Chapter 28
Return To The Sollipsis

 

“You know, I have to thank you,” Hasan said, shuffling the deck. Cathérine leaned back and crossed her arms, glancing back and forth between him and Evangeline. 

“I’m not sure I follow, Hasan,” she said, idly tapping the upturned crate they’d been using as a table. “But I’m more than happy to take your gratitude.”

“And then some,” Evangeline grinned. “I’m just happy we didn’t bet on anything important.” She sucked her teeth. “Just, you know, honor and dignity.”

“I’m grateful,” Hasan said, choosing to ignore her, “that neither of you pretended not to know how to play before we got started.” He dealt again. “That would have made this a lot more painful. Thankfully, my pride broke the fall.”

“I promise to try harder next time,” Cathérine said. “Unless you’d like to play something else instead…” She raised an eyebrow. 

“If you think I’m a sore loser, Captain, we need to spend more time together.” If Cathérine hadn’t just spent the past few hours learning to read his tells, she wouldn’t have been able to see through his poker face. As it stood, however, she noticed the little twitch at the corner of his mouth that meant he was currently feeling very pleased with himself and how subtle he was being. 

“I don’t think you’re a sore loser at all, Hasan,” she said. “I just hope you’ll put up more of a fight next time.” She nodded to Evangeline. “Although I’d like to see how well-matched we are without help from my Chief Security Officer.” If she’d blinked, she would’ve missed the ever-so-subtle wink Evangeline shot her. “I’m sure I can take you.” Just then, her communicator chimed. “Durand here.”

“Captain,” Manderley said, “scans are coming up with nothing down th-- Is Prakoso alright?” 

“It’s nothing,” Cathérine said. “Just choked on his aspirations. He’ll be fine.” Evangeline slapped him on the back a few times.

“Gotcha. Yeah, scans show no anomalous readings, no strange electromagnetic disturbances that could have messed with the engines.” Jackson sounded frustrated. “Nothing that could have messed with anything. No signals, across the entire band, down on that planet.” He sighed. “Whatever it is, Captain, it didn’t come from down there.”

“Copy that, Manderley. Enjoy my seat a bit more while you can. We’ll be gathering our things and coming back up. Durand out.” 

“Aye, Captain. Manderley out.” The connection blipped out, and Cathérine leaned back, resting her head against the side of the shuttle. 

“Mèrde,” she whispered

“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you swear, Captain,” Evangeline said. 

“Nearly everyone can stand adversity, Mayes,” Cathérine said, “if you want to test their character, give them boredom.” She stood up, grabbing her helmet. “Let’s grab the equipment.” After they’d all suited up, the atmosphere in the shuttle once again grew thick with the alien air. “You know,” Cathérine said as she started to pull the telemetry spikes out of the ground, “I wanted to be planetside because I felt cooped up on the ship.”

“Ironic,” Hasan said, “considering you spent three hours in a small metal box.”

“Quite,” Cathérine said. “It’s just… frustrating. We’ve taken our first steps into the vast unknown. Swimming into the waters of infinity, we found others like ourselves, exploring and communicating and paddling around and then…”

“Leg cramp,” Hasan said. “We were bound to hit a snag.” He thought for a moment. “Something big, I mean. Not to diminish the individual issues some people on the Sollipsis have experienced.” Cathérine carefully listened to his voice, trying to see if he was trying to imply something about someone, but he seemed to be entirely genuine. As usual. 

“It’s definitely been rough for some,” Cathérine said. “It makes sense, though. Maybe for them, this is a welcome break.” She realized that she’d been having an easy time coming to terms with everything, but then, like she’d mentioned, she did do pretty well under pressure. In the face of adversity, she could grit her teeth, weather the storm. But she was also the kind of person who could then take a nap in a storm. Not everyone rested or healed the same way. 

“I hope she’s taking care of herself,” Hasan said casually, carrying the spikes he’d unearthed over to the shuttle. Cathérine looked at the back of his head for a moment, and then went back to work. It was quiet work. The planet’s thick atmosphere muffled sounds not already muffled by their suits, and there was no wildlife to speak of.

“How did you end up becoming Chief Science Officer?” Evangeline asked Hasan.

“Didn’t you read my file?” Hasan seemed genuinely curious. Evangeline Mayes would have done her due diligence and requested background checks on everyone, of course. She just nodded. “You mean in a more general sense? Because… I could show you my doctorate if you want.”

“Not quite what I mean,” Evangeline said. “Apologies. I just feel like you’re… more of a people person. Not…”

“Not lab coat material?”

“Not someone who goes off empirical evidence exclusively,” Evangeline said tactfully. 

“That comes with the territory,” Hasan said. “Sure, there’s room in the sciences for people who can handle data. Especially down in the trenches… uh, no offense…”

“None taken, Hasan,” Cathérine said with a smile. “Carry on.” 

“Well, especially down in the lab, we need people who can see the data, see the numbers, make the connections. The kind of cold hard logic you’re thinking of. People like that are the backbone of a lot of modern science. But you put ten people like that in a room, and it’s just a matter of time before you’re having to submit a stethoscope for evidence in an aggravated assault case.”

“Jesus,” Evangeline said. “I thought you scientists were more… chill about things.”

“You’d be surprised!” Hasan said with a slight chuckle. “We’re surprisingly wiry.” 

“So that’s where you come in,” Cathérine said. She hoisted the final telemetry spikes into a box and closed it. It sealed with an audible hiss, and she heard the box hum. The box and its contents would be decontaminated on the ship, but the containers had their own built-in sterilization system.

“Exactly,” Hasan said. “I’ve got my degrees and plaques and so on, so the really uptight ones take me seriously, but half of my job is greasing wheels and, you know, when people do get angry, clean up boo-boo’s.”

“How do you qualify for something like that?” Evangeline asked as she and Cathérine carried the last box back to the shuttle. “Unless you took a course in HR or something?”

“I’m just a likeable guy,” Hasan said with a shrug and without a shred of irony. “I sort of stumbled upwards into the position and I turned out to be pretty good at it. Not to brag, of course.” Catherine saw his jovial grin and couldn’t help but return it. He wasn’t wrong. He was definitely a calming influence to everyone on the bridge. Reliable, too. 

“We’re glad to have you, Prakoso,” Cathérine said. “And thank you.”

Hasan’s eyebrows went up. “For what?” He helped them stack the last box into the shuttle, and then closed the doors behind them. All taking off their helmets, exchanging the small reservoir of recycled air for a slightly larger reservoir of recycled air. 

“For asking,” Cathérine said. “Blake’s doing well, but as the Captain, I have to keep a certain… dignified distance from my First Officer.” Hasan nodded, his jaw slightly clenched. 

“I understand. And I do hope she knows she has plenty of people to talk to.” He paused. “Not just Doctor Drake and the rest of the psych staff, I mean.”

“She knows,” Evangeline said. “I’m ninety percent sure she sees you as some kind of big brother.” Cathérine turned to her. 

“I didn’t know you two were so close?” she asked. 

Evangeline sat down in the pilot’s chair, and began the boot up sequence while Hasan and Cathérine both strapped in. “We aren’t,” she said, “I’m not the… touchy-feely type, and I think Blake knows.” With a whine, the shuttle’s anti-gravity engines kicked in, and the not-quite slight jolt of switching from global to local gravity jostled the three of them in their seats. “But I pay attention.” She looked over her shoulder at Hasan. “You’re not the only one who needs to be good at dealing with people, Prakoso.” 

He grinned, slightly nervously. The shuttle rocking a bit on the ascent probably had something to do with that. “Never said I was, Mayes. And don’t worry, I had that figured out already.”

“Oh yeah?” Evangeline asked over the increasing noise of wind rushing past the ship. “And how’s that?” 

“You’re too good at poker!” Hasan laughed, and Cathérine and Evangeline joined in for a moment. “Still, it makes sense!”

“It does,” Evangeline said, lowering her voice as they hit the upper atmosphere and air resistance dropped. “It does. Have to pay attention to people’s behaviour. There’s more to security than practicing for gunfights with aliens, you know.”

“You practiced alien gunfights?” Hasan asked, his mouth falling open. Cathérine chuckled to herself. She’d seen Evangeline’s track record, and the training regimen she put herself and her team under. She was brutal, and more creative than Cathérine would have given her credit for. 

“We started training for any kind of firefight since before first contact,” Evangeline said as she steered the shuttle to the little glowing dot the dashboard identified as the Sollipsis. “Plugged in all alien data into our systems. Shared-consciousness opponents, zero-g training, pitch-darkness underwater drills, you name it.”

“That sounds intense,” Hasan said, and then, after a moment. “And kinda fun.”

“I can sign you up for training some time if you want, Prakoso.”

“No, thank you.” He laughed. “I get enough out of my exercise routine. I don’t know if I’d survive.” 

“Play you for it,” Evangeline said. 

“Not on your life,” Hasan said. “I’d prefer to risk my pride again, first.” 

The shuttle approached the Sollipsis, and Cathérine was once again taken aback by how beautiful of a ship it actually was. Here, in the harsh light of the sun, it shone like a jewel on a black canvas. Its central sphere, the four arms extending from it. Its solar sails drinking in energy. Once upon a time, Cathérine had been known for her military acumen, being able to turn terrible situations around — and she had been in some bad situations. But as the Sollipsis filled up the front window of the shuttle in all of her glory, Cathérine felt like none of that mattered. She was the luckiest captain in the universe. 

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Hasan said. Cathérine looked aside. His eyes were fixed on the ship. She saw on his face the same reverence she felt. 

“That was the first thing you ever said to me,” Cathérine said, a bit more quietly. There was something sacred, something intimate about the moment, as they soundlessly drifted towards the Sollipsis’ hangar bay. She didn’t want to disturb it too much. 

“It’s still true,” Hasan said. “Maybe even more so, now that she’s flying free.” He paused. “Well, not that free, not at the moment. But she will be again, soon. I know it.”

“I know,” Cathérine said. “I know. We have places to go.”

“We didn’t find anything planetside,” Evangeline said, cutting through the next moment of silence with relentlessly sharp logic. “You know what that means.”

Cathérine hadn’t wanted to put those thoughts to words. Not yet. She’d wanted to preserve the moment a slight longer. But, she supposed, it would’ve had to come to an end at some point. “Yes.” Evangeline nodded too. Then the word, that awful word that carried horrible implications with it, crossed her lips. 

“Sabotage,” Evangeline Mayes said as she landed the shuttle.