The Greatest Commodity (First Draft)

A Day on the Town

"No. I was never in a fraternity, remember?"

"Yes, of course," Jori replied. "Well... they were... quite private, actually. If you don't mind, I would rather not tell you exactly what tastes worse than your coffee."

"Nevermind that, Jori," Kessick said, ending the topic. "are you feeling more awake now?"

Jori nodded, taking another sip of the coffee, and gulping it down before it could assault her taste buds.

Kessick sat down on the sofa. She was about to sit down across from him, but decided against it; remembering how much of a trap it had been earlier.

"So," She said eagerly. "what shall we discuss?"

Kessick looked up at his friend. Even after knowing her for several years, he still couldn't decide what kind of relationship they had. Most of the time they had a casual friendship, sometimes it would temporarily evolve into a passionate romantic affair. He knew he loved her, but he wasn't sure which way: as a friend, or as a lover? Fortunately, both worked. And whenever their romantic periods came to an end, their friendship seemed to take no harm from it; things merely returned to the way they had been before.

He suddenly realized that he'd been quiet for over a minute, she was still staring at him, waiting for him to tell her what they would discuss. She tended to be a quiet person, herself; she sometimes had difficulty making small talk. Highly introverted, she relied on others to initiate social interaction.

"Well," He said. "have you heard all the drama going on about aliens?"

"Who hasn't?" She said loudly. "Even up on the ship, we were listening to every report, I even had them broadcast over the speaker system."

"You did?" Kessick asked, confused; he didn't think she had the authority to control the speakers.

"Of course," Jori said. "with the captain and her first officer living down here for the period. I'm in command up there."

"Whatever happened to the original chief engineer, by the way?"

She smiled at him. "He's fine, still recovering from his ailment."

"I thought there was a preexisting chain of command, up there. Aren't you outside of it?"

"Technically not." She agreed. "But the chain of command only extended to the top three; captain, first officer, and the chief engineer; everyone else was a civilian recruit, untrained in higher level tasks."

"You're a smart woman, Jori," Kessick replied. "but I don't recall you ever going through the years of training that are required for making command-worthy officers."

"No, I didn't," Jori admitted. "but I score highly on the IQ tests, and the captain gave me a crash course before handing the reins over to me. I also spend most of my little free time in the simulator, honing my command skills."

"Don't you ever have any fun up there?" Kessick asked, taking the mostly-empty coffeepot from her, and drinking the last bit. It tasted okay to him.

"Sure I do. Sleeping's pretty fun for me -- as you already know. I only regret not getting enough of it."

Hansu had proved superior at making business propositions. Woq, of course, accepted. What had her method of proposal been? She placed a blank sheet of paper on the table and began writing down the pros and cons of marriage. She listed many pros, the only con she cared to write was, 'Doesn't want children (But you knew that already)'.

An app opened, a few swipes and a confirmation from Woq's account sealed the agreement.

Very little actually changed, it was more of a sentimental thing given that they could break the agreement at any moment if they wished.