Firefly
Chapter 10
While Rick had designs on getting some sleep, Kate had other plans for him. She'd learned that while she might be a slave, Rick and others didn't see her as being a slave. With Rick around she didn't act like one. So she decided to get what she wanted and needed.
While Rick felt fine the next morning he was also well aware that a naked Kate was lying on top of him. Since she was asleep it allowed him some time to just reflect on his life after finding her on the floor crying with a broken something or other all around her.
Coming across her had been sheer luck. She was clearly the greatest thing to have ever happened to him. He knew for a fact that he was falling deeply in love with her, however, he wasn't sure just what she felt about him. Was it him or was it the drug?
Hell, finding the Firefly they were flying around in had been another lucky find. The only real problem he had with the ship were the missiles. He only had just so many and finding more was going to be a challenge. Yes, there were still lots of places that had old ammunition left over from the war. Though getting one's hands on them was another issue.
Rick went back to watching and saw her huff out a breath; he wondered what she was dreaming. She really was beautiful. Why her previous owner hadn't tagged her so he could keep her escaped him. He was a complete fool which was lucky for him.
Was his idea of using that much drug the right idea? He still didn't know for sure but at least coming clean with Kate hadn't pissed her off and made her mad at him. He did have to admit that the drug really did work; it worked pretty damn good. His primary problem was keeping up with her.
In fact he was certain that even after sex last night she was going to want more sex this morning so he tried to shift around so he could surprise her.
Feeling her grab hold of his head that was currently planted between her spread legs and listening to all the noises she made had him wanting to hear her scream so he plunged two fingers inside her.
While it wasn't instant and took a fair amount of licking and thrusting his fingers in and out of her that he finally got to hear her scream out her orgasm. Which might have actually been her second or maybe even her third. He'd gotten so lost in giving her pleasure that he hadn't paid close enough attention.
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Rick had used the shower first. He was sitting in his chair still naked; he was betting they would be getting into space suits soon once he found a way inside.
Kate was clean and dry. She came up behind Rick just as naked and slipped her hands over his shoulders and down his chest. She smiled when she felt him shiver at her touch. She nibbled on his ear, something she loved to do.
"What's the plan?" Meaning what were they going to do today? This morning had been a wonderful surprise and she had loved it.
"It's metal so I'm guessing that it's hollow inside. I want to see if we can find a way into it." Rick was determined to find a way in. "There might be a landing bay but more likely is that we'll need to look for an airlock. Which means we'll need to put on space suits."
"We have space suits?" Kate knew what they were even if she'd never worn one before. She stood up straight but kept her hands on Rick since while he had given her an orgasm this morning, she could really use another one. She turned and looked around. She had no idea where they could be.
"Better sit down. It's time to start looking for a way to get inside." Rick felt her leave him to sit down. "You know your job. I want you to watch for red dots. We don't need unwanted guests to suddenly show up and try and blow holes in us." Kate heard that loud and clear so she focused on watching for red dots.
Rick detached himself from whatever it was they were attached to and moved toward where he was reading was a tiny power source. But before he could reach it, it just disappeared. "Arrrgh!" Like yesterday he felt like he was chasing something that wouldn't stand still so it could be found.
Finding the power source again he moved once more only to have it disappear on him.
On his fourth attempt he was ready to starting pounding on something. "What the fuck is going on?"
"Sorry." Kate knew she had said the word, however, this time she meant it.
"It's not you. What I'm chasing just keeps moving and I can never actually reach it before it vanishes," Rick explained. "You're fine, just keep watching for red dots." Being caught now by pirates in fighters would not be good.
Though he did have an idea. Rick concentrated on a different screen, used the computer, and what he had recorded so far since getting here.
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"Okay, let's see if this gets me anywhere." Rick allowed the computer to put each location on his screen and tried to predict where these spaces were occurring.
It was almost instantaneous. "Gotcha!" Rick sent it to one of Kate's screens so she could see. "It's round. All I get are these little patches that show up on my scanner only to have them disappear before I can reach them." Rick was more showing it by looking at his than showing her but he hoped she was following.
"So why does it show up and then vanish?" It was all Kate could think to ask.
"That's a good question. One answer is that who ever is inside is testing us. They don't have enough power to keep all of it hidden at the same time or maybe they just don't have the technology to do all of it at the same time." Rick tried to think about it.
"It might be a computer glitch. The program's failing and it's happening in random locations." Rick liked that idea best.
"So how does any of those help us? If we can't see it we can't see it." Kate wished she could help but all of this was way over her head. She just wasn't that smart. She was a slave.
"We're never going to see what we can't see. No one, not even the Alliance has this technology or how to pierce it. What we need is a break. To be in one of these not seen spaces when it suddenly can be seen. That or we need to be close enough to be able to reach it before it vanishes on us.
"So pick a spot, any spot, and that's where we'll wait," Rick told her.
"Me!?" Why her? She barely understood what they were doing.
"Maybe your luck is better than mine. You have just as good a chance as I do. So pick a black spot and that's where we'll wait."
Kate wasn't sure she had any luck but just pointing at a black area sounded easy enough. "This one maybe?" Kate put her finger on her screen which had Rick twisting to try and see where she was pointing.
"Got it. …Cross your fingers." Rick plotted a course and moved them in a way that they shouldn't crash into it so long as it was completely round and didn't have things like towers poking out of it.
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"You want to find me a sandwich and a drink for lunch, please?" Rick asked her since he didn't dare leave his chair. His map was a little bigger but the next two locations hadn't been close enough to them for them to reach before it vanished.
"Thanks." Rick took his sandwich and noticed Kate sitting down in her chair with his drink, both of them still naked. He was still thinking that they would find an airlock that would require them to use space suits and there wasn't room for them to wear much inside those suits.
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Rick was done with his sandwich and was just about ready to reach for his drink when a spot almost right next to them suddenly appeared.
He quickly maneuvered so he could scan the area and see if there was something there they could use.
Even Kate saw it when their lights hit something. "I see something!" she pointed excitedly. Until now all she'd seen was blackness.
"Yeah, that's where we're going. Just need to get there before it vanishes on us." Rick kept trying to get there.
"Now let's see what we've got before it disappears." He only had a few minutes and it would take over an hour and almost two before the next one would show up. "Definitely metal. Not a material I can identify which is interesting." He really should be able to identify what this metal was.
However, what he really wanted was… "An airlock! Jackpot! …Programming for automatic docking." Now even if the spot vanished he knew exactly where it was.
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It still took a few minutes for Rick to get into position so he could extend his docking bridge and connect.
"Station keeping." Rick released his straps, ran for the airlock, and extended the bridge until it showed all greens. It meant they were attached to whatever this place was.
"Use the bathroom now or you'll have to hold it." Rick did after Kate assured him she was good. Once back out he said, "We can stay naked."
"You don't want me to get dressed?" Kate was naked and was starting to put on one of her outfits.
"Space suits don't require you to be wearing clothes, but if it makes you happy you can wear one of my t-shirts and shorts. It's all I'm gong to be wearing."
"And where is this space suit?" Kate thought she'd seen everything unless it was behind the door that led to an engineering room that she'd never been in as yet.
She watched as Rick reached up and pressed a panel that she didn't remember seeing before. Instantly a panel in the ceiling folded down and with it a pair of suits she had never seen the likes of come with them.
They were mostly blue with a lot of orange ribbing. Mostly on the stomach, waist, and down the legs and arms. It looked like the boots were attached and there were these big glass domes.
"Looks tight," Kate commented and watched him take one down and open it up.
"So naked or a little something?" Rick questioned her. It looked kind of tight to her.
"Naked. What do I do?" She had never even seen one let alone worn one before.
"Feet and legs first." Rick helped her step in and then began closing it up around her. "Now arms and you need to duck your head as you go through this ring." Rick helped her slip into it then closed it up all behind her.
"Tight, I can barely breathe," Kate complained.
"Good, your breathing is what helps power the suit. There's a battery back up but mostly it's you. Now watch and remember." Rick took hold of her left arm. "This is your suit's oxygen monitoring system. When it reaches 15% it'll issue a warning. That will give you about an hour or so before you have to get somewhere you can open the suit and breathe.
"It also monitors your environmentals. Your belt either produces heat or cools as required. This screen here will show you what the temperature is inside your suit. You can only adjust it by making changes on your belt and watching what happens here." Rick dropped that arm and picked up her right arm.
"Now over here it will monitor what's outside your suit. Radiation, what the atmosphere is if any, amount of gravity. If you see anything on this side that starts blinking and issuing you a warning you'll need to take action immediately. You can only handle just so much radiation before it kills you." Rick dropped that arm.
"Your boots when in contact with metal in zero G will automatically attach to keep you from floating away out into space. Now the back that I just connected is your oxygen generation system. It's good for 8 hours so watch the timing on your left arm. The suit itself is self-sealing depending on just what has penetrated it. If it's too big you have only until you run out of oxygen to get inside. …Questions?" Rick was done.
Kate followed most of it, sort of. "Just don't go too far." She was sure she was going to need him for this.
"Count on it." Rick put his own on then looked everything over to make sure he was sealed.
"This dome goes on your head. Once it's in place the clock starts; you have 8 hours and no more. Once you take it off the clock stops. If there's a sudden burst of sunlight it will instantly dim and become gold in color. Your vision is basically normal. There are two lights on either side at the top of your head. You need to touch each of them to turn them on or off. …Here we go." Rick put it over her head and watched as Kate saw it go over her head. Then he snapped it in place. He lifted her left arm to show her the time and to show her the time counting down.
Rick grabbed his and did the same. "Communications check. Can you hear me?" He looked at her.
"Yes, it smells funny," Kate complained.
"Give it a chance it'll clear up. Follow me." Rick headed to the air lock.
Once they were both inside the airlock Rick cycled out the air. He told Kate to look at her right arm and asked her what it said.
"No oxygen," Kate replied and yet she kept on breathing.
"Good, now follow me." Rick opened the door that would lead them out into the bridge and off toward the other airlock door.
"Lights, on your head." Rick turned his on and watched Kate do hers. "Here we go."
Rick walked out into the bridge until he reached the far end. Once there he was presented with his first problem: how to get this first door open. What he found looked like a normal enough door. He also saw some things next to the door.
"This panel might be a simple scanner. Show it your card and the door opens. Except we don't have a card to use. So the backup would be to press these panels here. Question is in what order do we press them and do we have to press all of them?" Rick wondered out loud.
"Do we press all of them?" Kate asked.
"Good point. Say you were in a hurry and you didn't have access to the card or whatever it was you needed to pass over the scanner. One is too simple and not very security conscious. So I'm guessing three.
"Go back to our door and close it for me, please," Rick asked her.
Kate had gotten used to him asking her to do things and adding the word please. As if she really had a choice. And yet he made it sound like she did.
Still Kate went back, closed the door, and returned to Rick.
"There are six panels. So which of the six do you press three times? It needs to be fast and simple if you didn't have much time to waste.
"Let's start with 1, 2 and 4." That sounded simple to Rick; he pressed the 3 panels and watched the door pop in and slide to one side.
"It worked! A powered door, no less." The latter was a surprise. What if the door didn't have power?
Looking inside he saw an empty space just like the one on his ship. "Stay here for now." Rick wanted her out here while he went inside and looked around.
He saw a few panels that could be opened and he was betting they held things like emergency equipment and emergency oxygen. There was also another door on the far side with the same six panels though it had a pair of extra panels.
Then he went back to the door he'd opened and found the same eight panels next to the door. "Okay, come on in." Rick waved her inside.
Then for a test he asks Kate something. "What does your arm say?"
Kate looked at one of them. "Seven hours and 45 minutes remaining." Then she looked at her other arm. "No oxygen, no gravity, and 8 radiation."
"Very good." Rick was proud of her. "The radiation number is normal background radiation. Keep looking at the number and don't take your helmet off until I tell you to." They could handle a little radiation but there was a limit.
"Let's see if the same code gets us inside." Rick pressed the same code and watched the outside door close on his ship.
"Now let's see if the same code works in the inner door." Rick reached for the panels to see if the door opened.
"What's on the other side?" Kate was starting to wonder if this was a good idea.
"That's what we're about to find out." Rick pressed the same three panels and saw the inner door pop in and slide to one side.
"Now we get to go see if anyone's home." It suddenly occurred to Rick that he hadn't brought a weapon. He'd been so preoccupied with finding a way in and he hadn't thought this through very well.
It wasn't technically too late. But if this place was manned and they found someone, there were only the two of them. Maybe going unarmed would show that they weren't a threat. Even if his ship was.
However, another thought hit him. As hard as this place was to find and get inside of this far, and it was manned, why hadn't they sent any communications or even shot them down?
He'd been there for hours. Empty might be possible but he doubted it. Though how were they getting food? Water, oxygen and power were easy enough if you had what you needed. Food not so much unless you could grow it.
Just getting an answer to that would make this trip worth it.
He sincerely doubted this was Alliance. Though he'd never heard of the Browns having the ability to hide something like this.
Getting an answer to that would also make this trip worth it.
"Stay close, Kate, and it might be a good idea to go back to thinking that you're a slave again. Just in case, even if they can't see your tattoos."