Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13

by Randolph Lalonde

  "Emotions can be seen in greater detail than you're aware of just yet. In the vernacular of one of Iruuk's favourite food establishments; there are hundreds of flavours of ice cream and every one is waiting for you to try them. What I'm saying is; there are dozens of flavours of frustration, anger, joy and every other feeling you can have. There are spectrums within spectrums."

  "Sure, that simplifies everything," Alice said, rolling her eyes. "It's too early for a lesson though, and I'm not broadcasting to the rest of the crew, so you can go back to sleep, or get back to your reading."

  "You feel better now that you're calmer, though?" Quan asked.

  "Well, yeah, and no," Alice replied, shaking her head before going on. "Listen, I wanted to be pissed, sometimes it helps."

  Theodore emerged from her quarters. "Hello, I couldn't help but overhear as my charging cycle completed. It's true, sometimes humans want to be angry. Engaging in aggressive behaviour can help some people process."

  "I've read that, it's an interesting phenomenon. Most of my people try to avoid the more violent emotions, they can create a kind of discordance…"

  "Holy crap, get out of my head!" Alice exclaimed, throwing her hands up. She was several steps down the hall before she remembered that Iruuk was awake and watching. As soon as she looked over her shoulder at him he rushed to catch up, squeezing past Theodore and Quan, who stared at her dumbly.

  "So, you don't want me to go with you?" Theodore called after her.

  "It's all right, go check on the Clever Dream. Muster the crew when they wake up," Alice said.

  "It's a good thing Iruuk is going with her. He's good for her mental state," Alice heard Quan tell Theodore as she walked away.

  "They make a good pair," Theodore agreed. "Have a good rest Quan, I have duties to perform."

  "Talk about two people who make a good pair," Alice muttered as the lift arrived and she stepped in with Iruuk at her side.

  "You heard that too?" Iruuk asked. "I hear all kinds of things humans don't think I can. It's like no one realizes how good Nafalli hearing is."

  "Yeah, I hope my rocky night didn't keep you up," Alice said, a yawn almost interrupting her.

  "I slept for nine hours straight, though I had some really screwed up dreams at one point. I don't remember what they were about, but they were really sad."

  "Sorry, that was me. Got a late-night call from Noah. We broke up, then when he called again we got back together." With a few taps on her left command and control unit, Alice brought the medical interface up and started a Wake Nine treatment. It was a non-addictive sequence of nonnarcotic drugs that provided the same benefits of ten hours of sleep. It would run over the course of a few minutes, but past what the intended effects were supposed to be, she didn't know much about it. The treatment was new. The world spun for a moment and she leaned against the handrail. "Whoa, they should warn you about that. Pilots are supposed to use this, it could be a problem if you get the spins every time."

  "Are you all right?" Iruuk asked.

  Her head stopped spinning and Alice straightened in time for the transit pod doors to open. They were already on the bridge level. "Fine, just trying the new patrol drugs."

  "Oh, I read the brief about that, the fake sleep stuff," Iruuk said with a nod. "What's it like?"

  For a moment Alice felt like she was lifting off the floor, and her thoughts seemed very slow. "A little bumpy, kind of fuzzy," she found herself mumbling. "I'm cloudy like a slow frog sound."

  "Oh boy," Iruuk said, holding her up and looking at her closely, too closely. "Your pupils are super dilated. Are you sure we should be on the command level?"

  "You're really worried about me, that's sweet," she found herself saying to Iruuk as she patted the side of his face. "That's really soft," Alice breathed, then she came back to her senses. "Whoa, that was a hell of a trip. A short trip, but I feel like I just slept for a week."

  "You're okay?" Iruuk asked, surprised.

  "I'm fine," she checked the medical display on her command and control unit. TREATMENT COMPLETE, it read. "How long did I go loopy for?"

  "About a minute, less actually," Iruuk said as he scanned her then nodded. "Your stress levels are down, and it really looks like you're well rested."

  "Enough scanning and probing," Alice told him, gently pushing his arm down. "Let Theodore worry about that."

  "Just wanted to make sure you were okay," Iruuk said with a shrug as they left the transit car. It was quiet in the corridors near the bridge, they were still over an hour away from the end of third watch.

  "I know, but I'm getting pretty tired of people asking me how I'm feeling, scanning me. The only one who hasn't treated me differently since I took an extra-long nap is Noah."

  "I'll stop scanning you, sorry. Oh yeah, and why did you guys have a rocky night? What brought that on?" Iruuk asked.

  "Some high ranking dick told him to break all ties and pretend to desert from the fleet, so he followed instructions. That's why he tried to break up with me," she was still angry at him for it, but so much more so at whoever came up with the plan he was following. "We got back together when he 'fessed up to being forced into it by the fleet. That's when I told him to follow orders while I took care of the rest from my end."

  "Wait, so he's deserted already?"

  Alice nodded as her father's door came into sight. "Along with a clever class corvette and a load of gear. He's supposed to become an arms dealer to resistance groups so he can assess them. Another team is supposed to follow up on good recruit and alliance candidates."

  "Us?"

  "Definitely not. This isn't in the Special Operations Combat Unit files from what I can see. This is another Intelligence operation."

  "Oh, so they…" Iruuk hesitated as they stopped in front of Commodore Jacob Valent's door. "Wait, you think he wanted to separate you and Noah?"

  "I don't know, but aside from calling Ayan up, I don't know who else to go to with this. If my Dad's behind it, I'm gonna be pissed."

  His nose low, almost lowered to his chest, Iruuk asked; "Are you sure I should go in there with you? I mean, he's probably sleeping, you might want to come back later."

  "This is worth waking him up for." Alice held the call button down. "Besides, if I'm going to leave the fleet and join Noah, then you should hear the whole conversation that leads up to it. Someone will have to explain why I left."

  "Wait, you don't think I'd go with you?" Iruuk asked.

  "Of course not, you could make Captain in seven years, maybe less," Alice said. "I wouldn't ask you to throw that away."

  "You wouldn't have to ask," Iruuk said, straightening up.

  "It's not a good career move for you. All your hard work would be for nothing and the fleet is better with you in it." She let the call button go, then started tapping it, the intermittent buzzing was barely audible through the door.

  "I thought you were finally happy in the fleet, maybe you're the one who should stick around," Iruuk countered. "Noah's trouble could be resolved some other way. There's nothing saying someone couldn't order him to abort his mission and return home. Besides, the Clever Dream needs a new pilot. Ute is going home as soon as we're out of Order space."

  The thought of Noah becoming the pilot of the Clever Dream hadn't occurred to her.

  "Would you stop leaning on that…" Jake grumbled, his thick vacsuit half way up. "Alice? Everything okay?"

  "No," she said, brushing past him. "Noah stole a clever class corvette and left the fleet on Oz's orders."

  "Sorry about the buzz-buzz," Iruuk whispered to Jake as he entered meekly, miming the pushing of a button.

  "He what?" Jake asked, pulling the rest of his vacsuit on and sealing it. "Access records on Noah Lucas." He walked to the shelf with the beverage dispenser built in and punched the combination that would make a steaming cup of coffee. "Five point fifteen hours of sleep, I've had less," he grumbled as the records appeared in a hologram in front of him. "Okay, no official orders, he's marke
d as a deserter." He took the steaming hot cup from the shelf along with two peanut butter meal bars and made his way to the middle of the room. "Access all classified files marked level seven and up referencing Noah Lucas and open a call to Commodore Terry Ozark McPatrick."

  It was no surprise that Alice's report on Noah was the only highly classified document to appear. "You won't find anything."

  "You're probably right, but I've got to check," Jake said. "Close files. Open Intelligence Operations Logs for the last three days. List all orders given to Commodore McPatrick and Noah Lucas." The computer responded with a single red lettered word: RESTRICTED. "Well, looks like someone's made sure no one can access those records. I wish Minh was here, he'd already have a theory about what Fleet wants out of this."

  "So, you really didn't know anything about this?" Alice asked.

  "No, I was looking forward to seeing how Hal and Noah did in the Pilot's Officer Program. I was hoping that I'd be able to put both of them up for choices as the new pilot for the Clever Dream. Minh was even more excited about it."

  "I don't know how well things would work out with Noah as my pilot," Alice said, even though she wanted to have him closer so they could spend more time together for real. The proximity could be a problem though, especially if she couldn't shut her empathic sense down.

  "Nothing tests a relationship like being stuck on a ship together," Jake said. He sipped his coffee. "Most of them break though."

  He was worried and confused. There was a little anger too, but it wasn't directed at anyone in the room. Alice wished she could turn her sense off as a hologram of Oz yawning appeared. "Jake? Aren't you supposed to go dark in a few minutes?"

  "Don't worry, the Merciless is a few days out of sensor range from any Order ships. We can delay our return to Nuaji for a while," Jake said. "I have an irate Captain on my hands this morning. She says you ordered someone to steal a corvette and desert?"

  "I was executing someone else's plan. I don't disagree with it, but I can't take full credit," Oz replied.

  "Oh, we need a higher power on this," Jake said, bringing a list of contacts up and touching several listings.

  "Wait! This is classified at the highest level," Oz said. "Our deserter wasn't supposed to tell anyone."

  "Well, if he's a deserter and he got away with a bunch of our tech, we should let the whole admiralty in on it," Jake replied.

  Beside Oz's holographic head Ayan and Admiral Doolth's appeared. The Nafalli admiral was still straightening the fur on her broad face and Ayan was burping Laura. "Oh, this is an official call," she said.

  "I'm sure Laura won't leak any classified information," Admiral Doolth said in a sweetly pitched voice.

  "Sorry for waking you two up. One of our corvettes has been stolen by a deserter," Jake said in a surprisingly casual tone. He was watching Laura and Ayan more than anyone. "So far, I've been able to trace the orders back to Oz, but only unofficially since I got the information third hand."

  "Wait, this deserter was ordered to leave the fleet?" Admiral Doolth asked, surprised.

  "Ever since Intelligence saw Alice's work on trying to bring a large resistance group closer to full recruitment into Haven Fleet, Lamonthe and other members of Intelligence have been working on a plan to get a few more operatives out into the galaxy who can get similar efforts going," Oz explained. "When they saw several candidates aboard the Triton they came to me and I helped them hammer out some of the details. Noah Lucas was one of the candidates along with every other member of the Pilot's Apex Program. Most were crossed out in the first few days, leaving Noah and a few others. I admit, he was high on my list, but not at the top. I didn't like the idea of isolating Noah, but when the order to send him out as the first operative came down, I executed it."

  "I didn't know anything about this," Jake said.

  "I brought that up and Lamonthe told me that the integrity of the mission could break down if you were aware of it," Oz said.

  "So this is Lamonthe," Admiral Doolth said, glancing at Jake then Ayan. "It's inappropriate. Noah Lucas is part of Samurai Squadron, which is part of the Special Operations Combat Unit and that is completely under Commodore Jacob Valent's control. Did anyone aboard the Merciless know?"

  "The only other high ranking officer who might know is Commander Minh-Chu Buu, and I can't ask him because he's on mission right now," Jake said. He was holding his frustration in check well.

  "He doesn't know," Oz said. "Not even aides were allowed to see the details of this mission. There's no record of it. I'm disobeying orders right now by discussing it."

  "I didn't know about this," Ayan said soothingly to Laura as she slowly lowered the baby into her basinet. "I'm going to restrict Lamonthe's privileges and put him under guard while we investigate this if I can get your support, Nimeen."

  "I'll support the action," Admiral Doolth said, stroking the fur under her chin. "Who will serve as interim lead of Intelligence?"

  "I'm elevating Commodore McPatrick to my own rank: Founding Admiral. I think it'll only be appropriate if you second that too, since Founder is a Nafalli rank."

  "Oh, I second it," Nimeen said with a broad Nafalli smile. "I've read your file and find that your story proves that you are a man of high honour, Admiral McPatrick. Even the killing of Geist is made honourable by your reasoning. I will support your elevation if it is challenged. What about Commodore Valent?" she asked Ayan, her broad, furred head turning. "He is a founder of the fleet as well and quite a tactician."

  "We entered him into the fleet at a lower rank because the British Alliance didn't approve," Ayan said. "Now I think he's afraid that a promotion will take him away from commanding a ship and going on missions."

  "Our high-ranking officers bolster the soldiers morale by leading missions," Admiral Doolth said. "I propose that he is promoted to the highest rank but with that philosophy in mind. He and his command crew are legendary, I'm sure they can take care of his ship while he's leading his troops."

  "I need you, Jake," Ayan said. "Now that we can communicate in real time across the galaxy, you can play a bigger role in fleet leadership while you go on some of the most important missions. I think we can leave SOCU in your hands while Oz takes care of the rest of Fleet Intelligence until we restructure that organization at the top. You can build it however you like and work with us on bigger operations that keep you active out there. I know you don't want to leave that kind of action behind."

  Silence hung over the room, and as much as the sudden events were exciting, Alice was still trying to figure out how exactly they would help Noah. Benching Lamonthe was a good thing, his ideas needed to be examined at least, but elevating Oz and Jake to the highest rank in the fleet wouldn't necessarily lead to Noah returning to the fleet.

  Admiral Nimeen Doolth cleared her throat. "I advance you, Commodore Jacob Valent to Founder Admiral with the support of Founder Admiral Ayan Anderson."

  "You have my support," Ayan said.

  "It's about time," Alice muttered.

  "All right, so this means I'm a leader in Nafalli and Haven Fleet ranks," Jake said in as serious a manner as Alice could recall seeing him in.

  "Exactly right," Nimeen said.

  "I'm honoured," he said. "First thing: let's resolve this deserter garbage." He looked to Alice for a moment before turning back to the holographic torsos of Ayan, Oz, and Nimeen. "I've been through Noah's file a few times. He spent enough time alone on Iora, and even when he had a companion, they were on their own and under stress for months. The mission he's been sent on is a good idea, but the execution ignores the family Noah has surrounded himself with, so I'm sending the Clever Dream after him. This act is classified at the highest level because I want it to look like Alice is acting against orders, taking her ship on her own to go after him. That way they can put up whatever front they like if they run into Mary Reed."

  "You knew we were looking for her her?" Iruuk asked.

  "That's how you found the resistance group on Nuaji
. You were tracking her and Peter's resistance group was the last Order surveillance linked her to," Jake replied, nodding. "She might know of several resistance groups, how to contact them. We need to use her contacts to give the right fighters support."

  "So, the first objective is to get Noah, second is to track Mary Reed and try to work with her," Alice said. For the first time everyone was looking at her, so she decided to push her luck. The feeling of relief coming from her father told her that it was the right time. "Any promotion for me and Fur-Face while you're handing them out?"

  Ayan was the first to laugh. "Like rank would stop you from doing anything."

  Oz cleared his throat. "I think you're both in the right place for now."

  "You're not wrong," Alice sighed. "All right, so you want me to act like going after Noah is my idea?"

  "Exactly," Jake said. "We'll put his coordinates behind a high classification rating and we'll make it look like you've stolen them and taken off."

  "Bah, you don't have to make it look like they've been stolen," Iruuk said. "I'll just get Lewis to do it." He looked around the room nervously, realizing that he just casually proposed using an artificial intelligence to crack through fleet security. "Awkward," he breathed as four Admirals and a Captain stared at him.

  "Tell Lewis I want a report on vulnerabilities in the Haven Fleet network," Oz said.

  "Will do," Alice replied. "Well, I have my mission. Now I'll get my hug and storm out of your room like I'm a pissed off teenager planning on stealing the family shuttle."

  Jake embraced her for a long moment, he was nervous, she could feel it. "Don't worry, it's a milk run, and I can feel what people are gonna do before they do it," she said against his chest.

  "I always thought humans should cuddle more," Nimeed cooed, tilting her head.

  "I know, I've said it to several of them but they mostly ignore me," Iruuk told her.

  "Good luck, Alice," Ayan said as she watched her and Jake step apart.

  "Remember to call your mother," he told Alice, holding her at arm's length.