the young Captain...gazed ...in... wonderment...... at Her
***********************
"Why is it so cold.....?"
"Why am I always...... so cold?"
The crystalline snow numbed his feet as the young Captain leaned against the bone chilling wind that swept over the largest spaceport of Nouveau London.
The skimmer knelt beside him and popped his sea bags into an anti-grav unit that skittered momentarily on the blackicecrete of the forthing of the entrance.
Suddenly Kleig lights popped on and the young Captain was limned against the snow... a blond lock of hair skittered in the wind over his forehead just before he hurriedly jammed the tricorn against his brow.
Automatic shutters opened on the diminutive guard shack which stood by the kilometers of chain link fencing surrounding the largest spaceport on Terra.... The New Hard.....
He turned his collar up as he trudged through the snow toward the beckoning lights of the guard shack.
"Stand fast ...IF you please!".... a tinny voice hailed from somewhere in the thickening snow....
Monitorcams and laserguns slowly bogied toward him and seemed to sniff at him....rather like Hellhounds sniffing at an intruder.
"Her Majesty's Ship the Everett F.!"
"Oh, pardon me Sor! Pardon me!"
A stooped figure of a man hurried from the guard shack and opened the gate...pulling it aside manually.
"Sorry Sor! The electrics have been givin' us fits this last day or so...the snow has been so thick...ice, snow, a regular Norther' she is sor!!"
The stooped figure doffed his cap and knuckled his forehead.....
"That's ok Bosun....Bosun?"
"That's right Sor....Bosun Golightly, if you please Sor...."
The man that backed away and gestured toward the guard shack was seemingly as weighed down by his thick accent as he was by the weight of wounds, war and wear...
"That's ok Bosun....Golightly....seems I've heard that name before...."
"Yessir...., yessir.....'twas my father and meself that had the honour to serve on The Everett F when she was just pinnace Sor...just a pinnace..."
The heat of the ceiling in the guard shack was welcome to the young Captain as he shucked the dark blue great coat and stood, hands clasped behind him, gazing out across The New Hard.
"I'll be for gettin' some tea on Sor....it'll take a few for the grounders to get suitable conveyance for yourself......"
The young Captain nodded..... and continued to gaze outward....trying to pierce by main force...the white garlands which obscured his view.....
"Georgy!! Georgy!!" The Bosun hissed into a comlink...."The young gennulman's HERE!!! Get a move on with that transport!! Can't keep the Everett F a'waitin'!! Geta move on!"
The young captain rested his hand on the sill of the window....caressing the steaming cup of tea... straining against the cold, cruel snow......
And... suddenly..... the black sky of space appeared .....the billowy curtains of snow parted and there....
there......
Limned by the sterile cold Kleig Lights that surrounded it.....was the Everett F....resting ....no..... no....not resting....
straining....straining.....against the cradle of the dock that held her....
the dock that .....held her captive.....
captive against the cold cruel void that was her destiny.........
The sheen of her duralumin glinted against the lights..... the busy bots that tended her winked a thousand and more welds in a thousand and more seconds ..... struggeling to heal.... the scars.... that had been flayed upon her when she had flung herself against the unknown enemy........
'What happened to her Kub.....?' The young Captain mused....as he gazed at ..
...his.....ship......
In his mind....he reviewed the clinical facts of the engagement....
**************
A brown manila folder.....
Laid upon a table clothed in .... green baize.....
A stern Admiral of the Fleet.....distrusting..... could this young upstart REALLY take THAT ship out again? She had been.....torn asunder.....brought back only at the cost of so.....MANY human lives....brought back with the forlorn hope that she could.... that SHE could.....
oh God.....oh god....oh.....
'Even with YOUR history sir....I doubt......I doubt....' the stern Admiral of the Fleet intoned.....
the brown manila folder....
laid upon the green baize.....
*******************
What was really behind the sterile case study, bulleted, indented, folded, twisted....mutilated.... words of the report in the brown manila folder...."
The thousands of flagellations against her skin.....that the busy bots were so sadly....even the busy bots seemed to be weeping....as they tried to heal......
The hundreds of crew dead...in the flash of an instant when the Death Flower had reaved into her side....
'What happened to her Kub......?.....surely ....surely if I could somehow access her.... somehow....I think that possibly....'
"Sor!! Sor!...Your transport is approaching! ... Look there!! Sor!"....the Bosun gesticulated beside him....
Pointing toward the the garlands of cold white snow......that ..... again enveloped the ship...obscured her from her Captain's gaze.......
Did she yearn for the Captain....?
Does a stricken ship dream a fitful dream of her....... lost kinsmen....?
What of the new Kub? Kubs do not just come and go....
The real Kubs....the Kubs of people .......and entities.......that do more......than is "necessary".....
Those Kubs....
Those Kubs do more than just......come and go....
Who was he? Who was.......he.....
Who WAS Richard G/L?.... lost in the mists of time.... the great exponent long haired, paunchy, twenty grand patriarch of the Kubs... who was he?
Who was the grand patriarch of the Kub that sacrificed herself..... to save soo many lives....
How could one man....do so much..... through so many..... lifetimes....
Through so many lifetimes of snow and ice..... and deep....dark.....blacky, inky, stygian....cold....cruel....heartless dark....
How could one Kub ....one man.... do so much for human...kind...?
The snow and the ice and the blackicecrete were too much for the transporter....it gently bounced, nudged, crunched d into the wall of the guard shack...
'Boats will have a few reports to fill out for THAT!....' mused the young Captain.....
"Sor..... "....
The Bosun gently touched the young Captain's elbow....holding Everett F's greatcoat....
The young Captain shrugged the greatcoat on his shoulders....
The greatcoat enclosed him....
The greatcoat held him.....
The greatcoat warmed him....
Does a Kub enclose a ship?
Does a Kub hold a ship?
Does a Kub warm a ship?
The Bosun reverently flicked some dust that existed only in his imagination from the greatcoat...
The Bosun reverently placed it on the shoulders....
of the young Captain just before he stepped from the golden womb of the guard shack...
onto the blackicecrete of the New Hard.....
The young Captain pulled the collar up about his neck....
The young Captain ....wondered.....wondered......what happened to her Kub....?
And....again.... almost for the first time......the young Captain.... gazed again..... he gazed again....
.......the wreathy white garlands were gone..... the icey crystals of his breath shattered lazily against the cold.....and fell to shatter on the New Hard....
And.... .under the glassy, splintering....ear and mind shattering.....crystalline ice of the stars.....the young Captain...gazed ...in... wonderment...... at Her.