“Be that as it may, she should show some respect to the guests,” Tom said, still bristling from her reaction.
The door on the far right opened, a sign on it denoting the entrance as “Staff Only.” The man was smiling, and his left foot dragged on the floor as he came to stand near them. He was short, wearing a white lab coat, his hair sticking up in thin wisps over his ears.
“Welcome. Welcome. I’m so thrilled you could view the archives at Earon Station. Imagine, the crew of the infamous Constantine coming to see me,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
Tom wished Ven was there with them so he could get a read on the man. He had half a mind to send a message to the ship to transport his Ugna officer over here, but he let it be. Ven seemed to be having a difficult time after his resurrection, and Tom didn’t know where to begin guiding him after something so traumatic.
“Thank you for hosting us…” Tom searched for a nametag that wasn’t there.
“Curator Johnson.” His hand darted out in a human greeting, and Tom shook it. “But call me Bob.”
“Okay, Bob. Are you in charge here?” Tom asked.
“I am now. I was recently hired after everything that occurred last month. I come from the largest human museum on Earon. You know… historical items from long before Earon,” Bob said.
“Wait… what does he mean, before Earon?” Tarlen asked, but Tom didn’t want to dive into the long history of his race at that moment.
“We didn’t always live here. This is our second home,” Tom told Tarlen, and his tone kept the kid quiet as they continued. “Bob, where’s the previous curator?”
The man’s eyes shrank, his fingers nervously picking at invisible lint on his jacket. “I heard he was sent to Bolux Nine.”
Great. “If you’d please take Commander Starling and Lieutenant Commander Daak to the staff area, and give them access to everything?”
“I… I’m not sure…” Bob stuttered.
“We have the admirals’ blessing as well as the Prime’s in this case, Bob. You wouldn’t want us to report that you weren’t cooperative, would you?” Tom asked the rattled man, and he smiled again.
“Surely it won’t come to that. I’m more than happy to give you access to all our data. We have nothing to hide, and I think you’ll find our assessment of what transpired accurate on all counts.” Bob led Brax and Treena away, Constantine following behind.
When they were alone in the foyer, Tom directed Nee and Tarlen to the entrance on the left.
A guard stood vigilant, and allowed them passage into the immense structure beyond the doors. Lights snapped on as they walked into the space, and Tom was once again impressed with how grand the station was.
“Time passes, technology advances, but the heart of the Concord remains through the ages.” Nee whispered the Code saying as they walked toward the first waiting vessel.
The warehouse housed over one hundred decommissioned crafts from the entire history of the Concord. Each of the Founders’ initial concept demos was present, along with various cruisers, warships, transport shuttles, and suborbital dropships. Tom wondered if the ceiling heights would be able to accommodate something like Constantine, or if they’d have to expand the structure to fit the new style of flagships one day.
Hopefully, his ship was decades away from being decommissioned, since it had only just begun to fulfill its purpose. As they walked down the space between the dozens of immense cruise ships, Tom wondered how many vessels hadn’t made it to retirement. How many Concord fleet personnel had been killed while on duty? From what he could recall, only one vessel out of five had served for fifty years at the beginning of the Concord era, but that number had flipped to four out of five before the Statu War.
From here, the vessels were gargantuan, and Tom tried not to consider how massive the archives were to house so many of these relics.
“Are they still operational?” Tarlen asked.
“I guess they must be, if Keen was able to get four of them working.”
Nee appeared pensive, and Tom asked him to speak his mind. “That, or Keen had a great engineering team. You saw how advanced some of their modifications were, and they made the changes in a very short period of time.”
“Could you imagine if someone broke in and took all one hundred vessels?” Tarlen asked.
“That’s why they now have patrol drones surrounding the entire station, and every single serious decision has to be approved by Chairperson Tess Longshade,” Tom advised.
“The human woman that took over for Harris?” Tarlen would have met her briefly on Nolix, and Tom nodded. He had a meeting arranged with her while on Earon, and he was looking forward to the encounter. From his brief interactions with the woman, he sensed she was a strong leader with ideologies that aligned with his own.
They continued to walk, and Nee remained quiet, thoughtful even, his mind likely on something else.
“This is incredible.” Tarlen’s voice was small, and Tom watched the skinny Bacal teenager walk over to an old Callalay cruiser, setting his hand on the landing gear that had been added to accommodate the bulbous ship.
“That’s Metaz. She was the second ever…”
____________
Treena was already growing tired of the runaround. It was clear Brax was as well. He rubbed his temples as they interviewed the man across the table. He was a heavyset human, his gaze darted over them when he was asked questions, and she had no idea why this man still worked here.
“How was it possible that no one noticed they were gone?” Brax asked Kenneth.
“Those four vessels had been pulled from the museum a year ago and were being cleaned and turned into showpieces for the Archives,” Kenneth said.
“And no one questioned this?” Treena asked.
“That’s right. It happened on occasion. Go check the museum. Lots of those ships have been tweaked to be more inviting for children and school trips.” Kenneth looked petrified.
“You’re telling me that this Curator Peters was working with the Assembly, and he managed to help them sneak out four cruise ships without anyone noticing? Where’s the footage from those dates?” Brax asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Peters sent us home for a break. He said the facility was under attack by vermin brought in from a recent shipment from Reepa, and we believed him,” Kenneth said.
Treena slid a tablet to Brax and tapped the upper corner. “That checks out. They had three days off for fumigation forty-three days ago.”
Brax waved the man away. “You’re free to leave.”
Kenneth wasted no time in departing. He almost knocked his chair over as he escaped the coffee room.
“It might be as simple as Peters being the sole culprit. Where did he go during that time? If they really fumigated, then he couldn’t have stayed,” Brax said.
Constantine appeared beside the table and smiled. “I found him. Peters was on Earon, in a city called Aris. His transport arrived six hours after this facility was shut down, and he returned three days later. It checks out.”
“Peters had to be in on it, right?” Treena asked the chief of security.
“He was with the Assembly, for sure. It says here he was hired five years prior, meaning they’d been planning this coup for quite some time. There were no complaints against him in that time, and from what I can see, he was hard-working. The staff was shocked by the allegations, but they usually are in a case like this. He was probably charming and affable, a boss you could ask to help you move and he’d show up with takeout.” Brax pushed back from his seat, and Treena saw the tension on the man’s face.
“This doesn’t tell us how they did it, but the footage from those three days is suspect, Commander.” Constantine played a video from a tablet connected to his Link. It showed nothing out of the ordinary. “I searched this stream within the last five years and found it matched identically with a series of days from over three years prior. He cut and pasted it in, adding in the sec
tion with the fumigation vessel coming from Earon.”
“This is it! Great work, Con. Now we just need to find out where he stayed while in Aris, and we might find a correlation to a local Assembly faction here on Earon,” Brax said.
Treena agreed, and they set plans to investigate while on the human home planet the next day. Of course, Treena had another task to complete before she could go traipsing around searching for cells of the terror group. She needed to convince her mother to care for a traitor’s four-year-old daughter.
They lingered for another few hours, going over the full list of details, and eventually, she checked to see if the captain was finished with his tour of the decommissioned ships and archives.
He replied, asking her to meet them inside near Andron, and she relayed this to Brax, who acted relieved to be finished in the cramped workers’ break room.
Ten minutes later, Treena and Brax approached the familiar ship they’d helped return only yesterday, and found Thomas Baldwin talking to Tarlen and Nee, his hands waving around as he spoke about the time his grandfather outwitted an overzealous smuggling ring near the Border on the far side of Concord space.
Treena loved to see the captain so enthralled with a subject, and she watched from a distance, not wanting to interrupt his story. Tarlen was seated on the end of a staircase running to the entrance of Andron, and Nee was standing with his arms at his sides, laughing along as Tom spoke.
When it was over, Tom noticed them and motioned them over. “Good. You’re here. What did you learn?”
“We think it was Curator Peters, likely alone. We have a lead, and are going to investigate it while on Earon,” Brax told the captain, and Thomas nodded, his smile vanishing.
“Very well. Great work, team. If that’s settled, I’d like you all to remain in uniform. We’re having a formal introduction to the crew of Shu tonight, and Captain Bouchard and I are hosting it,” Tom said.
Treena had seen the way the two captains had watched each other last night, and she’d heard the rumors about the woman. She didn’t think Thomas was the only man to fall for her wiles, but it was none of her business. All that mattered to Treena was whether they could trust the woman with their lives.
“Great. This should be fun,” Brax muttered.
“What happened between your sister and this Cedric?” Treena asked quietly.
“You’ll have to ask her.”
____________
“And you’re positive we’re correct?” Reeve asked. Yephion and Zolin, the engineer from Ulia, were on their way to Earon, and they were finally close enough for live communications.
“It’s unknown why we had the data misconstrued, but you’ve repaired it. We’re confident you and your team have fixed the issue,” Zolin said, his cheeks turning pink. It wasn’t often the man had been wrong in his life, and Reeve took no pleasure in correcting his calculations. She hadn’t even been the one to catch the error – it had been Harry – and she was proud of her crew member.
“Then we’ll test it when you’re here. Two days?” Reeve asked.
“Two days,” Zolin replied. Yephion, the Statu, was behind him, watching the screen over the man’s shoulder, and the image flashed black, the communication ended.
“Does this mean our respite on a beach has been cut short?” Harry asked, and she nodded.
“It appears so. I’m sorry.”
Harry peered up from the screen, red lines streaked over the whites of his eyes. He’d been at this as long as her, and she wanted nothing more than to head to bed.
Constantine materialized near the Star Drive and nabbed her attention. “Hello, Executive Lieutenant Daak,” he said.
“Whatever you do, don’t tell me I can’t go to bed.” She stretched as she walked over to him.
“You can’t go to bed.”
Reeve bit back a sarcastic retort. “What is it?”
“Dinner onboard Shu. Be prepared to leave in an hour.” Constantine disappeared, and Harry responded with a sympathetic nod.
“Fine. At least one of us can relax tonight,” she told him, and Harry followed Reeve to the elevators. He continued on to his quarters, while she headed to the cafeteria for a pick-me-up. It was quiet on their ship, with most of the crew utilizing the station’s many facilities.
Reeve found a ServoBot behind the cafeteria counter, and she ordered a hot cup of Raca, opting for the high-caffeine beverage over a normal coffee. The human drink was powerful but not as good in a pinch. She saw her reflection in a screen and fidgeted with her hair. She looked terrible.
Reeve hurried to her quarters, peeling off her uniform. It wasn’t often she went without wearing it. Ever since she’d been posted on a real Concord cruise ship crew, she’d donned the clothing with pride at all opportunities. She tossed it in the hamper and pulled a fresh set from her closet.
After twenty minutes, she was in the outfit once again, and checking herself out in a mirror. She pouted her lips and forced a smile. “What in the Vastness are you doing?” she asked herself. “He’s an idiot. Not worth your time.” Cedric had once been nothing more than a distraction, and she was in too deep now to let him be one again.
Still, she added a few shades of makeup, something she rarely cared to do, and made sure her hair was tied behind her shoulders. It had grown out just enough to do this, and it showed her usually hidden ears. Cedric had always liked her hair like that…
She pulled the tie loose, the hair falling into its normal place, and she smiled at her reflection.
Reeve met the others in the hangar right on time, and she was relieved to see Ven standing among the rest of the executive crew. He’d been so off since returning, and it was good to find him somewhere other than the bridge or his suite.
“What have you been up to?” she asked her brother.
“A little sleuthing at the archives. And you?” She noticed Brax had shaved his head for the occasion, opting for some oil on his pate.
“You’ll see in two days,” she whispered to him, and the captain turned to face the crew.
“I want this to go well tonight. These days, it’s rare to find a cruise ship where we don’t recognize someone from our past or have longstanding disputes between crews, but these are trying times. The Concord is stuck in a delicate position, and we’re going to battle with these people very soon.” He glanced at Reeve, and she gave him a knowing nod. He seemed to acknowledge the message she was passing about the wormhole being nearly ready.
“Yin Shu was my captain for years, and you’re aware of what she did to sacrifice herself and Cecilia. Let’s honor her tonight by being class acts and really exemplifying what it means to be the executive team of Constantine, all right?” Tom sealed his lips together in a final gesture, and they agreed in unison.
“Good. Let’s head over there now. They’re expecting us.” Tom was the first to arrive at the transport in the corridor outside their cruise ship, and Reeve was about to enter ahead of Tom when he stopped her.
“I heard that the team is travelling to Earon for a test?” he asked.
“That’s right.”
“Have you heard from the Prime or the admiral?” Tom asked.
“No. I haven’t been in touch with either of them… is this something I should be worried about?” she asked, seeing a distant look in his eyes.
“Nothing like that. I was only curious to see if they were in the office on Nolix. I’m sure she’ll respond soon.” Tom smiled, letting Reeve board the transport. He hated waiting so long for a response about Luci from the admiral, but he had no choice but to learn patience in the matter.
Eleven
Shu’s restaurant was much the same as the fancy eat-in dining hall on Constantine, with the exception that it primarily served cuisine from the Far Moons. The food was spicy, the drinks cold, and the company warm. Tom watched as the two crews intermingled, the Shu officers welcoming his people with open arms.
He noted that Reeve sat as far as possible from Shu’s Tekol, and tha
t Brax glared at the man a few times, but as the courses were eaten and the libations partaken of, any tension from earlier in the night melted off their shoulders.
The room’s décor was full of bright, colorful designs, created to mimic the Far Moons’ over-the-top attitudes. They were places for the Concord’s elite to vacation, and Tom had been lucky enough to visit the Moons twice in his life. Constantine had always hated the gaudy architecture, but Tom adored it, if only for the mindset it placed him in.
“Enjoying yourself?” Rene Bouchard asked from behind him, and he gestured to the empty seat beside his. Ven was across the room, talking with Shu’s chief of security, a small but sturdy Callalay woman.
Rene took the offered chair and set a hand on his arm. “Baldwin, who would have thought you and I would be leading the charge to fight the bastards we thought were annihilated five decades ago?” She blew an errant hair from her face, and he gripped his Vina with his left hand, swirling it in the glass.
“What I struggle to believe is how they kept this quiet for so long. Imagine that on your conscience.” Tom guessed it pained the previous Prime Phan to no end, but he didn’t blame her as much as he blamed Admiral Keen, Lark’s grandfather. He’d been the one to order the entire cover-up, and had bribed or disposed of the crew of Andron.
“I can’t imagine it, Baldwin, but we didn’t live through that. I suppose you’re the closest thing to a War survivor now, aren’t you? How did it feel when you first saw them?” Rene asked. Her red hair was neatly braided, and the end hung over her left shoulder.
“It didn’t seem real. We were sent to Greblok on a diplomatic mission.” He laughed. “I could barely recall my own executive crew’s names; that’s how fresh we were.”
“It could have ended badly,” she said.
“That’s right, but we pulled through, got the job done, and…”
“Now we have to return to finish what you started,” she said.
Baldwin's Legacy: The Complete Series Page 69