John knew he had to find out more; to stay as many steps ahead as possible. It would have to be done in secret. Using official channels would involve questions. Being responsible for the destruction of a starship was not something he would like to admit to. And yet, he did feel responsible.
Tossing off the blanket, he jumped out of bed and sat at his desk, turning the console on. He had his own allies, if he knew where to find them. His attempts were fruitless and he turned the console off in disgust. He would have to wait. That was something he didn’t do easily.
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Chapter two
John spent the next day on the bridge. With his mind on work, he hoped to avoid dwelling on unanswered questions. They circled the back of his mind, trying to force their way to the surface.
Tricon drew nearer; the planet a misshapen ball of solid rock. As it grew bigger on the main screen, John couldn’t help wondering if its off-round shape was a result of all the material taken out of it or if it had naturally formed that way. It didn’t matter. In another century, it might have all been picked to dust.
Humphries set orbit and John relaxed back in the captain’s chair.
“Bismarck to Captain Decker. We’re back, sir.”
“What did you find?”
“One of our ships met with an accident,” John spoke carefully. “We picked up some survivors.”
“What ship?” Decker’s question was as guarded as John’s words.
“Magellan.”
The line was quiet for a moment. Background noise filtered through the intercom.
“Talk to me later, Commander.”
“Yes, sir.”
“For now, get me another engineering team down here. We’ve got equipment breakdowns and no apparent reason why.”
John opened the channel to engineering. “Rodgers, Crocker, Bricks. Get your gear organised. You’re going down.”
“Blasted miners!” Decker grumbled more to himself. “Bit of honesty wouldn’t go astray.”
John barely hid his smirk. His own opinion wasn’t much different. “They’ll be down in a minute. I’ve also got a junior engineer from Magellan who might be of some benefit, if you’re interested.”
“Send him down. We’ll soon see if he’s up to scratch.”
Not knowing where Kowalski might be, John switched to the engineer’s communicator. “Mister Kowalski, report to the transporter room.”
“Sir?” came the puzzled answer.
“What do you know about mining?”
“Nothing.”
“Then it’s about time you learnt.”
“Yes, sir.”
It didn’t take long for Kowalski to pick up the basics of the equipment they were using. He found he understood it better than the miners did. His first suggestions were ignored because of his lack of knowledge, then he began to ask the same questions as the miners. Finding the solution, didn’t take long. Making it workable, dragged on into the hours of the night.
Being so far beneath the surface of the planet had a claustrophobic effect on the crew and shifts were rotated every two hours.
John wanted to go down and help. Decker refused to allow him. Sitting on the bridge only made him restless. It allowed his mind to wander when what he really wanted was something to occupy it.
Finally, the captain decided he had had enough and was returning to the ship.
He was on the bridge within minutes, not looking at all the ideal of perfection he expected from his crew. Even so, it took him only seconds to find something wrong. “Humphries! Sit up, boy. You’re on duty.”
Humphries immediately corrected himself. He didn’t dare comment, his eyes focused on his console.
“Can’t leave this place for five minutes and it starts falling apart,” Decker muttered to himself. “Madison!”
“Sir.”
“I want you and the Magellan senior officer in my office in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Decker turned to his office, he remembered something. “And tell your young engineer… what’s-his-name, to polish his boots.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, John and McReidy entered the captain’s office. He had showered, shaved and was looking resplendent in an immaculate uniform. He made them both feel untidy.
“Lieutenant Commander McReidy reporting as ordered, sir.”
“Tsh, tsh,” he brushed her speech aside. “Don’t worry about formalities, dear girl. I’m very pleased to meet you.” He took her hand in both of his and shook it warmly. “Come in, sit down.” He led her to a comfortable chair in front of his desk.
McReidy threw John an amusing look as Decker sat her down like a child.
“I hope Madison has made you feel at home after that dreadful ordeal.” The tone could have been patronising if it wasn’t for Decker’s genuine concern. “Have you had a tour of our ship yet? I know it’s not much, but we like it.”
Unable to get a word in, McReidy just shook her head.
“You haven’t?” Decker continued without stopping and glared at John. “You will personally give our lovely guest a tour as soon as your shift is over.”
“Yes, sir,” John acknowledged, unsure if the captain was listening to him anyway. The man’s attention was completely focused on McReidy. After a minute, his glance returned to John as though seeing him there for the first time.
“Are you still here?” Decker growled.
“You ordered both –” John began.
“Get back to the bridge. Someone’s got to look after things. Can’t leave Humphries on his own. Who knows what he’ll run us into.”
“Yes, sir.”
As John turned to leave, he heard Decker ask: “Would you like some refreshments, dear girl? Some tea, perhaps? I prefer English Breakfast.”
John looked at his watch. It was just after midnight. He smiled to himself, mouthing the words the captain spoke aloud. “After all, somewhere in the galaxy it’s breakfast time.”
The door closed behind John before the captain finished his explanation. He headed back to his place. There was nothing unusual happening on the planet. To the miners underground there was no distinction between day and night and the work continued on relentlessly.
John wanted the job to be over. He didn’t like mines. To spend so much time burrowing the depths of planets barely known made him uneasy. The minerals they collected were invaluable, including the crystals that ran many of the known races’ starships, but there were so many unknown hazards. The sooner they got away from there, the better he would feel.
It was a good half hour before the office door opened.
“Madison!” the captain blared.
“Sir.” John was out of his seat and halfway to the office as McReidy exited. He avoided her glance as she headed to the bridge door.
John stood a metre in front of the desk, the door closing behind him. Decker leaned back in his chair; all friendliness had gone with McReidy.
“Magellan.”
The single word asked a hundred questions.
“Anything you’d like to tell me?”
“I only know what the lieutenant commander told me. And what’s in her report.”
John had no idea what McReidy had told Decker, but the captain had a way of weaselling information out of someone before they knew they’d said it.
Decker nodded. “Barrett was my friend.”
“Yes, sir.”
Decker’s jaw clenched and his eyes began to mist. He made an effort to cough and clear this throat. “Damn dust gets into everything… Get back to work.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
As soon as his shift was over, John went straight to the quarters McReidy had been given. He would have liked to have freshened up first, but he didn’t particularly want another lecture from the captain about punctuality. A quick rake of his fingers through his hair would have to suffice. He beeped his arrival, and quickly straightened his jacket as he waited fo
r McReidy to answer.
The door opened. McReidy had left her long, dark hair loose. It bounced around her shoulders, glistening in the light. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes seemed almost pleased to see him. His throat went dry momentarily.
“Shall we go?” he asked, trying to keep the mood light as he stepped clear of the doorway.
“Apparently, you should have done this last night,” she smiled, putting him on the spot.
His lip twisted slightly. “That would not have been a good idea.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” she agreed, walking beside him.
“Where to first?”
“It’s your ship. Where do you suggest?”
“You’ve already seen the bridge. I assume Kat gave you the tour of sick bay?”
“Which is why you left me to a nurse last night.” The tone was polite, the look she gave him wasn’t.
“I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t.”
“Damn doctor wouldn’t let me out until he’d given me a once over,” she ground out softly.
“And?”
She hesitated, then sighed. “A couple of bumps and bruises and some pretty high stress levels that he wants to keep an eye on. Is that what you wanted to know?”
He shrugged lightly. “Steve and Sam would have got the same going over.”
The atmosphere tensed in the silence as they kept moving.
“So, we have the usual areas.” John stopped at the cargo bay and opened the door. “We are a transport, so the cargo bay’s massive.”
“You’re not kidding!” She wandered inside, staring at the vast space. “You could put a whole ship in here.”
“Generally not. We usually have two bays, but with what we had to cart out here, we had to take out the divider. You can just make out where the floor’s capped.”
McReidy lowered her gaze to the floor, not seeing it at first. The capping levelled out the floor so it looked like a single sheet; smooth and easy to move equipment across. The walls and the ceiling had slight ridges, giving away where temporary walls could be.
“We can also section off for smaller supplies or stuff that needs to be isolated or quarantined,” John continued.
“Basketball ring?” she pointed.
He nodded. “There’s a built in program that allows us enough room for up to six, but we’ve only got one goal. I tried for full size. The system blew a circuit, the bay doors flew open and we lost five tonnes of grain that was supposed to go to a farming colony. Decker was not impressed.”
“I don’t think he would have been.”
“I thought I was going to have to pay for it out of my own pocket, but the captain put it down as an unforeseeable accident. Insurance covered the costs.”
“And you?”
A wry smile hit his face. “We’re not going there.”
They continued the tour; nothing McReidy wasn’t familiar with though in different proportions from the explorer Magellan. They renewed acquaintances in sick bay. Even in the few minutes of sociality, the doctor didn’t miss the opportunity for a visual assessment of McReidy.
A few more areas before John announced, “This is the end of your tour.”
The windows along one side of the room looked out into space; a bar lined the left hand wall. From somewhere, soft music was playing. It was one of the few places on the ship that had a completely social atmosphere.
“Nice,” McReidy approved as she looked around.
They sat at a table near a window. With the ship in orbit, the stars appeared stationary. John had the coffee he believed he deserved. McReidy sipped a glass of ice water through a straw. A sprig of lemon floated about the surface.
“One of your ideas?” she asked.
“No, the captain’s actually. We all need a place to unwind. You can open it into the dining room, but it just keeps it separate from those who just want to eat.”
“I suppose you don’t want to come across last night’s drunks while you’re eating breakfast,” her eyebrows raised in hint of a smile.
“Exactly.”
“So tell me,” he changed the subject. “What do you think of our captain?”
“Off the record?” she asked, unsure how to take the question.
“In here, always.”
“I think he’s a sweetie.”
John choked on his coffee. “I don’t think the crew would tend to agree with you,” he told her as he reached for a serviette and began mopping the sprayed coffee from the table.
“That’s because they work for him. But I get a different impression from you.”
He immediately found himself on the defensive. “Like what?”
“I think you actually like him.”
“I’ve seen worse.” There was an awkward moment of silence. John dropped the coffee-soaked serviette to one side and leaned back in his chair, taking another sip from his mug. “What was Magellan doing this far out?”
“Looking for time zero.” A simple enough answer to the question that had puzzled mankind for centuries.
“Oh,” John answered quietly.
“Captain Barrett thought that the further out we were, the more we could look back. There’s a lot less background radiation out there. We started getting clearer pictures. At first I doubted it, but Cobe actually works. We got down to ten to the minus thirtieth of a second! It was incredible.”
“What happened?”
“The system overloaded when we tried to match it with local and supercluster galaxies. They’re basically all alike. Just at different stages of evolution.” She paused for breath. “You really are interested, aren’t you?”
“I spent three years on Magellan. Perfecting Cobe was always one of Barrett’s dreams. To find the cause of the big bang and the creation of the universe. The deeper out into space you look, the further back in time you see. Theoretically, at infinite distance, you will see time zero.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I think it will remain an unproven theory.”
The silence enveloped them again. McReidy closed her fist around the straw and stabbed the lemon against the bottom of the glass.
“Can I ask you something?”
John didn’t answer. His dark eyes invited the question she wanted to ask. Something told him she would ask it regardless of what he thought.
“Why are you being nice to me?”
“Why did you stick up for me at my court martial?” The question was out before he realised he’d said it.
McReidy was quiet for a moment. “Because I didn’t think you deserved what they were going to do to you.”
He let the answer pass without comment. It seemed simple enough to be the truth and he didn’t doubt her.
“Finished?” He stood up.
McReidy’s glass was empty; the ice cubes had melted to almost nothing, the lemon almost shredded. He took her glass and his mug back to the bar.
“Commander, we don’t often see you down here with such lovely company,” the bartender commented. He was an alien creature, slightly smaller than John, with a bald head. Two nostrils protruded where a nose should have been and no ears were obvious. His smile was pleasant and civil.
“Jealous, are we?” John joked.
“Of course. Who wouldn’t be?”
“Keep your fingers to yourself, or I’ll break them. All twelve of them.” John turned back to McReidy. His tone was intimidating enough to be a threat.
“Who’s that?” McReidy asked as John returned to the table.
“Soghra. He runs this place. He literally oozes charm in the presence of an attractive female of almost any species. But be careful. If he kisses your hand, count your fingers.”
McReidy raised an eyebrow in uncertainty.
“Where to now?” John asked.
“I told Steve I’d catch up with him.”
“Well I better make sure you get there in one piece or the captain’ll have my guts,” he smiled.
Her smug look indicated she�
�d enjoy seeing that happen.
She caught Soghra’s eye as they were leaving and smiled politely. The outright flirtatious response he gave made her squirm visibly.
“No, you did not read him incorrectly,” John whispered as the door closed behind them and they strolled down the corridor.
* * *
The night shift had been quiet. Since the day shift had taken over, the ship seemed to have twice as many people on board. John had been woken by the captain demanding his presence on the bridge. As he looked at his watch, it took him a minute to focus on the dial. He groaned silently to himself, rolling onto his back and drawing his hands up to his eyes as he saw he still had three hours until he was due back on duty.
He was used to being called upon unexpectedly, although how anyone ever got used to being woken and dragged out of bed at odd hours, he didn’t know. It happened at least once a week. He had gotten into the habit of shaving before going to bed. He then had a reasonable chance of looking presentable when the intercom blared: “Madison! On the bridge, now!”
“Yes, sir,” he responded automatically, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
He flew out of bed and was dressed within a minute. Splashing his face with cold water woke him fully. The comb slipped easily through his hair. The collar of his jacket was twisted and he fiddled with it as he raced to the bridge.
As the door opened, John stilled himself and casually strolled onto the bridge. His manner gave no indication of the previous hectic minutes. What froze him was the sight of McReidy sitting in his usual seat at navigation. He saw red. His temper rose and he couldn’t hide the angry glare he gave her.
She turned to glance at him.
Whether Decker noticed John’s mood or not, he paid it no attention. “I’m going back down. The bridge is yours.”
John didn’t pick the slight irritation in the captain’s voice; his entire focus on McReidy. He moved to the captain’s chair and sat quietly, sulking.
When the Dust Settled Page 3