Chapter Six.

Betrus System

2352-June-04

Perhaps it's some kind of universal law that just when you think everything is fine, bang you get hit in the head. We were two days out of Betrus and it had seemed like a long haul from Dunsany Roads. Part of the problem was due, in no small part, to my inability to let go of the images of that night with Alicia Alvarez. Every time I opened my locker, I caught her scent on my jacket. I should get it cleaned, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

The other issue, was the continue nagging about my place in the universe. This quest for ident.i.ty was not foreign to me. When your mother is an ancient lit professor, you come to grips with the existential early on. Who am I? Why am I here? n.o.body had any really good answers in the old books. It seemed to me that it was not the kind of thing you could answer except in hindsight. The problem I was up against at the moment was that, at eighteen, I didn't have a whole lot of hind to sight and I just wished people would leave me alone to deal with it.

I was just getting ready to relieve Francis for the afternoon watch when Brill stormed into environmental by slamming the hatch open so hard it bounced off its stops. This was the first time I'd seen her angry since we met and she was making up for lost time.

I looked at Francis who shrugged in return.

Brill grabbed the hatch, slammed it closed with both hands, and threw the d.o.g.g.i.ng lever with a wrench that I thought might twist it out of its socket. She stood there with her back turned for a tick, and when she turned around she was under control. If I hadn't seen the performance with the hatch, I wouldn't have known she was upset. She wasn't even breathing hard.

"Mr. w.a.n.g, when you've relieved the watch, would you join me in my office?" she asked very officially.

"Of course, Chief," I said to her back as she pa.s.sed us and entered her office.

Francis and I finished the formalities. He shrugged and gave me a hopeful smile before heading for the hatch. It opened easily enough although it wouldn't have surprised me to find it stuck from the slamming. I did a quick scan of the displays, slaved my tablet, and followed Brill into her office. We were the only ones in the section, but I think she needed the comfort of her own s.p.a.ce. Whatever was bothering her, it was not going to be fun for either of us.

When I entered, she was standing in the middle of her office with her whelkie in hand. The whelkie was a small wood carving of a heron that I had given her when I joined the section. They were made by South Coast Shamans and were suppose to have magical properties. She was stroking it absently with her fingers, and I couldn't be sure she was even aware of the action.

"You're not going to get the promotion to spec three, Ish," she said with a catch in her voice.

"Okay," I said with a shrug. "No big deal."

She looked at me then, chewing her lower lip. "You're being replaced by a spec three that's waiting for us in Betrus," she said.

I waited.

"Home office finally processed Gregor's transfer and did so with a replacement from there. We picked up the orders from the orbital beacon last night. I've just come from a meeting with the captain and Mr. Kelley." She struggled for control. "I tried to argue for you and the captain is very angry at the home office right now. She a.s.sures me that she'll do everything in her power for you, but she has no choice but to bring on this new guy as soon as we dock."

"I see," I said. "What will happen then?"

"I don't know. She had all the senior staff there when I left. They're fighting for you."

I heard the unspoken but in her voice. The ASIC popped up and I cleared it on my tablet without leaving the office. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but no slot, no job?"

"True. But the officers can be creative with slots," she pointed out. "Look at what they did for Pip."

"Good point," I said, and took a deep breath. "Well, I'm crew for a couple more days, so I've got a watch to stand." I started to leave.

She nodded and said, "I tried, Ish. I really did try."

I turned back to her and wrinkled my nose. "Do you slam hatches like that for everybody?" I asked with a grin.

She colored a bit at that and chuckled. "Um. Not exactly professional decorum, huh?"

I shrugged.

She got a wicked look on her face. "You shoulda seen the captain!"

I stepped out of the office, took a deep breath, and said, "Trust Lois."

After that it was hard to focus on my duties, so I made an extra effort. It would have been too easy to overlook something and I concentrated like it was a test. In a lot of ways, I suppose it was, just not the kind I was used to. There didn't appear to be anything in the logs and there was no maintenance scheduled so the only thing I had to look forward to was my VSI walk through.

That wasn't the longest watch I ever stood. It's hard to find a longer watch than the twelve hour overnight port-duty watches. But it was close. My mind kept trying to tell me it would be okay, but my gut kept reminding me of what it was like on a company planet with no job, no resources, and no friends.

Brill stayed in her office all afternoon. I didn't dare get too close. Not that I was afraid of her. I was more afraid of myself. I didn't know what I'd do, and I didn't want to break down into pitiful sobs. It occurred to me that she might be feeling the same way. More than once during that afternoon I found my own whelkie-a dolphin-in my hands with my thumb stroking the smooth, oiled wood.

What worried me most was that I hadn't heard from the captain. I liked and respected her a lot. On the one hand, she knew I was on watch and would be unlikely to summon me in the middle of it. On the other, I doubted she had answers for me yet. All I could do was trust Lois and pay attention to my current duties.

My watch eventually ended. Francis showed up a few minutes early, a very unusual thing for him to do. "It's all over the ship," he said. "Raw deal, Ish."

"It's just one hand and the game isn't over yet," I told him with what I hoped was more a.s.surance than I really felt.

"She still in there?" he asked, nodding at the office.

"Been there all afternoon. Unless she slipped out while I was on VSI."

He sighed and I think I did too.

When he took the watch I headed out to get cleaned up for dinner. I didn't even make it out of the hatch before the captain's summons. .h.i.t my tablet. I stopped for a tick in berthing to splash some water on my face and wash the cruft off my hands. I straightened my shipsuit and wished that I had gotten my lucky stone back from Brill in Dunsany. I let out a small laugh and went to see what the captain had to say.

When I entered the cabin, the senior officers were with her-Mr. Maxwell, the First Mate; Mr. Cotton, the Cargo Chief; and Mr. Kelley, the Engineering First Officer. They looked calm, cool, and collected, which I didn't take as a good sign. These people were pros had dealt with crew changes for longer than I had been alive. I couldn't imagine I was the first junior crewman to get b.u.mped off a ship. Just the thought put a lump in my gut, but I stood braced at attention as best as I could.

"Relax, Mr. w.a.n.g," the captain said. "I know you're just getting off watch but I wanted you to know what we do. You're going to be mobbed when you leave here and I want you as informed as you can be."

"Thank you, Captain," I said.

"First, I a.s.sume you already know that you're getting b.u.mped from the environmental section?" she said it like she wanted confirmation, but only as a formality.

"Yes, sar," I said. "I've been informed."

"Second, I hope you understand that I'm not pleased with this unwarranted interference with the smooth operation of my vessel, but that I have a duty to the owners."

"Yes, sar, I understand completely, sar." The h.e.l.l of it was, I did. It was rock and hard place time. n.o.body liked it but getting squished periodically was part of a rating's job.

"Third, I need to tell you that your contract with Federated Freight permits them to put you ash.o.r.e at half pay if no alternate berth is available. If an alternate berth is located on any other Federated Freight ship, but you refuse to take that position, as is your right, you'll receive no pay."

"Thank you, Captain," I said. "I wasn't aware of that, but I appreciate the warning. Will that provision be a problem?"

"We're still looking into that," she said. "At the moment, no. There are presently only three other ships in Betrus and only one belongs to Federated Freight and she has no openings for you to turn down. If you have to go ash.o.r.e, it'll be at least at half pay."

We all knew that half pay wouldn't go far on the orbital in terms of paying for room and board, but n.o.body mentioned that.

"Last, you should be aware that you are eligible to b.u.mp any junior crewman from the ship with the proviso that you are qualified to take their position. You are rated at half share in all four divisions and full share in two more. It is your right to b.u.mp any quarter share crew aboard which includes most of the deck and engine crews."

"So, is what you're saying is that I could stay, but only at the expense of a shipmate, Captain?"

"Precisely."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Will you be exercising that right, Mr. w.a.n.g?" Mr. Maxwell asked.

"No, sar," I replied. "It's my problem and I'll deal with it, sar."

In my previous dealings with the captain and senior officers, this was the point in the conversation where they did a little look around and nod thing. I found it ominous that they all just stared straight ahead.

The captain said, "Thank you, Mr. w.a.n.g. We're still working on this, but that's all for now. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Captain," I said, and fled the cabin.

Dinner was well underway by the time I got there and when I stepped onto the mess deck, I thought it got a little quieter. Cookie had made a fish and pasta dish with a spicy cream sauce and peas. Sarah smiled at me, but I was not sure if she understood what was happening. Pip definitely knew and he looked angry. I shot a smile his way and, and he just gave me a little shake of his head. "Later," I said. Cookie was hovering in the background and I could not read the expression on his face. It looked almost like pride but I could not imagine why that would be.

Brill and Diane sat together and there was an open seat so I settled there. "Is it a little chilly in here?" I asked.

"Perhaps a bit," Diane said.

Brill hid her mouth in her coffee mug and said, "Half of them think you're going to b.u.mp them and the other half know it could just as easily be them."

"Well that's silly," I said. "I'm not b.u.mping anyone." I didn't intend to make it a general announcement but it just came out. I started eating. I could feel everybody on the mess deck looking at me and I let them. The sauce on the fish was hotter than it looked and it crept up on me just enough to make my nose run. While the conversation picked up around us, Brill and Diane just sat with me in silence. The meal was good, though, and I savored their company as well as the food. After I cleaned my plate, I smiled at them. "I'm going to go lie down and let this settle, I think. I know better than to hit the track with this much food in my belly."

Brill winked at me with a sad smile of her own.

Diane patted me on the back and said, "See you in the morning. Don't be late."

I bussed my dishes and headed for berthing. People seemed a bit more relaxed, even sympathetic now that they knew I wasn't a threat. Throwing somebody else off the ship was my right for having earned the ratings. It was within the letter of the rules, but was just something I couldn't do. They did not know that, so it was easy for them to a.s.sume that I would claim the rights and privileges of my rank. I found the dolphin in my hand again and smiled. I pulled out my tablet to set an alarm for 21:00. It had just turned 19:00 and I could stand to sleep for a couple of hours. I felt a more than a little wrung out, truth be told.

I was halfway to my bunk when the ship hit something. It wasn't like a hard crash, with bodies flying and vacuum sucking us out through holes in the hull or anything like that. I heard a really loud hissing sound-like we were plowing through a veil of sand and a shifting in my inner ear told me we had changed vector. It reminded me of the moving-lift feeling I got just at pull out. I did not have time to think, because the ship went dark and silent. I felt myself floating with the momentum of my last solid step on the deck.

Dark and silent are two things you never want on a ship. Dark means the power's out. Silent means no air. Without power, air was going to be an issue. I was shocked into immobility. I froze right there, drifting awkwardly in the pa.s.sage and trying to remember if I was supposed to do something. It was reflex to pull out the tablet, but there was no signal and a blinking LED on the side told me the network was gone. I flicked it on anyway and the back-lit screen gave me enough light to see up and down the pa.s.sageway.

Altogether it only lasted maybe five heartbeats, but it seemed much, much longer. I had just about enough time to think about Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, which would have made my mother proud.

The emergency power came online and with it the emergency lights, the klaxon alarm, and gravity. I was grateful for the light, could have pa.s.sed on the klaxon, and the gravity, while useful, reintroduced me abruptly to the deck. I lay there for a few moments to gather my wits and make sure I hadn't done any damage. Then I scrambled to my feet and headed for environmental as fast as I could. I pa.s.sed several people on the way who all shared the same dazed expression. We did not stop to talk. If we lived, we could talk later. I made it through the hatch just as the klaxon cut off.

"All hands to General Quarters. All hands to General Quarters. Section leaders report via radio to the bridge."

Brill and Diane stumbled in behind me and Frances was in the chair running diagnostics on the console. Brill began barking, "What've we got, Francis?"

"Complete power loss for five seconds: emergency power online, operational status unknown, ShipNet offline, data feeds to all systems not available. Blowers are on, but whether they're moving anything useful. I can't tell."

"Diane, Ish, grab portable sniffers and make sure nothing nasty is in here. Then stick one into the main air intake and see what we're sucking in. Watch the O2 and CO2 levels. We can add oxygen but if the CO2 starts to build, getting rid of it will be a challenge."

She went to her office, pulled out a rack of radio communicators, and started pa.s.sing them out while calling the bridge and giving her status report.

Three tics later we gathered at the largely useless console.

"Report," she said.

"Nothing in the sniffers. Air mixture is good for now," Diane said. "Scrubbers look okay. Nothing in a power fluctuation should damage them."

"Same here on the sniffer. Nothing unusual coming in the main intake stream. I left mine taped up with the audible on. If it picks up something out of range, we should hear it," I said.

"Console seems operational," Francis added. "But without the ShipNet, there's nothing it can do. I can't tell if the sensors are even alive."

"Immediate danger?" Brill asked.

We all shook our heads.

She got on the radio to talk to the bridge while we settled down to wait. Diane stuck her head in every scrubber cabinet again looking for problems. Francis and I took another inspection tour around the section but found nothing amiss.

At 19:15 the overhead speakers piped on. "This is the captain speaking. Here's what we have people. We ran through the residue of an unreported coronal ma.s.s ejection with an a.s.sociated EMP. The high speed ma.s.s took off some paint but the EMP toasted our sail generators and knocked down the ShipNet. We've notified Betrus...o...b..tal. We are in no immediate danger. We're just going to be a bit delayed getting into port. We're on a ballistic trajectory inbound, but going too fast for the tugs to snag so we're going to have to do a fly by and come back on the other side. Repeat. We are in no immediate danger. If the condition changes, I'll let you all know. That is all."

We were still in the look-at-each-other-and-shrug mode, just before shifting into the now-what-do-we-do stage when Brill's radio bipped and Mr. Maxwell's voice came over the little speaker.

"Brill, Is Engineman w.a.n.g there?" he asked.

"Yes, sar, standing right here."

"Have him collect his portable and report to the bridge right away."

"Aye, aye, sar," she said.

"Maxwell, out."

"Beats me," I said without waiting for the question. "I'll let ya know as soon as I can." I raced for the hatch, my locker, and the bridge, in that order. I climbed to the top of the ladder in less than a tick and gave a breathless "Engineman w.a.n.g reporting as ordered."

Mr. von Ickles waited at the top of the ladder. "You brought it?"

I held up my portable computer.