specialist, especially compared to my husband, but I know what a working department looks like.”
“Do you think she'll make a good second?”
“She's a hard worker, with some direction she'll be fantastic if she wants to be.”
“Good, she's always had trouble finding her place in the crew, but she's intelligent and well liked.”
“I've noticed.” Laura walked to the large transparent section of hull and looked out to the bright yellow star clusters. “I thought Jason and Oz would be here by now.”
“I know. They should be safe on Pandem though, I'll probably find them sitting on one of its beaches sipping something that's served with a tiny umbrella.”
Laura couldn't help but smile at Jake's comical reassurance before shaking her head and going on. “Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you're doing this yourself, but why?”
Captain Valance felt blindsided by the question and moved to stand beside her and share the view. He had good answers to the question, most of them dishonest, but they all seemed more significant than the true answer. “I feel like I'm drowning here. For five years I've dragged a small crew around the galaxy. Easy to control, easy to manage, easy to replace. Here I have literally thousands,” he answered honestly.
“That's what delegation is for. You always had a problem with that,” she smiled.
“I have been, Intelligence is the last department in real need aside from the SSG. Still, there's so much time to think while I'm going over reports, requests and interacting with everyone from the civilian representative to Liam.”
She didn't need to know more. He had been inundated with memories and over the past weeks they took root. He was quiet, sometimes even sullen, which was a good thing considering it hid the fact that his manner was becoming softer, more human. To most of the crew he was still the hard, towering icon, but his senior officers were all noticing how much more personable and approachable he was. “I need Jason here, there's no one I miss more,” she appealed to that heart she had heard of. Alice had taken her into confidence to talk about the sleepwalking incident, and knew that there was a good chance that she could start trusting Jake just as she had come to trust Jonas.
“I'll be back with him before you know it. Until then Alice knows she has the ship and I'm sure the Chiefs will have everything under control.”
“How long do you think it'll take you?”
“In an Uriel fighter with an extra reactor installed? I'll get there in twenty hours, maybe less.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “If I don't find him it's because he found another mode of transportation and I just missed him on his way here.”
“Thank you Jonas,” she said, catching her error and regretting it immediately. Laura looked at him and was surprised at what she saw.
His eyes were closed, his lips were stretched in a tight smile. “I know. I suppose it was inevitable.”
“I'm sorry, it's just something he'd do, gestures he'd make.”
Jake nodded. “I stopped fighting the memories, lifted the mental separations. There are a lot of good memories, especially from his youth. It changes things, you know, when you have good times to look back on. I had so few of my own, I didn't even realize.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“Sometimes I think it's selfish, getting to know him so well that it's hard to tell where he ends and I begin, but then I remember meeting him face to face. He'd want this, he'd want me to be here for you, for Jason, for Oz. Even if I took his name it wouldn't phase him as long as I didn't do something he wouldn't.”
“Do you think you ever would?”
“Take his name?”
“Yes.”
“Not his first. Talking to Alice the other day, hearing about how so much of who she is was determined by her experiences with him and how she has her own distinct personality despite that, it got me thinking, and I don't have to change my name just because things are changing. Who I am is in part thanks to him and using his moral compass is tribute enough I think. If he were alive right now I don't think there would be a question that we're different people, but I know there are a lot of similarities now, a lot I can be proud of.”
“So you'll remain Jacob Valance. Still very close to Jonas Valent, really.”
He hadn't made the comparison aloud or heard anyone else do it for him and he paused to let it sink in. “I need time to think,” he chuckled. “and to do something useful, something important on my own.”
“Don't take this the wrong way, but you're becoming more like Jonas every minute. He was miserable when he didn't feel useful.”
“I think that's something we have in common,” he smiled back.
She gave him a brief hug and they started out of the meeting room. As she got to the door she stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. The last generation of the vacsuits are ready. We managed to materialize one for each of the senior staff.”
“That's early, did you manage to weave everything in?”
“Everything, your modifications, my refinements, the special projects additions, everything.” She grinned. “Have fun.”
“How do they look?”
“They're not very customizable, but I think you'll like them. Stop by the high resolution materializers on your way to the flight deck. I'd go with you but I have to talk to Alice about power usage aboard ship. It looks like we'll be deactivating all the personal materializers in quarters and berths. Only certain officer's quarters will have active materializers, and their constant use will be discouraged.”
“So you'll be instituting specific times for chow in the observation decks and clubs?”
“That's right, and we're opening the mess hall between the fore and aft central berths. It should make for an interesting change while you're gone.”
Captain Valance took a left once he exited the bridge instead of going straight on to the main lift. As soon as he passed through the security and intelligence office doors everyone was on their feet. “At ease,” he found himself saying reflexively. That's Jonas's military training. It's becoming instinct to me as much as it ever was to him. He thought to himself as he walked between the five rows of communications and ship monitoring stations.
The last time he'd been through most of them were seated, this time only the deck watchman was behind a desk. Above it's surface were holograms displaying three dimentional information management charts and on the desk itself was a status display of each intelligence team member's efficiency, whereabouts and health status.
Cynthia was behind the desk, prioritizing files in preparation for Laura to assume command of the intelligence department. Behind her were three doors. One led to the internal security office, the other to a large meeting room and the final one to the right was specifically reserved for the head of intelligence.
“Captain,” Cynthia said with a nod, barely looking away from the maelstrom of data in front of her.
“Is Stephanie in her office?”
“She headed straight in after the meeting like her heels were on fire.”
“Thanks,” Jake acknowledged as he opened the armoured door. Stephanie was sitting on the desk at the far end of the darkened office, looking over training simulation statistics on one hologram while a playback of one security guard's perspective was displayed on the other. From the time indexes they were both from the night before.
There were over a dozen chairs lining the walls of the long office and a transparent section of hull behind Stephanie's desk. Jake knew that with a command a meeting table would lower from the ceiling, but she never used it, preferring to have everyone on their feet during staff meetings. She looked up from a cup of hot tea she was blowing on when he came through the door. “Everything all right?” she asked.
“I was about to ask the same question,” Jake answered quietly as the heavy hatchway closed behind him.
She was wearing a heavy vacsuit, combat boots, sidearm, along with her duty belt which included a basic door hacking kit, restraints, a survival cylinder and and two extra clips for her sidearm. She had draped her long coat across the back of her desk chair. Stephanie put her steaming cup down on her desk carefully before answering. “I'm sorry I left the way I did. Last night was a surprise.”
“For both of us,” Jake said quietly as he crossed the room slowly.
