Uranus Unity

Chapter 03

URANUS UNITY

CHAPTER 03

On his way to Medical, Captain Matthews muttered to himself. “The nerve! Quizzing me on basic Uranian facts…like a goddamn kid in grade two…”

People he passed in the hallway nodded to him or saluted but he ignored it.

He continued as soon as the people passed. “I knew I would regret bringing him! What does he know? I’ve known everything about the solar system since I was ten! I’m the best! That’s how I got this bloody job in the first place…”

He turned the corner. “I know that Uranus is the seventh planet, and it’s gas on the outside, rock on the inside, with a wee little layer of ocean in between.”

Another corner. “And its tilt is…its tilt is…”

The captain stopped. He frowned. Stepping over to a monitor on the wall, he accessed the ship’s library and punched in, ‘Uranus tilt’. He read what came up:

‘…One of the most interesting features about Uranus that sets it apart from the other planets is its axial tilt, which measures about 97.77 degrees. The other planets in the solar system, without such an extreme slant, can be imagined to be tilted spinning tops circling around on the plane of the solar system. Uranus, alone, might be imagined to be a tilted rolling ball scurrying about the same plane. A person who was standing at one pole of the planet, no matter north or south, would experience forty-two continuous Earth-years of sunlight, that is, half the Uranian year, and then at the equinox, twice a year, the situation would begin to be reversed and the person would experience forty-two Earth-years of darkness. Only at exactly equinox, twice a Uranian year, will the planet experience an equal duration for light and darkness…’

He turned and began stomping away. “You see? I know everything! And if I didn’t…” He scoffed. “…I could always look it up!”

~~~

The captain stomped his way into Medical. “All right, all right. I’m here…”

From the far side of the room, Watts waved to him. “Over here, sir.”

The captain made his way over to where she was, by the side of a bed with a patient lying down in it.

The captain eased in and sat down on the edge. He smiled at the man in the bed, and then said to Watts, “So, this is the latest one?”

Watts smiled at the crewmember too. “Actually, sir, the last one. A Yeoman Henderson.”

Yeoman Henderson tried to sit up but winced.

“Okay, take it easy.” Captain Matthews helped him down again. “Don’t worry. You’re safe. I know you feel a little weak and dizzy. And your throat is burning, I know. Don’t worry about that. It’ll get better. Trust me. Do you know who I am?”

The man frowned.

“Okay, well you used to know me, you just don’t remember. I am Captain Vincent Matthews, of the Uranus Colonial One…well I guess that’s a new name too. Never mind.”

The captain turned to Watts. “How long has he been awake?”

She shrugged. “About three days—on and off, though.”

The captain nodded. “Well, I guess it’s the third day that makes the difference.” He turned to Henderson. “So, are you ready to be briefed? Take on a little info?”

Henderson nodded.

The captain lifted his cap and scratched his head. “Well, first off…”

“Is it true sir? Is it true that I was dead?”

“Well, I was going to get to that…”

“Sir…”

The captain took a big breath in and sighed. “All right. Yes, you were clinically dead. Oh hell, you were dead! Under all definitions of the word. We all were. Dead. All of us.”

“Then how…”

“I don’t know. No one does. At least not yet. The point is, the Uranians saved us, and…”

“Uranians? You mean like, native life forms? But there were no life forms when we first arrived. We scanned…”

The captain shrugged. “They were hiding. They didn’t want to be found, at the time.”

Watts interrupted. “Sir…?”

The captain scoffed. “Well, all right. I don’t know if they were really…hiding…” Air quotes. “…but we were in the air and they were in the water and they never told us.” He peered up over his shoulders at Watts.

She shrugged.

Henderson bit his lip. “But, sir…”

“Now hold on.” The captain held up his hands. “Why don’t we start from the beginning? Why don’t you tell me what you remember first?”

Henderson furrowed his brow. “I remember coming to the planet. I remember the plague. And then the war started…”

“The factions from back home, yes…”

“And then, we lost contact, I think…and then…and then what happened, sir?”

The captain eased back. He sat up straight. Reaching up, he rubbed his chin. “I wish I knew. I think that’s about all any of us remembers, right up to that point. The Science and Exploration Branch, that is us, who stayed near the surface of the oceans here on Uranus were shielded from the worst of it. The Military Branch that stayed topside was hit the hardest. I am not aware of any survivors from them.” The captain folded his arms across his chest. “But the fighting did get to us eventually, here on the water, and the whole colony down here was basically wiped out. To the last man.”

“Then what’s all this…” Henderson indicated all around him.

The captain shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know every last detail, but I’ll tell you what I do know. All of this, us, we are all here because of the Uranians. After all the fighting had settled, they emerged. They came out from hiding and they saved us. I don’t know how long it took them to figure it out, but they did eventually, so they took a bunch of us, repaired our wounds and got us breathing again. They had been observing us for quite some time before everything happened, so they knew our natural habitat was in a water free environment. So they fixed up one of our ships the best they could. As it happened, it was this one, what I call, the Colonial One. Basically, they took this old tin can, pumped it full of air, yanked it down into the ocean where they lived and then shoved the first lot of us inside. Fortunately, one of that first group was Chang, the communications officer. In time, he was able to come up with a rudimentary language so he could exchange info with them. First thing he asked for was for them to revive the chief engineer of the crew, Watts here.” He indicated the woman behind him. “And once she was awake, things really started moving along. They got the Colonial One’s on-board computer, life support, food and water, waste disposal systems going. And the rest is what you see. We’ve been in active repair mode ever since. That was about six months ago.”

Watts gave the captain a light jab in the back.

The captain smiled. “Oh, yeah, and then they woke me up.” He threw a quick glance at her. “Because they missed my sunny disposition.”

Watts coughed into her hand.

Henderson hung his head and stared into the bed.

The captain reached over and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Cheer up, son. Things could be worse. At least we got the food box going again and you have a lot of eating to catch up on.” He stood up and prepared to go. “Dig in. You’ve been dead a long time.” He nodded at Watts to go with him.

Henderson looked up. “Sir?”

The captain and Watts stopped. The captain smiled at the Yeoman. “What is it, son?”

“Are we going to go home eventually?”

The captain’s brow flicked up for a second. He turned to look at Watts and then turned back to face Henderson. He edged in closer. He smiled. “You should try the mock tuna. They say it tastes like chicken.”