NOVEL FROG 175. Challenges
It was well over an hour before I was finally ready to function again. I slowly picked myself up off the deck of the Eris-Nine's hold, then checked in with the Demeter so they knew I was ok. And we all put our heads together to figure out what to do next.
What we needed to do was get Rebecca's body into Jenny's Re/Gen capsule as quickly as possible. The problem was Rebecca and Nyssa and I were on a strange ship in a crater on the far side of the planet, while the Demeter was stuck in port at the Regulon mining colony with nobody left on board qualified to fly her.
Sarah suggested I could try and fly the Eris to port and maybe get a docking bay near the Demeter, but we ended up dropping that idea as we realized just how many obstacles and risks would be involved. First there was my complete inexperience with that class of vessel, and while I might have been able to figure it out the Regulon-4 mining colony was not a place you wanted to learn how to land an unfamiliar ship.
Second, like Rebecca said earlier the port itself wasn't friendly or safe. We'd be especially vulnerable trying to transfer a couple cryo-tubes from one ship to another, even if we could get the Eris into a bay near the Demeter.
The final clincher came when we discovered the Eris' flight controls were all passcode-locked anyways. So even if we decided the other risks were acceptable we still couldn't pull it off. In fact with Jamison and his crew all dead the only way the Eris-Nine would ever move under her own power was if either Sarah or Jenny could override the control locks.
And neither of them could access it unless we got the Demeter out here next to it, which brought us back to the original problem that there was nobody on board the Demeter who was qualified to fly her.
After some discussion and debate we finally came to an agreement on how best to proceed. It wasn't going to be fast or fun, but the only real choice involved me taking a long slow lonely shuttle trip back to the Demeter.
First I verified that both Nyssa's and Rebecca's cryo pods had more than enough charge in the batteries to last, plus a large margin of error. My girlfriend's pod was fully charged which meant it was good for twenty-four hours. And my sister's had charged up about halfway, so she was safe for twelve hours.
It took time to disconnect her pod from the cryo support system, then attach the grav-assisters. While I was doing that, I also had the Eris' cargo hold depressurize. By the time I was ready to move Rebecca's cryo pod it was safe to open up the catch and lower the ramp. Then I carefully moved my girlfriend's pod over to the shuttle. Finally I needed a bit more time to disconnect the lifters, so I could use them to move Nyssa's pod over as well.
While I was in the shuttle with our captain I also took a moment to remove the restraints from Beckybot's wrists and ankles. Then I asked Jenny to send the bot over to the Eris-Nine. When I went back there to get my sister I pressurized the hold, and Jenny had the android climb up the ladder to the main deck, where she left it sitting in the ship's mess.
The idea was if anyone came along and scanned the Eris they'd detect one warm body with a heartbeat. That meant the ship wasn't abandoned, so on the off chance anyone was snooping around they'd hopefully leave the craft alone.
Finally I depressurized the hold once again, then transferred my sister's cryo pod into the shuttle and set her down next to my girlfriend. I sealed up and repressurized the shuttle, and at long last set off for the spaceport. I activated the auto-pilot the moment we were at a safe cruising altitude, then took off my helmet and gloves. In fact I went on to peel off the rest of my e-suit as well, before sagging back into the pilot seat once more where I hugged my big floofy tail against my chest.
I was faced with the prospect of another five hour trek, but this time I only had two cryogenically frozen bodies for company. Sarah and Jenny were both still talking with me over the shuttle's comms, but it wasn't the same. I ended up breaking down in tears not long after starting the trip, then at Sarah's insistence I tried to get some rest.
Sleep proved to be impossible, at best I managed thirty or forty minutes of quiet time in between bouts of anxiety and grief. Sarah and Jenny continued to keep me company over the comm though, and eventually the shuttle finally reached The Crack.
I took manual control again for the last part of the flight, and carefully brought the shuttle down on a final approach to the mining colony's spaceport. Someone on the ship must have spoken with the port controllers because our landing bay had been depressurized and the hangar doors were open again when I arrived. It was a lot easier getting the shuttle in there than the ship had been, mostly because the smaller craft had a lot more room to navigate.
At least until it came time to dock, then I was moving in the narrow space between the stone wall and ceiling of the bay and the hull plates of the Demeter. That took a few more minutes of stressful concentration until I got the shuttle lined up with its docking bay on the side of the ship, then the automated systems took over and finished the job.
After the shuttle was securely docked I opened up the hatches and headed into the Demeter's starboard airlock, where my cute blonde girlfriend almost tackled me the moment the inner hatch was open. She pulled me into a tight hug and held me that way while Cammie Jenna and Jenny waited in the corridor behind her.
I broke off the hug after a few seconds and said, "We need to get Rebecca into Jenny's Re/Gen pod."
"Of course," Sarah nodded. "What can I do to help?"
"Just give me a hand with the cryo tube," I replied as I moved to one end of the bulky metal cylinder.
Thanks to our enhanced strength the two of us could lift and carry the capsule without having to attach the grav gear, and we carefully manoeuvred it out of the shuttle and into the ship. Jenna and Cammie accompanied us, both of them were near enough to help if necessary but stayed far enough back that they weren't in our way.
As we moved out of the shuttle then started aft towards the lift Jenny said, "I'm going to stow my HPD now so I'm ready for Rebecca as soon as you've placed her in my capsule."
"Thanks Jenny," I replied. Before she could return to her cabin though I added, "You're sure this is going to work, right?"
The AI hesitated slightly before answering, "I've done this before, it's part of my protocols as a front-line field Re/Gen unit. Unfortunately there are no guarantees. It all comes down to how long the patient's brain has been starved of oxygen. The cryo process stopped that clock, but may in turn have added other challenges. All I can say for sure is Rebecca has a very good chance, and I'll do everything in my power to help her pull through."
That wasn't exactly the unwaveringly positive response I'd been hoping for, but at least it was still optimistic.
Rather than waste any more time I just nodded once, then Sarah and I continued aft towards the engineering lift. As soon as we were down in the secondary hold we placed the cryo tube on the deck next to the Re/Gen unit. Jenna tapped the control to open her sister's pod, while I crouched down to check the cryo status panel.
As I did that I told my blonde girlfriend, "Restoration takes about two minutes, and once that begins it can't be stopped. The instant this thing unseals we have to get her into Jenny's pod. We can't waste any time, seconds count here."
"Understood," the cute blonde nodded. "I'm ready when you are."
"Then here we go," I said as I activated the cryo tube and began the process.
I didn't trust the automated routine built into the mechanism so I kept my eyes on the status screen and initiated each stage when I was confident it was safe. The automation was right most of the time, but it was those edge cases where things went catastrophically wrong. And considering how much it complained when I put Rebecca in there to begin with I definitely wasn't going to trust it to get things right this time.
The two minutes seemed to crawl past, with Sarah standing by my side while Jenna and Cammie watched quietly from a few paces away. As the process neared its conclusion I let Sarah know, and at long last the door released.
"Now!" I said as I swung it wide open and reached in to grab Rebecca's shoulders.
Sarah was by our girlfriend's legs, and we moved together to gently lift her up out of the capsule. Her body was stone cold from the cryo process, and she remained completely limp and lifeless as we placed her in the Re/Gen pod. Jenna was waiting by the end of her sister's capsule, and she hit the activation button the instant Sarah and I had our arms clear.
The door rotated closed and sealed itself, then all four of us watched the small status screen as we waited for the Re/Gen process to begin. The screen hung for a couple seconds on the 'Establishing Neural Link' message, then it seemed to skip the 'Patient Briefing' message entirely and went straight to 'Processing'.
I couldn't help worrying that something was wrong and Jenny wasn't able to communicate with Rebecca, but I tried to convince myself it was ok. Thanks to the AI's time dilation it was entirely possible the patient briefing phase happened too quickly for the text to appear on the status screen.
After a few quiet seconds Cammie asked softly, "What do we do now? Are we going to revive your sister, Amanda?"
I looked upwards in the general direction of the shuttle and nodded, "Yeah. Her cryo pod's only got about six hours of battery power left, but that's more than enough to restore her. Let's move the pod out of the shuttle first, maybe into the lounge? And I'll need my... Shit!"
"What's wrong, what do you need?" Sarah asked in a worried tone.
"It's my med-kit," I stated angrily. My ears folded back while my tail twitched in frustration, "I left it in the Eris-Nine's hold!"
Jenna asked, "Can you not revive your sister without it?"
I sighed, "Yeah I could try, but then if something went wrong I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. And we can't even fall back on Jenny's services, since she's going to be busy with Rebecca for the next nine hours."
"Ok," I decided a moment later. "Sarah, Cammie, I need you two to wire up Nyssa's cryo pod to the Demeter's power. Let's get her out of the shuttle first, and put her somewhere we can keep her safe in the meantime. Then I guess we'll be leaving port and flying the Demeter over to that crater. We'll land the ship next to the Eris so I can get my med-kit. Then when Jenny's available she can have a go at the Eris' computers."
Fortunately with a top-notch engineer and an ace mechanic on board they were able to assemble a suitable power cable in less than ten minutes. We put Nyssa's cryo pod in the starboard crew cabin and got it hooked up to the ship's power bus. As soon as it was plugged in the power lights all came up green, which was a relief. At least my sister was out of any immediate danger again.
"Alright let's start prepping the ship for launch," I stated. "Jenna I'd like you in the cockpit with me, since your sister and our captain are both unavailable."
The android replied, "I'd be happy to help Amanda, but I don't think the port controllers will let us leave until after we've paid the fuel and landing fees we owe them."
I sighed as my shoulders slumped, while my tail hung down low and my ears drooped. "Right. In that case will you accompany me into the port while I take care of that? We'll both be wearing side-arms, we know this place can be dangerous."
"Hold on there cutie," Sarah stated as she stepped in front of me. She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes as she said, "I know you're eager to revive Nyssa, but you need some rest. You've barely slept since we first found out about your sister back on Deveron-8. And the past fourteen hours you've been going almost non-stop, plus you're under a whole ship-load of stress."
Before I could protest she added, "Jamison was just one bounty hunter, there's going to be others. The last thing any of us need is for you to run into trouble in that spaceport while you're too tired and stressed to deal with it."
I stared at her for couple seconds then sighed again. "Ok Sarah, you're right. I'll try and sleep for a bit."
"Good choice," she smiled.
Then she practically dragged me into our cabin and pulled me directly into bed with her, where we ended up hugging each other tightly. Sure enough all the stress and weariness of the long difficult day finally caught up with me, and it wasn't long before I slipped into a fitful restless sleep.
