Chapter 27
November 16th, 1925 P.D. 0605 hours
"Are you sure you have everything you need, birthday girl?" Matt asked.
Rachel closed her duffel bag and tossed some things into her backpack. "I'm sure. We're only going to be gone a week, Yanakov station is right there," Rachel said, pointing up, "and there's a store on the station if I need anything. I'll have a cupcake or something tonight."
She looked at Hipper. "Ready for another adventure?"
He flitted his tail and chirped in agreement. Matt took her duffel, she her backpack, and they went downstairs.
"All packed?" she asked Nate and Robert.
"Yes, m'lady."
Rachel held out her arms for Matt. "Come on. Time for me to go."
He gave her a crushing hug and kiss that took her breath away.
"Please be careful, I love you," he said.
"Always, and I love you more," she returned.
Hipper hopped his shoulder and bumped his face against Matt's cheek. "Look out for each other, okay?"
Hipper nodded and trotted to the door. Matt watched his bride, Hipper, and her armsmen get into the car and drive away.
"Dave?" he asked.
"M'lord?"
"We were apart for three months, surely I can get by for six days, right? If you see me start moping, say something, okay?"
Sergeant Ashton's lips twitched. "Certainly."
—
Rachel finished arranging her mission kit and closed her locker with a sigh.
"You're quiet this morning," Natalie said.
"I'll be fine," Rachel replied and fiddled with the hem of her jacket. "Look, if you see me moping, say something?"
"Aww, newlywed blues," Natalie sang.
"We were apart for months, I can make it for six days," she said. "How long have you been married?"
"Seven months," Natalie said.
"So you're a newlywed yourself."
"I guess?"
"Ensigns Goodson and Cordell," Lt. MacLeod called out.
The two took their gear in hand and went to their section leader.
"How long do you need to prep the shuttle?" he asked.
Rachel and Cordell looked at each other.
"Half hour for inspection and pre-flight, sir," Cordell answered and she nodded in agreement.
"Good, be prepared to take off at 0730," the lieutenant said.
"Aye sir," they chorused and left D&P.
—
In the hangar they began the pre-flight inspection of the shuttle assigned to the Office of Shipbuilding. Cordell was inspecting the landing struts when Rachel poked her head from the cabin.
"There's a weird smell in here," she said.
"Who flew it last?" he asked.
She looked at her memo board. "Uh...last week's duty pilot."
He joined her inside and they looked throughout the interior of the craft for the source of the smell. She opened the last aft storage compartment and they snatched their head back at the stench.
"I'll head to the maintenance locker to find something to clean this up," she said.
He returned to the exterior inspection. "I'll finish up out here."
She went to the maintenance lockers lined up on the bulkhead and opened the first one. It contained tools for quick, minor repairs to the shuttle's interior furnishings.
"Something I can help with, ma'am?" a voice asked.
"I need some cleaner and air freshener," she said to the spacer.
He nodded and opened a locker further down the row. She looked at the shelves and chose a cleaner, air freshener, scrub brush, and some cloths.
"Thanks," she said and left the locker area.
The spacer nodded. "Ma'am."
Back inside the shuttle, she covered her nose and mouth with a cloth and sprayed the offending gunk. She worked at it a bit with the scrub brush, then wiped the mess with a cloth. Satisfied, she finished the task with the air freshener and returned the things to the maintenance lockers.
—
Ensign Cordell was the assigned mission pilot, so Rachel observed from the flight engineer's station while the team boarded the shuttle. On her memo pad, she checked off everyone assigned to the mission: Lt. MacLeod, Ensigns Stratton and Ingram, Chief Jansen, PO2 Adamson, and Spacer Wendlow. Lt. Michaelson from the Repair and Refit division was also present. Cordell performed a comms check with her and Alvarez Field. When they entered space, they would be under the control of Yanakov Station flight control. When everyone had stowed their gear, sat down, and buckled up, Rachel walked through and checked the passenger compartment. She made sure the stowage compartments were secure, no stray gear or belongings were about, and everyone was correctly and securely buckled in.
Cordell's voice was heard through her headset. "Everything ready to go back there?"
She sat down at the flight engineer station and buckled in. Hipper hopped onto her lap and settled in for the trip. "Roger that, Johnny, we're ready for departure."
Cordell made a smooth departure from the planet, and they settled in for the thirty minute flight to Yanakov Station. Rachel looked forward to seeing the pride of the Office of Shipbuilding and its most ambitious project to date, Yanakov Station. The station consisted of two pentagonal prisms, 200 meters apart, joined at the corners by reinforced battlesteel girders. The top structure was living quarters, mess facilities, recreational and gym facilities, a Randleman's Cafe location (the first Randleman restaurant location off planet), ship's store, and bays for small craft. Elevators connected to the bottom structure, where ships were built, refit, and repaired.
Through her earbuds, Rachel heard the station's flight control give directions for the shuttle's arrival.
"Shuttle oscar sierra oh-one, you are directed to bay alpha two, transmitting beacon, time now."
"Roger, station control, signal received," Cordell responded.
"Slow to standard approach speed, prepare for tractor control."
"Roger that, slowed to approach."
"Power down thrusters on my count...three, two, one, now."
There was a brief shudder throughout the shuttle when Cordell shut down the thrusters and the station's tractor took control.
"Good lock, station."
"Roger that."
#
When the team departed the shuttle, Lt. MacLeod led his team to station administration and checked them in.
"Yes sir...would you all please come forward and insert your ID cards into this console?" a yeoman PO2 requested. "You'll need your cards to enter your quarters, log in to station computers, and the mess hall and station store registers. Questions?"
They all looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Now that you're checked in, you can access the station net. It features a station map, personnel contact information, and the schedules for station facilities. Additionally, there will always be personnel here for information."
"Thank you," Lt. MacLeod said and turned to the team. "All right, let's find our quarters and then get some breakfast before we get to work."
In their assigned quarters passageway, the female and male officers were placed in rooms across from each other. She and Stratton, as the only females, chose two bunks in the six-bunk space. Hipper inspected the room while she tended to her gear. She removed her tool bag from her duffel, placed her duffel in the foot locker at the end of her bunk, and placed her backpack in a nearby locker.
"Is everything to your satisfaction, sir?" she asked the 'cat and Natalie snickered.
He flitted his tail and went to the door. It was past his breakfast time and he wanted to get to it.
"Thank goodness, I had to share quarters with males on my snotty cruise," Rachel said.
"Were there any issues?" Natalie asked and they left their room.
"Nope, but the only quarters I feel comfortable sharing with a male is my husband," Rachel said.
They waited in the corridor for rest of their team across the way. After a few minutes, they left their room and they headed for the officer's mess. As she scanned the breakfast buffet offerings, she saw that there was no celery. She gave Hipper's ears a scratch and went to the nearest galley spacer.
"Excuse me, but do you have any celery? Or tuna or salmon?" she asked and nodded at Hipper perched on her shoulder.
"Yes ma'am, we just don't have salad stuff out at breakfast. But if you wait a minute, I'll go and get some," he said.
"I'll wait, thank you."
The spacer returned with a small plate that had a stalk of celery and some tuna on it. He gave it to her and said, "The tuna is from a ration pack, and the celery is from our hydroponics gallery."
"Thank you," she said and Hipper signed thank you to him as well and started on the celery.
A weathered, middle-aged galley Bosun joined them. "Ma'am, this is the first time we've had a treecat in our galley. What else does he...or she, eat?"
"Aside from celery and tuna, he eats salmon, rabbit, mutton sausage, and pineapple."
"We've got celery and tuna out on the salad line for lunch and supper, but none of that other stuff," the Bosun replied.
"Please don't worry about it. He's good now, thank you," she said and held up the plate.
"How long are you here for, ma'am?" the Bosun asked.
"Six days."
He nodded. "I'll have some celery and tuna set aside for breakfast for him."
"That's very kind, thank you."
She made her breakfast selections and joined her team.
"What was that all about?" Lt. MacLeod asked.
"They don't have celery out at breakfast, I had to ask for it," she said.
"My roommate at my old barracks has a treecat, and he only ate celery, nothing else. What else does Hipper eat?" Natalie asked.
"Tuna, salmon, rabbit, mutton sausage, and pineapple," Rachel said.
"I tried to give him a donut once, he turned up his nose at it," Lt. MacLeod added.
"Most 'cats don't like sugary, sweet stuff," Rachel replied.
I forgot to bring your freeze-dried rabbit, sorry, she signed.
He held up the half-eaten celery stalk and shrugged. I could have remembered, we both forgot. No need to worry.
#
After breakfast, the team took an elevator to the station's lower structure and found the bay where the Katana was waiting for its refit. A team from Repair and Refit had arrived at the station yesterday to prep the craft and bay for the refit. Lieutenant Commander Lighter stepped forward and greeted Lt. McLeod.
"Eric, good to see you," he said.
"Congratulations on your promotion," Lt. McLeod answered.
"You're telling me, I wondered if it would ever happen," Lighter said. "Come on, we're ready to get started."
The D&P team gathered around the Katana, which was raised from the deck higher than it normally rested, as they had to get under the thing.
"Ensign Mayhew?"
"Sir."
"Since this is your idea, you get to cut into the keel first," Lighter said.
"Thank you, sir."
She went to the tools and equipment stash positioned adjacent the Katana. She saw a spinning three-dimensional view of the craft on a nearby viewer and stopped it to close in on the current task. Get this right! Although she was a trained and educated Engineer (Starship), attained dome watch certification, and flown the duty shuttle a bit, she felt that her competence and capability would ultimately be tested with this design and production. She rolled the measurement and cutting device under the Katana, double-checked the placement, and turned it on. She entered the specifications and saw the illuminated "blueprint" on the hull, transmitted from the device. She put on safety goggles on, made sure the device supports were secured to the deck, and turned on the plasma cutter. She ran it through the diagnostic troubleshooting, and seeing no problems, nodded to herself and activated the cutter. She glanced to her right and saw Spacer Wendlow intensely watching the scene. She got his attention, tapped her goggles, and gestured for him to join her. He was fresh out his nine-month Structural Technician school and this too was his first project, so he didn't hesitate when the smart and pretty ensign gestured him forward.
They watched the cutter's plasma beams follow the illuminated pattern, and Lt. Commander Lighter joined them and nodded at the progress. A PO with a skid loader approached and Rachel guided him forward so that magnetic spears rested just under the 1.8 by 2.4 meter, 272 kilogram piece of hull plating. When the piece was moved away, she and the spacer looked at the empty space in the hull.
"That was the easy part," she grinned.
Next, a couple of techs moved inside the Katana to work. While they were doing that, Rachel uncrated the newly-built bracket for the scrubber and Natalie joined her to carry it to the Katana. They positioned it under the cut-out space and began measuring and cutting the new cables, wiring, and hoses. Inside the craft, hull techs working to cut out the scrubber and frame would take a while, as there was much less space to work with, more fixtures and hull cabling to work around, and they had to use hand-held cutters.
#
Matt and Lew sat with some of their classmates at the university cafeteria and chatted over lunch. Their guest lecturer that week was a star cardiac surgeon from Beowulf and conversation was buzzing about his visit.
"The competition for interns at his clinic are murder," someone was overheard saying.
Matt and Lew glanced at each other and shrugged, and one spoke.
"Goodson, your father's a doctor, isn't he?"
Matthew nodded, chewed, and swallowed. "Emergency medicine. Head of the department at Redmond Community Hospital."
"Tell me again, what specialty are you aiming for?"
"Emergency medicine."
"So you've probably got a job waiting for you, right?"
Matthew chuckled. "I need to get through medical school first, and since the Navy is paying for my education and training, I have to give them six years."
"Really?"
"Really," Matt and Lew chorused.
"Does that bother you?"
"Why would it? I knew what I was doing from the moment I signed my appointment. Yeah, my family thought I was nuts for going all the way to Manticore when we had an academy here, but...I met my wife there, made best friends for life, and received world-class education and training. No regrets."
After lunch, Matt waited for Lew outside of the university registrars office and looked over a text. He felt a tap on his right elbow and looked that way.
"Walker," he nodded.
"Got a minute?" Walker asked.
"Sure."
"Um...I overheard your conversation at lunch...listen, I'm up to my eyeballs in tuition debt. I heard that the Navy will pay off my pre-med tuition, and pay for med school if I sign up to be a Navy doc. Is that true?" he asked.
Matt nodded. "With conditions, but yes. However, don't let debt be the reason you sign up."
"You're a reserve officer now, right? What do you do?"
"I spend the second weekend of every month at the Alvarez Field Hospital ER. Some are posted at the McKenzie Academy clinic for a weekend, or some are up at the Yanakov Station clinic."
"You get paid?"
Matt nodded. "I get a monthly student stipend, and active duty pay for the weekends. You know, the military recruiters went over all this our senior year of high school, and they have career centers in all the universities."
Walker nodded sheepishly. "Never paid much attention to it, to be honest."
"Don't let such a life-changing decision be all about the money. At the least, this is six years of your life we're talking about. What if after you sign on the dotted line, you find that it wasn't for you? You don't have a choice about who you work with in the Navy or where you're sent. The best advice I can give you is talk it over with your family, then the officer recruiter, and come to an informed decision."
Matt chucked him on the arm and left with Lew when he finished in the office.
"What did Walker want?" Lew asked.
Matt told him about the conversation. At the end, Lew nodded. "Yeah, he needs to do it for the right reasons. I joined up to do my part, get an education, and see the galaxy. I took it a step further by coming here for a woman. No regrets," he grinned, repeating Matt's earlier assertion.
#
That night, Rachel settled on her bunk after a shower and ran a brush through her damp hair. She opened her personal computer comms and signaled Matt. It was just after 1900, so she reckoned he would be either be downstairs shooting pool or studying in the office off their bedroom. After a half-minute, his face appeared and he smiled when he saw her.
"Evenin, sweetheart. I know I said this morning, but happy birthday."
"Well, happy birthday!" Natalie told her.
"Thanks."
"I felt a little lonely coming home to an empty house."
Natalie made silly kissing noises and then murmured, "You know what, I'll make a call too."
"The house is hardly empty."
"But you're not here...Hipper?" he asked.
She turned the screen to where Hipper was laid out on the empty bunk adjacent hers. He lifted his head, flicked his ears at the screen, and laid his head back down.
"How was class?" she asked.
"We have a guest lecturer this week, a cardiac surgeon from Beowulf. You?"
"Cut up and dismantled an LAC."
He held up a finger. "Speaking of that…"
She put her earbuds in and relaxed back on her bunk to continue the conversation in private.
#