The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 28

The discovery of the mammoth ship dominated all of the activity for the next week. Lena had grumbled the loudest, because she had to take time away from exploring it to do the planned space walk with the Antuhsas. Of course, that turned out to be a lot of fun, and Kajna and the rest had been so excited at both the trip and learning to walk in space that she'd gotten over it quickly.

For everyone else, the ship was a marvel. Like the other one which was named the Atlantis, this new one also had a name engraved on it, the Aspis. Emily pointed out the brackets that were laying in pieces around the hulk, and they surmised that the Aspis had been moored on the surface when the moon crashed into the planet, and that when it had tipped over and killed the few crew members that were remaining on the ship. Perhaps they were still in the middle of preparing it for launch, or were just changing out the crew, but while they did find a few bodies in the cockpit, the rest of the ship was deserted.

It was also fully functional, other than equipment that had fallen over in the crash, and after a few days of running tests on it, Emma got it airborne, and then flew it back to their moon. Even better, both hangars on the gigantic ship contained more of the same ships that they were already familiar with, which more than doubled the size of their fleet.

But the best part of the ship was that this one had more knowledge than the smaller ones, simply because it was larger and there was much more to find. The stem of the lollipop had many more rooms that dealt with scientific study, and while the Atlantis had lost that piece, the Aspis was complete, and now they had access to so much more of the ancient's glorious knowledge. All of the people that had been scouring the ruins of the old ship were immediately moved over to the working one, and the research became much more efficient.

It was hardest on Pepper and Vanessa because they wanted to be everywhere all at once. They wanted to visit the Antuhsas village, and then do the space walk with them, or maybe go up to visit the new ship that they'd found. But Pepper was dealing with some pretty bad cramps and nausea while all of this was happening, so Vanessa stayed by her side, no matter how much Pepper told her to go do the things she wanted. Not that Pepper minded, because she hated being apart from her Nessa, and she really liked having her there to keep her hydrated and comforted.

"Do you want to take another trip to the medical bed?" Vanessa asked as she sat in bed next to Pepper. "It helped last time, right?"

"Yeah." Pepper sighed heavily, then stood up. "At this rate, I'll just be living in the medical bay."

Vanessa smiled softly, rubbing Pepper's lower back as she hugged her. "Would that be so bad? We have these beds for a reason, so why not use them when you need them? Hell, anyone dealing with morning sickness should be doing that. Emily said the Aspis has three dozen of those beds, so you could stay up there if you like, or we can just sleep on our ship and stay down here on the moon. But please, use the bed as much as you like."

Pepper groaned, then nodded. "Fine. Let's go over and I'll have a little session, and then we'll pack up a few things and live on the ship until this nausea passes."

"Perfect. I'll let everyone else know that they can do the same thing if and when they're pregnant." Vanessa wrapped her arm around Pepper's waist and helped her over to their ship. Once inside, it was a short walk to the medical bay, and Pepper gratefully lay down in the bed on the right.

"I hope this helps the baby grow big and strong," Pepper said as Vanessa closed the top of the bed. "Do you think I can give birth in this thing?"

Vanessa grinned, not that Pepper could see her. "I don't think so, but I guess we could give it a shot. We can talk to Lily and see if she'd be willing to try."