Red dust was a common occurrence on the Centre-Val de Loire, it blew through the plains smoothly without being attenuated by the fauna that was once a natural deterrent for these gathering storms that covered everything in crimson rubble.
Alone, in freshly fallen red, stood a lonely fox woman and looked towards the east. The rest of Paris lay there in the distance, void of life. She still remembered the block in which her apartment building stood, the address, the little corner shop close to it, everything. It was a pile of rubble now.
The aliens left just walls and iron ribcages of the city's former wonders. She turned away, shaking her head. In a motion done so often that she didn't have to think about it, she patted her pockets for cigarettes. The apocalypse was maybe the worst moment to start a habit like smoking, especially with the supply being sparse, but it helped her forget the horrors at least for a few moments, and focus on the important things. She knew she wasn't a good role model for Laura, but she couldn't bring herself to stop.
She looked up into the sky and wondered what she did there. This whole idea was stupid, and the whole transmission was probably a ruse by the lizards. But still what she had seen six hours ago in the small underground facility that served the little group of survivors as shelter, was too specific to not at least take a look.
She remembered how she and Bentley stood around the little T.V. dumbfounded about what they had seen.
"Play it again." Carmelita said and stepped closer to the matt screen.
Bentley nodded and the turtle typed something on a laptop reconstructed from salvaged parts.
A white dog in a strange-looking uniform stood in front of a windowpane that obviously showed their planet from high above.
'This is Captain Dudley Puppy speaking. To all survivors of the lizard genocide. If you are still there, hold out. We have defeated the lizard's air forces and currently decimating their ground troops. Unfortunately, we see no chance of seizing permanent control of the planet, we just have an opportunity to flee as the lizard's fleet is approaching in a few days.' The dog took a deep breath and sighed. 'I know you've been through a lot and a random transition like that certainly is more than odd but time is of the essence. We will broadcast our communication frequencies. I urge you, to come with us.' The transmission ended and a stream of raw bits is displayed on the screen. Bentley turned off the recording.
"Definitely a trap." He said shaking his head. "What a cheap trick."
"I know him…" She slowly said making the turtle almost fall out of his wheelchair.
"You what?"
"I know him." She repeated but this time with a firmer voice. "But he should be dead, he died like 15 years ago."
"So, definitely a trap." Bentley nodded to himself.
"I don't know, it's… strange… I… He was the fiancée of a good friend of mine, to be honest I grew fond of him too, nice guy."
"Carmelita." Bentley sighed and folded his hands in his lap. "Just because he is an old friend it doesn't mean that this is not a trick of the lizards. You know what's at stake!"
"I have a daughter, Bentley, I do know but we can't go on like this!" Carmelita slammed her fist onto the T.V. almost breaking it in the process. "We lost 85 people over just a year, Bentley! How long are we supposed to go on like that?"
"I was there Carm." The turtle replied drily. "And your solution is to throw the last few into the lizards' maw? Laura too? What would Sly say?"
"He would have taken the risk." Carmelita's hand wandered to a golden hook she wore on her belt. Remnants of a cane. "Listen Bentley, if this is a lie, we will die. Simple. But can we really forgive ourselves if it turns out to be the truth? We have nothing to lose."
The turtle stared at the screen's static for a moment, like staring into the abyss. "Risking all that, because of a gut feeling?" he mumbled and then sighed. "We send one. If this Captain Puppy really makes contact, we can discuss fetching us. If not, well, we keep losses at bay."
Carmelita nodded, she knew this was the farthest she could push him. It took her a while to persuade him to send her but after arguing that she had the best chance to survive she set foot to a point where they sent over the frequency.
Carmelita looked at the sky again, gray, and cloudy as most of the time. She hadn't told Laura where she was heading. She just told her it was a supply run, that she was scavenging some ruins like most of them did, and that mommy would be back soon. The hope that this wasn't a lie dwindled with the minutes passing.
Thunder in the distance made her head turn. The lizards had built these enormous towers, big enough to be seen from ridiculous distances. They put one up to the northeast of them, far far away. The thing was higher than the mountains around it and usually just its tip was visible from their location but now, nothing.
Carmelita tried to look for the tower's spire everywhere, but it was just gone. Another look into the direction revealed a little dot on the horizon. Insignificant, small but still heading towards here. And the longer she focused on it the bigger it grew. Carmelita's eyes grew in horror, it was a lizard ship and it headed right toward her. It looked like an old lizard ship and Carm was about to run and hide as she realized the oddness of it.
Different more smooth-looking parts were welded onto it making it look like a Frankenstein's monster of technology that was now descending in front of her. This could have been a trick by the lizard's still, but it was too late to run now, her indecisiveness had decided her fate. Whatever was behind the slowly opening cargo door would be doom or salvation for her.
The cargo door was open and a lonely figure jumped into the red dust. It was an old reflex from when she still fought crime, more instinct than anything that made Carmelita draw her weapon. People coming toward her in that manner rarely were a good sign.
Coming closer she finally saw the face of the person approaching her and almost at the same time the two stood still like frozen in time. On one side, her, a war-tired emaciated former Interpol agent holding a gun, on the other side a seemingly unarmed white dog in a uniform which she saw on T.V. a few hours ago.
"Well… that's a surprise." Dudley said and crossed his arms. His grin almost spanned from ear to ear.
"Shouldn't you be dead?" She asked still not willing to lower her gun in the slightest.
The dog casually looked around and said. "I could say the same about you."
"I don't want to repeat my question." She sternly replied.
"That's a long story… I'll tell it to you onboard the shuttle, deal?"
Carmelita slowly but steadily lowered her gun. "I swear if this is a trick I will…"
"No trick, just me and a few friends of mine, just be prepared, they look odd." He said and gestured for her to follow him. The first human Carmelita saw seemed weirdly bald, oddly shaped, and kind of disgusting. Seeing the second one didn't make it better.
"Don't worry," Dudley said as he helped her strap into one of the seats. "It gets easier and they are mostly nice." He yelled something in a language she didn't understand, and the hatch closed. "So, Carm, are you a lonely survivor?"
"What?" Carmelita detached her stare from the few humans who tried with futuristic-looking welding torches to keep the ship in one piece.
"I know that sounded like a weird pickup line… what I wanted to say is where is the rest of your group?" Dudley said and beamed his smile at her. It made the surrealness of the situation more tangible, like Dali vomiting on a canvas. Carmelita explained in a few short words where the hideout was and what happened then was rather quick.
A flight, which was more than short, a quick speech from Dudley, and then a group of 20 survivors entering the ship. The first point at which Carmelita felt real again was when she embraced Laura. The little raccoon girl had run to her in the second she saw her.
Dudley nodded contentedly seeing his old friend and her daughter rejoice, all of these occurrences, no matter how rare, filled him with courage. Things were finally looking up.
"Dropship to Leviathan, this was the last load." He called to the ceiling and promptly received an answer.
"The yield of this is meager," Isaac said drily.
"I know, but we couldn't just leave people down here." Dudley sighed.
"I understand, yet…" The gritting of the scientist's teeth was loud enough to be transmitted. "Let us hope we did not squander too much time."
"We should have three days left." Dudley laid verbal hands on his friend's shoulder. "Before they know what's going on we stolen everything and are gone."
"About that, we will need another ship if Seema's estimation about the rest population is true."
"Isn't there something salvageable?"
"In the mess we made? You have to talk about that with Meliha, that's more an engineer's field of expertise."
"Will do, I'll put it on the agenda." Uttering this word was a triggering a sigh from the dog. "That's like item number eight million on there."
"Give it a higher priority," Isaac noted duly.
"Thank you Isaac."
"No n… hold on Meliha just came onto the bridge, she wants to discuss something."
"Captain!" The engineer called out excitedly. "What's your ETA?"
"Uhm, 5 minutes but after that I have to…"
"Let someone else do that!" She giggled even more excited. "I have interesting news! Meet as soon as you're back!" as quickly as she appeared she disappeared again leaving Dudley with Isaac again.
"Odd, as always." The scientist commented. "Is there anything else you need captain?"
"No, just keep my seat warm up there, would you?"
"I'll turn on the seat heater."
Dudley wasn't expecting Isaac to spend any more time on this talk and he wasn't disappointed as the transmission was cut.
One last time he gazed over the small group of people before he redirected his attention back to the clipboard. The more issues he could solve remotely the better it was for their time budget. The day just had a limited amount of hours and he couldn't spend them all with mediation of cultural differences.
The human crewmates weren't easy to handle for the survivors, especially because most of them had a very certain picture of how an animal should behave. Barely one of them lived during the plague that had rendered almost all animals extinct. But their folklore was full of them. Dogs, cats, bunnies, foxes, crows, every thinkable species present in every thinkable form of media. A few of them also still lived in zoos or under special confinement separated from human contact. There they were shown to human kids and adults alike.
Of course, they expected some of the behavior from Dudley's folk. During this short timespan of living together, he had to attend to cases like Tammy getting offered carrots on several occasions by several crew members. They meant well, still, it was threatening to her in a way. Or Snaptrap coming back from a stroll and finding hamster wheel in the room he shares with his roommate, a crew member named Denise Johnson, telling him that she would love to see him run in there.
The last one was also made more awkward by a bug in the translation software in Snaptrap's ear implant. These things might seem small but especially in this, for everyone, draining situation the order on board the ship had to be kept. A main part of the captain's role. Like in every job, everybody tells you about the space battles but no one about the bureaucracy.
The ship rendezvoused with the leviathan and soon the dog found himself in the reactor room. Engineers and mechanics alike were busy fixing up the hall that lacked the core element.
"Everything would be so much easier if we still had a core." Dudley thought as he approached Meliha who yelled orders to a group of nearby workers.
"No, the stabilizers have priority over the flux control!"
"Meliha." Dudley's voice made the woman spin on her heels and give him a tilted salute. "At ease." He quickly said and sighed. "Now, give me the idea you talked about."
"You see this room here, right?" she asked excitedly and gestured into the nothingness that once produced the ship's power. "Now what if, instead of a singularity, we pack a sun into it?"
"A fusion reactor?" Dudley gazed into the empty cavity. "For what reason?"
Meliha tilted her head confused and said. "For energy production purposes."
"I know but we neither have the Deuterium or the Tritium for that, nor is it going to power the ship."
"Yes not enough but we would have a healthy baseline for our operations." Meliha stepped closer to him and whispered in his ear. "I don't want to remind you captain what happens in case of a total power outage."
Dudley swallowed drily, he remembered the one time he was on board of a ship that ran dry. The cold and the slow suffocation weren't among his dearest memories. "Fine, but from where do we get hydrogen isotopes?"
"Oh way ahead of you captain." Meliha grinned and pointed towards the ceiling. "This moon of your former world should have more than enough of it, if you ask me, the lizards probably mine it there."
Dudley crossed his arms and looked into the cavity. "This sounds like a win-win for us if you are right." He nodded and looked back at her. "But I don't want to rely on the lizards mining what we need by chance. Take a few crew members and build a mining team."
Meliha looked sheepishly at the people around them repairing the hull. "I do not have anyone to spare here captain, in fact, my gals and guys work overtime to keep us from falling apart. I need more staff..."
Dudley took a deep breath and was about to put this problem on his ever-growing agenda as a thought bestirred itself in his head. "The majority of the tasks here, are they complicated or just busywork?"
"Most of it is pretty mindless, if we had androids, I would give it to them." She meant and Dudley grinned.
"I think a little cultural exchange could go a long way here, I'll get you a few hands but you got to overlook them, sounds good?"
"Sounds great." Meliha chuckled understanding him.
Dudley saluted once more and left the engine room checking his clipboard on the way with the latest updates.
The best news on it, besides the battery of the ship being fully charged, was that the last lizard citadel was destroyed, blown up like all the others. He grinned mischievously reading about that, the losses the lizards must have received had to be in the ten thousands. They now just had to play their cards right and they could be off to greener pastures, wherever they were.
A new planet waited somewhere far away from these genocidal conquerors. As Dudley's mind spun him the tale of a lush planet lightyears away he almost ran into the dog that had stepped into his path.
"Hey watch your…" he was about to say as he looked into the worried green eyes of his son.
"I finally found you!" Nick breathed heavily, and cold sweat ran down his cheeks. "I've been running all over the ship."
"What's wrong Nick? Is… please don't tell me you were also treated weirdly by one of the crewmembers." Dudley looked grumbling down at his clipboard. "Is Sly's crew not reading memos or something?"
"No, it's not that… It's mom, she's still asleep." Nick's emphasis on his mother's state was something that bothered Dudley. After all, it wasn't easy to shock a teenager with a sleep-related topic. Sleeping long was a staple of puberty.
"It was a long day for her plus she basically received the chemical equivalent to a heart surgery." The elder dog tried to calm the younger and laid his hand on Nick's shoulder. But Nick's worry, unlike his shoulder, seemed untouched.
"But for 24 hours?"
"My record is 108 hours… that was a coma though." Dudley chuckled and felt like he threw seeds on a dry field as Nick just kept gazing at him worriedly.
"Dad, can't you take a look at her?"
"Nick we are boarding the last survivors, readying the ship, and planning the strategy for our attack on the moon, I am in a hurry right now, I am sure she…"
Nick, unwilling to be sent away, folded his arms and gave him a look that made something deep inside of Dudley twitch. It reminded him, in one way, of Kitty and the way she always looked at him when he did something stupid, but there was another component in it, stronger and more potent. He had to rummage through his memories for a moment to understand where this feeling in his stomach was coming from.
It was his own mother. Nick's pose was at the same time similar to Kitty and to Peg when she scolded him for being a 'bad boy'.
"You are hanging around way too much with your mom and grandmother," Dudley mumbled and shook his head. "Fine, I'll take a look at her."
"That's all I wanted." Nick nodded and was about to turn around as his father intervened. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Meeting with Anabell and some of the newcomers. Some of them are our age."
"Well, good to hear that you found new friends. And where do you meet?"
"On Deck 10 we-"
A loud sharp laughter slipped out of Dudley's mouth. He should have known, giving teenagers enough time and boredom and they will always find the place where the alcohol was stored. Deck 10 had a room with a panorama viewing port with a lot of space to sit, and, of course, a well-stocked bar where, even in a case of rationing and molecular readjuster shutdowns, alcohol was stored.
"Deck 10, just enjoying the view there, huh?" Dudley shook his head. "No, my friend, you and your friends got work to do."
"What?" Nick asked as Dudley typed things into his device and handed it to his son.
"That's a list of things that need to be done, get your friends and get going."
"But hold on, you can't just foist off your work on me!" Nick protested and looked helplessly down onto the clipboard "I have no idea what to do!"
"I have written down the tasks," Dudley said leaving his son standing in the hallway. "It's just legwork but important legwork. So don't fiddle about, we need to get these things done."
Nick just watched his father leave around the corner and then stared down at the device that displayed words in a script that was unknown to him.
"And what the fuck am I supposed to do now?" He mumbled.
"What seems to be the problem?" a voice from the ceiling chimed in. Nick knew the voice, his father had ordered it a few times to do things. It probably was some kind of helper AI or something similar.
"My device here is… set to the wrong language." He explained looking upward.
"Take another look." The voice said and Nick followed the advice. The once undecipherable alphabet had turned into something known to him.
"Wow, sweet!" Nick smiled towards the ceiling. "Thank you… uhm… what was your name again?"
"You can call me Mike if you want." Mike meant sounding pleased.
"Okay, cool, Mike then. If I have any questions, do you mind if I ask you just general stuff? Everybody else seems to have no time right now."
"Indeed, everybody is kind of busy with saving our survival, but I have some resources I can free to answer your questions, not a big deal."
Nick ignored the part about saving their survival willingly and gave Mike, or at least the place where he thought he was, a thumbs up. He then read the list on the device.
The list was full of tasks that he obviously couldn't do, like Tactical Analysis Moon or Damage survey. The things meant for him were probably these mediating requests and a few smaller things like getting a status on Powers on the medbay. Gathering from the list, Nick realized that Snaptrap seemed to have a lot of problems with the human crew, a majority of requests to mediate came from him.
Then there was something about recruiting people for engineering assistance, weird but he could maybe ask around if someone wanted to work. Finally, among the plethora of meetings and tactical analyses, Nick stumbled over a mediation request that made him prick up his ears.
Mediating between Annabel and Lieutenant Commander Radford.
Nick knew that they had a few more new people on the ship but how likely was it that they needed mediation after a few hours?
"He didn't say anything about doing these in any order." Nick said and switched off the tablet. "Mike, could you tell me where Anabell is?"
"I could, I do need a little more though. Do you have a full name or can you describe her?"
"Annabel Reed, uhm, female dog, brown fur, black hair, cute nose."
"Do I want to know why you're looking for her?" Mike slowly asked.
"The list says she needs help mediating." Nick replied innocently and Mike chuckled before he said,
"She's in the medbay."
"Medbay you say, Power's is there, right?"
"Correct." The AI agreed.
"Two tasks one walk. Where is the medbay?"
Mike not only told him the way to his destination, the AI also kept him company and helped him not to get lost in the always similar-looking hallways until he arrived.
Parting ways only for a short time the two exchanged goodbyes and Nick entered the green shimmering room, lit only by the vats that lined the walls. The sudden urge to tiptoe through the quiet room was an impulse Nick abandoned himself to without hesitation. He walked past the vats, glancing over each one of them always on the lookout for someone who looked like Powers.
It was anything but an easy walk, the faces he saw swimming in green goo were all known to him, none of them a stranger. He was walking slower the more vats he passed and finally stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a face he hadn't expected there.
The rat girl floated in the green substance still wearing the clothes she wore the last time Nick saw her, just with more holes penetrating them.
"Helena…" Nick whispered and stepped closer to the glass. It felt nothing but odd to see one of his former tormentors like this, especially after imagining so often doing something even worse to her and Terry and the others.
He had expected at least a flicker of glee surfacing in him but there was nothing, despite his anger hadn't vanished and his disdain for her was still present. There was just sympathy. He laid his hand on the glass hoping she could feel that it was honest when he said "You did not deserve that."
His hand felt the chill from the glass as it slowly crept into his bones. It stung, like someone pushed on an open nerve and Nick felt how his emotions escaping his influence. The last week was the worst of his life and he could still consider himself fortunate compared to some others.
He lost someone so close to him he often accidentally called him Grandpa as a child. He lost the first guy who did not treat him like an annoying nuisance he had to deal with to be with his mother. Someone who was the closest thing to a father he had up until this point. And as he quickly gazed over to the side, seeing Keswick there swimming in one of the tanks, he asked himself if he would make it.
"A fracture, ripping a whole reality apart." A voice made Nick turn around startled. Isaac gently strode to him and also laid his hand on the glass. "Eight billion existences, and just a handful left." He sighed and lifted his hand off the vat. "The rest of you carry a heavy burden."
"Burden?" Nick quickly wiped his tears with his sleeve, Isaac meanwhile barely took notice of him. The scientist walked slowly to a vat that had something in it that seemed to peel black layers of burnt skin off revealing red flesh underneath it.
"Tell your father he will need a few more days," Isaac said and stared right through whoever was in the tank. "He needs the time we do not have."
"Is that…"
"Nick!" another voice tore up the room's silence, this time a more known one for Nick. He looked over his shoulder seeing his grandmother limping on a cane to him.
"You should be in bed!" Nick was so quick that it could count as a reflex, he moved to Peg and aided her in her walk.
"I am fine Nicky." She smiled widely. "Don't worry about my old bones."
"Grandma you were on the verge of death a few hours ago"
"I had it worse." She smiled and patted Nick's cheek.
"I doubt that grandma." Nick's main effort right now was redirecting his grandmother's trajectory back to the stretcher she lay on.
"Oh no, don't put me back there, I am fit as-"
"Reminder: Doctor Ryan prescribed Mrs. Puppy a few more hours of bedrest." Mike interrupted the budding resistance from Peg.
"See, grandma, back to bed."
"But I want to leave I want to…" she took a deep breath as something crossed her mind. "Is your dad…?"
"He is fine." Stated Nick. "He's actually pretty busy managing everything around here."
Peg laughed and shook her head as Nick placed her back onto her bed. "It is unthinkable the way he behaves right now…"
The boy pulled the thin blanket over his grandma as he replied with a question mark in his look.
"Back when he was…" Peg tried to remember for a moment. "In his very early 20 he lived with me and was barely able to be for himself… I… I think I made a lot of mistakes Nick…"
"Grandma… I may be the wrong person judge you on that." Nick said as she stepped away from the bed. "I think you better get some rest now… You can talk to dad-" before he could finish his sentence Peg was back in the land of dreams.
Nick left the medbay tiptoeing and not trying to wake anymore sleeping dogs. Back in the hallway he looked scoldingly towards the ceiling.
"You said she's in the medbay Mike."
"Well, she's moving." The AI said apologetically. "She's heading to the lab if I interpret her path right."
"Guide me." Nick quickly started jogging, this time he wouldn't miss her. A lot of hallways and elevator rides later he entered the lab where a, surprisingly, cheerful Isaac was giving a speech to a crowd of children who sat on the ground in a half circle in front of them. Most of them were younger.
A lot of them faces Nick had never seen. He was surprised at how many kids the other resistance branches could save from inevitable death. A lot of them were pretty young, too young to fight and spared by pure luck from the lizards' hellfire. Nick was glad of course that he could be useful out in battle and survive but in a way, he envied these kids. They will grow up with the war as just a faint memory in the back of their minds.
"So you tell me you do not learn the basics of quantum dynamics in the 5th school year?" the scientist laughed, next to him a hologram of something round and sciency looking, at least that was the only way Nick could describe it, spun fast around its own axis. "I mean take a look for yourself, the model is simple yet elegant."
"Uhm… Mr… Isaac?"
"Professor." Isaac corrected Nick and turned towards him with a benevolent smile. In a way, this was more creepy than his usual arrogant behavior.
"Professor, I don't want to interrupt but I need to talk with Anabell about a dispute with a crewmate."
"And since when is that your job to do so?"
"Since the captain told me so." Nick retorted and grinned smugly. Just for a moment, he finally stopped as he saw Isaac's grin disappearing so he added hastily. "And I haven't forgotten your message and I'll deliver it to him immediately after that."
Now the scientist's expression reflected utter confusion. "What message?"
"What you told me on the sickbay earlier, about that person in a vat needing more time."
"When was that supposed to be? I have been right here for about 5 hours."
"But I definitely saw you there I…" Nick shook his head feeling a little dizzy. Was that really Isaac there on the medbay? Or maybe he just mistook him for another crewmate. The humans tend to look pretty similar. "I was sure…" Nick slowly added.
"Well, you definitely did not see me." Isaac exhaled already annoyed by the short conversation. "Anabell is helping the sad rest of your planet's academia with settling in the old astrogation room." And as Nick was about to ask Isaac added. "Down the hallway, to the left."
Nick just thanked him by nodding and spun on his heels, leaving the class that was far from being dismissed. "Navigating this ship is like running through a maze." He mumbled.
"The labyrinth-like structure is an advantage in case of a boarding," Mike said wisely, his remarks could have been given by Isaac.
"But I am not boarding the ship."
"I know, the automatic defense system would have evaporated you before a defense squad arrives."
"Wow… thanks for making me feel less safe walking these halls." Nick mocked as he entered the room described by Isaac.
It was a round room, in the same white as the rest of the ship, with a dark wooden round table that circled an enormous holographic projection area. A group of scientists, or anyone who had felt the call to be one, had settled down and blocked about a third of the table with their equipment and papers.
Among them, Anabell was rushing back and forth trying to come to grips with the wishes of the men and women who talked at once.
Nick waved at her and the harried dog looked up to him. "Hi, Nick! Sorry, I can't help right now I am in a hurry."
"I think they will be able to let go of you for a bit."
"No chance." A turtle in a wheelchair rolled into Nick's way like he wanted to shield Anabell from his distraction. "She is the only one who brings at least a bit of order into this hurricane! You can go play catch later."
"I am not here to play catch…"
"Then play Yahtzee or whatever you youngsters do in your freetime."
The turtle's face was like a mask of sternness and Nick had to suppress his laughter. "Sure Mr…?"
"You can call me Bentley." The turtle said nodding.
Sure, Mr. Bentley, I am actually here with an order from the captain."
"An order?" Bentley asked surprised. "What is it?"
"I am here to help in mediation talks between Anabell and someone called." Nick quickly checked his clipboard. "Radford"
"Yes, that, let's quickly handle that!" Annabel had pushed herself past Bentley's wheelchair. "I'll be back here right after we have that done."
"Fine." The turtle grumbled. "But be quick, these nerds here have egos, you wouldn't believe."
Both teens hurried into the hallway and Anabell sighed at the sound of the closing door. "Calling the others nerds while being the king of them…"
"Wait until Keswick joins them." Nick laughed. "By the way, how come you are their errand girl now?"
"How come you're your dad's errand boy?" She tilted her head to the side and smiled cheekily back at him.
"My dad made me… In return, he's checking on mom." He grumbled as he looked at the clipboard. He should have just checked with someone on the medbay right away. There probably were other people than Ryan who had examined his mother without making him do their work.
"Oh…" Annabel stepped back from him, the excitement about a little banter had left her face and took the grin with it. "I thought you also asked to help… Is your mom okay?"
"I don't know to be honest, dad said sleeping for 24 hours or more isn't that unusual but I am a little more concerned." Nick shook his head trying to remove the fear from his thoughts. Annabel saying "Oh well… I hope he's right…", didn't help in that matter though.
"Let's hope so…" Nick sighed and looked at the clipboard. "I have a report about you and someone called Radford. I am new to this so…"
Annabel smiled and gestured him to stop. "We already talked. She is sorry for the whole ordeal and will try to not let it happen again."
"What happened there anyway?" Nick checked off the item on his list and then looked into Anabell's eyes which gazed at the ground.
Nick knew awkwardness when he saw it, and Anabell emitted a bunch of it as she answered. "In two words: 'Belly rubs'."
"B… Why? Why would… damn those humans are weird."
"Yep…" Anabell said and for a moment silence joined their conversation like a drunken guest at a party. "But, we talked and she won't do so again…" she laughed and shooed the silence away.
"Well, that's something I guess." Nick joined her laughter.
"Yeah, but the weird thing is that my dad kind of seemed to enjoy it he…" Anabell's laughter sounded more sad than anything at this point. "I think he's very lonely."
"Okaaay… but maybe we can find some-"
Annabel raised her hand stopping him in mid-sentence. "Let's not talk about this okay? I am here to get out of the quarter and be distracted." She looked back at the door behind them and said with a trace of dread in her voice. "I better get back in there… they need supervision."
"Bel, we can find you a better distraction than that." Nick meant as muffled sounds of yelling came from the room. Annabel groaned as she heard the noises of scientists screaming at each other. "Great, again… you know what, you are right, I am not going in there anymore."
"Sweet, want to join me on my tour? Have to meet with Snaptrap around six times due to several complains-" the sound of something breaking and more yelling let them turn to the door once more.
Again Annabel groaned, even more than before. "I can't just leave them here…"
"They need someone to call them to reason… Dammit that's dad's job."
"Do you think that…" Annabel crossed her arms and looked pensively at the door that still emitted sounds that were more fitting for a trash TV talk show than a group of scientists. "This Isaac is a scientist, do you think they would listen to him?"
"I find him threatening… it's worth a shot." Nick grinned and together with Annabel they headed to the lab Isaac used as a classroom.
Meanwhile, Dudley had already arrived at his quarters and checked on Kitty. She was okay, the hours of sleep she was treating herself were not even half the amount he considered healthy after everything they had been through. Dudley sat down at his desk, he didn't want to leave already, that would just agitate Nick.
Also, seeing her sleep spread a feeling in his stomach that he had almost forgotten. He watched her a little longer before activating the holographic display. He could eat the cake and have it if he wasn't too loud. There were still some tasks he could do without meeting someone.
The recruitment of new pilots for example. He sent a memo to all crewmembers already that new pilots were needed, the feedback was more than sparse. The Leviathan's crew was like a well-oiled machine, and even though the last weeks this machine took a few hard hits it was still running impressively smoothly.
The wisest thing would be keeping it running and Dudley knew that. Under his first command, he tried to change things and forced the well-versed crew to get used to his way of running things. A lot of malicious compliance was the follow-up and the learning to improve things with and not against the people.
There was just one person from the engineering department who applied for the position, and most probably to flee from the recent immense workload that was put on them. Dudley knew Meliha couldn't spare anyone and he made a note to approach the crewmember after all this was over and give him an opportunity to become a pilot if this wish was still there.
The pool of options was dry for now and Dudley had to resort to something he didn't want to. He created a new memo with the same wording except this time it was directed towards the survivors. It took him a few minutes and a lot of effort to send it. He had no problem recruiting a few people to give Meliha a helping hand for safe tasks, but recruiting someone to get them into dangerous situations was not to his liking.
He tried to shake the feeling of impending loss off of him and opened his to-do list. He wrote next to the point of pilot recruitment the word 'Pending' and looked at the other items. Nick was making progress as it seemed he had already checked off two points. Dudley nodded to himself not without feeling a little proud.
Nick would find his way, even if he had to do a lot of reconciling for his joyride. Still, not as much reconciling Dudley had to do with him. Even if they made great progress since their first meeting, Dudley knew that there was a long way ahead of them.
Rustling and yawning demanded his attention as in the wide bed Kitty had started to shift. He tiptoed over to her and sat down on the side of the bed as she opened her tired eyes.
"Good morning." She yawned and stretched.
"Hey there, sleepy head. Had a good nap?"
"I don't know what this butcher puts in his syringes but, it is quality stuff." Kitty gave her stab wound a discrete look. Satisfied with what she saw she nodded.
"Feeling a little better today?"
"I… don't feel well. But it is a lot less…" Kitty gesticulated with her hands trying to fish a word out of the air. "Painful…"
"Mental hardship creates physical pain which once again stresses the mind… it's a vicious circle." Dudley casually lay down on the bed next to her. His body more and more remembered how much he missed the soft mattress and all his feet were yearning for, as he kicked off his shoes, was the embrace of the warm blanket. He looked over to her and yawned which persuaded Kitty to lean back into the pillows.
"So, what comes next?" Kitty asked and looked him in the eyes.
"Well, grieving I think. Working through the open and latent traumas and…"
"I mean action-wise," Kitty said cutting him short in a way that let Dudley know that she was not willing to elaborate on the topic.
"Oh, that," He chuckled before the captain in him took the reign over his mouth. "We have harvested all the energy nodes of the lizards. We have collected a few survivors from the surface. Our next target is the moon."
Kitty's eyes grew wider as Dudley lay down the information she darted up and stood stiffly next to the bed like she was just tazed. "How long have I been out?!" She asked and started shivering a little.
Dudley got back on his feet moaning to gently sit her down on the bed again. "Relax, just 24 hours."
Again, Kitty was about to shoot up but Dudley pushed her back onto the mattress. "It is perfectly okay with all that is going on, don't worry. We handle the situation."
"Dudley the people need to be…"
"I know I know." Dudley tried to sound as soothing as possible which was supported by his constant yawns. "But they can give you a break for a day…" A notification sound from his desk made him growl at the furniture angrily. "After all, they are not too shy to come to me with their problems. Especially when this problem is complaining about the human crew."
"Why what's the matter?"
"There is… a lot of explaining to do for you to understand it but to make it short, humans tend to behave weirdly towards us and I urged everyone to bring these matters directly to me so I can handle it without causing a fuss."
"They behave weirdly? How could they, they never seen us."
Dudley closed his eyes and wondered if he should lead her from the feeling of almost dying to probably one of the biggest shocks she could experience regarding her relationship with humankind. And as he pondered he felt the weight of his bones dragging his flesh onto the mattress.
Surprised by his sudden feeling of faintness he opened his eyes and looked into Kitty's who had her hand already on his neck checking his heartbeat.
"I'm awake, I'm awake…" he sat up and stretched. "Don't worry about me…"
"You are not helping," Kitty said her quick breath slowed down. "What was that?"
"I guess the artificial heart is trying to force me to live healthy… the thing is more sensitive to melatonin and tries to force me to go to sleep." Dudley laughed like an old sailor. "It can try."
"So you telling me to take a break and you yourself-"
"Oh, I know I am a hypocrite." He gently kissed her on the cheek and then walked to his desk. "But we are missing high-ranking officers, we lost a lot lately, and I do not like handing the ship to someone without proper training right now."
He sat down on his chair again eyed by Kitty who sighed, got up and placed herself behind, propping herself up on his shoulders. "Let's get back in action then, what's on the agenda."
"Believe me, I also had other ideas when I saw you in my bed." He laughed and received a playful slap on the back of his head by Kitty.
"Maybe take me on a date first and we can talk about this." She chuckled and then started fondling his hair right where she just slapped him.
"I hope you like candles and standard rations then." He said half-sunken into the text he was reading. "Okay, Casey is ready for a tactical analysis of the moon's infrastructure in 20 minutes. We should go there and get our course of action ready."
"We should go?"
"You are one of the representatives of our people, I want all of you and my officers in the mess in 20 minutes."
"One of them? What-"
The next ten minutes Kitty was brought up to speed in detail. She had considered the things that happened a miracle already but destroying the lizards' strongholds and even rescuing survivors was the cherry on top of an imaginary wonder-cake. She felt the need to put on a party hat as he was done recapitulating, why did no one at least open a bottle of champagne yet? Dudley told her these things like he was just checking off items from a to-do list.
"Okay, my regards to this Casey." Kitty smiled from ear to ear.
"You can tell her that yourself in the meeting." Dudley smiled and walked to the door opening it by his presence. "But now, the meeting is waiting." With an expansive gesture, he indicated her to follow him.
"You mean the moon is waiting." She grinned widely and followed him out of the quarters.
-Authors note: The question is, is it really made of cheese? Only one way to find out! As always, thanks for reading the chapter! Of course, tell me what you think in the comments and... stay tuned :P-