Engineered Empress - The story of Bia

Engineered Empress Part 14

Chapter 14

The next morning Zar, Damon and Bia filled the Tharsis with the essentials, they wanted to take with them. For Zar this meant a trip to Ruth's, for Bia packing up her new wardrobe, her Kali sticks and potting the new fungi in container, that self-seal in case of loss of pressure. Then they got the cargo units for trade from Marr, 500 units algae starter packs, 3 stasis boxes of fresh vegetables that were grown in the Facet. 

Marr gave Bia complete access to the accounts of Facet Inc. and told the men to keep her safe. Fueled and sealed, Damon oversaw Bia during the departure from the station, how she plotted the path, velocity and duration for their time in the subspace and let her pilot it until they passed the threshold.

"Congratulations Bia, you are now my copilot for the next three days." He drawled at her, the twinkling in his eyes slowly died as he noticed what she wore.

"Now go and change into your ship suit. You know everyone must wear them on distance flights; even on short ones it is a good safety precaution." Embarrassed to start the journey with such a stupid mistake, she nodded stern to him with.

"Sorry, I got just so overwhelmed. But aye, aye captain." Then, she saluted in jest at him and ran out of the cockpit. Back in her cabin, she donned for the first time the red ship suit on. Prompt opened a dialog window on her DOA 'Connect to ship suit SP#74?' she affirmed and got asked 'Adjust ship suit to user?' she affirmed again and suddenly the material that wasn't slack anymore. Instead it grew to encompass her feet and got skintight. That happened that fast Bia squealed loudly. 3 seconds later Zar invaded her already small cabin looking for danger.

"Bia are you alright?" he looked around her as if somebody could hide behind her.

"What is happening?" Bia, now beet red, like the suit she wore, in the face shot him a look of exasperation.

"Yes, I am alright, no danger here. I was just really startled by the ship suit. I never tried it on before and it shrunk. Look at it." Hearing what she invited him to, she snagged her top from the bunk, to hold it in frond of her and shrieked.

"No, stop, don't look. Get out. GET OUT!" Zar slowly understanding what troubled Bia, retreated laughing. He was still snickering when Damon came out of the cockpit.

"What has you laughing?" Zar shook his head still grinning from ear to ear.

"Bia just shrieked, and I went in to see if she needs help. She tried on her ship suit." He snickered.

"So what? We wear ours also." Clueless Damon did not understand the laughing Zar.

"Yeah, but hers is one of those fancy second skin type ones. She was mighty embarrassed, so much so her head was beet red." He nearly giggled at the memory, when Damon put his hand on Zar's shoulder.

"Zar, don't give her grief about it. She probably didn't know how tight and contoured that suit is. We have to remember how young and sheltered she is and was. I just hope she brought a change of clothes with her." Damon dreaded the next time he laid eyes on her. In the next hour Bia exited her cabin. Wearing her suit adjusted with a light v neck and a long black vest, that slightly flared around her hips. It was firmly closed over her breast by three thick bands. In addition, she slung a broad belt around her hips and wore short boots. She stepped into the galley, which doubled as common room and found Damon and Zar playing a card game. Zar saw her first, and he grinned and teased her.

"Bia my girl, that outfit screams badass. Only thing you need is a knife and a gun on your belt, and you are good to go." A light blush returned into her cheeks, but she replied calm and collected.

"Sorry for startling you. I really didn't know it would shrink. I thought it would be like yours Zar." Damon roamed over her body and growled.

"If you go, with that outfit and your soft attitude, onto any station or space port, you'll get eaten alive." Bia cocked her head not quite knowing why he just said that and shot back.

"I didn't bring much clothes for the trip. Hell, I don't have that many anyway." Damon groaned, this woman drives him crazy with her mixture of innocence, naiveté and sass.

"No Bia I didn't say you don't wear them well. It's just the suit you wear costs a lot, I mean for simple folks, it's a small fortune. If you're not with Zar or me, you will be made for an easy mark. If you don't want to be a victim, you need to embrace your inner bitch, like when I met you at Toran's." Her lips formed a silent O when his meaning dawned to her.

"Okay how do I do that?" Damon thought a bit about it, looked at Zar as an idea came to him.

"Go grab your sticks. Meet us in the cargo hold."

"Okay"