more comfortable. “There's barely any crew to speak of, glad we're here.”
“Aye, it's better than going back to the Verant and trying to make a go of that wreck.”
“Do you think he'll break us up?”
“I would. Two thirds of us are damage control specialists, the other third are security with extra training.” Julie said with a shrug.
“I wouldn't. I mean, everyone in the Platoon knows their way around repairing just about anything. Even Stephano can put a power transfer board together in his sleep and when he signed up a year ago he could barely plug in a space heater.”
“We'll see.”
“You two are headed to the bridge?” Asked an older gentleman. His wispy grey hair and well kept but his old, loose fitting vacsuit spoke of an age beyond either of the soldiers.
“Aye, our platoon is signing up. We're an emergency repair and recovery unit, thought we'd fit right in here. Junior Lieutenant Julie Eccleston at your service.”
“Good to meet you, I'm a shuttle and fighter technician. Used to work out of Station Three but got off just in time with about half my deck crew. Name's Angelo Vercelli.”
Nathan grinned at him. “I thought I recognized you. You're signing up with your team?”
“Aye, me and my second here, Paula.” He gestured to a younger, much shorter, slim woman in a similar vacsuit.
She nodded with a forced smile. “Long day.”
“You can say that again,” Julie agreed as the doors to the express car opened.
They walked across the broad hallway to the massive main doors to the bridge. As they approached heavy arms drew the thick armoured doors out and apart to reveal a sight unlike any of them had ever seen.
The main bridge of the Triton with the lower deck revealed seemed complex at first. There were a dozen stations along the walls and as many distributed throughout the room on each level. The clearly visible deep brown pathways on the floor leading to each station in a radial pattern also indicated where one would expect substations to be, where extra staff could help with regular operations. The space around the pathways was transparent deck plating, showing a tactical command center for fighters and larger vessels that was just as large and well equipped as the main bridge. Near the head of the bridge was a ramp leading down to the lower level on either side.
On the front wall there was a two dimensional display that took up most of the space there, to its right and left were doorways you could barely distinguish from the rest of the black walls. In front of the helm there was a large hologram of the Triton itself. Shaped like a large stingray from earth, it had three massive engines at the rear, and two nearer to the center of the underside. A pair of extra engines were built into the aft port and starboard ends of the ship. The overlay on the hologram detailed where work was being done, how many refugees were still aboard, where they were, and showed that a large transit ship had docked with them without permission. It's blocky hull hung off one side of the Triton like some kind of parasite and was coloured red to indicate it was an unwelcome guest.
The command seating in the center of the bridge was set atop semitransparent flooring and was five meters across. The captain's chair was in the center with two seats on either side. To their surprise an issyrian sat in the Captain's seat, looking over a holographic directory tree. “The Captain and his First Officer await you in his ready room,” the watch officer said in a pleasant tone, pointing to the door on the left. He was wearing a black armoured vacsuit unlike any they'd seen. It was sleek, form fitted with extra impact resistant sections over top, there were no visible seams and by looking at it they couldn't even determine for sure how one would remove the transparent oval faceplate. The design was simple and looked more efficient than their own, bulkier infantry armour.
The group of four walked down the short ramp that led into the bridge and followed a radial path down the side of the compartment. Everyone knew they could just as easily walk on the transparent section of the deck, but it seemed to make sense to follow the meter wide opaque paths that were plainly laid out, even though it forced them into single file.
The heavy ready room door was drawn aside to reveal a modest office. The wall behind the Captain was transparent, showing the field of stars and an edge of Enreega beyond. One of the smouldering cities was just barely visible on its blue surface. “-long to figure out the lighting system. It's measured in lumens until you set it on a different scale,” the Captain was saying as they walked inside.
“Okay, that's strange though, everything else I've run into is on a scale of ten or one hundred,” replied the brown haired woman sitting on the Captain's desk. She was half turned towards the door.
They were both dressed in black vacsuits, not quite as well armoured as the one the watch officer was wearing. The material looked perfectly flexible and fitted to their forms, only two to five millimetres thick. They were sealed all the way up to the neck, leaving only their heads exposed.
“One thousand lumens is about the right starting point for a room like this.” Commented Angelo. “I usually set cockpit lighting down to four hundred, keeps the instrumentation nice and clear.”
“You're Angelo Vercelli,” The younger woman said, dropping from the desk to stand up straight, her knee high combat boots clomped against the deck. She offered her hand. “I'm Stephanie Vega, First Officer here on the Triton. ”
Angelo shook her hand. “This is my second in command, Paula Mendle.”
Stephanie went on to shake her hand, then looked to Jane and Nathan. After introductions were made all around, she sat back down on the edge of Captain Valance's desk.
“It's been a very long day for everyone, so I'll get to the point.” Captain Valance started. “ Triton needs you, I need you. We're in bad shape and automation is failing across the ship.”
“That's probably our fault, Captain. We disconnected the power in engineering as soon as we boarded,” Jane said with a nod. “Under orders.”
“I understand, but that's not the primary cause. When the former Captain put the automation in place he had to disable all the internal security to make it workable. Now that we've started bringing some of that back on line it's interfering with the automation.”
“How long has this ship been automated for?” Asked Nathan.
“Almost forty years from what I've been able to see in the logs.” Stephanie said. “They ran the ship with a crew of about one hundred.”
“That's a lot of automation.”
“Aye, no wonder you're having trouble taking control,” Angelo agreed.
“So you see our problem. We need organized teams in place to start working on the critical systems, exploring the ship and establishing a chain of command.”
“Have you ever commanded a ship this size before, if you don't mind me asking sir?” Asked Jane.
“Have you heard of the First Light?” Captain Valance asked, looking across the group.
Angelo looked startled for a moment then took a closer look at the Captain with a smile slowly spreading across his face. “I thought I recognized you. Captain Jonas Valent. I always wondered what happened at Starfree Port.”
“Could you fill us in a little old timer?” Paula asked peevishly.
“Right. The First Light was a Freeground ship. An old carrier with an ergranian steel hull and a third of the armaments she was made to carry. They sent her out with a green captain and some kind of special crew from what anyone could determine. Under the command of their Captain, Jonas Valent, they managed to take out a carrier twenty times her size called the Overlord II before running off to repair at a nearby station. After she finished repairs, they took out another carrier and a few destroyers single handed and turned up at Starfree Port. Not long after that she just disappeared. Just a few weeks ago was re-dubbed the Sunspire and put back into service. There's a whole documentary on this now, but I remember the holocast of your tousle with that Triad Consortium Carrier and the four or five Vindyne destroyers. Man did they want you after that. What happened? I'm itching to know.”
Captain Valance soaked in every word of Angelo's retelling, trying not to look surprised at someone else knowing more about his past than he did then nodded solemnly when he was finished. “I went into hiding. I can get into the rest of that some other time. What's important now is that we get things in line, make the ship safe and ready.”
“Aye sir, after what you did with that ship, I'm with you.” Angelo said without reservation.
“My platoon will take care of your boat for as long as you're willing to take the fight to Regent Galactic.” Jane
