“It’s a good tradition even if the food leaves something to be desired.”
Cyra shrugged off the embarrassment. “Captain Auvi instructed me in many areas but culinary skills wasn’t one of them.”
Veda wrinkled her face and shrugged. “I can mix up a treatment to solve the worst Bagwas worms infection, but that doesn’t translate to cooking dinner.”
“Maybe Blaize or Rhysa could give it a shot tonight. We could rotate turns if all of us suck equally.” Cyra found them on the bridge.
“I don’t cook.” Rhysa crossed her arms.
“Well, I’m no chef.” Blaize whipped her gaze from Rhysa to Veda to Cyra. “I can tune our engines consumption of mass fuel, but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert with other consumption.”
“Veda and I have already taken our turns. Shared last-meal is tradition onThe Treasure. One we’re not giving up.” Cyra puffed out her chest in her best captain pose.
“Flip for it?” Blaize asked pulling out a flight token, probably from her school days. “Faces you cook, ships I will.”
Rhysa glared at the disc. “Captain Cyra can flip it.”
Blaize handed over the token and Cyra flipped it a couple of time to make sure it wasn’t weighted. “Okay, this is for the kitchen duty. Whoever loses cooks and the other is on clean up.”
“Fine, but facesyoucook and ships I will.” Rhysa said.
Cyra flipped the disc. “Ships.”
“Shit.” Rhysa glared at Blaize before stomping toward the corridor.
“And Blaize is cooking tomorrow.” Cyra called out behind her.
“Shit.” Blaize dropped into the engineer’s station chair. “Do we have noodles?”
“Is Dez joining us for last meal?” Cyra asked Veda. He wasn’t technically part of the crew, but she’d barely seen him at all. Not that it mattered. It didn’t at all. Except that she was the captain.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted. I’ve been brining him trays, but I’m a little concerned. He’s not eating much.” Veda glanced toward the door that led to the crew quarters.
Great. Another problem. “Let m know if he doesn’t eat tonight and I’ll deal with it.”
“Thanks, Cyr,” Veda replied.
Rhysa hadn’t lied. She was a terrible cook in a crew of terrible cooks. If she hadn’t choked down her own cooking, Cyra would have sworn she’d done a worse job on purpose. With her gut churning, Cyra left the galley and retreated to her water chamber. If she lost the ship, she’d never have the luxury again. Good food would be nice, but the saltwater gel-pool was everything. Especially when she had to deal with her only two crew members being completely at odds with each other. But they were amazing at their jobs. Blaize’s improvements to the systems were effective in cutting their drag, and the speed they were able to maintain was phenomenal. Rhysa had routed a super efficient path, and within another cycle, they would be nearing Morgual. The cycle was nearing the end when she finally pulled herself from the tank. She caught herself heading toward her old quarters before she recalled that she occupied the Captain’s quarters. The ship and the crew and the cargo were her responsibility. But for the first time since Auvi died, Cyra finally slept without waking in a nightmare.
“I’ve contacted the spaceport.” Cyra announced after arriving on the bridge the next day-cycle. “We should have approval to land by the time we get there.”
“Why are you contacting them so early?” Veda asked. She sat in one of the stations no longer assigned to a crew member. She probably didn’t like hanging out alone in the back of the ship, closer to the cargo bay. Couldn’t fault her for that.
“Bio-hazard deliveries require advanced notice. Granted it’s for one of the pharmaceutical factories, but we still need additional approvals. I also had to contact the buyer to initiate the process from his end to receive those damn creepy crawlies. Technically, we are at the outside edge of our delivery date.”
“Any chance they won’t approve it or the customer won’t accept delivery?” Rhysa asked.
“I don’t expect any issues.” Cyra hadn’t considered that the customer might not take delivery. If that happened they were screwed. She wouldn’t have funds to leave Cassan a second time, and she’d have a cargo full of deadly spiders that would want to eat, something or someone.
“They have to take delivery. They contracted this shipment. What reason could they possibly have to decline a shipment? Can they even do that?” Blaize asked.
“Until the spiders are off the ship and the credits are in our account, I suppose they can do whatever they want. They didn’t negotiate the contract with me. They contracted Captain Auvi. I’m counting on their need for these bugs making them honor what could be argued is a null and void contract.”
“You could’ve mentioned that part before we left Cassan,” Rhysa said.
The back of Cyra’s neck prickled. “I hadn’t actually considered it until I started requesting all the authorizations.”
“It’ll work,” Veda said quietly.
