The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Four: Spies, ch. 3

"Good morning, Kleppie, isn't it?" Kavi asked.

Kleppie smiled. "Yeah, it is. You helped us the first day, with the zero G lift, remember. I got sick." Kleppie blushed and wished suddenly his mouth knew when to stop. What a bonehead thing to say.

Kavi laughed. "Yes, I remember. You've adjust now, though. I've seen you go up and down." She giggled nervously and blushed herself. "I'm Kavi," she said after a moment.

"Yeah, I'm here for treatment."

"Okay."

Kleppie took off his shirt so she could inspect the fading rash on his back. The most awkward member of the American crew tries to flirt with the most awkward member of the Consortium crew, he thought.

"You are looking better now," she said. "I don't think we need to do a tank session. Just let me put some cream on and then you can have a blue treatment."

"Your technology is amazing," Kleppie said as she worked. He remembered his talk with Hornbeck yesterday. "Umm that zero g lift, do you know how it works?"

"Sure," she said. "They just have conditional holes in the gravity plates beneath the ship. It's in the schematics."

"Umm, okay," Kleppie replied, not sure he'd actually been told anything. "Do you know how the artificial gravity works?"

"Yeah, I studied physics for awhile before healer's training," Kavi said and she launched into a long explanation that was definitely over Kleppie's head. I am way too dumb to be a spy, he decided.

She walked him down to the blue room. "It was nice to talk to you, Kleppie," she said at the door. "If you wish to talk again, you may."

"Yes, I would like that," Kleppie said. He smiled and watched her depart, realizing he did very much want to talk to her again.

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"Oh my god, you've got to see this," Kleppie greeted Dan as he entered their quarters. It was roughly two in the afternoon and Dan's day was over.

That morning after breakfast he'd gone to see Cheyenne. He found her not only awake but out of the tank. Her healers wanted her body to adjust to supporting itself. They had just finished covering her wounds and helping her clean off and dress.

She was still weak. She had walked a short distance to the nearby bench and sat, but Lana said that was enough for her first day. In the future they would push her to do some physical therapy.

They had talked about nothing. He'd told her he was back on duty. She was surprised but he told her the Captain was right, they needed something to do.

After his visit he had his medical treatment and his session in the blue room. Then came lunch and his language class, Consortium. Captain Lannister had created more than a half dozen classes. Everyone had to do something. Dan understood and agreed, the men needed something to do with their time. They also needed some way to keep up the discipline in the ranks.

The Consortium language class was the smallest and it made Dan sad. Those with the least radiation sickness, or the worst machismo, were bullying their way through PT or hand to hand combat. The rest of the classes were absolute BS, clearly only offered because someone had the skill to teach it and they needed something to do.

Learning to speak Consortium, on the other hand, seemed like a real game changer to Dan. These Others were obviously here to stay. Why not learn their language?

Some avoided the class because they were lazy and cooking, naval history, or pottery classes were a lot easier. But mostly it was bias. The men still worried that we would end up at odds with the Consortium again. The patriotic thing to do was to hold the others at bay.