Running With Argentine

by William Lee Gordon

  “Look, Lieutenant Stark…”

  “I think it’s probably better if you started calling me José,” the lieutenant interrupted with a thin smile. Argentine couldn’t help but note that it was the first smile he’d ever seen on the man’s face.

  “Okay, fair enough… José. We can be friends if you want. I just…”

  The smile disappeared. “No. Stop right there. We’re not friends; we just need each other right now. As soon as I can find a safe way out of this mess, I’m out of here.”

  “Then what’s with the first names?”

  “Just because we’re not friends doesn’t mean we can’t be friendly, does it?” he asked deadpan.

  This brought Argentine up short… but since the lieutenant was only echoing his own thoughts…

  “Just what is it you think we should do?” he finally asked.

  “I have no idea; that’s not my department. I just don’t want to throw my life away for a government that doesn’t exist anymore.”

  “You want us to take over the ship,” Chief West said. He was verbalizing what they’d been afraid to put into words.

  “Well, I don’t think Political Officer Bloomington or Captain Kerry are going to run away with us, do you?”

  “If you want to create a mutiny why don’t you just take over the ship yourself? You’re the one with the squad of armed thugs… er, I mean troops.”

  The lieutenant sighed.

  “First of all, I wouldn’t trust my people to do anything outside of their training. Thugs is probably not a bad way to describe them; I don’t think they collectively have three brain cells to rub together.

  “More importantly, I don’t know the first thing about running a ship. I don’t have any desire to be a captain, or build a rebel army… I just want to live out my life.

  “The spiral arm is a big place, and I’m thinking it wouldn’t be too hard for a man to find a place to start over again. Besides, I’ve always wondered what’s out there.”

  Argentine was startled to realize that the lieutenant was repeating some of the things that he and the chief had talked about.

  “You really have been listening in on our conversations,” he said.

  He just smiled again.

  ΔΔΔ

  Lieutenant Stark left to go make arrangements for his men.

  Argentine and Chief West were left to make a decision that would certainly affect the rest of their lives – no matter how long or short that might be.

  “Okay, so let’s say we take the ship. Where will we go?” Argentine asked.

  “Go that way,” the chief said while pointing at a wall. “Or that way, I don’t care. Let’s just get out of here.”

  “But how can we survive?” Argentine asked again. “Without an infrastructure to resupply us, without a government to pay us, how would we support ourselves or even keep the crew?”

  “Rory and I can keep the engines going, at least for a while,” the chief said.

  “You think Rory would stick with you?”

  “Oh yeah. He’s is a good man. I’d be shocked if he wanted to split up the team.”

  “Who else do we need?”

  “Well, if we want to have any hope of slipping away unnoticed and not leaving a trail that anyone can follow, I think we’d better have Sami on our side,” the chief mused.

  “I’m sure that there are others that will come with us, at least at first. But those two are the only ones I say we can really trust.”

  Argentine grunted.

  “Do you really think we can trust Lieutenant Stark?”

  “I don’t think we have any choice. He could be listening to us right now for all I know, but even if he hadn’t approached us… Would you really want to follow the political officer?”

  Suddenly Argentine had another thought, “Just what are we going to do with Bloomington and Kerry?”

  There was an uncomfortable silence between them.

  Argentine answered his own question, “We’ll find a nice populated planet and drop them off. Anyone else on the crew that wants to jump ship and go their own way can do so. Frankly, I don’t know why anybody would want to stick around. We still haven’t figured out how can support ourselves.”

  “I might have some ideas on that too,” said the chief.

  Argentine looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “Unless I miss my guess… gold, platinum, and palladium are going to be valuable metals on any planet we want to trade with.”

  Argentine frowned. “But then we’ll still have the problem of needing to remanufacture our bad electronic components.”

  “Oh, we’ve got plenty for that. And it doesn’t take very much to fix them, anyway.”

  “But then why have we been…” Argentine had started to object but then caught himself.

  He rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, “I take it you’ve been thinking about this for a while?”

  “It never hurts to be prepared,” responded the chief.

  ΔΔΔ

  “Okay,” she said.

  Once the chief had left to go talk to Rory, Argentine had commed Sami and asked her to join him in his cabin.

  On a larger ship this might have raised eyebrows but the Pelican was barely big enough to find room for meetings, let alone have a private conversation.

  “Don’t you want to know where we’re going or what the long-term plan is?”

  Argentine had barely explained that the Captain was getting ready to order a suicide run, and that they were getting ready to make a run of their own, when she’d agreed.

  “Not really,” she said. “I’d be surprised if you’ve had time to figure it out yet.”

  “Well, that’s probably more true than you know. But don’t you need to think it through? Once we commit there’s not going to be any backing out. You need to be sure.”

  “I’m sure. I have faith in you and the chief. Besides, anyone that has x-ray vision probably has other powers too. I feel safe.”

  Argentine wasn’t sure what that last part meant but now wasn’t the time to question it.

  Just then the General Quarters alarm sounded.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Point of No Return

  An Obscure Uninhabited

  Star System

  The situation on the bridge was tense.

  Political officer Bloomington was standing in front of the Captain’s bench, hands clasped behind his back. His expression was defiant; his jaw was jutted and his posture was leaning slightly forward as he slowly rose up and down on the balls of his feet.

  “Captain, you have your orders.”

  Captain Kerry looked like a man that had swallowed too many goldfish. His complexion was pale and as he sat in his accustomed place he could only stare at the floor.

  “Captain…” The political officer prodded him quietly.

  “Astrogation,” he finally said. “Plot us a course back to base. Best possible speed.”

  Everyone on the bridge turned to look at the Captain.

  “Mister Parker you have your orders,” the Political Officer said, the derogatory title now a habit.

  It took a moment, but Political Officer Bloomington finally realized that everyone was still looking at him.

  Just then the bridge door opened and Security Officer Stark walked in.

  “Where have you been, Stark?” Bloomington asked.

  “Sorry Sir, there was a situation I needed to attend to. I’ve also received a communication. Eyes only. I suggest that you, the Captain, and I should conference in the day cabin, Sir.”

  “Very well,” Bloomington said quickly. Argentine got the idea that the political officer was relieved to have the distraction. The bridge crew certainly hadn’t been responding the way he was used to.

  The three of them quickly retreated behind the day cabin hatch that was located to the port-side rear of the bridge.

  “Everyone man your stations,” Argentine said once they had left the bridge. He walked over t
o stand in his usual place, with his back to the day cabin door. “Sami? What’s the status of the enemy ships?”

  “Unchanged,” she immediately replied.

  Argentine really didn’t know what to do next. Should he tell the bridge crew what was going on? Should he just let it play out? What if the security officer didn’t keep his word and go through with it?

  He took the time to study the bridge. With everyone’s back to him he could observe them and their idiosyncrasies without distraction. Jordan had a habit of keeping time to some hidden beat with the heal of his left foot. Sami was absently chewing on a stylus…

  It wasn’t hard to see everyone; the bridge was one of the better lit rooms on the ship.

  Like the corridors, the ceilings of most rooms were covered with conduits and piping. That meant that the lighting was primarily wall mounted. Serving on a People’s Republic ship took some getting used to; shadows were always falling at crazy angles and depression was a real problem for the navy.

  At any rate, the bridge did have overhead lighting, but was about as cramped as possible while still being able to seat seven people.

  The back wall of the boxy bridge was taken up by the Captain’s Bench.

  It was actually a plush faux leather sofa that would seat three. The adjustable armrests divided the sofa into three sections: the middle (for the captain), the portside (for the political officer), and the starboard for the first officer.

  Flanking the Captain’s Bench on one side was the door to the day cabin, while the other side was filled with the corridor hatchway.

  Immediately in front of the Captain’s Bench was a low console that contained the largest viewing screen on the bridge, which wasn’t saying much. The crew stations, all located in front of the console, faced the forward bulkhead which was covered with charts, diagrams, or whatever propaganda the P.O. decided to post that week.

  There were no windows.

  Argentine hated the Captain’s Bench.

  He would sit in the middle position when he had the watch, but he couldn’t remember that last time he’d sat on the First Officer’s side. There was something egalitarian about it that just left him with a weird feeling.

  So, he chose to stand when the Captain or P.O. were on the bridge.

  Argentine wasn’t a small man and the ceiling would be considered uncomfortably low for anyone, but he ignored it.

  To any observer, his presence dominated the room.

  Just then, a small thud emanated from behind the door. It was quickly followed by a muted scream.

  By now, the entire bridge crew was turned around and staring at him.

  “Man your stations!” Argentine repeated forcefully.

  No one so much as glanced back at their boards.

  At that moment a loud crash was heard, and within a few seconds Argentine heard the door behind him open.

  He turned to find Lieutenant Stark there. Argentine raised an eyebrow and the lieutenant nodded sharply.

  He stepped aside to let him pass. The lieutenant walked directly to his weapons station.

  The silence was unbearable and it was a relief when Lieutenant Stark finally spoke…

  “What are your orders, Sir?” he asked.

  It wasn’t hard to see the confusion spreading across everyone’s face. Chief West, as usual, wasn’t bashful.

  “Is it done?” he asked.

  He also got a sharp nod in response.

  “Okay everyone, listen up,” he continued. “Political Officer Bloomington and Captain Kerry have been relieved of command.”

  The bridge was still deathly silent.

  “They were about to sacrifice the ship on a suicide mission,” he continued. “First officer Argentine was brave enough to insist that your lives not be thrown away. I agree with him. So we’re going to wait for those ships to leave the system and then we’re going to quietly slip away.”

  “We’ll be branded as traitors!” the pilot exclaimed. “They’ll come after us.”

  “Son,” the lieutenant said. “There’s no one left to come after us. The People’s Republic has fallen. If you want to go down in flames with it be my guest, but the rest of us are getting out of here.”

  They couldn’t have been too surprised. When you’re not getting paid or resupplied, when no messages come through from home, it’s pretty obvious that something is terribly wrong. But it was still a lot to absorb and the bridge was undecidedly quiet as everyone thought it through.

  Finally, Sami said, “Thank God! I wasn’t looking forward to my next performance review anyway. First, what are your orders? Where do you want me to plot a course for?”

  It was like a dam breaking. Suddenly everyone was talking at once. One thing was clear though, they were all looking at First Officer Argentine to lead them… Somewhere.

  ΔΔΔ

  Eighteen hours later Sami announced, “First! The enemy ships are powering up.”

  “Have they seen us?” Argentine asked.

  “I don’t know. They don’t… Wait a minute. It looks like they’re increasing speed to leave the system. They’d be dropping further in if they were coming for us, so… I think we’re safe.”

  “Okay Sami, start plotting us a course to take us out of here and let me know as soon as they’ve left the gravity well and are out of sensor range.”

  “Where am I plotting a course to?” she asked.

  That was the question wasn’t it?

  ΔΔΔ

  Argentine had spent the time waiting for the enemy ships to leave in trying to assess his situation.

  Lieutenant Stark had found an ingenious way to distract his security troops – at least for a while. He’d assigned them to the cargo bay and ordered them to guard the rare metal supply that had just been harvested. He’d indicated that rare metals was just a cover and that they didn’t need to know what they were really guarding. He also intimated that it was the highest priority of the People’s Republic that the cargo be transported safely. Therefore, they weren’t to open the cargo door for anybody but him. It might be a few hours or it might be a few days before he came back to relieve them, but until then they were to stay put and be vigilant.

  “They’ll do that?” Argentine had asked.

  “It’s what they do; they follow orders,” the lieutenant had responded.

  The captain and the political officer called for a somewhat less elegant solution. There was no way to trick them or hide what was happening, so he’d had just tied them up and gagged them.

  The ship was too small to have a brig so they were currently being held in Argentine’s cabin. Lieutenant Stark had, of course, isolated the cabin from the communications grid.

  The four of them were now sitting in the captain’s day cabin trying to decide where to go.

  “Look,” said the chief. “The one thing we know for sure is that we can’t stay here.”

  “Why would we stay here?” asked Sami. “There’s nothing in this system.”

  “No, I mean we can’t stay anywhere in the People’s Republic territory. It’s too dangerous. We’ll have enemies gunning for us from both sides of the conflict.”

  “Who knows anything about what’s beyond our borders?” Argentine asked.

  “The only groups we’re ever told about are the ones worth fighting,” said Chief West. “And I learned not to trust half of that.”

  “The rumors all say that the spiral arm is heavily populated but I don’t know if it’s true or not,” added Argentine.

  “Oh, I do,” said Sami.

  “You do what?” asked the chief.

  “I know all about what’s beyond our borders.”

  After a moment Argentine said, “Well, spill it. Tell us.”

  “Basically the further down spiral we go the less advanced are the technology levels we’ll run into. The further up spiral, the more advanced it gets.”

  “How do you know this?” asked Argentine.

  “Who travels more than astrogators? And we like to st
ay in touch with each other. We have secret codes and everything.”