Aboard the 4th Wish, Nathan was once again going over some of the extra cargo that the ship had picked up from Nova Caedes when the 4th Wish dropped out of the Stellar Lane it was traveling on. It had only taken a couple weeks, but traveling through the Stellar Lanes was not a perfect science. The Mendival engine aboard the ship had to be charged with enough power to tear open reality to enter a sub dimension with a little bubble of reality around them to keep the foreign reality at bay. The biggest limitation being that large enough gravity wells in real space would cause problems during travel, so Humanity had plotted the Stellar Lanes, where a ship could travel from one point to another without something in the vastness of space having enough gravity to rip the ship to pieces.
Nathan had read the same reports as most other supply officers when determining what route ships needed to take and where. Sailors had come to calling this other reality the Dark Ocean after a famous poem and humanity found that there were certain oddities that ships began to report. Sometimes ships would arrive at their destination before they technically even left, some sailors would swear up and down that their ship would get infested by ghosts, there were even ships that claimed to see great monsters lurking in the Dark Ocean, but no one ever came up with anything substantial. As Humanity once again worked on rebuilding itself after the Great War, the rumor mill had only gotten worse.
Captain Irlanda had not been in the best of moods when Nathan stepped onto her ship, but he managed to smooth things over by opening up a few of the crates for her and her crew. He was sure that it technically wasn't a violation of any regulations because the extra booze, ice cream, and chocolate wasn't purchased using Fleet money, nor was it donated for a favor or two. It was a legitimate private purchase, there was just a lot of it. He was tempted to admit to Captain Irlanda that he had no knowledge of the order with his sign off, but Nathan didn't want to cause any waves within the Fleet that might revoke the order. Not needing to hire a civilian company to move all of the freight meant he could use that money set aside to simply purchase more that he initially thought. Everyone in Fleet Medusa knew about Nathan's purchases of extra food, he didn't even try to make it a secret. There had been initial inquiries into the fear that Nathan might be taking bribes but those died out when Samara had said that he was making purchases on her behalf, which forced the higher ups to allow Nathan to continue.
Nathan had been initially shocked when he entered the ship and saw all of the empty bays that had been cleared out in advance on the 4th Wish. It simply wasn't done. Space on a ship was a premium that was valued only slightly less than oxygen in space. The 4th Wish was supposed to be ready for anything, designed to not just wage war in vacuum, but also able to act as a staging ground for the Gorgons aboard it yet so much of it stood empty. Someone was very unsubtle in their attempts in trying to bribe him. Otherwise, why put his signature on the order? It could have been so much easier to use someone else and then hide the order under a bunch of paperwork so that it wouldn't ever cross the desk of the signature's owner. Nathan's thoughts ran round and round as he continued to visually check each of the more delicate containers to make sure that everything made it through the trip. This part of the ship was fairly silent, save for the slight clank of his footsteps on the metal of the cargo bay and the quiet but intense thrum of the engines. So far everything checked out on his data pad and none of the containers had ruptured while in transit.
This kind of work was a lot easier than dealing with all of the new recruits that they had on board the 4th Wish. The Gorgons weren't exactly ready to begin training a bunch of recruits, nor were all of said recruits there to become a Gorgon. The 4th Wish crew however, was incredibly adaptable. Captain Irlanda and her officers had already set up sleeping arrangements ahead of time and splitting the recruits into different groups that had a liason of some sort attached to them that could answer questions. Truthfully, the recuits had provided a very receptive audience to all of the stories that both Gorgons and crew had to tell about their lives. All of the extra food that Nathan had brought on board had made the whole thing much less claustrophobic for everyone involved. Things were a bit messy, but that was easily smoothed over by having access to great food even decent alcohol.
A message alert popped up on his screen moments after entering real space. Nathan appreciated it instead of the words simply popping up his vision or someone speaking directly through his implant. Having someone's voice directly in his head was just a little off to him. He wasn't sure how the Gorgons all managed it with their much more cybernetically enhanced brains. He checked the message and saw it was a general alert message for everyone aboard the ship.
"Arrival at Acheron system. Rendezvous with Fleet in 12 hours. Prepare for transfer to Whale" the message read.
Nathan finished up his inspection of the crate of ice cream and started to make his way to his quarters to pack up his things. It was still a few more hours before the current shift changed across the ship but there was always something that needed doing. Stations needed to be manned and with the announcement of meeting back up with the rest of the fleet, things needed to get done sooner. Exiting the cargo hold, the silence was replaced by more boots against metal and the voices of the crew that drowned out the hum of the engines. Nathan had been on the 4th Wish long enough that he didn't need the painted pathways anymore and his trip back to his room was short. One of the benefits to being a Handler was that he got his own room onboard a ship and the Whale. Even with this immense privilege, Nathan wasn't allowed to bring along any of his vast collection of potted plants from the Whale. He very much missed the cacophony of colors that plant life added.
Compared to what the Gorgons and crew had in their berthing compartments, Nathan might as well have had a veritable palace all to himself. Because of the advent of cybernetic augmentations, things had to be built bigger to accommodate for those bigger soldiers. Except whoever had put together the designs for the 4th Wish had messed up. The bed and its frame were built into the structure of the ship because the bed had storage underneath it. The closets and bathrooms were likewise built because the bathroom had a door that separated it from the rest of the room. In order to save money, the designers had used to the designs for the Gorgon's living quarters and transplanted those measurements into the single person rooms. So Nathan had a comically large bed, closets whose top shelves he couldn't really reach and a bathroom/shower combination that was a little bit awkward to use. Fleet Medusa's solution to all of these problems was a stool with the room number printed on it. Nathan's dignity was at least spared when it came to his desk, because the chair was not directly built into the structure and assembled later. It ended up being a little wide, but the chair and height of the desk were at least "normal". In the end though, Nathan got his own shower, which was still a luxury aboard a warship. Even if said shower was currently being occupied when Nathan entered the room.
Nathan knew that Samara had not only heard him enter the room, but probably heard him walking down the hallway even through the sound of the shower but he still gave the bathroom door a brief knock. Of course he could just call her through their implants, but Nathan and Samara liked the physicality of hearing the other's voice that an implant couldn't quite replicate.
"Hey Sam, I'm back!" Nathan called out.
The water of the shower slowed down and Samara's voice came through the door.
"Hey Nathan, sorry, were you trying to grab a shower?" Samara asked.
"Just got back from cargo, it's all good. I can wait" Nathan replied.
He took another look at the room and noticed the pile of clothes in both the white and dark hampers were getting a little full with two people in the room. He missed his plants back on the Whale.
"Are you sure? You could always join me in the shower!" Samara offered.
"Sam, you already know, despite many attempts, that both of us will not fit in that shower and get clean" Nathan said.
He could practically hear the shrug in Samara's voice through the door.
"We can shelve the idea until we get to the Whale. Did you need something, dear? Besides hearing my lovely voice?" Samara asked.
"I was gonna run the laundry this time ahead of the rush and before they normally come around to collect, you got any clothes in there you want washed?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, gimme a sec" she said.
Nathan waited patiently to the side as he heard some light splashes and footsteps, with a bit of cursing, before the door opened up a crack. In Samara's hand was a jumbled pile of sweaty PT clothes with her bra and underwear placed on top.
"There are these, and can you wash the other two bras in the closet? The one that's hanging is completely clean" Samara said as Nathan grabbed the bundle of clothes.
"Got 'em. Are your wash bags still in the blue duffel?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, thank you! Oh, Kho is at the laundry right now. She will point you to which machine to use! When the laundry comes back, I'll make sure to pack it all away" Samara said as the door closed and the sound of water resumed.
Nathan grabbed Samara's wash bags from her blue duffel, placed a bra into each one and sorted out the laundry into their appropriate hampers. Thankfully, Samara had left her bras on one of the lower shelves of closet so that Nathan didn't need to grab the stool. He reflexively gave it a dirty look as it sat in the corner. Giving one last look around, Nathan exited his room and made his way down to the laundry room. He had two large bags for the bright and dark laundry, plus a third only slightly smaller sack for Samara's wash bags. The sheer size of the wash bags necessary for Samara never stopped amazing him, no matter how many times he did her laundry. Even if he could barely see where he was going when carrying it all.
As he got closer to the laundry room, the hum of the engines was replaced by the sound of industrial washing and drying machines. Currently, it was a bit of an inbetween timing of the usual laundry cycles so there weren't too many people entering or exiting for their own clothes. The ship's crew typically used their own laundry system where it was all collected, separated, and then washed and dried to be delivered later, but the Gorgons being semi-regular passengers had their own section of laundry machines they used. With the Gorgons disembarking soon, those laundry machines were going to be a little competitive within the hour.
While Samara was about as tall as a Gorgon could reasonably get after the surgery, Kho had not become a veritable giant and was instead simply incredibly tall. Nathan could look into a Gorgon's files to see what she might have looked like before the surgery, but as a Gorgon, Kho's dark skin, hair, and eyes matched her more angular features. But none of that matched her fairly outgoing and large personality. At the moment, she had the vacant stare of someone who was using their implant to browse the internet until Nathan called out to her.
"Hey Kho, Sam said you could help me out?" Nathan asked.
Kho paused whatever she was doing and re-entered reality when she heard Nathan's voice. Upon seeing the hamper sacks and wash bags, a huge grin broke out on her face. The other Gorgons, recognizing the sound of Nathan's voice, all gave polite nods or waves at first, also broke into grins seeing sheer volume of laundry in Nathan's arms.
"Ah, Handler Shivers. Gotcha wrapped around her finger eh?" Kho said.
"C'mon now, couldn't you have ever considered that I simply use someone's bra as a pillow case?" Nathan complained.
Kho simply raised a single eye brow.
"You? Naaah. You'd probably pay better than the other guy at least" she said.
That got a few chuckles and nods from the other Gorgons waiting on their laundry. The ship's crew looked a little bewildered and concerned until some of the Gorgons waved them over and starting telling one of the funnier stories that made its way into Gorgon mythology. Nathan looked through the washing machines and saw the usual pink duct tape that marked which machines were for the delicates.
"Which one should I toss her wash bags in, I don't wanna mess up the schedule you all are running" Nathan asked.
"You can just leave them with me, I'm on laundry duty anyways" Kho said.
Nathan tried to shrug his shoulders, but the mass of clothes completely hid the gesture.
"Lemme at least toss them in and start the machine if it needs it. It's my laundry too" Nathan said.
"Alright. Sam signed you both up into the schedule before you got here. Toss her delicates into number 3 and start that machine up. Number 9 is open for brights and 16 has room for darks. They will start up when Melia gets here with her stuff" Kho said as she gestured to each machine.
Nathan followed the instructions, making sure that pink marked machine was set to gentle. He was in the middle of finishing up when he just about jumped out of his skin hearing Kho's voice come from right behind him.
"So, Nathan..." Kho started.
He whipped around with a glare that could have melted the armor plating off the hull. He hated how the Gorgons were able to move so sneakily despite their size. It made no sense. As his fight or flight reflex faded, Nathan simply waited for Kho to continue. It was a bit odd, Nathan had not seen this side of her before. She was picking her words carefully, probably building up to something. Kho kept going.
"You and Sam, have uh, been going pretty steady for a few years right?" Kho tentatively asked.
Nathan immediately brought his expression back to neutral and looked around the laundry room. The crew of the 4th Wish simply went about their day, amongst the hustle and bustle of the laundry room. There were always more things that needed washing and the machines hardly ever stopped spinning. The Gorgons however, were doing a very bad job of pretending to be disinterested at Kho looming over him.
Everyone had an implant that allowed them to wirelessly interact with the world and people around them. Nathan simply liked using separate devices. The Gorgons were on another level, and could actively share what they were looking and what they were hearing in real time. As a Handler, Nathan could tap into the Gorgon's network at any point, but he tried to leave it to them. He was sure they would just find a way around his access anyways. Samara didn't immediately say anything about Kho broadcasting across the Gorgons. Nathan decided to just trust in whatever she had to say.
"Yeah, I would say things are going pretty steady. Probably like 6 or 7 years, why?" Nathan asked.
Kho leaned in a little closer, doing her best to conspiratorially whisper in a laundry room filled with cyborgs who could hear and catalogue the various liquids running through the pipes.
"So when are you gonna ask her the question?" she said.
"The question?" Nathan asked.
The other Gorgons in the room immediately stopped everything to focus in on listening to whatever Nathan had to say. All pretense was dropped.
"Yeah, the question!" Kho said as she frantically waved her hands. "The big one! When are you gonna try and put a ring on her finger? Marriage!" she continued.
"Oh. Yeah we talked about it" Nathan said.
"You two have already talked about it? C'mon give us some details! When are you gonna ask?" each question Kho asked got more frantic than the next.
"You got a ring picked out? Have you already asked? Do you know her ring size?Kids? How many are we talking?" Kho kept going until Nathan put his hand out in the universal stop sign.
"Kho, how much money do you have riding on my answers?" Nathan asked.
Kho had the self awareness to at least look vaguely somewhat in the general vicinity of being possibly guilty.
"That isn't the point" she said.
"Kho you didn't deny that you had money on whatever it was I was going to say" Nathan said as his eyebrows reached towards the ceiling.
"Nathan, c'mon, you're killing me here. There are girls that have been waiting endlessly on some of these answers" Kho said.
"Okay look, if I give you an answer to one of your questions, will that satisfy your ever burning curiosity?" Nathan placated.
Kho's eyes narrowed as she searched Nathan's face for something. Whatever she found, she threw up her hands in exasperation.
"Fine. Alright. Answer one and I'll be satisfied with that" Kho said.
"Yes." Nathan stated matter of factly.
"What?" she said.
Nathan was sure that his face held the smuggest grin that had ever graced the 4th Wish in that singular moment.
"Yes. I answered one of your questions. Yes." Nathan said.
Nathan stared directly back at Kho. Confusion. Bewilderment. Understanding. Disbelief. Fury. Fear. Anguish. A rerun of disbelief. Landing on acceptance and then morphing into the poker face that all Gorgons got good at. Kho's expressions fired off one after the other, the synthetic muscles going into overtime as they tried to keep up with her cybernetically enhanced mind. Nathan's human eyes were not able to keep up with Kho's own reactions.
"Yeah, fairs fair then. Sorry bout that" Kho said as she stepped aside.
Nathan stood there for a moment, shocked at the change in attitude. Unable to parse the abrupt change in his subordinate, Nathan walked past Kho with a short nod to the other Gorgons watching the pair. Over the din of the machines, Nathan did not notice as they moved to comfort Kho.
By the time Nathan had made it back to his room, Samara had finished her shower and to Nathan's disappointment, already fully dressed in her working coveralls.
"Hey Sam, shower available?" he asked
"Yup, all finished up" Samara said.
Nathan started taking off his coveralls, when he noticed that Samara was very pointedly looking right at him.
"Yes, dearest?" Nathan asked.
"Oh no, please don't stop on my account" Sam said with a smile.
Nathan shook his head, but did continue to strip in front of her. Her smile was infectious. He quickly and methodically, removed each layer while he was talking.
"Kho had a few questions when I ran into her at the laundry" he said.
"Oh really now? Did she grill you again to figure how I beat her at cards?" Samara asked.
"Mmmm, no, not this time. She asked some more pointed questions" Nathan said as his shirt came off.
Samara gave a little "oooo" of appreciation. Nathan had to admit it felt nice to be appreciated.
"What kinda questions then?" Samara asked.
"Your favorite ones, she wanted to know when I was gonna propose, how many kids you wanted, if I had a ring yet. Those kinds of things" Nathan said as he got each boot off.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well what?" he said while finally able to get the rest of the coveralls off.
"Do you have a ring picked out yet?" Samara asked as Nathan opened the door to the shower.
"Sam, if I tell you I have a ring picked out, the I would never be able to surprise you with it because you would immediately go looking for it" he said as the shower started.
If there was one thing Nathan did not miss about being a pilot before New Petrichor, it was the lack of consistent access to hot water for a shower. Being a Handler had its advantages. Samara followed him into the bathroom, but wisely did not enter the small shower compartment. Nathan continued speaking.
"You would go looking for it and then immediately find it because there is only so much Whale that I can hide it in" Nathan said as he timed himself scrubbing.
He tried to keep his showers at roughly 3 minutes, but sometimes let himself have a few seconds more when on a ship.
"There is no way I would be able to search the entire Whale for one ring" Samara exclaimed.
"Oh no, you wouldn't search the whole thing but Sam, I bet that you would bully the other Gorgons into helping you search it" Nathan retorted.
Samara thought about it for only a moment.
"Got me there" she.
"Hey Nathan, I got a favor to ask" Samara said as she watched him quickly lathering his hair.
"Sam you pulled me out of a burning Nomad when it was shot out of the sky, you have more than earned any favor" Nathan said.
Samara glanced down at his butt again. His stomach and lower back still held the faint scars of what had happened. The helmet had saved his face. The armor on his torso had stopped his major orgrans from being annihilated. Flames and shrapnel had taken most everything else. The cloned replacement bits didn't have the scarring and the doctors were able to clean up his limbs. There had been other patients and there was a lot more skin on the torso, so it hadn't been replaced.
"I was just doing my job. Does that mean you will tell me if you got a ring?" Samara asked.
"Ah, no." Nathan said.
Nathan didn't miss the scoff Samara made behind him as he started rinsing off the soap and shampoo.
"Well you stayed and saved some of my girls when they thought they were going to be left behind, so I think we can call it even" she said.
It was a conversation that had been tread many times. Each time, trying to ascribe more credit or valor to the other, but always ending in a stalemate. Samara continued on.
"I did want to ask about another favor, if I can't get a ring out of you quite yet" she said.
"There is a new girl who is having some problems with the surgery. She isn't quite used to the new body and is still having some problems with showering as a group. Her first trip off the Whale was the job fair. Can we go hit the mess hall and she grabs a shower with hot water while we are out?" Samara asked as Nathan turned off the water and turned around.
"Excuse me madam, but I can't reach the towels if you stand in front of the shower like that" Nathan said while still dripping wet.
"Mmm yes, but if you get to the towels, that means you then get to the clothes" Samara replied while giving Nathan a look over.
"If I don't get to the clothes, the new girl doesn't get a shower with hot water" Nathan said while making a shooing motion with his hands, splattering Samara with some water drops.
Samara graciously stepped aside and allowed access to the towels.
"The sacrifices I make for those under my command" Samara said as she opened the door for Nathan to get out of the bathroom.
"Yes, yes, you are a most generous queen, go ahead and give her access to the room so she can shower. The mess hall sounds great right now, given all the cargo we brought aboard. Let her know to message us when she is done? And also that she doesn't need to rush. We have the time." he said.
Nathan quickly toweled off, hung the towel out to dry, and got dressed in his own coverall uniform. He was pretty sure that the coveralls were supposed to be for a prison, but the ID of where they came from had been removed. He put the thoughts out of his mind and put aside a fresh set toiletries for the new girl. Samara opened the room's door and he followed her out.
"Sam, how does the officers mess sound? I think they still have some of their grilled selections available" Nathan said.
"Sure, I will never say no to something grilled. They do work some wonders when they have the right ingredients. Should have enough time to eat, let her get a decent shower, then we can get some real sleep before meeting up with the main fleet. Escort this generous queen?" Samara asked as she held out her arm to Nathan.
"Of course, my lady, it would be my honor" Nathan said as he locked his elbow with hers.
The Gorgon's wild red hair danced as she shook her head with a grin as Nathan played along. She glanced down expecting to only see his pale blue hair, but his grey eyes met her emerald green. They both wore stupid smiles as they walked arm in arm down the ship.