Dreaming of Atmosphere

by Jim C. Wilson

  I smiled at her. “Six hours? How long was I asleep?”

  “Nearly five.”

  “So I have an hour to spare?”

  “You do.”

  “What can we do in an hour?” I said grinning at her. My hands started to move about her body, almost with a mind of their own. She started to giggle and we soon made full use of that hour.

  31.

  By the time my doctor recommended ‘rest period’ ran out, I was knocking on Maxine’s cabin hatch. There was no answer so I checked the command module and found Hergo and Mal on watch there.

  “Hey Hergo, know where the Captain is?” I asked, leaning in.

  “I’m Denno, Hergo is down in the aft cargo hold doing repairs with Eric.”

  “Sorry, the Captain?”

  “Probably with them.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hey, Seth!” called Mal, “You know that Hergo has lighter scales, right? And Denno is at least four centimetres taller?”

  “He was sitting down and the light is crap in here, so get off my case, Cuts.”

  “And you know Denno is female, right?”

  I did a double take. “What?”

  They both broke out in laughter, and I couldn’t help myself, I went bright red.

  “Have you ever seen a female Argen?” asked Denno, between hissing laughter.

  “To be honest, no. I mean sure, I guess, they wear masks all the time don’t they?”

  “They do. Their scales are softer but they have bigger claws than us men.”

  “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Gotta run.”

  I left the command module as fast as I could, but I could still hear the pair laughing at me as I ran down the passageway and down the ladder well to Deck 2. I headed down again and headed aft towards the rear cargo hold. The big compartment was still dark, but I could make out work lights illuminating a section towards the rear. I made my way through the containers and crates and came upon Hergo sealing off a section of deck plating with a large sheet of metal. There were several similar patches about the area, the remains of hasty repairs to the compartment. I could see bulges of excess polycrete foam coming out of the sides of a few.

  “Hey, Hergo, have you seen Maxine?”

  “I’m Denno, Seth. Hergo is on watch with Mal.”

  “But I…what?”

  “Hergo is shorter than me, I have darker scales.”

  “He just…I was just in the command module. They said you were Hergo.”

  “Hergo is a practical joker. I humbly apologise for my kinsman’s jest at your inability to identify us.”

  “No. It’s me who should apologise. I’m really bad at telling you two apart. I always feel bad about it when I get it wrong, and especially since all we’ve been through lately I think I need to really address it. I hope I haven’t offended you or Hergo.”

  “No apology necessary, First Mate. You have placed yourself in great peril for our protection and well-being on many occasions. In Argen culture, when one does such a thing without thought for reward or personal gain the benefited Argen owes a debt to their protector. Hergo and I owe much to the Captain and yourself.”

  “I never really knew much about your culture, I’m sorry. I haven’t spent much time with many of your species before. Always on the move, and all that. We never really talked much, you and I. We should change that.”

  “I would be honoured to carry a conversation with you, at a later date, First Mate. There are many repairs requiring our attention. I believe the Captain is with Eric in the engineering compartment.”

  “Thanks, Denno. I’ll hold you to that promise, a later date then.”

  The lizard man bent over his welding once more after sliding a pair of goggles over his face. I went back up to Deck 2 and made my way aft past the med lab and the aft cabin spaces. Eventually I ended up at the central engineering space, what Eric calls Central Control. You couldn’t call it an engine room, since our actual propulsion drives were on either side of us in the nacelles, but a lot of the systems threaded their way through this compartment. Most of the control and monitoring facilities of the ship were based in this compartment, along with ship services such as water reclamation, life support and heating, power distribution and generation. It was quite large, nearly forty metres long and almost as wide as the ship’s main central hull. Much of the compartment was also contained in Deck 1, aft of the command deck. Pretty much directly aft of my cabin, to be precise. The compartment was rectangular, with a mezzanine encircling the upper levels. Access to the nacelles and other parts of the ship’s engineering spaces all started here. The compartment was fill with machinery, a workshop and several monitoring and control consoles. I could see Eric and Maxine working at one such console as I looked around. They looked up as I approached and both smiled at me.

  “You’re up, Donny. Good.” said Max.

  “Yeah, sorry for missing the navigation meeting, doctor’s orders. I pretty much fell asleep in the shower.”

  “Well, I hope you’re all rested up because we’ve got work to do.”

  “Yeah I saw, aft cargo took quite a beating.”

  “We got lucky there, only structural damage.” added Eric.

  “What can I do?”

  Max gestured for me to come around and look at the console. “See this section of the starboard ion drive?”

  “That’s the…electron condenser subassembly, right?”

  “Not quite,” said Eric, “but serves a similar function so half marks. It’s the Davian chamber.”

  “Ah, yeah I see the cavity section. For amplifying the ion charge.”

  “Not bad. You remembered.” Eric gave me a nod.

  “So the tuning rod took some minor damage during the attack,” said Max, “and when we pulled it out to replace it we found some curious probes attached.”

  “Oh? Another charge?”

  “Yeah. The way Eric here sees it, there’s no way they could have opened the whole cavity up and attached the probes and the bomb in the time that Jenner’s men had with the ship. They would have had to have used a drone to get it there.”

  “Just pull the rod out and push in the drone and let it attach itself.” added Eric.

  “What are the probes measuring? How do we get it out?”

  “That’s just it. I don’t think the probes are measuring anything. I think they’re just anchor points. There’ll probably just be a magnetic sensor to tell if it gets peeled off the cavity wall.”

  “We should be able to just peel it off the cavity, so long as we remove part of the cavity bulkhead with it.”

  “All right, how can I help?”

  “Think you can just dissolve a thin sheet under the cavity surface?”

  “Using my nanites? I think so. Disassemble paradigm does this sort of thing. Haven’t used it much though.”

  “Feel up to the challenge?”

  “Sure. How certain are we that the charge isn’t measuring anything else?”

  “Pretty sure. There’s a lot of radiant energy in the cavity when we switch over to that part of the propulsion. There’d have to be some pretty high tech gadgetry to get a solid reading on anything in there while that’s going on, with enough certainty to not get a false positive, anyway. Not the kind of rig you’d want on a bomb, that’s for sure.”

  “It’s not like they have plenty of other bombs on the ship…oh wait, they do. They probably figured it wouldn’t need to be too hard to remove, there were plenty of other possible ways to cripple the Dreaming if we did.” said Max.

  “Sounds logical. I’ll give it a go. How are we with the Blade of Xerxes?”

  “Cuts and Hergo are on watch at the moment, but last I checked the Xerxes was still a couple of hours from getting underway properly.” What she meant was that the Xerxes was still manoeuvring slowly and accelerating. Once the ship begins its acceleration in earnest it should start to reduce the gap in our acceleration speeds. Big ships like the organo-ships were slow to start, but once t
hey did they could pick up astounding speeds. We only hoped we had enough of a head start to make the distance we had to travel count.

  “Okay, so I have a couple of hours to get this bomb off then.”

  “Eric will go with you, and I recommend using Tac to assist with guidance.”

  I am standing by to render what aid I can, First Mate Donovan.

  “Let’s get started then. I’m eager. Where do we begin?”

  “Starboard crawl spaces, that access tube on the mezzanine over there.” said Eric. I groaned. I hated crawl spaces.

  We climbed a ladder and walked around to the access tube. I crouched in front of it and grimaced. Eric gave a short laugh and knelt down. In seconds he was disappearing down the crawl space.

  “How does a man of your advanced age stay so flexible?” I asked as I followed after him. In seconds I’d snagged myself twice on the same bolt head that protruded from a pipe fixture.

  “What do you mean, advanced age?” he said, “I’m in my early fifties!”

  “Last time I checked the crew files your official age was 92.”

  “Bah, who’s counting? Besides, I do yoga in my morning shift on the bridge.”

  “No shit?” I said, genuinely impressed, “I would have thought you were more the Bio-Aug type. Cheat death, that sort of thing.”

  “I’m too young for organ replacement, and muscle augmentation is only for those self-improvement wankers.”

  “No hip replacements?”

  “I got a patella implant, and one finger augmentation.”

  “One finger?”

  He paused and somehow managed to turn around and lifted his head so he could see me. “Yeah, this one.” He flipped me the bird and turned back laughing. I chuckled after him and continued to worm my way along the tubing. After a few minutes we were out and standing in a tight compartment filled with waveguides and pipes. I could see a few holes that had been plugged with polycrete foam, and there were a few hull repair nanite containers resting on the deck. He pointed to a section that had a few monitoring devices attached.

  “There’s the Davian chamber. The rod’s just resting in the recess, you can just pull it out and start.”

  We removed the rod and peered into the hole where it entered the cavity. The hole was about twelve centimetres in diameter, with a slight rifling groove down its length. I reached out with my nanite senses and could picture the cavity in my overlay as the nanites mapped it out. Tac used the data from my nanites to form a complete picture of the Davian chamber, and where the charge was located. Just forward of the hole was the rectangular bulk of the bomb. It was just narrow enough to have been pushed through the hole, and rested about twenty centimetres from the opening. I made sure that I could visualise the location of the bomb and gave the command for the nanites to start the Dissolve paradigm. The nanites began to break down the metal wall of the cavity at the molecular level, turning a few micros thick into inert dust. It took about forty minutes to finish and the bomb, along with half a centimetre of cavity wall, slide down into the cavity bottom.

  “It’s free.” I said.

  “Okay, step back.” Eric passed a flexible cable into the hole with a clamp on the end, and using a small view screen manipulated the cable to grab the bomb. He pulled it out and inspected the device.

  “Want me to repair the cavity wall?”

  “Please. I’ll dispose of this.” he said, and carefully lowered the charge into a small tool box he’d emptied earlier. I turned around and started my Repair paradigm to rebuild the section of cavity I’d sheered away. No sooner had I started when there was a loud bang and I was pushed heavily against the Davian chamber. My ears were ringing and I could hear yelling. There was a warm wetness covering one side of my face and the back of my head. I could feel the jumpsuit on my back sticking to my skin. I rolled onto my side and tried to get my wits about me. All I could see was Eric rolling around on the deck, writhing in agony. He was missing both of his arms from his elbows down and part of this face was a gory mess.

  Max! The bomb went off after we removed it! Eric is hurt! I texted to Maxine.

  How bad?

  His arms are gone, some damage to his face. I need Zoe. Tac, how can I get Eric out of here?

  There is an emergency access hatch in the deck head 1.3 metres aft of your position. A retractable ladder will allow access. The space above will lead down a life support vent to the command deck.

  I scrambled over to Eric as Tac relayed directions for me. He was delirious and screaming in pain. His jump suit was blackened and tattered, and his face was a complete mess. I could see he was missing his left eye and part of his nose. Blood was squiring from his stumps and a gash on his neck. I started to tear strips off my jump suit and press them to his neck to stop the bleeding, and started to send nanites into his body. I activated the Repair paradigm and sent them to work trying to stop the bleeding in his face and arms, but I couldn’t tell if it was having any effect. I tore more strips off and started to make a tourniquet around each elbow. I tore off my legs and started to make donut shaped pads that I could tie to each stump. I worked quickly, my old basic field medic training kicking into high gear. I could tell that it wasn’t going to be enough, though. I needed to get him moving so Zoe can get to him.

  I looked around for the emergency hatch, and found it quickly. I pulled open the hatch and tugged on the ladder there. The hole was over half a metre wide, but not very high, I knew I couldn’t carry him through there, the best I could do was drag him behind me. Somehow, I found the strength to crawl up and drag him with me. I was starting to panic went I noticed Eric had stopped moving and had lost consciousness. There was too much blood everywhere. When he was in the vent, I checked to see if he had a pulse, but I couldn’t find it.

  Zoe! Deck 1, O2 vent. Tac show her where we’re coming out!

  Medical Officer Ward has been notified.

  I crawled and pulled, dragging Eric’s dead weight behind me. We passed over a grated opening that fed down into a shaft that ran down into the life support machinery, a fresh breeze flowing up into the vent space. I could see a thick blood smear where we’d crawled and dragged. Soon I came to a vent opening, and I could see people waiting for me at the end. As soon as I was close enough I was grabbed and hauled out of the vent shaft. Eric followed soon after and Zoe started to work on him immediately. Mal, Fel’negr and one of the Argen where there as well. I leaned over Eric and started to send my Repair nanites into his body.

  “Keep doing that!” called Zoe, “Hand me that scanner!”

  She ran a device over his face and neck, then gave him an injection. She cut the bandages off his stumps and attached a metal cup device to one and started to apply a proper bandage to the other. She got Fel to run a blood pack to a needle in his inner thigh, and he held it aloft while she applied several other injections and devices.

  “He’s in shock. I can’t get his pulse.” she said, “Seth, hit him with Ionise!”

  I looked at her. “Are you sure?”

  “Do it! Try and hit his heart directly!” She pointed at his ragged chest, which was welling up with blood. “Everyone clear!”

  I reached out and felt for his heart, then shifted the electrons around it with the Ionise paradigm. He gave a quick shudder and a spasm and then was still again.

  “Again!”

  I sent another shock into his heart. Zoe used the scanner to test this chest area but was getting frustrated. She reached into her kit and pulled out a device that looked almost like a gun and she fired it into his chest. A small dart dug into his ribs and a red flashing light started to strobe. With each flashing light, Eric shuddered and jerked. Zoe avidly studied the handheld device, twisting a dial and pushing buttons.

  “What’s happening?” said Mal.

  “He’s lost too much blood. I’m losing him.” she said.

  Maxine came running down the passageway from the ladder well. She was carrying another medical bag, and she almost threw it onto the
deck beside us. Zoe rifled through the bag and drew out a small metal box. She placed it beside Eric’s battered head and used her other hand to hold his head still. She pressed a button on the side and something must have ejected out of the box and into his skull, because it lodged there. Zoe held up another device that showed a multitude of graphs and data streams. She was shaking her head, and great heaving sobs started to shake her.

  “I can’t…there’s no…he’s gone…”

  Max grabbed her and shook her gently, “You can do this, don’t give up, Zoe!”

  “There’s no brain activity. He’s dead!” Another sob wracked her.

  “You killed him!” cried Mal, a shaking fist gesturing in my direction.

  “That’s enough, Mal.” said Max.

  “No! He killed him! You incompetent, self-absorbed fuck up!”

  Suddenly, I teleported to him and had my bloody hands around his throat. His surprised face was distorted in a grimace that became a choking gasp as I squeezed.

  “Seth!” someone yelled. People were grabbing me, but my blood smeared arms were making me hard to grasp. Mal was going purple and making gurgling sounds. I barely felt the needle that Maxine stabbed me with, but I suddenly lost all the strength in my arms and legs. I dropped Mal and he scrambled away from me as I slumped to the deck.

  I could hear people yelling at each other, but they were distant voices as if heard from inside a long tunnel. Then I fell into a yawning pit of darkness.

  32.

  I dreamt of the warm dark sea, its soft embrace a source of comfort. I was beneath the gentle waves, among the data motes and plankton. I dared not surface, for a storm raged above. I drifted in the silence waters, while lightning crashed and rain hammered down. Then, in the distance, I could see an outstretched hand enter the water and hold itself out for me. I was drawn to it, and could not help but to reach for it. When I was near, the hand grasped me and tried to pull me up. I struggled, but I was not strong enough. As I burst out of the sea I came awake suddenly, startling Zoe as she was wiping a damp sponge across my brow.