They broke their embrace, and Sana growled, "Fucking shit fuck!" She jumped to her feet and pressed the collar of her body suit, murmuring something. The space spandex rippled, and abruptly resembled a skintight version of her ship uniform. "We will do more, Nick!" she told him fiercely. A moment later, she had run out of her cabin, leaving Nick alone inside. Resolutely, he pushed aside the memory of the curves of Sana's backside as she ran out the door. For the moment.

He stood up, momentarily at a loss. I guess this is what dating a doctor is like. Damn, I thought I was going to get lucky tonight. He worked past his frustration and grinned. That was probably a Goldaskian saying, like,"To be continued."

"Petra, what happened?"

"Dr. Vickall left."

"What is the medical emergency?" he specified.

"Fen!uia and Afa!zu are damaged."

"Injured," Nick corrected. "How did they get injured?"

"Fen!uia released fuel from a pipe during ship handling practice."

"Will they live?"

"Probability over 99%."

"Will they be okay?"

"Probability over 99%."

"Good. Is the ship damaged?"

"No, Nick."

"Good."

Nick was relieved at that, but still wondered how bad the situation was. He hadn't felt or heard anything. Kissing Sana was...involving, but he didn't think that he would have missed an explosion. She's probably going to be busy for a long while. I hope those two will be okay.

He disposed of the dinner waste and set the dessert boxes to 'cold,' then cleared his throat. "Mirror, Petra." The nearest wall turned reflective, and Nick examined himself, straightening his clothing and his hair, and taking a few deep breaths to cool off.

When he felt ready, he left the doctor's quarters and headed back to his own. He was tempted to go up to the bridge, but resisted. I should not be an extra distraction. If they need any emergency orders for Petra to print or tell the ship to do, they'll contact me.

Out of curiosity, Nick drew up the specs on a healing swarm, then the building requirements. The list went on for quite a ways. There must have been a whole room at least with dedicated machinery for producing this stuff, somewhere in one of the lower levels of Petra's first dungeon. Unfortunately, now all that gear is radioactive.

Maybe there's a radiation scrubber. Oh wow, a radiation scrubber would be an awesome one-off gift. I could give one to the Pentagon. Well, two, because they're going to take one apart no matter what I say. Nick hunted for a design, and found something that removed surface contamination, and wondered whether that would be enough. He checked the build requirements. God damn it, element 62 again. He hoped that they would get some "whatever-ium" on the next trip to the Arrurran system.

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The Ooafans just didn't have enough of an industrial base going. They had stockpiles of things like copper and iron, but they just weren't making the weirder stuff in bulk yet. The Arrurrans should have plenty, though. They've got like two worlds and four moons to mine, plus whatever asteroids are around. It's just a matter of getting materials onto a supply ship so we don't have to risk infecting an entire colony with something random.

He'd gotten an estimate from the Goldaskians of how much material could be loaded into the Kalash-Quovo before something got difficult. Apparently, the ship could go just as fast with any load, but it burned fuel faster with more tonnage. We should learn to conserve fuel, but it's not really my problem. We've got years before we have to worry about it, so long as we manage to stay out of combat. Who even knows where I'll be by then?

He had a list of things to make for Earth that just kept getting longer and longer. I'll have plenty of time on the way to build all this stuff, I think. His thoughts drifted back to Sana. Hopefully, I'll have plenty of time for a lot of things.

He frowned a little as a thought struck him. Oh, this is kind of like dating a coworker, isn't it? For a minute he imagined getting serious with Sana and then having a big fight over something and breaking up. But as far as he could tell, Sana was a real professional, and would do her job and work with him even if that happened. And, he figured he could make himself work with her—not that they had to work together much, outside of meetings, but it was helpful to both of them.

On the one hand, dating a coworker is supposed to be bad.

On the other hand, plenty of people do it anyway.

On the other other hand, plenty of people are stupid.

On the other other other hand, I think we're mature enough to handle it.

On the other other other other hand, probably everybody in a relationship that blows up thought the same thing.

Nick went back and forth a bit before deciding. To hell with it. We're both lonely, and don't have a lot of prospects. We'll both do our best. Besides, Sana might not want anything but sex from me. Hell, she might not even want sex, just some making out and fooling around. Can't assume anything. She's not a human woman—and plenty of human women are already crazy in different ways.

Nick thought back to that amazing dress. That thing wasn't actually reading my mind, right? What did she say? My "desires." Not my thoughts. How would it—?

Nick's jaw dropped and he grinned. That sneaky, sexy bitch! She's cheating! She's using my medical sensors. He tsked and shook his head, still grinning. Naughty doctor, isn't that violating some galactic Hippocratic Oath or something?

Can't argue with results, though. And...yeah, I think I surprised her when I said I'd never seen anything like that dress before. I bet she didn't think through that I wouldn't know what it did and how. She thought I was deliberately flirting from the way the dress shifted. That wasn't meant as a dirty trick, that was meant as a dare.

Looks like I did something right by accident. Man, talk about undressing her with my eyes! He had to laugh.

"You have a call," Petra announced.

"From who?"

"Dr. Vickall."

"Accept the call, Petra."

The nearest wall lit up with an image of the Goldaskian doctor. "Nick! I'm finished with work for now. Are you free?"

Nick grinned. "Depends. Will you wear that dress again for me?"

Sana bared her fangs. "For as long as you want."

"I'm on my way."

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