A Pattern of Details

by James Matt Cox

  Not long afterward Morris stood in the access lock with the chelate streams washing over him. Kody waited outside with an expression of surprise on his face.

  "Incredible, sir."

  "That I'm alive and uncooked?"

  "That you can do something like that, enjoy it and consider it nothing but a day's work."

  "You should try it sometime. What time is it?"

  "2230, sir."

  Morris felt his jaw drop. It didn't feel like seven hours!

  "Indeed. I suppose we'll save the rest for tomorrow. Have you had any complaints?"

  "One or two, sir. Not much eating either, at least among the civs. I suppose zero-gee is an acquired taste."

  Morris chuckled. His stomach rumbled and sent out a blast of acidic fire. The only thing worse, he thought, than antirad tabs was antirad tabs on an empty stomach. He nodded to Kody and started for the lounge.

  ***

  The ship, illuminated now only by the emergency reds, took on an eerie, somber quality. It matched Morris' mood. He knew he had feelings to deal with and he knew he'd deal with them but for now he had a job to do.

  One other person occupied the lounge when Morris arrived. Delroy sat at her holocad and worked on something he couldn't see. The holocad had its own internal power cell but Morris didn't think anyone would want to use it. Curious, he floated toward her.

  "Specialist."

  Delroy jumped, severely startled by Morris' presence. The movement thrust her against the straps which pushed her back into the seat only to bounce up again. With an almost-silent imprecation she reached out and stabilized herself.

  "What... do you... want?!" She spoke through clenched teeth.

  "I was curious, Specialist."

  She cleared the console but not before Morris saw what it contained. Delroy kept her eyes locked on the now-blank screen.

  "Ship schematics, Specialist?"

  "I wanted to... to know... what... failed."

  "If you're that uncomfortable, Specialist, take some halcinox."

  "I... took some," she said softly.

  "If you wanted to know what failed, Specialist, why didn't you just ask?" His stomach growled again and sent out tendrils of pure fire.

  "Leave me... alone."

  "Specialist..."

  "Go aw..." Delroy lifted her head sharply to glare at Morris.

  Big mistake, that much was obvious. In zero gravity inner-ear balance was a thing best ignored. Though pale already Delroy turned even whiter. Her body clenched and Morris knew what that portended.

  "Hold it! Hold it in, Specialist."

  Morris unstrapped her quickly despite her feeble struggles. He grabbed the back of her collar and sailed both of them to the food dispenser. Built for both gravity and freefall it had an integrated soft vacuum basin. Morris maneuvered Delroy's face over it and hit the panic bar.

  Delroy heaved almost hard enough to break Morris' grasp. She retched and gagged uncontrollably but each spasm produced nothing. Finally she coughed once and stopped jerking. Morris one-handed a request for a bulb of water.

  "no." She spoke weakly and without moving her head at all.

  "You should eat something. Halcinox and fallsickness are both worse with an empty stomach."

  "Turn on... gravity." Then, softly, "Please."

  "As soon as I possibly can, Specialist."

  Delroy spoke no reply. After her breathing turned slow and regular Morris oriented her foot-down and float-walked her back to the holocad. Her face had a little more color now but she remained silent. Morris went back to the food dispenser, drew himself a meal and drink and her a tube of bland, low-residue ration paste. On his way out Morris stopped for a tube of stomach tablets. His gut burned from more than antirad tabs.

  Back in his cabin Morris ate quickly and showered minimally. When he finished he noticed a message flashing on his terminal.

  'Thank you.'

  Unsigned.

  ***

  The next morning Morris skipped breakfast and went straight to engineering. Kody yawned in a few minutes later with rations and chog.

  "Commander's orders, sir. She knows your work habits."

  Morris slurped down the ration paste while he checked the fusion chamber. The regeneration worked solidly and would have the unit restored before long.

  "Now, Master Kody, let us find out what went wrong."

  Even with - theoretically - zero power and potential in the systems Morris and Kody donned safe-suits and emplaced redundant grounds. Then they started taking the power systems apart node by node.

  Mind completely focused on the task, Morris worked, at times with Kody beside him, other times not. At times he almost felt Lydia there beside him, a comfort more than anything. He silently promised her to find out what went wrong.

  A hand shook Morris' shoulder. He shrugged it off and kept working.

  "Technician!"

  Morris snapped back to reality with a moment of disorientation. Harper stood there with a stern look on her face.

  "I said that's enough for one day, Mister Taylor. am I understood?"

  "Yes ma'am."

  Harper and Kody exchanged glances.

  "It's time for dinner, Technician," she said, "Stop working and eat."

  Alerted to the time, Morris' stomach growled long and loud. Though she said nothing Morris knew Harper heard it. As did Kody. And likely the others as well.

  Few of the others ate and none save Morris, Garrett, Kody and Harper ate nearly enough. Around the table Morris saw all the various symptoms of fallsickness. No one spoke, least of all the normally-boisterous Jackson.

  "This is why I don't take Survey missions more often," said the big man, "I six-sigma hate freefall."

  Morris settled in to a nice, large meal; still rations just not paste. Lace watched him eat with equal measures of curiosity and disgust.

  "How can you eat like that, Morris?"

  "I'm hungry," he replied between bites, "Lieutenant Harper also ordered me to." He downed a few more bites. "Tech training includes a lot of time in zero gravity. I don't particularly like it but I don't dislike it either. It's just part of the job."

  "The irony of it all," said Rackwell, exhibiting severe nausea, "is that I can't sleep well on anything but a gravitic bed."

  Garrett finished his ration and started on something brightly-colored and likely sweet.

  "It's good to see one civilian hungry," said Harkin, "Do you have freefall experience, Ron?"

  "No," said Garrett quickly, "I just have bad equilibrium. Or good, depending on your point of view. My doctor tells me I believe my eyes more than my inner ears. I was in a darkfall chamber once and I lost my reference. I almost... Umm... Never mind."

  "If that is true, Mister Garrett," said Rackwell, "then why don't you take more notes in class?"

  "Not fair, Dr. R," exclaimed Garrett with injured dignity, "You're too enthralling! I just can't ignore you long enough to take a single..."

  "Shut UP Ron," interrupted Eisley, her expression sour, "We're sick enough already, don't make us stomach that too!"

  Chuckles. Though feeble, Eisley's comment lightened the mood some.

  "When will we have gravity," asked Polov.

  "As soon as possible," said Morris, "Possibly late tomorrow or early the next day."

  ***

  Resuming where he left off the previous night Morris found the problem just before lunch. It made no sense but few accidents did.

  "That's it," asked Harper as she examined the charred thing Morris handed her.

  "Yes ma'am." He took back the power coupling and indicated several of the worst-charred parts. "Given that this unit failed everything falls into sequence. This coupling failed. The fluctuation sent a surge down the secondary network. Since it was down but not disconnected the safeties triggered. That sent the surge through the drive array which shorted and both took the load and protected the link drive. The forward surge along the main network hit the bioreactor which dispersed most of
it, then traveled to the hot backup computer. When that spiked and shorted it triggered the hull breach alarm. The back-surge from the safety trips destabilized the fusion chamber and took down some nonessential systems."

  "Have you confirmed this?"

  He showed her the event logs, both raw and with his hypotheses noted. The explanation fit perfectly.

  "Very good, Morris. I'll log it."

  "But this unit shouldn't have failed," he said, "This is a Sparks Industries Multi-Phase HD built to military specification. They don't fail."

  "But this one did."

  "Commander, these couplings have survived fusion plant melts. It should not have failed."

  Harper took a slow breath in and let it out as slowly.

  "Accidents do happen, Morris. By their nature they shouldn't, but they do. Occam's Razor: your hypothesis fits and it's the best fit." Her eyes softened. "I realize it's more than a statistical improbability to you but I'm just glad, very glad, that you found it and fixed it. Have you checked the other couplings yet?"

  "Yes ma'am. Extensively. None of them shows anything unusual and they all tested at tolerance eight-five."

  "Excellent. When can we power up?"

  "Now if you like. Engineering is ready."

  "Then so, by the stars, am I!" For a bare moment Harper appeared young and vulnerable, thrust into a duty she didn't relish at all. "Will you help Kody prepare the passengers?"

  It took Kody amazingly little time to issue emergency gear: vacc suits for those qualified on them and EVACs for the rest. More time-consuming was the task of equipping and preparing the others. He, Kody and Jackson trained extensively in it but as to the others...

  Zero gravity didn't help. At Harper's orders everyone took medical doses of halcinox but nausea overcame it more than once, when someone lost contact with the floor or became disoriented. At long last everyone had their suits on and sealed, except for the helmets. Between them Morris, Jackson and Kody strapped down the rest and attached their helmets. With one exception. Kody finally attracted Morris' attention with a desperate glance. Morris finished with Eisley and moved to assist the midshipman.

  "I'll take this, Mister Kody. Help Polov."

  "Aye sir." Kody floated away gratefully.

  Morris took Delroy's helmet and faced her. She glared back furiously but he saw a small spark of fear there too. That clicked with several other observations and crystallized to a conclusion.

  "Relax, Specialist. We'll be done quickly."

  "No!" Pale, Delroy spat the word through clenched teeth but left no doubt about her feelings.

  "I know something, Specialist," said Morris, speaking only for her to hear, "Close your eyes long enough for me to lock down the helmet and I'll open the visor. If you keep your eyes tightly closed until then it won't seem nearly as enclosed."

  "Burn you," she hissed vehemently, fear more evident now.

  "Otherwise," continued Morris as though nothing had happened, "I'll call Doctor Jackson over to give you a sedative. I'll also tell him exactly why you need it."

  She tried to stare him down defiantly but Morris kept his gaze steady. Finally she closed her eyes.

  "Do it."

  Morris attached the helmet and dogged it down quickly. Then, as promised, he flipped up the visor.

  "Do you want soporill?"

  "No." She sharpened the word but didn't vent her anger through it.

  "Sit easy, then. I'll have you lights and gravity before you know it."

  ***

  "Fifteen-alpha through sixteen-tango activate," said Morris.

  "Fifteen-alpha to sixteen-tango activating," echoed Kody.

  "Load shunt activate."

  "Load shunt active. Capacitor port is responding, capacitors are still isolated."

  "Thank you, Mr. Kody," said Morris, "Strap down."

  Carefully, cautiously Morris increased the load on the fusion chamber. As he did the powerless systems detected the increase and began slowly merging themselves into the grid. The master reading jiggled as each one did but nothing past the caution threshold. When everything reported full-active he ran the plant up to full power. The reading varied not a single deviation from optimal. As a precaution he kept the link drive disconnected.

  "And we are done, sir," said Kody, removing his helmet, "What about the L-drive?"

  "I'm going to keep it isolated," said Morris, "We'll cut the capacitors into four separate banks, run the drive off one and trickle power into the others. Once one is fully charged we'll start on the next. That way if something bad does happen we have doubly-redundant backup."

  Kody nodded.

  An enthusiastic acclaim approval greeted Morris and Kody when they entered the lounge. Though the others still suffered the vestiges of fallsickness the welcome restoration of light and gravity worked wonders to minimize them. Morris and Kody helped them out of their suits before reporting to Harper.

  "Excellent job." Harper closed her eyes and gave them a good rub. When she opened them several years worth of strain sloughed off her expression. "Thank you, Technician." Then into the 'comm, "Specialist Jackson please report to the Commander's office."

  When Jackson arrived Harper activated the official log.

  "Specialist Jackson, Technician Taylor, I do hereby relieve you of the obligations and duties impressed upon you by Naval General Article 21. The League and Navy appreciate your service as do I personally." So saying, Harper signed and sealed the log entry and put the 'caster away.

  "Don't worry, Morris," she added, noting his expression, "You're still in engineering. It is my opinion, backed by your reports, that the emergency condition has passed and the events and damage it caused repaired sufficiently. From now there should be nothing more than routine maintenance, yes?"

  "Yes ma'am!"

  "Truth pure and pristine," said Jackson, "Come along, Morris. Let's have a decent meal."

  Lace and Harkin finished their meals as Morris and Jackson drew theirs. According to Harkin the students and Rackwell worked over their equipment in the main hold.

  "This does feel better," said Lace, lighting a drugstick, "I appreciate gravity, Morris."

  Morris smiled but didn't stop eating. His stomach informed him he'd missed more meals than he should have, but he still managed a grin.

  Lace examined him critically.

  "How are you feeling, Morris?"

  He paused to swallow then spoke truthfully.

  "It still hurts, especially when I'm not... busy."

  Jackson and Harkin quieted and the big man placed a hand on Morris' shoulder.

  "We're here if you need us."

  He regarded each with a smile and quickly resumed eating.

  Morris eyed the drive array critically. The power surge shorted it completely and did considerable damage otherwise but nothing he couldn't fix given time. With strict instructions to Kody to stop him before dinner he dove into his work. Per his promise to Harper he took extraordinary safety precautions and as he worked he checked every undamaged component for signs of undue wear. He found none.

  "Technician. Sir!"

  A hand shaking his shoulder.

  "Morris!"

  "Yes. Yes?" Morris struggled to extract himself from the microcircuit world of logic flows and power net control. "Tran. What is it?!" He cast an anxious glance at the readouts.

  "It's time to eat, sir. Dinner? You told me to stop you."

  Morris checked his 'chrono. "Is the ship..."

  "Running perfectly," interrupted Kody, "Don't worry, sir. Nothing would dare your wrath by failing now."

  Morris chuckled at this. With a nod to Kody they started forward. No sooner had they opened the main bulkhead than they met Lace, on her way to fetch them.

  "Tran, Tran," said Lace sadly, "Don't let this Technician corrupt you. Are you two stopping or just taking a break?"

  Without giving time for an answer Lace took an arm from each and started forward.

  Dinner conversation was subdued and hesita
nt. No one wanted to discuss the accident and that left precious little else. Finally tired of the others' circumnavigation of the area Morris addressed Polov directly.

  "So what have the three of you been doing," he asked.

  "Repairing things, sir," said Polov, "Using what we learned before we left and the repair manuals we've identified the problems the incident caused our equipment."

  "Good," said Morris, "What about fixing them?"

  "They will wait for you, of course," said Rackwell, "We want our equipment in prime condition for the expedition. If we still have one, that is."

  Those words hung heavy in the air. The other conversations faltered and died. Oblivious to what he'd done, Rackwell continued eating. Harkin finally broke the silence.

  "Well Mallory," he said, "do we still have an expedition?"

  That brought total silence. Brief but intense emotional currents flashed around the table. That someone should ask... What about... They wanted to know... But after what happened...

  Harper cleared her throat and all attention focused on her.

  "Our mission has not changed," she said, "What happened is a tragedy, of that there is no doubt, but Commander Blakeschiff's orders were and are explicit. Since Technician Taylor completed repairs without necessitating dropping out of link we will arrive on F37A on schedule. From there we will proceed as planned."

  Morris admired Harper's facade. That he recognized it as such meant it still needed work.

  "One of the items we have," continued Harper, "is a beacon drone. I will deploy it as soon as we attain a stable orbit. When I dispatch it I'll send our logs, of course, but I would also like to transmit something about the planet itself."

  That gave Morris pause. Beacon drones, unmanned spacecraft capable of link drive navigation, were not common within the League and almost unheard-of outside it. The technology required to calculate waypoints and maintain all but the shallowest link insertions was both extremely advanced and highly classified. Not that this mission didn't rate one, they simply were not kept at every League Navy base or depot. The potential uses of a stolen drone kept them under the tightest security.

  Morris observed the others' reactions. They ranged from reserved approval to the diametric opposite. He could not fault Harper's reasoning, though. Once they grounded safely common sense and Navy procedure dictated that they should stay there and await another ship. While Morris had no problem standing in as engineer that still left the ship undermanned, especially with Blakeschiff in stasis and Harper as the only pilot and astrogator. With extreme need they'd travel back, otherwise Harper would keep them onplanet.