Aftermath

Month 10 Day 25

1959 Hours

MacGregor

The door opened and Bugalu greeted him in surprise. “Doc!”

Drake heard a soft cough from inside. “I was hoping to discuss, uh... family matters.”

Bugalu sighed. “Well, come on in, we were already discussing Mac.”

We? Drake stepped inside and found Takor and the captain already seated in Bugalu’s living room. Jane doesn’t seem drunk. Maybe she’s over that mood. “I’m a little surprised to see you here, Jane.”

“My reflections were interrupted by the news that MacDowell’s roommate had planned a party tonight, which would not fit with MacDowell being confined. I came to ask Bugalu to offer his quarters for the party - or something - in order to avoid any more trouble landing on his adopted sister. Only to find - once he got home - that it was too late.”

Drake sat on the other end of the sofa, while Bugalu brought the chair from the desk for himself. “Seems to me your Chief Engineer has gone a tad overboard.” Drake frowned. “But I’m not exactly impartial about Mac.”

“Seems like nobody is,” Jane observed. “Tell me what he’s done.”

“You heard him confine Mac to her quarters,” Drake began.

“You think that was out of line?” Jane queried.

“No, not if she’s guilty of disobeying orders.”

“Exactly what order did she allegedly disobey?” Jane wondered. “Originally.”

“A couple months back, she used an anti-grav unit to pull the old bucket of water over the door trick on me,” Drake explained.

Jane rolled her eyes. “How did she manage that?” Bugalu was grinning. Takor was... probably confused.

“I don’t really know. When Smitty took it apart, the only part that seemed to be anything was an anti-grav unit. Very ingenious, I thought, but Smitty ordered her not to do it again, not to tell anybody how to do it, and so on. I think he was afraid there’s be an epidemic of that particular joke.”

“Yes, practical jokes get out of hand so easily,” Jane muttered.

“So tonight, when he saw those mistletoe units she’d built--“

“Mac didn’t build those,” Bugalu interrupted.

“Lt MacDowell is, in my estimation, quite capable of--“ Takor began.

“Capable, yes!” Bugalu agreed. “But did she do it? No.” He began ticking items off on his fingers. “First, she was ordered not to by Mr Smythe. She doesn’t want him mad at her. Secondly, she couldn’t have done it. I just confirmed that she’s been working in fabrication to get a discount on the gifts she’d ordered. For the past week or so, she’s spent half her sleep time and her days off there. With all the other things she’s working on, that doesn’t leave her any time for making mistletoe units. Third, when she first saw them, her mouth dropped open in fascinated admiration, so she wasn’t already familiar with them.”

“Fascinated admiration?” Jane repeated.

The helmsman nodded. “She loves figuring out how things work. I think that’s the best part of communications for her.”

“Sounds like she might be happier in engineering proper,” Jane suggested.

Mac and Smitty in the same field? It’d be bedlam.

“Her father wouldn’t allow it, when she first signed up. She figures it’s too late, now, but she’s working her way through all the engineering books in the library, and she loves working on that Yukosk machine with Abdulla and Ivy.”

“I see.”

Bugs returned to his list. “And finally, if she had made the mistletoe units, she would have found a way for them to not wander over her. Instead, she was caught under them. Twice. Mac did not build them.”

“Why did she not tell Mr Smythe that?” Takor asked.

“He didn’t give her a chance,” Jane stated. “Anyway, he probably wouldn’t have believed her. He seems determined to think the worst of her.” She took a breath. “Okay, he didn’t bother to get his facts straight. What else?”

“Uhh, since she was confined, I made him go with me when I went to deliver her present, and there was this party--“

“Harris’ party,” Jane agreed. “Go on.”

“He told Harris to move the party or Mac would go to the brig,” Drake explained. “Those are the obvious choices. Under those circumstances, I probably would have said the same, but I wouldn’t have been so... angry when I said it.”

“He’s got a short fuse around MacDowell,” the captain stated. “Unfortunate, but it happens. Is that all?”

“Not quite,” Drake drawled. “He was angry about the party, but what really set him off was Mac and Bugalu kissing.”

Jane blinked and turned to her helmsman. “You didn’t tell me you were kissing MacDowell. Is there anything else you left out?”

Bugalu grimaced. “Mac was under the mistletoe, and she didn’t want to kiss Ferguson. If I hadn’t, Ferguson might have insisted, and she would have hit him - her nerves were pretty frayed by then - ” He sighed. “It seemed the... prudent... choice, at the time.”

“It didn’t look like a brotherly kiss,” Drake stated.

Bugs shrugged, trying not to look guilty. “I’m not entirely immune to her.”

“Who aboard is?” Jane quipped.

Bugs shrugged. “Doc, I’ve known her 7... no, 8 years, and that’s only the 4th kiss we’ve shared. I’ve gotten 4 kisses from other women within 2 hours of meeting.”

“That’s why you said ‘four’ at the end of the kiss,” MacGregor stated, and shifted his position. “Still, how many others have gotten even 1 kiss from her?”

“Tall Bear and Smitty,” Jane answered, and urged the conversation onward. “So, Smitty objected to her being kissed while confined--“

“More like he objected to her being kissed. Period,” Drake corrected. “He acted... well, jealous, especially the way he assumed they were headed for bed.” Jane gave a questioning look to Bugalu, who shook his head. Drake went on. “When he heard Bugalu was there at Della’s invitation, he stipulated that Harris could not have visitors during Mac’s confinement, either.”

“Which could be construed as punishing both of them for MacDowell’s transgression,” Jane stated. “Alleged transgression.”

“He also ordered Bugalu not to speak to Mac during discipline,” Drake finished.

“Not to--“ Jane was surprised. “Why not?”

Drake shrugged. “Cutting the competition? The longer she’s aboard, the more... jealous... he acts. And if that’s true, he’s in a hopeless case, because she’s a subordinate, and he won’t date her, no matter how much he might want to.”

“Similar to Sir Lancelot’s conundrum,” Jane commented thoughtfully. “And that didn’t end well.” Jane grunted. “Makes me wonder if it’s a good idea to keep her aboard.”

“Now, just a minute, Jane!” Drake protested.

“Look at it this way, Duck.” She’s got half my senior officers and my entire bridge crew at odds. The whole crew, really. Never before have I known 1 person who could stand an entire ship on its head!”

“Captain,” Takor began.

Jane held up a hand to stop it. “On the other hand, she seems to have some qualities of a good officer. And choosing to transfer her off because of her... appearance... is illegal, not to mention just plain wrong. I’ll speak with Smitty, see if I can’t get him to go easier on her... in the future. But I won’t countermand his orders at this time. They stand.”

“But if she didn’t do it--“ Drake protested.

“We can’t prove that she didn’t,” Jane retorted, and turned to the helmsman. “No offense, Bugalu.”

Bugalu nodded. “Belief isn’t the same as proof.”

“And discipline isn’t always fair,” Jane stated. She stood up. “I wish we could have avoided this additional trouble between those 2, but we didn’t. And now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a bottle of wine I wanted to try this evening. Good night.” Takor got up to leave, also, and Drake wasn’t far behind them.

But Drake paused as he approached the doorway and turned back to Bugalu. “Four kisses? Were they all like tonight’s?”

Bugalu shook his head. “The first 2 almost missed my mouth, and lasted about a nano-second. One when I graduated from the Academy, one when I shipped out a couple days later. Frankly, I hope there aren’t any more of them coming up. I like her fine as a sister.”

“I understand,” Drake said, and wondered if he really did as he headed for his own quarters.