Redux - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Zach slumped in his seat, sleep begging for him to succumb to it. But there was a crew meeting after breakfast and his stomach begged for the warm food in front of him. In front of him Torres was battling the same fatigue and the smaller man held his head in one hand. Zach moved his foot underneath the table and nudged Torres’ leg. He shifted his eyes to him with blurred concentration. “Chin up sparky.”
         Torres frowned and straightened his back. He said, “I just want to get in bed.”
         “Join the club.”
         Eliot took a seat next to Torres and said, “Soon you can sleep for however long you wish.”
         Torres snorted, “I wouldn’t count on it.”
         Eliot frowned and Zach ducked his eyes. Their discovery last night would have to be reported which meant that they would have to investigate simply because they were the ones who found it. “Rules and regulations,” Zach said.
         Eliot sighed and Zach lifted his eyes to see the man’s shoulders slump, “I hate the rules.”
         “Don’t we all,” Torres said.
         Over Eliot’s shoulder Zach watched as Nelson and McCallister exchanged a few words. Hunter sat down opposite Nelson and the two men slowed their talking. He shook his head and focused back on his food as the Captain and Rhodes stepped into the room. There was something going on between them, he could tell from the quiet whispers they shared with one another before they grabbed some food from Garrison.
         Rhodes took a seat at the head of his table whilst the Captain remained standing just by Zach’s side. He lifted his eyes and watched her watch everybody else until silence settled itself in the room. “I don’t want anybody going anywhere once breakfast is over. There’s a few things we need to discuss.”
         There was an awkward shuffle of bodies and Zach knew that those that were ignorant to any sense of trouble, knew now that something was going on.
         Hunter spoke up, “Do not tell me that Command fucked us over.”
         “Hunter,” the Captain started, “eat your food. Then we’ll talk.”
         She sat down and Zach darted his eyes to Hunter, wondering when she would speak again. His eyes moved back to the Captain who kept her head down and her eyes on her food. He wasn’t disappointed when Hunter said, “Captain, I’d rather know now whether or not we’re fucked. Please.”
         That was a new one. He turned raised brows to the Captain and could see the muscles in her face working to keep itself clean of any expression. Hunter never said please. The silence was heavy.
         “Hunter,” she said after several seconds, “go grab Soko from the bridge. Then we’ll talk.” The silence didn’t leave, only getting heavier as they waited for Hunter and Soko to return. Zach dragged his eyes across the room to see McCallister, Rhodes and Torres still spooning at their breakfast. Everybody else looked awkwardly around the room, desperate to glean any answers from anybody.
         The two women returned and Soko took the offered bowl of food from Garrison before she sat down across from McCallister. Garrison sat himself at the head of that table Zach watched Hunter sit down, her eyes fixed on the Captain. It was a few more seconds before the Captain stood, abandoned her food and moved to stand just in front of the doorway to the bridge.
         “As you all know we were due to go home today. Yes, we’re not going today.”
         “Fuck’s sake,” Hunter muttered loud enough for everybody to hear.
         The Captain ignored her as she carried on, “Command acknowledge that it is unfair to ask us to sacrifice our shore leave. However, they’ve offered us an additional two weeks leave for just a couple days’ worth of work.”
Zach nodded his head, the corners of his mouth pulled down into a slight frown. “Not bad,” he muttered.
         “What’s the catch?” Nelson spoke up.
         There was a pause in the Captain’s words before she spoke. Zach noticed but he wasn’t sure who else did. He didn’t like that pause, it said too much. “The only catch is that we’re taking part in a training exercise to test out a new combat system. Our skills as a team will be put to the test and I want you all to remember that we get through this, we get ourselves fourteen weeks of leave.”
         “I call Bullshit with a capital b,” Hunter said.
         Zach glanced at the dark haired woman. He didn’t like the sound of it either, and that was without the mention of glitches.
         The Captain held a look of calmness to her features as she gave Hunter a look. “Orders are orders Hunter.” She took a breath and addressed the entire room once more, “Now, we’ve been told to use crowd suppression rounds so Hunter, once you’re finished in here I want you to prepare a rifle and a handgun for everybody. Now, there is supposed to be a second team going on this same exercise as us but I have no idea who they are until we arrive.”
         “Am I the only one thinking something weird is going on?” Hunter said.
         Nelson said, “As much as I hate to say it Captain, I agree with Hunter. It’s all very vague and mysterious. Command usually like to give us something to go on right?”
         She looked at the pair of them and turned her eyes to the rest of the room. “Who else feels the same?” Torres raised his hand, followed by Eliot and Soko. Zach followed their initiative and raised his own hand. “Listen,” she started slowly, “we’ve all been in situations with less information. I want you to keep any and all opinions to yourself. Remember, we’re a few days away from leave and we do not want to give Command any reason to take that away us.” Zach felt himself drop his eyes to his food. The Captain’s words continued, “If you have any further problems, you come to see me, understood?” There was the murmur of agreements before the Captain said, “Good. Now, Nelson and Rhodes you’ll be in charge of preparing field kits, just in case we have any accidents and somebody gets hit wrong by a round. Those things still have a kick to them. Soko, I’ll send co-ordinates to the bridge. Zach, Torres, you two will be getting in bed until we reach Vanguard.”
         “Vanguard?” Garrison spoke up.
         Zach frowned at the man. The chef almost never spoke up, preferring to stay quiet.
         Hunter’s voice rose in the room again, “And how do you know about Vanguard?”
         Garrison’s head snapped so fast in Hunter’s direction Zach jerked his head back. He watched Hunter frown at the man before she shuffled away from him a few inches. “Just heard the name is all.” And he went back to his food like it was nothing else.
         The Captain gave the man a look before she turned her attention to everybody, “Get eating. Then get working. I don’t want to hear any more complaints.”
         She sat back down and Zach dropped his eyes to his food. He wanted to ask about what Command had said about the glitches, but he knew that that would only cause more trouble.
         For the first few minutes, there was only the sound of cutlery scrapping across plates and bowls. Nelson was the one who broke the silence with, “So what’s everybody doing with their leave?”
         Hunter was the first to answer, “There’s a nice little bar on the edge of town that I plan to spend my first night in. You know, drink, get a little crazy and find me a nice piece of ass to take to bed.”
         “You’re disgusting,” Torres said over his shoulder.
         “Not as bad as mister woman at every port over here,” she thumbed a hand in McCallister’s direction.
         The man lifted his eyes, glared at Hunter and said, “Some of us have a little more class than others.”
         “Well some of us just want to fill our needs and move on.”
         “And at least I know their names.”
         “Who cares about names?” Hunter said.
         McCallister shook his head, went back to his food and said, “Hey Torres, didn’t you say you were gonna visit your family.”
         Torres perked up and Zach let a small smile play across his lips. The smaller man turned in his seat to face McCallister and said, “Yeah. My brother had a kid before I left so I’d finally get a chance to see him.”
         “Congratulations,” the Captain said.
         Torres turned back in his seat, a smile on his face and said, “Thanks. I’ve got some catching up to do.”
         Eliot lifted his head in Zach’s direction and said, “What about you?”
         He shrugged. There were a few things he wanted to do, but there was one thing he had to do. “My sister’s getting married.”
         “I hope he’s good,” Eliot said.
         Zach laughed. “Oh he’s had to deal with her for five years. It’s a miracle he’s still around, but, I like him.”
         Eliot chuckled and stabbed a fork into his food. “That is the important thing. Marissa is one firecracker, but don’t tell her I said that.” There was another chuckle from the engineer before he said, “she’d skin me alive for talking like that.”
         “Women,” Torres said.
         “Hey!” Hunter shouted across the room. “Just because you can’t pick them up.”
         “Can you blame me? I have you as a wonderful example to that half of the population.”
         Snickers rose in the room and Zach let his shoulders shake. Hunter did not look happy with that comment and she stabbed her spoon into her bowl before she said, “Maybe more women should be like me. Screw what you guys think.”
         “You fishing again Captain?” Eliot said.
         Zach lifted his eyes to see that she was smiling with a nod to her head. “Of course,” she said.
         Torres said, “Do you do anything else?”
         Her smile stayed in place as she said, “Fishing is the only thing I have planned but,” she shrugged, “anything else could happen.”
         “There is nothing wrong with fishing,” Garrison said.
         “Yeah,” Nelson said with a snort, “if you’re boring.” Zach watched the Captain eye the medic who held his hands up and said, “No offence Captain.”
         She shook her head with a smile, focused back on her food again and said, “What are you doing with your free time Nelson? Harassing women? Getting turned down in every bar and club?”
         More snickers rose in the room and Nelson waved a hand at her, “I still get more action than Hunter.” There was the sound of a punch and Nelson said, “Ow! Jesus Christ Hunter.”
         “You get no action,” Hunter said.
         “You didn’t have to punch me.”
         “Hey,” the Captain started and Zach lifted his eyes to give her a look. She continued, “save the physical violence for the training exercise.”

The rest of breakfast went without a hitch and Zach led Torres back to their bunk. “Tell me sparky,” he started and he flicked his eyes over his shoulder to see the smaller man stare up at him, one eyebrow raised. “What do we know about the glitches?”
         “Nothing yet. I’ve got programs still scrubbing them.”
         “How long does it take to clean up some noise?”
         Torres snorted and said, “How long does it take for Nelson to score with a girl?”
         Zach smiled and opened the door to their quarters, “Point. You notice the Captain didn’t mention them?”
         “So? There’s nothing to tell at the moment.”
         Zach shrugged, “Just saying.” He stepped their room, stretched and began kicked his shoes off. The door closed behind him and Torres took a seat on one of the beds. Zach said, “Is there any chance those messages are old?”
         Torres shrugged his shoes and socks abandoned on the floor as he pulled the cover of his body. “Some messages do get trapped in the system, worn down to nothing but glitches. But we haven’t sent any distress calls, which is the only way for that to happen”
         The man rolled over and Zach sighed, stood up and moved across the room to turn the light on. “I was looking forward to leave.”
         “We all were.”