The sound of a door opening and closing of a door, followed by the scuffing of booted feet out in the hall and another door opening and closing. Cally wakes up and sits upright, piecing together the information based on the direction of the sounds. The Captain left his suite and went to the head. According to ship’s time, it’s 0503. Cally wonders if the Captain had any time in the service as she hears him leave the head and makes his way to the galley. Calley follows a similar routine before joining the Captain in the galley.

“Morning Miss Xandros, I thought you might be up around now. I’m just putting on some coffee but it’ll be a few ticks till I start making breakfast,” Vance calmly states while putting some coffee grounds in a basket.

“Morning Captain, and thank you for starting some coffee.” She pauses for a moment before continuing, “You can just call me Cally. I left the service so I don’t need to be Miss, Lieutenant, or any other title or honorific.”

He gives her an easy smile, “Then you should just call me Vance. That’s what the rest of the crew normally does unless they’re doing something more official.”

“So pre-breakfast coffee isn’t considered official around here?”

Vance chuckles, “Even breakfast isn’t official around here. I put good odds that Buzz will skip the galley this morning.”

Cally’s brow furrows, “Does he normally eat with the rest of the crew?”

“Saying he eats with us wouldn't be entirely accurate, but he usually joins us for meals so he can observe our social interactions. Although lately, Buzz has been experimenting with 'not being a morning person'," Vance explains.

Cally can hear the quotation marks around those words. "I hadn't really thought about it, but does Buzz even sleep?" she asks.

"I've never seen him resting before, but his main goal on board is to learn about other sentient beings. He's constantly asking strange questions, reading various books, and using the ansible to look things up," Vance replies.

Cally nods in understanding. "He did ask Alina and I about 'fruity flavored quantum fields'," she recalls.

Vance gestures towards the cupboard and suggests, "Why don't you grab us a couple of mugs?"

Cally hands two mugs to Vance. While pouring the coffee, he muses, "At some point, Buzz must have learned that many people claim to hate mornings and is choosing to sleep in."

He motions for Cally to sit at the table with him. "Let's discuss everyone's roles. You've met our small crew already, and we often assist each other outside of our own field of expertise. For example, even though Buzz is our main navigator, all of us take turns in the cockpit. From your jacket, I can tell you have some piloting experience," he nods towards her flight patches.

Cally concedes, “I may have flown a few birds somewhere along the way.”

Vance continues, “Alina is our engineer and the rest of us put together aren’t half as good as she is, despite her youth, at keeping this bucket space worthy. But all of us that have hands have managed to get them dirty when she asks for help.”

Cally interjects, “You mention her age as if you’re some sort of old man.”

“My daughter is only a couple of years younger than Alina. Half the time I have to keep myself from calling her a kid despite the fact that she’s in her mid twenties,” Vance quips.

“I guess that does make you an old man,” Cally replies jokingly.

Vance clears his throat while pretending to ignore that last jab, “John handles all our data work and coding tasks. Seems like half the code on this ship was custom-made by him.”

“So I know you hired me for security, which at first glance looks ludicrous on such a small ship, but considering that within a couple of hours of my arrival on board, we started smuggling cargo for some gangster, I can see why you might want me around,” Cally comments.

Vance responds, "That means all I have to do is sit around and watch while everyone else does the real work. Oh, and manage deals, paychecks, energy supplies and food stores for the ship...and don't forget union dues so we stay on good terms with a certain bald man."

Cally quips, "I'm relieved to hear you've got this whole slacking off and letting your underlings do everything well in hand."

“Another thing to let you know is how we handle food prep around here. Since I’m the early morning guy, I’ll usually make breakfast. We’ll set up a rotation for the other meals, but we don’t allow John to make dinner as he is…,” Vance pauses to choose his next word carefully, “uninspired, as a chef, and lunch is an easier affair. If there is something in particular you want to make when its your turn, just make sure I know to purchase the ingredients whenever we’re planet-side. We can give you a few days before we toss you into the rotation. All that said, I should start prepping for breakfast.”

“Would you like a hand?”, Cally asks.

Vance motions towards a block before responding, “Sure, just grab a knife.” Vance gets up and starts pulling eggs, bacon, fresh fire peaches, and more out of the cooler. Soon Cally is slicing fruit, and Vance is cooking on a heat top. The aromas from the galley seem to drag both John and Alina from their slumber.

Soon all four of them are sitting around a table together enjoying breakfast. Before taking another forkful of scrambled eggs, Vance pauses and states, “While I’m not a fan of Agros, It’s really nice to have some fresh eggs and bacon this morning.”

John chimes in, "All that matters to me is that we restocked our supply of coffee."

Cally interjects, "Weren't you up half the night watching holo-vids and drinking coffee?"

"That's precisely why morning coffee is crucial now," John responds.

“John is always up half the night watching some inane show on the holo-vid projector,” Alina mentions.

Cally looks directly at John and teases, "Didn't your parents warn you that all those holo-vids would rot your brain?"

“Nope, I was born fully grown and never had any parents,” John jokingly retorts.

“Hey, did you know that Buzz was basically born a teenager?”, Alina asks everyone.

Vance speaks up, “That must have really sucked for his parents.”

“That’s exactly what I said!”, Alina giggles.

The crew continues their breakfast conversation. Eventually, they split into two separate groups chatting about different topics.

"So Cally, today is your first full day on board. There are a few things I should go over with you, but I want you to spend a day shadowing each of our crew members." Vance begins in a more formal tone than usual.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Sounds reasonable. Whom would you like me to shadow today?" Cally inquires.

“Let’s start with the area you probably have the most familiarity with. I’m pretty sure I already heard an electrical static noise make its way to the cockpit. We should Join Buzz there.”

After Vance and Cally finish their food, they toss their dishes in the fresher and exit the galley.

Alina watches them leave and decides to change the conversation away from whatever garbage John has been watching on the holo-vid projector. “So John, does it really not bother you that we have no idea what's in that mysterious cargo box?”

John, recognizing his concern about a new cast member on the show, Robot Nannies, is no longer what they’re conversing about, changes gears to respond to Alina’s question, “It really doesn’t, but it sure seems to bother you.” A bemused smile creases John’s face.

“For ship’s safety, we should really try and find out,” Alina posits.

John shakes his head, "If you're that concerned, maybe try getting our new security officer on your side. She might be able to convince the Captain. If Vance asked me to bypass the security on that cargo, I would do it. But otherwise, no."

“I guess that makes Cally my next mark,” Alina declares.

John laughs, “You clearly haven’t seen that woman in a bar fight. She isn’t anyone’s mark.”

———

As Vance and Cally make their way into the cramped cockpit, they find Buzz already occupying what would be considered the pilot's seat. The space is filled with an array of buttons, screens, and flashing lights, making it evident that this is not a standard set-up. Vance greets Buzz with a friendly "Morning" as they settle in.

Buzz replies through the speakers with an electrical sound, "Morning Vance, morning Cally."

Vance turns to Cally and gestures towards the copilot seat beside Buzz. With two bodies squeezed in, and whatever Buzz's form may be considered, the cockpit becomes even more cramped. Cally takes a moment to scan the controls and displays before stating, "This is a rather unique set-up."

Buzz emits a static sound that she assumes is Buzz’s equivalent to a chuckle, “All the standard controls are there and in the usual place so anyone with flight training can manage her controls, but I prefer capacitive screens to things like flight yokes, so there are some additional controls that work better for me. Especially since I am capable of simultaneously manipulating so many controls as I’m not limited to four appendages like some creatures I know.” Even through the universal translator, Cally can hear Buzz’s jovial tone.

Vance settles into a jump seat at the back of the cabin, content to observe rather than intervene in the conversation between Cally and Buzz.

“So I want to start off with what John informs me is the most important feature, the coffee holder. It is magnetized so if we ever lose push fields the cup won’t just float off, but a lid is needed to ensure that the dirty water doesn’t just float around the cabin free of the cup.”

Cally looks at Buzz with a puzzled expression, “Do you even drink coffee?”

Buzz responds matter-of-factly, "Nope. On this ship, I primarily consume dead skin cells." Buzz attempts to continue, “After that, it is probably the HUD or heads up…”.

“Wait, what?”, Cally interrupts. “Let’s go back to that skin cell thing for a moment.”

From the back of the cabin, Vance stifles a laugh. Clearly Vance is intent on letting the crew work through things on their own and he intends to just be an observer in this conversation.

“So on this ship, my primary source of nutrients are the skin cells that you and the rest of the crew slough off all day long. Any of those cells that come close to me get attracted by my mild electromagnetism and I eventually convert those cells into energy much like you do with the food you consume,” Buzz explains.

Cally responds slowly, “OK, getting past the creepiness of you eating my dead skin cells, is it even feasible for you to get enough…umm…food that way?”

Buzz calmly replies, “So you are made up of about 10 trillion cells and approximately 16 percent of them are epidermal cells, so nearly 1.6 trillion skin cells make up your body. Now this is when we get into one of the disgusting parts of humans. Over 300 million of those skin cells die every year. In the past five minutes you’ve shed 3,000 skin cells.”

Cally finds herself shifting a little uncomfortably in her seat as she thinks about being covered in dead skin cells that Buzz will eventually eat. Cally pushes the oddity of that to the back of her thoughts. “We should probably get back to discussing the various system controls and displays here in the cockpit, but let’s skip all the standard ones. Understand that I’ve flown a few different craft over the years. Let’s focus on the more unusual items that are more specific to this ship including the extra displays, how the electrostatic barrier works on this freighter, what kind of weapons we have, etc.”

Cally can sense, more than see, the smile on Vance’s face as he shifts in his jump seat.

Conversation between Cally and Buzz persists with regular transitions between system operations and odd side conversations for hours. When Buzz avoiding all traditional means for changing subjects starts to float out of his seat.

Through the translator Buzz announces, “It’s almost lunch time, I’m going to see if John has managed to make something palatable for the rest of the crew. I turned on the autopilot feature and will leave the two of you to talk about me while I’m in absentia.”

Cally manages a snort laugh as Buzz floats off. She shifts over to the pilot’s chair and Vance moves up into the copilot seat. Cally asks, “Is he always like that?”

Vance offers a short response, “Pretty much.”

“Do you ever get used to it?”

“Nope,” is Vance’s one word response to Cally’s question. After a moment Vance follows up with a question of his own, “What do you think?”

Cally takes a moment to consider before responding, "Do you mean about the cockpit and navigation or about Buzz?"

Vance casually shrugs, “Either…both. Really, I just want to hear your thoughts.”

Cally observes Vance for a moment before replying, "My initial thought is that you are the most relaxed and non-authoritarian captain I have ever known. First, you let Buzz lead me down strange conversations about cup holders, dead skin cells, and brain spiders and you simply allowed us to find our own way back to the actual topic. Then, you didn’t seem to care whether Buzz told me about every single knob, switch, and panel or if I had him only tell me about the ones I wanted to know about.”

Vance’s easy smile once again plays across his face, “I did warn you that I am only nominally in charge here. Plus, Buzz is a unique crew member and I wanted to see how you would handle him. We'll be stuck together for a while before we reach our next planet, so getting along is important. Speaking of which, what do you think of our defensive systems?”

Cally seemed more comfortable moving over to this topic, “Having physical controls for modulating and rotating the electrostatic barriers seems useful, but combat experience tells me that it’s good to be able to automate that. Your power emitters on the barriers seem to be designed to accept a high power output which means you can really create an oversized space-time bubble. I’m not sure why you would want to do that with a freighter, but I know in the military we would use that for rescue missions to haul other ships through the astral plane. Then the fact that both your plasma throwers…”

Vance cuts her off, “I only asked about the defensive systems, not the plasma throwers.”

This time Cally smiles, “Everyone knows the best defense is a good offense. So as I was saying, I wasn’t expecting that your plasma throwers would have independent targeting and can be fired separately. That's quite impressive for a civilian vessel.”

“So it sounds like you want automated electrostatic barrier modulations. Any other thoughts or concerns on this topic?”, Vance queries.

Cally’s brow furrows with thought, “I want to get back to engineering and see if we have enough capacity to actually power all this stuff, and I really think you should consider replacing the guts of your rocket launcher to turn it into a proper missile launcher.”

Vance raises an eyebrow, "A missile launcher? That's not exactly a simple upgrade for an old freighter like this. It's expensive and I’m not sure if other spacers are sufficiently aware of the differences between rockets and missiles.”

Cally smirks before responding, “Oh, it’s expensive but it’s probably worth it. The kinds of people that would target this ship probably do know the difference. For you to use your plasma throwers, you would likely be in range of their plasma throwers as well. A rocket launcher doesn’t gain you much range because they could just take evasives. But a missile gives you a much greater range because of its onboard guidance system. Its mere presence warns others to back the fu…err… I mean, stay away.” Cally stumbles over that last part as she’s not yet sure what Captain Renshaw’s tolerance is for profanity.

Vance almost ignores her near verbal faux pas, but the wrinkles around his eyes says he is at least amused. “I know someone we should visit after we’re done on Leoria. I think the two of you would get along great, and the three of us can discuss missile launchers.”

“As long as this isn’t some kind of strange set-up for a blind date, I think that sounds great,” Cally replies.

“Right now, Let’s make our way to the galley,” Vance casually states while he starts moving aft.