Chameleon Ch 23

As Maria Mitchell approached the Tau Ceti system, tensions, anxiety, excitement, and even joy began to reverberate throughout her corridors. Even Jackson, to some degree dreading this trip, began to feel light, and interested in some time off the ship. As much as he had a love affair with Maria Mitchell, Rianya had to come first.

It was a need, this urgent desire to put feet on solid ground, to breathe a dynamic atmosphere, and feel the warmth of a sun on your skin. Everyone felt it, whether they admitted it or not. Even John Chin was ready to venture outdoors and test his ocular implant under Earth-like conditions.

Mr. Chin had joined Jackson, Rianya, and Adams at the captain’s table for breakfast. Enjoying the remaining supplies from Novissimus, Bailey had put out shredded potatoes, eggs cooked in their shells, rolls, butter, fruit juice from the arboretum orchards, and rice. As the food disappeared, the conversation increased, and finally landed on the obvious.

“How much longer, Rianya?” the materials engineer asked. Jackson wasn’t too sure if he was on board with the familiarity of the question, but it was to Rianya, not to him.

“Twenty-five days. Twenty-five long days.” She shifted in her chair a little.

“John, do you have a family back home?”

“No, I never found the time.”

“You’re a young man; make the time. They’re our legacy, children.” Chin, a man in his late thirties, nodded.

“Is your vision improved?” Rianya asked. She ripped at a sweet roll and ate the center first, the soft spot with the most sugar and spice.

“I can see shapes, colors, outlines, light, dark, but I think it takes a while until I get the improved version. I think my other eye is doing all the work, but this gives me some depth perception so I don’t fall over things, at least.”

“It’s an amazing machine,” she said.

“It was a fair trade.”

“It’s very real, I mean, I wouldn’t know unless I was searching for the components.”

“They are better disguised in brown eyes, I would think,” Jackson said. It might be quite contemporary to have a bionic eye, no reason to be concerned about how it appeared. On the other hand, John might think differently. He took a bite of the rice.

“It’s not so hard to get used to. I thought it would be worse.”

“It’s a great story, at least. Every scar has a story behind it. A souvenir. Odds beaten, life continued, and there’s the proof.”

John stood; his plate was barren.

“It’s my first day back on duty. Don’t want to be late. Thank you for breakfast, sir. I’m honored.”

“The pleasure was ours.” The engineer excused himself. Rianya finished off the sweet roll.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Jackson said to Adams.

“We are all talked out. He’s been in sick bay since the accident, I sent him back to his cabin last night.”

“Nice work, his B’eyeonic implant.”

“Rianya, it’s time you start coming in every day to see me,” Adams said as he finished off his coffee and stood to leave.

“Every day?”

“Today and in two days, then every day.”

“Captain Jackson, you’re needed on the bridge." 

“I made it all the way through breakfast!” He kissed Rianya and poked the button. “On my way.”

When he stepped off the elevator, he knew immediately why he’d been summoned. The glowing ball named Tau Ceti was a lighthouse in space, blotting out stars behind it. Its faintly orange corona filled the bow windows and lit the bridge with soft warmth. It beckoned them, calling them like a titanic siren, a force to esteem for life and respect for death.

“Thank you, Stu. What a view. Rougeau, how long until we arrive at D?”

“About forty-six hours at ISS, Captain. D is on the other side of Tau Ceti, about nine AUs.”

“I’ll get a shore leave schedule posted today. Carry on.”

þ

Jackson cast the schedule to all personnel data terminals and noting it was 15:20, he called it a day. He wrapped up his desk in the doyen’s office but before he could escape his doorbell chirped.

“Come,” he called.

“Captain, do you have time to address a concern?” Cerebrus’ eyes glowed brightly while he spoke, then they returned to their normal blue, as if using his speech box turned the rheostat for his eyes up a notch.

“Always. Sit.”

“I received the shore leave schedule. I’m not on it.” Jackson sighed and sat back in his chair.

“Do you want to take shore leave on the planet?”

“I thought it was a requirement that we take a minimum of four days every ten months.” Jackson suspected a tug of war was about to begin.

“Sure, why not?” he said. It wasn’t his nature to give in, sometimes just for principle.

“You are not joking with me?”

“Nope. I’ll put you on the schedule. I had you covering the bridge but I’ll rework it.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“You’re welcome. My apologies for neglecting to add you to the roster.” Cerebrus leaned back slightly, a decidedly human movement he’d picked up somewhere. He nodded, stood, and excused himself from Jackson’s realm. Jackson watched the glossy white android walk away with incredible dexterity, balance, and even grace.

There was an extra place set at his table for dinner. He looked at Rianya with a grin.

“You’re eating for two?”

“I don’t understand.”

“An extra plate, here? I’m joking. Who’s joining us?”

“Honey. Bailey needs a break now and then, too.” On cue, Zalara and Honey burst into the captain’s mess in a flurry of curly locks, bows, and giggles. “Girls, this is not the gym,” she said. They promptly silenced themselves and took seats at the table.

“You girls are sisters again?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, but we can’t live together,” Honey explained. “But that’s okay.”

“We’ll always be sisters,” Zalara added. Jackson wondered what epiphany brought on their renewed relationship, and Honey’s almost verbose moment.

“It’s nice to have you here,” Rianya said. The girls kept smiling, all through dinner.

“Are you back in school now? I’ve been busy.”

“Yes, Papá, we have cooking, and algebra, and reading, and medicine.”

“What’s making you laugh?” Rianya asked.

“Nothing!” they said, looking at each other and snapping their mouths shut.

“If you’re finished you should leave the table,” she said. They both shoved their chairs back and scooted out the door.

“What was that about?”

“I haven’t a clue, but I am just not hungry. Baby is taking up so much room. She’s bigger than Zalara was already.”

“All the food on the ship compared to Kinnae.”

“We had plenty of food. I just had to make it all.” Here someone else lives my life.”

“What do you mean, Love?” Jackson resisted his after-dinner cup of coffee, knowing he had to stop the sugar and caffeine, at least after 18:00. He filled his water glass instead.

“Everything that I used to do, someone else does now. Someone else cleans our home, washes our clothing, cooks our food… other people are living my life. I just exist.”

“You’ll be very busy soon enough. Don’t you like working in the medical suite? I know the only animals here are chickens, but, well…”

“I suppose. My body is making my brain goofy. Maybe when all these girls are grown up some, I can go back to being Rianya again.” Tom reached across the table and put his hand on her arm.

“Maybe it’s just extra biochemical mixed gene hormones? You sound sad. I think going to Tau Ceti D will make you feel better. You need to get off the ship.”

“It’s more than that, Tom. It’s…I don’t know. I’m not sure where I belong.” A course foam churned in his stomach. “I’ll be okay. I think it’s just me.”

“You belong with me, and Zalara, and the squid.”

“I mean in my head,” she tried to explain. “I was the animal shaman on my world, and here I’m not important.”

“Oh, Love, that’s not true.”

“I know you don’t think so. I’ve lost who I was. I think I’m not good at being the leader’s wife. It’s a big shadow.” Tom’s heart sank.

“I never wanted you to feel like that. What can I do?”

“Nothing, Mylan. I’m being selfish. You’ve given me so, so much, our beautiful Zalara, knowledge I would never of had.” She pasted a smile on her face. “I’m just having a down day. I think I’ll take this back to our quarters and eat it later,” she told him, poking at a narrow slice of apple pie.

In the morning, Rianya was renewed by a good night of sleep. Tom figured since he’d stayed away from stimulants, he’d slept quieter, which had given her a better night’s sleep. Her sleeping eyes smiled as a dream fluttered under her feathery lashes. He watched her, breathing, sleeping, the range of emotions dancing on her face.

“Captain Jackson, please come to the galley.” He checked the clock: Neptune’s nuts, it was 08:40. He left Rianya asleep, found that Zalara had already gotten herself up and escaped, and hurried to find out what Bailey wanted.

“No.” Jackson stopped in the arch of the mess hall. Bailey trotted up to him through a field of lavender tablecloths, silver table settings, and a half a meter round cake decorated in pastel colored bugs with smiles on their not-so-buggy faces. “No.” He closed his eyes.

“Captain, we didn’t get to do this for Zalara. The whole crew is in on this.”

“Why me?” Bailey hesitated and frowned, then smiled.

“Oh, right, it’s that other guy Rianya was sleeping with. Sorry to bother you with this.”

“Why not Rianya, you goose?”

“Aren’t you old fashioned?!” She took a few steps away. “Come on, I have your coffee ready.”

“Where is everyone?”

“We all had breakfast, a bunch of us decorated, and Quixote carried all the gifts in a few minutes ago.”

“Where did you get paper?”

“We had to have a couple paper wrapped. Not everything belongs in aluminum boxes, no matter how cute they might be. Now,” she poured a cup of coffee and handed it to him. “Everyone is coming back at 10:00. I didn’t want Rianya to be caught off guard, but it’s a surprise party. So, don’t spill the beans, and be back at 10:00.”

“Really?”

“I’m the captain of the galley.”

“Pardon me, ‘sir’. All right. But only because you make the best coffee on board.”

When he returned to the cabin, Rianya was still asleep. Getting her to the mess in an hour wasn’t going to be easy. Especially because she didn’t want to eat.

“At least come and have a cup of tea.”

“I’ll make a cup here,” she told him.

“You need to move around. Adams doesn’t want you sitting still too long.”

“Where’s Zalara?”

“She’s… in the mess, waiting for us.”

The corridors were empty.

“Where is everyone? It’s really quiet.”

“It’s the middle of a work shift. We just got up late.”  They rounded the corner and stepped in the mess hall.

“Oh, everyone’s here. Someone’s having a party. We can come back later,” she said.

“SURPRISE!”

Rianya almost jumped back half a meter, then she looked at Tom, and back at the crew.

“Ohhh, for us? For the baby?” she said, stepping in to be hugged and touched and kissed by near every member of the crew. Tom watched her stiffen against the physical friendship. Her people felt hugs were for mated people only. But her whole face smiled, she offered thanks all around, placing her hand on her bosom to keep her heart from jumping out.
"Sir, this is for you," Bailey said with a straight face. She held out a pink balloon to him, filled as big as a basketball. He took it, but without helium it just sat there in his hands. He shrugged. Bailey motioned over her belly as if she were the one carrying a baby. "Come on, sir."
"No." With no ambiguity on his face, he shoved the balloon back at her, his spine straight.

“Come sit here by me,” Jane said. The captain sat next to Rianya and conversations erupted all over the room. In a few minutes, gifts handed their way to the couple, all which Jackson handed to her for opening. Soon they were surrounded by boxes, ribbons, tiny garments, blankets, and a variety of items he was sure Rianya had no idea what to do with.

He played along, having learned what young women want, from his sister to his daughter, but it was a struggle to sit still. He gripped his coffee for strength, and took a sip when the laughs and giggles grew intense. This was event was uncomfortable, but bearable. It was charming the way his crew had embraced Rianya and Zalara, but being in command of them all, he kept his admiration to himself.

Cake and drinks came last, along with a toast from Quixote, Tom’s oldest friend aboard. Everyone raised a glass to their blushing captain and glowing Rianya.

“May this one bring you as much happiness, and as many surprises, as the first one.”