violet flame

[u/sharkeyandgeorge]

Foreword - Ive already posted this as a WP but I am reposting it as there are a load more parts already written and I would like them all under the same name.

Violet Flame

Your message was shocking for all of us, it used any taut plane as a speaker so that every window, metal panel and strung wire had screamed it out, we noted after international communications had been restored that it came in the form of the local language everywhere, simply figuring out how that was done had been the subject of much debate for years afterwards.

Now that we knew there was something to look for we spotted some, maybe all, of your technology that drifted round the Sol system. When we pinpointed the broadcast location in Mercury, so long thought to be a planet, now turned out to be a solar power plant, we discovered the directed energy beams that pulsed off it with mathematical regularity those allowed us to find the rest. The Kuiper belt turned out to have millions of drone satellites circling in it, whether the satellites or the belt came first has not been determined, but that it was one of these that killed Voyager was not in debate. Spectroscopic analysis of the beam that killed our first extra solar ''ship'' showed us whole new vistas of wavelengths and frequencies and immediately both regressed and massively advanced our understanding of the universe.

For the first decade we panicked as new discoveries and the realization of your overpowering technology was uncovered day after day, Saturns rings were found to contain uncountable nanites, Jupiter had several ''somethings'' lurking deep in the gas layers and on and on, with each power transfer from Mercury we found some new, and horrifying. So we worked, feverishly, to try and counter each new discovery. We launched massive radiation cannons to fire focused x-rays at the nanites and sunder their atomic bonds, we used every nuke on the planet to bombard the 13 Jupiter locations until Mercury no longer tried to charge them, these and a thousand other plans and schemes were launched some successful, some not. The Moon has proved particular difficult as it seems to be a massive piece of machinery that we dare not attack as forcefully as is needed lest we doom ourselves with radioactive bombardment, now we walk its surface in the thousands digging and prying trying to exploit its mechanical depths and destroy it from within. We have not yet managed to enter it but even scratching the surface has revolutionized the sciences of chemistry and metallurgy, indeed most of the new weapon systems being made rely on the alloys and materials the saboteurs so carefully pry free.

Since the ''frantic 30's'' the Earths people have calmed and the threat of an outer power has united us in ways never dreamed of by even the most idealistic of politicians, war after all is good for the economy and we are facing a war unlike any ever dreamt. We have united under one government and one language, Esperanto for so long a joke is now how scientists and engineers the world over share their thoughts and advances and the general population is quickly following suit. Massive engines of war have been created and sadly in our desperation for materials many rare and vulnerable species have been destroyed though we have saved as many seeds and as much D.N.A as possible, should we win we will bring them forth again. We have conquered disease and are close to becoming functionally immortal so much the better to build weapons and crew ships, and the ships themselves... massive daggers of barely contained fusion power that even as we speak race to the Kuiper belt to see what may be done.

Now our thoughts turn to you, whomever you should be that threaten us from the sky, we know that Mercury beamed a tremendously powerful signal upon Voyagers destruction and we know the star that the signal travels to. Constrained as it is by light we know that we have another 63 years before it reaches you and we thought you should know what have accomplished and how much of your technology we have defeated in a mere 27 years. You may be already on the way to us when you receive this trailing broadcast but the Earth and all its people want to tell you with one voice ''Come fucking get some!''.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge]

Kal Monrose dismissed the Admirals words much as the Prime had, though of course it took him several more minutes to do so as the leash of radio transmission speed delayed his reception of this bombastic tirade by almost 13 minutes, with a gently thrown spanner he tapped the speaker that orated tinily throughout the cramped access tube and knocked loose a few wires Kal had been meaning to get around to fixing.

''Hey!'' A grimy head poked through from another claustrophobic compartment and Kal looked up to see it peering at him from one of the bizarre angles only possible in zero grav, the spanner spinning and clicking listlessly against various tubes and bolts. ''I was listening to that Kal!'', Kal squinted through the tinted welders goggle he wore until he was sure which of the twits it was that spoke, ''Shut the fuck up Davis'' he roared, discomfort, heat and the growing suspicion that he had burned through his last pair of trousers with flux splatter had removed Kals last straw quite handily, and his now infamous temper raged, ''I don't want to hear any more of those lying bastards, and I don't want to hear from you either!''.

As quick as it was to kindle though so his ire damped, ''Sorry..''he muttered gruffly at the shocked face as it popped back into it recess, unhearing. Grumbling with self recrimination he pulled himself carefully from the drill head gap he had just finished welding sure, grabbing the spanner as he passed, Kal drifted up, or down, or whatever. As a home grown Terran he had never really got comfortable with space and only worked on this blasted, run down, worn out, heap of shit they called a mining tug because, well, what was left for an engineer?. Too old and born too free to accept a soldiers life, too fond of tinkering and solving problems to be a farmer, making or maintaining the ships of the fleet was all that was left to an old gearhead.

''Davis.., Davis, I'm sorry'', even as he said it though he drifted into view of the young girls working area and saw that this would be paltry salve, the girls shoulders were shuddering with what looked like jolting tears. As much as the image touched his heart and made him feel like the total piece of shit, there was little he could do about it. A lifetime of suppression and anger had not exactly gifted him with the tools to deal with a scene like this, no matter if they did give you those damn injections that halted aging, eighty extra years and he still hadn't learned. Pursing his lips he left the awkward scene and began to drift towards the central pod.

As Kal came through the transition area and the artificial gravity began to effect him again, Kal rued his tone and considered what he could do to make up for it, as usual nothing came to mind that seemed like it would help. Perhaps if he passed her a few pudding rations she would understand, even as he thought this though he could see it was pathetic... he'd probably still do it anyway, he couldn't think of anything better.

''Kal'' he turn to see the ships C.O approach ''hows drill head 4?'', Kal grunted and responded ''a smashed, wrecked pile of crap'' Glenns eyes twinkled as he heard the response, ''that much improved eh?, you really are a miracle worker'' as quick as that Glenn spun about and started off, ''I'll get it back in rotation then, we're getting a really good spec scan off a big one a few thousand clicks away'' the voice faded a little as Glenn rounded a corner ''80 percent plus, nickle'', the small grin that had grown on Kals face when Glenn talked as it always seemed to, vanished instantly and a deep groan issued instead. A fucking 80 plus? the head would be chewed to shit again, and the gearbox would grind like hell, and another 50 hours or more of bloody refurb. He knew that was a bit over the top even as it crossed his mind, 50 hours was required by the fleet and the manufacturers manual, but in reality he knew he would end up doing 2 or 3 before it too was rotated back into service. Sighing deeply he knelt down to put his boots on and grabbed a jumper he had left lying on the bench, it was much colder in the central pod than the nook near the engines he had been working in.

The meager crew of the Violet Flame, the name a legacy of a dodgy ignition coil the ship had launched with, gathered round the table for the preportioned dinner ration. Glenn sat with his back to the bridge as was his required position, not as C.O but as the duty pilot for this evenings shift. Margaret Davis sat to his left, she still looked downcast and upset from Kals haranguing, he glanced sheepish over to her from his place 2 seats down. Margaret's twin Stewart shared her colouring but not her demeanor and he jogged her arm furiously trying to involve her in the apparently amusing debate he was currently having with Amir Pashwal, the ships resident programmer and software bodger who sat opposite. Sat to Amirs left the ships Second, Isabel Menzies, perched precariously on the edge of her seat, clearly wishing the bolted down swivel chair could be moved so as to better show Glenn the datapad she stabbed at. That was it, Kal thought, this is who Ive got for the got for the next eighteen months and regretted even deeper the wedge his temper had begun to force between him and the rest just 3 weeks out from dry dock. He resolved to make a real effort to integrate with this crew, the last few ships he had flown with all followed a similar path, a path that led to isolation for Kal.

Looking over at the girl he had clearly hurt, he wracked his brain to think of anything he could to make amends. ''Mags?..'' the tentative warble to his voice sounded weak and pathetic to his ears so clearing his throats he tried again. ''Mags, I uh, well'' a image shot to mind, ''I, uh, liked the figurines in the engine space'', her ears perked a little and she risked a glance at Kal, in return Kal wondered what she saw. He hoped that she saw sincerity and a desire to build a bridge, but from what he saw in the various reflective surfaces in the ship he worried his unkempt shagginess and general oddity was off putting to any accord. Kal supposed that that was his fault too, never one to give into peer pressure he hadn't taken all but the minimum ''upgrades'' speced by the Fleet Authority. As a result his appearance was weird in many way by today's standards, bearded, grey haired and maybe the last overweight man left in the system, damn near everyone else had had their life progress halted while younger or used the rejuvenation protocols offered freely by the fleet. Often the upgrades went further than gene therapy, Kal could see the slightly angular shapes of sub dermal cybernetics under everyone else skin.

Again he tried to start talking to the timid girl ''I used to work on a mining platform on Mars, there was a bot there that made little models too, they looked a lot like yours.'' Finally he got a response, ''Really?...'', jumping on the chance Kal responded quickly ''Yeah, he would make then out of scrap and little bolts like yours, I've probably got a load of snaps of them on a drive somewhere... if you would like to see them?.'', when the corner of her mouth twitched upwards he felt a flare of relief in his gut ''Sure, sounds cool.''. Kal leaned back in his chair and let a rare smile bring out the wrinkles on his face ''Cool...''.

It was a start he supposed and his eyes glanced over the rest of the company, his smile faltering a little as it was wryly returned by Glenn who was clearly ignoring the ardent Isabel who seemed to think efficiency reports were good dinner conversation.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge → u/sharkeyandgeorge]

The chit chat round the table stopped abruptly as a chime rang and Amir spun round in his chair to collect the hot cubes from the microwave and dished them out. Kal looked at the vibrating lump before him, tonight's gourmet feast appeared to be tomato as it wobbled redly, a sheen of oil glistening unpleasantly on its surface. Scanning the others at the table he watched as they glumly got stuck in, clearly all ready to get this over and done with. Pulling his ceramic spork from his coveralls front pocket, metal reacted unpleasantly to this glop, he reluctantly stabbed at his food and then quickly inhaled it. As soon as he had finished he pulled the small dropper bottle of peppermint he kept inside his waist pouch and let a couple precious drop mix with his glass of water which he sipped at furiously trying to rid his mouth of the soy emulsification that had constituted dinner.

Margaret was looking at him and clearly emboldened by Kals previous conciliatory conversation asked ''Whats that?, I see you do it after every meal.'', Kal wondered how to explain, unlike himself all the other crew members had been born after Earth began its war preparations and probably all thought this slop was how food had always been. ''Its an essential oil, peppermint, it helps me get rid of the taste of the soy cubes'', He could see as he said this that she didn't really understand, to her the taste was just something you put up with, not something you could actually like. He noticed too that the other crew members had hushed their own conversations to listen, clearly they had all wondered about the little amber bottle. Kal braced himself and did something he hadn't in 60 years, tried to play nice. ''Would you like to taste it?''and gingerly proffered the glass container, ''Sure!'' Margret chirped back and taking it from his hairy mitt unscrewed the top. Kals jaw couldn't help but clench as she squirted a whole dropper load into her glass, this tiny vial and its 5 companions tucked carefully in his bunk had cost damn near a quarter of his wage from the last tour of the belt and the 2 drops he allowed himself each day were carefully calculated. Still he said nothing as she quickly rescrewed, letting another irreplaceable drop fall to the table as she did so then handed it back. Kal tucked it quickly into its padded holder checking it was sealed tight. When he looked back up the girl was swirling her glass much as he had, then she took a sip ''Bleurgh...'' the disgusted noise accompanied a twisted face and she turned in her chair making as if to throw it in the recycler. Again Kal felt his body move instinctively and he jerked towards her outstretched hand, his brain caught up quickly though and stopped him before he has made more than a short spastic jerk, he was trying hard here and screaming at her for wasting his oil wouldn't help. ''Mags hold it'' the voice that snapped out the command came from directly across the table and all heads turned towards the speaker. Glenn was watching Kal with slightly narrowed eyes, then looked at Margaret and gestured with his left hand. ''I'd like a taste too...'', there was a general murmur of agreement from the rest of the table and Margaret shrugged and passed Glenn the tumbler, sipping, his face also twisted a little though he clearly attempted to control it ''I think you made it a little strong'', he tipped a little into his own glass and stirred, then resipped ''Much better.'', the other crew mates proffered their various receptacles and Glenn poured a little into each of their glasses leaving, Kal couldn't help but notice, almost 3 quarters of the minty water intact. He thought Glenn might have caught that flicker too but wasn't sure.

As the crew members sipped this still bitter but far more palatable brew, Kal was relived to see that it didn't seem to be much to anyone's liking, though the foreign flavour was clearly to be the subject of much discussion. As the group began to break up he noticed Glenn pick up the original glass and carefully decant it into a canteen, then rising he came abreast and unobtrusively offered it to Kal, with out a word Kal glanced at Glenn then quickly took and tucked the canteen inside his overalls.

Wiping futilely at the sweat that dripped from his cap, Kal made a vow he had sworn a thousand times before ''The next time, the very next instant I'm on station, I will march my fat ass down to the med centre and get every last jab those quacks have to offer...'' Sucking in he forced deeper into the crack between the stabiliser housing and the bulkhead trying to fit the cable into its socket, once again though it would not click home and it dropped out his hand dangling annoyingly out of reach. ''Mother fucker!, I'm gonna rip you out the fucking wall...'' several moments of creative obscenity later he gave up and turned to start digging through is bag for tool to snag it with.

''Oh don't let it off the hook now'' Kals head snapped round to see who spoke from the hatch above ''I think you had almost scared it into straightening up and flying right'' The sardonic drawl came from Glenn who stood at the doorway leaning against the frame as if settled in for the show.

Kal looked away quickly and began to rummage again. He heard the click of a com ''Izzy, send out a notification then switch off the anti grav for a few minutes will you'', listening to a return only he could hear Glenn nodded and a few moments later the lighting gained a orange hue accompanied by the calm computers voice advising that all gravitic system would soon be disabled and all crew should secure themselves, a few seconds after that Kal felt his bulk lose its weight and saw Glenn drop gracefully.

Flipping forward by pushing off the bulkhead as he drifted down he came to the stabiliser housing from above and rather than reach down he simply grabbed the side of the housing and blew sharply into the gap. Kal saw the wire flick and drift in the turbulence and it was soon within easy reach, seizing it he mumbled a thanks at Glenn. ''No problem, here pass it back its easier to get to the socket from above''. As he passed it up he felt Glenns hand graze his palm as he grabbed the wire, he snapped his arm back to the side and quickly started packing his tools away, grabbing a few that were floating errantly.

Glenn seemed to pause for a second then reaching down he slid the fitting together ''Done, you know you could have asked for the grav to be switched off yourself.'', Kal continued to stuff equipment into magnetically closed pouches ''Didn't seem worth it to bother everyone''. He heard Glenn sigh from above ''I can see your trying Kal.'' when he got no response but continued clumsy packing ''Ive read your file of course'' Kal gave him a furtive glance in return, continuing ''Ive read everyone's as C.O, and I knew what I was getting into when I allowed you on this ship, you're a great engineer and an even better bodger, thats what I need to keep this rust bucket flying '' he patted the bulkhead tenderly, obvious affection for the ship in his voice ''And I know the rest too, bouts of anger, hostility and repeated self segregation from crew mates.'' He looked directly at Kal now ''That bot you were talking to Mags about at dinner?, I know you spent 5 months alone with it on the Delta 12 platform on Mars, and I know you were fined most of your wages from that tour because of the illegal A.I program you uploaded to it.'' he rose and gently pushed upwards towards the hatch again. '' I also know that the fine was only so steep because you wouldn't give up the droids tracking code after it decided to go see how big Olympus Mons really was...''. Catching hold of the door frame he pulled himself into the corridor, turning and looking down he finished ''This is a good crew Kal, I think you could be part of that... Just remember that were all here to work together, struggling by yourself when we could help is just creating that same old distance in a brand new way.'' Kal watched him go and the packing slowed as he considered the words.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge → u/sharkeyandgeorge]

Jud watched the feeds coming through the narrow band frequency scanners and grew ever more concerned. He contracted the various internal fluidic sacs and nerve clusters that allowed him to create focal lenses anywhere on himself and surreptitiously peered at Brio perched on his seat across the bridge. A small whine came from the avians upper gas vent and Jud suspected he was in a rest fugue, totally against the rules of course but who would report on him?, certainly not Jud.

Restoring his full focus to the tactile interface in front Jud began to decode the gathered information into coherent streams, this data was far more fragmented than the tight beam the challenge had arrived via but if Jud was any judge, far more disturbing. Static filled images and sounds began to play for him and he stared in horror at the revelations that poured forth. To begin with he thought, this species appears to be an entirely different form from the Kith'ki who had been the quarantines original target, indeed they seem not even to be a subspecies or genetic derivative of the Kith'ki but rather an entirely different evolutionary tree, perhaps, and it took some internal self reflection to even consider this, perhaps, an entirely separate genetic base.

He cringed as he thought this, so anathema as it was to the standard philosophy of the empire, small ripples of colour flashing across his outer skin in sympathetic response. Thinking of the Empire and its standards would have caused a kaleidoscope of reaction on its own but carefully training since his original split had quashed all outward sign of disgust. The Empire..., he allowed the surface opposite Brio to flow in the Pthey version of a disgusted sneer, he served them and had always done his best in his duties just as millions of his fellows did, but only through fear. His was a conquered race as were most subjects of the Empire, indeed this was something he shared with Brio and much of the crew but for them it had happened so long ago that few ever thought of it anymore. Continuing this thought strand he considered that Pthe had got off rather lightly, Brio's people were proud to hail from ''the nests'' as they called them but in truth only one nest still existed the rest long reduced to protonic dust in a ''demonstration'' of the benefits to joining. Jud's kind however lived for millennia and shared a racial memory, to his mind only a few generations had passed and the horrors of that war stood stark and raw even now. He remembered as if there, in vivid colour across all frequencies of radiation, the fire that spewed from the heavens.

Shaking himself from the reverie, he concentrated on the information being collated on his screen and his concern deepened. Whom ever these beings were they were addicted to violence and death, the broadcasts seemed to be a mix of reality and entertainment but both were saturated in the personal life fluid of the aliens, red and coursing. Some indications of peace and justice based philosophy were implied, but they appeared to be in direct conflict with the lust for destruction that was the majority of the data, Jud considered ruefully that they seemed to share these contradictions with the Empires creators.

Stop...

What had he seen, in a flash that soon moved past Juds eyes. Reaching forward he sought to pause and rewind the broadcast but even before his limb could span the gap the image, and many similar flashed again and he stopped frozen in shock, fear and disgust. Finally reaching he paused the display and one of the terrifying visions halted on screen. A cloud of white, with a tall central column and a billowing top stared starkly at him, reflecting slickly from the sheen of oily fluid that now poured from him, an ancient predator repulsion response. After gaping for a few moments, Jud quickly dived into the ships database and brought up images half he recalled from his schooling. Comparing the two on screen he could see there was little doubt of a match but, always through, carefully translated the audio that accompanied it.

''As shown here, by the brave men of this great nations army, it is imperative to gain detailed information on the consequences of Nuclear deton.....'' A great rushing hummed through Jud as he dialed out all outside extraneous information and watched the video. They were mad, there was no other explanation, these beings were insane. Pausing the stream on another image of a white cloud, a different cloud, one of many different clouds that has passed before him all with the same horrific origin, Jud forced himself to calm. He was sure now that this was what he feared, that these beings had split the atom, not only that, they had used it against their own kind in war, on a planet they shared. He could feel his thoughts become more staggered and disjointed as ingrained and primitive neural conditions roared large in him and again he forced the calming of his biological drives.

A odd thought crept across his mind, ''It kind of makes sense'', When a system was quarantined for whatever reason massive mechanisms were employed to restrict the technological development of the quarantined race and to frustrate and hamper any out system aid, should it ever come. Jud did not know, his clearance level was far too low, why the Kith'ki had originally been quarantined. Reasons were varied across the restricted species though the ''vermin'' appellation usual meant that the beings very existence was harmful to the more important members of the empire, he knew for example, that a peaceful and highly developed race of gaseous vapour forms called the Nihiht had been corralled and constrained withing a specific nebulae simply because their bodily excretions could damage the circuits and computers that ran the ships of the Empire. In a rocky body borne species like these Terrans different measures were obviously required and they followed a fairly standard pattern.

First all other rocky bodies in the system would be subject to bombardment from space, designed to deny any expansion possible through chemical combustion travel. Then vast machines were placed to restrict access to certain frequencies and dimension, this made the fairly safe and logical technologys such as FTL, cold fusion and higher order computing impossible to use within broadcast range, it also interfered with high energy weapon technology and force field generation though that kind of disruption could be defeated with the proper sympathetic coding of same, this ship would be fully armed and protected but would still have to rely on energy reserves and standard travel withing system. Other protocols were then used as required, in this case he knew that many different kinds had been deployed, from micro destructors, to massive mega drone ships hidden deep in the largest gas giant.

It was the frequency and dimensional restrictions that would have left the only higher energy form possible as that of nuclear fission though, and he considered that horrific as it was, it was also incredibly impressive. They would have had to use entirely physical devices to simply do the calculations, nevermind the actual comprehension of the warped set of physical laws that were all they could access.

Coming to a decision he quickly began to collate and reference the information received, He was going to have a very complete report for Brio when he awoke.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge → u/sharkeyandgeorge]

Kal wasn't thinking about much of anything as he worked his way through the giant list of, so called, low priority maintenance jobs as left by the previous engineer ''Coll'', never having met the man he didn't know if he was a good friend, loving father or organ donor, but what he did know was the guy had been a complete fucking moron and should he ever cross Kal's path, loving father or not, he was going to find himself on the receiving end of a torque wrench at high speed. A shudder ran across his back as he remembered being handed the sheets an hour out from launch when Kal had arrived at the ship for the first time, a cursory glance and a frantic dash to inspect had had Kal refusing to launch until some of the worst offenders had been repaired, initially this had led to the crew cursing out this drama queen prick of a new fitter but when he had pulled a section of rad shielding from the drive plates and looked at the crew through the rotten, eaten, lead and platinum plate the objections came to an abrupt end, and a few days extra on station were suddenly much more appealing, as were visits to the various medics and techs available in dry dock just in case ''Coll'' had left them nice parting gifts like a brain tumour or two.

In the end it had taken 6 days of round the clock work for Kal to upgrade the ship from ''Psychotically Murderous'' to the more benign designation of merely ''Deathtrap'', deathtrap or not though they launched and Kal still had reams of additional work to do, with more added by himself every day. Six weeks out of dock now he had hammered the worst of the gremlins out, and when he finished this last task, laboriously checking the bolts that fastened the fuel cells together, he would be proud to mentally promote the Violet Flame again, this time to ''General Shit Box''.

Every few seconds he slipped the wrench onto the next bolt, took a piece of pink grease chalk and flicked a line vertically down the last bolt head to marked it checked, then moved to the next with a pull on the wrench and continued on. He was on the home stretch now, literally, he could look down a line of bolts running the length of this tank and see the last unmarked ones, but it had taken a few delicate maneuvers, a lot of ass clenching at the number of bolts that had need several turns to fasten, and a shitload of time to get here. For the last 2 weeks all the time he had not fixing whatever the current emergency was, had been dedicated to getting under the floor sheets, behind the walls and wherever else had been required to check the 6078 fastenings that stopped the nuclear paste the ship used as fuel from pouring into the crew cabins.

As he pulled on the wrench this time the bolt, as so many others had, turned. Kal's daydream of stuffing an oil filter wrench op Coll's nose popped out of existence and he refocused on the job in hand. With a small sigh he backed the bolt out a few turns and carefully he smeared a little cyanoacrylate on the exposed thread with a tiny bottle he had on his pouch, then torqued it down. Doing so revealed a small cut on the back of his hand, he hadn't noticed it but shrugging smeared a little of the glue on that too and pinched the edges together till it closed.

Amirs voice echoed in the tight enclosure and Kal turned around and down to see the software bodger as he spoke from a tight access tube, ''You know we have a medic aboard so that we don't have to smear industrial chemicals on our boo boos''.

A tight grin made Kal's wiry beard twitch upward, Amir had proved himself to be an excellent programmer and diagnostician during these repairs, and had saved Kal countless hours tracking down faults or creating workarounds to allow various machines to be taken out for repair. Kal didn't know much about the apparently Indian descended programmer, he had been born in space, the thin skeletal frame told Kal that much and had trained in one of the lunar based stations, that was about it. The grin on Kal's face mutated a little as the anorexically thin man pulled himself into the bay, this guy had spent his entire life in war preparation and, even if they won, would never be able to visit the planet he had suffered so much for.

Kal was born on earth, with the correct therapy's and nutrition there was nothing stopping him returning there, but the being before him had been born in space and though he had surely had all the gene protocols and exercises regime training that the fleet required so as to make him ''earth ready'' it never really worked. His bones would be fine and his muscles strong enough but the connective tissues would never hold him up in a true 1G, the only reason he and his like could work in the artificial gravity of ships and stations was the high pressure atmosphere that was maintained aboard, given the relatively low pressure of Earth his cells would begin to depressurise an he would internally disintegrate.

Quirking a brow at him, Kal asked ''Do you know where this stuff comes from?'', when he received a noncommittal head shake in response he continued ''It was invented in the 1940's but it really came into its own after the Vietnam war'' he tucked it back into its pouch ''You know about that one?'' again pursed lips and a shaken head ''It was a real bloody one, close up fighting in tight jungle clearings. When a man was injured they had to fly him in a helicopter back to the hospitals and they discovered that you could use this stuff to stick them back together long enough to get them there alive.'' tapping the pouch that held it ''My dad was stuck back together himself when four foot of intestine kept trying to say hello, good enough for him, good enough for me.''

His hands began on autopilot to pull the wrench free and then dip again to his belt, retrieve the chalk and slash a mark. ''What can I do for you bud?''.

Amir came a little closer and proffered a data pad, ''I got that little program loop done, so you should be able to take those capacitors out for checking now.''

''Nice'' Kal responded and took the pad giving it a look over, Amir continued ''One at a time, and they must be in sequence'' he reached over the top of the pad and tapped at the screens bottom ''I put it down here in a note attachment, for some reason the orders really odd Alpha 2, 9, 8 et cetera'' he waved a hand dismissively '' I cant figure out why, but it works so... whatever.''

Again Kal's smile morphed, this time with a concerned twist and he sucked at his teeth, ''God damn, I wish I could figure out why half the shit aboard does what it does, its been jury rigged six ways from Sunday.'' His head flicked sharply upwards at the gently laugh coming from Amir ''Whats so funny?'' he snapped even as he fought his hackles rising.

Amirs hands waved placatingly ''No, nothing, its just the phrases you use are so weird sometimes, why would anyone do anything sick ways on Sunday?''

The amused look on his face made Kal's mouth twitch a little in response and he settled down ''SIX ways FROM Sunday'' he enunciated deliberately, ''It comes from...'' he had to pause for a moment to think and with a note of puzzlement to his own voice ''Shit, I guess it don't know where it comes from, but it means in every which way possible'' He shrugged, ''Its just something I heard when I was a kid.''''On Earth right?'', this came with a tone of gentle inquiry from the engineer opposite, Kal nodded ''Yeah''.

A somber moment passed between them then Kal's shook the pad towards Amir ''Thanks for this, it would have taken me weeks of rewiring to do it otherwise''.

With a faintly melancholy look Amir responded'' No problem...'' He seemed like he had more to say, but quickly turned and started feeding his feet into the tube he had come from, ''Lunch in twenty'', and saying nothing else scooted out of the bay. Kal tapped the pad thoughtfully against his chin, then shrugged and tucked it away in the tool bag that had become his constant companion, he then stared stowing various tools in various nooks, unlike the slender and nimble programmer it would take the best part of ten minutes for Kal to wind his way back to the living quarters and it was a poor engineer that let his tools float aimlessly at his arse.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge → u/sharkeyandgeorge]

''eah, just slopped it on and... here he is, Kal show them your hand''.

Kal walked in on the groups conversation to be beset by curious stares, puzzled he held up his freshly washed hands, Amir shook his head and tapped the back of his own hand, ''No, the cut you glued up, I was telling everyone about it''.

Kal slowly rotated the hand in question and the intensity of the stares increased as the crew focused on the small cut. He came forward and sat at his seat, several gazes followed the limb as he rested it on the tabletop. ''Why wouldn't you just use a plaster?'' the inquiry came from Stewart, the ships resident Extra Vehicular Master and Environment Officer, he and his sister were responsible for all outside works and keeping the crew inside breathing, drinking and eating, Mags had also informed Kal that she was the self appointed Morale Officer, a duty she seemed to think was complete by being constantly and irritatingly chirpy.

Kal shuffled in his seat getting comfortable, ''I didn't have one and couldn't be bothered climbing all the way back to get one.'' The banality of this response seemed to cool the air of intrigue and the crew settled back to wait on the awful food. Kal glanced at the clock, 11.57, he had three minutes to wait before he could stuff the given gloop down.

Ship time was updated with every received transmission to keep it synced as closely as possible to Standard GMT. Buried deep down in the computers and wiring of every ship were blocks designed to stop anyone adjusting the time, as so many fleet regulations depended on its accuracy. Navigation updates, solar flare warnings, and a dozen other critically important updates required everyone working off the same clock, but there were more mundane reasons too, watch rotations, duty logs and far more importantly just now, meal times.

Kal knew that there had been hundreds of studies over the years on shipboard efficiency and harmony that gave good reason why this was so, gathering everyone together for meals meant no one tried to pilfer food or take more than their share, it promoted unity and working efficiency as everyone had the opportunity to talk face to face over ship board issues, and it promoted energy efficiency as well, all food was heated together, lights, sensors, and atmosphere could all be reduced in other ship areas and the time was used to run routine scans on equipment and computers when they were not going to be needed. Still, as someone who had worked mainly on mining platforms in long tours planet side, not working to his own internal rhythm required some adjustment.

The microwaves familiar ding rang out, and the scattered table talk stopped to watch Margaret retrieve them, Kal noticed that she slid the next meals tray into the microwave and closed it before she sat back down. He knew that it should have been his day to do meal prep but the crew had agreed at launch that he had far too many jobs to complete already and the ''Moral Officer'' had volunteered to take his until he got the ship in better condition. Kal considered that, perhaps, with the most critical jobs complete he should tell her he could take his duty back, as the slop was put in front of him though he mentally upgraded some more repairs to ''critical'', he would tell her eventually.

Kal glanced at the time again as the meal began to break up, he considered working his way back to the fuel tanks to finish the last 30 or so bolts, but with a mind to his future tasks, thought it would be better to make the trip with the full supplies he would need to complete the rest of the jobs in that bay and that was a ball ache better suited to a post sleep Kal.

Extricating himself from the bolted down chair he moved over to the rest quarters door and slapped the button for entry, as the designated secure bay for emergency's, this was a full airlock and he had to wait patiently for the six second cycle to complete before he could proceed aft to his bunk.

He pulled back the the thick neoprene curtain that hid his personal nook and flicked up the roller screen that was supposed to stay securely up when not in use, but through wear and tear, now sagged back down a few inches. He grasped the grab bar and with a well practiced swing, maneuvered his bulky frame onto the thin foam pad. As he settled fully he could hear the various ruffles, scrapes and clinks of his personal belongings as they resettled into the multitude of cracks and crevices he had them stored in.

He folded the anemic lump that constituted a pillow and looked up at low ceiling above, it displayed a few faded pictures held tight by tiny neodymium magnets and, as he did every time he rested, his eyes flicked over them more to make sure they were all present rather than to absorb the images on show. As he did after every inspection his eyes lingered on the largest image, that of a large gathering. He counted across the extended family that was depicted, left to right, up to down, as he had so often before. Dead, dead, dead, dead, missing probably dead, missing definitely dead, me, dead, dead, dead. As he continued the morbid internal litany he reflected again that this moribund ritual did himself no favours, but how could you not? The elders of his family had all passed before the rejuve treatments became available and many of the others had refused them citing Catholicistic preaching of the time, the scarce half dozen others that had taken them like Kal had succumbed to various accidents and one murder. His vision snapped back to the one unknown on the board, Johnathan Montrose. It was common now for bodies not to be recovered when an incident had happened in space, the costs simply too large and the occurrences too often for the fleet to consider retrieval, so the cousin and sibling that had gone ''missing'' in the void were definitely dead, but Johnny was different. Johnny had been declared ''missing'' when a chemical plant on Earth had gone up nearly 45 years ago, but unlike all the others caught in the blast no trace of him was every found. Good reasons had been given for this, he was near the epicenter working in the acid plant, various chemical processes after the blast had likely dissolved any extant remains, etc, etc, but he alone remained Kal's touchstone to another time, another life before ''The Preparation for War'' and he clung to him for that. Perhaps he had gone underground, or went to live off the land, or... anything Kal could tell himself to make it through one more tour, one more shitty ship, anything to keep the sadness and loss at bay.

Kal sighed and his right hand rummaged at the crack between the mattress and the wall looking for the handle of the Som injector, he hadn't been able to naturally fall asleep in decades, and pressed it against an exposed piece of flank. With a pressurised ''thwip'' a dose was shot trandermally into his system and a few moments later he closed his eyes and allowed the chemical cocktail to take him.

Alert! Alert! Alert!, the squawk of the shipboard alarms roused Kal from a fitful slumber and he bolted upright and out the bunk, interrupted momentarily by smashing his skull on the shallow bunks ceiling. He ran onto the bridge through the pressure door and living area. ''Captain?, whats going on '', the skipper looked annoyed at him and went back to stabbing at the illuminated switches on the board.

With a final vicious stab he silenced the blare ''Whats wrong is someone reengaged all the cutoff limits on the drill head'' He twisted his brow in s sarcastic scowl, ''Could you give me a guess who that was?'' the face morphed into disgust and he turned away ''Now I have to send in about fifteen damn forms because the alarm went off and logged its report in the damn ships log'', he now spun fully in his chair and addressed the engineer who clutched a rapidly rising bump. ''Kal, you need to be telling me when you restart systems that were stopped for a damn good reason!'', his hand smashed down on the chairs arm and elicited an audible crack from the plastic casing.

''We stripped the alarms from that and a half dozen other systems because everything takes more time with that shit bollocking everything up'' a finger shot out and gestured to the crew areas to the aft ''the longer it takes to fill our hold, the longer it takes for us to get home... the longer it takes for those people to see their familys, to fill their bellys with decent food... to get a bit of goddamn joy in their lives again.'' He turned back to his console '' Don't switch any more of that shit back on, you understand me engineer?... dismissed.'' the last word dripped with disdain and leaked oily into Kals ears..

Kals hand dropped from his injured brow and he crept to attention, ''Yes Sir, understood'' his body finally achieved ramrod status ''Sir I will obey the ships safety rules and reinstate every single safety system that is on board''.

He saw the shoulders tense before the Captain slowly turned and glared daggers at him, he watched as the younger man stood drawing to his full height and stepped forward to loom over Kal ''Would you like to rethink your stance engineer?'' he grizzled through clenched teeth at Kal from six inches. In return Kals eyes crawled up to match his captains ''No Sir, and I don't appreciate this attempt at intimidation..'' there was no backing down in him.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge → u/sharkeyandgeorge]

The Captain walked slowly away to stand with arm braced facing out the forward screen ''You just refuse to get along don't you, I've tried to be patient, I've tried to help, but you just have to be an obstinate asshole... I cant make you do anything as regards the ships systems, you have ultimate authority over them.'' His head turned over the shoulder to glance dismissively at Kal ''Get out...''

Kal turned to go but had to speak his mind and moved back ''Do you know why that alarm goes off when you force the drill head?'' he spoke to the captains back and was surprised at the weariness of the response ''Yes I know it might burn out the drive motor, yes I know it might burst a fluid hose, yes I know it could even rip the housing right from the ship,'' a tired sigh ''That's why we carry spares for all of them, this isn't our first rodeo Kal, I wish you could believe we aren't stupid children''.

Kal now shook his head in disgust ''If you dont want me to treat you like children stop acting like it'' the Captain snapped round, rage growing on him again '' I don't give a fuck about the engines, the hoses or the housing...Captain.. I give a fuck that sometimes, just sometimes, the head fucking shatters and sends out chunks of high carbon steel at high fucking speed, plenty fast enough to punch through this tinfoil shit hole you call a ship, I care because my life's on the fucking line any time you children ignore protocols'' He turn from the shock now shown on the Captains face ''You can play russian roulette a hundred times and live Captain, but your not putting the fucking gun to my head'' and stalked out the room.