Aphrodite

[Sombs]

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June 16th, 825 - Omicron Kappa

Noel opened his eyes. There was a sudden feeling of disorientation when he his glance met the ceiling of his new room. It was rather early in the morning. His third day on the Apahanta was beginning now.

"Apahanta, light." Nothing happened. "Turn the light on." Once more nothing happened until Noel remembered what Ezrael had told him. "Apahanta, please turn on the light. Not too much, early morning light only. Thank you." And the ship reacted. It made Noel shake his head in disbelief. The ship was only reacting to commands if they were politely stated. Why would one do that, program it that way? The AI of the ship was non-sentient. It was a tool like a knife or a screwdriver. Admittedly however, it made Noel smirk.

Moving to sit at the edge of the bed, he looked down at himself. The long t-shirt he wore was hiding his thin torso and covering his shorts the way he was sitting. The bed was nice. Not too soft, not too hard. He was sleeping well here. The entire room was nice. His own little kingdom, as Ezrael called it when he showed him the room. Noel looked up at the wall. Ezrael had ordered the KSRs to take all the stuff of the former owner of the room, Leon, and bring it to the storage bay. Yet the calender with the pin-up photos of this girl was still there. A little welcome gift, as Ezrael called it. Noel didn't know the woman on those soft erotic pictures. Black hair, thin, luscious looks while wearing a mix of lingerie and HOT GEAR hoverbiking outfits. No, Noel didn't know Nancy Sweetwater at all.

Dropping his shorts and taking off the T-Shirt, Noel rose to his feet and moved to the bathroom, to take a long, hot and steamy shower. This was luxury. Actual water showers, on a space ship. For quite a time he remained in the shower stall, enjoying the feeling of hot water brushing thin body. And there was this curacaoan fruit shampoo. What a nice scent, all over his body. They had all that every single day, Noel thought to himself. Living on the Apahanta was better than on any other ship, station or planet.

And then the breakfast. Those people were all nice, funny and looking healthy and good! Even those without model body measures. And they all wore these skin-tight overalls. Noel felt a bit wear about it. They were pretty shape-revealing. It felt like cosplaying first, but he understood why everyone was prefering them. The material was pretty elastic, didn't smell. It was always adjusting to the body temperature, giving him a cozy feeling. He was able to move freely without restrictions. It was like a second skin.

The food was fresh. Buns, milk, juices, cereals, cheese, sausage, ham, even eggs. How was that possible? On the Buntheide, the ship of his parents, they were mostly eating food rations and synth paste-based food. Tasty, but synthetical stuff. But here was everything you could get on planets only. Unbelievable. Getting those things must have been extremely expensive. And according to the crew, they had such meals every day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The crew was welcoming the 26th crew member with warmth. It was like Ezrael had described. Many women, all in the best age, all of them with a rather loose tongue. They weren't mean but teasing. Cute boy, they called him. This was so much different from anything he ever had experienced.

This was heaven.

After breakfast, the crew did the morning workout together in the gym. It was lead by Captain and Commander. While the latter always prefered to remain as professional as possible and thus kept her suit on, Ezrael stood there mere dressed in black sweatpants, showing off his toned surfer body. Noel didn't know yet that he did that on purpose, as whenever the Captain was leading the workout, it was way better visited than usual. He later figured out why when the women cliqué seemed to have allied against the Captain, they were rather brazen and asked him to please show them certain poses and exercises again. They all had fun there, that was for sure.

Sweaty from the sports and games, Noel had returned to his room to take another shower. Once more he took his sweet time, both in the shower and afterwards when blowdrying his hair. They even provided all kinds of things for hairstyling, shaving and such things. This was incredible. Everything you can want, on a battleship.

Leaving the bathroom, Noel inhaled deeply. The nice fruity scent of the shampoo was still on his body. Now just to put on the Apahanta suit again and then - red alert? The lights turned red and a strong, deep siren sound rushed through the entire ship. Noel's heart began to beat wildly and in his attempt to slip into the Apahanta suit as fast as possible, he fell over and found himself on the floor, undamaged. He had no idea how to behave in a red alert scenario. Ezrael knew that. The door to Noel's quarters opened and Ezrael set a foot into the room, throwing a surprised glance at the pretty naked boy who returned a panicking expression at the Captain. "Don't worry, it's not a combat situation. Still, you might want to cover your genitalia if possible."

So he did. A minute later, Ezrael and Noel had moved to the bridge. This was pretty impressive. It was the first time Noel was here. The main screen was showing the cloud they were hidden inside, together with Livadia. They were unmooring, leaving the drydock. The crew was at their consoles, Sherry standing on the commanding stage, her head turned towards him and Ezrael. The Captain was heading for his seat and Sherry for the one next to him, to his right. Looking over to Noel, he pointed at the seat to his left. "Come here, sit down. We're jumping, enjoy the show."

Following his invitation, Noel carefully sat down next to him. This was the chair of the counselor, he thought. Empy, though. Ezrael smiled at him, then looked ahead to the mainscreen. "Charge the jump drive once we're far enough away from Livadia. Jump when ready, you know the coordinates."

"Where do we jump, Captain?" Noel asked. Also, did Ezrael just see him naked? He realized it only now. Weird, but then again, Ezrael was probably more professional about such things as performer. Noel knew about that bit of his past, as it was not really a secret. In fact, most people on Livadia knew about those movies. Especially about the one with Loyola, at Corinth. Having fallen into thoughts, Ezrael managed to rip him out of that train by fingerpistoling Noel's side.

"You'll see in a few seconds. If we survive it, you'll get a nice view as reward."

"What do you mean, if!?" Noel gave back, suddenly feeling weird about this.

Ezrael chuckled and looked back at the mainscreen. White lightnings were surrounding the ship and from one moment to the next, the nebula around them disappeared quickly into the empty space they just had jumpted to. Noel stood up, making his steps forward to the railing. The view was indeed rewarding. It was the first time Noel saw the Tau-29 sun.

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