by Britt Ringel
It’s past time for panic. Subtlety was out the airlock. Heskan was rushing to his cabin to record a warning to Lombardi on his datapad. After weeks of planning and plotting, his master plan had been reduced to entering Kite’s bridge under the guise of transferring command to Lieutenant Spencer and, while inputting the order, sending his recorded warning to Phoenix. I’ve had weeks to come up with something and now it’s all reduced to this mess.
Heskan knew Envoy-3 would pick up the signal and although Brewer could not prevent it from reaching Phoenix, he would know exactly where the signal originated. With supreme luck, I can run like the wind and make it off Kite. Then… maybe catch a shuttle down to Pallene or if luck holds, stow away on something heading out of the system. It was false hope. Heskan understood his end game would be near-immediate arrest followed by a speedy trial. Why should my fate be any different? His datapad chirped.
“Commander Heskan?”
It was Lieutenant Spencer’s voice. Heskan kept his pace but answered calmly, “Yes, Lieutenant.”
“Sir, I’ve received orders that you’ve been reassigned and that I should take command. Is that right?”
“Sure is, Lieutenant. I’ve come aboard to clear my things from my cabin and enter the change of command order. I’ll be on the bridge shortly,” Heskan said as he turned a corner. “Kite will be your ship soon. Take good care of her, Tony.”
He closed the connection as his cabin door came into view and he dashed through the entrance, nearly colliding with Lieutenant Vernay inside his reception room. Heskan’s jaw dropped. “Stacy?” He smiled warmly but immediately regained his senses. You can’t tell her, Garrett. She’ll insist on helping and you’ll just destroy another promising life. “What are you doing in my quarters, Lieutenant?” he asked coldly. Something was off about her appearance.
Vernay looked anywhere but at Heskan. “I’m sorry, sir. Truesworth let me use his datapad to board the ship. I’ve been told to stay away until my transport leaves for Carme.”
Heskan glanced at the wall chronometer anxiously. “Then why are you violating your orders, Stacy? You’re going to get into trouble.”
Vernay finally looked at Heskan with soulful, blue eyes. “I had to see you one last time, Captain. I needed to thank you. You were right, back in Skathi. Thank you for stopping me.” She shook her head determinedly. “I’d have never forgiven myself if I had become like them. I will never become like them,” she promised herself.
It finally struck Heskan. She’s missing almost all her ribbons on her uniform! “Stacy, where’s your silver star?” He pointed to the solitary ribbon on her chest. The blue and red standout was the Navy training ribbon, the lowest ranking military award, the ribbon every sailor received.
“All or some,” Vernay replied diffidently. Heskan understood all too well the implications of those seemingly vague words. Although Navy regulations permitted all or some of a sailor’s ribbons to be worn when in service uniform, it was expected that sailors would wear all awarded ribbons and medals. The “some” language was reserved for the odd situation where a sailor had been decorated but had not yet had time to update his uniform. He thought of his own uniforms, missing a Navy Commendation Medal for the events on Derringer.
“What’s waiting for you in Carme?” Heskan asked. Carme was an important provincial system near borders with both the Hollaran Commonwealth and Solarian Federation.
“Crusader, sir. I’ll be her first officer.”
Heskan whistled. “Very nice, Stacy. That’s a command cruiser. You’ll be helping to lead missile ship squadrons.” Heskan tried to smile, and failed. “I’ll be saluting you soon.” From the brig.
Vernay looked away. “Yeah,” her voice broke. After a long pause, she muttered, “Maybe I’ll get to order more fusion attacks.”
Don’t say anything, Heskan. Let her go. Heskan stood like stone. He watched Vernay bring misty blue eyes to his again, searching. An eternity of silence passed between them.
“Well,” she mumbled awkwardly, “okay.” She stepped close to Heskan and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “Thank you, sir. I won’t forget you or what you’ve taught me.”
Heskan returned the embrace while fighting to remain silent. Let her go, Garrett. Don’t drag her down with you.
Vernay walked to the door. The portal opened and she walked over the threshold with her head down, pausing in the opening. “This isn’t right, Garrett.” Still facing away she said, “I know what my duty is but what about my soul? Diane, Denise, even the Hollarans. I’m scared of what I’ll become if I turn my back on them.”
“It would be a mistake to let duty override your conscience,” Heskan confessed.
Vernay turned back to the room. She stepped inside, glistening eyes piercing Heskan. “Like on Derringer?”
The door closed behind her. Heskan stared hard into those perfect sapphires, unable to find an ounce of judgment in them, just the eyes of a woman desperate to find peace with herself. After a long pause, Heskan looked down to the deck and replied, “Yes, like on Derringer.” His vision began to blur. Vernay remained silent and the words began to tumble from his mouth. “I killed my captain. I killed my weapons officer. I killed the woman I loved. And I killed seventeen Brevic citizens because I thought that was what my duty compelled me to do.”
He glanced upward but stopped when he reached Vernay’s hands, fidgeting at her sides. He was not ready to look her in the eyes after his confession. As he continued to speak, he noticed her arms had broken out in gooseflesh. “And it was all for a lie. I murdered those people for no other reason than to protect that lie and then I was rewarded by our government for it.” Finally, he met her gaze. “I’m sorry, Stacy. I’m sorry I’m not the man you think I am.”
“But you didn’t know back then,” she offered, half in support, half in hope.
Heskan shrugged. “I should have. The captain told me as much. But I was young and all that mattered to me was being a good sailor who served the Republic.”
“Why can’t that be enough?” she pleaded.
“Because maybe you can’t be a good sailor in a bad navy.”
* * *
Heskan chased Vernay down the deserted hallway. “Stacy, we’ve got like twenty minutes before those shuttles board Phoenix. I need to get up to the bridge and warn her.”
Vernay glanced back but continued jogging. “No, you need to follow your first officer, Captain.”
“I’m no longer Kite’s captain, Stacy,” Heskan quibbled.
“Yeah, well I’m not her first officer so it fits somehow.” She turned a corner. “I see you got promoted again, by the way. Was that your bribe from that I.S. creep?”
Heskan flushed. “I had to appear to cooperate, Stacy. Otherwise I’d have been on my way to a Titan prison instead of trying to warn you about Brewer.” Heskan sprinted briefly to catch up to her.
“I know,” Vernay said. “You made it real clear I needed to watch my mouth.”
Oh boy, I’m going to pay for that if we get out of this. Heskan began to smile despite himself.
“I only fully understood what you were doing once my ‘interview’ was underway.”
“When you disappeared, I was worried sick about you,” Heskan confided.
Vernay shrugged guiltily. “I’m sorry. After my cooperation was deemed ‘most helpful,’ I was transferred immediately off Kite and given the Crusader billet as my bribe.” She approached a portal and disappeared inside.
“So, where are you taking me, Stacy?” Heskan followed and came face-to-face with Lieutenant Truesworth.
The sensorman coldly regarded his former captain. His eyes narrowed when they swept over Heskan’s collar. “Congratulations, Commander. I’m totally sure those weren’t gained by stepping on the necks of the sailors who believed in you.”
Vernay’s eyes widened as she quickly reached out to cup her hand over Truesworth’s mouth. “My God, shut up, Jack!”
Truesworth swatted away the hand and r
ebuked, “I don’t care anymore, Stacy. This isn’t right and it all started when the captain abandoned us.”
Vernay looked angrily at the sensorman and drew a deep breath in, preparing to prevent him from digging a deeper hole.
“No,” Heskan said, stopping her. “I deserve that, Stacy. I’m sorry for what I’ve done to everyone on Kite, Jack. Regardless of my reasons, I hurt a lot of people.”
Vernay cocked her head toward Heskan. “The captain, er, commander…” She shook her head in frustration while throwing Truesworth’s datapad onto a chair. “I don’t even know anymore. The point is, he is with us, Jack. In fact, because he stayed close to the slime that’s running this crazy train, he knows a lot more than us.”
Truesworth looked at Heskan, uncertain.
“Jack,” Heskan promised as he placed a hand on Truesworth’s shoulder, “we’re going to fix this.”
“How?” Truesworth asked irritably. “By blowing up this whole stinking, festering sector of space?”
“Nothing so dramatic,” Heskan replied. “We start with warning Lombardi that she’s about to be double-crossed. Internal Security is landing troops on Phoenix in about fifteen minutes.”
“Oh my, she’s not going to like that,” Truesworth answered. “But what can we do?”
Heskan looked at Vernay. “My plan was to just go to the bridge and send a message, consequences be damned.”
“Imprudent,” Vernay advised. “You do that and you’re labeled a traitor and you can’t help anyone else.” She looked at Truesworth. “Jack, do you still have that badge Denise gave you?”
Truesworth walked to his desk and pulled out the Hollaran marine badge. He tossed it to Vernay. “Stacy, I took that thing apart and it’s just a weak transmitter that sends a signal on an extremely low frequency. You can’t use it to talk and even if you could, the range is ridiculously short.”
Heskan took the badge from Vernay’s hand and examined it. “Could we boost the strength with Kite?”
Truesworth nodded but said, “Even still, Captain, it’s just a ‘beep, beep, beep.’ If you transmitted a voice over that frequency, it would just be another message that the courier ship would pick up.”
Heskan smiled conspiratorially at Vernay. “I just want the beeping, Jack. Can you interrupt the pulses? Turn it into Morse code?” What’s old is new again.
Truesworth considered for a moment. “I think so but isn’t that just going to be another message? Someone on that courier ship is going to notice it.”
Vernay motioned her hands as if pulling something apart. “Stretch it out. Slow it down. If you transmitted, say, one letter every twenty seconds…”
“That might work,” Truesworth admitted. “It might get lost in the background radiation by anything that wasn’t specifically watching for it. But you said there’s not much time. It will have to be a really short message… one, maybe two small words.”
Heskan picked up the sensorman’s datapad. He accessed a translation program and tapped at the screen. Finished, he shoved the datapad toward Truesworth. “Send this.”
Truesworth’s eyebrows furrowed at the words but he said, “Okay, I will.” He looked at Vernay with a great insistence. “What about Diane?”
Vernay smiled reassuringly. “Our next stop, Jack, but you’ve got to get on the bridge and start sending that warning.”
Truesworth reached out for his datapad but Heskan shook his head. “No, Jack. Stacy still needs this.”
“Fine,” Truesworth responded and then looked between the two officers in his room. He nodded gratefully. “And, thank you. Both of you.” The young man’s voice was full of relief mixed with traces of hope.
Truesworth left the room at a break-neck pace. When the door closed behind him, Heskan asked inquisitively, “He and Diane?”
Vernay merely nodded with a coy smile on her face.
Heskan stared dumbstruck at her while muttering, “Guess I should have seen that.”
“Captain, you’re the most intelligent, perceptive and thoughtful man I’ve ever met,” Vernay said with a wide grin. “But certain things, you just don’t see even if they are right in front of you.”
* * *
The reunion in Lieutenant Selvaggio’s room had been purifying for Heskan. After hiding Vernay inside his own quarters, he had walked past the I.S. agent standing at the door to Selvaggio’s room under the ruse of giving his chief navigator a final counseling session about Brevic loyalty.
Once inside, Heskan apologized effusively for the scene on the bridge and gave his assurance that he would help her through the crisis. Selvaggio had broken into tears when she realized she had not been abandoned. Heskan told her about the transport coming to carry her to Titan and the grim reality of what she may face. After answering her questions and promising to return, Heskan offered her the choice of submitting to Brevic custody on the hope that her loyalty to the Republic would win through or pursuing “another option.” Heskan had left that option vague.
This is getting way out of control, he thought as he moved quickly down Kite’s corridor. I just can’t see what “another option” could be at this point. He nodded at the rare passerby. That’s not true. I see exactly where this is leading. Well, at least I’m finally seeing past the curtain. It may have taken several years, Marc, but I did hear you. He smiled as he passed by a petty officer. Once past the engineer, Heskan looked guiltily behind him to make sure the man had continued walking. Kite now felt alien to him and he was eager to return to the sanctuary of his quarters, even if it was a false sense of security. One more stop, he told himself. Then I grab my stuff and get off this damned ship. He turned the final corner and approached the I.S. agent.
The white-clad agent held out a hand to slow Heskan’s approach. “Nature of your visit, sir?”
Heskan did his best to look bored as he answered. “Ensign Gables requested a character reference from me for her court martial. I’ve come to deny her request.”
His answer clearly amused the agent and the man unlocked the portal while saying, “Enter, Commander.”
Ensign Gables popped to attention from her desk chair when Heskan entered. Once the portal slid shut, Heskan said, “At ease, Denise.”
“Captain,” Gables immediately explained, “a lot of my pilots couldn’t fire because their LAMs weren’t hooked up right. This isn’t right.” The pilot’s shoulders slumped noticeably.
There it is again, Heskan thought. Why am I hearing that sentence so much lately? After a moment’s consideration, his conscience answered him. Because it’s the truth. He held out his hands in a “slow down” gesture. “Relax, Gabes. Are you hanging in there?”
“Barely,” she admitted. “The holo-log that could acquit me was in Eagle when she blew up.” She looked around the room helplessly. “But I can’t prove that so all I have is my word against what Admiral Hayes wants to believe.”
“Both of your voices are equal to the ears of the court,” Heskan said.
“Yeah, one is just a little more equal than the other,” she said sarcastically and sighed in resignation. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not sure I could have actually pulled the trigger even if they had armed successfully. We’re all probably guilty. The ones who actually fired their fusion missiles died in the strafing runs near the tunnel point.” She looked at Heskan mournfully. “Maybe I am a traitor.”
“Denise, you did what was right, and because you acted according to your own moral code, you saved a lot of innocent lives on Salus.” Heskan used both of his hands to clasp her shoulders to emphasize his point. “What you did wasn’t betrayal, it was heroic.”
Gables swallowed the rising lump in her throat. “Thank you, Captain. That helps. I thought I had let you down too, sir. Thank you for understanding.” She nodded as if to convince herself. “It will make the trial and what comes after a little easier to face.” Both officers knew what type of punishment Hayes would insist upon for the pilots responsible for “the debacle in Helike.”
“What if you could escape judgment?” Heskan asked, placing emphasis on the fifth word. This is it, Heskan. There will be no turning back.
Gables looked hopefully at Heskan but then slowly began to shake her head. “Sir, I can’t ask you—”
“You don’t have to ask, Denise.” Heskan thought back to Derringer and spoke to the ghosts watching him. “This has been a long time coming.”
Gables thoughtfully considered and finally nodded. “Then, yes, and so would all my pilots. We’ve talked a lot about what would happen to us if we made it back to the Republic.”
Really? I guess that’s only natural. They couldn’t have possibly expected Hurricane Hayes just to forget about what happened. Heskan asked with a glimmer of hope, “You guys didn’t come up with a plan, did you?”
“No,” Gables answered, innocent eyes looking into Heskan’s. “Did you?”
“Uh, no,” Heskan admitted. “I’m sort of making this up as I go.”
“Oh boy,” Gables said with false cheer.
“Don’t worry, Gabes. I’ve got some help and we’ll think of something.” Heskan added, “You’re certain the other pilots will want a part of this? You understand what they’ll do to you if they catch us.”
“The same thing they were going to do to us anyway, Captain. You know what the Republic does to traitors.”
Heskan checked the chronometer on the wall. “I have to go, Gabes, but I’ll be back.” As he turned for the door, he wondered if Brewer’s shuttles had reached Phoenix yet.
Chapter 25
“We have company, Captain,” Vernay said matter-of-factly.