even Frost for that matter, but he left you in charge because he believed in you. As it so happens, he was right,” Chief Grady said with a warm smile.
Alice just lowered her face into her hands and sighed. “What'll I do if I can't find him?”
“We'll find a way to go on. You have the crew's trust, that's the hard part.”
She looked at him, stunned with his reply.
He laughed softly. “You were expecting something like; 'oh, you'll find him' or 'you know him, he can take care of himself.' Well, I wouldn't insult the woman in command of nearly three thousand souls by offering empty reassurances. We both know Pandem is huge, at least a billion people live there from what I read and if there's trouble it's big, especially if he's calling for help. He just doesn't seem the type to admit he needs any.”
“You're just a ray of sunshine,” she smirked, shaking her head. “But you're right, the Jake I know wouldn't admit he needed help unless it was serious.” Her remaining eye looked at him straight on as she asked; “Do you have any real advice?”
“Do it your way. I know you were following the Captain's plan for that last mission, and it turned out brilliantly but I don't think there's a plan on file for him being captured or lost.”
Alice laughed, shaking her head. “I don't think he thought picking up a couple of friends would turn out that way, no.”
“So do things your way. Our pilot roster may be filled with people too green to trust in a real conflict but there are so many other options, especially with everything at least temporarily repaired. Start with the ones you're familiar with and branch out from there and trust your instincts. Captain Valance may have put that plan together but you finessed it into working when the details changed.”
“You're the most confusing monk I've ever met. One minute you're sending me the most real lowdown on the situation I could imagine, the next you're the most encouraging, trusting soul on the ship. How do you do it? Are there two of you in there?” Alice laughed.
“Well, first of all I'm not a monk, and second of all, I've been around a little.”
“Well, that explains everything. You're right though, I should trust myself. I got along on my own in solar systems where I was being chased by more than one badge at a time and I know pretty much everything Jonas did.”
“There you go. With the ship fit and the crew in line behind you you're ready for practically anything.”
“Oh, let's not go that far. I'm not ready to think that we won't find Jake, so let's just keep that possibility in the closet.”
“All right, but before we close the door on it-”
“I didn't come here to take command of a carrier filled with refugees, deserters and mercenaries. I came here to meet him, to find my place.”
“I just wanted to say that you'd do fine as the Triton's permanent commander. You'd be surprised to find out how many people are finding their place on this ship. Maybe yours is to keep her in one piece until he comes back, maybe it's to find a way to take charge with our help. I know you'll do well either way. By the same token I know you'll do your best to find him, so I bet he'll be back before you know it and you'll go to your quarters and get two day's sleep,” Chief Grady said with a shrug. “You'll wake up fresh and ready to move on to the next crisis.”
Alice couldn't help but laugh. “There's always something, isn't there?”
“It's a big ship, she draws a lot of attention and carries a lot of personalities around.”
She nodded as she looked back to the counter on her arm. “I have to get to the bridge, the next crisis is coming up. Thank you Chief. Sometimes I think you keep the crew together as much as the ship.”
“I met someone who was just like that on Earth and one day I told him the same thing. You know what he said to me?”
“What?”
“Go where you're needed and you'll never wonder why you're alive.”
“Smart man. Who was he?”
“Neil Vernon, one of the Cincinnati Monastery gardeners.”
As Alice walked onto the bridge and took it all in she was almost stunned with the very fact that she was still in command. The upper command center was abuzz with activity. There was a reserve officer standing by for every station in case one of the three or more people manning navigation, operations, engineering, tactical, field control, security or any of the other stations had to attend to something else or were injured.
Stephanie had a squad of fourteen soldiers spaced out along the bridge walls between stations in full black combat armour and sat to the left of the Captain's chair. As Alice made her way through the dozen or so officers on the bridge walking between stations, checking displays, calling out statistics reflecting slight changes that were made in the ship while repairs were performed and ensuring that the bridge systems were up to date with the latest information Agameg Price moved from the Command seat to his position as the lead tactical officer. “Chief Frost reports that the last of the replacement turrets are in place and they're ready for another round. That is the last of the repairs. All departments report ready,” he told her in a pleasant tone.
“Thank you Agameg. How is our flight deck?” Alice asked, settling into the captain's seat. It adjusted to her proportions as she looked down through the transparent sections of the floor to the equally bustling flight control deck, where they managed everything the bridge didn't; flight crews, any related vessels other than the Triton herself and how ships moved around in nearby space. Angelo Vercelli looked up at her and spoke in a normal tone, knowing that his voice would be transmitted straight to the captain's chair from his pedestal. “Everything's locked down, fabrication has been taken offline, we have four fighters ready to launch and our main hangar is ready to take care of any emergency landings. I even have an energy capture web ready in case we have to yank someone as they pass within a few kilometres.”
“Thank you Chief.”
“My pleasure Captain.”
“How is our new emitter array?” Alice asked as she looked through the list of changes that were made while the Triton was being repaired. She couldn't help but be surprised as she read that eight hundred and nine repair team members worked on the ship and there were over two hundred volunteers on top of that. The repairs that were made were beyond extensive, even systems that were damaged years before the battle they had just engaged in were taken care of.
Finn cleared his throat before answering; “Chief Grady didn't tell you?”
“Never answer a question with a question on my bridge, Finn.”
“Right. It didn't look like it was going to work until we bypassed most of the power generation systems aboard the hypertransmitter, but then we had a break through and were able to just build it into the ship.”
Alice turned towards him and looked at him straight on. He looked up but his gaze flinched back to his station in the next instant. “Build it in?”
“He really didn't tell you,” Finn said, half to himself. “We cut off the wireless receivers and wired it right up to one of the ship's main data lines and power systems. Now it's operating behind eight meters of armoured hull with cloaked emitter rods sticking out of an airlock.”
“Is that the permanent solution?”
“No, but it'll work without burning out. Wiring things up while it was already generating a wormhole was a little tricky.”
“Good work,” Alice said with a smile.
Finn nodded, smirking a little. “I broke the last main emitter systems, only makes sense that I install a new one.”
“You and your people deserve a day off after this.”
“I'll pass that onto my team,” he said, glancing at Angela, who playfully nudged him with her elbow from where she manned a damage control post beside him.
“Captain, I'm in main engineering and can confirm that everything's set down here,” Chief Grady said through her personal communicator.
“Thank you Chief.”
“Exiting the wormhole into regular space in five, four, three, two, one,” announced Larry, Ashley's main navigator.
Ashley unlocked the controls as they emerged and listened to Larry and Henrietta, the navigators who sat on either side of her as they took turns in telling her about their situation in the arrival point. She also viewed the
