In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 44: First Flight

The gentle metallic hum of the bridge door as it rolled back was the first warning Joseph had that someone else was about to join him. He twisted his head to see who. The stairwell and elevators for the level were separated from the bridge itself by a thick bulkhead, which was fairly good soundproofing. With the door closed, he couldn't even hear the clatter of footsteps on the metal decking. Of course he might not have even if the door had been open. Rebecca had light footfalls.

"Good morning," Joseph said. "Or evening, or something. What is it for you?"

"Morning," she smiled. "I thought I ought to come help you stay awake for your last couple hours, since you're the only one adjusting your sleep cycle."

"I think you thought right. Thank you."

"You're welcome." She gave him a curious look as she descended the shallow ramps down the center of the bridge. Three tiers of two stations each occupied the middle, with extra screens and various equipment around the edges of the room. "I know we had to get at least two people on each eight hour shift, but you could have picked Charlie or Gordon to do it instead. It's not your fault the three of you happened to operate on more or less the same time zone."

"True, I could have." Joseph almost regretted the decision now, since he was turning his night and day to almost opposite where they had been. "Since I don't have anyone waiting for me at home, and Charlie and Gordon both have families, I wanted them to stay lined up with the family schedule as much as possible. It will make life easier for them when we're in port to visit or in range of the instant communication network."

"Very considerate of you." She sat at the copilot's station and swivelled the chair to face him. For a spit second she reminded him of Tyrone, but the bridge was so different from Garden Variety Animal's cockpit that it passed at once. "Are you sure you weren't just trying to get points for being a good boss?"

"I won't pretend I didn't think of that, but it wasn't the only reason," Joseph chuckled. "You can't make every decision based on what will make your employees happy. Or so they tell me, I haven't had employees for long enough to know."

"Well, you have them now. It is nice to have a boss who's willing to inconvenience himself once in a while, and nicer to know it."

"Captain Freidrich wouldn't do that?"

Rebecca shook her head and took on a distant expression. "She was, but she isn't the only boss I've ever had. Some of the others weren't."

"Somehow I'd forgotten the Comet wasn't your first job," Joseph said. "I did look at the rest of your work history, I'm not sure why I didn't remember that."

"My other jobs don't translate very strongly to work aboard a spacecraft." She shrugged the oversight away. "There wasn't a lot of reason for you to spend much time on them."

"No, but I probably ought to have remembered they existed. I guess I got a little scatterbrained for a while there. Were your parents pleased with the change to work aboard ship?"

"Not necessarily, but they weren't angry about it the first time. My Mom was disappointed since she wanted me to earn a degree. Dad thought it was as good an idea as any other option I had."

"What about the second time?" Joseph asked.

"Mom wouldn't talk to me for a full twenty-four hours after I told her," she laughed. "Dad isn't so sure how he feels about it. I was back to their house by the time you interviewed me. They were in the kitchen, feeling guilty because they hoped you wouldn't hire me."

"I disappointed them on that score. I can't say I'm sorry about it."

"Neither am I." Rebecca swung her chair around to stare out the windshield at the glow of faster-than-light travel. "When I started I wasn't sure how I'd like space travel. As it turned out I loved working aboard the Comet, up until the last forty-eight hours. No job I could find at home would be as good, and they would get tired of having me around the house before too long."