TITLE: The More Things Change...
AUTHOR: Michael J. Gallagher aka MikeJoe (mikejoe@odyssey.net)
SPOILERS FOR: “The Lone and Level Sands”
DISCLAIMER: GRA is owned by Tribune, not me. I am just having fun; please don’t sue me.
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THEN
“Beka--?” Captain Dylan Hunt said, coming through the *Eureka Maru’s* airlock.
Standing by the bunk area, Beka spun towards him. “Here -- catch!” She threw a duffle bag at him; Dylan caught it -- and almost dropped it to the deck! How many bricks had she put in this thing?
“Ok ... uh ....” He straightened up. “Is this the last of your stuff?”
Beka pulled a backpack onto her shoulder. “Actually, it’s -- hey, you’re not having trouble with that? I thought all you High Guard guys were all big and strong ..... Well anyway,” she went on, hustling her (unamused) new captain (she was still having trouble getting used to the idea of working for someone else) out the airlock, “to be honest, we’ve been so busy the last few days, I haven’t had time to figure out what to take to my new quarters and what to leave on the *Maru.*” They got to the bottom of the step and headed across the huge hangar. “I mean, let’s say I take a trip on the *Maru* and find I left my toothbrush back here....?”
“I see what you’re saying,” Dylan said. “Ship’s stores has a lot of necessities, a month’s worth for 4,000 people, so you should be able to find some things like that and not have to take them off your ship.”
“Oh, great--more trips back and forth.”
“I didn’t mean to make your life more difficult.”
“I know, ya big --” They’d got to the inner airlock, and both captains stopped in their tracks at what sounded like pounding in the walls. “What -- you can’t have mice on this thing, can you?”
“Andromeda--” Dylan started.
A wall hatch slid open and Seamus Harper, Beka’s somewhat disheveled engineer, dropped out of a conduit and raced to the nearest control panel. “Ok, Rom Doll, show me!” The panel lit up, filling with figures and schematics neither captain could decipher. Harper tapped some codes, the screen blanked (after an angry buzz), and Harper spun to see his bosses behind him. “HEY! You movin’ in, Beka? Need some help?”
“No, we’ve got it,” she replied. “Will you need some help with your stuff?”
“Thanks, but Rom Doll an’ me took care of that yesterday.”
“’Rom Doll’?”
“Yeah, isn’t the ship amazing? I thought she was awesome before, but now--WHOO! You gotta check out the engine room--Oh, that reminds me. Dylan? We’re gonna need a new AP solenoid valve before too long.”
“That’s right...” Dylan said. “We were do for an overhaul before.... How long will this valve last, Mr. Harper?”
“That’s the good news, Boss--I think this puppy’ll last another five or six months, but we shouldn’t ignore it for too long.”
“And..... what was that buzz?”
“Huh? Oh, THAT! Rommie’n’me, we just had a little tiff. What’s next darlin’?” A screen lit up; Harper read it, tapped a code (getting another angry buzz) and dove back into the conduit; his footsteps pounded away.
“He can proposition my ship using command codes?” Dylan wondered.
“She lets him call her ‘Rom Doll’? He hasn‘t had an ‘accident‘ yet?” Beka mused. Then she turned to Dylan and smiled. “I think I’m stuck here.”
NOW
“G’night guys,” Beka said as she and Commander Nadya Ratmanski, late of the *Bellerephon,* left Trance’s little cubbyhole on the *Maru.* Rommie and Trance said their “goodnights,” then went right back into “girl talk;” Beka would have loved to have stayed, but being human, she and Nadya needed sleep.
“Oh, Beka--wait up,” Nadya said. She grabbed a backpack from an overhead bin and slung it over her shoulder. “My quarters are on the way to yours, right?”
“No--opposite direction,” Beka said. “But I’ll walk with ya. And it’s not because you’re lost, is it?”
“Of course not.”
Rommie’s voice sounded down the passage: “Where have I heard that before?”
“So, Beka,” Nadya said as she and her new superior went through the *Maru’s* airlock and down the step to the hangar, “what possessed Harper to build a ‘girlfriend’ with such acute hearing?”
Beka shrugged. “Harper moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to behold.”
“So Mr. Kemp tells me.”
“Really. How are you guys settling in?”
“Getting there. The ship’s layout .... takes some getting used to. But if I can get used to working for a civilian, I can get used to a few twists and turns on the way to command.”
“Yeah .... so you’re chafing at my being your boss?”
“NO! Beka, you’re Dylan’s XO, and I’ll work for ... wait, do you think I want your job?”
“You had it on the *Bellerephon,* under a military-type, for twenty years.”
“Yup, and if you’d seen my ulcer, you’d know why I’ll happily be someone else’s second banana.”
Beka smiled. “And if you’d seen *my* ulcer, you’d know why--”
They’d got to the inner hangar and Nadya stopped in her tracks, listening to the pounding in the walls. “What the -- you can’t have mice, can you?”
Then a small hatch popped open and Harper surged out of a conduit, followed by Mr. Kemp and a squad of *Bellerephon* engineers; Nadya’s shipmates leaned against the wall, catching their breath, while Harper made a B-line for the nearest console.
“Hey....” Nadya said. “You all settled in? After I get my stuff back to my quarters--”
“What?” Kemp said. “No, I’m good, Commander -- Harper showed us how to get Andromeda to help us settle in. Been all setup since yesterday. Thanks.”
“You’re .... welcome. So, how do you like your new job?”
Kemp’s jaw dropped for a moment, then he turned to his longtime superior. “Lemmee tellya, Naddya, I don’t know what’s more unbelievable--the *Andromeda* or Harper’s knowledge of her. The guy’s totally intuitive--if he has any set procedures, they’re in his head. But he can -- I’ve seen him do this -- he can walk into the engine room -- which you have *got* to see, I swear you could lose the *Bellerephon* in there -- listen for a second, and say ‘fix *that*’ and that’s it -- diagnosis and repair like that!” He snapped his fingers. “Incredible. If I’d been one of the guys who put this baby together, I *might*--”
“Oh, CRAP!” Harper came away from the console, back towards Kemp and his team. “We gotta -- oh, hi Bek, Nadya -- we gotta hustle. AP solenoid valve’s putting out some funky vibes. Could be a bad sensor, but we gotta check it out.”
Kemp straightened. “You heard the chief!” he roared. “Let’s move out.”
Harper dove into the conduit followed by Kemp and the other engineers; their footsteps thumped into the distance.
Nadya stood there with a funny look on her face, then turned back to Beka. “I guess I’m staying for a while.”
Beka fell against the bulkhead and slid to the deck, laughing.
“What?” Nadya asked.
“Nothing,” Beka managed, accepting Nadya’s hand and being pulled up. “Let’s just say .... that old saying, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’? I’ve never heard a truer word spoken.”