Tinto

Chapter 5

'Wren, you okay?' Jess said, as I opened my eyes and saw the familiar surroundings of my crew quarters?

Before I could answer her, all the ships systems started coming back online. The familiar vibration of the core could be felt through the ship again as we fell back onto the bed, gravity reasserting itself.

'The core is back?' she said, excitedly getting up and putting her clothes on.

'Captain, you better get to the engine room. Everything has come back online!' came Cisco's voice over the intercom.

'Come here,' I said to Jess as I put my clothes on. I kissed her deeply, remembering her face, her smell, her taste. I am going to miss this.

Ortis and Cisco were staring at the core with elation and a decent helping of surprise as Jess, and I walked in. Everything looked like it did before it shut down, and power levels were nominal.

'It just came back on, Cap. This wasn't me!' Cisco said, sounding disappointed that it wasn't some miracle he had worked. I wouldn't have blamed him if he had taken credit for it.

'Well, whatever you did or didn't do, great job Cisco.'

The navigation system was blank, it showed our position as, well, nowhere. There was no reference data for it to track us. Cisco and Ortis began checking subsystems, making sure we'd sustained no damage, which, unsurprisingly we hadn't.

'We need to report this to the Company if we manage to get back,' Ortis said. 'It could be a critical issue that other ships might encounter as well.'

I agreed with him and said that was a good idea. Although it was unlikely to affect any other ship in the future, at least while I was floating around in that higher dimension anyway but didn't tell him that.

'So, what now?' Cisco said, tapping his tablet, trying to get any kind of data from the ship's sensors.

'I don't know,' I said honestly. 'The ship brought us here, what's your guess?'

Saying 'goodbye' seemed wrong somehow. Although I'd be gone, it didn't feel like this was the end. I gave Ortis and Cisco the best-damned high-fives I could muster and told them how glad I was that they are my crew. It felt a little corny, but a hug and an 'I'll miss you' wouldn't have worked here, I'm pretty sure.

I sat down with Jess and put my arms around her, holding her tight. I really was going to miss all of this, but the fact that they would be alive was comfort enough.

'Are we going to be alright?' Jess whispered so that only I could hear her.

I put my mouth next to her ear and whispered back, 'We'll all be fine,' as the anti-matter engines powered up.

The End?