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Jacqueline liked the responsibility that came with standing watches, but Deployment Module was her true love. Lately she'd been focusing her studies in that direction. And every time she drew DM inspection as her offshift chore she ran as many simulations as Nyota or Charles would allow; first deployment itself, then piloting or navigating. And now, with more free time than normal at the end of an inspection that wen fast because nothing needed more than minor adjustment. Nyota brought up the sims for landing the Module. Bruno Eustace, the other team member today, already knew the routine, so Jacqueline was granted most of the sim time.
"Once you're into atmosphere and slowed down enough to need thrust to stay aloft," Uhura said, "It's time to point your tail towards the landing spot and switch to your rear viewers." In the pilot's seat she moved controls; on the screens, the simulation showed what her moves would have accomplished, as the ground "below" swung up and the rear sensors took over to show it rushing past and nearing rapidly.
"You've got three outboard sensors pointing aft," Uhura explained, "plus the heat-shielded one at center stern. Now when you get down close, the drive nodes churning stuff up, that middle one's blinded by dust and so forth, no use to you. so you'd better pick your spot well and remember what's to avoid if anything, because there's no rechecking at the final minute."
The way she was saying this, sounded as if she expected Jacqueline to really do a landing. Most likely it was just her way of speaking. Still, though...."
She watched Nyota through two "landings" on different types of terrain; it didn't look too hard. Then: "Okay, you try it," and suddenly the sim gear grew horns and a tail; it did the flipover well enough, but after that she couldn't get it to do anything quite the way she wanted. Coming down the first time she was dropping too fast and had to redline the drive to keep from crashing. Second try, she didn't kill her side drift fast enough and could have dipped the DM over at touchdown.
Nyota kept her look noncommittal; Jacqueline said, "One more; okay? I think I'm getting the hang of it," and Uhura nodded. So this time Uhura killed most of her vee, vertical and tangential both, while she still had altitude, then spotted a nice flat place and let down slowly all the way. Before Uhura could comment, Jacqueline said, "Yes, I know that was poor fuel economy. But at least I got it down soft. With practice I'll find out how must faster I can let it drop and still stay safe."
Nyota cleared her throat. "The trouble with sims is, they can't show you how it feels. The seat of the pants thing, and I mean that literally. The indicator shows what kind of gee force your using on decel, but it's not the same as feeling it."
"Guess not. Still, sim practice can't hurt."
"Take 2 more right now," said Bruno. "While you're hot." So she did. She didn't manage anywhere near top efficiency, but each try bettered the one before.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMNtod0mxx
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Despite what Jacqueline had told her and Ben about Yasmin Armiger after Cayla's story ceased to be confidential, J.M. still felt edgy in the woman's presence. He guessed it was the track record; drugging and kidnapping five people, including three officers, off Stargazer---and then, within a very few days of her arrival here, disrupting a tentative pairing. The question in J.M's mind was: what would he do next?
So when Armiger approached her and Ben at table in the galley, mentally J.M. zipped up his parka to await the storm.
Ben didn't seem bothered. "Hi, Yasmin. Settling in okay? Problems?"
At his gesture she joined them, setting down her coffee cup and plate with 2 biscuits. "Just a lot of studying to do, but Paul Stamets' a real help, 'cause he's teaching me the differences that I really need to learn." The sophisticated control system with its mort finely tuned feedback loops. The impressively greater drive power redlining at 6 Gs rather than 2. The higher thrust needed to maintain vee against particle resistance at greater speed, thus the increased fuel consumption. And so forth.
"But that part's okay; I'm getting it. Something also worries me, though. The C-Gating through decel, at destination." Sure, most of the crew went in 25 ship days before the 5Gs would take over, so as to come out a few hours after that thrust ceased. And a little team stayed on until just before decel began, to swing ship and aim its decel course precisely; that detachment would arrive roughly 21 months after the 1st group, because Arrowprize would be back to normal time then. "That means Bruno made a bum pick," she said, grinning. "The drive chief's one of the last-minute team and he's not. But hell, there'll be all the new people there before I come out. I expect I just have to start looking again."
"And that's not what worries you," J.M. commented.
"No. It's what the lead group might run into." She scowled. "I grant you the circuitry's good; nothing ought to go wrong. But nothing ever should, and it usually does anyway. What scares me; suppose decel doesn't cut off on sked? Oh sure; besides the timing, it's set to cut by proximity to our goal star. But still----what if they C-Gate themselves into 5G and can't climb out of the Ass? What happens to the first arrivals when the next ones come through? Ker-splat? And how long does it take to starve, in 5G?"
Ben chuckled. "You know something, Armiger? You're paying your way already!"
He didn't look worried. He wasn't.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44cCBkHog3
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Sisko was pleased that his call for council, in the lounge after dinner, drew a goodly crowd. Wainwright, Burns, Corman and Sulu had the watch; nearly everyone else with technical interests showed up. Discussion moved fast; there was no disputing that here was a prime case of holes in the safety net.
Crusher wanted to cut thrust using a pressure-sensitive strip all across the back of the recessed Ass concavity. "Five Gs should surely push a person against it hard enough."
"No," said Nick Leger. "It's cute but it's fancy. Just put a manual switch where it's easy to reach. I mean," he corrected himself, " possible to reach, in 5G. Like as far toward the back as we can get it."
"You've got to recess the unit," said young Talia Winters. "Anything that sticks out into the field...."
Talia was full of surprises. Earlier she'd come up with the answer to another problem: the possibility of someone out-C-Gating before the previous arrival had vacated the Ass. This could only occur if decel hadn't ended on time, what with in-C-Gating intervals stretched by 25 at the receiving end. But just supposing someone couldn't climb free: "They found something out once, by accident. Just before I came here. It never hit the news, but a cousin of mine worked there and wrote me."
An experimental C-Gate setup, located in a basement, got flooded and stayed that way during a time when several big test objects were due to materialize. Just in case, the area had been hurriedly evacuated. But nothing happened, and just when the receiving terminal was fairly well drained did the test specimens emerge. "Making a bit of a splash. Literally, Zefram said."
Now how, Ben wondered out loud, was that possible? "If our time quantum in Time-Lost is 2 years here..." Well, it could have been some other aspect of the balloon effect that stonkered their try at subspace communications.
"They got an opinion from Dr. Cochrane," Talia said. "Something about how at the quantum level the limits are blurry. He said he couldn't think of anything that would shorten the duration, but given an impediment at the receiving end, it could stretch. Too much, he said, and the stay in Time-Lost might be 2 quanta. But this delay was too small to hit that limit."
"As may well be," said Ben, whose grasp of quantum theory was hazy indeed. "Let's get back to backup." So Nick and Nightgazer volunteered to try out, in the 1G ring, a structure to be installed between the Ass and the control console, that a person could climb under decel thrust. "We can rev the ring up heavier," Sisko added, "and carry weights when we try it."
With that much settled, he tried once more to beat Jacqueline at anisotropic billiards. She won all three games.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxFz3Aihx4A
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Alas, the "climber" failed; there was nothing scalable at multiple Gs that could be made the right shape to reach the console. "There's no for a ramp, or steps, at an angle a person could drag himself up," said Nick; Ben took his word for it.
They settled for redundant systems; two manual turnoff switches, another operated by pressure as Crusher had suggested, others by body capacity of anyone appearing in the Ass or beams of light interrupted for the same reason. "So it's not just a belt and suspenders holding our pants up." Nightgazer commented. "There's also the staple gun and the glare."
"Better'n having your bare tushie hang out in a freezing wind," said Yasmin. It wasn't the first time that Sisko saw Charles Tucker wince at one of her remarks. Maybe the boy had bitten off a chaw with more tang than he was accustomed to?
With time, he might acquire the taste. He damn well better!440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOFtByu9aKd
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On J.M.'s watch, a few hours before Corman and Paulsen were due to reappear after their 1st ship's-months in the C-Gates. Beverly Crusher said "Oh-oh!" and called Colt over to have a look. "The computer puts the radiation source at under 2 light-years, roughly 80 degrees off our course at this point. That's after relativistic correction for our velocity."
Right; at this speed, so close to c, the entire forward view shrank to a smallish circle at center front; computer analysis could spread most of that out to an approximation of true positions. Where Beverly pointed now, the screen showed a reddish-yellow star. Not a horribly bright one, but maybe it could have planets at that. J.M. scowled. "What kind of radiation is it? Not the star's own, she meant, but the anomalous bursts.
"Very low energy; except for the pulsing, the scanners wouldn't have detected it. At our speed it comes in about like hard X-rays. But slowed down, unDopplered the best the computer can guess, it could be close to our own space-comm frequencies."
Beverly frowned. "The modulation patterns aren't at all obvious. This could be digitalized voice on a multichannel system, or some form of TV, or just plain computerese."
"And of course there's no way we can decode it."
Over at another console Paul Stamets looked up. "I've done a preliminary analysis, but all it tells me is that there are patterns. Good as our computer is, I doubt very seriously it can handle the magnitude of parameters this problem carries."
"Not with all the chores and data that it's already stuffed with," J.M. agreed. "Well, let's record a good batch of samples, leave them Dopplered up to conserve datacap space, and C-Gate the whole teaser back to Earth for the bigwigs to chew on."
He reached for the intercom. "Meanwhile I'd better see if Ben wants to do anything else about it." As he wondered, whatever happened to titles and last names when on duty?440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6fFLO0hSO
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Sisko held off and met J.M. and his team in the galley; he was hungry and they'd be, too. Once seated, and with the edge cut off his appetite, he asked questions. After a few minutes he said, "Why haven't we spotted this damn thing before now?"
"Partly due to view compression," Beverly said. "Anything near the middle has to be pretty evident or we can't get definition on it, and this star's not. Also, until quite recently it's been more or less in line with a fairly bright cluster a long ways off. But now..."
"Yes." The stellar object's color put it to the cool side of the sun, spectral type K. Or was it K? He couldn't remember whether the qualifying numbers ran up or down. Anyway: "How hot would you say, Paul? Four thousand Kelvin, maybe?" To the sun's six.
"My guess would be forty-five hundred. Hot enough for life and certainly old enough." Because the dimmer stars aged more slowly. "So," Stamets said, "What are we going to do about it?"
Ben said, "We take all the readings we can and feed them back to Earth for future reference. Easy peasy."
"You mean we're not even going to try to investigate? Mr. Sisko, this is obviously a communications signal of some kind. We've got to..."
"No. No investigation."
Paul Stamets stood. "I think we need to call a council. This questions too vital for snap decisions."
Sisko suppressed his annoyance. "All right. The lounge, in two hours. Everyone is welcome, and the watch can attend by intercraft." He got up and walked out, J.M. following.
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With Ben's tacit permission, Jacqueline went along to the meeting. She hadn't entirely understood the reasons he'd spelled out to J.M. for his decision; maybe they'd become clearer in the inevitable debate.
After Sisko stated the question, Stamets led off. "Here we've got an unquestioned sign of intelligent life, and..."
Ben heard him out, then sat with apparent patience Jacqueline didn't believe for 1 minute, while others spoke on both sides of the argument: Bruno Eustace, J.M. and Marlena on Ben's behalf, Beverly and then Odessa Vangelos and Jet Ducote on intercraft supporting Paul. A few people who held no real opinions took several minutes to explain why not before Sisko had said, "Okay, that should be most of it. Now here's why we're going ahead with the situation as planned."
He had his points enumerated. 1: the six billion mile Array gave destination a 95% chance of planets; the ship's sensors couldn't tell about this star, even from a mere 2 light-years. 2: sure it was theoretically possible to program Arrowprize to come to rest near the star at orbital speed, but "....along with the straight-ahead decel we need a side vector half the distance on accel, the other half brakes. Unmonitored that's too many variables, too big a margin for error.
3: C-Gate lag. Suppose the system is inhabited by spacefarers. The ship sits there empty until the crew outGates.....and by that time the supposed derelict's being taken apart by curious natives, and we pop out into no air."
And he hadn't even had to bring up the idea of hostiles.
"So we set decel to get there in two years." (Paul)
"2B: If this star didn't turn out to be an acceptable alternative destination, more than 2 years would be added to the overall mission length. And the risk of navigational error was by no means lessened. No one even suggested doing lower decel on a crewed basis; though Stargazer and Yamato were built to live in during accel as well as cruise mode, Arrowprize was not." (Ben)
Paul wasn't done, though. "Still, isn't it worth the risk, especially since we know there's intelligent life there?"
Ben smiled. "Even if that were true, I'd have to say no. But all we can say for sure is that somebody's been here, or sent something here. This isn't where that ship came from, the one that slanted past us a time back; wrong direction."
He leaned forward. "Do you want to risk screwing up this whole mission schedule, maybe just to find a goddamn beacon somebody planted?"
And there were still three points he hadn't had to use!440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRXc7dFc8BO
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Seeing Paul Stamets's grim capitulation, Sisko relaxed, then stared at J.M.'s nudge as he said, "Isn't the senator due out about right now?"
Overdue was more like it, but variations weren't anything new. They got up to the bridge to find Burns and Corman chatting with Jet and Odessa and Hikaru. After greetings the senator said: "Nick's alerted to set up that dinner; I want to hear about this planet we're not investigating."
So downcraft to the galley, where Ben had eaten recently and now settled down for coffee as he explained. Finally Perry nodded. "That makes sense. But something bothers me. What do you do at destination if it turns out the Big Array was wrong?"
The question shocked Ben, but on second thought he realized the senator had been off Earth when those options were worked out. "We don't stop there." Perry's heavy brows raised. "It's the final away team that inGates just before decel starts. At that time we're roughly a tenth of a light-year out, plenty close enough to spot planets and even get some kind of piggyback evaluation. If it doesn't look good, no decel---and four-five days later the full crew's on hand to hold council."
And the possible choices? "There are alternate stars listed in the mission directive, in case destination doesn't pan out. Or if we've spotted something that looks better, on the way in, we can opt for that. Backtracking if we must."
Tonia Barrows frowned. "But doesn't turning the ship imply some kind of acceleration?"
"To any extent, yes," Ben said. "Small turns we just swing ship a little and let gas resistance reduce forward V while normal thrust adds a side component. Bigger ones..."
He beckoned to Nyota Uhura at the next table. "Your DM training covers maneuvering better. Want to explain?"
"All right." The slim woman cleared her throat. "Steering a ship around in free space takes more than just pointing it where you want to go. You've got to reduce your initial V vector and build a sidewise component, sometimes even partway backwards."
The 2 visitors looked blank; she went on: "Say you want a right-angle turn, from north to west. The simplest way is swing, point southwest, and hold thrust until instruments tell you the course is correct. Well, for any turn, just point toward the middle of the arc, bisecting the angle. At ship speeds, of course, it takes considerable time and distance, and everyone has to C-Gate, some early, to come out as soon as the accel's complete, and some late, to check everything just before it starts."
The senator's eyes narrowed. "What happens to velocity?"
"You come out with just what you had going in. But it's not constant throughout." Nyota's forehead wrinkled. "Okay, it's like a ballistic trajectory; the middle of the turn is the top of the arc. And time ratio goes way down, along in there."
"But safe in C-Gate transit, the crew is unaffected," J.M. reassured everybody. Assuming everyone got the timing right....
"There's a more general formulation." Sitting at the right of the group, Bruno Eustace sounded nervous. "For when you don't want the same V coming out. From the same point of origin, lay out your initial and final velocity vectors to scale, just two arrows. Then run a third from the head of your starting V to the head of the other. That's your delta-V, course and magnitude. Dividing by your accel gives the time required."
Nyota laughed. "Is that what I missed, going on leave the weekend my kid brother got married? Thanks, Bruno."
Perry sighed. "Personally I hope you can get by with only minor course changes. And settle for the assigned destination."
Ben could drink to that, and said so. "But not for a while, yet. I've got the next watch."440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydeLeyYZj0
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Perry and his companion spent an evening socializing in the lounge and a night in their quarters, reporting to the bridge before breakfast. "Coming out hungry, having a meal first thing, I like it," the senator told J.M., who as watch officer readied the C-Gate. Then: "See you next month," he said, and once more the two went into nonexistence with respect to Arrowprize's universe.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRFhhaykGJ
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Taylor and Emile Stains were home celebrating Emile's 56th birthday with a few friends when Sisko's message faxed in from Bolt Park. When he heard the little extension chime ting he excused himself from table and went to see what was coming in.
He came back with the flimsy in his hand. "Jack? How close is Nomad to Go?"
Jackson Roykirk, Stains' liaison with ship preparations, looked up. "They're two months behind, as you know; that last set of change orders is more work than anyone thought it'd be. So it'll have to be set for higher accel, to get up to speed before the crew outGates. It's still well below redline, fortunately. Why do you ask?"
"We may need a whole new set, Jack. Take a look at this. Our gang on Arrowprize's had another brainstorm, and this one looks very good indeed."
So Nomad was rescheduled to leave nearly 1 year late. It would need a new crew, because the assigned group had already inGated. That Ass would have to be replaced and brought to Earth, its crew would emerge to find they hadn't gone anywhere.
Because Nomad was going out with a scout module attached to its stern, a navigable space station designed to find orbit around a possible future colony planet and wait for a recon team. Alfred Nightgazer's idea had definitely made a hit, back here at home.
With some improvements. This module would nestle in an oversized single-purpose Ass; if and when it detached to scout a planetary system, word would be sent back, and four years later (Earth time) a replacement would appear in its place. As with the originally suggested model, airlocks would permit crewmembers to ender and program it as needed.
"What I like about this part of the job, Taylor," Stains said when the plans were firmed, "is that someone's always coming up with a better mouse trap."440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqsYLvbC9cp
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If it wasn't one thing fretting her, Jacqueline thought, it was another. With Cayla Paulsen gone, Talia Winters was becoming a closer friend and confidante; she and Jacqueline did many of the things Jacqueline and Cayla had done together.
So today, showering after a bout of full-G exercise, they'd got to roughhousing in the familiar way, but after a little while Jacqueline realized she was getting excited. At first she could figure out what was going on; then a specific tingling gave the answer. Embarrassed, she pulled back. "Let's stop; that's enough."
"Too rough? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"No, it's all right. Look, I'm tired. You mind....?"
So Talia left. Jacqueline hoped her feelings weren't hurt; none of this was Talia's fault, anyway.
Jacqueline had discovered orgasm quite young, more or less by accident, lying awake at night and feeling miserable due to the divorce. It made her feel better, and of course she had no idea what it related to----not until SexEd at school some years later, and then the "facts" seemed quite unreal to her. Or maybe just unlikely.
It'd been a year or so before Dolores found her at it. She didn't raise hell, just said, "Well, I guess you won't give up frigid," whatever that meant. And: "Don't get too taken with this; it's not healthy to overdo things, you know."
She didn't say where to draw the line or anything: Jacqueline decided to save that pleasure for special occasions. When she felt especially bad---or, strangely enough, especially good.
But here on the ship, somehow, she'd forgotten about it almost entirely----until now.
Now was what bothered here. Because excited wasn't the proper word; aroused was. And where did she come off getting aroused by wrestling with Talia Winters?
Most women responded that way to men, some to women, a few to both; that's what the books said and Jacqueline believed them. Not that she thought about that stuff much. But despite her bad experiences with Arthur Vinson and Osric Harcrow, she'd always assumed she'd be one of the majority.
If not, would that be all right? But then again, how was she going to know?440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiyuUjW7j7M
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Now, it was not in Jacqueline's nature to swallow her anxiety and hope it'd go away. At Arthur's house, fearing him while Dolores ignored her worry, she'd had to do pretty much that, but this was different. Her first impulse was to talk to Ben met an unexpected emotional roadblock; somehow she just couldn't. Talia? She was level-headed and all, but somehow discussing this disturbing reaction with the person who caused it was more than Jacqueline could tackle.
Well, she trusted Marlena certainly. So when ben relieved his roommate on the bridge, Jacqueline hung around until she had the chance to ask her for a private talk.
In captain's digs, stumbling a little from embarrassment or maybe just confusion, she tried to tell what had happened to her. "....and I never thought anything like that, so what does it mean?" Intently she stared at Marlena. "What do I grow up to be?"
She couldn't read Marlena's expression, as the woman said, "You've never felt that way with anyone before?"
"I don't think so. Why Talia?"
Moreau shook her head. "I don't think it's Talia. Tell me, how do you suppose you'd feel if it were a boy?"
"In the shower? Oh, come on, Marlena!"
"Roughhousing. Wrestling. Physical contact and exertion, breathing hard. Overall physical stimulation." She overrode Jacqueline's protest. "Your glands don't know what you're doing or who you're with, that's got your heart pumping faster. They react because you're growing up and they figure it's time they did." She spread her hands. "I think it's just that simple, Jacqueline. A perfectly natural reaction. If you don't want it to happen, then avoid the situation. And if it does, you're not obliged to do anything about it. Unless, of course, you want to."
"I don't!"
"Then that answers your question. You'll grow up to be who you are."
"Whoever that is." Because----but no, she didn't want to discuss Arthur or Osric right now.
Instead, Jacqueline skipped to a new worry. "I don't want to hurt Talia's feelings, either. How....?"
"Hmmm. Could you tell her that physical contact makes you uncomfortable right now, so let's ease off it for a while?"
"I guess so," Jacqueline stood. "Thanks, Marlena."
"Anytime."
It was 2 days before Jacqueline felt up to confronting Talia, and then she didn't have to. Somehow, Jacqueline's explanation of her reaction seemed to have defined it.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM2J059Mo7C
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5 days after its 1st sighting, the Beacon system lay abeam, about 2 light-years off. The patterned sequences of radiation had stopped for a while, then returned briefly; Ben agreed with majority opinion, which labeled them beamed signaled intercepted by sheer luck. "Probably in-system comms, and we've run across some that overshot and came on past." Since no more such chance encounters happened, the point was moot.
Not so were the indications picked up by Nyota Uhura, late one watch. "That's drive field activity," she told Sisko when he relieved her. "No doubt about it. It's a little different from ours and I wish I knew what that difference means, but out this far the emissions arrive too faint and blurry to tell much. No doubt about it, though; there are drives operating out there."
At such distance, yes, locating discrete sources of the fuzzy wave packets was a pipe dream. Predictably, Paul Stamets reopened the idea of changing the mission to explore here. For a moment Ben seriously considered the proposal, then shook his head. "The programming now would be a tad easier," he said. "Just decel to an approximate stop, swing ship towards the system, then speed up halfway and slow down the other half. But all the other objects still hold. No---log this new data in and C-Gate it home. We're staying on sked!"440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6TUzBGmoB
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It'd been some time since anyone aboard talked about the alien Gror'iel very much; still, it seemed odd to J.M. Colt that Yasmin Armiger took so long to pick up on the occasional mention. When she did her questions came fast, and J.M. tried to fill him in as fast as possible.
He had a better feeling now for this woman who'd grabbed opportunity and taken her risks; the blunt directness no longer made her uncomfortable. Now Yasmin shook her head. "Damn! If only I'd been there in control, instead of Chou Tao and Carter Richards, when Byron made his play. I could've been home with him and Marcel, right in the middle of all that excitement, and seen this Gror'iel business for myself."
Shrugging. "But then Kathryn Janeway would still be riding high and mighty, dumping new cadres off to here and to Yamato, and Earth still wouldn't have any idea what was going on."
"Not quite," J.M. corrected her. "Burns sent a team to Stargazer too, don't forget, and I'm sure that group outgated as ready for a skirmish as his team did here. What you accomplished was to put that ship back to normal quite a bit sooner."
"Yeah. Well, I guess it was worth it, huh?"440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX8j5rjNa6V
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2 months out of prison, Arthur Vinson didn't feel like a free man. What he felt was, simply, lost. 7 years under "Butcher" Draven's protective domination had atrophied his ability to think for himself. Butch was nowhere near the worst he could have drawn; after the first days, teaching Arthur his place here, the big man never again screwed him dry and hurting. Within 1 month Arthur was coming to---not always, but now and then.
And with Butch around, nobody else messed with Arthur. Killers were a dime a dozen in the place and Butch was only Murder 2---but he'd done it wired on PCP like a case of dynamite, wrung the man's neck, turned his head straight backwards. Some of the heavies said they didn't believe it, but nobody ever tried him. So Butch didn't have but 2 fights on his record here, from when he was new and had to show who he was, and would probably get out near the short end of his 10-to-15.
Butch never loaned Arthur out for favors, the way some did. W hat was his was his, nobody else's. And besides, that way neither of them was going to catch something evil.
Most likely it was Butch who planted the shiv in Arthur's kit, though, just before he was due up for parole, so he did the full seven years. Butch acted sympathetic at the time---patted Arthur on the back and said he was better off staying inside, anyway. "I keep ya safe, bunkie," and he truly did.
Wouldn't let him do drugs, for one thing, even though all kinds of stuff circulated in the block. Made him work out, too, to get in shape a little. "Somebody catch ya, I ain't around, ya gotta show some mean." Twice it paid off; Arthur didn't win, exactly, but they didn't take him, either.
When the release order came, Butch shook Arthur's hand. "Gonna miss ya." Arthur mumbled along the same lines but was mostly just being polite. Because now he was going out and free, and do some screwing instead of the versa kind of vice.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYDNpFGHwRc
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Somehow the family law firm had sheltered Arthur's home and a certain amount of capital investment from the Treasury Department's confiscation policy in drug cases, so he had a familiar place to stay. It needed some work, but what didn't? After the month it took him to make up his mind, Arthur got most of the first floor, enough to make a reasonable suite of living quarters, cleaned up and generally rehabbed; if he was going to have people in, he'd need to show a little better front.
He also needed new clothes; he hadn't slimmed down all that much in the middle, but workouts and plain work had rebuilt muscles he hadn't felt since college; his old suits were too tight through the shoulders.
Ready as he'd ever be, then, Arthur set out to a club he used to frequent. Name and management and decor had all changed, but the kind of clientele hadn't. He took a tall blond home with him; she wasn't as young as he would've liked, but neither was he.
An hour later, he took her home, period. After 7 years he was habituated to one specific form of sexual stimulation, and the woman wasn't equipped to provide it.
He'd heard enough con talk to k now it wasn't like this with everybody, and not necessarily permanent. What he didn't know was what to do now. Except it wasn't going to be drugs.
He found himself missing Butch, after all.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU5UjN2xK1Q
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As chief medic at Bolt Park, Dr. Leo McCoy had a right to his air of authority. It did get on Rick Berman's nerves a little, though. Now the man cleared his throat. "Well, you've interviewed her, senator. What do you think?"
"She seems fine to me, but I'm not the expert. What's your opinion?"
They can never keep it short. McCoy rehashed what Berman already knew: Kathryn Janeway's brilliant but erratic career, the events leading up to the present situation, the diagnoses, the treatments, the progress over more than 1 year and a half. Finally he got down to basics. "Laser surgery, for the small anomalous cyst, corrected the glandular imbalance, obviating any need for further medication as maintenance. And the ensuing enzyme therapy has effectively stabilized her condition."
"In other words, she's physically fit now." This was the question he already knew, Berman did, that she'd been through a full retraining program for the proposed new assignment.
"Correct." The doctor's throat needed a lot of clearing. "There's one side effect, though. The matter has never been discussed, but the patient will most certainly have suffered a significant reduction in sex drive."
Rick Berman kept a straight face. "Have there been any complaints?"
"None at all. Neither from the woman herself nor from the man she's presently living with."
"Then I don't believe you need to mention it."
In Kathyrn Janeway's case, the development was hardly likely to pose a serious problem.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhbvvIhsFq
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Sometimes 1 month could go by at lightspeed. When Jacqueline reported to Nyota Uhura's watch, along with Nick Leger, it surprised her to find the note saying the senator and Tonia Barrows were due out again within the next few hours; of course the inevitable slight velocity changes, with their effects on time ratio, made exactly prediction impossible. At any rate the two emerged about 1 hour before the end of the watch.
Perry's idea was to C-Gate in right away, but Nyota talked him out of it. "Little party going on downcraft. You really should go look in." So he and Tonia headed for the transfer ring.
Jacqueline wished she could, too. Well, it wouldn't be long now.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtXaLpl0YWF
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"Come on in, senator, Tonia." Ben waved to the newcomers at the lounge door. "Forgive us for not waiting."440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPVuEy95Us
Actually he'd totally forgotten their schedule. It was posted on the bridge, but this was his time off. Now nearly 12 of the crew were gathered, drinking lightly but snacking like wolves. "Now, what's all this about?" Perry asked.440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMFjYKFS4U
"I got a raise," said Alfred Nightwalker. "And a bonus. They're using my idea, on Nomad. As a start, anyway."440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGeosF7j5B
Then he had to explain: the navigable C-Gate-bearing module, livable once it reached orbit, to be dropped off at any likely planetary system. "Only they're mounting it astern in an Ass, so they could send a replacement when the first one leaves."440Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPGCwjOPp0
A little more discussion and Perry had it straight. "That's good thinking. Is the credit all yours?"
"Not the Ass part. But yes; Ben---Captain Sisko----gave me all the glory, in his report."
"Hell, it was your idea," Ben grumped, remembering how Jonathan put his name all over the subspace comm suggestion, which he'd had nothing to do with. Oh, well; it hadn't worked, anyway.
"Nomad," the senator said. "Which one's that, now? And so, how many years would it be?" Because the starfleet schedule, thus far, was one new ship for every four years. "Stargazer, Yamato, Arrowprize..." Counting on his fingers. "Damn, I forget!"
Ben knew, but he needed one moment to remember. "Exeter, Potemkin, Nomad. I think that's as far as we've heard."
Again Perry and Barrows stayed "overnight" before going back into the C-Gates. After that, however, unless there was something to catch up on, for the next several C-Gatings the senator planned just to say hello and pop right back in again.
Ben didn't bet on it. There was always something, wasn't there?
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