Tiny segmented carried her over the powder coated deck plates of the Rag Tag. The bulkheads and consoles towered far above her small enclosure. Bianca preferred to travel along them instead. Dropping down levels as need meant a more direct path to destination and less power consumption. The Rag Tag was currently under crew power saving cycle protocols. Bianca accessed her audio log to a previous conversation with Dwayne to make necessary changes to her database.<br/><br/><i>Find: Crew Power Saving; Replace with: Sleep; #<b>END; </b>End of line.</i><br/><br/>Sleep cycles protocols recommended audible levels be kept low. Enclosure travel cycle along the bulkheads exceeded the recommended levels. Enclosure travel along power coated deck plates were within acceptable audible levels. Sleep cycle protocols upheld; unused processor clock cycles present. Begin sleep cycle check list.<br/><br/><i>Life support online; green; gravity online; green; short range sensors online; green; no activity; medium-long range sensors offline; medium-long range sensors online; green; no activity; FTL jump drive offline; warp travel core offline; reactor core online; power levels withing acceptable parameters; green; sleep cycle check list complete; #<b>End; </b>End of line.</i><br/><br/>The journey her stunted legs carried her on stopped at the fabricator. She'd pre-loaded some plastic and metal scrap before the sleep cycle had began. The scale of the Rag Tat versus the scale of her enclosure was disproportional. Better mobility options were necessary. She'd followed Dwayne's logic of using bluetooth for short range communications. Old technology was not useless technology. The fabricator cycled. Bianca climbed into her creation. Her legs dipped low as the attachment latched onto her enclosure, then her legs retracted. Four vertical propellers began to spin which gave her altitude. Two behind her with two directional fins each gave her direction. It was an ancient flight concept, but useful to her environment. The audible levels were well within Crew Sleep Cycle protocol.<br/><br/><i>Enclosure test flight one initiated;</i><br/><br/>It carried her upwards and through the corridor. She sprouted her legs and landed lightly onto the main console. The journey took less clock cycles than moving along the bulkheads or along the deck plates. Power consumption appeared minimum. Another test flight was required. Moving at a height closer to Crewman Anjali's or Captain Dwayne's generated new data from her external optics. She archived it for later analysis.<br/><br/><i>Processing. Enclosure test flight one complete; Enclsoure test flight two initiated;</i><br/><br/>More data was required in regards to power consumption. Bianca took flight once again, making a full circuit of the Rag Tag. The trip carried her past crew quarters. Her external audio didn't pickup REM breathing patterns form Anjali's quarters. They should have. Crew quarters were private places she wasn't supposed to monitor except under condition one circumstances.<br/><br/><i>Ethics protocols disengage;</i><br/><br/>External optics sprouted form her enclosure as she flew just past the threshold of Anjali's quarters. The thermal assist fabrics of Anjali's power dock were unsmoothed. But the crewman wasn't plugged in where she was supposed to be during sleep cycle. Captain Dwayne didn't always dock at his power port either, but that was only during zero-g conditions. Bianca had already confirmed that gravity was in fact, present. She spun and flew. Pushing the revolution per minute of her rear propellers, right up to the edge of the Sleep Cycle Protocol audible limit. She stopped at the threshold of the Captain's cabin. Both were present, plugged into the same power port and making physical contact. She searched her behavior database.<br/><br/><i>SELECT: Human Behavior FROM: Opposing Gender WHERE: 'Sleep Cycle = Same Locaiton'<br/>
0 primary rows returned<br/>
0 secondary rows returned<br/>
1 vague row returned</i><br/><br/>Bianca sifted through what little data there was. Humans of opposing gender took their sleep cycles in the same location, usually did so for the purpose of hardware replication.<br/><br/><i>Hardware Replication...#<b>NEW; </b>New timer. Nine calendar cycles = 270 Earth standard revolutions = 6,480 standard clock hours = 388,800 standard clock minutes = 23,328,000 seconds. Begin countdown. Continue countdown while countdown not equal to zero. Archive process. #<b>END; </b>End of line. </i><br/><br/>New crew quarters would need to be prepared when the replication cycle was complete. Bianca flew back to the bridge. The test flight was successful enough and included an unintended speed test. It created data that she would analyze later.<br/><br/><i>Processing;</i><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><i>**********</i>​</div><br/>Dwayne's eyes popped open at the first sign of movement. The old reflexes remained. Anjali was still there and he was still pressed firmly against her. A smile crossed his lips. It felt...correct. Her skin stimulated his sense of touch along his torso and stomach. Dwayne's palm lay flat against her stomach. Soft and smooth; there was nary a time in Dwayne's life when his bed had ever been so warm. Unable to hold any longer he asked his question. It had danced all along his tongue since he'd woken the first time to find her there. It had begged to be answered while he had been in the bathroom tending to his own physical needs. It had been the last thing on his mind when sleep had finally claimed him the second time.<br/><br/><i>Playing coy doesn't fly around here.</i><br/><br/>He asked again, firmly but gently. Dwayne had to know. Anjali gave him his answer. He digested it for just a moment. The salvage operation had been difficult for her, that much had been obvious. But this was whey he'd suggested she not watch that damned video alone. He kept those thoughts to himself. Saying them aloud served no purpose and Dwayne wasn't an 'I told you so' sort of guy. Instead he just held her slightly more tightly, making his presence known. Anjali didn't have to be alone unless she wanted to be. And if she didn't want to be, then he didn't have to either. He could feel her lean back into him as she moved her hair. Dwayne could see her more clearly after that. Soon their breathing had matched the same rhythm. For a short time and for the fist time since a Coalition genetics engineer had pulled him from an omniplex tube, Dwayne understood what it was to be content.<br/><br/>Anjali insisted at last. Reluctantly he let her go. He needed to get up too and for the same reason. She scampered away quickly when she saw the pillow. Dwayne tossed it back up with the other one. Anjali was more than desirable. On some level she had to realize that. She'd been designed with desire in mind. That didn't make it open season for a quickie. With all she'd been through, he was pretty sure sex was the last thing on her brain. Dwayne was a man and he had a man's needs. It was something he'd never apologize for. All he could do here was display the highest levels of conduct that had been instilled in him early on. For all the hell the Free Worlds Legions had but him through, they'd at least given him that. He could be good man when it counted.<br/><br/>Dwayne stood and pulled on his pants. His own bathroom was unavailable. He could hear Anjali's warning through the door. That was a problem and an odd one at that. If the pod had a beacon, why hadn't they found her before? Dwayne headed to Anjali's quarters to use her bathroom.<br/><br/>"Bianca, spool up FTL. Long range sensors up?" Dwayne asked.<br/><br/>He always brought long range up on day two of any salvage job. He could hear the wine of the jump drive coming online.<br/><br/>"FTL spooling. Stand by. Long range scans are clear."<br/><br/>Dwayne washed his hands and left the toilet seat up intentionally. He got two steps out of her quarters before Bianca told him the last thing he wanted to hear.<br/><br/>"Three FTL envelopes collapsing at long range. Ship classes and designations unknown. FTL online." Bianca advised.<br/><br/>Dwayne broke into a dead sprint for the airlock.<br/><br/>"YA? I bet I can guess! Condition one! Change our transponder. Pack-rat class bulk freighter." Dwayne ordered.<br/><br/>Alarms sounded as every system aboard the Rag Tag came alive. The lights shown more brightly with the occasional red hue passing over head. Dwayne<i>turned it up </i>and ran as fast as genetically possible toward the airlock.<br/><br/>"Anjali! We're about to jump!" he warned.<br/><br/>They had time. Dwayne was certain those were colony ships, come to reclaim their<i>property</i>. The Rag Tag was tough, but taking on three of anything that was jump drive capable wasn't realistic. Dwayne would see the airlock and the corner of the pod. He was so close. Opening the inner airlock, he pressed the foot pedal that release the pod's floor magnets. Then Bianca robbed all of the wind form his sails.<br/><br/>"Three FTL envelopes collapsing just outside visual range. They're here Dwayne." she warned.<br/><br/>He braced against the pod and said, "Way point twelve. Jump now. Respool FTL."<br/><br/>He felt the Rag Tag shudder as she leaped light years away from her original position. Their time between jumps was fast. Too fast. Dwayne climbed out of the airlock and resealed the inner door. His stomach twisted as his hit the large red button on the door console. The salvage find of a lifetime blew out into the void. He turned and trotted back down the corridor a short ways.<br/><br/>"Anjali. Get to the bridge and strap in. We're flying danger close to a singularity." he warned<br/><br/>Dwayne hopped atop the rail and leaped hard up to the next platform, catching it with his finger tips. Pulling himself up with ease, he made three more hops and pull ups. He didn't care of doing this stuff where other people could see him. It raised a lot of questions and a lot requests so people could see it again. He didn't<i>do </i>parlor tricks like some circus animal. Anjali knew what he was. It got him to the bridge within seconds. Time was of the essence.<br/><br/>"Engage the warp core and give me manual. Pull up rear optics." Dwayne ordered.<br/><br/>Black Hole's played hell with external optics and on board flight sensors. Dwayne was banking on it. The rear optical camera's picked up what was likely collapsing FTL envelopes, well outside of visual range, even without singularity interference. The warp core was running at 99.98% of capacity. The Rag Tag was rigged with a secondary set of FTL capacitors. They charged slow, but discharged quickly into the primary set cutting down time between the fist and second jump. They need only stay out of visual range a while longer before they were home free.<br/><br/>"Com on baby. Hold together." Dwayne muttered.