Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' (19 page)

“Oh, it was just horri….” she broke off as Valesque put a hand on her shoulder and moved in front of her, effectively curtailing the girl’s tale of terror.

“It is…all under control.” the Virrilian cut in confidently, giving Lola a quick warning look. “Better than it seems to be going up here. What was it you wanted me for anyway?” she asked a bit brusquely.

“It seems the ship has switched to emergency power, and we are not sure where we are.” the Captain replied, trying to ignore the girl’s rudeness. “We called up the person from navigation, but….as you can see.” the exasperated Officer gestured to the latest addition. “He has not been much help.”

Valesque put her hand over her mouth unable to hold back a snicker and sarcastic response.

“Well I can understand that.” she jeered, not missing an opportunity to rub in the Military woman’s stubbornness in taking off with an unfinished ship and unfit crew. “If you hadn’t noticed before, I would say at least half of this, so called, crew of yours are not, have not, and probably never will be I.P.A Officers of any rank.” she laughed.

“Take Sanic for instance, he is a Science Officer in a command position, and yet you call him a Military Ensign.” she pointed out, as Sanic blushed modestly.

“And I don’t know if you saw Jimmy over there in charge of communications? He has never operated anything like that before in his life. Hi there, Jimmy.” she waved at the relieved looking young man at the communication console.

“He was a delivery boy for ‘Sam’s Soppy Subs’. I could never understand liking a wet sandwich myself, but they were very popular with the construction crew.” she added, shrugging and shaking her head at the thought of it.

“He probably just happened to be in the area when the orders went out. So, I am not surprised you are finding some of these poor people a bit lost and confused, Captain.” she finished, quite happy with herself that she finally was able to speak her mind, and not violently.

“That may be the case, Ensign Valesque.” the Captain relied unsympathetically. “But they are all ranking Officers now and will carry out their assignments accordingly.” she proclaimed looking over her crew with a critical eye.

The Serpantial-man hissed at this, chuckling to himself and saying with that statement she had proven herself adequately qualified to be the Captain of this ship of fools.

He was apparently used to people not being able to read his communication collar, because he had the habit of saying the most inappropriate and insulting things about those around him, and then sticking out his forked snake tongue, squishing up his eyes and hissing out a long snake laugh, “Ssss..ssss..sssss..sssss”

He was surprised this time when someone else joined him in his laughter.

“That is so true!” the other voice chimed in.

He turned in shock towards the person in question to see Sanic snickering along with him.

The snake man’s beady little eyes widened in alarm. “You underssssstood what I sssssaid?” he hissed, stunned at the thought. Not one person on any of his other assignments had ever understood him.

Sanic paused a moment as he watched the lights flashing on the collar and then deciphered it in his head. “That part I did.” he smiled in reply. “I had a little trouble at first, but I think I’ve got it figured out now.” he explained, still chuckling at what the snake had said.

Sanic had always been good with puzzles and codes and could usually figure things out pretty quickly. That was one reason he had chosen to be in charge of ship operations, everything there was like a big puzzle he had to make work together in order for the ship to run, it was a challenging and rewarding job for him.

The snake man looked visibly upset, the hood around his face rose slightly while he regarded Sanic warily, his forked tongue licking the air before him as he contemplated this development. It would be bad if this person were to replay everything he said to everyone, he thought, especially the strict Military Captain.

Sanic just smiled in a friendly, reassuring way.

“So what race are you?” the Etherian began, trying to get on pleasant terms with his unusual crewmate.

“Sssssserpential.” the one in question replied.

Again, Sanic paused as he processed the collar’s signals in his head. “Serpential.” he finally repeated, sounding out the new word. “I don’t think I've ever come across one before.”

“We are rare.” the scaly man replied plainly, trying to size up his interrogator’s purpose.

“My name is Sanic, I am an Etherian.” the Ensign went on casually. “That is our Pilot over there, Lieutenant Baine. He is an Earthian.” he said motioning to where Tim stood leaning back against the railing. “That is Engineer Valesque by Lola over there.” he continued, gesturing to where Valesque and the Android stood off to the side of the main group. “She is a Virrilian.”

The Serpential squinted up his little eyes and crinkled his nose in a snakelike sneer as Valesque was introduced before replying, “My name is Ssssssssesssssil. I am an assssstronomer in the navigation department.” he hissed looking back at the Etherian with a superior air.

Captain Fairbanks looked back and forth at the two low ranking officers talking casually before her. “Do you understand what this person is saying?” she asked her Operations Commander.

“I think so, Captain.” he replied respectfully. “He says his name is Cecil, he is a Serpential and he is an astronomer in ship navigation”

“He can understand all of us then?” she clarified trying to get a grasp of the situation. “Does he have any idea where we are?”

Sanic looked at Cecil as he started to hiss his reply, beginning with a belittling laugh as he said, “Of courssssse I know what you are sssssaying, you ssssssimple minded human. You are the onessssss that are too ssssstupid to undersssstand anyone. I have been telling you all thissss time my computer’ssssss chartssss are not ssshowing thissss location.” he prickled and then looked quickly in Sanic’s direction as he realized what he had said.

However, Sanic did not look to be upset, he even laughed a bit while he relayed the essential parts of Cecil’s reply to the Captain. “He says he can understand perfectly. And he has been trying to tell you his charts are not showing this area.”

Cecil relaxed a little at hearing the Ensign’s translation. He had not tried to get him in trouble by revealing what other things he had said about the stupid humans. Perhaps it would not be so bad to have someone understand him after all, he thought.

“What does he mean the charts are not showing where we are?” she asked in disbelief. Was he as inept at his job as everyone else in her crew?

The snake man hissed a sigh of agitation at her questioning him.

“The sssstarsssss.” he hissed hotly, gesturing toward the huge view screen. “The ssssstarssss do not match the chartsssss.” he maintained.

Sanic turned to look out at the space scene showing on the display behind him.

“He says the stars don’t match the charts.” he informed the Captain.

Fairbanks tisked her impatience. “That is ridiculous.” she persisted. “There were only a few seconds from the time the ship finally moved to evade the attack until we stopped here. We could not have traveled that far.” she calculated.

“We must still be in the Andromeda Galaxy at least.” she insisted crossly, tiring of everyone else’s incompetence.

“Sssss…sssss..sssss..sssss” Cecil snickered at the Captain’s childish stubbornness. “You can check the chartssss yoursssself, human.” he hissed condescendingly. “But they sssstill will not match.”

“He still believes the ship is out of range for the charts to match.” Sanic interpreted for the Captain.

Fairbanks shook her head in disbelief that they could not be on any star charts, and at her terrible fate of being stuck on this exasperating ship.

Valesque who had been watching the situation quietly decided it was about time for her to speak up. She didn’t want to come right out and say anything about the Space Tripper, that would only criminalize her, but she did have an idea on how to solve the skepticism about their current position.

Have to start getting them used to it from some point, and it would be better if they can come to the conclusion themselves , she thought before coming forward to present her suggestion.

“Umm….I think that Cecil is probably right.” she began, trying to keep from sounding too knowledgeable about their situation. “But we can all go up to the Star Deck and have a look from there to be sure.” she urged, “You can get a panoramic view from up there so it might be helpful.” she explained temptingly for both sides.

The two opposing parties looked at each other with annoyance showing plainly in their countenance. The Captain finally conceding, “Fine, at least if we can get a better view outside we can figure out where we are.” she stated, still resolute on her stand that they were not outside of known space.

Valesque grimaced a bit, imagining how uncomfortable her near future was about to become, as she led the whole control and flight crew to the Hydro-lifts and up to the ship’s topmost deck.

The Star Deck was by far the most beautiful area on the ship, exceeding even the Recreation Deck in ambiance and décor.

This floor was actually two open decks in one, making it a very tall and airy space.

The only solid interior walls were on an island in the middle of the deck that housed the three Hydro-lift bay areas, which accessed the rest of the ship.

This island of elevators and wall effectively cut the deck in half, but only went up as far as the first floor ceiling would have, leaving a deck high open area above the wall and connecting both sides of the large room. The wall also did not reach all the way to the ends of the room leaving space on either edge for tables and walkways.

The Star Deck was the ship’s only public eating area; the food duplicators for the entire room were located along the back of the Hydro-lift wall, the long stretch of flat space allowing ample room for enough duplicating machines to feed an entire ship of people with little or no waiting in lines.

The rest of the room was just open space occupied by tables set out in intimate groupings with plenty of empty floor space in between for walking.

The most captivating feature was that the entire deck was bordered by a transparent outer hull, like a ring of huge picture windows all around the deck.

The lighting in the room was kept dim with only natural bioluminescent lamps on the tables and slightly stronger lights pointing down at the duplicators.

The low lighting not only made the room feel more elegant but it also allowed the stars and planets outside to take center stage, as there were no bright interior lights that would interfere with the view.

Not many of the crowd had made it up to this deck before it seemed, because as soon as the lift doors had hissed open they would just stand there in the doorway gaping as they gasped in wonder at the sights before them.

The darkness of space with the incandescent stars that surrounded the ship made a dramatic background through the clear deck high viewing panels.

Everyone except Cecil and Captain Fairbanks seemed in awe of the view around them. The Captain just stood surveying the scene with crisp, stern glances noting how unnecessary the entire deck was. While Cecil made a scornful face and commented cynically in his snake like hiss, “Ssssssshowy and repulsssssively overdone desssign.”

Valesque however did not pay either of them any mind as she reached down for her Vid-screen from her hip pouch. She had gone back to the Med-room after picking up Lola to retrieve her tools and reseal the panel over the Space Tripper in the doctor’s break-room. The last thing she needed was someone who was there for treatments from the jump coming across that mess and either fooling with it or alerting the Captain before she had a chance to explain.

The Engineer brought up a control program on her Vid-screen and did an override on the emergency power shut down in order to open the Star Deck’s ceiling blinds.

She tapped the release button on the screen and looked up expectantly as a low hiss and motor movement was heard far above them.

The rest of the group slowly switched their focus from the room to the roof above as the droning motors gradually revealed a slit in the formerly dark, flat ceiling panels.

Even the crew members who had been to this deck before began to murmur in wonder as the roof above them began to open up, revealing an entire slightly domed ceiling of the same transparent material as the walls.

They all now found themselves standing in a huge clear dome with stars and galaxies twinkling all around them.

Gasps of awe went up from the group she had brought with her as well as from the few people who had been enjoying a meal from the duplicators before they arrived.

It looked as if the entire deck was sitting out in open space.

Even the most critical among them looked to be enthralled with the new view, Valesque noted with a sideways glance at them all.

The usually cool Pilot looked up with a slightly dropped jaw, from his spot where he was leaning casually between the Hydro-lifts to the back of the group.

Sanic was looking at it with unrestrained enthusiasm, a wide eager smile across his face.

The Captain let her tightly crossed arms slack a bit as the blinds folded away.