Busy

August 1st, 2840 AD 4:30 AM CST, Captain’s Room

In deep sleep after spending one late night after another after another writing the election proposal she planned to present to Ship Systems Manager Melfina Lafiel and the Human Resources Manager Steve Mintz, Charlotte’s alarm went off and she slowly drifted into reality.

“Huh?” Charlotte stared at the barely visible floating holographic alarm above her head through eyes that weren’t in focus yet. “Fine, I’ll get up.”

Finding the strength to lift the covers off her, Charlotte Medina pivoted herself to put her feet on the ground. “Computer, alarm off.”

The hologram disappeared from over her head and the lights in her room turned on.

In the next step, Charlotte Medina finally stood up slowly to reduce the chance of feeling disorientated.

“Computer, work out clothes please.” A drawer opened up with her workout clothes and shoes and she quickly tossed her pink pajamas in a laundry hamper to immediately start being cleaned. Afterwards, she got prepared for her morning work out.

Thank god I got access to my cleaning robots again, Charlotte thought to herself.

Next, She ordered the computer to prepare breakfast before stepping out of her room to head to the gym for a short amount of time.

After lifting weights and running on the treadmill for 45 minutes, Charlotte walked back into her room and took a quick shower. The computer provided a meal of a fruit smoothie, a warm muffin, scrambled eggs, and some sausage. Her usual Friday meal.

While in her bathrobe, she sat down and ate for a few minutes.

“Charlotte, are you awake?” A holographic box with Susan’s name appeared in front of her.

“What is it, Susan? I’m eating breakfast.” Charlotte sighed. This was unusual.

“I’m glad I am not calling to wake you up. Anyway, I looked over your schedule for today. You have quite a lot on your docket, don’t you?” Susan’s voice was concerned.

“Yeah, I won’t be on the bridge as much today. A doctor’s appointment and a long meeting concerning our election proposal don’t make for the most exciting day though.”

“You don’t have to sound happy about it.” A smugness came from Susan’s voice. “Did you want me to prepare lunch for you?”

“Of course. That would be very helpful.”

“I will bag something up for you to carry and eat between your meetings.”

“You really do put a lot of thought into what you do, don’t you?” Charlotte was shocked.

“You’re my best friend and my commanding officer, Charlotte. Of course I want to help you out.”

“I...I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, you have some time to think about that. See on the bridge in an hour, Charlotte.”

“Alright, see you then.” She smiled as Susan’s holographic square disappeared from the space in front of her.

Afterwards, Charlotte finished her meal and watched her science fiction program for a little bit. When the time was right, she finally put her uniform on and smoothing it out before heading toward Noah 3’s bridge.

August 1st, 2840 AD 10:30 AM CST, Doctor’s Office

After being poked, proded, having her blood levels tested, being tested physically in all the ways possible that her doctor Sam Kodai could think of, Charlotte was finally done with her medical tests. She was finally allowed by her doctor to access a shower to clean up and put her uniform back on right before getting feedback on her condition.

Yeah, she was glad to be wearing her own clothes again. The outfit Sam gave her to test her was a little skimpy. Though, Sam used the excuse of having more accurate sensors for the medical readings then what the ship’s micromachines could provide.

“Have a seat, captain.” Sam Kodai said without looking away from her paper work as Charlotte tried to sneak into the office.

“How did you know I was here? Are you a physic.” Charlotte disappointedly sat down in front of Kodai’s desk.

“Captain, I have been your doctor for two years now after following you from one ship to another. I know your habits by now.” She really wasn’t giving Charlotte an inch at all.

“I can’t argue with that.” Charlotte sat there shyly while Sam read through the captain’s information.

“Of course you can’t. But that’s ok, you are a fun one to tease.”

“I...I.” Charlotte was trying to make a comeback, but Sam wouldn’t allow that.

“Let’s discuss your results then, huh?” Sam finally looked up at the captain and smiled while pushing a button on her council.

A hologram of a scan of her full body with a lot of green numbers and gages showed up for Charlotte Medina to see. She sighed in relief at looking at the numbers.

“Yeah, you should be proud. All your readings came back and all your blood levels are good. You have the right cell counts and sugar counts. You also maintained your weight and athleticism since we last tested you six months ago. Captain, you are a picture of health.” Sam smiled.

“I do have some help watching over my condition.” Charlotte admitted.

“Susan Ray, right?”

“How did you…”

“There are some rumors going around, Captain.”

“I...well…” Charlotte looked down at desk in embarrassment. Her doctor really does know everything.

“She made that lunch you are carrying, didn’t she?” Sam smiled while Charlotte looked down at Sam’s desk in embarrassment.

“Yeah, she did.”

“As expected. Anyway, let's discuss the one thing I’m concerned about.” Sam pointed to one of the yellow numbers on the screen. “Your reflexes are a little low and you have some shadows over your eyes. I have a feeling that you haven’t been getting enough sleep recently. Probably a late night project?”

“You know me too well, Doctor.”

“If you are doing that, it’s ok to skip your morning workouts a couple times a week to sleep in.” Sam affirmed. “Rest is very important and you need all your focus, captain. With that, I’ll see you in six months.”

“Thank you, Doctor Kodai.” Charlotte stood up from her chair, took the lunch Susan made, and walked out.

“Think nothing of it.” Sam waved.

Only a half an hour until her business meeting, Charlotte found her way to her office earlier to eat lunch. She sent a text message to Susan, but got no response so turned on an old movie she paused a week ago and munched on her food.

August 1st, 2840 AD 11:30 AM CST, Captain’s Office

Ding ding.

“Captain, are you in there?” It was Melina Lafiel.

“Yes, is Steve Mintz with you?”

“I’m right here, Captain.” Steve’s low voice followed.

“Come in you two. Grab a seat.” Charlotte cracked her knuckles. Now the hard part begins

Steve and Melina sat down in the chairs in front of Charlotte’s desk. Melina seemed a little suspicious about what was going on, but Steve knew already.

“So, why did you invite us here, Captain Medina?” Melina Lafiel crossed her arms.

“Well, we are here to talk about a possible civilian government.” Steve smiled.

“Yes, today we are discussing the proposal I wrote up.” Charlotte smiled.

“Can you bring up copies that we can read?” She looked at both of them.

“I think we should all read over it and then check it out.” Steve sighed.

“So you haven’t read it either yet.” Melina was curious.

“No, I only helped with the idea.”

Charlotte pushed a holographic copy of the election proposal in front of both of them.

“Do you mind if we take some time reading this, Medina?” Melina activated her reading glasses.

“Of course not, go ahead.” She smiled at both of them.

She watched as Steven and Melina read through the twenty page proposal at their own pace and drank some water to calm herself. Both read the copy a few times so make sure they didn’t miss anything, so it was a half an hour of silence.

“So, in short, you want to make a council between you and the commander, us two, and two elected civilians?” Melina looked thoughtful. “I like the idea.”

“Yes, this is very well thought out.” Steve agreed.

“Thank you both.” Charlotte couldn’t help but smile.

“Did you have a plan for finding a couple civilians? What about payment?” Steve asked.

“I wanted to go over the budget with you guys first, but we could use some of my pay if we had to.” Charlotte sighed. “Also, Susan and I are scheduled to have an election in a month in the asteroid belt at the convention center. We just need to advertise it now.”

“Captain, don’t even think about us taking money from your paycheck. We have an account we could pull money from and you have too important of a job. Besides, we are more worried about how much to pay both of them.” Melina shook her head. “As for the advertisement portion, Steve and I can handle that.”

“Charlotte, you do like tired after all. Should we discuss a few things and then let you have some rest?” Steve suggested.

“Yes. Thank you, guys.” Charlotte smiled at how well this is going.

While the discussion concerning small details occurred, Charlotte sneakily communicated with Susan through the small console on her desk while keeping up with the conversation and answering questions where she needed to.

[Charlotte: Do you need me on the bridge today?]

[Susan: Today hasn’t been too busy.]

[Charlotte: I want to see you. I’ve felt lonely.]

[Susan: Awww, I missed you too. How has your day been?]

[Charlotte: Pretty decent. It just felt so strange and I’ve missed being on my bridge. ]

[Susan: Then you can probably stop by for an hour or two. We could order dinner in your room afterwards.]

[Charlotte: Sounds like a plan. See you soon. ]

“Medina, are you paying attention?” Melina glared at her.

“What? Yes, of course?” Charlotte was caught.

Melina and Steven looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

“Captain, I think we have everything settled. See you soon.” Steven said as he and Melina walked out of Charlotte’s office.

“Looking forward to working with you guys more in the future.” Charlotte said as she watched the other two leave. She left a few minutes afterwards.

August 1st, 2840 AD 6:30 PM CST, Captain’s Room

After an exhausting day, Charlotte lay on her bed in her shorts and a tank top just enjoying a slice of pepperoni pizza on a plate . Susan smiles at the site while eating on one of Charlotte’s lounge chairs.

“So, how was your day?” Charlotte smiled while kicking her feet into the air.

“You are a piece of work aren’t you” Susan shook her head. “You know how boring it is on the bridge during transition flight.”

“I know, I just wanted to make sure.” She dripped part of the slice of pizza into her mouth.

“Just another day on the bridge in Jump Space, nothing special.”

“I would rather have that day than getting poked and prodded mentally and physically for most of it.”

“But all your plans worked out, right?” Susan took a bite out of her own pizza.

“Of course they did. The two managers seemed to enjoy the idea we came up with.”

“As I expected.” Susan winked. “Now you don’t have to stay up late for a while.”

“Neither do you.” Charlotte returned with her own wink and took another slice.

“That’s true. Let’s celebrate tomorrow with the crew at a nice restaurant. We don’t have to tell them why." Susan smiled.

“I don’t mind spoiling our good crew every once in a while.”