Chapter 36
"You're quiet." Tom remarked, throwing the young woman on the co-driver's seat a slanted glance. The pale face had a faraway expression, her eyes were feverish.
"Tom, sorry, my mind is running in circles. Is this not a bit fast – me moving in with you guys? Have you talked to Ashley and Sam?"
"Too fast?"
"Just that… Norfolk didn't go smoothly…"
"How so?"
"Tom… your dad… the children… I can't take Darien's place."
"Enough. What's ahead of us will need energy, time, and more time. If you move in with Miss Raymond, or Andrea Garnett, how much will we be able to see each other?"
"Oh."
"Are you worried for yourself – am I putting pressure on you?"
"For myself? No."
Almost he asked 'why not', curious where that would get them. Her answer had been thoughtlessly quick. But she was obviously a little upset by the subject.
"Let me worry for my family's side." Chandler glanced over at her. "Look, we never talked about this, Norfolk was challenging for me. Take your time. You'll have your own key, be free to move about. I don't expect anything from you. We can just give this a try… ease into it… I don't see much possibility for a romantic date in the near future."
"I'll be silent now."
He laughed. He loved these moments when he took her by surprise and she let him know it. "It was nice to have you there. I… want you there. Are you worried because of how I reacted? Alvi…" He tensed. It had been a long, long time since his temper had flared like that. Turning his head again, he met her eyes – and like quicksilver the lovely face, closed and inquisitive before, cleared.
She smiled shyly. "Worried you suddenly proved human after all?"
He reached over to grip her hand, revelling in the glowing grey eyes. But something thoughtful lingered in the way she rested her head against the seat, keeping it turned toward him.
Wondering if her thoughts went the same way as his, Chandler took a breath. "I'll sit down with Mike in the morning, probably Tex too. Figure out a schedule for the children."
Her hand tightened around his, she took a breath.
"I was hoping you'd join. Mike brought up the question of teaching the children a bit of orientation, self-defence, basic survival …"
Alviarin nodded thoughtfully. "Aye, that can easily be combined with some exploration of the town and its surroundings. Get them a feel for the place, look for fresh food… Tom, what happened to the youngsters you took on board searching for mussels?"
"They're around. Chief Jeter made them his responsibility for the time being."
"You said Val got reinforcements, what did you mean?"
"Two of your common acquaintances from up north joined us on the flight here – with six high-performance laptops from Professor Lacroix."
"Ah. What about Rachel?" She could get details later.
Tom grinned at the studiedly non-committal tone. "She's going to the west coast – Oregon. There's an outbreak situation combined with a H1N1 virus."
"But she'll have some soldiers with her?"
"And what medical personnel can be spared."
Alviarin nodded silently.
"Alvi – your talk with Professor Lacroix. I'll need to know what passed between you."
"I know. Right now?"
"No. We're here."
The young woman sat up straighter as Chandler let the car slowly pass by a row of yellowish houses situated in a lazy curve, divided by narrow strips of grass and fences. Small front gardens kept up the facade of small-town-friendliness, glimpses between the houses promised flat green grounds in the back. The sun was setting, the atmosphere eerily normal. By now the car rolling in had been noticed: faces at the windows, waving hands, and then – an open door revealed Mike, and behind him…
"Beorn and the four hobbits." Exultation resonated in her voice, making Tom's lips twitch, even though he did not get her reference.
"Alvi, you naughty girl – you and the captain? Seriously? Isn't he a bit old for you?"
"Bloody hell, Val. Hello to you to, and how have you been?"
"Oh I can do better, I'm sure. Did you sleep in his wife's bed?"
"Do you want me to leave?"
"But Alvi, … Gods, I should have realised. They way you spoke about him… how long has it been going on? On the Nathan James? Was he the reason you stayed?"
"Val, shut up. Let – ah, I get it. They've been giving you shit about Ramsay. That's why you're all cray-cray."
Val let her head fall until it bumped onto the table. "Damn you, wolfgirl."
"How bad was it?"
"Half as bad as I deserve, I'm sure. I'm good. Your guys took to my defence."
"Bet you hated that." Alviarin had to laugh.
The other glanced up with her eyes twinkling evilly. "So how was Norfolk? How exactly did Ben manage to get you? Wolfman said…"
"You've been talking to Wolfman?"
Val shrugged. "They talk about how fast you are without any weapon at all."
"Yeah, well, colour me embarrassed. I hadn't slept, and certainly wasn't expecting Ben of all people, least of all with a knife."
"Ladies…" Andrea Garnett appeared at their table, a bright smile lighting her face. Alviarin stood automatically, feeling her mouth widen into a grin involuntarily. The older woman recognized the slight hesitation in the younger one's posture and held out her hand.
"Elf, good to see you again." She pulled the young woman into a quick hug. "Seems like an eternity."
"Same for me. The ship-life changes perception of time, doesn't it?"
"Sit down, you'll have a beer with us!" Val entered the conversation. She was not going to let Alvi go without a few answers. The blond officer would help.
"Alviarin? Beer? Am I interrupting something?"
"Yes and no." The young woman shrugged. "Sit, please."
"All right." Garnett nodded at the cherry-dreadlocked computer-scientist, who handed her a bottle. "So where were you gals?"
"I was giving Alvi shit about sleeping with the mighty captain." Valerie chuckled.
Both Alviarin and Andrea Garnett choked on their sip of liquid.
Alviarin pouted, disgruntled and exasperated. "For the record, if you make Andrea wrong-swallow any more beer, I will knock whatever you swallowed out of you!"
The blond engineer grimaced. "She's not giving me a heart attack, if that's what you mean. You went to Norfolk with the admiral and the XO. And I saw you coming out of that hotel, if you remember."
"Fantastic."
"Alviarin, are you drunk?"
"She never drinks, so if she does, it's a cheep inebriation." Valerie's sneer was so comical, it brought Andrea Garnett to the brink of choking on another sip. "All right, Wo – Elf, let's start with the easy part. Ben." – aside to the blonde she added: "She got stabbed by our old colleague."
"Oh?" Andrea managed a sarcastic grunt, brows lifting.
Alviarin bought herself some time, making a show of sitting up straighter.
"They had me waiting for Professor Lacroix. I had the pup across my feet, was just nodding off, when he came to. You have to understand-" she turned to Andrea, "Ben's a big guy, crazy smart with computers, but not humans. He makes Valerie look like a Lego figurine computer wise, but like a Barbie doll conspiracy wise. He'll believe the weirdest things." She took a sip. "Anyway-"
"Wait." Andrea cut in, brows furrowing. "You rank Legos before Barbie?"
"Miles, Andrea, miles…"
"Right." The other woman nodded. "Go on."
"So Ben must have seen me sitting there, guards around me, heard some rumours about why I was there and how the Canadians picked me up. Guess I was so drowsy that I didn't place his anger correctly. I thought he came to embrace me or something…"
The young woman shivered convulsively, face pulling into a painful grimace.
"He was always gonna snap, Alvi, you yourself said that."
"His paranoia was helpful when the outbreak touched Calgary…"
Silence settled on the small group, until Andrea Garnett left to grab three fresh bottles.
"Quick, the other subject. You and the captain, in his house, his bedroom-"
"Val, tactful much? You're such an idiot. Imagine for a moment what his house looked like: two – three children with expressions no child should wear, efforts all around to keep up a semblance of normal, overgrown gardens, shattered windows. The XO off to search for his family, you know how that ended, and the Admiral – torn between private life and the mission."
Val regarded the friend with raised eyebrows, not quite ready to give up.
Alviarin shrugged. "I never set foot in his bedroom, Val. We hardly touched."
"So you didn't help him pack? His wife's photographs?"
"Nah, I mostly helped the children, and with other stuff."
Andrea returned, passing the cold bottles around. A warning glance from the grey eyes told Valerie clearly that that was it with the subject.
But it seemed even Andrea was not ready to let it go quite so cleanly: "But living together, how will that suit you?"
"It's been what, two days? We're flat-mates so far. The children take the arrangement at face-value. You can't really date in this situation, can you? But you, Andrea, how've you been?"
"Oh, I spent most of the days on the James. I've moved into a bungalow-complex with a couple of the crew. Incidentally, it was that Spanish fellow, from the restaurant, remember? He knew of the place and organized it for us. Tex already helped them with some repair-work in return."
"How's the ship doing? Your crew?"
"Slow work. Lots of parts will have to be made from scratch, and we miss personnel sorely. It'll be easier once you're back on your feet and we can take turns and split into two groups."
"You do realise that I'll have like three jobs at once?"
"Yes. Miss Raymond already mentioned that you'll be needed at the computers, too."
Alviarin's thoughtful glance rested on the blond woman for a moment. Andrea was leaving out the subject of the children on purpose. So be it, the other woman needed time.
"Yeah, our two mates from up there are barely adequate."
The chief engineer grinned at the obvious inside joke between the two scientists.
"Say, why were there Canadians so far south? In Norfolk? Did they tell you?"
"To put it into few words – the Professor might have had one foot in with the government, and taken the lead of this group out of pure necessity. They came south looking for the bigger army sites for one reason, and for another simply to gather information. That's why they have so much equipment. Build a network. How my friends from Calgary met his group I haven't yet found out to my satisfaction, but I will get to the bottom of this."
"We've got to get this one drunk more often, don't you agree?" Andrea grinned at Valerie.
"So how is life in St. Louis?"
The blond engineer took a long draft from her bottle. "Weird, normal, chaotic… hopeful, careful, optimistic. Pick whatever you like."
"That's a fair description, Chief." Val pursed her lips.
"Not all of the town is cleared – you know, of the…. corpses. So there are still teams walking around, trying to identify and log everybody. Water and drainage works fine so far, electricity is a problem. Engineers are scarce, I've been asked a hundred things, from the power station maintenance to repair on generators."
"But no secondary diseases?"
"No. Hospital is running, almost fully staffed, and enough disinfectant was stored there to keep wounds clean. Internet is often down."
An accusingly raised brow directed at Val made the addressed stuck out her tongue at her friend. "Alv, it's hard to produce miracles if there's no electricity and flooded or overheated servers everywhere."
"Now that I'm here we can start to figure these things out." Alvi mocked consolingly. She was trying hard to keep the conversational tone light. "What about the Callaway nuclear station? What other power stations are we talking about?"
"Callaway was taken offline safely, it seems. Otherwise… the main power around here came from coal, but that needs maintenance, which is impossible now."
"Hydroelectric stations? The solar farms near Springfield?"
"Exactly. Though the Bagnell Dam one isn't delivering… It and the one in Branson should suffice to feed St Louis as reduced as the city is."
"Surely they made a list of the survivors, split them into who has knowledge on what?"
"Yeah, but it takes a while to get this kind of thing running. Where there's no electricity, there are no computers, most everything has to be done by hand. Everybody is most concerned with securing their own…"
"Problems with ringleaders?"
"You've really thought this through, have you?"
"I saw a bit on my journey to Baltimore, and now in Norfolk… Jed Chandler said there was a problem with dogs, that they had to shoot quite some animals, because they became a threat."
The two other women exchanged a glance, shrugging. "Yeah, no, we haven't heard anything about animals…"
Andrea added: "At least the brewery is fully functional, still." She drained her bottle.
The other two women followed suit.
The mood had been spoilt. Alviarin shook her head. "Ah, sorry for asking so many questions."
"Nah, Elf, it's nice to get these things out of my head. I've been looking forward to bounce ideas off you." Andrea's grin slipped a little.
The red-headed computer scientist threw her an evil look from brooding eyes. "You just wanted to turn the subject away from the interesting stuff. Like how exactly? And seriously?"
Alviarin grinned impudently at her friend. "Enough for tonight."
They all agreed grudgingly. Val even managed a gracious: "It was nice to catch up with you. Let's do this again sometime!"
…..
"Elf, I'll walk with you."
"Your place is…?"
"Close enough. So you and Val are old colleagues? I had not known that. And have common friends?"
"It's a university thing. They – I mean Lucas, Mahesh, Ben and the others and Val worked on loosely overlapping subjects – same as me and her a few years ago. So one met on conferences all over the continent or the world actually. Val's network kept them in contact even more than Val and me."
The blond woman nodded, and started counting with her fingers.
"Right. Then the red flue came and you crossed paths with Rachel Scott, stumbled onto the Nathan James and fell in love with our captain."
A somewhat ironic, far away expression crossed the younger woman's face. "Nah, no falling was involved there. I walked into that eyes wide open."
In answer to the engineer's surprised glance, Alviarin blushed, grimaced and squared her shoulders.
"So, anything I have to know before I join you on the James?"