CASE [GL]

Lauren continued to put the crew at ease for quite a while while I stood next to her in the comms room. A lot of people had questions but Lauren answered them all swiftly without even a hint of hesitation in her voice. It’s true that we somewhat expected this to happen but it was still very admirable that she managed to stay so confident in the face of adversity. 

It took almost half an hour for the last person to leave the comms room, leaving the two of us alone. 

“That was that.” Lauren sighed relieved. “Ellie, are you still here?” 

“I am.” Ellie replied.

“Good.” Lauren then looked over to me. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stash away your little box somewhere.” 

“Ah… that box.” I assumed she was speaking about the genetics device. 

“I think it’d be a better idea not to have the box on our person when we get detained. While I hate having it not with us, it’d probably be better in Ellie’s care.” 

“Hmmm… I suppose you are right…” I replied but I was still rather hesitant. It’s as Lauren said, I really don't want to part with it either, but if they find it on us it’ll be too much of a liability. “I take it that also counts for my other equipment?” 

“Yeah, that’d be best.” Lauren nodded. 

As we were now under suspicion, taking it off the ship would be a heck of a lot harder than getting it on. 

“I will tell Doctor Winter to meet you two with the object in my core room once you have collected the equipment.” Ellie said. 

“In your core room?” Lauren seemed a little surprised by that proposition. 

“Yes, I know just the place.” 

“Alright. Let’s get our things and then we’ll see. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I want to see what you are proposing for myself first before we take a decision.” 

“That’s completely fine by me, Commander.” 

“Okay, then Luna and I will quickly go and collect her things.” Lauren nodded and walked over to the door, she waited for a second for me to catch up. “Do you have to do another update soon?” 

“I will quickly do a text one, that way they’ll be less suspicious for a while. I’ll also quickly send a couple to the contacts on Earth not to be alerted if they hear anything about me being detained.” 

“That’s smart.” Lauren smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “Wouldn’t want to get blown to bits because of a formality.” 

“It’s been a while since your jokes have been that morbid.” I replied with a slight smile on my lips. 

“I think the situation calls for some good old coping mechanism, doesn’t it?” She grinned.

“As long as it isn’t alcohol.” 

“Nah, I already get drunk enough by looking at you. Must be all that sugary sweetness that started fermenting in your warmth of cuteness…” Lauren shut up and froze for a second. “That sounded better in my mind.” 

“Eh, it’s still pretty cute.” I giggled. 

“Good, didn’t get dumped today. I call that a success.” She gave me a bright smile and a thumbs up, which made me giggle quite a lot more. 

 

I quickly gathered my things once we reached my old cabin and gave a small situation report to my contacts so that they wouldn’t be too worried that I’d go no-contact for a while. Luckily all my equipment was small enough to hide on my person so finding a good hiding spot wouldn’t be too hard… at least I hoped so. 

Lauren patiently waited for me by the door. Not that we expected anyone to come nose around but better safe than sorry. 

“I’m ready.” I said as I closed the door behind me. 

“Good.” Lauren nodded. “Where did you hide it.” She appeared to be scanning my body but I quickly noticed she was just teasing me. 

“You can get a good enough look later.” I pouted, let’s go and meet up with Eva. 

“Alright, ma’am.” She gave me a quick wink and a cheeky salute after which we went off to the meeting point at Ellie’s core. 

When we arrived, Eva was already waiting there for us with a small doctor’s case in her hand. “So we are going to get detained after all.” 

“Only for a short time.” Lauren waved away Eva’s concern as swiftly as she’d handled the other crewmembers. “Nothing to be worried about, especially not with Ellie’s help.” 

“Exactly, Commander.” Ellie said confidently. 

“Although I do want to know…” Lauren turned around to look into the room. “...where exactly you want us to hide this all.”

When Lauren asked that, a small service bot rolled out from underneath Ellie’s mainframe, using a little doorway. 

“You can just give it to wowo, here.” Ellie said, as the little service bot raised it’s little metallic arms. 

“Oh my Goddess, that’s cute.” Eva crouched down and petted the little bot on it’s… head? 

“Wowo? Did you name it?” Lauren asked. 

“It does the small maintenance of the systems down there. It’s too hard for humans to get there. It mostly does dusting. But as it does little works, I called it Wowo, because it work works…” 

“....” Lauren stared at the little robot with an open mouth before then looking at Ellie’s mainframe. “That’s so adorable.” 

“I know right!” Eva said, still petting the little bot, although it looked like the little guy was getting a bit annoyed because of it. Or that might just be my perception. 

I took the devices I took from my room from underneath my jacket and handed it over to Wowo who made a happy beeping noise as I did. It then quickly zoomed off to the surprise of Eva and disappeared underneath Ellie’s mainframe. 

“So… Wowo… is going to hide it somewhere over there?” 

“There’s a little spot that’s out of the way even more maintenance bots, Wowo will hide the box and your equipment there, after which I will add a layer of camouflage over it too by using some old circuit boards from the hangar bay. Do you have any objections to that plan, Commander.”

Lauren looked a bit dumbfounded but nodded after a couple of seconds. “No… go ahead, I’m just surprised you thought about all that.” 

“I am, after all, a supercomputer, Commander.” 

Wowo came rushing back empty-handed and stopped next to Eva, again reaching up its little metallic arms.

“Doctor, I think it would be better to take the case back with you. That will save a bit of space.” 

“Right.” Eva nodded, clearly tempted to start petting Wowo again. But she took out the black box out of the doctor’s case and handed it over to Wowo instead, without any petting.

Just like last time Wowo zoomed off with the black box as soon as it got the box in its hands. But unlike last time Wowo didn’t come zooming out again. 

“Is he stuck?” Eva tilted her head and kept looking at the little closed door. 

“He isn’t, he just doesn’t want to go out anymore. He’s had enough social encounters for the day.” 

“Oh, robots have those days too, huh?” Lauren laughed. “Can’t blame the little fellow.” 

-Can’t say I blame the little guy either. Some days are just better of spent in bed rather than going out and being social. But sadly we didn’t really have the luxury of choice on board this ship. If we don’t get permanently detained back on Earth… a holiday would be nice.- 

 

“In all seriousness, are the objects safe with you, Ellie?” 

“As safe as they can be, Commander. They’d pretty much need to disassemble me to get to those items.” 

“Good, then once we are back aboard we will come to you to retrieve the items.”  

“Yes, I will patiently hold onto them for you.” 

“Alright. I’m happy with that, are you, Luna?” Lauren asked. 

“I am. I think this is definitely our best option.” I agreed. “Even though I’m not the biggest fan of leaving my gear behind, I do trust Ellie with my life.” 

“It means a lot to me that you’d say that, Lieutenant-Commander.” Ellie actually sounded touched by my statement. 

I just smiled at the mainframe. 

“And now we just go back to work?” Eva asked, she was still looking at the little door. 

“Yep, that sounds like the best course of action.” Lauren walked over to the door and I followed. “It’s all out of our hands now, let’s just trust in our work and in Ellie’s. Then everything should be fine.”

Eva nodded and finally stopped staring at the little door, joining us at our side. “Bye bye, Wowo!” Although she couldn’t resist saying goodbye to our friendly neighborhood maintenance droid. 

When we left I could swear I saw a little metallic arm wave us off from the corner of my eye, but that might just have been my imagination. 

-The little maintenance bot that could… it kind of reminds me of that one movie Lauren and I watched together not too long ago…-