Path to Europa

by Garion Swann

  "What happened?" Alex shouted from the Captain's chair which he had now returned to.

  "Our port and central engines are gone, overloaded!" Grey said, "We've lost part of our aft port quarter."

  "How many?" Alex asked. Grey knew precisely what he was talking about.

  "We haven't got a final number yet, but three confirmed dead seven are missing, they were probably in the sections that depressurised," Grey said glumly.

  Alex cursed again, "Any sign of pursuit?" He asked.

  "None yet, but they could be tracking the jump," Grant replied.

  "Okay, Grant, Jenny, plot random jumps, but eventually get us here," he marked a point on their maps. They both got to work, and Alex made his way to the aft of the bridge, Grey was walking off the bridge.

  "Grey, what's the damage?" He asked.

  "Systems are out all over the ship, the engine overload saw to that. A power surge has blown out consoles all over, we're down a beam cannon that overloaded and caused more surges, I'm down a lot of engineering staff, and half of the engineering is inaccessible, and I can't hear in my left ear!"

  "Is that all?" Alex asked in jest, as soon as he said it he knew it wasn't right. Grey gave him a look saying just that. "Sorry," Alex said, "Prioritise systems that get us into a dock,"

  "Aye," Grey said walking away. Alex sighed and turned back to look at the bridge, he saw his crew working the damaged bridge well, he was proud of the crew, they stuck with the ship even after running into Lady Jean and had served well.

  He looked around the bridge, the helm and ops console had fared well, behind them the Captain's and XO's chair were both undamaged. Towards the edges of the bridge though was another story, scorch marks from panels that had exploded covered most the walls, he noticed the security console was no longer there, if he had still been standing there when it blew he would most certainly be dead. Alex felt the ship jump again, jumps were easily tracked if the residual energy of the jump is scanned quickly, doing lots of small hops will hopefully mean the Lady Jean will lose their trail. He planned to do a lot of small jumps and then one large jump to the heaviest populated area he could find. What's the point of taking risks he thought to himself, he may as well go back to in system hauling, that is what this ship was initially designed for. There would be a nice in system defence force, Lady Jean even if she did find him probably would not risk a battle with a system defence force, she would do something more covert. He was letting her get inside his head, he was paranoid enough. He had a potential saboteur on board as well which he kept forgetting about, he needed to investigate that. Once repairs were underway, he would have to look at that. The ship jumped again, and Alex sat down in the Captain's chair, he looked over status reports and stopped on the list of confirmed dead. Some of the missing crew had been found, but a total of six had died, he scrolled through the names, there was only one he knew and had spoken to before, but most he wouldn't be able to point them out in a room. What sort of a Captain doesn't know his crew? He didn't, he is a very closed person who wouldn't usually place himself in the ship's social structure, a downfall of his. That is something he wanted to change.

  Chapter Two

  "Trulen Family Station," Doctor Tamber announced, she was standing towards the front of the bridge watching out of the window. The ship had arrived at its destination, one of busiest commerce ports in the galaxy. She'd come up to give her report on sickbay to Alex. "It's been a long time since I was here."

  "You've been here before?" Dylan asked.

  "Many years ago, aboard a courier vessel, I stayed here for a few nights while our ship was refitted. One of the best few days of my life," Doctor Tamber said as she smiled to herself, "I wonder," she said not to anyone but more of a question to herself. She turned away and quickly headed to the exit.

  "Doctor?" Alex said.

  "Uh huh?" The Doctor said stopping before the door, Alex could tell she had fixated on something, she seemed peeved to be stopped.

  "The report?" Alex said reminding her. She had forgotten all about the report when her mind wandered onto chasing happiness from a long time ago, that could wait though.

  "Ah yes, sorry Captain," She replied moving closer to the Captain. "Sickbay was undamaged this time thankfully, I have seven patients in at the moment. I discharged three earlier today. Six more can be discharged within twenty-four hours, one of which will be off duty for at least three days, he took a nasty blow to the head, and I want him rested. I have one patient who is seriously injured, one of the panels exploded while he was working on it, he's lucky to be alive. He is also the reason I wanted to give this report in person, I can't treat him, I have the expertise but not the equipment, I've stabilised him for now, but he needs a station's medical facility. The Trulen's will have it," she said pointed to the large station on the viewscreen.

  "Okay, I'll ask them when I go aboard, can you forward me all the information you can," Alex replied.

  The Doctor nodded and practically leapt off the bridge with the excitement of a young school girl.

  "What's got into her?" Dylan asked, from his tone he sounded like he disapproved, as usual.

  "I guess she has fond memories of this place," Alex said looking at him, "On another note, we need to repair the ship with no money," Alex said bringing up his accounts. Grey had estimated the ship to cost several million credits to repair, and Alex has just less than a million.

  "We're in comms range, Captain," Grant said.

  "Thank you, tune us in." The sound of the comms came over the speakers, there was a conversation already happening. Station control had just granted docking access for a passenger liner. Alex waited for a few seconds of silence then started transmitting.

  "Trulen control, this is the Michelangelo, requesting repair and commerce dock," Alex said.

  "Michelangelo, that's affirmative, docking bay seven-two-seven has been assigned to you, and we are sending it to your navigation. You've got a lot of damage!" The controller finished.

  "You don't say!" Dylan said under his breath. Alex shot him a look.

  "Pirates decided they liked us a little much," Alex responded to the controller.

  "Understood Michelangelo, do you require any assistance."

  "Medical transport for one stable patient," he asked.

  "Understood Michelangelo, the medical team are on their way, safe docking."

  Another ship started transmitting, and Alex turned the volume down, so it was only background noise in case the Michelangelo was contacted again, Grant had the comms in his ears as well if needed.

  "Have you got the docking bay, Jenny," Alex asked.

  "Aye, eta three minutes," she responded not taking her eyes off her console or the screen

  "Excellent, you know what to do."

  Doctor Tamber has been the first at the airlock when the Michelangelo had made a connection, she waited gleefully as the airlock made the seal and the green light came on to say it was safe to open the airlock. She had contacted someone she knew from last time she was aboard. They had shared a few days together, meeting in a bar this man was working at and connected instantly, it didn't take long before she was back in his apartment and the pair had not left there most of the time she was aboard the station. It was her one regret in life she wished she had stayed, she could have been a Doctor aboard Trulen station, but she was fixated with the ship she was on at the time, and couldn't face leaving it. She left Trulen station promising that if she ever returned she would contact him, that was thirty-six years ago. He had responded immediately and said he would be waiting at the airlock, it was very surreal, they'd both had whole lives since they last seen each other.

  The airlock opened to reveal him standing there, he was taller than she remembered, but it was him.

  "As beautiful as the day I met you," was the first thing he said.

  "Shut it you, I'm old grey and wrinkly. If I am as good looking as I was then I'm afraid something is very wrong with your eyesight," she said smiling. They em
braced each other, and it felt exactly the same, Doctor Tamber was truly happy. Eventually, they let go of each other and just laughed.

  "It's good to see you," she said looking into his eyes.

  "You too, I can't believe it's been thirty-six years. You'll have to tell me everything" he said.

  "Yes and you too," she said, "but first, to Martin's Bar?" They'd first met at Martin's bar, and she could only just remember what it looked like.

  "You mean Jamie's bar," he said smugly.

  "You bought the bar!" she said excitedly, he had talked about his plans to start running his own bars when they last met.

  "I bought a lot of bars," he said happily.

  "I'm happy for you," she said smiling at him, "Come on then, Jamie's bar it is!"

  Alex was surprised when he saw Doctor Tamber wandering off with a gentleman, they seemed to know each other well. She'd left one of the nurses to oversee to the transfer of Gerard the patient that needed the station's medical facilities, he knew that would cost him. Alex left the ship and checked the map the station automatically downloaded to his comms device, he saw that the station was a circular design with each segment of the circle having its own amenities and a segment clerk who acted on behalf of station management. He made his way over to the Clerk's office, he noted that a sign on the door that said they deal with all queries except commerce as that was centralised, as it should be he thought. The Clerk's office was basic and quiet, Alex was thankful there was only one person ahead of him in the queue, and they hadn't spent long, so he was able to talk to the Clerk very fast.

  "Ship name," the Clerk said without any sign of emotion.

  "Um, the Michelangelo," Alex replied.

  "Extensive repair work, do you have a report ready or do you require our engineers to inspect your ship, this will incur a twenty-five thousand credit fee." The Clerk sounded like a robot.

  "No thank you, here's the report,"

  The clerk scanned the report, and the computer automatically read it and generated a price. The clerk read it over to check for issues.

  "Total cost is five million, seven hundred and twenty thousand credits."

  "What are the finance options?" Alex asked as he could not afford it, no way near.

  "Please review," The Clerk said handing him a device with all the options on it. This Clark really needs to learn some customer service Alex thought to himself. He'd met some Captains like this when he worked on Europa.

  The options given were good, not ideal though. The first would be the Trulen family buying Alex out of a part of his ship, this meant they'd have a share of the say in what happens to the ship. Alex would be the Captain but he wouldn't have control, every contract Alex wanted to accept would need to go through the Trulen family for approval as a shareholder in the vessel, they would also get a share if the profits. The second option was similar but with one or multiple private investors.

  Another option was a private investor who would offer a total buyout of the ship, the Michelangelo would no longer be Alex's but he would remain as Captain but would run under another company.

  "Ok, this option," Alex said pointing to the last option which was a simple loan from the Trulen Family, it was a fairer interest rate than most loans he had seen, but it was still a loan.

  "Confirm here," the clerk said. Alex scanned his identification and gave his thumbprint.

  "Stand by," The clerk said as he typed away at his computer. He was most likely running a check on Alex and the Michelangelo.

  "Approved, work will start on your vessel within the hour."

  "Thank you," Alex turned away and signed, a loan was not the worse thing to happen, but it wasn't good. He'd have to put money aside to pay it off. Alex left the Clerk's office and looked around, the segment he was in was definitely not in the wealthy part of the station, there was no decoration, just metal bulkheads and deck plating. There were plenty of shops, he could see some of his crew had departed the ship to look around, Dylan would have sorted out shifts, so there's always a skeleton crew aboard. The engineering crew would also remain aboard to repair the ship. Alex looked to his map and found what he was looking for, Commerce control was in one of the central segments, he made his way to the station's internal transport system. They were small capsules, some for one person, some for multiple people. They had what looked like rails above which they were attached to, it was designed so capsules could overtake one another so there would not be a delay when one capsule stopped to let people off. Alex stepped into a single occupant capsule, he couldn't see any controls, he looked around to figure out how to control it but was at a loss. That was until it spoke to him,

  "Destination?" the automated voice asked making Alex jump.

  "Commerce Control," as soon as he was finished the capsule accelerated rapidly.

  "Commerce Control, estimated journey time three minutes." The automated voice announced.

  "Thank you," Alex said instinctively.

  "You are welcome!" Alex was not expecting a response but smiled.

  Grey cursed as he watched some station engineers attach some new hull plating.

  "What's up, Boss?" Tina asked.

  "I don't trust those damn station jocks," he said aggressively.

  "Aye," Tina said, "But they've got the big toys, and we haven't." She said knowing it would wind the Chief Engineer up.

  Grey grumbled and walked away to his office, his engineering crew we're working hard getting the ship fixed. He did admit with the stations help the job would go much quicker, it would take days for his crew to replace each section of hull plating, whereas the station could do a section in less than an hour. Grey sat down at his desk and turned on his workstation, he brought up camera feeds and looked through them all. He had set up discreet cameras up everywhere he could, if anyone wanted to sabotage this ship again he would hopefully know, he'd also made it so it would detect movement. He wished he'd done this the last time he thought about it. If he had it would have made it much easier to find out who had sabotaged the fuel tank. The Captain said he was going to look into it, but a lot was going on at the moment, so Grey doubted that he had started, that was worrying as there could be a saboteur loose on the ship.

  No motion had been detected on certain cameras that Grey had marked for him to look at more often, these were places that people would not need to be or have limited access. He would make a full inspection of the ship himself once repair work was complete. It got to him as the damage done to the ship was done in his section, under his watch, although the Captain or crew hadn't said anything he was sure they'd be thinking it.

  Grey turned to the reports he had to read through, he'd asked for regular reports from both his own staff and the station's engineers. He regretted that decision a little bit as he had numerous reports that were the perfect cure for insomnia. Grey sighed and started reading through them, Crewman Rhodes had put new circuitry into various sections, Jenkins had placed new panels along corridors leading to the damaged parts of the ship. McGiver had installed a new toilet to the engineer's rest area and apparently claimed first usage rights. Grey chuckled when he read 'give it ten minutes'. McGiver was the one person who always had a smile on his face, he was always cracking jokes and never let anyone stay sad, he was an asset to the ship just for the morale boost he brought and was a brilliant engineer as well. Grey carried on reading through the reports signing the work off as he goes. He stopped at one report which was for a section of the ship that had had no damage reported, he read the engineer's notes aloud.

  "Panel to cabling and piping access at D2S12-32, deck two, section twelve sub section thirty-two." Grey pondered for a moment, "Why would that panel be missing," he spoke to himself. He would need to take a look, there was no reason why that panel would be missing. A quick search through the ship's maintenance logs showed no previous maintenance in that section. Grey downloaded the report to his pad and left his office.

  "So come on then, tell me. Who's been the lucky ladies in the last
few decades then!" Doctor Tamber asked of Jamie, she'd cleared the rest of the day and tomorrow off as unpaid leave with the Captain, so she'd had a little bit to drink, she certainly wasn't going to pass up the offer of free drinks.

  "No one, I waited all these years for you," he said sarcastically.

  "Bullshit! C'mon cough it up" she said laughing.

  "I've been married," Jamie replied.

  "Ooo, interesting, very interesting,"

  "Twice," Jamie said. Doctor Tamber was a little surprised.

  "Been married?" she asked.

  "One divorce and the other passed away about a year ago,"

  "Oh Jamie, I'm so sorry," She said, she could also clearly see the complete change in his body language. This had hit him hard, "Tell me about her," she asked.

  "Evelyn was her name, she worked in the law enforcement here. She was brilliant, everyone she talked to loved her, she was the person that people went to when they needed something. People found her approachable which is somewhat rare for law enforcement. She would fight for what she believed was right. Oh she once was asked for help when management was closing a shop down, there was no apparent reason, she fought it and got turned down at every turn, so she just marched straight into the office of Ashley Trulen himself, the stations owner and explained everything he respected her for going to him, and he looked into it. Turned out a middle manager somewhere had a brother who was trying to monopolise and this small family shop was a competitor so tried to close it down, he got fired and charged. When she told the family, they were so thankful. She was amazing, she really was." Doctor Tamber could see he was holding back tears. He continued, "There was a trading ship docked, and they were very impatient and causing issues with the Clerk, she was the first on the scene, and the crew of the trader wouldn't listen, she ordered them back to her ship, and they shot her, straight in the head. Her backup arrived seconds later, it would have taken a few more seconds, and she might not have been shot, the person who pulled the trigger was shot and killed, the rest of the crew were kicked off the station, and the ship was seized. Ashley Trulen attended her funeral and made a speech about good people, and how to galaxy needed more good people like Evelyn." The tears couldn't be held back any longer, and the broke through.