Chapter 567

The Alien Ship

... The First sighed. “I swore to uphold the Captain. I have already severely damaged that oath, even before I shot his ass, but I am still going to try to maintain the mission parameters as they were outlined to me. At least it will take the chamber several cycles to grow him a new arm and patch up his shoulder, but at the end of this mission, there will be a firing squad waiting for me.”

They will be waiting a very long time, the Science Officer grimly promised himself – a thought shared to one degree or another by the rest of the personnel on the bridge.

“Get the medical personnel in here,” the First told the Third Officer, but the Science Officer held his hand up a little, indicating that the Third should wait a moment. “Sir, I have a suggestion.”

“Look, we cannot cover this up. No matter how we alter the recording, the truth will eventually come out – particularly with a dead or severely injured Captain. As you are well aware, the High Command frequently asks questions accompanied by the judicious use of torture, and not necessarily in that order.”

“Yes, the bastards torture you for cycles while you spill your guts, hoping that you will tell them whatever it is that they want to hear,” the Science Officer agreed. “However, we will be in no more trouble if we should ... delay the crew and the Paladin Commander from finding out what has happened in here.”

“But what good...” the Third began, only to be cut off by the First Officer.

“You have a point,” he told the Science Officer. “Chances are that discovery of a severely injured Captain will only speed up whatever the Commander has in mind. He might well try for a coup, which we all know has probably been his plan for a while now.”

“Lately, the Commander has had difficulty contacting the Captain. Chances are the Captain just told him he had been asleep, which happens to be true,” he said with a chuckle that was repeated by the others.

“But, it might well have sounded to the Commander as if the Captain was avoiding him, so if he does not promptly answer now, the Commander might logically assume that the Captain is avoiding him yet again.”

Turning to the Orderly, he asked, “Are you in on this?”

The Orderly stood proudly erect, amazed that he would be asked as if he were actually a member of the bridge crew and not just a mere orderly beneath notice. “Anything you say, Sir. The Captain has frequently promised to space me, and I am certain he would have, if not for you, Sir. Just tell me what you need, and I will do it.”

“Excellent. Go get a stretcher ... No, belay that order. Get a gravfloat from the machine shop – without anyone noticing if possible. We’ll cover Shithead with a tarp and put him in my quarters. And while you are getting the float and tarp, see if you can get one of those portable medunits, too. I will divert the medteam so you can obtain the unit from their area.”

The Orderly, ecstatic to have been given an assignment other than to clean up or make stim, was off the bridge in a flash.

A moment later, the First was on the line to the Engine Room. “Chief, I need you to have a medical emergency. Possibly a minor fall that will leave one of your people unconscious for a few moments, but he will be revived and will be positive that he is in excellent health as soon as the medical team arrives. I just need them out of the way for a few sub-cycles. Understand?”

“Do you realize how busy we are?” the Chief sighed out.

“I will owe you one, Chief, and oh, by the way, it will be a way to fuck over the Captain.”

“Well, why did you not just say so? When?”

“Now is a good time for me.”

“All right. He has fallen. One of my subs will call the medical team as soon as I am off the line.”

The orderly was waiting as the team hurriedly left, their medical float following them.

A few moments later, the orderly returned with one of the portable medunits. “I took this one from a back shelf, and I put some other equipment in the space so the unit will not be as easily missed.”

“Excellent.”

Soon, the Captain was under the healing field and on a gravfloat. The Steward threw the aliens’ version of a tarp over him and was ready to go.

“I need someone to block the corridor at the intersection to keep anyone from seeing while we move him into my quarters.”

“I will handle that,” the Navigator quickly volunteered.

“You did set the unit on its slowest cycle, right?” the First asked the Science Officer.

“Absolutely. It will grow his arm and shoulder back, but it will be a slow process. And before you ask, I made quite certain that he will remain unconscious during the whole procedure.”

“Good. I would hate to wake up with that bastard trying to kill me.”

“Now, should anyone ask, the Captain is tired of being interrupted and has sworn to shoot the next person to bother him.”

“Sounds familiar,” the Third said with a chuckle.

The orderly smiled as he addressed the First Officer. “Sir, I have had the cleaning bots go over the deck three times. I replaced the console and incinerated the damaged one. There is nothing to indicate that a bolt was fired in here.”

“Thank you.”

“If there is anything I can do for you, Sir, I will always do my best.”

“I will remember that.”

“The Commander will grow curious sooner or later,” the Navigator reminded.

“And that reminds me,” the First said as he turned to the Science Officer. “I, too, worry that sooner or later, the Commander will realize that we have done something with the Captain and will try to take over.” After pausing for a moment to think, “Change the locking codes for every airlock or escape hatch on this side of the ship and put backup alarms on all of them as well as any passageways.”

“The mutiny weapons already cover them, Sir.”

“I know, but put backup alarms on them as well and make sure they are not obvious. One must never underestimate an opponent. He is an asshole, but he is not stupid. Make certain that he and his people cannot reach this end of the ship and remain trapped in the flight deck area.”

“Yes, Sir. I will see to it.”

“If anyone has any ideas, I want to hear them. If you hear rumors, I want to hear them. If you even vaguely suspect something or someone, I want to know.”

There was a chorus of, “Yes, Sirs,” and “Yes, First.”

“Remember, if anyone asks, the Captain makes an appearance on the Bridge now and then, but when he does, he just glares at us and has threatened to shoot anyone who bothers him.”

“Again, nothing out of the ordinary there,” the Science Officer said with a snigger.

“I will personally make certain the power pack for the medunit is never depleted,” the First said with a smile while the others chuckled.

The Prison Planet

After placing one of the projectors near Morales’ bed, Jeff knelt to make the final adjustments. Satisfied, he had Morales’ women step past the curtained-off area. With a pan in each hand, he stopped to grin at Morales. “Ready?”

“I suppose,” Morales said as he cupped his hands over his ears. “Let her rip.”

“Oh, shit,” Morales said with a chuckle as Jeff began banging the pan bottoms together.

Morales, with his ears covered, tried to yell over the racket. “Shit, that’s even louder than I expected.”

Jeff kept banging.

Jasmine, growing tired of waiting for anything to happen, pulled the sheet back to ask why Jeff hadn’t started, but froze when she saw what was happening.

As soon as she stepped past the hanging sheet, she put her hands over her ears. “That’s enough,” she yelled into the silence because Jeff had just stopped.

Both Morales and Jeff laughed, and Jasmine stuck her tongue out at the men. Seconds later, Christine and Ashley came inside the area. “Was he actually banging those pans together?” Christine asked as she nodded at the pans in Jeff’s hands.

“Loud enough to wake the dead,” Morales assured her. “You didn’t hear anything?”

Ashley shrugged. “Just Selina and Arlene talking over by the chickens, but certainly nothing from in here. Still, it’s hard to believe that we didn’t hear those pans banging together. You guys aren’t screwing with us, are you?”

Jasmine interrupted to say, “No. When I pulled the sheet back, I could see Jeff hitting the pans together, but there was no sound. When I stepped closer, it was suddenly very loud, to put it mildly.”

“I’ve gotta try this,” Morales said. “You bang the pans, Hon, but I’m going to leave the curtain open so I can see while you’re making the noise.”

Christine and Ashley had to do the same thing for everyone before they all believed that the projector actually worked.

The Matthews women had already had several experiences as Jeff tried out his projectors at various stages of their development, but Selina happily provided a pan banging session for Tosha.

“What’s its range?” Ashley wanted to know.

“So far, a maximum of roughly thirty feet. I can adjust the size of the sphere down to a couple of feet, but I have an idea about how to modify the configuration of the projector’s output. I hope to have something that would more nearly adhere to the area of a booth in a restaurant without overlapping into other nearby diners’ seating. It wouldn’t be good if two operatives set the projector up in the center of the table in their booth only to have it overlap the person behind either of the operatives. Can you imagine what would happen if someone’s date went totally quiet, no matter how much she yelled while sitting in a booth in a crowded café? Then when she stood and moved a step away from her seat, everything would return to normal? It wouldn’t be a secret very long. If I could make the field adjustable to any configuration, it would be a lot more practical and far easier to be kept secret while in use.

“I’ve done some guesswork, but at this stage, it’s only just that – guesswork. Even if I never manage to change the shape of the field, I still think the projector will sell, but probably not nearly as well. If I don’t manage to alter the field’s characteristics, maybe some of Frank’s engineers will have a practical idea.”

“You’re talking about Frank Wainwright, aren’t you?” Jasmine asked. At Jeff’s nod, she went on, “But you seem to be saying that you trust him to miniaturize the size of your invention and maybe even make changes to the projector itself. I can understand your giving the manufacturer permission to miniaturize the projector, but isn’t it risky to allow him to alter the way it works? Seems like he could claim, at least, part of the patent rights if he were successful in doing that.”