Catalina—

By SilvyrWing

Notes: No one seemed to object to me adding the next chapter. Lemme know if there's a problem. 3

***

            I don't usually dream.

But there was this one time that I had a dream. I wanted to really go places, and to be known, and liked, and successful. A talented Saturnian could really make a name for herself, after all.

Instead, I ended up at Starcademy, and I went places, alright. Thousands of lightyears across the galaxy, to be exact.

Though it certainly wasn't my choice, the Christa has really come to be more like a home for me than any place I've ever lived. My family is interesting enough here... They acknowledge my talents, unlike my actual relatives ever did. And, like a family, we had both love and rivalry shared between us… Though sometimes I think the "rivalry" part lies entirely in Harlan's head, because he's the one that seems to argue with everyone. I mean, pul-ease! Someone as anti-charismatic as him should not be our leader, as unofficial as the title is. Someone like me, though… If I could just get a real chance at Helm…

"You'd mess it up. I know you would," Harlan was saying. I rolled my eyes, and he smirked in that ever-confident manner of his. That way that I hated and loved all at the same time, because even though it meant he was a real egomaniac, it meant that he could see me. That I was on the ship, and tangible, and that Suzee was back in her dimension. He'd smirked at Suzee like that once in a while, too, I remembered.

"Oh, he is so full of it," she said to me, in a voice that only I could hear.

"Suzee thinks you're full of it," I repeated, for her sake. "And for the record, Harlan Band, I do, too."

He was about to answer, but that was when the announcement came over the intercom. It was the Commander! Then again, who else would it be? The rest of us were cooped up down here in class, and Thelma, to my knowledge, never used the com. No; she'd rather just appear out of nowhere, and usually right when she was needed. Once, I'd called Thelma a friend, and I definitely meant it. She was interesting, and odd, though for a machine (Or part-machine), she was surprisingly real.

Miss Davenport was shouting after us as we leapt into the jumptubes, but I was busy trying to listen to what Harlan was shouting in front of me. Grozit, he made me mad! Before I could respond, though, Rosie and Bova jumped in ahead of me, and while I really do value Miss Davenport's wisdom, I really didn't want to be stuck in the same room with her, alone, when there was Command post duty at stake. And… The Helm. I'd get my turn, one way or the other.

***

Traveling the jumptubes was tricky at times. One really didn't know with any degree of certainty where they'd end up. Even though we'd all set the exact same course, and entered within seconds of each other, there was still that chance that we'd end up somewhere totally opposite from where we wanted to be. The cargo hold, or the bunkrooms, perhaps… It had happened before. I had memorized the path from the classroom to the ComPost before, as it really wasn't all that complicated. A right turn here, and a left there. Through that glowing junction and into the unlit segment that bridged right over the connection to the galley. Despite the complexity of the network, we'd never actually seen a lot of the ship – or so some of us liked to imagine - Harlan and I, especially. We'd seen that map of the Sister Ship's jumptube network, and both of us were convinced in some way that there was a lot more to the Christa than we knew. After I got stuck in Yensid, though, and after the Christa crash-landed, there hadn't been any time to explore.

Well, now there was.

"I wonder if we'll ever find out," I mused to myself, resting my arms behind my head as I raced through the jumptube faster than I liked to think about.

One thing about being aboard a sentient ship. You never mused about anything.

…Because the Christa had a very interesting sense of humor and timing.

Suddenly, I found myself wrenched off the normal course, so quickly that I smacked my head on the junction between the tube I was in and the tube into which the Christa had transferred me. It wasn't too hard, as the tubes had a bit of an air cushion to prevent injuries such as that, but the shock of it was more what had me reeling. Craning my neck, I could see Bova just ahead of me, and Miss Davenport just behind. I wondered if anyone else was coming along on the ride… I suspected we'd end up in the airlock or something, or the power junction. Then, we'd likely just walk the remaining distance to the ComPost.

Then, Suddenly, I went flying.

After landing with a thud and rolling about a foot across the floor, I uttered a surprised "Oof," before attempting to regain my bearings. I felt a boot contact my side, and turned my eyes up to see Bova, who was already on his feet. He looked down at me, and I couldn't tell if his expression was confused or simply passive.

"I'd move," he said.

The scream echoed through the hall – a ghostly sound. I had absolutely no time to react before the jumptube spit Miss Davenport out at me. She and I collided, and the shock sent Bova back to the floor much more quickly that he probably appreciated. There was no sound for about two seconds, and then all three of us simultaneously groaned.

"We've got to get back to the Command Post," Miss Davenport said. She struggled to her feet, which involved stepping unceremoniously all over my hair. That hurt.

My head was still throbbing from its unexpected contact with the junction. I wondered if I'd maybe smacked it harder than I thought… There was already a bit of a bump there. Maybe I'd just hit it the right way, though I couldn't exactly be certain, especially since I was still dizzy from the initial course change. Resting for a moment on my knees, I finally pushed off the floor to get to my feet. Miss Davenport was standing not too far away, and was staring at the jumptube we'd just exited, so I approached and stood next to her. Likely, she was just waiting for Bova and I, so she could shepherd us back to ComPost.

Then it registered what she was staring at… There was no entrance tube. Just an exit tube. Just the tube we'd left.

"Great. I suppose we'll just be stuck down here for the rest of the ride home. Wonderful!"

That, of course, was Bova.

"What if you crawled back up the tube?" Suzee asked.

"We could be anywhere, Suzee," I responded. Bova and Miss Davenport barely even reacted. It was sort of odd that they knew she was real now. No one even batted an eye when we spoke… Sometimes, I missed the attention. Sometimes. But it was also nice not to be thought of as the Christa's resident nutbar.

"What'd she say?" Miss Davenport asked.

"She just suggested we shut off the network from there…" I pointed to the control unit. "…And crawl up the tubes. But we don't know where we are, or how to get back."

"Maybe we can look for an entrance tube down here somewhere," Bova suggested. And there's a com unit right over there. We can contact the others in the Command Post…"

There was an echo from the exit tube that sounded remarkably like voices. In fact, if I listened hard enough, there were four of them… Rosie, Harlan, Radu, and Commander Goddard… And we were all standing right in front of their exit. Tugging on Miss Davenport's and Bova's sleeves, I pulled them out of the way just as Harlan went tumbling across the floor, followed by the others.

Harlan threw out a couple choice expletives. I helped him up. "What are you doing down here?" I demanded. "How are we gonna get out of here if we don't even—"

He held up his hand, smiling that hated smirk again. "Why not just take the…" When he turned, he noticed the same thing we all had. There was no entrance tube.

"Now," Davenport said. "The question is, as Catalina put it, 'what are you doing down here?'"

"When you didn't show up in the command post, we decided to come looking for you," stated the commander. "Rosie here thinks she saw Bova head off in a different direction from the rest of you, so we asked Thelma about it. She… told us she could send the rest of us after you, so I assigned her to keep watch at Helm."

"Great," I said. "At least Thelma gets to…"

"Not now, Cat," Commander Goddard said. I pouted, but stopped talking. Harlan smirked at me again… I almost hit him.

"I'll call Thelma on the com," the commander volunteered. He fumbled with it for a little while. "Maybe I can ask her where we are." Flipping a switch, he spoke into it concisely, clearly. "Thelma?"

"Yes, Commander," she said, as she appeared in the hallway directly behind him. No one had even seen her approach!

Thelma had this interesting ability to be anywhere she needed to be without even a moment's notice. Once she was called, she would simply appear, as if my magic. No one really knew how, though we were all torn between appreciating it and being seriously freaked out by it. We knew she didn't use the jumptubes… So we had no leads as to how she could get from one end of the ship to the other in seconds.

"Great," Goddard said. I could see a vein throbbing in his temple… "Now we're ALL down here!" In response, Thelma smiled.

"So… Where is here?" Rosie wondered, heading off down the hall a little ways. I hadn't noticed, but Radu was already well on his way. He turned as Rosie started following him, and said, almost too quietly for us to hear… "…Do you hear birds chirping?"

"I smell ozone, too," Bova added, also starting down the hallway. I couldn't help it; I followed. Suzee commented on the fact that she could detect something other than the re-processed Starship air, though how she could tell across dimensions was beyond me. Perhaps it was the fact that she seemed to be made up of air here. I could see right through her.

"Airhead," I muttered. She swatted at me. Her hand went through my shoulder.

"Why was it that you wanted us at the Command Post, Commander?" Miss Davenport asked. Goddard's face seemed to turn about fifty degrees paler than it already was.

"A major solar flare," he said softly. "From the sun we're flying by… The Command Post is the only place I know of that's shielded from the radiation it could create… I mean… As far as I know. There's always the possibility that…"

"That we could all be dead in minutes," Bova spat.

"DEAD?!"

Miss Davenport, of course. I rolled my eyes. The Christa had protected us before, and she'd do so again. I was sure about that. Besides, we were already on our way toward whatever it was that Radu and Bova had detected. As much as I didn't want to be dead, I wanted to find out what the Christa was showing us even more.

"Look," I said. "We've been through solar flare radiation before, and Suzee thinks that the magnetic field around the ship is more than enough to protect us." It would be better if we could jump to hyperdrive, of course, but we'd have to take what we could get, that this point. "I mean, if…"

I froze. Ahead of me was perhaps the singular most wonderful thing I'd ever seen.

A huge expanse, covered in grass and trees and water, with strange, alien birds floating from tree-to-tree. It was domed, though there was no sky above… Only an artificial light that seemed to serve as a sun. It caused me to forget about outer space, and solar radiation, and the Christa… It was so beautiful. There was no possible way this could be a starship. No way.

I couldn't help it… I wandered further in. Miss Davenport held out a hand to stop me, but I shrugged it off. It didn't matter anyway, because they all followed. Suddenly, a high-pitched whine started emitting from the portal that led into the dome… It was loud, and painful, even to me. Radu fell to his knees as he scrambled to get away, and the others were falling over themselves in a rather blind panic. Thankfully, I only had to take a few more steps in order to escape the sound… It was almost like a field that surrounded the door. Once the others were out of that range, and in the same general area I was, they, too, relaxed. For a moment, we looked at each other, then attempted to approach the door again.

We were accosted by the high-pitched whine, which drove all of us back again. And not only that, but I felt a distinct feeling of dread well up inside me. It was a feeling that we were safe in the dome. Anywhere else was dangerous. Even Thelma seemed unable to get past the field.

Like animals, we were trapped.