The wake-up alarm sounded in my quarters. That irritating oddly pitched buzz filled my head as my mind drifted into consciousness. They have scientifically created the sound that our hearing and brains can’t ignore. I think it is a combination of a baby’s cry, the sound of a cat whose tail is stepped on, and a nagging wife all rolled up into one sound, and then add a little screech of fingernails on a chalkboard.

“I’m awake Rosie. You can turn off that fraking noise.” I instructed the ship’s computer, quieting the annoying sound.

As I acclimated to my surroundings, a broad smile broke out across my face. I still can’t believe my good fortune. I was snuggled up to Carmen’s luscious form from behind. From my position, spooning the beautiful engineering chief, I had to appreciate the warmth of her unclad attractive body. We have been a regular couple onboard for about eight weeks.

She first truly noticed me when she accidently slammed a hatch on my hand. It fraking hurt. I had two fingers in a splint for four weeks, but it was worth it. After that, we just came together.

On a long-term freighter haul, there isn’t much to do for entertainment aboard. You don’t really date, you hangout. It happens quickly in a shipboard romance. You suddenly find yourself in the rack with your partner doing the nasty. Usually a few weeks later, you move on to a new romance, but that hadn’t happened to us. It becomes self-evident after five or six weeks that it is something special, and then you’re a couple.

Ensign Carmen Richards is beautiful. Her Latino heritage was evident in the wavy dark hair that almost reached her lovely shoulders, dark chocolaty eyes, and rich brown complexion from her Brazilian father. She had delicate features, a slim athletic build, and was slightly shorter than normal. In addition, her smile, oh my god, her smile was perfect in every way.

Wrapping my arm around her, I brought her closer. I enjoy waking Carmen up erotically. As she was already moving, I rolled her onto her back. Carmen had her beautiful brown eyes open leering at me. She dragged me down to her hungry lips for a kiss. It swiftly grew more fervent and I quickly became aroused.

I moved above her, our tongues probing deeply into each other’s mouth. She raked her fingers through my short sable hair and our mouths tried to express our impassioned thoughts. It was as if I were attempting to breathe her into me.

Our hands wandered over each other, inspiring additional sensuous considerations. Our amorous feeling ignited into a rousing session of unadulterated hardcore sex. Carmen is insatiable once her libido is triggered.

Her unrelenting pursuit of carnal pleasure is both fabulous and exhausting. That isn’t why I love being with her, but it’s a tremendous bonus. She is so adorable, but her physical assets, as delightful as they are, aren’t her finest attributes. Carmen had to be intelligent to advance to engineering chief, but she causes the brightest professionals to appear as dullards. She has a boundless sense of humor albeit somewhat perverted at times, which I find quite endearing. Carmen is also very compassionate and kindhearted; she is always helping a friend or colleague. Last but not least, she has an extraordinary air of confidence which she wears like a cloak and still maintains a sense of humility, the combination makes her so appealing.

After we recuperated from the stupor of our passion, we went to the shower to clean up. As I spread the lather of the cleaning gel over her captivating figure, I thought about how different it is with Carmen.

I’ve had outstanding lovers and wonderful love affairs. There have been relationships that didn’t endure, but I’ve never experienced anything like this before. It is so different. When I catch sight of her, hear her voice or even catch a whiff of her fragrance, I instantly smile as if it were an involuntary reflex like breathing.

We washed each other. The scrubbing became stroking and caressing which evolved into an enamored embrace. Before this got out of hand, as I wished it would, I had to stop. I had duties and responsibilities to perform.

As we dried ourselves, I said, “Carmen, I’ve never felt like this before.”

She replied with a mischievous grin, “Oh yes you have, I felt it several times this morning lover.”

“I’m being serious. This is something extraordinary that we have. You are very special to me.” I said.

Carmen’s grin developed into a wide smile that brightened her eyes and then she spoke, “You are so silly Ricky. I love you. I have from the beginning.”

I have longed to hear those words. I swear I could feel my heartbeat quicken as joy inundated my feelings. I had hoped she felt the same as I and she did. What can you say when your greatest desires have come to realization?

“I know you do.”

Her smile withered as she said, “Good. You need to hurry. You have that meeting with the XO and Specialist Stevens.”

Then Carmen turned and skulked out of the head.

Frak! What have I done? I am so fraking stupid! My dream comes true and I piss on it. Frak!

I walked into our room, but she was gone. I must fix this. I need to tell Carmen how much I love her. Nevertheless, I have that meeting and my systems check inspection. Oh Frak!

I’m not sure what Carmen sees in me. I looked in the mirror and saw my befuddled stare looking back. I’m in good physical condition from regular exercise and lifting weights. Muscled, but not bulked up and I have a taut flat stomach. Being the tallest man onboard is not an advantage. The ship is designed for people of average height or less, which is less than one point eight meters tall, which I easily exceed by over an eighth of a meter (5 inches) and I have the knots on my head to prove it. My broad shoulders and lanky arms with huge hands finish out my frame. I’m not handsome, but I have been told I have a good smile, nice blue eyes and a rugged face with character.

After shaving and dressing, I left for my meeting. I entered the officer’s briefing room, which is also the senior staff’s office and occasional poker site. I was three minutes late. The XO, Lieutenant Harvey, was patiently waiting for me at the six-person briefing table. He was a small man. He may have been diminutive in size, but he had a colossal intellect and light-hearted demeanor.

“Sorry I’m late Denton. I had a wee problem in the head.” I stated to the XO.

He gave me a momentary smirk from his somewhat effeminate face saying, “I know what your problem was and I wouldn’t let her hear you call her a ‘wee problem’. It’s shiny; I can’t say I blame you Ricky. She is a wonderful woman and far too good for your sorry soul. You’re lucky you weren’t meeting with the old man. The CO would have your ass on a platter for lunch with onions and a fine brandied mushroom sauce.”

“The Captain has onions and that bloody sauce with everything, but to be fair, I do believe that sauce is probably fifty percent brandy.” I replied as the XO waved me into a seat across from him.

“The prisoner will be here in a couple of minutes.” Denton said as he ran his hand through his sandy crew cut.

“Come on Denton. He’s more than just a prisoner; he’s our shipmate. We both know he has a lifetime’s worth of trouble waiting for him. Just because he gave you such a hard time when you first arrived, you can’t treat him like he’s a ground-pounder. He deserves your loyalty, if not your friendship.” I declared.

“Stevens is a bully, plain and simple. I don’t like bullies ensign.”

I nodded my head in agreement and said, “I know, but he’s our bully. We can’t protect him this time. This is way too serious; he’s crinkled and shredded for sure.”

“Well until he gets here, I have something else for you to take care of.” The XO continued, “I want you to postpone the monthly inspection today. We had another tadar (TAchyon Detection And Ranging) ghost on our scopes on the midwatch. That’s four in the last two weeks. See if you can figure out what is causing the malfunction Ricky. They woke the old man again and she was not a happy humper.”

I replied, “Copacetic boss. I have a few ideas about that. We have been getting that glitch every four to five nightshifts. I wanted to believe it was caused by some crinkled systems interference that is building up a variance in our PNP engine’s slip field. My plans were initially to troubleshoot the system to find the crinkle, remove it and make it shiny as new. But then I noticed the increase in tachyon flow coinciding with the ghost’s appearances.”

I pulled out my tablet computer and accessed my records and the instrument readings I had collected.

I said, “It appears to be a tadar transmission, but it can’t be.” Pointing at the contradictory information I continued, “See here, the tachyon wave pattern is way off norm. This pattern is completely inefficient. The prototype tadars installed almost eighty years ago operated better than this. The power readings are crinkled too.”

There was a knock at the doorway. ABS (able-bodied spacehand) Akihito, a veritable mountain of a man, escorted Specialist Stevens into the room and positioned himself about two paces behind the frowning cuffed man.

What did Stevens do to be in so much trouble, and will Ricky straighten out his problems with Carmen? That and the Captain makes a quick appearance in the next installment of our story.