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Chapter-5

"We're departing the station," Cass said.

"Thanks." Theo continued to relax in the water. Two hours of this and the water was still warm. "I could spend the rest of my life soaking like this."

"Anderson might have something to say about that."

The tiger chuckled. "At this very moment, she can go fuck herself." He closed his eyes.

"Before you decide to sleep in there, the bill for the trip Theodore Laramy took through Saturn's rings just arrived."

"How much was it? Theo asked, then frowned. "Wait, that isn't really a charge isn't it?"

"It's good to know that even half-awake you can still catch things like that."

"Funny. But why? It's a bit late to make changes to the mission."

"Actually, it's a personal message from you parents."

"Reconfigure the field so I'm sitting, then play it." Theo wondered why his parents would contact him now. Better yet, why had Anderson allowed it?

Two foxes appeared before him. They waved. "Hi Theo," the older man said, his dark gray fur was becoming paler as he approached his ninetieth birthday. "We just heard that your job is going to keep you away for a while longer. Maybe over a year, according to your supervisor, so we asked that she get this to you. I know how you usually don't like these kinds of message in the middle of cleaning stuff up, but I wanted to let you know that we miss you."

The vixen's fur was sandy, and didn't show any of her age even at eighty-eight. As far as Theo was concerned, his mother still looked like she had twenty years ago. "I know you were looking forward to taking us out for dinner on our anniversary, but there will be more of them. We're going to be around for a long time still. Just you be careful out there, all that-" she hesitated a moment "-equipment you work with, anything could go wrong. Just make sure you come back in one piece, okay?"

His father placed an arm around his mother's shoulder. "Don't worry, you know our Theo is always careful." He tightened his hug and she rested her head on his shoulder. "You'll be happy to know your mother has made director of the biological sciences department. The whole department took her out to the Mulberry Joint to celebrate." He winked. "I won't mentioned what happened there. Children shouldn't hear about that kind of stuff."

Theo rolled his eyes at his father's evasiveness. If he knew his mother, she'd gotten drunk, hit on every guy in the place until they were ready to go back to her room, then left them hanging to get back to her husband. She was something of a heart breaker his mother.

"As for me," his father continued, "My work still goes well. I think I've found a way to miniaturize power cells again, so if you want, next time you're back, I can see about boosting the power of your arm. I remember you mentioning the welding laser didn't get as hot you needed at times. That should take care of it. I should have run the new design through enough test by then so it'll be safe."

"My research is also coming along." His mother said, "I'm isolated a genome that will ensure plants can grow with very little water, and the council agreed the information will go out on the next transmission to the ship." She covered her mouth, her long ears folding back. She looked to his father "Can I talk about that here? I don't want to jeopardize the ship."

He smiled. "It's okay. I'm sure Theo's supervisor won't let anything too sensitive go out. She did say she'd look over the recording before sending it"

His mother sighed and her ears straightened. "I'm sorry, Theo, you know I'm not really good at being discrete. But since this will be edited if needed, I guess I can share the rest of the news I got. We received the annual report for them. The colony's grown by three percent over the last year. That's in spite of a mange like disease that spread through most people on the ship. They didn't ask for help so they were able to control it. Caduceus looked over the medical files and they said that it could have been caused by the proximity of the population to one another. They're recommending the growth rate of the population be slowed to one point five percent for the next decade. The council isn't happy about that, one of the selling points for getting the colonist to sign up was that there wouldn't be any population control, the ship is large enough for them to grow. I guess they'll have to decide between that or opening a new section ahead of time."

His father kissed the top of her head. "I think you should stop there. You know Theo's not as interested in them as we are." He was right, his parents had time and technologies invested in the colony ship now on its way to the depth of space, which he didn't have. But he'd take any excuses to listen to them.

She smiled "Yeah, you're right. Well, since you're not going to be back by then, happy thirty-first birthday, and just to be safe, happy thirty second. Be sure to treat yourself to something sweet, and don't work too hard. I love you Theo."

"I'm echoing your mother's wishes. I love you Son. Be well, and see you soon." The image froze with the two of them smiling at him.

He missed his parents.

"Cass, make as still of the last image, archive that and shred the message."

"Done. Voice only as usual for your reply?"

"Yeah."

"Recording."

"Hey Mom, Dad. I miss you too. I'm glad things are going well. Things are a little boring here at the moment. I'm still in transit, the cleanup job isn't going to start for a while, but that doesn't mean I'll be able to just relax. You know us sanitation workers, there's always something to do. This time it's just prep work, but it should be fun. At least the ship's nice." He paused, working out if he could hint at anything else without risking giving something away.

"Congratulation on the promotion Mom, I hope you didn't leave too many broken hearts at the club. Dad, you should have gone with her and kept the other guys safe. You know how mom gets when she lets loose. Didn't your marriage contract say something about protecting the world from each other? And dad, send the design for the new power cell to my supervisor, she'll be able to expedite the tests since we're always looking for more power in this job. Everything needs to be portable because of the places we end up going to." He hoped Anderson would let his father install it in his arm. Theo loved watching his father work.

"Dad's right, mom, I can't say the ship's really high in my interests. You know me, always looking toward the center, not away, but I'm glad they got the sickness under control, at least that's what it sounds like from what you said. So that's yet another plant you've given the colonists. That makes an even dozen now, right? How did you name that one? Not another meaningless sting of numbers and letters, I hope. At least one of them needs to be named after you. Let's see, Marianus Perceverus? Or maybe you could honor dad and name it Dariusium Forevirium."

Theo chuckled. "Maybe I should leave the naming to you after all and I'll stick to sanitation. I don't know exactly when I'll be back, but Just with the time in transit we can count on at least a year, actually a year and a half, although I'll try to get something faster for the return trip. As soon as I dock, I'm taking both of you out at Apogee. You deserve the kind of meal they serve there. I love you both. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Recording ended," Cass said. "I'll encrypt it and send it along with the payment."

"Thanks Cass."

"Are you okay?"

"I just miss my parents, that's all." He dunked his head under the water. And slicked the water off. "But I knew I wouldn't get to see them as often as I wanted to when I took this job. I'll be fine."

Cass was quiet for a long moment. "If it helps, the work we do is important."

Theo smiled. "I know, and it does help. Now drain this thing, I need to dry off, get dressed and get a feel for the layout of the ship."

* * * * *

Passenger ships like the Mercury were big, especially since this one was the main corporate transport. It had twelve decks, each with eateries, entertainment, and, this being an Orr ship, places to have sex. The lower the deck, the cheaper the price for the room. You also had less space in the room, the quality of the restaurant was lower, in keeping with the lower budgets. There were no rules against going to lower, or higher decks, but Theo had observed that travelers tended to stay within a couple of floors of from their own.

He'd spent two days walking the ship, and he felt he knew it well enough he could lose anyone in it, should it be needed. Or course the number of people he saw having sex had been something of a distraction, and more than one he had to remind himself he was planning on seducing Marcus, and that it wouldn't do to start having sex with all the willing guys on the ship. Because the Orrs didn't recognize such words as debauchery, the raunchiness of the sex wasn't dependent on how low in the ship he went.

An orgy of twelve in the middle of the viewing lounge was as likely to happen on the upper levels as the lower ones. More likely, actually, since the lounges on the lower decks were on the smaller size.

Cass had kept track of Marcus' movements. Not difficult because ships this size has systems in place for the passengers to find one another, and no one Theo had come across ever disconnected his implant from it. As expected, Marcus hadn't moved much over the two days. He'd gone to the closest restaurant to eat his meals, and that was it. Theo had observed him there at breakfast that first day, the lone person in muted colors, and almost the only one fully dressed. Even Theo had been surprised at the number of people engaging in sex while eating.

Theo enjoyed licking sauce off a guy's cock as much as anyone else, but he did feel it should be a more intimate moment, reserved for a private meal. The moans of pleasure made ambient music unnecessary.

Marcus had kept his head down while he ate, his ears so red Theo worried they might catch on fire. Each time a server came to his table, the mongoose jerked away, like he was afraid one of them would jump him. He had to know he was safe, if there was one thing the Orr corporation insisted on was the idea of consent. No Orr citizen would ever do something against someone else's will.

Okay, that wasn't entirely true, Orr Corp had criminals, as much as any other corporations, but they were the ones with the lowest numbers of sexual crimes on records, and no Orr citizen would attempt something in a such a public space, with so many witnesses.

Marcus had nothing to fear, except his own fear of being dragged into doing something in public SolGov would fine, if not imprison him for. Theo didn't know where sex in public fell in the range of crimes for SolGov.

He looked through the wardrobe, for the perfect ensemble to both put Marcus at ease, while interesting him.

"Why don't you wear the polymorphic clothes?" Cass asked. "You're not planning on getting naked with the mark yet, you've made that quite clear."

"I'm not planning on it, and based on what we've observed, it won't happen, but you never know, we might have missed something, and Marcus could turn out to be a secret nympho."

"For us to have missed that, we'd have to have been blind."

Theo pulled out a dark green shirt with white buttons and gold highlight at the trim. "True, but you know better than to have me take a chance. If he were to drag me to his room and throw my clothes off, what would he say when the shirt reverted to white when it landed on the floor?" he took a pair of medium brown slacks and the black shoes.

Cass didn't comment. It was another flaw in the cloth the scientists hadn't managed to work around. It was only active when it was in contact with a living body. Why had been explained to him when he'd been assigned the set, but he hadn't paid attention. He and Cass had been having too much fun playing with the possibilities.

"You know," Cass said, "this is an Orr ship, some of the crew must be wearing one of their belts. The scientists would love to get a working one."

"Not the job, Cass. We won't get any medals for snagging one and endangering the mission. That isn't even considering that if we did steal one, I'd have to keep it hidden for the rest of the trip to Mars, then during the mission, and then for the entire trip back. You know those things come with plenty of anti-theft measures, why do you think none of the other corporations have managed to steal them yet?"

"Because none of them have me to help them."

Theo laughed as he dressed.

"Theo, I'm serious. If we get close to one of them, I can study how it interface with an outside system. I'm confident I can learn how to get it to like me. You know how good I am at cozying up to other systems. We have four months, that's ample time."

The tiger stopped dressing. "You're good Cass, but we're talking about a system already linked to one specific implant. The wearer will know if you're interfering with it."

"No, he won't. Not with four months to familiarize myself with them."

Theo thought about it, seriously. To bring home a working Orr belt would earn him the acclaims of everyone in the research division. But Anderson would kill him if they got caught trying and it ruined the mission.

"No, we're not stealing it."

"Theo-"

"No Cass. The mission is too important. We're not talking about just bringing in funds to a station, or making out with some new tech. This job could mean the difference between the colony ship thriving or failing. Even with all the technology they already have on the ship, terraforming tech could save their lives once they get there."

While Cass didn't answer, Theo knew him well enough to sense the disappointment. "Look, very carefully figure out how the belt talks with the Implants, or whatever it actually does, during this trip. We'll do the mission, and on the way back home, if we can snag a ride on the Mercury again, we'll see about getting a belt. By then the tech will already be on its way home, so it won't matter to them if we get caught."

"Really?"

Theo grinned. "Yes, really. You're right, if we can get one it'll be quite a coup, I just don't want to risk our current mission for it." He finished dressing, and looked himself over in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"It's missing some color."

"I don't want to be too bright. I'm aiming to give Marcus a visual respite, not blend in with the rest of the passengers."

"Maybe, but you don't want to appear boring, right? Put the belt on."

Theo took a clear belt out and put that on. It turned bright yellow "Whoa, that's way too bright." The hue changed until it was golden. "Still too much. The accents work in gold because there isn't much of them." The color changed again until it was bronze. "That's actually not bad."

He ran his hand through his head fur, and considered styling it. Slicking it down until it was shiny was popular these days. He wrinkled his nose at the idea, his fur looked fine like it was.

"Has Marcus left his room?"

"Not yet, but he should shortly, if he has his dinner as the same time as yesterday."

Theo stretched on his bed and closed his eyes while he waited.

"He's leaving now," Cass informed him.

Theo took another look at himself in the mirror, shook the white under muzzle fur loose with his fingers, and went out, keeping his pace slow. He nodded to the other passengers, and got a couple of amused looks from those wearing less clothing.

He went down one level, and reached the restaurant moments after Marcus had. The mongoose was arguing with a server holding a chair for him. He pointed to the trio at the table next to him, in the throes of passion, and made it clear he wouldn't be seated next to them.

Theo stopped himself from smiling as he looked around. It would be difficult for Marcus to sit fully isolated from the sex. The server brought Marcus to a table in the center of the room, where no one was seated directly next to it. The mongoose wasn't happy, but he sat there. A moment later Theo entered the restaurant.

A server came to him, he was a lean giraffe in white pants that hugged his body and left very little to the imagination. "Are you eating alone tonight?" The giraffe looked him up and down.

"I'm eating with my friend over there."

The server looked where Theo indicated. "He didn't say he was waiting for company."

"I didn't let him know I'm coming. I'm hoping to raise his spirits"

The giraffe snorted. "Good luck with that." He left him to find his way.

Theo stopped to the side of Marcus' table, and it took the mongoose only a moment to acknowledge him.

"What?"

If he hadn't been expected the surliness, Theo would have been sent running.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit with you? I'd rather not risk..." he indicated the room with a hand, giving himself a slightly disgusted expression.

Marcus looked around, his scowl growing. "You're not one of them?"

"Oh God no. The system screwed up my assignment too, I wasn't supposed to be on this ship."

"Too?" The mongoose looked at him suspiciously.

"You probably didn't notice me, I was standing behind you at the counter. Actually, I should thank you. I mean, it wasn't fair that you had to be treated like they did, but it showed me the futility of arguing with them."

Marcus indicated the chair opposite him. "I remember you now. It took a moment because what you were wearing wasn't quite this well cut."

Theo smiled as he sat. "Thank you. Titan station doesn't exactly call for being well dressed. Unless you're attending a function, I guess. I'm just happy I did have some clothes good enough for this place. Can you imagine, the mix up put me in the concord above this one. Even wearing this I don't dare going in that restaurant."

A server brought each of them a bowl of soup and their drinks. Marcus startled and swore under his breath. This server had been an otter wearing tight shorts and a thin mesh shirt.

"I hate it when they do that."

"Do what?"

"Get all that close like he did. Each time I think he's going to feel me up."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but I don't think they're allowed to do that"

The mongoose tilted and ear and he nodded in the direction of the giraffe being sucked off a few tables over. It was mostly in Marcus' field of vision.

"I think we need to initiate it," Theo replied, wrinkling his nose and focusing back on their table. "They're here to serve us or something." He paused. "I feel so stupid." He extended his hand. "I'm Theodore Laramy."

"Marcus," he answered, shaking it. "Marcus Bowfinger."

Theo smiled. "Like the villain in 'All the Planets in the Universe?'"

The mongoose's ears canted quizzically.

"It's one of the older George Bondo movies, before they restarted the franchise and made the character female."

"Right, I remember hearing she'd been male at some point."

They were quiet for a time, enjoying their soups. Theo was almost done when a woman started screaming her orgasm. He let the spoon fall in his blow.

"I don't believe that," he growled, trembling. "It's bad enough I have to hear them moaning and grunting while I eat, but can't they keep it down?" He looked at his bowl and pushed it away. "I don't know if I'll be able to eat now."

"Not a fan of it either?" Marcus' was looking down in his bowl. The screamed of delight came from behind Theo, so the mongoose had no choice but to see them anytime he looked up.

"I have nothing against sex, I mean with the right guy I enjoy it as much as anyone else, but come on, this is a restaurant. They should show a minimum of decorum."

Marcus nodded.

"I've been eating in my room since we left, just coming here to get some food and taking that back." Theo gave a sad chuckle. "Do you have any idea how sad it feels to resort to eating alone? It was going to be that again tonight, but then I saw you, and I decided to risk it."

Marcus gave Theo a small smile. "I'm glad you did, you're a much-needed distraction from all this nonsense."

"I don't mean to pry, but you're SolGov, right? I remember you mentioning it at the counter. How can you stand this?"

Marcus sighed. "Barely, that's how."

"Then why do you eat here? I'm glad you do, but if I had to lock myself in my room, how did you get yourself to come eat here? Alone?"

He shrugged. "I'm going to be at a conference on Mars, you might have heard me mention it when that clerk kept insisting, she couldn't do anything. I'm going to be liaising between all the corporation, which means I'll be dealing with Orr corp too." He sighed and looked around. "I'm hoping it won't be as bad as this, at least not in the conference room, but I might as well use this trip to get used to it. If I freeze each time one of them gets close to me, I'll be reported to my superior."

Theo nodded. "Stay calm," he whispered. "Our server is coming with our food."

Marcus took deep breaths and he didn't jump when the otter took the bowls and placed plates before them, but he still tensed. "How was the soup? It's the chef's special." He asked.

The mongoose coughed.

"It was good," Theo answered, keeping his face forcefully neutral.

The otter smiled and left.

The tiger glared at his back. "He couldn't mean..."

Marcus took a sip from his drink. "No, I would have tasted it in there if he had."

Theo raised an eyebrow.

The mongoose smiled. "Don't be so surprised. We don't abstain from sex."

Theo returned the smile. "That's good to know. By your comment I'm guessing you're male compatible."

Marcus nodded. "You?"

"Male exclusive."

"Are you attached?"

"No, my company is always sending me to different places. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. How about you?"

"I was married for a while, but it didn't work out. Her ambitions were her main focus. I haven't found the right person at this point."

"But you're looking, that's good. Where you on Titan for work or on vacation."

"Work, dear God I couldn't imagine who'd want to come to Titan for a vacation."

Theo chuckled and smiled.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay. It wouldn't have been my choice, but it was that or nothing. I was in the Kuiper belt, fixing up the communication on the KP-351 Observatory station. It was take a few weeks on Titan, or spend six months inside a trade cruiser until I reach Luna Station. I did get to visit the rings, that was impressive, although the ice mining there has really reduced the density in places. What did you do on the station?"

"Mostly more liaisons, between department, between the corporations, and I administered the station's information network."

"Really? That must have been interesting."

Marcus and laughed, then launched into some of his functions, the odd demands he got from various corporate representative or other SolGov departments. Theo found he didn't have to work at paying attention while he ate. Marcus was a good storyteller, and like with his painting, he was able to bring life and humor where Theo didn't expect them to be.

The mongoose didn't even react when the otter appeared next to him to take their plates and leave them desert. A Chocolate cake for Marcus and a vanilla and strawberry one for Theo. When they were done, they left the restaurant in good spirits, and Theo followed the mongoose to his cabin.

"That's me," Marcus said. "Thanks for keeping me company during dinner."

Theo smiled. "You're welcome, I'm glad you were there too." He stayed there silently for a long moment, past the point where it became uncomfortable, then he cleared his throat. "I guess I'll let you get to it. Hopefully I'll run into you again." He turned and walked away.

"Theodore," Marcus called.

The tiger turned. "Please, call me Theo."

"Theo, what do you think of meeting for breakfast tomorrow? Let's say about eight? I really can't imagine being able to tolerate eating alone among them again."

Theo smiled. "I was hoping you'd offer. I wasn't looking forward to another meal alone in my room. I'll see you tomorrow Marcus."

He turned and walked away, putting a bounce in his step.

"The mark is watching you leave."

Theo's smile broadened.