“Just call a general medical assessment of the crew and do a detailed scan of everyone aboard. Work up a profile and send it to me in a burst transmission as soon as you can. We cannot afford to lose our grip on the Triton and with so few operatives left aboard we may have to recruit someone new.”
“It would be better to have someone come in with the applicants.”
“That may not be an option. Things are moving quickly in this sector and we may need everyone we have right where they are. Start feeling people out for interest in the movement. Be discreet.”
“That's asking for trouble.”
“I am making it an order,” Hampon said firmly.
“Yes, Baron Hampon. I'll watch for anyone who might be ready to join the West Keepers. What about Valance? The crew are starting to get behind him, I think you underestimated his popularity.”
“Leave him. We have no idea what will happen now that he's met Valent. If you hear anything about a drastic personality change, or memories from Jonas, send us a burst transmission with as many details as soon as you can.”
“Is there anything in particular I'm supposed to listen for?”
“If he recalls anything about Concordia or the Overlord then he's accessing information we need. Anything else will be incidental.”
“How much do you think he'll remember? If he undergoes any sudden changes should I try to stop it? Put a mental block in place?”
“They are not his memories. He is accessing the Vindyne transfer, you have to remember that. Treating them like externally accessible memories with medical equipment will damage the raw data image we tried to imprint on him.”
“So I shouldn't try to access them directly?”
“No, if you disturb the data it will start to sort itself into a pattern that will suit a digital system. The human brain, as you know, doesn't work that way. If he tries to access the imprint with any electrical instruments you should discourage him. With Valent gone we can't afford to lose whatever he's managed to subconsciously preserve.”
“How much of Valent's memories does he have do you think?”
“Why is that detail so important Grace?”
“I'm curious, it's one of the traits you credit me for, remember?”
“Fine. Our last imprint managed a forty one percent whole transfer.”
“That's not very much.”
“That's remarkable, most transfers didn't start making it past eighteen percent until last year. We performed his imprint seven years ago.”
“I'll take your word for it. Anything else? I have a duty shift coming up.”
“That'll be all. Watch the west to preserve the east.”
“To the east I am true,” she replied automatically as she cut the transmission.
Micromanagement
“There's a group of people waiting to see you in the officers lounge sir. Chief Vega sent them up,” Cynthia said through the secure bridge intercom.
“Did she tell you what it was about?” Captain Valance said as he shut down the log of the Triton's first Captain.
“They're civilians who don't want to leave the ship. She called them believers.”
Jake put on his long coat, wrapped his scarf around his neck and just stopped for a moment. Believers. What now?
“Captain?” queried Cynthia.
“I'm on my way. Thank you Cynthia.”
He opened the private door inside his quarters, just to the right of the ladder, and walked down the slim hallway leading to the command deck causeway. Alice was already there, half way to his ready room. She smiled at him. “Hey you.”
He smiled in return before accepting a brief embrace. “I'm on my way to meet some civilians who don't want to leave.”
“I was just coming to say goodbye before we set off. The Clever Dream is all ready. I can't wait to get her fuelled up.”
“Good luck, don't get too distracted down there.”
“I'll try not to. Good luck with the civvies.”
Captain Valance sighed as they started walking down the small corridor to the main causeway. “I think I'll need it. This ship, as much as I'm enjoying it already, is turning into so much more than I expected. Sometimes I think Wheeler had the right idea; automate most systems so you only have to manage a crew of one hundred or less.”
“And only use ten percent of her weapons, a few rooms and barely even look at most of this?” she gestured to the broad hall of the command deck with her arms upraised and spread out wide. It was busier than ever. The security and intelligence compartment was fully manned. Stephanie had made it the nerve center for managing the crew, on board security and there were even a few people who only worked to collect potentially useful information from unsecured transmissions picked up outside.
There were other crewmembers in the hallway as well. Some of the maintenance crew were starting to work on non-critical systems on the command deck. A number of problems were discovered when they started opening up the officer's quarters.
There were also a number of meetings taking place. With six briefing rooms, the command deck was a place for all the senior officers to gather their people at the beginning of a shift or major operations. With a command structure in place, orientations, training sessions and mission preparations were constantly under way. Every time a meeting was completed a report was filed with the bridge staff, and Cynthia did her best to make sure they were sorted by department and priority with the help of four other volunteers of various qualifications. “I mean, this is a lot more like you,” she said with a smile. “You're different from Jonas, that's true, but some things you can't change. This is where you belong, just as much as him, and I couldn't imagine anyone else who could command an independent carrier. Doesn't watching all this come back online feel good?”
Jake smiled at her. “Sure it does, but it's overwhelming. I'll deal with it though, Stephanie just took on the Chief of Security post, that'll take a lot off my shoulders. Just don't tell the rest of the crew I need to delegate.”
Alice laughed and nodded. “I won't.”
“You're right though. I've never wanted anything more than to see this ship in it's glory. I never thought I'd have an opportunity like this.”
“That's what Jonas thought when he was given command of the First Light. He also had Ayan to think about. She was amazing. Intelligent, disciplined, fun, very pretty.”
“I don't think I'll be getting involved with our Chief Engineer in quite the same way,” Jake said with a crooked grin.
The comment took Alice by surprise and she laughed so hard a few bypassers couldn't help but look and smile.
He waited for her to stop laughing before going on. “But I would like to hear more about Ayan. I think I had a dream about her last night.”
Alice regarded him more seriously. “Really? I thought you didn't have any of his memories.”
“Well, I've never really seen Ayan before but somehow I know it was her. Besides, Jonas didn't know if I had wiped the memories clean or suppressed them. It's strange, I know they're not my memories but that's not the way it feels. We'll have to talk more about this later.”
“We will. Stephanie and Frost are waiting, See you soon.”
There was a guard at either side of the main observation lounge doors, their new black vacsuits with single stripe ranks on their sleeves told him they were ranked as able crewmen. They held Aucharian rifles across their chests and wore heavy impact helmets, the only fixtures that indicated their origin.
“Good morning Captain. Chief Vega ordered us here to manage the crowd, but they're keeping themselves in good order. We compiled a list of whose inside and they insisted that we list their trades beside their names. Chief
