Part 30 (2/2)
”I understand, sir,” Lunzie said. The captain appeared to be embarra.s.sed that she had been affected by the opinion of one of his officers, so she gave him a sincere smile to put him at his ease. He nodded.
”We've been out on manoeuvres trying to catch up with planet pirates, and they still haven't come down from the adrenaline high. After a while we were seeing radar shadows behind every asteroid. It was time we had a more pedestrian a.s.signment. Perhaps even a little sh.o.r.e leave,” Aelock sighed, shrugging toward the door by which the ensign had just left, ”though Alpha Centauri wouldn't be my first choice. It's a little too industrialized for my tastes. I like to visit the nature preserves of Earth myself, but my lads consider it tame.”
”Have the pirates struck again?” Lunzie asked, horrified. ”The last raid I heard of was on Phoenix. I once thought my daughter had been killed by the raiders.”
”What, Doctor Fiona?” Aelock demanded, smiling, watching Lunzie's mouth drop open. ”It may surprise you to know. Dr. Mespil, that we had the pleasure of hosting the lady and her dog act fifteen Standard years ago. As charming as yourself, I must say. I can see the family resemblance.”
”The galaxy is shrinking,” Lunzie said, shaking her head. ”This is too much of a coincidence.”
”Not at all, when you consider that she and I serve the same segment of the FSP population. We're both needed chiefly by the new colonies that are just past the threshold of viability, and hence under FSP protection. The emergency medical staff like her use our s.h.i.+ps because we're the only kind of vehicle that can convey help there quickly enough.”
”Such as against planet pirates?”
Aelock looked troubled. ”Well, it's been very quiet lately. Too quiet. There hasn't been a peep out of them in months - almost a year since the last incident. I think they're planning another strike, but I haven't a clue where. By the time we reach Alpha, I'm expecting to hear from one of my contacts, a friend of a friend of a friend of a supplier who sells to the pirates. We still don't know who they are, or who is providing them with bases and repair facilities, drydocks and that kind of thing. I'm hoping that I can make a breakthrough before someone follows the line of inquiry back to me. People who stick their noses into the pirates' business frequently end up dead.”
Lunzie gulped, thinking of Jonahs and the airlock. The captain seemed to divine her thoughts and chuckled.
”Ignore the finger-crossers among my crew. They're good souls, and they'll make you comfortable while you're aboard. We'll have you safe and sound, breathing smoggy Alpha Centauri air before you know it.”
Chapter Eight.
She didn't have time to worry about her new label of Jonah on the brief trip to Alpha Centauri. A number of the crew from the Destiny Calls Destiny Calls broke out in raging symptoms of s.p.a.ce traumatic stress. There was a lot of fighting and name-calling among them, which the s.h.i.+p's chief medical officer diagnosed as pure reaction to danger. In order to prevent violence, Dr. Harris a.s.signed Lunzie to organise therapy for them. On her records, he had noticed the mention of Lunzie's training in treating s.p.a.ce-induced mental disorders and put the patients' care in her hands. broke out in raging symptoms of s.p.a.ce traumatic stress. There was a lot of fighting and name-calling among them, which the s.h.i.+p's chief medical officer diagnosed as pure reaction to danger. In order to prevent violence, Dr. Harris a.s.signed Lunzie to organise therapy for them. On her records, he had noticed the mention of Lunzie's training in treating s.p.a.ce-induced mental disorders and put the patients' care in her hands.
”Now that it's all over, they're remembering to react,” Harris noted, privately to Lunzie, during a briefing. ”Not uncommon after great efforts. I won't interfere in the sessions. I'll just be an observer. They know and trust you, whereas they would not open up well to me. Perhaps I can pick up pointers on technique from you.”
Lunzie held ma.s.s encounter sessions with the Destiny Destiny crew. Nearly all the survivors attended the daily meetings, where they discussed their feelings of anxiety and resentment toward the company with a good deal of fire. Lunzie listened more than she talked, making notes, and throwing in a question or a statement when the conversation lagged or went off on a tangent; and observed which employees might need private or more extensive therapy. crew. Nearly all the survivors attended the daily meetings, where they discussed their feelings of anxiety and resentment toward the company with a good deal of fire. Lunzie listened more than she talked, making notes, and throwing in a question or a statement when the conversation lagged or went off on a tangent; and observed which employees might need private or more extensive therapy.
Lunzie found that the group therapy sessions did her as much good as they did for the other crew members. Her own anxieties and concerns were addressed and discussed thoroughly. To her relief, no one seemed to lose respect for her as a therapist when she talked about her feelings. They sympathised with her, and they appreciated that she cared about their mental well-being, not clinically distant, but as one of them.
The mainframe and drives engineers were the most stressed out, but the worst afflicted with paranoid disorders were the service staff. They complained of helplessness throughout the time they'd spent awake helping to clean up the Destiny Calls Destiny Calls, since they could do nothing to better the situation for themselves or anyone else. For the mental health of the crew at large. Captain Wynline had ordered stressed employees to be put into cold sleep. In order to continue working efficiently on the systems which would preserve their lives, the technicians had to be s.h.i.+elded from additional tension.
”But there we were on the job, and all of a sudden, we'd been rescued while we were asleep,” Voor, one of the Gurnsan cooks, complained in her gentle voice. ”There was no time for us to get used to the new circ.u.mstances.”
”No interval of adjustment, do you mean?” Lunzie asked.
”That's right,” a human chef put in. ”To be knocked out and stored like unwanted baggage - it isn't the way to treat sentient beings.”
Perkin and the other heads of Engineering defended the captain's actions.
”Not at all. For the sake of general peace of mind, hysteria had to be stifled,” Perkin insisted. ”I wouldn't have been able to concentrate. At least cryo-sleep isn't fatal.”
”It might as well have been! Life and death - my life and death - taken out of my hands.”
Lunzie pounced on that remark. ”It sounds like you don't resent the cold sleep as much as you do the order to take it.”
”Well ...” The chef pondered the suggestion. ”I suppose if the captain had asked for volunteers, I probably would have offered. I like to get along.”
Captain Wynline cleared his throat. ”In that case, Koberly, I apologise. I'm only human, and I was under a good deal of strain, too. I ask for your forgiveness.”
There was a general outburst of protest. Many of the others shouted Koberly down, but a few agreed pugnaciously that Wynline owed them an apology.
”Does that satisfy you, Koberly?” Lunzie asked, encouragingly.
The chef shrugged and looked down at the floor. ”I guess so. Next time, let me volunteer first, huh?”
Wynline nodded gravely. ”You have my word.”
”Now, what's this about our not getting paid for our down time?” Chibor asked the captain.
Wynline was almost automatically on the defensive. ”I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but since the s.h.i.+p was treated as lost, the Paraden Company feels that the employees aboard her were needlessly risking their lives. Only the crew who were picked up with the escape pods were given compensatory pay. Our employment was terminated on the day the insurance company paid off the Destiny Calls Destiny Calls.”
There was a loud outcry over that. ”They can't do that to us!” Koberly protested. ”We should be getting ten years back pay!”
”Where's justice when you need it?”
Dr. Harris cleared his throat. ”The captain is planning to press charges against the Paraden Company to recover the cost of the deeps.p.a.ce search. You can all sign on as co-plaintiffs against them. We'll give statements to the court recorder when we reach Alpha Centauri.”
Lunzie and a handful of the Destiny's crew watched from a remote video pickup in the rec room as the Ban Sidhe Ban Sidhe pulled into a stable orbit around Alpha Centauri. It was the first time that she'd been this close to the centre of the settled galaxy. The infrared view of the night side of the planet showed almost continuous heat trace across all the land ma.s.ses and even some under the seas, indicating population centres. She'd never seen such a crowded planet in her life. And somewhere down on that world was her family. Lunzie couldn't wait to meet them. pulled into a stable orbit around Alpha Centauri. It was the first time that she'd been this close to the centre of the settled galaxy. The infrared view of the night side of the planet showed almost continuous heat trace across all the land ma.s.ses and even some under the seas, indicating population centres. She'd never seen such a crowded planet in her life. And somewhere down on that world was her family. Lunzie couldn't wait to meet them.
Two unimaginably long s.h.i.+fts later, she received permission to go dirtside in the landing shuttle. She took a small duffle with some of her clothes and toiletries and Fiona's hologram. After checking her new short haircut hastily in the lavatory mirror, she hurried to the airlock. Some of the Destiny's kitchen staff were already waiting there for the shuttle, surrounded by all of their belongings.
”I'm staying,” Koberly declared, ”until I can get the Tribunal to hear my case against Destiny Lines. Those unsanctioned progeny of a human union won't get away with shoving me into a freezer for ten years, and then cheating me out of my rights.”
”I'm just staying,” said Voor, clasping her utensil case to her astounding double bosom. ”There are always plenty of jobs on settled worlds for good cooks. I plan to apply to the biggest and best hotels in Alpha City. They'd be eager to snap up a pastry chef who can cook for ten thousand on short notice.”
Koberly shook his head pityingly at the Gurnsan's complacent att.i.tude. ”Don't be dumb. You're an artist, cowgirl. You shouldn't apply for a job just because you're fast, or because you supply your own milk. Let 'em give you an audition. Once they taste your desserts they will give you anything to keep you from leaving their establishment without saying yes. Anything.”
”You're too kind,” Voor protested gently, shaking her broad head.
”I agree with him,” Lunzie put in sincerely. ”Perhaps you should hold an auction and sell your services to the highest bidder.”
”If you like, I will handle the business arrangements for you,” said a voice behind Lunzie. ”May I join you while you wait? It is my turn to go on sh.o.r.e leave as well.” It was Tee, glowing like a nova in his white dress uniform. Lunzie and the others greeted him warmly.
”Delighted, Ensign,” Voor said. ”You saved my life. I will always be happy to see you.”
”I haven't seen much of you the last few days,” Lunzie told him, hoping it didn't sound like a reproach.
Tee grinned, showing his white teeth. ”But I have seen you! Playing the therapy sessions like a master conductor. I have stood in the back of the chamber listening, as first one speaks up, then another speaks up, and you solve all their problems. You are so wise.”
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