Roo the Day Read online

  “First, this is only a precaution, he may not be that dangerous. Second, the things he comes up with make him worth it. Going on a mission where we may get to see entirely new technology, without Frank, would just be silly.”

  I hit the call button beside the door. A female voice said, “May I help you?”

  I said, “Wilma, it’s Bob. Could I come in for a minute?”

  The door opened, revealing Wilma in her bathrobe. She said, “Good morning, Captain. I heard you were aboard. Come by to check on Dad?”

  “Thought I better. How’s he doing?”

  “He’s more fascinated with Commonwealth tech than he ever was with stuff from the Earth. Makes it hard to get his attention, sometimes. You didn’t happen to bring a cast-iron skillet with you, did you?”

  “Sorry, Ma’am, all my skillets are cooking only, no mayhem.”

  “Oh well, a girl can dream. Were you able to get everybody out of Shady, when you had to bugout?”

  “Yep. They all wanted to come with us. I imagine John has autodocs all over the fleet running flat out.”

  “Good for them. Are they all going to be on ships?”

  “Up to them, as far as I’m concerned. Some of them probably will want a place on Shaved Ape Key, and not too much to worry about, but I’m sure John will have that sorted out by the time we get back.”

  “Back from where?”

  “Taking Joanna’s new friend home.”

  “I really need to get out of this cabin more. Come on in, Dad’s still asleep, so be a little quiet, if you would.”

  “I don’t mind being quiet, but I am afraid I’ll need to see his work area, to confirm that he’s actually asleep.”

  She opened a door to a shop that looked like my shop had, before the bots came to stay with us. I didn’t see Frank, and nodded for her to close the door. I said, “Sorry, but the way he’s acted since he’s been with us, I have trouble trusting, where he is involved.”

  “That’s understandable, Bob. I wish I could guarantee he will do better, but with him, all I can say is that I will do my best.”

  “That’s all I can ask. Feel free to call me, if you need any help.”

  “I know you don’t have time for that, Captain.”

  “No, I don’t, but I can certainly find someone who does.”

  “Do you have anyone in mind?”

  “Jim Bailey knows a little about being a counselor. You might get with him. Tell him I sent you. After he quits cussing, he’ll be more than willing to help.”

  “If you say so. I better get ready, he’ll be up soon.”

  “See you later, then.”

  I left, and she closed the door after me. I looked at George. “I know you were running scanners while I was in there. Anything I should know?”

  “Not that I could find, Boss. The lady was human, just like she presented, and I couldn’t find any mood altering chemicals in her bloodstream, other than a good dose of caffeine.”

  “That’s normal enough. You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I have the files on all the crap he’s pulled before, Boss. I don’t trust him a bit.”

  “Can’t say I do either. Was he actually asleep?”

  “My scanner says so, and it didn’t read a nighty-night.”

  “That’s an improvement. I’m going to have to assume he’s being a good boy, until I see evidence to the contrary, George.”

  “Find some evidence, or shut up, yes, Boss.”

  “I hope he’s squared away, this time. We’re going to need him, when we get where we’re going.”

  “Scotti has scans of the drive in that saucer, Boss. Between her and Tikki, they’ll get it figured out.”

  “You’re right, but Frank would see something that would send him off on one of his marathons, and he would come out with a whole new system.”

  “Maybe he really has straightened out, Boss.”

  We got to Engineering. Janet said, “Hi, Dad.”

  “Hey, kid. Is the Boss around?”

  “Scotti is in her office, going over the scans of Ellie’s saucer with Tikki.”

  “Sounds like a party. I should have brought beer.”

  “Ha ha. See you later.”

  “Bye.”

  I went to Scotti’s office. “Morning, ladies. Learning much?”

  Scotti replied, “Enough to get it flying again, maybe a bit stronger than it was before. The part that failed had a manufacturing defect. Not horrible, but you would think a mechanic would notice it before he put it on.”

  I replied, “Not this crap again. You’re saying her ship was sabotaged?”

  “I’m saying the part was bad enough it should have been caught before it went in her craft. What caused it not to be, is above my pay grade. Could have been a newbie doing the work, could have been a bad hangover, possibly it was sabotage, but it would be nearly impossible to prove, even if it was.”

  “Understood, but not liked, not even a little bit. Uncertainty isn’t a good thing, this far out in the black.”

  Tikki said, “She was an awful long way from home. Did you find out why?”

  “She said that marsupials are rare in the galaxy, and she had seen reports about the ones on Earth. She came to study them.”

  “You don’t sound very certain, Boss.”

  “Unlike your people, Captain Mason’s methods don’t work on people like Ellie.”

  “I wonder what the difference is?”

  “So do I. Have you figured out anything more about her ship?”

  Scotti said, “The drives are better than Commonwealth stuff, a bit better than what the Squirrels are running, but not up to Frank’s latest.”

  “Speaking of Frank, is he any easier to get along with, now that Wilma is riding herd on him?”

  Tikki said, “He’s still not my favorite person, but I’m able to get along with him, now.”

  Scotti said, “I’ve got the best system I can think of, monitoring the code of all the bots aboard, and sending the results back to Sally, at every opportunity. So far, we haven’t found any hacking attempts.”

  I replied, “I wish that made me more certain than it does, but it’s good enough for now.”

  Scotti said, “I don’t have as much faith in it as I would like to, either.”

  “Any ideas for making us both feel better?”

  “If I did, I’d already have them in place, Boss.”

  “Good enough. You don’t think there’s much to learn from Ellie’s ship?”

  “There are a few things I don’t quite understand, and I’d like to get a better idea what they do, before I quit looking, Boss.”

  “Take all the time you need to satisfy yourself, just don’t keep looking at it because you think I want you to. If there’s nothing to find, that’s fine. Do you think talking to Ellie would help you get a line on the circuits you’re looking at?”

  “She seemed to have some engineering knowledge. I’ll talk to her again today, and see if she can shed some light.”

  “Sounds like a reasonable course. Do you know who is working on the logs from that derelict we found?”

  “No, Boss, I don’t. I’m sure Topper assigned somebody to that task, but I didn’t need to know who it was.”

  “I’ll ask him, then. Thanks for your time.”

  Scotti said, “Good to have you back, Boss. Topper doesn’t have your knack for attracting fun problems.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  I didn’t know where to go from there, but I found myself wandering toward the brig. I went in, and found Angus.

  “Hey, Boss! Good to see you. Come to turn yourself in, for your many crimes?”

  “Not yet. I’m not going to make it that easy on you, Angus. You’re going to have to find some proof.”

  “That might be a trick. You’re pretty good at covering your tracks. What can I do for you today?”

  “I’m just checking in, seeing how things are going. You fellas doing alright without a steady stream of Squir
rels to take care of?”

  “Tell you the truth, Boss, it’s been pretty boring around here, since you signed the treaties with the Emperor.”

  “What would you like to do about it? Cross train on some other job, until we need you to keep the peace again?”

  “You wouldn’t mind, Boss?”

  “Why would I mind you finding something to do, instead of sitting here getting bored?”

  “Thanks, Boss. Mr. Topper didn’t think he had the authority to release us from our primary duties.”

  “He was running the ship, wasn’t he? Why wouldn’t he have the authority? I wouldn’t have left him with it, if I didn’t think he could handle it.”

  “He seemed to think of it as more of a caretaker position, I think.”

  “I’ll have a chat with him, when I get a chance. Anything else I can do for you?”

  “Don’t know what it would be, Boss. Have a good one.”

  “You too.”

  I headed toward the bridge, with George and Ringo following. George asked, “Wouldn’t the transit be quicker, Boss?”

  “It would. I didn’t know we were in a hurry.”

  “I don’t suppose we are. What are you looking for?”

  “I don’t have a clue. I’ll know it when I see it.”

  We hadn’t gone far, when we saw the back half of Velma, sticking out of an access panel. I squatted down and asked, “Whatcha working on, Velma?”

  “I was inspecting inside here, when a small person hopped in, and she won’t come back out.”

  “May I have a look?”

  “Sure, Boss. I shut down the power, as soon as she went in.”

  Velma backed out, and I got down to look. Sure enough, it was Ellie’s joey. I realized I didn’t know her name. I turned on my badge, and asked, “Hi there. Remember me?”

  She giggled. “You’re the silly Captain man.”

  “Could you come out, please? My friend Velma has work to do in here, and you are in her way.”

  “Friend? You mean the machine?”

  “Yes. She is a bot. She helps keep the ship running like it should.”

  “She didn’t talk to me. I didn’t know she wanted me to come out.”

  “If you come out now, we can ask her why she didn’t talk to you. Maybe you can make a new friend.”

  “Okay, but will you stay close? We don’t have machines like her, where I come from.”

  “Sure. Just come on out.”

  She crawled out, awkwardly, and then stood up. I asked Velma, “Do you have the language files for her people?”

  “I didn’t, Boss. I just downloaded them. I was trying to keep her from getting hurt, or damaging anything, and I didn’t think to download them.”

  “Say hello to her, and try to make friends.”

  “On it, Boss.”

  Velma started chatting up our little passenger, and my comm rang. “Captain Wilson.”

  “Bob, it’s Joanna. We’ve got trouble. Ellie’s joey has gone missing. We don’t know where she’s gotten to.”

  “In Velma’s way, mostly, but I think we’re near to getting that worked out.”

  “What?”

  “She ran into an access panel Velma was working on. Velma got the power shut down before she could hurt herself. Velma was too busy trying to keep things under control to download the language files and talk to her.”

  “I think I’m beginning to understand. You were on one of your, what does the crew call them ‘Murphy walks’, and found Velma trying to get her out of the panel, and once again, Bob’s your asshole?”

  “Something like that, I suppose.”

  I noticed motion out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see Velma letting the joey ride her back to where she was supposed to be. I told Joanna, “Looks like Velma has the situation well in hand. I would expect them shortly.”

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “I think you better wait and see for yourself. No way I could do it justice.”

  “Okay, Bob. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Anything else you need?”

  “Not right now, anyway.”

  “I do have a question.”

  “Yes, Bob?”

  “What’s the joey’s name?”

  “Lilly is probably as close as you could get, Bob.”

  “Thanks. Talk to you later.”

  “Bye, Bob.”

  I put my comm away. George asked, “That’s the kind of thing you find when you go walking, Boss?”

  “On a good day. I have found a lot worse.”

  “Working here, sure is different than the Navy used to be.”

  “Better, or worse?”

  “Better, I think. So different, it’s hard to say. In the Navy, you pretty much knew that one day wouldn’t be much different than the next. Here, every day is a whole new set of challenges. We never had to deal with baby aliens in the works of the ship, back then.”

  “A wise man once said, ‘You live and learn, or you don’t live long’.”

  “There’s a lot of truth in that, Boss.”

  We started for the bridge again. We were nearly there when my comm rang again. “Captain Wilson.”

  Joanna said, “I understand what you meant now. I thought I was going to have to get Medical up here to get Ellie to breathe again after she saw Lilly riding Velma. That was hilarious! Thanks for finding Lilly. I think you earned big brownie points with Ellie.”

  “I may need them, before the day is out. Scotti wants to talk to her about some of the details of her saucer.”

  “I’m sure she won’t mind talking to Scotti. I think Ellie likes her.”

  “We need to get her home, and get back. You haven’t gotten to meet your namesake yet.”

  “Namesake? What are you talking about, Bob?”

  “You hadn’t heard that Dee named her daughter after you?”

  “I didn’t think she was able to have one.”

  “You have heard of autodocs, haven’t you?”

  “She got fixed up, and had a kid of her own? She must be a happy camper.”

  “You better talk to her first, when we get back. She’s probably mad at me.”

  “What for?”

  “Keeping her off the assault team that rescued you.”

  “Why did you do that, Bob?”

  “Lots of reasons. She just had the baby, she isn’t ready yet. The Marines are quicker than she is, and they aren’t used to working with humans. She was emotional, and might do something she shouldn’t. Do I need to go on?”

  “No, I get the idea. Sounds like you were right to keep her off the team. I would have liked for her to meet Ellie, though.”

  “That would have been something to see. Maybe we can make friends with Ellie’s people, and you two can visit sometime.”

  “That would be nice. I better let you get back to being Captain. I don’t want to use up all your time. Thanks again for getting Lilly home.”

  “You’re welcome. Talk to you later.”

  “Bye, Bob.”

  George and Ringo posted on either side of the bridge door, as I went through. Saucy called out, “Captain on the bridge.”

  I answered, “As you were. Mr. Topper, could you hand off the conn for a few minutes? I’d like to go over a few things with you.”

  Topper said, “Saucy, your ship.”

  “My ship, yes, Sir.”

  We went to the ready room. I said, “Gene, tile the lodge, and leave us alone, please.”

  “The lodge is tiled. Bye, Boss.”

  I turned to Topper. “It has come to my attention that you were under the impression you were only a caretaker, while I was on Earth. I would like to correct that idea. When I am not aboard, you are the Captain. I wouldn’t leave the ship with you, if I didn’t think you could handle her. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal, Boss.”

  “I told Angus to go ahead and get his boys training on other things they can do, until we find them some more business.”
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  “You don’t think we need the brig fully staffed?”