“A Woman’s Intuition”
Author: Darkrider62
(aka Susan Moore)
Chapter 4
“Haven’t I seen you
before?”
{Custer to the Sioux
at the
Both young men whirled, instinctively pulling their guns. Their lights hit two black figures with Hardy between them. He flinched slightly when the light hit his eyes but he looked fine, if a bit sheepish. The business ends of the two Mark IV Sub Laser Carbine (the latest issue), however, did not.
“Well, well, well, looky what we got here,” said the voice again in a sarcastic tone.
“Oh, stow it,” said the one on Hardy’s right. The voice was also female, slightly deeper than the first but still pleasant if it had been under other conditions. She lowered her gun. With a sweep of her free hand, the woman intoned, “Welcome to what’s left of the Big Fish, uh, I mean the Despritz. I’m Captain Colleen O’Flanagon and my partner, Captain Kathleen O’Flanagon of Special Intelligence.”
Conroy grinned suddenly, putting his weapon away. Without looking at his captain, he asked, “You’re the ones who put Kilroy on the box?”
Their helmets turned to each other across Hardy’s shoulders (they weren’t as tall as the lanky Southerner) before one turned to gaze back at Conroy, faceplate still blank. “You bet.”
“Why don’t we put our guns away?” suggested the one who identified herself as Colleen.
The other, who had to be Kathleen, undid the binders on Hardy’s wrists. “There ya go. No hard feelings?”
“None at all, ma’am,” he replied with a grin.
“Do you have a ship that works?” asked Derek.
“Actually, no,” answered Colleen. “We’ve been using a life pod to stay alive.”
Derek winced. Not good. “I guess we’ll have to tow your pod to the Yamato.”
“Not a good idea,” stated Colleen. “It’s in bad shape.”
Wildstar sighed. “I guess we’ll have to take you another way. It would be a tight fit, but do you think you can fit into an Astrofighter’s slim seat?”
“We can try.”
“Good.” Derek gave a curt nod. “Hardy, where’s your fighter?”
He gestured at the women beside him, one of whom answered Derek’s question, “We tied it up on the other side. I’ll go get it.” She then turned to Hardy. “It’s your ship, wanna come?”
“Sure.”
“Be back soon.” The two disappeared out of the airlock and floated up the side of the ship with Hardy hanging onto a line from the woman’s black suit.
That certain sinking feeling kicked up in Derek. He suddenly realized he had been neatly outmaneuvered by two clever people. A tiny part of him told him that though their methods were a bit, um, unconventional, they were officers in need of help. He then radioed the Yamato. “Homer, everything is okay. We should be back in a few minutes. Tell Nova and Doctor Sane to meet Conroy and Hardy on the flight. We’re bringing a couple of people back with us.”
“Roger,” Homer’s voice sounded tired.
“Oh, tell Nova she’s going to have some company and to make room. Also, seal off the flight deck, observation view and alert security. I want no leaks.”
The last was unnecessary because when Nova heard her instructions, she had cheered in the background and leaped from her seat. “Finally!” she crowed to the bridge crew. “I’m going to have some female company!”
While Derek was giving his orders, Colleen reached out with that peculiar telepathy that twins sometimes had. ‘Kat?’
‘Yeah?’ The other was at Hardy’s fighter helping him get it ready for flight.
‘Nova’s on that ship.’
‘Really? No kidding. This ought to be fun.’ The tone was joyous and playful.
‘Do you think he’s there too?’ Colleen sent tentatively.
There was a mental snort. ‘How should I know? The last thing I knew of him was that he was at EDC Headquarters on Earth.’
The word spread like wildfire on the ship. There had been survivors on that ship...and they were female! However, Derek had closed the flight deck off, except for the on-duty personnel, and had called for the security teams to enforce his orders. Doctor Sane and Nova had been called to report as soon as the deck had been pressurized. The overhead view had been blocked off to make sure no one tried to sneak a look.
As Conroy taxied to his parking space, he heard Colleen exclaim, “Would you look at that?”
“Have you ever been on the Yamato before, Captain?” he asked eagerly.
“No, actually. You folks were out when we left Earth,” she answered.
Conroy brought his bird to a neat stand-still and his crew came sweeping out to hook it up. He opened the canopy and unhooked his belt and life-support system before getting up and turning to assist his passenger. The helmet was lighter than before but he still couldn’t see her face. She simply sat still, observing while he unbuckled her.
“Pressure okay,” came the deck controller’s voice over the comm.
“Great!” breathed Colleen. She reached up and pressed a button near her neck. The soft sigh of released vacuum hissed gently and she reached up, almost knocking Conroy in the chin, to pull the helmet off.
Conroy had fallen back on his seat, kneeling to stay out of the way and trying to be helpful at the same time. He was the first to see the dark gleaming hair, coiled like a black snake on top of her head and, as she raised her head, the bright dancing emerald green eyes. To say he was smitten at first glance wasn’t wrong.
As he was drinking in the beauty of her, she asked, “Lieutenant? Are you OK?”
“Uh? Oh... yeah.” He finished backing out his seat. “Do you need help to get out?
”
“Thanks.” Colleen handed him her helmet first, which he handed down to the crew chief at the bottom of the ladder, before wiggling out of the seat. “Now I see why they call it the ‘slim seat’,” she muttered.
The pilot chuckled at her reference. The small space created when a pilot pulled his seat forward was intended for carrying extra supplies, but a person of a slim build could, in a pinch, fit there for an emergency.
“Come on, slow-poke!” called Kathleen from below. She had moved into the crew and they had parted like a wave before her.
“Catch.” Colleen dropped her carbine to her sister.
“Kit!” Kathleen dove for it one-handed; her other hand held her own helmet.
Colleen giggled and climbed down the ladder with Conroy following her. Conroy’s crew chief was a dour-faced young man who had an unsuspected bright smile as she reached the ground. Handing her the helmet, he saluted and stated, “Welcome onboard the Yamato ma’am.”
“Why, thank you -” she started.
“Kit,” growled her sister, tapping her foot angrily. “Do you have any idea how much these guns cost?”
Taking her gun back, Colleen answered with a smile. “A lot better than you do.”
Kathleen’s eyes narrowed. “Are you implying something?”
There was a second of intense sibling rivalry before Derek moved in, saying, “Now, ladies. I don’t want bloodstains on the nice clean flight deck.”
They turned and the captain realized he was gazing at two identical people. Both were five foot six, long glossy black hair coiled on top of aristocratic faces of tan skin, glorious emerald green eyes, with a misting of freckles over their noses. Colleen, the one nearest the fighter, wore simple gold studs in her ears while Kathleen had long, triangle gold ones in hers that had an emblem on them.
“Sorry, Captain Wildstar,” explained Colleen, swinging her carbine down to a better position. “My sister is...”
“Watch it,” hissed the sister from the side of her mouth.
But before Colleen could go on, another voice sang out over the flight deck. “Kit! Kat!”
The two whirled to see Nova come flying across the deck. “Nova!” they yelled in unison, dropping their helmets to the floor before racing off to greet the other woman.
The three almost crashed into each other as Colleen reached Nova first to throw a hug around her neck, then it was Kathleen’s turn. With a hand on each shoulder, and the greetings over to the bafflement of the crew, Nova made the two take a couple of steps back as she gave them a once-over. Doctor Sane simply shook his head and left. There was nothing for him to do here.
“Fancy suits for Intelligence officers. Where did you get them? Hmm? Was it legal or ‘requisitioned’?” Nova challenged the twins.
“Us...?” started Colleen, looking innocent.
“... Not do something illegal?” finished Kathleen naively.
“Don’t pull that innocent routine on me, you two,” warned Nova. “I’ve known you for far too long.”
“You know these two?” questioned Derek as he walked up to the trio, the girl’s duffle bags in his hands.
“Oh yes,” Nova sighed happily. “The O’Flanagons were my roommates in school.”
“We had some good times together,” said Kathleen with a wink at Derek as she took her bag from him.
“Show them to the sickbay for Doctor Sane to check them out,” Derek told Nova. “Report to me in the conference room for debriefing.”
“Aye aye, sir!” They saluted him before turning back to Nova.
As the group began to walk, he overheard them chattering. “Do you remember the time we short-sheeted the dorm officer’s bed?” Nova was saying.
“With the howl she made, how could we not have known?” Colleen stated.
Kathleen giggled. “You know, she never did figure out who got past her security systems!”
This set them off on another giggle as they exited the flight deck.
Derek was left standing with a duffle bag still in one hand and shaking his head in bewilderment.
TO BE CONTINUED…
To Return to Susan’s
Introduction….click here