materializing your prosthetic right away sir. Sorry we couldn't grow you a foot.”
“Aye, still don't understand why,” Frost spat back irritably. “The instructions are right in the computer, if it were me I'd just follow 'em.”
“Like I said before, it's not that simple. If I grow you one and attach it but something-”
“Aye, if somethin' went wrong I could be worse off. Fine,” Frost finished for him. “Just put somethin' on that stump so my Gunners aren't lookin' at me sideways for the rest o' the trip.”
“Yes sir,” the medical tech said with a sobered nod to Frost. “Good to see you Chief,” he said to Stephanie with a small smile.
“Don't mind him, he gets irate whenever I save his ass,” Stephanie whispered as though Frost couldn't hear her.
“Oh, that explains everything,” the medical tech said, rolling his eyes as he started towards the materializer across the room.
“Save my ass?” Frost said with a raised eyebrow. “I lost some good loaders in that fight, we kept 'em off ya while you blasted at 'em.”
Stephanie stopped feigning a pleasant demeanour but kept her voice low. “We lost people. You, me, maintenance and Triton as a whole. There's no point in comparing loss.”
“Fine, I'm just sayin' that it woulda been worse if my loaders hadn't a been there.”
Stephanie sighed, more to take a moment in an attempt to remain calm than anything else. She went on in a whisper; “I told you to get back, you didn't, and the fact that you're sitting here waiting for a new foot doesn't drive anything home.”
“This is just the part o' the cost, lass. Us gunners polish our decks in blood on days like this.”
“More like testosterone,” she muttered as she turned and strode for the exit.
“Ye can't give orders on my deck lass!” Frost called after her.
“Enjoy your new foot!” she called back over her shoulder. “Should be a great battle scar to show the boys!”
Stephanie nearly walked right into Ashley as she turned the corner outside of the infirmary. She was carrying two white, blocky food containers. “Coming to visit someone?”
“I came to see you. From the sound of your talk with Frost it was a good idea,” Ashley grinned and presented one of the containers to her with an outstretched arm. “For you.”
Stephanie smiled back at her and accepted the package. “Thank you, I haven't eaten in I don't know how long.” They started walking towards the lift, both women quietly restraining themselves from stopping right on the spot and tearing into the fragrant insulated meals. “What's for dinner?”
“Dim sum, vegetable lo mein, lychee soda and a brownie.”
“Oriental again?”
“Couldn't resist, especially since the materializers in the commissaries and pubs are so much better at making food than the ones in our quarters now. The lower ranks almost don't mind having their materializers deactivated.”
They stepped into the lift and Stephanie highlighted the rear of the command deck as their destination. “Maybe he'd have some advice on what to do. I'm in a spot, Ash,” Stephanie finished in a whisper, keenly aware of the three crew members who were already in the lift.
Ashley gave her a sidelong look, the lightness and humour falling away. “Aren't you supposed to give me advice?” She whispered.
“I think the tables are turned this time,” Stephanie replied, lightening her visible mood as the lift doors opened and the express car admitted two more. She couldn't help but sigh as it started in the wrong direction, towards the front of the lower berths. “Anyway, how's the helm?”
Ashley perked up a little, as much for their audience of five as for her best friend. “Great. Panloo's taking the shift. She's doing really well, has gotten a good feel for how the ship moves.”
“The ride's been pretty smooth in ship wide sims while she's at the helm.”
“Yup, she sticks to the safe manoeuvres but I'd rather see that than anything else.”
“How's Nevin turning out?”
“Nevil, actually. He's taking the qualifier for Triton tonight.”
“That was quick.”
“Well, he was a pilot on a five M rig for a few months, in comparison the Triton's smaller.”
“I doubt he had to fly it in combat.”
“Sorry, Ma'am, but what's a five M rig?” asked a nafalli in a loose fitting maintenance vacsuit. The fur of his face stood out straighter than the average nafalli, and was an intermix of blonde and brown shades.
“S'okay, we know you're listening.” Ashley smiled at him. “It's just a shorter way of saying a fifty megaton rig, one of those really big containment.”
“Oh, thank you ma'am. I tried the Triton qualifier for fun, I can't see how anyone could pass it.”
“It's hard, you have to keep thinking in three dimensions and know where your best thrust points are. Besides, there are about two dozen tutorials leading up to the final qualifier. If you don't do most of them anyone would be pretty lost. What's your call sign? Would I have seen you in sims?”
“I don't think so, but it's Woolly.”
“Rush At Io, I remember you were part of the vanguard.”
The nafalli nodded and put his head down, his paws crossing over the back of his neck. “I didn't do very well.”
“Everyone has trouble at the start, flying is it's own way of thinking,” the lift doors opened and two of the passengers exited. The car began moving back up, to the relief of everyone aboard. “Stick to it, it'll become more natural as you go.”
“Oh, I will. I've signed on with a team, they won't let me drop out,” the doors opened once more. He and the two maintenance workers with him, both human and much smaller, got off as he said; “thank you, Commander.”
“You're welcome,” Ashley managed as the doors closed. “I'm never going to get used to that.”
“People calling you by rank?”
“Yup, and being asked for advice. It happens all the time.”
“Well, he's right, I've heard almost everyone has tried the Triton qualifier and the word is it's impossible.”
Ashley shook her head slightly. “No, you just can't let yourself slip out of three dimensional thinking and you have to account for a lot more. I mean, a lot of ships this size have a pilot, two navigators and an AI dedicated to the helm all at the same time, especially if the mass of the ship is always changing.”
Stephanie chuckled to herself and shook her head. “You've come a long way since the Samson.”
Ashley shrugged. “Didn't have a choice. I'm just glad this ship has a lot of studying material. I don't think I've ever read as much as I have in the last month. That's actually the only thing that really pisses me off about some of our new pilots and the wannabes; they don't go looking for their own information. It's all right there in the system, you just have to look it up and figure out how it works with your own style.”
“Maybe you should start telling them that.”
“Maybe, though it seems a lot easier to just answer their questions.”
“But they won't learn how to teach themselves that way, you know, learn to fish.”
“Huh?”
“You know, give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish…”
“Oh, right. Guess so.”
“Speaking of which, how is Wooly in the cockpit?”
Ashley tapped a few commands into her control unit and grimaced. “Well, he's getting better, but he's got the third highest collision rate on the ship.”
“Oh, that's not good. I hope he's a good maintenance worker,” Stephanie said as the doors opened to reveal their long awaited destination; the rear of the command deck.
They stepped out and made for Ashley's quarters, they were closer than Stephanie's by just a few doors. Upon entering Stephanie couldn't help but stop and whistle. “You did some work in here.”
The red carpeted floor of the main sitting room was decorated with a long oriental dragon that encircled a
