Chapter 3. Accommodations.

The next few days were spent trying to become familiar with the ship and its systems. It also gave the crew time to get acquainted. They were strangers on a strange mission into outer space. Their meetings took place during the evening meal at the food station on the crew quarters side, even though evening was a misnomer. It's always nighttime in space.

"Have we determined why the senior members of this crew decided not to go?" Natalie asked Jack.

"Tog said that NASA command told him that they were needed on another mission. He said that they didn't provide any details."

"Maybe they realized that a planet was out here and assumed it represented a possible danger," Jessica said.

"I can't imagine how it would be," Jack said. "It has to be at a very low temperature completely inhospitable to any life forms, at least any life forms we're familiar with."

"Are we going to explore this planet," Lorrie asked, looking directly at Jack.

"I don't know. We can't go down on the planet. We don't have any way to do that." He hesitated before continuing. "However, we could send probes down there to get some views of things we can't see from orbit."

"What about doing infrared and X-ray scans?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah, that might tell us something from a global standpoint. We should do those before we send down probes."

Everyone's eyes turned to the entrance to the mess hall to watch a furry black creature enter and emit a meow.

"What the hell is a cat doing on this ship?" Natalie blurted.

"Maybe it came from the lower level," Jack said before he stood up, walked to the cat and picked it up, giving it it's expected petting as he carried it back to his seat.

"It would have had to have gotten up to the center shaft and then moved up here in free fall," Natalie said.

"Or, one of the robots brought it up," Jack said. "It doesn't matter. They must provide some service."

"They?" she squeaked. "There's more of them?"

"Probably. I'll go down there and see."

They stared at him as if he was crazy.

Later, after the women had retired to their quarters, Jack held the cat as he climbed up an embedded ladder to the shaft that led to the deck below theirs. He floated though the tube, while holding the cat, to a hole in the lower wheel. After climbing down its embedded ladder, he and the cat walked around the wheel, which was double the size of the crew wheel.

Filled with storage bins full of supplies, there was not much space left over. His cat meowed when two more black cats appeared. They answered its meows. A robot appeared, collaborating his explanation for who took care of the cats.

"Are you in need of anything?" Mog asked him.

"I just wanted to see if there were more cats down here."

"There are three."

"What is their purpose?

"They assuage the crew."

Jack suppressed a smile. "I understand," he replied, realizing that it would not be the total reason. It was just one of the things about this mission that he was not familiar with. However, he was determined to discover the truth.

Later that evening, he and the cat were in his quarters watching an old TV show from a massive library of movies, TV shows, and sporting events, when Jessica visited him.

"Aren't you the lucky one. Your place is much larger than ours."

"I think it was to be the commander's digs. It had my name on the door."

She looked up at the display. "What is that?"

"It's an old Futurama segment. I like the old TV shows. They seem to expose more of the foibles of human associations, and in this series' case, some astounding future predictions,"

She pointed at a transparent door under the display. "You really are lucky. You have a door to the showers. We underlings must enter from the corridor." She turned to him with a teasing grin that seemed more like a rebuke. "You can watch us shower."

He looked at the door and then at her while maintain a stoic expression. "I wonder what the idiots who designed this were thinking?"

"Maybe they considered it the commander's perk," she said with a smirk.

"The shower is open to the corridor," Jack said. "This deck layout was not designed for privacy."

She smiled. "Yeah, you're right about that."

The cat jumped up on Jack's lap and received some caressing pets, which prompted a rub against his arm.

"I see that you've adopted the cat," Jessica said. "I assume that the robots take care of it."

"Yes, but I think the cats rule the roost, so to speak."

Jessica replied with a teasing grin before she turned to leave. "Have fun," she said without turning to look at him.

Jack watched her walk away before he petted the cat, which he considered to be a much more congenial friend.

The next day, the ship was in the process of achieving orbit around the planet. Tog used positioning rockets to move it close to the probe.

After running an infrared scan of the planet, Jessica reported the result. "There are no thermal radiating details on the planet. The temperature is approximately 80K. That's cold."

"True but expected for an object out here at 50 AU," Jack said. "It doesn't present a threat to us. Our next step is to repair the probe. I need a volunteer to help me."

Jessica raised her hand. "I'll do it."

"We'll do it as soon at the ship is in the correct orientation to get close enough to do the repair."

No one objected.