Redshirts Read Online Free PDF Page B

captain.
    Dahl stood there for a moment, vial in his hand.
    “I’m going to say it again,” he said, again to himself. “What the hell?”
    *   *   *
     
    The storage room door opened; Cassaway and Mbeke came out of it. “What did they want?” Cassaway asked.
    “Checking inventory again?” Dahl asked, mockingly.
    “We don’t tell you how to do your job,” Mbeke said.
    “So what did they want?” Collins asked, as she briskly walked through the outside door, Trin following, cup of coffee in hand.
    Dahl thought hard about yelling at all of them, then stopped and refocused. He held up the vial. “I’m supposed to find a counter-bacterial for this.”
    “Counter-bacterial?” Trin asked. “Don’t you mean a vaccine?”
    “I’m telling you what they told me,” Dahl said. “And they gave me six hours.”
    “Six hours,” Trin said, looking at Collins.
    “Right,” Dahl said. “Which, even if I knew what a ‘counter-bacterial’ was, is no time at all. It takes weeks to make a vaccine.”
    “Dahl, tell me,” Collins said. “When Q’eeng and Abernathy were here, how were they talking to you?”
    “What do you mean?” Dahl asked.
    “Did they come in and quickly tell you what you needed?” Collins said. “Or did they go on and on about a bunch of crap you didn’t need to know?”
    “They went on a bit, yes,” Dahl said.
    “Was the captain particularly dramatic?” Cassaway asked.
    “What is ‘particularly dramatic’ in this context?” Dahl asked.
    “Like this,” Mbeke said, and then grabbed both of Dahl’s shoulders and shook them. “‘Damn it, man! There is no try ! Only do !’”
    Dahl set down the vial so it was not accidentally shaken out of his grip. “He said pretty much exactly those words,” he said to Mbeke.
    “Well, they’re some of his favorite words,” Mbeke said, letting go.
    “I’m not understanding what any of this means,” Dahl said, looking at his lab mates.
    “One more question,” Collins said, ignoring Dahl’s complaint. “When they told you that you had to find this counter-bacterial in six hours, did they give you a reason why?”
    “Yes,” Dahl said. “They said that was the amount of time they had to save a lieutenant.”
    “Which lieutenant?” Collins said.
    “Why does it matter?” Dahl asked.
    “Answer the question, Ensign,” Collins said, uttering Dahl’s rank for the first time in a week.
    “A lieutenant named Kerensky,” Dahl said.
    There was a pause at the name.
    “ That poor bastard,” Mbeke said. “He always gets screwed, doesn’t he.”
    Cassaway snorted. “He gets better, ” he said, and then looked over to Dahl. “Somebody else died, right?”
    “An ensign named Lee was liquefied,” Dahl said.
    “See,” Cassaway said, to Mbeke.
    “Someone really needs to tell me what’s going on,” Dahl said.
    “Time to break out the Box,” Trin said, sipping his coffee again.
    “Right,” Collins said, and nodded to Cassaway. “Go get it, Jake.” Cassaway rolled his eyes and went to the storage room.
    “At least someone tell me who Lieutenant Kerensky is,” Dahl said.
    “He’s part of the bridge crew,” Trin said. “Technically, he’s an astrogator.”
    “The captain and Q’eeng said he was part of an away team, collecting biological samples,” Dahl said.
    “I’m sure he was,” Trin said.
    “Why would they send an astrogator for that?” Dahl said.
    “Now you know why I said ‘technically,’” Trin said, and took another sip.
    The storage room door slid open and Cassaway emerged with a small, boxy appliance in his hands. He walked it over to the closest free induction pad. The thing powered on.
    “What is that?” Dahl asked.
    “It’s the Box,” Cassaway said.
    “Does it have a formal name?” Dahl asked.
    “Probably,” Cassaway said.
    Dahl walked over and examined it, opening it and looking inside. “It looks like a microwave oven,” he said.
    “It’s not,” Collins said, taking the vial and