“Oh… shit. Yeah,” said Euryce. “You’ve gone onto your new rotation.”
“Yes, I have.”
“Sorry, I forgot. I really did.”
“Did you want something in particular, Eury?”
She pulled herself towards the hatch and felt the tug of the deck plates immediately. She moved her feet towards the deck as she crossed the threshold, letting them settle beneath her. That weird, stretchy, churning sensation passed through her body when she entered the compartment. She would never get used to that.
“Guess what I just got,” she said.
Danis stared at her, focused with difficulty on the plastic card she was waving in front of his nose.
“Your final written warning? For depriving crew of sleep?”
“Obviously not.”
He shrugged helplessly, and yawned. “I really have no idea.”
“I’m being pro-mo-ted,” she sang. “Flight Operations Assistant.”
He raised his eyebrows, then smiled. She thought he seemed more awake all of a sudden.
“That’s great,” he said. “Really really great! Hey, you’ll be up near me a lot more often.”
“I know, right? We’ll practically be in the same section.”
“How in the worlds did you swing this?”
“Didn’t have to. The captain’s glowing recommendation said — and these are his exact words — ‘it is difficult not to notice the talent of this employee’.”
“Wow,” Danis laughed. “That’s quite the compliment, coming from him.”
“Ha, I know! I wrote it in my diary,” she laughed. “I don’t remember the last time somebody flattered me like that.”
“Nobody flatters like that.”
“But hey,” she said. “It’s more money, it’s more responsibility, and it puts me on the right course to sit in the chair one day.”
“You’re dangerously close to getting what you want, Euryce.”
“It’s a long way off yet,” she said. “FOA? That’s like being the receptionist for the bridge.”
“It’s a lot more important than that, and you know it.”
“Still a long way from command, though.”
Danis smiled, and the corners of his eyes creased deeply. “You never take your eye off the goal, do you?”
“Hey,” she said. “If you want your life to change, you have to make those changes happen yourself.”
• • •
“FOA Eilentes, reporting for duty.”
“Eilentes. Welcome to the bridge. You’re two minutes late.”
Euryce stared straight ahead. She had only spoken to First Mate Faitana three times up until this point, and had not once had to explain herself to her. It was just her luck that the first thing Faitana said to her as her new direct senior was a criticism.
“Sorry Ma’am.”
“I’m joking, Eilentes. I don’t care about two minutes here and there, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Thank you, Ma’am.”
“Worlds, tone it down. This is a Mabius Intersystems transport, not a naval battlecruiser.”
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, I’m…” she struggled to find the right words. “I’ve never had to work on the bridge of a starship before.”
“Well don’t worry, you’ll settle in just fine. You’re going to be shadowing our current FOA for the time being. Mister Hakuri will be leaving us soon for the HSCS Copenhagen, the treasonous dog.”
“Thank you.”
“He’s over there,” Faitana gestured. “Go introduce yourself.”
Euryce walked over to the operations station, and the man behind the console smiled up at her. He was young, but older than her; early to mid-twenties, she guessed.
“You must be Mister Hakuri,” she said.
“I guess I must. Euryce Eilentes?”
“That’s me.”
“Take a seat. You have a lot to learn.”
Euryce sat down in the chair next to his and looked at the console.
“I’m pretty much up to speed on this system, to be honest,” she said.
“Not the system,” said Hakuri. “The ship. The crew. How everything fits together. You’re going to be part of this beast’s brain, so you need to know what goes right and what goes wrong. Sorry to tell you this, but the bits that go wrong are going to take up all of your time from now on.”
“Surely not much can go wrong on the long haul? We’re just going from A to B to C.”
“You’d be surprised. You know how the ship is all clean on the inside, always looks freshly painted? But the outside makes it look like a moving pile of shit?”
“Yeah…”
“The outside is far more accurate. Company’s not big on capital expenditure.”
“Great.”
“Oh it doesn’t stop there. The crew can develop faults too. I’ve been here eleven months, and I’ve seen two people come down with a dose of space-crazy.”
“You sound like you’re glad to be leaving.”
“Oh I am. But then I was never meant to be here that long anyway. This was supposed to be just a temporary measure.”
“You’re transferring to the Copenhagen, right?”
“Yeah. Different ship, different company. The family’s company.”
“You’re from that Hakuri family?”
“The very same.”
“So how come you’re even here?”
“I’m learning humility,” said Hakuri.
Euryce looked at his face, and it betrayed nothing. He had said it as if she ought to have known already what he meant.
“Okay, you’re going to have to explain that one.”
“When my father is too old or too senile, I’ll be in charge of Hakuri Shipping Corp. He wanted me to experience life at the bottom of the ladder, so here I am.”
“But not on a Hakuri vessel?” Euryce asked.
“No. He didn’t want me to fall out with anyone, in case I’m then tempted to make their life hell for a couple of decades.”
“Ah, so he had you borrow time on a Mabius ship instead.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m sort of in the same boat. My father is that Westry Eilentes.”
Hakuri tried to maintain a polite, interested expression, but Euryce saw no flicker of recognition play across his features.
“You don’t know who he is, do you?”
“I’m sorry,” said Hakuri. “I’m guessing another shipping magnate?”
“In a manner of speaking. He’s not what you would call a major player, but really… you should probably learn about the smaller companies before you take the helm of Hakuri. They will all be your competition.”
“Advice noted,” Hakuri smiled. “Should you really be encouraging me though? Your father might not appreciate that.”
“He’s perfectly happy with what he has,” said Euryce. “He has no plans whatsoever for market domination. The industry has accommodated his efforts very nicely, and our family has everything we could really want.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I’ll not worry too much about that competition then.”
They both laughed. Euryce found it very easy to like Hakuri; considering he was the heir to a powerful corporation, he was surprisingly amiable.
“So how come you’re not on one of your father’s ships?” Hakuri asked. “Didn’t he want to keep you in the family game?”
“He offered,” said Euryce. “Several times. But I wanted to make it on my own merit. That’s the standard everyone else is held to, so why not me? Nepotism is so… so Viskr.”
“It can work though,” Hakuri said.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. Obviously it’s working for Hakuri Corp.”
“No offence taken. Family continuity is a great way to keep businesses on track.”
“I don’t dispute that. But someone once told me I should take control of the processes shaping my life, and that’s what I’ve done.”
She
waved her hand around, as if encompassing not only the flight operations deck, but all the compartments beyond it.
“I made it here because of my own efforts. And I’ll continue to do just that. If I were on one of my father’s ships, plodding along, then yeah — I’d probably climb the ladder pretty quickly. But that could only end with me sitting in a boardroom on his right hand side, waiting for him to step down.”
“And you wouldn’t have achieved anything yourself.”
“Exactly.”
“I like the way you think, Euryce Eilentes. You might not share my view of things, but you know what you want.”
• • •
“How was it?” Danis asked.
“Fine,” said Euryce. “Really good actually.”
“Did you take many messages?”
Euryce hesitated for a moment, unsure exactly what he meant, then realised he was poking fun at her for comparing her new role to that of a receptionist.
“Loads,” she said. “The calls didn’t stop.”
He smiled at her from the view screen. She rolled from her side onto her stomach, squashing down the bedding on her bunk so that she could see him more easily.
“Well I’m glad your first day didn’t end in disaster,” he said. “I was kind of expecting the order to abandon ship.”
“Dick,” she said.
“Don’t interrupt. I’ve got loads of great insults lined up, and my shift starts soon.”
“Sorry.”
“Where was I? No, I’ve totally lost my thread now.”
“Soooo sorry.”
“How’s the bridge crew? I heard it’s a lion’s den up there.”
“Great. The captain wasn’t even on the deck for most of the day, to be honest.”
“No surprise there. What about Faitana? Heard she’s a ball-buster.”
“She was perfectly okay with me.”
“Yeah,” said Danis. “But you don’t have any balls to bust.”
“She just left me to it. I’m shadowing the current FOA, so it was one-on-one for most of the shift.”
“Ah, I see. And what’s she like?”
“He is great. Knows his shit. And he’s a decent guy too.”
There was a definite pause before Danis answered pointedly.
“Sounds like you really landed on your feet then.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh come on Euryce, you’re not the first person to get promoted into a new life. This is how it starts. First you gain new colleagues, then your old friends start to hear less from you, next thing we know we’ll be getting the wedding invites.”
Euryce coughed out her surprise, and choked on her own saliva.
“Oh my worlds. Are you jealous? Just because I’m learning from another guy?”
“No, I’m just saying—”
“He’s not even staying on the ship. The whole reason I’m learning his role is because he’s going to a completely different company.”
“Good.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” she said. “If you remember, I was the one who asked you out in the first place.”
“Yeah, but the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill,” said Danis.
“So you’re actually accusing me of planning to cheat?”
“No, just hoping it won’t happen.”
“Well it won’t. You’re my guy.”
“Good. You want to join me for breakfast?”
“Okay, but you’ll need to finish your shift early. I can’t be late on the operations deck; it’s a big no-no.”
“My place then, oh-six-thirty hours.”
“Not the commissary?”
“You know how I feel about that place,” Danis said. “Most ships have a galley. But oh no, not us. No, we get to pay our wages back to Mabius in return for what they call food.”
“Do you even have anything left?”
“I used most of my storage allowance on freeze-dried goods.”
“Is that why you only ever wear one of two t-shirts?”
“Pretty much.”
“Okay. It’s a date. Have a good shift.”
She blew him a kiss, and the call ended.
Euryce took a moment to think. She was only nineteen Solars old, and the thing with Danis — whatever it might yet become — was what she considered to be her first long-term relationship. But she knew with some certainty that she was by no means naïve. She had detected something in that conversation she had not experienced before, but which she had heard being mentioned plenty of times in the conversations of many, many women.
Was he really that possessive?
If things went sour, they would be stuck on the same ship with each other for the entirety of the Maidesvale’s fourteen-month route around the outer systems. She had no plans to transfer anywhere now that she had just been promoted, but she could not imagine Danis leaving his nest just for her benefit. He was perfectly comfortable where he was. Even for a long haul, the trip would be long.
Lasan would know exactly what to say.
She punched in the request for an off-ship line, and the unified comms address for her sister. The view screen chattered away while it connected to the nearby gate, throwing up data representations which meant nothing at all to her.
The call paused before it went through, and the time local to Lasan popped up. Mid-afternoon. Good, she would be home by now. Euryce confirmed the call, and waited.
“Hello?” Lasan said. “Oh, Eury. It’s so good to see you.”
“Hey Sis,” said Euryce. “How are you?”
“Fine, I guess.”
Euryce noticed straight away that Lasan was not her usual self. Most of the time, when they had their sisterly chats, Lasan was smiling from ear to ear. She would normally begin the conversation by launching straight into a story about where she and Artho had been, what they had done that day, how funny he was.
But not today.
“Is everything okay?”
Lasan sighed. “I’m… just a bit homesick, I suppose. Things here are not so good right now. I miss you. I miss Brex. I miss Mama and Papa.”
“I miss them too,” said Euryce. “And I miss you.”
“Have you heard anything from Brex lately?”
“Just that he’s off on a training exercise. MAGA don’t seem to stop for a break, ever.”
Lasan sighed again. Euryce knew how much she missed her twin. They had both suffered those feelings of loss when Brex had enlisted in the wake of the Perseus conflict, but it had been Lasan who cried herself to sleep every night. The bond between Brex and her must have felt like it was stretched across the light years.
“But you are okay?” Euryce continued.
Lasan sniffed. “I think I might have made a mistake.”
“How so?”
“Moving all this way out to live with Artho. He’s not the man I thought he was, Eury.”
“What has he done to you?!”
“Nothing! Oh, worlds. Nothing like that. He’s just… its not one particular thing, you know? He used to treat me like I was the Empress. I couldn’t imagine staying back home knowing that he was somewhere else. But now… everything is fading away.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I did think about going home,” Lasan said.
“You’re going to leave him?”
“I haven’t really decided.”
Euryce had no idea what to say. It was advice she had called for, from someone more schooled in the lessons of love. She had not been looking for the opportunity to counsel anyone else.
“Can I run something by you?”
“Of course.”
“I started seeing someone aboard ship; Danis, he’s called. It’s all been going fine. Anyway, today I started working on the bridge—”
“Oh, good for you!”
“Thanks, I’ll tell you about it in a few days, when I’m settled. But Danis; he got really funny with me when I told him I’m being
trained by another guy.”
“Funny how?”
“Ranting about how it won’t be long before I forget about him. Danis, I mean.”
“Typical male reaction,” said Lasan. “Every other male is a competitor.”
“You think so?”
“Oh yes, it’s perfectly normal. Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you don’t say anything inflammatory, or Danis will read volumes into it.”
“What counts as ‘inflammatory’?”
“Basically, don’t say complimentary things about this other guy. Don’t even mention him if you don’t have to.”
“That sounds a bit… mind controlly. I shouldn’t have to censor myself just to keep someone from being jealous.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” said Lasan. “But unless Danis is going to accept that you can keep your vagina in your pants when you’re working with other males, then that’s what you’re going to have to do to keep him happy.”
“That just sounds really, really unfair.”
“Welcome to relationship town.”
• • •
Euryce ate her evening meal in the commissary, chewing thoughtfully on what the Mabius cooks had creatively named Steak Shalleon. Whatever they’re aiming for here, she thought, they missed.
She looked around, at the various people sitting at tables and filling their faces with the dubious entries from the day’s menu. Some were having breakfast, some lunch, others dinner. The standard day had little meaning to shift workers on a long haul.
Hakuri entered, picked up a tray, and went to choose his dinner. Once he had paid for it, he turned towards the seating area and looked around.
He spied her sat alone, and waved.
Euryce waved back, and he came to sit by her. She moved aside the notes she had brought with her, making room for him.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not.”
“I see you brought some reading material,” he said. “Making sure you remember everything I said for tomorrow?”
“You caught me,” she said.
“Caught nothing. It’s a good habit to get into. There is a lot to remember.”
He moved things around on his tray, picked up his knife and fork, and prodded at his food.
Books One to Three Omnibus (Armada Wars) Page 86
