“But it was funny! Everyone got to their bunks like he told them to, but no one thought he'd actually do it. People cleaned up after themselves a little more after that. I think some of them lost a couple things they left lying around.”
“Sounds like the Samson was an interesting place to be,” Alice commented.
“For me, but I like a good firefight and Captain kept the jobs coming. We must have gone through a couple hundred people in the time I was aboard though, between people who just left after a while and others. It was a rough life.”
“So you're keeping the Triton? Going to keep her crewed up?” Jonas asked. “I am,” Jake answered mildly. “Everyone needs a bit of training except our Chief Engineer, but the computer's got the information they need to start.”
“Are you going to run them through simulations? I've found virtual trials are a great way to get a crew in shape.”
“I was just thinking about that actually. It's writing the scenarios I'm not looking forward to, and I don't know whether to do it one department at a time or run people from all of them through at the same time.”
“I'd say you should run everyone not on duty once a day during hyperspace, just for a couple hours while they're off duty. We did something similar with the First Light but time was always a problem. She was well automated but had a skeleton crew. Didn't feel like it though. Running a ship with a couple hundred souls aboard is still a big challenge.”
“I know, the Samson was easy most of the time. I had no problem staying on top of things. I'm hoping that the people we've put in charge are good at their jobs.” Captain Valance concluded.
“I'll do my best Captain,” Stephanie reassured as she checked the status of the compartment ahead on the door control panel leading to the observation lounge.
“I'm talking about our new Chiefs, you're the one I'm hoping picks up any really big problems.”
“Well, with security I know I'll be able to tell if things are going right, but with engineering and the hangar decks? It's hard to be sure,” Stephanie said with a shrug as she opened the double doors leading into the lounge.
The lights came on to reveal a furnished room with a view facing outwards from the front of the Triton. The floor in front of the entrance was decorated with a silvered skull with the words Deploy, Dominate, Disappear written around it. “Well that's a squadron motto to remember,” Alice said, looking down on it.
“I think that might just be something I'd like to keep. Maybe even duplicate in other parts of the ship,” Captain Valance said as much to himself as anyone else.
The rest of the observation lounge was much like the common room, only with a bar at one end and many more tables. There were a few weathered sofas and other seats around as well. Overall, the space looked well used and if it weren't for the dust one would expect a group of pilots to walk in any second, returning from a patrol.
“Should we leave these guys alone and see what else we can find?” Alice asked Stephanie.
“I actually have to get back to the bridge, make sure the next watch is settling in. Come with?”
“Sounds like as good a place to start the tour as any,” Alice said with a shrug.
The pair left and Jake led Jonas to the bar, where he stepped in behind and Jonas sat down on a padded stool. “Guess Wheeler didn't like this part of the ship much,” Jonas commented as he looked around.
Jake looked under the bar for a moment and came up with a bottle of scotch. “Ashton Mill brand, aged fourteen years, bottled forty six years ago.”
“I'm game.”
He pulled two glasses out from behind the bar and sprayed them with a small water hose that sputtered a moment before focusing into a clean jet. “I'm surprised. You'd think Wheeler would move in behind the bar,” Jake said plainly as he poured two half glasses.
“Cheers.” Jonas said as they clinked glasses. “I couldn't even begin to imagine how blind sided you feel right now. I would have sent you a message but the Clever Dream moves faster than most transmission services.”
“I saw the wormhole exit point. That's a nice ship.”
“It is, Alice has done well for herself.”
Captain Valance took a second sip of scotch and swirled the amber fluid in the glass, watching it, unable to look at Jonas. “Is she mine or yours?”
“That's a difficult question to answer.”
“Oh?”
“Well, if you were to test her DNA you'd find she's not even related.”
“So she's adopted.”
“I'm not supposed to tell you any of this. She wanted to say so herself, but I know she's scared. I know I would rather find out right away than be surprised later.”
“By?” Jake asked, trying not to sound impatient.
“When I was seventeen I bought the best artificial intelligence I could find. It cost me a year's savings and I customized her, left her on my arm for almost seventeen years. She saw everything. I talked to her as though she was my best friend, and she was.” He didn't give Jake a chance to say anything, just pushed on through it. “When I was in command of the First Light we ran into trouble. Some of my senior staff and I were captured by a super carrier owned by Vindyne.”
“I've heard of them.”
“I had built a switch into Alice after a few years of having her, where I could turn off all the limitations imposed on the cores of artificial intelligences. I don't know why I did it at the time, maybe I thought she had the right to make all her own decisions one day, but years later when we were captured I let her loose through their wireless network. She ran rampant and from what she's told me she absorbed some predatory programming and used the systems on that carrier to force herself into the emptied mind of a woman who was about to be programmed as an unwilling colonist. She was a former prisoner, a murderer with a few fragment memories left, but Alice got through it. A few years later she went after you thinking there was only one of us and got you free. Vindyne, or rather, a few people left over from that company have been after her ever since.”
Jake just let it sink in for a minute, looking through the transparent section of hull out into the blue and white starry haze outside.
“She sees me more like a brother, we grew up together. When she watches footage of your captures, the speeches you gave for the Aucharians, it's different. She looks up to you, it really is like she's looking at her father, a mentor.”
“She shouldn't. I come with an entirely different bag of trouble. I've only been alive a few years and I can't count the number of enemies I've made. Most of them are counting the days until they get out of prison. Some day there'll be a couple hundred very bad people on the roam with one eye looking for my face.”
Jonas looked at the other man, he was brooding, quiet. “Hey, you saved my butt when you were minutes old. Everything that's in my head was in yours when they brought you out. Somehow you managed to delete, or suppress all the memories they gave you. You did it so they'd stop trying to use me as some kind of guinea pig, or read me like a database. That's the first thing you did when they flipped the switch and brought you online, even though you felt just as much like me as I did. You must have been convinced you were Jonas Valent right up until they sat us down in front of each other. I know I couldn't have done that, and not just because I don't have machinery in my skull, but because I couldn't let go of everything I know, all my experiences, and the people I love, not for anyone,” his eyes settled on the white silk scarf dangling from Jake's neck.
“I always wondered what this was about. Just couldn't let it go.” Jake said as he pulled the scarf off carefully. “I even had it repaired once.”
“I had a few girlfriends, but none of them could hold a candle up to the last one. I hope she's been well in the time I've been gone,” he stared at it, draped over his hand. His thumb stroked its smooth surface. “Her name is Ayan Rice. She was the Engineer on the First Light and did I ever fall for her. I was so lucky she felt the same way. It's all I could think about ever since they woke me up two months ago. Finding my way back,” he nodded to himself and looked back to Jake. “That is until I found out about you. Over the last couple days I've been glued to the holoprojector with Alice. We can't stop watching the clips the Hart Newsnet has on you, there are days worth. One take down and take over after another, even a few gunfights that law enforcement agencies put up just in case they ever get another chance to catch you.”
