by M. D. Cooper
* * * * *
“Doesn’t it seem suspicious,” Thompson said as he picked an apple from the fruit basket, tossed it in the air and then took a bite, “that the captain just happens to have the right tools at exactly the right time to get the job done?”
“What do you mean?” Cheeky said after she had set her plate down at the table and popped a strawberry into her mouth. “These will never get old. Nothing on the Intrepid is worth as much as the fact that they have the only strawberry plants in the universe.”
“Do you ever think of anything other than sex and food?” Thompson asked.
“Of course I do. You haven’t died in a space accident, so I suppose I must think of piloting from time to time.”
“Touché.” Nance grinned at Thompson.
“So, what do you mean about the captain?” Cheeky asked.
“I dunno, seems like some things are just a bit too tidy. Like, who has the plans to outfit a ship the size of the Intrepid with grav shields. Do any of you even have the slightest idea how to build a graviton emitter?”
Sabrina offered.
“Besides you,” Thompson said.
“Would you have been able to just whip out the plans for an FTL and grav shield system for a ship like the Intrepid?” Thompson asked.
Sabrina gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.
“Exactly my point. No one has a need for those specs. There aren’t any ships this big. No ships, thus no specs for things non-existent ships would have,” Thompson said.
“What was bigger?” Nance asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Cheeky asked. “Sera had plans for grav systems for a ship twice the size of the Intrepid? You sure there aren’t ships that big?” she asked Thompson.
“Not that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been around,” Thompson replied. “Worked on an ore hauler or two that are larger, but those don’t go FTL—they can’t, based on what we all thought we knew. Trust me, if the AST could make bigger warships, they would. Intrepid’s the biggest interstellar ship there is.”
No one spoke and Cheeky grabbed a few more strawberries.
“You know,” Nance said eventually, “I overheard Sera say on more than one occasion that the Intrepid was the most valuable available ship in known space. I wonder what she meant by that.”
“Combine that with the fact that she just happened to know how to get a hold of the FGT,” Thompson added. “How did she pull that off?”
“Probably with whatever she has in her quarters that need that massive power line she has run up there,” Nance said.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Thompson said, his cheeks reddening slightly.
“It’s able to handle a lot more load than yours,” Nance gave a coy smile, which caused Thompson’s blush to deepen. “And for the first time since I’ve been on the ship, it actually made a draw from the reactor.”
“When?” Cheeky asked around a strawberry.
“A few days ago,” Nance said. “It shifted the base frequency in our mains and I had a pump go all squirrely.”
“Around when she was supposedly sending a message to the FGT?” Thompson said.
“Well, she had to transmit it somehow,” Cheeky shrugged. “Good to know she actually did it.”
“You’re missing the point,” Thompson said.
“You have a point?” Cheeky responded with a lewd gesture and was surprised to see Nance blush before darting her eyes to Thompson. Cheeky passed Nance an impressed look.
Thompson missed the exchange of expressions. “Haven’t you been listening? She contacted the FGT with her super-secret radio! No one contacts the FGT. If it weren’t for newly terraformed planets showing up every now and then, no one would even believe they still existed.”
“Okay, so you’ve got a point,” Cheeky grinned. “But we’ve always know that Sera is a little more than just some freighter captain.”
“We have?” Thompson’s expression skewed from anger to confusion.
“Yeah, I mean, there was that time that she got the Pavnan government to pardon her on what should have been murder charges, and then grant her the license to export their rare blue diamonds,” Cheeky said.
“And the time that she refused to pay ‘protection’ money on that station out in the Targes Dominion, then ended up discovering systemic corruption through the entire station and exposed the whole thing,” Nance added.
“Didn’t she get a commendation from the planetary government for that?” Cheeky asked.
“That I remember,” Thompson said.
“And don’t forget about Helen,” Cheeky continued and Sabrina made an affirmative sound.
“What do you mean?” Nance asked.
“You and Thompson may not have noticed ’cause you don’t work with Helen very much, but she is super evolved. A lot more than any other AI on this ship,” Cheeky said.
“Hey!” Sabrina said audibly.
“I hate to say it, Sabrina, but you know it’s true,” Cheeky said.
Sabrina replied sullenly.
“Even smarter than Angela?” Nance asked.
“Is anyone seeing the nav points here?” Cheeky asked.
Everyone gave her blank looks and then Nance’s eyes began to widen. “No, it can’t be. They severed all contact with the rest of humanity.”
“Maybe they haven’t,” Cheeky said with a hint of smugness as she took a bite of a large strawberry. “It all adds up. She took a way bigger interest in Tanis than made sense—you said so, too, that night when…” Cheeky stopped for a moment. “When I was helping you with that thing. Anyways, we should have just given her a ride. Instead, we head out to Bollam’s World and dive right into a war. Not that I really mind; taking out The Mark was awesome. On top of that, she whips out plans for stuff no one has ever seen before and contacts the FGT. What else could it be?”
“Very little else,” Flaherty said from the doorway.
“We uh…we were just…” Cheeky stammered as everyone in the galley shifted uncomfortably.
Flaherty moved silently to the counter where he poured himself a cup of coffee, his back to the three silent crewmembers around the table. Once he had finished adding condiments and stirring carefully, he turned to face them.
“So you think that Sera is from the FGT? A freighter captain from the FGT?” Flaherty asked.
“She’s not your usual freighter captain,” Nance said. “There are some discrepancies.”
Flaherty nodded. “A few, yeah. She can hold secrets pretty well, but when she doesn’t really want to, they tend to slip out.”
�
�It’s not my place to say such things,” Flaherty replied.
Nance looked angry, her brown eyes sparking. “If she is, then she has a lot to answer for. We’ve been little puppets in her schemes while she risks our lives for god knows what!”
“You all knew the risk when you signed up,” Flaherty replied calmly.
“Like hell we did,” Thompson said. “I don’t remember anyone telling me that we’d be hurling ourselves into other ships.”
“Not specifically, no. No one can predict the exact course of the future, but she did inform all of you that this was not a regular freighter, that we would be doing things that didn’t make sense, and that there would be a lot of danger involved.”
“Yeah, but this is different.”
“Is it?” Flaherty asked. “If Sera were FGT, do you know how dangerous that knowledge would be? What if someone let it slip?” He let that sink in as they all contemplated the value and danger of that knowledge. “Not that I am confirming, nor denying it. I am just promoting rational thought.”
“What’s all the noise in here?” Cargo asked. “I could hear you guys hollering all the way up on the bridge and Sabrina seems upset about something.”
Cheeky cast an accusing glance at Flaherty. “We’re discussing whether or not Sera is FGT.”
Cargo walked over to the table and picked up a strawberry. “Oh, that.”
“What do you mean ‘oh, that’?” Nance asked. “She’s been lying to us this whole time.”
“Not telling you her life story is lying?” Cargo asked around his mouthful of strawberry. “I don’t recall her ever lying about her past. She just never talks about it.”
“So when did she tell you?” Cheeky asked. “How long have you been keeping this from us?”
“She never told me. I figured it out on my own about two months ago.”
“Just how did you manage that?” Thompson asked.
“She was talking with Tanis on the bridge. They had the holo showing the Intrepid from Tanis’s Link. Tanis asked if it would be possible to get a ship that large to transition to FTL and Sera said that she had heard of bigger ships managing it.”
“What ships are bigger that can go FTL?” Cheeky asked.
“Exactly,” Cargo said. “I thought about that long and hard and came up with just one answer: FGT worldships. They are the only thing I could dig up that were larger than the Intrepid. I’ve never known Sera to lie, so I assumed that the FGT was the only possible answer.”
“And you didn’t share it with the rest of us?” Cheeky asked. “Why would you keep that to yourself?”
“Because Sera didn’t want it known, and I respect her too much to go sharing her secrets without her permission. Besides,” Cargo continued after a moment, “that’s some pretty dangerous knowledge.”
The strawberries were all gone from the basket so he grabbed one from Cheeky’s plate, before continuing under her glare. “It’s also possible she has some personal reason for not sharing, as well. God knows I have enough stuff in my past that I don’t want to talk about. I bet she has her share, as well.”
“I appreciate your consideration,” Sera said from the entrance to the room. “Sorry for barging in on your discussion like this, but Sabrina reached out to Helen and I.”
Sera stepped into the room, revealing Tanis standing behind her.
“What is she doing here?” Thompson asked. “This is crew business.”
“Tanis was crew on this ship for almost four months,” Sera replied. “She also saved my life; and this is my ship, after all.”
Thompson sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. He looked like he was going to speak for a moment, but then thought better of it.
“Does she already know, too?” Nance asked. “Are we the last to know?”
Sera took a deep breath. “She does know; I told her and Captain Andrews about it a few days ago—although, in my defense, Bob had already figured it all out and was going to tell them if I didn’t.”
“I already figured it out, too,” Cargo said with a smile from behind his cup of coffee.”
“So how come Flaherty knows?” Cheeky asked. “I’ve been on this ship almost as long as he has.”
“Because I was born on an FGT worldship, just like the captain,” Flaherty grunted. “Kinda hard to unknow that.”
“Oh,” Cheeky replied and sat back. “I guess we’re all just a bunch of stooges, then.”
“You lied to us,” Nance accused.
“I…I don’t think I lied. I just didn’t share.” Sera’s knuckles were white as she gripped the back of a chair. She took a breath before continuing. “I didn’t leave the FGT on what you could call good terms. I displayed a little more of my classic attitude than they were prepared to accept and it…” She swallowed deeply. “It caused some problems. I left the FGT and tried to fix what I’d broken. My recklessness had lost something valuable that Kade eventually got hold of. It’s why I started smuggling, to find what I’d lost and eventually get it back.”
“So that’s why you got so focused on just working with Kade after a while,” Cargo said with a nod.
“Yes, though that is done now. I recovered the device from The Mark’s station before I destroyed it. When we meet with the FGT, I will return it to them and my exile will be over—I…I don’t know if they’ll let me stay with you.”
“What do you mean?” Cheeky’s anger had lessened, though there was still a hint of it behind her eyes.
“What will happen to us?” Thompson asked at the same time. “We’re just going to be left high and dry?”
Sera forced a smile. “If. If I am forced. I may be able to squeeze my way out of their grasp. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.” She looked to Flaherty, who nodded.
“You don’t have to come along to the rendezvous,” Tanis said. “I’m sure that whether you’re there or not, they will still work with us and give us a colony.”
“I imagine so,” Sera replied. “But they’ll treat you more fairly with me there. I know who they’re likely…” Sera stopped, tears welling in her eyes. She took a deep breath and brought herself under control. “If I end up going with them, the ship is yours, Cargo.” She nodded to her first mate. “Or, if you all decide that you’ve had enough of me and what I’ve put you through, you can separate. Drop out of the dark layer while we are in transit. I won’t stop you from either course of action.”
No one spoke for several moments; everyone appeared to be giving deep consideration to what their captain had said.
“I know you don’t want my opinion…”
“Correct, we really don’t,” Thompson responded.
Tanis turned her gaze to Thompson and held his eyes until he looked away. “Sera has worked tirelessly to make the galaxy a safer place, she’s put her life on the line to help a lot of people. She’s one of the good ones and I’d stick by her, were I you.”
“Keep things tight,” Sera said to them all. “If this goes badly, we may never have to worry about what will happen when we meet the FGT.”
AURORA
STELLAR DATE: 11.03.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Approaching Aurora (12Mj Jovian)
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
The atmosphere was tense on the bridge as Tanis and Sera entered.
“Our friends have arrived,” Captain Andrews said from beside the main holo tank.
The display of the Bollam’s World system was expanded to show their destination, the planet Aurora; the Intrepid, still three hours away; and the newly arrived AST fleet.
It was even larger and more intimidating than expected.
One hundred and twenty dreadnaughts, and over five-hundred cruisers were highlighted on the holo display. The AST ships were spread out, h
aving arrived at half a dozen jump points. Based on their velocity, only a quarter of their fleet would arrive while the Intrepid was filling its tanks at Aurora.
“That’s a lot of ships,” Sera whispered.
“You can say that again,” Tanis said.
“That’s a—” Sera stopped when Tanis shot her a look.
“Thoughts?” Captain Andrews asked as Tanis took up her place beside him.
“It really comes down to whether or not they got the message about our picotech. If they did, I imagine they will exercise some caution.”
Sera chuckled. “You can bet that if they didn’t hear they’re still going to be cautious—given how there is no sign of the eleven dreadnaughts they sent ahead—not to mention the debris of half the Boller fleet.”
Tanis nodded. “It would make me think twice about rushing in.”
“Maintain course,” the captain directed helm. “We’ll see how this plays out.”
* * * * *
The Intrepid’s leadership stood around the holo tank, Tanis with her arm around Joe’s waist while his was around her shoulders. Across from her, Ouri scowled at the display of Aurora, while Brandt and Jessica whispered about the chance of a fight with the new AST fleet.
Terrance and Captain Andrews were also speaking—though more optimistically about the elections they would hold upon arrival at their colony world. Admiral Sanderson was discussing fighter design with Sera and Amanda, the trio growing increasingly animated over small details and improvements to the Arc-6s
An alert sounded and the holo showed the Intrepid closing within ten-thousand kilometers of Aurora’s surface. As though a switch had been flipped, the disparate conversations ceased. All eyes fixed upon the display before them.
The gas giant’s unnatural existence meant that it didn’t possess atmospheric strata typical for a planet of its size. To capture enough deuterium and lithium-7 to fill the Intrepid’s tanks, the colony ship would have to drop below the planet’s upper clouds for its scoop to reach the denser layers below.