Authors: Thomas DePrima
"It's certainly a dynamic name," Sydnee said. "What does everyone else think?"
"I think it's a little too dynamic," Caruthers said. "We're looking for justice, and Revenge sort of implies vigilantism."
"Okay," Sydnee said. "Anybody else have an option?"
"How about Justice?" the com chief said.
"Yes, that's a good alternative, Chief. Anybody else?"
"I like Justice," Navigator Olivetti said. "It's like revenge, but with the rule of law behind it."
"Okay, anyone else?" Sydnee asked.
"I'm fine with Justice," Caruthers said.
"Any other suggestions?" When no one spoke up, Sydnee said, "All in favor of Justice?"
Everyone raised their hands, including Lt. Barron.
"Any other suggestions before it becomes final?" As Sydnee looked around, everyone simply shook their heads. Turning to the com chief, she said, "Have the computer submit a request to Space Command that this ship be officially named 'Justice.'"
"Aye, Captain," he said with a smile.
"Captain," the tac officer said, "If you have a minute, I'd like to show you something."
Sydnee stood up and moved to the tac station. "What is it?"
"I've been thinking of this as a security station like those found on freighters rather than a tactical station because we have no weapons. I expected to be scanning space looking for possible danger."
"Yes, I agree."
"But look at this," he said as he touched a few points on his console. A weapons list immediately popped up on one of his monitors.
"What is that?" Sydnee said. "A simulation?"
"That's what I thought at first. I thought it was simply part of the tactical station self-test software. But I've been seeing it ever since the connections with the habitat units went live, and every time I've cleared the screen there's a weapons status icon on the bottom left corner. Touching it brings up this list showing the available weapons remaining. According to this, we have forty-eight missiles in the bow of the ship and forty-eight missiles in the stern. Additionally the list says I have eight laser arrays that give us three hundred sixty degrees coverage horizontally and one hundred eighty degrees vertical. Our only weapons-blind area is directly above the ship."
"Do you believe that information to be accurate?"
"Well, the computer believes it's accurate. I've studied all the specs for this ship and never seen any provision for weapons, so I'd like to fire one of the missiles and see if anything actually leaves the ship."
"No, let's not fire any missiles. But perhaps we can fire a laser."
"Yes, ma'am. Do I have your permission to try?"
"Not yet. Since there're no weapons showing on the hull, they would have to be recessed. Any attempt to use one would probably cause an interruption in the continuity of our envelope, which would result in it being cancelled. But we'll try it as soon as it's practicable."
* * *
The limited size of the crew meant that everyone would work twice as many hours as normal, and not every station could be manned during all hours. The helm was the most important station, so it was imperative that an experienced helmsman always be available.
Lt. Olivetti, the designated navigator, was an experienced pilot who also piloted shuttles for interdiction activities and had occasionally been assigned to fill in at the helm aboard the
Perry.
Having been part of the second watch while Sydnee was third watch meant the women had had little work or personal contact in the past, but Olivetti had a fine reputation for precision in all her work and was reported to be an excellent navigator and pilot. She had performed with distinction during the attack between the
Perry
and the
Glassama
. Having spent a considerable amount of time in the flight simulators over the past few months, she was perfectly able to take the helm of the
Justice
when Caruthers was off watch or on a break.
Since there were two engineers, Lt. Barron and Chief Petty Officer Luscome, they would alternate duties at the Engineering console and performing maintenance activities.
The Communications station had to be manned constantly, so one of the Marines would alternate with Chief Petty Officer Lemela.
The Tactical station would alert the bridge crew if the ship's sensors detected another ship or a dangerous situation, so the tac officer could fill in at other stations as the need arose.
Until the ship reached Yolongus, there would be no need to have all stations manned around the clock.
Unlike the
Denver
, or any other warship, there was little to do aboard the
Justice
other than stare at a console or at the stars on the front monitor. Sydnee finally turned the bridge over to Caruthers, whose place at the helm was immediately filled by Olivetti, and went her office/cabin.
Tugs normally had just a dozen square feet of space behind the pilot seating. It served as both a galley and an area where an off-duty pilot could lay down after unrolling a piece of oh-gee cloth. The
Justice
was a different breed entirely. It had clearly been designed to provide comfort, albeit limited, to the crew during long periods of separation from the host ship. The captain had the only private space in the form of a tiny office with an attached sleeping compartment. The office part was barely large enough to accommodate the captain plus three seated adults, but it gave a small amount of privacy for conversations. The sleeping compartment was even smaller than her cramped quarters on the
Perry
, but it did give Sydnee a bit of privacy.
Across the corridor from the captain's quarters was a small galley with several tables for eating. Fresh coffee and tea were always available, and there were food synthesizer machines for preparing meals.
Aft of these areas was a corridor that ran the width of the ship. At the end of each corridor was an airlock to an attached MAT, if needed. A stairway led down to the engineering level, where airlocks for two additional MATs were available, and a ladder led down to the linkage tunnel used to access the habitats.
Sleeping accommodations are important. The crew couldn't perform properly if they weren't rested, so a crew sleeping area, designed to provide maximum comfort and sleeping privacy, was on the top level just aft of the stairway down to Engineering. The area was first divided into six small but completely separate rooms with two stacked beds on each side of each room. Up to twenty-four crew members would have their own bed, and each bed was like a small bit of heaven. As a crewmember slipped into their bed and enjoyed the sensation of the gel-comfort mattress, they could either converse with other crewmembers or seal their bed for privacy. Overhead, a curved transparent panel would rotate down and block all outside noise or seal in the sounds of a noisy sleeper. When the panel was lowered, the bed became a fully self-contained environment with heating and cooling adjustments and fresh air ventilation.
But the curved panel was more than just a clear panel. It was actually a Simage panel. The bed's occupant could leave it clear, adjust it from transparent to translucent to fully opaque, or any degree between. When opaque, the bed's occupant could select from any of a dozen colors and shades, or display any of the hundreds of scenery images stored in the CPS main computer. The flat panel at the back of the bed had the same capability in order to provide a surrounding image, and there was even a sound generator to provide the sounds associated with the selected image.
Sydnee had sent vidMails to her family and Katarina that they were entering a blackout period and that it might be several months before they heard from her again, so she wouldn't have any vidMails to brighten her day for months.
After tossing and turning on the captain's bunk, which was identical to the bunks in the crew quarters, Sydnee decided to do a bit of exploring. She had looked over every inch of the
Justice
, but she hadn't been inside any of the habitat containers. She'd seen holo-layouts of the five-deck living units, but that wasn't the same as seeing it in person.
Aware that the Marines had immediately moved into the center habitat unit, Sydnee didn't know that the two outside units were sealed until she descended down into the linkage tunnel and walked to one of the closed access hatches. A keypad mounted in the top of the hatch controlled the locking mechanism. Her CT provided her identity data, but she still had to enter the captain's password given to her when she accepted responsibility for the ship and crew. The hatch made several clacking noises before the light on top turned from red to green, then began to rise up on its hinges. At the same time, the interior of the container below was flooded with bright light.
Halfway down the access ladder on the first level, she paused and looked around. A short tunnel extended toward one side of the container, then branched into a corridor that ran in each direction. She finished her descent and, upon walking to the corridor, discovered that it ran the entire length of the container. Doors, similar to what would be found on a ship's hold, lined one side. Taking a deep breath, she depressed the control to open the nearest one.
As the two doors parted and the enclosed area illuminated, Sydnee saw two gleaming, eight-meter-long rockets mounted in ejection housings. An ejection housing manually launched its load out of an enclosed space where it would not be safe to ignite an engine. Achieving a safe distance, normally about ten meters, the rocket's engine ignited and it would head towards whatever its memory had recorded as the target. The container's designers had done such an effective job at concealing the outer doors that Sydnee had never noticed them from the outside.
On each of the four levels in the container, Sydnee found the same layout, accounting for forty-eight rockets in total. She also found doors that led to holds containing laser arrays on gimbal platforms. When the outer doors were opened, the arrays could be rolled out far enough to provide maximum coverage around the lower half of the ship.
As she climbed back up the access ladder to the linkage tunnel and resealed the hatch, Sydnee was glad the mystery of the ninety-six rockets and eight laser arrays had been resolved. Knowing they could fight back if challenged might help her rest more peacefully, but she felt it would have been nice if the designers had mounted a couple of laser arrays in the sail area of the ship.
As she lay back down on her bunk, she thought about the way Commander Belinda Halworth, the instructor at the Mars shipyard, had reacted when Sydnee suggested using a Dakinium-sheathed container to house weapons. Surely it couldn't be a secret that would last very long once the first container with weapons was deployed. And she hadn't been told by Captain Lidden to suppress information about the container. So why the secrecy when introducing pilots to the CPS-14? Sydnee sighed. Perhaps it was just shortsightedness on the part of Halworth in thinking she could keep it a secret aboard ship. Very few secrets remained secret aboard ship.
* * *
While the CPS-14 and its attached habitat unit was a world apart from the space available aboard a regular tug, it began to feel extremely confining after a few days to people used to running around an exercise area, or even a hold, aboard a destroyer. There were four corridors in the Marine habitat, one on each level, but only one person at a time could run in each, and all they could do was run to the end, stop, then run back the other way. Some of the Marines found unique ways to exercise by using furniture and other objects for weight-lifting and bodybuilding. Heavy furniture was normally bolted to the deck to keep it from shifting during sub-light speeds, but a few pieces had been freed for special use. Everyone was beginning to feel effects similar to cabin fever by the time the
Justice
neared Yolongus.
Space Command personnel usually only visited the Marine habitat during mealtime, mainly because they were otherwise preoccupied with bridge duties, and they always slept in the bunks in the CPS to be near the bridge in case there was an emergency. Only Sydnee was a frequent visitor in Marine Country, as the habitat was being called, because of Kelly MacDonald. On other occasions Kelly visited Syd in her captain's cabin. It was there that Kelly confided a secret.
"These Special Ops people are a strange breed," MacDonald had said.
"They've seemed normal enough to me," Syd replied.
"You're not living in close proximity. My people and I have all reached out to them, but they want nothing to do us on a personal level."
"Do you think it's because we're the crew of the
Perry
? Do you think they feel superior and don't want to mingle with Marines they feel are inferior?"
"I just don't know. As soon they've finished their meals, in total silence, they immediately return to their quarters."
"Their quarters? They're in a room with twelve bunks just like the crew quarters but with three up."
"They immediately commandeered the room at the very end of the sleeping level and then hung blankets to cordon off their area. We can hear them laughing and joking, but it stops if one of my people sticks his or her head in."
"And you have no idea why?"
"There's only one thing I can think of."
"And?"
"It's possible they believe this is a one-way mission for many of us, and it's always harder when someone you know has their ticket punched."
"I promise I'll do everything in my power to ensure that doesn't happen."
"I know, Syd. We're talking about them. I'm sure they've been on many life-and-death missions."
The day before they made planetfall, the Major asked Sydnee to attend a mission briefing in the habitat and bring her two chief pilots. When they arrived, they found that the dining room had been cleared of tables. All available chairs had been placed facing the large monitor that was usually used for entertainment, but most of the Marines would have to stand during the briefing.
The Major wasted no time getting down to business. "Here's the home of our package," he said as an aerial view flashed onto the monitor. "As you can see, it's quite remote. There are no first-floor windows, and the upper floor windows appear to be sealed. I imagine they're probably bulletproof and bombproof as well. The roof is flat and the package only enters the house from the roof.