Imagine: one of those days

Imagine: one of those days

As Theodore looked out into the black emptiness of space he realised this was going to be one of those days. An amber light flashed on his communicator. Emergency staff meeting, obviously. He called Arjina to take over doing the inventory and made his way to the staff room.

Up until a few minutes ago their Holiday Liner had been en route from Krithika, an industrial colony, to Demyan. An agricultural planet that offered a range of affordable family holidays. Things like living on a farm for a week or going on long nature walks. The kind of family vacation destination their company specialised in.

But now for some reason, they were somewhere on the outskirts of the mapped universe. When Theodore entered the staff room captain Thompson was already there. She'd gotten the coffee going and was making tea. 

Though the way she slammed the cupboard's doors told Theodore this was not going to be a nice little chat. “Easy on the doors there captain. If they fall off I'll have nothing to replace them with.”, he said. The captain turned around brusquely. She shot him an angry look and turned away again. Theodore took a seat at the table as his colleagues dripped in one by one.

Joe, the pilot, had the air of a dog with his tail between his legs. He was followed by a young fellow with a pale face and big roaming eyes. Theodore figured this must be Andy, the substitute navigator. Aileen, the main engineer, came in last with a face like thunder. She was in her overalls and work boots. Theodore had seen her in an evening gown once. He'd hated the overalls ever since.

“All right, now that we're all here... Joe, Andy, why are we here?”, captain Thompson had steel in her voice. Joe cleared his throat and leaned forward: “Well, I uh, I didn't realise that we were flying with a new navigator. So when I gave the jump coordinates, I told him the shorthand code without explaining it.”, Joe's blue eyes were fixed on the table.

The captain turned to stare at Andy. His face flushed and he blinked a lot while stumbling over his words, “I, eh, I forgot to double check the coordinates with the pilot. I just, I entered the code thinking I had the full coordinates and, but, well, it wasn't.” The miserable look on his face made him seem very young though he had to be at least twenty-one.

“Right. So we jumped to the wrong coordinates and then the jump drive broke down. Aileen?” “Yes, captain. The jump drive broke down because I have been trying to get spare parts for weeks now and management keeps telling me to wait. You remember I asked you to put some pressure on them? Well, they didn't listen. We're still waiting for those parts to be delivered.”

“And you can't fix the drive with what we have?”, the captain inquired. Aileen shook her head. “Well Theo there you have it. We're stuck in an almost deserted stretch of the universe and we've got passengers to entertain. Do you think you can keep the masses happy while we sort this out?”, the captain gave him a pleading look.

“I'll think of something.”, he said. “Good. Now the situation may not be as bad as it seems. We're near project New Day. As I understand it, there are three ships out here to build a new spacestation. There is a mining ship, a factory ship and one military vessel to serve as protection for the other two. I'm pretty sure they'll be able to help us with some supplies.”, the captain said.

“We could order the spare parts from the factory ship. If they're this far out they have to be making their own equipment.”, Aileen spoke quickly. “I'll call their director, see what we can do. Any other ideas?”, the captain looked around.

Theodore sat up straight: “I'm just thinking out loud, but maybe, them being a factory ship, maybe we could ask them to give us some guided tours. Most of the passengers we have right now are from Krithika, an industrial planet. I'm guessing they've never seen a space factory but I bet they'd jump at the chance.”

“You think they could take on five hundred passengers?”, the captain sounded sceptical. “Well not everyone will want to go. We could try splitting them up. If the mining ship can do a few tours as well, we can offer people a choice and set up some sort of schedule.”, Theodore spoke with more confidence now.

“It would keep our passengers busy while we wait for Aileen to fix the jump drive. How are we on supplies?”, the captain asked. “I've got emergency rations for one day only so it depends on how long we're going to be here.”, Theodore replied.

Aileen chewed her pale pink lips and Theodore felt his stomach drop before she'd even said anything. “If they have the parts in stock it's going to take three days. Two if they'll give us an extra hand to get the work done.”, she said with an apologetic shrug.

“Right, so we'll need at least a full day's supply of food and water. How are we doing on fuel?”, the captain frowned as she said this. “Fuel's good. I've been stocking up our supplies ever since the jump drive went dodgy and I couldn't get the parts.” Aileen seemed pleased with herself.

“You could have given me a heads up about the need for extra supplies eh?”, Theodore had to ask. “You haven't got the storage space for more than one day and you always keep it full anyway.”, Aileen replied drily. The look in her green eyes told Theodore this was not the time to pick a fight.

“All right then. I'll get in touch with the director. If he's willing to deal I'll let you two know who to talk to. In the meantime, Theo I want you to submit a damage report to headquarters along with an estimate of the credits we're going to need to solve this. I'll call them myself as soon as I've set you up with a contact on those ships.” With that, the meeting was over.

“Well, at least it happened during the sleep hours. Man, Theo, when that artificial day breaks I do not want to be in your shoes.”, Joe said. “You owe me one Joe. The way I see it, this is your fault. If you'd given the right coordinates we would've been stuck on our own route instead of out here in the middle of nowhere.” Theodore wasn't kidding and he saw that Joe understood.

Luckily the factory director welcomed the extra income. Theodore had to explain to the calamity manager that paying for these extra tours was the best way to avoid complaints from people wanting their money back. It took most of his diplomatic skills and all of his patience to finally get her to agree.

In the end two hundred passengers took a tour. Theodore monitored the five groups that toured the factory. His instincts had been right. The passengers knew what to ask and the guide loved explaining. It was all industrial robots this and automated assembly that and a lot of other things he didn't really understand.

Meanwhile Arjina kept a watchful eye over the five groups that roamed the mining ship. With her glossy black hair and pristine uniform, Arjina always looked like a lady. When she came back she said: “They all look the same. Now I know why those dwarf tales say you can't tell the difference between the males and the females. It's based on those miners right there.”

For the three hundred people who chose to stay on board, Theodore had authorised his flight attendants to offer a selection of the paid entertainment program for free. He'd spend the first few hours after the passengers woke up listening to their complaints. Offering the choice between a free tour and free entertainment took the sting out of most conversations.

Aileen had charmed the factory engineer out of two of his crew members. Together with Jack, her assistant, it took the four of them a day and a half to finish the repairs. They had worked non stop. It was clear Aileen's knowledge and stamina had made a lasting impression on the factory guys.

Theodore had never been so happy to see Demyan before. The passengers who'd been waiting for the Holiday Liner to take them home had been picked up two days earlier by a back up ship. The captain arranged for the crew to have a few days off before flying back again.

It was the first time they got to stay over on Demyan. Theodore signed the entire crew up for a hike through the woods. Arjina glared angrily at him from start to finish. It made him glad he'd also planned for a cow cuddling session at the end of the day. As foreseen, it put all of his flight attendants in a much better mood.

And just like that, it was over. Theodore was back in the storage room checking the inventory being brought on board. He was finishing up when the captain stopped by. She had a smile on her face as she stood in his doorway.

“You did some quick thinking there Theo. I know you helped keep everyone calm by turning a technical problem into a holiday adventure. Well done.”, she said. Theodore smiled: “You know, I've been thinking, we could include that sort of thing in our itinerary. Offer a little detour to some of the pioneer projects in space for a few extra credits.”

The captain shook her head: “Always the business man. You can send it in as a submission to the employee competition this year. If you win they'll give you a bonus and a return ticket for any of the company's destinations.” 

A ticket and credits to spend. Theodore could already see himself lying on one of the beaches of Pili Lani. “That's not a bad idea captain. Not bad at all.”