Supernova Read Free Page A

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stayover on Golfell Station a few days ago and made a clumsy pass at a woman
who turned out to be his commanding officer’s sister. Drunkenly hitting on Lieutenant
Steg’s sister could never bode well, especially when the lieutenant in question
loathed Taz. Even though Ena Steg was just as bombed as Taz had been. He still
couldn’t believe a woman who looked like that could be related to the
lieutenant, a former prizefighter back on his home station.
    There
was no sense of organization to the crates shoved in the cargo hold, bound for
a new museum on Rubidge Station, nearly a week’s journey from the Defiant ’s
current point. When he tried to argue that point to Lieutenant Steg, his
superior had growled at him to take it to the captain.
    So Taz
had foolishly tracked down Captain Rian Marska to explain his plight. Acting Captain Rian Marska, he corrected himself, the former commander recently tasked
with temporarily patrolling Commons space in between deliveries of science
teams and spare parts and...museum artifacts. This was the worst delivery so
far.
    Captain
Marska told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to get to the cargo hold
and put the museum pieces back in some kind of order, any order, as long as
they stopped breaking free of their bonds and crashing around in the belly of
the ship. Taz was going to point out that maybe the artificial gravity in the
hold needed to repaired, but thought better of it. Knowing Steg, he might
wheedle Marska to put Taz in the brig for a night or two.
    There
were definitely some problems with the environmental programs in the cargo
hold. A few statues and crates had lost their gravitational pull and drifted
towards the ceiling. And it was hot in here. Taz unzipped his uniform
jacket and draped it on a huge figure of a Mulaskan wildcat, clipping his comm
badge to his T-shirt.
    He made
the few adjustments he could from the utilities panel on the wall, cursing at
his lack of access to the programs. He could fix the whole gravity problem in
the cargo hold if given access to the systems, but Marska would never give him
that chance. He grinned mischievously and deliberately adjusted it so a few
artifacts crashed to the floor.
    He couldn’t
find a fix for the heat though, so he sighed and set to work. He remotely
controlled an antigravity jack to stack the largest of the crates. A third of
the hold cleared, he came across a long sealed plastiglas case and shuddered.
Taz hated the corpse displays in museums.
    A label
was affixed to this one: EARTH HUMANOID, 21 st CENTURY . Inside
he saw the perfectly preserved body of a woman who would have been pretty in a
wholesome kind of way in life. Not like Ena Steg, who was exotic and darkly
sensual. This one had long dark hair and a healthy glow to her fair skin that
spoke of living on a planet with natural sunlight. She had been attired in a
blue dress and short-sleeved black sweater when she died and was preserved.
    Taz
looked at the floor. He was the first person to admit he had few morals, but
parading a dead body around to be gawked at crossed a line for him. It was
downright creepy and certainly disrespectful. It wasn’t as though anyone in the
Commons hadn’t seen a humanoid before. He would be careful with this one.
    He
directed the jack to the plastiglas coffin, intending to put it in the most
secure corner of the hold where the artificial gravity always worked. Sweat
poured down his back and seeped through his T-shirt. He considered taking off
his pants, but that guaranteed a visit from the captain to check up on him, and
would open the door to all kinds of questions he didn’t want to think about.
    The jack
raised the coffin to his eye level and its lid lifted slightly with a small
pop. With a sinking feeling Taz realized the preserving seal around it had
pulled off, likely disintegrating because of the heat and being bounced around.
    A dead
body and near-tropical conditions made for a working environment even Taz
wouldn’t