by Chris Burton
His mind still raged, but his thoughts became softer, more emotional. He thought of his family, his daughter, even his ex-wife. Would they be okay? He was sure they would. By now, they would be moving on with life already. His final thoughts were not of his family. His mind focused on blind hatred for the Kryl. He felt everything begin to close in now. The pain had gone, he could no longer move, and paralysis took over as his organs began to shut down. He felt his heart beat, slower and slower and then nothing as finally a dark mist began to cloud his mind. This was it. He had nothing left and it was all over.
Chapter Fifteen
Patrol Ship HR87
Bill Chadwick’s continued absence from the bridge was the main subject of conversation throughout the ship.
Ten days passed since the Patrol ship had left the fleet and Lieutenant Jake Carter, XO; spent most of that time on the bridge. He had appointed two junior officers to cover for him during periods of rest, but The CO still steadfastly refused to take part in any operational or command ship functions. Jake had visited Bill Chadwick on a daily basis, but the exchanges were polite, informal, but brief and non-committal. Jake Carter had now had enough and it was time to confront his commanding officer.
“This is not a scheduled visit Jake? Please take a seat. What can I do for you?”
“Bill…it’s a little strange that you are not taking an active part in the running of the ship. To be honest, I am finding it quite hard.”
“Lieutenant Carter,” Chadwick interrupted.”It is your job to run the ship. I am only here if we meet a crisis or difficulty. If you are not coping, why wait ten days to tell me? Why don’t you appoint a junior officer to assist you?”
“I hate to quote chapter and verse, but the CO of a Patrol ship is expected to take their place at the con, sharing the role with his XO.”
“You think I am contravening regulations? To be clear, this is my command and you are my XO. If you cannot operate under this style of command, then stand aside and I will appoint someone who can.”
“With respect, sir; there is no one else qualified to do so and no I certainly don’t wish to stand aside. I just think it is a bit unusual, that’s all. Is this set to continue?”
“Yes, of course. I told you when you boarded that I operated a relaxed style of command. You run the ship and if there are any serious problems, then let me know. Otherwise I am quite happy with the status quo. Meet me once a day and update me.”
Jake decided to back off. For now, he had made his protest. There was a build up of resentment aboard the ship and Jake was already having difficulty keeping it under control; but there was not much going on. They had maintained the same velocity for ten straight days and were on target to reach the last known coordinates of the three missing Alpha cruisers within two weeks. He headed back to the bridge and relieved Lieutenant Briscoe.
Thirteen hours later, Jake made his way back to his quarters. He was exhausted, but could only justify a break of a few hours. The two sub-commanders just did not have the experience to be left for too long. As he reached his quarters, he was joined by Briscoe.
“Hi, John. Everything okay?”
“Yes…I just wanted to have a chat with you about a few things.”
“Should I be worried?”
There was no reply and Jake shrugged his shoulders and invited his colleague into his quarters. There was little room to stand so John Briscoe accepted the seat by the personal comms unit and Jake sat on the edge of his bed.
“Just wanted to express concern about a few issues informally. Particularly the hours you are on shift. Look Jake, there is no way you can carry on like this. If we don’t have you, we have no one left to command and the mission is effectively over.”
“Thanks for the concern John, but I am okay; seriously. In any case, the old man is there if I slip up.”
“You don’t expect me to take that one seriously do you? I have consulted with our medical resource and with command rules and regs; he is right on the edge in terms of you being able to relieve him of command officially.”
“What does that achieve? You are going to need him, irrespective of whether he is still in command. I will not entertain any further discussions about Bill Chadwick. Yes, he is relaxed but he is the governor and like it or not we must respect that and the way he decides to command. You are slowly getting up to speed as is Lieutenant Oso. I already feel more confident about leaving you in charge.”
“You have just done thirty-six hours with two, three hour breaks. That tends to suggest you don’t feel ready for us to take responsibility.”
“Do you?”
“If you are asking whether I am ready, then yes. Lets face it, you can be on the bridge from your bed in less than a minute.”
“Oso does not feel the same way. I spoke to him earlier.”
“Then let me take on acting XO and Oso can second…if he is happy with that.”
“Let me think about it. What time are you due to relieve him?”
“Two hours. Why don’t you get some rest now and return to the bridge in say, six hours. That would give you a decent break.”
“Okay…on this occasion I agree. Let me know if there is anything other than the norm and I mean anything.”
Lieutenant Briscoe left Jake’s quarters and Jake reflected on his position. He had suddenly risen to the top of the tree, albeit a rather small one and he was surprising himself, about how well he was coping. Chadwick’s absence gave Jake the opportunity to climb the invisible ladder of experience. Official command of a Patrol Ship was surely just a short step away. But the Chadwick situation did concern him. There was a stirring within the ship and he had to keep it under control. Right now he was tired and had been given an opportunity to catch up on sleep.
* * * *
The reverberation and tone of his comm.link woke Jake quickly. He answered within seconds of jumping out of the bed.
“Mister Carter. You are scheduled as still on duty, so I trust you have a good reason for being away from your station.”
“Err…yes, sir.” Suddenly a formal tone was required. “I have been working pretty much round the clock. I forgot to change the rota.”
“Does that imply you have not been coping?”
“Of course not. On the contrary…Bill.” Jake decided he was going back to informal. He would take the moral high ground. “Everybody else on the ship is aware of how many hours I have been putting in…I am surprised to be discussing this with you.”
“Well, we can discuss this in more detail Mister Carter. I expect you in my quarters in five minutes.”
The comm.link closed.
Of all the bare faced cheek. What the hell gave Chadwick the right to lecture him on time keeping? Maybe it was time to consider relieving him of his command.
Jake arrived promptly at the door to Chadwick’s quarters and the door opened.
“Jake come in. Take a seat.”
Bizarrely, the CO reverted back to the informal. It was difficult to keep up.
“Perhaps you can start by telling me why you were not at your station.”
Perhaps not… “With respect, I have already explained that, more than adequately.”
“Yes, and your explanation implied that you were not coping. You seem to think that failing to change the rota to indicate whether you are on duty or not is a small matter. It is not. It is imperative; especially on a small ship that movements are clearly defined and that they are adhered to. I shall insert a comment in your file alongside time-keeping. In the mean time if you can still assure me that you are coping, we will leave it for now.”
Chadwick paused as if expecting a reply, but Jake said nothing. It was probably best if he kept quiet.
“Okay, Mister Carter. Do you have the logs for me to view and also the latest diagnostic reports and scan indi
cators?”
“I have not updated the information since yesterday as I was not expecting to see you until seventeen hundred hours, as per our usual routine.”
Chadwick sighed. “Fine, let me have the information at our routine meeting, together with your revised rotas. You looked tired Number One; I suggest you take an hour or two more of your revised sleep schedule. That’s all.”
Jake could not believe his ears. Chadwick had hopped around from the formal to the informal, from angry to pleasant yet again. This guy has to be on something. He did though heed the CO’s advice on this occasion and he headed back to his quarters, where within minutes he was back in bed and fast asleep.
His alarm awoke him this time and within twenty minutes he had showered, drank a cup of strong coffee and was on his way to the bridge. He could not get his head round what Chadwick was trying to do. Was this a test or was the CO on drugs. He needed to spend some time thinking about it, not because he had any intention of plotting against his CO. Earlier he had been angry…now he was pragmatic.
John Briscoe was pleased to see Jake enter the patrol ship bridge.
“Glad you are here. We are following something on long range. It may be nothing, but it is now on an intercept course.”
“How long?”
“Within weapons range in thirteen minutes.”
“Raise shields. Do we know what it is yet?”
“Yes. There are two of them. We have them identified as Lavucian.”
“Lavucian. What the hell are they doing out here? We must be two to three hundred light years from Lavucior. They are a potential threat though. Those are Battle Ships. Are they still on a pursuit course?”
“Yes Jake.”
“Charge weapon banks and put Jump Ships on standby. Take Stellar drive offline and open a comm.link to the CO.”
The comm.link opened and Chadwick answered with a quick fire; “Yes”. He was clearly not in one of his better moods.
“Two Lavucian Battle ships, on a pursuit course. ETA nine minutes.”
“I’ll be with you in two.” The comm.link went dead. For the first time since the brief moment before launch, the Patrol ships CO was about to set foot on the bridge.
He entered without comment heading straight to the CO’s work station. Jake stood up; but Lieutenant Briscoe remained seated.
“Mister Briscoe. Make way for your XO and provide back-up at weapons.”
“Yes, sir.” Briscoe looked a bit put out. The XO station was effectively his.
“Let’s have a look at them then,” barked the CO.
Jake pulled up the schematics to the viewing screen.
“Yes…definitely Lavucian. Open a comm.link.”
Again, Jake used his XO override controls to respond to his CO’s command swiftly.
“No response.”
“Okay. Let’s allow them to get closer. Can you think of a reason Number One, why Lavucian battle ships should be one; out here and two, seemingly pursuing us?”
“They are a long way from home. Expansion?”
“Yes and no. I would think they are aware of Alpha’s loss to the Kryl. To them we are the largest power in the region and they are either trying to exploit our position or flex their muscles. They could be trying to send a message to the Kryl too.”
“What kind of message?”
“A bad one from our perspective unless we can persuade them otherwise. Is there an exit strategy available?”
“Only a jump to light speed; but with nowhere to go. We are in deep thru-space.”
“Then let’s appeal to their better nature. Open another comm.link. If they won’t talk, we will send them a message.”
Jake opened a comm.link and the CO took a few moments to compose himself.
“Exulted Lavucian Battle Group Commander. It is indeed an honor to share the same void space with you. We would be pleased to exchange gifts as part of the burgeoning relationship between our two great armies.”
Jake was impressed. This was either great bullshit or Chadwick knew exactly which buttons to push.
“Still no response…they are sending a coded response. An old code, but still live.”
“Their intent is to determine whether humans or Kryl are controlling this ship. The Kryl would not know the older codes. Respond with the correct code.”
The code screen flashed onto Jake’s workstation and he expertly pulled across a response code and transmitted.
“Now we wait.”
“Weapons range in ninety seconds.” Briscoe assumed control of the weapons station.
“They are pulling out.”
The CO breathed a sigh of relief. “We will put that one down to experience.”
“You have dealt with them before?”
“Yes. A long time ago. This is something to be wary about, though. The Lavucians are known for their expansionist intent and with Alpha on the wane. They may be looking for a chance to exploit. Okay. Return us to the correct heading and velocity and get us underway again, Mister Carter. I will be in my quarters.”
The CO left, having spent just five minutes at his command station. Enough time for Jake’s opinion of his commanding officer to change dramatically.
Chapter Sixteen
The President’s Office
On balance President Roslyn felt he had things just about right at present and that meant he would sleep, rather than lay awake all night worrying about how he should change things.
The biggest issue was always going to be the HSL. They were just a few weeks away from the second list being generated and while the subject would always be headline news; over the last week or so other newsworthy issues had started to push the human sacrifices to one side. It was though very clear that within a week or so, the HSL list would be top of the agenda again.
Roslyn was in a reflective mood. His second and final term just ten months to run and he was starting to think about his legacy policies. What would he be remembered for? Apart from the obvious reference to the Kryl, the economy was in good shape; politically the ECG and its relationship with the Allied Planet Federation had improved markedly over his tenure and he had opened up new and improving diplomatic ties with many new species. All was as it should be and yet nine years of good stewardship was being ripped apart by the Kryl. Everything he stood for as a conviction politician was in shreds. In fact unless Alpha’s contingency fleet did their job and removed the curse of the Kryl from Earth; he may as well give up now. Everything he did, every decision he made would be and would always be tinged with the stench of ten million Kryl. And that was precisely why he could not give up. He had to do everything he could to foster an environment that would support and assist Alpha in liberating Earth. Everything in his head was going round in circles, ever decreasing circles. It was almost certain that he would have a bad night’s sleep…and so it proved.
Ten hours later, Roslyn sat at his desk in the Presidents office. He glanced quickly at his desktop. Three meetings this morning. All full on. Why did Kate always bunch up all the bad ones together? The first meeting was with Ron Seawall. Not a person he particularly wanted to see right now. She suspected he had forced his way in and left Kate with no choice but to book him a slot. Such was the gall and the power of the man.
His comm.link sounded to advise his visitor had arrived. Roslyn sighed and accepted the meeting. A sign that the guest could now enter the Presidents office.
Ronald D. Seawall III did not stand on ceremony. He walked straight in and covered the twelve meters between the entrance to the office and Roslyn’s desk in a flash. He took a seat and stared directly at the President.
“We have been expecting you at the Inner Council meetings Tom. Your absence has been noted.”
Ron Seawall was one of five chief officers of the Society of Commerce Trade
and Philanthropy, which itself was a cover for a secret society of free men that dated back to its origins amongst the Lodges of the twentieth century. The SCTP was one of the most powerful non-governmental bodies on the planet and its chief officers knew it.
“You know how busy I am Ron…it is always good to see you.”
“We can dispense with pleasantries. You need to remember who got you that seat Mister President. Without us, you would still be a local senator.”
“I am sorry Ron. I can assure you my next visit will be very soon and I will increase the frequency of my visits. I always value your opinions. You asked to see me today…was there any particular reason?”
Seawall ignored Roslyn’s response and continued his line of attack.
“You seem to have forgotten about us Tom. How much influence do we have over the very people that matter so much to you? Just because you are nearing the end of your office does not mean you can just ignore us…especially now.”
Roslyn knew he must be careful. There was no doubting the influence the society held. He opted for compliance; at least on the outside.
“Like I said, I will make more of an effort. Was there something specific you wanted to discuss?”
“You know perfectly well there is Tom.” Seawall reached into his pocket and pulled out a small slip of headed paper. On it were two numbers “36” and “28,000”.’do you know what these numbers represent Tom?”
Roslyn pursed his lips and then shook his head. He had a good idea about where the Society chief was heading with this, but he did not let on.
“Thirty-six” represents the number of high ranking, country ranking society officers who were on the first HSL list and now they are all dead. “Twenty-eight thousand”, the total number of society members known to have been on the list. That is a huge number, Tom.”
He was right and it was obvious to him why the meeting had been called.”No one is exempt from the list, Ron—not even you and me.”