Chapter 24: 24. Departure

Leaving Rolandan-2 was a lot more straightforward than arriving had been. There was a bit of the same bureaucracy dealing with port control, but once we got a departure vector and clearance to leave it was all fairly simple. We still had the nail-biting stress of flying an ugly antique space bug through an atmosphere while fighting the planet's gravity.

Beyond that, there were a couple other differences which made our departure more interesting than our arrival.

The first was Piper had me handle all the communications with port control. It wasn't exactly a taxing assignment, but it gave me something to do. It was also important, and I did my best not to trip over my own tongue while relaying stuff back and forth between our captain and the folks controlling our departure and flight path.

The second was the cockpit was slightly more crowded, as our newest crew member had joined us up there to watch.

While me and Sarah and the captain were strapped into our seats, Jenny stood at the very back, leaning against the door. Or at least that's what it looked like.

I had to admit that little hologram drone was a lot more convincing than I'd expected. It was completely hidden inside the image it projected, and if I didn't already know Jenny was a hologram I'd almost believe she was the real thing. The two main tells were she didn't cast a shadow, and there was no sound when she moved.

Normally you'd hear a person's footfalls on the deck, or even just the quiet sounds of their clothing as they moved about. The hologram didn't mimic any of that.

It was effective in other ways though, Jenny looked just like she did when I was in the healing pod. And when she spoke, her voice came from the drone rather than the overhead intercom speakers. That helped make it feel like she was really there with us rather than being down in the secondary hold.

She hadn't had a lot of time to familiarize herself with the HPD yet, but the way she was smiling I had a feeling she was already pretty happy with it. And thinking about that tripped me up for a moment, the idea that computer software could experience being happy. Except it was becoming more and more obvious even to me that Jenny was a lot more than just software.

And since our AI crew member was so obviously happy with the HPD, Sarah promised to hook up the second unit as soon as we were safely in transit and she had some spare time to work on it.

I was finally able to relax slightly when the ship left the planet's atmosphere and entered the cold harsh vacuum of space. Realistically it was a lot more dangerous, but it felt safer simply because the flight became smooth and quiet once we left all the turbulence behind.

It took another thirty minutes to follow our assigned vector away from the planet before we were finally clear to navigate freely. And at that point things got even more interesting, as our captain had me take manual control of the ship. She wanted me to pilot the Demeter out of the Rolandan system and into deep space.

That was a little nerve-wracking at first, but also turned out to be a lot of fun. There wasn't much risk of anything going wrong, and I actually got to fly the ship. It let me get a feel for it, how it responded when I made adjustments to the flight controls.

After an hour of that we finally started plotting our level-one jump to Ecclestone's World. Piper went over that procedure with me, walked me through it step-by-step. Then when we were done she cleared the plot and had me start over again. She wanted me to do it by myself from scratch.

Jenny and Sarah were both still in the cockpit with us, they'd been sort of an audience but I was sure they were also paying close attention to the lessons as well.

"We're due on the ground in just over ten hours," our captain commented. "We'll be in jump-space for about five hours, then we can expect another hour or so for our final approach and landing."

Sarah asked, "Will this be like our stop at the mining colony? You have your business to take care of, while the rest of us stay with the ship?"

Piper looked thoughtful for a few moments, before she nodded. "At first, yes. Like I've said, my regular routine involves moving some sensitive cargo between three ports? Ecclestone's World is the main one. That's my client's primary location, my stop there is basically the end of one run and the start of the next run. It's also where I get paid for the previous freight run. And that's where I need to explain that I've brought on some new crew."

She continued, "So I'm going to ask all of you to stay out of sight up on the main deck while the shipment is unloaded. Then I want you to stay with the ship while I go meet with the client. After that's taken care of, we'll sort out shore leave."

"Do you anticipate any danger?" Jenny asked. She'd been fairly silent for the past hour or two, watching and enjoying the experience of being out in the real world, away from her pod.

"It's possible," the captain admitted. "Not likely though, I don't really expect any trouble. It's been a fairly good business relationship for the past two years. And there's just over half a year left in our current contract. I suppose worst-case scenario, they might fire me? In which case we'll just start looking for another customer."

Sarah asked, "Why do you think they might react badly to you taking on some crew?"

Piper shrugged, "They made a big deal about secrecy when they hired me. That's the main reason I haven't gone into any details with you. Anyways I'll speak with them and explain the situation. Either they're ok with it and we keep working for them, or they're not and we go find something else to do. I'm not worried either way, we're set for cash for a good long while."

I had my level-one jump plot finished at that point, so we took a break from the conversation while the captain reviewed my work.

"You're sure you've never done this before?" she asked with a smile. "This is really good for your first try."

I blushed, "Yeah, it's my first attempt. I understand the theory, but I've only ever seen it done twice? When we jumped from the Hammersmith to the mining colony was the first, and what you showed me a few minutes ago was the second."

It turned out my plot wasn't perfect. I watched as she made a half dozen corrections, while she explained what I'd got wrong or what I'd missed.

When she was done explaining all my mistakes I grimaced, "Sorry boss. I'll try and be more careful next time."

She chuckled, "There's nothing to apologize for Amanda. None of your mistakes were the obvious or blatant kind. And even better, none of them were fatal. Your plot might not have got us exactly where we wanted to go, but we would have actually gotten there alive. You know how rare that is for someone's first attempt? That's why I asked if you'd done it before."

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"Really?" Jenny actually sounded nervous as she added, "I had no idea it was so dangerous using the jump drive."

The captain nodded, "Really. Level-zero jumps are pretty much routine since you never fully leave normal-space. Sensors work, you can see where you're going and make course corrections as required. Level-one and higher jumps mean leaving normal space. That transition in and out of jump-space is risky, plus you're flying blind. If you're off course, you won't know it till you drop back into normal space."

She added, "I don't know how they do it in the Navy, but in the Marines my first fifty jump plots were in a simulator. Then another dozen were live but with an instructor to double-check everything. My first fifteen or twenty in the simulator weren't even survivable. It takes a lot of training and practice to actually get good at this."

"Sounds about right," Sarah commented. "I've never seen it happen, but over the years I've heard a couple stories of Navy ships being lost to bad jumps."

Piper shook her head, "I've seen it once. Never want to see it again. And on that cheery thought, here we go."

Like last time, she opened a safety cover and turned the toggle beneath. The deck shuddered slightly as the jump drive came to life, then I felt the rumble through my body as we surged forward through a hole in space. Within a few moments the view out the windows had dissolved into a swirling mess of blue and violet light.

"Oh my," Jenny commented. She looked and sounded equal parts amazed and nauseous.

Piper unbuckled and got up, then me and Sarah did likewise and all four of us left the cockpit. I was still fascinated watching Jenny walk through the ship as she led the way back to the mess.

We all sat down at the table, I got myself some water while Piper and Sarah had soft drinks. Jenny of course didn't have a beverage, but she did take a seat. There was a chair sort of half-pushed out from the table and she smoothly lowered herself into it without moving the chair at all.

"You're already getting the hang of that thing," Sarah commented with a grin.

The AI smiled back, "Yes, thank you Sarah. I can't say it was entirely intuitive, but it hasn't been that difficult to adjust myself to it."

She added, "Perhaps the most challenging aspect is the sense of being in two places at once? Most of my awareness remains where I've always been, but I've split off a part of myself to 'inhabit' the drone so to speak. Its sensors allow me to feel like I'm really here with the three of you. It's quite nice in fact."

"Well I'm glad you're enjoying it," the cute engineer responded. "When I've finished my drink I'll get the second unit hooked up, so you can swap between them when they need to recharge."

Piper commented, "After you've done that, I suggest you get some rest Sarah. You too Amanda. And I want you both to get changed before we reach Ecclestone's World. I'll be in my 'work' clothes and I know you two got some similar outfits. Side-arms as well, this is one of those worlds where you'll want to be armed."

That didn't sound good, and I asked "I thought you said this was an ok place for shore leave?"

"It is," the captain replied, "As long as you stick to the right areas and you're able to defend yourselves."

After a sip of her drink she elaborated, "You two are young and attractive. If you wandering around alone and unarmed, wearing pretty dresses and looking cute and vulnerable there's a fair chance someone will take advantage of that. I can show you what places are relatively safe and what parts of the city you want to avoid at all costs."

Sarah commented, "The Hammersmith visited that world twice since coming to this sector. I took two days shore leave there the first visit. We weren't issued side-arms but the instructions were we had to stay in groups of three or four, and we were told to stick to one part of the port that catered to visitors. I can't say I felt entirely comfortable, but I chalked that up to the fact that we were obviously outsiders. I didn't feel particularly threatened or anything though."

Her expression shifted to a slight grimace as she added, "Of course that's when I was a big fifty-eight year old guy, and both the sailors I was on leave with were also tough-looking men. I can imagine we'll get an entirely different sort of reception looking like this."

I was starting to have second-thoughts about the idea of leaving the ship at all. Or maybe I'd wait until we were back at Rolandan-2 again, since that world seemed safe and civilized.

Piper must have seen the worry on my face, she said "Relax Amanda, it's not that bad. Like I said, if you're dressed appropriately and obviously armed you'll be ok. It's more a deterrent than anything else, I definitely don't expect either of you to actually need to use the guns. If you did we'd have to get involved with the local authorities, and that's an expensive hassle."

"Ok boss," I nodded slightly. "Maybe I'll just stick with you when we're there, since you've got the experience."

She gave me a reassuring smile, "Sure. That's not a bad idea."

After a few more minutes Sarah got up from the table and said, "I'm going to head down to the secondary hold and get that other drone wired up. Then I'll get a bit of rest like you said boss."

"All right. Don't work too hard," Piper smiled.

She and I got up as well, and while Sarah and Jenny headed aft to take the lift down to the lower deck, me and the captain went forward towards the cabins. She disappeared into her door on the right, I went into my and Sarah's cabin on the left.

Then I slipped out of the cute skirt and blouse I'd been wearing today, and climbed into the lower bunk to get a bit of rest before we reached our next stop.

As usual I curled up on my side, and my big floofy tail wrapped around between my legs and up over my chest so I could cuddle it while I slept.