As I wandered over FNS Destiny, I started to think about the shuttle crew. I must admit, I’d completely lost track of how long ago they were launched. I didn’t even know if they’d docked again. I rather suspected they hadn’t been bought back on-board yet. Nobody would have done anything to bring them back aboard with all the officers out of action and nobody to give the order.
Right then, I needed something to keep myself occupied so I went to the bridge to find out if the shuttle was docked yet. I soon found they were still coasting along beside FNS Destiny. As I thought back, I realised they had been out there for about a week, give or take a day. By now, they must be approaching the limit of the supplies we’d given them so I went searching for a team to go and ready the shuttle lock to allow the shuttle to dock with the ship again.
I found a crew to carry out that task, made sure they knew what they needed to do and left them to it. That done, I returned to the bridge and had the rating on communications establish a link with the shuttle. When the link was established, I asked the shuttle crew how they were getting on. They said they were OK for now but were beginning to run out of supplies. I told them we had a crew working to clear the shuttle lock so they could dock again. They were exceedingly thankful for this news. In hindsight, I believe they were starting to think they had been forgotten.
Actually in fairness, I would have to admit, they had in fact been forgotten, mostly because of the unique situation we found ourselves in. The people who should have been dealing with this were all in stasis pods, or unconscious, or dead. They were very lucky it was me who’d suggested we put them out there in the first place, and that I was aware of them being sent outside. I asked if any of them was an officer. Their reply of course was in the negative, they were all just ratings. I thought to myself, this is ridiculous. I wondered what sort of people could put themselves in the type of predicament we currently found ourselves. Surely they have some regulations to stop carelessness and stupidity effectively leading to the loss of all the ship’s leader cadre. I really was not feeling very charitable towards the ship’s officers at this point. In a short moment of clarity, I realised I was effectively leading the crew at this point anyway.
I waited on the bridge for three hours while the repair crew cleared the obstructions around the shuttle lock. As they cleared the area they also prepared the shuttle lock so it could be used again. This was necessary because we’d sabotaged the lock to make sure the pirates could not use it when they arrived. Now, we had to undo our own sabotage to make the lock safe for use again. While I waited, I asked the bridge crew about the procedures for docking the shuttle. They explained to me that shuttle docking was largely an automatic operation. They told me they could guide the shuttle to a point where the automatic systems would be able to take over and the computers then docked the shuttle. I was thankful for that much at least. It didn’t require me to use any skills I didn’t already have. The main difficulty lay in the fact that FNS Destiny was still tumbling through space. The pilot would still need to have significant input to match our ship’s motion. We waited till eventually, the repair crew reported the shuttle lock was cleared and ready for use.
As soon as we had the go ahead from the repair crew, I told the bridge crew to bring the shuttle home. The bridge crew sent some instructions to the shuttle and the pilot began his approach. The bridge crew gave additional guidance as it was needed. Slowly the shuttle approached till the automatic systems could take control and dock the shuttle. Two hours later the shuttle crew were safely back aboard FNS Destiny. I went down to welcome them back aboard and thank them for the superb job they’d been able to do while they were out there. Their actions and professionalism significantly reduced both the number and capabilities of the pirates we were forced to fight on board Destiny. They of course thanked me for bringing them in when we did. They looked very tired, haggard even, but were clearly pleased to be back. In all honesty, I can’t say I blamed them.
I too, could feel the exhaustion setting in once again so I headed back down towards my quarters. Eri intercepted me on the way and insisted I eat first. I was too tired to argue so, once again, I just did as I was told. Eri sat with me as I ate my meal and chatted to me about the progress of her patients. By now, she’d started releasing a small number of the less seriously wounded crew to light duties. One thing she thankfully didn’t raise was whether I would accept the ship command. After I finished eating my food she let me go to my quarters for sleep. I passed out almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. This time, while I am sure I dreamed, I can’t remember any of the dreams. I woke feeling far more refreshed and alert than I did even on the previous day. I was still very sore with neither my wounds nor my bruising anywhere near healed yet.
Still, given my age, I was doing far better than I had any right to expect. I found out later, that the treatments Eri administered when she repaired the damage from my original accident on Earth significantly improved my body’s ability to repair itself. Where before these treatments, I was on the downhill slope to dying of old age, now I was effectively back on the plateau where I could do strenuous activity and still recover relatively quickly. Once again, I dragged myself painfully out of bed before cleaning myself up. I dutifully went to eat again before wandering the ship while I thought about my predicament.
As I wandered about the ship, I started to realise nobody seemed to be doing very much. When I examined the situation, it seemed to me the crew appeared to be waiting for direction. I didn’t say anything, I just kept walking and observing, trying to make sense of the magnitude of the problems facing us. I was really struggling to understand the Tangesha at this point. Prior to the battle, they seemed to be such a capable bunch, disciplined, focused, skillful at their assigned roles. Now they were leaderless, many of them seemed to just do nothing. Instead, they just appeared to be sitting around listlessly, almost as if they’d given up.
Where someone didn’t have a job or a task that was clearly defined they might be working still, but they were not necessarily doing the right tasks. For example, the engineering team seemed to be patching interior bulkheads rather than trying to find why the drives were not working. Some of them, the ones with clearly defined roles, particularly the ones such as the cooks and the medical staff seemed to be able to go on without direction. The majority though just seemed to be doing nothing much and when they were doing something, it was often the wrong thing. It didn’t seem to be laziness; it was more like they simply didn’t know what to do. To me, the entire situation we were in felt surreal. If they were given a job to do, they would do it immediately, and without complaint, they also do it well. Right then, I just couldn’t see how I could help them. From time to time, when there was an issue staring me in the face, I could and did give directions to deal with it and the crew would immediately follow my orders, otherwise I just wandered around observing everything happening around the ship.
On several occasions during the course of the day, I found myself heading towards the medical bay but stopped myself before I arrived there and headed off somewhere else. I did this type of thing for the entire day, until, at last one of the shuttle crew found me, as I wandered idly around deep in thought. He asked if he could have a word with me. I nodded before following him as he led me to a vacant meeting room.
When we sat down in the room, he said, “Sir, we really need you to take charge of the ship. We need your leadership and we need it fairly quickly.”
Once again, I asked, “Do you know what you are asking of me?”
“Yes sir, I do, I know exactly what I am asking of you. I know the risks you will be taking by doing this and I know what this crew is willing to do to help and protect you”, he replied.
I asked him his name, to which he replied, “My name is Sarolin, I was the pilot of the shuttle you arranged docking for earlier today.”
“It’s good to see you back safely. You know you are asking me to commit suicide, don’t you? You know as well as I do that if I
take command of this ship, I automatically become a pirate under Federation law. When we get her back to port, I will be arrested, tried and then most likely executed” I said.
“I don’t think you will be executed”, he replied.
“How could you know that”, I asked, “Why don’t you take command?” I continued, “At least that would be legal under Federation law. Or I should say it would be legal as far as I understand it. I don’t know the first thing about running a starship. You are able to command a shuttle, surely a starship isn’t so different.”
His reply shocked me. He said, “Sir, I don’t command a shuttle. I pilot it. I do not give the rest of the shuttle crew orders. None of the shuttle crew is in command of the rest of the shuttle crew. If orders are needed, they come from the officers on FNS Destiny or if an officer is on board the shuttle, him or her. I am not from the leader class. While a few of the crew may take my orders, the majority would not. My taking command would be likely to end in mutiny.”
He paused for almost a full minute, waiting to see if I had any comment. When the silence was starting to stretch out to the point where it was becoming uncomfortable he continued, “As for you not knowing anything about running a starship, you do have a lot of command presence. People want to do what you ask; they feel compelled to do as you ask, they would be happy to take your orders. We all accept this is all new to you and we will help you all we can. We all accept that you are likely to make mistakes and we’ll tell you when and why, but we will still follow you if you agree to take command. We need someone to lead us. Only you are able to lead us right now.”
Once again, this pilot managed to shock me, this time with his comment about mutiny.
“Surely not, surely there is someone on this ship who could lead you, someone other than me”, I said.
“No sir there isn’t”, he said, “if you do this, we will do everything we legally can to support and protect you. We will give statements to the authorities about how you fought with us and for us against the pirates. We will testify to them that you only took control of FNS Destiny when nobody else could or would so you could help us bring her home, that your intention was never one of piracy. We will tell them that even when you finally agreed to take command it was only under protest and at our urging. We will tell them you never wanted to but only did it for us and because of the impossible situation we were all in. All of these things are true. I honestly think they will be looking for a way to reward you, not kill you. If nothing else, by helping us to make our way home you will be bringing vital intelligence to our government. The most effective way for you to help us is by taking command.”
I stared at him dumbly for a second before looking down at the floor. I was beginning to understand the problem facing all of us. I had to admit, these people were consistent in the message they were giving me. I wondered how do I deal with this. Of course, in hindsight, the answer was obvious, right then though, it just wasn’t obvious to me.
After a while I looked up at him again, “I need to think about this some more. Talk to Eri and Harlo and between you see if you can find a space large enough to fit as many of the crew as possible in one place. I will come and talk to the crew then. I expect we will need to do this in at least two meetings. Some people have duty stations they can’t leave.”
I paused for a second to catch my breath and to give Sarolin an opportunity to absorb what I’d just told him.
Then I continued, “Once I have talked to those of the crew who are at this first meeting, they can swap with the people who are on duty and I will talk to them. After I have spoken to the crew, we shall see. You need to understand, I cannot, I will not attempt to take command of this ship if there is any dissent. I will not try to force myself or my will on this crew. You need to make sure everyone understands that. We cannot afford a divided crew.”
Sarolin smiled as he nodded his agreement to my terms. He said, “These are reasonable points Colin, I will tell everyone what you said. I will come find you when we have gathered the crew together.”
With that, I rose from my seat and walked out of the room. As I left, my mind was spinning completely out of control, it seemed to be doing a lot of that recently. I still hadn’t been able to make any kind of final decision, but now the dynamics of the decision had changed significantly, making my taking over a serious possibility. Now I was beginning to understand I was pretty much screwed no matter which way I jumped. Even now though, there was still no chance I was ever going to attempt to force my will on this ship’s crew. The captive pirates didn’t matter to me, I had no concerns about them, but the crew were a very different matter, I both liked and respected them. More importantly, I had come to care about their welfare. I think even then, in my mind at least, I’d started to feel responsible for them. After all, they’d saved my life on Earth, they had welcomed me into their midst, they had stood with me against the pirates. Could I let them down? After everything I had done to help them defeat the pirates, could I now let them die for the lack of a leader? Could I let them down because I was frightened of the consequences, or refused their pleas for help? Of course, a lot of this thinking was simply me trying to justify something I was now very likely to do.
What was all this the various people had told me about my command presence? Captain Carlon, Olin Eri, Sarolin and others had all commented on it. I’d never been aware of it before. In the past, people who worked for me did as I asked, but was that because they wanted to keep their jobs or was it because I was a good leader who inspired them to follow me? I asked myself, will these Tangesha react to my leadership style in the same ways a human would? Are our thought processes and culture similar enough to allow me to make this work?
Once again, I roamed the ship looking for nothing in particular, except maybe something to take my mind off the problems facing me but still all the while trying to think of a viable way forward. From time to time, I would pass someone in one of the passageways and we would acknowledge each other, often they would smile at me, almost as if they could see some hope in me. After a while I started to notice less people in the passageways and compartments I visited till finally, the only people I saw were those who were manning critical stations.
Finally, several hours later, Sarolin found me. As he led me down to one of the nearly empty holds he told me they’d found a suitable place for me to meet with the crew. Everybody who could be, was there now, waiting for me to come and speak to them. When I arrived I recognised many of the crew who were present. Sarolin told me people who were not able to attend the meeting personally could both see me and hear everything we said. At one end of the compartment was a container with a ladder against it. Sarolin urged me up the ladder so the crew could all see me, then followed once I reached the top. I think he wanted the crew to be able to see me for what was to come. Eri and Harlo were waiting for me on top of the container. I thought to myself, they are here to support me, this looks ominous. I must admit, I was feeling quite nervous right then.
When we were all in place, Eri stepped forward to speak. She said, “We are the crew of FNS Destiny. We have had a difficult cruise since we reached Zafar. We have been attacked by pirates four times now. Four times now we have defeated them. Even so, the price of our last victory was far too high. We lost too many of our friends and comrades to the pirates, but still we prevailed. Right now we have no officers who can lead us home. During the last attack all of them were either killed, or so badly injured that I am unable to heal them soon enough for them to be able to help. Our officers all fell while bravely fighting to defend this ship and all of you.”
At this point, she paused to let her words penetrate so the crew understood what they were being told. Still, when I looked at the faces in the crowd, the crew seemed to be looking towards us expectantly.
Then she continued, “Now there is no Federation citizen available to lead us home. There is no one of the leader class left, no one who we could or even would, all follow, except for one, perha
ps. We, the Tangesha who stand here where you can see us have asked this person to be our Captain, to help us go home.”
After this, she once again paused for effect. I have to admit, Eri is a damned good motivational speaker.
Eri continued, “So far he has been unwilling to do this, not because he wishes harm upon us, we all know he does not wish harm upon anyone in FNS Destiny’s crew. Not because he is a coward, we all know how he has fought as bravely as anyone on this ship. Not because he is lazy, he has worked harder than any of us to protect our lives and our freedom. No, he is unwilling because he does not believe he has a right to lead us. Our laws will brand him a pirate if he agrees to this because he is not a Federation citizen. I, and everyone else who I have spoken to about this is absolutely convinced he is the only one who is able to lead us home to safety. We the crew of FNS Destiny must make this choice. We must speak with a unified voice. The person I speak of is this human standing beside me, Colin Gordon.”
Yet again, she paused for effect before continuing, “This man has stood beside us in this hour of need. He has fought beside us and for us, he has protected us, he advised our Captain and helped him to decide on the best course of action, a course of action that has resulted in all of us still being alive and free. He has asked to have an opportunity to talk to you before he agrees to be our leader. He has told us that he will not forcefully take command of this ship. He has not made any promises but I think we can convince him if we speak with one voice. Does anyone here have anything to say?”
A crew member in the front asked, “Where will you take us if you are in command Sir?”
His use of the honorific was interesting I thought as I replied, “To the nearest Federation base we can safely reach. At the moment, I don’t know what it is called, or how far it is, or even which direction to go to get there. Still, if we head in the direction of a Federation base, we may, with a little luck, run into another Federation naval vessel that can loan us someone to take command from me. If and when that happens, I shall relinquish command to that officer immediately. I will offer myself up for arrest by those same legitimate authorities. Even before we make that move though, we must repair FNS Destiny. We must bring her drives, her maneuvering thrusters and her shields on-line. After we have achieved those goals, we would still need to try to bring weapons back on-line and repair the breaches in the outer hull. While we are working on the weapons and hull breaches, we can begin moving towards our destination.”
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 21
