Holly had stood an uneventful bridge watch. She turned over to Zhu and then went down to Farm Gate to relax, stopping in Officer Berthing to put on an old set of coveralls that could get dirty. Technically, farming was a collateral duty that everyone on board possessed. But she liked it. It reminded her of Earth. It was a hobby and not a chore.
And she knew there was plenty to do. They required sustenance now that they were up. They needed to harvest crops, collect eggs, thin out their schools of farmed fish, and get some maintenance done on the supporting systems. The aftereffects of the cryosleep were behind her and she was possessed of energy. She looked forward to exertion and socialization.
She entered the Gate from the accessway from Propulsion Four. She grabbed a pair of work gloves and a set of shears from the tool shelves near the door. Qureshi, Samoylova, Moussa, and Garvey were tending the rows of container crops on the lower deck. Many had already been harvested and likely replanted. She looked over at the storage bins next to the tool shelves and saw stacks of various kinds of tubers and fruits neatly arranged. Eggs from their ducks and hens were likewise stored.
Holly joined the others. Samoylova was cleaning a golden beet on a work cart to make beet kvass, which was the closest thing to an alcoholic beverage that they could produce natively on the ship. The others were going around checking the work that had already been done and performing some minor trimming. They snacked on a half-eaten watermelon.
“Good morning,” Garvey said. “How’s it on the bridge? Any news?”
“News about what?”
“News about anything,” Garvey said. “Have we found the derelict? Are there Elios out here?”
We have found it, but we aren’t going to give you an update until we know whether it’s intact and we have a plan for rendezvous and retrieval. “No updates now, sorry. I expect that we’ll compile a lot of useful information over the next couple days though. The Captain will give you an update then.”
“You know more,” Moussa said. “You just don’t want to tell us.”
“I don’t have any firm information at this time.” It was a relatively true statement. Although they had found the location and heading of the object, they weren’t yet sure about what it was or what condition it was in. But the Nineveh’s own sensors were now fixed on it and the Rangers were spreading out to gain different perspectives. They should learn more soon. She hoped they would. She understood the crew’s anxiety and wanted to relieve that.
“Let us know everything as soon as you know it,” Garvey said. “It’s creepy being cut off from everything.”
She felt the similar sentiment from the others. In truth, that isolation was getting to her too. It was nerve wracking to not hear or view any radio communications. She pointed at the watermelon. “Mind if I have a bit?” It was better to focus on something else.
“Help yourself,” Moussa said. “We were planning on putting some in the kvass.”
“That does sound good.” She saw that the crops had been recently trimmed and many harvested. Garvey was finishing up loading two carts full of trimmings that they would take to Aux One for controlled composting (to prevent methane gas production). The tree branches in the piles proved that Green Gate had been worked too. She looked over at Samoylova, who had nearly finished brushing a dozen beets, a beautiful mixture of reds and goldens. She looked around, and she heard Soliman and Fuller walking and talking on the grated deck above. “You’ve done all this?” She set her gloves on the cart and sliced a piece off the watermelon.
Samoylova and Qureshi shook their heads negatively.
“We’ve just done a bit,” Moussa said. "The Captain, Stocky, and Patterson did most of the harvesting while we slept.”
The others agreed.
Always last among the officers.
She thought back to her job search when she was finishing her Basic Interstellar Flight cert. She focused most of her attention on potential openings in the Outers to earn income while completing her education. Staying in the Core would have been better for friends and family, but she knew they would be prime pickings. Now she realized that genetically engineered supermen were everywhere. There are no places with fair competition.
She made a dejected sigh. “Well, most of it seems to be done,” she said. “How’s Green Gate look?”
“They worked that too,” Moussa said. “Most of it, anyways.”
She heard Soliman’s and Fuller’s footsteps as they climbed down the ladder from the upper deck. “They harvested the fish and shellfish, boss,” Soliman said. “Nothing needed there.”
“See,” Moussa said, “that’s why we’re just doing some light trimming. I think we’ll be getting out of here early.”
“Just the three of them did this?”
“Unless if Zhu came down here,” Moussa said.
“He doesn’t have much of a green thumb,” Fuller said. “I doubt he did much. Probably nothing.”
She agreed with his sentiment. And, although Robbie worked efficiently while they were in cryo, there was a lot of catch up work after such a long sleep. Three exhausted crewmen should not have been able to handle it. Then again, maybe none of them were truly human and cryo didn’t bother them. She sometimes wondered why she bothered trying to match people like them.
“Keep that in mind, Chief,” Garvey said with a smile. “ENG does his job and that’s it. You can’t expect this level of work out of all of us.”
Holly tensed up at the seriousness of the remark behind the confident, jovial face.
He laughed awkwardly. “Man, I know that.”
Soliman and Fuller came up beside Holly, wiped their hands on a staged towel, and sliced off some watermelon. “You ever wonder what they really think of us?” Soliman asked. “We must come off appearing almost as if we have physical disabilities.” He took a bite and shook his head.
“They probably do look down on us to a point,” Qureshi said. “Maybe the Captain too sometimes. Just out of instinct though, I don’t believe they consciously do it.”
“Stocky’s a replicant,” Fuller said while chewing. “He’s pretty much brainwashed to be obedient. I doubt he sees us as anything more than authority figures. He doesn’t have much of any sentimental or judgmental thoughts at all. Now Patterson might see us as feeble to some extent. I’m not sure. I’ve never got any criticism.”
“Well, I believe they’re better than that,” Moussa said. He nibbled another piece off his rind.
“I’m not saying they’re not,” Soliman said with food in his mouth. “But they know they can do more, and they know that they’re asked to do more because they can.”
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Moussa shrugged the comment off. De Silva and Patterson were pretty much their own bosses. They did collateral work because they wanted to.
“You know several of the engineering hands on the Abydos,” Holly said to Moussa. “You think they took advantage of Stocky? He’s very aloof. Maybe even distrustful.”
“They’ve got some good people, Moussa said. “Their Chief is a good man. He ministers their church. De Silva says their Captain is an atheist, and I don’t know what he’s like. I know their ENG leans toward atheism, but he’s results oriented and so he should have liked Stocky. Maybe they did a few times, or maybe it’s from his mining days. But we’re a better bunch than any of them.”
“Are you going to shaft him?” Qureshi asked.
“No,” he said. He looked startled.
Holly was surprised by the accusatory remark too.
“Don’t lie,” Qureshi replied. “If we want him to be a part of our family then we must treat him as such. But when the work picks up you and Zhu are going to dump most of it on him.”
Moussa nodded affirmatively. “You’re right. And I’m sorry about that. The ship’s got to run – especially out here. I’ll make it up to him afterwards. I’ll go to the Captain if I need to.”
“You do that. Come talk to me about it first and I’ll get him to agree to what you need.” She looked over the crowd. “We have to get everyone home safe. We can make up for minor wrongs to one another. Don’t fault any of us for that.” It was necessary to assign work to cover operations in Delta Hydri in the shortest amount of time. But they definitely needed to give rewards afterward.
“It really doesn’t bother him anyways,” Fuller said.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s our brother now and we’ll treat him as such.”
“I’m not arguing,” Fuller said. “I’m just saying that it doesn’t offend him. So, we don’t have to worry about it making him want to leave.”
“The man isn’t going to want to leave anyways,” Soliman said. “Patterson is to him like what catnip is to Ghost.”
“Please,” Samoylova said. Her voice projected disgust.
Holly was also wishing they would change the subject.
“It’s kind of true,” Moussa said. He continued trimming the produce without paying much attention.
“Look what they did down here,” Soliman said. “The guy is wired when he’s near her. Just watch him when they’re together.”
Fuller looked around carefully. “You need to be careful when talking about either of them. Patterson has remarkable hearing, and Stocky’s is certainly as good as hers.”
“Oh, you’re afraid your boss is going to find out people notice her big jugs?” Soliman asked.
Stop.
“Well...” Fuller said, still looking around.
“You’re afraid she’s going to find out you do!” Soliman said, laughing.
Holly wished the Captain was around so that this conversation never got started. All replicants had some peculiar behavior characteristics. It was best to just let them be. “Knock it off. And don’t start rumors and speculation on whether he has an infatuation.”
“It’s not speculation,” Fuller whispered.
Most of them were now chuckling. “He’s just got to get used to her,” Moussa said. “I remember the Captain briefing us right before she came aboard and stressing for us to be Christian and professional, and I couldn’t figure out why he was putting so much emphasis in it. Just another scientist, right? But I understood why as soon as she came through the airlock. Most of us were doing the Pepe, and even I had to look. He’ll adapt like how we did.
I know that none of us had something like her in mind when we knew we were getting our new Sci-Med Officer. And we were obvious about it for months. She knew it, and she knows about Stocky too. She handled it well with us, and we all got used to her. And I think we need to let them work this out and not talk about it.”
Holly agreed with him. Their behavior toward Patterson had been very obvious when she got aboard. Thankfully, they had gotten much better.
“Exactly,” Fuller said, looking directly at Soliman. “Infatuations happen and we shouldn’t talk about it. Stocky’s just got to grow some. You would need to also if you had spent nearly your whole life in a development program and on a superearth mining outpost.”
“Yes, we probably shouldn’t risk them overhearing us talking about a private matter.” She noticed Qureshi walk off silent and sullen. She would follow her and hopefully the rest of them would listen to her advice.
“I’ll catch you guys later, alright?” There’s nothing to do here anyways. She then went after her. She heard Soliman continue to talk about how the way they looked at Patterson was natural and understandable, but the way Stocky did wasn’t. (But he’s not human.) He told the tale of when they had convinced Patterson to make a large batch of banku with the traditional method of pounding and affirmed that Stocky would lose his mind if he had seen it. She tuned most of it out. You might one day wish you had taken my advice.
She understood their surprise at Patterson. Patterson wasn’t what she had imagined as the new doctor either. She had expected an older sort of bookish nerd who was barely competent in the operations part of deep space. Why does she even want to work here? Who steps down from LookingGlass to a tramp starship hauler? Of course, you can get almost any result you want with tailored genetics. Even a brilliant but sexy scientist who prefers small company haulers in the Outers.
Still, Patterson had proven to be a good sister in Christ and she didn’t want to hear about their lust for her. It reminded her that she would have to compete with those like Patterson in winning a mate, and that wasn’t a fair contest. And Soliman’s conduct also shamed her because she occasionally looked passionately at De Silva. And that was a greater sin because he was a married man.
It was also strange to do since he was like a hundred and ten in Sol years. He had been around forever and done it all. And that might have been part of why he was so attractive. But physiological age is what really mattered among spacers. And he was fit and fine. If only God would bless her with one like him. That was probably asking for too much, but she would be grateful for it.
She caught up with Qureshi in the middle of the passageway to Green Gate. “Hey, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
You’re not fine. You can’t lie after correcting Moussa for doing so.
They entered Green Gate and she tried to break the ice. “It’s pretty in here.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It always is.” A couple hens came their way to see if they had any food. They soon turned back toward the others, likely with disappointment.
Holly gazed at the scenery. The familiar, sturdy pecan and walnut trees spread out across the Gate. (Unlike all the other Gates, Green was a single, large volume – although there were transparent subdividers which separated it into temperate regions and a more tropical one.) The grass was a deep green and there were shrub bushes scattered around and which provided various berries for the crew. She thought back to the last supper they had (before going down into cryosleep) by the fire pit they built in the middle of the Gate. It was still there, waiting to celebrate the outbound journey. The familiar sign reading BEE-HAVE had been moved, and which indicated that the ship’s hive of bumblebees (there wasn’t enough flowering plant life to support a honeybee hive) had started a new nest.
There was a lot of plant and animal life on the Nineveh. There were several reasons for this and only a few were known by her. She just liked to see all of this life in its simple, natural state. All of it completely unaware that they were on a starship, surrounded by an environment that would kill them in seconds, and one hundred and forty light years from their original home. And neither did they know about the daily struggles to keep the ship maintained so that they could go on living.
She could almost imagine being back on Earth. She loved the challenge and mystery of deep space, but she often missed the wonderful blues and greens of the Southeastern US. “You want to take a walk?”
Qureshi nodded silently and they wandered through the trees. “They were just talking back there, you know. They didn’t mean anything.” Some of them don’t even know.
“I know,” Qureshi said. “I understand that it’s just how things are. I just didn’t want to listen to it.”
“I’m sorry. I know you’re stressed. I really do think that this is going to make things better. We’ll spend a lot more time in Zeta, and that will bring stability to our lives…and opportunities.”
“I know you meant the best. I appreciate all of you for trying to help. Even Zhu, although I’m sure he had other reasons for wanting to take on this assignment. I just feel like I have to be doing something now. And I can’t out here.”
“You are though. You are only going to age a few months biologically and then we’ll be back in Zeta.”
“That’s thinking rationally. I’m scared.”
Holly pulled her in and hugged her. “Don’t. We’re all here for you.”
“I know. I’ll make it through. It’s just hard.”
They wandered underneath the trees and came upon a coconut husk and several strawberry tops left on the ground. A treat for the night shift. Why not, they did all the work? Certainly, they broke it up with some fun.
“Holly?” Qureshi asked. “They aren’t all going to be like this? Sudden trips out near the Elios?”
“It’s hard to say what our buyer will come to expect of us. But I know they won’t find abandoned alien derelicts all the time. It should seem more normal after this. More like the Marco Polo job, or even better. And we can always quit. This is as close to the Elios as I’m willing to go.”