Research

Month 10 Day 10

0404 Hours

Tall Bear

TB was surprised when a supper tray was placed on the table next to his and Mac joined him without so much as a ‘by your leave’. But having supper with her seemed to have fallen by the way-side the last few weeks, so he decided to just enjoy her company. “Hey, Short Stuff, long time no see.”

“I hoped you’d be here. I have to ask for permission to take my break at a specific time.”

“Evans giving you a hard time today?”

“No, he’s on D shift these days, so I only see him twice a week. Amano has her own rules for deciding who goes to lunch when.”

“Still, I bet she’s a breath of freshness, after Evans.”

“Plus, now that I can sleep - like a normal person - I can ignore Adams and Evans much more easily.”

“Any idea why Evans and Amano got switched? Nobody seems to know.”

“Well, I have my personal theory, but that would be spreading gossip.”

“Sometimes gossip is the only way to find out anything,” he answered.

“Well, about a week before they were switched... it was the last shift of my official probation period... Cap suddenly emerged from her office about 0300. Adams and Evans were hanging at my station, as usual, but I wasn’t paying any attention. Between incoming mail, I was listening to Yukosk radio stations. Somehow I got the idea she knew exactly what they were doing.”

“Yeah, she would,” Bear stated.

“Anyway, that was when she took me into her office and gave me a pop quiz. What I didn’t know that Smit was hidden in the shadows, listening. So when he said I had passed probation, that time I could accept it.”

“Good.” TB stated, and looked across the room to where Evans and Adams were sharing a table. “The captain is a smart woman, Mac. Seeing how Evans handled - or in this case, mis-handled - his position on the A shift, she quietly shifted him to D shift at the first opportunity. She’s hoping he’ll take the hint and straighten up.”

“Not that I’ve noticed so far. But I haven’t paid attention. I have projects that the captain lets me work on in odd moments during my shift, so I keep busy. Sometimes, it comes as a complete surprise when Abdulla arrives to relieve me. Or Chun.”

“Well, I’m glad Amano let you take a break when we could eat together. I’d gotten used to those funny little conversations.”

“I specifically requested it,” she returned. “I want to ask you some questions.”

He grinned. “I don’t think I’ve gotten any news from home since the last time we discussed my siblings.”

“No, these questions are about the holidays.”

“Holidays?”

“I hear they’re coming up. We had Christmas and New Years on Gaelund, but I understand the ship celebrates a whole bunch of holidays over the course of a week.”

“Oh, white man’s winter holidays.”

Her eyes widened a bit, and then her cheeks went pink. “I’m sorry. I think of you as ‘one of the guys’, so I never thought you might not observe these upcoming holidays.”

“Now, wait, I never said I didn’t. Fact is, when white men showed up in the Americas, they tried to save the souls of us ‘red devils’ by teaching us their religion. Some adopted it, some adapted it to not conflict too much with our traditional religion. We had our own ceremonies for winter solstice. So when I joined the Fleet and found myself facing an entire week of celebrating everybody else’s holidays, I took some time to decide how to proceed.”

“Oh, good. This is almost exactly what I wanted to ask about.”

“Then pay attention. It seemed to me that the main thrust of Christmas - if you remove religion from it - was to acknowledge family members and friends by giving them a present. And that seemed like a good thing, to remember our friends, so I do that, although the list of people I give gifts to might change from year to year.”

“Not family members?”

“I don’t have any family aboard,” he reminded her. “I send a lengthy letter home with a few words for each family member, so they know I remember and love them. That gets a little hairy, figuring out when to send that letter to get there by Christmas time on Earth. I doubt if Grandma - and a few others - have any idea that Christmas time on Earth and holiday time on the ship are seldom the same.”

“That sounds good. I don’t have time to send packages to Gaelund. If I had any packages to send.”

“And then there’s new years. At the Academy, it seemed like everybody spent New Year’s Eve saying good-bye to the old year. The incoming year barely received a couple seconds of blurry-eyed, hung-over attention on New Year’s Day. That’s not my style. I spend New Year’s Eve reflecting on the past year; did I make mistakes, could I have done things better? On New Year’s Day, I make plans on how I’m going to do better. Not so different from White Man’s resolutions.” He glanced at the chronometer. “Hope that answered your questions, Shorty.”

“Almost. How do I know who I’m supposed to give a gift to?”

“It’s not a matter of ‘supposed to’. You decide who you want to give a gift to. Then you figure out what to give them.” At her puckered brow, he went on. “In my opinion, if all the people you are giving gifts to are the same gender, then maybe you should reconsider your reason for giving.”

She tilted her head to one side. “You give gifts to both men and women?”

“That’s right. Bugs and I exchange gifts at Christmas. Abdulla, too.”

“Because you date her.”

“Not that often,” he returned. “Frankly, I don’t date any woman often. And I don’t use Christmas to give a gift to a woman I’m dating. In my mind, Christmas is for friends.”

“So, Abdulla is your friend. And you date her.”

“That’s right.”

“And you have sex with her.”

“Some times.”

Mac took a final drink of her tea and got ready to leave. “I couldn’t do that,” she muttered.

“I haven’t asked you to,” he responded.

She gave him a strange, half-scared look, picked up her tray to leave.

“One last thing, Shorty.” He touched the edge of her tray to get her attention, and she obediently paused. “You don’t have to accept every present thrust at you. Someone like Evans, for instance. Be blunt, tell him you don’t want a gift from him. Somebody else, someone you think might become a friend, you can say you’re embarrassed, but you didn’t have time to find a gift for them. Then they have the option of keeping the gift, or of trying to convince you they’d like you to have it anyway. Think about this ahead of time, Red, because you never know who might decide to give you a gift. You have a whole range of responses to choose from, and punching them shouldn’t be one of them.”

She gave him a brilliant smile. “Thank you, oh wise one, for always trying to keep me out of the brig.”

He stood up with his own tray. “Head out, before you’re late and I never get to see you for lunch again.” He followed her at a more sedate pace. If we can’t get together for lunch, and she doesn’t need to see me at lunch anymore, then maybe we can get together for breakfast. I do miss our conversations.

Getting Permission (Part 2)

Month 10 Day

0807 Hours

Jane Burke

Previously:

“She’ll get used to working with me; she’s on my team for this project.”

What? Jane stared at him for a long time. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He opened his mouth to speak, and she held up a finger to stop him. “Do I have to remind you that after she and Kolla were separated, she was so confused about the 2 technologies that she had to spend several days separating them into ‘theirs’ and ‘ours’? I don’t want her to get confused like that again. She needs to concentrate on our technology, not theirs.”

“Captain, she’s the only one aboard who has any first-hand knowledge - granted, that knowledge exists as Kolla’s memories - of Yukosk technology. Colleen’s already been involved in adapting our technology to fit the needs of their technology. Frankly, if we’re to make any sense of that manual at all, we need her on the team. If Abdulla or Wilson - any of us, really - get any inkling that she’s getting the 2 technologies confused, we can stop what we’re doing, and get her straightened out again. And I promise you that’s exactly what we’ll do!”

But how would Abdulla or Wilson know... “Wait a minute. Exactly who is on this team you’ve put together?”

He blinked, apparently surprised she didn’t already know. “Myself. Colleen. Abdulla and Wilson. And Takor.”

“Takor?”

“Colleen brought him in to try to help us understand the biochemistry aspect. He asked to be included in the project.”

I did hear MacDowell talking to Takor at shift change a few days back. I thought she was inviting it to an early holiday party or something. Never make assumptions, I guess. 3 women. From 3 different shifts! She smiled in amusement, wondering if Smitty realized what he’d done. “Smitty, your team comes from all 3 shifts. How do you propose to accommodate that?”

“By doing it off-duty. We all expect it to be a long-term project. As it happens, Colleen and Wilson both sleep during B shift, and they both have Mondays off, so we’ll meet on Monday evenings.”

I have to admit, it would be a feather in all our caps if we came up with a working version of the Yukosk transportation beam. Smitty doesn’t need any more fame; he just sees this as some new engineering project to wrap his head around, but I assume all 3 ladies would be glad to put something like that on their resume. Even I wouldn’t mind having that project associated with the Fireball.

“Fine,” she decided. “But I have conditions. First, once the work actually begins; once you aren’t just consulting the manual and trying to figure out where and how to start, everybody wears a uniform while working on the project, but they can choose a D class uniform, if they like.

“Second, I want regular updates on what progress is being made. Thirdly, I also want regular updates on what MacDowell has learned about human starship engineering. Since you are meeting on Monday evenings, I’ll expect these updates sometime on Tuesday-” Hope I didn’t just negate one of his days off. She stopped and turned to her yeoman, seated in her own corner. “What are Smythe’s days off?”

“Wednesdays and Thursdays,” Blossom responded.

“Good. then Tuesdays will work,” Jane stated. Now, lastly... where are you planning to build this thing?”

“I was thinking of Dec 10, Meeting Room 51F.”

“Is that one of those long meeting rooms that never seems to get used?”

“It is.”

“Good. Book it for the foreseeable future and have at it.”

“Thank you, captain.”

Smitty had stood up and started to turn when Jane remembered something. “Don’t forget, Smitty, MacDowell still has other projects, besides this one and studying. And she also deserves a social life and decent sleep, so don’t let her get completely caught up in one or two things to the detriment of others.”

“Ahhh, that reminds me.”

“Of what?”

“She was asking if she could continue to study while on duty. Now that she has something to study again.”

Jane felt a gurgle of laughter well up her throat and firmly tamped it down. Give her a chance and there’s no stopping her. “It hasn’t disrupted the performance of her duties so far. So if that meets with your approval, I agree.”

“Thank you, captain. That way, as a bonus, if she has any questions she wants answered immediately, she can ask the engineer on bridge duty.”

“Who is on bridge duty on her shift?” And whoever it is, does he trust them as well as he says he trusts Abdulla and Wilson?

“Most nights it’s Xylander. When it’s not him, it’s Eggers. If they can’t answer her question, they know enough not to try.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought it out,” she returned, and turned on her computer. So he doesn’t trust them quite the same as Abdulla or Wilson, but enough to know they won’t confuse her. She paused for a moment to consider the redhead and the rocky road she’d traveled since arriving on this ship. She certainly takes the road less traveled, that one.

Getting Permission (Part 1)

Month 10 Day

0759 Hours

Jane Burke

Jane glanced around the bridge as she stepped off the lift. Everything seemed in order; Chun was being relieved by Abdulla. Jane led Smitty to her office. How much longer is Smitty going to shun that redhead? I hope he’s got somebody over-seeing her cross-training now, or we’ll have words about that again. She sat down at her desk, but didn’t wait for him to speak, even though he had been the one to initiate this meeting. “I saw you had an engineering meeting scheduled in room 4C last night. How did it go?”

“Mmm, kind of a mixed bag, if you know what I mean.

No specifics. Not good. “I’m not sure I do. It doesn’t sound too good. What was the meeting about?”

“Three of my subordinates wanted to discuss the Kolla/Colleen Contraption, as they call it.”

“I thought you decided you couldn’t make much headway understanding that unless Kolla was here to explain it.”

“Well, Colleen was there.”

He said that almost as if there’s no difference between the ladies. I didn’t find them that much alike. “So you stayed away from the meeting? Because if you’d been there, I imagine she couldn’t have talked.”

He adjusted his position in his chair. “She had no difficulties talking. But she came to the conclusion that explaining that piece of machinery in any detail was... irrelevant. It had been a desperate attempt to reproduce a specific piece of Yukosk technology using nothing but human technology. And as she said, if we really want to understand Yukosk technology, then the logical thing would be to build a transportation beam machine, using the translation of the manual S’thyme gave me.”

Well, I’ve pretty much been expecting this request since MacDowell finished that translation. Was starting to wonder what was taking him so long to make it. “And that’s what you want to discuss with me this morning,” she concluded. “Have you selected your team?”

“I have. I’m keeping the team small, for now, at least. If we can’t make heads or tails of it, I don’t want to confuse all of engineering.”

“I take it you’ve read the manual, then, and it doesn’t seem to be an impossible process, this transportation beam.”

“I’m sure it’s just a matter of seeing things in action, so to speak. How things are actually put together and such.”

“I’m not in the habit of discouraging people from seeking new knowledge. However, in this case, there’s another matter that I don’t want you to lose track of.” Don’t stop now, spit it out and get it said. “MacDowell’s cross-training.”

“That’s well in hand,” he answered at once. “Both Abdulla and Wilson have agreed to help her with her studies.”

“Help her with... Wait, you have her studying on her own?”

“It seems to be the way she likes it.”

“How often will they check on what she’s learned?” It’s not completely unusual for him to let others assist in the teaching, but to let someone be totally on their own is.

Smitty had hesitated, and now gave her an overly-jolly smile. “I didn’t ask for details. I trust Abdulla and Wilson to do what’s needed.”

Trust? Now he has trust? “A few months ago, you didn’t trust Abdulla to give MacDowell her probational exam. What’s changed since then?” Hopefully, he’ll say he’s seen what the redhead can do.

Smitty’s grin faded. “Well... That was different.”

Wrong answer. “What was different about it? It’s still a matter of ascertaining her level of knowledge.”

“But a probational exam is about her chosen field, which she studied at the academy and - in Colleen’s case - had been working in for 4 or 5 years.”

“That makes it sound like you don’t care how much she learns about engineering. I’m sure any other communications officer we’ve ever had under your command will be shocked to hear that.”

“That isn’t what I meant, captain. You, of all people, should know that.”

“I should hope it isn’t what you meant! Smitty, there may come a time, in the middle of some emergency, when she may have to help with repairs under your direction, possibly even at your side. She won’t be any good to you if she can’t think around you.”

“I told you, she didn’t have any difficulty thinking last night.”

“You were actually there? Not hiding in the next room, listening over the intercom?” 2 pink flags appeared on his cheeks, and Jane’s stomach fell. No, he’s not above a little subterfuge. Did he pull it on her or on me? Or both of us?

Perhaps his guilty embarrassment brought on a touch of anger. “I was there,” he stated measuredly. “I didn’t say anything, I only listened, but I was there. And she knew I was there!”

“Good. She’s learned to talk even when you are present. But working with you could be another matter. Not to mention that you usually have some involvement in the cross-training of communications officers. When is that going to happen with this one?”

“She’ll get used to working with me; she’s on my team for this project.”

Meeting of Minds

Month 9 Day 30

1759 Hours

Smitty

Smitty was sitting quietly at the far end of the table when Wilson entered Meeting room 4C. He almost didn’t recognize her, since she wore civies and not her uniform. She smiled at him as she started laying the drawings out on the table. “It’s not just the 3 of us, Mr Smythe. Mac also invited Abdulla and Takor.”

“I can understand Abdulla, but why-“ He stopped talking when the door opened and the other 3 attendees came in.

“-but I never realized just how complicated the subject matter is,” Colleen was saying. “Seems like I just get started on it, and poof! My time is up, and I need to get to my station. Or go to bed.”

“I bet I know what you’ll be doing tonight,” Abdulla stated with a grin.

“You know it. Just like I did last night. Hi, Ivy! You beat us here! I knew I was dawdling over my dessert too long.”

“You should not take responsibility when it is not yours,” Takor told the redhead. “I had 2 desserts and had to stop by sick bay for medication.”

“But you’re okay, right?” Ivy asked it.

“I feel well, thank you,” the Scissan replied.

Meanwhile, the redhead had picked up one of the schematic drawings. “These are fantastic. So much detail. Let me get them in the right order.” She spent a few minutes rearranging the papers, placing 3 down each side of the table and then one at right angles, straddling the end of the lines.

“Where shall we begin with this... explanation?” Abdulla wondered.

Colleen opened her mouth and then stopped for a long moment. “Wow,” she finally stated. “This is not going to be easy. I mean, we used pieces of our - human - technology. We had to, it was all we had available. But the changes we made to them were so drastic, it really ceased being human technology. Yet it really wasn’t Yukosk technology, either.”

She started pointing at different items on the papers as she went on. “Look, we had 3 B units, 4 C units, 5 E units, a couple Hs and 1 X. And an R. And yet the 8 of them all had to work together to get the job done. And none of them really did the job the same way Yukosk technology would have done it.”

“That’s 16 units, not 8,” Wilson stated.

“Oh, sorry. The units worked in pairs. So, 8 pairs of units.”

“Okay, so they aren’t or weren’t any longer normal human technology,” Abdulla summed up. “Nor were they really Yukosk. What were they supposed to do? And obviously did, since you aren’t still 2 people in one body.”

“They were meant to coax the electrical charge that represented Kolla’s body out of the console and direct it to... to coalesce into her body inside the circle of wires. If we could manage that, Kolla was absolutely certain that her... Yeniqesh - her mind, soul, I’m not sure which, exactly - would leave my body to inhabit her own.”

“That seems quite a... happenstance hope,” Takor stated.

“They have a saying,” Colleen stated, and recited several words of Yukosk. “Roughly, it means the mind and body belong together. Or recognize each other. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but they apparently had some accidents in the early stages of development where the mind and body did not arrive at the same place at the same time. Sometimes it meant death, but other times, they were able to reunite them, supposedly because they got the 2 pieces of a person in the same place. Once they achieved that, the 2 pieces bonded together.”

“That sounds very similar to what you and Kolla managed,” Wilson said.

“It was the end result we were hoping for. What we built is like half of the receiving end of their transportation beam, but built of scraps of technology that never was intended for that. She said she needed these units - pairs of units - to disburse the electrical charge into the air in a certain way. I tried, I found units that could be cannibalized, rebuilt to do that. But to actually explain what we did and why it worked... Frankly, I think it would be easier to take the manual I translated for Smit and try to build the complete transportation beam machine from scratch.”

Colleen had said it as if she wasn’t aware of Smitty’s presence in the room. Moving nothing but her eyes, Wilson gave him a side-long glance, and he gave her a tiny nod of agreement. “Do you want to?” Wilson asked the redhead.

“Do I want to what?”

“Build a - what did you call it? - a transportation beam machine from scratch.”

Colleen abruptly sat down, her face white. “Absolutely. But I’m not qualified.”

“You translated the manual,” Abdulla pointed out. “You built this contraption, and it worked.”

“I definitely had help.”

“You wouldn’t be doing it alone,” Abdulla stated.

The girl seemed torn in 2 directions. “Umm, I should learn my energeering.”

“Pick up the pace with your studies,” Wilson told her. “Meanwhile, I’ll see about getting permission, find a place for us to work and borrow that manual.”

“I have a copy of the manual,” Colleen stated.

“Good. But it was a gift to Smythe, so I should still ask.”

“If you need help with your studies, let me know,” Abdulla volunteered.

“Do you think the captain would let me study on duty? Again?”

“Can’t hurt to ask. Anyway, this looks like a long-term project,” Abdulla stated. “I can’t see burning ourselves out on it. But we should work on it as consistently as possible. So... next Monday evening?”

“Sounds good to me,” Wilson stated with a grin.

“Me too,” Colleen agreed.

“I would like to consult on this endeavor,” Takor decided.

“Great,” Abdulla exclaimed. “Then until further notice, let’s plan to continue meeting on Monday evenings, okay?”

They all agreed to that. Wilson began gathering the hand-drawn schematics and rolling them together.

“Abie, if you are volunteering to help me learn engineering, what do you think I should study first? Ivy suggested grav units.”

“That’s as good a place as any. Don’t try spreading yourself too thin, Mac. Too many subjects at the same time can lead to confusion. I’m surprised you didn’t have that happen when you studied so many languages at the Academy.”

“Aren’t you already working on several projects? Still?” Wilson asked. “You finished translating a technical manual, but you’ve taken up studying grav units and now, helping to build a piece of alien technology from scratch.”

“But now I can sleep, and that makes all the difference! Anyway... I’m so far behind.”

“Nonsense,” Abdulla returned. “You’ve taken a different path than most of us took to prove ourselves, but yours was a tougher path. Give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished.”

As a group, they all headed for the doorway. As they left the room, the redhead quietly said, “Good night, Smit.”

Stunned, Smitty sat unmoving for a moment. She knew I was here. And her mind wasn’t a complete blank, despite my presence. That realization filled him with warmth, until, That excuse for staying away from her won’t work anymore. The pit of his stomach suddenly went very cold.

The Self-Invitation / The Other Self-Invitation

The Self-Invitation

Month 9 Day 24

1538 Hours

Smitty

Smitty gave a heavy sigh, rubbed his aching eyes, turned the computer file back to the beginning of this section and then began reading it once again. He was surprised when his office door opened and looked up, half inclined to snap at whoever had dared to break his concentration.

Then he saw it was Wilson. “Oh, sorry, Mr Smythe. Harris said you were in here, but I thought she was joking, since this is your day off.”

“I needed someplace I could concentrate,” he stated.

“And then I come in and interrupt you. My sincerest apologies for that. But as long as you are here, I’d like to borrow those schematics Abdulla and I drew of the Colleen/Kolla contraption.”

He turned away from the screen completely, his brows furrowed. “Why? Without knowing a lot more about it, it doesn’t make much sense.”

She moved forward and sat down in the chair facing his desk. “I know, but next Monday evening, Mac- Lt MacDowell - is going over them with me and try to explain it.”

Now his brows rose in surprise. “She thinks she can remember?”

“She sounded pretty confident. So, do you mind if I take them to our meeting?”

“Next Monday? You aren’t asking to take them now?”

Wilson smiled. “They don’t do me any good until I can pick Mac’s brain. Anyway, I have to see which briefing room we can use that evening. She wants a long table so we have plenty of room to work.”

“Well, let me look,” he volunteered, and changed the screen on his computer. “Next Monday, C shift... Well, there’s at least 3 available. Some of the others probably will be too, since they still haven’t been confirmed. Ah, here we go. Room 4C. Nice long table. Good lighting for that kind of work. Two computer consoles, in case we need to look something up.” He tapped a few keys. “There. I’ve booked it for the entire evening. Um, for you.”

She moved her gaze to the middle distance. Yes, she’s smart enough, knows me well enough to know what I’m doing. Still, she went ahead and asked. “Would you like to join us for this meeting, Mr Smythe?”

He gave her a slow smile. “Thank you, Wilson. I would like to, yes.” He let the smile falter a bit. “And if she still has that old trouble of... of not being able to think around me, then I’ll bow out and let you two get on with it. If that happens, perhaps you could brief me on what’s said. At a later date.”

She gave a small sigh of relief. “Well, I don’t have any problem working around you, and it’s about time she got used to it.” She stood up and straightened her uniform. “Thank you, Mr Smythe. I’ll let you get back to your... manual. Oh, and she’s asked me to help her with her engineering studies. Is there anything you’d like me to guide her towards first?”

He felt his face go red. “Gravity units. I didn’t give as thorough an explanation as I should have.”

“Then I’ll make that suggestion.”

After Wilson left, Smitty sighed and shut off his computer console. While it was true he’d been reading a manual, it was a Yukosk manual, and no matter how hard he tried, it simply didn’t make sense. He glanced at the chronometer and stood up. Time to meet Jane and Drake for supper. They’ve no doubt been wondering where I’ve been ‘hiding’ all day.

The Other Self-Invitation

Month 9 Day 25

0759 Hours

Abdulla

Abdulla relieved Mac and paid no attention to where the girl went. But it was only a moment later when she heard Takor, at the science console next to hers, ask, “...anything I should bring to this... event?”

“Just yourself,” Mac’s voice answered. “It’s not a party or anything like that. It’s a meeting. For the purpose of exchanging information on something of mutual interest.”

“I cannot say that engineering is a strong interest of mine,” Takor returned.

“Too bad, because I think it would be nice to have you there. This bit of engineering involves some biochemistry, which neither Kolla nor I know a lot about. I thought that aspect might have some interest for you. And with any luck, maybe you know enough biochemistry to explain why the whole thing worked, because neither of us was sure it would.”

“Perhaps one of the doctors-“

“I thought about it,” Mac stated. “But they don’t know anything about electronics or physics, and they’re likely to get bogged down trying to make sense of those aspects. As a science officer, I thought you might have a smattering of understanding of all those things.”

“Smattering?” it repeated in confusion.

“In this case, it means a small amount.”

“Then you are right, I do have some smatterings of knowledge in all these fields. Very well, I will be there.”

“Great! It may not be a party, but I think it’ll be fun!”

Abdulla caught the redhead’s arm as she walked past on her way to the lift. “What was that all about?”

“Ivy and I are getting together Monday evening to go through the Kolla/Colleen Contraption, as she called it.”

“Great! Send me the details so I can be there too.”

Mac grinned. “I was going to do that as soon as I got to my room.” And then she was gone.