Derelict: Halcyone Space, Book 1 by Lj Cohen

information would be searchable as well. Nomi glanced up at the silent communications array and then back to her micro, hesitating. Ro didn't strike her as the kind of person who'd take kindly to being snooped on.
    A loud buzz vibrated in the still room. Nomi jerked her head up to the ansible display before she recognized her micro's message alert.
    "Nomi. Are you still having trouble with the sound balance?"
    Her heart beat faster at the sound of Ro's voice.
    "Yeah, it definitely cuts out. But Ro, what are you doing awake at this insane hour?"
    "Can I come up now?"
    Nomi reached for the controls that would put Daedalus fully in charge of incoming communications for the next fifteen minutes so she could talk with Ro. From her perspective, there was little Daedalus couldn't do that a human in the relay room could, but station protocols stated otherwise. "All set. It's quiet up here. It'll be nice to have the company." Nomi liked it up here at night. The ansible nodes glittered like stars and with the interior lights dialed down, she felt like she hovered in space.
    It would be lovely to share it with someone.
    "On my way."
    Nomi was glad she'd chosen the red tank beneath her uniform. She cleared the search from her micro. This would be much better than trolling through the database.
    The relay room's doors slid open and Ro stood for a moment, back-lit in the corridor's brightness. Nomi blinked, her vision used to the dim interior. All she could make out was Ro's blonde hair, free of its usual tie back, a soft corona of light framing her face. "Welcome to my quiet world," Nomi said, smiling.
    Ro stepped forward and the doors slid shut behind her. As Nomi's eyes readjusted to darkness, she noticed the frown on Ro's face and her smile faltered. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.
    Ro shook her head and scanned the room with her micro.
    "What are you doing?"
    "Making sure of something." Ro's voice held none of the wry humor it had the other morning.
    "I really appreciate you coming up tonight. I've reported the problem pretty much since I started here. But I guess it wasn't in anybody's queue." She glanced up at Ro, hoping this was more than just a conscientious engineering intern trying to impress the commander.
    She didn't answer and Nomi cursed herself for being so eager for a friend that she'd totally misread signs that weren't there.
    "Here. You can pair your micro to any of the consoles." She pointed to the ring of empty workstations around the raised dais where she sat. If there was ever a need, they could have six comms people fielding signals, but Nomi couldn't imagine Daedalus ever being that overrun by ansible traffic.
    Ro took the station at the edge of the ring and sat half-facing Nomi and the door to comms, completely ignoring the twinkling display.
    "Don't you ever sleep?" Nomi asked.
    "Is it just the high frequencies?"
    "Yes." The silence of the relay room usually comforted Nomi, but now she wanted to fill it with chatter. Even an ansible call would help. She sneaked glances at Ro as she worked with a focused intensity, the holographic display brightening the space around her head.
    "I need a test signal. Push something from the logs through."
    Nomi sat back at her station, slipped on her headset, and took control back from Daedalus. "Here," she said, calling up some of the traffic comms had passed during the last shift. "Try it now." As she waited for the messages to play back through the system, she thought again about what she'd overheard. Should she inform Mendez? Call security? Did Ro know she'd been on the ship?
    Sound burst through her headset. Wincing, she turned down the volume. Standard traffic reports and worm-hole status updates chased away the awkward, nearly one-sided conversation.
    "How's that sound?"
    "Fine. Better." Nomi wondered where Ro's smile had gone. "Thank you."
    Ro collapsed the display and slipped her micro in a pocket before pushing back from the console and staring at Nomi, her eyes