“How long ago?”
“Tuesday, I think.”
“You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding.”
“Shut up and watch for surprises,” Ashley said as she began accelerating, rotating the ship towards Vallestra, a nearby rocky moon.
“Incoming system wide communication from the command ship,” Cynthia reported.
“Put it on the tertiary display.”
The holoprojector on the left side of the bridge switched from its extended tactical view to the familiar image of a Regent Galactic representative complete with perfectly pressed suit and neat haircut. “This is the Regent Galactic Vessel Kraken. We received news of the tragedy that has befallen you and made haste to this system. Our search and rescue ships are deploying now, please remain where you are and wait for our teams to make contact. You will not be charged for our services, though we ask that you have your insurance information ready. If you are in immediate danger, please contact us as soon as you are able.” The hologram started repeating the same message and Cynthia muted it.
“This isn't exactly what I'd call ideal,” Captain Valance said to himself. “They might think Wheeler is still in command. So if they don't make contact in the next few minutes we might be all right if we can get into hyperspace.”
The massive ship's three layers began to separate, growing in height. Smooth, white, five segmented ships began emerging. Each one scanned as one hundred ninety meters in length with several turrets and docking interfaces. Other, more utilitarian vessels began to launch from the three eight sided hangars, heading out in all directions.
The Triton was almost behind the cover of Vallestra, its rocky blue and grey surface was looming larger on the smaller rear view projection under the taller image coming from the main holoprojector. “Stephanie, how are you doing with that transit vessel?” Asked Captain Valance.
“Just popping it open now Captain, stand by.” She replied into her communicator as the meter and a half wide airlock doors opened. Unlike the mooring port in the gunnery deck this one had a broad hallway leading to it. Stephanie felt much better with a hallway around her and eighteen armed soldiers behind.
A sweating, exhausted looking wiry woman stumbled through the hatch. “Thank God! What's wrong with you people? We docked in an emergency and your system didn't even lock onto us. We had to jam the mechanism so you couldn't shake us off!”
Stephanie levelled her rifle at the woman, it was set on high stun. There were several irate passengers behind her. “We aren't equipped for search and rescue and our power was out. We would have informed you but we were unable to communicate with you.”
“Our comms were down.”
“We tried the hard line. All you had to do was turn the intercom on.”
“Oh, well none of us did that! No one told us! Can you help us or not?”
Stephanie lowered her rifle and signalled the soldiers behind her to do the same. “Yes, but follow our orders or we'll confine you. Do you understand?”
“Nice, fine, whatever.”
“Leave any weapons with these guards here,” Stephanie directed towards Liz and a much larger male soldier. “Then follow our directions to our upper berth. It isn't much but you'll be able to get food and water out of the materializers and you'll have somewhere to rest until we can make port.”
The passengers started coming through the airlock and Stephanie helped direct them out of the transit ship. It was a flimsy vessel with a lot of transparent metal. The seats and floor looked old and misused, the passengers looked tired and wilted.
The haggard woman stood beside Stephanie as she made sure that the passengers didn't rush through the airlock. She didn't lift a finger to help, just stood by watching the disembarkation. “What was your destination?” Stephanie asked as the last of the passengers came through.
“We were bound for the Palimino when it was destroyed. A whole city ship, just sunk. Then those little ships came along and nearly killed everyone. Luckily they only damaged our engines and destroyed our communications. We were able to catch you with thrusters, though you were no help. Your ship kept veering away.”
Stephanie shook her head, unwilling to get sucked into another argument. A soldier closed the outer then inner airlock. “All right, time to cut it loose. Do you have a remote system or command code?” Stephanie asked.
“What do you mean? That ship is my responsibility, I can't just set it adrift.”
“You have to. If you don't we can't go into hyperspace.”
“What? You're not staying and helping anyone else in the system?”
“Like I said, we're not equipped for that so we're going to the nearest port and we're going to drop you off at an emergency center so they can take care of you. Now just decouple your ship and we'll be-”
“What kind of people are you? First you play keep away when we try to dock, then you don't let us in for four hours, now you want me to dump my ship while you leave the system without helping anyone else? This ship is huge! There must be room for thousands aboard! You must have a crew and medical facilities!”
“None of that is any of your business, just take it on faith that we're not ready to help and release your docking system, please.” Stephanie said as calmly as she could manage while talking over the woman.
“I can't! Weren't you listening? We jammed it so you couldn't just shake us off and leave us twisting in the cold!”
“All right. Go with the officer please. He'll show you to a bunk.”
“What? What about my ship? Are you going to do something to it? What are you going to do?”
“We'll rip it off like the scab it is! Now get your ass down the hall before I stun you!” Stephanie snapped.
The soldier grabbed the frazzled woman by the arm and nearly had to drag her down the hall.
“You can't do this! That's Transit Authority property!” she yelled before giving up on Stephanie and turning to the guard, who was guiding her towards the upper berth where the rest of the refugees were being taken.
“You handled that well,” Liz commented quietly.
“Until I threatened to fire on her.”
“She wasn't being reasonable. Can't blame her much though. Who knows what she lost in the attack.”
“You're right. I just can't wait to get out of this system.”
“What are you going to do about this ship?”
“Well, I'll seal this hall off at this end and leave it up to the Captain. He might have to send a crew out to cut it loose.”
“That makes sense,” Liz grabbed an end of the full trunk of weaponry and ammunition while her larger counterpart activated the gravity lift. It hovered a few inches off the deck and she pushed it in front of her with ease. “My uncle used to drive transit. Said it was exciting for the first week, but after that it was the most boring thing he'd ever done.”
“Did he quit?”
“I think he's due for retirement actually. He's been at it for about thirty five years.”
They passed under the emergency pressure door closest to the airlock and Stephanie sealed it behind them. Liz looked up at her and smiled. “Well, on to the next issue. I've been on stims for three hours, wee.”
“I was nearly killed on the bridge and feel like I've slept for a week ever since they brought me back from the brink. I'm sure we'll get a chance to sleep after we're in hyperspace.”
“Stephanie, why is that ship still attached to us?” Asked Frost through the communicator.
“They jammed their locking mechanism so we couldn't shake them off. Everyone's out though, so if the Captain wants to scrape it off he's clear to do so.”
“Alright, I think he's got a solution. Thanks Steph.”
The Clever Dream
Alice and Jonas sat in the darkened cockpit of the Clever Dream watching the wormhole emergence timer count down from two minutes. “I wonder what he'll say when he sees you?” Alice asked quietly.
“I hope it's something like; 'oh, hi. The more the merrier.' and not something like; 'there can only be one! Die impostor!'”
