“The animals communicate with you,” Maurer said. “Not the rest of us on a regular basis. They didn’t seem upset with any of us, and most of them are equipped to share displeasure violently. The few who wanted attention got it, too.”
“Okay,” Tim said. “So, let’s say that ACE and the animals were all okay with this. But if we say that we agree with every decision made regarding this situation, how do we handle the boredom? Because that’s not likely to go away.”
“I think that all depends on where we’re going for our next stop.” Didn’t say that it could be somewhere fun, because I knew how the cosmos liked to hear things like that and take the possibility away immediately as spoken.
“We spent all the time while you were sleeping trying to determine that,” Butler said. “We are not certain, of course, but we feel that we are heading to a point opposite in the galaxy from the Eagle Nebula.”
“Far from the Galactic Core,” Maurer added. “As near as we can tell, we’ve been sent around the Core, versus through it.”
“Makes sense for safer flying. And also if we’re somehow not supposed to be noticed.” Now, why did I think that?
“Why do you think that?” Tim asked, right on cue.
Realized I thought this because of my dream with Mephistopheles. “Someone” was trying to destroy the galaxy, most likely as a way to flush Algar out of hiding. Meaning that if we were the ones tasked with saving the galaxy, it was going to be better if we were flying under Someone’s radar. And all of our various Powers That Be were working toward saving the galaxy, meaning that they were all working together, albeit likely in a tenuous fashion and removed enough to be able to claim neutrality.
“Just had weird dreams. But I think we should figure that whoever’s pulling our strings wants us to be more stealthy as opposed to overt.”
“Gotcha. So, only those of us in the room get to know. Glad I practiced lying to Alicia from day one in our relationship.”
Hugged him. “It’ll be fine. This is leadership and high-level security clearances in a nutshell. Don’t think of it as you lying. Think of it as you being the Prime Minister in the Sovereign and Flying Nation of Kitty Land.”
“I remember how mad you were. I’m thrilled to be in the Inner Circle. Full lying capability coming right up, Queen Kitty.”
“It’s nice to be back in the Sovereign and Flying Nation of Kitty Land,” Joe said as he and Randy joined us. “You told them?” he asked Butler.
“Kitty figured it out, as you expected her to.”
Tim and I exchanged the “duh” look. “You two weren’t sleeping, either, were you?” I asked.
Randy shrugged. “We slept some, because we still need it. But we’re not fully human anymore, and in times like this, that’s a good thing.”
“We approved the decision to put everyone under,” Joe said. “Not anyone else.”
“John, Kristie, and Cameron didn’t mention that.”
Randy grinned. “We told them not to, Mother, too. If someone figured it out, then we’d tell them. You figured it out, we’re telling you. Commander. Or should I say My Queen?”
“Oh, stop. You two know I’m almost never mad at you. But I do feel better that you two were involved, and that’s not a diss on the rest of you.”
Joe nodded. “We were on board for everything, remember, because you took our wives to the planet but not us. All we got to do was taxi service.”
“So bitter.”
“We’re not complaining,” Randy said. “Much. It was nice to get to do what we’ve been training for, for a few minutes. But it was getting ugly up here while you were down on the planet. Denise had the kids occupied, but most of the adults were already starting to get cabin fever.”
“Meaning we cross that road when we have an option,” Tim said. “But we can’t keep everyone sleeping all the time, particularly if your calculations for when we’re stopping are incorrect.”
A dinging sound started. Louder than the alarm had been, thankfully much softer than the alarms. “All personnel to stations,” Mother said. “All passengers to Nonessential Personnel Stations. We will be coming out of warp within five minutes.”
“I stand corrected,” Tim said, as he headed for his seat.
“I assume you can tell versus are back in charge, right, Mother?” I asked as I finished my cinnamon roll and seated myself and my purse in our duty station.
“Yes,” she said, as Jeff, Hughes, Walker, and Tito arrived, doing the hyperspeed daisy chain.
“Are the kids okay?” I asked Jeff as he strapped in and I got my helmet on.
“Yes. Locked and loaded, so to speak.” He looked around at Team Tinman. “Why are the five of you in here? Mother said to get to stations.”
“I think we want them here,” Tim said.
“Two androids, a cyborg, and the Six Million Dollar Men are good additions to the command crew. Particularly because we don’t know who has control of Mother.”
Jeff muttered something about too many cooks in a kitchen, but we all ignored him.
“Leaving warp in five,” Mother said, as the dinging stopped. “. . . four . . . three—”
Two and one were interrupted. By the ship slamming through something.
CHAPTER 54
WAS REALLY GLAD THAT the seats were made for this, and sincerely hoped the kids were as locked in as Jeff had insinuated, because we were definitely crashing.
Jeff hadn’t been wrong to ask why Team Tinman was hanging around. They were basically flipping about in the command area. Would have been comical if I wasn’t worried about them getting hurt, as well as anything or anyone they slammed into, too.
Was able to grab the Kristie-Bot as she slid into my chair. She pulled herself up and slipped her arm through my harness. It was uncomfortable, but she wasn’t cramping my ability to do whatever it was my job was, and it also meant she could catch Joe as he flipped by.
Joe and the Kristie-Bot did the hand-to-elbow clasp that meant they were both locked onto each other and had some slippage room in case of the worst.
Joe caught Maurer, they did the same clasp, then Maurer caught Randy, and Randy was able to grab Butler.
“Everyone okay?” Tito asked.
Got a chorus of replies that indicated no one was so damaged that they needed to get to sick bay or, considering, down to Engineering.
Because the helmets let us see what was going on with the ship, at least in a certain sense, I was able to see that we were smashing through something, because sensors on the exterior said we were.
However, looking out the windshield showed nothing. We were in space, in a solar system, because I could see a sun and planets, but we weren’t close enough to the nearest planet to be crashing into anything.
“What are we hitting, an asteroid belt?” Tim asked, as the ship shook and bucked. “Meteors? Space junk?”
“Not that any visual sensors are picking up,” Hughes replied, voice clipped.
“We’re crashing into nothing,” Walker added. “But sensors do indicate that something’s hitting the exterior of the ship and causing this slight turbulence we’re all experiencing.”
“So, totally par for our particular course. Good, good. So, how do we stop? And, as the Communications Officer or whatever the hell I am, what do I tell the others?”