Let's Make a Deal (Bob and Nikki Book 11), стр. 80
“You headed for breakfast?”
“No, I’m fasting. What do you think?”
“I think you’ll fit right in. Let’s go eat.” We made it to the galley, without any interruptions. The lack of random encounters was really beginning to bother me. I decided to make an effort to check up on what was happening. Stella brought us out some breakfast, and said, “Morning, Boss. Looking forward to a little peace, once you get the rest of the agreements signed with the Emperor?”
“Stella, thank you so much for making sure that Murphy will find us something else to take care of, as soon as the Emperor leaves.”
“Sorry, Boss. Didn’t mean to bring down the bad mojo.”
“No problem, Stella. Something would have come up, whether you said anything or not. Just joking with you.”
“I know. It’s so nice to work with humans who see us as people, not appliances.”
“We try to please, Stella. Hey, I’ve got a question for you.”
“I’ll answer if I can, Boss. What do you want to know?”
“It’s kind of odd, I guess. I used to find bots and people with problems, whenever I walked around the ship. Lately, I haven’t found any. I’m just wondering if that’s because there aren’t any to find, or people are avoiding me?”
“Scotti has given all of us drifters a course in the operations around here, and we’re all managing to fit in fairly well, I think. She’s tried to get all of our problems taken care of, so that you don’t have to take time to fix them yourself.”
“Glad to hear you and the rest of the drifters are adapting to life on the Gene. You do know if you have any problems, you can come to me, don’t you?”
“Aren’t you too busy for all that?”
Janet spoke up. “He just spent a half hour, explaining obscure cultural references to me. He needs to feel like people need him, I think.”
Stella turned to Janet. “You mean that bringing him our problems would help with his mental hygiene?”
“I think so. I’m not an expert, yet. Maybe you should ask my Mom.”
I said, “Hey, you two. I’m still here, you know.”
Janet replied, “Sorry, Dad.”
“No biggie. Just feels funny, getting talked about like that, when you’re still in the room.”
“I guess it would. I was just trying to help Stella understand, does that count for anything?”
“Of course it does. I’m not mad, I just thought I would say something before I got that way.”
“Thanks for that.”
I asked, “Stella, did we help you understand, or just make it worse?”
“I still have a lot of learning to do, but I’m awfully glad I get to do it here. This is a very nice place to work.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
Stella went back to work, and we dug in. When we finished, Janet asked, “What are you doing till the Emperor shows up?”
“Worrying, I suppose.”
“Don’t you have things to do?”
“I need to go by and check in with Topper, see if anything happened overnight that I should be concerned about. Other than that, I’m not thinking of anything, right off the top of my head.”
“You better find something to do. You don’t want to think about all the ways the meeting with the Emperor could go wrong all morning. You’ll be a mess by the time they get here.”
“I probably should check up on Frank, he should be back aboard by now. Wilma should be able to keep him under control, but it’s beginning to look like I need to keep a closer eye on him. Seems like he’s bound and determined to be a pain in my butt.”
“See, there are things you need to do, to keep your mind off the meeting. If you think about it, I bet you will find three or four other people you need to check in with, just to ease your mind that their assignments are going smoothly.”
“When did you get so smart, little girl? You sound like you’ve been keeping me out of trouble for years.”
“That was one of the things Mom and I talked about last night. She said I would need to help her take care of you, since she would be busy with the twins.”
“Okay, that sure wasn’t what I expected you two to be talking about.”
“Oh, we talked about other things, but that did come up. She’s worried you won’t be able to stay as functional, if you don’t have her backing you up.”
“I hadn’t thought about that yet, but it is worrisome. I depend on her for a lot. She keeps me grounded, so that I can deal with things when they come up.”
“Just think of me as your assistant ground cable, then.”
“Oh, my! You’re a corker, that’s for sure. Thanks for getting me squared away this morning.”
“No problem, Dad.”
“I better get to it, then.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
I headed off to the bridge. Saucy called out, “Commodore on the bridge.”
I replied, “As you were. Mr. Topper, what’s happening in our world this fine morning?”
“Well, Boss, the Squirrels got cute overnight, but it didn’t amount to much.”
“How do you mean?”
“They sent out a ship to retrieve those sensor platforms, but instead of just picking them up, they dropped a new one in each location.” I turned to Sue. “I know it’s a long shot, but were you able to get the deactivation code they used to pull the teeth on those nasty little things?”
“No, Boss. They used a quantum link that I couldn’t tap.”
“So, we’re right back where we were?”
Topper said, “Yes. Shorty did some sensor passes to make sure they hadn’t put out more capable hardware, but the platforms they put out read just the same