An exhausted Florian Schwarz sat back from his desk and rubbed his eyes when he heard the chime at the door. "Enter," the tired looking second officer said as he turned to face the entrance to the common area he shared with First Officer Oldham. His suitemate and superior officer walked through the portal into the lounge area. Of course she had full access codes to her quarters, as well as to all other parts of the ship, but she considered it a common courtesy to knock first before coming home to the shared space. "You should be asleep," said Kendra. Schwarz furrowed his brow before bringing up his chronometer on his contacts. "This is true, I thought I set an alarm. Sorry about the mess, I'll get this out of your way as soon as I'm done."
"I also have paperwork to attend to," said Kendra. The cleanliness of their shared workspace was a perpetual source of friction between the two. In theory, their offset duty schedules should have prevented any conflict. In reality, an OS&C officer was always on duty, and what had started as chaotic battles of wills years ago had evolved into a routine as choreographed as a Kusari Kabuki show. This night would end like so many others had, with a frustrated party exiled to work in the ship's library or a booth in the starboard lounge, depending on who lost the inevitable rock-paper-scissors game. However, there were traditions to be honored first.
"What I'm working on is important."
"So is what I need to attend to."
The two stared at each other for 10 seconds, interrupted only by the familiar hum of Breezewood's life support. Passenger cabins were well insulated from such sounds to promote better sleep. OS&C preferred to keep their crew constantly exposed to how a ship should sound so they would know the second something is wrong. Plus, it was slightly cheaper not to sound-proof the crew quarters. Florian broke first.
"Kendra, I have a dozen legal documents and memos carefully arranged here with notes and cross references. I've spent hours arranging this bird's nest and I would rather not have to upset it so you can file a personnel report. Curacao can wait a few hours for whatever HR complaint you need to send off."
"Your lack of organization," replied Kendra, "is not my problem. You should have been in bed two hours ago which means my report, which, by the way deals with the lackluster performance of the new transfers from the Barbados that YOU were complaining so fiercely about, is already late. And so I need to use that terminal."
"It's already late, what is a few more hours? Besides, it's night at the corporate offices, no one will be there anyway." OS&C ships kept to Curacao time as a matter of convention for crew purposes, though they adjusted their day-night cycles to adjust passengers to their destination planets. The passengers never experienced jet lag as a result. The crew lived with it as a matter of course.
"Florian," said the first officer. "Get out of my seat."
Schwarz sighed. "Can I at least explain what I'm up to in the hopes of convincing you otherwise?"
Oldham cocked her head slightly and squinted warily. This was a new move. "What are you working on?"
"The captain's plans for Cortez. We got a quote back from Bristol Constructions for the station. It's doable, but we need to know the financial situation of licensing the place. Stocking it will already be a financial drain and he's worried about it becoming a 'white elephant' as he called it."
"What's a white elephant?"
"Why are you asking me, it's a phrase from your language. In any event, it's something undesirable to be avoided which is why I am diving into dozens of legal documents until my eyes bleed."
"We have a legal department to handle things like this," said Kendra. "If ship's counsel can't handle it, we can send it to the corporate lawyers planetside. I'm sure they can filter it down into something that is easier to use."
"This," replied Florian while stretching his arm over the collection of papers, pads, and honest to god books, "IS the filtered version." Kendra couldn't help but smile. She read more intimidating looking technical manuals in her spare time, but she pitied Schwarz nonetheless for his homework. "What's the issue?" she asked. "I thought the treaty of Curacao recognizes OS&C sovereignty over Cortez."
"The treaty of Curacao of 817 does make such an implication."
"So?"
"The treaty of Curacao of 821 tears that asunder."
"Oh."
"It seems in our desperation not to be speaking French right now, we completely reorganized the defense of the system. Instead of a 4 way agreement with Bretonia, IMG, and Liberty to govern independent space, we brought in Crayter and formed a five way council with Cortez split in the middle between the crown and Manhattan. Crayter technically has an exclusion zone around the Coronado hole large enough to include Curacao itself. Technically, all we have is the planet and its immediate orbit."
"Of course," continued the Rheinlander, "all this assumes the the treaty is worth more than the paper it is printed on. The IMG are technically a criminal organization now and Liberty explicitly denied a request to rebuild freeport 4 which was codified in the treaty, so who knows what they'll do or think proper. Precedence is also against us as that gateway base, Oceana Shipping, pays a licensing fee to the Liberty government despite technically being on the Bretonian side of the line as best I can tell."
"So, what are our options? The skipper seems intent on having his station."
"If we want to build it in the East, we'll have to pay Liberty several million a month. We could stick in in Curacao orbit, but that would be too far from the wrecks. We could try going through Bretonian channels, but even I admit it is probably going to be the Navy and not the Armed Forces who would take the station's security more seriously, so I see no advantage in those credits going to Carina instead of the 5th fleet."
"Funny," said Kendra. "You would have thought the Leeds relief efforts would have bought us enough goodwill to erect a station in our own system."
Florian froze. "Now there's a currency we did not stick on the account sheets for the lawyers to go over." His eyes darted as he brought up information on his contact lenses. "I need to make some calls."
The Rheinlander dashed up from the desk towards the exit. "What about your papers?" Oldham called out as he rushed past.
"Throw them in my 'to do' pile near my bed!" he shouted back as he raced down the hall.
Kendra faced the mess Florian left at the desk, gave it a solid looking over for a good three seconds, and turned to walk out the door to the ship's library. The two of them had fought countless times for their cabin's common area. This was the first time she could remember it ending in a draw.
