“It's too bad you're moving on. It looks like you've made an impression here,” Laura said, looking down to the three bars on the other woman's cuffs.
She looked at them and smiled. “I'm good at directing people and pretty diplomatic when I have to be but the thought of going into a firefight is still terrifying after two years of military service.”
“I'm sure they'll miss you.”
Liz sighed. “I'll miss them too. Even some of the people I've just met. Good things are about to happen here, but I think I'll do better helping younger people think their way through adolescence. That's a whole other kind of battle.”
They arrived on the bridge and Laura tried to take it in as they made their way through. There were really two control centers layered one atop the other. The one for the ship and it's general operations, and another beneath the main bridge that was just as large but for the purpose of directing traffic outside the ship and on the three main flight decks. She had never seen anything like it, by her estimation it would take a crew of at least forty five to crew both levels of the command deck.
At the moment, however, there was a skeleton crew of eight. Even from the short time she'd spent on the ship she knew that the officers weren't far off. All but the Chief of Engineering and Deck Chief had quarters on the command deck within a thirty seconds' run from the bridge along with their immediate subordinates. If everyone is drilled up to a fair standard it would take a whole bridge crew less than a minute to set up and be ready for anything. The skeleton crew could take care of most occurrences until then.
“Here we are,” Liz said as they came to the ready room hatch. The armoured door was pulled out of its jam by two heavy arms. “The Captain said you could walk right in.”
“Thank you Liz, good luck.”
“You too. It was good meeting you,” she smiled before stopping to talk to Alice for a moment, who was sitting in the command chair.
Not for the first time Laura was given the chance to think. She had been put up in the only guest quarters that had been cleared by the security team. There were two rooms plus a bathroom, more well furnished and carefully decorated than anything on a military Freeground ship. The walls in the bedroom were covered in navy blue draperies of all things, the bathroom had a combination pulse and water shower. The main room was set up for four people to sit comfortably and socialize. The furniture was gilded with carved wood, the padding was deep and comfortable.
Before she could sleep the night before her thoughts wandered to Jason and what he must be thinking. She hated leaving him behind, and part of her, a very small part, hoped he didn't follow. I have to give him the chance to choose for himself. He can follow me or stay with the Fleet and continue his career. Laura had thought to herself. What he'd choose was a near certainty, but if he didn't know where she was, what she was doing, then there was little chance of him finding her anytime soon.
She had started mourning Ayan, her best friend, while she was in a coma in the Silkstream IV and the decision to wake her out of that coma wasn't the easiest she'd ever made. Jacob Valance had a great deal of respect for her wishes. When she first arrived he embraced her, which was what she expected. He told her who he was and what had happened to Jonas right away.
Jake knew there was no time to waste and her precious cargo wouldn't keep for long. While Laura was still reeling from hearing that Jonas was dead and that Jake was a framework with a large portion of Jonas' memories, he told her that he'd like to be Jonas for Ayan if she didn't have much time left. There were messages Jonas wanted passed on to Ayan, and if it gave her comfort, eased her passing, he wanted to be what she needed him to be.
The seriousness and caring she saw in him as he proposed it was what convinced her. Ayan had said her goodbyes to Laura before slipping into the coma, and when her friend began to wake she walked out of sight to give time to Jake and Ayan.
The outward similarities between Jake and Jonas were eerie. It really was like Jonas and Ayan had been reunited, and for that she would be forever grateful. Her best friend had the best send off she could have hoped for, and when it was all over Jake was in a deep melancholy. She could see it as he walked out of the Silkstream.
Upon seeing his crew his expression hardened, he wore an impenetrable emotional carapace, even through the memorial later that day. His Chief Engineer and Chief of Security took care of everything. She only wished the rest of Ayan's friends could have been there, that her mother cared enough to have supported them in their quest of Jonas Valent after her first efforts were thwarted. In his own way, she knew Jake loved Ayan. The power of Jonas' memories over him was plain, at least in that respect.
It was only eleven hours later and she had no idea what to expect from Jacob Valance. He came in from a door to her right, she could just see a meeting breaking up behind him in a small observation room with a long table running down its middle. “I'm sorry, the evening briefing went long,” he apologized quietly. “I'm taking a page from Jonas' book, he knew how to run a ship.”
She was already sitting down, looking out through the transparesteel wall to the bright nebula surrounding the stellar nursery like some cloudy nest. “That's all right. It gave me some. . .” she stopped for a moment then smiled at him weakly. “time.”
He didn't sit at his desk, but leaned against the transparent section of hull with his hand on the back of his high desk chair. “Something the Triton needs. We're taking a month to repair her, do some testing and train the crew properly. More if we can manage it,” he was so quiet. Not at all what she expected from the man she and Ayan had watched from security video feeds and public appearances in the Hart News Archive.
“I think we all need some time,” she sighed. “What you did for Ayan yesterday was very kind.”
“It was selfish. Beyond passing Jonas' message on to her-” he didn't continue his line of thought, only shook his head. “There was no need to deceive her.”
“Do you have Jonas' emotions?” she asked quietly.
He nodded without hesitation. “I'm aware that they're his, but when I saw Ayan it didn't make a difference.”
Laura looked into his eyes. There was a sadness there she'd only seen in Ayan. He turned to look out towards the nebula. “You love her, don't you,” she stated quietly.
“Just in time to say goodbye,” he whispered back.
“That's why what you did is such a good thing. She had her career after the First Light, I was lucky enough to share that part of her life with her. There was another part of her that never stopped looking for Jonas, and when her health failed so badly that she couldn't work, she only had that dream left. That's the only reason why I'm here and I have only you to thank for making that dream come true at the very last moment. You should be proud of what you did Jake. Now that Jonas is gone you're the only one in the universe that felt that way about her, so it's only right that you got a chance to say goodbye. Where those feelings come from doesn't matter anymore,” she wiped a tear from her own eye, it was still hard to talk about.
He turned around. “You're right. I'll be honest, I'm having trouble,” in that moment his mannerisms matched Jonas.
She smiled at him. “That's what friends are for.”
He walked around his desk and sat down on the edge closest to her. “Thank you,” Jake said quietly. “I remember you and everyone else on the First Light, you know.”
“Good. Those were hard but good times.”
“That's how I remember them.”
Laura shook her head and wiped another tear away. “God, I'm so sick of being sad. I want to be happy Ayan's at peace, to move on and figure things out for myself like I'm sure she'd want me to, but I keep getting dragged down. I wish Jason were here.”
“So you two are still together?”
She chuckled and retracted the gloves of her vacsuit to reveal a platinum band studded with a row of six inset diamonds. “We've been married six years.”
Jake smiled at her, genuinely. “Congratu
lations, I know I'm late, but congratulations.”
“Thank you. I have to talk to you about that too. I want to send the Silkstream back to Freeground space unmanned.”
“So you'd like to stay here.”
Laura nodded. “Until I know what Jason's decided. I'll send it to the area the Sunspire is patrolling. Oz and Jason are aboard. He knows that if I go back they'll put me in the stockade for life.”
“You have a home here if you want it,” Captain Valance invited. “So does Jason, Oz, and anyone else from the Sunspire. For purely selfish reasons.”
She laughed quietly and nodded. “I was hoping you'd say that. Jason's got to be furious, but I think as soon as he sees the Silkstream he'll set a course to rendezvous with us, whether Oz is willing to leave his command or not.”
“He's in command of the Sunspire?” Jake asked, surprised.
“Along with a Fleet Intelligence oversight Officer. Last I heard having someone checking his orders was driving him nuts, but he's doing well. They converted her back into a carrier with a full squadron aboard. They're running missions in the Blue Belt.”
“So they have a tight leash on him. That would drive me crazy.”
“They're afraid he'll take the whole ship and go after you. Ayan's mother and a few other people with some pull in Fleet were hot to send people your way until Regent Galactic threatened Freeground with reprisals if they interfered with you.”
“Now that's interesting. Why am I so important?”
“That's something Jason's been trying to find out behind the scenes for weeks, but Regent Galactic has so many walls up it's hard to find anything at a great distance.”
“After this training time is up I'll be on their most wanted list I'm sure, but I can't be sure of what they want so badly that they'd threaten Freeground. Maybe when Jason gets here we can puzzle it out. From what I remember of him, I'm sure you're right, he'll be here as soon as possible. I would like to see Oz again as well, but I'll understand if he doesn't want to give up command of the Sunspire. When did they re-dub it?”
“After the ship was rebuilt and launched as a mission carrier. The shadow ship program is officially coming to a close. Wheeler's responsible for that.”
“Well, I'm taking a risk, but I can give you the coordinates of our position over the next month.”
“I'll include them on the Silkstream under an encryption code Jason and I use privately. When she's in range of the Sunspire she'll broadcast.”
“Good, if you need help getting the Silkstream Four ready for launch, just ask Chief Vercelli or his Assistant, Paula.”
“It's pretty much ready now.”
“What about that big calculator you brought with you? It's still in medical.”
“Minuteman? You can tie him into the ship's systems. Since he doesn't have an artificial intelligence he won't be affected by the virus you ran across. The Silkstream doesn't need it. Ayan only brought it aboard to help her.”
“I would have never thought of using a tactical and operations computer to keep someone alive,” Jake said quietly. “She was amazing.”
They were quiet for a moment before Laura cleared her throat and straightened in her seat. “There's something else. I'd like your permission to train with the crew. Before starting Special Projects with Ayan I was the energy field specialist on the First Light. I couldn't help but notice that your ship wasn't using her shield systems nearly as well as they could when you were in the Enreega system.”
Jake grinned at her and extended his hand. “Join any department you want. I know Liam is overextended in Engineering, he'd love to have you.”
She shook his hand and smiled back. “Thank you Jake.”
The Sunspire
“What the hell do they expect us to do?” Oz exclaimed as he paced the length of the Captains quarters main room. “It's not like I can just order the ship out of the sector and leave a big gaping hole in our defence here, not to mention toss my career away.”
Jason turned the holoprojector off after looking at his wife's face one more time. “As soon as I get her second message I'm following,” he said, crossing his arms and sitting back on the recliner. The cabin was dark, overlarge. Captain Terry Ozark McPatrick had kept the crew at arm's length. The environment of mistrust surrounding his new command was the root cause.
Lieutenant Trajenko read every single one of his reports the instant they were posted in the system. She also had her artificial intelligence summarize the shift reports of every senior officer before scrubbing its memory clear of the details. She followed Freeground's orders to the letter. Jason had gotten access to them; 'provide constant oversight to Commanding Officer Terry Ozark McPatrick and guidance if necessary. Report any violation of orders to Freeground Fleet Intelligence as soon as they occur. If any critical deviation from orders takes place, assume command immediately.' was what they said.
“You're Intelligence now, it would be hard but you might be able to explain away any charges they'd put on you if you went after her.”
Jason laughed sardonically. “Not likely. She's my wife, that's pretty transparent.”
“So you're right. But we've been sitting on this message for seven days, and Trajenko is just waiting for me to step out of place,” he ran his hand over his short blond hair. “If Fleet wanted me in command, they should have just given it to me and trusted I'd follow orders. I know what we're doing out here, how hard it was winning this much ground. I don't need some watchdog nipping at my heels every second just to make sure I hold the line. If they wanted Intelligence to run this thing, they should have put her in charge, not that she's earned the rank.”
“What can I say Oz? You're right.”
He dropped into the armchair he'd brought with him from his last command. “Of course I'm right, I've been thinking about this for a week.”
Jason's command and control unit, a graft on the back of his hand, sent a mild sensation through his nervous system. He had set his priority message indicator to feel like a drop of ice cold water hitting the back of his hand. “Looks like we won't have to wait much longer,” the holographic message projected through his left palm, so he was holding it in his hand. “It's encrypted with our personal key.”
Laura's face appeared, she was smiling but tired. “We made it Jason. This is going to be hard to hear, so I'll get the bad news out in the open. Ayan passed away and Jonas had died before we arrived. He saved hundreds if not thousands of lives in doing so, it could have been so much worse. Our old Captain lives on in a different way. They made a framework of him. There are so many similarities, he even has most of his memories. Sometimes it's like I'm looking at Jonas only ten years older, grown into his skin with so much confidence. When he walks by crew members they feel it, it lifts them up.
You're not going to believe this, but he took the Triton from Wheeler with a crew of about twenty people. He's taken on a couple thousand crew, making it into a real home, a real warship and he's told me that he's going to start liberating slaves, making a dent in Regent Galactic. There's so much going on here, things you couldn't begin to believe if I told you. It feels like this is the center of everything. I want to stay, something good is about to happen here, but if you need me to go back and face Freeground Fleet Command, I'll start making my way as soon as I can.
We're needed here though, and I know you've been restless. It's up to you. The Silkstream should be minutes behind this message, so if you want to join me, refuel it and go to one of the coordinates listed in the broadcast. I love you Jason, I miss you and I hope to see you soon.”
The transmission ended and Jason looked at Oz, smiling impishly. His friend looked amazed, pensive. Just moments before he was filled with frustration, weary of his situation. If there was any time to say what he knew was going through Oz's head aloud, it was right then. “Coming with me?”
“If I weren't doing important work here.”
“Come on, you know they set you up with a senior staff that can cover for
you if you ended up in the brig. This is our chance to make a difference again, to go where we're really needed. There's nothing happening here anymore, the war was won while you were out on patrol and just because they promised you this ship to go after Jonas but had to scrub that mission they left you in command. This is an apology, they're just saddling you with all this responsibility because they're afraid of what you'd do if you were left on your own.”
“You don't think I deserve this command?” Oz said angrily.
“Of course you do! But not here, you should be out at the front, running operations where each and every mission makes a difference.”
Captain McPatrick's command unit, a thin console covering half his left forearm buzzed against his skin. “McPatrick here,” he answered.
“Sir, the Silkstream Four has arrived two kilometres off our port side. It's powering down. What are your orders?”
Oz looked at his command unit for a moment, silent.
Jason stood and shrugged.
“Your orders sir?” asked the bridge officer.
While Jason looked on, Oz's attention turned to the framed portrait of the First Light crew. So many of us are gone. Minh, Jonas, Ayan, now Jason and Laura are leaving while Command puts me out of the way.
Jason crossed the room and put his hand on Oz's shoulder. “What's the word skipper?” he asked quietly.
Oz looked up and smiled. “Get that ship on the deck and fuelled. Freeground's been looking for it and I'm bringing it back personally,” he told the bridge officer firmly.
“Sir?”
“That is an order.”
“Aye sir.”
“Captain McPatrick out,” he took his gun belt from where it had been hung by the door, strapped it on, picked up his mission satchel, then put on the dark grey long coat he had made for the senior staff on the First Light years before and headed through the hatch.
“We're not going to Freeground,” Jason grinned.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3 Page 31