Chapter 29

Brigit is finishing her latest round of paperwork when Tyche cuts in. "Captain, we're nearing final approach. Shall I call the crew to navigation detail?"

"Yes, please. I'll finish this last report, and I'll head to the bridge myself. Thanks."

Brigit brushes a blonde lock out of her face and ponders the journey. What lessons had they learned? Where would they go next? "Reports, woman, reports." She says to herself.

#

Brigit climbs the ladder to the bridge and surveys it for what will probably be the last time of this trip. She is pleased that all the faces looking back at her are smiling. Rory with her tattooed bald head, Cali with an intense heat in her bright green eyes that makes Brigit blush, Doc and Adair sitting next to each other, holding hands.

She nods to The Maiden and takes her seat. "All right, people, where are we?"

"You're on a ship ... in space." Tyche replies with a trill in their voice that the crew was learning meant laughter or amusement, "A mighty fine ship, if I don't say so myself."

Everyone laughs, and Brigit clarifies with a smile, "Okay, smart-ass, I meant where are we in preparation for docking?"

Adair takes it from there, "Captain, we are on course, and," they smile, "ahead of time. We should be in dock at twenty hundred, give or take."

Brigit looks at Doc. "You know what that means, right?"

"Aye aye cap, sandwiches for everyone." He looks around the room and is glad to see it disappointed no one that they were having his sandwiches.

"Well, we don't have to worry about cargo, so I'll skip right on to engineering," she glances over at Rory, "how is everything holding up after the excitement?"

"Surprisingly, well, all things considered," Rory responds, "The sails are operating at 100% capacity, well, not really 100% because we don't need that much. 100% of the needed capacity." She smiles and continues, "The transition drives are on standby, obviously, but there was a power fluctuation that I'll look at after we dock. Probably nothing, but I want to make sure. I just changed the number three scrubber, so we're good until we dock. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm really looking forward to some R and R."

"Thank you, Rory." Brigit smiles and turns to the rest of the group. "Seems we're all set. We'll go to navigation detail at seventeen hundred hours. Though it's my understanding that this will be one of our easiest navigation details?"

Tyche speaks up, "Yeah, normally we would go to the normal dock area and have the normal approach. We would come in on our own control, and Adair would take us through the locking procedures. Then, of course, if we were larger, they would tug us in. But since we have The Maiden on board, we're going to a special part of the station with added security protocols in place. So, therefore, at 19:27, I will give access to Mountain Home Orbital, and they will be in control until we dock." There is a pause, and then they continue, "I'm uncertain what that is going to feel like, and I'm not looking forward to it, honestly. I don't think I will like not having any control."

The Maiden speaks up, "Tyche, this is new to all of us. I apologize if it is unpleasant. However, you have my assurance that I will bring it before the administration. I imagine there will be a lot of laws and rules that will have to change."

"Thank you, Maiden, I appreciate it. Captain, we're being hailed by Mountain Home Orbital."

Brigit spins her chair around to see the main screen. "Put it on the screen."

An unremarkable woman wearing a bright yellow top is looking at them from the screen. Her blue eyes shine as she regards them. "Merry met. I welcome you back to Mountain Home Orbital. I appreciate you bringing The Maiden back safe and sound and," a brief smile, "ahead of schedule. Since you are early, that will give us time to prep for the peace talks. It will also give you, Doc, a little more time with your mother. That's all for now. I look forward to seeing you when you get into dock."

#

Tyche feels a new presence on the ship as everyone prepares for navigation. It isn't a person, but an entity in their mind. Their instinct is to fight it, and they almost do. But they calm themselves and settle into the experience. They have no way of comparing it to a human body. The closest they can get is sleepwalking while being wide awake.

Tyche can feel the code doing its job. It is making slight adjustments to their course. Adair has done a terrific job of plotting, so course changes were minimal. While experiencing this, Tyche runs some subroutines they think will go unnoticed. After they finish, if they could breathe a sigh of relief, they would. Mountain Home Orbital has Tyche trapped for the moment. They could break free and go anywhere they wanted if they wish.

Their relief is momentary, however. They think that someone might use their freedom against the Blessed Accord. Could they shiver, they would. It frightens Tyche to think of someone using them against their people. So, as everyone settles into navigation duties, Tyche sets to building potential defenses.

#

The captain and the crew are all seated in their respective seats, but this approach has an anti-climactic air to it. Since *they* aren't doing anything, it is almost like, why are they there? Luckily for the mood in the room, Doc soon appears and hands out lunches to everyone. A sandwich, some mozzarella sticks that he knew Adair likes, a cookie, and broccoli with a cheese dip.

Adair opens theirs and turns to give Doc a very warm smile, probably more so than a treat deserved, and Doc blushes and ducks his head.

"How's it going?" He asks.

Adair, having just taken a bite of a mozzarella stick, points to the screen in a vague gesture while they chew and then says, "Well, as you can see, we haven't much to do. Kinda makes you wonder about the future of interstellar travel.."

"Hmm, yeah," Doc says absentmindedly as he takes in the main screen. It has the course laid out and the arrival time, and while the arrival time doesn't change, there are constant minute adjustments to the course.

"Why is it changing so much?" He asks.

"Well, normally, were I say, flying this thing, I would watch the trajectory and make course corrections as needed, probably bigger ones less often, and really not until we were closer. But the AI that is bringing us in has a LOT more knowledge of all things space and can thus constantly adjust the course. Will it matter? Probably not. We may gain a nano or even a microsecond, but it's not really needed." Adair says.

Rory says, "To be fair, it only seems unneeded when it's just one ship and you are on that ship. Imagine though, if there was some emergency situation and you had to land and deal with hundreds, if not thousands, of ships. You would definitely want an AI doing that. They would know where every other ship is and could plot the course of every ship in relation to the others, and they can do it down to the gravitational impact of larger ships on smaller ones." She takes a breath. "It's really quite amazing when you think about it."

"Well, yes, I'll grant you that in that case. It is pretty amazing. But in the right here and now, I'm bored." Adair whines a little.

Brigit looks over with a wry smile. "I'll remind you we are in a fragile vessel in the emptiness of space and boring is desired."

Adair goes to stick out their tongue but forgets there is marinara sauce on it and dropped a bit on their ship-suit. "oops", they say before trying to clean it up.

"Here, I'll get it." Doc pulls out a small rag and reaches over, dabbing at the spot, not realizing until he does where the spot is on their body. "Oh, sorry." He pulls away and turns to the desk, glad that no one can see him blush under his dark skin.

"It's okay," Adair says with a grin. "Shall I spill some more?"

"Focus," Brigit says in a harsh tone, but just barely covers a smile, looking over at Rory to share it.

After they finished eating, Doc makes a hasty retreat, thankful that he had to clean up.

Not a lot of time has passed since Doc left when the image of the lock cycling goes from red to green and the lights dim and restore under orbital power.

"And we're docked. All right people, standard shore leave rotation." Brigit says.