"This is the last time. Then we break it all down, stow
away and run final checks, and thirty hours for rest and
whatever recreation the dirty buggers can find. You're
behind now, you lazy bastards! Just because you're one
short doan't mean you can slack off!"
"You're missing crew?"
"Aye, thou could say so, couldn't he, people?"
"Aye, sir."
"They're missing me, Cap'n." Pateman said, and laughed
uproariously. "I get me hands dirty, on these jobs, like.
You're over time, people! You should be finished by now
and I see more'n three minutes of work left!"
"Bringing the last module on now, sir."
And over that, the computer's announcement:
"Commencing restoration of normal gravity: now.
Commencing restoration of atmosphere normal: now."
"Oh, shit." said Pateman. "Clear to the walls, people,
clear, clear!"
Pateman's crew were already pushing off from the units
they were working on, flinging themselves away from the
nearly-complete structure that was beginning to settle as
gravity returned to the Cargo Bay. The blasts of air as
atmosphere returned struck them, pushing them off
course, starting the starbase module moving sideways.
"Computer, gravity null in Cargo Bay 18!" Kirk snapped.
"Authority insufficient."
A suited figure tumbled past the handhold it had been
aimed at, started falling and knocked into one of the
assembled units. Other figures were trying to scramble
in midair, assuming collision positions or reaching to
grab crew mates who were spinning out of control. The
module drifted up against the wall, dislodging those
clinging there, and then rebounded and knocked two
figures who had been floating towards the floor, changing
their direction and shattering the face-plate on one suit.
"Computer, command override, Kirk, gravity null in
Cargo Bay 18!"
Pateman was clumping across the deck in his gravity
boots, heading towards a crew member who had hit the
ground hard and was trying to crawl away from the
descending construction. Moving surprisingly quickly
for his bulk, he heaved the fallen figure over one shoulder
and pounded back to the wall.
"Authority insufficient." the computer said.
The incomplete module was settling inexorably towards
the ground. One crew member had somehow ended up
beneath it, and was frantically trying to drag hirself
across the bottom of the module as it descended. Kirk
watched helpless as ze failed, and a scream of pain
echoed through the helmet comm. as hir leg was pinned.
The base section balanced for a moment on that point,
teetered in the other direction and then a blast of air hit
it.
Even as he ran forward, Kirk could see what was going to
happen. Slowly, but with the inevitability of dawn, it
tilted towards the helpless figure and began to fall.
Kirk reached the fallen figure and flung up his hands as
the module began to come down on him. Gravity was not
yet on full, but the structure had no less inertia although
it had less weight, and the shock of it forced a gasp
between his lips. He gritted his teeth and braced himself,
striving to turn the momentum around and force the
whole module back over, to fall safely.
Over the comm., someone unrecognisable was saying
"Get back! Get back! Get back!" Kirk looked down and
saw the white face of the injured woman, matched the
movement of her lips to the words echoing in his helmet.
He struggled with the weight, feeling it come down harder
and harder as gravity grew. Sweat streaming down his
face, he knew that in a minute his knees would buckle,
and then his shoulders give in, and that would be it.
Gloved hands at the edge of his vision, slamming into the
metal and another body beside him. Fat Harry Pateman,
face red with effort, getting his shoulder under the
weight, and then another pair of hands, and another.
Kirk felt his body settling in the suit as gravity came to
full but there were enough people there now and the
module grew not heavier, but lighter. Decisive voices
were giving orders about anti-grav units, and braces, and
then suddenly Kirk felt the module lift slightly away from
him and hover.
Cautiously, he took his hands down, and touched the
controls on the suit's chest.
"Medical to Cargo Bay 18, Medical to Cargo Bay 18, on
the double." he said, and then on a different channel,
"Scotty, get a repair crew to Cargo Bay 18 right away."
"Aye, sir."
Next to him, Pateman ripped off his helmet. "Christ on a
fuckin' crutch!" he said. "When I catch the daft bastard
who did tha', I'll have his balls!" And then, bending to
fumble with the helmet of the injured crew member.
"Aye, I'll have them an' I'll gie them to thee as earrings,
lass, how does that sound?"
"It sounds like a breach of General Order 9, subsections 3
and 14: insubordination and threats against a superior
officer." said a voice behind them, and Kirk turned,
slowly as his gravity boots were now more of a hindrance
than a help.
Commodore Whittaker stood in the doorway, looking
around at the remains of the Starbase module and the
crew working to stabilise it.
"I take it you were running behind schedule, Mr
Pateman?" he said. "It was five minutes past your
completion time when I ordered atmosphere and gravity
returned to normal."
"When *you* ordered -" Kirk started, clomping forward.
Whittaker gave him a look as bland and cool as day-old
custard.
"Why, yes, Captain, these operations are part of First In
services and under my command."
Whittaker's dignity was ruined a little at that point by
McCoy's appearance. The doctor barrelled past him and
tossed "Excuse me" over his shoulder as he dropped to
his knees beside the injured woman. Kirk looked down
and saw that the legs of her EVA suit were soaked
through with blood, and she was pale and limp. Worse,
McCoy was working without his usual running
commentary on the failings of Starfleet and the
excessively high expectations that institution had of its
medical personnel.
Kirk felt his anger rise again, now on a slow rolling boil
rather than a blaze. "Commodore Whittaker," he said,
"I would like to speak to you privately."
"Just one minute there." Pateman said softly. "Before
you two gentlemen go an' discuss whatever it is you have
on yer minds. Jack, I've always known thou wer't a
vicious little cunt, even if thou hads't the brass fooled,
but thou'rt outdone thyself this time. Did it occur to
thee to wonder how we were doin' before thou gav'st tha'
order, or was it too much for thy tiny mind to handle,
mor'n one thought in the same minute?"
"That'll do, Pateman." Whittaker said, and Kirk noticed
that despite his vast advantage in rank he looked nervous.
"Nay, lad, that won't do at all. I want an answer from
thee. Were it stupidity or malice that ga'e that order?"
"Pateman, you're dangerously close to insubordination."
"Oh, aye." Pateman said, scratching his massive neck.
"Insubordination an' I live on close an' intimate terms,
Jack. An' thou'rt dangerously close to havin' the inner
workin's o' thine own intestinal system shown to thee in
livin' colour. Endangering' my crew, Jack, I'll not be
havin' that. I'll thole a lot from thee, but I'll no' thole
tha'. And if yon lass dies, Jack, it'll be thee an' me in a
small room with the door locked. Clear, Jack?"
And then, as McCoy and Chapel fastened the straps on
the stretcher and began to float the injured woman to the
door, Pateman turned and stomped majestically after
them.
"The man's a fool." Whittaker said contemptuously as
Pateman's bulk receded out the door. "I have no idea
how many times in his career he's been broken back to
lower ranks, he never seems to learn that there are
things you don't *do* in Starfleet."
"I think 'fool' is a word I'd apply to someone who ordered
gravity restored to a null-grav worksite without adequate
warning to the people inside," Kirk said. "And I think I'd
class *that* as something you don't *do* in Starfleet."
"If they hadn't been behind schedule, there would have
been no problem." Whittaker said. "And there's no
damage done. Repairing the module can easily be done in
the time before we arrive, and far better for them to be
working than lounging about getting slack. They have to
keep their edge, Captain. These are First In services,
not starship crew."
"And that woman?" Kirk asked. "The one who had both
legs crushed?"
"We have no room for slowcoaches, not in our arm of
Starfleet, no indeed. Better we find out she's not up
to it now than further down the track."
"I will," Kirk said, "be making a full report of today's
occurrence, Commodore."
"From you, Captain, I would expect nothing less."
The repair crew arrived from engineering, breaking out
antigrav belts as they pelted across the floor and skidded
to a stop ten feet from the precariously braced module.
"There's no need for you, none at all." Whittaker
called to them. "First In will take care of this."
And then, looking more closely at the officer in
charge of the team, "and I hardly think the situation
calls for *your* particular skills, Ms Larssen."
Larssen did not even look at Whittaker, but turned to
Kirk, head tilted in enquiry.
"Go on with your work, Lieutenant." he said, and glanced
at Whittaker. "You can manage your crew however you
please, Commander, but I will not have an unsecured and
unsafe structure loose in my cargo bays."
He was on firm ground here, and Whittaker knew it. No
matter how highly ranked his passengers, a ship's captain
had the final word. Or at least, Kirk thought,
remembering the computer telling him he had insufficient
authority to order the gravity back off, he was
*supposed* to have the final word.
"As you wish, Captain." Whittaker said. "Now, if there's
nothing further? My technical crew's schedule has been
disrupted by Pateman's disregard for our planned
timetable." He strode out, head up, thin shoulders
straight.
Kirk stayed a few minutes to make sure that Larssen had
everything under control, and then went out into the
corridor and found a comm.
"Spock," he said, "something odd just happened with the
computer."
"Indeed, Captain." Spock replied, and Kirk could almost
*hear* the Vulcan's eyebrow go up. "What, precisely,
does 'odd' mean in this context?"
"Commodore Whittaker ordered gravity and atmosphere
returned to Cargo Bay 18. I countermanded the order
on a command over-ride and the computer told me I had
insufficient authority."
"One moment, Captain, I will examine the logs."
There was a brief pause.
"Captain, when the computer was instructed to treat
Cargo Bays 16 through 20 as First In service's zone for
the duration of this mission, it appears to have
interpreted that as constituting a separate command.
Consequently, by rank structure of Starfleet -"
"It wouldn't let me over-ride the orders of a Commodore,
particularly not as he was also officer of record."
"Precisely, Captain."
"Fix it, will you, Spock? And make sure it won't happen
again?"
"I assure you," Spock said, and Kirk imagined him giving
his console a disapproving look, "it will *not* happen
again. The new subroutines are still being integrated into
Enterprise standing orders, Captain, or it would never
have happened in the first place. Finalising the work on
the computer core is now my first priority."
"Very good, Spock." Kirk said. "Kirk out."
As he closed the channel the vibration of the deck plates
told him Harry Pateman was approaching, and a few
seconds later the gigantic figure rounded the corner, now
out of the remains of his EVA suit and in work coveralls
that strained to contain him.
"Your crew member." Kirk asked. "Is she...?"
"Alive? Aye, lad, though she'll have a long medical before
she comes back to us, if she comes back at all."
"An Enterprise repair crew is working with your people
inside." Kirk said.
"I'll try not to scare them, if tha' what's worrying thee."
Pateman said, and scratched his crotch. "Thankee for
lendin' a hand in there, Cap'n. Thou'rt a right fast
mover when needs be, I must say."
"I'll be making a full report." Kirk said.
''Full report' doan't scare the likes of Jerkoff Jack."
Pateman said. "He's got ways of makin' 'This pillock
needs to be shot' read like a recommendation for a
medal. Nay, lad, Jack only responds to the direct
approach."
"Does he have something against you?" Kirk asked.
"Aside from me charmin' personality?" Pateman said, and
roared at his own joke, clapping Kirk on the shoulder
with a force that staggered the smaller man. "Thou
coulds't say *I* had somethin' agin *him*. Aye, an' it
got me broken back to me current lowly state an' all." He
grinned horribly. "But it were worth it to see his face
when he saw the camera."
He walked to the Cargo Bay door with his usual air of
trying to beat the deck plates into submission, and then
looked back over his shoulder. "Doan't worry about
Jack Whittaker, lad. I've a long two weeks with him
before the next ships arrive." His smile was malevolent.
"An' in space, there's no-one to hear thee whimper."