Chapter 25

The crew assembles at the conference table, Brigit begins the increasingly familiar routine.

"Rory, how are the engines? Are they ready to be elsewhere?"

Rory looks from captain to The Maiden and back before responding, "Yes, captain. Sails are down and on warm standby. The Transition Drives are ready and willing."

"Good, and the cargo?" She asks Cali.

"Still there." Cali grins and even said with a little wink, before blushing and looking down. "It's locked in and ready for transition."

Brigit grins at Cali's flirting, wondering if others saw it before saying. "Well, with two affirmatives, I'll add the third. We are ready to transition. Adair, how about we go somewhere else?"

"Yes, Cap!" They lift their mug, as did everyone else, and the table recesses, and everyone swivels to the big screen. As they do, Adair presses a button. And just like that, with little fanfare, the display changes, and they were in their home system.

Adair's fingers quickly work on their keyboard, and everyone waited to hear how the jump went. They mutter and then turn to the captain.

"It's not my best transition, but not my worst either. But, when all is said and done after the slingshot, we'll get there in about 60% of the normal time instead of 58.", Adair says.

"Oh no, whatever will we do?" Brigit grins at Adair. "Excellent work, good transition." She turns to everyone and notices The Maiden smiling. She will talk to her later, see what she thought of her crew. "Good job. Back to normal duties." She checks the time. "Third section has the watch."

#

A few days after transition, Adair is hanging in the kitchen while Doc works on an enormous meal, not to prepare for anything, just because he wants to. He has already made the bread and put it in the oven, and is currently chopping vegetables for a stew.

"So, you've been quiet about it on the trip so far; what do you think of The Maiden?" Adair asks, leaning on the counter idly, watching him work.

"Well, I was awestruck at first because, well, it's one thing to meet a member of the government, but when they are also one of the highest members of your religion..." He pauses from chopping and waved the knife around as he said, "I know, I know, there isn't a hierarchy, it's not like in a church like structure where there is a holy person at the top, but the Trine do take part in rituals on Terrene, and it still have a lot of gravitas."

He resumes chopping as he says, "And now, well, yeah, it's still pretty amazing that she is here. Sharing our air, our space, our food..." He trails off, and Adair smiles and teases, "I've noticed the quality of the food has improved and it was pretty dang good before she came. Could you imagine how we would eat with all three of the Trine on board!"

Doc smiles at Adair's teasing, knowing he has been stepping up his game to both impress The Maiden, but also to give her what he thought she deserved. Then he thinks about all the Trine being on board and begins sweating and hyperventilating.

"Hey, Doc, you okay? What's wrong?" When he doesn't respond, they reach over and gently take the knife away before shouting his name. Then, with no response, they ask Tyche, "Tyche, will you call the captain?"

"I could, sure, but I'm pretty sure he's experiencing a panic attack. I am, though, not a doctor. Fun fact, I'm a ship." There is a little laugh before they continue. "Maybe smack him? It works in the holos..."

Adair walks around to put themself directly in Doc's line of sight. They take on a very calm tone and look him straight in the eyes. "Hey, hey, shhh. It's okay; they're not going to be on the ship. You only have to worry about feeding us. It's okay..." They pat his shoulder, trying to calm him down, and after a moment, it works.

"You okay?" Adair asks.

"Yeah, I think so..." He takes a couple of deep breaths and Tyche breaks in,

"Aw dang, I was hoping you were going to smack him. I made popcorn and everything. Well, virtual popcorn."

"You hush. " Adair points a finger in the air generally and then leads Doc over to a seat at the table.

After he sits down, they say in apology, "I'm so sorry, I thought nothing would come of it; I was just trying to compliment you."

He nods and pats Adair's thigh without thinking about it, then blushes, though you couldn't see it on his dark skin. "I know, I know. Just caught me unawares is all."

Doc stands and turns to head back toward the kitchen, but not before hearing them sigh a little. "Well, back to it."

#

Brigit is filing reports when Tyche interrupts her. "Captain, you're needed on the bridge. It's not quite an emergency, but it is urgent."

Brigit looks up, alarmed. "What is it?"

"Seems there may be a problem with the slingshot. Nope, correction, there is a problem with the slingshot." Tyche replies.

"Let them know that I'm on my way." She doesn't wait for an answer and goes into her adjoining bathroom to check her uniform. Then, straightening it out quickly, she shakes her head, thinking that she doesn't have time for that, and heads to the bridge.

By the time she gets to the bridge, not only is Adair there, but so is Cali and The Maiden. She asks as she climbs the ladder, "Status report."

"Our safety distance on the slingshot is off." Adair explains, "When I did my calculations at transition, it was supposed to be eight percent, which is well within the safety zone. Unfortunately, I made an error, and we have essentially two choices, 1.5 percent or 18 percent."

Brigit can sense that isn't it. "And.."

Adair takes a deep breath and lets it out as a kind of sigh. "At eighteen percent, we won't get there in time. So we either have to risk the ship and all of us or miss the meeting."

Brigit looks between The Maiden and Adair. "What's the closest slingshot anyone has attempted?"

Adair turns around, surprised. They can see the seriousness on Brigit's face, and they too look at The Maiden. Then Adair turns to their keyboard and pulls up the relevant file. "Looks like there was a hyper-racer that did 1.8. They sustained pretty severe damage, though. Had to be rescued, didn't finish the race."

"Captain. They build hyper-racers light for speed. Almost no armor to speak of and no shields whatsoever. I would call your engineer up here and get her opinion, but from what I know of our ships, especially the newer ones, I would trust us to be just fine at 1.5 percent." The Maiden says.

"Tyche, please have Rory come to the bridge at her earliest convenience." Brigit asks the ship to relay the order, which in captain-speak meant "get your butt to the bridge, now!"

"Aye aye cap," Tyche responds almost immediately, followed by a question from Brigit,

"Tyche, we're discussing putting you in danger. What do you think of the safety margins?"

"Well, people put the safety margins there for people. As a ship, I think I'll be fine. I put the odds of complete success at 75%; partial success at 90%. That partial success means I'm fine but injured, some systems damaged. Suppose one of those systems is life support. Well, not so great for you guys. So," they pause as if they are taking a large breath, "I will be fine, but since I care about my crew, I'm hesitant. But if the Maiden needs it and the captain orders it, I will, of course, carry out those orders in good faith."

By this point, Rory has shown up. Her skin is damp and if she had hair; it would be wet. As it is , her tattoos glow in the ambient light of the bridge. "Reporting as ordered, Cap."

Before Brigit can speak, Adair adds a little fun to the situation by giving Rory as little data as possible. "1.5 or 18?"

Rory thinks for a minute, looking at her damp feet, then she smiles and looks up. "1.5. The closest anyone has gotten was 1.8, and that was in a junk-heap built for speed. We can withstand actual attacks; we'll be fine. I can divert power from the Transition Drives to the shield. Won't be able to hold it long. The circuits weren't meant for that, but it'll hold. You mark my words, it'll hold."

She stops. "Wait, what does Tyche think?"

Brigit responds before Tyche could. "Tyche's concerned for the crew. They know they'll be fine, well, ninety percent chance they'll be fine. But there's a 25% chance that something gets damaged, and if that something is life support..."

Rory smiles and dismisses the concern by blowing a raspberry. "Look, as long as we have one of three things, we'll be fine: life support, shuttles, and vac-suits. The probability of all three getting damaged is," she paused and points to the ship.

Tyche responds happily, "One in 4.35 million."

"See?" Rory says, before continuing, "So the way I see it is, we post up anyone non-essential to the bridge and damage control stations for those three things, should we need it. Then we get The Maiden to the peace talks on time; hell with that kind of approach to the slingshot, maybe ahead of schedule!"

Brigit looks between Rory, Adair, and The Maiden. The Maiden gives a slight nod. Brigit turns to Adair. "Punch it in, let's see it."

"Already set, Captain. I prepared for either way." Adair brings it up on the big screen. Flashing red letters proclaimed, 'OUTSIDE OF SAFETY PARAMETERS CAPTAIN OVERRIDE NEEDED.'

"Tyche, record my order as both voice and authorization code: Bravo Charlie Nine Five Epsilon. Permission granted to exceed parameters on the proposed slingshot trajectory."

Tyche's response is swift: "Permission recorded, authorization granted for slingshot."

As they said that, the words changed to green, but a warning stayed up. 'OUTSIDE OF SAFETY PARAMETERS CAPTAINS OVERRIDE GRANTED NEXT AUTHORIZATION NEEDED IN 75 HOURS 18 MINUTES AND 33 SECONDS.'

The alert counted down, and Brigit turns to head down the ladder. "Alert me when the next auth is needed if I'm not up here, anyway. And please, try not to have any more urgent matters." She smiles and heads down the ladder.