"David!" he heard Patricia calling."David!" he heard Patricia calling. "Eh?" he said, looking up. "What do you think?" He looked flustered for a second, then sighed and said, "Miss Satpulov, you're hired. As a rule, I don't normally hire Pendorians, but in your case I'm going to make an exception. You start right now. Pat, you've got the spare room. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to give her the space." "I know, I know," Patricia answered. "It's okay." "Thank you, Captain," Dennielle replied. "On this ship, there's aren't enough people to call me Captain," he said. "David will do fine." "It is Day-vid, not Dah-veed?" she asked. "Day-vid," he repeated. "Don't let the last name fool you, I'm not particularly religious. Could you excuse us for a second, Miss Satpulov?" "Denni," she said. "Denni, then." He gestured for the door, and she nodded, closing it behind her. He turned to Patricia and said, "Well?" "She knows her stuff, I'll give her that. She's good." "Better than Mickey?" "Don't ask me to make that comparison, David. I'm not going to do it." "But she can do his job." "That she can do." David's fears that Denni may have lied on her resume quickly vanished as she rather quickly proved to be a boon to their engineering staff. The word "staff" was another word that made David laugh when no one was around to hear, since the staff consisted of Patricia, Marder, and now Denni. Most of his crew was human. The only other recombinant on his crew was Tasha, his pilot, a Katkin from Terra. He had worked for the Rat's Asking for most of his life; being a starship pilot had been his one and only dream since he had been born. |