Chapter 6
Doc walks down the corridor on the dock side of the station. As he rounds the corner, deep in thought, stroking his beard, he doesn't notice that Cali has fallen in beside him.
She leans over, and in a low voice says, "Boo."
Doc jumps diagonally up in the air.
She can barely speak between laughing breaths. "I'm sorry, I had to. You were so deep in thought, and you clearly needed help to get out."
"You!" He starts to curse and takes a deep breath. Doc takes a moment to Ground-and-Center himself as they had taught him when he began studying their ways before finally converting. He concludes she isn't malicious. It is in jest, and he smiles, showing his bright teeth against his dark skin.
"Yeah, you're right. I was deep down in it." He closes the gap and walks with her toward the ship.
"So, wanna talk about it? What's got you so thoughtful? I didn't know that food was that interesting." Cali says. She smiles but doesn't turn her whole smile on him, knowing it wouldn't have that much of an effect. During the crew's time spent integrating and training before getting access to the ship, everyone could see he was interested in Adair. It is a surprise how neither of them knew it. She ponders it was pretty amazing that two people could be so oblivious to their feelings.
"Well, for one, food is rather quite interesting, especially when you study the science of it. For instance..." She holds up a hand, and he got the hint. "Anyway, I ran into a, well, I guess she would be a Crone in the market. She gave me this." He fished the medallion out from under his shirt, and it surprised him to find that he didn't want it to be away from his skin.
"What did she give you that for?"
Cali leans in to get a closer look. "Is that Electra?"
"It is, and, well, she gave it to me when I asked how I could return the favor of her giving me knowledge about my grandmother and how she is proud of me and other secrets that only my grandmother and I know." He says, speaking fast. Doc smiles at the memory and continues walking.
"You must talk to Adair about that. They follow Electra, you know." She knew he knew, but also wants the two of them to move faster. The beating around the bush frustrated Cali. They had to be frustrated as well, she thinks.
Arriving at the lock, Cali walks up and authenticates with the ship. "Welcome, Calidity Rove. Captain Borea has the com." The AI continued. "I think I see Doc there. Would you please authenticate yourself as well?"
Doc stepped up and pressed his palm to the reader after keying in his code. "Welcome, Caleb Opiladi. Captain Borea has the com. The captain has requested your presence on the bridge when you can."
"Both of us?" Cali asks.
"Yes, both of you." The AI answers.
They look at each other and smile as they both start hustling down the hall to the bridge. They know what that meant. Unlike Rory and Brigit, they don't take in their surroundings as they hurry to the bridge.
As they climb the ladder, they can see Brigit over by the screens. The screens currently had a view of the scarred metallic surface of the station. Ships like this didn't have windows, they relied on cameras. She turns to address them as they arrive.
"Nice of you two to join us. Having a fun time in the market?" she prods. Her voice is curt and authoritative, but the smile on her face assures Doc and Cali that the question was in good fun.
"Yeah, you know, getting some odds and ends, commemorative figurines, etc.," Cali responds with a smile.
"Yeah, I got hungry, so I went shopping, you know, chocolate-covered strawberries and whatnot." Doc joins in the teasing.
Brigit walks over and sits in her chair, spinning it around. The bridge had a clever feature. When the crew wanted to have meetings, it converted to a boardroom. The other two grab stations and turn the chairs. Doc, being last, keys a command into the keypad of the chair, and a table rises from the middle of the floor.
Brigit addresses her next question to both of them one at a time. "Are we ready for pull out today at 18:00?"
Doc and Cali look at each other. "Well, that depends on if they make our deliveries on time. I'm having my personal items delivered with my market purchases," Cali speaks first and nods to Doc.
"Yeah, same. I'll whip up some sandwiches once they deliver my purchases, but yeah, assuming that goes well, I should be ready in time." Doc says.
"Don't worry about the sandwiches, Doc. Adair has you covered. They were thinking ahead and weren't sure how long you were going to take shopping." Brigit says. She smiles before asking. "Tell me you got some mangoes..."
Doc smiles at both the fact that Adair was helping feed the crew and that he remembered mangoes. "Yup, they are on their way."
At that point, a buzzing rings out from everyone's station. Brigit, being the captain, acknowledges it.
"Looks like your deliveries are right on time. You can go take care of that, dismissed."
Brigit lowers the table, stows the chairs, and takes her new usual spot in front of the display, looking out at the station and the mountainous view of Terrene. She walks over and checks on Rory's progress. Then, seeing it almost done, she sighs contentedly. Mere hours and her ship will be on its way to another system.
She idly thinks of all the weights in the hold, and worry creases her brow. Most ships flew well under their rated capacity, and they had taken on a lot of weight. She pings Rory.
The response comes pretty quick, "This is Rory - wait, you called me, you know who this is." She can hear the smile in Rory's voice.
"Yes, I do, in fact, know who I called," Brigit says. Her amusement causes her smile to reach her blue-green eyes as she asks, "I know you've checked through the systems, and you're doing your visual checks, but would you mind, when you've finished, double-checking the container slotting mag system? It's going to get a pretty thorough stress testing, and I'd rather we didn't get any surprises."
"Sure thing, Cap, I'll get it after I finish my visual inspection." Then, as if expecting Brigit's following query, "Shouldn't take me long, and I'll finish well before pull out."
Brigit ignores the 'cap'. Rory knows she doesn't like it, but insists on doing it anyway, just to poke fun at her. Brigit sighs, but gives a little chuckle.
"Thanks for doing that for me. Trying to get everything tied up. And now," she says. Letting out a long slow breath, "To paperwork. Keep me updated on your progress."
Brigit turns and heads to the ladder. "Computer, view-port off, lights up by 20%." She turns to look as she climbs down the ladder and marvels that the view-port was now just bulkhead. Brigit turns right at the ladder's base, and there were the Captain's quarters. She walks in as the door opens for her. She makes her way over to the desk in the front room, which doubled as both captain's office and guest reception area. Attached to that is a bathroom, and through the other door, her bedroom.
She takes in the couches, the coffee table, and the desk in the corner. Brigit heads for the desk, changes her mind and instead goes to the bright bathroom and her room beyond. She pauses in the bathroom. "Computer, lights at 70%" As the lights dim, she feels relieved, as they are pretty bright in the bathroom. "Computer, set lights default to the current level." It quickly replies, "Default Captain's bathroom light level set to 70%. Would you like me to apply this to all bathrooms?" Brigit thinks about this and says, "No thank you, let the rest of the crew pick for themselves."
Brigit makes her way into her bedroom. She had already unpacked earlier and had noted then that someone from the Celestial Guard staff had already made her bed and had some general provisions stored, like extra linens and such. She sits on the bed and clips off her boots. Laying back, she turns slightly, looking at the wall. "Computer, make the bed wall a view port. Overlay the bottom right quadrant with current paperwork that I need to finish, opacity 25%." As she speaks, the wall changed to show the space beyond the ship, and she can see other vessels moored and tugs and support vessels zipping around. If she turns a bit, she can see the station.
She loves this technology. "Computer, activate gesture recognition for paperwork quadrant." There is just a beep to indicate that the AI executes the command. She wonders why sometimes the AI said what it did and sometimes just beeped. She raises her hand and works on the paperwork. The topmost items because they are newest were the receipts for the purchases that Doc and Cali made. She quickly signs off on them and dismisses the subsequent pop-up that showed that the ship's funds had changed.
#
Cali and Doc reach the delivery port at the same time. This door is next to and much larger than the usual door that the ship's personnel use. There are yellow chevrons to differentiate between foot traffic and pallet traffic. Because the port is so cold, for normal traffic, people want to use the smaller of the two doors. Cali checks the video feed, makes sure they are holding up ID, which they are. She zooms in and checks their IDs against the database. Having confirmed they are who they say they are, she presses the large button that opens the lock.
"Right on time. Thank you very much for your punctuality." Cali greets the delivery people.
"Of course, miss, we know ships have tight timetables, and we do our best to meet those deadlines."
The delivery people, having been welcomed on board by the open door, waste no time and start bringing supplies in with them. A small woman in the same delivery jumpsuit as the rest of them stops and asks in a small mousy voice, "Where should I put all the tech equipment? The rest know where to store the food, but this is, well, unusual." She blushes a little as Cali stands in front of her and smiles at her in a welcoming way.
"Of course, of course, right this way," she says. After reading her lapel, she says, "Rachel." Leading the way, Cali walks with her down the corridor, casting glances back as Rachel pushes the pallet. Even though it is hovering, Rachel's arms are taut with effort as she walks, beads of perspiration forming on her forehead even in the cool air of the ship. Cali surmises Rachel is from Terrene and appraises her toned form without letting on too much. The jumpsuit, while not being flattering, can't hide the stout curvy physique of a person from a heavy G world like Terrene.
She shakes her head as she leads the way. It's been way too long, but that's no excuse. There isn't time for shenanigans right now. They turn a corner, and there is a little nook, not quite a room, but separated enough from the corridor to store things. There is a workbench that had various tech tools around and on the wall. Affixed to it are small movable lights and magnifying glasses. There is a small antique old-earth radio in the corner. After Rachel carefully lowers the pallet where Cali pointed, she rushes over with enthusiasm. "Ooh, does this work?!"
Cali laughs. "Not in the way it used to. Our First Mate Adair redid the inner workings, and now it plays music streamed from the ship's computers," she says. Cali walks over and leans over near Rachel as she flips the switch. Music fills the little alcove, and she turns it down low as she turns and smiles warmly. "Still pretty cool though, isn't it?"
Rachel feels her heart skip a beat as she watches Cali's body stretch right in front of her and Cali unleashes the full force of her smile on her. "Um, yeah, very cool..." She ducks her head in embarrassment and makes to leave with her hover pallet.
"Wait, are you okay, Rachel?" Cali walks over with a look of concern, though she knows what is going on, and frankly, enjoys it.
"Yeah, no, it's fine. I should just be getting back, more deliveries, you know." Rachel blushes further as she maneuvers the hover pallet out of the way.
Cali closes the distance and places a hand softly on Rachel's arm, "It's okay, I know what's the matter, and you're right, it is fine." Cali says. She leans in and breathes against Rachel's ear. "Next time Tyche is in port, send me a message, would you?" she asks.
Rachel gulps, nods, and hastens down the hall back to the others. Cali smiles after her, knowing that she'll have some company when they are back to Mountain Home Orbital.