The Inner Ring (gxg)

Chapter 31

"We've made no progress on the ship's computer I'm afraid," Anton announced at the after shift debrief. "Until we learn the language, which could take years, that will remain a mystery to us."

Brody looked upset at the situation, he had hoped to make some sort of a linguistic breakthrough or find a Rosetta stone of sorts that would let him use the computer and enter commands. For whatever reason, neither of them had tried a memory stick in the hole on the front of the computer panel. But even if they had thought of it, Pepper had pocketed the spare empty memory sticks, so they wouldn't have one handy.

"Were you able to figure out any other panels?" Emily asked, most likely hoping for another trip to the bridge. She had taken a spacewalk with Xavier while Lena was on the bridge, and he had been happy to get out, but she wanted to see the ship again.

"No, we spent most of the day tapping on the computer, and not much came of that," admitted Brody sullenly.

"We may have found some good things out," Vanessa reported. "First, evidently the hatches open if you press the top button. I don't know it they have always worked, or just now that the bridge has started to be online more. We checked one room out and retrieved a few more of the memory sticks as well as some uniforms."

"Memory sticks and uniforms?" Anton seemed dejected. Evidently, he felt that there were already enough memory sticks found.

Vanessa shot her father a look, which he simply ignored. "We also made it to the large room on the ship display. We had thought it might be a hydroponics lab, but instead it was where they stored herd beasts, most likely to start their pastures on whatever world they were on the way to."

"They're frozen, like the aliens?" Emily asked excitedly. She hadn't had a chance to do work in her lab, and this would give her even more creatures to study. At this rate she would be finishing on the way home.

"Yes, there were several varieties in their pens, and all were frozen." Vanessa confirmed.

"Excellent!" Anton exclaimed, suddenly excited about the news. "Miles, tomorrow you're with the ladies collecting specimens for Emily. We may need to start getting serious about our examinations of these bodies, it has been put off for too long."

"Looks like you're with us, big guy!" Pepper nudged Miles playfully with her elbow, earning a grin in response.

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The next shift found Pepper and Vanessa escorting Miles through the passage towards the large herd room. Miles had dropped Anton and Brody off on the bridge again, as they were still hopeful to get information from some of the panels there. As the women had expected, Miles was very cramped in the little passageway, and they tried not to chuckle at the sight of him hunched over in the lower gravity.

"Miles, you know that if you want to make this easier, just float and we'll move you around like a parade float," Pepper offered, only partially joking.

"We won't even tell anyone about it!" promised Vanessa, not sure if he was worried about image.

"Actually, I like the sound of that, it would be easier. Lena pushes me around the bunk room a lot already," he admitted ruefully. He slowly lifted his feet up and pivoted until he was horizontal in the passageway.

Pepper grabbed his hand and tugged him along, feeling like a kid with a balloon. "You're definitely the Snoopy float!" It made the walk to the large chamber a lot more fun.

The doors were still working, as they found when they got there, and they slipped into the large room before helping Miles back to the floor.

"Wow, that is a lot of animals," said Miles in wonder at the view.

"Yeah, good breeding stock I would assume. They even had some empty pens in case the herd expanded during the flight," Vanessa pointed out.

"Oh!" Pepper exclaimed. "None of the pens have tops!"

"Huh, and that means?" Miles asked, not used to Pepper's outbursts.

"When we were on the bridge looking at the panels, we were wondering what some of them might do. Lena mentioned one could potentially control gravity on the ship, but we weren't sure if they could do that. But if these pens have no tops, then they most certainly were able to, or they'd constantly have animals floating around," Pepper explained.

"Like they are now," concluded Vanessa.

"Exactly!" Pepper cried happily. "So now we know that this ship for sure had artificial gravity."

Miles swiveled his head between the two, and then laughed. "I should have been hanging out with you guys more often on these trips, you find a lot more stuff than those other guys."

"Oh, come on, we all know you'd rather be with Lena anyway than here, she tells us everything," Pepper chuckled.

"Everything?" Miles questioned.

"Bullseye!" Pepper snorted.

"Bullseye? Oh my god, she didn't!" he groaned in embarrassment.

"Hey, don't feel bad, playing horseshoes was my idea," Pepper tried to keep her voice even, but Vanessa couldn't stop laughing, to the point that she was floating a little. Pepper quickly grabbed her and pulled her gently back down.

A strange choking sound came from Miles. "Can we pretend this conversation never happened?"

"Miles, how the hell can you be with Lena and still be this shy?" Vanessa finally calmed down enough to ask.

"I don't know, she is amazing. She really brings me out of my shell, but I'm still not good at talking about it all," he admitted.

"Should we grab these specimens?" Pepper interrupted the fun, since they did have a time limit and she felt a little bad about making Miles feel uncomfortable. "I'd like to check out some of those other rooms on the way back as well."

"You guys go check them out, I'll get the specimens," Miles suggested.

"Are you sure?" Vanessa asked, not wanting to leave him on his own when he could be with them.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm too big to hang out in those tiny rooms, this is better for me," he assured them.

"Alright, thanks Miles. Let us know if you need any help when you're done!" Pepper was excited to get back to exploring.

They pair had just left the room to go down the corridor when Miles called them over the three-way comm channel once more. "Hey, don't go back to the bridge early, wait for me."

Pepper stopped short, putting her hand on the wall to keep from moving and pulling Vanessa back too. "Is everything okay?"

Miles hesitated before answering. "Brody brought one of those rifles over in the sled today. I'm not sure what they're going to do with it, but he tried to hide it. Your father knows it was there because he was trying to distract me while Brody was hiding it."

"Miles, don't say anything about it. I was kind of expecting it," Vanessa admitted to him, so he wouldn't feel guilty.

Pepper switched over to their earpiece to have a more private talk. "The computer?"

"Of course. My father hasn't been subtle about not wanting to leave information out here for anyone else. He wants everything, and if he can't have it then nobody can." Vanessa confirmed the guess. They couldn't be sure until later, but neither would be shocked if that was what happened.

"Well, I guess we better find what we can on the way back. Maybe we'll find the gravity generator or something cool," Pepper said with her customary cheerfulness. She was upset at Anton, but they had the memory sticks, and could only hope that they held enough information to make up for the loss of any other information.