The Lost Star Episode One by Odette C. Bell Read Free Book Online

impassive.
“Should I make the call, or should you, lieutenant?”
    “I can make the call,” he said through stiff
lips.
    Was she questioning his abilities? Sure,
he’d fallen on top of her rather than save her, had failed to pick
up this lift didn’t have a functioning map, and he’d clean
forgotten communications were offline.
    But he wasn’t an idiot.
    This was all her fault.
    He cleared his throat. “Engineering bay,
this is McClane.”
    There was a pause, then a gravelly voice
answered, “There’s two McClanes on board, you might want to narrow
it down, lieutenant,” Chief Engineer B’cal rumbled in his grating
voice.
    Hunter winced. “This is Lieutenant Hunter McClane. I’m in the
quarter’s lift that departs from the bridge. It doesn’t have a
functioning coordinate map.”
    B’cal sighed. “Add it to my list. If we
actually depart this afternoon, I’ll eat my fist. This ship has a
long list of problems right now. It’ll take us a while to get to
you. I’ll inform your superior you’ll be out of action for a few
hours.”
    “ A few hours,” Hunter nearly choked on his
voice.
    “ Sorry, lieutenant, we just don’t have the manpower. Lifts are a
non-critical system. Right now we’re working on life-support and
gravity control. I’m sure you can appreciate how important they
are.”
    Hunter gave an internal groan. “Yes,” he forced himself to agree
in an even tone, “I can. Do what you have to.”
    The thought of spending another minute,
let alone a few hours, with Ensign Ava was murder.
    Ava cleared her throat. “Excuse me, Chief
Engineer B’cal, I assume?”
    “Yep, that’s me. Who’s speaking?”
    “ Ensign Ava.”
    “ You only got one name, ensign?”
    “I am Avixan. My culture only permits single
monikers.”
    “ Another Avixan, ha? That makes five aboard
now, ha,” B’cal noted with a gruff laugh.
    Ava stiffened. From head to
t oe, she resembled a
statue. “Five?”
    “ I guess you haven’t been onboard long
enough to meet the others yet, ha? Anyhow, what do you want, Ensign
Ava?”
    She looked pale. For the first time since
he’d met her, Ava looked thrown.
    “ Ensign ?” B’cal prompted.
    “ Wouldn’t it be quicker to return the lift
to its cradle and walk?”
    “ Its cradle’s right at the bottom of the
ship. None of the other lifts in that section work. Hell, some of
the corridors aren’t finished yet. You’d have to travel by access
shaft for a whole deck.”
    “But it would still be quicker than waiting
for technicians to fix the lift, right? Plus, wouldn’t it be easier
for your engineers to fix the lift once it’s back in its
cradle?”
    “True. But like I said – that’ll be one hell
of a walk. But you’re right – it’ll be quicker than waiting. To be
honest, the rate new faults are coming to my attention, you might
be stuck in that lift half a day.”
    “ We’ll walk,” Hunter snapped.
    “ Walk it is. Though the coordinate map of
your lift is broken, Ensign Ava’s right – it’ll still be able to
return to its cradle with the automatic override. Lieutenant, if
you pry the primary panel back, the override switch should be
behind it. Press it, then get ready to become intimately
acquainted—” B’cal dropped off the line for a second as he mumbled
an order to someone.
    Hunter stiffened. What the hell was B’cal about to say? Christ,
people hadn’t been spreading dumb rumors about that dumb incident
in the bar, had they?
    “ Sorry about that,” B’cal came back on
line, “What was I saying? Oh yeah. Get ready to become intimately
acquainted with the belly of the Mandalay – you’re about to trek
through the whole thing. Have fun,” he added before he signed
off.
    Hunter wasted no time in prying off the primary control panel and
thumbing the manual override.
    The lifts groaned to a halt, shuddered
slightly, and slowly began to descend.
    Normal lifts aboard a normal Coalition
vessel did not groan or shudder.
    Clearly yet another