Jack’s door chimed and it swung open allowing Sarah to enter. She looked at him leaning against the wall and cocked an eyebrow at his odd positioning. “Permission to drop the formal crap, Desperado?”
He exhaled. “That would be fantastic.”
“Whatcha doing in here? Getting all broody and moody?”
Jack ran his fingers through his hair. “I am,” he said with a bit of flair, “planning.”
She nodded. “That’s good. How’s that working out for you?” He opened his arms and shrugged. “Oh. That badly, then. Well, that is sort of why I’m here- the whole ‘what’s next’ thing.”
He looked at the ceiling. “I know we didn’t win that one because we had a genius plan. I’d like to avoid being that stupid again.” Suddenly he shifted his gaze to her. “Survival is going to be a matter of cleverness. So here’s my first bit of cleverness: this tub needs a first-mate. You’re elected.”
Sarah mock curtseyed. “I’m honored and thrilled.” He started to reply but she cut him off. “Okay, first thing I want to suggest.” Jack let out a short laugh. “We need to fix the gunnery problem. In our first firefight, you had an unqualified crewmember working the weapons.”
“That crewmember helped design the retrofit of the ship,” he replied.
“But,” she said, steadying herself, “we have an crewmember on board who could kill everybody here in about three minutes, whether by hand or with a weapon. I think we should consider letting her play with the guns.”
Jack sat forward and reached for the comm. “Bridge? F.A. are you there?”
The comm. crackled to life. “Present.”
“F.A., how would you feel about shifting over to the weapons console going forward?”
“Like it was home,” she replied.
“Done,” Jack said, then closed the channel. He looked up at Sarah. “Anything else, first-mate?” She sat down next to him and began lifting his shirt over his head.”
“I’m in the mood to break any rules that might involve fraternization, Captain.”
Gina strolled onto the bridge, stretching and yawning. She saw Kate slouched down in the captain’s chair, feet propped up on a small crate. “And here I was worried you wouldn’t find a way to relax,” she said.
Kate looked over her shoulder and watched Gina walk down to the conn and sit in the pilot’s seat. “I’m not uptight every hour of the day, Gina.” She paused, then added, “just most of them.”
The War Angel’s pilot snorted. “Wow! Kate Stinson just made a joke! It really must be the end of the world.” The duo looked at each other for a moment and let that statement sink in, neither wanting to address the reality. Finally, Gina filled the silence. “So what’s been going on?”
“I shot an asteroid for Richard, which I thought was great. But he swore a lot, so I think cannon three isn’t quite as fixed as he thought it was.”
“Richard knows how to swear?”
Kate nodded. “In a very real way, it turns out. Guess he just needs the right push. There may be hope for the boy yet.”
“Don’t tell him that. You know—“
“I’m not blind. I’ve caught him looking at me, and then he gets all nervous and shy. It’s cute. Pathetic and sad. But cute.”
Gina shook her head. “Ouch. True. But still: ouch.”
“Oh- Jack called down and asked me to take over at weapons. So he seems to be getting a clue. Slowly.”
“That’s a relief. Both the clue thing and that you’ll be doing the shooting. No offense to Sarah, but…”
“…She doesn’t exactly have my skill set. Right.” Kate cracked her knuckles. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to our next shot at those bastards. With any luck, Jack is reading those old journals of his and coming up with ideas for how we can take the fight to them. If we don’t, I’m damn sure they’ll bring the fight to us.”
Suddenly, the hyperfrequency light lit up, accompanied by a loud chirping sound. Kate and Gina stared at it as it whistled and tweeted, and after a couple of minutes it finally stopped. The light began to blink at a slow, hypnotic pace. Finally, they looked at each other and shrugged.
“You were saying?” Gina said.
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