by David Byrd
“Right, well they came in yesterday. I believe they’re over there behind that white passenger liner.”
Danforth thanked the chief and headed out into the flight deck where a number of freighters were being loaded and unloaded. The deck was a busy place with lots of people moving about. Rounding the passenger liner there was but one ship on the other side. Larger than a normal freighter it seemed to have multiple decks but most surprising was that it seemed run down. The outer coating was chipped and patched in many areas and the overall feeling was of neglect. Outside the ship three people in disheveled overalls were in conversation; a large muscular man who seemed to be in an animated discussion with a small petite woman and another man watching the byplay with what seemed to be amusement. He was of average height and build with dark hair going gray at the temples. He had a rugged but handsome face and from this distance appeared to be around 40.
“Ah, excuse me but I’m looking for the StarSeeker,” Danforth said. “I’m Dr. Danforth and I am supposed to be traveling on that ship. Is this it?”
The three crew members turned to look at this interruption. Jevin smiled and let out a low whistle while Zara stared at Dr. Julia Danforth starting from her high heel footwear to her expensively coiffed hair in the style of aristocrats on Earth. Julia Danforth was of average build with blond hair (this month) and blue eyes which were artificially darkened in color. Her clothes were high fashion directly from the runways of Earth.
“Oh lord not another princess run,” Zara said smirking.
“Stow it Zara,” Nash said.
“Dr. Danforth, I’m Captain Nash and this is my crew, Zara and Jevin,” Nash said. “On behalf of the StarSeeker welcome aboard and we will try and make your stay as pleasant as possible.”
“Ah…thank you captain,” Julia said. “I was informed that I would be travelling first class but this ship seems to be somewhat…old.”
Zara rolled her eyes and said something unintelligible under her breath.
“Well we will do our best to make you comfortable,” Nash said. “It’s only for a few days and the old girl may surprise you.”
Julia noticed the slight smile Nash had which crinkled the fine lines around his eyes. She also noticed several small scars, one on the chin and another on the side of his face. She wondered idly why he had never had them removed since it was common practice on Earth.
“Thank you captain, I will just have to make the most of it,” she said.
“Jevin will show you around the ship and get you situated in your quarters while we start pre-flight checks to be on our way.” Nash said.
Jevin escorted Julia into the ship. Zara had been staring intently at both Julia and Nash during their conversation.
Letting out a big sigh Zara couldn’t help but continue the digs on their new passenger.
“Nash…what on Earth do we need to ferry an obvious spoiled, corn-fed princess for?”
Nash looked at Zara frowning. It was not at all like her to be so vocal over something like this. “Zara what’s wrong with you?” Nash asked. “You know this is a milk run and so if we have to put up with it for a few days you know how much good we can do with this contract.”
Zara felt just a bit guilty and realized what Nash was saying was true.
“You’re right, but I’ve been on the losing end from people like her all my life…so don’t you go getting involved with that little tart Captain Nash because I saw the way you two ogled each other.”
“Why Zara,” Nash said with a huge grin. “I do believe you might be jealous…and you know you are the only girl I have eyes for.”
“Uh huh…let’s get going captain google eyes.” Zara said as they entered the ship and closed the outer hatches.
From a corner of the flight deck a man in ordinary dock workers clothes watched the meeting from a distance and conferred with a hand held data display identifying Dr. Danforth. He then activated an encryption routine on the device and sent a message.
“Here we are Ms. Danforth,” Jevin said. “If you’ll just follow me I’ll give you a tour of the old rust bucket.”
“Ah…thank you Mr. Jevin was it?” Julia asked.
“Jevin Carter ma’am but you can call me Jevin. We are very informal here on the StarSeeker.” He said.
“Yes…yes I’ve noticed that.” She said somewhat condescendingly.
“Alright so this is the main cargo bay. We have two other bays, Port and Starboard. Your equipment is in those crates over there by that wall,” Jevin said. Now the galley, Med Bay and engineering are one deck above this one. We go through that hatch and down the hallway to the main lifts.”
“Mr. Carter, these are very large cargo holds, what is it that you do exactly?” Julia asked.
“Well ma’am, we work on contract to deliver goods to colonies, asteroid mines and space stations all over the inhabited zone. Just before your contract we had a run to Telax and then back here to Midway station.” He said.
After touring the galley and Med Bay Jevin escorted Dr. Danforth to the deck above with crew quarters.
“So here we are,” Jevin said. These are your quarters. I’m next door followed by Zara and Captain Nash.”
“Oh…everyone is on the same deck?” Julia asked. “I would have thought that the captain’s quarters would be alone or on a larger deck.”
“No ma’am, Nash had this deck constructed specifically like it is with all the same quarters,” Jevin said. “You see we don’t believe in setting ourselves apart. Oh he is the captain alright…Zara and I would follow any order he gave but we’re more than friends and more than family.” Realizing that he had started to say too much Jevin stopped talking with color rising in his checks.
“Um…Thank you Mr.....I mean Jevin.” She said.
“No problem ma’am. Now after you rest a bit, you can go through that lift down by Nash’s quarters to go directly to the bridge deck.” He said.
As Jevin pointed down the corridor, his sleeve pulled back and Julia could see a tattoo on the inside of his forearm normally covered. It looked familiar but with just a glance she couldn’t place it.
After Jevin left, Julia looked around her quarters. They were as spacious as any first class passenger ship and seemed to be appointed with every modern convenience. In contrast to the outer look of the ship, the inside was completely opposite. Everything she had seen was state of the art, well maintained and highly expensive. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it yet but for now the trip had worn her out, so she stretched out on the bed and was pleasantly surprised to find it was one of the AI beds that scanned her body and conformed to her exactly. She drifted to sleep in moments.
Sometime later she felt the slight thrum of power coursing through the ship and realized that they were already underway. Her bags were in the room already so she cleaned up and made her way to the bridge. When she walked onto the bridge the sight took her breath away. There were two stations forward with an array of transparent displays and consoles and three similar stations behind those. The equipment in this room alone was of a higher quality than even the military transport she travelled to the station on. Sitting in one of the forward console bays was Nash. The other side was empty and behind that station Jevin was busy with multiple displays and readouts. She assumed the station next to Nash was for Zara.
“Dr. Danforth,” Nash said. “Please come in and have a seat at either of those empty stations. We’re just getting some distance from Midway before engaging the faster than light drive.”
Julia sat in the bay next to Jevin and he briefly looked up from his console to wink at her and then he was back to work. At that moment the lift opened and Zara came out. She now wore a black uniform that both Jevin and Nash were wearing with a single silver star on the shoulders. The uniforms were very well tailored and completely opposite to the rumpled coveralls she first met them in. Zara had been watching Julia’s reaction and laughed heartily when Julia finally noticed her hair which was now flaming red. Zara’
s uniform had been tailored even further to accentuate her curves and looked almost like a cat suit. She lithely made her way to her station pleased with her entrance.
“See something you like Ms. Danforth?” Zara asked coyly.
“It’s Dr. Danforth and I certainly do not.” Julia said.
Jevin and Nash looked at each other and shook their heads slightly.
“Alright folks,” Nash said. “Let’s get started on the plot for the first jump.”
“Cap…I have a tight beam message keyed for you,” Jevin said.
“Origin?” Nash asked.
“The authenticator code is only three letters…HJN.” Jevin replied.
With teeth clenched and a darkening frown on his face, Nash placed a data module in his ear. It would allow him to see the call directly on his retina and hear while being private.
“Send it to my station Jev,” Nash said.
He keyed the frequency and a response challenge displayed as if in front of his console asking for a code word.
“Amelia,” he said and the challenge was replaced by a distinguished looking man of indeterminate age with gray and black hair. His clothes were impeccable and the office he was in was sumptuous.
“What is it that you want and how did you get this frequency?” Nash asked
“Insolent as always I see. I suppose nothing has changed between us with the passage of time. It has been 20 years you know.” the man said indignantly.
“Nothing has changed…so if you don’t mind please get to the point.” Nash replied.
“Very well. You must abort your current endeavor and deposit your passenger anywhere you can with all necessary speed if you want to live.” The man said.
“Why exactly should I do that and why should I listen to anything you have to say. It was a mistake taking this call. Please don’t contact me again.” Nash said and terminated the signal.
Julia could hear only the responses Nash was giving but clearly Nash was angry. Zara and Jevin were carefully avoiding his gaze trying to remain out of sight while Nash cooled off. For his part Nash was angry. All the past dark memories flooded back to him at once with that call. But being older and more mature he had to wonder why now. What would make a man he hated and joined the military to escape from contact him now with the message to dump Dr. Danforth? The timing couldn’t have been coincidental but his father had spies everywhere. That itch and burn behind his ear became sharp pain.
“Jev…energize the hull plating and scan for other ships,” Nash said.
“Jev spared one quick look at Zara and sprang into action immediately. No questions asked and no second guesses. They had all been through enough in the past to trust each other’s instincts.
“Hull plating activated…scanning…nothing in the immediate area so far.” Jevin said.
The ship lurched from the port side hard enough for Julia to be thrown out of her chair and onto the floor.
Chapter 5
“Where?” Nash shouted.
“Port side, 237 degrees true,” Jevin replied.
“On it…firing solution active,” Zara said stabbing a key. “Take this you bastard.” The ship shuddered as a set of particle beams lashed out at the coordinates.
“He’s moving off,” Jevin said. “I’m sure he got one hell of a surprise with that.”
The ship lurched over hard this time from the starboard…harder than before and one of Jevin’s consoles exploded sending shrapnel into his shoulder and knocking him backwards out of his chair unconscious.
“Zara do you have a fix?” Nash shouted quickly changing his console to tactical plot.
“93 degrees stationary,” she said.
Nash flew over the console and directed four particle weapons to converge on that spot and activated. The combined power along with the hull plating caused that systems to dim slightly with the power drain but in a few second they were rewarded with a massive explosion on vid.
Julia had rushed over to Jevin during the fight and found the wound had hit a major vessel. He was bleeding out. “Where is a med kit?” she yelled.
“On the wall by the lift,” Zara shouted with genuine concern on her face but right now they had to concentrate on saving the ship.
Nash activated a sequence of pre-programmed instructions that powered up a stealth energy grid over the entire surface of the ship. At the same time thrust was cut, compression tubes blew out a load of chaff and fuel thrusters eased the ship downward and away.
Julia opened the kit and was surprised to find infantry tourniquets. She tore open the seal and placed the flat moldable material directly on Jevin’s wound after pulling out the console fragment. The material was an intelligent bandage that conformed to a wound and activated coagulants, antibiotics and pain medicines while instantly stopping blood loss. It was an emergency patch that could stabilize a patient for transport. She had only seen or used them once in her medical training rotations on a soldier hurt during a training exercise near the med center.
“How we doing Zara?” Nash asked.
“They’re still there but we have them confused. I would call in a freighter or a scout to look visually to see if we’re still around,” Zara said. “As far as systems go, that last round fried the FTL plot…so we can maneuver and travel sub light but we can’t jump until we get that fixed.”
“Good work,” Nash said. “You and Dr. Danforth get Jev to Med Bay.”
Jevin was semi-conscious and the pain meds had kicked in full blast. He was able to help get on his feet and the two women had him from either side moving into the lift.
“Let’s go big guy,” Zara said. “No tapping out for you…you have work to do so buck up soldier.”
“Yes ma’am. When did I hug both of you…I’m a blit…I’m a bizz…I mean I’m a bit fuzzy on that. Is this a date?” Jevin asked clearly loopy from the drugs.
Julia realized in that moment what the common bond was between them. They were ex-military.
They were able to walk Jevin to the lift and down to the deck with the Med Bay. Wrestling Jevin onto the diag table activated a comprehensive scan immediately. The tourniquet had stopped the blood loss but he had already lost too much.
Zara took one look at the displays and grabbed a hemo kit and hopped onto the other table. “Let’s get it going Doc…we have the same blood type.”
Julia paused in open mouth wonder for just a moment at the confidence these people had and the ability to make snap decisions at a moment’s notice. She envied them for that and also had a lot of respect for their actions. Zara pulled off her uniform top and Julia proceeded to tap the vein and thread through a pump filter diffuser and made the other connection to Jevin. She noticed above Zara’s left breast was a tattoo similar to Jevin’s but this time she could see it clearly. A starburst inside a triangle. It looked familiar somehow but for now she had other work to do. While the transfusion was proceeding, she used a molecular skin suture which was the short name for a device that could knit soft tissue back together to repair some of the underlying tissue damage. It would take a couple of days but Jevin would be back to normal with the transfusion.
Zara had been watching Julia work and her stock rose quite a bit during the emergency. Julia jumped right in to help a fallen shipmate during the attack and never lost her cool. She grudgingly conceded that Julia would be a good comrade for the group.
“There you go Zara, just drink some juice…that was a large transfusion,” Julia said. “And I know you have to get back to the bridge, but if you have some time I’d very much like to change into something more useful like one of your spare uniforms…that is if you have an extra.”
Zara looked at Julia and this time genuinely smiled at her.
“Doc…I’ll have you all fixed up assuming we get out of this mess.” Zara said and then exited the Med Bay to head back to the bridge.
An hour later Nash came in to check on Jevin.
“How is he Dr. Danforth?” Nash asked.
“Oh…h
e’ll live but no running around the ship for a couple of days.” She replied.
Jevin still loaded with painkillers and partially awake was following the conversation in and out.
“Hey buddy…you keep your ass in this bed for a couple of days and let the nice doctor treat you.” Nash said.
“Aye Sir…roger that,” Jevin said.
“Captain Nash, are the people who attacked us still out there?” Julia asked. “I mean won’t they see us just by looking out a porthole or something?”
“Well yes they are still out there but they can’t see us right now. You see only freighters or passenger ships have windows to visually see through. Windows are vulnerable to attack so any ship capable of attack would only have vids and data displays. Our stealth field renders us invisible to all electronic devices. And since we are stationary, they have to assume that we blew up. They are just waiting for a while and then they will leave.” He said.
“And the call you took before ordering the defenses, was that a warning?” Julia asked.
Nash’s face frowned but he answered her question.
“Yes, they warned me to stop the mission and drop you off or be destroyed.” He said.
“But…why…and who was it that warned you?” She asked.
“As for the why, I intend to find out. The who was…my father Henry J. Nash.” He said.
Julia was astounded at this, she knew of Henry J. Nash as did everyone on Earth in power circles. He was one of the richest men on Earth and one of the most powerfully connected men. It was also rumored that he was vindictive and an all-around bully.
Seeing the look on his face said volumes. He clearly would answer these questions to a point but he didn’t intend to go any further so she filed away that information intending to research this more later.
“Oh…you have a cut on your neck under your ear…here let me treat that,” she said.
Julia pulled out a clean wipe and the knitter. She pulled his uniform collar down far enough to clean the blood and use the knitter on the cut. The edges sealed with a white line of new skin forming that would be thin for the next few hours. Before finishing she could see on his left shoulder below the neck the triangle and starburst tattoo.