“You’re no oil paintingyourself,” Humphries answered, pushing Giacomo away and proceeding to cleanhimself up.
They were both covered in muckdirt, grass, leaves and moss; and both a disgrace to their uniform. Theybrushed themselves down as they headed into the city.
Looking reasonably respectable,they found a bar that would let them in and began to drown their aches andpains. Much later and both in a happy mood, they returned to the ship. Theystaggered along the corridor, using each other for support and singing at thetops of their voices. They only knew the chorus, but their words wereunintelligible to anyone but themselves.
* * *
After being relieved from thebridge by Tan, John retired to his quarters.
It annoyed him that McReidy hadknown Sean’s whereabouts and kept it to herself. Sean was his friend. Butthen, he wasn’t the easiest person for her to talk to. And she did tend tobring out his worst. He also figured that her “debriefing” would have been awhole lot worse than Kowalski’s.
He could reason it out until hishead exploded, but it still annoyed him.
He was sprawled in a chairlistening to some music, his eyes closed as he drifted into another world, whenthe door beeped. He opened his eyes as he heard it again. Maybe if he ignoredit, whoever it was would go away. It was no good. The person was persistent. Eventually, he had to answer.
“I’m not here! Go away!” hecalled.
“Yes, you are. Now open up,”Dunlop called back.
John sighed heavily. He sat up,leaned over his desk and flicked a switch. “It’s open, come in.”
The door opened and the doctorentered. “I thought I’d find you here. What do you think you’re doing?”
“I was trying to get some peaceand quiet.” John’s voice showed irritation.
“I mean, why aren’t you down onthe surface?”
“Because they are.” By ‘they’John meant the rest of the crew. “I just want to be left alone to do absolutelynothing.”
“You don’t know how to donothing. And with your stress levels, you couldn’t if you tried.” Dunlop wasprowling. He spied a basketball which John had failed to put away. Heretrieved it and began to bounce.
John’s eyes watched the ball, buthe didn’t move.
“You’re going to explode.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You spend all your time on thebridge or working on the ship because you don’t want to stop.”
“I have stopped, in case youhadn’t noticed.”
Dunlop smiled. “No, youhaven’t.”
John’s eyes deliberately avoidedthe doctor’s. The bouncing ball rang in his ears. “And stop bouncing thatdamn ball!”
“I’ll stop if you play.” Dunlopthrew a quick short pass.
John’s hands came upautomatically. He caught the ball centimetres from his face. “All right, I’llplay. As long as you leave me alone afterwards.”
Dunlop agreed.
Ten minutes later they met on thebasketball court. Both were suitably attired in shorts, t-shirts and runners.
“How do you want to play this?”Dunlop asked.
“Usual.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Computer, time two twelve minutehalves,” John instructed. “And keep score.”
Most players liked to keep scorefor themselves. The computer was usually only a backup in case of adisagreement.
They began slowly, allowingthemselves to warm up fully before getting serious. It didn’t take long untilthey were both at it full on. By the time they began the second half, it wasbecoming a battle to stay on their feet. The permitted contact became rougherwith plenty of pushing and shoving from both. Whoever had the ball tended tohave the advantage, but use of the entire body to block was permitted. Sometimes, it was like running into a brick wall. The occasional elbow wasaccidental, but still painful. Hitting the floor was just as jarring, and tookskin off knees and elbows.
They were both in a lather ofsweat well before they finished and at full time couldn’t agree on a winner. The computer confirmed a draw, which made them both groan. Draws weredefinitely not acceptable.
They agreed to another fiveminutes, after a short rest. That resulted in nothing but complete exhaustion.
“Next basket wins,” Dunloppanted.
John shook his head. “Shootout.” The words were barely audible.
They took it in turns to shootfrom a designated spot. Dunlop missed: so did John. Dunlop scored. John’sconcentration was way off; he missed. Dunlop was declared the winner.
John didn’t really care. Ashower and dinner were the only things on his mind. And something for thatelbow in the ribs that he had collected and the few layers of skin that weremissing.
The shower stung, but it feltgood. Dinner with the doctor had the added bonus of a jar of salve and abottle of painkillers.
“If you wanted to beat me up, youshould have just said so,” John said as he uncapped the bottle and tossed downa couple of painkillers.
“I don’t approve of violence.”
The comment shouldn’t have madeJohn smile, but he had to admit he was a lot more relaxed now. And thatchicken satay stirfry was hitting the right spot.
The rest of the evening wasuneventful until heading home after dinner. A terrible wailing was coming fromfurther down the corridor, as though an animal was in pain. On turning thenext corner, John and Dunlop were almost bowled over by Giacomo and Humphries.
Dunlop immediately noticedHumphries’ eye. With Giacomo’s right arm around Humphries’ neck and his handwaving about under his chin, it was impossible not to notice the bruisedknuckles. The doctor picked up Humphries’ right hand, which was limp at hisside, and the left from around Giacomo’s neck. They were similarly bruised. As a doctor, he was disgusted.
“Is he okay?” John asked.
Dunlop looked into two sets ofglassy eyes. “I doubt if either of them can feel anything at the moment.”
A look of vague recognitioncrossed Giacomo’s face, but it took him a while to register. He stoppedsinging, his head tilting to one side, leaving Humphries to continue solo.
“I know you,” Giacomo suddenlystated, his head straightening. “You’re…” he tried hard to think. “On thisship,” he finally decided.
Now that the young pilots weren’tmoving, it was difficult for them to stay upright. They were swaying heavily,ready to topple at any second.
“Which one do you want?” Johnasked.
“This one.” Dunlop took Giacomo’sarm from Humphries, whose knees buckled as he fell forwards. The doctor’sreaction was quicker and he caught the young man under the arms before hedropped too far, and steadied
