The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Two: A Shaky Start, Chapter 11

Dan sat on the floor with the door to his room open, half in and half out. Two days onboard the Corelean and he was already feeling restless, cooped up. What would six weeks be like?

He guessed it would be like any long assignment. The restlessness would be bad at first and then he'd adjust. He'd get through.

He could hear Kleppie and Madsen arguing about something at the back of the room. They were staring out the porthole window, currently watching the moon go by. Or else they were watching some show on the video feed. Dan couldn't bring himself to go find out.

Fox was coming down the hall. Dan greeted him. "You look troubled," Dan said.

Fox paused. "A bit, want to walk?"

Dan rose and they paced the hall while Fox told him about the incident with Runningbear. "I should have guessed," Dan said.

"Off the record, of course," Fox said. Dan nodded. "Lannister gave me an informal assignment. Keep an eye on the crew. Look for trouble. Report it directly to him, keep it off Sutton's or commands radar if possible."

"Makes sense," Dan said. "What's most important with this mission? Getting home. A bunch of disciplinary incidents won't help. Best keep things nice and civil. Still, I don't envy you one bit.

"Oh, you don't get off so easy," Fox joked grimly. "You know how the military works. Ensigns, seamen, they'll obey any order an officer gives them. But if the same officer goes snooping into their private lives? They'll clam up. It'll be up to us petty officers, keep an ear to the ground. The rank and file will come to us first. We've got to be the stable influence."

Dan grimaced. "And I was worried about being bored."

Dan walked the halls for awhile after his talk with Fox. He spied Janda leaving Cheyenne's medibay. "She slept most of the afternoon, but I think she's up now," Janda told him. "Lana is with her. You'd be welcome."

Dan shrugged. "Sure, if she's awake."

He went in and talked for a long time. "I am sorry," he said after some time. "Talking your ear off. Burdening you with my problems."

"Her ear is fine," Lana commented.

"It's a figure of speech," Cheyenne said with a laugh. To Dan, "don't be sorry. You know how much I hate not being able to do anything useful? It's killing me. Another figure of speech," she threw in. "I can't stand just laying in this tank. If I can be a support, a sounding board, for you or anyone, I am happy to do that. Anytime."

"Thanks," he said, feeling much better. "I should let you sleep though. I am wiped."

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Lannister returned to his room to find his slate, which he had left behind, flashing. He touched it and a holo-projection appeared on the table. Usually the projection was three dimensional but now it was flat, indicating the recording end wasn't Consortium. It was his liaison officer back home. They had had a couple of short, guarded conversations since Lannister and his crew came onboard. Command hadn't much to say, lay low, cooperate with treatment. We will get you home as soon as possible. Implicit behind these commands was the fact that the upper command wasn't quite so willing to trust the Consortium yet - They asked no sensitive questions nor did they give out any information.

It didn't help that they could only communicate through the Consortium's own tech. There was no way they could encrypt their communications. The Consortium didn't seem to understand the notion that you might want to keep some communications private, an ironic thing considering they had an information grid that pretty much spied on everything anyone did.

"Good evening," Lannister said to the flat projection. He found a stool and sat. He wasn't sure how long it would take to get used to the low, unbacked chairs. Probably never. It had occurred to him that if he adopted their style of sitting, with one or both legs pulled up underneath, the chairs might be more comfortable. But he had grown up with straight backed chairs and he would die sitting on one, probably with some Consortium healer insisting it was much healthier to sit like they did.

"Evening?" the liaison officer started. "Oh yeah, your local time," he muttered. "Sorry for disturbing you so late, Sir."

"No need to apologize," Lannister said. "I was up dealing with something anyway."

"Anything command needs to know about?"

He paused. "Nothing to report."

The Liaison officer nodded.

"And you?" Lannister assumed there must be a reason for this communication.

There was a pause. "Umm, just wanted to get an update on Cheyenne Walker's progress."

Just Cheyenne? "They say she's progressing as well as can be expected. She's stable, medically speaking. They hope she'll be strong enough in the next few days to start some reparative therapies."

"Great, that's great news. We are tentatively planning a news conference for the end of the week. We were hoping to do it holographically with the President, Princess Sarasvat and some of your crew, especially Mrs. Walker, if she's able."

He thought about how Cheyenne looked and shuddered. Could she be presentable by the end of the week? It'd take a miracle. But then again, our survival is a miracle, so who knows?

"I will talk to her healers in the morning."

"Good, good. Umm, consider it high priority, for diplomatic reasons."

Diplomatic reasons, Lannister spit the words out in his mind. A career military officer, Lannister hated politics with a passion. But he'd been in command long enough to know that politics were part of the game. Peace with the Consortium, that was his country really needed. But it was going to be a hard sell.

"I will keep that in mind," Lannister said.

This is the end of episode two, A Shaky Start. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to vote, comment and share the story. Don't worry, the story isn't over yet. Next time I will start Episode Three, Spiders and Clackers. Thanks for reading.