When Henrietta Blake exits from stasis, the transition is dramatic: slumber to acute awareness in a blink. The principal fact rushing in on Henrietta is that she has been awoken out of schedule, which annoys her. The officer of the watch is supposed to retrieve his or her successor according to a strict rota. The new officer oversees the old one's return to stasis, then gets on with, well, watching. So why has Francine Webster muddled up that carefully planned rota, which is supposed to keep the starship going for many, many years? Yes, Henrietta adores Francine, but that's not the point; she is really going to give Francine a piece of her mind. And then another one. It's a decidedly moist-eyed Francine who looks up from the bioscanner: "You're in good shape, Hen... I've missed you. It's been so quiet around here. There's too little to keep one person busy. That makes it a job for two." Henrietta is sure she had some exquisitely waspish barb prepared for Francine, but she has suddenly forgotten it. "I hope you've at least left me some space-bugs to zap, Fran." Henrietta scrutinises layer after layer of sensor data, covering the whole, vast starship, Megalopolis IV, before triumphantly stabbing an index figure at something suspicious: "Isn't that a possible nest on Level 33, just behind No.11 Turret?" "Could be, but it's double-spiders at most. We can check it later." "And now?" "First, we chat. Then we play a game of Space Snooker and the loser treats me to dinner. Then we chat again. Then, I suppose, we can sort out your hairy alien lifeforms. Finally, we can talk about our day. How does that sound?" Posed in Poser and rendered in Vue.