The Marauder signalled her surrender and her Captain's response came over the bridge communication's system. “I'd rather get fired than disobey those terms, Captain. I surrender my ship and myself into your care. I'll meet you on the bridge.”
“Surrender accepted. I would prefer it if you left the ship before our arrival.”
“I'd rather surrender to you than face a breach of contract with the Vindyne. You can maroon me for all I care, just don't let me get picked up by the Company.”
“In that case, you'll be surrendering yourself into the custody of my first officer.”
I looked to Oz, who stared back at me in surprise. “Get a boarding party together. Take whoever you have to and be careful. I want that ship, but not at the expense of more lives. If it looks like a trap, just get out. We can always slag it from here.”
“Yes sir,” he said with a smile. “Think you could pilot that thing?” he asked Minh.
“I can pilot a doghouse with a thruster. Of course I can pilot that thing,” he replied as he surrendered the helm to Flight Sergeant Cullum. We watched escape pods and small craft launch and separate from the Marauder Corvette as her engines cooled down.
I checked the status of the convoy that had formed out of the ships escaping from the super carrier and was amazed. Over fifty large freighter and transport class ships, some half a kilometre in size, had escaped along with over three hundred smaller ships. Most of them were headed towards the small moon we had marked off. A few were taking other courses and making for the nearest safe hyperspace acceleration point. “Navigation, set a course to join the largest portion of the convoy and order any undamaged fighters to spread themselves out among the rest. Once we're in orbit around the moon, we'll have to set up duty shifts until we finalize plans for getting these people to a safe port.”
“Yes sir."
I could see that all the other enemy ships were clearing the area. There wasn't a ship left that could match us, but I was sure reinforcements wouldn't be more than a day or two behind if Vindyne considered the system a priority. Regardless of impending reinforcements, there was a collective sigh of relief throughout the bridge staff.
A pair of new allied markings appeared on the bridge tactical display. “There are two beacons out there Captain, they just appeared on screen out of nowhere."
"Do you know what that's about, tactical?"
"One moment sir," she checked her display and focused in on them. "They're marked as part of rescue team beta, two of our cloaksuits. They must have remained cloaked until now so they wouldn't give the others away."
"Send four of our fighters out there, I want them back here as soon as possible."
"Yes sir. That's going to be an interesting ride back for those two."
I looked to Jason, who was looking handling the communications incoming from the convoy. He and the young woman at the communications station didn't seem to be getting too much incoming comm traffic. "Take the bridge, Sergeant Everin. I'm going to see how things are in engineering."
Jason looked at me for a moment, stunned. "Yes sir."
I knew he would do just fine. He was already used to doing at least five things at a time while setting decryption priorities. Bridge command might just seem boring. I walked to the back of the room where there were four hatchways, each with ladders leading down. “I hope this leads to engineering,” I said to myself as I opened a hatch and made my way down.
The ladder went down for about twenty rungs and ended with another hatch that opened as soon as my foot was near. As I came through the bottom and set foot on the deck below, there was no doubt in my mind as to where the passage had taken me. The main pit of engineering control was the most convenient, practical design I had ever seen. There were three head engineering crew, Ayan, Laura and another officer with a short goatee who I hadn't met more than once. They stood in the middle of the main engineering section, surrounded by a full circle of multi-purpose control panels and interactive holograms all around them. From where they stood, they could manipulate any system in exacting detail, see everything that was going on in and around the ship, and view every room, deck plate or system on the ship.
They could also command the maintenance, gunnery and repair teams, hear what was going on in the bridge, and communicate with any control station they had to. The interface Ayan had developed was something I had heard of, and I had been partially implemented during the refit back at Freeground. But here it had been incorporated fully.
Ayan saw me come down and whispered to Laura before opening a section of the command console and stepping out. Laura and the other officers took over portions of what Ayan was working on without missing a beat. “Are we clear, do you think?” She asked as she gave me a quick hug.
“I think so, but not for long. From what I saw while I was down on the planet, I don't think the Vindyne corporation will be leaving this system alone. There are too many resources for them not to make this a high priority.”
“Do you have a plan? Some of the refugee ships don't have faster than light capabilities, and they're low on supplies.”
“Do you think we could generate a wormhole?”
“The power plants are up to it, and the projectors weren't damaged. We could, but where would you send them?”
“We'll have to send them to Freeground.”
Ayan thought about it for a moment before quietly asking. “Would we be going with them?”
The thought of returning home hadn't entered my mind. I looked around the main engineering deck, where several maintenance and emergency repair crew were working or just running through to pick up tools and parts from a storage locker. A lot of them were listening without letting on. A few had stopped at the question and were staring right at me. I thought for a moment longer. “If it was up to me, we'd find a quiet place to make repairs and continue our mission. It isn't something I can decide for everyone this time, I'll be calling the senior staff together to discuss it,” I said more for the benefit of the eavesdroppers than for Ayan.
She smiled at me and nodded. “It's what I'd do. I'll talk to my staff about it but I think they'll be against returning home.”
“Good. I have other news for you. I had to deliver it in person.”
“That means that it's either really good or really bad.”
“We are pretty sure we found your two missing drifters. Our fighters are picking them up now.”
The weight that I saw on her shoulders seemed to almost completely lift as she sighed with relief. “When they missed the mark and drifted past the carrier we were sure they were gone for good. How did you find them?”
“As soon as we took out the destroyer and forced the nearest of the Marauders to surrender they turned on their beacons. They must have found a way to watch from orbit.”
“Well, it wouldn't be hard to tap in to all the communication traffic going on during the chaos. Some of it wouldn't be encrypted, I'm sure. Thank you Jonas, we lost enough on this trip.”
I stared at her for a moment. The guilt of getting myself captured and taking on more than we could handle forced me into silence. It must have shown, even though I was still trying to concentrate on our current situation.
“No one blames you,” she whispered. “No one would have felt right just leaving either.”
I composed myself. I wasn't ready to believe her, but hearing it reminded me that I still had to make decisions, face the truth of our situation. “How many did you lose?”
“We lost four gunnery crew, one maintenance. There are nine badly injured and several more who just need cursory treatment. Except for one gunnery team that's trapped in their turret, they’re all are already in medical.”
“How hard will it be to get the gunners out?”
“They should be out in a few minutes, I already have an emergency repair team working on it.”
“Ayan, Oz needs two engineering teams,” Laura called over.
“What for?”
I held my han
d up before Laura went to the effort of explaining. “He needs them so we can take a Marauder. I didn't put the boarding action on the command screen right away because I put Oz in charge of putting the team together.”
“You're actually taking a Marauder Corvette? What kind of shape is it in?”
“I thought you would already know.” I said, eyeing her new engineering command interface.
“We don't watch everything. We don't have time. That’s why most ships this class have a dozen or so artificial intelligences on watch.”
“Good point. As far as I know she's in perfect shape. They abandoned ship before we had to fire a shot. Must have had to do with the destroyer we wrecked.”
“Well, make sure that he takes their communications systems are off line, and that he brings his own emergency long range comm unit and a backup power source.”
“He's been on at least forty boarding missions. He's a grown boy.”
“Sometimes I forget I'm not the only one with experience.”
“Oh, and he's taking Minh. The pair of them have enough infantry combat time to cover at least ten of our security staff.”
“True, they'll be fine,” she looked to her command console and the repair assignments. "Laura, clear two officers from engineering, six qualified maintenance crew with boarding experience, and two without boarding experience. If Oz complains that he needs more specialists, tell him to start training his own.”
Laura smiled and nodded. “Yes, Commander.”
Ayan turned back to me, every inch the commander her engineering staff knew her to be. It was amazing to see her in charge. “How many did the other departments lose?” she asked.
I checked the update on my arm command unit. I knew that our losses were relatively low for what we had been through, but every one hurt. “Flight reports three pilots killed, five ejected, two with serious injuries. Security reports no losses, one injury, and flight deck crew reports four injuries.”
“Jonas, we came out of this very light. If this ship was run the way it once was, with her outer hull fully manned, with security in every main passageway, gun crews of three instead of two, we would have lost at least fifty people. Maybe more. I know you think you screwed us up by getting yourself captured, but that wasn't your fault,” she whispered. “Even if it was, look at where it took us. We were in exactly the right place, with the right tools to set tens of thousands of people free. People who were independents just like us. Not only that, but we're out here to acquire technologies that can help Freeground, and right now Oz is getting a boarding crew together to do just that. Not to mention the quantum core and damage we've managed to do to Vindyne's activities here. We're doing it Jonas, right now.”
I hadn't thought of it that way. In fact I don't know that I ever would have. “You're right, there's no point in blaming myself.”
“You will anyway, I know. Just be our captain, think things through, consult the right people, and make your decisions just the way I've seen you do before. Everyone on board will follow you.”
I smiled warmly at her. “Sometimes you sound like you've been at this for as long as the Doc. It would be intimidating if I didn't know you off duty.”
She gave me a quick peck on the cheek and started walking back to the engineering command centre. “Speaking of off duty pursuits, I have good and bad news.”
I braced myself. “I'll take the good news first.”
She stepped into the ring of displays and brought up a larger schematic of the ship on a holographic display, then centred in on the eighty-meter long open section of the top of our outer hull. It was a massive gash that had been ripped open by the three torpedoes launched by the Incinerator. “Well, the good news is that no critical systems were badly damaged when the torpedo salvo hit us. We lost several sections of hull and it'll take about two months for it to fully regenerate outside of dry dock.”
“And the bad news?”
“All but one officer's quarters were destroyed. The walls and fixed structures will eventually regenerate, but everything else will have to be rebuilt.”
“Whose quarters survived?” I asked, just grateful that no one was in their quarters during the battle.
“Minh's, actually.”
“Well, at least there was no one inside when we were hit. Do we have enough quarters so we don't have to hot-bunk?”
“Well, we can open the secondary berthing. It wasn't in use because the quarters were a little cramped. On the brighter side, we'll all be close to our duty stations.”
“I hope you didn't have anything important in your quarters sir.” Laura added.
“I barely got to know them.” My arm unit chirped, indicating I had an incoming high priority message. “Yes?” I answered.
“Samuel Finnley is on the communicator sir, he wants to speak with you.” Jason said. I could hear him smiling.
“I'm on my way.” I turned and climbed up the ladder leading into the bridge. When I arrived, Jason relinquished the captain's chair right away, and once he was back at his station he put Samuel through. The details attached to the transmission indicated the Governor was aboard one of the larger transports we had saved. He looked genuinely happy to see me. “Governor, you made it out.”
“Thanks to you and your crew, I imagine. Once again I'm glad you're here.”
“I only did what we could. I wish we had a thousand ships. We'd gladly retake this system for you.”
“Well, if our freedom is all circumstance allows us, it is a better fate than we would have suffered if you weren't here.”
I could see that he wanted to ask about his daughter, and that his fear forced him into hesitation. “There's someone on board who's worrying about you,” I told him with a smile.
“Elise is with you?”
“She is. I can patch you through right now." I signalled Jason and he connected the Governor to where Elise was staying in secure quarters attached to main medical.
I heard her come on. "Yes?”
“Elise? Are you all right?”
“Father! Where are you?”
“I'm on a transport just below you. I'm fine, don't worry. How are you?”
“I'm fine, I'm better than fine!”
“I'm sorry I put you in danger Elise. I'm so sorry.”
“It's okay, Dad. They kept their promise. The doctor here says the treatments worked. Even through all they suffered, they kept their promise.”
I cut my communication link, giving the pair some privacy. No one needed to hear any more. I brought up the long convoy of escaped ships on the main bridge holographic display and just looked at it. There were hundreds of them, all different ages, shapes and sizes. Everything from commercial space liners to bulk cargo haulers to shuttle ferries carrying dozens of mismatched smaller ships.
“If that were the only reason for us being here, it would have been enough,” Jason said quietly as he looked on from his station.
Everyone on the bridge looked at the display for a moment. We all manoeuvred into orbit around the blue and black rocky moon. The First Light, beaten and scarred, kept pace above the line of ships, holding its position like an armoured sentry.
I ordered anyone who had been awake for more than eighteen hours to get six hours of rest. It wasn't long before Doc sent me a discreet message including orders that I did the same. I sighed and checked the status of our repairs. They were going surprisingly well. All the critical systems and their backups would be up and running at normal efficiencies within the next two hours, and most of the hull patching would be complete not long after. I went on to check into reports of ships from the convoy leaving the moon's orbit for parts unknown. Most of them sent their thanks and few of them gave us their heading before getting under way. It had only been a few hours since we had entered orbit, and I was surprised to see that almost a third had left.
Doc sent another message, giving me a direct order to take six hours rest. I checked the roster and chose Lieutenant Nichols, who had command experi
ence and officer training, to take a turn at the captain's chair. I was so tired I just sent her a simple official order, filling in commencement time, position, end time, and a quick note to Oz, telling him that I was taking one of his security staff and placing her in the captain's chair for a few hours. Normally I would have sent a more personal message, but I was more interested in finding out where my new bed was and going to sleep. I had no choice but to admit the good Doctor was right, again.
I found that they had managed to secure quarters that were nowhere near as small as the cell I had grown accustomed to. They weren't half the size of the luxurious captain's quarters that had been slagged in the recent battle, but there was a double bed, a desk, a closet, and a secure trunk. It was right near the centre of the ship. I could still feel the slight rumble of the power plants as all of them ran just below ninety percent, keeping the ship powered and regenerating the damaged sections of hull.
I took off my sidearm, put it on the desk, then fell onto the bed with the lights on. I don't know how long I had been asleep, but when I woke the lights were dimmed down to just a few points of luminosity and Ayan was wrapping my arms around her. I drew her closer and just held her there.
So many times in the blinding whiteness of that cell, I had closed my eyes and dreamed of being in a darkened room, sharing a soft bed with Ayan, and here she was.
“Don't do that again.”
“What?” I asked, half asleep.
“Scare me like that. I didn't know if I could get you back.”
“I won't if you don't,” I said with a sleepy smile.
She shook her head and sighed. “You're lucky I love you.”
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins Page 25
