OIC (5)
MegaZone23
"Trust is the province of fools."
--Anonymous
Gryphon entered the bridge, buttoning down the flap of
his uniform jacket. He had paused to wash his face and the
like, but didn't feel particularly comfortable, even so. He
wouldn't again, until he had the chance to take a shower and
get some sleep. If he ever had time to do that again in his
life.
"Casualties?" he asked as he took his seat from a
gratefully fleeing ReRob.
"None reported on board," Yuri replied. "Lucky for us
the crew is too small to have crews on all the substations,
and the deck crews were off the Armor platforms because of
our airspace lockout."
"That's good news, anyway. How's the ship, besides
FUBAR?"
"Drive and propulsion systems are still working, kind
of--I think we can make it back to Planitia for repairs if we
sit here for a while and do some on-site kludging," ReRob
replied. "Of course, our shield generators are fucked, and
the main gun is gone, and the fighters are running out of
cargo holds for the time being, but if we aren't attacked
again, I think we should be okay. We won't be moving for a
couple of days, though."
"Okay...get everyone together in the Lower Wedge, those
who don't want to go back to space with us. We'll find
some place quiet to set down and let them off, or ferry them
down with Betas, or something."
"Like yo, there's a message for us," q called, snapping
his fingers. "From the Air Force. Says we have to leave.
Now. Or they start like dropping nuclear bombs on us."
"What?" Kei cried. "That's not right--they can't stop
us from coming home!"
"They can and they are," Gryphon said wearily. "Life
imitates art. Shit. I was hoping this wouldn't happen."
"Why don't we fight? It's not right!"
"Fight? We can't fight our own homeworld. It isn't
what we were given this kind of power to do. The Wedge
Defense Force exists to protect places like Earth, not blow
them up. We've already done a lot more damage than we should
have." He sighed. "q, ask them if we can at least deboard
civilian personnel before leaving."
"Like will do." q began encoding the request on his
keyboard immediately. Moments later, his screen lit up with
the response. "Like they won't do it," he replied. "They're
like expressly forbidding us to deboard anyone. We're to
leave the solar system immediately and like never come back."
"Never come back, eh? We'll see about that. Tell them
we have uninvolved civilian personnel on board who wish to
deboard. All they want to do is go home. The military
personnel and the starship itself will depart the system as
ordered. And see if you can get us a little more time."
"Right." Again the brief span of typing time and the
pause. "They're not going for it. They say we have to leave
now, and take everyone with us, or they're gonna hose down
the entire blast zone."
"Fine. I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this...tell
them we can't leave until we fix our engines. Probably be
about a week."
"A week?" ReRob said. "I can get us off the ground in
a couple of--"
"A week," Gryphon replied. "We need more time than your
repairs will actually take us. Trust me."
"Like coding..." Once more, the typing and the wait.
"They say they'll give us four days. No more. And no one is
to leave the ship."
"Great. Just like getting money from Dad...if you need
fifty dollars, ask him for a hundred. You'll get fifty and
he'll think he shorted you." Gryphon grinned. "Now we have
some time. Rob, I'm reeeeally hoping here--did any Shadow
Fighters happen to not be on the A.R.M.D. platforms?"
"I dunno," ReRob replied. "I can find out easy enough,
though. Probably be a few minutes."
"No big rush--if you can round up a Shadow Legios within
a day or so it would be most helpful. I have a few errands
to run."
Well, why don't you take the Daytona and its beta unit?
It does have Minovski particle shielding. No one would
detect you."
"I can't find the keys."
"Well, I'm sure we could hotwire it."
"ReRob, the Daytona isn't moving until Zoner recovers.
It's his baby, no one is to touch it."
"Ok, I understand."
"Right, now see about the Shadow Legios."
"Ok, I'll get right on it."
Gryphon left the bridge and went directly to sickbay.
Yuri was there by Zoner's bedside as usual, and as usual, he
was worried about her. She spent all of her off-duty time
keeping watch over him. What would happen to her if Zoner
never recovered, or if he died? Yuri seemed to be denying
those possibilities; she insisted that he would fully
recover.
For his part, Ben was prepared for all eventualities.
He had said his goodbyes and done his share of screaming at
the moon. If the worst came to pass, he was ready.
Or so he told himself.
Gryphon walked up behind Yuri and crossed his arms
around in front of her, resting his head on her shoulder.
She gently placed her hands on his arms.
"No change in his condition, huh?" Gryphon asked softly.
"None. He's still the same," Yuri answered in a small
voice.
"You've got to stop worrying so much. Zoner's in a
coma. Only time will tell if he'll ever recover. In the
meantime, you're still up and about, and you've got your own
life to live. You spend all of your time here. People are
starting to worry about you. Come on, let's go up to the
Wedge for a while."
"No. You go, I'm going to be here when he wakes up."
"You know, Yuri, that's what I love about you," said
Gryphon wearily. "You're just as fucking stubborn as I am."
A voice called out from the vidscreen on the bulkhead.
"Yuri, you needn't worry so much. I will call you if his
condition changes in the slightest."
"Thanks, Eve, but I know he knows I'm here. I can feel
it. I want him to know that I'm out here waiting for his
return."
"That's not very logical. You need to take care of
yourself."
"It's an emotional thing, Eve, it's hard to understand
sometimes," Gryphon interjected.
"I'm still trying to fully understand human emotions.
Just when I think I understand them all, something new pops
up. Humans are so unpredictable."
"That's usually how it works. Don't worry, I took that
into account when I designed your response parameters. Give
yourself time to evolve." Then, to Yuri, "But Eve's right,
sure he may know you're out here. But he's probably pissed
that you're not taking care of yourself."
"It's not that he may know I'm here, he does know. With
my ESP and his empathy we're linked. I can feel that he
wants to come back, but he's lost in his own mind. Once he
let his walls down we made contact and we've never really
separated. I felt his pain when he was injured, and I can
feel his fear and loneliness now. But he has a strong will,
he's stubborn enough that he'll recover." Then, quietly, so
that Ben could barely hear her, "He has to."
Ben hugged her tighter. "Hmmmm. I really don't...know
what to say."
"That's ok, I understand. It hasn't been easy on you
either. What are you going to do about getting people off of
the ship?"
"Not sure yet, I've got a plan. I'm just waiting to see
if it works. Now...I'm going to head up to the Wedge.
You're coming with me."
"Sorry, but no. I'm staying right here. Until he wakes
up or I go back on duty."
"You've been sleeping down here, for God's sake! You
are incorrigible, aren't you?" He smiled tiredly. "Do try
and get some rest. I don't want to relieve you of duty, but
if you keep running yourself into the ground like this, I
will."
"I will. Say hi to Kei for me."
"Ok. I'd say have fun, but it doesn't seem to apply."
With that, and a tender kiss to Yuri's cheek, Gryphon left
sickbay and headed for the Wedge.
Yuri leaned over and kissed Zoner gently. "You will
recover, I can feel it."
"So can I. He's got a strong will."
Yuri spun and faced the door to the medical office.
"Jenna! I didn't hear you back there."
"I've been working on some paperwork. I just thought
I'd check on him."
"He hasn't changed." Yuri said, looking back at Zoner.
"Want to talk about it?"
"I don't know..."
"Sometimes it helps to dump your problems on someone
else. I'm offering my services as a dumping ground."
"I'm just so worried. Part of me knows he'll recover,
but a part of me is worried that he won't. Maybe I'm just
fooling myself."
"No, I feel it too. Zoner's talked to me a lot about
his past, and his present too. We have a lot in common, I
can tell what he's feeling sometimes. Not as close of a link
as you have, but it's there. He's fighting to come back, but
it's going to be hard. Any help we can give him would be
appreciated, I'm sure."
"Help? How can we help him?"
"Are you willing to learn a few things about energies?"
"Well, Zoner's been trying to teach me some stuff as he
worked on it himself. I guess it wouldn't hurt."
"Well, we can start now if you want."
"Ok."
Gryphon was, as he was accustomed to being when off-duty
these days, slumped into the corner of a Wedge booth, letting
the wall on either side of him hold him up so he could
concentrate on that incredibly complex task called
breathing. It had been a day.
A great many things were annoying him. The stress of
command he had almost dealt with; it was the kind of thing
that had to be done, and he was best qualified to do it.
Better to do it himself than worry about how well person x
was doing it. Besides, it was easier to tell himself how bad
he had fucked up than someone else.
There was the fact that he wasn't sure if he could get
up out of the Wedgebooth to go to bed.
There was the fact that he had lost a pilot. Sure, it
was Paul, but still, it would be a mark on the record of his
squadron, and whatever his faults, Paul had still been a
human being.
There was the fact that Fritz had died. Fritz could be
annoying sometimes, but Gryphon had genuinely liked the man,
and was quite sad that he was gone.
There was the imminent threat of nuclear bombardment by
the United States Air Force. Enough said.
There was the ever-so-polite-and-well-meaning blow off
Yuri had given him. Ah well, she was stressed. No news.
There was the fact that no one seemed to know where Kei
was, and he wanted to talk to her, like a lot.
There was the fact that, although he wanted to go to
sleep, he had been foolish enough to pour himself into this
Wedgebooth and now feared himself incapable of standing.
There was the fact that this mental list of his had
become redundantly recursive. He gave a small whimper and
got to his feet.
"Hey, Gryph--good flying out there today," Pfloyd
called from the nosh machinery. "Guess we don't have to
listen to Fritz anymore, huh?"
Gryphon walked right up to Floyd, looked up into the
taller man's face, and said in a tone of soft menace,
"Pfloyd? I liked Fritz. A lot, in fact. I have two
daver-sharp Moraknives, a Buck Lancer 003, and an
ElectroMagnum .451 on me right now. I'm in a very, very bad
mood. The only reason I don't kill you right now is because
I like you, too. And I'm very tired." He shouldered past
Pfloyd, opened the big double door to his room, stepped
through, and slammed it closed without saying a word, nor
looking back.
Pfloyd stood by the candy machine for quite some time,
staring after Gryphon, before wandering toward the
Wedgeterms, shaking his head.
"Stress," he said.
Gryphon didn't bother with the lights in his room. He
evaded the desk chair by reflex, stepped on some randomly
unimportant kipple, and allowed himself to drop onto his bed,
still in uniform. Sleep quickly attacked and subdued him.