Thera picked at her breakfast with a grimace on her face. Jonah at her side noticed and asked, "Not hungry?"
"Starving," she answered grumpily and let her spoon splat against the gray gruel. She and Jonah were sitting together before their separate duty shifts began, the last time until right before bed-down that they'd be able to spend any time together (the miners had their lunch brought to them instead of having the entire crew return to the food service area). Usually they made the most of their limited time together but that morning Thera was in a rather disagreeable mood and Jonah, unoffended, let her be. Instead of perched against a wall shoulder to shoulder they were almost facing one another, Thera's legs crossed while Jonah's were more widely sprawled and bent. He tended to have trouble with his knees, meaning his range of motion was not as free and easy as Thera's.
Jonah quirked an eyebrow at her curiously as Thera scowled at her food.
Thera huffed in annoyance and dropped her spoon into her bowl. She looked up at Jonah and noticed the careful but gentle smile tugging at his lips. It was enough for her to realize she'd been acting quite childish. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, though still pissed at her bowl.
"What's wrong?"
"I'd kill for something other than this slop, that's all."
"Who wouldn't," Jonah quipped and lifted his spoon to let a glob of gray sludge fall back to his bowl for emphasis.
Thera scowled again. "You don't have cravings," she rubbed her belly errantly. "Before I was pregnant I wasn't happy with our rations but I never had a real problem with them... your baby's a picky eater, Jonah."
"My baby? Why is it mine when it's being a pain in the ass?" Jonah stopped at Thera's look and amended, "All right, don't answer that."
Thera's dark expression finally transformed to lift with a smile. She set about eating her unappetizing breakfast without the slightest enthusiasm or gusto as she mused, "I wonder where Carlin is."
Jonah shrugged. He had to confess that Carlin's absence all morning was strange, but Jonah was placated by the fact that there wasn't much chance in the limited caves that Carlin could find trouble.
"Excuse me, sorry, 'scuse me, Jonah, Thera!"
Jonah and Thera both looked up as Carlin came rushing up to them through the throng of morning diners. He was dancing his way between other workers until he was finally at his destination and dropped down on to his knees before his friends.
"Probably not much left, Spacemonkey," Jonah quipped to Carlin's tardiness to breakfast.
Carlin, who had been in a rush to say something, suddenly stopped and looked quickly at Jonah. Thera, too, turned her eyes to Jonah with a quizzical expression.
Jonah seemed to only then comprehend what he'd said and with an unconvincing shrug said defensively to the looks he was receiving, "It's an expression."
Carlin looked askance at Jonah a moment then seemed to shake it off in favor of more important matters. "I need to talk to you two."
Jonah looked around and noticed almost everyone was close to finished eating. The duty shift horn would be sounding soon. "Can it wait until tonight?"
"No! No, I don't think it can."
"Carlin, what are you talking about?" Thera asked.
Carlin looked nervous. "I think I did something bad. Very, very bad. We all might be in trouble."
Thera and Jonah stilled and looked apprehensively at one another. Unintentionally, Thera's hand went to her stomach and Jonah saw her do it, and he saw the spark of intense worry that flashed in her blue eyes.
Jonah turned flinty, dark eyes on Carlin. "What did you do?" His voice was ominous and deliberate and would have made anyone else recoil.
Carlin swallowed and dropped his voice lower. "I dreamed about the tel'tac–"
"The what?" Thera asked suddenly, her posture straightening abruptly.
"The, uh, the ship we found in the mines," Carlin corrected softly.
"No, what did you call it before?"
"Tel'tac?"
"What is it, Thera?" Jonah asked to her ashen expression.
"I know that word... I think," she answered, tone distracted.
Jonah seemed a little debased, as though he too had reacted to the word, but he looked sharply at Carlin. "Let's get to the part where Carlin gets us in trouble."
Carlin shrank back an inch and grimaced. "I... uh... I had a dream that I knew how to open the door."
"So...?" Jonah prodded angrily.
"So... I went back to the ship to try it."
Thera's eyes widened but Jonah only looked furious. Were they not in the middle of all the other workers Carlin would probably be getting the full brunt of Jonah's wrath.
"Damnit, Carlin, what the hell were you thinking? If Brenna found out we'd all get..."
Carlin looked briefly at Thera then back at Jonah. "Get what?"
Jonah frowned and quickly supplied, "Punished. We'd be punished."
"Did it work? Did you get the door open?" Thera asked.
"Yes."
Jonah and Thera went quiet but Carlin had more to say. "Look, long story short, I found the cockpit and I think I may have, inadvertently, activated a homing beacon."
"What?"
"Well, I think the controls were booby-trapped, probably programmed in by the Jaffa before they died. When I touched one of the controls the ship powered up and a voice over the speaker system said Lord Babi would know disbelievers had survived his purge of the planet and we should prepare to meet our doom."
"For crying out loud, Carlin," Jonah hissed.
Thera said carefully, "Let's just think about this a minute. We're talking about supposed gods, right?"
"Yeah."
"So. Maybe there's nothing to worry about. They probably don't exist, Carlin."
"But–"
"And even if there were some life forms impersonating deities, it was probably hundreds of years ago so there's little chance that this being that was posing as this Lord Babi is still alive."
Carlin frowned. "Yeah, I guess."
"So we should stop talking about this before we get caught," Jonah growled, "and you," he pointed at Carlin, "stay the hell out of that ship before you get us all in deep shit."
"Yeah, well, I may have already done that."
"Carlin!"
Carlin held up his hands. "Okay, okay!" He looked around at the others nearby, almost furtive, but before Carlin could even consider getting his own breakfast the horn bellowed and everyone (Thera with Jonah's help) got up and started to head to their duty stations.
Brenna was in her office, the room that seemed so often to define her entire universe, when there was a rap on her door.
"Yes?"
Brenna was surprised to see Kaegan stick her head into the office. The dark-complexioned woman was the sort who did her job but didn't do a lot of extraneous socializing, certainly not with her superiors. Brenna tried to remember if she'd ever actually spoken with Kaegan outside of arranged circumstances.
"A moment, Brenna?"
"Of course, Kaegan. There's not a problem, is there?"'
Kaegan stepped into Brenna's office and frowned dourly. "There might be."
Brenna came to attention and gestured for Kaegan to continue.
"It's about Carlin."
Brenna was instantly queasy with ill portent. Before the second stamping, what Kaegan and the others had been told was a severe case of night sickness, Kaegan and Carlin had been comrades. They may have even become friends but when Carlin came back from his second stamp procedure with no memory of Kaegan and shortly thereafter took up with Jonah and Thera the fledging friendship died on the vine. Kaegan's feelings about Thera were well-known and she had not been willing to lower to befriending someone who also ran in Thera's circle. Brenna never understood the animosity between the two women, but luckily the second stamping procedure seemed to end the overt bad blood. Thera didn't remember Kaegan didn't like her and Kaegan seemed perfectly content to be forgotten by the blonde woman. Whatever had precipitated the original ill-will between the two had not recurred and when Thera became occupied with her pregnancy not long after the second stamping Kaegan had never entered into Thera's concerns.
It did not mean the original opinion of Thera was not still there. Kaegan, while no longer openly butting heads with Thera, still didn't like her. Jonah, either. Similarly, she also maintained some manner of fondness for Carlin. If Kaegan was here reporting a problem with Carlin it was not some idle quibble. She wouldn't want to get Carlin in trouble, which was what worried Brenna. If Kaegan had come to report Thera or Jonah Brenna would have been less on-edge, but this was about Carlin. That was a different matter entirely.
"What seems to be the problem?" Brenna asked reluctantly.
Kaegan looked down at the floor uneasily. "A number of the workers on my mining crew have noticed him during our shift sneaking into the caves."
"Why?" Brenna asked, afraid she already knew the answer.
Kaegan frowned, genuinely stumped, and shrugged. "I don't know. I'd never actually seen him myself until last night, but apparently it's been going on for some time now."
"Have you talked to him about his activities?"
"Yes, because I thought maybe he couldn't sleep and thought he'd come to help out my team. You know, Carlin could just do random generous things like that, even if I thought it was strange he never cleared it with me first.
"He said he didn't know what I was talking about, completely denied being out of barracks on his off-shift."
Brenna frowned. "I see."
"He hasn't done anything to hamper our progress in the mines; I wasn't even sure I should report him, because he wasn't doing any harm..."
"You did the right thing, Kaegan," Brenna said. 'Though I wish you hadn't,' she thought sadly. She'd have to tell the administrator. There was only one thing Carlin could be doing, without permission, in the mining tunnels.
Brenna sighed. "I'll take care of it, Kaegan. Thank you."
Kaegan nodded. "It is an honor to serve," she recited, then she paused before leaving and studied Brenna with intent dark eyes. "Is he night sick?"
Brenna sat back slowly in her chair. "Yes, Kaegan, he might be, but don't worry... we'll take care of him."
