FTL-15…Faster Than Life.

Chapter 15

I guess that part of me wants to say that like any good girlfriend I pined away and mourned our relationship and the parting of ways. But I guess there was still too much of the old me still lingering in the fringes of my head and the first thing I did was go back to our cabana and packed my things and went and rented a single.

I just couldn’t face the rest of my time here in the place we had so much fun in and made love in so many times.

Then I bought a bottle of hard stuff on the way a rum the named Zombie after the bar drink and I got very, very badly drunk and really sick and spent time in the bathroom refamiliarizing myself with the idea of faith as I was praying to the porcelain one and cursing and begging for mercy to the ephemeral one.

I was passed out and had cried myself to sleep on the bathroom floor lulled into comfort by the cool kindness of the toilet when they had found me.

Sunshine and Carrington both help me to my feet and the rest of my bunkees are there and I’m carried out onto the beach and rudely tossed into the surf!

I come up sputtering and in shock having swallowed a good deal of sea water and I stand in just my shift and panties and I’m yelling which does not help my hangover.

“Hey! What’s the big idea!?”

Anna’s looking at me and there’s some other of our year there too but not from my bunk all sort of gathered together. There’s that look Anna usually has when she doesn’t like or approve of something we’ve done or are doing on her face.

“The idea Erin is to knock you out of the stupid loop you’re in.”

“Loop, what loop?”

Sunshine wades into the water to help me out. “Erin we know you and Patrick had a serious relationship going on but he’s gone on mission and we he gets done there’s a really small chance that he’s going to make it to Command and even less at the training base.”

“I know that, but we where…”

“Close, awesome and that’s great but its run it’s course honey don’t mourn what you had but treasure it and actually move on.”

“Move on!? This was a big deal for me; he was a big deal to me?”

“Yes but it’s been two days and we’re not going to be here a lot longer then it’s going to get even busier when we get into full time base training.”

“But I love him.”

“Good, love him but don’t let the first guy you’ve ever known cut you off from getting back those times you missed out on before you enlisted and became the real Erin Stone.”

“But…but…”

“No buts, we’re going to have fun and we’re going to do lots of stuff that none of us has ever done okay?”

(Sniffle…) “Okay…I’ll try…”

“No…Do or do not there is no try.”

I give her this funny look what a cryptic thing to say. But Sunshine is a companion and they’re definitely a certain breed of the different.

She and the others walk me back to my single and after another bout of getting sick from the sea water I’m showered and I get dressed in some casual wear and pack a bag to go with them.

I’m put into the shotgun seat of one of the big six wheeled jeeps and we head off driving in a group of close to twenty of us in three vehicles.

I was tired, sore and miserable for a good two hours and my friends kept me plied with recovery meds and water until the camaraderie and the music blaring out of the speakers wasn’t so bad and my mood started to get towards being human again.

Patrick and I never really thought about doing any of the other stuff other than us just being us at our beach cabana and keeping close to the water. I’ll never regret we did but I’m starting to feel better and the things we’re doing together are things that no way I’d ever do myself.

Our first stop is an actual volcano it’s an old one and mostly serves as a back vent for the other nearby ones so it’s safe and used as a tourist spot but we take the tour, walk thought the paths in the great cone then out through the lava tubes which is spooky and actually interesting and then we have a horse ride with some basic lessons from there to this volcanic soil attacked farm place where we get a look and samples of coffee and bananas and other tropical things before heading back to the jeeps and to our next adventure.

I’ll say this the recovery meds helped and the water but The really fresh roasted Kona? Coffee’s they made us in these really small shots and then these ice drinks with fresh pineapple and mango with sugar cane all juiced together the flash frozen to slush really made me feel better.

Though, I’m not sure if my female parts and horses are compatible. It was as sedate ride through the fields to the main buildings where we started but it was still seven kilometres and I’m feeling it.

The next place was good too and there we were part of several groups that were all checking out the local shopping and not really in the port part of the city but the other side of the city where the locals lived and ate and shopped. There might have been more than just us but we were a lot less than the swarm of military personnel that is on the other side of the port.

That night came around pretty quickly since we sort of killed the whole afternoon just shopping well mostly looking since there’s a limit to what you can store and there are a few things that I do get though and I’m intending on shipping home to my place back home. The base there has storage facilities that will put my stuff in holding until I’m done my first tour.

It feels so strange, so really strange to think of home and the things I had to sacrifice to be myself. And it’s so strange how long ago it feels even though time wise it hasn’t been that long.

What did I get? Mostly pictures, tourist things but a few of the local things I liked too like some of the coffee, vacc-sealed fruit packs and coconut and sea salt from here and some sand, a bit of jewellery and some very well made and decent palm frond mats and some clothing.

I take with me for my ship use. Some of the coffee and I get a bathing suit and a nice tropical styled dress.

By the time night time rolls around we head back to the compound and the big feast thing they have every night but instead of the more sit and eat areas I’m dragged along to where there’s dancing and sports going on.

Beach volleyball, Tae-Budo matches and even kendo matches all on these stages and lit by firelights and torches and they biggest thing is all of these things are matches for bragging rights between ships and even company units.

Stillwater is in the thick of all of it with her just being amazing as she plays the volleyball game with passion and almost lethal intent. If I was more into women I’d be swayed but she’s just damned impressive. Tight flexible black sport bikini and her body covered in sun block making her shine but it all blends in with the fact she’s got a lot of battle scars and tattoos form being in the service and she has her long blonde hair pulled through the back of a military issue black cap in a pony tail and aviator sunglasses on and add that look to her tall over six foot amazon like frame and she’s a force.

Watching her spike a ball with a four or five foot jump in the air and blast the other woman trying to block her with this combat scream grunt. Yeah you don’t have to like women to like Stillwater.

And watching her and other people we know with a handful of spicy BBQ and free…yes free draft beer get’s you yelling and cheering along with the rest of them.

Even funner is that everyone between matches and events is out with the rest of us eating and drinking and dancing or talking.

There’s a lot of inter ship and inter-unit trash talking.

Oh did I mention the free beer?

Or that sunshine somehow has me in this place where they’re all yelling and cheering at me and her and a few other people and there’s this pretty cute local guy in front of us and he’s pouring this huge line of shot glasses full of that agave liquor I’ve had before.

They keep shouting and chanting. “Drink, drink, drink!” at me as I take a shot and down it.

Then after this really good handful of kaluha pig and a beer there’s this guy with a hose and I’m getting my shirt soaked with water along with several other girls.

Some guy I don’t know yelled at me later to “Take off your shirt! I wanna see your titties!” I think I punched him?

I remember though more dancing and more shots, and this guy…no too guys and I’m in a medical chair and one guy’s down between my legs and it was oh, it was, it was very, very yay and the other guy was doing something to my arm and my shoulder and it really really hurt.

………………………………….It’s my O.B.C. that wakes me up with the alarm going off and I’m really hot and I’m moving? I crack an eyelid almost regretting it to find myself on a surfboard out in one of the beach area safe lagoons just floating in the water.

I’m felling really hot and warm and my bio-monitors are reporting that I’m way out of balance…too much sun and there’s damage to my skin that the shot couldn’t keep up with…I’m over salted, slightly toxic from the alcohol still in my system.

It all culminated to a hangover and really needing to pee. I don’t feel as bad as I did though as I did after my bender when Patrick had left…that’s a good thing to know, or well a good thing to remember.

Don’t drink alone, and don’t drink alcohol you’re not used to and keep stuff reasonably in your stomach.

I roll the surfboard hanging on and just sit underwater for a few minutes before flipping back over again and then paddling to shore…ow…my right shoulder is hurting and I see a slap-patch bandage on it and feel one on the shoulder blade as well.

I get to shove and carry the board to the rack and pick my way through the bodies of the passed out and head to the canteen on the beach and use the facilities and make my way around looking and I see Still water and some of the other older enlisted of the ship.

All of them are swords.

“Stone over here!” She yells and I make my way over and she gestures at a free seat and despite the respect I have for her and them I sort of flop into the large wicker chair.

“Rough night?”

“Yes Corporal just getting my feet under me I guess with the help of my bunkees and year mates since Patrick went off on mission.”

“Yeah I saw, you deserve it you’ve had a rough year and having your first guy ship off is hard shit.”

I nod and one of the other’s passes me a platter with leftovers on it and another a cold drink…not booze but a tall enriched soda water…cold too and that hits the spot.

But the one with the platter grins and he says. “You did pretty well in the shot contest?”

“Oh…ugh…I think I remember that.”

The one who got me the drink. “And not too shabby in the wet t-shirt contest either.”

“Wet t-shirt, I couldn’t have done that well.”

Stillwater smiles. “Well for someone who went straight conversion and didn’t go all enhanced you did well among the unadjusted girls.”

I cover my face. “Oh well as long as it was fair right?”

“Erin the showers and facilities are co-ed, relax and let the colony scrub off y’know. It was fun.”

“I guess but just not me.”

“Its leave, you’re allowed not to be you now and then.” Stillwater says as she’s eating something seafood looking and raw?

“I guess, I’m still new to all of this…but am I in trouble?”

She sucked down something that looked like a tentacle and shakes her head. “No, but I want to make a request.”

“From me?”

“Yes, you’ve been pretty diligent in your training and we ended up having a….a discussion with some of the swords from the Colonial Union Battle cruiser Frontier and we’re having a kendo competition and marksmanship and mixed martial arts.”

“It’s just between the swords for each group so…” The guy says.

I look at them and I’m not a combat type and it’s not really my forte but. I have the sword and I have the responsibility to at least try and give it my all and they’re asking me.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”