The Dogwatch sat in the largest cargo bay of the Emerald Queen. It towered over the ship called the Peapod, owned by Specs and was slightly bigger than Roxa’s ship, the Dayshine.

Specs stood waiting for their guest to exit her ship. He was also waiting for Chester to arrive in the cargo bay to also welcome the visitor. He was surprised that Chester didn’t beat him to the cargo bay. Roxa and Jakob sat on an upper level to see who was joining them.

The door to the Dogwatch started to open. The hatch slowly swung down with stairs on the other side. A girl dressed in military outfit stood at the opening waiting for it to be safe to descend. In her hands were two bags, packed with her things. She looked at Specs, smiling with recognition. Specs smiled back at her. She boarded the Emerald Queen’s cargo bay and dropped her bags by the stairs. She then approached Specs with a hug.

“It’s good to see you Spencer,” she said. “Now where is your captain?”

“About that…” Specs started to say.

“Sal!” Chester called from the archway. He was dressed in the best clothes he had. He quickly joined the two.

“Chester,” Sal said with a hint of distain. “I should have known, Spencer getting a job on a prestigious ship like this wouldn’t stop you from tagging along.”

“I go by Specs now,” Specs spoke up.

“Ah, Sal,” Chester said. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“I hope you have,” Sal said sharply.

Chester just smiled at her. He then looked up to their audience, “Jakob, please fix a special meal tonight for our guest and Roxa, get down here. I’d like you to show her around.”

“I know just the dish, sir.” Jakob said.

“Be right down, Captain.” Roxa spoke.

“Captain?” Sal was shocked.

“Yep, I’m the captain of this,” Chester said taking a pause to think. “…this prestigious ship. Didn’t Specs tell you?”

“No,” She said glaring at Specs. “He managed to leave that out.”

“Well, I must go,” Chester said. “I have captain things to do.” Chester started to walk away.

“And what are captain things?” Sal asked.

“I can’t hear you,” Chester called back before he left the room.

Sal turned toward Specs, “Spencer…”

“I’m sorry,” Specs said. “I knew you wouldn’t take our help if you knew and I didn’t want you to die stubborn out here.”

“Well,” Sal conceded. “I guess that’s true. I’m glad you’re at least on this ship.”

“You know, someone has to take care of Chester,” Specs said.

“I’m sorry it has to be a good guy like yourself,” Sal said.

“You’re not the only one,” Specs added.

Roxa appeared on the first floor of the cargo bay. “Hi, I’m Roxa Heart.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sal said shaking Roxa’s hand.

“Well I best get back to steering,” Specs said and left after giving Sal a hug.

Roxa picked up one of Sal’s bags, “So what would you like to see first?”

“I guess my room,” Sal said picking up her other bag and the two were off.

A light blinked on the console. Once it caught Specs’s eyes, he reached over to press the intercom. “Hey, Chester.”

Chester was in his room, somewhere between being asleep and being dead. Specs’s voice was a blur of sound to his ears. As Specs became persistent in getting a response, Chester slowly became conscious. However, he answered before he was fully awake, “wha sit?”

“Let me know when you’re fully awake.” Specs said. He knew Chester was going to be sleeping. He still wasn’t sure on how he ended being the captain of the ship.

“I awake,” Chester said drawing the words out.

“This is pretty important. You need to come here.” Specs said.

“Just tell me what it is.” Chester said as he turned over in his bed.

“You’re not even out of the bed are you? Never mind, just forget about it. I’ll let this ship with the distress call board us. If it’s a trap and they take over our ship, I’m sure they’ll do a better job than you’re doing.” Specs said.

“Better job than me?” Chester said from behind Specs. As Specs spoke, Chester had gotten out of bed and made his way to bridge. “I think I’m doing a wonderful job. Now what did you say about a distress call?”

“On the board, right there,” Specs said pointing to the blinking light. “I wanted to know if you’d like me to answer it or not.”

“Have you asked Plunk about the amount of criminal activity in this sector?” Chester asked.

“Plunk won’t give me any information that would cause me to make a decision that the captain should make. His words, not mine.”

Chester walked over to the intercom and pressed the button. “Plunk, could you please come to the bridge?”

A mechanical voice blared over the ship’s speakers, “yes captain.”

Chester and Specs waited for their robotic companion to arrive. “So, Jakob was trying to teach Roxa to cook the other day.”

“I know. I was there.” Specs said.

“Yep,” Chester said. “You were.” The two stayed silent looking out into space.

“So, how long until we get to the next planet?” Chester spoke again.

“Another week.” Specs answered.

Chester sighed, “I kind of hope this ship needs our help. Get some fresh blood on…”

“You called Captain?” Plunk said hovering onto the bridge. The three foot tall robot flew over to Chester.

“Yes, Plunk. Please report on the safety of this and neighboring sectors. Especially any instances where ships have been ambushed while answering a distress call,” Chester ordered Plunk in his best captain voice.

“Searching,” Plunk reported. “This sector is relatively safe in regards of your request. There are a couple of ship thefts reported over a year ago in the sector we just left.”

“That is all Plunk,” Chester said dismissing the robot. Plunk floated out the door as Chester turned back to Specs and said, “Sounds good to me.”

“Have you ever thought that the reason why there are no reports is because no one lived to make them?” Specs asked.

Chester thought about it for a moment.

“Just trying to prevent what happened to the Emerald Queen the last time,” Specs added.

“We don’t know exactly what happened,” Chester said. “We weren’t on the ship then. Go ahead and answer the call. See what it’s about.”

“Ok,” Specs said begrudgingly. He pressed buttons on the same panel as the blinking light and opened the communications to the ship. Pressing down on the microphone’s button, he said, “Hello, this is the Emerald Queen, come in.”

“Emerald Queen, this is the Dogwatch, over,” a female voice said over the speakers.

“Doesn’t that sound like…” Specs started to say to Chester.

Chester cut him off, “It’s her. Know it anywhere.” He couldn’t stop smiling. 

“Tell her, we’ll help her. And then get her on the ship. I’m going to go get ready.”

Before Specs could say anything, Chester ran out of the room. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the microphone to answer. He knew this wasn’t going to end well.