The Space Freighter Libereco — Cookie is Planetside— Part 1

 “Kokidoj. I don’t know which I hate more the smell or their clucking?”  You say as you move between the cages, picking up loose ovoj.  You enjoy the fact you have live kokidoj laying fresh ovoj, but their smell and noise as the “Libereco” transports them and a small flock of safoj and kaproj to an outer colony, is almost more than you can take. You fill your basket and then head to the galley. 

“How many did you gather this time, Cookie?” The Skipper hollers down for walkway. “Oh, about a dozen. Are you sure the client is only paying for the livestock? If I didn’t mind the smell and the noise, we could probably make some extra valutos just selling ovoj. Especially to other ships.” you say with a smile.

“If we did something like that, you’d be responsible for their care and feeding.” The skipper says with a wicked grin. “I’d have Meko or Kurgio do the sales.”

“I don’t know which is more insulting skipper, me tending the livestock or you making our mechanic and doctor into salesmen.” You respond with mock anger.

She laughs “Probably Both.” Her laugh is one of honest joy. You enjoy seeing the Skipper happy. On the walkway, as you get closer to her, you say in a low tone, “Skipper you never did tell me what happened to all of the cokolada sauce and vipkremo. I don’t mind you and your guest eating all of the leftover gulaso. But when Kurgio told me we had to replenish cokolada and vipkremo while still at the Pleasuredome, it raised a couple of questions.” “And what are those questions?” she responds also in a low tone. You lean in closer and almost whisper, “Does his cock taste better with or without them? And did he lick all of the sauce from your pussy before you showered?”

The Skipper’s face turns red with embarrassment. “How did you know?” “You forgot to turn off the galley security cam. I normally only review the vids if we have passengers or I suspect fibesto onboard. Imagine my surprise when I see you and Oficiro Lee enjoying the galley, naked. To your credit Skipper, you did the right thing, cleaned up afterwards, and ordered me to restock. I just didn’t expect to see you sucking a Maristo’s cokolada covered cock.”

You lean against the railing, still holding the basket of eggs. “Cookie, does everyone know?” Shaking your head. “The crew knows you and Oficiro Lee have a relationship. That’s an open secret. You both are discreet about it. Making things look good and working it to both of your mutual advantages. I’m just unhappy you had sex in the galley. We all have to eat there. You could’ve taken the food to your cabin and had ‘food play’ there. Helm and Navs do it that way. I told them if I caught them using the galley for anything other than eating, they would have to explain what they were doing and why, to you.”

Skipper blinks for a second, “So they just…” “Take the cokolada, vipkremo, katsupo, mustardo, or whatever kondimentoj they want to pour and lick off of each other to their cabin, or the showers. Didn’t you wonder why sometimes you find empty containers in the shower trash?” you respond with a mischievous twinkle in your eye. “Thank you for the update, Cookie. The next time there is an increase in the use of kondimentoj while we are on a run, please inform me so we can ensure to restock when we are able. I think I need to talk to our pilot and navigator.” She says with a smile. “Oh, really Skipper? Thinking of putting things on auto and having a threesome?” you joke. “You just focus on our next meal and I’ll handle the ship.” she says in a mock serious tone as she heads for the con.

“Aye, Aye, Skipper.” you respond as you continue to the galley.

You like the Skipper. You have known her for a few jaros. She is a good-looking woman, and if she wasn’t your friend, you wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with her, but you know she prefers men, and really has a good relationship with Oficiro Lee, even if all they are just “fuck buddies”. You almost told her that watching the vid on your minividi of them having sex, made you wet. Watching her mouth on him and, better yet, her legs spread as he licked her, made something that you would enjoy watching, if you just needed something to masturbate to. Heck you wouldn’t have minded being a third in that one, sucking, licking, fingering, and riding both. But Lee really isn’t your type.

You prefer some of the farm colonists. Big, hairy, and in need of loving. Luckily while at the Pleasuredome, you indulged your fantasies for both men and women by having the cyberslut change gender and appearance a couple of times before you were fully satisfied.

In the galley, you put the ovoj in their storage bin. Then you touch the screen of the galley’s vid and pull up a recipe search. Scanning through some old and unfamiliar ones, you found something called “egg salad”. Supposedly it could be eaten on bread or “as-is”.
“If we have too many ovoj, I might make some ‘egg salad’ for the crew. But that is only if I get tired of having fresh ovoj to add to my other recipes first.” You say as you exit the recipe search on the galley’s main vid.

Kurgio comes into the galley and makes himself a cup of herbal tea. “How are you doing, Cookie?” he asks. “Should I make you a cup too, while I am at it?”. You shake your head. “No thanks. I am just wondering what I should start preparing for the next meal. We have lots of ovoj. More than I anticipated during this run.”

His tea is ready. He lifts it to his face, smells the warm vapors, and takes a sip. “Mmmmm perfect.” He sits down at the table, across from you. “Everyone is happy that you are able to cook with fresh ingredients instead of konservita. And it is better for us too.”

“I know Doc, but after a while I am having flashbacks of being in the kitchen with my ma and grana Making things on an old solar stove. Being 8 or 9, and shown how to clean and butcher game. The wild game that my pa and granp had to trap or hunt in the hill country of a little rim world. Well, it’s not a rim world anymore.” you say sitting down almost lost in thought.

“Weren’t you part of a larger settlement? Or near a city?” he asks with genuine curiosity.

You stand up, “Maybe I will have a cup of tea.” you say as you grab a mug and drop in a couple of tea cubes. The steaming water causes the cubes to separate, and the compressed leaves to mix with the water. You stir with a spoon to ensure that the cubes dissolve completely. Sitting back down you sip the steaming liquid. “Ma showed me how to grow, harvest, and dry our own herbs and spices. She would have been disappointed seeing me use cubes like ‘those damn city folk’.”

Kurgio sips his herbal tea. “You never really talk about your past. But then again, no one here really does. Given your skills with organizing and computers, I always thought you went to one of the UGA Skill and Trade schools.”

You get a real far away look in your eyes as think back. “That’s a good guess Doc. I must have been somewhere around 12 when the Uggos came and rounded up all of the “hill people”. They came into the area, glassed all of the houses, and relocated everyone to the nearest city.”

“Your family had been on one of the Charter worlds before the Uggos ‘unified and civilized’. I was probably about the same age as you when my father taught me about ‘Unification and Civilization. Light and Knowledge brought to the Darkness and Ignorance of the Rim.’ My father was a surgeon at a central UGA hospital. He and my mother pushed me into medicine. They were so proud when I excelled at my studies and graduated near the top of my med-school class. But he was so angry at me when I told him I didn’t like the Core and hated hospitals. ‘What are you going to do, waste your talents on the rim, or worse become some quack ship’s doctor?’.” He drinks deeply from his mug and sets it down.

“I always figured you’d come from the Core.” you comment as you take another sip. “But at least your parents enjoyed what they did. Before I was shipped off to the UGA school with other ‘hill children’, my family was moved into housing, given jobs, and my grans were given pensioj. I didn’t really see them for the next few jaros. During holidays, when the schools were on break and we were allowed to come home, I was shocked by the change in my parents. The joy and spirit were gone, but factory work’ll do that to you.” You drink deeply again. The hot tea burns the back of your throat, but that is less painful than the memories.

Kurgio asks “What about your grandparents?”

You smile at that. “That is the only good part. My grans threw in with other’s from the hills, and opened a restaurant. It was just a little place, but you had all of these old granas and granps cooking and serving food like they had in the hills. There were rumors that folks left the city and went poaching, or worse trapped meat within the city. But these olds had greenhouses, and used their valutos from their pensioj to buy what they needed. The Uggos tried to shut them down from time to time because of the wrong license or bad papers.” and you finish your mug.

“Ah. Now that makes sense.” Kurgio says as he gets up and washes his mug. “To keep the kitchens open, they needed paperwork that passed Uggo inspection. So how many of your classmates helped with this, or was it just you?”

“Doc, you know I am a team player, so of course all of us “hill children” used our ‘Skills and Trades’ to make the necessary paperwork so our grans didn’t have to worry. They kept their restaurant open, and we “kids” kept them off the Uggo screens.”

You get up and wash your cup too.

In a low tone, he says, “That explains your views on Uggos. I’m sorry what happened to your people.” You respond in a louder tone, “Yeah, aren’t we all. Well enough of that. What should I make for the next meal?” “Is there something that your grana would make with all of these ovoj?” he asks with a smile.

“I really don’t know, Doc. The only time we had an ovo was if we took it from a bird’s nest. And she would use it in her baking or making fresh krespoj in a skillet. Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.” you tell him.

By the time it’s vespermango, you decide to make “flapjacks”, a type of krespoj, but using an older recipe where ovoj is the main ingredient. You should already have jeleo and siropo in the pantry, as long as no one used it during sex.

As the ship gets closer to its destination, Navs asks to brief everyone while you are all seated around the table in the galley. “Helm and I have been looking at the vidis really closely. We might be in for a rough ride, as we try to put in planetside. There is an asteroid field just outside of its orbit, but it is a danger to ships. Apparently, we caught links and vids of folks who weren’t prepared or were overconfident.”

Helm stands up next to her and rests his hand on her shoulder, “Skipper, we counted at least 4 husks of bigger transports that didn’t make it. What makes it worse is they’re a navigation issue for final approach. They’re breaking up and spreading debris in orbit. Meko, I know you tell me our outer plates can take most of whatever we will find in the atmos, but this junk in orbit could cut us to ribbons if we time it wrong.”

Skipper leans forward with her hands folded on the table. “Okay Folks. What’s the plan? We have a hold full of livestock, and a client with valutos. What are our options?”

Navs grabs the main vid and touches the screen. “If we come on the pole side of the planet, we should be out of the path of the ships, but there are still objects in orbit near there. We can time it to minimize anything hitting us.”

Skipper takes the vid and looks at the flight path. “Okay, what prep do we need? If there wasn’t a danger, you would have just filed it and flown it, but you called us all together so what need to be done?”

Helm requests the vid. “May I Skipper?” Taking it, he enlarges a patch. “We said there was less debris, but there is still some. So, Meko, we need to be ready to patch anything that goes through the hull. Kurgio, we don’t think there will be any casualties, but you should be ready. Cookie, we think you might have to be ready to do an emergency drop of the cargo hold. Are you comfortable piloting it, if we have to cut it loose?”

You exhale a slow breath for a moment. “We haven’t had to disconnect the hold or use the hold engines for a long time. Will they even work?”

Miko stands up excitedly, “Of course they will work. I keep every system on this ship ready to go. The cargo engines are part of the emergency systems. I check them as often as I check the escape boat.”

“Ok. Skipper, how do you want us to play it?” Helm asks.

She leans back for a second. “I like the plan. How much time do we have before we hit atmos?”

Navs clicks on the vidi showing eta of about 12 hours, “Thanks.” says Skipper “Okay that gives us time to prep our sections. You mentioned positions for everyone, but me.”

“You have two roles. 1. Be the floater who can help Meko or Kurgio as needed, and 2. make the call to blow the cargo connectors. Without the cargo hold, we are thinner and about a third smaller, which means..”

“Which means we are a smaller target entering atmos, and less mass to maneuver while making planetfall.” She finishes.

With a quick look around the table she asks, “Does anyone have any comments or thoughts?”

You notice a lot of silent, shaking heads.

“I need to familiarize myself with the cargo engine controls again. It has been more than a jaro since I piloted anything.” you say.

Skipper stands up. “Okay folks let’s get things ready. If you need help prepping things, call out.”

Everyone agrees and goes to their areas.

(Return for Part 2 when you pilot the Cargo Pod Planetside)