Harold stood by the door. “Sisters and Brothers, as you know, Tabitha has been instrumental in rooting out spies and traitors in our midst. Some of you know, and some of you don’t, that we have been quietly seeing each other for a year. I decided in the wake of the recent conflict that I no longer wanted to merely see her and that I wanted to be with her so I asked her to marry me and she agreed.”
The spontaneous applause was deafening. Saul’s two fingered whistle only added to the chaos.
Jared slapped Saul on the shoulder and gleefully shouted over the din, “You lose!”
“I accept the loss gracefully!”
Janice hugged Tab and said, “Welcome to the family.”
During the lunch break, the seating assignments had been changed so that Timothy sat at the head of the table. Saul had his own place now, but Timothy’s old place at the foot of the table was empty. Janice gently insisted that Tab occupy that spot for remainder of the day.
Two of the biggest freighters in port had been damaged enough that they would be out of action for a few months. Jared reported that by rescheduling smaller freighters he would have enough capacity to handle the traffic. The decision was made to repair the freighters in the Stellar shipyard but repairs to the military craft would be sub-contracted to others.
As the meeting drew to a close, Harold said, “The Solomon family’s old buddies at Saturn Industries’ Eretz facility have been trying to sell us a new in-system interceptor. I suggest that we send the Fourth and a team of engineers to evaluate it.”
Saul looked stunned. “What new interceptor? I thought they canceled that project in favor of the convoy escort and the new P I.”
“Apparently not,” Kevin said. “Barbara and I have seen the drawings and the presentations. It looks pretty hot. I agree we should check it out. I think the Fourth should go and I know which engineers I would assign to the project.”
“One of my issues with Saturn’s ships in the past has been their cost,” Barbara said.
“They have always seemed more expensive than they were worth. That is why we built our own interceptors. Unfortunately, I think that may have also been why we lost so many of them. A quick review of the damage reports would seem to indicate that the Saturn ships will withstand substantially more battle damage than the craft we built. I will review the reports in more detail, but I believe we should at least research competitive designs.”
“You realize that whoever you send will be gone at least a year and perhaps as long as two with travel and on site time.” Saul cautioned. “Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the Fourth will come back at all.”
“I realize that,” Barbara said. “I have a couple of engineers I want to send for graduate degrees at Eretz. They can do both and since I am paying them, they will have to come back.”
“We will discuss this with the Fourth and let you know what they say,” Fiona offered.
“You can’t just order them to go?” Harold asked.
Fiona shook her head. “Not the Fourth. I am sure they will be happy to go, but we need to ask them and not tell them.”
All activities not related to station and ship repairs came to a halt. The Marine guards were pressed into construction jobs. Children as young as eight helped paint and clean. Elizabeth assumed a patrol station and served as a tender for the remaining police and security ships. Peter, Buddy, Daisy, the Fourth and eight engineers left for Eretz. The members of the Fourth were happy to go to Eretz since, with the exception of their parents and Saul’s group, their friends and family were still there.
Warren responded to the reports the siblings sent him via courier missile and generally commended their work. He gave no indication as to what was keeping him away so long, or when he would be back, but he expressed his confidence that he had left the company in good hands. On more than one occasion Timothy expressed the opinion that things would be much easier if Warren was there, but the remainder of the siblings politely reminded him of his responsibilities.
Harold and Tabitha married in Elizabeth’s Galley and the party that followed was a gracious subdued affair.
The Queen Elizabeth’s crew merged into the security service assuming such duties as flying patrols and training a new generation of pilots to replace the ones that had been lost in the recent conflict.
Life on the station settled back to routine and convoys resumed their transit as before.
The Federation Space Force, stunned out of its lethargy by the reports submitted by the Constant News correspondents Saul had taken with him as well as the reporters who remained on the station, swooped down on the coalition of crime syndicates that had plotted the attack on Stellar’s Headquarters. The news media reported a level of warfare that had not happened in a very long time.
Warren and the Swordsman High Command steadfastly denied that any confrontation had occurred between them. Both parties claimed that negotiations broke down over differences on financial issues. The Swordsmen public relations system maintained the Swordsman claim of neutrality and non-involvement with the current conflict with such vehemence that virtually no one believed them. The only indisputable fact was that the Federation and Swordsmen were not fighting each other, but both military services were actively pursuing armed third parties.
CHANGE OF COMMAND - CHAPTER TWELVE
GABBY AND CAROLINE GINGERLY piloted Peter to a landing cradle in the Eretz cargo marshaling yard on the planet’s moon. Buddy and Daisy undocked and settled on their landing gear near where Peter was parked. Gabby sought out J. T. to ask him about Peter immediately upon processing through Eretz immigration. Other than her grandfather, no one knew Peter better than J. T. because J. T. had been his flight engineer longer than anyone else.
Gabby was able to pull him away from his current project field testing the newest generation of the MMARV, Marine Mobile Armed Remote Vehicles long enough to talk to him.
“I’m concerned about Peter,” Gabby said.
“What’s the problem?”
“We made a half dozen jumps on the way here stopping at points along the way. None of the jumps ended where we thought they should. Some of them were off by as much as five percent.”
“When you are talking about a hyper jump of light years in length, that’s a lot,” J. T. observed.
“Yes, that’s why I am concerned.”
“What did the engineers you brought with you say?”
“They thought it was a software problem.”
“And you don’t agree.”
“No, could you examine him and see what is going on?”
J. T. sighed. “I can take the time off. If my hunch is correct, this will not be pretty.”
J. T. and a team of engineers devoted three days to careful measurements of Peter’s structure and drive systems. When he had finished, he repeated the process for Buddy and Daisy. When he had completed his tests, J. T. gathered the Fourth and the remainder of the combined Solomon and Abrams clans together in one of the freight depot’s conference rooms. All of them had grown up with Peter as a fixture in their lives. He was a member of the family. Whatever was wrong with Peter would impact them directly.
“Peter is very sick. Kind of hard to think of a ship as being sick, but he is. Buddy and Daisy suffer from the same problem, but not to the extent that Peter does. Peter, Buddy and Daisy are the three oldest ships of any type currently in service. The next oldest ship is ten years their junior. Buddy and Daisy are from the second production run of the P I ship. Your grandfather helped develop the P I ship when he was a teenager. That was a long time ago. The design has been in constant production ever since. The majority of the warships that age or older were lost in battles along the way. The cargo ships of Peter’s design have all been retired from service. Parts to repair them are not available. Some of them have been reported to have left port with a load of cargo and passengers and never arrive at their intended destination. We don’t know what has happened to them. If Peter were human, his disease if you want
to call it that, could best be described as osteoporosis. The metal in the central truss structure and the beams that hold the modules to it has started to crystallize. Tiny cracks have developed and the truss itself is warped. If I believed in miracles I would call your surviving the voyage here a miracle. As it is I can offer no explanation. By everything I know to be true, you should be lost somewhere in the vastness of space with no hope of recovery.”
“So what do we do?” Moses, the oldest of his generation, asked.
“What do we do with old people when they can no longer care for themselves? We have a dilemma. Peter is sentient. He is as self aware as you and I. He is a cargo ship. He is not a person. He is beyond repair. We could take his control module and graft it on to another ship, but that would be it. I know that’s how Elizabeth was built, and we could do it again. It’s your call. Peter is your ship. You tell me what you want to do.”
“Can we at least bring Buddy and Daisy to the surface?” Gabby asked.
“No,” J. T. responded thoughtfully. “They would not survive the trip through the atmosphere.”
“So they are doomed to staying in system doing sub-light missions,” Caroline said.
“I am not sure I would trust any of them too far out of orbit,” J. T. said. “They need to stay pretty close to where they are.”
“Are they a hazard?” Delmar asked.
“Not now, but they can’t stay at that cradle forever. We need to find a place where they can orbit without being a danger to themselves or others.”
“Any suggestions?”
“We can find a geosynchronous orbit over one of the oceans and they can be used as training platforms at least for the interim.”
“Peter was happy doing training, but Buddy and Daisy hated it,” Moses said.
“They are ships! Machines! They are not people! I don’t care how much you think they do, they do not have souls,” J. T. shouted.
“Well, in any case, they are our ships and our responsibility,” Moses said. “J. T. thank you for your work. We need to discuss privately what we are going to do now that we know.” Moses said.
“Let me know if you need my help,” J.T. Offered.
“We will, thank you,” Moses said.
J. T. quietly left the family to itself.
“I should tell him,” Gabby offered.
“No, Gabby, this is my job,” Moses said. “I’m the oldest and Peter will take it best from me.”
“I suppose your being a doctor and my being a combat pilot might have something to do with that opinion,” Gabby challenged.
“I’m not a doctor yet, but yes,” Moses replied.
“If you insist,” Gabby backed down.
“I do.”
Moses dried his eyes before he stepped through the open airlock from the boarding tube.
“Hello, Moses. You look like you have been crying.”
“Yes, Peter, I have.”
“Is the news that bad?”
“Yes.”
“You had best tell me straight out.”
“You can’t fly anymore.”
“Not fly as in no hyper drive?”
“Yes.”
“Well, there could be worse things than to be restricted to sub-light.”
“J. T. thinks that would be dangerous and you should not do that either.”
“I can’t stay here!”
“I know that.”
“So what do you propose?”
“Assigning the three of you to training command and parking you in a geosynchronous orbit where you can train combat crews.”
“Buddy and Daisy?”
“Yes, they are sick, too.”
“NO!”
Moses broke down and sobbed. “Peter, please, what choices do we have? It’s not like I can take you to an extended care facility with nice nurses to watch over you. You are a ship. You are not a person. You are brilliant, wonderful and caring, and you helped raise me. What do you want me to do?”
The silence on the flight deck was oppressive. Moses had crumpled to the floor. His tears flowed freely. This was the hardest thing he had ever done.
“Will you come visit me?”
“Yes, we can write to each other and talk to each other, too.”
“I would like that. I will tell Buddy and Daisy. It would be better if it came from me.”
“Thank you, Peter.”
“I would rather not be towed. Do you think J. T. would mind if we left under our own power?”
“If you went slowly, I don’t see why not.”
“After I have a chance to talk to Buddy and Daisy, send Gabby and Barney to see me.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Moses, don’t forget to come visit me.”
“I promise.”
CHANGE OF COMMAND - CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EIGHT MONTHS AFTER HE LEFT, Warren returned the way he had gone, safely ensconced in the center of a regularly scheduled convoy. His first stop was to meet with the siblings. They spent the day briefing him on what they had accomplished in the wake of the attack. That evening they gathered in his quarters where he expressed his unbounded joy at the fact that both Fiona and Tabitha were pregnant. After the festivities he called Rachel and Wendy to meet with him in his office.
After formalities and a round of Rachel’s favorite snack of cinnamon buns, Warren had them sit formally in his office.
Warren faced Rachel and Wendy and said softly, “Your mother is sick. She has become paranoid and delusional. She listens to your father most of the time, but when she doesn’t he can’t control her. She is attacking guards with the intent to kill. She has lost little of her skills and is very dangerous. I have had her and your father sent to Eretz. If anyone can do anything to help her, they can. You need to go to her. Take your husbands and as many of your people as you wish to take. I have pulled an armed small passenger liner off the schedule so you can go directly to Eretz in a single jump. Saul and Fiona can handle the situation here. You need to be there. It is the right thing to do.”
“Do you know what is causing the delusions?” Rachel asked.
“No, none of my doctors can figure it out. That’s why I sent them to Eretz and why you need to go. They will need your help.”
“I understand,” Wendy said. “Are you sure you do not need us here?”
“I would like to have you stay, but you need to go. The ship is standing by. I assumed you could pilot it yourselves so I have not assigned you a crew. Do you need one?”
Rachel and Wendy looked at each other. “No, thanks. I am sure we can figure it out.”
The six who had departed together from Eretz bound for the Space Force Academy a generation ago in a freighter they named Peter after the legendary Peter Pan gathered their spouses and the few children that remained with them. They boarded the passenger liner which, while it was one of the smallest in the fleet, was over double what they needed. As they had so many times before, Rachel sat in the pilot’s seat. Wendy was her co-pilot. Reuben was the flight engineer and Rashi was the fire control officer. David Shapiro, their legal officer, and Faye Anne Sherman, their intelligence officer, would fill out the watch rotation.
With heavy hearts they set out on the months long journey that would span much of the settled galaxy.
Eretz, the planet of the Jews, was arguably the most heavily defended planet in the galaxy. One did not approach it lightly. It had never been successfully attacked in spite of vitriolic Swordsman rhetoric denying its very right to exist. Rachel dropped the ship out of hyper drive a respectful distance away from the system and sent a courier missile requesting escort.
The passenger liner was quickly surrounded and a delegation from the security service boarded to take the ship and its crew to the marshaling yard on the planet’s moon.
Moses met his parents and the remainder of the extended family who had traveled with them alone. He acknowledged his mother with the briefest of smiles and went straight to his father. “Dad, I am so glad to see
you. You have no idea.”
Isaac glanced at Rachel who was seething that her son would pass her by to greet his father first. “Is there someplace we can talk?”
Moses led the entourage to the same small conference room where a few months ago, J. T. had delivered the bad news about Peter. “Grandmother Avi has been here for two weeks. Her nervous system has been invaded by a proto-organism that we cannot identify. She has sent two Marines to the hospital for fractured bones. We have confined her to Peter for safety.”
“Where is Peter?” Rachel asked.
“In planetary orbit with Buddy and Daisy,” Moses said evasively.
“Not on patrol?” Wendy asked picking up on her sister’s suspicions.
“No,” Moses replied.
“Why are they in orbit and not on patrol?” Rachel asked, her eyes narrowing at her oldest son.
“Because they are sick,” Moses said.
“What kind of sick?” Issac asked.
“Metal fatigue of the main structural members,” Moses said through tears beginning to appear in the corners of his eyes.
Isaac looked at his son with the eyes not only of a concerned father, but those of an experienced doctor.
“Dad, I am in so far over my head, I don’t know what to do,” Moses said.
Isaac took his son into his arms. Moses would make a good doctor once he finished school, Isaac was proud of him. “Your mother and I need to visit her. Wendy and Joshua will go with us. You should stay here.”
Moses looked at his uncle Joshua for confirmation. Joshua, always the calmest of the group, due in part to his training as a bio-medical engineer, nodded. “Moses, we’ll take it from here. You’ve done a great job.”
“Thank you.”
“Where is Greg?” Isaac asked.
“Grandfather is with Grandmother.”
“Is he in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me talk to her and see what I can learn.”
“Thank you, Dad.”
The foursome docked at one of the ring of ports around Peter’s cargo hold and entered the empty hold.
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