Part 1 of a new story…
The first thing I noticed when I arrived on Jupiter Line 9 Station—or JL9 as most people called it—was the vibration. Well, I noticed the gravity too. I’d been in one-eighth gee for the past two years, and now I was at 0.8, near Earth gravity, and even with my biosystem compensating, it was hard to keep my balance or catch my breath. I leaned against the wall just inside the main docking port, now feeling the vibration through my whole body instead of just my feet.
“You’ll get used to it.” A voice said. I looked around, not seeing anyone. “I’m JL9, the station AI. You can call me Jupil. Most do. Should I call you Kirin, or do you want to go by Watkins, Engineer Watkins—.”
“Kirin is fine.” I cut the AI off. My transport ship’s AI was chatty too. It was all the rage in-system, and apparently now reaching the outer planets. I preferred the polite, almost butler-like AIs we had out in the asteroid belts, but we didn’t have as much time to chat as they do in these more stable environments.
“Okay, Kirin. That’s a lovely name by the way. You’re in quarantine right now. Just keep going down the halls until you find an open door. That will take you right into medical. Dr. Fliss will give you the once over, clear your space germs, and give you all our local germs.” I almost laughed. I knew it was protocol, but with biomods, we all had pretty good control over our bodies. I hadn’t been sick since I was ten, a little over fifteen years ago, and even then it was just a cold.
“I’m assuming you mean the doc is going to upload the correct antibody schematics to my biosystem? You’re not some natural immunity station are you? There was nothing about that in my contract.” The station AI simulated a laugh.
“Oh no, Kirin. You’re correct. Just a standard upload and remodulation of your biosys. You engineers are always so precise. Did you enjoy you last job? I hear my brother is coming along nicely out at Pluto.”
“Your brother…?” I started slowly walking down the hallway to what appeared to be a left turn. “Oh, you mean Pluto Observatory? I helped get the main reactor online. It takes forever to get a lot of mass out there, and we can only fab so much without a fully functional station. I was out in the Belts supervising fabrication of backup cores before your contact came along. I’ve never worked on a dangle-line power plant before, not to mention one of the biggest in the solar system.” I really was interested in the tech. It was fairly new, only fifty years old, and the giant carbon nanolines that dangled down into the Jupiter’s upper atmosphere provided massive amounts of power to the stations and terraforming project on Europa. JL9 was the third largest power station in orbit, and one of the newest. My time on station would mean I could pick my next jobs—and increase my fees—with no question. “You know Pluto’s station AI won’t be up for another six months Earth Time, right?”
“Of course, of course. The rest of my brothers and sisters were trying to come up with a good nickname for him. I like that they picked Jupil for me, but what the heck do you with Pluto Observatory? Plobs? Plover? What? It’s terrible, really.” I let the AI blather on, rounding the corridor and seeing an open door a few meters down the hall. This would have all been so much easier in one eighth gee. I pushed on, and finally stepped inside a small glass room. The door slid shut behind me.
“Ms. Watkins?” A woman in a medical coat stepped into view. She was wearing diagnostic glasses made to look like antique 20th century corrective lenses, glass and all, but what surprised me was her skirt, stockings, and heels. Things you just couldn’t wear in low gravity environment, something I hadn’t seen since I left home years ago. “I’m Dr. Fliss. I’m glad to see you made it down her okay. I know the gravity transition can be hard.”
“We were under acceleration for a good bit on my trip. It built up my bones and muscle a bit.” The doctor nodded.
“Can you take off your clothes and put them in the disposal bin, please? I’m assuming you have no personal items on your person?”
“I know the cross-contamination protocols, doctor. All my stuff is in going through the cargo hold decon unit.” I kicked off my deck boots, more slippers really, and unzipped my travel jumpsuit, slipping out of the sleeves and letting it fall. The doctor’s eyebrow rose at seeing my bare breasts, the little tuft of black curls peeking out from where jumpsuit sat low on my hips. Why would I wear underwear if it was only going to be destroyed? Not to mention, up until ten minutes ago, I hadn’t been in a strong enough gravity well to make a bra necessary in years. I pulled my jumpsuit off the rest of the way, almost falling over in the new gravity, but managed to get everything in the bin. I watched the bin disappear into the floor to be converted into component molecules, if not incinerated, and looked back to the doctor.
“Well, if you know the drill, the next part should be familiar. Just keep breathing normally, or deeply, if you wish…it doesn’t really matter. Just don’t hold your breath.” The chamber started filling with cool nano-mist, and I breathed deeply and slowly, letting the machines do their work of removing anything that might make me or other people on the station sick. My nipples got hard in the cool mist, and I recalled I hadn’t had sex in almost four months. All the people on my transport were sleepers…locked up in cryobeds, and the pilot was a true married man. I mean, he had three wives back on Mars, so I knew he liked sex, but he wouldn’t cheat on them. The mist started clearing. “Okay, that takes care of that. I’m beginning scans now.” I was bathed in a series of colored lights, heard some humming, a lot of which I knew was just for show, but people liked to think technology made noise. “When did you get your biosys?” Dr. Fliss asked.
“When I was thirteen.”
“That’s a bit late, isn’t it?”
“That’s Earth years, not Mars.”
“Oh, given your build I took you for Martian.” I had no idea if she meant my height or my boobs, but I could see her point. I was just a little shy of 1.8 meters, and my breasts were big for someone in who did a lot of space travel. Big boobs were just extra mass. “Anyhow, your biosys isn’t on file. Probably because of the Earth make and model. It’ll still take all the necessary uploads, but we have rules on the Station about behavioral modifications, of which I can’t get a readout.”
“I read the contract. I don’t have any combat modifications, leadership, or political mods.” I said, knowing everyone was worried about hostile takeovers, piracy, that sort of thing.
“Good to know, but I may be calling you back in here for behavior redaction if you’re lying. We’ll find out as soon as we get the next transmit from Earth.” She said it as a warning. She tapped the side of her glasses, and I felt my head buzz from the upload request for my biosys antibody upload. I accepted the request and watched as the glass walls slid into the ceiling. “Welcome aboard, Engineer Kirin Watkins.” She held out her hand and I brushed it. Shaking hands in low gee could throw someone into a wall, and the habit stuck in places even with near-normal gravity. “There’s a fab unit over there so you can get some clothes.” She pointed to the corner of the medical suite.
“You can call me Kirin, by the way, doc. Everyone does.” I went to the unit and programmed in a pair of slippers, put them on, and went back to the doctor.
“Do you, um,” she looked me up and down, as if it was the first time she was seeing me naked, “not know how to use the fab unit?”
“I was just hoping you could point me to the showers.” I said. “I haven’t bathed with water in a long time, and that is one major selling point in a high-grav job.”
“Oh, um, yes, well…there’s a communal shower near your quarters,” she handed me a wrist computer and I snapped it on. “Jupil will guide you there, or your wrister can in dumb mode, but don’t you want a robe at least? I mean, were not moralists here, but surely you wore clothes in the belt?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of how it is out in the belts, right? It’s not like the TV sims—not everyone is sleeping with everyone, not nearly as much drama, but there’s a lot of nudity. Everyone on the rocks work, and we dump our actual clothes before the work zones, donning skinsuits due to radiation and dust exposure only in the airlocks. Working the surface of the rocks, or even maintaining fabbed modules, you got exposed to a lot of bad stuff. So, after you come back in, off come the skinsuits, not that they hide much to begin with, into the misters you go, which is about as close as you can get to your fellow man, and then you’re off shift. Sometimes we went to the work zone bars in the nude, but all they had was beer. So, most of us would get dressed and leave the zone before going out to have fun. No one can really be shy in that kind of environment.”
“I suppose things are just different out there.” Dr. Fliss said. “Still, Jupil can add a shower onto your quarters if you like that sort of thing.” I nodded and moved toward the exit as Dr. Fliss added, “People may stare. I just want to warn you, between your, well, openness, and your…” She looked down between my legs.
“My bush? It’s the new fashion out there, you know, on Earth too, again, I heard. It may be the one time the Belt and Earth are on the same page.” I laughed.
“I’ve implemented a voluntary effort to limit body hair via biosys…it’s good for the life support systems.”
“Well, if it’s voluntary,” I ran my fingers through my bush, “I think I’ll keep it.” I almost laughed at seeing the doctor’s eye twitch. I didn’t really care, but her attitude was bothering me for some reason. I was young enough that stirring up a little trouble still amused me, so I called up the navigation to the showers on my wrister, told the doctor goodbye, and padded out into the hall in my slippers.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/349wtp/power_management_part_1_scifi_enf_bd_ff_voy
More please. This is excellent.
More please?