chapter one cont.

Addie hands Harvey a mild painkiller and a hydration drink. Apart from a headache, he seems no worse for wear from his space walk. Harvey sighs and downs the pill followed by the drink, shuddering involuntarily as the sweet-salt liquid hits his taste-buds. ‘This stuff never gets any better!’ He watches Addie as she updates his records on her computer.
‘Don’t be too hard on Noona, she knew what she was doing… No harm done, eh?’
Addie glances up and sees the genuine concern in Harvey’s eyes. ‘No, no harm done this time Harvey. But, as your Doctor, I advise you to stay well clear of moonshine for the rest of the mission.’
‘So, this won’t go any further then?’
‘…No, this won’t go any further.’
‘But the company will pick up your report about treating my hangover?’
‘The doctor smiles at his anxiety. ‘I have to account for every item used, Harvey, including headache tablets. I have simply noted that you reported for your shift with a headache that required medication. OK?’
Harvey grins at her, ‘Yep, that’s OK. You can call me Harv, you know, everyone does. So, can I get back to work?’
‘Yes, go on, get out of here!’ Addie watches as Harvey leaves, his large frame squeezing through the small airlock door. Life on board the Gibe is very different to how she imagined it would be. Already she felt as though she was being inexorably drawn into the close-knit world of the crew. Losing sight of her impartiality and they were barely two weeks into the mission.
‘Sometimes people just need to let off steam.’ Addie jumps at the sound of Dougal’s voice. She had forgotten he was in the infirmary too. ‘I know it goes against the grain not to report this to the company but this is such a small incident in the great scheme of all that could go wrong on this mission. I guess crater life isn’t quite what you thought it would be like at the Academy?’
Addies smiles and shakes her head ruefully, sometimes it felt as though Dougal could read minds.
‘Don’t worry, Addie,’ he continues, ‘Out here there is no right and wrong, there is only the ship and the mission between us and the freezer. Most of us tore up the rule book long, long ago and what the company doesn’t know won’t hurt them as long as the mission is completed and the ship returns. I am sure, when it comes to it, in the big issues, you’ll make the right decisions. Now, I have to go and finish those sunspot calculations for Noona. Nice canary, by the way, I didn’t know we were having live cargo on board.’
The GEM bird! Addie starts guiltily as Dougal gestures to the birdcage, containing a small yellow bird, visible through the isolation laboratory window. In her outrage over Harvey she had left it uncovered. ‘Oh, it’s just an experiment for a research paper I’m working on for the company…’
Dougal smiles and leaves the infirmary chuckling to himself as he catches the momentary look of alarm on the Doctor’s face. Experiment indeed. He knew an illegal Genetically Engineered and Modified creature when he saw one. Looks like the new doctor was well on her way to tearing up her own rule book already.