Into the Black: Odyssey One (15 page)

“Is this information verified?” Eric looked up from the PDA he’d been scanning.

“No Sir, it’s just an educated guess on the computers part,” Roberts said, shaking his head. “There’s no way to be absolutely certain of the growth rate, but…”

“But?” Eric raised an eyebrow.

“But that’s the low end guess, Sir,” The First Officer replied. “The high end stuff is a nightmare.”

“I’ll bet,” Weston sighed, sitting back in his chair as he looked down at the numbers again.

Doubling their number every three days. Jesus.

As Roberts had said, the high end number would HAVE to be a nightmare. Whatever they were, they seemed to put rabbits to shame. His lips twisted wryly at the thought, and then he decided to get up.

“Commander, you have the Bridge,” he said, turning toward the exit. “I’m going to have another word with our guest.”

“Aye Captain,” Roberts nodded, “Good luck, Sir.”

“Thank you Commander,” Weston smiled wryly. “Let’s hope I don’t need it with a single young woman.”

*****

Once the ‘shower’ was complete, Milla stepped out hesitantly and wondered what she was supposed to use to get dry.

If I remember my cultures lessons, there should be something. Ahhh…, here we are.

She located some dark blue wads of cloth that seemed in the right place to do the job. If they weren’t, she just hoped that she wasn’t desecrating anything, as she rubbed herself down. After all, one never knew about an alien culture. Even within the Colonies, people could create the strangest icons.

There was a knock at the door to the cabin, so she stuck her head out of the washroom and yelled, “Come in!” before she ducked back in and closed the door with a thoughtful frown.

Now…, Do they have a nudity taboo or not…?

Milla Chans sighed, rubbing her head. This just wasn’t her specialty. She blew things up, she wasn’t a social engineer. Granted, she usually blew up mine sites and other excavations, but the point was still valid. Her specialty wasn’t exactly the most social of professions.

Outside she could hear people talking, so she figured it was probably Dr. Palin back again, and then there was a knock at the washroom door.

“Excuse me, Ma’am?”

The Quartermaster,
Milla recognized the voice. “Yes?”

“Clothes, Ma’am,” the voice said. “If you’ll just open up a bit, I’ll hand them in. I won’t look. I swear, Ma’am.”

Hmmm…, does that mean they do have a nudity taboo…, or that they’re worried that I do?
Milla shrugged it off and opened the door a crack, accepting the dark blue bundles that were handed in to her, and then slid the door shut again, “Thank you.”

“No problem, Ma’am,” said the deferential voice. “Just doing my job.”

She doubted that actually, but didn’t press. No one with a title of ‘Master’ on a Colonies ship would be required to stoop to personal deliveries. More than likely, he wanted to see the ‘alien’ for himself. Not that she had a problem with that, of course. She’d probably have done the same.

“Ithan?” Another voice called after a moment.

Her eyes widened in surprise, “Capitaine?”

“That’s right, Ithan Chans,” Weston’s voice replied. “When you have a moment, I’d like to talk with you.”

“Certainly, Capitaine,” she said, hurriedly slipping into the clothes provided.

The lower part of the clothing was easy to figure out, as was the top, but she puzzled over the two black tubes for a moment before deciding that they must be for her feet. They’d make for an insane hindrance on her hands. Once she had those on, along with the pants and shirt, she frowned at the two pieces of clothing left.

What on earth are these?
She puzzled over them for a while, not able to place either the one with the two cups or the other slip of cloth with anything she’d seen anyone else wear. Finally she just shrugged and tossed them aside.
I’m sure someone will tell me, if they’re important.

*****

Eric nodded and smiled as Milla stepped out of her bathroom, wearing a basic crewman’s uniform with no insignia’s. The Odyssey’s wardrobe supply was fairly limited, but they had standard uniforms in pretty much every size under the sun.

“Ithan,” he said respectfully, as she pinched and pulled at the clothes.

Beside him, Doctor Palin, who had shown up a short while earlier, nodded as well but didn’t say anything.

“Capitaine. Docteur,” Milla nodded back. “My apologies for my…, motions. I’m afraid that this clothing doesn’t feel exactly right.”

Eric nodded, smiling slightly. “It takes a while to wear them in, so that they are just right for you. Don’t worry about it too much.”

“Very well,” she said, not happy with it, but determined not to complain, either.

“I was wondering if I might interest you in a tour of the ship’s facilities, Ithan,” Eric offered. He’d been debating that since he’d talked to her, but it seemed like a harmless way to talk with her and see what she reactions would be like. More importantly, it would let him try to get her ‘measure’ and that was something that he found himself feeling a desperate need of.

Milla nodded quickly, “I would be most fascinated, Capitaine.”

“Good,” Weston smiled tapped the side of the induction mic on his jaw, connecting to Commander Roberts. “Commander, I’m taking our guest on a short tour of the ship. Contact me via the mobile comm-net, if I’m needed.”

“Yes Sir.”

“This way, Milla,” Weston gestured down the curving hallway, noting her unsure steps as she accustomed herself to the curving corridors. “We noted that your vessels have artificial gravity, included in the design. Unfortunately, we don’t have that ability yet. You’re standing in a huge rotation drum, which serves as one of the two primary habitats, on board the Odyssey.”

Milla looked up the curving corridor and glanced back along the curve that she had just traversed, “I see, I don’t think that my people have ever used such a technique. Our first ship designs were null gravity freighters. The artificial gravity technology came along relatively quickly and was incorporated into our second generation ships, without this intermediary step.”

Weston smiled, “Well, I suppose we weren’t content to wait, we do have some ideas on creating an artificial gravity field, but they are all still in the design and only at the theory stage, mostly. The Odyssey was designed in response to the developing technology that allows us to cross great distances, faster than light.”

Milla acknowledged his words and they and Doctor Palin continued on their walk through the habitat.

“This section is largely laboratories and some living quarters. The forward module houses the Command staff, Bridge, the rest of the living quarters and recreation facilities. Our engineering area is, unfortunately, a null gravity area and is off limits to most personnel,” the Captain smiled wryly. “They don’t even like me going in there.”

Milla smiled wanly, “Engineers are engineers, Capitaine. It may be your ship, but it’s their engines.”

Weston laughed sharply, “True enough Milla. True enough.”

Their walk had brought them to one of the ship’s lifts and the trio stepped into the small capsule.

“Hanger bay.”

The capsule whirred off while Milla look around the small area “Here put these on.” she was startled by the captain’s voice for a moment before taking what he offered her.

“What are these?”

“Magnetic boots, the hanger bay is below decks, an area of the ship outside the rotating habitats.”

“Oh.”

Why is he showing me this? I’m not one his people,
Milla couldn’t help but wonder as the gravity in the lift slowly lightened until it was negligible and she could feel her hair floating up away from her skull.

She kept it cropped relatively short, like most people who choose to spend their lives in space, but that had its disadvantages as well. Longer hair could be tied back for example and would be less of a spectacle than she was at the moment.

Still, she ignored it with long-standing practice and went about putting on the boots in question.

The lift arrived at the hanger bay. Milla had felt the gravity fade away, quite some time past, as the lift stopped matching rotation with the habitat module, and the door hissed open, revealing the cavernous expanse of the big ships hanger. She felt almost lost as she looked up and around herself, at the expanse of the room.

“This area was designed to this scale because some of the shuttles we operate from here are designed for trans-atmospheric flight and require more room for their control surfaces,” Eric explained as he noticed her eyes and expression. “That, and of course the fact that they are used to transport relatively large items to and from the ship.”

The sharp clanking of their steps had attracted the attention of several of the crewmen in the hanger, but only one had decided to approach them.

“Heya Cap,” Stephanus’ cheerful face was sidetracked a moment later, as he locked his attention onto Milla, “G’day there, now who’s this?”

Stephanus hadn’t seen the pod’s survivor when they’d offloaded her from the SAR shuttle; he had been too busy locking his own plane down, at the time. But others had noticed, while the e-med team had been hauling her off to the medical labs and with all the rumors that had inevitably begun to flood the Odyssey, he was quick enough to realize that this wasn’t a crew member.

“Is this the little lady we fished out of the drink, a while back?” He asked, mostly just to hear himself talk.

Weston laughed again, leaving Milla wondering if the translation she received over the induction set they had given her was in error, since it sounded to her like this man was being rather flippant, in front of the ship’s Captain.

“Yes, this is Milla.” Eric said, introducing the two, “and Milla, this is Commander Stephen Michaels, though we mostly call him Stephanus. Steph, Milla here was a duty officer assigned to one of the ships we found out there.”

Milla winced as the translation came through, her eyes then widened in surprise she noticed that the young man standing in front of them winced also.

“Sorry to hear that, Ma’am,” Stephanus’ joking face had dropped into a serious expression. The loss of shipmates wasn’t a joking matter to the young pilot, or to anyone who’d ever served.

Milla accepted his condolences without much visible reaction, covering whatever she was feeling internally, by looking around the massive chamber. A short distance, away she saw a shuttle that fit Captain Weston’s description of what he called a ‘Trans-Atmospheric’ vehicle. A distance away, at the other end of the bay, however, several sleeker shuttles were sitting in tight formation, with people scurrying around them, as if in some urgency.

“Captain Weston, what is the activity over near those shuttles?” She asked, her voice laden with curiosity as she tried to figure out what she was looking at.

Milla watched Weston and Stephanus look around themselves wildly, as if uncertain where she meant.

“What? Where?” Steph asked, confused.

“There,” she nodded.

“Huh?”

Finally, somewhat frustrated, she pointed to the activity near the shuttles, not expecting the reactions she would get. Dr. Palin just looked in that direction, as confused as he was before, but the real reactions came from Weston and the man he had introduced as Stephanus. They laughed.

“Missy, you call them ‘shuttles’?” A wry grin was growing across the pilot’s face, from anyone else those would have been fighting words, but the look of confusion drifting across Milla’s face had instantly quelled any indignation he felt.
Must be getting soft! I’ve decked two hundred and fifty pound Marines for less than that.

Stephanus glanced from her to the Captain, who was trying very hard not to laugh again, “With your permission, Captain?”

Weston looked almost thoughtful for a moment, before another chuckling fit overtook him, “All right Steph, standard VIP tour. Nothing more. You know what I mean.”

“Yes Sir, sure do,” the cocky young pilot grinned, flipping a fairly smart salute that somehow managed to look half-assed, while still being within military protocols.

Weston shook his head as Stephanus turned away.
One of these days I’m going to have to figure out how he manages that.

Stephanus gently guided Milla away from the Captain and Dr. Palin and began walking the long stretch down to Milla’s ‘shuttles’, the ready wing of the Archangel group. As they approached the fighters in the ‘ready flight’ position, Stephanus was greeted by several other pilots, many of whom had approached the two, with appraising looks at Milla, only to be sent back to their tasks with a word from the tall pilot.

“This is an Archangel fighter craft, Milla and it’s a far cry from any shuttle your likely to see.” Steph grinned wryly as he reached out to slide his hand along the smooth armor of the sleek Combat Craft.

“Fighter Craft?” Milla spoke the words slowly, almost tasting them as she considered the words. This ship in front of her was the Odyssey’s counterpart to the small fighters her ship had launched in the final moments of their encounter with the Drasin.

He’s right though,
she realized quickly, examining the fighter,
I could have called our ships ‘shuttles’ because that was what they were. Not these. These ships are made for war, no wasted space like our refitted freighters
.

It was something of an eye opener in some ways, forcing Milla to revise her thoughts on the controversy that had been raging through her home world before she’d left. Many people, she included at the time, were against the commissioning of dedicated warships. Many people, herself included, felt that they were unnecessary. Refitted fleet craft had seemed to pack all the power needed at the time.

Now, of course, she wasn’t nearly so confident.

It was a good thing that Milla Chans had never minded admitting a mistake. Well, not much anyway.

“Trans-Atmospheric Superiority Fighter. The original design is about twenty-eight years old now, but most of the systems have been updated constantly over the past quarter century. The space maneuvering systems, for instance, were added to the design only two years ago. We never had much use for it until the Odyssey hit the drawing boards,” Stephanus finished with a half-smile.