The Apocalypse Contract

CHAPTER 49 - ROGER

Roger walked to his cabin, Sydney's hand resting on his arm. As they approached the door, he considered inviting her in, but he could think of no plausible excuse. "I'll be only a moment," he assured her before slipping inside. He rummaged through the books on his night table, locating the volume of French poetry he was seeking, then turned to leave.

Sydney stood in the doorway, her gaze sweeping through the room. "You know, we could get you a larger room if you like."

"Yes, ah... I suppose you could, but this one is quite adequate." He stood there, for a moment totally forgetting what he was doing. He realized he was holding something. "Ah yes, I have the book. We should be on our way."

They walked to The Painted Pony, finding their companions already there. Peter and Samantha were splitting a bottle of wine. Mel had a pot of tea and several cups. A three tiered serving tray was arrayed with tea biscuits, crackers, cheese, and fruit.

Sydney raised an eyebrow at the bottle of wine. "Isn't it a bit early for that."

"Hey, we're in space," Peter responded, "who the hell knows what time it really is."

Samantha raised her wine glass. "I'm with him on this. We're in a stolen spaceship on the far side of the moon. Aliens might be invading Earth. I declare it wine-o-clock. Cheers."

Roger filled his tea cup and raised it in salute. "I would raise a glass of brandy, but alas the menu here is still somewhat limited."

Mel furrowed her brow. "Do you have any idea how hard I worked just expanding the fruit and wine selection?"

"My apologies, Miss Mel. Your efforts are greatly appreciated."

"Totally," Samantha agreed. She popped a pear slice in her mouth. "This really is amazing."

Mel smiled. "You like it? I tweaked the recipe. I cut back on the sugars and swapped out some of the isoamyl acetate for ethyl decadienoate."

Sydney sipped her own tea and looked around. "I'm surprised Marguerite isn't here."

"She was here earlier," Peter offered, "then she asked about you and scurried off, tentacles all aflutter." He took a large swig from his wine glass. "Hey, how's the hacking of the moonbase going?"

Sydney pulled a floating terminal window into existence. "Looks like my scripts actually found a few things while we were walking over here." She tapped at the terminal. New windows sprang into existence. "We've found a couple of hexframes they didn't tear out, plus several data storage modules. It will take some time to dig through whatever is on those." She returned to tapping at the terminal window.

Peter turned to Roger. "So you're a brandy man, eh?"

"Oh, I don't know about that. I like a glass now and again, but I don't make a habit of it."

"I'm more of a beer guy myself," Peter acknowledged. "Was never much into wine, but like they say, any port in a storm."

Roger suppressed a grin. "I was never much for port, either."

"What? Oh... ha... I see what you did there."

Sydney spared a glance in their direction. "Is the Brit trying to be funny? Careful... you're likely to sprain something."

Mel chuckled. "Ouch... I can feel that burn from here."

"Oh, this is interesting." Sydney had opened a new window and was soon engrossed in its contents.

Roger peered at the data window, trying to extract meaning from the columns of alien text. "It reminds me of a shipping manifest," he commented. "All those columns of dates and weights and unit counts."