Chapter 10

Captain Klein watched James at work installing the sensors. He hadn't believed that Ann was telling the truth when she had said that James would be all business at work. He was taken by surprise when the man put in sixteen hour days installing and testing the sensor systems. Ann was just as dedicated to her work in setting up the communications equipment.

When James was off duty, Captain Klein did his best to steer clear of the guy. More than once he had been tempted to toss the man out of the airlock. The last time had been when James had challenged a rather naïve young man to a game of zero gravity hop scotch. The young man hadn't realized that when he hopped that there was no coming down. After bouncing off the ceiling, the floor, and the walls several times in succession, the young man finally grabbed one of the emergency loops and stopped. Battered and bruised by his collisions, the young man was much less naïve about zero gravity. Much to his dismay, the Captain learned that zero gravity hop scotch had turned into a rite of passage for all zero-g newbies.

After wiggling a connector under the console, the screen at the front of the bridge suddenly came on. James emerged from under the console and looked at the screen with a smile. Patting the console, James said, "That's it baby, strut your stuff for daddy."

"Do you have to talk to every machine you use?" the Captain asked.

"Yes."

Ann rolled her eyes and said, "It is a genetic thing."

Turning to the Captain, James said, "All of the sensor systems are online, Captain. All I've got to do is calibrate them."

Nodding his head, the Captain asked, "How long will that take?"

"A week or so," James answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Can't you be more specific?"

James looked at the screen thoughtfully. There was a lot more shown on the screen than just the stars. There were all kinds of other bodies floating out in space that were being shown. He didn't know if it showed everything that was outside the ship or not. For all he knew, half of the stuff on the screen might not actually exist. He said, "No."

"Why not?"

"No one has ever done this before. I'm sure that I'll run into problems and there's no telling how long it will take to overcome them," James said. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that he might have been optimistic in saying that it would take a week.

"Well, get to it," the Captain said recognizing it as an honest answer.

James ran a hand over the console and said, "Okay baby, get ready to have your bits twiddled."

As couples joined the crew of the ship, they brought with them their Quatyl. While the crew was busy getting the starship ready for its maiden voyage, there wasn't much for their pets to do other than sit around. As a result, the Quatyl aboard the ship spent the majority of their time in the Quatyl Playroom. The Quatyl, Siegfried and Sofie, belonging to the Captain and his wife, Anke, had been on board for the longest time. Siegfried had taken it upon himself to serve as greeter for all new Quatyl.

Starman and Stardust had staked out a den within the Quatyl Playroom. It was nearly time for their afternoon sleep when a man and a woman wearing uniforms entered with their Quatyl. They set the Quatyl on the floor and left after giving them one last petting. Starman looked at the pair of Quatyl and nudged Stardust. She looked at the new pair and got excited.

The new pair of Quatyl moved to the pattern on the floor and introduced themselves as Fire and Ice. They were siblings with Starman and Stardust. Earning a dark look from Siegfried, Starman, using one of the guinea pigs, said, "Fire, I didn't expect to see you here."

"Starman, it has been a long time," Fire said using the guinea pig.

"Yes, it has. How is your pet?" Starman asked.

"Our pets are pilots for the small craft on board this starship," Ice answered with pride.

"Our pets are in communications and sensors," Stardust said with equal pride in the accomplishments of their pets.

"It is good to see you again," Fire said before it got into a bragging session. Although not one of them would admit it, Quatyl had a tendency to brag about their pets.

Ken and Kim Williams opened the door to the bridge looking for the Captain. They were the hottest fighter pilots on Earth and had been the test pilots for the pair of fighters that were sitting in the hanger of the Starship Explorer. They had just come from dropping their Quatyl off at the Quatyl Playground and were reporting to the Captain. Looking around the bridge, Ken was waiting to see someone for permission to enter. Looking over at this wife, he said, "This is nice, but I don't think anyone is home."

Wondering if he had heard correctly, James looked towards the door and burst out in a smile. He said, "Fire King! What are you doing here?"

"Joker?" Ken asked surprised to hear James' voice. He had figured that he'd have to search for James back on the space station. He had seen the video of the meeting between James and his uncle. Having grown up with the stories about the superhero cape, he'd have been surprised if James had met his uncle without wearing one.

"Where's Straight?" Kim asked knowing that if James was there that Ann had to be there as well.

"Ice Queen!" Ann shouted excited at the prospect of spending time with her childhood friend.

The four greeted each other with hugs and handshakes in the manner of friends long separated. The Captain arrived on the bridge in time to witness the greeting. He groaned at the idea of what friends of James and Ann would be like. He hoped that the couple wasn't the pair of fighter pilots he had just allowed aboard. James noticed the Captain and said, "Ah, Captain Klein. Some friends of ours are here."

Ken looked at the Captain and said, "I see you're from the Royal Navy of the Netherlands."

"Yes," the Captain said pleased that someone had at last recognized his uniform.

Looking surprised, James said, "Hey, you recognized that uniform right off. I thought he was wearing a bell captain's costume."

Kim laughed and asked, "You didn't tell him that; did you?"

"Yes, I did," James said.

"Joker, I swear that one of these days you're going to go too far," Kim said wondering how it was that James was still breathing air and not vacuum.

"That's what I've been telling him," Ann said.

Familiar with James' attitude about that matter, Ken said, "And he tells you that the alternative is going nowhere."

"Right," Ann said.

The Captain listened to the exchange with a feeling of dread. He asked, "You two aren't the fighter pilots, are you?"

"Colonels Ken and Kim Williams, with call signs Fire King and Ice Queen, reporting for duty. We're your fighter pilots," Ken answered with a nod of his head. As equals in rank and belonging to different military services of different countries, there were some questions concerning saluting.

"Ah, you're the hotshot pilots I was told would be joining us," the Captain said returning the nod. He would have preferred a salute, but wasn't going to insist upon it. Fire King and Ice Queen were well known for their skills as pilots. Fire King flew with a passion that bordered on recklessness while the Ice Queen flew with absolute control over her craft. He looked at the couple and, hating himself for having to do it, asked, "How is it that two know James and Ann?"

"James and I grew up together," Ken answered. Their mothers had been friends and had gone through pregnancy together. The two young men had been next door neighbors since birth. They had done everything together, even entering the same college. They had double dated Ann and Kim their senior year. They had even married their wives upon graduation in a double ceremony. James and Ann had gone on to graduate school while Ken and Kim had gone into the military.

"He's the funny one," James said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Ann and I grew up together. We're practically sisters," Kim said.

"She's the wild one," Ann said with a smile.

The Captain wasn't too pleased to hear the causal characterization of the fighter pilots. Somehow, the prospect of having Ken and Kim on board didn't look quite as rosy as it had when he had read the files on them.

James asked, "Hey, Fire King. Have you ever played zero gravity hop scotch?"

"No and I'm not that stupid," Ken answered. He grinned and asked, "Have you ever tried to jump rope in zero gravity?"

"No. It sounds like fun," James said with a laugh. Winking at Ann, James said, "I bet we can find a zero-g newbie who will show us how it is done."

Nodding his head, Ken said, "Let's see who we can find."

"No," Captain Klein said.

Beac read the report from the Dromat sensor specialist with dread. They had located the noisy planet that Leac had reported seventy- three thousand chronons earlier. Not one Quatyl ship had been in that area since the scout ship had disappeared. When it had disappeared without sending any kind of emergency signal, the Quatyl had gone into immediate hiding convinced that the scout ship had run into a dangerous species.

The Quatyl had watched that region of space waiting for an invasion force. When nothing showed up to attack them, they were confused. They hadn't lost a scout ship in their entire history. The problem of what to do about the missing ship had been given to a Gnord. They didn't want three or four quick solutions to their problem, they wanted the best solution.

The Gnord assigned the problem decided that they should send three ships to the area and approach the region of space very slowly. She thought they should keep two of the ships close enough that they could watch what happened, but far enough away that they stood a chance of escaping unnoticed if things went bad. It should be noted that all of the other servant races claimed to have come up with the same solution, but seventy thousand chronons earlier.

Beac gave the command for the other two ships to stop while he moved forward at a low speed. He turned to his wife and, using a Slathern, said, 'I do not have a good feeling about this. This species is very noisy.'

'We're old and expendable, ' Bear said resigned her to fate. The whole crew was filled with geriatric Quatyl near the end of their lives.