Keeper of the Sleeping Minds

Breaking point

Breaking point

Maybe that's where trouble started, but it certainly wasn't the only reason. Lynn and Steve didn't get along. Not that this was our business, but somehow it brought Steve and Tina closer. I couldn't imagine a more unlikely combination. He was almost twice her age and nothing like her bubbling character. Maybe the saying of opposites attracting is true after all. Tina stopped spending time with me, preferring the company of the crew. At first, she invited me along, but I couldn't stand Lisa's open hostility. So I spent more and more time with Dany. Gianna kept strictly to herself. I'm not sure if this was just her way or if she saw the clouds rising on the horizon.

We reached jump twelve and thirteen without anything untoward happening. Dany suggested a private party. We ended up sharing a bottle of wine in my quarters. Of course, jump fourteen was the bad one. During reentry, we hit a rock. It was only small, tiny indeed. Otherwise, our mission might have ended in epic catastrophe. So, it shook the ship badly and left a hole aft of the mind storage hold, destroying the supply connection to a batch of fifty hibernation pods. For the sleepers, most of them soldiers, all help was late. I was still fighting jump sleep when the bridge called for help. Tina, who managed the drugs far better than Dany or I, was already on her way while we still struggled with our safety nets.

Tina's face was pale and her eyes haunted when she came back, helping Gianna carrying Lisa's unconscious body. The astrophysicist wasn't in a state to tell us what kind of accident happened on bridge. We needed to extract Lisa's mind quickly, before her body shut down completely. While Tina and I stored away her unconscious mind, Dany reanimated her replacement, Pierre. Gianna watched us silently, showing clear signs of shock. As we later found out, damage to the ship was minor. Pierre was able to repair the puncture of the hull quickly and competently, giving us back confidence.

Somehow, this second replacement released a lot of tension in the crew. Pierre was easygoing and even made Steve smile. Besides, we had only three more jumps ahead. Suddenly it seemed as if success was only a small step away. At this point, Tina's pregnancy started to show. This left me with a bitter mix of feelings, ranging from jealousy to joy and anger. Most of all, Steve's apparent coldness towards her disturbed me. Gianna on the other hand, our senior, helped Tina along, teaching her all she had to know. It dawned on me she had been a mother, once.

Gianna died the day we arrived in orbit around Gliese's planet, our new home.