Dremiks by Cassandra Davis Page B

of the room. “I wonder if this means he found the short or created a new one?”
    Captain Hill tried to feel his way to a chair and bumped into the hard corner of the table in the process. He cursed softly. “I’m afraid to say it, but probably both scenarios are correct.” He paused as he groped for a chair. “There should be emergency lighting in here.”
    “I’ll make a note to tell him.”
    “I’ll tell him now,” the captain said, crossly. He raised his wrist to key the communicator device just as the lights snapped back on. He blinked as his eyes adjusted.
    O’Connell was perched on a countertop nibbling on a croissant and sipping from a bottle of water. She shrugged in response to his raised eyebrow. “Seemed safer than trying to find a chair; I knew where the counter was.” She jumped down. “I’d avoid the coffee, sir. Chief made it.”
    “I came here precisely for the coffee. Aren’t you off duty?” He poured himself a cup, his immediate need to berate Lieutenant Guttmann momentarily forgotten.
    “Yes sir. Just grabbing a bite to eat before catching a nap. We have a status meeting with the department heads at 1500 and then the weekly colonial delegation meeting.”
    Hill sipped the coffee and sighed in appreciation. “The chief is a good man.” He focused back on the commander. “I’ll see you at 1500 then. Carry on.” He abruptly turned and left.
    Maggie was a bit bewildered by his gruffness but attributed it to a need for caffeine. She finished her snack and made her way to the work-out facilities.
    When the captain made it back to the bridge, it was substantially more crowded. Swede was bent over the co-pilot’s seat conferring with Price while the chief and Robertson seemed to be debating a navigational point. All snapped to attention as he entered.
    “As you were. Progress, Swede?” Hill didn’t miss the nervous exchange of glances between Price and Guttmann.
    “Yes sir. I was enquiring if it would be possible to take the navigational aides off-line.” He winced at the captain’s immediately obvious displeasure. “Just for a few minutes, sir. I’ve localized the short.”
    “How many minutes, Lieutenant?”
    “No more than fifteen, sir. I need to take the whole system down, check some independent wiring and power sources, re-power it, and run a diagnostic.”
    The captain made a few mental calculations. “You have to do this now? You can’t wait for another three hours until we are closer to the Uranus buoys?”
    Swallowing his irritation, the engineer responded, “It would be better to do this now sir, if I’m to maintain the schedule you set for me.”
    “There won’t be any necessary course changes during that time, sir, and the steering capacity won’t be affected at all,” Lieutenant Price interjected. He immediately wished he’d stayed quiet, when Captain Hill slowly turned his head and fixed that coldly attentive gaze on him.
    “Yes, I am aware of that. Thank you, Lieutenant.”
    Price muttered a brief “Yes sir” and sank back into the co-pilot’s high backed chair that, blessedly, hid him from any more of the captain’s looks.
    “Fifteen minutes, Swede.” The captain sat in his chair, then looked up as Lieutenant Guttmann prepared to leave the bridge. “Lieutenant, if this cascading failure causes the navigational computers to not come back on-line, I’ll have your head.”
    Swede thought he possessed steady nerves and considered himself hard to rattle. Somehow the captain’s bland, almost conversational, tone rendered his remark a threat that sincerely worried the engineer of the Hudson .

Chapter 4
    Four days after her odd discussion with Ryan Hill in the laundry facility, Commander O’Connell stalked into the officer’s mess.
    “Be seated.” The scrape of her chair and the clatter of her tablet hitting the table were suddenly the only sounds in the room. The junior officers rushed to find seats, their banter forgotten. Once every week they