The Resolute

by G. Weldon Tucker

Certainly feminine, Dyna rolled her eyes, replying, “What, and I am chopped liver?”

  “No, of course not! But you are taken, honey. I got to find one of my own. She is something.”

  “Then call her, dummy! Set up a date. When do you go back on duty?”

  “I got assigned eight to four! Her hours.”

  “Huh, just like the rest of us. We can be a team, again. So, dummy, Sir, call her!”

  Dyna’s advice was good. After he spent some time working up the nerve, with Dyna’s coaching, he called, and Kelly was pleased for his promotion. If she was looking for that fast riser, well, that would do. Without hesitation, she said, “Sure,” and that one word in her sultry voice sent chills down his spine. Wow.

  “Main Officers’ Mess doorway, eighteen hundred? My treat!” he said, chuckling. No military soul paid for food on the ship. No one had any money, only ship’s chits for clothing and essentials. Well, that and booze, but DePaules did not ‘allow’ booze.

  Not that it stopped the clever sailors, of course. There was already an underground black market functional for liquor distribution in place. The top brass looked the other way, as they had for probably ten centuries. But the rule was there for prosecution if someone did something really stupid under the influence of alcohol. That and never get caught less than perfectly sober on duty!

  To be honest, the Officers’ Mess was a simple restaurant that would have been standard mess, if they had any enlisted personnel. It served food and drinks by a push button menu and glass doors over revolving shelves. Hot food, too, but only on order.

  The Senior Officers’ Mess was the really nice one. They had wait-staff, tablecloths and class. He was not allowed until reaching full Commander rank. Civilians would only be allowed, even there, escorted by an Officer. But, like most younger people, they were pleased with what they had, as long as it was good eating. It was prepared by the same cooks as the Senior Mess, so quality was fine.

  “See? Not so hard, even for a true bits and bytes geek!” Dyna teased, gently slapping the back of his head. Then, to cover the bases, she added, “Uhh… Sir!”

  Now, suddenly, he looked afraid. His very first… date. “Look, I could use some moral support, you want to come with… maybe bring Ben?”

  She frowned at him, chiding with her expression, as she said, “No, silly. This is the get to know you dinner, and that leads to the really get to know you bed. You need to be alone with her.”

  Bed! Well, now his head was stuck in his… dreams. He was useless. Dyna went back to work, a deadline looming.

  -----

  Jake was spit and polish down to his magnetic Velcro shoes, along with impatient as Kelly proved herself female. She was twenty minutes late. “I love your new insignias. Lieutenant Commander! Wow!” she said, all smiles. No apology.

  He grinned and thanked her, adding, “And I appreciated your help, today. You did not have to come all that way up to the radio room. You could have told me…”

  “Hush. You are a Washington. One of the Washingtons. I was anxious to meet you. I watched you from afar in college, but we never had classes together. Then you went to the academy, which is a hell of a long way from Life Sciences. We were in different circles.”

  He was suddenly speechless. She had been watching me? And I never noticed? He noticed, now. Few women wore skirts, anymore, and of course, on a ship, no heels. But here she was in a crisp, white cotton blouse, dark recycled plastic and cotton mix skirt to above her knees, and slightly lightweight heels, strapped firmly to her lovely ankles, but built with only one inch heels. Of course, Velcro and magnetic inserts, else she would be like a balloon at the end of his reach, floating helplessly. She looked utterly feminine…

  She smiled, a wide ruby mouth, beautiful teeth, and a flash of teasing in her green eyes as she took his arm to enter the Mess, “Saying, hope they have lots of food. I am starving!”

  He was, of course, still a bit afraid of her… or maybe afraid he would do or say something stupid.

  They found a table for two, small, but not intimate. There were a hundred tables in four rooms. Big ship, lots of Navy. Civilians had their own less automatic, and less quality eating places, mostly a kind of fast food with better controlled nutrition. From quality stock come quality generations.

  He took her chair for her and held it as she seated that… perfect bottom, and he slid it forward as she hitched. Magnetic inserts kept the chair to the steel floor. He took his own seat, and now realized he had nowhere to put his cap on the very small table.

  She reached over, wriggling her fingers, palm up, and said, simply, “Gimme.”

  He did. She carefully set it on top of her oversized purse on the floor. And, yes, the purse had two magnets in the bottom. Most of everything on the ship had magnets embedded somewhere. Except his cap.

  The cap began to float, for no apparent reason, and she giggled, cutely, then grasped it and put it back on her purse. This time, she wound the purse strap over it, to keep it secure. “Stay!” she said, every bit as cutely, on finger poised as if talking to a pet.

  He had not even noticed she carried one. Probably low priority interest, he figured. Besides, he could hardly keep his eyes off her green ones.

  A man could fall right into those and be lost forever… Now, I am a poet?

  He had to say something, break his awkward stare. “So, Health Sciences. Studying to be a nurse?”

  “Not really. I mean we are all cross trained, but I like the laboratory work. Less people involved and no real drama. I mean, we do assess for disease control and cause of death stuff, but mostly, we are preparing the three labs for alien work. Which may not happen in my lifetime.”

  He chuckled. Alien work… she was right, not in our lifetime…

  CHAPTER 13

  The dinner went well. It took some time for both of them to stop assessing beauty. Kelly was, as expected, a very pretty woman. Like many women of mixed race, she had the best from both. Defined cheekbones, a cute button nose and a wide mouth. He was afraid to be obvious, but she had everything else a woman would need in a very nicely contained package.

  She knew how to use it, too. But Jake was no slouch. He had the good genes. Smart, yes, but a damned good looking man, with the Washington raven black hair, blue eyes and a really good smile.

  The food, tasty, not always identifiable, but part from Hydroponics and part from Husbandry, was delicious. Over the meal, finally they stopped the mutual admiration and dug in a bit.

  “How come I did not meet you at the habitats?”

  “I always thought that you Washingtons were sequestered in the first building. Weren’t you top floor, or something? I was over in building Ten. Second floor. But our schooling was for Ten through Fifteen. Then Sixteen to Nineteen had their own. I simply never got that far away from home.”

  “Why not?” he prompted. He even liked the sound of her voice.

  “I was a timid kid, a geek, even then, but a science geek. Life sciences. We study animals, bugs and people, mostly tissues and life cycle. There were no bugs, and no one would let us touch an animal,” she said with that fabulous smile. “But I have seen you, like I told you, at college. But far away, you know?”

  College was two floors of a central habitat, basically forty thousand square feet, but yes, it had been like that. Twenty four hour rotation, so no time and no space was wasted. Everybody went to the University. Not much time for play. All study, study, study. Else he would not have made the academy.

  “Well, we were in One, all right. But we had all the tech gear we could handle. From leftover rocket shells to space suits, even radio equipment from the shuttles. All of it was stored right beside us in the warehouses. Obviously, we, that is the Washingtons and Morgans were tailored for the tech geek world. And here I am.”

  “So are you logical or emotional?”

  He blinked. What? Then, going with the flow, “Logical… mostly. Until I met you!”

  She colored, prettily. “Me, too. Does tha
t mean something?”

  “Logically? Hell yes. Maybe we are meant to be?”

  For a second, he thought he saw something like fear in her eyes. He realized that she, too, was afraid of this rising tide of attraction. He put a hand up, palm toward her, saying, “Hey, don’t panic, no rush. But, I do want to get to know you. Why don’t you come over after first watch, say seventeen hundred, tomorrow? Bring a dozen sandwiches and sodas. I will kind of show you what we are all working on. Suite four zero six two. I’d love to have you meet the others! What do you think?”

  “Showing me off, already?” she teased. The light was back in her eyes.

  “No, though that is a hell of an idea! No, Kelly, if you are going to be hanging with me, you need to see who I hang with. Before you get too close… Maybe that is logical, but it works for me. How about you?”

  “What if I hang with axe murderers and frog dissectors?”

  “Then, shudder,” and here, he used air quotes with his fingers, continuing, “I will probably meet them, too,” and they both laughed easily.

  “You know where I live?”

  “Well, duh, I called you. The phone transferred to your pager at workout, I guess, but it is three zero two one. You are a hundred decks below us, and nearly ten miles back. How many people in your room?”

  Six, but they all work around the clock shifts, so there is almost never more than two of us in at a time. And I work out every day. Maybe you could join me. They have fantastic running cages built not far in from the engine rooms. Your Navy one is the other end of the ship. You work out there, right?”

  “Yeah, ours is mandatory. Civilians are encouraged, but not mandatory, I guess. But that will change, I think. No one dares to get soft, right? I don’t really know. But I have never been to yours.”

  “It will be mandatory. I think my department boss has already found a change in bone structure, after just a couple of weeks. The moon’s gravity softened us up, and weightlessness will turn us into jelly. We all have to work at it. Anyway, that is cool, then we can work out after I meet your friends.”

  “And family. Most of my friends are cousins, except Dyna. She is Ben’s girlfriend, one of my other cousins. Maybe they will partner, soon. I don’t know. But they have been seeing each other for almost a year. You’ll like her. She is funny.”

  “And you are not?” she asked as she smiled again, showing she was teasing.

  Whatever it was about this girl, it was reaching inside and twisting something up he had never felt. Maybe this was what it was like to really feel something for someone else. I… kinda … like it.

  -----

  Proving he was a gentleman, Jake accompanied her all the way to her door. She was suitably impressed. This was not a stroll down the block. Now, he had a hundred flights of stairs to climb. They had descended twenty-four to get from the Officer’s Mess to her deck, then rode the moving walkways to get all the way back to her condo.

  It was as if she was already reading his mind. “Tell you what. If you walk out to the aft bulkhead, which is about a half mile, then go up three flights, you will have access to the engine room at several points along the bulkhead. You can also go down, if you want. Someone is always going up or down on the magnetic lifts. I hail a ride and it saves a hell of a lot of climbing,” she offered.

  “That’s a great idea! I can do that. And it does sound easier. I was thinking of sacking out down here on your deck and taking it easy,” he joked.

  She looked at him, curiously, seeing if she could read that remark right, then said, coyly, “If you want to do that, come on inside.” She was teasing, with that gorgeous, thousand watt smile, and, for a moment, she hoped he knew it. She went pink.

  Something seriously leaped inside of him, and helplessly, he went red. Too soon, his mind screamed. “I… I better not. That is too much temptation, Kelly. We are… not ready for that… are we?”

  “You are right. I was… teasing… I think.”

  “Okay, then, I will see you tomorrow at our suite. Did you get the number?”

  “I think I can find you, Jake!” She stepped forward and gave him a brief embrace and a kiss on the cheek. “I had a great time!” Then she stepped away from the frightfully confused young man, smiled, stepped inside and closed her door.

  He was few minutes getting his breathing and heart rate back to normal, and by then, he had found the stairwell at the bulkhead. Three decks. He wondered, there, for a minute, if he could make three decks…

  -----

  Fortunately, he had a higher rank than ninety percent of the engineers in the engine room, and he had no trouble catching a lift. But even so, it was a hell of a long walk to the suite from there. The long line of moving walkways helped, but a twelve mile ship has a very long midsection. Every walkway started up when someone stepped on the belt, and went into a default sleep mode when it was empty. With sixty thousand people on board, running 24/7 functions, the walkways did not get much sleep.

  Everyone was back in the suite, though Dyna was still frowning over her computer keyboard.

  “Jake! Hey, man, good job on the promotion! Heard you might be accelerated! Say the word and we will leap to our feet, cuz!” Bryce declared, but not moving.

  He must have got it from Dyna, Jake figured.

  He waved the ones getting to their feet back down, saying, “As you were! Thanks. Hey, you should meet the girl I had dinner with. She is coming over to bring us sandwiches tomorrow after shift. I need you geeks to be on your best behavior.”

  “No problem, cuz. And that would be the ever beautiful Kelly Alexander?”

  Jake looked a little pink in the cheeks. “Dyna told you, huh?”

  “Duh, you did not say keep it a secret! You picked a hell of a beauty. Sure she is not above your station… Like too classy?” She looked around and grinned. “Hey, Jake, relax. I’m teasing you! We are pulling for you, guy!” Dyna went back to her keyboard.

  “Okay, so what are you working so hard at?”

  “I’ve got the random targets working on a black screen. One to five at a time, any direction, any speed. I am just about to go plug it into the first simulator. It will need some tweaks, but we are a whole lot closer.”

  “Cool!” one said.

  “I got the joystick working, but we may need heavier ones. These little gaming guys will not hold up. Maybe you can help there, Jake. There are lots of wire, tiny potentiometers, just your thing.”

  “Yeah. Let me take apart one and see what I can upgrade. Want bigger handles? Those look pretty small. Some of these guys got ham like hands.”

  Dyna giggled. “Well, it is supposed to be finger operated. But, hey, if you got a complex…”

  Everyone laughed. Men and their jokes…

  Bryce handed him one of the little joysticks not attached. Already thinking of how to improve it, Jake nodded, took the unit and sat down at the end of the table. Out came the tiny screwdriver. Talk ceased.

  Five geeks in a room…

  CHAPTER 14

  A few weeks passed in routing function. Promotions, as promised, occurred. Ben, the other Resolute assigned Washington, grand nephew of Christine, was as opposite from the geeks as could be. He liked physical challenges, rough and tumble play or workouts, and nothing was too hard or too frightening for him to try. He had a few scars to show for it, but even in that, the dark haired young man was proving himself.

  So, when he received Jake’s call for help, he sought permission from his Commander, back in the engine room, and Lieutenant Commander Ben Washington headed to the radio room to help Commander Jake.

  A long hike, but he had overseen a great deal of the construction that put Resolute together, and he knew her secrets.

  One of the simplest, if not the most dangerous, was simply removing one’s shoes. Without the magnetic Velcro combination, he was in immediate weightlessness. He simply threw his hands up and jumped. In doing so, he passed four magnetic lift cars like they were standing still, as he sailed for over a
mile, easily. The men and women laughed and called out their greetings. This was not an unusual sight.

  Artfully, he turned his body until his feet were leading, just as he came up under the top landing. Top being relative, as the keel to Resolute was down toward the galaxy. Cushioning the stop with his strong legs, he immediately crawled around and through the rails onto the landing, then donned his shoes.

  He used the moving walkways and jogged. As much an excellent physical specimen as his cousins, he was at the radio room from the call to the knock in twenty two minutes.

  “Come in.”

  Jake was now a full Commander, with two Lieutenants under him, and Ben snapped to and saluted him.

  “At ease, Ben. Family here. Look, I got a problem. I have the radio working the way I wanted and everything was going smoothly. But the camera on top of Resolute is looking back along the upper ridge. My parabolic antenna is half gone. We must have been struck by a small asteroid, and it caught the top half. Our radio is useless without it.”

  “What can I do for you, Sir?”

  “Drop the sir, will you, Ben? Family, remember. I requisitioned a walker, but all of them are building out the elevators and cannot be spared. The XO said I could use anyone who knows how to walk the ship. You and I have done it before launch. How do you feel about doing it in flight?”

  Ben relaxed. “I don’t see a difference if the pilots agree not to hit something while I am out there. How big is the antenna?”

  “Ten feet. It is lightweight aluminum alloy, but the old one has to go. I hope the mounts are not screwed up. If all is good, you simply line it up, bolt it down and reattach the cable to it. Bring the old one in. We would not want to find it, the hard way. Up for a challenge?”

  He knew that Ben was feeling underused. Polishing engines and tightening bolts gets old after a while. And hard to advance. Too many Commanders already in the Engine Room.

  Ben, however, was trained for all repairs, construction and such, and was swapping time with the elevator crews. But even there, it was tedious work. Ben nodded, “Sure. Let’s get some excitement in the old girl!”