Road to nowhere, Arc 4 of "Gone with the Sun"
Chapter 43 Night Flight
The lark ascending
Liara waited by the dock gate with Coreen Lemaes as Coats approached with Bryson. They were almost the last passengers for the head of the Nest chain. They stopped just short and Coats threw a sloppy, happy salute. "Two more for the Skylark, ma'am."
Liara turned to Ann Bryson. "How much?"
"He and Williams got into a stupid competition, I think it was five shots before Hackett came in and gave them the evil eye. I heard Williams say whups and make like she was asleep at the bar."
"Nonsense, m'dear. She slid to the ground 'cos she can't hold her liquor. And 'm not on duty, evil eyes don't work on me."
Liara sighed. "If I have to notice this it will be bad. Do see him safely below, Ann."
"You can't notice me. 'M a colonel now. Staff rank, hey?"
"A civilian cat may look at a King, colonel, and this uniform" – Liara tweaked the lapel of her very civilian business suit – "outranks anything military. Especially once you're on board. Pegasus might be a civilian ship but I am the captain. Go sleep it off."
"Got plenty of time to sleep later. Got months to sleep."
Coreen Lemaes was unimpressed. Ann Bryson did not look happy. But captain T'Soni resolutely failed to take offence. Coreen sighed a sigh.
"Dr Bryson. Get him to, um. The Engineering subwell. Let's see if he can work out where he is, and who he is, when he wakes up. Those two others, Liara?"
Another human and an asari were appearing in the middle distance from baggage claim. Ann turned as she gently urged Coats through to the airlock. "That's James Vega. I don't know the other one."
Liara looked up, distracted from her manifest. "Ah. Treeya Nuwani. A very young old student."
Vega was carrying his duffel over his shoulder, and a pack for a small asari with whom he was having an… animated discussion about baggage. They barely noticed Lemaes' presence till Vega bumped into her. He looked up in some surprise, not at all disconcerted by the stony glare.
"Hey, babe. Hi Liara, sorry, couldn't see you for the duffel. I think my footlocker's already aboard? We came on the Normandy's shuttle."
"So where's mine, you military clown?" Nuwani was not very happy.
"Hey, I'm not actually your flunky. My duffel was in baggage claim. You got me to carry this thing, I thought you'd filled out a baggage transit request too."
"You said last night you'd handle it!"
Liara inclined her head at Lemaes, who retreated to the gate's comm terminal.
"Was I drunk?"
"How should I know? You were as bullheaded then as you are now!"
"That's 'cos I'm still drunk."
Liara quietly let them be, arguing the toss of who said what; she vehemently suspected a Vega ploy. After half a minute, Treeya registered her presence.
"Dr T'Soni? What are you doing here?" – as Lemaes looked up from the terminal and gave a nod.
"This is the good ship Pegasus, Treeya, Dr Liara T'Soni commanding. Is Mr Vega upsetting you? Or you him?"
"Oh. No," She put her hand to her mouth in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, I saw Pegasus on the boarding notice but had no idea it was Liara's. I only got the transfer request a day ago. This has been all very sudden."
"Not too sudden to be distracted by Lieutenant Vega, I see. James, I do believe you are drunk." Vega looked thoroughly unrepentant. "I think perhaps it would be best if you were to catch the next frigate. In, um, three days' time. That would be… Overlord. Oh good, that means you will be Miranda's problem." James gaped, looking altogether very sober. Liara rather doubted that he had ever been drunk.
"And you can have a discussion with baggage claim about forwarding Treeya's footlocker. I'm sure Kahlee's apartment will be a comfortable stopover meanwhile."
Lemaes raised an quizzical eyebrow; she had already located the missing item. Treeya just looked very alarmed.
"No! I mean, I'll buy new clothes if need be from the commissary! I can do that, can't I? Don't put James off on my account."
"Are you sure?" James was now merely looking apprehensive.
"Yes!" Now Liara cast a glance at Lemaes.
"I spoke to a Steven Cortez, and he's sending the required item off now, ma'am."
"Very well, panic over. Vega. You and Nuwani here will bunk in the port cargo bay."
"What, together, Liara? I mean, ma'am?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. I'm sorry, but you two are the last to board, the crew bunks are all allocated. Unpack and show Nuwani here how to rig a restraint harness. I mean, crash webbing. You have," she consulted her omnitool, "around twenty-five minutes. Move, Lieutenant."
Red light district
Coats woke in a cramped toolspace, lit red to preserve actinic vision. He hadn't undressed and his restraint harness was still tight. From long practice his hand found the manual detent and unlatched the webbing without much input from a still-groggy ego.
God, how did I get here? Pieces of that last wild party stitched together as he pulled on his boots and took the elevator to the crew level, where he spent a few minutes cursing his headache, his stupidity, whiskey, alcohol intolerance, and naval toilets, not necessarily in that order.
"Coffee," he croaked at the laevo service VI. It came, a default ristretto. He didn't care and retreated to the table. He was finishing it by the time Bryson passed by.
"Ann!" She turned. "Look, sit a moment, would you?"
"I'm getting tea. You look like you've had quite enough fluids."
"Would you deny a drink to a dying man?"
"Hmm. Let me think about that."
Laughing hurt. He got up and ordered tea, Earl Grey, no milk, by her side.
"Look, I'm sorry. In vino veritas, and all that."
"Mm hmm. I didn't say no."
Coats' brow furrowed, trying to recall more detail. He'd been smitten by the xenobiologist since meeting her at Archer's lab, and pursued her in a necessarily sporadic fashion over the next few months. She seemed to enjoy the attention, but for some reason she was a very reluctant potential girlfriend.
She'd finally gone out with him just before his appointment to the Orizaba by Hackett. He'd then made a fairly lewd proposition at a wild party after returning from the revelations and celebrations over Shepard at N-5. It probably hadn't gone well, but the annoying thing was that he couldn't remember the details, and nothing about her answer.
"You didn't?"
She shook her head, smiling. "Of course I'll go Reaper hunting with you. In fact, I've been ordered to."
"Uh…"
"Let's get you and your tea back to your bunk. We've hours to go yet."
…
Hot bunking
Bellerophon was smoothly guiding Pegasus through waypoints to Mare Crisium and the L-1 relay when Liara came up and took the co-pilot seat.
"At least we don't have to stress about tracking space debris anymore." What remained was tracked centrally in a database the Pegasus VI consulted at each waypoint. Cislunar space was now repopulated with satellites; the shattered trash from the old ones was being steadily picked up by robot swarms, and most of all that was now in orbits lower than the Citadel.
"Once the Citadel's in a geosynchronous orbit there's really nothing between us and the moon."
For a variety of reasons short-term repairs were simpler in geosynchronous orbit. Once basic structural integrity had been restored these went much faster than anticipated, on account of the keepers. The downside was the keepers would without hesitation or notice raid construction materials stored for other projects.
"Tevos tells me the medium-term plan is to place the Citadel at the L2 point, well into Earth's anteumbra, so there would be shade – the Sun would oscillate through annular eclipses."
"I guess once relays with sufficient capacity are built it might be hauled back to the Widow nebula?"
"That would be an asari lifetime away, and I don't hear massive rumblings about that except from the Batarians." Bellerophon had a chuckle there. "They're too busy building B-21 to do more than flick the occasional ambassador our way by shuttle and complain."
This was perfectly true, but also somewhat undiplomatic. Liara changed the subject. "ETA for L-1?"
"Fifteen minutes, ma'am. I want to run the Overlord waypoint track."
"On a maiden voyage?"
"I've taken it to L-2 on shakedown, ma'am. It was within centimetres of the aiming point when I took Peacemaker through. It seems quite predictable and Coats is in a hurry to get to Orizaba. He's supposed to be on the skeleton crew."
"Alright. I don't think he's in that much of a hurry, but you'd better sound for transit stations and restraints…"
…
"Oh, bugger."
"Well, come on then. It's probably a little late for me to go back to the crew level, don't you think? Buckle me in with you."
…
"Ma'am? Ann Bryson's webbing telltale is still red, but flickering. So is Treeya Nuwani's." This meant the bunks were not only unrestrained, but empty.
"Perseus, commander's surveillance override." Liara checked the surveillance cameras in port cargo and subdeck stairwell.
"They're tight, Flight Lieutenant. Proceed."
Next chapter: #44, "Dust and water"
Sunday, July 26, 2015