Enigma: A Far From Home Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

you’re done?”
    Dollar patted the nose of the ship. “I was thinkin’ Dragonfly .”
    “Good name.”
    “Thanks.”
    “So, uh, you not with your lady friend this evening? I hear most of the crew’s upped sticks and gone out for drinks and what have you,” the Master At Arms inquired.
    The hangar was quiet save for Dollar’s antics, and it was a wonder Eisenhower wasn’t tucked up in his quarters already. But the truth was, he’d found it hard to sleep the past couple of months. Ever since the accident…
    “I was with her,” Dollar said sheepishly. “Then I was with her, if yuh get my meanin’.”
    “Oh,” Eisenhower said. He knew all too well. He’d been something of a ladies’ man himself, many moons before.
    “Anyways, she’s asleep, and I’m there next to her thinkin’ I’d like to get a few hours in down here,” Dollar said. “Tell the truth, I didn’t expect to see yerself down here either, fella.”
    “Can’t sleep,” Eisenhower said. He took the wrench from Dollar and swapped it for a long handled screwdriver. With every tool and implement at their disposal, sometimes there was no better tool than a good old-fashioned cross head.
    Especially when it happened to be an antique that was being put together, piece by piece.
    “I hear yuh,” Dollar said softly. “The accident.”
    The Master At Arms nodded slowly. “Comes to me, now and then. Yourself?”
    Dollar stopped what he was doing, looked up at some distant point.
    “Sometimes.”
    They’d been down in the hangar bay when the Defiant got struck by a series of tachyon bursts from a nearby supernova. It played havoc with ship’s systems, caused many of them to operate erratically, without warning. At the time, Jack Boi had been helping Dollar work on Dragonfly . The cargo bay doors opened of their own accord. Eisenhower raced for the manual override, but was too late. The pull of the vacuum lifted both men off of the half-built ship. Dollar managed to keep hold by the edge of his fingertips. Boi was not so lucky. He went tearing out into space a mere second before Eisenhower could get the doors closed.
    “I can’t get it out of my head,” Eisenhower said. “If only I’d been a little quicker.”
    “Yuh can’t get to thinkin’ about that, pal,” Dollar said. “It’ll drive yuh mad.”
    Eisenhower smiled. “Old and senile already, son, I can’t get much worse.”
    Dollar laughed. It broke the ice somewhat. “Hey old timer, pass me one of those spanners, will yuh?”
    * * *
    Jessica left the lights off and poured herself a drink. A more than adequate measure of icy cold vodka, it burned deliciously on its way down. She unbuttoned her uniform tunic and reclined on the sofa. She poured another glass, let loose a sigh, and gazed out at the stars beyond the porthole.
    Jessica lifted her glass, as in a toast. “Here’s to you, Dad.”
    She downed it. And poured another.
     
     

 
    11.
     
    It was a push, but by the end of the week the Defiant had been fully re-supplied and refitted where needed. The ship didn’t have that “new car smell,” but she did feel refreshed somewhat. Along with many other tweaks to her internal systems, the Defiant had been fitted with new hull plating and an energy shield. The old Archon classes had never had anything like an energy shield, and certainly the Defiant was one of the first to be fitted with such a device. Her weapon systems remained as they were, but she’d gained more speed and manoeuvrability due to several improvements to her propulsion systems.
    When it came to updating the bridge, Jessica King had been adamant that the captain’s chair had to stay.
    “But don’t you think it’ll look out of place amongst all this new stuff?” one of the engineers asked her.
    She simply shook her head. “If it goes, so do I.”
    Admiral Grimshaw approached the airlock, wrapping up his brief tour of the reinvigorated ship. “She’s looking good, Captain.”
    “Thanks,” King