems require the main power to be active. Emergency battery power is not enough."

"Well shit!" Kate didn't like that answer and neither did Rick actually.

"How much battery power is remaining at the moment?" Did they have a problem staying here for long?

"This is the display showing available battery power." Rosie showed them a graph. That had Kate leaning down to put her head next to Rick's so she could see it better. "I do not have direct control but I can monitor various systems."

"That looks like maybe 70% remaining. If we're careful that should last us a while." Rick hoped.

All of a sudden Kate had a question. "You learned English so if you saw a different language could you learn it as well?" Kate was thinking that the people who brought them here didn't use English either so their lettering would look like Klingon, too.

"I learned English from you, however, it is possible. It will simply take longer," Rosie responded.

"Nice. So is there a system where we can take you with us? A portable hard drive perhaps? Something that has a built-in camera so you can see the lettering?" Rick was beginning to get an idea that might get them off this planet and home.

"I can download myself into such a device, though I will not have access to any information that is part of the main computer. I will have not have access to any information that is part of my memory."

"Maybe not." Kate had an idea. "Show us what this item looks like so we can find it. If we can leave this planet we're not leaving you behind."

Kate saw the device, went in search of it, and found more than one. "I've got three. Do you have cables that we can use to interconnect each of these and then plug one into you?" Kate instantly saw a picture of the cords she could use.

Rosie worked out what Kate was thinking. "I believe this will suffice."

"Daisy chain." Rick was catching on. "You download as much of your memory that you are willing to share with us into two of them and you are in the third."

[_] /\ [_]

Rick was watching Kate doing the work when finally she was done. "Rosie, can you scan each of these three and make sure they are viable?"

"Scan commencing," Rosie replied. It didn't take her long. "Each device varies in their availability, however, none of them are below 99%. I believe your idea will work." Rosie was starting to like these two.

"Great! Rosie, please commence selecting what you can download and begin to do that," Kate asked. "If it takes time then it does."

Rick looked at Kate. "We're going to need more backpacks than the one that we have. Rosie here goes in one of them, food goes in another, and all the clips for weapons goes in a third."

"I'll find them. You stay here and get Rosie to show you and tell you items that we might also need. Something from medical, perhaps? Hand weapons, maybe a tricorder from Star Trek. Night vision goggles hopefully." Kate leaned down to kiss his cheek. She leveled her weapon and headed out to look for those backpacks. She knew she saw them so she just needed to remember where that was.

[_] /\ [_]

As Kate walked she began talking to herself about why she had just kissed his cheek. Yes, they'd had sex last night and maybe would again tonight or in the morning. She was willing. It was just she needed to work out just what that meant.

They weren't really dating. There was no place to go on a date except outside where they could possibly be found by one of those dogs or its owner. There was a screen in that game room so maybe they had movies. Except they wouldn't understand a word they said. So that just left music.

Kate grabbed two backpacks, put one over each shoulder, and made her way back to Rick.

Along the way she told herself that she was definitely going to have sex with him. About as often as she could without forcing herself on him. She did like him and maybe somewhere in the future, if they even had a future, it might turn into something more.

First they had to get off this wretched planet and she had no idea how they were going to do that. She was hoping Rick had an idea since he'd said something about getting Rosie to help them.