Rain May and Captain Daniel

by Catherine Bateson

  In the end I emailed Daniel and asked his opinion and got an email back from Diana: ‘Rain, I was making Daniel a costume. If you want to, you’re welcome to wear it. Ask Maggie — she’s got a spare key. It’s in the sewing room hanging up under a plastic coat cover. Do wear it, Rain — it would make us all feel so good to know it was being worn.’

  This was followed by an email from Daniel: ‘Rain, I was going as Data but you could use the costume to go as Tasha Yar. Go to the video shop and see if you can get the episode, ‘ The Next Generation: Encounter at Farpoint. You’ll see them both. Data’s great — an android but he loves humans. He quotes, and writes poetry. But Tasha Yar is a girl. She got killed though. Your choice. I don’t mind.’

  Maggie and I went next door. It was weird going in when they were all somewhere else.

  In the sewing room, just as the Counsellor had promised, was Data’s suit. It was a top and pants in black with a mustard kind of inset in the top and the Star Trek badge, of course. It should have been a jumpsuit, but Diana had made the two pieces separate so you could more easily go to the toilet.

  I thought it would be too small for me, but it fitted perfectly. I could see what everyone meant about Daniel having a growth spurt. I’d been taller than him when we first got to Clarkson and now it seemed we were the same height. The costume looked good. It looked like a proper costume, the sort you hire, not make yourself.

  ‘Cool,’ I said. ‘It’s really cool, isn’t it, Mum?’

  ‘It’s fantastic,’ Maggie said. ‘Like it’s so tomorrow! I really must do more than curtains with my sewing machine.’

  We looked up Tasha Yar and Data on the Internet. Tasha Yar was a devoted Starfleet officer and a strong warrior. She was also quite beautiful. Data was an android with yellow eyes and pale skin. He knew everything but couldn’t feel any emotions. Of course, I wanted to be Tasha Yar but I knew Daniel would have gone as Data.

  ‘I haven’t got yellow eyes,’ I told Maggie.

  ‘No, that’s true. We could do the pale skin though, with face paint. Look, it’s a pity we didn’t make a Seven of Nine silver catsuit for you. Look at the face paint she’s wearing! Next fancy dress party, hey? Maybe your birthday?’’

  ‘Would you?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be a catsuit,’ Maggie said. ‘We’d do it the way Diana did, as two separate pieces. I don’t see why not, Rain, if you want. Although by then you might want a different costume. Now, who is it to be — Data or Tasha Yar.’

  ‘Data,’ I said. ‘I’ll email Daniel. He’ll give me all the facts.’

  Daniel’s surgery was scheduled for the day after the disco. I knew it wouldn’t really make any difference who I went as, but it seemed important to have as many things piled up on Daniel’s side as possible.

  ‘You know,’ Maggie said, the day before the disco, ‘if we wanted to, we could give this costume a dress rehearsal.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Well,’ Maggie said, ‘it would be possible for you to get dressed up after school as Data, and then we could drive down to Melbourne to the Royal Children’s and show you in all your android glory to Captain Daniel. What do you reckon?’

  I thought about it. I thought about walking in those huge hospital doors dressed as Data and I cringed. And then I thought of Daniel’s ward, the beeping heart monitors and the pale kids, some of them only toddlers, and how hospitals always look like hospitals no matter how many wall murals there are, or mobiles.

  ‘Okay,’ I said.

  I did look just like Data except that my hair was lighter and Maggie had had to tie it up in a little pony tail at the back.

  When I walked into the ward Daniel gave me the biggest smile I’d ever seen. He looked fine, hardly even pale. I almost thought we’d got it wrong, that he didn’t need surgery at all and they’d be sending him home.

  When the visiting hour was over, Diana walked us out to the lifts, just as she used to walk us to the front door of our house.

  ‘I hope everything goes well,’ Maggie said, giving her a hug. ‘You know if there’s anything at all —’

  ‘Thanks for what you have done,’ Diana said. ‘And Rain, thank you, too. Your emails have meant everything to Daniel, connecting him with the other world, with home.’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine,’ I said and allowed her to hug me, too.

  Maggie and I walked back to the carpark in silence.

  ‘I wish there was more we could do,’ Maggie said. ‘I feel powerless, you know?’

  ‘You could make soup,’ I said, ‘for when they come back. You could make your famous roast pumpkin soup, huge vats of it, and freeze it. Diana was going to make soup for us, you know, when we moved in.’

  ‘Oh Rain, what a fantastic idea! Yes, I’ll do that. Pumpkin soup and some celery soup and —’

  ‘Maybe not just soup,’ I said quickly before she got carried away. ‘Maybe some casseroles or something.’

  ‘I’ll check with my yoga teacher,’ Maggie said. ‘Strength-building healing things, that’s what they’ll all need.’

  The school disco was a huge success. Madison’s eyes popped out when she saw me dressed as Data. Mind you, she looked pretty cool herself. Becky’s mum had made her and Becky matching Elven princess dresses, with long drooping sleeves. They weren’t good to dance in, though, and Madison fell over doing the Nutbush dance and the hems trailed in someone’s spilled drink. I was pleased I had gone as Data, even though I didn’t win the most original costume prize. That went to a little Year Two girl dressed as a dragon.

  ‘You should have got that,’ Becky said, looking a bit hot and flustered in her long medieval robes. ‘You look so fabulous. I wish I’d thought of someone who wore pants. This skirt’s giving me the creeps.’

  ‘Skirts are so like, yesterday,’ I whispered. I didn’t want to hurt Madison’s feelings. She couldn’t help it if she spoke American. Becky and I cracked up. But even with all the dancing and the smoke machine and having our hair spray-painted, I couldn’t help thinking about Daniel lying in his narrow hospital bed, waiting.

  Maggie and I tried to pretend it was a normal Saturday the next morning. We did our chores but we didn’t leave the kitchen in case the phone rang and we were both watching the clock, counting the minutes.

  ‘Couldn’t we ring?’ I begged. ‘Couldn’t we ring the Intensive Care Unit and then we’d know?’

  ‘He might not even be out yet,’ Maggie said. ‘We don’t know how long the operation will take and we don’t want to be bugging the busy staff. No, we’ll wait for Diana to ring us, as we said we would, Rain.’

  When the phone finally rang Maggie and I both stared at it, unable to move.

  ‘Go on, Mum,’ I said on the fourth ring, ‘or she’ll think we’re not here.’

  ‘Hello.’ Maggie’s voice sounded wavery and then there was silence and then she gave me the thumbs-up. ‘Oh Diana, we’re both so relieved. That’s such good news. Thank god.’

  We emailed everyone, of course, even Julia, who had actually visited Daniel in her own time and taken him some Star Trek novels.

  ‘You won’t be able to visit,’ Maggie cautioned. ‘He’ll be in ICU for a few days. Then they’ll transfer him back to the ward, and then after a week or so there he’ll be home again. Children recover amazingly quickly.’

  On Monday, Madison sat down with me and talked Star Trek the whole lunch hour, as if the costume had made me an instant soul mate.

  ‘You are the most interesting person I’ve met in Australia,’ she said. ‘I just know we’re going to be friends forever.’

  When I got home from school there was a package on the kitchen table.

  ‘For you,’ Maggie said. She was at the stove stirring. She was taking the soup very seriously.

  The package was small and addressed to:

  Rain May and Captain Daniel

  c/- 7 Cosmo Road

  Clarkson

  I turned it over. On the back it simply said: from Ensign Julia.


  I opened up the packet and a little CD box fell out. Inside were two CDs neatly labelled ‘Enterprise, Episode One’ and ‘Enterprise, Episode Two’.

  ‘What?’

  ‘There’s a card,’ Maggie said over my shoulder.

  On the front of the card was a picture of a spaceship. Inside was the message:

  Rain May and Captain Daniel,

  Forwarding to you both the first episodes of the brand new Star Trek series. Hot off the optic fibre. More where they come from, same computer, same channel, next fortnight. Ask no questions, just download and enjoy.

  ‘Do you know what she’s talking about?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘No. But I guess we’d better put one in and see. It’s a Star Trek thing, that’s obvious.’

  We put the CD in the CD drive of the computer. A boy came on the screen painting a model.

  ‘It’s a movie,’ Maggie said. ‘She’s sent you a movie?’

  The images were clear but jerky. It was like watching something that sometimes almost slowed down and then went back to normal speed. After the boy there was a field of some sort and an alien running through it pursued by some other aliens. He ran into this wheat silo and these little guys flattened themselves and went under the door of it. And then the silo exploded and a farmer came out and shot the alien. It didn’t make any sense.

  Then there was this dicky music and some credits started to come up and I realised that Ensign Julia had sent me pure gold.

  ‘It’s the latest Star Trek series,’ I said to Maggie. ‘It hasn’t been released here yet. Wow! This is amazing. Daniel will be over the moon.’

  ‘Will we watch it, or will we wait for Daniel?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘We’ll watch this episode,’ I said, ‘so I can tell him about it. But we’ll keep the other one until he comes home. Don’t you think?’

  ‘Okay.’

  It was wonderful. It was exciting and even scary. I didn’t like the flat guys one little bit but I loved the Doctor and his weird clown smile. And I thought the Chief Engineer was pretty cute.

  ‘Madison will be so jealous,’ I said at the end. ‘This is the one thing she wanted to stay in the States for.’

  ‘That?’

  ‘Oh Maggie, you don’t understand. She’s a Trekkie. And she thinks Scott Bakula is a total stud puppy.’

  ‘A what?’

  ‘I prefer the Chief Engineer myself,’ I said.

  ‘Which one was Scott Bakula?’

  ‘He’s the Captain, Mum. Maybe you’re just too old for this.’

  I couldn’t wait to tell Madison. I biked around to Becky’s place straightaway. They were both in the bedroom.

  ‘Have I got something to tell you,’ I said.

  ‘Hey girlfriend!’ Madison said, putting her magazine down.

  ‘I’ve just seen the first episode of Enterprise.’

  ‘You’ve what?’ Becky said, waving her fingers in the air to dry the polish.

  ‘Where?’ Madison asked. ‘How?’

  I ignored the questions.

  ‘The music is so stupid,’ I said. ‘It completely sucks. But Chief Engineer Tripp is a total stud puppy.’

  ‘Oh, how did you get to see that?’ Madison said. ‘I’d die for it. I would.’

  ‘Ask no questions,’ I said. ‘Let’s just say it was hot off the optic fibre.’

  I told Madison a little more, about the Captain’s dog and the way the Doctor said ‘Optimism, Captain’, just to get her going. And then Becky’s mum came in and said it was nearly dinner time and I left.

  ‘Oh Rain,’ Madison wailed, walking me out to my bike, ‘I’ve got to see it. You know I’ve got to see it. Is there any way I can?’

  ‘I’ll work on it,’ I promised. ‘I’ll work on it for you, Madison, because after all we’re girlfriends, right?’

  ‘Power,’ I said to Maggie when I got home, ‘there’s nothing like it.’

  ‘Rain, I don’t like that sentiment much,’ Maggie said. ‘Power is very, well, powerful, I guess. But you have to use it for good, not evil.’

  ‘Oh, this is good power,’ I told her. ‘This is excellent power.’

  The Captain’s Log, Supplemental, Stardate 021101

  Finally moved to Ward Seven West. A physiotherapist comes and makes me cough.

  I’ve made a friend. There’s an Indian boy in the bed next to me. His name is D’nesh Singh and he’s from Fiji. He couldn’t eat the food. He cried in the night because he couldn’t eat the food and his father didn’t know what to do, but then the Counsellor suggested he bring in some takeaway curry. Every night the curry smell in our ward threatens to overpower the hospital smell and the doctors and registrars come by and rub their bellies.

  D’nesh’s father is a doctor, too, and he also plays chess, so the Counsellor went out and bought a chess set for us. So far, D’nesh has won eight games and I’ve won nine. He coughs louder, though, and his scar is bigger.

  If we’re playing chess when the doctors make their rounds, sometimes one will peer at the game and suggest a move. I don’t want to go back to school. I don’t want to go back to school at all.

  I tried to talk the Counsellor into letting me have the rest of the year off. I told her I’d study by myself. We could do it together. It’d be just as good, I said, as going back to school. Probably better. I’d learn more.

  She smiled sadly at me. I think she’d secretly like me to be at home. But my social skills would suffer, she and the Doctor agreed.

  The only person I miss from school is Rain. She was so cool coming in as Data. That was amazing.

  The thing is that she’s drifting over to the girls’ side. When she talks about school she talks about Becky and this American girl, Madison. She doesn’t notice but she mentions them all the time now. So when I get back it’ll just be me again. And I don’t want it to be like that.

  I wish I could go to Fiji with D’nesh. He says that in his school everyone respects you if you’re clever. He said I’d be so popular at his school. He said I’d have the status of a warrior. Wow!

  Trekkies Rule!

  Madison was waiting for me at the school gate the next day.

  ‘When can I see it,’ she asked, ‘when?’

  ‘Well, the thing is,’ I said, ‘it’s not mine. It belongs to a friend of mine.’

  I’d thought about Enterprise and power and Daniel for most of the night. Honest, I’d hardly slept. I was so exhausted when Maggie called out that it was time to get up that I nearly faked a tummy ache to stay home, but I had to go to school because I had to put the plan in action.

  Madison was wildly popular. Madison with her flippy pony tail and her weird way of talking was the girl everyone wanted to know and most of them wanted to be. She had it. Star quality. Don’t ask me why. I couldn’t understand it. Because she’d adopted me, the other girls, and even the boys, were including me in their games. Madison wouldn’t play if Becky and I didn’t play, so they had to.

  I had something Madison wanted desperately. And I wanted something Madison had. I wanted to borrow some of her popularity. Not for me, I was doing fine. I needed it for Daniel. Because I could see that when he got back to school, it was all going to go back to being him sitting eating his lunch by himself, with me beside him watching the others play basketball.

  ‘Who?’ Madison demanded. ‘Do I know them?’

  ‘No, you don’t. It’s a boy called Daniel. He goes to school here, but he’s in hospital at the moment. Becky and Tom know him, but they don’t like him very much. Or at least, he doesn’t think they do. So I don’t think he’d like me lending the CD to you because you’re their cousin.’

  ‘But … you could borrow it, couldn’t you, and I could watch it at your place?’

  ‘That would be cheating. Friends don’t do that.’

  ‘I’ve got to see it. I’ve just got to see it.’

  ‘Well, one thing I thought of,’ I said slowly, ‘but it probably wouldn’t work.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah?’


  ‘See, I thought we could start a Star Trek Club at school, a fan club. I mean there might only be the three of us, you, me and Daniel, but that would be okay. Then maybe we could persuade Daniel to let us meet sometime after school, at his house, and because we were in the club, he’d have to share. There’ll be more episodes. We’ve, I mean, he’s got two already.’

  Madison practically swooned.

  ‘I’ll tell you what, Rain,’ she said when she recovered, ‘why don’t we make this Daniel the president of the Club.’

  ‘Brilliant,’ I said. ‘You’ve got to hand it to you Americans, you’re fantastic at international relations.’

  ‘Rain, you’re weird, but I just love you.’

  Of course everyone wanted to be in the Star Trek Club. We all put in fifty cents to join and that went to getting out the early videos to initiate the non-Trek-kies among us. Our first meeting was at my place. We elected the office bearers — Daniel for President, Madison as Social Secretary, Becky as Treasurer. I offered to write the club newsletter.

  There were a few murmurs about Daniel being President, but to my amazement Tom told everyone to shut up.

  ‘We are lucky enough to have a dedicated Trekkie who knows everything about Star Trek,’ he said. ‘After all, what do you know, Oliver Canning? Anyway, if you’re not happy you don’t have to stay.’

  In the end the club had fifteen members. Maggie made bucketloads of popcorn and we settled down to watch Star Trek: The Original Series with Mr Spock and Captain Kirk. The only person missing was Daniel himself but he’d be back. And he’d be back as President of the Clarkson Primary School Star Trek Club. Actually, Madison suggested we cut out the Primary School bit, to make it shorter.

  ‘Power,’ I said to Maggie when everyone straggled home, still calling out ‘Live Long and Prosper’ to each other.

  ‘I’m proud of you, Rain May,’ Maggie said. ‘When are you going to see Daniel?’

  ‘Ensign Julia and I are going to deliver his official invitation to be President of the Clarkson Star Trek Club and to inform him that his first act should be the screening of Enterprise, Episode One accompanied by the Counsellor’s killer chocolate cake. Julia’s picking me up instead of Dad. Is that okay, Mum?’