today. But I need to know what kind of condition your systems are in. I need to know what I can count on this ‘Hyperluminal Translator Thingy’ to do for us.” Nathan flashed the same smile that usually got him out of trouble with his mother.
“Just go ahead and call it a ‘Jump Drive’,” she conceded.
“You see? It is easier,” he bragged. “Anyway, maybe later you could fill me in on how this thing works, and what we can, and more importantly cannot do with it.”
“Yes, of course,” she agreed, nodding her head up and down several times as she sniffed. “Whatever needs to be done.”
“Great, thanks Abigail.” Nathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he turned toward the port entrance, where Jessica had just entered.
“Sir,” Jessica greeted him as she approached. “Now that all of the rebel ships have left, I have nothing left to guard. Marak and his two guys are still working in engineering, and I’ve got a couple guys watching Marak’s ship. So I came up here to see what I could do.”
Nathan had known that Jessica was strong the first night he had met her. But he had been more than impressed at how she had handled herself over the last few hours. More than anyone, she had met every challenge thrown at her head-on, without hesitation. More importantly, she had demonstrated excellent instincts. And that was something that you were born with-a lesson he had learned from Captain Roberts. Nathan had always been good at sizing people up quickly. That was a talent he had inherited from his father. And he knew that Jessica was someone he needed in his corner.
“In Special Operations school, they not only teach you about specialized combat and tactics, right? They also teach you about things like intelligence gathering and security, stuff like that?”
“Yes Sir. Spec-Ops are trained to go covert, to gather intel, hit hardened targets and the like. So it also requires a detailed understanding of security.” Jessica could go on about her highly specialized training for hours, as it was a great source of pride for her. But it suddenly occurred to her that there was probably a reason for his question. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m going to need someone to handle ship’s security, at least temporarily. I’ve got enough to think about, and you seem to have a knack for this sort of thing.”
“I appreciate the offer, Sir. But I’m not sure I’m ready,” she protested.
“More so than any of us,” he pointed out. “So, you’ll take the job?”
Jessica smiled at the idea of the extra responsibility. Even if it was only temporary, it would still look great on her service record.
“Yes Sir. Thank you, Sir,” she said as she snapped a salute.
“Great,” he exclaimed, returning her salute half-heartedly. “Then I’ve got a job for you,” he explained, gesturing to her to follow him.
They walked over to Jalea, who was helping Ensign Yosef try to figure out where they were in relation to Earth. It was turning out to be considerably more difficult than expected.
“Excuse me, Ensign,” Nathan apologized. “But we need to borrow Jalea for awhile.” Ensign Yosef nodded and returned to her work as Nathan led Jalea away, heading toward the back of the room.
“What may I do for you, Captain?” Nathan noticed that Jalea’s pronunciation was getting a little better, as was her syntax. He had a feeling that she had spoken the language quite well at some point in her life, and that it would not be long before she became fluent once again.
“Earlier, you said that it would take some time for a message to get here? What did you mean by that?”
“When you escaped, the Takarans would send message to all ships. All ships must look for you, near them.”
“And it would take a couple of days for a message to reach the ships that are here, in this system.”
“Yes,” she confirmed, nodding.
“How the hell can they get messages between systems that fast?” Jessica was shocked at the news. If true, it created a new tactical twist that she would have to pay close attention to in the future.
“They have some sort of communications relay, a drone or a ship maybe. Apparently it can go over a hundred times the speed of light,” Nathan explained. “I was hoping you could learn a bit more about that, and anything else you can.”
“When message arrives, ships will look here first,” Jalea interrupted.
“Yeah, so would we,” Jessica agreed.
“Listen, Jalea, would you mind if Jessica asked you some more questions? We could really use some more information about the Takarans, the rebellion, and this whole system,” he explained. “It would really help us a lot.”
“Please, I must check with Marak on this,” she told him, pulling her communicator from her belt.
“Of course.”
Nathan and Jessica took a few steps away, moving closer to the entrance to the captain’s ready room to give Jalea a moment to confer with her commander.
“If they can get messages between systems within days instead of months or years, that gives them quite an advantage. Especially if these people cannot,” Jessica explained.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he agreed.
“I wonder what else they have?” Jessica added.
“Captain?” Jalea had finished conferring with her commander. “Marak says I can do this, mostly. But some questions, maybe I cannot answer.”
“I think she means there are some things she is not allowed to tell us,” Jessica mumbled.
“Yeah, I got that,” he answered. “That should be fine,” he assured Jalea as he led her into the ready room. “I’m sure anything you can tell us will be very helpful. Let’s go in here where we can talk more privately,” he added, motioning her to follow Jessica into the ready room. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Jalea followed Jessica into the captain’s ready room, as Nathan stepped over to the temporary communications station that had been configured at the port auxiliary station just in front of the port exit. “Ensign, connect me to engineering, please.” A moment later, Vladimir’s voice came bellowing across the comm speaker.
“Yes! Bridge, go ahead!”
“Vlad, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve only got twenty-four hours to get this ship ready for combat.”
“I’ll do my best, Nathan!” Whatever else Vladimir said after that was unintelligible to Nathan, as it was mostly in Russian. But Nathan was sure it wasn’t for polite company.
“I don’t think he’s happy,” Nathan decided.
“No, sir,” the ensign handling the communications station agreed.
The first thing that Nathan noticed as he walked into medical was that it was less chaotic. It was still full of patients, and there were still at least a dozen non-medical personnel helping to care for the wounded. But everyone had a place to recuperate and all appeared to be receiving proper care.
There had only been two doctors, two nurses, and one medical technologist on staff when they had departed Earth. For a crew of only one hundred, it had been more than enough. And unlike many other parts of the ship, the Aurora’s medical facility had been completed and fully stocked prior to departure.
Every member of the crew had basic emergency medical training while at the academy. Nathan himself had completed the course in his first year, but had never cared much for the simulations. He had always felt the requirement unnecessary. Every ship in the fleet had top-notch medical facilities and staff, a necessary luxury for ships that routinely spent several years away from home.
Despite it being less chaotic, the main treatment room was still a mess. There were bloody bandages and linens piled in every corner, and the floors were stained nearly everywhere you looked. There were even blood splatters across some of the walls where some of the more serious injuries had probably been treated. But those that were not directly involved in patient care were trying to help out by cleaning up the room as best they could. Nathan even noticed one of the civilian scientists from Doctor Sorenson’s team, the same one that he had helped in the corridor earlier, following people around with a data pad as she frantically tried to keep notes on every patient’s treatment for their medical records. It made Nathan feel good about the people on this ship. When everything fell
