by Brown, Ryk
“Get them home,” he stated emphatically as Nathan turned back to him. “Get the jump drive home,” he coughed. “It’s their only hope.”
Nathan watched as the captain’s grip on his shirt loosened, his hand falling back to the bed as his eyes closed. Suddenly, an alarm on the bio-monitor started beeping rapidly, startling him. Oh my God.
Doctor Chen had been watching the entire exchange as she cared for a nearby patient. Hearing the alarm, she dropped what she was doing and came running over. “He’s crashing! I need some help in here!”
Doctor Chen pushed Nathan aside as she rushed past, her eyes on the bio-monitor the entire time. “He’s in V-Fib!” she declared.
Nathan backed away, making room for the few people available to help the Doctor as she frantically tried to resuscitate the captain. But Nathan already knew it was too late. The captain had known it as well. That was why he had transferred his command to him.
Nathan exited the sick bay and began wandering the corridor, his mind racked with an overpowering combination of guilt and grief. The medical bay was packed full of people with injuries he had probably caused, and there was a pile of bodies, bodies of men and women, all of whom had sworn to serve their world just as he had upon graduation only a few short weeks ago. Is this what it’s like to be in command?
He wandered down the corridor, not really headed in any particular direction that he was aware of. He passed an ensign that was carrying supplies back to medical. Upon seeing the captain’s bars on Nathan’s collar, the crewman immediately stopped and snapped to attention, which was something that was only done for upper level command staff. At that moment, the lights in the corridor came back on. And suddenly, Nathan knew exactly where he was headed.
* * *
Minutes later, Nathan walked onto the bridge. A young marine armed with a close-quarters defense weapon snapped to attention as he passed.
“Captain on the bridge!” the marine announced. It was the first time Nathan had been referred to as captain, and it felt strange, but in a good way.
Cameron spun around from the tactical station, expecting to see Captain Roberts, miraculously healed and returning to take command and get them safely home. But instead, she saw Nathan, wearing a pair of blood-smeared captain’s bars.
“Sorry,” Nathan apologized, seeing the disappointment in her eyes. “It’s just me.”
“I guess it’s official, then,” she admitted reluctantly. She also knew what it probably meant. “Is he…”
Nathan didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, she saw it in his eyes.
“You might want to clean the blood off of them,” she whispered as they turned back to the tactical station.
“Maybe later.”
“Main power just came back on a minute ago,” she told him, noticing him looking at the tactical displays.
Nathan looked around the bridge, noticing that they had cleaned it up in his absence. “I see you tidied up the place a bit.”
“Yeah, well, with everything down there wasn’t much to do. And a few people showed up to help, so we moved out the bodies and as much debris as possible. And we got a tech to shut down the damaged consoles so we won’t have any more sparks or fires if you decide to bounce us around again.”
“How many systems are back up?” he asked, ignoring her sarcasm.
“We’ve only just started assessing things since the power was restored a few minutes ago. We’ve got most of our local sensors back online, although Kaylah says that until she can run a full diagnostic on them, we shouldn’t trust their accuracy out to more than a few million kilometers. She also reports that there are five more small ships out there, that have taken up positions all around us. But I can’t tell if they’re in position to attack us or defend us.”
“Yeah, well, they said they were here to help.”
“Really? You spoke to them?
“Yeah, one of them speaks Angla.”
“What?”
“Angla. I think it means really bad English in their language,” he said. “They’re down in engineering helping Vlad right now.”
“You think that’s wise?” she questioned.
“Don’t worry. Jessica has orders to keep a close eye on them.”
“Jessica?”
“Ensign Nash, from Spec-Ops? She’s one tough nut. Kinda scary. You’d like her,” he jabbed. It felt good to lighten the mood after what they had been through over the last couple of hours.
“I see. How many of these helpers are there?”
“Four, for now. If it works out, there’s more available if needed.”
“Four? How’s she going to watch all four?”
“She’s armed. And she’s got help,” he assured her. “Besides, they warned that more of the enemy might return soon, so I figured we’d better accept their offer, and get out of here as quick as possible.”
“And you just believed them?”
“For now, cautiously.” Nathan stepped up to the tactical console and pressed the comm button. “Engineering, Bridge!”
“Yes,” Vladimir answered.
“How’s it going down there?”
“I’m sorry, Nathan, but it will take longer than I thought to get maneuvering and propulsion systems back online. The damage is worse than I expected.”
“Well, at least you got main power up, that’s something.”
“Thank you, Nathan. But it was not me. It was those people you sent down. They are pretty good engineers. Difficult to speak with, but they are very smart and learn quickly.”
“Glad to hear it. Keep working on maneuvering and propulsion. Bridge out.”
“Lieutenant!” Jessica called out as she entered the bridge with Jalea at her side. Nathan spun around, not expecting to see Jessica back on the bridge so soon. “Oh, excuse me, Captain,” she corrected, after seeing the bloody bars on his collar. “We need to talk.”
“I thought you were watching our guests?” Nathan asked, surprised.
“I’ve got Sergeant Weatherly and the rest watching them. Besides, this couldn’t wait,” she insisted.
“Jalea, this is Cameron,” he introduced.
Jalea, still not terribly confident in her ability to speak English offered only a respectful nod, taking Cameron’s handshake when offered.
“Listen, we’ve got problems,” Jessica continued, interrupting the pleasantries. “According to Jalea, there are more Takaran ships on their way…”
“…What? I hope you don’t mean more like that last one, ‘cause it nearly killed us.” Nathan did not like where the conversation was going. He had just been officially placed in command, and he was hoping for a little more time to get used to the idea before the next crisis.
“No, smaller ones, she thinks…”
“…Anything on sensors?” Cameron interrupted, turning towards Ensign Yosef.
“No Sir.”
“I don’t understand?” Cameron asked Jessica. “How does she know they’re coming?”
“Their ships reported it. They picked up the incoming vessels on their sensors a few minutes ago. I brought Jalea up here so she could translate between you and their ships.”
“Good thinking.” Nathan commended.
“Actually, it was Marak’s idea,” she admitted. “He thought it would be better for her to remain with you, as your translator, for now.”
“But how are Marak and the others going to communicate with our people in engineering?”
“Vladimir figured out that their language is a mixture of Slavic and Germanic languages, with a little Arabic thrown in.”
“Odd combination,” Cameron observed.
“Yeah, well, Vladimir speaks German as well as Russian, and with Jalea’s help he managed to fill in a few of the blanks, at least enough for now. He’s pretty smart, I’ll give him that.”
“Captain!” Ensign Yosef interrupted. “I’ve got them now! Transferring to tactical.”
Cameron looked down at the tactical display. “Two of them,
much smaller than the first one. They’re moving fast, maybe twice light, so we can’t out run them.”
“We can’t outrun anything in our current state,” Nathan added, the frustration obvious in his voice.
“How long until they reach weapons range?” he asked Cameron.
“Well, they’ll reach us in about twenty minutes. Assuming their weapons range is about the same as ours, maybe fifteen?”
Nathan thought some more. No propulsion, no maneuvering, no weapons. To him it all equaled one thing—no options. He looked around the bridge. There were marines guarding both exits once more, and two more ensigns had come in and taken the ship’s systems station behind Ensign Yosef, and the Port Auxiliary Station located just in front of the port exit was being reconfigured to manage both Communications and Electronic Countermeasures.
“Can your ships stop them?” he asked Jalea.
“No, Takaran ships big, very strong.”
“Can you call for help?” Jessica interjected.
“No, help too far, no time.”
Nathan noticed that Doctor Sorenson was sitting quietly at her station, running systems checks to keep her mind off of her father’s untimely demise. “Doctor Sorenson?” he asked. “Can we jump again?”
She stared at him coldly for a moment, finally answering. “I do not think you understand the complexity of this system, Captain,” she warned. In her mind, she blamed the reckless manner in which Captain Roberts had used the system for the death of her father. The first transition algorithms had taken days to calculate, and even longer to verify. And these people thought using it was like jumping over a puddle. “You can’t just jump, jump, jump, whenever you like…”
“…Doctor,” he interrupted, trying to take a more gentle tact. “I understand what you’re saying, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t dream of using it in such a haphazard manner. But these are not normal circumstances. We’ve got more enemy ships on the way, we’ve got no weapons and we’re adrift. I don’t see any other options.”
She looked at him again, realizing he was right. “Maybe. We just got power back minutes ago, and I haven’t finished running diagnostics on the transition sequencer yet. But the field generators are okay, and there is still enough energy in the storage banks for a short jump, maybe two or three light years at the most. But I do not know the state of all the field emitters on the outside of the hull. We took a lot of weapons fire, and if too many of the emitters are damaged, the fields may not initiate properly.”
“What happens if they don’t” Cameron asked.
“I’m not sure.”
Cameron could see in the Doctor’s eyes that she at least had a suspicion of what might happen. “What do you think could happen?”
“Part of the ship might not jump.”
“Part of the ship? I don’t think I like the sound of that,” she insisted.
“Neither do I. Doctor, can’t you check the emitters from here?”
“No. We did not have time to add hard-wired sensor leads to all the emitters, so we used wireless ones on more than half. But the external comm array is damaged, so I am missing status information on at least half of the emitters.
“Well,” Nathan said, “I guess the next question is, how do the Takarans treat prisoners?”
“No prisoners. Takar execute all rebels.” Jalea answered solemnly.
“I don’t like the sound of that either,” Cameron added.
“Rebels?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, I was getting to that,” Jessica explained. “Seems these people are part of a rebellion against an oppressive regime. Nasty people, from what she tells me. They’ve been fighting them for decades, and have nearly lost everything. I’m not sure, but it sounds to me like we arrived just in time to save their butts. They had lost twenty ships before we jumped into the middle of it and took out that warship.”
“When did you…” Nathan began to ask.
“…We talked on the way up,” she interrupted.
“Well, that explains why they want to help us,” Nathan realized.
“Yeah, they want our ship for their little war,” Cameron said under her breath. She wasn’t sure how well Jalea understood English and didn’t want her to be aware of her suspicions.
“Or maybe they’re just looking for an ally?” Nathan offered.
“To be honest, Sir,” Jessica interrupted. I don’t think they knew what to expect when they came aboard. They tried to hail us first, but got no answer.”
“Comms were down,” Cameron reminded him.
“Is there enough room in the hangar bay for the rest of the rebel ships?” he asked Cameron, an idea brewing in his head.
“Yeah, I think so, If we park them tight, they’re a bit bigger than a fleet tactical shuttle, but they should fit.”
“Doctor, will the additional mass of those ships affect your jump calculations?”
“Not at all. The transition system uses the same mass canceling technology as the FTL system.”
“Jalea, have all your ships land in our hangar bay,” Nathan told her.
“This is not a good idea,” Cameron warned him. “You heard what she said—part of the ship might jump?”
“Better than all of us being executed,” he argued.
“I’m with her, Sir,” Jessica agreed. “Besides, I don’t like the idea of taking on who knows how many more rebels.”
“How many people on your ships,” Nathan asked Jalea.
“Twenty, I think. But I not understand,” she added.
“Twenty? I can’t watch twenty of them,” I’ve only got six guys right now, and four of them aren’t even combat trained.”
“Keep them in the hangar bay for now. I doubt they’re going to want to keep all their ships bottled up for long after we jump anyway. I know I wouldn’t,” Cameron explained.
Nathan looked at Jessica, who finally resigned to the inevitable. “You’re the boss.”
“You can have my two marines, if it makes you feel better?” Nathan offered.
“Naw, better you keep’em, in case something goes horribly wrong,” she advised.
“Why you want ships here?” Jalea asked again, confused.
“If you bring the ships here, I can get us all far away from the Takaran ships,” Nathan explained.
“I must speak with Marak,” she told him, pulling a small communication device from her pocket. Nathan indicated to her that it was alright, and she began explaining the situation as best she understood it to Marak. Although they could not understand what was being said, it was obvious that Marak was not enthusiastic about the idea.
“Marak, he not want do this. He not understand why?” Jalea told him.
“Trust me, I can get us out of here, like that,” he told her, snapping his fingers.
“How? Your ship not move,” she insisted.
“It’s complicated,” he told her. “Hell, I don’t even understand it myself,” he mumbled. “You just need to trust me.”
She said nothing, only looked into Nathan’s eyes.
“We’re going, with or without your people,” he warned. “In?” he asked, turning to Cameron.
“Thirteen minutes.”
“Thirteen minutes,” he finished. “So if you don’t want to go, you and Marak better leave now, before it’s too late.”
After another pause, Jalea resumed her argument with Marak over her communicator. Only this time, she seemed to be arguing in support of Nathan’s plan. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she switched channels on her communicator, apparently giving instructions to the rest of their ships.
“They will come,” she assured him.
“Great!” Nathan exclaimed, happy to have a plan to act upon. “Jess, get some people down to the hangar bay to guide them in. And keep them all there.”
“Yes Sir,” she acknowledged as she turned to head for the exit.
“Captain,” Doctor Sorenson interrupted. “It might be safer if I actually had a destination this
time.”
“Can you plot a jump that quickly?”
“It’s not really a plot,” she explained. “I have to write an algorithm that will control the entire process so that our jump is for the correct distance. The course will have to be plotted by your navigator.”
“I guess that would still be me,” Cameron volunteered, knowing that there was no one else available.
“Well then, can you write the algorithm that quickly?” Nathan asked the Doctor.
“I can write it, yes. But there will not be enough time to verify its accuracy.”
“I can live with that. Jalea,” Nathan asked. “We need somewhere to go, a place to hide while we make repairs. Somewhere close. Do you know of such a place?”
“I think, yes. Korak,” she told him.
“Korak?”
“KOO-rahk,” she corrected.
“Great! Don’t really care how you say it,” he mumbled. “Show her,” he told Jalea, pointing toward Doctor Sorenson. “Kaylah, can you help them figure it out?”
“It looks like we’re currently in a system that’s part of a five star cluster,” Cameron explained, pointing to a chart displayed on the tactical station in front of her and Nathan. It had taken a few minutes to figure out what Jalea had been describing. But with Kaylah’s help, they were able to put together a rough plot. “It’s pretty small, considering. Only about eight light years in diameter. And if I’m understanding her correctly, there’s gotta be at least a dozen inhabited worlds scattered throughout the entire cluster.”
“I’ve never even heard of such a system,” Nathan commented. “Where the hell are we?”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Cameron admitted. “I know one thing, we sure aren’t in the core.”
Nathan had come to the same conclusion the moment that Jessica had told them about the rebellion. That was surely something that Fleet intelligence would’ve known about. And to their knowledge, the entire core and most of the fringe worlds were controlled by the Jung Dynasty. And they would not have allowed someone like the Takarans to rule over such a system in their own backyard.
“Do we have a destination?” he asked.
“Well, we’re currently in the primary component of a binary system,” she explained, pointing at the display. Over here is the secondary component, Korak, about one point five light years away. It’s small, only one gas giant orbiting a red dwarf. Dozens of moons, one of them inhabited, some sort of mining colony. The system is mostly an asteroid field beyond that, and a pretty dense one so it’s a good place to hide. She says that if we’re lucky we can hide out there for at least a few days. There are one or two Takaran ships in that system, smaller ones, like the ones that are inbound now. But Jalea says that it would take at least a couple of days for word of us to reach them. I guess they have some kind of really fast comm-relay probes that can go like a hundred times light or something. But, at least there won’t be anyone looking for us for a few days. And since the asteroid field is so dense, unless they’re watching for us, they’re not likely to notice when we jump in.”