by Garion Swann
"So," he said, a little awkwardly, he had not actually thought of a finish to that sentence, he thought fast for something to say. "What's your background?"
"Security," Janie replied, "That led to customs, and that lead to this job."
"Ahh ok, I've floated around various things I've found I'm good at. Apparently, I'm good at power distribution, so that's what I am doing now," he said with a chuckle.
"Seems like you're on a good ship," Janie said, more as a question than an observation. Grant thought about the question for a moment, he liked being on the Michelangelo, and it had a good crew, the ship was basic but nice to be on, it had more crew amenities than other cargo ships of its size.
"Yeah definitely," Grant responded, "I like the ship and crew, hope to be here a while, but who knows what happens in the future." He paused as he noticed Janie was pondering what he had said, he also thought about what the future may hold they sat in silence for a bit before resuming their friendly conversation.
"What have you got for me, Chief?" Alex asked as he entered Temporary Chief of Security Nuisance's quarters. They were small quarters, to the left there was a small bed, and to the right a desk, to which Nuisance was seated.
"Your XO," Nuisance said, "Are they still aboard?"
"Jenny, yes, why?" Alex had a small panic, he wondered why she was asking. Nuisance had been working on finding out who had sabotaged the ship. He trusted Jenny, he trusted her more than most aboard, this was wrong, she couldn't be.
"Jenny?" Nuisance asked, "Your pilot?" She sounded a little confused.
"My XO is Jenny," Alex clarified, matching Nuisance's confusion.
"I have on record that it's Dylan Roper,"
"Ah we've recently changed, Jenny Glover is now the XO, she came," Alex stopped and realised what Nuisance was going to tell him, "Dylan, it's Dylan isn't it!" He paused, "that rotten bastard!"
"Yes, Captain. According to what I've found Mr Roper is the saboteur, all other crew can be accounted for, he tried to frame others, but the evidence is clear. I just don't have a motive, that I will hopefully find out."
"Hmm, this makes sense actually. He seemed to know very quickly where we would end up when our fuel was about to run out, I thought he'd looked it up before, but that wouldn't have been his job." Alex was angry he had trusted Dylan for years.
"He left in a rage when we signed on with the Trulen's," Alex sighed, "Can we catch him?"
"I would usually send a communique to Trulen security, but under the current circumstances, it's likely that our communications are being monitored. Once we are safe too, I'll send a warrant out for his arrest, although if he has any sense, he would have left Trulen as soon as possible."
"He probably has, he is ex-fleet, so won't be hanging around, he'll know I'll have someone looking for the saboteur." Alex sighed, using the tips of his fingers he rubbed his tired eyes.
"Sooner this is over the better," he said, not directed at Nuisance, he was really just mumbling to himself. This mission had undoubtedly taken its toll on the crew, they've never had to do covert ops before, they've never had to do illegal surveillance, they've never had to hide anything from the authorities. They would get through Alex tried to convince himself, he had faith in the crew. He just hoped faith was enough.
Grey was observing the search team from his office, he had leant back on his chair, and his feet were up on his desk, he had broken a few too many pads with his heavy boots over the last few years, Alex had threatened to start taking to cost of replacements out of his pay. He couldn't stand looking over the shoulder of the search team, he was irritable and ready to snap, he was starting to get withdrawal symptoms, after disposing of his stockpile of Elixia and only having a minimal amount he had rationed himself, it had been at least six hours since his last dose. The searchers had just come out on the engine core, Grey did accompany them in there, as they may not have been familiar with the old engine. They were currently looking through the equipment storage, doing very in-depth scans. They hadn't been near the fuel tank yet, it wasn't going to be good if they found anything, he got the feeling that even a whiff of an odd scan would have the ship seized. Grey decided to take a closer look at the search crew moved away from the equipment storage, they started heading in the direction of the fuel tank. He walked across the engineering room, he was silently relieved when they stopped at small crawl ways that allowed access to some of the internal systems of the Michelangelo. The one Grey had named Nancy ordered some of the other search party into the crawl ways with their scanning equipment. Nancy noticed Grey walking over.
"Grey," he said nodding politely.
"Nancy," Grey said nodding back, he was slightly mocking Nancy, but he didn't show annoyance, or was either not noticed or just ignored. Nancy seemed like a genuine person, just doing their job, it was easy to see these people as the enemy. But they had done no wrong to Grey and the Michelangelo, not yet anyway.
"You've done well to keep this old ship flying," Nancy said, this surprised Grey as Nancy sounded nostalgic.
"She's fun to work with, can be a pain at times, just like her Captain but if you treat her nice, she gets you where you need to go." Grey liked anybody who complementing his engineering skill, engineers were always underappreciated by the Captain and crew. He once gave a previous Captain a lecture about how complicated engineering systems actually are, they have a substantial superheated reaction giving them the power they need to move a few million tonnes of metal through a vacuum, even the slightest mishap could cause catastrophe. The bad thing about that lecture is that he wasn't even a Chief Engineer at that point it was a few decades ago as a fresh trainee. The Captain at the time was fine with it, she was happy he had the balls to tell her straight, Her exact words. But it didn't stop her being hard on him about it, which was fair enough as he had done it in front of most the crew of the ship.
"I bet you haven't seen a ship this old running this well before," Grey said smugly.
"Nope, the time I saw a ship running this well was when I was the Chief of one about thirty years ago."
"You're an engineer?" Grey asked.
"Of course I am, why would you send a non-engineer to search an engineering department, they'd miss half the good hiding spaces!" Nancy answered.
"Fair point," Grey admitted. Nancy was a foot taller than Grey, who was a relatively short man in the first place, he stood tall and proud whenever Grey looked at him, being called Nancy didn't phase him at all.
"Well, I can't keep calling you Nancy, not if your an engineer," Grey felt bad for basically insulting this person, "I'll call you Chief instead. Once a chief, always a chief!"
"My name is Michael, you can call me Mike," he said putting out his hand. Grey shook it and smiled.
Grant laughed out loud, something he had done several times in the last twenty minutes. He and Janie had been talking and started trading funny stories, her most recent one was involving rigging an old Captain's quarters to set the red alert alarm when they knew he'd be bringing back a certain kind of friend from the port, safe to say the Captain was not happy at all. Grant found it so comfortable talking to Janie, even though they'd known each other only half an hour. He did consider whether this was a ploy by the Yventi to get information, but as long as he was careful, it wouldn't work. Throughout human history, there have been many cases of someone who is attractive using that to obtain information, advance in their careers and even settle debts. Grant thought to himself that it was not something the human race should be proud of.
"I should really get back to the team," Janie said. Grants smile faded quickly.
"Yeah, I should really be escorting you and your team around, the Captain won't be happy if I'm not," Grant said, his tone had saddened.
"Good point, if Commander Young found out I am not with the team he won't be happy either," Janie said, she gave a sly smile, "I won't tell if you don't." Grant chuckled at her remark.
"Deal!" he said smiling. "I've enjoyed talking to you, makes
me wish you'd search the ship again!" Janie picked up one of Grant's data pads and inputted some information into it.
"Connect to the Yventi communications net and input that code, you'll get to me." She said handing him the datapad. He looked at it and recognised a Yventi comm code, he saved the file and backed it up to his personal data storage. He kept his data safe, once they were no longer radio silent it automatically backs up to his family home. He came from a family of technology lovers, or to use an old Earth term, geeks. Janie and Grant left his quarters and made there way back to the team, as soon as they left they both maintained a professional attitude.
"Report!" Janie snapped when they arrived at the entrance to the cargo bay.
"We're just scanning the last container now, boss," one of the search time said without looking up from the drones readouts.
"Excellent," Janie moved over to the drone, "Anything of interest?" She asked. Grant knew there was nothing in the cargo bay, but he still felt nervous as the awaited the answer. Janie had to ask the question, it was her job, but he didn't like it. He'd hoped his friendliness with Janie had made up her mind about the ship, but he knew she couldn't think like that, for all she knew Grant could have been friendly just to make her think there's nothing to hide. He hoped that had worked, even though that was not his reason for being nice he hoped it helped towards the Yventi search crew not finding the cloaked buoy currently hidden in their fuel tank.
"No, everything checks out against the manifest, and there are no unusual readings, I think we're all clear." The man operating the drone said.
"Good, send the report to Commander Young and the Titan," Janie ordered.
Alex was still processing the information given to him by Nuisance, Dylan had been his first officer for years, they didn't always see eye to eye, nor were they close friends but he still trusted Dylan. To have that trust shattered was hurtful to Alex. Dylan had not left on good terms, maybe he was getting out before he was discovered. The question was why? What could he have gotten out of it? The thought had crossed his mind several times that he was working for Lady Jean and the Armageddon, but he didn't want to believe that at all. As he made his way down the corridor from his office to the hatch that would take him down towards engineering his mind moved to their current situation. If Young found anything onboard the ship would immediately be seized. He'd seen news reports with recordings of smuggler ships that had been boarded, the crew stunned without warning and the engine core shut down once engineering was taken, they didn't even bother going for the bridge. The Yventi customs ships had overpowered engines which allowed them to, while docked with the ship, jump and fly it to the nearest Yventi station. Alex climbed down the third and final ladder that put him on the same deck as engineering. Walking into engineering he saw Grey stood with one of the search team leaders, they seemed to be having a laugh which surprised Alex, of all the people on the ship he expected Grey to be the least welcoming to the search team.
"How's it going?" Alex said interrupting them mid-conversation.
"All good, Captain. Mike here was just telling me about a workaround he did on a colossus class ship," Grey stopped when he saw an impatient expression on Captain Harper's face. "Another time, maybe." Before Grey continued, Mike turned to face the Captain.
"All is well, Captain Harper," Mike answered curtly.
"Great," Alex replied without much emotion, he noted that the search team were not focusing on the fuel tank. Alex kept calm as best he could, he could see Grey starting to sweat.
Commander Young entered engineering flanked by two security guards, you could see his arrogance even in the way he walked.
"How is it going, Lieutenant?" He asked Mike.
"All is well, Sir," he said in the same tone as his response to Alex asking the same question. Young didn't even acknowledge his response. He moved over to the search teams, looking over the shoulder of one of the search team, it seemed like he had no respect for personal space. If he did that to Alex the amount of damage Alex could to with Young's head in that position would have definitely got them arrested. He smiled ever so slightly at the thought.
"That's an odd reading," One of the search team said. Alex and Grey snapped each other a look instantly, thankfully no one saw it. They moved over to where the search team was, hoping for the best.
"This could be something, we need a deeper scan, focus the scans on the fuel tank, that's where the odd readings are coming from."
"Excuse me?" Odd readings!" Grey snapped, "Not in my engine room, let me see!" Grey moved quickly over to the readouts, three guards immediately raised their weapons all trained onto Grey. Alex stopped moving and looked to Young who was walking over to Grey.
"Now, Mr Yovin," Young said, "I hope you're not showing a guilty conscience here."
"You tell any engineer there's odd reading in their engine room they would be just as annoyed," Grey said staring straight into Young's eyes, Alex could see the rage building up in Grey, this was unusual. Under normal circumstances, he could understand a bit of rage. In this case, though they were hiding something and Grey getting angrier will just make Young and his team more suspicious. Grey stormed away from Young and headed straight to the scanner, he looked at the readings displayed on the scanning equipment and let out an exasperated sigh.
"You call them unusual readings, that's the standard readings given off my Etza class fuel, and we use the 427 which has the highest of these kinds of readings! Do you guys know anything or are you just suspicious of everything!" Grey talked like he had the upper hand. Young did not seem impressed, Alex could see his usual smug expression had changed to that of anger.
"Connect the fuel lines, drain their fuel and get in there and see what's causing these readings!" He ordered his team who jumped to action. Half of them started tapping on the portable consoles they had brought, and the other half headed out of engineering, presumably to make preparations.
"Is this really necessary, Commander?" Alex asked him.
"That depends, Captain. Have you got anything to hide?" Young asked him, his smug expression had returned, which infuriated Alex.
"No, we haven't which is why this is pointless." Alex kept is frustration hidden as much as he could.
Alex had stayed in Engineering for the last hour, the Yventi search teams had been preparing to drain the Michelangelo's fuel tank. Alex was in Grey's office, he forgot how messy Grey was, he didn't keep on top of Grey about it, mainly because it's not a military ship and he does a great job.
Alex heard some thuds on the hull, he guessed that they were the fuel lines being connected. The Yventi ship would provide a power transfer to the Michelangelo, shut down the engines then drain the fuel tank. The ship would remain mostly functional even with the engine shut down due to the power transfer. Once the fuel tank has been searched, there was no doubt that the cloaked monitoring satellite would be found. They would be charged with espionage, and the crew would all be sentenced to mining duty, a fate some said would be worse than death.
"Captain," Young entered the office, "We're about to begin the fuel transfer, protocol requires you be present."
Alex followed Young out of the office and into engineering.
"Prepare to begin the fuel transfer!" Young snapped. After a few minutes are unnerving silence, the search team signalled they were ready.
"Begin." The light flickered for a moment as the transfer began, the engines shut down, and the noise of the fuel being drained could be heard.
Alex heard some beeping and saw that it was Young's communicator.
"Young here," the Yventi Commander said.
"Sir, we've received a distress call from a civilian transport they're under attack by mercenaries!"
"Signal another ship to assist, we've found something."
"We're the closest ship, the next is at least 3 hours away, we're only 10 minutes." Young let out an audible growl and signalled the search team to cut off the fuel transfer by running his hand across his neck. The ship
fell silent as the transfer stopped.
"Submit yourself for scanning at Port Lochmead, if you don't a bounty will be placed for capturing your vessel. Do you understand, Captain?"
"Perfectly, now I believe you're leaving my ship," Alex said, he was trying not to sound smug. He got the feeling Young knew for sure they were hiding something, but he was delighted that they hadn't been able to find it.
Young did not say anything, he just walked out of the room, his team in tow.
"Good riddance," Alex said to himself. It was a satisfying sense of relief knowing they had escaped being discovered.
"Grey! Get the engine started, and keep a lid on that temper. That was not helping." Alex promptly left engineering before Grey could respond.
Grant made his way towards to the hatch that would take him up to deck four, he was heading back to the bridge, He saw a search team up ahead, the same search team that he was with earlier, they had packed up all their gear and were heading to the airlock, he was relieved they hadn't found anything. Well, he presumed they hadn't otherwise the ship would be stormed with armed troopers by now. He moved to the side and let the search team past, at the back of the group was Janie, he smiled when he saw her.
"Hey," she said stopping next to him. "I'll catch you up," she called out to her team.
"Hey," he responded in the same soft tone she had spoken in. "You're going."
"Yeah, red alert, so got to get back the ship quickly." She said sounding a little sad.
"Well," he paused, "See you again, I hope."
"So do I," she said smiling. They paused for a few moments not saying anything. "I've got to go, call me?" she asked.
"Yes, I definitely will, be safe," Grant said, he was speaking quietly, and you could easily tell he was sad and nervous. Something had clicked between the two of them in the short time they had spent together.
"Thank you, you to," she replied. She started to walk away, as did he but she turned and kissed him on the cheek and smiled. After checking no one saw she turned once more and without a word made her way to the airlock, Grant wondered if anyone had seen them. He was sure though that no one had.