Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Thanks to the excellent medical facilities on the Antikythera, Jeridan healed quickly. He had the feeling the ship's medical unit got a lot of use.

Once he recovered, the ship fell into its interstellar routine. Long trips can only be endured through a strict routine, the necessity of keeping busy, and the occasional novelty to keep things from getting boring.

They took care of that with chessboxing.

Jeridan lost the first two matches, but that was totally because Negasi goaded him into a fight before he was feeling one hundred percent. Then Jeridan won two in a row before he let Negasi win the fifth bout. He had to thank him somehow for the half-assed attempt to save his life.

Bout number six would be open season, though.

They had more serious things to do as well, like confront their new boss about what the hell was going on.

First off, what was so special about this data chip? If it was encrypted, how did Nova's husband know what was on it? And why did he hide it on a savage planet?

And what happened to him, anyway?

Dead, she had said, along with the rest of the previous crew, and yet Nova didn't seem broken up about it.

Neither did the kids.

"What's weird is that they hardly ever mention him," Jeridan said one day. "And when they do, it's in a vague way like he was some ex-crew member who moved to another ship."

Negasi nodded. "I noticed that too. I tried to bring it up with Aurora, and she changed the subject. And while they don't seem sad about him, they don't seem bitter and angry either. If he was such a bad husband and father that they don't mourn him, you'd think they'd at least gripe about it. Especially the kids."

"Maybe that's why Mason is so withdrawn?" Jeridan suggested.

"Maybe. I've never gotten into a long enough conversation with him to tell."

"And Aurora should certainly be all cut up about it." Jeridan snapped his fingers. "Hey! What if he didn't die, just took off? Or maybe he died years ago and they've learned to live with it."

"Then why the lie?"

Jeridan didn't have an answer to that. They discussed it more, going around and around and getting nowhere. At last, they decided they weren't going to find out what happened to Derren, and it probably didn't matter so much. They had their jobs, after all.

But what did matter was the data chip they had nearly gotten killed over, the data chip the Syndicate had sent Mantids to retrieve.

They needed to get some answers from Nova about that.

Jeridan wanted Negasi to do it.

"You're a xenoanthropologist," Jeridan reasoned, "and women are kind of like aliens."

"That attitude is why you're perpetually single," Negasi replied. "You're the captain. You should be the one to talk to her."

"Oh, so you're saying I rank you?" Jeridan said with a grin.

"Hell, no! That's only an honorary title."

"Not according to Starship Regulations."

"Since when did follow regulations?"

"Then I don't see why I should be the one to talk to her."

And that was that. The fact was, neither of them wanted to confront Nova. The woman was downright frightening, and it wasn't like she had been all that honest with them in the past. A confrontation would probably only lead to an argument that didn't tell them any more than they already knew.

They also didn't want to jeopardize their new job. The pay was good, the ship was the best they had ever flown in, and with all the drama surrounding this damn data chip, it might just be a goldmine.

Or it might turn out to be nothing.

Either way, they didn't want to end up broke on some dead-end planet with a shipment of illegal whiskey, and that could very well happen if they pushed Nova too far.

So they dropped those two questions in favor of dealing with a lesser but equally mysterious problem.

"I asked Aurora, and she said Mason is spending a lot of time in navigation," Negasi said one day as they were doing a routine check of the weapons systems.

"Yeah, he was in navigation when the S'ouzz flew the ship over that old installation."

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Negasi shook his head, obviously worried. "The S'ouzz are an extremely reclusive species. Having a ten-year-old kid running around must drive him mad."

"Mason said it was OK."

"I think we should get a second opinion," Negasi said.

"I brought it up with Nova and she snapped at me, saying it was none of my business, as if the mental state of my alien navigator is none of my business."

"Then I think we should get a third opinion."

"Yeah, you're right. If the S'ouzz are as big loners as you say, there's no telling what kind of effect that kid will have on it. And why is Mason up there in the first place?"

"A system check said there's a malfunctioning readout up there," Negasi said. "I'll use that as an excuse to go there and talk to it."

"Good plan. And try to find out what the S'ouzz thinks of all the craziness Nova has led us into."

Negasi snorted. "I'm still trying to figure that out for myself."

* * *

Mason and Aurora always did some home schooling after dinner, so Negasi sent a request at lunchtime to the S'ouzz for permission to come up to navigation and make the repair. He received a one-word reply: "Yes."

The average human would find that cold and off-putting. For someone with xenoanthropology training, it was as warm of a welcome as one could expect from that species.

Negasi sent a reminder message one hour before he was due to go up, then another half an hour before, and another five minutes before. He received a reply to none of them.

Sending a final message saying he was on his way, Negasi grabbed his toolbox, made sure the coast was clear, and headed up the spiral staircase to navigation.

He found the door unlocked. Sensors showed that the S'ouzz usually kept the door secured. Taking that as an invitation to enter, Negasi passed through the door into the small room just below navigation that the S'ouzz had claimed for his own. The walls were lined with computer banks connected to the room upstairs, all dedicated to the massive mathematical formulae required to steer a ship at faster than light speed safely through meteor swarms, the paths of rogue planets, black holes, and other dangers accurately to a destination several light years away.

Of course, MIRI or some other AI could do the calculations herself, but virtually all starship crews brought along a human or alien astronavigator to do the job. The navigator used AI assistance, of course, but for the refined and subtle art of astronavigation, it was best to have a living creature do the final calculations. There were some things an AI would never replace.

Other than the computers, the room was almost as empty as when Negasi had seen it on his first day on the Antikythera. Near the center, next to the spiral stairs going up, was a large circle of cushions. The S'ouzz's bed? Sitting on one of the cushions, its legs tucked under its rectangular body, was the alien's robotic dog. Strange that the S'ouzz would have this thing. It stared at Negasi with dimly glowing eyes but didn't move.

Nearby stood several canisters of gases required for the S'ouzz's breathing apparatus. The S'ouzz homeworld had an atmosphere rich in trace elements that this species needed to survive. It had changed the air circulation in astronavigation to add these elements. Luckily, none of them were harmful to humans, so Mason wouldn't suffer any ill effects by hanging around up here.

The air smelled of rosemary, tulsi, and a couple of other scents he couldn't identify.

Other than that, there were a couple of lockboxes shoved to one side and nothing else.

Negasi loudly cleared his throat and stepped heavily on the stairs as he ascended.

He found the S'ouzz in the middle of a circular bank of computers, his smart chair having been rearranged into the same shape as those cushions downstairs. Negasi wondered how it strapped in.

"Greetings," the alien said, its voice coming out through the translator as a smooth baritone. An improvement over the metallic default voice. Negasi wondered why it had bothered to change it.

"Greetings," Negasi said.

For a moment, he was transfixed by the sight of the stars all around him. The dome was of glassteel, giving a complete 180-degree view of vast interstellar space. The rim of the Milky Way arched overhead, and here and there Negasi could pick out the faint red and green wisps of distant nebulae.

Negasi took a deep breath, drinking all that beauty in. Sometimes he still couldn't believe he had grown up from that little farmer boy lying out in the fields at night to someone who actually traveled through space.

"You find it beautiful," the S'ouzz said.

"Yes."

Negasi spotted the bright fuzzy ball of Leo I, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy and one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. Millions of stars, many no doubt with planets. He wondered how different it was over there. At 854 kiloparsecs, he'd never find out. Not even the Imperium with their jump gates had journeyed beyond the Orion Arm.

"I find it beautiful as well," the S'ouzz said. It was in a talkative mood today.

"All sentient species show a curiosity about outer space," Negasi said. "There's a theory that an urge to explore is linked with sentience."

The alien did not reply.

Negasi stared for a moment longer before tearing himself away. He had a job to do. Two jobs.

He moved over to the console and opened up his toolbox. This was a simple broken connection and wouldn't take long to fix. He needed to get to the point quickly, even though the S'ouzz did not do things quickly.

As he tried to think of how to broach the subject, the alien surprised him by speaking first.

"A request."

"Certainly," Negasi said, not looking up from his work. This species didn't like being looked at.

"At Latimer Station, could you ask if anyone has seen any of my species?"

"I will."

So the S'ouzz didn't plan to disembark at port? Negasi couldn't blame it. Negasi didn't want to step foot in that cackhole either.

He opened up the console and located the broken connection.

"Are you comfortable here?" Negasi asked.

"Yes."

"This mission is dangerous."

"Many are."

An interesting response.

"Do you need anything?"

Negasi stripped out the broken connector.

"No."

"Nothing bothering you?"

"No."

Negasi paused as he focused on replacing the connector. "It's just that I heard Mason has been spending time up here."

"He has."

Negasi tested the connector, found it fully functional, and closed and secured the console cover.

"A ten-year-old human child can be a lot to handle, even for our own species."

"His presence is not an irritation."

Negasi blinked. "That's surprising, because—"

"He is silent."

Negasi took that as reassurance, and a hint.

He nodded, gathered his things, and started down the spiral staircase.

"Tell the crew that we will be at the station in 27.4 Standard Hours," the alien said.

"All right."

Negasi passed through the S'ouzz's quarters and out the door. He heard it lock behind him.

Well, that cleared up nothing, he thought. But if the S'ouzz doesn't have a problem with the kid hanging around up there, then I don't. I got plenty more important things to worry about.

Like where we're going to land in 27.4 Standard Hours.