(no subject)

Who: Jo
Where: Promenade
When: after Kirella decided to take on the whole bar by herself.
Jo walked along the promenade, suddenly wondering how she would
actually contact Alexei since her ship’s communications capabilities
were now nonexistent. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a
private communications booth, one of the many that dotted a ship this
size for universal crew use.
Slipping inside, Jo locked the door and asked the AI operator to
establish a link with the Einstein II space station. An
over-enthusiastic secretary mechanoid answered the call and chirpily
directed Jo through to Alexei’s private office. She found that she was
holding her breath, waiting for him to pick up.
At last the screen lightened. Jo stared at Alexei in shock. In just
under a year he had aged 10. His face was haggard, grey and gaunt,
deep shadows surrounded his eyes, his hair now predominantly grey,
streaked with white.
Bushy brows drew together as he peered at her, a puzzled expression on
his face, which slacked suddenly into surprise and disbelief.
“Jo...” he breathed, then became more excited “Jo! It is you! Where in
Orion’s name have you been? What happened to you? And the ship? What
happened to the ship!” He threw the questions at her with growing
anxiety.
“The dimension jump didn’t work as planned, Alexei,” Jo explained in a
voice that was calmer than she felt. “It dumped us out in Sector 27
Gamma. Our exit vector sent us straight into an asteroid field. We
barely had enough time to buckle in before we ploughed into one of the
damn things.”
The commander erupted in another fount of fretful questions. “What
about the ship, is she alright? All the previous test flights were
faultless. Do you have a log of the jump? When can you get to
Einstein II? Wait, no, you can’t come here...”
“ALEXI!” Jo barked, stunned at the terrible change in her friend.
This was a far cry from the brash dressing down she had expected to
receive. He blinked and stopped his outburst.
“The Quasar 4 received some pretty heavy structural damage in the
crash. We lost five crew,” she said quietly.
Alexei closed his eyes. “Who?”
“Three bridge crew: John Nimitz, David Nikolche, and Maya Lefevere.
Two science officers: Court Thompson and James O’Conner.” Jo paused,
remembering.
“The JMC mining vessel Blue Dwarf was passing through the area and
picked us up,” she smiled, “You wouldn’t believe some of the adventures
we’ve had since that happened. We were incredibly lucky to be rescued.
All our communications equipment had gone to Silicon Heaven. I’ve
prepared a report on subsequent events, but the Quasar 4...” Jo sighed
at the imploring expression on Alexi’s face.
“I’m sorry Alexei, it experienced some rough handling. A few critical
systems could possibly be saved, but the rest is about as useful as
tinfoil.”
Alexei sighed disconsolately and fell silent, deep in thought. Jo
waited, but it was almost as though he had completely forgotten her
image on the screen in front of him. Finally, she couldn’t stand it
any longer.
“Alexei,” she burst out, “What happened? Why...”
His head jerked up in surprise and he cut her off with a sudden
strength in his voice, “Jo you have to get off that ship. I expect
they’ve been monitoring my communications. Curse it! I should have
realised! They were furious that you lost the ship and shut the entire
operation down. Assumed you had stolen the technology for profit or
some such nonsense...”
“Shut down? How? They don’t have any authority to intervene in military
matters,” she interrupted.
“But they have enough money to buy off the necessary people,” Alexei
countered, “They’re out to make a smoking crater of your career. In
essence, you and your crew are fugitives.”
Jo stared at him grimly.
“If I can, I’ll be in touch. Good luck.” He said softly. The screen
went dark.
Jo muttered a curse as the connection terminated and slumped forward,
burying her face in her hands. Then, giving herself a shake, she
straightened her shoulders and exited the booth, headed for Docking Bay
26.
OCC: Congratulations to all who received promotions. They are well
deserved =)
If anyone’s interested, some of the background to this subplot is in
posts 3322, 3326 and 3361.
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