From: megazone@wpi.WPI.EDU (MegaZone23)
Newsgroups: wpi.students.story,alt.prose,rec.arts.anime
Subject: OIC (18)
Date: 12 Sep 1992 12:12:50 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu

-----------------------------------------------------EIGHTEEN

     "Bored..  Bored.  Bored.  Bored.  I've only been here
two months, and I'm already bored.  No unnecessary sedation,
no electro-shock therapy, not even any elevator music."
                         --The Tick

     "Eve, what's the Kei's status?" Zoner asked from his
command chair on the bridge.
     "She is recovering steadily.  Currently Ben, Yuri,
Jenna, and Edison are visiting with her.  It seems that
Omega-2 greatly increases the human healing rates," Eve
replied from the view screen in the arm of his chair.
     "Thanks, Eve.  Say, how're the rest of the crew doing?"
     "Everyone is healthy, even the few who didn't opt for
Omega-2.  But morale is fairly low.  After the first few
months of steady fighting the lack of action seems to be
affecting them."
     "In other words, they're still bored.  Well, hopefully
we'll find something to do.  Maybe we can find some new
worlds to explore.  I had Lord Fahrvergnugen load some extra
scientific equipment on board just in case.  I don't want to
end up being the Captain of some sort of space police vessel.
I really don't enjoy bopping about blasting things."
     "You seemed anxious to join Ben on his last mission.
You even left the ship when you know you're not supposed to
risk yourself."
     "Well, I didn't want him to get himself hurt.  And,
well, I was bored too.  But I still don't enjoy killing
others.  I will respond if provoked, but there is no pleasure
in killing others.  And speaking of others, how's the
questioning of the prisoner going?"
     "Daver and Archon are still working on him."
     "They're not working him over are they?"
     "No, they're just questioning him.  Quite politely, in
fact."
     "Well, let me know if they get anywhere.  Or if they
don't remind me to go down there in, oh, say, three hours."
     "Very well."
     "Oh, and Eve..."
     "Yes?"
     "What do you think we'll find out there?"
     "I cannot answer that.  There is much that I do not
know."
     "Yeah. The unknown.  There never seems to be a shortage
of that, does there?  I don't know.  Sometimes the future
scares me.  And I've got a lot of it."
     "Yes.  I've observed that the unknown tends to make
humans uneasy, more so than the Salusians.  Would it help if
I were to sing?"
     "Heh.  You know I love to hear your voice, Eve.
Certainly, if you'd like to sing, please do."
     "Is there anything in particular you'd like to hear?"
     "Not really.  I'll leave the judgement to you.  Maybe
something to cheer the crew up a bit."
     "I believe I know just the song."  With that Eve's sweet
voice began lilting from the comm system across the ship.
     "Ah, I love to listen to her sing."

     "Um, like, Zoner?" q called from the comm station.
     "Yeah?"
     "There's a solar system about ten degrees off of our
present path.  Do you want to check it out?"
     "Might as well.  It's not like we've got any pressing
engagements at the moment.  Maybe we can find somewhere to
get the crew some R&R."
     "Like ok.  Chris, like, change course."
     "Altering course to port ten degrees," Chris Sprague
announced from the nav position.
     "Fine.  Are we going to get near anything any time
soon?"
     "Doesn't look that way, Zoner," Chris replied.
     "Fine. I think I'll go hang in the wedge for a while.
q, you have the conn.  If anyone else wants to take a break
just get someone else who's qualified to take your place.
Call me if anything happens."
     "Like, will do.  Take it easy."

     Zoner left the bridge, but avoided the elevators.  He
felt like wandering the corridors for a while listening to
Eve's singing.  She did have an incredible voice.  Ben did an
outstanding job in the HDS.  He always suspected that Ben had
kept it around, but there was no need to let everyone else
know about it.  Let them suspect.  He smiled.  Life really
was pretty good; odd, but good.  He contemplated going to
sickbay, but he decided that there were enough people there
already, so he just continued to stroll along for a while.
     Eve finished her song and continued into another.  She
said she liked to sing, and it showed.  Another benefit of
the Detian retro-virus: his brain was reorganized too.  It
made it easier to learn and retain knowledge.  So of course,
with all of the time the crew had, they spent a great deal of
it learning new languages.  Zoner's first choice had of
course been Japanese; he wanted to enjoy Eve's singing the
way it was meant to be.
     Before long Zoner found himself in the housing sections
of the ship.  With all the time he had he still hadn't been
down here that often.  The Wayward Son was a huge ship.
Zoner veered off to the Salusian sections, to see how the new
crew were adapting to life on board ship.
     The barracks were actually very nice to live in.  Since
there was so much room to spare they had been constructed as
apartment complexes.  After living in college dorms the Wedge
Rats understood the need for privacy.  At first Zoner had
wanted to put the Salusians right in with the old crew.  He
felt segregation was wrong and that it would be
discriminatory to separate them from the rest of the crew.
But after a few meetings between the SDF-17's commanders and
the Salusian leaders it was decided that it would be best to
allow for separate housing, at least at first.
     There was some nervousness on both sides and the
cultural differences might cause some conflict.  It was felt
that over time the problems would work themselves out and
that the humans and Salusians would mix freely eventually.
The average Salusian life span was many times that of a
normal human, so there wasn't any real need for the Salusians
to use the Omega-2 retro-virus, even though testing had shown
the Salusian genetic structure to be close enough to that of
humans that it was possible.  Besides, a number of the
Salusians were very wary of Edison.  Apparently the Salusian
empire had some problems with Detians in the past.  But no
one was talking about it.
     Of course in their natural state the Salusians were
furry bipeds, somewhat resembling a skunk in coloration.  But
Princess Asrial had insisted that they all undergo a
conversion to full human form.  So they actually were hard to
tell apart from the humans, except of course for their extra
set of ears.  Most people wouldn't even notice them.  (Of
course, the Wedge Rats weren't most people.)
     The humans and Salusians were actually hitting it off
fairly well; a few human-Salusian relationships had already
developed.  That was another benefit of having more crew
aboard.  A number of the Salusian crack units were female.
That helped balance out the male majority amongst the Wedge
Rats.
     Zoner greeted crew members he encountered as he strolled
along the streets.  A few of the Salusians came to attention
as he approached.  He made sure to stop and chat for a while
to tell them to chill.  He didn't want to be Captain of a
purely military vessel.  He liked the casual atmosphere and
as long as the discipline was there when it was needed he
didn't think it caused any problems.
     He was steadily learning the names of most of the new
crew members--a task made much easier by the retro-virus'
effects on his brain--but he still had several more to learn.
As he strolled through the center of what could be called the
town he ran into one of the Salusian crew who had been
training for bridge duty.  Second Lieutenant Deedlit Satori
began to salute as he approached, but she caught herself.
     "You're learning," Zoner called out to her.
     "Sorry, sir...I mean Zoner.  I guess I'm just not used
to being so informal around superior officers," Deedlit
replied.
     "I understand.  You've spent years in the military
learning the routine and then we tell you to forget it.
It'll take a bit of getting used to.  But it'll help if you
don't think of me as a superior officer.  Remember, we're all
equally important.  The only time I'm superior is when I
issue an order."
     "Ok. I'll try.  What brings you down here anyway?"
     "Just sort of wandering around.  I'm just as bored as
the rest of the crew."
     "Want a companion?"
     "Sure," Zoner replied with a chuckle.  "Misery loves
company."
     Zoner and Deedlit continued on in Zoner's original
direction of travel.  As they walked Zoner took the time to
really look at her.  It was hard to believe she was an alien.
Deedlit was a very attractive woman.  She was a little
shorter than he was, about six feet tall or so.  Well
proportioned, a beautiful smile, and a sparkle in her eyes.
Youth; she was young and had yet to truly experience the
trials of combat.  She was his senior by a number of years,
but a Salusian's childhood, like their lives, was longer than
a human's.
     He wondered if that attractive sparkle would remain
there after she had seen the horrors of war.  He hoped that
it would.  He felt that he was aged beyond his years by the
responsibility of command.  Or maybe it was just coming back
from the dead.  He wasn't sure.  None of these thoughts
changed the fact that Deedlit was attractive.  As they walked
her long black hair trailed behind her in the artificial
breeze.  There was something about her that he just couldn't
quite pin down.  Something about her features.  Wait!  That
was it.  For the first time Zoner really noticed that there
seemed to be different races among the Salusians.  Deedlit's
features seemed almost Asian, but not quite.  It wasn't
really surprising.  Humans had many different races, why
shouldn't aliens?  Zoner decided to simply ask her about it.
     "Deedlit, I want to ask you something.  Please don't
take this the wrong way, but are there different races of
Salusians?"
     "Hmm?  Oh, yes, yes of course.  It's not much different
that the way different races developed on Earth actually.
Salusia has several continents and the living conditions vary
widely.  The different races evolved for the same reasons as
on Earth.  Genetic mutation in isolated population and
survival of the fittest mostly.  Why do you ask?"
     "Well, I just really noticed how there seemed to be
subgroups among the Salusians, appearance wise that is."
     "Oh.  Is that why you were looking at me so intently?"
     "Um...well, yeah, that's part of the reason.  But you
are very attractive."
     "Really?  I wasn't sure humans would be attracted to
me."
     "Don't worry about it.  You know, Yuri would probably
kill me if she heard me saying these things."
     "Why?"
     "She can get very jealous.  But she really doesn't have
anything to worry about.  I'm hopelessly in love with her."
     "I'm not sure how to take that."
     "Well, you may be very attractive, and I like you a lot.
You seem fairly cool--but Yuri is the one I love.  Love isn't
a logical thing, you know.  Don't try to figure it out."
     "Yes.  I know."
     "Do you have anyone?"
     "I used to, but we broke up a couple of years ago.  Then
I got promoted and I've been so busy that I haven't really
had the time to devote to a relationship."
     "Well, it seems that we have almost nothing but time as
of late.  You should try to find someone.  There're plenty of
people aboard."
     "Yeah, I know.  I probably will."
     "Well, I think I'm going to head back to my quarters for
a while.  See you later."
     "Ok.  See you later."
     Deedlit turned around and started back towards her
apartment as Zoner continued on towards E7.

     "There's nothing to do but abuse mecha," ReRob muttered
to no one in particular.  Logan gave him a quizzical look.
     "Well, word is we're heading for a system.  Maybe
they'll be a planet to check out," Android replied.
     "Yeah.  Like in every episode of Star Trek.  They always
find an inhabitable planet," Lightnin joked.
     "But the odds of actually finding an Earth-like planet
are extremely low in the real world," ReRob rejoined.
     "I know.  But let's at least try and be hopeful.
Besides, we've got forever to find one," Lightnin replied.
     "Searching for a planet forever could get real boring,"
Android observed.
     "Yeah I guess it could.  Maybe we should come up with
another goal.  I want to live long enough to be a witty as
Joel and the 'bots," Lightnin replied.
     "I guess our bosses on Earth didn't like us then," ReRob
ventured.
     "Umm...you could say that," Android answered.