Projects progress, and Young finds Rush more amenable to interaction.
Rush sat in the control chair on the bridge. The ship was in a stationary orbit around one of the gas giants, the seedship was fabricating more panels for the dome repair and being honest there was little for him to do. Being on the bridge when Destiny was stationary was a somewhat conflicting responsibility. Whilst he was certain his presence was necessary, for various reasons, not least of which was that it was his ship, the shift was somewhat slow.
In front of him, Calvos was teaching Airman Barnes how to read the short range sensor array with little asides into Ancient vocabulary. Rush himself was running sensor sweeps of the atmosphere of the planet below, vaguely wondering what the seed ships manufactory could make with the components of it. There were significant amounts of liquid methane clouds as well as nitrogen and based on the seed ship's ability to acquire air and water for them at the previous stop there was a strong chance harvesting methane and nitrogen were well within its capabilities.
Not that he had a use for them yet, but it wasn't like they were short on storage space. There was a strong possibility it could provide constituents to replace the still leaking coolant fluid, but the need to fix that was a debate he had no hope of winning till the Dome was complete. He opened up the panel to look at the progress of the manufactory controls. That at least was almost complete.
Now he just had to wait for the two parties undertaking work for the dome, Volker and Scott on the shuttle and Brody and Atienza around the dome itself to get back to him back with further information.
He looked at the supply manifesto for the dome constituents. He paused, rubbing his jaw with the back of a finger. There was the secondary dome also. Smaller than the garden dome, they had checked it and written it off on arrival, it had a big hole in the dome, wasn't holding atmosphere and didn't have the connections into the ships air and water systems that designated it as a garden area. It was no more useful in that respect than any other room that was still intact.
However, if they had the supplies to fix it available, it might make sense to get it done. Maybe they could even connect it up to the air and water systems. He turned the idea over in his head, then increased the fabrication quantities of glass and struts. Better to have it available, it was spares in case any were damaged working on the main dome anyway and there was storage space on the seed ship.
And that thought brought him back to the storage rooms. The investigation party for the storage room were also preparing for a first trip towards the storage again. This time the plan involved additional investigation of a few of the rooms that opened off the route, as some random late night map investigation by Brody and Volker had suggested that there might be some engineering or scientific facilities on side corridors. However until the day itself, his involvement in that expedition was only peripheral, due to his inability to join the party. He flexed the fingers of his injured hand cautiously, wincing a little.
So much time wasted waiting on other people.
Resting his injured hand in his lap, he went back to his examination of the manufactory controls and how to create items from scratch once the dome panels were finished. That at least he was able to work on immediately.
His first test objects were going to be glassware for Lieutenant Johansen made from the surplus dome glass. He was sure that she would be more than grateful for some completely heat resistant, practically unbreakable containers and other medical supplies. His first project would be two mortar and pestles, so she did not need to continue grinding dried barks to powder with the hilt of a combat knife and a spoon, followed by some containers and stoppers. He began to manipulate the system to define the dimensions in the work scheduling program. Anything to keep his mind occupied.
xxxoooxxx
Young found himself drifting into the core interface room later that evening. Rush was running figures on a console, occasionally referring back to a diagram. It looked to Young like it was related to the work Brody had done earlier on the dome.
Young was really missing the dome. He hadn't been in there that often, but when he was in there he had appreciated the room. With the plants and the water the air in there felt almost real, almost like being outdoors. Even Icarus though it was an underground bunker had had access to the surface, to fresh air, sun and the wind on his face.
"You know what I miss." Young mused.
Rush looked up from the console with a querying look.
"Weather."
Rush gave him a slightly disbelieving look.
"It's always the same on Destiny." He said. "And we wouldn't want it not to be." He added hastily at Rush's scowl.
"No." The other man said sourly. "Because that would mean that the life support was damaged."
Young sighed. "Fresh air?" He suggested.
"That maybe." Rush admitted, tapping at the keyboard. "You didn't get outside when you were back on Earth?"
"I wasn't quite in the mood when I got away from the emails." Young scowled. "I just want her to stop hassling me."
"You're not happy she's moving on?" Rush looked up at him.
"Maybe I haven't got any leg to stand on in this. I mean I'm kind of seeing someone as well." Young said. It had the feeling of an admission as he spoke. "Though you aren't someone she knows."
"Not likely to cause quite the same emotional impact." Rush agreed.
"I don't know why I'm talking to you about this." Young said looking away in embarrassment.
"I don't know how we managed to get from talking about lack of weather to talking about your ex-wife." Rush muttered sharply.
Young's gaze flicked back to him, but Rush's face was not in tune with the tone of his voice, almost as if the response was given automatically.
Rush shut down the console, stepped out and to Young's surprise, walked over to him putting a hand on his arm.
"My turn to tell you to come to bed now?" He asked.
Young gave him a rueful grin. "Yeah. Lets go."
xxxoooxxx
Young watched the shuttle manoeuvre carefully, and the panel begin to drift almost imperceptibly away as the magnetic docking clamps released it from the feet of the shuttle. The suited figures, Brody and Atienza - Young was not sure which was which, caught it and gradually redirected it down, into the dome, feet locking on an intact wall of the dome room as they walked down towards the floor and the hole the panel would fill.
Eight more panels. Just eight more panels and the walls were complete and the area around the dome sealed against vacuum. If it all worked.
After the walls, then the dome struts. After the dome struts then the dome glass. Then the refit of the garden. And then there would be fresh food again. There was a little being grown at the moment, dotted in various points over the ship like house plants, mainly to see if plants they had picked up would grow. Rutabananas appeared to be like the purple sweet potatoes and grow like weeds in anything you tried to grow them in. The crunchy radishy roots were less successful.
On the other side of the bridge, Rush was watching the exploration party to the far storage room making occasional comments. Young had not really wanted to be running that excursion at the same time as the dome repairs, but he wasn't going to let anything stop those.
"Stop!" Rush's voice cracked out. "Go round those crates. You can't see it from there, the kino is higher than you."
"Where are you looking?" Chloe asked.
"Far right corner, on the wall." Rush said.
Young could see him moving the kino, his hands on the controls even if Young couldn't see the screen from here.
"Colonel," Rush looked over at him. "I think you're going to want to see this."
Rush tapped at the console and a holo-screen appeared in front of Young, the kino feed, the back wall of the storage room.
Three more space suits. Just hanging on the wall, almost exactly like they had found the others.
"What room is this?" Young asked.
"Some sort of repair station." Rush said. "These are all tools and some emergency repair kits. There's some squingies and other components. Not many left though, and the crates look like they've been opened by repair robots, see the clamp marks on the lids."
"We need some more of those robots." Young said.
"When I actually find any time to go through the whole inventory of the manufactory and work out what the hell everything is, you might actually get some."
Young ignored him and toggled the communications. "Chloe, pick them up and come back. Everything else can wait till tomorrow."
"Are you sure about that?" Rush asked him.
"Six suits?" Young asked incredulously. "I'm damn certain. It'll drop hours off the repair time for the dome."
"If they work." Rush said.
"Even if we can only fix one, it'll speed us up." Young said. "With those you might actually get your coolant leak fixed."
Rush's look spoke volumes.
"There's no need to humour me, Colonel."
Young chuckled. "I'm being realistic." He said. "I'll leave the pessimism to you. With six suits, we're in a much better position."
"Possibly." Rush said. He flexed his injured hand uncomfortably.
"Well, it's up to you." Young countered. "You're the only one I can spare to fix them."
Rush just scowled.
xxxoooxxx
The suits tested reasonably well. The seals were still sound, but two required some repair to the control systems and one of those to the locking mechanism on the feet. It took Rush two days to get them all working and fully tested.
Young spent the two days swapping shuttle shifts with Scott. He had taken Greer as his co-pilot leaving Volker to work with Scott. Once the new suits were finished though, he was going to have to make a decision on who to put in the suits. Volker was used to working with Brody and would look like the obvious choice, though he actually didn't have the engineering background and had very limited suit time. Greer on the other hand had a great deal of suit time and was fine to follow orders from Brody and knew his way round the welding torch. Either choice would leave them without a co-pilot for one of the ships.
Chloe and Barnes had made their way through to the other storage chamber. Like the first it was almost stripped of parts for repairs, but included a few more mundane items, such as bed linens, tableware, buckets and containers for liquids which looked to hold about eight to ten gallons to Young's eye. The small party had spent a day identifying items, then Young had dispatched some less technical staff to start clearing it into the other room to leave it free for a second hydroponics room. The kino-sled had also been loaded up with a selection of items and brought back.
It was reasonably late when he got back to his quarters again. Rush was sitting on the edge of the bed, rolling his shoulders and wincing.
"Pain?" Young asked.
"Just stiff." Rush muttered. "Been hunched over those suits for two days."
Rush bent over to remove his shoes and winced with an inhale of breath.
Young looked over at the counter. The medicated ointment Rush had had for his hands was there still.
"Take your shirt off and lay down on your front." Young said impulsively, walking over and picking up the ointment..
Rush gave him a disbelieving look.
"It'll fix you up quicker than anything else." Young said. "I mean you could just take some of TJ's tea, but you'll still wake up stiff. You let me work out the muscles you've got a better chance of waking up able to move properly."
With a huff that might have been laughter or irritation, Rush pulled off his pants and struggled out of his shirts. He gave Young a look, then took an elastic band from his pocket and bound his hair up in a ponytail high on the back of his head. Young watched as he lay face down on the bed then moved over to sit next to him.
"Ready?"
"As I'm ever going to be." Rush said, grimacing as he shifted, trying to find a comfortable position.
Young scooped out a blob of cream and warmed it between his hands, before putting his hands on Rush's shoulders. Rush twitched, groaned and then lay still as Young began to rub the muscles in his shoulders and neck. He went gently to start with, feeling out where Rush was most tense, where the worst knots were. It wasn't hard to find, Rush grimaced whenever he hit a sore spot.
He continued to work carefully at Rush's shoulders and neck. The quiet manual work and physical contact was relaxing for him as well as Rush, who as his shoulder muscles, began to loosen became progressively more relaxed all over.
"Better?" He asked Rush quietly.
Rush rolled his shoulders and hummed. "Yes, thank you." Rush's voice was equally quiet.
Young sat back a little, one hand still on Rush's shoulder. He looked down at the other man for a moment. Rush opened his eyes and blinked at him slowly.
"Bed?" Rush murmured.
Young gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Good idea."
He shucked out of his pants and jacket. Rush had not moved from his position on the bed, Young had expected him to pull a shirt back on, but Rush didn't seem very inclined to move. Young paused, looking at the almost naked man in his bed, then shrugged and turned out the lights. Under cover of darkness he lay down next to Rush and pulled the covers over them. He threw an arm over Rush.
He froze as Rush shifted a little, moving closer. Young was hyperaware of the bare skin under his hand, but Rush simply scooted over so his side was along Young's body, turning his head so his nose pressed up against Young's shoulder then relaxed again with a sleepy noise.
Rush was warm and the scent of medicated cream filled the gap under the covers. Young forced himself to relax from the feet up, dismissing the feel of bare skin against the arm that wrapped around Rush.