Dispatches from the Galaxy

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sue didn’t have to look to know Evans was making his wide-eyed caution gestures, but he was too late. Liam tried to be brave again, smiling with his chin quivering. He finally leaned forward, holding his belly against the sobs.

“It’s okay,” Sue said when she saw the woman’s stricken face. “You didn’t know and we didn’t get a chance to warn you.”

When Evans touched Liam’s shoulder, Liam charged forward for a hug so fast that Evans staggered backward a step. The two of them barely made it to the chairs.

“What happened?” the woman said. Sue finally had a chance to look at her name on the uniform. Cassie said. “I didn’t mean to upset the poor kid.”

Sue shook her head. “You didn’t upset him. When did you last see Liam and his father?”

The two other attendants wandered over, another young woman and a young man. Cassie turned to them, but they both shook their heads.

“On his last leisure day,” she said, frowning. “Seems like that was a long time ago, though. Did he miss some of them?”

Sue closed her eyes, surprised at how hard that guilt hit. She’d never thought twice about forcing McHugh, Evans, or anyone else to miss their leisure days. Probably because it never crossed her mind to worry about missing her own.

“We’ve been pretty busy in Systems and Security lately. McHugh was fine just over twelve hours ago. Liam wanted some frozen chocolate, and we needed to ask around. Seemed like a good reason to get a bit of exercise.”

Cassie glanced at the other two attendants before stepping closer to Sue.

“Is something going on with the ship, Chief? We’ve been having trouble with our systems here, and suppliers coming in are saying the same thing. Most people are afraid to ask what’s wrong. Is Bellagos in trouble?”

Sue took a deep breath, wishing she could get a full sleep cycle before she answered Cassie’s questions. It would have been tough enough to explain how a crew member could go missing on a ship in deep space. Sue had been too busy and buried in her systems nightmare to realize people onboard outside of Security knew what was happening.

“We’re adjusting from a new systems update from Earth HQ,” she said, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. “A few hiccups, nothing to worry about.”

Cassie stared at Sue for a few seconds, then shook her head.

“Nothing to worry about. Sure. Our monitors are glitchy and unreliable, something happened to this poor kid’s father, and our suppliers are fighting every bit as hard to keep conditions in their pods stable as we are. Okay then.”

She closed her eyes and lowered her head for a few seconds. When she looked back up and smiled—so fast her ponytail bounced again—Sue would have sworn Cassie had rebooted her own internal system.

“What can we get for you? I bet Liam wants frozen chocolate. How about for you and your friend?”

Sue blinked, trying to get her sluggish and yet anxious mind to function. What kind of frozen treat did she like?

“Evans likes cherry,” she finally managed. “I’m not sure what…can you just mix them? Cherry and chocolate?”

Cassie smiled, and Sue was surprised to see it looked genuine.

“That’s my favorite way to do it. Three double scoops, coming right up, Chief.”

Sue waited for a second, but all three of the attendants vanished through the door to the freezer compartment. Probably to get away from the crying little boy and the grumpy security chief.

She sat beside Liam, who was now down to sniffing and trying to catch his breath.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “You okay, Liam?”

He nodded before he spoke.

“I’m okay, ma’am. I just miss my dad. I wish he was here.”

Sue sighed, staring at the blue carpet rather than at the little boy.

She wished McHugh were here, too.

“Where else do you usually go on leisure days?” she said, turning back to Liam. His eyes were red, but he looked calmer. “Is there anyone who your dad knows that you think we should talk to? Or some kind of supplies you were supposed to go get, after your treat?”

A buzz from her wrist comm had Sue back on her feet in an instant.

Tima, her second, reporting another crew member missing, from a couple of hours after McHugh had disappeared. Flipped over to that disturbing Invalid status.

Crew numbers down to eight thousand seven hundred fifty-two.

She looked up to tell Evans to look for connections—well, to bark orders at him, to be honest—but the words died when she saw the horrified, wide-eyed look on Evans’s face.

And the frightened look on Liam’s.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Wrist comm startled me.”

She forced herself to sit again, but the trembling from a jolt of over-stimulated and under-slept bodily systems had already set in. Sue knotted her fingers together in her lap and concentrated on Liam.

He swallowed hard. The obvious movement in his slender neck might have been funny if Sue hadn’t been feeling so guilty.

“We were low on protein,” he said in a quiet voice. “The meat kind, not the bean kind. I like the meat kind better.”

Sue nodded. “I do, too. I’m probably low on that myself. Maybe we can head over after we finish our treats if you’re feeling up to it.”

She was thankful Evans didn’t get the chance to jump in with one of his Old Earth history tidbits about where meat protein used to come from. Cassie walked out then carrying a platform with three transparent cups, gleaming metal spoons standing straight up in the middle of each. One was full of dark brown frozen chocolate, another with dark red cherry. The third held a striped mixture of red and brown.

Cassie still had her bright customer service smile, but Sue thought her eyes were strained and overly bright.

“Here you go! This should get you fixed right up until you find your dad, Liam.”

Sue took her bowl, hoping her smile looked at least a little natural. The surface was the same temperature as the room, not cold like she expected. She held it up to the light. Two layers, with a tiny space for air in between.

“Does everything look okay?” Cassie said, a furrow on her smooth brow.

“It looks great,” Sue said. “I was just thinking I’d love to have some of these bowls for my place. Do they work for hot things, too?”

“They work fine for hot,” Cassie said. “But there are better designs for that. You’re better off picking them up at the supply pods. Ours all have tracking units embedded in them.”

Liam nodded, taking a few seconds to finish his huge spoonful.

“Yeah, I know all about that. I accidentally walked out with mine, a long time ago when I was little. Big loud alarms went off.”

“That’s right,” Cassie said. “I remember when that happened. Good thing we’re all too old for things like that now.”

She smiled again, then turned fast enough that her ponytail whipped out behind her.

Sue finally got a spoonful of her own concoction. Rich dark chocolate and sweet-tart cherry, perfectly balanced. She closed her eyes and sighed, ship and personnel troubles forgotten for one blissful second.

“Good, isn’t it?” Evans said. He’d already eaten most of his, and his words sounded like his tongue was half-frozen. It and his lips were dark red. “Everything grown or produced here on Bellagos. Nothing dried or frozen from Earth at all now.”

“Don’t worry about the bowls.” Liam’s tongue and lips were chocolate brown. “You just leave them on the counter and you won’t get in any trouble.”

Sue took another huge mouthful. This was nice and all, but she really should check in. Another missing crewmember, no sign of McHugh, and who knows how many more problems from that Earth update.

She abruptly stood and walked toward the exit.

“Chief?” Evans called. “You okay?”

Sue ignored him, pausing for a second before she stepped across the threshold. She didn’t realize how much she’d tensed up for Liam’s big loud alarms.

Nothing happened.

She took several steps just to be sure, but still.

Silence.

Her mind was weary and overstressed, but Sue saw the row of orange and yellow alerts back in her command pod clearly before she even pulled out her comm. Not one of them was for the tracking systems on board.

Those were green all across, or they had been when she left Tima in command.

Evans stood at the edge of the pod, managing to look puzzled and worried at the same time. Liam waited behind him, eyes wide.

“Go on,” Sue said. “Try it. Make sure there’s not some fluke with mine, or interference from my comm or me.”

Evans shrugged and stepped over, and Sue saw his shoulders relax when everything stayed silent. They both turned and waved Liam forward.

The boy stuck his toe over, then slowly held the bowl out. At the continued lack of big loud alarms, he grinned and scooted over to Sue and Evans.

“It’s turned off,” Liam said, scraping the bottom of his bowl. “We could take all kinds of things with us!”

Sue raised one eyebrow and met Evans’s gaze.

“No alarms on the tracking sensors,” she said. “They show all green.”

“But something’s wrong,” he said. “Might be time for that reboot.”

“And switch out to the old systems if we can force the rollback. Looks like we’re about to get in trouble, alarms or not.”

They all turned to see Cassie and the other two workers staring at them, arms crossed and nearly identical frowns on their faces.

“We better take these back in,” Liam whispered, but he was still smiling. “Or they might not serve us next time.”