Pay Me, Bug!

Chapter 12

WHEREIN Enmity Is Formally Established, Bets Are Made, Money Is Lost, and the Terrans Find Vindication

In the end it took three weeks to bring the Fool's Errand completely back on line. Bennet proved to be an enormous help in that regard--even Ktk was impressed with his speed and skill. Meanwhile, Velis' people set up their command center in the general mess. All but one of the sealed containers were unsealed: according to Cutter, they were medical equipment.

When Grif asked Velis about them, she confirmed Cutter's guess. "You remember Halge said we could alter your appearance, right down to your DNA?"

"Nice," Grif said. "What about the one still in the box?"

"Not important," Velis said. Something in the way she said it convinced Grif to drop the matter.

Eventually Grif declared the integration a success. "We're going to have to take her up sooner or later to shake everything out," he said. "I don't think we're going to get much more out of these simulations."

Ktk agreed, stating the Fool's Errand was completely space worthy as far as it was concerned.

"Excellent," Grif said. "Bennet, please tell my sister that we plan to take off in a few hours."

"That reminds me..." Bennet shifted uneasily. "Ah... Major Enge has asked me to inform you that she will be on the bridge when we do."

"Of course she did," Grif said. "She was beginning to worry me, what with her respecting my position as captain, and talking to me in complete sentences and everything. I'm actually relieved."

"...if it's all right," Bennet added, "I'd like to be on the bridge as well. I've been working on your ship for weeks and I'd really like to see what she can do."

Grif considered it. "How are you with ship communications?"

"I'm all right," Bennet said. "Your comm station is pretty standard, I don't think I'd have any problems."

"Well, we're short a comm specialist for the trip. If you don't mind doing the work I don't mind you being up top."

Two hours later Grif, Amys and Morgan were at their stations, going through a pre-flight check. When Bennet and Velis arrived, Bennet sat at the comm station. Velis sat in an extra seat near the door, at the far end of the bridge.

"Hello Sis," Grif said, sliding his seat out of the nest and into the bridge proper, swiveling it around to face her. "Welcome to the bridge. Lots of familiar faces here today. You know Amys, of course. And Morgan."

Velis looked at Morgan and nearly smiled. Morgan sat rigid in his chair. He'd done his best to avoid Velis entirely; he'd been very successful up to this point.

"Hello Morgan," Velis said. "You look well."

"Velis," Morgan said. That was all he could manage; he abruptly turned in his seat and devoted his attention to his station.

"This is going to be the best trip ever," Grif muttered. Then, in a louder voice, he added "Bennet, we filed a flight plan with spaceport authority about an hour and a half ago. Let me know when they approve it." With that he descended back down into the Pilot's Nest.

Liftoff was a resounding success. The Fool's Errand left atmosphere without incident, all instrumentation responded perfectly, system-to-system sensors had no issues communicating with any of the shipboard systems. Only minor tweaks were needed once the ship reached orbit, and a few hours later Ktk announced it felt the Fool's Errand could forgo further flight tests, and actually make the jump to tach.