Naked in space

There was a knock on the outside. Comms units were an unnecessary use of weight, so Carter knocked back, answering the signal. That was the sign that it was time to blast off.

She lay down, strapped herself down to the flat floor. It was another weight-saving measure. She steadied her breathing and waited. Eventually the Theseus started to shudder, the launch officially beginning. She lay there, feet hooked under a belt she'd tightened, another strap along her chest, just under her breasts, head braced against a small cushion. It was the one concession to comfort in the whole ship; a concussion wouldn't help anyone.

There was a muted roar as the ship was lifted up. Mentally she went over the process as she waited; step one, an X-302 would provide the propulsion mechanism to lift her into space. After that, she was on her own for the test. The vibration she could feel was the other ship providing power.

The ship shuddered. Her legs rattled, even pinned as they were, and she felt her uncovered breasts jiggle overwhelmingly as the Theseus was lifted up. She balled her hands into fists, waiting out the ascent, gritting her teeth. As strapped down as she was, it was just enough to keep her safe, not to reduce the effect of g-forces, or to completely remove discomfort.

She wasn't secured enough to be perfectly still. Her head was fine, just rubbing against the small cushion, but her ass was left bumping up and down against the cold metal floor, what felt like an hour passing as she was lifted up.

And then all at once the shaking stopped. She didn't release herself, just taking a second to catch her breath, and then feeling that breath catch in her throat as the ship jerked. The auto-pilot had received the transmission from the 302 to enter into hyperspace, Sam knew how that transition felt by now.

She waited a little longer before finally releasing herself from the restraints, stretching and standing up. Only then did the enormity of her situation finally sink in. She got to her feet, a little unsteady.

Within the Theseus was just a bare room. It was decided to be large enough for semi-healthy long-term living, and several times larger than a 302 to make sure the hyperdrive could take it. There were a few loops of metal in the floor by one side, to provide the harness she'd used to get through lift-off, and there were several drawers with other supplies. Scratches on the floor marked out a primitive recommended fitness course - she'd memorised the suggested excercises - and little else.

Most notably, no clothes. Carter took a deep breath. She'd expected that, she had gone along with it, but it had all been in a bit of a rush.

She was light-years from Earth. That wasn't anything new for her, a veteran of the Stargate, but it felt different now. In space, there was no gate to hop into. Some alien worlds felt closer to home than, say, Paris. She could walk there and back in a matter of minutes. Here, there was no backing out, no changing her mind. She wasn't just light years from Earth, but from any world or civilization. And she didn't have a stitch to her name.

Hour one. Sam got started on the routine. The controls aboard the Theseus were primitive, it wasn't meant to do anything fancy so it didn't required much, they were just meant to give her some sense of what was going on. At first glance, everything looked fine.

She kept her eye on it. Statistically, a break-down was most likely to happen towards the start. The hyperdrive had been tested, but if there was some fundamental flaw then it should happen early on. With no flashing red lights, and all readings well within expected parameters, she felt fairly confident she wasn't going to explode.

There was a digital clock, complete with an ETA. 38 hours. Carter sat down, staring as the minutes slowly went by, and watching the read-outs.

Hour two. The prickling in her privates from the surprise waxing had at last died down - sometimes she even impressed herself at how well she could hide her reaction to pain. With no emergency signs from the panel, she went over to the fitness course, figuring she might as well pass the time. Bringing a book apparently would have constituted too much weight, and she doubted all the waxing in the world would have been enough to counterbalance that.

She jogged round the Theseus a dozen times, counting the laps and not slowing her pace. Her face heated up faster than usual, though she put that down to her state of dress. There really was no forgetting her situation when she was keeping a healthy pace. She tried to power past it, hoping to exhaust herself so much she had no time left to be embarrassed.

After the requisite number of laps, she went over to to several sets of push-ups, taking breaks to renew her stretches. The cushion that had been used to protect her head also served as the best place to sit for certain poses, keeping her muscles limber. Staying active was important even when she had such a small place to live in.

One and a half days to go. Carter pushed herself back up, wiping the sweat from her brow with one hand, and returned to jogging until she'd finished her work-out.

Hour three. Carter sighed, sitting down. She kept the read-outs easily visible, but unless there were any emergencies, she didn't have anything to do. Honestly it probably wouldn't have meant that much more weight or budget to put a copy of Pong on one of the consoles. At least that would give her more to fill her time.

She hadn't expected how bored she'd get. She'd at least hoped the thrill of discovery would carry her on, the knowledge she was taking a cutting-edge prototype through the stars. It had gotten her this far. The reality, though, was two hours sat stark naked on an uncomfortable metal floor, with nothing to do but work-out and sleep and stare at the panels.

The lack of stimulation didn't particularly help her situation either. Being naked, she couldn't help but make other associations, remember so many awkward moments, though thankfully none as bad as when she'd needed to strip down in front of the room of scientists working on the Theseus and having one loudly comment on her grooming. With nothing else to fill her time, her mind went to countless memories that returned a blush to her cheeks.

The virus on P3X -797 that had reduced her to a primitive state; her memories were cloudy, but she distinctly recalled not understanding how clothing worked when she'd started walking around the base. There was that time she'd gone undercover to investigate the Goa'uld Seth. There was that night she'd staye dover with Dr Fraser to help look after Cassandra, and accidentally walked into the wrong room after a shower and exposed herself to both of them. There was that whole mess with Urgo, when she'd barely been able to take a shower. Losing her memories on P3R-118, being checked out by Hathor, a test mission with Cadet Hailey, Cassandra's unwitting telekinetic abilities...

With the life she led, she'd been in more situations like this than she wanted to admit. Normally she could avoid thinking about it, but that wasn't so easy now.

She glanced at the clock. Thirty-five hours to go. Hopefully nothing would go wrong. At the end of the day, if all she had to worry about on an untested ship like this was nuidty, she was probably getting off easy.

Though that wasn't to say she wouldn't prefer something, anything, to distract herself.