Path to Europa

by Garion Swann

  "I remember a flash, then nothing," he said looking to Janie.

  "You used an old radio to send an alert out the crew to arm themselves, you stopped people being caught unawares, you saved lives," Janie replied softly.

  "Sounds like a recipe for a fire, I guess that's why I'm here," Grant said.

  "Yep," Janie said.

  "Wait," Grant tried to sit up, but the pain got the better of him. "How's the ship and the crew?" he said sounding panicked.

  "Ten died, four others injured,"

  "Fuck," Grant said not sure what else to say.

  "The ship is in for repair, it took a lot of damage." Janie continued. Grant took in what Janie was saying, he needed to find out who had died, as soon as he was able he would log into the CMS and check, death and people who had died was something he avoided talking about as much as possible as it made him extremely uncomfortable.

  "How did you get here?" he said changing the subject. It suddenly dawned on him that the Trulen's and Yventi didn't get along, so how was Janie, a member of the Yventi security force be here on Trulen.

  "I finally decided I couldn't live under that dictatorship any more, the Yventi are a ticking time bomb, either they're going to implode into civil war or start a war, it's truly worrying. I stole a ship and came here looking for you, your Captain vouched for me, and Mr Trulen allowed me on board, I've been in debrief for three days giving as much information as I can on Yventi. It's been hard, giving away my own people's secrets."

  Grant was happy that the Captain had trusted Janie, it meant the Captain it meant the Captain trusted his word. He then caught up with what Janie had said.

  "That must have been horrible," He said in support.

  "Yeah, but I think it's done now." She said looking a little sad.

  "What now?" he asked

  "I need to find a job," she said. "Trulen's been kind enough to put me up, but I need to start getting some money. I have nothing, Yventi would have frozen my accounts." Grant could tell it was suddenly dawning on Janie the impact what she had done will have on her life.

  "You know," Grant said, "I know somewhere that might have an opening."

  Alex had not been looking forward to this day. More times than he had ever thought he would need to he had talked about someone who had died working for him. It was the hardest part about being a Captain, accepting that some of your crew will die and then carrying on. Every Time someone had died he considered giving up, going back to a comfortable desk job and not having to deal with the pain. Today was different, it was much harder to want to carry on.

  Trulen had given them the use of a function room free of charge for the service. Alex stepped up to the podium and looked out, ten coffins each with a body of one of his crew members. He bowed his head for a moment and looked out to the people staring at him. Every remaining member of the crew was here, Grant had left the hospital, and Janie was with him. Dean had come as well as Doctor Tamber and Jamie.

  "The ten people that rest before you have given an ultimate sacrifice," Alex started, "They protected the ship and our lives in exchange for there's. They defended our home, and they saved our lives. It is our duty not to forget what they lost, it is our duty to honour their memory, and it is our duty to carry on in their name." Alex paused and looked out, some were crying, Alex was trying to hold back tears, he needed to stay strong for his crew.

  "This crew has seen it's fair share of hard times and each time we've come up against a challenge we've gone for it with all we've got. We are not just a crew on a ship, we are a family in our home." Alex stepped down from the podium and placed his hand on one of the coffins.

  "We will be eternally thankful for their sacrifice, and we will never forget their names." Alex had made himself remember all the names of the people who had died. He slowly said all the names, pausing between each one.

  "Tim Ferguson, Reggie Barnes, Drew Washington, Melanie Yates, Pauline Lowther, Leanne Roberts, Michael Edwards, Yvonne Petri, Harry Sandford, Erin Waterhouse."

  Alex bowed his head and stayed silent, he heard Tina weep when she heard Erin's name, Grey comforted her, this would be especially hard on him as most of them were his engineers. Others had begun to weep. He fought against the tears, but some got through. After a minute of silence, he lifted his head.

  "To the fallen," he said, the crew repeated the words back to him. It was a typical Europen funeral custom to honour the fallen. He walked off the to the side of the room, and Amazing Grace played, another funeral custom from Europa.

  For the first time in the twelve days they have been on Trulen Alex decided to socialise, he had seen people, but this had been official business. Three crew members had come to ask for their contracts to end. Usually, you would buy yourself out your contract, as this covered to ship owner if you leave before a long mission, it also provided an incentive not to do that. This time Alex allowed them all to leave their contracts early without being penalised. After what his crew had been through he couldn't blame them, one of them was heading back to Europa, Alex was jealous of that. The other two had found work on Turlen and decided they wanted to stay, this meant Alex was down to forty crew members, it was enough to run the ship, but the ideal crew complement was sixty for the type of missions they did. Alex had only once had sixty crew members, it lasted two hours, and someone was fired for trying to steal some of the cargo. That reminded Alex he'd promised himself not to transport real alcohol again. The ship itself could be piloted by just one person if needed, strongly advised against though. Stations like Trulen and Europa would sometimes use only one person to move a ship from part of the station to another. Alex used to see people running ships bigger than the Michelangelo on five people, they would only do short trade runs within a system, they were not bothered about maintenance falling behind as they would get that sorted at wherever they were dropping or picking up cargo, the reduced cost in crew offset the increased maintenance costs. Some had managed to make more profit out of it, but it was risky if there was an issue mid-run.

  Grant had asked to meet up with the Captain, and they'd decided to meet in Jamie's Bar for a bit before some of the others came for a few drinks. Alex opened the door to Jamie's bar, and it was reasonably quiet, it was the middle of the working day, so it was no surprise. Alex could not see Jamie at the bar but someone else, there were more than a few Jamie's Bars on Trulen, Alex was not sure how many. Jamie was most likely in another bar keeping an eye on things.

  Alex looked around, but Grant had not arrived yet, he did, however, see Jenny at the bar.

  "Jenny," he said taking the stool next to her, "Are you ever not in a bar." he jested.

  "I have four states, Shooting, Flying, Eating and Drinking," she replied smiling.

  "What about sleeping?" he said smiling back.

  "I'll have enough time to sleep when I'm dead," she said after finishing off the last bit of her beer. Alex knew Jenny didn't sleep much, she once said she usually gets three or four hours a night and adds on an hour if she's been drinking. Alex snorted.

  "How's the shoulder?" he asked. Jenny had tried to hide the fact that she'd been shot.

  "Fine." She said quickly and sharply, apparently not wanting to talk about. Jenny didn't like mistakes and being shot was a mistake. Alex sighed and got the bar keeps attention.

  "Can I get some water please?" he asked politely. The barkeep nodded and started to walk away until Jenny slapped her hand down on the bar.

  "No!" she shouted in a raised voice. "No water, any drink you order that does not contain alcohol I'm throwing it at you." she ranted.

  "I don't want to drink, Jenny," he said sternly, he wasn't happy. Alex liked a drink but not in a bar, he prefers to be alone.

  "You need to relax, it's been a shit few weeks, and all you've done is mope. We can all tell you're suffering so just grab a drink, let the wonderful alcohol free you to talk about how you're feeling, the more you keep it bottled up, the more your likely to implode and then you'll want more than
a simple a drink!" Alex was taken aback by Jenny's outburst, what he couldn't work out was whether she was really that annoyed with him or whether she was annoyed about something else, like her shoulder, and was just taking it out on him. She did, however, have a point, he was keeping things bottled up.

  "Maybe after I've had a chat with Grant I'll come to join you for a drink," Alex said standing up as he noticed Grant and Janie had entered the bar.

  "I'll hold you to that," Jenny said raising her now full pint to him.

  "I said maybe," Alex said walking away. He smiled to himself, as much as he avoided it he did sometimes enjoy socialising.

  "Grant, Janie," he said as he walked over to them. Grant's arm was in a sling, and he was supporting himself with a walking stick with his other hand.

  "How're you doing?" he said looking at Grant.

  "Not too bad, I have to go back soon to have someone look at my arm and decide whether it can be saved. They injected some compound that keeps the arm as it is, I can't even feel it at the moment, not pretty though." Grant replied. Alex motioned for them the sit down at the closest table.

  "I bet," he said taking his seat. Janie pulled a seat out for Grant, and he sat down carefully, he looked like he was in a lot of pain.

  "How's recruitment for the new crew going?" Grant asked.

  "I decided not to, if we open the ship up now we have the potential for Lady Jean to plant someone onboard, I can't risk that. We can run the ship fine with who we've got." He replied. He was pretty sure no one would want to join a ship that's just been through what the Michelangelo had. It was well known around Trulen, Alex had been approached by a few people offering protection for a price. The impact of the Michelangelo on Trulen was quite profound, their stock price had dropped three per cent when a ship was attacked in their space. It bounced back though when it looked like they managed to see off a Yventi battle fleet. Even though it was Janie that planted a bug that reversed the ships' courses.

  "So I guess you have not got anyone to fill the head of security," Grant asked. Alex knew where this was going.

  "Janie, do you want to job?" Alex asked not answering Grant.

  "I'd love it," she replied. Alex didn't want Grant to talk for her. He had already considered seeing if she wanted the job, so it was an easy decision.

  "You'll need to work closely with Jenny who will get you up to speed on the ship." Alex looked over to Jenny who was getting another pint. "Maybe wait until she's sober though," he smiled. Janie smiled back.

  "Thank you, Captain," she said, "I've already got a few things I'd like to look at so I'll talk to Jenny in the morning."

  "Awesome, now that that is settled. Would anyone like a drink? My round," he said standing up. He decided to have at least one drink, there was no harm in that.

  "I heard that," Jenny called over, she quickly downed the pint she'd just been given. "Another of those please, on him," She asked the barkeep, she was shouting as if she was still talking to Alex across the room.

  "I may regret that," he said quietly to Grant and Janie.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Alex's head was pounding when he woke up, he'd slept in three more hours than usual. During their stay on Europa Alex had tried to stick to his routine as much as he could. Today was different, he was hungover. It was a rarity for Alex ever to drink let alone drink enough to have a hangover. He couldn't remember much past the first drink, a drink which led to many other drinks he assumed. Alex reached for his pad, he was glad drunk Alex had remembered to put it on the bedside table. He jumped up when he saw seventeen missed calls from Dean as well as a lot of messages all them listed. Before he could call Dean back an alarm sounded, it was the combat alarm. It ordered the hundreds of thousands of residents to the inner station in case of an attack. If the alarm was sounding that meant Trulen was under attack. He quickly dialled for Dean on his pad.

  "Alex, damn where have you been?" Dean.

  "What's happening?" he responded, ignoring the question and attempting not to sound as bad as he felt.

  "We've got Lady Jean's pirate fleet bearing down on his like a bat out of hell. You're the only one who's had any dealings with her, the boss wants you up here now."

  "On my way," Alex said quickly ending the call, he had gone to bed in his clothes, so he just ran out of the door rather than changing, or even washing. The scene outside his apartment was chaos, people were running for the inner sections, there were large spaces designed to hold the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Trulen station was two large rings connected by bridges, there were about fifty bridges, they were now crammed full of people from the outer ring trying to get to the safety of the inside circle.

  "Mr Harper" a voice called. It was a station worker running towards him.

  "Yes," Alex said turning to him and stopping.

  "I have a transport pod waiting to get the HQ, Mr Fletcher sent me."

  "Great, lead the way," he replied.

  They both ran towards to pod that was waiting, and it wasn't long until it dropped them off at central command, Alex jogged his way to the main command area where he'd visited a few days previous to vouch for Janie, there were more people there this time. They were being briefed by Ashleen Trulen, they soon all ran off, Alex assumed they were leaders of battle groups heading to their ships. Most of Trulen's fleet had been mobilised, but it would take time to get them into position.

  "Mr Harper," Ashleen called him over. Once he approached she brought up the system map and overlaid the positioning of ships on it.

  "Here's Lady Jean's fleet, they are an hour away from the station, they came in from the jump at full speed so we didn't have much warning."

  "How is that even possible?" Alex asked. Ships jumped from a stationary position to a stationary position then they have to gain their speed, that's why it takes so long to get from a jump point, it takes a long time to get up to speed.

  "Good question, hopefully, if we capture one of their ships we can get answers. But onto a more pressing issue, they are here, and our fleet will intercept them here," Ashleen pointed to a place on the map that was about halfway between Trulen and the pirate fleet.

  "Wonderful and why do you want me?" he asked, it was a legitimate question, he had little battle experience, and he's met Lady Jean once and spoken to her twice.

  "Lady Jean found out about Trulen because of you, she wants you for betraying her, why else would she risk her fleet attacking Trulen, we feel we could use that to our advantage." Ashleen.

  "Basically we're gonna shove an apple in your mouth and put you on a platter," Ashley Trulen said from a station a few meters away.

  "I believe your ship is ready to fly," Ashleen said.

  "Yes but," before he could protest, he was interrupted.

  "Excellent, we're gathering your crew they will be heading to the Michelangelo," Ashleen said.

  "No," he said. "The crew will not be on the ship."

  "What?" Ashley said, sounding annoyed someone was delaying a plan.

  "I'll be on the ship alone, I'm not risking the life of my crew. It can be piloted alone quite easily," he said adamantly.

  "Whatever, just get to your damn ship, we'll let you know the plan," Ashley said harshly. Alex was ready to snap back, after all, they hadn't asked him, there was no reason he couldn't say no. He felt obligated though, Trulen had given him opportunities to gain trade missions, helped him out when his ship was attacked. Put his crew up and repaired his ship, there was no reason to make an enemy of them now. Alex left to head to his ship.

  Alex entered his ship alone, only once before had he been on the ship by himself and that was straight after he bought it. He wondered what his crew would say if he told them he was going off to be served up as bait for Lady Jean and he fleet of pirates. The scariest thing about it was the Armageddon, the ship was infamous among the United Planets, the space that Lady Jean occupied bordered only the United Planets, so that was her primary target. It could go toe to toe with a Colossus carrier
, it was rumoured they were close to being evenly matched although no one apart from the pirates knew the real power of it. He wondered what the Trulen's had in mind, if they were serving him up it meant they were expecting to trick Lady Jean somehow. Alex was not to keen by the idea, but he wanted to get home, back to Europa, this was his chance to rid himself of Lady Jean.

  "Alex?".

  "Grey," he said turning to see his chief engineer limping over to him. "I thought I was alone. What are you doing here?" he asked.

  "Works finished, I was inspecting, what are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you for a few days after last nights show." Grey said laughing.

  "What happened last night?" Alex said, distracted from the impending attack. "Actually don't worry, did you not hear the alarm?"

  "What alarm?"

  "The combat alarm went off like half an hour ago. Lady Jean's fleet is attacking Trulen" Alex said, putting an urgency in his voice.

  "Damn, what are we doing then? Best get the ship ready if we want to try and escape." Grey said.

  "No no no, that would be like painting a bullseye on us, Lady Jean will see us and send a lot of ships after us," Alex said, he didn't want Grey to know the real reason why he was here.

  "Fair point," Grey said, "So why are you here?"

  "I didn't like the idea of being cooped up in one of Trulen's bunkers so I thought I'd check on the ship. There is something I need you to look at though," Alex said.

  "Oh aye, what's that?" Grey asked.

  "I think they used the wrong hull plating, it looks thinner than our normal stuff," Alex said, hoping Grey would take the bait.

  "What! I told them exactly what we needed! Typical station engineers don't listen." Grey said heading straight for the hatch to see the what Alex was talking about. Alex hung back as Grey walked ahead, once Grey had passed the hatch Alex moved to the control panel.

  "Sorry Grey," he said as he closed the door and sealed it with his command override. He could see Grey shouting through the door but couldn't hear him. He turned and walked away, fighting the urge to look back to see if Grey was trying to get through the door.