familiarity. Maeve took that as further proof that they, evidently, all had no problems with their memories. She felt as though she should know all of them. There was sense of familiarity that she couldn’t explain otherwise. But no path made itself clear to her.
“That’s okay. We’re a little hazy ourselves.” The first woman spoke, a voice with implications of gentility and a hint of bluegrass. Her curly blond hair was wild and loose, hazel eyes full of mischief. She was not a very good liar. Maeve chose not to call her on it.
“Perhaps reintroductions would be in order.” A simple enough sounding task, Maeve knew, but imperative to further interaction as well. “I guess I’ll start. Maeve Howard.” Another exchange of glances, this time tempered with relief. What had they been worried about? It wouldn’t be like last time…wait, what? She frowned, unable to catch hold of the fleeting thought before it turned to vapor. Closing her eyes, she felt a shudder of disorientation, fought it down. Once she opened them again, it was to find herself being stared at again.
“Leif Christensen. But you knew that.” The ginger giant spoke up, that easy, disarming smile gracing his face.
“That, at least, is the reason that I’m still holding onto what little is left of my sanity. I would’ve had to have most of my brain removed not to know you.” His smile widened, though he did not show his teeth, nor did he speak up again. It was best to keep moving forward.
“Jemila Solomon.” This woman had a wistful smile, and a musical accent, which carried a note of homesickness in it. She had a long, narrow face, and smooth features, like a riverworn stone. Her beauty was of the kind that comforted and calmed; Maeve found herself staring at Jemila with that very sensation. Another voice broke into her reverie.
“Josh Yi.” Maeve felt an impulse to ask him which island of Hawaii he was from again, though she did not act upon it, and couldn’t explain it. He smiled as if he’d heard her thought.
“Grace Danner.” The blonde spoke up again. This time, in her voice Maeve heard rolls in the hay, and white lightning.
“Antonio Assunta” She’d had the pale guy pegged all wrong. It should have been a name like Heinrich, or Kristoff to come out of his mouth. He must be one of those northern Italians that no one could really explain.
A long silence filled the room.
“Well, this is awkward.”
۞
“Colonel, may I have a word?” Sa’andy was placid, unreadable.
“Of course.” He shook his head at her, amused. “What’s with the formality?”
“Oh, you know. Trying to behave professionally.” She knew her pronunciation of the last word always made him chuckle. A moment later, she stopped smiling, remembering what she had to tell him. “Can we talk in your office?”
“Naturalment.” They walked in together; he deliberately left the door open. The gossip mill needed no help from him. “What’s up?”
“Although you never said we ought, I started trying to trace the origins of this container as soon as we determined its purpose.” Tark made a face.
“I know, I should have asked you right off. I’m running a regular pirate operation as it is, though. Once anyone catches wind of what we’ve got, those folks are going to get turned into lab rats.”
“Obviously.” She sighed. “I do not question your intentions at all. However, as I have only been able to get just so far, it implies that if I look much further, someone will take notice.”
“You want me to try to bring in someone.”
“Just some means of penetrating records without sounding the general alarm would do.”
“Well…that I think we can manage from here.”
“Excellent.”
“Of course, I might get court-martialed in the end.”
“Pirates?”
“Pirates. You bet.”
۞
They tried to make small talk for a while, until it was obvious that Maeve needed to go back and rest. She tried to seem a bit worse off than she was, to be honest. Being around all of them, had proved to be more wearing than she’d anticipated. It was primarily that she’d spent all her time trying to get over that obstacle in her brain, to seek out the answers she knew must surely be there. In terms of effort, it was akin to climbing a never-ending rope.
The nurse pushed her back toward her room. The five left sitting around the room wore expressions of disappointment and unhappiness. None of them was sure what they had anticipated.
“It’s like we’re right back where we started. She isn’t any better.”
“But she was, before they herded us up and made us into freezies.”
“I suppose, but Leif, man, this complicates things.” Antonio was the most vocally dissatisfied, as usual.
“She does? Gimme a break. The fact that we’ve been gone for over two hundred years doesn’t strike you as more of a complication?”
“Well, as far as we know, our original mission may still exist.”
“Antonio, you are nuts.”
“Wouldn’t you rather have a purpose than admit we’re….”
“Dude, we are useless. Consider the reality of this. We’re behind in everything. It’s like being born a second time. We have no skills, no understanding of life in this time…I’d rather just go off and try to eke out a retirement.”
“They didn’t mean to do this to us. I cannot aceept that we were abandoned with no guidance.” Jemila was still the voice of reason. Josh sat back, his eyes closed, trying to stay out of it. Grace was crocheting a sweater, waiting for a moment to stick an oar in.
“We were never supposed to be stowed away on some far away moon, either. Yet, there we were.” Leif was giving himself a manicure, man style. Jemi’s mouth twisted as she tried not to watch.
“They didn’t have that capability when they put us under. I think we must have been moved.” She was tired of sitting. They all were.
“And the other two?” Josh watched Leif’s reaction carefully.
“They said it was Wallace and Ramirez.” Leif shrugged. “They have no leads on that.”
“You sound remarkably not unhappy about that.”
“I don’t not know what you mean by that.” Leif refused to meet Josh’s even gaze.
“She’ll notice, sooner or later, if you keep up the goo-goo eyes every time she comes in the room.” Grace batted her eyelashes to punctuate the point.
“Lock it up, Gracie. It’s none of your business.”
“Oh, okay. After ages of pissing and moaning about it, suddenly it’s nobody’s business.” She held up her hands in mock-defense. “Never saw a big guy so afraid of nothin’ before.”
“We are getting sidetracked, people.” Josh was the only one Leif never argued with; the others had learned to take the same cue. They never argued with him either.
“Well, what do we do, then?” Antonio knew what he wanted to do; go curl up in bed with as many books as he could, with a giant pizza by his side.
“The CO here has offered to keep us under wraps until we get that figured out. We should just keep getting ourselves back in fully working order, I think.”
“Oh, alright. Whatever. I still want pizza.” Antonio plodded back to his room. The girls headed back to Grace’s room, presumably to discuss everything that had just happened. Josh hung back, eyeing Leif from across the room.
“What is it?” Leif was resigned to hearing whatever Josh had to say. There was little other option.
“That’s your plan, then? Admit everything?”
“Not you, too.”
“Dude, you have to admit that coming at her with this may not be the best ever timing.”
“I already waited a long damn time.”
“Try longer.”
“Frick. Fine. I’ll give it a few more weeks.”
۞
Time continued to bleed away for Maeve, as she steadily improved, and put her whole focus into regaining strength. This desire had grown and intensified over another few weeks. She had moved past walking, an
d was secretly testing out jogging around her room whenever she was alone. Her regular routine of exercise was slowly coming back to mind. She was pushing the physical therapist to try things, surprising both of them in the process.
Finally, Tark visited her after getting a report that all of them were ready to leave medical care. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was going to her alone, rather than all of them. There was just something in the way she carried herself that drew him in.
“We have temporary housing for you.” He handed her a small bundle. “These are the keys, and we’ve put together information for you about the Nimitz, as well as some other topics you might find useful.”
“Like a brief history of ‘what the hell just happened?’” She looked at a device she was holding. It was somewhat reminiscent of the little tablet computers that had been everywhere in her day. In her day, jeez, listen to that. She sounded like an old lady.
“Something like that.” He chuckled a little. “Look, I know this has all been a little crazy. I don’t know how, but we’ll get you sorted out eventually.” He stood up to head back to his own duties. “Storms are dying down, finally. My XO ought to be back soon. I’d like it if you would have dinner with us once he’s here.” Maeve took a deep breath.
“Us?”
“Sorry, with me, my XO, and, um, my girlfriend, Sa’andy.” Maeve smiled what she hoped was an affirmation. He nodded and left her to sit and stare at the pile of keys and tablet thingies.
They were being discharged in time for lunch. The nurses gave them a lengthy list of places to try. They’d been given food cards (and a list of the places that accepted them), leaving her to wonder how the Colonel was still keeping them under the radar. She hoped he wouldn’t land in hot water over it.
Time to face the music.
She handed them all keys, out of some strange sense of duty, and became part of a quiet procession through halls, down flights of stairs, to the third deck. The third level was below, and not above. Life was wrong side up in space, apparently. It would all start to be knitted back together, she supposed. Only after it finished unraveling into a giant mess of yarn and fuzzy thoughts, though.
They found her room first. She scrutinized the door for a moment, before she stuck the key into its middle, feeling rather like she was poking someone's belly. This was reinforced when the door responded by chuckling. Then, it wrenched itself apart along an invisible seam in the middle. The halves swung inward, revealing a modestly sized living area.
Two other doors inside led separately to a bedroom and to a closet. A bath led off the bedroom. The decor was much more...natural than any of them had expected. Wood was used for the doors, and the counter, which separated the kitchenette from the sitting area, was stone. The cabinets and furniture were wooden as well. The rooms that they had been given clearly hadn’t been lived in before. There was a greeting waiting for them as soon as the lights were switched on. A message flashed up on a wall-mounted screen, along with a soothing voice, reminiscent of a flight attendant.
“Welcome to the class two military quartering. These rooms are designated for either transient lodging, or visiting dignitaries. These are not intended for permanent living, but may be used for that purpose with approved modifications. The woodwork you see is all reclaimed. There are...” Maeve stopped paying attention. She poked into every drawer, cabinet, and cubby. There was a white rabbit in there somewhere. She just had to find it, and follow it back through the looking glass.
“Do we all get these?” Grace padded silently around the room, the possibilities swirling in those changeable eyes.
"Well, I guess. They're economical, but comfortable, and at this point...free." Jemila nodded in agreement, remaining steadfast in unusual silence. Antonio drummed his fingers restlessly on the arm of his seat. In the corner, Josh and Grace moved in an impromptu sparring, and at alternate swings, narrowly avoided