SWNOVELS Chapter Not without getting squished 4th Sept 2180
SEG002
“So, what do we do, then?” Gabriel said, for probably the third or fourth time.
Ginny looked up, shrugged her shoulders, then scooped up another fork-full of vegetable chow mein.
“This is the third day trying, and ...,” he said.
“This is really tasty,” Ginny said.
Ginny prodded her fork into a particularly juicy morsel, holding it up in front of her for inspection before popping it into her mouth.
“Maybe you were right ... you know ... about trying another mining planet,” he said.
Ginny prodded a water chestnut. It evaded her attentions. She prodded it again, this time with more success.
“Maybe we’ll not be able to get into that teleport,” he said.
“Not without getting squished, anyway,” Ginny added.
“Do you think this is just a joke?” Gabriel said suddenly. His exasperation was making him cross with her light-hearted mood.
“No, Gabriel. I don’t think it’s a joke at all,” Ginny said, a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “I think it requires very serious consideration. I think we need to get it right.”
“uh uh,” Gabriel said, aware of Ginny’s suddenly harsh tone of voice.
“And I think we need to remember that we came to get a STU for John,” she said.
“Yep.”
“And I think that we should stay calm. We will find a way to teleport to the Earth.”
Gabriel nodded, hoping that she was right.
“Remember, Gabriel. The coordinates data corruption has already happened. It probably happened two days ago.”
He nodded, wondering where her train of thought was going.
“Vicky has already appeared on the cliffs outside Walton. All of the circumstances, all of that chain of events is underway.”
He nodded again.
“And we need to get to the Earth, but it doesn’t matter if we do it today, tomorrow or the next day.”
“So, what are you saying?” Gabriel asked.
“We think it will be risky getting to use the SEG002 teleport, yes? And if we had two working Ramstat motors, we could have tried getting to another less-developed mining planet. We could have even flown directly back to the Earth. After all, we are in the correct time-zone now, aren’t we? But whatever we do, we need to stay calm. It’s when people lose their calm, that’s when accidents happen.”
“But ...?” he said.
“And I don’t want to lose you ... even if you can be the most dumb and exasperating boyfriend on this ship,” she concluded.
“Barney always said you were the brains of the outfit,” Gabriel said, smiling ruefully.