“Anyone not so willing?”
“Just a couple. Your guys killed one of them because he started firing shots off, the other one is cooling off in the brig. Your Captain's going to present him as a prisoner of war.”
Ramirez just looked at her for a moment. He thought himself a good judge of character, and though she had a very professional attitude through it he could see something else.
“What?” She asked, smiling a little.
“I'm just wondering how everyone really feels about the Triton being pirated and having her captain disgraced.”
“I already told you, two of us had a problem with it, the rest are just glad they're going away from Regent Galactic space. Some will even stay on and fight if they're given the chance. Everyone knows who Captain Valance is, and everyone's been in to see him since he got on board.”
“How did he find the time?”
“He saw us in groups of two or three. His First Officer just told us when we had to be there. He makes sure he learns something about everyone aboard. It's good for morale, Captain Wheeler didn't so much as try. Sure we were just the secondary shift from a drifter station, we need training and time to adjust, but he just assumed we'd catch on our own after giving us a few basic instructions and a map. If he had to train anyone it was like some kind of chore. He gave me about fifteen minutes to look around in medical then sent me to help with grunt work.”
“Well, Captain Valance has always kept his crew in good order. As long as you're on his side and doing your job he'll treat you well.”
“He left orders for you to report to the bridge when you woke up.”
“I'm clear to leave Doc?”
“I'm not a doctor yet, so technically I'm a medic. And yes, you're clear.”
“Thanks, see you soon.”
“I hope not,” she retorted with a crooked grin.
Ramirez stood and was on his way out of medical when he noticed a curtain with a stasis tube behind it. It was a portable unit from what he could tell, and was just about to open the curtain when Grace called out. “Don't!”
“You'll want to leave that be, lad,” Frost said in a mournful tone. “It's Finn. He's in a bad way.”
“We had to put him in stasis on site,” Grace told him hurriedly, making sure the curtain was closed completely. “I haven't had a chance to put his stasis pod in a secure containment socket or cover it up properly yet.”
“Will you be able to help him?”
“No, I haven't seen technology or met an expert that could. We caught him as his brain activity was tapering off, I was able to stabilize that much. I'm hoping that the Aucharians have something that can save him.”
“How long could he stay like this?”
“Years, that's a Sol Systems stasis pod. They're made to last decades for deep space travel. It's a lot like the ones used to make the trip to Andromeda.”
“That's something at least.”
“He was a friend of yours?”
“It's Finn, he was everyone's friend,” leaving that curtain closed was one of the hardest things Hernando had ever done, but he had a dreadful feeling that seeing what was behind it would have been much worse.
The trip to the bridge was a fairly straight path. It was right at the front of the ship on deck fourteen. The hallways were perfectly clean. The walls were a dark blue colour and though all the cables and piping was plainly visible they were arranged almost artfully by colour. The meaning of each colour was something else he'd have to learn, but for the time being he couldn't help but admire how neat and aesthetically pleasing the ship was despite its stark functionality.
As he came around the last corner before the bridge he saw a small cleaning drone. The circular half meter tall robot was spinning its way up one side of the hall, polishing the shiny dark grey floor. There were four arms folded neatly atop the little thing and as he approached it stopped what it was doing and moved to the side, even though there was plenty of room for him to pass by before. “Well, I guess we won't have to worry about cleaning stations,” he said to himself as he passed it.
The robot made a grunt like sound, as though acknowledging Ramirez's statement before resuming its duty.
He passed through the doorway and stopped dead in his tracks. The front wall of the bridge was a two dimensional display and there were three holographic projections along its slightly curved surface. The left was a general status readout of the exterior of the ship, the right was a map and interior status readout, and the middle one was showing a game show with three contestants batting at each other with padded poles. He walked a few steps down the ramp and took and looked over the stations. From what he could tell there was a tactical post for up to four people to his right, a similar engineering section to his left, and the captain's chair in the centre with two smaller seats to either side. In front of the command seating was a circular space five meters or so across, the helm was just forward of that with another station for three beside it. There were other posts to the right and left that he didn't care to guess about. The walls were dead black, most likely to provide contrast for holographic imaging and other displays. The ceiling was a dark blue while the floor was a deep brown. Most of the seating and control stations were obviously reconfigurable, and he couldn't help but wonder what alterations would be made as Captain Valance made himself at home.
Captain Wheeler was tied tightly to one of the command chairs. There were straps across his shoulders, elbows, waist, around his ankles, wrists and he was gagged. There was a large bandage around his left arm where his dermal command and control unit had been removed. Leland March, one of his boarding team looked at him and smiled. “I'd call this a win, eh Ramirez?”
“Aye, I wonder what our new buddies with think about this.”
He glanced at the profile view of the vessel to his right and saw there were twenty one decks all told, one third of which were dedicated to launch, landing and maintenance bays and the crews that worked them.
“New buddies?”
“The Aucharians. This is a big ship, I think they'll notice Captain's upgraded his ride.”
“You think he'll keep her? He's going to need a big crew.”
“I always pictured Captain running a ship like this, never thought I'd see it myself. Where's everyone else?”
“In with Captain or sleepin'.”
“Hernando!” Ashley called out to him as she came out of a doorway at the front of the bridge. She ran over and practically collided with him. “I'm so glad you're okay.”
“Our medic just cleared me.”
She let him go and her joyfulness abated a little. “Did they let you see Finn?”
He didn't know what to say so he shook his head slowly.
“I wish he could see all of this,” she said sadly, her good mood was fading fast. “He'd have a ball.”
“They'll find someone to help him. You know the Captain.”
“They won't let me see him.”
“He's in stasis, he wouldn't know you were there. The Doc, I mean medic, will tell you when you can go visit him, don't worry.”
“Did they tell you anything?”
“He needs a real doctor and better equipment, Grace is smart enough to know that. Until then, we can only hope and pray.”
Agameg Price came out of the forward door and walked up beside Ashley, smiling at Ramirez. “I'm sorry I misguided you.”
“On the medication? Don't worry, the doc, I mean medic, said it healed me up good. No scars inside or out.”
“Thank goodness, I was afraid you'd be in an extended coma or some such. The Captain would like to see you in his ready room. I just came from there. Good change is coming.”
Ramirez glanced across the bridge and nodded. “I hope.”
That prompted a short giggle from Ashley, but her reprieve from worrying over Finn was short lived. It wasn't immediately evident, but she was a mess inside, dealing with whatever big changes were going on as well as losing someone she was becomin
g fast friends with.
“Captain says we should get some rest. I'll show you to your quarters,” Price said quietly to Ashley, who nodded.
“I'll see you soon,” she said to Ramirez with a weak smile.
“Sleep well.”
Ramirez walked through the bridge to the ready room. There was plenty of space for two people abreast. It felt strange, and he started to fully grasp the size of the ship, the undertaking manning it could be. The door to the ready room had been surfaced in lush black but it was still a meter thick safety bulkhead door like most of the other main hatches on the inside of the ship. The motors moved it silently out of the hatchway and to the side.
The wall across from the entrance was transparent, he could see the distorted view of hyperspace with its exaggerated blues, whites and yellow colours beyond. The thick transparent metal also caused a slight lensing effect, leading him to assume that it was meters thick and hardened. There was a large desk with three chairs in front of it, a small sofa to the side and a ladder to the left. At the base of the silver ladder was a small lift pad. He had never seen a ready room before, but he could only assume that the ladder lead to a bedroom and other personal space for the Captain so he could always be near the bridge. To his right there was another door, he didn't bother guessing what it lead to.
Stephanie half turned and smiled at him, the Captain looked a little more serious. “What do you think of our new home?” She asked.
“So you're taking this ship sir?” He asked.
Stephanie looked back to the Captain, who stood and looked out the window. He had changed out of his cloaksuit and wore a regular black one. His long coat and scarf hung off a peg on the wall.
“The Samson is more than half fried. Torres tried resetting her systems and found burnouts everywhere. She couldn't even start a load test. Wheeler's ship, the Cold Reaver, fared a little better but it would take weeks to get it flying again and she's not made for long trips. She's a drop ship that doubles as a gunship. I've been less straight forward with the rest of the crew, I didn't want to show I had any doubts, but with you two I have to be honest.” He turned around and leaned on his desk.
“I understand these systems. If what Wheeler has told me is true it's because I'm a trained engineer with experience. The problem is, I'm the only one aboard who understands this ship and training people minimally will take weeks if we rush through it. The security and other personnel management systems are simple, thank God. So no one needs more than an hour to familiarize themselves with them, but the AI on this ship was deleted and replaced with other automation systems.”
“According to the ship logs the Triton has been running with a crew of less than a hundred with the help of automation for almost thirty years. She hasn't been used to her full potential since she was stolen,” Stephanie added.
“How many was she made to run with?”
“Without a space superiority deck crew, or fighter compliment or pilots her full company comes out to just under twenty eight hundred.”
Ramirez sat down.
Captain Valance went on. “This ship is made to carry one hundred twenty six fighters, thirty drop craft, five gunships and mission vessels with pilots. If we can get the manufacturing grade materializer running we could actually build a fighter in about twenty days. Using raw heavy metals during the construction process would cut that time by three quarters or more. Finding pilots and a maintenance crew who knows how to work with the technology is a completely different problem. This is a multi-role close combat carrier that was built to patrol outside the Sol system and carry out deep space missions. Wheeler stole it while it was in dry dock undergoing repair almost forty years ago. According to what he tells me we were both put into stasis by the same people at the same time.”
“Was he part of your crew sir?” Stephanie asked.
“No, we were each in command of our own ships, each with a skeleton crew on some suicide mission. That's all I can get out of him aside from his command codes and a few insults. I'm going to keep him in the brig in that secure containment cell. I don't think he's finished telling us everything we want to know. Cynthia has been trying to find a security wall anywhere in the system and aside from a couple small files, no part of the ship is locked out. It looks like Wheeler had to disable all the internal security to get the automation working right.”
“How many people can crew the ship with the automation systems running do you think?”
“We could do it with what we have and get eight of the rail cannons working. Automation is down on a dozen cannons and sixty four more don't have any automation connected.”
“With that much firepower we'd be able to stand toe to toe with most destroyer classes without fighters.”
“We would, but getting those cannons running would take a full gunnery crew. With maintenance, commanders, gunners, and loaders we'd be looking over three hundred people. The only one we have that's been anywhere near a gunnery crew is Frost.”
The door opened to admit Shamus Frost, just in time for him to hear his name. “Talkin' 'bout me behind my back?” he said with a grin.
“Feeling better?” Captain Valance asked.
“Aye, that medic is as much a doctor as I've ever met. Had to solve a few word puzzles before she let me go, wanted to be sure my head was right. Not that I minded, she's all woman, that one.”
“That'll never happen,” Stephanie teased.
“She's already agreed to havin' rations with me later, thank you,” Frost told her, pleased with himself.
“One miracle after another,” Ramirez said with a wry grin.
Frost just closed his eyes and shook his head for a moment. “With friends like these,” he whispered. “So what're you gettin' my name mixed in with this time sir?”
“Captain was just saying you've been on a gunnery team.” Stephanie restated.
“Aye, third generation. I've seen the nasty side of ships this size before, but none this modern, mind ye. Spent most of my military career on the gunnery decks, got sucked out of a breach once too.”
“Have you looked at the cannons on this ship yet?”
“Didn't even get a chance to look from the outside. I was too busy hangin' on for dear life in that undercarriage compartment.”
Captain Valance brought up a holographic image of one of the rail cannon turrets. It was a four barrelled system that had room for two loading compartments and one gunner.
“Oy, that's fifty years more modern n' anything I've ever worked with.” He moved closer to the image hovering over the desk and rotated it slowly. “One hundred eighty millimetre single fire barrels made for variable load. With the right ammo you could punch through just 'bout anythin'.”
“The ammunition comes from materializers. There's one for every three turrets,” Captain Valance added. “The gunner and maintenance crews have bunk rooms near the gunnery posts so they can be there in a few seconds after the ship goes on alert.”
Frost sat down and whistled his appreciation as an image of the ship layout came up, the emergency bunks and materializers were highlighted. “This ship was designed by people who knew what she was for, that's for sure. You couldn't tell just glancin' at her halls though, she's a beauty. I've never seen a Sol ship before.”
“No one out here has. Earth is months away on the fastest ship, and they slag or capture anything that comes anywhere near the Kuiper belt,” Ramirez said.
“How much damage did the Big Surprise do?” Asked Frost.
Captain Valance sat down and turned the small holoprojector off. “It was contained to the hangars and workshops. From what Douglas tells me most of the systems down there are fine after a reset. He checked it out before hitting his rack.”
“He's sleeping on the Samson?” Asked Ramirez
“That's what he said.”
“Why does that not surprise me. What will you do with her?”
“It would take weeks to repair her. Most of the fine circuitry will have to be replace
d.” The Captain sighed. “I'm thinking storage until we can spare the people to work on her. There's enough room in the hangars.”
“So we're going to have a go at making this ship home?” Frost asked.
Captain Valance looked at the three faces in front of him. “I want you three with me on this. The rest of the seasoned Samson crew as well. I need people I trust to stay on as core crew.”
“Aye, I'm with you sir,” Frost said with a grin. “Besides, I owe you a few credits.”
“Where else would I go? Besides, I can't wait to see what the First Officer's quarters look like,” Stephanie said.
“I'll go wherever you tell me sir,” Ramirez agreed.
Captain Valance smiled back at them. “Well, you're taking care of tactical Frost, start learning about the systems and try to tell me what we need to get things running properly.” He looked to Stephanie and nodded. “I think you should go find your quarters, get some rack time before we arrive at Enreega.”
“Aye sir,” she replied with a smile.
“And Ramirez, you're in charge of ship security. Take two people you trust and start exploring compartments. When you've swept an area send in a couple Aucharian newbies to collect and inventory anything of use.”
“Aye, this should be interesting.”
“But first, escort the former Captain and put him in the brig. Leave a man to watch him. I need someone from the Samson crew on shift at all times. If there's a way out of his brig, he'll know it, so we can't leave him alone. I'll take the first bridge watch.”
“Are you sure Captain? You've been up for at least thirty hours.” Stephanie asked.
“I couldn't sleep if I tried.”
Loose Ends
Spinward Fringe Broadcasts 1 and 2 Page 32