A smaller proximity mine was rolled up and tucked into the remains of one soldier, almost completely shielded from his sensor suite. He shook his head and carefully stepped back.
Staring at the remains harbouring the deadly surprise, he thought about what he had brought with him and anything he could pull out of the walls or use in his surroundings to deactivate the device. I can't believe I have absolutely nothing that can deal with this discreetly. He thought to himself, shaking his head. While I consider the problem this saboteur is trying just as hard to find a way out or coming closer to their endgame.
Jake drew his sidearm and stepped back to the corner. He took aim and fired, setting the mine off. The hall was filled with debris instantly, the deck shook and he heard a secondary explosion further off. He hadn't come to any harm, and he checked the active blueprint of the deck to ensure the corridors hadn't been breached. It marked minor damage on two parts of the deck and some tearing at the next corner, but other than that the damage was superficial. “They don't make 'em like this anymore,” he said to himself.
“What was that sir?” asked someone on the security channel.
“Those detonations were intentional. Make no entry,” he ordered. “Keep the channel clear please.”
“Yes sir.”
The hallway had settled and he picked his way through carefully, looking at the meter wide indentation where the second mine had gone off. Chief Grady's not going to be happy about that, he thought to himself as he looked down the hall where the secondary explosion had occurred.
The blueprints marked the room at the end as the transmitter hub and he scanned the way to it thoroughly. Before moving ahead he looked the other way, and found what he was looking for. There was a proximity trigger pointing at the door from the other end of the hall. If he had stepped inside it may have triggered an explosive somewhere else. He estimated the mechanical eye's field of vision and moved down the hall, pressed against one side so it wouldn't detect him.
Holding his sidearm at the ready he activated the door control. The secure forty centimetre thick door slid to the side in a quarter second. A woman in a sealed vacsuit was working at a terminal inside. It looked like one of the crew Regent Galactic assigned to Wheeler. She entered the send command before Jake could do anything and turned to face him with her hands up. There was a proximity bomb right between them.
“It's too bad you didn't let the Minister take over Captain. He could have shown you the way into trust, into salvation from the guardians of Eden.” she said, he could hear her smiling behind that vacsuit mask.
“No one has to die here. If you have the code for that mine-”
“I don't. If either of us move any closer to it that will be the end.”
“I can promise you fair treatment and safe delivery to the nearest port. All you have to do is show me what you sent,” Jake said in a soothing voice.
“I know what you do to your enemies, Captain.”
“I've never broken my word, you can get out of this, whatever it is with your skin intact.”
“It's too late for that.” She shook her head slowly. “The West Keepers know all about their shiny black pawn. They've been very interested in what you've been up to, even though you're such a small thing to them.”
“Take your time, explain it to me.” Jake invited calmly as he worked to think of any peaceful conclusion to the situation. Whatever information she had been sending had to have been important.
“You really don't know, do you? The new plague approaches and you're just like everyone else. Oblivious, attached to your material things and the need for wealth, power.” The young woman pulled her headpiece off. Her long white hair fell down her shoulders, and she was positively radiant, beaming with a broad grin. “Enjoy these final days Captain. My death in service sends my spirit to the garden, to the promised territory of the confessed and reformed.” she said in celebration as she stood and leapt towards the proximity mine.
Jake barely had time to duck and cover himself with his long coat. Even through the armour it and his vacsuit provided, he was rocked by the explosion hard. After a moment he looked up and saw very little of her was left, the explosion had caught her fully.
The Morning After
Frost woke in a still unfamiliar but comfortable bed and didn't want to move. The morning before he roused from a deep sleep and didn't want to get up either. The mattresses adjusted to the user, the sheets and over blankets were as porous, light or heavy as they had to be. They would also seal around someone if the room were to suddenly decompress, providing a couple of days worth of air and water using a hidden recycler so the crew member would be safe until they were rescued. No more sleepin' in my vacsuit, he thought to himself with a smile. How someone could determine how heavy a blanket had to be was a mystery to him, but as he rolled himself more firmly into it he didn't much care how it was accomplished, he just didn't want to leave.
At first when he found out they wouldn't be going back to the Samson he was a little disappointed. On that ship, whether he was First Officer or not, he was a specialist. No one could run some of those systems quite as well as he could, especially the maxjack. He had decided not to mention how bent and crooked it had become since the Captain used it. Some criticisms weren't worth the trouble. If he had to go out with the whole maintenance staff to recalibrate and repair the system of arms, cutting tools and everything else and it took a couple of days, the Captain would hear about it. That would be as much a complaint as he'd need.
“Requires a certain finesse. Have ta' treat her a little like yer own arms, aye.” he leisurely muttered to himself with regard to using the maxjack.
“What's that?” Called someone from the bathroom. “Talking in your sleep again?” she snickered.
He sat straight up, still wrapped in the sheets. What have ye done now Shamus? he thought to himself, alarmed. Memories from the night before ended at the bar. They had started experimenting with drinks from the materializers as the night went on. His head didn't hurt at all, but he knew he had been seriously inebriated. If my head doesn't hurt now that means I was drinkin' somethin' that cured that particular ailment in advance. And that means we got into drinkin' somethin' engineered, some non-alcoholic brew that had another kind o' kick.
He looked around and realized that he couldn't see anything personal other than his vacsuit and gun belt laying across a chair in the corner of the bedroom. Frost quietly got out of bed and cinched the sheet around his waist. It looked like he was in his quarters, but he couldn't be certain. There was a good chance he was in rooms that looked exactly the same since few people had had a chance to put their own personal touches on anything. He hadn't even had a chance to move his footlocker up from the Samson.
He quietly rushed from the bedroom to the common room and looked out into the hallway as the door opened. To his relief, he was in his own quarters, not on some previously unseen deck on the ship. Now ta figure out who spent the night.
He started turning back towards his quarters but noticed Stephanie come around the corner and immediately avert her eyes. He checked his sheet, found it in place and decided to make a show of it, leaning leisurely against the door jamb and stretching. “G'mornin'.”
“Morning. In case you haven't noticed, you're out of uniform,” Stephanie commented, blushing.
“Aye, but we're not due for another hour or two and my kit's covered.”
He felt slender arms wrap about his middle and the woman from the night before pressed up against his back. She wasn't wearing anything from what he could tell. “Good morning Steph.”
“Good morning, Grace,” she said with a tight smile. “No way do you deserve that. ” Stephanie told Frost with a wry grin.
“Oh, I just thought I'd help him home then didn't want to travel the three decks to my own quarters. Lucky him,” Grace explained.
“See you two later,” Stephanie shook her head as she walked on.
Frost backed away from the door and tur
ned towards Grace. “Guess we skipped over that first date,” He said as he pulled her closer. She was a beautiful woman, a little taller than him, but her long, shapely body felt like a luxury.
“Well, I think we had it, even if it was impromptu and I can't remember it. Judging from how we woke up it probably went well.”
He had been through a few forgotten evenings before, so he wasn't in unfamiliar territory. Best to press right on through it an' see if there's any mornin' magic, Frost thought as he smiled at her. “I lay down with the finest woman on the ship after months of bein' all alone an' I don't remember a second of it. My luck's mixed, that's a fact.”
“Wanna make a memory?” Grace asked against his lips.
They kissed and, to their collective relief, it felt familiar. What the mind forgot, the body often remembered. How designer beverages manipulated the memories of the inebriated was often strange and selective.
She stepped out of his arms, turned and started swaggering back to the bedroom. He watched for a moment then chased after her, tickling her all the way back to bed as she laughed, squealed and squirmed.
Why did I say that? It's true, Frost definitely doesn't deserve that, Grace is beautiful in a sort of fashion model way and I've seen how almost every head turns when she goes by. I don't even remember how that happened, how they got bunked up last night, Stephanie thought as she walked towards the bridge.
Why does this bother me? I tease Frost all the time, but that comment was meant to hurt, she considered with a sigh. Her disappointment and frustration was a surprise and she was sure he could see it. I got absolutely blasted last night, but you don't see me bringing some pretty boy home, s he thought bitterly. That's probably because Grace is all tall and willowy and I'm all short and hard. The girl's probably got genetic modifications that keep her that way, while I take fitness supplements and work weight resistance to keep my strength above average. If I didn't have a chest or hips I'd look like a short boy, s he arrived at the lift door and joined Ashley in waiting for the car to arrive.
“Good morning,” Ashley said with a fading smile. “Or maybe not?” she asked.
Stephanie hadn't realized she was scowling. She relaxed and smiled a little at her friend; “Good morning. Do you remember much of last night?”
“It was a blast.”
“Oh, so you didn't drink whatever it was that wiped my memory pretty much clean?”
“Nope, I learned my lesson with Michnikel a long time ago. Stuff gets you feeling good in a hurry, and by the time you hit the bottom of the bottle you're in full blackout mode.”
“Let's petition the Captain to have it banned.”
“Let's,” Ashley agreed, grinning exaggeratedly. She had changed her vacsuit as well. Her new one was navy blue, she had transposed the dragon she normally detailed her suits with onto it but this time it was line drawn in black. Stephanie also couldn't help notice that she had chosen a very glossy texture.
The new vacsuits the Captain and Liam had added to the system the night before were much better than the ones that they had used previously. Their thickness and texture was more adjustable, hers was matte black and a little thicker than before, half a centimetre in some places, and they were easier to apply. After being shot the day before she could appreciate the tighter weave they had implemented. Even though it looked nothing like combat armour, the new vacsuits were just that. They were so dense that the wrist materializers needed several seconds to create one. A suit had to be made on a relatively flat surface then put on, which was a change she could live with considering the extra protection it provided.
They were also more comfortable somehow. To her it felt like she was really wearing something with substance but it still moved with her. With the addition of the emblem of the ship, the upper half of a silver skull with Triton written in the place of its teeth, they were starting to feel like uniforms. Only proven crew members would be marked with the skull, everyone else only had the Triton letters on their chest. The silence between the pair was thick as they stepped into the express car. It was one of the smaller ones, made for four or five.
“What's wrong Steph?” Ashley asked with concern.
“It's nothing,” Stephanie answered reflexively. “I'd just like to remember where I've been and what I've done.”
“Well, we mostly hung out and got to know the deck crew. Some of the new military folks were there too and then you started conferencing the bridge staff in on the party. You kept on trying to feed their holo images drinks. It was hilarious,” Ashley giggled. “That's pretty much the highlight reel as far as you're concerned. Oh, and you hugged the Captain and Alice a few times.”
“I got mushy?”
Ashley nodded exaggeratedly. “It was cute, helped you make nice with the new people. I was hangin' off of ya for the night though, so you didn't embarrass yourself or anything. As soon as I saw that green and black bottle in your hand I knew I shouldn't stray far off.”
“Michnikel.”
“Yup.”
Silence settled over then again and the doors parted to reveal the main hallway of the command deck. It was built around the bridge, a broad, four meter hall that ran in a semicircle behind both levels of the forward section on deck fourteen and thirteen. To the right of the main bridge was a security and intelligence compartment with work stations, an isolated data storage unit and a fully secure meeting space that neutralized all recording devices. That section was closely tied into the bridge, so whoever was in charge could actually command and control ship security and intelligence services from the bridge as though they were in the room.
On the left hand side of the bridge there were briefing rooms, a secure command area for sensitive communications and the officer's lounge. There were many other rooms along the front edge of the ship but many of them had been locked down for the better part of a decade or more. Across from that side were the Senior Officer's quarters. All but four of them had been closed off completely, Wheeler had disallowed most crew members from enjoying what must have been the most luxurious quarters on the ship. Most of the crew who had seen the command deck were secretly hoping that Captain Valance would start reopening them and offering them to bridge staff and other senior crew members.
Even though many sections of the command deck were still closed it was very busy. There were a dozen or more people going to and from the bridge and they were all wearing the new vacsuits. Each one had a brand new Arm Command and Control Unit, which didn't surprise either of them since the first thing they saw when they looked at the materializer was a menu of different units to choose from.
Stephanie didn't need a new one, but decided she'd get the smaller wrist versions. They did everything the full arm version did, only they were five centimetres wide and one thick and the systems were divided between a pair. Ashley had chosen a version that covered two thirds of her left forearm and was almost invisible when it wasn't in use.
“What is it? You're normally bouncier than me in the morning,” Ashley asked in a whisper.
“Like I said, I don't like forgetting things.”
“Grace could probably fix you up if you go to medical. They have an organic materia-” Ashley stopped, looking at Stephanie's expression. “You remember her and Frost hooking up last night, don't you?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“No, I saw them in the hall this morning. But that's no-”
“You're jealous,” Ashley giggled. “You couldn't stop looking at them last night, I knew it.”
“I'd be just as likely to sleep with Grace as Frost.”
“Well, I can see why, she's really something.”
“You're completely missing my point. I'm not into that loud mouthed pain in the ass. I mean, Frost?” Stephanie shuddered exaggeratedly.
Ashley laughed and put a sympathetic hand on Stephanie's shoulder. “Aw, next time I see them together I'll hose them down. Would that make you feel better?”
Stephanie gave her a look of frustration and confusion. “
Hose them down?”
“Oh, where I grew up the owners had a lot of yard space and a few dogs. When they got, um, frisky with each other we'd spray them with cold water so they'd run off.”
“Oh, well. In that case, make sure I'm there,” Stephanie said with a little smile as they stepped down into the main bridge. “But I'm not carrying a torch for Frost,” Stephanie said in an insistent whisper. “I just haven't run into anyone I really want to bunk up with, I guess I'm just envious. I mean, if he can hook up with someone, what's up with me?”
“Riiight,” Ashley teased, rolling her eyes.
When they arrived on the bridge Stephanie sat down beside Agameg Price, who was the Officer of the Watch. Ashley went straight to the pilot's station to get the update from the night shift pilot, a dull brown furred nafalli who had a musical voice, especially when she became excited or agitated. “I'm Ashley,” she said as she sat down in an observer seat that came out of the floor to the right of the nafalli.
“They call me Panloo. Your Captain discovered my application and since my sleep schedule was already disrupted I was put to work,” her big, deep green eyes seemed to twinkle, her smile came easily and her pink nose would twitch occasionally as she spoke. “I slept all the way from Burr Frimm until I caught my connecting transit, then I slept longer still. If there is something else you must do, I could do another entire shift.”
“If it's all the same I'd rather get to the controls early so the computer can keep running me through the system details. The more I know about this boat the better I'll feel about the Captain keeping me as his lead pilot.”
“You've served under this Captain before?”
“For a couple years, I was his pilot aboard the Samson, ” Ashley brimmed. “He trained me personally.”
“That must have been interesting.” Panloo checked their hyperspace status and locked the controls. “I've never been on a ship like this before. Even when there's nothing really happening we're all running through simulations and tutorials. It's so exciting.”
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