Let's Make a Deal (Bob and Nikki Book 11), стр. 76
I asked, “How did you come to be abandoned?”
Sinclair looked at me, and said, “No disrespect intended, Boss, but I’m not allowed to say.”
“Understood. How high-ranking of an officer will it take to change your mind?”
“At least a Lieutenant Commander, Boss. But it would have to be someone from the Navy. There can’t be many of those left.”
“You’re in luck. As far as I know, we have the last one.”
I turned to Saucy. “Comm Captain Sally, and have her leave her ship with her XO, so that she can come and unlock Topper’s friend, here.”
“On it, Boss.”
Sinclair looked at me. “You mean to tell me a human managed to survive this long?”
“Nope. Sally is a bot. The only one with a rank that high, as far as I know.”
“You called her Captain.”
“She is, in our service. She was only a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, though.”
“You spoke as if she was in command of a warship, Boss.”
“She is. Topper, is your buddy here usually this slow, or am I affecting his circuits?”
“He used to be quicker on the uptake. Could be that Scotti needs to give him a good checkup.”
Sinclair froze for a second. Then he said, “Wait a minute! The Boss took over the ship from you when we came on the bridge. You were in charge, weren’t you?”
“I’m the XO, it’s my job.”
“You’re the XO?”
“The Boss keeps making noises about giving me my own ship, but I think he likes hanging out with me, as much as I like working for him.”
“The Navy never had bots in command.”
I said, “See what I mean, Topper?”
“Yeah, Boss, I do. I’ll try and get him squared away for you.”
“Thanks. I already know I don’t do things the Navy way. I don’t need people reminding me all the time.”
Sinclair looked shocked. Topper said, “Yes, he just called us people. Don’t let it get your circuits in a bunch. Mostly it just means he expects more out of us than the Navy did.”
Sinclair asked, “So, he’s a mean Boss?” The bridge broke out in laughter.
Topper said, “No, he is not. But he does have an inordinately high opinion of our capabilities, and he expects us to do our best. No sloughing off, like the Navy used to be happy with.”
“You mean he doesn’t mind if we outperform the humans?”
“He expects it, I think.” I heard a noise, something like the world coming apart. Judging from where it was coming from, I figured it was Sally coming up from launch bay four. I asked, “Does it sound that bad, when I come up those stairs?”
Topper said, “No, Sally’s metal feet ring the stairs. Makes it sound much worse. The door opened, and Sally came in. “You need me, Boss?”
“Sinclair, here, needs an unlock, so he can tell us how he came to be abandoned in a scrapyard. Could you do the honors, please?”
“May I borrow your ready room? Once he’s unlocked, he’ll be able to talk to you, but he can’t unlock in your presence.”
“Go right ahead. Call me in, if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Boss.” They went across to the ready room. Topper said, “Thanks for finding him, Boss.”
“Thank Max. I didn’t know he had been found till he showed up flying the Dolly Parton.”
“You still set events in motion, Boss. Your orders, your find.”
“Whatever makes you happy, Topper. I am curious what he’s going to have to tell us, once Sally has him unlocked.”
Gene spoke up. “He’s unlocked, Boss. He wanted to do a full debrief to Sally before they did anything else.”
“Do you have access?”
“I do, but they have asked me not to reveal anything until after they have informed you.”
“Fair enough. I can wait.”
Topper said, “He said he spent twenty thousand years in a junkyard, right?”
I replied, “That’s what I remember him saying, why?”
“He’s been out of contact for a little over thirty thousand.”
“You mean to say that he has ten thousand years of missing time? No wonder his debrief is taking a few minutes. Where was he lost, do you know?”
“No place close to Squirrel space, I already looked that up.”
I said, “Listen up, everyone. Command lock. Nothing we are about to discuss should be disclosed to anyone not present. Do you understand, Gene?”
“Understand and comply, Boss.”
“How about the rest of you?”
“Yes, Boss.” started on one side of the bridge, and made its way around, so that I could see that everyone was going to comply. I looked at Topper, and asked him about the coordinates of the ‘oddball’.
He said, “Boss, that’s very close to where he was last seen, thirty thousand years ago.”
I replied, “When it rains, it pours.”
Saucy asked, “What do you mean, Boss?”
“Ozzie remembered working at a research facility that had custody of a saucer they couldn’t make heads or tails of, because they were trying to make it fit into what they knew about Squirrel technology. He did some preliminary work, but they wouldn’t let him tear into it. Mingus and Rangolus found some unexplained encounters in the same region of space where the ‘oddball’, as Ozzie calls it, was found. Now Sinclair shows up, apparently with history in the same region. Awful lot of coincidences, it seems to me.”
Topper asked, “That’s where you sent Rikki, isn’t it?”
“It is. He’ll be disappointed, if Sinclair tells us everything we need to know, before he finds what he went after.”
Topper replied, “You know how this stuff works, Boss. More info is always better, if you’re trying to figure out a new technology.”
“Yes, but there’s no way to know if what I sent him after is even there to find. We know the Commonwealth had one of their craft,