Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

SEG002

The screaming had stopped.

Patty had sat down on the floor, his back to the storeroom door. He was muttering to himself.

“Accidents will happen, boys. Accidents will happen. Look what happened on SEG054. That wasn’t nice, was it boys?”

Patty looked up. Ginny was hovering next to Gabriel. He was still sat on the chair to which he had been tied. She was stroking his face. His head was lolling, his eyes unfocussed, blood streaming from his nose.

“What shall we do, Ginny?” Patty said.

She looked over at him, fear in her eyes.

“He needs medical attention, Ginny,” he continued.

Ginny heard Patty’s words, but she didn’t seem to be able to make sense of them. She was holding onto Gabriel like he was a life-raft. She didn’t want to let him go. Then she saw that Gabriel was losing blood. His head was upright. Even tilted slightly backwards. She pushed his head forward a little, to stop the blood from running back into his nose or into his mouth.

Her actions seemed to stabilise her a little.

“Can you help me get him back to my ship?” she said. “We have med facilities on board.”

“Right. Let’s do that,” said Patty. He levered himself up, then picked up Ginny and Gabriel’s suit helmets. He clipped Gabriel’s helmet back on as Ginny re-seated her own. Patty pulled his own helmet on, then immediately he picked Gabriel up and set off for the airlock. “Come on, we need to hurry,” he said. “Otherwise he might swallow his own blood and ...”

“I’m right behind you,” Ginny said.

. . . . . . . .

Patty toiled across the landing area. Gabriel must have weighed more than Ginny because Patty was beginning to struggle.

“You could have used the robots to carry ...” Ginny said, but then Patty looked across at her and the look on his face made her stop mid-sentence. She couldn’t work out what was going through his mind, but she felt it best to let him keep carrying Gabriel himself.

They reached the airlock on the ACME ship and Patty pushed Gabriel through it. “I’ll leave him with you,” he said. “You get him patched up. I’ll take a look at that Ramstat drive.”

Ginny breathed a small sigh of relief. She hadn’t wanted Patty on board their ship, but she hadn’t been able to think of a way to stop him. Not whilst he was carrying Gabriel. She floated through the airlock, then turned and pulled Gabriel in behind her. She hooked her arms under Gabriel’s armpits, increased the boost on her suit’s small Ramstats and managed to tug him through into the aft cabin. She pulled off his helmet, then levered him up into the MED unit. The lid closed instantly. She let herself drift down onto the cabin floor.

“I’ve given you some shots,” said Vicky.

“What?”

“You, know, some shots ... some precautionary shots.”

“What do you mean, Vicky?”

“To guard you against ... infection and such things.”

“Oh.”

“Ginny?”

“Yes, Vicky?”

“I believe that you have a small vaginal tear.”

“Oh.”

“It will heal on its own. In just a few days.”

“Ok, Vicky.”

“And Ginny?”

“Yes, Vicky?”

“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t help you back there. If the coordinates hub was working ok, I could have transported you straight out of that situation. Straight out, you know, before ...”

“But that would have left Gabriel there on his own, wouldn’t it, Vicky.”

“Yes, that would have been the case, Ginny.”

“Ginny?”

“Ginny?”

“I wouldn’t have wanted to leave Gabriel, Vicky. Even if ... even if I got hurt. I wouldn’t have wanted to leave him.”

“Ginny?”

“Yes, Vicky?”

“Are you crying, Ginny?”

“Yes, Vicky. I just ... I just ...”

Ginny felt like curling up on the cabin floor. Just curling herself up into a tight ball. Instead she sat up with her back against the cabin wall. She clenched her fingers, feeling her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She felt hurt ... damaged ... ripped apart. Not in any physical sense, but like something evil had scarred her soul. She hadn’t deserved that hurt ... but then neither had Gabriel.

She stifled her sobs.

“Hey Ship?” Ginny said.

“Yes, Ginny?”

“Please seal the airlock. I don’t want anybody coming in or going out without me knowing.”

“It’s done,” said the Ship.

“Thank you.”

She drifted her suit up and into their bedroom. She shrugged off her space suit and threw it across the room. It fell next to the refuse chute. She hauled herself over and into the shower unit. “Lots of hot, please” she said. “and rose petals”. The shower unit closed around her, immersing her body in its warm ion spray. She felt it ease away the hurts and the unwelcome touches.

Through the transparent shower screen, she noticed the small lifter. It picked up her space suit and dropped it into the refuse slot. “Thank you, Vicky,” she whispered.

The ion spray tingled against her body. She turned her face up into it. She could smell rose petals. She pictured a warm summer’s day, a gentle breeze carrying the scent of flowers.

She pictured Gabriel, lying in the MED unit, his face smashed, his damaged body being given unction.

She pictured two large men twisting and writhing in a bed of fire, shrieking as their clothes charred and peeled away, as their skin blistered and bubbled.

She pictured Patty, waving through the inspection hatch, smiling and waving as the men burned.

“Ginny?” said Vicky.

“Yes, Vicky.”

“Gabriel is going to be alright. I thought that you should know. You kept the blood from pooling down into his throat. He would have drowned in his own blood, otherwise. And the blow to his face ... if it had been directly onto his nose, it would likely have pushed his nose cartilage and bone up into his brain ... but it must have hit his cheek and then just pushed his nose side-ways. His nose will be broken, but it will be re-aligned.”

“Ok, thanks, Vicky. And Vicky?

“Yes, Ginny?”

“Please don’t tell Gabriel about what happened in there. I think it would be best if he didn’t know.”

“As you wish, Ginny.”