Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3

by Randolph Lalonde

  “Okay, that's strange though, everything else I've run into is on a scale of ten or one hundred,” replied the brown haired woman sitting on the Captain's desk. She was half turned towards the door.

  They were both dressed in black vacsuits, not quite as well armoured as the one the watch officer was wearing. The material looked perfectly flexible and fitted to their forms, only two to five millimetres thick. They were sealed all the way up to the neck, leaving only their heads exposed.

  “One thousand lumens is about the right starting point for a room like this.” Commented Angelo. “I usually set cockpit lighting down to four hundred, keeps the instrumentation nice and clear.”

  “You're Angelo Vercelli,” The younger woman said, dropping from the desk to stand up straight, her knee high combat boots clomped against the deck. She offered her hand. “I'm Stephanie Vega, First Officer here on the Triton.”

  Angelo shook her hand. “This is my second in command, Paula Mendle.”

  Stephanie went on to shake her hand, then looked to Jane and Nathan. After introductions were made all around, she sat back down on the edge of Captain Valance's desk.

  “It's been a very long day for everyone, so I'll get to the point.” Captain Valance started. “Triton needs you, I need you. We're in bad shape and automation is failing across the ship.”

  “That's probably our fault, Captain. We disconnected the power in engineering as soon as we boarded,” Jane said with a nod. “Under orders.”

  “I understand, but that's not the primary cause. When the former Captain put the automation in place he had to disable all the internal security to make it workable. Now that we've started bringing some of that back on line it's interfering with the automation.”

  “How long has this ship been automated for?” Asked Nathan.

  “Almost forty years from what I've been able to see in the logs.” Stephanie said. “They ran the ship with a crew of about one hundred.”

  “That's a lot of automation.”

  “Aye, no wonder you're having trouble taking control,” Angelo agreed.

  “So you see our problem. We need organized teams in place to start working on the critical systems, exploring the ship and establishing a chain of command.”

  “Have you ever commanded a ship this size before, if you don't mind me asking sir?” Asked Jane.

  “Have you heard of the First Light?” Captain Valance asked, looking across the group.

  Angelo looked startled for a moment then took a closer look at the Captain with a smile slowly spreading across his face. “I thought I recognized you. Captain Jonas Valent. I always wondered what happened at Starfree Port.”

  “Could you fill us in a little old timer?” Paula asked peevishly.

  “Right. The First Light was a Freeground ship. An old carrier with an ergranian steel hull and a third of the armaments she was made to carry. They sent her out with a green captain and some kind of special crew from what anyone could determine. Under the command of their Captain, Jonas Valent, they managed to take out a carrier twenty times her size called the Overlord II before running off to repair at a nearby station. After she finished repairs, they took out another carrier and a few destroyers single handed and turned up at Starfree Port. Not long after that she just disappeared. Just a few weeks ago was re-dubbed the Sunspire and put back into service. There's a whole documentary on this now, but I remember the holocast of your tousle with that Triad Consortium Carrier and the four or five Vindyne destroyers. Man did they want you after that. What happened? I'm itching to know.”

  Captain Valance soaked in every word of Angelo's retelling, trying not to look surprised at someone else knowing more about his past than he did then nodded solemnly when he was finished. “I went into hiding. I can get into the rest of that some other time. What's important now is that we get things in line, make the ship safe and ready.”

  “Aye sir, after what you did with that ship, I'm with you.” Angelo said without reservation.

  “My platoon will take care of your boat for as long as you're willing to take the fight to Regent Galactic.” Jane said with a smile.

  “Thank you. I'm putting you in charge of all the Aucharian soldiers aboard, coordinate with my First Officer and Chief Engineer, Liam Grady.” Captain Valance told Jane with a smile. “Your objectives are to ensure the peace is maintained and that no one strays into the sealed sections of the ship. Help with the repairs if you have time, but limiting access should be more important for now.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Angelo, I'd like your team to start clearing the hangars. Put anything not in use in storage and get them ready for incoming ships. I don't know what we can expect out here, or what we'll need other than clear space. If you could inventory what we have that would be good too, but it's not top priority.”

  “Aye sir. I'll get my people together and we'll start in hangar two.”

  “Thank you again, for the purpose of clarity I'm designating Jane as Security Chief, and Angelo as Deck Chief. Welcome to the Triton.” Captain Valance said with a smile. It was reciprocated by everyone in the room except for Paula, who didn't look quite as sour as she did when she first entered the room.

  The new crew members left, leaving Jake and Stephanie alone in the room again. “Lucky,” Captain Valance said quietly. “We're very lucky.”

  “That platoon is responsible for getting the Verant operational again. That's pretty good work for a destroyer with a slagged front half.”

  “Notice how they didn't say anything about the Minister?”

  Stephanie thought for a moment. “You're right. I guess they like government about as much as anyone.”

  “That helps. He'll be a perfect pawn.”

  “What for sir?”

  “Regent Galactic. I'm expecting them any minute now. If we don't have to use him when we meet up with Regent, I plan on using him next time we meet up with the Aucharians.”

  Stephanie smiled at him. “I'm surprised at how lost he seemed, like he'd never been on this side of a desk.”

  “Politicians, they earn their rank through popularity, not qualification. I doubt he actually did anything resembling hard service.”

  Stephanie's smile subsided and she looked out the window to the distant planet.

  “What's on your mind,” Jake asked gently.

  “Being First Officer. On the Samson it means something completely different. I look at manuals more than anything and outside of security I have no idea what I'm doing. I shudder at the mention of engineering, that whole section of the status display is a mystery to me. I don't even know what DERA system is and we have eight of them. They take up a tenth of the ship.”

  “They're diverse energy reactor assemblies and can turn almost any material or force of nature into raw power or use high yield fusion if you have the right staff. The three Wheeler was using were set to run on dense materials like uranium. Cheap but dirty and inefficient.”

  “See? All I really know about uranium is that you're not supposed to handle the stuff outside a suit.”

  “Stephanie, you've been working with me for what, four years?”

  “Coming up on five, sir.”

  “It's your decision making process I want in that chair. Everything else you'll learn through questioning and experience. Just do what I do when I don't know something, ask, delegate and make sure whoever you left in charge is making the right choices.”

  “If commanding a ship like this were that easy I would have seen a few more of them out here. As it is, I've only seen maybe half a dozen military carriers in my life.”

  “You'll have second chair on this one if you stick with it,” Captain Valance said invitingly. “Give it some time, use it as an opportunity to learn, lean on the people you trust.” He stood and put her hand on her shoulder. “At the core of it all, you're First Officer because I trust you.”

  “Thank you sir. I'll do my best.”

  “Captain, we have a problem. Five Regent Galact
ic ships have arrived at the system outer limits,” Frost reported over the comm. “And I'm still the only one manning tactical.”

  Captain Valance walked onto the bridge and took the command chair with Stephanie close behind.

  Price was already on his way to helping Frost at the tactical and security stations. “At least I had half an hour to go through the general tutorial,” he said to himself. “It seems simple enough at a glance.”

  “Wait 'till you start looking a little deeper an' try doing somethin' that's worth doin' right. Then we'll see those eyes go as round as saucers.”

  “You'd think you'd be rooting for me.”

  “You've got a point there,” Frost said with a nod as he brought up their missile and torpedo inventory.

  “Liam, how are my reactors?” Captain Valance asked through the intercom. He waited a minute, looking at the tactical screen. “Liam?”

  “Aye, here sir. We could bring them online, I'd rather have another twenty minutes though.”

  “With hostiles in the area we don't have the time. How about our cloaking systems?”

  “They've been reset. Any misalignment or other problems have been corrected, theoretically.”

  “Good. Give us some power.”

  “All three reactors will be online in about two minutes. It won't be as clean as I'd like, but that can come later. Liam out.”

  “Pardon me Captain, but unless I'm mistaken we won't be able to enter hyperspace, use shields or effectively cloak as long as we're docked with that transport,” Agameg Price said, pointing to the main holographic display.

  “God dammit, have we been able to communicate with them at all?”

  “No sir. I've been trying everything, even the hard line through the mooring point,” Cynthia reported.

  “How many souls aboard?”

  “One hundred seventy one sir,” Frost reported.

  “Fine, take care of it Steph, we should have done something about that an hour ago.”

  Stephanie was out of her seat and on her way off the bridge, opening communications to Jane and taking a pulse rifle from one of the four bridge guards. “Chief Eccleston, send two squads of armed units to the port mooring hatch. I'll assume direct command once I get there.”

  Captain Valance took a closer look at the tactical display then brought it up on the main holoprojector. “There's a gravity shadow there, but the sensors aren't picking up anything else.” He adjusted the scanners to focus in on a space right behind the five destroyers and switched between different sets of readings.

  The silhouette of a three tiered octagonal ship with long girders extending from each corner appeared. “That's new,” he said to himself. The holodisplay marked the main body as nine kilometres wide, each extended arm was an additional twelve kilometres.

  It appeared to all spectrums of light, on all scanning systems with a sudden burst of light and the holoprojector showed the outline of a magnetic field over twenty five hundred kilometres across extending from it in all directions.

  “I think we're a little out gunned sir,” Frost said quietly.

  “That field, it must be how it collects power,” Price added. “It's rotating so it's facing the star.”

  “Wouldn't that endanger the ships around it?” Asked Ashley.

  “It's not much different from the magnetic field the Samson and most other ships generate. Only instead of redirecting small particles around the ship it collects them along with solar radiation, this ship has a similar, but much smaller magnetic scoop system,” Captain Valance replied. “With those arms it could probably project an even bigger field if it had to.”

  The reactors powered up and on the secondary holographic display systems across the ship started turning yellow and green. “Ashley, pilot us towards the nearest moon. I want it between us and that ship as soon as possible.”

  “Aye sir,” Ashley acknowledged with a smile.

  “Are you sure you're ready to fly the Triton under full power?” Asked her copilot in a hushed, nervous tone.

  “Yup, I just got certified.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Tuesday, I think.”

  “You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding.”

  “Shut up and watch for surprises,” Ashley said as she began accelerating, rotating the ship towards Vallestra, a nearby rocky moon.

  “Incoming system wide communication from the command ship,” Cynthia reported.

  “Put it on the tertiary display.”

  The holoprojector on the left side of the bridge switched from its extended tactical view to the familiar image of a Regent Galactic representative complete with perfectly pressed suit and neat haircut. “This is the Regent Galactic Vessel Kraken. We received news of the tragedy that has befallen you and made haste to this system. Our search and rescue ships are deploying now, please remain where you are and wait for our teams to make contact. You will not be charged for our services, though we ask that you have your insurance information ready. If you are in immediate danger, please contact us as soon as you are able.” The hologram started repeating the same message and Cynthia muted it.

  “This isn't exactly what I'd call ideal,” Captain Valance said to himself. “They might think Wheeler is still in command. So if they don't make contact in the next few minutes we might be all right if we can get into hyperspace.”

  The massive ship's three layers began to separate, growing in height. Smooth, white, five segmented ships began emerging. Each one scanned as one hundred ninety meters in length with several turrets and docking interfaces. Other, more utilitarian vessels began to launch from the three eight sided hangars, heading out in all directions.

  The Triton was almost behind the cover of Vallestra, its rocky blue and grey surface was looming larger on the smaller rear view projection under the taller image coming from the main holoprojector. “Stephanie, how are you doing with that transit vessel?” Asked Captain Valance.

  “Just popping it open now Captain, stand by.” She replied into her communicator as the meter and a half wide airlock doors opened. Unlike the mooring port in the gunnery deck this one had a broad hallway leading to it. Stephanie felt much better with a hallway around her and eighteen armed soldiers behind.

  A sweating, exhausted looking wiry woman stumbled through the hatch. “Thank God! What's wrong with you people? We docked in an emergency and your system didn't even lock onto us. We had to jam the mechanism so you couldn't shake us off!”

  Stephanie levelled her rifle at the woman, it was set on high stun. There were several irate passengers behind her. “We aren't equipped for search and rescue and our power was out. We would have informed you but we were unable to communicate with you.”

  “Our comms were down.”

  “We tried the hard line. All you had to do was turn the intercom on.”

  “Oh, well none of us did that! No one told us! Can you help us or not?”

  Stephanie lowered her rifle and signalled the soldiers behind her to do the same. “Yes, but follow our orders or we'll confine you. Do you understand?”

  “Nice, fine, whatever.”

  “Leave any weapons with these guards here,” Stephanie directed towards Liz and a much larger male soldier. “Then follow our directions to our upper berth. It isn't much but you'll be able to get food and water out of the materializers and you'll have somewhere to rest until we can make port.”

  The passengers started coming through the airlock and Stephanie helped direct them out of the transit ship. It was a flimsy vessel with a lot of transparent metal. The seats and floor looked old and misused, the passengers looked tired and wilted.

  The haggard woman stood beside Stephanie as she made sure that the passengers didn't rush through the airlock. She didn't lift a finger to help, just stood by watching the disembarkation. “What was your destination?” Stephanie asked as the last of the passengers came through.

  “We were bound for the Palimino when it was destroyed. A whole city ship, just su
nk. Then those little ships came along and nearly killed everyone. Luckily they only damaged our engines and destroyed our communications. We were able to catch you with thrusters, though you were no help. Your ship kept veering away.”

  Stephanie shook her head, unwilling to get sucked into another argument. A soldier closed the outer then inner airlock. “All right, time to cut it loose. Do you have a remote system or command code?” Stephanie asked.

  “What do you mean? That ship is my responsibility, I can't just set it adrift.”

  “You have to. If you don't we can't go into hyperspace.”

  “What? You're not staying and helping anyone else in the system?”

  “Like I said, we're not equipped for that so we're going to the nearest port and we're going to drop you off at an emergency center so they can take care of you. Now just decouple your ship and we'll be-”

  “What kind of people are you? First you play keep away when we try to dock, then you don't let us in for four hours, now you want me to dump my ship while you leave the system without helping anyone else? This ship is huge! There must be room for thousands aboard! You must have a crew and medical facilities!”

  “None of that is any of your business, just take it on faith that we're not ready to help and release your docking system, please.” Stephanie said as calmly as she could manage while talking over the woman.

  “I can't! Weren't you listening? We jammed it so you couldn't just shake us off and leave us twisting in the cold!”

  “All right. Go with the officer please. He'll show you to a bunk.”

  “What? What about my ship? Are you going to do something to it? What are you going to do?”

  “We'll rip it off like the scab it is! Now get your ass down the hall before I stun you!” Stephanie snapped.