starts going down, I'll just disappear.”
“As your first officer shouldn't I say something about that thing giving you radiation sickness?”
“There, you said something. Besides, it only leaks radiation when all the stealth systems are active.”
“That makes me feel so much better.”
“Funny, Frost stopped worrying about me five minutes after I promoted him back in the day.”
“I'm not Frost.”
“You've only been first officer for four minutes. See you in a few hours. Tell me if anything catches fire or explodes but only if you can't put it out or fix it yourself,” Captain Valance said as he made his way off the bridge.
Half way to the gangway he nearly ran into Ashley as she came out of a side passage. He caught her by the shoulders. Her eyes and cheeks were red and puffy, combined with a downcast expression that she tried to lighten at seeing him, he couldn't help but feel for her.
He took her into a great big hug and she took a deep breath, sighed and relaxed in his arms. “It'll be all right,” He reassured quietly. There were only two other times when he had held her. She nearly crushed him when he sold her freedom to her for one hundred credits and the other time was when he told her she was the lead pilot.
“I know,” she replied shakily.
“I have to go meet some people. You know, kiss some hands and shake some babies.” He whispered.
She chuckled and let him go. “I think it's shake some hands and kiss some babies.”
“I guess it is,” Jake said, smiling and nodding at her as she wiped her nose and eyes.
“Who you're going to see?”
“The Chairperson and a few other people, I'll be back in a couple hours.”
“Okay, just don't forget; shaking and kissing, not kissing and shaking.” she reminded, shaking her finger at him.
He made his way to the gangway and down it as Ashley watched him leave. She shook her head and continued to the bridge. Stephanie was standing behind the pilot's chair, her hands on the head rest as she leaned forward, looking at the controls closely. “So I was just kidding around with the Captain,” Ashley said as she walked in and plopped herself into the command chair. Stephanie was startled at the sound of her voice and spun around.
“Don't do that!”
“Some boarding person you are, snook right up on ya.”
“I'm First Officer now. All permanent like,” she said with a smile.
Ashley jumped out of the chair and hugged the taller woman. “You're not leaving!” She squealed.
“Nope. I have to see if this new attitude the Captain has lasts.”
“I know, it's like night and day, so different.”
“He's different all right. Like he had a psychotic break different.” Stephanie said.
“Only it's like he broke and got better. I wonder what it'll be like, him talking to the press.”
“There's press out there? He works fast.”
“He didn't tell you? He has to talk to press people and the Chairperson.”
“I knew about the Chairperson.”
Ashley let go of Steph and turned on the forward sensors. She brought up the Captain walking towards the airlock leading into the tower and focused in.
“We're spying on Captain now?”
“I always spy on Captain,” Ashley said with a smile. “Saved his butt once too. Caught someone sneaking up on him.”
“I remember that, we woke some vagrant up. He was sleeping in a crate near our landing zone.”
“Oh, I didn't know it was just a bum.”
“Yup, he was a well armed vagrant with a nice long pipe. Hey, it looks like there's a pretty big crowd on the other side of the doors.”
“Scanners are picking up about twenty people. I'll try to extrapolate a holo image,” Ashley said as she worked the control panel.
“Draw the focus out a bit.”
A moment later she got it and could see a semi circle of reporters surrounding Captain Valance. She turned the image so they could see his face. “Wow, just like that he looks like he's made of stone again,” Ashley said.
“I think that's just how he looks when he's surprised. I wish we could hear what he's saying.”
“I'll see if we can pick it up on the local Newsnet.” Ashley said as she checked the basic communications panel that was built into the pilot's station. After a few moments the sound came up.
“-of the cargo train?”
“From what I could determine, the purpose of the cargo train was to transport slaves to scientific testing facilities owned by Regent Galactic before it was hijacked.” Answered Captain Valent.
“Are you a member of the Thadd defence force or a hidden military sub sect?”
“The Samson, her crew and I are not in any way affiliated with the Thadd system. They were only kind enough to provide emergency assistance since our cargo hauler is not equipped to do so.”
Several questions came at him at once then, it was hard to pick out which one he decided to answer after listening for a few seconds.
“I'm not willing to discuss my past or any criminal charges that may have been dismissed or pardoned in other sectors,” he answered.
“Have you worked in the slave trade before?”
“No. My ships haul cargo and I work as a registered bounty hunter and repossession agent.” He looked up as he answered, and the rest of the press nearby stopped and looked as well.
“The communications terminal just went crazy. The emergency bands just lit up, all of them,” Stephanie said. “Cynthia, come to the bridge please.”
“I'm on my way,” she responded through her communicator.
Stephanie turned on the emergency channel. “-again, Regent Galactic fleet on approach. They have destroyed our outer system defences. The Search and Rescue vessels are escaping but there are still bombardment volleys headed towards the planet.”
Ashley took her seat at the pilot's station and made preparations for takeoff.
The sounds of distant explosive impacts came across the news network they were monitoring. The reporters were all trying to narrate the occurrences at the same time and Ashley turned the sound off.
Stephanie could see that Captain Valance was already running back to the ship, less than a hundred meters away. “Finn, I think we'll need you on the bridge.” She turned to Ashley. “I'll get to the guns.”
“Good idea, hope we don't need them.” Ashley replied over her shoulder.
“I'm on board, go!” Crackled the communication from the Captain.
Cynthia rushed into the bridge and sat down at the communications terminal. “The whole solar system is on alert. Regent Galactic has an entire attack fleet on the way. Five carriers and at least twenty five destroyers along with a couple battle cruisers and smaller ships.”
“Did the rescue ships get out?” Captain Valance asked as he ran into the bridge, sitting down at the co-pilot’s station.
“They did sir, they're clear.”
“Can you call up a conditions or demands list?”
It took a moment for Cynthia to look it up. “We're at the top along with the cargo train. They're also after the government officials that approved the emergency aid.”
Captain Valance finished plotting a course out of the planet's atmosphere and put it on screen for Ashley, who started manoeuvring the ship away from the docking towers.
“Careful, ship coming up at eleven o'clock,” Jake pointed out.
“I see it,” she replied.
Finn arrived on the bridge. “Sorry, I had to help Stephanie load the main guns. The power cell was disconnected.” He took a moment to check the ship status board. “Everything looks fine from here except engine five is a little off balance. We can compensate for the next twenty light years before we have to shut it down and
