hatch for a moment. She leaned away from the strut as best as she could and reached out to he lever.
'Stephanie?' asked Finn.
'Gimmie a minute! I'm just finding a way to do this so I'm not half the woman I used to be when I'm done,' she snapped.
She stretched so her other hand was on the lip of the hatch leading into the ship and decided she’d dive for it when the mechanism released, just in case there were extra problems. 'Okay, don't lift off too fast,' she said as she steeled her resolve.
Stephanie pulled the landing gar release slowly. It flipped suddenly, knocking her back. With a deafening shriek the strut separated and the Samson began to lift off. In a matter of seconds the landing metal support disappeared from sight, and they were fifty meters off the ground. She slipped as she tried to pull herself out of the small undercarriage room, her feet dangled in the open air for a second before she pulled herself through the service hatchway and back inside the ship interior.
“You all right Steph?” Asked Finn.
“Fine, you’ll have to get someone down here to fix the door though, we’re open to atmosphere.”
“I’ll put it on the list.”
Chapter 28
Zoe finished half her meal bar, drank most of a bottle of water and fell fast asleep in Ashley's arms. It was quiet, dark, and she couldn't help but feel a little selfish at the comfort that holding Zoe gave her. Attempts at finding out what was going on with the ship and crew on her command and control unit failed. The command network was absolutely dormant. She turned her attention to Zoe’s personal records and the first thing that caught her interest was surveillance footage of her in the Botanical Gallery. In the playback she was running through a finished park area that Ashley hadn’t seen before, it was maze like, with tall bushes and fruit trees everywhere. It was a playful chase between two of Iloona’s four or five year old children and Zoe, and the eighteen month old was having the time of her life until she tripped and fell into one of the ankle deep creeks that ran through the outer gallery. The pair of children picked her up right away, made sure she was all right and raised her spirits in moments by splashing around in the shallow water with her, turning it into a game. Ashley didn’t know how happy Iloona would be with two of her youngest children turning up soaking wet, but they were all having great fun.
When she brought up the rest of Zoe’s profile she was surprised to discover that she had been adopted by a human, Vivian Lea, who had also adopted a young human boy and girl. She lived in the Botanical Gallery, and was a Pandem refugee.
Just looking at Zoe sleeping peacefully in her arms reminded Ashley of her own childhood. She couldn’t understand why, because her upbringing was quite different. She was bred for slavery, and raised in a stock house, then sold at the age of four. She barely remembered the stock house, which she assumed was a mercy. They raised as many children as possible in a small space, and since they weren't clones, they were treated fairly well, but they were still only a product. Considering that she could have been a clone instead and subjected to painful accelerated growth treatments, even more crowded conditions and forced direct neural education, being brought into the world naturally and sold by her mother as a baby was the better option, where slavery was concerned.
Zoe wouldn't find herself in such a situation. Everyone she knew despised slavery, and after holding the youngster for just a little while she couldn't bear to see anything happen to her. The holographic image of her playing with the other children, all of them older than her, was a relief. Zoe seemed to enjoy life in the Botanical Gallery, playing in the grass, splashing on the edge of the shallow creek there, and learning to climb with a little help from one of Iloona's older children. Only days before Ashley would have had to be reminded that there were hundreds of civilians working and living in the Botanical Gallery. Watching the playback of what life was like for the orphans there, and how survivors of Pandem had already moved right in was a shocking reminder.
She'd moved herself into the life of a fighter pilot, even though she was the Master At The Helm. As a career it suited her exceptionally well. Ashley loved the study, technical demands, and the responsibility of the position, but after seeing Zoe in the Botanical Gallery and saving her in medical, she realized she needed something more. 'How could I have forgotten all about it?' she asked herself in a whisper.
The lawn she attended yoga classes at on most mornings seemed small. The place where Zoe and the rest of the children were taken to play was a corner of the Gallery she'd never seen. She doubted most of the busy crew of the Triton had seen most of the place, and she vowed to spend some time there, to relax, and to make sure Zoe was happy once things calmed down.
'Well, this whole section is sealed again,' Larry said as he came through the door. 'The soldiers were called to the bridge, something big is going down there, but I couldn't tell you what. Oz and Jason have everything deactivated on the command deck.'
'Did you tell them that I'm ready to pilot this thing as soon as I find a console?' She whispered back.
'No, you'll be doing that in a few minutes. The conference room just a few doors down is still intact. You can use a section of the table as a control board. Oh, and there's chatter of a Uriel fighter moving around at long range. I'm thinking Valance has come looking for his ship.'
'That's Captain Valance,' Ashley corrected quietly as she slowly rose to her feet. Zoe was so tired she barely stirred.
'Aye, aye,' Larry led her to the conference room. The lights were still glowing a dim blue, on reserve power, and she could see where heavy bulkhead doors had been lowered, cutting off half of medical. If they were anything like the Botanical Gallery doors, they were a meter or more thick, made to withstand incredible forces. “You’ll be a welcome sight. You’ll be saving them the trouble of finding another pilot.”
“Wouldn’t they just come and get me?”
“I listed you as killed before Crewcast was silenced so anyone who managed to break into the system wouldn’t come looking for a Master At The Helm in a medically induced coma.”
“Oh, well then I guess they’ll be really happy to see me.” The conference room was a more welcoming space. Larry had gathered a pile of nutrient bars, blankets, bottles of water, and had even brought in two portable gurneys. Ashley took a seat and transferred her ident from her comm unit to the table. The helm controls came up straight away, partially as a holographic projection and partially covering the surface itself. Around her console were live star charts, damage displays, a virtual communications panel, and a navigational assistant much like the navnet she was used to seeing.
She tried to put Zoe into the chair beside her, but her hands reflexively tightened their grip on her hair. 'Okay, looks like I have a new copilot,' she chuckled, depositing her passenger in her lap. Her eyes half opened and she relaxed for a moment. Then, as though she just realized that she was in a different place, her pale blue eyes popped open and she stared at the holograms hovering above the table.
'She's going to be a distraction, I should take her,' Larry said as he stepped forward.
Zoe retreated against Ashley, sending her a worried look. 'It's okay, he's a friend,' Ashley reassured as she tried to lift her out of her lap.
Her protests came as a panicked squeal.
Ashley hushed her, soothing Zoe with shushing sounds and stroking her face. 'It's okay. You're just going to have to be really quiet and still, alright?' She soothed, knowing that there was little actual chance that her instructions would stick, regardless of how they were delivered.
'That's it,' Larry grumbled, bringing up a sub display on the conference table.
'What are you doing?'
'Checking game history. If she's anything like every kid old I've met, then she has a favourite,' he searched Zoe's profile for a few seconds and activated a program that featured rounded, bouncing characters in the shape of letters and numbers. Their hyper, high pitched voices immediately caught Zoe's attention and her grip on Ashley's hair loosened.
'What is it?' Ashley asked as she watched a nine chase a frantic one.
'Bumper Muncher. I've never heard of it, but I think she knows it pretty well.'
