Adri pondered the idea for a few minutes. Jericho had acted perfectly normal in the hours she'd been around him. A little too polite, but normal. He smiled and said how pleasant it was to meet someone who recovered from death. It had taken her a moment to realize that he'd been teasing her. He smiled a lot. Actually, Adri had never seen him not smiling, in a life's-a-fun-ride sort of way. He never left Gray's side the entire night, making them an interesting trio (since she didn't leave Gray's side either). For some reason, Adri had gone to bed that night with the impression that the humacom adored Gray, if humacoms had a sense of adoration. “I guess that would work. But you'd better keep an eye on him. I'd rather have someone in Security, but for a maiden voyage within our own territory, I guess we can do without.”
“That's what I thought as well.” Gray leaned back against the control panel again. “We've got Blair as our doctor, so I think we could get away with a medicom for a head nurse.”
“Do you have a list?”
“Yeah.” Gray retrieved the holoboard and searched for the appropriate screen. “Here, these are all Galactic Commonwealth Navy approved.”
Adri studied the list of medicoms. “There's a notation by most of these new ones that says ‘HPP and ITP free,’ Do you know what that means?”
“Humacom Personality Program and Independent Thinking Program,” Floyd called from the door. “It means they've passed through the recall and had those programs removed from their hard drives. Like being brainwashed,”
Both Gray and Adri looked over at him.
“I'm sorry,” he apologized. “I was going to alert you, but I caught the tail end of your conversation.”
Adri beckoned him over. “Finished giving your report to the Peace Keepers?” The Peace Keepers had been notified the night before about the strange attack, but they had wanted a more detailed account from the two Tarkubunjis. Both sister and brother had made an appointment with them for the following afternoon.
“Yes. I was given the standard, ‘we'll look into it,’ line. If they know anything, they aren't telling me. They said we could return home, but I asked Captain Carter if we could remain at his residence until the situation is resolved.” Floyd glanced down at the list displayed on the holoboard. “Medicoms?”
“For the ship's infirmary,” Adri frowned down at the list. “But all of these newer models have been through the recall.”
“Then those won't do,” Floyd said with authority. “All humacoms that lack a personality and independent thinking would be terrible as nurses. Like being treated by a vending machine. Not to mention it would be a terrible hassle for the doctor. He'd constantly have to give them new instructions if a situation has no approved precedent. May I?” he took the holoboard from Adri's hand. Flicking expertly through the screens on the board, he went on, “The older models, like these KJM's from EriTech or the 900 models from Interstellar would be better choices. The chasses are a bit clunkier and the operating systems are a little slower, but they have a well-balanced cranium. Still, none of them have the right programming for a commanding position.”
Gray and Adri shared a long look. “Dr. Tarkubunji, you wouldn't happen to be searching for a new job, perchance? One that traveled?” Gray asked.
Floyd looked up sharply from the holoboard. “You want me to come with you?”
Adri leaned back in her seat. “We need someone who could head the technical department. Someone with a good knowledge of humacoms, who can deal with problems as they arise and so on. You're pretty good at your job. So?”
Gray rolled his eyes at Adri's tactless advance. “You would be a great asset to the ship.”
The humacom designer seemed to fall into rapid thought for all of one second. “Yes.”
“Give yourself time to think about it first,” Gray said in some surprise. ”You'd have to quit your job -
“All to the better,” Floyd gave Adri a look that Gray couldn't quite interpret. “Thank you, Captain. I'll work hard.”
“Great. You'll be a civilian commander, which will give you authority as a member of the senior staff and in your field, but little other power.” Adri nodded to the holoboard. “Who would you purchase from that list?”
Floyd blinked at his rapid change of circumstances, and then bent back down. After a few minutes he showed the board to Gray. “These ones would be well placed in an infirmary setting. All have updated medical files, hospital procedures, and reportedly well learned bedside manners.” With a little more confidence, he added, “If I may be so bold, could I suggest taking my sister aboard as well? I can attest that she is a good worker. Her gift of foresight comes in handy.”
“Foresight?” Adri repeated.
Floyd nodded. “It's one of her gifts as a Talented. She even lived in a convent for years to refine it.”
Adri mentally groaned. “You don't say,”
“Yes. In fact, she told me you'd be open to giving us a shot. You being an Adept and all that. But, uh, just what is an Adept, exactly? Freya was a little vague,”
There was a long second of silence as Adri and Gray both stared at Floyd. Then Adri shot to her feet and stormed off the bridge. “Fine! What do I care if I'm overrun with mystical geeks determined for me to fulfill my stupid destiny? What do I care if everyone knows I have magic powers? Sign her up!”
Floyd and Gray stared at the door for a long minute after she had departed. At last, Floyd said, “That was strange. Has something upset her?”
“No, just fate. Its been kicking her around.”
Galactic Commonwealth Cracks Down on Traitors!
Undaria Plot to Sell Out to Belligerents Exposed!
Halieth: A stunning media brief made by our Supreme Chancellor, Roger Fane, announced the uncovering of a plot by the citizens of Undaria, first planet of the Undaria system.
“It came to our attention that there was strange activity occurring on the planet,” Supreme Chancellor Fane explained. “On a deeper investigation, our intelligence discovered that the satellite government on Undaria was underhandedly selling military secrets to the Belligerent Coalition. In response, special detachments from the military were sent in to ferret out the traitors and restore civil authority in the undarian provinces. Unfortunately, the savage undarians had all sworn a mae aras, or clan compact, to resist reunion with the Commonwealth.”
Supreme Chancellor Fane went on to explain the ramifications of a clan compact among the undarian people. According to their culture, a clan compact is sworn by the sixty-four clan heads and is obeyed by every member of that clan. Due to their culture that promotes extreme loyalty to clan members and dictates, Fane concluded, “the entire undarian species is sworn against the prosperity of the Galactic Commonwealth. They have deliberately chosen to become the enemies of our nation.”
In response to the question of possible motives for the undarian people to become hostile to the Commonwealth, Fane stated; “The undarians have always been an isolated, suspicious species. Due to their violent tendencies to attack and kill humans as a food source, their unusual views of death and the importance they place in their own position on the evolutionary food chain, the Galactic Commonwealth has always been prepared for a bloody rebellion. Luckily, new technology has enabled us to neutralize the planet, leaving only manageable pockets of potentially dangerous rebels scattered throughout the Commonwealth systems.”
When asked what technology enabled the neutralizing of an entire planet, Fane made no comment. “Our main concern now is to track down any undarians who may have been given terrorist orders from their clan heads.” He concluded with, “All Commonwealth citizens should be alert, but not alarmed. The government has the situation well in hand.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Sorry about the invasion. I didn't realize they were all just going to…stick around.” Adri leaned against Carter's antique desk. She'd have bet her new ship that the elegant piece of real wood cost more than the cruiser he had lent her.
“Oh, its no trouble. The mo
re the merrier, eh?” Carter smiled at her from his slouch, and then dropped his gaze back to the holoscreen built into the desk surface.
“The more the noisier, at least,” Adri replied. Through the open door she could hear Duane and Floyd still arguing over some mechanical issue that had started less than a minute after Adri had introduced them as new colleagues. In a corner she could see Blair and Freya Tarkubunji huddled, doubtlessly talking about mystical hoodoo and how she was a vat of untapped Adept power. Across from them the Kobane sisters were watching the argument (which was getting louder), and possibly wagering on the outcome. Somewhere in the mansion she knew Gray was huddled over a holoboard with Jericho, on the viewscreen with the Admiralty about staff and resources. Her crew.
The sound of furniture crashing and the Kobane sisters cheering had Adri rolling her eyes. Danwe, were they all going to make it to their objective without killing each other? Putting them aside, she turned to her companion. “Looking over senior staff picks?”
“Nope. Junior officer candidates,” Carter replied morosely.
Adri was surprised. “Why aren't you having your vice captain handle those?”
Carter sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Because my vice captain is in the midst of a personal crisis,”
“Drustin Hamilton?” Adri queried.
“Yeah. His fiancé was injured in a house bombing. Her whole family was killed, and they fear extensive, non-op brain damage. No chance of cyborization. He hasn't left the hospital.”
“I'm sorry to hear that. Who was responsible for the bombing?”
“Well, they arrested Drustin's brother, Darius. He confessed to the bombing, says he was opposed to Drustin's involvement with anti-war activists.”
Adri huffed a breath. “Danwe. That's a vicious way to express displeasure,”
Carter shrugged. “Pity, true. Such a mess. Anyway, I'm worried now that Hamilton will back down as my vice captain. That'll leave me in a bit of a bind.”
“A bit,” Adri replied dryly. “But somehow I think you'll manage. And since I know that you have innumerable underlings that you could shove this off on, tell me why you are dinking around with the junior officer lists? Trying to keep your mind off of something?”
Her friend slouched further in his chair. “What makes you say that?”
“Did Fayded say no?” Adri teased.
Carter scowled. “She's undecided about my offer,”
“Ouch,”
“She'll come around.” He glared fiercely at the wall-mounted viewscreen that was running a news clip. “Did you catch all that news today about the undarians?” he said quickly. “Shocking!”
“Mm,” Adri turned to watch the clip. After the headline segment broke to the planetary weather forecast, she frowned. “You believe all that stuff about the undarians trying to sell out on us?”
Carter stared at her in confusion. “What do you mean? Of course. Although I must say that the supreme chancellor doesn't look very good in high collars. Don't you think?”
“You'd know best.” Adri murmured. She was still frowning.
Two weeks flooded past Adri in a blur of paperwork and meetings. There had been too much to do in the meager twelve days she'd been given to outfit her ship to spare time on her internal problems. Or so she told herself. Whenever Blair approached her, she brushed him off, using her overbearing workload as an excuse. She also used it on Gray, whenever he gently prodded her about what she was holding back. It was lame, and it was cowardly, but Adri was determined her beautiful ship, newly rechristened Elegy, would have a perfect first launch.
Especially because she wasn't sure whether she would get a second one.
When Adri had triumphantly waved the letter of consent to change the ship's name, everyone had asked her why she had picked ‘elegy.’ While she had shrugged it off in front of the crowd, she had privately confessed to Gray, “It's the sound my blood makes when I fight. It… sings an elegy.”
He'd understood.
Now she sat in her captain's chair, with her bridge staff assembled, waiting for the Admiralty's inspectors to complete their final once over. Unlike the previous inspections that had occurred over the past two weeks, this one was an inspection of the crew. It was mostly a formality, since all crew personnel would have been passed through the Admiralty already. It was merely a last check to make sure that no changes had been made to the ship's manifest without the military being informed; a holdover from past decades when smuggling of all sorts had been rampant. It was really no big deal.
Except, of course, that she was smuggling. As well as fabricating. And forging. And possibly outright thieving. Many of her new senior staff had required government credentials they hadn't possessed. The recruitment office had denied the Tarkubunjis’ applications for some very complicated reason that had Adri suspicious, so adjustments had to be made there. More fabricating and falsification that would surely be found out sooner or later.
Not that she was worried about it.
Danwe, were they going to be caught before they even left the planet?
At his position beside her chair, Gray murmured, “It's all going to work out.”
“I sure hope so,” Adri replied, eyeing the chief inspector suspiciously. “All it would take is one well placed question, and we'd be in major trouble.”
“Your crew is loyal,” Gray affirmed. “Nothing is going to go wrong.”
Down in the humacom maintenance lab, Floyd Tarkubunji was frantically repeating the same phrase to himself. “Nothing's going wrong, everything will work out….oh, Danwe…” With the speed of long practice, he continued to unlatch crates of personal gear he had had secretly shipped from his estate.
Beside him, Jericho assisted with removing and storing the equipment in its proper locations. After listening to Floyd mutter for several minutes, he asked, “Are you concerned about something, sir?”
Floyd huffed a breath and rubbed his temples. “Danwe, yes I'm concerned! Here I am, smuggling myself aboard an Advance Force ship under a false name and credentials. I had to steal my own belongings out of my home – which I don't own anymore – because my old boss might very well want to kill me. And if I am found out here, it will be far worse than a mere ‘accident’ when I die. To cap it all off, I've dragged my sister into this whole sordid affair, because I'm afraid that if my problems don't spill off onto her, her own issues will get her killed! Not that she tells me what they are, exactly. Some mystical massacre…so yes, I'm concerned.” The humacom designer looked up at his companion in sudden question. “Are you?”
“Not at all, sir,” Jericho replied, with the smile that had become usual for him.
“Why? If something goes wrong during the inspection, you'll likely be either scrapped or recalled.”
The humacom shook his head. “I don't think anything will go wrong, sir.”
Floyd smiled a little at the confidence Jericho had placed in his tone. “And why do you think that?”
Jericho was silent for a long minute. “I can't explain. But I have utter confidence in the captain's ability to get almost anything she aims for. After all, Gray trusts her.”
[Bridge to Technical Lab,] Gray's voice called.
Floyd touched his new communicator at his ear. [Lab here,]
[All senior staff are assembling on the bridge.]
[I see…I mean, understood. We're on our way.] Floyd turned to Jericho. “Here it goes,”
“Everything appears to be in order,” the chief inspector announced to Adri when the last of his teams announced mission complete. “Although…”
Adri held her breath. This particular inspector was notorious for his dislike of female commanders. It was rumored that he'd once nearly lost his ship because he'd been unwilling to relinquish his post to the female relief officer. Adri had a feeling that he'd been sent to head her final inspection on purpose. The idea that the higher authorities were suspicious of her moves had cold sweat beading down her spine.
“There a
re some senior staff choices that have been brought to our attention that concerns us.”
Danwe. “And what might those concerns be, Chief Inspector?”
“Your choice of vice captain and chief engineer are solid,” the elderly man stated, frowning over his holoboard. “Both men have served in the Advance Force for several years. But as to the rest…”
“All my senior staff have been handpicked because of their unique talents,” Adri cut in. “They are all more than qualified to serve aboard this vessel.” she hoped.
The chief inspector continued to frown. “Be that as it may, your doctor…”
“Is fully certified,” After several hours of hacking and forgery. While Blair probably knew more than a professional surgeon, a government certification was hard to come by on Junus.
“Yes, well,” he coughed delicately into his fist. “You have no second officer, no analysis officer, your vice captain is doubling as your security offcer…”
“Our mission will not take us beyond Commonwealth space. A full staff isn't necessary.”
“Be that as it may, you are using a humacom as your operations officer,”
“Jericho has worked in various positions throughout his career in the Advance Force,” Adri replied. “The operations position is nothing that he can't handle as well as an organic.”
The chief inspector looked doubtful, but finally shrugged. “Unorthodox, especially considering the times. Still…that is your choice, Captain. Lastly, we are quite concerned about your use of civilians aboard this vessel. To use them in minor positions is still contested by the Admiralty Recruitment Office. Therefore, what makes you think that you can use civilians in key positions, Captain?”
Tension settled like a cloak of iron around Adri's shoulders. “With all due respect, sir, I wanted people I can trust, people whose abilities I have witnessed for myself. If those happen to be civilians, then I will hire them. My authority as captain can extend to hiring such personnel.”
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