“What are you dreaming about?” Joanne asked.
Jeff started out of his reverie. “What?”
Joanne sighed. “You’re too easily distracted.”
Jeff felt like he’d been caught red-handed. “I wasn’t—”
Joanne laughed. “Yes you were! And not for the first time.” She sat down next to him. “Have you ever asked yourself why nobody here takes you seriously?”
Jeff swallowed. Joanne had never spoken to him this directly. What should he say?
“You always seem like you’re not quite there,” she said. “Sometimes I get the impression you’re not really listening when others talk to you. Everything about you screams ‘academic with his head in the clouds.’ And when you say something, you always sound doubtful. You’re the XO and should be able to stand in for the major. That will never work if your commands sound more like requests. You know what? You would have been better off staying at your university.”
He’d come to that conclusion himself, but it still felt like a punch in the stomach coming from Joanne. Jeff didn’t reply.
Joanne gave him a consoling smile. “Will you tell the others that dinner’s ready? I’ll finish setting the table.”
Jeff nodded. It was almost seven o’clock. He turned around and opened the door to the corridor with the bedrooms. He clapped his hands loudly. “There’s food—come and get it!”
It was only a few minutes before everyone except Major Irons, who was still taking a shower, were sitting at the table. Corporal Fields blinked sleepily at the big pot of stew and yawned. Green hadn’t even bothered putting his combat suit back on, and was sitting in his chair in his underwear. Jeff wondered whether he should say anything, but decided not to make himself even more unpopular.
“Smells like home.” Finni laughed, ladling some stew into his bowl. Shorty had found a pack of sliced bread in the cupboard above the fridge and placed it in the middle of the table. Joanne had even found glass salt and pepper shakers in one of the drawers.
Mac grabbed the ladle from Finni and helped himself to some stew. Then he picked up his spoon and dipped it into his bowl.
“Don’t touch that!” The sharp tone in Irons’ voice made Jeff wince. Startled, Finni dropped his spoon.
Jeff swung round and saw the major walking toward the table with a cool expression.
“Where did you get that?” Irons asked.
Joanne briefly explained how she had found the pot in front of the door.
“Corporal Fields!”
“Sir?”
“Get the mass analyzer from the emergency equipment and check the stuff in the pot—and the bread.”
Fields nodded and stood up wordlessly.
“The ship’s computer would hardly have saved us only to poison us,” Castle grumbled.
“Lieutenant Castle, this is an alien ship, controlled by an alien computer. I do not assume any ill intentions, but I doubt it has extensive knowledge of the human metabolism. We cannot rule out that toxic substances were accidentally used in the synthesis of the food. I just want to be sure. We should have done it earlier with the drinks from the fridge.”
“Of course, Sir!”
Fields was now holding a small device in his hand, which he activated with a push of a button. It emitted two beeps, indicating that it was working. Slowly a kind of antenna emerged, which Fields dunked into the liquid in the pot.
“Lieutenant Green!” Irons said sharply.
“Sir?”
“If I find you outside of your room again not wearing a combat suit, I will not hesitate to put you under arrest for the rest of the journey. Is that clear?”
Green nodded hastily, got up, and disappeared to his room.
Irons and Jeff’s eyes met. The major shook his head very softly and pressed his lips together.
I messed up again!
“I have the results,” Fields said.
“And?” Irons asked.
“No toxic ingredients. We can eat it,” Fields said.
Irons nodded.
“It’s actually quite nutritious,” Fields added.
“What’s the nutritional value?”
“Sixty-one kilocalories per hundred milliliters. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, even vitamins. Everything the human body needs.”
“I wonder how this ship knows how to fold proteins,” Joanne mused. “The computer can’t have learned that from our TV programs.”
“Maybe our bodies were scanned when we came aboard,” Jeff said. “Combined with information from planetary radio signals, you can discover a lot.”
“The Galaxy Net,” Castles said suddenly.
Jeff nodded. That made sense.
“What?” Irons asked.
“The Galaxy Net of the Imperial University Alliance continuously transmits all information from the scientific databases. The encyclopedic knowledge of humanity is sent via the Net and can be received by anyone listening. I bet it includes an explanation of how proteins are folded or vitamins are synthesized.”
“I thought the Galaxy Net is transmitted by hyper radio,” Joanne said.
“Yeah, but the traditional radio transmitters were never turned off,” Green said, stepping into the room again, this time in combat gear.
“Why not? They’re superfluous,” Finni said.
Jeff shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ve had colonies that were forgotten by humanity for decades, and whose hyper radio failed. At least they could still benefit from our collected knowledge via normal radio. Don’t you remember Praxus-4?”
Nobody answered.
“An earthquake devastated the colony and disabled the hyper-radio transmitter. Due to the lithium crisis, Praxus-4 was forgotten and was isolated for almost fifty years. Thanks to the knowledge from the Galaxy Net, the descendants of the first settlers were able to build a new hyper-radio device and get back in contact.”
Irons nodded. “Now you mention it, I remember once reading a report about it. But we’re moving away from the original subject. Ultimately, we don’t know how this ship was able to make this stew. There are a lot of unanswered questions and we need to talk about how to proceed.”
“Can we eat something first?” Green asked.
Irons sighed. “The analysis was very clear. So sure, go ahead.”
Green and Finni immediately began to slurp their stew loudly from their spoons. Joanne pulled a face, then also tucked in, but less noisily. Jeff had to admit, the stuff didn’t taste bad. Perhaps a little too salty for his taste. He took the slice of bread Joanne handed him and dunked it in the stew.
“Don’t you want to eat, Major?” Castle asked.
Irons shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I’ll eat one of the concentrate bars later on.”
“This tastes a lot better than one of those bars.”
“Life doesn’t revolve around eating,” Irons snapped.
Castle nodded. “You’re right, Major. There’s something else I’d rather do than eat.” As if in slow motion he turned his head and grinned at Joanne, who only looked up after a few seconds. She tapped her forehead with her index finger.
“Dream on, Castle,” she said and turned her attention back to her plate.
“It could be a long and lonely six months aboard this weird ship. My door is always open!”
Joanne shook her head and ignored him. Jeff chuckled. He knew that Joanne was tough and could take this kind of banter in her stride. He was also pretty sure that Castle, with his smoldering dark eyes and cheeky smile, probably enjoyed considerable success with the opposite sex. But he’d have his work cut out for him with Joanne.
“Stop this nonsense,” Irons said sharply. “We’re on board an alien spaceship the size of a moon and at the mercy of the ship’s computer. We’ve got more important things to deal with.”