Chapter 429

Deep Space – The Alien Ship

The First Officer approached the blast doors that had sealed at the entrance to the engine room. Reaching to touch his com to ask for entrance, he instead smiled as the doors ponderously slid open before he could key the instrument.

Unlike a few Earth weeks prior, every sub-engineer he passed on the way to the Chief’s office, nodded, spoke, or waved to him. One even stopped him to ask about his wound.

“Just a graze. The other guys were not so lucky, however,” he said with the equivalent of a grin as he continued on.

“I told you that bastard would go after you first chance he got,” the Chief said motioning to the pot of stim after the First Officer had knocked and entered the other’s office.

With a cup of the hot liquid in hand, the First sat, but was obviously favoring his left arm.

“How’s the injury?”

“Just a graze, but it stings like a bitch. The bastard ruined my practically new uniform shirt and I had to go change after I got out of sickbay. My Second wanted to find the captain and execute him, and I had to take time out to dissuade him, which delayed my coming here. Well, make that delayed my coming here, again. I was on the way when those two decided it would be fun to have a new First Officer.”

“Had you been on the bridge before it happened?”

The First took time to sip his stim before answering. “No. I took three of my favorite females to my quarters during my off time and had just returned them to their area when those two did their thing. It pissed me off so I shot them both again after they were already dead. Might not have done anything for them, but it pleased me,” he growled. “I had my weapon set on maximum, so there’s quite a mess in the alleyway.”

The Chief Engineer chuckled before continuing. “I will bet your termination of your assailants got the Captain’s attention. You know he had to have been watching. He would not have missed your assassination.”

“Oh, it is obvious that he monitors every communication I make, well, unless we use what we have set up. But we need to continue using an open channel unless what we say is something that we absolutely should keep secret. We need to feed him just enough to satisfy him that we are not hiding anything more from him. We do not want him delving too deeply into communication possibilities.”

“Oh, I agree, but how did you come up with that idea, anyway? I knew you had something in mind when you borrowed my communicator, but I never knew there were sub-channels until you showed me how the function worked a few cycles ago.”

Well, I did not know about it until my Second told me the whole bridge crew was behind me, and also informed me that the science officer could alter the sealed recording of everything that went on aboard ship, and ... provided me with sub channels for more private communication. My communicator now has a channel that works only with my Second, another for the Science Officer, and a channel just with you. Theoretically, no one else on the ship can monitor us on those channels.

“It has to have pissed His Excellency off when you took out his assassins so easily.”

“Shit, I had my head up my ass or they would never have gotten off a shot. You told me to be careful and to expect something from the asshole, but I was ... overconfident and he almost took me out – just that fucking easily.”

“And ... of course, he knows nothing about it, right?” the Chief said with his race’s equivalent of deep sarcasm.

“Definitely. Oh, he left word for me that he was beginning a full investigation.”

They both got a chuckle out of that.

The Chief got up to pour himself a cup of stim. When he returned to his seat, he stared at the First. “Seriously, what are you waiting on? Oh, I do not think he could rig an outer hatch to open with you nearby – not after my having rerouted various circuits, but this is a big ship with multiple ongoing operations, many of which would be detrimental to our species should we be exposed to them without appropriate protective equipment. If he has someone with enough technical savvy that is willing to do it, he could set up a life ending experience for you that might well appear to be accidental.”

The First Officer frowned. “Well, that is not exactly a warming thought.”

“But it is reality. As I have asked many times now, why the fuck do you not just kill the bastard? You know you will have to sooner or later, unless ... he kills you first. I encourage you to do it; assume command and we shall go rogue.”

The First Officer let out his race’s equivalent of a sigh. “I have answered the call to duels, but I have never initiated one myself during my promotion cycles. I have been attacked by more than one superior who probably thought I would eventually challenge him, and I thus gained his rank, and I have also been promoted after passing exams during the normal course of advancement. But I had hoped that things would settle down after we took this Earth. And ... I keep having this feeling I have already told you about. If it were not for the Captain being so infatuated with the Earth females, we might be able to talk him into continuing on...”

“You are dreaming,” the Chief said with emphasis. “The bastard is not going to bypass this planet. It will make him rich beyond even his personal dreams. Not to mention that he would do the exact opposite of what you suggest just because he hates you. But ... you are able to kill in the blink of an eye, and he dares not challenge you to a duel. Much to his disgruntlement, the outcome would be certain. But if you officially challenged him, he would have no recourse, unless he voluntarily stepped down and relinquished his position to you. So why will you not listen to reason? He is going to kill you if you do not kill him first. And you are the only one who could legitimately challenge him, let alone expect to win. Even if someone else did it, by law, they could not take over the Captain’s position. Only you – or I – could legitimately do that, if the High Command should honor it. But whether they would or not, I know I am far too slow to beat him, not to mention that I absolutely do not want the Captain’s position. Being in charge of this ship would be right up there among my top ten nightmares.

“Besides, my section is different. Intelligence is what is needed to get to the top in here. There are probably many of my sub-engineers capable of beating me in a fair fight, but if one of them took over my position, how long would it be before poor judgment or lack of knowledge destroyed this ship? They are deeply aware of that. And, besides, I am more than fair with them, and they know it. If one of them should challenge me, he would face all the other sub-engineers. This does not reflect only my thoughts. They have spoken of it in our meetings. I have fought against the Captain’s arrogance and treatment of them and, at my direction, they have installed defensive weapons as well as other systems to keep us all safe in here. We are a team and will remain a team. From what you said earlier, the bridge crew is fully behind you, too, just as my sub-engineers are behind me. That is a tremendous plus for us.”

“You are wrong in one thing. High Command would never accept my killing the Captain in a duel. He has been around too long and has too much seniority. They know me and would consider it murder if I killed him, no matter the manner. True, we have the bridge crew and your people on our side, but as I have said before, the Paladins are a fighting team and are probably against me. I assume that the Captain has promised them a disproportional percentage of the plunder once we capture this Earth. Greed has them firmly on his side.”

“In my view, you should end the bastard’s existence, anyway, and go rogue. So why do you not...”

“I have spoken with the Paladin commander. He is now well aware that I expect a personal attack from either him or personnel under his command, and ... I think I have communicated sufficiently so that he understands that I will make certain he is one of the first casualties of the engagement should an attack occur from some of his personnel. I had my females on my mind when the Captain’s minions attacked, but that will not happen again. From now on, I will be alert, and ... ready. As soon as I leave here, I will also rig the door to my personal quarters. Should any unauthorized personnel attempt entry without my permission, they will be dead before they cross the threshold. I also refused a pain suppressant. The pain of the burn will be a reminder for me not to become complacent and let my mind drift again.”

Ship’s Academy

Ben Worthington and Justin Camp, the two fighter jocks, had spent more time in their late-night flight training than they intended. Consequently, with only one more hour’s sleep after returning to their quarters, they walked into the academy classroom to get coffee and mingle with the other pilots, the instructor having not arrived yet.

“He’s just too fucking real to be Ship,” Ben said in a whisper as the two took seats on the front row. “She’s supposed to be a fucking battleship ... and female, and she sure sounds female, for crying out loud. It’s hard to believe that hardass instructor is Ship.”

“Hush,” Justin cautioned. “Remember, all this is her simulation. She probably knows what we’re thinking, let alone what we’re saying.”

Ben’s face blanched, but he rallied after a moment. “Well, if she knows all about us, then she knows we’re busting our asses to do the best job we can.”

“Now,” Justin returned. “We were coasting in the beginning, and we both know it. I just hope it isn’t too late.”

“Well, I’m going to...”

Ben cut short his comment as the instructor walked in followed closely by Arlene and Ann. The instructor as well as the two girls stopped by the coffee urn, before the girls took seats obviously already prepared for them at the right front of the classroom facing the aviators.

The instructor stood before the class casually sipping his coffee for a moment before he turned his attention to the pilots. “To bring all of you up to date, we have word that the aliens have begun their approach to Earth, or at least it seems that way. But ... they appear to be still cautious about their warp engines, and they only moved a couple of light minutes before stopping again. However, the scout’s AI did not detect any obvious problems with their drive. The scout’s crew thinks that the aliens are just being cautious with a newly-repaired drive. Just as that scout left to return to Earth, the aliens went to warp again, and if the warp detector is working properly, the aliens are proceeding barely above light speed. We are not certain why.

“And before you ask, we do know that with that type of drive, the alien vessel should be capable of a much higher warp. They also conducted a thorough search of the area between the asteroid belt and the position where they first stopped. Whether this was because of the detection of the scout’s emergency energy expenditure to get out of the way of an errant asteroid, or something else, continues to be unclear. But the Colonel feels that they could possibly have become suspicious of surveillance for some other reason. We do not know how sensitive their scans are. There is always the possibility – remote though it is – that they have detected our scouts, not only during the emergency maneuver, but perhaps at other times as well.”

“So, we still don’t know how long it will be before they arrive?” one of the female pilots asked.

“Only that it would be years at their present rate, but we are certain that their vessel is capable of far higher speeds than the aliens are exhibiting at present. That we are almost certain of.”

“So what do we do?” another asked.

“Like I said before, we train until they break out of warp in our system, then we kill their asses if they show signs of aggression.”

“Who is going to command us once the fighting starts?” Ben asked.

“The Colonel will be in overall command, of course. We shall see about the rest,” he replied, trying to avoid a more complete answer to the question.

“Well, there should be someone in command of the interceptors,” Ben insisted, “and we should know who that commander is and train under him. It seems logical that the ranking officer should be in charge.”

“And who might that be?” the instructor asked with an edge to his voice.

“Obviously, me,” Ben insisted.

“Oh, shit,” Justin said under his breath. Then with a smile pasted on his face and trying not to move his lips, whispered to his partner, “You’re going to get us thrown out on our asses.”

Ship/the instructor turned glaring eyes on Worthington. “So, you are proposing...” Absolute quiet flowed over the room as the Colonel walked in.

“I will choose the commander of the interceptor teams,” he said in a voice that, though quiet, brooked no argument. “First though, we have to teach all of you to get the job done without committing suicide in the process.” Then, with a wink at his wives, he continued, “So far, the lot of you can’t last more than ten minutes against my teenage wives. As a matter of fact, I am quite certain that Arlene and Ann, teamed with Bill and Kathy, could easily take on the lot of you without breaking a sweat. So what would your strategy be, should I put you in command?” he said as he glared at Worthington.