by Charles Mead
“I just need a few more seconds to get this completed.”
The alarm sounded again and the air lock started to close again. Dan grabbed Steve and yanked out his connection and forcibly pushed him into the launch.
“Go now,” said Dan to the helm officer.
The rogue sub powered up again and began to turn towards Proteus.
“Not happening,” said Ben as he pressed the button on his command console.
Proteus launched a large salvo of missiles towards the rogue sub as at the same time Dan’s charges were triggered, resulting in the rogue sub exploding from the inside out.
***
Dan, Steve and Martin walked onto the Proteus’ bridge.
“Welcome back,” said Ben.
“Good to be back, sir,” said Martin.
“Steve, I want a copy of all the raw data you have managed to get on this. I am about to have a conversation with the admiral and need all the facts I can get.”
“Aye sir, I will transfer it to your tablet now.” Steve pushed his hands forward.
“Shall I get a course plotted to the nearest U.E.S. station, sir?”
“Proceed, Mr Nichols.”
“Would you like a launch to be ready at the station for your onward journey?”
“No, not now, Martin, I think I might stay on board a bit longer, put Proteus through a proper sea trial we didn’t have time for. I assume I will still have a job after speaking to the admiral.”
“What are you going to tell the admiral, sir?”
“What we know so far, the truth; that rogue sub was developed in part with U.E.S. technology and what I have on this tablet will help us determine who is behind this.”
“It might not, sir.”
“True, but the admiral doesn’t know that.”
Ben sat in the large conference room waiting for the admiral to be connected on the high resolution screen in front of him at the end of the conference table. He thought about his experience with Proteus, and with the crew, along with what had been accomplished in a short amount of time.
“Sir, I have the admiral now,” said Wil Weaver over the intercom.
“Put him through, Mr Weaver,” replied Ben.
The screen displayed the U.E.S. logo with “PROTEUS” written below it for a few seconds and then Admiral Herd appeared on screen again.
“Good result today, Ben, well done to you and the crew,” said Herd.
“Thank you, sir, but this would have been a lot easier had you been upfront with me from the very beginning.”
“Maybe, I—”
“No maybe about it. I needed all the information, Richard, and you concealed information from me that may have allowed us to resolve this situation much faster.”
“But the information, when shared with you, didn’t really help, did it? It was your crew that helped track this down, your crew that responded well under challenging situations as they are trained to do.”
“If you had just been honest with me from the start, Richard…”
“Would you have still come to check out Proteus if I told you there were rogue factions at work within the U.E.S.?”
Ben hesitated and smiled.
“Perhaps not, I may have told you that this is your mess, and go clean it up, and I will tour Proteus at another time.”
“Well then. There you go.”
“We managed to get a lot of data from the rogue sub before we destroyed it. I have Will and Steve going through it now. I am sure we can get to the bottom of who in the U.E.S. is working against it, trying to destabilise it.”
Admiral Herd’s smile relaxed a little and he was clearly uncomfortable about something.
“How long do you think this analysis will take?”
“Could be hours or days. Apart from them being awful water polo players they are good at their jobs, excellent I would say, in fact. Something you want to declare now, Admiral?”
“Look, Ben, it’s difficult for me to have this conversation over this link to you; however, let’s just say I have my suspicions.”
“I see. How certain are you that there are no more subs like that? Proteus cannot be everywhere at once so if there suddenly are two or more of these things out there, you can kiss your colonies goodbye, Admiral, along with your job I would imagine. I am pretty sure the U.E.S. still doesn’t promote people for failure…”
“No, Captain, it doesn’t. I think the best way to proceed is for you to personally give me the evidence you have from the rogue sub’s systems and we will go from there.”
“Be delighted to do that, but I think, at least for now, I should stay on board as captain.”
The admiral relaxed again and smiled.
“Excellent news! I agree.”
“Did you just play me, Admiral? You didn’t answer my question about more of these subs being out there.”
“No, not at all. There are things I cannot discuss with you over this link, other than to say since our last talk I am certain there are no more of these subs out there … for now. I will come to you and we can go through the data with your team. In the meantime, proceed to Receptaculum base.”
“Aye sir, and you really need to review the silly names the U.E.S. gives bases and colonies. They’re just awful.”
The admiral went to speak again but Ben pressed the button on the control console to terminate the call as he looked at the admiral and smiled.
***
Captain Ben walked onto the bridge and ordered the course to be plotted to Receptaculum.
“Commander, you ok with the bridge for an hour?”
“Yes, sir. May I ask why?”
“You may. I need to teach a few people here a lesson,” said Ben with a glint in his eye.
“Of course, sir.”
“Excellent. Mr Kennedy and Mr Weaver, report to the sea deck in five minutes, changed and ready.”
They both stood up and quietly left the bridge, suspecting their punishment was shortly to be given out.
“Mr Vokes, you are with me. Commander, you have the bridge,” said Ben.
Daniel smiled as he realised what might happen as they left the bridge.
On the sea deck Daniel and Will had changed into U.E.S. swimwear and were leaning against the side of the pool.
“He’s going to punish us now, I know it,” said Will.
“He seems relaxed at times, almost jovial.”
“He’s going to make us swim the tubes, wonder how many kilometres—”
“No, I am not,” boomed Ben as he entered the sea deck with Daniel Vokes, both also changed into U.E.S. swimwear. Ben had a water polo ball under one arm.
“Sir?”
“You two are awful players, so here’s the deal. We’ll play a game, two on two. First to ten points. If you lose, well, then you could well be swimming the tubes,” said Ben.
“Yes sir,” said both of them, thinking they would easily beat the older men.
“Oh, oh, I almost forgot, both Daniel and I have played for both the U.E.S. league and have won international competitions in the past, but you both knew that already, right?” said Ben as he bounced the ball along the floor whilst the net was being deployed by Will and Steve.
“Err … no sir,” said Steve.
“Well, this is going to be an excellent game,” said Daniel as he got into the water and Ben passed the ball to him.
“I suggest we all get warmed up with some laps in the tubes,” said Ben as he put on his goggles and dived into the water leaving Steve and Will standing in amazement at his swimming ability.
“Don’t just stand there, guys, he’s twice your age, get after him!” said Daniel.
TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story. I would welcome your feedback whether good or bad in the form of a review if you are able to do so. What did you like about the story? What do you want to know more about? This will help me in writing episode 2.