“How’d it go with the safe?” A distracted Captain Jason starter to come to, “Whaa…huh?” he started, “Oh, fine.” He walked past her to the chair at the center of the command hub, recessed only slightly from a large, carpeted circle with a few dark concentric rings for a pattern around which 4 other chair were stationed, all 5 facing forward and all in the same dark steel grey. He flopped into the chair, remarking again how uncomfortable it was, “The safe is still secure.”
“Were you able to get in it?” the wispy haired brunette asked with a hint of hope in her voice.
“Nope. Of course not.”
A slight exhale was all that noted her disappointment. “I will need to scrap the mangled engine and booster for parts – mostly wiring. We will not have sufficient resources to fix it and continuing to brace it with two by fours to prevent additional damage to the ship no longer makes sense.”
A startled Jason turned around to look at her “That will leave us with only one seagoing engine, Kat!”
“That is true, Captain” she retorted sharply, which sounded a lot like ‘no shit, Sherlock’ but somehow was dressed to look the part, “but unless you have a crate full of gold coins somewhere we’ll have to make due”. Jason realized that he dropped her rank as well, which was dumb. He needed to be better. His crew needed a Captain that would keep things together which included a staff hierarchy, such as it was. As the old man said “A well ordered ship” blah blah blah.
Sighing, Jason rubbed his eyes. “Fine, do what you need. I’ll” he inhales slightly, “figure out how to get you some more resources”.
“It will also take a while…”
Jason replied quickly and a bit more sharply than he intended, “Take all the time you need,” and he turned back to the blank vidscreen. An awkward half-moment further he added, “Vice-Captain.” He said it slowly and deliberately, hoping to add some meaning behind the pause, allowing each syllable a little more time than typical speech would. He did not get any feedback from the 16 year old shift of a girl because she was no longer standing on the bridge when Jason looked back again for a reply. She was probably out of the ship already, somehow already mapped out the quickest and quietest way around the still smouldering wreck of a spacecraft.
I don’t know how she does it, Jason said as she started to pull up information in the vidscreen as he planned his next move and an unconscious half smile played on his lips.