Emergence!
I was interested enough to have a ship’s status screen handy when the O’Bannion dropped out of hyperspace, and so was everybody else. The mood in Propulsion was half-relaxed. People weren’t really nervous, or worried about each other. The chances were ridiculously low that somebody would go space-happy at the sight of one of their Power’s old ships being obviously shot up or half-exploded, or whatever. But it happens. There’s no sense in pretending that it doesn’t.
And there’s no sense in pretending that first-timers aren’t particular risks, either. Everybody was keeping half an eye on me and Janusz. Hell, I was keeping an eye on me. And Janusz. Mostly Janusz.
He didn’t care for it, either. “They check us every three days, Butler,” he muttered to me as we worked. “If they don’t trust the tests, why did they do them in the first place?”
“I dunno: people are just like that, Janusz?” I gave him my best American smile. You know: cheerful, pleasant, exquisitely arrogant. Because ‘Butler,’ my ass. “You can’t blame them for knowing the odds…” But he wasn’t listening to me; he was staring at the closest screen, instead. I looked around, and everybody else was doing the same thing. Then I did, and I realized why.