Authors: Bennett R. Coles
“What did you just do?”
Jack didn’t bother repeating his previous tactical report. He sensed that Helena’s question was of a much larger nature.
“Uhh, I defended the ship.”
“Against what? That was a civilian craft you just buzzed.”
This wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “Actually, they buzzed us.”
“Did they? Or were we just two ships crossing in the same area of space?”
Jack considered, and realized with a sinking heart that he’d been too busy lamenting his reconstructed face to pay attention.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but they shone a fire-control radar at us.”
Helena’s face went blank for a moment. “How can you tell?”
He pointed at the EM alarm. Helena’s eyes followed but she clearly didn’t understand. Amanda appeared on Jack’s other side, holding a bandage to her blood-matted hair.
“The equipment’s zeroized from all the shaking,” she said. “It’s going to take a few hours to reset.”
Helena smacked a hand against Jack’s seat. “
Dammit
.” She rubbed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “Okay, hot-shot, you’ve ruined the day’s work, caused injuries, and probably scared the hell out of some local. Take us back to the ship.”
Jack obliged with a sinking heart, locking in on
Armstrong
’s beacon. He looked back to see if Amanda was all right, but she’d retreated to the very after end of the cabin. His flight controls, now at full power, showed the unknown craft still racing away at high speed, and as the adrenaline rush began to ease, he wondered just how badly he’d screwed up.
* * *
“I think you did exactly the right thing.”
Jack looked up from his glass of water, surprised. Thomas Kane had listened silently during his entire recounting of the incident, moving from his seat only moments ago to collect some of the fresh dessert that had just been laid out by the cooks. He spoke over his shoulder.
He took a sip, glancing around the wardroom to ensure Thomas was speaking to him.
“Really?”
“Absolutely.” His calm baritone voice was as reassuring as ever.
“I figured I just flashed back to war-mode, and overreacted.”
“Maybe.”
“But that’s not so good when we’re in our home system, on a peaceful science mission.”
Thomas strolled back from the duff table, a plate of dessert in each hand. “You did absolutely the right thing, Jack. Just in absolutely the wrong place.” His easy smile robbed the words of malice. “Terra’s been cleared of the last of the rebels, and the Fleet is camped out at the remaining jump gates, but things are still pretty raw, and I’d rather have a stranger in my sights than wind up in his.”
Jack laughed. “No worries about my causing too much damage.
Armstrong
’s Hawks are about as well-armed as my mom’s new fridge.”
Thomas nodded wryly. “Just be glad you didn’t have Katja in the Hawk with you. She’d have suited up and boarded the bastard.”
He laughed again, still trying to reconcile his memories of that scary trooper with the beautiful woman he’d met in the cafeteria Earthside. Her tender hug was a long way from their first embrace, when she’d hauled his broken body off the ground in Sirius and carried him to safety. Even so, he couldn’t help but think it was kind of the same sentiment.
“Have you seen her since we got back?” he asked.
Thomas took a bite of his cake and chewed, glancing away. He nodded, swallowing.
“She was at the big military gala with her family.”
“She looks great out of her uniform.”
A sharp look. “What?”
“In civvies. She’s grown her hair too.”
Thomas nodded strangely. “Yeah, it looks nice.”
Jack appreciated having Thomas on board. If not exactly a friend—their relative seniorities were more than fifteen years apart—he was at least a familiar face. And with Thomas as the acting-XO of this Research ship, Jack had at least some confidence that the mission would make sense.
The door from the passageway slid open, admitting two members of the science department. Amanda glanced at Jack briefly then took a seat at the far end of the room. Petty Officer Li approached and starting pushing one of the couches up against the bulkhead.
Thomas looked over his shoulder. “Do you need us to move?”
Li nodded. “Sorry, sir. I need to set up for a science department meeting.”
Jack searched his memory for any staff meetings today as Thomas rose and pushed his chair back against the bulkhead. Jack knew he still wasn’t that great at figuring out this ship’s routine, but he could have sworn that staff meetings were always just after breakfast. He glanced at his watch. Mid-afternoon.
Thomas seemed to be reading his mind. He leaned in and spoke quietly.
“Good luck with the meeting, Jack. Remember: you did the right thing.” Clearing his duff plate to the galley window, Thomas left the wardroom. Not technically part of the science department, his casual presence as the second-in-command wouldn’t be appreciated by the science officer.
Li finished arranging the furniture into a hollow square and sat down. He glanced over at Jack with an odd expression.
“Playing fighter-jock this morning, sir?”
Jack shrugged. “He came right at me in a classic attack maneuver.”
The petty officer just shook his head and looked away. “Whatever,” he said. “No civvy would touch an AF ship.”
The wardroom filled quickly, and before long Jack counted fifteen crew members present, including himself, Amanda, Chief Lopez, all three petty officers, and the rest of the department. He noticed that they seemed to cluster at the other end of the room, and he suddenly sensed a distinct separation between himself and everyone else.
Helena burst in, not even sitting down.
“Well, this morning was wasted. Not only did Lopez put in the wrong settings, but then Mallory over there screwed up all our equipment with his idiot stunt. We’re going to have to amend the entire schedule.” She threw down a display pad on the central coffee table. “I’ve just spent an hour going over the next few days, and I don’t know when we’re going to find the time.”
All eyes lingered on the pad where it lay. Helena’s gaze moved angrily across the room.
“Well?” she said. “Any brilliant suggestions?”
Jack mentally reviewed the flying schedule for the next few days. There was some routine maintenance on the Hawk that could wait until after he’d ferried some of the crew to Astral Base Three.
“Ma’am, I can squeeze in an extra flying window the day after tomorrow, just before I transfer our passengers at Ganymede,” he offered. “That would give us about four hours—”
“Great,” she said. “So we could try and conduct our Bulk experiments in the biggest planetary gravity well in Terra. Why don’t we just fly right into the sun and be done with it?”
Jack frowned—he hadn’t thought of that. “Right. Sorry. It has to be done in minimum curvature, no more than…” He searched his memory. “Two percent radial.”
Amanda began to speak, but Helena rolled right over her.
“You know what, Jack?” she snapped. “I am sick of your sarcasm, and I am sick of your cowboy attitude as to what this ship does.”
Jack felt like he’d been physically struck. Where did that come from? He tried his best to smile.
“Sorry, ma’am. I’m just trying to understand.”
Helena’s face went a dangerous shade of red.
“Wipe that smirk off your face, and don’t try and suck up to me. I get enough of that from Smith.” She jerked a dismissive hand at the junior science officer.
Amanda’s jaw dropped, tired eyes blinking in shock.
Helena threw up her hands. “Honestly, with Lopez and his pet theories, Smith and her stupid questions, and a pilot who can’t even fly straight—”
“Ma’am,” Lopez raised a cautioning hand. “Please.”
Helena paused, clearly reining in her anger. “Well, I’m frustrated.” She tapped the pad on the table. “You people need to sort out the program and get our schedule back on line. I have a meeting with Admiral Bush at the end of this week, and I’d better have something good to tell him.” She gave a last menacing glare, and departed.
Silence descended again. Li eventually swore to himself and the crew members started muttering to each other. No one made any move to look at the pad. In Jack’s experience, the chief petty officer usually took charge at moments like this, but Lopez just sat frowning with his head resting on his fists. Jack looked carefully at Amanda, hoping to see some life, but her frame sagged back against the couch.
With Helena gone and Thomas not involved, there were no lieutenants present, but someone had to take charge.
Jack waited.
Finally, Li hauled himself to his feet—but all he did was head for the door.
“Well, I got shit to do.”
His movement broke the spell, and the crew started to lift themselves from their seats. Jack stood quickly.
“Hey, hey—hang on, guys!” he said loudly. “We still gotta solve this problem. That experiment has to get done.” He knew it was his actions that had ruined the morning, and the last thing he needed was this problem to stick around and give Helena even more reason to hate him.
Everyone more or less paused, and some even looked at him expectantly. Lopez finally roused himself and reached for the pad. Amanda looked up with the first glimmer of interest.
Lopez held the pad up. “You got any ideas, sir?”
He took the display and quickly scanned the operations schedule. Most of it was meaningless milspeak, but he knew enough to recognize when one event ended and another started.
“Uhhh…”
The petty officers who had momentarily paused turned again for the door. Lopez watched Jack for a moment, then started to gather up his gear.
Jack took a wild stab at it.
“Umm, who’s the… C.E.R.A.?”
One of the petty officers stopped. Jack thought his name was Singh. The man just gave him a withering stare.
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, why?”
“The Chief Engine Room Artificer,” Singh replied, condescension thick in his voice. “Have you even been on a ship before?”
Jack brushed off the disdain in the hope of making progress.
“Yeah, a couple,” he replied, “but I fly a lot. Anyway, what’s this serial the Chief has scheduled tomorrow afternoon—delaying drills?”
Singh shared a smug scoff with the other petty officers. “It’s when they do drills in the engine room. That’s the big room where they keep the thing that makes us move.”
“So can we fly at the same time?”
“You can do whatever the hell you want. Just don’t ask for sudden bursts of power.”
With cautious excitement he looked to Amanda.
“Can you have your experiment ready to go for then?”
She sighed. “Yeah, but there’s a rule about launching a Hawk during delaying drills. It’s a sensitive maneuver when power’s unreliable. We never do it.”
He looked back at Singh. “I’ll only need two or three minutes to get through the airlock. Can you talk to the Chief, and ask him to guarantee me stable power for that long?”
Crossed arms. “No.”
“Yes.” Lopez stood. “Just get your bird launched on time at the start of the serial, sir. We’ll coordinate with Engineering.” A glare quelled the imminent protest from Singh.
Jack handed the schedule to Amanda. “Does our experiment conflict with this serial that happens right before it?”
She shook her head. “They’re unrelated… but let me check with the captain.” Glances passed between all assembled, then the department members filed out with body language Jack recognized as, if not actually agreement, at least not disagreement. He risked another glance at Amanda, trying to guess her mood.
“Sorry about your head.”
She shrugged, eyes focused on the deck. “It’s not bad… but I think you overreacted a bit.”
He swallowed back sudden frustration. Why did everyone here think it was such a big deal? Didn’t they realize the Astral Force had just been in a war? He decided maybe a quick lesson in tactics would help.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “It was pretty strange that he wasn’t broadcasting his beacon, and if he’d had regular flight sensors active, he’d never have gotten that close to us. His whole flight pattern was suspicious.”
“Like deep-space pilots always obey the rules.” Amanda shrugged dismissively. “He was probably trying to conserve power.”
He discarded his retort, suddenly recognizing her disinterest in continuing the conversation.
“Maybe,” he allowed. “Either way I screwed up your experiment, and I’d like to help.”
She finally looked up. “Thanks. I don’t hear that too often these days.”
As a fellow subbie, he felt for her. “This isn’t a very happy ship, is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s my first.”
“But have people always been like this on board?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
He smiled. “Well, for the record, I’ve never heard you ask a stupid question, and I ask them all the time.” He gestured toward where Singh had stood. “But if I ask enough of them, I usually find my way.”
She smiled back, and Jack saw a slight sparkle in her eyes again.
“Well, let’s get this experiment re-scheduled.”
As he followed her out the door, suddenly he didn’t feel quite so useless.
Kete really wondered how Terrans accomplished as much as they did. Having chosen as a society to remain “unplugged,” they were forced as individuals to focus on little more than one thing at a time, and as a group had only linear communication methods with which to collaborate.
Throw enough money, resources, and sheer, raw power into the mix, and he supposed just about any problem could be fixed, but with such inefficiency. He only had to look past the lush, irrigated parks around Lake Sapphire to see the dead and deserted Outback, and get a sense of how much damage Terrans had done to humanity’s homeworld in their quest for dominance and control.
It was satisfyingly ironic, then, that he could use their inefficiencies—and indeed their raw power—to search effortlessly through their society. His mission remained the priority, and it was complex enough, but his task had taken on yet another element, now that he knew the identity of his family’s murderer.