A People's Plight

Chapter 12

Jace

After extracting himself from a woman who appeared to be only wearing her underwear, Jace was getting an update from the Doc.  Five of the women now had translators and the Doc was wondering if anyone else needed one.  They only had five left, so they would have to choose wisely.

He was pondering this, when the first volunteer stepped up to him with Susan in tow.  He felt himself wanting to take Susan in a huge embrace, but instead just smiled and nodded at her welcomely.

Smiling back, Susan held her hand towards the other woman, “Captain, Doctor, may I introduce Lucille.  She is a gynaecologist.”  Jace stared at her blankly, what is a gynaecologist?

Susan must have noticed his blank expression as she continued, “a doctor that specialises in womanly issues” she said by way of explanation.  “Lucille, this is Captain Apollo and Doctor Wallis.”

Jace nodded towards Lucille, “nice to meet you Lucille, you can call me Jace.  Thank you for agreeing to help us despite the circumstances.”

“As long as I don’t live to regret it, you are welcome.” Lucille replied, tersely.  Facing the Doc, “Doctor Wallis, shall we make a start?  The sooner we do, the sooner we can find a cure for your predicament, and the sooner we can all go home!”

The Doc smiled, not deterred by Lucille’s terse demeanor, “As soon as we have finished giving people translators, I will show you to the sick bay where we can start work.”  Turning back to Jace the Doc continued, “Captain, who else needs a translator?”

“I’m not sure, Doc.  Why don’t you start your discussion with Lucille over there and if anyone else needs one I will send them over the Corporal Zeus.”  Jace replied.

“Very well.” The Doc said, gesturing for Lucille to lead the way. “Shall we?”

Once they had left, Jace turned to Susan and raising his eyebrow, he asked “Captain?”

She shrugged and smiled shyly, “I wanted to be professional.”

He couldn’t help but smile back, he was about to put his arm around her when another woman approached and tapped Susan on the shoulder.  Susan looked at this newcomer, her smile welcoming, “How can I help you, Philippa?”

Jace was amazed at how she was remembering everybody’s name, this woman before him was amazing in every way!  He couldn’t help but admire the way she had handled everything since she was brought on board and the calming effect she seemed to have on the rest of the women.

The woman, Philippa, glanced at Jace before speaking, “I have been talking to some of the women and if we are going to be stuck here for any length of time, we have certain demands!”

Knowing that Philippa wouldn’t understand him, he nodded at Susan to imply that he would listen to these demands.  Seeing his nod, Susan said, “Go ahead, he can understand what you say and I will translate the Captain’s answers.”

Phillipa started ticking off points on her fingers as she spoke, “Well, first off, where are the toilets? A few of us are going to wet ourselves soon.  Also, we need wash facilities, food, drink, somewhere to sleep and something for us to do.   We can’t just sit here as if we are on a cruise ship!”

Whilst, she was speaking, Jace commed the mess asking for food and drink to be brought down to the cargo hold, getting one of the requests out of the way straight away.

Once Philippa had finished speaking, Jace said “Follow me, ladies.” as he turned and strode towards a blank wall.  Pressing his hand to a mark on the wall, a panel slid to one side revealing a gym cloakroom.  “The cargo hold doubles as the ship’s gym, these are the changing facilities with toilets and showers.”

He waited while Susan translated for him and then headed to another section of wall.  Pressing his hand to another mark, another panel slid open revealing a storage cupboard full of gymnasium equipment. “I’m afraid we do not have spare cots that aren’t fixed in place, but I’m sure these gym mats could double as mattresses and you are welcome to use any of the other equipment.  I have already requested the mess to bring down some food and drink, but we only have ship rations. I will also arrange for some blankets to be provided.”

Susan once again translated for him and then asked him, “not those horrible food bars!”

“As I said, ship rations.” Jace replied.

After Susan had translated that last statement, Philippa turned to him, “Thank you, Captain. Just one more thing, when will we be going home?”

Jace felt his face drop at her last question, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know.  It will take over a week to get to my planet, but then….. it will depend on my government.”

“Okay, so we are going to be stuck in here for at least two weeks! If we need anything else, how can we inform you of this?”

“I’ve got an idea,” Susan piped up. “Have you got any spare communicators?” she asked pointing to his wrist.

“I believe there are some spare ones in engineering, why?”

“Well, if Philippa got a translator and a communicator, if there were any further requests, she could call you.” Susan suggested.

“Good idea,” Jace replied and brought his wrist com to his mouth to speak to Engineering, “Chief, could you get one of your engineers to bring two, no three, spare communicators down to the cargo hold.”

They headed back to where Corporal Zeus was standing, listening to the Doc and the women talking heatedly.  “Corporal Zeus, please could you give this lady one of the translators please.”

“Yes, sir!” the corporal replied, leading Philippa away.

When he turned back to talk to Susan, he found her deep in conversation with yet another woman.  So, he waited patiently for them to finish.  Whilst he was waiting the Chief engineer entered the hold.  He stopped just inside the door and scanned the room with a somewhat dazed expression.  He seemed unsure and although he must have seen Jace, he remained standing by the door.

Sighing Jace headed towards the Chief and stopped in front of him, but the Chief didn’t seem to notice.  Clearing his throat, Jace commented, “I was expecting one of your engineers, Chief, not you.  I know how much you dislike leaving the Engine Room.”

This comment seemed to shake the Chief out of his daze.  “I…. I wanted to see things, I mean, them for myself.”  Holding out three wrist coms the Chief continued, “Here’s your wrist coms.”

Jace couldn’t help but laugh at the burly engineer’s uncertainty, “Thanks Chief, and I understand.” He said patting the Chief on the shoulder.

He heard Susan next to him ask, “are those the communicators?”

Turning to face her, he noticed the other woman behind her who seemed to be staring at the engineer’s bare chest. “Yes, they are.” Nodding to the other woman, he asked “is there another problem?”

Nodding solemnly, Susan answered, “Yes.  One of the women has a young baby at home that she was breast feeding and she is experiencing difficulties and a lot of pain due to not feeding the baby for however long we have been on board your ship.  To help her we need a breast pump.  Do you have anyone that could make one?”

Gesturing to the Chief, who had seemed to have returned to his dazed state, “This is our Chief Engineer, he could probably help.  Can’t you Chief.” He said nudging the Chief to get his attention.

The Chief shook his head, “Uh, what?  I mean, yes sir!”

Trying to hide a giggle, Susan took hold of Linda’s arm and started pulling her towards Corporal Zeus, “I’ll get Linda a translator fitted, so that they can discuss what’s needed.”  Linda, who was still staring at the Chief, stumbled along behind her.

“Okay, but come straight back and bring Lucille and Philippa with you.”  Jace called after her, as he caught the Chief’s gaze following the pair as they walked away.

The Doc joined them a moment later, “Captain, if you don’t need me anymore, I would like to take the volunteers and head off to sick bay so we can get started.  I will leave Corporal Zeus here, in case any more translators are needed.”

“If you could wait a moment, Doc.  I am going to hand out some wrist coms and then you can go.”  Jace replied.

A couple of minutes later, Susan came back followed by the Lucille and Philippa. “Hello, ladies.”  Pointing at the wrist coms still in the Chief’s hands, “These are Wrist Coms, I would like you to each have one.  They are connected to each other on a closed circuit, so you can talk to one another.  Lucille, you will be going to sick bay with the Doc and your group of volunteers and Philippa, you will be staying here with the other women.  If you require anything, please com Susan, who will be with me, so she can relay your needs to me. “

The women nodded and accepted the wrist coms, listening to the Chief’s instructions on how to use them.  Lucille then left with the Doc to collect her group of volunteers and they head out of the cargo hold on the way to sick bay.  Philippa nodded her thanks and then headed to the remaining women, calling “Right Ladies, toilet facilities this way.  Form an orderly queue now, no pushing.  Come on ladies, we are British, we were born to queue for the toilets!”

Linda, after having her translator fitted, rejoined Jace, Susan and the Chief. Jace introduced them all properly this time, “Chief, this is Susan and Linda.  Susan, Linda, this is our Chief Engineer, Max.  Max, will you please assist Linda with a project, I believe she needs some sort of device making.”

The Chief nodded, not taking his eyes off Linda, as Linda launched into a detailed description of what was required.

Jace took Susan’s arm and tugged her towards the cargo bay door.  “I need to go to the bridge and check in with the duty commander, care to join me?”

“Lead the way.” Susan replied as they left the hold.