into the room, her curled hair bobbing as she moved.
“What do you have for me, Rowe?”
“Just my weekly report, Captain!”
Liao took it, but did not have time to read it in full. Instead, she placed it to one side, folding her hands in front of her. “I’ll make that bedtime reading,” she remarked, grinning slyly. “I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep some nights and I find your reports usually help.”
“Probably. I never could write anything interesting. Do Hoare logic and propositional calculus, yes, but write an essay ? Read a novel? Phht. I got a perfect score in math and failed English. What does that tell you?”
Liao didn’t have an answer for that, so she simply nodded her head and hoped the question was rhetorical. “I see. Well, how about you give me the Reader’s Digest version? How’s the ship holding up?”
Summer positively beamed. “Pretty good, actually. The nuke reactors are humming along nicely. We had a malfunction in artificial gravity on deck six at 0200 - right during my shower - but that’s fixed now. Just a subtle race condition in the micro-controller array; it seemed that the scheduler wasn’t actually achieving atomic transactions under some circumstances, so we weren’t getting mutual exclusion-”
Liao felt her aggravation quota slowly filling. “In layman’s terms, Summer. I’m not a...” she gestured to the other woman vaguely. “...a computer person or whatever you are, okay?”
Summer laughed. “Okay, sure, sure. Well, anyway, see, the micro-controller is an eight-bit system and whatever fuck-monkey coded this thing was passing in eight bit numbers, right, but you see, it’s expecting a signed-”
“ More layman, if you please.”
Summer stared a moment. “Computer machine broke. I fixed it.”
“Good, that’s what I wanted to hear.” Liao casually tapped on the desk with the tip of a finger. “Will it happen again?”
“No. At least, it shouldn’t as long as we’re not mixing unsigned and signed...” she stopped, holding up her hands. “...no, it shouldn’t. I’m pretty sure.”
Liao thought a moment. “Anything else to report?”
“Eh, nothing much. Sheng’s inbox had to be cleaned out again. He’s getting so many messages with encrypted images attached, and we didn’t plan on keeping so much data on the ship’s servers, so we have to repeatedly allocate him more storage space. Nobody else is having any problems...”
Liao nodded. It was puzzling that her XO would be receiving those kinds of messages, but she dismissed it.
Summer smirked. “He should probably cut down on his porn consumption.”
Liao raised an eyebrow. “ Is it pornography? Did you see what the messages were?”
“Uh, no. I don’t know what they were; I didn’t see. Generally if guys are getting heaps of pictures in their inboxes it’s usually photographs of cats with funny subtitles... or porn.”
Melissa nodded. “Okay, thank you, that’s been most helpful. Let me know if you find anything else. You know where to find me.”
“Tragically undersexed and working yourself to an early grave, right?”
Liao smiled a little. “Right. Good night, Summer.”
*****
Corridor
TFR Beijing
Day 19 of the shakedown cruise
“So what do you want on your grave?”
Liao was just walking past the deck to the Waste Management room when she overheard familiar voices - Lieutenants Jiang, Dao and Ling all chatting with Summer Rowe. Although there was always something for the Captain to do, on this particular occasion Liao decided that she should “gain an insider’s perspective” on what the crew talked about when she wasn’t around.
Or eavesdrop, in the urban vernacular. She leaned up against the bulkhead beside the door, listening to the conversation.
Melissa heard Dao chuckle. “There’s an old saying... ‘To live in hearts left behind... is not to die’. I like that one.”
Jiang’s voice was next. “I see,” she commented, sounding
“What do you have for me, Rowe?”
“Just my weekly report, Captain!”
Liao took it, but did not have time to read it in full. Instead, she placed it to one side, folding her hands in front of her. “I’ll make that bedtime reading,” she remarked, grinning slyly. “I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep some nights and I find your reports usually help.”
“Probably. I never could write anything interesting. Do Hoare logic and propositional calculus, yes, but write an essay ? Read a novel? Phht. I got a perfect score in math and failed English. What does that tell you?”
Liao didn’t have an answer for that, so she simply nodded her head and hoped the question was rhetorical. “I see. Well, how about you give me the Reader’s Digest version? How’s the ship holding up?”
Summer positively beamed. “Pretty good, actually. The nuke reactors are humming along nicely. We had a malfunction in artificial gravity on deck six at 0200 - right during my shower - but that’s fixed now. Just a subtle race condition in the micro-controller array; it seemed that the scheduler wasn’t actually achieving atomic transactions under some circumstances, so we weren’t getting mutual exclusion-”
Liao felt her aggravation quota slowly filling. “In layman’s terms, Summer. I’m not a...” she gestured to the other woman vaguely. “...a computer person or whatever you are, okay?”
Summer laughed. “Okay, sure, sure. Well, anyway, see, the micro-controller is an eight-bit system and whatever fuck-monkey coded this thing was passing in eight bit numbers, right, but you see, it’s expecting a signed-”
“ More layman, if you please.”
Summer stared a moment. “Computer machine broke. I fixed it.”
“Good, that’s what I wanted to hear.” Liao casually tapped on the desk with the tip of a finger. “Will it happen again?”
“No. At least, it shouldn’t as long as we’re not mixing unsigned and signed...” she stopped, holding up her hands. “...no, it shouldn’t. I’m pretty sure.”
Liao thought a moment. “Anything else to report?”
“Eh, nothing much. Sheng’s inbox had to be cleaned out again. He’s getting so many messages with encrypted images attached, and we didn’t plan on keeping so much data on the ship’s servers, so we have to repeatedly allocate him more storage space. Nobody else is having any problems...”
Liao nodded. It was puzzling that her XO would be receiving those kinds of messages, but she dismissed it.
Summer smirked. “He should probably cut down on his porn consumption.”
Liao raised an eyebrow. “ Is it pornography? Did you see what the messages were?”
“Uh, no. I don’t know what they were; I didn’t see. Generally if guys are getting heaps of pictures in their inboxes it’s usually photographs of cats with funny subtitles... or porn.”
Melissa nodded. “Okay, thank you, that’s been most helpful. Let me know if you find anything else. You know where to find me.”
“Tragically undersexed and working yourself to an early grave, right?”
Liao smiled a little. “Right. Good night, Summer.”
*****
Corridor
TFR Beijing
Day 19 of the shakedown cruise
“So what do you want on your grave?”
Liao was just walking past the deck to the Waste Management room when she overheard familiar voices - Lieutenants Jiang, Dao and Ling all chatting with Summer Rowe. Although there was always something for the Captain to do, on this particular occasion Liao decided that she should “gain an insider’s perspective” on what the crew talked about when she wasn’t around.
Or eavesdrop, in the urban vernacular. She leaned up against the bulkhead beside the door, listening to the conversation.
Melissa heard Dao chuckle. “There’s an old saying... ‘To live in hearts left behind... is not to die’. I like that one.”
Jiang’s voice was next. “I see,” she commented, sounding
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