“Wattlebird has exited the pod and is heading to the mess.”
“He what?”
“He said twenty-seven years is too long to go without caffeine and a donut,” the Knight reported. “I have brought the replicators on-line.”
“You know that won’t hold him for long,” Stephanie told her.
“I have reminded him that his chief engineer will need something to counter the shock.”
“You did?”
“And he told me Engineering was a…very…long walk from the Bridge and the chief could fetch his own…his own donuts.”
From the way the ship paused, she guessed she was sanitizing the Australian’s usual salty turn of phrase and couldn’t help wondering why. After all, it wasn’t like she didn’t have a mouth like a sailor.
And speaking of sailors… Morgana nudged her.
We’ve had this conversation already, Stephanie reminded her. I won’t wake any of them and particularly not the team or Todd. They’d only get underfoot and make life difficult by wanting to know what’s going on. Don’t forget that neither I nor anyone else knows that yet.
The Knight cleared her throat. “I have noted that Jonathan is making four cups of coffee, Stephanie. Perhaps he is—”
“Tell him to make it six,” Cameron’s voice interjected over the comms. “I need Gabriella and Nielsen on deck for repairs.”
“Six,” Wattlebird grumbled in response. “Next, you’ll tell me they want donuts too.”
“A half-dozen each should get them through to the first break.”
“A half-dozen? Each?” the pilot squawked.
“And for me, please.”
“What do I look like—your maid?”
The chief chuckled. “Right now, you look like the best catering system this side of the universe.”
“I’ll fly you to the—”
“You won’t fly anywhere unless I can get these engines up and running,” Cameron snapped in return. “And I’ll need you in your seat for testing inside an hour.”
“Donuts, coffee, and you’re giving orders?” The other man sounded like he couldn’t believe it but the Knight interrupted.
“Stephanie, you will be needed for this emergence. Gabriella had children.”
“I thought they were grown.”
“Grown and married,” Ebony confirmed, “with grandchildren on the way.”
“Oh.” The enormity of what the ship had revealed struck her hard. “How long do I have?”
“I’m on my way,” Cameron interrupted. “Nielsen had a sweetheart.”
“I thought the crew said they were free to travel?”
“The crew thought in years, not in decades,” he reminded her tartly. “Years is normal for space-bound duties and those left behind were aware of that. Decades, on the other hand…”
He left it at that but he didn’t need to say more.
Decades. The word reminded Stephanie that she had parents. Todd had parents and… Her heart lurched and sank but she moved quickly and met Cameron in the pod room where the maintenance crews were sleeping.
“Coffee’s on its way,” Wattlebird told them. “I’d add something stronger, but…”
He didn’t have to explain why. Now was not the time for any of them to get drunk no matter how much they might want to forget.
Nielsen was the first to emerge and Gabriella followed soon after.
They both shared Cameron’s initial disbelief.
“Say again?” the man demanded when they told him how long he and his crewmate had been out.
“Twenty-seven years,” Stephanie repeated and met his look of horror squarely.
Gabriella hooked her arm through his. “She might have waited,” she told him.
“That’s the worst of it!” the young man cried. “She probably did.” His voice softened to a whisper. “And if so, she shouldn’t have.”
Wattlebird arrived, took one look at them, and handed the coffee out. “We won’t know anything until we get there,” he told them brusquely.
“My grandkids will be all grown up,” Gabriella mumbled and sadness flitted across her face. “I missed—”
Cameron touched her shoulder gently. “They’ll probably be working on the great-grandkids,” he told her. “We’ll try to get you home for that.”
She closed her mouth and gave him a firm nod. Her eyes shimmered with tears but she kept her arm hooked through Nielsen’s. There was no such comfort for him.
As much as anyone might want to tell him there would be others and reassure him that his girl might not have waited, now didn’t seem to be the time.
“Drink!” Wattlebird commanded and poked the youngster. “You won’t know the answer until we get within comm range and I need you to help me do that.”
I need you. It was a nice touch, Stephanie thought, and it had the desired effect.
The youngster shook himself and gave the pilot a solemn nod. He drained his coffee cup in several long swallows and reached for a donut.
After he’d eaten about half, he looked at Cameron, his face determined. “What do you need, Chief?”
Gabriella gave Wattlebird a grateful smile but she didn’t release the younger man’s arm. She sipped her coffee and watched the chief expectantly.
He met each of their gazes and nodded.
“We hit a patch of nMU going into the transition,” he began, his next words lost as he led them out the door toward Engineering.
“I need a hug,” Stephanie muttered and the Morgana and Knight snickered.
“What you need is a Todd,” Ebony informed her.
You really do, the alien witch echoed where the ship couldn’t hear her.
The girl shook her head. “I already told you. That won’t happen. He’d be a distraction and you both know it.”
“Oooh, a distraction,” the Knight teased.
“I think there must be some circuits you don’t need,” she retaliated with a smirk and let a shimmer of blue roll over her body.
Morgana snickered and the vessel changed the subject.
“Captain Rawlins will be online in three minutes.”
“Already?”
“You’ll have to hurry if you want to get there before she’s properly awake.”
Wattlebird glanced at her and almost ran to the door. “We’re gonna need more coffee.”
“Tark-livered son of Tegortha,” Stephanie muttered, using one of the insults favored by the Dreth.
“Two minutes,” the Knight informed them, and she hurried to the pod section where the command crew slept.
She arrived in the right corridor in time to hear shouting.
“How long, Knight?”
The Morgana snickered. It sounds like you need to get there fast.
No kidding, she grumbled.
The Witch met the captain as Marianne Rawlins stormed out of the pod section. “Stephanie!”
“I’m here, Captain,” she answered as the woman opened her mouth to bellow again. “Right here.”
“Do you know where we are?”
“The Knight says we’re a few weeks out from Dreth in an unmapped system.”