Chapter 2

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I spooned things onto my plate and gingerly added a small spoonful of anonymous, grey paste in one untenanted corner of my plate. The sign proclaimed it to be pork casserole, but it looked very similar to some of the glues I had used earlier today.

Cynthia and I walked over to an empty table. It looked like Cynthia was also trying some of the grey paste. I ate some salad as she worked up her courage to try it. I had no qualms about letting someone else hazard the food they served here. I'm not stupid, and I know perfectly well that anything the cooks come up with is served here at least ten times – and they only serve it to those higher up if the trays are cleared the last five times.

This was the pork casserole's first appearance here, so it could either be a good thing or a really, really bad thing. Cynthia made a face and quickly lifted her napkin to her mouth to politely get rid of the offending food before taking a big drink to get the taste out of her mouth.

And caution pays off once more... "That bad, huh?"

She shuddered lightly as she replied, "That was almost as bad as last week's soup."

That was not a good thing. I eyed up the paste on my own plate and carefully used a corner of my napkin to remove the tiny spoonful from my plate lest it contaminate everything else from its isolated corner.

"Ah, here you two are." Logan slid into a seat beside Cynthia. The computer technician looked at Cynthia and me with his usual upbeat manner, "Did you hear that there is a huge software update happening tomorrow after lunch? The official announcement will probably come out later tonight since they just told me, but quite a few have already heard the news."

I may splice wires and stuff, but Logan and his two co-workers did everything that was related to fixing computers or ensuring the software was up to date.

Cynthia looked at him in curiosity. "No, we haven't heard anything yet. How many systems are they updating? The sprinkler timers always go haywire whenever they update the software on that system..."

He shrugged. "There are dozens of small updates, although I don't think the sprinkler system will be impacted. One of the bigger updates is the thruster software since its current issues are due to the outdated software. One company had a huge blowout on an upgrade to the Main Database Console, and the Captain paid a pretty penny for it even with that discount. That system hasn't been updated in decades, so this will be a huge improvement."

I inquired, "When are they doing this update? Are we going to lose artificial gravity?"

Thrusters weren't something you wanted to update while docked in case they kicked in momentarily or sputtered when firing up, but if we lost gravity, it sometimes created less than entertaining situations in the cargo holds. The retraining straps were just as reliable as the rest of the aged equipment on this ship.

Logan shrugged. "Mid-afternoon. The thrusters are being taken offline during this update. We'll also upgrade the ship's AI at the same time, which means we'll be on basic life support with no surplus power until the upgrade is complete. We're hoping we won't lose gravity, but it's a possibility. No more than an hour at most."

"Thanks. I'll have to ensure the big equipment is all strapped down." There was nothing like having a loader float above you to get your heart racing in freefall when anti-grav might kick in at any time.

I grinned in relief. "Thanks."

"No problem." He dug his spoon into the grey paste on his plate.

I kept a straight face. "Hey Logan, I dare you to put a bowlful of that stuff on the snack table in the Bridge by the dipping sauces."

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