Midshipman's Hope (The Seafort Saga Book 1)

by David Feintuch

  The comm room was crowded with ratings manning their instruments, watching for hostile laser or missile fire. Laser defense crews stood ready. Special ports in Hibernia’s nose were opened to deploy the gossamer shields designed to deflect incoming lasers.

  I knew our laser shields were an unnecessary precaution, as orbiting stations weren’t fitted with laser cannon. Miningcamp Station, sixty-three light-years from Earth and six from Hope Nation, was visited only by Naval ships; no other vessels sailed interstellar. Who would attack Miningcamp?

  My caller was set to approach frequency. “Attention Miningcamp Station. This is U.N.S. Hibernia, Captain Nicholas Seafort commanding. Acknowledge!”

  After a moment the speaker came to life. “We read you.”

  “I will open fire in two minutes unless you surrender unconditionally. Where is General Kall?”

  The speaker was silent for several seconds. “Prong yourself, joey!”

  “In one and three-quarter minutes I will open fire. I will cut through your hull about twenty meters to either side of the upper airlock. Expect decompression.”

  I could hear a muffled commotion behind their caller. A new voice answered. “Go ahead and decompress us! Your General will be in the airlock along with the rest of the officers.”

  “I really don’t care. They’ll blame you, not me.”

  Vax sucked in his breath. I touched the laser activation release but did not depress it. “Fire control, stand by. Either side of their airlock.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  “We’ll kill them all!” The voice rasped in the speaker.

  “One minute left. After decompression, I’ll give you another minute before I cut the station into small pieces. I’ll start with your comm room.”

  “You wouldn’t dare! The station is worth billions; they’ll hang you!”

  My voice was very strange. “I know. It’s what I’m hoping. Forty-five seconds.” I depressed the laser release.

  “You’re crazy!”

  “And you’ll be dead. In a moment.”

  Darla said urgently, “Incoming laser at low power! Erratic beam.”

  “What in hell?” Miningcamp was supposed to be unarmed.

  “Shields fully deployed. Beam within shield capacity.”

  I looked to Vax. “A cutting tool? Hand lasers strung to fire together?”

  Vax shrugged, his mind on more pressing matters. “Captain, please don’t blow the station.”

  I thumbed the caller. “Thirty seconds!” To Vax, “Sorry, Mr. Holser.” We drifted toward the station airlock, lasers powered and ready to fire.

  “Fifteen seconds!” My voice was tight. “Trusting in the goodness and mercy of Lord God eternal, we commit your bodies to the deep—”

  “Oh, my God.” Vax, in a whisper.

  “—to await the day of judgment when the souls of man shall be called forth before Almighty Lord God—”

  “Wait, don’t shoot!” I could smell their fear.

  “Commence firing!”

  I watched in the simulscreen. A piece of hull plating near the airlock sagged.

  “Hold your fire; we surrender!” A scream.

  “Comm room, hold fire!” I deactivated the laser. “Station, acknowledge your unconditional surrender!”

  A different voice. “Look, mister. We’ve lost, we know that. But if we surrender now you’ll kill us, or they will. We want amnesty.”

  “No.” It was final.

  “Our freedom for the station. A trade.”

  “No.”

  “Our lives, then! No death sentence. Otherwise go ahead and wreck the station; we have nothing to lose!”

  He was right. It took only a few seconds to decide. “I agree. As representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations I commute any penalty of death you would be given. No death sentences will be imposed on you. I give my word.”

  “For the General too?”

  “My guarantee, for all U.N. forces.” Vax put his head in his hands. I had legal authority to make such a pledge but it wouldn’t be well received at Admiralty. Not well at all.

  “Give me a minute. Please. I have to talk to the others.”

  “Very well.” Vax and the other middies breathed almost imperceptibly while I watched the clock.

  Two minutes. “Time’s up. I’ll fire in fifteen seconds.”

  “We surrender! We’ll take the deal!”

  “Very well. Suit up. Release your officers, then go into your airlock and open the outer hatch. You have three minutes.”

  It took them five. I floated Hibernia as close as I dared. Then I had a sailor in a thrustersuit take a cable across to their airlock. I made the rebels swing across the line hand over hand to our own lock. One by one we took them in, fifteen of them. Mr. Vishinsky and his waiting crew brandished laser pistols, hoping for an excuse to use them.

  Some hours later General Friedreich Kall sat in my cabin, an untouched drink by his arm. He was a heavyset, florid man of sixty. He flatly refused to honor my agreement, and demanded the mutineers’ return. They would be tried and hanged. We glowered at each other.

  I shrugged. “You act as if you have a choice.” I thumbed the caller. “Mr. Holser, report to the Captain’s cabin, to escort General Kall off the ship.”

  “I’m not subject to your orders!”

  “No, but you’re on my ship. As soon as we’re done offloading your supplies I’ll be on my way.”

  “What about the rebels?”

  “They go with me, for protection.”

  “They’re under my authority! You can’t!” He flung himself to his feet.

  “Watch me.” It was easy, once I no longer cared about consequences. My tone was blunt. “General Kall, you’re an ass. Write your objections into my Log and your own Daybook. Then get off my ship.”

  “You’d let mutineers go free, you traitor?” He was out of control.

  Vax knocked on my cabin hatch. “Free?” I said as I opened it. “Hardly. They’ll be tried and convicted. They’ll probably wish they were dead before their sentences are up. But we won’t hang them.”

  “How do you expect me to hold my command if you treat them with such leniency?”

  “I don’t,” I said evenly. “I expect you to lose it again before we return.”

  He crumpled, slumped heavily into the seat. “Do you know what this means on my service record? Losing the station to a bunch of civilians? I’m through.”

  I signaled Vax to wait, shut the hatch again. “Not necessarily. You’ve got your station back. You still have problems planetside. Your record will include how you handle them.”

  “You think so?” He looked up hopefully. “Bah. They despise weakness.”

  “Who? The miners or U.N. Command?”

  “Both. And me. I despise weakness too.”

  “Accept the deal I gave them, and I’ll stay in the vicinity to back you up. My lasers can target the surface if necessary. My report will show I watched you reassert control on your own.” I was becoming a dealmaker. If I couldn’t lead, I’d negotiate.

  After much argument, he reluctantly went along with me. I saw him off the ship, transferred the fifteen rebels to his custody, and withdrew the ship a thousand kilometers to a parking orbit.

  I had three more chores.

  We packed the circumference corridor at the forward airlock, officers, sailors, passengers. The flag-draped alumalloy coffins rested in the lock behind me. I read from the Christian Reunification service for the dead.

  In my cabin, donning my dress whites and adjusting the black mourning sash over my shoulder, I’d resolved to complete the ritual. My voice would stay level, I wouldn’t tremble. I had already determined that. Now I only had to carry it out.

  I began flatly, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ...” Sandy sat in his bunk absolutely still, waiting for Vax to allow him to move. “Man that is born of woman ...” Sandy held his orchestron above Ricky’s reaching hand, grinning.

  My voice quavere
d. I bit off my words. I was as much to blame for Sandy’s death as the wretches in our brig. “Trusting in the goodness and mercy of Lord God eternal, we commit their bodies to the deep ...”

  A dozen men in spacesuits, and I’d allowed them aboard? Better I had resigned my commission the day Captain Malstrom died. Sandy’s contorted face stared past me. I felt the scorched fabric of his uniform. I touched the blistered hole in his chest. Only a few more words and it would be done.

  Sandy was barely sixteen. Yesterday his whole life had been before him. He’d wolfed down his breakfast in the mess. He’d sat joking with us at lunch. He washed. He smiled. He stood his watch. Now, because of me, his remains were in a cold metal box. “To await the day of judgment when the souls of man shall be called forth before Almighty Lord God ... Amen.”

  I had managed to finish the service. I glanced at Vax. His shoulders shook silently, his eyes red from weeping. I smiled bitterly. Vax, who had tormented Sandy in the wardroom, was devastated by his death while I, his protector, had no tears to shed.

  “Petty Officer Terrill, open the outer lock, please.” I waited.

  “Eject the caskets, Mr. Terrill.” Slowly, the coffins receded into the dark.

  Two more chores.

  As I trudged to the bridge a figure blocked my path. I looked up. Amanda. “They say your courage saved the ship. Thank you ... Nicky.”

  “They were mistaken,” I said, my voice flat. “Excuse me.

  Back on the bridge I issued orders. “Derek, Alexi, plot our course to Hope Nation. Vax, have Mr. Vishinsky bring the prisoners to the bridge, securely cuffed.”

  “Aye aye, sir.” My heart pounding, I stared at my screen. I could hear Alexi and Derek tap at their consoles. Soon. It would be over soon enough.

  “Message from Miningcamp, sir. All resistance has ceased.”

  “Very well.”

  The seven men stood in a line along the bulkhead, hands cuffed behind their backs, their feet chained together. Still, Vax and the master-at-arms carried stunners.

  “Darla, record these proceedings.” Her videorecorders lit. “By authority of the Government of the United Nations I charge you with piracy in that you assaulted U.N.S. Hibernia, a Naval Service vessel lawfully under weigh. I charge you with murder in that you killed nine persons while attempting to board and seize the vessel. I call a court-martial and appoint myself hearing officer. Do you deny the facts charged, or do you admit them with an explanation of your conduct? Speak in turn.”

  One by one, mumbling, the captives acknowledged that they had tried to seize the ship. Kerwin Jones, the ringleader, watched me warily.

  “If you have any mitigating statements, give them now.”

  Their stories came tumbling out. When the supply ships stopped coming their fears had grown rampant. Wild rumors swept the mines. General Kall had done little to reassure them. They had no contact with the civilized world. Under intolerable pressure, they’d panicked.

  I listened impassively. When they were done I said, “Having heard the evidence and mitigating statements I find you guilty of piracy and of the murders of a Naval officer, three enlisted men, and five passengers. For these crimes I sentence you to death at the Captain’s convenience. Court adjourned.”

  Jones shouted at me, “You promised! You gave your word we wouldn’t be killed!”

  “I said no such thing.”

  “You swore it!”

  “Darla, playback, please.”

  A second later my voice sounded on the speaker. “No, we won’t shoot you. Not now, not ever. You have my word.”

  “Thank you, Darla. I’ll keep my promise. We won’t shoot you. Mr. Vishinsky, take these men back to the brig, then to the infirmary, one by one. Interrogate them to find who shot Mr. Wilsky.”

  Hours passed. Vax tried several times to speak to me; each time I ordered him silent. The Doctor finished her polygraph and drug interrogations. I issued my orders.

  The master-at-arms, the Chief, Vax, and several seamen assembled at the plank across the fusion shaft. We faced six bound and gagged prisoners. I dispassionately pulled the dolly aside for each hanging. When the grisly task was done I dismissed the sailors.

  One more chore.

  “Mr. Holser, take the bridge. Chief, evacuate Level 2, sections six, seven, and eight, and post sentries to bar the corridor hatches to those sections. Mr. Vishinsky, come with me to the brig.”

  The seventh prisoner, the man who had lasered Sandy, paced helplessly, his hands bound behind him. “Mr. Vishinsky, wait here.” My voice was dull.

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  I took the prisoner’s arm, led him out of the brig along the corridor, up the ladder to Level 2. The sentry at section eight saluted and stood aside. I propelled the captive into the deserted section. Then, past the bend in the corridor to the airlock.

  I pressed my transmitter to the hatch control. The inner hatch slid open. I took the prisoner into the lock.

  “What are you doing?” His face was wild.

  I didn’t answer. Holding his shoulder I kicked his leg out from under him. He slipped to the deck. I pushed him into a sitting position. Then I turned to the inner lock.

  “No! God, don’t!” He scrambled desperately to his feet. I stood in the hatchway. He ran at me.

  I shoved him violently back; he sprawled on the airlock deck, hands cuffed behind him. I stepped out into the corridor and pressed my transmitter to the inner lock control. The hatch slid shut. In a frenzy, he threw himself against the transplex hatch, rebounding from its unyielding surface.

  Again I brought my transmitter to the panel. I pressed the key. The outer lock slid open. I watched the grisly contents of the chamber swirl into space as the chamber decompressed.

  After a few moments I walked slowly onto the bridge. “Fusion coordinates?”

  “Here, sir.” Alexi displayed them on his console. He swallowed several times, managed not to catch my eye.

  “Darla?”

  She flashed her figures. They matched.

  “Engine room, prepare to Fuse.”

  In a moment, the reply. “Prepared to Fuse, sir. Control passed to bridge.”

  I slid my finger up the screen. The simulscreens blanked. “Mr. Holser, you have the watch.” I slapped open the hatch, left the bridge.

  I sealed my cabin hatch behind me. In the dim light I took off my jacket. I sat, my arms resting on the table. I began to tremble. Dispassionately I wondered how quickly I would go insane. Knowing I could not be heard I filled my lungs and screamed at the top of my voice. It left my throat raw.

  I looked through the outer bulkhead along the hull. “Come, Mr. Tuak,” I whispered. “I’m ready for you.” I knew that this time he’d bring Sandy with him.

  Part II

  November 20, in the year of our Lord 2195

  21

  OCTOBER CAME, THEN NOVEMBER. I spent day after day alone in my cabin. Food was brought. Sometimes I ate it. Occasionally I stood watch; more often I removed myself from the watch roster. From time to time I sat at dinner with the passengers at the dining hall; more often, I couldn’t bear the thought of their conversation and remained in my bunk.

  Twice, Mr. Tuak came for me, but even in my dreams I was unafraid. He never pulled me through the bulkhead, and when I tried to follow him he stopped coming.

  One day I went to the bridge and found Vax half asleep in his seat. He started when I stood over him, his eyes widening in shock and fear. “I’m sorry, sir,” he stammered, “it’s ... I—” His face turned deep red.

  “It’s all right.” I took my own seat. There were only four of us to stand watch, and by removing myself from the roster I’d left only three. No wonder he was exhausted. “I’ll start taking my turn again.” Day after day I endured the silence of the bridge until I was free to return to the solitude of my cabin.

  On one of the rare evenings I appeared in the dining hall, I was accosted after the meal. “Captain, we’d like to talk to you.” Rafe Treadwell, now t
urned thirteen. I presumed the “we” included his sister.

  I took them to my cabin. Rafe spoke first, standing shoulder to shoulder with Paula. “Captain, you need midshipmen.”

  “You’re telling me how to run my ship?” My tone was bleak.

  “No, sir, just stating a fact,” he said calmly. “When we sailed, you had three lieutenants, four midshipmen, and a Pilot. Now you have three midshipmen and a cadet. You need more help.”

  “You’re volunteering?”

  “No, sir, we decided someone ought to stay with Mom and Dad. Paula’s the one who’s volunteering.”

  “Oh?”

  She said, “Yes, sir. I’m better at math, anyway.”

  “This isn’t Academy, young lady. I can’t raise children to be middies.”

  “You took Derek.”

  “He’s sixteen, almost grown. You were thirteen just a few weeks ago.”

  “So? At my age we learn faster.” She added, “When you took us to the bridge I knew right away. That’s what I want to do.”

  “And your parents?”

  “Oh, they’re against it,” she said blithely. “But they’ll get over it.”

  “Would they consent?”

  “Not in a million years,” Rafe said. “But you don’t need their consent. You told us so yourself.”

  I glowered at them, to no effect. I needed midshipmen; Vax was ready for lieutenant’s insignia. And though he didn’t know it, Alexi would soon be, too. But to shanghai children, as Mrs. Donhauser put it ... I had enough problems without that. And we weren’t that far from port, where I would be replaced. “Thank you, but no. Not without your parents’ consent.”

  Paula’s tone was flat. “You’re afraid of my parents, Captain? I thought you weren’t a coward.”

  I yearned to slap her. “Shut up, young lady.”

  “I will. If you don’t have the guts to sign me up, I don’t want to be under your command.” She folded her arms.