Chapter 9

Phoenix and Apricot entered the dining room and settled into their places. Stewards placed plates of food in front of them.

West’s face pointed at Phoenix, eyebrows quizzically raised.As did Tracy’s, Kwait’s and Streemly’s . Phoenix and Apricot seemed to be in some kind of synchronised elbow dancing competition as they tucked into their plates of food. After several minutes of mastication during which he was oblivious to the group stare, Phoenix looked up.

“Ah!” Phoenix exclaimed,realising the assembly had been waiting patiently for an explanation of the code red alert recently instigated. “You’re probably wondering about the code red thingy ...” Phoenix waved his knife in the general direction of the red hue that had insinuateditself into the room’s lighting.“Nothing to worry about.Just sneaking up on an enemy ship.”

“You mean we’re going into battle?” demandedWest , rising in alarm. “Shouldn’t you be doing something on the bridge, or something?”

“Well ...” began Phoenix.

“Shouldn’t we be in some kind of protective bunker, or something?” said West, panic creeping into his voice.

Phoenix patted the air over his plate trying to make be calm motions but succeeded only in losing the peas off his fork. “Now let’s stay calm. Nothing is likely to happen within the next few days,” he said.

“ Likely?” West’s voicerose an octave. “ Likely?”

“ Days?” said Streemly ignoringWest’s concern.

“ Days?”Echoed Kwait.

Tracy motioned to a steward. “I think we’re all ready for dessert now. Thanks,” she said to the steward as the plates were expertly removed from the table. “I do think using stewards, real people, is much better than those replicator things, don’t you?” she said to anyone who was listening.

“We don’t have a bridge, interestingly,” said Apricot turning to West. “Wehave, what we sometimes call the control room. And sometimes we refer to it as the ops room.” Apricot continued, ignoring the malevolent glare from West. “I must confess,I’m not sure when to use which. But ...” in a conspiratorial tone, “... I don’t think anyone else knows either.”

Phoenix reddened. “Might I remind you Mister West that we are at a state of ... in a state ofwar. One of the prerequisites, and indeed some regard it an important identifying feature, is that we, on occasion, regrettably, engage in combat.”

“Is this diversion absolutely necessary given the importance of our task?” asked Kwait. West’s face was a picture of injured disbelief. “But I was led to believe this was a simple exploratory mission based on some crackpot assertions that had no foundation in reality and that there certainly would be no possible chance there would be any possibility of any dangerous possibilities being entered into at all,” West said in one impressive breath.

“Now, the origin of the word ‘bridge’ I do know,” volunteered Apricot.

“‘crackpotassertions’?” Streemly was appalled at West’s comments. It was her turn to raise her voice an octave. “‘nofoundation in reality’?”

Phoenix tried to gain control of the situation. “The ship we are tracking is headed towards the same area as ourselves so it has to be engaged,” he said.

West sat down looking rather pale as the stewards arrived with dessert. Tracy dived into the fruit concoction with gusto. “Hmmm,” she enthused, lifting a heaped spoon in Kwait’s direction. “You really must try some.”

Kwait declined.

“Anyway,” West stabbed at his fruit, “this is probably all old hat to you isn’t it.” He looked pointedly at Phoenix. “Been in many a bloody conflict, I’ll bet.”

Phoenix concentrated on his food.As did Apricot.

“Haven’t you?” West squeaked.

When Phoenix did not respond West dropped his spoon and excused himself from the room holding his stomach.

Phoenix looked embarrassed.

Kwait looked cross.

Apricot looked at Phoenix and then looked cross.

Streemly folded her arms crossly.

Tracy sucked on a peach segment.

The steward looked at the ceiling.

: Capture