Another burst transmission has been decoded, please stay tuned for the following message.
To remain up today, please subscribe to this feed to receive future messages.
06 Hot Time
Marina knitted her brow in confusion as she returned to the reactor control room at the request of Chief Engineer Konstantin. Lev was already there, and they both turned as she drifted in, Lev flashing her a smile.
“Ah, Mar, just in time. Toya got us some of the parts. I sent her back for the others, but you two can take these and get started rebuilding that panel.” The Chief held out a box to her, and Lev already had a toolkit under one arm.
Marina drifted closer tentatively, taking the offered a box of parts. “We’ve got a little time before Captain’s scheduled jump. We’re going to do what we can before then.”
Lev pushed off from a nearby console. “You were worried about the repairs not being good enough. Now we get to do it the right way.”
“Easier to do it the right way the first time.” She scowled, tucking the box of parts under her armpit as she got ahold of a handhold loop on the roof and pulled herself back towards the hatch she had just come in through. Lev still waited in the hall, still smiling. She ignored him and set off for the panel.
“Look, you don’t have to be mean to me.” he called after her as she kicked off from the hatch’s frame, following after her. “Not being mean. Just because you’re grinning like a fool doesn’t mean I have to too.”
He didn’t reply, and she was content with the silence until they arrived at the panel. She let him hook his feet into fabric loops on the floor before she handed him the box of parts. Opening the panel, she wondered aloud. “This is still live, isn’t it?”
“Well, the cable is sure, but it should be safe to work on all the other parts in there, anyway. They’re all air gaped pretty thoroughly.”
“And we can’t power it off this close to the jump.”
“Nope.”
“Then why even bother?”
Lev shrugged as she debated on how to approach this problem. “I can hear the cables humming there’s so much current going through them.” She commented.
“So don’t touch it.”
“You know it’s not that simple with high voltage like this.” she snapped at him. “Besides, you screwed this up last time. So now you just get to hold tools and hardware.”
“But I’m here to help.”
“You will be helping. Make sure I don’t drop any hardware, that nothing floats away, hand me the tools and parts.” She came over, popping open the case parts still in his hands, glancing back and forth between its contents and the panel. “I think we’ll start here.” She said, selecting a relay.
“Yes, ma’am.” confirmed Lev, his voice heavy with disappointment.
She noted the hurt in his tone, but refrained from commenting, having already spoken more than she would’ve liked. Her throat was starting to feel dry again. A pain she knew would linger no matter how much water she drank.
With the relay in one hand and a screwdriver in the other, Marina drifted over to the panel. She caught her herself against the wall with her knees, reading the scorched part numbers on the relays inside. Once she found the right one, she set about quickly with her screwdriver, disconnecting the charred remains of the old wires, then removing the relay from the panel itself. Lev came over, leaning his shoulder against the wall next to her. She didn’t look at him, but put the removed relay in the box he held, letting the screws and washers drift in the weightless compartment between them. One screw, one washer at a time, she made quick work of installing the new component.
Tapping the screwdriver on her chin, she glanced between the panel, Lev, and the box of parts. “We don’t have any fresh wire to replace these burned ones.”
“Those… might be important.” He admitted sarcastically. “We were so busy trying to find all the different part number relays we needed, we forgot about fresh wire. What gauge, how many meters do you think we need?”
“We only have a few hours before the jump to get all this done. We don’t have time to scrounge for parts.” She glanced at the panel, estimating the size of the wire, using the known length of her finger as a ruler. “I’m not sure, we don’t have time to be precise, bring me three meters of twenty, three meters of sixteen, and three meters of twelve gauge wire. We’ll figure it out as we go.”
“Me? Toya has been collecting the parts.”
“Well, leave me the box with these, and the tools, and you go get more. We don’t have time for dilling, or dallying.” Her old self emerging through the slowly healing vocal cords again.
“I was going to stay here with you and help.”
“Help, would be getting the rest of the wire and parts we need for this. I can handle some screws on my own.” She took the box from him, and the toolkit, clipping it the belt on her jumpsuit. Still, he lingered. “Go.”
He looked wounded as he braced himself against the wall. “Mar, I’m afraid…”
“Afraid?” she interrupted sharply as she started working on the next relay.
“Afraid of letting you out of my sight. I… when you were unconscious, I spent every off duty second with you, at your side.”
“Fuck,” she swore hoarsely, as the screwdriver slipped and jabbed into her wrist. She looked over at him, rubbing the sore spot. “Why would you do that?”
“I… I was worried about you. I care for you.”
Marina’s mind was racing. “You care for me? Is that why you did this hack job? You were too worried about me?”
His eyes were far off, he hesitated before answering. “That’s fewer words than I would have used, but I guess that sums it up.”
“Well, that’s dumb. I’m fine. And I’m one person, and the ship, the colony, the mission comes first, above all individuals, more important than me, or you, or Chief Konstantin, or Captain Mironova. Go get the wires.” She waved him off.
He drummed his fingertips on the wall, his face tense before setting off, leaving her alone with the parts and the work. She kept disconnecting wires from the scorched relay. Her progress slower as racing thoughts interrupted her hands. What is with this guy? We’ve known each other for almost a year. And now that we’re underway, he’s going to get all weird on me? It’s one thing to be concerned about a coworker. But now he’s just being weird about it.
Her hands stopped mid twist on the screwdriver. Oh no, he doesn’t… like me like THAT does he? Is that what this is about? Why? He’s so… he such a… He’s so Lev! Uggg. She shook herself, refocusing on her work, pulling wires from their receptacles, disconnecting another fried relay out of the panel. We’re co workers, we’ve known each other for a while. What makes him think I would even be interested? Especially after he made a mess like this! She yanked the now unscrewed relay loose, letting it hang weightless in the air as she fished a fresh one out of the box and shoved it in place of the old one.
I know this is a colonization mission, with plans to establish a beachhead, and everyone is expected to bear children. Heck, the colonists in the cylinder have a breeding program. She shuddered. We all know that’s why nearly three quarters of the crew are women, still, he’s just a guy. What makes him think he’s some prize catch? And… Her thoughts trailed off as she focused on keeping hold of the tiny screws she pulled out of a charred relay, freeing the scorched wires connected to it.
With eight tiny screws clenched in her fist, her thinking resumed. I’m not here to be having anyone’s kids. We’re crew, part of the tug service for the colony cylinder, Stalingrad isn’t going to hang in orbit forever. Same for him, he’s not a colonist, we’re not in the baby making business. We don’t get cash bonuses from the government for “contributing to the population establishment effort”. She shoved the new part in place of the removed one, and gingerly, pinching them with her fingernails, slotted the tiny screws into place. What do I say when he comes back? I mean… why me? I’m just a girl, nothing crazy, boring straight hair, boring brown eyes, why would he even be interested?
Lev came back with several lengths of wire in hand. He hesitated in the hatchway as he held eye contact with Marina. Eventually she turned back to the work, stabbing more screws in. He shrugged and came over, unpacking the wire, stuffing the lengths into the parts box with the relays.
“Marina, I…”
She yanked on one of the charred wires, its insulation crumbling and setting the powder adrift in the compartment. She interrupted him. “Go get a vacuum. We gotta clean up this FOD before it becomes a problem somewhere else.” She cupped her hands, trying to catch the shower of fine particles.
He hesitated. “Let me talk. I’m trying to be nice, I care about you. You don’t need to be harsh and shutting me down all the time, every time.” She glared at him, but didn’t say anything, he continued.
“Yeah, I effected a bad repair. Because I was distracted. I was concerned about you. And I understand logically what you’re saying about the ship and the colony being more important. But just because I know it logically, that doesn’t mean that’s how I feel it emotionally.”
“Lev, we don’t have time for this.”
“I don’t care about that, Marina. I care about you.”
She winced, knitting her eyebrows, afraid of what was coming next. “Why won’t you let me help you? What if I…”
“Don’t,” she interrupted. “I’ve been telling you how I need you to help this whole time. Go get a portable vacuum before this debris gets sucked into something else and causes more problems than we had to begin with.” She launched off the wall to another control panel, swiping through menus on the touchscreen to shut off the compartment’s environmental controls. “We don’t have time for feelings Lev! We’re already trying to fix one problem before the jump, and if those particles from the burned wires get sucked into the bearings of a cooling fan or cause a short somewhere else, maybe not now, but maybe some other time. We don’t need to create another time bomb!”
“No, Marina, let me talk,” he straightened his back, squared his shoulders. “We’ve been in this program together over a year now, seen each other almost every day. We’ve been underway for nearly three months as we got set up in orbit and accelerated for the jump point. I’ve been dropping hints the entire time, and at this point, I just want to know if you’re willfully ignoring me, or if I have been too subtle, or why you have been ignoring me.”
“Lev, this is not the time for this.” She shoved off the wall, back towards the open panel, her voice squeaking.
“I’m making it the time. I’m tired of trying and being ignored. I want an answer now.”
“You do not get to hold an entire ship, an entire colony hostage, Lev.”
“That’s not what I intended, but I guess that’s what I am doing.”
Chief Engineer Konstantin came over the intercom. “Toya and I are still trying to find the other parts for inside that panel. How much do you still have left? We’re getting close to the jump point.”
“Vacuum. Now.” She pointed out the hatch.
Progress continued on the next book in The Descendant Saga. Book III Knowledge of Gods, is about 40% complete, as we edit chapter by chapter.
We also have some industry news. Draft 2 Digital has announced policy changes. Small publishers like us will be charged not only a $20 activation fee for the account, but also a $12 maintenance fee for accounts with under $100 in sales. They say this is to combat bot and spam accounts. It warms out creative hearts the email from D2D actually used the word “slop” and they are doing as much to combat AI as we are.
Nerd Smith Consolidated used D2D as part of the launch for the first book Altar of Scales, but sales there were minimal, with the second book Cave in the Sky we went Amazon exclusive. With this new news, we will be pulling listings of Altar of Scales from the Draft 2 digital network. D2D afforded us wider distribution, but it hasn’t had the same volume of sales compared to Amazon. Going Amazon exclusive we will avoid these service charges, and get higher royalty’s from amazon per copy sold.
While we whole heartedly agree with efforts to reduce and eliminate AI generated content in the creative space, these measures are forcing NSC and TDS to narrow are focus. If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of either of our classic sci-fi novels, please get a copy from amazon and leave us a review with your thoughts. It’s been a lot of work that’s gone into them, and it would mean so much to us, for you to enjoy them.
The Descendant Saga 