Free A Galaxy Unknown by Thomas DePrima Page A

added, "I thought that I'd have to call for one of the cargo handlers to pry it from your hands."
    "That picture was taken on the day my oldest brother, Billy, graduated from the Academy. That's him in the center," she said, pointing, "with Andy and Jimmy on the left, and Richie next to me. It was the last time that we were all together. It's the only thing that I had time to grab when the red alert sounded; but as long as I have that, I don't really care about the other things." Looking at the picture, Jenetta paused for a second, then added, "It's funny..."
    "What is?" the doctor asked, wondering if the young woman was going to comment on the composition of the image.
    "All my life I've only wanted to get into space, but right now all I can seem to think of is my family, and returning to Earth so I can see them and hug them all again."
    "That's entirely natural, after what you've been through. I'm sure that Space Command will arrange for a long survivor's furlough once you report in."
    "I hope so."
    Smiling again, the doctor said, "I'll go call the Captain. Oh— don't go anywhere."
    Jenetta smiled politely at the intentionally preposterous remark. She certainly wasn't going anywhere under her own power today.
----

Chapter Six
    ~ June 7 th , 2267 ~

    Captain Lentz didn't make it down to the sickbay until after his watch ended at 1800. Jenetta had finished eating a late breakfast of mostly liquids with a few pureed items by the time he arrived. She looked up as the door opened and watched as the captain strode in confidently.
    "Welcome aboard the Vordoth, Ensign," he said as he approached the bed where she lay. "You've been adrift out here for a long time."
    Now in his mid to late fifties, the captain's head was still covered with the short, dense, light-brown hair of his youth. While there was no excessive fat on his five-foot ten-inch frame, he was getting a little soft around the middle. Probably weighing about a hundred and eighty pounds, he had a deeply resonant voice and a face filled with character. Without knowing anything about his background, Jenetta's first guess would have to be that he'd worked his way up through the ranks of the merchant service, rather than having received his master's papers after completing the educational requirements at one of the many fine, accredited spacefaring trade schools on Earth or another planet in the Galactic Alliance.
    "Thank you for rescuing me, Captain," Jenetta said as she activated the control that would raise the top part of the bed. She wanted to be sitting up as much as possible for the conversation, and she was unable to do it on her own.
    "You're most welcome. It was just dumb luck that your pod happened to be on a collision course with our ship, or we might never have spotted you. If you had been more than ten thousand kilometers ahead or back from your actual position, we'd have passed you by at forty-five-million kilometers a second without even knowing you were there. Your emergency beacon was all but dead, and in a few more months it probably wouldn't have been sending at all. We're so far out of the normal shipping lanes that you might never have been recovered." In a flattering manner, he added, "I certainly never expected to find a gorgeous blonde floating around out here."
    Jenetta blushed slightly, but otherwise didn't acknowledge what she considered to be a flirtatious remark. She'd never been coquettish. "Have you notified Space Command that you picked me up, sir?"
    "No, we haven't. We can't break radio silence for another month."
    "Excuse me? Radio silence?" Jenetta said, with a puzzled expression on her face.
    "Of course. We've been ordered to maintain strict radio silence while in this area of space. Oh, I forgot," the captain said, as he recalled the length of time Jenetta had spent in the escape pod, "you wouldn't know because you've been asleep for ten years." Lentz took a step closer to the sickbay bed and lowered his voice as if he feared being