The Birth of The Unity (sequel to Chronicle of Nautilus)

Chapter 13: Repetition

There was a tendency on the ship: people working at specific positions became friends in all lifetimes. Perhaps, it was their character properties or equal intelligence levels that drew them together. Perhaps it was fate repeating itself time and time again.

Adam had always been friends with Grover. Three years ago they were old and tired. They met rarely. Today they were young and energetic and met often. For the last millennium, they had been friends.

After Adam learned the peculiarities of the ship from Ermac in practice, he was given the main shift. During it, Adam worked hard and during the breaks, he allowed himself to rest or have entertainment. Today, he and Grover had an entertaining chat in the canteen as they joked about the new head engineer who dozed off as he was eating and fell face first into a bowl of cold soup.

"Oww, that that laugh is hurting me," said Adam as he left the canteen holding a hand on his belly. "I hope he will get back to normal."

"Don't worry, the alarm is going to wake him up. The effect wears off in a half of hour," replied Grover trying to suppress a smile.

"When you told the powder has special effects I thought he was going to take Chuck to the bathroom. That sleeping beauty thing I just saw exceeded my wildest expectations."

"Well, I got a dozen of tricks left in my journal. Wait and see what I have left in store for the next week. It will knock your socks off.

"Some twisted journal, eh?"

"Yeah, journals of my predecessors has much more interesting stuff than you might imagine. I bet that behind a casual sharing of wisdom, there are some twisted thoughts or jokes from the captains before you too."

"There are, indeed."

They walked an empty maze of corridors. Never meeting anyone in their path. The second floor was very silent today. All the two men could hear were their conversation and its echo. Soon they came to an elevator and stopped.

Adam said, "You don't have to accompany me every day, you know."

"I think I want to. After the last few busy weeks, I'd like to chill a bit. Now, whenever I do something important, it takes only a few minutes of concentration, then all that remains are mindless procedures. I really think I've got too much time.

The elevator opened and the two men stepped in. Adam said, "You can dedicate your free time to research."

"Well, that's what I do. I research. I will continue doing it my whole lifetime."

"Sounds fun."

"Indeed."

"The elevators are boring. We should try using a wind tunnel sometime," said Adam staring at the number above the door switching from two to one.

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"From what I read in my 'secret journal'." He quoted the last words with his fingers. '"You can get your pants full, but I bet its just a figure of speech."

"You should check at what age you've written it. If at the moment you were old, trust me, it is not a figure of speech."

They laughed again. The door opened up and they entered another corridor.

Adam said, "How about I set up a wind tunnel physical maintenance for the next week so we could both perform it and you prepare your next trick?"

"Of course. It should be fun."

"Indeed." Then, with a grimmer tone the young captain said. "I wonder how it will all be once the fun ends."

"You should not wonder, my friend. Being alive is the greatest fun one might have. Not everyone has a chance to live."