charging your capacitors up for you. We're still getting the Decks in line.”
“Thank you. Are we meeting the Captain here?”
“Aye,” Angelo looked over his shoulder and saw the main express lift arriving. The heavy double doors parted with a grating, squealing sound that made half the deck hands cringe. Captain Valance and First Officer Vega stepped out. “Here they are now.”
“Negative five on the rear struts! Come on!” Paula barked at the crew working on lifting the Samson. Everyone in hangar two could hear her piercing voice, normally barely loud enough to hear. As she shouted directions there was no way you could miss it unless the main lift doors were opening. Which sound was more shrill was a growing debate.
“That's my queue to get involved. Pardon me.” Angelo said as he walked towards the Samson.
“It's like these knuckle draggers have never done this before!” Paula shouted at Angelo as he started crossing the hangar.
“That's because most of them haven't. Give them twice the instructions and four times the time and it'll get done,” Angelo shouted back. “Whip 'em, hound 'em and they'll just do without thinking.”
If Captain Valance was at all confused or surprised by the sight of Jonas and Alice he didn't show it as he and Stephanie closed the long distance between them. Stephanie's resolve was held with military discipline as well, only her gaze was focused on Jonas distinctly.
Even when she tried to look somewhere else, she just couldn't help but examine the man. He was physically smaller, not as well muscled, seemed fairer somehow, lighter, and his demeanour was completely different. It was like looking at a version of Jake that had experienced a much less stressful life.
Alice couldn't contain herself. Despite the confusion of having the real Jonas Valent at her side and a copy in front of her, the copy was the one she had saved. The one she had promised to come back for and the one she dreamt of finding for years. It really was like she was looking at her father figure, especially considering there were so many similarities between his methods and her own. As he walked through the middle of the soldiers she couldn't help but close the distance at a run.
He caught her, and even though verification his greatest fear was standing not twenty meters away, it still felt so good to hold his daughter in his arms. “I looked for you. In every sector we passed through, every time we made port my ship's computer scanned for you,” he whispered to her.
“I'm so sorry I had to leave you but it was the safest thing for you. We were sure they'd catch us and saving you would have been for nothing.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. Understanding the relief, the joy she was feeling didn't matter. Somehow this reunion was more satisfying than the surprise she had when she found Jonas days earlier.
“All that matters is that you're safe. Even if you are his daughter and not mine, I'll never see you as anything less,” he kissed the side of her head.
She drew back and looked into his eyes. He absolutely loved her like a daughter. To him she was his only family, his blood, and he was completely invested in the idea. It struck her heart, brought up a flood of emotions that made her head pound and took all words away. He loved her, unconditionally and so utterly that she could see it in his eyes, in his gentle smile. She had never seen that directed at her before, not anywhere from anyone and a black fear lived under all those feelings that when he discovered the truth his love would disappear.
At the moment she was incapable of anything but crying, and with a deep shudder she laid her head on his shoulder. He held her close and rubbed her back with care. “I'm so sorry,” she sobbed.
“It's okay, you're here, we have time.”
They remained that way for a while, and Jonas eventually crossed the distance, introducing himself to Stephanie first. “Jonas Valent, I'm his brother,” he smiled.
Stephanie smiled back and shook his hand. “Stephanie Vega, the First Officer here. I didn't know Captain had a brother.”
“Sometimes I think even he forgets.” Jonas' subdermal communicator received a message from Alice's mental transmitter. It was so garbled that it came through more as a collection of musical notes. He shook his head.
Captain Valance and Alice parted, and he offered her his white scarf to wipe her tears away.
“I couldn't use that,” she said, using her sleeve instead. After a moment she looked at Jonas, he could see her concentrating.
“Don't tell him about me. I'll do it myself.” Came her mental communication, much clearer that time. He assumed the earlier failed attempt was due to emotional interference.
“Yes, well, maybe we could take this somewhere more private?” Jonas said with a nod directed at the express tube.
Stephanie turned on her heel and led the way back the way she and the Captain had come. “Security detail dismissed.” She ordered to the soldiers standing around them. They turned and led the way to the large cargo elevator. “There's an observation lounge a few decks up that we haven't seen yet.”
“You haven't had this ship long?” Jonas asked.
“Just a couple days. Most of the crew are refugees and deserters from the Aucharian Government,” Jake replied. “With their home system in pieces they didn't think they had much to go back to.” Jake pointed over his shoulder at the Samson with his thumb. “That's been my core ship for the last five years. It was a gift. Turns out it served me well.”
“I almost didn't recognize it,” Alice said, looking across the hundred meter distance at the battered cargo hauler as the deck crew hovered it soundlessly up a ramp through an interior hangar door that was almost not wide enough. “What are they doing with it?”
“Putting it into storage. One of my crew detonated a one megaton equivalent electromagnetic pulse bomb on the deck beneath it. The Samson won't be running until someone does some serious repairs on her.”
“He saved my life when he set that thing off. Wheeler was just about to put an extra hole in me,” Stephanie added. “Gave us the upper hand for just long enough to get things under control.”
They stepped into the large cargo express car with a dozen soldiers in tow and after the screech of the doors closing made everyone cringe it elevated several decks in the space of a few seconds, opening up to reveal what looked like a common room. The lights came on closest to them first, illuminating two meters at a time down the two hallways in ahead. There were three sofas, a couple small tables and chairs with scuffed markings on the floor indicating emergency hatchways for escape craft and maintenance crawl ways. It looked like one of the more used sections of the ship, but was covered in dust.
“This looks like the entrance space to a berth,” Jonas said as he stepped inside. “Fighter pilots I'd say.”
“Looks like. The schematics for this deck outlines one third as living space for pilots and deck crews. The rest is an observation deck and the highest point in the hangar storage.” Stephanie said, looking at a small holographic representation of the deck coming from her wrist unit.
Alice was looking on with interest. “I'd hate to bunk up there,” she pointed at the rear wall, where the schematic detailed a part of the hangar lifting system.
“The observation lounge is this way,” Stephanie directed to the hall running left, towards the bow of the ship. “Do a sweep of this berthing. I want it cleared for the deck crew by the time they're ready to turn in. When you're finished make sure you inform the Chief his people are assigned here,” she ordered the lead soldier before starting down the hall. “We'll clear the observation lounge,” she finished with a crooked grin.
“Yes Ma'am.”
They made their way up the broad hallway, avoiding one cleaning robot that was vacuuming its way up the side of the hall. “I guess the robots turn off when the decks are dormant,” Alice commented as she wiped her finger across it's flat, round top. It was as thick with dust as everything else. “Must be nice to have them aboard though. I don't know what I'd do without the cleaning systems in the Clever Dream.”
“Your ship has cleaning systems?” Stephanie asked enviously.
“Sure does, takes care of almost everything.”
“There were days when I wished the Samson had something, anything like that. We had to vent the halls once to prove a point.”
“That was Frost,” Captain Valance corrected. “I was off ship.”
“Yeah, cleaned the dust out of the corners though,” Stephanie said with a chuckle at the memory.
“We also lost a few tools in that impromptu clean up. He still owes me for that.”
