Running With Argentine (33 page)

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"But, it's
perfectly clear… Don't you see?"

Sami was shaking her head…

"Mandi, I like you… You've been the first girlfriend
I've had in… Forever! I know you mean well, but I can't cut the Captain out of
it like that."

"But that's just it, Sami. You're not cutting him out –
the ship is! This isn't your decision; the ship’s already made it…

"Look, I can understand your loyalty to Argentine.
Heck, I even respect it. I wish I had people in my life that I shared that much
loyalty with… But there's a reason this is happening. Paula has more right to
the ship than any of us, and I think this must be her doing."

Both women were in Sami's new cabin. After the morning
fiasco Argentine had changed the plans for the day. The exploration parties
would still go out, but the officers wouldn't meet again until this afternoon.

Hopefully, someone would come up with an idea.

Sami knew it wasn't her fault, but she still felt bad that
the morning had turned into disaster.

Once it became clear that the ship wouldn't accept Argentine
as its Captain, everybody stepped forward. It wasn't just Mandi…

The chief felt that since he'd been designated second it
should be automatic for him.

Barry suggested that it might be something genetic; he was
certainly willing to give it a try.

Even Marco Petulengro pointed out that he'd been running a
big family for a long time…

He was very good at hiding his emotions, but Sami knew the
Captain well enough to know this was affecting him. She knew it wasn't her
fault, but she did take it as her responsibility to find a solution…

"Mandi, I don't think this has anything to do with
Paula. I know she was your friend, but she told me some things…"

"What things?"

"Things that make me think that she felt we were all in
good hands with the Captain."

Mandi curled her lip and Sami laughed…

"Look Mandi, I need your help; I need to figure this
out. You know more about the way computers think than anybody on the ship… So
tell me, why would the ship reject installing a new Captain?"

Both women sat silent for a moment until Mandi finally
spoke…

"Reasons for rejecting someone… It could be that he
failed some kind of test...

"Maybe the computer detected psychotic
tendencies?"

Sami frowned.

"Maybe he's not smart enough?"

Sami narrowed her eyes…

"I don't know! Maybe he doesn't have the right eye
color! It could be anything!"

"Or, it could be something else altogether," Sami
continued. "What other reasons would there be?"

"I suppose it would reject the new Captain if there
were already an existing Captain, but that's not the case…"

"Maybe the ship doesn't know that it's old Captain is
gone?" Sami said hopefully.

"No, that's not it. It knew that the former lead
astrogator was no longer available, that's why it permitted Paula to give the
position to you. If it knew that there's no reason to think it wouldn’t know
that the Captain's gone also…"

Mandi continued musing…

"Maybe he doesn't meet some interior protocol?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know… Maybe to be the captain you have to
serve as a department head for a while first… Again, it could be
anything."

"So if that's the issue, maybe there's a way around
it," Sami mused.

Now it was Mandi's turn to go quiet in thought. Finally, she
spoke…

"I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but… But if there
are
certain protocols for being a captain, I think there would be fewer
protocols for being first mate. And even fewer for second mate, etc."

Sami's eyes got wide.

"So we don't make the Captain the Captain," Sami
said. "We make him the First Mate and put everyone else underneath
him!"

"And if that doesn't work you can lower him down to
second mate, etc. Eventually that should take care of it…
If
that's what
the problem is."

"Can you think of anything else it could be?"

Mandi shook her head, "No, not really."

Sami leaned forward and gave Mandi a big hug…

"Thank you Mandi… I knew you could do it. I knew you
had superpowers too…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Your mind! Your superpower is your intelligence!"

Sami jumped up and bounded from the room, leaving a confused
redhead behind her…

ΔΔΔ

Argentine had a
lot on his plate.

It seemed that all the gods of the universe were conspiring
to keep him from ever getting that mountain cabin…

They were incredibly close to being able to cash in on their
discovery; he just had to hold everything, and everyone, together long enough
to make it happen… Which was much easier said than done.

He wasn't worried about the chief.

The chief was the chief. He might be vocal and even a little
impulsive, but in the end Argentine was confident that they wanted the same
thing.

If Argentine couldn't Captain the ship, he certainly wanted
the chief to.

As a last resort he was pretty confident that he could
command the ship through Sami. Since she was already in the system she would be
the highest-ranking officer and she would follow his lead… Probably.

If it came down to it, did he trust Lieutenant Stark to hold
to their agreement? He didn't have any reason not to think he would, but
control of a ship like this would be powerful motivation to question one's
priorities…

He certainly didn't trust anyone else on board with that
kind of power. They all might be good people, but that kind of trust only came
with long experience.

And he certainly didn't trust Mandi…

Or did he?

Argentine knew that was a strange thought to be having. She
had given him absolutely no reason to place any trust in her, let alone for
something of this magnitude.

He didn't consider himself someone that could be swayed by
simply a pretty face. The chief's ribbing aside, he had navigated the ranks of
the Chezden Navy by successfully identifying and avoiding the manipulative
sexual advances of both women and men.

That's not to say he'd always been celibate, but he'd always
been capable of keeping his emotions sufficiently detached to see objectively.

So, he was selective, but if someone was trying to
manipulate and use him for their own advancement he'd felt little compunction
about using them back. If they were later surprised to learn that their
manipulations had garnered no effect on his actual decision-making process… Well,
that was their miscalculation.

If he ever decided to write a book on philosophy, his
age-old question would be,
Is it wrong to use the user?

At any rate, he didn't think Mandi fit into that mold.

He was sufficiently self-aware to know that he was attracted
to her. Hell, he'd known that since the first time they'd set down for coffee…

So his defensive radar was fully functioning. But even so,
there was a lot about her to admire…

She was smart; there was no question about it. If her
hacking and programming abilities weren't enough testament to that, you only
had to look at all the deceptions and rolls she'd played to know it was true.

There was a certain confidence that had also been critical
to her success, and Argentine suspected it was the most attractive thing about
her.

She acted arrogant, but he saw through that immediately. It
was a role she played just like all the others…

No, the one single thing that kept him from pigeonholing her
as a
Bad Person To Avoid
, was her heart. Everything she had done had
been for good reasons, even if she sometimes pretended otherwise.

As hard as he looked, Argentine couldn't detect any
blackness in her.

But that didn't mean she would hesitate to take command of
the ship and use it for her own 'good' purposes – and those purposes may or may
not coincide with his.

He shook himself from his reverie to focus on the more
immediate issues…

Everything would've been so much simpler if they'd found the
ship a derelict, he mused.

But it wasn't. Even after two hundred years she was
obviously still active and, apparently, in good condition.

He'd been at first startled when Nicu had commed him earlier
that morning to report that Paula's body was no longer in her cabin bed. He'd
realized quickly, though, that this was simply more evidence that the ship was
functioning properly. It obviously had a protocol for disposing of dead bodies…

That was the reason Nicu had reported that the only thing
they'd found was her uniform, neatly laid out on the bed.

"Can I come in?" Sami asked, sticking her head
inside his cabin door.

She had an excited expression on her face and that was a
pleasant relief to the dark thoughts he'd been having…

"Of course! What's going on?"

"We think we've got the answer!" she said
excitedly. "We think we’ve figured out how to give you command!"

ΔΔΔ

Once again they
were all gathered in the neural mapping room inside the hospital complex.

Argentine donned the golden circlet.

After Sami's announcement, they’d all dropped everything to
return.

Sami explained to the group her and Mandi's idea of
designating the Captain as first officer, and then ranking everyone else below
him.

"The only downside," Mandi elaborated. "Is
that there might be some emergency command functions that only the Captain has
access to. But unless anyone has any better ideas, this is the best we've come
up with."

No one said anything and most shook their heads…

"I just need to check a couple of things first…"
Sami's voice trailed off.

"I thought you had this figured out?" Argentine
asked.

"I do, I mean I will, but…"

"Let the girl do her job," Mandi interjected.

"What we figured out will still work… It's just that I
found something funny."

"Funny as in,
Ha ha?
Or funny as in,
Oh shit!
"
the chief asked dryly.

Ignoring him, Sami continued…

"Before I submitted our Captain as a first officer, I
wanted to check the status of the previous First Officer. The computer clearly
marks him as being deceased.

"So, just to cover all the bases, I checked on the
ship's previous captain, Captain Ramires… He's marked as being on medical
leave."

"Maybe he was a bit lurgy when everything went
down?" Barry suggested.

"Yeah, maybe,” Mandi interjected. “But that brings up
another thought… Sami, why don't you see if you can designate Argentine as the
Acting
Captain
."

She didn't hesitate; she started typing immediately.

This time, inside Argentine's head the universe really did
open up…

Aboard
the Roosevelt

Argentine was dancing.

The room was full of people. He somehow knew that he and the
crew were celebrating a special holiday. The ship’s ballroom was decorated in a
way he'd never seen before – it was elegant.

Across the dance floor, he spied Lieutenant Higgins doing
her duty as first mate, primarily keeping up good relations with the scientific
crew and their spouses.

Melissa, the ship's lead astrogator and, as of recently, his
sometimes mistress, was entertaining a group of younger officers at one of the
many tables. It'd taken two years for the light to come back into her eyes
after the death of her husband…

The captain, of course, had a duty to dance with the spouses
of his officers. It would be physically exhausting to dance with every single
one and, fortunately, most of them were sophisticated enough to understand and
rotate the courtesy through a number of formal functions.

Even so, the captain was looking forward to the last dance…

"Captain Ramires, I know I'm not supposed to ask… But
would you dance with me?"

The captain looked down at young Paula Silva. If losing her
husband had been hard on Melissa, it had been crushing for Paula losing her
father. How old was she now? Eight or nine years?

"Of course, milady…"

ΔΔΔ

"I think
he's coming around," he heard someone say.

He opened his eyes and realized he was in one of the
hospital beds, surrounded by his officers.

"Are you all right?" Sami asked anxiously.

"Yes, I'm fine…" And he realized he was. There was
no hangover, headache, or other ill effects… Just a crazy memory.

"What happened," Mandi wanted to know.

"I'm not really sure… I think you'd better tell
me."

She frowned and said, "You just suddenly got very
sleepy. You mumbled something about needing to lay down and would've hit the
floor if we hadn't held you up."

"Oh, well… thanks for the assist. But I really think
I'm fine now. How long was I out for?"

"Probably less than a minute; we just got you into the
bed."

"Really? It seemed like so much… Longer."

ΔΔΔ

The chief had,
kind of reluctantly, gone next.

In a weird twist, Sami hadn't been able to install the chief
as both the first mate and the chief engineering officer. After some
discussion, they’d decided to install him in the engineering billet and simply
rank him higher than everyone but the Captain.

Argentine figured they could do without a First Officer.
After all, they were planning on cashing in as soon as possible…

Except for yawning a few times, the chief had shown no ill
effects from the integration. After that, the procedures went smoothly. All of
the officers receive their billets, and even the youngest Petulengro family
member above the age of seven received Crewmen, Third Class status.

Argentine used the time to think… And experiment.

He found himself knowing certain things about the ship;
information that he was sure the ship was providing him. But it was very hit
and miss.

For example, he now knew where the Captain's quarters were…
not far down that broad hallway that connected to the bridge…

On the other hand, the forward section of the ship was the
only section he could remember anything about. He vaguely knew there was more
to know… The information just wouldn't come to him.

It had taken most of the day to cycle everyone through.
Argentine ordered them all to get some rest and be ready for a big day
tomorrow.

They needed to make this ship spaceworthy. Or, in other
words, they needed to make sure they could maneuver the ship without
accidentally turning off semi important things like gravity and life support.

Finding one of the mess halls at all operational would be a
big plus.

It took him a long time to go to sleep and he wasn't sure
how much time had passed when he suddenly woke – there was a girl standing at
the foot of his bed!