A Thread of Time: Firesetter, Book 1 Read Online Free Page B

since they’re no more, our parts are
no more, too.  Now, we have to do everything the old fashion way.”  Wen giggled
a little and gnawed his sandwich. 
    “I thought the old Empire was our enemy?” 
I opened the bun on my own sandwich and studied the meat, which tasted
decidedly dull and looked decidedly weird.  “Is this hamburger or what?”
    “Synthetic,” Wen replied.  “I think it’s
pretty good.”  Taking another bite, while offering to eat mine, he told me how
the old Empire was considered the Alliance’s nemesis, but was also our biggest
trading partner.  “They sustained both of our economies.”
    “So, once they collapsed, they sent us
back to the dark ages with them?” I asked.
    “More or less,” Wen nodded, looking
vaguely like a squirrel, or a chipmunk, or some other type of rodent.  “But, we
are still flying and they are not.  So, they are in the dark ages and we are
only in about the 21st century.”
    “I’m not sure which was better.  They were
both pretty awful.”
    Wen laughed and finished my sandwich,
enjoying it much more so than I ever would, while I picked at something that
was supposedly a dill pickle.
     
    The next day, I got up my nerve and
decided to press Moosy for a date.  She was in my thoughts from the simulated
dawn to dusk, while her beautiful blue skin illuminated my dreams all night. 
During lunch, instead of eating with Wen again, I casually dropped by the
sickbay to ask her out. 
    Unfortunately, Moosy was busy assisting
the doc with some guy who had a heart problem.  Even more unfortunate, when I
asked if I could leave her a note, the other nurse took out an enormous
hypodermic and informed me I was missing a few of the SpaceForce regulation
shots. 
    After that, I left within a matter of
seconds.  Although both butt cheeks and arms were seriously in pain, that
didn’t stop me from running down the stairs back to my station.  It was a good
thing I did too, because just at that moment, the hydraulic system was glowing
bright red.  I arrived just in time to push my console buttons and sound the
alarm, which set a bunch of other guys into action.
    My quick thinking and quick button pushing
pretty much saved the ship from disaster.  Even more impressive, it got my
sergeant to admit that I had done a good job.  He recommended me for an award. 
I got a commendation, a nice plaque with my name and a picture of the ship, as
well as a cash bonus, and a credit for two free dinners at the best little
steakhouse chain in space.
    “Hey, why don’t I use it to take you out
to dinner when we arrive at the spacebase tomorrow,” I suggested to Moosy the
following week. 
    I had taken to stalking the sickbay
whenever she came off duty.  I would wait for her to leave and then hand her a
little cartoon I had drawn in my boredom.
    “Marry me,” I would scroll across the
bottom of a picture of a rabbit proposing to a blue carrot, or two blue birds
circling each other in flight, or once, a picture of a basket with two heads of
blue lettuce.
    At the time, I thought these were great
ways to demonstrate my emotional state.  Looking back later, I realized I was
still recovering from a severe bout of space sickness.  My brain had to have
been severely traumatized to think that shit was romantic, or that my destiny
was marriage to a woman from Andorus II. 
    “You are ill still,” Wen had concluded,
when he caught me doodling a pair of two blue snakes wound around and tied up
in a love knot.
    Moosy thought my notes were cute.  Either
that, or she was just being polite.  She would reply with her sweet little
giggle and a comment like, “Silly spaceman, you are so funny.”
    “Funny?  Funny?!?” I’d cry aloud later in
my cabin.  “I’m in love and she thinks I’m joking.  Oh my heart!  How much can
it take?”
    “Shut up, asshole,” Borf barked, showing
me a fist the size of basketball.  “Get back to sleep before I stuff you down
the garbage chute and