Ann thanked the captain. She would talk with Regina again later, sometime when the whole ship wasn’t in a hurry. She’d like to know what information she should be researching first, and it seemed the captain didn’t know how to manage her workaholic sister yet.
She had some difficulty finding the hole in the wall. Saein wasn’t helping, and Ip didn’t understand what she was looking for. When she had finally found it, a thought stopped her. “Who is MAK?” she asked.
“I’m MAK, I’m the ship AI. Welcome aboard!” said a voice that seemed to be coming from the ceiling.
Good. AIs couldn’t use drugs. “Thank you, MAK. If I throw something in this hole, will it immediately be gone forever?”
“I can make it so.”
“Then make it so.” The small box disappeared into the hole. A hatch closed in front of it, and the drugs disintegrated into subatomic particles. Interestingly, and unknown to any scientist at this time, the process caused the same box to appear in an alternate universe, where it crashed into a skippyball-sized planet and wiped out all of the microscopic dinosaur-like creatures on it.
Ann didn’t join the group on their walk with the captain to the bridge. Saein could tell her anything she needed to know now, and there was no time to lose. Any time lost now meant much more time lost later. She pushed Saein into a bathroom. “Get it out.”
Saein refused. “Someone has been hacking us. I shouldn’t waste time on sleeping while I have to track down a saboteur.”
“There was a boy with technology all over him,” Ann recalled, “it seems the captain locked him up and he managed to get out by himself. Then she hired him along with the rest. Could that be your hacker?”
Her sister was surprised. “A hacker boy? But then what is this?” She brought back the unknown scent from memory, and shared it through the skin link.
“That’s... hm... I’m pretty sure that’s a tripod synth. As far as I know, those things don’t hack. Wait, are you saying there’s one on the ship?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Saein sighed. “Alright then.” She stuck her finger in her throat, and... nothing happened. “Stupid drug” she grumbled.
Ann imagined the two most nauseating things she knew, maggots and eye surgery, and combined them into an image of a maggot being removed from inside an eye. She passed the image and feeling on to Saein before she lost her own lunch. That worked. “Okay, now drink.” She felt uncomfortable telling her older sister what to do, things normally worked the other way around between them, but it was necessary.
“That shit burns even worse on the way out” Saein complained.
“That’s how you know how good it is for you. Now, do it again.” She made Saein sick another time, told her to drink again, and repeated the process.
“You’re killing me.”
“No, Saein. You’re killing yourself.” She lovingly stroked Saein’s back. “I think that was enough.”
“Where did you even get that stuff?” Ann asked while Saein cleaned up. She had been told about Shifters, and recognizing the effect of the drug was pretty easy, but she had never encountered it before.
“I stole it from Uney when I quit.” A small smile appeared on Saein’s face, she wished she could have seen that bastard when he found his drugs were gone.
“So... let me get this straight. The guy who wouldn’t learn that women aren’t interested was using a drug that has a side effect of preventing learning.”
Saein stopped. “I hadn’t looked at it that way. I guess I’m an ass for not helping him.”
“You did right by stealing it. Anyway, it figures that you’d acquire an illegal drug on a state owned ship.”
Saein snickered at that last bit. “I love you, ’Rein”
Ann messed Saein’s hair. “And I love you. So, now what? I’d tell you to go get some sleep, but I know you won’t be able to. Anything I can help you with?”
“I doubt you would be much help filling bullet holes.”
“I would have to agree.” Ann gave her sister a last hug. “I’ll join our captain on the bridge, then. ’Til soon! ... MAK, guide me to the bridge, please.”
“’Til soon!” Saein replied. For a moment she wondered why she didn’t get a kiss, the reason was easy to guess. She’d go back to her room and brush her teeth before getting back to work.