by Don DeBon
Miles' camera looked towards the window then back to Galina. "You do have any evidence of this."
"I don't, but I am not going to take a chance either." She tapped the intercom. "Gregory, any luck?"
Several pieces of damaged equipment were heard being thrown in the background. "Not yet! I am trying! It is a mess down here."
"Try harder!"
"I have one more thing to try. Hang on." He switched two power lines and bypassed engine three. "Try it now. While engine three still looks functional to me, I bypassed it."
"We have a green light! You did it! Hold on, jumping in fifteen seconds."
The Defiant's engines began to glow brighter as power surged through them. But as Galina's finger hovered over the overdrive controls, her data tab beeped. "A call? Now? What could reach us here?"
"If I may suggest, that is Deven calling to tell you not to leave. His data tab should be in range now even with the storms below throwing off interference," Miles said.
Galina shut down the over drive and Gregory hit the intercom. "Galina! Everything here shut down. I didn't do a thing, honest!"
"I know you didn't. Deven is calling me," she said pulling out her data tab.
"Calling you? On what? The only thing capable of cutting through the storms below us is the Defiant's communication system."
Galina smiled. "And our data tabs if we are close enough." She tapped receive and Deven's face appeared through lines of static.
"Galina!" The audio crackled. "… move we are coming to you. Do you hear me? We are—" The line crackled again. "—to you."
"I hear you Deven, I hear you."
"Good … get … bay … open … come aboard … now."
"Will do." She tapped the intercom. "Gregory did you get that?"
"Yeah I did. I'm heading to the launch bay and see if I can get the doors open."
Galina's face flashed through several layers of static. "We … you. We are … get … doors open." Her face disappeared as the connection cut.
The carrier parked alongside the much larger Defiant. "I am maintaining position," Minerva said. "I have the closest of the fighters to the bay doors prepped and ready for you."
Deven nodded. "Good. Otis, Aleshia, you two stay with Minerva."
Aleshia's eyes went wide. "What? You need me over there."
"I do. But I need you here more with Otis." He closed his eyes and held her hand. Listen, I don't trust Minerva 100% either, and I need you here in case she is acting on an agenda we don't know about. Okay? Aleshia didn't say a word but only nodded. Good.
Deven took a step towards the hatch leading off of the bridge. "Come on Leon, we need to get you aboard."
Leon stood up and grabbed his pack. "Let's go."
They made their way down the ladders and ramps into the launch bay. A Mechand fighter sat near the doors with its running lights glowing. They climbed into the cockpit, but Leon frowned when he saw the controls. "Do you know how to fly one of these?"
"Yes, thankfully they are not that much different from our own. Now where is the starter?"
Leon's eyebrows met. "You're not inspiring confidence here."
Deven laughed. "Only kidding." He taped a button to the right of the control stick between his legs and the power surged through the engines. The small craft lifted off its pad and crept towards the two large door sealing the bay. Lights flashed on either side of the doors as they began to slide away opening to reveal the Defiant's landing bay a short distance from them. Deven eased the fighter out of the carrier's bay and positioned it before the closed doors of the Defiant. After sitting there for several minutes Deven pulled out his data tab and tapped the link to Galina.
"Gregory? What is going on down there? Deven and Leon are waiting to come aboard."
Gregory slammed his hand on the door controls but they refused to budge. "We have debris all around down here, I think some jammed the doors. Let me get back to you."
"Gregory, we don't have time for this. Get whoever you need to help you clear— Gregory? Are you listening to me?" The intercom went dead. "Dang that man! Always wanting to prove himself." Galina's data tab began beeping. "Oh great. Here we go." She picked up the tab and smiled as Deven's face appeared. "Hi Deven, so nice to see you."
"Don't give me that. What's the hold up? We're outside, waiting."
Galina sighed. "We know. Gregory is trying to get the doors open. He thinks some debris has jammed them."
Leon leaned forward from the cramped back seat. "He thinks?"
"I told him to get whoever he needed, but I haven't heard anything since."
Gregory grabbed an anti-grav and stuck it to one of the larger surrounding secondary support beams had fallen against the doors. Hard to see from the other side of the hanger, but when he got closer he saw the problem as plain as day. The beam grunted and remained fast. He increased the power and it levitated up and away with a grinding wheeze. He removed the anti-grav and placed it on a second beam on the opposite side. It didn't look like it was touching, but it was leaning a bit. At this point he wasn't about to take any chances. He pulled the beam straight and repeated the process several more times until he thought all the weight was off of the doors. He ran back to the controls and slammed his fist on the open toggle. The doors grunted, groaned but slowly parted reveling the Mechand fighter waiting outside. With a loud screech, the doors ground to a sudden stop a few feet from allowing the fighter clear passage. "Dang it!" Gregory muttered. He grabbed a parka off of a nearby hook and ran to the doors.
The icy wind blasted through the bay. In a few seconds Gregory could feel his nostril hairs starting to freeze. He reached the doors and found the problem. A small piece of shrapnel had slipped between the doors and into the track. He tried to pull it out but it was wedged in too tight. The anti-gravs wouldn't work here due to the lack of space to attach them. He ran over to a pile of equipment and found a long thin pole used for cleaning the intakes on the trucks. He jammed the pole into the track and pulled with all of his weight. The shrapnel refused to budge. The motion of the doors had jammed it in with the strength of an impact driver.
He had an idea. He grabbed the anti-grav and attached it to the other end of the pole. His fingers, numb from the cold, dropped the controller. He swore and picked it up again, set it to reverse operation and activated it. The ant-grav began to get heavy, increasing its weight as Gregory dialed up the power. The bar curved down under the weight, but the shrapnel began to move. "Come on you piece of junk!" Suddenly the bar snapped in two sending its upper portion, like a missile, at Gregory's head. His numb fingers dropped the remote again and reaching over to pick it up saved his life as the jagged rod impaled itself into the structure above his head.
He examined the doors and found the shrapnel had been pried out of the track a microsecond before the rod snapped. He fell down twice as he ran to the starboard side of the doors and pounded on the open control. The large doors ground open the rest of the way and the fighter entered the bay landing on an empty pad. Gregory slammed his fist on the controls again and they ground shut. When they sealed, he sank to his knees shivering.
Deven popped open the cockpit. "Gregory! Are you all right?"
"Sssss—ooo— ccccold." He fell backwards on the deck.
"He is going into shock," Deven said hopping out of the fighter. "Leon, get down to engineering and see what you can do with the overdrive. We need to get out of here now."
"But Gregory—"
"I will take care of him. Go!"
Leon nodded and left. Deven ran over to Gregory, lifted the man on his shoulders, and made his way to the infirmary.
Galina's voice came through all the intercoms. "Will someone tell me what is going on down there?"
Leon hit the intercom when he reached engineering. "Leon here, Deven is taking Gregory to the infirmary. I will see what I can do with these engines."
Galina blinked. "What happened to Gregory?"
"He was in the bay when it was open and
he got too cold." The intercom clicked off.
"Leon? Leon? Dang him. Here I am trying to run this ship and no one is telling me anything."
Miles' camera focused on her. "You could have asked me."
"Okay, what is going on down there?"
"I am sorry, but my systems are still not at 100% I cannot tell you what happened other than the doors opened more slowly than usual, stopped, opened all the way several minutes later, and closed again."
Galina rolled her eyes. "Fat lot of help you are."
"I can only—"
Galina waved her hand. "Skip it Miles, I don't want to hear it right now."
"Acknowledged."
Deven placed Gregory on one of the beds and activated the cylindrical seal. Metal rounded walls rose up from the edges of the bed to meet in the middle. In a moment Gregory was enclosed from head to toe. Deven punched a few keys and warm liquid began to rush in filling the entire space except for his head. After a few moments the liquid brought his body temperature up to normal and his eyes cracked open. Deven? Where … what happened?"
"You went into shock. You got too cold out there. What did you think you were doing? The controls are accessible from the main booth, you didn't need to be in the hanger itself."
Gregory sighed. "But I did. Debris jammed the doors and it was the only way to get them open fast. There wasn't time for me to put on a full exposure suit."
Deven nodded. "You took a heck of a risk."
"No more than you," Gregory croaked.
"You rest my friend. We'll take it from here. All your readings are in the green now. You will be okay, if you rest."
"Is that … an order?"
"You bet it is."
"Okay … as long … as it is … an … order." He fell asleep the second the words had left his lips.
Deven left the infirmary and ran up to the bridge. He found Galina shouting into the intercom. "Leon! Will you answer me?"
Deven smiled. "Problem?"
Galina jumped. "Oh Deven, good to have you back aboard. How is Gregory?"
"He will be fine. I got him to the infirmary before any permanent damage was done. Now what is the problem?"
"Leon isn't responding to me. I'm trying to find out the status on the engines."
"Why didn't you check on him?"
"I can't leave the bridge."
"I meant, have someone check on him. There are other people aboard you know."
"Oh, right." Galina reached for the intercom but Deven grabbed her hand.
"I will check on him. Send repair crews to the landing bay. The doors need work."
"Along with half of the rest of the ship."
"Well we need those doors to be at 100% pronto. We can't get them open fast enough now during an attack."
"Right, will take care of it," Galina said toggling the intercom.
Deven ran down to engineering and found Leon dragging large cables from one side of engine one to the far side of engine three. "Leon? What's our status?"
"We are a mess! That's our status."
Deven folded his arms. "Could you be more specific."
"Look do you want a report? Or do you want me to get the overdrive up and going?"
"Both."
"Well you get one so choose," he said while jamming the large cable into engine three. "Tell you what, here's a quick summary: overdrive in three minutes, communications in two. Good enough?"
"You bet." Deven eyed the cables, bits of broken conduits and pieces of insulation lying around. "You sure you don't need help?"
"They would only slow me down. If I need help, I will call for it," Leon said as he hustled to the other side of engineering.
Deven turned around and headed back to the bridge. When he got there he saw Galina's scrunched up face as she glared at her console. "What's wrong?"
She looked up. "I was about to call you. We have another blip heading our way."
"Any idea who?"
"I can't tell with our scanners a mess like this. But being no one comes to Antarctica for a vacation, I'm going to guess it is the carrier we tangled with earlier."
Deven nodded. "We have been expecting them. How long until they get here?"
"About seven minutes give or take, at their current speed. Wait a sec, you knew?"
Deven sighed as he sat down hard in his chair. "Yes. We found part of the shielding on engine three is damaged and the Defiant is leaking energy."
Galina's eyes went wide. "What!?"
Deven raised a hand. "Don't worry it is not dangerous, but is enough for someone to track the Defiant if they know what to look for. And being we now know who is in command of that carrier. I am certain he followed you."
Galina blinked. "You know who is commanding that ship? How?"
Deven sat back. "Long story, but short version we have a spy in the World Council, it found the information for us. And I know the commander."
Galina rubbed her temples. "How did we get a spy in the World Council?"
Deven smiled. "We have all along, we just didn't know it until he contacted Minerva. He is a maintenance and cleaning model Mechand."
Galina laughed. "So we have a janitor spy? How cliche'."
Deven shrugged. "Hey, as long as it works."
Leon muttered something as he removed a circuit board from the communications system.
"I am sorry, I did not quite understand what you said," Miles said over the intercom speaker near Leon's head.
"I wasn't talking to you Miles. I was grumbling how much damage they did to my baby."
"Your baby?"
Leon sat down the board, yanked a burned chip and replaced it with a spare. He grabbed the board, got back down on the floor and slid himself under the console. "The Defiant."
There was a pause. "Does that mean I am your 'baby' as well?"
Leon laughed. "No, you are quite different from the Defiant."
"But I am using it as my body."
"Yes, but you are still separate from it. And one day we will put you back in your original body."
"I look forward to being reunited with my body. Although, I do not mind being part of the Defiant. I find the experience fascinating."
"I bet." Leon slipped the circuit board into place. It gave a satisfactory click. "There, try it now."
"Leon, I do not wish to diminish your knowledge, but I have run simulations and I do not think the replaced chip is the root cause of the communications failure."
Leon sighed. "Will you activate it? Or do I have to do it myself?"
"No, I will. Powering main communications system. Failure in the port side relay."
Leon nodded. "Expected, I haven't had time to fix it yet. Reroute all traffic to the other two. They can handle it."
After a short pause Miles' voice again came through the speaker. "It would appear I owe you an apology, the system is online. External communications has been restored."
Leon smiled. "No need." He ran over and slapped the intercom on the wall. "Communications and overdrive is back online. Call Minerva, let her know and let's get out of here. I'm on my way up to the bridge."
On the bridge Deven smiled. "You heard him, plot a course to the other side of the planet." He toggled the communications system and connected to the carrier next to them using the encryption keys he passed before they left. Minerva's face appeared. "Minerva, we are plotting a course. Link your navigation with ours. Send your codes on a sub channel."
She nodded. "Understood."
The screen split and Otis' face appeared. "I'm sure you noticed the Mechand carrier we tangled with before is almost here. They will be launching fighters in less than a minute. It will take at least one to get the link operational."
Deven smiled. "I think I have an idea."
Naud blinked cocked his head as he checked his equipment again. "Sir? We are getting a call for you."
Halburn waved his hand. "Lavine no doubt. It can wait. Prepare to launch all fighters and lock cannons on that carrier. I want it scra
ped."
"No sir, the call is coming from the Defiant. Specifically asking to speak with you."
Commander Halburn turned around. "What? How would they know I am here?"
Naud shrugged his shoulder. "I do not know sir, but they seem to."