And then there were the weapons.
None were visible, bar the mining laser below the nose and the fore torpedo launcher that was poorly disguised as a vent, but I could see that there were closed retractable doors along the bottom of the wings and assumed that there would be more atop the craft as well.
“What in the Hells did you people do to this girl?” I asked, making no attempt to hide how happy I was as I walked around the Frankenstein-ien craft.
“Just made her more suited to your people’s needs. Course, as I said, you’re more than welcome to strip her down to the barebones and try again.”
“I don’t see myself doing that.” I said with a little laugh, the idea of touching so much as a single panel on it seemed almost sacrileges to me.
“Can I have a look inside?” I asked as I turned to face the silently admiring Garrett.
He shrugged, “I can’t see any reason why not. Kell! Open ‘er up!”
A loud hiss went off and the outline of a semicircle appeared below and to the left of the wing, the section inside the outline sliding to the right as a set of stairs wide enough for two people side-by-side lowered from the opening and to the ground, “It’s a bit small.” I said as I approached it thinking about what kind of stuff we’d have to transport.
Garrett chuckled, “Is a bit. Don’t worry though, I’m sure you guys’ll be able to kit it out. I once saw a Turtle like this that’s entire floor lowered for cargo pick-up.”
As we started up the stairs I noted his slightly sombre tone, “What happened to it?”
Garrett shrugged, “The crew thought it was a good idea to pick up some Benetzian buffalo and… well, you know the phrase ‘bull in a China shop’? Like that, but bloodier, bigger explosion too.”
I’d missed the last of what he said, I was completely mesmerised from the moment I reached the top of the stairs and could look around. I felt like I was in the belly of a whale or, un-ironically, a turtle’s shell with the way the walls curved from the flat base all the way to the top of the ten foot high level above us and onto the next.
“This is your cargo area,” Garrett said as the door closed behind me, “bit barren now, but I’m sure you’ll change that soon enough. Over there,” he said, pointing toward the back of the ship where a set of hard-glass double doors sat against a wall, whatever they opened to shrouded in darkness, “is where you’ll find the engine room, where I’m guessin’ Jurol’s gonna be spendin’ most of his time when he’s not on the bridge. And on the opposite side we’ve got the elevator to the next floor, or do you wanna keep lookin’ around the big empty cargo bay a while?”
To be honest, I kinda did, but I also wanted to see the rest of the ship, “Let’s keep moving.” I said without looking at Garrett as I started walking toward the elevator.
The lift moved pretty quickly, and as soon as the doors opened I was left even more awestruck than I was before.
From where I was it was clear that the shiny exterior had been abandoned at the door, an old and stained, three-person brown couch that sat on one side of the sizable cabin we were in the centre of caught my eye, its back to a large black wall that appeared to be part of a room similar to a newspaper editor’s office in the far right corner.
“I figured you’d appreciate that,” Garrett said as he caught me staring at it, “basically you’ve got yourself an ‘open-living’ apartment on this second level.” he pointed over to the left side of the ‘studio’ which had six other rooms that were slightly smaller and sat side-by-side from the back end of the ship to the front end, “That’s where you’ll find the crew-quarters, basic single bunk, shelf, that sort of stuff. And the bigger one? That’s yours, it’s a bit more… extravagant. It’s also got all your stuff in it, brought it ‘ere with me.”
Garrett continued to spin around, pointing out the handsome kitchen-dining room area in the front right corner, and the two sets of stairs that sat sideways against the front and back walls, the front one arcing over the elevator we’d just come from. They led to the infirmary and ‘mission control’ floor above us which, in turn, led to the bridge.
Those things were all incredibly interesting, don’t get me wrong, and I definitely wanted to see the floor above us, but what I really wanted to do was sit on that couch.
I crossed the room toward it and missed Garrett trailing off as he decided to follow me right as I flopped down on it, hearing something creak under my weight and smiling. Something about that weary couch made me feel a whole lot less out of place, like I was home.
I don’t know if it was the musty yet comforting smell or simply the fact that it was, unlike everything else associated with the military lifestyle, free to be old. It hadn’t been updated of fixed. It hadn’t been fitted with some fancy new gadget or device.
The couch simply was.
Another of the many reasons why I felt the Commonwealth had to win the war, things could stay more or less the same, something that I was sure the Feddies couldn’t stand for a second.
Finally, after trying to get a read on whether it was alright with me or not for a few seconds, Garrett sat down next to me and sighed, “If you accept this ship and the role it comes with you don’t exist, at least until after the war ends, you get that? Your family won’t be told of your status, and if you so much as do or say anything that could be classified as leaking info your ship will ‘malfunction’ and you’ll be warped into the nearest star.”
I nodded as I shuffled deeper into the couch, and was able to shed the minor upset caused by Garrett going on to the official side of things, “Yes, I get it,” I said somewhat scornfully before realising that it would be an opportune time to ask some questions, “What about when we’re doing a registered op though? What do we say to the officer in charge?”
“Nothing,” he said as he rested his head against the couch and tilted his head upward with his eyes closed, “when they see you, they’ll either know what you are or the Commonwealth will have handled your identities.”
I ignored the fact that he seemed about ready to take a nap and pressed on, “Right. And what do we tell the others we take jobs from? Merchants, smugglers, that sort of thing. I mean… I assume we’ll be taking different work.”
Garrett smiled but kept his eyes closed, “Good assumption. You and your crew are all fairly capable,” he said proudly, his jovial self gleaning through, “I’m sure you can falsify some records. There’re a few ID printers on the black market that’ll get the job done too. Just punch in a name and rank and it’ll get you somethin’ that’ll open doors for you.”
“I’ve seen the cards made using unofficial printers, a blind recruit could tell their fake from a mile away.”
“I ain’t talking about some junkie whose got access to a photo lab, I’m talking about something that’ll set you back half a mil’, and score you a hanging if you’re caught with it.” Garrett paused and sighed, “You know you don’t have to do this, right? You can still just go into officers training and get stationed anywhere you want.”
“Why would I do that?” I asked with a confused frown.
“Because you’re the third person I’ve ‘never’ met, and you’re the first one who hasn’t just been an idiot savant about following orders and killing. This program will change you. The high brass will send you on mission’s you won’t like and you’ll have to do things that you never thought you were capable of, including things like what happened back on Seros.”
I knew he was talking about the punch, and I really wanted to know how I was still given clearance to get what I was receiving, but at the same time I felt like it was one of those things that were best left unspoken.
“I know you’re worried Garrett but-”
He laughed weakly, “But you’re gonna do what you gotta do.” he stopped and looked down at his feet, “You’re the second best soldier I’ve met, no doubt about it, but you’re also one of the few who has the compassion to make a difference. I just hope that that’ll work here.”
<
br /> We sat in silence for a while before I nodded, “I won’t let you down.”
Garrett beamed for a moment, “See to it that you don’t Kurls,” his face, though still maintaining some of its smile, fell serious as he pulled my pistol from his pocket and held it out to me, “you’ll be needing this. Welcome to the Spectre Program.”
Hide It From the Crew
Jurol spun happily in his new pilot’s chair as Xario and I watched on from the opposite side of the bridge after looking over the nav-computer that was, in a word, brilliant.
The bridge was rather spacious compared to the past few ships I’d been on. Granted, those ones were all mostly shuttlecraft designed to get us from point A to point B with zero alteration, but still, the space I was in was impressive in not only size, but also capability.
Full autopilot mapping, room for a co-pilot next to the nav-computer on the left wall, and in the nose there appeared to be a jettison pod that, in an emergency, would close off from the rest of the ship and have enough room for at least six people.
“How did you manage to swing this?” Jurol asked mid-spin.
“Perks of the job I guess,” I said with a smile, “Garrett filled you in on the whole ‘Spectre Program’ thing, yeah?”
He stopped and shrugged, “Yeah, sort of. We do the missions that the Commonwealth can’t afford to be associated with, right?”
I nodded, “Pretty much, I’m guessing we’ll work on other missions with soldiers though.”
“It’s funny that,” Xario said with a chuckle, “we’ve got so much more freedom, but at the same time we’re so much more responsible. We have to get ourselves to where we need to go.”
“I don’t see how that’s a problem though, Jurol’s the best damn pilot I’ve ever seen.”
“Thank you, but I get what Xario’s saying. Life’s probably going to be a bit unstructured for us from here on out.”
I hadn’t thought about that, mostly I was just excited to be calling the shots on my very own ship, but they were completely right. Without an officer telling us when to eat, when to sleep, and when to train, there was no guarantee beyond our own sense of responsibility that we’d get it done.
I’d seen the same sort of thing happen when I was still the sheriff back at home, criminals who just kept coming back because they didn’t know how to live life outside the system.
“Ah, don’t worry ‘bout that Daniels,” Garrett said as he came through the bridge’s door with Juno close behind, “you’ve got one of the best team leaders in the ‘verse with you. How’s the name suitin’ you Captain Xiao?”
“Good sir.” I said with a goofy little smile.
“Uh-buh-buh, no more of that sir crap. Everyone here on this boat outranks me now. Well, you do and you don’t. Point is you don’t have to call anyone sir ever again.”
I didn’t know whether to feel happy or uncomfortable with that notion, the fact that we lived outside the bindings of Commonwealth rank would have its perks of course, but at the same time I felt awfully detached from the war in that sense.
“Anyway, I’ve got a job for you. There’s a city, place called Urbetes, on Kaltjarna, and apparently it’s military, clear violation of the Treaty as you’re all well aware. We’re gonna get this ol’ bir-”
“Alby,” Jurol clarified, “his name is Alby.”
“… Alright, yeah, we’re gonna get Alby here onto a frigate where you’ll all be given bombers and coordinates. Alby’ll probably be dispatched and ordered to land somewhere nearby so you’ll be free to go after all’s said and done.” he said, looking around at everyone before letting his attention fall solely on me, “Can I borrow you for a second Captain?”
“Of course,” I said after a second’s delay of me not realising he was referring to me, then followed him out of the bridge and waiting for the door to shut, “what’s going on?”
“The mission,” he said sternly, “I think you should know that even though most of ‘em are military, a lot of the people down there are as good as civies, children, workers, they’re all soldiers in one way or another, but most haven’t ever seen a fight.”
I felt a little bit sick that the Commonwealth was bombing children, but at the same time I had to believe there was a reason, “Why’re you telling me this?”
“Because you deserve to know. Last thing I need is you finding out at some other point down the line and realisin’ that I lied to you.” he said before making an effort to put on a somewhat reassuring, “Most’ll get outta there before you arrive though, someone managed to leak some information not too long ago. So… there’s that.”
I tried to be grateful, but we both knew that knowing there were civies down there changed things.
I had my mission though and, as I said before, I had to believe that there was a reason, “Guess we’d better get ready for a fight then.”
Garrett smiled weakly and gave me a respectful nod, “I’ll let the Captain of the Gregor know you’re ready to go. See you around Kurls.”
“Yeah,” I said as I turned around and opened up the bridge’s door, trying to decide what I did and didn’t share with my crew, “see you around.”
Bombing Run
I’d decided not to tell them, immediately regretting it afterward but holding my tongue nevertheless. That was the kind of captain I wanted to be, the kind that told her crew what they needed to hear and nothing more, leaving the responsibility of their actions on her shoulders.
I also decided that I would stop referring to myself in the third person in order to try and detach myself from situations that I felt were uncomfortable.
Neither of those decisions stuck.
We were mere minutes from our objective when I finally hit the little orange button next to my radar and waited for the ‘bing’ that indicated the channel was encrypted, “Initiate bombing run.” I said as I prepped my own ship’s bomb-bay doors.
I knew that what the Feddies were doing wasn’t exactly over the table, but it didn’t matter how many times I told myself that, it didn’t make me feel any better.
I was too busy looking out over the city I was about to wipe off the map to notice Jurol’s comm-light flash green three times, which made it all the more surprising when he started speaking, “There aren’t any kids down there or anything, right?”
I felt bad having the truth and not sharing it with my crew before take-off, and what made it worse was that that was the second time he’d asked, and it was the second time I’d had to lie, “No-”
“Yeah, yeah there are Jurol,” Juno said bitterly without waiting for the encryption to kick in, “and we’re about to wipe them off the map.”
I hit my button again and waited, “Either encrypt your channel or stow it Juno.”
“What, you worried the families down there will hear us?” she snapped.
I gave up on the encryption wait time and barked “Get in line soldier, or I’ll blow you out of the sky myself.”
“I’ve got her in my line of fire, just say the word.” Xario said coldly from his ship, the only one that wasn’t loaded with bombs and instead with a front mounted cannon that he could use to clip and not kill anyone who tried to get us killed which, in that case, was Juno.
Even still, it was out of character for sure, he wasn’t exactly the type to threaten us, but I knew that it came from a place of not wanting all of us to die.
“So you’re going to shoot me out of the sky Xario? Really?”
“I will if you don’t shut up.”
“Great, so you’ll break your rule about not killing for me but not for the people on the ground? Real class act there Xario.”
“I won’t kill you, I’ll just make it so gravity does it for me.”
Jurol’s light flashed again, “Hey guys, what’s that ligh-” an explosion that shook all of our ships stopped him midsentence, “Hells! They’ve seen us!”
“Ya think!?” Juno growled, clearly her love for the Feddies was a one way relationship.
&
nbsp; “Commence bombing run!”
We all dropped our bombs at the exact same time, and were right about to pull away when one of the Feddies on the ground got a lucky shot off, blasting right next to the back of my ship and effectively ruining my ability to pilot it and causing me to go nose first toward the forest.
I pulled up as hard as I could, activating every retro thruster and chute the tiny bomber had on it, “Fall back to Alby!” I ordered over the comms after swallowing a tracker I’d pulled from the dispenser beside my seat, “And don’t come back to the cit-” I was silenced as my bomber started skipping off the side of a mountain, my harsh angle the only thing stopping me from hitting it nose first.
I held onto the straps across my chest for dear life and the electronics all throughout the ship faltered and died as I ploughed through trees and dirt at an uncomfortably high speed. Eventually I reached a lip that, thanks to my momentum, made me go about thirty feet in the air before forcing me to come down sideways, meaning I got to enjoy the rest of the Hell-Ride rolling down the mountain for a good five seconds, finally stopping abruptly at the edge of a cliff.
Like an idiot, I thought it was done, but no, instead it rolled another ten feet back in the other direction into a cave. I was proven to be an idiot a second time after that as an explosion on the exterior rattling everything inside and out of the ship, and then a final third time when the interior behind me started to heat up.
It was a rough night.
Karma
Even though the fires had been put out by the ship’s automated systems, the air around me had still managed to get a bit too warm for comfort, the filtration system having been automatically set to the what I liked to call ‘vacuum setting’ after assuming I was trapped in space.
It seemed that I had two options, stay in the ship and hope the others came to get me, or go out and try and find my own way off world so they could find me later.
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