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LENA WATCHED THE CAPTAIN pace as she talked. The captain never paced.
“First things first. This discussion is under Chatham House Rules—nothing leaves this room.”
“Captain?” The bosun rumbled.
“Yes Addison?”
“Why is our first officer not here for a briefing of this level?”
“Pertinent question, Mr Johnson. Firstly, this is mostly a communications discussion and as such does not directly involve him. Secondly, I’m under direct orders from the Admiralty to retain radio silence until our appointed time. No-one else knows where we are, and we need to keep it that way. This task is on a strictly need-to-know basis.”
“And thirdly? There’s a thirdly,” said Betty.
“There is,” said the captain. “I’m not sure how many employers Mr Fazar has or what he might report to them. We are on a rescue mission primarily—to seek out who sent the distress beacon and if there’s anyone left there to save when we get there, our secondary mission is to collect science data about how this ship performs, what that means and any data to be collected from the colony, such as it now is. That is already one objective too many for my comfort in an untried vessel in uncharted space, but we are where we are.”
“Ooh, goody, I love a science mission.” Betty clapped.
“Thank you, Betty, we’ll come to your contribution in five minutes.”
Betty checked her wrist and frowned.
“Currently, no-one knows where we are. We have been monitoring transmissions from the admiralty, but not replying, as arranged. This morning I got a morse beep in the transmission, which was my signal to open the sealed orders I’ve carried in my office since we came on board. Our first task to accomplish them is to set up communications back with Earth by means of a tight beam laser transmitter.”
“Ah, now you’re speaking my language,” said Addison.
The captain smiled, “Thought that might pique your interest. I have a target for you, the admiralty has an extra solar system beacon.”
“Might be difficult to hit when we’re not sub-light,” said Betty.
“That is both our challenge and our cover,” said Captain Varma, “we are performing an experiment to see if we can hit the beacon at both super and sub-light and if that has any effect on the signal.”
Lena groaned. Everyone turned to look at her. Her face flushed. “Are you okay?” Captain Varma’s brow furrowed.
“Yeah, sorry. Rowie’s excited, she’s talking at me and it’s a bit...fast.” She felt nausea rise in her. Addison reached behind him, emptied some bread rolls out of a bowl and sat it in front of Lena who waved him away. She stood up, sat down and then shuddered. “Sorry, that was a bit much at once. It’s easier talking that fast if I’m plugged in.”
“What did she say? What did she say?” said Betty.
Lena held a hand up, while she drank some water, “Okay, sorry.”
“No apology necessary,” The captain, smiled kindly and waited.
“So, Rowie is very excited about a game where she gets to hit a target, if you can connect it to her systems somehow, she can fire it for you and she says she’ll get a hit every time even in hyperspace.”
Addison’s eyes went wide, “Could we instead share control of the laser gun?”
The captain raised an eyebrow, “That seems wise.”
“Sure,” said Lena, “Rowie doesn’t mind.”
“And”—Addison’s face was just beginning to return to neutral—”how would this “connecting” work exactly?”
“Oh, that bit’s easy,” said Lena and scanned the table, then the sideboard, found a paper napkin and returned, brandishing it. Then she realised she had nothing to write with and frantically mimed a pen. Betty already leaned over the napkin and proffered a flash-looking shiny bullet-shaped one. Lena scribbled. “You tell me where you want it. Rowie makes one of these.” The these in question seemed to be a squarish bowl, like some organic version of a sake cup. God only knew what it contained instead of sake. “You put the end of your cable in there,” she pointed at the aperture, “Rowie does the rest. Easy.”
Addison stared, drew breath, and asked, “And does it matter what kind of communication cable I use—data, electromagnetic, optical?”
“Nope, Rowie says she’ll work that out.”
“And she’s fine with us keeping a hold of the off switch?” Captain Varma said.
“Yeah, she understands why,” Lena said.
“That is astonishing,” said Betty. “Can I come and have a look as you plug it all in?”
“Err, sure?” said Addison.
“Rowie says she’ll do you one too for the science station if you like, where she can output some cool science data for you?”
“Okay,” said Betty, “I’ll set up an extra monitor. That’ll be... interesting.”
“Good,” said the captain. “Fifteen hundred today ship’s time too soon?”
“Not if I can second some helpers who don’t mind a spacewalk, no.”
“Take who you need on my authority,” Varma said.
“Rowie says she’ll make some nice tie-downs for you on the hull.”
“Err... thanks?”
Lena smiled.
“Well, that seems like a workable plan, report into me at noon and let me know how we’re progressing. Any other questions?”
“So many questions,” said Betty.
“Any we can answer here?” Midshipman Cento spoke for the first time through the haze of their coffee. They looked bored.
“When this is all set up,” said the captain, “I’ll unseal the codes for you to send. You report to me and me alone over this. Understood.”
Cento nodded, then saluted slowly for good measure.
“Any other business?” the captain asked.
“Rowie says there’s one more thing, if nobody minds?”
“O-kay,” Varma said.
“She says can you set up another receiver dish for her on her roof, but pointing the other way to the one you’ve got?”
“Can’t she just use her alien antennae?” said Betty.
“She could,” said Lena, “but she wants to see how we’re seeing? Does that make sense? She can detect all kinds of things from all kinds of places, but she wants to know what we’re interested in.”
“I think a forward-facing radio receiver could very well be useful. Midshipman Cento?”
“Sure,” Cento said. “I’m not already busy right now.”
“If you’d join our humble team,” the bosun said, “we could achieve both things in one space-walk. Many hands make aerials work and all that?”
“Good. That’s decided then. Ping in at noon, we’ll reconvene in here for a brief catch-up after evening mess. Let’s phone home.”
