by James Palmer
“Make me,” he said between gritted teeth. A small trickle of blood flowed across his lower lip, dripping on the floor.
His tormentor commenced trying to make him.
With each fevered attack against him, McKeen felt oddly more and more alive. He had scored a victory without his captor’s knowledge. He had gotten the enemy to lose control first. It was a small thing, but it was a start. He remembered the words he had learned at the UPA Academy, remembered the lessons he had learned there. He remembered the Scavengers, remembered what they had done to him.
Beaten he might be, but that was a far cry from being broken.
In the short pauses between attacks, he allowed his mind to wander. He wondered when or if they would be discovered. The captain of the Ulysis would undoubtedly miss either him or Lt. Jeffries at some point and would begin a search.
The Ulysis might be a floating city, but even it was not so large that someone, much less a group of someone’s could hide indefinitely. Eventually Captain Andrews would find him and free him. It sounded like a good plan in his mind.
“Just hope I live that long,” he muttered as the beating continued.
It was very dark in the room.
Strange that the first thing Melvin Jeffries thought about upon waking up was how dark it was. For a moment, he did not know where he was, felt a pang of fear. There was an odd sensation regarding his surroundings. It had the feel and smell of a utility room. The faint smell of chemicals used for cleaning filled his nostrils. He coughed loudly as the fumes set off his allergies.
He has no way of knowing how long he had been unconscious and at the moment he could care less. The throbbing inside his brain was more than enough to convince him that it hadn’t been near long enough.
With a mighty effort he rose to his feet, the room spinning wildly around him as he did so. However, his stubborn pride refused to give way to the wishes of his body to surrender back to blissful oblivion. Victory achieved, he stood unaided for a moment, but could not keep himself thus. He slumped against the nearest wall.
“What is going on here?” he demanded, not truly expecting an answer. He had been minding his own business when he saw Admiral McKeen being attacked in what looked like a mugging. That sort of thing looked mighty strange on a starship. Turns out it was not a mugging after all, but a kidnapping. Those people were after the admiral for reasons Jeffries was not aware of.
For that matter, he didn’t even know why he and the admiral had flown all the way out to the fringes of known space to find the Ulysis when a subspace relay channel could have gotten a message here three times faster than to deliver it in person.
“It has to be something really important,” he said, his words barely more than a hoarse whisper. He spoke aloud more for his own sake than anything else. He needed to focus on something, had to stay awake, to fight.
“Where is the admiral?” he shouted at his unseen captors. “What have you done with him? Where am I? Answer me, dammit!”
Obviously, the admiral was somewhere close by. If he were still alive, then he would be in need of rescue. McKeen had been the target, after all, but not Jeffries. Unfortunately, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Now,” Jeffries began running his hands along the wall, looking for the door in the darkness. “How the hell do I get out of this thing?”
Allowing his eyes to finally adjust to the small amount of variant light inside the supply room, Lt. Jeffries rummaged through the contents of the room. There was not much of potential use. All of the cleaning supplies were pretty standard stuff, all seemingly safe. “Damn,” he muttered. “No weapons. Naturally. No way out. No air duct.”
Great. Just great!
He pondered the problem before him, planning and discarding several solutions. “Damn it!” he yelled, slamming an angry fist into a nearby metal container. Letting his temper flare, he trashed the tiny room. “This is a lousy way to spend my day off,” he yelled.
As before there was no answer.
Only silence in the darkness of his tiny prison cell.
“Bridge. This is the captain.”
The sound of the captain’s voice jump-started Lt. Commander Hall’s brain. She blushed at the realization that she had been daydreaming. Such was not a good thing for an officer on the flagship to be doing, at least not during her on duty cycle. Her mind had wandered back to her last shore leave on Callus Minor. She had spent a relaxing week at the spa near Callus’ famous waterfalls. The spa and waterfalls alone would have made the trip, but she had also met up with Michael there. She wasn’t one to fall head over heels when she met a man, but Michael was different. They spent the entire week together and were scheduled to meet up on her next scheduled leave in three months. Every once in awhile, her mind drifted back to that balcony at the Waterfall Inn where they had made love while the spray from the falls surrounded them. It was electric.
She sat upright in her seat before entering the correct sequence of keystrokes on her terminal. The captain’s image fills the small view screen at her terminal near the rear wall of the bridge. “Commander Hall here, Captain. How may I help you, sir?”
The captain turned away from the work at his desk and stared directly into the camera mounted on his computer console. “I’m looking for Admiral McKeen. Have you seen him?”
“No, sir. However, I just came on duty about half an hour ago. I can page him if you wish.”
“I’d hate to disturb him.”
Lt. Commander Hall watched as the image of her captain on the viewer scratched the stubble on his chin, deliberating.
“If you’d like I can send someone out to look for him,” she offered.
The captain smiled at her enthusiasm. “Do you know exactly how big this ship is, Commander Hall?”
“Yes, sir,” she began. “It is fairly big, sir.”
“That is a bit of an understatement, Commander.” He read her demeanor as she worked out this slight dilemma in her head. Deciding to make her life a little easier, Andrews continued. “Tell you what. If you don’t hear from him in an hour we’ll send out the hounds to search for him. The man is probably in a bar somewhere on the city level regaling the patrons with his war stories. He has a... unique way with words.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks, Commander. I’ll check back in as soon as I find him.”
“I’ll be here, sir.”
“Right.”
As the image of her captain winked out, she noticed what looked to her like a laugh escaping his mouth. She shook her head at the sight before resuming her duties. Usually, working the communication’s board could be boring. Out on the outer fringes of known space like the Ulysis was, there are very few incoming and outgoing calls. Most of the communicating on the ship and the city were handled via the ship’s computer system.
This left the lt. commander with a large chunk of free time on her hands. Free time was something that Andrea Hall really disliked having. The more tasks she piled on herself the happier she felt inside.
On more than one occasion she has asked the captain and the commander for more duties. They had agreed to a point, but did not want her to overdue it lest her performance suffer as a result. The term “workaholic” certainly applied to her. She had heard that particular phrase used to describe her more times than she cared to count. It was just the way she was. Truth be told, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Taking on extra duties often put a strain on her personal life, such as it was. Aside from her fling on Callus Minor, she had not been with anyone in quite some time. However, as she had said several times in the past “the job comes first.” She surveyed the expanse of the bridge, marveling at the quiet efficiency permeating the room.
Commander Maddox had taken up residence in the captain’s station just off to her left. Since the captain has been so heavily bogged down in paper work and whatever mission had them hurtling toward Earth recently, the commander had spent a good deal of time
in command. He did a fairly good job of it too, she noticed. He would have his own command one day, of that she had little doubt.
Two pilots were seated at their respective stations in the area called the pit. The pit sat just below the captain’s station and seated two pilots and the first officer’s station. That station was naturally empty as Commander Maddox was acting as captain at the moment.
Off to either side of the bridge sit several science stations, tactical stations, engineering consoles, geological surveillance stations, weapons control, and her communications station. Usually the bridge was a collective beehive of excitement, except on the night shift.
The night shift was when the clocks said it was night. In space it was rather hard to tell, but adhering the Alliance standard time helped keep everyone on one single time schedule. It made life a little easier for all concerned although it had taken a little getting used to.
Andrea Hall had been attending college on Mars while waiting for her posting. She had been injured a few years back and the Alliance had deemed it necessary to restrict her movements. In effect, they had grounded her. For three years she had been bound to the surface of the red planet. For an officer whose place was out there in the cosmos, the decision had not been an easy one to accept.
It was there that Lt. Commander Andrea Hall fell deep into depression. Solitude became a way of life for her. For a workaholic such as she, suddenly being cut off from any and all activities was a fate nearly worse than death.
It had very nearly killed her.
Then she met a man who had a profound effect on her life, Michael Martin. He had helped her out of her cocoon of self-pity and loathing. He was the main reason she had survived the decision to ground her. She turned her life around.
Taking advantage of her down time, Lt. Commander Hall took on an all new mission: College. She enrolled in the Mars University on the Hope Scholarship. Due to her hardship, she was awarded a full scholarship due to medical reasons.
It had been hard at first but she was eager to learn, even more eager to succeed. She stepped up to the challenge and won. Having immersed herself wholeheartedly into her studies, she had nearly completed the four-year program in three years. She had her newfound friend Michael to thank for it. He had inspired her.
They had grown closer and closer to one another until the two of them had become inseparable. A bond forged and somewhere along the way Andrea found herself falling deeply in love. She thought that she had found everything she had ever wanted. Well, almost everything.
Although she was extremely happy on Mars, she missed the thrill of space travel. She missed the depths of darkest space. It beckoned to her, calling her name in shallow whispers that were ever so clear in the dark. She wanted so much to embrace it, but reluctantly she resolved herself to her planet bound fate. Mars was her home and a small part of her doubted that she would ever step foot off of the red planet again.
She would have to get on with her life, her studies, her friends, and with Michael.
It was no surprise to their friends when Michael proposed two months later. Michael and Andrea were married three months before Andrea had been called back to active duty.
Now she found herself facing a whole new challenge.
A long distance marriage.
She had asked her husband to come with her, but he had not yet finished his student career. She understood his feelings. They made all the usual promises of calling with regularity and he had promised to join her on the Ulysis when he graduated in the spring. She could barely contain her excitement when she thought of him. She was still not used to being a wife. It was a heady experience to spend every day with someone, but when your husband lived several million parsec’s away, the distance was torture on the soul.
She knew they would manage. Their love was that deep. Besides, Michael was probably going through the same feelings as she. She suspected it was hard on him as well. That was why they tried to meet up whenever they could. The week on Callus Minor had been a wonderful reunion, but it ended far too soon. Now her husband was back on Mars and she was on the Ulysis, about as far from Mars as one could get.
Before she realized it had happened, she was day dreaming again. She sensed the person standing behind her immediately. “Oh! Commander Maddox.” She flinched. “Can I –uh- help you, sir?”
He looks down at her and smiled. “I didn’t mean to startle you, Commander. Sorry.”
“That’s okay, sir. What can I, uh, do for you?”
“I’m going off duty now,” he said. “The captain is still indisposed.” The commander inclined his head toward the door to the captain’s office. “I have some errands to take care of. If there are any problems you can contact me through intra-ship comm.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have the bridge.”
“Commander?”
Stepping aside, he motioned her toward the captain’s chair. As the ranking officer on the bridge after the commander exited, Commander Hall was expected to fill in. Someone had to be in charge. And she had told the commander that she needed more to do. This looks like plenty to do, she thought nervously. She had never sat center seat before.
Cautiously, Commander Hall walked over to the captain’s station. She paused, standing next to it, almost afraid to touch it.
“Have a seat,” Commander Maddox said.
“Your orders, sir?” she asked.
Leaning in close to her, so close that she saw her own reflection in the commander’s eyeglasses, he softly issued his orders. “Just keep us on our current heading. Business as usual. No need to change anything unless there’s a problem.”
“A problem?”
The commander offered a comforting look. “It’s doubtful, but if you run into anything you don’t feel you can handle, call me. Or call the captain. He’s right next door. No worries, okay?”
“Aye, sir,” she replied. “No worries.”
“That’s good. Trust me, it’ll be fun.”
“I’ll route communications to this station and cover it as well. No need having a replacement come up. I’ll call a temp to cover it if I get busy.”
The commander nodded approval the stepped over to the elevator. “Good. If you need anything…”
“Yes, sir. I’ll call.” She gave him an excited smile. “Good night, sir.”
Commander Maddox stepped into the elevator before turning to face her. “Goodnight,” he said, watching her intently as the door closed. Within seconds he was gone and she had finally been given more duties. Although, this was not what she had in mind.
“Wow!” What else could she say?
I did not see this one coming.
25
Alliance Starship Pegasus
“Space Lab? Please respond.”
Static was the crippled station’s only reply.
Not ready to give up and consider all hands lost, she tried again. “This is Captain Virginia Harmon of the Starship Pegasus. Do you copy? Repeat: can you acknowledge our hail?”
The message cycled through the communications dish on the shuttle from the Pegasus as the captain typed in a command path to loop the message, allowing for continual playback at regular intervals until someone on board the station responded. If there were any people left alive on Space Lab or not, the captain was uncertain, but she had to know for sure. She owed the people that might be aboard that small courtesy if nothing else.
She had watched with satisfaction as several of the escape pods burst free from the massive space station only moments before her shuttle arrived. There was not much she could do much for the people inside the pods except to run interference in case whoever attacked Space Lab tried to go after them as well. She was determined not to let that happen.
In the end it seemed to be a moot point. There were no other ships within sensor range except for the nearly crippled. That would be good news except for the fact that the Pegasus had been monitoring several small ships with its long-range scanners. The blips
appeared to be on a direct course for Space Lab.
It was possible, the captain told herself, that this was all one big coincidence. Perhaps they were coming in response to the disaster to offer aid. Anything was possible, but her gut told her something else entirely.
Trouble’s coming.
Her first day on the job and the ship was ready for dry dock. Captain Harmon knew that her current course of action was the clear and concise course to take. It was not as easy to make life and death decisions in the field as it had been in the classroom back at the academy. Now, every action, every decision could mean life or death for those under her command, not to mention the people on Space Lab. If faced with a similar decision she would undoubtedly make this same one again.
It truly was the only viable option.
The biggest mystery on her mind at the moment, however, was the whereabouts of her first officer. Commander Ronald Mowen had vanished right before the attack. He had not been heard from since. She had ordered a search of the Pegasus for him, but the search team’s attention was undoubtedly needed elsewhere as the ship as it was slowly being pulled into orbit of Earth’s moon.
“Captain!”
“Yes?”
Her junior officer offered a situation report. “I have confirmation of shots being fired aboard the station. Laser pulse blaster signature. Fairly older model if I read this correctly.”
“Where?”
Officer Walsh locked onto the station with the sensors. It took a moment to pinpoint the location. “Deck fifteen. Above what looks like the laundry. I’m reading multiple shots fired now, Captain.”
“Damn.” The captain calculated the course correction in her head, then angled the shuttle easily. A quick hit from the thrusters and the shuttles leapt steadily forward to the desired location.
“Uh oh.”
Without taking her eyes off of her target destination, Captain Harmon queried her officer. “Uh oh, what? I don’t like uh oh.”