/I want to talk about Glados/

Francesca pings me immediately after I leave Morris’ office. /I can come to the HAB or you can come to Propulsion tonight. But I have space walks to arrange, Doctor./

/Alright, come to the civilian quarters after dinner. Doctor./

Hard not to smile at that bit. I do still have space walks to arrange out of the Fab-lab. Hunsaker hops in the jetpack and video documents the leak in the fab bay and moves aft toward port-side propulsion. I co-opt her helmet cam and swear at what I see. It looks like a giant put his thumb in a doughnut. Fuck. This is a three-stage op and I tell Ivanka and Nugget what I think. One, plug Fab-lab. Two, design a slew of cut and recover maneuvers. Three, re-fab half of propulsion.

Six hours later, someone is yelling at me for a 4 to 6 month alignment evolution for the collider. “Look. You’re telling me the Collider is out of alignment. I don’t have the calibration tool onboard, I have to make it. After that happens, I have to assemble a jig 200m across, that takes a minimum of ten minutes per arc second to align. Which comes in around five months! It will take at least seven months to resolve so you’ll have to fucking deal okay!?!”

“Mercer, report for extra duties after every watch for the next month.”

Shit, I was swearing at the XO. An officer that grew up in an honor and shame based society. Damnit. How did I lose my head so quickly? Must be the damn swarm restriction and the fact that my team is wandering around unsafe from Aether.

“Aye Ma’am.”

I’ve quit for the night. I log my night orders and the CO has essentially said whatever Nugent and Mercer need done gets done. I’ve been assigned an additional dispensation of engineering crew from both rotations, rounding me to 20 sailors. I used to have six plus me. I put my off-shift counterpart MM1 in charge of component reclamation after the day crew spent all day cutting and anchoring. My expanded team is going to be tired for a year. This isn’t sustainable.

/Francesca, imma need you to develop a plant that can snuggle my stress away, please advise/

/I got you, about the same time you invent the Ansible so I can talk to my mother/

I ping flick her face and laugh about it. /Yeah, yah, still want to talk about swarms tonight?/

She pings affirmative.

Before I leave engineering I feel a pull on my belt, “Penny, movie night?”

“Mel, I want to, but I have a meeting with . . . okay that’s not going to make any sense.”

/ET1 Hunsaker, I need an assist in the Fab-Lab Airlock./

/Roger propulsion/

I lock us both in here and take my shield down and start pulling the tether apparatus open.

“Wait, this wasn’t just a lark?”

“I can’t afford larks right now Mel. Grab the spring tensioner and start calibrating the bastard.” I breathe in deep and start tapping panel lockouts. “Mel. This is like, one step removed from mutiny stuff, you’re either in or out. Start helping with maintenance or claim a fault in your suit or something.”

She looks around to the screens and the cameras. “I’m your electrician, Chief,” Bitch purrs. Fuck Melissa, not the time.

“TLDR. The crew survived warp sickness because of an alien AI that has a directive to save first contact species until their info and data can be assimilated. The CO, The Botanist, and I were selected as representatives of Humanity and we host their tech to advance Humanity to contribute to the Andromeda Collective.” She looks like I slapped her with a fish. Her disbelief is palpable.

“I’m with you Pen, but you sound crazy. I hate to say it, but, I’m saying it.”

I smirk and know how to prove it. I black out the lights and blink furiously to activate my Dark vision. It’s really Aether vision, and my irises glow. “Look into my eyes Meli.”

“Holy shit Pen.” She kisses me quickly and starts squashing my face with her hands. “Your eyes are like pearls. Light pearls.” It takes three seconds for the wonder wears of before she shrieks. “ALEINS ARE FUCKING REAL!? AAH . . .” I pull her shield down and punch the plexiglass then point at her nose.

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She nods and I pull her shield release. “Meli, bae, calm the fuck down. This is why I was cagey. I want propulsion to be my team, like forever team. So I can start shielding you from the warp sickness.”

“Pen pen. If you say it’s for the warp sickness then half of engineering will follow you.”

I turn the lights back on and log the outage. “Could you talk to our fam? I don’t want to coerce everyone, but I want to give everyone a leg up you know?”

“You are basically the data leprechaun. If you say something, engineering is going to believe you at this point.” She pulls me in, breathing on my neck in a way that I could turn the lights off again.

“Melissa, damn, I need you to tell me you accept a foreign technology swarm and that you’ll keep the knowledge in our crew. You can decline. Obviously.”

“I accept Penny.” I click a button and the bottle sends a small cloud in her mouth, nose and ears. She’s stunned while the process endures, and I know it will take at least thirty minutes. I whisper to her that she should go to bed and spend the night assimilating. She puts her face shield up and begins the hatch release protocol.

It takes me another GD hour to finish the job I started and I’m late for the botanist. The HAB is still stationary but when I walk through the Civilian quarters’ door, I crash to the ground and the access door behind me shuts immediately. They must be in on the grav experiment too.

“Very funny Francesca, lets talk and get this done with.” I walk in and see the Botanist sitting in a blue tank and some gray sweat shorts holding a tablet picking a movie. “I am sorry, I did not expect this to be a social call?”

“Don’t be silly Penelope, Civilians can discuss business while relaxing. At the same time! Isn’t that novel.”

“You make me want to grab a down pillow and club you to surrender.”

“Pick a movie Petty Officer.”

“Captain Marvel 4. The quest for the perfect posterior pose.”

“Could you be more gay?”

I snort, “Absolutely yes.” After a brief pause I continue. “Ugh, sorry Francesca. I talk a good game but I really just want to create a community.”

“You seem like a nice girl, but I just want to talk about the tech, and it seemed that if I was interested in you that you would share more.”

Are you kidding me? Both the Captain and the Botanist tried to play me on the same day? Francesca is dumber than she looks then. I glitch her next few fantasy sims just because I can.

“Fran, this isn’t it. I’m not into deception. Good luck.” I pull myself up off the deck, done with the whole day, knowing I bought extra duty.

“Mercer, wait! I’m Sorry okay?”

“Bullshit. You’re just sorry your ploy didn’t work. I get that you’re one of three leaders of the Human sphere right now, but it’s no excuse to act like a politician. Just remember, I’m working to get everyone home right now and so are you.”

I walk away, just hoping to get to my rack before anything else can happen on this shit afternoon, but when I open the door, the Universe just keeps on giving. “Oh, hey Katie. Did the doc have us double booked?”

She has the decency to look a little embarrassed. “She’s like you, but around more.”

I mean, that makes sense, but I’d already rationalized her behavior. I was too busy to be involved, she was too scared to intrude, and then it was just easier to blame the distance of a few hundred meters and an airlock protocol. “No explanation needed hon. Your actions were always consistent. Thanks for that. This is our world now, and I can’t blame you for trying to be happy.”

“Do you hate me?” For the first time since we had sex in propulsion, she sounds vulnerable.

“No, no I don’t hate you. I want to hug you, and I want to yell at you. But that’s just my shame and hurt talking. The rest just wants to see you healthy and hale.” I slip past her and start floating, toward the HAB transfer locks.

“Penny! I . . .”

“You owe me a drink when I get us back to Earth. Maybe name a kid after me.” I wave away as the tears roll in.

I’d like to say that my float to crew berthing is full of introspection, but it’s a one woman pity party.

You seem to have time now, Penny.

Tess, you have some timing. I snipe as I grab a bite at the Cheifs’ mess and stow some pocket snacks in a cubby that the other chief’s leave for me.

Our brief time together indicates that now would be a terrible time to leave you alone. To answer your earlier questions. Primus gives you a leadership aura as do the other leadership tags. Yours cannot be overruled for any reason. It also gives you a one-time token to exchange with the Andromeda Matrix for one of knowledge, power, material gain, etcetera.

The question marks are indeed because Ess has not fully processed the morass that is your Aether state. It should be noted that a large portion of your “Primus” and first contact bonuses were used when you assumed the Symbiote as well as this swarm.

Tessa, I’ve had a shit day. And I know that of all people, we are in it together. But can you not lead me around by my nostrils right now.

It is not intentional. There is so much to know, and Humanity knows so little with such conflicting information from your fictions. You have more “level up” decisions to make about the talents you wish to pursue, but that should wait until your emotional state has leveled out some.

Your “free points” do not exist as you imagine them. Mutations will be the primary driver of physical change for you. There will also be changes to accommodate your track growth, but those changes are much fewer and not worth speculation.

I should also mention that historic predictions indicate that Ess and I will develop a combined identity.

I hope that we become besties Tessa. But you’re right. I need to level out. Can you look at our schedule tomorrow and set up a block when we can do round two of track choices? Tessa chirps the affirmative in my brain and leaves me to drag my snacks to my rack.

“I was hoping you’d come back.” Surprise pulls me into the present and makes my heart beat heavy. I freeze up not knowing what to do, feeling powerless even though I’ve just been handed an Alien Excalibur. “Jesus, Pen pen. Don’t over think it. Come for a cuddle and I’ll put on a good ass-watching flick and then I’ll boot you out of the rack come watch time.”

“Mel, did you hack my brain just now? ‘Cause that sounds perfect.” My voice is watery and shaky, but Mel holds me this time, and it’s just what I needed.