Personal Log 80: 23rd - 29th November, 3301
04 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
23rd - 29th November, 3301As I prepared for take-off on 23rd November, I discovered my helm controls were malfunctioning once more.
"Not again!" I growled, and climbed angrily out of the ship. A man's voice from nearby startled me.
"Iss zere a problem, commander?" he asked.
I turned, and saw a hangar technician standing in the doorway. He was about my age, quite tall, with golden-blond hair and piercing blue eyes. His badge identified him as Gerhold Katzenmaus.
"It's... my helm control," I said, my knees suddenly turning to jelly. Katzenmaus walked towards me.
"You vant me to take a look at ziss?" he asked. I nodded, and followed the technician back into the ship.
"Hah!" he said, a short time later. "I see ze problem. Ziss lateral translator, fitted recently, ja? Iss heat-damaged, you see?"
I told Katzenmaus that I had indeed taken heat damage at LFT 1 last week. "The lateral translator was replaced at Toolfa earlier this month."
"Ja," he replied. "But zey fit ze wrong model for ziss type of ship. Clumsy of zem! I vill get you a replacement. Vill not take long."
Katzenmaus was as good as his word, and presently returned with the new component. As he worked we chatted. I asked if he had heard about the refinery explosion at Beta Hydri. His gorgeous blue eyes suddenly took on a sad look.
"Ja," he said. "My brother Thomas vas at zat refinery. I haff not had confirmation zat he vas a casualty, but I fear ze vorst."
Gerhold told me that he and his brother had always been very close, but a few weeks ago had had a big argument over something terribly trivial. They had parted company, vowing never to speak to each other again. Gerhold was on the point of contacting Thomas to apologise when news of the disaster came through. Now, riddled with guilt, Gerhold told me he felt devastated at the thought of never seeing his brother again.
Gerhold fell silent, and continued to work without further conversation. I had inadvertently intruded on a private grief, and I felt awful.
*****
I called Sam, and told him about Gerhold and his brother. "I'm going to have The Last Thing checked over from top to bottom. They're a bit busy here, though, so I may be here a couple of days."
Sam told me he would make some enquiries about Thomas Katzenmaus, to see if he could get any definite news to pass on to Gerhold. Two days later, on the 25th of November, Sam called with some amazing news.
"Thomas is alive!" he told me. "Turns out he'd called in sick and is currently nursing metal fume fever. I was able to talk to him today, and he wants to make amends with Gerhold."
Sam went on to describe the extent of the disaster. The death toll had been provisionally set at 70, with another 80 still critically ill. Federal Congress was infuriated by the situation, and while initial reports suggested there was no sabotage or act of terrorism, it was caused by negligence on a massive scale.
Gerhold was overjoyed when I told him Thomas was alive. "In zat case," he said, "I vill book passage to Barnard's Star as soon as possible!"
I told him I'd be happy to take him in The Last Thing, and he gratefully accepted the offer. The ship had been passed A1 throughout. I had already taken on a job to deliver performance enhancers to the Herzfeld Orbital scientific outpost in the Atagat system, but Gerhold said he would happily come along for the ride. So, once the delivery had been made, I set course for Barnard's Star.
At Miller Depot I witnessed the joyous reunion of the Katzenmaus brothers, and I wept with happiness for them.
"Thank you, commander Caesar," said Thomas, who was just as knee-tremblingly handsome as his sibling.
"Please," I said, "call me Jemine." I readily accepted their invitation to join them in celebrating their reconciliation with a visit to The King George. The celebration lasted quite a few hours!
Needless to say I suffered for it afterwards, in ways I don't need to describe. I'll just say that I was content to leave The Last Thing in her hangar for the rest of the week. Sam, meanwhile, had been called into Naval Reserve action at the Beta Hydri 7 mines.
"The miners have called a strike," he explained, "and the Navy has drafted us in to support the non-striking miners. There's no sign of the strike stopping anytime soon, but I'll be glad when it's over, believe me. A shoulder massage from you would be ideal!"