Jason Halstead: New Beginnings

“ Yes, Captain. I wanted to see if four weeks of sleep might have given me any new ideas on how to fly a blind transport ship.”

“ I like your attitude, Kira. This was a probationary milk run, but you’ve done a great job. Keep from screwing up and I might just keep you on,” he said. “Not to mention if I lose you I lose my engineer too.”

Kira realized she was staring at him too late to stop herself. He was grinning. “Thought so,” he said. Kira glared at him briefly then turned away before he could see the heat in her cheeks or the smile that refused to let her lips stay down. “Just keep it quiet, okay? Last thing I need is Tarn running around making cracks or thinking he deserves a piece.”

“ Tarn couldn’t get a piece with a handful of Core Script in the middle of a whore house!” Kira slapped her hand over her mouth, turning quickly to see the Captain trying to stifle a laugh. “I’m sorry, Sir, it just slipped out! I didn’t-“

Sharp held up his hand to stop her. “Yes you did. It’s okay, he’s a pig. He’s been with me a while and he wasn’t always like this. Couple of lifetimes ago it seems Tarn was a member of Marine FIST team One. He was a heavy weapons guy, specialized in exo-planet operations.”

“ What happened to him?” Kira couldn’t stop herself from asking. Marine FIST teams, First Insertion Special Tactics, were the best that the Coalition of Worlds military had to offer. The Navy was better known for its ships and vast presence, but the Marines did the grunt work. FIST teams were the best the Marines had to offer. Elite and unstoppable. Plus they had access to genetic engineering far beyond anything available to the regular population. Even royalty couldn’t come close to the military upgrades FIST team members could pick and choose from.

“ He doesn’t talk about it,” Sharp answered with a shrug. “Says it was time for him to move on, pay wasn’t good enough or something.”

Kira snorted. If he thought the pay babysitting a transport was better than the military pay plus FIST team bonus, he was even dumber than she thought. “Doesn’t smell right.”

Sharp laughed again. “No. No, he never does smell right, does he? Now how’s my ship doing?”

Kira nodded and spun back around, smacking her knee in the process. She swore and rubbed it before resting her data port over the matching port on the station. She ordered a status check across the display at her station, picking and choosing what to route to the main display visible to everyone on the bridge. A few minutes later she looked up to see Tarn and Eric had joined them. She frowned, upset that they had stepped foot on the bridge without her realizing it.

“ Kira?” Sharp asked, seeing her looking around.

“ Sir, we’re still blind. Sensors are useless and our backup systems are passive, useless for navigation.”

“ Tarn?”

Tarn abused his station’s buttons a few more times before he snarled and kicked it, leaving a minor dent in the steel panel. “Shot to hell…Sir.”

“ Our main external cameras are fried too, right?”

“ The Mule wasn’t designed with redundancy in mind, Captain,” Eric said. “All the sensor feeds were in our main array.”

“ Damn ship doesn’t even have a window I can look out,” Sharp muttered. “Figure out how we can fix that — all of you! In the meantime, fix what can be fixed. Airlock, hull, whatever.”

Eric left immediately, motioning to Jeff and Kevin to follow him. Tarn hung around a minute longer, staring at the back of Eric’s head until he disappeared. Then he, too, left the bridge. Kira glanced at her station, wondering what use she could be. She had dozens of skills but none of them seemed worth a damn on a transport vessel. Sure, she was a certified navigator, even though she didn’t remember what made her decide to enroll in the training program. She could pose for a videographer too, or clean the ship until it sparkled. None of that did a damn bit of good though. She punched her station and stood up abruptly.

“ You too?” Sharp barked at her.

Kira glared at him, then remembered her position and backed down. “Sorry Sir, just frustrated.”

“ Yeah, that makes all of us. Hell of a first run. You let Eric get some work done, you hear me?”

Kira felt the deck open up beneath her. Rather than swallow her entire body it only took her stomach. She nodded, refusing to look away even though the blush on her cheeks gave her away. “I’d like to go and see if I can help, Sir.”

Sharp waved with his hand. “Can’t make it any worse,” he muttered.

Kira jerked as though he’d slapped her. Was it her fault? Had she screwed up something and not realized it? He’d complimented her a few minutes ago, now this? Or maybe the Captain was just as upset as the rest of them. She nodded and hurried past him, trying to make sense of his moods and wondering if any of it was her fault.

Kira cursed herself for how clueless she was. Falling for Eric was just making it worse for her. Normally she was reserved and careful because she knew a lot more went around her than she realized. Now she had that and an obsession with a man dominating her thoughts. She was lucky she’d managed to put her clothes on right!

Kira stumbled to a halt, nearly losing her balance in the process. She reached down and pulled the waist of her pants out just enough to let light in. “Oh!” She gasped, letting go of her waistline and slapping a hand to her mouth. She really was an idiot, she’d forgotten her underwear!

The repairs were finished, or at least as much as could be done with the material they had. What remained to be done they figured they’d take care of once they docked at the mining station. That left time only for stewing on their situation and trying to pass the time. Kira and Eric enjoyed the latter far more than the former.

During a rare public appearance, both sat in the galley eating a mushy mess of reconstituted meal replacement powders. Kira’s had an orange flavor that was supposed to be reminiscent of an ancient Terran Chinese dish. It amazed Kira that after expanding to live on worlds hundreds of light years apart, humanity’s diet still consisted almost exclusively of dishes that originated on Earth. The lack of successful terraforming and crop migration being largely responsible. Earth plants only wanted to live on Earth it seemed.

“ Captain Sharp said he’d keep me on so long as I didn’t do anything stupid,” Kira said to him. She leaned a little closer and added in a hushed voice, “He was worried if he cut me loose he’d lose his engineer too.”

Eric snorted, then coughed up some of the paste he’d been shoveling into his mouth. “Figures he’d know. I bet the others suspect, especially my guys, but Tarn’s pretty stupid. Jon doesn’t miss much though.”

Kira started at the name, then remember Captain Sharp’s first name was Jonathon. She smirked at how easily she’d forgotten that and put him on a pedestal. “So, would he?”

“ Would he have lost his engineer? Depends on whether you wanted me to come along or not,” Eric pushed some of his mush around on his plate. “Would you?”

Kira took a deep breath and smiled. “Yes. I’d be scared, but yes.”

“ Why scared?”

“ What if I had another black out and when I came out of it you were gone? Or worse, hurt? I don’t know what happens during those times. I’d be scared for you too — what if I left you and never came back? Promise me Eric, if that ever happens just let me go and move on with your life, okay? I couldn’t bear the thought of you trying to find me. I get around…trust me, it’s upsetting some of the places I find myself in.”

“ So you have done some cold sleeps before?”