Casserine (7 page)

Jake stood up and headed inside the quarters.

“Jake, where are you going now?”

He looked back over his shoulder. “To get my helmet.”

“I’ll take off without you, and get lost,” Adrian warned.

“I figure you’ll be good for about fifty yards, and then you’ll be upside down again. Even you can find your way back from there,” Jake replied on his way through the entrance.

“Okay,” Adrian shouted. “You can drive, you big baby.”

Jake’s head ducked back out the entryway with his head tilted and his hand cupping his ear. “I didn’t quite hear the apology. Could you repeat it a little louder this time, with an emphasis on: I am sorry for causing you to work your tail off for over an hour because of my screw-up, Jake.”

“I’m sorry you were so slow bringing the tea out, I became bored and accidentally moved the rover, causing an accidental roll over.” Adrian said with unrepentant wit.

Jake came straight after her. Adrian squealed her apology, all for naught, as Jake caught her. “Blackmail me with the cave all day long and then insult me, will you. I’ll give you a ride my pretty.”

“Jake, you can not do this,” Adrian informed him as he attached the pulley harness to the back of the rover. She lay just behind the rover, trussed up from head to foot, with the other end of the pulley harness holding her upper body. Jake slid inside the cab and Adrian heard the whine of the power cell. She screamed as he circled the area slowly with her dragging along behind the rover. Jake stopped after completing one small circle. He went back to kneel down next to Adrian.

“Hi Honey, having fun on your ride?”

“You know of course, this means war.”

Jake laughed as he started undoing the harness straps. “Are you going to stop threatening me with that damn cave, or not?”

“Not.”

Jake sighed and began reattaching the straps. “You do look kind of cute all tied up.”

“I meant I’m not ever going to threaten you with the cave again.” Adrian said quickly.

“Okay, come on.” Jake helped her up, and dusted her off. “We’ll go for a ride, and I’ll show you how not to make rover roll over. If you pay attention, I’ll let you drive back.”

“Let’s stay out until we can drive back at sunset,” Adrian suggested. “We can bring our suits and helmets. We can pack something to eat and drink too.”

“That sounds good. You go get our things, and I’ll stay here and continue research on the rover.” Jake replied smiling.

“You don’t trust me,” Adrian pouted.

“Affirmative.”

Adrian started towards the living quarters and then turned. “Do you really think I look cute tied up?”

“Affirmative.”

Chapter 6 

Trouble In Paradise

Adrian watched Jake carefully loading fuel cells onto their transfer dock. She stood looking out of the viewing port high above him, inside the transport ship, Tennyson. While she watched, Jake maneuvered the last cell into place. He then took off his work gloves, and mopped his face with the damp towel he always carried. Because the base still had not solved the final problem of maneuverability in their gravity suits for working on Casserine, Jake still loaded and unloaded the supply ships himself.

The job went by faster since the new ground vehicles proved their durability in a few short test trips on the planet surface. They now had two of the vehicles. Jake could use the land rover much like the cargo drones on the base. He no longer had to load up the transfer dock a week in advance of the supply ships, by bringing out each fuel cell individually by four-wheel dolly.

Adrian turned as one of the crew chiefs walked over to stand next to her. She smiled at the young, red-haired crewman, named Tim Dougherty, who made the Casserine run regularly. He was Jake’s old friend, who supplied them with entertainment supplies. The supply ship crews were very respectful of the Casserine inhabitants. Jake’s exploits on Casserine, and his working on the dock in spite of his new rank of Major, made him a favorite with all of the enlisted personnel aboard the supply ships and space cruisers which visited.

Although solidly built, and only a couple of inches shorter than Jake, the crew chief was a formidable looking man. He knew, however, as did the other men and women serving aboard the supply ships, none of them could last ten minutes outside of the normal gravity induced interior of their ships. He saluted smartly, and handed her a message packet. Adrian took it from him, as she returned his salute with a smile.

“Hi Tim, I was hoping we’d get to see you on this trip. What’sthis?”

The crew chief relaxed at Adrian’s easy manner. “General Risling handed it to me just before we took off, and said to make sure Jake .I mean Major Matthews received the packet. I was told to tell him to call the General, at the Major’s earliest convenience, after he gets a look at it. It’s good to see you too, Ma’am. We all wonder about you two a lot after the last attack. I wish we could do more to help the Major out when we fly in. It don’t seem right for us to be up here watching a Major doing grunt work we get paid to do.”

“He looks forward to it all, Tim, so don’t worry about it. He still sees himself as a Sergeant, and I doubt that will ever change. Jake only wants to be a Major when he decides to give me orders.”

Tim laughed appreciatively, having witnessed a few of Major Matthews’ attempts at pulling rank on his wife. “Just the same, Ma’am, I wish we could do more.”

“Well, until they work the bugs out of the gravity suits,” Adrian noted, “the only way to work on Casserine is after a long stay here. Anyhow Tim, we appreciate the extra stuff you all smuggle in here for us.”

“It’s the least we can do,” Tim replied quickly. “Have you met our new Commander, Major Stedman? She said she wanted to meet you and the Major.”

“She met me when I came aboard,” Adrian replied, remembering the tall, lanky brunette, who greeted her when Adrian came on board with her research discs. “She seems to like a more hands on approach. She went over the supply sheets with me personally. She’s not hard to look at either, but I guess you noticed that,” Adrian kidded.

“Major Stedman runs a tight ship, Ma’am, and I don’t know what you mean, Ma’am,” Tim deadpanned, going along with the joke.

“I think you do, Mister,” Adrian smiled. “Hey, how does Risling like his first star?”

“The General’s a lot like Jake, Ma’am. He never seems to change from what I’ve seen. Something’s up though back at the base. The Earth Command Space Corps flagship ported a few weeks ago, and they had closed door meetings during his entire visit. General Risling, and his Chief of Staff, looked pretty grim after the ship’s commander left.”

“I hope it has nothing to do with Casserine. Jake likes this place more than the home he grew up in,” Adrian replied thoughtfully.

“Don’t you ever go a little stir crazy here, Lieutenant?” Tim asked. “I mean we all thought the Major was a little nuts for volunteering for this place year after year, but you seem a little more…ah…”

“Social?”

‘Tea,” Tim agreed, nodding his head. “You always come on board for long periods when we come in and say hello to everyone. It’s only been since you arrived at Casserine that the Major even comes up to see us. He seems to enjoy the visit when you make him come, but I doubt he’d do much more than wave otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, he always did keep in touch.”

“He’s not as closed up as you think, Tim,” Adrian laughed. “Jake enjoys the dinners on board during your visits. The war on Omaha Mining Colony did something to his social skills. I think he likes the vast openness of Casserine, and it’s been growing on me too. If not for our contact with the ships and base, I might go a little nuts.”

“You and the Major are coming to dinner tonight, aren’t you?”

“Major Stedman made it official,” Adrian answered. “Jake and I are expected. She seemed a little put out about it though.”

“She doesn’t care much for the enlisted and officers all dining together when we visit here,” Tim explained. “I guess when Captain Malcolm explained about Jake’s insistence on dining with the crew, Major Stedman took it up with the General. Whatever he told her ended the discussion. Captain Malcolm told me to be sure and say hi to you and Jake.”

“Where’d he get assigned?”

“He’s flying cruisers now,” Tim answered. “His promotion to Major should be coming pretty soon too. Many of our reserve pilots have been reassigned somewhere else in the last few months. The rumor about trouble at the Tarawa Jump Gate circulated a month ago, but we’ve already had ships fly in from Tarawa, and they say things are quiet there. It’s probably some pirate trouble on one of the outlying colonies.”

“Anyway, we’ll be joining you for dinner. I hope Jake’s fraternization bug doesn’t get all of you on Stedman’s bad side,” Adrian remarked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tim replied. “Major Stedman will see over time that formalities don’t mean much out here. We snap to out in space though. She’ll understand once she meets Jake, I mean the Major.”

“It’ll always be Jake to you, Chief,” Adrian said. “Just remember the titles when we’re within earshot of Major Stedman.”

“Will do, I.”

Adrian’s communicator buzzed, and she picked it up, winking at Tim. “Salome’s sex parlor, we aim to please, Salome speaking.”

The Chief burst into laughter over Adrian’s adlib. He heard Jake’s bass chortling laugh, joining him for a moment before commenting.

“Okay, Salome,” Jake put in. “Tell that Chief magpie with you to quit grab assing around, and haul this stuff up. That’s you, ain’t it, Tim?”

“Yes Sir,” Tim replied, still trying to stop laughing. “Good to talk to you again. The Lieutenant says I will be seeing you at dinner, Sir.”

“I imagine so,” Jake replied agreeably, “but what’s with all the

Sirs?”

“New management, Jake,” Adrian explained.

“Uh oh.”

“It’s nothing like that, you big boob,” Adrian continued. “The new pilot’s still getting used to the glaring informality of these runs out here to the frontier.”

“I see. In any case, I’m going to get out of the way here so Tim can draw up these cells. You better get on out here and get ready to go back on for dinner, Salome. You know how long it takes you to preen yourself, and the gang may need some pre-dinner entertainment.”

“Why you.” Adrian stopped as she heard Jake click off, and she saw him down below, giving her a little wave with his hand under his chin.

“Do you two keep this going all the time,” Tim asked wonderingly. “I can’t tell sometimes when you guys are kidding.”

Adrian patted his shoulder on the way by. “Think nothing of it, Tim. Sometimes we don’t know when we’re kidding either. See you at dinner, Chief.”

“See you later, Lieutenant,” Tim laughed.

Adrian walked through the passageways, acknowledging the greetings from the Tennyson crew, she and Jake knew from prior runs. Reveling for a few more minutes in the intoxicating lightness of walking around in the normalized gravity of the ship, Adrian took her time getting to the loading bay. She watched them draw the last of the fuel cells in through the space locks separating the Tennyson’s huge storage area from Casserine’s heavy gravity. With the breakthrough in shielding, the supply ships could now dock at the surface for as long as they needed, without worrying about the energy draw from the planet.

The chief docking officer saw her and gave her a thumbs up. Adrian waved and exited through the personnel lock next to the supply door. Jake had left the portable gangway in place for her to get down to the planet surface. Adrian braced herself by holding on to the railing which bordered the room. The space lock allowed gradual normalization within the room to Casserine atmosphere. The weight of Casserine’s gravity came back in a familiar flood of descending heaviness. She sighed, and walked slowly down the makeshift gangway, careful of her footing at all times.

Adrian reveled in the strength she had acquired by living with Jake on Casserine. The only place she could show off her added physical power was in normalized earth gravity, which only happened off world, and took its toll in misery when she returned to Casserine. As she braced herself for each step, she remembered how Jake’s seeming indifference to the changes from one place to another, had begun to bother her more than the physical aggravation she experienced. She had begun kidding him about bringing part of Casserine with him wherever he went, thereby cheating the reentry problems. Jake would laugh self consciously, and then come over and pick her up, offering to carry her around rather than have to listen to her whine.

Adrian looked up in time to see Jake waiting at the end of the gangplank, tapping his foot, as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest as if her journey down to the surface was taking forever. When he knew she had seen him, Jake moved quickly toward her. He grabbed her left arm and ducked under it, so her arm wound around his shoulders. She giggled as she tried without success to pull away.

“Let me go, you brute.”

“But Honey,” Jake said, lifting her off of her feet, and walking down toward Casserine’s surface, “I’m just trying to help.”

“You were on the Tennyson earlier, Jake, and you stayed for a few hours talking to all of your buddies in the cargo bay,” Adrian countered, as Jake released her. “I saw you skip down the gangplank like you never even felt the gravity difference.”

“I didn’t skip down the gangplank,” Jake protested, but Adrian saw a tightening around his mouth.

“You’re holding out on me,” Adrian accused, poking Jake in the chest with her finger. “Okay, what are you on, some kind of secret potion or something?”

“You’re the Doc, Adrian,” Jake pointed out. “Take a blood test. I’m not holding out on you. You were on the ship longer than I was. The bill came due on your little visit, and now you’re looking for someone to blame.”

Adrian started an angry retort, and then stopped. She shook her head smiling as she walked towards their living quarters instead. Glancing back over her shoulder, she beckoned Jake to follow. “C’mon, you big boob. You’re right. I should have come down out of there when you did.”

Jake came up behind her and swept Adrian up in his arms, carrying her up the steps toward the entrance to their quarters. “Need a lift, lady?”

“You know, Jake,” Adrian sighed, leaning her head into his chest, “I could get used to this.”

‘What’s the packet you’re handling?” Jake asked, as he stepped through the entrance to their quarters, and restored Adrian to her feet gently.

“Don’t change the subject,” Adrian said, as she held the small packet behind her back. “Are you getting stronger, Jake? You never picked me up like that before. Even when you carried me to the cave during the attack, you eased me up on your back like I weighed a ton. Now, all of a sudden, you can practically put me under your arm like a briefcase, what’s the story.”

Adrian could tell her observation had startled Jake, and as he tried to stammer out an answer, Adrian wrapped her arms around his neck, sticking the packet in her jacket pocket. “What’s the big deal? If you’re getting stronger, spit it out. I won’t hold it against you. What do you think, I’ll double your chores or something?”

Jake chuckled uncomfortably. “I guess maybe I am getting stronger, happy now? Can I see what you have there?”

“You know,” Adrian said suspiciously, “I think I will do a blood workup on you. I want to find out what all this sudden reticence is to talk to me about an important anomaly concerning your physical well being.”

Jake stayed silent, weighing his options, before picking his words carefully. “I have been changing Adrian. It started way before I met you. The change was so gradual, the base never picked up on it until I was wounded. Risling talked to me just after I took you down to the surface, when I made my weekly report. He explained I should have died from the head wounds, and there had been a noticeable change in my physiology.”

“Wait a minute. I treated you at the base. I.”