Chapter 13: The second jump

-- February - Week 5 --

Lee was abruptly awoken for the second day in a row.

She didn’t enjoy having her breath slammed out of her chest. Miss Piggy squealed in fright beside her, so Lee patted the little pig and waited for the second jolt. If anything, it was just as brutal because she was awake and expecting it.

She and Miss Piggy lay there for several minutes recuperating before Lee decided that she had to get up and pee and unhooked the net. Miss Piggy indicated she wanted down as well, so Lee lifted her down.

Lee went and opened the door to let her out. After relieving her own bladder, she put the pig’s bowls back on the floor, refilled them and swept up the spilled crystals.

Since she’d had five hours sleep, Lee decided she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, so she would go get some clean jumpsuits. She always kept at least three or four suits and sets of gym clothes in her room. She was down to her last clean jumpsuit.

If she got up now, she would want a clean suit before she went onto shift tonight, so she needed replacements. After a quick wake-up shower, she headed down the hall to the replicator on this level. She dropped the pile of old clothes she carried into the hopper to be recycled.

She selected the clothing option on the replicator. Finding her suit and selecting the size, she hit ‘4’ for ‘the number of’ and waited. While she waited, she scrutinised the other clothing options. Finding the set of singlets and shorts she liked for exercising, she decided to get a couple of clean sets as well and entered the selection.

Lee then selected nightwear and found a silky dressing gown, which looked a lot like a silk kimono. She chose an emerald green one in her size, and a royal blue one for a male, several sizes larger.

For her last entry, she selected lingerie and found the sports bra that she liked wearing when she exercised and picked some of them. She had never liked wearing knickers, so she didn’t bother getting any.

She also didn’t like wearing underwear under her jumpsuits. She found the moulding in the suits gave her enough support for her breasts. It had never been a problem, not wearing underwear.

Lee had just finished her last entry when someone grabbed her in a neck chokehold. They covered her mouth with their other hand to stop her screaming. She then found herself being dragged back into a room.

She watched the door slide shut behind them. Lee didn’t panic, and she didn’t struggle. She believed she would be able to handle the situation when her attacker confronted her. In her experience, rapists like this one liked the victim to know who they were.

Raping someone on a ship in space wasn’t smart otherwise. Lee could only conclude that he must be sure that she would end up too scared to report him. Fuckup’s like him liked to terrorise the victim before and after the fact and repeat the rape.

“You fucking, goody-two-shoes whore,” the guy spat into her ear, telling Lee who it was – Rodger. She wasn’t really surprised. She was pretty sure he was her emailer too. It was just her luck that his cabin was near the replicator.

“You had that ice-princess act down pat, didn’t you? But the first grunt that comes along and you bend over and let him fuck you up the arse. Well, I’d like a piece of that arse too, you fucking whore. You’re mine, not his,” he rasped.

His left hand was trying to squeeze her tit through the jumpsuit, but it wasn’t co-operating. The thick padding wasn’t giving him the satisfaction he desired.

“Let’s see how much that grunt wants you after I have finished with you. Once you have had me, you will belong to me. You will learn your place and behave like a good woman should,” he told her with confidence as he rubbed himself against her.

He ripped the front of her jumpsuit open. He slid his hand inside cupping and squeezing her left tit roughly, while he still held her around the neck. He sniffed her hair and kissed the side of her neck while kneading the breast in his hand.

Emboldened by her lack of struggles, and interpreting her shiver of disgust as fear, Rodger let go of her neck and gripped the top of her jumpsuit using both hands. He dragged the shoulders of the suit halfway down her arms to reduce her ability to move them.

He bit her hard on the side of her neck as he grabbed both breasts. He squeezed them painfully hard, causing Lee to grunt in pain. Lee had, had enough. Rodger marking her and slobbering on her was more than she wished to take from him.

Lee had been slowly rearranging her feet while Rodger was pulling her jumpsuit down, so they were either side of his right foot. As she felt his hands release to squeeze again, she dropped fast into a squat.

As she dropped, she swung her torso so that her left elbow angled up between his legs. She pushed back up, so the elbow connected with his groin, hard. While the jumpsuit reduced her ability to move her arms far, it didn’t stop her moving her elbow back the short distance she required for the manoeuvre she executed.

Her sudden action had taken Rodger by complete surprise, and he was slow to react. Lee felt soft flesh surround her elbow as it slammed hard into the bone of his pelvis, smashing a testicle into the bone.

Rodger squealed out a high pitch scream. He immediately stopped trying to grab her, in order to grab his groin instead. As he bent down, Lee stepped forward and stood. She shrugged her jumpsuit back up onto her shoulders as she spun around to face him.

“You low-life, fucking bastard. Your pickup methods suck Rodger,” she spat at him as pressed the seal closed.

He looked up at her in pain and disbelief. This wasn’t what he expected her to do. Lee tucked her fist back into her shoulder and then drove the inside of her right elbow into the side of Rodger’s jaw. She heard a crack as it broke.

Poor Rodger, he couldn’t decide if he should hold his damaged ball or his now busted jaw. He opted to faint from the pain instead. Lee watched him head towards the floor. It was as if time had slowed down for her. She kneed him in the ribs on his left side for good measure.

He jerked once, hit the floor hard and lay still. Lee took in several deep breaths and rechecked the seal her jumpsuit. She didn’t take her eyes off the prone form at her feet. She calmed her breathing a little, as she watched him.

He hadn’t moved after a minute, so she repositioned Rodger into the CPR recovery position and checked his vitals. A small amount of blood dribbled from his mouth, but he was still breathing.

Lee walked out of the room. She calmly collected her pile of clothes from the replicator hopper and headed back to her room. Once safely back inside with the door locked, she toggled her minder and asked for Sargent Carpenter.

“Sargent Carpenter here,” Gary’s gruff cheery voice answered.

“Hi Gary, it’s Lee. Is the Lieutenant around?”

“No, he is up on the bridge, Lee.”

“Is there anyone else in your vicinity?”

“Nope, I’m in my office all on my lonesome,” he chuckled.

“Gary, I need to ask you a favour, and it is pretty serious.”

“What’s up, Lee?” Gary replied, instantly serious as well.

“Can you access the vids from the halls?”

“Sure.”

“I need you to bring up level four hallway, outside Rodger Bartlett’s room, L4-5. Back-track about five to seven minutes for me.”

Lee waited a couple of minutes for him to reply. The comedown from the adrenaline rush that the fight caused had her shaking and agitated. So, she paced up and down to help calm down.

“That fucking bastard! I’m going to kill him. Are you okay, Lee?” came back the explosive answer.

Lee smiled at his response. “It’s okay, Gary, I’m fine. I can’t say the same for Rodger. I need you to make a copy of the vid and make sure you save it with an obscure name. Say ‘Pigpen’, and email me a copy as well.”

“Insurance,” he said.

Lee could hear the agitation in Gary’s voice. “You’re the salt of the Earth, Gary,” she replied.

“Ha, ha, girly. Sean is going to go ballistic when he sees this,” Gary finished gravely.

“Gary, I’d rather he didn’t see it, you understand,” Lee asked as she headed for the lifts.

“Shit Lee, I’m not real good at keeping secrets from Sean,” Gary said with worry.

“I really hate to ask. I know he will go ballistic if he finds out. I took care of the problem, Gary. I doubt Rodger will bother me or anyone else, anymore.”

“Crap! You didn’t kill him, did ya?”

Awe in his voice, Lee noted, not disgust. ‘You gotta love military guys,’ she had to smile. Gary, in his way, was making her feel better.

“He was alive and breathing when I left, just not conscious. The bastard will, however, be in a lot of pain when he wakes,” Lee assured him.

“With any luck, his accident will be blamed on the jump. I’m going to get one of the guys to go check on him. Thanks, Gary, I’ll talk with you later, Lee out.”

Lee went to the workshop on level five and saw Mik Putin, the electrician for the afternoon shift. “Hi Mik, have you seen Rodger?” she asked him calmly.

“Nyet, moy krasavitsa Lee,” Mik looked at his minder, it was nearly 17:00 hours. “That mudak is all vays late.”

“Mudak?” questioned Lee, not having heard that one.

“Ah, you vood say, ‘arsehole’,” he grinned at her.

Lee had to laugh. The shock from being attacked was starting to wear off. Plus, it never hurt a girl, to be called beautiful to make her feel better, even if it was by a cheeky Russian.

“Has anyone seen him, since the jump?” she asked him.

“Der’mo!” (Shit) he exclaimed. “Comm, call Rodger Bartlett,” he said into his minder. They waited a minute.

“Rodger Bartlett is not answering,” replied the computer-generated voice.

“Der’mo!” Mik exclaimed again. “I better go check him. Do you vish me to tell you vas looking him, Lee?”

“No, it wasn’t that important. I was just going to remind him to leave me the list of extra jobs I need to do tonight.”

“I vill do this, moy krasavitsa Lee,” he kissed her hand, nodded his head at her and went to find Rodger.

Lee headed back to her room and took a very long hot shower. She changed into gym clothes and then decided to head to the dinner. It was a shame that alcohol was banned on this voyage. She could do with a very strong Bundy Rum right now. (Lee is a Queenslander after all).

Lee had been in the dinner mashing a bowl of toffee ice cream for about ten minutes when her comm chimed. “Lee here.”

“Moy krasavitsa Lee. The glupyy mudak, in sickbay.”

“Oh dear, I hope he is alright,” she replied, relieved that she hadn’t killed him. He was a stupid arsehole, but Lee didn’t wish his blood on her hands, once was bad enough.

“The glupyy mudak, forget net. Has broke jaw, broke ribs and busted ball,” Mik delighted in telling her.

“Ouch,” Lee winced. She had done more of a number on him than she thought. “Thank you, Mik. Will this affect your team?”

“Ya. Ben says Isha is move and do his job. You do Isha’s. Rolo and Mik vill have to fix own crap. Ve sorry, ve expect Lee do much, ve do more.”

Lee sighed, the bastard tried to rape her, and she ends up having to do his job as well as her own. “Thanks, Mik, that will help me out if I don’t have to fix all the ‘crap’ on the bench,” Lee replied with a laugh in her voice, despite the situation.

“Vell Mik need do vork, do svidan’ya.”

“Do svidan’ya, Mik,” Lee signed off.

Lee looked at the ice-cream soup in her bowl. She decided she felt like hitting something else. She was in the mad phase and knew if she didn’t go hit something she would cry. She was damned if she was going to shed one tear because of that numpty (dumb arse), Rodger.

Lee headed to the gym.

Lee was glad the gym was empty when she arrived.

Standing on one of the mats facing away from the mirrors, Lee performed the kata that her granddad had taught her to use for her warm-up. She found that it helped her find and calm her centre. A lot of the aggression, shock and self-disgust she felt, dissipated as she focused her mind.

Her granddad had been teaching her his form of Jujitsu since she was four, to her grandma’s consternation. Her granddad had said that being a girl, she needed to learn how to defend herself. There are a lot of arseholes in the world. Lee smiled at the memory of her grandma, hitting her granddad for using ‘that’ word.

Lee ran through some basic defensive moves to limber up. She had been so busy the last couple of days she hadn’t had time to practice. Her body felt like it too. She spied the 2m long poles that were clipped to the wall and walked over to retrieve one.

One of the poles had small black rings near the ends, and Lee had used the pole before. She was familiar with its weight, length and strength. She started working through a set of attack and defence moves.