by Dain White
“Yeah, I can’t say I’ve really felt much worse… but hey, at least I’m here to feel it, right?”
Pauli nodded slowly. From the look on his face, he had some memories he was working through as well.
“Attention on deck!” Captain Smith bawled out as he kicked onto the bridge, loaded with coffee and sandwiches. I turned around and smiled as he flipped one my way with an expert hook. “Think fast, Pauli!”
Pauli didn’t think fast, but it was a lazy toss, and didn’t leave a mark. It did smack square between his eyes, but no serious harm was done.
“Nice catch.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to throw it sir!” Pauli replied in mock anger. “I turn around and there’s a sandwich on my nose.”
“Yak caught it, even all busted up and bruised; he snatched it out of the air like a machine. A sandwich catching machine… and a sandwich eating machine, it looks like.”
I laughed, the final corner of the sandwich hanging in there, but only until I chewed myself some room for it.
“Bet you want something to wash that down with, right Yak?”
“Mumble glump,” I replied nonchalantly, putting the rest of the poor sandwich out of its misery with a determined shove. I was hungry like a koda bear.
“Here Yak – you earned it, son,” he called over, and tossed what my fevered imagination envisioned as a bedewed green bottle of beer.
As my fingers made contact, my brain slipped a gear. It was actually a frosty cold, dewy, green glass bottle of beer.
I didn’t really have a plan for how I was going to work the cap and keep it from spraying everywhere, but I didn’t let that stop me.
Captain Smith laughed as I frantically skootched around in my crash couch, trying to catch each glistening amber globules of the most beautifully satisfying beer in the Galaxy, and continued to laugh as kicked aft.
08242614@10:26 Jane Short
“Shorty, are you in here?” Captain Smith called out, as I floated free in a glittering cloud of warm water.
“In here, Captain,” I said, not moving a muscle.
“Very well, carry on,” he replied smartly.
“Thanks Captain,” I said quietly.
“It’s just…” he trailed off momentarily, “well… I have something here you might want, Jane.”
I smiled through the thick steam. “I want a lot of things, Captain.”
“To be sure… but this is probably something you really want.”
“Do I want it right now?”
“I think you do.”
“I mean, like this very moment? I am in the shower. I really want this shower, sir,” I replied, running my hand over the strange slick surface of the new skin on my thigh and hip. The sensation was almost delicious, and terribly itchy.
“I know Jane, but – look here,” he replied brusquely, and unlatched the door just enough to pass in what looked like a frosty cold bottle of beer.
“Hot damn, sir,” I replied huskily, my mouth suddenly dry. “You were right!”
“Of course,” he replied suavely. “I took the liberty of opening it, Jane. Just twist the cap.”
I twisted, and held it to my lips, letting the luscious coldness infuse through the parched cells of my mouth. The hot water, barely remembered, scattered around in a misty cloud while I cradled the deep cold of the bottle.
“Is this glass?” I asked, my pruned fingers rubbing across the green bottle.
“It is, Jane, from my private reserve.”
“Where did this come from?”
“It came, from my private reserve.”
“And where is that?”
“It is… where it is,” He replied with a smirk I could almost see.
I took another sip, marveling at the sharp bite, the piquant aftertaste, the subtle hint of autumn leaves and the faded memory of a hot summer long past.
“It’s amazing, sir.”
“Well,” he stammered, “I’m just glad you’re here to enjoy it, Jane…” His voice had a tone I wasn’t sure I had ever heard before.
Chapter 8
08242614@10:39 Captain Dak Smith
“How are the kids, Dak?” Gene asked, floating in the companionway outside my stateroom.
“They’re good, Gene. They look like hell, but they’re tough as nails, and ready to go.”
“Speaking of which…” he replied thoughtfully. “I have a coolant pump that needs some love. Do I have time?”
I clicked on my boots and stomped my way into them, thinking for a moment. “Well… how long will it take?”
“It shouldn’t take too long, Dak. I’m guessing about an hour, maybe less.”
I fixed him with the look he expected. “Let’s shoot for ‘less’, Gene. We also have to install the new field generator Janis is working on. Have you seen it yet?”
“Yeah… I have been keeping an eye on her progress. I guess that means I also have some work I need to do in the bow section to accommodate the install.”
I sneered. “You just want to wrench on things, admit it”
He laughed sheepishly. “Yeah, I won’t hide it, skipper… but all the same, this is stuff that needs to be done.”
“I wonder…” I replied thoughtfully. “Janis, how necessary is the new generator to install?”
“It is mission-critical, sir.”
I snorted. “Did Gene ask you to say that?”
“Now wait a minute!” Gene spluttered.
She laughed. “He has not, sir.”
I fixed him with a smart, shipshape eyebrow, ready to weather the mightiest storm. His scowl darkened, but I could tell it was all bluster. “How long will it take, Gene?”
“I guess I’m not sure.”
“No you’re not. You are Gene Mitchell.” I chuckled, while he looked at me blankly for a minute.
“Are you done, Dak?” he replied after my chortles subsided.
“I am now, thanks. Alright, we’re going to do this work now, this moment. Janis, is the new field generator ready to install?”
“It will be very soon sir.”
“Very well, get to work. You can work on the pump later, right?”
“Yeah, I guess…” he trailed off, swiping through his wrist screen. “Yeah, it can wait, but it has to be next.”
“Very well,” I said smartly and saluted my upper lip with a precise, efficient sip. We had to get back on track. “So what do we need to do, to get everyone sorted out and situated?”
“I’ll get my toolbox,” Gene groused, and grumbled off down the corridor. I took a quick look around my cabin, carefully ignoring the one sock that had somehow fought its way to freedom and was clawing its way to safety towards the air exchanger vent.
“Captain to bridge,” Yak called on the 1MC. I looked down at my handset, and realized it was back in my cabin.
“Janis, do I have time to head back to my cabin for my handset?”
“You do not, sir.”
Something in her tone triggered a flush of adrenaline, and I broke all standing records for fastest transit, hauling myself into the bridge a few moments later.
“I have the conn,” I called out.
“You have the conn, aye,” Yak replied automatically, and dove to his station with a slight wince. “Target, sir, designated Master 1, outbound on orbital track from the surface.” I could see the track superimposed on the far side of the planet surface on his screen.
“Very well,” I replied, pulling a ghost of targeting to font and center. “Weapons, report.”
“On station sir,” Shorty replied immediately, as if she was waiting for me to catch up.
“Gene, ears?”
“I… Captain, I am not on station,” he replied with a clanging rattle in the background. “Power is at nominal, we can ramp up pretty quickly.”
“Gene, make it happen. We have a bogey.”
“On my way sir,” he replied breathlessly. I chuckled, imagining the snarl of tools and mess he was leaving in his wake, and started worki
ng through my preflight procedures as fast as I could. As urgent as this scram launch might be, it’s not important enough to die for.
At least I hoped it wasn’t.
“Yak, open a hail please.”
“Channel open, sir,” he replied after a few moments.
“Captain Gates, thank you for your hospitality, but we need to shift orbit for an intercept immediately.”
“Very well, Captain Smith, good hunting mister.”
“Same to you, Captain. Fly right,” I replied, and closed the channel. “Yak, can you work with Janis on the orbitals and keep your eyes open for another launch?”
“Eyes open, aye,” he replied.
“Em, I need an intercept. This target is going somewhere, and I need to be there waiting. Can you help?”
“I can sure try, sir…” she said softly, clearly wanting to say more.
“Em, please speak freely.” I said softly.
“Captain, something is wrong.”
“You’ll do fine, Em, I need your intuition here. Janis is working on intercepts planet-side, and I need her focused there. She has a lot to pay attention to down there.”
“Sir that’s not what I am talking about. Something is wrong… here.”
I smiled as she flashed a route onscreen. “Em… this looks pretty good. Gene, are you on station yet?”
The silence was deafening.
“Captain… Gene needs help,” Em said softly.
08242614@10:44 Steven Pauline
“Em, you have the conn. Pauli, follow me!” Captain Smith barked out, and kicked aft.
I unclipped and kicked as hard as I could to catch up, but he was moving far too fast for me. It was all I could do to keep him in sight.
“Pauli, get to med bay, get the go-box,” he called back over his shoulder as he launched across the gun deck. I kicked straight for the ring three ladderway, and fetched up hard, almost pulling my shoulder out of socket. I had a fleeting thought that my chest hurt, but everything was emotion and fear.
“Janis, task an assembler to engineering please. We need full power,” Captain Smith called on commas as I hurled myself along the ladderway into ring 3.
“Captain, I am already on station and working through the procedure. Gene is not in engineering,” she replied softly as I skipped through the med bay hatch.
“Where is he?”
“I am afraid I don’t know, sir.”
“Very well. Em, secure for launch. Get us to that waypoint, dear”
“All hands, secure for maneuvers,” she replied smartly while the collision alarm honked.
I worked the quick release clasps securing the go box to the aft bulkhead, and clipped it’s lanyard to my belt as the floor rushed up to meet me, hurling me into the crash cushions of the bed
“Captain! Gene is in the topside access tunnel!” Emwan called out in a rush.
“Very well, Pauli - meet me in Engineering. Janis, let’s get an assembler up there and get him out.”
“The other assembler is coming, sir.”
My heart was pounding as I hauled myself back through the ladderway and fell aft through a slowly tilting gun deck towards the forward lock. It took me a moment to realize it, but the captain had left the lock open.
We never leave the lock open.
That was really all I needed to know this was a serious situation. I skipped hard on the rising floor of the airlock as we continued to accelerate, and fetched up against the topside rail of the cargo hold. Somehow, I scrambled past with the go-box crashing and banging, and flailed like a starfish across the bay towards the aft lock.
It was also wide open.
“Captain, I have the go box, where are you?”
“Top access tunnel, Pauli. Hurry son.”
I fetched up against the other rail and clawed my way through the lock into the aft companionway. A quick kick and a shove later, I transited the slight incline ramp through the inner hatch into Engineering.
The moment my toes hit the deck I was kicking for all my might towards the topside access tunnel hatch, rotating slightly above me. My hands slapped the rungs of the ladder to the grabbers alongside the hatch, and I vaulted up and over into the tunnel with a mighty wrench of my shoulder and a scraping flash of pain on the side of my head.
Ahead of me, the Captain was cradling Gene in a pool of light cast by the assembler, holding him as steady as he could in the gyrating tunnel.
“Captain is he….” I trailed off in a choking sob.
“Pauli, he doesn’t have a pulse. Let’s get that box open son,” he growled softly.
The bottom fell out of my world, and my throat closed up tight. I croaked, and pulled at the clasps, cracking the case open.
“Gene, dammit…” Captain Smith said softly, as he opened the front of his suit. “Pauli, get the paddles out. Hand me that clip,” he gestured towards the case in front of me, but I was having trouble seeing through the blur of tears.
“Pauli, pull it together son, I need you.”
I furiously palmed my eyes, shoving tears down my cheeks and clawed through the case, sobbing.
“Gene, hold on, mister. We’re here,” he said quietly. “Hang on a few more moments, damn you.”
“Here Captain,” I blurted out, passing him the clip. He clipped it onto Gene’s finger and called up his wrist screen.
“No pulse.”
“Paddles,” I said, unwinding the leads and snapping them in place.
“Very well, son. Hang on Gene. Are these charged?”
The indicator was lit green. “Charged sir!”
“Clear!” he called out and slapped the paddles down. A popping sound and a smell of ozone wafted out of the case, and Gene’s chest convulsed.
“Come on, Gene…” Captain Smith said softly, watching his screen. “Charged?”
“Charged!” I replied quickly.
“Clear,” he said mechanically, and held the paddles down for an additional moment. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Gene’s skin sizzled under the paddles.
“That’s got him!” he said happily. “Good job, mister. Gene, hold on!”
The case beeped and divulged an ampule that I slotted mechanically into a hype while my eyes blurred again from a fresh burst of tears. “Captain,” I choked out, handing him the hype.
“Thanks Pauli,” he said softly, and shot Gene in the neck. We watched the screen for a moment, as the pulse rate settled down into a steady rhythm. Captain Smith looked around the access tunnel for a moment, at the floating contents of the case scattered around lit by the hovering assembler. “Janis, let’s move Gene to sick bay on the double, and get me maximum power from Engineering soonest.”
“Maximum power, aye,” she replied as the assembler shifted Gene off the deck and started moving down the tunnel.
“Pauli, get on station, I’m going to stay with Gene,” he said swiftly, clapping me on the back.
I choked again on a sob and looked at him with blurry eyes.
“We’re on mission here son. Get to your station, now if you please.”
I kicked aft out of the tunnel, sobbing.
08242614@10:48 Shaun Onebull
The pink tinged clouds of Vega 6 slid past the forward port, though I was too busy in my screens to really appreciate the view.
Pauli and the captain were still aft, and I felt a little bit lonely, with nothing but my aches, pains, sprains and various boo-boos keeping me company. It was pretty poor company.
Master 1 had reached orbit and was clearly burning hot out of this system. While we had it pretty well on track from the orbitals, I had a feeling it was only a matter of time until it blinked away.
“Jane, are you on station?”
“On station, aye,” she replied softly. “What’s going on up there, Yak?”
“I’m all alone here, Jane. Captain Smith and Pauli are aft helping Gene.”
“Copy that, Yak. Master 1 is ranging pretty far.”
“Affirmative, Jane, I’m
keeping an eyeball peeled on it, but… yeah, I am not sure what is going on at the moment…”
Before she could reply, Captain Smith called up on comms, “Em, what’s our time-to-target?”
“189 seconds and counting, sir.”
“Very well,” he replied.
Pauli pulled his way onto the bridge to his station and secured his crash bars, though a long look at his direction didn’t return much more than a weak smile. Something was definitely going on back there.
“Is everything okay Pauli?” I asked quietly.
He blew air out of his cheeks and raised his eyebrows quizzically. “I sure hope so, Yak. Gene had some sort of attack and had collapsed in the top access tunnel.”
“Collapsed?”
“Well, something had happened. He wasn’t breathing and his heart had stopped. The Captain got him going again, and is moving him to sickbay.”
“That’s awful… poor Gene. How’d he look?”
“It’s…” his voice cracked a bit, and he took a deep breath. “He looks pretty bad, Yak. He looks like he’s on death’s door…” he trailed off, his voice heavy with emotion.
“He’ll be okay Pauli,” I replied softly. “He’s a tough old cuss.” Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure, and it was obvious neither was Pauli.
“All hands, prepare for maneuvers,” Em called on the 1MC, and honked the general quarters alarm. “Material Condition Zebra will be set in 45 seconds.”
“I can’t believe this is happening, Yak,” Pauli whispered. “We really should get Gene to a doctor,” he added, with a pointed look across the aisle.
I thought for a moment as I worked through the orbital target list on my screens. “Well, I guess the Captain has his reasons, Pauli… we should probably focus on our jobs and let him worry about the command decisions. It doesn’t make any sense to second-guess him.”
“We are now at Material Condition Zebra,” Emwan called out, the clack of the bridge hatch dogging behind us punctuating her statement.
“Yeah… I suppose. It’s hard for me to do, Yak. I was never really good at respecting authority, you know.”
“No kidding?” I said matter-of-factly. “I never would have guessed.”