Okay, so I know that this is out of order, but sometimes that's how writing goes. Plus, it's not integral to the story, however, it highlights an important set of scenes between to future protagonists.
This is actually part one of this side story. I plan to have the second part be an intermission around half way, but I do plan to write it soon.
It had been quite a while since Lieutenant Commander (LCOM) Wendy Gallagher had had to fix any software on a ship. Programming has never really been her strong suit, but the mission was critical as the sensors were malfunctioning in the main food storage cargo bay.
The trip had only taken just over a month as Wendy had begun the monthly routine sensor sweep and had discovered unknown biological contaminants that the main sensors were not detecting. After running diagnostics twice, she had determined that somehow the coding was off. She could not find any faults in the hardware.
Frustrated that an initial software diagnostics test found nothing wrong, she pulled up a comm channel to the Med Bay to get someone with medical grade sensors to do a sweep and determine what are the contaminants. She put it on audio only so that she could continue to use the screen to scroll through the endless code.
After a few moments, someone answered, “This is the Med Bay, how can I help you?”
The man’s moderately deep Prussian accent sent her heart into her throat. It had to be Dr. Ulanov. Their awkward moment during the launch party had her avoiding him, worried that she had somehow embarrassed him that night, or even herself. “Uh,” she stammered, and it sounded more like just a guttural sound than it did as she had intended. She then cleared her throat before speaking again. “I, umm, need someone to come down to cargo bay FS-1 with a biosensor and do a sweep.”
“Sure thing. I just need to finish up this report and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Oh, well, you don’t have to bother coming down for such a menial task, you know, being the chief and all.” She wasn’t sure if he had recognized that it was her or not, but she was hoping to avoid another possible awkward moment.
“Oh, it is no bother. I will be down shortly.” With that said, he closed the channel.
Wendy sighed and lowered her gaze from the screen. “Shit.” Without warning, she was flooded with a flashback.
“Don’t tell me. He had a foot fetish, right?” she asked Lieutenant (LTN) Adelaide Stevens who sat across the table from her while the party raged on around them.
Adelaide was an overtly homosexual fellow engineer who specializes in propulsion systems. He is quite young and dashing with a well-manicured look, and had quickly became friends with Wendy, not only from his talents in engineering, but mainly his knack at reading people.
He gasped at her response, widening his eyes in disbelief, “How did you know?”
“Ah, well,” she began before taking a sip of her Cran-Zartini, and then continuing, “I, uh, sort of hooked up with him right after basic training. I was a bit more desperate at the time, and he offered to buy me a drink. When we started getting into it, he asked if he could suck my toes. I was like, ‘Uh, sure,; and as he was sucking on my big toe, he was, you know, getting himself off.” She stated that while making a hand gesture to suggest masturbation with a disgusted look on her face.
Adelaide was just taking a sip of his drink and nearly choked as he laughed and laughed. “Oh, my god, honey, I’m so sorry.” he said before continuing to laugh.
“I didn’t say it, but I was thinking that this guy was batting for the wrong team.”
“Ugh, I don’t understand how some people can still be so far into the closet. Just come out and be happy already! Wooooh!” he exclaimed, dancing to the chorus of the song that had just hit.
“I know, right?” She smiled at him while she took another sip and looked around the room. It was then that she noticed someone new to the party. “Ooh, who is that?”
It took a moment before Adelaide saw of whom she spoke. “Oh, that’s Expert First Class (EFC) Zakhar Ulanov. He is our new chief medical officer.”
Wendy furled her brow not having expected Adelaide to stop. He’s usually pretty quick to divulge what he knows about others. She turned her head to look at him and could see a slight twinkle in his eye, but wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol talking or not. “And?”
Wendy giggled a bit as he shook his head before looking at her and responding, “Well, I don’t really know much about him. He seems to keep to himself, but I don’t think he’s married and I have no idea which team he bats for.”
She has always had a soft spot for doctors. The power that they wield over the terran body is titillating to her. She may joke, but kinks are not beyond her. She then slammed the rest of her drink before standing and saying, “Well, I think it’s time we find out.” She didn’t wait for Adelaide to respond before walking away.
“Go, Wendy! You got this! Wooooh!” he yelled, raising his drink to her and dancing with the song again before finishing it off.
Wendy smiled a sultry smile, putting a bit of panache into her step; really swaying her hips, but when you’re drunk, you don’t realize how ridiculous this can look to others that aren’t as inebriated as you. Wendy was all too familiar with how she would do this, and frankly didn’t care. She had her sights set on her target and nothing would get in her way.
She watched as the doctor avoided her eye contact, quickly raising his hand to try to alert a bartender. That only served to cause her to bolster her efforts, which made her nearly run into a server delivering drinks on roller skates as the party had had a theme about nostalgia. Wendy was wearing her old prom dress which had puffy arms along with some puffy fabric along the cleavage area, and it was a strange color that was like if olive drab had a pastel shade. She likes how it brings out the green in her hazel eyes that is further contrasted by her wild, reddish-orange hair.
There wasn’t much space next to him at the bar, but Wendy cut in between him and the shorter woman standing next to him, causing her to scoff at Wendy which she blatantly ignored by facing the doctor. He gave the briefest side glance to her, but it was very obvious to Wendy that he was brushing her off. This only made her more curious, and she leaned toward him as she said with a big smile, “Hi, I’m Wendy. Are you the new doc I’ve been hearing about?” She knew this approach would throw him off, and to her delight, he suddenly turned to her with a look of interest in his eyes.
“Why, yes, I am Dr. Ulanov,” he responded while holding out his hand to shake hers, which she quickly took hold of and didn’t let go. “I’m curious. What have you heard about me?”
It was obvious to her that he was trying to remove his hand from her grip, and she politely shook it one more time, but with both hands, before letting it go. “Just that you’re the new head doc on deck, and that it’s time to spill some beans so that the rumor mill doesn’t vilify you, although, they might just do that anyhow.” She finished with a giggle, but then was interrupted by the bartender.
“What’ll it be?” the young man asked gruffly, obviously overstimulated with how busy it was.
“I’ll have what he’s having,” she stated, then looking at the doctor.
She could tell that he was nervous with how he stumbled in that moment, causing the bartender to lose his patience and grab a towel to wipe down the counter while he waited.
After clearing his throat he finally answered, “Vodka Zartini, stirred, not shaken.”
This made Wendy raise an eyebrow. “Is that your nostalgic favorite, or your regular favorite?”
“Both,” he answered with a smirk. “It was my mother’s favorite and, also, is sort of a pseudo-heirloom in our family. I don’t even drink, but I drink it for her on special occasions.”
“How mysterious? A Prussian that doesn’t drink?”
“Don’t you mean, how ironic?”
Wendy smirked, knowing that he was hooked. “Well, sure, but now I’m curious as to why you became an exception to the stereotype.”
The doctor smirked and looked away shyly before turning back to her. “Well, we’re not all heavy drinkers, but we are the best at it.”
This made Wendy laugh, not only at his joke, but the fact that he rolled with her slight jab. She was just finishing her laugh as the bartender returned with their drinks. They both picked them up as the doctor thanked the bartender. Wendy held hers out toward him, “What shall we drink to?”
“In Prussia, we say, ‘to our health’.” He then held his up in the same manner.
“To our health it is,” she said as she tapped his glass, looking into his eyes to try and read them. He seemed nervous and was avoiding eye contact a lot, but she thought that she saw some interest in his eyes. They were slightly dilated, however, it was pretty dim lighting for the party.
They both took their sip, although, Wendy continued to drink hers until a certain song started to play. Several decades ago, a trend occurred where the melodies from songs from the 1940’s and ‘50’s were being reused with different lyrics and styles of singing or rapping.
This particular song was her grandmother’s favorite. “Oh my, this was my granny’s favorite! You have to come dance with me!” She quickly slammed the rest of her drink and grabbed his hand, leading him out onto the dance floor. He seemed to resist a bit at first, but had set his drink down and allowed her to whisk him away, although somewhat reluctantly.
The song was more upbeat than the original, and she forced him to dance throughout the entire song. She saw him get into it, even though he’s not a very good of a dancer. She was starting to like him even more, seeing how he was willing to humiliate himself. It felt to her like he was flirting back in a shy way. She was feeling a bit tipsy at that point, and that only fueled her passion.
She convinced him to get more drinks and to join her and LTN Stevens at their table. They continued to talk and get to know each other. At one point, another fellow engineer showed up, but there were no empty chairs, and so Wendy practically threw herself onto the doctor’s lap and let the new arrival have hers.
She laughed and the doctor gave her a polite smile, but she read way more into it than that. While the conversation picked back up, she was trying to slyly slide her hand into his lap. She would slap you if you called her a slut, but when she gets drunk, she gets very forward-thinking, bypassing social barriers.
She thought she had her hand in the right place, but he suddenly shifted and cleared his throat quite loudly. “Excuse me, I need to go use the restroom.”
She frowned a little, but then saw how he was avoiding her eye contact, and this made her scoff. She attempted to make it a quiet one, but her drunkenness caused it to be rather loud, and she immediately stood to let hem leave.
Adelaide had a puzzled look on his face and Wendy just shrugged her shoulders as she sat down. “Did he just blow you off?”
“Psssh, I guess so. I was just trying to feel him up a little. Maybe he doesn’t like PDA.”
“What is P-D-A?” Adelaide asked very seriously.
“It’s something that my grandmother used to talk about. Public displays of affection, or something like that. It used to be taboo up until the early twentieth century.”
“Ugh, how lame. Anyways, we need to go track him down. I need to know why he turned you down.”
Wendy got a wry smile on her face. “Yes, lets!” she giggled, taking both of their hands until they got up to follow her, giggling the entire way.
It took them a little while, but they managed to track him down to a restroom down the corridor from the mess hall at where the party took place. Wendy had knocked on the hatch twice before calling to him.
“I just want to be left alone,” the doctor demanded.
Adelaide and the other engineer couldn’t contain their giggling, and so Wendy quietly shushed them before speaking again. “I just want to know what happened. I thought we were getting along. Are you married or something?”
“I—“ The doctor paused for several moments. “No, but I wish to only be friends.”
Wendy frowned to the others which made them giggle again, but they quickly quieted themselves. “I see. I just thought you found me attractive and maybe wanted to make this mission a bit more fun.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I do find you attractive, but I’ve taken a vow of abstinen—“ He couldn’t finish as he had opened the door and was surprised to see the other two and was immediately embarrassed by their giggling reaction. He was quick to run off.
Wendy sighed as she snapped back to reality and got a lump in her throat as she reluctantly awaited the doctor’s arrival.
Ninety-Nine Novellas (1,600 book pages) is a collection of 99 popular Jay Dubya novellas and the book is the companion work of Ninety-Nine Novellas, Part II.
Snake Eyes and Boxcars, Part II is a collection of 14 sci-fi/paranormal stories and is author Jay Dubya's 13th story collection and is also his 33rd hardcover book.
