Harriet was squeezed into a tiny service tube with Sparrow, their backs pressed together as they both lay on their sides trying to find a leaky air flow conduit. The claustrophobic atmosphere wasn’t helped by Harriet’s knowledge that only the service tubes here had air and were pressurised; the compartments outside were still hard vacuum. Harriet tried not to think too much about the millimetres of metal between her and death. Both of them were spraying foam into all the joints they could see looking for the tell tale holes that would form if air was leaking out.
“So this is pretty boring Sparrow,” Harriet said, hoping to start a conversation to distract herself.
“I suppose it is, but it’s important we find this leak so the rest of the detail can start re-pressurising the system in these three compartments,” Sparrow said, “but it’s not the most stimulating work I guess.”
“Why are we up here anyway, anyone could do it.”
“But we’re the smallest, this way we can both go and get this done in half the time,” Sparrow replied.
“I guess that makes sense for you, you’re still tiny but I’m what they call statuesque,” Harriet quipped.
“Statuesque?” Sparrow asked.
“It means I’m tall,” Harriet laughed.
“Yes you are tall,” Sparrow replied, “but after me you’re definitely the skinniest, if you were any wider we wouldn’t both fit in the tube.”
“I suppose not,” Harriet admitted, “found anything yet?”
“No, not so far,” Sparrow answered.
“Me neither,” Harriet added, “I guess we’ll have to crawl to the next set of junctions then.”
“Looks that way, Harri,” Sparrow conceded, “do you want to go first?”
“Not really, but I will,” she said, starting to crawl forward, initially with difficulty as she manoeuvred past Sparrow, their bodies scraping against each other as Harriet struggled to move past the other girl. Crawling through the cramped service tube wasn’t great fun to begin with, her elbows and knees were constantly bashing against bare metal and she’d scratched herself twice already against unsanded edges of sharp metal edges where sections of the service tube were joined together.
She continued crawling until she reached the next access hatch then rolled over onto her side to look where Sparrow was. Sparrow crawled up so she was level and facing Harriet for the first time since they had climbed into the tube. They were uncomfortably close, Harriet thought, well that’s what she should have thought but really she didn’t mind much the other girl being so close that their noses were nearly touching.
“Nice to see you,” she smiled.
“Nice to see you too Harri,” the other girl replied with a smile.
“You know,” Harriet began, “apart from my personal maids I can’t think of a time I was close enough to touch another person with my nose since I was a child; well apart from all the beatings that is.”
“Well if it makes you feel any better,” Sparrow said softly, “before you carried me out of my pod I think the only people who ever touched me were the med techs who took me in and out of it.”
“That’s possibly even sadder,” Harriet sighed, and then instinctively quickly moved her head so their noses touched for the briefest of moments. “There you go, now you can say you’ve been touched by someone who isn’t a med tech.”
“Thank you, but you’ve touched me before you know,” Sparrow smiled before reaching out her hand to gently touch her cheek.
“Doesn’t count, if I was dragging you,” Harriet replied with her usual coyness, even though she could feel her face reddening, “I guess we should get on with things then.” Turning back around and starting to unscrew her access patch. She felt Sparrow twist against her back and settle down to her own work. They lay together in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Sparrow called out, “got it!” Harriet turned herself over onto her other side and looked at the little flow of air bubbling through the foam on one of the middle joints in the air conduit.
“Ok wait a second,” Harriet said, “let me turn around and I’ll come back and help you.”
“Thanks, Harri,” Sparrow said, shuffling backwards to give Harriet more room to try and turn around in the cramped tube. Harriet had managed this a couple of times already since Ms Liu had assigned them to air filtration systems ten days ago. It was an awkward manoeuvre; she had to crawl forward into more space, curl her body into a tight ball and once she was curled up she was just small enough to gradually rotate herself in the tube so she could crawl back to the otherside of the access hatch where Sparrow was working.
“Can you hold this patch in place?” Sparrow asked her as she finally managed to crawl back to Sparrow.
“Sure.” Harriet replied, pressing her fingers around two of the edges of the curved steel patch placed on a hole in the leaky conduit pipe
“Make sure you look away whilst I weld?” Sparrow warned.
“You’re not going to melt my fingers are you?” Harriet jokingly questioned.
“It’s just for a little weld at the top to hold it in place; then you can let go and I’ll finish up.” Sparrow replied taking the question seriously even though they had done this umpteen times already today.
Even so she turned her gaze away from Sparrow, who had just pulled out their welding kit from the supply bag she was dragging behind her, and looked back down the service tunnel. She heard Sparrow turn on the welder and shuffle up closer to get to the joint. Harriet tensed and realised she wasn’t sure if it was because of the imminent threat of her fingers being burnt off, even fire retardant gloves wouldn’t stop the welding arc burning through her hands; they were just there to keep sparks from burning her, or if it was because Sparrow was brushing against her again.
‘Well I had wanted to be distracted,’ she thought, ‘what was going on with her? Had I always been a trembling wreck? No, definitely not before I ended up on this whole Navy lark I was a cold-hearted bitch. What was it about this girl that had put an end to that? Was it even anything to do with Sparrow; I’ve been press-ganged, beaten, blown up, scarred, ruined in fact if I think about it, which I try not to. Surely all that in itself would change me; I have the nightmares, despite the psychological treatments they made me do, my hands shake sometimes now as well; although not when working with Sparrow. Sparrow again. Damnit. Aaargh, how could anyone maintain a cold exterior presence in the company of someone so innately pure, good, sweet and persistent at trying to be her friend. My bitch act didn’t last long, did it? Is that what it was: an act?
‘On reflection it probably was’ her head was racing now, ‘I was never happy in my old life, was I? No I guess not - all the other aldermen spawn were stuck up, pretentious, entitled and always trying to one up one and other. Not that she’d been any different, in fact I was probably the worst of them all. It didn’t matter.
‘I hated every moment of it, I guess I was just trying to make everyone else hate their lives as much as I did. Does that mean I like it here? I mean now that people other than Sparrow were speaking to me it wasn’t so bad. Ugh, how can I even think that living in a shared dorm like the lowliest of citizens wasn’t so bad. That’s what me from before would have thought. Now I guess I’m used to it and it is not so bad. No one really has much privacy or space on ship anyway. Even the state room she’d been given, when she was still the Honourable Lady Ellis - not Killick Ellis, was only the size of her wardrobe at home.
‘So why, it can’t be Sparrow, I mean she’s designed to be a component of a system not a person. Except, that was just untrue. She was a person, a beautiful, bright, gentle, wonderful person.’
Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly by the girl in question shaking her shoulder.
“Hey, what’s up?” Harriet asked, surprised.
“You weren’t answering?” Sparrow said concerned, “I finished and you were just sitting there still holding the patch and staring down the corridor. I tried talking to you and you just still stayed there unresponsive. I was worried something had happened to you.”
“Sorry lost in thought I guess,” Harriet replied sheepishly, rubbing her head.
“Ok,” Sparrow replied hesitantly, “but if anything ever is wrong tell me right away, ok.”
“Roger that Warrant,” Harriet quipped.
“I’m being serious,” Sparrow said, coming as close to pouting as she ever had.
“I know,” Harriet said softly, and reached out and took the other girl’s gloved hand in her own, then gulping she asked, “Why are you friends with me Sparrow? I mean I know we have to look out for each other given the big secret but you didn’t have to be my friend to do that. I mean if you’re thinking that you have to be my friend for me to keep your secret you know you really don’t. I would keep your secret even if you never spoke to me again. I promise.”
“I know that Harriet,” Sparrow interrupted.
‘Oh god I was rambling, I never rambled before,’ Harriet thought.
“You know,” Sparrow continued, concerned by Harriet’s worried expression, “it’s nothing about our secret. I guess it started at my commissioning party. I’d never seen anyone like you before, you were so glamorous in your dress, with your hair so prettily arranged, and your jewellery gleaming and scattering the light in the room; I wanted to talk to you but I was too nervous but I thought someone so beautiful must be a good person.”
“Ha you must be disappointed,” Harriet scoffed, “I’m a terrible person. I wanted to shoot you when we met again didn’t I?”
“You’re not a terrible person,” Sparrow said firmly, “You didn’t shoot me did you. It would have been a sensible thing to do; you’d have safeguarded your own life if you had. Instead you’re now at risk of execution. You risked so much for me, you’re not a terrible person, if you were you would never have risked so much. I knew then you were a good person even if your words were mean; I knew then you were just lonely. A lot of other pilots, most of them, act like you do and it’s because they are lonely I think, they didn’t have Ms Liu talking to them, or a Captain that invites them to dinner parties. So I thought this is a good person lashing out because they're hurting. So I decided I’d be your friend even if you didn’t want to be mine.”
“You’re amazing Sparrow,” Harriet said stunned, and then stunning herself, she put her arms around the other girl’s shoulders and pulled her in towards her so their heads bumped. It was the closest to a hug she could give the other girl in the cramped service tube. The girl who had decided to befriend the girl who would have killed her without compunction when they first met. Sparrow laughed as she did so which made her laugh too; safe in the service tube, to indulge in a bit of fraternisation between the ranks, which was not quite banned but certainly frowned upon.
Emerging from the tubes, with rest of their detail a few compartments away, they were still walking close, in each other’s bubbles, but they hadn’t even walked a half dozen steps like that when Ms Liu came charging through the bulkhead door. She stopped short at the site of them both hurriedly leaping apart.
“My, you two have gotten close haven’t you,” she said almost suspiciously, “well that’s good news really given what I’ve got to tell you.” Her face brightening
“What’s the news Ms Liu,” Sparrow said eagerly.
“And why didn’t you just ping us the orders?” Harriet added.
“Because, they’re secret orders dummy,” Ms Liu mocked, wagging her finger at Harriet, before her expression grew more serious. “Look Sparrow, I hate to say it but before we hit the anomaly your performance was dropping to dangerous levels.”
“I know,” Sparrow replied quietly, her whole form drooping as if the life was draining out of her.
“Hey,” Harriet said springing to her friend’s defence, “it’s not her fault, she’s not in a pod, it's bound to be harder.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Ms Liu replied, blindsiding Harriet, “a dip in performance was inevitable, especially with the need for manual controls but I didn’t consider the nature of the environment and what effect it would have on Sparrow,”
“What do you mean the effect on Sparrow?” Harriet asked, worried now.
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“I mean I tried my best to recreate the experience Sparrow would have had in the pod and still connected to the interface. That was a stupid mistake. Sparrow isn’t a pilot anymore; by which, before you blow your top Ms Ellis, I mean her personality has reasserted itself as the controller of Sparrow’s actions not her programming,” before turning to Sparrow and adding, “don’t worry, it’s a good thing. I’m really happy to see the Sparrow I know in control.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “it was a bad call on my part. What Sparrow needs is an environment that’s more natural and compatible with how she is now. So these are your orders. You two, yes you’re included in this Ms Ellis, are going to fit a new sensor array to Shuttle 2. This is the same sensor array the Whittington uses in the slip. You’re doing this as next time we dive into the slip you two are going to be in Shuttle 2 guiding the Whittington through it.”
“How,” Harriet exclaimed, “and why am I there, I can’t help can I and I’ll probably just distract Sparrow and get us all killed?”
“The how is simple,” Ms Liu smiled, with a slightly cruel look in her eyes, “I’ll just slave the ship’s navigation to the shuttles. As for why you, well someone needs to be there to ensure the other shuttle systems keep operating, to fix anything on the shuttle that goes wrong and to defend Sparrow if you're boarded whilst in real space, plus we’re going to be taking long trips someone needs to be there to press the emergency exit button if Sparrow falls asleep. Now tell me out of me, the Captain and Mr Choudary and you; who’s going to be most likely not to be noticed that they’re not on the duty roster?”
“I see, I guess,” Harriet conceded.
“It helps that you’re friends as well,” her expression softened with the words.
“Understood Ms Liu,” Sparrow suddenly said, startling Harriet out of the intense stare she’d still been giving Ms Liu.
“It’s not without a lot of risk,” Ms Liu continued, “but less risk than your performance continuing to drop. You’ll be entirely reliant on sensor data and what you can see out of the flight deck and both of you need to know the sensors are pre-calibrated to prioritise alerts relating to impacts on the Whittington rather than the shuttle. If the shuttle is damaged or destroyed the ship’s AI will automatically take us out of the slip. So what I’m saying is that if it’s you or the ship, the ship gets saved.”
“A sensible solution,” Sparrow answered, “we’ll start work next work shift.”. Harriet understood the logic but still felt indignant.
“Good, you’ll both get assigned to Shuttle maintenance tomorrow,” Ms Liu went on, “I’ll put the rest of your detail into hydroponic systems training until you’re done.”
“We’ll stand ready or whatever,” Harriet said sarcastically, “come on Sparrow, let’s get out of here before she gives us an actual suicide mission.” Then without waiting to be dismissed she dragged Sparrow through the bulkhead door leaving Ms Liu standing there, at first shocked before she started laughing hard, so hard that it was loud enough to irritate Harriet as she hurried them through the next compartment.
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Amir stretched out on the Captain’s sofa. He was sitting in her cabin, a can of beer open in hand and a confused look on his face. Opposite Captain Hernandez sat observing him, a glass of wine in her own hand.
“So this is lovely and all, Captain,” he said finally, “but what am I here for.”
“I don’t think our plan is going to work,” she said with a bluntness that was at odds with the relaxed demeanour she was projecting.
“Well we knew it was risky at the start, what’s changed?”
“I’ve just thought it through more. Sparrow will need to sleep - even with the standing order - what justification can I come up with to schedule in 8 hour re-entries every day? And what if she needs to piss?”
“Plastic covers for the shuttle chairs,” Amir quipped, before adding, “and it’s not like our little service tube pod has any toilet facilities anyway.”
“Very funny,” the Captain said, clearly unamused, before continuing, “but look eventually even the idiots the navy churns out from officer training these days will realise there’s one of our shuttles up ahead of us.”
“Yeah when you say all that it does sound like a bad idea. It’s not too late to call the whole thing off?”
“Yeah and instead get smashed to oblivion when Sparrow crashes,” she sighed.
“No good options,” Amir said, taking a deep swig from his beer.
“Well there is one,” the Captain said slowly.
“No, you can’t possibly be thinking...” Amir stared at his commander open-mouthed.
“We just tell the whole crew.”
“You can’t,” Amir said with the realisation that whatever he said the Captain’s mind was made up.
“We could try to keep Sparrow's identity a secret but to be honest it wouldn't stay secret for long,” she continued, ignoring Amir.
“They’d all be culpable then - it was fine when it was just us but are you really comfortable giving the whole crew a death sentence?”
“That’s what will keep it a secret from the Admiralty,” she replied.
“Nah, there’s always one wanker who will figure he will gain more by selling us out than keeping his mouth shut,” Amir countered, “trust me on this one.”
“I do,” the Captain smiled at the Captain of Marines, “but less likely if we come clean rather than be discovered.”
“Fractionally,” Amir conceded, “but can’t we just doctor the sensors to not register the shuttle?”
“I could but do we really want to go into the slip with doctored sensors?”
“I guess not.”
“No good options,” the Captain said, ruminating on Amir’s earlier comment, “in that case it’s my job to decide what the least worst option is.”
“Talk to the girls first,” Amir said, defeated before he had even known he was in a debate. “They’ve gotten close. Ms Ellis is probably going to be ostracised again as well.”
“I will,” she promised.
“Well then,” Amir scrambled for something that might change the Captain’s mind before suddenly thinking of the obvious. “There could be a mutiny you know?”
“I know,” Captain Hernandez’s relaxed mask slipped for just a fleeting second, “can I count on your marines if that did happen?”
“What’s left of them? Probably, but who knows. They respect a fighter and both Sparrow and Ms Ellis have that going for them. I think they’ll stay loyal but can I guarantee it? No.”
“Who else do you reckon?”
“Engineering will follow Chloe, no doubt about that,” Amir said, thinking aloud, “a lot of the systems techs will probably also follow her lead. Your problems are your officers and the medical, logistics, weapons, comms and scanning, military police and navigation divisions. That’s about half the crew by the way.”
“So could fall either way then,” Captain Hernandez ruminated.
“Aye,” Amir replied, “it would be bloody and we’re desperately short handed as it is.”
“I know, I think we can count on Desai. He’s a miserable sod but he’s not dreaming of high command as far as I can tell and I don’t think he really wants the responsibility of being a Captain. He’ll stick with the devil he knows. The lieutenants, I’m not sure but they’re all Honourables so in the end I expect them to make whatever decision would be based on their own self interest. The midshipmen, well they’ll just keep their head downs until they can see how the cards have fallen. Weapons and policing are probably a lost cause but it’s not like they can turn the ship’s weapons on itself; policing is the problem - you’ll need to sort that out Amir.”
“Ay, I would,” Amir agreed, “if anyone could organise a bid to take control of the ship it’d be them or me.”
The Captain raised an eyebrow but didn’t otherwise react to Amir’s implied threat, knowing it was not a serious one. She trusted the grumpy Captain of Marines even if she hadn’t known him very long. “I don’t think it will come to mutiny, it certainly could, but I think if they’re given a choice between accepting things or never getting home they’ll toe the line.”
“Until we actually get home,” Amir reminded her, “then all bets are off.”
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“So I guess from here on we'll be spending a lot of time together,” Harriet called out from inside the console she was ripping out parts from with abandon. They’d been working alone together for most of the week on the secret project to utilise the shuttle.
“I’m sorry, I could speak to Ms Liu about you having some alternative work assignments, I’ll be fine on my own” Sparrow replied.
“Nah it’s alright,” Harriet answered from inside the console, concealing the note of panic in her voice, “you’re not so bad you know.”
“Not so bad?”
“Yeah, you know,” Harriet replied sheepishly, popping her head out of the console.
“No, I don’t know.”
“I was trying to say I like hanging out with you without actually saying it,” exasperation winning out over embarrassment in Harriet’s mind.
“I see,” Sparrow said, her expression giving nothing away, “you could have just said that.”
“I could have not said anything,” Harriet huffed.
“Well I’m glad you did say,” Sparrow replied happily, “I like spending time with you too.”
For some reason Harriet blushed at the other girl's words and promptly stuck her head inside the console again.
“Well that’s worked out then hasn’t,” she called back up.
“I’m glad you both think so,” said a voice that caused both girls to leap up to attention and salute. It was the Captain along with Chloe.
“Can we help you sir, Ms Liu?” Sparrow asked.
“We need to have a talk with you both,” the Captain replied, sealing the shuttle door behind her.
“Look,” Chloe began, “Amir, the Captain and I have talked it over and we don’t think the plan is going to work. Eventually someone’s going to question why there’s a shuttle flying ahead of us, where you two are every dive and why all our dives are so short.”
“Even if we fabricated diagnostic reports showing there was a problem with the drive or with our sensors; we’d need all the techs in on our plan so they don’t report anything is wrong with the systems. Even if we actually damaged both systems - eventually people would wonder why Ms Liu hadn’t got them fixed,” the Captain added.
“I see,” said Sparrow in her usual relaxed tone.
“So what are you proposing?” Harriet replied, her voice full of concern.
“We’re going to have to come clean about the whole situation,” the Captain replied bluntly, “the only way we have a chance is if the whole crew is in on our secret and decides to keep it.”
“After all Sparrow, by now you’ve met most of the crew - they’d all be liable for execution too now under the letter of the law,” Chloe explained.
“They’ll just kill her, someone will,” Harriet interrupted, “it was my first thought when I saw her.” Then turning to Sparrow, “I’m truly sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it, it was the logical conclusion to make,” Sparrow said brightly, subtly moving a fraction closer to her, before adding to the Captain and Ms Liu, “perhaps it still is?”
“No,” Chloe said firmly, “that option is never on the table. Besides, one of the things to convince the crew is it’s a few years in the slip or thousands through normal space.”
“So when are you going to do this?” Harriet asked, her heart already full of dread.
“As soon as the shuttle’s ready. I think it will be best if Sparrow is off ship when I make the announcement.” the Captain continued. “Eventually though you’ll need to be on the quarterdeck, interacting with the crew, winning them over.”
“I’m going to disable the internal monitoring systems. I’ll say they were irreparably damaged during the last engagement. Only Amir, Ms Liu and myself will be able to reactivate them.”
“I thought that internal monitoring couldn’t be disengaged,” Harriet interrupted, remembering that fact suddenly from Sparrow’s lessons.
“Generally yes,” the Captain replied, “I have an emergency code to disable them, to be used in dire circumstances we need the power from that system to redeploy to a more critical one during battle. Obviously me giving the order is monitored and then relayed automatically over Comms to the admiralty. There’s then a Court Martial when the Whittington next makes port to determine if I was justified in my actions.”
“That doesn’t sound like much help then,” said Harriet.
“Well, no,” Ms Liu’s trademark grin finally spread over her face, “unless someone reverse engineered how the system is disabled and identified how to manually divert power away. A minor hack to glitch the video of me going into the service tunnel and done.”
“When we actually tell the crew, you’ll be both in the shuttle, launched, and Ms Liu here will take off line internal monitoring and then power down every system apart from agriculture and life support,” the Captain explained.
“So you’re worried about a mutiny?” Sparrow worriedly asked.
“Yes,” the Captain admitted, “but Mr Choudary is handling it; and there’s nothing to be gained. Even if a mutiny was successful whoever pushes me out an airlock would still have only the same choices I have. Eventually they’ll come to the same conclusion.”
“Couldn’t they just stick her back in the pod?”
“How the pod is constructed is a state secret, Ms Ellis,” Chloe replied, “I’d have to take it to part bit by bit to see how it is constructed and the majority of the components aren’t kept aboard ship - damaged pods and their pilots are sent back to the Pilot Authority for repair and a replacement fitted by their teams of techs.”
“Hang on,” Harriet was determined to make sure Chloe was right, “how come everyone believes you’ve fixed the pod then.”
“Well the thing about secrets is one of the best ways of keeping them is not to reveal there’s a secret in the first place. Only the Captain and the Chief Engineer get to know about all this in the first place and both of us had to sign the state secrets act - another death sentence I’ve gained by telling you two about it.”
“Interesting,” Sparrow said vaguely, “I never knew that.”
“Yes I doubt the Pilot Authority would want Pilots to know.”
“Ok,” Harriet said finally, responding for both of them, “but we want two years of emergency rations; if there’s a mutiny we’re diving away.”
“I wouldn’t do that, I couldn’t abandon the crew out here with negligible chance of rescue,” Sparrow replied sadly to her friend.
“No, Ms Ellis is right,” the Captain sighed, “it would be the best thing to do. Hop away and then negotiate with the mutineers for your safety in exchange for taking them through the slip.”
“No good options here,” Chloe tried to explain, “just the least worst.”
“It sucks,” Harriet said and then, not waiting to be dismissed, started working on the control panel. Sparrow shot her a worried look; not that she could see it.
“Don’t worry,” the Captain replied to Sparrow, “I don’t think Admiralty rules really apply anymore.”