Chapter 15

Brigit heads to her quarters after dealing with Cali and figures twelve hours is a long time to wait, so maybe she will sleep. After sitting in her bed for over half an hour, she realizes sleep will not come and goes for a walk. She is walking around the ship, thinking about what happened when she thinks she has figured out what is upsetting her.

She was angry at Cali, which made her mad at herself because you shouldn't be mad at someone for something they really couldn't have done anything about. So she did what she usually did when angry. She headed to the workout bay.

Passing briefly by the climbing area, Brigit heads straight to the punching bag. Grabbing a pair of gloves, she steps back, sets her balance, and starts wailing on the bag. There isn't a slow ramp up, no soft tapping to start. Instead, she just starts giving it to her all, unleashing all her frustrations and perceived shortcomings on the bag.

Starting with almost silent grunts, it isn't long until she is exclaiming expletives with each hit. She yells at herself as she hits the bag, admonishing herself for not doing better by Cali. 'What were you thinking taking her to that mountain, you idiot?!' 'You should have paid more attention to what Cali was doing to stop her from moving around on the mountain as she did.'

As each one of these admonishments came at her, her attack on the bag increases. She is in this state when Adair enters the workout bay. They walk over, understanding the attack and how their friend vents her frustrations.

"You need to stop beating yourself up about what happened. Yes, I realize you are literally beating something else up." Adair walks over and slips around the bag, standing on the other side and holding it, looking around the side of it at their friend.

Brigit stops punching and takes a half step back. She takes a moment to catch her breath as she looks at Adair, trying to decide if she would reprimand them or take their advice. Ultimately, Brigit picks the latter, tosses the gloves into the box, and walks to the wall. Then, putting her back to it, she slides down to the slightly squishy matting of the workout floor. Adair walks over and does the same.

The two of them just sit like that for a time. Adair is familiar enough with Brigit to know that once you could get her to pause enough to think, it is just a matter of time for her to get a hold of herself. Adair is great at getting their friend to pause.

"Okay fine. I admit it wasn't my fault, but you have to admit that I could have done things differently.." Brigit starts to say after a time of thinking.

"Well, sure, we could all do something different, but then you wouldn't be the *you* that made that decision, if that makes any sense. In any case, you did nothing wrong. Cali wanted more challenging climbs, and really, that one isn't that hard once you get past the outcrop. It was a freak accident. It could easily have been me up there."

Brigit's face turns ashen when Adair says that, and she turns and hugs her best friend. "You realize that if that were the case, I would have destroyed that bag, right?"

Adair smiles and hugs their friend back. They say, "Yeah, and then you'd have to get a reinforced double strength bag." Adair pets Brigit's hair. "Are you going to listen to me, you noop?"

Brigit pulls back and smiles. She says, "Yeah, okay, maybe just this once..." She lays back on the floor of the workout bay, staring up at the grey painted ship innards up in the ceiling. She makes a note to add some color to that.

Adair lays down, so both of their bodies made a line, head to head, and they also look up to the ceiling. "Like you don't always listen to me." They grin before saying, "Hey, we should add some color up there."

"I was just thinking that!" Brigit said.

#

Rory doesn't enjoy worrying about crewmates. But even though her logical brain knows Cali will be okay, she can't help but worry. So she heads to engineering to look for work to do.

The sail generators are humming along just fine. Rory steps to the console to check the course, and everything was going according to schedule. She had previously brought the Transition Drive offline and settled it until they'll need it the next time. The only thing left for an engineer to do was environmental. So she walks further into engineering, or 'the swamp,' as they commonly call it.

It is more humid than the rest of the ship and has a vaguely wet, musty, sour smell. The smell mostly comes from the Algae matrices. She wrinkles her nose at the smell and takes a deep breath. Rory checks her logs and sees a reminder to check matrix two in a few days. While it could wait a few days, she needed something to do, so she walks over to the wall and gets down a set of rubber coveralls to keep her clothes relatively dry. Once she is all suited up, she heads to the attached supply room and retrieves an empty matrix frame.

The frame forms an outer rim of metal and a dense crisscrossing of a string-like material, which makes it easy for particles to grab. She brings the frame over the impregnator and dips it in, holding it there for a moment, and when it beeps, signifying that the process is complete, she lifts it out and dips it into a slot next to the previous one. This one sprayed a sticky solution on the mesh that acted as a fertilizer. After the beep, she lifts the matrix out and walks back to matrix two.

Rory is grateful that they configured these smaller ships so that one person could change the matrix. She activates a switch on the side of the matrix, and the entire frame slides up about 4 inches. As she takes it out to inspect it, slimy green water drips both directly and indirectly onto her coveralls, splashing off the top of the matrix. Sure enough, some algae is dying. It is always good to get ahead of algae dying. If you don't, it can cause a chain reaction of algae die-off.

She sets aside the used frame on the matrix. Looking down, she thanks the designers again, this time for installing a grating next to the matrix to drain off all the drips. Rory takes the new frame and slots it in place. When it gets almost all the way in, she gently pushes, and the matrix pulls it down the rest of the way. Rory takes the used frame over to a compartment in the wall for cleaning. After slotting it in, she presses the button to clean the frame. Seeing it will take several hours, she takes off the protective gear, puts it in a used equipment bin to be cleared later. Rory then heads to her quarters.

When she opens the door and enters her quarters, she undoes her ship shoes and puts them on a little yellow and black welcome mat just inside the door. She knows she is tempting fate by not wearing her ship shoes, but it doesn't feel right wearing them 'inside.'

"Computer, please play some music." She says to the room as she walks in. She had previously told the AI what kind of music she liked, and it does a pretty good job of feeding her both music she already knew she liked and new music which usually was right up her alley as well.

A raucous cacophony of heavy metal, swing, and operatic music played from the speakers as she heads over the bed. She grabs her tablet off a nearby shelf and pulls up her inbox. Nothing from Vanessa or Finnur, but there is an unread fact check mail. She opens it to see what they needed. It is a news story about one government in the Galactic Union. This government is the Magistery of Benus. The three worlds in this government are all ruled by women in an aristocracy of royal houses. This starts reading the story which is about one of the princesses.

She opens a separate document to list the 'facts' that she pulls out of the story. Rory does this as a hobby. She's a volunteer fact-finder for the Non-Profit: Fact Checkers Anonymous. No one knows who the checkers are, but at least three different people check every news story, and Fact Checkers Anonymous compiles the responses and checks for anomalies. So Rory's task is to read the news and mark down all the 'facts' that she finds in the article. Then she checks each of them for correctness. When Rory finishes, she mails back the piece and her findings. She does it for two reasons: it helps information stay relevant and accurate, and she does it for the points.

She smiles as she ponders that. You get nothing with the points you earn by fact-checking, but you get bragging rights. Some cultures use money as a status marker to show who is 'better.' In Fact Checkers Anonymous, the highest scorers are renowned. They found out quickly that there are two types of Fact-Checkers. Some can do it all day. So they have two major categories: employed and unemployed. Rory is in the top 30 percent of the employed people in the entire Galactic Union.

It doesn't take her long before she finishes compiling the 'facts' to check. She grabs her tablet stand and portable keyboard and starts checking the database of reputable sources to check the facts. There is a separate group within Fact Checkers Anonymous that maintains the list of references. When you find an additional source that you think is good, you can submit it to them for review. If they accept it, you get a pretty hefty finder's fee points reward. She has only received one of those, but they are rare, so she's still proud of it.

So now that she has all the facts, she goes through the various sources to check them. One by one by one by one, she tallies a true or false for each fact. She also puts a percent number next to each one to show her confidence in her answer. Most of the answers range from seventy to one hundred percent confident. This article turns out to be about eighty-two percent factual, which is at the low end of published articles. It used to be the high end before Fact Checkers Anonymous started checking facts. Now they have elevated the standards for news. It gives her a sense of pride that she is a part of that.

She is just about finished when her door chimes. It rings out a musical wind chime sound.

"Come on in," she calls out. She had previously told the AI to let anyone in when she calls out those three words. The door opens, and Brigit walks in and looks around.

"Wow, I haven't seen your quarters since we got our initial tour. I love the paint scheme. " The walls are bright yellow with a hint of orange in it. She has programmed the far wall that is a giant display to be a permanent window, and around the window is a black bar about a foot wide. The same black is around the door and checkerboard pattern on the floor. The ceiling also has that black.

"Thanks. How can I help you, cap?" She smiles, knowing it annoys Brigit, but also knowing that Brigit knows she's teasing.

"Well, wait, were those wind chimes I heard?" Brigit asks.

"Yeah, you can program the door sound to be anything you want," Rory says.

"Wow, I had no idea you could do that," Brigit says in wonder.

"Yeah, it's highly customizable. Just interface with the AI. For instance, I have set the AI to open the door when I say, 'come on in.' That way, I don't have to wait for the person to open the door or trust that they heard me." Rory brags. She enjoys showing off her cleverness.

"That's handy! Anyway, I wondered if I could have you read this ritual for me and let me know what you think. I've, um, changed some stuff from the usual way of doing things..." Brigit looks a little unsure of herself. Rory can't think of a time when Brigit looked like this.

"Of course, anytime. What's the time frame for getting it back to you all marked up in red ink?" She teases as she holds up her tablet and puts it next to the captain's.

Brigit looks down and flicks her finger up, sending the file to Rory's tablet. "Thanks. I really appreciate you doing this." She smiles in response to Rory's query. "Well, you know when the cross quarters are. You tell me." She turns and walks out of the room, not waiting for a response, a smile in her voice. "Thanks!"

#

After finishing up the lunch cleanup, which was quicker than usual thanks to Adair's help, Doc suggests watching a holo as they walk out of the kitchen. The smell of freshly brewed coffee fills the air.

"Sure, we got time until Cali comes out. And really, I would just think about her if I didn't have a distraction... What do you want to watch?" As the two of them walks over to the lounge, Adair walks closer to Doc than needed, as they move through the dining room.

Doc smiles as he thinks of this recent turn of events. It seems increasingly likely that Adair liked him as much as he liked them. He steps aside and motions for them to go first as they step into the lounge. Adair slips past him, somehow making it seem like there are only a few inches of space instead of the foot or so that actually exists. And as they pass him, Adair's blue eyes meet his dark browns, and for a moment in time, something connects them. Adair smiles and sits heavily on the couch. "They splurged on these. So comfy." They pat the sofa next to them, and as he sat down, Adair asked again. "What are we watching?"

"Hmm... good question. Computer, play the most recent comedy holo that has above a four-star rating." Then, as it starts, he turned to them and asks, "Is that okay?"

"Of course. I could use a laugh right now," Adair says, grabbing Doc's hand and leaning against his broad chest. With the holo beginning, they ease his arm to their other side, snuggling closer.

It takes Doc a few attempts before he finds his voice, and when he does, his mouth is dry. "Um, yeah. Very much better. This is nice."

Adair smiles as they watch the holo.

#

They laugh through the beginning of the holo, but the stress of the day catches up to them both. Adair falls out hard, snoring lightly. Doc thinks it's cute. He drifts in and out of sleep, getting little mini naps in. It is during one of these waking times that the AI gets his attention.

"Doc." It begins in an almost whisper and on the opposite side of Doc, away from Adair. When Doc doesn't answer, it gets slightly louder but still hushed. "Doc?"

Doc looks over at the wall, expecting someone to be peaking around the corner, and no one is there. "Who's there?" he asks. He's a little loud, as he is a little freaked out.

"Shh... Adair is sleeping. It's the AI. You asked me to notify you when Cali was ready to come out, and she's ready." The AI responds in its low voice.

Doc quiets down now that he knows what is going on. Filing the apparent change in AI personality for later before responding, "That was quick." He looks at the chrono. "Three hours early."

"She's a fighter." Doc can hear the smile in the AI's voice. Highly irregular.

"Okay, notify the Captain and let her know that I'm on my way, please." He asks.

He is preparing to disengage himself gently from Adair, but then decides against it. He feels they might not want to wake up alone. So he says in a low voice while petting their hair, "Wake up, sleepyhead." At Adair's stirring, he says, "Cali will wake up soon. I'm going to check on her. You're welcome to join us."

Adair yawns and rearranges themself on the couch. "No, that's okay. I think I'll continue this wonderful nap. Minus my heater, though." They give him a mock frown as he heads out of the lounge.

He is back momentarily and briefly to lay a blanket over Adair. Their only response is. "mmm..."