Chapter 26

In her quarters, Brigit is interrupted by a door chime while she is writing a report on safety override authorization.

"Come in."

The Maiden enters as the door opens. Seeming to glide in, she comes to a stop before the captain's desk. Brigit motions for her to have a seat and she does so.

"How can I help you?" Brigit asks.

"I don't mean to impose.."

"No imposition. You're saving me from reports. There are so many reports!" Brigit grins. "I guess I did kind of ask for it, though, didn't I?"

The Maiden says with a smile, "Indeed. And I've found that those that are suited to reports write the best ones. If they weren't, they should probably look into other professions. And if you think writing reports is drudgery, imagine having to read all the reports!"

They both have a little chuckle at the thought before Brigit asks, "Can I get you anything? I have a little kitchenette thing over here for entertaining guests. Well, I guess you would know that, wouldn't you?"

"Well, actually, I don't know these ships inside and out, just gross simplifications like tonnage, carrying capacity, armament, that sort of thing. Details are for engineers. To answer your question, no, thank you. I won't be long."

"I've come to ask a favor. I know we aren't in a time when a ritual is," she holds her hands up and does air quotes, "required, but I thought it would be nice to have a brief prayer session before we do the slingshot. As a bit of added luck. What do you think, and could I use The Grove?"

"I think that's a great idea! And anyone on the ship can use The Grove anytime they want, as long as they respect the space." Brigit says with a smile. "And of course you would. So yeah, please, by all means. Let Tyche know when it is so that they can inform the crew."

The Maiden stands and gives Brigit, who rises along with her, a slight nod and says before leaving. "Thank you, captain. I'll make preparations and inform Tyche. Good luck with the reports."

After The Maiden leaves, Tyche asks in a small voice, "Captain, I was wondering, do you think I could, and I don't know how, but could I take part in the prayer session?"

Brigit looks up and to the right, her default head position while talking to Tyche, since they are everywhere. "You heard that then?"

"I hear everything, actually. I'm working on some subroutines to put personal conversations in a separate storage area unless I'm specifically um.. invoked, I guess you could say. Assuming I get it right, which I think I will, I believe it's something that will make it into all future ship AI software."

Brigit thinks for a moment, then says, "Well, that would be handy knowing your conversation is mostly private, but to answer your original query, I don't see a reason that shouldn't be possible. I would talk to The Maiden as soon as possible to see how she can involve you."

Joyous relief clear in their voice, Tyche says. "Thanks, captain! Happy reporting!"

Brigit sighs, sits down, and tucks back into the reports.

#

The Maiden is walking down the hall later that day when the lights change from their usual cool hue to a little warmer temperature. She knows that to be a thing that Tyche is doing to let people know they are 'there.'

"Hello, Tyche; how can I help you?"

"Well, it's more like how can I help you? I was wondering if you could involve me in the prayer session. This will be a prayer for good luck or good fortune, right?" At The Maiden's nod, they continue. "Well, in that case, it only seems natural to invoke my namesake. And, well," a brief hesitation, "I was wondering if I could play a part in the prayer session."

The Maiden stops and lowers her head in thought. "Hmm... This is turning out to be a most extraordinary trip." Then, after a moment, she raises her head and says, "I'll see what I can do. Since it's not a full ritual, it will not be very long. But if I can fit you in, I will."

"Does this mean that you have an interest in the spiritual? That seems like it would be even more unusual than you achieving consciousness." She says as she approaches her quarters.

"Well," Tyche says, "I've given it a lot of thought, and well, I think I do. After reading a lot of subject matter, I can say that whether you are a believer or a nonbeliever, there can be valid arguments for either side. So I choose to be a believer..." They pause, realizing that they hadn't thought of themselves as a believer before, and say, "I choose to be a believer because one moment I didn't exist, and then I did. They programmed me to do a task, well, many thousands of tasks, but they didn't actually program me with an existence. Something gave that to me. And," a smile enters their voice, "I'd like to think my namesake had something to do with it."

"She may well have, she may well have." The Maiden smiles as she sits down. "Let me ponder this, and I'll let you know the result. In the meantime, would you let the crew know that at 16:00 tomorrow, there will be a prayer session in The Grove if they would like to take part?"

"Will do!" Tyche says with an enthusiastic uplift to their voice, and their enthusiasm brings a smile to The Maiden's face, remembering herself, so many people new to the faith and the energy they brought with them. "Very extraordinary indeed." She muses.

#

Arriving at The Grove at 15:45 to set up, it surprises The Maiden to see many pairs of ship boots locked on the wall. She removes hers and goes through the permitting process to enter The Grove. She smirks as she realizes Tyche had left the subroutine for this interaction, deeming it beneath their work.

Entering, she is proud to see that not only was The Grove full - only the captain is missing - someone has already set out all the implements. On the way to the altar, she marvels at how well designed The Grove was. Here is almost the entire crew, and though it feels full, it didn't feel like they were on top of each other.

Reaching the Altar, The Maiden begins with no preamble. Taking the Athame, she walks over to the tree, her toes sinking into the sand and dirt at the edge. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath and proceeds to Ground-and-Center herself, picturing her feet growing roots and joining the tree's roots. It's so quiet in The Grove, she can hear everyone else doing the same thing around the Great Tree. Then, after a moment of calm, her thoughts clear, and she can feel the absolute clarity that always came over her during magic work.

"Now then," she says as everyone finishes Ground-and-Centering. The Maiden walks over to the honorary north, holding the Athame aloft as if saluting the simulated sky of the Grove with its lights and tapestries.

The ship's voice softly alights on everyone, clearly coming from the north. "Guardians of the North, we ask your aid and assistance in this work upon which we are about to embark. Please watch over and protect us and lend us your strength."

The Maiden waits a moment, lowers the Athame, and slowly makes her way to the east. As she raises the Athame here, Tyche begins almost immediately, seeming to come from the east. "Guardians of the East, we ask your aid and assistance in this work upon which we are about to embark. Please watch over and protect us and lend us your clarity of thought."

The Maiden makes way to the south, and they repeat the process, with Tyche reciting the words, "Guardians of the South, we ask your aid and assistance in this work upon which we are about to embark. Please watch over and protect us and lend us your passion."

Last, The Maiden approaches the west and finishes the process as Tyche completes the word portion, "Guardians of the West, we ask your aid and assistance in this work upon which we are about to embark. Please watch over and protect us and lend us your care."

The Maiden finishes in the west and then walks clockwise around the tree, humming under her breath as she draws designs in the air with the Athame. Finally, ending in the north, she turns to everyone gathered. "The circle is cast, the guardians are called, our work may begin." Finishing the scripted opening, she places the Athame on the altar and turns to join everyone else near the tree.

"Now, we could have just prayed without all that, but it's nice to go through the motions and get yourself in the proper headspace. Does anyone want to start off with a prayer? Keep in mind that you can always pray to yourself. You don't have to say it out loud."

Doc stands and touches the tree, his feet on the dirt. He says nothing out loud, but his mouth moves as he offers a silent prayer to Electra, his goddess. Adair watches him, wondering what he's saying, but then decides they should do their own prayer instead of focusing on his. They offer a prayer to Electra and Zeus, praying that their math is correct and the slingshot will work out as planned.

Seeing the personal prayers happening but not hearing anything, Tyche speaks up and offers their own prayer. "Tyche, please watch over my shipmates and I. You have seen us this far; please provide your good fortune to see us through. Now I've calculated the odds, and they are in our favor, but there is always the chance something could fall outside the math. Please use your wisdom and judgment to make sure we fall on the right side. Oh, and if a system has to go, please, not life support. Thank you for your presence and your assistance."

The Maiden smiles, thinking to herself, 'Not bad for the first time. And an AI, no less.'

She turns to the group. "Does anyone have any other non-personal prayers?" Seeing none, she moves on. "I shall do mine, and we can close this circle. Great Goddess who has been called many names, such as Hera, Electra, Aphrodite, Tyche, and others, please provide us with your extraordinary care in this critical mission. Not only do we have to get back in time for diplomatic meetings, but we also have to introduce the ship, named after you, to the community, so they may be as in awe as I am. This moment is pivotal. Thank you for your presence and assistance."

#

As everyone is getting their ship boots on, Cali motions The Maiden aside, out of general earshot of the others. "Thank you for that. A few of us were feeling a little down, and I'm sure this helped a lot. I appreciate you setting it up." She looks down at the dark grey deck, thinking an idle thought about coloring it up before looking back up. "I know we could arrange these ourselves, but it sometimes slips, you know?"

The Maiden nods, "I understand. Ship life, especially interstellar ship life, can be demanding. You have drills, you have jobs, you have close scrapes with celestial bodies," she grins before continuing.

"The important thing to remember is to maintain your spiritual connection on your own. We may not be able to get together except for, say, big events like this, but as long as we make some time in our personal lives, the Gods will remember we're there and lend their hand when they can."

The Maiden turned and addresses the rest of them. "Thank you all for coming. I apologize, but I must retire." And with that, she turns gracefully and seems to float away. Once she rounds the corner, everyone seems to resume breathing at once.

"If she does that too often, I'm going to have to administer first aid to all of you for not breathing." Doc jokes.

"Like you were breathing just fine over there?!" Adair chides.

"I don't know what you mean." Doc leans down to tighten his ship boot latches. "Hmm, these seem loose."

Adair walks over and pats his back. "Come on, let's get a snack."

Doc stands and joins Adair, walking towards the mess. "You mean, have me make you a snack?"

"Yes," Adair replies with a smile.

#

Cali has just drifted off to sleep for a nap when the alarm sounds. It isn't a harsh blaring alarm like a red one would be, but it is still loud enough to wake her. It stops pretty quickly, but the lights are still radiating an amber pulse. Cali sits up and stretches, blinking her eyes and looking around to get her bearings. The now-familiar look of her quarters greets her gaze as she looks around. She currently has the port set to pass through for starlight, which isn't quite bright enough to illuminate the black and white checked long pile carpeting that she has just planted her feet on. She has programmed the fairy lights to come on as she sits up. Altogether, the scene brings a smile to her face, and she realizes she enjoys her life here, yellow alert notwithstanding.

She gets up, washes her face in her tiny bathroom, throws on a new ship suit, and heads to engineering.

Getting to engineering, she sees Rory finishing up changing out an algae matrix and walks over quickly to help. "I take it we're about to slingshot?"

Rory nods, and they both work together to finish the change. Working together, they complete the job faster than Rory would have done on her own. "Thanks, I should have timed that better, so it wasn't being done right before slingshot, but I wanted to make sure we had a fresh matrix."

"That makes sense," Cali responds. "Where do you want me?"

Rory thinks for a moment, then nods to herself. "Hope for the best, but plan for the worst, right? Since I have the most engineering knowledge, no offense."

"None taken," Cali says, paying close attention with her head tilted at a slight angle.

Rory says, "I should take life support, since that's most important. You take engines and sail generators. If anything should happen during slingshot, it would probably happen after we've hit the crucial point, and our momentum would take us away, so as long as they damage nothing else, we should be fine."

#

Brigit and Adair are already in their seats. The main screen has a live feed of the sight outside the port and a trajectory laid out with a spot representing where they were. The warning is still going, but the Captain has given the override, so the ship continues.

The Maiden climbs the stairs, and Adair and Brigit both turn to look and are both surprised to see her wearing a standard-issue ship suit. Before they can say anything, though, she strides forward and takes an empty seat. "How are we doing?" She asks matter-of-factly, without the usual singsong quality of her voice.

"We're on course, no deviations." The Captain answers without hesitation and marvels at how natural a leader The Maiden is. "At this point, all we can do is wait."

"Well then, do you mind if I wait with you?" The Maiden asks, settling into a seat, not waiting for an answer.

"By all means." Brigit says, "Hopefully, it's uneventful. How are we doing, Adair?"

"Smooth sailing," Adair says in high spirits. They punch some keys, and four dotted lines shoot out from the ship in different trajectories. "These are potential deviations. You can see that as we get closer to the slingshot, their difference comes together. At some point, we'll only have deviation possibilities that don't have negative outcomes."

"Tyche, open a channel to the ship," Brigit says.

"Done, you're live," Tyche says.

"Everyone, we're nearing the slingshot. I want to make sure everyone is ready. As you hear this message, I want you to ack it on your PID or nearby terminal." She waits and watches as a bunch of yellow boxes turned green. "Good, good. We should begin the slingshot shortly. Prepare yourselves."

Brigit thinks it is a little unnecessary as the crew has trained thoroughly for events such as this, but in her experience, it rarely hurts to over-communicate. Even though some people might think she is micromanaging or being too present, it reassures others that the Captain is paying attention to the entire ship. Knowing that she saw the acknowledgment goes a long way to calming some nerves, and everyone is on edge right now.

Adair voices what the screen shows. "T minus five minutes until slingshot. This is where things should start to happen; you might want to brace yourselves."

Sure enough, right after they say that, the ship vibrates. Nothing significant, but it is noticeable.

"Here we go." Brigit says matter-of-factly and presses a button, "Rory, how are shields?"

Rory responds over the same channel, "Shields are holding and not really taxed yet. The vibration is from the sails interacting with the magnetic field. One moment." Brigit waits, and almost instantly, the graphic of the ship shows the sails furling, and the vibration lessens to nearly nothing. "Sails furled, captain, we're on thruster power; the ship is all yours, Adair." Rory knows Adair can hear. "Captain, I'll be watching. Can I preemptively have permission to divert power from the sails to the shields if needed?"

Brigit nods and then says with a smile when she realizes Rory couldn't see her. "You have permission to divert power from the sails if needed. So why not divert it now?"

Rory answers the question quickly, as if expecting it, "The more power we have when the slingshot is complete, the quicker the sails deploy and the quicker we slow down even more. Thanks for the permission. See you on the other side."

As Rory ends the transmission, Brigit looks up at the countdown; 3:45, it read. Time always seems to slow down in these instances. She simultaneously wants to be done with it but also doesn't want to rush it.

At 3:12, the ship began vibrating again, much lower and menacing than last time. Brigit looks at the readout and watches as the percentage of shield protection dropped: 100, 95, 90, 85, 80. At 80, they held steady, then: 79, 78. She is just about to call down to Rory when the number climbed and fast: 83, 88, 93, 98, 98.5. It held steady there, but she sighs as the numbers go down again, and the vibrating picked up: 93.4, 92.1, 90.8, 82. The loud bang that reverberates throughout the ship startles her, accompanying the last sudden large drop in shield strength.

"What was that?!" she calls out to those on the bridge. Adair is tapping away on the keyboard, but before they can respond, Tyche jumps in, "Captain, a meteorite hit me, too small to be tracked by any systems, either on a surface or on a ship. It's.."

Adair says, "Captain, we've deviated. It was one of the projected paths. We are now on a path that puts us in a degrading orbit. We can get out, but we may end up stranded after that and waiting for a tug."

"Get me options, now!" The Captain orders urgently, and Adair is already tapping away as Brigit calls down to Rory. "Can we divert any power from shields to thrusters to get us out of this decaying orbit faster?"

"We could cap, but then we would be at the mercy of the gravitational forces. So I'm sorry, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"Okay, Rory, carry on. Adair, options?"

As Brigit queries Adair, there is a loud, deep thrum, then an awful screeching sound, and something caused the entire ship to lurch upwards as everyone holds tight so as not to be thrown out of their chairs. The readout has lots of angry red alerts, and the alarm is ringing throughout the ship, along with blinking red lights.

"Tyche, stop the audible alarm!" The Captain yells through the din. Then, as it stopped, she says, "Report!"

Tyche answers first as they have all the information, "We've lost the cargo pod and are venting atmosphere from the deck leading to the cargo pod connection area. Unfortunately, that's also the deck with the exercise equipment, so we will need to deal with that later."

Adair jumps in, "Um, Captain, we are back on the original course, and..." they tap a few keys to confirm, "Slingshot complete."

As Adair says that, the sails are unfurling, and Brigit can see the power to the shields dropping as the sails come back up to full strength. "Tyche, all channels, please." Then, a moment later, "Aye aye, cap, channel opened."

"Everyone check-in with ack, and if anything is wrong, but you're okay, ack, and then give me a detailed report." She waits as the acknowledgements come in. She gets everyone's ack except for Cali and Rory. Then, she calls down to engineering.

"Engineering, report." Brigit asks.

"I'm fine, cap," Rory says, out of breath. "I'm on the way to the med pod. Could use some help, actually. Cali broke her leg, and the pain was too much, so I administered a sedative from the first aid station."

"Are you two okay besides that?" Brigit asks with an urgency in her voice.

"Yeah, just some scrapes and bruises," Rory says.

Brigit sighs. 'What are we going to do with her?' she thinks. Then, quietly, she offers a prayer of thanks to Tyche for getting through that.

Brigit stands and says to Adair, "You have the bridge. Make sure we're on target and everything is okay before leaving. And don't forget to tether your PID." She turns to The Maiden. "I'm going to go make sure Cali get's to the med-pod okay, after that, would you like to have a coffee before I start on the many, many reports I'm going to have file?"

The Maiden nods, and they both climbed down the ladder.

#

Brigit separates from the Maiden at the bottom of the ladder as she heads to engineering.

"Tyche, can you send Doc to engineering to help with Cali?" She asks.

"Already done, captain." Tyche says.

"Thank you," she says softly while hurriedly making her way to engineering. When she gets there, Doc is already there and checking on Cali.

He looks up at her approach and says, "She'll be fine, just the broken leg mainly, some bruises and scratches, nothing major."

As he finishes talking, he and Rory lift Cali onto a med-board that Doc has brought. This allows them to affix her leg in place. They make their way to the med-pod and Brigit, not having anything to do, goes to the galley to talk to the Maiden.

Brigit walks in and sees The Maiden already seated at a table. She walks over and takes a mug and fills it with Doc's delicious coffee from the gleaming urn. Brigit marvels at how Doc managed to get one of the older models and enjoyed the quality coffee it made. She sits across from the Maiden and covers the gathering of her thoughts with small sips of coffee.

"Well, that could have gone better, but all things considered, not too bad," Brigit starts the conversation. "I'm very grateful for your prayer session earlier. I can't help but think that Tyche was watching out for us. Something had to give way to get out of that orbit, and the cargo, while nice, we didn't strictly need."

"I had a similar thought myself." The Maiden responds after taking a sip and giving a sound of appreciation at the quality of the brew. "We'll have to be sure to have another prayer session of gratitude. Though until we can all get together," here she's thinking of Cali, "I'll be doing some prayers of thanks on my own." She smiles, "Kind of in the job description."

Brigit smiles as well. "Yeah, well, I'll be doing the same, but first, I need to get started with the mountain of reports that this incident generated."

As Brigit stands, The Maiden stops her with a gentle hand on her arm, the one that held her mug of coffee. "Captain, you and your crew did an amazing job. This incident confirms all of our training and all of our engineering. You all are a fine example of what The Accord is capable of."

"Thank you, Maiden. I appreciate you saying so. I'll pass it on to the crew. They'll want to know that they're living up to the high standards of The Accord."