Playing with Fire

Month 8 Day 9

1413 Hours

Drake MacGregor

“Where have you been?” Drake asked as Smitty approached the rec room’s drink dispenser.

Smitty didn’t answer until he had a coffee cup in hand and had taken his first gulp. Finally, he turned. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen so little of you since we left Yukosk, I was beginning to think you’d jumped ship to hitch-hike back.”

Smitty took the opposite seat of Drake’s table, nearly sat his cup atop Drake’s cards. “In this part of the galaxy? It’d be a century before I saw another ship, and it’d probably be headed the wrong direction.”

Drake smiled. “So you’ve thought about it. Where have you been all day? I’ve been looking for you.”

“Busy. If you had some engineering problem, Lt Harris could have assigned it to somebody.”

Drake sat back, his game of solitaire forgotten. “Is that so? Let me point out that you’ve never made it known that Lt Harris can stand in for you if you’re ‘busy’. Secondly, I think Lt Ramsey - your sr lieutenant on D shift - would have objected, had I gone to Harris. Anyway it wasn’t about engineering; I thought we’d spend some time together, since we both had the day off.”

For once, Smitty didn’t blush over having ‘forgotten’ to take a day off. He finished his coffee. “Sorry. Guess I should have told you I had plans. I have plans for tomorrow, too.”

“So Jane was right.”

“She is the captain.” Smitty glanced up from fussing with his empty cup. “Right about what?”

“She said Mac finished translating that technual S’thyme gave you, so you’d probably spend all your spare time trying to build one of their transporting ray machines.”

“Well, eventually,” Smitty agreed. “First, I have to figure out how to design the various components using our technology.”

“Lucky for you, you’ve got a ready-made helper.”

Smitty stared at him, his eyebrows smashed together. “Who?”

How can he... “Mac!”

The engineer blushed a bit. “Oh. Well, she’s not a trained engineer.”

“Maybe not, but she’s already managed to recreate one of those machines! How can you have forgotten that?”

“You seem to have forgotten that there was a Yukosk engineer in her head at the time.”

Who does he think told me it was mostly Mac putting the thing together? According to Kolla, she was on the verge of panic right up until she saw S’thyme appear and realized that if he touched her, she had no idea what might happen. When one of us touched... them... it was an electrical shock, but with another Yukosk, who knew? Might have been deadly.

“Adams, I don’t want your company. Leave me alone!” Drake looked up, recognizing the angry voice, but Smitty was already staring at the redhead seated at a table in a corner across the room.

“Colleen, dear-“

“Don’t call me that!”

“Which? Colleen? Or Dear?”

“Both!” The chair he was about to sit in slid across the floor, propelled by her foot. “Do not sit down! I don’t want you here! I’m studying!”

“Cross-training? About time. What’s Smythe got you working on? I’d be happy to help you... pull an all-nighter, so to speak.”

Smythe was getting another cup of coffee. Drake started to get up, to go break up the argument, but Smitty headed that way. Good. They’re his subordinates, let him straighten Adams out.

“You can’t help me with this!” she declared, indicating the computer screen in front of her.

Adams turned the screen to face him. “Of course I-“ He stared at the screen all the time that Smitty crossed the room and took a position behind him. “That doesn’t look like Fleet equipment!”

“It’s not Fleet equipment!”

That simple statement cleared the confusion off Smitty’s face. “It’s a Yukoskian transport ray field conductor!”

Mac jerked as her gaze slid past Adams’ face and saw Smitty. She swallowed all her anger; her voice was much quieter when she stated, “Well, they call it a twek, which is a lot shorter. But not easy for us to say correctly, because the ‘tw’ is soft, and the ‘k’ is kind of half-slurred. I think the different wavelengths make all their sounds a bit... weird.”

“Where did you get that?” Smitty asked. “Did Kolla send that to you?”

“Um, no. I... kind of figured it out myself. From that technual I translated. I wish their diagrams made more sense, because I could be totally wrong in what I’ve done in trying to reconfigure a T417.”

“I’ve tried 3 times to follow their instructions for a transport ray fiel- for a twek. Keep getting lost.”

“Me too,” Mac told him. “I finally thought-“

“You reconfigured a T417?” Smitty sat down beside her. “Can you show me?”

Adams, realizing he was forgotten, glared at them and stomped out. Yep, Smitty’s up to his eyeballs in that technual. Mac is too, even if she’s not an engineer. She probably remembers enough of it from Kolla to give her an edge on figuring it out.

Disappointed, yet somewhat understanding the other man’s preoccupation with a new technology, Drake gathered together his deck of cards. A glance at Smitty and Mac showed them deep in conversation, the computer screen now facing both of them. Smitty’s right hand was on the back of Mac’s chair, so when he leaned forward to point at the screen, his sleeve caressed her neck and shoulder. Surprised, Drake expected a violent reaction, but she seemed oblivious to it. Lucky for Smitty she’s just as involved in the conversation as he is, or he’d be on the floor.

Drake gave a practiced shuffle to the cards, noticed how loud a noise they made. An hour ago, I couldn’t hear them shuffling among all the general hubbub in here. Now... what hubbub?

A glance around the room showed that half the occupants had left, and the ones still there were quiet, barely whispering to each other as they watched the corner table. More got up and left. What in space?

Drake turned his attention back to that corner. Mac was pointing to the screen, and Smitty took her hand and moved it. Her head turned, she stared at her superior officer with glazed eyes. Uh oh! Wait. She’s not angry. She’s... I haven’t seen that look on her before, but it’s definitely not anger.

Smitty pulled his hand away, turned to look at her, and stopped talking. His hand missed the table, landed on her knee.

No wonder everybody’s leaving. They don’t want to witness something they can’t believe. This is so out-of-character for Smitty. Extremely out of character for Mac. He stiffened as Smitty’s hand traveled up the Gaelunder’s thigh half an inch. Black Space, this will not end well, if somebody doesn’t stop them. And since everybody else has left, that leaves me.

Drake joined them at their table. Neither reacted, so he shuffled his cards as loudly as he could. “The game is Third Man’s Bluff, and the ante is 2 credits. Smitty, how many cards do you need?”

It took a moment, but Smitty finally looked at him. “What?”

“Thought I’d give you something to keep your hands busy.” Smitty jerked his hand away from the redhead’s leg. Drake turned his attention to the still-dazed girl. “Third Man’s Bluff. You in, Mac? If I’d known you weren’t sleeping B shift today, I would have skipped trying to find Smitty and asked you to play some pool.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” she muttered, and looked at him in sudden alarm. “What time is it?”

“It’s, uh, nearly 1500,” Smitty stated.

Mac stood so abruptly, her chair fell over. “I spent the entire shift on this! I promised myself only half an hour! I’ll have to sleep C shift! And I had plans for tonight! What a mess!” She raced out the door.

Drake leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were flirting with her! I’m betting every other person in here thought it!”

Smitty blanched and choked out, “She’s a subordinate.”

“Apparently, a piece of you doesn’t care.” Drake looked around, confirmed the room was empty. “Look, I know it’s against the rules, but it does happen. Just be sure it’s something you both want. And for the same reason! And then be damned careful!”

Smitty shook his head. “It can’t happen.”

Drake considered him for a long moment. “Made any plans for shore leave? Ulseess is only a couple weeks away.”

Smitty nodded distractedly. “There’s an engineering seminar...”

“Why am I not surprised? Well, take some advice and before, after, possibly even during that seminar, look for a way to keep that from happening. If you can.”

“Yes.” Smitty sighed. “What must she be thinking?”

The only thing I know for sure is she’s confused. What advice should I give her?