Panic and sweat hit him in equalamounts. His breathing faltered as his lung deflated. Any air he took in feltlike it was being sucked out again.
“Just relax, Commander,” Gunstontold him.
His eyes flicked to the medic asAndrews moved to his other side and repeated the procedure.
Less than a minute later, Andrewsstraightened up. “All done.”
Gunston let him go and moved offto attend to someone else.
John lifted his head and lookeddown to his ribs. Two tiny sticking plasters covered the punctures. Half adozen deep breaths refilled his lungs, but he still didn’t feel right.
“Not very pleasant, is it, sir?”asked Andrews as he examined the contents of the filter. “You’re lucky. Mostof it’s dust.”
John sat up and glared, swinginghis feet off the side of the table. He pulled his shirt down and did up hisjacket; the punctures stinging as he brushed them.
“Clean up and you can go back towork, sir,” Andrews told him.
“The captain…” John slipped offthe table and pushed his way back to the captain.
“That was a stupid thing you did,going after us,” Decker told him.
“Will someone get him out ofhere,” Dunlop ordered. “He’s disturbing my patient.”
“Rubbish,” Decker put in.
“Then he’s disturbing me,” Dunlopcorrected, his tone carried as much authority as the captain.
“But!” John backed outreluctantly, the path of his eyesight now blocked by Gunston, the medicfollowing him to make sure he left. He kept trying to peer over the man’sshoulder.
Decker was coughing fitfully,then he was suddenly still. The doctor reacted instantly, attempting toresuscitate him. John stepped quickly forward, bumping Gunston, whodeliberately blocked his path.
“There’s nothing you can do,sir. It’s out of your hands.” Gunston kept John moving backwards.
“But –” John began, but the sickbay door closed in front of him and he found himself alone in the corridor. Hesuddenly felt completely alone.
Back to top
Chapter three
After a shower and change ofuniform, John made his way back to the bridge. Giacomo vacated the captain’schair and took up his position at the helm.
“How’s the captain?” McReidyasked.
“I don’t know!” John snapped. Hesat down, raising his hand to the bridge of his nose and closing his eyesmomentarily as he regained his composure. His hand dropped, his voice wasquieter. “They won’t tell me anything. They kicked me out.”
The crew was quiet; thedepression setting in.
“Haven’t you lot got work to do?”
The crew busied themselves andJohn dropped his hand and switched the intercom on to sick bay. Before hecould even open his mouth to speak, he heard Dunlop’s voice raising above thebackground noise: “If that’s the commander, tell him to go away.”
He switched off, sighed andstared blankly at the main screen.
A minute later, Hartford brokethe silence. “Commander, Commissioner Coghlan wishes to talk to you.”
“Well, I don’t wish to talk tohim.”
Hartford’s visible flinch toldJohn that his statement had been relayed. He shook his head slowly.
“Put him through,” he saidreluctantly.
Coghlan appeared on the mainscreen. “Good evening, Commander.”
John had no idea what time of dayit was. It took all his restraint to remain civil. “What do you want?”
“I understand your concern overthe accident –”
“Concern?” John’s fists clenchedthe arms of his chair. “You knew there was hydrogen in those rocks!” heaccused. “You couldn’t have done a proper survey and not known it.”
“It was only minute,” Coghlanbrushed away responsibility. “Hardly worth mentioning.”
“Tell that to the two men whodied.”
There was an awkward silence. John’s eyes blazed, all diplomacy and tact gone. His grip tightened on thearms of the chair and he fought to control his temper. Not because he wanted to,but because he knew he had to. Eating away at the back of his mind was thecaptain’s condition.
Out of the corner of his eye, hesaw Hartford watching him, ready to cut off the transmission if he went toofar. He needed to pull it back before that happened.
“We need to continue the tests,”Coghlan finally broke the silence.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Johnstared back defiantly. “I’m not letting my crew set foot down there until it’sone hundred percent safe.”
“How are we supposed to do that? This is still a partially uncharted planet.”
“That’s your problem.”
Coghlan’s eyes narrowed and hepointed his forefinger at John, his tone darkening. “Now you listen to me. Your orders are to assist us in any way possible. I’ll go over your head if Ihave to.”
“Fine. You do that –”
The screen went blank.
“Put it back on!”
“I don’t think that’s a goodidea, sir,” Hartford defended himself.
“Put it back on!”
Hartford relented andre-established the transmission.
“You can report me to whoever youlike,” John’s voice was calm. Cold and calculated, he was past anger. “Aslong as I’m in charge of this ship, I refuse to risk anyone else. The matteris no longer open for discussion.”
This time it was John who endedthe transmission.
The tension began to dissipate. John was not angry with the crew; they had done nothing wrong. If anything, headmired the way they handled themselves.
The engineers had risked theirlives unnecessarily, doing a job that wasn’t really theirs. Sick bay was runoff its feet picking up the pieces. The bridge crew – Giacomo and Hartford –had both been down there. McReidy – if she kept her mouth shut, he’d be happy.
“Do we have an accident report?”John asked softly.
“Here, sir.”
John took the report fromHartford and began to read it. He could feel the beginnings of a headache. His eyes lifted, resting on Giacomo and McReidy at the helm in front of him.
Giacomo was quietly explainingthe helm, and John watched with mild amusement. McReidy seemed to be gettingalong quite well with Giacomo. They could have been mistaken for old friends.
Giacomo chatted on incessantlyand John soon realised they were longer discussing the ship when the subject ofopera was mentioned. That could have kept Giacomo talking until change ofshift or the captain’s return to the bridge. Neither of which was imminent.
The intercom sounded: “Dunlop tobridge. Is Commander Madison there?”
“Yes,” John answered anxiously.
“I’d like to see you in sickbay. Now, if it’s convenient.”
“I’m on my way.” John leapt fromhis seat and hurried from the bridge.
“He’s the only one of us thecaptain likes,” Giacomo’s soft voice followed him.
“He’s the only one game enough tostand up to him,” Hartford whispered, the bridge door closing on
