Lines Crossed Chapter sixteen
GRID Traveler Trinity: Lines Crossed
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
“All hands, all hands, this is the Captain speaking. Prepare for long jumps. Repeat, prepare for long jumps. Two bell ring to ten second count down.” Sean cut Ship broadcast off. He turned to Dawn, ”Not sure about you, but I wonder if we should be making this ‘prepare into’ and ‘prepare out of’ long jumps so dramatic.”
Dawn laughed, “I was wondering the same thing. I think we should give it a few more times. Maybe just announce two bells ring to ten second count down.”
Sean nodded, “I like that.”
The bell sounded two times.
“You think of anything yet?”
Dawn shook her head, “Not yet.”
And . . .
. . . nothing again.
Sean got up, “You have the conn Dawn, I’m going to chat with Collins.”
Dawn said, “I have the conn, sir.”
Sean stepped into the lift. “Med Deck.”
The lift started and hummed to its destination.
Sean stepped out and headed to Medical Complex.
Collins was at her desk when Sean stepped in. He was deep in thought and absentmindedly stepped over a scrub bot.
“Captain, “She said, “How can I help you?”
“We need to talk in private.”
Collins nodded, “Walk with me, Captain.”
Sean followed Collins to one of the VIP examine rooms.
Once in the room Collins gestured for Sean to have a seat on the examine table.
Sean sat and stared at the floor.
“Captain . . . Sean, I can see something is on your mind.”
“Why am I feeling so . . . so . . . off?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m actually missing Trank.”
Collins nodded. Sean wasn’t the first person to say that.
“We’ve been Tranking and STIMing for years. So long that it seemed normal. Now we got nothin’. Is there something wrong with me?”
“Nothing wrong with you, sir. A fifth of the ship has been saying the same thing.”
Sean was shocked, “That many?”
Collins answer, “That few. Modest compared to what the other ships had to go through during their conversion. There’s one report that says one ship had to replace the entire complement due to Trank and STIM addiction. Trank supplies dwindled to nothing in days and multiple fights broke out often.”
“Goddess, we can’t have that!”
“I’m putting together a program and vid to address that issue. I was going to talk to you later about it.”
“Which one?”
“Sir?”
“Which ship had the addiction problem?”
She smiled, “The Webster.”
“Really?”
“She was the one command staff that didn’t get addicted.” Collins walked over to a cabin. She tapped in a command and the doors unlocked.
She then pulled out a bottle.
Sean watched and was hoping for a Trank spray but instead he saw Collins pull out a bottle of pills.
“Here, take one now and one every four hours. Take one just after we drop back into Now-space.”
Sean did so and started to feel better. ”What is this stuff?”
“A fix. You’ll need to do this for a while. At some point it’ll make you jittery. That’s when treatment is done.”
Sean nodded, “Works for me. Thanks, Doc.” And he caught her eye. She was radiate and he suddenly had the urge to kiss her. Sean cleared his throat, “Are there side effects?”
Collins caught Sean’s change of expression. “Just one, if any.”
“One?”
She nodded, “Your sense of smell.”
He so badly wanted to kiss her and he couldn’t get it out of his mind. “I’ve got this serious aggressive urge, and I was hoping it was from the pill.”
“And it is,” she said as she leaned toward Sean.
“You have very lovely lips.”
She smiled, “You are smelling my pheromones, possibly.”
Sean’s eyebrow lifted. “And they smell just oh so lovely.”
Collins blushed and smiled. A strand of her hair slipped down in front of an eye. “How are you coping with this serious aggressive urge?”
Sean leaned in close, “This,” and kissed her gently. He wanted to crush her in his arms, but decided gentle would make both of them feel better and after a long moment he pulled away. His heart skipped and he swallowed hard. “I think I should get back to Top Deck.”
Collins slowly nodded but that was not what she wanted. As Sean got up off the examine table she grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. She pressed herself close to him. The warmth from his chest felt like a snug comforter. She placed the side of her face against his chest and hugged him.
Sean was nearly overcome with emotion. He hugged back in kind for he couldn’t remember how long. Then moments later the embrace slowly broke. He smiled at her and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I think we may have a problem.”
She nodded, “And not an easy one. Can you visit me tonight?”
“Maybe, I’ll have to come up with a lie or maybe we’ll get lucky and Kathy will summon a circle tonight.”
“We could only hope. Sean, I’m fal . . .”
He placed a finger on her lips, “I beat you. I’m there already.”
The examine room door chimed.
Both broke their embrace and Sean sat back up on the table.
Collins said, “Enter.”
Loggar stepped through the door. “Sean, I was looking for you. You okay?”
He lifted the bottle of pills, shook then, and slowly nodded. Kathy wasn’t so lovely anymore.
“Sean, what’s the matter?”
“Hard time coping with these new engines.”
Loggar said, “Oh, you poor dear,” while wedging in front of Collins to hug Sean.
Collins took an involuntary step back. “Excuse me.”
Loggar nodded. “Sorry, Karen. I was just concerned.”
Sean stepped off the table and started walking toward the door. “Kathy, I’m fine, really. Taking one of these did the trick.
Loggar gave Collins a quick glance.
“Treatment,” she said and smiled.
Loggar’s smile never reached her eyes.
The examine room door slid open and the rush of noise burst through.
“Sean, love,” Loggar said, “Dinner?”
Sean nodded, “Sure.”
“But I want to go to the Officer’s Mess.”
Sean stopped. “You do?”
“We always eat at the Starboard’s Bow. I was hoping to try something a little different this evening.”
Sean thought a moment. “Kathy, later after Dinner I’ll be working late.”
Loggar flashed a quick glance at Collins. It was brief but Sean and Collins caught it.
“I want to talk to the Crew and get their feel for this trankless travel.”
Loggar’s features relaxed, “I think it’s wonderful. I so hated Tranking.”
Sean listened as she droned on and on. At some point Sean and Loggar said bye to Collins. He was preoccupied by thoughts of her soft lips and how nicely she smelled. He smiled and wished he were elsewhere. Was this the treatment he wondered?
“Sean, are you listening to me?”
Sean shook the bottle and said, “Of course I was, Kathy, but I was just wondering about these pills. I feel remarkably calm. . . and yes I was hearing you. You were telling me about Suptka accidentally corrupting data and how Olivia was able to backdoor it into something useful. I also heard you telling me that Kate might be able to add some intelligence to the Stupinates by using buckyball clusters as registers.”
Loggar rapidly blinked several times. He was listening.
He hurriedly kissed her on the lips, “Kathy, I just remembered something I have to do on Top Deck. Dinner after four bells first dog watch, I’ll come get you.” and darted into a lift.
Loggar felt . . . something. Anger? Hurt? Panic? Maybe all of the above. Maybe something else. Sean had been acting strange. More pre-occupied. She walked back to her office and retrieved several messages. One read, “Captain at seat. All is well.” Another read, “Newton not on Top Deck. Not in Mess. Blow out with new transfer. Nothing else.”