27 Sina 1117: Jumpspace
Saahna and I were a bit late getting out of the cabin this morning. I had been afraid that she would back off again after I told about the last message from “Elijah Green,” but she had already been in my cabin sleeping when I finally went back. She didn’t say anything about it this morning either, so I was cautiously optimistic that we had finally put all of that behind us.
I put on my Captain’s jacket and went upstairs to the passenger lounge. To my surprise, it was empty except for Dr. Korvusar, sitting in her usual place near the front display screen.
“And how is your Jump so far?” I asked her as I came up. She looked up from her comp and snapped it shut.
“Quite uneventful, Captain. And do not take that as a complaint.”
I nodded with a laugh. “Yeah, I like things quieter myself.” I made a show of looking around. “So… where is everyone?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you not know where people are on your own ship?”
I sighed. “I try not to intrude too much into what my passengers are doing.”
“But you’ll ask me?”
I sighed again. “I’m trying to make polite conversation with my passengers. Is that all right?”
She gave a slight smile. “Of course. The admins from LSP were out here earlier for breakfast but have returned to their room. I haven’t seen either of the Phose today. Between you and me, I’m not sure that both of them are equally enthused about this trip.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I got that too.”
“Yes. Your Steward Hort was here earlier this morning but quickly left with the passenger he is involved with. Steward Tharis cleaned up then descended to your crew deck as well. But I’m sure that your ship’s computer could have told you that as easily as I. What is it you really wanted to talk to me about?”
I sighed. “You didn’t come down to the meeting yesterday.”
“Was I expected to?”
“I did invite you.”
She waved a hand. “It was for your crew, correct? I have told you what my mission is here, why I am aboard your ship, and the fact that I am still your passenger implies that you have accepted that. What more was there for me to add?”
“Nothing from you, but I thought you might have been interested in our encounters for the week.” I glanced around the lounge again then quickly ran through the events, my meeting with Mayor Moraz and Minister Trakon and my meeting with “Elijah Green.”
“We’ve checked the ship and as far as I can tell we’re clean. I don’t know if Winters planted anyone or anything on us. Hells, I half-suspect that Carma is working for her.”
Dr. Korvusar lifted her empty glass, gazing at it thoughtfully. “From my brief meeting with her, I would not have thought of Commander Winters as being particularly clever when it came to covert intelligence, but I suppose I may have been mistaken. On the other hand, it may be that you underestimate the allure Travel has to many sophonts. I’m sure that fact has worked to your advantage many times as well. But, I am not here to judge your personal actions.” She handed her glass to me. “Since both of your Stewards seem to be busy, would you mind getting me some more of your atrocious wine?”
Shaking my head, I went and refilled her glass, then returned it to her. “We’ll try to find better wine next time.”
She took a sip, grimaced, and then nodded. “It will be fine, Captain. I do understand the limitations of space travel, after all.”
I nodded. “Thank you. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to find where my Stewards have gone.”
She nodded, flipping her comp back open as she did. I nodded in return and descended back to the crew lounge.
—
Back downstairs, I pinged Gray to see where everyone was. Varan was in his cabin, as I expected, and Jami was in Engineering. Saahna was in the Cargo Bay, which was slightly unusual, but Shelly was on the bridge with Do’rex, which was a bit unexpected. I went up to the bridge. As I entered, I heard Do’rex speaking.
“…mostly what you would think of as swampland,” he was saying. “We have actual oceans, and mountain ranges, but most of our surface area is low-lying and prone to frequent inundation. We build above it now, advanced technology does not work well underwater, but we remember our aquatic heritage.”
I ducked under the Captain’s seat. Shelly was in the Navigator’s seat and pivoted towards Do’rex, who was similarly turned towards her. I noted that she was wearing her imager rig. Do’rex looked up.
“Greetings, Captain. Is there something you need?”
I shook my head. “No, just checking in. What’s up?”
“Oh! Derek!” Shelly pulled her headset off and turned to me. “I didn’t hear you come in!”
“It’s fine,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Oh!” she said, flushing slightly. “I was… I was wanting to interview all of the crew. For my net-vid, you know? And, I started with Do’rex here.” She gestured in his direction. “I’d never even met a Vegan before, much less talked to one, and I think most of my viewers back on Boilingbrook are probably the same way. So I was trying to find out about him and his species.”
I nodded. “OK, sure. That’s fine. As long as it isn’t interfering with operations.”
Do’rex flipped a tentacle. “While in Jump there is not much I can do besides monitor the systems. Ms. Tharis’ presence is a somewhat welcome diversion.”
I looked at her. “And your passengers?”
She nodded. “Yeah, no one was in the lounge so, when I finished with the cleanup up there, I got my imager and came down here.”
“Dr. Korvusar is still in the lounge.”
“Yeah, but she’s practically part of the crew. And I asked Gray to let me know when anyone else came into the lounge so I can get up there.” She paused. “Except Carma; Varan insists on taking care of her personally.”
I frowned at that. “He needs to be helping you with the rest of the passengers.”
She looked away at that. “Yeah… but he’s kinda sensitive about that right now.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. He is. I need to talk to him about that.”
“Um… It’s OK. I can handle it.”
I frowned. “Yeah, but… that’s his job. Or part of it. I’ll talk to him.”
She seemed upset by that. “Don’t… Don’t say that I was complaining!”
I grimaced. “I won’t. I’ll just remind him of what he’s supposed to be doing.”
She nodded a bit too fast. “Yeah, OK. Thanks.”
I thought about asking her what was going on, since I was obviously missing something, but decided against it. “OK, fine then. I’ll leave so you can continue your interview. I’ve got to go check the rest of the ship.”
She smiled, seemingly relieved. “Sure! Thanks, Derek!”
I nodded to her and Do’rex then left the bridge. The crew lounge was still empty.
“Gray?” I asked.
“Yes, Captain?” came her disembodied voice.
“Start tracking Steward Varan’s movements for me. And passenger Quarez as well.”
“Do you mean Gunner Varan?”
I sighed. “Yeah, him.”
“Certainly, Captain. Do you wish me to log his past movements?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Certainly, Captain. Logging activity for Gunner Varan and Passenger Quarez.”
“And don’t reveal doing so to any other crew members.”
There was a pause. “Cannot comply. Order conflicts with an order previously given by 2nd Officer Denan.”
I frowned at that. Saahna had obviously issued a few commands when I turned control over to her after the attempted hijacking. I thought about canceling her orders but didn’t know how many back doors she had set up. She knew far more about computers than I did, after all.
“OK. Thanks, Gray.”
“You are welcome, Captain.” I heard the click that indicated she had ended the conversation.
I thought about tracking down Saahna and finding out what she had done but decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
I finished my walkthrough of the ship. Everything seemed to be in order, and it didn’t look like we would have any problems before arriving at Gimisapun. Hopefully, Varan would calm down after that and things would get back to normal.