realizing that she did not understand him. It was apparent by his expression that her lack of comprehension was a bit surprising to him.
The other two men removed their helmets next. Both were considerably younger than their leader, one with black hair and eyes, and the other with similar features but of considerably darker complexion. Neither of them smiled, however, only glancing upwards out of the corner of their eyes to assess the guns trained on them from above.
The fourth one to remove her helmet was, as Jessica had observed, a woman, young enough to be the daughter of the leader, but not possessing any similar features. She was of similar complexion, with long straight black hair, and green eyes that held the same determination as their leader’s.
“Bridge, Engineering,” Vladimir’s voice came across the internal comm system. Nathan was instantly encouraged by the improved clarity in the hard-wired comms.
“Go ahead.”
“Main internal communications are fully operational again,” he announced proudly. “We are working on getting full power restored to command decks.”
“Great…”
“…Bridge, Nash,” Jessica’s voice interrupted over the wireless.
“Hold on, Vlad,” Nathan told him, switching back to Jessica. “Go ahead.”
“We’ve got four, uh, visitors in custody down here.”
“Who are they?”
“No clue, they’re not speaking English.”
“What are they speaking?”
“No clue there, either, Sir. What do you want us to do with them?”
Nathan thought for a moment. Somehow, he needed to speak with these people, to find out who they were and what had just happened out there. More importantly, he needed to learn their intentions.
“Bring them to me, I guess,” he said, not really knowing what else to do.
“To the bridge? I wouldn’t advise that, Sir,” she warned. “Too risky.”
He could tell she was trying to hide that last statement from their guests, even if they didn’t appear to speak the same language. But he didn’t see what harm it could do, especially considering their current inoperable state. But he also knew that being a graduate from the spec-ops school meant that Jessica probably knew better about such matters.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “Bring them to the main briefing room on deck C. I’ll meet you there.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Vlad?” Nathan asked after he switched back.
“Yes.”
“How are you for crew down there?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “There are six of us, including myself. We have found four dead, two of them we cannot identify, and three more are missing.”
“What about Chief Patel?” Nathan asked. At some point in time, he was going to have to figure out who should actually be in command. Surely, somewhere on the ship there was a higher ranking officer who was still alive and could relieve him.
“He is still missing,” Vladimir answered, a touch of sadness in his voice.
After a respectful pause, Nathan made his first battle-field promotion. “I guess that makes you chief engineer, Vlad.”
“Yes,” he answered soberly. “Then I guess I should be getting back to work,” he added before clicking the line off. Nathan knew that Chief Patel had been important to Vladimir, as he had talked about him often and had been looking forward to learning from the chief. So he had to figure that the loss was difficult for his friend.
Nathan stood straight and straightened his uniform. “I’m going to the briefing room to meet our visitors,” he announced as he turned to exit. “You have the bridge, Cam,” he added.
“Me?” It caught her slightly off guard. “Why me?”
Nathan looked around the bridge. Other than Doctor Sorenson and Ensign Yosef, Cameron was the only other person in the room. “Why not?” It wasn't much of an answer, it was just the first thing that came out of his mouth.
Cameron had no response, her mouth just hanging slightly open in shock as she watched him exit. She couldn’t see the smile on his face as he exited, as it was the first time he could remember that she had been left speechless.
Nathan entered the briefing room a few minutes after Jessica and their guests. The room was a bit large for such a small gathering. But considering how its contents had been tossed about recently, it probably was just as well. For it had been easy for them to push the knocked over tables and chairs out of the way.
As he entered, he saw the four visitors sitting at the table that had been hastily setup. Two younger men, an older man, and a young women who had green eyes the likes of which Nathan had never seen. There was a strength and compassion behind them, and he found it difficult to look away.
The leader of the group rose as a sign of respect to Nathan, whom he considered to be the leader. The expression on the man’s face seemed a bit off to Nathan, hinting that Nathan was not what the visitor had expected.
Jessica’s reaction to the man’s attempt to stand was more defensive, immediately raising her weapon, with the other two guards following suit. She saw in the man’s eyes as he froze half standing, that he was aware of the threat, just as she noticed how the other two men’s bodies suddenly became taught, as if preparing to take action. This told her much of the experience and demeanor of these men, and she didn’t much like what she saw.
“It’s okay,” Nathan immediately intervened, not wanting things to turn ugly. He watched as Jessica and the guards slowly lowered their weapons, allowing the man to finish standing. The man nodded at Jessica, as if to pay respect to her alertness. But she couldn’t help but feel like he was silently conveying an open challenge to her. There was something in this man that she did not trust.
The leader of the group finished standing and began to speak in a strange language. Although Nathan did not understand him, it was obvious that he was trying to identify himself, by patting his chest and repeating the word ‘Marak’. Within moments they had managed to learn each other’s name, but that was all. But there was something about the language that he kept speaking to the woman sitting next to him. It sounded familiar to him. That’s when he realized that it sounded a lot like Russian.
“Engineering, Briefing Room!”
“Yes, Nathan.”
“Vlad, listen, I’m here with some visitors, from those ships you spotted approaching. They’re speaking a language that sounds like Russian to me. Can you try to speak with them?”
“So I am translator now?”
“Just give it a try, Vlad. Say something to them in Russian.” Nathan pointed at the comm, indicating to Marak that the voice on the other end would be speaking to him.
“Vui ponimayetye po Rooski?” Vladimir said through the comm. The leader of the group looked at the woman next to him, a puzzled look on his face.
“Vui po-ni-ma-ye-tye po Roos-ki?” Vladimir repeated a little more slowly, sounding a little impatient. The leader started speaking in his language again, this time into the comm-set as if he were expecting the man at the other end to understand him.
There was a moment of silence, broken only by Vladimir’s voice. “That is not Russian. May I go now?”
“Sure, thanks.” Nathan sat down, rubbing his face with his hands. It had been worth a try. After all, the humans living on the core worlds were descendants of people from Earth. And Fleet intelligence indicated that many of the primary languages spoken on Earth more than a thousand years ago when they first began to colonize other star systems were still being used out here, at least in some derived form. That was why all communications officers were usually fluent in at least half a dozen languages. But their only comm officer was dead. And even though they had translation software, with all the systems down he wasn’t able to utilize the programs. This is not going to be easy, he thought. What should I try first? After thinking for a moment, he looked at the man and started talking slowly and clearly to him. “Where-are-you-from?”
