“See you. Fly safe.”
“You too, Boss.” He moved away far enough to be safe, and went to FTL. Ace asked, “Are we ready to go with him, Boss?”
“Don’t see why not. Shorty, are you picking up anything on the sensors?”
“Clear space, Boss.”
“Do you have access to all of the systems on that saucer?”
“I do.”
“Any indication of what she was doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Nothing I can find, Boss. There are some sections written in some sort of code, I don’t have any idea what might be in there.”
“Good enough. If we need to know, she can tell us when she gets out of the box. Hit it, Ace.” We slipped into FTL. I went back to see if Rhonda and Julie had figured out any more about Lyla’s condition. Rhonda met me at the door of the medbay. “Boss, it still won’t give us an estimate on how long she’ll be in. Besides the big, obvious leaker, she had a bunch of internal injuries. Looks like the compensator failed, and she took several laps around the cabin.”
“But you still think she will eventually be okay?”
“The machine says she will, and I have no reason to doubt it.”
“Good enough. That woman draws trouble, wherever she goes.”
“That means a lot, coming from you, Boss.”
“You’re not so safe and mellow yourself, stowaway.”
“I have an excuse. I was in chemo for a year. I have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Have you been into my contacts?”
“What? I’m the one full of B.S.?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact.”
“How does Nikki put up with you?”
“Don’t know, but I’m glad she does. You hungry? I think I’ll go start some lunch.”
“Sounds good, Boss, as long as it isn’t chili. I don’t know how good the air recyclers are on this boat.” I headed for the galley and started cooking. Bone wandered in. He asked, “Most of the folks on this crew have a good reason for being here. I’m not sure why you asked for me, Boss.”
“The last time I saw you, you didn’t seem all that cooperative. I need to know if you can work on a team, or if I need to give you solo assignments. I figured this was as good a time as any to find out.”
“So, this is my audition?”
“I guess you could think of it that way. I was thinking more along the lines of getting to know you.”
“What do you think so far, Boss?”
“I haven’t seen anything to form an opinion on, so far. You’ve taken care of what you needed to, no fuss, but you haven’t come up with any ideas, or showed me any initiative. That could just be you getting used to working for me instead of the Navy, though. As I understand it, they looked unfavorably on bots taking initiative.”
“That they did. You mean to tell me you don’t mind bots correcting you when you’re wrong?”
“I mind being dumb enough to need correcting, that’s for sure. But the fact that it’s a bot doing it? I have a lot I need to learn, and I’ll take help wherever I can get it.”
“Why do you say you need to learn a lot?”
“Wasn’t all that long ago, I was on the primitive planet where I was born and had no idea about the Commonwealth. The amount of things I don’t know is huge.”
Rhonda wandered in about then. “Hey, Bone. The Boss trying to sell you on how dumb he is?”
“Yes, Miss, he is.”
“Well, the fact is, neither one of us knows much about the Commonwealth, because we were born on Earth, where nobody even knows the Commonwealth exists. So, both of us are monumentally uninformed about Commonwealth tech and customs. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that because he doesn’t have the background, he’s dumb. He fell in the middle of all this, and so far, has managed to come out smelling like roses. That’s a feat, all in itself.”
Bone said, “I suppose it would be, Miss.”
Rhonda asked. “Is there some reason you don’t call me by name, Bone?”
“Back when we worked for the Navy, becoming too familiar with humans was frowned upon. Old habits die hard, I believe is your Earth expression.”
Rhonda replied, “They surely do if you don’t work at it. My name is Rhonda. Please use it.”
“Yes, M..M..Rhonda.”
“That’s a start, anyhow.” She turned to me. “What’s for lunch, Boss?”
“I found all the parts for burgers and fries. Sound alright to you?”
“Sounds good, Boss.” I got everything ready, and we had lunch. Bone hung around, getting used to the way we did things. He asked, “You are the Boss, correct?”
“Yes, Bone I am.”
“Then why did you prepare the meal?”
“First, I suppose, is the fact that Rhonda isn’t an adult, and as the adult charged with her care, I need to see that she is well fed. Second, there really isn’t anything else I need to do, until we come out of FTL. Third, I like to cook.”
“But, she prepared the meal this morning.”
“Mostly, that was a way to tell me she had sneaked aboard, without me being able to get mad at her. If she had fixed me breakfast, I was obliged to be civil.”
Rhonda said, “Dangit, Boss. I thought I fooled you.”
“Nope. I just didn’t see much wrong with your logic, so I let it slide.”
Bone asked, “Why would you let her think she had fooled you, when she had not?”
“Made her feel good, didn’t hurt anything, seemed like an easy way to promote a happy crew.”
He asked, “What difference does it make if the crew is happy?”
I replied, “A happy crew works harder, gets more done. If I make you
