Lieutenant Candon came over to Paul again. "I can take over here. You look pretty used up."
Paul hesitated, his tiredness and thirst warring with his sense of responsibility. "No. Thanks. But I better stay here. She's my ship."
"Understood. Can I get you anything?"
"Have you got any water?"
Candon laughed. "You just used up about ten years worth of an entire ship's water allotments! And you want more?"
Paul winced. "Hey, that's not funny."
"Yeah, it is. But you're in luck. We brought some of Midway 's finest bottled water with us. Have a liter."
Paul was raising the bottle to his lips when he noticed one of his damage control party staring at it. Oh, hell. "Lieutenant Candon, do you have enough water for my sailors here?"
"Sure thing. Come'n get it, you guys." While Candon passed out bottles to the eager sailors, Paul finally drank, not lowering his own bottle until it was empty. "You need another?"
"No, thanks." Paul glanced up as someone came down the ladder. "Kris. You're not on duty."
"Paul, you idiot, when there's an emergency everyone's on duty. They passed an emergency recall for the crew. I got back a few minutes ago and the captain told me to get down here and relieve you on the scene." Kris looked at Lieutenant Candon with a worried frown. As a Lieutenant Junior Grade, she was outranked by Candon.
But Lieutenant Candon just shook her head and smiled. "It's your ship. My orders are to render all requested assistance. At your service, ma'am."
"Looks like you're doing everything we need at the moment. Paul, take a hike. You look like ten kilometers of bad road."
"I wish everybody would stop telling me how bad I look," Paul mumbled. "Where am I supposed to go?"
"I don't know. The captain didn't say. I wouldn't leave the ship, though."
Paul glared at her. "Duh."
"I was joking, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sinclair. Go somewhere and sit down, for heaven's sake."
"Okay, okay." Paul straightened, and smiled toward his damage control team. "Thanks, you guys. You did a great job. Petty Officer Yousef? I'd appreciate it if you got me a list of everyone who's in this team."
"No problem, Mr. Sinclair." Yousef grinned. "It's been real, sir. And it's been nice. But it ain't been real nice."
"You can say that again." Paul saluted Kris. "I stand relieved."
She flipped a quick salute back. "I've got it. Get out of here before that doc tosses you into sickbay."
Paul pulled himself up the ladder, then paused, looking around. Where do I go? He eventually decided on the quarterdeck. Standing in one of the hatches leading out onto the quarterdeck, he leaned outward enough to see Lieutenant Silver talking animatedly to the XO, smiles alternating with a studiously serious expression. Feeling a sudden desire to be alone, Paul pulled back and headed down toward his stateroom, then at the last moment turned into the wardroom instead in hopes of finding hot coffee.
The coffee wasn't fresh but it was hot. Paul hunched forward in his seat, drinking slowly, looking up only when he heard the hatch open, then jumping to his feet. "Captain."
Hayes gestured Paul back to his seat. "Sit down. You've had a rough night. The fire's out."
"Yessir. The source, anyway. There were still a few hot spots in Forward Engineering when I left." The words suddenly sounded wrong, as if he'd abandoned his duty station.
But Hayes simply nodded. "The team from the Midway is cooling them down now. Franklin Station authorities are going nuts over all the water we just used."
Paul looked down. "Sorry, sir."
"Do you think I'm complaining? We're already pumping it out of Forward Engineering and back to the station recycling tanks. Do you have any idea how the fire started?"
Paul looked up again, wanting to know if the captain was watching him like a prosecuting attorney, but saw only a captain's concern there. "No, sir. All I know is there was an explosion, then this fire."
"Do you have idea why the fire suppression systems in Forward Engineering didn't work? Did you see anything that might explain that while you were in there?"
"No, sir. DC Central said the systems were out, and later said they'd lost all sensors in the compartment because of the fire, but I didn't hear anything about anyone finding out why the systems didn't work. And I didn't see anything in the compartment, sir. Nothing. The smoke was so thick we couldn't see a thing. Except, um…" Paul unsuccessfully tried to avoid a small shudder.
"What?"
"Chief Asher, sir. I think. Some of what was left of him."
Hayes closed his eyes for a moment. "Chief Asher was in Forward Engineering when the explosion happened?"
"He must have been, sir. I don't see how after the explosion he could have run as far inside the compartment as where we found his… remains." Paul gulped, fighting down a wave of nausea.
"Okay. Did you sign-off on any maintenance activity in Forward Engineering tonight?"
"Sir? No, sir. I hadn't seen Chief Asher since morning quarters."
"No other engineer came by and asked you to sign off on a work chit?"
"No, sir."
Hayes shook his head, his mouth a thin line. "I understand Chief Asher was a good sailor."
"I didn't know him much, sir, but I never heard anything bad about him."
"Asher was by the book? He didn't take shortcuts?"
"As far as I know, Captain. We never had any problems with him during duty days, and nobody ever told me he needed to be watched."
"How'd you end up leading that Damage Control team?"
Paul looked down at his coffee. "Uh, well, sir, Lieutenant Silver and Chief Imari and I were on the quarterdeck, and DC Central told us the team had to go in and knock down the fire but Chief Asher wasn't there to lead them. Chief Imari had the deck and Lieutenant Silver was command duty officer, so that left me."
"Lieutenant Silver told you to go down there?"
"Um, he, uh, agreed to it, sir." Paul blinked, then looked up again. "Captain, Petty Officer Santiago did a great job. She really deserves a medal. Petty Officer Yousef, too. The whole damage control team did well."
"I'll keep that in mind, Paul. Go ahead and rest for a while." Captain Hayes started to leave, then paused in the hatch. "What about you, Paul?"
"Sir?"
"How'd you do?"
Paul's gaze was fixed on his coffee again. He felt a great reluctance to speak, to talk of his time in Forward Engineering. Chief Asher was certainly dead, and offering up any praise for himself felt not only inappropriate but simply wrong. I don't want any commendation, not one earned by Chief Asher's death. "I did my job, sir."
Not long afterwards, Kris Denaldo came in. "Colleen Kilgary showed up to relieve me and check out Forward Engineering herself. Why isn't Silver doing that?"
Paul shrugged. "I guess because he's command duty officer."
"The captain, XO, and just about everybody else is back on the ship. Silver doesn't need to worry about running things anymore. What could he be doing that's more important than checking out his gear and trying to confirm what happened to Chief Asher?"
"Do I look like I can read Silver's worthless mind?" Paul glanced up at the resulting silence, seeing Kris watching him. "Sorry. I've been under a little stress."
"That's a given, and you're forgiven for that. But I read some real hostility there."
"I don't like him. Okay? Silver's a no-load."
"I heard he handled the fire okay."
"He was paralyzed! Chief Imari and I were pushing things. I never heard a word from him when I was down there."
"Really. Have you told anyone else this?"
"No." His earlier conversation with Lieutenant Sindh came back. "And I'm not going to. It'd just make me look like I was trying to claim all the credit."