Chapter Nine

August 25, 2940

“Come in,” Cait called as the chime to her office sounded and Bastien looked over his shoulder. As expected, a dour-looking Noah walked in. Though it was technically Alpha shift, both Bastien and Noah were currently busy with the ship’s business and the preparations for departure. The nature of ship life, Bastien thought to himself as he considered that a three-watch rotation often forced the crew to work during their supposed off hours. “Final report?” Cait asked as Noah took a seat.

“Final report,” he said as he passed the pad he carried over to the captain. Bastien met Noah’s eyes for a moment and saw the other young man give him a slightly warmer nod than usual. Noah had been a bit more friendly since Bastien had sided with him in the officers meeting two days earlier.

Cait tapped at the pad for a moment as she scanned its contents. “Looks good,” she said before looking up. “I’ll dig into it later. Highlights?”

Noah sat up a bit straighter. “I don’t necessarily believe Mr. Aldram,” he began, “but he held up under my questions. Didn’t contradict himself. Didn’t try to avoid answering my questions. He provided me with the information I wanted and admitted his knowledge gaps readily. I couldn’t find any red flags.”

“That’s good,” Bastien volunteered.

“Yes,” Noah said slowly. “I would say so. Doesn’t make this task any easier, though.” Bastien watched as Noah opened his mouth to voice another objection but the security officer seemed to think better of it and stopped. The captain had made a decision and the time for objections was over. Noah knew his job was to support the captain’s position now; just as Bastien was supposed to do. Trying to rehash prior arguments would be inappropriate without new information changing the math.

“Plan of action?” Cait asked.

“It’s in there, Captain,” Noah said with a nod to the datapad. “Basically, my analysis of the situation suggests that we load up on some useful goods and head toward Macroom. We can stop at a couple of systems along the way – normal trader activity. When we get to the Ortas system – which contains the Macroom system Link – we can see who is actually manning the gate. The reports are a bit conflicted. If it’s monarchist sympathizers, we can share with them some of Mr. Aldram’s diplomatic codes and get intelligence on the system itself. Make a decision at that time if we use the Link. If it’s Revolutionary Front forces, we act like normal traders and get a feel for how they are handling interstellar traffic. I have several proposals within depending on the information we receive.”

“Major risks of approaching the Link?” Bastien asked.

“Depends on who holds it,” Noah answered immediately. “We should hope it’s monarchists as they can feed us intelligence and are unlikely to cause us trouble. They’d likely let us through but we could be walking into the system blind. If it’s Revolutionary Front gatekeeping the traffic, we need to be prepared to run. They could try and impound the ship if they believe they can get away with it.”

“So, we should keep our distance,” Cait acknowledged. “What else?”

“If we determine using the Link to reach Macroom isn’t advisable, we’ll take the Ortas system’s third Link and head toward Altarian Coalition space. It’s a nearby political body that would be a good place to unload trade goods. There are several uninhabited systems between the Ortas system and the nearest Altarian Coalition system; plenty of places we can duck out into open space. From there, we’d use the TR Drive to circle around the Macroom System and enter it from the opposite direction. Mr. Aldram’s reports on the system show that the Kingdom’s sensor networks are all directed toward their single Link and no one will be watching for an interstellar approach.”

“Because no one else has FTL travel,” Bastien supplied.

“Right,” Noah confirmed. “There is a large asteroid cloud on the outer edge of the system that we could fly to and park behind. No one would see us coming.”

“And at that point,” Cait continued, “we could get a lay of the land and start poking around.”

“Mr. Aldram has indicated that his family should be near the outskirts of the system. We’d be where we need to be. With his codes and the names of several contacts….” Noah shrugged.

“Should be pretty safe?” Bastien asked.

Noah sighed. “Should be pretty safe if everything happens as we expect.”

“We’re going to be careful,” Cait said. “No unnecessary risks. I spoke with Mr. Aldram about an hour ago. He’s indicated that he is going to stay here on Freeport Gamma Tango since he has a duty to serve as government-in-exile should catastrophe strike the monarchy.”

“He’s not coming with us?” Bastien asked. This was the first he’d heard of it.

“He is not,” Cait said. “We’re on our own.”

“I don’t like that,” Noah said with a frown. “He should be with us to provide insights with whatever challenges might arise.”

“I told him the same thing,” Cait responded with a slight shrug. “He has a duty to his people to stay out of harm’s way, though. He said it was non-negotiable.”

“Does this change our calculus?” Bastien asked Noah.

Noah let out a sharp and irritated snort. “No,” he finally said. “I don’t think it does. We have a plan of action and his presence isn’t actually required.”

“On the bright side,” Cait said, “Mr. Aldram has pledged to provide a small shuttle to us in case we need it. Since the Grace doesn’t have any shuttles herself—”

“Blackbird notwithstanding,” Bastien interrupted.

“—Blackbird notwithstanding, yes,” Cait continued, “it may be useful to have a local craft while in the Macroom system. It will get loaded later today but not before it’s been very thoroughly checked.”

“That does open up our options,” Noah said with a nod. “I’ll get Brice and Dante to help look it over. We’ll make sure it's clean before we let it on board.”

“Perfect,” Cait said. “I’m going to talk with Spencer shortly about any potential trade goods we can load up for Macroom. Anything else?” Bastien shook his head before glancing over at Noah. The security chief still looked sour but didn’t raise an objection or offer any more insights. “Thank you, gentlemen. I expect we’ll leave port as soon as everything is loaded on board.”

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Bastien and Noah left the captain’s office a moment later and were met by Hiromi on the bridge. It wasn’t her shift but it looked like she was waiting for Noah. “You ready?” she asked.

“Sorry Hiromi,” he said quietly. “I can’t join you for dinner on the station right now. Mr. Aldram is giving us a shuttle and I need to get my team together to look it over.” The pilot’s face fell.

“Really?” she asked with a sigh. “When did that happen?”

“Just now,” Bastien said, interrupting the conversation. “The captain just told us. You guys were going to go eat?”

Noah and Hiromi nodded. “We found a restaurant that serves a sort of raw fish; this sector's version of sushi. Noah and I were going to check it out.”

“We’re likely leaving tomorrow, too,” Noah informed her. “I’m not sure we’re going to have another opportunity.”

“I told you we should have gone yesterday when we had the chance,” Hiromi scolded Noah with a small grin, “but you just had to try the noodle place.”

“It was good, though,” Noah responded with a shrug.

Hiromi sighed. “Yeah, it was. Still…”

“I’m free,” Bastien said as he looked at Hiromi. “Alpha shift has a few hours left. Interested?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah! Noah, you don’t mind?”

The other young man shook his head. “Go have fun,” he said without any hint of envy in his voice. “Thanks, Commander.”

“No problem,” Bastien said as he indicated that they should leave the Bridge. “Sounds fun.”

*****

“Noah really is a good guy,” Hiromi said as she and Bastien walked along the station corridor that led toward one of the commercial restaurant areas. “I know he can come across as a bit grumpy but—”

“Just a bit?” Bastien interrupted with a chuckle.

“Fine. He can come across as very grumpy.” Hiromi chuckled at that. “However, he is only grumpy because he cares about the Grace and wants to make sure we get home safely.”

“I get it,” Bastien said with a shrug. “He’s got a tough role to fill. The safety of the ship is his primary responsibility and our situation is pretty… unique. I don’t think there is anything in the handbook on how to deal with navigating an alien galaxy.”

“That’s true,” Hiromi said as she and Bastien entered a wider promenade with assorted eateries on either side. “Still, I know he can rub people the wrong way.”

“You two get along well,” Bastien observed.

“We get along because we remind each other of our respective siblings.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Hiromi said as she pointed out their destination. The shop was small, with a thin door and no windows to allow those walking the lane to see inside. A sign hung above the door and featured a picture of a fish leaping upstream. The alien language – translated for Bastien thanks to his IBP – read The Flying Fish. “This is it.”

The interior of the restaurant was filled with large fish-themed tapestries and it reminded Bastien a bit of a sushi spot that he and his family had enjoyed whenever they had gone to Alexandria. A pang of melancholy hit him when he and Hiromi entered. That bit of home was quite far away, he knew, and Bastien wondered for a brief moment if his parents and siblings had eaten there since he had left their home planet for the stars. The smell of spice and something sour filled his nostrils as one of the employees – a hostess who looked a bit like a humanoid shark – escorted them deeper into the lantern-lit dining room and Hiromi giggled slightly when they were deposited at a wall-adjacent table. The side panel opened the moment the two sat down and a rectangular slab of marble slid out to provide them the menus.

“Wow,” Hiromi said as she picked up her menu and glanced about the restaurant. “This place is amazing!”

“No doubt,” Bastien said as he scanned the options available on the laminated pad. The fish selection was huge and, thankfully, each option contained a small excerpt describing the preparation and taste. “Very much like sushi,” he said a moment later.

“They don’t use rice, though,” Hiromi pointed out. “Looks like everything is laid out on a bed of some fibrous fruit pulp.”

“Looks tasty,” Bastien said with a shrug before he began to really dig into the available options. A few minutes later and after the two of them had made their selections on the terminal above the side panel, Bastien turned back to the conversation. “You mentioned that you and Noah remind each other of your respective siblings?”

“That’s right,” Hiromi said as she took a long sip of the carbonated water that had been delivered by the marble slab within the wall. “I have a slightly older brother who is really serious all the time and thinks he’s always right. Noah has a slightly younger sister who he says is too bubbly for her own good. When Noah and I started working together on the Grace back in April, we sort of hit it off.”

“But you two argue a lot,” Bastien observed.

“I argue with my brother all the time but that doesn’t mean I don’t like him. He’s pretty much my best friend. Noah has said the same thing about his sister.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Bastien responded. “My siblings are four years younger than I am so I wouldn’t say we were friends, exactly.”

“That’s understandable,” Hiromi said. “Four years is a pretty big age gap.”

“I miss them,” Bastien said ruefully. “I miss everyone back home.”

Hiromi let out a sigh before she nodded. “Me too,” she said quietly. Then her voice grew more confident. “Imagine what they are going to say when we get back, though? Right? We’re going to have a pretty amazing story to tell.”

Bastien let out a little chuckle. “Yeah, I think you are right.” Then he straightened up. “So, tell me about your family?”

Though the crew of the Grace had been together for several months, Bastien knew little about some of his colleagues other than their cadet records and what they chose to share when he and Safiya met with them for mandatory mental health checkups. Those on different shifts – like he and Hiromi – didn’t have as much opportunity to socialize as did those who worked the same shift. Unless strong friendships were forged, it was easy to slip into congenial but otherwise impersonal working relationships. Going out to eat was a good way to rectify that.

Over a wonderful assortment of fresh sashimi-style fish, Hiromi told Bastien about growing up on New Dallas. She had a tight-knit family with no military connection but her parent’s work as orbital shuttle pilots had sparked in her a desire to explore the galaxy while sitting behind the controls of fast and powerful vessels. The Union Defense Force seemed a good way to do that so she enrolled – with her parent’s blessing – at age ten and excelled at the curriculum. Her focus, obviously, was on navigation and piloting.

After swapping a few tales about the early cadet years, Hiromi eventually asked Bastien about his own journey into the UDF. He paused for a moment before deciding he could share the tale. Dante already knew, Bastien having told him some time ago while they were sharing stories, and he felt as if the last few months had helped him cope with the negative feelings associated with the tribulations that brought him to space.

“I…” Hiromi said as Bastien finished telling his story. “That’s awful.”

“It was tough,” Bastien conceded. “But I got through it and I’m, in some ways, grateful for the opportunity it provided. I wasn’t thrilled that my choice was to join the UDF or spend the next few decades incarcerated – I would have much preferred to stay home with my family – but it put me here on the Grace. I feel like I can contribute to us getting home and that feeling has helped me move forward.”

“Well, I’m glad you are here,” Hiromi said with a raised glass. Bastien mirrored the gesture.

The rest of the meal went by quickly and Bastien had to admit that the restaurant was a true gem. The food was fresh and delicious. The atmosphere reminded him of human space. The company was enjoyable and getting to know Hiromi in the less formal setting helped Bastien better understand the ship’s second officer and appreciate why Cait had selected her for the post. While she was full of energy and lacked the seriousness that some of the older cadets had shown, Hiromi was intelligent, driven, and had a thoughtfulness behind her eyes that Bastien felt made her a good choice for the command team.

The bill came and, as there was a growing line at the restaurant’s entrance, the two quickly paid the appropriate credits and left. Hiromi expressed to Bastien as they walked out the door how nice it was to have a bit of cash to burn and Bastien echoed the sentiment. A quick perusal of some of the nearby storefronts finished off the evening before the two officers returned to the airlock that served as the connection to the Grace and signaled to the crewman on the other side their desire to board. Hiromi thanked Bastien for accompanying her to dinner and headed off to bed. Bastien, with Beta Shift only an hour away, went to burn off the meal in the gym before he had to take over for Cait on the Bridge.