“I won't be your first officer,” she said to her glass. “I'm just not qualified, it would take years.”
“Do you really think this is the time?” Ashley asked quietly with a nudge.
“It's as good a time as any. I'm not leaving the ship or crew, I just don't want the job.”
“Well what do you want to do, lass?” Frost asked, still reeling.
Captain Valance just looked at her, Alice was leaning forward so she could see around him.
Stephanie took a drink and went on; “I felt completely out of place unless I was doing security today. Every time I looked at anything other than deck layouts in the computer my head started spinning. It felt like I had eight years of school ahead of me before I could even start working with anything else. I want security. That's what I want to do,” she didn't look at anything but the glass in front of her for the entire time she spoke, and when she was finished she took another long drink.
Attention shifted to the Captain, and for a while he just sat there looking at her. “Anyone else thinking about their careers?” he asked finally.
“Flying this ship is like swimming in a calm ocean. She moves like nothing I've seen, don't take her helm away from me Captain,” Ashley pleaded with a smile. “We're just getting to know each other.”
“I got a look at that gunnery deck before comin' down. My grandfather would be in tears at the sight of it and I have to admit I shed one of my own. Put me in the middle o' those guns. If I never see that bridge tactical display again it'll be too soon.”
The door opened and Liam took a seat at the end of the bar with a woman and another fellow. He was wearing his long robes, but didn't say anything by way of introduction.
Captain Valance looked to Alice, his face close to hers, and squeezed her to him gently. “What would you like?” He asked quietly. Everyone's attention was on her.
She looked tired, it was plain that she had been crying. Alice just stared at him for a while. “A home. I've been moving for year and I'd do anything to call this ship home,” came the whisper at long last.
“Done,” Captain Valance said to her. He looked down the bar towards everyone else and said; “Done. As of tomorrow morning you're the Gunnery Chief,” he pointed to Frost, “you're my Chief of Security,” he pointed to Stephanie, “you're my lead pilot,” he pointed to Ashley, “and you, if you'll have us, will be my Chief Engineer.” He looked back to Alice and kissed her on the forehead. “And you have a home along with a father if you'll have me,” He whispered against her forehead.
Alice wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “You have no idea what you're getting yourself into,” she whispered back through brimming tears.
Everyone else gathered at the bar overheard, and laughter came easily.
“Have a little beer with us father?” Frost asked as he poured a healthy glass of dark porter.
“Oh, I'm no holy man. Though I have been blessed from time to time,” Liam said as he accepted the glass. “Not the best stuff on Earth, but much better than what they call beer between the stars,” he commented as he held it up.
Alice cleared her throat and sat up straight. Stephanie handed her a napkin from a pile near her and she wiped her nose and eyes. “Can I try a glass?”sShe asked Frost as he poured one out for everyone at the bar except for Captain Valance, who was refilling his glass with scotch.
“Now that stuff is a little more top shelf,” Liam commented as he saw the Captain put the bottle down. “How many glasses have you had?”
“I'm not sure, the bottle was full when we started it.”
“Most people would be on the floor right about now.”
“I have an unfair advantage,” Captain Valance said, toasting the man several seats down. “So, how about signing on permanently as the Triton's Chief Engineer? I heard you saying you liked what you saw down there earlier.”
“Well, let's see,” he looked to the pair he had brought with him, they smiled back, in expectation of his answer. “ Triton. He was a Greek God who was best known for his conch horn. The Myths say that the sound was so powerful it could send the giants fleeing in fear. He could raise or calm the waves of the oceans and summon the Gods. I like the name, her Captain has managed to, with the help of his crew and a lot of people he managed to pull to his side, calm a ship filled with panicking refugees and abandoned passages in the space of a day.”
The deck crew started coming through the far doorway, followed by Angelo and Paula shortly after.
Liam went on. “I'd say that the ship, though improperly used for decades, is steady, well made and has more years ahead than behind. The only thing left to ask after is her purpose,” he said loudly enough to catch the attention of most of the people entering. The place was filling up quickly, rumours of a lounge being open had spread like a wildfire.
Captain Valance looked at Liam for a moment, knowing he was being put on the spot. There was something about the way Liam was looking back at him that said that the older man had some idea of what to expect. The silver skull painted high behind the bar caught his eye then and he stood on the bar's foot rail.
“Quiet, he's about to speak,” Angelo said to the crew coming in behind him as the chatter began to rise.
“Shut it!” Paula reinforced with a harsh screech that had the instant desired effect.
“When I came in here with Jonas Valent this was the first thing we saw.” He raised his glass at the silver skull. “Not an hour later he sacrificed his life so we could go on our way unharmed. Some of his last words to us were; 'If I had just a bit more time I'd make the galaxy free again.' I see a lot of people here who are not free. People who have lost as much or more than we did today, who have already made sacrifices. I say the Triton has been christened anew by those sacrifices, and we'll find able men and women who want to make this galaxy free. That emblem, painted so long ago right next to our home world, applies just as much now as it did then, when the Triton first set out to defend the Sol system. Deploy, Dominate, and Disappear. Regent Galactic won't see us coming, and by the time they realize what's going on we'll already be counting our victory and vanishing right before their eyes. That's my intention, what's what Triton means.”
Liam picked up the queue and called out; “ Triton! ”
To which the crew replied; “Deploy, dominate, disappear.” Weakly at first.
“ Triton! ” he called out again with greater fervor.
“Deploy! Dominate! Disappear!” Replied everyone in the room.
Once more he cried out; “ Triton! ”
One more time the deck crew shouted; “Deploy! Dominate! Disappear!”
The room broke into cheers, and the crew in that space seemed revitalized. Stephanie brought up a hologram of the bridge crew, they were on their feet as well. “Liam had the comms open sir. Looks like the words out,” she said with a grin. “We're a crew with a purpose.”
“Great, now someone get back here an' help me tend bar!” Frost shouted over the din.
Domino Effect
“You're different,” said the young red haired woman looking over the top of her coffee mug. She was beautiful, and there was a curiosity about her manner as she shyly considered him.
Without another word she stood and walked to a large transparent bulkhead. Her long white dress had a scooped neckline and flowed smoothly over her curvaceous figure. She was stunning under the gentle blue and white light shed by the stars distorted through the haze of the hyperspace field. Her red hair was curled tightly into ringlets that hung down to a white choker. In the center of that choker was an emblem; a circular blue jewel with a sword through it. Over her shoulders was a white silk shawl.
Under the gentle illumination of hyperspace she turned her head and smiled at him so warmly. “Thank you.”
Her hand extended out to him, she was offering him his long coat, only this one looked much older, the tools he could see inside one of the pockets looked like they had been used far more than anything he'd owned.
Jake took it and put it on.
He was sitting in a chair then, his wrists and ankles were bound, the room was bare of decoration. A tall, wiry man with a long pointed nose was walking around him slowly. “My dear Captain Valent,” he said slowly, annunciating every syllable.
The deep irritation and anger he felt towards his haughty captor were second only to the pain in his head and neck. The rest hurt too, just not as much. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to tear his interrogator to shreds, but the restraints wouldn't give.
“I wonder if your name is shortened from Valentine?” He stooped down and looked Jake in the eye. “From your scans we can see no evidence of inbreeding. I suppose I'll have to have them scan you again,” The man with the irritating, angular face said before breaking into hysterical laughter.
Jake managed to hop in his seat and bite into the man's nose, it burst like ripe fruit.
The pain was gone when he opened his eyes and he was following a very tall blond haired fellow with broad shoulders down an old hallway. It looked like a ship corridor that had seen many, many years, but it was clean and well cared for.
They arrived at a doorway and the placard on the portal came into view; Captain was what it said. The door opened and Jake saw the large blond man again; “Sounds like a Captain. Looks like a Captain. Even acts like a Captain. It's all real, and I bet this trip would already be over if we had a Captain who sailed by the book.”
The lights went out. Darkness weighed heavily, panic rose in his chest, then there was a flash, just for a moment the entire world was alive. His hands gripped the controls of some metal beast. Another flash, and he could see the guns.
The flashes came faster, faster, until he could hear the ammunition being fed in a constant stream into the mini cannons. He could track enemy ships with his eyes and the targeting computer, and he was dead set on killing everything in the black sky. A sign hovered over his targeting reticle; Departures only today! Scheduled arrivals postponed indefinitely!
A large marauder corvette came into view, its tall, smooth vertical bow was topped with a charging beam emitter that glowered at him like a great big yellow eye. He fired, feeling the guns shake his arms, his shoulders, the pod that hung from the bottom of the old ship; there was no way they'd take him alive.
The beam emitter flashed and he was standing in a military port. All around there were young soldiers, getting ready to go off to war. An older man who was so familiar regarded him with a level gaze. There was a lot going on behind those eyes, so much like his own, and as the older, familiar man handed him the old black long coat he said; “I'm proud of you,” and was gone.
As he put the coat on he found himself saying; “The Ancient Americans used to tell a story about a lone wolf.”
“What killed him?” asked a disembodied voice.
“One of his own pups.”
Dawn came, and in all directions fires burned. The sky was blue and grey, factory and refinery complexes had been made into raging infernos during the night and it satisfied him deeply. Something had been taken from him by these people, the man who was so proud of him was gone, and it was all their fault.
“The man who stokes too many fires may set alight that which should not burn,” said a shorter man in combat armour to his left.
“Do you have an expression for everything Minh?” He asked his friend.
The air became thick, he couldn't move. There was some kind of halo around his forehead and shadows lurking outside. “A bird does not sing because it has an answer,” said the shorter fellow from somewhere behind him.
“It sings because it has a song,” Jake finished, though the viscus liquid didn't permit the sound to travel.
A man with a grey beard knocked on the transparent barrier and Jake woke up so utterly furious he twisted his blankets in his hands. He was breathless, sweating, his head felt like it was on fire.
Jacob's eye was drawn to the love seat in his ready quarters, where he had left his long coat and long white silken scarf. Just seeing them there calmed him down. He got up and picked up the scarf. Jake held it gently in his hand, evoking memories of the petite fiery haired woman standing at the window. “It sings because it has a song,” he said to himself in a whisper.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and stared out the transparent hull above the loveseat for a time before his subdermal communicator beeped quietly. “Go ahead.”
“This is Andy, I'm on shift in communications tonight. Sorry to contact you so late, Captain.”
“I'm awake, what's this about?”
“Someone's fixed our main transmitter array and we found them sending encrypted messages. Jane Eccleston went town to check the terminal with a squad. There was an explosion, we lost contact.”
“I'm on my way. Tell security not to send anyone in. Just have them seal and guard that section until I arrive.”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh, and did someone assign quarters to Alice?”
There was a delay as the comms crewman looked it up or asked someone else. “Security reports that she's been given temporary quarters, they're listed in the ship manifest.”
“Thank you, Valance out.”
Captain Valance laid the scarf down with care across the loveseat and got dressed. As he made his way to the aft section of deck three he checked the deck blueprints. It was packed with sensitive systems, there was no way he could disable whoever was in there with an electromagnetic grenade. There were maintenance hatches, even a few small access passages, but he couldn't judge how packed in they were with cabling. I need to learn more about this ship. My engineering knowledge gives me an advantage, but before now I've never even seen a Sol carrier.
Jake stepped into an express tube that would take him to the hallway leading directly into that section and nodded at the pair of soldiers there. They both saluted. “Captain.”
“At ease. You're headed aft?”
“Aye sir.”
The express car moved upward then horizontally at great speed, its independent gravity systems protected the occupants from any stress. It was as though they weren't moving at all. The tall windows to their right and left showed the opaque and transparent sections of the express tunnel.
The car came to a halt and its doors opened. Captain Valance stepped out first and looked down the three hallways. There were a pair of soldiers guarding a doorway leading into the section in question, but he didn't see anyone else. “You two will guard this expressway. If the doors open or anything strange happens, fire stun shots in every direction for ten seconds.”
“Sir?” one of them questioned.
“I've boarded a ship in a stealth suit before. If it weren't damaged by an EMP bomb I'd be wearing it now. I want you to assume you're guarding against someone as well or more well equipped than I am. Besides, it's easier to stun first and apologize later.”
“Yes sir,” The soldier said as they took positions in front of the closed express shaft doors.
Captain Valance walked down the center hallway to the pair of soldiers guarding the interior of the locked section.
“This area is off limits. Please move on,” ordered one of them.
“I know, those were my orders. Where did the Chief and her squad get hit?”
“Um, just inside sir,” the other soldier reported. “I'm sorry Captain, we haven't all seen the press on you yet sir. There's been a lot going on.”
“That's all right. I'll be going in alone.”
“Is that wise sir? I mean, pardon me for saying so, but it sounds like whoever is inside is well armed and-” the burly guard managed before he was interrupted.
“You're speaking out of turn soldier. Step aside,” Captain Valance ordered flatly.
The guards moved to the side and Captain Valance motioned for them to move back further. “Get to the end of the corridor. Keep your weapons trained on this hatch until I give the all clear.”
“Yes sir.”
He waited for t
hem to get in position before he stood beside the door and deactivated the lock. The smell of burned flesh filled the corridor and Jake sealed his headpiece. With his arm command unit he turned up the density of the suit, just in case there was an explosion and his suit didn't have time to adjust on its own.
Captain Valance stepped into the hall and carefully moved forward, watching the transparent overlay on his visor as it scanned all wavelengths of light, displayed thermal and electromagnetic profiles and the results of the sonar and motion detection data. It was all stacked up on little squares along the bottom of his visor, just out of his line of sight. If he wanted to enlarge a reading he only had to look directly at it.
He could see the explosion occurred just down to the first four way intersection and to the right. He focused on the electromagnetic sensors and it transparently overlaid everything in sight. There was a small source of electromagnetism just past the intersection that wasn't connected to any ship systems. The computer enhanced its shape in the complete darkness and he verified it was a high intensity proximity mine.
Using a combination of detection technologies the hall soon looked perfectly lit with extra information over top through his blackened visor, and he stepped around the corner. The remains of Chief Eccleston and her team were scattered everywhere for the next twelve meters. They didn't see what hit them. Their vacsuits were well beneath the quality that he wore, and the mine had a brain intelligent enough to let them get right next to it before it blew. It also fit right against the wall, only three millimetres thick and ten centimetres by ten centimetres. Its colour changed to match whatever surface it was attached to, expensive technology. The physically small explosive was enough to do incredible damage. There was nothing intact to save, and the medical readings confirmed it. There wasn't a single snapping synapse in the charred hallway.
He continued on, double checking everything. If I were the one setting traps, the first thing I would have done is gone back and put a mine right in the middle of this mess. Jake thought to himself. Something caught his eye and he stopped.
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