More Info & Putting it Together

 More Info

Month 15 Day 2

1122 Hours

Tall Bear

 The intercom buzzed, and Tall Bear rolled over, wondering how many times it had buzzed. As an Apache brave, he had been trained to awaken instantly at any such noise, but it was hard to keep that training tuned. Especially on a spaceship, where mid-sleep interruptions weren't normal. He slapped the intercom button. "Tall Bear."

The person on the other end seemed caught off guard. "Oh, uh, this is Smythe."

"Yes, sir. What can I do for you?"

"Well, are you busy? I thought we might have a little talk."

Bear knew a pinch of annoyance that the man hadn't checked his schedule, but let it slide away. "Mr Smythe, this is the middle of my sleep cycle."

"Oh, then, I'll just ask my question and let you get back to it. It's my understanding that last night. Lt Bugalu asked you to go to Lt MacDowell's quarters and transfer the sleeping Colleen, er, MacDowell, from the sofa to her bed."

"That's right. He said he barely managed to get her to her quarters from the mess hall, and that was with her half-way functional. When I got there, she was sound asleep, and almost too much for me to handle, since she was a dead weight. Don't get me wrong. I can bench-press her weight, but weights are symmetrical. She's not." Technically, she is symmetrical, but not as a weight to be carried. He hoped his meaning got through anyway.

"What was she doing in the mess hall?"

I thought he only had one question? "That, I don't know. I would assume she was hungry. Any other questions?"

"What? Oh. No. Thank you, lieutenant. Sorry to have disturbed you." The intercom went silent.

I used to think Bugalu was paranoid about Mr Smythe. Now, I hope I made it sound as innocent as it was. He adjusted his blanket and settled back to sleep.

 

 

Putting It Together

Month 15 Day 2

1204 Hours

Smitty

Smitty slowed when he saw Bugalu already seated at a table in the mess hall. He stopped following MacGregor and made his way to Bugalu's table. "Lt Bugalu," he said softly.

Bugalu looked up and jumped to his feet. "Yes, sir!"

"I understand you helped Colleen get to her quarters last night, after her encounter with the healing ray." He fought to keep his voice even, without any jealousy to taint it.

"Yes, sir," Bugalu agreed blandly.

"Well, I just want to... to thank you for doing that. For her."

Surprise widened Bugalu's eyes. "Thank you, sir. I mean, you're welcome. Or, she's welcome."

"Yes, I think I understand," he said, nodded, and moved off. He sat down at the captain's chosen table only a moment behind MacGregor.

"What was that about?" Jane asked.

Smitty shrugged, trying to pretend it was no big deal. "He did a favor for Colleen. I wanted to acknowledge it." He arranged his salad in front of him on the tray, then fixed a stare on MacGregor. "On the other hand, I've got a bone to pick with you."

Drake sighed. "What have I done?"

"Apparently, Colleen was released from sick bay yesterday without receiving the quart of augmented orange juice that one is supposed to get after a dose with the healing ray."

"It's not a real quart, you’re exaggerating..." he started, then frowned and put his fork down. "What makes you say that?"

"I talked to her!" Smitty ticked items off on his fingers. "First, she doesn't remember getting anything to drink before she was dismissed. Second, upon being released, she was so famished, she forced herself to come to the mess hall, where she ate a full breakfast and lunch before she tried to go home to sleep. If it weren't for Bugalu, she wouldn't have made it home."

"Duck, that sounds like a serious allegation," Jane stated.

"It is serious," Drake agreed. "If she'd gotten that drink, she wouldn't have been starving, and should have gone straight home and to bed. Didn't anybody accompany her when she was dismissed? As bad as her thigh was, somebody should have kept an eye on her."

Smitty shook his head. "She didn't mention any escort from sick bay."

"Didn't she have physical therapy after the healing ray?" Jane asked. " With back to back sessions like that, perhaps wires got crossed, miscommunications, that sort of thing."

"Not in my sick bay," Drake declared. "And if it did, then we'd better figure out exactly what happened, so it doesn't happen again!" He turned back to Smitty. "If she didn't get the after-drink, why didn't she ask for it?"

Smitty looked up angrily. "Don't make this her mistake! Her first time with a healing ray. If nobody even mentioned an after-drink, how would she have known to ask about it?"

"No, you're right. It's not Mac's fault. Space it, now I've got to go back to sick bay and start an investigation!"

"I think you can wait until after you've eaten your lunch," Jane told him. "After all, your star witness will be there this afternoon, undergoing physical therapy, is my understanding."

"Good point," Drake agreed. "First, I should talk to Mac, find out exactly what happened, as best she can remember it." He picked up his silverware to begin eating. "Obviously, you've talked to Mac this morning, Smitty. How is she feeling after a good night's sleep?"

"She reports her leg feels much better and hasn't given out on her today."

"Good!"

"She suggested she might ask for some healing ray for her shoulder."

Drake frowned a little. "Well, it's not recommended on consecutive days. But I'll know more after I've scanned her today. We can talk about it, if she really wants to put herself through that again so soon."

"Yes, well, I wouldn't mind getting her back to full duty," Smitty said, and nonchalantly waited for Drake to respond. And yet he doesn't. Not even a grimace or a frown to indicate there might be something he's not telling me. Yet with all this time they've been devoting to her these last few days, surely they would have noticed her being pregnant!

New Info

 Month 15 Day 1

0757 Hours

Smitty

Feeling embarrassed, dejected and exhausted, Smitty sat slumped in his office chair, his head drooping but held up by his hands, which were propped up by his elbows on the desktop. Several screens were on, showing him the engineering floor, but he paid no attention to them. Why couldn't Drake just detox me and let me muddle my way through the day? Why did he have to get the captain involved? Space, it's going to be a long day. I already feel as if I was the one under the healing ray, now dying to get some sleep. Captain's wrong. I haven't pulled any 3 day stints in... years. Probably can't do it anymore, the way I feel now. I don't know—

"Hey, Mac, you're looking more confident this morning," came thinly over the speaker, and Smitty abruptly raised his head, sought out the redhead on the screens. She was talking to Wilson, just inside the main entrance.

"...hasn't given out all morning, so far. So I'm torn between asking for some healing ray for my shoulder and remembering what it was like when they released me yesterday."

Smitty was up and headed to the engineering floor almost before he realized he had moved. Somehow, he managed not to run, although he wanted to. All those safety lessons he'd been taught years ago, he supposed.

"...disappointing results last night," Wilson was saying as Smitty approached them. "Pretty much the same as we got the week before, despite our best efforts. Could have used your thoughts on what happened."

"You were sorely missed last night," he added, inserting himself into the conversation.

Colleen turned to face him. "Reporting for duty, sir. I hope you understand that I still can't salute."

It wasn't what he wanted to talk about, but at least she was talking to him. "Yes, yes, the healing ray was on your thigh yesterday, not your shoulder. But it's done your leg some good, has it?"

She blinked in surprise at his enthusiastic conversational tone, and glanced around engineering to see how many people were watching. Smitty had an urge to snap at everybody to get back to work, but couldn't pull his eyes off Colleen. "Yes," she answered shortly, then added, "It hasn't buckled yet today."

That seemed to be it for that conversation, so he reverted to what Wilson had been talking about. "Good. Well, you were missed last night, but I gathered all the data and observations and sent it to you by email, so you can ponder the results this week, just like the rest of us."

"You did?" Wilson blurted out. "I mean, we broke apart without specifying who was going to get the data to her, so I went ahead and did it myself. Also."

"Well, I can hardly fault you for that. As I expressed last night, I believed Colleen was probably sound asleep by the time we got together."

"Not quite that early," Colleen muttered.

Which reminded Smitty that she apparently was still awake—or possibly awake again—when he, Abdulla and Wilson had broke up their conclave, because he'd seen Bugalu coming from her quarters. Smitty realized he was gnashing his teeth, and forced himself to stop, but couldn't keep the ice from his voice when he said, "I heard Bugalu promise to come back in a little while. When he left your quarters last night."

Her green eyes rounded, then narrowed as they flashed with anger. Her voice was as cold as his had been, if not even colder. "I wouldn't know. I fell asleep as soon as I got home. Now, I should get started on my light duty responsibilities." She moved past him, headed for his office.

Wilson looked at him uncertainly. "Why would you even—Never mind." She launched into a litany of assignments she'd given her crew and which ones didn't get finished. Smitty found it hard to pay attention as he stared at the doorway to his office, but he relieved Wilson and let her go. "Who else would he have been talking to?" he asked the redhead, but she was too far away to hear him.

"He was talking to me," Harris answered from behind him.

Smitty turned around in surprise, embarrassed that someone had heard him, astounded that she had the gall to reply. "What?"

Harris tossed her head, almost defiantly. "Bugalu told me he'd be back shortly. Like Mac said, she fell asleep on the sofa as soon as Bugalu got her that far. We didn't think the 2 of us could get her transferred to her bed where she could sleep soundly. I mean, she is extra heavy. So he decided to find Tall Bear and have him move her. And as we expected, she slept through the entire thing."

"Is that so?"

"It is so," Harris affirmed. "I don't understand why you're so suspicious of Mac all the time. On a personal level. But especially now." Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to her work.

Oh, no. People have started to notice my behavior. It won't take them long to realize that if I can't trust my fiancée, then I'm a fool to marry her. And that'll get shortened to I'm just a blasted fool, you just watch.

Which put him in a foul mood again. But this time he had some anger at himself to make him determined to get through the day, as the captain had challenged him to do. Still, with his mind whirling with uncertainties and doubts, he was hardly an effective leader this day. It was a good thing his crew were so well trained; they hardly noticed his mental absence.

Meltdown in Engineering

 Month 15 Day 1

0719 Hours

MacGregor

 "Keep your voice down," Drake told the chief engineer, who was rumbling his complaints loud enough to be heard in the corridor outside the privacy dining room. Or it would be loud enough if Drake hadn't immediately activated the sound barrier for their booth, which dampened the sound to an unintelligible murmur outside of the immediate area. Drake stuck his head out of the booth and looked towards the entrance, waved to the captain so she knew where to find them.

Jane entered the booth, sitting opposite Drake, and immediately stared at the 3rd member of their party.

"Wasn't sure you'd get my message," Drake told her.

"With all the bells and whistles you put on it, it did everything but drag me out of bed." She indicated the engineer. "Shouldn't you be treating that?"

Drake instantly took hold of his hyperspray and gave Smitty a dose of deintoxicant. "What'd you do that for?" Smitty demanded, then went back to complaining at a slightly lower volume.

"I wanted you to see it, first," Drake told Jane.

"Send me a notice through channels is the usual way to deal with this type of thing," she pointed out.

"I didn't want to make it official. This time."

"Have there been other times..."

"No," Drake hurried to say. "If you pay attention to what he's saying, you can figure out why it's happened. I know you don't like to get involved in the crew's personal matters, but it might be time to consider it."

"Saw it with my own eyes!" Smitty said vehemently. "He came right out of her quarters, setting his clothes to rights, and told her he'd be back later! And her trying to recover from that healing ray you had her in yesterday afternoon! Of all the self-centered ways to behave! In her condition!" Smitty chugged half his glass of orange juice, which Drake knew he had spiked before the captain's arrival with an over-generous amount of vodka.

"Who is he talking about?"

"His fiancée, who else?"

"And the man he mentions is..."

"Lt Bugalu!" Smitty said for himself, and leaned forward on the table to shake a finger at the captain. "I was like you, captain, I used to think he was a good sort of a guy, but this behavior just proves what a lying, self-centered, sneaky little weasel he is! To treat my fiancée in such a fashion isn't to be excused!"

After a few seconds of silence, Jane asked, "When did this 'problem' become apparent?"

"When he exited our shared bathroom into my bedroom instead of his own," Drake revealed. "This morning, about the time my alarm went off."

"So, chances are, he didn't get any sleep last night." She glanced at the morning menu. "Smitty, what did you order for breakfast? What looks good to you?"

"Just orange juice," he told her, and gave her an exaggerated wink. "It's hitting the spot just fine."

She gave a long look at the glass that presumably held orange juice. "Is it..."

"Yes," Drake answered.

Jane's mouth momentarily formed a frown, then she began ordering food on the keypad. "Order your breakfast, Drake."

"But if I had any doubts about her reasons for postponing our wedding, there can be no denying those reasons now," Smitty rumbled abruptly.

"Did you manage to talk to her?" Jane asked. "I thought she was recovering."

Smitty waved the idea away. "I went to share the results of our teleportation device tests," he stated. "But when I remembered she was recovering, I went home and sent them to her by email."

"Very sensible," Jane told him.

"I don't know why it took me so long to see it!" he declared. "Well, no one likes to admit they're past their prime, and I'm no different in that regard. But it seems so obvious to me now!"

"You're hardly past your prime, Smitty. Now, I'm—"

"I'm certainly no spring chicken, captain!" he declared. "I do think a person should face the truth when it rears up and slaps them in the face! And that's what I've done! Because the truth is, Colleen wants a younger man!"

Food started arriving on the booth's elevator. Jane selected some plates for herself, shoved others to a position in front of Smitty. When 2 cups of coffee arrived, she gave one to Smitty, took his half glass of 'orange juice' and sent it back to the kitchen for disposal. "And you think the younger man she wants is Lt Bugalu."

"Who else? They've been inseparable since she arrived!"

"De-tox him," she told Drake. "Completely."

"How did you..." Smitty started to ask, then winced when Drake gave him another hyperspray dose before he even checked to see just how drunk the engineer was. "Just don't overdo it," he asked. "The headache from being overly de-toxed is a killer."

"I've never over de-toxed you," Drake protested.

"Happened at the Academy once," Smitty mumbled.

"Smitty, you're wrong," Jane told him flatly as she poured syrup on her pancakes. "You aren't seeing things clearly, probably because of your jealousy, which I've spoken to you about before. She doesn't want a younger man, and certainly not that young man, which if you weren't so jealous, maybe you could see it. The fact is, she agreed to marry you, and until you said or did something wrong, you each seemed completely besotted with each other. Bottom line, you are not old. I know that, Drake knows that. You seem to be the only one who doesn't believe it. So I'm going to prove it to you. Drake is going to detox you completely, just like I told him to do. You are going to eat your breakfast, and then you are going to report for duty and work your entire shift, just as if you'd actually gotten some sleep last night. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, captain," he agreed quietly, and began arranging his breakfast and utensils before him.

"Good."

"I hope you'll forgive me for not joining you for lunch today," Smitty went on.

"Why would you not join us?" Jane asked suspiciously.

"I think a small power nap would help me see my way through the rest of the day."

Jane shook her head. "I certainly will not excuse you. Old men need naps to get through the day. You are not an old man. I've seen you work 3 days straight without so much as a coffee break. I have the fullest confidence in your ability to get through the day, without any naps of any kind. Have I made myself clear?"

"No coffee break?" Smitty asked in disbelief.

"I didn't say you couldn't have a coffee break," she answered. "I said I've seen you not take them. But you are allowed coffee breaks, and a lunch break. Have all the coffee you want. Just nothing that bears any resemblance to a nap!"

"Yes, captain," Smitty acknowledged, and turned his attention to Drake. "Are you done detoxing me, MacGregor?"

Drake took a quick medical scan of the engineer's body, adjusted his hyperspray and gave him a final dose of de-intoxicant. "Give that about 5 seconds, and you'll be completely done."

Space. I expected the captain to have some unique way of handling Smitty's... misadventure, but I'm rather sorry now that I brought it to her attention. She's going to force him to stay awake all day. Which he probably would have done, if all I'd done is detox him and send him on his way. But now he'll see it as punishing him for letting his emotions get the better of him, and that will make it that much harder for him to stay awake. Well, it's a good thing he doesn't let it happen very often.