Path to Europa

by Garion Swann

  "Thank you, Captain, with your permission I'd like to get started."

  "Of course, if you need anything come to Jenny, the XO, or me," Alex said as Nuisance stood up, Alex definitely found her attractive, but reminded himself of his position.

  "Thank you," she said as she left. Alex leant back into his chair and closed his eyes to gather his thoughts.

  Jenny checked the second screen she had installed next to the pilot's console, it gave her the overview she needed to perform her XO duties.

  "Cleared to amber, bring the sublight engines online," Jenny ordered.

  "Sublight is coming on now," Grey said from the engineering console. Alex had entered the bridge but stayed back to watch.

  "Increasing power to sublight, we're accelerating. Precharge jump drive for," she paused to check their destination, "Lumens Station."

  "Aye, jump plotted, charging now," Grant replied.

  Doctor Tamber entered the bridge and immediately heard that Jenny had command, she looked at the Captain's chair to see it empty, she looked around the bridge to find someone who was not busy to ask about the Captain's whereabouts, whilst looking around the bridge she noted the Captain standing at the back of the bridge observing. She walked over to him, she knew he had seen her on station with Jamie and wondered if he would say anything. She had seen Jamie once more since they had eaten at The Italian. It all felt normal and at home with him, and it had helped her come to the decision she wanted to inform the Captain of.

  "Enjoying the view?" she asked as she approached Alex.

  "Having a good XO allows me to be a little lazy,"

  "I bet you love that!" she said chuckling. Alex smiled at the comment.

  "Did you enjoy your time on the station?" Alex asked. Doctor Tamber tried to hide her smile as she was reminded of her time with Jamie.

  "It was nice, very nice, caught up with an old friend," she said, "Which is actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

  "Go on," Alex said, he wondered if the Doctor would ask for more leave.

  "I'd like to leave the ship, Captain, I've decided it's time to settle down," Some of the bridge crew overheard the conversation but didn't say anything.

  "Wow, I wasn't expecting that." Alex began, "It will be a real shame to have you leave. Do you mind me asking why?" Alex wanted to make sure that nothing or nobody aboard was causing the Doctor the leave.

  "Most my years are behind me now, and I've saved up enough to live a comfortable life. Trulen is a really nice place to live, and that old friend of mine, we've been more than friends." She finished. Alex could not remember how old Doctor Tamber was, she was somewhere in her sixties, but he understood the reasoning, she was a brilliant Doctor and would be sorely missed by the crew, she was often a confidante for a lot of the crew and solved many disputes.

  "Well, it sounds like you're going to have a nice retirement. No doubt we'll keep in touch if the Michelangelo starts working for Trulen." Alex could tell he would not be able to convince the Doctor to stay so accepted her decision.

  "I will need your help finding a replacement though, but we'll worry about that once this mission is over." He looked to a nearby panel to check the status, they had safely jumped.

  "Aye Captain, I'll get back to work." Doctor Tamber smiled and headed off the bridge. Alex watched her go, he was unsure whether they'd be able to find a Doctor as good, her talents had definitely been wasted on the Michelangelo.

  The night shift had taken over the bridge, a skeleton crew that kept an eye on things while they were jumping to the next waypoint. The ship only ran a skeleton bridge crew when jumping. Grant had done the night shift a few times, and it was a good laugh. Usually, only two or three people would be on the bridge with not much to do. As long as you kept an eye on the jump stability and power regulation you could have a relaxed shift, there was never anyone in the Captain's chair, but there was always someone assigned to be in command until the Captain could get there. The captain could be on the bridge very quickly as his quarters were just on the other side of his office which was next to the bridge. The rest of the senior staff had quarters on deck four which meant the bridge would be fully manned within a few minutes of the alarm going off.

  Grant had finished his shift and immediately gone to the canteen, even though he snacked a lot on his shift he was starving. He found some dried noodles and began heating them up. There was a kitchen by the canteen that would usually be manned by a chef, but the Captain had decided not to get one as the ship initially was going to multiple stations per day, Grant wondered if the Captain would get a chef now they are making long journeys that could last up to week at a time. The ship was stocked up with food whenever they made port, the maintenance crew would stock the cupboards in the kitchens, and the crew would make food as and when they needed to. Some crew were part of groups that took turns to cook a meal for the rest of the group, Grant was not in one of these groups. Once his noodles were finished Grant moved to a table by the window which he could see Jenny and Grey already sat at, they were mid-conversation.

  "So why is it called jumping then?" Jenny said to Grey who was eating what looked like an omelette.

  "It's sort of a jump," Grey replied, "The ship is slowly moved to its destination through a sub layer of space, we are suspended, so we don't feel the effects. But we don't have any velocity, so it's not faster than light drive per se, it's technically a jump."

  "Then why does it look like we're moving?" Jenny asked pointing out the window. Lights were streaming past the window, and it did look like the ships were moving.

  "The person who created the jump drive does not even know what those lights are, no one can figure them out. Grey replied.

  "None of it makes sense, we're moving, but we're not," Grant said joining the table and conversation.

  "Welcome to engineering!" Grey said happily, "Only engineers can understand what doesn't make sense!"

  "Engineers don't make sense," Jenny said with a cheeky smile.

  "Here here," Grey said raising his glass, "How long we got left in this jump anyways?"

  "It will end an hour into day shift," Grant replied, he started to eat his noodles, "Dammit," he said.

  "You forgot the flavour sachet again didn't you?" Jenny said trying not to laugh, "Where's your logistics head when it comes to making food?" Jenny had fun mocking Grant, it was always in jest though, and Grant knew that he wasn't very good at giving it back. He would always manage to confuse himself, so most the time he would not bother. Grant got up to retrieve his flavour packet, Grey watched him go and picked up his hot sauce.

  "Jenny," he whispered, when she looked he showed her the bottle. This was not your standard hot sauce, Grey makes it himself, and you never know how spicy it would be.

  "You are cruel," Jenny said smiling. Grey smiled an evil grin and put a few drops of his sauce into Grant's noodles, he put a few more in for good measure.

  "Woah, you're going to blow his head off," she whispered as she moved his hand away. Grey put his bottle down and continued on eating, Grant returned with his flavour sachet and mixed it into his noodles.

  "So are you gonna spend your extra pay on anything nice?" Jenny asked them both, she knew full well that Grant would not be able to speak in the next thirty seconds.

  "There's a new simulator headset available, and Trulen has it in stock, I've been saving for it and all the extra pay will…" Grant suddenly stopped, his eyes going wide, his face gradually turned a deep shade of purple. His tongue felt like it had been cut off and the end was burning. The pain was intense, he saw the bottle of hot sauce next to Grey, who was trying to hold back a laugh.

  "You bast…!" He tried to speak but the pain pulsated around his mouth. He leapt up and tried to run to the kitchen but tripped over his chair and fell to the floor. Grey had burst out laughing at Grant's expense, Grant got himself up the pain was increasing as the hot sauce had spread over his taste buds. He managed to get the kitchen he was screaming with his mouth closed,
he got to the sink and tried to spit out as much as he could but it was not helping, it seemed to hinder his attempt to stop the pain. He found some cream in the fridge and took a large gulp of it, it soothed his tongue and the break in pain was incredible, there was such a sense of relief. It didn't last long though, the pain soon came back and once again he was in intense pain. He drank more of the cream and kept it in his mouth allowing it to soothe his mouth and throat once more. As the effect of the hot sauce wore off, there was still pain, but it was bearable.

  "What is wrong with you!?" He shouted over to Grey. Grant was angry, he hated spicy food, and he was pretty sure Grey knew that. "What part of your brain thought that would be a good thing to do?" Grant said, still shouting. Grey was just laughing.

  Grant turned back the fridge and grabbed another carton of cream and headed for the exit.

  "Hey!" Someone called after him, "you took the last of the cream, at least leave some for others!" The crewperson said.

  "Suck it!" Was Grant's shouted response, he stormed out the room.

  Jenny looked and Grey who had finally stopped laughing, he had a big grin on his face.

  "That was a bit much don't you think?" Jenny said, her tone had changed to something more serious.

  "Oh, it was just a joke, Jenny!" Grey responded, going back to his food.

  "Not again, don't make me order you, that was unfair, you know he doesn't like hot food," Jenny said.

  "It's not like you stopped me!" Grey said. Jenny wouldn't let him make her share any blame.

  "I didn't know you were going to put in a nukes worth of sauce!" Jenny came back her voice a little raised.

  "All right I'll say sorry to him,"

  "And it won't happen again,"

  "Won't happen again," Grey repeated back. "Yes, Ma'am!"

  "Ma'am, I could get used to that," Jenny said standing to leave. As XO she would have to tone down any practical jokes she decided to play, it was something of a past time for the crew, the Captain was fine with it as long as it did not affect ship or crew performance.

  "One minute to clear," Jenny announced to the bridge, "Prepare to bring shields online and begin scanning the exit zone.

  "Aye," came the response from Grant, who began charging to shield banks.

  Alex watched the countdown until jump exit, it hit thirty seconds, and he checked the status screen and saw the ship was in optimal readiness. He looked around and smiled a little, the crew had got behind him on a dangerous mission, it made him happy to be their Captain. Granted a few of the crew had left including the former XO Dylan Roper, but a majority of the crew had decided today. Alex had made a promise to himself that he would get to know all the crew, he'd join them at the bar and eat meals with them rather than hiding away which he did tend to do, he was not comfortable in social situations.

  "Ten seconds!" Jenny shouted again. After ten seconds Alex felt the ship come out of the jump and the star field appear before them.

  "Status report," Alex asked.

  "We're in the right place, three klicks out of jump point. Good jump," Jenny said.

  "Power is stable, no issues. Nothing unusual on scanners," Grant said next.

  "Excellent, begin the approach to the station and contact them when in range," Alex ordered.

  The Michelangelo moved towards the station, Grant could see signals start appearing on the scanners other ships and various station defence craft were moving about. Lumens was a small station in comparison to the likes of Trulen and Europa, but it saw a lot of visitors according to the barrage of information and adverts that hit the ship's communications as soon as they were in range.

  "Contacting station," Grant said, "They've responded, it's an AI."

  "Welcome to Lumens Station, please keep to assigned flight paths or risk being intercepted. Please state your business," the AI voice said.

  "Request merchant dock," Alex responded in as clear a voice as he could make it.

  "Please repeat," the AI replied. Alex sighed, he hated artificial intelligence.

  "Request. Merchant. Dock." He said slowly and clearly.

  "Request Pending, please stand by."

  "Take us into their standard approach pattern," Alex said to Jenny.

  "You got it," She replied while adjusting their course.

  "Request confirmed, please approach docking bay seventeen," the AI said then the comm cut giving no chance for further queries.

  "Europa tried to use an AI to manage one of its sections, the AI crashed within about half an hour because of the sheer volume, it caused fourteen collisions, and one ship even hit the station. They haven't tried since!" Alex said.

  "Time to approach?" Alex said standing up and walking over to Jenny at the pilot's station.

  "About ten minutes," She replied.

  "This is the boring bit, why are there so many boring bits?" Grant said.

  "It's true, all those trader documentaries they have on planets make the trader life sound so intense when in reality we pick up cargo, wait to get to jump range, then jump and wait until the jump is complete, then wait to dock, then repeat," said Mark, who was on the weapons station.

  "Aren't they all fake?" Grey asked.

  "No, a ship I used to be on had the camera crew on, no idea if it ever got made or not."

  "So you might be famous?" Grant said turning with interest.

  "Nah, it was a Colossus class ship, and they filmed only senior staff and some of the crew from engineering," Mark replied.

  "You were on a Colossus?" Alex asked. This was another thing he didn't know about a crewmen.

  "Aye, served on one for six years as security,"

  "Why would you leave? I've heard Colossus ships are the height of luxury?" Alex realised he asked a very blunt question. Mark let at a small laugh.

  "Well, a ship with several thousand people on, the luxuries are hard to come by, it was non stop and always extremely busy. I wanted a quieter life so came to a smaller ship." Mark replied. He didn't seem bothered about the direct question.

  "Fair enough, that surprises me but make sense," Alex said. Colossus class vessels ranged from fifty to a hundred times the size of the Michelangelo, they had lots of storage space and were usually used for transporting station modules or for kitting out a new station. They cost billions of credits to run, and there were only eleven of them privately owned. It was an impressive feat of engineering, several kilometres long and a couple wide. It was more like a small station, Europa and Trulen were the only organisations to own more than one Colossus class. For Europa it was a mobile operations base, heavily fortified and heavily defended it was not to be messed with. It was designed as a deterrent, no one knew where it was apart from the ship's crew itself and the Europa Admiralty, if anyone attacked Europa it could be deployed as a counter attack. It also could be used to repair ships if they could not make it back to Europa itself. The other Colossus was used in the merchant fleet. Trulen's were both system defence, patrolling the perimeter of Trulen space.

  Alex looked to the main screen which was showing the view ahead, he could see Jenny was on final approach for the docking bay, in a few more minutes and they would be docked. He sat into his chair and logged into his console, he opened the ship-wide memo system and sent out a memo saying this was a quick stop and no crew were to leave the ship. He then opened the merchant portal, entered his ships details and looked through the list of possible contracts. Part of the Earth Memorial Agreement stated that a trading system would be set up and every ship would be fitted with a data node that carried trading data from any station within comms reach, it would also upload it's current data to the station in range and update its records. The information would show what wares were needed at that station and how old that data was. It was then up to each trading vessel to choose which mission to accept taking into account how old the information is and that the station may not need that stock anymore.

  Alex selected a contract, it was to transfer electronics to Lochmead station, The rout
e would take them through the Nebula. The last jump point in Apollo Consortium space is on one side of the Nebula and the first jump point into the Yventi Pact, the neighbouring power, is on the other side of it. Merchant ships have always complained about it, but the two governments refuse to allow the other to build jump points in their space which meant the ships had to navigate through the nebula to cross the border and get to the other jump point.

  The station confirmed acceptance of the contract and said it was ready to load the wares aboard.

  "Open cargo bay doors, scan all the cargo as it comes in," Alex said, the crew knew what to do already, they'd done it hundreds of times. They would always scan the cargo to check for anything that should not be there.

  "Station estimates one hour to complete," Grant read from his console.

  "Ok, and our cloaked cargo is still cloaked right?" Alex asked.

  "It is indeed, we can't even scan it, where do we put it again?" Grant said while grinning.

  "Ha. Ha." Alex replied smiling a little. Rigging up the fuel tank to hold cargo was Grey's idea, he could make it so the sensor buoys could be dropped out of the emergency fuel ejection port. The only problem was that it cut off the emergency ejection port from the actual fuel, so if they needed to dump the fuel for whatever reason they couldn't. It also meant that if another ship scans the Michelangelo, they should see empty space in the fuel tank which would be normal as the ship consumes fuel and empties the tank. Alex hoped that the mission would go smoothly, he couldn't wait to go back to go back to regular trade runs, especially with Trulen's premium rate.

  Nuisance had so far been aboard the Michelangelo for twenty hours, in that time she had had six hours sleep, eaten two meals and unpacked the few belongings she owned. A small picture of her with her parents and their pet dog, who were all back at home on Trulen, a small piece of hull plating with several names scratched into it and a mechanical clock that made a satisfying tick, it helped her concentrate. During the last twenty hours, she had also begun investigating the sabotage that had struck the Michelangelo. She had not spoken to anyone, yet, but had reviewed all the data given to her by Captain Harper. She was grateful for a chance to prove her skills to the new Captain, she wondered if she really needed to do this assignment was only temporary she'd be back aboard a Trulen ship before she would settle in here. She looked into the engineering logs from when the ship was undergoing it's repair work and maintenance checks, this is when the Chief Engineer’s report says it is most likely the device was placed. She looked through the logs for the same time and saw there was a sensor sweep of the inside of the fuel tank which is standard after repairs, it found no anomalies. She checked the logs for the sensor itself and could see that the sensor had been shut off after that. The sensor did not start functioning again until it was restarted by the chief engineer after the incident. It made sense to assume that the device was placed between the sensor being shut down and the fuel tank being resealed, she rechecked the engineering logs to see when the fuel tank was sealed, and it was forty-three minutes later, she had her time frame. Now the key was to find out which crew members were in engineering between those times. Nuisance smiled, she enjoyed the investigating, even if it was a relatively simple case like this one.