by Tony Healey
The Chief waved her off, now too engrossed in making sure the two men didn’t make a mess of a repair a woman could do single-handed.
* * *
She went to the mess hall and grabbed a coffee. The room was empty save for one other and as Jessica filled her cup she tried to place the woman’s name.
“Morning,” Jessica said as she sat down at the other end of the table.
Her head still hummed from the drink the night before. She’d have to chase Del up on exactly what it was.
Something alien, she thought.
The young woman looked up and smiled. “Morning, Captain.”
She held a data tablet in one hand, and a forkful of scrambled eggs in the other.
Now Jessica remembered who she was. “You’re Selena Walker, aren’t you? Lisa’s roommate?”
“Yes sir,” Selena said. “I mean, Ma’am.”
King held up a hand. “Honestly, either is fine.”
She took note of the absence of a uniform. She knew that although Selena held the rank of Yeoman, it was a formality. She was one of only a handful of civilians allowed on board. You had to have specialised expertise to be granted a position of study aboard a Union starship.
“I’m sorry, I can’t remember your area,” Jessica said.
“History and life sciences, sir,” she said. She leaned forward, looked around to make sure they really were alone in the mess hall. “Forgive me for asking, but is it true we have Hawk Nowlan aboard? The Hawk Nowlan? How is that even possible?”
Jessica sipped her coffee. “Yes, we do. We’re not yet entirely clear on how or why, but it’s him all right.”
“Wow,” Selena said.
Jessica put her cup down. “As a matter of fact, you could help me with something.”
“Go on,” Selena said.
“I’m going to be tied up for quite a while today, as you can imagine. I need someone to chaperone Nowlan, show him around. Get him acquainted with the ship, that sort of thing. Would you be interested?”
“Sure!” Selena said.
“I mean, you’re into history. He’s a legend. Living, breathing history. I was just thinking it would be a good fit,” Jessica explained.
“No, totally. Thanks,” Selena said. “Where is he staying?”
“In the Ambassadors’ quarters for the time being. You could go there when you’ve finished breakfast if you like,” Jessica said.
Selena rushed a forkful of eggs into her mouth, wiped her lips with a napkin and got up. “No time like the present.”
She grabbed her data tablet and with that she was off. Jessica shook her head and laughed.
As she sipped her coffee she thought about the meeting. Her stomach tied itself in a knot with dread because she knew the kind of truths that would be revealed, and in a way she had no desire to hear them.
Before heading to the conference room, she found the nearest comm. unit and flipped a switch.
“Bridge, this is the Captain,” she said.
“Captain, Lieutenant Haller. Night watch.”
“Morning Lieutenant. I’m about to go into my meeting with the senior staff. Unless it’s an emergency I don’t want to be interrupted for anything. You have the ship,” Jessica said.
“Aye sir.”
“Maintain a constant vigil for Draxx ships, Lieutenant. Don’t let your guard down.”
“I won’t, Captain.”
She closed the channel and continued on to the conference room.
Here we go, she thought.
4.
Captain King cleared her throat as she took her place at the head of the oval conference table in the middle of the room. The design of the room left the Captain slightly elevated above the others, so that wherever they sat they could still see her.
“Good morning. I realize some of you haven’t slept, so we’ll try to keep this brief,” she said. She looked down the table, suddenly aware of the empty seat that should’ve had Lieutenant Swogger in it. Obviously he had no plans to make an appearance. She decided to question Greene about the matter afterward.
“In either case I promise you all extra bunk time afterward,” she quipped.
A few tired chuckles rose from the group, then silence again.
Jessica turned to the enormous display screen behind her. At the flick of a switch the lights in the room dimmed slightly to accommodate the holographic projection behind her. It didn’t offer immersive 3D, but it did allow her to show a bit more detail. She called up a model of the Defiant, and used the movement of her hands to manipulate it as she spoke.
“This is our most current model of the Defiant, showing the areas of damage and stress. Let’s start with the skin.”
She zoomed in, displaying a close-up of the outer hull. There were holes all over, parts where the metal was blackened and tortured from the fire fights recently. Some of the hull damage was critical, as if ripped wide open by monster claws.
The department heads jotted notes onto tablets for future reference.
She moved onto areas inside the ship. ” … and that takes us to Engineering. I believe we’re now up to speed with the majority of repairs, aren’t we Chief?”
Gunn shifted in her seat. “Sort of. Yeah. I need a little more time to fully test some of the systems, but we should be back to normal. There’s been a lot to fix.”
King nodded. “Great. And where do we stand on spares and materials needed for repairs?”
“Okay at the minute, for the minor stuff. But we don’t have an inexhaustible supply. If we’re going to be away from base for a long stretch then we may have to bypass certain systems in the event that they malfunction. It’ll simply be a case of not being able to fix them. That’s my biggest concern.”
“Noted,” King said. “Apart from what I’ve mentioned here already, are there any other issues in your departments?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Then I think we’re agreed that our next priority is to get these other decks repaired and opened up, and the bodies of the deceased dealt with. The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for all of us,” Jessica said. “Commander, anything to add?”
Greene spoke up. “Yes Captain. I’m done making my list of the missing in action, and the deceased. Having cross-referenced what we have now with what we had prior to arriving at Starbase 6, we’ve lost a total of one hundred and ninety-six men and women. Most of those missing in action.”
“Left on the Starbase before it blew …” Gunn said quietly.
Jessica swallowed. The thought of so many men and women losing their lives in the course of duty sickened her in some deep-rooted way she’d have never willingly revealed to the rest of the crew. It made her think of that time in the Academy. The accident …
“I’ll talk with you about it after the meeting, Commander. We’ll make the necessary arrangements for a memorial service,” she said. Her throat felt suddenly dry. She turned back to the screen behind her, and the display changed to show an inventory of supplies. “Now for our next item of business. You’ll see here a complete listing of everything we have on board, from fresh foods, water, and medical supplies, to weaponry and some of the replacement parts and components the Chief mentioned earlier. Commander, I believe you’re more informed about this than I.”
Greene nodded and swapped places with her.
“The, uh, supply situation,” Greene said. “Well, I think that we have enough fresh food and water for another three months before relying solely on the replication systems.”
That was a relief to all in attendance, Jessica knew. The replicators were a vital part of the ship in that they could keep the crew fed and watered almost indefinitely. But they weren’t capable of creating more than basic meals, and no matter how you calibrated them, there was always an artificial aftertaste. It was old tech now, from the first years of the Human-Draxx war, and it still hadn’t been perfected.
“With any luck, we will either be back in known space, or we will locate a suitable source of f
ood and water here … wherever we are. We’ve got about three months breathing room to get this sorted so I’m confident we’ll be all right,” Greene said.
“I’d like to add here, if I may, that medical supplies seem fine, all things considered,” Dr. Clayton offered. “I see very little need to worry in that regard.”
“Excellent. Thank you Doctor,” King said. “Commander, how about our weapons?”
“Well, I think we should be cautious and conservative where possible because once we run out, it’s gone for good. Especially if we’re stuck here for a long time.”
“Agreed,” Jessica said. “Thank you Commander.”
They swapped places again. This time she didn’t take the floor as before, but stood to the side. She nodded at the two quiet individuals lurking at the back. Ensigns Rayne and Boi made their way forward.
“Ensign Jack Boi, and Ensign Olivia Rayne,” King introduced them to the rest. “I’ve brought them along because they tell me they have something to share with everyone.”
They both looked nervous. Rayne took over the controls of the screen, and changed the display to show a huge star map.
“This was us prior to making the Jump,” Rayne explained. A bright red dot appeared on the map, moving slowly to the right. A purple dot followed close behind. “That’s the Draxx ship in purple.”
She waved her hands around and adjusted the screen to crop the image and show a 3D display of the two ships travelling through space. It was as if a camera had been there the whole time, filming it all. However, the sensor telemetry did just as good a job.
“This is where we ended up following the Jump. You can clearly see the erratic course of the Defiant in red,” Rayne said.
The image pulled back to show the two little dots and the vast expanse of the galaxy again. Then the red dot shot off, on a varying course spanning several star systems in moments. The purple dot followed close behind. They arrived at a large circular turbulence on the map that had a sign flashing next to it: SINGULARITY.
“This is when we arrived at the black hole. We were trapped the moment we got there. Now you can see us slipping into the centre …”
The assembled officers watched in silence as the Defiant was reeled into the eye of the black hole as if caught on a fishing line. The Draxx ship wasn’t far behind.
“So how did we get from there to here?” Greene asked her.
Rayne held up a hand. “Sorry sir, but I’m just getting to that.”
“I stand corrected,” Greene said with a cheeky smirk. King shot him a look, and he sobered instantly.
“Believe it or not, the Defiant did actually record astrological data after entering the black hole. But it shut down after a few seconds when the ship lost all power. However, from that, and using some complex algorithms, we don’t have time to go into right now, we have managed to unravel the mystery of our journey here. It took us a while to sort out, because a journey of trillions and trillions of light years happened in less than a handful of seconds.”
They all gasped at the sound of trillions and trillions. Now, without Rayne or Boi continuing their presentation, they all knew the truth. They truly were far from home.
Very far.
Rayne manipulated the display once again to show their lightning fast journey through not just space, but entire galaxies. Even though King showed a steel reserve in front of the others, she felt her stomach pop and a butterfly begin to flutter in her chest.
“My God …” Meryl Gunn exclaimed.
The little red dot slowed to a stop just beyond a vast nebula, the same cloud of ionised gases in which they drifted now. Then, moments later, the purple indicator of the Draxx ship appeared to the left of them.
“Strangely enough, we lost power within a second of leaving the singularity,” Rayne said.
King held up her hand. “Let’s just slow down there a minute, Ensign. Explain how we could go into a singularity one side, and emerge the other. And see if you can explain how it can send us so far out.”
“Well, nobody knows for sure. But if we’re reading the data correctly, the singularity acted as a kind of tunnel through the fabric of space-time. So we literally entered one end of the tunnel, and were spat out the other,” Rayne said.
“So our exit vector … is it still there?” King asked.
Rayne shook her head. “No. It must have closed the minute we came through. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that will reopen at a later date, either.”
King looked at the others. Their faces told her they were just as shell-shocked by this information as she was.
“Ensign … just how far out are we?” she asked her.
Rayne looked at Boi, who urged her on. She swallowed.
“At maximum cruising speed it would take us several million years to go home,” she said. “I’m sorry Captain, but we’re stranded for good.”
* * *
After, King thanked Boi and Rayne for their hard work and told them to go and get some shuteye. However she wasn’t sure how easy that was going to be, considering what they’d learned.
Commander Greene waited for everyone else to file out. When the door finally slid closed and he had her to himself he let out a deep sigh.
“Penny for your thoughts, Del?” Jessica asked him. She sat down opposite and looked at him intently.
“Yeah …” he said, then shook his head. He looked down at his hands, clasped together on the desktop, as if they held within them the immensity of their situation. “Damn.”
“I know,” King said.
Greene looked up. “Do you think we’ll be okay?”
Jessica looked away. On the far wall, facing opposite the display screen, a large bay window offered a stunning view of the nebula. An alien place in alien space.
Inside her chest she felt a pang of loneliness that surprised her. “I hope so,” she said. “I hope so.”
5.
Ensign Ken Dunham handed over the reins to Ensign Yamato at the end of his shift, and explained the progress that had been made so far in getting them back up to speed. The munitions section looked totally different to how it had days before.
“Where’s Swogger?” Yamato asked him before he could walk away.
“You know, you’re not the first person who’s asked me that today,” Dunham said.
Understanding dawned in Yamato’s face. “Ah. Well, he looked like he was in a bad way, you know … when it happened.”
Dunham nodded. He knew what he meant by ‘when it happened.’ Of course he was referring to the explosion, and the death of Captain Singh.
“Have you seen him about recently?” Dunham asked him.
“Nope. Only the day after the accident. He was in the service tunnels, drunk as a skunk. I thought I’d leave him to it,” Yamato explained.
“Yeah, well. I guess I better check in on him. He can’t stay like this forever. We could do with the help down here. I can’t keep covering for him,” Dunham said. He thanked Yamato and left.
First he tried Swogger’s quarters, but there was no answer. Then he went to the service tunnels that ran through the ship, between decks. They were really no more than a crawl space but when you reached a junction they were about three metres across. Enough space to sit on your own and get drunk without anyone noticing.
It didn’t take him long to find Swogger. He crawled from the tunnel closest Swogger’s quarters, towards the front of the ship. As he approached the first junction, he heard Swogger’s mumbled voice echoing down the tunnel.
Right, he thought.
“Lieutenant,” he called.
There was no answer, but the mumbling stopped.
“Lieutenant?” he called again. He kept crawling forward. “Are you okay?”
“Get lost!” Swogger yelled down at him. Now when Dunham looked up, he could see the Lieutenant staring at him. He looked a state. “Don’t come up here!”
Dunham stopped. “Sir, you can’t stay up here. If we have an overload somewhere
-“
“Gah!” Swogger spat. “Leave me be!”
“Sir -” Dunham said.
“I’ll come out when I’m good and ready, boy. Now get lost!”
Dunham shook his head. There was no way Swogger was going to let him through to the junction. It might end up in some kind of fight, given the way he was shouting at him. He started to crawl backwards, reversing back down the tunnel.
Now what do I do? he thought, frustrated. I can’t call security. It’d be bad for Swogger. They guy is just in a bad way.
They’d lost a lot of people. And Swogger had been there when the Captain died with them. Now he struggled to cope.
But getting others involved won’t help the situation. It’ll just make it worse for him, Dunham thought. Maybe if I leave him to it, he’ll snap out of it eventually. Catch him when he’s back in his quarters, sober. Have a chat.
As he exited the tunnel and was back on one of the corridors, he decided that was the best course of action. He was confident it’d all blow over eventually. The guy was just traumatised, and drowning his sorrows a bit.
In the meantime, Dunham would hold the fort. He was sure they could keep Swogger’s problem from drawing the attention of the senior officers. By the time he pulled himself out of it, nobody would know it ever happened.
* * *
Lieutenant Lisa Chang was tired but happily so. The training of the newbie’s on the bridge had gone exceptionally well, on all accounts. She’d selected them herself, and they took to the training like they were raised for it.
“How’s it going?” a voice asked her.
Chang turned around to find Captain King stood on the bridge, observing. How long King had been there, Chang wasn’t sure. She stood up and saluted. King returned the gesture.
“Exactly as planned, Captain. We’ve got a good team here,” she said.
King shot Chang a sly wink that made her smile. “Good to hear, Lieutenant,” she said. “I expect no less.”
Chang watched as King made a brief tour of the individual stations, and the respective trainees sat at each one. She spoke to each for a few minutes before moving onto the next. When she’d finished making the rounds, she came to stand next to Chang.