load. With the right ammo you could punch through just 'bout anythin'.”
“The ammunition comes from materializers. There's one for every three turrets,” Captain Valance added. “The gunner and maintenance crews have bunk rooms near the gunnery posts so they can be there in a few seconds after the ship goes on alert.”
Frost sat down and whistled his appreciation as an image of the ship layout came up, the emergency bunks and materializers were highlighted. “This ship was designed by people who knew what she was for, that's for sure. You couldn't tell just glancin' at her halls though, she's a beauty. I've never seen a Sol ship before.”
“No one out here has. Earth is months away on the fastest ship, and they slag or capture anything that comes anywhere near the Kuiper belt,” Ramirez said.
“How much damage did the Big Surprise do?” Asked Frost.
Captain Valance sat down and turned the small holoprojector off. “It was contained to the hangars and workshops. From what Douglas tells me most of the systems down there are fine after a reset. He checked it out before hitting his rack.”
“He's sleeping on the Samson?” Asked Ramirez
“That's what he said.”
“Why does that not surprise me. What will you do with her?”
“It would take weeks to repair her. Most of the fine circuitry will have to be replaced.” The Captain sighed. “I'm thinking storage until we can spare the people to work on her. There's enough room in the hangars.”
“So we're going to have a go at making this ship home?” Frost asked.
Captain Valance looked at the three faces in front of him. “I want you three with me on this. The rest of the seasoned Samson crew as well. I need people I trust to stay on as core crew.”
“Aye, I'm with you sir,” Frost said with a grin. “Besides, I owe you a few credits.”
“Where else would I go? Besides, I can't wait to see what the First Officer's quarters look like,” Stephanie said.
“I'll go wherever you tell me sir,” Ramirez agreed.
Captain Valance smiled back at them. “Well, you're taking care of tactical Frost, start learning about the systems and try to tell me what we need to get things running properly.” He looked to Stephanie and nodded. “I think you should go find your quarters, get some rack time before we arrive at Enreega.”
“Aye sir,” she replied with a smile.
“And Ramirez, you're in charge of ship security. Take two people you trust and start exploring compartments. When you've swept an area send in a couple Aucharian newbies to collect and inventory anything of use.”
“Aye, this should be interesting.”
“But first, escort the former Captain and put him in the brig. Leave a man to watch him. I need someone from the Samson crew on shift at all times. If there's a way out of his brig, he'll know it, so we can't leave him alone. I'll take the first bridge watch.”
“Are you sure Captain? You've been up for at least thirty hours.” Stephanie asked.
“I couldn't sleep if I tried.”
Loose Ends
The holographic full length mirror stood in the middle of the room looking back at Alice. It was really a projection of what the six sensors in the cabin picked up so she could see herself in full scale moving exactly as she moved. She turned it so she could see the side profile, then from behind and shook her head. “This vacsuit's too thin.”
“You said the last two were too thick and 'made you look puffy' yet there is only one point five millimetres difference. In the very few instances I've seen the two of you together he didn't focus on your physical appearance as though he were looking to pursue any kind of romantic entanglement. His cursory inspections of you indicate curiosity, and he seems far more interested in what you have to say.”
“That doesn't mean I shouldn't pay attention to my appearance. I want to make the right impression.”
“If you insist. He has been awake for over an hour.”
Alice adjusted the colour of her vacsuit to a powder blue instead of the near white and nodded to herself. “That's better. What has he been doing?”
“Looking through the Hart News archives, reviewing information on The First Light of which there isn't much, and clips on Jake Valance.”
Alice froze. She had been so elated at finding him that she had nearly forgotten that there was someone else with his face. The one she had gone to great lengths to rescue out there. “How is he?”
“It's difficult to tell. He has been watching most of the footage without comment in the common room.”
Alice picked up the arm control unit she had set out and left her quarters. He was watching a playback of one of Jake Valance's successful bounty hunts. The scratchy holographic footage was from some security sensor system and depicted Jake disabling and drugging a much larger man into unconsciousness. It took mere seconds even though the act was performed in zero gravity from in front of the target. He couldn't help but admire how Jake used the larger fellow's momentum against him.
Alice took a seat across the wood textured round table from him. She always liked the common room, it had a pair of materializers intended for food and drink, a transparent ceiling, a long sofa along one wall, a holoprojector hidden in the center and eight comfortable chairs. Like everything else on the Clever Dream it wasn't large, but it was made to be very comfortable with subdued colouring, round corners, padded walls and dim lighting.
Jonas looked around the hologram, leaning to one side, and smiled at her for a moment. She moved to sit beside him, giving him an uneasy look. “This didn't come up last night, but I'm sorry I didn't find you. I thought I did when I released him, if I had known you were-”
“It's all right, there's no way you could have known,” he reassured.
Alice persisted. “If I had known you were still in storage somewhere I would have kept looking.”
“It's all right. I'm fine. I feel like Rip Van Winkle, missing about eight years but I'm okay. Besides, it looks like I've been busy in a way,” he said as he brought up Jake Valance's most recent public appearance. He was shaking hands with a public official, who it was was uncertain since the hologram was muted. “It's like watching your own shadow do some of the things you wish you could and other things you never would. I can't believe what he's accomplished.”
“He's also done a lot I wouldn't,” Alice said quietly. “Still, before I knew he was a fake I saw him as my father.”
“I wouldn't call him a fake. He knows everything I do, only he wiped himself out or suppressed the memories, I'm not sure which.”
Alice looked to the hologram then back to Jonas. “He did it to himself?”
Jonas nodded, his expression was sullen. “They introduced us and we realized that we had the same memories, the same need to make all the work they were doing meaningless. I think he's a framework, made of a new kind of skeleton with nanobot and materializer technology built in. There are also several digital storage devices built in and after we had a short conversation he decided that the only way they would stop trying to duplicate or control me was if he made himself non-viable. As far as he was concerned, he was me. He remembered everything I did, but at the same time he was aware that he couldn't be, he knew he was the copy. The last thing he wanted to do was erase his memory but he did.”
“The information we found with him did say that his memories had been wiped,” Alice agreed. “When I saw him identified as Jacob Valance, I thought they had just renamed you. All your things were with him as well.”
“My point is, in the first few days of his life he made a sacrifice I don't know I would if it were possible. After that incident they put me back under, not that they ever let me wake up completely. I was so drugged up when they took me out of the tube that it's all a sort of haze even during the few hours I spent with him. Looking into your own eyes and hearing your own voice come out of another body is hard to forget. I'm glad you got him out. He should be as free as I am.”
“We're going to meet him. I didn't know where else to set course for. I was on my way there when Gabriel came after me.”
