Chapter 15: Life, uh, finds a way

January 19^th, 2279

Life on the cramped vessel didn’t seem too bad for most, especially since there was nothing to do, they were just drifting under cloak. Perlas was eagerly optimizing the cloak, making sure they didn’t have to repeat roleplaying a freighter. Basil had disappeared into his quarters mostly, either sleeping or spending his time in battle simulations – which were immense fun to him. It was a dubious prospect to imagine the unreliable vessel in this state going up against a competent foe, but it was entertaining to simulate it. His first few battles went badly, until he both got better and Feterni updated the simulation data for the ship once more, improving many aspects they had already worked on.

Nocks also disappeared, sitting in her sizeable officer’s quarters, head in her gear, “sorting the grid” as she called it. Her virtual friends – who didn’t know who she really was – had missed her dearly and asked many questions. She loved being able to just log off when things got too lively, though. There also were a lot of other devices stacked in her quarters, waiting to be set up and create a paradise for a gridhead like her, fully immersing her into whatever place she could connect to, exploring the universe in her own way, much faster than the ship she was on could.

Feterni kept working even when his team was off work, he enjoyed working alone more than with his team and he found quite a number of mistakes they had made throwing the ship together. He made a list of both the errors as well as the likely suspects.

Doctor Boddins and his assistant, who had by now finally introduced herself as ensign Zahra Lin in the mess hall, were trying to slowly wake up Marta Korolev, who was already reacting to some first stimuli. They had a heated debate with Nocks, who was trying to set up the carebot finally, and the disagreement ultimately came before the captain who ordered them to finish the carebot and then test it.

Ka’al and ensign Ivern took turns in the simulator, comparing points. Ivern was a talented pilot and a very easy-going person, but Ka’al felt threatened by her simulator points slowly creeping up to his, so he started sabotaging her by changing the difficulty level, which motivated Ivern even more on the surface, but she was also looking for a friend aboard to complain to. Ka’al wasn’t even sure why he did that – as he saw no reason to remain on the ship for long. He’d been competitive in the past to become a skilled Kebi wing leader, but the war had taught him a harsh lesson in how little it paid to follow orders and that “war hero” is another word for “broken man”. Ka’al simply had nothing to believe in or aim for aboard the Rubicon and had little incentive to hide that fact, the crew wondering more and more why Basil had even brought him aboard.

Marcus Ellington spent his time familiarizing himself with the aliens aboard, looking for his next essay. Feterni told him to leave him alone, Perlas was happy to help but the Axxi were already well-studied by scared humans, the Visser doctor Boddins was unsuitable for a study since he himself was well-versed in studies as a medical professional and therefore biased, Ka’al told him a lot before Ellington got the feeling he was describing another race and Ka’al started laughing. The marines were all human and all the non-humans of the engineers told him they only had one day of peace and were surely not going to spend it describing how their parents had made them, which left Mellir, who was very happy to help Ellington find the difference between a human and a cloudwalker. He was, however, slightly insulted by Ellington’s suggestion that – in order to further the cause of being accepted as their own kind – they should find a better name than cloudwalker, which ended cooperation for a while. Ellington would therefore simply spend time with the doctor, debating physiology and what might have to be treated on such a vessel.

Mender kept her marines busy by having them train defending the corridors of the ship against all known Oopid races, coming in infinite waves. They were comparing scores and kill-death ratios, a gamification that both Basil and Mender would soon come to regret having fallen into. Also, there was an incident when Ka’al was turning a corner and being Kebi ‒ one of the enemy races ‒ was immediately tackled by two of the marines, an incident infuriating him especially since Basil apparently found it very entertaining and reprimanded exactly no one.

The mess hall was the unofficial heart of the ship, not the bridge, which was mostly empty, most officers following Basil’s example. Basil was aware of this after walking into a deserted command center one morning, but let it slide until the ship was in normal operation, mainly because he didn’t have an XO and Nocks refused to create a shift plan. On the wall of the mess hall, someone had put up a portrait of ensign Mikka Howe, who had been the first to lose his life aboard the vessel – at least as far as they were aware of. Whoever had put up the portrait had put it above the bench the engineers used, but far to one side of the wall, leaving a lot of space for further portraits. None of them were under the illusion that their peace was going to last for long.

The engineers returned to work and after five whole days, the Rubicon was ready to jump onto her quantum entanglement slipstream for the first time in her second lease of life. The crew went to their stations within the citadel and Basil gave the order “punch it”, still figuring out a memorable way to order the highest speed known to man. The drive charged up and then the ship went dark and started drifting. After another two days – the first hours of which had to be spent getting the auxiliaries up and connected again to not freeze or suffocate – the Rubicon was again ready to jump onto her quantum slipstream for the first time in her second lease of life. Basil gave the much tamer order “jump to slipstream” and everyone was slightly disappointed, not only in those words, but also since the ship didn’t move. Only a few hours later, Basil gave the order “try it now” and the Rubicon sped through the stars finally.