Chapter 7 -The schedule of a day

The days flew by as Elizabeth acclimated to life on the transporter. Without any outside distractions, she soon found herself following a schedule of activities.

Every day began at 0700 with a morning shower. Due to water restrictions, showers were limited to twenty-eight minutes per passenger per week- which Elizabeth learned after fully reading the living quarter's list of rules and instructions. That meant only four minutes per shower if she wanted to take one every day. Which she did.

Luckily, Seth, Carl, and Jack didn't care about long showers. For them, a shower was about getting clean as easily as possible. By the fourth day, they were tired of a frazzled Elizabeth complaining about a lack of time for her conditioner to penetrate her hair and getting nicks as she hurriedly ran a razor along her legs and underarms. All three of her roommates voluntarily donated seven minutes from each of their weekly water-minutes to her. Elizabeth simply had to press their EC numbers into the shower panel and her water usage was taken from their accounts. With the twenty-one extra minutes a week, she felt like she had struck a gold mine.

Breakfast was next on her schedule. Despite her first angry breakfast encounter with Jack, Elizabeth loved meal time. The cafeteria was the social center of the transporter and for good reason. Food. Drink. Round tables perfect for conversation. Not only was Elizabeth still meeting other passengers, but she had become good friends with the transporter's nutritionist, Abigail Stanton.

The rest of her morning time was taken up preparing lessons, and teaching the few students who were on-board. Elizabeth sent a hologram-recording of each lesson to Coal Valley, even if it meant that sometimes she had to teach a lesson twice when she realized that she had been speaking too quietly or had walked out of view of the camera.

Lunch was more socializing. Including with Jack, whose company she was enjoying more and more every day. He was smart, nice, and fun to be around. Even though he wasn't a researcher or expert in anthracite, geology, or farming, Elizabeth noticed that he had quickly gained the respect of the other passengers. And he seemed to like Elizabeth's friendship. He no longer complained about his assignment or asked each day at the communication center if he had a message regarding a possible reassignment back to Earth once the transporter landed.

Although Elizabeth didn't plan it, she and Jack seemed to get to the cafeteria at about the same time as each other for most of their meals. They happily joined in with a table of other passengers eating healthy food which was measured out and proportioned so that each passenger could eat what was required to maintain health, body fat, and body muscle.

After lunch, Elizabeth sent messages home, wrote in her journal, and studied everything she could find about Coal Valley, before then going to the fitness center for an hour.

Although she hadn't been overly interested in fitness on her first day, it had quickly become apparent to Elizabeth that everyone exercised to stay in shape and to relieve boredom and stress. In her case, it was afternoon boredom. But in the case of many of the scientists and engineers, it appeared to be stress. Who knew planning to maintain a life-sustaining colony could be so stressful!

After another very quick shower- only using two minutes of water-time! - she was off to dinner

Before Elizabeth knew it, three weeks had gone by.

Now as she hurried down the hallway, she glanced anxiously at her watch. She should be getting ready for bed. Instead she was wandering the halls looking for one of her students.

"Jack!" she called out when she turned a corner and saw him walking ahead of her. "I need your help."

When Jack stopped and turned around to look at her, Elizabeth couldn't help but think about how glad she was that he was on the transporter with her. Other than some awkwardness when they occasionally were getting ready for bed at the same time, or the time that she had walked in on him when he was changing clothes after his work-out, or the time her bra had fallen on the floor in front of him, living with him was . . nice. Nice was how she would have to describe it. She realized that she had truly grown fond of him in just three weeks. She had once asked him if he had a girlfriend back on Earth; his reply that he had no intention of settling down anytime soon, had - for some reason she couldn't fully understand - made her inwardly frown. It was clear to her that Jack Thornton was not a man looking for a wife, or even a serious relationship. And for a reason she didn't want to admit, that made her sad.

"What about his parents?" Jack asked after Elizabeth had explained that she had seen one of her students running down a hallway crying.

"I told them but they seemed more concerned about an experiment they were working on."

"Maybe he just needs some alone time."

"I think what he needs is some not-alone time. I get the feeling his parents have been ignoring him since we left Earth. Yesterday in class, he told me about how he didn't want to move to Coal Valley and leave his friends and family back home. I'm worried about him. Where could he be?"

"Elizabeth, we're on a transporter. He can't exactly disappear."

"He's only seven. What if he opens a door and floats out into space?!"

Jack chuckled. "He can't. Everything is secured. And double secured. But I'll help you find him."

"How?" Elizabeth frowned. "Surveying doesn't work here. He took off his messenger bracelet. I tried the intercom system and he didn't respond."

"There are cameras everywhere on this ship. Come with me" Jack said as he took her arm.

"There he is. Sub-level C. Behind an oxygen tank", Jack said as he pointed to one of the screens. He had taken Elizabeth to the transporter's security office and they were now facing a wall of twenty screens.

Elizabeth looked at the image of the small boy crying as he huddled on the floor. "Thank you, Jack. I'll go get him", she said as she turned to leave the room.

"How about you let me go?"

"No, I'll go. I'm his teacher."

"I'd feel better if I went with you. It can be easy to get lost on that sub-level and there's a lot of equipment and machines. It's tricky to get around."

"You're a good teacher", Jack said sincerely as they walked the sad little boy back to his room twenty minutes later.

"Thanks but it wasn't really teaching," she said with a smile.

"My ma always said that being a teacher was one part teaching lessons and one part being motherly," Jack remarked when they reached the boy's quarters. "I'll let you handle this," he added with a nod to the student.

"Thanks again", Elizabeth called out as Jack walked down the hallway.

He is so nice, she wistfully thought once more before quickly turning her attention to her student.

Two hours later, Elizabeth felt that she had maybe made a difference in her student's predicament.

She had spent more than an hour alone with the boy. Drying his eyes. Hugging him. Helping him make a hologram to his friends back home on Earth and another one to his new soon-to-be friends in Coal Valley.

By the time his parents finally arrived back in their living quarters, Elizabeth had decided she had never met a sweeter boy or a more apathetic set of parents. When they hadn't seemed overly concerned with their teary-eyed run-away son, Elizabeth had used her firmest voice to let them know that she expected better of them.

It was a few minutes past 2300 hours when an exhausted Elizabeth walked down the quiet hallway on her way back to her living quarters.

When the door slid open, the first thing Elizabeth heard was the snoring sounds of one of her roommates. Due to the sleeping roommate and the late hour, she decided not to bother turning on the room's overhead light as she walked the short distance to her locker. Fumbling in the dark, Elizabeth remembered that it was laundry day. The ship's quartermaster would have taken her clothes to wash after she left them in a bag by the door.

I just need a tee-shirt to sleep in. Where do they return them? Oh, our bunks, she remembered.

She pulled off her top and slid her jeans down her legs. Sitting on the bottom bunk, she finished taking them off and then took off her bra.

In the dark, she groped around on the bunk's mattress until her fingers found a small pile of laundry and she felt the soft cotton fabric of a tee-shirt. She loved these tee-shirts which had been provided by the transporter. Each one was labeled with its owner's name to prevent a mix-up in the laundry.

Darn laundry service. They stretched it, she realized as she slipped it over her head. She pulled her hair out from under the neckline and shook it out before pulling the fabric up to her nose and inhaling. Hmm, I like the detergent they used this time. Smells so good.

Elizabeth was too tired to think more about the tee-shirt smell - which seemed slightly familiar. Or to wonder if her other clothes may have also been stretched out in the wash. Within minutes she was fast asleep.

It was well past midnight and Elizabeth was dreaming of Jack when the sound of the room's door sliding open and voices in the hallway woke her.

She turned over on her side and heard the soft footsteps of someone walking to the bunk beds and the sound of the door sliding back into place.

Then she heard the sound of someone taking off their shoes. The sound of clothes landing in a heap on the floor.

Elizabeth wondered which one of her roommates was coming in this late.

Suddenly she caught her breath and lay motionless. The curtain around Elizabeth's bed was moving.

Someone was opening her curtain.

"Jack", came the whisper as the person lifted the covers and started to crawl into the bunk, making the mattress sink down as she continued to move closer to Elizabeth's prone body.

"It's me. Ally", the woman's voice spoke again.

Elizabeth immediately reached out in the darkness and pushed the warm body which smelled of floral perfume and beer off the mattress and onto the floor where the woman landed with a bang.

"Get away!" Elizabeth yelled in disgust.

"What the hell?!"

Elizabeth slammed her hand against the round button on the wall above her head and the room was illuminated.

Elizabeth recognized the woman in a bra and panties sitting on the floor and holding her hand against her head where she had bumped it. It was one of the scientists who dealt with hydration and atmospheric pressure. The slightly tipsy woman picked up her discarded dress and scrambled to her feet.

"Where's Jack?"

"How should I know?" Elizabeth asked in bewilderment.

Not content with the answer, Ally pulled back the rest of the curtain as if Jack were hiding somewhere inside. She peered around but then tipsily stumbled and fell onto the bunk.

"Get off of me!" Elizabeth yelled.

"Ouch! You're on my hair!"

"Get your elbow out of my ribs!"

"You broke one of my nails!"

The two women were so busy stumbling to get out of the bunk that they didn't notice that the door had slid open.

Jack walked two steps into the room and stopped in his tracks. Taking in the situation in front of him. This is odd he thought as he shook his head in confusion.

"Why are you two both in my bed?" he finally asked when neither woman had seemed to notice his presence. "Half dressed?" he added in bafflement.

The two women hurriedly crawled out of the bunk and stood clumsily in front of it. Staring at Jack and then glowering at each other.

"Well?"

"She started it. Tell her to go away", the red-haired woman standing in her scanty underwear declared as she pointed to Elizabeth. She heaved heavily, drawing attention to her well-endowed breasts which were being barely covered in a low-cut bra.

"I am not going anywhere!" Elizabeth responded angrily. "I didn't start anything."

"You were in the bed!"

"I was sleeping! That's what beds are for!"

"Honey, they're meant for a whole lot more than that," Ally said snidely.

Jack crinkled his brow in puzzlement. He honestly had no idea what was going on. The last thing he expected to find when he had entered his living quarters after a long day was two partially dressed women tumbling around in bed.

"Should I leave you two alone so you can have some privacy?" he asked humorously.

Both woman glared at him. Elizabeth put her hands on her hips in indignation while the other woman slipped her tiny dress over her own head.

"I came here to see you," the pretty red-haired scientist proclaimed to Jack. She flipped her hair and ran her hand along her dress in an attempt to regain composure.

"Why?"

"You said that you liked my company," she reminded him.

"Ally, I do like your company. In the racquetball court. For a cup of coffee. Not in my berth", Jack replied in a friendly but slightly bewildered tone.

"But you told me about your sleeping arrangements!" she insisted.

"I was just making conversation", Jack said incredulously. "Talking about the tiny living quarters and my roommates. It wasn't meant to be an invitation. And I didn't mean for you to bother Elizabeth."

"Her?" the women, now herself incredulous, asked as she pointed to Elizabeth. "You like her?! You're with her?! The school teacher?!"

Elizabeth fumed. What's wrong with me?! What's wrong with being a school teacher?! I like being a school teacher.

"Well, no. I'm not with her that way, but –"

Jack paused and gave Elizabeth a curious look.

"What?" she asked in uncertainty. He was looking at her oddly.

"What?!" she asked again.

"Is that my tee-shirt you're wearing?" he asked in a confused voice.

Elizabeth glanced down at her clothing and her eyes got wide in surprise.

"Why are you wearing my tee-shirt to bed?" a bewildered Jack asked. "Why are you wearing my tee-shirt at all?"

"Why you little tart!" Ally said angrily. "You put on his tee-shirt to look sexy and then you crawl into his bed and wait for him!"

"No!" Elizabeth exclaimed defensively. "It was an accident. The laundry. I put it on in the dark," she sputtered. "I thought it was mine."

"It has his name on it!"

"It was dark! I can't see in the dark!"

A puzzled Jack continued to give Elizabeth an odd look. "It's not even clean. I wore it earlier today", he noted.

"It was dark! I thought your smell was a new laundry detergent!"

"I smell like laundry detergent?"

"No. No. You smell nice and you left your smell on your shirt and it smells like your . . . I don't know. . . your aftershave or . . . your sweat", Elizabeth said awkwardly as she tried to comprehend the situation. It didn't help that Jack was still giving her an odd look.

"It was on my berth!" Elizabeth wailed as she pointed to the foot of the bottom bunk.

"That's my berth," Jack replied.

"No, it's my berth." Elizabeth insisted. "I'm on the bottom."

"No, this week you're on the top."

"He's right. It's Jack's bunk. Today's Friday." Seth's sleepy voice entered the conversation as he pulled open the curtain around his bunk.

Friday? Friday! We switch bunks on Fridays. Elizabeth inwardly groaned.

"Perhaps you can pick one of the women and let me get back to sleep, Jack", a tired Seth suggested.

Jack raised his eyebrows and gave the man a look of disbelief. He had no intention of picking one of the women to share his bunk tonight.

Although, if I had to choose, I'd obviously pick Elizabeth, Jack realized automatically.

But we're not going there. Just friends. That's all we are.

"I am not a tart!" a frazzled Elizabeth suddenly exclaimed as she remembered what Ally had called her.

"Whoever is not a tart, please keep it down, I'm trying to sleep", Carl's tired voice came from behind his curtain.

The women ignored his complaint as they jockeyed for position as the winner of this battle for either dignity or Jack.

"You're in his bed wearing his tee-shirt! Probably smelling in his scent like some love-starved desperate woman!" the hot tempered red-haired woman declared.

"How dare you?! I am not desperate!"

"Oh, please. You look like a prim and proper school teacher. Of course, you're desperate," Ally scoffed.

"This is my room! You're the one who crawled into my bunk uninvited!"

"As if someone would want to crawl into your bed", Ally declared in disgust.

"Now, ladies –" Jack tried to interject but Elizabeth was already firing back at her rival.

"Well you did crawl into my bed. And it was un-invited!"

"I obviously thought it was his bed", Ally declared as she looked at Elizabeth in contempt.

"And it is", Jack readily agreed.

Elizbeth glared at him.

"Well, she's correct. It is my bunk", Jack said defensively and then immediately wished that he had kept his mouth shut when he saw the ire in Elizabeth's eyes.

As the two attractive women stood in front of him, his eyes were drawn to the words printed on the bottom edge of his shirt which was resting on Elizabeth's upper thighs. Barely covering her panties. PROPERTY OF JACK THORNTON. A part of him inwardly groaned with frustrated desire.

Elizabeth turned her glare towards Ally who was slipping into her shoes.

"He doesn't even want you! Except for racquetball and coffee! You weren't invited into our room!"

"How would you know what he wants?!"

"Because he just said so!"

"Ladies" Jack interrupted before the women came to blows. "I think we just have had a long day and a simple misunderstanding."

He turned to Ally. "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I think you're a very nice person. But I didn't intend to do anything - um - here", he said as he pointed towards the bottom bunk. "Or - um-there with you," he said as he pointed to the top bunk.

If the room had a door on hinges rather than an automatic sliding one, it would have slammed shut as Ally stormed out of the room.

Elizabeth stood there in shock watching the door slowly glide back into position. She turned to look at Jack in bewilderment.

"I – I -." She had no idea what to say. Somehow in the last five minutes, she had been awoken from her sleep, called a tart, fought over a man, and defended herself from being seen as a desperate woman. All while wearing Jack's tee-shirt that just grazed the tops of her naked thighs.

As her face turned pink in embarrassment, she just wanted to crawl under the covers. Without a word to Jack, she turned and began climbing up the ladder to the top berth.

"Nice undies", Seth declared from his viewpoint on his bunk.

Ohh! Elizabeth slapped a hand onto her bottom as she realized she had given both Jack and Seth a nice view of her derriere.

Jack turned to Seth. "You, close your curtain and go back to sleep," he ordered before turning to look at Elizabeth.

"You can go into the bathroom and change out of that and . . .um . . .put on something of your own if you want. Your stuff is up there. I put clean sheets up there earlier today", he said as he gestured towards the top bunk. "I'll just go outside for a few minutes and um . . . I'll be back in five minutes. I'm sorry that this happened and that she was rude to you," he added quickly before hurrying from the room.

Jack walked a few feet down the hallway, leaned against the wall, and then gently banged his head against it over and over again.

Damn, she looked fantastic in my tee-shirt. That can't be legal.

Definitely shouldn't be legal.

It should most definitely be against the law to do that to a guy.

If you're going to wear a guy's tee-shirt and look like that and make a guy feel like this . . well that's just not right if you're not going to . . .

Elizabeth quickly changed out of Jack's shirt. She neatly folded it and then, while hanging over the edge of her bunk, she dropped it onto his bed.

She pulled her curtain closed and collapsed her head onto her pillow. This had to be one of the worst nights of her life.

Except for one thing.

Jack had said that he wasn't interested in Ally.

And that made Elizabeth smile.

In fact, it totally made up for being called a desperate love-starved prim and proper tart.

If she could add this feeling to her daily schedule, Elizabeth realized that she was going to love being on this transporter.

Up next: Chapter 8