by Robert Boren
My heart started racing.
“Have they seen us yet?” I asked.
My PA buzzed, then Vermillion’s face showed up in my head’s up display.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
“Turning around,” I said. “There’s Central Authority surveillance Nanos nearby. They haven’t seen us yet.”
“Then I don’t have to give the order. You are not to spearhead the assault when this goes down. You can participate, but I don’t want you or Nolan going in first. That’s an order.”
“Yes sir,” I said. “C’mon, Nolan, let’s get out of here. Butch, send a message for everybody else to leave the area.”
Nolan glanced at me. “Captain, I suggest you don’t change the security patrols. The Nanos have been keeping track.”
“Yes, that would tip off the enemy,” I said. My heart rate wasn’t back to normal until we were in the tin can, heading back to the bridge.
{ 21 }
Nano Generator
N olan and I got away from the transmitter location before the enemy surveillance Nanos saw us. Soon we were back at the transport station, taking a tin can to the bridge.
“We should’ve thought about them having surveillance Nanos,” Nolan said.
“I know,” I said, shooting him a sheepish grin. “I feel a little foolish.”
“As do I. Maybe there’s something we can do to watch their Nanos with Nanos of our own. Wonder if they’ve got any stealth capability?”
“I hate not being able to talk to Drake.”
“What about the holographic communicator, Captain?”
“I asked Vermillion about that. He nixed it.”
“He doesn’t want you to have unfettered access to him?”
“No, actually he told me Drake was too busy to talk to me. Even said he might be too busy when we’re out of this jump. That didn’t make me happy. I wanted to chat with him before we take off in the Zephyrus.”
We entered the bridge.
Sondra turned, seeing us. “What were you two thinking?”
“I know, already beating myself up about it.”
JJ stuck her head in the door, motioning for me to come over.
“Sorry,” I said when I got outside with her.
“Shut up.” She hugged me tight, trembling. “Don’t you ever put yourself in danger like that again, unless I know about it first.”
I pulled back, looking into her eyes, which were welling with tears. “I know, it was stupid, but even if we were attacked, we wouldn’t…”
“Stop,” she said. “We don’t have any idea what these folks are capable of. They might be able to blow up the ship, or at least cause a nasty hull breach.”
I thought for a moment, still watching her face. “They can’t destroy this ship. They can’t even disable it.”
“How do we know that?”
“Think about it,” I said. “What is their purpose for sending out the tracking signals?”
“To tip off Simone’s Razor ships, of course.”
“Why would they want to do that?”
JJ gave me an exasperated look. “So they can destroy us.”
I smiled. “If that’s their goal, don’t you think they’d blow the ship up if they could?”
JJ looked down for a moment. “Okay, I’ll grant you that one. So what now?”
Nolan came into the corridor. “Anything wrong?”
“I’m just giving the Captain a hard time,” JJ said.
“I just got a rasher from Dojo.”
I smiled. “He thought it was too dangerous too, I suppose.”
“Since they can’t get a transmission out, they aren’t a danger. I was thinking they could damage the ship somehow, but he convinced me otherwise.”
“The Captain came to that conclusion as well,” JJ said.
“Let’s go back to the bridge,” I said.
Skip shot us a worried glance as we entered. “Are we okay, Captain?”
“We are, and we learned some things too.”
“What now?” Sondra asked.
“We follow our plan,” I said. “Continue with the Nano training, and continue to stop their transmissions. How are we progressing in the jump?”
“Right on schedule, Captain,” Skip said.
My PA buzzed. It was Deacon.
“Hey, Cappy, you on the New Jersey bridge?”
“I am. What’s up?”
“Barney would like to see it. Could Deneuve and I bring him in?”
I laughed. “Of course, love to see you guys. Come on over.”
JJ shot me a grin. “Oh, Barney’s been out on the New Jersey, huh? I’m anxious to hear what he thinks.”
“Me too,” I replied.
The trio entered the bridge a few minutes later.
“Hi, Cappy,” Deacon said, giving me a hug. He nodded to the others in the room.
Barney stared at the place, his eyes wide. “It’s so much bigger than the Zephyrus bridge, but there aren’t any more people.”
“This ship practically flies itself,” Skip said, introducing himself to Barney. “Hey Deneuve, what’s up? Been in any darts competitions lately?”
Deneuve smiled. “Not enough people on the Zephyrus to have a decent tournament. You?”
“Last two nights in a row. Not that much to do when we’re in a jump.”
“Darts?” Barney asked. “That’s the game you told me about before my last round of training?”
“Yes,” Deneuve said. “Maybe I can teach you how to play.”
Nolan chuckled. “Better watch out. Barney’s got better eye-hand coordination than homo-sapiens. He’s liable to clean your clock.”
“What does it mean—clean your clock?” Barney asked.
Deneuve smiled. “It means you’d beat me at the game. That doesn’t bother me. I’d rather be beat by you than Skip.”
“You beat me last time,” Skip said.
“True, but I haven’t played in at least six months. You’ve been playing a lot more.”
“I think we should head on over to Chickees and go a few rounds,” Skip said.
“What’s Chickees?” Barney asked. “A recreation facility?”
“We like to call it a bar, but yes, it’s for recreation. Would you like to try after we’re done here?”
“Love to,” he said.
“What do you think of the New Jersey, Barney?” JJ asked.
“It’s like a whole world. How do you learn your way around? Have any of you been everywhere on this ship?”
I laughed. “I’m the Captain, and I went someplace today that I’d never seen.”
“Are we still on for the Clan hunt after we get through this, Cappy?” Deacon asked.
“We are, as soon as we’ve gotten the refinery up and running.”
“Captain, I heard you might need me for the Clan hunt,” Barney said. “I’d like to volunteer. As you know, I’ve got certain abilities when it comes to that.”
“I think that would be great, Barney. We’ll discuss it in more detail when we’re getting closer. It’s still about five weeks away.”
Barney smiled proudly. Deneuve petted his shoulder. “You’ll be a huge asset, Barney.”
the same thing.
“Are you talking to somebody?” Barney asked. “The bridge personnel on the Zephyrus look like that sometimes, but they won’t tell me anything.”
I shot a glance to JJ and Nolan, then shrugged. “We’re talking to our AI assistants.”
“Artificial intelligence? I learned about it in my last training session.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” I said. “I can’t say more about that now, and you can’t talk about it to others. Understand?”
He smiled. “I get to know a secret? Thank you, Captain.”
“No problem at all,” I said.
Deneuve looked a little uncomfortable, making eye contact with me. I nodded, letting him know it was okay.
Deneuve looked at Skip. “When do you want to get a dart game going?”
“I’m on duty for another hour,” he said. “After that?”
“Feel free to go now,” I said. “Nothing much happening here. If anything breaks loose we’ll call you, but I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Skip smiled. “Wow, thanks, Captain Clarke.” He left the bridge with Deneuve and Barney, after they said their goodbyes. Deacon stuck around, making eye contact with me.
“Something on your mind?” I asked.
“The Overlords can track us in a jump. How are we going to get around that on our mission? Do we have to take natural worm holes?”
I chuckled. “We realized a few things just today. They can’t track the Zephyrus.” I went on to tell him about the transmissions and our new theories.
“So we have traitors aboard, huh?” Deacon asked. “Son of a bitch. What are we gonna do about it?”
“At the moment, nothing, because we’ve been stopping the transmissions,” I said.
“How?”
“I can’t say much. The AI assistants I mentioned to Barney are doing the heavy lifting.”
“AI assistants? Something new?”
“Yes,” I said. “Sorry, I don’t have permission to share more about it beyond the bridge crews at the moment, but I’m working that.”
“No problem, Cappy. We don’t have to worry about the Overlords following us through every jump anymore, then?”
“That’s the case, as far as we know right now.”
“Good,” he said. “I’d better get going. Need to go to the tool crib for some stuff. Still putting the finishing touches on our shielded cargo bay. Talk to you later.”
“Take care, Cappy.”
He left the bridge.
“Hope you don’t get in trouble for that,” JJ whispered.
“I won’t. The existence of the AI assistants isn’t the important thing. It’s all the Nano stuff that goes with them.”
“You really asking Vermillion about adding the Zephyrus crew to the system?”
I chuckled “Of course, that was always a given. Vermillion won’t mind. He stressed the importance of the upcoming mission the last time I talked to him. We need to be ready to fight the Clan if we run into them. He’ll want us to have every advantage possible.”
“Yep, Captain, you’ve got that right,” Nolan said. “We should train them while we’re on the impulse cruise.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” I said.
“Can we go get some food?” JJ asked. “I’m hungry.”
“Sure, let’s go. No reason to hang around. It’s been a long day for both of us.”
We headed back to my stateroom… our stateroom, and ordered in.
“You okay?” I asked her. “You’re awful quiet.”
She looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. “Just trying to adjust to loving somebody again. I was really scared earlier.”
We moved to the couch, and sat close. “I’m sorry. Didn’t seem that dangerous at the time.”
JJ smiled, looking me in the eye. “You were a fighter pilot. Most of us wouldn’t dream of doing something so risky.”
“Well, there is that, I guess. You know what struck me about today?”
“What?”
“The impact of having the AI capability. I wouldn’t have known about the surveillance Nanos without Butch.”
“Why’d you put him to sleep?” JJ asked.
“Emerald must be asleep.”
JJ smiled. “I put her to sleep on the way back here.”
“Why?”
“Because I have plans for you in a little while, but we’re not done talking yet.”
I pulled her close and kissed her. She returned it, but broke it quickly.
“You’re mad at me?” I asked.
She smiled. “No. The opposite, really. Usually I’m about done with a boyfriend by now. My feelings towards you aren’t following the normal path. They’re growing, at a rate that scares me a little bit.”
“I feel the same way,” I said, the emotion grabbing me. I kissed her again.
“Talk, remember?” she said after she broke it.
“I’m sorry.”
She smiled again. “No, I’m sorry. Your job is important, and it’s going to put you at risk sometimes. I let my emotions run away from me, and attempted to block what you were trying to do. You were in control of the situation this afternoon. The whole time. Yes, Butch helped you, but he’s your tool. An extension of you, in a way.”
“I’m not getting it,” I said, feeling helpless.
“Men, always wanting to find a way to fix things. I’m the one who needs fixing. We need to trust each other, and it goes both ways. I need to grow up. I wouldn’t like you putting restrictions on me because my job makes you nervous, but that’s exactly what I tried to do to you today. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re being a little too hard on yourself, don’t you think?” I asked.
“Well, I’m learning, and you need to let that happen. I want to be your partner in life. Not your mother, and not your daughter.”
“My wife,” I said, wishing I could take it back.
She chuckled, reading my eyes. “I don’t take that as a commitment… yet. But yes, we’re pair-bonding now, and we both know where that’s going to lead eventually. Does that make you nervous?”
I felt a rush of emotion, wanting to speak, but choking up.
“There,” she said. “That look told me everything I need to know. Let’s go to bed.”
We made love passionately that night, the feeling of closeness between us on a new level.
I woke to my PA alarm the next morning, ready for another full day of training.
“Up already?” JJ asked, watching me climb out of bed.
“Training, and you need to do the final step in your strength enhancement training as well.”
JJ got out of bed, her naked form giving me pause.
“Something wrong?” she quipped, striking a pose bordering on naughty.
“No, everything’s right, but we have to get moving. Butch, wake up.
JJ woke Emerald too, and we got into our Nano suits, put on our uniforms, and headed to a local eatery to grab breakfast on the way to the mustering room.
“This last part of the strength enhancement testing is shorter, right? I’ve got a lot to do today.”
“Yes, much shorter,” I said. “What are you up to today?”
“Waste management. I’m almost done with the research. Mind if I talk to Cappy about it? I might need to borrow one of his engineers, or at least have him recommend somebody.”
“Have him recommend somebody on the New Jersey,” I said. “He’s got a short crew on the Zephyrus.”
“Will do.”
We got to the transport station and grabbed a tin can. Once we got moving, the conversation started again.
“Really? Where?” I asked.
“Now I get why you weren’t in any danger,” JJ said. “There probably aren’t any Central Authority plants on this ship.”
“Yes, and since no transmissions can be sent, we should be able to knock out the Nano generator and destroy the transmitter. The Central Authority probably thinks we aren’t in a jump at the moment. They’ll eventually figure out that we’ve found their tracking device.”
“Oh no, the manufacturing plants,” JJ said. “They might be compromised in the same way.”
Our tin can arrived near the mustering room, but we got on another, and headed to Vermillion’s office.
“Funny how this went from good news to not so good news,” JJ said.
I nodded. “Yeah, figures. After we talk to Vermillion, maybe we should go dispatch those surveillance Nanos and take out the transmitter. I could have Deacon come help with that. He knows this ships drawings better than most people I know, and I won’t have to worry about him blabbing all over the place about it.”
“Then by all means,” JJ said. “What about my strength enhancement training?”
“We could do it after todays classes, or tomorrow morning. No worries.”