The Northern Seal was a small freighter that looked just like any other from the outside. That meant it was just a big container with the front side open to the vacuum of space, and a few engines strapped to the other end. The ship was just under 200 meters long, so a little longer than the corvette we were currently departing from, although the engine was actually smaller than that of the Fuchsbau.
Between the cargo bay and the engines was where the bridge, crew quarters, kitchen, and other amenities were located. A vessel of that size would normally house a crew of ten to fifteen people, but at the moment, it was only the two of us. That was rather unusual, but not impossible to manage, especially with the modern equipment Noma had installed onboard. However, I still would have preferred if she had hired at least a few additional crew members. If something put one of us out of commission, we could be in real trouble... Also, neither of us was a talented cook.
As we were slowly approaching from the aft of the ship, I looked for the secondary airlock near the crew quarters and found it easily enough. Our ship still had the reactor running, so all the power, and consequently the lights, were turned on. Making my way along the outside of the ship, I was soon standing inside the airlock and waiting for Noma to come in after me. A few moments passed before she was floating beside me and I activated the controls.
With the small room slowly filling with air, I went over to where the EVA suits were stored. One of the transparent doors had 'Captain Noma Felonez' engraved on it. The only other one with a name was right beside that: 'Chief Engineer Melbourne Trench', though most people just called me Mel. It wasn't actually that uncommon to be named after the planet one was born on. Plus, with New Melbourne being only about two decades older than me, my parents had decided to name me after it. I didn't really mind the name.
When the room had filled to breathable levels, I stepped in front of one of the large screens which automatically turned into a mirror, and started getting out of the suit. First up was the top. After opening the clamps that held the helmet in place, I turned it until I could hear the overpressure hissing out of the small slits. A moment later, I opened my mouth a bit and pulled the helmet off. My now free hair, caught by the sudden updraft, flowed out all around me.
From the mirror, a tall girl with very pale skin was looking back at me. New Melbourne only had about 0.5 G of surface gravity, which led to me growing rather tall, along with a few other health concerns I had to be mindful of. Additionally, because I grew up mostly underground, my skin was very sensitive to any kind of radiation and if I ever visited a colony with breathable air, I would probably have to carry around a parasol or wear sunscreen at all times, otherwise, I would risk getting seriously sunburnt or worse. The only spots of colour on my face were my greenish-blue eyes and dirty blonde hair.
Getting out of my suit was rather easy, even if I had gotten more used to the ones in the scrap yard over the years. It had a few buckles and straps above a central zipper, which slider I was now fishing out of its position around my neck. After a few seconds, I got hold of the finicky thing and pulled my suit open.
Looking over at Noma, I saw her doing the same. Physically, she was like someone had taken any word that could have applied to me and chose the exact opposite one for her. She was shorter than average, which meant I was more than a head taller. Her skin had a golden caramel tone, probably from a few generations of growing up in natural sunlight. She had cut her black hair to only a few centimetres short and her eyes had a similarly dark color. Her muscles were also a lot more defined than mine, as growing up in low-gravity environments usually meant poor muscle growth and bone density. I could also see that Noma wore a skintight layer of some grey protective material inside the suit that she was now trying to reach the zipper for at her back. It was probably some sort of bulletproof material or such. I usually just wore normal clothes inside my suit.
“Need any help with that?”
At my question, Noma spun towards me and met my eyes. For a moment, I felt my cheeks heating up a bit, and I thought she would reject my offer, but after a moment, she simply nodded, seemingly oblivious to my thoughts. “Okay. I honestly never understood why they couldn't build these accessible from the front.” She turned around again and presented her back to me. I tentatively took the few steps that separated us and looked for the zipper somewhere near her nape.
My eyes, however, kept drifting down towards her now very visible back muscles. I knew Noma had been in the Marines, so it was obvious she would be well-trained and take care of her body, but knowing something and seeing it were two very different things indeed. Noma, clearing her throat in held-back amusement, pulled my thoughts back toward the task at hand. Thankfully, she wasn’t looking back, or I was sure she would have seen my blushing face at that moment.
Finding the small slider was pretty easy once I overcame the distraction. Actually grabbing hold of it, however, took a few seconds of fiddling around, but soon enough I caught it and pulled the zipper down to just below her waist. From what I could see, Noma only wore a sports bra under it, but I quickly turned around again once I saw it. After that, I finished getting out of my own suit in what I suspect was record time, mumbled something about taking a shower, and made my way inside the ship. Noma, thankfully, didn’t say anything about what just happened.
Taking a shower in zero-g was a very different experience than when under thrust. The water pressure had to be quite high, as otherwise, the surface tension of the water would lead to it just forming an enormous bubble at the shower head, which meant the streams of liquid were hitting my back with quite a bit of force. I kinda liked it that way, though. The drain, meanwhile, sucked along on the floor, releasing the air back into the room and taking the water to the purifiers. All around me, small water bubbles were floating in the air, often combining, before sticking to the walls and being pulled toward the ground.
What I quickly noticed, though, was that I felt quite hot under the shower and not just because of the water temperature. For whatever reason, the image of Noma standing in the airlock, her back turned towards me in nothing but her bra, wouldn’t leave my head. Was this really happening right now? The ex-marine and I hadn’t even known each other for more than a couple of weeks, and, besides the occasional teasing, we had mostly just talked about the job I had been hired for and not much else.
It had somehow never felt like the right time to talk about our private lives, you know? I didn’t even know if Noma was into girls that way. Heck, I wasn’t even sure if I was into girls that way. I mean, I had never really been in a romantic relationship with anyone before, and while my parents would 100% support me (and one of them would probably tease me more than Noma ever could) if I ended up with a girl, I had never really ‘clicked’ with anyone in the past, and not for lack of people trying. Ahhh... why did this all have to be so confusing!
I was so lost in my own head that I hadn’t even noticed the water getting turned off. Apparently, I had wasted today’s water ration wondering if I had developed a crush on my new captain. Which was a shame in my book, honestly. Back home, the one thing we always had more than enough of was water. The almost entirely methane-based atmosphere of New Melbourne meant if the city ever needed more water, we could just burn a few tonnes of air and were set. On a spaceship, no such luxuries existed though, which was why I normally made sure to enjoy the too-brief showers to the fullest. After a few more seconds surrounded by water droplets, I pressed against a specific portion of the shower door, making it slide out of the way and allowing me to step out.
The only part of me that hadn't been cleaned were my feet, as I still wore my mag-boots in the shower. I could have cleaned them normally, but free-floating in the small area often leads to me bonking my head against one wall or another, especially if I had to clean myself while doing it, so I usually showered with my boots on while in zero-g. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who had such problems and almost every ship bathroom was equipped with an automatic footbath for just those circumstances. So, after I wiggled my feet out of my boots and into the machine, I let it work its magic, while I dried myself with a towel and started brushing my hair. That, too, was a rather annoying thing to do in zero-g, but I liked the way my long hair looked, and if my hair ties weren’t getting loose all the time, it shouldn’t normally cause any problems.
After taking care of everything, I put my boots back on and grabbed some loose-fitting clothes out of my room before I decided to grab something to eat. It had been a few hours since my last meal and my body insisted I get something to eat before I went to bed. I had been awake for almost 14 hours at this point, and in the normal 24-hour cycle I operated on, that meant I should slowly get ready for sleep.
As I had said before, neither Noma nor I were particularly skilled in the kitchen and that meant I could either reheat some leftovers from when I tried to make lasagna or look for some snacks we should have floating around somewhere. At that, I finally remembered the few nutri-bars that had mysteriously made the journey from the corvette into my suit pocket and I decided I should at least take them out before I forgot about them again.
Going back to the airlock didn't take long and soon I was standing back in the kitchen area with my bounty in hands. Plopping onto the couch area in one corner, I folded the table out and laid the 3 bars I had on it. Not that they stayed stationary for very long. I grabbed one of them out of the air and read the label... Yep, expired 45 years ago, but it should be fine. Also, a ‘new’ recipe for something called vugari-flavor. I had never heard of it, but the label said it contained animal protein, so maybe some xeno-fauna from one colony or another.
I peeled open the plastic wrapper and looked at the contents. It passed a visual inspection at least, though these bars always looked the same to me. Cautiously, I took a small whiff of the air around the bar. Olfactory test passed as well, so I finally broke off a piece and floated it towards my face, catching it with my mouth. The texture was thankfully what I expected, a bit dry, but not inedible.
My first impression was that of tasteless dry cereal, but after a few seconds spent chewing, a horrible aftertaste spread throughout my mouth. The closest I could describe it as was puke-covered licorice. Rushing over to the sink, I spit the remains into the trash bin near the ground, while grabbing a mug and putting it in the water dispenser. After a few seconds of trying to get that horrible taste out of my mouth, I heard the ping of the machine, grabbed the mug, took a big swig, and swooshed it around in my mouth before spitting it into the bin, as well.
Hopefully, I wouldn't get sick from that.
Of course, it was only at that moment that I realized I wasn’t alone in the room. Noma was floating in the door leading to the crew quarters.
“Wh... How?” I wanted to ask how much of that she had seen, but for whatever reason, my body refused to cooperate. So I just stood there in shock. I could feel my face heating up again, though my words still wouldn’t come out.
“What exactly is going on here?” she asked, amusement clearly written all over her face, a grin she fruitlessly tried to suppress plastered on her face.
