“Get as far away from Tracht as you possibly can,” Kendrick urged.
“Believe me, I plan to,” Cyrus agreed heartily. “Loathe as I am to admit it, losing Heather like that and to have to see her everyday afterward, is too much for me. I’m sure it is for you as well, but …”
“But I ain’t got no choice,” Kendrick said with a mirthless laugh. “But, yeah, I know what you mean.”
“As hard as it is to believe,” Cyrus said, “I will miss all of you after we disperse.”
“I’ll miss you too, Cyrus. You’ve been a good friend.”
The two men shook hands, neither seeing a need to say more. Their lives would be changing in a few months regardless of what any of the crew wanted; no point in dwelling on it. Kendrick changed the subject before they could.
“The Henderson woman,” he said. “I think we should pay her a visit.”
“Oh?” Cyrus wondered what Royce hoped to accomplish.
“She’s their coms officer,” the captain replied. “I want to see if we can get her to crack and reveal anything her superiors have kept to themselves … like whether or not Tracht ordered Lorgen to blow up those ships.”
“A good question indeed, Captain.”
Lieutenant Henderson sat at the desk in her cabin, amazed at the spaciousness of it compared to her berth on the Liberty. A knock at her door prompted her to answer; and standing in the doorway was none other than Captain Royce and the imposing Cyrus Freeman. He’s about as big as Jax, she immediately thought as she looked admiringly at Cyrus.
“May we have a word with you, Ms. Henderson?” Royce’s tone was cordial, but firm.
“Yes, by all means,” she replied nervously. “Come on in … I mean, it’s your ship, so I guess you can …”
“Relax, Henderson,” Royce said. “I just need to verify something. And for the record, I don’t go barging into passengers’ cabins.”
“All right,” she said, sitting behind the desk. “I guess you two can sit down too,” she added.
“Thank you, Ms. Henderson,” Cyrus replied in a deep, resonant voice. “We’ll try not to take too much of your time.”
“Hey, you can call me Darcy,” she replied. “And for you two, I have all the time in the world … okay, that just sounded weird.”
“The Gabriel,” Captain Royce said, getting to the heart of the matter. “You’re the communications officer. Just how close was ol’ Lorg to the good colonel? And just how much input did he have in the destruction of the Fujin, the U.P.A. Verona, the U.P.A. Orion and the hijacking of the Ramos?”
“Unless they were encrypted, or sent via e-mail, no contact whatsoever,” she replied. “Not since we picked him up at the O.S.P. at least. We didn’t pick him up until after the destruction of the Orion, so if he had any contact, I would not have been privy to it. Also, he maintained his own communications rig aboard the Liberty.” She paused, but felt she needed to say more. “Off the record, I don’t like what he did to you and Captain Gifford’s is thoroughly disgusted by all this. That business with your engineer … it really creeped me out.”
The two men looked at each other, Cyrus nodding.
“All right,” the captain said, standing. “That was all I wanted to know. If you need anything, let one of us know and within reason, we’ll try accommodate you.”
“Thanks,” she sputtered, standing herself. “Say, I have … something to ask you. Captain Gifford’s said you were the best pilot to ever graduate from the academy. Why aren’t you in the fleet?”
“You saw what was done to my engineer,” the captain reminded her. “You just said it creeped you out. I don’t trust the government, or the corporations; and the military is just an extension of those. I just wanted to fly, nothing more. No offense to you, Darcy, and I do appreciate your service.”
“Let me ask you something,” Cyrus said. “If you’re the communications officer on the Liberty, then you’re not just some grunt. You’re probably very intelligent; why not work in the private sector?”
“Because I love my country and I just wanted to serve,” she replied, hoping that Freeman would not launch into an anti-military tirade.
“Fair enough,” Cyrus said approvingly. “Your heart is certainly in the right place. Like the captain, I don’t trust the military or the government. Unlike the captain, I did serve. Fought in the Colonial Conflict. After my eyes were opened, I could never go back.”
“What … opened your eyes?” She was not sure she wanted to know.
“We’ll talk another time, Darcy,” Cyrus replied. “Perhaps over coffee.”
Cyrus Freeman had just flirted with her? She was certain he had. Rugged, though he was, he was handsome and his voice and speech were very refined. He reminded her of an African Jax. “Yeah! I mean, that would be nice,” she sputtered.
“Good day, Darcy,” the captain said with a smile before the two of them left. “Thanks for confirming that for us. If you need anything, let us know.”
“I will,” she said quickly. “Thank you.”
“Darcy,” Cyrus said, nodding to her as he left.
Heather stood outside of Colonel Tracht’s door, waiting on him to answer. At long last, he had finally summoned her. She wondered why he had delayed for more than forty-eight hours, but was glad to finally meet with him. The door opened and Tracht’s voice summoned her with a curt, “Come in, Ms. Dalrymple.” Heather entered, finding Tracht seated behind a desk going over reports. She saluted and stood at attention. Finally, the colonel returned her salute.
“I trust all is well in engineering,” the colonel opened.
“Well and lonely,” Heather said. “It’s boring and nobody talks to me. I’m an outcast. Why did you blow my cover?”
“Because your mission has changed,” the colonel explained. “You’ll be the chief engineer on this ship once the project begins and you need to fit into the command structure as one of us, not as a civilian with a courtesy rank.”
She nodded. “That makes sense, sir. What will my rank be?”
“Lieutenant.”
“Great,” she said. “Now, can I get a new last name? I hate Dalrymple.”
“No,” Tracht said, shaking his head. “You need to maintain some of the familiarity of the Heather they know. It seems that Freeman, the priest, and probably Keyes and Terri, are all leaving. Only Royce, Fiona and Lena will remain, and they are the ones you need to keep a connection with.”
“It won’t be easy,” she remarked. “And do we really have to keep Keane on?”
“Why? Does she present an obstacle to you?”
Heather laughed. “Not really; I did hit on Royce when he came in to check on me, but even if she were gone, I doubt he’d bite.”
Tracht stood up and came out from behind his desk. He was a tall man and though middle-aged, he remained robust. Tracht was a marine and had an impressive service record. As he stood in front of Heather, looming over her, she felt a twinge of fear.
“Do not fuck this up, Lieutenant,” he growled. “Too much is riding on this and on him. If you cause problems, I’ll have you reprogrammed to think you’re an Escort-7 and have you passed around the crew. Do I make myself clear?”
Heather gulped, knowing that it was a threat he could easily make good on. “Yes, sir!”
“Good,” he replied, walking back behind his desk. “Now, here’s the deal: Royce’s crippled wife, that Escort-7 and his ship are the only things keeping him loyal. Doctor Keane is officially dead and that name is never to be mentioned again. Doctor Kinsale keeps her exoskeleton, works the Med Bay and gets any and all help she needs. Thanks to your little fuck up, the Selene’s Ai was roasted, so Lena not only gets the same treatment, but she’s needed to serve as the ship’s Ai now that it has none. You treat that gynoid like she’s the sister of your heart, or whatever sentimental crap you women use to describe each other. And you treat Royce like he’s a highly decorated Starfleet captain.”
“Yes, sir,” she said quickly, though sh
e was not happy about having the damage from the virus hung on her; it’s not as though she wrote it.
“Good. Now, you say you’re lonely,” The colonel went on. “I’ll send Darcy Henderson your way. She’s chatty and she can help you out. It’ll give her something to do and you’ll have someone to talk to.”
“Thank you, sir,” Heather replied.
“Dismissed, Lieutenant.”
After her meeting with Tracht, Heather made a more earnest attempt at joining the group in the Pod Alpha mess, but her presence merely served to create antagonism. Keyes and Terri moved to another table as soon as she sat down, while Cyrus and Mun looked at her like she was a criminal in the police department cafeteria. Fiona just became tearful and looked away.
Mun raised an eyebrow as she sat. “You sure you want to be in here? After what you pulled?”
“I was only following orders,” Heather retorted.
Cyrus shook his head. “Offering the Nuremburg defense to your intended victims after railroading them into working with your superiors is hardly the way to ingratiate yourself to us.”
“Look; we have to work together, so …”
“No, we don’t,” Fiona corrected. “You have to work for the Captain as the ship’s engineer and report to Colonel Tracht. Beyond seeing to your health, I am under no obligation to interact with you. I’m sorry, but it’s too painful for me to do anything more.”
“My only obligation is to keep an eye on you,” Cyrus added.
This was all going wrong; there was no way she could perform her mission as Tracht’s eyes and ears aboard the Selene if the crew did not trust her and she had found that between Kendrick, Cyrus, Lena and Fiona, hacking into the ship’s systems was impossible. Kendrick’s programming skills easily matched hers and the rest had skills far exceeding his. Fiona, for all that she played the damsel in distress, was brilliant and as a geneticist, the older woman was an absolute whiz with computers and her days in the G.L.F. had made her every bit the hacker Cyrus was. The fact that they were already suspicious of her made an impossible task even harder.
Sighing, she picked up her tray to walk to another table.
“Heather, why don’t you join us?” Kendrick’s voice caught her attention, walking in with Father O’Carmody and Lena. The priest and the android looked like they approved of the captain’s invitation, much to her relief. The three selected an unoccupied table, the captain holding a seat for her.
“I’m surprised you’re not eating with Fiona,” Heather said to Kendrick.
“I had planned to originally,” he replied. “But you looked like you needed some friends. Maybe Fi will come around.”
“You still want to be my friend?” Heather looked at him dubiously.
“Sure,” Kendrick said as though it was a no brainer. “You’re Heather. It’s painful to know that you’re not the same, but I don’t dump my friends. I’m hoping that the girl I’ve known for the past year and half is still in there somewhere.”
Heather sighed in frustration. “I’m not that girl.”
“But you are,” Ronan interjected. “She was you until a month ago. I don’t know how programming the brain works, but I know that things previously thought lost to the human mind have left traces beneath the conscious surface.”
“Her personality was plugged in by the military,” Heather retorted. “I am an agent, a soldier.”
“With a soul,” Ronan noted. “You have a soul, which is not something that can be programmed. It is inherent and it retains its experiences, even if you don’t remember them.”
The concept of a soul was something that Heather had not previously considered. She was not religious, but she had a working knowledge of world religions, including Christianity.
“I volunteered for this, Father. I wanted to serve my country. This is me.”
Her three table mates looked at each other as though a missing piece of some puzzle had just fit into place and the looks on their faces told her that they knew something that she did not. Only Lena’s expression did not change, but her nod to them indicated that she was in on it … whatever it was.
“What? What are the three of you onto?”
Lena tilted her head, a quizzical expression on her face and looked back at Kendrick, nodding. “She doesn’t know.”
“Know what?” Heather was getting frustrated at this point.
“Sorry, babe,” Kendrick said. “That’s above my pay grade and I don’t feel the need to fill in the blanks for you; not my place. You’re now part of the package I’ve been forced to accept, not, as you like to remind me, the girl I hired back on Luna.”
Caught in my own words! She chuckled at the thought, frustrating though it was. Heather had underestimated Kendrick, having assumed that he would still be hopelessly looking for the old Heather and might be sufficiently off balance by her earlier flirtations for her to get the information from him.
“Touché,” she conceded. “On that note, I’m actually surprised that you haven’t sent me off to Pod Beta.”
“Believe me, that is very much under consideration,” Kendrick warned. “The only reason I haven’t done that yet, is because I don’t view you as a threat when you’re not in the engine room.”
“I’m no threat, Captain,” Heather assured. “I never was. I’m working for my country, for something bigger than myself. Surely you can understand that kind of commitment.”
“Naïve girl,” Kendrick snorted. “I’ve learned long ago that king and country are just concepts used to whip up the masses and indoctrinate the army.” He shook his head. “I didn’t invite you to our table just to slam you, Heather. Let’s eat and if you want to talk about this more, let me know.”
She finished her meal in silence, though Kendrick, Ronan and Lena did their best not to make her feel unwelcome. Once her meal was finished, she stood to excuse herself.
“Thanks for including me, but I need to return to my post.”
“You’re welcome, Heather,” Kendrick replied. “We’ll talk again soon.”
“Heather, if you feel the need for spiritual guidance,” Ronan added, “my door is always open.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” With that, she left, wondering if she should be going to Colonel Tracht instead of engineering.
It had been a week since the surviving crew of the Liberty and Colonel Tracht had come aboard. Tracht was amiable with the Selene crew and in spite of his mistrust of the colonel, Kendrick was having a hard time disliking him. The man was smooth, no doubt about it, but something about him told Kendrick that there was substance to the colonel’s words. Regardless, they would be spending a lot of time with the colonel and his people, and some decisions needed to be made.
Kendrick had assembled the crew in the conference room, Terri included. Only Heather was missing, though he imagined that he would need to start including her in these meetings at some future date.
“All right, everyone, I’ve questioned Colonel Tracht, airing most of our concerns regarding unfinished business, and Cyrus and I both think he’s on the level. We also interviewed Lieutenant Henderson, who was on the Liberty bridge crew, and she confirmed that since his being picked up by the Liberty, he hasn’t been involved in any of Lorgen’s hi-jinxes; at least to the extent that she could.” He paused and removed the flask from his shirt pocket and took a quick swig. “At this point, we have the Phantasm waiting for us and the whereabouts of Velos are unknown.”
Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “You think the bounty hunter could pose further problems for us?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Kendrick replied. “The Alliance hired him, after all.”
“How are we looking if we have to fight the Phantasm?” asked Fiona.
“It’s a warship,” said Kendrick. “They probably know that we have Tracht and the surviving Liberty crew aboard, and they know where we’re going. Their armament and armor are superior to any star liner, including this one. During Lena’s incapacitation, we weren’t flying at anywhere
near top speed, so coupled with all the delays we’ve had, they’ve had time to get ahead of us.” Kendrick then turned to Keyes. “Amanda, I want you scanning for anything that even resembles an anomaly. If they’re communicating with anyone, I want to know. These ships are stealthy, but they’re not literally invisible. I’ve seen enough of the Enigma to be able to pick one out. It’s a pain in the ass, but it can be done. I’ll show you what you’re looking for later.” He took another drink before continuing. “I’ll have Heather get things staged for a potential fire fight. Fiona, be prepared for wounded and, Kang, I expect you to be ready to fire those guns. We’re not well prepared to defend against anyone intending to board us, which brings me to the reason that I called you all here: Tracht and his officers.”
Fiona shifted to fully face him. “What about them?”
“If we’re facing an enemy of this nature, it’s all hands on deck. At least that’s my feeling. I’m trying to keep Tracht and his people out of any of Selene’s vital areas for as long as possible, but given the circumstances ...”
Cyrus leaned forward, his elbows on the table and arms crossed. “Loathe as I am to admit it, your deal with him means he’ll see those areas anyway. He has no reason to hijack the ship or sabotage it, so bring them in on this. We lack manpower and they swell our numbers.”
“Ronan?” asked Kendrick, now looking at the priest.
“I’m with Cyrus,” Ronan said. “I would also like to add that as the master of a U.S. military vessel, Captain Gifford’s and Commander Jax could offer vital tactical information.”
“Noted,” Kendrick said. “Kang?”
“I don’t like him, sir,” he said. “I can’t argue with any of what Cyrus and Ronan said, and you seem to trust him, so …”
“Do not for one second think that I trust that man,” said Kendrick. “If I really trusted him, he’d be here and as you can clearly see, he ain’t. Now, I believe him about Lorgen, but make no mistake; anyone who could do what they did to Heather and Lena is not someone I consider trustworthy. He’s a shrewd and clever man, and we’re all just pieces on his chess board as far as he’s concerned. No, Tracht is a wildcard. And I hate wildcards. Now, if there’s no more questions and no more input, I have some thinking to do. Everyone back to your posts, but be ready; this is the calm before the storm. I just know we’re gonna run into something; and when we do, we need to be ready. Dismissed.”
No Safe Harbor: The Silver Liner Page 28