Daughters of Demeter

Family remained on my mind over the next few days, and sadly there weren't any convenient distractions to help me focus my attention elsewhere.

Rebecca and Sarah were out doing the heavy salvage work, spending between eight and twelve hours a day off-ship. The first time we were here they got all the easily-accessible high-value stuff, this time around it was going to be more of a slog and with a lower payout.

It was still worth our while though, according to the captain.

Like last time there wasn't much I could contribute to that part of the operation. I helped carry stuff around when there was something to carry, but they didn't even really need me to operate the main cargo airlock anymore since Jenny could do that just as easily.

So to keep myself busy and give me something to focus my mind on, I started working at improving my education when it came to my co-pilot duties. My position in the cockpit included the sensor suite, and I discovered the Demeter's computer had a bunch of sample readings in the sensor library.

Apparently the idea was if you got a strange reading you could compare it to the stored examples to help figure out what it was. So I was basically trying to memorize all the examples, on the assumption that if anything new came up I might recognize it from the library.

Jenny even helped out with that, once I had them all memorized she'd display a reading on the screen and I'd do my best to identify it. After a couple days I had a ninety-percent success rate, so I figured I was doing pretty good.

Meanwhile the captain and engineer spent their days removing whatever they figured was most valuable and most intact from the Hammersmith. They brought over a couple more missile launchers and three more laser turrets. They also got into one of the ship's magazines and found two dozen missiles ready to go, so those came over as well.

They weren't just focusing on weaponry, they also brought over some of the Hammersmith's sensor suite. Apparently the aft long-range assembly looked intact enough that they decided it was worthwhile salvage.

Yesterday they hit the jackpot when they discovered the Hammersmith's boat looked to be in pretty good shape. It had some dents and minor damage, but Sarah thought it wasn't too bad. It might even still be space worthy.

It took her and Rebecca all day to cut through the hangar's outer doors, then they used the shuttle to pull the small craft free. Though it felt wrong calling it a small craft, especially compared to our shuttle.

The Hammersmith's boat was about four times the size of our shuttle, which made it a rather delicate operation to safely extract it from the slowly rolling stern section. The captain and Sarah managed it, but it was a bit of a struggle to get the vessel stabilized so they could haul it back to the Demeter.

They left the boat floating nearby while the four of us had a big conversation over dinner as we tried to figure out what to do with it. In the end it came down to two options, we could try and fit the shuttle into our main hold then dock the boat to our starboard airlock, or we could take it under tow.

There were pros and cons to either option, but either way we'd be limited to level-zero jumps. And either way we couldn't land with the boat, so it wouldn't come with us down to the mining colony or Mel's shipyard.

We finally decided to dock the thing to our starboard side for now, since there was some hope we could power it up and get control of it. So we freed up as much space as we could in the main hold to fit our shuttle in there, and carefully brought the launch alongside so the Demeter's docking clamps could securely grab it.

Then with our holds nearly full Rebecca and Sarah went back over to the Hammersmith to look for any more salvage that might fit. We could probably squeeze in one more laser turret or a few more missiles, then we'd be full.

Meanwhile I decided it was time for another round of cleaning, since I'd finally gotten bored of staring at sensor library images.

The mess and galley didn't need any attention, I'd been keeping them clean every day when I prepared meals. On the other hand Sarah and I both had clothes that needed to be washed, along with all our towels. Plus the cabin itself, and some of the upper deck areas could use some work.

I ended up stripping down and just wearing a nightshirt as I put everything else into the ship's laundry, then while that was processing I began to clean our cabin floors and the small washroom.

I'd just started scrubbing down the walls in our little bathroom when Jenny's voice came over the intercom.

"Amanda would you please come to the cockpit immediately," she asked. Her voice didn't seem upset or alarmed, but asking me to report immediately made me think something was up.

I stood up and hurried barefoot out of my and Sarah's cabin and into the cockpit.

Jenny was in there, her HPD appeared to be sitting in the captain's seat. She couldn't operate any of the controls though, or at least her hologram couldn't. She had direct access to everything through the ship's computer.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I moved to stand next to her, between the pilot and co-pilot seats.

She gestured towards one of the displays in front of my station, "Would you take a look at the long-range sensor data please? There was an anomalous signal that I'd like you to see."

My tail slipped into the gap at the back of my seat as I took my place, then I had a closer look at the data in question.

Jenny saved the unusual reading so I could play it back, and I reviewed it a couple times. I was pretty sure I recognized it, but to be positive I compared it to one of those library files I'd been looking at the past few days.

"What do you think?" the AI asked after I finished comparing it.

I frowned, "It's definitely an unusual EM signature, and it matches the pattern of a jump-drive. Looks like a ship dropping out of higher-level jump? Jump-1 at least, maybe even Jump-2..."

She nodded, "That's what I thought too."

I had another look at the captured data, and my frown grew deeper. "From the look of it, we're talking about a big ship. And the range..."

Jenny did the calculations much faster than I could. "Just over one billion kilometres, or approximately one light-hour from our location."

"So about an hour ago a big ship dropped out of Jump-1 a billion kilometres away from us," I said, partially to myself. "If they're doing regular scans there's a lot of space for them to cover and we're a very small target. But if they spot us and head this way, even at Jump-0 they'll be here before our sensors pick up their jump drive."

"Should we signal the captain?" Jenny asked. "I think we should warn her."

I agreed, "I think she'd want to know, but I don't want to use the regular comms."

My attention shifted to the ship's communications suite to my left and I looked at the various options before I found what I wanted. There was a setting that would select a narrow-beam rather than omni-directional signalling, and I focused it in the direction of the Hammersmith and our ship-mates.

"Boss the long-range sensors picked up what might be a big ship dropping out of jump in our neighbourhood. It's about one light-hour away, and we haven't detected anything else since then."

After a few moments Piper's voice came through the comm, "How big are we talking about?"

I glanced at Jenny, who replied "Approximately the same mass as the Hammersmith."

"So either a big freighter or a medium-sized warship," the captain stated. "All right, me and Sarah are going to wrap things up and get back to the ship ASAP. You two keep an eye on things there, if anything else comes up let me know."

"Yes boss," I replied, then closed the channel for now.

My attention returned to the sensors as I commented to Jenny, "I hope this isn't trouble."

"Me too Amanda," she replied quietly.

Whatever Piper and Sarah were up to, it seemed they couldn't just drop everything and leave. It was another ten or fifteen minutes before our short-range sensors detected the shuttle's engines, as it started heading back towards the Demeter.

I had the long range sensors monitoring the direction where the anomaly happened, but so far there wasn't anything else unusual. It was too far away to actually get a visual, and we weren't picking up any other signals either.

The shuttle took five or six more minutes to cover the distance back to us. With the Hammersmith's boat at our starboard dock it was a lot more complicated than usual to recover our shuttle and crew-mates. So I was glad Rebecca and Sarah got back before any trouble arrived.

We cut the ship's gravity and depressurized the main cargo hold, then opened up the doors and the shuttle came inside and settled on the deck. The doors were sealed up, gravity ramped back up, and the hold repressurized again. And only then could our crew-mates safely exit the shuttle and join us on the main deck.

They still needed another minute or so to get out of their e-suits, before finally joining me and Jenny in the cockpit.

The AI got up out of the pilot's chair so Piper could take her seat, while Sarah slipped into the engineering position behind me.

"We haven't seen anything else on the sensors yet," I reported. "It's like a ship dropped out of jump, then they've just sat there since then. Whatever they're doing, they're doing it quietly."

The captain reviewed the sensor data that Jenny had captured, she confirmed what the two of us figured. It was definitely a ship coming out of jump, and it was something significantly bigger than the Demeter. Something on par with the Hammersmith.

"How long do we sit here and wait?" Sarah asked. "We were part-way through recovering another turret."

Piper looked thoughtful as she sighed, "As far as I know, most of the ships that size in this sector are large freighters. And there's no reason for a freighter to drop out of jump here, especially not Jump-1. Maybe if they had engine trouble, but if that was the case we should be able to pick up something from them. Nav beacon, comm traffic, maybe even a distress signal."

"So you're thinking warship?" I asked. "Someone from the Imperium?"

"That's what I'm thinking," she nodded. "One way or another they know the Hammersmith was lost and they know this is where it happened. So they've come out of a high level jump, they're keeping emissions to a minimum, and probably doing an in-depth passive sensor sweep, to try and spot the wreck."

Jenny asked, "So what do we do?"

The captain talked through her thoughts, "We can't use Jump-1 unless we dump the ship's boat, but it's too valuable to abandon. If we use Jump-0 they'll see that, they'll be able to track us and catch us. I think we'll sit and wait for a while, see what happens. We haven't done anything wrong, so let's not act suspicious."

"Do you need all four of us here in the cockpit while we wait?" I asked.

Sarah teased, "You need to visit the head?"

"No," I replied. "Though that wouldn't be a bad idea. But I was in the middle of doing laundry and cleaning our cabin, and I'd like to finish both of those tasks while it's still quiet."

Rebecca actually smirked as she glanced at me, like she wasn't sure I was serious.

"Go finish up," she said after a moment. "Sarah you can go too if you want, just don't distract Amanda. I'll call you both back up here if anything happens."

And so, with our ugly little space-bug tug-boat awaiting a potential show-down with an Imperium warship, I excused myself and hurried down to the lower deck to finish doing the laundry.

Sarah followed me down to the reclamation and recycling compartment, then stood just inside the door as she watched.

"I had to come and see it for myself," the cute blonde commented. "I couldn't believe you were really leaving the cockpit to do laundry."

"You'll thank me when all this is over," I said in the best mom-voice I could manage. "You'll appreciate it when you get out of your post-crisis shower and there's clean towels to dry yourself off, and clean clothes to get into."

She looked skeptical, "I don't know. I don't think I'll be worried about clean clothes, I'll be too focused on the post-crisis sex we'll be having."

I felt my cheeks go pink, but I didn't try and argue considering there was a good chance she was right. Instead I told her, "Come and take some of this? You can help me carry it up to our cabin."

She took an arm-load of towels while I took the rest. And as we rode the engineering lift to the upper deck Sarah commented, "I can't tell anymore if you're just taking the ship's maid thing really seriously, or if you're actually a total bad-ass who's calm in the face of danger."

"I'm not a bad-ass," I told her. "I just figured if we were sitting around waiting, I'd take the opportunity to finish the chores I was already working on."

When we got to our cabin I had Sarah put the clothes away while I got back to the cleaning I'd been doing earlier. And I took my own advice and made use of the head while I was there.

Meanwhile Sarah teased, "I don't know Amanda. We're basically in a yellow-alert right now, and you haven't even bothered to put on pants. Seems pretty bad-ass to me."

I blushed again, but I was interrupted by the intercom before I could respond.

"I need you kids up here immediately," Piper stated.

Me and Sarah exchanged a worried look as we both dropped what we were doing and hurried out the door.

As we raced to the cockpit my girlfriend couldn't help teasing, "Now it's a red-alert and you're still not wearing pants. Like a bad-ass."

Once again I didn't get a chance to respond. As we entered the cockpit my heart skipped a beat and I came to a halt when I saw what was happening out the windows.

Moving into position partway between us and the wreck was a big Imperium warship, and as they slowed to a stop I couldn't shake the feeling like we were staring right down the barrel of their primary weapon.