Running Black

by J. M. Anjewierden

  “Blast it, no wonder the plant can’t keep up. Its hemorrhaging coolant.”

  “Hemorrhaging? From a meteorite that small?” one of the techs asked.

  “It came in shallow, remember? Dug a furrow into the floor, and from the looks of it the part where it went clear through has been slowly expanding. The air pressure in here’s lower as well, even before factoring in the hole, and the coolant would naturally move toward equalizing the pressure.”

  “I don’t get it; if that much was leaking wouldn’t we notice it in the air here?”

  Morgan could hear Gertrude’s sigh over the open comm line.

  “Stuff is heavier than nitrogen. Pools near the floor and gets pulled out through the hull breach first. That’s just a guess, but I’d also bet something is wrong with the sensors in here. No way should a hull breach have been missed for this long,” Gertrude answered.

  “Let’s worry about that later. Can you slide me a portable welder? The crack is long, but relatively narrow.”

  “Let me get a fix on your position, I lost track of you under all that.”

  “Take your time, I’m not going anywhere in the meantime.”

  Morgan went to move a bit closer, get a better angle for once she’d be able to start work on sealing the breach… and discovered that she couldn’t.

  She was stuck.

  Morgan closed her eyes, putting all her energy into remaining calm, or at least an approximation thereof.

  Not going anywhere, I just had to say it. ‘You filled in,’ she says. Filled in, my ass. Then Morgan realized what she’d just thought, and just started laughing, unable to cope with the fact that such was literally what had happened.

  “What’s so funny?” Gertrude asked.

  Morgan wasn’t able to answer at first, Gertrude’s comment sending her into another fit of laugher.

  “Never mind. Let’s just get this fixed first.”

  “Okay. Here, I’m sliding it toward you now.”

  It wasn’t until Gertrude had already pushed the tool toward her that Morgan thought to warn her to keep something tied to the end, in case it didn’t get close enough. Luckily Gertrude’s aim was true, and Morgan was able to easily snag the welding tool.

  “The coolant is non-reactive, right?” Morgan asked. She knew the answer was a resounding no, but she was next to a rather large amount of the stuff, and finding out she was wrong the hard way would be a great way to take her day from bad to worse.

  “Of course it is.”

  “Right. I knew that.”

  Morgan got to work. The techs she’d brought with her were still presumably working, and Gertrude didn’t seem to have anything to say, so Morgan let the silence accompany her.

  Speaking mechanically, apart from the source of the damage, this was about the most mundane damage they ever dealt with, and fixing it was just as mundane. Weld the edges together, reinforce or replace the section, alter as needed.

  Morgan did take a moment to snag the meteorite. Such a small thing, small enough that it was hard to hold onto with her gloved fingers. Shaking her head, she tucked it into one of her empty pockets, then finished up the job.

  “Right, all done,” Morgan said, getting Gertrude’s attention. “Now just one more thing to do and we should be done here.

  “And what is that?”

  “I’m stuck.”

  Chapter 12

  Look, I don’t care how much you love your life, you career, your family. There will be bad days. There is nothing wrong or unusual about that. To some extent, it’s healthy, even. If we don’t have the lows, we can’t appreciate the highs for what they are. Don’t beat yourself up over a bad day. Feel mad, sad, or whatever else you feel is necessary. Just don’t let those emotions overwhelm you, or push you to do things you’ll regret when you aren’t having a bad day.

  - Helena Blank, Sion Counseling Services.

  Sgt. Eck

  MAX WAS loitering outside the officer’s conference room, trying (and failing) to look inconspicuous. Like everyone else, he’d heard the rumors about whatever it was that had gotten half the crew frantically looking through the whole ship, but unlike them, he was convinced none of the rumors were correct.

  Granted, one of the rumors was that there was an alien lifeform on board, so he had to believe that everyone knew that at least some of the rumors were absurd.

  None of the officers were talking, at least not to the enlisted folks, but that was something else Max knew that the rest didn’t – he could probably get at least one of them talking.

  So, when all the officers convened, he followed along behind. It should be exceedingly easy to catch up to Morgan afterward and get her to talk. Doing so, without Lt. Marigold or anyone else noticing? Harder, but Max felt, still entirely achievable.

  At last, the meeting ended, and the Captain, various Lieutenants, Engineers, the Doctor, and the rest of the officers filed out. Morgan was one of the last out of the room, and the absolute enraged look on her face momentarily distracted him from his original purpose.

  It distracted him long enough that she was already past him and most of the way toward the lifts before he could get himself moving.

  Shaking his head, Max set off after her, hustling to catch up before she got on a lift.

  It’s what, eleven in the morning now? She’s probably headed back to her quarters to get some rest. We both should have been asleep hours ago, really. Good reason not to annoy her, beyond whatever already has her pissed off.

  He slipped on the lift right before the doors closed, and evidently the other officers weren’t headed back to crew quarters, as they had the space to themselves.

  She was in her skinsuit, but the helmet was down, which was good as he was just in his normal uniform. His uplink could tie into her helmet comm unit just fine, but it led to slightly awkward conversations when one party couldn’t see the other’s face.

  “Long day?” he asked, on the theory that a bit of small talk would go over easier than getting right to the point.

  Morgan’s eyes narrowed as she glared at him.

  Okay, perhaps self-evident small talk was the wrong choice. “Yeah, yeah, ask a stupid question… Was all of this at least worth it? We find what we were looking for?”

  Morgan grunted.

  “You should have heard some of the rumors people were spreading. ‘The engines are going to explode’ or ‘Someone disappeared into the ship days ago, and no one noticed.’”

  Morgan just snorted.

  “The funniest, of course, was that it was an alien invasion.”

  That finally got through to her, and she chuckled.

  “How much of the galaxy have we explored, and found nothing?”

  Max shrugged.

  “Still more out there we don’t know than we do. Anyway, if someone would just tell us what is going on, the rumors would stop. I’m betting that whatever is wrong isn’t nearly as bad as what people are imagining.”

  This earned a scowl from Morgan, but she didn’t seem ready to say anything about it.

  “If there is anything you can tell me?”

  Morgan just shook her head.

  Max was about to say something else, but then the all-hands chime sounded, followed by the unmistakable voice of Captain Rain.

  “I know there have been a lot of rumors going around, and now that we’ve learned a bit more and have made some decisions, I wanted to address the issue myself, so you know what is going on.”

  In the meantime, their lift had arrived at crew quarters, and Max followed Morgan out into the corridor, for the moment just standing there and listening.

  “I’m going to keep this short. There was minor damage to the ship that we didn’t catch; in fact, we don’t even know when it occurred. We missed it because in the rush to depart on this mission the regular maintenance to that section was skipped. It is therefore no one’s fault. While the damage was minor, it managed to cause a leak in the coolant lines for the environmental plants. This will se
verely impact the ship’s ability to keep the living spaces cool. What repairs that can be done are done, but we can’t get the coolant replaced until we return to port.

  “We are not returning yet, however. If we reduce output from the reactor as much as possible and further limit what sections of the ship we are using, we will be able to make it to our destination before the heat buildup is critical.

  “From there we can quickly and safely return home, and from there fixing the issue will be trivial.

  “You will get more instructions from your supervisors soon. Captain Rain, out.”

  Max looked over at Morgan, finding she had a barely perceptible smirk on her lips.

  “How long did you stand outside the meeting room so you could try and get information out of me?”

  “You got me,” Max said, laughing at the absurdity of it all. “I think an hour? Might have been longer; for ‘minor damage’ that was a really long meeting.”

  Max gave her a shrug and a smile, then gestured toward the bulk of the crew quarters.

  “Are you headed to the mess?” he asked.

  “No, my quarters, I’m exhausted,” Morgan said, shaking her head.

  “Well, at least let me walk you to your quarters then. Get something worthwhile out of the wait,” Max quickly added. “If you’ll forgive me saying so, it looks like you’ve had a rough day, and a bit of friendly companionship might help.”

  “You certainly have a high opinion of yourself,” Morgan said, but she also snorted in amusement, so Max wasn’t upset by the comment.

  “Everybody needs friends,” he said with a lopsided smile. “If someone better comes along during the walk, I’ll happily give way to them.”

  “Uh-huh,” was all Morgan said.

  “Anyway, enough about the ship. What’s got you in such a state, Cutie?”

  “No, it’s nothing. Just a very long day.”

  “Sure it is. I’ve seen you after very long days; they don’t normally get you down like I saw a few minutes ago.”

  “Okay, fine, say you’re right. Something bothered me. Why would I want to talk to you about it? I get enough of that from,” Morgan abruptly cut herself off.

  Max gave her a few moments, waiting to see if she was going to say anything else.

  “You get it enough from who?”

  “Never mind.”

  “All right, Cutie, I’m not here to pry, just cheer you up. Sometimes a bit of venting about the annoyances can do one good, but not always.”

  “I don’t feel like talking. You seem to be enjoying it, though, so you might as well keep going.”

  Max glanced over at her, trying to decide if that was a hint for him to shut up, and he just couldn’t tell. Clearly she was tired, and equally as clearly she was upset, but was that about whatever she didn’t want to talk about, or was she upset at him?

  Mentally shrugging, he decided to assume the best and go for it.

  “You know, all this reminds me of the time my entire platoon ended up on conduit scrubbing duty for a month. It wasn’t even normally our job – that particular client didn’t want to pay us the extra to help out with maintenance, just to stand around guarding stuff – but the LT was so pissed she actually paid them to have us do it.

  “Anyway, what started it all was a stop-off at the planet of Trenzlon, a really nice place famous for its gorgeous beaches. A few of us got leave and were able to go down, but not all. Too many mercs needed on duty, not enough time to rotate through everyone; it happens.

  “Well, who got to go was half lottery, half ‘good behavior’ based, and that time I lucked out. My buddy Johns, well, I say my buddy because I could put up with him when no one else would, but we weren’t that close, he got to go down. And he decides to do something nice for me, and bring back some of the beach so I can at least see some.

  “I’m not sure why he thought seeing some sand would be all that great, but that’s what he decided…”

  Max trailed off as he realized they’d reached Morgan’s quarters, and she was now standing in the doorway looking at him with her big, tired eyes.

  Snorting in laughter, Max shook his head.

  “Never mind what he did next, that will have to wait for another time. Do something relaxing, something quick, and then get some rest. You’ll feel better in the morning, I promise.”

  Morgan nodded, just a little, then stepped inside.

  As the hatch closed behind her, she said just a single word.

  “Thanks.”

  Chapter 13

  It is honestly almost impossible to overstate the level of privilege we have when it comes to communication. We can communicate with anyone on our planet effectively instantaneously and anyone within a star system as fast as light speed allows. There was a time when sending a written letter from one town to another took days, and we can send messages at three-hundred thousand kilometers a second. Moreover, while it may take days or weeks to get a message to another system that is actually far faster still, messages carried with ships going many times the speed of light. We’re so used to having what we want precisely when we want it that we can’t even imagine waiting.

  - Jason Bieber, President of Bieber Courier Group.

  THE DOOR chime penetrated Morgan’s sleep with all the subtlety and gentleness of a rifle going off next to hear ear, an experience Morgan had unfortunate firsthand experience with and no desire to repeat.

  She was not awake enough to realize it, but the volume of the chime meant that someone had already been out there trying to get her attention for some time, and had increased the volume of the alert repeatedly.

  Stumbling about her bedroom alcove, she cast about for her robe, didn’t find it, and decided – as the chime started again – that she really just didn’t care. If that annoyed whoever it was, that was just too bad. Given her residual bad mood from being stuck under the machinery for more than two blasted hours, well, they’d better hope they didn’t try to make any comments about her body or scars in any way.

  If it was Eck for some strange reason… maybe hearing that she was cute wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

  The chime rang a third time, that she’d been conscious for anyway, as she reached the hatch. Slapping the controls, she started talking before it had even opened enough for her to see who it was.

  “What! Seriously, what is so urgent?”

  Then she saw Gertrude standing in the hatchway, and she saw the distress etched in her face.

  “What,” she said again, her tone completely different this time. She stepped back, giving Gertrude space to enter, and added, “What’s wrong?”

  “I should have realized the power requirements alone… but five months, Morgan? Five months when she’s that close?”

  “G, G, back up and start over. Power for what? Is something wrong with Haruhi?”

  “No, Morgan,” Gertrude said, sitting heavily down on the couch in the center of the room, “Something is wrong with us.”

  “Okay, but what?”

  “In a couple hours they’ll have the reactor down to its minimum sustainable level.”

  “Yeah, I was there for that meeting, G. Shut down everything we can to cut waste heat buildup. What does that have to do with Haruhi?”

  “Morgan, they’re completely shutting down the communication systems. Between the power to run all the computers, the energy requirements for the laser system… did you ever think about what it takes to send a video message the two light hours between the asteroid mines and Zion, or even the twenty light minutes we’re out right now?”

  “No, I hadn’t,” Morgan quietly said, finally catching up to why Gertrude was upset. She only took this job because she’d be able to talk with Haruhi every day, even if there was some time lag. If they shut it off completely, we won’t even have the random messages every few days or weeks we’d get while out and about as courier ships caught up to us.

  “Okay, what can I do to help?” Morgan asked. I don’t see how there is anything I ca
n do, but she’s here for a reason.

  “There isn’t anything we can do, Morgan. Just send off one last message and hope Haru responds in time.”

  “How long do we have?” Morgan glanced at the display above the door. It was just about sixteen hundred hours. In fact, it was almost time for her to start getting ready for her shift at the conn. This realization made her exhaustion feel that much more acute, as she realized she’d literally only had a couple hours of sleep.

  “I was told the shutdown will happen at eighteen hundred. They aren’t telling everyone – there isn’t bandwidth to send out that many messages – but as I understand it, they told those of us with children.”

  “All right, then we’d better get a move on. Go splash some water on your face, I don’t know, do something with your hair. We don’t want Haruhi to see how upset you are. We want to reassure, not worry. I’m going to get some clothes on.”

  Once Gertrude had disappeared into the bathroom, the one completely enclosed part of her quarters, Morgan hastily threw on a skirt and tunic over her nightgown, no point in bothering with the tights or shoes just yet.

  Gertrude came back out, looking much better, and Morgan directed her back to the couch.

  “G, thanks,” Morgan said quietly as she settled in next to her.

  “For what?”

  “For coming here, for including me. Haruhi’s the sister I wished I’d had, growing up. I’ll miss her, too.”

  “Of course, Morgan. You’re as much a part of my family as Haruhi is.”

  “Computer, record video message, recipient Haruhi Suoh,” Morgan said, covering up for not knowing how to respond to Gertrude just then. “Focus of camera is both persons seated on the couch.”

  “Haruhi Suoh, daughter of Gertrude Suoh found in address book. Recording is ready,” the computer responded. Even after a month, STEVE’s masculine and unaccented English was still a bit jarring for Morgan, who had grown used to Takiyama Station’s much softer and more feminine voice that spoke with the slight accent of someone who had grown up speaking Japanese rather than Standard English.