guess I’d better have a talk with them.” Nathan turned to Jessica. “Can you round them all up and have them in the briefing room, in say, thirty minutes?”
“Sure thing,” Jessica answered as she turned to exit.
“How long do you think we can hang around out here?” Cameron asked.
“We’re probably okay for a day or so,” he admitted. “But to be honest, the sooner we get a few light years between us and Haven, the happier I’ll be.”
Nathan and Jessica entered the main briefing room located one deck below the command section. Large enough to hold fifty people in five rows, it seemed almost empty compared to how full it had been during his orientation briefing nearly a month ago. Now, it contained only a handful of strangers-aliens, in fact-who were stranded on board his ship with no way to return to their homes.
Josh and Loki sat at the back of the room, their feet dangling over the chair backs in front of them. The two pilots of the now twisted and mangled harvester, still lying in ruins on the Aurora’s flight deck, seemed to be enjoying themselves, despite all they had been through over the last couple of hours. Marcus, the harvesting crew foreman sitting next to them, did not seem as entertained by the situation.
The others, three men and two women, sat apart from the rest. They had all served as indentured workers under contract with the harvesting team that Tobin had hired during their brief stay in the Haven system. It appeared that they had no interest in socializing with the technical crew of their shared employer. They all appeared beaten and disheveled, having gone through more than a full day of labor, not to mention having watched their fellow workers die at the hands of Ta’Akar troops attempting to take over the ship. In fact, many of them still wore the blood of those who died around them during the slaughter.
Nathan stepped onto the platform at the front of the room. He chose to stand beside the podium instead of behind it, not bothering with the public address speaker system built into the room. There were only a half dozen or so of them, and Nathan felt that a more intimate approach would be appropriate. In retrospect, he wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to have the meeting in the command briefing room on the deck above, as it might have been better suited.
“Good afternoon, everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Nathan Scott, and I’m the captain of this ship. First, I’d like to express my condolences to any of you who have lost family or friends in the recent attacks that we have all endured. If there is anything that we can do for you, please do not hesitate to ask.”
“Can you get us home?” one of the men asked.
“I guess that depends on where home is,” Nathan began.
“Haven, of course,” the man insisted.
Marcus shook his head, a sour expression painted on his weather-beaten face. “Haven ain’t no one’s home. Least ways not unless they’re touched in the head,” he chuckled.
“It was my understanding that most of you were indentured workers, forced to serve against your will.”
“That’s not entirely correct, Captain,” the man explained. “While we may not have chosen to be there, we were required by law to repay debts owed to our creditors, by either indentured labor or imprisonment.”
Nathan looked perplexed. He hadn’t considered the possibility that any of the workers would want to return to Haven.
“You can return us, can you not?” the man continued.
“Well, yes, I suppose we could. It’s just that I can’t guarantee your safe passage back down to the surface.” Nathan felt all their eyes staring at him. “You see, there’s still a Ta’Akar warship in the area. I mean, we think that it’s still there. The images we’re getting right now are two days old.”
“Excuse me?” It was Josh’s first words since Nathan had entered the room and began speaking. Nathan could tell by the looks on their faces that he was speaking for everyone in the room. “What do you mean, two days old?”
“Well, that’s because we’re about two light days out from Haven right now.”
“What?” Marcus interrupted. “That ain’t possible. I didn’t feel us go to FTL. And even if we did, ain’t no way we got that far out so quickly. Hell, it ain’t even been an hour since the shootin’ ended.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Josh suddenly realized. “And how the hell did you guys shake that Ta’Akar cruiser?”
Nathan realized the conversation wasn’t exactly going in the direction he had intended. But the tone struck by Josh and Marcus, although probably not intentional, was a bit accusatory.
“It’s kind of complicated,” Nathan offered, hoping to avoid the issue of how all together. Unfortunately, he could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren’t going to let it go that easily. And to make matters worse, the workers-whose interests had previously been separate from those of their higher-ups-were looking like they were about to unite with them. Nathan looked at Jessica as if hoping for a hint at what to say or do to appease the group.
“Might as well tell them,” she said. “They’re going to find out soon enough.”
“Well,” Nathan began, “we have a device-we call it a ‘jump drive’-that allows us to instantly jump to another point in space. We can jump up to ten light years at once.” Nathan looked at the group, all of whose mouths hung open. “So as soon as Josh and Loki got us back on board, we simply jumped away.” There was no response. A second later, not knowing what else to say or do, Nathan made a gesture with his hands of a ship jumping from right to left.
“Bullshit,” Marcus replied after a moment of silence.
Josh had a completely different reaction. “Hot damn!” he cried, the words nearly exploding from his mouth.
“Why only two light days out?” Loki asked.
“Well, to be honest, we were just trying to buy some time until we figured out what to do next,” Nathan admitted. He could tell from their expressions they were not following his logic. “You see, we’re not from around here.”
“No kidding,” Josh chuckled.
Marcus eyed Nathan suspiciously. “Where exactly are you from?”
“Well, pretty far away.” Nathan took a deep breath. “Actually, we’re from the Sol system. A planet called Earth.”
Most of their expressions suddenly changed from disbelief to shock. Except for Marcus, whose still appeared suspicious. “Earth? Even if it existed, ain’t it like a hundred thousand light years away or something? You said your drive thingy could only jump ten light years at a pop. What did you do, make a thousand jumps just to get to Haven?” Marcus laughed. The whole story, jump drive and all, sounded preposterous to him.
“Well, how we got here is another story. One that I really don’t want to get into right now.”
“Captain,” one of the workers interrupted. “If you jumped out here, can you not simply jump back and let us off the ship?”
“Ain’t no way I’m going back to Haven,” Marcus announced. “You can drop me off anywhere but that rock.”
“You were there by choice,” the men sneered at Marcus, apparently no longer fearing the wrath that the surly foreman had once used to keep them in line.
“I was there for the money,” Marcus argued. “Which was damned good, by the way. But after today, who do you think the owner is gonna blame for losing a harvester and half his crew?” Marcus shook his head in defiance. “Uh-uh, I ain’t goin’ back there. Not after all this. And you’d all be smart to do the same.”
“Yes, we could jump back and let you off,” Nathan began, choosing to ignore Marcus for the moment. “But I can’t guarantee the Ta’Akar would allow you safe passage. In fact, I rather doubt they would.”
“And why is that, Captain?” Marcus challenged, standing to emphasize the urgency of his request.
Jessica straightened up from her position leaning against the wall off to the side, sensing the tension rise in the room. She took a step forward, her body language communicating to Marcus her intent to impede him should he step out of line. Just as Nathan was about to respond, Tug and Jalea entered the briefing room.
“Because of me,” Tug announced in a commanding voice.
“And who the hell are you?” Marcus asked, turning to glare at Tug and Jalea.
“I am the leader of the Karuzari.”
“The terrorists?”
