I told Selai to keep everything that just happened quiet as we head back to my room. I don’t want to worry any of the crew members until we know exactly what the plan of action is. If the news got out that our guests may be religious nutjobs that hate cyborgs: it’d create a lot of unnecessary tension on the ship that could very easily blow back on us.

As the door to my quarters slides shut behind us, we both let out a long breath like we’d been holding it for the whole trip up. I walk around the wooden desk and collapse into the chair behind it. Rolling it forwards, I let the weight of my thoughts carry my head down into the desk, making a solid thunk against the wood. “Oof, that sounded like it hurt.” Selai’s voice was concerned and sympathetic.

“Eh, I’ve got a hard head. It’s used to me doing this.” I lift my head an inch and drop it back down for emphasis.

“You do that a lot?”

“Yep. I pretend that it helps me think.” I don’t even bother raising my head to look at her. The carpet looks nice at least. I hear her footsteps grow closer just like they did a few long hours ago. Please don’t try to touch me again. Thankfully the steps stopped. She lets out a soft grunt and I feel my desk shake. Lifting my head, I rest my arms under my chin and see Selai’s back sitting on my desk. “You know there are chairs right?”

Selai twists her back and looks down at me. “Yeah I know, I didn’t want to pull one over but I thought we should be closer to make talking easier. This way you don’t have to yell across the room.” There were several things I could question about that but I’m not quite in the state to do that right now.

“Yeah… OK. Anyways, first things first: RIN open a private channel to Simon.” I sit back in my seat and close my eyes to collect my thoughts.

Selai cuts through while we wait on Simon’s response. “Wait, why are we calling Simon? We shouldn’t worry him unnecessarily with the case. He’s been through a lot.”

I let out a soft laugh and glance to the worried Selai. “If you knew Simon, you’d know not to be worried about worrying him. Hell, the guy was ready to interrogate those kids just a few minutes after they beat him. I’m just double checking with him who knew about the attack. I don’t want the news spreading any more until we have a handle on it.” She ponders this for a moment before nodding in understanding.

Just then, Simon’s voice plays over the speakers in the room. “Hello, Captain. How may I help you?” What a robotic response…

“Hey Simon, I wanted to know if you’ve got a list of everyone who knows about the attack. I want to make sure they keep it quiet so the crew doesn’t feel uneasy around the civilians until we get to the bottom of this.”

Almost instantly, he responds. “Yes, Sir, I’ve already informed everyone involved of the confidentiality of this incident. I’ll send a reminder email on your behalf.” Not even a second after he finishes his sentence: I hear a ping from my inbox.

“Wow. That was fast. OK, thank you Simon. Just as a head’s up, Selai and I plan on meeting with the children’s parents tomorrow. If the Doc has let you go by then: you’re welcome to join us. I should warn you though, if the parents share the same train of thought as these kids… It may mean trouble.”

There’s a long pause. Perhaps he’s computing all that data. I smile at my own terrible joke. “I believe it best that I stay on standby during your meeting, Captain. If you feel it appropriate for me to be there, I will enter. If you deem things to be hostile, then you can keep me out of the discussions.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty smart. We’ll see you tomorrow then. Go get some rest, Simon.” I lean forward in my chair and tap my computer screen to end the call. Before I can even think to say a word, Selai beats me to the punch.

“So we’re meeting with them tomorrow?” She’s turned her whole body to have her right foot up on the desk. Her left leg is dangling off and she’s pulled her right knee up, hugging it to her chest, and is resting her cheek on it.

“Yes. It’s been a long day and I think we all need to sleep on this before trying to move forward in this emotional haste.”

She lifts her head up and stares off to the other wall and nods. “OK, what are we gonna say though? I doubt they’ll be happy that we kept their kids in cells all night.”

“Probably not, but hopefully they’ll have the common sense to understand why. We’ll just try and remain calm and reasonable.” Selai ponders into my eyes for a moment before smirking.

“So the opposite of how you handled the kids.” She barely contains her chuckling while my eyes roll three hundred sixty.

“Don’t think I didn’t see you smiling when that red head made fun of me, by the way. You’re in a whole load of trouble for that.”

She bursts out in laughter. “Is that so? And what’re you gonna do about it?”

I scrunch my face in anger. “.... I don’t know yet.”

“More importantly, you didn’t answer my question. What’re we gonna say?” She straightens up and leans back on her hands.

I exhale in thought at her question. “I have no clue…” She raises an eyebrow and tilts her head in disappointment. “I suppose we’ll start by telling them what their children actually did and pray that they’re not actually proud of their kids. We’ll speak with them about what the consequences could be and tell them that we’ll give them more information as things our decided… I’m just not sure what else we can say.”

“Hmm.” She looks down in her lap and nods. “I guess you’re right. So what do we do right now?”

“I’m gonna send an email to the parents and tell them we need to meet. If you want, I was probably just gonna eat a pizza and watch a movie or something. I think we both deserve to just relax.”

She sits up and laughs. “Sure! But only if we can get some drinks going.” She turns and hops off the desk. Heading over to the bar, she grabs a bottle of wine and two glasses. She pours us each a glass and walks back over. Handing me one, she raises her own: “To getting to the bottom of this.”

I smile in response and return the gesture. Tapping our glasses together I repeat her sentiment. “To getting to the bottom of this… and also to getting pizza. RIN, one large pizza if you will.” A few seconds later a white, square box is sitting on the coffee table. We make our way over and each take a seat on opposite sides of the couch. Opening the box, the sweet smell of fresh pizza fills the room. We each grab a slice and lean back. After getting comfortable, I turn to my First Officer. “So, what kind of movie do you want to watch?”

“How about a detective movie?”