Baby, it's Cold in Space: Eight Science Fiction Romances

by Margo Bond Collins

  “It means we need to scan those filters manually.” Jody said. “Where do we find them, Six?”

  “Engineering,” Six replied.

  “Past the crew quarters. Aft.” Jody said as she pointed towards the back of the vessel.

  “What sort of scanning equipment do we need, Six?” Ewan asked.

  “Basic handhelds will work. If you uplink them to the ship’s computer, I will retrieve them.”

  “Do you think that’s what could have killed the crew?”

  “If, as Jody says, she spent most of her time in a non-filtered environment, then yes. She could have had minimal exposure to the toxin that was in her blood,” Six replied.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jody turned mid-stride, held her hands up and looked at Ewan. “Did you know this?” She tried to keep her voice from squeaking but failed. Blood rushed to her cheeks, her ears burned, her heart pounded. Fury gripped her. What the blazes was he thinking? “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I—yes. Yes. I forgot. I’m sorry.” Ewan said. His arms and hands shifted until he reached one hand up to his collar uncomfortably. “There was a lot going on and Six was still—“

  “It would have been a good thing for me to check into while you were asleep,” Jody stalked away from him towards engineering. She needed to step away before she blew up.

  “I’m sorry!” he called after her.

  Jody ignored him and kept moving.

  ***

  Six said, “Doctor, I’m monitoring her. She has left the payload bay and cannot hear you.”

  “Thanks, Six.” Ewan growled.

  “If Jodeen Wall was always in her flight suit, and she survived because of it, she could be part of a conspiracy or the victim.”

  “And the payload? She was the specialist,” Ewan added with growing fear and confusion.

  “Yes, and she came on at Starbase 18, the last stop before the crash.”

  “And she’s headed to the filters!” Ewan took off towards the payload bay doors to chase her down.

  “Stop, Doctor!”

  Ewan ignored the drone. When he got to the engine room, Ewan stopped. It was unlit save for a few of the blue safety lights casting shadows. Ewan felt his fingertips tingle.

  “Don’t come in!” Jody called. “Do you feel that in your fingers? How about your face?”

  The tingling was beginning in his face, too. “What are you doing to me?” His heart thudded in his chest. Was he exposed? Dying?

  “Me? Doctor, get out,” Jody ordered. A hacking cough punctuated her plea. “Go find a helmet. Get your EVA secure.” She urged. He turned to comply but stopped and spun back towards her voice.

  “What about you?” Ewan asked.

  Six’s voice broke in through the engineering com, “Doctor, she’s right, go get your EVA helmet. Your life signs appear normal but hers are not.”

  “When I pulled the filter to scan it—” Another cough.

  “Where are you?” A light flashed to his far left, a shadow moved. “You need to get out of here.” Using the collar light on his EVA he checked to his left and right then saw one of the downed crew members.

  An EVA helmet was on the workstation next to the body slumped over the desk. Three long strides brought him to the station. He grabbed the helmet, twirling it with his fingertips to set it right. Shoving it on his head, he clicked it into place and inhaled deeply. Until that moment, he didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath. Ewan passed his hand over the visor and switched it to the enviro filter to scan around the chamber. A slumped lump of red was back in the corner where he’d seen her shadow before. “Hold on! I’m coming, Jody.”

  Chapter Six

  “WHAT ABOUT NOW, SHE’S PALE… SIX?”

  “We need to clear her lungs. Set your EVA visor to filter. Take it off and put it on Jody. That will help stabilize her for now.”

  “Got it.” Ewan laid Jody on the cot. The blue-laced veins visible on her eyelids gave her a childlike fragility.

  With shaking hands, Ewan swiped his visor, removed his helmet and lowered it to her head. Propping her limp neck with one hand, he slipped the helmet over her head with the other.

  Jody’s eyelashes fluttered. Her lips gapped slightly, showing the whites of her teeth, a pink tongue.

  He snapped the helmet on securely before the wild idea to kiss her won out. With careful hands, he placed her head gently back on the cot.

  “Done. Next?” Ewan said.

  “There should be an anti-toxin.”

  “Where?”

  “Check for a locker.”

  At Six’s prompt, Ewan’s eyes grazed over the tiny medical bay until they lit upon the tall gray cabinet. Ewan stepped to the locker and tried the latch. “It’s locked, Six. The locker is—”

  “Locked, naturally. What do you see?”

  “A hole?”

  “Quaint. A key. Try looking in a drawer for an alloy chip.”

  “Gotcha,” to his left, Ewan saw several drawers in a medical workstation. He opened one. There were only sterile gloves, a box of facial tissue, and clean bandage packages. The next one down held several syringe boosters. He pulled one out and put it on the workstation. Swiveling around, he couldn’t see any other drawers. Then his eyes lit on a round grey slip of alloy. It was hanging from a looped string on a pegboard above the drawers. “Aha!” With shaking hands, he grabbed for it.

  “Doctor, I’m detecting elevated blood pressure, you’ll need to take a deep breath. Then blow it out with a count to ten.”

  “I don’t have time for that, Six.” Frenzied, he jammed the chip in the lock slit. Mercifully, it clicked the lock open. “Thank the stars,” he said. Ewan yanked the locker door open, “What am I looking for?”

  “The manifest says that medical is equipped with a neurotoxin inhibitor, Naolis. It’s a broad spectrum counteracting agent and standard on corporation ships.”

  “Will it work?” He rifled through and read each of the palm-sized boxes.

  “Yes, we have her ATV medical scan. This will work.”

  Each time he picked up one of the medicine boxes, others toppled. Stepping back, took a deep breath, turned, and looked at Jody as he ripped his gloves off and tossed them on the flat of the workstation. With his fingers set free, Ewan picked each of the boxes up. “Naolis, Naolis… where are you? Come out, come out wherever you… AHA!” Triumphantly, he grabbed the box.

  Tearing the lid, the closed vial spilled out onto the physician’s workstation near the syringe booster. With syringe in one hand and vial in the other, he slipped the vial into the gun-like apparatus with a satisfying snap. “Now—“

  “Her jugular, sir, best place.”

  “She’s wearing the helmet.”

  “You’ll have to take it back off.”

  In one movement, Ewan took the step forward and knelt beside the cot.

  Jody’s chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

  He laid the syringe booster on her belly. Then, with hands freed, he removed her helmet and placed it to the side of the cot. His eyes never left her as his hand took the syringe from her midsection. He tried to moisten his mouth, dry from nerves. The cold of the booster syringe against his bare hand forced focus to his mind. His free hand felt for the pulse at her neck. Weak but steady. “Come on, Ewan… you can do this.” He lay the flat of the booster injector against the pulse point and pulled the trigger.

  Hiss.

  Jody’s eyes flew open.

  He dropped the syringe.

  “He-eh.” She gasped.

  “It’s okay,” Ewan kept his voice low and soothing, taking her face into his hands. “You’re going to be fine.”

  Her mouth formed a perfect “o” as she stared wide-eyed into his eyes. Perfect blue eyes surrounded by thick, tawny lashes.

  The stillness enveloped them.

  He felt her pulse quicken beneath his fingertips. It wasn’t until he felt her hands on his wrists that he realized it was because he was still holding her face, in
ches from his.

  “I’m…”

  “You’re okay,” he felt his grin broaden. He couldn’t help it.

  Her fingertips stroked the edges of his short beard. “You saved my life.” Her face was so close to his, he could taste the scent of her citrusy lip gloss.

  “I did… yeah, I did.”

  A giggle was followed by a cough.

  “Oh. Let me get you a tissue.” He let her face go. There was a glimmer of sadness in her eyes as he backed away. Reaching over to the drawer, he opened the top one and took out the tissue box before handing it to her, just as she began coughing again.

  Ewan watched her with a frown. “Actually, I don’t think I can take any credit. You saved my life, I think. By going in there first. What possessed you to go in on your own? Why didn’t you wait?”

  “I guess…” she faltered. “I guess I’m used to doing things without any help.”

  “We’re a team, Jody. We have to get through this together. Don’t go throwing yourself into the path of danger. I need you.”

  “Do you?” Her eyes twinkled a promise of mischief. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  ***

  It took some convincing to let her out of medbay, but eventually, they had to eat. While Jody sorted through the kitchen’s ready-meals, she could not get Ewan’s bravery and care off of her mind. Guilt about what she needed to do combined with the guilt of having been saved by the man she was about to destroy. He wasn’t just a nice guy, there was a brave soul hidden beneath the veneer of Cordoba efficiency. Focus on getting out of here. Get your head in the game. Jody willed clarity through her fuzzy post poison brain.

  Eventually, she found something to eat that didn’t look entirely revolting. She hoped it was a chicken pot pie. If Six couldn’t get them out by breakfast, she’d be reduced to eating a combination of instant tapioca with the engineer’s batch of tinned kelp biscuits. “This makes no sense,” she said, setting her meal on the table.

  Ewan looked up from his bowl. “I’m eating mushroom chili with reconstituted crabcakes. When the food is going off, meals don’t make sense.”

  “I meant the sabotage. That has to be what it is. I guess there was time at the starbase to rig the filters, but there were so many other targets in port. Why hit Ebudae?”

  “My project,” Ewan said.

  Jody tried not to flinch. His project was her target. Nobody else in the Freedom Road movement was assigned to it but her. She shook her head. “No offense, but I can’t imagine it was your project, Ewan. There’s a lot of terraforming projects. What’s making this one special?”

  His eyes dipped away from her. “Then I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.” He took a bite of his crabcake and chewed. They sat in thoughtful silence, eating, before he spoke again. “Six, that cargo discrepancy,” he scratched his beard. “It was all there at the last stop?” Ewan asked.

  “Yes,” Six said.

  “I took over for Specialist Redben. She had a family emergency and handed off the cargo manifests to me. Redben had already checked the cargo and the weight station approved and stamped so all I did was go through and count boxes. The boxes?”

  “Same number of boxes are in the cargo hold as were in it at Starbase 18,” the drone replied.

  Jody looked up from the table to Ewan who’s eyes were closed as though he were listening to a symphony. “Ewan?”

  “Shhh. Wait.” He waved a hand. “Let’s go find the last box of food that was loaded.” Ewan said.

  “OK,” Jody got up, the world tilted out of focus. But she wasn’t going to let that stop the investigation. If someone knew who she was, and was trying to stop her… but how? How could they have found out? And where would they have hidden on board? “Six, while we do that, would you review your scans of Ebudae, look for any refuse in unusual places.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Six said.

  ***

  In the cargo bay, Jody scanned the box labels. They had already opened several and replaced them when they were looking for the parts. She staggered towards the container that held the tree nuts.

  A hand came to her shoulder. “Let me.” Ewan said. “You sit.”

  “That one,” she pointed. “Why didn’t I notice it before? When I was looking for food earlier… müterfragga.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” he reassured. “We weren’t looking for a conspiracy.” Ewan hefted the container. “I shouldn’t be able to lift this with ease.” It slammed to the deck plates.

  “This is not good.” Jody agreed.

  “It is my guess that they left the ship before it began descent,” Six said. “The flight records won’t tell us anything conclusive.”

  “And the ship scans?” Jody inquired.

  “You were right in that respect. In the Executive Officer’s quarters, I located a cache of expended food containers.” Six replied. “It could have been the XO but that would not be in line with protocol. Food is kept in the crew common area. We do not know if the XO was complicit. They could have been under duress.”

  “Or lied to,” Ewan put in.

  “Sir, as a matter of information. I’ve wiggled the hoppercraft free and I have wiped all impediments off the solar receptors, so Ebudae’s power cells are charging up.”

  “Great,” Ewan said. “How are we for air?”

  “Your environment is stable now that the solar receptors are back online and charging.” Six said.

  “The filters?” Ewan asked.

  “Rerouted to the secondary allotment,” Six replied.

  “Speaking of filtered air… Now that our helmets are off, it’s a little funky smelling in here,” Jody said, standing up and waving her hand in front of her nose.

  Six made a humming noise on the comlink. “That would be dead crew. I suggest moving them outside to the snowpack as soon as possible.” There was a pause. “The snow on Ebudae is quite pretty in the moonlight.”

  “Thanks, Six,” he pursed his lips.

  “Was my attempt at changing the subject from an unpleasant thought unsuccessful?”

  “It was very sweet,” Jody put in. “Unlike this air.”

  “That should improve. I have taken the liberty of completing the tunnel. I’ve put a cap on it to keep the wind from blowing into the ship. The ventilation will clear the air.”

  “Six.” Ewan said, “You’re a lifesaver.”

  “Perhaps now would be the time to consolidate? This site needs fortification and preparation. I can pilot the hoppercraft back to basecamp and grab the equipment while you do that,” Six said.

  “You can?” Ewan asked, his voice rising. “Wait, you’re not capable of flying the hoppercraft on your own.”

  “I am!” Six giggled a jubilant punctuation. “I learned how while I was digging out the ATV. It’s not hard. I—“

  “You… want to go back to base by yourself?” Ewan finished.

  “Yes. It will take less than twenty-four hours by my estimation, including packing up the yurt and equipment. I do not need to sleep. Nor do I tire.”

  “It would be safer to have everything in one place,” Ewan said. “Go.” He gave the order before he could change his mind. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jody tilt her head in question. “What?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and walked around in a circle before she spoke. “What if Six turns off? Malfunctions? We’re stuck. Alone. With no transport but an ATV and days, possibly weeks, before Cordoba sends relief.”

  “Six has a default. They can’t be turned off unless I physically do it by pulling their power source. Otherwise, they just go into a state of hibernation, and they can do that on their own if they need to do self-diagnostics.”

  “Hmm,” she nodded. “Well, then. We have work to do.”

  “We have to start…”

  “Burying our dead.” Jody interrupted with a finality that he couldn’t disagree with.

  Ewan realized he’d been avoiding the idea and chided himself. “You’re right.” It was hard e
nough to move the captain and co-pilot before. Their bodies stiff and unyielding. Ewan gulped and drew a long breath. “That’s exactly what we’ll do.”

  ***

  Dragging dead bodies around was nothing new to Jody. She couldn’t say the same for Ewan. He moved stiffly towards engineering as though being pulled by a toddler. Seeing his unease, she tried to take his mind off of it. “Tell me more about your project…”

  For the next hour he rambled on about nucleotides, Carbon-12 levels, and data strings. But it seemed to work. As they stood in the snow, EVA and parka covered, the crew lay half buried just beyond the depression made by the departing hoppercraft.

  Jody patted her hands on her arms and jumped up and down. The breeze lifted powdery snow into the moonlight. The cloudless night showed three moons glowing in the velvety sky. The quiet deepened, seeping into her. “We need a moment of silence.”

  “That’s a quaint old custom,” Ewan said.

  “On Tiva Oa, the dead are burned and their ashes scattered over the ocean. We have… had,” she corrected herself. “We had celebrations of life with dancing and storytelling about our departed.”

  “We have customs in Cordoba.”

  “Like what?” she asked, trying not to sound rude. Cordoba was all he ever knew. She couldn’t rock his foundation too hard.

  “Uhm,” he struggled, putting a gloved hand to his beard and tugging, “we have fireworks on Dominion Day.” He beamed at her triumphantly.

  “Dominion Day is not a custom, that’s a celebration of ascendancy. Every new planetary alliance has their customs erased by contracts and dotted lines. In Tiva Oa, words of wise men run out over beaches, songs are sung by crackling bonfires, children are fed stories and laughter.”

  “So, you were raised on Tiva…?”

  “I was born in the Marquesas Commune of the Tiva Oa Provincial Commonwealth. I was a professional surfer.”

  “You were a what?”

  She laughed and turned towards the tunnel. “That’s an exaggeration. I did a lot of surfing.”