Yet We Sleep, We Dream by JL Peridot

Author:JL Peridot [Peridot, JL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JL Peridot
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Captain Tracy Nielsen

Location: Bridge, DECK A

The reassuring hum of life support gives the bridge an air of foreboding. Tracy swallows, shrugging her shoulders tightly, then releasing the tension—a tension made worse by the blinking LED light in her periphery. In all the commotion, or perhaps before, the short strip of electrical tape covering it up has peeled away. There’s no reason that light should blink—but then, what if there is? What if she should have paid it more mind instead of covering it up? It could have been a sign that something had degraded.

Nick wasn’t wrong about these newer ships, where “state of the art” was more about marketing than reliability. But seeing as how most civilian ships managed just fine with conditions a lot worse made one tiny blinking light seem like nothing. At least nothing next to everything else that demanded her attention. Was tonight her fault? Should she, as the Athenia’s captain, have foreseen this?

But that blinking light won’t wind the clock back. And its incessant rhythm is starting to give her a headache. Against her better judgement, or perhaps because of it, she thumbs the tape back down on the console only for it to curl up again.

“Here, catch,” Aaron calls from two stations over. A half-used roll of electrical tape glides through the air above her.

Tracy grabs a nearby handle and swings, weightless, up to catch it. She’s upside down when her fingers close around it. If there wasn’t so much at stake, this would almost be fun.

Her feet touch down with barely a sound. Prepped with a thank-you and collegial banter, she looks up at Aaron, but he’s already facing his console, which is also dotted with short strips of tape.

“How’s it looking, Button?” she pipes into the comms.

“Gravity’s back to normal in Atrium Lab, but I can’t seem to do anything about where you guys are. And a bunch of stuff is out in Engineering. I’ve sent a memo around for everyone to steer clear until I get it fixed.”

“Good thinking. Got an ETA on the gravity?”

“I’ll get back to you in twenty, Captain.”

Aaron turns away. Tracy leaps onto her station, grabbing the handle again to guide herself down. She lands with a bump. No smart remark from her second-in-command. He doesn’t even acknowledge her sitting position. She holds up the tape. “Thanks for this. You want it back?”

“Uh, yeah, thanks.” He catches the roll and pushes it back in his drawer.

“Whatcha up to?”

“Not much.”

“You seem pretty focused on not much.”

“I’m just sussing out numbers from the past couple of weeks in case we find an anomaly in Engineering. Simple stuff, you know? Not much else I can do until Button gives the all-clear to head down there. I suppose I could help him out with that, but—” Aaron taps one of the screens on his console. “I’ve got one eye on it from here. The guy seems to know what he’s doing.”

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing.” Tracy’s hands hit her hips before she thinks to tone it down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.