The next few days kept them mesmerized, as unseen new vistas captivated them. Sometimes they would climb the observation deck, Eve's personal launchpad, to take in the full view.
Kai, Eve, and Vayne took turns in the pilot's seat. Kai wasn't a great pilot, but his cybernetic adaptability exceeded Vayne's.
The modified Soul Drifter had combined sleeping quarters in addition to the individual ones. Eve had thought through the long trip, figuring they might come in handy in the future.
The Cesnas slept peacefully in their beds, even their sleeping and wake cycles were synchronized.
Eve was slumped in her bed in a crop top and slacks, reading a book on her pad. Anya had just shed her mechanic's outfit and was fiddling through her bag for a towel. Close to Eve's bed, Hannah lay on her own bed, watching a movie on her visor. Elara was taking a bath, and Zara, as usual, was floating and meditating.
Elara emerged wrapped in a towel, brushing her hair in the metallic cabinet's mirror. Anya grabbed her towel, "Sorry, I can't find mine," and disappeared into the washroom.
Elara stood there, bare-skinned, with water dripping from her hair onto her toned body.
Eve: "Babe's got bod."
Zara: "I can smell her curves with my eyes closed."
Hannah: "How could Kinze not fall for that?"
Elara grabbed her bag and slipped into her trousers. "Sometimes, I wish we could just accelerate our relationship, but we are both… ah," she said, sliding on a T-shirt.
Zara: "We may not even make it back. Lock it with a kiss, seal the deal, and go all the way."
Eve: "It's a big ship. Pick any corner you like. Nobody will know." Her eyes were focused on the latest research on quantum states and dimensional field warps.
Elara set her things on Eve's bed. "You are so lucky not having to worry about all that."
Hannah: "You should have seen her in her hunting days."
Eve: "Kinze's a good man. You guys are made for each other."
Elara: "Have you never loved anyone?"
Eve: "It's difficult to explain. Vayne's closest that I have been to a man, but again, he's a cuddly honey bear."
Elara: "You never feel it in your heart?"
Hannah: "It's about the mind, perhaps. When we process things like soul and love too much, our neural minds end up being horny."
Zara: "But you are a cyborg. She's cybernetic."
Hannah: "Nonetheless, we can't have babies. Perhaps motherhood has something to do with it. Looking at a man, wanting to have children. We never get that... Eve?"
Eve: "That's partly true. But love is beyond wanting babies or wanting the man you love to be around. It's like a connection; once established, it can't be severed. It's beyond bodies, beyond species... perhaps even beyond matter and the soul itself."
Elara: "Eve! Did those words just come out of your mouth?"
Eve: "Sweetheart, feeling love and just processing it in your mind are two different things."
Elara: "And what about your body? Do you not crave anymore?"
Eve: "Mira. She taught me. Being a woman is more about being a…"
Hannah: "Slut?" She completed Eve with a cynical tone. "Don't worry Eve I can take it like a champ."
Eve: "But you are a slut."
Hannah: "And you left the rollercoster."
Just then, a knock came at the door as Anya walked out of the shower. She opened it.
Vayne snuck in, "Oh, this must be heaven."
Anya: "Get out, you pervert. What do you want?"
Vayne: "Kai's tired and I'm going to go doze off. Care to take the shift, ladies?"
Soul Drifter can be set on autopilot but the Dark Galaxy, required more instincts than its crafts auto-AI mode could handle.
"I'll be right out," Eve said, setting aside her pad.
Vayne: "Are you wearing a used towel?" he said, sniffing Anya.
"Off you go," Anya said, and pushed his head out. The door snapped shut. She turned around. "He's got an incredibly sensitive nose. Hygiene freak!"
Elara: "I guess that's the catch when a greasy mechanic sleeps with an sleazy pilot."
Eve: "I'm going to the cabin, who want to come?"
Elara: "I'll join you."
Kai yawned as Eve entered the cabin. He set the ship on autopilot and stood up. "All yours, Commander."
Eve took over. Elara sat in the co-pilot's seat. He walked out the door, yawning, through the corridors and into the men's sleeping quarters.
"Oh, no!" Chaos awaited him.
Moments later, Jax and Kinze were arm wrestling. Kinze was muscular, strong, and athletic, but Jax eventually dominated him. Jax was huge.
"Can I go to sleep now?" Kai groaned.
But the party had just started. The next round was between Axel and Kai: a holographic video game, neurally connected, both had to think at the speed of their thoughts. Axel was fast, but Kai's cybernetic enhancements put him on par with the android.
After a session of trash talk and multiple matches, they slumped onto cushions scattered across the floor.
Kinze: "They sleep together, they wake up together."
Jax: "Kai's cybernetic... but how does it even feel to be linked like that?"
Kinze: "Try it on and feel it yourself."
Jax: "These muscles, nah! Don't need any enhancements. What about you?"
Kinze: "Not being enhanced was my selection criteria. Besides power or age enhancements... not for me. Too old-school."
Jax: "Figures."
Kinze: "Three more weeks."
Jax: "Packed in a tight space with Cesnas, why not?"
Kinze: "It's hard to believe you banged one of them without knowing which." He let out a low, drunken laugh.
Jax: "Right? These girls don't even have names. So, one second we are having fun. I go to the washroom, grab her ass, and get pinned to the wall and growled at. How was I supposed to know? Their bodies look the same, their hair looks the same, and their faces look almost the same."
Kinze: "Maybe you should get your girlfriend's hair dyed."
Jax: "Ha-ha. I tried. She said she can't compromise team's styling. But I'm telling her next time, 'Chun-Lee, you are getting a hair redo!'"
Kinze: "You call her Chun-Lee?"
Jax: "Oops," he blurted. "Don't let her catch you calling that name in front of her, or I'm dead."
They burst into laughter and fell asleep.
Eve and Hannah exercised in the cargo bay, as did Vayne, Jax, Kinze, and Elara—even Anya, who had a gifted body and never hit the gym.
Jax eyed the Cesnas as Chun-Lee seductively stretched her body across the floor. Their body-stretching routine felt like a dance to opera.
Eve's comm-piece started beeping. She put down the dumbbells and picked it up. "What is it, Vayne?"
"You have got to come check this out. I think we are here, Commander."
Eve toweled her sweaty skin as she walked into the pilot's cabin. Distant in the viewport, like a globular structure, as huge as a star. Rings were spinning around it, but they were still days away from the galactic core.
For days, they had been wandering in a space where no creatures, no endless streams of oceans, and no asteroids... pure nothingness. The empty space eventually opened up to this. The structure was orbited by countless moons and planets.
"We are finally onto something. Where's my analyst. Kai, I need you up here ASAP."