by AZ Kelvin
“You go ahead. I still need to pull that power module I was having trouble with yesterday. Here’s the video. I’ll catch up with you in an hour or so.”
“Okay, we’ll be in the observation room by then.” He swatted her behind and darted off. “C’ya!”
“Hey, buster!” She sternly called after him in mock outrage.
CJ smiled when he heard her scold him, as he took off down the corridor. The effort it took to gather everyone turned out to be small: Nelson, Boss, Cal, and GABI were already in the observation room while Cat was on duty at the Medical Center and Gina was out on a shuttle flight with Pene.
“Hey, look at that,” CJ said as he entered the room, “everybody I need to see all in one room.”
“Come on in and join the party,” Boss called out.
“You’re gonna want to throw me right back out again after you hear what I’ve got to say.”
“Storm crow, awk, storm crow,” the parrot at Boss’ shoulder said loudly. “Tie ‘im to a barrel, awk, over he goes.”
CJ looked at the bird and at the hover drone parked on the table and also at the GABI who sat in a chair and regarded him with a smile.
“Yes,” she said with a wink, “I am everywhere.”
“That’s just plain creepy,” CJ teased her.
“No, this is creepy.” She projected a perfect image of himself appeared right next to CJ, right down to the short patch of hair that had grown in over the cut he got from the fight at Skriti Station. The CJ doppelganger turned its head slowly toward the real CJ and winked its eye.
“Yeeeeeeah, that is creepy.” The real CJ slowly nodded his head. “You can stop that now.”
“Aye, sir.” The doppelganger disappeared.
“Thank you, and never do that again.” CJ took a seat at the table.
“Aye, sir.” She smiled pleasantly.
“Ah, yes, the fun that can be had with cybernetics,” Nelson said with a short laugh. “So, Captain, what did you bring us today?”
“Bad tidings, I’m afraid.” CJ set the video scanner on the input plate and hit the load icon. The image of the crumbled bulkheads and the crack in the habitat fuselage played out over the table.
“What is this? What iiis thiiis?” Nelson exclaimed when he saw the video. Nelson’s face looked like someone had just shot a loved one.
“Where is that?” Boss asked.
“Portside, just aft of the crew quarters,” CJ said while he brought up a mechanical print of the Altered Moon that outlined the damaged areas in red.
“Ay, yi, yi,” Nelson said, as he closed his eyes and shook his head. “This very disappointing, very disappointing, indeed. We must pull the fuselage.”
I knew it. I knew it. CJ thought to himself and calmly asked out loud, “So, what’s that going to entail?”
“Not as much as you might think, Captain.” Nelson held up a hand with a slight push for emphasis. “The habitat is modular and the cradle is a separate substructure altogether.” Nelson paused for a moment. “This may have been the problem to begin with…”
“The habitat cradle collapsed and pulled away from the infrastructure,” GABI said. “The modular design did not distribute the stress of forceful impact appropriately.”
“Yes, yes, a grievous design error on my part,” Nelson said. “I should have seen that. This time we will encompass the habitat with a secondary support structure of its own.”
“So, time frame?” CJ asked.
“Fifteen to twenty days.”
“Unnnnnggg,” CJ said with a groan.
“Hey, she’ll be brand new from inside to out,” Boss said. “It won’t be that much longer and you’ll be on the way.”
CJ absently waved his hand. “Eh, I’ve decided to put it off.”
“Really?” Boss looked at him. “What changed your mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know really.” CJ paused for a second. “Katy made a good point, that the war won’t last forever, and when the Kang are forced back we can go in easy and find the goods.”
“Doesn’t have anything to do with my procedure?” Boss asked him.
“Yes and no, honestly. Hubris is a subtle and dangerous trap. I’d be a fool to try this kind of mission with untested design changes and only half my crew. Besides, what better way to test the ship than by exploring Keect’na space for a while? Anyway, the trail is damn near a hundred years old, so what’s the rush?”
“Then we will get started immediately,” Nelson said.
“Can we enlarge the galley, by chance?” Boss asked. CJ looked at him with a smile. “For Pene,” Boss added.
“Mm hmm,” CJ hummed sarcastically. “So anyway, I think you should go and have the procedure now. We can come along as soon as the refit is done, and we can base out of Outlook Station for a while. You ought to be out of the recovery phase and into PT, by then. We’ll explore the area and then decide where we want to go. We still have the coordinates of Trigger’s to the supposedly forgotten Rellia weapon caches.”
“You really want to get back into that end of things?” Boss asked with mild surprise. “Going after the medical shipment on the Istraulis was one of his ideas, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know that,” CJ replied.
Boss nodded his head. “We only robbed dead people until he started to bring up jobs that we just couldn’t pass by, given their big payoffs. Then we got greedy and down the slippery slope we went.”
“If you guys had’na been there, the Cap’n would’a died that day,” Cal pointed out.
“I know, weird, isn’t it?” Boss agreed.
“Katy and I were just talking about that. What’s weird is that she ended up with Nelson at Cantankerous Base, and I ended up with you on board a ship that was destined to go there,” CJ added.
“Ah, the currents of the cosmos are an incredible mystery, indeed,” Nelson said while he laughed lightly.
“Mysteries, doll face”—the parrot shimmered into a man that stood by the table in a trench coat with the collar up and a fedora down low over his eyes—“require a detective. See?” The image shimmered into a heavy Chinese man with a Fu Manchu moustache. “Ah, mystery presents opportunity for honorable gumshoe to apply most humble trade.”
“Ha, ha, ha, I love it!” Boss said.
“Hey, that’s pretty good, Gabs,” Cal said. “What else can you do?”
“Many millions of choices, Cal.” GABI projected image after image that stayed only a few seconds and then shimmered into something else. People, animals, places, even an image of the Altered Moon showed up.
“Hey, can you show me what it looks like when we jump?” Boss asked.
“Certainly.” The image of the ship began to disappear from front to back. The effect was like a gentle undulating wave of invisibility creeping over the ship until she was gone completely. An emergence was portrayed next, which was close to the same thing except the ship appeared, instead of disappeared.
“Can you show me a Kang?” CJ asked her.
“Yes, sir.”
The image of a male Kang warrior appeared life-size beside the table instead of over it. The Kang stood ten feet tall on average, with all four feet on the floor, to fifteen feet tall when they stood on their back legs. They had two arms, four legs, and a stout tail equal in length to their rear legs. Tan, green, yellow, and red splotches randomly covered the Kang’s black-skinned body.
The head and neck were sleek, almost snakelike, with powerful jaws lined with sharp pointed teeth along the front and massive gnashing teeth in the rear. Their eyes were set deep under sharp scaly ridges. The black Y-shaped pupils were surrounded by pale yellow irises rimmed with green splotches and three red dots that sat at each of the three iris points. Thin rubbery growths of various lengths ran from the top of the head and tapered off to a point at the bottom of the back. The two heavily muscled upper arms were attached to a massive torso. The thick paws ended in eight taloned digits, four on the end and two sets of two more on either side of each for
earm.
The body was quadruped; there were two rear legs, which were short and stocky, and two middle legs, which could be used as arms when the creature stood on its two rear legs and tail. The rear legs were the shortest and caused the rump of the creature to drop like a bulldog. The feet and hands had barbs extending from the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, which set an iron grip on their prey or grabbed on to any terrain.
The image of the alien creature blurred and then refocused. The Kang warrior was now covered almost completely in ornately jeweled armor plating. A jewel-rimmed helmet covered from the forehead backward to just below the back of the massive skull. Ornate armored plates wrapped around its neck and down the belly. The plating ran down from under the helmet along its back to the tip of the tail. The area around the strange rubbery tubes on its back was covered by a device with small round ports that would alternately open and close, as the creature breathed in and out. A large bladed weapon and a long-barreled rifle sat in sheaths along its back with smaller bladed weapons and sidearms tucked into holsters and harnesses at various places around its body.
CJ got up and walked around the image a few times. “Are they vulnerable anywhere?”
“Yes, Captain.” GABI removed the armor and the skin of the creature in the image. “Here and here.” Flashing rec circles indicated two points, one on each end of the muscled neck. “They do breathe, even though they can survive in a great many atmospheres. The throat at this point in front of the base of the neck had no musculature coverage. Consequently is typically covered with armor, as a well-placed shot would surely result in a fatality. The other spot is on the back of the head, where it joins with the neck, which is protected by armor plating, as well as the backdrop of the helmet. The central nervous system runs only a few centimeters under the skin here; this is their greatest weakness. One hit here would result in a fatality, which is why it is doubly armored.”
“Seriously, one hit?”
“Yes, Captain, they are as weak as kittens.” She raised a sarcastic eyebrow. “All you have to do is get their armor off.”
“Ha-ha, I love it, ‘all you have to do is get their armor off,’ ha!” Cal said in amusement.
“Let me see that armor again,” CJ said.
The image shifted back to a full-skinned and armored Kang warrior, as the door opened and Katy came in.
Katy was caught completely off guard by the image of the Kang warrior. The few items she carried flew out of her hands. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” She screamed from the very bottom of her lungs and fell backward in fear. She scrambled away as fast as she could. “No no no no no no no no no no no!” The image immediately vanished. Someone was yelling, and then something grabbed her. “Noo no!” She flailed her arms and legs; one backhand landed squarely on CJ’s cheekbone.
“Katy! Ow! Hey! Katy! It’s all right. It was a hologram! It was a hologram! Katy!” CJ tried to calm her down. “Easy, Katy, easy—easy, you’re okay—you’re okay.”
Katy calmed down when she realized what happened. She lay back flat on the floor with her knees up and her hands over her eyes. Her whole body trembled while she tried to get her breathing under control. CJ and Cal were both at her side, as well as GABI and Nelson.
“Katy, I am terribly sorry,” GABI said.
“No it’s my fault, GABI,” CJ said. “I should’ve remembered she was coming up.”
“It’s okay,” Katy said from where she was. “It’s okay. It just took me by surprise is all.”
“Come on, let me help you up.” CJ took her hand and helped her to her feet. “Sorry about that.”
“Here ya go, Chief.” Cal had gathered up all of her stuff that went flying earlier.
“Thanks, Cal.” Katy took a couple of deep breaths. “I’m just gonna—I’ll see ya later.”
“Hey, are you okay?” CJ called after her as she walked down the corridor.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She kept walking without turning around.
CJ watched her walk off then went to the comms unit and poked the Med Center icon.
“Medical Center, how may I help you?” the receptionist answered.
“Yes, Dr. Katsu please.”
“One moment.”
“Dr. Katsu.”
“Cat, it’s CJ. Hey, I was wondering if you could check in on Katy?”
“Sure, what happened?”
CJ told her about the scare with the Kang image.
“Oh, I’m sure she’s fine, but yeah, I’ll check in on her. I’m almost done with my shift here and I’ll look her up.”
“Great, thanks, Cat. I think she went toward our quarters.”
“Copy that.” The connection went dark, and CJ went back to the meeting to plan the rest of the refit.
Zhu Katsu found Katy in the common room a short time later.
“Hey,” Cat said, as she sat down beside Katy.
“Hey,” Katy said back.
“You okay?”
“You heard?”
Cat nodded.
“CJ?”
Cat nodded and smiled.
“Pbbfffffffff…” Katy puffed her cheeks and then exhaled through a set jaw. “I lost it. I completely lost it. I damn near shit my coveralls.”
“Hey, the Kang are worthy of being afraid of, Katy. If I came around the corner and saw one of those monsters standing there, I’d shit my pants, too, honey.”
Katy smiled and laughed a little. “Yeah, I know. I’m just tired of being stuck on this dead-ass planet. I need to be in the skies.”
“I feel the same way. This is the longest we’ve been in one place in years.”
“It’s going to be even longer now.” Katy told her about what she and CJ found earlier that morning. “I’m sure we’ll get an update tonight from CJ and Boss.”
Excited conversation about the day’s flight training let them know that Pene and Gina, at least, were at the transtube and headed this way.
“Thanks, Cat.” Katy smiled at her. “It just scared the crap out of me and I decided to take the rest of the day off.”
“Sounds like good medicine to me.” Cat got up and helped Katy to her feet.
The four women talked about how their individual days had gone until it was time for Pene to start the evening meal. The rest of the crew arrived later after the meeting was over. CJ and Boss told everyone about the damage and the extra refit time. They also told them about CJ’s decision to pass on the Find of the Century for the time being and Boss’ decision to leave ahead of them, before the refit was done, to begin the procedure with the Keect’na. The news was met with mixed feelings, which made the dinner a quiet one, with everyone caught up in their own thoughts.
Katy came across GABI by chance a few days later and had an impulsive idea. “Hey, GABI.”
“Hello, Chief. What can I do for you?”
“I wondered if you would project the image of a Kang for me?”
“Chief, I believe that would cause you undue stress. Please don’t ask this of me.”
“GABI, I need to overcome this fear of them, and maybe this will help me to do that.” Katy pleaded with her and GABI finally relented.
An involuntary shudder ran down Katy’s spine when the subject of her worst nightmares shimmered into view. She walked around the hologram that was so real she could almost smell the stink of the vile creature.
“Can you animate it?” GABI protested again, but Katy assured her, “I know now it’s just a hologram.”
GABI reluctantly brought the image to life. The Kang growled slightly with every exhale; it shifted in place and looked around like it searched for something.
“Oh, shit…” Katy trembled and looked down quickly. Slowly she raised her eyes to look at the huge alien warrior. She studied the creature until her body stopped shaking and she didn’t have to look away every few minutes. “What were you doing when I came in, that day?”
“I was pointing out areas that are vulnerable to attack.”
“Really? Show me.”
GABI took her through the same lecture about the Kang’s vulnerabilities she’d given the other day.
“Hmmm…”Katy felt better when she heard the monsters had a soft spot. “Thanks, GABI, you’ve really helped me out. I’d hug you if I could.”
“Likewise. I am glad I was able to help.”
Katy had been wrestling with herself between her love of CJ and her fear of the Kang. Recently, she’d wondered which would be the stronger. Katy realized that with GABI’s help, she was able to break free of the fear.
Right here… Katy thought to herself, as she finally boiled the decision down to one choice, This ship, this crew, this man, this is where I want to be.
The decision released all the tension and anxiety she had been feeling since they found Stile’s Hideaway. The relief from the worry was so complete, she now knew she’d made the right decision, and she wanted with all her heart to stay with CJ. Wherever that happened to be.
The following weeks went by at a decent pace, with the crew focused on the refit. The habitat had been repaired and reinforced, the upgrades were all in place and complete, and they were ready to install the new hull plating. Boss, who kept putting off his surgery for ‘important reasons,’ was finally due to leave with next week’s shuttle to Keect. Gina was going along with Boss to be there for the procedure, but promised to return in time to take the Moon through her test flights when the refit was done.
One morning, Katy was up and gone before CJ even woke up. A note on the table in their quarters simply said, ‘I Love You’ and ‘CUL8R.’ He smiled, but missed her terribly when she wasn’t around. I don’t ever want to be without her, he thought absently as he got cleaned up for the day. He stopped in the middle of what he was doing as he replayed that thought over again. A moment of clarity hit him like a brick and he knew exactly what he needed to do.
The day’s activities passed quickly and CJ expected to meet the rest of the crew down on the promenade for a group night out.
“Hey, Cap!” Cal called out to him and waved as CJ came out of the transtube.
“What’s going on down here?” CJ asked as he joined the huge amount of people assembled in the promenade.