Fireflies and Cosmos: Interstellar Spring Book 1

by J. Darris Mitchell

  'Not long Captain. A few seconds really. We're close to Wholhom, I could practically fly there by sight.'

  'No Bubble drive then?'

  'No sir, I mean yessir. We still need the drive sir.'

  'Fine, make it so,' She said, quoting one of her favorite classic characters. 'ETA?'

  'Probably just a day in Bubble, then two or three to trek in.'

  'Perfecto.'

  Chapter 9

  The Captain made every effort to maintain her composure as she left the bridge. Still, despite years developing a mask of perfect self-control, it was difficult. She couldn't respond, Bubblephones were only receivers, so she had to be content with telling herself that whatever reason the Institute had for her to abandon the life of one of her crew was a good one.

  The doors to the elevator opened and Catalina found Roman there, his fist raised, his hairy knuckles about to strike the door that she had slid aside.

  'Sola,' He started bashfully.

  'You will address me as captain when we are on this vessel, working planet-side on a mission or anytime you are wearing the brown and green uniform of the Institute for Organic Expansion or you will be confined to your quarters. At least then perhaps the rest of my crew can work in peace,' she said squaring her shoulders against the taller much and broader figure.

  Jupiter seemed to wilt under her gaze. 'Yes, err, Captain, that's why I wanted to talk to you. I think that perhaps I was a bit hasty in trying to sabotage your mission. I should not have sent a distress beacon back to Bulletar.'

  'You will never be able to do a thing with my systems that I don't know about, Ensign. You may know bugs, but I know this ship. Don't ever think you can do anything aboard without my permission or knowledge,' Catalina said and Roman wilted further.

  'Yes well, good then. I had noticed we had dropped out of Bubbledrive and was hoping that it wasn't on account of me.'

  Catalina actually laughed at that. 'Ha! You think I was going to stop because you shed a few tears? Grow up Jupiter. I knew you were going to get over her, just like you get over every other girl that either begged you to stay or begged you to leave. You have the attention span of one of your fireflies, and if it wasn't for your ability to understand the things, I wouldn't have you on my ship. If you think for a moment that I am doing anything besides what is expressly best for this mission and to uphold the Charter, you are a far bigger fool then even Farah took you for.'

  ‘Then, why did we drop out of Bubbledrive,' Roman said, struggling to maintain eye contact with this short and powerful post of a woman.

  'Because the mission. Get to the mess hall. I have an announcement for the crew.'

  'You mean Farah and Ikamon?'

  'Shut up and grab hold of something. You’ve been a groundworm for a year. I don’t want you getting sick. We're about to go back under Bubble. '

  They did then. Catalina felt the slightest of tremors as space stretched out in both directions yet in opposite dimensions. Roman somehow managed to fall into Catalina's arms. She caught him easily. It wouldn't do for a small woman to not know how to defend herself against a larger man's body. She carried his momentum to the floor and managed to not crack his head against the deck, much as she might have wanted to.

  Jupiter's eyes opened and he swooned. In his eyes was something that Catalina had told herself she did not want to see again, a look she had seen far too many times before.

  'Sola I've been a fool!' His eyelashes fluttered like one of the butterflies he was always going on about.

  'You will address me as Captain,' Catalina said and dropped Roman. This time his head hit the deck with a satisfying clunk.

  'Yes Captain. Anything you say!' Roman hopped up and saluted crisply. 'John Muir, I've been a fool, a bumblebee searching for a rose while all the while a marigold, far brighter and richer in nutrients is right in front of me.'

  Catalina didn't know what to say to that, so she ignored him.

  'Mess hall. Now.'

  Roman winked, saluted crisply, and marched off.

  Catalina couldn't be sure, but she thought he might've been sucking in his gut as he went.

  Chapter 10

  Captain Mondragon was beginning to regret crewing the Artemis with old friends. Farah Relkor seemed to have given up completely on decorum.

  'This has got to be a joke! The Artemis went to Epsilon-V first, we have surveys to complete and what's more we lost a man there. A good one too. Please take offense, Jupiter.’

  'Captain, we should ask for clarification in this matter, you know? It is highly unorthodox to be reassigned.' Ikamon said.

  Only Roman seemed supportive, and that too was infuriating.

  'Don't you think that Sola, pardon me, Captain Sola has considered all of this? She would not leave a survey uncompleted and a man behind unless the Institute gave her good reason for it. She is an asset to the Institute for Organic Expansion. I mean, just look at her badges, there's like ten more since I last saw her, and it's only been a year. I can't even imagine taking off that jacket any more, there'd be far too much a risk of bruising her firm but supple skin.'

  'Roman that is enough!' Catalina said but Roman only grinned.

  Farah rolled her eyes. 'Shouldn't use the Captain's middle name Ensign. Remember you're ranked below deck scrubber now. It's unprofessional to use anything but titles,' When Farah said this she looked pointedly at Catalina. Clearly she noticed that Catalina had called Roman by his first name, but how could she not? He was fawning all over her like they were back in the Captain's quarters on the RL Carson under Bubble drive with nothing to do but each other. She stole a glance out one of the ports and saw the strange aurora of lights flashing by as the Artemis traveled on towards Wholhom.

  'Ensign Jupiter has a good point,' Ikamon began before Farah turned on him, her pale eyes crackling with fire. Ikamon held up his hands in protest. 'The captain would not change missions unless the Institute gave her good reason. This is, after all, unprecedented. We must hear her out.'

  Farah crossed her arms and scowled, but said nothing more.

  Three pairs of eyes fell upon Catalina.

  Catalina was unsure of how to tell them that the Institute hadn't told her a damn thing, that all they had said was that their mission had changed. She'd never been reassigned like this before, so far as she knew no one had, but then no one had ever faced anything like the strange giant bugs they'd seen on Epsilon-V either. Before she could speak, Fin's voice crackled over the comm system.

  'Do you just want me to read them the message Captain?'

  Catalina interjected before Farah exploded.

  'That won't be necessary Pilot, I believe I remember the message,' Catalina cleared her throat, 'Artemis. Redirect to Wholhom, await further orders there. Direct order. Abort mission to Epsilon-V. Repeat. Redirect to Wholhom.'

  Roman nodded in understanding and appreciation. Farah cocked her head, clearly unsure of what to think. Only Kensei said anything. 'But what is the message?'

  'That is the message.' Catalina said flatly.

  'I for one find it commendable that we are following the orders of the Institute, and heading to Wholhom, an inner planet certainly, but surely a world in need of our assistance to establish the networks of life we all find so dear. I find it respectable and, in truth, quite attractive that Captain Sola'

  To her credit, Farah didn't yell when she silenced Roman's inane blathering. Her tone of voice was fearsome enough stop him. 'That's it? That's all they told you and we're supposed to leave a man's corpse, and a whole planet to what? Rot?'

  'My Mango, we cannot possibly know what they plan to do,' Ikamon said.

  'What I know is that we are owed far more of an explanation than that. This is the first planet we've ever encountered hostile life, and we are being reassigned without so much as a mention of what is going to become of that world?' Farah said.

  'Bubblephone is expensive, I'm sure they'd have told us more if they could afford to,' Jupiter said.

 
'If they could afford to? They seeded the 51 worlds, you unevolved biped, of course they can afford it! We have a duty to uphold! We have to prove that each planet has air, water, and sea or soil in the few years we still have before the Corps come in and drop prefabs on everything the Institute has created, everything we've been studying. We can't just abandon our mission!'

  'We are not abandoning our mission, Officer Relkor,' Catalina said.

  'Sir, with all due respect, my surveys our incomplete, as our Ken's.'

  'I am fully aware of the status of your reports Officer Relkor. As aware as you must be of how I feel about insubordination on this ship. I have had quite enough of your outbursts. I understand that this is unprecedented, and I too feel slighted that we are being reassigned and that our duty to Epsilon-V is going to be fulfilled by what I am sure will be an inferior crew, but if you want to whine and throw a tantrum about it, why not just come over here and cry into my tits.'

  'Captain I am feeling very upset about our reassignment,'

  'Shut up Jupiter!' Kensei, Farah and Catalina all yelled at once. Fin chuckled over the intercom.

  'Now, if you think you have the fortitude to skip all this nonsense about your bruised ego and hurt feelings I would like to remind you of our vows to uphold the Charter. We swore no oath to Epsilon-V, nor did we swear any oath to Dr. Mercurian. Our duty lies with the Charter. More than ninety years ago the Institute sent out the 51 Seedpods into the vastness of space because they hoped that one day each planet would have breathable air, drinkable water, and either tillable soil or fishable seas. They did this when humanity was poised on environmental collapse because we were simply out of space. These worlds represent the ultimate solution to this problem, yet they cannot be inhabited until we prove them to be safe. We owe nothing to Epsilon-V or any lives it has taken from us. We have pledged ourselves to the Institute and the Charter they created because of what we owe them. I have stepped on thirteen worlds, and now the Institute is telling us to go to a fourteenth, because they, or it, or at the very least some bureaucrat working there who is hopefully less emotional than the three of you, knows that the Artemis is a strong ship with a strong crew. I hope, as I'm sure you all do, that when we drop from Bubbledrive there will be a full report on what will happen to Epsilon-V until we get there, but if we do not find such a report encoded and waiting for us on the databank of a comm satellite, you can be sure that I will not call up the Institute and yell at them about it.

  'Instead, we will read whatever report that Institute will undoubtedly have on Wholhom, survey the state of the organisms the Institute seeded it with, ascertain if the planet has air, water and soil or sea, and if it does not, we will solve this problem or else a Corps will come in and drop a burbdome on this planet and take away what chance the colonists have to live as human beings. We will do our mission, protect this planet, and give humanity another world on which they may continue to live. We will do this as we always have, efficiently and with great care. Just because a few members of the old crew from the RL Carson are back together, does not give any one of us reason to pretend like we can still behave like we did back then, back before I was one of the most decorated officers in the Institute, and your Captain. Now, if there's to be any more objections, kindly write them in your ship's logs. I have heard quite enough for today. Questions? No? Perfecto.'

  Farah, Ikamon and Roman stood eyes wide and silent, until a loud clap ran over the comm systems, then another, and another faster and faster. Captain Mondragon and Roman realized that Fin was giving the captain a slow clap over the intercom, but only Roman found it appropriate to clap along with her.

  'Pilot Fin, do I need autopilot to take us the rest of the way to Wholhom?'

  'No Captain.' Fin said, dejected. The clapping stopped.

  'Captain if I may,' Roman said his big grin growing bigger by the second.

  'No, you may not, Ensign Jupiter. I don't want to hear a word from any of you until we drop out of Bubbledrive in two days. Is that clear?'

  Farah Relkor, Kensei 'Ikamon' Mizuyama, and Roman Luz Jupiter all saluted crisply and barked, 'Yes sir!'

  'Perfecto,' Captain Mondragon said, and turned to leave, knowing full well that two days of silence was far too much to ask for from a crew as special as hers.

  Chapter 11

  To his credit, Roman lasted nearly a day. After the way he'd been eying her, Catalina had expected him to come knocking on her door far sooner. So when he did rap his hairy knuckles against her quarters, she was not surprised. She did peep through her window though before opening the door, and she was glad she did, for it gave her a moment to regain her composure.

  Roman had brought her butterflies.

  Catalina had a weakness for flowers. She was a Captain of an O-class ship after all, and had a certain affinity for life in all of its forms. Flowers especially she loved. They were colorful and aromatic and all that was great of course, but what she loved most about them was that in each head of almost every flower, there were hundreds if not thousands of little versions of that flower, each waiting to spring forth and grow into another beautiful version intent on making even more of itself. She loved most of all the asters, for they were all composite flowers, and positively overflowed with seeds between their petals.

  Roman it seemed, had remembered this detail, but had gone one further. In his hairy knuckles he clutched a bouquet of dwarf sunflowers, blackfoot daisies, damianita and zinnias, asters one and all, and no doubt picked from Farah's terrariums housed in the living library of the ship without her permission. What was even more impressive though, and a trick only Roman in all his romantic obnoxiousness was capable of, was that three pipevine swallowtail butterflies fluttered lazily about the bouquet, pausing to sip nectar now and then, or land upon Roman's shoulder and flap their blue-black iridescent wings languidly. Between the flowers and the butterflies was Roman Jupiter. He was freshly shaved, his short unruly hair slicked back into some semblance of a professional appearance and he wore a spotless uniform.

  Catalina stowed herself, and opened the door.

  'Ensign, I believe my orders were clear.'

  Roman nodded and gently thrust the flowers in her direction. Catalina only glared at Roman at first, but when one of the butterflies fluttered between them she snatched the flowers out of Roman's hands. Roman looked at her but said nothing as the three pipevine swallowtails followed the bouquet into her room. Catalina knew that as soon as she closed the door the butterflies would stop behaving as if they were tame, but so long as Roman was around, they'd dote on her. She didn’t know how he did things like this with insects, whether it was pheromones or perhaps conditioning imposed as soon as they hatched from a chrysalis, but it was intoxicating nonetheless. A butterfly landed on one of her brightly colored badges of honor that was in the shape of a lily. Its delicate frame so small that it didn't so much as nudge the pin a degree askew.

  'What do you want Jupiter?'

  Roman mimed zipping his lips and winked at Catalina.

  'You came here to tell me you destroyed some of Farah's breeding stock and are in the process of murdering the only swallowtails we got from Texas? If that is all, you are dismissed.’

  Roman bowed cordially and smiled again.

  Catalina closed the door. Part of her wanted to toss the flowers into the composter, but they were beautiful, and besides, the butterflies would need something to eat. One of them nibbled at a daisy now, its delicate proboscis carefully uncurling and drinking the nectar. Catalina sighed and fetched a pitcher and some water. She placed the flowers into the pitcher and noticed that in the middle of the bouquet was a rolled up paper note. She smirked. She knew that Roman had more planned than simply being nice. It seemed Farah was right. He was still his old self regardless of how he'd behaved with Betriz. She unfurled the note read the words written upon it.

  Dearest Captain Sola.

  Forgive me for my earlier intrusions against both your loyalty to the Charter and your professionalism. I se
e now how obvious it was that Betriz needed to stay behind on Bulletar. Honestly I don't know what I saw in her, and would like to thank you for getting me back spaceside, and reminding me of the work we used to do together.

  Much has changed in a year, Captain. Even writing that word is new for me. I still remember you as that meteoric first officer of the RL Carson, highly decorated, intelligent, intimidating, passionate beyond measure, and outstandingly beautiful. I believe it is these feelings perhaps, that offended you, and for these feelings I would like to explain myself and apologize. You see, when I saw you under the light of the BubbleDrive, I felt as if I had a flashback to the firm mattress of your quarters on the Carson. I felt as if my neck was bruised from your love bites, my loins tired from your formidable sexual prowess. I remembered the way the light used to dance upon your ample breasts, the way your long curly hair would flow around us when you turned off the gravity, the way your eyes would sparkle when you'd look at me like I was one of those planets we'd be seeing soon as we dropped from Bubbledrive. I still lust for you at night, when I sleep. I wake up aching, thinking of the dancing lights and the things you would do to me, the things we’d do to each other. I never imagined that that beautiful, capable woman, would turn from first officer acting as a captain in time of emergency to captain of her own ship in hardly a year and come find me of all people. It is an honor, I would say, but it is so much more than that. I feel like the butterfly, left behind during the great migration, only to discover that another of his own has returned for him, if only to mate and leave their fertilized offspring on the underside of a dewy leaf.

  I know that we are not butterflies, that we cannot go back to those wonderful, unforgettable moments that I will relive every time I see the flickering aurora of faster than light travel, those lights that you were born under, and that perhaps I should take to thanking those lights for watching over a woman as amazing as you come into existence, and recognize something in me and that even though those moments are locked in our memories forever, we cannot hope to recreate them, no matter how much we might want to, for time has passed, and that part of us is gone.