The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Five: Fraternization ch.7

"Rise and shine, sleepy head," Madsen called, slapping Dan on one shoulder.

He groaned and rolled over.

"You were out late," Kleppie said.

Dan rubbed his eyes. "Cuz you assholes left the forward bay a mess after the movie," he lied. The truth was that clean up had been a snap but he and Bakala had been up late.

"Well, you were the poor sucker that drew the unlucky egg," Kleppie said.

Dan rolled off his bunk and landed heavily on his feet. "You, too? Kavi said that, unlucky egg."

"It's just a saying they have," Kleppie said.

"And I'm the one taking their language class," Dan replied. He pulled on a pair of pants and slid into a shirt. There was no point thinking about a shower until after his blue treatment.

"Speaking of eggs," Madsen said. "I wish they had them, for breakfast. Come'on I'm hungry."

They headed out and down the passageway. "Stairs or lift?"

"Stairs," Dan said, still feeling groggy.

"Lift," Kleppie contradicted, running down the hall.

A group of four sailors came out from the far left. They passed the lift and marched down the hall.

"Good morning, gents," Dan said.

"Sir," they replied and marched on. Dan watched their retreating backs, wondering how they managed to say sir and make it sound like an insult. What had he done? He could guess, he planned a movie, at the Captain's orders nonetheless, but in doing so he was now one of the fraternizers. So be it.

He took a deep breath at the lift, waking himself enough to not hit his head on the way up. As they made their back towards the mess, the men were coming up the stairs and entering. By the time Dan and his crew made it they had gotten their food and were sitting together in one corner, not looking around or talking. He shook his head.

"We made American food!" one of the cooks told them excitedly as they got in line.

"Yeah, we see that," Madsen said with a smirk. He lifted a burrito and showed it to the others.

"They are trying," Dan muttered as he helped himself. "And it smells divine," he added to the cook.

They found a seat near the video display, amongst a more casual and mixed crew of American and Consortium crew members. They were playing the base ship morning news. The top news story was the discovery of a grouping of systems that included several "high potential" planets, planets that could either support life, or in one case had the right spectrogram to possibly contain life.

"Cool," Kleppie said, watching it closely.

"Princess Sarasvat is expected to give an official reaction later today," Holi said. "Most likely to commission a deeper exploration of the area, or even a station to be built in the area."

After breakfast Dan left the group and went to the healer. Kavi was on duty and greeted him warmly. He went to her. "How are you this morning?"

"Good. May I treat?"

He nodded his approval and she scanned. "Mostly healed," she said. "No need for tank or even any special treatment, just get you into a blue machine. We're a bit backed up." She leaned in conspiratorially. "Someone fraternized all over room three. You wouldn't know anything about that?"

Dan blushed and laughed. "Room three? No, I don't know anything about room three." And Bakala made sure he cleaned room five when we were done.