by M. D. Cooper
“What?” Thompson said. “You’ve got nice hair.”
“Come on…” Cheeky said with a winning smile, “I want to see too. How could you show Thompson your hair and not me?”
Nance sighed. “Okay fine, only because you’ll bug me for days if I don’t.” She reached up behind her head and slipped open the seal on the hood, pulling it off in a smooth motion and placing it on the table beside her.
“Wow!” Cheeky said. “It’s so fluffy!”
“Poufy would be the word,” Nance replied.
“And you have really nice almond eyes.” The pilot smiled. “I command you to show them more often.”
Nance laughed. “I’ll reset my lenses to be transparent when you are around.”
“So nothing on the DNA at all?” Flaherty asked, appearing to be uninterested in the discussion of hair and eyes.
“Well, she actually is of Scandinavian descent, pretty pure blood too. If I didn’t know better I’d say she was actually from Earth…’cept no one’s from Earth,” Nance said as she pulled a bar from her personal food cupboard.
“Some people are still from Earth,” Cheeky offered.
“Aren’t you Scandinavian?” Sera asked Nance.
“Not really, one of my ancestors settled on New Sweden and the names infiltrated the family. I think my family is actually from the Madrid moon in Procyon.”
“OK,” Thompson said. “Time to lay odds on where she came from. I have a hundred Sil creds that say she’s actually from Sol. Any takers?”
REVALATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 07.02.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Interstellar Dark Layer
REGION: Galactic South of Trio Prime, Silstrand Alliance Space
Sera sat on a chair in the med lab, waiting for their ‘reluctant hitchhiker,’ as Cheeky still called her, to wake.
At exactly the time prescribed by her AI, the woman began to stir, and then her movements became almost violent—as though she was having a nightmare. After almost a minute of thrashing, her body remembered what it was like to function with a conscious mind in control; her movements slowed and finally her eyelids fluttered open.
Sera waited for Tanis to acclimate to her surroundings. The lights in the med cabin were dim—She knew from experience how painful bright lights could be after coming out of a few days of unconsciousness.
She watched the woman’s eyes struggle to focus, and then adjust to the dim light. A flicker of panic raced across her features when she tried to raise an arm, only to find it restrained. Almost as though by reflex, she closed her eyes and her breathing calmed. She retained that posture for several moments and then, in slow stages, she opened her eyes again; taking a second, more careful stock of her surroundings. Sera decided this was as good a time as any to make her introduction.
“Welcome aboard Sabrina, Tanis. I’m Captain Sera.”
The woman’s eyes flicked over to Sera. She opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a dry rasp.
“Ah, sorry about that,” Sera’s smile was friendly as she provided a bottle of water with a straw. The woman sucked on it eagerly and then pulled her mouth away to signal she was done.
“Thank you,” she whispered as Sera set the bottle down.
“No problem,” Sera smiled again. “I’ve done a few imitations of a dead person myself, it’s thirsty work.”
“Am I a prisoner?” The woman asked as she looked down at her wrists strapped to the table.
“Not at all.” Sera leaned over and undid the fastener on the wrist closest to her, allowing to Tanis free her other arm. “It’s just hard to predict a person’s state of mind when waking up unexpectedly in a strange place.”
The woman nodded as she rubbed her wrists, her expression guarded. “Where is here exactly?”
“Here is home,” Sera said as she waved an arm about her in an expansive gesture. “This is my fair Sabrina, a space freighter. We’re currently in FTL transit outside of the Trio System.”
A look of incomprehension followed by shock passed over the woman’s face. “In…FTL?” She said with an edge of panic to her voice. Her eyes darted around the room as though she was looking for some indication that the ship was moving faster than light.
“Yup, on our way to Edasich, with a few stops along the way.”
“E-Edasich…as in Iota Draconis?” The woman stammered. “How long will it take to get there?”
“Depends on how big a rush we’re in. A few months depending on exactly where the trade takes us.”
The blood all but drained out of the Tanis’s face. It was the strangest reaction Sera had ever seen someone have to being told they were in FTL. She was wondering how stable the woman was after all.
“Let’s start with the basics though. As I mentioned before, I’m Captain Sera. Your AI introduced you as Tanis.”
The woman frowned. “She told me someone tried to infiltrate my body with nano. Logs show it was med and then comm, sorry about her reaction, she’s very protective. My full name’s Tanis Richards.”
“Two names? That’s somewhat uncommon in this neighborhood. What star system still does that? Our med NSAI didn’t recognize your DNA as coming from anywhere particular.”
“I’m from Earth.” Tanis said so matter-of-factly that Sera let out a chuckle before covering her mouth.
“Aren’t we all?” Sera said and took a deep breath to stem her laughter. What was surprising was that Tanis appeared somewhat put out by her amusement. “It’s okay.” Sera smiled once more. “You don’t have to tell right away. I’m betting that you didn’t beat yourself up and hop in a stasis pod for kicks. I assure you that we mean you no harm, though we are curious. What happened to you anyway?”
Tanis didn’t respond immediately and Sera suspected this woman would be a tough nut to crack.
** ** ** *** *** ** ** ** **
They were getting closer. No matter how hard she ran they gained steadily on her; the sound of their boots hitting the deck echoed through the hall. Tanis was terrified. Nothing was as she expected it to be; the lights were wrong. Words were strange and no one made any sense. It was a horrible nightmare and she yearned to wake up.
As if her desire alone were enough, she found the nightmare slowly fading and wakefulness returning. There was light pressing against her eyelids and she knew it would be uncomfortably bright when she opened them. Steeling herself for it, Tanis opened her eyes and tried to focus. The light wasn’t as bad as she expected, but she couldn’t manage to see properly. Everything was grey and her limbs all seemed to be throbbing.
Tanis relaxed and tried to push that worry from her mind. Plenty of time to think it over later.
Tanis replied.
Letting out the slightest of sighs she cracked her eyes open, but even the dim light of the room was more than she was prepared for. Instinctively she tried to raise her hand to shield her eyes. It didn’t move. She was surprised to find her wrists restrained—though she supposed it was to be expected.
Unbidden, a thought of Joe flashed into her mind; where was he and would she ever see him again. What of their child? Would she raise her alone?
Tanis took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. Opening her eyes again, she looked around and identified her surroundings as a medical lab of some sort. A voice spoke, and while the words were soft, her ears throbbed from the sound.
“Welcome aboard the Sabrina. I’m Captain Sera,” the woman’s voice said
Tanis’s eyes darted to her left where the woman sat. Even as she smiled, the woman’s face looked hard, and her eyes appeared to have some great weight behind them, though her warm expression seemed genuine enough. Jet-black hair glinted in the light and framed a pale face with high cheekbones—definitely the complexion of a spacer.
Tanis could feel the faint vibrations of a reactor nearby and determined that either this ship had its med lab in a strange place or it wasn’t that large. Maybe it was a small shuttle or transport heading to this woman’s main ship. She opened her mouth to reply, but only a dry rasp came out.
The woman made an apology, and offered her a drink. Tanis thanked her; then asked if she was a prisoner. The woman smiled again and, though she seemed somewhat wary, the smile did reach her eyes.
“Not at all,” came the reply. Tanis noted how the woman only unfastened the wrist closest to her—she didn’t reach over Tanis’s body to release the other. Usually, only people familiar with violence showed that sort of caution. The woman explained that the restraints were just a precaution against an unfavorable reaction to waking in strange surroundings.
It was a plausible explanation.
Tanis took the opportunity to ask where she was. The woman confirmed her suspicion that they were indeed on a ship, though it was a freighter. However, three letters the captain uttered caught in her mind: FTL. Tanis was familiar with the term. It meant Faster-Than-Light, though neither she, nor anyone else for that matter, had ever been on a ship that exceeded the speed of light.
She glanced around the med lab, unable to reconcile the fact that an aging freighter could achieve such speeds. Through all her furiously racing thoughts, three words escaped her lips.
“We’re in FTL?”
The captain responded that they were headed for Edasich. Tanis quickly dredged the reference up in her mind. Edasich was a star system just over a hundred light-years from Earth. If they were traveling at the speed of light, or even faster, it could still take decades to get there. If it was that star. She asked after it by another name, Iota Draconis, and the captain confirmed it was the same star.
Tanis re-examined what the captain had said; they would be making some stops along the way. Perhaps she could manage to get off the Sabrina at some point and return to the Intrepid. Though she was dying to know how long such a trip would take. The number she was given was unbelievable, just a few months! This woman spoke of a trip of a hundred light-years as though it were a simple jaunt across the Sol System!
Tanis could feel alarm setting in, and forced herself to breathe deeply. She didn’t want this woman to think she was unstable and sedate her again. Even as she steadied herself, a part of her mind was screaming. This was wrong, it was all terribly wrong. Humanity didn’t have FTL capability. No human had ever come within twenty light years of Edasich. She was trapped in a nightmare, one where the Intrepid could be on the other side of the galaxy for all she knew; one where she may never be able to get home to Joe and her ship.
The woman noticed her discomfort and started over by re-introducing herself as Captain Sera and asking her name. Her mind latched onto the question. This was within the realm of her understanding, and she answered calmly that it was Tanis Richards, biting back the desire to add her rank.
“Two names? That’s uncommon in this neighborhood, what star system still does that? Our med system didn’t recognize your DNA as coming from anywhere particular.” The captain asked.
What an odd question, why wouldn’t they be able to determine her origin from her DNA. Though if they used spectrographic analysis on the isotopes in her body, that would likely confuse them, given her time on Victoria. Tanis replied that she was from Earth—a small lie—and Captain Sera seemed to suddenly stifle a laugh. This was all becoming too much.
“Aren’t we all,” the captain said with a hint of sarcasm.
Tanis sighed.
“It’s okay,” the captain said and smiled; Tanis couldn’t help but believe it was genuine, even though the woman was a bundle of contradictions. “You don’t have to tell right away. I’m betting that you didn’t beat yourself up and hop in a pod for kicks. I assure you that we mean you no harm, though we are curious. What happened to you anyway?”
Tanis thought about it. Honestly, she wasn’t entirely certain what had happened to her. Moreover, she wasn’t entirely certain that she wanted to relate the story just yet. The captain seemed to sense her indecision and apologized.
“I’m sorry, I forget how disorienting all this can be. There are some clothes on the stand beside you. Once you get dressed, I’ll show you to your cabin where you can freshen up, before joining us in the galley for the second-shift meal.”
Tanis looked over to the clothing on her right. Reaching out she put a hand on it. It was soft cotton, natural too by the feel of it. A captain wearing animal skins and now natural cotton. Perhaps she was on some colony world where such materials were more common than synthetics.
Sera seemed to take her reaction as disdain for cotton. “I hope they’re alright. Everything I own is custom fitted to me. Those are Nance’s. She doesn’t really wear clothes anyway, so she won’t miss them. I’ll be right outside the door.”
The captain stepped outside the med facility and Tanis could see her back as she waited in front of a window. She sat up, clutching the sheet as she pulled the clothes to her lap and examined them. They sure felt like cotton. If they weren’t, it was the best synthetic she had ever seen. Looking under the sheet, she blushed to find herself totally naked. Well, better naked and alive than the alternative.
Tanis dressed quickly in what turned out to be simple shoes, cotton leggings and a loose, sleeveless shirt. Running a hand through her hair, she wondered if this ship of contradictions would have water showers or the good ol’ sandblasting a freighter ought to have.
The captain flashed another one of those hard, yet genuine smiles as Tanis stepped out of the med facility. “Amazing how getting into at least a scrap of clothing can make you feel so much more human, isn’t it?”
Tanis nodded
in response and Sera turned, leading her down a long, well-lit corridor. She couldn’t help but smile to herself at the incongruity of Sera’s statement. The captain certainly seemed to believe in a lot more than just a scrap of clothing, what with her skin-tight outfit covering every inch of her body from the neck down.
They stopped at a ladder and the captain climbed up to the next level.
The captain looked down and noticed her disbelieving expression.
“Sabrina does have lifts, but I find that on long trips you need all the extra exercise you can get. I put the ladders in after I bought her. Also much better than lifts if the AG fields ever have trouble.” She turned and led Tanis down another corridor with a series of doors on the left.
There she went again, referring to a trip that was probably only a few months as ‘long.’ While Tanis tried to wrap her mind around FTL, again she realized the captain had mentioned AG fields. Massive ships like the Intrepid could generate artificial gravity, but how could a small freighter—where the engines couldn’t be more than fifty meters from the med lab—have AG? Sera must be playing with them now. FTL and AG in one day was far too much to swallow.
“Here we are,” Captain Sera said. “We use this cabin for passengers we pick up from time to time. Consider it yours for the trip.”
Tanis peered in; the surprises just kept on coming. How did a small freighter have cabins of this size? It was at least four meters across and had a bed, dresser and desk. There appeared to be a closet, and it even had its own toilet and shower.
The captain looked pleased. “Sabrina used to be a pleasure yacht. I know I could probably shrink these cabins down, but it sure helps in hiring crew, when you show them their own private bathroom.”
“It’s a water shower?” Tanis asked, hoping it was, because she wanted one, yet wishing it wasn’t, so that something made sense.
“Of course, do we look like savages?” The captain laughed. “Second-shift meal is in about thirty minutes in the galley,” she gestured aft, down the corridor. “We’ll be expecting you.”