The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Four: Spies, ch. 5

Cheyenne sat on the couch in her medibay. She got up out of the tank every day now, for a short time. It felt like a lot of work, to have them cover every inch of exposed flesh with bandages in order for her to be out of the tank for less than an hour. But they insisted it was necessary for her recovery, so they did it.

She sat and picked up the slate she'd been given. There was something she wanted to do, and now that she was up this was the perfect time.

"God damn it, pick up the phone," Cheyenne groused as Skype made it's noise. It normally cost money to call a regular phone from Skype, but the company had given them all a generous allotment of credits. Just one of the little perks to being heroes back home.

Dan had let her know that they'd added a portal, allowing them to access the earth-side internet. She preferred to call her Mom through familiar tech, not to mention it lessened her guilt now that she wasn't the only one able to contact family back home. But more than anything, it gave her a chance to contact another "family" member.

The ringing finally stopped and she heard a voice, "yeah?"

"James?" she said.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"You know who this is," Cheyenne snapped, "it's the mother of your children."

"Cheyenne, Honey," he said.

"Don't," she warned, "you lost honey privileges two floozies ago."

He muttered something off line she could barely make out. Something along the lines of "bitch ain't changed." She didn't care.

"James, where are you?" Cheyenne asked.

"What's it matter to you? You're in space," he slurred out. "You'll get your check."

That was unlikely. "Yeah, I am in space."

"Some kind of hero. If they knew..."

"I'm in space, and I can't get home right now. Our kids need a parent."

"Shouldn't have gone then," he snarled.

"You were a soldier once," she snapped. It was a low blow and she knew it, but she didn't care. "You know I didn't have a choice. One more deployment and I'm out. Until then, our kids need a parent."

"You're mom's there. She don't like me."

"That's not the same thing," she said. She wasn't going to admit the truth, that she wanted him to check up on how her mom was handling the kids. He'd love that.

"You're up there with them aliens, loving that aren't you? All of us stuck down here suffering and your floating high on the hog."

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"We see the pictures, Cheyenne. Everyone talks about you. Cheyenne Walker, the hero, the bad ass woman that shot the missile down. Fuck. And we see the healers doting on you. Getting everything. Fucking lost my apartment, but at least you get have a nice little vacation."

Cheyenne assumed he was talking about the pictures from the press conference or the interview she gave the other day. Then it hit her. "You lost the apartment? Where are you living?"

He muttered something about a motel.

"But how?" she asked.

"Fucking Carl," he swore. It was enough. Carl Hodsen was James' most recent boss. No doubt James had gotten fired.

"Look, I'll get your child support somehow," he protested.

"I don't care about the money, I want you involved in the kid's life. Okay?" she pleaded through the phone line at him. "Can you just please sober up for a day and go visit them. They need their dad."

Asking him to sober up implied that she knew he was on a drunk. Mistake. "Fuck you," he snarled and broke the connection.

Cheyenne rose and paced the room. Lana watched her closely but didn't interfere. The door slid open and Dan walked in.

"Dan!" she exclaimed, glad for something to take her mind off her ex.

#####

"After you," Hornbeck said.

Bakala gave him an uncertain look, put off by the excessive politeness in Hornbeck's voice. Then he shrugged and stepped into the lift.

Hornbeck made a motion towards Davies. Davies had his slate out and the earth tablet program up. He had the photo app open. The slate didn't have a physical, built in camera, so it projected a little lens icon above the surface and that worked like a camera. Davies scrambled forward and took a couple of pictures.

"Look! I knew it," Hornbeck said as he inspected the picture. "There's another whole level to this ship."

Kleppie crowded in beside Davies to look. Sure enough they could see around the edge of Bakala's legs, a hatch opening above him.

"A third level," Runningbear said. "I wonder what they are hiding up there?"

They continued down the hall, still muttering about the hidden deck. In the minds of several of the men it was proof that the Consortium wasn't playing straight with them. Kleppie wasn't so sure, he wanted to ask someone for an explanation before he assumed the worse. But he couldn't, that would defeat the whole purpose of spying.

Hornbeck paused outside a door and listened at it. "I think someone's inside," he hissed. Davies made his camera ready again. As soon as the door slid open, everyone tried to act like they just happened to be crossing that spot at that moment. Davies, buried in the middle of the group, tried to take a couple of pictures into the room before the door slid shut.

So far they had an impressive collection of nothing. For a day and a half, they had taken the most circuitous routes to and from every location, snapping pictures through any open door. The hatch at the top of the zero G lift was the most obvious, suspicious thing they had come across. Otherwise they had a bunch of blurry photos of utility closets, storage closets and staff bunks that were almost identical to their own.

#####

Mandy Tennyson found a place at the mess table with her lunch. She slid her slate out and sat it next to her. The one called Daksha found a seat beside her. Mandy spared her a single tentative smile before turning her attention to the slate.

Daksha always seemed to have lunch the same time as Mandy, and always found a seat close by. Mandy wasn't sure how to feel about that. Mandy was bisexual, though she had limited experience with women. When she did go for women it was usually butch women, and Daksha certainly had that going on, a tall broad woman who walked with a swagger and always had a cheeky smile on her face. She was a space walker, one of the mechanics who took care of the outside of the ship. She'd been through radiation sickness more times than she could count and she'd befriended Mandy the second day onboard the Corelean. Mandy could guess that Daksha would welcome more, if Mandy gave her any indications. Mandy hadn't yet decided, the situation was so different from anything they had encountered so far. Still, she liked having Daksha around.

Today, however, she found herself the center of a much bigger circle. "Oh my god, you've got the latest season!" One of American crew said, pointing at Mandy's slate. "It just came out. How?"

"Now that we have the portal," she said, "I ordered it from my iTunes account."

"iTunes?" one of the Consortium healers asked. "What's that?"

Mandy explained about buying things online back home.

"Oh that's cool," another healer said. "I started watching the first season. I want to understand you guys better." Mandy bit back a snort. Maybe they shouldn't try to judge us by this, she thought. "But I can't get the next season because it costs money. Is there anyway we can get those cards?"

Mandy shook her head. "I don't think so."

She felt a presence and found a redheaded neanderthal woman next to her, looking at the screen intently. "So, let's say Whitman there bought it with his card and then gave it to Joviss? Yes?"

"Umm, I don't see why not?"

"Why would I?" Whitman began and stopped. Mandy caught a wink and smirk on the woman's face. "We could talk about that," Whitman said.