FIC: Lunch at Stravaigin
Lunch at Stravaigin continued ...
Part One
Part Two
She looked around before asking if everything was all right.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I was just passing.”
“Sure,” TJ said skeptically. “What’s up?”
“There was an incident,” Greer said.
“He’s supposed to be asleep,” TJ said instantly worried. “I gave him enough dope to knock him out for two days.”
“Not Rush,” said Greer. He slid a glance at her.
“What happened?” she said. “Who?”
“Brody, some of the other scientists,” said Greer. “There’s kino footage.”
“Show me,” TJ requested.
She sat and watched.
“Okay,” Brody said briskly. “This section’s completely mechanical so we have to get our hands dirty, ladies and gentlemen.”
“I just did my nails,” Park said mournfully. “Left or right?”
Brody checked something on his notebook. “Left,” he said.
Park and Volker, learning mechanical engineering just as Brody was learning their jobs, turned a lever around. Something clanged. There was a hiss and TJ could hear something working. Then she heard Riley’s voice.
“Uh, Brody?” Riley’s voice sounded tinny. “That’s blown a relay.”
“Where?” Brody asked. “Lisa, turn it down a little.”
Park and Volker turned the lever back an inch or so.
“Okay,” said Riley’s voice. “That’s eased the pressure.”
“We’ll take a look at the relay,” said Brody.
The kino followed them to where Riley said the relay had blown. Brody opened a wall panel and pulled something out.
“Yep, gone,” said Brody. “We’ll replace it with one of those from our spacewalk.”
It hadn’t really been a spacewalk; they’d used the suits to go into the open-to-space sections of the ship. The dead areas, Rush called them, where nothing worked overall though there were bits of equipment they could use for spare parts. One of the scientists disappeared and came back a few minutes later with what looked to be a pipe. Brody put it into the wall and resealed the panel.
“How’s that, Riley?” he asked.
“Looking good,” said Riley’s voice.
“Great,” said Brody. “Let’s move onto the next section.”
They packed up and the kino followed them. They took no notice of it and TJ wondered if it was Rush’s Bentham, which seemed to be a little sneakier than the rest of the kinos. She scratched her head at anthropomorphizing the kino.
Then as they began their repair work on the next area, she heard Colonel Young’s voice on the radio.
“Mr Brody, come in, please,” said Young.
TJ could see them all glance at each other before Brody answered. Young asked where they were. Brody gave Young their location and they stood around waiting. Scott and Greer were with him. Greer stood at the back; he didn’t say anything.
“What are you doing?” Young asked.
At least he started out reasonably politely.
“Repairs,” said Brody, as if it was obvious.
“I haven’t authorized any work here,” said Young.
“Colonel,” said Brody, “this is just repair work to the areas damaged by the fire.”
“Which I wasn’t told about,” said Young. “You go through me if you’re doing any work on Destiny’s systems.”
“No,” said Brody.
He wasn’t defiant; he was simply matter-of-fact.
“Excuse me?” said Young.
Scott said, “Brody …”
Greer took a step back out of the conversation, although if it came down to it, he’d support Young.
“Colonel, this is simply making sure that what was working before is working now,” said Brody patiently.
“And if someone gets hurt,” Young began. “That’s my responsibility.”
“Colonel, you authorized the original work to be done by your marines and we consequently had a fire,” said Brody. TJ noted the division between ‘your marines’ and the science team. “This is an old ship; accidents happen and we want to ensure this area is safe.”
“And you go through me before you start anything,” Young insisted.
“I will certainly let my team leader know,” said Brody, the note of defiance now obvious.
“Oh shit,” said TJ despairingly. “He didn’t.”
“Yup,” said Greer.
Brody went on, “Dr Rush will inform you of repairs being undertaken.”
“I’ll speak to Rush,” Young promised, a note of fury in his voice.
“That blithering idiot!” TJ seethed.
“The Colonel?” asked Greer, reserved.
“Brody,” said TJ. “I know what he meant but I’ve had enough of the Colonel and Rush at each other’s throats.”
“Rush won’t know about this,” Greer pointed out.
“No, but that won’t stop him from getting the blame, will it,” said TJ. “What happened?”
“The Colonel posted a guard,” said Greer. “The science team’s sulking.”
“How badly?” asked TJ.
“All in their quarters,” said Greer.
“Fan-bloody-tastic,” said TJ, unconsciously giving away who she’d been hanging out with. “I shouldn’t have doped him up.”
“When’s he due to wake up?” Greer asked.
“Tomorrow,” TJ said. “Can’t be helped.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Greer.
“Infirmary,” said TJ. She stood, poking him in the chest. “We haven’t talked.”
“No, ma’am,” agreed Greer dutifully.
The civilian science team seemed to be on strike the next day. Only Eli and Riley were around. Greer asked TJ sotto voce if they were having a mutiny and she muttered back that she didn’t think civilians could be accused of mutiny. But, after Rush made an appearance late in the evening, he simply looked puzzled at the accusation that he’d directed the science team to defy Young’s orders over the repair work to the fire-affected area. He said only, “Oh,” and sat down to eat his banana gloop. His unwillingness to play, or rather his lack of knowledge of what had happened, and a certain amount of grogginess from the migraine herbs, stumped Young who clearly expected a fight. Young threw up his hands and walked out. After Scott and Greer followed Young, TJ slid into place opposite Rush. He looked up and she folded her hands to stop herself brushing the hair out of his eyes. He needed a haircut and a shave.
“I seem to have missed something,” he said.
“The science team’s on strike,” TJ informed him.
“Oh?” he repeated, this time cautiously.
As TJ explained what happened-careful not to pass judgment on anyone-Rush’s expression went from confused to irritated.
“You know, I was having a nice day up to now,” he said. “Nice wee sleep in; didn’t have to get up because my doctor told me to spend the day in bed so I just read a bit and listened to some music; little bit of banana gloop for supper; perhaps a wander around the ship, back to bed.”
“You should probably still do that,” TJ advised, touched that he’d called her his doctor. “I spent the day on Earth at the SGC: medicine and herbs.”
She didn’t mention Google, the woman in the photo or her chat with Colonel Carter.
Rush fixed his gaze on her, his chin resting in his hands. She flushed and looked away, saying, “What?”
“Thank you,” he said.
She bit her lip and said, “For what?”
“Working,” he said. “Harder than anyone really.”
She didn’t know where to look or what to say so she disguised her embarrassment with gruffness. “Come on, go have your wander and then straight back to bed. No working.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said softly.
She didn’t see him again until New Year’s Eve whereupon, Greer reported, his vitriolic personality returned in full. People had screwed things up all over the place and Rush was not pleased. Greer gazed her at expectantly.
“What?’ she asked.
“I think everyone’s kind of thinking that you’ll calm him down,” Greer said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded suspiciously, all the time inside thinking, shit, shit, fucking shit. She needed a thesaurus for some new swear words.
“He’s more polite when he’s talking to you,” Greer said. “I ain’t the only person who’s noticed, L.T.”
Goddammit.
“You’re kidding, right?” she said. “He swears like a damned trooper around me.”
“Yeah, but he’s nice about it,” Greer said.
“And who exactly is ‘everyone’?” TJ wanted to know, mentally crossing her fingers that Eli hadn’t noticed, that the kinos hadn’t recorded anything, that Scott didn’t know and above all that no one had said anything to Young.
“Well, Lt Scott mentioned that the Colonel said maybe you should dope him up on your migraine herbs,” Greer said, watching her closely. As she paled, he said, catching her arm, “No one thinks it’s anything more than you being nice when he was sick.”
“You’re sure?” she whispered.
Greer said, “No one likes him.”
“Yes,” she echoed. “No one likes him.” She bit her lip; she had to be more careful. “Where is he?”
“Talking to Brody about the repairs,” Greer said. “You want an escort?”
She nodded dolefully, promising herself that she would go out of her way to avoid Rush completely unless she had to. No just popping into the control interface room to check on him; no casually sitting down at the same table in the mess hall; and certainly no late night visits to his quarters to make sure he was sleeping rather than working. Nothing.
Part Four
Part One
Part Two
She looked around before asking if everything was all right.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I was just passing.”
“Sure,” TJ said skeptically. “What’s up?”
“There was an incident,” Greer said.
“He’s supposed to be asleep,” TJ said instantly worried. “I gave him enough dope to knock him out for two days.”
“Not Rush,” said Greer. He slid a glance at her.
“What happened?” she said. “Who?”
“Brody, some of the other scientists,” said Greer. “There’s kino footage.”
“Show me,” TJ requested.
She sat and watched.
“Okay,” Brody said briskly. “This section’s completely mechanical so we have to get our hands dirty, ladies and gentlemen.”
“I just did my nails,” Park said mournfully. “Left or right?”
Brody checked something on his notebook. “Left,” he said.
Park and Volker, learning mechanical engineering just as Brody was learning their jobs, turned a lever around. Something clanged. There was a hiss and TJ could hear something working. Then she heard Riley’s voice.
“Uh, Brody?” Riley’s voice sounded tinny. “That’s blown a relay.”
“Where?” Brody asked. “Lisa, turn it down a little.”
Park and Volker turned the lever back an inch or so.
“Okay,” said Riley’s voice. “That’s eased the pressure.”
“We’ll take a look at the relay,” said Brody.
The kino followed them to where Riley said the relay had blown. Brody opened a wall panel and pulled something out.
“Yep, gone,” said Brody. “We’ll replace it with one of those from our spacewalk.”
It hadn’t really been a spacewalk; they’d used the suits to go into the open-to-space sections of the ship. The dead areas, Rush called them, where nothing worked overall though there were bits of equipment they could use for spare parts. One of the scientists disappeared and came back a few minutes later with what looked to be a pipe. Brody put it into the wall and resealed the panel.
“How’s that, Riley?” he asked.
“Looking good,” said Riley’s voice.
“Great,” said Brody. “Let’s move onto the next section.”
They packed up and the kino followed them. They took no notice of it and TJ wondered if it was Rush’s Bentham, which seemed to be a little sneakier than the rest of the kinos. She scratched her head at anthropomorphizing the kino.
Then as they began their repair work on the next area, she heard Colonel Young’s voice on the radio.
“Mr Brody, come in, please,” said Young.
TJ could see them all glance at each other before Brody answered. Young asked where they were. Brody gave Young their location and they stood around waiting. Scott and Greer were with him. Greer stood at the back; he didn’t say anything.
“What are you doing?” Young asked.
At least he started out reasonably politely.
“Repairs,” said Brody, as if it was obvious.
“I haven’t authorized any work here,” said Young.
“Colonel,” said Brody, “this is just repair work to the areas damaged by the fire.”
“Which I wasn’t told about,” said Young. “You go through me if you’re doing any work on Destiny’s systems.”
“No,” said Brody.
He wasn’t defiant; he was simply matter-of-fact.
“Excuse me?” said Young.
Scott said, “Brody …”
Greer took a step back out of the conversation, although if it came down to it, he’d support Young.
“Colonel, this is simply making sure that what was working before is working now,” said Brody patiently.
“And if someone gets hurt,” Young began. “That’s my responsibility.”
“Colonel, you authorized the original work to be done by your marines and we consequently had a fire,” said Brody. TJ noted the division between ‘your marines’ and the science team. “This is an old ship; accidents happen and we want to ensure this area is safe.”
“And you go through me before you start anything,” Young insisted.
“I will certainly let my team leader know,” said Brody, the note of defiance now obvious.
“Oh shit,” said TJ despairingly. “He didn’t.”
“Yup,” said Greer.
Brody went on, “Dr Rush will inform you of repairs being undertaken.”
“I’ll speak to Rush,” Young promised, a note of fury in his voice.
“That blithering idiot!” TJ seethed.
“The Colonel?” asked Greer, reserved.
“Brody,” said TJ. “I know what he meant but I’ve had enough of the Colonel and Rush at each other’s throats.”
“Rush won’t know about this,” Greer pointed out.
“No, but that won’t stop him from getting the blame, will it,” said TJ. “What happened?”
“The Colonel posted a guard,” said Greer. “The science team’s sulking.”
“How badly?” asked TJ.
“All in their quarters,” said Greer.
“Fan-bloody-tastic,” said TJ, unconsciously giving away who she’d been hanging out with. “I shouldn’t have doped him up.”
“When’s he due to wake up?” Greer asked.
“Tomorrow,” TJ said. “Can’t be helped.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Greer.
“Infirmary,” said TJ. She stood, poking him in the chest. “We haven’t talked.”
“No, ma’am,” agreed Greer dutifully.
The civilian science team seemed to be on strike the next day. Only Eli and Riley were around. Greer asked TJ sotto voce if they were having a mutiny and she muttered back that she didn’t think civilians could be accused of mutiny. But, after Rush made an appearance late in the evening, he simply looked puzzled at the accusation that he’d directed the science team to defy Young’s orders over the repair work to the fire-affected area. He said only, “Oh,” and sat down to eat his banana gloop. His unwillingness to play, or rather his lack of knowledge of what had happened, and a certain amount of grogginess from the migraine herbs, stumped Young who clearly expected a fight. Young threw up his hands and walked out. After Scott and Greer followed Young, TJ slid into place opposite Rush. He looked up and she folded her hands to stop herself brushing the hair out of his eyes. He needed a haircut and a shave.
“I seem to have missed something,” he said.
“The science team’s on strike,” TJ informed him.
“Oh?” he repeated, this time cautiously.
As TJ explained what happened-careful not to pass judgment on anyone-Rush’s expression went from confused to irritated.
“You know, I was having a nice day up to now,” he said. “Nice wee sleep in; didn’t have to get up because my doctor told me to spend the day in bed so I just read a bit and listened to some music; little bit of banana gloop for supper; perhaps a wander around the ship, back to bed.”
“You should probably still do that,” TJ advised, touched that he’d called her his doctor. “I spent the day on Earth at the SGC: medicine and herbs.”
She didn’t mention Google, the woman in the photo or her chat with Colonel Carter.
Rush fixed his gaze on her, his chin resting in his hands. She flushed and looked away, saying, “What?”
“Thank you,” he said.
She bit her lip and said, “For what?”
“Working,” he said. “Harder than anyone really.”
She didn’t know where to look or what to say so she disguised her embarrassment with gruffness. “Come on, go have your wander and then straight back to bed. No working.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said softly.
She didn’t see him again until New Year’s Eve whereupon, Greer reported, his vitriolic personality returned in full. People had screwed things up all over the place and Rush was not pleased. Greer gazed her at expectantly.
“What?’ she asked.
“I think everyone’s kind of thinking that you’ll calm him down,” Greer said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded suspiciously, all the time inside thinking, shit, shit, fucking shit. She needed a thesaurus for some new swear words.
“He’s more polite when he’s talking to you,” Greer said. “I ain’t the only person who’s noticed, L.T.”
Goddammit.
“You’re kidding, right?” she said. “He swears like a damned trooper around me.”
“Yeah, but he’s nice about it,” Greer said.
“And who exactly is ‘everyone’?” TJ wanted to know, mentally crossing her fingers that Eli hadn’t noticed, that the kinos hadn’t recorded anything, that Scott didn’t know and above all that no one had said anything to Young.
“Well, Lt Scott mentioned that the Colonel said maybe you should dope him up on your migraine herbs,” Greer said, watching her closely. As she paled, he said, catching her arm, “No one thinks it’s anything more than you being nice when he was sick.”
“You’re sure?” she whispered.
Greer said, “No one likes him.”
“Yes,” she echoed. “No one likes him.” She bit her lip; she had to be more careful. “Where is he?”
“Talking to Brody about the repairs,” Greer said. “You want an escort?”
She nodded dolefully, promising herself that she would go out of her way to avoid Rush completely unless she had to. No just popping into the control interface room to check on him; no casually sitting down at the same table in the mess hall; and certainly no late night visits to his quarters to make sure he was sleeping rather than working. Nothing.
Part Four