A real bath and bed.

You awoke maybe an hour or so before you were due in, after a very restful sleep in the co-pilots chair, you have Vaughn fleeting images of the dream you had. It something involving a big warm forest were you were on the run, but it was pleasant like playing a child's game rather than you're usual bouts of fleeing, however all too quickly the real world blinks into view. The bright vivid greens of the tall tree's and the myriad of bright colored flowers in the small bright glades hidden away in the forest are quickly replaced with the dark colors of metal and the much colder yet still beautiful vista of the void beyond. It was hard to hide the sense of disappointment at the change but as the memories quickly fade away you forget all about it and your brief sadness could easily be passed off as the standard reaction to waking up.

"Morning Val." Ant says without looking up from his console, as he flicks through some various readout of what look like blog postings and other public information boards. You blink a few times and sit up stretching your limbs thankful that the design as you find yourself as well rested as your own bunk would have been.

"Morning Ant, how long have I been out for?" You ask after a few failed attempts at responding where the urge to yawn inhibited your speech.

"Close enough to 6 hours, we're just over an hour from dropping out to real space and coasting the space station, it adds an good twenty minutes to our travel time but that also gives me time to get some scans and to monitor the comms, so we shouldn't accidentally stumble into something to horrible." Ant says with a smug look on his face, as he seems to be showing off his expertise more, whether this is down to you antics earlier or just having someone less knowledgeable to share with in the seat next to him for a change.

"Are we even in a position to skip past this space station to the next one?" You ask with a smug smile of your own as you couldn't help teasing the sound logic with the the stark reality of lack of choice.

"Well no, but at least we'll know we're walking into a shit storm if there's one going on." Ant says, his smug tone deflated slightly.

"Good to know, as those recent updates you're browsing through?" You ask as you adjust the co-pilot chair into its upright position.

"Yeah, they're a day or two old but give us a bit of a heads up, but mostly I'm trying to find the post from our contact to see if they've left us a message with a time or a place. The damn things too well hidden for me to see, I'll have to have Jacque look through it he's better with the ship captain cloak and dagger show." Ant says closing a few of the screens on his holo screen and revealing a wallpaper of a scantily clad Elven girl in improbably skimpy attire for the welding torch she was straddling, making no effort to hide this screen.

"My ears are burning." Jacque says as he steps into the cockpit and rests his arms on the back of the Co-Pilot chair looking down at you. "And it seems there's someone in my chair." Jacque continues, thankfully his tone is warm much like he was the other times you met him.

"Technically captain ever chair on this boat is yours." Ant says in joking manner.

"True enough." Jacque says with a hearty chuckle as you stand up and smile nervously.

"I was just keeping it warm for you." You say with a smile.

"Most kind of you, were you taking a star gazing break from the containers?" Jacque asks as you awkwardly press yourself aside to allow the larger bulk of Jacque take his seat, which he does so settling in with a content sigh.

"Actually I'm done, they're all cracked and the refrigeration controls powered back on, so the contents shoudln't expire, that said we might need to secure them in the cargo bay, they're mostly littering up the room you've leant to me. If I'm honest I'm not 100% confident on my handiwork keeping the refrigeration running if the containers get bashed about too violently." You mention as you step to the back of the cockpit where there's much more room to stand, as both Ant and Jacque turn the chairs slightly so they can look over to you as you talk.

"It should be smooth sailing as we're dropping out far enough away that there shouldn't be any gravity distortions and we're not breaking atmo of a planet so we should be good." Ant offered helpfully and you nod.

"Still you might want to fetch a portable cargo net and secure them, we'll need to move them, but if we end up taking on more cargo then we might need to use some of the space." Jacque says to Ant who nods as he retrieves some of the screens he closed of various information posts and social boards and flicks them over to a holo screen by Jacque. "Looks like I owe you a thank you." Jacque says with a smile as he turns his attention to you. "You managed to keep your word, and got the job done much faster than anticipated, and I checked the manifest you kept from each one you opened against what we were told to expect, and it's an exact match." Jacque says with a warm smile.

"Thanks, although I think even trying to steal any of this would of been a bad idea, I've not got anywhere to hide it, and trying to sell a single unit might disrupt any larger scale deals. I think there's an old earth saying about making a mess on your own doorstep, and I think it sort of applies here." You reply as you smile at Jacque who exchanges a glance and a nod with Ant.

"It's a shame I'm pretty sure you'd turn me down, otherwise I'd offer you a place on my ship as a full time arrangement." Jacque says with a warm smile. "I know two of my crew would be very happy to have you around more." Jacque continues with a knowing grin, as you laugh nervously as Ant turns and faces a console away from you and Jacque trying to hide his new red hue of embarrassment.

"Well I'd love to, but my past would put you all at risk if I stayed long term, and everyone knows what happens when a crew member becomes a liability, so I wouldn't want to **** you to have to make that choice." You say in a very diplomatic manner, as Jacque nods in acknowledgement. "That said I believe we could stay in contact, and continue to be of use to one and other, always good to have friends in the sector." You say with a smile.

"Interesting, we can discuss this more when we land if you'd like." Jacque says with a smile. "I'll rent us all a room for the few days while we conduct business and also get a few upgrades and repairs that I've put off longer than I should of." Jacque says with a chuckle as Ant slowly turns back.

"What sort of delayed repairs?" Ant asks with a suspicious tone to it.

"Well I'd avoid the maintenace tunnels while we're in hyperspace unless you didn't fancy having children, or never cared much for you skin." Jacque says with hearty chuckle, which does little to set your own or Ants mind at ease.

"Dammit the shielding cracked again?" Ant asks.

"Yeah, I'm gonna get it all stripped and get some entirely new shielding plates welded on." Jacque says as he begins to flick through the various screens Ant sent his way.

"Looks like our contact will be a day late." Jacque says as he browses what read as completely mundane posts on a message board reviewing some food from one of the various restaurants on the station.

"Well Guess I'll go get ready for when we land." You say as you turn to leave.

"Before you go I've got something for you." Jacque says as he pulls out a couple of pale grey cards about from a pocket on the front of his jumpsuit. You recognize them as credit chits, and look at Jacque with a hint of confusion in your eyes. "Call it a bonus for your speedy work, but should be enough there for you to get yourself some clothes and other necessities that you likely left without." Jacque says with a smile as he drops the two cards into your hand.

"I don't know what to say, thank you Jacque." You says as you find yourself bowing as your unsure how exactly to react to the gesture, knowing the amount he gave you was likely a good deal in excess of your original agreement.

"In our less the legal pursuits of ours it's an incredible rarity to find someone with your talent, who also has the professionalism to not try and skim from the top and even more rare that they also process the ability to think ahead on their actions." Jacque says with a warm smile. "I like the idea of us becoming friends and allies as I'm sure Ant and Viper will, and well Jacque looks after his friends, especially the talented ones." Jacque continues before chuckling. "Just don't let it go to your head." He concludes patting you on your shoulder with his strong arms and laughing.

"Don't worry I won't." You reply with a giggle before you return to you room, and pass the remaing time with a few odd jobs including some that Viper asks you to help with, and you are glad to see that when Viper enters the same room as Jacque for the first time since the awkward scene of the meal that Jacque actually appolgizes to Viper for losing his cool, and before long you've docked and with the small bag of possessions you had, including the newly acquired tools from the last person who was trying to crack the lock boxes you did left, you step out of the airlock and into the station.

The first thing that hits you as you step out behind Jacque and the rest of his crew was the noise. The days you had spent in space the initially loud hum of the ships engines eventually became normal to you, and the sound of silence was eerie and worrying in space, as it often meant that something was deeply wrong, however as you stepped out into the docking bay your ears were assaulted by various sounds of people screaming and yelling over one and other, as well as the loud screeching and beeping of heavy duty platforms unloading or loading the other ships that had docked, or the huge hydraulic clamps taxing ships into and out of the air seal and into the nearest available docking bay. The seal a huge dark blue barrier between you and the cold unforgivingn void beyond crackled as large ships passed through it the seal of high energy rippling like a liquid as objects passed through.

The next sense to be assaulted once you got used to the loud noise of the docking bay was your nose, as a huge myriad of fragrances assaulted you, both a mixture of pleasant and pungent odours flooded over you as all manner of goods were loaded and unloaded as well as the residual fumes from various sub light powered egines cooled off, leaving a strange overpowering feeling wash over you as you focus on following Jacque and crew as they made a beeline for the nearest transit point to be whisked away to the hospitality district where you'd get a hotel room, and with it the novelty of hot water which mean a proper clean, as you pictured the dried flakes of cum that Ant had left inside you earlier, which had nowhere to drip out but into the borrowed shorts.

Thankfully the trip through the crowded bustling bay was a short one, as you could feel a headache coming on from the sensory overload, and the second the transit doors closed behind you and the noise of the Dockign area was abruptly cut off you could feel the headache begin to dissipate, but still left you out of sorts enough that you and the rest of the crew made the short trip in silence, as the combined fatigue of space travel, and uneasy sleeping habit took their toll. Your most recent sleep put you ahead of most the others in that regard, but even you felt the almost iresitable call to rest, with the prospect of a real bed waiting for you at the end of this trip.

You disembarked the transit shuttle with the crew and found yourself in a dark street, as the artificial day night cycle of the station seemed to be in its night phase, the docks would be a 24 hour affair so toiled under artificial lights at all times of the day, but here in the habitat zone things ran to a more tolerable norm. The walk to the hotel that Jacque had selected was also short, so you dind't have much time to wonder what sort it would be, as you stepped in however you were caught off guard by the place. The polished floor tiles which you could of sworn was real marble was a precursor to how opulent the place was with the smart uniform of the girl on the checkout desk looking more like a tailor fitted outfit than standard uniform, and the various staff you could see likewise smartly dressed, you were beginning to feel slightly out of your depth and began to wonder how Jacque could afford such a place to stay, that is until a man in a smart suit complete with gold pocket watch and dress gloves stepped out from an office behind the checkout counter and stepped towards Jacque.

"Well if it isn't my favourite brother in law, how the hell are you doing Jacque." The man says as he steps forward and shakes Jacques hand, before Jacque pulled him in for a hug, and things began to fit into place.

"Ah you know the captains life, never quite a dull one, hows my baby sister doing." Jacque replies as he steps backs still smiling.

"Great, she's overseeing a new hotel we've opened the next system over, so I'm afraid you've missed her." The smartly dressed man says as he stands back and takes a moment to neaten out the creases left by the hug from his suit.

"Ah that's a shame, I'll have to give you both more a heads up next time I'm coming through, but it was a last minute change." Jacque says with a smile and nod.

"Well we'll catch up later, I can see you and your crew look a bit tired and I've got some odds and ends to take care of." The smartly dressed man says as he turns to the lady behind the checkout desk who had been smiling politely the entire time. "Carol if you could get them each a room...one of our premium packages each, and charge it to my account." The smartly dressed man says before nodding and waving to Jacque before uickly dispaearing back into the office almost as rapidly as he had emerged from there.

"Very well." The lady says with a smile as her fingers scanned over and made some selections before she gave each of you a keycard which imprinted onto your biometric data as you picked it up. "You have four rooms on the top floor close by, you have unlimited access to the spa and leisure facilities, and meals are paid for upfront so you can order something up to your rooms when you get in, although I regret to inform you that you've missed the dinner service so you'll be limited to the light menu until the morning." The lady says with a polite smile and in a tone which was filled with so much pleasantries that it almost made you feel uneasy. You were used to living it rough squatting or in very basic accommodation, and now you were being treated to a place that pampered to your every need, you had to be careful in this place before you got used to comforts you'd have to give up, but for now you decided to endulge yourself.

You waved to Jacque and crew as you parted ways and went to your rooms, the urge to sleep growing much stronger, to the point where you wonder if there was something in the habitat zone to help you adjust to their time zone more rapidly. You room was very nice with a huge bed that could fit 4 people with space for all of them to stretch out and not get in each other's way. The floor was amazing soft underfoot, and you found yourself quickly dropping all your clothes leaving them in a pile, as you made your way into what was your bathroom, and found it to be as large as the room you had been given on the ship. One corner taken up by a very large tub which you quickly found the controls too, so that you could quickly fill it with hot water and slide into.

The pleasant feeling of the hot water rushing over your body, relaxing the tension in your muscles as you let out an audible sigh of relaxation as you slid into the bath, which was deep enough to almost be considered a small pool as it had room for you to float on your back, as you quickly washed your skin properly for the first time in ages, including the various traces of cum from Ant and any remnants from whatever Viper pumped into you. You could of easily fallen asleep in the bath despite it being a bad idea, but you suspect that a tub as high tech as this would have sensors built in that would wake you with an alarm or failing that drain the water to prevent accidental drowning, however after a nice long soak you decide to finally get out, and after pulling on a robe, made of an incredibly soft material you sauntered back into the main bedroom where you climbed into the bed and toyed with the idea of ordering up some food before quickly drifting off to sleep.