The Water Mission - Part Two
by thunder falcon
The Past of Our Lost Tomorrow
Blinking madly the com-panel suddenly came to life, sounding the kind of emergency that could only mean certain disaster. Caskin rolled from his bed hoping to answer the call before it woke Lilith, who slept happily with floating limbs, on the bed next to him. With minimal gravity and their pillowing cocoons being vertically fixed to wall, it made tumbling out of bed into a standing position all the more easier, especially when it came to managing the latest crisis, whatever it might be.
Caskin managed to answer the wall com-phone before the third ring. "Yes?"
"Get your ass up!" the voice demanded indignantly. "We need to talk, right now."
Caskin smiled. No, we don't, he thought as he silenced the audio and put the caller on hold. Besides, it was the hideous and bossy Commander Hain, so it couldn't be the emergency, Caskin had been led to believe it was. The man just enjoyed lauding his powers over everyone, especially over him and Lilith, who occupied the lowest position on the crew totem pole.
Bouncing on lighted feet, Caskin kept Hain in com-phone purgatory, knowing full well his voice would be waiting to ream him out on the main bridge of the Aquarius. With floating skips and bumps he dropped by the canteen, picking up a bag of tasty Bachi Milk. Savoring his cool liquid breakfast through a straw, he passed the invisible barrier, into the gravity laced decks, designed to keep human muscles from fading into oblivion. Making his way to the bridge, he sipped happily through a sleepy haze.
How Caskin loved the honey dreamed flavor of Bachi Milk. It was one of the few pleasures, he could enjoy without the slightest reservation, as it was always in much greater supply than water. The real crime, as far as he was concerned, was the usual practice of bleeding the water out of the Bachi Milk. The procedure's only saving grace, was the thick and creamy Bachi Pudding, that was left over after its completion. But it was terribly rich and he could only eat so much of it.
Arriving to his pilot's seat on the flight bridge, Caskin wondered how long he could put off Hain. But when the man, did an override on the com-system and started ringing on another channel, he knew the joyful time for avoidance had all but run out. Upon answering the second trip line, Hain was even more testy, if such a thing was possible.
"Do you have any idea, who you're screwing with?" he spat indignantly.
"Sure I do," Caskin responded, "as you never miss an opportunity to tell us."
"Look, I'm not jerking around here," Hain hissed. "Where's Dr. Kline? Has he checked in with you since he left?"
Caskin was momentarily stunned. "No, but I wasn't aware he went anywhere. In fact, from what he told me, you've been doing everything in your power to control every drop he made to the planet surface."
"That situation, is none of your business," the com-panel vibrated indignantly as Hain threw his weight around. "You're just the water boy. Besides, I'll be on top of his ass, the second he docks with his team and it ain't gonna be pretty. But all you and Gatorade Girl, need to be worried about, is starting water extraction procedures as soon as possible. Besides, we have less than a week before we lose our assigned launch window."
"I assure you Commander Hain," Caskin returned with that calm and politely professional administrative tone, "we're well within the mission expectations of the The Water Extraction and Protection Commission. Besides as pilot and water boy, I recall our launch window is pretty variable."
"Not on a free-return trajectory, it isn't," Commander Hain snapped.
Caskin's expression soured. On some level, he could understand Burn's unrelenting agitation. They had been in orbit around Earth for several days and still had yet to gather a single drop of water to begin processing. But Dr. Kline had no intention of allowing the mission to proceed, without first making sure all the details were in order. And Caskin had to admit, if only to himself, that he reveled in every extra moment they were permitted to remain in orbit around the glittering blue star.
"I don't know if you actually bothered to read the mandate from the Armstrong Council," the water boy detailed sportingly, "but we're not permitted to begin extraction procedures without both your approval and the approval of Dr. Kline. And Dr. Kline has no intention, of granting authorization for our mission to proceed, until he can verify the water treaty."
"Something, I might add Commander Hain," Caskin heard Lilith's voice cut in behind him, "you have been unwilling to allow him to do, since we got here."
"Lieutenant Lightwood, if I want your opinion, I'll ask for it," Hain said, singeing the com-panel. "Besides, if you two spent less time waxing philosophical, and more time doing your damn job, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Now water extraction is to begin from the predesignated site at Everest Island, at zero-six-hundred hours, on my orders and that's final."
The transmission bluntly terminated.
In the rude silence, Caskin was all but certain something was seriously wrong. "Jesus, I can't believe the nerve of this guy. Legally he knows full well, we can't proceed without meeting the requirements of the mandate as dictated by the Armstrong Council."
Caskin turned to be struck by Lilith's steadily darkening expression. "Is it me," she asked her voice straining, "or is this mission going to hell in a hand basket?"
Caskin looked down to find his own fingers quivering over uncertain buttons. "I don't know. But from the beginning Hain has been acting really strange. It's almost as if, he just expected us to drop where ever and when ever he wanted to start pumping water."
"And he's been doing everything in his power to prevent Dr. Kline from making contact with the intelligent life here." Lilith suddenly shuttered, as if pulling some secret event from a forbidden page in earth's forgotten book. "Jesus, what if there is some problem with the Terra Water Treaty?"
"You know, I hate to bring this up," Caskin stammered recalling pin-pricking details around the last documented visit to earth. "But Hain was the commanding officer who handled the last mission here. I don't know who actually handled the negotiations, but certainly, he had a hand in confirming the best site for water recovery and working out the final terms of the agreement."
"Yes, but the negotiations team had their orders, right?" Lilith sputtered. "And knew how to use his translation technology, didn't they?"
"That doesn't mean, the terms were translated correctly. At least, in a manner that accurately represents the wishes and desires of earth's current custodians." Caskin paused to consider the potential implications of the matter. You know what this means, don't you? If there was any sort of deception here on our part, it could be a disaster of unimaginable proportions. And if The Pleidian Council gets wind of it, we could lose their support all together. And how long would the colonies last without them?"
"Not long." Lilith gasped, catching herself. "I don't know. Maybe we're overreacting. I mean, we've both seen the treaty right? It looked in order, didn't it?"
"Yes, but Dr. Kline seems to think there's something wrong with it. And Hain has been acting like he knows something is wrong with it. That would explain why he's done everything in his power to keep Dr. Kline from completing its ratification."
Lilith started pacing across the bridge, her feet shuffling in confusion. She then stopped abruptly and spun around to rush to the control panel. Typing commands into the computer, her eyes squinted. "It says here on the launch history, that Dr. Kline didn't take the submersible from the command vessel and instead took that specially fitted drop shuttle, he's been keeping aboard the Aquarius."
"So that's how he got around Hain. He was probably gone for hours, before Hain figured out what he was doing," Caskin guessed accurately. He then smiled on another mischievous thought. "Well, now we know why Kline started that argument with him and insisted that his team stay here on the water rig with us."
"Very strategic," Lilith smiled.
"Yeah, but there's only one problem with taking that souped up shuttle of his," Caskin said rubbing his head dismally. "Other than the fact it's a submersible, we don't know what the damn thing is retro-fitted for. On top of that, it's an experimental prototype and from the test runs, its been all over the place on fuel consumption."
"Which means, he'd have to know exactly where he's going." Her face pinching with concern, Lilith glanced at the launch history record again. "It says here that he departed around six hours ago. Even spending most of his time in hover-mode, he might not have enough fuel to get back in that time, especially considering what he needs to punch that boat through the atmosphere."
"Are there any safety issues, with that thing?" Caskin asked.
"No, it's got extremely stats for good handling and performance. The only thing, has been it's consistency in fuel consumption. Spectacular on some runs, dismal on others. I'm assuming, it depends on what flight mode it's in. But the review I read was pretty short on flight details.
Caskin stopped to ponder to himself a moment. Lilith seemed to always know when he needed a moment to roll things through the many layers of his thoughts. But all too often other people were not aware of this fact.
"Morning." Gill, a member of Dr. Kline's team wandered onto the command bridge scratching his backside. In doing so, he provided a response to a question for which the two water pilots had no desire for reply wether or not Gill wore boxers or briefs. Caskin didn't much care for the answer as it poked out at him. "What does a guy have to do for some grub around here? The space natives are getting restless and have been digging around for cereal and Bachi milk."
"How many space natives?" Caskin asked with a tactical thought in mind.
"Just the five of us. Don't know where everybody else went," Gill sputtered with a yawn. "Hell, Dr. Kline is probably out having another go-around with Hain."
Caskin cleared his throat, trying to look nonchalant. "Ship's canteen, corridor 6-B. Protein cereal, lower left-hand cupboard. Bachi milk, freshly thawed from the cryo-freezer, middle shelf in the fridge. And," he added with a smile, "there's also some exotic alien fruit. And as always, totally tasteless baggie meals."
"Good to know. Thanks." Gill wandered off taking his boxers with him.
Lilith smiled upon his departure. "He only took himself and two other people. And with a crew that small, he could make a decent gain on fuel consumption."
"Which would give him enough for the return flight," Caskin grinned. "Looks like he was thinking ahead."
"Well, he's no doubt attempting to make direct contact with our earthly inhabitants," Lilith hummed thoughtfully. "He's probably spent the last three days trying to figure out the last known location of their governmental leadership, without Hain catching wind of it. Of course, the best way he could buy flight time, is by trying for audio and sonar contact by tapping into their echo communications."
"He'd be much better off if he could pull off a face-to-face meeting," Caskin observed. "What did he say they call themselves...the Krilliss?"
"Of the Krilliss Unity Circle," Lilith reminded him. "But from what I've been told, the term was really created more for the convenience and understanding of humans."
"Yes, Kline was telling me, they don't really have a form of government as we understand it and the overall societal structure is very laxed and sort of organically free formed, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean," Caskin sputtered. "Which is why, it's so important, to have clearly defined agreements with them."
Lilith grew quiet as she weighed what few facts were at hand. In thoughtful silence, her expression twisted in that way that looked a little like mischief. Caskin knew the look, and immediately recognized secretive plotting going on behind Lilith's studied gaze. "We need to get the Aquarius into the right position," she said her brows flaring up with a plan. "If we can guess where Dr. Kline went, we can make sure he docks on the opposite side of the rig. Hopefully, that will keep Hain from detecting his arrival from the command vessel. That should buy Kline, enough time to contact the Armstrong Council, that is if Hain doesn't block the communication."
Caskin frowned. "And how are we supposed to cover for that?"
"Well, we've been ordered to begin water extraction at six-hundred hours, right?" Lilith pointed out deviously. "And with what Dr. Kline and other members of his team have been telling us, we have enough information to speculate his flight path, which my guess, puts him about five-hundred kilometers off the coast of Everest Island. All we have to do is toss this rig in the right direction and we'll see his drop shuttle before Hain does. From there, we'll hit atmospheric surf and it'll look as if we're going through preliminary procedures for the siphon steam. The interference alone, should be enough to cover the signature of Kline's shuttle."
Upon hearing the notion, Caskin half winked. "I like it. The only problem is that it's after four a.m. now. That means, Kline has less than an hour to send off a message to the Council, so he can get back an answer, before Hain gets wise to us at six-hundred hours."
"It would be better, if we got a jump on it by contacting the Armstrong Council ourselves," Lilith guessed rubbing her chin.
"Well, then there's the problem on what to tell them," Caskin said critically, much to his own surprise. "I mean, come on Lilith! As far as most of them are concerned, we're just the water crew. What are we supposed to tell them? That Hain is an asshole? Half the galaxy knows that by now. Besides, by what little we have to say, Kline looks in the wrong at the moment by dropping without a full team as required by mandate, without full approval from the command deck - also required by mandate. And when push comes to shove, once he gets whatever confirmation he needs from the Krilliss, he has to be the one to make the call, so he can explain why he was forced to take such drastic action."
"What if we ask the rest of his team to help us?" Lilith hazarded. "Maybe they have the information we need, to justify the call."
"Do you really see those guys putting their butt on the line, without Kline to back them up? Nope, the man needs his ass right here, right now, to do it himself."
Lilith took on that distressed look, she was prone to getting whenever she hit an invisible wall. A labored moment of unauthorized pouting passed before a light flickered on in her eyes. The new illumination guiding her motion, she turned back to the computer console and started going through some files.
Caskin didn't want to ask but he had to. "What are you doing?"
"Well, all this speculation is about a possible problem with the water treaty, right? But it just so happens the treaty recently became public record along with some of the other survey files, so I'm having the computer check both the water treaty and Dr. Kline's previous contact records and agreements with the Krilliss, to look for any problems."
Caskin grimaced. "Yes, but we checked that out already and there wasn't anything obvious, remember?"
"Yes, I know. We just have to hope the blip box finds something, we missed." Lilith barely finished the sentence before the panel beeped.
"Well, that was quick." Caskin grinned, but his elation was short lived.
"Damn!" Lilith spat abruptly, looking at the data. "We've got problems. But on the bright side, we have perfectly good reason to contact the Armstrong Council."
"Why? What did it find?" Caskin asked fully aware of the high-alert signal sounding in Lilith's expression. She led him to the screen and he looked at the awful truth. "What the hell- I can't believe this crap! I swear, somebody really should tell people what we do at the W. E. P. C. Then maybe, they wouldn't try and pull this second-rate shit on us!"
"You know what this means?" Lilith stammered fearfully. "This is no longer a matter of speculation. We have a blatant violation here. And not from an outside entity, but from our own mission crew. And by W. E. P. C. charter, we have to file an account to apprise a superior officer of the situation."
Caskin frowned. "I guess, we have make some steam for the silver team."
"I'd love to," Lilith stammered. "But there isn't enough time to bring in the big guns. And you know in their absence, it's on us to deal with the problem. And my guess, when Kline faces off with Hain, shit is going to hit the fan, pretty damn quick. When that happens, all we'll have time to do, is document everything that goes down and hope to hell we're still standing when there's somebody around to report it to."
In a shaky but quick response, Caskin took to the terminal and started pushing buttons. "I'll run the encryption and start the download on the account file. Then we'll just update it, as we get new information."
"Well, no matter what happens," Lilith whispered, pulling out her own pocket terminal for her own tactical attack on the buttons, "at least our superiors are the only ones who will be able access it."
Caskin stopped to ponder the next hurdle with some duress. "Now, if only there was a way to get that call out, without Hain knowing about it."
"We could do it, if we call Mom. Well, your mom. I just borrow her on occasion," Lilith reiterated, adding a little naughtiness to the idea.
"You can't be serious." Caskin muttered, looking at Lilith with a sour expression.
He never liked calling his mother.
"Well, she's already sent a half a dozen transmissions to you. So she's due for an answer, from her loving and devoted son, right? Besides, she's an attorney, who knows some people on the council. So if you call her back, it'll just look like a personal communication. Then we can give her instructions, to reroute an enclosed coded message, to somebody who can actually do something to help us."
"She only knows a couple of people," Caskin said, mulling over the idea. "Jena Thomas- she's okay...and this other guy. He's military. I hope we don't get him," Caskin noted with a frown. "They play poker together and she always beats the pants off of him."
"Well, there's one upside," Lilith smiled. "Maybe she can give us some tips, since we're clearly playing some kind of screwed-up hand of Texas Hold'em here."
"Right, but is there any way we can do this without calling my mother?"
"Um," Lilith grimaced, "afraid not."
Well," Caskin winked on the sly, "lucky for you, my mother is devious."
"I'm counting on it," Lilith said, pressing out a naughty smile. Her face twisting, she suddenly looked very confused. "I just have one question...what the hell is Gatorade?"
Copyright © 2009 Thunder R. Falcon - All Rights Reserved
