Her smile was mild, wistful. “I want to see where things go with Frost.”
He caught her gaze as he finished crossing the room. His vacsuit covered black hand caught hers on her thigh. “I know. I need you to be all right.”
A nod and a hug was his answer.
The embrace lasted the better part of a minute, a comfortable eternity for them both until she drew back and he let her go.
In one smooth motion she picked up her cup and took a drink of tea, it was still a little too hot but kept her eyes from welling up. She put the mug down again and cleared her throat. “If we can't get through this after a couple dozen firefights, then there's something seriously wrong.”
Jake smiled at her and squeezed her free hand. “I have something for you,”
Her eyes widened as he pulled a silvered chain strung through a fortified, rounded gold chip out of his deep coat pocket.
He opened her hand and pressed it into her palm. “Of everyone on the Samson crew I trust you the most. I found this in Wheeler's quarters, in his safe. It's the override code chip for the Triton. I need you to watch things. You'll know if and when you have to use it.”
“But I thought the command security systems were all vocal and biometric.”
“This is the override chip made to reset the systems in case the ship is captured and hacked. Wheeler never got a chance to use it. All you have to do is get to a secure terminal, pop the interface plate open and put it in. After that you can tell the ship to make you the commander and it'll take your biometric scan and whatever passwords you give it. You're already in the system as a senior officer so it makes things even easier.”
She looked down at the chip for a moment then put the chain around her neck, opened her vacsuit enough to drop the chip itself down the front and settle the chain under her collar before
closing up again. It was hidden under her uniform, no one would see it. “ Triton'll be here when you get back, don't worry Jake,” she said quietly. “So will I.”
He nodded and turned away, crossing the distance between her and the door in long strides.
Arrival and Departure
Over the entire black and crimson vacsuit were stretched flexible two centimetre horizontal emitter blades. They fit to form but made Captain Valance feel like he wore something with more substance than the old vacsuits nonetheless. There was a black long coat set up with the same systems and extra armour as well, and as he took the lift down he ran through the systems checklist. The new display system actually projected images to the brain through nerve manipulation, routing information through different parts of his nervous system so they were collected and understood as colour images. There were no cybernetics involved and the technology was only a few years old, refined by Freeground Special Projects. He knew Laura was breaking laws by sharing it and several other technologies added to the command vacsuits, but it was fairly apparent that she didn't care.
Other crewmembers in the lift looked at him quietly, he pretended not to notice. He hoped everyone would have a similarly featured suit eventually. Perhaps not with all the improvements, but there was a great deal of life saving technology that would be useful to most of the crew under dire circumstances.
The lift arrived in Hangar two and he caught sight of Ashley and Stephanie. He shouldn't have been surprised that Stephanie had taken a lift down to the hanger deck to meet her best friend while he was getting familiar with the new command vacsuits. He still held back so he could listen in on their conversation before he was noticed.
“How did it go?” Stephanie asked, looking at the Cold Reaver wide eyed.
“Pretty well, easiest breakup ever.” Ashley replied with a shrug. “Finn isn't the dramatic type.”
“No, with the recruitment run! It looks like you tore half the front end off the ship,” Stephanie exclaimed, shaking her head, arms spread wide to encompass the view of the shredded front end of the ship.
Captain Valance quietly strode around the pile of crates and saw the condition of the Cold Reaver. The front landing gear, debarkation ramp, one rocket launcher, the long range sensor package, two small emergency escape pods as well as a large section of the fore port hull were torn to shreds. The nose had taken substantial damage as well, but its thicker armour had prevented full on decompression.
“Your boy Leland nearly blew the front of the ship off when he fired our entire load of missiles at once.” Ashley replied, gesturing over her shoulder to where Leland March, the wiry security team member was overseeing the unloading of a number of new recruits. Several dozen were already lined up on the deck, their satchels and luggage in front of them. Most of them didn't have many possessions with them, which was the norm.
“Why did you put him at tactical?” Stephanie asked more quietly.
Captain Valance leaned up against the three meter high stack of secured crates and continued to listen in on the exchange. Ashley caught sight of him and started to turn red. “Yates didn't show in time for departure and Leland's file says he's qualified for tactical.”
Stephanie checked and nodded. “You're right. I don't remember screening him. Don't worry, it's not the first time he's screwed up. I'll take care of it, assign him to the quartermaster for inventory until he requalifies on all things security.”
“Sounds like a good idea. In the meantime you might want to put someone else in charge of the new hires.” Captain Valance said, walking towards the pair.
“You mean recruits, don't you Captain?” Ashley asked with a wry grin. She knew she wouldn't be unfairly treated for the damage to the Cold Reaver, though she still looked nervous.
“Right. What took a bite out of the Reaver?” he asked as he took another look at the large gunship.
“Eden Fleet hit the planet just as we were getting ready to go. Finn's doing the damage assessment. He says it's going to be out of commission for at least a few days, most likely more unless the whole deck crew gets on it.”
“More like a month! Next time try landing it ass first! You might not hit every critical system on your way in!” Paula shouted from across the deck from where she was checking one of the engines.
“And it had to happen while Paula's on deck.” Ashley said, shaking her head. “She started screaming before I touched down.”
Captain Valance couldn't help but laugh. “It took me a while to understand, but Angelo's quality control, Paula's the one who keeps things on schedule. Still, there's something to learn from this. We need someone to take control of the SSG, start screening mission crew so we have a good rotation of officers for the Reaver and the Samson.”
“I'll start making that a priority,” Stephanie nodded. “Security aboard ship is under control for the moment and I'm sure Frost would be fine with qualifying a few people for tactical.”
“I'll give you a list of the pilots I've screened,” Ashley added. “Is it true that the Samson's almost ready Captain?”
“Should be all set for a shakedown. I never thought I'd get the chance to see her in such good condition, or with the improvements I had planned, but then I didn't expect to be Captain on a close combat carrier either.”
“Good point. By the way, where did the threads come from?” Ashley asked, pulling the thick material on the arm of his long coat.
“There are suits ready for both of you in the materialization compartment. Only for senior officers. A little something Laura and I put together.”
“Can't wait,” Ashley said as she started for the lift.
“Captain, your ride's ready whenever you are.” Paula called out, gesturing to an open hatchway in the floor beside the wall of the hangar. The passages were made for several pilots to climb down at a time, it led to a sub- deck for managing and loading fighters into drop chutes, where fighters were launched from the ventral side of the ship.
“I want to see that ship looking brand new by the time I get back. Get the whole deck on it if you have to,” he ordered, pointing to the Cold Reaver.
“Like new, my ass! We'd have to start rebuilding using ergranian on that kind of schedule.”
“The reactors are generating ergranian, go ahead and get some from Liam. Add the Triton's stealth
