Dutch was the first one to pull herself together and begin
busying herself with the practicalities of learning to operate the space ship.
There was no point in trying to pursue her previous conversation with Sweet
Mary; that would have to wait. She had more urgent matters to attend to. Rose
too was silent though she dearly would have liked to discuss their situation
with someone; where exactly they were, and were they going to survive? But
failing that she turned her attention to Righteous who was even quieter than
usual if such a thing were possible.
“What do you say, Righteous? Sh…….” She started,
forgetting about the time delayed sounds and stumbled over her words. She
waited. “Shall you and I…………………… explore the ship?”
Righteous just sat like a dumb mute, unseeing, unhearing,
uncaring. Rose didn’t like the look of whatever he was sinking into. She
herself didn’t feel too hot at the moment but Dutch and Officer Angelo were too
busy to help or even notice so she knew it was up to her. As gently as she
could she put her hand under Righteous’ arm and bit by bit encouraged him to
stand up.
“Would you like to…………………….come with us?” she said to
Sweet Mary who also looked a bit despondent.
But Sweet Mary didn’t feel like company at the moment so
she just shook her head. She also wanted stay out of Dutch’s way as much as
possible so as not to upset her. She could see she had a lot on her mind, and a
lot of responsibility on her shoulders and she knew that if she hung around on
the flight deck it would only be a matter of time before Dutch snapped at her
again. So once Rose had managed to steer Righteous through the airlock and
disappear down the corridor she made her way to the rear of the flight deck and
found a door marked ‘Galley’. Not the best place for her to hang around in,
because she could feel she was just in the mood for some comfort eating, which
she also knew would bring her no comfort at all when the pounds started piling
on. But she couldn’t resist.
Dutch in the meantime sat at the console eating her nails
to the quick and growling like a hungry bear.
“Soup,” said Sweet Mary, waiting for the retarded sound of
her voice to come and proffering the steaming plates to Angelo and Dutch who
were hovering over the flight desk. In her attempt not to stuff her face with
biscuits and chocolates, of which there was a ten year supply, she had decided
to make everyone some hot supper in the hope that it would bring an air of
homely normality to this weird position they were all in. While she waited for
them to notice her she glanced at Officer Angelo. He was sitting next to Dutch,
trawling through some computer readouts. He was about forty five she reckoned,
short with dark hair and a prominent nose on a kindly but unsmiling face. He
was a good looking man though, but not the kind she’d expect to see as a
client. He was too…..serious. Not that he made her feel dirty or anything, he
was too nice for that.
“There,” said Dutch, pointing for Sweet Mary to leave the
soup on the console next to her without even glancing at her, her eyes riveted
to the readout screens. Because of the audio time delay, they had to resort to
basic gestures and cave-man talk, so there was a lot of pointing and dropping
of prepositions and conjunctions. Not only that but all sounds were delayed in time: footsteps, doors closing,
everything. Everything was on a time delay. Sweet Mary put the plates on the
console and waited for the ‘clunk’ to come.
“Found………anything yet?” Dutch asked Officer Angelo.
“Nothing,” he said, holding up his empty hands.
“Keep trying,” she said with a scowl. “Try the ultraviolet
sensors.” She waited between phrases for them to sound. Officer Angelo clicked
and clacked out of time at the keypad buttons.
“No……...nothing works,” he said, sinking back into his
seat with a resigned sigh. Then he noticed the soup. “Thanks,” he said to Sweet
Mary, and gave her a brief but genuine smile. She gave a small smile back; but
the person she really wanted a smile from sat hunched over the instruction
manual like some mad scientist doing a doomsday experiment. She stared at
Dutch’s back for a moment, then turned and left the flight deck. She couldn’t
really blame her for ignoring her, but still, she couldn’t help feeling a
little bit aggrieved. She needed to fill this empty feeling inside, and in an
effort to avoid the galley, she decided to go look for Rose and Righteous
Alchemy.
Rose might not know how the flight-controls worked, but
she had travelled so often on these types of spacecraft that she was familiar
with almost every aspect of them. She knew how all the appliances, switches,
locks, heating systems, and especially the sanitation cubicles, worked.
Religious Alchemy on the other hand, having never been on any kind of spaceship
or hotel or house even, had absolutely no idea how all the mechanicals and
electricals worked, and Rose’s mothering instinct had kicked in big time. With
all the fussiness of a clucking mother hen, she set about accustomising him to
one of the cabins where she thought he might be comfortable. She guided his
hands here and there so that he could build up a mental picture of the room.
With infinite patience and kindness, she showed and explained in short
sentences to him where things were, how to clean himself in the Sani, how to
strap himself in the G-seat, and where the emergency call button was. She was
in seventh heaven. Being needed was just what the doctor ordered. She chatted
away good-naturedly about anything her mind came across. So absorbed was she in
her self-appointed task that she only noticed Sweet Mary standing in the
doorway after she’d been there for about ten minutes. It had taken her nearly
twenty minutes to find them because she too was unfamiliar with the way the
doors worked and the layout of a spaceship. There did seem to be an inordinate
amount of equipment cupboards on board though.
“Hi,” she said with a little wave of her hand when Rose finally
looked up.
“Oh, come in dear,” said Rose, and bustled over to grab
Sweet Mary’s hand and lead her into the room.
“Why don’t you sit down here? I was just showing……..” said
Rose, getting tangled up in the too-long sentence again and everyone tittered.
“I keep………..forgetting,” she said, leaving a proper pause between words.
“How are you……feeling,”
asked Rose, giving her a big motherly hug and making her feel welcome. She was
glad she’d arrived. Righteous’ silence was starting to weigh her down. She was
starting to feel very alone in her task of being the life and soul of the
party.
“Alright,” said Sweet Mary, nearly moved to tears by this
affectionate gesture.
“It’s going to be……..alright you know,” said Rose. “Isn’t
it……….Righteous?” She patted him on the shoulder. “He should know,” she said
with a hopeful little smile.
Righteous vaguely heard the question and tried to look
into the future: but all he could see was the approaching Doom…burning blackly
like a cosmic funeral pyre.
And they were heading straight into it.
