The mission was to transport astrologist Dr. Patrick Shu. He had completed brawn training over three decades prior, mostly courier work. On the long journeys he had worked on a PhD in astrophysics with a focus on black holes and singularity points. He had since found a wife and settled down on Nigel working for the local university.

A binary black hole system had first allowed humans to confirm the existence of gravity waves, which had revolutionised the study of physics and even helped to develop the first FTL drives that had made space travel practical. A scout ship had recently noticed a very rare trinary black hole system and Dr. Shu wanted to go check it out. There were two almost equally sized black holes with a third much smaller one orbiting irregularly. He was worried that the third one would soon be swallowed up, and wanted to go make some readings before then. The preliminary readings from the scout team looked quite promising, but they didn't have any of the specialised equipment needed for accurate measurements, and had only brought back optical images which were taken from a very large distance. You had to be careful to not get too close to a black hole, didn't want it sucking you in. Time slip was a concern as well, a two week trip could cost you 10 years if you weren't careful.

In preparation for the trip Braddon had requested a large volume of information about astrophysics and singularity quadratics. He was equipped with a singularity drive, and knew enough of the theory to successfully complete jumps, with the help of his specialised navigational computers, but hadn't shown a great proficiency, and definitely wasn't up to speed on the latest theory. The drives were extremely expensive, in part due to the huge computational power that was needed to navigate between singularity points. The points scattered throughout space allowed near instantaneous travel between them which could shorten a 6 month FTL journey into 3 weeks or less. There were still significant gaps between points, some areas more sparse than others. No one had quite managed to figure out why that was, and no one yet had witnessed the 'birth' of a new singularity point.

They hadn't wanted him to go solo just yet, so Dr. Rice was still on board and after collecting Patrick they were to make a slight detour and drop her off at the SSS-900-X. Until recently the Brain controlled station had been known as the SSS-900-C, but Simeon's latest brawn Channa had retired and gone to live on the distant planet of Bethel, leaving Simeon designated an X for the time being. Dr. Rice was fast asleep and Braddon's telescope was no longer giving him decent images of the planet he had been observing. He sighed, too far out now I guess. He realised he was now in range of contacting Simeon, so thought it might be a good idea to introduce himself. He had never needed to come out this way with Pacifica before. He sent a request along the brainwave, but got no response. Strange… he thought. After running a diagnostic finding nothing wrong he decided to send another request. 10 seconds later came Simeon's gruff reply.

"Who is this and what do you want?" He did not sound happy at all. Braddon had heard many stories about the SSS-900 from other brains, and even at the academy. He was the first shell person to adopt a kid with his previous brawn Channa Hap. And he had managed to survive a Kolnari occupation for over 2 weeks with minimal casualties. But Braddon was surprised at his rough tone. Word on the tightbeam was that he was an easygoing, if not occasionally obnoxious, decent person.

"Er," Braddon muttered.

"Well, spit it out!"

"XB-1070, um, sorry am I interrupting something?"

"Gah!" Came the frustrated reply, then a sharp burst of static and he was gone. Braddon was shocked. Space stations were usually busy, but it was still a very unusual response. He hoped he hadn't somehow managed to offend Simeon. Oh well, not much I could do about it now.

20min later Simeon contacted him. "XB-1070, sorry about my rudeness earlier, just had some rather, uh, bad news, and the comms have been ringing off the hooks. what can I do for you?" He still sounded a little agitated.

"Oh, um, Braddon's fine. I was just passing through, so I thought I would introduce myself."

"hmmm, 1070, one of the new recruits from last year's batch? What are you doing all the way out here without a brawn?"

"I am actually on my way to retrieve one right now, after which I will swing by to drop off a passenger."

"My records show that you were the PB-1070 until recently, you know you are never going to reach payoff if you only keep them round for a single year." Braddon didn't much feel like correcting him. "Oh shell crack, what now?!" And Simeon was gone again. Braddon had winced at the common enough profanity, accidently sending a short burst of static, but hopefully Simeon hadn't noticed, he seemed pretty preoccupied. What was going on over there? At least his anger didn't seem to be directed at him. Probably something to do with the brawn transfer. Hopefully he would come back soon and be able to give him some answers. 30 min later Simeon was back. "Bloody ignorant fools! They can all go to heck! This is bloody ridiculous!" He sounded pissed.

"Everything Ok?" Braddon asked timidly.

"OK? No! Things are very much NOT OK! They want to turn me into a 2 brain station! Have you ever heard such ridiculous nonsense! Now that Channa is gone they suddenly think I am going senile and might blow up life support or something? Can they not recall who has been running this station for the last 80 years, and quite well might I add! Of all the insulting insensitive bureaucratic nonsense…"

"Two brains?" Braddon asked, interrupting. Two brain systems had been talked about in Lab school, but he didn't think they were any in operation yet. "That thing about life support can't be true…"

Simeon gave a frustrated sigh. "No, the official reasoning is to have some redundancy in case of an emergency and also to help reduce my workload. The SSS-900 has grown a fair amount in the last few years. Nothing I can't handle mind you! Joat was helping me to tweak the AI, let it handle more of the routine stuff."

"Joat? Is that your kid?"

"Yeah" He replied fondly. "Bright kid. Stubborn as all hell. Never thought I would be remembered as the first shell person to be a Dad… Sorry Braddon, I have been hardly letting you get a word in! But you must understand how I feel, to have them ask me to suddenly share my body with someone else. Shell crack, it would give anyone shivers!" Braddon winced again. After a slight pause Simeon said more calmly, "You know, that's the second time you have done that."

"Um, done what?" Simeon was quick, that was for sure.

"Shell crack." Simeon repeated. Braddon winced, trying desperately to limit his emissions.

There was an awkward silence before Simeon said, "You should probably get that looked at, probably just a stray feedback loop."

"Yeah... feedback, I'll run a diagnostic later." He was sounding less than confident. Although he was glad Simeon wasn't pushing the issue.

"Braddon, Braddon, your name sounds familiar… Oh! Sam mentioned you, the photographer! Take any good holos lately?"

After a bit of a chat and some file sharing Simeon seemed to be back in relatively good spirits. "Oh! Very nice! Think I have just found my screen saver for the next month! You don't charge royalties do you?" He asked in a jovial tone.

"We-el," Braddon replied, matching Simeon's tone, "The first one's on me, gotta get the audience hooked."

"Ha! A businessman!" came Simeon. "Anyway, thanks for the chat Braddon, I needed a bit of normalcy right now. I better go, have to keep the station at tip top efficiency if I have any chance of fighting this."

"All right then, good luck with everything."

"Who needs luck when you have experience!" Then after a pause, "Oh, and Braddon, just so you know, I was once forcibly removed from my column. If you ever want to talk about your, um, feedback issue, you know where to find me." And with that he was gone. Braddon sighed, so he had managed to fit the pieces together. And Simeon was the biggest gossip this side of Vega! Although, he had shown some tact, so hopefully he would keep it to himself. He must have been referring to the Kolnari incident. Braddon had read about it in lab school, but there was no reference to Simeon being removed… They are very careful not to frighten the little shell children. He stared at the painting hanging on the wall. You have nothing to be embarrassed about! It wasn't your fault. Maybe he would take Simeon up on his offer when he returned to drop off Dr. Rice.

Nigel was a low grav planet 0.8 standard, with rich lush farmlands. Here the plants grew tall and the people taller. Patrick Shu had to duck slightly as he entered the airlock, but could just stand up straight without bumping his head.

"Whaddoya know?" He said excitedly, "Air lock would have it, I fit perfectly!" He chuckled to himself as he passed his free hand over his head, he was carrying a bag of personal belongings in the other. He wandered in, dropped his bag on the floor, turned to Braddon's column, gave a quick salute and said more formally "Dr. Patrick Shu, reporting for duty." Dr. Rice was standing near the control panel giving Braddon a sideways glance at one of his cameras. Oh right, he thought remembering her speech on personal space.

"Um, welcome aboard!" He said cheerfully. But before he could discuss personal space, he just had to ask, "Air lock would have it?" He had never heard such a phrase and his memory bank was coming up blank.

Dr. Shu had started laughing. "As luck would have it! Don't worry, you are not the first to be baffled by my sense of humour. And hopefully not the last either!" He waved a finger in the air playfully.

"Oh! I see, play on words. Well, make yourself at home, Dr. Shu."

"Paddy's fine" He said while reaching for his bag.

Probably time to mention the column, "OK, sure, Paddy, um, just so you know," calm down! No need to be nervous, "there is really no need to face my column when you talk to me. I consider the whole ship to be a part of my body, so any camera is fine."

"Oh good!" Paddy said enthusiastically, looking directly at one of the side cameras. "Used to always give me a crook in my neck back with Beatrice. She was a stickler for tradition that one." He had walked over to Dr. Rice. "You must be Dr. Rice!" He dropped the bag again with a loud thump before shaking her hand enthusiastically with both of his. She looked comically small next to the towering Paddy.

"Um, yes." She said, taken aback by his manner. "Not with you for long I'm afraid. They need me back in central, so I am getting transport from the SSS-900."

"Well, it will be lovely while it lasts." He said, winking as he picked up his bag again, "I better go get this stowed so that we can launch. A couple of techs from the university will be joining us for the ride and are bringing over the interferometer, can you coordinate the loading for me Braddon?" He had already walked into the brawn cabin as he was talking.

"Yes, of course." Braddon focused on his outer sensors and saw two people walking alongside a hover platform coming his way. Male and female they wore blue jumpsuits with the university logo. They both looked quite young, and had a similarity about them, he looked up the personal files, a common last name fueled his suspicion that Tristan and Pol were siblings, and by their birth dates twins in fact. He noticed a large red mark that covered almost half of Pol's face, he hoped she hadn't been injured recently. The personal file showed the same blemish, so a birth defect was looking much more likely. They stopped at the base of the lift politely requesting permission to board before getting to work securing the large strange looking device. Normally measuring equipment would be mounted externally, but this device was too fragile, and large. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory, or LIGO for short, would have to be constructed once they reached their destination, as it was too big even for his generous sized cargo bay. Long telescoping arms would extend 50m or so on either side, as a large distance between the receptors gave more accurate readings. The cargo bay doors would need to be fully open in order to set up the device, but for now it was simply a very large crate. Probably one of the fanciest crates Braddon had seen. The techs got to work securing the delicate load, standard cargo nets just weren't going to cut it this time. The hover platform had been built in, and would help cushion the crate during launch and flight manoeuvres. A number of anchoring points were scattered over the surface of the crate. From these magnetic tethers were attached to the ceiling, walls, and floor of the cargo bay, wherever the techs could find an anchor point. Like a spider's web of invisible rubber bands. The techs worked efficiently and were soon double and triple checking each link.

Once finished they joined Paddy and Dr Rice in the main cabin and strapped in as Paddy and Braddon went through pre-flight procedures.

The launch had been as gentle as Braddon could allow, which meant greater fuel consumption through a longer slower burn. As soon as he gave the all clear, Pol and Tristan unfastened their harnesses and floated back to the cargo bay to check on the expensive machine. After rechecking each link, and taking a number of readings, Braddon noticed a smile creep onto Pol's face for the first time as she whispered, "Good."

"Finally!" Tristan whined, "That took forever!"

Pol shot him a dirty look. "Braddon," Tristan continued, "could you please engage the artificial gravity, but limit it to 0.8 Terrans and wind it up slowly."

"Will a 30sec ramp time suffice?"

"Yes, thank you."

Triston gave his floating tool one last spin before it started to sink, and he grabbed it, placing it back in his belt. Pol gracefully, floated/swung down through the net of tethers until her feet made gentle contact on the deck, like a leaf landing on a pond.

"Show off." Tristan muttered, earning an embarrassed look from Pol.

"Transit time to SSS-900 is 16 hours and 12 minutes." Braddon informed them. "My galley is fully stocked, feel free to help yourself."

"I'll be in my quarters." Said Pol quietly, before briskly leaving the room.

"Sorry Braddon, she's normally not this… " Tristan waved his hand, while scrunching up his face looking for the right word, "You know, "

"Reserved?" Braddon offered.

"Eh, almost. I was more thinking along the lines of acting like she has a stick up her butt. She's pretty nervous I guess. We have only done like a million practice runs, both in simulation and in orbit, so I don't know why she's all panicky this time. Just because we are going past Nigel's moons... Space is space, here, there, the work is the same, although hopefully the readings will be different." He let out a frustrated sigh. "Anyhoo, got any good holos on board? I'm not going to spend my first venture out into the universe holed up in my room!"

Meanwhile back on the bridge Paddy had been doing his best to charm Dr Rice. His exaggerated voice carried far, Braddon had never known a man to laugh so loudly at his own jokes! Dr. Rice for the most part seemed to be enjoying herself, although she did look like she was beginning to tire. It felt strange to have so many people aboard him at once, he was not used to splitting his attention, here I am getting overwhelmed by 4 measly passengers, how on Terra does Simeon manage 16 thousand!

After Tristan joined Paddy in the lounge with the suggestion of a holovid, Dr. Rice gave a yawn, excused herself and retreated to her cabin. After 10 minutes he got a blip from her quarters.

"Permission to enter?"

"Granted."

Braddon brought up his sensors to find Dr Rice draped in her sleeping outfit sitting on the bed tapping away at her computer. "Braddon, how are you finding the trip so far?"

"Um, fine, it is kind of weird having so many people on board."

"Weird how?" she asked, placing her computer to the side and switching off the screen. "Is it making you uneasy?"

"No, no. I am fine really. Most of my previous missions didn't require any extra passengers. It is actually kind of nice."

"In what way?" She enquired.

"Well, I guess I don't have to be their only form of companionship, it allows me to step back and take a less active role in conversations, if I so choose."

"Hmm, but you could also have 3 people trying to talk to you at once." Someone was calling his name back in the lounge.

"Speak of the devil." He muttered.

Back in the lounge Tristan called out, "Hey Braddon, did you see that explosion?! How did they do that?!" A holocar launched through the air riding a slow-motion wave of embers and debris. Sweat dripped down the heroine's face as she clung precariously to the roof of the car.

"Artificial render I am afraid, very realistic." He replied to Tristan. He could easily notice how the reflections on the vehicle didn't quite match the ripples of the explosion, although it was quite slight, most people would probably be fooled.

"No way!" Tristan exclaimed, his wide eyes were glued to the holographic projections where Braddon was displaying the movie. He was literally sitting right on the edge of his seat.

Back in the guest quarters Dr Rice chuckled. The holovid was loud enough that the large sounds of the explosions reached her room as a sort of muffled boom. She had also seen his adaptability scores and knew multitasking was something with which he struggled.

"How will you manage your sleep?" She said eventually.

He mulled it over, he was due for a sleep cycle, but the boys had only just started the lengthy holo. "I don't feel ready to discuss my sleep routine with Paddy just yet, I think I will stay up a bit and rest when the atmosphere is more, er, restful." Another explosion rumbled through the walls. "I will set the computer to wake me if anyone speaks my name, I am quick to respond, even from deep sleep."

"Are you sure you are ready for this Braddon? We could always get them transferred to another ship at the SSS-900 if you are having second thoughts."

"No, I am actually looking forward to this. Really. Might even get some cool pictures, I've never had a chance to photograph a black hole before."

"It is good to see you are enthusiastic." She grinned, "Thank you for the chat, goodnight."

He politely withdrew from her cabin and started giving more of his attention to the holo, Tristan's enthusiasm was contagious.