Court-Martial (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 2)

by Chris Hechtl

  “You want us to plug in the basics where they belong first? Or fix the wiring harnesses, sir?”

  “Identify the areas that have been cut. If there are sections that haven't been, by all means, plug the hardware in if we've got it,” Zek replied, checking the server racks. “Who's doing the wiring?”

  “Lenny is. He's our lead electrician, but he's off today.”

  “Frack.”

  “Okay. Do what you can with what you've got. If you can figure a harness out, do it. Use the wiring diagrams. But make sure you've got plenty of slack too. If you've got to add wire, do it but color match. You know the drill?”

  “Yes, sir. This is going to take all weekend. And this is just one room. Where are we going to get power?”

  “That's another problem I'm about to explore,” Zek sighed with a shake of his head as he went to the hatch. “If you need me, call.”

  “Call?”

  “Yell. Real loud,” Zek joked.

  “We seriously need to look into safety on this tub,” the tech muttered.

  @^@

  “I don't know if I should thank you or wring your neck, sir,” a familiar voice rasped, surprising Zek. Zek looked up blearily. He wasn't certain what day it was, let alone what time. His implants hadn't warned him he needed to get a shuttle out, so it was still the weekend he thought.

  The techs had learned to bunk down in the ship instead of trying to shuttle back and forth to the shipyard and housing there. It put further strain on the life support, but they were tackling that as one of the first projects.

  He had worked straight through. He hadn't bothered taking any downtime for himself. He was starting to feel the fatigue of that much activity, but he was remotely pleased with their progress. He had also been intensely gratified that the ship's replicators remained untouched. Apparently, someone had convinced the security experts that they were on their own network. For that, he could only be grateful. They still needed power, but as soon as they got a reactor up and running, they would be able to get the replicators online to make the parts they couldn't.

  At least, that was the hypothesis anyway, he thought.

  “I'll ignore that,” he said as he rolled his shoulders. He had burns on his fingertips, cuts, some bruises from getting into tight places, but he felt good. But he also felt like they'd only just started.

  “I was trying to go deck by deck, not system by system. And plugging in what works is genius, though we don't have everything we need obviously. I just spoke with Commander Thistle; we're short on a lot of critical electronics. How are we going to handle that, sir?” Dreamer of Ships asked.

  “One step at a time. Fortunately, most of those are in V'l'r's area. Horatio was smart enough to keep the electronics in the life support simple and off-the-shelf. I need to find work-arounds for the equipment we don't have in stock for the power rooms.” That was a chicken and the egg thing he hadn't quite figured out. In order to get power to the replicators, he needed at least one of the reactors functional. But, to do that he needed the replicators to make the parts for the reactors.

  “Well, that's good to know. By the way, I just checked in with V'l'r. Other than turning the air blue, he's gotten half of the bridge electronics installed. That's pretty good since he and his party are on their own.”

  “Okay. The good news is, this is plug and play, and we can run programs to make sure things are plugged in right. A lot of this is universal port, so that's in our favor too,” the admiral said as he gripped his lower back and turned from side to side to get some of the kinks out. He then wrung his hands out a few times to get feeling back in them. “It's Sunday, right?”

  “Yes, sir. Lost track of time?”

  “You do when you get this involved. I thought about bringing up some of the advanced middies for this; they'd love and hate it. But I don't want to scare them.”

  “How close will we be to getting this done on time?”

  “We still have a long way to go and not a whole lot of ways to get there. This ship in six weeks is pushing it without support. That is, if I can figure out work-arounds for the missing parts and if I can get coding support.”

  “Big ifs there, sir,” the commander replied.

  “Yes, indeed,” Zek said as his stomach gurgled right on cue.

  The T'clock chittered in amusement. “I think an alarm just went off.”

  “Yeah, I know. I've had three requests to get the safety systems back online. I can't blame the techs; we don't have any functioning. I'm surprised Captain Clayton is even allowed to remain on board.” He shook his head. “We've got some of the fire systems back online but not all. That's bothering some people.”

  “It bothers me.”

  “Yeah, well, it's one thing to get a system online, another to power it,” Zek replied sourly as he indicated the compartment he'd been working in. “This ship has three backup power supplies to the power rooms. They serve as emergency power with fuel cells in each. The crew had one online; we got the second up and running yesterday evening. I'm trying to get the third running. With the three, we can cover the ship's life support.”

  “Yes, sir,” Dreamer replied, making a note with his tablet.

  “I've got a progress report in my files,” Zek said. He frowned thoughtfully.

  “I could use that for my own report, sir. I've got some people breathing down my thorax for that information.”

  “I'll see what I can do,” Zek replied. His implants beeped. “And that's my bus calling. The shuttle is en route. I need to grab my bag and get moving.”

  “Yes, sir. Can you email the file to me? I was serious about needing it.”

  “Not a problem. I'll do it hopefully before I fall asleep on the cutter,” the admiral replied as he yawned.

  “A suggestion, sir?” Zek paused as he buttoned up his kit and made a note on a piece of paper of what he'd done and what still needed to be done. The bug looked at it and took a picture. “Go eat.”

  “The mess is … nasty. I'll grab an energy bar. Which reminds me, we need better work tools, more power supplies, more lights,” he indicated the dark room, “plus rations and other support.”

  “Send me the list, sir. Though I think we've got it backward.”

  “Indeed, we do. But I've been a hands-on guy. It's been a while, and I'm loving this.” He paused and looked at his hands. His implants were handling it all. “Mostly,” he added.

  @^@

  Weaver read Alice's email and then sat back as he read between the lines. Obviously, she couldn't come out and say what she wanted, but the hints were there plain enough for him. The question was, was ONI paying attention and could he get away with what she was asking him to do? It was a hell of a risk.

  The Admiralty had yet to clean up logistics. Oh, they'd appointed a series of flag officers to take over, but a few hadn't lasted more than a week. He wasn't even certain who the current head of his department even was. His ears flicked. He could cut the orders … if he was careful about how he did it.

  An industrial replicator was out. Alice wanted one; he figured she knew he wouldn't be able to do the impossible no matter how much she hinted about how as engineers they were known as miracle workers. No, the order would go through channels and anyone watching the damn things would know something was up.

  But, the food replicators weren't as closely watched. There were only a few, but if he played his cards right and did a swap or two, he might get away with it. It all came down to some creative shuffling of barcodes. Heck, even just moving items from one package to the other would do it. From there, it was a simple matter of getting it into the next shipment to Bek B. He couldn't tag it direct to her. Her name would probably trip a flag in ONI, but if he got cute …

  He frowned and his tongue made clucking sounds against the roof of his mouth as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

  @^@

  “How did you do?” Zek asked a tired Veraxin as the bug entered the cutter.

  “Wel
l, sir. Better than expected in some regards, worse in others. I left communications alone but your hardware is there, waiting to be installed once the modifications are done. I understand you just need to leave the data lines unplugged?”

  “It's a bit more complicated than that actually,” Zek replied in amusement. “But it should work that way when we're done. I hope,” he said with a shrug. While they had worked he'd inserted a series of backdoor programs he'd written in his implants. They would allow him unfettered access to the computer network. He would need to do the same with the communications system he knew.

  He had already uploaded a report to be transmitted to the station and ansible and written a script file to keep the files up-to-date in case he didn't get the chance. Hopefully, it will work he thought.

  “Last in,” the flight engineer said as he dogged the hatch. “All secure,” he said.

  “Seats and safety gear folks,” the pilot said over the intercom as the flight engineer took his bucket. Zek buckled in and watched the Veraxin lower himself tiredly into his own seat and strap in.

  “I should hate you for making me work my tail off on my supposed time off. And, I suppose by the time we're done, I'll want to hate you more. But … thanks, sir, for the opportunity to see this ship again and to get her right. It … feels right. For … him,” the Veraxin said.

  Him meaning Horatio, Zek thought as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the headrest. Unless he meant Irons? Had the Veraxin added his own files? Or seen his? He wasn't certain. “No problem.”

  “We're not going to get any credit though, are we?”

  “Not a chance,” Zek replied as he got an email reminding him to send a report of their progress to Dreamer of Ships. He sighed and opened his files and started to go through them. “Not a chance,” he muttered again as he realized it would take longer than he'd thought to get the job done.

  Chapter 23

  Admiral Childress gave a public speech about faith in the system. “Have faith that justice will be done. Trust in the system. That is what the justice system is for, to get to the truth.”

  “Nice turn of words there,” Benny murmured sarcastically. “Pity it's coming from him and he doesn't mean any of it.”

  “He's right,” Horatio said, surprising the group. Both attorneys turned to him in surprise.

  “If he is, why go through this?” the commander asked carefully.

  “Why not? What else do I have to lose?” Horatio shook his head.

  “Admiral, to go through this,” the commander shook her own head.

  “I didn't say he was right about me. I said he's right about having faith in the system. I do. I keep my faith there.”

  “But …,” Benny protested. Horatio held up a restraining hand, eyes still locked on the commander. She bit her lip and looked away.

  “I fear your faith in the system is misplaced, Admiral,” she murmured.

  “Why, because he's rigged it against me?” Horatio asked. She turned to him in surprise. “What, you think I didn't notice?” he shook his head as she flushed in embarrassment. “Commander, do you know my history?”

  “Some,” she admitted.

  “I see. Well, let me fill you in a little bit. I was a chief petty officer during the Xeno war. I was on starships; I had ships torn up around me. I worked my tail off to get them back into the fight only for them to get blown up again. I didn't see much from the power room, but I know worlds burned around us. I remember feeling that aching helplessness, that we couldn't do anything, the burn for revenge.”

  She stared at him.

  “When Washington went down, I was in a life pod. We drifted until we finally gave up on immediate rescue and put ourselves in stasis. We'd almost given up on hope of survival. My pod was found, and I was sold.”

  She blinked at him.

  “I woke up a slave. I woke up to a galaxy torn apart. Sold to a pedophile clone who called himself a port admiral who then stuffed me into the engineering spaces of Anvil space station in Pyrax to try to keep it running while he played tin god and did things I don't even want to know to others.” He shook his head.

  “I spent years there, decades alone. I couldn't leave. There really was no place to go!” he shook his head. “When I'd started to give up hope, I met a woman. We fell in love. She bore me a daughter. For once, I was at peace, I had hope again, and we were even trying to improve the station! We told ourselves it was for our daughter, and we were right.” he shook his head. “When she was pregnant again, she got caught up in some crap on the station. The port admiral cut off the life support for her and thousands of others.” His face was bleak and cold.

  The commander stared at him, aghast at the picture he was painting for her. She wasn't the only one; the others were all listening intently.

  “I'd almost lost hope then all over again. But Shelby was still there, my little princess, so sweet and innocent and full of life, so I clung on too. I had to keep the station functioning, for her sake and the innocents like her if not for myself. Everything had been worn away by then. I'd been on the station for about a century and given up on just about everything because I was too tired. Yet, I still tried to keep the station alive, even though it was falling apart around me and the powers that be just kept partying and wasting resources.” He shook his head.

  “And then he came.”

  “He …?”

  “Admiral Irons. I heard something was going on, but I had to be in the computer to keep the one power plant we had functional running. I had a stroke. I met him in the hospital complex.” He shook his head. “It was like hope restored again! By the time they sprung me out of Doctor Thornby's clutches, Admiral Irons had worked wonders. He'd completely rebuilt engineering, gotten the station turned around, gotten rid of the port admiral; it was like a renewal of life!”

  His eyes blazed. “Then we fought the pirates, and won.” His eyes blazed in renewed triumph. “That sealed it for me. My faith was restored ….” His face fell for a moment with fresh pain. “And then it came all crashing down again when the greedy bastards who wanted power drove him out of Pyrax. I was left in command of the navy, and I fought hard to keep it running despite everything they did to tear us apart.”

  He shook his head. “I've loved and lost many times over the decades. But I kept that faith, because I knew now that he was still out there. Irons had touched something inside my heart, breathed on the embers I didn't know were still warm, not just in me, but in others—in a new generation, eager to step up as well. He'd reawakened our purpose, given it to us, shown us the way forward, out of the darkness and into the light. He taught us that we can teach others to do the same. That we'd been doing it all along, we just hadn't had the tools to do it right. And damn it, I did. I followed in his footsteps the best I could, despite my limitations.”

  “And somehow, through stubborn perseverance, we got to the point where he got to Antigua and founded the New Federation all over again.”

  He grimaced. “He brought with him sleepers he'd found. I won't go into details where; that's still classified. But he brought them out and sent some to me. And I felt relief at first for the burden of command had been lifted. But I found I was working for another boss, one who was tough to work with. But we found a way and got the job done because we both wanted to see the pirates dead and the Federation restored.”

  “And when Admiral Irons ordered me here, I came. When I first had my taste of what it was like here, I buckled down, tried to follow his orders while not bucking the system too harshly. When I saw an out, I took it to get word to him. And you know what he did?”

  She shook her head.

  “He told me to go right back in and finish the job. That he had faith in me,” he said, tapping his chest with a finger. “To inspire you and others like you to get the job done. We're in uniform for a reason, Commander. We're here to make a difference. For some, it is a calling.”

  He looked away, face old once more. “So, I'll make my stand. If I f
all, I know there will be others like me sometime. But I'll do it. I've walked through fire before; I've been burned. I know its kiss. I'll gladly be burned again to shield others. That is what it is like to be in the navy. I have faith in the navy, the real navy. I have faith in the Federation. I trust it with my life. That is what I am here for, to support and defend the Constitution of the Federation. So, Commander, I'll get it done.”

  “Or die trying.”

  @^@

  “Nice speech,” Commander Onslo said with a sniff. “A bit preachy for my taste.”

  “Yes, it is. You better hope they never put him on the stand,” Captain Rising Tide said with a shake of his head.

  “Oh, they will. You'll rip him apart on cross of course.”

  “You only think I will. I don't know if I can. If he is anything like this, it could be a game changer, no matter how much the deck is stacked against him. I could hear bedrock in his voice. No wonder being in prison isn't fazing him.”

  “He's a zealot. He's not going to back down. Give up on trying to get him to take a plea,” the Neochimp commander said.

  The captain sighed. “Agreed.”

  “I almost feel sorry for him. I don't like being the one to crush a dream, but … we all have our role to play I suppose,” the commander said.

  “I don't particularly like wearing a black hat, Commander. I'm used to being a prosecutor, but I don't need my nose rubbed into what we're doing.”

  “Why, have trouble sleeping at night?” the commander asked with a snort.

  “Something like that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got jury prep to go over. Based on this, I'm going to need to watch who they question carefully,” he said.

  @^@

  Once the flurry of motions was dealt with, they moved into all important jury selection. Schedules were the bane of any trial; getting everyone on the same page was always a problem. The defense did its best to draw things out, but they were overruled. The jury selection process was when Doctor Bullettine's team came into their own as they built a list of questions for the voir dire process.