LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 84 Bis: Taking the Helm
A couple of days later after our rendezvous at Eva’s cabin I found myself helming the bridge of the UFS Roald Amundsen as Lauren had fallen pretty ill and was resting at her cabin. It was the first time I found myself in a prolonged commanding position, especially during flight time operations. All things considered though, I had expected to feel more stressed than I was feeling now.
“Leaving FTL jump in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” Lieutenant McAllister counted down after which with just a slight jolt we found ourselves in sub-light speeds in a rather empty system.
“Status report.” I commanded and looked over to my left.
“All systems are nominal. Drives recuperating for the next jump, ma’am.” Lieutenant Bailey replied.
“Everything is good on my end as well.” Lieutenant Zu added. “No signatures found throughout the system. Deployment of Comms Relay is underway. Should be finished by the time the engines have cooled down.”
I nodded. “Lieutenant McAllister, commence flight preparations for the next jump if you would.”
“Understood, XO.”
I nodded and looked down at my status screens to keep watch over the multitude of processes that were happening during the turnaround of this routine stop. We were making quite a good pace. Our long range scanners had picked up some potential rare mineral clusters a few jumps away and we were currently heading there to place some markers and some mining drones. The system we were at now was just meant to be a good spot for a Comms Relay marker to facilitate communications with Earth once more traffic would pass through this area. Our own long range communications didn’t really need it, it would just keep messages from getting all jumbled up if a fleet of ships would pass through the area, or at least, that’s what I understood from what Lieutenant Zu had explained to us. Communication science is interesting yet not really my thing.
Once the Comms buoy had been placed and all systems were ready to go for another jump, I commanded Lieutenant McAllister to perform the next warp and just like that we were underway again for a couple of hours.
“Lieutenant-Commander?” Lieutenant Zu asked for my attention, breaking the relative quiet of the trip.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“Do you know when the Commander is going to return?”
I shook my head. “Not really, I will see Doctor Winter after shift today and she’ll give me some more information.”
“The XO is doing a great job, I don’t see why the Commander needs to hurry back.” Lieutenant McAllister commented. “I quite like her commanding style. Quiet but efficient.”
Before I could reply to that, Zu immediately waved her hands in front of her. “It’s not like that. I do think you are doing a great job, LC. It’s just that… you know… I’m worrying a bit about the Commander, that’s all.”
I smiled. “Thank you for the compliments, but I don’t think you need to worry too much about Commander Davis, the high fever was a bit of a shock to wake up to this morning but the Doctor assured me that it was just a very rare side effect of the medication the Commander needs to take. ‘Very rare but not too dangerous. More of a very annoying inconvenience rather than a threat’ That’s the exact explanation she gave to me.”
“Do you know if she had it before?” Zu continued.
I shook my head “I think this is the first time, but I’m not sure. I had to hurry here to assume command so I couldn’t stick around too long.”
“Well… I hope she’s not suffering too much.”
“That makes the two of us.” I nodded. Even though I had said earlier to not worry too much, I really couldn’t help but worry over it myself. While Eva said it wasn’t very serious of a health condition, feeling Lauren burning up so much… It put quite the fright in me, that’s for sure. At least the job that I was doing right now helped me put my mind on something else for the moment, I knew Lauren was in capable hands and helicoptering over her wouldn’t exactly make things better. That said, I’m going to be rather happy to return to the cabin once my shift is over.
The rest of the shift progressed without issues and we managed to do a couple more jumps as well which actually set the record for the most jumps made during one 12 hour shift.
“Good work everyone, B-shift is here to replace us.” I smiled contently at a job well-done.
“You too, Lieutenant-Commander.” Lieutenant Zu leant back in her chair, quickly spun around and then swiftly stood up with a hop and a skip. “Time to go grab some food!”
“Not a bad idea…” I nodded and put my holostick away, giving a salute to the Lieutenant-Commander who would be replacing me at the helm after which I walked off the bridge with the other officers of the A-shift behind me. It seemed that apart from Zu and I, the others were also heading to the cafeteria to get a meal.
I decided to get something easily digestible so Lauren didn’t have to strain herself to eat anything. The decision fell upon some chicken soup and oatmeal. Very ‘classic’ sick foods according to Lieutenant Zu who was standing behind me as I ordered it at the synthesizer.
Right when I arrived back at the cabin, Eva walked out of the room, just having closed the door behind her. “Ah, good that you are here, Luna. I was just about going to find you.”
“How is she feeling?” I asked.
Eva shook her head mildly. “She needs the rest, I don’t think she will be able to get back to work tomorrow but a lot of attention from her girlfriend will definitely work wonders.” Eva then looked at the bag I was holding.
“She is allowed to eat, right?”
“Yes, she needs the strength.” The Doctor then quickly peaked inside of the bag and gave me a nod of approval. “That should be very good for her.”
“Do I need to pay attention to anything else?”
“I put some pills on the table, it’s important she needs to take these. I’d recommend giving them to her after she has eaten a little bit. She also might be a bit hesitant to take the pills she normally takes, but it’s also very important she continues taking them.”
“Okay, I’ll make her take them.” I nodded.
“As for the rest, her fever is down from this morning but she’ll still be a bit lucid at times. No need to worry about that at all, it’s just a side-effect of the pain meds.” She explained. “If, at any point, you have questions or something comes up, just give me a call, okay? I’ll have my holo stick laying next to me the entire night and Ellie will also notify me on top of that if I don’t manage to hear it.”
“Alright.” I smiled. “Thank you and thank you as well, Ellie.”
“No problem, Lieutenant-Commander.”
Eva waved me goodbye as she was off to her own cabin, leaving me to rejoin my girlfriend. Once I opened the door I noticed that the air smelled fresher than usual and that the lights had been dimmed quite a lot, presumably so that it would be easier on Lauren’s eyes.
“Luna, is that you?” Lauren’s weak voice called out to me.
“I am here, yes.” I replied softly and walked into the main room. Lauren was laying in bed, with her arm over her forehead. The rest of her body was tucked away cozily underneath a double blanket. “How are you feeling?” I asked as I set the bag with food on top of the table next to Lauren’s pills.
“Pretty bad…. and pretty bored too.” Lauren replied with a pained sigh. “I can barely sit upright, let alone watch something. Everything hurts.”
“I’m sorry that you have to deal with this.”
“Don’t be… Blame the bastard that made me lost my arm. Ouch.” Lauren bit away a pang of pain.
I walked over and sat down on the bed, moving Lauren’s arm from her head to the side of her body so I could place my hand on her forehead myself. While she still felt hot, as Eva had said, at least she wasn’t burning up as much as this morning. I then ran my hand through her hair and then down her cheek. “I have some food for you, would you want to try to eat a little?”
“Is it chicken soup?” She asked.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“I can kind of smell it.” She smiled and took my hand with her free arm. Bringing it closer to her lips so she could kiss my wrist.
“I got some oatmeal as well.”
“I will try to eat it, but you’ll have to help me sit upright.”
“Of course. You didn’t even need to ask.” I leant in to give my girlfriend a kiss on the lips.
“In any case I’m happy that I’m not contagious, at least I can have all the kisses I want too.”
“Hmmm.” I kissed Lauren again. “I’m happy about that as well…”