Chapter 10
A few days later, Doc, Brigit, and Adair are playing a tabletop game in the dining area when an alarm rings throughout the ship. Both Doc and Adair jump up and start running to the bridge, and are at the door when the alarm stops. Brigit coughs and they turn, seeing her holding up her tablet. "Remember when you're on duty, link your tablet to the console upstairs; no need to run up there immediately."
She stands and walks towards the hallway, pausing briefly to look back at the game on the table. She is pretty sure she is going to lose, so if the alert isn't horrible, it will be a welcome intrusion. As she passes by both Doc and Adair, she turns to Doc with a small smile. "What were you going to do, anyway? You're vital to the ship, but not sure how much you'd do if we were to encounter another object in space..."
"Is that what happened?" He asks, alarmed. With her head shaking, he stands up a little, relieved. "I like to watch you." he paused and clarified, "you all at work."
"Adair, I'll need you on the bridge. This problem is right up your alley." Brigit calmly walks to the bridge. 'No need to alarm people when there is nothing alarming.' she thinks.
Even though she has silenced the alarm, the lights are still pulsing yellow. She resolves to have that end when you ack the alarm in the future. As they all, doc included, climb onto the bridge, the main screen wall greets them with an image depicting their plotted course as a dotted line and their current course as a solid one. They have deviated slightly. The current deviation is okay, but the amplification will be much more significant when they reach the edge of the system. She turns to address Adair, who is already sitting at their station.
"Correct me if I am wrong, but this shouldn't be, right?" Brigit asks.
"Yeah, no, that shouldn't happen. I'm checking." Adair responds.
Meanwhile, Doc does as he said he would, sitting at the seat he adopted as his and just watches, curious about how this all worked. All the ships the academy had stationed him on were more extensive, and they didn't allow the kitchen crew on the bridge. He welcomes this opportunity to see the other side of the serving line.
Adair's fingers fly over the console as they bring up chart after chart, quickly dismissing some, entering numbers in others. Brigit watches for a bit before walking over and placing her hand on Adair's shoulder. "It's not an emergency. You can take your time. Better to get it correct than to miss something, right?"
Nodding is Adair's only response, as they slow down a little. It still appears rapid compared to anyone else doing something similar. Finally, after about five minutes, which seemed a lot longer for those watching them, they exclaim, "Ah hah! I've got it." Adair's fingers seem to blur again, and the primary screen zooms out and shows a nearby gas giant. Adair had plotted their course around it as they used it as a gravity assist, shaving a few days off the journey. Once the screen has the image of the ship and planet, there glows a tiny dot off near the bottom of the gas giant.
"Our friend Reynir got hungry. It grabbed a passing asteroid. While not being very large, it changed the gravity math enough to throw us off. I've checked the math on our exit vector, and it shouldn't affect things all that much. I'll just have to pull the data of the next system at the beacon and update our path, both for transition and for the approach to Zephyr. Not a big deal, though. I can also probably thruster a little at this point to fix it." They are grinning, though, more than you'd expect from someone who had just solved a minor puzzle.
"All right, spill it. What's got you all silly happy?" Brigit asks. She smiles, enjoying her friend being happy.
"I'm capturing all this data, everything. And we were capturing data as we flew by, as its gravity affected our path. I'm going to get a paper published with this finding!" Adair thinks hard, as they stand up. "Now I have to think of a name for it..."
At that moment, Rory comes up the ladder to the bridge and scans the room. Seeing Adair so happy, she loses some of the worry she had when she climbed the ladder. "So, what's with all the noise? I just about had the herb seedlings transplanted and came up when I heard the alarms." Before the captain can say anything, Rory explains. "I know, I know, I took my time. But I saw the alert acked, and I figured I had enough thyme to finish the last bed." She pauses with a smirk for a moment. Then, when no one laughs, she frowns.
"Thyme, the herb, I was working with it... Ugh, anyway, what's up?" Rory asks.
The captain pokes fun at her friend. "Oh, t H y m e. I get it now." She hides a smirk by lifting her hand to brush a hair out of her face as she says, "Reynir has a new moon, which has altered our course. The computer was nice enough to alert us to the fact loudly. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot we can do to fix it, though Adair thinks they might be able to use the thrusters a little to adjust. Ultimately, even without that, it's not that big of a deal. It could affect our timing on delivery, but not more than the insurance amount of time built into the run for things like this."
"Well, alright then, I'll head back to environmental. You all have this." Rory turns to leave, and Brigit stops her with a quick, "Wait."
"Since I have most everyone here, think about our next ritual. Although I know it's up to Adair and me to do the heavy lifting, I like to get input from all participants. So think about if there is any particular work you want done. It's a cross-quarters ritual, so keep that in mind. Whoever sees Cali first, will you pass it on to her? Thanks, dismissed."
Brigit walks over to the ladder and says to everyone as she leaves, "Paperwork. A captain's work is never done. And this," she waves her hand at the screen, "just created a bunch more. I'll see you guys later."
Adair turns in their seat and starts fiddling with the console. "You guys can go. I'll monitor things. I have work to do here with all this data. Oh, and hey, let me know if you think of any cool names..."
Doc and Rory shrug at almost the same time and then grin and head to the ladder. Doc's brow furrows as he stops halfway down and then heads back up, leaving Rory to go down the ladder by herself. "I'll see you around; I forgot something."
Walking up, he sits in the station next to Adair. "Would it bother you if we talked while you did that?"
"Nope, not at all. What is it?"
He leaned forward as Adair's fingers tap-tap away at the console, hands clasped in front of himself, elbows resting on thighs.
"Well, I've been meaning to ask you about Electra. I was curious what she's like. I know that she's a goddess of the sky and lightning, but I know little beyond that. The medallion has me curious. Also," he said. He continues quietly.
"I haven't felt Ananke since I put the medallion on. But... I also don't want to take it off. You know what I mean?" he asks.
"Hmm..." Adair thinks for a moment, their fingers pausing from typing away at their console, "Have you had a close relationship with Ananke?"
Scooting forward, Doc asks, "What do you mean?"
"Well, my theory is, if you weren't particularly close, she might have decided you weren't worth fighting Electra for. Although..." Adair says. They think out loud.
"It could also be... Ananke is the Goddess of Fate, right?", Adair asks. He nods.
"She could know that your fate isn't with her. She's done what she can, and now you need Electra. And if that is the case, there could be more than just your grandmother's work in getting that medallion to you. In fact, I would posit that it was Ananke that the old woman nodded to when she handed you the medallion, and not your grandmother." Adair says.
"Interesting," Doc says and leans back, deep in thought. "Ever since I've started down this path, since I've started the relationship with Deity, I haven't ever had them pick me. So what do I do now? Would you introduce me?"
They turn to him and look deep into his eyes. "I'm not sure it works that way, but assuming it does. Are you ready? Electra can be demanding." He gulps. "I think so... You'll help me, right?"
Adair sits back and waves their hand around slowly. "Of course I'll help you. But I need to do something first." They say.
They continue moving their hands around his head, sometimes speeding, sometimes slowing.
"What are you doing?" He asks with a very lost look on his face.
"You'll see," Adair says, teasing as they continued the hand movements. And then, right when Adair was sure he couldn't take it anymore, they bop him on the nose with their index finger.
"Hey!" His look of indignation lasted a microsecond when he sees Adair's grin. "Oh, all right, you got me."
Adair continues, smiling, as they sat back in their chair.
"Seriously though, I've never been a teacher before. This situation will be a learning experience for both of us. I'm really looking forward to it!" they say.
"I'm glad I asked," he says as he plays with his nose where they bopped him. "Do you think we should do something for the ritual coming up, or is that too soon?"
"Good question," Adair says, as they stand. "I think I need to have a little personal chat with Electra first, but that might be in order. A splendid opportunity for teaching." As Adair gets to the stairs, they pause, looking back expectantly. "Aren't you going to walk me to my room?"
Doc jumps up and heads quickly to the ladder. "Of course, teacher." He grins, and his grin is infectious as they make their way down the ladder, one right after the other. Adair laughs.
"And to think, I thought this was going to be a boring trip delivering weights." Adair says under their breath.