Moving Target

by Melissa Good

  "Excellent." The captain turned around. "And let us hope the government finishes their investigation quickly, as we cannot return to port until they do." He sniffed. "However long that will take. So enjoy this meal as best you can."

  Dar blinked, and looked at Kerry.

  The captain sat down, and picked up his wine glass, sipping from it with a calm expression. Ceci scratched her jaw. "I hope I didn't just throw us into a bad

  Flying Dutchman nightmare." "Yikes." Kerry covered her eyes. "I've got a bad feeling about this." "Wall." Andy continued plowing his way through his dinner.

  "Ain't life just one little kick ass after t'other."

  Chapter Five

  KERRY LEANED AGAINST the granite fountain in the center of the atrium checking off items on her clipboard. It was very quiet around her since it was well after midnight and her team was all out delivering gear to various parts of the ship.

  She could hear the faint slap of water against the outside of the hull and she could feel the motion under her legs, but, otherwise, the silence around her leant timelessness to the moment.

  The ship creaked a little. Metal plates under long strain from holding back the water protested the surge of the waves that was very apparent to Kerry as she stood in her solitude.

  After dinner the crew had vanished to their quarters, or to some other place on the ship she figured, someplace they weren't welcome. That was fine with her since they had a lot of work to accomplish and it was much easier without everyone underfoot.

  And yet, the emptiness gave the ship a ghostly quality she wasn't entirely comfortable with. Another creak made her look quickly around, and then she mentally slapped herself for being over imaginative. "Okay," she spoke aloud. "So that takes care of all the PC's. Now we have the POS systems to do. Right?"

  "Right."

  Kerry jumped, unable to stop herself in time even though her ears readily recognized the voice. "Yow."

  Dar sauntered down the central steps, brushing her hands off against her dust covered jeans. "We are talking."

  "Ah." Kerry put a neat check on her checklist. "Got the satellite going, huh?"

  "Yeap." Dar seemed very satisfied with herself. "Took some persuasion, but we got it going. They're surfing the web up there."

  "Oh really," Kerry said. "Bet that's a new experience for them."

  "Mm." Dar leaned against the marble column next to Kerry. "It's slower than hell, but it's something." She peered at Kerry's list. "Not bad. All the PC's out there?"

  "Yep."

  "Hm." Dar pulled out her PDA and keyed it on, watching as its wireless card picked up the signal from one of the devices she'd installed. She started her analyzer and observed the results. "Servers are up."

  "Finally." Kerry groused. "Have I mentioned lately how much I hate picky whiny server operating systems?"

  "No."

  "I hate picky whiny server operating systems."

  "Hm."

  "Can't you write a better one?" Kerry asked, tucking her clipboard under her arm and giving Dar an inquiring look.

  Dar's eyes opened up wide. "ME?" She asked. "I haven't finished writing your network security robot yet." She bumped Kerry with her shoulder. "Why don't you write one?"

  "Uh uh." Kerry thumped her back against the column. "I'll stick to messing with your gopher, thanks."

  Dar snickered.

  Kerry looked at her. "You know what I mean."

  "I do." Dar agreed. "But anyone else around probably doesn't."

  Kerry peered around the vast emptiness of the atrium. "There's no one here. But even if there was, I bet no one would ever question me about your gopher, Dar."

  Dar snickered again.

  "Dar."

  Slowly, Dar slid down to the ground, snickers evolving into almost silly giggles.

  Kerry only hoped the tech team wouldn't come back for their next assignment for a few minutes. She slid down next to her partner and stuck her legs out, tapping her pen against her thigh as she waited patiently. "Dar."

  "Ahh. Sorry." Dar stifled a last chuckle. "It's just too damn late."

  After midnight, in fact. Way too damn late. Kerry slid over and pressed her shoulder against Dar's. "Want to stop for tonight? We can put out the POS systems tomorrow."

  It was very tempting. Dar was tired. She knew Kerry was tired, and she suspected the rest of the crew was equally tired though none of them would admit it in front of their bosses. Could they risk waiting? They didn't know when the ship was coming back in, and while they were out here they had the advantage.

  But it was also true that the later they worked, the more tired they'd be and the more mistakes they'd make. Now that all the computers were delivered, the major part of the work was done and the delivery of the dumb POS terminals could be performed early in the morning, couldn't it?

  Dar gazed at the dark sky visible in the windows on either side of her. She acknowledged silently that her decision was being influenced by her own desire to break off, but as she looked up and saw the first of the techs coming back, weary and dust covered, she bowed to her gut inclination and gave Kerry a brief, decisive nod. "Let's can it."

  "I love you." Kerry rested her cheek against Dar's shoulder. "Have I told you that lately?"

  If she needed an exclamation point to that decision, well, she'd gotten it. Dar clasped her hands together and rubbed a bit of adhesive off her index finger as she waited for the crew to finish trudging up to them. "Time to take a break, folks."

  The crew looked exhausted, and to top it off the ship had started moving a lot more pitching a little and rolling from side to side. More than a few faces were a touch green. "Boss, those are magic words," Mark said. "But hey, we got a ton of stuff done tonight. All that's left is to dump those things out there and run them up."

  Dar nodded. "Right. So we do that in the morning," she said. "Go and get some rest."

  "Everyone did a great job." Kerry added. "You guys are superstars."

  Their eyes brightened despite the late hour. "It was pretty cool," Carlos said. "Especially with everybody out of our way--man, I was tired of tripping all over those guys with the welders."

  "Yeah." Several nearby techs agreed. "We should work at night all the time."

  "Hey!" Mark objected. "Speak for yourself, dude! Some of us have a life!"

  Everyone started to chuckle. Dar got up and extended her hand down to Kerry hauling her up as well. "I don't know what the story's going to be tomorrow, if we're going back in, or what. So let's meet here at nine, and play it by ear."

  "You got it, DR." Mark was covered in IT grunge and dust. "Man, I wouldn't care if that bed was a plank, I'd sleep on it right now."

  "Hell yeah."

  The group dispersed, heading off toward their assigned cabins. Dar and Kerry strolled along behind them, taking their time in mounting the stairs and climbing up to the level where their relatively palatial digs were located.

  "Wonder where your folks were all night?" Kerry commented, as she nudged the door open and they went inside. "I didn't see them after dinner."

  "Maybe they went to bed." Dar suggested.

  "They went to sleep that early?" Kerry seemed skeptical.

  "I didn't say that."

  Kerry turned from where she was peering out the closed balcony door. "Oh, this is one of those 'think of that and go blind' things, isn't it?" She slid the door open and walked outside, surprised at the force of the wind. "Whoa."

  Dar joined her. The balmy night air now tasted only of sea salt and a whiff of diesel. As they leaned on the balcony, the moon came out and painted a stripe across the tossing waves, showing up whitecaps as the ship ploughed through them. "Hm."

  "Rough." Kerry noted grabbing hold of the rail as the ship pitched sideways. "Dar, you didn't..."

  "In my bag," Dar said. "You feeling it?"

  "No." Kerry said. "Just a precaution. The one time I got really seasick was on the Staten Island Ferry."

  Dar looked at her. "You're kidding."


  Kerry shook her head solemnly. "Calm day, barely any waves, Statue of Liberty in the background, me sick as a dog over the railing. Pathetic."

  Dar chuckled. "Figures." She poked Kerry and pointed back inside. "C'mon. View from our aft deck's better, and it's hot out here." She herded her partner back inside, where the air conditioning had grudgingly reduced the humidity and provided a relatively comfortable temperature for sleeping.

  Around them on this upper deck, they could really hear the creaking. Kerry listened for a moment as the ship rolled and groaned, and then she turned to Dar. "Is this thing going to fall apart? It sure sounds like it."

  Dar peeled her t-shirt off, examining the stripe where her sleeve had been. "Nah." She turned the shirt inside out, and then folded it neatly, setting it to one side. "It'll last at least another night or two." She removed her jeans and did the same thing to them, rolling her socks up in a ball and setting them on top of the folded clothing. "Now."

  "Now." Kerry had been leaning back enjoying the show. "Shower?"

  "Mm."

  "Bed?"

  "Mmhm." Dar extended her hand. "Get the duds off, Yankee. Been a long day."

  Yes, it had. Kerry agreed, pulling off her shirt. But now it was over.

  Dar winked at her.

  Well, almost over. Kerry shed her jeans and joined her partner at the door to the incredibly small bathroom. "If the ship rolls over, does the shower go sideways?"

  Dar turned on the shower and pulled her inside.

  "Just a question."

  SHE WAS RIDING a horse. Kerry could feel the motion under her, and the exhilaration rush of wind against her face. She was sitting in the front of a big, strangely crude saddle with the security of a warm body behind her and a strong arm looped around her middle.

  A long, long road stretched out before her, seemingly without any end she could see, and on either side, a beautiful forest spread out with no signs of human habitation.

  It was beautiful.

  She was filled with a simple happiness that wanted nothing else but the warm sunshine and the two sets of laughter rising up into it.

  Then the horse bucked.

  Kerry's eyes popped open, dragged from a sunny day into pitch blackness. The ship moved violently under her again, and tossed her up off the bed and back onto it. "Dar?" She yelped.

  "Yes." Dar sounded barely awake.

  Kerry grabbed hold of the edge of the bed as the ship tilted alarmingly to the right. "Is this normal?"

  For an answer, Dar wrapped one long arm around her and a leg for good measure pulling her closer. "Well, it's open water."

  The creaking had grown quite ominous, and they could hear thunder rolling outside. The pitch of the vessel had become pronounced, and the cabin was moving sharply from side to side as the ship rolled in the waves.

  "Ah." Kerry swallowed audibly.

  Dar lifted her head and peered through the darkness. "You okay?"

  "Uh, sure." Kerry said inhaling sharply as the ship tilted to one side again.

  "Sure about that?"

  Her partner swallowed again. "Well, possibly not."

  "Hang on." Dar carefully disentangled herself from both the bedclothes and Kerry's grip and eased off the bed, grabbing hold of the bathroom door latch as she was almost pitched right back down next to Kerry. "Whoa!"

  "Whoa." Kerry repeated in a subdued voice. She clamped her jaws shut after that and tried not to think about how her stomach felt.

  Dar hit the light switch. Nothing happened. She hit it again, then in a fit of unreasoning technical mindlessness flipped it back and forth rapidly. "Goddamn it."

  "Mmph." Kerry wasn't inclined to add anything useful. She was just glad that if the lights weren't working, at least the AC still was. The thought of the room being clammy and warm and... "Oh god that was stupid."

  "Ker?"

  "Mmprh."

  Dar felt along the wall until she found the desk, cursing as she almost tripped over her backpack that had fallen to the floor in the pitching. "Ouch."

  "Ermp?"

  Dar dropped to her knees and unlatched the pack, yelping as a rolling motion knocked her off balance and sent her tumbling across the carpet to land near the bed. "Son of..." With a growl, she crawled back and grabbed the pack, sitting down on the rug with her legs sprawled out.

  That seemed to solve the motion problem for the moment. Dar untied the top flap and dug inside the bag, yelping a little as she poked herself with a pair of diagonal cutters. "Damn dykes."

  Silence. Then Kerry cleared her throat. "What did we do now?"

  "Not us." Dar dug further, and discovered a small vial. With a satisfied grunt, she drew it out.

  "You have some other damn dykes in your backpack? Wow."

  "Ha, ha." Dar scooted over to the bedside and reached out searching for Kerry's hand. "I have something for you." She blinked as warm fingers curled around her wrist, a little startling in the darkness despite her knowing how close Kerry was to her. "Think you can swallow a pill?"

  "Gimme a minute," Kerry muttered.

  Dar waited, pressing her back against the bed and grabbing hold of the frame as the ship moved up and down again.

  Kerry made a small groaning noise.

  "Easy." Dar grimaced in sympathy. She'd been relatively lucky so far in life with her experiences of seasickness, but the few times she'd suffered from it had convinced her never to travel without medication for it. "Ready?"

  "Nuh uh."

  Dar frowned. "Need some water?" She felt the grip on her wrist tighten and Kerry's forehead came to rest against her shoulder. "Hon, if you can get this down, it'll help. I promise."

  Kerry merely stayed there for a moment, then she exhaled warming Dar's skin. "Move."

  "You're not going to throw up."

  "Dar, move."

  Dar grabbed the bottle of water and got up onto the bed, hauling Kerry up to a sitting position mostly by feel. "Breathe." She felt her partner's body jerk and she steeled herself to deal with being thrown up on, but Kerry's jaws locked shut and she could feel the tension in the muscles of them as she laid her hand along her cheek. "It's okay. Just do what you need to do, Ker."

  For a long set of pitching rolls, Kerry just stayed where she was. Then the ship settled a little, and as it did, she straightened up. "I think you got ten seconds." She inhaled sharply. "But don't hold me to that."

  Dar felt for Kerry's lips and put the seasickness pill against them, feeling them part as Kerry trustingly accepted it. Then she applied the squirt nozzle of her water bottle to the same place, and squeezed gently. "Incoming."

  Kerry made a somewhat strangling noise, making Dar wince and close her eyes, despite the darkness. Then she heard the sound of overexaggerated swallowing. "Please." Dar addressed the ship. "Stay fucking still, okay?"

  "Gurph." Kerry protested faintly.

  "Not you." Dar growled. "This godforsaken piece of rusted metal held together with duct tape and old piss we're floating in."

  A shudder went through the vessel. Dar growled again, almost as though a battle of wills was being conducted.

  Kerry reasoned the thought alone was ridiculous.

  But the ship, as many other things had before it, bowed to Dar's will and cruised along peacefully for a time until Kerry finally relaxed and slumped against Dar's body. "Ugh."

  Dar stroked her arm gently, leaning back and easing Kerry with her until they were both half reclining. Wind blew rain against the balcony doors startling them, but the ship's course remained, at least for now, relatively steady. "Hmph."

  Kerry wasn't ready to unlock her jaws just yet. The queasy feeling, though it had subsided, was out there on the fringes and threatening to recur at any moment. Throwing up now would not only be extremely yucky, it would also eject the medicine Dar had given her, and if there were two things she didn't want to do, those were them.

  Dar seemed to sense that. She shifted her grip and gave Kerry a comforting light rub on her belly. "Just ta
ke nice, deep breaths."

  Kerry tried a few. "You've gone through this before?" She guessed. "I can't believe it."

  "Mm. A few times," Dar admitted. "First time I took the Dixie out was one of them, matter of fact. That damn thing's a bitch to drive when you're tossing your cookies, let me tell ya."

  Kerry chuckled faintly. "You're just saying that to make me feel better." She accused.

  "Nuh uh."

  "Yes, you are."

  "Am not."

  "Are too."

  "Feeling better?"

  Kerry could barely see the outline of Dar's face in the dim light from the window, but her imagination filled in the angles and planes without effort. "Yes." She let her head rest against Dar's collarbone. "Oh, that sucked."

  "Mm."

  "What time is it?" Kerry asked. "Were we sleeping long? I didn't think it was raining before we went to bed."

  "It wasn't." Dar confirmed, reaching over and picking up her cell phone. It showed no signal, which she expected, but also provided her with a clock. "Four a.m."

  "Ugh." Kerry winced. "Two hours. No wonder I feel like something a cow stepped on."

  Dar wondered if the ship was going to begin pitching again. Being out here in the dark, not knowing where they were heading didn't exactly make her comfortable, and the fact that parts of the ship didn't seem to be working well made it all the worse. "Wonder what the deal with the lights is."

  "AC's on," Kerry commented.

  "Hm. Yeah." Dar felt the ship roll a bit, and she glanced at Kerry. In the faint light, she could see the pale lashes fluttering a little, but her partner's body remained relaxed. Not surprising, since the industrial strength pill she'd given her usually knocked Dar out in fairly short order. "Doing okay?"

  "Uh huh." Kerry closed her eyes. The sick feeling seemed to be receding further and she was getting sleepy again. The ship started to move, but the motion was slower and less violent now, and rather than make her queasy, it seemed to be relaxing her.

  Weird.

  Dar cradled Kerry against her, finding a smile somewhere as Kerry snuggled up willingly. She let her fingers comb through the disheveled blonde hair and knew a moment of ridiculous contentment despite the circumstances.