Chapter No.41. Analysis.

The next day, Janet and Sharon had discovered something of interest.

"We found a possible candidate planet," Janet said after I sat down next to her. "It's around a hundred light years away orbiting a K-class dwarf star."

"We're not sure how habitable it is, but it's maybe a bit larger than Earth."

"It's worth a try," I said.

"Why are we still searching for more habitable planets?" Sharon asked.

"I would like to find out where all the humans went," I said. "So far, we've only found a few."

"Maybe the lizard aliens killed them for food," Sharon said.

"I could believe that they did that to a million or so, but not nine billion."

"So, you think that the majority of Earth's human population were removed from the planet and not killed off by climate change," Janet said.

"Yes. It's obvious that removing humans from Earth stopped climate change before it killed them off."

"When do we have to go into hyperspace?" I asked.

"Anytime," she replied.

I stood up. "Let's do it."

We joined to strap into our G-chairs and then waited until the wheels stopped turning and locked into place before the engines were fired up for the burn that would put us in hyperspace.

I looked over at Kali and saw that she wasn't all that bothered by the G-forces, probably because she was used to it as a combat astronaut.

When it was over and the wheels began turning again, we unstrapped and went back to our usual jobs. Janet and Sharon spent their time at the command station working on improving the astronomy equipment. Natale and Bridget spent time exercising. Kali seemed interested in hanging out with me down in the engineering deck.

I sat down at the engineering command station and began scanning for any possible defects. Kali sat down next to me and watched.

"Have you explored what's on this deck?"

I turned to look back at her. "I suppose I haven't explored it all that well. I'm only interested in the status of the engines and the antimatter production equipment. I have to admit that I was not aware of the auto-doctor."

"There's a small pool for doing exercises," she said. "It has a pump to cause a steady current."

"I did not know that," I said. I stood up. "Let's go check it out."

We entered a doorway to what appeared to be a processing plant with lots of pipes and pumps.

"This is where the water is processed for recycling," I said.

"the pool is in there," she said, pointing at a door.

I opened it and looked upon a pool of water, ringed by a ledge to walk on. "I'll be darned. I had no idea that this was here. I wonder how they keep the water confined when the wheel is stopped.

She pointed at a control panel. "This is able to cover the pool to keep the water in. It does that automatically when the wheel is shut down."

I shook my head. "Amazing. I wish that I had known about this. Swimming is a good exercise."

She gestured to the pool. "Have a go at it."

I stared at her for a few minutes before I stripped and stood facing her while shielding my manhood.

"I'll adjust the water velocity," she said. She looked at me. "How's that?"

I looked down at the water cascading from the front of the pool. "I think I can handle that." I jumped in and began swimming in place.

She stood there watching me with no signs of emotion, and when I climbed out, she just watched the water drip down off of my body.

"How was it?"

"It's great," I replied. "Unfortunately, there's no towels to dry off."

She picked up my clothing. "That's okay. You don't need to wear anything down here."

I extended my hand. "I can put them on."

"I'll take them up to the crew deck and get you clean clothes." She paused to smile. "There's no hurry."

"I can't go back like this," I said.

She chuckled. "I wouldn't recommend that. They'll think we were making love down here."

I smiled. "Yes, you're right."

She sat down at the command station while I remained standing while protecting my modesty.

"Did your friend, the one that died, did she enjoy making love?"

I changed my stance. "I can't say for certain, but she seemed to like it."

"You seem to have a problem being confident about your manhood. Do you have trouble relating to women?"

"I . . . well, I suppose it has to do with how my mother treated me. She showered all of her love on my sister and essentially ignored me. My father left us early on. I really didn't get much from him."

"Sounds like some sort of Oedipus complex. Did you have a subconscious fear of castration?"

I offered a subtle grin. "You sound like a psychiatrist."

"I'm just trying to understand you. It's not normal for a healthy young male to literally ignore five young females, especially in this close environment."

"I'm not ignoring them. I'm trying to mitigate any possible conflict if I chose one and ignore the others."

"Why not choose them all."

"That would make me a polygamist."

She chucked. "No, it wouldn't! There's no morals cop out here in space. Trust me, they are like cats on a hot tin roof. They want you to pay attention to them."

"Does that include you?"

She briefly smiled. "I'm not on a hot tin roof, but I enjoy attention too."

I shifted my stance again.

"Am I embarrassing you?" she asked with a sly grin.

"I'm not a prude. It's just that I . . . I don't like women comparing me."

She laughed. "Trust me. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, who are they going to compare you to?"

"It just . . . it's something I think about when I meet women."

She stood up. "I'm going to take your clothes up to the crew deck and get some fresh ones. Don't go anywhere."

I smiled, realizing that she was being facetious.

When she returned, she handed me fresh clothes, which I quicky put on.

"I didn't tell them about the pool. I think you should do that."

I nodded my approval.

It wasn't until our communal supper that I decided to inform them about the pool.

I gestured to Kali. "Kali found an exercise pool on the engineering deck. I had no idea it was there. I tried it out and it's great."

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Bridget cried. "We would have loved to watch you swim!"

"Yeah!" Natale exclaimed. "That would have been fun!"

"Are we allowed to swim in that pool?" Sharon asked.

"Of course," I said.

"You can watch us swim," Janet said with a sly grin.

I turned to Kali with a sly grin. "You were right."

She chuckled.

Oddly enough, they didn't say anything about it in the few days that followed. We got back into the G-chairs to do the burn that took us out of hyperspace. After the wheels started spinning again, we were able to gather at the command station to see what was ahead. What we found was weird to say the least.