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With trembling hands, Olivia wrapped her fingers around Seraph’s flight controls. They felt right, like they had been crafted just for her. Flexing her fingers around them, she pictured herself deftly dodging the ship through treacherous space, expertly avoiding collisions and weapon fire. Quietly she went, “Pew, pew, whoosh!”
“What are you doing?”
Hastily dropping the control stick, Olivia bolted out of the chair and tried to look innocuous, wishing for a moment she hadn’t braided her dark hair so she could hide her face behind it., “Nothing! I didn’t touch anything.”
Standing in the hatch to the flight deck, Seraph’s captain, Ariana, bore an amused expression on her face. She appeared to fight it back and said with a sterner voice, “Why not? You were supposed to be getting the ship ready for launch.”
“Oh right. Yes, of course, captain. That’s what I was doing.” Olivia said, feeling her cheeks warm. At least her dark skin hid her blush. This hadn’t been the first time someone had caught her messing around with the flight controls of a ship. It had just been the first time she was supposed to be there.
Dropping back into the seat, she opened the pre-flight checklist. Ariana came all the way into the small room and surveyed everything. Olivia tried to put the captain out of her mind, but the older woman’s presence made it difficult to focus.
“Can I help you with something, Captain?” She asked nervously, hoping that Ariana had come up here for any reason that wasn’t to watch her fly the ship. Though, if this had been her ship, she would want to keep an eye on the inexperienced teenager who claimed to be able to fly.
“Did you hear that noise?” Ariana asked, gesturing around with her hand, “When I came into the room, there was a humming sound.”
“Humming sound?” Olivia asked, her cheeks flushing again.
“Yes. Kind of a bzzzz and a vroom and whoosh.” Ariana said with apparent sincerity.
“Umm.” Olivia started, but was cut off by a new voice.
“Ari, leave the poor girl alone.”
A yellow and green Slu slithered through the open door behind Ariana. An invertebrate, Slu appeared closer to a gelatinous blob than a solid figure to most humanoids. But they had a tough skin and strong, flexible muscle-like structures that allowed them to form arms that functioned better than humans. On the top of their “head,” two eyestalks protruded like antennae.
“Fine, Javi, fine.” Ariana said with a smile, “Olivia, I want you to meet our passenger, Javi Wester. We’ll be taking him to Triask.”
“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Olivia said, trying to sound as professional as she could.
A gap opened beneath Javi’s eyestalks and gave a reasonable facsimile of a smile, “And you too my dear. I look forward to a pleasant trip under your skilled hand.”
He then turned his eyestalks toward Ariana, “It seems at least some of your crew knows how to show good manners.”
“I told you not to judge all of us based on Noah.” Ariana said and then turned back to Olivia, “Javi has requested to watch our departure from the flight deck.”
Olivia glanced around the small room. It had no windows, only control panels and monitors. She suspected that what Ariana truly meant was that Javi would watch her. But they hadn’t left the Hub yet, and she didn’t want to blow her first job before she had even gotten to fly.
“Sure, I’ll make him feel right at home.”
“Okay, good. We have one stop to make before we head to Triask, PX-1099. It’s three jumps from here.”
“I’ll plot us a course!”
Javi’s eyestalks went rigid, and his body quivered slightly, “Ari, why the detour? You know how important it is I get to Triask without delay.”
“Well, if we don’t stop, we won’t make it to Triask, so the delay would be quite extensive.” Ariana said dismissively, “Now, I’ll be in weapons control and Vlasa is in the engine room. Remember to connect your handheld to Seraphi’s internal network so you can communicate with us. We’ll be out of range of the Hubs network very soon, so if there is anyone you need to send a final message to, you should do that now.”
Olivia shook her head emphatically, “No, no one there to say goodbye to. I’ve never even had a handheld until now. I’m ready.”
Ariana’s face scrunched up in a look Olivia was very familiar with, the one she called the ‘you poor dear’ look. It came out anytime an adult learned, or was reminded of, her status as an orphan. Fortunately, Ariana didn’t actually say anything, but just nodded and departed.
Glancing at Javi, Olivia wasn’t sure if Slu had a similar expression. If they did, she couldn’t read one, so she turned back to her station. She tried to ignore the feeling of being watched. Despite the prominent eyestalks, she found it relatively easy to pretend Javi wasn’t there. She guessed the fact that he could see her no matter what direction he faced, made it not as noticeable if he was watching her.
Losing herself in the task of running through the pre-flight checklist, Olivia managed to completely forget Javi was there until she pulled out the navigation charts. When she did, Javi broke the silence and said, “Why do you have those binders of charts?”
Olivia raised an eyebrow at him, “I thought the captain said you taught at the naval academy?”
“A long time ago. And I was a professor of history; I wasn’t actually a naval officer. Though I did help on the gun range sometimes.” Javi explained.
“Oh. Well, these charts contain all the astrometric data necessary to plot an FTL jump between systems. You need to know precisely where you are and where your exit point is going to be to arrive safely. Since everything is always in motion you can never make the same jump twice. Not to mention the effects of time dilation since solar systems aren’t even moving at the same speed.”
“That must be very complicated. Why not let the computer do it?”
“Oh, I’ll run it through the computer. But that’s just to check my work.”
“You like the challenge then?”
Olivia snorted, “Hardly. But I do like arriving in one piece. We wouldn’t want a rogue piece of AI code that’s infecting the navigational computer jumping us directly into a star.”
Javi nodded solemnly. She cast a curious glance at the Slu, but couldn’t read his body language. He ended up dipping his eyestalks as if in a nod and then said, “I suppose that makes sense. Even a decade later, we can never really be sure the AI is gone.”
“It better be gone. But I still won’t let a computer tell me where to go.” Olivia said, suppressing a shutter as a memory flashed through her mind. Now was not the time for that, she told herself. She completed the navigational calculations and then ran the jump on the navigational computer. There was a minor difference, but after checking her numbers, she realized it was a rounding issue and would make no difference.
Calculations complete, she entered the coordinates and then hooked her handheld into the ship’s internal network. Despite her earlier statement to Ariana, she felt a slight sadness when she disconnected from the Hub’s network. She knew a few people she could say goodbye too she supposed. But they weren’t family. They weren’t even really her friends.
“We’re ready to depart, Captain,” Olivia announced.
Ariana’s voice sounded in Olivia’s ear, “Good work. We have clearance from Hub control just as soon as a PUG cruiser clears the lane. Hold here.”
“Roger that.” Olivia said and then glanced back to Javi, “Well, make yourself comfortable. We’re ready to depart. Just have to wait for a PUG cruiser to get out of the way.”
Javi’s eyestalks scrunched down close to his head, and his body appeared to compress, “PUG cruiser? What are they doing here?”
Olivia shrugged, “Who knows? The Hub itself isn’t under their jurisdiction, but that doesn’t stop them from pushing their weight around. At least, that’s what everyone says.”
Javi didn’t say anything in reply, and she continued, “Not a fan of the PUG?”
“It’s complicated,” Javi answered.
“If you say so. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of them here, but they won the war, right? I’m always happy to see one of their ships.”
“A very sensible attitude. One I wish I had remembered.”
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. You said they were departing?”
Looking at the sensor data Olivia nodded, “No, looks like they are docking. Either way, they’re out of our departure lane now, so we can go.”
“Good. Good.” Javi said distantly.