Amelia put her hand on his and said "I'm so sorry. You are welcome as part of our family." Atticus, his fist in front of his mouth, nodded in agreement.
AJ in a higher pitched voice to lighten the mood said "So what about you guys? Like Ben here?".
Doc said "Ben and the captain fought in the FFBB war together".
AJ, in a questioning manner "The Freedom From the Blue Ball war?"
Atticus looked up at him "Well, that's what we called it anyway"
AJ asked "Was it an adventure?".
"Well, I don't know if I would call it that. So many innocent people died. Those not living on Earth wanted independence and Earth felt threatened. Some of the countries on Earth even started shooting down their own citizens, but all that did was bring a wrath like they had never seen from the sky. Earth could never win with those in space having the higher ground, but they didn't go peacefully. In the end, I am afraid all we did was trade one government master for three corporate masters. Now, the big three corporations, who run the inner solar system, don't want what happened to Earth to happen to them, so they try to limit trade with the outer solar system. It's because those in the outer solar system have an inherent tactical advantage by being higher up the gravity well. They try to stop trade and keep them weak, but all they are doing is delaying the inevitable. The war will come and more people will die, but those in power never want to give it up, no matter what the cost." AJ, not expecting such a heavy answer and wanting to lighten up the mood, again pointed to Amelia and the captain. "What about you two?". The captain stood up. "Well, I have things to do in my cabin." Amelia touched his arm as he turned to leave. AJ looked at the others and whispered. "Did I say something bad?"
Helen replied. "No, it's just that they are in love, but she had a husband before they met. They are very happy together and all of us can see it, but she feels guilty about it and had returned to her husband just before we left."
AJ, feeling a little uncomfortable, just said "Oh".
The next day everyone was busy getting settled in. They were still learning the ins and outs of the Discretion. Its personality, its quirks and figuring out simple things like where the light switch was for the cold storage locker. Ben came up with his radio detector. "I put a trace on the power feeds, so I should be able to find where the wires go".
AJ eager to help "Can I run the tracer?"
Ben handed it to him "Sure, use it like this..."
The captain, who was leaning against the galley counter savoring a warm chocolate chunk cookie, watched them work. Amelia walked in, opened the fridge, saw the captain watching them and she whispered "I see that pride on your face. It's a good thing, isn't it?"
The captain nodded slightly and smiled "Any luck reaching Stevens this morning?"
She leaned on the top of the fridge door. "No, none", and then she closed the door and leaned up on the counter next to him. "In fact, I haven't been able to reach anyone. Not Stevens, not Fendi, Drang or even my husband. I thought it might be the comm equipment, but I sent some test messages to myself and I have been able to reach other colleagues, so it's not us. I'll keep trying though. They may just be busy."
The third day into the trip, Ben and AJ spent most of the day in the engine room. Ben showed him how the systems worked, and in some cases, they both worked to figure out how some systems worked. Ben said "Some of this stuff is so jury rigged, I can't figure out what they've done."
AJ asked "Well can't you just set things the way they're supposed to go?". Ben grinned "No, every ship is different, even if they are built by the same company, plus I don't know what they've done or why. On top of that, we don't have all the proper parts to rebuild it to specs. There is also a reason they did all this, so it might not work, even if we were to put it back to those specs. We need to spend a few days figuring exactly what everything is doing before we toy with anything. The captain would get a bit pissed if we broke the ship in the middle of a run." He looked up at AJ with a smile. AJ nodded back in agreement.
AJ walked around the central ring of the ship and asked "What are these? The captain told you to put an extra one of them in, right?"
Ben looked over. "Oh, yeah." He stood up and walked past AJ. "These are the MFG's, magnetic field generators. They provide us with a magnetic field to protect us and the ship from charged particles. Every ship that leaves the Earth's magnetic field has to have one.".
"Why do we need two? As a back up?"
Ben shook his head slightly "No, each unit has its own internal back up. The reason the captain wanted us to have two was to double the field strength. Where we are going, Io, has a very large charged particle flux with its parent planet Jupiter. We will need two to protect us and the ship. Have you wondered why the ship is in a ring shape?" AJ nodded. "It's so the charged particles can flow through the center without hitting the ship. The whole ship is essential a giant magnetic toroid. The north and south.." An intercom call from Amelia interrupted "Ben, can you come up here?"
Ben came up on the bridge, with AJ following. "What's up?" Amelia pointed to the captain who was standing on a table messing with an electrical ceiling panel.
Ben nodded and walked over to the captain "Need some help there?".
Atticus, with pair of pliers in his mouth said "I nees cwean powaa"
Ben tilting his head "You need clean power? What? For your telescope?"
Atticus stopped, pulled the pliers from his mouth "Yeah, I was trying to use it last night and I was getting tracking glitches and the images have strange artifacts appearing in them. I monitored the power for five minutes and there are breaks and spikes in voltage."
Ben looked over at Amelia and grinned. "Sure Captain, I can do that."
On the fifth day at a breakfast meeting, the captain lifted his leg over one of the chairs and sat down with his still steaming french toast. He reached for the strawberry jam. "Ben...excellent job on provisions this time!."
Everyone said "Hell yeah! Here here."
Ben smiled "So does that mean we can really stop by Eros for a day of fun?!"
Atticus replied. "After this run, you can buy your own Eros".
Ben said "I like the sound of that. Of course, I could use some fine dancing girls." He got up and simulated dancing "You girls want to come work for me?." Both Helen and Amelia protested, while everyone else just laughed.
The captain continued "Well, as of today, we are half way to the asteroid belt and one sixth of the way to Io. I don't have much new to say today. Just keep working on ironing out bugs and getting familiar with the ship. Oh, Amelia any luck getting a hold of anyone?"
Amelia pulled the fork from her mouth and touched it to the plate "No, nothing. I'm really starting to worry. This morning I couldn't even get a hold of the hangar office that we rent from."
Helen replied "It IS Saturday today."
Amelia looked over with her mouth open and said "Oh yeah, I suppose it is! Well, that could explain that, but why won't anyone else comm us back? Even my husband...do you think..maybe he's upset cause I came..." Atticus started to reach his hand out to her, but it felt wrong.
Helen was the one to do it. "Don't worry, everything will be OK. In a few weeks, we'll all be a lot more free to do what we want when we want".
CHAPTER 2: The Inspection.
The bonds of Earth were broken,
but freedom was a false token,
For the Big Three,
Again took it from me.
Eight days into the trip, Ben came up to the bridge. "I finally figured out what the problem was with the drive plating. The last owner replaced one of the power cables with an unlabeled, but more efficient one and it was supplying more power to that one plate than the others. Stupid. I have a spare power cable, but I need to shut the engines down for a few to install it."
Atticus looked at Amelia to see if it was OK and he then said "Go ahead". A standard warning alarm went off and 30 seconds passed before the engines shut down. Upon shutdown, everyone was floating free in the cabin.
Fifteen minutes later, Ben said over the intercom "Go ahead and try in now".
The captain looked at Amelia, but something had her attention. He started to pull himself over and she said "Hold on! I decided to take a look around while the engines were down. Look at this."
Atticus floated over the sensor panel and he could see a border patrol ship pinging away with its radar. It was heading right for them. "Crap! Can we outrun them?"
"There is no way, but that's not what I was concerned about".
"What?".
She pointed to a faint echo that appeared every time the border patrol's radar bounced off of whatever it was. "There is another ship. It's also heading right for us, and it's gaining fast."
On long journeys, the captain would often use his one meter telescope, mounted on the hull, to do some amateur research. He couldn't compete with the huge gravity lens scopes, but it was fun to do and he felt like he was making a scientific contribution. But, the scope also came in handy for times like this. He steered the scope to look at the ship and ran the power up to the theoretical resolution limit. Then he took a few thousand frames and had the computer create an image that was beyond the natural limit of the optics. It was a big ship, with a bridge far forward and a large aft section connected by a long thin mid section, but he didn't recognize the configuration. "How long till it catches us?"
Amelia looking at the display said, "Well, the customs ship is going to reach us first, in about a day, assuming we turn the drives back on".
Atticus looked at her. "Well, at least I know what to expect from customs, so let's get underway. Can you keep an eye on our new friend?"
Amelia looked back at him. "I didn't notice either ship before because the drives were creating interference, so I don't think we will be able to see them while we are underway, at least not until he is much closer".
The next day, a communique came in. "Ring Class vessel, this is the GSS Vigilant. You are ordered to shut down your drives and prepare to be boarded for customs inspection" Atticus replied. "This is Captain Atticus Elliot on board the Discretion. We are complying". He leaned over and asked Amelia "Anything from our other mysterious friend?"
"No, nothing. That customs ship has been bombarding us with scans for the last 24 hours and we are essentially blind".
Atticus looked at his crew. "Everyone ready? Keep control of your thoughts and the implants will do the rest. Remember, we are just smuggling spare parts." Thirty minutes went by as the Vigilant's tan upper superstructure pulled up underneath the Discretion. The captain had to rotate the Discretion 90 degrees as the Vigilant extended a gantry-way. Soon, there was a banging on the hatch. The captain opened up the inner hatch and spun the wheel on the outer hatch, then backed off. Two men were floating in the tube. The older one, a lieutenant, was graying a bit on the edge of his short black hair, but seemed to have a matter of fact attitude. The younger officer had a close shaven blonde head and gave off an air of suspicion. The lieutenant pointed to the ensign and then to the crew. The ensign pulled out a large scanner and began scanning everyone. "I have all their DNA and .... they are who they say they are".
The Lieutenant looked at the scans. "So, Captain I see you fought in the war, on the right side."
Atticus looked at him. "I'm not sure there was right side". The lieutenant pursed his lips and reflected for a second, before his face returned to its original matter of fact look.
The ensign then pulled out a brain scanner and began scanning the captain. "Oh, so you are smuggling spare parts! Lieutenant, should we arrest them?"
The Lieutenant waved a hand. "Don't worry about that, just finish your scans".
When the ensign got to Amelia, the scanning device turned red and made a loud sound. "Sir! She has an implant!" He pushed backed and pulled his gun. Ben squeezed the shotgun he had behind him, ready for a firefight. Two other customs agents came flying down the tube to assist.
The captain put his hands up and backed off. "Whoa, lets not get crazy here". He was watching the Lieutenant to gauge his reaction, but the lieutenant was preoccupied, with his hand against his forehead. He was obviously talking to someone.
His face changed to concern. "Ensign, you two, back to the ship. NOW!" He turned, but looked back at the captain. "This isn't over, don't go anywhere!".
All the men headed down the gantry tube. Ben relaxed his grip on the shotgun. "What the hell was that?"
The captain replied as he went to shut the hatch. "Hell if I know!". He was watching the men who were now at the other side of the tube, when the tube lit up like the Sun. His face began to burn and he instinctively hid behind the hatch door. Then there was vacuum and the door slammed shut at incredible speed, dragging the captain along with it and slamming his chest into the hatch wheel.