Close, but no Cigar! Conclusion
01 Jul 2019Marlfan1
Oh, man, do I need a shower! I spent three days in the dog house, groveling, "yes ma'am", "no ma'am", "is there anything I can do for you ma'am". I feel so dirty! Along with walking on my knees to do her bidding, I still had to fly Cricket. Jump, Honk, FSS, and DSS anything worthwhile as we jumped back to Neritus. The only peace I got was during the nightly excursions in the SRV collecting raw materials.It got to the point that as I jumped in to each system, I found myself praying it would either be an empty system, or one I already had all the data on just so I could jump right out and go on to the next system, speeding up the time I could get that , umm, nice lady, off my ship. By jump 30 on the return, I was wishing for my ex back! When I get back to Neritus, I am ripping that passenger cabin out of Cricket with my bare hands! The ONLY passenger trips I make from now on will be in Gulliver, my Beluga. At least on him I can find plenty of hiding places. Sure, he heats up a bit, but I will have no problem carrying the mats I need to synth more heat sinks.
If I can ever get to the point that her image doesn't pop into my mind when I think back over this trip, and I can actually pleasantly recall all the cool biologicals and the multicolored and ringed planets I have encountered out here, I think I might be able to say it was worth it. For now, though, I cringe and almost wet myself when I hear her voice over the comms calling for me to be her errand boy again. I think my face must reflect the expressions of fear and humiliation I find on the faces of most of the men cowering in her wake among the 6 others in her party. To think, I used to laugh at them; now, I am one of them and I want to adopt them all and give them a good home. I have already shared with them the wonders of GooseFrahbah.
Have you ever had a dog? I mean a real dog, not one of those mechanical synths you can get. Did you ever go away for a long period of time and find him waiting for you at the door, tail wagging at the speed of light, jumping and whimpering. He can't even be still long enough for you to pet him. That was how I felt when my AI informed me the next jump was back into Neritus.
Normally, when I land, first thing I do is refuel/repair/restock. Then I pay any fines, collect any bounties, disembark any passengers, turn in any missions, and sell any cargo or cartographic data. Not this time. Before Cricket had even rebounded from the landing impact I was out of the pilot's chair, lowering the egress stairs, opening the exit door and running to the cargo bay to get her stuff off my ship.
"Thank you Commander, it was, er, and interesting trip." "Yeah, sure thing Sister. Don't trip on those steps on the way out, I don't want to be sued."
As soon as she cleared the last step, and all of her stuff was emptied from my cargo bay, I shut and secured all the entrances, both cargo bay door and personnel hatch. I shut down everything but the air circulators, turned off all the lights, felt my way into my cabin and curled up in the fetal position on my bed. Fifteen minutes later, when the AI pinged in to announce her payment hitting my account, I think, even in that position, I cleared a couple of inches off the bunk as I jumped at the sound. I am so glad my heart didn't explode with all the pounding it did. I was never so glad when the voice over the comms was the AI, and not her.
I don't know how long I laid there GooseFrahbah-ing before I finally felt safe enough to get up. I made my way back to the pilot's chair, sat and powered everything back up, and returned to my routine.
When I got to the point I was ready to sell the cartographic data, I started trembling in anticipation. When I had left Neritus, I was 57% from Elite status in Exploration. Surely, this 5,000LY round trip excursion into hell had been enough. No pilot should have to endure more than I just did. <Deep Breath>, Ok, here we go...click...
WHAT! I am at 85%!!! Tears begin to flow as my lower lip trembles. Close, but no cigar!