Davies seemed to be sparing Ivan, at least for today. Maybe it was because of Ivan’s work on the robots. A normally two-to three-day job had been reduced to barely four hours. By the end of the process, Lorenza had almost completely stopped complaining about the shortcomings of ‘the help’. Ivan grinned. It definitely felt good to be the hero.

“I am going to sleep like a babe tonight,” he said as they dried off from their showers and dressed.

“You aren’t all tweaked about the size of the accommodations?”

Ivan looked askance at Davies. “Is that a thing? Because after The Burrows, this is luxury.”

Tenn laughed. “Yeah, well, we’ve had a few claustrophobia cases. The problem is, you wake up in the middle of the night, in the dark, in low gravity, with walls close around you, and you’re liable to go into a funk before your brain has caught up. Then you scream in panic, wake the rest of us, and we have to come over and show our appreciation.” He looked at Ivan significantly. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Don’t yell at night. Got it.” Ivan grinned back at the much larger man.

A couple of the other crew overheard and laughed. Davies gave him an arch look, but no follow-up. Definitely taking it easy, today.

“Crew to the Common Room. Meeting at 13:20.” Everyone looked up at the P.A. announcement.

“That’s, uh, unusual. Well, let’s hop to it.” Seth tossed his towel in the laundry basket, followed by the other crew. The laundry mech grabbed the towels as they landed, glaring at each crew member in apparent reproach. Aspasia tossed her towel directly at the mech and grinned at the silent rebuke.

They all pulled on the standard ship garb—tee shirt, shorts, and slippers—and headed downwheel to the Common Room. The hab ring on the Mad Astra was considerably smaller than a space station wheel, barely a hundred meters diameter at the rim. This made the curve of the floor, even on the outermost level, far more obvious and Coriolis force more of an issue. And heading downwheel increased their weight significantly as their pace added to their rotational velocity. Several of the crew started to sound out of breath as they hustled along.

Seth looked back. “Say, some of you guys need to spend more time on the treadmills, I think.”

“Eat me,” Tenn snarled.

Seth laughed as they arrived at the Common Room. They shuffled in, grabbed coffees from the ever-primed coffee dispenser, and sat down.

Precisely on time, the captain walked in. He scanned the room and nodded. “I want to talk strategy. As captain, of course, I can make unilateral decisions, but I’d prefer to have everyone involved.”

He looked around for a moment, inviting questions or comments. No one made a sound.