Added Assignment & Almost Late

Added Assignment

Month 9 Day 17

0658 Hours

Smitty

Bugalu was outraged. “First Ivy dumps me, and now you do, Mac? How could you?”

“But you don’t need me, Bugsy,” Colleen told her erstwhile lover. “And I know now that Smit does.” She turned to put her hand on Smitty’s chest and leaned against him, sending waves of glorious happiness through his body.

“Smitty...”

“Is that what he told you? Better be careful, Mac; I’ve heard Winthrop use that line, too.”

“Smitty?”

“Don’t be insulting, young man,” Smitty told him firmly. “Now, she’s let you know how she feels, and it’s time for you to move on.”

“Smitty!”

Startled, Smitty opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. He was sitting at the desk in his quarters, his head propped up on one hand. Where’s Colleen? And when did the Captain arrive? Hope she didn’t hear that conversation.

“Are you awake now, Smitty?” Jane asked in a more normal tone. “That must have been some dream you were having, with that big smile on your face. Was it about something you read in one of your magazines?”

Dream! Yes, of course that must have been a dream. She may have tried to break off with him, but he’s still hanging on, still insisting on seeing her, to ‘talk things out.’ “No, I... don’t think so,” he answered his boss. He lowered his half-asleep arm, then raised the other hand to massage a crick in his neck. “I’m surprised you got in, captain, I thought I locked my door. Why are you here so late?”

“Being captain has its privileges; when I tell the computer I want in, a simple lock is easy to overcome. And it’s not like it’s the middle of the night; you’ve got about an hour to get ready for work. I hope you can function today, because I’ve got an assignment for you, and I want it done this morning.”

“Tell me what it is, and I’ll get someone started on it right away.”

“No, I want you to do it. I don’t want to risk any further damage to a valuable member of the crew.”

“Damage?”

Jane started pacing across his living room as she explained what she wanted. “A certain young crew member has been working out on weight station C and treadmill C, experiencing her home planet gravity every day, from what I hear. She gets so used to experiencing that ‘extra’ gravity that when she lays down to sleep, the apparent lack of gravity gives her nightmares about falling off a cliff. Since her health would no doubt be effected if she gave up that time in her home world’s gravity, then the obvious answer is to adjust her bed to have the same gravity as her home world.” She stopped pacing and turned to face him. “And nobody understands gravity units like you do.”

“Colleen,” he whispered, and cleared his throat. “You’re talking about Colleen. MacDowell.”

She gave a sharp nod. “When she tried to sleep yesterday, the nightmares were back, worse than ever, after 2 weeks on light-gravity Ulseess.”

2 weeks she spent glued to Bugalu. His mood blackened at the thought, and his mouth thinned as he started using both hands to massage his neck. “Fine, I’ll do it today.”

“At 0800 hours,” Jane instructed. He gave her a confused look at her micro-managing, and she went on. “Her roommate works days, so you can’t do it before 0800. I understand MacDowell goes to bed as soon as she’s off duty, so you can’t wait any longer than 0800, or you’ll wake her. Not that she’d be sleeping well. Besides, it will give you a chance to teach her something.”

So she’s noticed I haven’t made much progress in getting Colleen cross-trained. “Right,” he agreed sourly, and turned off his computer, knowing he didn’t dare start reading again right now. He stood up and stretched, trying to ease sore and stiff muscles. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to shower and get my day started.” He headed for the bedroom without waiting for Jane to leave. She got herself in; she can see herself out.

Almost Late

Month 9 Day 17

0758 Hours

Capt Jane Burke

As the end of the midnight shift ticked down, Jane tried to keep a careful eye on the happenings at the communications console without appearing to be unduly interested. No sense in getting any gossip started about me and some random crew member. Where’s Smitty? I told him 0800, and I meant it.

“I don’t envy you that adventure,” Abdulla told her co-worker. “Just the thought makes me shiver! Cold blanket! If the cold doesn’t suck the life out of you, the weight will squish it out.”

“I understand that thought, but apparently, it was just what-“

“MacDowell!” came a crisp tone from the newly opened lift, and there was Smitty, holding the door open as he glowered at the 2 women at communications. Eager as the A shift was to leave, nobody seemed interested in joining him for a trip down. “Have you been relieved?”

“Yes, sir,” the redhead replied uncertainly. Undoubtedly, she was also put off by his unexplained anger.

“Then come with me,” he instructed. As the young woman entered the lift, Smitty had the audacity to glance at Jane with anger in his eyes.

As the lift door closed, Jane settled back in her command chair and picked an imaginary piece of lint from her uniform slacks. Well, that’s what I get for telling him when and what to teach her. He’ll get over it once he realizes I’m right. By space, she passed probation 3 months ago, and all he’s had done in that time is have her tested in computers. If she were any other communications lieutenant, she’d be half-way to being a full-fledged engineer by now! If he’s not aware of just how badly he’s treating her, by not making an effort to cross-train her, then it’s my duty to point it out to him. In the meantime, he’ll probably take it out on her. Which really will be treating her badly.

That will be something to check on. Later. And discretely, of course. She smoothed her pant leg and her brow and, as she did every morning, calmly asked, “Helm, what’s our course?”

Overheard Conversation

Month 9 Day 16

2209 Hours

Smitty

Smitty impatiently took his tray of food to a corner table and sat down, tried to divide his attention between the magazine on his datapad and his food. And then at some point, somebody’s conversation intruded, pulling his thoughts from both of his own subjects.

“Well, the good news is that your life can get back to normal, now, I suppose.”

“What do you mean by normal?”

“The same as Matt’s was; a date with a different girl every night. Or nearly every night. I’d still like to have some time with you.”

“Where is this coming from? We just spent 2 weeks together, and you didn’t have any complaints.”

“I’m not complaining,” Colleen denied. “Look, I knew my arrival here would put a kink in your love life. Figured I’d be lucky to get your attention one evening every 2 weeks, and I was ready for that. Especially after I saw you had somebody special in your life.”

“If you’re talking about Ivy, that’s over. And has been for a while.”

“Well, I don’t approve of it being over. You 2 are good for each other.”

“Not anymore.”

She hesitated. “I’m sorry about that. I know it doesn’t really help, but I truly never intended to get in the way of your love life. I simply wanted...” Her voice broke and Smitty dared to turn his head for a quick glance in their direction. She looked on the verge of tears, and Bugalu was reaching across the table for her hand.

“I know,” the helmsman told her softly. “I don’t blame you for Ivy. It just happened. If anything, I blame LaPour. He managed to convince her he was more serious than I am. Was.”

“Well, I blame me. But I was here, and I couldn’t undo that in less than 6 months. And then I had problems from the moment I stepped on this ship. Couldn’t even pass probation...”

“You did pass probation.” Bugalu pointed out.

“Yes, yes, at the last minute and by cheating. But-“

Smitty knew a sudden coldness in his stomach at the admission. How did she-

“How did you cheat?”

“By using Kolla’s knowledge to fill in my own gaps so I could write my version of that paper.”

“That’s not cheating. That’s being part of a team. Of having a partner.”

“It’s not the way I was supposed to pass probation. But... never mind, it sufficed and I passed. And now MacGreg says he’s figured out a cure for my sleep problems, so you don’t need to spend all your evenings and days off with me.”

“Then who would keep you out of trouble?”

“I think I’ve gotten better at doing that myself, Bugs. I haven’t punched anybody since I came aboard, unless you count that time I slapped a guy. Which evidently doesn’t count, because I didn’t wind up in the brig.”

Jones! I’ll skin him alive-

“Who did you slap?”

“Stop changing the subject!”

“Mac, it sounds like you’re breaking up with me.”

“Don’t be silly!”

“It’s what it sounds like. I mean, if anybody were listening.”

“Bugs, all I’m saying is that I ruined your love life at the Academy, and I never intended to repeat that when I came here. I’ve managed to make my own friends, I have my own off-duty activities to keep me busy, so you might as well get back to your own life! Like I was saying, it looked like you had a good thing with Ivy when I got here, but that’s all messed up, now.”

“You didn’t cause that,” he refuted. “LaPour did. Or maybe I did. Space, I don’t know what happened, so I don’t know who to blame, if anyone, but it’s not your fault.”

“You just said you don’t know that,” Colleen reasoned with him. “Even though we both told her we aren’t lovers, maybe she didn’t believe us, and obviously, when you started spending all your time with me, you didn’t have any time left for her. So it’s possible-“

“Wait a minute,” Bugalu broke in, and things were quiet between them for a time. “Now I understand! You don’t want me interfering with your life!” He gave a short bark of laughter. “You don’t have time for me anymore, because you’re too busy working on your Yukosk dictionary, the text book and that translation job for Smythe.”

“And getting ready to teach Yukosk classes,” she added softly.

“Right,” he agreed, and chuckled again. “That’s what you should have told me, Mac. All of that is for the good of your career, and I won’t get in the way of that. Nor will I stand between you and your friends. But I’m not willing to just pretend we’re strangers. So, you figure out how much time you can spare for me. We can talk about it at supper tomorrow. My supper, your breakfast. And don’t forget movie nights!”

Colleen hesitated for a long moment. “I was afraid it sounded... selfish.”

“Because most of your family would never consider what you wanted as important. But I do. And I was beginning to feel selfish for enjoying spending so much time together. I mean, other than you having problems. But I think there’s something you’ve forgotten in your planning every second of your spare time.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ve passed probation. On this ship, that means you are now cleared for learning engineering, to cross-train. There’s no rule that you have to follow somebody else’s time table. Check out some books from the library and get started. In fact, let’s go do that now.”

“I... I can learn by myself?”

“Why not? It’s what you’re used to. Come on.”

A long moment later, Smitty wiped sweat from his brow with his napkin and looked around, but Colleen and Bugalu were gone. Some members of the A shift were drifting in for their breakfast, and a few B shifters came in looking for a bedtime snack.

So, they spend 2 weeks together on shore leave, and now their relationship is cooling off. Could that mean she’s ready to start a new relationship? Stop it, Smitty, she isn’t for you.

Gossip With a Purpose / Time Not Wasted

Gossip With a Purpose

Month 9 Day 16

1622 Hours

Jane Burke

Jane found Drake conversing with her helmsman just outside the messhall entrance.

“Did she want breakfast or dinner?” Bugalu asked.

“She started by asking for dinner, then apparently decided it was time for breakfast, so I don’t know. I suppose as long as you bring her food, she’ll be happy.”

“Will do. Thanks, Doc.” Bugalu went inside.

Drake turned, looked behind Jane. “No Smitty tonight?”

“I don’t expect he’ll join us for supper for a week,” she returned. “All his technical manual updates and magazines came in while we were on shore leave.”

They moved inside, joined the line to select their supper. “His enthusiasm can be a bit galling,” Drake stated.

“Are you trying to tell me you haven’t spent the better part of the day perusing new medical journals that arrived?”

“Well, I don’t let it get in the way of my meals.”

“Very commendable,” Jane told him drily. “Smitty will come looking for food when he gets hungry enough.”

“It is a survival mechanism.” They were each busy selecting their food for a time, and then they found a small table against a wall to share. Keeping his voice low, Drake said, “Guess who had trouble sleeping today.”

Jane gave him a questioning look. “By ‘today’, do you mean last night? Or today?”

“Today.”

“Well, that probably narrows the possibilities to the A and C shifts. Mostly.”

“It’s MacDowell,” Drake revealed.

“Again? Really, Duck, how many times do I have to tell you to find out what her problem is?”

“That’s what I’m saying. I may have stumbled on it when she showed up at sick bay this afternoon covered in bruises from repeatedly falling out of bed today. And if I’m right, there could be a fairly simple way to fix it.”

“Good. What’s your theory?”

“Well, she didn’t have the problem until she got here, to the Fireball. This last shore leave, the first couple nights were a little rough, meaning she was startled awake a few times, but nothing really bad. Today she had a miserable time trying to sleep, and it turns out she went to the gym and sat at weight station C for a while before she went to her quarters and to bed.”

“Weight station C,” Jane muttered, wondering why that was so important. “Oh! She’s a heavy-worlder!”

“That’s right. I introduced her to weight station C myself, shortly after she got here, and it wasn’t long before she was using it every day. Then Smitty put variable gravity on treadmill C, and soon she started using that every day, too.”

“So you think her bad dreams weren’t of failing, but of falling.”

“We know she hates zero-g. After spending time in what is normal gravity for her, I’m not surprised if her brain gets confused when she’s trying to sleep in what seems like too little gravity.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to make her stop using the variable gravity stations.”

“Not unless I have to,” Drake answered, and paused to butter his bread. “I was thinking of having Smitty adjust the gravity on her bed. I mean, he did it for Takor’s nest.”

“In reverse, but I take your meaning. I’ll talk to him about it.”

“Good. Because she fell out of bed so many times today, gave herself so many bruises all up and down her back, I’m not completely certain she’ll be able to work tonight.”

“She might surprise you. There isn’t much that keeps her away from her work.”

Time Not Wasted

Month 9 Day 16

2131 Hours

Bugalu

“You’re still here?” Dr Davis whispered as she came in to check on her patient.

Bugalu set his book aside. “Did MacGregor give her a sedative or something? She’s been sound asleep since I got here. When I heard she was in here, I figured she was back to sleeping 10 to 15 minutes at a time again.”

“No sedative, just a cold blanket. He even told her when the blanket wasn’t on, she could use the computer, so maybe he had similar thoughts about how well she’d sleep this evening.

MacGregor came in behind her. “Maybe I didn’t expect her to sleep. I thought she was up for the day.”

“I am,” Mac stated, eyes still closed. “I just came down to get patched up, and as soon as the first cycle of the blanket gets done, I’ll do some computer work.”

“That blanket has been on cold this entire time?” MacGreg asked.

“No, it’s been cycling regularly,” Davis stated.

“What do you mean? What’s going on?” Mac asked, and stifled a yawn.

“You’ve been asleep since I came on duty,” Davis told her. “It’s nearly 2200 hours, and time to figure out if you’re capable of working tonight. So let’s turn off the cold blanket, let you warm up a little and see how you feel.”

“It can’t be that late,” Mac stated. “I just got here a few minutes ago.”

“It is that late,” Bugalu told her. “The breakfast I brought you is stone cold, but if you are getting up now, I will happily take you to the messhall for a fresh one.”

The 2 doctors gently removed the heavy blanket and laid it aside. Mac slowly raised up onto her elbows. “Oh! That feels much better!” Still moving carefully, she moved herself around to sit on the edge of the exam bed, gingerly stood up. “Still a twinge in the ankle, but the rest of me is just dull reminders of what they were.”

“So you will be reporting for duty tonight?” Dr Davis asked.

“Sure!”

“Good. Keep the ankle wrapped until you get off duty. Take it easy; no working out or running for a week. I don’t want you aggravating the injuries. If you think you need to come back, do. Anything else, Dr MacGregor?”

“Just a couple questions, trying to clear up something. All those weeks and months you were suffering from bad dreams, what were those dreams about?”

Mac’s face went pink. “Oh. That.”

“One theory we had was that you were afraid of failing probation. Which seemed a natural thing to worry about.”

“I gave up that theory when she was still having problems sleeping after she passed probation,” Bugalu stated.

“Yeah, it didn’t seem to make sense after that, but...” MacGreg sighed and shook his head. “I’m tired of guessing, Mac. Why not just tell us what your nightmares are about?”

Mac swallowed. “Well, I did have dreams about never passing probation, but those weren’t the problem, not really. According to pa, I’d never be anything but somebody’s wife and the mother of a dozen kids. And I’d already dumped that idea, so the test was just another expectation for me to ignore. And the longer it took me, the more determined I became. Because it wasn’t a lack of knowledge. But then the nightmares started. Just once in a while, and then every day. Then every hour. And such stupid, childish nightmares! I was too embarrassed to admit I was having nightmares about falling.”

“Falling?” Bugalu repeated, unsure he had heard her right. “You mean, like slipping and falling?”

“Falling off a cliff,” Mac corrected. “Falling off a building. Or down an elevator shaft.”

“No wonder you lost interest in sleeping,” Dr Davis stated.

“Well, I know I’ve said this before, but I think I’ve got an answer for you. Come see me tomorrow.”

“Let me guess; you’re going to have me sleep under a cold blanket, since I managed to do it today.”

“No, but I’ll hang onto that idea as a plan B,” MacGreg told her. “Now go, get some food and get ready for your shift.”

Back to Normal?

Month 9 Day 16

1531 Hours

MacGregor

Drake’s office door was open, and he heard the patient coming before he ever saw her. “Ow. Ow. Ow.” From the sounds of it, every step is painful, but what happened? Should have known this quiet period after shore leave wouldn’t last long. Not with her aboard, anyway.

Then he saw that certain redhead stop in the sick bay doorway and carefully lean against the wall to take a deep breath. “Okay, I made it this far. I’m not sure I can get any further.”

Drake got up and got as far as his office doorway, but Beth was already there, already asking, “What’s the problem?”

“I hurt,” Mac stated. “My hips, my thighs, my knees, my left ankle, my shoulders... ugh, even my neck! It all hurts!”

“What have you been doing that suddenly you’re a mass of pain?”

“Sleeping!” the redhead declared, and then clarified. “Trying to sleep. My bed hates me, keeps dumping me out, and my floor is even harder now than it was before shore leave! I’ll bet I’m a mass of bruises, and I think I may have twisted that ankle once when it got caught in the blankets as I fell.”

“Let’s see if we can get you to this first exam table,” Beth suggested, offering an arm to help support the other woman. She caught sight of Drake in his doorway and asked, “Well? Are you coming?”

“Right behind you,” he stated, stepping forward. He watched as Beth lowered the bed to its lowest setting, and Mac very gingerly sat down. “Don’t lay down,” he told her.

“Not on my back,” she told him. “Nor my sides. Sitting is bad enough.”

“Okay, you said your shoulders, hips, thighs, knees and one ankle?”

“Mm, probably should have said upper arms, because that’s where I landed, when I landed that far up.”

“Let’s take a look there, first.” He carefully raised one loose sleeve up to rest on her shoulder, and could see a dark smudge forming on the back of her arm, just below the shoulder. She had similar coloration on the other arm, now that Beth had raised that sleeve too. And one elbow was developing some color, too. “How many times did you fall?”

“I wasn’t keeping track,” she returned. “I was just trying to sleep. Maybe a dozen. Or more. I started feeling like I should have just stayed on Weight Station C.”

“You already worked out today?”

“No, I didn’t have a spotter. But I had a really busy night, trying to process all that mail that’s been piling up. One item was a letter from Kevin, my cousin, who I don’t hear from very often, so on top of being really tired, I got homesick. So I went to the gym and spent some time just sitting in Gaelund gravity. Which made me even more tired, so I went home and went to bed.”

“How did you ever get through the Academy if you kept falling out of bed every night?” Beth asked.

“I didn’t fall out of bed at the Academy,” was the answer. “I didn’t start that until after I got here, to the Fireball.”

“Well, it must have made it difficult to enjoy your shore leave,” Drake observed.

“No, I didn’t do it on shore leave, either,” she answered. “Oh, the first couple nights were a little rough; I was startled awake a few times. Don’t know why. But after the first couple nights, I slept fine. I had really hoped I had gotten over whatever was causing me to sleep so poorly!”

“Yes, that would be nice, even if we still didn’t know what causes this problem for you,” Beth sympathized.

“Did you take a nap before you reported for work last night?”

“Ahh, no,” Mac admitted. “I was excited to get back, spent the evening working on my Yukosk dictionary. Della had to pull me away from it.”

Della didn’t have a date? No, not going to ask that. None of my business.

“I was going to work on it again this evening,” Mac went on. “But once I realized how much pain I was in, I knew I needed to get here and let you medicals patch me back together.”

“Lay down-“ Drake began.

“Do I have to?”

“On your stomach,” he finished.

“Thank you. That will be much easier.” She slowly rose to her feet, turned around, and lowered herself to the bed again, laying on her stomach.

Drake turned to Beth. “Wrap the ankle, drape an ice blanket over her. Half an hour on, half an hour off. If she feels like it, she can use the computer when she’s not under the blanket.”

“Thank you, Mac,” the redhead told him. “Any chance I could get some supper? Um, breakfast?”

“I’ll speak to Bugalu in the messhall and have him bring you something. Can you hook up with your computer from here, or should I send for Oakhurst to help?”

“No, computers make sense. I won’t have any problems with that.”

“Good. Are you scheduled to work tonight?”

“Ye-e-es,” she answered uncertainly.

“I think you’ll be able to,” he reassured her. “But I’m going to tell Dr Davis that if you don’t feel you can do it by 2200 hours, she’s to notify engineering that you’re in sick bay.”

She sighed in resignation. “Okay.”

Beth was back with Nurse Karu, who carried the heavy ice blanket. While Beth wrapped Mac’s ankle, Drake helped Karu drape the blanket over Mac’s back and turned it on.

“Oh, that’s already cold,” Mac stated.

Karu giggled. “It’s supposed to be.”

“Smaller ice packs take time to make an impression.”

“It’s assumed that if you need the broad coverage of an ice blanket, you need it cold right away,” Drake told his patient. “I’m glad you came in to get this taken care of as quickly as you did. Not like the last bruise of yours I had to treat.”

“It’s the way you treated the last one, without giving me grief over what I’d done, that brought me in this time. Well, plus the fact I could hardly function, with so many parts of me in pain.”

“Just try to relax and let my old fashioned medicine do its job.”

“Okay. But don’t forget to tell Bugs to bring me some food.”

“I won’t forget,” he promised. As they walked out of the examination room, Beth turned on some quiet music to help the patient relax.

Shore Leave’s End

Month 9 Day 15

Shore Leave Day 16

0731 Hours

Capt Jane Burke

Jane sipped her coffee as she took the oversized datapad from the dock supervisor and started glancing through the lists of items ordered to be delivered to the Fireball today. There were medical supplies for sick bay, gardening supplies for the arboretum, tons of all kinds of food for the pantry... It wasn’t until she got to the requested supplies for security that she slowed down and actually read the list. Good. No exotic weapons requested, not even inordinate amounts of armory requested. With that, she signed her approval with a flourish and was ready to hand it back before she remembered...

“Oh, wait a minute.” What was the name of that local fruit? “I’ve heard of a native fruit or berry that sometimes produces an allergic reaction. I can’t remember what it’s called.”

“You probably mean Oyrt berry,” the local woman answered. “If you’re worried that some of it was included in your food supplies, don’t be; we don’t export it.”

“That’s good. Apparently, one crew member already had a bad reaction to it.” And right now, I can’t remember who it was, either. Come on, Jane, you’re not old enough to have memory lapses. She spent a few minutes watching boxes and crates being loaded into the lower levels of the space elevator but it was obvious the dock hands knew their business, so she wandered off and headed for the upper level of the elevator.

It was the upper level where passengers would pass the time during the trip to Port Station Gortia. It would be a long trip, and there had been an effort made to provide comfort and entertainment for the passengers; storage space for their luggage, dispensers for snacks and beverages, along with tables and chairs. And several alcoves where groups could watch a movie or play electronic games. There were even some curtained bunks for those who needed a nap. Those looked so comfortable, Jane almost regretted having slept well last night. Her duffel bag was already delivered to the luggage area.

“Good morning, Captain.” Chef Anna Hamara came aboard, put her duffel next to the captain’s and headed for the snack area. “I took the redeye through 13 time zones and a date line. I’m going to have a bite to eat and claim one of those bunks.”

Jane joined her, sitting at a table with her half-finished coffee. “I was going to warn you to be careful what local foods you splurged on adding to our pantry. I heard one native fruit can produce a strong allergic reaction, and one of our crew has already experienced it.”

“So Drake informed me last week,” Anna stated. “Those particular berries are very tasty, I liked them a lot. But by the time Drake told me about Mac, I’d already given up, because they don’t export them. Because of that potential.”

“So the dock supervisor informed me.” She shook her head in non-surprise. “Should have known it would be the redhead.”

“She does seem to have a knack for being the odd person out,” doesn’t she?” Anna sat down with a hot omelette and a container of juice. She leaned forward and half whispered, “I heard she got invited to one of Capac’s card games and didn’t realize until half way through it that it was strip poker!”

“That’s not fair,” Drake spoke up as he walked over from the luggage area. “It only took her 1 hand to find out it was strip poker. Although, come to think of it, somebody told her, because she’d lost that hand.”

Jane smiled, then wiped it off her face. “Much as I enjoy a little gossip from time to time, I’ve already heard that story. And I can’t have crew members hearing me gossiping with senior officers when gossip is officially discouraged. So, come by my quarters some evening and fill me up with all the gossip you’ve got.”

“You can count on it,” Anna promised. “Did you have a good shore leave, captain?”

“Very enjoyable,” Jane replied without going into details. “And you look like you did, too, Anna. You are positively glowing.”

Anna laughed. “Lots of sun in those southern islands! Mostly, I did what I should have done long ago: Got away from everything and did some soul searching.”

“I hate to say it, but you’ve been hiding away for most of 2 years or more, even though you’ve been aboard.”

“Oh, that wasn’t the part I meant I should have done long ago. It was the soul searching.”

“Did you decide anything?”

“Yes. Michael is not worth another minute of my time. Thinking back on it, he probably wasn’t worth it when he was around. I never should have listened to him about becoming ‘exclusive’. Especially since he only meant for it to apply to me.”

“I tried to hint...”

“I was too besotted... no, make that brain-washed, to have paid any attention to anything anybody said. Just ask Smitty.”

“Ask me what?” The man in question stood at the top of the gangway, a steaming mug in one hand and his duffel bag in the other.

“I was there,” Jane reminded her chef. “I don’t need to ask him. Smitty, she’s saying Michael is out of her system. So, tell us, Drake and Smitty, how your vacations were. I haven’t seen either of you since our game of Survival.”

“Another game of Survival?” Anna asked. “I’d have thought Moor learned his lesson last time.”

“It wasn’t Moor,” Smitty told her. “It was Bugalu.”

“Bugalu!” Anna repeated in surprise. “Stepping on a higher officer’s toes?”

“I think he was testing the water,” Jane answered. And a couple of his choices were... unorthodox.” I’m still wondering why he made those choices. “I haven’t studied the results yet...”

“I think they won,” Drake stated. “After all, they accomplished their mission, and we didn’t.”

“They wouldn’t have had a mission if we hadn’t failed ours,” Smitty objected.

Jane laughed. “I’m pretty sure the computer would have pretended we had failed. Especially since their mission to rescue us started at the same time as our mission to avoid being caught.”

“Oh, that sounds like an intriguing scenario for Survival. I’m sorry I missed that.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” Jane told her. “I not only acquired the usual download, I bought the more expensive video of the game. It will find its way to the library, and I expect plenty of people will be willing to tell me exactly where I went wrong. But I knew a year ago when he approached me with the challenge that playing against Bugalu would be far different than playing against Moor.”

“Does that mean I should be wary of a young buck trying for my job?” Moor asked as he put his duffel bag in the luggage area.

“Not at all,” Jane returned. “It merely means I know your methods, your style. I’ve had far less opportunity to observe Bugalu in a command capacity.”

“He did a good job,” Moor commented. “I’d like a chance to study his techniques myself.”

“The download won’t be available until after the 2 teams have had a chance to study it and discuss it. I want both teams to discuss it together. And, Smitty, I want your thoughts on what MacDowell did to the computer to get the kind of results she got.”

“Yes, I’ve been going through the notes we made as we... undid what she’d done.”

“Well, this has been fun,” Anna said, standing up and gathering her plate and things together to recycle. “But as I told Jane, I took the redeye from the southern islands half a world away, so I’m going to turn in for a nap.”

“Before the entire crew starts to show up, why don’t the rest of us take a stab at a game of Attakke? I can’t quite get the hang of it,” Drake suggested.

As they moved toward an alcove, Jane wondered what kind of report she’d get from Smitty on what the redhead had done during the other game. Will he be irritated and stodgy about her unorthodox methods? Or pleasantly surprised by how much those methods had accomplished? I know she keeps surprising me.