Wait what? I stared at Eve and then Shinade and then back at Eve. As I was turning back to Shinade she nodded slowly. Of course it was mine. My first thought was what shape were the medical facilities on the Void Phoenix in to assist in a birth. Then I could see everyone staring at me, waiting for me to speak. Eve broke the moment of frozen time by volunteering to serve as the child’s nanny. She could co-op the steward bots programs…. I raised my hand to stop her because Eve seemed really excited, like a human being being genuinely excited excited.

I did the math quickly in my head…it was what 9 months for a baby to develop? So Shinade was about 50 days…so 220 days roughly. We should plan to leave in 180 days as we didn’t have a medical bot or human doctor with us. Maybe Shinade didn’t want the child? I finally spoke and asked Shinade if she would keep the baby as I truly did want children even if I felt I was currently too young to be a father and probably wouldn’t be the greatest father. Shinade broke down crying. I must have said the wrong thing and was searching on what to add to correct my error. Vanessa was hugging Shinade and I could see that she was smiling as she whispered to Shinade. So had I said the right thing?

I finally guessed that Shinade also wanted to keep the child and her emotion was relief. I then went explaining our shortcomings with medical facilities at hand to assist with her pregnancy. I said we would depart in 180 days but paused and asked Shinade if we should leave sooner? Putting the timeline in her hands should help her feel in control. I could adapt to whatever timeline was best for the mother of my child. Wow that felt weird thinking to myself…my child.

Shinade put back on her marine facade and cleared her tears. She said women had been birthing babies for thousands of years without a medical suite’s assistance and she would be fine with 180 days. Eve said we should keep Shinade on the ship and keep the gravity at .9 for the baby’s optimal development. Eve then said she was downloading courses right now from the university computer to serve as Shinade’s OB/GYN and she would fabricate the necessary tools to serve in the role. Eve was continuing…going into planning Shinade’s optimal diet when Shinade silenced her rambling with a sharp enough. Shinade patiently said she was going to eat whatever she wanted whenever she wanted and promptly left with Vanessa in tow. I told them they were headed to the other shuttle bays…they needed to use the lift to get to the crew quarters. They circled around like that was their intended direction all along. I told Eve to go with them and get them settled in to quarters on deck 9. I was curious for their feedback on the black and red color scheme.

I stood there and I was running fuel consumption projections in order to keep the grav plates at 0.9g when Henry commed me. He asked if everything was all right. I said yes and he asked about the two women I had brought back with me and also said congratulations with some nervousness in his voice. Apparently the cameras and audio had finally been connected in the shuttle bays to the bridge. I grinned before responding to Henry, yes this was a good thing and I was also happy. I told Henry to plan a crew dinner so everyone could meet and to comm me when it was ready.

I assigned some bots for the shuttle refueling and maintenance and then went to engineering. In engineering I sat at a terminal with maps of the planetoid. I was looking for natural surface features to do as little work as possible in making a cradle for the ship. It wasn’t designed to land but should be fine. I located an area near one of the cities that had not yet been explored but the city in question was connected to the spaceport so it should be flush with alien tech.

I had spent the better part of three hours working on the engineering and logistics of prepping the landing site, landing the ship and moving all my assets to this site. I was just about done when I got a message that the crew dinner was prepared in the captains briefing room. I stopped my work and headed up to eat. The steward bots were there and serving the meal which was steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a salad. Henry had stocked our stores before leaving and the stewards had cooked this meal. I complimented Henry and he preened a little.

Everyone was quiet as we ate. I guessed everyone was waiting for me to break the ice. Shinade and Vanessa looked much better after cleaning up and apparently Eve had gotten them the clothes I had purchased them. I ate and the food was quite good. I had never had steak before as it was a luxury I never craved. As I ate I formulated my thoughts and then spoke. Everyone was focused on me, even Eve who had eaten with us.

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I started by introducing Vanessa and Shinade. Then I told everyone about the planetoid. I said we were going to be exploring the planetoid and working on refurbishing the ship for the next six months here. I wasn’t sure where our next port of call would be but we would be heading out somewhere. I said everyone on the crew would receive a significant bonus and have the opportunity to depart if they choose at the port. I mentioned 20% of the metals were owned by Vanessa and Shinade. I said I would even be generous in my fee of transporting their metallic cargo to civilization as a joke which no one found funny except Eve. I then was up front with everyone on the planetoids riches and technology. I put off questions until I finished. I next went into crew assignments.

Henry was our navigator, pilot, sensors, communications and interior designer. Since he was wearing so many hats I said I thought it was best if I handed off his interior design duties to someone else. Everyone heartily agreed on that. Henry’s advanced navigation station could cycle through the other bridge stations so he could perform all the duties from the one station. Not at maximal efficiency as it was specifically designed for navigators but good enough.

Next I said Tora was our navigation engineer and sensors engineer. I was assigning her 2 of the new engineering bots. Her primary duty would be working on the alien sensor module. I didn’t think we could install it on the Void Phoenix but I wanted to understand all aspects of the massive device. Once she completed certs for sensors engineering in the university VR system I would increase her pay as well. Henry then asked if I would increase his pay and I consented yes for each bridge station cert he gained. Bridge officer certs were much easier than engineering certs though but I didn’t say that aloud.

Nero was our ships life support engineer. I was assigning him 8 of the new engineering bots. His daughter was going to be our propulsion engineer. Gabby would have to work on her certs in the computer though. She could help her father in the interim. She would have two of the engineering bots assigned to her.

Eve was going to be the ship’s shuttle pilot, alien librarian/researcher, and robotics engineer. She added nanny to the list and I said yes to that too. She would have the remaining 12 new engineering bots, the four construction bots and the two resurfacer/painter bots under her supervision.

I was going to be the ships FTL engineer, assign duties and fill in where needed. I would have all the old bots and the exterior bots under my direction. That brought me to the two new crew members.

I asked if Shinade was willing to be the ships constable and security officer and also redesign the layout of deck 8. She would be in charge of all the steward bots. She accepted with a smile. I hoped I was not giving her too much power.

I asked Vanessa to be the ships logistics officer and interior designer. I got the impression that she had a keen eye for these things. Hopefully she could move the ship away from the black and red theme and make the interior more aesthetically pleasing.

I conceded everyone was pulling multiple duties but that was the best we could do for now. After I checked the FTL drive I would be spending most of my time on the planetoid logging things and shipping artifacts, metals and technology to the ship.

The questions then came in full force. How much of a bonus? I said a years pay. Where was everyone going to be quartered? Deck 9. Henry asked if he could have the captains quarters since they were closest to the bridge. No. Nero asked about the ships shield. He found most of the shield generators had been repurposed for life support. That explained how the Wren had such a large population on the ship. No one had experience with that type of shielding so I shelved it. Truthfully I was hoping to upgrade to the alien shielding but wasn’t sure if I could reverse engineer it and make it compatible. The first tech I actually planned to work on was the hull plating. I mean how hard could that be?

Eventually the meal died down and the crew dispersed. Shinade approached me and asked if she should be sharing my quarters. I was caught flat footed and mentally could only think of reasons to say no. Instead I just said it was her decision and I would welcome her to my quarters if she wanted. Eve inserted herself unhelpfully into the conversation by saying Shinade could still have sex while pregnant. Well I hadn’t known that but said I knew that. Shinade said she would move into my quarters and left.

Vanessa caught me leaving the room. She wanted to talk privately so we moved back to the briefing room. She said she wanted to go home. She didn’t want to continue journeying the stars. She wanted me to bring her back to the Sapphire Empire. She had family and two daughters. I was more than a little shocked at the reveal. She said she had been a civilian contracted as a shuttle technician because the pay was good and hadn’t planned on going to war. She wanted to return home now…as a rich woman. I promised her I would get her back home. At least it gave me a direction to head after we finished our 180 days here.