By SilvyrWing
CHAPTER ONE
"…Is it so much to ask for that something would actually go right for a change?" Suzee was kneeling next to one particular Protomix relay circuit that didn't seem to be working correctly. In fact, it didn't seem to be working at all.
Catalina stood over her, hands on her hips as she pondered the problem. If Suzee looked hard enough, she could actually see the outline of the dresser that her invisible friend was leaning on, back on Yensid. The reminder of home, even though it was incredibly minor and insignificant, set Suzee off all over again. More than a little angered, she threw the wrench she was using across the room.
"Hey, hey… Easy," Cat said, wincing a little and taking a step backward. It didn't really matter how close she was in proximity to the other engineer… Nothing in Suzee's dimension could reach across to Cat, and vice-versa. "I think you should really go check out the other engine room. You know, the one I usually worked from. That bit there…" She paused, pointing to the relay circuit, "I think that's one of the parts that's accessed along with the direct link to the ion glide, and that's…"
"…Everything can be accessed from this room," Suzee insisted, stomping across the cylindrical engineering compartment to retrieve the wrench. Blue light reflected off crystalline surfaces, effectively brightening the entire area even though there was little original light to begin with. It was casting odd shadows, too. Normally, the light on the Christa balanced itself out, but recently, bits and pieces had been failing, and any spare electrical went to boost auxiliary systems. It happened now and then. Catalina tried to explain to Suzee that Christa would eventually right herself, but the Yensidian refused to listen.
Needless to say, Cat was getting a little angry herself, mostly because Suzee was completely insistent on driving the crew completely nuts. "Did you even listen to me before? This isn't the first time this has happened!"
"I know," Suzee spat. "It's just that I can fix it!" Regretting the words almost the instant she spoke them, she still had no thoughts of taking them back. It was true, after all. Suzee could fix the ship. She knew she could.
"And you're implying I couldn't."
Suzee pretended to think for a while. "Yep. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm implying. Because you never did!"
Cat stared at her, silently. It wasn't easy to contain her temper.
The other girl had to fill the silence somehow. "We both know how much of a piece of crap this ship is."
They could both hear the Christa groan, and for a moment, neither of them said anything, opting to hold their ground and make absolutely sure Christa wasn't going to send Suzee flying somewhere. A jumptube… Into the focus crystal. Maybe even out the far airlock and into the secondary control center. None of the options was remarkably pleasant. Finally, the Saturnian looked at her friend, incredulous. "You hurt a Starship's feelings. Good job. I'm really impressed; that's not even something I can do!"
"It's true! Have you seen everything that's breaking around here?"
Throwing her hands up into the air in frustration, Catalina turned away, pacing a couple times over the conductor bracket and through a stabilizing ionizer. In reality, she was likely just striding across a metallic floor, safe at home. Suzee's home, anyway… The thought made Suzee groan. Again. Cat turned back to her. "What now?"
"I'm trying to work here," was the snappish reply.
"And I'm trying to help you."
The wrench clattered to the floor again. "Well maybe certain STARDOG cadets should just go away and leave certain engineering geniuses alone, and work would actually get done!"
The phrasing was different, but the idea was quite similar to a situation in which the pair had found themselves before. Both of them stared at each other, and then Cat smiled.
Suzee shook her head. "No, I didn't—"
"I owe you one," Cat said. Then she turned away and faded from view.
---
"I know you're listening," Suzee mumbled to herself, as she attempted to use her bare hands to pry a reactor casing off a circuit registry. Then again, she herself hadn't listened most of the time she'd decided to disappear from Cat's senses. Suddenly her hand slipped and threw off her balance, and she fell backward onto the floor. Deciding she'd done enough for the time being, the young engineer leaned backward onto a convenient beam and closed her eyes.
What had it been? A comet. Comet Suzee-Catalina was what they had eventually decided on, at least if you asked Suzee for her end of the story. It seemed stupid now, but they'd fought over the name of a comet, which ultimately ended with Suzee vanishing out of spite.
"…I wasn't gonna come back, either," she continued, just in case Catalina happened to be listening. "But I did. Turned out you really didn't need me." She paused. "Cat?"
Nothing.
Frustrated, Suzee banged her head against the beam.
A moment later, the inner compartment lock opened. Likely, it was someone looking for her… After all, she hadn't been up to the Command Post ten minutes ago, like she said she was going to.
"You and Cat had a fight, and Cat left."
Not what she was expecting to hear from Radu. She opened her eyes so she could roll them at him. "Not exactly your business, is it?" she asked.
He looked at the floor. "Commander Goddard sent me down here after you. Rosie's console just went off-"
"Aren't you even gonna defend yourself?" She snapped.
He shrugged. "I just overheard… I mean, it's not like I couldn't." He pointed over to the intercom, which was slightly dented from when it had been hit by the wrench. The transmit button was stuck down. "The whole ship heard you."
Suzee rattled off a string of curses, and Radu hurried over to the com to shut it off before the whole ship was treated to more of Suzee's swearing in several different languages. As soon as the transmitter was off, Harlan's voice came in loud and clear. "That was great, Suz. Any chance of an encore?"
She responded with something rather unpleasant, but Radu didn't transmit it through. After making sure the engineer was done, he sent, "We'll be up in a minute."
"Copy," Harlan responded.
She stared at him. "Great, now they all hate me. Not like that's any different from before!" The girl covered her eyes with her hand, as if that did anything to hide her.
Radu chuckled a bit. "It's nothing major… We just heard you talking to Catalina. We know she's there. Or… was there." There was a long pause as he actually pondered what to say. Unable to think of anything, he proceeded to shift his weight from leg to leg as he watched her. She was crying… He could hear the irregular breathing even though Suzee was doing her absolute best to hide it. After what had happened, then the knowledge that the whole ship heard what happened… Radu could empathize. He kneeled down in front of her, and after a moment, she looked up.
Her eyes were red, though she was putting forth a rather valiant effort to prevent the tears from falling. Radu wasn't great at comforting people, unfortunately… So as the distraught girl waited for him to say something, he remained silent. Eventually, her attention fell back to the floor.
"I'll be up in a minute."
Radu nodded, pushing himself to his feet. "I know… It must be stressful to worry about…"
"I said I'd be up in a minute," Suzee snapped, gesturing toward the inner compartment lock.
He didn't leave right away, though. Instead, the Andromedan cadet paused in the circular doorway, looking back over his shoulder at the girl. Having been through more in his life than one person should have to, Radu definitely had some sort of understanding as to what it felt like to be an outsider. Both of them certainly fit that role well… He, the only Andromedan cadet ever to set foot inside Starcademy, and she, the only Yensidian anyone aboard the Christa had ever seen.
"Are you still here?" She asked. Her voice lacked the edge that it carried before.
Radu waited a moment, stepping away from the door and back into her view. "Yeah, I am."
She looked up at him and smiled a bit. Somewhere along the line, she'd dried her eyes, and though they were a little red, it didn't look like Suzee was crying anymore. "You know, you don't even understand how easy you have it, do you?"
Not understanding, Radu ad-libbed. "Catalina'll be back. It's not like her to—"
Suzee shook her head. "No. No… I mean, you've mostly been accepted by the crew. Me? I just messed up. Majorly."
"Are you kidding? Have you seen some of the stuff Harlan's done?" He laughed, offering his hand to her to help her up. "What you just did doesn't even compare. They… They'll forget about it… In a couple days. I mean… Harlan might rib you a bit…"
"Exactly," she responded, accepting Radu's hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet.
"Besides," Radu continued. At least they trust you. Harlan still looks over his shoulder now and then. I mean, sure… We're friends, but nothing's ever going to change the fact that I'm Andromedan."
Suzee headed toward the portal. "Cat's told me that some of the crew think I'm stuck-up."
"And the rest of the crew… is afraid I'll break them in half one day." Radu shrugged, somewhat uncomfortable with the admission. He had, on occasion, heard them talking, though. Suddenly, he really didn't feel like going back up to the ComPost. Why had they sent him to get Suzee? Why not Rosie or Bova? Maybe they were afraid he'd…
"You want to go up to the other engine room?" the Yensidian asked, effectively interrupting Radu's thoughts. "Before she left, Cat said there was something up there that might take care of the relay circuit. I should probably check it out."
Radu was about to again remind her that the Christa would eventually fix itself, but anything that would delay their return to the Command Post was fine by him. It wasn't exactly like him to break the rules, though, so he hit the button on the com and called through to Commander Goddard. "Commander, we're heading up to the primary engine room to check on something really quickly. We'll be up as soon as possible."
After a moment of radio silence, the commander's voice came through. "Is everything okay?"
He looked at Suzee, and she shrugged. Radu hit the button again. "Everything's… fine. We just need to check out the… the… uh… relapse shortcut."
Suzee rolled her eyes. "Close enough," she muttered.
"Alright," Goddard responded, after a short period of deliberation. "Get up here as soon as you can. I can't exactly run a ship without the navigator."
"Roger that. Radu out."
He cut the link, then turned to face a very shocked-looking girl. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"You notice how he didn't mention anything about running the ship without an engineer?"
Radu blinked. "I'm sure it just slipped his mind or something… He's… Well, the Commander has a lot on his mind and all. You know… Having to look out for the rest of the crew."
She didn't say another word, opting to push past him and into the blue-lit hall that led to the main corridor alley of the ship. Radu followed behind, keeping far enough back so that he didn't interrupt the girl's brooding. Like some of the women he'd met, Suzee was just about as unpredictable as they came… One moment she was sweet-tempered, and the next, she was completely the opposite. Her various patterns of changing moods were impossible to map, which meant that if she was angry, there wasn't necessarily a good reason for it.
This time, however, she'd been embarrassed. Perhaps there was a better reason than usual for her to be mopey, though Radu still followed at a minimum of three steps behind. Suzee seemed to innately know the way right to the other engine room, anyway, so he didn't feel the need to offer her any advice on getting there. It gave him time to tag along behind and enjoy the Christa for her beauty. Everything within her was a combination of mechanic and living components, seamlessly connected in the walls, the lighting, the crystals… In fact, when the pair passed by the jumptubes, Radu swore he could almost hear laughter.
He didn't have time to ponder on that, though. Suzee rounded into another hall, and Radu paced himself so as to keep up.
"I do more on this ship than they know, you know that?"
Radu jumped at the suddenness of Suzee's comment. "What?"
She paused in front of the engine room door to allow it to open. The motion sensor detected her there, and the tri-segmented door parted to allow them through. "I keep the Christa running, and no one even cares. They care about Cat. And if you were to disappear, they'd care about you."
This wasn't like Suzee at all. Something was bothering her. Normally she'd be confident and cool as if nothing ever fazed her. This time, it was different.
Perhaps it was because Catalina was evidently missing.
"You're not thinking clearly," Radu responded. Suzee stared at him as she lifted the cover off one segment of the ion glide. She seemed to be expecting him to continue, so he did. "…There's a few other people on board the ship that can navigate… You included. You really think they'd miss me if something happened to me?" Pausing, he took his own statement in, before answering his own question. "…Probably not."
Suzee hadn't meant to make Radu feel bad, which was just one more strike on her conscience that day. She was really getting to everyone, it seemed. First Cat, then everyone else on the Christa… And when it seemed Radu had been going out of his way to help her, she'd found a way to crush him, too. Sighing, she pushed the cover aside and leaned over the artery-like wires that led away from the Protomix. "Just… come on over here. Maybe you can help."
That wasn't likely, Radu thought, though he kneeled down across from Suzee, anyway.
She pushed aside a couple of the wires, and winced as one seemed to come loose. Both of them knew that wasn't good. It was Suzee that spoke first, holding up the detached wire. "I gotta get this connected back to the hyperdrive…" Looking at it for a moment, she puzzled over its presence. "You know, I don't think I remember this ever being here. Here. Hang on to this for a minute while I figure out where it came from."
Radu reached forward to take the wire, and brushed Suzee's hand in the process.
The surge was instantaneous and unavoidable.
Time slowed as both of them realized they'd been very seriously electrocuted. Their eyes met briefly, seeing the arching purple lightning streak between them.
---
"Can you get a reading on that?" Harlan asked, turning around to look at Rosie.
"The power surge?" The Mercurian asked, hopping down from her own console so she could reach Suzee's. "I'm not really sure how all this stuff works."
The lights in the command post flickered, then came back on. Crystals here and there and viewscreens situated around the room also dimmed, only to return to normal several seconds later.
"This seems normal," Rosie finally stated, hovering over Suzee's console.
Bova stepped down from Tactical to join Rosie at Engineering. "Unless, of course, the indicators are malfunctioning as well," he said. "Then we might all actually be in trouble."
"Don't be silly," Rosie chuckled, albeit nervously. "I mean, seriously, what could happen?"
"That's probably the last thing you should have said," Commander Goddard mused idly. Because when someone said that, something inevitably went wrong directly afterward. "Harlan, call down to the primary engine room. See if Radu and Suzee are okay, and get them back up here."
"I'm on it, Commander," Harlan said.
---
They should be dead. That was her first thought. In fact, she could still hear the faint crackling of static around her. The hum of the engine was way too loud to be normal… Thankfully, she'd escaped with her life.
She sat up, surprised to see she was on the opposite side of the ion collector… At least, Suzee thought she'd been on the other side... It must have been a serious electrocution to throw her so far. Looking around, she noted that Radu was nowhere to be seen. As she struggled to her feet to look for him, she brushed some stray hair out of her face, not surprised that it seemed frizzier than normal. Electricity tended to do that to a person.
She attempted to call for Radu, but her throat was too dry to manage it. With the abnormal high-pitched whine of the engine continuing, too, she'd be surprised if Radu could even hear her voice.
Though sore all over, Suzee stepped forward to look over the ion collector, only to see herself lying on the floor on the opposite side, eyes just opening to look up at her.
Both pairs of eyes widened, staring at each other.
"Grozit," Suzee said with Radu's voice.