Halfway down to his room, Dan looked into their own down forward lounge. This one was little used. There were eight lounges total, four on each side. They formed a strange inverse symmetry.
On the Consortium side of the ship, the upper floor was mostly healers and professional flight crew. They tended to be older, more dignified and quiet. One could find small groups in their lounge, watching the news, reading or having discussions. The bottom floor on that side was mostly civilians and lower level tech crew. They were a loud, friendly bunch. They watched sports and screamed at the video screen just like football fans back home.
On the American side, the top lounge were their mess halls. When supper service was finished, snacks were set out and the American crew gathered to watch sports, and blow off steam. The lower lounges were little used and usually quiet and empty.
Not tonight. A small crowd was gathered around an oversized hologram. There were just shy of a dozen people, mostly American but a few Consortium as well. Kavi was there, walking around the hologram and talking excitedly. The hologram was a circular disk a couple of meters around. It superficially resembled one of the solar stations that were being moved into their system.
Kavi stretched up to point at a spot near the top. "This is where the initial deep space crew is housed. Pure tech, space certification two just to be on the crew, most of the crew will be rated three," she was saying.
One of the men, Tieggert, Dan thought, wagged his eyebrows suggestively as she stretched and her skirt rose up. "What's that above it?" he asked.
"Tieggert," Kleppie muttered, blushing.
Kavi glanced back and arched her eyebrow. She smirked and stuck her tongue out. "You stand up and show me," she joked. "So I can look at your butt."
"Yes, Ma'am," he replied. He stretched up and pointed. "What's that?" he said and then, "did you get a good look?"
"I already saw it when you were in the tank," she said. "I just thought some of them might want to see." She gestured around the room. Everyone laughed.
Dan rolled his eyes and shook his head.
Runningbear and his new girlfriend brushed past into the lounge and joined the group. "Hi, Kavi," the girl said. "Is that it?"
Dan followed them in, curious.
"It's a zeta class core, yes," Kavi said. "Not the one, though, just one."
Dan gave her a blank, quizzical look.
It was Kleppie who answered. "The princess Sarasvat made a statement about that new group of systems they found. She called for a deep space station to be commissioned at a central spot, to start the exploration. Kavi is showing us the kind of station it will be. It's fascinating."
"But why zeta class?" the girl asked. "That's pretty big."
"Yeah, someday it will be a big area. She's recognizes this," Kavi answered. "Better to put a small station on a big core, so it can grow, then build a small station and have to rebuild later."
"Who wants Soma?" Runningbear asked.
"Me," Kavi called. Several others voices called out as well.
"Is there wine?" a consortium man asked.
"Naw, got to buy it yourself at the commissary," another told him.
"We're not supposed to anyway," an American said, with a glance at Dan, the highest rank officer in the room.
Kavi accepted a can of Soma tea and sat between Tieggert and Kleppie, pointing at the station and talking. Dan found a seat and listened. Kavi rambled for some time about the new station.
She really is a bit socially clueless, he thought as Tieggert made his third unsuccessful attempt to flirt with Kavi. But a really nice person.
He stifled a yawn. Runningbear's new girl stood and stretched. "Morning service shift," she groused, "comes way too early. I must go get some sleep." Everyone seemed to have the same idea. The party quickly broke up.
As he followed Kleppie out of the lounge and towards their bunk, Kleppie looked back at Kavi's retreating form. "You think..." he trailed off and blushed. "Way out of my league," he muttered.
Dan put his arm around Kleppie's shoulder. "Don't sell yourself short. You're a nice guy."
"Yeah, but she's wicked smart."
"That she is, but there is more to love than smarts."
Kleppie just shook his head. They said no more as they made their way back to their room. Madsen was already out, snoring in his bunk. Jensen was on his slate, surfing online. "Night," Kleppie said as he stripped to his shorts and climbed into his bunk. Dan stifled another yawn and made for his own bunk.
######
"Mom? Are you there?" Cheyenne asked the blank Skype screen.
"Yeah," her mom's voice came back, slurred and low.
"Are you okay?" Cheyenne asked.
"Yeah."
"How are the kids?"
"Off to school," mom said. Cheyenne looked at the clock and cussed to herself. She'd meant to call sooner, to talk to them before they left.
It was Janda's morning off. Lana had gotten Cheyenne up and out of the tank by herself. It took longer than usual. Because we wasted too much time flirting. It was harmless stuff, touches that lingered too long, a hand on her back to steady her, a hand Cheyenne didn't need but craved all the same. She flushed. She couldn't let that come between her and her kids.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I meant to call earlier."
"They need lunch money."
"I took care of that last night," Cheyenne said. Cheyenne was doing her best to be involved, to handle things for her family. She was surprised at how much she could do. Who would have thought that being on an alien spaceship in orbit miles over the planet she would be better connected then onboard a naval vessel? Then again, maybe she shouldn't be surprised. The Cambridge had a satellite relay but non military use was very limited. Here they had a hyperlink relay, whatever that meant, and a portal the earth side web.
Her military pay was direct deposited to her bank and she could access it online. She'd discovered that mom was a couple months behind on utilities and that both kids were in the red on their lunch accounts.
It was funny how she could handle their finances back home but the state department hadn't been able to figure out any way for them to have any money up here. Most of the crew had given up complaining. Everything they truly needed was provided. Besides they had devised their own barter system between the crews, despite the captains' continued grumbling about black markets. Even Cheyenne was complicit in it, she'd set up a premium video streaming service in her medibay for their mutual use.
"Mom?" she said again, not sure which one of them had drifted off.
"James forgot his backpack," she said.
"Are you okay?" she asked again. "You seem kind of out of it."
"Doctor upped my meds. I've been anxious. My baby girl sick, up in space, a million miles from home."
How do you think your baby girl feels?
"Which ones?"
There was a pause and Cheyenne wondered if mom was going to answer. She did, slurring out the names of a couple of meds. Not her benzos. Good for the doctor. He's got her number. Cheyenne just hoped mom didn't decide to start doctor hopping again, going from office to office in search of a doctor who would prescribe her what she wanted. In the meantime she had a couple of mood stabilizers upped. She always had a couple of tired, sedated days while her body adjusted and then she'd perk up.
"Have you seen James?"
"Off to school."
"No, James Senior. I've been trying to get ahold of him." Cheyenne hadn't been able to reach him since her first conversation. She was increasingly torn between being angry at him for not being involved with their kids and worried.
"Jules saw him at the grocery the other day." Julie Hatshaw was one of Mom's few remaining friends. "Says he looks awful. You shouldn't have left him."
"What should I have done?" Cheyenne asked, more sharply than she intended.
"Marriage is sacred. Shouldn't just throw it away."
"I'm not the one who threw it away, he was."
There was another long pause. "Mom, I'm going to let you go," Cheyenne said. "You need to go take a nap or something." Sleep off the med increase before the kids get out of school.
Mom made a noncommittal noise of agreement and signed off. Lana came and sat next to Cheyenne on the low couch. "It is hard for you, not to be there, isn't it?"
Cheyenne nodded. "They need me."
Lana slid her arm around Cheyenne's shoulder, wordlessly offering comfort. After a long time she said. "What did he do? James Senior, to throw your marriage away. If I may ask."
"He cheated on me," she said. "Well, mostly. Our marriage was on the rocks before that, but that was the final straw."
"On the rocks? Final straw?"
Cheyenne smiled. Damn idioms. She explained the sayings to Lana. She lay her head on Lana's shoulder as she talked. It felt nice, just sit close and talk.
When she was done Lana said. "Okay, you've given me two new sayings. Very good ones, too. I shall remember them, the next time I have a situation that is on the rocks, and someone does something that is just the final straw. So here's one for you. You've heard the saying about getting the unlucky egg?"
Cheyenne nodded.
"We have another saying, comes from this same custom of giving eggs. We say, he threw his egg away. Meaning he had some good fortune but he wasted it in some way. This man you were with, he threw his egg away."
Cheyenne laughed and snuggled closer. "Well, maybe somebody else will catch it then?" she teased. She leaned close to Lana's head. Lana smiled too and leaned in to the kiss.
It was too short, interrupted by the door. Cheyenne pulled away, fearful that it would be Captain Lannister or one of the American crew, but it was only Janda, carrying three trays stacked on top of each other.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Lana and Cheyenne shared a look.
"No," Cheyenne lied.
"It's about lunchtime anyway," Lana said. "What do we have?"
"Rice and vegetables, all processed to death, I'm afraid," he replied, setting the trays down. "This mission has been great for the mind..." he tapped the side of his head. "But it's hard on the stomach, I'll tell you that."
"Oh, poor Janda," Cheyenne joked.
"Shall we sneak into the hydroponics room and steal you a fresh tomato?" Lana asked.
"No, no," he said. "I understand the need for sacrifices on a mission such as this."