by Ryk Brown
“Who did you have in mind?”
Nathan raised his head to look at her, a slight smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
Cameron suddenly realized his intent, sitting up straight in shock. “Oh, get serious.”
“You’re the most qualified person I know, Cam.”
“I’m the only person you know, except for Vladimir. And there’s no way I’m letting him become XO.”
“Then you’ll do it?”
“On one condition. I get to object whenever I want.”
“Like I could stop you?” he smiled.
Cameron smiled back. “Not in a million years,” she laughed.
“Then it’s a deal?” Nathan held out his hand to shake on it.
“Yeah,” she reluctantly agreed, taking his hand. “It’s a deal.”
“Great. Besides, I need Vlad in engineering anyway.”
“You’re an ass,” she exclaimed, tossing his hand aside.
“Well, since you’re XO now, I guess it falls on you to determine the condition of our ship and her crew. Feel free to grab whoever you need to help.”
“Yes Sir,” she answered, mocking a salute.
“But don’t be gone too long, I need to go down to medical and get my leg treated. And I want to go by engineering to see how Vlad is doing with our guests.”
“I can pretty much do everything from here,” she offered, feeling a bit guilty that she had forgotten that he was wounded and had probably been in pain the entire time. “If you prefer, you could go now?”
“Thanks, no. I just want to rest for a few minutes first. Besides, maybe you should at least take a quick break, get off the bridge, stretch your legs a bit.”
“I could use a trip to the head,” she admitted. Nathan could tell that she too welcomed even a short respite. Cameron stood up to leave. “I think I’ll do a quick walk around the main decks, get a feel for the general condition of things,” she decided. “I shouldn’t be too long, maybe an hour.”
“See if you can rustle me up some water, will ya?” he smiled.
“I’ll see what I can find,” she promised as she walked past. She felt herself instinctively about to place her hand on his shoulder, as a show of bonding and support as she passed, but stopped short of doing so. She still wasn’t sure how all of this was going to play out, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable giving him her full support just yet. Less than a week ago, they had been competing for the same spot at the helm. Had she gotten that position, it would’ve been her sitting in the command chair instead of Nathan Scott.
“Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan asked as he rose and stepped over to her station, “I know you’ve had a difficult day, probably more so than the rest of us. I just want you to know that I am very sorry about your father.”
“Thank you, Captain.” In all the commotion over the last few hours, she had not been given any time to mourn his passing. “I appreciate your concern. But I’ll be alright.” She paused for a moment before continuing, gathering her thoughts. “You know, ever since my mother died, this project was all that he had.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. I didn’t know.”
“Please, call me Abigail,” she insisted. “Anyway, it was more than ten years ago.” She looked away from Nathan, her eyes welling up again despite her best efforts. “That’s why I joined this project. If I hadn’t, I probably would never have seen him. It consumed his every waking moment.” She wiped her eyes, a smile breaking through the sorrow as she looked up at Nathan. “He said that this technology would ‘change everything’.”
“At least he got to see it work for himself before he died,” Nathan offered.
Abigail just nodded, still trying to keep her emotions under control. “Funny thing is, I knew this project would kill him. But I always assumed he would work himself to death, in his lab.”
Nathan felt guilty for imposing upon her during such a difficult time, but he needed the skills that only she could provide. “Listen, Abigail, I hate to ask you for anything else. I mean, you’ve already saved our butts twice today. But I need to know what kind of condition your systems are in. I need to know what I can count on this ‘Hyperluminal Translator Thingy’ to do for us.” Nathan flashed the same smile that usually got him out of trouble with his mother.
“Just go ahead and call it a ‘Jump Drive’,” she conceded.
“You see? It is easier,” he bragged. “Anyway, maybe later you could fill me in on how this thing works, and what we can, and more importantly cannot do with it.”
“Yes, of course,” she agreed, nodding her head up and down several times as she sniffed. “Whatever needs to be done.”
“Great, thanks Abigail.” Nathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he turned toward the port entrance, where Jessica had just entered.
“Sir,” Jessica greeted him as she approached. “Now that all of the rebel ships have left, I have nothing left to guard. Marak and his two guys are still working in engineering, and I’ve got a couple guys watching Marak’s ship. So I came up here to see what I could do.”
Nathan had known that Jessica was strong the first night he had met her. But he had been more than impressed at how she had handled herself over the last few hours. More than anyone, she had met every challenge thrown at her head-on, without hesitation. More importantly, she had demonstrated excellent instincts. And that was something that you were born with-a lesson he had learned from Captain Roberts. Nathan had always been good at sizing people up quickly. That was a talent he had inherited from his father. And he knew that Jessica was someone he needed in his corner.
“In Special Operations school, they not only teach you about specialized combat and tactics, right? They also teach you about things like intelligence gathering and security, stuff like that?”
“Yes Sir. Spec-Ops are trained to go covert, to gather intel, hit hardened targets and the like. So it also requires a detailed understanding of security.” Jessica could go on about her highly specialized training for hours, as it was a great source of pride for her. But it suddenly occurred to her that there was probably a reason for his question. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m going to need someone to handle ship’s security, at least temporarily. I’ve got enough to think about, and you seem to have a knack for this sort of thing.”
“I appreciate the offer, Sir. But I’m not sure I’m ready,” she protested.
“More so than any of us,” he pointed out. “So, you’ll take the job?”
Jessica smiled at the idea of the extra responsibility. Even if it was only temporary, it would still look great on her service record.
“Yes Sir. Thank you, Sir,” she said as she snapped a salute.
“Great,” he exclaimed, returning her salute half-heartedly. “Then I’ve got a job for you,” he explained, gesturing to her to follow him.
They walked over to Jalea, who was helping Ensign Yosef try to figure out where they were in relation to Earth. It was turning out to be considerably more difficult than expected.
“Excuse me, Ensign,” Nathan apologized. “But we need to borrow Jalea for awhile.” Ensign Yosef nodded and returned to her work as Nathan led Jalea away, heading toward the back of the room.
“What may I do for you, Captain?” Nathan noticed that Jalea’s pronunciation was getting a little better, as was her syntax. He had a feeling that she had spoken the language quite well at some point in her life, and that it would not be long before she became fluent once again.
“Earlier, you said that it would take some time for a message to get here? What did you mean by that?”
“When you escaped, the Takarans would send message to all ships. All ships must look for you, near them.”
“And it would take a couple of days for a message to reach the ships that are here, in this system.”
“Yes,” she confirmed, nodding.
“How the hell can they get messages between systems that fast?” Jessica was shocked at the news. If true, it created a new
tactical twist that she would have to pay close attention to in the future.
“They have some sort of communications relay, a drone or a ship maybe. Apparently it can go over a hundred times the speed of light,” Nathan explained. “I was hoping you could learn a bit more about that, and anything else you can.”
“When message arrives, ships will look here first,” Jalea interrupted.
“Yeah, so would we,” Jessica agreed.
“Listen, Jalea, would you mind if Jessica asked you some more questions? We could really use some more information about the Takarans, the rebellion, and this whole system,” he explained. “It would really help us a lot.”
“Please, I must check with Marak on this,” she told him, pulling her communicator from her belt.
“Of course.”
Nathan and Jessica took a few steps away, moving closer to the entrance to the captain’s ready room to give Jalea a moment to confer with her commander.
“If they can get messages between systems within days instead of months or years, that gives them quite an advantage. Especially if these people cannot,” Jessica explained.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he agreed.
“I wonder what else they have?” Jessica added.
“Captain?” Jalea had finished conferring with her commander. “Marak says I can do this, mostly. But some questions, maybe I cannot answer.”
“I think she means there are some things she is not allowed to tell us,” Jessica mumbled.
“Yeah, I got that,” he answered. “That should be fine,” he assured Jalea as he led her into the ready room. “I’m sure anything you can tell us will be very helpful. Let’s go in here where we can talk more privately,” he added, motioning her to follow Jessica into the ready room. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Jalea followed Jessica into the captain’s ready room, as Nathan stepped over to the temporary communications station that had been configured at the port auxiliary station just in front of the port exit. “Ensign, connect me to engineering, please.” A moment later, Vladimir’s voice came bellowing across the comm speaker.
“Yes! Bridge, go ahead!”
“Vlad, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve only got twenty-four hours to get this ship ready for combat.”
“I’ll do my best, Nathan!” Whatever else Vladimir said after that was unintelligible to Nathan, as it was mostly in Russian. But Nathan was sure it wasn’t for polite company.
“I don’t think he’s happy,” Nathan decided.
“No, sir,” the ensign handling the communications station agreed.
The first thing that Nathan noticed as he walked into medical was that it was less chaotic. It was still full of patients, and there were still at least a dozen non-medical personnel helping to care for the wounded. But everyone had a place to recuperate and all appeared to be receiving proper care.
There had only been two doctors, two nurses, and one medical technologist on staff when they had departed Earth. For a crew of only one hundred, it had been more than enough. And unlike many other parts of the ship, the Aurora’s medical facility had been completed and fully stocked prior to departure.
Every member of the crew had basic emergency medical training while at the academy. Nathan himself had completed the course in his first year, but had never cared much for the simulations. He had always felt the requirement unnecessary. Every ship in the fleet had top-notch medical facilities and staff, a necessary luxury for ships that routinely spent several years away from home.
Despite it being less chaotic, the main treatment room was still a mess. There were bloody bandages and linens piled in every corner, and the floors were stained nearly everywhere you looked. There were even blood splatters across some of the walls where some of the more serious injuries had probably been treated. But those that were not directly involved in patient care were trying to help out by cleaning up the room as best they could. Nathan even noticed one of the civilian scientists from Doctor Sorenson’s team, the same one that he had helped in the corridor earlier, following people around with a data pad as she frantically tried to keep notes on every patient’s treatment for their medical records. It made Nathan feel good about the people on this ship. When everything fell apart, they had all come together to try and pull through, as a team. He couldn’t help but wonder if all the people of Earth would behave in the same fashion, should the Jung invade their home.
As Nathan made his way across the main treatment area, he could feel the stares of his shipmates. At first, it made him uncomfortable, as he didn’t understand why they were all looking at him. Then he realized that they were staring at him, because he was wearing captain’s bars on his collar. The very same bars that Captain Roberts had bestowed on him earlier in this very room, just before he surrendered to his injuries. These people were no longer his shipmates, Nathan realized. They were his crew. And they would be looking to him to get them out of this mess-to get them home.
A wave of nausea began to wash over him once more, and Nathan tried to quicken his pace without looking too obvious. Was it all the blood splattered about the room that was making him ill? Or was it simply the sudden realization of the enormity of his new responsibilities? Unable to think clearly, he headed for the same utility room where he had heaved up his breakfast an hour ago. At least in there, no one would be staring at him.
Nathan again found himself hunched over the sink. Luckily, he had nothing left in his stomach to expel. But he still felt dizzy, and he definitely did not want to go back out there and face all those stares again. He had only just graduated the academy three weeks ago. And his command simulation scores had barely been passable. It had only been his natural instinct for flying that had landed him the helmsman position on the Aurora. And even then only by the grace of Captain Roberts, who for some strange reason saw potential in him. But what if he was wrong?
“Some captain,” he mumbled to himself.
“What’s that?”
Nathan turned to look behind him. Doctor Chen was sitting in the corner, just like the last time he had been in this room.
“Doctor Chen, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Nathan joked. “People will start to talk.” He flashed the same school boy smile again, only this time it was a little less charming and a bit more forced.
“You finally decide to let me take care of your leg?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Hop up on the counter,” she instructed, rising from her stool and coming toward him. “Let me take a look.”
Nathan used his good leg and both arms to boost himself up to sit on the counter, turning slightly to give her a better angle to his injured left calf. Doctor Chen was a little cleaner than before. She had changed out of her blood stained uniform and was wearing surgical attire. But despite her clean outfit, she still appeared emotionally exhausted.
“I noticed there’s fewer patients here now,” Nathan commented as she began to examine his leg.
“Yeah, well some of them didn’t make it.” She looked up at him, realizing that he hadn’t considered that possibility, as guilt washed over his face. “I’m sorry, that was a rather insensitive of me.” There was expediency in her manner as she cut away his torn pant leg in order to expose his wound. Nathan imagined that she had done this many times this morning. “Actually, a lot of them did make it,” she continued. “I sent the walking wounded back to their quarters to recuperate. A couple of the marines that survived were rated as combat medics, so I’ve got them running around keeping an eye on them for me. They can contact me through the comms over the med channels if they need something.”
“That’s pretty good thinking, Doc.”
“Not really,” she admitted as she finished applying the bandages that would cover his wound while the bonding agents worked their magic. “It’s standard disaster management. I learned it during my internship. Frees up beds for the more serious cases.”
“Any word on Doctor Thomas?”
“Still missing,” she told him as she finished his bandage.
“Well, I guess that makes you chief of medical for now.”
Doctor Chen said nothing in response as she finished bandaging his leg. Nathan could feel the tension, and knew it had been brought on by his last statement.
“Doc, you okay?”
Doctor Chen just looked at him for a moment. “No, I’m not,” she admitted. “I’m not okay. And I’m sure as hell not ready to be in charge. I’m only three weeks into my residency! I barely know what I’m doing half the time!”
“Hey, come on,” he urged, trying to reassure her. “Look at me? I’ve only been at the helm for a little over a week! And I’m suddenly the captain?”
“You don’t understand. All those people out there? They expect me to save them. Me.”
“Yeah, I saw those people out there, Doc. And you know what? I’m the one who got them injured in the first place! They’re out there because of what I did, because of the decisions I made! You wanna trade places?”
She stared at him again, finally asking, “Hand me the pneumo-ject from the cabinet behind you.”
“The what?”
She shook her head, a slight chuckle in her voice as she reached behind him to get the device herself. “You wanna trade?” she mocked as she loaded the pneumatic syringe. “I’ll do it, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?” he asked, cringing as she injected the medication into his leg.
“Promise me it’s only temporary.”
“No problem,” he assured. “The minute we return I’m sure they’ll replace us all with more experienced officers.”
“Good, because I don’t want to be in charge any longer than I have to.”
Nathan wanted to tell her that he felt exactly the same way. But he had no idea where they were, or how long it would take them to get home. And the last thing the crew needed was to know that their captain didn’t want to be in command.