Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin'

by A. Lightbourne

  It was a very sensitive device, one bad move and they could all be sent who knows where as the power drained and all be killed when the life support fails.

  Anything could set it off if you tried to tamper with it, but she had no choice because it was on an activation switch somewhere and could go off at any second.

  Time was not a luxury she could afford.

  She had to figure out how to remove the Space Tripper before it became active and she had to do it fast. First thing she needed were some supplies from one of the engineering or construction areas.

  She pushed herself off the wall and headed towards the door to the main Med-room. She was not going to tell anybody about this; it would only cause more problems and slow her down. If she hurried and got it deactivated, there would be no need to alarm anyone else.

  And if it went off, well, it was going to happen anyway, whether they were told about it or not.

  Valesque was so absorbed in her thoughts she almost ran right into the Lieutenant again as she exited the break-room. He looked as if he had been waiting for her as he stood by the door to the room with his arms folded across his chest, glaring coldly across the room to where Lola and Sanic were talking at the main medical terminal.

  "She finished her recording." Tim said relaying the message rather dispassionately to Valesque as he moved slightly from his position on seeing her emerge from the room.

  Valesque glanced up at him from her thoughts. Message, right, she thought, have to send the message back to Saturna 3.

  Something struck her as odd when she looked at the Lieutenant again. He was not flirting and he was not smiling, actually, he seemed to be looking irritably across the room at Lola and Sanic.

  "What is wrong with you?" Valesque asked, surprised at his changed disposition. "Is Sanic cutting in on your time?" she teased, supposing he was bitter about Sanic monopolizing Lola's attentions.

  "No one gets in my way if I am interested." Tim replied almost too seriously. "I just don't go for artificial girls." he said with as close to a sneer as Valesque could imagine on his handsome face.

  Valesque scowled at the conceited flyboy, as she looked him scornfully up and down. "She isn’t the one I would call artificial." Valesque countered.

  Tim turned his head slightly and looked down at her with a half smile; he liked it when she got antagonistic. "Well, it was always said of me that I would go for any female, anywhere. But I do draw the line somewhere." he replied half amused.

  "And so you draw the line at Lola." the peeved engineer concluded for him.

  “That is interesting, considering how you seemed to be quite into her just a few minutes ago."

  Tim smiled, recalling his natural response to a pretty female. "Well, that was before Sanic rambled on about how amazing he thought she was and I found out that she wasn't real."

  "I think she is more real than you are, Yorkie." Valesque replied, glaring at him through angrily narrowed eyes. "So what you are saying is you liked her until you found out she was different from you? Sanic is Etherian and I am Virrilian, but you seem to tolerate us just fine. "

  Tim smiled his half smile again, "That is different."

  "I don't see it as any different." Valesque retorted hotly. "You decided against her after you found out what she was. You had spent enough time with her, flirting, to find out what she is like. That she is a real and a distinct person, just like you and I." Valesque paused for a moment as she considered the unfounded prejudice before her.

  "We all come from somewhere, Mr. Baine. We all had a start from somewhere, someone created us. Whether we come from an egg, one parent, two parents, a test tube in a lab or from a workbench, we were all created. Being prejudice about someone just because of how they came into this world is just ignorant. What difference does it make where she comes from? Or what she is composed of? All that should really matter is what she is like." Valesque spouted.

  She hated ignorant bigots, probably because she had come across so many herself.

  Many people out there had no tolerance for Virrilians.

  Tim, who found it uncomfortable to be serious for very long, let out a relenting chuckle. "You are probably right.” he conceded, though not at all changing his opinion on the matter, he was just tired of the conversation.

  "But I think I would like to concentrate on carbon based life forms, if you don't mind." he continued, pushing the lock of blonde hair flirtatiously from his eyes as he turned towards the pretty Engineer with his sly, meaningful smile and a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes.

  He looked down at the still angry woman before him, taking in how she was just about a head shorter than him, the perfect height. How cute her black, wavy hair was cropped to chin length, and the way it shined blue and red in the light. And how her pale skin accentuated all the pretty features of her face.

  He still found her strikingly beautiful, even when her blood-red lips were curved into a scowl directed at him, and he was still determined to get on her good side.

  "Lola aside," he added in a low meaningful voice, as he changed the subject from the disagreeable to a more agreeable one, “I think I would prefer to concentrate on one certain biological form, if that's okay with you." he smiled.

  Valesque sighed, she was never going to get anywhere trying to talk sense to him. "Look." she sighed in forfeit. “Just don't tell anyone... what she is. If they find out on their own, fine. But it is unfair to her if people become prejudice against her before they even get to know her."

  "That's fine." Tim agreed, his eyes locked on hers as he closed the distance between them, "I would much rather talk about you anyway."

  "You really can't be serious for more than a minute can you, Yorkie?" she muttered, dodging his advance and walking quickly past him to where Lola and Sanic were waiting. She really had more important things to do than stand around here all day listening to his insincerity. She had a message to send, supplies to find and a ship to save.

  "I helped her edit her message down." Sanic informed Valesque as she approached. He stepped back away from Lola as he said this, allowing room for Valesque to reach the computer console he and Lola had been standing at. "I was not sure how you wanted to send it though, so we waited for you to do that."

  Valesque noticed that Tim did not follow her to where Lola and Sanic were, but instead stood apart from them, leaning casually with his arms crossed over his chest, staring blankly out the Med-room doorway.

  Lola regarded his sudden aloofness with a puzzled expression, but did not seem too upset by it. Valesque had noted that nothing ever seemed to get Lola down, she was always as bubbly, open and completely naive as usual in any situation.

  Valesque turned from observing the two and addressed the situation at hand.

  "I was just going to use the ship as a relay and arrest the signal long enough to insert the message and send it off." the Virrilian engineer explained as she did her last calibrations and pushed the button to send the space-signal back on its way with her message embedded. As her finger released the send button, she heard a familiar, stern voice behind her.

  "Miss Valesque." it said a little bitterly.

  Valesque turned quickly towards the sound, alarmed.

  The Captain stood in the Med-room doorway, arms folded across her chest with a grim expression on her face and Fazar standing calmly at her side.

  A flood of thoughts raced through Valesque's mind at this sudden appearance. Had she detected the relay of the space signal?

  No, Valesque thought, that was not possible with the sensors as they were.

  Perhaps... Fear seized Valesque, her breath tightening in her chest as she glanced nervously over her shoulder towards the medical staff's break-room. Perhaps...she had found out about the Space Tripper, she thought slightly panicked.

  "I see you have joined us after all." the Captain continued, unaware of any suspicious activities or devices. "I would appreciate it if you would wear your communicator so we can locate you more easily in
the future." she said as she tossed Valesque a tiny electronic device she had been carrying, in case the Virrilian life sign had turned out to be the lost Engineer.

  Valesque deftly caught the ship-com and looked it over disapprovingly, it was standard issue. She hated standard issue.

  "Thank you. But I prefer to use my own." she replied, relieved she didn't appear to be in any trouble. She checked the frequency number on the communicator the Captain had thrown her and digging out her own ship-com from her lab coat's pocket, she set it to the same frequency before slipping the tiny device in her ear. "Mine has been newly modified."

  Captain Fairbanks let out a slightly irritated sigh.

  Everything this Virrilian did seemed to get on her nerves.

  She had called Fazar to her observation room after she had discovered the original nameplate on the ship registry display, and had an enlightening conversation with him about the origins of the ship and the violent Virrilian. She had determined to try to get along with her, if it meant she could get better response from her ship in return. The Captain was hoping since Fazar had said the Virrilian had indeed designed and built the ship that she could get the engines and other non-functioning devices up and running before it was too late.

  Time was precious, her husband was in need of reinforcements in the Corseccan war zone, and at the rate this ship was going they would never make it in time.

  Captain Fairbanks reigned in her displeasure and tried another route.

  "I understand from Fazar that you had a hand in designing this vessel, when it was known as the Magellan."

  Valesque's face brightened, finally she was getting somewhere. She was about to make a reply when the Captain held up a hand to stop her.

  "I am not here to discuss the origins of this ship, Miss Valesque." she said shortly. "Yours is not the first ship to be confiscated for the war effort I assure you. It still remains that this is now the I.P.A Vortex and it is a military battleship."

  Valesque scowled in defeat.

  "What I want from you," she continued with a glance at Fazar, "what I need from you, Miss Valesque, is your help."

  Fazar nodded assuringly, she had worded it correctly.

  He had told her in the observation room that the best way to get what she needed was to appease the Virrilian Engineer.

  "There is saying on my planet," he had told her, " 'a person's friendship, worth more than their hatred.' Engineer Valesque worth more to you as friend in getting ship to work, than as enemy and try to force her. Virrilian have very hot head. You must make her idea to help. As they say, 'Tact can remove stinger, without getting stung.' ”

  He had tried to make the Captain understand the best way to get what she wanted from Valesque was to approach her carefully and appeal to her concern for the ship. Even out of the war zone, the ship needed its scanners and defenses up in case they came across any hostile ships or other dangers.

  However, he knew the Captain was bound to irritate her again. She had a habit of rubbing people the wrong way, so he had come along to help ensure her success by guiding her diplomacy.

  Valesque looked at them both suspiciously.

  Fairbanks breathed a small sigh of relief, it was working so far, the Engineer was not getting irate.

  "I need you to show me the workings of the power core, and to determine what can be done to increase the output of the engines." she continued confidently.

  The young Engineer thought about this for a moment. Increasing the speed of the ship was not a top priority. She had to get the supplies needed to disable the Space Tripper, and she did not have the time to waste on tours.

  "Sorry Captain. I don't have the time for that right now. Maybe some other time." she replied as courteously as she could, ready to head out of the Med-room to attend to the real emergency at hand.

  A dark expression fell over the Captain’s face.

  Fazar noticing this tried to get her attention, to stop her before she said something antagonistic, but to no avail.

  Captain Fairbanks ignored the warning looks from her Second in Command and with an angrily determined look on her face she began.

  "As Captain of this vessel you will do as I ask, Ensign. You, as a Virrilian, may not care about our speed in getting to the Corseccan Galaxy, but as an Ensign Second Class on my vessel you will assist us in getting there as promptly as possible. Am I clear?"

  Fazar shook his head in defeat; there was no diffusing the situation now. He was afraid the two hot-tempered women would never be more than very cool friends.

  Sanic was shocked by what he had just heard. "Ensign?" he questioned aloud. He would never have thought the great Engineer was the same lowly classification as himself.

  Tim took the news with his usual passiveness; her rank made no difference to him one way or another. However, Sanic was openly astonished.

  Valesque overhead Sanic's startled remark and steamed.

  The irritating Captain had done it again, calling her by the obnoxious military title.

  She was having quite enough of this.

  "I told you before, Captain. I am not, have not, and will never be one of your crew!" she spat indignantly. "So I would appreciate it if you would stop calling me that. I am 'Scientific Engineer Valesque', not some military flunky."

  Captain Fairbanks sighed peevishly. She had never had so much trouble with one low class crewmember in her entire career.

  She glanced over at Fazar and saw him hanging his head at the setback; she had been so close to getting the Virrilian's voluntary cooperation.

  Fairbanks groaned, smoothing back her red hair.

  It was already tightly pulled back from her face and twisted into a thick braid down her back, but it was a nervous habit of hers to smooth her hair back when she was irritated.

  The Captain glanced for the first time at the other occupants of the room, looking for a less explosive topic.

  "I see we have quite a little gathering here." she remarked. "My so-called 'Ace' pilot and my Ensign in charge of operations. What might you two be doing here?" she asked, suspiciously eyeing the two men and the two women who had been occupying the room.

  "Uh, the Lieutenant had hurt his hand and I showed him the way up here." Sanic said quickly, grasping for the innocent answer.

  Tim just gave the Captain a wry smile and flexed his mended hand in agreement with Sanic's story.

  Fairbanks noticed the bloodstained sleeve on the Pilot’s uniform and gave them both a stern, tight-lipped look. "I would appreciate it, Lieutenant Baine, if you could take the time to figure out your controls before your next shift. See if your ‘extraordinary’ piloting skills can actually get this ship to do more than crawl.”

  “And you, Ensign," she said looking directly at the uneasy lower officer, “since you seem to have no data to work from in overseeing the ship's functions, you will accompany us to the power and engine rooms and hopefully learn a few things. And who is this person?" she said at last turning to the girl with the candy-colored hair.

  '"That is Lola. She is in charge of the Med-room." Valesque replied quickly.

  The Captain looked at the girl with obvious disdain. It was apparent from her looks she was not military personnel.

  "Unnecessary." she snapped. "There is no need for a person to man the Med-room. The standard issue M.M.U is perfectly sufficient. She shall be assigned elsewhere."

  "But she doesn't know any other job besides medical technician." Valesque countered irritably.

  "Then she will learn." the red-haired woman replied bluntly. "The mobile medical unit is all that is required in this room."

  "The M.M.U is only functioning in an advisory capacity without the hologram on." Valesque tried to explain as the M.M.U was called over.

  The mobile medical unit was a sleek, silvery orb that floated in the air and was very quick and agile for responding to emergencies. M.M.U's were standard issue on all space ships. It was considered a waste to put good Doctors out in remote space.

 
The M.M.U was equipped with an interactive hologram that could treat patients just as a regular Doctor could.

  However, if the hologram was turned off the unit could not interact with a patient, it did not have the ability to touch, and was only useful as a medical advisor to whoever was attending to the patients.