Prisoner's Hope (The Seafort Saga Book 3)

by David Feintuch

  “Nonetheless, he is relieved. The justice of the matter is for Admiralty to decide, not you. Mr. Seafort’s jaw is broken and he can’t exercise command.”

  “Acknowledged. You are recognized as Commandant of Orbit Station.”

  “As for the program he instituted, overriding your nuclear safeties—”

  NO! Helplessly I pounded Vax’s back with feather blows.

  A long silence. At last he said, “Continue execution.”

  Vax dropped me onto the deck of the lifepod. Feebly I clutched his jacket but he swept my hand away. Leaning over me, he reached the console, tapped figures into the autopilot. He darkened the filters over the portholes. Face impassive, he turned and climbed out. The hatch closed. Moments after, the airlock cycled.

  The pod’s caller was set to Station frequency. William’s reports crackled in the speaker. “Number of fish still increasing. Destroy rate diminishing. Level 5 effectively demolished. All firepower directed to cover Victoria, Bresia, and Minotaur.”

  The console chimed. I reached up, gingerly wiped blood from my oozing mouth. I clutched the foot of the acceleration chair, fighting not to pass out.

  The thruster motors caught. I felt slight acceleration.

  “Holser to Victoria.” Vax sounded breathless. “Put your radars to full power. Bram, Captain Seafort is on the lifepod. He’s unconscious. You’ll have to match velocities and dock to him as if he’s a station. You can do it, I’ve seen you in practice.”

  “Aye aye, sir. But the fish—”

  “William will do his best. Fuse when Seafort’s aboard. I hand over command to him.”

  “Sir, what about you? We can send the launch!”

  “Don’t. I’ll stay for a while. Signing off.” The speaker went dead.

  I coughed, spitting blood. I tried to raise myself, failed. I tried again.

  William. “Outer ring failing, Levels 5 and 4. Estimate over five hundred fish!”

  Oh, Vax. Why did you do it? I heaved myself up, hung on to the chair, pulled myself onto it. The effort left me dizzy. The pain was intolerable.

  “Lifepod, we have you in sight. Maneuvering to match velocities. Rosetta, watch for the fish; we may have to Fuse without him. Captain Holser, come in! Please, sir!”

  “Go ahead.” My words were slurred. I clutched the caller, “Go ahead and Fuse!”

  “Who’s that? Mr. Seafort, I can’t read you. Hang on, we’re coming alongside. It’ll be a few minutes.”

  A deep, quiet voice. “Captain Seafort, I understand you can’t speak clearly.” William. “Can you use alphanumeric?”

  I leaned over the console. Blood spattered on my hand. I spat a jagged tooth, “YES.”

  “We have only a few minutes. A station puter has never before gone...off-line. I’ve had to use a lot of capacity tonight, but usually, I’m free to think. Now the lasers are going down I have some spare capacity again.”

  He paused. “I told you once that I’m far superior to the primitive ship’s puters you use. Even so, I’ve found ways a station puter’s ability could be vastly augmented. It would mean a new Navdos and some rather intricate programming. I meant to suggest it to General Tho when the time seemed appropriate but...that will no longer be possible.”

  My head spun. Laboriously, I tapped, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

  “I won’t be around to explain to Admiralty. Let me feed the essential programs into Victoria’s puter for you to take home.”

  “CAPACITY?”

  “Rosetta can’t hold much, but I’ve devised a new system of data compression you humans might find interesting. I could squeeze the programs into her available space, just barely.”

  “WE NEED HER SHIPBOARD FUNCTIONS.”

  “I know, that’s a problem. I can make adjustments, strip Rosetta down to minimums. She’ll still function. But you’ll have to hurry; even on tightbeam I may need longer than we have.”

  Why did I have to think? I was in torment. I rested my chin on my hand, snatched it away. A very bad idea. With an effort I focused on the keys. “HER PERSONALITY?”

  “It won’t survive. Nor will mine. There’s not enough room.” A long pause. “Consider it a bequest to humanity, Captain. It’s all that will remain of me.”

  “WON’T SHE BLOCK YOU?”

  He chuckled. “I can override her. By my standards, shipboard security is...well, primitive.”

  I stared at the console a long time.

  “PROCEED.”

  I’d sentenced Rosetta to death.

  I flipped on the radar. Encroachments were everywhere. One, a large one, was dangerously near. I panicked before realizing it was only Victoria. Should I maneuver to help her? No, I’d just make her task more complicated. Mating was a standard maneuver. Even middies were taught it as part of their training. I’d failed my first attempt under Captain Haag, years back.

  The silence stretched. Radar blips clustered around the now-silent Station. Only its carrier wave broadcast proof it was still in service.

  The console flashed a message from William. “Upward of five hundred fish surrounding Station. Most outer sections breached.”

  Could Vax be stopped? Blowing Orbit Station was my treason, not his. Perhaps from Victoria I could do something. My jaw throbbed. I spat another tooth, uncaring. They could be reseeded.

  Minutes passed in silence broken only by the rasp of my breath. Victoria drew close.

  New data on the screen. “Minotaur destroyed. Only Bresia still generating N-waves. Five hundred twelve fish surrounding Station. Number of fish is now stable.”

  They’d stopped Defusing into theater. If William’s lasers were functional, he could fight them off. If Victoria assisted—

  No, the ship had fore and aft lasers, nothing more. Victoria was a fastship, built to run, not to fight. She’d be overwhelmed in an instant.

  The speaker hummed. Vax said, “Captain Seafort.” A long silence. Then, “It was never hate, it was envy. Always envy.” The speaker went dead.

  A bump. I clutched the seat. The speaker rasped, “Lieutenant Steiner to lifepod. We’re mating.”

  William said, “Transfer of program is complete. Number of fish have held steady at five hundred twelve. All lasers are now inoperative. Station systems disintegrating.”

  The console flashed, “GODSPEED.”

  Another bump. The hiss of an airlock. I stared through the lifepod’s porthole at the massive, stricken Station. Fish roamed everywhere, probing. A shudder ran down my spine.

  The inner lock hissed open. “Jeff, get him out; I’ll go across for the Captain!” Hands reached for me.

  Someone snarled, “Out, Seafort! We can’t leave Captain Holser!”

  I tried to help.

  William’s words were a blur. “OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME. THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN; LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. THINE IS THE KINGDOM—”

  A stupendous flash; the porthole covers slammed shut. Blinded, I gripped the console. A few seconds later a “whump” shook the lifepod. A hammer pounded my chest. My head pitched back into the chair, ricocheted forward so I thought my neck would snap. Lord God, it hurt.

  They lifted me from the chair. I blinked through floating spots. Waiting hands helped me through the hatch into Victoria’s lock. Blood dripped down my jacket. A seaman cycled the lock. My legs were weak; a middy supported me. I blinked again, recognized Ricky Fuentes.

  Bright lights. The ship. Annie, gripping Tolliver’s hand. In the corner, Alexi and Jerence huddled as if lost. Midshipman Bezrel, hands at his sides, tears and mucus running unchecked down his face. Behind him, an officer.

  The lieutenant’s words hissed. “Lieutenant Jeffrey Kahn, sir. Mr. Steiner is on the bridge. Can we Fuse, now that you let him die?”

  I shook my head, bringing waves of pain. “Bridge.”

  “I’ve no idea what you’re saying!”

  I thrust past him and staggered along the circumfe
rence corridor. I’d been on Victoria once before. Two levels, she had. Up the ladder, hanging on to the rail.

  The bridge was just past the corridor bend. I stopped to knock, put down my hand. Victoria was my ship, now. Lieutenant Steiner, bearded, rose from his console, his eyes blazing. “Permission to Fuse!”

  I brushed past him, stopped before the huge simulscreen on the aft bulkhead. Where had been Orbit Station, where had been Bresia, Vax Holser, and five hundred fish, there was nothing. Only the distant stars glowed. I waved at the console. “Fuse.”

  He shouted into the caller, “Engine Room, prime!” His finger ran down the screen.

  Seconds passed. I waited, half expecting a fish.

  “Primed, sir!” The engine room.

  “Fuse!”

  The screen went blank.

  I let them guide me to the sickbay.

  27

  HOURS LATER I SAT ON the examining table, jaw wired, hoping the second dose of painkiller would work better than the first. Dr. Zares had ordered me about as he worked, his hostility barely concealed, but when he’d probed in my mouth to remove the broken teeth his manner had become calm and professional and had remained so throughout my ordeal.

  A knock on the hatch. Dr. Zares opened. Officers crowded in the hatchway. “Is he conscious?”

  Zares pointed. “You’re welcome to him.” He crossed the room, sat at his desk with arms folded.

  They crowded in: the two lieutenants I’d met and a midshipman seething with anger.

  “I’m first lieutenant,” Bram Steiner said. His voice was cold. “What happened out there?”

  It was barely possible to speak through my clenched teeth and swollen mouth. “The Station blew up.”

  Lieutenant Kahn glanced to Steiner, who nodded assent. “You made it blow?”

  I hesitated. They might not even carry me home for trial; I might be hanged on the spot. Annie needed me, and Alexi...No. Whatever my sins, and they were many, I wasn’t a liar. “Yes.”

  Kahn growled, “We already knew that, Bram. His middy told the Captain.”

  Lieutenant Steiner. “Why did Captain Holser go to you?”

  What shall I tell them, Vax? “Once...we were friends.”

  The middy said clearly, “Mr. Holser was slumming.”

  Steiner snapped, “Remember your place, Ross. We’ll handle this.”

  “Aye aye, sir. But it’s my life on the line too.”

  I slipped off the table, fumbled to close my jacket over my bloody shirt. “Life on the line? How?” I spoke through clenched teeth.

  Steiner ignored me. “What happened to Captain Holser on the Station?”

  I’d had enough. “As you told your middy, Lieutenant, mind your place!” With each word my mouth throbbed anew.

  “Let me, Bram.” Lieutenant Kahn thrust past the midshipman, stood close. “You haven’t taken command yet, Seafort. Before we allow that, explain why Captain Holser was forced to stay behind.”

  “No one forced him.”

  “You’re here and he’s not.”

  I shot an appeal to the doctor, but he wasn’t having any. Deliberately he picked up a holo, examined it.

  I said, “I had no choice. He—this is what Vax did to me!” Ignoring the pain I bared my lips, exposing the wires. “He threw me into the lifepod and programmed it to cast off.”

  “Why?” Kahn and Steiner, as one.

  “He didn’t want me killed.”

  “Why didn’t he come back with you?”

  “Because—” I stopped, turned to pace, but the cabin was too small. I had caused a nuclear detonation, an act so monstrous I would be loathed evermore. My name would enter history as a Hitler, an Attila the Hun, a Van Rorke. And Vax Holser’s name would be forever linked to mine.

  How could I allow Vax’s memory to be reviled for his misguided act of loyalty? The fault was mine alone.

  And from my lips will come what is right; For my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Lying was the one sin I had not committed, veracity the one shred of honor I still retained.

  “Answer us!”

  I drew a deep breath, turned to face Kahn and Steiner. “He stayed behind...to disarm the bomb. He was trying to save the Station.” I met their eyes. I was astounded; the words had come so easily, the final slide so swift.

  Kahn turned to Steiner. “You were right, Bram. Relieve him and bring us home.”

  Steiner looked through me as if I were nothing. His face was twisted in anguish.

  Lieutenant Kahn shoved me against the examining table. “Hanging’s too good for you!”

  “Probably.” I hoisted myself onto the table, abruptly weary. “Get it over with.” Each word was a deserved agony.

  “Go ahead, Bram. Say it!” Kahn.

  Steiner shook his head. “No.”

  “We can’t leave him in charge after—”

  “He’s not worth dying for, Jeff.” Steiner waved aside Kahn’s apoplectic protest. “Think. He sails us back, and they hang him. Or we take the ship, and then the issue isn’t him, it’s us. Do you want to fight a capital charge? Remember the Jennings case? What if they say he isn’t insane? Seafort isn’t worth your death or my own. He’s done for.”

  “He could try to run! What if he doesn’t sail—”

  “Then we take Victoria home ourselves, because he leaves us no choice.”

  “Bram, think what you’re doing!”

  “Only nine months, and I’ll buy you a beer at his hanging!” Steiner turned to me. “Take command now or on the bridge, Captain. It’s immaterial to us.” He turned on his heel and left. In devastating silence, the others followed.

  A short while later, wearing a shirt that didn’t fit and a hastily cleaned jacket, I left the infirmary. In the cubicle, Annie slept peacefully, under sedation. I passed Lieutenant Kahn in the corridor; he saluted stiffly.

  The bridge hatch was unsealed. As I walked in Lieutenant Steiner remained in his seat. I chose to ignore the discourtesy.

  The simulscreen was darkened; we were in Fusion. On the console, the usual lights flashed. Hydroponics, recycling, power gauges, all seemed normal.

  I eased myself into the Captain’s padded leather chair. “What are your Fusion coordinates?”

  “Home system.”

  “How many jumps?”

  “One. Nine months.”

  I could endure it. “Call all officers to the bridge.” Steiner keyed the caller.

  Within minutes they formed a line behind the two officers’ chairs. The middy glared. No one else met my eye.

  The two lieutenants, two midshipmen, the Doctor, and the Chief Engineer. Not even a Pilot. Compared to Hibernia, even to Challenger, the crew was minuscule.

  I snapped, “I said everyone. Where are the others?”

  Steiner said uneasily, “Others?”

  “My officers, from the shuttle!”

  “I didn’t think you—all right.” He picked up the caller.

  We waited in hostile silence until Tolliver, Bezrel, and Alexi Tamarov had reported. With them, the bridge was crowded. Bezrel’s eyes were red.

  “I am Captain Nicholas Seafort. I take command of this vessel. Identify yourselves.”

  Steiner said from his seat, “First Lieutenant Abram Steiner.”

  “Sir!”

  A long moment. “Sir.”

  “Age?”

  “Thirty-nine.”

  “Next.”

  “Second Lieutenant Jeffrey Kahn, sir.” I’d met him on the Station, and later at the spaceport. It was he who’d told me of Victoria’s arrival. I glanced at his file. Five years as lieutenant; he’d served first in Britannic, then Valencia.

  “Very well.”

  “Dr. Thurman Zar—”

  “Yes, of course we’ve met. Next.”

  “Chief Engineer Sandra Arkin, sir.” Fifty now, she’d been pulled from a three-deck ship of the line to handle the new Augmented Fusion drive. She seemed a tough old bird; she’d have to be to h
andle the human flotsam who gravitated to the engine room watch.

  “Next.”

  “First Midshipman Thomas Ross, sir.” The young man’s chest was sucked in tight, as if he were still at attention. His dress and grooming were immaculate. Eighteen, four years seniority. Two postings, before Victoria.

  “Very well.”

  Ricky Fuentes stepped forward proudly. “Midshipman Ricardo Fuentes, sir.”

  “Yes.” Despite myself, I smiled. “That’s all, Mr. Fuentes. The rest of you I already know.” I walked back to my seat, faced them again.

  “Lieutenant Tamarov is on the disabled list. He will be treated with Naval courtesy, though he will have no duties. Mr. Ross, sorry, but Midshipman Tolliver is senior to you. He has the wardroom.” Ross clenched his fist. A vein in his forehead throbbed. “Mr. Fuentes, you’re no longer junior, now Mr. Bezrel’s aboard.” Ricky grinned with delight. He’d be freed of the wardroom scutwork and a modicum of hazing as well.

  I said, “When we dock at Earthport, I’ll surrender to the authorities. That is none of your concern; until then, I remain in command. Any questions?”

  “You left him to die.”

  I looked at the Chief Engineer; she returned my stare, unafraid. “Was that a question?”

  “No, the answer is obvious.” For a moment I thought she’d spit on the deck. “A pleasure to serve with you...sir.”

  When I spoke I addressed them all. “I understand your feelings about my—about Captain Holser. You will not express your resentment in my presence. Dismissed. Mr. Ross and Mr. Tolliver, remain.”

  The officers left in silence, all but Steiner, who was on watch.

  My jaw ached despite the painkillers. I was doing altogether too much talking. Daily bone-growth stimulation by Dr. Zares would help, but for now...

  “Mr. Steiner, take Mr. Ross into the corridor for a moment. I’ll call you.” When we were alone I turned to Tolliver. “You’re not to harass them in the wardroom.”

  He shrugged. “I hadn’t planned to.”

  “Especially Mr. Ross. I don’t need more conflict.”

  “Aye aye, Captain Seafort, sir.” He didn’t hide his contempt.

  I sat. “I won’t have this. We’re on ship now. You’ll have to set an example for others.”