Chapter 19 – 2402

"What does she do all day?" Shaw wondered.

Matt Radford was basically standing on his head trying to clear the intake pipe for the big soak's water heating tubes. "Who?"

"Becca. Does she just hang around the cottage all day waiting for me to come back? I mean, I know she has her books and all, but still."

"She's working with the investigation."

"What?"

"The Frontier Day investigation. She does something with the testimonies. Reviewing them."

"Whose testimonies?"

Matt shrugged. "Everybody's. They're interviewing everybody that was involved."

"That would be everybody in Starfleet."

"Yeah, I guess. Bucket." Shaw held up the bucket, and Matt pulled out a handful of brackish black sludge and dropped it in. The slime clung to his gloves and he tried to shake it off. Partially successful, he went back for more.

"Filter broke down somewhere," Shaw observed.

"Or a screen broke out. Sometimes a big fish gets sucked up in there and pulls it off the frame. We'll get to that next."

Unlike their elegant little soak at the cottage, the Big Soak was mechanically complex. Sea water was pumped up to camp level, heated in a broad solar array, dumped into a pool big enough for thirty or so people. Each night the water was drained back into the sea and replaced with freshly heated water. It was convenient, available almost all day, but like the standard pool next to it, it needed regular repairs.

Shaw didn't like it.

"Did they interview me?" Shaw asked.

"Yeah. They were here two, three weeks ago."

"I wonder what I said."

Matt produced another handful of goop. "No idea. Anyhow, Becca checks the translation – transcription, and then she makes notes so it's searchable?"

"Annotation."

"Yeah, that."

"She could be doing the actual interviews if she wasn't stuck here with me."

"We offered –" he jumped back as water and slime suddenly poured out the end of the pipe. "We offered to keep an eye on you, but she said she was too pissed off to see people face-to-face anyhow."

"Oh man that stinks."

"Yeah, dead fish and fermented seaweed. Gander perfume. This looked clear." He threaded the pipes back together. "Let's go see about the screen."