Dispatches from the Galaxy

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

By the time Evans made it back an hour later, Sue and her overworked crew had wrangled all the remaining false alarms down to Invalid status. Nothing new had tripped over for half an hour. As long as she ignored the maddening clumps of yellow across all sectors of her console, she could tell herself things were under control.

A hearty swallow of a ginger-laced calming infusion she and everyone else involved in this update disaster carried constantly had settled her belly to a reasonable level of discomfort.

At least this time, Evans had the decency—or self-preservation instinct—to use a text alert to get her to open the door rather than the skull-splitting alarm.

Sue blinked, ignoring what felt like grit in her eyes, when she saw McHugh’s son huddled behind the lanky Evans. The boy was years younger than she’d thought, probably not yet out of his first decade. His rumpled dark green pants and tunic showed no signs of rank or assignment, only his name on his chest just under his left shoulder. He had McHugh’s wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes, but he was barely waist-high to Evans.

Eyes obviously red and swollen from crying, not from being awake for days like Sue’s.

“This is Liam McHugh.” Evans stepped to the side, but he didn’t push the boy forward. “He reported his father missing.”

Sue resisted a strong urge to bark orders at Evans, or maybe to get up and storm out herself.

Anything to avoid focusing on the kid’s frightened and hopeful face.

“Thank you for letting us know, Liam.” She leaned forward, deciding not to unfold herself from the chair just yet. Liam looked like he’d bolt at one sharp noise. After hours of sitting, she’d grunt loud enough to scare him and Evans. “You were born on board Bellagos?”

Liam stepped forward, both fists clenched against his skinny thighs. He took a couple of shaky breaths before he met Sue’s gaze.

“Yes ma’am, I was.”

“So you know how the ship works,” Sue said. “Your father can’t have gone far, and he has to be on board somewhere. We’ll get this figured out. Is your mother off shift yet?”

Too late, Sue noticed Evans’s wide eyes and shake of his head.

“My birth-mother lives in another pod, ma’am.” Liam’s face turned red, but he didn’t look away from Sue. “They weren’t bonded. Only assigned to each other until I was born.”

Sue had heard of such arrangements, one of many ways humans dealt with generations spent on board a massive, sprawling ship in deep space.

In love or not, the species had to continue.

She wondered sometimes if assigned mating wasn’t easier than trying to manage a bonded relationship long enough to have children, much less raise them.

Most of the time, she was thankful to be years past such concerns.

“Don’t worry, Liam, we’ll find you somewhere to stay for now. Or someone to stay with you. Did your father say anything about where he’d be? What he was going to be doing today?”

Liam kicked his soft boots against the gray carpeted floor.

“It’s his leisure day. Or at least it was.” Liam held his breath for a second, then went on in a rush. “But he never did come home last night, ma’am. I thought he was just working late, so I went to sleep. He wasn’t there this morning, either. He goes out after his shift to get supplies sometimes, so he doesn’t have to leave our pod early on his leisure day. Then today we were going to...I don’t know. Whatever I came up with.”

Sue tried not to scowl, but she knew she sucked at keeping her feelings to herself. Especially when she was this strung out.

Of course McHugh was on a leisure day. Even during an emergency, the crew took their regulation time off if they possibly could. At least they were supposed to, not following Sue’s rotten example. McHugh had missed enough of his leisure days that this one was mandatory, no matter how many lights flashed orange and yellow and thankfully not red under Sue’s fingers.

If McHugh had been on duty, she would have had him racing around with everyone else verifying these damn false alarms. She hadn’t seen him all day.

And if McHugh had been on duty, missing his much-needed leisure day or not, this frightened boy would know where his father was.

“Good, we can start with that.” Sue couldn’t stop herself from glancing at the console. Steady for the moment. “Evans, why don’t the two of you figure out what supplies McHugh might have been after? What he and Liam were due in the food rotation. We can go from there. Do you need anything right now, Liam? Anything we can get you?”

Liam pressed his lips together until they turned white, but that didn’t stop his chin from trembling.

“We were…we always get frozen chocolate, ma’am. On my dad’s leisure days. It’s his favorite.”

“I’ll make sure there’s some waiting, then,” Sue said. “For when he’s back with you.”

Evans nodded, and she knew he hadn’t missed the first clue. The tropical pod on the far edge of Bellagos, where the high humidity, temperature, and light wouldn’t disturb any other growing pod or lifepod.

The only source for real chocolate on board.

The surrounding pods grew the best ingredients for frozen confections, a staple of human diets even light years away from Earth. Herbs and spices, roots and nuts for smooth, sweet flavors. Every kind of fruit they could manage to bring along did double duty.

Feeding the colonists on the way to seeding the colony.

Sue’s overheated brain brought the pathetic contents of her own food stores forward, the lack of any kind of stress-relieving high-calorie treat flashing as bright as her consoles. When she thought back to the last time she’d remembered to eat, she realized that might account for part of her unruly belly.

“Know what?” she said. “If you can hang on for a few minutes, I’ll call in my second-in-command. I’m long overdue for a break, and I’m out of just about everything that’s fun to eat myself. How about if we talk while we walk over there together?”