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Jacob smiled gratuitously as the door hissed again and a bored-sounding voice met his ears. "Reporting for duty, Captain," Emma sighed, pushing a lock of hair out of her eye. Jacob, his back to her, slowly slid the touchscreen back into place, staying stationary for as long as he could manage. Then he kicked the chair around to face her, jumped out of it, leaned towards her, thrust a finger in her direction, and shouted, "LAAAAAATE! You're LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEETE!"

Emma groaned. "Yes, I know, I know. At least I'm not the last one here," she shot back. "I'm not the only 'laaaaaaate' one."

"Well... you're still late," Jacob told her, sitting back down in the chair. "Is everyone on board?"

"Yes sir," Nikki replied from beside him. "The log says the last crew-member boarded just half a minute ago."

"Well then, Emma, you know what you're doing, right?" Jacob inquired.

"Same answer as always, and that answer is yes, sir," she grunted back, flopping backwards into her chair. She tapped a switch, and a pair of joysticks jumped up from the armrests, already set to the perfect length for the woman’s arms. She took hold of them, and under her careful control, the vessel slowly picked itself up off the ground, aimed itself skyward, and then primary thrusters engaged, and it accelerated faster and faster until it broke free of Earth’s gravity and was cruising off towards Centuria.

0/500

Jacob sighed. They were hardly into their trip at all, but already the majority of his bridge crew was already asleep. Admittedly, they deserved their sleep; the hour they had been forced to wake up to travel off was... unearthly. The only one who remained awake, beside himself, was Nikki, who was busily keeping track of the various functions across the ship, issuing wordless orders to the other crew members, making sure that the vessel was prepped for the jump.

"How close are we to jumping?" Jacob inquired, glancing over to Nikki.

"Well sir, the hyperspace modules are powered and all. All we need to do is plot a course," she finished, glancing over to Emma, slumped sideways in her chair, breathing heavily. "Fortunately we don't need her because we have the coordinates, and the computer will check it all out."

"Lovely." Jacob began tapping his touchscreen again, and almost immediately, the course locked in, straight for Centuria. "Ah, a couple of stops by the way to prevent overheating, but other than that a straight trip. Should take us... oh, less than a week for sure. Maybe even less than a couple days, it depends on how well this hyperdrive works," Jacob mused, half to himself, half to Nikki.

Nikki nodded. "I'm estimating half a week, almost precisely. They won't even starve of water by the time we get there. Hopefully they're not hurt," she added, a note of worry in her voice.

"Worry not, they have medics there," Jacob told her in the manner of comfort. She sighed, but said nothing more. Jacob shrugged, then sat back as the drive engaged and the vessel lurched forward slightly. Come on, baby, let's get there, was all he could think.

77/500

The Behemoth began to shudder again. "Engaging warp drive," Emma muttered, tapping her touchscreen. The solar system they were now 'above' flashed away from their view, and then the screen shut down. Riding smoothly now, the Behemoth rolled away through space.

"Well, I'm going to get some sleep," Jacob informed the bridge, standing up and stretching, then disconnecting the touchscreen from the chair. "It's been way too long. Jeremiah, you're in charge of the bridge," he added, and Jeremiah nodded shortly, checking the screen on his lap for any information he might need. "If anything happens, wake me up, otherwise come for me when we drop out again. You know where I'll be." With that, he moved to the left side of the bridge, went through the door, closed the door, turned around, and collapsed into his bed, adjacent to the bridge. This was his request; he didn't want to be far away from the bridge, ever, including when he was sleeping. There was a lock on the door, but there was also an alarm that would immediately unlock the door and allow people in in the case of an emergency. Moreover, the bed was a queen, as per his demand. He was just too tall to lay head to toe in a bed. One of the many inconveniences of space travel, solved.

As he lay down, he set the touchscreen on the nightstand next to his bed, leaving it reading sensor information. If he needed to wake up, he would at least know what it was...

159/500

"Say, Emma, where's the next stop with a place to resupply?" Nat's voice came across the intercom. His voice was interspersed with heavy breathing as though he had been working hard.

"Uh..." Emma leaned over her screen. "We'll be stopping somewhere called... Oncesis. Small little pitstop, probably won't have much in the way of materials."

"No, they'll have what we need," Nat's voice quickly came back. "All we need is essentially a little capacitor. Remarkably, we don't have a replacement, which is stupid. Have a chat with Jacob about that when he wakes up, will you?"

"I'll see what I can do," Jeremiah responded. "Have you accomplished anything?"

"Not sure yet," Nathan slowly murmured. "It'll be a couple minutes before we're actually sure what the difference is."

"Let me know when you hear anything."

"Roger that."

Jeremiah groaned, unhooking himself from the intercom. "We need replacement parts. Replacement parts. This is idiotic."

"Sorry, but we've already had this discussion and I really don't want to hear it yet again. For the sixth time," Nikki snapped. Irritation from her was unusual, and Jeremiah's irritation was tempered by hers.

"Sorry. I just... gah, I hate space travel when it doesn't work," he apologized.

"Not a problem," she sighed. "Let's just get it over with, shall we?"

205/500

"Check," Jacob informed Haley. Haley cursed loudly. Jacob merely grinned. "Gotcha now, haven't I?" he mocked, imitating her accent.

"Not yet you havn'," she replied quickly, her brow furrowed.

"Um, yes, actually, he has," Emma told her with one eyebrow cocked.

"Shut up, you," she snapped back, still glancing about the board for any possible way to resurrect her game. It was looking unlikely; her king was in the very corner, trapped neatly by her own pawns, and her only move to safety put her in a position it would be easy to finish her off from. Especially frustrating was the fact that normally in chess, Jacob lost, simply because he didn't care to take the time to play a full game and would rather test himself to see how well he could do on the fly. This time, though, he'd apparently changed his mind. The game had lasted them almost two hours now, and Jacob had come out on top after a surprisingly bloodless conflict. There was nothing for it; Haley had to move her king right into danger.

Satisfied, Jacob slid a bishop over and proclaimed, "Checkmate. I win, for once," he added wryly. "Good game, though. You almost had me about an hour ago."

Haley nodded, sighing heavily. "I'm still somewhat shocked. Came outta nowhere, that did. After that you had me, I guess."

"Yeah," Jacob replied, slowly letting his thoughts settle. He leaned back in his chair, appreciating a game well won, before turning his head to his left. "Nikki, how far are we?"

Nikki glanced down at it. "We're at least half-way from when the thing broke," she replied. "In fact, half-way to Centuria, or around there."

"Lovely," Jacob replied with a nod. "Well, how do we take care of the other half?"

"Oh, I have an idea," Tanya replied, jumping up and going to the lift. She disappeared into it, and the screen showed it going down. Jacob glanced to Emma, who shrugged, and Nikki, who copied her. Haley shook her head.

"Wonder what brilliant plan she's got," Haley muttered.

About fifteen minutes later they found out.

About five hours later they were forced to admit that yes, Apples to Apples was an unhealthily addicting game.

246/500

((Forgot to generate.))