Bacterial Invasion

One special consideration of long-term travel was the seeming redundancy of needing to split several departments into both their zero-g version and their artificial-g version. Centrifugal **** in the outer ring provided the most serious and continual of a planet-like environment while the main body of the ship remained enacted upon by slow and continual thrust that didn't fully abate the zero-g but did at least give a sense of up and down. Varying gravity had varying effects on life. Humans, intimately familiar with this, had planned out mandatory periods in the ring for all main-deck crew. The crew that were expected to live and work in the ring didn't have to spend too much time in the main ship, but it was where most of the people, and most of the dining happened.

That's not to say that time in the ring was a vacation for those that worked in the ship. Being a gravity well meant that the ring worked very well for a lot of jobs, ones done better in the ring than on the main ship or that couldn't be done at all in the main ship. If you were unfortunate enough to be doing zero-g work in the main ship and couldn't find work in the ring that compared, you could usually expect to push a mop.

For Anthony Darma, well, he was a botanist. While some plants thrived in zero-g more than in gravity, most humans couldn't claim the same. He slept like shit, usually, but it was the kind of sleeping like shit that he was used to at a certain point. To be moved out to the ring labs for a few months, to suddenly be able to sleep in a bed you didn't have to be strapped to and get a full eight-to-ten, it threw things out of wack. The first week was going to be the hardest, as usual, but the permanent feeling of jetlag was making it hard to behave like a normal human being.

And Jade was not showing him much pity in that regard.

Jade, his boss, the woman with a zero-g haircut and a gravity-well outfit. Hair and clothes weren't really the usual class thing in space, you didn't have the hierarchies where the rich wore the fancy suit and the poor wore the coveralls. You wore what you wanted unless your job needed a uniform, and you wore your hair in a way that didn't make problems. Anthony liked to push the boundary of how long he could wear his and still get away with it, and nothing fit him that much better than his lab coat or jumpsuit. Jade wore her hair skull-tight and bleached for fashion and wore skirts and untucked dress shirts. A pair of luxuries that zero-g work environments didn't afford.

And when he arrived through the ring botany doors thirty minutes late, he blinked his eyes to push through the sudden rush of humidity to glasses he wasn't used to wearing to find her sitting at her usual desk, staring down from the sealed lab door at the top. The second he caught her eye, she smiled and gave him the universal gesture of "come here" with one of her dark fingers. He slipped into his lab coat and hopped up the steps to her door. He wasn't too excited to be visiting her office to be dressed down, per se, but he was also late enough that taking any more amount time to get there was only making things worse.

She let him in and locked the door behind him with the push of a button, then shuttered the viewing windows with another. High school never really ended for most people, and it was better not to have everybody see you getting yelled at, even if they were going to whisper about it anyway. Jade wasn't really a "yelling" person, but he got the feeling she was also reaching the end of her rope with him.

"Mr. Darma," She started, her contralto voice touched by some slight hint of an accent that her parents had come to honestly, but that she'd only picked up partially, "You're starting to establish a very consistent time to arrive late."

"I'm sorry, it's the old schedule and the gravity."

Her jet-black painted lips curled into a wry smile, "Oh no! I understand the reason, Mr. Darma. It's just that it only takes most of my staff a few days, this is a week for you, now."

"I... skipped my last cycle in the ring, we were busy in the botany department and I didn't want to leave Rhys-"

Jade pushed her chair back and stood up, it was rare to actually stand next to her, he always forgot how much taller than him she was. Thomas, average-ish heigh as he was, was still a foot shorter at least. Her bony, almost gaunt frame was draped with a soft yellow dress shirt and a flat iron-grey pencil skirt. Either she was very aware of what she looked like and tried to maintain the appearance of some almost specter-like entity, or she simply wore whatever she first grabbed that the presence of gravity empowered her to wear.

"Mr. Darma, I grew up in low gravity, I understand the difficulty it can cause-"

She wasn't lying, she was one of the first generation born back before departure to have spent more time off of Earth than on it. He wasn't certain the full scale of her travel, but it had been enough for her to develop a tall, gangly skinniness that managed to look almost alien. While that might have made her intimidating to some, her friendly air tended to overpower it. As well as a series of well-honed behaviors she seemed to have mastered that she used to hide her full height when she didn't want the effect of it. For her to be standing, towering over him by a full foot at least, she wanted to make an impression. But it also wasn't like her to scare people on purpose.

"-but there's also a point where you've pushed me past what I can tolerate."

Her wording was excessively dramatic too. This wasn't a firing, there was no reason to make such a scene if this was one. She was going for effect, everything about how she was approaching this very obviously screamed that she was trying to scare him.

Didn't mean it wasn't working.

"I-I understand your grievances-" He started, suddenly feeling smaller than he had before.

"You do?" She asked, pulling out her rolling chair to the side of her desk so that she could sit mostly face-level with him, crossing her legs, "That's good. Now, what do you intend to do about it?"

Anthony paused, "H-how do you mean?"

Her smile deepened as she uncrossed her legs, "I mean, how are you going to make it up to me?"

He had heard... rumors... about Mrs. LeRoux having relationships with the men who worked under her before, but he usually didn't think about that while on the job. It was best not to assume flirtation where none lay. That said, she had phrased things in a fairly unsubtle way.

She let a velcro slipper slide off of her nylon-covered foot and prodded his crotch suddenly with her toes.

"You know, the beauty with most of the boys that work botany is that, if I flirt with them, they start acting like they're back in high school. You're quite red, Mr. Darma. Is it hot in my office?"

Anthony cleared his throat, "You're coming on a bit strong, Jade."

She frowned, "I thought I was getting better at it."

"There's no easing into it, there isn't much play to it. You're acting like we're in a porno and I'm here to clean your pool."

Jade rolled her chair over to him and pulled him down into her lap, running a hand through his hair and kissing him on the forehead, then the lips.

"In my defense, I am... outrageously wet right now," She breathed.

"You are insatiable, Mrs. LeRoux."

"And you are late, Mr. Darma."

There was a pinging at the door, Anthony hovered his lips next to Jade's for a moment before standing up. He was pitching a tent, one hard enough to mean that he didn't have any great hiding options. He ducked into Jade's private bathroom and mostly closed the door. Jade pushed her chair back in front of her desk and slipped her wedding ring back on.

"Come in," In less than a dozen seconds, any hint of excitement had been pushed out of her voice. She was pretty good at this by now.

After the door opened, the sound of wheezing and coughing filled the room and clued Anthony in that it was likely Rhys. The old man, now well past the point that conventional space travel was recommended for, sounded like he was fighting a losing battle with the reaper every time he stepped into the gravity well.

"Mrs. LeRoux, I was told Anthony was in here."

"He stepped into the bathroom for a moment, is it something urgent?"

"Nothing, just give this to him when he's done. His eyes only."

"And you're going to leave it with me? I guess the zero-g botany team isn't keeping any secrets that important."

"Ha!" Rhys spat a coughing laugh, "He knows the code, you can take all the time you want trying it, but I'm getting out of the fucking ring while you do."

"Don't let the door kill your entire crop of beans on the way out again!" Jade teased as Rhys shuffled out and the door closed and re-locked behind him.

Anthony slipped back out of the bathroom, Jade was prodding the surface of the datapad Rhys had left behind. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to him, contradicting her returning smile.

"First time the password wasn't nephrite or jadeite, what could you boys be trying to keep from me?"

"Knowing Rhys, nothing interesting, just a strain that will totally kick your guys' ass in the next contest."

"Don't you trust me, Mr. Darma?" Jade threw a dramatic hand to her forehead, "Isn't our love real enough to transcend petty workplace squabbling?"

"I thought I told you when I first showed up," Anthony responded in a faux-grizzled drawl, "You're a knockout dame, but my first love was always to the zero-g labs."

"Hmm," Jade tapped her pen to her lips, even as the playful softness returned to her face, there was still some element to her that seemed bothered by the secrecy, "Afraid I'll have to punish you for your corporate espionage, Mr. Darma."

Jade rolled her chair back and Anthony obligingly slid under her desk. He rolled up her pencil skirt as far as he dared to, at least up until the point where he could comfortably press his face between her legs. She made a small, soft noise as he prodded her crotch with his nose, then pressed his lips against the nylon covering her panties and kissed softly. That his lips came away wet was a testament to how little she'd been exaggerating earlier.

"Are these good tights?"

"Would I be dumb enough to wear good tights on a day like today?"

With a well-practiced motion, he grabbed the crotch of her tights with both hands and split the nylon up to the waistband without tearing them all the way. They would be baggier now, having a hole in the crotch to remember him by, but she wouldn't struggle to keep them up all day. He pressed his face back against her panties, getting the desired long, delighted exhale. She was soaked, enough so that those panties seemed uncomfortable. He pulled them to the side to relieve her discomfort. The dark brown lips of her sex, slick with strands trailing to her legs and askew panties, called his tongue to them almost primally. With his tongue, he prodded and pushed his way to revealing the vibrant, eager pink inside. She let out another pleased exhale and grasped his hair with one of her hands as she toyed with her personal computer. Flicking his tongue against her clit got a little sharper of a breath, caused her fingers to grasp a little tighter, but still she mostly kept up the appearance of work. How good or legitimate of work she was actually getting done, that remained to be seen. Her legs twitched, threatening to close, but he placed a hand on the inside of each thigh, holding his face firmly in place where she'd asked for it. Her face was flushing, it was a good thing her windows clouded on command, even if she wasn't bent over her desk.

The door pinged again, in another well-rehearsed motion her hand left Anthony's head and he jerked, almost slamming against the rear of the desk. He sat with his back to the cover between the desk legs as Jade rolled her skirt back down and re-crossed her legs. She pushed her chair back in enough to be convincing without crushing Anthony, then took a long drink of water before giving a confident "Come in."

Anthony heard the door slide open and a man clearing his throat, Jade's leg began to bounce nervously. It was a nervous tic she was usually good enough at hiding to mean...

"Oh, hi honey!" She chirped with almost transparently **** cheerfulness.

Mark LeRoux grumbled in acknowledgment. "Hey, sorry, I'm in a hurry. Where are the replacement air filters?"

"In the quarters? Should be in the upper case in the bathroom, Q-3-A. Should be unlocked, if not, code is 100473."

Mark gave an "Ah," sort of confirmative noise, but didn't leave.

"Buuuuut you didn't come all the way up to the ring to ask me that, you could have messaged me for it," Jade said probingly.

"I'm going back onto hull work, starting in two hours. I'll be working late and bunking in mainship, so you probably won't see me for a while."

Jade returned the "Ah," and there was a moment of awkward silence between them as Jade did the emotional legwork.

"Aaaand you were hoping we could grab lunch before then?" She asked almost amusedly.

"Something like that, might be the last time we see each other for a week."

Jade paused again and he heard her computer beeping as she shuffled through files meanderingly, "Sorry, honey, really bad time. We just got a shipment from the zero-g labs and we might have solved the binding problem and-"

She started speaking filler in the hope he would cut her off, and he did.

"No, it's fine. Shit happens, right?"

"Shit happens."

Anthony listened to Mark walk across the room and step in front of Jade's desk. The only thing between the two men was about two centimeters of wood and a few inches of recycled air. Jade pushed her chair in a little further, straining Anthony against the wall. There was the sound of a quick kiss above the desk and then retreating footsteps as Jade gave him enough room to breathe again. Though, he didn't fully start breathing again until the sound of the door closing and locking behind them clicked through the room and Jade also heaved a sigh. She kept her legs crossed, either consciously or subconsciously.

"Bit of a mood killer?" Anthony asked.

"Little bit, you should head down to your quarters and take care of your special message from the zero-g labs. Though it has come to my attention that I'll be having my cabin to myself for a while starting soon. How about I send you a message when we have some time to touch base about your workplace preparedness?"

"Would some wine be against office protocol?"

"Absolutely, and you should bring any you have in your possession to me for confiscation."

Anthony lifted the encrypted datapad from the desk and tucked his erection into his waistband as best he could, eventually just buttoning his lab coat up over his jumpsuit. He bent down to kiss Jade, but as his lips locked with hers and his tongue pushed into her mouth, he felt himself being slowly more and more pulled onto her chair. After a moment, she pulled away from him with an annoyed grunt and straightened her skirt again.

"I do actually have work to do, Mr. Darma."

He nodded and left her office, giving a quick wave to one of the teams of scientists he passed on his way and hoping that the blood in his cheeks wasn't too obvious.

When the door clicked behind him, one of the male scientists he had waved to looked to one of the female ones quizzically.

"I don't think that guy actually does any work here."

***

Anthony grabbed a bottle of wine from his cupboard and set it on his table before checking the log. It was cheap wine, but it was real wine from before the voyage had started. Real wine, even cheap wine, tasted different than the stuff they'd been growing. A minor major gesture. Or was it more of a major minor gesture?

The code between the mainship labs for corporate espionage stuff was Tardigrada. When that didn't work, his brow furrowed. So this was between him and Rhys, not the mainship botanists. Not corporate espionage, which made up 99% of their passed messages. The other 1% then...

The code Crichton worked. Rhys's haggard face, lifted by zero-g to look younger than it was, appeared on the screen and started speaking with dry professionalism.

"You were right, Group C saw the best growth results in all major categories. But the level of success we're talking about here isn't on the level of "we're gonna kick the Ring Labs' ass" it's on the level of shit we need to tell the higher-ups about. If microbiology clears it for human consumption, our little hybrid beans just solved a lot of problems."

Anthony could feel the "but" coming.

"But you know as well as I that the crop isn't going to clear microbiology. The second that they find unidentified cells in our strain, they're going to ask questions. And as soon as they hear that we don't actually know what those cells do... We'll be lucky if they just destroy the crop." He took a long pause to cough, then continued. "I wouldn't be telling you this if not for the situation, but we have a problem. We're missing one of the plants from Group C."

Anthony leaned forward in his seat.

"We don't know what happened to it, I'm having the footage scrubbed, but considering that we have to requisition it in small chunks and we don't know when it happened..." Rhys shook his head, "I need you down here. Pull some strings with one of your girlfriends, do what you gotta. If it's the Ring team... that's the best-case scenario here."

The message clicked off and, after a moment of silent thought, Anthony entered the deletion code for the video. He set the terminal on the table and wracked his brains for a moment until he was interrupted by his personal pad going off.

Jade was proportioned enough and flexible enough to do some truly spellbinding things and still manage to hit the take picture button. However, few things were more effective than a picture of her in the mirror, black lace stockings underneath a slit-legged brown dress slightly paler than her skin, the off-shoulder top low enough for dark black to poke out on each of her breasts, and a message simply saying "I'm alone."

***

As soon as the message showed as sent, Jade went into the final last-minute scurry of trying to tidy up. Putting the garbage hastily moved out of the picture actually into the trash, tossing some dirty laundry, setting things out nicely. She wasn't sure why she put forward so much effort, Anthony was pretty low-maintenance and didn't ask to be wined and dined, but it was almost a matter of principle. Dinner wasn't much more than a ship ration, but it could be made to be a very pretty ship ration. And they didn't need to be lying in bed looking at pictures of her and her husband. She'd kept her wedding ring on for the picture, almost tauntingly, but she slipped it off and set it in a drawer.

As she was rifling through the fridge for the prettiest ship ration she could find, she happened upon her own bottle of wine. She'd forgotten she even had it in there. Well, if you were going to ride with the principle and the show of it, maybe it was best to let him do some work too. Even if not, the wine didn't belong in the fridge. She'd have to bug Mark about that.

She opened her personal compartment and set it next to the airtight cell containing a sample one of her boys had swiped from the zero-g labs, then closed the compartment and went back to preparing the meal.