Uranus Unity

Chapter 02

URANUS UNITY

CHAPTER 02

Captain Matthews made his way into the shuttle bay. He stepped over to one of the EV pods and leaned up against its hull. Reaching into his rolled up sleeve, he slipped out a cigarette that had been carefully hidden there inside the folds. As he lifted it to his lips, he pulled out his lighter. He lit it up. He closed his eyes and took a long drag.

“Captain?”

Matthews jumped. He spun around. Then he choked and began to cough.

A young, blonde woman with greasy splotches on her face was standing behind him with her hands planted on her hips. “Sir, where did you get that?” She indicated the cigarette.

“I…” He coughed some more. He tossed the cigarette off to one side. “…I…I found it.” He waved away the smoke that still lingered in the air. “On the floor…there…” He pointed.

The woman frowned. “Uh-huh. And I suppose…”

“Dammit, Watts!” He tossed his hands in the air. “Okay, I smoke! I smoke! Just let that go, will you?” He straightened up his shirt. “Let’s just get on with it!”

Watts dipped her head down to hide her smile, as she fished out a note pad from her back pocket. The captain did the same.

He put pen to paper first and wrote, “Report.”

She read his statement and wrote in return, “Fuel in place. Guidance on. All auxiliary systems go. On your command.”

“Who else knows?”

“Sheppard. Davis. Rajalingam. Sheehan. Others do not know fuel. Or purpose.”

The captain nodded and said out loud, “Fine.” He went to write some more. “Make sure everyone on board when I do it.”

“When?” she wrote.

“After the ceremony. They will be going into long rest cycle.”

The captain spoke aloud. “You have it?”

Watts slid it out of her pocket. It was an iStick. She handed it to the captain.

The captain frowned at it. He looked up at her.

“You said ‘inconspicuous’!” She pouted.

The captain sighed. He stared down at the device in his hand. As he shook his head, he lifted his cap off it and gave it a scratch, all the while turning the iStick this way and that.

Watts frowned and then coughed to the side. “Uh…sir…just so you know, it’s still fully functional as an iStick, so it’s actually…um…got a couple of tracks from…you know? Queen, Chicago, Boston…for when I’d be working out, jogging…”

The captain pressed play.

The shuttle bay speakers blasted out music:

“…Mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go!…”

The captain shot his hand up to cover his ear.

Watts reached in and clicked it off.

Recovering, the captain spun to glare at her. “Watts!”

“Sir…”

“You had it hooked up to the sound system?!”

She held her hands up. “Only in the immediate vicinity of the iStick, sir! And I only exercised in the gym, like nowhere else, I swear…”