Continued Failure
Month 15 Day 1
1814 Hours
Smitty
Abdulla muttered under her breath. Her
tone made it plain she was not saying what a lovely day it was. "Well, no
need to get upset," Smitty stated evenly. "We're still in the early
stages of testing. Let's take our measurements, make our observations, share
the information among ourselves and then set the problem aside for tonight.
Just forget completely about it."
"Easier said than done,"
Wilson stated. "I've been doing nothing but think about it this past week."
"Mind going around in circles, is
it? Getting you absolutely nowhere?" he asked.
"You know it," Abdullah
confirmed, while Wilson nodded.
"I suggest going to the gym for a
hard workout," he told them. "Don't give your brain a chance to
actively think about the disappointments we've had so far. We do need to think
about the problem, but first we need to break the cycle of going in circles. It
hasn't done us any good. We need to start fresh, look at it from new angles,
not just the same old thoughts we've been having. So, a hard workout, then some
relaxation. Tomorrow is soon enough to start looking at the data we've
accumulated, look for something we hadn't noticed before."
"I wish Mac had been able to be
here tonight," Wilson stated. "I know, she's on light duty, so she
couldn't be here, but—"
"Not anymore," Smitty blurted
out.
"What do you mean?" Abdulla
asked. "Then why isn't she here?"
"Oh, well, there was an incident in
the mess hall at lunch," he answered. "It aggravated her thigh
injury. MacGregor took her to sick bay to assess the damage, and kept her there
the entire afternoon, sitting in a healing ray." He grimaced at the
thought, having memories of what a healing ray felt like. "I hope she
comes back to light duty tomorrow."
"Light duty?" Abdulla
repeated. "After that long under a healing ray, shouldn't she be back to
full duty?"
"I doubt it. Healing rays aren't
that good. Or fast. Plus, they were using it on her thigh, but it's her
shoulder that's reduced her to light duty. Knowing the side effects of a healing
ray, she was probably too worn out by the time they got done with her to think
of anything but sleep. She probably didn't even remember we were meeting
tonight."
"That... would take a bit, to make
her forget Joe and George," Wilson said.
"Believe me, you can't sleep while
you're under the healing ray. But once they turn that off, sleep is all you can think about."
Both women sighed in resignation. "Well,
let's finish up here so I can go do a workout," Abdulla suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Ivy
agreed.
Big Brother Again
Month 15 Day 1
1841 Hours
Bugalu
It was her living room door they came to
first, but he didn't care. Cajoling to get her inside, he half-carried her to
the sofa and got her laid out on it haphazardly.
"Thank you, Bugs," she
muttered, and was sound asleep.
"You're welcome," he mumbled,
breathing heavily, and sat down in the nearest chair. Space, she's heavy! Well, duh, she's a heavy-worlder. Thought I'd have
to leave her sleeping on the floor someplace and go find Tall Bear. Or
Ferguson. Both of them probably in the gym. He leaned back for several
minutes, until he caught his breath. Well,
we seem to be back on good terms again. And no sign of Smythe as we made our
way here. Good. If she still wants him, she doesn't need any more complications
getting in the way.
With his thoughts on the engineer when
the hall door opened, he jerked around. "Della!" he identified the
newcomer.
"Boy, you're jumpy," she
commented, and then noticed Mac asleep on the sofa. "What's with Mac that
she couldn't get to bed before she fell asleep?"
"She spent the afternoon in sick
bay, in a healing ray. And then took a detour to the mess hall for food. I
almost didn't manage to get her here before she passed out."
"But she doesn't sleep well without
heavy gravity," Della reminded him. "Should we see about getting her
to her bed?"
"I don't know, Della, I'm pretty
wiped, having gotten her this far." He took a deep breath and stood up.
"I say, leave her where she is, for now. I'll go to the gym and get Tall
Bear to come and move her. She's extra heavy."
"I keep forgetting that. Explains
why I saw Mr Smythe grimace when she landed in his lap today. Here I was
thinking he should have been happy that's where she landed, so the look of
surprised pain on his face didn't make any sense. Well, you go ahead and find
TB. I'm in for the evening, so if she's still got the doors on super locked, I
can let him in."
"Super locked?" he asked, and
held up his hand. "Never mind. She doesn't want to see anybody."
"And particularly not a certain
somebody. By the way, what's the idea of sending her flowers and making me say
they're from him? She wanted me to send them back! I had to explain I couldn't
and why, so now she wants to know what
the idea is. Or has she asked you?"
"Not yet. Not in the condition she
was in. And I did it because I had no idea why the marriage was off, so I
thought I'd try to smooth some of the anger out of her. Apparently, the problem
runs too deep for flowers."
"Yeah, I don't really understand
the problem, either. You should have seen when she reported for duty this
morning. I think the only thing she said to him was 'yes, sir'. All very
formal. Very frigid. Not like her at
all."
"Hmm. I've seen her like that a
time or 2. Takes a lot to get her there. Takes time for her to cool off. If she
really wants to patch things up with him, I hope she doesn't take it too
far."
"Does she? Want to patch things
up?"
Bugalu hesitated. "I think so.
But... it's complicated." He started for the door. "I'll be back in a
little." He walked out, headed directly for the gym, whistling because he
had his sister back, with all her problems.
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