B7 fan fic (short)
Winnie Lacesso
========
In Hot Water [ edited ]
You see, the thing about sewers, is that they're actually very useful. In
space, even more so than on the ground. I mean, the alternative isn't too
attractive really, is it? And you've also got to have ballast. Every ship
needs it. And because there's no sense in letting the sewage go to waste,
if you'll pardon the pun, the engineers tend to make the two systems work
together. Ship's ballast usually equals ship's sewage.
So you've got to have sewers. And you've got to have a water supply. It
comes from the air supply. Condensers in the ventilators that keep the
cabin temperature warm. They do the job, of course, but aren't quite
efficient enough to allow a lot of wash-water in flight. Showers use a
lot of water, and grey-water sterilisation/recycling is surprisingly slow
on this old crate. So you can only use the ship's shower about once
every 3 days per person. You get used to the smell eventually.
And a bath? Forget it. They're for emergencies only. On most ships it's
not even really a bathtub, it's more of a giant scrubbing dish to clean
off gunked-up ship parts. But it's big enough to take a person, if you
need to warm them up, after they've got exposure from a spacesuit-heater
malfunction, for example. Well, usually it's only a big scrubbing dish,
but this was Dorian's ship after all, so it's much more a decent-sized
comfortable bathtub - I suppose Dorian didn't have much of a problem
with water supply, there only ever being him on the ship.
Which is why there's enough room for me to relax here in this nice
hot bath, while the others are only just realising that if they'd
volunteered to fix the inertial guidance glycolene ballast channels,
they'd have been the ones having a bath now, instead of itching and
scratching and smelling like space rats for the next six days. Because
my bath will use up the entire extra water ration, and they can't have
showers for the rest of the trip.
Avon thought he was really clever. I caught that smug look on his face
when they made me go down the hatch. But I also caught his hint of
irritation when he realised he'd been outmaneuvered. Let them think what
they like about me. I'm cleverer than most of them know, and Avon's not
about to let on that I got the better of him. Wouldn't want them to
understand how easy it is to manipulate him. The more you let him throw
you around, the easier he is to control. All I had to do was not quite fix
the inertial guidance the first time, let him bully me a bit, and bingo! A
glass of wine, as well as hot water and soap. I didn't even work very hard.
Just stood around then turned a few valves. Very civilised, and simple
really. All the best things in life are simple. Just like this bath.
Winnie Lacesso
On Fri, 5 Aug 2011, Winnie Lacesso wrote:
> . Improves 'Animals' - impressive!
>
> ========
> In Hot Water [ edited ]
And here's the author's original. Feedback on my edits would be
most appreciated.....
(practising writing in bits!)
In Hot Water
You see, the thing about sewers, is that they're actually very useful things
to have around. In space, even more so than on the ground. I mean, the
alternative isn't too attractive really, is it? And you've also got to have
ballast. Every ship needs it. Because there's no sense in letting the sewage
go to waste, if you'll pardon the pun, the engineers tend to make the two
systems work together. Ship's ballast usually equals ship's sewage.
So you've got to have sewers. And you've also got to have a water supply. It
comes from the air supply. Recollection systems in the evaporators that keep
the cabin temperature warm. They're very efficient you know. Just not quite
efficient enough to allow anyone to have showers in flight. Showers use a lot
of water. So you can only use the ship shower about once every 3 weeks per
person. You get used to the smell eventually.
And a bath? Forget it. They're for emergencies only. It's not even really a
bathtub, it's really a giant scrubbing dish to clean off gunked up ship
parts. But it's big enough to take a person, if you need to warm them up,
after they've got exposure from a spacesuit heater malfunction for example.
Well, usually it's only a scrubbing dish, but this was Dorian's ship after
all, so it looks more like something from an alpha cruise liner. Gold plated
taps, mood lighting, even a music system. I suppose Dorian didn't have much
of a problem with water supply, there only ever being him on the ship.
Which is why there's enough space for me to sit here in this nice warm bath,
while the others are only just realising that if they'd volunteered to fix
the inertial guidance glycolene ballast channels on this crate, they'd have
been the ones having a bath now, instead of itching and scratching and
smelling like space rats for the next six weeks. Because I've used up the
entire extra water ration now, and they can't have showers for the rest of
the trip.
Avon thought he was really clever. I caught that smug look on his face when
they forced me down the hatch. But I also caught the irritation when he