by Brian Fisher
Chapter 52
"Narja?" Jason asked quietly, hardly believing that the Major could be out of sickbay, and standing on the bridge. Cautiously, he stepped forward, daring himself to believe that his friend was indeed there.
"Yes, my friend." Narja replied quietly. There was something different in his voice. It held a pain that ran so deep that only Narja could understand. "Captain, I must apologize to you for my failure. I was not able to bring your wife back to Redemption."
He stepped toward his Captain. "I am sorry. I must not fail in this. I will find your wife, and retrieve her. It is my obligation Sir."
"Narja," Jason paused. "Because of your actions, we know where she is. I've actually talked to her. You don't need to do any more." Jason reached out, and placed his hand on his friend's massive shoulder. He could feel the depth of Narja's pain, and his resolve to make things right.
"I owe you everything. We all do."
"Captain, I need to do this for myself as well." Narja paused long enough to steel his resolve before he continued. "I lost my family to the Ta'Reeth. I cannot idly stand by, and watch that happen to my friends."
"You won't have to. We're going after her." Jason smiled confidently at the Major.
"Thank you Sir." Narja relaxed enough that Jason began to understand the weight that his friend carried. "There was someone else there that we need to find as well."
The mere thought of failing a comrade in arms was unbearable, and Narja needed desperately to do something about it. "There was a Bakeeron woman, a Commander T'Sula Mir, of the Resistance Special Operations Command. She was taken with Commander Nor, Sir. She would be a valuable asset to this crew."
"I know her." Jason sighed. "She was captured by the Regiment after you were ejected from the ship." Jason waited until Narja was looking him in the face before he continued. "T'Sula is carrying the reason that Olcai was attacked."
The realization of the Captain's words quickly seeped into Narja's mind. If what Commander Mir had was worth destroying a planet, then she was in a lot of trouble. She was a very capable, formidable woman but maybe this would be too much even for her. Narja didn't have many friends, but he counted T'Sula Mir as one. The friends that he did have, he would protect with his life.
"When do we leave Captain?" the Major asked. He knew that all of his Marines were dead, but he could not allow that to stop him. There would be time later to mourn, but now was the time to act.
"We will be underway in just under an hour. Maybe you should get some rest." Jason clapped his friend gently on the back, and started moving toward the lift.
"Of course Sir. I will go to my quarters and try to rest." Narja stepped into the light for the first time. He was healing, but his skin was sallow, and the stress showed in his dark eyes.
When Jason turned back to the bridge, Narja was gone. Kamira still needed his help. Unfortunately, his bridge crew had been killed in the battle, leaving him only the helmet, and a handful of raw crewmembers, to run the bridge. The neural link was effective enough, but it was beginning to take its toll on him. He could feel it.
Slowly Jason paced the bridge. He stopped at each station, tracing it with his fingers, memorizing the slightest details. Who could replace his crew? The weight of command bore relentlessly down on him. He knew what he had to do, but not how to do it.
"Captain, we have movement from the Resistance ships." Angel broke the silence, saving her Captain from his ever darkening thoughts. Her ethereal form floated in the darkness. "They have penetrated the debris field."
"Show me." Jason ordered. He watched as the hologram changed into a picture of space filled with giant pieces of rubble. He studied the picture, manipulating it so that he could find the smallest details that he needed to see. The Resistance ships had indeed entered his sanctuary. They moved slowly, methodically searching for a hole in his defenses, and finding none. Their fighters probed ahead of the larger ships, weaving an intricate pattern through the colossal chunks of destroyed planet.
Jason watched the people, that only a short time ago, he had trusted. "Angel, do we still have access to their communications?" he asked the A.I., without taking his eyes from the hologram. Why were they so set on coming after him anyway? Shouldn't they be searching for Admiral West, or at least helping the Olcai survivors?
"No sir, they have changed their codes." Angel replied. "I can break the codes though. Would you like me to do that Captain?"
"I would. Thank you Angel." Jason continued to study the other ships. There was something wrong, but he had no idea what it was. He was left alone with his thoughts for a few moments before Angel came back to him.
"Captain, I believe that I have something that you should hear." Angel informed her Captain.
"Put it through." Jason waited as the image before him changed from the debris field, to the images of three Resistance Captains. One was a dark haired human woman, with smooth ebony skin. The second was a large Malgar male with a small round speaker imbedded into his metallic throat. Third was a middle aged, human male with black hair and bronze skin.
The hologram showed each Captain sitting in a different ready room, decorated to suit the tastes of the occupant. The Malgar sat in front of wall with only a few accoutrements, showing the classics of the Malgar renaissance. Behind the woman was a large tapestry filled with animals and vivid colors. It was the other man that really caught Jason's attention. Behind him hung a series of heavily stylized paintings, depicting ancient forms of hand-to-hand combat.
"Shall we begin?" the woman broke the silence. Her posture showed confidence, but her eyes and voice showed something else, something deeper and harder to define.
"Go ahead Sierra." the human man sat back in his chair, drumming his fingers against his desk. "Let's get this over with."
"Thank you, Quin. What about you, Dunsyn?" Sierra asked the Malgar.
"This had better not be a waste of my time." Dunsyn spoke, moving his mouth, but the words came from the speaker in his throat. Jason looked closer at the speaker, and found traces of scar tissue surrounding the instrument. Jason wanted nothing to do with anything that could have injured a Malgar in such a fashion.
"Alright." Sierra Jones sighed. "I called this meeting, so I'll begin." she fidgeted slightly, settling deeper into her chair. "We all saw the footage from Redemption. I had my people verify it. I'm convinced that it was not staged."
"Me too." Dunsyn admitted. "However, I am not presently dispositioned to ally myself with Captain McWilliams."
"I can't say that I'm convinced either." Quin leaned forward, placing his hands on his desk. "Until a decision is made though, we can't lean too far in any direction. I never liked Admiral West, but the fact remains that he is my Commanding Officer. Are you prepared for mutiny? I'm not."
"Captain Kim, we're not talking about mutiny." Captain Sierra Jones fixed her long time friend with a look that he was all too familiar with. "We're questioning whether or not Admiral West is fit for command, and whether or not to approach Captain McWilliams about the incidents that have occurred at Olcai. Like it or not, the Admiral was completely out of line. Not to mention the fact that McWilliams' ownership of Redemption is valid, and well documented. Even if someone wanted to take the ship away from him, he owns it, keel to stern."
"We don't need to cover this ground again. You're right about McWilliams, and Redemption. But, it seems to me that we are already approaching Captain McWilliams, just by entering the debris field. He must be watching us." Dunsyn interjected. "We should use extreme caution when dealing with Jason McWilliams. He isn't a formally trained starship Captain, like we are. There's no telling how he will respond to any overtures."
Jason watched the proceedings, unsure of how he should respond. He didn't know these Captains. None of them knew what he did. They had no idea why Olcai was attacked, or what was actually happening. Sometimes action was required with only a modicum of thought. Jason hoped that his plan was not going to backfire. Without any further waiting,
Jason acted. He adjusted the transceiver so that he could talk to the other captains.
"Captains, this is Captain Jason McWilliams of the starship Redemption." he paused for a moment, seeing the shock on their faces. "I have been listening to your conversation. Please forgive me for that transgression, but I needed to know if you have the same ideals as I do. And I think that you do."
"You were eavesdropping?" Captain Jones interjected. "I'm not so sure that we can trust you, Captain." her voice dropped to an icy tone, matching the cold fury in her eyes.
"Captain, whether you trust me or not, everyone needs your help. If the Ta'Reeth are doing what I think they are, we need all the help we can get." Jason tried to placate the other Captains.
"Captain, why should we trust you? Assaulting a senior officer, and eavesdropping, are not efficient ways to gain anyone's trust." Captain Dunsyn interjected, his annoyance carried through in his metallic voice.
"I can't give you a single reason to trust me. If I were in your position, I wouldn't be too quick to trust me either." Captain McWilliams clasped his hands in front of his face, hoping that he could break through to common ground with his peers. "What I can give you, is some information. Then you can decide for yourselves."
"We're listening." Captain Kim focused on Jason. There was an intensity about the man that Jason found unsettling, and oddly reassuring at the same time. "I sincerely hope that whatever you have is really good."
"I'm going to get straight to the chase here." Jason knew that he needed to persuade them now, or he wouldn't have a chance of convincing these three Captains of what he needed. "The Ta'Reeth attacked Olcai for information. It was in a delivery device, and is now implanted inside Commander T'Sula Mir of the Resistance Special Operations Group. The Regiment has her, and has probably turned her over to the Ta'Reeth by now."
"And how did you get this information?" Captain Jones sounded skeptical.
"My wife was with her. She contacted me with the information." Jason hoped that coming out with pure honesty would help him here. He knew that the higher the rank one attains, the more political the arena, but time to play those games was a commodity that was in increasingly short supply.
"Do you know what the information is, Captain?" Dunsyn asked. "If it is the reason that Olcai was destroyed, it must be of paramount importance."
"Unfortunately I don't know what it is. I do know however, that they captured her very recently, and I also have a trajectory for their ship." Jason smiled as the other Captains leaned in toward him. He knew that he had them.
"Alright." Captain Kim was the first to speak. "What do you need from us?"
"You're all in agreement then?" Jason waited for their responses. One by one, they each nodded. "Alright then, the three of you come with me, and the rest of your fleet stays here to help Olcai. We leave in ten minutes."
"Captain McWilliams, where are they headed?" Captain Kim asked before anyone could sign off.
Jason paused for a moment, weighing the results of his answer. Finally, the truth won out.
"Home." was all he said before severing the connection.