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“No, that’s perfect.” Kira laughed at his statement, having trouble even getting the words out. She felt tears spark at the edges of her eyes.
Morgan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Some of us don’t have a built-in processor.”
“I mean, if it helps, your productivity has now slowed one hundred percent.” The corner of Quinn’s lips were slowly rising.
“Maybe you should stick to fixing things,” Morgan half whined as he turned back to get to work once again.
Kira devolved into a fit of laughter even further, to where she almost wheezed and had to lean against the panel.
“My comments appear to have convinced you to fix your productivity, as it is now back to normal levels.” Quinn offered helpfully. The young man could not stop his own grin from splitting his features and he chuckled to himself.
Kira ended up on the floor. She’d not laughed so hard in a long time. Morgan could see the humor in it, and with the Captain losing it, he tried hard to conceal his smile as well. Kira knew he could take a joke at his expense; he just had more composure than the Captain at the moment.
His productivity went back down to zero, as he could not concentrate on putting in the final jump coordinates.
Quinn didn’t have another remark because Kira had a hold on him and practically yanked him down, so he went with her, dissolving and clutching his side when a stitch set over it.
“You two, it’s really not that funny,” Morgan said, clearly exasperated, but not down and out.
“Still zero!” Kira hollered out.
Kira and Quinn were both settled on the floor. They sat back, trying to get a hold of themselves. Kira could no longer produce any sound that wasn’t a wheezing laugh, Morgan joined them, laughing, not as boisterous but in a good way.
Then, the lift sounded, and Watson emerged, catching them in the act. “Are we jumping this morning?”
“In a second. Watch,” Morgan answered him. Kira turned her head into Quinn’s shoulder, having caught the joke the way Morgan said it.
“Time does matter to some,” Watson said sharply.
Morgan drew in a deep breath, settling himself. “With your leave, Captain?”
Kira waved at him to go on. It wasn’t necessary to be strapped in; they would not feel the movement. Quinn rose upright and offered a hand to Kira. Taking the offer, she didn’t let go right away. She had eyes only for him in a moment that she shouldn’t, but she said softly, “Thank you.” She let go, and they got back on track. Watson monitored the primary systems without ever having to truly look away from the viewscreen.
Morgan then performed the jump. A sensation as if the world slowed for a moment hit all of them, but then it stopped.
The engines covered such a large amount of distance in one burst that it felt close to folding space and time.
“How long will it take to scan the area?” Kira asked.
“The survey drones should be able to complete preliminary scans of a sector of this size in about eighteen hours.” Quinn filled in the answer. The initial scans of the number of planets and the type of sun were already complete, and he read off the projections. A habit Kira was used to.
“Good.” Kira shifted back to business then. “Morgan, set the long range scanners for other space fairing craft. I’d like to know well in advance if we’re going to be set upon here.”
Morgan, already on it, vocalized it to reassure her.
“We’ll jump again in 24 hours after completing the scans,” Kira added.
Their mining equipment had come at the last minute, besides dropping Quinn off. They were dispatched not only to find him a suitable planet, which they wouldn’t settle for the first one offered this close to known space, but also to find Listium. They were on a mining venture according to their logs. There were still some things that needed to be checked on said equipment that Alec attended to. Kira wanted to check on him next and his progress.
Even if they found what they were looking for, the amount that they wanted was going to be difficult to mine quickly and it would not be in one location unless they were very lucky. Even then, it could undermine the ecosystem for them to pull so much out of one planet. The only way they would do it was if the planet was never likely to terraform.
Watson stood next to Morgan and asked, looking over his shoulder, “Do you want to know of any life forms, Captain?”
“Anything of note,” she answered. “We are still not to interfere. We play by Praetorian rules. Morgan, I will leave you and Watson to it. I need to check in on Alec.”
“Are you coming?” She asked Quinn.
Morgan and Watson had already merged back into the work they needed to do. They received orders and were ready to fulfill them.
