Lucky Star

This is written solely by me, I would be very hurt if anyone were to take it without asking first.  If you want to use it or link to it from your own page, please ask me first. 

Chapter One:
Ross' Mistake

    The corridors were anything but silent on the third level of the ship. On the first and second levels the water condensing off of the exposed pipes could be heard falling to the floor in the ½ G atmosphere. It wasn't a ship from a horror film of the 20th century. The corridors were well lit, and except for the water pipes the walls were smooth, no where could any imaginary monsters hide. Everywhere on the ship things were calm, except on the third level. Depending on where one was, the walls of the corridor could be covered with pictures of family, schematic of engines or star charts of the known systems.

     On the third level sat two of the females of the crew reading and one of the males listening to Cat Stevens on the ship's intercom. The third female was in her bed, taking a nap after a long duty shift. The other male was in the refreshing room; the other members of the crew didn't like to ask what was going on. The other two members of the crew where at the bridge attempting to keep the ship on course and on schedule after their unscheduled pit stop at base 2-30.

     "Damn it! How the hell are we suppose to make up twelve hours? We are going to be late because you and Ross could not hold off getting your kicks with those cheap holograms till we got to base 5-35." Grace stood there with her hands on her hips, in her normal angry mother stance. She stood there in her 5' 10" glory, hourglass figure with medium length, curly red hair and hazel eyes. A typical Irish girl, and probably the only one who understood what the word Irish meant in any other context other than a small island near Great Britain, now sitting under meters of salt water, like most of the planet's Earth continents.

     "Not everyone on this ship is as frozen as you are. And not all of us are getting their rocks off, such as Amy and Rob.  Ross and I have needs. And it seems to me the Marcia also wanted to make that stop. Besides, we can make it up by going through the centaur straight. Just trust me for once," Mike sat at the navigator's post, his head bent over the LCD read out of the star maps. He was a shorter than average male, about 5'8". He was the standard hard ass male with too much to prove. He ran his hands threw his brown, short hair and looked at Grace with his dark brown eyes and smiled like an imp. Grace made an unintelligible sound and sat in her pilot's chair and they both started to plot their new course.

     In the common area Amy was reading one of her science fiction book. Her brown hair was pulled back into the ponytail she normally sported. Her brown-green eyes scanned the pages and her slight frame sat at the round table with her legs propped up on the chair across from her. Marcia was looking over star charts for their next run. Her sandy blond hair fell over her face and she was continually pushing it back into place. Her green eyes strained and had a questing gaze. Finally she pushed the charts away and her tall 6'1" frame slumped down in to her sit.

      "Well, I can't see anyway to make the next run in under three days. I can't believe that Grace wants me to find a way from 5-35 to the Vega 7. Why do we need to go to that planet anyway? All that is there is a bunch of garbage and rude under sexed men who grab your ass if you so much as dare go out of the ship." Marcia rubbed her eyes and looked over to Amy for some kind of reaction.

     Amy looked up from her book at Marcia. "Look Marcia, Grace knows how to make the business deals so that you can continue to buy those star charts of your, I can buy my books, Rob can buy music, and Ross and Mike can get laid by cheap holo-hookers when we are in port. If she says that our next shipment goes to Vega 7, then I suggest you find a way there in the amount of time that she said we needed to be there by. Besides, Ross and Grace are such good pilots that you and Mike can make the shortcuts that other pilots wouldn't dare do. "

     Marcia glared at Amy, then grabbed the start charts again and started to look at them. After a minute, she looked up and asked, "what's dinner?"

     "Ask Rob, he's the cook tonight." Amy nodded over to Rob, dancing about while he listened to Cat Stevens.

     Rob was a 6'1" Jesus look alike. He danced around in a small area his sort of blond, but kind of red hair was bouncing about and his bearded face had a large smile on it. He was that sort of person; mellow and laid back. As he danced around the ½ G atmosphere, Marcia yelled at him again and again. She finally got up and stood right next to him.  "HEY ROB!"

     Rob turned to see Marcia looking pissed right at him. "Whatcha need Marcia?"

     "I have been yelling at you for hours. "

     "Sorry, but I didn't hear you."

     "Oh never mind that. What's for dinner?"

     "MREs, what else can I cook."

     "Oh, why do we ever assign you to cook. Every time you cook, we eat MREs. "

     Rob went back to listening to his music and Marcia trudged to the table and went back to her star charts. Within three minutes of Marcia sitting back down, Grace came in throwing her mug (which was plastic, as this had happened before) and yelling at anyone in view.

     "What the hell is going on here, we are going to be late on making our deadline and you people are just sitting about on your lazy asses. Marcia, find me a route that well get us from here to 5-35 in about seven hours. Whatever the risks involved in making the route will be handled by Ross and I. Just don't take us past anymore gravity holes. Which means no centaur straight. Amy, you get Rob and Martha and go to the engine room. I need that other nuclear motor moving now. The only way we can make this job is if that engine is running with the other. And, if we don't make this job our ship's last payment won't be made and for another four standard years we will be paying for this bucket. I don't want to make another four years of payments. GET GOING!"

     Amy grabbed Rob in mid-dance step, and pushed him towards the lift and went running down towards the sleeping bunks. She had to go get Martha up before Grace decided to give Martha a rude wakening. Most of the crew did not mess with Grace when she was in her 'do it now or die' mood, except Martha. Martha would of start yelling and Grace would continue yelling and they would be late. In turn, Grace would still be paying off the ship and be bitchy for the next four years.

     Amy ran into Martha's room, tripping over cloths and shoes. Martha's short stocky frame was snuggled underneath her covers. When Amy pulled the covers from over her, she opened her emerald green eyes and looked at her. She tossed her brown hair over her face and put her pillow over her head.

     "Martha, we are going to be late. We need to get the other engine on line. Come on, let's get going."

     "NO! I just want to sleep. Who said we're going to be late anyway, Grace."

     "No, Mike said that unless we can get going faster and find a quicker route, we're going to be late and the ship won't be ours if we are late. Get up."

     "Fine," Martha pushed the pillow off of her face and started towards the lift. Amy was already at the lift and going to the engine room. Rob had started to get things ready to get the other engine ready to fire. He worked with keyboard, getting the troublesome engine to come on line. Amy came running in and went to get the core for the engine and Marsha ran to the other terminal to ready the ship for the structural stress having both engines running would cause.

     "Shit, if we run both at 100%, the first deck will bust." Martha mopped her head with the back of her hand.

     "What if we only run the second engine at 90%? Will that blow the ship up too?" Rob was now helping Amy handle the core.

     "No, the second engine can only be run at about 85% without blowing the ship. Who wants to tell Grace? I'm sure as hell not going to."

     "Rob and I have finished with the core, and I have to go up the bridge anyway. I guess I will tell her. Anything else?" Amy started to head for the door.

     "Yeah, when you get to the Comm board, tell base 5-35 that we are going to be coming in hot. Once they figure how we're getting there, tell the base to clear the space for us." Martha didn't even look up from her terminal. 

     "I'll do that," Amy screamed as she ran to the lift.

     Meanwhile, Grace was banging on the refresher's door. Trying to get Ross out of there. "Ross, if you don't get out of there is minute I am going to space you right this instant. Come on. Get out of there!"

     A slightly muffled voice came from the other side of the door; "I will be out in just a moment. I'll meet you in the bridge."

     When Ross finally got to the bridge it was five minutes past when Grace thought he should have been there.

     "What the hell took you so long? The entire shipment is going to be late and what are you doing? You're in the bathroom, with your pictures and leaving a mess behind. Now get to work before I space your ass," Grace was sitting at her console, punching buttons and moving levers in an attempt to keeping the ship from going too fast or in the wrong direction. Ross slumped down into his sit at his console. His 6'2" frame shifted nervously in his sit and ran his hands through his massive, curly and brown hair and then turned his brown eyes towards Grace and said, "were you really going to space me for just using the bathroom?"

     "One: can we talk about this later. Two: you weren't just using the bathroom."

     The crew reached base 5-35 on schedule, with only minor damages to the ship. Of course, Grace threatened to call off shore leave unless the minor repairs were completed. Within hours the ship was repaired and Rob had ordered spare parts to replace the ones used during the journey.

     After the repairs were completed a ship meeting was held in the common area. "Okay, we have one week here, which naturally means that we have five days of shore leave. I expect everyone back here within 5 days at 0800 hours ship time. I would also like a call number where I can get a hold of you in case we need to leave earlier. If I don't have a number and we leave early without you, that's your problem." Grace's hair was frazzled and she looked really tried.

     There wasn't much discussion after Grace's standard speech. Rob and Amy packed a small two-day bag and planned on spending some quiet time at the base's fake beach. Ross had friends on this base and he planned to spend time with them.  Which left Mike to play on his own, which was dangerous. Marcia and Martha had plans to go spend all of shore leave in the shop section of the base and spend every credit they had. Grace, being tried and anti-social decided to spend all of her time reading her books and cleaning the ship.

     At the beginning of the third day Amy and Rob returned to the ship looking happy and relaxed. Grace just looked well rested.

     "You need to get out of this ship." Amy was sitting at the table of the common area. Grace was cleaning and reorganizing the cabinets.

     "I love my ship. I don't want to leave my ship. Everything I need is here.

     "We are going out tonight for drinks and dancing."

     "I HATE dancing. And I can get drunk here. I don't WANT to leave my ship."

     "We're going out. Get ready."

     Grace just sighed. Grace might be the captain of the ship, but Amy would make her go out and interact with people whether she wanted to or not. So, Grace finished cleaning and reorganizing the cabinets and went to go clean herself up. As she getting dressed for the evening she received a call, which she accepted.

     "Hey Grace, I heard that you were in port. One of your loud-mouthed crew guys was chatting up a storm about the "Lucky Star". I thought I'd see if it was really you that he was talking about. So whatcha up to? Haven't heard from you for a while." On the screen was a round faced male, with dark brown hair and a small amount of scruff, like he had been at work for about two days without being about to shave. If Grace had not known him, she would not known that he was only one and a half inches shorter than she was.

     "Leroy is that you?! My goodness! I haven't heard from you in quite sometime. I didn't know you were here on base 5-35. When did you get here?"

     "I got here about five months ago and got really busy doing stuff. How long are you here on 5-35?

     "I'm here for another 2 days before I need to start getting the ship ready for our next jump. Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

     "I'm meeting with a friend for drinks."

     "Well, some of my crew mates and I are going out for drinks and dancing. Why don't you two join us? Please join us Leroy. Amy wants me to dance. You know how much I hate dancing or even just going out. Please, don't leave me alone with this."

     "How about this, I'll swing by and pick you guys up and then we'll decide what to do. 'Kay?"

     "Wonderful, see you in while."

     "Bye."

     They hung up and Grace continued to get ready. Then again Grace received two more incoming calls. Grace answered the first to come in.

     "What?" Grace was feeling a little annoyed, as she was having problems getting a good hold on the zipper on the back of her dress."

     Grace, I got married. I'm leaving the ship." It was Marcia. She stood with her white dress and flowers in her hair. Grace could not believe Marcia was wearing white.

     "What?! You did what! You know if you leave you forfeit your rights to the ship."

     "Fine, I never liked that rust bucket. I'm married and I'm living here forever with my husband, whom I love."

     Then Marcia hung up. Grace had no time to think about it, she had another call to answer.

     "What?"

     "Ms. Kleier, this is Officer O'Hare. It is our unpleasant duty to inform you that one Mr. Michael Folwer was involved in a bar fight and was killed in said bar fight. On his ID card it named you as the person to contact in case of arrest, injury or death.  What do you want done with the body?" On the screen was Officer O'Hare, looking serious and drab in his gray police uniform.

     "Body? What do I want done with Mr. Folwer's body?"

     "If you need time to figure out what is to be done, you can call me with your decision."

     "No, no. I can transmit his files to you now. I can also ship his personal effects to you. I believe that his files will tell you what to do with them."

     "I'm sorry, but it was my understanding that you were his wife, Ms. Kleier."

     "No, he was a crew member on my ship. I'll ship his stuff to you before we leave."

     "Thank you. Waiting for your transmission."

     Grace transmitted Mike's files. She felt oddly empty. She had lost two crewmembers. She needed two new crew members, ones willing to put money into the ship. She didn't feel like going out, but she finished getting ready anyway.

     Amy answered the chimed that sounded when Leroy and his friend arrived. Leroy introduced her as Courtney, one of his co-workers at the Public Relations 'R Us. She stood about half an inch taller than Leroy did, with her slightly curly dark blond hair down and her face lightly painted with makeup. The way her blue-gray eyes scanned the entryway of the ship made her seem both shy and interested in what was going on.

     The next morning the Lucky Star looked as if a major disaster had littered bodies from the common area to the sleeping area (where the crewmember's bedrooms were located). In the common area was Leroy. It was as far as he could make it after a night of drinking. He was trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in as he was lying in the chair. His coveralls were wrinkled and it appeared that during the night a drink had been spilled on him. Courtney was in Marcia's old room. She lay where she had fallen, too drunk to take her coveralls off or get under the covers. Amy and Rob were both Amy's room. They both had separate rooms; even the closest couple needed time alone. On a ship, the only time alone is in a separate room. They had managed to get under the sheets and were sleeping next to each other. Grace's door was shut, the only one in the entire hall. She was under her covers, and in her usual sleeping clothes (a tank top and flannel sleeping pants). She was the only one to make it from the dance clubs without getting drunk. She would most likely rub everyone face in that little fact. It was just the way she was.

     It was later in the day, Leroy, Courtney, and Rob were sitting in the common area waiting for Grace and Amy to finish preparing brunch. Everyone but Grace had slept in. Grace had gotten up early and had cleaned the bridge, as per she schedule.

      "It must be fun to work on spaceship. Much better than sitting at a data console listening to jerks complaining about the press release that they thought was 'unfavorable'. I would prefer to be anywhere but that console most days," Courtney said as she held her coffee cup in both hands, as if she was trying to warm them.

     "It really isn't that great. You can get sick of the people on the ship; Ross is always in the bathroom. Grace is constantly throwing things and Marcia leaves a mess everywhere. Mike is always nagging Grace over how frigid she is. Martha just picks fights because she can. Oh yeah, living on a space ship is a lot of fun." Rob took a sip of coffee.

     "The other side of that coin is everyone is important. Each time I try to talk to Grace about Mike, she looks away, thinking I don't know that she is trying her hardest not to cry. And even thought Marcia drove me up the wall with her whining, I'm still going to miss her. So, being on this crate is fun and home." Amy came walking out of the kitchen area with the butter.

     Just as Amy and Grace got finished preparing brunch, there came a squawk from the speaker and then a rushed and breathless Ross started screaming, "Open the door. Let me in. Please! For God's sake -" he was cut off by another voice.

     "Captain of the 'Lucky Star', you are to stand down and release your vehicle to base 5-35 Authority."

     Grace dropped the two plates that she had been about to serve to Leroy and Courtney and ran to the door. She looked at the screen and saw that Ross would be at the door soon. "Rob, start the engine. We're blowing this pop stand. Like hell I'm going to stand down and give them my ship. Amy, you try to call Martha. If you can't get a hold of her, too bloody bad for her."

     Ross was running as quickly as he could but the Base Authority were both on foot and in speeders. He could see the door and he hoped that someone would be there to open in, he didn't have his pass card. As Ross got closer to the ship, Grace opened the door. Ross made a mad drive and barely grabbed the bottom of the opening. Grace grabbed his belt and shoved him in to the entryway.

     As Grace punched the combination to shut and lock the door she yelled at Ross, "Get to the bridge and get us out of here before they try to ground us. GO!"

     Ross ran. Grace Ran. Leroy and Courtney stayed quiet and sat in the seats did they had been occupying when Ross' frantic cries for help had been heard. They could feel a hum start up below their feet and heard Rob yell up, "she's started up and purring."

     They then saw numbers starting at fifteen and on down to flash on the screen. The count down had started and they were still on the ship. Grace had totally forgotten that anyone but crewmembers were on the ship. They were pleased. So pleased that they didn't think that the take off of a ship so large would be dangerous.

     "Looks like we're going to be taking a trip, ah?" Leroy said with a twinkle in his eye.

     "Yes, it does." Courtney looked very pleased.

     In the bridge Ross and Grace watched the screen as they strapped themselves in. Amy braced herself for the take off as he repeated tried to find Martha at the COM station. Finally she gave up and said, "Grace, we've lost Martha. I can't find her."

     "Too bad for her." Grace then called down to Rob, "strapped in?"

     Before he got to answer the countdown was at one and the ship lifted. Ross, Amy, Rob and Grace were braced or strapped in. However, Leroy and Courtney were not. Leroy was thrown into the wall and knocked out before he knew what was happening. Courtney had the presence of mind to grab on to the side of the chair and wrap her legs about the legs of the chair, which were anchored magnetically, to the floor.

     It didn't take long for the Lucky Star to get out of the base's gravitational pull and head for the nearest star. Ross had no idea why, he was acting as navigation. He was to find a path as straight as possible. Grace just headed for the star. 
     On route to the star, the 'Lucky Star' received many calls to a halt and prepare for boarding. The crew ignored the calls.  Like Grace had said, 'like hell I'm going to give them my ship.'

     Upon reaching the nearest star Grace had Rob power down the ship's nuclear motors. Everyone protested and thought she had lost her mind. But, Grace ignored them and before they had any clue what was going on, they were traveling a little under the speed of light. It was then that Grace remembered that there were non-crewmembers on board and they weren't strapped in for the take off.

     "Oh shit, Leroy and Courtney! They're still on board. FUCK!" Grace then ran to the common area with Amy following and Ross running to the first-aid kit. There was no doubt that there were some injuries.

     Grace and Amy had Courtney lying flat on the floor. There were some bruises on her legs where she had wrapped her legs around the chair and her finders were bloody from hanging on to the bottom of the set. She was moaning and the pain expressed on her face made Grace feel very guilty for forgetting about her and Leroy.

     Leroy was lying a little farther up. There was blood matted in his hair where a coffee cup had fallen and struck his head.  Across his forehead there was a large bruise forming from where he hit the bulkhead. Within an hour Courtney's hands were bandaged and she was given some painkillers for the bruises. She was resting in Marcia's old room. Leroy was still in the sick bay. He was conscience, but Ross (acting as medical officer) didn't feel comfortable with letting him run around the ship until he was better and no longer complaining about a headache.

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