The Outback Stars

CHAPTER


NINETEEN





I

think it’s a bad idea,” Nitta said on the tram to T6. Jodenny had a hangover from Strayborn’s party, the tram was exceptionally crowded for such an early hour, and she was tired of discussing the topic. “We don’t have a lot of choices, and he’ll do fine.”



Nitta grumbled under his breath. She hadn’t expected him to do cartwheels over her choice of Myell to run T6, but she had no qualms or second doubts. She ignored Nitta’s unhappy expression as they disembarked on the Rocks and crossed the access ring. When Jodenny saw Hosaka in the command module she sent Nitta down to the base of the hold and asked, “How did Ensign Ysten’s inspec-tion go yesterday?”



“Honestly, ma’am? I’ve had more thorough lookovers in a bar,”

Hosaka said.



“Didn’t spend a lot of time?”



“Three minutes top to bottom. See that sprinkler over there? I’ve been trying to get it fixed for six months. Told the ensign, but he didn’t care.”



Jodenny called up Ysten’s inspection on her gib. He hadn’t noted it. She wasn’t surprised. When Ysten crossed the access ring she pulled him aside and said, “Ensign Ysten, about your inspections. You weren’t as thorough as I need you to be.”



Ysten grimaced. “I did everything that was on the checklist.”



“I’m going to reinspect this module. For every code violation you overlooked, you owe me a thousand-word essay on the importance of safety inspections.”



He gazed at her disdainfully. “Essay?”



Hosaka covered her mouth with her hand.



Ysten said, “Reinspect all you want. I’ll give you two thousand if you can find something I missed.”



Jodenny had Ysten and Hosaka both wait outside. She noted the broken sprinkler. The exit sign was lit and clean. The medbot was fully charged. So was the fire suppression unit, but the replacement date had expired.



“Four thousand words,” she said when she emerged. She handed Ysten the list. He immediately went inside to double-check her. Hosaka said, “Maybe I’ll just go on down to quarters, Lieutenant,” and was gone by the time Ysten came out.



“Two minor violations,” Ysten fumed. “No big deal.”



“Redo all your inspections, Ensign. Tomorrow I’ll reinspect some of them at random. And tomorrow the penalty doubles—each viola-tion is a four-thousand-word essay.”



“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Ysten asked.



“Ensign Ysten, if you at all value your Team Space career, you will cease and desist with the attitude. Do I make myself clear?”



“You don’t scare me.”



Jodenny gave him her best full-wattage glare. “You should be scared. You’re the lousiest officer on this ship. You’re lazy, insolent, and bad with people. I don’t know why you joined Team Space, but all you do is make people want to shove you out an airlock. So why don’t you go get started on those inspections before I round up a vol-unteer party to do exactly that?”



Ysten stormed off with the air of injured dignity that only ensigns could manage.



Quarters went well. She announced Myell’s new position and aside from Nitta, no one seemed to have a problem with it. VanAmsal even seemed pleased. By that afternoon news had spread to Chief DiSola, who stopped her on the Flats. “Heard you promoted Myell. You think that’s wise?”



“Yes,” Jodenny said. “I do.”



She was still short on personnel, but with Myell in T6 and VanAm-sal in LD-G things soon fell into a good routine. Jodenny found she actually had time to answer COSALs and data requests from Fleet. Dr. Ng left her notes saying he hadn’t found anything yet, but hadn’t given up. A week after they had left Mary River, Jodenny was still try-ing to hammer out a report that would describe what it had been like to feel the yellow light sweep her and Myell to a tropical rain forest that was nowhere in the Seven Sisters.




Rokutan pinged her. “Ready for that hangar tour?” he asked.



“Sure,” she said, but before she could get there Commander Wildstein requested that she report to her office. “Come in,” Wildstein said when Jodenny arrived, and led the way inside. It was bright but stark in there, not a single folder or file out of place. The air felt at least ten degrees colder than it had out in the passageway.



“We never had your welcome aboard interview,” Wildstein said as they both sat down.



“No, ma’am,” Jodenny said.



Wildstein gazed at her frankly. “Well, no point in doing it now. You’ve been aboard long enough to know how I work and what I ex-pect. Meanwhile, there’s been a complaint made against you and Sergeant Myell. That you were fraternizing together on Mary River and then you promoted him to be in charge of T6. What do you say to that?”



* * * *



S

o these dreams you’ve been having,” Chaplain Mow said as she wa-tered a spider plant. “Tell me more.”



Myell gazed bleakly at the walls of her office, which were grammed a soothing shade of green. The ceiling simulated the sky and sun of a summer day on Fortune. From a discreet set of speakers came the sounds of songbirds and a babbling brook, and plants filled every shelf, niche, and cranny. He had called her that morning, after yet an-other sleepless night, and she had told him to come by on his lunch hour.



“They’re just images, mostly,” he replied. “A shaman with a staff that turns into a snake.”



“If you’re talking about an Aboriginal wise man, we prefer the term

‘wirrinun.’ And you know he’s one because… ?”



Myell described him for her. He described the Rainbow Serpent as well.



“I’ve been doing a lot of reading,” he added. “The Dreamtime, the Wondjina, songlines.”



Chaplain Mow pinched dead leaves off a spider plant. Mildly she said,

“ ‘Songlines’ is a European term. When the Wondjina traipsed across the land and gave rise to everything, they made sacred paths you can still follow today.”



“But you can’t see them. There aren’t any maps or markers. You have to… what? Follow your heart?”



Chaplain Mow poked her finger into the dirt of a ficus. “Are you from Aboriginal ancestry? I don’t remember.”



“I don’t know. My mother was from Melbourne, but she never spoke about it.” Myell supposed that there were colony records on Baiame that revealed where, exactly, his parents had emigrated from, but because of his light skin color, he’d never considered the possibil-ity. “I don’t look Aboriginal.”



“No, you don’t. But just because you don’t come from a specific belief system doesn’t mean you can’t join it later.” Chaplain Mow put her watering can aside and sat beside him, her gaze warm and invit-ing. “It’s like family. There’s the one you’re born into, and the one you make for yourself.”



Myell studied his left thumbnail and didn’t answer.



“Is something else bothering you besides dreams of a naked Abo-riginal?”



He didn’t want to talk about it. Or did he? He had known she would see through him. Reluctantly he said, “I found out Daris is on Warramala. That he’s been asking for me, that he wants to talk to me.”



“Daris is the brother who abused you.”



“If you call it that,” he said.



“I remember we agreed to call it that a few months ago.”



Myell longed for T6, where he didn’t have to talk to anyone at all.



Chaplain Mow leaned forward in her chair, the watering can for-gotten.

“You don’t have to speak with him, Terry. You don’t have to listen to anything he says. Under normal circumstances, adults have the power to engage or disengage in dialogue with one another, and much more of an ability to protect themselves than children do.”



“I don’t want to reopen stuff that I left behind a long time ago.”



She touched his arm. “You didn’t leave it behind. You don’t let it rule you, but you still carry it.”



He didn’t like to think that was true. Myell lifted his eyes toward the grammed ceiling, where clouds coasted by on an unseen wind. “Well, the good news is that I think I’m in love. The bad news is that she’s completely unavailable.”



“Really?” Chaplain Mow looked intrigued. “How completely?”



“One hundred and ten percent.”



“Hmmm. Does she love you back?”



“I doubt it.” Jodenny had followed him from the party. She had put her soft hand against his skin. But even if she did feel something, she had enough discipline to squash her feelings. He was the sappy fool who wanted to ignore the way the world worked.



Thinking of her made him restless, and he suddenly stood. “Sorry. I have to get back to work.”



“We haven’t finished talking about the Aboriginal you see in your dreams.”



“I’ll come back later,” he said.



Chaplain Mow’s skepticism shone through her expression.



“I will,” Myell insisted.



Before she let him go, she supplied him with a list of resources to read about Aboriginals, advised him to get a medical checkup, and suggested he try relaxation techniques before bedtime. He was in the lift on the way to the tram when it stopped on E-Deck. Gallivan boarded, gym bag in hand. He was whistling cheerfully.



“Been looking for you, Gloom,” Gallivan said.



Myell clenched his fists. “You can stop calling me that.”



Gallivan only grinned. “Up for playing pool tonight? I need some extra money.”



“Last time we played, I whipped your ass.” Maybe that was true: he couldn’t remember. It had been a long time since they had done anything together.



“I’ve been practicing. Besides, you’ve got very little time left to try and win my money.”



Three weeks, more or less, before Gallivan’s contract ended and he disembarked at Warramala. “All right,” Myell said, and Gallivan got off the lift. Before the doors closed he wedged his foot between them.



“You know you can trust me, right?” Gallivan asked. “Chiba starts up again, anything like that, you let me know.”



Myell had barely seen Chiba since returning from Mary River. “Why?

Have you heard anything?”



“Haven’t heard a peep,” Gallivan said, and sounded sincere. “But it’s when Chiba’s the most quiet that you have to worry the most.”



“Things are fine. I don’t need any help.”



“You always say that,” Gallivan said, and the door started to slide closed. “Rarely is it true.”



* * * *



S

itting in Wildstein’s office, goose bumps on her arms because it was so damned cold, Jodenny restrained from immediately defending herself. Nitta had probably made the complaint. It was exactly the kind of weaselly thing he would do. Or maybe someone else in her own division. No one could have witnessed her at the Myell farm or at the Spheres, but it was possible they had been observed when Myell drove her back to New Christchurch.



“Is this a formal investigation, Commander?” she asked Wildstein.



“No. Commander Al-Banna doesn’t know. Just you, me, and Mas-ter Chief DiSola. Does this allegation have any merit?”




“Absolutely not, ma’am.”



Which was true. If Wildstein knew what Jodenny and Myell had been truly doing on Mary River, rumors of fraternization would be the last thing on her mind. But Jodenny wasn’t ready yet to make that report. Not ready to be doubted, questioned, and put under more scrutiny.



“Commander Lueller in Admin has a need for a sergeant,” Wild-stein said. “He knew Myell on the Okeechobee and asked about him. What do you think about transferring Myell to put a stop to any ru-mors?”



Jodenny didn’t hesitate. “I think it’s a terrible idea. I’m already undermanned as it is. You take Myell and I’m going to have only one sergeant and one chief, which is about the same as having just one sergeant. I’ll have to put an RT in charge of T6.”



“What about if I rounded up a sergeant for you? A one-on-one swap.”



“It wouldn’t be the same for Myell, ma’am. Working in Admin, out of his rating, wouldn’t look good for him on his next eval. He wouldn’t have a chance of making chief.”



Wildstein’s frown deepened. “I heard he wasn’t interested in a pro-motion.”



“He needs to keep his options open.”



“Ask him. If he’s amenable, let’s look into it.”



Let’s look into it. Jodenny mulled those four words as she left the Flats. Since when had Wildstein been so accommodating? That she hadn’t pressed the issue of fraternization—that she was so willing to take Jodenny’s denial at face value—was also strange. Her appetite gone, she decided to skip lunch and head for a Morale Committee meeting. Afterward she called Myell and had him meet her down on LD-G. They stayed in full sight of VanAmsal and let the noise of the mag belts cover their conversation.



“Who could have seen anything?” Myell asked after she told him about the complaint.



“It doesn’t matter. Rumors don’t need proof to fuel them.”



Myell shook his head. “Commander Lueller didn’t even like me on Okeechobee.”



“He likes you now,” Jodenny said, and resisted adding, as do I. A DNGO flew by them, a damaged crate in its claws. “I think you should consider it.”



“You want me to leave?”



“I want you to do what’s best for your career.”



“You’re assuming I have one left.”



Jodenny hadn’t heard self-pity like that from him before. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had left Strayborn’s party after being dizzy. “Do you feel all right?”



“I wish people would stop asking me that,” he said testily.



She gave him a level look.



“I’m not transferring,” he said. “We could tell them what hap-pened on Mary River, if that’s what you want.”



Jodenny shook her head. She watched VanAmsal inspect the dam-aged crate and slap a repair code on its side. “Not yet. When we get to Warramala, we should see if it happens again.”



“Why would it? What happened was probably a fluke. If it was common, people would be reporting it all the time. Besides, if we’re seen together there, it will just further the gossip. I don’t like it that people think the only way I can get ahead is to sleep with you.”



Didn’t he want to sleep with her? Jodenny quashed an inappropri-ate mental image of him naked and warm in her bed. “I resent it, too. But you know we’re not fraternizing, and I know it, so people will just have to find their fodder elsewhere.”



“You think it’s that easy?”



“No,” Jodenny said. “But it shouldn’t be that hard, either.”



“If I were a lieutenant in some other division, would you—” Myell started to say, then clamped his mouth shut.



“Would I what?” Jodenny asked.



Myell shook his head.



Talking was getting them nowhere, and the noise from the mag-lev was giving her a headache. “Do you want that transfer to Ad-min?” she asked.



“No.” Defiance in his tone. “I’m staying right here.”



She couldn’t say she disapproved. Better that he remain in her divi-sion, where she could keep a professional eye on him no matter how much he aggravated her. Wildstein didn’t seem surprised or disap-pointed when Jodenny relayed Myell’s preferences. Jodenny waited for Master Chief DiSola to raise the issue, but he said nothing. None of her fellow officers hinted that Jodenny had behaved improperly, al-though there was one wry remark the afternoon they painted the wardroom with the Aral Sea’s emblem.



“A fine reproduction if I do say so myself,” Vu remarked as she wiped her hands clean.



Zarkesh, who’d been recruited to assist with the job, said, “It’s all in the wrist.”



Hultz said, “I think it looks great. I can’t wait until we get the boys from Flight up here and whip their butts on Izim. Right, Jodenny?”



“Hmm?”



“Where are you?” Vu asked, a twinkle in her eye. “Daydreaming? You look like a woman falling in love.”



Jodenny picked up a paintbrush and lied to everyone, including herself. “Trust me. I’m not falling anywhere.”



* * * *