some time to himself, to sit and to think; to mourn.
The news of Jana and Theo’s death had hit him hard; he held his head in his hands and sighed heavily as he thought about them and all the times they had spent together. He berated himself for not being there at the end, and for his failure in not keeping the nightmares at bay. If only he was there; he could have done something, if only the damned E.D. F hadn’t cancelled his shore leave and forced him back into service. If only.
Tears of anger and pain began to form in his eyes, and gently rolled down his cheeks. With a scream of anger he flung the cup; it smashed on the side of the wall, splashing the tea across it.
After a few seconds the doors slowly opened, and in stepped Katherine. The smashed cup caught her eye, as did the tearful form of Michael sat in the chair.
“Is this a bad time?”
Michael blinked back his tears and rubbed at his red, tear swollen eyes; “not at all,” he lied.
“I was wondering, just what kind of a ship is this, and just who are those guys on the bridge?”
He laughed a slightly hoarse throaty laugh. In his haste on-board Delta base he had forgotten to explain about the Solarians, and the story of the Liberty; the question helped turn his mind away from the emotions roiling within him.
“Those tall blue-ish skinned aliens all over the ship are known as the Solarians. They have promised us aid in our war with the Krenarans, and are here to help us; they are actually quite a peaceful people and don’t normally like fighting. But this situation has forced their hand, kind of like us,” he explained. “And as for the Liberty, you probably won’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“Well, the Liberty is actually a captured Krenaran stealth ship, which Major Vargev and I, erm… liberated.”
“The Russian guy?”
“The Russian guy,” Michael repeated. “Anyway, we rescued a Solarian ambassador who was being imprisoned onboard at the time; he took us into their space.”
He rubbed a tear stained eye.
“Where they upgraded the Liberty with Solarian technology and re-crewed her, however it still remains owned and commanded by us.”
“So you, and the Solarians have come back to kick the Krenarans ass right?”
“That’s the plan; hopefully,” Michael replied with a slight smile.
Katherine studied him; the small smile was as nothing compared to the grief etched upon his face.
“What’s wrong?”
“I had a wife and a son on that base damnit!” Michael cursed; the tears began to form again.
“I am so sorry,” Katherine repeated. “What were their names?” There wasn’t a lot of time to go into this while they were aboard Delta base earlier, but since Michael and his crew had rescued them; Katherine at least felt obligated to hear Michael’s story.
“Jana and Theo, Theo was nearing his 5th birthday.”
The tears began streaming down his cheeks as he thought of them, and he slammed his fist into the table next to him.
“It’s all my fault,” Michael whispered as to himself.
“It’s not your fault, there was nothing you could do, you couldn’t have prevented their deaths.” Katherine chose her words as calmly as she could manage; however inside she could almost feel the pain that Michael was going though. It must be unbearable for him, she thought.
“Couldn’t I! They pleaded for me not to go when this whole thing started, but I went anyway Katherine, I failed to keep the nightmares away; and keep my family safe!”
Katherine held him in her arms and consoled him. She was genuinely worried for him; such a noble, yet tortured soul. His tears flowed onto her grimy medical officer’s uniform, until finally she released him.
“It was an alert level 2, you’re a Naval officer, you didn’t have any choice, you had to go,” Katherine said softly.
Michael turned away from her and stared out of the view port, gazing out into the colours of the plasma wake swirling all around them as though contemplating the cruel universe itself.
“Maybe,” he said bitterly. “But tell me this, where does the Navy end and family begin; because I don’t know anymore.”
And at that Katherine slowly and quietly left Michael to his own thoughts.
“I just don’t know anymore.” Michael said as though he was addressing the whole of space.
The Liberty and the remaining Solarian ships continued their journey through plasma drive.
After the long spell in which Michael needed to recollect his thoughts once again, he strode back onto the command centre. Katherine was not present; she must have gone below decks, Michael thought.
“How long until we reach the Sol system?”
“At current speed, eighteen hours,” Televis replied.
Outwardly Michael tried his best; inwardly however he felt drained. The events of the past couple of months had taken their toll on him, shadows hung around his eyes from his often sleepless tortured nights.
“Why not get some rest? There will be plenty of time for action later comrade,” Vargev said.
“I’ll rest when we rid ourselves of these Krenaran murderers; every stinking last one of them.”
Vargev said nothing, but he had to admire the man’s persistence.
For a few hours it was quiet; almost deathly so. Nobody dared to argue with Michael for the time being, save for the notable exception of Vargev. The Solarian crewmembers busied themselves at their stations with their usual professionalism.
Vargev’s voice broke the silence. “Whoa! Hang on a moment. I think we have weapons fire up ahead.”
“Looks like two Krenaran stealth ships attacking a Terran vessel,” Televis cut in.
Vargev studied his display. “Confirmed, it’s a Lincoln class supply ship. It must be a straggler to be without some form of an escort out here. What do you want to do?”
Michael had been itching for a true test of the Liberties systems as well as get his own little bit of payback on the Krenarans.
“Have the rest of the fleet remain in plasma drive; we’ll catch them up. I want to see what this little baby can really do,” Michael smiled as he walked over to the Solarian pilot. “I’ll take this one.”
“Are you sure sir?”
“Positive,” Michael replied. This was personal; and he wanted to teach the Krenarans a small lesson which he was going to deliver personally.
The pilot relinquished the chair; Michael sat down and slid his hands through the grooves on each side of it. Metallic cover plates slowly lowered and locked into place over his arms. Preventing him from being thrown out of the chair, they were cushioned on the inside and felt comfortable; unlike the previous heavy gadgetry of the older chair he had to put up with when he first piloted the Liberty.
Small touch screen controls rose up at an angle just near to his finger ends; allowing for easier activation. It was a nice touch, he thought.
“This chair is much better than the old model.”
The other Solarian pilot smiled, nodded, and then took up a position at an auxiliary console for the time being.
“Order battlestations; activate all weapons, and reactive hull armour.”
The command centre darkened to its menacing ruddy glow once again, the red lights illuminated the tops of the displays. And a flurry of activity began across the ship once again, as all systems went to maximum alert.
“Okay, drop us out of plasma drive.”
The Liberty burst back into normal space, after leaving plasma drive. Due to it’s newly reconfigured stealth systems, the Krenaran ships couldn’t detect the ship dropping out of plasma drive behind them.
The Krenaran ships appeared to be toying with the defenceless E.D. F transport, and had already badly damaged the supply vessel; they were now beginning to close for the killing blow.
Michael touched a few controls on his right finger pad, increasing power to the negative Ion propulsion system, and the Ionic thrusters systems together.
The Liberty rapidly accelerated to a break neck speed as it bore down on the hapless Krenaran vessels.
