7 Eamis 1117: Jumpspace
I slept later than usual, and when I woke up, the room was empty. I quickly hit the fresher, switched to a fresh shipsuit, then entered the crew lounge.
It was empty too. I stopped long enough to grab a breakfast flip and a few beers from the dispenser, then cycled into the bridge.
It was empty also. I climbed up into the Captain’s Chair and started looking through displays while I slowly ate the flip. I had forgotten how bland and tasteless the fabricated versions of those were.
I pushed half of it aside, opened a beer, then resumed my review of our status. Everything looked good. Most everyone seemed to be staying in their cabins. Not that I blamed them. I had low-priority messages from both Jami and Shelly, and I tagged them to read when I got a chance.
Then I noticed that the gunnery suite was under power. I opened a comm.
“Uh… this is Derek up on the bridge. Something going on?”
“Oh! You’re awake. Finally.” It was Saahna.
“Yeah. You could have woken me up, you know.”
“I figured you needed to sleep. When you returned to the bunk, you didn’t sound in the best mood.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Want to talk about it some more?”
“Yeah. Maybe. But why are you in the gimbal?”
“Reconfiguring it to my setup. And making sure that there aren’t any ‘surprises’ lurking in the setup.”
“Surprises?”
I heard her sigh. “Varan and his down port-girl were expecting us to be intercepted on our way out from Gashuumi. I want to make sure that he hasn’t scrambled the sensor inputs or put some blocks in to prevent us from firing on certain other ships.”
“Do you really think he would do something like that?”
“Maybe not, but I’m not taking the chance. Hang on. I’ll come up there, just in case someone is listening in on internal comms.” Before I could say anything else, she clicked off.
I groaned and leaned back. Now what?
It was long enough that I wondered what was going on when the door finally irised open, and Saahna stepped in. She carried a pair of coffee bulbs and a handful of breakfast sticks. She started to hand one up to me but paused when she saw the opened bottle sitting on the edge of my console. She sighed, dropped a bulb and stick in my lap, then ducked under the seat to her own. There, she pushed it back, spun to face me, then sat silent.
I kept expecting her to say something, but she just kept staring. Finally, I picked up the bulb.
“Thanks.”
“It’s what, 1030? And you’re already on…” she looked, “your second?”
“Yeah. Maybe?”
She sighed. “You have a problem.”
“Probably. And?”
She sighed. “If we’re going to do this, we need to be able to depend on you. And we can’t do that if you’re constantly half-drunk.”
“We’re in Jumpspace. Nothing is going to happen here.”
“And three days from now, when we get to Mupikaa? You know someone is probably waiting on us.”
“Yup. Which is why I’m getting my drinking in now.”
“And?”
“We’ll deal with it. We’re clean, more or less. No one can do anything to us that won’t just reinforce our story. So we’re fine.”
“And if they attack before we can tell our story?”
“They won’t. They want to know who we have on board as well.”
“And if they decide not to take a chance and just decide to eliminate us?”
“Based on my read of how Mupikaa does business, they aren’t about to let a ship be attacked. They’re an open port where anyone can bring their goods. They won’t risk their reputation.”
She sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am. I’m not that drunk yet.”
She sighed again, then pushed her seat back. “Just try to be sober before you come to the cabin tonight, OK? I don’t need to hear you snoring anymore.” She ducked under my seat and exited to the crew lounge.
I sighed. “I’ll do my best,” I said to the empty bridge.
Then I opened my next beer.