Aftermath
19 Dec 2018Kodeyne
She awoke with a start, straight out of nightmares into semi-consciousness. She could feel the bedding damp with sweat. Lying there, mouth hanging open, body unwilling to respond. She remembered hours of dreams...or were they hallucinations?Where was she?
Slowly forcing eyes open, Kodeyne struggled to focus. A dimly-lit room, a single bed and tubes snaking from her arm to quietly blinking machines next to the bed....
Where the hell was she?!?
Her body suddenly responded to her panic and limbs kicked and thrashed, sending the bedclothes flying. She sat upright, still spasming, head bobbing. The door opened and shut quickly and a small woman, smooth round face and salt-and-pepper hair tied back, grey nurse's uniform, appeared at the bedside. Warm, gentle hands slowly laid Kodeyne back down again, the sheets quickly restored.
"It's all right, Commander," the woman said, "you're safe. It's all right." Kodeyne tried to respond but she could only vocalise a groaning "uhhhhh" noise.
"Try to relax, Commander. You're safe, okay? You've been through a bad few days, so no wonder you're disorientated. But relax. I'm Sasha. Let's get you sat up..."
She adjusted the bed until Kodeyne was at a comfy angle. Sasha smoothed the rumpled sheets and gently tucked Kodeyne's hair back. She busied herself with the array of equipment next to the bed and returned with a closed mug with a integral straw.
"Tea," she announced, "weak, warm and with honey in it. Get some into you, Commander. Get you back into gear." Kodeyne sipped gratefully at the liquid, realising how dry her mouth was. After maybe half the mug, she tipped her head back and sighed. Her mouth worked for a few moments and finally got something coherent out.
"What happened?"
Sasha pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. "We got a call from a barkeep. Apparently you'd been involved in some fisticuffs in her place that evening. And then you keeled over just like that. She knew it wasn't the booze, said you can hold your liquor...."
Tawa. Oh bless her.
"We ran a few checks, found a nasty little poison in your bloodstream. The barkeep gave us the weapon you'd been attacked with, and yes, that's where the poison came from."
Kodeyne shook, wanted to roar with anger, but shake was all she could do. "Bastard!" she croaked. Sasha laid a sympathetic hand on her arm.
"He left the station pretty sharpish, it turns out. But the local police have tagged his ship and if he ever comes back, well, they'll be wanting to ask him a few questions."
Kodeyne drank more tea. "You said...how long have I been here?"
"Best part of a week. Unconscious a lot a first. Once we started getting the toxin out of your system, you started waking up but not in any normal fashion. Spasms, seeing things, not good. Had to restrain you for a while."
Kodeyne shuddered.
"But you're on the mend, Commander. Another day or so and you'll be out of here. The FSS will want to speak to you first..." Sasha broke off when she saw Kodeyne's expression.
"Just a formality. There are enough witnesses to prove you were essentially defending yourself, so I'm given to understand it's just for their records. And a caution. You were waving a knife around, after all."
Kodeyne sighed, nodded and slowly slumped back into the bed. Sasha watched her kindly.
"We'll get those sheets changed. Then I think you're at the stage where you can get a few hours' proper sleep."
Kodeyne's head was already lolling. Sasha watched until she was slumbering again, then summoned some colleagues to help her with the bedding.
She'd had some breakfast - simple scrambled eggs had never tasted so good - and ordered some new clothes, and a bunch of flowers sent to Tawa with a thank-you note. The brief interview with a youngish male FSS officer was about what Sasha had said it would be. He then waited outside as she got dressed, and escorted her back to her ship. Slim, mousey hair and freckles. He adjusted his uniform cap and reached into the satchel he carried, handing her a slender package.
"This is yours, Commander. Please be more discreet with it in future?"
He winked, nodded then marched briskly away. Kodeyne carefully unwrapped the paper. It was her Fairbairn-Sykes knife.
"Bollocks to it," she muttered, digging the bottle of bourbon from the back of the locker. She poured a stiff measure into a tumbler and went through to the bridge, sitting down in the pilot's chair and staring at the walls of the hanger. One leg dangled aimlessly over the edge of the seat. A swig of bourbon, that warmth as it went down.
"Well, once again, here we are," she proclaimed to the universe in general, "pissed off with people, self included, so what do we do now? Eh?" That last was addressed to the ship, and she patted an armrest.
She needed some time away from the bubble, but really wasn't in the right state of mind for exploring. So...one of the outlying zones then. Pleiades? She had no desire to meet Thargoids again any time soon. Quince? Been there, done that. She was sure there was somewhere she hadn't been yet, somewhere all the gossip said was lucrative, without being too dangerous...ah damn, what was it called again?
Sipping more bourbon, she turned to the console and began haphazardly scrolling through a gazetteer of inhabited systems.
"Come on, come on..." she muttered.
After a few minutes, she stopped and rubbed her eyes. She was still tired.
Turning back to the screen, her eyes focused . And there it was.
SOTHIS...