by Brian Fisher
Chapter 62
Corin carried Mekala on his hip as he walked through his ship. Kamira had told him about the changes that she had put into the rebuild, and he wasn't sure if he liked them or not. Of course, the added weapons would be useful, and the larger, more powerful engines could definitely come in handy. He just wished that she had talked to him about it before she had done it.
"Are you ready for departure?" Major Narja's voice came from behind Corin.
"Almost. I'm just doing a quick walk through." Corin glanced down at Mekala. She was yawning, and trying to bury her face in his shoulder. "Would you like to see what your room looks like Mekala? I had it built just for you."
The little girl looked up at Corin, and squealed in delight. Corin looked back at Narja and motioned for him to follow. They walked in silence for a few minutes, until the trio arrived at Mekala's room. Happy chants of "My room, my room, my room..." echoed in Corin's ears long after he opened the door and let everyone in.
Pink and purple walls decorated with pictures of animals surrounded the otherwise spartan room. There was a comfortable, child size bed and a handful of toys that sat against the far bulkhead, leaving ample space for Mekala to play.
The little girl giggled and squealed in delight when she saw her own space. She scrambled down out of Corin's arms, and ran over to inspect the toys before she pounced onto the bed.
"I think she likes it." Narja grinned as he watched Mekala. He didn't have any children of his own, but found that he did enjoy watching this one.
"Before the two of you leave, I want to talk to you." Kamira called from down the corridor. She was dressed in her uniform instead of the robes and jumpsuits that Corin had grown accustomed to. There was a sense of determined urgency in her stride.
"You should have asked me before you made all of these modifications." Corin growled.
"Yeah, next time I'm saving your life, I'll remember to ask you first." Kamira smiled. "I need to speak with both of you before you leave, Corin."
"Go ahead." Corin glanced back at Mekala. The girl had crawled onto the bed with several of her stuffed animals, and quickly fallen to sleep.
"Alright. Listen, I know that there's a lot of tension between you, even if you don't. If you guys want to fight, go ahead. Just do it after everything is all said and done. Then you can kill each other. Not before. Understand?" the words tumbled out of her mouth before she stopped herself.
"Yeah, well I did want to address that. In private of course." Corin sheepishly looked at Kamira and Narja. "Besides, I didn't think that right now was a good time."
"Actually, I had similar thoughts as Corin." Narja smiled wanly. "I had thought that while we were underway to Caldon, we might be able to come to an understanding of each other."
"Oh. In that case, never mind." Kamira turned slightly red in her cheeks. "I, uh, actually had something else for you. Here."
Corin reached out and took the small black device from Kamira's hand. It didn't look like much, but if Kamira made a special effort to give it to him, then it must be important.
"In an emergency, download that into your MRU." Kamira shoved her hands into her trouser pockets. "I have to go now. Good luck." she turned and left quickly, not allowing herself to linger.
As Kamira left, Corin watched, wondering why she was so awkward. He realized that loved her, but not as a lover. What he felt was a brother's love for his sister.
"She is married to my Commanding Officer, Mr. Dante." Narja's gravelly voice intruded on Corin's thoughts.
"I know. She's a friend, nothing more, nothing less." Corin smiled in spite of himself. Maybe in a different time, or a different place they could have been something more, but not now, and not here. "Have you found your quarters yet Major?"
"No, I haven't." Narja forced himself to smile as pleasantly as he could manage. This man had tried to kill him not so long ago, and now they were together on a mission to Caldon, his home. "Would you please show me where it is, so that I may stow my bags?"
"Sure. It's actually right over here. Second door on the right." Corin pointed down the corridor. "It's a small ship, so everybody's pretty close together. Take your time. I'm going to get us underway, so I'll see you later."
"Thank you." Narja said, turning toward his quarters. He opened the door to reveal comfortable, but small accommodations. The room had all of the things that he required. There was a bed along the far wall, a small dresser, a closet, and even his own shower.
Narja tossed his bags on the bed, and then left. He felt the engines come to life as he walked down the corridor. A few moments later, Vengeance rose to the air and slid smoothly into space.
When Narja found the bridge, Corin was effortlessly piloting his ship away from Redemption. The view screen was divided into different sections. One screen showed Redemption quickly fading away to nothing. Another showed the sensor readings in a real time display, while yet another showed where they were going. The one screen that surprised Narja the most was the one that showed Mekala peacefully sleeping on her bed.
"How long before we reach Caldon?" Narja asked, sitting down at an empty console.
"Once we hit hyperspace, a couple of days. You might as well get comfortable." Corin input the coordinates for Caldon. "It'll be a couple of minutes before we can go to hyperspace. Were your quarters alright?"
"They were. Thank you." Narja smiled thinly. "You are going the wrong way."
"No. Caldon is this way. That's what the star charts show." Corin flushed. How dare this man question his ability, especially on this ship.
"You misunderstand." Narja turned to face Corin. "Maruk has a network of hyperspace conduits. One of them is near here. If you will allow me access to the sensors, I can find it for you, and cut our travel time by more than half."
"By all means." He hadn't realized that the Caldonians had that kind of technology. Corin quickly transferred authorization for Narja to use the sensors. He watched Narja quietly, recording everything that the other man was searching for.
"It is here, where this gravimetric anomaly is. The anomaly actually hides the conduit." Narja smiled proudly. It had been years since he had helped his uncle construct the conduits, but he had remembered everything.
Corin laid in the coordinates and engaged the engines. Vengeance slipped through space with the power and grace of a Darwinian Sand Panther. Corin smiled to himself at the way his ship was handling. It seemed that Kamira had been right after all.
Brilliant white lights flashed and danced around Vengeance as the ship reached the coordinates. Corin decided to trust in Narja, and pressed on. In an instant, everything was gone, and Vengeance entered the swirling nothingness of the hyperspace conduit.
Corin checked his sensor readouts for what seemed to be the hundredth time. Again, they said the same thing: he was in a hyperspace conduit, traveling much faster than his ship could have done by itself.
"I've heard about the possibilities of hyperspace conduits before, but I always thought that they were nothing more than a myth. This is amazing." Corin stared at his passenger. The possibility occurred to him that Narja may be much more than he appeared.
"This is a technology that we Caldonians keep as a closely guarded secret. For obvious reasons of course." Narja quietly studied the other man. He didn't trust him, and he needed to know how Corin was going to react to different situations.
"Do you realize what the Resistance could do with this?" Corin's head swam with the possibilities. Reaction times to crisis could be drastically cut. Lives could be saved, or battles won simply because of the logistical advantages of these conduits.
"I do realize what you are saying..." Narja began before alarms sounded and red lights flashed across the data screens. "We have company."
"Got it." Corin instantly focused on his readouts. He touched a couple of controls on his console, and an image appeared on the main viewer.
A large ship was coming up fast from the stern. The swirling lights of the cond
uit danced across the matte black and dark grey camouflage hull. Vengeance's computer rendered the image as best as it could with the limited information available.
"It's a Caldonian Marauder. Don't do anything to provoke them." Narja said through gritted teeth. He had wanted to approach the Patriots on his own terms; instead, they were forcing his hand.
"Unidentified vessel, you are trespassing in Caldonian territory. Prepare for boarding. Any resistance and you will be destroyed." a stern baritone voice exploded over the communications system. "You have ten seconds to comply."
Corin thumbed a switch on his communications unit. "This is Corin Dante of the starship Vengeance. We mean no aggressions toward you. What are your instructions?"
Corin and Narja watched in silence as a small craft detached itself from the Caldonian ship. It was roughly rectangular in shape, with rounded edges, and powerful engines protruding from the rear. The hull and markings on the craft matched its mother ship perfectly.
Placing the ship on autopilot, Corin got up, motioning for Narja to follow. It took the men only a couple of minutes to reach the cargo bay, where they found Brutus constantly pacing the open expanse. Brutus' eyes locked immediately on Narja as he entered the cargo bay. The cat made no moves toward the Caldonian, but followed his every move.
"It's o.k. Brutus. Narja isn't going to hurt us." Corin stepped forward toward his friend. "I need to ask you to do something very important for me."
Corin waited until he was certain that he had Brutus' full attention. "I need you to watch over Mekala. Will you do that for me?"
Brutus gazed through Corin for a moment, then turned and walked out of the cargo bay. He walked quickly, never looking back to see if the two men were following. The cat simply walked straight to the little girl's room and firmly pressed his nose against the pressure plate near the door. When the door slid open, Brutus walked in to see Mekala sleeping peacefully. Once he was satisfied, he turned to face the door, and sat down, blocking any entry.
"That's one smart pet you've got there." Narja said, shaking his head at Corin as Mekala's door closed and locked.
"No. Brutus isn't a pet. He's family." Corin didn't bother to look at Narja as he spoke. He simply walked off toward the airlock. "Let's go greet our guests."