low table. There were cushions and low seats arranged around the room, all in an effort to encourage her guests to lounge instead of simply sit. The walls were decorated with oriental fans, masks and beside the door leading into her bedroom was a long tapestry of two silhouetted geisha. Beside the other door was a tapestry of a shadowy samurai. “This goes way past your chopstick collection.”
“I know, I thought if I made the place my own I'd feel more at home.”
“Did it work?”
“Sorta, but to be honest a lot of this stuff was already in the ship materialization database except for the dragon, I had to do that myself. All the materials used were really light, so it only took two days of matter rations. The kotatsu was in storage somewhere though, I had to trade for it.”
“What's a kotatsu and what did you trade?”
“It's the table, I think there's a little heater in it too. I only had to give up the furniture stacked in my side room, wanted to get rid of it anyway so I could put a second bed in,” Ashley said as she undid her gun belt and sat down at the low wooden table. “I'm on the list to get it from ship inventory. Apparently they're waiting for security to finish sweeping the junior officer's quarters before they'll release any more furniture.”
“We're getting there, don't worry. Besides, according to the computer those spaces are fully furnished but were only used for eighteen years so you'll get your guest room bed.”
Stephanie went to the materializer and ordered a green tea for herself. The transparent cover slid down and her order was prepared starting with the tall white cup then the steaming hot water was poured inside as the teabags appeared. “I'll never get over how this ship actually carries and recycles real water.”
“The Samson had water aboard. About six months worth with the recycling system.”
“The carrier I served on had an energy reserve and an emergency store of water and food, I never thought anyone did it any other way, especially on a ship three times the mass.”
“Chief Grady was saying that the Triton doesn't have an emergency store of water, doesn't need one. Most of the water on the ship runs along the walls, it's treated right there.” Ashley opened her container, revealing steaming noodles, vegetables and six white dim sum bulbs. The aroma of the spices filled the air right away and she smiled as she took a pair of chopsticks from a drawer in the table for herself and passed another pair to Stephanie, who was just sitting down. “Now, about the spot you're in, spill.”
Stephanie had the lid to her late dinner half open and stopped, looked across the table to Ashley, who stared back with an upraised eyebrow, chewing through her first bite of sliced carrot and noodle. “You have to keep this to yourself, and I mean it.”
“Promise.”
“Nono, not like the last time when you said you'd keep it to yourself and told everyone else who you thought could keep it to themselves.”
“What, Silver and Price? They didn't spread it,” Ashley replied nonchalantly.
“See? I knew you passed it around. Looks like I'll have to go talk to Chief Grady if I need someone to bounce this off of,” Stephanie concluded as she carefully dug into her steaming pile of noodles and chopped vegetables.
Ashley looked at her friend, trying to read her and at the same time trying to guess what the big issue could be while she picked at a dim sum bulb. “Wow, this has gotta be huge,” she said quietly.
“That's why I don't think you can keep it quiet.”
Ashley thought for a moment and steeled herself. “I'll keep the lid on. I don't care how much it hurts, this one doesn't get out. My lips may pout but they will be sealed.”
Stephanie couldn't help from keeping the corners of her mouth from curling up.
“Besides, looks like you're about to burst,” Ashley teased.
“You're right, but still, this has to stay in the room.”
“I'm all hush, now get with the sharing.”
“Okay. The night before Captain left we got into a big fight, I even told him to snap out of the blue he's in and things got heated.”
“Wow, he threaten to-”
“Not finished,” Stephanie interrupted.
“'Kay, go on.”
“Instead of storming off the Samson I kissed him.”
Ashley's eyes went wide, she froze mid chew, with her chopsticks half way between her mouth and food.
“Finish chewing,” Stephanie advised her.
She hurriedly munched through the mouthful of noodles and swallowed exaggeratedly, filling the room with a gulp. “There's more?”
Stephanie closed the lid to her food and slowly got to her feet, turning away from Ashley. “Oh yeah.”
“How much more? Did it turn into a snogging session? Someone catch you? What happened?”
“We, um, got together in the forward hold, the upper part.”
“With the stasis tubes?” Ashley exclaimed through a shocked grin.
“With the stasis tubes.”
“But you didn't get in that night, I dropped by your quarters-”
“Then we ran to his quarters.”
“You jez! I knew you two would bunk up someday! How was it? I mean…”
Stephanie laughed, turning beet red; “The whole night was fantastic. It think we traumatized Price though.”
“He caught you?” Ashley burst with shrieking laughter.
“I checked the security recordings for that night in the service bay and saw him running from the ship around the time things started. I've never seen him move that fast,” Stephanie said through an insuppressible giggle.
A peal of Ashley's laughter filled the room.
“Okay, get it out of your system,” Stephanie said, crossing her arms, still blushing furiously.
“You'll-” she gasped for air, “you'll have to show that to me some time. Did the receivers on the Samson catch anything?”
“Oh yeah, the whole thing. I deleted the footage.”
“Smart, I would have kept a copy though.”
“Oh no, the last thing we need is that kind of footage floating around.”
“Good point. How'd you leave things?”
“Well, things were fine at first, we were going to just leave it as a one time thing but then he said something and it just left everything wide open.”
“Oh no, what'd he say?”
“'If,' and then he just stopped. I tried to get him to spit the rest out but he just shut up.”
Ashley's mirth was replaced by sympathy. “I'm so sorry. What'd you do?”
“Well, we said we'd keep it simple, and I don't know why, but I was pissed, I just got out of there. He came by the security office and made sure things had cooled down, told me not in so many words that he still trusted me before he left.”
“So things are okay.”
“Nooooo,” Stephanie said emphatically, shaking her head and waving her hands in front of her. “Things are not okay, I'm screwed! ”
“Frost,” Ashley concluded.
“Exactly! He respected me before we got together, now it's impossible! He lost his foot because he didn't listen to me right in the middle of a crisis! His people and mine know he doesn't follow my orders and whenever I bring it up he just pats me on the head and changes the topic! He's great when it's just the two of us but everywhere else he's been an ass.”
“And Captain is well, Captain,” Ashley nodded.
“That's just it. Jake's different, better, he's been easier to be with since we ran into that slave barge. I think he's just starting to see it for himself too. Whatever he's getting from Jonas is just helping it along, he's changing like anyone else when they have a crisis, the only difference is his crisis has a name,” she sighed, looking out the faux window, a section of bulkhead a few meters wide that showed an image of the view outside. “I keep thinking
