“Cameron and I will be able to learn anything within minutes if not moments,” Butler reassured.
“I as well,” Wruck reassured. “We have full faith in the Ard Ri, Mossy, Benjamin, and Malcolm. Besides, we all need to rest, too, so you should be fine as well. Just do as we’re doing—two of you must be awake when the other two sleep, at all times.”
“I’m sure that won’t be an issue. Much. Because it’s not like you want us to bring Jeff and Tito here, do you?”
“Nope,” Buchanan said. “We do not. Just the three of you are in the know, and only the three of you.”
“What about the DreamScape? Can they read our minds?”
“Not as far as I could tell,” Lizzie said. “I didn’t share that my dad and his team were on the ship and no one mentioned them, so I think we’re good.”
“We can but hope.”
Noted that Buchanan looked slightly annoyed at Lizzie’s insinuation that Siler was the head of Team Tough Guys, but he saw me so noting and gave me a wink. “It’s all good, Missus Executive Chief.”
“Yeah, we’ll handle it,” Tim said. “Anything else before we go?”
“Besides waking me up before we go-go? Oh, I slay me.” Now I wanted to hear Wham! and this wasn’t the time or place to shove earbuds in and rock out.
Algar winked at me, the others all groaned. “I don’t actually get that joke,” Mossy said. “But I definitely get the feeling that I’m better off not understanding it.”
“Everyone’s a critic.”
Lizzie hugged Siler again, I resisted the urge to hug all of them, Algar included, then the three of us left, Tim holding the Advil in a very conspicuous way.
“That was a good idea,” I said to Lizzie once we were in the hallway. “I’m worried about Chuckie, and who knows if anyone else is having a headache or worse.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t have any in your purse,” Lizzie said. “But at least there was some in the supply closet.”
“Sorry it took so long to find this stuff,” Tim said, indicating the Advil.
“We’ll use hyperspeed. You steer, I’ll drive.” Grabbed his hand and Lizzie’s and we took off. Hoped we’d get to the others before they found Jeff and so blew our so-called cover. My first official interstellar trip and I was already essentially leading a mutiny against the captain, because that’s what Mother had made herself, really.
The pirate’s life for me.
CHAPTER 18
I WAS STILL HELLA LOST in this place, but since Tim wasn’t, we arrived in about two seconds. Just in time to stop Reader from exiting the room ahead of everyone else.
Dropped the others’ hands, grabbed Reader, and hugged him. “Are you okay?”
He hugged me back. “Yeah, girlfriend, I am, and so are the others. Though I think we’re all going to appreciate you getting that Advil for us.”
“That’s what delayed us.” Looked around. “There’s no water, is there? We didn’t think of that, sorry.” Frankly, it occurred to me that a maintenance closet having Advil in it was odd—Algar at work. Maybe he’d made the entire ship a portal. Good, we needed all the help we could get. “Is everyone here? I mean everyone that was in this room sleeping when we took off.”
“I have no idea, but I think so. We’ll find water, don’t worry about it. And, ah, the dreams were interesting.”
“So we’ve heard,” Tim said. “Jeff, Kitty, Tito, and I missed our beauty rest, though.”
“The four of you were awake?” Reader asked. “How?”
“Stubborn willfulness? That’s all I’ve got for you. Or else Mother wanted us awake for some reason.”
“Your mother’s on board?” Reader, like Buchanan before him, sounded enthused. Figured Chuckie would chime in on the Mom Love, too, the moment I mentioned the AI’s name to him.
“No, my mom’s in the White House. The ship’s AI is named Mother.”
Reader raised an eyebrow. “You named it?”
“That’s one of my jobs and I take it seriously. Yes. I think she really wanted a name and she seems protective and all that.”
“Bossy,” Tim said. “She seems really bossy.”
“I resent that,” Mother said. Tim jumped.
“But you can’t deny it. Mother, get used to us kvetching about you. We kvetch about everything. It’s one of our ‘things.’ Doesn’t mean we don’t love you for yourself.”
“How could you love me?” She sounded honestly interested.
“Humans and many other races out there have a large capacity for love,” Chuckie said, joining us and grabbing some Advil immediately. “And I heard that Angela’s not on the ship. Let me express my disappointment.”
“I get it. Everyone would prefer that Mom was here running things. You’re stuck with the usual suspects, dude. You’re one of them, too, I see I have to mention.”
He grinned. “We’ll manage. We always do.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Mother, huh?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I feel the name is . . . fitting.” As long as she was a mother like mine and not, say, Siler’s, I’d be okay with her feeling the name was right on.
“Gustav, is there water nearby?” Reader asked Drax, who had joined us.
“Yes.” He gave directions, Tim and Reader followed said directions and were back shortly with water bottles. Everyone came over to get some water, and more than Chuckie popped in Advil. The people in this room were definitely not as relaxed as the ones in the room where the kids were. “The reclamation is internal. Throw away the bottles in the appropriate receptacles so that the ship can recycle and refill them.”
“Wow, Gustav, you really think of everything.”
Drax looked worried as he took a water bottle. “She should not be acting like this,” he said quietly.
“Yeah, we’re clear on that. She isn’t following your programming anymore.”
He shook his head. “This has never happened before.”
“Of course it hasn’t. This is, frankly, how our lives roll. So I’m not surprised. For the record.”
This room had no children or young adults in it other than Lizzie, so we spent a few minutes catching everyone up on what had happened while they were hanging out in the DreamScape basically against their wills. We’d already practiced with Team Tough Guys, so Tim, Lizzie, and I were a well-oiled Recap Machine.
“Oh,” I finished up, “and as a ‘cool’ surprise for the parents on Alpha Team, your kids are on the ship. Not that they seem to be nearly as freaked out as any of the adults.”
“The kids think this is a totes cool vacay,” Lizzie said reassuringly. Shockingly, this didn’t appear to make Serene and Brian, Lorraine and Joe, or Claudia and Randy feel better.
“How the hell did the Cabinet get into the other room?” Reader asked. “They were with us when the ship starting bucking. We heard that Jeff and Kitty had ordered us to get to crash seats but after that . . .” He shook his head. “It’s fuzzy.” Others seemed to be having the same reactions.