Mayas Day Out

Maya really enjoyed visiting the kennels. Something about the atmosphere there made her calm down and relax. The lessons she was receiving were not that hard to follow and the teachers would never scold her or anything, but somehow the whole thing felt wrong.

The maid following her around was still the same, so she didn't feel too bad using all of her free time to go and play with the animals. Normally she would long have asked the other girl for her name, but one of the first lessons had been, that nobles don't bother with the dealings of commoners. As a Voidfarer she was somewhat seen as a noble, so for the duration of her stay in the palace, she tried to act like she was told in the lessons. After all her father had organized all this for her to learn.

When the maid came over to her and softly touched her shoulder, she knew, that was the signal that her time with the cute animals was up and the next lesson would start soon. She sighed and followed the woman back inside.

When she returned to the docks, the sun was already going down. Fascinated she stopped and watched the yellow and orange glow slowly disappear behind the skyline of the city.

If someone were to ask she would always tell them nothing was more beautiful than space, but seeing the sun actually go down was somewhat rare for a Voidfarer and even more for her who had until recently not been allowed to leave the ship on her own.

With a feeling of peace inside her, she entered the Dockyard and the Ship. The guards gave her some weird stares, but as nobody said anything she let it slip.

When inside her first instinct was to visit her father and tell him about her day, but she had some duties as an officer, so she reluctantly took out her wrist computer and checked the logs.

There was a new entry in the crew register, but nobody had bothered to fill the name in. She crooked her brows and immediately suspected her father to be at fault. There should be nothing in the security logs still, she checked them earnestly.

After that, she opened the medical Logs and to her surprise, there was actually something for her to do here. A patient had clocked into the medical registry a few hours ago.

Whoever it was surely just had taken what they needed and left again, but still, as the only actual medic, she felt it was her duty to at least check. Another reason was, there were the medical supplies that needed attention from time to time.

When she entered the Med Bay she found an unknown man standing near the entrance, looking a little lost. He had a well defined, tanned body and a handsome face. She could not see his face as he was looking down, but he seemed to be around her age. He must be the new Crewmember, she concluded.

"Hey, I'm Maya, the acting doctor on board. Are you the one that checked in earlier?"

"Yes."

He had a warm voice, but spoke just loud enough, she could understand him.

"Have you been waiting all this time, since you logged in?"

"Yes"

Maya sighed and pinched her nose. Neglecting like that reeked of her father's involvement, confirming her earlier guess. She knew he didn't do it on purpose, or to annoy her, but that level of scatterbrainedness was something else.

"Why didn't you take a seat or something?"

"Nobody told me to."

She looked at him weirdly. What kind of an answer was that?

"Where exactly did my father find you?"

Instead of answering, the man immediately got down on both knees and pressed his forehead against the cold floor of the Med Bay.

"I had no idea, please forgive this one's rudeness, Mistress"

The reaction was so fast, Maya involuntarily squeaked and jumped back a little.

"What are you doing?"

She felt embarrassed, so she tried to get the man to stand up again, by lifting him up. He was surprisingly heavy and she could feel his muscles under the thin tunic he was wearing. After the slightest moment of resistance, he followed her movement.

"What was that?"

Maya could feel her face burning and was a little glad the man was still looking at the floor.

"I was terribly rude to you, so I apologized."

"I didn't feel insulted at all, so tell me how do you think you were rude to me?"

"I acted as if we were equals, but you are the Master's daughter."

While staring at the man and trying to make sense of what he said, she noticed she was still holding his arms.

She cleared her throat and took a step back.

"Anyway, I was not offended, so you don't need to feel bad or anything. You are here for the medical checkup correct?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Can you please like not call me that?"

"Mistress?"

"You did it again."

He was about to kneel again, but this time Maya was prepared, she stepped in to stop him. The man halted at the slightest touch. If someone were to come in now, they would find them in what looked like a somewhat weird hug.

"Please I beg you don't call me Mistress and stop the kneeling. It is too embarrassing."

"If that is your wish."

Du to their position his mouth was right next to her head and as he was a little larger, she could feel his breath strafe the hair on her ears. It send a shiver down her spine and made her blush again.

"Uh, could you please lay down on the table over there so I can begin with the checkup?"

He immediately moved around her, without commenting on her embarrassment.

Maya took a deep breath to calm her heartbeat a little but had to turn around when she heard the rustling of clothes behind her.

The man had dropped the Tunic and was about to lose his underwear as well.

"Why are you doing this?"

She used one hand to block her view of him.

"We always had to get naked when they did medical procedures on us."

"That won't be necessary here."

"I understand."

She heard him lay down and opened her eyes again, only to feel the heat rush back to her face. Instead of putting the clothes back on, the man had simply stopped taking his underwear off and laid down on the table like she had told him earlier.

He had closed his eyes and his breath was calm and steady, almost like he was sleeping. She stared at him a little too long, while debating having him put on his clothes again. Then she remembered her original purpose and rushed over to the doctor's table.

With a few practised moves, the scanner was ready and all she had to do was slowly scan his whole body. Reading the Data and focusing on her task greatly helped stop her mind from wandering off.

The man was in great physical condition. There were some traces of past injuries, but nothing concerning.

"I need to analyse your blood next, so I have to poke you in the arm, is that alright?"

He nodded, with his eyes still closed.

She did as she had told him and while the scanner did its job, her eyes wandered back to the body of the new guy.

There was not an ounce of useless fat on him. It must be incredibly hard to work out so much and keep a strict diet, to look like this she thought.

Voidfarers had it somewhat easier in that regard as their food was mostly nutrient paste, which an AI had made based on their medical data.

A sound from the scanner told her that the analysis was completed, no illnesses or other things had been detected.

"Ok, one last thing then we are finished. What's the status of your vaccines? You know, flu, measles, space Aids, the usual."

"I remember receiving some vaccines as a child, but I don't know which."

"Then it better to give you all, you will be with us for a while right?"

"If that is the Captain's wish."

"In that case, I will give you two injections now, but you have to come back in a few days for the next and so on till we got you up to date."

"I understand."

Maya's gaze grazed the tunic lying on the ground.

"Did you receive your Uniform yet?"

"No"

"In that case, I will give you one."

She turned and took one of the spare Uniforms from one of the lockers on the wall.

After placing it on the table next to the man, she checked his vitals and data one last time.

"Ok, everything seems to be in order now, I uh, will leave now so you can switch clothes, also the captain is waiting for my report, bye."

She bolted out of the room, feeling her cheeks get warm again.

Later, in the safety of her room, she realized she never had asked for his name. She inwardly cursed at her father for being too lazy to write it down in the crew list, but going back and asking now would be even more embarrassing than the whole examination earlier.