by Garion Swann
Grant inputted the code Janie had given him, he'd done nothing but think about her since she left the ship. The screen showed a loading bar, with connecting beneath it, Grant had modified his console so it would show him all the different nodes it would go through, from the ship's transceiver to the nearest station. Most stations had huge transceiver arrays that allowed them all to interconnect, ‘The Galactic Information Highway' it was dubbed when it was first introduced. Colossus class ships also had these huge transceivers onboard, they were pretty much moving stations anyway.
A green light flashed on the screen to say that his call has successfully been connected. Grant was suddenly nervous, he'd been wanting to speak to Janie, but now that he actually got the chance to he wanted to hang up straight away. He panicked more when Janie's face appeared on the screen, she looked exhausted, and her hair was a mess, much different from the well-kept bun it was in when she was onboard. He was mesmerised for a moment.
"Grant?" Janie asked sounding groggy. He suddenly realised she has been asleep. It was only 20:00 universal galactic time. Why would she be in bed?
"Oh shit!" he said, "Sorry, I didn't think you'd be asleep." He said quickly.
"That's okay, I'm planetside so I can understand the confusion." She replied, starting to wake up. Each planet in inhabited space had their own time zones, but just for the day by day time. Their dates still changed whenever the universal date changed. It caused administrative mayhem for some areas but solved a lot of problems in most others.
"Ah right, I can call back if you want?" Grant asked.
"No no, it's fine, I'm due up soon anyway. How're you, Grant?" She said, sorting her hair out, so it looked presentable.
"I'm good thank you, how about you?" He said nervously. She smiled noticing his nervousness.
"I'm great, enjoying sleeping on a comfortable bed with normal gravity," she replied. Grey laughed a little.
"I know what you mean, ship beds are not nice at all. I can't imagine them being very good on a military ship." Grant said, trying to make conversation. For some reason, it didn't seem as easy as when she was in his quarters.
"Yeah, the bunks on board are dreadful, we may as well be sleeping on rocks," Janie said laughing once more.
"Rocks can be comfy, I forgot my sleeping bag on a camping trip once and slept outdoors on a rock formation, it was one of the best nights of sleep I've ever had. It might have something to do with the knackering desert walk we'd done that day though."
"Oh I love camping, when I was in training was did so much camping it was bliss," Janie said excitedly.
"I hate being without technology, so camping tends not to be a choice when it comes to holidays for me, well if there's a hookup that would fine." He replied, Grant not liking camping clearly had an effect on Janie's mood. "I'm sure I could be convinced though," he said smiling. She returned his smile, but it faded quickly, something seemed to be on her mind.
"Why are you planetside," Grant asked. Janie's expression visibly changed, she didn't like that question at all. Grant noticed and didn't know what to say.
"Just some administrative stuff," Janie answered quickly and simply, from her tone she clearly did not want to talk about it. Grant was about to speak again but got cut off by Janie, "I'm sorry Grant I need to go, it was nice to talk to you."
"Oh, I'm sorry if I…" He didn't manage to finish as the connection had been cut.
Grant worried that asking her why she was planetside upset her, but he wasn't to know. He hoped they would speak again, he could see them having a great friendship, possibly more and he didn't want to lose that.
Alex woke suddenly when he heard movement, it took him a moment to remember he was in the infirmary, he had no idea how much time had passed. He looked to Grey who was awake and pulling at some cords that were attached to his abdomen.
"Woah Woah Woah, don't pull them out!" Alex said jumping up to pull Grey's hands away.
"They are very uncomfortable!" Grey said, his voice was weak, but you could still tell he was annoyed.
"Yes, well they are keeping you alive so be grateful, man!" He said pulling Grey's hands away once more this time with more force. Grey was weak so would not be able to move if Alex held him down. Alex was frustrated, he really wanted to lay into Grey, shout and scream about the drugs, the firefight and various other things but it wasn't the right time. He had sat down once he was sure Grey wasn't going to try and pull at the cords. It was quiet for a moment until Grey starting to speak.
"Alex," he said weakly, "I'm sorry."
"Why?" Alex said simply. He knew exactly why but wanted to hear it, he wanted to see if Grey would open up about the drugs.
"Getting us into a shoot out, I hope no one else was hurt," Grey said. Alex realised he didn't know that one of the security crew had died. He would get to that but not yet.
"How did we end up in a shootout, Grey? Tell me that,"
"I got angry," Grey said, apparently not wanting to elaborate.
"Why?" Alex asked, his frustration creeping into his voice.
"I just did!" Grey had tried to raise his voice but couldn't, he started coughing. When he stopped, he looked at Alex who was clearly angry.
"Stop bullshitting me, Grey! We've known each other long enough that you should be able, to tell the truth."
"What are you expecting me to say, Alex?" Grey asked.
"I'm expecting you to tell me you're on drugs! I'm expecting you to tell more you dumped your stash to avoid the patrol, I'm also expecting you to tell me you're having withdrawal symptoms." Alex shouted at Grey who looked surprised. "Yes!" Alex said, not as loud but still in a raised voice, "I know about the drugs!" Grey sighed.
"I… " Grey started.
"I don't want to hear it! A man is dead, Grey, a man is dead." Alex said, "You couldn't tell me, I'm your Captain, and more importantly I'm your friend! It hurts that you couldn't tell me."
"Alex," Grey said.
"No, I'm not hearing it. You're being transferred to the medical facilities on Trulen, you'll be there for a few days, that will give you time to think of a damn good reason why I shouldn't look for a new engineer!" Alex stormed out before Grey could say any more.
Chapter Nine
"Three minutes to dock," Jenny announced into the ship wide com. She had taken the helm to dock the ship, another pilot, Nelson, has been piloting the ship through the jumps while Jenny was doing her XO duties. There was more work than she expected. She had not had a chance to speak to Alex about the full details yet, but she was hoping it would mean more pay. She heard Alex's office door open, and he stepped onto the bridge.
"Where are we docking?" Alex asked.
"P31," Jenn replied.
Alex tapped the nearest console to him to wake it up, he did a quick search of the Trulen docking ports, his hunch was correct. The ports labelled with a ‘P' meant they were for priority vessels. You could pay a hefty price for it or be given it by Trulen station, and that's how they had gotten it. It gave vessels priority loading and maintenance. Which could save time on contracts, which meant ships earnt more money. It was costly though, and Alex would never dream of paying for it himself.
Alex noticed Jenny powering down the ship and transferring to station control.
"Have we docked?" Alex asked, probably sounding very stupid to the bridge crew.
"It's those fancy inertial dampeners they have fitted to the docking arms, you don't feel a thing," Grant explained.
"I could get used to the priority treatment," Alex said smiling. He tapped the ship-wide comm.
"All hands, we've docked at Trulen, and you're free to disembark. You've got seventy-two hours of shore leave. One more thing before you go off to your fun. We're saying goodbye to one of our most valued crew members. Doctor Tamber is leaving us for a posting on Trulen, we wish her the very best luck and thank her for her dedication to this ship and keeping its crew safe. There's a leaving party for her at Jamie's Bar in 'D' section of the station, it's at 19:0
0. I'll see you all there." Alex ended the announcement.
He thought about the Doctor and wished he'd got to know her more, he always regretted never getting to know any of the crew very well. The security officer that had died saving his life, he knew his name, and that was about it. Unless he looked at the man's record, he had no idea where home was for him, or even how old he was. His mind shifted to home, he missed Europa, and he knew a lot of the crew did too. Some of the crew had left and made their own way back to Europa, they did so at their own risk. There had been rumours that Lady Jean has not only put a bounty on Alex but on all his crew as well. He had doubted that rumour as it would have been hard to know who the crew was. Dylan may have leaked it though. He'd always wanted to get home, and he's been looking for ways to do so safely but had no luck. It was too much of a risk, he knew if Lady Jean even got a whiff of him being back she'd pounce.
Doctor Tamber was the first to the airlock, she had a portable medical bed with Grey wired up to various machines keeping him alive. She has managed to stabilise him and could treat him if she had Trulens medical equipment. This would be the last time she stepped off the Michelangelo, she would start again on Trulen, she'd always wanted to come back, and now she had reconnected with Jamie she was able to. They'd been talking whilst she was on the mission, and they had both decided she would get her own place to start with, and they may move in together when they were ready, they felt very close but in truth, they had not spent that much time together, and part of it was thirty years ago. The airlock hissed as the door began to open. The medical team rushed in and began to take over the care of Grey.
"Hey, this is my patient, I'll be leading hie care." She said to the Doctor who seemed in charge. He turned to her, he was quite short and looked about ten years younger than her.
"And you are?" he asked.
"Doctor Tamber," she replied.
"I didn't think you'd started yet?" he said in a challenging tone.
"I haven't." She simply carried on as she would have, "Patient is thirty-eight, and has been subject to an impact from an energy weapon. He's stable and has had a blood transfusion. We need to get him into surgery, I've only managed to do temporary work with the equipment available" The medical staff stopped and looked at the short doctor, he nodded, and they carried out Doctor Tamber's orders.
A medical vehicle had already arrived and was waiting to take Grey to Trulen's central hospital. She helped get Grey loaded onto the vehicle, she climbed on to it herself and checked Grey's readouts, they were still stable. The doors to the car closed and it lifted off smoothly, she looked out of the rear window and could see the Michelangelo docked, it got smaller and smaller as they moved away from it, eventually going out of view as they turned onto one of the fast travel tunnels that wove through the station. She already missed the ship and crew, it was a tough decision to leave the ship, but it felt like the right time.
Jenny had overseen any final tasks that needed doing before the crew goes on shore leave, there is always a skeleton crew onboard at all times, mostly security. The Captain also stays on board rather than getting hotels. A lot of the crew stayed in hotels, as this was their downtime and if they wanted to have any night time company they could do so discreetly. Spacers tended to avoid relationships as it usually means long distances, so people got lonely. Jenny hadn't decided on getting a hotel or not, she would see where the night takes her. She'd arrived at Jamie's Bar about an hour early, she wanted to get started as soon as possible, Grant said he'd catch her up, he needed to get hold of someone first. Jenny sat down at one of the bar stools around the square-shaped bar in the middle of the large establishment. The place was set up as if it was planetside, so when you left, you felt like you were going outside. The advanced weather control in this section of Trulen made it, so it felt like the sun was shining, without the harmful effects of an actual star throwing it's UV rays at you. Jenny looked around to see who was in the bar, it was apparently the end of the working day, a lot of people wearing smart clothes were talking and drinking, this was quite standard on a lot of stations people would finish work and go to a bar before heading to their homes. The part of the station Jamie's Bar was in seemed quite upmarket compared to other parts of the station Jenny had seen while she had been here. Like most places, Trulen also had a lower working class, most of whom only just about made ends meet. Europa was the same, section four of Europa was the industrial zone, there were thousands of manufacturing plants with hundreds of thousands of workers. Europa had long ago decided to provide workplace accommodation for most it's workers. Although the salary was lower, you got housing provided, and they were not the worst accommodations Jenny has seen. They were fit for purpose, and if you had a larger family you could get larger accommodations, but that meant giving up more of your salary. The blocks the workers lived in were all basically identical, very tall and as many different apartments squeezed in as physically possible, there were thousands of these blocks and more and more being built all the time, Jenny had spent the first half of her childhood in one of these blocks, her family were among the poorest on Europa. She remembered people looking down on them as if they were animals, someone always had to do the menial work, the hard labour. Jenny thought about Dylan for a moment he was one of those who would look down on lower class families, it made her angry, just thinking about him. He betrayed the crew and sold them out, she couldn't wait to put a bullet in his head.
"Stupid, son of a…" Jenny mumbled angrily to herself.
"Sounds like you need a drink," The bartender had finally come over to serve her. He was tall and quite handsome for his age, he'd assumed he was late fifties, his hair was nearly all grey but was well kept.
"Something very strong, neat. Also, whatever beer you recommend," Jenny asked.
"You got it, Welcome to Jamie's Bar," he said as he took some glasses from the shelves behind him. They were all neatly organised, and all the glasses had Jamie's Bar etched into them professionally. He took a small tumbler and then a larger pint glass, he very quickly served two drinks and handed them over. Jenny took the neat, what she assumed was some kind of whiskey, and drank it as a shot. Then proceeded to empty the pint glass very quickly.
"Another?" The man at the bar asked amused.
"That's a stupid question." Jenny with a sly smile. The bartender went to get another drink for Jenny, she looked around the bar and her eyes focussed on a picture of a woman, she would guess in her late fifties maybe a little younger, she was wearing a security uniform. Around the picture was a flourish of flowers and well-kept greenery. Underneath there was a plague that read.
For Evelyn, protecting us until the end.
The bartender had returned and noticed Jenny looked at the dedication, Jenny accepted the drink and took a sip, not taking her eyes off the picture.
"Who was she?" she asked.
"Evelyn used to work in security but was killed in action last year. She was also my wife," He said sadly.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Jenny said softly, "It's a lovely dedication."
"A friend of mine sorted it, it makes a great addition to the bar," he replied.
"I guess you're Jamie," Jenny asked.
"That's me," he had perked up a little bit, but his face still showed the sadness.
"Thanks for allowing us to have a party here tonight," Jenny said, she thought as the XO it was worth mentioning something.
"Ah, you're from the Michelangelo! It's my pleasure, I bet Judith will be missed." The man smiled the moment he realised that Jenny was from the Michelangelo. Jenny was confused, she had no idea who Judith was.
"Judith?" she asked, her confusion evident.
"Judith Tamber? The man replied, also confused.
"Doc's name is Judith!?" Jenny asked surprised.
"Yeah, didn't you know that?"
"She's been on the ship for years, and I had no idea, everyone just called her Doctor Tamber." Jenny was talking fast and higher pitched than usual, she realised she
had never known Doctor Tamber's first name. She wondered who else didn't know.
"Do you know her then?" Jenny asked the bartender.
"Yeah, we met many many years ago in this very bar."
Jenny and Jamie had been talking for about ten minutes, Jenny was already on her third pint when Doctor Tamber entered the bar. She smiled when she saw Jamie and walked over.
"How's Grey?" Jenny asked before saying anything else.
"He got through the operation okay and is stable, he'll be in recovery for a few days, which is much better than what I thought," she replied slumping onto the bar stool, it was clear she was worn out.
"Judith," Jamie said, she looked up, "I got you something," he said smiling.
"Oh?" Jamie handed her something that was wrapped, it was a bottle of something.
"Oh, what's this for?" she asked.
"Call it happy new job and a house warming gift," he said. She unwrapped the bottle, and as soon as she saw the colour of the drink, she smiled.
"You remembered!" She said excitedly.
"Of course, took me a while to find but I got it in the end. Only one brewery makes it now, and that's on the other side of inhabited space." Jamie explained.
"You must have pulled a lot of strings to get this," she said admiring the bottle.
"A few," he said with a sly smile.
"You gonna tell me what it is?" Jenny interrupted, taking a keen interest in the bottle.
"It's called Sloe Gin, it's very rare now. Apparently, there was a huge market for it on Earth, this particular kind, Jamie introduced me to my first time here. I was hooked, couldn't stop drinking it." Doctor Tamber explained without taking her eyes off the bottle.
"If I remember rightly you didn't thank yourself for it the next morning," Jamie said laughing.
"Worth it," she said with a smile. Jenny looked at the both of them with curious eyes, from what Jamie just said it seems these two had been close before. She watched as they smiled at each other with a gaze that was unmistakable, one that had always managed to elude Jenny. She looked to Jamie, with a playfully stern expression.