This choice: Continue reading "Double Double" • Go Back...Chapter #33Double Double (8) by: Seuzz   Chapter 8
SHIP'S SURGEON KAI CHIN paused the handheld scanner and examined the results. It looked good to the Hood's chief medical officer, but she ran it over the leaves of the strange plant one more time just to confirm.
Across the examination table, chief engineer Vedra frowned. Chin was not a botanist, so she assumed the doctor was just being extra careful as she checked the plant for dangerous pathogens. Still, it made her nervous each time Chin made yet another scan.
So it was with a sigh of relief that she received the good news.
"It looks fine to me, Gauri," Kai said. "Of course, you should have Amobi or one of his staff look at it as soon as they beam back on board. But I'll provisionally clear it."
"Thanks, Kai," Vedra said. "I can't think what Stuart was doing when he let the entire botany department go down at once."
"He was probably thinking no one except them would be bringing any flowers back up."
Kai studied the bloom that Vedra had brought from the surface of Gamelon Two. It was pink and frilly with seemingly endless rills of petals unfolding from its center. "It reminds me of an Earth chrysanthemum," she said. She didn't add that she'd always thought of chrysanthemums as unpleasantly fussy. If Vedra liked that kind of thing, that was her business.
The intercom whistled. "Berg here," the transporter chief said when Kai answered. "Is the chief engineer there?"
"I'm here," Vedra answered. "What's up?"
"Mr. Banks and some others just requested to be beamed aboard. You asked me to tell you—"
"Thanks," Vedra said. "I'll be right there."
Chin followed as she started for the door.
"Mind if I tag along?" she said. "Someone else might be bringing a specimen up, and they might not remember to bring it to me to look at."
"By all means," said Vedra.
No smiles passed between the women, though each knew exactly what the other was really thinking and doing.
It was hard for Chin to figure out exactly what Banks meant to the chief engineer. Certainly, there was no romance between them—or at least none that she'd ever detected.
But whenever someone criticized him, she defended him. And whenever his confidence needed strengthening, she was there for him.
In a way, she treated him like one of her engines.
A form of maternal instinct? Perhaps. But manifesting in another form. For unlike Chin, Vedra had never had any children of her own.
In the lift, the doctor regarded her fellow officer—her slender form, her dark, intense features.
"You worry too much," she said.
Vedra snorted. "It's my job to worry."
Vedra was out the door instantly on its opening, leaving Chin to walk briskly to catch up.
They entered the transporter room just as the air over the pad began to shimmer. Three figures took shape: Banks, Security Chief Simmons, and a security officer named Jason—Chin didn't know his last name.
The sparkling died, and the trio stepped off the platform. But instead of acknowledging any of the others—Vedra, Berg, or Chin herself—they marched past and out the door.
Vedra looked as if one of her engines had suddenly failed. Then her expression hardened.
"That wasn't very nice," Chin said carefully. "Was it?"
"No," said the chief engineer. "Sometimes you think you know a person. But you don't."
But Vedra knew Lieutenant Banks less than she imagined.
For out in the corridor, as he made his way to the turbolift, he was replaying that just-passed moment in the transporter room, and kicking himself over it. I should have stopped to say something to Vedra, he told himself. I should have at least looked at her, or smiled.
I should have at least let her know that I saw her.
It did no good, either, to replay his actual reaction on seeing her after he materialized on the platform. The surprise, and pleasure, to find her waiting, and the desire to stop and speak with her. Perhaps to tell of her of the secluded glade he had found by the lake. She would enjoy it, he would have told her, she should seek it out. And maybe he would see her there, if he managed to schedule his second planet-side tour to coincide with hers.
But he had been too focused of the order he had received, summoning him back on board. The captain wanted him, and when Martinez wanted something, Banks had best be there before the captain had even closed the communicator.
So there wouldn't have been time to stop to chat. And a quick smile or glance as he ran silently past would have been almost as rude as to not stop at all. At least, that's what he had told himself at the moment, when he made the snap decision to brush past her while pretending she wasn't there.
In fact, he knew that he had simply panicked at the sight of her.
"Come!" The captain's voice was muffled before his cabin door slid open in answer to Banks's signal. The science officer tried to wipe all emotion from his face as he entered. But Martinez didn't hide his glower as he looked up from behind his desk.
"We've received a message from the U.S.S. Ptolemy, forwarding us a priority-seven distress signal," he said. "It's from the neighborhood of the Exo system."
Banks blinked. It was a very bald statement the captain had made, and he clenched inwardly with resentment. I'm being tested, he told himself. He wants to know if I can place the Exo system and why it might be important.
"The Exo system is some distance off," he said, stalling for time.
"I know how far it is, mister," the captain snapped. "Next, do you want to inform me that the third planet is called Exo Three?"
Banks's mouth tightened. Luckily, he was quickly able to place the name in some sort of context.
"The Korby expedition?" he asked.
Martinez grunted. "That's the one. What can you tell me about it? That I wasn't able to find after a very quick computer search?" Martinez leaned back in his chair and fixed his science officer with a steady look.
Banks drew and exhaled a very deep breath.
"Only that they disappeared ... five years ago or so, it must have been," he said. "A number of expeditions failed to turn up anything when they went looking." Banks's brow furrowed. "The signal came from the vicinity of the Exo system? Not necessarily from—?"
"That's what I said. The Ptolemy is trying to narrow it down. But it's an uninhabited region, off the usual space lanes. If any ship has come to grief there—"
"What priority level did you say it was?"
The temperature in Martinez's voice dropped significantly. "Seven. Is there something wrong with your short-term memory, Mr. Banks?"
Banks flushed. Not that it would have been easy to see. Though he was from Mars originally, and his family went back to the northwest of Europe before that, his ebony-dark features descended from equatorial Africa.
"I wanted to be sure I had understood you correctly, captain," he said stiffly, "before I suggested that Dr. Korby's expedition, after five years, would be unlikely to classify their emergency as a priority seven."
"That was my thought as well," Martinez replied after a significant silence. "Nonetheless, I was thinking it might be worth following up on. Even if it's only a freighter whose cargo has dangerously shifted, why is it getting into trouble in that part of the sector? And as long as we're there and Exo III is nearby?" He left the implication to hang.
"Don't we have other orders, for after we have completed our shore leave?" Banks asked.
The captain's nostrils flared, and his eyes hardened. He thought: Paultic again.
"Thank you for your advice, Mr. Banks," he said with frosty anger. "You are dismissed."
* * * * *
To continue investigating the room: "Disposing of Lucy"   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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