Barely daring to breathe, I drifted back out of contact with Nellie Parr's mind. While I'd been trying to keep her from slipping away, I'd slipped into a parade rest without thinking about it. I could barely keep from stumbling as the weight of fatigue hit me. I'd reached physical exhaustion early in the day, my newly gained mass straining my augmented muscles to the limits of their endurance. I'd pushed through despite that, but Nellie's extraction nearly killed us both.

"Get her over to the nursery. There should be," I scrambled to remember who I'd assigned to the nursery. The data flickered through my head, crystal clear information from my essie and my augmentation bouncing off my consciousness like a spoon off three-day-old gelatin. "There should be some Support Cadets assigned there, and a couple of Marine Cadets if they're not available."

Darien, the Junior Cadet Captain, smiled indulgently up at me. "I'm aware, Captain. I helped you pick them out, remember?" He kept his voice too low to carry to the med techs scrambling to get Nellie to her crib. I blinked, suppressing a start as I realized who I'd been talking to. The dark skin around his creamy coffee-colored eyes crinkled as his grin stretched wider.

"That you did. Thank you, by the way," I said as his reminder brought all the data into focus, letting it cascade into my consciousness.

"And you already thanked me. How long has it been since you slept, Captain?"

I frowned down at my Junior counterpart. Former counterpart. Technically, with my promotion, I no longer rated 'Cadet' status, but I couldn't help thinking of myself as one of them. Darien Huff. Third incarnation. Command, third time running, although he'd dabbled in a few other specialties before setting on Command the first time. I'd looked before waking him up.

"Not sure..." I nudged my essie, and they flashed the data in front of my eyes. "Only six hours. Something's got to be wrong there. I'm augmented, for God's sake. I'm supposed to be able to go for days at a time without sleep."

Huff frowned. "Augmented? Fully?"

"Yeah."

"When did you get permission to get that done?"

I shrugged one shoulder; too much effort to do both. "About six hours ago."

He froze, staring up at me like I'd decided to defect to the 'Sects. Speaking slowly and carefully, he asked, "when did your augmentation begin?"

"About six hours ago." I repeated, grateful to be on autopilot again.

"You mean to tell me you've completed the augmentation process in under six hours?" He shook, visibly.

"Uh, no. Well, yeah, but no. Fourteen minutes."

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"Fourteen minutes!" he squeaked at me. "Sir, have you had any rest or recuperation since that time?"

"Uh..." I stammered, trying to recall everything I'd done since waking surrounded by stasis gel. "Wait, yeah, I had that VR planning session with First and my Guy. I mean Guy and my First. Cadet Delnot and First Officer Quick. That took over an hour."

"Realtime?"

"Subjective."

"How long real time?"

I cudgeled my brain until my essie thoughtfully scrolled a number across the bottom of my vision. "Oh! About five minutes."

He buried his face in his off hand, an oddly adult gesture for a five-year-old. A five-year-old with two hundred fifty years’ experience, I reminded myself. It still looked odd to see him shaking his head in stunned disappointment. "Sir, accelerated VR time is more mentally stressful than the same amount of real-world activity. Have you eaten, at least?"

"No working mess halls. No time. No..." I trailed off. I'd had none of something else, but for the life of me I couldn't remember.

He lowered his hand and looked up at me, pleading. "Sir, we've had the mess halls up and running for the past two hours. Standard protocol calls for a meal after stasis. There's reasons for that."

"No time."

"Sir, from what you told me when you got me up, that plan is to get everyone awake, get everyone working, and jump within... about an hour from now, yes?"

"Yeah. Gotta keep extracting."

"No, sir. You don't."

"Are you contradicting me?" I glowered down at the little imp, trying to figure out whether he meant to mutiny or not.

"No, sir. You're done, sir. Nellie was the last on your schedule. Echidna?"

"Yes, Junior Cadet Captain Huff?"

He sighed. "Man, I miss... never mind. Echidna, how long until you're physically ready to jump?"

She paused for a heartbeat. "Roughly fifty minutes, according to First Officer Quick."

"How many jump destinations have you plotted?"

"Four, Junior Cadet Captain Huff."

"Please call me Darien," he whined.

"That wouldn't be proper, Junior Cadet Captain."

He shook his head and turned back to me. "See, Captain? Everything is proceeding apace. You don't need to be doing anything right now."

"Repairs..."

"Do you have any Armoring ratings?"

Despite myself, I blushed. "No, Cadet Huff, I don't."

"Then you won't be of any use except as a pair of hands, and if I may be permitted to speak frankly?" He waited until I jerked my head in a nod. "I don't think seeing you playing gofer would help morale any. Seeing you taking your time over a meal might."

Reaction mass approaching critical. New reaction mass required within nine hundred heartbeats, or fusion shutdown will occur.

I nudged my essie for some data. I had one percent reaction mass remaining, and my power reserves had only recovered to around three percent. Completely unacceptable. I had to complain to the manufacturer. Maybe even the designer. I planned on beating the clutter out of the person who requested the changes as soon as I figured out how.

I looked down at Darien, trying my best to focus. "Food?"

"Yes, sir. Food will help, sir. Sleep would help more."

"No time. Echidna, open line to Quick."

The moment his name left my mouth, my First's voice sounded in my ear. "What do you need, Captain? My hands are a little full coordinating the projector repair, but I think I can shave another five minutes off."

"I'm going to get something to eat. The con is yours."

"I have the con, sir. Bon appétit." With that, the line went dead.

I looked down at the boy who had so many more years’ experience in my position than I did. "Care to join me?"

"I," he stopped mid-sentence, changed what he'd been about to say, "I think I ought to. When the Captain of a ship invites you to eat, you eat."

"Good. I hope I can remember how to get to the mess hall from here."