Jumar and Kaylen shared a moment of silence as the vents below their feet opened up and a torrent of hot steam blasted from above them, followed by a cleaning solution and a treatment foam before turning into a maelstrom of vapors that washed their bodies clean. The small compartment in front of them then opened and stuck out an extremely thin chord which Jumar poked to the back of his ear, where the charging port for IRIS was located and dressed up in an orange engineering worksuit that was tied at the waist, revealing the synthetic cotton tee he was wearing on top.
He then unplugged the IRIS from the charging cable and floated out the cubicle whilst combing his hair with his fingers, finding out that Kaylen also came out her cubicle doing he same.
Her slender hands moved rather rashly on her smooth, strawberry blonde hair. Her cheeks flushed a rosy shade of red in sharp contrast to her pale skin. Her soft lips were curled into a pout as she was still mulling over how she wouldn't be able to see her girlfriend before they went to the scheduled stasis.
Jumar could only sigh regretfully. If only this woman was a bit more dignified with herself and behave like one, maybe even tone down her stupidity, no doubt, Kaylen would be someone who could catch guys and make them beg.
"Wanna grab a bite?" Jumar asked. "I was luckily not penalized too heavily. It makes me realize how amazing our current meals are."
"Those damn jellies they keep serving is fucking disgusting though…" Kaylen grimaced. "Buy you're right, it's better than the algae puree soup they serve when you're under moderate probation."
"Are you talking about the new CK-N formula 13 Nutri Jelly?" Jumar floated behind Kaylen as they hopped on from the railings towards the main corridors. "Also, how come you know what the algae soup tastes like? I know you're stupid but you don't strike me as someone 'that' stupid."
"I got caught by the surveillance while having sex with Ronalds in the maintenance hatches." Kaylen sighed. "Not the best, really. He had a it pretty small."
"Scratch that. You ARE 'that' stupid after all." Jumar could not believe she was actually that stupid. The maintenance hatches were filled with surveillance cameras strapped on motion detectors. Of all the places, it had to be there.
"I couldn't even argue that he was just forcing me, the tapes got it all recorded that I was the one who unbuckled his belt…"
"Look, I don't even wanna hear it." Jumar shook his head. "Can't we talk about something else?"
"Guh, fineee." Kaylen rolled her eyes. "Any plans on installing the new mods for IRIS?"
"Yeah, I already scheduled three surgeries this week." Jumar replied. "It's just too good of a mod to pass up on."
"I agree, that GEN 3 piezoelectric membrane is simply too great of a mod to pass up. You can go on a single sheet of that material and have IRIS powered up for a year." Kaylen admired. "I'll schedule one for me next week."
"I didn't schedule for the GEN 3." Jumar smirked. "I passed GEN 6 closed beta test qualifications."
Kaylen paused as she held tight to a railing and slowly turned towards Jumar with raised brows.
"No, you did not."
"Yes, yes I did."
"You're just trying to make me jealous."
"Don't really care about that right now."
They both stared at each other in silence before Kaylen sent herself flying at Jumar and squeezing him in a hug.
"Does that mean you're also getting promoted?!" Kaylen asked Jumar.
"Yup. Next week, I'm going to get assigned to Class 4 personnel as part of the engineering task force." Jumar could not help smiling stupidly.
"Holy shit that's amazing!" Kaylen beamed at him. "When we get to the frontier, you'll be one of the exploration teams!"
"Heck yeah!" Jumar cheered himself on. "Then I'll get to sleep with all the hot babes!"
"Pff." Kaylen laughed as she poked Jumar's belly flab. "I doubt that."
"Only time will tell I guess." Jumar shrugged as they laughed together.
They finally made it to the cafeteria and grabbed a few inflatable pouches, which they placed into a nozzle that pumped out some goo like stuff into the transparent pouches through the Plastisteel tube.
"Guh, it always seems so disgusting…" Kaylen scrunched up her nose in disgust. "What is this again?"
"CK-N formula 13 Nutri Jelly." Jumar marveled the white jelly suspended in brownish goop inside the transparent pouch. "Base material is Type 22 Soybean paste, sub-material is Type 55 tomato bean puree."
"Type 55? Really?" Kaylen looked at her food with complicated emotions. "How am I expected to eat something that practically has twelve times longer expiry date than me?!"
"You're right about that…" Jumar thought. "Normally, they wouldn't bother synthesizing food to last for centuries outside temperature preservation…"
'Could it be because there will be a massive power overhaul when we are going to fix the coolant system…?' Jumar wondered. 'No, if it was just that there was no need to make it last nearly a millennia. If so, then…'
Jumar shook his head and washed his suspicions away.
'Lets just focus on the present for now.'
"Ey! Eliza! Over here babe!" Kaylen called over.
Jumar's eyes instantly flickered towards the lady in white coat walking towards them with a confident air around her.
She had short cropped hair that was slicked back, well defined eyebrows and a muscular jaw that contrasted to her petite body and plump lips. She wore a while lab coat over her high waist baggy jeans and tucked in long sleeves.
Everything about this woman just screamed 'I'm a professional'.
This woman was Eliza Stewart, Kaylen's girlfriend.
"Hey Liza." Jumar greeted, he always loved to spend time with a reasonable woman like Eliza, rather than numbskull you-know-who.
"Hey Ordis, still have that flab huh?" Eliza laughed and turned to Kaylen. "Hello there sugarplum, have you been a good girl today?"
"Yup!" Kaylen smiled like an idiot as she sat down the seats, strapping herself in the garter chords on the chair. "I fixed a breach on D6 today!"
"No you didn't. We almost died because you couldn't even get the plasma welder." Jumar poked at her.
"I was the one who did the manual override on the hatch goddamnit!" Kaylen pouted.
"Let me guess, someone else opened it from the other side anyway." Eliza smiled.
"Spot on." Jumar laughed. "Guh, she's as useless as usual."
"You two are such big meanies!" Kaylen pouted as she sulked beside Eliza.
"Aww… my sugarplum looks so cutee~♡" Eliza poked at her cheeks.
"If she had a brain, she would." Jumar laughed as he sucked on the pouch.
A bitterly sour sensation assaulted him as a wave of inexplicable saltiness washed over Jumar, making him scrunch up his face and gag at the horrible aftertaste that could only be described as a sensation of sucking from a 3 day old bag of biodegradable waste using a straw.
Jumar fought the urge to vomit as he nervously gagged.
"Holy fuck." Jumar was at a loss for words. "That was some shitstorm right there."
Eliza laughed as she covered her mouth. "That's Type 55 for you I guess, the more higher the number goes up, the longer it can be preserved but the taste might as well be the same as sewage."
"That shit was horrible!" Jumar wheezed as he tried to stabilize his groaning stomach. "Fuck sake! This could kill a man by how disgusting it tastes like!"
"How unlucky for you to survive then." Kaylen smirked from the side as she pushed away her pouch. "I'll pass."
"You'll be penalized."
"I don't care."
"Suit yourself, you'll have to eat sooner or later." Jumar spoke as he downed the entire pouch in one gulp, suffering in silence as he fought a battle against his retching stomach and his gagging throat.
"Brave aren't you." Eliza watched in awe. "No wonder you got assigned to the Exploration Teams."
"You give me too much credit." Jumar waved his hand as he tried to stabilize his breathing.
"I only give credit when due, Ordis." Eliza leaned closer. "You even applied for a few interesting Closed Beta testing implants. I must say, the third implant even makes me shiver deep inside."
"What implant?" Kaylen quickly turned around to look at Eliza and Jumar with disbelief. "I haven't heard about that!"
"You didn't tell sugarplums?" Eliza raised her brows and questioned Jumar. "I understand that you don't have to make you worry but…"
"Ellie?! What are you talking about!" Kaylen smashed her fist at the table. "Jumar! What the hell are you getting implanted with?!"
Jumar sighed, he was expecting that he had to explain it after some time, just not as soon as he had hoped.
"My third implant will be Class 9 Type 10 Bioware. A Neural Quantum Processor. Prototyped version. Straight into my brain." Jumar tried to explain as fast as possible. "Survival Rate of 33%..."