the drifting wreck of a defensive station in the distance. “You have the bridge, Commander.” he said as he strode towards the observation room door.
Stephanie looked around and realized no one else knew what he was talking about when he referred to a Commander. The new engineer had gone below the bridge with Price and his team, and there was no one of that rank in place that she knew of. Instead of questioning it, she sat down in the Captain's chair and watched as Jake punched in the entry code for the observation room and strode through.
“I guess you're a Commander now. Congratulations?” Frost whispered from her left with a shrug.
“I hope he doesn't do anything a medical kit can't fix,” Ashley's copilot said quietly.
Minister Lorne looked up at Captain Valance as calmly as he could. He looked furious, yes, but it was held in place by cold discipline. Jacob Valance was an imposing man when he wanted to be, and when he slammed his fists against the top of the conference table he jumped in his seat.
“I'm done here! After taking on this heroes mantle for your people you come aboard my ship under the pretence of need and try to take it for yourself?”
“You're a hunter, a glorified repo man. If you weren't so good at it I'd never know who you were and I'd be none the worse for it.” Lorne said haughtily. He was putting up a brave front but his eyes were shifty, it sounded like he was reciting a rehearsed speech. “The Minister of Defence sent me to commandeer this ship. We can offer you fair compensation at a later-”
“Don't try to reason with me, we're way beyond that. You have three options right here, right now. You can command your forces to obey my orders, you can tell them to leave by the quickest route possible or you can take a trip out the airlock!”
He stared back at the Captain, feigning calm. Lorne's lip twitched, there was sweat forming on his brow and he rubbed his palms together slowly.
“Did you people really know what kind of bastard you chose to heft your banner?” He shouted in full fury as he reached across the table, grabbed the smaller man's jacket and hauled him out of his chair. Jake turned and dragged him across the table like a rag doll, striding through the door with him in tow behind. He moved so fast the Minister couldn't catch his feet.
Lorne struggled to get his balance, but Jake flung him out in front of him. The Minister rolled and came up on his knees. There was no chance to defend himself before the muzzle of Captain Valance's sidearm was up against his forehead. “Spacing's too honourable a death for you. This is better. I love what this gun does to people. One minute they're just standing there, the next they're cut in half, or staggering around headless before their bodies realize their brain is gone,” he said in a malicious whisper. He flicked the safety off and he could hear the power cell charge up with a high pitched whine.
A small, panicked sound escaped Lorne's open mouth. He was breathing quickly, staring widely at the handle of the heavy sidearm. “Oh God,” he whimpered.
“I've done this before right in front of these people with a dead cell loaded, it won't surprise them if I pull the trigger and you disappear from the neck up,” he tilted his head to one side. “Much.”
“We need this ship, Regent Galactic will take advantage of this opening.” Lorne blubbered, his resolve had cracked, his hands were up and he shook visibly. “I was following orders, only following orders.”
“This is my ship. People have died because of you and your choices. If you don't put your soldiers in line behind me I'll lose even more. Think about it for just a second. I'll kill you, then I'll go get my cloaksuit. Your soldiers won't see me coming as I start murdering them one by one. It won't be a battle, there won't be a seconds worth of fight to it. I'll just start killing until Regent Galactic decides to board. Then I'll start on them. Murdering one after another until I'm alone in a wasted hull piled with corpses! Starting with yours.”
“O-okay, I'll command them to take your orders.”
“Betray me and I promise you won't leave this ship alive,” Captain Valance flipped his safety on and holstered his sidearm. “Stand up and take a few deep breaths. I don't want you sounding nervous when you give the order.”
Stephanie moved to the seat at the right of the command chair as Jake turned and strode to the Captain's seat in the center. They both watched Minister Lorne as he tried to calm himself, taking deep breaths and folding his arms after realizing his hands were still shaking. After several minutes he looked to the Captain and nodded, straightening his jacket.
“Sit right here,” Captain Valance ordered, pointing to the seat at his left.
He walked to the chair and sat down. From a pocket he produced a communicator and opened a channel.
The face of an armoured vacsuit came up on the two dimensional display after a moment. “Yes Minister?”
“Your orders have changed Major. I'm placing Captain Valance in command. He's a more able commander than I had expected and will work in our best interests.”
“Minister?”
“That's an order. Pass the word down the line. The Triton is Valent's ship. I'm legitimizing his capture.”
“Yes sir, right away.”
Cleanup
Captain Valance let Liam's plan to connect the exterior solar and gravity based power systems to the command section go ahead. After that was finished Liam was able to proceed to main engineering for the first time since he had come aboard. All eight of the reactors had been shut down or disconnected from the main power grid. If it weren't for their fading emergency power the Triton would be adrift, helpless.
When Agameg Price returned to the bridge with his security team he boggled at Minister Lorne for a moment before regaining his composure. “The Aucharians have stood down and two squads have gone to the upper berth to aid with crowd control.”
“How are things there?” Asked Captain Valance.
“Not as bad as I had thought. Once Leland and his group were pressed out of the compartments and the lights came back on the situation calmed down. A few people fell through the deck where the plating was damaged and I've sent Grace to help.”
Stephanie looked a little surprised and smiled at Agameg. “Good work. So things have calmed down?”
“Yes, they are wondering when help is coming though, if they will be transported to another port so they can continue on to their final destinations. A few were bound for this system in particular, and are unsure of their fates,” he said sadly.
Captain Valance looked to the Minister, who was staring straight ahead. “Do you have a contingency plan in place?”
“We were going to use your ship and anything else that still had power to ferry survivors into the outer system until a battle group could get here.”
“How far out are they?”
He hesitated before answering. “Five days.”
“We have the TRF Peter en route, they'll be here much sooner.”
“Do you realize the debt that will incur? My people can't afford that kind of cost while rebuilding.”
Captain Valance ran his hand down his face and laughed ruefully. He brought up the scan results of Enreega's surface using the control panel on his chair. “There are two cities still burning, several sunk and two are nothing but dead hulks drifting in orbit. You're worried about cost?”
“No one's going to help us rebuild for free. Independence comes at a great cost and most of that can be calculated in credits,” he protested quietly. “These rescue ships come with a high price tag, they're in it for the cash as much as anyone else.”
“There's no market to manipulate here. Your people are dying and you have to make sacrifices to save as many as you can. How much it costs is besides the point.”
“You have no idea what you're talking about.”
“You might be right, politics don't interest me and I'd probably be out of my depth if I tried to run for office.
