117-1117 – Jumpspace

4 Eamis 1117: Jumpspace

I woke up, groaning, to the sound of an alarm I didn’t remember setting. I also didn’t remember getting back to my cabin. Saahna had come to the Bridge a few times to try to get me to go to bed, but I had always waved her off.

I vaguely remember getting out of the Captain’s Seat, but that was it.

I stumbled into the fresher and took care of immediate needs, then showered off. Even I could smell myself. I thought about grabbing a kill-alc but didn’t want to deal with the aftermath.

And being hungover and irritable may be best for what I needed to do today.

New jumpsuit on, I exited to the crew lounge. It was empty, but there was a repeated pounding coming from Varan’s cabin. I groaned, then went to the Bridge. I wasn’t ready for that yet.

Saahna was in her seat, but it was pushed back, and her feet were up on her console. She looked back at the sound of the iris. “Oh! You’re awake earlier than I expected. How’s the head?”

“Don’t ask,” I grumbled. I tried to pull myself to the Captain’s seat, stumbled, lunged, and dragged myself into it. I pulled our status up on my display.

There were dozens of requests from Varan’s cabin. I swept all of them into the deleted bin. I knew what they had to be.

The few others were from Shelly, Vitriman, and several from Ms. Ceana. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of them.

“Are you… OK?” Saahna had been watching me. I turned to her.

“Do you really think that I am OK? I just had my oldest friend point a gun at me! How do you think I feel!”

She didn’t break my gaze. “You had to make a choice. You did. But… when you make a decision, when you make a choice, you have to be prepared for the consequences of that choice. They teach us that in the Marines. Maybe…”

I held up a hand. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. “My… father told me that too. When he made a decision, he couldn’t back away from it. I’m… finally learning that lesson.”

“Good. Now, can you please tell Varan to stop pounding on the door? Do’rex, Jami, and I would really like to have a place to relax that isn’t our cabin or our workstation.”

I groaned again but nodded. “Yeah, fine. But I need to calm down some overly-upset passengers first. I’ll get there.”

I started to leave. As the iris cycled, she spoke up again.

“You know he’s crossed a line this time that he can’t come back from. He may be your friend, but we don’t feel the same way. We’ve talked. If you don’t get rid of him…”

I didn’t look back. “Yeah. And… I know.” I passed through the iris, and it cycled behind me.

—–

The pounding from Varan’s cabin was continuing. I continued to ignore it and took the ladder to the passenger deck.

Shelly was there, engrossed in something on the dispenser’s console. Kraymon and Vitriman were sitting at a table, playing some kind of card game, and Dr. Korvusar was in her usual place, reading on her comp.

Unfortunately, Ms. Ceana was also there and immediately went toward me.

“Captian Kodai! I must object to the events that transpired yesterday! You cannot> expect the corp to put up with this kind of occurrence!”

I put on my best, professional face. “Ms. Ceana, As I have already explained, I was as surprised by yesterday’s events as you were. And I have already refunded your passage, so your corporate superiors should have no concerns. And, even if they decide not to Travel with the Grayswandir again, I rutting don’t care. I turn down passengers every Jump as it is. So, if you will please return to your cabin and stay there for the rest of our Jump, I would appreciate it. If you don’t want to stay there, then please just shut the rut up!.”

My professional face had never wavered.

She blanched but tried to hold her own. “You cannot speak to me that way!”

“Yes. I can. Because I’m the Captain here, and you’re just a passenger. Complain all you want to your bosses, on the ‘Trader Rater’ channel on GalNet, or wherever else you want. But for now? I have things I need to do, and dealing with you isn’t one of them. So… decide how smoothly you want the rest of this week to go!”

I saw her about to say something, then hesitate. “Thank you for listening to me, Captain!” She was angry, but she also knew that there wasn’t much she could say. She retreated to a seat.

I walked over to Shelly. “Hey. How are you doing?”

She didn’t look at me. “I can’t do this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t do this!” She spun to face me. “I got hit by a nano-phage a few weeks ago! And yesterday, someone pointed a gun at me, wanting to kill me! Is this what Travelling is really like! I can’t do this!”

She took a deep breath and then turned back to stare at the dispenser. “I’m leaving at Mupikaa. I’ll just get a passage back to Boilingbrook. I’ve got the Credits. But… I can’t keep doing this.”

I hesitated, thinking. “But what about your netcast? What about your contract with Dradon and Fisk?”

“I… can’t.”

I took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched but didn’t pull away.

“You can. Yes, it has been a bad few weeks. And I won’t deny that things like this happen sometimes; you were just unlucky enough to be around for two of them in a row. But… Varan is gone after this Jump. He’s leaving the ship at Mupikaa.

“I’m losing one friend there. I don’t want to lose another.”

There was a long silence.

“So… Varan…”

“Won’t be here next Jump. And yeah, I messed everything up. But… he knew better. He had to know better.”

“But… are you sure?”

“I won’t let him on my ship. Ever again. Yeah, he and I spent a lot of time together. I taught him a lot of things, but I also was sure to tell him that there were certain lines that you never cross. He did. And… you’re right. I let him get away with the first one. But now? He’s done it again. And I can’t let him get away with it anymore.”

She lowered her brow and glared at me. “So… you were OK with just asking him to stop when it was directed at me. But, when he suddenly goes against you…

“You’re right,” I said without letting her finish. “You’re absolutely right. And if you want to leave at Mupikaa? I’ll understand. Either way? I hope you can continue to Travel, even if it isn’t with us. I can tell. You want to be out here. You need to be out here.”

She nodded silently.

“Look, you have Steward experience now. Anyone with actual experience is in demand where ever they might be looking. There isn’t a Captain out there that would turn you down. Hells, when they learn you’ve been with us, that may be a bonus in that they know that you can deal with the things we’ve been handling!” I paused, smiling, but she didn’t return it. She instead turned to look away.

“Yeah… I get it. I understand. OK, we’ve got a crew meeting this afternoon downstairs at around 1400. Come down if you want. If not? I… understand.”

She continued to look away. I waited for her to say something, but after a brief while, things became awkward. I went over to where Kraymon and Vitriman were playing their game. “I trust everything is going well?”

Altor looked up at me. “Things are a bit tense up here, as I am sure you can expect, but nothing on you or your crew. There are unhappy people here, but there isn’t much they can do about it.”

“I’ve just finished explaining the situation to Ms. Ceana.”

He paused, then glanced at Shelly. “She… isn’t the only unhappy person up here.”

“Yeah. And I get it.” I glanced over at Shelly, who was trying to ignore us. “I’ve spoken to her. And, honestly, she has valid reasons to be unhappy with things around here. But… what about the two of you?” I turned back to Vitriman. “What can you tell us.”

“A lot?” He looked around. “But, do you want…”

I shook my head. “No. Not here. We’re having a crew meeting at around 1400. All of us will be there. Maybe.” I glanced at Shelly again. “But, the people who know will be there. And anyone else? They don’t need to know.”

He nodded. “Understood, Captain.”

“Yeah.” I nodded again, then headed toward the iris. “See you in a few?”

“Certainly, we will be there.”

Doctor Korvusarnr was looking at me, but I ignored her and headed back to the crew deck. She had held off enough times on me that I didn’t feel bad about making her wait for once.

—-

Back on the crew deck, the pounding was still continuing. I ducked into my cabin, pulled out my Captain’s Jacket, tucked my snub pistol beneath it, then returned to the common crew area.

I looked up. “Gray? Deploy Anti-Hijack systems but wait for my order. Unless I am attacked. Then activate immediately and notify the rest of the crew.”

“Confirm.”

“Open the door to former crewmember Varan’s cabin.” I pulled out the snub pistol and lowered it to point at the deck.

The door slid open, and Varan stumbled in surprise. He panicked, then pulled a blade from somewhere and stepped into the lounge.

“What the hells do you think you are doing! You can’t…”

“What the hells do you think I am doing! You can drop that or spend the rest of the week under Slow until we get to Mupikaa.”

“You can’t…”

I suddenly realized how much I hated that attitude of his. I got it. He was a Traveller. We were part of a self-selected elite, the only ones who really “got” interstellar travel. We were the ones who lived in Jumpspace, between the stars. This wasn’t a place we passed through; this was our life!

And all of his experience with it had been me dragging him around. Because it was better than hanging out on my own.

I closed my eyes in thought. And I had been there when he first signed on and have led him around ever since. Not once had he ever tried to do things on his own.

I shook my head. Too much. I will process that later. For now, I needed to get back in control of my ship. I reopened my eyes.

“Please stop that,” I said as calmly as I could. “None of us need your pounding. Just… stay in your cabin quietly, and you can leave at Mupikaa and go on to whatever you want. Or I can have you both sedated and ignore you. Decide.”

“You can’t do that!” He stepped into the lounge, blade out. Evel followed him, a body pistol in her hand.

How bad are our internal sensors?

I waved the Snub Pistol I was still holding. “Gray has you targeted already,” I said, gesturing with my head. “She has orders to wait until I give the word or until you actually attack me. You won’t make it a meter. Now, drop it.”

“Why did you rescue the Stetons!”

“I asked someone to help them because I thought they were innocent, and I won’t let someone innocent who was on my ship when things happened to suffer just to make my life easier. In fact, I’ve realized that I’ve been trying to prevent a lot of people from suffering just to make my life easier. I’m not doing that anymore. And I’m not going to make me suffer just to make your life easier anymore. So, again. Drop it.”

“So you did rescue the Stetons!” He took a step forward.

“Execute!” I said, without preamble. There was a soft puff from overhead, and he looked in surprise as a pair of darts hit him. He tried to take another step, but the scanners had configured the dosage, and he fell within a second.

I turned to Evel, who was now looking at me in horror. “You just… you killed him!”

“He’s fine. He’ll wake up in a few hours with a really regrettable headache. Now, you can drop that and go back to the cabin. And stay quiet. Or I can send you back asleep too. Make your choice.”

She looked between me and the overhead turret, now aimed at her, then sighed and tossed the body pistol to the deck.

“He said you were friends! That you were his friend!”

I gritted my teeth. “Yeah. I was. Until he pulled a gun on me. And brought you on board with him. Which got me involved in a standoff with a Solomani cruiser. So yeah, he made his choice. Now, get back into your cabin, I’ll get a utility-bot to get him back in, and the two of you can be quiet until we get to Mupikaa. After that? I really don’t care.”

“You can’t…”

“Yes, I can.”

She stared at me for a few more seconds, then returned to the cabin. Still carrying the Body Pistol, I noticed.

I instructed a utility-bot to take Varan back to his cabin. Once he was lying on his bunk, I ordered the door to his cabin closed, then returned to the Bridge.

—-

Saahna was looking at me as I entered. She only said something once I was back in the Captain’s Chair and had my console back up.

“That went well.”

“You were watching?”

“I’m your security officer. I had no idea how that would go.”

“Gray had the protocol running.”

“Which has failed before.”

“Yeah. I need to do some fine-tuning and just let it run from now on. And I will be much more selective about passengers going forward.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She paused.

“What are you going to tell everyone?”

“What?”

“What are you going to tell everyone? At the post-Jump meeting. I assume we are still having that?”

“Yeah. I guess… I need to.”

“There are a lot of questions.”

“I’m sure there are.”

“And you need to give the right answers.”

“Whatever they are.”

“You know what they are.”

There was a pause.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then we’re fine.” She spun back to her console and tapped a few items. “I have everything under control here. Maybe… You need to clean up a bit and get ready for the meeting.”

I groaned, rolled out of the seat, and dropped back to the deck. “See you in a few.”

She said nothing as I cycled through the door.

—-

The Kill-Alc had finished its assault on my digestive tract, and I felt almost normal as I left my cabin a few hours later. Kramon and Vitriman were already there, along with Shelly and Jami. As I entered, then the iris to the Bridge cycled and Do’rex and Saahna made their way into the lounge.

I went to the dispenser, grabbed a beer, and stood in the middle of the lounge. I twisted the cap, took a long drink, then looked around at everyone.

“Yeah, yesterday happened. That isn’t how I expected things to play out, but… that’s how things played out. But for now, we’re in Jumpspace and heading for Mupikaa. So, assuming our Solomani friends don’t try to play games there, we should be fine.”

“Solomani friends?” Jami looked up suddenly. “When did we make friends with the Solomani.”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“So was I. What did we do to get on their bad side?”

I took a deep breath. “OK, here’s where we are.” I quickly reviewed everything that had happened since Tlianke. The initial contact that got us our Preferred Partner Status that went Rimward. The attempt by Girar to keep the Stetons off the ship, which I thought I had been clever by managing to get them on board, the nano-phage attack, their arrest, my contact with the “Friends of Elijah Green,” the subsequent events on Gashuumi, and how it ended after our lift yesterday.

“I wanted to tell all of you what was happening at our pre-lift meeting two days ago, but some of you brought outsiders in and couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want to talk in front of them. Well, now you know. Because I never know when someone may be…” I trailed off and just looked at Varan’s cabin.

“OK, fine. But he wasn’t like that! He was on our side!”

“We have sophonts, on our side, even in Tlianke space. I’m starting to do a better job of recognizing those. But I also knew that Varan’s port-girl that he had hooked up with him for something more than his personality. She was up to something. So I had to stay quiet around her.”

Shelly was shaking her head. “But… why? You could have told any of us personally later! Why did you just… let her on board if you knew she was trouble?”

I looked away. “I… messed up. I let my personal feelings get in the way of what I knew I needed to do. I… hoped things wouldn’t go the way they did.”

“But they did,” said Saahna flatly. “You were even warning Do’rex and me to be ready. So… you knew. Why?”

“Yes. You’re right. I made a bad call. Several bad calls, actually. I was… I knew I had two choices; what I wanted to do and what I knew I needed to do. I was trying to follow both. I can’t anymore.”

Jami was shaking her head. “What the hells does that mean?”

I took a deep breath. “Things are going bad. Rapidly. The fact that we see the Solomani operating as openly as they are in this subsector shows that they aren’t expecting the Imperium to start throwing its influence around anytime soon. And the Sols are many things, but ‘stupid’ isn’t one of them. So… if they, Tlianke, Boilingbrook, the Embers, the Spoilsports, the Hinterworlds Alliance, and everyone else we have been dealing with think that bad times are coming, then maybe I should stop denying things and start getting ready for bad times to come.”

Jami was still looking at me. “OK? Fine. But what does that have to do with strange ships pacing us, sophonts trying to hijack the ship, and us having to sneak away with passengers?”

I sighed again. “Yeah, let’s worry about that last one first.” I turned to Vitriman. “So… what happened with the Stetons? And what did you find out?”

He smiled weakly. “Yes, we were able to get them out of prison. They weren’t expecting anyone to try to get them out, so it was fairly easy to breach their security. We got them out. Well… some other sophonts got them out. But Salva and I had already made ourselves a bit ‘too well known’ as it was, so they had you evacuate us.”

“But… the Stetons are out?”

“Yes. But you don’t need to find out where they are and who got them out. Operational security, you know?”

“Yeah. That’s something I’m apparently bad at.”

Kramon laughed. “You have no idea…”

“OK, blame me. But we’re out-system now and not planning on going back anytime soon. So… did you find out anything?

Vitriman nodded. “You know that they were Glitterfall Miners, right.”

“Yeah, he told me that. And they found a crashed satellite that caused a lot of problems.”

“He did. It was a Navigation Bouy. A Solomani Navigation Bouy.”

Most systems have Navigation Buoys. Usually, more than one. You scan them, and they give you Jump plots to every system nearby.

The system but not a planet. Suppose you had your own Navigator who could plot the course to wherever your current destination was in its orbit. In that case, you could hit your destination and be less than a dozen hours away.

But, if you didn’t have that, you could use a buoy. Those would get you to the next system, but you would likely be days out from the main planet. It was a tradeoff, same some credits on staffing but paying for it in in-system travel.

Many of the Megacorps maintained their own buoys and had local Navigators who kept them relatively up to date. So only 24-36 hours out. Still slow, but it was what kept interstellar trade working.

Various governments and polities maintained their own networks, of course. I assumed that, in this case, it was a Solomani network.

He quickly confirmed that. “It had Jump coordinates for everything within six parsecs of Gashuumi. And a bunch of coordinates in a few dozen other systems. And some recognition codes for all of them.”

“Great. Do you have them?”

He smiled. “Of course! We wouldn’t expect you to just transport us for free. I have all of them here.” He held up a datastick and handed it to me.

“Thanks. But… what does that do for us?”

Kramon spoke. “The Sols are all over this area of the sector. They apparently have contacts in the Gashuumi government. And they are terrified of having the extent of their network here exposed. No need to let Tlianke know they are also working with Ral Ranta and the ATC, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“The Stetons learned the extent of the Solomani network in the Hinterworlds. Apparently, the entire network. Along with recognition codes and local planetary coordinates of all of their contacts. That is why we think that they were after them.”

“No one was after you,” said Vitriman. “They were just on your ship. In fact, based on what you told us and what we have picked up from X-Boat transmissions, they were trying to keep them off of your ship. They knew something was up and tried to shield you from it.”

I was nodding grimly. “Yeah. I talked to Captain Yplinsk of the Horizon Aura. She admitted that the Sols were a presence here, and she, at least, was not happy about it.”

I paused, thinking. “We were playing some major tradecraft without realizing that we were. I just didn’t realize what was going on fast enough.”

“Do you do now?” asked Jami, crossing her arms and leaning back on the sofa.

“Yeah, I think I’m… starting to get it.” I looked up at the overhead holo. I had info on the next system, but it could wait.

“OK, fine. We all know what has happened and where we stand. So… let me tell you what will happen going forward.”

“The Doctor is right.” I looked around again and didn’t see her. “We’re heading for another Long Night. Yeah, I don’t like it either. But, apparently, a lot of sophonts do, and they are behaving accordingly. So… we will as well.”

“I will start carrying more basic supplies and fewer luxury goods. Yeah, we’ll make fewer Credits on every Jump, but the systems we visit will be more appreciative of us. Maybe not right now, but within a year local system will be happy to see traders like us! That will be our new priority.”

“And yeah, we’ll be making less. So… no more paydays of a few hundred mega credit paydays. Does anyone want to leave? There are a lot of ships passing through Mupikaa.”

Shelly looked at me in shock. “You’re just going to abandon all of us?”

“No. All of you are welcome to stay. In fact, I hope all of you will stay. Well, almost all of you.” I briefly glared at the door to Varan’s cabin.

“We’ll keep being involved in the systems we pass through. We’ll leave every system we visit a bit better off than before we arrived. Even if it is just one person. We’re going to make a difference.”

“Which means we’re going to be sticking our neck out. We’re going to make ourselves known. This is the new mission of the Grayswandir. We are going to help people in the systems we visit. We can help others. We’re going to do that.”

Shelly was dubious. “And, you think that this is a good idea? To make ourselves known like that?”

I nodded, smiling. “Yeah, and you’re going to help us with that. You have your netcast, and thanks to the support of Dradon and Trisk, you have a Sector-wide audience. You will tell them what we are doing. And that… will give other systems hope.”

“You’re really thinking I want to stay here after everything that has happened!”

“I would like for you too, but no. I don’t expect it. But… there are a lot of sophonts out there who would love to become Travellers. Especially in situations like we are now. I’m already replacing a Gunner at Mupikaa. Don’t make me replace a Steward, or an Engineer, as well. I glanced over at Jami as I said that.

She was waving her hands in front of her. “Hey, hey, hey! I didn’t say…”

“You don’t have to.” I looked around. “I know this is a big change. A big, barely explained change. But we’re changing. We have a new mission. I have a new mission. A new understanding of something I was taught long ago. Or, I finally understand what I was taught long ago. And now? That’s what we’re doing.”

There was a long pause as almost everyone looked at each other in confusion. Only Saahna kept her gaze leveled at me.

Finally, there was a click as Do’rex stood up. “I understand what you are saying, Captain. If nothing else, our Jumps for the foreseeable future will be interesting.
I look forward to seeing where your decision takes us.” He clicked again, bobbed, then entered his cabin.

No one else moved or said anything. I finally stood and went to the dispenser. “Feel free to decide what you want to do,” I said as I pulled out two beers. “We’ve got a week.” I headed to the Bridge.

“Going to listen in on us talking behind your back?” asked Jami behind me.

“Why bother,” I replied as the iris cycled. “You’re either going to leave at Mupikaa or not. I can’t do anything about it. And we’ll have so many sophonts looking at us when we land that anything I might say further will get broadcast far and wide. So… do what you want.”

I stepped through the iris and heard it close behind me.

—-

I didn’t look in on the crew lounge. I didn’t want to be depressed. I had been at my console for about an hour. I had called a utility-bot to bring me a few more beers when the iris cycled unexpectedly, and Saahna entered. She said nothing but ducked under me and made her way to her console. Once there, she pushed her seat back and spun to face me.

“You know we’ve probably lost most of the crew.”

I paused long enough to drain about half of the bottle I was holding. “Yep.”

“And you aren’t concerned?”

“Of course I am!” I snapped. I paused, took a deep breath, then continued. “We… well, I got caught up in things. I never intended for us to wind up here, but… here we are.” I drained the rest of the bottle, looked for another, then punched for a utility-bot to bring me another few.

“You’re drunk.”

“Yup.”

“And you don’t care?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I care!”

“You’re free to leave at Mupikaa too, you know.”

“What the… Hells! I Contracted to you! And you don’t care about me either?”

I paused as the utility-bot brought me another half-dozen beer. I opened one, literally drained it, then opened a second. Then I turned back to her.

“Did you do that because you really wanted to be with me? ‘Cause you never did before. Or were you just trying to get leverage on me to keep me in line?” I took a long drink.

“I really don’t care. I should have died with my father 30 years ago. If only because he was right and I was wrong. And I’m going to make up for that.”

“What? Do you really think that I would Contract with you just to keep you under control?”

“You took every chance you could to not be with me! And you suddenly wanted a Contract? Fine. Just leave at Mupikaa. I’ll never contest it. You do you, and I’ll do me. Fine?”

She stood up from her seat. “You… that’s all you think of me?”

“You know what I think of you. And you never seemed to like that until things started getting complicated. So yeah, I think what should. I really don’t care anymore.” I took another drink. You took every chance you could to not be with me. Even after I bought the Grayswandir. Then, when things started getting complicated, you suddenly decided you wanted to be with me, even though you had shot me down every time I had suggested it over the past ten years!”

I paused. “Which meant I spent a lot more time with Varan. Which has probably led to even more problems.”

“I told you why I… was keeping you away!”

“Yeah! You did! And now it’s my turn!” I slumped back and brought up my console. “We’ll have our standard pre-exit meeting in four days. Until then, just relax.” I tilted my chair back as far as possible and leaned back, closing my eyes.

There was a pause.

“You said that you loved me. That you wanted to be with me.”

“I do. But you were never pleased with that. I was always your afterthought. Then, when things started getting messy, you tried to get control.”

I leaned forward and looked at her. “I’m doing this. This is what we are doing going forward. You can join me after Mupikaa or not. But I’m now willing to burn as many bridges behind me as I have to. I’m doing this. And I don’t want sophonts second-guessing me. I’m still unsure why you Contracted with me, but if it was an attempt to control me? Sorry. I love you, but not that much.”

I had been watching her, and I could see that she had been getting progressively angry as I spoke, but her voice was calm.

“I’m locking you out of our cabin.”

“It’s actually mine, and I can override it at any time, but fine. Have a good night.”

That surprised her. “You’re… that’s really what you want?”

“No. But I’m tired of fighting.” I finished the bottle, tossed it to the deck, then opened another. “And I’m tired of running. I need to do what I need to do.”

“And what is that?”

“I need to follow my father’s example.” I tapped on my console a bit. My family tree had never been questioned; I had just lied about it after I left home. The fact that my ident still worked showed that nothing ‘official’ had ever been done.

It was common practice among the Imperial Nobility to go “undercover,” so… hiding your status was generally accepted. You could pretend to be of lower rank than you were because that made things much easier for family members who didn’t want to be a target of every sophont out there with a vendetta. But I was still heir to the Countship of Keystone.

Yes, my mother had the position of Countess now. And I hadn’t talked to her in over 20 years. But… she had never revoked my status.

I finished tapping and everything updated. My ident showed me as heir-apparent to the planet Keystone’s Countship in the Glimmerdrift sector’s Tri-Empire Subsector. The ownership documents for the Grayswandir would be updated to match.

It would spread out on the X-Boat network once we hid Mupikaa. But I was basically making a statement. We were doing this. Well, I was doing this.

Saahna had been watching me the entire time. “So… you’re just going to ignore me?”

“Do you want me to?”

“What the hells has gotten into you!”

“What should have gotten into me 30 years ago. Except I couldn’t do anything with it then. Now, I can.”

She shoved her seat back and stood up. “I am locking the cabin.”

“Fine. Have a good night.”

She didn’t respond but ducked under the Captain’s seat and left the Bridge. On my console, I saw her pull something to eat from the dispenser, then retreat to our cabin. Which she did lock.

I could override it but didn’t bother.

One way or another, everything would be over in less than a week.