Chapter 596

The Ship

Shortly after 2:00 A.M., Kathy and Bill walked out the back and into the garage of the Retreat hand in hand.

“Do you think that Ship will let us in?” she asked her husband.

“No way to tell unless we ask,” he said as they went out the small garage door with Bill making sure it closed quietly behind them.

Outside, Kathy looked around them, then up at the sky. Since it was in the wee hours of the morning and everyone was in bed, the outer lights had been dimmed, but there was still sufficient light to see by, although the moon wasn’t up yet. “The sky is so clear that it almost seems as if you could fall into it. Just look at that sea of stars,” she exclaimed as they both stopped for a moment to look upward.

Bill reached to take his wife’s hand as they continued toward Ship. “You’ve seen them when we fly on a clear night and from much higher up,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, I know, but this isn’t like looking through a window at a small section of sky. Just look at that,” she said as she tugged on his hand to get him to stop again. They gazed at the beauty of the star-filled sky in the clear, high mountain air for a while before Kathy asked, “Are we going with the Matthews on their search for the race that built Ship’s brain?”

“Do you want to?” he asked, rather than answering her directly.

“I ... think so if you and my sister-wives want to go, of course.”

“I doubt if Mr. Wainwright will go, so we might not have a choice. He and the other executives will still need pilots.”

“Then we need to start convincing him to go,” she insisted. “Better yet, I’ll have a chat with Margaret,” Kathy finished with a quiet giggle.

“Pussies talk and men walk,” he said with a chuckle.

“And just what does that mean?” she asked as she glanced over at her husband.

Grinning, he replied, “I don’t really know. It just has a ring to it.”

“You are not pussy whipped, and you know it, so stop pretending,” she said with a grin of her own. A moment later, they started up the ramp. “Guess, she’s going to let us aboard,” Bill said as he put his arm around his wife.

“Welcome,” Ship said in her melodious voice when they stepped through the hatch. “What may I do for you?”

“Uh,” Bill said, “neither Jeff nor Arlene know we are here, but we thought, since everyone was so far ahead of us, and if it were all right with you, we would like to train for a couple of hours.”

“Would you like a cup of coffee before you begin?”

“Uh, no thanks. We had some when we got up.”

“You know where the training room is, but if you like, I can move you there.”

Having heard the Matthews talk about Ship being able to teleport people and objects within her, the two glanced at each other before Kathy said, “That would be very nice of you.”

And they were there.

“Oh, my,” Kathy said while barely suppressing a giggle.

“Any particular one?” Bill asked as they looked at the array of couches that were separated by short walls.

“It’s your choice,” Ship returned. “I assume that you want to continue with the next stage in learning to fly an interceptor?” she asked.

“Whatever you decide. We’re here to learn,” he said as they chose adjacent couches to stretch out on.

“Affirmative. We shall begin tonight with AI-enhanced escape tactics. Should your shields be failing, you certainly do not want to provide a viable target to your enemy as you withdraw...”

Bill and Kathy had slept for three hours, the two planning to work through as many extra training sessions as they could before breakfast. What they didn’t expect was thirty minutes of deep sleep induced by Ship immediately after their training while they continued to lie on the couches. When she awakened them at a quarter to six, they were much more refreshed than expected.

After thanking Ship profusely, they hurried back to the Retreat, showered and met everyone in the dining room.

(Diana had already told Kathy to forget about helping in the kitchen while she and Bill were trying to catch up with their training.)

Over the months, Jeff’s mental abilities had increased until he could easily communicate with Ship while remaining in the Retreat. He was just taking his first bite of breakfast as Ship began telling him how Bill and Kathy had spent much of the night training. He smiled because he was expecting the two to make every effort to catch up with the group.

“And how are they doing?”

“Kathy is doing well and Bill obviously has a great deal of mental discipline. He has, for the most part, rid himself of his habits that must have been formed when flying the Earth fighter, and he is now building reflexes suitable to piloting my interceptors. He asked to be allowed to practice turns. Consequently, he completed one hundred snap turns (as the pilots refer to them), all in the same direction. Obviously, he was trying to build a reflex, and his times indicate that he is well on his way to accomplishing his goal.

“However, he is having a more difficult time in snap-initiating ninety-degree relative ‘down’ turns. Upon reviewing the subject, I think this was caused because he did not complete that type of turn to any appreciable degree in air combat since that ‘downward’ turn in a human aircraft induces negative Gs. Due to the human body’s inability to withstand as many negative Gs as it can positive Gs, abrupt pitched downward maneuvers are seldom used in human combat. Instead, the craft is rotated until the force is directed toward the pilot’s feet, thus inducing a G force that is more easily handled by the human body. I have, however, noted that he is beginning to smile when he initiates those relative ‘down’ turns in my interceptor. With internal gravity and the inertialess drive, the effects of turns, positive or negative, aren’t felt by anyone aboard.”

Jeff let out a quiet chuckle, which caused his nearest wives to look at him. “Ship,” he said in explanation.

“It is very significant,” he told her. “He knows that he is improving. His no-quit attitude is probably one of the major reasons that Frank would not fly with anyone else while Bill was off with his injuries. Eventually, Bill insisted that Kathy would not let Frank down, either, and he finally agreed for her to fly him without Bill sitting in the seat beside her. Had it not been for Bill’s no-quit attitude, Frank Wainwright would be dead, and he is very aware of it. Ask him to tell you about it. Not Bill, because he would just say that they crashed, but were able to get out alive.”

“I will ask him at the first opportunity.”

“Do you think Bill and Kathy will be able to catch up to the others before the aliens arrive in our solar system?”

“I do not have enough data at this point to give a reasonable estimate, but their willingness to work during part of their sleep period indicates a strong initiative as well as an equally strong discipline. To use an Earth expression, ‘Time will tell.’”

Deep Space – The Alien Mother Ship

The First and Second Officers sat in the Captain’s Ready Room, the Steward having just served them stim. “When have you last seen the Captain?” the First asked.

“I am looking at him as we speak,” the Second said with the alien’s equivalent of a grin.

The joke was wearing thin as far as the First was concerned. “I am not the Captain and likely will be dead when we return to Base.”

“Sorry, Sir,” the Second quickly responded. “Uh ... I passed him in the corridor a half-shift or so ago, although he did not acknowledge my presence. Are you still worried about him? He has no viable weapon, and to understate, we have made it very difficult for him to obtain one.”

The First let out a sigh of exasperation. “I sometimes think that my goodwill gesture could very well be a mistake. Perhaps I should have let him bleed out.” When the Second started to say something, the First motioned for him to wait. “I know. I know. You tried to tell me that from the beginning, but for some reason that even I do not understand, I decided to let him live. I know that he needs killing, but that would be a black mark that would follow me for as long as I live – which will most probably be only until we returned home,” he finished morosely. “I thought that this posting would give me an excellent chance of achieving Captain’s rank, even if the assignment would probably be on a much smaller vessel. I had heard rumors about him, but I suppose that I discounted them more than I should have. However, he is far too quiet, and that is not his nature. I am beginning to worry. Keep an eye on the bastard. He could very well be planning something.”

“Sir, there is nothing he can do that will harm us, unless, as you say, we are back at the base. He has long since alienated the crew – he has certainly executed enough of them. Somehow, word seems to have gotten out that he has been ostracized and has no power...”

“What? I certainly have not spoken of it with anyone other than the bridge crew, and I cannot imagine any of them...”

“Sir, I know that, but everything considered, we have a reasonably intelligent crew overall. Suddenly, the Captain no longer goes about criticizing or reprimanding practically everyone he comes into contact with. By now, the crew certainly knows that something has happened and that you are obviously in charge.

“He is probably the most hated Captain in the fleet, and that was before this trip. I cannot imagine his having any friends with the possible exception of the Paladin Commander, and even that was due to the Commander’s plan to cast doubt or worse on the Chief Engineer. Something along the lines of ‘an enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ kind of thing.”

The First nodded, “I think you are correct about that, but as far as the Science Officer and I have been able to determine, there has been no association between the Captain and the Commander since I ordered the mutiny weapons activated in the passageways that connect the Paladin area and the rest of the ship. As you mentioned, the Captain seems to have spent an excessive amount of time walking about the parts of the ship that he has access to. Still, as far as I can determine, he has not tried to discipline anyone, nor for the most part, even attempted minimal discussion – not that he would ever stoop to conversing with the crew, other than in the process of belittling or punishing them. So ... what are we missing?” he asked with a frown. “He is too much of a bastard to just forget about my having shot him. There is something. There has to be something that we are missing.”

“Maybe his near-death experience has caused some personality changes,” the Second offered.

“He has to have a personality before there can be changes in it,” the First snarled, more than half-serious.

“Yeah,” the Second said with a chuckle, “there is that.”

On the alien ship’s bridge a little later.

Influence on the warp bubble from an object in their path caused the alien ship’s AI to veer aside a minuscule amount. The First Officer noticed. “What was that?” he asked Helm while motioning to his console.

Helm consulted the AI’s recordings. “It appears to be just an oversized rock that was close enough to our path for the AI to take corrective action, Sir. Our warp field detected it and caused the minute course correction. Its size would have prevented the repulser field from shunting it aside in time.”

“Can you find it again?”

“Certainly, First. All I have to do is reverse our course.”

“Do so and stop relative to the object just before we are within optimal weapons’ range.”

“Yes, Sir. Stand by to reverse course.”

A short time later, the alien ship matched velocities with the giant rock – if that is what it was – standing just out of weapon range.

“Call Battle Stations,” the First told his Second Officer.

An instant later, the pulsing scream of the alert system sent crews scurrying for their assigned positions. Apparently, this caught most everyone unprepared except the bridge crew. “Ah, I can see that we have gone too long without our drills,” the First said as he stood with his hands locked behind him at what would be referred to as parade rest in Earth terms. “My fault since we have spent so much time trying to get the warp drive to work properly. Now that we have found the reason for our warp engine failings, that is no longer a problem, but this piss poor response time will be corrected.”