Nebulae and Cosmic Filaments - A Second Anthology of SF SD Shorts

There be Monsters Here, ...

A/N: entry for SFSD 7.3, alt reality, using the Ariel and Dave Lister characters, set in a tube station and quotes in bold.  Word count: 1933

"Five, four, three, two ... GO!"

There was a brief sensation of hanging unsupported in space.  Then the familiar, welcoming embrace of sea water was folding around her body.

For a brief moment, Ariel allowed herself the feeling of relief to once more be in the sea's comforting hands.  It had been a long time since she had been fully submersed, almost five months since they had left Earth orbit for the jump across almost 140 light years to Alpha Piscium, one of the brightest stars in the Pisces Constellation.  Five months of waiting in suspension tanks, unable to join the human crew out on the deck, thanks to the bio-engineering done to her body.  Five months to think about the kind of journey she was about to begin.

And now that wait was over.

"Sub Pod Three to Scout One, do you read?" a quiet voice with a hint of a British accent asked into her comm earpiece.  

That would be Dave Lister, her handler.  She glanced over her shoulder at the sub pod, a sleek, flattened bullet of transparent metal and plastic hanging motionless in the deep blue water behind her and saw him looking at her out the cockpit window.  Spotting him, she quickly flashed the thumbs up.  And, to insure her ready status was recorded, she also replied over her communication unit.

"Scout One is reading you, Sub Pod Three.  I'm good to go out here," she said, letting the familiar yet alien water move over her voice box to allow speech.

"Right, then.  Let's run through your standard diagnostic set, Ariel.  We want to make sure any sampling done by the remote drones is repeatable by the on-site personnel."

"Copy that, Dave.  Stand by while I run through the set."

A quick hand into the pouch connected to her utility belt retrieved her kit.  Then, after checking to make sure the braid she had woven her long, red hair into, was still good, Ariel flipped up the kit's top lid and swiped a finger across the access panel.

With a quick flicker of lights, the kit read her biometrics and, using them as an access key, activated.

"Okay, Dave, we are starting to get some results here," she indicated after the unit calibrated then started sampling.  "Saturation levels, luminosity, salinity ..."  She paused to tap the access panel.  "Routing the results directly to the sub's computer."

"Ah, perfect!  I'm reading them now, Ariel.  Nice work, luv," Lister said, leaning back from the control console, arms folded.  "Did I tell you that I finally got to meet Captain Hargrove?"

"The mission commander?" Ariel's voice said out of the comm system's speaker and Lister found himself nodding despite the fact she wasn't looking at him.

"Yeah.  Turns out he's not the smeggin' twat I thought he was.  I went up to him and like said: 'Look, so some stupid people did some stupid things in your name. It's not your fault. You make a lot of people happy. I mean, look at me: I presumed that throughout history, all famous people were amazing. And then I met you! And I realised they're not. In fact you're a bit of a knob. Just like me. Which means that I'm okay'."

"No!" Ariel gasped.  "You didn't!"

"Yeah.  And he didn't even flinch, Ariel.  He just kinda smiled and said 'pleased to meet you, Dave Lister, Technician Third Class', before shakin' my hand and walking away."

Ariel found herself shaking her head in astonishment.

"You are going to get yourself assigned to permanent garbage duty doing that, Dave," she admonished.  "You need to watch what you say.  I don't want you to get reassigned and need to break in a new handler.  I'm sixteen years old!  I'm not a child anymore!  I can't just take anybody they throw at me and try to make the situation work."