A break

Yril’k’s calculations had been immaculate. The fragments of the asteroid that were still headed to the colony world (to no doubt give one hell of a fireworks show when they entered the atmosphere over the course of a few days, but now thankfully do no damage) wouldn’t reach the planet for almost the full year that the large rock would have originally taken. The ones heading for the moon however had been accelerated by the blasts she’d used to corral the fragments, and would breech the atmosphere of the rock and ice-covered orbital only a few days later; days that had given them time to find a good spot to bring Sola down to rest on the icy surface and take some general readings from the gas giant.

“While we are in a hurry to get a doctor on board” Dustin had commented over the evening meal after the bombardment “we need a break. We have been flying or working near-nonstop since we left Tealioss station. And to be honest, that wasn’t really that much of a break as it was an enforced delay - certain things aside.” As he said that, he gently ran his thumb over the Rabyth tattoo on his finger which was still growing it’s filigree edges out slowly. “If we discount that single night, great as it was, then the last time we properly took downtime would have been on the journey from Rabythion to Feliaxas. No, Emely, the meal with your aunt doesn’t count - it might have been a nice family meal for you, but it was still cooking for an empress and I was a bundle of nerves the whole time.”

The others had nodded at his acknowledgment of their desire to see a meteor shower, and so the crew had taken the two days (and some hours) of waiting for the first pieces of space rock to undergo re-entry as a vacation of sorts. Rye had stopped her tinkering with the big gun on Dustin’s direct order, and instead had spent the time playing around with spare parts in one of the hangars. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was working on, but the main thing was that it wasn’t to do with mission critical equipment and thus counted as a holiday. Emely had more or less marched Yril’k into the garden each day, where the pair had sat and just talked; for all her new ability, Yril’k had been a handmaid for most of her life and clearly still enjoyed idle discussion when the opportunity arose.

Meli meanwhile had locked herself in one of the labs with Trea’k. Dustin had been a bit surprised by that - but his fiancé had merely commented that she had a project she’d been putting off that she felt the Vex’ess woman could help with and that had been that. With none of his crew around for most of the day, Dustin had opted to spend his downtime finally finishing off a reply to his friends back home - the one that had been interrupted by the rescue mission for the two bug ladies - and idly strumming his guitar. After about half a day of that he understood why Rye had grumbled when he’d dragged her from her work on the main gun; there was a lot of time when you weren’t running around here there any everywhere solving problems for the universe, and he wasn’t quite sure how to spend it.

In the end he’d opted for sort-of-but-not-really work. Pulling up lists of species with more populated worlds within a couple of months flight of Queri space on a tablet, he settled into one of the window nooks in the observation deck and started to read up on some of the alien life that was out there. Part idle observation of who they might encounter - he was aware that he had been leaning heavily on Meli for information on their next stops - and partially in the hopes that one would jump out as “these aliens are the galaxy’s greatest cooks, please recruit one”. No such luck; it seemed culinary skills were one thing all species shared and none of them - or at least, none in the two to three month area around the Queri - specialized in.

Downtime hobbies aside, the two days went by in something of an idyllic haze. The crew gathered from their separate past-times for meals - or at least breakfast and dinner, lunches being a little more hit and miss as people filtered in and out of the ready room at different times. At last however Sola gave the announcement that the fragments would begin their re-entry shortly, and Dustin headed to a location he’d not been to before - one of the two observation towers. The large, reinforced glass domes were normally retracted into the hull; in space, either the observation deck or the sensors would give a clear enough view - but when landed somewhere, Sola had two of the moderately sized rooms that she could extend from her hull to provide panoramic views of the area around her.

Oddly enough, access to the rooms was not via the traditional lift; rather, each room had it’s own spiral staircase leading up. Dustin knew from the schematics that this was because the stairs spun around as part of the raising and lowering mechanism for the domes; it minimized the amount of space and tech needed for what was after all a largely extravagant and mostly ornamental feature on a starship of Sola’s capabilities. Climbing the stairs quickly, he scrambled up into the warm room and looked around. The space put him slightly in mind of the ambassadorial chamber - soft cushioned furnishings ringed the outside, and the floor lit the space with a warm glow. The stairs entered through the middle of the floor - a small railing ensuring any occupants didn’t accidentally stumble and fall back down; stepping through and closing the gate behind him he perched on one of the cushioned benches and looked up at the dark sky overhead.

As he adjusted his position to get comfortable, he heard the sounds of someone climbing up the staircase - no, he idly corrected himself as his ears distinguished the difference in footfalls, two someones. Turning to look, he was just in time to see Meli’s head emerge from the hole in the floor, the Velca woman unhitching the gate and looking around before her ears flickered in delight as she saw him. “We did pick the right one, Trea’k.” She said, turning to offer a hand up the last few steps to the insect woman who had been following behind her.

Dustin raised an eyebrow at that, and the Vex’ess woman (after closing the gate) bowed in his direction as she replied. “Meli’a and myself were hoping to find you captain. Yril’k and the others opted to climb to the other observation tower. We could have asked Sola where you were, but time was running out before the shower started and so we opted to just start climbing.” That made some kind of sense, and Dustin shifted upright. “We’ve still got a few minutes before the first rocks hit the upper atmosphere, plenty of time to get comfortable.” He said, picking up his tablet that he’d discarded on arrival in the room. “Shall I get Sola to send up a robot with drinks? What would you ladies like?”