Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (3 page)

             
Owen screwed up his cup and threw it in down the waste hatch.  “So go live on Dalto.  They might be ahead of us scientifically but emotionally they’re shot to pieces.  They’re organic robots, they don’t have any sexual release so they spend their spare time watching other species making love, in the cause of science, naturally.  They’re the biggest voyeurs in the galaxy, I wouldn’t want to go within a light year of the dump, they’re all closet perverts”

             
Taking her plate and used cup Austen walked over to the waste disposal then turned back, Owen was standing in front of her, she tried to pass him and he grasped her wrist.  Taking a deep breath she glared up at him   “Owen, I advise you to let go of my wrist - now!” she snarled.

             
“Captain Austen, I like you” he said quietly “underneath this ‘
computer
princess
/
ice maiden’ image I’m sure we’d find a warm woman, I’m telling you this for your own good.  The reason you got this lousy command and will continue to get lousy commands is not because you are a woman but because you are a beautiful woman.  You, unconsciously I am sure, excite old fashioned lust in men and it just don’t make for a happy ship when most of the crew’s walking around with a hard on”

             
Austen shook his hand from her wrist and attempted to walk past but Owen put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back against the wall, she glared up at him.  “You arrogant son of a bitch!” she hissed “When we get back I’m going to hit you with an insubordination r
ap
that’ll knock your socks off!  You’ll be lucky to get a job swabbing out the heads on a prison ship!”

             
Owen shook his head, “Captain you wouldn’t dare and we both know it.  Can’t you see Loxley’s face when he reads your report?
‘no more long haul flights for Captain Austen, Wilson’
he’ll say to his secretary
‘not her fault but you can’t expect the men to take orders from a woman who looks like that, two years in space is a hell of a long time for the lads.  You can’t blame Owen here can you?  She probably led him on, we’ll ground him for a few months but she’d better be restricted to short haul flights or even an administration job here’
Don’t you see Alodie, they want you to fail, you’re too much of a risk.  If you were short fat and fifty like Captain Augusta Milton you would, I am sure, get better commands but as you are, young,  beautiful and intelligent, you’re a threat.  You don’t fit into the niche they expect you to occupy.  Women who look like you aren’t supposed to be getting top marks at pilot school, or show all the big guns the way its done on propulsion technique and hyper logic
- y
ou’re supposed to be on holovision or bringing up kids, anything at all but zooming all over the universe in a zillion credit star ship – honey you scare them”.

             
Suddenly a voice inside Austen’s head screamed
the bastard’s right
and the injustice of it almost took her breath away.  Women were being victimised because of men’s lusts.  Damn your brains, your skills, if someone like Owen wanted your body it was ‘goodbye career’, give in gracefully, lie down and open your legs.........

             
She took a deep breath, she must take control of this situation, and fast.  Pushing past him she headed for the door where she turned “Luckily Owen” she  said icily “not all the E & MTC brass have your juvenile and archaic view of women”

             
Owen took another bite of his sandwich and wiped his hand across the back of his mouth “enough of ‘em do though, Captain, even if only subconsciously, and they’re the ones that matter.  Goodnight ma’am”

             
Spinning on her heel, with a feeling she had just been dismissed, she strode out of the galley.  Walking slowly to the door Owen watched her receding figure head down the passage. 
Lord have mercy
he thought
starship captains shouldn’t walk like that
,  even in that damned shapeless blue boiler suit she wore she swayed like a twentieth century film star.  The woman was built for giving sexual pleasure and having children, preferably his.  The next two weeks in hyper were going to be hell, sheer hell.

***********************

             
Austen slammed into the turbo lift, fighting back the tears.  The annoying, infuriating thing was that Owen was so right.  He’d put his finger on the nub of the problem brilliantly - it
was
pigheads like him and Loxley who were in charge at E & MTC.  Trying another company was no good, E & MTC were the biggest mercantile company in the whole of the known galaxy and anyway she needed to be based on Earth.

             
The idea of a planet bound career, away from space travel, never entered her head.  She loved space, she loved the silence of it, the vastness of it, it was in her blood, her very bones.  Her grandfather, Arthur
Bell
, was one of the first cross galactic pioneers and one of her ancestors was
William Crisp
, who was on the first planet shots way back in 20
30
.

             
“Main computer room” she snapped and stiffened with the slight ‘g’ force as the lift shot through fifty metres in three seconds and then the lateral pull as it took her to her destination once it had reached the required level.

             
Stepping out of the lift she placed her palm against the door of the main computer room.  After being scanned the door hissed open.

             
She thoughtfully lowered herself into the deep seat and reaching into her pocket took out a bottle of green pills, a couple of these babies should get her mind off things they shouldn’t be on.  Swallowing them down dry she lay back and closed her eyes.

             
Physics, maths, engines, computers - they had been her life since she could remember.  Had she ever played with dolls?  How unjust life was, to make her intelligent and ambitious yet saddling her with, if Owen was to be believed, beauty, in a world run by sex mad male savages.

             
Her mind wandered off on its own again..............
beautiful
he had said.  He had wanted to screw her - terrible word -
make love
was far more pleasant.  Unconsciously she allowed herself to drift off into a daydream, another world, another time, a limpid pool,  trees, fawns, herself in a long dress and a huge warrior taking her in his arms, crushing her to his manly chest and .............. “Jeezus Austen, snap out of it!” she said out loud and, almost savagely, jabbed at a selection of buttons on the console in front of her.  The screen flickered into life - she had activated the series IV self programming Mindbank computer, the super brain which controlled the ship from the navigation systems, hyper drives
and
life support down to the replicators and coffee machines. 
Trillions
of chips, circuits and channels sending out messages, receiving them - Mindbank was the one most important object on the whole ship, without it
The Star City Colossus
would be a gigantic dead drifting hulk.  It stored most of the information known in the galaxy in its bubble drive and what it did not have in its memory it could pull in from any computer anywhere in the galaxy.

             
After a couple of seconds a slightly shrill female voice requested a voice pattern confirmation “Austen, Alodie, Captain” she replied.

             
The briefest of pauses “Voice pattern accepted, how can I help you Captain Austen?”

             
“Morale problem” answered Austen “I need some psycho
-
analytical advice”

             
Instantly the voice changed to that of a soothing male West coast analyst “Tell  me the trouble Captain Austen”

             
Austen sighed and threw up her hands “I need a friend to pour my heart out to not a machine, forget it”

             
“Now you are through to me please tell me what is wrong” it purred “I am programmed to give a logical judgement or help out with an analysis of a problem.  You don’t have to act on my advice, although I
have
been programmed by the cream of the Earth’s psychiatrists and psychologists”

             
Alodie instinctively glanced round, although she knew no one could get into this room without her permission, then taking a deep breath she cleared her throat “A - all my life I’ve been involved with science, logic” she said quietly “from the age of seven I wanted to become a star ship captain, I worked and lived to this end.  I found human relationships unimportant and never let my feelings get the better of me, the only man I have ever loved has been my father” she stood up and ran her fingers across her shaven head.  “I have never entertained thoughts of sex, not until recently that is” she walked over to the wall and took a drink of water from the cooler “Oh, I’ve had men trying to take me to bed in the past and it has never bothered me, I’ve just laughed at them - but it came to a head tonight” she drained her cup and
sat back down
“tonight, Luke Owen, my second navigator, told me that.....” she began to blush “I was beautiful and he wanted to make love to me and - just for a moment - I found myself with an urge to take him up on it, just for a moment, I wanted him to rip my clothes off, throw me on the floor and .....” she crushed her cup “Oh God, the reason I’m telling you this is because these feelings are beginning to affect my behaviour toward my crew, making me snappy, I’m afraid of it affecting my judgement.  What shall I do Mindbank?”

             
There was silence for a few seconds then the computer replied.  “I fail to see your problem Captain.  Having sexual urges is quite normal in a female human of your age, in fact denying them for so long is what I find worrying.  If it is affecting your mental wellbeing and therefore the wellbeing of the ship the best thing to do would be to
have
a sexual relationship, preferably with second navigator Owen as you are attracted to him.  As long as he is willing and discreet, there is nothing in company rules forbidding a captain and lower ranking officer from having a sexual relationship”

             
Austen blushed hotly.  “That’s just the point Mindbank, I am not attracted to him, far from it, I find him
obnoxious
, overbearing, insubordinate, inefficient, egoistic, childish and the possibilities of him being discreet are non-existent”

             
“That may be so, Captain, but I have just scanned the service records of both yourself and Lieutenant Commander Owen and find that on a purely physical level it would seem that  you and he are very well suited. However, the only thing I can find that you have in common are a liking for Alnair wine, Medullan cauda steaks and swimming.  This would not be a meeting of minds, Luke Owen does not, I gather, care for intelligent women”

             
“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest” snorted Austen, waspishly, “Look, Mindbank, let’s cut through the crap, I need a medical psychoanalytical opinion as to the course of action of the captain of the
Star City Colossus
at the present time due to the disturbance in her - er............”

             
“Libido??” suggested Mindbank

             
“Disturbance in her peace of mind and mental wellbeing” finished Austen, lamely.

             
“One moment Captain” said the computer then, after a second, it continued “Psychoanalytical opinion as to the state of mind of Captain Alodie Austen”

             
“Private and confidential” interjected Austen

             
“Naturally Captain” it replied, almost archly “further to my findings on what you have told me and my perusal of your personal file and that of Lieutenant Commander Owen, I find you have a very strong
anima
which, combined with Lieutenant Commander Owen’s strong
animus
is creating an electrical charge between you both resulting in argument; that is, tussling mentally instead of physically.  He is trying to bring out the feminine in you, the
anima
, by using the masculine in himself, the
animus
.  As you are his superior both in rank and intelligence it frightens you when he begins to succeed and you get angry”

             
Austen sighed.  “for goodness sake, Mindbank, get to the point, what’s the cure?  What’s to be done?”

             
“Do you really need me to tell you Captain Austen” replied the computer, managing to interject an almost impatient tone into its voice “I think you already know. You are sexually frustrated, the only man aboard this ship to whom you are even slightly attracted is Lieutenant Commander Owen.  I think the cure is a sexual relationship with Owen, and I stress
sexual
relationship only, anything deeper would be doomed to failure”

             
Austen felt the blood rush to her cheeks, this was the last thing she wanted to hear.