by Steve Simons
Ed is no longer in the passageway, instead he now appears to be in a second dome, with all sorts of fancy high rise and interesting buildings. The layout is much more random and less like rows and rows of shops, which makes for a much more interesting experience. Ed's stomach is growling now, he glances up at the large floating clock in the centre of the dome. He decides that he should take a meal break. Looking round for somewhere suitable, amongst the large shops he finds a rather quaint little place, that just for its uniqueness alone deserves to be visited. Ed is surprised that the place is nearly deserted. A waiter quickly attends to Ed, inviting him to take his choice of table. Ed chooses one by a window. The waiter quickly brings him an e-menu, which requests Ed's language. He is used to this routine and quickly navigates to English and a very attractive display invites him to select the type of meal he would like, ranging from a drink and pastry to a full blown 5 course meal. Ed selects snacks and is presented with some very nice pictures and descriptions of the snacks on offer.
All this time the waiter is patiently waiting to take Ed's order. Well with only a few customers he can afford to take his time. When he sees that Ed has reached the third page, he suggests a couple of the meals featured. Ed decides to go for the second one pointed out to him and hopes that the waiter's recommendation was just that and not that he was indicating the only two meals available. The waiter points to the drinks tab and makes a rather suggestive noise. Ed gets the idea that he is asking what drink Ed would prefer. Ed opts for the Galzekian beer, he has had that a fair number of times before and it was quite a favourite of his now. The waiter seems quite surprised at Ed's choice, but darts off, after first taking the e-menu with him. It is only at this point that Ed has noticed that the waiter has some sort of wheeled shoes on and furthermore they must be motorised, as he does not appear to be moving his legs, instead moves around with a fast, smooth gliding motion. Ed admires the grace with which he moves.
Ed's attention is drawn to the person who just spoke, he looks round and there standing beside him is the elderly lady from the shop which sold cloth. She has asked Ed if he would mind giving her a hand and would he mind awfully if she joined him for luncheon as she was quite alone in this place.
Ed being a polite and helpful young man, helps the lady with her numerous bags and replies that he would be delighted if she joined him as likewise he was also alone.
The waiter re-appears and seems to be somewhat concerned that his new guest should have her own table and not to bother Ed. However, Ed explains as best he can, that the lady is his guest. The waiter gives up trying to convince the lady to leave Ed's table and instead presents her with an e-menu.
The lady announces, "Oh I am Emily Hawkins by the way and you are?"
The waiter points to the menu trying to indicate that she needs to select the language of her preference.
Emily brushes his hand away and protests that she really has to insist that he ceases this unwarranted attention. The waiter does not understand and again tries to indicate what Emily should be doing.
Ed laughs and says, "I do believe Emily that our friend here would like you to avail yourself of the houses enormous collection of items. So that you can make a selection."
Emily tells Ed that she can never get on too well with these things and asks what was he having.
Ed replies that he could not pronounce it, but he was having one of the snacks on the third page.
Emily asks if it is one of those metallicy tasting things as she cannot stand those, always reminded her of a plegarian wrap.
Ed assured her it would not have a metallic taste.
Emily announces that she will have the same as Ed and a Guslakian tea. The waiter seems to understand the second item but not the first. Ed gently takes the menu selects language, snacks, 3rd page and points to the meal he is having, then selects drinks and after a short while points to the tea. The waiter smiles and departs, after grabbing the menu again.
Emily smiles and thanks Ed for his assistance.
Ed introduces himself and asks if Emily staying on the planet for long. To which Emily replies that she is catching a flight bound for Regenis 4, departing in about two hours. Ed smiles and tells her that he will be the pilot of that flight. To which Emily delightedly says that she cannot believe her luck, to actually run into the pilot of her flight like this.
Ed asks Emily why she is going to Regenis 4. Emily replies that she has a nephew who lives there and he has been badgering her for years to come and visit. Ed tells Emily that he also lived on Regenis 4. They chat about the planet, its weather, tourist attractions and what it is like to live there.
Their meals arrive and they are pleasantly surprised at how good they taste. They try to compliment the waiter, but he is having a hard time to figure out what on Deslax they are wanting now. Despite thrusting the menu at them they refuse to take it and refuse even to look at it. The manager comes over and Ed explains to her that they wished to compliment the chef on such a superb meal. She understands first time. As the manager and waiter walk away, well in his case wheel away, she clips him about the ear and utters some insult or other.
Ed asks the lady what cloth she bought in the end. She says that she wished that Ed had stayed, as she really wanted his opinion and the salesman was so useless that she ended up buying all three as she still couldn't make up her mind. She quickly shows Ed all three cloths and he comments that no wonder she was unable to make up her mind, she had such good taste that it would be very difficult to make up her mind between three such wonderful cloths. Emily asks Ed which he would have chosen for her. He selects the middle one, saying that he felt it matched her requirement particularly well. Emily is silent for a moment and then announces that she was right to have faith in him, he was perfectly right.
With the bill paid they set off together to take in the last few shops, before returning to the check in desk. They decided to stick together. When they came to a soft furnishings shop, Ed sees some wall hangings that particularly catch his eye and he asks Emily what she thinks about them. She says that whilst they were not to her particular taste she could see why he was attracted to them. She pointed to one in particular, saying that she felt this was the most interesting and engaging of the collection. Ed says that he agrees and that feels sure that his Jenny would love it and he was minded to get it for her. To which Emily insists that she will buy it for them as a little present to thank Ed for his friendship to a dotty old lady. Ed says he couldn't possibly let her do this and that it was his pleasure and privilege to accompany Emily. Before he knows it, Emily has purchased the hanging, it is bagged and in Eds hands. He is still protesting as Emily marches him out of the store.
They visit a few art shops, but nothing grabs their eye. A few shops latter and Emily sees a box of rather special sweets that are more like miniature works of art that sweets. Ed buys them for her and they set about returning to the check-in desk. Ed makes it just in time to get on-board before passenger embarkation takes place.
~~~~~~~~
Chapter 10 - Where Is The Captain?
Ed is glad that the captain is nowhere to be seen. He darts up to his cabin, dumps his things and darts back down ready to greet the passengers. Still no sign of the captain. There are two other crew members impatiently waiting for the first passengers to board. Ed asks if they have seen the captain, to which they reply that no-one has seen him since they arrived yesterday. Ed is getting worried now, he will not be able to handle this flight on his own, in any case it was regulations that there must be a captain aboard, otherwise the flight cannot proceed. With passengers due on-board at any moment, Ed wonders what he should do, as technically he is now the senior officer and the decisions rest with him.
The two crew members with Ed, are chatting away about something, which by the sounds of it is totally unrelated to work. They do not seem at all worried at the absence of a captain. Ed is still in a dilemma. He thi
nks through his options: Do nothing and pretend everything is rosy and just greet the passengers, then if the captain doesn't appear go into panic mode; slip away now and see if he can contact the captain and find out the score; or just report the fact that he has no captain to the port authorities so they can delay boarding. Ed re thinks his options in terms of the passenger's viewpoint, to be boarded as usual will keep them all calm, in any case the captain may have just been delayed getting back to the craft; whilst it would look odd boarding without a flight crew member being present, at least Ed can sort things out behind the scenes, he can probably get hold of the second flight in any case, to stand in for him here; and lastly informing the authorities and delaying boarding will make the company look bad, not to mention the captain could find himself in . Ed decides to opt for the middle option, he excuses himself from the crew members, saying that he has to quickly sort something out. As he darts down the corridor he runs into Fjas the second flight officer, effectively Ed's junior. Ed says, "Ah Fjas, have you seen the captain?"
Fjas, not one for a great many words shakes his head.
Ed asks, "Could you greet the passengers, whilst I try and find out what has happened to the captain, as without him we can't depart."
Fjas says nothing, but his facial expression tells all, there's fear written all over it. Ed thinks to himself, 'talk about green, this is ridiculous, the academy and flight school should have prepared him for something like this, its part of a flight officer's duties.' Ed issues some reassuring words of encouragement and a few tips and Fjas is on his way up the corridor to join the two crew members at the entrance. Ed is delighted that Fjas seems to have a bounce in his step now, that was missing before.
Ed finds a comms cubical and calls the captain's comms unit, but gets no reply. He sends a message and hopes that wherever the captain is he'll see it and get back in touch. Ed heads up to the flight deck in-case the captain is up there checking things out. Ed is disappointed to see that not only is the deck deserted, but all the screens and controls are still in shut down state. Ed wonders just what is going on. It is almost like the captain has been kidnapped. The nagging doubt crosses his mind, is it time to inform the authorities that the captain is missing? Ed still errs on the side of trying to find the captain himself.
As he heads back down to the lower decks he comes across Selanor, one of the senior attendants. He asks if she has seen the captain recently. Selanor pauses to think for a moment then to Ed's surprise she replies that she had seen him twice today, this morning in the cafeteria and this afternoon about two hours ago, he was heading towards engineering. She added that he had specifically told her that if anyone asked for his whereabouts, he was in engineering.
Ed thinks to himself, 'Why didn't you just deliver the last bit to me?' He thanks Selanor and heads towards engineering. He is relieved to see the captain and the two engineers bent over one of the work benches. Ed not wanting to startle them, but knowing full well that the protocol was to ask permission before entering engineering, makes a gentle throat clearing noise, but no-one hears him above the noise of the equipment. Ed makes a second attempt, but louder this time. The captain turns around and rather gruffly tells Ed to come on in, then launches into an explanation as to the problem that they are facing. He tells Ed that the exciter is playing up and that Ed's report on their outward trip had been useful to the engineers as they took a look at the device and found that it was in fact malfunctioning. Now they couldn't get it to work at all.
The chief engineer launches into a highly technical explanation, to which Ed listens carefully. The captain remarks, that the whole sorry business has him baffled.
Ed says that far be it for him to suggest anything, but he says that he had encountered a similar problem whilst at the academy and then went into details as to what they had tried then.
The chief engineer asks some questions and after some thought, concludes that Ed may have stumbled upon part of the answer, he went into some highly technical explanation as to why what Ed suggested would have worked, then he said that if they did some extra things, it should prove to be a longer term solution. The captain steps back as Ed assists the engineers. As the captain is confident that the team know what they are doing, he tells everyone that he will go up and greet the passengers. The Chief Engineer looks up and acknowledges the captain's message and he is soon back into the thick of things.
The captain is delighted that they may have found a solution to the problem and fancy that, all down to that academy boy.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
Ed checks his messages, one from Jenny, two from Richard and one from a fellow academy pilot, working also for the same company as Ed. He'll save the one from Jenny until later, when he is off duty and can relax. As for the two from Richard, they could have relevance to the trip home, so he had best open them now, the one from his fellow pilot could just be the usual leg pulling. The first message from Richard is just normal family banter and Richard wishing Ed a happy shore leave. The second looks more serious. Ed immediately opens that one and is shocked to discover that yet another craft has disappeared, from his company's fleet. Apparently it happened in the Negesoius sector, or at least heading towards there. Richard warns Ed to be extra vigilant, as if he needed to do that, Ed was already highly strung about all this. There were no other details known according to Richard.
Ed hurriedly opens the message from his mate Jason, he thinks its a joke at first as most of it seems to be jumbled up letters and complete garbage. However, there are a few words that make sense. Ed stares at the message for a while. He manages to make sense of the start, it says something about trouble, disturbances of the space in front of Jason's craft. Then something about shapes, ripples and something else being visible, but quite what Ed cannot make it out. Further down amongst the jumbled up letters there is mention about a craft travelling at very fast speed.
Ed decides that he will send the message to Richard along with what he can make out of the it, as Richard was the encryption expert in the family. Ed could always try and figure out more throughout his shift. There, message sent, be some time anyway before Ed gets any reply even an acknowledgement of receipt. Ed decides to quickly send a reply to Jason, in-case he is just messing about.
The rest of his shift runs like clockwork and every so often Ed has another look at Jason's message. It is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, each time you look at it, another piece seems to fit or you think of a way it can fit, only to find that it doesn't.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
The captain is back on the flight deck, he says that he does not know what Ed did or said to Fjas, but he now seems to have some spark about him, whereas before he was merely wallpaper.
A somewhat harsh remark, thinks Ed to himself, alright Fjas has not exactly been a model pilot, being somewhat quite and keeping very much to himself. Not exactly a team player, as one of Ed's tutor's would have put it. However, Fjas is always willing to get on with the job in hand without complaining and generally you didn't have to ask for something more than once. Each to their own way, as one of Ed's friends often says.
The handover to the captain goes well and Ed receives a congratulatory message from the chief engineer to say that Ed's idea with a few of his own thrown in for good measure had worked and "she is purring along nicely" as the chief puts it.
Ed slips off to the cafeteria to grab some dinner before hopping off to read Jenny's message and get some shut eye. Ed is pleasantly surprised to see that Emily is sitting by one of the windows. Ed grabs his meal and asks if he could join her, Emily is delighted. They talk about her cabin and the fact that she was delighted to be on such a well fitted out craft, although she said that some of the entertainments left a bit to be desired. Ed laughed at that as he held the same view about some of the entertainments that he had witnessed on the outward journey.
Meal over, Ed bids her a pleasant journey and apologises for having to leave her, but
he had to get some sleep. He said that he would probably run into her again in the morning. They say their good byes and Ed heads off to his cabin. He spots Fjas catting to one of the trainee crew members, they seem to be getting along famously. Ed decides not to disturb them as he passes by, but keeps an ear out in-case he catches any of their conversation. Fjas, too engrossed in chatting up this young lady, doesn't spot Ed. Ed notes that the girl that Fjas is chatting up seems to be lapping up the attention and is most enthusiastic about his invitation to swap some musivids. Ed thinks, 'watch this space eh mate?'
Ed soon reaches his cabin. He had forgotten that he had just dropped his stuff on the floor and now had to unpack. Whilst he can't quite bring himself to do it, he makes himself sort it before settling down to read Jenny's message.
Right everything away and at last Ed can settle down and enjoy Jenny's message. Although enjoy, is not actually the thought that comes to Ed's mind when he starts to read the message. As Jenny has heard about the latest craft disappearance and is all up tight about it, saying things, like she should not have let Ed go out and that it was too dangerous and if anything were to happen to him, she'd never forgive herself. It all makes Ed wish that he were back with her now, so that he could re-assure her. He makes his mind up to send her a vid-message. There's nothing like seeing someone, to reassure you that they are keeping well and doing alright. Ed reads on and the tone of the message changes, thank goodness to the fact that Jenny has been nominated for some sort of prize and as a result the offer of commissions were coming in thick and fast, so much so that she just didn't have the time to fit them all in and was in the luxurious position to have to be picky and choosy about which ones to accept. Typical of Jenny, she then goes on to worry if she'll actually get time to be creative and have the inspiration to do a good job of the commissions that she accepts. Ed laughs as he thinks of the phrase, 'An artist's lot is not an easy one.'