Fragment Four

Just a song before I go,
A lesson to be learned.
Traveling twice the speed of sound
It's easy to get burned.
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Just a Song Before I Go

Yoshimi walked down the corridor. She felt the ship vibrate slightly as the warp bubble collapsed again. She sighed and walked to the makeshift entertainment room as it began to warp again. This covert ops frigate was a cramped space to be stuck for as long as she would be there, but it was her home for better or worse.

Yoshimi looked at the computer screen and mused over the last couple of days.

She'd signed on as a backup pilot. Most ships carry at least one crew member for insurance reasons. If the pilot is incapacitated, or needs a pair of human hands on a job, she'd leave her escape pod and do what she needed to do. In the last twenty years she'd only ever been out of her quarters three times in flight.

Yet here she was, pilotless and bored. The ship's AI directing her to the nearest system with a stargate. Four long years away.

She laughed to herself and pulled up a comm channel with her former employer.

"Paulie!" She said smiling.

"Hey Shimi," The man on the other side said without looking her in the eyes.

"So, wormholes,"

"Yeah,"

"To bad us normal folks can't clone jump out while they're waiting,"

"Heh," The man finally looked up, "Yeah. Uh, how much superfluid you got left in the comm tanks?"

"Enough for about 4 days of continuous communication,"

"Ahh, ok,"

"So, nice talking to you,"

"Yeah nice,"

She closed the comm channel and sighed. The ship vibrated slightly as it came out of warp again.