Chapter Eight:
Ms. TJ Davenport sat in her classroom, using her CompuPad to look through the Christa's library for something to teach her students in her next lesson that might interest them. It was a much harder task than she'd first though. She didn't understand why her students couldn't agree on what they enjoyed.
Finally, with a sigh, she gave up and set the CompuPad down.
Theresa.
She looked around the room nervously.
Theresa.
She stood up and looked around again.
"Thelma?"
She won't answer.
"Thelma?" Davenport called again, moving closer to the door in an attempt to escape. The door didn't open as it was supposed to.
Did you really think that would work?
"W-who are you?" She asked, assuming that one of the students had tapped into the Christa's communications to frighten her. "Th-this isn't funny!"
It isn't supposed to be.
"What do you want with me!" She shrieked. Receiveing no answer she began inching her way towards the jumptubes.
That won't work either.
Ms. Davenport didn't acknowledge the statement. She moved closer to the jumptubes, and punched in a random code.
Theresa, I don't want to hurt you.
Ms. Davenport looked over her shoulder nervously and jumped headfirst into the jumptube.
You think you can escape?
Davenport screamed, both in fear of the voice, and because she was whooshing through the jumptubes incredibly fast, with no idea where she was actually going.
Suddenly she jerked to a stop, just at the bottom, and tumbled out.
"Ms. Davenport?"
She looked up at Harlan.
"You alright?"
She nodded and stood up.
"So. . .do I want to know why you decided to ride the jumptubes head first?" He asked with a laugh.
"It. . .it was chasing me!"
Harlan frowned. "What was chasing you?"
"I don't know!" She said, beginning to wring her hands. "It was talking to me in my head!"
Harlan thought about that for a moment.
"Don't panic, Ms. D., I have an idea. Let's go down to the MedLab."
"W-why would be do that?"
"Because Suzee thinks this thing on board is a telepathic squirrel from her dimension."
"A telepathic squirrel?"
"Uh, yeah. C'mon." He motioned to the jumptube. "Thelma?"
There was no answer.
"She didn't answer me either." Ms. Davenport said. "Do you suppose she's in trouble?"
"Thelma, in trouble? Nah, no way!" He paused. "You go down to the MedLab and talk to Suzee, I'm going to go look for Thelma."
"Are. . .are you sure thats the wisest course of action?"
Harlan sighed. "Alright, how about if I stay here, and call the Commander and have him search for Thelma?" He suggested.
Ms. Davenport nodded. "Good idea, Harlan." She turned back to the jumptubes and slid in.
The Commander was not a happy man. On top of all the other problems the ship had been having as of late, now the only 'person' who could fix most of them was AWOL.
He wandered the halls basically aimlessly, calling Thelma's name every few seconds in hopes that she'd hear him, but it was basically useless. He didn't understand how Thelma could go missing. She was a vital part of the ship, completely connected to and in tune with her systems. Yet, she couldn't be found anywhere.
The Christa herself was puzzled as to where the android was. She had turned her attention away from her for a few seconds to check one of her ion collectors, and when she'd gone back, she hadn't been able to find her. She'd gone through the entire ship deck by deck, searching for Thelma's distinctive mental print, but had been unable to find anything. She hadn't been able to contact her, either, and it was beginning to frighten the ship.
In one corridor, the walls flashed red again, and the temperature rose another ten degrees. The Christa registered this fact, but dismissed it as unimportant. The only important thing was finding her sole companion, and that didn't involve her systems. None of the crew were near that particular corridor, so it didn't concern their safety, and was therefore safe to dismiss.
Christa also registered that the man named Goddard, one of the two she hadn't bonded with, was also searching for Thelma. She didn't discard that bit of information, it might lead to something, and began to track his progress. Maybe he would have better luck than she had. She idly wondered why only one of the crew was on the Command Post, while the rest were in the MedLab. She did a quick scan and found that none of them were sick. One of the crew was changing, however. That fact puzzled her, and frightened her a little bit more.
"You're sure thats everything?" Suzee asked Ms. Davenport when she'd finished.
"Yes. Quite sure."
Suzee pursed her lips thoughtfully.
"What is it, Suzee?" Rosie asked.
"Probably means this Jeisal thing wants to kill us or something." Bova added.
Suzee, Radu, and Davenport gave him a look that said that that was not helping in the least, and he shrugged indifferently.
"Ms. Davenport, if the Jeisal contacts you again. . ." Suzee began.
Davenport looked frightened.
"If it does, I want you to ask it a question for me."
"A-alright. I suppose I can do that."
"I want you to ask it what its mothers name is. And then I want you to find me and tell me, without talking to it again."
"A-alright, Suzee." Davenport agreed, too shaken up to argue.
"I don't see any reason you need to stay here, then." Suzee concluded. "And I don't like the idea of either the Commander or Harlan being left alone with the Jeisal on board."
"I'll go look for the Commander." Davenport suggested.
"Good idea."
Suzee turned back to her CompuPad. Then she glanced up. Davenport had gone, but Bova and Rosie were still sitting there.
"One of you go keep Harlan company." She directed.
Bova looked up at her.
"You're the scientific one, Bova." Rosie said. "You stay and help Suzee." Without waiting for a response, she hopped into the jumptube.
"Of course." Bova said, rolling his eyes.
Harlan jumped as the jumptubes whooshed. He glanced over and saw that it was only Rosie.
"Oh, hi Rosie." He said.
"Hi! I'm here to keep you company cuz' Suzee says none of us should be alone with the Jeisal onboard. I think she's just being silly, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious, I guess." She said it so fast Harlan couldn't cut in.
He blinked when she was finished.
"Alrighty then." He said finally. "Why don't you take turns using your station and Bova's?"
"Okay!" She moved to one of the stations.
"Thelma?" Ms. Davenport called, then berated herself. The Commander was looking for Thelma because she was missing. Therefore, if Thelma was missing, she couldn't call her and ask where the Commander was. It was really quite simple, but Ms. Davenports nerves were rather frazzled.
Theresa.
"Not again." She said quietly. Then she remembered what Suzee had said.
My mothers name? Why would the girl want to know that?
Davenport looked around frantically.
You won't find me.
Almost as if the Christa were helping her, she spotted a jumptube and ran for it.
Do you think I'm going to chase you?
Davenport didn't stop running.
Tell the girl my mothers name was Niandralarsska Pofalla Ni.
Without acknowledging the Jeisal, Davenport jumped into the jumptube, dialing the MedLab almost without pausing. The problem with dialing by this method is that a person will most likely not get the desired result. For example, Ms. Davenport thought to go to the MebLab. She ended up in the Landing Bay.
Perhaps it was fortunate that she did, because she saw the thin but growing layer of snow covering the Starlings. Her jaw dropped, not the most intelligent decision, considering that it was snowing inside, and she was in the middle of running away from a potentially dangerous creature.
She realized this fact after staring for several minutes, at which point she snapped her jaw shut, punched in the code for the MedLab, and left the Landing Bay.
"Suzee?" Radu asked.
"Yeah, what is it?" She asked, half-turning without really looking away from the CompuPad.
"If. . .if you can't find some way to revert this. . ."
"We'll find a way." Suzee said. "I promise." She held up the CompuPad. "See, I'm working on a theory right now. If we were to move. . ."
He waved it away, and she seemed to understand that he probably wouldn't understand it if she showed him anyway. She typed another something into the CompuPad.
"Suzee, come help me with this." Bova said. "Though I'm sure it will be wrong anyway."
"What is it?"
"A timeline of the changes that are going to be happening to Radu. If you know them, and I'm almost certain you don't."
"You're right." She dead-panned, looking down at the CompuPad Bova was holding. "But I know more than you do. Gimme."
Bova rolled his eyes and surrendered his CompuPad.
"Look over this while you're not busy." Suzee said, going back into thought as she added to the timeline. A projection of the time it would take Radu to completely become Yensidian was probably a reasonable failsafe. Leave it to Bova to think of that while she was working on a cure.
She crossed to room without looking up and sat down again.
Iianalarsska Pofalla Ni was patient, as far as Jeisal's went. She had a plan, she just needed the time to act upon it. She also needed pawns, and besides the boy she had decided to Transform, she hadn't been able to find one.
The android had seemed like a good choice at first, but she was too stupid to learn simple things. She didn't understand enough of humans to understand adaptation yet. It really was a shame to have to deactivate her, but it couldn't be helped.
She had also thought that the older woman, Theresa, might be able to adapt, but she was too old. She was too set in her ways, too inflexible, too frightened, to be of any use. So Iiana had let her go. At least temporarily.
The girl wasn't an option, she knew too much to begin with. Her kind never showed enough respect, never had, and this one was no exception. Iiana was fairly curious as to how one of those people had arrived here, of all places, but since there was nothing she could do about it, the answer didn't really matter to her.
The older boy didn't respect the authority of his own kind, therefore there was no reason for Iiana to believe he might respect hers. There was another option wasted.
The man would never be her pawn and she knew it. He was her enemy, the one she had to defeat.
Perhaps the younger children could be persuaded to help her. One was fatalistic, which might add to her threats, or make them moot, something she didn't feel like risking at the moment. That disqualified the young boy.
The young girl, she might be persuaded, with time. She was kind, probably too kind for her own good, and naive. Iiana was not above using that naivete to her advantage. However, the girl was seldom alone. Which would only make the job harder, not impossible.
The ship herself seemed to be fighting her, perhaps an allergy? She had never heard of such a thing before, but she had never been to this universe before either. Perhaps a ship that lived and felt could get sick as well. It was a possibility, she conceded. It would make her job that much more difficult.
Iianalarsska Pofalla Ni was patient enough to wait.
