Dark Vengeance (29 page)

“Yes, Captain. Please state your menu preference.”

“Steak, well done, with side dishes and coffee.”

“Your request has been submitted, Captain.”

I spread out the tablets on the coffee table and began with the crew profiles, starting on those in line for bridge personnel. It seemed like a matter of minutes and the door chimed.

“Come!”

A yeoman appeared in the corridor and pushed in a service cart. She guided it to me, unveiled everything, smiled, and asked if there was anything else. I shook my head and thanked her and she hurried back out.

The food was so hot and perfectly cooked it did not seem possible. I abandoned the tablets and gave it my full attention.

The door chimed again.

“Yes?”

R.J. barged in, looked over my dinner as he passed by, and plopped down in a nearby chair. “Told to stay in your room until your homework is done, I bet,” he said.

“Yes. How did you escape it?”

“I’d like to tell you it’s my natural propensity for learning, but that’d be a lie.”

“So?” I asked, stuffing food in my mouth.

“It’s the link thing. She’s learning most of what I am and somehow when I can’t remember an answer she has a way of impressing it in my memory. It’s kind of creepy.”

“You got all your command codes down?”

“Yes, but I’m not so crazy about that self destruct one. I’m afraid I might intentionally forget it.”

“And you’re set to take the right seat during the drills tomorrow?”

“Not quite. I have a little more to do but not as much as you. I don’t have that stack of sign-offs you have. Have you finished with the bridge personnel?”

I had to chew before I could answer.

“I’m gonna grab a cup of coffee, hang on,” he said and he jumped up and went to the kitchen, returning with a steamy hot cup.

“You haven’t programmed my coffee mix in yet, I see,” he said.

“Who has the time?” I replied. “And about those bridge assignments. I’m going to forward mine to you to see if you agree. Expect to share my pain.”

R.J. smiled and sipped. I lifted my own cup and held it out. He clinked his against it and laughed.

“These are the most delicious green beans I have ever tasted.”

“Only the best for El Capitan.”

“I just got a message from Admiral Walter Provose. He requested you watch it.”

“Admiral Walter Provose?”

“He was recalled.”

“My, my! What did it entail, may I ask?”

“It was a few atta-boys along with a get-ready sort of thing.”

“Information about the dark end of this affair?”

“No, more about the pomp and circumstance of Electra’s return to Earth.”

“A big celebration, then we go to war and die?”

“You got it.” My plate was already nearly empty and it seemed a regrettable thing.

“You know they’ve told us almost nothing, and yet it is easy to foresee nearly everything.”

“Oh boy.”

“We’re going to XiTau and take those kidnapped people back.”

“I like that part.”

“By force.”

“Not so keen on that part.”

“And you’ve studied the weapons on this ship now. Guess who’s going to be on point for this attack.” R.J. sipped his coffee and stared intently for my reaction.

“Yes, and are you ready for the right-hand command chair, Commander?”

There was a long pregnant pause.

“The main pulse cannon has stun capability,” he replied and continued to stare.

“But it’s also a crater-maker, so I repeat my question, are you ready, Number One?”

“Is this part of the procedural requirements for Captain?”

“Let me answer for you. You’re ready.”

“Have you considered the size of this operation? Most of those victims are still on XiTau, but dozens have been sold to neighboring planets. This is a military operation against several other worlds. The ambassadors on Star Seven represented just a few of the planets who have had people stolen from them. This is to be one group of planets engaging another group. It has the potential to become a large scale interplanetary sector war.”

“The Chancellor’s short briefing may have been exaggerated. We haven’t seen any real orders yet.”

“Do you have any doubt?”

I pushed my plate away and sat back with my coffee. “Do you think there’s any chance of negotiating the released of all those bought and paid for slaves?”

R.J.’s cup made a clinking sound in the heavy silence as he placed it on the table. “No,” he said and he stared at the floor in regret.

“You already know the remaining options.”

“It’s singular, my friend, as in option, not options. Abandonment is not an option,” replied R.J. and the remark surprised me. “You’re right,” he added. “I’m ready.”

Chapter 18

On dress rehearsal day I walked onto the bridge and found it fully manned and alive with display screens, indicator lights, and active consoles. The sounds of active electronics along with communications from other decks filled the air. Somehow I had managed to retain all the names of personnel assigned to each post. R.J. was already seated in the right-hand command chair. I stepped up to the center seat trying to look relaxed. The entire bridge complement again stared.

But it was a good atmosphere. They were ready and they knew it. We began with the procedure for a jump to light. No problems. Next was a simulated insertion to orbit, followed by a break orbit with a quick jump. Then onto emergency evacuation. Gaining confidence, we went to arming weapons but a control console in the weapons control room began to smoke so a real-life abort was executed. There was a one hour delay for panel replacement.

By the end of our three-hour program, confidence was high enough that jokes were being proffered now and then. I gave the order to stand down and personnel were rearranged for the next battery of simulations, those to be conducted by executive office R.J. Smith. I decided to leave the bridge to give him the maximum effect of authority, but secretly went to my quarters, canceled the holo-captain image, and sat in my virtual bridge room to watch. It was an enjoyable experience.

As far as I was concerned, we were ready for Enuro departure.

The following morning there were continuous, often tearful goodbyes between Electra’s skeleton crew and the engineers and technicians from Enuro. Pama showed up on the bridge during readiness checks. She came over to where I was standing, motioned me to lean over and kissed me on the cheek. She held up her tablet, scribbled a final signature, and tapped it off. I responded with a hug and watched her disappear forever out the door.

From that point on, people not manning stations were glued to the observation windows wherever they could find an empty spot. A space port pilot showed up on the bridge to coordinate the tugs that would guide us out of the space dock framework. He wore his own headset communicator that looked like it was made of pure light. We set the bridge displays to give us an exterior 360-degree view of Electra and watched Enuro tugs show up and take preplanned positions alongside Electra’s superstructure. With our docking pilot acting like a symphony conductor, we did not feel a thing but watched as the huge pylons of space dock ever so slowly began to move past us. And as we cleared space dock completely, there was even a slight tinge of fear at the thought of being free floating on orbit. The pilot’s last gesture was to turn to me and request, “Captain, please activate station keeping.”

Happy to oblige, I looked over at Ensign Shaun Page and commanded, “Mr. Page, bring us to station keeping.”

“Aye, Sir. Station keeping established.”

The space dock pilot nodded, gave me the standard shoulder salute, and left.

I stepped up to the command chair and took my seat. R.J. was staring at me with a big uncharacteristic grin.

I swiveled around to Alexander Bronson at engineering. “Mr Bronson, systems status?”

“All green, Captain.”

“Helmsman, bring us around to departure attitude and stand by to leave orbit.”

“Aye, Sir.”

“Enuro Docking Control, This is Captain Adrian Tarn commanding the Earth ship Electra. We are ready to leave orbit. Please accept our eternal gratitude for this fine vessel.”

“Electra, you are cleared to depart at your convenience.”

“All hands, standby to leave orbit. Mr. Page, you may take us to waypoint Earth1. Engage when ready.”

“Already locked in, Captain. Engaged!”

I could have sworn I heard cheering through the bulkheads as the aft cameras showed Enuro shrinking away behind us. And, I had no doubt that there were dozens of techs and engineers from Enuro still on space dock watching us taxi away and applauding in their own way.

Earth Waypoint 1 was just a short sub light distance away, the position we needed to jump to light. Hardly more than a minute passed before Page swiveled in his seat. “Captain, we are holding at Earth Waypoint 1.”

I turned to engineering once more. “Mr. Bronson, do you have any no go’s at all?”

“We have zero no go’s, Captain. The board is green across.”

I turned to Ensign Adira Murphy at navigation. “Ensign Murphy, have all three navigation computers accepted our flight plan?”

“Course is accepted, plotted, and laid in, Captain.”

“All personnel, we are presently holding at Earth Waypoint 1 and are ready to jump to light. If any of you have concerns, I suggest you put them aside. I have seen the work you’ve done. This first jump to light is the perfect reward for your dedication and commitment. Stand by for light speed.”

“Mr. Page, please engage our stellar drives.”

“Engaged!”

There was a tiny fraction of a second delay that seemed to linger forever, followed by a slight surge forward and with a momentary jolt the stars in the forward view screen went blurry. A microsecond later the view screen cleared to stars drifting by on the left and right. The bridge became stone silent as we all listened for sounds that should not have been. Instead there was only the hum and tiny vibration of a ship operating smoothly at light speed. People began to lean back in their seats to enjoy the ride. There was a new undercurrent of pride on the bridge. I had no doubt it was the same throughout the ship.

With luck we were looking at an easy twelve day cruise back to Earth, a trip Electra could have made in ten days except that engine break-in procedures required slower initial speeds. The first 48 hours underway also required an exec or captain on the bridge at all times so R.J. and I had agreed on 8 hours shifts. Whichever command officer was on duty could visit one of the two ready rooms on either side of the bridge, as needed.

We sat quietly watching the stars pass by for more than hour without even a comment being made. I kept expecting some form of trouble report from below but none ever came.

Finally Elise Troy at communications turned to me and spoke, “Captain, we’re being hailed by the Enuro ship Trinity. They send their congratulations and best wishes.”

“They’re passing us by on starboard, Captain. About an AU away,” added Adira Murphy from the navigation console.

“Give them our thanks, and good flying,” I replied.

R.J. stood from his right-hand command seat stepped up and leaned against my chair. “Apparently even in the void of space you’re famous.”

“Not me. Enuro is proud of its shipbuilding.”

“And rightfully so.”

“You’d better go take a sleep pill and get some rest before your eight hours, buddy.”

“Yeah, don’t need the pill though. Elachia has some kind of technique she does that works wonders,” he answered in a low voice.

“Well then, I won’t worry about you tossing and turning.”

“Oh, there’ll probably be tossing and turning,” he replied and he stepped down and headed for the exit.

There was a multipurpose tablet attached to the Captain’s chair. I pulled it out and began calling up real time performance graphs for all the various systems. They were a wonder to see, running along the prescribed baselines with very little deviation. I kept having an urge to hook one leg over the arm of the chair and had to catch myself to keep from doing it.

My entire time on the bridge was a smooth, steady-state shift with a few idle conversations here and there, and periodic visits by yeomen asking if anyone needed anything. When R.J. finally showed up to relieve me, I had to stretch out before walking. Still, before going out the door, I looked back at the chair with affection. It seemed to be a very comfortable chair.

In my cabin solitude, I switched to the most comfortable set of flight coveralls and stretched back on the couch with my feet up. I had the bridge’s main viewer showing on my wall screen, and a tablet that allowed me to go back over the flight deck personnel files just to get to know each of them better. After an hour of light reading, a beeping com led me to R.J.’s face as it appeared on a wall side viewer. “Adrian, there’s something you’re going to want to look into.”