NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: R.U.S.E.
Our play had reached the point where we had convinced the crew that the disease was potentially deadly and that it would be in our best interest to remove the people who were inflicted from the ship as fast as we possibly could. It was then decided, albeit that it was already decided long ago, that we would send down the sick to the planet below and send them some supplies and shelter along with them. We had some pretty utilitarian shelter prefabs. They had everything you really need for long term survival but it definitely isn’t very comfortable at all. At least the Dokazuuk had a lot of knowledge of when it came to building so they’d manage just fine to comfy the place up a little. The people that had opted to go down to the surface with them, were all pretty handy in survival skills as well.
“Commander, we are ready to send down the infected with the pods.” Luna said, looking at her screen.
I gave her a nod and opened a one-way channel towards the pods for my farewell message. “May the Goddess guide you on your path. I hope that one day we will meet again. But if that would not be the case, fare you well and know that it was an honour for me to be your Commander.”
It sounded corny, but it was a slightly adapted version of the farewell message in the Commander’s handbook. Ellie had made sure that this was recorded as well so we’d have an even stronger case when we arrived back on Earth.
With that, I pressed the button to launch the pods to the planet below. I’d rather given them a shuttle because it was going to be a rough way down, but that’s one of the things we couldn’t really afford to do. The escape pods were relatively available all around the ship. The logistics of getting them to the hangar bay alone and then ‘disinfecting everything’ would be more suspicious.
At least this way, I could make a case of the humane treatment of people who were on their last legs, instead of getting rid of the infected in the military way. Which is the thing we were trying to avoid to begin with.
Not soon afterwards, we also sent down the prefabs with some supply packages attached to them. As soon as that was finished, our manufacturies started their job of replacing those as well as the escape pods from earlier.
“Commander.” Ellie pulled my attention as we were all waiting on news. “The pods have landed safely and the prefabs have made their way to the designated landing areas as well.”
“Good, that’s at least one thing less to worry about. Now let’s start working on an antidote so that the brass doesn’t shit us out because ‘despoiled a perfectly fine planet with a disease we can’t control.’” Getting chewed out was definitely on the table, but it beat having to betray our allies. And luckily, the others shared my opinion on that.
“I’m already on it, Commander.” Eva winked at me and then walked back off to her ward.
I nodded and got back to the rest of the business. It was our plan to not stick around for too much longer after we’d dropped off our crewmates so I gave the command to resume our FTL jumps towards Earth.
When we then finally got into our first jump of the day, it was time to take a little break. Luna and I had been awake for almost 36 hours and while caffeine had kept me going up until now, I was definitely starting to feel the exhaustion kick in. And from what I could tell, Luna was even worse for wear.
I transferred command of the bridge to Lieutenant Walters, as Zu and McAllister were about to need some rest as well. Luna and I then made our way back towards our cabin.
“We still haven't really eaten.” Luna said while she wiped a hand over her face.
“I’m too tired to eat, to be honest.” I replied. “What about we just get some nutritional jelly on the way? That way I don’t have to chew.”
Luna’s face pulled into a rather scary look. “I’m… not a big fan of those…”
“Well, you can get something decent then… I’ll just take the jelly.” A small detour was necessary to get to our good old trusty fabricators. Sadly enough for us, there was a bit of a line.
“Oh no.” I rolled my head around and rubbed my neck. And the food bots were even busier.
“Commander.” The marine who was waiting in front of us saluted me. This pulled the attention of the two other people in the line, who quickly turned around and saluted us too.
“At ease.” I smiled and with quite a bit of effort managed to salute them back.
“If we are allowed to comment, Commander, but you and the XO look like hell.” The marine who was second in line replied.
“We are just pretty tired. It’s been quite the day.”
All three of them nodded in recognition. “We can definitely believe that.” the same marine responded. “Are you and the XO going to your cabin?”
I nodded. “That was the plan, yeah.” I saw in the corner of my eye that Luna had already started to doze off. She must be even more tired than I had thought. “We just wanted to get some food first.”
“Why don’t you skip in front of us, Commander.” The marine who was first in line said. “Before the XO falls asleep in the corridor.”
“Are you sure? I think I can carry her back to the cabin if need be.” It was rather clear that pretty much everyone knew about our relationship anyway, so I didn’t really bother to hide it anymore.
The three of them started laughing, this gave Luna a little kick of energy back as she shook wide awake for the time being.
“That’d be quite the sight, Commander.” The first marine joked. “But go ahead. That way you can carry your food with you as well.” The three of them then promptly stepped aside for me and Luna.
“Thanks a lot.” I saluted them again. “When we are back to Earth, the first drinks are on me.”
“Huzzah.” They cheered, which gave me a bit of energy back too.
We quickly ordered our things and made off with our food after saying goodbye to our friendly marines. With the little injection of energy, we managed to safely reach the cabin. Luna sat down on a chair at the table, while I just walked over to the bed with my bags of nutritional jelly and dropped on my back. Popping one of the bags of jelly in my mouth and opening it by biting down softly on the cap. One slurp later and that bag of nutrition was gone and in my belly. Tasty? Not really, but at least I’d had something to eat.
Luna in the meantime had started on her rice porridge. Not an extravagant meal, but it definitely had way more taste than what I had just taken in.
“I don’t understand how they don’t even make those jellies sweet.” Luna said after a couple of scoops of porridge.
“They probably reached their sugar cap on these bags already.” I replied as I took another bag, it met the same fate as the first one. “At least the option is there if you really really really need food now and don’t have time for anything else.”
“I’d rather not eat anything…”
I chuckled and stared at the ceiling. “You’ve clearly not been in too much combat.”
“That’s true…”
“And you need to keep in mind, back in the unification wars these were a lot worse, but we still ate them nonetheless. They were often the only thing to keep you standing. By the end of the war, there were plenty of civilians that depended on these too for their daily nutritional needs.”
“Really? I don’t think I’ve read about that. But I did skip a lot of the socio-economical consequences of the war.”
“We were fighting across almost the entire planet. Collateral damage is a thing, and if that hits your food industry…. Let’s just say there’s a lot of people who are happy these things exist.”
“Oh… I take it then that it’s because more people had to rely on them for food that it’s because of that that they added more taste.”
“More taste is an overstatement, but yes, that’s probably why it’s less awful now.” I took the last bag and slurped that empty too. I then rolled off my bed to put the packages into the trash, and then somehow managed to make my way back to the bed. “Are you almost done with your food, by the way? I kinda want to snuggle with you until I fall asleep.”
“I’m halfway done.” Luna giggled softly. “Just hang in there, okay?”
“I will not fall asleep until I have received my cuddles.”
“Good.”
-I will bite away the exhaustion! For it is disastrous to miss my soft girlfriend’s snuggles!-