Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance Page 2

  “Yes sir,” both officers replied at once.

  “We can’t get a break!” Lieutenant Blyleven complained a little too loudly as she turned back to her console.

  “Not so loud!” McDonald whispered. “Don’t force him to call you on the carpet.”

  But Blyleven didn’t hear McDonald’s warning. She was too frustrated and too blinded by anger. Without thinking, she kicked the base of her console a little harder than she intended and then blurted out a clipped “Damn!” from the instant shot of pain that flashed from her toes, through her ankle, and halfway up to her right knee.

  “Lieutenant Blyleven!” Sted cried. “You are not the only sailor on this ship to be disappointed by these unexpected orders. You will conduct yourself with proper decorum while on my bridge. You are excused from your post to consider your attitude while you pack for the trip to Tranquility Base. When you are packed, you are to report to my office, where we can discuss your outburst in greater detail!”

  The bridge was deathly quiet as everyone concentrated on some imaginary duty that required his or her full attention. Nobody looked up as Lieutenant Blyleven rose from her post and worked her way toward the crew’s quarters. It was the most embarrassing moment of her life, but she made sure she held her head high and did not slink away in defeat.

  Chapter 2 – The Captain

  Underneath his calm, stoic exterior, Sted was seething. Once again, that clown Holcroft had frustrated his plans. Two years earlier, he had sent Sted and the Revere on an extended mission to the asteroid belt. Now, just as Sted was about to re-enter the halls of power, he was being shipped out on a mission that could have been handled by the captain of a space tug.

  This had to be intentional. Holcroft knew that Sted had been pushing for the captain’s chair on humanity’s first mission to the stars. The admiral must have had someone else in mind and was shuffling Sted away from the power brokers who would be responsible for the final selection.

  How was he going to be able to maneuver around his chain of command? It would not be easy, especially when his time in port was limited to just seven days. This was going to take some serious research, and that research had to include finding out which captain Holcroft was backing.

  Perhaps Lieutenant Blyleven could help. Her grandfather ran High Point Shipping, the largest major trading company chartered by the Council of Eight to exchange minerals found on the moon and in the asteroid belt for finished goods used in building and deploying the Navy’s fleet. That was what had piqued his interest in her in the first place, although it did not hurt that she was also beautiful and resourceful.

  Well, she would be in his office soon for what she thought would be some sort of disciplinary action. He could easily start with a well-deserved tongue-lashing and then turn the tables and empathize with her frustration over this redeployment. With the attraction he had been feeling toward her over the last several months, perhaps he could actually fall in love with the woman and eventually recruit her to push his plans with her family. It would be a dangerous game with many pitfalls. If the Navy ever discovered he was “involved” with one of his crew, it could end his career quickly. But hiding the relationship on this two-month mission would not be that difficult.

  With a firm plan in mind, Sted relinquished command of the bridge to Commander Olsen and went to his quarters to prepare for his encounter with Lieutenant Blyleven.

  Chapter 3 – Lieutenant Blyleven

  As Blyleven packed, her emotions pushed her thoughts in many different directions. She didn’t know which was worse: the frustration and anger over being redeployed so quickly or the embarrassment of being reprimanded in front of everyone on the bridge. How could she face her shipmates, let alone Captain Richardson, after letting her emotions take control of her actions like that?

  She couldn’t undo what she had done, so how could she minimize the damage? Could she ever get back into the captain’s good graces? What would she have to do?

  That’s when her training took over. When you made a mistake in training camp, you got reamed in front of your classmates, but you took responsibility for your mistake, you learned from it, and then you moved forward. She had to do the same thing in this situation. She would apologize to the captain, and when she got the chance, she would offer individual apologies to each person on the bridge. There was no need for a public apology.

  Now, was it possible to rebuild her budding relationship with Captain Richardson? That might be asking too much. So far they had only flirted with a few mild sexual innuendos during the last couple of months of their deployment. It had been enough to give Lorraine some hope. There had also been a great deal of eye contact. Sted’s deep blue eyes had spoken volumes to her about things they could not say out loud. That eye contact was what had given her some confidence that this was more than just a casual flirtation.

  She would find out soon enough. It was time to go see him.

  Chapter 4 – Sparks Fly

  Lieutenant Blyleven was more than apprehensive about this meeting as she pulled herself along the weightless corridor leading to the captain’s quarters. She had to make things right between them or she would go crazy.

  As she rapped on the hatch to Captain Richardson’s quarters, she adjusted her uniform and passed her hand through her hair one last time in a hopeless gesture to make it more presentable.

  “Please come in, Lieutenant Blyleven,” Sted’s voice said through the external speaker.

  Blyleven pushed down on the handle, grabbed the hand bar on the hatch collar, and pushed the door inward. The captain was seated at his desk with the screen of his workstation flipped up. As he folded the screen closed and stood up behind his desk, all Blyleven could think about was how handsome he looked: all six foot two inches of him with his short-cropped blonde hair and stunningly blue eyes.

  “Please have a seat, Lieutenant Blyleven,” Sted said as he gestured to the chair bolted down to the floor in front of his desk.

  “Yes, sir,” Lorraine replied as she saluted before swinging herself into the chair, which folded around her to prevent her floating off in zero gravity.

  Sted returned the salute and then sat back down behind his desk. When they were both settled, he looked directly at her and paused for several seconds, letting the tension in the room build before he spoke. “Would you care to explain that little outburst on the bridge?”

  Lieutenant Blyleven looked down in shame. “I wish to apologize for my momentary loss of control in front of everyone on the bridge, sir. I had plans for my extended leave that I had been looking forward to for the past several months, and I got very frustrated after you made that announcement. That’s when I kicked the base of my console. The curse word that came out only compounded my lack of proper decorum as an officer on your bridge. I am ready to accept whatever punishment you deem fit.”

  “Your plans must have been very important to you, Lieutenant,” Sted replied. “Your deportment had been stellar for the entire two-year deployment, up to the point where you embarrassed not only yourself, but everyone on the bridge. Would you care to share those plans with me so that I can understand what would bring one of my best officers to such a state?”

  Lorraine froze in panic. What should I say? Could she really tell him the truth about her feelings for him? What would he think? What would he do? It might just make the whole situation worse!

  “At this point, I’d rather not say,” Blyleven said weakly.

  “Is that because your plans involved me?” Sted asked with a small grin showing at the corner of his mouth.

  “So you feel it too, sir?” Lorraine asked, looking up at him again to see his stern look transform into one of amusement. “I was hoping we might meet on leave to see if there might be something real about the feelings I’ve been experiencing.”

  “Well, Lieutenant, I am sure you know that the captain cannot have an intimate relationship with anyone in the crew. How did you plan on me getting around that fast and hard rule on a na
val ship?”

  Lorraine knew he was teasing her with more sexual innuendo, which heightened her hopes even further. “I thought I could ask for a transfer to another ship if things worked out between us. But this redeployment makes that impossible. There would be no time for the Navy to find a replacement before we shipped out. That’s why I got so frustrated.”

  Sted reached out across his desk. “Give me your hand, Lorraine.”

  The use of her given name instead of “Lieutenant Blyleven” startled her as the world shifted slightly. She saw his hand reaching across the desk with the promise of more to come. When she took his hand in hers, it felt like an electric shock running right up her arm and into the center of her being. Her eyes shifted and stared directly into his captivating gaze. Now she really felt helpless.

  Sted did not release her hand as he rose from his chair and came around the desk to float above her. Then he pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her as they both floated above the deck.

  “Lorraine,” Sted said softly as he lifted her chin and looked directly into her eyes, “I don’t know exactly what plans you had for us once we docked, but I know I also had plans and that my intentions were far from honorable.” With that, he kissed her deeply as they both forgot about where they were and who they were. The primitive drive within each of them fought to take complete control. Finally, Sted pulled away, “Consider yourself reprimanded, Lieutenant Blyleven.”

  Then he let go completely.

  Chapter 5 – The Accident

  The trip down to the Tranquility Base took just over two hours. During that time, Sted and Commander Olsen reviewed the list of everything that had to be accomplished aboard the Revere before they could deploy again.

  Blyleven, on the other hand, sat quietly in her shuttle seat looking out the viewport and speculating on what the next two months would be like with them trying to meet clandestinely. They were going to continue the ruse that the two of them were at odds with each other, and the captain would call her into his office every so often to chastise her. That was easy for him but very difficult for her. She was the one who had to cause the disharmony on the bridge and bear the brunt of criticism from the rest of the crew. She was the one who had to act sullen and upset all the time while inside she was actually ecstatic to be in a relationship with her man. Every so often she would glance over at her two superior officers, and just seeing Sted caused her stomach to do flip-flops. She knew the next two months on the bridge of Revere would be torturous, and that made her angry.

  The landing at Tranquility Field was uneventful. The three passengers donned their helmets and exited the shuttle about 300 meters from the airlock entrance to the base. On the short trek across the rough ceramacrete landing field, Olsen turned to Sted.

  “That asteroid must be fairly close to the Earth/moon system already, so it also must be small enough to have gone undetected until very recently. I wonder how they intend us to alter its orbital path in such a short time span.”

  Sted paused and opened the outer door to the airlock. “Do you speculate like this before all of my briefings?” He smiled. “Have just a little patience, Olsen. All will be revealed shortly.”

  Sted entered first and punched in the base access code as Olsen and Blyleven entered behind him and secured the outer airlock door. They all heard the air rushing into the airlock, equalizing the pressure with the interior of the base. As they watched the gauge on the panel cycle upward, Olsen was about to ask another question when Sted gave him an annoyed look. Then all hell broke loose.

  Sted saw a bright flash of light as he was thrown against the inner lock door with both Jeremy and Lorraine’s suited bodies crushing against him. The sound in the enclosed space was deafening, but it was nothing compared to the scream that Sted let out from the searing pain he felt in his lower legs and feet.

  As he faded into unconsciousness, Sted caught a last image of bloodstained pieces of his two crewmates’ shattered helmets flying overhead.

  Chapter 6 – First Awakening

  The quiet is very disturbing. Where am I? I know I’m lying down on something soft, but perspiration under my head and neck has soaked into my hair and made this a cold and clammy bed. Bed. I must be in a bed. But where? Why won’t the fog clear out of my head? I know something is very wrong, but I can’t figure out what.

  “Hello, Captain Richardson. The monitors tell me you’re waking up. Please try not to worry about anything. The lights have been dimmed, and the monitors have been silenced to help you sleep. You are in the recovery room after surgery. We can get into the details later. Right now, your body needs rest and time to recover from the trauma it has suffered. I know you have many questions. I’ll answer them all very soon. Right now, I am administering more sedative through your IV. You will sleep for another four to six hours. Then we will talk again. I will count down from one hundred. You should not hear me saying ninety-five, but we will see. One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety. . . . ”

  Chapter 7 – Second Awakening

  Emily Fry stood over the recumbent figure of Captain Sted Richardson. She knew he was about to wake up based on the detailed story displayed on the monitors that surrounded his hospital bed.

  “Sted? Can you hear me Sted?”

  Sted heard a pleasant voice calling to him. Waking up was not easy. His mouth seemed to be filled with cotton. Lifting his tongue seemed almost impossible. He needed water to loosen it. All he could get out was “aw-er.”

  This appeared to be enough, because the next thing he felt was a straw being inserted between his lips.

  “Sip a little at a time, Captain Richardson. That should help. The IV has your body hydrated, but sometimes the mouth needs some extra help.”

  He didn’t recognize the voice, but it was soft and pleasant. A female voice. Was it a nurse or more than just a nurse?

  “Where am I?” This was the first question on his mind. Orientation was the key to his life. Somehow he knew this, but what it meant just wouldn’t surface in his mind.

  “You are in Tranquility Hospital,” the voice said. “Can you open your eyes? You have been through surgery, and your recovery seems to be progressing normally. We need to have a brief conversation, and I like to look the other person in the eye when serious discussions take place. Please try to open your eyes.”

  Sted opened his eyes. Everything was blurry.

  Come on Sted! Focus! Ah, that’s better.

  The recessed light panel in the ceiling was still on a low setting, and the corners of the rectangular fixture coalesced into single points.

  He sensed her presence to his left. He could hear her soft breathing. “Can you step a little closer so I can see you?” He had trouble swiveling his head because of the dull but persistent ache in his neck, shoulders, and back, but his eyes shifted to the left.

  She stepped closer to the bed. “My name is Emily Fry, and I am your nurse advocate. Can you see me better now?”

  “Emily,” he said as she filled his field of vision. “Please tell me what happened.”

  Emily peered down at him with a small light in her hand. “Let me check how your eyes react to the light, and then we can talk.” She shone the light first into his right eye, and then into his left. He still had not gotten a good look at her. The light was distracting and seemed to knife into his brain. Finally, she snapped it off.

  “Your pupils are reacting normally, and there appears to be no lasting effects from the concussion you suffered. I think it’s time to get you back up to speed. After all, you’ve been unconscious for almost two days now, and things have finally quieted down again around the base. Let’s start with the accident. Can you tell me the last thing you remember?”

  The accident? What accident? The base? Tranquility Hospital? Trauma? Surgery? Concussion? What was the question? Oh yeah, what was the last thing he remembered?

  My ship!

  “Emily! Is the Revere safe? My crew? Please tell me, are they all right?”

&n
bsp; “The ship and your crew are still docked at the Neil Armstrong Shipyard, and are all okay. Do you remember anything about the accident when you were cycling through the airlock into the base?”

  “Something happened in the airlock,” Sted replied with certainty as he tried to focus his memory. He knew it was somewhere in his head, but it kept slipping away like a minnow in a bait bucket. “I know it’s somewhere in there, but I can’t seem to get ahold of it long enough to focus. I think I need some help. What happened?”

  “Apparently, a small meteorite struck the airlock door just as you were reaching base pressure levels, and there was explosive decompression. The force of the meteorite was enough to blow in the exterior lock door. Your suit was shredded from the knees down, and it went into immediate survival mode and closed off your torso from just above your knees to protect you from exposure to steep vacuum and temperature gradients. Captain Richardson, you have lost both of your legs from the knees down, but everything else appears to be intact.”