Taking Joy for a Spin
by Rado Dyne
|
Table of Contents, Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Chapter 4: Riding the Wire
“Cap, why don’t you ever... make use of my services? As ship’s joy I mean, not as an engineer.”
She looked through both of our faceplates into my eyes. There was an expression of... annoyance... not shock. She didn’t speak though. We were just hanging out, swinging on the cable, so I figured now was a good time to talk to Cap. Neither of us had anywhere else to be at the moment, and she couldn’t just brush me off.
Strangely, I felt I couldn’t help myself. I had to know if there was any chance. I was nervous though, and I don’t get nervous when doing my job. I was afraid she’d hear it in my voice. I didn’t want to stutter, so I decided to focus on the professional side.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, but I’m not certain what’s going to happen here. If we don’t make it through, I’d just like to know. You always put me off, albeit nicely. It can be a pretty lonely thing to be on a ship without anyone to... share it with. I can’t see that you ever spend any time with anyone else. If you do, or if you have someone back on Atlantis, I understand. I just—”
“You must know I don’t owe you an explanation—”
“Of course, look, it’s my job to keep up morale. You’ve seemed very stressed for a while now. You know my services don’t have to be physical, at least not in the way you might think. Several of the crew just come to me to talk, to share. Some come for a massage, and that’s all. About the only time anyone ever skips over me is when they have a new or ongoing relationship and they just don’t need companionship from a professional.”
Her expression softened slightly then.
“Abeni is married to Elom, and both of them come see me. Not often, but sometimes. They both see me together about once a year. Look, I understand if you have different preferences. Say the word and I’ll drop it.”
She softened more noticeably then, saying, “Abeni tells me you’ve solicited her to start acting as your second.”
“I would never push her into it. She just seems like a natural.”
“She has taken the intro classes.”
“No?”
“Some years ago, actually. So she’s not so much a natural as you might think.”
“She didn’t tell me that.”
“Not everyone tells the joy everything. Some people confide things in their captain. Abeni didn’t tell me that in confidence though. She wanted my opinion.”
“And you gave it to her?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure what her final decision will be yet. I think she will let you know when she is ready.”
“Alright, I notice you didn’t tell me to drop it, but—”
“But I’m avoiding the question. I’m aware. Joy, I know enough about you to know that you are excellent at what you do, extremely competent. I mean as a joy, not as an engineer. You are competent at both jobs.”
I blew air out of the side of my mouth and said, “Cap, I’ve seen my reviews. I know you think I’m competent. I didn’t ask you for an appraisal!”
Keep it together, I thought to myself. I wasn’t going to let my voice tremble.
“But I’m still not answering your question. That one is hard for me, Joy. No, I don’t have anyone. Not in some years. My preferences, as you say, don’t preclude me from liking... someone like you. And yes, I understand that you are responsible for morale. Where I come from people are very...”
“Guarded? Old-fashioned?”
“I was going to say careful. Joy, I’m your commander. I have responsibility for everyone on the Lariat. I have to always be—”
“Cashhhigda around the ankle,” interrupted the radio.
Cap’s eyes widened, then she started in, “Lariat this is Cap, do you read?”
We waited in agonizing silence.
“Cashhh hard to make you out. Cap, are Lor and Trish with you? Over.”
“Loraine is with me... and...Trish is... Trish is dead.”
Silence for a few more moments, then: “This is Erik on board the Lariat. Abeni and Maxim managed to snag themselves on the cargo.... shhiinn”
As we continued to rise the radio became clearer. We repeated ourselves several times and adopted the formalities of radio banter to keep things straight. Erik made it back on board, though he had almost run out of oxygen and was supposed to be recovering. Somehow, he was at the ship’s comms station, checking on me and Cap and checking the status of the others they were helping. There was an emergency effort underway to pick up Maxim and Abeni, before they ran out of oxygen, too.
“I think we should keep the priority on the others,” said Cap.
“I agree. You and I have enough oxy to make it to the base camp, maybe with a bit to spare, and we can bivvy there for quite a while if we need to.”
“I want them to keep on the rescue efforts, plus there are two unaccounted for.”
I nodded and Cap told Erik to keep the ship doing what it was doing, that we would be fine for some time. She explained that we were headed for base camp, and I could hear in Erik’s voice that he was wondering how that was happening, but there was too much noise in the background to take time to fill everyone in on our flight of fancy.
As we approached the apex of our massive arc, we both rode the cable in silence. It was sobering to think about the others who still needed rescue, or about the ones yet to be found. I decided to let Cap enjoy the silence, as I knew her well enough to know that she was worried about the whole crew, not just me. She had been evasive, but she’d also said she wasn’t precluded from liking someone like me. She had dropped the pretense of giving me an appraisal of my competence, too.
Liking someone like me was also much better than simply asking me to improve her morale. In fact, that was better than any response I’d ever gotten out of her. I was feeling pretty good about it, actually. I decided to bask in the warm feelings I had right now. I found myself relaxing, too, with nothing to do but enjoy the ride. After a while, I yawned. I was sailing on a nearly invisible thread, or was it a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew...
“AAAAAAAAOOOAAAAAOOOAAAAAOOOAAAAAAAAA!!!”
I shocked into alertness. I must have drifted off for just a bit, but...
“What the hell?!”
“I thought it was appropriate,” responded Cap.
“Oh, I see. You Tarzan!”
“We Tarzan! She Jane,” said Cap, stabbing her finger toward both our feet.
“Are you sure the winch is a she?”
“How could the wench not be a she?”
“Oh ha ha, I see.”
“And a merry old wench was sheeee-”
“Cap, I think you’re losing it. I might have to relieve you of duty.”
“Oh what a relief it is, to be relieved... But, Joy, we’re going to be touching down shortly here.”
I looked down. Well, not really down but bergward. We still had some time. She was right though, we had to plan our landing.
So I said, “Right, how do we want to anchor ourselves here? We mass for two humans right now.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, Joy, while you were napping. I think you should climb up onto me.”
“Come again?”
“Look, we can be two separate bodies along this cable, in which case we both just take our chances and take the force of the landing on our own feet and legs, but then we have a chance of being very unlucky and both getting injured.”
“Or...”
“Or we can be one unit. You mass less than I do, and I have strong legs, so I think I can take the force of the landing for both of us. I’ll use the cold gas jets to make sure I’m oriented correctly to land on both feet, and I’ll have a punchy on both legs. That will double our chances of getting a locked grip on the ice, and give me the shock absorbers on both legs plus the suit’s rigidity. When we hit I’ll collapse as much as I can, and you can roll off me. That way there’s almost no chance of you getting hurt.”
“Unless I rip my suit on the ice, or bounce off into the sky!”
“We’re still tethered, so you won’t bounce far, but you’ll need to be as limp as possible. Plus, our suits are tough. We climb around on sharp ice all the time, and when was the last time you heard of a suit breach?”
“Ugh. I’m still not sure about this, Cap.”
“Would you rather have us both potentially injured, trying to limp our way to the oxygen, and not make it before we cut out, or would you rather have one of us in good shape for sure?”
I thought about it. “OK, I see your point. One of us can skim the surface if need be, but if we both get injured, we’re done for. I don’t think the Lariat will be waiting to pick us up where we touch down.”
“I’m sure it won’t. As the captain, I want them searching for the missing crew, the ones that don’t have oxy bottles aplenty waiting for them. I don’t want to lose anybody due to a screw-up, not if I can help it. I don’t want to lose you or me, for that matter, but I think we have one of the best chances right now of lasting the longest.”
“You’re not on the ship, Cap; you don’t have to go down with it.”
“I’ve got the strongest legs, and our best chance is if at least one of us can move about.”
“Aye aye.”
So we affixed punch anchors to both of her legs, and made sure all our equipment was secure. We unrolled our mutual tether so it would be loose. Then I clambered up onto Cap’s suit, wrapped my legs firmly around her torso, and my arms around her neck.
This is the closest we’ve ever been, I thought to myself. Strange though, I was rigid as a board. I mean the suits are stiff, but I think I was more uncomfortable than Cap. I knew she was probably not comfortable with this, even with the suits between us.
“Now you’re going to need to be as relaxed as possible when we hit. Pretend you’re drunk. I’m serious. You can’t be all rigid or you might actually get hurt.”
“I know, but it’s hard to relax. I know you’re not comfortable with this, either.”
“Are you kidding? I’m about to do the biggest Tarzan tether-walk landing of all time, with one of my best mates in my arms, and I’m completely comfortable.”
It’s hard to tell if somebody’s relaxed in a vac suit, but everything in Cap’s face said, “I’m relaxed, I’m fine.” I could even feel it to a degree.
Then Cap said, “Relax into me. Just relax into me.”
Then I could, and I did.
Copyright © 2022 by Rado Dyne
