phil jones2 (6 page)

Burroughs' chest swelled in distaste. 'Well Professor, I demand... no, I order that you join the glove-wearer's crew immediately prior to take off!'

Smith smiled. 'Certainly sir, if that is your will then I, Professor Hanniman, shall join the crew that will be assembled for the glove-wearer.'

He watched on as the Admiral tapped a few commands on his console.

'I demand to be part of this crew as well!' Hanniman yelled, marching toward the screen with his sleeves rolled up.

Burroughs rubbed his eyes in further confusion. 'Professor Hanniman, I believe I'm seeing double.'

Hanniman nodded. 'An understandable malady Admiral, considering your exposure to terminals of late. For you see I am not Professor Hanniman at all!'

Gasps from the lab coats.

'No.' Hanniman said with a smile. 'My name is Agent Smith.'

The Admiral's face screwed up in utter concentration, he blinked several times before responding. In the brief interlude Agent Smith aka Professor Hanniman glared coldly at Professor Hanniman aka Agent Smith.

'Smith, eh? Are you new here? Nevermind, I'll key you in now. Both Agent Smith and Professor Hanniman will be joining the crew of the glove-wearer! Good show that man, fighting off all fourteen of the Voravians!'

The terminal blinked off and the lab coats offered some scattered applause, unsure what to make of the unfolding events.

Smith sighed.

Chapter 7

Butterflies! mmfmmmfmmhhrm! Hyperwarp!

A
fter a predictable debriefing where Grand Admiral Burroughs spluttered and pontificated over Phil's achievement, it was finally off to his quarters for a good night's sleep and the luxury of what Annika had informed him was a sonic shower.

She had been awfully helpful in guiding him through the various confusingly similar corridors of Star Command and out into the residential suites. Knowing his luck if he'd been asked to follow instructions he'd have got lost and somehow triggered the self destruct again.

He made his best attempt to peer out of the windows and into space for the duration of their journey, watching a number of ships fly by with the greatest of interest. It wasn't too hard to feign wonder at such a spectacular sight. That he kept looking at it after the fiftieth window instead of facing the walking catsuit that accompanied him was beginning to feel rather transparent.

'I've been babbling for the last ten minutes solid and you've barely said a word, what do you make of Star Command?'

Phil pulled himself away from the window and forced his attention back onto Annika, knowing rightly that a thousand butterflies would promptly gush up out of his mouth and ruin everything.

'I... It's... big.'

She looked uncertainly at him. 'Big?'

'Yes.' Phil coughed. 'That is to say, well, it is big.' he promptly felt like diving out the nearest airlock, the sweet cold embrace of space would be better than handling this awkwardness.

'Well, I suppose you have a point. Star Command does have a very imposing aspect to it when you first enter it.'

'How long have you... been here?' Phil managed in a strangled voice.

Annika smiled and a part of Phil floated away happily. 'I've been in and out of the actual Star Command HQ since I was a kid, my Dad was a freighter pilot and I followed in his shoes for a while. They liked what I was capable of in the Voravian conflict and decided to take me on, my practical experience saw me rise up the ranks in short order and here I am. What about you? What did you do back on Earth?'

Phil realised the mistake now in asking Annika a question, she was inexplicably fascinated in him and would undoubtedly ask one back.

'I...' Phil started, then found himself realising he couldn't lie to this woman, Star Command and Agent Smith both knew who he was and what he did. If he were to lie now it would undoubtedly come back to haunt him.

'I didn't really do anything back on Earth.' he admitted, staring down at where he thought his feet must have been in shame. 'Everywhere I worked I was given the sack.'

'That's terrible!' Annika replied.

'Well... terrible for me yeah, they had reason enough to do so. The fire brigade were getting tired of being called out because of another incident involving me. Eventually the local council decided it would be best to put me on incapacity pay and keep me away from anything that could be damaged.'

Annika's eyes were watering again. 'You poor, poor man. To go all this life being the chosen one and have nobody from your home planet realise it. You're a hero to have survived as long as you have done.'

Phil didn't feel very heroic at the moment, he could barely talk to the woman walking next to him let alone save Star Command from the Voravians.

'I'm not a hero, I'm just some big, dumb idiot that got lucky with a test.'

She gripped him by the shirt and pressed him up against the wall of the corridor, the tears replaced with a steely tone of determination. 'Now listen here, you are a hero Phil Jones and I'll not hear you saying otherwise. It wasn't luck that got you through that first test even if Agent Smith thinks you fluked it. Don't you see? The glove chose you, it believes you have the power to save us. I believe in you.' she loosened her grip, as if realising what she was doing and stepped away from him. Was that a hint of embarrassment he saw?

'If you'll continue to follow me we shall soon reach your residential suite.'

They walked in an increasingly awkward silence then, neither of them wanting to talk about what had just happened. Phil really didn't know how to feel about having a follower with such zealous belief in his capabilities. He'd never had anyone think he would amount to anything outside of a computer game other than the lazy fat slob that he was. He had travelled wastelands and visited castles and traversed entire continents with his WASD keys but the world outside his window was a level entirely beyond his capabilities.

Now he was here in some vast space station straight out of a science fiction novel being told he was the saviour of humanity and having hundreds of people applauding his actions. He knew he hadn't done anything of note though, he was more inclined to believe Agent Smith's interpretation of events. He wasn't a chosen one and the glove had simply landed on him by chance. Why hadn't his box thing sucked the glove off him and sent him packing? Smith's every attempt to discredit him had been foiled in some way or another. Phil hoped he'd find something he'd fail at miserably so that he could be relieved of the glove and jetted off home on the next shuttle to Earth. At least, part of him believed that.

There was a small voice that was rising in volume inside Phil, it told him that the things he was doing weren't insignificant and it had begun echoing Annika's sentiments. That Smith had failed so many times was not incompetence on the Agent's part, something else was going on here and furthermore, part of him wanted to stay and find out what he could become.

Annika came to a sudden halt outside one of the many doors they had passed in this long corridor. 'Well, here we are then.'

Phil once more had to come up with a response. 'Yes, here we are.' terrible.

Annika misread the expression on his face as she placed her palm on a sensor that opened the door. 'The conditions of the room may not be up to your usual standards, you won't have to stay in them very long though.'

The doors swished open to reveal an immaculately luxurious room. Classical music was being lightly pumped in through a number of unseen speakers and a platter of assorted foods bid him welcome on the sturdy glass table.

Settling himself down on the cushioned recliner, Phil proceeded to dig into the buffet. Annika stood by the door watching him with a look of amusement on her face.

'I trust this is to your liking, glove-wearer?'

'mmfmmmfmmhhrm' Phil replied, crumbs sullying the spotless carpet.

Annika entered the room and pressed a series of buttons on the control panel on the inside of the door, a faint blue light swept over the floor and the crumbs vanished.

'If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know.' she said hopefully, pursing her lips and gazing down at him as he continued to munch on the buffet.

Phil nodded briefly at her in acknowledgement and continued to devour anything that looked remotely edible.

'Honestly glove-wearer... if there's anything else you... er... desire. Please, let me know.'

Phil swallowed, it had little to do with the food. 'What... what do you mean?'

The familiar emergency siren started wailing in his quarters, he looked around in a panic but couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong this time.

A console blinked open and the rattled features of Grand Admiral Burroughs looked over to Annika. 'The Scavanger has come under attack just outside an asteroid belt, the glove-wearer's vessel is the only one fast enough to get there in time. The crew are assembled, there's no time to talk, get to the bay immediately.'

Phil instantaneously realised that this was bad news, and not just because he was being torn away from the buffet. He had seen enough episodes to know that whenever a ship was the only one able to get to a disaster it would invariably go horribly wrong.

Hitching his belt, he rose from the chair and attempted to scoop up as much of the platter's remains as possible, his efforts were thwarted by Annika's firm grasp once more.

'We don't have time for the food, glove-wearer. You must come with me immediately!'

He caught a fleeting glimpse of the platter and his heart sank as she half-dragged, half-guided him through the corridors and down toward the docking bay.

Phil did his absolute best to avoid colliding with anything that could possibly initiate the Star Command self destruct mechanism, mercifully he seemed to manage this as they came hurtling out a turbo lift and toward a huge set of bay doors that slid open with surprising speed at their arrival.

He expected a large line of able-bodied crewmen to greet him with sharp salutes, instead there was a short ramp and the solitary curved beauty of his new ship as its engines started to glow.

Given no time to admire the vessel, Annika continued to yank him by the arm and hauled him up the ramp into the darkness beyond.

A series of blinking lights greeted him as they rushed through the dark corridor and into the main cockpit of the ship.

'Strap yourself in, glove-wearer.' RJ said from the pilot's seat. 'You're in for a fast take-off.'

Phil plunked himself on the nearest seat and started fiddling with the safety belt, though doing so with one hand seemed virtually impossible, especially when there didn't appear to be any harness.

'You can't do anything right, can you Mr. Jones?' Agent Smith said, keying a few buttons by his seat and causing a faint blue glow to settle around his chair. 'This forcefield should take the brunt of your impact should our pilot prove...unreliable.'

'All occupants are now safe, have a nice day.' the computer chimed.

RJ tipped his hat to the invisible voice and punched a code into a holographic keypad that had sprung up in front of him. 'Well ladies and gents.' he spoke through the intercom over the now deafening roar of the engines. 'Here we go.'

The forcefield that kept the ship in the docking bay faded out and the engines roared into life, sending them hurtling out into the vast darkness of space. The G-force pressed Phil's spine deep into his seat, he'd hate to think the effects on people with less padding.

The engine's volume dropped down to tolerable levels now that they were out of the hangar, the whole ordeal was brief and relatively painless.

'Preparing jump to hyper warp, caution is advised.' the computer supplied.

Hyper warp? Was that some sort of cross between warp speed and...

The stars stretched out before them like rain sliding out across a plane window, then everything went blue and purple.

With a thrumming noise, the force field he had been encased in dimmed into nothingness, every chair in the cockpit swivelled to face him then.

'As loathed as I am to have to say this Mr. Jones, it is a necessary duty. You are in command of this expedition and the crew is at your disposal.'

Phil blinked. 'What?'

Annika offered him a radiant smile. 'You are the chosen one, the glove-wearer, the Grand Admiral himself insisted that you be offered the position of command... Captain Jones.'

'Any orders sir?' RJ asked from the front.

'Er... steady as she goes.'

'Very good sir.'

The main viewer flashed open, superimposing itself over the blueish tinge of hyperwarp, the engine noise increased slightly. 'I believe we should inform the Captain of the situation, don't you?' Professor Hanniman said, pouring over a console filled with engine-related statistics that Phil didn't even try to read.

'We were getting to that, Engineer.' Smith said, not masking the distaste in his words or his choice of title for the professor.

'The Grand Admiral informed us that the Scavanger came under attack, what else do we know about the situation?' Annika asked.

'According to the transmitted logs the Scavanger was on a routine mineral survey through the NX1 asteroid belt when it picked up an unusually large amount of Voravian com traffic in the area. Captain Darwin ordered that they abandon their survey and hunt down the source of the signal, that was the last we heard of the Scavanger until a brief transmission from one Ensign Trigger Hawkins who informed Star Command that they had come under attack. The message was brief and panicked and didn't specify whether it was Voravian in nature or not.'

Phil watched as the rest of the crew mused thoughtfully over this information.

'So what we have here could be a rescue operation?' Hanniman asked.

'Or a deadly conflict.' Smith replied. 'The vessel or vessels that attacked the Scavanger may still be lurking near the belt.'

Hanniman looked worried. 'I've been over the system schematics and while this ship is a beauty she's no match for the Scavanger. So whatever took that out will undoubtedly make short work of us.'