Once Upon A Time I Had Ideas (Like This)
Unchained Space
by T. D. Taylor
She's waking up. She can hear metallic sounds and muffled voices.
"When'd you say?"
"1990."
"How much?"
"50,000 Q. Why? It's done. We needed a nav and she was cheap enough and close enough and I had to get out in a hurry. Any problems?"
"No. No. Course not. Just wondering."
"Uh, Cap. She'll be awake in a minute. You ready to do introductions or do I give 'er a bracer."
"We need her in an hour. She's been plugged in for the whole ride. We'll be short and sweet. If she panics, we'll give her five to calm down."
"Five is iffish. If she flips she'll need at least 15 just to keep from tearing a hole in the wall. I ought to give her 10 to be safe."
"What part of 'in an hour' didn't you get, Doc. If she's not in go style in 60 we're gonna get stuck at the Box. You want to explain to GTag where we got all the extra cargo. No more than 5 and that only if she goes full panic."
"Sure thin', Cap. Might have the same sort of problem, though, if 5 won't peel her off the walls."
"It will. Or I will."
"We're about to find out."
Her sense of smell is next to kick in. Metal, so visceral it burns her mouth. Her nose tells her someone tried to cook lead and copper wires and something silver in the same big pot. She shakes her head violently and struggles to sit up, accidentally throwing herself off the exam table in the process.
"Shit!"
"You okay? Didn't knock yourself out did you?"
"N-no. I'm okay. I think. Where am I?"
The lights are very close and bright in the small room and she shields her eyes as she stands up. Her hands clench and unclench involuntarily and she shakes them hard to make them stop.
"Not a lot of time to explain. We need to get you at your station and warmed up within the next 50. I'm Royce Haim. I captain this gypsy wagon. Doc is our medic and Washe is my second. You're our nav for this trip and a few more beyond. At least 'til I've made my Q back. You'll meet the others on the bridge which is where we're headed now."
Haim takes her by the right arm and pulls her toward the doorway, saying "You might want to duck."
She does, just in time to avoid getting hit in the eyes with the low door sill. "Umm. Where?" There is no sound but the sound of their feet on the metal floor as they pass, at a jog, through at least three corridors. She is about to ask again when she ducks through another door and gets deposited onto a high stool in front of a flat black table.
"Where is not significant. You wouldn't know it anyway. You are on the Jesse's Cross, my ship. You are her brand new nav and this is your station. Please familiarize yourself with the console set up and be ready to suss us out of here in the next 40."
It is just at this moment when it comes into her head to scream. Mainly because standing in front of her, on the far side of the table, is the largest dog she's ever seen and he has chosen this moment to turn to her and say, "Welcome aboard. Name's Brekon Dant. Yours?"
It is loud and long. She starts hyperventilating and black dots are floating in front of her eyes when she hears the words "No more than five, Doc" and feels a strange burning sensation in her right hand.
A few seconds later she is sitting on the stool with the left side of her face pressed flat against the top of the table.
"Doc?"
"Five exactly. I don't know what's wrong with her."
"It talked. I thought it talked," she mumbles against the glass.
"Hey, is she talking about me? Who is this brat, Cap?"
"She's the first, last and only nav prep I could get on short notice. And you've just terrified her into a coma."
Very slowly she pushes herself into an upright position and lets her eyes open. She realizes that it isn't a dog. There is a snout and teeth, but the eyes are too close set and there is a long mullet. It is something, but not a dog, and if it isn't a dog, maybe it's alright if it talks.
"S-sorry. I thought you were. . .I don't know what I thought. Where am I?"
"Listen, you Twent-Cent shake. You are on my ship. We are in GTag space and I need to be out of here in 35. You need to read nav and fast. Understand?"
"No."
"Wanna bet!" With those words, Haim pushes down hard on the table and it rises about a foot and tilts towards her.
"Put your hands on the console and think."
She slowly lifts her hands and rests them on the table top in front of her which lights up like a massive television screen. Figures and symbols she has never seen before dance across the screen and fall into combinations that she suddenly realizes she can understand, at least as well as she can understand 1+1.
"Um. I think I understand what you want me to do." Looking up and down the tabletop she sees star charts and pinpoint maps. "I don't know where you want to go, but give me some idea and I think I could get this thing to find it."
"That's all you need to do. The Cross will do the rest. As far as where? Anywhere out of Tag space and I'll be supremely grateful."
Her eyes scan the maps automatically and her fingers find areas without a blue label and pull the positions into focus of their own volition.
"Whoa! Where in The T did you find this one? Bevel never sussed nav that fast in his short life."
Haim is now standing over her, staring down at the screen where her fingers touch it. "How did you do that?"
"I don't know. As soon as you said "out of Tag" I just started looking for something without dark blue lettering. Yellow was closest and green next. I don't have any idea what any of it means, but my body seems to know. "
"Read to me what the yellow says."
"Umm. You can't read it?"
"Did I say I was a nav? No. I'm the captain. This is nav. You're nav prepped, therefore, you read nav."
"Okay. It says: The Jakston Eln Sectors 136 and 148. Non-compliant blast pro . . ."
"That's all I need to hear," Haim interrupts her. "Center it and we'll head there."
At the sound of the word "center" her hands fly to the screen and pull left and right until the position in yellow is exactly in the middle of the panel and glowing bright. She then draws her fingers together and fairly punches down onto the panel. It flares brighter for a split second and then goes dark, slides into a horizontal position and draws itself back down into a flat tabletop.
She sits back. Her hands clench and unclench themselves uncontrollably for a few seconds and then she stands up.
"Okay. Seriously. I want to know what is going on and I want to know right now!"
