The Mission Theatre
That's what it was called according to the Triton blueprints and guides, the Mission Theatre. Finn hadn't seen it yet. Like most of the crew he hadn't seen the vast majority of the ship. There were still two squads of Stephanie's security people exploring twelve hours a day, every day, and they had come to be called the clearing crew.
There were four entrances to the large auditorium, one in each direction. Two of them led from main corridors on the command deck while the others let out three decks beneath. There were briefing rooms and side chambers attached and from what he had heard most of them hadn't been used in decades.
He wouldn't be privy to most of the meetings that occurred there anyway, and as he walked down to his seat in the third row from the bottom of the large space he couldn't help but think about the one under way in the main conference room behind the dais. Something serious was about to happen and he was both anxious and excited.
All the qualified pilots who had a fighter assigned to them were there, the Lieutenants from the security, gunnery, the flight deck and all other crews as well as any other highly skilled specialists. He took a seat beside Angela, one of the lead maintenance workers. “Hey Finn, you were invited to this party too?”
Finn nodded and enjoyed the thickly padded seat, amazed at seeing over three hundred crew members all sitting, waiting in the tiered seating. To his amazement the place was less than a quarter full. “I guess that's why they call this part of the ship the Command Section. It takes up more than just a deck.”
“You got that right. I was down there last night repairing the holoprojector, it can send images to every part of the room,” Angela said, pointing to the flat, black circle of flooring at the bottom of the chamber. “It just needed recalibration so it was pretty easy.”
“Most systems on this ship are pretty easy to fix, it's made to last.”
“Says the engineer,” Angela teased. “You probably didn't even have to look at the schematic to figure out how to hot wire the main emitter array.”
“You're right, but I did anyway. I just wish building a new emitter array will be as easy as frying the old one.”
“Speaking of which, are you getting in on the fab training Chief Grady's setting up?”
“Fabrication training? I don't have time, he's got me too busy. Where is he anyway? I thought he'd be here filling us in by now.”
“He's probably still in pre-briefing like all the other Chiefs and senior officers.”
“Have you heard anything about what this is all about?”
“I was about to ask you the same question. You outrank me, remember?” Angela smiled, pointing at the one and a half slashes on the wrist of her vacsuit.
“Right, I forget because Chief doesn't put me in with most of the maintenance staff.”
“We noticed, he keeps sending you off to the most interesting parts of the ship to work on those high tech systems we maintenance grunts don't get to see.”
“I'm sorry, but if it makes you feel any better, he usually sends me into those systems. Sometimes I think he has it in for me, like yesterday I was actually between the power cells I cross wired a few hours later.”
“Weren't they live?”
“Yup, but with no qualified bots online I had to rebuild the secondary switching box myself. I was upside down for almost three hours with barely enough room to breathe.”
“Now you'll have to do it all over again.”
“Worse, all the machinery will have to be removed and replaced, all eleven and a half tons of it. I'll make sure you're on the team.”
“Gee, thanks sir.”
“Well, if you want to get promoted…” Finn shrugged.
“Yeah, a little more pay would be nice, not that we get to spend much.”
“There's always the Botanical Gallery, there are businesses setting up down there I hear.”
“Yeah, I'm on the hairstylist's waiting list, she's booked a week and a half ahead. I'm not complaining though, they finally got most of us out of bunks. I'm sharing quarters with Gabby, we each get our own room so it's nice. Still have to go to mess or observation to eat though.”
“I was lucky to get my own quarters, still don't know many people on the ship though, I could have used a week in the bunks for that.”
“You're not missing anything, trust me.”
“Looks like things are about to get started, here they come. Wow, looks like the rumours are true; I don't see Frost but Lildell is there. I guess the rumour that he walked after Steph, er, Chief Vega broke up with him is true.”
“Damn. I'm going to have to avoid Oota Galoona completely. You're so lucky, you get all the best dirt first.”
“And my sources will remain anonymous. I thought most of the gunners hung out at the Pilot's Den.”
“Not since Frost dragged that guy out by his collar and nearly froze him to death next door in the unused quarters there.”
“Ah.”
The pair watched as Deck Chief Vercelli, Engineering Chief Grady, Security Chief Vega, Gunnery Lieutenant Lildell, Commander Everin, Master Of The Helm Ashley Lamport, Commander Price and their immediate subordinates were led by Standing Captain Alice Valent to the seats surrounding the high port side podium. As Captain Valent settled at the podium all of the senior staff members quietly sat down.
A QUIET PLEASE sign appeared on the backs of all the seats and silence settled across the circular space like a wave. Everyone who was on their feet sat down and the crew looked at their calm Chiefs expectantly.
“For those of you who don't know, Captain Valance is currently on mission off the ship. I'm his First Officer and Acting Captain Alice Valent. For clarity I'm to be referred to as Captain or Ma'am until his return,” Alice started in an official tone. The amplifiers sent her voice to everyone's ears with near full equality. “You're all sitting in this room because you are responsible for other members of the crew, will be put in a position of responsibility, or are a qualified pilot ready for service. Four hours ago Triton emerged from hyperspace after doing a broad loop back to our starting point. There was no contact with Eden Fleet or Regent Galactic ships. During the Captain's mission he's discovered that Pandem and the surrounding solar system is in distress so we'll have to extract him. Our objectives in the near future will directly affect our chances of retrieving him from Pandem. Before Captain Valance went on a retrieval run he had completed planning for a set of missions based on verified intelligence. Considering our level of readiness and the high likelihood that the Eden Fleet has marked us and may be actively searching for us it is time to put one of those missions into play.”
Alice activated the main hologram projector from the slim black podium and the air in the center of the Mission Theatre was filled with the image of an armoured satellite pitted with energy emitters. “This is a Regent Galactic hypertransmitter equipped with thirty five micro wormhole generating emitter systems. Through intelligence acquired by Chief Frost and later verified by our intelligence team we know its exact location second by second. Theft of this device will give us the parts we need to rebuild our own emitter systems, the ability to retrieve Captain Valance and potentially codes to Regent Galactic's secure communications network. We will also be severely damaging their ability to effectively communicate for light years in all directions for weeks, months if we're lucky. Triton will not only steal this critical technology, but we'll take credit for it, broadcasting a call to arms to every corner of this sector and beyond using their own hypertransmitter. This was included in the original mission plan and I concur. It's important that Captain Jacob Valance's mission to inspire others by example continues.
Having said that, the fact that we have good intelligence and the best of intentions doesn't mean that this will be easy. The Regent Galactic Karaikal Shipyards are within striking distance of the hypertransmitter. The Twenty Third Fleet also has several destroyers on patrol. They're not the destroyers that we encountered in the Enreega system either. These are Regent Galactic Long Range Encounter Class ships,” she said as she switched the holographic view to display a full exterior schematic of the snub nosed vessel. Its squared central hull played host to four thick pylons that protruded for half its length at all sides. Each of the thick appendages had round, pitted beam emitters and double cannon turrets. “They're high energy, high speed destroyers with sixteen long range particle beam emitters, forty two paired gauss cannons and eight torpedo ports. Its compliment of weaponry is almost as impressive as its heavy energy shielding and hull plating. They're not as hard or resilient as the Triton
