“What are you working on over there, Gunny?” Jason asked, seeing Orion entering something on her virtual tablet.
“I’m reconfiguring our HUD weapon interfaces,” she said, looking up. “What happened today, the multi-guns not being properly set. I thought we’d have time. I wanted to show everyone how to configure the menus.” Orion abruptly stopped talking. Her eyes welled-up with tears and she started to shake. Billy got up and sat down beside her. He reached an arm around her shoulder, but she pushed it away. He tried again, and this time she didn’t fight it. She turned and cried into his shoulder for what seemed a long time.
Jason was quiet, and then said, “You know, this is new for all of us. We’re all winging it as best we can. No one’s blaming you, Gunny. Without those amazing guns, we would not have survived today.”
She nodded, her face still buried into Billy’s shoulder. Jason looked away to the star-filled horizon. As the last vestiges of light slipped away, his eyes focused on a red planet, a planet with Saturn-like rings. It looked close enough to touch.
“I believe that planet is called
Evam
,” a voice nearby said.
Jason turned, seeing Ricket had taken the rock where Billy previously sat.
“The name fits, ” Jason replied, keeping his eyes on the magnificent view.
Jason looked over to the mechanized alien, wondering just how much Ricket was analytical and machinelike, and how much an actual sentient, feeling being. Still irritated at Ricket’s previous actions, Jason stood. All eyes followed him. “It’s my turn to take watch.”
* * *
Jason overslept. He'd stayed awake, covering two sentry duty shifts overnight, and only crawled into his sleeping bag at 0600 as the sun started to rise. He'd heard yelling and laughing for the past hour and realized it was his team having a little R&R in the pool. By the time he’d gotten up and made his way over to the pool, things had settled down. Traveler was the last one still in the water.
"Good morning, Traveler. How's the water?" Jason asked.
"The water is a gift from
Baruke
. Like fire and air, one of the elemental forces."
Jason realized that the phrase 'how’s the water' was an English-language colloquialism and he'd taken the question literally. Over the past few weeks, Traveler had picked up English fairly quickly. Jason saw no need, nor did he have the energy right then, to correct him.
"I will leave you to some private time of tranquility, Captain."
Traveler pulled himself out from the rock pool. Seeing him now, naked, and without his heavy outer leather coverings, the years of battle were clearly evident. Scars—some were long and traveled the full length of his upper torso, and others were jagged, round-like clusters where his hide had been punctured. Seeing he was now alone, Jason activated his battle suit to disengage from his body. The torso and leg panels, as well as his boots, silently hinged open and allowed him to step out from it. The suit’s materials were extremely lightweight, yet sturdy enough for the battle suit to remain standing on its own. Wearing only his underwear, he jumped into the water. He'd expected it to be cold and invigorating, but it was more warm and relaxing—which was just as well.
"Mind if I join you, Captain?" came a voice from behind him. Jason pushed away from the side of the pool and turned as he treaded water. "Please, come on in," Jason said, trying to sound nonchalant. Dira stood at the edge of the pool, looking down at him. Smiling, she turned away and activated her own battle suit to disengage from her body, as Jason had, and now wore only bra and panties. Jason, averting his eyes from her, dove under the water and came up on the opposite side of the pool. Dira sat on the opposite edge, her legs in the water.
"The water's surprisingly warm," she said, then slowly slid the rest of the way in. "Captain, I've been meaning to ask you something, if that’s okay?"
"Sure, shoot."
"What are the rules about—" she hesitated, as if unsure how to ask. "What are the rules about … um … dating on board
The Lilly
? You know, for officers and the like?"
Jason's heart skipped a beat before realizing the reality of the situation. Lieutenant Morgan was the officer she was asking about. She treaded water several feet in front of Jason and was slightly out of breath. Waiting for his reply, she tilted her head all the way back and immersed her hair for a quick moment, exposing her wet, now see-through, bra.
"To be perfectly honest, I haven't checked the Alliance regulations. But if they’re anything like the Navy, and I'm fairly sure they would be, relationships between Alliance officers and an Alliance NCO crew member would be considered fraternization."
"Suppose it was an officer and someone who was not an Alliance crew member, but someone who was simply on loan from a civilian hospital?" Her Jhardian accent sounded almost Australian, but then again, different too.
Dira had moved a little closer, their faces no more than a foot apart.
"Like I said, I'm not up on Alliance rules and regs, but if you are a civilian, then dating Lieutenant Morgan may be—"
Dira burst out laughing, which soon turned to coughing and choking as she inhaled a mouthful of water. Jason took her arm and helped her over to the side of the pool. Once her coughing subsided, her smile returned.
"You OK?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm just showing you how sophisticated I can be."
Jason laughed. “Well, at least you didn't throw up; sophistication goes right out the window at that point." He was aware she had put her arm around his neck when he'd helped her over to the edge. She’d left it there and turned her face towards him—now only inches away.
"Morgan is certainly a good friend,” Dira said, starting to laugh again, but she then turned serious. "I wasn't referring to myself and Lieutenant Morgan, Captain." She didn't elaborate. She didn't need to. She let go the edge of the pool and brought her hands forward to encircle Jason's waist. She brought her lips close to the side of his face and he felt her lips lightly brush against his ear as she whispered, "Can I say something without the risk of being insubordinate?" Jason looked into her Jhardian eyes, with their flecks of violet and amber, her long lashes tickling his cheek with every blink.
"You might as well. No one else seems to worry about it," Jason said, in an equally soft whisper.
"I think you are doing everything you can to hide something."
"What would I have to hide? I think I'm pretty much an open book."
"I said
trying
to hide, not successfully hiding, something. There isn't a soul on board
The Lilly
who hasn't noticed there’s something going on between us. People notice things—they see how you look at me." Jason felt his cheeks flush. Had he been so obvious? Was he that transparent? She became serious and said, "Why don't you stop thinking so much?" Dira was pulling him backward, first beneath the cascading waterfall and then to the dark recessed space behind it. She brought her lips up to his and kissed him long and hard. Her arms and legs came up and encircled him. All too quickly, she pushed him away. "Okay, that's enough of that."
Speechless, Jason simply looked into those incredible eyes.
"You can't tell me that you weren't wondering what that would be like—now we know," she said.
"And now we know," Jason replied, finding it hard to keep the smile off his face.
“But ... Well, maybe you need to figure out what you want. I mean, are you back playing house with your ex-wife or are you really interested in me? You need to understand, I'm not human, Jason. I'm Jhardian. There are things about me, things that..." She stopped talking, embarrassed.
"Go on, Dira, please," Jason coaxed. He saw how important it was to her, and he wanted her to know he didn't take her concerns lightly.
"Courting a Jhardian girl. God, that sounds so old-fashioned.”
"Go on."
"Courting a Jhardian girl is different—unlike how it’s done on Earth. Not that I'm an expert on the goings-on with Earth relationships. And, unfortunately, I won’t be able to tell you how it's different."
Jason could see there was more she wanted to say. She was flustered. His hands rested gently on her hips. Immersed, they nestled closer together behind the waterfall—their faces inches apart.
"There's more… "
"Tell me, I want to know," Jason said.
"Oh, God. We’re ... I’m … physically not the same as a human," she said, barely loud enough to hear over the cascading water.
"Oh." He let that sink in for a moment. "So things don't work ..?"
Dira smiled, "No, they actually work just fine. Things definitely work. You'd be surprised how well things work. But, I'm not human." She smiled, more flustered. "How about we just leave it at that for now, OK?" She gave Jason a friendly shove, making him disappear back under the waterfall. "Cool off, sailor, I'm getting out."
Chapter 13
The mess hall was packed. Mollie sat with four of the fighter pilots—two men and two women. Lieutenant Wilson was telling a joke, but was switching out certain words—words she knew replaced bad words she wasn’t supposed to hear. Everyone laughed when he finished. Mollie looked up at their faces and wondered why they thought that was funny.
One of the women pilots, whom everyone just called Grimes, put an arm around Mollie’s shoulder and gave her a quick hug. “That’s a stupid joke; we only laugh so Wilson doesn’t get his feelings hurt,” she said, which evoked a few more giggles.
The XO entered the mess and approached their table. He smiled at Mollie, then looked over to Wilson. “I need you to start rotating your officers into bridge duty shifts.”
“Yes, sir. From what I’ve heard there wasn’t going to be a need—not much to do during FTL travel, is there?”
“Long-range scans are acting flakey. So we’re periodically dropping out of FTL, doing some short-range scans and making any minor course changes as necessary. With Gunny gone, I need someone familiar with
The Lilly
’s weapon’s system. Shift rotation’s coming up … I want three people,” Perkins replied.
“I’ll take this shift,” Grimes chimed in.
Wilson nodded, “I’ll be there, sir, and add Dak to the roster as well.”
Wilson, Grimes and Dak all stood in unison, picked up their lunch trays, and left the table.
Perkins brought his attention back to Mollie. “How’s your mom doing?”
“Not so great. I don’t think she realized how bad she was going to feel.”
“Well, let her know if there’s anything she needs or I can do for her—I’m just a NanoCom hail away.” Perkins smiled and strode out of the mess. Others were returning to their shifts as well. Mollie turned around in her seat and eyed the activity of crewmembers coming and going. She’d had the strange feeling she was being watched, and this was the third time she’d spun around to find no one looking at her.
“It’s ready, Mollie,” came Plimpton’s friendly voice from behind the counter. He held a tray filled with covered food items up in the air and then set it down. “Let her know this is my own special recipe—designed to alleviate MediPod hangovers.”
“Thanks, Plimp.”
“Oh, so now I’m Plimp? You know, now everyone’s going to start calling me that,” he said, not too thrilled.
Mollie smiled and shrugged. She got up from the table, bussed her tray to a large bin, and walked over to the food tray Plimp had left for her. Again, she felt like she was being watched. In the minute she had turned away, something had changed—someone had moved. After picking up the tray, she headed toward the exit. She scanned the lunch tables; only a few stragglers were still in the mess finishing their meals.
* * *
The Seaman First Class watched the little girl in his peripheral vision walk toward the mess hall exit. He was fairly certain it had been her who had found and then destroyed one of his devices. He felt his anger rise up seeing Mollie Reynolds’ smiling face. Soon enough that smile would be gone. Soon enough, she, and everyone else on board, would be dealt with. The seaman let his mind wander. What would Admiral Reynolds’ reaction be when he heard that both his granddaughter and son were dead?
If only I could see the expression on his face
…
Payback’s a bitch.
But right now he needed to keep his head in the game. Having only two phase-disruption modules left would not be optimal, but there was nothing he could do about that now. His primary concern was the AI. What a magnificent piece of technology. These morons have no idea what her true capabilities were. Perhaps that’s best. For a brief moment, the seaman let a small smile invade his typically-solemn face—then it was gone. That fucking Craing cyborg monstrosity wasn’t the only one who could hack the AI. It had taken time. He’d had to mirror Ricket’s workstation—without either the AI or the cyborg being any the wiser. Now, with his every new hack into her core system level rules engine, the AI was losing her capability to manage key ship systems. And, with his most recent set of parameters, she was incapable of divulging the truth of what was happening.
If that’s not ingenious, I don’t know what is …
The seaman got up from the table, leaving the tray and remaining scraps of food behind. He had a lot to do and little time to do it.
* * *
Mollie put the food tray on the side of her mother’s bed. “The cook said this will make you feel better, Mom.” Mollie watched as her mother looked down at the tray of food, removed one of the plate covers, and quickly replaced it.
“Thank you, sweetie, that was kind of you to do that. But I’m not quite up to solid food yet.”
Mollie picked up the tray and took it into the kitchenette down the hall. When she returned, her mother had sat up and actually looked somewhat better than she had the previous day. “You look a little better, Mom.”
“I think I’m getting there. What have you been up to? You’re staying away from the Zoo, right?” Nan asked, watching Mollie’s face for any sign of deception.
“Nope. No Zoo.” Mollie said, then looked into her mother’s eyes.
Nan frowned, then she relaxed her face and smiled. “So that’s what that’s like.”