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 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.