Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [55]
“Very well.”
“We’ll show you to your quarters, sir,” Lieutenant Dennis went on. “Then the captain has requested that you join him on the bridge. It’s a big ship. I still get lost, and I’ve been working aboard for about—”
“Yes, I know,” Riker cut off. “My gear was brought on board by a couple of yeomen who met me at the starbase.”
“Yes, sir, we sent those two men over. Your gear is in your quarters. If you’ll come this way—”
Riker followed the young officers, knowing these were two of Bateson’s original crew, and that made him uneasy. Knowing they were actually the better part of a century older than he was didn’t help either, but he kept a lid on that. They’d probably heard every quip, pun, and joke about that in the past three years.
“Hey, hi, bud!”
The voice sounded from inside the open door of a tool locker, and then something utterly extraordinary occurred. A drunken man, reeling slightly and clutching what looked like an antique silver whiskey flask, piled out of an open doorway and threw an arm around Wizz Dayton. “Here he is! The Wizard!”
Dayton shrugged unhappily. “Hi, Gabe. Take it easy, okay?”
This was Gabriel Bush? This hollow-eyed shadow of a human being was Bateson’s upright first officer from the Bozeman? Riker stepped back a couple of paces just to get a better look.
“Sure, I’m easy,” the man assured, nodding. Then he saw Riker, apparently for the first serious time, and said, “Oh, I know who you are.”
Drunk. Incredible! Riker backed off a step in disapproval. “I’m First Officer Riker, yes …”
“Oh, great to have you around!”
Uneasy, Lieutenant Dennis said, “Mr. Riker, this is Commander Gabriel Bush.”
Riker scarcely recognized him. They’d met briefly three years ago, but this was hardly a shadow of that man. Now he was gaunt and undernourished, barely filling out the gray work suit he wore.
Riker tipped his head. “Mr. Bush … are you all right?”
“Oh, I’m good,” the inebriated man said. “Look at you! First mate! Oh—sorry … first officer. Big difference, right? That’s a good job, you know. It’s a wicked great job. It used to be my job, did you know that?”
Self-conscious, Riker nodded and glanced at Dennis.
“I was good at it,” Bush said, his New England accent making his words more garbled. He took a sad moment to palm his rumpled hair as if he knew what he looked like. “Not so good anymore … but that’s okay, because … well, now he’s got you. Anything you need, you just let me know. It’s a big ship, so just take one thing at a time. You’ll be just wicked in no time. I’ll … I’ll see yez later.”
With that Bush wandered off down the corridor, tossed back a weak “Don’t worry,” and disappeared into a lab.
The three watched him go, and nobody spoke until the lab door slid shut. And even a few seconds after that. Riker felt as if his chest were caving in. Now what?
“Don’t feel bad, sir,” Mike Dennis said finally. “It isn’t you. He’s been like that since we got to this century, give or take six months.”
“What happened? What could possibly do that to him?”
“He was about to get married when we ended up lost.”
“Oh … still …”
Wizz Dayton waved a hand as if to explain with a gesture. “We all just loved Ruby. That’s the girl he was going to marry. She was about to come all the way from the East Coast to Fries-Posnikoff. Captain was going to officiate at the ceremony. Gabe was—aw, he was the happiest man in the whole sector, we figure. I never saw anybody so idiot-happy to be getting married.”
“He’s distraught like that, even after three whole years? I understand, but—”
He stopped when Dennis and Dayton looked at each other uncomfortably. Evidently there was more.
“Not just that, sir,” Dennis confirmed. “Mr. Bush looked into what happened to Ruby. It wasn’t very nice.”
“What did happen?”
They seemed to be afraid he was going to ask, but there was no turning back. Even if they didn’t offer the information, Riker stood there and insisted with his posture that they tell him. As first officer,