Exploration Fleet (Treasure and Appletree)

Eamon came waddling out of the corner where he'd been changing into his spacesuit, his helmet under his arm. The suit bunched sagged around him, jiggling a bit as he walked, giving him the appearance of some kind of plastic jello monster. He tried to pull up the legs, but they slowly slid their way back down to puddle around his heavy boots, and the arms were not much better. He glared at nothing in particular, his expression that of someone who had recently been sucking on a lemon.

"Ready to go, Kal?" he growled, trying to adjust the sleeves again. They sat on his arms like accordions, close to the right width, but far too long. He gave up and turned his glare to Kal.
 
Kal hardly recognised what Eamon was wearing as a spacesuit. The human looked like a child playing dress up in his parents clothing. Everything was too long and looked rather cumbersome. The only thing missing was a happy and proud expression a child might wear after having successfully infiltrated his parents closet. Indeed, Eamons expression of utter disgust made the whole picture almost more amusing. Kal had to bite his lip to stop the grin that was forming. He quickly tried to slip back into a more professional mindset. He was so busy with this that he didn’t even notice Eamon using the nickname usually reserved for use by his friends and close family.

For the first time Kal wondered if having Eamon out there trying to work with his hands would be such a good plan. Much as he didn’t like the idea, offering to switch places was starting to seem like the more prudent course of action. Then again, judging by Eamons expression, he might just explode if Kal said anything. Deciding to keep his thoughts to himself, he answered the engineers question.

“Everything is ready here. Do you wish me to take you or the clamp out first?”
While Eamon had his own tether attached to his suit and could scale up the side of the ship independently, having Kal and the pod fly him up would be faster, and probably easier, Kal thought, as one of the too long sleeves managed to flop down far enough so that Eamons hand was no longer visible. Why hadn’t the Fleet fitted him with a suit better designed for his size?
 
Eamon irritably raised his arm and shook it so the sleeve awkwardly caterpillared back up his arm to his shoulder where it clumped like some sort of dated fashion accessory in waves of folded fabric padding his shoulder. "I think I should go out first so I can guide the clamp to the right spot," he stated then shook the other sleeve down - or rather up his arm - so that it matched the other. He didn't need a mirror to know he now looked like one of those ridiculous alien characters from an 80's sci-fi movie or comic. Not that Kalukan would know that.

Resignedly, he waddled forward toward the pod. "You know exactly where to put me, right? Zero-gravity will make it easier to move, but I don't want to waste a bunch of time swimming around." That was as close as he was going to get to verbally admitting that his outfit did not work.

The craft suddenly let out a mighty shiver like a whale shaking itself after a long sleep. Eamon put out a hand to balance himself, but the shiver was gone as fast at it arrived, and he barely had time to lose his balance. They were out of hyperspeed now and back to their normal flying speed. That meant they would be reaching the Jepison spacecraft soon.
 
“I do.” Apart from knowing where they were aiming for, having helped come to that decision, it was also marked on the pods virtual model of the ship, which could be overlaid onto the realtime data that he would be getting while flying. He caught the underlying message in Eamons words, but didn’t react to it, not wanting the humans temper to flare suddenly and potentially endanger their operation. He still wasn’t always sure what set it off, so didn’t want to risk anything. Although, not saying anything might also ignite some so far hidden frustrations…

The shiver running through the ship shook him out of his thoughts. Had he been standing, he might have well toppled over, as inattentive as he was being. No, this was not the time to leap down the proverbial rabbit hole that was the human psyche. He needed to stay on track for things to go smoothly.

“If everything is prepared on your end, I shall begin.” With that, Kal let the pod close and start up, trusting that their comms would hold up. While he could still see the unshapely form that was Eamon standing in the hangar, communication with anything other than one sided gestures from the engineer's end was now impossible.

---

Ahara felt the shiver of leaving warp with the familiarity of flicking hair out of ones eyes. Her only reaction was to pause with her spoon stuck in her mouth and tap on her tablet a few times, switching from her previous reading to the report about the sickness currently running rampant on the Jepison. The boys would need at least a moment to do their hull adjustments, and there was no point waiting around in the hold and then having to get back upstairs if something did happen. She could finish her breakfast in peace until they actually docked to the station.
 
Eamon grumbled softly and fidgeted for just a minute. He hated spacewalks, he hated spacewalks, he hated spacewalks! But he was not very good at piloting the pod, so spacewalk it was. He muttered a few choice words to make himself feel better - it didn't - then resolutely pulled on the helmet and checked the seal. It sealed up perfectly with a rather inappropriate flatulate sound, and Eamon was suddenly glad Kalukan couldn't hear. He looked up at the pod and gave Kal a thumbs up to let him know he was ready. Then he waddled closer to the pod and prepared to be moved.

~~

Frayne's voice crackled over the speakers. "Medic Ahara to the bridge, please. Medic Ahara to the bridge." He cut the connection and breathed a sigh of thanks that the coms worked now. They still sounded staticky, but it was far better than shouting across the craft.
 
Seeing Eamons thumbs up, Kal nodded back, despite it not being visible through the pods casing and activated the G-ray. Once he was sure Eamon was safely in his grasp, he initiated the release sequence, freeing the hangar of the ships internal gravity emulators and stopping the air flow to the room as well. The process took only a moment before the confirmation flashed up on his screen, giving him the all clear to open the floor beneath the pod.

This he did, as always minorly surprised that the pod didn’t just drop down into space the moment he did so. Of course there was no gravity to force it to do so, but it still went against his ingrained expectations, even after years of space training. He checked on his hold on Eamon one last time, then engaged the pods thrusters to propel them slowly out of the hold.

As soon as they were clear, he pulled up the virtual overlay to make sure he got his cargo as close as possible to their planned location. Still moving at a relatively slow pace, he gently drifted towards the designated spot, glad he had the overlay to distinguish their destination from the remainder of the sleek, unmarked hull. Once he was as close as he was comfortable getting, he activated the comms, praying they would work.

“I’m going to pull you to the pod so you can push off when the G-ray deactivates.”

Without waiting for a reply, he proceeded to do just as he had described, shortening the range of the G-ray to as little as possible. Eamon should feel it when the ray deactivated, but Kal spoke into the void once more all the same.

“Deactivation in 3… 2… 1…” He remained floating in place, waiting for confirmation, audible or visual, that Eamon had reached the ships hull safely.

---

Ahara sighed when she heard the crackling voice summoning her. So much for a quiet moment before they docked to finish her food. Scooping the remnants of her breakfast into one large mouthful, she tidied away her bowl and spoon, struggling to chew and swallow. Grabbing her tablet from the table, she made her way to the bridge as requested, deciding to not drop off her tablet in her room on the way. She would need it later anyway.

Stepping onto the bridge, she announced her presence with a quiet “Sir.” Residual tiredness and preoccupation with the situation on Jepison made her voice less sharp than usual. With the tablet clasped in both hands before her, she looked almost deferrent. More the picture of the medic Frayne might have wished for. Even so, there was still something in the tilt of her chin that warned of potential defiance.
 
Eamon felt almost dizzy as the gravitational pull vanished around him to be replaced by the pull of the pod's gravity beam. The beam created an odd sensation of having a hook somewhere in the vicinity of his naval tugging him gently through a faint current. As he floated awkwardly along under the pod, he wondered if this was how fish felt when hooked, except a lot more painful. He looked around disoriented as they glided along the hull of the ship.

For a moment, the fear of space, the frustrations of the past few days, everything melted away. He stared at the silver gleam and let out a soft sigh. Oh, it was beautiful! The Mackinaw was the most beautiful ship in the galaxy, and he'd fight anyone who said otherwise. Distant starlight glinted off smoot curves, inviting him closer. It was like a dream. He wished he could sketch the sight.

“I’m going to pull you to the pod so you can push off when the G-ray deactivates.”

Eamon jumped in surprise. Oh, right, work. He needed to be paying attention. He flipped himself over to face the far smaller pod and drifted up to its hull.

“Deactivation in 3… 2… 1…”

He placed his hands firmly against the smooth surface as the hook in his bellybutton disappeared, leaving him to float free. His booted feet came up, and he pushed off, gliding straight and true to the Mackinaw's hull. He landed smoothly and gave himself a moment to grip the side. Tiny magnets in his boots and gloves kept him from bouncing off as long as he didn't jolt too much, and he turned to give Kalukan a thumbs up.

"I have landed safely!" he called. He turned and started working his way a few feet up to where he'd be attaching the clamp. He felt bad marring the side of the craft this way, but it was needed. He sorted out a few bolts from the bag around his waist and got to work.

What he did not realize was that while he could hear Kalukan, Kal could not hear him.

~~

Frayne glanced at Ahara and gave a quick nod of recognition. He tapped a couple of times and pulled up an image of an older, severe-looking Zebek. "This is the Jepison's Head Medic. Once we make contact, you will report to him. His name is in the file but not his picture. I wished you to see whom to look for. It is my hope to keep this visit down to three hours or less, but that is up to you and he and how long it takes you two to unload and sort things out."
 
The sight of Eamons gesturing, if not the actual thumbs up, once he had reached the relative safety of the hull, prompted Kal’s turning the pod back, not thinking anything of the radio silence.

He decided to not use the automatic redocking function, which while easy and convenient, took time, as the system would not only pull the pod back into the hangar, but take the time to close the doors and enable gravity and air in the hangar, assuming he wished to leave the craft. Not wanting to leave Eamon basically stranded outside for longer than he had to, Kal instead navigated the pod through the opening by hand, a simple enough feat with the main ship completely stationary and no other outside influences to worry about.

With the ARM in his gravitational clutches, he made the reverse trip, spotting the small form of the engineer already at work on the hull almost before the sensors displayed him.
Activating the coms again, he asked, “Is everything prepared?”

---

Ahara stepped up next to Frayne to study the picture of the medic in question, Zalas, son of Kern, if she remembered correctly.

“Unloading shouldn’t take too long, depending on how well the docking goes. Although, if most on the station are sick by now, that might slow things down. The last reports are a bit vague on that front. If that is the case it will take longer and I will stay on the Jepison till the situation has stabilised.”

Her statement held no trace of a subordinate asking her captain's permission. This was a medical matter, technically she outranked him in this decision, though it was still customary for things to be cleared with the vessel's captain. This time, it wasn’t mutiny or hostility that prompted Aharas complete disregard of the formalities. She was already in medic mode, nothing was as important as the wellbeing of the patients in her care.
 
Eamon anchored his boots to the hull and made certain the magnets held him firm before he stood up and reached up, anticipating the piece to soon be within reach. He could guide it easily into place and attach it without much trouble once he had it properly stabilized. This would go much fast with a second person to help hold and screw it down on the other side, but they did not have another person.

"Everything is ready!" Eamon said, still not realizing there was no reception on his end. A fault in the suit's audio receivers had shorted on his com system, something ironically similar to what had happened on the craft but which had nothing to do with Eamon's tinkering.

~~

Frayne raised a brow and glanced at Ahara at her statement, but a quick look told him the true story. He wasn't pleased with her direct approach, but it wasn't something he wanted to fight about right now. She was well within her rights and not actually being insubordinate, so he let it go, putting it down to his own touchiness after previous confrontations.

"I am assuming that once the medication is delivered they will be able to handle things, but we shall have to see how the situation stands," he said in an agreeable tone. "If you are needed on the Jepison, that shall make things rather complicated here on the Mackinaw. It is against regulations for a small vessel such as ours to function without a medic, providing certain exceptions, of course." He sighed softly. "We shall see."

After a moment of staring at a read-out, he turned to Ahara and nodded. "You are dismissed. I trust you understand your duties better than I, and I have complete trust in your medical decisions."
 
Again, Kal got no audible response, but the actions of the little blobby figure that was Eamon in his ridiculous suit made his intentions plain enough. Kal did wonder at the engineers uncharacteristic silence a little, but he had been less talkative than usual while fixing the coms in the ship too. Perhaps he was only concentrating.

Kal had his own things to concentrate on. He was already as close as he dared to get to the ships hull without endangering either Eamon, the ARM or his pod. He wasn’t sure which would be the worst outcome and didn’t much want to think about it. Yes the Jepison, just visible over the hull of the Mackinaw, could probably help if something went amiss, but needless to say it really shouldn’t have to come to that.

He inched his way forwards, trying to maneuver the ARM into Eamons reach. That the contraption wasn’t quite stationary in his grasp didn’t help matters. With every adjustment on his part, it rotated slightly with the new force input.

---

“Unless all the medical staff are fully incapitated, which is rather unlikely, I should be able to return quickly and even if not, it shouldn’t take too long. There are some pretty powerful symptom inhibitors in the shipment that should tide them over until the actual medication takes hold. I’m sure you three will manage to stay out of trouble here until I return.”

Ahara wasn’t quite sure why she was still talking to Frayne. He had dismissed her, and not just with a wave or anything that could be misunderstood. Perhaps it was his acknowledgement of her position as medic, or his immediate acceptance of her judgement of the situation, or perhaps she was just a little more worried about what awaited her on Jepison than she was letting on even to herself.
 
Eamon tried not to sweat as he watched Kal maneuver the ARM attachment closer. Of course, trying not to sweat is completely pointless, and in minutes, he felt the sticky moisture clinging unpleasantly to his body, and a few droplets floated in his helmet thanks to zero gravity. Even so, he was able to grasp the edge of the metal contraption and slowly guide it down to where he'd arranged the anchors. It fit perfectly! He heaved a huge sigh of relief and quickly screwed in the first one to hold it still.

"Okay, you can cut off the beam now!" he called over com, scrambling around awkwardly to the other side. "Hey, you can turn it off. Hello? Pilot?"

~~

She hadn't left the second he'd dismissed her? Maybe she was warming up to him! That or perhaps rebelling opposite how she normally did in leaving before proper dismissal. He chose to think it was the former and allowed a faint glow of hope.

"Hmm, it is my hope we can stay out of trouble for longer than that, and I have no doubt Kalukan shall not disappoint us, but I cannot speak for Eamon," he said with a quick smile her way. "I would not want to fly without him and his skills, but he does tend to present certain... challenges."
 
Due to the make up of the pod and its sensors, Kal could only see Eamon and the ARMs general position below him on his display, not what the engineer was actually doing. He was doing his absolute best to keep everything steady, praying that no stray asteroid or solar breeze would jostle either his pod or the Ship and potentially knock Eamon off balance.

When what felt like half an hour had elapsed (he knew he was exaggerating, but the minor adjustments were hard and quite exhausting), he chanced distracting Eamon from his task and activated the comms.
“Eamon, how are you faring?”

---

Ahara made a noncommittal noise. She wasn’t in any position to gossip about crew mates and it felt a bit too much like breaking patient confidentiality to her anyway. Not that she wasn’t curious about what Frayne knew about their alien engineer, which was quite a bit to her knowledge, but questioning their captain for further details went against even her loose sense of propriety.

“Lets hope so.” Was all she ultimately answered, before nodding to Frayne and taking her leave.
 
Kal's voice crackled in Eamon's ear as he continued with the bolts, now fighting against the beam a little. At least it was not too powerful, but it was getting in the way as his puffy sleeves or pants kept getting caught in its grasp.

"I am faring decently, but it would be nice if you turned off the beam!" Eamon growled without looking up from his work. "Seriously, Kalukan, what's the hold-up? Is the beam stuck?"

Eamon turned to finish the last bolt. The gravitational beam threw off his balance, and he took a second to regain his position before continuing. The left pant leg of his suit shifted as he did so, and a part of the extra fabric drifted over to the bolt. Eamon screwed in the bolt then realized too late he'd caught the edge of his suit. He tried to pull it free, but it wouldn't budge. He tried reversing the bolt, but he'd done too good a job securing it down.

"Kalukan, we have a problem!" Eamon called, trying to get the drill to undo the bolt. "I'm stuck."

~~

Frayne murmured something in response to Ahara's departure, but he was already distracted by his work. Why hadn't either Kalukan or Eamon checked in? Not that he'd expected step-by-step updates, but he had expected at least news that they were outside and working or inside and safe. Maybe he should message them... no, that might seem like he didn't think they could do their jobs. They were fine. He would have heard if there was a problem.

A new message popped up. The other craft had spotted them and was preparing for docking. Great. They were not ready yet!
 
Kal waited for a response, at first sure it was only a trick of his mind that made the wait for an answer drag out so long. Finally, trepidation growing rapidly, he asked again,
“Eamon, is everything alright? I don’t want to alarm you, but your comms might be faulty. If you have been speaking, it has not been transmitting.”

His finger drifted towards the main ship comms button even before he had finished speaking, fearing the worst. Without knowing in what situation Eamon was in, he couldn’t move from his position, not even to get visual contact. As much as he hated to bother Frayne, who surely had enough to do himself, their captain needed to know if something really was going proverbially south.

---

Ahara wandered back into the galley, idly checking the manifest of the Jepison for what felt like the thousandth time and cross referencing it with their load of medications and supplies. Everything should be in order. As soon as the cargo was loaded onto the station they would have enough to tide them over till the next proper shipment vessel made its rounds.

As they had repeatedly since she had started her preparations, her eyes slid over the small 59 in one of the tally columns without registering its significance.
 
Last edited:
"Oh, you don't want to alarm me? How nice, but I think that's a little late now!" Eamon grumbled, still trying to get his suit free. It should be simple. Flip the switch to make the driver reverse direction, loosen the bolt, free suit, tighten bolt again. Only the driver would not switch direction, and he could not loosen the bolt by hand. "Stupid faulty... I swear they gave us the rejects on purpose!" Eamon continued to complain even if no one could hear him. It helped him focus a little better.

~~

Frayne answered the comm quickly. "Captain Frayne, is that you, Kalukan?" he asked promptly.
 
When there was again no audible reply from Eamon, Kal let his finger drop onto the button, intensely relieved that Frayne answered the ping directly.

“Yes sir, this is Kalukan. We may have a problem with the comms between the pod and Eamons suit. I do not know if Eamon can hear me, but I am receiving no answer. I have no visual contact and still have the ARM held in the grav-beam.” He gave his report, hoping it was enough to impress their situation on the Captain.
 
Frayne closed his eyes briefly. Had it really been too much to ask that their first mission go smoothly? Apparently. He took a breath before responding to Kalukan. "How long has it been since you last had visual contact with Eamon?" he asked calmly. "Do you believe he has had the chance to secure the ARM even partially?"
 
Kal hesitated for a moment; estimations had never been his forte.
“Perhaps 5 minutes. I do not know the specifics of the method of attachment, but I would assume so. Should I release the beam and regain visual contact?”
He knew this was what Frayne was edging towards, but wanted to hear it all the same. Crew safety was just as much his own responsibility as it was the Captains, but none of the options right now were ones he wanted to take.
 
"Yes, disengage the gravitational beam and regain visual contact," Frayne said clearly. "Move slowly and use your instruments to help find him."
How had Kalukan lost sight of Eamon? And why had he let it go so long? The whole point of having them both out there was to ensure someone could respond if something went wrong!

Frayne took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Never mind. This was Kal's first mission, and perhaps Eamon moved out of sight on his own. Any number of things could have happened. What was important was that they both returned safely.
 
“Yes Sir.” Kal tried not to let his trepidation show in his voice. Perhaps he had been hoping that Frayne might have another solution to their problem, but that had now been dashed. And try as he might, wracking his own brains brought no more clarity.

But he had his orders now, unpleasant as they were. Finding Eamon was not going to be the problem; Kal knew exactly where he was, just completely unaware of what exactly he was doing or in what situation he was in. If they got out of all this in one piece, he would be talking to Eamon about upgrading the pod sensors. He never wanted to only see someone he was supposed to be looking after as a yellow blob on his screens.

Steeling himself, he switched the comms again. “Eamon, if you can hear me, I am going to let go of the ARM and regain visual contact. Please make sure you are secure on the ship if you are able.”

Kal then counted slowly to five to give Eamon the time to do as he asked, if he had even heard it, then powered down the grav-beam as slowly as he could. A glance at the sensors told him everything outside was still in place - a small favour. Igniting the thrusters, he inched the pod backwards until the small shape of the human sitting on the ships hull like an ant on a tree became visible. It was only then that Kal realised that while he could see Eamon, the one-way transparent hull of the pod did not let Eamon see him.
 
Back
Top