Intergalax: Dawn of the Fury

Chapter 5

          When Jimmy finally decided to make his way back to the parlor and the main part of the ship, he realized just how badly he was starting to smell. The sweat of his ride had been ripening on his body for some time, so he decided to find the proper facilities and freshen up.  He cast about the ship, finally finding what he was looking for.  He felt just a little silly for not thinking of the master stateroom first.

          He wasn't expecting what he found.  To the rear of the main stateroom there was a simple pocket door.  It led into a bathroom twice the size of the one he had at home.  Fortunately, despite the size and opulence, it was simple and straightforward.  There was a toilet in a separate alcove and twin sinks on a long counter. A raised, seemingly old fashioned claw foot bathtub large enough for him to completely submerge dominated the center of the room.  Its white porcelain contrasted with the dark marble base it sat upon.  Instead of the usual spigot there was a large waterfall style chute with gold and silver touchpads.  By their positions he assumed the silver was for cold, though he didn’t readily know how one would adjust the temperature to their liking.  It was also just a touch frightening that there was an electronic control for water, but it most likely worked on such a low current that it didn’t matter.  A thought occurred to him and he called for the computer.  A small screen appeared right on the mirror.  Now that was convenient, he thought to himself.  It displayed the condition of the systems in the bathroom, including the one he was curious about.  The ship had all of its water reserve tanks full and the recycling system was operating at peak efficiency.  Even though the water had been stored for quite some time, the ship had been powered up long enough to process plenty of it.  He decided a long hot bath would be in order.

          Even better, he thought as he spied a shower stall located beyond the tub.  He started the water, which was instantly hot.  The controls were far more intuitive than he guessed.  One had to simply touch the top of the control to increase the flow, the bottom to decrease it.  The hot and cold balanced the way he was used to, though it didn’t take much cold to make the heavy stream comfortable for him. Finally he stripped out of his clothes and used the other facilities, which were far more familiar than he expected.  Surprisingly, there were actually instructions on a small plaque on what to do in a microgravity situation.  They had foreseen that after all.  He looked at himself in the mirror, rubbing his chin.  His beard was starting to shadow his face and felt somewhat scratchy.  He had to shave since he was fourteen years old and it had now been three days since he had last done so.  He was shocked by the dark circles under his eyes that made him look like he had black eyes.  The rapid acceleration must have caused the mild bruising.  At least it wasn’t painful.   He had an idea and went back to his jersey sitting on the floor.  The can of med+foam was still there and he sprayed a tiny amount onto his fingertip, rubbing it under his eyes.  Whatever it consisted of he figured accelerated healing at a phenomenal rate.  His eyes puffed up suddenly and almost closed, but just as quickly they shrank back down to a normal pink.  There was a sudden feeling of drowsiness, bordering on disconnnectedness, but it passed quickly.

          He stepped into the shower and let it run on him until his fingers started to wrinkle.  He found a spigot, which, after he picked out a dried up plug, dispensed a floral smelling cleaning gel.  He used it both to wash his hair and his body.  He rinsed off and resumed letting the water run until he realized that whatever was being used to heat the water would not run out like a hot-water heater.  He finally shut off the water and reached for one of the plush towels hanging on the wall.

          Dona was standing just outside the shower running hot water into the tub, facing away from him.  He didn't even notice at first that she had stripped all her clothing off as well.  The only other time he had seen her fully undressed in full light was when he was picking her up to go to a local water-park.  She had changed into her bikini right in front of him as he sat on her bed, admonishing him to stay right there.  He hadn't expected that, and she later explained it was a sort of gift for him since he had recently proposed to her.  She had smiled warmly at him the whole time.

          This time she wasn't smiling.  Tears were running down her cheeks as she stepped into the tub.  She briefly submerged, letting her long black hair spread out in the water, then seemed to notice him for the first time as she came up.  The tub was so deep, only her head and shoulders were above the water.  She smiled weakly at him, and then brightened up a little when she looked down at the towel he was holding in front of himself.  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the edge of the tub, sniffing slightly and rubbing her eyes.

          Jimmy considered the pile of clothing on the floor.  Their aroma seemed even stronger now that he was clean.  The creek washing hadn't been terribly effective since they didn't have any soap with them.  He looked about and found a hamper marked laundry.  He dropped the wad of clothing inside and was surprised when the hamper started to hum.  Moments later it popped open.  Their clothes were now fresh and clean, smelling slightly of ozone.

          He started to pull on his shorts when Dona called him over to rub her neck and shoulders.  He knelt behind her at the tub and complied, his shorts momentarily discarded.  After a bit she started to sob again and he wrapped both arms around her shoulders.  They stayed that way a long time.  The tub stayed hot as it was heated from coils in its bottom and sides.  Jimmy sat up and rubbed her shoulders again.  She took his hand, pulling it lower and whispering softly to him.  He looked her directly in the eyes, reaching forward to kiss her.

          Jimmy lifted her from the water and carried her to the huge bed.  Not even bothering to dry herself, she pulled him down on top of her, making love to him breathlessly.  They fell apart quickly, already spent and dozed for some time.  They awoke a short time later and made slow gentle love into what should have been the night. 

          Jimmy was surprised to find himself alone when he woke up.  Clothes he did not recognize were neatly folded at the foot of the monsterous bed.  There was a black shirt and light gray pants.  The sleeves of the shirt were shorter than he was used to, ending halfway down his forearm.  They had a short split in the cuff on top of his arm, which made him think the shirt was meant to be worn that way, it at least made them comfortable to wear.  The pants, oddly enough, were slightly too long and he had to turn up the cuff.  They were also slightly too big in the waist, but he snapped on his fanny pack as a make-do belt.

          Their bicycle packs were neatly arranged on the dresser.  All their clothes had been cleaned and were neatly stacked to one side.  Jimmy started to head into the bathroom to find his watch, but he spotted it on the nightstand first.  He had been asleep for at least ten hours.  He wrapped the black Velcro strap around his wrist, considered it a moment, and then took it back off.  He used his pocketknife to pop the pins off the back.  He went to their packs and found his sandals.  It occurred to him that he had been barefoot almost since they had come on board.  The shoes were still covered in camping grime.  He dropped both his wristband and the sandals right into the laundry bin.  Well, he thought, it'd work or he'd be barefoot a while longer.  He assumed Dona couldn't find any kind of shoes to fit him to go with the clothes she laid out.  There was no sign of his riding boots, though he didn't want to walk around on the cleat anyway.  The bin popped open and he retrieved his clean articles, slipping on the sandals and re-assembling his watch.

          The door leading to the parlor chimed, and then slid open.  Murky walked into the room.  Jimmy stood there, aghast at his condition.  The splint was gone and there was no sign of the gash in his hairline.  Jimmy wasn't sure, but it looked his hair was a bit longer where they had applied the foam.  He was dressed similarly, with a red shirt instead of black.  The pants fit him much better, but his arms stuck even further from the sleeves.  Jimmy was convinced that this must be a popular style. He shrugged and rolled his sleeves up past his elbows.

          "Its about time you woke up.  I've been dying to use that big tub in there since Dona told me about it." He indicated the bathroom. "The only other head on this thing is a tiny little shower stall up in the crew stateroom you two stashed me in.  Nothing else exists till I have soaked in the tub for an hour." he glanced down at the bed as he walked past, muttering, "Well I'll be damned."

          "Did Dona tell you what we found out?" Jimmy asked, but Murky had already closed the door and you could hear him running water.  He shrugged and went out to find Dona instead.  She was in the next room at the dining table reading a laminated manual titled 'Computer Diagnostic Systems.'  She looked up at him and met his eyes.  She smiled sheepishly first, then got up and kissed him warmly on the mouth.  She finished by hugging him tightly, and he responded in kind.  "Love you." He whispered, looking right at her.

          She was wearing a sort of dress made from the same material as his shirt, only light gray.  It had similar sleeves and was cut extremely short.  He could see the edge of her Lycra shorts peeking from underneath. "I love you too, honey." she let him go and gestured to the stack of manuals spread on the table.  "Murky actually had a burst of professionalism once I told him what had happened.  He wanted to take careful stock of our situation.  Once we found these manuals, we checked on our food supply.  Everything left in our packs that was fresh has spoiled, and we don't have any dry food left.  Murky got the last power-bar when he woke up.  He came to check on us and he accidentally woke me up.  I'm surprised you didn't hear me yelp when he was in our room.  He has this knack for catching me naked.  I let you sleep, thought I didn't think you'd stay in there that long.  The good news is we have food, of sorts, to last quite a while."

          "Of sorts?"

          "It's all dehydrated stuff.  It looks like there had been some fresh stuff in what seems to pass for a refrigerator, but it looked mummified so we chucked it into the trash bin.  The fridge works, so we’ve got our water bottles chilling in there, if for no other reason than to have something cold to drink.  The ice-maker is on the fritz, or at the very least we haven’t figured out how to turn it on yet.  That thing on the counter that looks like a microwave, well, you take a packet of food and it reads some kind of code and it reconstitutes the food while it heats it up.  Some of its pretty good, just don't try anything that says it has scrambled eggs in it."

          "Pretty bad?"

          "Worse.  Okay, Murky tried the computer, but he had even less luck than we did getting any information out of it.  He settled for exploring the ship.  He found the clothes up in one of the crew quarters.  He also found this.” She presented Jimmy with what was either a short sword or a very large knife.  It looked for all the world like a Roman army sword, but with a more western European style grip. “The main hold seems to be either locked or stuck, and the computer doesn't even acknowledge it exists.

          "And you know, de did something odd when he came back.  He actually wanted a hug from me."

          "I think he likes you Dona."

          "Oh that's just what I need.  Well, he's decided you're in charge."

          "Me?  He's the one with military experience."

          "Yeah, but he realized we're having better luck running this ship.  Plus you have piloting experience."

          "Not much of that applies to this thing."

          "It's the best we've got."   She indicated her face, which was clean and slightly flushed.  "You didn't tell me I had black eyes."

          "It didn't come up last night.  Did you try some of that gel stuff?"

          "Yeah, though that stuff made me a little woozy.  I think it might have some kind of narcotic in it."  Jimmy wasn't used to seeing her out of make-up.  It made him think she actually didn't need the stuff.

          "What do we have to drink?" he asked.

          "All the water we could ever drink.  Murky made an attempt at making coffee, but I couldn't drink it."

          "Did he?"

          "The whole damned pot.  He thought it was terrific, so I guess the supply isn't bad.  I haven't bothered to try and make any more since you don't drink it."  They took the next hour going over their supplies.  Lacking the proper frame a reference, the manuals made little sense.  They were written for technicians who already had a working knowledge of the technology the ship used.  They explored the ship in detail.  The master stateroom and adjacent parlor were the largest open spaces on the ship.  They found Murky studying the workings of the belly turret gun.  He explained that the computer couldn't access any of her weapons systems, and he wanted to see if it could be operated manually.

          Despite its crippled condition, the computer still gave the most useful information.  Given time, he was sure he could start making sense of the manuals.  The automation system kept track of almost everything on the ship.  Their main problem boiled down to finding out where they were going.

It was Jimmy who finally realized where the ship had come from.  It was clear it was meant for humans just like them, so that ruled out any alien race.  The technology was like nothing he had ever seen or heard of so, considering the ship was clearly not military or built for scientific purposes it had not been built in secret by anyone on Earth as they knew it.  That left one possibility; he decided the ship had somehow come from the future, but none of them could figure out how with their rudimentary understanding of relativity.

          After a brief but halfhearted protest, Murky yielded the master stateroom to them.  He wagged his eyebrows at them briefly and Dona frowned at him.  He took over one of the crew staterooms and made a larger bed out of two of the bunks.  It took a few choice words, some of which made even Jimmy blush, but Murky finally managed to get the simple but plush bedding out one door and into the next.  It was just as well there would be nobody else sharing the quarters, as his makeshift bed now filled the entire cubicle.  The loose furniture found its way into the now-empty room.

          Jimmy moved their bikes down into the hold, where convenient hooks allowed him to hang them up out of the way.  They decided the ship had been out of use for some time before whatever had caused it to go back in time, and it seemed to have been in use for some time before that.  Beside the food, there were relatively few supplies on board.  By the next day, Jimmy and Dona were back in their shorts and tee shirts.  It was almost like the clothing they had found was a forgotten piece of luggage.

          The ship had an ion power plant.  The large scoops located above the engines were called ion rams.  They used a magnetic field to collect free ions and converted them into power for the engines.  At least that's how they understood the explanation the computer gave them.  The rams usually provided power throughout the ship, as well as storing power should they be incapacitated.  The schematic identified two weapons turrets, the belly gun and a tail gun.  Jimmy wondered what the four scoops at the nose of the ship were, but the schematic didn't show them connected to anything.  A decoration, he mused.

          There were relatively few windows.  The largest were the three in the docking bay, the five in the bridge, and the clear dome in the nose.  From the bridge they could see the curve of the main body of the ship.  It was painted mostly dark red, with an ovoid section of dark gray, separated by a curving black line.  He could make out just the edge of a yellow stripe running down the side of the ship.  It struck him as odd that a ship would be so luxurious on the inside but have so few views of the outside.  If it was some kind of pleasure craft he assumed it would have large windows everywhere.  It was almost as if the design weren’t meant to expose them to the universe around them.

          There were two landing struts, which could extend from the forward section.  A third ion ram located to the rear was reinforced to act as a third leg of the landing gear.  The ship was designed for vertical take-off and landing, though each strut had extendable wheels, possibly more for on-the-ground spotting than for a normal, airplane type landing.  The main hatch was actually a long ramp, which could be lowered between the struts, and there was a cargo hatch on each side accessing one of the two holds.  The other hold was accessed from the outside by an elevator.  They found a small interior door for the larger hold, but it wouldn’t budge or make a sound.  Jimmy decided it needed a special key or some kind of code.

          He had begun to make a habit of sitting in the observation lounge, watching the stars.  The color shift in Hyperwarp made them seem like tiny rainbows streaking by.  After a time, Dona joined him, curling up in his lap, gently crying from time to time.  The wonder of being in space did little to dull the full impact of what was happening to them.

Chapter 6

          Jimmy was not what you would consider a rabid, cultish fan of Science Fiction but he still enjoyed space adventure movies.  He did almost religiously follow the various Star Trek series and was in line with Dona on the opening night for the new Star Wars episode.  His father was much the same, having done the same for the second and third openings.  He thought he knew what space adventures were all about.  Now, after experiencing space travel firsthand, he knew the truth. 

          The one thing all those fictional stories left out was the crushing boredom.  Even with the computer apparently crippled the ship was so totally automatic they had to do little more than point it in a direction and let it go.  He tried to read the manuals again, but they constantly referred him back to the diminished artificial intelligence, or used terms he had no hope of understanding.  The glossaries and indices were woefully inadequate and he finally decided that one had to have a fair working knowledge of the ship’s technology to even begin to understand it.  The computer seemed like some idiot savant.  One moment it was doing amazing things running the ship, moments later it acted as if it could do nothing.

          The communications console was integrated into the automation system as well.  Jimmy smacked his head when Murky mentioned they might try the radio to summon help, but nothing he tried could raise a signal.  He tried getting the computer to scan for any kind of carrier wave but it had “NO DATA” about any kind of properly used frequencies.  He settled for transmitting a distress call over random settings, hoping somebody would pick it up.

Finally he decided to deal with his boredom by doing something constructive by making his way into the works of the ship.  The engineering section could be accessed by a small passage on the lowest of the three decks on the ship.  The room chamber or whatever it was referred to was cramped.  Engine room wasn’t good, since the main workings of the drive were open to space and not accessible without a suit.  Taking a cue from Star Trek he simply decided to refer to it as “Engineering.” After deciding which was the main console he traced the exposed, trunked cables toward the rear of the compartment and was forced to crawl through several passages until he found the computer core.  He couldn't make heads or tails of the thing.  His idea of computer components was CD roms and zip disks.  The core looked like a huge cylinder made of shiny stainless steel.  Conduits of all sorts spread from the top.  He opened an access hatch, but the tangle of circuitry and fiber-optic cables made less sense than the inner working of the door.  Another smaller cylinder occupied the center of the core with only one conduit leading to it.  It had no other markings that he could see from the access hatch.  He closed it up rather than interfere further with it.  The insides, beyond certain “plug and play” type components of his own computer, were still something of a mystery to him.

          He tried tracing the conduits from the core, but they disappeared into walls, or ran down other access tubes.  Two of the largest ran to the access hatches for the engines.  He was disappointed with the main engineering center, expecting a large, well laid area.  Instead it looked like a hacker’s nightmare of monitors and controls attached to open cables and other machinery.  Most of what he could make sense of was also available in the cockpit.  One screen, which caught his interest, was the automation system.  It was probably acting as the main computer system for the entire ship, with the core off-line.  The room was designed to be operated by a single engineer, with a simple padded seat attached to an arm, which would enable the user to reach all of the monitors and controls.  Again he left without touching anything.

          A ladder led to the tail gun.  There was an easier access from a larger passage running beneath the docking bay.  Still, he thought, it would be hard to access the guns if they really needed them.  The automation system apparently didn't extend to weapons control, or at least he didn’t know how to access the command and control for them.  There was a seat provided for a manual operator.  The system was pretty straightforward.  The power switch was clearly labeled, and the whole affair had relatively few controls.  He climbed into the plush seat and operated the aiming controls.  It had a twin stick control, which operated servos aiming the twin barrels in unison.   He turned on the tracking computer, and the opaque dome covering lit up with a grid overlay of the weapon’s field of fire.  A notice flashed near the bottom of the display that energy weapons would not function in Hyperwarp.  He scanned the power selection and took note of the last one: Particle Accelerator.  When switched on the notice disappeared.  Apparently the weapon had been added just so it could be used at faster than light travel.  A trip to the belly gun yielded the same results.  The presence of the guns spoke volumes.

          The ship was large, generally speaking, being about the size of a jet-liner but he was used to more open spaces.  His exploration finished after just a few hours, he became bored again.  There was also the growing worry that they would spend a very long time in the confines of the Phantasm.

          At least until the food ran out.

          He considered accelerating the ship once more, but recalled that Murky offered the objection previously that too high a speed might be hard on the drive and none of them wanted to be adrift.  It was also apparent that the ship’s main power was drawn from the drive.  The day ticked away slowly, and he found himself dozing in the forward observation lounge by himself.  The shock of their predicament started to wear off and the grinding boredom was making all three of them depressed.  Even Murky became quiet and withdrawn.  He played with the viewsceen in the parlor; drinking the swill he called coffee constantly, without regard for what would happen when it ran out.  He quickly learned any potential recorded entertainment was either erased or trapped in the inactive computer core.  He bored quickly manipulating the external views, so he moved on to the internal views.  He could see just about every room on the ship, with the exception of the master stateroom.  It had a lockout accessed only from within.

          Dona formed an uneasy truce with Murky.  His impishness quieted down and she started to open up to him.  He constantly found himself looking at her large brown eyes.  She wasn't oblivious to his stare, but decided to take it as a sort of compliment.  She began to enjoy his company in a strange sort of way.  It helped since Jimmy was spending more and more time getting to know the ship.

          The second night they spent hours just remembering old TV shows from their childhood, talking into the early hours until they finally fell asleep, their heads touching on the pillows, both of them looking up at the ceiling as if they were looking at the sky.  It made them wonder why the large screen was on the wall facing the foot of the bed rather than above them.  Jimmy offhandedly asked the computer how the screen was connected and was rewarded with a barely decipherable electrical schematic.  He scanned it for just a second before ordering it to return to the external view once more.  He was still amazed how the stars would streak by, just like on Star Trek.

          “I wonder if that’s what it really looks like, or if that’s a computer generated image?”  Dona asked, snuggling closer to him.

          Jimmy lay there in his shorts, the covers thrown half off him, his hands propped behind his head.  He considered a moment, and then said, “It looks kind of like that through the view ports on the bridge.  I think the computer is cleaning up the image somewhat.”

          He sat up suddenly, taking her hand and pulling her with him.  “Where are we going?”  She asked.  “Hey, Murky’s out there!”  She suddenly protested.

          “All he’s gonna see is you in a too long t-shirt.”  He said playfully, leading her out the door and into the deserted main parlor.  Jimmy stopped and glanced up one of the spiral stairwells.  “He’s up on the bridge.  I think he’s asleep.”  He led her forward, up a narrow passageway punctuated by a series of access hatches.  It opened up into the small domed nose of the ship.  He sat down on one of the leather lounges, pulling Dona down onto his lap.

          He touched a control set into a pedestal right beside the seat.  A metal cover on the dome irised open, revealing the moving star field.  Dona slid off his seat, putting her hands on the concave glass, staring out into what she thought would be hyperspace.  You could tell they were moving, as the stars seemed to slowly spread from the center.  In fact, the screen image had indeed been cleaning the view up somewhat.

          All of the stars took on a strange aura against the inky blackness of the void.  They took on tinges at their leading and trailing edges of the visible spectrum, as if they were looking through a prism.  She blinked twice before her eyes got used to the fact that’s what they were truly seeing, and not just a flaw in the glass.

          Jimmy touched another control, and the second seat silently slid sideways, joined with his to form a sort of lounge-chair-loveseat. She sat down beside him, leaning back with him but not taking her eyes off the stars.  “In a way, I think it’s beautiful.”  She said, putting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his chest.  He kissed the top of her head, breathing deeply, taking in the smell of her.  She traced circles in the light hair of his chest, kissing him lightly on the shoulder before looking back at the dome.  They lay that way for a long time.

          Jimmy rolled onto his side, facing her.  He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her lightly, in a slow familiar way, their lips just brushing against each other’s as if they were whispering to each other between kisses.   His hand ran down to the small of her back, where the hem of the large t-shirt she was wearing had bunched up.  Under it, she was wearing only a thin pair of cotton panties.   He traced the curve of her backside as she opened her mouth slightly, kissing him more deeply.  He ran his hands up and down her thighs, caressing her as she ran a hand down the back of his shorts.  She rolled onto her back, pulling him half on top of her, still kissing, their movements becoming more and more urgent.

He stopped for a moment, sitting up just slightly, “Hmmm?”

“Mmm Hmm.”  She answered, pulling him back down to kiss him again.

 Just as her lips touched his, she giggled.  The giggle turned into a stifled laugh with a rude sound from her nose as she tried not to laugh any more than she already was.  It was futile and she burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”  He whispered, smiling at her.  He started giggling too. Both of them had the silly giggles and it was killing the mood.  It occurred to them that they were still really just teenagers.

“I don’t know.  Just the thought of you acting like ‘mister suave’ and trying to seduce me.  It’s just so not you.”  She said through more giggles.

“Give me a break, I’m as new to this as you are.”  He started to move over her; instead he grabbed her waist and starting tickling her.

“Stooop thaaaat!” she whined through her laughter.  She was alternately trying to pull his hands away and trying to tickle him in return.  Instead, he stopped, flopping down on his side of the lounge, slightly out of breath.

She put her arm around his chest again, lying back with him.  “I love you, Jimmy.”

“I know.” He answered, starting them both giggling again until she punched him lightly (but not too lightly) in the stomach.  “I love you too.”  He croaked before bursting out giggling again.

__________________________________________________________

          Murky had abandoned his tiny stateroom after the first night.  To him, it reminded him too much of compartments on passenger trains, which he hated.  He ended up sleeping in one of the acceleration lounges in the back of the bridge, watching the tracking screens overhead until his eyes closed.  He wakened with a start, forgetting momentarily where he was.  Mindful of his “Shipmates” he pulled his t-shirt back on and tip toed down the staircase.  He heard the sound again, this time realizing what it was.

The laughter was coming from the observation lounge.  He could see the top of Jimmy’s head over the tilted high back of the seat.  The laughter, though, was clearly Dona’s.  He felt a slight pang about her, telling himself it was only his libido.  Well, he was more than that, he told himself.  They were clearly in love and despite his lothario façade; he was not about to cross that line.  He privately thought ‘it’s just because she’s the only girl around.’  

Yeah, right.  What else could it be?  He’d only really known her a couple days.   On top of that, he’d thought originally she was more like fourteen, not nearly eighteen.  He was usually attracted to more physically mature women anyway.  He kept repeating in his head ‘you’re twenty two, she’s seventeen; you’re too old for her.’  He just didn’t really believe that.

He mounted the stairs, just as the younger couple got up and started back toward the parlor.  He watched them walk, hand in hand, back to their room.  He sat back down on the lounge seat he had stretched out into his bed, forcing his eyes closed.

He dreamed about space monsters, and heroically rescuing a cartoonishly more buxom Dona.

________________________________________________________

          "Sir, come take a look at this." A youthful officer said. The lieutenant was operating the tracking screen on the bustling, cramped bridge of the old destroyer.

          Colonel Morrow didn’t have to get up from his seat at the rear of the control center to see the large screen.  His command chair was situated so he could see almost every important station.  He read the speed indicated on the object the crewman was tracking. "That can't be right."

          "It just came into our range sir.  It's a small ship, and I double-checked her speed.  The indicator is right."

          "I'll be damned.  That thing is almost at our top speed." Only a few people knew that the ship had been refitted with newer, more powerful engines making her as fast as any ship assigned to the front lines.

          "The Ion signature identifies it as one of our ships, sir." A sensor operator reported.  Computers silently proclaimed that the output, while strong, had a distinctive pattern that was reasonably close enough to what their own engines would produce.

          "The only ships that are supposed to be able to sustain that speed are the larger battleships."  The colonel muttered to as if to himself but just loud enough for his crew to hear.

          "Yes, sir.  But this contact looks like a high-performance yacht or a corvette."  A corvette was a small, fast, lightly armed destroyer.  The younger man was just as confused as the Colonel since it didn’t make sense that anything like that would be out here.

          Morrow turned to the helmsman, "Lay in an intercept course.  Go to full power if necessary to catch up to it."

          His helm officers hastened to comply.  The old destroyer groaned angrily with the strain on her engines.  Slowly they started to gain on the contact.

          Morrow was suddenly thinking to himself:  It damned well better be one of ours!

          __________________________________________________________

          All three of them made their way to the bridge once the computer announced they were approaching the star system.   The drop out of Hyperwarp was slightly rougher than acceleration, and Murky had to admit he was nearly nauseous.  The star field color-shifted until they were just bright points in the night.  The star they were approaching was a small yellow sun much like their own.  The computer identified only one of the planets as having a barely breathable atmosphere.

          Something hit them, hard as their speed dropped.  Then again.  Space debris of every shape and size was battering them as they prepared to enter orbit.

          “Doesn’t this seem strangely familiar?”  Dona asked.

          Murky's attention was immediately diverted to the tracking screen.  "I think we have company." 

          Jimmy looked up at the screen.  Something had been in orbit of one of the outer planets, and it was now moving to intercept them, causing a surge of hope in the trio.  Their ship slowed as it prepared to enter orbit around their selected destination.  The other ship looked like a pinprick at first, but rapidly grew larger.  They were too enthralled to ask the computer for a better view with the main screen. 

          The ship was all planes and angles.  Two large drive casings flanked the main body, which was painted mottled shades of green.  A large black triangle was painted on the wedge shaped wing.  They realized the ship was not much larger than their own.  There was a sudden flash of light from beneath the forward wedge.

          Something hit their ship, sending them sprawling out of their seats.  They could see the planet spinning past the main porthole.  Jimmy grabbed a hold of his seat and climbed in.  He reached for the controls and madly tried to steady their spin.  Another blast rocked the ship.

          The main screen had gone blank and wouldn't respond to him at all.  The stick was equipped with force feedback and he could feel the ship fighting him.  He grabbed what he assumed were throttle controls and slammed them forward.  The ship suddenly jumped forward, the force of her engines blasting it out of the spin.  He pulled up once he realized they were headed straight for the planet.

          Murky had found his was back into his seat and started working the controls of the tracking system.  More out of sheer luck than skill, the screen winked back to life, showing the other ship as a point of light on a schematic of the system.  "It's following us!"

          "Hold on, both of you!"  Jimmy hit the throttle again.  The controls were roughly like that of planes he had flown.  Foot pedals controlled the pitch of ship and the stick worked like a rudder and elevator.  He banked to the left in a broad curve, once again turning toward the rocky surface of the outer planet.  He dove as long as he dared, then pulled up sharply.  The surface rocketed by.

          He felt another blast, this time probably not hitting them.  Dona screamed at the computer, which refused to acknowledge them.  He risked a look at the tracking screen.  The wedge shaped ship was still on their tail.

           He took the ship lower, skimming the craggy surface of the airless planet.  A blast of light went off to their right as another burst of weapon fire missed them.  He banked around a rocky precipice and caught a sight of the other ship following their course.  He wished he could access the faster than light drive without the help of the computer.  He hastily scanned the controls, but could make no more sense of them than he had before.  The ship shuddered again.

          Without warning, the main screen came back to life, showing him a better view of their pursuer.  He was banking wildly, hoping to avoid the energy weapons.  Out of breath, he shouted, "Engage Hyperwarp Drive!"  A representation of the planet, shrouded in what he guessed was its gravitational field was displayed as the computer plotted an escape vector.  A timer started a five second countdown.

          The timer made it to two when there was a blinding flash in the sky.  They had a glimpse of the other ship suddenly breaking in half, the two sections falling toward the surface leaving a sparkling trail of debris.  He barely caught sight of the new, larger ship before they jumped into Hyperwarp.

          ________________________________________________________

          "Direct hit sir!" reported the weapons officer of the destroyer.

          Morrow watched the trail of the Deltan scout ship as it fell to the planet below.  The small yacht they had been following suddenly streaked away, leaving a light trail as it entered Hyper-warp.

          "I have them sir.   They are already slowing and turning back."

          "Why didn't they just warp away once they saw the Deltan?" asked his helmsman.

          "That's a plenty good question.  My guess is the other ship caught them by surprise."

          "They're hailing us sir."  Shouted the communications officer.  A screen on the Colonel's console sprang to life.  My God! He thought.  That’s just a boy piloting that thing.

          "Hello, uh mayday, SS Phantasm to ship."

          "U.S.S. Delilah responding.  All right son, we're an American ship this time.  Just release your computer to us and we'll dock with you."

          "I'm afraid I don't know how."

          Morrow was shocked.  Somebody had just piloted that yacht as if it were a single-seat fighter.  Now the kid was telling them he didn't know how to initiate a standard docking procedure.  It suddenly struck him that some kids were out 'joyriding' in the adults ship, though he couldn't reconcile that with the oddly remote location.  There would be plenty of ships like that closer to Swingaround, or on the regular shipping lanes, but they were in a relatively remote location.  He signaled his communications officer, who nodded back to him as he contacted the smaller ships computer.

          "Sir, I haven't been able to access their main system.  They have an automation system, which seems to be running the ship.  I can link to that, but it will take a little longer."

          "Do it."

          ____________________________________________________________

          The Delilah was a long, lean ship, more than three times longer than the Phantasm and wider of beam.  Her nearly pointed nose was flanked by two openings that still glowed.  They guessed that had been the weapon that had destroyed the other ship moments before.  Two thirds of the way back on the flat section of the upper hull was a large turret, much like one found on a naval battleship.  Above and behind the turret was a section of windows, which they figured was the bridge.  The hull was painted gray above and dull red below, much in the way Earth-bound ships of old had been below their water lines.  The whole ship had a no-nonsense look to it.  It also looked quite old and battered to their untrained eyes.

          Jimmy let go of the controls as the ship started to respond to commands from the Delilah.  She pulled alongside the upper superstructure of the ship, until a docking tube extended to their own docking bay.  Magnetic tethers shot out of their holders on the bigger ship, steadying the Phantasm.

          They assembled at the docking bay, and, once the computer confirmed a positive seal with the docking tube, they punched open the circular hatch.  Armed men were there to greet them and took them directly to the Colonel's ready room.  Colonel Morrow was in early middle age, his black hair graying at the temples.  A slight paunch grew over his belt, and his legs seemed incongruously thin.  He had on a pair of silver rimmed glasses, which Jimmy wondered about since the procedures to correct eyesight existed in his time.  His uniform was entirely khaki colored, where the great majority of the crew was wearing gray or black or both.

          Murky snapped to attention and saluted, "Reporting as ordered, Sir."

          Morrow seemed genuinely surprised, "You in the Military, son?"

          "Airman, Second Class, United States Airforce."

          He looked at Murky with a mix of disbelief and confusion.  "Son, the Air Force hasn't existed for over two hundred years."

          "Sir, if I may," interrupted Jimmy.  "That being true, he was in the Air Force almost three hundred years before it ceased to exist.

          "And just how is that possible?"

          Jimmy launched into a detailed accounting of their predicament.  He went on animatedly leading up to the part where they were attacked by the angular ship.  Morrow just sat there, poker-faced, looking right at him.

          "Kid, that's the biggest load of bullshit I've heard today.  That ship is a totally modern, high-performance yacht, probably one of the most expensive I've ever seen.  I don't see how that thing could have been sitting in a forest in the Twentieth Century.  Not to mention, who was piloting that thing if the Computer system was down?"

          "Actually, I was.  I've had some pilot lessons."

          Morrow looked at him as if to say 'yeah, right kid.'  "Son, you all aren't in trouble, unless that ship turns out to be stolen.  Now just tell me how to get in touch with your families."

          "Do a sling-shot maneuver around the sun and whip back into time."  Responded Dona, tartly, reciting the Star Trek method of time travel.

          "You can't go backward in time, not safely that is." he touched a button on his desktop screen. "Private, come in here."  The door opened, "Put them in section two, find an empty room," he turned back to the trio, "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and check out your story, but I don't think your going to be too happy when I find out the truth.  Take them away."

Chapter 7

          They sat in the semi-dark room without speaking for about an hour.  The room consisted of a long padded bench down the middle and a series of six hatches, each four feet wide by three feet tall, flanked on each side by a smaller door.   They were arranged three wide and two high.  The lower hatches had what looked like steps to reach the upper ones.  Jimmy pulled the latch on one, revealing a neatly made bunk inside.  Handholds were strategically placed to allow the user to pull up into the tiny bunk/capsule.  The smaller doors proved to be lockers.  He decided these were empty enlisted crew quarters.

          He looked at his watch, comparing it to ship time on the chronometer set above the door.  With some fiddling, he changed his watch to read military time and synchronized it with the clock.  It was close to midnight on board, a three-hour difference with the time they had been keeping on their ship.  He tried the hatch they had been led through earlier.  It opened silently with a touch.  It was a hinged bulkhead door, totally manual rather than the automatic sliding door he would have expected.  He had to step over the lower sill just as if he was on a navy ship contemporary to them.  A crewman, armed with a pistol, was stationed outside their door.  He immediately notice Jimmy and asked,  "Is there anything you need, Sir?"

          "I just need to go to the head." He answered after a moment.

          The crewman looked puzzled.  Jimmy realized that he had used a naval term, and the crew of this ship was not following that tradition despite the fact the ship was called a destroyer.  It seemed to dawn on the crewman what he had asked for and he pointed to a sliding door in the rear of their room.  He suddenly realized that they had been put in the room for the night.  "I thought the three of you would have been asleep by now.  The Colonel's going to send for you at O-seven hundred."

          Jimmy thanked the crewman and went back inside.  He selected the lower center bunk and climbed inside.  Murky was sound asleep sprawled out long ways on the central bench.  Dona tugged at his rolled sleeves to stir him as she went to the bunk just above Jimmy's.  He stretched his long arms and yawned. "You know, Jimmy, those things look an awful lot like drawers in a morgue."

          "That's what I thought they were at first.  I thought they were just stashing us somewhere while they checked out our story.  They probably just assumed we would know what this room is.  I would have expected something along the lines of chains hanging from the ceiling with bunks attached to them. That's what they have on that aircraft carrier down in Charleston.  I'll bet, in an emergency these things can be sealed with their own air supply.  It makes good sense if you think about it."  He used the handholds to pull himself fully into the capsule.  The pillow was located at the far end.  The mattress was softer and plusher than he would have expected.  Pulling up the covers, he discovered it consisted of an ordinary padded mattress made to fit into a rectangular hole.  "Have you noticed they have relatively few high-tech goodies here?  Look at this mattress.  I would have expected some super-comfort sleeping system.  Instead, I bet they save power and money by using perfectly normal, old fashioned stuff.  Like that hatch.  The same one could be found on any naval ship of our time."

          Dona pulled herself up into her selected bunk.  She pulled up the covers and reversed the bed, putting the pillow at the hatch end.  She slipped off her sandals and started to cover up.  Murky yawned again and muttered, "Y'all don't have to separate on my account."

          "I think your account is plenty of reason to separate.”  Retorted Dona.

          Jimmy stretched out his arms, hitting both sides before they were fully open.  "I don't think the designers of these things had company in mind.  I saw just as many women in the crew as men, and I'll bet these things were meant to discourage co-habitation."

          "Boy that really sucks for crew morale." Murky said bleakly.  He eyed one of the capsules, "I think I could manage.  You two look flexible enough.  Once is never enough.”

          Dona made a disgusted sound.  She had taken enough, "Are you so starved for attention that you have to keep butting into our sex lives?  God knows I know you must feel left out, but I love Jimmy, and that came a long time before we met you," she hopped back down to the floor and faced him, looking down on him in his seat. "You're a great guy Murky, but I'm getting sick of you acting like a big goddamned child when both of us are around."  She gestured at herself for emphasis.  "I see how you look at me, but I'm taken."

          "I know that Dona.  I know," he looked down at the floor, "I just can't help myself sometimes."

          She nearly shouted at him, "You're a grown man, Murky.  Act like it.  What are you, about Twenty-five?"

          He looked up at her.  He looked like he was about the break into tears.  "I'm just twenty-two." he suddenly grinned again, looking at her, "At least I was.  I guess I'm closer to five-hundred now."

          She lost it then,  "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF YOU WERE FIVE THOUSAND!!!"

She ran into the bathroom, sobbing loudly.  Jimmy slid out of his bunk to follow her when Murky caught him by the lower arm. "Hey man, I'm sorry.  To both of you.  I'm in the same fix as you two."

          "Yeah Murky, who'd you leave behind."

          Jimmy walked over to the closed door and knocked gently.  Dona didn't want to be disturbed by either of them.  He returned to his bunk and climbed inside, leaving his sandals on the floor.  He pulled the covers over his head and tried to sleep.  Murky just got up and quietly talked to Dona through the door.  Jimmy couldn't make out what he was saying, but his boisterous manner had disappeared entirely.  She came out a short time later and apologized back to him, hugging him tightly before returning to the bunks.  This time she crawled in with Jimmy, regardless of the close quarters and snuggled in tight with him.  Murky started to unlace his shoes and said, "Looks like I get a show after all."

          Jimmy just flipped his middle finger and said, "Go to sleep Murky."

          ­­­­­____________________________________________________

          "Just hold out your arm."  The doctor took Jimmy's arm and pressed a small device against it.  It painlessly extracted a few drops of blood into a tiny vial.  She took the vial off the device and placed it into a complicated looking machine.  She looked into his eyes and ears using a device that had changed little since his time.  The doctor looked to Jimmy like what he thought Dona might look like in twenty some odd years.   Her hair was slightly lighter, with more brown; though it was so dark it was nearly black.  She did look a lot like Dona, only much more rounded around the edges.  She was very attractive, a point that wasn't lost on Murky.  He spent his exam trying to pick her up.  Luckily she took the attention as a compliment.

          "So, are you a raging pit of testosterone like your friend here?" she asked Jimmy.

          "Oh, under the proper conditions."

          "Yeah, involving pretty young women with raven black hair." Added Murky.  He was sitting near the corner putting on his sleeveless olive tee.  Jimmy glared at him, and the doctor blushed, since the description sort of fit her too.  "So you and Miss Marks are a couple?"

          "Yes maam."

          "Are you sexually active?"  She asked.  He blushed this time at the blunt question.  Murky held up his thumbs.

          He leaned over and whispered. "Yes maam."  She simply nodded.  He was stripped to the waist.  The exam proceeded just like any other he had been through.  She used her hands to probe his neck around the thyroid, even doing the turn-your-head-and-cough routine.  Instead of a stethoscope, she used an electronic device to listen to his heart and lungs, still telling him to breath in and out on cue.  She reset the device and scanned him from head to toe.  She frowned at the device as she passed over his feet.

          "Both of you have the same mild fungal infection."   She produced the small can again and sprayed his feet, spreading each of his toes, just as she had done Murky.

          "Is that stuff anything like Med-foam?"

          "No, this is called pan-antifungal.  Med-foam is designed to be used in the field on severe injuries."

          "Yeah, we used it on Murky when he broke his arm and cracked his skull."

          "The broken arm I picked up on.  He must have had a mild concussion if his head was hurt." she turned to Murky.  "That stuff only goes so far.  Your arm is just about eighty five percent healed, so take it easy on it.  You have to be careful with that stuff, it has a strong narcotic effect on some people."

          Jimmy said, "I don't think he minded the narcotic effect, he was unconscious until we gave him the stuff.  We also found something call meth-hex something."

          "Methahexadrexine?  You over-did it a bit then.  Med-foam has its own built in pain damper.  Your friend was probably stoned out of his skull for a few hours.  That stuff's legal on Earth, but a bunch of the colonies frown on it.  You'll be fine on Swingaround."

          She made some notes on the electronic pad.  Murky piped up, "Well, is he going to make it."

          "You're both perfectly healthy, excepting your arm.  You two can go now and send in Miss Marks."

          Jimmy left first, Murky closing the hatch after Dona.

          "I'm sort of surprised they took the two of us together, then Dona separately?" Jimmy wondered.

          "Actually, that seems just about right." Murky was hopping up onto one of the empty beds in the deserted ward.  "They'll lump as many guys together as they can in those situations, then take ladies one at a time.  Besides, if her exam is as intimate as ours, I don't think Dona would want us around for that."

          Jimmy had to admit that was true.  He was sure Murky would love to see her with her top off.

          "Jim, I'm really sorry about last night.  I'm just really attracted to her, and it makes me act like a fool in front of her.  At first, I thought you were just dating, so I thought I had a chance.  But you two act like you've been married for years.  Y'all ever talk about it?"

          "Actually, we were planning to get married as soon as she turns eighteen."

          Murky leaned back on the cot, using his hands to prop up his head.  He stared at the ceiling.  "Eighteen is awfully young to get married, but then you two act ten years older.  You older than her?"

          "Only by about two months.  I told you we are both seventeen."    

          "You love her?"

          "Yes."

          "Consider me backed off man.  What about the doctor, what was her name, Susan?"

          "I didn't catch it.  Her lab coat said something like 'Rokowski.'" he hopped up on the bed across from Murky.

          "It's been too long for me."

          "Like years?"

          Murky scowled at him this time.  "No, six months.  I got transferred from Germany back to Pope Air Force Base.  I do miss the frauliens."

          "I thought Fayetteville was crawling with women looking for soldiers?"

          "It is. They're looking for officers, not airmen.  And talk about southern trailer trash, no offense if you’re Southern."

          "I am, but none taken.  I'm Greek, so it doesn't count."

          "About that.  I know it’s a sore point with you, but you really don't look Greek."

          "What does a Greek look like?'

          "Well, not like you.  You look pretty Anglo-Saxon."

          "I guess I take after my Mom."  He pulled out a leather wallet and produced a snapshot.  It was a picture of his parents at a recent anniversary.  His mother looked much like him.  She had short blonde hair.  His father was only slightly taller than her, with a bushy black mustache.

          "Now your Dad looks Greek." Commented Murky.

          "Yeah, his name was Nikolas.  My mother's was Aleeta."

          "That's a pretty unusual name.  Where was she from?"

          "She never talked much about her life before she married Dad.  Her maiden name was Ban Mannoc."

          "That definitely sounds West European.  You sure he was your Dad for real."

          "Of course!"

          "Well, you sure do take after her then."

          Dona emerged from the examination room, buttoning the top of her short dress.  They all took seats at a small table in the ward.  A crewman had awakened them at six that morning, bringing them fresh clothing from their ship.  Murky was still in his old uniform, as they had brought some of Jimmy's clothing for him by mistake.  The shorts were just about two inches too small.  The crewman took them to the medical bay instead of the Colonel's office, without explanation.  Jimmy thought that was a hopeful sign, since there would have been little reason for them to have a physical exam if they were just some kids lost with a broken ship.

          "Did they strip you naked and throw you on the probe-u-lator?" Murky asked Dona with a smile.

          She giggled this time, recognizing the reference to a current comedy about space and time-travel.  "Well, it was good for me, was it for you?"  Jimmy was at the same time shocked, and relieved that she was starting to get along better with Murky.  He didn't know what he said to her last night when he apologized, but it went a long way to improving their uneasy truce.  It just sounded odd her making that sort of reference.  She put her arm around Jimmy's waist.  "Morning."

          "You still asleep too?"

          "Mmm hmm.  Need Coffee."

          "Murky can make you some of his sludge."

          "Hey, I take offense at that." he muttered.

          "Just the non-coffee drinker calling the pot black." responded Dona for Jimmy, deliberately mixing the metaphor.  "You're coffee is only slightly better than what they serve in gas stations."

          As if on cue, the crewman returned with a tray from the mess hall.  It was piled with steaming heaps of scrambled eggs and sweet, sticky rolls.  The coffee was only marginally better than Murky's, but Dona drank it anyway.  Jimmy didn't drink coffee, so he confiscated her share of orange juice, and after asking, Murky's too.  They just about fought over his share of coffee.

          "Dona, you are a coffee snob.  You must have an open account at Starbucks." commented Murky.

          "No, I like good old plain coffee like you used to get at A & P."

          "God!  That stuff tastes like burnt rubber."

          "Not compared to what you made."

          "That's my father's recipe."

          "I don't want to know." Said Jimmy between bites of his bear claw.

          ______________________________________________________

          "It would seem I owe the three of you an apology."  Morrow began as they entered his ready room.  Murky went right to attention, saluting crisply.  Morrow smiled as he returned it, "At ease, Private."

          "With all due respect, Sir, I'm an Airman, sir."

          The Colonel smiled again, sitting back down in his padded chair.  "Not any more, son.  You’re now officially considered a Private First Class in the Unified Federal Starforce of America.  Miami command decided since you were officially missing, and never really processed out of the military they would convert you to a current equivalent rank and pay grade.  They also authorized your back pay for your remaining tour of duty, converted to today’s money."

          "Then that means you believe us now?" Dona asked.

          "I said I owed you an apology.  For starters, once we repaired your computer we were able to access your auto-log.  It gave us the first hard evidence, since it recorded your journey since it was powered back up.  By the was, that was a pretty good idea going to the nearest star-system since you had no navigational charts. 

          "It happens only rarely, but accidents have occurred which created conditions which cause a ship in Hyperwarp to jump backwards in time.  So far, no one had survived the accident that caused the back timing, so now ships are programmed to automatically jump back into Hyperwarp with their chronal damping off-line.  When they pass through the light barrier, they advance through time.  You're lucky you're alive.  The Synth-grav was only set to damp just enough acceleration to protect delicate systems.  You must have had a rough ride."

          "I was thrown up against a wall, Sir.  Jimmy and Dona made it to the acceleration chairs on the bridge and strapped down." Murky explained.

          "I don't understand.  If our main computer wasn't functioning, how did it know to take off and fly through time like that?" asked Jimmy.

          "My best guess is that the program somehow got uploaded into your automation system.  It was taxed to the limit, but it was managing to serve as a computer system."

          "You said 'for starters.'" Said Dona.

          Morrow handed her a printout, then switched on a wall monitor.  An old digital recording of a news report was playing.  Jimmy and Dona instantly recognized the woman reading the news, even without the byline. "Volunteers continue are widening their search area in the Uwharrie National Forest for two Charlotte hikers last seen a week ago at a drug store in Albemarle, North Carolina."  Yearbook photos of the two were flashed up on the screen.  Jimmy hadn't grown his mustache when the picture was taken, and Dona's hair was in a tight bun.  Footage of men and women in orange vests, combing the countryside played next.

          "What about me?" asked Murky.

          "Right here," Dona pointed to her printout.  It was the text of the Charlotte newspaper.  It read, "Authorities continue to search for Airman Millard Bedarest in connection with the disappearance of two Charlotte hikers.  The Pope Air Force Base airman was on training exercises in the Uwharrie National Forest Area.  Sheriff Randy Hughes reported that they had reason to believe the airman might have had something to do with the missing hikers, James Argus and Dona Marks."

          Murky was openly shocked, "They think I kidnapped you two.  If it was anything, it was the other way around.

          "That's all been taken care of, son. " he motioned them toward an old, overstuffed couch along one wall.  "Have a seat, all of you."  Murky immediately sat down, sinking into the plush upholstery.  Dona sat upright at the other end, letting Jimmy sit between them.

          Jimmy was a little amused at the line about hikers.  Somebody didn't do his or her homework on that one.  If they had asked anyone, they would have found out about the mountain bikes.  The thought of the bikes brought him back to the subject of their ship, "What are you going to do with the Phantasm."

          "As a matter of fact, that's up to you once we get to Swingaround Station.  There's no claim on file for that ship, so she qualifies as salvage.  The law's clear, all you have to do is register it with the port authority once we dock.  I've already had them forward the paperwork to me, and I took the liberty of entering her registry in your name, James.  I hope you don't mind, Miss Marks?"

          "Actually, I mind, sir." Murky cut in.

          "Sorry, son.  Since you're attached military, you can't claim salvage.  There are a bunch of laws that prevent the military from salvaging private ships.  It has to do with historic objections to the conscription of civilian craft."  He handed out another set of printouts, each one addressed to them personally.  "This was the most we could find on short notice about your families.  All we could find for you was your 'Widow' private."

          They both looked at Murky in open shock.  "We had no idea." Dona said quietly.

          "Don't sweat it guys.  I didn't even think that would have been considered a legal marriage.  I haven't seen Candy since before I enlisted, and that was over two years ago.  Remember I told you eighteen was really young, Jimmy.  Anyway, she ran off with her boss from the strip club she worked at.  I was nineteen, she was almost thirty."

          "She claimed your veterans benefits." Jimmy said once he glanced at the materials.  There was a photo of a redheaded woman who might have been pretty once.  The name read Candace Evans Bedarest.  He read his own printout, blinking back tears as he read what little information there was about his own family.  The largest piece was an obituary for his mother.  She had been forty-two, not even a year from the time they disappeared.  There was a small mention of his father's remarriage to a woman he didn't recognize, and his older brother, Ryan's nuptials.

          Dona was weeping herself as she read about her mother.  She had died not long after Jimmy's mother.  "You told us before we couldn't go back in time?"

          "That's right, Miss.  We just don't have the technology.  Like I said, no one has survived those back-time accidents, and we really don't fully understand how they happen.  Unfortunately, you're stuck."  The door chimed and he acknowledged it.

          The doctor came in.  She was still wearing the same white lab jacket over her standard duty uniform.  She set a stack of reports on his desk.  "The whole lot of them are obscenely healthy.  The DNA samples didn't work since they weren't taking them back then.  All I could really go on was dental records for Argus and Bedarest.  They were a perfect match, but I couldn't find any for miss Marks."  She turned and addressed Dona, "Could I speak to you in private?" She looked back to Morrow for approval.  He motioned for them to leave.  Dona simply looked confused, but got up to follow her out into the adjacent conference room.

          Morrow returned his attention to Murky.  "Here is a pay voucher for you, and, once you sign this, a promotion to corporal.  You can go down to supply and pick up a proper uniform. If you need anything extra, they can deduct it from the voucher.  Once you're more presentable, I want you to report back to me." He held the document out with a pen, and Murky signed it. "Dismissed. "  Murky came to attention again, turned on his heel, and marched out.  Jimmy got up and started to leave.  He got a glimpse of the doctor showing an electronic clipboard to Dona.  Her young face looked ashen.

          "Just a minute, son." he turned back to face him as Murky closed the hatch.  "There is still the question of your legal status.  I don't think claiming to be over four hundred years old is going to work.  I talked to a friend of mine who had some suggestions.  He's going to fix it so you're still seventeen for now.  You'll keep your birthday, so you'll actually turn eighteen a little sooner than you expected.  Here, I want you to look this man up if you make your way back to Earth." he handed a card to him.  It was a business card for one Colonel Barron Tova.  The card seemed to be deliberately vague about Tova's position.  Jimmy wondered if this Tova person was on the up and up, probably a beaurocrat.

          "I'll do that.  You said we were going to Swingaround first?"  Jimmy wondered about the origin of the name.

          "Yes, it's a major colony.  We'll take you as far as Swingaround Station, which is our orbital defense base there.  A few people will debrief you, and we can arrange for new identification for you and your, um, girlfriend, I guess?"

          "Actually, she is my fiancée'." he said, a little sheepishly.

          Morrow just smiled at him.  Ah, kids.

          ___________________________________________________

          He found Dona alone in the conference room.  She got up from a chair and reached up to hug him, burying her head in his arms.  "What did the doctor tell you?  I thought she said we were all healthy?"

          "We are.  Let's go back to our ship and we'll discuss it."

          Jimmy was still concerned.  They held hands as they followed a crewman back to the docking bay.  They pulled themselves through the docking tube, back into their own ship.  Most of the lights were off, but they came on with a single order from him.  The bridge looked the same, with the exception of a detailed star-map now displayed on the main screen.

          She took his hand and led him down the staircase to the parlor.  She then led him to the large couch along one wall, sitting him down.  She straddled his lap, kissing him hard on the mouth.  He kissed her back earnestly.  She slipped off him and curled up close, putting one arm across his chest, the other she slipped around his back.  "Jimmy, I feel like my whole life and everything I love or mattered to me has been ripped away except for you.  I don't have Mom anymore, or even your parents.  All my friends are gone, except for you and, maybe, Murky.  Every time I touch you I just want to grab a hold as tight as I can.  I feel like if I let go you will slip away from me just like everything else.  That's why we started making love.  It's the closest I can get to you, and I want to get even closer.  God! I love you."

          “I love you too, honey.” he returned her embrace, kissing her on top of her head.

          “I know.” She kissed him on the cheek, lightly brushing her tongue against his ear, whispering to him.

          He kissed her passionately, his arms reaching below her to lift her up.  She started to wrap a leg around him, her hand reaching for his waistband.

          "Wow, what a tender moment."  Murky loped into the parlor, carrying a case of something.  He opened the refrigerator and shoved it in among other fresh new supplies.  Jimmy guessed it was beer, though for the life of him, he didn't know where he could have gotten it.

          "I thought they conscripted you on the destroyer." shot Dona with some venom.  She unwrapped her arms and left leg from Jimmy.

          " They did." Murky was now wearing a black and gray standard duty uniform.   A third stripe joined the other two indicating his new rank. "They assigned me to your ship till we get to a planet named Swingaround.  Guess they want me out of the way until they decide what to do with me."

          "God hates me." Muttered Dona so only Jimmy could hear.

          "She told you she's pregnant yet?" asked Murky, sitting on the edge of the table and opening his beer.

          Dona nearly shot out of her seat.  She didn't utter a word, just walked right up to him and slapped him as hard as she could across his face.  A red mark formed on his face.  She turned on her heel and stomped into the bedroom fuming.  She tried to slam the door, but the effect was lost since it was a sliding power hatch.  She settled for jabbing the control.  The lock made an audible click. 

"I guess I deserved that." He said, rubbing the tender spot on his face.

          Jimmy was just sitting there, staring wide-eyed at his open palms.  "Yeah, you did.  If it was in my nature, I'd kick your ass.  How did you know that?'

          "I saw her medical report sitting on the Colonel's desk.  I kind of guessed it too when the doctor called her out.  It must have happened the first night, judging from the estimated time on the report, though I had guessed that too."

          "Huh?"

          "I saw your bedspread that morning.  She was a virgin, wasn't she?"

          "Uh, yeah, we both were."  He blushed slightly, got up, and headed to the door, knocking softly.  He looked back at Murky.  "You really are an asshole, Murky."

          "We aim to please."  He replied.

Chapter 8

          Jimmy was sitting at the main table of their parlor running his fingers through what was left of his hair.  Dona had found a pair of scissors and cut it short after much convincing.  He still had it parted in the center, but now it was brushed over his ears, the back not quite touching his collar.  She took a seat across from him, setting three plates of steamed vegetables on the table.  Murky got up from his position on the couch and started to wolf down his portion. He had worked his way back into Dona's good graces by complimenting her often and well about her cooking.  Jimmy ate a few bites and returned his attention to the entertainment recording on the viewsceen.  There was an amazing amount of information they were able to download from the Delilah's computer.  Safeguards kept them out of classified information, but the stored library was awesome.

          They had been in Hyperwarp for two days now, this time at a much slower pace as they were following the U.S.S. Delilah.   At this speed they would reach Swingaround in another day.  The colony world had once been named for the one of its early settlers but as it grew into a major hub for the more distant rim colonies, its colloquial name began to be used so much it eventually became the official name.  Far larger than they would expect for what was considered a colony, it had grown so large it was applying for full statehood.  It even had a full orbital star-port, a rarity on worlds this far out.  It was an official United States colony and protectorate.

          Most of Earth had unified under the United States.  The nation was still officially known as the United States of America and its citizens were still called Americans.  The three of them read history recordings, learning what had transpired in the intervening years.  They were aghast at the wars, which had occurred in the interim.  One had ended about three hundred years ago with a large portion of the world's population migrating off-planet.  Anyone who could not live under the unified government was invited to leave on huge colony ships.   Many of the colony worlds had governments formed from their colonist's original national government.   Earth's sphere of influence spread to her surrounding worlds as the population exploded. It was estimated that humanity now totaled over one hundred billion souls.  Now, only about a billion lived on Earth itself.  Nations, which had joined the United States on Earth, became states themselves, most retaining much of their autonomy.  Most of the nearest colony worlds had become states in their own right, though the fringe worlds retained much of their old national identity.  Interestingly, Japan was the only remaining sovereign nation on Earth itself.

          Jimmy took special interest in the workings of their ship.  With the computer back on line, the ship took on a new dimension for them.  He spent several hours running a tutorial simulation on the bridge.  The computer disengaged the controls, simulating their effect on the main screen.  While rather complex, the main control panel was set up rather ergonomically.  Every instrument he would need was at his fingertips from the two main control seats.  The other seats were set slightly back and to the outside; intended for support crew.  A navigator had his own workstation to the left of the captain's seat.  The other seat was set up for sensor tracking and communications.  If the ship were not totally automated, it would be nearly impossible to operate the ship without someone manning th