When the Dust Settled
(Shades of Grey: Book One)
Jeannie Meekins
Text copyright (c) Jeannie Meekins (2017)
Published by Storm Cloud Publishing (2017)
https://www.facebook.com/StormCloudPublishing/
ISBN: 978-1-925285-27-7 (KindleEdition)
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for thepurpose of study, research, criticism, review or as otherwise permitted underthe Copyright Act Australia 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may bereproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be madethrough the publisher.
Science fiction – space opera, action adventure
Books in this series (so far):
Shoulder of the Giant
When the Dust Settled
Contents
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter thirteen
Chapter fourteen
Chapter fifteen
Chapter sixteen
Chapter seventeen
Chapter eighteen
Chapter nineteen
Chapter twenty
Chapter twenty one
Chapter twenty two
Chapter twenty three
Chapter twenty four
Chapter twenty five
Chapter twenty six
About the Author
Storm Cloud ebooks
Chapter one
All was quiet in the externaldepths of space. The little ship moved silently towards its destination – apinprick of light against the immense blackness. Inside her, the silence wasunknown. A small community thrived, constantly buzzing throughout all hours ofday and night. Time was only distinguishable by the hours of clocks.
A satellite receiver projectedfrom the top of the ship; its rectangular wings spread out from a centralpole. They should have been collecting data, but something was not working.
With a toolbox in one hand,Lieutenant Commander McReidy hung off the ladder a few metres above deck level,and looked up the inside of the long cylindrical tube. A tendril of long darkhair escaped from the neatly tied up mass and fell down forward over her face. She tried to blow it back up. A few times it reached her fringe, promising tosettle there before floating back down into her face.
She rested the toolbox on a rungand ran her hand up through her fringe, dragging the annoying tendril over anddown the back of her head where it belonged.
“Come on, Kowalski!” she calledin frustration. “What’s going on up there?”
“I don’t know,” the answer echoedback.
“Well, I’m coming up to findout.” She lugged the toolbox to a rung at chest height, grasping the ladder siderails with her fingers for extra support and started the twenty metre climb.
“There’s not enough room uphere,” a different voice called back.
McReidy stopped climbing, thenchanged her mind and continued up. The toolbox hitting the next rung and clankingof her boots announced her intentions.
A few minutes later, she pokedher head up and slung the toolbox onto the platform, then ducked instinctivelyas a pair of boots slid down from above her, slipping off in an easy gracefulmovement to deposit Kowalski on the platform.
“Want a hand,” he grinned down ather, offering his hand.
She bounced up a couple of rungsand swung onto the cramped platform. “No, thanks.”
Gillespie looked up at thembriefly, moved his feet, scratched his head and frowned at his scanner.
McReidy caught her breath and rana hand over that tendril again. “I’ve checked all the lines down there. Everything’s working properly. And I really don’t feel like a shouting matchup and down this tube.”
She leaned over Gillespie’sshoulder. “What are your readings?”
“Keeps telling me there’s noproblem.” He turned to Kowalski. “What’s it look like up there?” he nodded upthe tube.
“Well,” began Kowalski, leaningtowards the centre of the tube and looking upwards. He looked as though he wasbarely out of his teens, with a voice to match. He avoided looking directly atsomeone when discussing a problem – as though the answer would materialize infront of him as he explained it. “I found a few loose circuits, but nothingthat would have shut the system down like this. There’s no sign of anyinterference?”
“None,” Gillespie answered,shaking his head.
McReidy tapped her communicator. “McReidy to bridge.”
“Bridge here, go ahead,” CaptainBarrett replied.
“Try it now, sir.”
They waited, Kowalski stilllooking up the tube. Gillespie scrunched along the wall as McReidy climbedover the top of him to get to the tiny window. She peered out, craning herneck to see the wings.
“Nothing,” Barrett informed thema few seconds later.
“Then it’s got to be an externalproblem,” Kowalski decided, a smile brightening up his face. “I’m going tohave to go out and have a look.”
“Bridge to engineering. Allengines stop. Hold current position.”
“I’ll be suited up in about tenminutes, Captain.”
“Noted,” Barrett replied.
Kowalski placed his hands andboots on the outside of the ladder side rails and slid down the tube.
“Don’t forget to keep a line on,”McReidy turned away from the window and called after him.
“The advantages of youth,”Gillespie sighed, shifting to give himself more room in the cramped space. Herested the scanner on his lap and dangled his feet over the edge.
“We’re not that old. Are we?” McReidy leaned back against the wall.
“No,” he smiled reassuringly. “But sometimes it feels that way.”
McReidy didn’t answer. Herthoughts were elsewhere. Gillespie’s voice brought her back to the present,and she couldn’t remember what she had been thinking about.
“Next time we put into port, I’mapplying for leave. A month away from this place would be heaven. To wake upin the morning and actually see the sun rise. A brilliant, blue sky withwhite, fluffy –” He stopped suddenly as McReidy burst out laughing, his handpoised in midair, indicating a scattering of clouds.
“I’m sorry,” she apologised. Ashis hand dropped, she saw the seriousness of his face.
“It isn’t that funny.”
“Yes, it is. You’d miss thisship too much.”
“I know,” he agreed. “But thisassignment is driving me crazy –”
“But Cobe works.”
“I know it does. I just don’tsee how we can reach time zero.”
“Kowalski here, I’m ready to go.”
“We’ll see you in a few minutes,”Gillespie answered. “You need a break too,” he told McReidy in a low voice asthough someone might hear. “Stop pushing so hard.”
She looked at him for a moment,then turned back to the window.
It only took her a second to findKowalski’s white bubble suit as he clambered up towards the wings. He hung ontightly with his hands as his feet missed the footings and the lifeline curledaround his legs like a snake, seeming to have a mind of its own.
“Kowalski, are you all right?” It was an unconscious effort that enabled McReidy to switch her communicator towhatever department or person she wished. She had once wondered how the systemworked, now she just accepted it.
“It just takes a while to getused to it.” Kowalski’s voice was muffled slightly by
