To blow off a little steam while I wait for a batch job to finish
(And to satisfy the curiosity of those who've been asking):
- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muan Gwi, in the Vegan Autonomous District: mid-1118
"All stations report in. Kherkhoulloth?"
"Navigational systems nominal. Coming in on the beam."
"Let me know when we hit the atmosphere. Sanchez?"
"Maneuver drives running a little hot, sir, but within tolerances.
It's the brown sugar caked in the intakes again, I think."
"Brown sugar....." *groan* "Whose idea WAS that, anyway?"
"Uh, mine, sir. But you said it was the only way we could turn a
profit on that fiasco with the sugar syrup and the plastic Buddhas...."
"Yeah, yeah, all right. Taken as read, for the record. But if I ever
get my hands on the idiot who designed this stupid universe, I may very well
strangle him. O'Connor?"
"Nothing on the deep scans, sir. Atmosphere's impenetrable. You're
going to be flying nearly blind."
"I'm aware of that. Jaeger?"
"Sitting pretty, Captain. Nothing to shoot at."
"Good, let's hope it stays that way. Kherk?"
"Atmosphere in twenty seconds, sir."
"OK, from what I've heard it's likely to be a little rough. All hands
strap in and cross fingers. AirSpace Traffic Control, this is IMSS Serendipity
on final approach, over."
Skkkkrkkkk. Frrssss. "..rendipity, this is......ol. Your sig.....
ery weak, but we think.....ollow the beam, and follow all or....as......"
Static.
"Damn. What the hell kind of a soup are we-- JEEZUS!"
"Hey, what the--"
"MOTHER OF GOD!"
"Captain, what's--"
"KAE, KAKH TSAKHA! Samshkarkh knaervaerrgh ROUKH!"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP, GODDAMMIT! Kherk--whoof-- is this the ATMOSPHERE?"
"You-urkgh-- you got it, Captain. Jet stream's over 300 per, methane
ammonia and all kinds of nifty pertrochemicals!"
"Serendi.....affic Con....urn thirty degrees to...." Skkkrrkkkk.
"REPEAT, DAMMIT! This is Serendipity. We are flying blind. Radar
reading false-- whunkh!-- your signal's badly broken up! REPEAT!"
"It's like the front door of Hell out there!"
"Kherk, where's the Goddamned BEAM?"
"Trying, sir! Tracking, tracking, AH! We're way off! Forty degrees and
diverging... Steer port-- erf!-- fifty degrees, throttle back and try to keep
the nose up!"
"Doing my best...."
"Sir, O'Connor here. Scans are reading some pretty nasty terrain down
there, when--mmp-- they can see anything at all. We're going to hit hard if
ASTC doesn't know their stuff."
Skkrrkklklssss. "Serendipity, this is Ymir ASTC. We are locked on you
via meson commo, and have you on screen, over."
"Thank God! ASTC, this is Serendipity. We are still blind, but are
attempting to get back on your beam...."
"Negative, NEGATIVE ON THAT! Climb to five thousand meters and hold
your course, NOW!"
"Sanchez, hit the--ungh!-- kicker! I can't get the nose up!"
"No can do, sir! We're redlining as it is-- if I hit the kicker we're
going to split open like a firecracker!"
"ASTC, Serendipity here! We can not, repeat, NOT gain altitude!"
"Oh my GOD... Serendipity, what's your hull configuration?"
"Modified disk... why?"
"On my signal, ROLL NINETY DEGREES! You're headed for a MOUNTAIN PASS!"
"Ninety degrees, aye-aye!"
"Sir, I-- KYAIIIII!"
"ROLL, SERENDIPITY! NOW!"
*******KRRRRAAAANNNNNNNGGGGGGG!*************
"HUH!" Grant sat bolt upright in bed, shaking in a cold sweat. He
wiped a damp hand across his eyes in the darkness, and wearily got out of bed.
Damn nightmares, he thought disgustedly, staggering into the bathroom.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Hector's voice held a carefully
developed note of concern as Grant clambered up the ramp onto the Bridge.
"You aren't due to be awakened for another half hour...."
"I'm fine, Hector," Grant said with a sigh, sitting down at the helm
position. "I woke up early, that's all."
Sanchez pulled his head and upper body out of a nearby maintainance
panel and surveyed Grant carefully. He was clean-shaven and shipshape, as
always, but his eyes were red and shadowed. Sanchez shook his head as he
closed up the panel.
"Dreaming about Ymir again, Skipper?"
Grant jerked as if shot, then settled into his chair with a short
laugh. "That predictable, am I?"
"I've known you for nigh on twenty years, Skipper," Sanchez shrugged.
"From Ascalon to Easter, there's nothing like Ymir for a helmsman in the
Suleiman Cluster to practice on. Two decades, most of 'em in space, and only
one crash landing? You ought to be a little more forgiving of yourself."
"I try, Wu-Shun, I really do," Grant grimaced, flipping through the
cargo manifests for the hundredth time. "But that one mistake-- all the damage
it did.... it really shook me up."
"Damage? You tore off one hardpoint, wrecked the deep radar, mangled
part of one pressure compartment and cracked the main zuchais. Minor injuries
to two crew, no deaths or disabilities. Not bad for a bankshot off of a
mountain!"
"I never should've tried to fly her again. That misjump...."
"We got a tow to Upirzanu, didn't we? The Serendipity turned out to be
stolen goods, didn't it? The Navy and Hortalez honored our contracts, and we
got a new ship, a BETTER ship, didn't we? How many places could things have
gone wrong! We could be dead, or in prison, or we could've run into something
even worse than what we've seen already!"
"Worse than what we've seen already?" Kherkhoulloth came in, yawning
and running a hand through his black mane of still-damp fur. "We've crawled
through the guts of Arcodiga, stopped a war on Easter, stopped another war
on Gwathui--"
"Not yet, we haven't," Grant said mildly. "That's the Navy's job. We
just gave them the goods they needed to do it."
"Minor point," the irrepressible Vargr laughed, hopping into the
Navigator's chair and lighting up the holodyne in a dimmed pattern of reds and
browns well-suited to his eyes. "We've delivered treaties, been bombed halfway
to the Ancients, bounced off a mountain--"
"This is where I came in," Grant groaned.
"And managed to keep our homocidal Solomani-hating cybernetic death
machine and our government-toppling movie director from getting us all
killed," Kherkhoulloth finished with relish.
"I heard that," O'Connor's voice came over the intercom.
"So did I," echoed Jaeger's voice. "Captain, you up?"
"Right here," Grant smiled. "Nice to know I'm the last one out of
bed."
"Not quite," Hector's voice interrupted him. "Doctor Fell is still
asleep. He is not scheduled to take his station until fifteen minutes from
now."
"He'll never make it," Kherkhoulloth sighed.
"He'll make it," Jaeger's voice replied evenly. "He won't smell very
nice and he may not be dressed, but he'll make it. I don't know where you
find these types, Captain."
Grant finished flipping through the manifests. "Fell's a good man," he
said mildly. "He needed our help and we needed his. Anyone have any complaints
about the way he does his job?"
"He's a loose cannon, Captain," O'Connor's voice held the barest hint
of annoyance. "He's used to acting on his own, and he doesn't think through
his options before doing dangerous and irreparable things."
"Not all of us have a Model 2fib in our frontal lobe, O'Connor,"
Kherkhoulloth snarled. "Come on, give him a break!"
"Do YOU trust him, Kherkhoulloth?"
"Of course not," Kherkoulloth shrugged. "I don't trust ANYONE. But the
point stands: I don't know what you were driving at when I walked in, Sanchez.
We've seen more weird crap since we shipped out together than any of us has
seen in a decade or more-- everything from religious riots on Vega to trying
to sell maple syrup and plastic Buddhas in a war zone. What do you mean,
something even WORSE could happen to us?"
Sanchez glowered at him. "Hi ho," he muttered darkly.
That shut Kherkhoulloth up. Along with everyone else.
"Good morning, all!" The iris valve to the Bridge opened and admitted
Fell, who tossed a lank swath of dark hair back over his bald spot and took
his place at an empty holodyne with a pleasant nod to Sanchez, who slapped him
on the back as he left the Bridge for Engineering. "I trust I'm not late?"
"Right on time, Christoph," Grant nodded. "Try to get ASTC on the
horn. We're ready to take berthing; and I'll try not to do a repeat of Ymir
this time."
"You always say that before each landing," Fell frowned. "One of these
days, I'd like to hear exactly what happened on Ymir...."
"Not while he's at the helm," Jaeger's voice came suddenly. "We'll
settle in at a bar once we're down, and we'll tell you all about it...."
- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm mailing these off and deleting them as I go, folks, so keep track of them
if you're curious about continuity. I do NOT have the first story, with the
Hi ho reference in it, and neither does Dow (Grant). I don't think that
either of the two gents who'll be joining the TML soon-- Alex Wilce (Fell)
or Paul Reilly (O'Connor)-- do, either. Anyone?
[TML Archive Message Number 716 and 740 are the first two parts to this
story -- 740 contains the "Hi ho" reference. TML Bundle numbers are #65
for AMN 716, and #70 for AMN 740. Archives are available via anonymous
ftp from sunbane.engrg.uwo.edu (129.100.4.12), via email from
[email removed], or from [email removed]
*** James]
metlay