To say that it was dull and that nothing much happened would be at the same time a terrible understatement and untrue. I’m sure Javelin began to regret it within the first month. She had taken us on as a lark, as something to break the routine she had lived under for such a long time. But she would not have lived that way for so long if it wasn’t, in reality, a very good routine for her. We saw little of her after the first month. Her quarters were accessible only to her. When we entered the solarium she would go to her own parts of the ship. Vaffa opted out early. She had no great desire to sleep the trip away, being frightened of suspended animation, but in her own words, “If I don’t do something soon I’m gonna kill something.” Cathay and I grew close. Several times. In between, we scarcely spoke to each other. I recall one blistering row over whose turn it was to feed the fish. It wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t mine. In a different situation we might have evolved something lasting, but there was no one else, for loving or for hating, or for petty anger.
