Daughters of Demeter

"Nothing," Jenny reported as she shook her head. "Do you want me to repeat the scan?"

I thought for a few moments as I looked from the helm and navigation readouts to the sensor screens on her side of the cockpit. After a second or two I came to a decision, "Start another scan please. While you're doing that I'm going to plot our next hop."

"Yes ma'am," the AI replied as she reached out and reset the sensor sweep to start over again.

I glanced to my left at her, and the pink fringe in her hair reminded me that this was her android operating autonomously. That was unusual, normally on board the ship Jenny controlled her android body remotely. The only exception was if her primary self was busy with someone in her Re/Gen capsule. This was a special case though, since she was also using her HPD to literally be in two places at once.

"You know you don't have to keep calling me ma'am, right?" I asked as I smiled at the android.

"You're the ship's first officer, you're sitting in the captain's chair, and you're our acting commander," she replied. "So you should probably get used to it. Ma'am."

When I looked again I caught the smirk on her lips, so I knew she was mostly just teasing me again.

I quietly rolled my eyes then asked her, "How are they doing back there anyways? I remember my first zero-g training sessions weren't much fun, and that wasn't even on a moving ship. My training was in microgravity on a space station."

"Cam is handling the experience remarkably well," Jenny replied. "For someone who claims not to have had any desires or ambitions for space travel, they certainly seem to be adapting to all aspects of it very quickly."

The android smiled as she added, "They already seem rather adept at navigating the ship's interior without gravity. I'm actually starting to formulate a theory that your tails give you two an unfair advantage. Even though Cammie's tail has significantly less surface area than yours, they are able to make excellent use of it while floating around the Demeter's main hold."

I grinned back at her, "Maybe we can convince the other two to give it a try as well, once we've explained the many practical benefits. Especially since Sarah went to the trouble of upgrading all the chairs in here."

That was another pleasant surprise, but one I was grateful for. It meant both Cam and I could comfortably sit in either the captain's or engineer's seats, as well as my co-pilot's position.

"We can certainly try," Jenny responded with another smirk. "I'm not sure the captain would be amenable to the idea, but Sarah seems perhaps a little more open-minded to such things?"

I couldn't argue with either of those assessments. Then I asked, "What about you Jenny? I'm sure it must be possible to upgrade your chassis with some cute furry accessories."

She rolled her eyes as she replied, "Tell you what? If you can convince both Sarah and Rebecca to experiment, then I'll look into it as well. But for now, I'm quite happy with my current configuration."

"I'll hold you to that," I teased. "And don't think I won't be telling Sarah about this conversation either."

The android rolled her eyes again then gestured towards the controls and asked, "Weren't you meant to be plotting another micro-jump or something? Ma'am?"

"Right," I smiled as I focused on the navigational display again.

Eight and a half days had passed since we left Ecclestone's World, now we were slowly making our way along the edge of the Gorath asteroid field. The first six and a quarter days were spent in transit at Jump-0, and neither Jenny or I had much to do during that time. On the other hand Rebecca and Sarah were busy, and between the two of them they'd been keeping Cam very busy.

So far our newest shipmate had been trained and drilled on basic safety routines and emergency protocols. They knew what to do if one of the ship's compartments was breeched, or if a fire broke out. And they even had a day of e-suit training, using one of the spare suits we kept from the Hammersmith salvage.

The small suit fit Cammie pretty well, if they wrapped their tail around their waist and folded their ears down before putting on the helmet. It wasn't perfect and I was positive it wouldn't be comfortable for the cat-kin, but it worked for now. And Rebecca already promised to get the suit customized next time we were at Rolandan-2, like she did for mine.

We really needed to get Cam their own custom clothes too, at that place where Sarah and I got all our things. For that matter I needed some new outfits and new boots, since I got smaller and my tail got floofier back when we were at Ganvis.

The cat-kin had also been learning more about engineering in general and working with the Demeter's engines in particular. They'd spent at least half their time in the back of the ship with Sarah, looking at things with the maintenance covers removed.

So the three of them were busy right from the start, while Jenny and I didn't have too much going on. Then about fifty-six hours ago we reached the Kaden Merit's last known position, and both the AI and myself had been spending ten to twelve hours a day in the cockpit ever since.

We weren't exactly busy, but we weren't idle either. We'd run a full long-range sensor sweep which took about an hour, then micro-jump ahead an hour while continuing to run the sensors. And as soon as we were out of jump we'd do another sweep, before jumping again and repeating the whole process.

It required just enough of our attention that I couldn't really relax and take it easy, but it wasn't involved enough to feel like rewarding work. Or in other words, it was boring and frustrating, and we'd been at it for almost two and a half days now.

"Do you know how much longer they're planning to keep the artificial gravity switched off?" I asked as I adjusted the straps of the safety harness over my nightshirt. I added with a pout, "These things definitely weren't designed with comfort in mind."

Jenny gave me a sympathetic smile as she pointed out, "I suspect the designers assumed that if crews were in a situation that required them to employ the seats' safety harnesses, said crews would likely be dressed in something more than an oversized t-shirt and nothing else."

I made a face as I replied with my own theory, "I suspect the designers didn't have boobs."

"That is also a distinct possibility," the android conceded. "At any rate, I believe Cam's zero-g training has gone well, so with luck the captain will give the order sometime soon."

"I guess I'll manage until then," I sighed. "Or I'll loosen the straps and take my chances."

By then I had the next mini-jump plotted, and after double-checking everything I reached for the intercom mic to warn the others, "Heads up folks, we're making our next jump in ten seconds."

After that I counted it down, then accelerated the ship ahead into another level zero jump. Normally at that point I'd get up and stretch my legs, maybe head aft to the galley and get a drink or something. I could still do that without the artificial gravity, or at least I could get up and go for a float rather than a walk. I wouldn't be able to get a drink though, unless we had some zero-g-rated drinks containers stashed somewhere.

So I just stayed put in the captain's chair and waited it out with Jenny. We didn't even really have anything to talk about, having exhausted all the conversation topics either of us could think about already.

The hour stretched on, but we did eventually drop back out of jump on schedule and at the next spot we'd designated for a sensor sweep. Jenny got started on that while I checked our location against the nav charts, to ensure my jump was accurate and we were where I wanted us to be.

The ship's position was correct, so with nothing else to do I started plotting our next little jump to get it ready for when the sensor sweep was finished. Then I just sat quietly and waited for something to happen.

And to my surprise something did, only about fifteen minutes later. Jenny suddenly sat up a little straighter in her seat and frowned at her displays as she tapped one of the controls.

A moment later she reported, "I'm picking something up on the long range scanner. The signature is consistent with a metallic mass that's a pretty good match for the MV Kaden Merit."

"Range?" I asked as I looked over at her screens.

The android double-checked then replied, "About two billion kilometres."

I thought that over then asked, "Any energy readings from that direction?"

Jenny shook her head, "Nothing but background noise."

It took a couple seconds to transfer the coordinates from her sensor screen onto my helm display, so I could plot the location to check for any known hazards. Fortunately it wasn't close enough to the asteroid field to be a problem, and there was nothing else on the Demeter's charts to indicate any trouble in that location.

"All right," I decided a moment later. "Plotting a micro-jump, we should pop out about a quarter-million kilometres from that location. As soon as we're back in normal space I want you on those sensors, ok Jenny? Full sweep but dial in the range to half a million kilometres so we can focus on our immediate area."

"Yes ma'am," she responded with a little smile.

It took me a few minutes to get the level zero jump plotted then I took another two or three minutes to double-check it. I was trying to be as accurate as possible, and didn't want to make any silly mistakes.

When I was ready I made the announcement over the intercom as usual, then after a ten second countdown I initiated the jump. This one was much shorter than the last several, rather than enough time to get bored there was only enough time to get anxious and catastrophize about a dozen different ways things might go wrong.

Fortunately I'd just started to worry about random thing number thirteen when we reached the newest destination and decelerated from Jump-0. Both Jenny and I had our eyes glued to our displays the moment we arrived, and a few seconds later I was able to breathe a sigh of relief after confirming that nothing went wrong and the ship was exactly where I wanted it to be.

A couple seconds after that Jenny announced, "Confirmed, there is a derelict vessel approximately two hundred and fifty thousand kilometres ahead of us. I'm unable to detect any energy emissions from the wreck. And its mass is very close to what we have on file for the Kaden Merit."

"Thank you Jenny," I replied as I took manual control of the ship. "Closing in on it now. Please continue with a full sensor sweep, one eye on the wreck and one eye on everything else. Let me know if there's anything else around out here."

"Will do," the android responded as she remained focused on her displays.

I didn't want to fly blindly into any debris or anything that might be floating around in our path so after a couple minutes at half cruising speed I reversed thrust to slow us back down again. That got us to within a hundred thousand kilometres, then over the next ten or twelve minutes we closed to about five thousand kilometres. Finally I cut speed once more, and basically let us drift in until we were only a hundred or so kilometres from the wreck.

"I have confirmation," Jenny reported a few moments later. "The derelict vessel is the MV Kaden Merit."

She added, "There are no life signs on board, no energy emissions, and as near as I can tell the interior compartments are fully depressurized."

"Excellent work. Can you tell if there's any significant debris around the wreck? Or does it look safe for me to bring us in closer?" I asked.

The AI checked her sensors again then responded, "I'm not actually detecting any debris around the craft. Nothing that poses any threat to the Demeter at least. If there is anything drifting with the derelict it's too small to register."

"Perfect," I nodded as I nudged the ship forward again.

I kept our approach slow and safe, as I brought us in to ten kilometres, then to five. Finally I closed to within two thousand meters of the wreck, close enough to see it out the windows in front of us.

"Look at that," I said as I stared at the other ship. "It looks like her starboard engine came apart, and that tore away a chunk of the hull."

Jenny agreed, "I'm sure Sarah will be able to provide a detailed analysis of the damage. The lack of debris in the vicinity seems strange though, does it not? Surely some of the missing hull or engine components should be adrift with the rest of the craft."

I thought about that for a moment then shook my head, "Not if it happened in jump. Even at Jump-0 any fragments would be scattered far and wide."

"Ah of course," she nodded. Then she commented, "The wreck appears to be in a rather vicious tumble. I'm honestly not sure if there's any safe way to approach it."

"That's Rebecca's problem," I replied with a smile, as I reached for the intercom mic. "Our job was just to find it, the captain can figure out how to salvage the thing."