Without a Paddle
Posted on May 11th, 2011 by Kathryn Harper

Oh bloody hell!

She may not have possessed a full understanding of English idioms, but Kate Harper could out-cuss even the bawdiest of sailors. Now, as she looked around the dimly lit room aboard the alien sleeper ship, now containing one alien who was very much not asleep anymore, and several more outside waiting for words of encouragement, profanity from many languages ran through her head. Oh, and the ship was off course and going to fly straight into a star. Fabulous!

Shit shit shit!

This was a situation straight out of the Academy, and almost annoyingly so at that. Help the alien race in potential violation of the Prime Directive, or let them try to save themselves, possibly fail, and end up as carbon atoms expelled with the star’s stellar wind? Hey, maybe in a few million years they’ll seed life on some random planet, right? Kate had already promised to help them, but she’d said that out of instinct. Now, with a possible General Order One situation at hand, she had to call Colonel McKnight and advise him of the situation. The decision was his to make, but that wouldn’t soothe her conscience should things turn out badly. He would surely choose to help, wouldn’t he?

Matyeryebyets!

“Commander Harper to Colonel McKnight.”