Dreaming of Atmosphere

by Jim C. Wilson

  “That’s all?”

  “That’s all. You need rest. So do I.”

  “All right, can I take anything for this headache?”

  “Only light painkillers.” She offered me two little heaven sent tablets of mild pain killers. I downed them with a gulp and a mouthful of water from an offered glass. She helped me stand, and walked me to the med lab hatch. She lingered at the entrance, and I turned to face her as I went to leave.

  “You should talk to Maxine.” She said.

  “Yeah, I guess I should. You sure you’re okay?” She nodded. “You need to talk, don’t hesitate.” She nodded again. “I love you.”

  “Love you, too.” She smiled and closed the hatch and I wandered through the passageway towards the mess deck. All around me were the signs of my recent gunfight, dozens of hard light holes and the occasional synthetic part that had rolled into a nook or gap in the deck plates. I rounded the last bend and entered the mess deck proper. Tables were still overturned and stacked aside. There was more debris from the fight; no one had started to clean up the area.

  I remembered I hadn’t stopped to find out how Art and the Argen were doing. I quickly checked the cabins and found one of the Argen asleep.

  “Tac, where is Artemis and the other Argen?”

  Artemis Derris is on watch, along with Fel’negr. Deck Hand Hergo is assisting Engineer Cutler in the starboard nacelle with some repairs to the propulsion.

  “Propulsion? We took a hit there?”

  Engineer Cutler reports minor damage, but there is only minor loss of capabilities. Should I request a thorough report of damage to the system?

  “Yes, please. Have it sent to my overlay for review.”

  Certainly, Acting Captain Donovan. Might I also express my pleasure at seeing you active once more?

  “Thanks, Tac. Walking around seems to help, somewhat. Still fell like someone’s taken to my head with a mallet at some point.”

  The Heavy Assault Synthetic was dealt with rather masterfully, I might add.

  “The big robot? Did Art manage to put it out of commission?”

  Ms. Derris did indeed destroy the synthetic. She made short work of it once you had blinded it and crippled its mobility.

  “I haven’t seen one that big before. What was it?”

  An Overt Assault / Support Synthetic, model OA/SS-2398. Manufactured by the DonCrest Galactic Corporation on Restus Station. I believe the common vernacular for this particular model is the Ogre.

  By then I’d reached Deck 1 and started towards the command module. The command deck was littered with debris also, although most of the mess was from broken bulkhead fittings and overhead cabling runs and pipes. There was still the heavy scent of burning plastics and the chemical smell of polycrete foam in the air. The hatch to the command module was open and I could see Fel and Art in there.

  As I entered I cleared my throat, causing Fel to look up from his systems console.

  “How are you feeling, Seth?” he said, smiling at me.

  “Groggy. Alive.”

  “Good to hear.”

  “What did I miss?”

  “Not much. After your little stunt with the ship we were pretty much in the clear. You gave Ms. Ward a hell of a fright.”

  “Yeah, I bet.”

  “She’ll need to be chastised for leaving her station to tend to you, but overall she did very well as the pilot during our recent battle.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Did you tell her?”

  “I did.”

  “Good, you’re learning.”

  “Very funny. How about you, Art?”

  “I live. Few bruises and burns, hurt my shoulder again. You didn’t leave much of that big synthetic for me to smash.”

  “Yeah, figured you needed an easy win.”

  “I regret to inform you that your lovely exo-rig was trashed. Sorry.”

  “I could never get my arse to sit right in it anyway.”

  “It fit my arse just perfectly. I’ll miss it.”

  “I noticed. While you were hoisting my over your shoulder, I had a great view of your posterior.”

  “Tsk. Tsk. Flirting will get you everywhere, lover boy.”

  “Sorry, I’m taken.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t break up your marital bliss. Made a promise to your absent Captain.”

  “I remember. Fel, did Mal give any reports of damage to the bridge?”

  “Not really, but he did mention that we’ll be at less than full propulsion for a short while until repairs are completed. I turned off the scoops and switched to local fuel for now.”

  “Did he mention what got damaged or how long repairs will take?”

  “I believe his exact words were ‘a while’.”

  I rubbed my chin, and realised I was very tired and couldn’t think too deeply right now. Why was Mal being so vague about the damage?

  “Tac, is that report ready?”

  Compiling it now, Acting Captain. Should appear in your overlay shortly.

  I waited until I could see the file download into my overlay. I accessed it and scanned through the report. Several hull breaches, repair times listed next to each. Aft cargo port side breach sealed after the pod was cut away, the rest filled with polycrete foam and awaiting EVA to apply a nanite skin and weld plating over them. The beamer was still out, that would have to be a priority soon. One of the starboard generators was offline due to a secondary explosion from battle damage. We had two of the point defence synthetics left that we’d welded to the outer hull.

  “Tac, where’s the propulsion report?”

  There was no damage reported to the propulsion.

  “But you told me Mal and Hergo were working on the starboard nacelle?”

  Correct. Perhaps Engineer Cutler forgot to add it to the report when I compiled it.

  “Can you ask him about it? Actually, never mind, I’m going to go down there and see for myself.”

  “What are you thinking, Seth?” asked Fel.

  “Something doesn’t add up. Remember I ordered all the hatches secured before the shells converged? The Deck 2 ladder well was wide open. Something about it malfunctioning. Don’t you think that would have been mentioned when I gave the order? The Central Control hatch was open also. Mal was up on the mezzanine when I got there. At first I thought he’d run up there to hide, but now I’m not so sure. How would he know the mechs were on their way to him?”

  “You think Cuts would sabotage the Dreaming?”

  “Maybe not that, but he was always against running from the Corporates. I hope he’s not trying to get us caught.”

  “That would be catastrophic.”

  “I wouldn’t like that either.” agreed Artemis.

  “If he is, I’ll space him.” I said. I meant it, too.

  “That’s not how we do things on this ship, Seth.” chided Fel.

  “Screw that, if he’s fucking with us, he needs to be put down.” offered Art.

  What would Maxine do? I wondered once more how Max would handle this situation. Would she punish Mal, or give him the benefit of the doubt? We’d all been through a lot lately, and everyone has their breaking points. But without Eric to balance Mal’s hatred of me, perhaps he’d finally had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands. I couldn’t let him jeopardise the crew, if that were the case. Max would put the crew before any one crewman.

  “Tac, are there any camera feeds within visual range of Mal?”

  There are three, however they all appear to be non-functional. Perhaps they also suffered battle damage.

  “Yeah, unlikely. What do you think, Fel? What would a practitioner of The Way do?”

  “Lying is done with words, but also silence. To what end would Mal darken those cameras if he did not wish us to see what he was doing?”

  “How long can we sustain thrust using only our fuel system for the Ion Drives?”

  Current tank levels and reclamation rates indicate we have 9 days 22 hours and
47 minutes of continuous thrust remaining.

  “Less than ten days…”

  The Trifurcated Ion Drive that the Dreaming of Atmosphere used included three main ways of providing fuel to push the ship along. There was the main method, pulling in molecules from space using a magnetic net, or scoop. There was the puff drive section as well. Lastly, we could use the ship’s water supply to break the water molecules into oxygen to feed the life support system, and the hydrogen can be used as fuel. If we used up all ten days’ worth of water we’d have no water to drink, and we’d lose the oxygen boost to our life support. We would need to ration our fluids, and attempt water reclamation protocols. I really hated drinking reclaimed water. Just thinking about it reminded me of our last visit to the Corus Cluster. There was no way we could stop at the Jump Station before entering Gossamer, and I doubt there would be much time at the other side either.

  If my suspicions proved true, Mal could introduce a fault into the Ion Drive that would pretty much guarantee we would have to stop at the Jump Station. We could make it to the Jump Gate, but we’d run out of water before we came out the other end. That meant we’d need to slow down. Which meant the Blade of Xerxes would have a chance of catching us.

  We could just push on through, though. That was always an option. We’d need to ration our water now, and watch how we consume water in other areas. The human body can survive for days without water, but I wasn’t sure about Argen, Orlii or Garz’a. We’d need to dock with the Protectorate Station on the other side of the Gossamer Jump Gate to top up our water, but I don’t like our chances of filling up fully. They’d be hesitant to part with any resources in that system. The Protectorate was more likely to just give us enough to get back through to Eridani System and send us back the way we came.

  Besides all the logistics of water consumption, if we lose one third of our propulsion methods, it would make it far easier for Mal to sabotage another part of the system and force us onto using the puff drive. That would ensure we lose enough acceleration for the Xerxes to catch us. I’d have to make sure, before I go accusing Mal. Maxine would need to be informed.

  “Time to wake the Captain.” I said at last.

  “Be sure in your presumption. The Captain knows of your past with Mal.”

  “Tell me I’m seeing things. Tell me I’m bullshitting myself.”

  “I can’t. Your logic and the evidence that supports it are sound. It’s not a conclusion I would have come up with, but we have to deal with this considering what’s at risk.”

  I sighed and nodded my thanks to him. Then I turned and left the compartment, walking with a heavy step towards Max’s cabin. My head still throbbed, but at least the nausea had abated. The analgesics that Zoe had given me were working, but I was still in a world of pain. I didn’t need this, right now. What I needed was rest.

  I knocked on the hatch combing and waited. I didn’t hear anything so I let myself in. The cabin was dark, and smelled strongly of spirits. I walked in and closed the hatch, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the gloom. I could make out a few shapes in the compartment after a few moments. I could hear Max turning over in her bunk, and started towards her. I’d gotten a few steps forward when I heard her mutter something.

  “Sorry? I didn’t catch that?” I asked.

  “Careful. Broken glass.”

  I looked around on the deck and thought I could see the glint of glass in places. I decided to wait a little bit more and wait for my eyes to adjust better. Max must have gotten impatient with me just standing there because I heard her sigh and she turned her bunk light on. She was half sitting up, looking haggard and tired. There was the glass of several broken bottles on the deck, and dark stains of alcohol on the light rug she keeps in the cabin.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Crazy driver caught me unprepared.” Oh, I remembered the manoeuvring that Zoe had done.

  “We have a problem.”

  “You have a problem. I still have several hours left on my holiday.”

  “I think we’re being sabotaged.”

  She said nothing for several moments, and I was about to say it again when she sighed and sat up fully, rubbing her eyes.

  “Coffee. Black. Lots of sugar. Then we talk.”

  As Captain, Maxine’s cabin ranked a few luxuries the rest of us didn’t have. Such as a mini-bar, refrigerator, and a small kitchenette. I carefully stepped over to the coffee machine she keeps there and slipped a few coffee pouches into the small unit. I grabbed what looked like the cleanest two mugs that were resting in cold, murky sink water and rinsed them out. When the coffee was ready, I filled the two mugs and added a few sachets of sugar to one and a whitener tablet to the other. I turned around to catch the rear half of a naked Maxine dashing into the shower unit. I almost dropped both mugs and only managed to spill a bit on my hand and burn myself.

  Wow, for an old girl Maxine was still pretty fit.

  “What was that?” she called through the steamy haze that emanated from the stall.

  “Er…nothing.” Shit, must have just blurted it out. I have mentioned I’m pretty stupid around naked women, haven’t I? Even older naked women, apparently.

  She finished and reached around the sliding door to grab a towel. I dutifully started towards the other side of the compartment, gazing longingly out the porthole near her desk. I heard her moving over to the table and I turned around and offered her the coffee. She was rugged up in a bright pink fleece bathrobe, her hair up in a towel.

  “That’s a good look.” I said.

  “I know you perved on my arse.”

  “Just making sure you hadn’t drank it off.”

  “What did you think?”

  “Not bad for a woman in her seventies.”

  “Fuck off, I’m in my forties, you cheeky shit.”

  “Late forties.”

  “Whatever. Christ, I’m hungover. Or still drunk. Hard to tell.”

  “Want me to get Zoe to give you something?”

  “Hell no. I earned this pain. Bought the ticket, gotta take the ride.”

  We were silent a few moments, just drinking out coffee. I did me some good too, I was still under the weather, somewhat.

  “You look like shit.” said Max, breaking the silence. I chuckled.

  “Yeah, had a rough run these last few hours.”

  “How did we do? We got boarded again, I could hear it. Fel popped in and warned me too.”

  “Synthetics, nasty ones. They almost shut us down, but Tac had a card up his sleeve in the end. That was Zoe piloting, by the way.”

  “No shit? That girl is getting mighty useful. We should keep her.”

  “No complaints here.”

  “How much do I need to know?”

  “About the saboteur?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I’m going to give you all the things I’ve found and let you come up with a suspect.”

  “You have someone in mind, though?”

  “I do.”

  “Okay, what have you got?”

  “First thing – we were being fired on by the Xerxes and had a plan hatched out to deal with it, we knew were about to be boarded so I ordered all deck access hatches and compartment hatches sealed. When we were assaulted a few droids managed to get through to Deck 2 from the forward cargo hold. The Deck 2 hatch was open. Listed as malfunctioning. There was no faults on that door at the start of the assault.

  “Second – the Central Control room was also unsealed, and the compartment wasn’t guarded. The occupant on station was hiding on the mezzanine…”

  “Mal…”

  “It may have saved his life, I’m not willing to count that last part as evidence, merely circumstantial.”

  “He should have been monitoring power levels.”

  “Yes, I don’t know what he was doing up there.”

  “Okay, what else?”

  “Third – we took some damage from drones, Tac provided me with a damage report, however Hergo an
d Mal are currently enacting repairs on the scoop system. We’re running on tanks, but there was no reported damage to the system they’re working on.”

  “Are there cameras in that section?”

  “Fourth – the three cameras with access to that compartment are all listed as ‘non-functioning’ even though Tac reports there to be no faults listed with them either. Running on tanks will mean we run out of water before we enter the Gossamer System. We’d have to slow down and dock with Gossamer Station before shifting.”

  “If that bastard turns me into a puffer, I’ll space him.”

  “So much for an impartial hearing.”

  “Why would you think he was doing it?”

  “He was always against standing up to the Corporates. Eric was keeping him in line, I guess.” A dark shadow passed over Max’s face as I mentioned Eric. I felt bad about it, but she needed to hear it.

  “You think Hergo is in on it, too?”

  “They do seem to be getting along, but I don’t see any cause to believe he is. He’d believe whatever Mal told him about the engines.”

  “No reason not too, I suppose. Okay, you have me worried. Now what?”

  “Well…I was hoping you’d step in.”

  “And shoot him myself?”

  “No, I mean this will rip the crew’s guts out. Morale will plummet. We gotta do this with kid gloves.”

  “Who else knows?”

  “I used Fel as a sounding board, and Art was within earshot.”

  “Fel I trust, Art I believe wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise the mission.”

  “My take as well.”

  “There isn’t too many other people left, Donny. They’ll deal with it.”

  “What if I’m wrong?”

  “What if you’re right?”

  I pondered in silence for a few moments, sipping my coffee.

  “We’ll have to catch him red handed.” I said, finally.

  “Or prove without a doubt. I’d rather not have to fire someone who may just be the best damn hull repairman the Dreaming’s had in decades.”

  “Denno’s not too bad with a nanite patch and welder.”

  “He does ugly, but functional work at best.”

  “Functional is better than non-functional.”