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As they woke together in Ronnie’s huge king size bed, Angela snuggled up very close to her husband and nibbled on his ear. Angela was eight weeks pregnant, and was now waking up very horny in the mornings. Ronnie, rolled onto his back and said, “Not again this morning, I cannot be treated in this manner.” Angela said, “Fine, I will take care of it myself,” and quickly stripped her pajamas off and moved her hand to her body. As she rubbed, Ronnie said he was just kidding and would certainly make love to her whenever she needed it. She just ignored him and began to moan as her fingers touched exactly the right spots. Ronnie was about to get up and let her finish what she had started, but she spoke to him and asked if he was mad at her. He said, “A little, you take everything I say so seriously,” Ronnie told her. She stopped what she was doing and asked if he was mad enough that she could consider this their first fight? Ronnie said, “Yes, I guess you could.” Angela rolled over close to him and said, “I am sorry husband for taking everything so seriously, and will try to be more pleasant around you.” Ronnie laughed, said he was sorry for picking on her, and kissed her nose. Angela looked him in the eyes and asked, “Are we done fighting now, so we can begin making up and then making out.” She put her damp finger on Ronnie’s lips, and he said, “Girl you are horrible, but I love you very much.” Angela rolled on top and quickly made Ronnie smile.
When they had finished, Angela sat up, rubbed her tummy and said, “That was nice Ronnie, even the baby squealed with joy that time.” Ronnie asked if she could handle a little more love, and she said, “Could I have a few…,” and then she quickly ran to the bathroom. Ronnie could hear how very upset her stomach was this morning. He went into the bathroom, sat down against the wall beside her until her body began to relax and let her stomach have a moment to settle. Ronnie had not seen her morning sickness this bad, and asked if the lovemaking had made things worse today. She said, “Probably, but I do not care. My puking only lasts for five or six minutes and then I am fine the rest of the day. The orgasms make the rest of me feel very nice the entire day and I will take that pleasure whenever I can. I love you Ronnie, and don’t let a pregnant woman’s morning sickness worry you, I will be, and I am, just fine.” Ronnie, right now you need to leave so I can poo…, sorry, but you need to leave for a few minutes. Ronnie kissed her forehead, and then left the room so the woman could do her business without anyone watching.
When she had showered and dressed, she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing her flight suit and Ronnie noticed the small flashlight in the sleeve pocket. He could also see a bulge in her pants pocket where a second small penlight was stored. He smiled to himself, remembering that she planned to work in the inventory locker bay this morning. She planned to begin doing a physical inventory of every item in inventory to insure that the computers quantity matched the actual physical count. Ronnie said he would download the inventory file to her on her handheld viewer and then she could just upload the file after she was done each day. He explained if they dated each days uploads they would not have an accident and lose any of her work if a file should happen to crash.
As they prepared breakfast and sat down at the table to eat, Ronnie asked Angela if she could come out of the inventory locker bay while they visited the Open Market later today. Ronnie watched Angela’s eyes light up and then saw her begin fidgeting around in her chair. He reached over, said she should finish her breakfast, first. Angela settled down just enough to finish the food in front of her, then stood up, said she needed to get her work started, then began to walk away. She stopped, looked back at Ronnie and asked if he would call her before they arrived because she wanted to see the entire area around the Open Market. Ronnie smiled and said, “You go do what you had planned for today and I will call you before I move this travel membrane one inch from its present orbit.” Angela smiled, walked back to Ronnie and kissed him hard on the lips, turned and wiggled out of the kitchen. As she walked away, he heard her singing some new song he had never heard before. Ronnie wondered if Angela had made it up or just heard it somewhere. Ronnie spoke to the computer to find out if it knew about the new song. “Computer, did you hear the song Angela was just singing?” “Yes Ronnie, I heard. It was a song Angela found while listening to an intergalactic radio station that played very old music from planet Earth. I recorded the song because Angela was dancing to it, and I thought she might want to hear the words again to memorize them. I soon discovered she had memorized the song after listening to it only once on the radio.” Ronnie said, “Computer, thank you for thinking of Angela, but remember that her photographic memory sometimes surprises me also.” “Ronnie, the name of the song was, Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone), by a group called, Glass Tiger.” Ronnie asked, “Computer could you print out the lyrics so I can read them?” The printer behind Ronnie began clattering and then spit out a sheet of paper. Ronnie pulled the printed sheet from the printer and began reading.
Two hours later, Ronnie had his flight plan approved by the Watch Commander at IFTT Headquarters. Ronnie asked the computer to summon Angela to the ready room and prepare for flight. Ronnie heard the computer say over the vessel wide speakers, “Angela, your second lover summons you to the ready room to prepare for the flight to the Open Market.” When Angela stepped into the ready room, Ronnie was grinning at her. She leaned down, kissed his lips and said, “The computer is jealous and thinks he is my first love, but you know who rings my chimes.” Ronnie kissed her very hard and said, “Thanks for clearing that up, I was about to eject the travel computer out of the cargo bay door.” Ronnie and Angela both heard the computer say, “Ronnie, you wouldn’t?” Angela quickly spoke up, defended the computer and said, “I would not allow my jealous husband to eject my friend out into hyperspace.” The computer spoke quietly as if trying to tell a secret to Angela, “Thank you Angela, he may be your physical lover, but you know who loves you for more than just your body.” When Angela looked over to her husband, he was holding his sides and laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. Angela reached over and gave him a gently punch on the shoulder, and then told him to please play nice with the computer.
Ronnie engaged the flight controls and Angela felt a very tiny tingle in her body that indicated movement. Within a few minutes, her mind told her the travel membrane was slowing, and then hovering near the Open Market. Ronnie created a large portal in front of the console in the control room so they could observe the Open Market as they approached. Ronnie first opened the purchase file for the items they wished to obtain from the market, and then opened the file with the list of the items they would be selling, so both files appeared side by side as a split screen. Ronnie asked Angela if she would help him, and headed out to the inventory control locker. Ronnie smiled to himself. He had noticed that as the door to the locker slid open; Angela reached and touched the flashlight in the sleeve pocket of her flight suit to make sure it was there. Angela realized Ronnie had seen her touch the flashlight, smiled to him and said, “Once bitten, twice shy.”
Ronnie moved a blue stainless steel tub from the cargo bay into the inventory control room, which had big letters on the side that said, “Property of IFTT.” Ronnie pulled up the list of items they were selling on the wall monitory and began placing the items he was selling to the Open Market into the tub. When the last item was stowed into the tub, Ronnie rolled the tub out into the cargo bay and placed the cover on top of the tub. Then he secured the lid with clamps that he tightened by inserting a screwdriver into the slots and turning until they drew the lid down tight. Angela helped Ronnie move the now very heavy tub with a chain falls up off the floor, and then they slid it on the chain falls trolley to the edge of the cargo bay doors. Then together they lowered the tub down to the floor, unhooked the chain falls and cleared all loose items from the cargo bay. Ronnie knew that anything not properly secured in the cargo bay area would float out the open doors and be lost when the travel computer depressurized the cargo bay. They returned to the ready
room and Ronnie asked the computer to adjust the inventory to reflect the items moved and placed into the shipping tub.
Ronnie set the travel computer of The Empress to lock onto the Open Markets computer guidance system. When the two had phase locked together, The Empress began to move slowly towards the vast expanse of the tunnel, the opening into the Open Market. As they moved along and entered the entrance to the huge tunnel of the Open Market, Ronnie looked at Angela, and smiled. Angela’s mouth was doing the same thing his had done the first time he entered the incredibly vast opening of the Market; her mouth was hanging open. Her eyes were huge, and she could not look away, the size of this immense market had mesmerized her. The Empress was huge in its own right, but the Open Market tunnel was larger, much larger. Ronnie was waiting for a little bit of drool to drip off Angela’s chin from her open mouth, but it did not happen.
As The Empress continued to move along the tunnel of the Open Market, Angela could see the large blue tubs ahead of them, slowly filling with items from the shelves that lined the outsides of the tunnel. Something was drawing the items from the shelves and then depositing them into the tubs, but Angela could not see what was moving them. Ronnie did not say a word, but just watched and waited. He knew that when they exited the Open Market, Angela would talk for hours, asking questions, saying to him, “Did you see that huge electric motor just fly across the sky and land in the drum?”
As they moved along, Angela heard the computer announce, “Please clear the cargo bay of human inhabitants. The outer doors of the ejection bay will open in fifteen seconds, ten seconds—five seconds—one second,” Angela heard and felt the pressure inside The Empress fluctuate just enough for her ears to pop. She realized the blue tub was now floating out in front of The Empress. The Open Market computer had retrieved the items they had packed into the steel tub, and was now moving it to a shelf along the wall of the tunnel. Angela watched as the huge tub settled on a shelf; now ready to transfer into the cargo bay of their customers vessel. When the tubs were full with the items they had purchased, Angela watched as the lids moved from the shelves, settled on top of the steel tubs and were locked down with air actuated tightening tools located on the ends of six robotic arms.
When the tubs were all sealed, Angela watched as they moved to the right side of The Empress, then hovered and waited to be loaded into the cargo bay. Angela heard the computer announce its intention to open the cargo bay doors again, but she did not feel any pressure change inside The Empress. The computer had not pressurized the cargo bay after the single tub was removed, so the cargo bay and open space were at the same pressure. Ronnie told Angela that the cargo bay doors were open (Ronnie pointed to a red light that was lit on the control console) and turned the cameras so that Angela could see the huge tubs slowly moving into the cargo bay. When all the tubs had entered the bay and the doors had closed, Angela saw the red light on the console turn amber. Then the pressure in The Empress changed again and Angela felt her ears pop, telling her the cargo bay had finished pressurizing. The console light then turned green.
Ronnie maneuvered The Empress to a location near the Open Market area used by travel membranes to lie over. Ronnie explained to Angela that they needed to empty the huge tubs and then return them to the Open Market. Now that the newly purchased items were safely inside the cargo bay, Angela wanted to go out and open the tubs. She was very excited, like a child waiting to open a Christmas present. Ronnie checked with the computer to be sure the cargo bay was safe. The computer began explaining that once they had entered the cargo bay it would increase the atmospheric pressure slightly to compensate for the vacuum inside the containers.
When they walked into the cargo bay, the tubs were sitting in every direction as if some giant had opened the cargo bay doors and threw the big tubs into the bay, scattering them in every direction. Ronnie located a pneumatic operated hand truck and began moving the containers around so they could empty them. These tubs were about two meters square, and stood one and a half meters tall. Ronnie moved the first tub close to the inventory locker bay, and then slid a set of metal stairs up close to the side of the tub. He explained to Angela that the containers had a vacuum inside and the lids could not be opened until the pressure inside was equalized. Ronnie moved to the end of the container that now had the steps against it, opened a valve on the side and began letting the air inside the cargo bay enter the containers. Then he began doing the same for all the containers.
The sound of the air entering the containers was very noisy, but it only lasted about ten minutes and then stopped. Ronnie said they could now remove the lids on the containers. He began using a pneumatic tool to release the screw latches and soon had the lid on the first container unlatched. He moved the hoist over the container and lifted the lid off. Ronnie told Angela they had done the easy part, and they could begin unloading the first container. Ronnie stepped onto the steps, began pulling items out of the container and had Angela place them into a smaller cart that they could roll into the inventory locker bay. When the cart was full, they rolled it into the inventor locker and neatly stacked the items along the outside walls where they would deal with them later. They spent four hours emptying all the large tubs and moving everything into the inventory locker bay. Then Ronnie carefully covered the containers, screwed down the lids and arranged the tubs in the bay. When everything in the cargo bay was properly secured and stored, Ronnie explained that they would now return all of the large tubs to the open market but keep two of the smaller ones for later use. The two tubs they kept they would refill with merchandise for customers on the next trip to the open market.
Ronnie closed the airtight doors between the cargo bay and the living quarters in preparation for time travel. Ronnie and Angela returned to the control console and Ronnie entered the proper information for bin retrieval from The Empress to the Open Market. Angela felt a tiny movement and then the Open Market reappeared in the portal. They quickly centered up on the tunnel opening and the Open Market’s computer locked onto The Empress and began moving them into the tunnel. When they had just barely entered the tunnel opening, the computer announced that it would open the cargo bay doors. Angela felt the air pressure change, realized the console light had turned red and the tubs moved past them to the shelves of the open market. Angela watched as each numbered tub moved into the correct shelf and settled into place. Once they had completed the transfers, the cargo bay doors closed and the console light turned back to green.
They were still traveling through the tunnel and Angela knew that would take another hour or so to travel all the way to the end. As Angela began to settle down into her seat to wait for the long trip thru the tunnel, she realized the wall to their right was opening in a place that had no shelving. When the door opened, The Empress moved sideways through the opening, and then moved out into open space. They were now ready to travel again and did not have to complete the long trip through the tunnel.
As they slowly moved away from the Open Market, Angela asked Ronnie about their next destination. Ronnie said they would move into the Open Market holding area where they would put the new inventory into the lockers and sort out the supplies destined to fill their next customers’ orders. Ronnie explained that they had a couple days layover before they would travel to their next customer’s location.
When they were properly in a holding pattern in the area designated for customers of the Open Market, they decided it was time for meals, showers, and a little quiet time. They had both been up working for over twenty-four hours and Ronnie did not want Angela working this many hours in the future. He would now begin to steer her towards taking a short nap in the afternoon, sleeping longer at night, and the most important to him was that she begin eating very carefully. She was already cutting way down on her coffee consumption, and Ronnie realized she often would drink cool tea instead. She was requesting healthy foods from the food replicators and would actually sit at the table and slowly eat her meals instead of carrying
them with her to the inventory locker bay, or eating as she input inventory quantities into the computer. Ronnie tried to tell her that even though her work was very important to the operation of The Empress, she was to find time for herself.
Ronnie decided to cooked them supper tonight. He planned to cook real food on the stove instead of eating from the food replicator; the aroma of spaghetti with meat sauce, and toasted bread with butter, permeated The Empress. Ronnie refrained from any heavy spices in the sauce, and only put just a touch of garlic powder on the buttered toast. Angela had gone off to take a shower, and when supper was almost ready, Ronnie went to find her. When he walked into his bedroom, he realized Angela had taken her shower and had lain down on the bed. She was naked, but had covered herself with a blanket from the end of Ronnie’s bed. He walked up near her and realized she was warm and very comfortable, so he stepped out of the room. He considered asking the computer to dim the lights, but decided he would leave the room just as he found it. When he went back to the kitchen, he put the spaghetti and sauce in the cooling unit, and ate his own supper. He had found a very good book that Angela had read and said was funny so he read as he ate.
Suddenly, he felt as if someone was watching him. When he turned, Angela was standing in the doorway, completely naked, and rubbing her swollen tummy. Ronnie asked if she felt okay and she said, no I believe baby and I missed our supper, and baby says it smells very good in the kitchen. Ronnie walked over to her, kissed her and asked if he could get her a robe before he warmed up some food for her and baby. When he returned, Angela was already warming a small plate of spaghetti, and began tasting the sauce to be certain Ronnie had not put anything in it that would upset baby. Angela was very tired tonight and did not want her child to keep her awake after feeding it spicy spaghetti sauce. As she tasted the spoon of spaghetti sauce, Ronnie stepped into the kitchen and said he could tell her all the ingredients if she wanted. She swallowed a little of the sauce, kissed her husband and said, “Thank you my friend, I needed this wonderful food and you spiced it just right so our child will not have an upset tummy.”
Ronnie asked Angela if she would like some tea with her supper and she said, “I have now weaned myself off all the caffeine, so I think a little goats’ milk is all I shall drink with supper.” Ronnie began heating water for his own tea and said, “I will not perk any more coffee in the mornings and drive you insane with the coffee smells.” Angela spoke to her husband, “Ronnie, I love the smell of perking coffee and you do not need to stop drinking it because of me.”
As Angela ate her spaghetti, she told Ronnie she did not know what the schedule was for The Empress for the next few days. Ronnie sat down across the table from her and said that they needed to be at the next customer’s universe in four days. He planned to stay here in this holding area for three more days, then travel to the customer’s universe, establish an orbit around their planet and begin trading on the fourth day. He explained that all the goods they purchased yesterday (now stored in the inventory locker bay) needed stocking, and sorting out for the next customer. He said, “Angela, tomorrow is Sunday on planet Earth, and is considered a day of rest. We are going to have a quiet day and do nothing at all except read, maybe watch a few old movies, listen to music, do whatever we want. The following day, we will begin sorting merchandise. You have worked long hours for weeks now, and you deserve a schedule change. You are now far enough along with the pregnancy that I want to shorten your workdays to a reasonable amount of hours. I would like to have you eat when your tummy is hungry, sleep and nap when you need to, then fill in the rest of your days working when your body feels well. Does that sound like a schedule you can handle until this child is born and you can return to full time work as you desire?” Angela said, “Husband, you have made a lot of plans for me, without asking, I might add, but your plan is a very good one, and I will be thankful for the relaxed work load as I grow larger, and am only able to waddle around this vessel.” She reached her finger out and touched Ronnie on the end of his nose. Ronnie said, “I love you too.”