Nicole had spent a couple of weeks as a guest of Sickbay after being exposed to the Dust splashed in her eyes. Finally, they decided that her exposure was wearing off and sent her on her way. They had told her the 'Dust" was now out of her system. Stephen had been in to visit her several times and together they watched several vid programs. She'd been fussy, and needed to get back to her ship and finish the runs she was contracted for...had a run to take a load of belongings to Serenity Base, several runs to Yukon, and one coming up to Bajor--which was going to take almost two weeks to complete; but she had several weeks yet before that run.
Nicole tried to reach Stephen before leaving sickbay but ended up leaving a message on his comms. She walked out and headed to her ship, hands in her jacket pockets. She'd heard from Tara Carmichael about the deals she had locked up. Nicole had done the paperwork via remote while laid up.
She arrived on the docks and walked quickly to her ship, coded in, and headed aft for her living compartment. She pulled her jacket up, adjusted the heat, and curled up on her bed. She knew that her hold had been filled with a load that needed to go to Serenity which was a relatively short run, but it could wait til she warmed up. She curled up on her bed and waited, soon she drifted off to sleep and woke withsomeone buzzing her.
She stood and pressed the 'green' button and the hatch opened and there stood Stephen Maruu. He hardly waited for the hatch to be fully retracted before he stepped inside and pressed the 'red' button to close the doors, he asked, "What are you doing out of sickbay?"
She took her blanket which was wrapped around her shoulders and sat back down on her bed with her back against the wall. With a hand she pulled her hair away from her face and looked at him, before speaking, "They didn't see any danger and through me out." She saw the look on his face. She pulled her arm inside the blanket and looked at him, and added, "Not that it hurt my feelings mind you."
"Look at you." He took a seat in the chair beside the bed. "It must be 40 degrees Celsius in here and your wrapped in a damn blanket!"
She frowned, but kept her mouth shut. He was exaggerating, right. She sighed and drew her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. "I'm okay, Stephen. It was just cold when I came aboard an hour ago...you can adjust the heat controls back down."
He stayed seated and shook his head, then asked, "What have you for supplies on this"
"Not much. I didn't restock after I landed and haven't made a supply run yet." She looked sideways at him and smiled. "I need to do that before I leave at 0500."
"0500hours?"
"Yeah." She straightened up and nodded, "Serenity and back--begone three days," she said. Then asked, "Want to come?"
"I'd love to but I can't at this moment...have business tomorrow and I promised to help Laz at the Easy Inn the next day." He saw the disappointment but there wasn't anything he could do and then said, "Besides, looks like its accommodations for one."
She scooted forward and slid off the bed, tossed the blanket back and grabbed a sweat shirt and pulled her jacket back on. "I need to go get supplies. Care to help or do you have plans?" She walked to the door pausing to let him catch up.
"Nicole, don't."
"Don't what?" She leaned against the bulkhead hands in her pockets and her hair hanging loose. "Be upset? ...well I am." Damn she wasn't going to cry... "I do appreciate your visits while I was held hostage in sickbay, and there are always sleeping bags, and the chairs in the cockpit...they are pretty comfortable..." She was still hurt by the turn down and how fast that rolled off his lips.
He stayed seated and was quiet for a long moment, "Nicole, please sit back down," he asked. She pushed away from the frame and walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. He leaned forward and touched her cheek--it was ice cold, and her eyes shadowed, and she was acting hostile and just a touch paranoid... He thought about telling her he would go. He looked around the relic she called home and his flight skills on state of the art craft was rusty enough, but this bucket of spare parts...oyh veh. "What supplies do you need and I'll go get them for you while you do your pre-flight checks and make sure your cargo is correctly loaded. Will you let me do that for you?"
"Ok." She moved to a computer terminal and pulled up a stores list and marked the item and transferred it to his PADD. He looked at the list and nodded. "Thanks, sorry I snapped at you." She looked around her ship and shrugged, and said, "This load was to go out yesterday."
"Nicole. Can you put this off for another day or two?"
"No!" She said standing and locking herself in the cockpit. She watched the indicator and saw that the hatched opened and sealed and saw him walk out onto the dock. She rested her arms on the control panel and cried for several minutes before getting up and heading out to check on the loading of her cargo. After fifteen minutes she'd finished that check, and had contacted the dock masters office for pre launch clearance, and was starting in on her flight checks.
She glanced at her chronometer and noted the time and saw Stephen heading back to the ship. She sighed but got up and unlocked the door and took one of the bags from him. He murmured "Thanks," as he stepped across the threshold. "I think I got everything you asked for." He placed the other two bags down and watched while she sorted through them and stored most of it in the lockers by the galley- damn ship barely had what one could call a replicator on board.
He took his jacket off and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Nicole looked at him and shook her head. She had too much to do yet before 0500 hrs. He reached out and took her hand in his, "I'm worried, its only been three days since you were splashed with the 'Dust', are you sure about going out?"
"Yes." She squeezed his hand and relaxed. "Even if I wasn't, I have to...this cargo can't just sit here." She saw him nod. She leaned in an hugged him. It felt good, and he held her until she broke the embrace. "You should go. I'm going to put in another half hour or so and then sleep for a few hours before leaving. I'll call you when I get back. I promise you." He pulled his jacket back on and holding her hand walked to the ramp and paused, "Call me before you leave, please." "Okay." She smiled and watched him exit the ship. True to her word she finished up and crawled into bed. She dreamed badly, and bizarre things happened, and Stephen was screaming as he fell.
He stood in the dark corner of the bay by the doors to the station breezeway and saw the cockpit lights go out. He then left the bay and entered his own quarters and found Laz there early. After an hour of talking he headed to his own room to get some sleep but after an hour sat up with the light on. It wasn't a dream, or prophecy, but at an instinctive level he was bothered. He dressed and pulled his shoes on and noted that it was almost 3am station time. He walked into the commons room and startled Laz who was watching some vid program, and asked, "What's up?"
Stephen walked to the replicator, "Coffee black, to go." He picked up the cup and looked at his friend and sighed, "Have an errand to run--will be right back."
Back on the dock level he found the lift and headed up to the dock masters control center and saw the Star fleet commander who ruled the domain. "Dorrity" The other man turned and saw Maruu.
"Stephen, what brings you here at 3 am?"
"Something, I wish I didn't have to do... I need you to ground a craft indefinitely. Freighter Delta Victor-Shea26."
"State the reason for the Log, Captain." The short overweight man requested.
Stephen hesitated, then said in a quiet voice, "The pilot is irrational and has had a severe exposure to 'Dust' in last 96 hours."
The other man grimaced, checked the log and found no notation from medical...to back up the claim. "Authorization."
Stephen looked out the large expanse of windows onto the dock at the freighter on the far end, November-whiskey-Maruu-249."
"Order received, authorization code verified as valid command officer. Sir, anything else?"
"When the pilot comes unglued at you--refer her to me or Sickbay."
Dorrity nodded and said, "I certainly will!" He watched Stephen retreat. Stephen returned to his quarters, called medical and security and told them what he suspected. Laz watched him from the couch and didn't say a word when the other man retreated to his bedroom and sealed the door.
At 0450, Nicole showered and prepared. She called for launch authorization and found out that during the night her authorization had been over ridden and that she was to contact; Captain Maruu or medical for an explanation. She yelled curses at the voice on the other end of the comm's and muttered under her breath, "Damn well bet I'll contact him!" She put a call out and got his canned messages that he wasn't available. She called medical and they said they couldn't give out that information over a comline... She slammed her fist against the control board and then shook her hand in pain. She shut the boards down and watched and waited as the time tick slowly by...