“All that matters is that you're safe. Even if you are his daughter and not mine, I'll never see you as anything less,” he kissed the side of her head.
She drew back and looked into his eyes. He absolutely loved her like a daughter. To him she was his only family, his blood, and he was completely invested in the idea. It struck her heart, brought up a flood of emotions that made her head pound and took all words away. He loved her, unconditionally and so utterly that she could see it in his eyes, in his gentle smile. She had never seen that directed at her before, not anywhere from anyone and a black fear lived under all those feelings that when he discovered the truth his love would disappear.
At the moment she was incapable of anything but crying, and with a deep shudder she laid her head on his shoulder. He held her close and rubbed her back with care. “I'm so sorry,” she sobbed.
“It's okay, you're here, we have time.”
They remained that way for a while, and Jonas eventually crossed the distance, introducing himself to Stephanie first. “Jonas Valent, I'm his brother,” he smiled.
Stephanie smiled back and shook his hand. “Stephanie Vega, the First Officer here. I didn't know Captain had a brother.”
“Sometimes I think even he forgets.” Jonas' subdermal communicator received a message from Alice's mental transmitter. It was so garbled that it came through more as a collection of musical notes. He shook his head.
Captain Valance and Alice parted, and he offered her his white scarf to wipe her tears away.
“I couldn't use that,” she said, using her sleeve instead. After a moment she looked at Jonas, he could see her concentrating.
“Don't tell him about me. I'll do it myself.” Came her mental communication, much clearer that time. He assumed the earlier failed attempt was due to emotional interference.
“Yes, well, maybe we could take this somewhere more private?” Jonas said with a nod directed at the express tube.
Stephanie turned on her heel and led the way back the way she and the Captain had come. “Security detail dismissed.” She ordered to the soldiers standing around them. They turned and led the way to the large cargo elevator. “There's an observation lounge a few decks up that we haven't seen yet.”
“You haven't had this ship long?” Jonas asked.
“Just a couple days. Most of the crew are refugees and deserters from the Aucharian Government,” Jake replied. “With their home system in pieces they didn't think they had much to go back to.” Jake pointed over his shoulder at the Samson with his thumb. “That's been my core ship for the last five years. It was a gift. Turns out it served me well.”
“I almost didn't recognize it,” Alice said, looking across the hundred meter distance at the battered cargo hauler as the deck crew hovered it soundlessly up a ramp through an interior hangar door that was almost not wide enough. “What are they doing with it?”
“Putting it into storage. One of my crew detonated a one megaton equivalent electromagnetic pulse bomb on the deck beneath it. The Samson won't be running until someone does some serious repairs on her.”
“He saved my life when he set that thing off. Wheeler was just about to put an extra hole in me,” Stephanie added. “Gave us the upper hand for just long enough to get things under control.”
They stepped into the large cargo express car with a dozen soldiers in tow and after the screech of the doors closing made everyone cringe it elevated several decks in the space of a few seconds, opening up to reveal what looked like a common room. The lights came on closest to them first, illuminating two meters at a time down the two hallways in ahead. There were three sofas, a couple small tables and chairs with scuffed markings on the floor indicating emergency hatchways for escape craft and maintenance crawl ways. It looked like one of the more used sections of the ship, but was covered in dust.
“This looks like the entrance space to a berth,” Jonas said as he stepped inside. “Fighter pilots I'd say.”
“Looks like. The schematics for this deck outlines one third as living space for pilots and deck crews. The rest is an observation deck and the highest point in the hangar storage.” Stephanie said, looking at a small holographic representation of the deck coming from her wrist unit.
Alice was looking on with interest. “I'd hate to bunk up there,” she pointed at the rear wall, where the schematic detailed a part of the hangar lifting system.
“The observation lounge is this way,” Stephanie directed to the hall running left, towards the bow of the ship. “Do a sweep of this berthing. I want it cleared for the deck crew by the time they're ready to turn in. When you're finished make sure you inform the Chief his people are assigned here,” she ordered the lead soldier before starting down the hall. “We'll clear the observation lounge,” she finished with a crooked grin.
“Yes Ma'am.”
They made their way up the broad hallway, avoiding one cleaning robot that was vacuuming its way up the side of the hall. “I guess the robots turn off when the decks are dormant,” Alice commented as she wiped her finger across it's flat, round top. It was as thick with dust as everything else. “Must be nice to have them aboard though. I don't know what I'd do without the cleaning systems in the Clever Dream.”
“Your ship has cleaning systems?” Stephanie asked enviously.
“Sure does, takes care of almost everything.”
“There were days when I wished the Samson had something, anything like that. We had to vent the halls once to prove a point.”
“That was Frost,” Captain Valance corrected. “I was off ship.”
“Yeah, cleaned the dust out of the corners though,” Stephanie said with a chuckle at the memory.
“We also lost a few tools in that impromptu clean up. He still owes me for that.”
“But it was funny! Everyone got to their bunks like he told them to, but no one thought he'd actually do it. People cleaned up after themselves a little more after that. I think some of them lost a couple things they left lying around.”
“Sounds like the Samson was an interesting place to be,” Alice commented.
“For me, but I like a good firefight and Captain kept the jobs coming. We must have gone through a couple hundred people in the time I was aboard though, between people who just left after a while and others. It was a rough life.”
“So you're keeping the Triton? Going to keep her crewed up?” Jonas asked. “I am,” Jake answered mildly. “Everyone needs a bit of training except our Chief Engineer, but the computer's got the information they need to start.”
“Are you going to run them through simulations? I've found virtual trials are a great way to get a crew in shape.”
“I was just thinking about that actually. It's writing the scenarios I'm not looking forward to, and I don't know whether to do it one department at a time or run people from all of them through at the same time.”
“I'd say you should run everyone not on duty once a day during hyperspace, just for a couple hours while they're off duty. We did something similar with the First Light but time was always a problem. She was well automated but had a skeleton crew. Didn't feel like it though. Running a ship with a couple hundred souls aboard is still a big challenge.”
“I know, the Samson was easy most of the time. I had no problem staying on top of things. I'm hoping that the people we've put in charge are good at their jobs.” Captain Valance concluded.
“I'll do my best Captain,” Stephanie reassured as she checked the status of the compartment ahead on the door control panel leading to the observation lounge.
“I'm talking about our new Chiefs, you're the one I'm hoping picks up any really big problems.”
“Well, with security I know I'll be able to tell if things are going right, but with engineering and the hangar decks? It's hard to be sure,” Stephanie said with a shrug as she opened the double doors leading into the lounge.
The lights came on to reveal a furnished room with a view facing outwards from the front of the
Triton. The floor in front of the entrance was decorated with a silvered skull with the words Deploy, Dominate, Disappear written around it. “Well that's a squadron motto to remember,” Alice said, looking down on it.
“I think that might just be something I'd like to keep. Maybe even duplicate in other parts of the ship,” Captain Valance said as much to himself as anyone else.
The rest of the observation lounge was much like the common room, only with a bar at one end and many more tables. There were a few weathered sofas and other seats around as well. Overall, the space looked well used and if it weren't for the dust one would expect a group of pilots to walk in any second, returning from a patrol.
“Should we leave these guys alone and see what else we can find?” Alice asked Stephanie.
“I actually have to get back to the bridge, make sure the next watch is settling in. Come with?”
“Sounds like as good a place to start the tour as any,” Alice said with a shrug.
The pair left and Jake led Jonas to the bar, where he stepped in behind and Jonas sat down on a padded stool. “Guess Wheeler didn't like this part of the ship much,” Jonas commented as he looked around.
Jake looked under the bar for a moment and came up with a bottle of scotch. “Ashton Mill brand, aged fourteen years, bottled forty six years ago.”
“I'm game.”
He pulled two glasses out from behind the bar and sprayed them with a small water hose that sputtered a moment before focusing into a clean jet. “I'm surprised. You'd think Wheeler would move in behind the bar,” Jake said plainly as he poured two half glasses.
“Cheers.” Jonas said as they clinked glasses. “I couldn't even begin to imagine how blind sided you feel right now. I would have sent you a message but the Clever Dream moves faster than most transmission services.”
“I saw the wormhole exit point. That's a nice ship.”
“It is, Alice has done well for herself.”
Captain Valance took a second sip of scotch and swirled the amber fluid in the glass, watching it, unable to look at Jonas. “Is she mine or yours?”
“That's a difficult question to answer.”
“Oh?”
“Well, if you were to test her DNA you'd find she's not even related.”
“So she's adopted.”
“I'm not supposed to tell you any of this. She wanted to say so herself, but I know she's scared. I know I would rather find out right away than be surprised later.”
“By?” Jake asked, trying not to sound impatient.
“When I was seventeen I bought the best artificial intelligence I could find. It cost me a year's savings and I customized her, left her on my arm for almost seventeen years. She saw everything. I talked to her as though she was my best friend, and she was.” He didn't give Jake a chance to say anything, just pushed on through it. “When I was in command of the First Light we ran into trouble. Some of my senior staff and I were captured by a super carrier owned by Vindyne.”
“I've heard of them.”
“I had built a switch into Alice after a few years of having her, where I could turn off all the limitations imposed on the cores of artificial intelligences. I don't know why I did it at the time, maybe I thought she had the right to make all her own decisions one day, but years later when we were captured I let her loose through their wireless network. She ran rampant and from what she's told me she absorbed some predatory programming and used the systems on that carrier to force herself into the emptied mind of a woman who was about to be programmed as an unwilling colonist. She was a former prisoner, a murderer with a few fragment memories left, but Alice got through it. A few years later she went after you thinking there was only one of us and got you free. Vindyne, or rather, a few people left over from that company have been after her ever since.”
Jake just let it sink in for a minute, looking through the transparent section of hull out into the blue and white starry haze outside.
“She sees me more like a brother, we grew up together. When she watches footage of your captures, the speeches you gave for the Aucharians, it's different. She looks up to you, it really is like she's looking at her father, a mentor.”
“She shouldn't. I come with an entirely different bag of trouble. I've only been alive a few years and I can't count the number of enemies I've made. Most of them are counting the days until they get out of prison. Some day there'll be a couple hundred very bad people on the roam with one eye looking for my face.”
Jonas looked at the other man, he was brooding, quiet. “Hey, you saved my butt when you were minutes old. Everything that's in my head was in yours when they brought you out. Somehow you managed to delete, or suppress all the memories they gave you. You did it so they'd stop trying to use me as some kind of guinea pig, or read me like a database. That's the first thing you did when they flipped the switch and brought you online, even though you felt just as much like me as I did. You must have been convinced you were Jonas Valent right up until they sat us down in front of each other. I know I couldn't have done that, and not just because I don't have machinery in my skull, but because I couldn't let go of everything I know, all my experiences, and the people I love, not for anyone,” his eyes settled on the white silk scarf dangling from Jake's neck.
“I always wondered what this was about. Just couldn't let it go.” Jake said as he pulled the scarf off carefully. “I even had it repaired once.”
“I had a few girlfriends, but none of them could hold a candle up to the last one. I hope she's been well in the time I've been gone,” he stared at it, draped over his hand. His thumb stroked its smooth surface. “Her name is Ayan Rice. She was the Engineer on the First Light and did I ever fall for her. I was so lucky she felt the same way. It's all I could think about ever since they woke me up two months ago. Finding my way back,” he nodded to himself and looked back to Jake. “That is until I found out about you. Over the last couple days I've been glued to the holoprojector with Alice. We can't stop watching the clips the Hart Newsnet has on you, there are days worth. One take down and take over after another, even a few gunfights that law enforcement agencies put up just in case they ever get another chance to catch you.”
“I think I could name each one,” Jake chuckled. “Most gun fights are pretty short, and the ones that last a while are memorable.”
“You're something completely different. I couldn't even pretend to be you, I wouldn't know where to start.”
“Ah, you'd get it down. I'm not so hard.”
“Are you kidding? I focus on technical details, work as many tools as I can into a solution to make things go smoother. You're all about the quickest point between A and B, and man, you get there whether you have to run, crawl, or fly.”
“I just do what I have to. One thing's really buggin' me more than anything else though, what happened? I mean, I've heard Wheeler's version, that he betrayed you and you got taken by Vindyne, but what happened from your end?”
“Well, when we got back to the rendezvous point at Starfree Port Vindyne came in right after us with so much firepower the Port wasn't willing to back us up. Major Hampon, this irritating prick who had interrogated me the the first time Vindyne got their hands on me and really held a grudge got on my personal comm and told me if I turned myself in willingly they'd let the First Light and what was left of my crew go. I gave myself up and watched them take a wormhole home.”
“See, I don't know if I could do that.”
“I bet you could, but that's not the point. Vindyne was there within seconds of our arrival, I suspected Wheeler turned us in.”
“He told me straight on, he sold you out along with all the framework technology. I guess I should thank him before you kick his ass.”
Jonas laughed for the first time since they sat down, it was a huge relief. “I guess so. Speaking of which, where is he?”
“He's in the brig. You can see him if you want. There's an extra code you need to punch in to speak to him though, it's zero eigh
t one one.”
“I think I will,” Jonas took a long look at Jake, and after a moment he looked back at him. “You going to be all right?”
“Yeah, no matter where I came from, I've come most of the way myself after Alice dropped me off on the Samson. I can't complain about the stock I'm bred from either,” he offered his hand. “I'll get you back to Ayan as soon as I can. At the same time I want you to remember; you always have a place on this ship.”
Jonas shook it firmly. “I might take you up on that. On a ship this size there might just be enough room for the two of us. What about Alice?”
The pair started for the exit but saw a small personnel lift at the end of the bar. Jake shook his head as they made their way to it around a few tables. “Strange thing about that, I owe her as much as you do. If she hadn't have broken me out of wherever they were keeping my pod I'm sure I would have been mulched or put to work in a mine somewhere. Besides, for years now I've thought of her as my daughter, my blood. I even looked for her mother for a while. Why shake that kind of love?” The word felt strange, he couldn't recall the last time he'd said it aloud, maybe he never had. There was nothing to remember before being let out of his cocoon. Somehow, when he thought of Alice and his long search for her, that word, love, felt right, and it brought a smile to his face.
“I'll be honest, the last time I knew Alice before she became human, she was busy turning that super carrier into a slaughterhouse. I'm having trouble forgetting that, especially considering the body she chose. I'll get over it though, it's just a little eerie, that's all.” Jonas said with a chuckle.
The lift lit up as they approached and they stepped inside. It was just large enough for five people comfortably. Jake selected the bridge, while Jonas selected the brig. “I have to see him.”
“He was taken by Vindyne. They double crossed him about the same time they took you. When I crossed Regent Galactic they let him out of their inventory and sent him after me with the Triton. Their mistake.”
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