The module lounge was already crowded by the time Sprue got back from supper and his mandatory exercise hours. Not surprising, since this residential module had a particularly nice lounge, complete with an electric fireplace and a fish tank, in addition to the usual planters brimming with spider plants. Which meant that whenever people were doing group study, they tended to come here instead of the other people’s residential modules.
Sprue wasn’t really excited about retreating into his apartment to study. Not that his roommate was all that difficult to get along with, but there just wasn’t room. Sure, the nightstand could fold out into a desk, and there was a sling-back chair, but do that too much and your subconscious started to associate the place with work instead of sleep.
And then he saw Brenda Redmond, the Chief Engineer’s daughter. Or Brenda Redmond-Reinholt as she now styled herself, at least when she wasn’t doing her air shifts.
Dammit, why do both the girls you really want to catch have to go and marry your clone-brothers?
Still, the fact that Brenda was married to a pilot from Grissom City meant that she might be in the know. And right now Sprue wanted to know just what was going on. For certain it was a whole lot larger than just a Mayday by one cruise ship.
He leaned over the back of the couch where she was sitting, looked over her shoulder at the tablet in her hands. Routine refresher course on communications protocols from the look of things. He’d done that course last term and had it out of the way for another three years.
Before he could even speak, she said, “Hello, Sprue. What are you up to now?” She didn’t even bother to look up from her tablet.
Usually that was an indication that the person really didn’t want to speak to you, but Sprue had a fairly good idea of how far he could bend the rules and get away with it. He slid over the couch and into the seat beside her. “Just wondering if you’d heard anything about stuff going on.”
This time it got Brenda to look up from her work. “What kind of stuff?”
“You know, things that seem a little out of the ordinary.” Should he be more explicit about what he was looking for, or would that be too leading and actually cause her to overlook things? “Maybe Drew’s mentioned something that seemed a little, you know, odd.”
Brenda narrowed her eyes and studied Sprue. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?”
Crap, she’s stonewalling. Sprue knew with absolute certainty that she and Lou must’ve talked. Damn that little goody-two-shoes of a Chaffee. Just like their ur-brother, always the Boy Scout.
“More curiosity than anything.” Sprue considered how to soft-pedal it so that Brenda didn’t go rat to her dad. The station was technically part of Engineering, even if IT did take care of a lot of its functions. “There’s been just enough things happening lately that make me think, hey, that’s odd, and I’ve been wondering if I’m the only one.”
“Probably not.” Brenda switched to that Very Grown-up Voice she used sometimes. “However, we are not supposed to be spreading rumors or engaging in unfounded speculation. Even when we’re not on the air, we need to uphold a professional standard.”
Make that definite, she was going to stonewall and nothing he said or did was going to get her to loosen up. Better wind this conversation up, because it was going nowhere and he did have his teaching responsibility tomorrow to prepare for.