Shipping Mishaps chapter 17

“Captain Lod? Wake up Captain Lod!” Campy yelled over the speaker in Lod's cabin. “I'm worried. Geo isn't responding.”

“I'm awake.” Lod stretched on his perch. “Now, what's this?”

“Geo didn't answer when I rang her alarm. All I could hear from her end was a low moaning sound.” Campy replied, worry clear in his voice. “Can you please go check on her? All of my bots are busy holding this tub together.”

“Let me throw something on.” Lod responded, wiping sleep from his eyes.

A few moments later, Lod was standing outside Geo's door. “Geo? Can you hear me?” He released the speaker button next to the door. “OK Campy, release the door locks.”

A soft clank was heard from the door frame. “Done!”

Opening the door took only a moment and revealed a semi conscious Geo on the floor of her quarters, clutching at her lower abdomen. Lod rushed to her side. “Campy! Summon Grig! We have a problem. Her temperature is very high, and she is sweating profusely.”

“On it.” Campy responded.

*-*-*

Fuget the Bold, one of the Yeti like Ovdsmj, and Admiral of the Silver Cross Pirate Fleet, was having a bad day. Combined fleet practice was not going well, in fact it was very similar to watching toddlers on ice. A full third of the fleet would need time in dry-dock before they could perform any sort of duties.

He rubbed his head with both white furred hands, What is wrong with these idiots? Ten lines of ships, ten ships deep. Is that too much to ask? All you have to do is follow the one in front of you! Just match speed and go forward! Is that too much to ask? He thought. Aloud he said, “Alright you swabs, back to your starting positions. Line up with between you and the next ship. This isn't brain surgery.” The training flights started again

*-*-*

“Ma'am, I am so glad you are back!” Head secretary Olknol of Trans-Union Galactic Shipping gushed as her boss stalked into the office.

“I am not. My husbands and I were enjoying our camping trip on Smigle's rustic moon when the recall notice found us.” Task mistress Kugae of the saronie people said, letting her annoyance show in her voice.

“The Death of Fleets has been sold.” Olknol said.

“What?” Kugae yelped.

“Yes ma'am. One of the junior execs sold it in response to the sudden surfacing of the Dirt-rockian on board.” said Olknol.

“WHAT!” Kugae full on yelled this time.

Olknol shook her head in despair, “It happened when you were on vacation, Ma'am.”

“Get me the troubleshooters.” Kugae said. “NOW!”

“Yes Ma'am.”

*-*-*

Geo slowly rose to consciousness through a haze of heat and drugs. She slowly opened her eyes, and gasped at the painfully bright light over her head. When the shadow of a slug like creature filled her vision she almost screamed, then fell unconscious again.

*-*-*

Admiral Vulflim, leader of the Iron Crown pirate fleet was smiling. While that idiot Fuget is wasting his time, I will be collecting that ship for King Zisqot. I am already en route to the Docks at Oanov. This will be a simple victory for me, for us. I will prove my might and dethrone Fuget as Zisqot's favorite! He thought, as he paced the bridge of his destroyer, The .

*-*-*

Geo was awake again, barely. She tried to move, but found herself too weak to even open her eyes. In the near distance she could hear quiet voices, “Well, she is still with us, so good job Dr. Grig.”

“...but for how...”

“...is it OK for her to have that removed...”

“...far as I...”

She fell back into the blessed darkness of sleep.

*-*-*

The conference room was palatial. Thick soft dark blue carpet lined the floor. Beautiful murals of trade ships decorated the walls. Handcrafted crystal windows refracted the light just right to make the ceiling sparkle in a myriad of colors. The centerpiece was a massive table made from “trees” harvested from more than a hundred worlds.

The three troubleshooters were almost to large for the executive chairs they were sitting in at the conference table. They didn't have scary names like “Mac the Knife” or “The butcher”, but names like “Mr. Smith” and “Mr. Johnson”. They were professionals, just like everyone else in the business world. It just happened that their business was different.

Kugae actually liked the troubleshooters. They felt wholesome, and nice; her other employees found them distasteful and scary. “Gentle beings, we have a crisis. One of our Jr. execs has sold The Death of Fleets to a 'Dirt-rockian'. We need to find a way to get it back under our ownership.”

*-*-*

Geo awoke again and opened her eyes. The room was blessedly dark. “Thank god for small favors” she mumbled to herself. She slowly raised her left hand into view, noting what were probably IV tubes embedded in the back of it.

“BEEP!” Said a machine off to her right. Then “BEEP BEEP BEEP!”

Geo's head hurt from the sound “Ow. That hurts. Shut up.” Sadly the machine didn't stop.

“Ah, Admiral” A male voice said from her right, “I'm glad you are back with us. It was touch and go for a while there, but we are fairly sure that you will fully recover.”

It took a few moments for Geo to put a name to that voice. “Oigf! What in the happened to me? I remember a stabbing pain in my gut, and falling off of my bed...?”

“The short story? That implant in your reproductive organs; beautiful design by the way, absolutely marvelous how they are made to function, such grace and---”

“Get on with it!” Geo snapped, not wanting to be lectured by a xeno about her reproductive parts.

“Sorry.” Oigf said, before continuing, “As I was saying, your implant had somehow become dislodged, and was working its way through the local tissues when it got infected. If you had come to medical when you first felt any pain from it, you would have been fine. But it looked like it had been infected for several days. If Captain Lod and Campy hadn't called for help when they did, you would have died.”

“...So... I almost died from a systemic infection caused by a migrating IUD?” Geo mumbled.

“That's about the size of it. By the way, this technology is so gloriously simple, and magnificent.” Said Oigf, “We could make an absolute killing on the biomedical market. If you wanted to, that is.”

Geo yawned, “Let me think about it, ok? I think I'm going to go back to sle...” Geo passed out.

Oigf smiled at the sleeping form in the recovery vat. “My dearest Admiral, We WILL make a killing from this device. You just wait and see!” He whistled quietly to himself as he walked a few steps down the hallway to the bio-prototyping lab.