Prologue Day One #4
"Then what happened when Cael said he would fix it?"
"Nothing."
Reyna pinched the bridge of her nose in silent frustration. Brontari were incredible cooks, but their communication skills left something to be desired. Consistently. "When you asked Cael to fix it, did you ask him when he was going to do so?"
"He said 'soon.'"
Reyna blew out a breath. "Okay, Borran. I'll follow up with him. I promise."
"Thank you, Captain." Seconds ticked by. "The bread wanted me to tell you it is losing structural integrity."
"Noted."
The comms went quiet. Tavi was vibrating with the task of trying not to laugh. His larger-than-expected hands were gripping the armrests of the chair.
"Not a word," Reyna said.
"I didn't say anything."
"Mmhmm," Reyna muttered, raising an eyebrow at Tavi.
"I was going to say that the bread has an excellent advocate." And it was then that Tavi couldn't contain the laughter any longer. He let out a guffaw, big enough that even Reyna smiled.
"Tavi, just continue, please."
"Continuing." He cleared his throat and pulled his datapad back up.
"As I was saying. The boundary problem. When you push the zero-G field outward, the edge is a hard line.
Step past it and gravity drops to zero instantly.
Step back and it snaps to full. That transition creates what we call gravitational shear at the boundary, and anything biological that passes through it—"
"Gets flattened."
"Splat. Yes." He swiped through simulation results.
"I've tried generating the field in different areas of the ship, pushing it down the corridor from the chamber toward the shuttle bay.
But the ship's gravity systems aren't designed for localized manipulation at that scale.
Every time I run the simulation, the field destabilizes at the edges.
" He turned the datapad toward her. "See these spikes?
Each one of those is a boundary failure.
The field holds for about eleven seconds and then collapses.
If an Aetherfin was in transit when that happened—"
"I get the picture."
"So." Tavi set the datapad down. "The software side, I can handle. Generating the field, maintaining it, calibrating the environment for Aetherfin biology, all fine. But the physics of the transition? That's a mechanical problem. And mechanical problems aren't really my—"
Reyna's comms chirped again.
"Captain?"
Borran. Again.
"Yes, Borran."
"The Vryx have moved deeper into the vent."
"Has anything turned dangerous, Borran?" Reyna asked.
"No. But I can hear them scratching behind the secondary filtration panel."
"I see."
"If it damages the filtration panel..."
"Yes?"
"My proofing environment."
"What about it?"
"Compromised."
"For how long?"
"The day. At least."
"I will handle it, Borran."
"Also, I can hear it eating something."
"Borran."
"I don't know what it's eating."
"Borran?"
"I don't want to know what it's eating."
"Borran!"
"Captain, if it's my sourdough starter, I want you to know that I have maintained that culture for forty-seven years.
" Reyna knew now how serious this was to her chef.
Brontari rarely said more than enough words necessary at a time.
To Borran, what he'd just communicated to Reyna was close to a presidential speech.
Tavi had given up entirely on containing himself again and was covering his face with both hands, his shoulders shaking.
"I will. Handle it. Borran," Reyna choked out through gritted teeth.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Captain?"
"Yes, Borran?"
"Please hurry."
The comms went silent. Reyna stared at the blank display, then turned back to Tavi, who was wiping his eyes.
"Are you finished?" Reyna asked.
"No," Tavi said, his voice strained. "You know, Cap, if he wasn't a seven-foot bear with tusks, I'd think he was a really sensitive guy."
"The Aetherfin, Tavi." Reyna grumbled.
He composed himself with visible effort.
"Right, right," Tavi stated, bringing his datapad up again.
"So, the boundary problem means I need a mechanical solution and I don't have one.
Give me the three weeks. I'll keep running simulations, I'll consult with Maren on the hardware side, and if she and I can find a way to solve the transition, I'll have it ready.
But I want to be honest with you." He met her eyes. "This one's hard."
"Vondra seems to think you can handle it."
"Vondra has never tried to push a localized zero-G field through seventy meters of standard-gravity corridor on a ship that was built before I was born."
"She said, and I quote, 'Make it happen.'"
Tavi stared at her. Then he laughed, a short, sharp sound. "Well, if the Admiral said it." He stood, which didn't change his sightline much. "I'll start tonight." He walked toward the Captain's door leading out. "Three weeks, holy..." He made it to the door, then turned back. "Cap?"
"Yes?"
"If Borran's sourdough starter dies because Cael can't be bothered to handle a vent clearance, I'm holding you personally responsible."
"Get out of my office, Tavi."
He grinned, tossed her a salute that was seventy percent sincere and thirty percent insubordination, and left.
Reyna sat in the silence for exactly four seconds before she opened a comms channel.
"Cael."
A pause. Then: "Yes, Captain?"
"The ventilation issue in the Mess Hall kitchen. Borran filed the maintenance request yesterday. It concerns the food on the ship, so it needs to take priority. What's the status?"
"I've reviewed the request, Captain. It's been categorized and will be addressed in the standard maintenance rotation."
"When?"
Another pause. "Within the next forty-eight hours."
"Cael, there are Vryx in the vent. They may be cute, but they are threatening a sourdough culture that predates your tenure on this ship by three decades, among other ingredients that we use in our daily food." She paused, lowering her tone. "Fix it today."
"Captain, with respect, my team has higher-priority calibrations scheduled for—"
"Today, Cael."
A longer pause. "Yes, Captain."
Reyna closed the channel. She leaned back in her chair and pressed both hands over her face. Her gold Kaelari constellation markings across her fingers caught the light from her desk lamp, steady and warm and perfectly controlled, as they always were.
Three Aetherfin. An impossible transition problem. Vryx in the bread. And a Chief Engineer whose priorities could use some recalibrating of their own.
She had a feeling the day was just getting started.
Torvax appeared at her office door moments after she had hung up with Cael, as though summoned by an internal efficiency clock telling him exactly when the Captain needed him.
He said nothing, just simply fell into step beside her the way he'd done for thirteen years, his datapad already in hand, his posture immaculate.
"Rounds," Reyna said.
"Ready, Captain. Three stops today. Medical.
Dr. Pheras has no flagged items but will likely want to assess your cortisol levels personally.
" Reyna shot him a look. Torvax continued, not noticing.
"The Habitat Wing. Selowen has submitted a temperature adjustment report for the Luminthra enclosure and would like you to observe the results. "
"It sounds like it worked. I'm glad to hear," Reyna commented.
Torvax nodded once in reply. "And the Library. Orion has requested a brief discussion regarding the Pyrralon migration data he has been cataloguing."
"Brief, for Orion."
"I have allocated fifteen minutes. I anticipate needing thirty."
Reyna smirked. "Duly noted, Second. Let's go."
Their first stop was Medical, where her Chief Medical Officer, Kess Pheras, was running her usual battery of crew health assessments.
"I will wait here, Captain," Torvax said, stationing himself outside the door to the Medical wing.
He understood, without it ever having been discussed, that Reyna's visits with Kess operated on a different frequency than the rest of the rounds.
He had his datapad and plenty of tasks to keep him occupied. He could wait.
"Thanks, Torvax."
Reyna walked in and found Kess at the tech station in the Med Bay. Kess's own pale green hands were moving over a diagnostic panel with the precision of someone who had been doing this for decades and still checked every reading twice.
"Captain," Kess said without looking up. Her Kaelari silver-blue markings held their usual clinical neutral, the color of a sky just before dawn. "You look tired."
"I'm not tired," Reyna said with only a bit of petulance. Kess stopped what she was doing and turned toward Reyna.
"Your cortisol equivalent is elevated, your posture has shifted two degrees forward since yesterday, and you're doing the thing with your jaw."
Reyna's hand shot straight to her jaw, touching around to see if anything was wrong. "I don't do a thing with my jaw."
Kess raised an eyebrow. Her pale green eyes held an expression that was clinically diagnostic but also partly caring for her good friend.
She was entirely unimpressed. "The thing where you clench it when you're carrying more than you want anyone to know about," Kess said.
"You know, it's a good thing I love you otherwise all your secrets would be known by everyone on this ship. "
Reyna gasped as she dropped her hand from her jaw. "You wouldn't dare..."
"Yeah, maybe I wouldn't. If everyone knew your secrets, they wouldn't be secrets anymore, would they?" Kess winked.
Reyna blew out a breath for the umpteenth time today. "I hate when you're right. You read me too well."
Kess's gaze softened at the words. "Maybe. But being your medical physician while also being your friend means I know you've been doing that little jaw move since..."
Reyna held Kess's gaze. "... Elena," Reyna finished for her, quietly and just above a whisper.
Most of the crew saw Kess as only the Medical Officer, and that was good. She was fantastic at her job, keeping the whole crew safe and healthy as though it was no work at all.