The Independence Mutiny

Chapter 5: Would You Like To Swing On A Star...

The long trip to Mercury settled down to a routine. The boys kept making shy passes at Hera, Hera would flirt with Ed. Ed would threaten the other boys to stop making passes as he called dibs. Alice would make a pass at Johnny, and Johnny would be oblivious. Johnny would make eye contact with Hera and Alice would see red. Jimmy would do something to piss Johnny off and get sent back to the galley. Jimmy would then make passes at Deb. Somewhere in between work got done.

Hera's training came along to a point where she could stand the navigation watch on her own. Alice made sure Hera was on her watch shift to keep an eye on her. This also meant they had lunch together. Alice started challenging her to arm wrestling, to show her dominance. Five nights this went on, five times Alice came back with a sore hand. Alice did not show up on night six and seven.

Ed would sneak off from navigation the past two nights to spend about five minutes with Hera. If Alice could see those two together, maybe she would have seen there was no threat to her and Johnny. At this point it wouldn't have mattered. The competitive spirit was strong in Alice, and so was her mechanical aptitude. You did not become the Bosun's Mate without a large repertoire of skills. For those two days Alice had been spending her free time in the mechanical spaces building something to help her win. It was now day eight.

Hera and Ed were talking in the mess when Alice came in, a misshapen mechanical monstrosity on her arm, a thick cable streaming from it. Alice hooked the cable into the stove power hookup in the galley, sat down across from Hera.

"Let's do it."

The arm wrestling matched started. Initially Alice was winning, but Hera came back strong. They were stalemate. Jimmy got on the PA. "Now here this: Chick wrestling is on the mess deck. Repeat: Chick wrestling on the mess deck! That is all." In thirty seconds the entire crew was on the mess deck. The boys were upset that it was chick arm wrestling, but was fascinated by the battle between (wo)man and machine. Sparks began to fly, first figuratively, then literally. Alice's arm began to smoke, then with a grind of gears and the leak of hydraulic fluid, Hera let out a guttural yell and slammed the mechanical arm to the table shattering it (take your pick which, you'd be right.) The thick power cable was loose on the ground. Deb ran to shut off the power to the mess and galley. Battle lanterns kicked on bathing the two combatants in light. Alice sat grimacing holding a sore arm. Hera looked at her foe, the smiled cheerfully.

"That's match!" she giggled.