by F P Adriani
“You better be!” I watched in horror as more of that bloody fluid left my extremities and disappeared into the silver container’s black hole, but, somehow, that “bloodletting” made me feel better, more alert somehow, not so mentally dragged down by the pull of everything around me.
Until that moment, I’d never realized that the stone had apparently done something to my physiology; it had been a subtle change, but a change nonetheless. And now I finally understood why I had to be the one to bring the stone here.
*
A few moments later, my bleeding finally stopped and the dark hexagonal hole in the silver container closed up, till the whole was a completely smooth, silvery surface.
I could now hear soft, ocean-like sounds coming toward me from behind me. The sounds soothed me…. Oddly, the sounds had been coming from Thura and Gary moving back my way again.
Thura finally said, It is done. Thank you to both of you for your efforts. You are free to leave Rintu whenever you like.
“But—” I began to say, but I never got to finish my statement because the appearance of the space around me and Gary instantly changed. One moment it was there; the next it was gone, and we were standing outside the Demeter on that red Pruveria platform.
“Christ, they got rid of us fast!” I said to Gary.
He frowned back at me, but before he could respond, I spotted Steve rushing down the Demeter’s gray ramp.
When he finally reached me, his big hands grabbed one of mine and shook it, and there was a grin on his broad face. “It’s good to see you, Captain, Gary! Damn, was everyone worried—it’s been over a week since you disappeared, Captain.”
I sighed at him. “I know. Has my ship fallen apart without me?”
“No! We’re doing great—Shirley’s doing great—she’s been hanging around inside engineering a lot, and I think she’s learned quite a bit about the ship. The temporary crew’s been working hard too. Really, everything’s fine, Captain.”
“Actually,” I said in a slow voice, “that kind of depresses me.” I was staring over at that black building. Part of me expected some workers—especially Kostas—to walk out the door and say goodbye to me. However, the door was closed, and I had a feeling I just wasn’t wanted around here anymore, probably because I just wasn’t needed anymore….
“Lydia,” Gary said, “why are you depressed? You’ve been wanting to get the hell out of here since Day One. Now we can. Let’s go!”
My head jerked toward him; I saw the perplexed twist of his mouth and brown mustache. “Of course you’re right,” I said now. “But what about certain things—like Geena?”
Steve nodded at me fast, his dark hair shimmering a slight orange tint in the atmosphere here. “Captain, Geena told me she wants to talk to you as soon as possible.”
“Is she on the Demeter?”
“At the moment,” Steve said.
*
When I finally stepped onto my ship for the first time in days, I immediately began rushing through it, toward my bridge; I stood alone in the center of the wide, familiar space for a long moment, till Steve and Gary walked in.
“How is Chen doing?” I asked Steve.
“He says he’s all right. He’s been resting in his cabin. There hasn’t been much to do while we’ve been on land here.”
“Well, soon we won’t be—but I’ll have Pete take over the piloting.”
“Actually,” Steve said, “his old back injury’s flared up again. He’s mostly been in his room for a few days now. The workers gave him something to help, but, surprisingly, it didn’t work.”
“Well,” I continued now, on a slow frown, “I guess I can take over the flying, with help from you and Gary. I’d like to get going within a few hours. We’ve got to fly through the gravity cloud again, though you’d think they’d make it easy for us, considering everything we’ve been through. I know the zenite engine’s online and okay now, but how about the beam engine?”
“I’ve got both ready to go,” Steve said in a sure voice. “Karen and I have had all week to get everything better than up-to-snuff. We don’t often get that long to work on problems, Captain. We’d love it if we did.” He grinned at me.
And I laughed under my breath. “I’m sure you would.” I glanced at Gary, who was standing near his station now. His face and hands looked pretty dirty—so did mine—but I wasn’t going to stop him from doing work if he wanted….
“I’m checking on the shields,” he said, his eyes looking down at one of his panels. “While you were away, Lydia, I kept running tests, trying out a new pattern for the damping circuitry. I think it should make the effects of any cloud-forces that jostle us last for a shorter period of time.”
“Great!” I said. “That sounds promising.” I glanced at my chair, at my electronic panels there, at my empty black seat; to me at least, it seemed to have been waiting for me. If so, it would have to wait for me a little longer, till after I got washed up.
I finally let out a tired sigh and said, “It feels so good to be back in territory I understand.”
*
A few minutes later, the three of us left the bridge, and as we were walking down the hall outside, we ran into Shirley.
She stretched out a quick hand toward me. “Oh—Captain Lydia—it’s so great to have you back!”
I grinned at her. Then I shook a thumb at Gary and Steve beside me. “I hear you’re a real trooper, Shirley—you haven’t let anything that’s happened on Rintu faze you and you’re going to stick with us. Is that true?”
She blushed, right up to the dark roots of her dark hair, and her blue eyes whipped between me and Steve. “I didn’t realize anyone had been talking about me.”
I laughed a little. “That’s what happens on a ship, especially this ship. I want people to communicate as much as possible; then we’re comfortable around each other when emergencies come up.” My eyes studied Shirley more closely: she looked really nice today in a softly draping blue dress, and I suddenly realized that she was often dressed nicely. She probably owned mostly fancier clothes because of the office job I’d robbed her from.
Her attractive appearance made me think of my own disheveled one, which I didn’t care to have in front of any of my crew. I glanced down at my clothes—and remembered that I was still wearing the orange worksuit.
“Well,” I said, “I’m glad to finally be leaving this planet, but, I’m going to miss it all the same. It is…interesting on Rintu.”
“I know what you mean,” Gary said.
“It’s strange about the orange suits—did you give yours back to the workers?” I asked, turning to both Steve and Shirley.
Both of them quickly shook their heads “no.”
I frowned, looking down at myself again. “I can’t believe they didn’t want them back.”
“Momentarily, all of the suits on your ship will disintegrate into mostly carbon dioxide and water vapor,” came Kostas’ voice.
I shot a disturbed look at Steve and Shirley; then I spun around toward where the hall stairs were. “Shit—we’re still wearing the suits, Kostas. And now you’re going to pull off my clothes in front of my crew—is this the goodbye you give me? No one even saw us off the planet.” I rushed into the stairway then up the stairs and finally into my cabin.
Gary ran in behind me, then swiftly punched the button on the wall to close the door.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t formally say goodbye,” Kostas said now. “I have other work I must attend to. We are behind because of the problems with decommissioning the stone.”
I watched Gary strip off his worksuit. And I said to Kostas, “Well, I’m sorry I caused so much inconvenience. What am I supposed to do now—can I just lift off?”
“Yes. Whenever you can go, go.”
“Geez, can’t wait to get rid of me, huh? I thought…I kind of thought we made somewhat of a friendship here…. But I never will get to see Settaly or even Upal again, huh?” My shoulders drooped.
�
��No,” Kostas said now. “There can be no relations because you are not a worker here. You know from first-hand experience what is at stake, how important our work is. You must become a worker to continue to have contact here, as Geena intends to do.”
“Hang on a second there: I haven’t spoken to her yet. You’ve robbed me of some of my agency since I set foot near this place. You’re not going to rob me of my crew too. I wish I could fucking click off with you on that dramatic note, but you’re still in control here because you can drop in whenever you like. Go away now. My boyfriend and I want to get undressed and wash up after this madness we’ve been through!”
“As you wish,” Kostas said.
*
Gary and I really were filthy; he, partly from having thrown up; I, from all of the sweating and “bloodletting” I’d been through. There was no evidence of that “blood” on me now, but my mind somehow still felt the fluid….
Gary and I finally jumped into my silver shower stall together, and as the water rushed over us, it helped me center my mind on the near future. I was exhausted, but I was lucky too—I was lucky I had someone like Gary to support me, and that I had my crew to do the same.
Whatever had been neglected while I had been away, we would fix it now because fixing things was what we did.
*
Gary and I spent extra time in my shower stall, but not cleaning ourselves….
When we were done with that not-cleaning, I got dressed and went straight to the dining room. I found Geena in there; she’d been talking to both Bill and Brayburn. Her brown eyes lit up when she saw me, but I wasn’t exactly in the wonderful mood she appeared to be in. I wasn’t mad at her; I was disappointed.
Before she could exclaim more than a “Lydia!” I said to her, “So what’s this I heard about you leaving?”
Her smile deflated, and I could tell from the downward shift in her eyes that she did at least feel bad about abandoning here.
“It’s actually not totally unexpected,” I added now.
I flashed an arched eyebrow at Bill and Brayburn, as if to say I wanted to talk to Geena alone. But she waved off that situation, then said to me, “They know about me and Jim.”
I nodded, slowly. “I could tell that you were once involved, but I don’t see why you took to this place, and so fast. It’s all because of him?”
Geena’s head shook at me quickly. “No—you’re right. It’s not.” She walked away toward the booth-tables farther down the room and sat in one of them. I followed her and took the seat across from her.
“The thing is,” she said now, “this planet really does seem exciting. And when things come up on the Demeter—exciting things—I’m always stuck in the background, stuck inside the ship. Sometimes just being in charge of the ‘kitchen’ seems so, well, typical. I just wanted to be involved in more important matters—”
“That’s the issue? Why didn’t you ever say so? I could give you another position on here. You started off in the cargo bay—I could move you there again, especially now that Bill’s got Brayburn. And I’m sure May could use the extra cargo help.”
Geena shook her head fast again, her blond curls bouncing on her shoulders. “I don’t want to change to there—it makes it look like working in here is a crappy job—it’s not! It’s great, actually, because you let me control the whole show.”
“If it’s so great, then why are you leaving?” I glanced over at Brayburn and Bill, who were talking to each other and writing things down on a large electronic ledger. I wondered now if people leaving my ship would become a contagious phenomenon. I didn’t express that thought to Geena, however: it wouldn’t be her problem; it would be mine.
“You know,” I said to her, “what we eat and that we eat is one of the most important things on here. Maybe I should have said that to you sooner.” I sighed, feeling defeated by everything that had happened lately. But I still looked Geena right in the eye when I spoke now. “If you really want to go, of course I can’t stop you. I’ll deposit what you’re owed in your ICFC account, though it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to do anything with money here. But, Geena, I really am sorry to see you go.”
I stood up, glancing at the two men again. “It seems like they’ll be able to handle things here, so I’ll just wish you good luck.” I smiled down at Geena now, watching her face as she smiled back at me.
*
I was on the bridge later when Steve contacted me to tell me that Geena had finally left the ship. My heart began pounding a little too hard.
“Well, I hope things work out for her,” I said to Steve over the intercom.
I was alone on the bridge. I had just been to Chen’s room to check on him, but May had answered the door and told me he was sleeping, thanks to a painkiller/sleeping-pill combo the workers had given him.
I wanted to talk to May more, to ask her about herself, and about her and Chen, but she smiled at me so sleepily then, and I got the feeling that she was more overworked than normal, now that Chen was somewhat incapacitated.
I told her that what I wanted to discuss with them could wait; then I left.
I was sitting in my captain’s chair now, about to plot a lift-off course with Steve’s help from down in engineering. I began thinking about May and Chen as a couple again. I was thinking that what had happened to Chen might create further problems on my ship, as in, more people wanting to leave my ship….
“Plotting a flight path is going to be hard,” Steve said suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts. “We’ve recorded a little because I’ve been writing things I remember down. But, we still don’t have any extensive info from our cloud entry and the Rintu landing. The people here never put it back.”
“Shit,” I said, “I totally forgot about that!” I opened a communications-line to broadcast to the exterior of the Demeter. “Kostas, are you there? What about lifting off from here? You removed all of our data!”
“I will send you fresh information,” Kostas said over the line.
“Very kind of you, considering you want us off here so badly.”
There was a pause, which I thought was something to do with the line. But then I heard Kostas say in a slow, low voice with a slight tremble to it, “I never said that. I regret we couldn’t talk more. It is the essence of my worker life here.”
“Well, the essence of my life on this ship is that we need our data. How we’ve been treated here isn’t fair. I’m signing off with you, even though I can’t because you’re the one who controls that. Just send me the numbers to leave now. I want to lift off in about twenty minutes.”
“Very well. Here are the data—it is everything you will need. There is no need for you to calculate anything. It has all been done. I wish you luck in future, and we Keepers thank you again for your conscientiousness in helping us.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, but my voice didn’t sound very friendly. I looked down at my silver panel. “Steve, the data-systems are up again, and I just got a boatload of data. Did they really send everything?”
A brief pause. Then Steve said, “Yeah—it looks like I don’t have to do even one calculation till we get out of the cloud. I could get used to that!” Steve was laughing.
And I was smiling as my eyes finally moved up to the front viewscreen. I turned it on and saw that same shiny black building out there. I could also see Geena and Jim walking inside through the doorway. I could have enlarged the view to take one last close look at Geena…but I decided to leave her to her own privacy; my clinging on to everyone on here probably wasn’t the best attitude for a captain to have. People come and go in space. I needed to get more used to that….
My head turned just as Gary walked onto the bridge.
He grinned at me. “I’ve gotta say: it’s really good to see you back where you belong! Are we almost ready?”
“Yeah—Kostas sent us everything we need, including a navigational path through the cloud. We can just coast up and out. Steve’s ecstatic.”
“So am I—or I mean I was an hour ago,” Gary said, and he was grinning at me a little crookedly—salaciously in other words, apparently referencing what had happened between us in the shower.
I looked at him sharply, then mouthed, The intercom line’s open!
Gary began laughing, and I shook my head at him on a smile.
“Karen’s priming the zenite engine,” Steve said now from over the intercom. “And I’ve got the curon stream ready to go—where are we off to next, Captain?”
“I think we’ll head to Keron-3—finally! I’m assuming from the numbers you just entered that The Keepers supplied us with more hydroambin and Evan fuel—how they did that, I have no idea.”
“They told me they had a supply set aside from the humans who’ve come here—from what they had leftover in their ships,” Gary said.
“Well, whatever the case, as soon as we’re free of the cloud, Karen, send Keron-3 a message that we’re on the way.”
“You got it, Captain!” Karen said in an excited voice. “It’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back,” I replied.
*
All of the numbers Kostas had given us wound up working out perfectly; the Demeter sailed through the gravity cloud as if the ship had been built to expertly ride the cloud’s waves. Gary’s adjustments to the shield circuitry had probably helped there too. Still, I barely felt even the caress of a force on the ship’s exterior, and no matter how great Gary was at his job, he couldn’t defy the laws of physics by himself.
I felt very happy that The Keepers had given us such a comfortable send-off. For a wild instant, a part of me wished I always had them around to escort me across the galaxy.
“We’ve just crossed the apparent boundary of the cloud,” Karen suddenly said, and I sighed in relief.
Everything I and my crew and my ship had been through was suddenly a part of our past. I no longer had the worries of the firestone weighing me down. I was free to get on with my normal life as captain of the Demeter, shipping goods across the galaxy….