Chapter 31. Return

A month later, the ship approached Earth.

Tog maneuvered the ship into a low orbit that would make adding supplies and fuel easier and help facilitate the crew's return to Houston Command Center.

A robot flew a shuttle up to their location, allowing the crew to be returned to Houston Space Command.

When Jack and his crew entered the facility, they noticed the addition of several more female employees, but it wasn't until the next day that they got to meet their three new crew members.

Evan did the introductions. He gestured to a blond with expressive eyes and saucy lips. "This is Judy Meadows. She's an expert on periodic comet orbits."

The next introduction involved a brunette with a more refined face. "This is Mary Sanders. She is proficient with space chemistry."

The third inductee was another red head with delicate looks. "This is Wendy Meadows. She is an expert on alien theories."

Jessica, Natalie, Lorrie and Roxie looked them over as if they were competitors. Jack considered them to be more possible female annoyances.

However, he offered them a friendly smile anyway. "Welcome to our crew."

They smiled, but down deep they were concerned about going out on a mission. Their lives on Earth were casual and predictive. Life on a spaceship would be challenging, especially since they had no actual space mission experience.

Jack began to think that Evan was shoving the job of training female astronauts onto him. Some guys would consider such a job to be a sexual romp, but they didn't realize how annoying young women could be.

But he had one advantage. He could shove that task off to his female crew members.

The next evening, both Jack and Evan, took Jack's new crew out to 'The Shovel' a restaurant and bar combo a few miles from the Johnson Space Command facility.

When they entered the dive, an older woman that greeted them was not what they expected. The tag on her apron indicated that she was Hilary Macken. "Hey Lilian!" she shouted. "Come here!"

Hilary was an older woman with her long raven hair bunched up on her head with a hair pin.

Lilian's gray hair was stuffed under a baker's cap. Her face reflected a hard life.

Hilary pointed at the Jack and Evan. "Look what these gals found!"

"Oh, my goodness!" Lilian exclaimed. "Where'd you girls find two delicious young men?"

"They're NASA commanders," Jessica told them. "We're their employees."

"We haven't seen handsome young men like them for quite some time," Hilary said still grinning.

"We're here to enjoy a good meal and some drinks," Evan said. "We owe these gals for helping us save the Earth from being blasted to hell from an asteroid collision."

Hilary smiled. "Well, you came to the right place. Hopefully, you have the money to pay for it."

"We do, ma'am," Evan said. "And it will include a generous tip."

Hilary turned to Lilian. "Get cooking. I'll serve the beer."

Lilian gave her a disgusted expression. "You always get the fun part,"

Hilary laughed.

Jack and Evan sat down at a large table near to a window. The gals took seats near them.

Hilary came over to take their orders. "You gals are lucky to work for two handsome young men. I was beginning to think that there were no young men left."

"Do you get any men coming in here?" Jack asked her.

"Yeah, but not like it used to be. Most of them are much older."

Jack turned to Evan. "That indicates that young men are more susceptible to the virus."

"All that could have been alleviated if they had been vaccinated,"

"We were told that the vaccine causes people to become sterile," Hilary said.

"There's no evidence to confirm that. As NASA employees, we were forced to get vaccinated."

"Well, it looks like you got lucky."

Jack nodded. He wasn't interested in getting into a discussion about it. It was evident that many deaths were caused by ignorance.

The meal of stake, greens and mashed potatoes was a definite improvement over their robot prepared food, and the beer was a something they hadn't tasted for some time.

"Is there room enough of all of us on your ship?" Mary asked.

"It's designed for at least twelve," Jack told her.

"We've never been on a spaceship before," Wendy said, "I assume it doesn't have much in the way of privacy."

Lorrie suppressed an urge to laugh. "You would be right about that."

She pointed to Jack. "I assume he's the commander."

"You would be right, again."

Judy sighed, "Does he take advantage of you?"

Lorrie smiled. "We take advantage of him."

Judy didn't know what to think of that. She looked at the original crew with a confused expression. She rolled her eyes, a gesture that expressed her doubt of their sanity.

Jessica, Lorrie, Natalie and Roxie laughed.

The next day, Jack and Evan met to go over the details of the new mission.

"This comet is not really an immediate threat to Earth," Evan told him. "The trajectory indicates that it could be a threat but it's not certain. I think this will be more of a training opportunity than an intercept mission."

"I understand," Jack said. "I just hope that they don't become too silly."

Evan rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, they act like teenagers on steroids."

"You're right about that. They keep trying to entice me to take advantage of them. They don't realize that if I did that, it would cause a serious behavior problem."

"I've found that if you act as if they're not annoying, they seem to lose interest."

Jack rubbed his jaw. "That's interesting. I might try that. What I find helpful is not scolding them for seeing me showering. They get upset by the fact that I don't try to ogle them. They act like brats."

Evan sighed, "Let's face it, they're spoiled teenagers only worse."

Jack looked at him for a moment before replying. "Yes, but they are all incredibly intelligent, Their IQs are in the genius range. I'm not sure why that's the case. Is super intelligence a factor for hiring them?"

"I'm not sure about that. They are required to have Doctoral degrees in sciences and then get top grades on their NASA academy exams."
"Is one of the requirements to have incredible physiques?"

Evan smiled. "Yeah, they are all well stacked."

"Maybe spectacular measurements are a requirement for females,"

"Yeah, that's the case," Evan said. "Their physical parameters have to be in the well-endowed healthy female range."

Jack squinted. "Why?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's an indication of their overall health."

"Or the original directors liked well stacked females."

Evan smiled. "Oh well, we're stuck with the rules and regulations of the former commanders. I'm not sure how we could change these rules without causing a breakdown of the system. We're stuck with most of it being controlled by robots."

"Maybe the robots are perverts."

Evan chuckled. "That would be the epitome of AI evolution." His expression became more serious. "Are you ok with your new crew members?"

Jack smiled. "Yeah, they appear to be as annoying as my present crew."

Evan laughed.

Later that evening, Jack knocked on the door to Jesica's room.

"Come in," she said. "It's not locked."

He opened the door and saw that she was sitting in a chair wearing a robe that didn't cover her legs, which were crossed.

She gestured to a chair facing hers. "Have a seat. What brings you to my humble abode?"

He sat down but didn't relax. "I'm making you assistant commander."

Her eyes momentarily grew large before she squinted. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I need you to keep our larger crew under control. You're capable of doing that."

"What would my duties consist of?"

"You would be in charge of assigning jobs to the crew members and disciplining them if needed."

"What sort of discipline?"

"That's up to you. They could be extra work, physical exercise or punishments."

She looked away for a moment before turning to stare at him. "Some of them could definitely use that."

"Oh, and I would be subject to your discipline."

She stared at him for moment before replying. "I'm not sure I understand that. You're the commander."

"That's true, but I'm just as deserving of punishment if I don't follow protocol. Basically, I'm putting you in charge of controlling the crew. You can decide dress issues, shower schedules, quarter assignments, stuff like that." He paused. "Oh, and you're moving to the quarters next to mine. It has an open door between them. You won't have to go out in the corridor to get to the shower unit."

Her eyes momentarily ballooned before she reacted. "I ... I don't know what to say. Why me?"

"You're obviously the crew's leader. I suck at crew discipline and scheduling."

"You mentioned dress issues. I don't understand what that would entail."

"You decide what we wear or not wear and when. It's obvious that this vessel was not constructed to ensure privacy. Dress issue rules and regulations might make things more palatable."

She blinked several times before replying. "I'm . . . I don't know what to say."

"Just say yes."

She smiled. "Yes. I will do as you wish."

"Good. Now I can concentrate on what this vessel must do to save humanity. You get to rule over us obedient servants."

She watched him get up, turn and leave her room. She was momentarily in shock, but she quickly recovered and realized that this was his way of complimenting her, or maybe punishing her for her efforts to get a good view of his body. She liked the idea of overseeing the women. She could control them and make them do her bidding.