Of Hearts And Stars (Classic Editon) (The Cadet Starship Chronicles) (16 page)

The crew of LaCroix then changed into their shift suits, which are specially designed uniforms fit for a variety of climates and activities, and boarded LaCroix. Zhao and Cookie went to the engine room, Jay and Felix to the Combat Information Center, and Revy to the weapons and navigation console. Meanwhile Allie was going over charts and maps with Swift on the bridge. Everyone had something to do. Everyone except Gin.

“
Captain-” Gin tried to get Swift's attention.

Swift turned and corrected Gin “Swift.”

“
Swift, what do I do?” Gin asked.

“
Gin, I'm so sleepy.” was Swift's reply.

“
Should I get you some coffee?”

“
No. I did not rescue you from mediocrity only to bring you onto the battlefield to serve as my secretary. That is redonk.”

“
Not all secretaries get coffee, nor are all those who get coffee, secretaries.” Allie chimed in.

“
That may be so, but he'll be working with Revy today.” Swift said.

“
What about your sleepiness?” Gin asked.

“
It is taken care of. LC! Ready the beans!” Swift said, pointing his finger straight ahead.

“
Java upload!” LC's voice said over the loudspeaker.

“
Magical.” Swift said in approval.

Just then a buzzer sounded “Java has crashed.” LC said in a sympathetic tone “Program aborted.”

“
Dang!” Swift exclaimed, wondering if LC was Windows based, and briefly considered changing her operating system.

“
Just kidding!” LC replied and set about making Swift's coffee.

On the way to Mars Gin learned the basics of navigation and weapons management while receiving “pro tips” from Swift. Once they were in range, Swift gave the order to open communications.

“
This is ESC-1 LaCroix. What is your situation?” Swift stood at attention and addressed a man on the view screen who appeared to be in his mid thirties.

This man gave him a doubtful look “May I ask who I am speaking to?” he inquired.

“
I am Captain Leoric Swift.”

The man gave him an obvious frown of disapproval “You look young.
Very
young.”

In actuality Swift was 1X.

“
I am a specialist despite my youth. I can assure you that my crew and I are properly trained and fully capable of lending aid to you in a wide variety of tasks.”

“
Tasks huh?” The man asked.

“
Tasks, yes.” Swift confirmed.

“
We've suffered causalities to our propulsion system. If you can send over your engineers, we'll brief them when they get here.”

“
How did you sustain those casualties?”

“
That's on a need to know basis, and all you need to know is that our engines are down.”

“
I
need to know
if it was equipment failure or the result of an attack. There may still be enemy forces in the area.”

“
Look, kid, if there were enemy forces in the area you'd be in a world of trouble. Why don't you leave the fighting up to the adults and send your engineers over?”

“
Right. They're on their way.” Swift said and added “Jackass.”

“
Wha-”

“
LC end communications.”

Swift found himself irritated by those who did not take him seriously. He was also confident that he would not be in the position he is today if he and his crew could not carry-out their missions.

“
What a clown.” Swift said with disgust.

“
Everybody loves a clown.” Revy quipped.

“
Not me.” Gin shuddered “Clowns are wicked creepy.” he said.

Allie crossed her arms and frowned slightly “Something about his attitude seemed strange.”

Swift crossed his own arms and said “He's a jackass, nothing strange about that.”

“
Yes, but he seemed like he was hiding something.” Allie explained.

Swift put his hand to his chin and looked up, as if thinking “True.” he agreed and added “Revy, run a scan on their ship for anything out of the ordinary. Also see if you and LC can access their ship's diagnostics. Allie, in the meantime have Jay transfer Zhao and Cookie over to have a look at their engines.”

-
35
-

Upon arrival Zhao and Cookie exchanged skeptical glances. The man who had spoken with Swift was waiting in the teleporter room with a sneer on his face.

“
That captain of yours needs to learn his place.” He said.

“
Oh?” Zhao asked in a casual tone of voice “What is his place?”

“
You're a wise guy too eh?” The man asked.

“
I am pretty wise if I do say so myself.” Zhao noted.

“
Keep it up...” The man threatened.

“
Pardon” Cookie broke into the conversation “What did you say your name was sir?”

“
I am Steven Daschair, captain of this ship.”

“
Are you new?” Cookie asked, tilting his head to the side.

“
You've got some nerve boy!” The man said in a raised voice.

“
I'm sorry. Honestly am. It's just that as far as I know there isn't a captain in the Imperial Space Fleet by your name, so I figured that you were new.”

Daschair waved a hand and said “You don't know the name of every captain in The Empire.”

“
But I do. I actually keep a list of active and past Space Fleet captains on my smartphone.” Cookie said, and it should be noted here that Finnegan Cooke
never
fails a test.

“
Apparently you don't, because I am a captain. If you must know, I just transferred in.” Daschair explained.

“
Ah! So that's it!” Zhao exclaimed with a chuckle “Let me guess, you were in the Fifth Fleet?”

“
Wah!” Daschair exclaimed and asked “How did you know?”

“
Because there is no Fifth Fleet! The numbering skips directly from Fourth to Sixth and then on!” Zhao declared with a big smile on his face. In mid 20XX the Fifth Imperial Space Fleet was absorbed into the Sixth Fleet due to budget cuts.

Daschair said nothing. He just stood there in silence with his eye twitching and a look of extreme unease on his face.

“
Nice.” Cookie said and high-fived Zhao.

“
Let's get out of here Cookie, he's probably just a department head or something lame.” Zhao said.

They both shouldered past Daschair and left the teleporter room. As they made their way down the corridor towards the engine room, Cookie and Zhao talked about Daschair.

“
He wasn't wearing his uniform right, and he's sposed to be a captain?” Cookie asked.

“
Maybe he's a scumbag?” Zhao suggested.

“
His medals and ribbons were on the wrong side.”

“
Extreme shitbag?”

“
You know, rebel officers wear their medals and ribbons on that side...”

They exchanged skeptical looks once more and stepped into the engine room.

Back on LaCroix, Revy had just finished the scan and reported the results to Swift “I found a couple of strange readings after the scan Swift.” she said.

Revy had been quick and thorough in her work as usual, and now Swift leaned over her shoulder to look at the results from the scan.

“
Wow. They have quite a few extra bodies on board, not including Zhao and Cookie. Also, what is that?” Swift asked, pointing to the hangar bay.

“
Mmm, I was wondering whether or not you'd notice that.” Revy said in a teasing manner “It's strange given that it's a destroyer class ship. Perhaps there was some sort of emergency that required them to take on extra cargo.”

“
It's pretty huge. The shape of it looks kinda familiar too. Allie, what do you think?” Swift asked as he rubbed the nonexistent stubble on his chin.

“
An emergency might explain the surplus in personnel as well as the mysteriously large and curiously shaped cargo. However it doesn't account for the man you spoke with earlier. I still think he's hiding something. What was his name again?”

“
It's...I didn't ask. I should have, but I forgot to with all of the irritation he was emitting. LC, send them a comm request.”

A buzzer sounded and LC said “Their ship appears to be blocking all incoming signals.”

“
Oh man.” Swift said while putting his face into his palm “Why can't we ever just have an easy day?”

Zhao pulled a lever, while Cookie adjusted a knob. They both toggled a few switches each. Finally Zhao pressed the ignite button and the engines roared back to life.

Zhao began to double check the system “Say Cookie.” he said.

“
Yeah Zhao?” Cookie asked as he came over to help.

“
Did you notice any faults? Anything wrong at all?”

“
Now that you mention it, there was one.”

“
Really? What was it? I can't believe I missed it entirely...”

“
An I/o fault.” Cookie gave Zhao a sly grin and Zhao chuckled.

“
Doesn't seem like the kind of mistake professional engineers would make and require our assistance for. I mean, all they had to do was turn it back on. Let's check in with Swift and get outta here.”

Zhao pressed the button on his comlink, which vibrated three short times. This meant that it was either inoperable or could not find a signal. Zhao frowned and whispered to Cookie in a voice that was barely audible “Seems like our comms are being blocked.”

Cookie nodded in agreement and mouthed the words “It's a trap.”

Zhao calmly summoned his weapon, a phase multi-tool able to shift it's shape and capabilities to perform a wide array of utilities, and when Cookie was ready they both turned around as if nothing were up. However three rebel soldiers now stood between them and the exit.

“
Hey! We fixed your ship! Good as new!” Zhao exclaimed.

“
Better than that, it's mint! Money! So we'll just be on our way...” Cookie chipped in and attempted to walk past the soldiers. One put a hand out and pushed him back rather roughly.

“
You two are coming with us to the brig.” the pushy soldier said in a hostile tone of voice.

“
Oh! But how would three fine sirs like yourselves wind up in the brig?” Zhao asked, feigning stupidity for the heck of it.

“
It's you two that are going to the brig punk.” The pushy soldier was having none of Zhao's sass.

“
And just what are the charges might I ask?” Cookie dropped in.

“
Charges? Are you too dumb to realize when you're being taken hostage?” The pushy soldier asked him impatiently.

“
Oh! Cookie the jig is up!” Zhao cried to his fellow engineer.

Cookie shrugged and said “They weren't playing our song anyway.”

The pushy soldier was the first to step forward and try to apprehend Zhao. He was promptly maced and began shrieking. As tears streamed down past the soldier's snotty nose, Zhao moved in and tased another who fell to the deck sputtering and convulsing. The third, not so big actually, Cookie kicked in the side of the shin and the soldier reflexively reached down to rub his leg. For his troubles he received a hefty punch to the face, sending him to join his cohorts on the deck.

“
Nice!” Zhao patted Cookie on the shoulder.

“
You too. That thing really is amazing!” Cookie said, pointing to the phase multi-tool.

“
It's just a ball point pen really.” Zhao mused, which was partially true, because after the struggle he had shifted it's utility once more.

Zhao went to the door and glanced into the hallway as Cookie secured the soldiers. He immediately pulled his head back inside after only a glimpse.

“
They're coming!” He warned.

“
How many?” Cookie asked, getting ready for another fight.

“
Looks like all of them.”

“
Well dang.” Cookie put his hands down.