11 Erbe 1117: Jumpspace
Nothing new. I should be happy that a Jump is quiet, but I felt a bit displaced.
Jami, Saahna, Varan, and Karran were now all obsessed with playing Hyperjack, which meant that all of them were engrossed in it and not much else. Shelly was spending most of her time with Reina. I noted that she had actually spent the previous night in Reina’s cabin. Which was none of my business. No more than the fact that Karran spent her night in Varan’s cabin.
None of my business.
I eventually went upstairs. The passenger lounge was empty, except for Doctor Korvusar sitting in her usual place. I walked over.
“Would you get me another wine, please?” she asked, holding out her glass without looking up from her comp.
“Of course,” I smiled. I went to the dispenser, found what she had been drinking, and brought it back to her. She accepted it with barely a nod.
I continued to stand there; I was used to this game by now. She waited a bit longer before looking up.
“Was there something else, Captain?”
“I hadn’t had a chance to thank you for your help with the Stetons the other day. So… thank you.”
“Certainly, Captain. Though I am sure that you knew as well as I that she was faking her symptoms, and the probable reason.”
“You have the certifications I don’t. No one can accuse your diagnosis as being biased.”
“Especially since I’m not part of your crew and so have no reason to be biased.”
I hadn’t thought of that and was about to comment on it when the door to Reina’s cabin slid open.
“So you do most of your broadcast from your head rig?” she was asking of Shelly, who was behind her. “That must have some lighting problems.”
“Yeah,” Shelly was saying. “I had my studio back home set up so that it wasn’t a problem, but here…” she suddenly saw the two of us and stopped. “Oh! Derek! Um… Captian. Doctor Korvusar. I’m… sorry. I was…”
“It’s OK,” I said, waving a hand towards her as I walked towards them. “Ms. Dradon! Good to see you. I’m sorry I haven’t had much time to speak with you since you came on board.”
She laughed as she stepped forward and gave me a quick hug. “Oh, so formal now? Come on, we had too many drinks together before coming on board to be ‘Ms. Dradon’ and ‘Captain Kodai,’ didn’t we?”
“Oh? Well, then welcome aboard, Reina.” I smiled and returned the hug. I obviously had misread her back on Girar.
“Anyway,” she said as she pulled away. “Your steward Shelly has been telling me about her live-net ‘cast, and I’ve been trying to give her some pointers. We were talking about her equipment, and she was going to show me her broadcast rig.”
I nodded. “We’re delighted to have Shelly with us. She’s giving her viewers back on Boilingbrook an inside look at what it is really like to be a Traveller.”
“So I hear! And from what she is telling me it is going extremely well.”
“That’s what I hear too. I just ask that she makes us look good.” I smiled slightly.
“And I’m sure she does. We spent all of last night with her telling us of your exploits. You lead a fascinating life here.”
“Oh?” I glanced at Shelly.
“No! I mean, yeah, I was talking about us, but only what I’ve already sent to Boilingbrook! I even showed her all my broadcasts!”
“It’s not often I spend all night watching vids with someone, and we really do nothing but watch vids,” Reina said with a slight laugh.
Shelly glanced at her curiously, then her eyes flew wide. “No! I wasn’t! I mean, I just meet so few sophonts who know this kind of stuff and…”
Both Reina and I laughed. “It’s OK,” she said. “I could tell how excited you were.”
Shelly was bright red and was looking between me and Reina, who was still smiling and shaking her head.
“You were going to show Reina your rig,” I said, trying to change the subject. “Why don’t you do that?”
She nodded and quickly strode towards the aft bulkhead. “Yeah! That… sounds good. Reina?”
Reina smiled, nodded at me, then followed her. The access to the air-raft is usually hidden by the aft viewscreen, but Shelly retracted it, then punched in her code at the revealed iris and waited for the biometrics to scan her. I turned back to Doctor Korvusar as the iris opened.
Then turned back as all of the hells broke loose.
I looked back to see Shelly doubling over and vomiting on the floor of the lounge. Even from where I was standing, I could see blood. Reina reeled backward, blood flowing from her own nose.
I stepped forward, then the smell hit me. It was like the lingering smell inside the airlock of a planet with a hostile atmosphere. Like what inhaling pure tank cleaner would smell like. I coughed and saw blood splatter on my hand.
“Gray!” I shouted, my voice already strained and horse. “Shut the iris to the air-raft bay!” I grabbed for the emergency hood of my jumpsuit and pulled it over my head.
I coughed again, splattering the interior of the hood, but it inflated. Alarms started going off, and I heard Gray’s voice. “Emergency alert. Caustic chemical release in the passenger lounge.”
“Full atmospheric flush. Passenger lounge!” I shouted. Then, “Gray! Full atmospheric purge on the passenger lounge!”
“Flushing,” came the reply. Almost immediately, a blast of air came through the lounge. Loose items scattered. I tried to get my coughing under control as multiple calls came in over my comm.
“Security override!” I heard, then Saahna was the only voice on the channel. “Derek! What is happening!”
“Something nasty in the air-raft bay!” I coughed, my voice barely recognizable. “Get everyone in suits. Now.”
“Should I come up there?”
“Wait until we’re purged,” I rasped out, then coughed more blood. I felt sick and could barely stand.
“Saahna! Check…”
Everything went black as I collapsed to the deck.