“Got a couple of minutes?” Gavin Hu asked as he stepped into the conference room. As always the ship’s counsellor was a clear-spoken man, with a weird non-localised North American accent despite his obvious heritage. That odd accent was a by-product of the melting pot that is Delta Vega and its hodgepodge of settlers early in humanity’s interstellar settlement period.

Changes to the ship’s bridge module during construction years before the ship even had a name had resulted in the conference room being forward facing, placed ahead of the bridge and looking down the slope of the ship’s saucer. And it was there, looking down the ship’s prow, that Gabrielle stood, arms crossed as she contemplated the decisions she’d made earlier.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she answered, watching Gavin in the reflection of the glass as he approached her, then opted to turn a chair around and sit himself down, raising his left foot to rest over his right knee. “How can I help Counsellor?”

“I was actually going to ask you how I could help,” he answered, offering a friendly smile. “First time in command without a safety net and I know we’ve been talking about Simmons for a few months now. Is he causing trouble?”

“Does the day end in y?” Gabrielle answered, then sighed as she realised her own tone. She shook her head a few times, then turned around. “Sorry, that was bitchy of me, wasn’t it?”

“Was it?” Gavin asked in return, chuckling at the displeased look he got straight away. “It was honest to your experiences.” When Gabrielle’s withering gaze continued, he relented. “A little perhaps, but understandable considering how much of a professional pain he has been in the past for you.”

“He thinks he should be chief science officer.” Gabrielle took a moment to pull the seat out next to Gavin, sitting herself down and facing the counsellor. “And since I’m now having to consider the ship holistically, I’m having to trust him in that role.”

“And?” Gavi masked, prompting the follow-up statement she hadn’t spoken.

“And now it seems he resents me even being in command. I’m starting to think he just resents me full stop.”

Gavin nodded along, listening as she spoke and kept doing so for a handful of seconds after she finished. “I know I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating. This all sounds like a Maxwell Simmons issue, not a Gabrielle Camargo issue.”

“Yeah, but I have to live with the consequences of it.”

“So does he,” Gavin challenged. “Think about it. Who was selected to be Chief Science Officer in the first place?”

“I was,” she admitted.

“And who got promoted to solve any sort of rank-pulling shenanigans that someone might try to pull? And because they were a spectacular officer deserving of it?”

“I was.”

“And who ended up being asked to step up to the position of second officer?”

“I was,” she answered for a third time.

“You set out to be the best officer you could be, while Simmons is busy brooding in a corner, thinking he’s the smartest man in the room and struggling to understand why everyone doesn’t recognise that and praise him for it. If he was so smart, why is he still a mere lieutenant?” Gavin unfolded his arms, held his hands out and shrugged slightly.

“To be a good scientist, you need to be intelligent,” Gabrielle answered. “But to be an excellent officer you need to be well-rounded.”

“You need to be able to lead. Simmons doesn’t lead, he directs. And I would wager to be a good scientist you need to be fallible as well. Is Maxwell Simmons fallible?”

“Sometimes,” Gabrielle answered with a huff. Personal experience had taught her that one. The man would demand incontrovertible evidence, and even then he would huff and puff about it.

“Is Simmons going to continue to be a pain for you? Yes.” Gavin leaned forward, locking eyes and offering a friendly smile. “But remember, when things get bad, you’re the boss.”

“And the captain said I could have Commander Gantzmann if I needed to throw anyone out of an airlock.”

Gavin’s laugh was genuine and hearty. “Yeah, that sounds like the captain!”

The informal counselling session had been cut short when Simmons continued his never-ending demonstration of self-importance by summoning Gabrielle to the bridge. It wasn’t an ask, but a summons.

“Commander Camargo to the bridge,” he’d said, not bothering to call her directly but using the ship-wide to make the announcement.

“He’s attempting to establish who controls who,” Gavin had explained as they walked to the short corridor connecting the conference room to the bridge. “Classic power play.”

“Yeah, but I can win that one,” she’d answered, feeling the wicked smile creep across her face, then having to banish it as they entered the bridge on the opposite side from the captain’s ready room.

“Ah, good,” Simmons announced from the bank of stations on the port side that formed Sciences. “You need to see this.”

“Do I?” Gabrielle asked, stopping to make Simmons explain himself. She also was waiting for Rrr to take three large steps from where they had been standing and hand over the keys, being particularly dainty with the artefact of command.

“Yes,” Simmons answered, as if that was clarification enough. And to sell the point, turned back to his monitors. “Long-range sensors have picked up something of interest.”

“What about short-range sensors?” Gabrielle asked, shaking her head with a glance at Rrr, who rolled their eyes and followed in her wake. “The anomaly that deposited us here?”

“Yes, yes, that’s still underway,” Simmons deflected. “Nothing conclusive so far. But this new contact is near-certain.”

“Near-certain or certain?” Rrr asked, their voice a gravel-like rumble.

“Until we go and investigate it ourselves, call it near-certain,” Simmons answered, bringing up the readings on one of the larger monitors. At first it was just the raw sensor data, but quickly resolved into a computer simulation based on those readings. “Somewhere between twenty and thirty cosmozoan contacts located less than two light-years from here. But in proximity to that is a large structure.”

“Space station?” Gavin asked over Gabrielle’s shoulder.

“Larger,” Simmons answered, switching the focus from the lifeforms to the structure. A large ring appeared on the monitor, again just an outline and simulation of what the computer thought. But the readings next to it belied its size.

“Wait,” Gabrielle said, comparing numbers in her head, before leaning forward to confirm them, an action that drew a satisfied smile from Simmons that she didn’t see immediately. “That thing is massive. That’s…on the scale of Corazonia.”

“In the roughest of terms, yes,” Simmons answered. “And I am detecting subspace radio signals from the structure as well. Of particular note is this one.”

There was static, a single brief squeal that raised the hair on the back of Gabrielle’s neck, the result of some sort of distortion no doubt, then silence before a single voice spoke out, confident and clear for any who might be listening.

“We the people of Earth greet you in a spirit of peace and humility. As we venture out of our solar system, we hope to earn the trust and friendship of other worlds.”

More static followed, and Simmons stopped it in quick order. “It’s looping every thirty minutes,” he clarified.

“You’ve had this over for thirty minutes?” Gabrielle demanded of him. “Thirty minutes? You should have reported this immediately.”

“More like two hours. I was waiting for confirmation that I wasn’t hearing rogue signals,” Simmons defended himself. “Like any good scientist should. And besides, warp drive is still offline, so it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Gavin Hu stepped in, his attention on Simmons and not Gabrielle. “Lieutenant Simmons, perhaps you can explain this structure in more detail for me? Corazonia, yes?”

Rrr, picking up on the play, gave Gabrielle a nudge and with a head nod they both were walking to the far side of the bridge. “He’s not wrong about the warp drive at least.”

“Do you recognise that message?” Gabrielle asked, glaring daggers across the bridge and thanking various gods and greater beings for Gaving Hu’s intervention just now.

“No, I don’t,” the Gaen answered.

“It’s from the Friendship probes, launched shortly after First Contact.” She looked around the bridge, then back to Rrr. “Rrr, how did an old Earth probe get twenty-four thousand light-years from Earth across an intergalactic void?”

“Don’t know,” they answered. “Want to find out?” The smile that accompanied the question was full and carried the excitement Rrr was obviously feeling at the prospect of a good mystery.

“Well, we’re explorers, right? Might as well explore?”