“Yes, Sergeant Ron,” said the image of the commandant. “I need you to do me a favor, old friend. It’s important. You need to trust me on this.”
Sergeant Ron scratched his raggedy beard before answering. “You know I’d do anything for you, sir, but the Defiant’s down to twenty-five percent on her hyper-drive. It’s a full three hyper-jumps to Cavos. That would only leave me with two hyper-jumps before our drive would need to be replaced. I wouldn’t even be able to make it back to Velos for repairs.”
The image of the commandant smiled. Trinity thought he had a nice smile. As she remembered it, he hadn’t smiled all that much when she’d been a cadet at the Academy.
“I guess it makes a difference when you’re one of his peers instead of one of his cadets,” commented Jennifer in their shared space.
“That’s all being taken care of old friend,” said the commandant. “Once you’re on Cavos, the Defiant will be receiving a complete overhaul of her hyper-drive courtesy of the Imperial High Command. That’ll give you a full twenty hyper-jumps. I’ve also convinced them to authorize a few other repairs and supplies. Won’t that be worth a little of your time? From what I hear, the Defiant’s getting a little long in the tooth.”
“Well, uh…,” said Sergeant Ron scratching his beard again. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”
“You owe me, Sergeant Ron,” said the commandant. “I’ve covered for you more than once over the last thirty-five years. I’m asking for a return of the favors now. This is important. I’m asking you as a friend.”
The Defiant’s captain looked at the floor before returning his gaze to the commandant’s holographic image. Trinity knew what the sergeant’s answer was going to be before he even opened his mouth.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” said Sergeant Ron. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to like it.”
Chapter 4 – The Defiant
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“Doesn’t the Defiant seem a little large for a recon ship?” asked Telsa.
Trinity stopped their self-guided tour and looked down at her companion. The top of the short woman’s head only came to her shoulder. They were currently alone. Sergeant Ron and Charlie had both went about their duties after assigning quarters to the Defiant’s new passengers.
“Yes, it is,” Trinity replied. “I’ll admit I haven’t been on many recon ships. I’m normally teleported from Velos during mission insertions and extractions. Still, this is the largest recon ship I’ve ever seen, and it’s got enough armaments to make a light destroyer jealous.”
Telsa nodded her head. “That’s what I thought. Charlie told me the Defiant can hold a crew of twenty-two, but that it’s automated enough to be run by a single person if necessary. I know I’m not experienced in military ships, but that seems pretty non-standard to me.”
The two of them were currently standing in the ship’s dining area. It was a circular room with a long metal table in the center. A series of openings in the walls led to the crew quarters. Thick curtains appeared to serve as doors.
Telsa pointed at the curtain leading to her quarters. “Not much privacy. I’ve a feeling it would be hard to sleep if a score of people were in here eating.”
Nodding her head, Trinity walked into the adjacent galley and opened a few cupboards. They were well-stocked with dehydrated food. She looked back at her companion. “Well, you won’t starve.”
Telsa gave a half smile. Then she looked at the closed curtain on the opening across from the galley. It was the infirmary. Her smile disappeared.
Trinity looked at the doorway as well. “I’m sorry about your friend. Were you close?”
The short female continued looking at the curtain for several seconds before turning to face Trinity. “Professor Jaskok is… err… was… the head of the astral physics department at the university. He’d worked on some projects for my father a few years earlier, so he kind of took me under his wing when I got there. I majored in astral physics, so…” Her voice trailed off as she stared at the curtained doorway.
After an awkward silence, Trinity pulled a bottle of dehydrated coffee pills out of a cupboard and placed a pill in two cups. After placing the cups in the hydrator, she punched the start icon on the display. A few seconds later, a beep sounded. She opened the door and pulled out two steaming cups. Placing the cups at one end of the long table, she sat on the bench and motioned with her head toward the bench on the opposite side of the table. Telsa sat down and stared at her cup.
“Astral physics, huh?” Trinity said. “That deals with hyper-drives, right?”
“Why are you asking her?” said Jennifer in their shared space, “If you want to know something about astral physics you should ask me. I’m the one connected to the tele-network, remember?”
“Hush,” Trinity ordered. “This isn’t about you, Jennifer. I’m just trying to take her mind off her friend. I’ve got a feeling she’s going to come in handy if we can keep her head straight.”
Telsa looked up and nodded her head. “Yes. It plays a major role in hyper-drives, but astral physics also deals with stealth shields. That was Professor Jaskok’s speciality. My parents insisted that I major in hyper-drives, so whenever the professor needed assistance in that area, he called on me.”
After blowing on her coffee, Trinity took a sip. She didn’t especially care for coffee, but it was something normal to do. She had a feeling after the short woman’s kidnapping experience, she need some normalcy in her life.
“The professor said your name was Stremar,” Trinity said. “That’s the name of one of the hyper-drive companies, isn’t it?”
Taking her own sip of coffee, Telsa let it stay in her mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing. “My parents are Chin and Tanley Stremar,” said Telsa. “They developed the Stremar hyper-drive that’s on a lot of the newer cruisers and dreadnaughts.”
“Ah. I see why they insisted on you majoring in astral physics; the family business and all that. Uh, by any chance do you know what’s so important in the information on that disk of the professor’s?”
Telsa quickly shook her head sending her short black hair flying. “No, but I will. Charlie told me he has some analytical equipment downstairs for the Defiant’s hyper-drive. I think I may be able to modify it enough to conduct a few initial experiments.”
Taking another sip of her coffee, Trinity swallowed it before setting the cup down and pushing it aside. She laughed. “I have to be honest. I really hate coffee.”
Telsa smiled before shoving her cup away as well. “I hear you. I actually prefer a nice hot cup of green tea.”
* * *
Over the course of the next three days, Trinity became very familiar with the layout of the Defiant. While she was a highly trained wizard scout, the Defiant’s captain didn’t seem impressed. He told Telsa and her right off the bat that there were no such things as freeloading passengers on his ship. Everybody worked.
As it turned out, Telsa’s work consisted of analyzing the information on the professor’s data disk. Despite the fact that the ship’s computer assured Sergeant Ron the Imperial High Command’s best minds were working on deciphering the information, the Defiant’s captain wasn’t one to wait for others to do his work for him. He seemed to bend over backwards to give Telsa whatever equipment she needed to complete her task.
Since Trinity wasn’t a scientist, she found herself mostly delegated to helping Charlie by fetching tools when he needed them. Other than that she was pretty much free to roam around the recon ship. While not exactly work demanding a lot of wizard scout abilities, it did give her time to become familiar with the various parts of the starship.
The Defiant was an elliptical design with two wings extending out half the length of the recon ship. The starship was composed of three main floors with a central staircase giving access to all floors. The center of the top-most floor was the circular dining room with connecting galley. The infirmary was opposite the galley. Six other curtained d
oors led to some of the crew’s quarters. They were simple affairs with a set of narrow bunkbeds, two metal wall lockers, and a desk and chair. Except for the rooms assigned to Telsa and her, they were all unoccupied.
A short flight of stairs led up to the cockpit located at the front of the ship. The cockpit held chairs for the pilot, copilot, navigator, and forward gunner. The captain’s quarters were located off the rear of the cockpit. The entrance door between the dining room and the cockpit was composed of titanium. During some maintenance on the door’s pneumatics, Charlie told her that the titanium could be energized to prevent even dimension-shifting creatures from entering the cockpit.
The lowest floor of the recon ship was composed of a large cargo bay along with an armory and access to the engine control room. The hyper-drive itself was a massive system extending through multiple floors, but the heart of the drive, a glowing ball of red energy was visible from the engine control room.
Two ladders on opposite sides of the cargo bay led to access tunnels for the starboard and port wings. According to what Charlie had told her, Sergeant Ron hoped to install a zip fighter in each wing someday. Trinity thought that was a strange idea since the Defiant was a recon ship. Her experience with recon ships were that they weren’t intended to do major fighting. However, she soon realized that the Defiant’s captain was thin-skinned when it came to criticisms about his ship, so she kept her opinion to herself.
The middle deck of the Defiant consisted of torpedo and missile launchers along with the gun controls for the ship’s upper and lower gun batteries. Unlike typical recon ships, the Defiant’s main guns were hundred gigawatt plasma cannons. Jennifer told her most destroyers only carried hundred gigawatt plasma cannons, so having that size on a recon ship was odd to say the least.
The communications room was on the same level as gun control. The communications room was a cramped affair just off the central staircase. In spite of the room’s size, the equipment inside was topnotch. The remainder of the middle deck contained additional crew quarters as well as a second armory. Like the primary armory on the cargo deck, it was well-stocked with various types of small arms and shoulder-fired weapons. Both armories contained a generous supply of ammunition and isotopic batteries.
On the morning of Trinity’s third day on the Defiant, she found herself sitting in the copilot’s seat in the cockpit along with Sergeant Ron. A star chart was visible above the holograph table located between the pilot and copilot’s chairs.
“So why don’t we just go to the nearest dimensional fold and make our jump to Cavos?” Trinity asked. “Why go all the way to the Mistos’ system to make the jump? From what I can tell, that’s in the opposite direction.”
Sergeant Ron looked over from the pilot’s seat. “You don’t fly much, do you?”
Trinity smiled and shook her head. Several strands of her long, black hair stuck to the side of her face. She brushed them back behind her ear. “The Imperial High Command keeps up wizard scouts pretty busy. We’re teleported most of the time. Having one of their assets sitting around spending weeks on a starship isn’t an efficient use of resources. At least that’s the official line.”
“Ha!” laughed Sergeant Ron. “I’ve always said they don’t teach you wizard scouts stuff at the Academy that you need to know in the real world. Take interstellar navigation for instance. Our dimension’s like a crumpled-up piece of paper. If we go to a point where two parts of the dimension touch, we can use our hyper-drive to jump from one part of the galaxy to the other. The problem is a jump takes a lot out of a hyper-drive. Most starships only get twenty jumps before their hyper-drive needs an overhaul. That’s why we’ve spent the last three days going to point XRAY 5217. It’s the most efficient place to make our final jump to Cavos.” He gave a wink and added, “Even if it is in the opposite direction.”
Trinity eyed the old man. “I thought the commandant said the Imperial High Command was overhauling your hyper-drive when we get to Cavos. Why not just make the fastest jump instead of worrying about the most efficient?”
After scratching his beard, Sergeant Ron grinned. “Well, it’s been my experience that there are overhauls and there are overhauls. I’ve got a feeling the Imperial High Command’s idea of an overhaul isn’t the same as mine. That’s why I’m not putting any more strain on my engine than necessary.”
Smiling, Trinity said, “You know Sergeant Ron, I’d heard you were a troublemaker when I was attending the Academy. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to get along just fine.”
The Defiant’s captain laughed long and hard. “Well, if you like troublemakers, then I’m your man. If’n I wasn’t already married, I’d really show how much trouble I could be.” Punching an icon on his control panel, Sergeant Ron said, “Now, you’ve got full control of the ship. Let’s see what you can do. We’re coming up on the jump point. Timing is everything, so be ready. Otherwise, we’ll wind up as a few billion bits of disassembled flesh floating around in space for the rest of eternity. No pressure, though.”
Trinity touched an icon on the copilot’s panel. “Computer; time until jump point.”
A mechanical voice came out of a speaker on the cockpit’s wall. “Time to target is two minutes and twelve seconds.”
“Ha!” said Sergeant Ron. “That’s why you should never trust computers when you don’t need to. We’ve got about sixty seconds to the most efficient jump point.”
Trinity looked at the timer on the control panel. It displayed 2:08. “That’s not what the computer says. What makes you think it’s sooner?”
Sergeant Ron laughed again. “Because I can smell it, so to speak. Watch this.”
The Defiant’s captain didn’t move, but Trinity sensed a line of Power leave the old man and reach out. She recognized the line of Power as an active scan. Forming an active scan of her own, she followed Sergeant Ron’s line. When his scan touched a point in space, Trinity’s scan was there with him. She sensed two sources of energy merging together at the location.
As Trinity followed along, she sensed Sergeant Ron move his scan toward a spot where the two sources of energy seemed to merge together more than they did in the area around it. When his scan pulled back, Trinity dropped her active scan.
Eyeing the old man in the pilot’s seat, Trinity said, “So, you’ve got some skill using Power. Who taught you to do scans? Did you attend the Academy and DFR or something?”
“Naw, I didn’t Drop From the Rolls,” said Sergeant Ron. “Truth be told, I never even applied for wizard scout training. I could’ve qualified for the Academy if’n I’d had a mind, but I had my own agenda. I pulled the commandant’s bacon out of the fire about thirty-five years ago. He took me on a few missions with him during our younger days. Janice and he showed me a few of your wizard scout tricks.”
“Janice?” Trinity asked.
“The commandant’s wife is Councilwoman Janice Deluth. But don’t get me sidetracked. We’ve got about thirty seconds to the jump point. Did you sense it?”
Trinity nodded her head.
“Good,” said Sergeant Ron. “When we get there, make the jump. The computer wants you to get closer to the actual fold in the dimension, but I’ve found the energy-merge and the fold aren’t always aligned exactly in the same spot. It’s been my experience that the place where the energy merges is always the most efficient jump point.”
Forming her active scan again, Trinity pinpointed the energy-merge point once more. When the Defiant reached it, she touched the jump icon on her control panel. The cockpit blurred and Trinity was shoved back in her seat. After less time than it took to blink an eye, or perhaps it was all of eternity, her vision cleared. Trinity checked the star chart above the holograph display. The blinking blue light denoting the Defiant’s location was only a few light hours from the Octavo system. She spotted the bright blue ball that was the planet Cavos spinning in orbit around the sun.
“There,” said Sergeant Ron grinning. “You didn’t do too bad a job of piloting c
onsidering it was your first jump. But if’n you don’t mind, I think I’ll handle the actual landing. The Defiant can be a little touchy when she gets in atmosphere.”
Trinity grinned. “Fine by me, Captain. I think I’ll stick with being a wizard scout. I’ll leave the flying to you.”
“Wise decision,” said Jennifer in their shared space. “Now I recommend you get out of your mechanic’s jumpsuit and back into your battle suit. I calculate you’ll want to make a good impression when you report to Major Criteron.”
“Yeah, right,” Trinity thought back. “You calculated that, did you?”
“Well,” admitted Jennifer. “I didn’t say the probability was high. I just said I calculated it.”
Trinity mentally laughed. “So you did, old friend. So you did.”
Chapter 6 – The Major
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The military-grade folding chairs in the outer tent were hard and uncomfortable as all get out. Trinity was tempted to activate her battle suit just to make sitting more comfortable, but she refrained. Looking at the chair next to her, she noticed Sergeant Ron sitting with his chin on his chest. His eyes were closed.
“Is he sleeping?” she asked her battle computer. “I actually think the old fart’s snoring.”
“It’s fake snoring,” said Jennifer in their shared space. “Based upon his vitals, I calculate he’s wide awake. I suspect not much goes on around that old man that he doesn’t know about.”
Trinity looked around the tent. The furnishings were sparse. Except for a scowling sergeant sitting at a metal desk with a computer console on top, their part of the tent was also empty of other life. Sighing, Trinity glanced at the timer indicator on her helmet’s heads-up display. They’d been sitting in the tent for over an hour.
The outer tent flap finally opened. In walked a tall, lean man with just a touch of gray in his short black hair. He was dressed in combat fatigues sporting a major’s insignia. From the frown on the man’s face, Trinity gathered he wasn’t in a good mood.
Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Page 6