by AZ Kelvin
Three short sobs escaped before Boss leaned back. “No, CJ. It’s okay,” he said with a nostalgic smile, as he relaxed and patted Gina’s hand. “By the Stars, I can’t believe you found this. I lost this more than a decade ago now, before the Moon was even space ready. My quarters were onboard, but I had to move periodically, as they finished different sections of the habitat.” He fell silent for a moment as he looked at the glass and smiled; then he looked up and continued. “I lost this during one of the moves. I was so angry with myself for losing it.” There was another slight pause before he said, “This was my wife, Adelynn, and”—tears filled his eyes again—“our boys, Kelan and Curtis, and the littlest one…” the tears overflowed and Gina bawled right along with him, as she squeezed his hand, “my sweet Annabelle.”
By now there wasn’t a dry eye in the room and no one even knew what had happened to them yet. Katy had drifted across the room while she listened to Boss’ story until she was nestled up against CJ, who was also caught up in the story. Katy put an arm around Pene, who stood close by. Pene leaned into Katy’s side and soaked up her own tears with the sleeves of her ‘no longer so white’ hoodie.
“I was a prospector,” Boss continued, “dragging them from one place to another in search of the mother lode—the ever elusive ‘big payoff.’ Sound familiar? Addie and I met while we were both still in training. She was a geology specialist and I was studying metallurgy. The Photo-etch was an anniversary present for her. We crash-landed on a moon in a secluded star system six months after that image was taken. Pentaris Five: a worthless chunk of cosmic shit with an atmosphere just this side of toxic gas.” The ghosts of the past filled Boss’ eyes.
“Bernie, if you don’t want to…” Gina said.
“No, I do. Forgive me, I should have told you long before now. I should have told all of you. It’s just been buried for so long. The engines were destroyed, which left us without main power. The mayday beacon was intact, so we activated that right away. We had enough solar panels to run the heat and the O-two scrubbers a couple of times each day. We had enough supplies to last for a year. There was a good chance that someone would pick up the beacon and send help. All we had to do was wait for a rescue.” There was another short pause. “I was outside the ship, a couple of months later, scrubbing a crusty buildup off the solar panels, when I got a short and garbled message over the comms. I headed down to the airlock and noticed the contamination warning right away.”
Knowing looks passed sadly among the crew, as Cal handed Boss a stiff drink.
“Now there’s a man who’s thinkin’.” Boss raised his glass before he sipped the deep amber Scotch. “Thanks, Cal. Needless to say, I didn’t make it back in time. An exterior vent seal had corroded and leaked the atmosphere into the ship. Addie and the kids, they were almost to the EV suits before the gas overtook them.”
“So, how did you…” Cat asked everyone’s question.
“How did I make it out?” Boss finished the question. “I didn’t want to, I’ll tell you that. I thought about unsealing my helmet right there. But I didn’t—obviously. I was able to seal off the leak and decontaminate the ship before my suit’s O-two ran out. Search and rescue picked up the beacon and I was rescued twenty-two days later.”
“Boss, I’m sorry…” CJ started to say.
“Don’t be,” Boss told him. “I was still grieving when I lost this picture and, I felt like the last thing of them had been taken from me. That’s why I was so angry when I lost it. And, now, thanks to you, I have another chance to say good-bye to them. You don’t have any idea how much that means to me. That’s twice you’ve given me back a part of my life, CJ. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done for me. The Moon is yours.”
“What? Boss no.” CJ was as stunned as everyone else in the room. “Look, you’re under a lot of stress right now with the surgery looming and the ship refit and then finding this—don’t make this decision right now.”
“You’re right,” Boss replied with a smile. “I am under a lot of stress. But, the cosmos loves to keep things in balance, and you, my friend, have tipped the scales. I must set things to right again.”
The group was so caught up in the moment no one heard Nelson, Crissi, GABI, and Tad with Snow, exit the transtube and approach the common room. Nelson took one look at the mix of pain and peace on Boss’s face and it was obvious something profound had happened. He seemed to relax somewhat after he looked around and saw that everyone was present. “What has happened?”
Boss held the glass out for him to take.
“Oh my, my, Addie and the children,” Nelson said with a touch of melancholy, as he held it out so GABI, Crissi, and Tad could see as well.
GABI took only a fraction of a second to run the many scenarios with regard to the reappearance of the Photo-etch glass. “You found it in the ship during the refit?”
“Well, CJ found it, actually, after he fell all the way down into the bilge bay during a parkour race,” Boss explained.
The new arrivals seemed confused. Cal brought Tad up to speed on the afternoon’s events, and Pene related them to Crissi as best she could. CJ filled in the parts about how he found the glass and the damage that was there, which reminded him to give Boss the broken footing he found there as well.
“I mean it, about the ship,” Boss told CJ quietly, as the two shared a bro-hug.
“Nah ah, you’re not gonna shove that rattletrap off on me, old man.” CJ smiled and clapped Boss on the shoulder.
“By the Light of the Stars!” Boss said. “Why are you being so resistant?”
“Perhaps, it is because he believes, as do others that you are ‘clearing out your desk,’ so to speak,” GABI spoke up when CJ was reluctant to say the same thing.
“What?” Boss laughed out loud, which brought the group’s focus back together. “Just how do you think I’m going to run West Becreth without the Altered Moon, huh? Ohh, just stuff all the spew and take the blasted ship already! Maybe I’ll have Nelson build me a different ship and we can have an armada of our own.” Nelson perked right up at that idea, so Boss added, “That was a joke.” Nelson shrugged and appeared contemplative. “So, how was everyone else’s day?” Boss deftly turned the conversation in another direction.
Cal motioned to Katy with a questioning look on his face, to which she nodded. He picked up a box from the table and turned toward Pene.
“Well, I was watching Pene and Crissi the other day,” Cal explained, “and I realized that the hardest part of communicating with the Keect’na is producing the visual component, as we Humans don’t pulse light through our bodies. So, the Chief and I, with the help of the Keect’na tech staff, loaded the colors the Keect’na use to talk to each other, all one hundred million of them, and programmed them into these.” He opened the box and handed Pene a pair of gloves that looked like snakeskin made from miniature dark crystals.
“Ooh, these are stellar. Thanks you guys,” Pene said with a grin, as she slipped them on. The cuff of the gloves reached a third of the way up her forearm with a snug wrap at the wrist. “What are they?” she asked.
“Say ‘Identify’ into the cuff,” Cal told her.
“Identify.” Pene did as he said.
“Hello. What is your name?” the glove asked.
“Pene.” Pene said, with mild surprise.
“Hello, Pene, please look into the green oval.” A green oval began to glow on the cuff. Pene looked into the green oval. “Thank you, Pene. You may begin at any time by speaking ‘Translate On’ and discontinue by speaking ‘Translate Off.’”
Pene looked at Cal, who nodded, so she said, “Translate On.” The gloves began to shimmer and glow with so many colors you couldn’t count them all. “Whoa! These are beyond stellar!”
“We programmed in hundreds of hand, arm, and finger movements and assigned them to different colors and sequence patterns,” Cal said. “Try this. Say ‘Eealann Na’Hann’ and start with your hands out with your palms down
and your fingers spread, then bring your hands together flat, one over the other, in front of ya, lock your fingers, and finish by turning your palms toward your stomach.”
Pene did as she was instructed and one of the gloves glowed blue, and the other glowed green. As she brought her hands together and spread her fingers, the gloves began to swirl with both colors.
“Aahhh.” Crissi was immediately intrigued with the new item.
“Bringin’ your hands together like that will always swirl whatever colors each glove is showin’. Crissi’ll have to teach ya what the colors and patterns mean, and you’ll have to learn what movements to make to match the sequences. All the movements are in the ship’s database.”
“Deennee, sshaann tau’nnaa—zzekt,” Crissi said in her native language and Pene held her hands out for her to look at. Crissi gently manipulated her hands to study what colors and patterns emerged from what positions Pene’s hands were in.
“Cal, Katy, that is incredible,” Boss said, as he watched Pene and Crissi test out different motions.
“You patent that idea and you two will be rich beyond belief,” Tad told Katy and Cal.
“Really?” Katy asked with a grin. CJ smiled at her enthusiasm. “What? ‘Rich beyond belief’ is good. Cal, you and I have to talk.”
“Hell yeah!” Cal reached and gave her a fist bump.
“Hey, what is the green oval for?” Pene called over to Cal.
“That identifies the user and unlocks the software. The gloves will learn from your particular movements and gestures, which will make it easier over time to control the colors and patterns.”
“Oh no, dinner!” Pene exclaimed, as she just remembered she had food in the oven. “Oh, here. Translate Off. Hold these please!” She took off the gloves and handed them to Cal in a hurry. “Thanks, Cal—and Katy—and everybody!” She sped off to the galley.
Soon after that she poked her head out and motioned to Katy to come over. The two had a short conversation as Pene pointed at the wall with her thumb. They walked around the corner and a minute later a panel dropped away from the wall with legs extending automatically. Katy and Pene slid trays of food out onto the instant buffet table after it settled down and locked into place.
“Belly up, people, if you’re hungry!” Katy called out, “It’s self-serve at this joint. Nelson, Tad, you too, come on. Crissi, there’s Tgnnaall here for you.”
“Well, I think I’ll just go park at that table,” Boss said with an everything-eatin’ grin.
“No, Bernard Keltzer, you will not.” Gina kissed his hand. “You will mind your manners and be the sociable gentleman that you always are.”
Boss held Gina’s hand and returned her kiss. “You know that I love you with all my heart, don’t you?”
Gina blushed, nodded her head, and kissed his face. “Never doubted it for a second.”
“Good! Now, let’s go see what our young friend has cooked up for me to eat!” he said loudly, as they joined the others at the buffet. “Mmmm Mmm, that smells fantastic. Pene. You’ve done a wonderful job. Move aside, you, hungry man here. Hey! Don’t eat that. Those are very bad for you. I’ll have to selflessly eat them all to save you—somebody pass me that serving spoon.”
*~*~*
Chapter Twenty-Two
“The new sheathing for the fusion chamber is scheduled to arrive next week,” Katy said to CJ, as the two of them followed the damaged HVAC duct through the bilge bay the next morning. “It’s gonna be two days just to dismantle the housing, and twice that to put it all back together again after they’re done with the upgrade.” She didn’t get a response. “You listenin’ to me?”
“Yeah, yeah, well no, sorry.”
“What’s in your head today?”
“I don’t know. It’s strange, isn’t it, how we ended up here, you and I? I remember the day we met, boarding the Istraulis for engineering duty.”
She stopped and turned her light on him. “I remember you hassling that security guard.”
“Eh, he was a shithead.” He laughed.
“So, what is it? What’s on your mind?” she pushed.
“I don’t know. It’s just—you get captured by the Kang, rescued by the Arzians and the Keect’na, and end up at Cantankerous Base with Nelson Moon, the designer and builder of the Altered Moon. I get blown out of the Istraulis, rescued from certain death by none other than Nelson’s ship, the Altered Moon, which is captained by who? Boss Keltzer, Nelson Moon’s long-lost buddy. And then, those two manage to find each other again just at the right time to bring us back together again. Now, here we are, you and I, in charge of the refit of the very ship that made it all happen. It was meant to be.”
“It means a lot to me, too, you know.” Katy stopped and looked him in the eye. “Let this one go. Don’t take us into Kang space. They’re the monsters in my closet, Seedge, you know that. You wanted a little adventure just to break the monotony, but that doesn’t cover jumping to an enemy-occupied planet to search for something that may not even be there anymore. Maybe the Allies will push the Kang back after a while and we wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding a battle.”
“Yeah, it seems like most of the crew feels the same way. Both Gina and Cat have asked to go with Boss.”
“Cat, too? I figured that Gina would want to go.”
“Yeah, she’s been invited to take part in the procedure. She says it’s an opportunity for her that may never come again.”
“She’s probably right. I’m sorry. It must be tough wrestling with all this. I didn’t mean to add to your troubles.”
“No troubles that I can’t handle.” He threw her a smile. “And, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go hang out around Outlook Station while Boss recovers. Maybe even take a tour of Keect, if it’s possible.”
“That is a great idea!”
“Anyway,” CJ said, “I can’t allow us to be split up after the universe has gone to so much trouble to bring us all together.”
“I am so relieved to hear you say that.”
“Come on, Chief, we don’t have all day.” CJ started to move along the duct line again.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you that I really love what you did for Pene.”
“Yeah? I think she’s a good kid.”
“She should be in school, you know. If she’s going to stay with us, you’ll have to put together a lesson program.”
“What? Me?”
“You’re the Captain.”
“Well, you know, this is a perfect opportunity to practice delegation.”
“Coward.”
“Ha!” CJ came to the end of the section. “Wow, look at that.” His light reached the bulkhead in front of them.
“Un-friggin’-believable.” Katy looked shocked. “If I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes…”
The entire bulkhead ahead of them was crumpled with the top half bent away from them. The hatch to get through to the other side was twisted and jammed.
“What could’ve done this?” CJ asked when he saw the damaged bulkhead.
“A good chance it was the slam she took in the cavern at Stile’s Hideaway that worsened some existing damage.”
“Do you think we hit that hard?”
“Oh, yeah, I was surprised there wasn’t more damage from it, in fact. Now I see where all the stress went. These are part of the primary braces holding the habitat module in place. There are about two dozen of them around the perimeter and, judging by this, we need to check every one of them.”
“We’re not getting through that hatch.” CJ panned his light around. “There. Look, where that panel’s buckled. We can get through there.”
CJ squeezed through and Katy followed after him. They crawled to the other end of the second section and found the next bulkhead in line was in even worse shape.
“This is on the verge of catastrophic structural collapse, CJ.” Katy surveyed the damage.
“The entire habitat must have shifted.” CJ looked over the mangled anchor points.
“How could we not have noticed this?”
“The gravity plating in the deck. It makes us feel like we’re flat on the floor, even if the floor is really sideways. What bothers me are the stress cracks in the habitat wall at the anchor points.”
“Me, too. I was just looking at that.”
“We need to check the next one.” She moved her light over to the small hatch that had been torn off and now hung open. “At least we can get through.”
The next bulkhead in line had not collapsed, but showed signs it had been put under great stress. Katy examined the anchor points and inhaled sharply as her light illuminated the outer wall of the triple-walled habitat module. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“Come here and look.”
“Ungh, that’s bad,” CJ groaned, as he saw the hairline fracture that ran up the curved habitat wall.
“So, the first two gave way and pulled the duct along with them, which left all the stress and pressure they’re responsible for, on the next one in line, which is this one.”
“And, if this one would have failed, then the habitat would’ve ripped apart at the seams.” CJ continued the line of thought. “We are so very lucky to even still be here.”
“And, we never would’ve seen it coming. We never would’ve known it was like this, either, if you hadn’t fallen down here. You are definitely linked in to the universe somehow, Crucible Johannson Evermore.”
CJ squirmed, as he always did when someone used his full name. He blew her a raspberry. “Go run some video of that crack so we can show it to Nelson. He’s going shit out all of his new parts when he sees it.”
“Roger that. You know this is going to delay the engine modification, right?”
“Delay?” CJ quipped. “Knowing Nelson, he’ll want to replace the entire habitat.”
“Oh, don’t even joke about that,” Katy pleaded. “Okay, I’m done here. Let’s go.”
On the way out, CJ thought about what it would take to pull an entire habitat module out of a ship. He knew it would at least double the refit time. “Okay, let’s tell the others the not-so-happy news.”
