Free 5,001 - A Science Fiction Romance Short Story by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

Captain’s manual overrides. They looked clunky and
old-fashioned, but then they wouldn’t have been updated since the
Endurance left old Terra. There was no need. Besides, Captain
Lakewood wasn’t a pilot and wouldn’t know what button to press in
an emergency.
    Lakewood was sitting in the famous
chair. Both he and the chair were smaller than she expected.
Lakewood rose to his feet. “This is her?” he asked of the seven men
ranged behind him.
    “Captain Lakewood, may I present Master
Engineer Williams,” the flunky next to her intoned.
    “Hiya, Captain,” Caelen said.
    Lakewood blinked. He was used to
adulation and fawning respect. He was the only person on the ship
ever to be awarded two children, and he had made a vast fortune
teaching people his method for shaping their lives to better
qualify for a child. He’d turned that fortune into a small empire
stretching over every district except the slums of the Capitol. The
Blues United, the premier Esquilino team, had sponsored Lakewood’s
last three campaigns, which had locked in his bid for the Captain’s
chair.
    Caelen gave Lakewood a friendly smile.
“I heard the Blues lost by two goals tonight. Too bad, huh?”
    Lakewood’s face turned an interesting
shade of red. “You’re a Palatino?” His voice was hoarse.
    Caelen snorted. “Not likely. Didn’t your
people brief you?”
    One of the attendants cleared his
throat, then leaned closer and whispered into Lakewood’s ear.
    Lakewood jerked like he’d been shot. “A Capitolino ?”
    Another attendant stepped up into the
Captain’s line of sight. He glanced at Caelen and she thought there
was apology in his eyes. “Sir, Williams is a master engineer and
has worked on ship systems her entire career. She is the very best
at what she does. We need her expertise, regardless of her
political affiliations.”
    Caelen waited them out. She didn’t want
to be here in the first place. If her residential address was such
a drawback, then in a few more seconds she’d be asked to leave.
Fine by her. She’d bill for time and inconvenience and move on to
the next job.
    Lakewood looked like he was going to
personally kick her off the Bridge. Then the first attendant
whispered in his ear again. Lakewood nodded and glared at her. “Our
options are limited at the moment. Minister Grand assures me that
you would not risk your professional reputation by disclosing
anything that you learn here. I, in turn, trust Minister Grand.” He
glanced at the aide, Grand, who nodded.
    Then Lakewood sighed. “We appear to be
losing water.”
    Caelen frowned. “The Bridge?”
    “The whole ship,” Grand said.
    She laughed. “That’s not possible. The
Endurance is a closed-system marathon-class vessel. Everything is recycled. It’s not possible to lose water.
We’re more likely to gain water than lose it.”
    “Which makes the reports we’ve seen all
the more alarming,” Lakewood replied with soothing overtones. “We
would like you to look at them and tell us why we’re losing
water.”
    “Your reports are wrong,” Caelen
replied. “Someone is trying to scare you.”
    Grand stepped forward. “These are legacy
reports.”
    Caelen thought that over. The data
systems and reporting that had been built into the original AI
couldn’t be tampered with, unlike all the coding the AI had built
since the Endurance launched. Then she realized that she was being
drawn into the mystery despite her reluctance. “I’ll find and fix
your problem, for twenty-thousand credits.” She nearly stuttered
just speaking it aloud.
    Lakewood threw up his hands. “That’s
outrageous!”
    “Fine.” She shrugged and headed for the
door and heard a hasty, whispered conference happen behind her.
    “Wait!”
    She looked over her shoulder, a meter
from the door.
    Lakewood looked furious. Grand pressed
his hands together and twined the fingers. There was stress behind
his grave features. “We will pay you ten percent now, the balance
upon