It was always hot in the engine room, but rarely ever like this. Dithy suffered from memory flashes of when she was in the orphanage, spending her days in the heat of summer after the air conditioning had burned out. That suffering barely prepared her for this.
As lead mechanic, it was her job to keep the power levels stable. The heat from the turbine engines had turned her world into a cauldron. Steam poured through every seam of the fuel pipes, and reactor coils, as Dithy struggled to keep her mind focused. Her body was drenched with sweat. She had to strip off her jumpsuit, wearing only her underwear which was also soaked through.
She wasn’t alone.
Every menial and deckhand was bare chested, or stripped to their underwear just to find some measure of comfort. Dithy was furious. They hadn’t had enough time to shut down the engines, prior the emergency jump, causing a bleed-through conversion effect. The heat that surged through the reactor was spiking, and it sent shrills of energy through the entire room.
Under normal circumstances, the engines would’ve been shut down entirely, and slowly spun back up. Conditions outside the ship undermined those safety protocols. The captain demanded the engines be kept online, and more power diverted to steer them away from whatever calamity was upon them.
Dithy was hung over, yet fear and desperation kept her senses sharp. The nuclear fission of her reactor was on the verge of catastrophe, even with all the systems fail-safes. Multiple times Dithy had signaled the bridge for permission to initiate an emergency shut down. She was about to do it anyway, another ten minutes and a meltdown might’ve been unavoidable. Once the all clear finally arrived, Dithy gasped a sigh of relief and began the emergency shutdown manually.
The secondary generators ignited as the control rods slammed into the main rector. Lights flickered during the power switch, and coolant reserves were pumped into the engine turbines. Within five minutes the rampant heat reached its crescendo, and slowly began to relent. Dithy slammed her rounded butt cheeks onto a nearby chair, and watched as the readouts on all the screens slowly shifted from bright red to yellow, and finally drift into the green.
Her copper skin glistened in the emergency lights, her sharp nipples were clearly visible through the linen of her bra. She nearly fell asleep now that the reactor was under control. The other technicians were starting to feel more relieved as well, although a few kept at their stations.
“I need a vacation,” Dithy moaned out loud. She brushed her auburn hair back, and slowly got back on her feet.
“We’re ready to restore the reactor back to normal levels, all systems will be restored in eight minutes,” one of the mechanics sounded exhausted. Dithy looked over to him and offered a coy smile.
“Lets…not do that again,” Dithy’s shoulders slumped, and goosebumps tickled her skin as a waft of cold air brushed against her cleavage. Crisp cool air washed over her naked flesh, forcing her to zip up her jumpsuit.
“I don’t think we can do that again, even if we wanted to,” another mechanic spoke her concern before relinquishing her station.
Dithy knew she was right. The reactor hadn’t been tested under such duress, and they all had barely kept it from getting out of control. The challenge did bring with it some new opportunities however. Dithy was already doing the math in her head, considering new protocols and programs that could be designed specifically to help manage this kind of scenario. It would take time, but it would be a decent distraction during her, normally boring, work shifts.
Once everything was secure, Dithy was loosened up from what seemed like hours of toil. After dismissing herself from the engine room, the first thing she did, after returning to her room, was take a long needed shower. She even re-programmed the shower terminal to give her an additional allocation of water, without paying for it.
Dithy knew it had to be her imagination, but she could’ve sworn that she could still feel Journey’s essence swimming in her gut. Her nether lips were still swollen and quivering, her body felt tainted from the comfort officer’s scorching hot seed. Dithy’s cheeks were flustered just thinking about it.
Something didn’t seem right. The way Journey had over powered her, pinning her to the bed and plunging her immaculate rod deep within her groin, didn’t fit the programming she should’ve received in the hibernation pod. It wasn’t like Dithy had much experience altering brain patterns, and rewriting behavior, but she specifically remembered choosing the subservient masochist settings on the pod. Dithy couldn’t help but wonder, however did Journey become so…threatening?
Once she had finally recollected herself, Dithy put on a fresh jumpsuit and left the comfort of her private chambers. The hallways were largely empty, although all the terminals and wall monitors were displaying advertisements for the crew. After the stress of the emergency jump, everyone wanted to let loose. Dithy could only imagine that the casino, and lounge area was filled to the brim.
No one was in her path on the way to the hibernation pods, which was a relief. Upon entering the room, she looked carefully back and forth, half expecting Stimy to be nearby. Once she was sure that no one was near she activated the terminal of the very pod Journey had occupied. She used a secret account that was set up as a backdoor in the event of an issue with the administrator login. It was a small security vulnerability that only Dithy knew about, and she kept it that way.
Once logged in, Dithy scrolled through the logs, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes scanned through each of the protocols, all of which she enabled. Only one, the green protocol, was blocked, even from administrator access. That was surprising, and somewhat disappointing, but hardly relevant at the moment. Dithy was more concerned with the behavioral adjustment settings, and scanned through the associated logs to determine what might’ve gone wrong.
That’s when her stomach dropped. She downloaded a copy of the logs before rushing down the hall. She sent a private message to Rise on her handheld terminal, begging him not to mess around with her. Under no circumstances could he be in the same room!
