The Long Way Home

by Darrell Bain

  Two suited figures dangled weightlessly at the end of their safety tethers—Nguyen and Silks, judging by the designs on their suits. Nguyen's suit was ripped along the length of one leg, all the way to the hip. He shuddered. No one could survive that big a tear in his suit. Silks wasn't moving, but air was still escaping from his suit out of multiple small breaches. Even as Jeremy watched, the flow of air slowed. There was little hope for him, either. Juanita's suit had bright green markings. She was bent over a third unmoving figure, CPO Shinn, who also had multiple suit breaches. Her suit, however, was not as badly breached as were those of the other two casualties.

  "Costa, move forward again. Whiteside, remain in place."

  Jeremy repeated the previous maneuver. It brought him to where Juanita was trying to staunch the air loss. He hurriedly yanked a patch from the underside of his left arm and handed it to her. As quickly as she took it, he peeled off another and had it ready.

  Inside the clear bell of her helmet he saw ‘Nita shake her head. She smoothed the last patch in place and stood up.

  "Let's get her inside,” she said. “The readouts look bad, but she's still breathing, I think."

  Together they brought Shinn back to the airlock and cycled her through. He was unsurprised to see COB Shinzyki waiting by the inside airlock. He would have been surprised if he hadn't been there.

  "I'll take her from here. You two go back and bring the others in. One at a time, mind,” he said, and then indicated the suited figure of Shinn.

  "Any hope?"

  "I don't know. We got her patched soon as possible, but I had to get the chipper secured first. It was flailing around.” She tapped Jeremy's shoulder. “Let's go."

  He turned back to the exit and waited while the first airlock hatch behind them began swinging shut. The last thing he saw before the closing airlock cut off his vision was Shinzyki pulling the helmet cover away. Shinn's face was unrecognizable for the bubbly red froth that covered the inside faceplate. Juanita depleted the air inside the airlock and then opened the outer door.

  "Come on. There's no hurry, Jeremy, so be careful. Hear me?"

  Right,” he said. He would rather be out recovering bodies than have to be one of the ones opening the suits and removing the casualties. As ‘Nita said, there was no hurry. He paid close attention to what he was doing, but it still left time to wonder how hard this would hit the boat. The dead were a Spacer and a Spacer PO and probably a Spacer CPO. It had to hurt, not just the deaths, but also the loss of irreplaceable knowledge and skill with regard to the techniques of boat handling.

  Ironically, it was the three senior Spacers who had been killed or injured rather than the explorers. Sure, there were the manuals, and COB Shinzyki probably knew more than everyone else had forgotten, but there was only one of him. He couldn't be everywhere. Jeremy felt guilty for thinking of the dead in those terms, but he couldn't stop himself. It had been impressed on everyone how few of them there were, and how far they had to go. Any loss hurt, and losses like that of the two senior spacers and probably another hurt even worse. He remembered how ‘Nita had shaken her head. He doubted that Shinn would survive.

  * * * *

  "Let the bodies be cast forth."

  Commander Brackett finished the ceremony and motioned for air to be expelled from the airlock. It would take the bodies with it.

  "Crew may return to duties. Officers, come with me."

  Lisa Trammell had observed the ceremony over the control room com while she maintained a watch. She was the only officer there. Brackett's voice matched the composed demeanor he had maintained since the accident. She thought he had already had to perform this chore too many times, but he seemed to be holding up. Of course, his calm acceptance of the casualties could just be a show. She felt certain that part of it was. The captain or commander of a ship or boat had to appear that way, despite the brutality of deaths among their crew. The first hint that he was losing it would affect everyone. On the other hand, his coolness and determination in the face of calamity would go far toward keeping the crew functioning, however long their journey lasted.

  Brackett nodded to Lisa as he and the other boat officers, including the EOs, entered the control room. He dismissed the spacer technician and stood facing them until she was gone.

  "COB, are the tanks topped off?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Then I think it's time we departed this system. Lieutenant Whistler, you'll have the astrogation watch. Begin lining the boat up for transit thirty minutes from now. The rest of you remain for a moment, please."

  Lisa was prepared for a pep talk, but instead he asked simply, “What happened out there?” Characteristically, he had gotten the tasks of filling the water tanks and the burial in space of the three fatalities over with before inquiring. It's noteworthy, she thought, that he's conducting a review of the accident informally, rather than having a board sit for it, as he did with prior casualties.

  Shinzyki answered. “It was an air blow. A damned big one. No one expected such a huge air pocket from that damn little ice ball."

  "How about the equipment? Could anything there have been a factor in causing it? Or could it have had anything to do with how bad the blow was?"

  "No, sir. I've already examined the equipment and the site of the pocket. It was just damned bad luck and nothing else.” He shook his head and grimaced. “I've also questioned Martinez and the two Explorers extensively. They had just relieved the other shift and had already cleaned out one spot and moved to the next and started the chipper. That's when it happened. The air pocket blew out and sent the chipper careening into the two nearest ones and splinters of ice got the third. No warning at all. Costa and Martinez did what they could for Shinn, but it was too late. Her suit had too many punctures and she lost too much air before they could get her sealed."

  "I see. That's going to put us awfully short in the skilled boat jobs."

  "We're taking care of that, sir,” Lisa said. “Mister Shinzyki and I have gone over our personnel rosters. We think you should brevet Juanita Martinez to CPO and promote Wynonna Jones to PO. Lieutenant Wong and Lieutenant Medford will help them out as much as possible. It's a big jump for Martinez, in particular. That will throw more of a workload on the other boat officers, but we'll manage. Also, Mister Shinzyki believes it would be of benefit to transfer several enlisted explorers into spacer slots. We've been going over the personnel files with the Explorer officers to find some with strong engineering backgrounds or other talents that would make them suitable."

  Brackett nodded genially. “It sounds good. Will there be any, umm, personal problems with Martinez in her new rank?"

  Smiling to herself, Lisa nodded to Shinzyki to answer. Brackett didn't miss much. She knew exactly to what he referred. Costa's feelings were liable to get hurt, but he could manage. And Martinez would cope with whatever she had to do. Whether she knew it or not, she had already been in line for rapid promotion. Despite not having much college other than what she'd picked up in service, she had lots of talent and a can-do attitude to go with a solid grounding in her basic education skills. She had also been studying hard to increase her knowledge since enlisting.

  "There will be no problem there, sir. We haven't quite decided on the explorers yet, but I feel certain they will volunteer for the transfer when asked."

  Lisa was sure they would. No one declined a request from a COB of Shinzyki's caliber and reputation. It would be like saying no to God.

  "Very well. Send me the paperwork when it's all arranged. Is there anything else we need to go over now?"

  "No, sir."

  "Fine. Notify me when we're lined up. I'll be in my cabin."

  The officers stood where they were until Brackett departed. Having given them leave to go, Lisa turned to watch Whistler at work. His lack of interaction with the rest of the crew really worried her. He had never been a congenial man, but since the loss of Sam Johnston he had retreated into a shell. So far it hadn't appeared to affect the calib
er of his work, other than his cooperating as little as possible in the training of the two apprentice astrogators. She felt as if she could live with that, since it did give Joyce something to do and made her feel less like a fifth wheel, but it shouldn't have come to that. When all was said and done, Whistler was shirking his duty. She had brought it up once with the Commander, but he shrugged it off with the notation that Joyce could do the training. She thought he should have called Whistler to account, but it might be that he knew the astrogator better than she did. Perhaps he had a reason. If so, she thought he should have shared it with her. After all, how was she supposed to do her job if she didn't know what he wanted?

  As she observed Whistler getting the boat lined up for the run to transit, she noticed a tic at the corner of his mouth that she hadn't seen before. It twitched steadily as a metronome while he worked. And were the frown lines on his face deeper than usual? It was hard to tell. She made a mental note to have Joyce go back over all his calculations from now on. While he wasn't present, of course.

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  Chapter Thirteen

  After a stint in the control room, Jeremy was on his way back to his cabin to freshen up a bit. His mind buzzed with numbers, equations, star sequences, distances, impeller strength, capacitor readings and all the other factors necessary for successful transitions. He missed seeing Siegfrer until she called to him. Stopping, he watched her pull her hands out of an access panel and voice-mark the place in her Reader. It looked as if she had pulled down the circuit diagrams for the life support modules of the longboat.

  "Hey, Sieg. What are you doing there?"

  "My new job. You haven't heard?"

  "Heard what?"

  "Three other ratings and I have been pulled from explorer duty and reassigned to the boat with a promotion to Spacer Four. One of us will probably be brevetted to Chief, but they didn't say who. And what I'm doing now is trying to trace down a voltage fluctuation for the number two life support module."

  "When did this happen? Oh—never mind. I can guess. How did you get picked?"

  "Innate mechanical talent and good math and electronics scores, so far as I know. Plus looks and talent, of course. I worked in my Dad's tech shop while I was in school, right up to when I joined up. That's probably the real reason."

  "Hm. Coyotes were already short handed. Congratulations, though. Who else got picked?"

  "Rothman, Smith and Wasserman."

  He pictured Tiny Smith's big hands trying to adjust potentials in microcircuits and laughed.

  "What's funny?"

  "Nothing, really. I just can't quite picture Tiny for delicate work."

  "I think he's with Lieutenant Medford. She's supervising all the maintenance now. And Lieutenant Wong is helping with the engineering scut work, so I hear."

  "Wow. What else have I missed?"

  "I heard some Spacers got promoted, but I don't know who."

  "It shouldn't be hard to discover. There aren't that many of them left.” He wondered if Juanita was one of those chosen. She deserves it, if anyone does, he thought. He decided to go by her place first and find out. “See you later. Have fun."

  "You, too, Jere."

  When he tapped at Juanita's door, no one answered. Her name plate was missing, too. Strange. He went back to his cabin and tried her personal com.

  "CPO Martinez."

  "'Nita?” He recognized her voice but not the title.

  "This is Chief Petty Officer Juanita Martinez."

  "Uh, ‘Nita. This is Jeremy. Where are you?"

  "I'm busy right now."

  "When can I come see you?"

  "Go to your cabin. Leave the door open, and I'll be there in a minute."

  Puzzled at her abruptness, he did so. He had been waiting only a short time when she appeared. Her face was a mask, without the usual smile lines and cheerful demeanor.

  "Hi ‘Nita,” he said, and then saw her new insignia. “Congratulations."

  "Thanks. Jere, I'm busy and I can't stay, so I'll make it short and sweet. We can't see each other any more."

  "We can't? Why not?"

  She said nothing but tapped the new insignia on the sleeves of her cammies.

  He could practically feel the air going out of his sails. Of course. Chief Petty Officers and Explorer ratings couldn't mix like that.

  "I'm sorry, Jeremy.” She looked both ways and when she saw no one in sight she leaned forward and kissed him quickly—a little peck.

  "Me, too,” he said. He had trouble getting the words out. His heart felt about twice the size it should be, and it somehow seemed to have migrated to his throat. She winked at him and strode away. If he hadn't seen the incipient tears in her eyes he would have thought she hadn't really cared for him.

  * * * *

  The next day as they passed each other while he was again returning from the control room he managed to greet her almost normally.

  "Afternoon, Chief,” he said.

  "Afternoon, Costa.” She nodded in a friendly fashion, but that was all. The night after he found out about her promotion, he'd had trouble sleeping. He felt sorry for himself and thought about how unfair the universe was, but eventually he did doze off. When he woke up, he felt better. He decided he should be glad for Juanita. She had received a jump of several ranks, even if it was a brevet promotion. If they made it back, he felt sure it would become permanent. He didn't know until the next day that he had been promoted, too.

  Commander Brackett himself presented him with his new insignia when he reported to the control room.

  "Costa."

  "Sir?” Having the Commander address him was unusual enough that at first he couldn't believe he was being spoken to.

  "Yes, you. Come here,” he said sternly.

  Quivering inside but trying his best not to show it, he approached the commander's seat. Brackett came to his feet as he neared. He stopped and came to attention in front of him.

  "Chief Dugan and Mister Cantrell have both recommended you for promotion to Brevet Explorer Five. Congratulations."

  "Uh, thank you, sir."

  The whole thing happened so swiftly and so causally that he had to gather his wits to meet the commander's outstretched hand and shake it. Brackett then pasted his new insignia to the arm of his cammies.

  "Now I'll expect you to work twice as hard as you have been, Costa. Lieutenant Commander Chambers is waiting on you."

  "Yes, sir. I will, sir. Thank you."

  He thought he saw a faint smile on Brackett's face before he turned and hurried over to where Chambers was waiting, but he thought he was probably mistaken. Commander Brackett rarely frowned, but he smiled even less frequently.

  Chambers congratulated him then, and Waters did as well. After that, they got to work. As the days passed, the other officers also offered him a courtesy congratulation—all except Whistler. He never mentioned it. Jeremy thought at first that some of the crew might be offended by his promotion that skipped two grades, but he saw no sign of it. Then he figured they all knew how hard he had been working to learn astrogation and to try keeping up with work details and other crew activities. Surprisingly, Johnny Lann congratulated him, apparently sincerely. He took it as a sign that their differences were behind them. Buford Russell, on the other hand, stayed aloof. He could live with that so long as Russell kept his mouth shut.

  * * * *

  The next several transits turned out little better than the one before. The systems did have planets, but they were either completely sterile or had other factors that made them less than desirable. They kept the water tanks topped off but were forced to mine a carbonaceous asteroid for organics. It gave the food a greasy taste, but it was palatable. On the next transit, the longboat set down by a tideless sea and took on water, but there were no organics to be had. The monotony of the rations turned out by the recyclers got bad enough so that some of the emergency spacerats were issued for two days to break the cycle. Jeremy thought they tasted pretty good by co
mparison, but he was usually so tired by bedtime that it mattered little what he ate. He dived even further into the study of astrogation as an anodyne for not having Juanita to sleep with. His studies were increasingly interesting but also becoming more difficult.

  Thinking of Juanita gave him an idea. He tapped his forearm and pulled up her personal comm.

  "Chief Martinez."

  "'Nita—I mean, Chief—I've been studying so hard that I'm falling behind on my exercise. Could I interest you in some H&H the next day or two if you have time?” He waited several endless moments until she finally answered.

  "This isn't a ploy, is it, Jere?"

  "No, Chief. I really am getting flabby, and I'd rather exercise with you than by myself, that's all."

  "Um, all right. I'm free at seven. Will that work?"

  "Yes, that'd be okay. I can pick up on what I'm doing afterward."

  "Fine. See you.” She tapped off before he could say anything else.

  That evening she pounded him good for almost an hour until he finally had to call a halt to it.

  "Uncle! Pax! I give up!” He relaxed fully and she let him untangle himself. He got up slowly and gave the traditional bow, and then held out his hand.

  She took it and gave him a wry smile. “You're not that much out of shape, Jere. We'll have to do it again."

  "Thanks, Chief. I'm glad."

  She looked around, and then said, “You can call me ‘Nita when we're alone, Jere. Just make damn sure we are alone. And don't read anything into it. Okay?"

  "Sure. I need to get back. Jana will be waiting on me. She needs a little help with the transit equations."

  "You're really getting into astrogation, aren't you? And by the way, congratulations on your promotion. I think you deserved it. Everyone knows how hard you've been working, and you haven't piped yourself up from being in the control room so much. That's good."