You find out you've got a pit stop in a few days

After you get yourself clean with some warm water, as it seems you lucked out, as you clean yourself a second time, hoping that no one else wanted a hot wash of their own, as you know how slow the heating tank would refill. On a ship this size you couldn't afford the luxury of a large boiler as they weren't essential and would take space which could be used for an extra crew quarters or cargo space, so the solution of this was to use the heat generated from the engines and channel it into a small water tank reserved for hot water needed to kill bacteria. Of course more modern luxury ships might have a water heater using more compact technology but this far out from the core worlds these ships were referred to as pirate bait, and many task forces actually used them as bait when trying to catch and destroy pirate groups which become too much trouble for tourist ships or raid one too many megacorp cargo vessels.

You get called for a meal by Ant as he pokes your head around your door which you left open, on the off chance Viper mentioned you habit of forgetting to lock it.

"I think this is the first time I've see you outside of the cockpit or kitchen." You say with a smile as you finish picking the lock on the last container, and quickly scan the contents into your holo terminal, as it begins to collate a rudimentary inventory. You'll need to check it manually at some stage, to ensure that nothing has been misread by the scanner due to the frost coating.

"Yeah, I don't feel too comfortable around people like you, no offence it's just I don't get out of the ship much, and I never was a people person." Ant says as he rubs his neck awkwardly.

"By People do you mean women, or people gifted at getting into places people rather they didn't?" You ask with a smile "None taken by the way."

"Glad to hear it, and I guess both." Ant says as he watches you work.

"Well for what it's worth I have a code only to steal things from wealthy people who can spare it, as for women not much I can do to change that." You reply with a giggle as you hook up a couple of cables to the service panel of the powered down electronic lock. "Mind passing me that battery." You ask as you gesture towards the black pack on the desk.

"Sure thing." Ant says as he hands you the pack, avoiding eye contact with you the entire time.

"Also how can you be bad around girls with Viper, you guys have been working together for a good while now and the ships a small place." You ask as you hook up the cables and wait for the circuit to power up to allow the refrigeration to power back up.

"Yeah, but she's not the most girly woman around." Ant says looking slightly defensive.

"Yeah, but sureley you've gotten drunk after a stressful or successful job, and well you know." You say as you look up at Ant nod at him.

"What no, not that I wouldn't if she asked, but she's like a big sister to me, it'd be weird, and she probably wouldn't even go for it." Ant says as he rubs his back.

"Alright I'll drop it, but I think you're missing out, I mean space makes people lonely, and well we crave company." You say as you stand up and put the pack down on the side of the crate and leave it to charge up the circuits for the refrigeration, so that it can regulate itself and make noise if somethings gone wrong.

"Thanks, and please don't mention any of this to Viper." Ant says as you wash your hands.

"Will do, we got a destination yet, I mean I know we're flying somewhere but last I heard you were waiting for a communication for the destination." You say as you dry your hands off.

"Yeah we're heading for a port that is a favourite of smugglers in this sector, we need to stock up on some supplies and parts, and the captain said he was looking into a few prospective jobs, so we'll be docked for a day or two, so looks like we might be able to stop somewhere with a proper bed and shower." Ant says as he walks towards the kitchen area, as you follow him you footsteps ringing off the metal grate beneath your feet, and you look forward to the prospect of solid ground again, although you are more relaxed than you were earlier in your voyage.

"Some real food wouldn't go a miss too, are you sure there's nothing I can do with the food dispenser to at least give that stuff a flavour." You say as you round the hatch and see Jacque already tucking into the red substance.

"If you can get the parts and something to put into it then you can do whatever you like." Jacque says with a smile as you grab a tray and nod a greeting to him.

"How much are the parts going for, maybe I can find something on this port we're heading to." You ask as you dispense a red blob onto your tray and take a seat between Jacque and Ant.

"A thousand and some change last I checked." Viper says as she rounds the corner and smiles as she see you.

"Yikes, I can see why you left it then." You reply as you look to Jacque who smiles at you, happy to have his crew back him up that he wasn't just a cheapskate in this regard.

"Well if you're good enough at your job I'm sure you could make that much on a short stop." Ant says hopefully.

"Yeah I'd rather not risk it, would draw unwanted attention to me, which would in turn be bad for you." You reply with a smile, as Jacque nods and smiles.

"Ah well a man can dream." Ant says as he takes a scoop of the red slush and begins to eat.

"Don't worry I'll get it repaired once we deliver our specialist goods, I'm seeing fewer containers that need cracking every time I walk into the Cargo bay, You'll be running out of things to do soon Val." Jacque says with a smile.

"Yeah, I think I might slow down a bit if we don't have a destination yet, I was using it to cope with space travel, but I think I'm more settled now, and wouldn't mind a bit of time to relax." You say as you catch Vipers amber eyes as she smiles briefly before taking a fork full of the red mush.

"Of course, at the rate you're going I'd of needed to grab more lock boxes for you to crack from the port." Jacque says with a grin. "Also I might need to borrow you when we land, got some goods I'd prefer you to inspect if you wanted to."

"Oh yeah I forgot I'm not officially a member of the crew, ermm sure I can help you out." You reply with a smile.

"Glad to hear, I mean I will be paying for our crew to stay in an inn, so I'd keep that not being a crew member quiet if I were you." Jacque says with a smile.

The rest of the meal goes by fairly uneventfully bar Viper rubbing your legs with her foot, which you enjoyed, but then you got back to the containers and continued to work through until the next meal, where Ant and Jacque both seemed to of skipped as they seemed to of been sleeping, although this left you alone with Viper which was always nice.

"Well I've nearly got everything set up, but I'm going to have a sleep first to make sure I've got enough energy, I'd try and do the same if you can." Viper says with a big grin on her face.

"Wow just how wild have you gotten?" You ask as you find that Viper had already gotten you some food and water.

"As wild as I could, that what you said, so you'll find just what kinky shit I'm into." Viper says as she stares into your blue eyes and you wonder just what is planned, but nothing you can say or do will get her to say anything more.

Truth be told you were feeling pretty tired after your meal with Viper, if you can even call that red stuff a meal, but in any case you head to your bunk, which had at least dried off, and quickly drift off to sleep with the hint of Viper and your own aroma still present, which if anything helped you drift off.