JessicaRae

Welcome back to all my readers! This chapter begins the final arc of this book and I am honestly stricken by the response you all have given. Ive said it before, and I will say it again, I never expected this story to go so far and I really have you all to thank. If you do want to get some more content, feel free to check out my Patreon where I post at least two chapters ahead of Scribblehub. That money goes towards paying for my medications but also into commissioned art pieces that you will also find on Patreon. Another story of mine is already there and before long, well, not only is book 2 of slipspace in the works, but another story may be on the horizon...

A week and a half passed while we waited to head out for the job, though it should have only been a week. Apparently, some material shortages had delayed things, but that just gave us all more time to spend busy, incredibly so, in my case.

Most of that time was pretty good, and I was able to spend more time getting to know my girlfriend’s family and reacquaint myself with my old captain. I thoroughly enjoyed the ‘family’ game night the Erickson trio hosted in their suite, despite getting trounced every round. Having rarely had enough friends to play with, I had gained a new familiarity with the feeling of my ass being handed to me by the more experienced players (though thankfully, it was a very attractive ass now). To what really shouldn’t have been a surprise, Mikaela proved to be an absolute master of cards with her daughter being an obviously excellent student of the craft.

There were even a couple nights that went late due to me working with Jay on a hobby that we really shared. Restless as he was, the ex-captain had picked up working on a home built shuttle he had started long before I had joined his crew. The designs had changed significantly since the last time I had seen them, but I was more than happy to sit with him and bicker back and forth about where this and that power run should go and how an AI core big enough to fully house Codex, Vox’s progenitor, could be installed in such a small ship. He still had an old style mindset about what the cockpit should look like too, so I ended up spending far too much time for Echo’s liking showing him how I would do it. He had asked though, so I just passed the blame to him when the Erickson heir tried to get on to me for being up until the wee hours of morning station time with the man.

Not my fault Jay needed an education in modern ship design after all.

I also spent several thousand credits from my sign-on bonus to build a significantly more portable computer core for Vox so that my AI friend could come with us on the trip. It wasn’t really powerful enough to host her full system, but the half meter cube shaped box was equipped with an incredibly compact subspace comm relay that could keep a much more reliable connection to her primary home than my personal hardware could, and all of that without taking up valuable ship-board computer resources.

That's not to say all of the free time was fun and games though. Not only did I have regular work in the dockyard to keep up with, Marcus Erickson had kept me additionally occupied with a bunch of time in the simulator. After so long, the class C hull addendum on my pilot’s license had lapsed and I had to jump through all of the appropriate hoops for the Galactic Pilots Association in order to renew it. Boss man wanted me to be clear for operations on a proper starship again before I started my real job within Erickson Enterprises.

Also very much in the ‘not fun’ category was my first appointment with a professional therapist. She had an office on Illume Station so I was able to meet her in person, but honestly, that just made the session that much more uncomfortable. The woman (as I had requested) hadn’t pulled punches and very bluntly asked about my feelings about my biological parents with very little warning and then proceeded to call me out for my willful ignorance of anybody that actually cared about me. Even if I did need it, It was rough.

After such a short time, I really wasn’t expecting the slight twinge of regret that hit me when I packed my duffel bag in preparation for the trip. I’d grown fond of the station and was beginning to feel like I had an actual home. Of course, Callisto Erickson pretty quickly settled those feelings with a kiss that served as a not-so-subtle reminder that my new home was actually coming with me.

Once Echo received word that our cabin was ready, we made our way to the Erickson controlled portion of the station’s docking rings and found the gangway to the Ratatosk to be already open with several people already traversing the extended dock arm. Echo stopped to say hello to a few of the people (who seemed to all be crew for the ship), but never chatted for more than a few moments before moving on. It wasn’t at all difficult to see that she was well liked and respected around the ship as more than simply the next in line for the big chair. All of the crew that interacted with her seemed pleased to see her and there were even a couple chaste hugs given.

For those that hadn’t already heard of me through the rumor mill, Echo introduced me as “my girlfriend and a recently hired pilot”. The reception I got was mostly warm, though there were some who seemed a bit wary of the newcomer,though I couldn’t be sure if that was because I was an outsider or because I was in a relationship with the Captain’s daughter. I could honestly understand both points. For, what seemed to me to be, a rather tight-knit crew, a new member could be cause for concern for any number of reasons. And, as Morik had told me what seemed to be a lifetime ago, most of the senior crew had been around for long enough that they had watched little Callisto Erickson grow up around their ship. Some concern over a new partner was to be expected.

Grinning knowingly, I noticed that most of the crew made it a point to tap at the gantry hatch while they passed through it, albeit with varying differing motions. Spacers could be a very superstitious bunch and this seemed to be a common ritual amongst the crew, likely one intended to ‘ensure’ a safe journey.

I’d never personally ascribed to such superstition before, but after my disaster with the Oxide, I was reevaluating my position on it. Void, but how I missed my old rust bucket… Seeming to sense the struggle in me, I felt Echo’s hand slip into mine.

Soon enough we finally actually made it to our private cabin that the Captain had graciously allowed Echo and I to use for the duration of the job. Normally, Echo bunked in the officer cabins like the department heads while the staterooms were reserved for guests. As the Ratatosk was a freighter and not a cruise ship, there were only three full sized staterooms on the ship and two of them were usually sealed or being used as additional storage unless there was some company VIP present. The third, of course, was the captain’s personal quarters. The Erickson patriarch and my mentor would be sharing the larger of the two while my girlfriend and I took the last. The stateroom we walked into was still terribly small compared to her suite on the station, but was much bigger than I remembered my bunk being like on the Forge.

We spent the next couple hours getting settled in. It shouldn’t have taken that long, but there were distractions aplenty any time I ‘accidentally’ glanced over at the girl I had fallen for so quickly. Even so, we were able to be cleaned up and dressed in appropriate ship attire before the scheduled pre-departure briefing in the galley.

As senior crew, Echo did insistent on being well early for the meeting and so we were both already seated at a table in officer country (a pair of smaller tables that were mostly reserved for senior crew) when the rest of the fifty-three member crew started filtering in.Among faces I knew, Chief Engineer Gilbert Yeager had joined us just a few minutes after we’d arrived and Morik (who didn’t seem to have a family name) was not long behind him. I even manage to recognize Casey James, the pilot that had taken me to Celeste, casually jaunting in just before the scheduled start of the meeting. Everyone talked amongst themselves for a bit while waiting for things to actually start.

Mr Yeager and Morik seemed quite accepting of my presence at the semi-private table and both made some manner of comment regarding my new appearance, even if it was only to ask if I was afraid to bend a wrench now in Gilbert’s case. Once I assured him that I had no intention of quitting my engineering hobby, even the grumpy engineer was entirely at peace with the new me. It was nice.

All of the chatter stopped as soon as one of the crew near the door yelled out “Captain on deck!” While not a military ship in any way, the crew all quieted down and paid their respects to the man in charge when he walked in with his wives. Seeing Rachael was unexpected and, combined with the curiosity I had toward the other two guests that came in just behind them, my suspicions of there being something going on grew significantly.

“Thank you all for your attendance,” started the captain as he unfolded a small table from the wall. Above him, a large screen came to life showing our planned flight plan and parts of the cargo manifest that outlined the generalities of what the ship was hauling. “As lined out in the quick briefing you all received, we are hauling some major equipment again, this time to the Luten star system.”

It was interesting to me to see him back in uniform, both literally and figuratively. Over the last couple weeks, I’d seen the man actually dressed down in casual civvies more often than his leather captain’s jacket. With that, I’d also gotten to know the much more relaxed family man that he allowed himself to be outside of work. Marcus Erickson’s business chops were formidable, as I had seen in my dealings with him, and he could be very serious while acting in that role. But at home with his wives and daughter, I’d gotten to see a proud husband and father, one who loved his family dearly and wasn’t at all afraid to show it.

Now though, he was all business. Marcus was not the backstabbing hard-ass that Harvey Kruger was, nor was he the strict disciplinarian that Jay had been back in the day, but he still commanded the attention and respect of his crew without question.

The display showing the flight plan expanded and came to the forefront. “Pick up is at Paragon Staryards in the Sol system and drop off will be in the Luyten star system.” Following his words, the port of origin and final destination highlighted themselves on the star chart.

Captain Erickson then continued with a slightly annoyed tone. “As there are no adequately sized tugs available in the system, an additional shuttle is coming with us, borrowed from our company docking area here at Illume.” He went from looking around the room to directing a look towards the table I sat at. “Morik, anything to report there?”

The cargomaster nodded definitively. “Aye, Captain. The required modifications have been made to the deck plating at the aft end of the bay and the tug will be loaded and strapped down within the hour after we finish here. Additionally, supplies for the trip are already on board, we just need to get them stowed proper.”

With a nod, Marcus moved on, his gaze only shifting slightly. “Mister Yeager, is the ship ready?”

“Just about, sir,” said Gilbert from the next table over. “Fueling is still in progress, but all systems read green and I’ve already checked for inconsistencies in the computer system.”

Evidently from his tone, he had learned his lesson after the sabotage committed by Kruger and seemed to have become slightly paranoid about the ship’s computer.

“Excellent!” replied the captain. “Does anyone else have anything to report?” Once again, Marcus looked around the galley. When nobody spoke up he nodded and folded the table back up. The screen with all of its information dimmed and switched to displaying a slowly rotating rendition of the ship’s emblem I had seen on his jacket and just inside the primary docking hatch on the ship. He cleared his throat before starting to speak again.

“With all of that out of the way, I do have a couple announcements to make. You’ve likely noticed we have some guests aboard.” A hand gestured over at the head table where his wives, father and godfather (a fact I had learned during game night) sat.

“Conrad Erickson and John Blackburn are joining us as observers on this trip out. I trust that you will show them the respect they deserve as guests. My wife, Rachael is also tagging along for the duration.”

Some murmurs amongst the crew were allowed for a few beats before the captain picked up again, this time motioning at me. I wasn’t surprised to get a mention since I was technically a guest as well, at least outside of our ports of call. “Adresta, stand up please?”

The tone made it clear this wasn’t a request and I immediately obeyed, nearly knocking over my drink in my rush.

“Miss Matson here will be joining us as a crew member for this job. She will be operating the extra tug while we are in-situ and working as our first shift pilot while in transit. And please welcome her to the Erickson Enterprises family if you haven’t already. While she will not be permanently stationed on the Ratatosk, she will be with the company for what, I hope, will be a long time.”

My eyes shot wide and I shook my head in shock even as I flushed in embarrassment at being put in the spotlight. I knew about the tug work, obviously, but the ship-board position was entirely news to me. I supposed that explained Marcus’s insistence on completing my recertification before we left.

I saw Casey raise a hand, but the captain dismissed it casually. “No worries, Casey, she isn’t taking your spot, but I want to get Miss Matson some time at a proper helm.” He flashed me a small smirk. “Hope you are ready for the big girls, Adresta. Don’t scratch my ship.”

An nonverbal hand gesture signaled me to sit down and I almost fell into my chair, unable to properly respond due to the sheer surprise of it all. The show went on regardless of my state of being and the captain seemed to pay no heed to it.

“Crew mate Casey,” Marcus said. “I am assigning you to second shift, but I would kindly ask you to be on the bridge the first couple days during first shift as well just to help Adresta acclimate to the controls. Please come to my office after this meeting is over so I can discuss what that means for you.” They nodded in response and Marcus smiled.

After another moment to let all of that settle, Marcus stood up even just a little straighter and when he spoke again, it carried a proud formalness that wasn’t there before. “One final thing before we finish here.”

He looked back to my table, this time his eyes very clearly locking onto the person next to me.

“Callisto Erickson, please join me up front.”

My girlfriend blinked rapidly in surprise, but listened and hesitantly stood before quickly walking to stand next to her father who then looked to the head table and spoke again. “First Officer Orzhov, if you would?”

From her seat, Echo’s second mother also stood up, carrying a small box she had pulled from somewhere.

Only after both were beside him did the captain speak again, proudly glancing at the younger woman next to him and then his wife in turn before going back to the crew.

“For my final announcement, I am temporarily stepping down as captain of the ICV Ratatosk.”

The other announcements had gotten some murmurs, but this one elicited a much more dramatic response. Gasps and questions erupted at once, but Marcus quieted them all with a look.

With an air of reverence, the man nodded to his wife who opened the box she held. From it, Marcus took out a patch and I suddenly realized what was happening. Echo did too, judging by the look on her face and the tears that began glistening in her eyes.

“As Head of Erickson Enterprises, I very proudly appoint Callisto Annette Erickson as Acting Captain of the ICV Ratatosk!” No sooner had the words left his mouth did he carefully pin the patch onto a silently stunned Echo’s jumpsuit. “It’s time for your final exam, dearest daughter of mine. Do us all proud.”

Happy tears marred the faces of all the entire family that I could see, along with more than one of the crew. I don’t think any of us doubted that she would, I certainly didn’t. The pair hugged tightly before Marcus stepped back and said loudly. “Captain Erickson, would you please adjourn the meeting?”

Though she needed a deep breath to keep her voice from breaking, Echo stiffened her back and addressed the crew.

“Meeting adjourned. Let’s get to work!”