Sometimes I really, really wanted to have sex up there. Like, real sex, you know? That would be pretty awesome, but I just wasn't that kind of girl. K...issing was as far as I'd go and I actually felt sort of proud of my self-control. Mom had been telling me since the day I was born to respect myself and save my body for the man I'd marry ... after we were married, of course! My husband, whoever he might turn out to be, would want a bride who was pure, and once we were man and wife, my body would. "Stupid cheerleader," the girl muttered under her breath.It looked like Mercy wasn't the only prankster at the school. Notseeing a way to help the girl she made her way out. Glad to have bestedanother hurdle of being a newly made girl. Even if it was with help.* * * * * * * * * *At lunch, Mercy was sitting, as usual, with Brian. Though changingsocks was doing well for her she knew she needed some alternatives.Fast. By now, she guessed she changed about three hundred pairs and thenumber was. The material for the whole ship was to be Armoralloy to keep it simple with the one material. Word had come back from Silas that Renmark's impellors and inertial compensators were 'good'.Cowboy had put in his bid for main armament for which the hull had to be slightly reshaped and strengthened. It was decided to use the harness runs already existing for the new PD pods.Denny and Slow were satisfied with the plan's provisions for EW and Tac Nav Com – well not really but accepted the restrictions. I can partially blame, if blame is the right word, my parents. My dad was the professor of physics at a well known university and my mom was the professor of mathematics. The result was that I was, at the verbal level, conversant with relativistic quantum mechanics before I reached puberty. Once you begin to understand, and accept, the fundamentals of modern physics as the best picture of the ‘real world’ you never again see the world like the non-scientific community. Because of my parents I.