The Last Praetorian (19 page)

“David!  Any idea where I can find Miranda?” Jon inquired. 
David looked up obviously irritated by the interruption before he realised who
the question originated from.

“No Sir!”  David responded quickly straightening his posture
as if he was preparing for a parade ground inspection.  Jon was tempted to joke
with the younger man that he could remain at ease, but guessed that this would
make him even more uncomfortable.  Some of the crew had made the transition
from military life to civilian easily.  Others, McNeill a case in point, had
been less comfortable in civilian life and kept inadvertently reverting to a
formal Navy mode of address.  Privately Jon felt that he intimidated the
younger officer, hence his nervousness kept causing him to leap to attention
whenever he was around. For the twelfth time that day, and every day since the
Imperial Navy had been disbanded by the newly formed Confederation, Jon cursed
them for purging so many outstanding officers, people who had dedicated their
lives to the service... 

One of the motivations for establishing Vanguard had been to
give these people a new purpose in life.  Jon could give a first-hand account
of the shock of going from a highly structured command environment with a clear
mission, to a civilian life with no clear objective, mission or goal.  Of
course it did not hurt Vanguard in the slightest to be staffed almost entirely
by highly trained, extremely motivated, ex-Imperial Navy who viewed every task
as a military objective to be surmounted.

Meanwhile David realised that a slightly more informative
answer might be helpful, hence added.  “Her shift ended over an hour ago,
possibly she might be in the mess hall having dinner…it is getting fairly late
for second shift,” David added diplomatically politely reminding his boss, that
it was getting fairly late in the evening, station time.

“Thanks David,” Jon replied distractedly before focusing on
what his head of security was looking at.  The large holoscreen in the office
was currently displaying the tactical map of the station where a number of
points had been highlighted.

“How is the security review going?” Jon inquired remembering
that he had asked for this several days earlier, after being briefed on the
escalating threat from the Syndicate Organisation.

“Not too badly,” David replied.  “We have identified a
number of weak spots within the station that could allow any boarding party to
establish a bridgehead.  The biggest issue we have is lack of tactical
intelligence.  Are we looking at a lone saboteur, limited boarding party
or all-out invasion of the station by a heavily armed Syndicate division?” 

Jon’s eyes widened in shock before he responded
sarcastically, “Well let’s hope that your security team do not need to repel an
entire division!  Could be a struggle for your team to cope with a couple of
thousand assailants,” Jon replied with a straight face.  David could not tell
if his boss was being sarcastic or not.  He wisely decided not to reply to that
comment.

“Well carry on,” Jon continued. “Let me have a copy of your
report when you have identified all the weak-spots for the station and how you
plan to deploy your security teams,” he said as he departed, continuing his
search for Miranda in the mess hall.

*****

It was quite late for second shift; hence the mess hall was
fairly empty by the time that Jon arrived.  Just a few stragglers were
finishing a late dinner before heading to their quarters for the ‘night’. 
However, there were a couple of small groups relaxing with drinks after
dinner. 

Terra Nova
had originally been designed as a remote
resupply & repair outpost where crews would have normally been rotated
every six months.  Therefore social areas were limited in number and size. 
With Jon’s permission, Paul had converted one of the smaller repair shops into
a small cinema and some of the observation decks had been converted into
lounges where couples could relax when off-shift; however the mess hall was
still the place to congregate for food or to relax with some friends over a
drink.

Upon entering the mess hall, Jon’s gaze darted around the
room and quickly came to settle on Miranda.  She was sharing a drink with a
couple of the other young women on the station.  Jon recognised a few from the
flight deck and security, along with a couple from various other departments. 
Miranda was laughing at something that one of her companions had said, and was
obviously enjoying herself.  Jon was glad to see that she seemed to have
integrated herself well into the crew and a small part of him was glad that the
table seemed to consist of female crew only and that a certain young officer
from communications was nowhere in sight. 

Jon quickly suppressed that line of thought! 

Reluctant to interrupt the group, Jon decided to have a
drink and wait for them to disperse before approaching her.  He had a delicate
subject to bring up and would prefer to have the discussion without a crowd of
onlookers.  Collecting a coffee, Jon slipped into one of the comfortable seats
next to the window and gazed out, taking the odd sip from his glass
thoughtfully, trying to think how best to bring-up the difficult topic ahead.

*****

“Don’t look now!”  Sarah from Operations whispered quietly
to the group.  “But eye-candy has just walked in!” 

As was always the case, everybody ignored the edict and all
eyes swivelled towards the entrance to the mess hall.  Observing the Commander
as he poured himself a drink and took a seat by the window, alone.

“I wonder what crisis took place to draw him out of his
office?  The guy practically lives there,” one of the girls from security, whose
name Miranda had forgotten, commented.

“I’m not complaining,” another chimed in.  “He can just sit
there and I can admire the view.  Hey Cassie, I thought you said that you were
going to ask him out for dinner?”  She left the question hanging in the air.

“I did, but he politely declined, said that he was too
busy,” Cassie sighed deeply.  “According to station scuttlebutt some girl broke
his heart many years ago, and he still carries a torch for her…”

Miranda who had never had many female friends looked around
the table in astonishment, at all the dreamy sighs that followed that
statement.

“So the Commander is not married?  Paul mentioned that he
has a family so I just assumed…?”

“Have you ever seen him with anyone?”  Sarah responded.  “No
that man is single, and such a waste, if I ever find the woman that broke his
heart, I’ll, I’ll…”

“You’ll have to get in line…”

Miranda looked around, surprised at the fierce expressions
that had appeared on the faces of the women around the table.  “Isn’t it the
Commanders choice?” she asked, confused.

“But it’s such a waste!  He is so good-looking,” Cassie
wailed.

“And good with kids…  Don’t you remember how he took
Castle’s daughter out for a ride in his shuttle on her last birthday?”

“I overheard the senior officers talking once.  It seemed
like the Imperial Princess broke his heart, or was it the other way around.  I
cannot remember.”

“You mean the Emperor’s daughter?”  Miranda interjected.

“Yeah, it seems like she and the Commander were close before
his death.  You all know the story about how he helped her to escape the fleet
and flee to Eden Prime.”  Another chorus of sighs echoed around the table.

“Typical,” Cassie muttered.  “It’s always the Princesses
that get the good-looking guys.  Hopefully she will grow old and die a
spinster,” she added spitefully. 

*****

It was sometime later that the sound of Miranda’s group
breaking up for the night roused him from his thoughts.  Glancing at the
chronometer in the mess hall he was surprised at how late it was.  Noticing
that Miranda was almost at the exit to the mess hall Jon quickly lengthened his
stride to catch-up with the young woman before he lost her. 

Walking abreast of her, he caught her eye and politely
inquired, “I know that it is late but can you spare a few minutes of your time
to discuss something?” 

Obviously surprised at the encounter and curious why she had
not just been called to his office Miranda nodded her head in agreement. 

Jon cast his gaze around the corridor, really not wanting to
have this conversation in such a public place.  Noticing the entrance to one of
the observation lounges, which was sure to be unoccupied at such a late hour he
motioned towards the entrance and with a polite wave of his hand, allowed her
to enter first. 

Upon entering the observation lounge Jon had a quick glance
to make sure that they were alone for this conversation.  Confirming that they
were the only ones present, Jon approached Miranda who was staring at the
stunning view.  Being situated above the docking ring it gave a spectacular
view of the station and the main docking ring and Jon could just make out the
light from the drive engines of one or two arriving or departing ships.

“I imagine that you find this room quite claustrophobic?”
Miranda broke the silence with a smile.  Jon was confused as the lounge was
fairly large and they were the only occupants, until Miranda tapped her hand
against the window to clarify her meaning. 

Quickly catching on that Miranda was referring to the energy
field in his office he replied.  “I’ll get over it.  I have come to realise
that not many people appreciate being separated from the cold vacuum of space
by only a thin layer of photons.”  Deciding upon a somewhat oblique angle to
start this conversation Jon inquired. “I have been meaning to congratulate you
on your skills as a pilot.  They are truly exceptional.” 

Miranda frowned for a moment before replying. “Obviously not
good enough, seeing that you escaped without a scratch and I managed to collide
with an asteroid, completely destroying my ship and only just managing to
escape with my life.  No thanks to you,” Miranda added bitterly. 

Realising too late that this was probably not the best
opening topic, but now being committed, Jon continued,  “Well… I had the
element of surprise on my side.  The
‘Light
is not your average ship,”
Jon responded in a light tone hoping to erase some of the bitterness from the
younger woman.

“The
‘Light
?” 

“My nick name for the
Eternal Light
.”

“The ‘
Light
,” Miranda replied, rolling the name on
her tongue. “I like it, and it seems a good name for such an amazing ship.”

“Maybe I’ll let you fly her one day,” Jon replied, quickly
biting his tongue, unsure where that last comment came from.  He never let
anyone else pilot his ship, going as far to pilot her himself when just
changing docking ports at the station.  Miranda however, did not seem to
notice.

“So how did you learn to fly like that?”  Jon pressed,
continued trying to steer the conversation back in the direction of the real
topic that he wanted to address. 

Miranda just shrugged at the question. “I have been living
on ships or stations of one kind or another ever since I can remember.  I
expect I was crawling around cockpits before I could walk!” She exclaimed with
a laugh.  “Anyway, I was always asking what this button did, or that button.  I
guess before I knew it I understood all the functions and procedures on the
ship.  Therefore sometimes they let me co-pilot the ships.  After a few years
of this I was piloting the ship part time, then full time.  I guess I was just
a natural…I love flying,” Miranda explained wistfully. “The only time I ever
feel free is when I am flying.”

“Do you remember much of your childhood?”  Jon asked softly
trying to bring up the topic that he wanted to discuss.

“Not much,” Miranda admitted. “I was told that my parents
died in a freighter accident when I was very little; luckily they managed to
rescue me in time.”

“You do not remember anything about your parents?  You never
tried to find out if you had any other family?”

“No, I was told that I was an only child and that I had no
other family.  Why all these questions?”  Miranda finally asked starting to get
suspicious of Jon continuing to press her regarding her family and past. 

“I just find it strange,” Jon chose his words carefully.  “You
seem to have no family… no past.  You said that you were rescued from a
freighter, but we can find no records of a freighter being found and especially
no mention of a survivor.  Space is a huge place Miranda, when ships are lost
they are almost never found.  A failure during FTL will at best drop you deep
into interstellar space between systems.  The area is so vast no ship would
ever be found, any distress signal would take years to reach the nearest
habited system.  At worst, a ship would be crushed by the gravity of the
collapsing wormhole leaving… nothing.  The likelihood of a catastrophic
accident that killed your family, while sparing you with rescuers close enough
to save you is…improbable at best,” Jon explained gently.  “The only way for
such an event to have occurred is for your rescuers to have already been there,
before the accident that killed your parents.  It is just as unlikely that an
accident would occur just as your rescuers happened to arrive… Your ship was
attacked Miranda, your parents more than likely killed in the attack,” Jon
concluded sorrowfully.

Miranda started to back away from Jon, her eyes wide with
disbelief.  “I don’t believe you,” she retorted.  “You’re making this up.  You
are just trying to turn me against the only family I have. They rescued me,
raised me and gave me everything that I have!”

“No,” Jon replied urgently, trying desperately to make her
see the truth.  “They have used you and now discarded you after you failed
them.  The same way they use everybody else to get what they want.  All they
care about is power, domination and wealth.  You do not have to take my word
for it.  You have full access to the communications and computer resources of
the station.  You can conduct your own search.  However, you will find the same
that my team did.  In the past 30 years the computer only found a few dozen
cases of shipboard accidents where one or more crew survived.  All these took
place in close orbit or proximity to one of the populated systems or stations
where rescue teams were quickly scrambled.  All of those accidents were widely
reported and none mention a young girl being rescued from the ship.  Widening
the search parameters to all reported missing ships for the past 30 years that had
a young girl aboard only returned one result.”  Jon offered Miranda the data
pad that he had been holding that contained the information found by Jason,
before summarising it.  “The ship was a long range inter-system freighter
called the
Keplar
reported missing 20 years ago, a crew complement of 29
with one beautiful six year old, with dark hair and brown eyes called Miranda. 
She was the daughter of the pilot and one of the flight engineers.  We could
only find one picture…”