Scotti replied, “No, they are not. I think you’ll like it, if you give it half a chance.” The transit was a lot more responsive, now that the whole ship wasn’t trying to get to the same place at the same time. I went through the door saying, “As you were.”. Sally asked, “Would you like the conn, Boss?”
“Probably better, the Squirrels are bound to show up, sooner or later.”
“Your ship. Did you have fun in Engineering?”
“Thank you, and yes, I did. I had forgotten how good it feels to get something, or in this case, someone, running again.”
“Scotti reports that by using the bots she’s revived to revive other bots, she should have them all functional in a few hours.”
“That’s excellent! Let me know when she needs me to go talk to the ship’s AIs.”
“I will, Boss.”
“Does she have an estimate of how long it will take to get the ships ready to fly?”
“None of them have hull damage, it’s all just a lack of upkeep. She thinks twenty to forty hours, depending on how many things didn’t show on the scans.”
“Murphy is our shepherd. Let’s plan to be here fifty hours.”
“She wants me to remind you, that estimate doesn’t include fixing the smaller ships that we can load on the carriers.”
“Understood. Do you mind taking the conn for a few minutes?”
“Not at all, Boss. My ship.”
“Nope. You need to pick one of those out there. I’m keeping the Gene. Topper, please page Rhonda to the ready room.”
“On it, Boss.”
Sally asked, “You’re giving me a ship, Boss?”
“You didn’t think I certified you Captain just for fun, did you? You need to make sure the other candidates are ready to take over their ships, as well.”
“We’re still one short, Boss.”
“Find somebody to fly it, till we can strap Dingus in the big chair.”
“Yes, Boss. Can you give someone a field promotion, if I need you to?”
“Of course.” I wondered who she had in mind, but if she was ready for me to know, she would have told me. I went across to the ready room, where Rhonda was waiting on me. She said, “I know Mom would have a fit if she knew, but I needed to help the ship, and I did a good job. Please don’t put me ashore, Captain.”
“First off, it’s Commodore now, whether I like it or not. Second, I’m not upset with the work you did. As near as I could tell, you kept up with Milly and Janet, and they’ve been at this sort of thing longer than you. I am a little disappointed that you didn’t feel like you could ask me straight up, and felt the need to slip around. I thought we were friends. However, none of that is why I called you here. I need to borrow your comm.”
“Sure, but why?”
“Do you know why we had to hurry out here to salvage this place?”
“No. I guess nobody thought I had a need to know.”
“The Squirrels have an agent in the comms office. They are keeping track of my comm and tapping the messages. I messed up, and mentioned that we knew about this place, over my comm. We had to assume that they would try to get here first, to destroy the ships, before we were able to salvage them. So, I need to borrow your comm, because they wouldn’t have any reason to be tracking that.”
“You’re sneaky, Cap, um I mean Commodore.”
“Nice save.” I took her comm and called Nikki. “Rhonda, why are you calling me?”
“It’s me, Space Cadet. I’ve already gotten in enough trouble talking about things I shouldn’t on a comm we know the Squirrels are listening to, so I borrowed Rhonda’s. How are you?”
“Fine, now that I understand why you had to leave in such a hurry. You mentioned going where you are, and doing what you’re doing, when you talked to my Grandpa?”
“I did, and it took me a while to realize what I had done. I was afraid I was going to be late to the party, by the time I got here.”
“Were you?”
“Nope, we made it in time. Somebody had left some nasty party favors, but we were able to deal with that, with a little help from the girls.”
“I think that’s a story I want to ask Rhonda about when I see her.”
“Probably best. Everything okay, there?”
“Just fine. Haven’t seen those guests you were expecting, yet.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky, and I’ll be back in time for that.”
“How long are you going to be?”
“You’ve forgotten already? I thought I made more of an impression than that.”
“Not that, asshole. How long will it take to salvage the ships?”
“Scotti says she won’t know for sure until she has a better look. Could be as much as two days, they’re in poor shape.”
“See you when I see you, I guess. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She ended the connection. Rhonda asked, “That didn’t sound all that sensitive, why did you need to hide it?”
“Comms report where they are when you place a call. My comm reporting that I’m here, would get noticed.”
“There really is a lot to keep track of, isn’t there?”
“Seems that way to me.” I dialed Phonelia. She answered, “Hello, I think you have a wrong number, I don’t recognize your name.”
“Yeah, I probably do. I was looking for some crazy lady that slept in the desert for a few hundred years.”
“Bob, is that you?”
“Yes, Ma’am. How are things out in the wild stars?”
“We haven’t found anything habitable yet, or we would have checked in.”
“I figured. How about
