Daughters of Demeter

The ship was fuelled up, we had a load of fresh supplies, me and Sarah had our new cabin all done up nicely. Everything was ready, but we still hadn't heard anything from Lebeau. And without a shipment, the ship had nowhere to go.

In the meantime Rebecca managed to find a buyer for some of the salvage we still had on board. We still had the two big containers full of disaster relief supplies, but she sold the two containers of emergency medical supplies. And her arms dealer friend bought some of the shotgun ammunition and grenades that came from the Hammersmith's armoury.

That evening after dinner the boss handed out our share of the pay. Compared to the last few paydays this one was on the small side, just over three thousand ecks each for me and Sarah and Jenny.

"Apart from the proceeds we're expecting from the Hammersmith's boat this is probably the last of the good paydays for a while," Rebecca warned us. "I've quietly put out the word that we might be looking for work. I tried to contact Lebeau yesterday and again today, but there's been no word from the guy. The fact that we haven't heard a peep out of him since the Imperium showed up while we were making his delivery makes me think he's cutting us loose."

Jenny asked, "Our previous visit to this world he had a half dozen armed men here to greet us when we arrived, and that was based on him suspecting Imperium involvement. Surely now that his employees have witnessed the Navy contacting you, he'd have an even greater response?"

The boss shrugged, "Honestly the guy's a coward at heart. He might be giving us the silent treatment in hopes that we quit or violate his contract in some way. Otherwise, maybe he'll send one of his lackeys to fire us. Or maybe he'll just transmit a message."

"How long do we wait?" Sarah asked. "I mean if he's hoping we give up and find another customer, how long do you want to wait before you do that?"

"We'll give him two more days," she decided. "I'll send word again tomorrow, and the day after. In the meantime I'll continue looking for other work, and if I find something else I'll let Lebeau know that we're lifting off with or without his shipment."

I asked, "Will that cause problems? I mean, if we do end up quitting or breaking the contract?"

"There's a financial penalty," Rebecca replied. "Whoever breaks the contract owes the other party a cancellation fee. I doubt he has any intention of paying it."

Jenny commented, "That might explain why he's playing silent? He wants you to break the contract so he can try to pressure you for the cancellation fee."

Rebecca shrugged again, "He can try."

Everyone was quiet for a bit after that, till Sarah suggested "I was thinking, if Lebeau does fire us and we don't have anything else going on, maybe we could go find Jenny's old ship? Considering how much success we had with the Hammersmith and thinking about how advanced the tech must be on Jenny's ship, maybe that'd be a good option after all?"

Our AI crew-mate looked uneasy but she didn't say anything.

Meanwhile the captain's expression shifted to a thoughtful frown. After a few more seconds she said "I suppose it's an option, if we can't find any other work. It's a bit of a gamble since we can't be sure there's anything there we'd be able to sell. It might be advanced, but if it's not compatible with anything else then people probably won't buy it."

"Ah," my girlfriend nodded. "Good point. I forgot me and Amanda spent half a day wiring Jenny up to a standard data interface."

We were all quiet again after that, till Jenny finally excused herself. "I'm going to return to my studies. I expect to complete two more courses tonight, and I'm eager to put my new knowledge to work when we start the upgrades and modifications to my android body."

Sarah offered, "If we don't have anything else going on tomorrow maybe I can help you with that?"

Jenny replied, "Thank you Sarah, I appreciate that. If not tomorrow, then once we're under way I'd love to get started working on the hardware upgrades."

With that she took her HPD back down to the secondary hold so it could recharge. Me and Sarah stayed with the boss for now, the three of us all had another drink together. And I commented, "Last time we were at the Hammersmith, Jenny told me she wasn't sure if she could cope with going back to her previous ship. She didn't want to see it like that."

"Ah," Rebecca sighed. "I'll have to talk with her about it, let her know I don't want to make her uncomfortable. And if we do end up going back that way, maybe we can make some sort of arrangements so it's not as traumatic for her."

Sarah asked, "Is there a reason why you've never been back that way in all this time? I'm surprised neither you or Gabe thought to go back for more, once you knew how advanced it was."

The boss grimaced, "Like I said, if it's not compatible with other ships or systems it's going to be hard to sell. The other reason is it's not easy to get to, and it's well away from any of the worlds we'd normally be visiting. It's on the far side of the Gorath asteroid field, and it was right on the edge of the field."

"From here it'd probably be about fifteen days at Jump-0 to get us in the neighbourhood," she added. "Then a few more days of hunting to try and find it. Then once we did locate it, we'd be going off your and my intuition and guesswork as to what was worth taking. And I can tell you, it took me and El two days just to get Jenny's capsule out. I don't know what they built that ship out of, but it's tough. So we might have to spend another ten or fifteen days to fill our holds. And from there to Rolandan-2 would be..."

Her voice trailed off as she did the math in her head, and finally stated "Probably twenty days. There's a faster way to get there but it's dangerous. So we'd be looking at potentially about forty days on the job, and no way of knowing if we'd have any kind of decent payout at the end of it."

Sarah sighed, "Understood. Thanks for spelling it out boss. Now I get why you and Gabe never went back there."

Rebecca just nodded then drained her glass. After a few moments of silence she changed the subject, "How are you two liking your new cabin? After all that shopping yesterday, I hope you've got it all the way you want it?"

"It's prefect," I replied with a smile. "And yeah, we have everything all set up. It's really comfortable."

Sarah smiled as well, but where my expression was happy hers was a little more playful. And with that playful grin on her face she gave the boss a look and suggested, "Would you like to come see for yourself? You know we got some new bedding we're trying to break in, maybe you could give us a hand with that?"

I felt my cheeks heating up, and Rebecca's were turning pink as well. Her eyes flicked back and forth between me and my girlfriend, while her expression left me wondering if maybe she was actually considering Sarah's offer.

After a few second she finally sighed, "Maybe some other time. I appreciate the invitation but..."

"It's ok," my girlfriend replied with a friendly smile. "Sorry if I put you on the spot with that."

Things were still a bit awkward though, and finally me and Sarah went to our cabin for the night while Rebecca headed into hers.

And following our recent trend, neither Sarah or I got to sleep until much later. Like she said, we were definitely breaking in the new sheets. And maybe the bed too.

Our night went very nicely, but the morning was anything but. The two of us were jarred awake by the captain's voice coming loud and clear through the intercom.

"Sorry kids but work's come early today," she announced in a tone that left me doubting how sorry she really was. "So I'd like you two up and dressed in the next thirty minutes."

My girlfriend grumbled, "She sounds way too awake for whatever time it is now."

"Mmhmm," I mumbled.

Despite the temptation to go back to sleep, or to waste the next half hour fooling around with each other, we both dragged ourselves up and out of bed.

As we were both freshening up in the washroom Sarah yawned, "Maybe we have been getting a bit too casual about sleeping in? I was never this bad in the Navy."

"Maybe," I shrugged. "In the Navy we had the XO and captain making sure everyone stuck to the routines and schedules. Rebecca doesn't seem to care so much, as long as we get the job done?"

"Good point," Sarah agreed. "She's been pretty accommodating. She's a good boss to work for, I think."

I couldn't argue with that. As soon as we were both dressed and ready we emerged from our cabin.

We found Rebecca and Jenny in the mess, and as soon as the captain noticed us she spoke up. "Sorry for the early wake-up but we got a signal from Lebeau. We're still employed after all. I almost wonder if he was waiting for the Kennington to break orbit and leave the system?"

"Anyways," she continued with a shrug, "He's sending the shipment over this morning. It should be here within the hour, and as usual he wants it at Fuminja Epsilon in twelve days. So the plan is breakfast, take on the cargo, then pre-launch check, followed by launch. We're all fuelled up, fully stocked with supplies, and ready to go."

My girlfriend and I both nodded, she moved to get coffee for the two of us while I got started on breakfast. Sarah sat down at the table then she and Jenny started discussing their android upgrade project.

The two of them were still making plans a few minutes later when I served up the food for the three of us.

"I get why the android body is the best option," Sarah commented as we all started eating. "But it's too bad you still won't be able to enjoy Amanda's cooking."

Jenny didn't appear to have any opinion on that either way, but she responded "The new body doesn't have receptors for taste or smell, so food would still be wasted on me. I think it's exciting enough that it has a sense of touch. I'm looking forward to experiencing that."

Of course my girlfriend couldn't resist an opening like that. She grinned, "If you need a hand with those new experiences I'd be happy to help. Maybe we could try out some of the software the bot was preloaded with, I bet that'd be an exciting sensory experience for you."

The AI just rolled her eyes but didn't bother to respond. Rebecca stayed out of that part of the discussion as well, and so did I.

We were just about finished breakfast when Jenny announced, "A grav-sled has arrived outside the ship. I believe Mr. Lebeau's men are here to hand over the cargo for our next delivery."

"Thanks Jenny," the boss said as she got to her feet. "I'll take care of that. Amanda, Sarah, when you're done eating tidy up here then we'll start prepping the ship for launch."

I nodded my understanding while my girlfriend responded, "Yes boss."

The two of us finished eating, then Sarah helped me with the washing up. We were done by the time Rebecca came back up from the main deck.

"Cargo's secure and the ship's sealed up," she announced. "Are we all set here?"

"All ready to go," I replied.

Sarah headed aft to the engine room while me and Jenny followed the captain forward to the cockpit. The AI stayed at the back by the door for now as me and Rebecca both took our seats. It didn't take long to go through the launch checklist, meanwhile Sarah did the same and in just a few minutes the engines were active and we were ready to go.

Much like our arrival, we didn't bother contacting the port control and they didn't contact us. Piper simply picked a clear direction then lifted off and set out on that course. Once we were clear of the city she angled the nose upwards and increased speed and power, as the ship started its climb up and out of the atmosphere.

I'd gotten used to a lot of things since becoming part of the Demeter's crew, but I still wasn't quite used to the way our ugly space-bug behaved in atmosphere. All the bumps and shudders and creaks and groans still set my nerves on edge. Fortunately it didn't take long before we cleared the planet's upper atmosphere and the turbulence faded away.

"Amanda," the captain stated as she started guiding us away from Ecclestone's World and into open space, "Please plot us a level-zero course to the Fuminja Cluster."

Her tone sounded up-beat, I had a feeling she was in a good mood now that we were moving again. I remembered her saying that ships don't earn money in port, and realized she was probably getting uptight the longer we sat there without anything to do.

"On it boss," I replied with a little smile of my own. Her good mood made me feel better, plus I was happy to have Port Ecclestone behind us.

The plot didn't take very long at all, and as soon as we were well clear of any other traffic Rebecca accelerated the ship into Jump-0 and we turned things over to the autopilot. The computer and Jenny would be monitoring the sensors, and that was about it. The three of us left the cockpit and met up with Sarah back in the mess again.

"You know the routine," Rebecca said with a smile, "Twelve days in transit to Fuminja Epsilon."

Sarah responded, "Me and Jenny have her project to keep us busy. What are you two going to do to pass the time?"

The boss looked at me and offered, "I could go get my deck of cards?"

For some reason that made my girlfriend giggle, and I was left wondering if she thought it was a euphemism for something else.