Kate was waiting for Mike to re-join her on the bridge. She didn't need him but it would be nice to have him up there. Bomber could tell that she wasn't exactly focused on the task in hand but didn't say anything as she didn't want to show her up.
"How close are we to the port?" Kate asked Bomber to cut the air.
"Getting closer." Bomber answered quickly not wanting to say very much.
Kate nodded but was a little surprised that Bomber answered so quickly in that matter. She just shrugged it off though and went back to her work.
"Charge how are the other ships doing?" Kate asked further.
"They're doing alright at the moment. They would say if they were in trouble." Charge answered.
"Right. Anyone know when the CO is back?" Kate asked the bridge crew.
"No Ma'am." The bridge crew shook their heads.
Kate wasn't surprised. No one knew what Mike was up to most days, let alone in this situation. Kate looked around the bridge for some sort of help to find why Mike wasn't on the bridge.
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Nav edged his way out of her quarters wiping her tears from her eyes. She had enough time by herself and was now ready for going back to the bridge. She had only taken a few steps before hearing shouting and near crying.
"Hello?" Nav called.
"Get him inside." Swaine's voice could be heard.
Nav was a little bit worried about Swaine's manner. She heard running footsteps as Swaine took whoever it was into the sick bay.
"Swaine?" Nav called again to see if she would get an answer.
Nav didn't get an answer. She looked around and then followed where Swaine was going. Whatever was happening, Swaine sounded like he needed some help.
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Kate was nearly falling asleep by the time the radio sounded again. Kate jumped to attention as the radio crackled to life. Bomber stifled laughter as Spider re-joined the team on the bridge. He could already tell something funny had happened without him.
"What happened?" Spider whispered to Bomber.
"I'll tell you later." Bomber whispered back.
Spider smiled at this response and went back to his station. Kate was just staring at the radio looking like she was waiting for it to jump out at her. Bomber picked up the radio and handed Kate the radio so she could answer it.
"Thanks Bomber." Kate mouthed as she took it.
Bomber smiled in response. She then got back to her work even though really she was still listening in. true the whole bridge crew were listening in to see who was calling Kate this time.
"Lieutenant Mcgregor here." Kate said shakily.
"Commander White here Kate." Maxine's voice answered.
"Oh hello. We're on our way to the port." Kate smiled a bit more happy that it was Maxine on the other side of the radio.
"That's good to hear. I'll be there ready to meet you and there'll be someone else there too." Maxine said, sounding happy.
Kate was puzzled as to who it could be. It could be Marshal but it didn't sound like it was going to be him. Kate wanted to probe further but decided not to and carried on with the conversation.
"Alright. Meet you there in a few minutes." Kate said she was still puzzled as to who could be joining Maxine.
Maxine didn't say anything else and the call ended. The bridge all looked up from their work to see what was what. Kate beamed back at them with her usual big smile.
"She'll be waiting for us." Kate said around the crew.
The crew nodded back and went back to work. Suddenly a crackling came from under their feet. Kate stared straight at Charge as he seemed to be the only one who answered her at the moment.
"Charge?" Kate asked, crossing her arms.
"I'd better go and check what that is." Charge said sensing the tone in Kate's voice.
Charge went out of the bridge. He knew he might be the only one who could deal with whatever was going on. Kate turned back to the window, another thing couldn't go wrong could it?
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Nav had finally managed to get to the sick bay. She listened into the door trying to find out what was going on. However, she couldn't really make out what Swaine or whoever was in there was saying.
"What are you doing out here?" A voice came from behind her.
Nav was relieved that it was Jim standing behind her and not Mike. He still had crossed arms however which meant that she was probably in trouble a lot.
"Swaine called for me." Nav lied.
"Really?" Jim asked.
"Yes."
Jim gave her a sarcastic look. She could tell that she wasn't going to be able to lie anymore. She needed to tell the truth if she was going to get anywhere else in this conversation.
Before she could however, the door of the sick bay swung open and Buffer appeared on the other side. He looked at the two people weirdly but then got back to why he was out there.
"Can someone get Lieutenant Mcgregor?" Buffer said out of breath.
"Why?" Jim asked before Nav could carry on with her conversation.
"We just need her down here."
Nav looked at Buffer's face. She could tell they really needed Kate down here and wasn't just asking for her. Jim nodded and took Nav away to find wherever Kate was.
"Thank you." Buffer called after them.
"Buffer." Swaine called from inside the sick bay.
Buffer raced back into the sick bay as Swaine sounded like he was going to nearly break down if Buffer didn't rejoin Swaine right now.
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Charge had finally made his way down to the engine room where the sounds seemed to have come from. He hurried and opened the door which slammed behind him.
The sound had gotten louder and was now a ringing noise. Charge covered his ears as he made his way around the room. He finally found the source of the noise. Another wrench!
"Charge how's it looking down there?" Kate said through the radio.
"It's… It's… It's another wrench Ma'am." Charge said a little bit worried.
The radio went silent for a moment. Both Charge and Kate knew what had happened with the wrench last time.
"Ma'am?" Charge said into the radio.
"So wherever the wrench came from… it had to be someone on this ship who put it there." Kate said.
"It seems so."
"Alright thanks for looking. Rejoin me on the bridge."
"Yes Ma'am."
Charge ended the radio call. He then took the wrench out of the engine where it had been stuck. The engine groaned a little but nothing else seemed to happen which was a good sign.
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Kate was pacing the floor of the bridge so much the floor nearly weared away. Bomber had tried to stop her but she hadn't listened so she had stopped trying. Charge soon came to join the bridge team again.
"The wrench Ma'am." Charge said giving the wrench to Kate.
"Not again." Kate sighed, taking the wrench from him.
Bomber and Spider looked at each other with disagreement in their eyes. What was so important about that wrench?
"Did you see anyone down there?" Kate asked Charge.
"No Ma'am. It must have been put there earlier." Charge answered.
The radio then crackled. Kate sighed as she picked it up for the fourth time that day.
"Lieutenant Mcgregor." Kate answered.
"Captain Reed here." Another voice came.
"What is it?" Kate asked the captain of one of the other ships.
"Are we still going or have we stopped?"
"We're still going." Kate said, ending the call abruptly.
Kate nodded at Charge to get him to start moving again. Before they could start moving again, Nav and Jim came running up from the sick bay. Kate turned with quite swift movements.
"What is it Nav?" Kate asked worriedly.
"Swaine and Buffer need you in the sick bay." Nav answered with a quick response.
Kate looked to Charge. This look meant to take over the bridge whilst she was gone.
"I'll look after the bridge." Jim spoke up.
"Alright. Look after it well." Kate patted him on the back.
Charge was a bit surprised at this revelation but took it in. He didn't really like Jim but he could deal with Jim for a few moments. Nav went down with Kate and left only Bomber, Spider, Charge and Jim left on the bridge with RO back in coms. The others were a little bit wary of Jim but so far he had been nice so what could go wrong?