Chapter 35. Back on Board
Four Months in May Part V
PART V
Back on Board
Joanni sat in a darkened sick bay room on the Eridanus as that great galaxyship headed back through TempiP45XS toward her home galaxy. Dr. Pissario knocked, then came in. “We’ll raise the intensity of the light and have you sit in it for half an hour,” she told her. “We’ll check your eyes before increasing the light again. Then let you sit for longer. We’re also gonna have you do a regimen of exercise, mostly stretches at first, then resistance, and finally, weight training to get your muscles back in shape.” The doctor raised her eyes from her chart. “You should have exercised on Oreana like you were advised.”
“Yes,” was all Joanni said. The process of reacclimating herself to the environment of the Eridanus after her time on Oreana was tedious and irksome. Gravity on board the ship seemed heavy and oppressive; not unlike the emotional ties that bound her: light on Oreana, strong and inescapable here. But she longed for stability, and for something more romantic and meaningful than what those flitting, half-winged cavalier creatures she just departed from could offer. She was oppressed by—but also desired—a certain heft.
A slice of brighter light struck her eyes, just for a moment, and then was gone: the captain had entered the room (against doctor’s orders that no one disturb the reentry procedure). Joanni knew immediately it was him. She sensed his presence, recognized his familiar figure through the dimness. Chipman sat down close to her. They had not left each other on Oreana on the best of terms: the captain scorned and tossed out of a place he didn’t want to be, Joanni lauded by a people and culture to which she could never belong. He felt she needed to unlearn some of the arrogance she picked up from the Oreanians, and he was quite willing to tell her that. They never had to think seriously about their future before, make concrete plans as the clock ticked and they headed homeward; now they were forced to.
They sat in silence for a few moments, an awkwardness rising up between them. Then Chipman said, “Well, here we are. A success all around.”
“Yes, here we are.”
“Back on board?” This was a question, not a statement. Joanni squeezed his hand in reply.
“Yes. A successful mission,” she repeated. “Look at us: the captain of the Eridanus—a galaxyship commander—and the Queen of Oreana. What did they used to call it? A power couple? You take care of all of us, and I take care of you. Where’s the power here? In the stability, the equal weight of push and pull, I guess.”
“But you’re not on Oreana anymore; you’re without your clesig, and unfortunately for you, the Eridanus is not a monarchy.”
A timer chimed ten minutes until Dr. Pissario’s return. “Liz will be coming back soon,” she said. Tom got up to leave, but Joanni slid her hand into his and said, “No, stay.”
The captain sat back down. “What do you want to do now? Do you know? What do you want?” (‘What will you do now, Joanni N.? Your mission is over.’). Uncharacteristically, he was nervous about her answer, about whether or not she would pass this test, although he remained outwardly calm.
“What do I want? I want you to stay alive as long as you can being you, and love me as long as you can with me being me. We must do this as long as we can. Because this is it, isn’t it? The real deal.” Chipman was floored by that simple statement. Because he knew it to be true. “I can do this as long as I know deep down what I mean to you,” she continued. “The love of the right woman would make you a better captain, did you ever think of that? I’m sure you didn’t.”
Tom laughed softly and reached up to stroke her hair. “And I’d make you a better musician, maybe even a better queen . . . you were sort of a crappy queen.” He fell back into his old defense of using humor as a buffer against strong emotions he could not quickly master.
Before she could respond, there was a knock on the door. Dr. Pissario came in and stopped short at the sight of the captain. “I wasn’t aware of your advanced medical degree that allows you to flaunt protocols, Captain.”
“I’ve been kicked out of better places, planets than this, Liz. I’m beginning to enjoy being shown the door,” he said as he took his leave, puzzling the doctor and bringing a smile to Joanni’s face.
Chipman returned to sick bay about twenty minutes later. “You’re pushing your luck with Pissario, mister,” Joanni told him. They could see each other better now that the light in the room was almost at a normal level.
“I picked up something for you while I was down on your planet.”
“You better declare it to Gillis, then.”
He held up a faceted chunk of vouronium that had been fashioned into a ring, the violet stone fixed on top of a platinum band. It was elegant and quite pretty.
“You bought this?”
“How would I buy it? It was given to me. The crystal, that is. I brought it back and had it made into this by Geosciences here on the ship.”
She stared at him. “That faceting is something the Chief Crystal Manipulator would do. How’d you . . .”
“I persuaded them.”
“You were only down there for four hours.”
“That’s why I’m the captain,” he said, pulling her toward him.
Image: You are here. Source: “The Lovers” by William Powell Frith, 1855. The Art Institute of Chicago. CC0 Public domain. Edited by J. Weigley