Ringship Discretion Page 5

  Helen responded. "Doing it now".

  When the pressure hit zero, Atticus opened the hatch to the engine room. "Ben, is there anything special we need to do here?" No response. "Ben?"

  Helen came on. "He's in the galley gorging himself! Try your 'in head' comm".

  Atticus thought "Call Ben"

  Ben answered and his first thought was "I love these implanted comm links, cause you can "talk" and eat at the same time. You in the engine room?"

  Atticus thought of where he was and the conditions, and Ben thought back to him what to do. As Ben's thoughts came across, Atticus started getting really hungry. "Dammit Ben, concentrate, stop sending me your thoughts on the chicken your eating!"

  Ben thought back. "Sorry, but its so good".

  Atticus chuckled to himself and grabbed the specified set of cables, disconnected two connectors and pulled out the old module, which didn't looked damaged. He looked at Amelia and thought "Is this the one? It looks fine."

  She stared at him and finally asked "What?".

  Her voice made him realize that he was trying to "think" to her, and he clicked the mic. "Amelia, is this the one? It looks fine?" He could hear Ben's thoughts of laughter.

  She answered "Yes, they got fried on the inside. There was a power spike when the plates were vaporized. She took a new one out of her pocket and handed it to him.

  After a few minutes, they had replaced both the port and starboard modules. "OK. Helen, Check the engine status."

  She said back "Looking now.......Hey! I can see the four plates on the starboard side and they are showing green. The port side is reading two plates, but they are yellow and the two other spots are flashing red."

  Atticus thought this to Ben. Ben thought back "Check the breakers here". Atticus floated to the other side of the engine room and lifted the breaker panel. His hands flew down the panel to where Ben was thinking. Atticus thought "Bingo, we've got several popped. Should I just reset them?" Ben confirmed and Atticus pushed reset on them, one at a time. The room started flashing red. Ben sensed his thoughts and thought "It's fine! It's just the depressurization alarm. Ask Helen to shut it off."

  Helen came over the radio. "We are getting a depressurization alarm...Atticus interrupted "Just turn it off, it's only from before. What do you have now as far as the panels?"

  Helen said "Oh. Whew....OK, we are showing four steady green lights for the port side panels, and the two new ones on the starboard side are flashing green." Amelia looked at Attie. "Yeah! We got it, we just need to calibrate the new starboard panels.", and she hugged him.

  The captain said "Great! We are coming back up, let's go get AJ".

  The captain and Amelia floated to engine control display on the bridge and they removed their helmets. Amelia set her helmet on the edge of the control display, but it just floated off. "It looks good, but let's try it. Everyone brace yourself." She powered up the modules. The transition alarm went off and 30 seconds later she had panel control. Ben came out of the galley and joined them. Amelia tapped the control for the four starboard engines and she applied the smallest thrust she could. The ship lurched and strained, and she shut them down. "Those are good. OK, let's try the new ones. The ship jerked hard and everyone heard the grapple cables bang under the strain. She shut them down ."Well, that was weird. They're all working, but those new panels are definitely putting out more thrust for the same amount of power. Hmmm..that might help us. Maybe we won't need to put all four of the panels on, and since one of the connectors is destroyed anyway, that would fix that problem."

  The captain responded. "Great. Let's get unhooked and go get AJ."

  Ben floated over and retracted the auto grapplers. "OK, we are free."

  Amelia looked around at the crew. "Everyone hold on, here it goes. She set the port panels to minimum for 1 second and that turned them away from the superstructure. She then set both sides to minimum and they glided away from the wreckage, but the Discretion began to turn to starboard. She upped the power slightly to the starboard panels and it straightened out. "OK, I think I got it. I'm telling the computer that this ratio is equal power, at least at this thrust level. Since we have no thrusters, we will have to spin to maneuver by using differential thrust or the starboard engine gimbaling."

  The captain asked "You think you can really get her into that hull breach?"

  She responded. "Lets find out." She turned the ship 180 degrees, stopped their motion relative to the wreck, and slowly applied thrust in the direction of the hangar breach. The Discretion gracefully passed into the breach. "OK Ben, fire the grapple hooks.".

  He tapped the panel and the hooks fired. They felt the slight deceleration as the cables became taught.

  Amelia said "We're in."

  Atticus kissed her on the forehead and she turned to look up at him, but he was already turning toward the hatch. "Come on Doc, lets go get AJ and those supplies."

  Atticus and Doc descended to the deck next to the shuttle. They opened the hatch and pulled themselves into the airlock. There was the usual rush of air, but they could also hear music. The airlock indicator turned green and they pushed themselves into the ship. AJ had moved himself to one of the pilot's chairs and he was blasting some serious rock.

  The doc yelled "AJ, you OK?" AJ jerked and looked at them in surprise. He hit the stop button and in a very groggy voice "My arm hurts and all my joints ache like hell."

  Doc looked him over. "It's OK, you just had a bit of the bends from the sudden decompression. I can take care of it when we get back aboard. You think you can get into your suit?" AJ looked over at it "What about the arm?"

  The captain said "Just keep your armed tucked into the suit and we will seal that arm off. It won't be comfortable, but it will only be for a few minutes." AJ nodded, unbuckled himself and pushed off the chair.

  He put his legs into the suit, but when he had to bend his arms, he let out a yell. "Ahhh! Crap! That hurts!"

  Doc, who was helping him in said "Your joints or the cut?"

  AJ responded "Well, both."

  After a few minutes, AJ was in the suit with his right arm still inside the torso. The captain removed the suit's right arm and he released the micro seal. "There you go. These suits have this feature for exactly this problem. Has it on all the appendages, including the head, but I can't think of why you would ever need that one." AJ smiled. The captain handed him the right arm. "Hold on to this. Doc, grab whatever medical supplies you need and lets get him back up to the ship."

  Helen heard the outer hatch open and she quickly pushed herself over. She banged on the glass and waved. "AJ, I'm so glad your OK!" Atticus and the Doc went back out and sealed the outer hatch again.

  AJ came up to the port hole glass and looked at his aunt, smiling. "Me too!".

  When it turned green, Helen swung the door open and hugged him. He yelled in pain. She let go. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, are you OK?!". He recoiled. "My arms really hurt and I just want to get this suit off." Amelia and Ben came over and they all helped him get the suit off.

  Ben asked "You hungry?" AJ thought a second. "Um, yes, very!"

  "Come on, I'll make you something." Ben, AJ and Helen went into the galley and Ben explained about what happened after AJ's suit incident.

  Amelia went back to the controls, and as she landed in her chair, she inhaled a small piece of floating glass. She coughed and spit it out. "Jeeesus, what the hell is with today!?" As she sat there trying to breath normally, she started thinking of all that had happened that day. Her thoughts turned to that of her husband and she began to weep. She tried to stop herself, but she couldn't.

  Attie opened the outer hatch again to throw supplies in the airlock. When he floated in to put a box of ammunition down, he peeked through the inner porthole. He saw Amelia sitting alone at the conn, in her pressure suit, crying, her helmet floating about half a meter above her. His heart hurt. There wasn't anything he hated worse than seeing his Amelia unhappy, but he didn't know what to do. He wanted to ba
ng on the door, but he didn't want to take the chance of upsetting her more.

  Just then Helen came in. "Amelia, are you OK?!" Amelia turned to Helen, but her eyes stopped on Attie's face in the portal. Attie jerked back and Amelia stared at him, expressionless, until Helen eclipsed her face. Attie backed up and pushed himself out the hatch to go get more supplies. He fought his mind for control, trying to concentrate on getting the supplies.

  About an hour later, the captain and Doc were jammed in the airlock with supplies stacked wall to wall. When they opened the inner hatch Ben and Helen were waiting for them. Attie removed his helmet and looked around them to the conn. He looked at Helen and Helen said "She's laying down". Attie pursed his lips and nodded slightly, his hair waving in all directions like an explosion in a straw factory.

  Ben asked "We ready to leave, Captain?".

  Atticus's mind took a second to register and he looked at him. "No. One more thing we have to do. Now that I have the power back up on that thing," He pointed to the remainder of the black ship. "you think we can turn that jamming signal back on to cover our tracks?"

  Ben nodded. "Yeah, good idea. I wish I had a suit. I'd go with you."

  Atticus slapped Ben's belly. "Well, if you'd stop eating all that chicken, maybe you could fit into a normal suit."

  Ben replied "Fuck you ol' man!" and they both grinned at each other.

  The captain turned. "You have command. Get her flight ready and I will be back as soon as I can."

  Ben quickly grabbed the captain and pointed to his arm. "You check your air lately?"

  The captain looked at his gauge. "34 minutes". "Crap, looks like I need more. He set his helmet aside and turned around. "Want to just swap out my pack?"

  Ben nodded. "Alright, let me go grab a fresh one and I will take this one down to recharge."

  While he waited, the captain decided to check the sensors. He could see two ships about 4 days out, behind them, but nothing else.

  When Ben came back up with the new pack he asked "Any contacts?"

  The captain got up and turned his back toward Ben "Nah, can't see anything being inside this hangar"

  Ben set the new pack. "There, test that."

  The captain put his helmet on and pressurized. "Looks good. The gauge reads 8 hours 12 minutes"

  They opened the inner hatch and shut it again. Ben watched through the port glass. "Be safe!" and Atticus replied "Will do. Be back soon". The outer hatch opened and the captain pushed himself out, sealing the hatch behind him.

  About 90 minutes later everyone's TC implants went crazy and they had to switch them off. Amelia woke up from a deep sleep to the screaming of her implant. She jammed her finger against her head until it powered down. She wiped her face and looked around trying to remember where she was. Then it all came back and she started to cry again and screamed into the pillow. She beat her fists into the bed, but nothing helped the pain in the slightest.

  Ben looked at Helen and Doc, who both had their fingers pushed just above their ears, "There we go! The captain found the jamming signal!", and he reached up and turned off his implant.

  A minute later, Ben heard the outer hatch open and he went to the hatch window to have a look. Atticus gave him the thumbs up as he heard the whoosh of air begin to fill the airlock. The lock turned green and Ben opened the inner hatch. "Welcome back! I see you were able to figure out how to turn the jamming signal back on."

  The captain handed him his helmet. "Yeah, it was a pain in the ass to find. Took me over an hour of pushing buttons and reading screens to figure out how they did it. If the jamming program hadn't just been up on the last screen I found, there is no way I would have been able to find it, in the time we had anyway. Speaking of time, lets get the hell out of here! Re-plot the course for Io and let me know when we are ready. First we have to get out of this hangar. Where's Amelia?"

  Ben had already started to turn to re-plot the course, but turned back. "Amelia is in her quarters. Sleeping I think." Atticus patted him on the shoulder and pushed off towards the sleeping quarters. When he got to her door, he removed his gloves and raised his hand to knock, but when he heard her crying, he stopped. He took a deep breath and opened her door. She looked up at him, and tears floated away in all directions. He grabbed a towel off the sink rack, floated over toward her and tried to gently rub her face. It was an awful mess.

  She hugged him in his space suit and while crying said "I must look like an awful mess!"

  He looked down at her. "No, no at all. Don't worry about that. It's OK."

  She pushed back. "It's not OK! My Burt is dead! It's my fault! I shouldn't have been with you! None of this would have happened!" Her words hurt, but he understood, and the feeling of guilt came back.

  He didn't know what to say, so he hugged her again and said "I know. I'm sorry. And I love you more than anything".

  She pushed back in anger and started to yell, but when she looked at his face, saw his sincerity and his grimace anticipating her onslaught, she abruptly stopped. She wanted to scream at him, but she did love him, and she knew it. "Attie, I...I...I don't know.."

  Over the intercom came Ben. "Course plotted and we are ready."

  The captain and Amelia just stared at each other for a few seconds, then she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Let's go". She grabbed the towel from him and wiped her face. She motioned for him to go. "Just give me a minute and I'll be there."

  Attie pushed off the bed towards her door, stopping himself when he got to it. He looked back at her with a deep look of concern. She looked back. "Go!"

  When he got to the bridge, Ben said "Sorry, Captain for interrupting you, but we really need to go".

  "No Ben, you did right. We don't have time for long emotional crap right now. Amelia's on her way up. Help me get this suit off."

  A minute later Amelia flew into the bridge and slid right into the pilot's seat without a word. She immediately powered up the grav drives. The usual warning alarm went off. Everyone had been watching her to see how she was doing, but the alarm made them all scramble to secure themselves. At thirty seconds the ship rapidly rotated 180 degrees and stopped. Then she fired all the plates at once and they flew out of the hangar's breach. The captain thought of saying something, but decided otherwise. The ship rotated again 90 degrees to starboard and she hit full power to the plates. Everyone slammed down in their seat. The clang of flying pans and silverware came loudly from the galley. Ben looked at Atticus eyes wide, but didn't say a word. The captain turned his head to watch the rear view camera and saw the wreckage quickly fade away, with the Sun taking over most of the image.

  Amelia hit a few controls and set the acceleration to max. She got up from her chair, glanced at Attie, and walked back to her quarters where she quietly closed the door and locked it. Ben leaned over to the captain "Whoa! That was a bit scary." Atticus opened his eyes wide and nodded in agreement.

  The Captain got up and sat in the pilot seat that Amelia had been in. He glanced back at Helen and Doc with his thumb pointed back at the galley. They both got up and headed back. AJ said "I'll go help too" and ran to catch up.

  The captain spoke up "OK, looks like we are on our way to Io. That jamming signal should hide our escape for a while. I mean, look. I can't see anything on the sensors, not even the wreckage we just left.

  Ben sat down in the co-pilot's chair. "Yeah, I'm not picking up anything either. No radio, no beacons, not even the radar those Big Sis ships were pumping out."

  The captain looked at Ben and then around the ship. "What a goddamn mess!" Ben looked too and chuckled. "Well, we've got 20 days to clean it up."

  Atticus grunted "I don't know if that's going to be enough time. But first we all need to get fed and rest, well except you, you ate plenty! Speaking of which, any of that chicken left?"

  Ben laughed. "Yeah, I saved some for you in the fridge, but there is more in the cold storage locker as well".

  The captain got up. "Well, I don't think there is any
thing more I can do up here, but I am getting a little light headed. I don't now if its the lack of food or air pressure. Let's re-pressurize the cabin to full pressure". Ben acknowledged and the captain walked back to the galley. When he walked in, Helen, Doc and AJ were busy putting everything back in order and sweeping up what looked like salt. The captain said "Hey! Everybody drop everything. Sit and have some food. For the next 12 hours, let's just rest." They put things down and all sat down at the table. The captain looked at AJ, who was wincing a bit. "How are you doing AJ?".

  He looked up at the captain "OK. My arms hurts like a son of a bitch, but Uncle Travis fixed my joints."

  The captain looked at Doc. "Can't you give him something for that?"

  Doc looked at AJ. "Yes sir. He had pretty bad nerve damage to his arm. I fixed it as best I could and its healing. I just didn't want to give him something strong and not have him coherent until all that crap back there was over, but I'll give him something now."

  The captain went for the fridge and Helen stopped him. "Sit. I'll make us all something." The captain sat back down and began to feel how exhausted he was.

  Helen fried some chicken fajitas and made corn soup. The captain was asleep in his chair when she set it down in front of him. He awakened and smiled at her. "Oh that looks and smells like heaven." Helen served the other two and sat down to eat herself. "What about Amelia?"

  The captain looked up from dunking his fajita in the soup. "I'll bring it to her".

  Helen said "I am worried about her."

  The captain replied "I am too, but she is a very strong woman. I think she'll break me before she breaks." Helen smiled at that and went back to eating.

  After Attie had finished his dinner, he grabbed a plate and another fajita. Helen jumped up, poured a cup of soup and handed it to him. "Here." Attie nodded at her in appreciation and walked down the corridor to Amelia's quarters. He gently knocked on the door and tried the knob but it was locked. He knocked again and the door opened. Amelia looked up at him, her face all wet, and then looked at the food. She let the door swing open and laid back in the bed. "I'm not hungry".