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“SHE SPED UP,” SAID Lena to the captain.
All the senior staff and Lena were in the briefing room discussing the shuddering in the ship’s usually smooth flight.
“You say that like it’s a normal thing,” said Fazar.
“She’s sped up before,” Lena said.
“It’s still far from normal, we were already going faster than light,” said Betty. “It rather boggles the mind to imagine how fast we may be going now. There’s no maths for this.”
“You’d better invent some fast, Betty Brains, we’ve got a ship to steer here,” said Fazar.
Betty huffed.
“Okay, calm heads please, crew,” Captain Varma said. “Why the sudden burst of speed? We didn’t call for a course correction.”
“She keeps saying ‘He’s in trouble’.“
“Who is?”
“I don’t understand the word she uses to describe him, them—”
“But this ‘them’ is the being we’re thundering towards?” asked Fazar.
“Yes,”
“In a ship we’re no longer in charge of?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that—”
“Well, what would you say? As a child, on a navy ship. We’d all love the benefit of your naval experience,” Fazar’s voice dripped sarcasm.
“All right, that’s quite enough,” the captain said.
“The very thought of a child in charge of a naval vessel is appalling,” Fazar sneered. “I’d rather get in the jolly boat and sail home in that.”
“Good luck with that,” Jenny McGregor said. “It’ll take ye eight thousand years if we’re anywhere near Sirius by now.”
“Do you think we are?” said the captain.
“Aye, why not?” said Jenny.
“We don’t know?” said Fazar.
“No, we don’t know. I’ve poked every sensor I’ve got out of the window and none of the readings make any sense at all. We’re not anywhere,” Betty was cross. Had Fazar and her been having words before, or was it just further addition in the sum of her dislike for the man?
“It’s like a flying fish,” said Lena. “We’re out of the water right now and our eyes aren’t designed to see up there.”
“I find it difficult not knowing where my boat is!” said Fazar.
“I can give you a scope and you can look out the window yourself if you don’t believe us,” said Betty.
“Aye there’s a great view from out on the hull,” said Jenny under her breath.
Lena turned when she heard a chuckle from Ash Cento, they’d been keeping a low profile, crouched like a garden gnome on their chair, cuddling a cup of coffee. The minor outburst caused everyone to turn.
Cento raised a hand, grinning, “As you were.”
“Since you’ve woken up,” said the captain, “can you get communications from Earth while we’re here, wherever here is?”
“Not a dicky bird.”
“So, in summary,” Fazar stood, “we’re god knows where in space, in the belly of an alien and we can’t call home?”
“That about sums it up,” said Jenny.
“This is ridiculous!”
“Sit down, Fazar.” The captain banged her cup smartly on the table.
Fazar glared, paced a little more then sat.
“Thank you,” said the captain.
“There is another way to look at this,” said Betty.
“Oh?” the captain said.
“We’re testing the limits of the most staggering technology that the human race has discovered since fire. Going on an uncharted journey, exploring in all those juicy parts of the map that say, here be dragons. We’re riding the back of a whale whose intelligence is undoubted, yet different and when we return—”
“If,” said Fazar.
The captain coughed and Betty continued, “When we return, we’ll have given the admiralty the biggest tactical advantage since longitude.”
“Riding on whatever the hell this thing is?” snapped Fazar.
“Rowie’s not a thing, she’s a person!” Lena blurted.
“She’s bloody dangerous is what she is,” said Fazar.
“I disagree,” said the captain. “An elephant is dangerous if mishandled, yet Hannibal rode them over the Alps and into the history books.”
“So now we’re zookeepers?” Fazar hissed.
“It may not have occurred to you Mr Fazar.” The slight by the captain was deliberate, “but the world has changed. This creature, this species can somehow short-cut the laws of physics, allowing relative faster-than-light trips. These creatures can bend space or flip out of it, and for good or ill, it makes them the great beasts in this scenario. If we take a thousand years to go home the slow way, these things are still out there.”
“This may be the only one,” said Fazar.
“It may be, but ‘If one is going to live in the river, making an enemy of the crocodile is a terrible plan.’”
“Oh good, now it’s a crocodile,” said Fazar.
“I think you’re missing the point of that proverb, lieutenant,” said Jenny.
Fazar, huffed, stood, and returned to the coffee machine. The whole deck lurched and Fazar poured coffee into mid-air where his cup should be and poured coffee onto his trousers. He swore under his breath. Lena was at his elbow with a towel that the catering team had left with the tray the cups came on. Fazar nearly snarled and snatched the towel. Lena fled back to her seat. “What the hell was that?”
“It’s the skipping out of the water?” said Lena.
“Can your crocodile warn us next time?” said Fazar.
“Do you need medical attention, lieutenant?” said the captain.
“No. Just a change of uniform.”
“Go then, we’ll reconvene in an hour. Till then, Lena, please work with Rowie on a slightly smoother ride or a warning, if we’re to do much skipping and Mr Cento, please keep your ears on, if we skip back in for even a split second, I want to know where we are.”
“Do we want to send a message home?” said Cento.
Fazar stopped with his hand on the door.
“No, we do not,” the captain said. “But we would like to know if we can.”
“Roger that,” said Cento.
The deck lurched again. Fazar clung to the door handle, being the only one on their feet.
“As soon as you can please Lena,” the captain said.
“Aye, captain!” she said and left for her control couch. She enjoyed talking like a sailor, but just how much influence she could assert on their ship, she wasn’t sure.
