I thought about our prisoners. Most were just slaves who’d been brutalised by their former masters till they just did as they were told. They only acted as soldiers against us because the alternative was a slow and painful death. We only had a few prisoners who were pirates by choice, I didn’t much care about them, actually I would have been just as happy to throw them all out the airlock, but I hoped the others would be given a chance at redemption when we eventually made it back to the Federation authorities. I really had come to terms with the idea that I might be imprisoned, or worse when we found our way back to the more settled parts of the Federation. I hoped this wouldn’t be the case but accepted it may happen. As it turned out, when we reached Cotoni Station, I was imprisoned, but not for the reasons, or in a way I could have ever envisioned. I pushed that train of thought away as being far too depressing, realising I needed to stay focused on taking the ship, and her crew, home, or at least close enough to their home that another, more qualified Captain could be found to help her complete the journey. I realised I was beginning to feel both tired and hungry. When I checked my implant I saw I’d been awake for over twenty hours by then. Almost as if she’d read my mind, Shasi appeared at my door looking very pissed off at me. Of course, I already knew why and quickly held my hand up in resignation before assuring her I was about to go for food and sleep. She seemed to subside a little when I told her this but waited while I called the bridge to let them know my intentions then escorted me when I left the office behind to make my way down to the mess.
The mess was quite empty when I arrived but the staff there quickly put a selection of food together so I could eat and continue about my business. After eating, I continued on to my quarters, with Shasi escorting me to make sure I didn’t allow myself to be side-tracked. She clearly wanted to make sure I made it to bed and caught up with some sleep. She knew I wouldn’t be able to get much once we exited jump space into the next system. Once I entered my quarters, I think she decided to guard my door to make sure I didn’t escape till I’d slept, at least for a while. I quickly showered then climbed into my bunk. When I lay down, sleep came very quickly.
MUTINY
I was woken sometime later when I was paged to come to the bridge urgently. At the time, it seemed like only a few hours had passed since I went to sleep. In hindsight, I vaguely noted what almost sounded like panic in the voice on the other end of the intercom so I started moving immediately. I still did not feel very rested but knew once I started moving it would not take long at all to flush the dopamine out of my system and for me to wake up properly. For the moment though, I thought my main problem was that I would not be able to go back to sleep for hours now I’d been woken. I rose and washed my face in my bathroom before leaving my quarters to find Shasi waiting outside the door for me. I told her I’d been paged to the bridge and the voice on the other end sounded a bit panicky. She simply nodded before following as I headed off to see what the problem was down there on the bridge. On Federation warships, which FNS Destiny shared a hull design with, the bridge is located deep in the core of the ship and it is one of the safest and most secure places to be if something goes wrong so I found myself wondering what the problem could possibly be.
Shasi and I moved quickly, mostly it was me with Shasi just trying to keep up. When I arrived on the bridge, I quickly looked around and it seemed to be quite overcrowded. The people who were there, were arguing with each other, even getting physical with each other and didn’t seem to notice or acknowledge me when I entered, in fact, it almost seemed like I was deliberately being ignored. Shasi, who entered right behind me, took the scene in at a glance and immediately grabbed me by the arm before hauling me back out of the compartment then closing and locking the hatch, effectively locking the people who were still on the bridge inside. Before she even said anything to me, she called for immediate Trooper backup then quickly steered me into a nearby compartment where she told me to contact engineering right then and there and have them lock out the bridge controls as quickly as they could. I knew better than to waste time arguing or asking why at that point, so I just contacted engineering to do as she asked. Once engineering acknowledged my orders, I turned to Shasi with a questioning look on my face.
Her answer was one chilling word, “Mutiny.”
I was dumbfounded and drew a complete mental blank for a few moments till my mind began to gain some traction and I asked, “Mutiny? Why would our crew mutiny now? We should be safe in Federation space very soon. I have done my best to do everything the crew have asked of me, and everything I have promised them. Why now?” I was feeling a little confused and completely flabbergasted.
Shasi decided to break into my line of thought, “Sir,” she said, “I don’t think all the people on the bridge right now are part of our crew, or even from among the ranks of our non-prisoner guests. I am fairly sure some might actually be prisoners, the ones we had locked away in the brig.”
The blood drained from my face as I immediately started working my way through the surveillance systems on the ship to see where this originated. I needed to know if this problem was just on the bridge or if it was more widespread. When I looked in the brig, I became seriously concerned with what I saw. It seemed that some of the pirates we locked away in there had somehow managed to overpower the guards and escape. I could see what appeared to be the bodies of the two guards who were on duty in the brig area but it was clear that for whatever reason, not all of the cells were emptied, some still had inmates.
I did the only thing I could at that stage, I placed the ship under immediate total lock-down with only our Troopers and Ensign Frazer having the ability to move about the ship freely. I then contacted Anne in her cabin to tell her what was happening and that she was to wait where she was till a squad of Troopers reached her location to protect her and provide security. For her part, Anne didn’t waste time asking stupid or useless questions, she simply acknowledged my orders. I then I asked Shasi how many Troopers were coming up to us. She told me she’d asked for eight. I asked her to send a team to Ensign Fraser’s current location and another to the brig. I told her what I had seen and the Troopers were to terminate the mutiny using whatever means they deemed necessary. I promised her our Troopers would have my backing if someone wanted to complain about an escaped prisoner being hurt or killed.
The team who were sent to the brig were the first to arrive. They found the two guards who were on duty dead. Eight of the prisoners who were being held there were missing, roaming somewhere around the ship probably trying to cause misery and suffering. I checked the compartment where the remaining, more trusted prisoners were being held, but they seemed to all be there still when I did a rough head count, seemingly oblivious to what was going on outside. When I looked outside the prisoner quarters, the guards appeared to be still in place though they did seem to be on the alert. I checked their faces against the ships database and they were the correct people, they hadn’t been replaced by anyone else. On a whim, I started checking the security monitors one at a time through the ship, finally finding four of our escapees just outside the section of the ship containing the quarters where we had Lady Conti billeted.
Luckily, I’d locked the ship down before they made it as far as there, otherwise I may have had a volatile hostage situation on my hands, one I was simply not well equipped or qualified to handle. The four escapees down Lady Conti’s quarters had clearly been able to arm themselves somehow, I didn’t know how at that point but right now the how didn’t seem to matter as far as I was concerned. Ensign Frazer was quartered next door to Conti so the Troopers who were going to retrieve her would need to take down the people who were currently trying to break into the area to get to her. I had a look in where the females were quartered and the Lady Conti was on the other side of the hatch trying to get out. She was not looking at all happy.
I showed Shasi what was happening then had her contact her Troopers to let them know what they were up against. I then contacted Anne t
o let her know she had hostiles on the other side of the hatch and she immediately went out to calm Conti down and tell her they would be free as soon as our Troopers could clear the escapees who were on the other side of the hatch. I could see Conti deflate as Anne relayed the news about what was happening to her and she meekly allowed herself to be guided into her quarters to wait for rescue. The two females locked themselves in. I decided I would need to go down to make sure Conti was OK as soon as we were able to secure the ship again.
Just as I completed setting everything else up, the Troopers who’d been called up to my location arrived. Shasi briefed them on what she’d seen when we opened the bridge hatch before I even thought to open my mouth. Oh well, I thought to myself, this is something I should leave to the professionals anyway. I tried to bring up the bridge cameras so we could see what was happening there but the people in there were clearly smart enough to have already disabled them. This meant our Troopers would have to go in blind.
When the Troopers started their preparations I stepped in and said, “We have a mixture of escapees and our own crew in there. Right now, I don’t know if any of our people are part of this mutiny but my preference is that we didn’t kill any of our own crew right now, not if it can be helped, it would not be good for morale.
My first preference would be for you to just stun everybody in there and we will sort the mess out later. If you believe that’s not an option, I will accept your judgement. As Shasi has already told you, everyone in there is wearing ships uniform so I could not tell you who is part of our crew and who is not. For that matter, I can’t even tell you precisely what is going on in there right now. Hell, if Shasi hadn’t realised there was a problem and dragged me out before they realised we were there, I would be one of the hostages. My orders are simple, go do what I know you are so very good at. I will wait back here and stay out of your way.”
The Troopers seemed to relax with my last comment. I already knew I had nothing to prove to these Troopers. They’d already seen what I was capable of and that I was both willing and able to do whatever is needed to resolve a bad situation. They also knew why I chose to sit this one out, right now, the ship could not afford to have me out of action. As far as this crew was concerned, I was the only person left who could lead them home. Of course, they had Anne now, and while I didn’t know it at the time, there was someone else who could have, perhaps even should have taken over from me but apparently neither of them wanted the job.
The Troopers were all wearing light armour as they began to set themselves up ready for their assault on the bridge. Thankfully for us, there were not very many places on the bridge that would offer any kind of effective cover against weapons fire but we did have at least four potential hostages in there. I knew I would need to study the legal situation when this was all over so I didn’t break any laws when I dealt with the aftermath, god knows, by this time, I had already broken enough Federation laws as it was when I took command of FNS Destiny. I wasn’t sure whether I should just continue to carry on regardless or to start trying to implement some kind of damage control. It was clear to me I had a mess waiting when we finally managed to shut down this mutiny and regain control of the ship.
Our Troopers began by opening the hatch a tiny bit, only a few centimetres, just enough to slip a whisker lens into the compartment. The whisker lens is part of an optical surveillance device the Troopers have. The lens part is quite impervious to most energy weapons fire because it is completely inert, purely passive. As soon as they inserted the whisker lens through the opening, whoever was inside started firing at the crack but it appeared they only had low powered weapons, probably stunners, available to them so the hatch and the wall next to it absorbed the bulk of the available energy. The armour the Troopers were wearing is impervious to stunner fire anyway so it easily absorbed the energy that leaked through. For my part, I was well out of the way and out of the line of fire so I wasn’t impacted either.
I checked with Shasi to confirm all the lethal weaponry was safely locked away in the armoury. She confirmed to me without hesitation that it was, unless some of our Troopers had opted to bring lethal weapons along when they scrambled for this emergency. She told me after we defeated the pirates who’d boarded us, the Troopers took all of the lethal weaponry, including the weapons we captured from the boarders, back to the armoury where they locked them away, only issuing stunners when they needed to issue weapons to the crew. The only other lethal weapons someone might have available were makeshift, things such as knives to stab or cut and bars that could be used as bludgeons.
Now the Troopers had their whisker lens in through the bottom of the hatch, they could see the layout of the compartment on the other side. They wanted to identify where each and every person was on the bridge so when they did eventually go in, they would be able to target every person in the room. The people who were on the bridge were still firing at the whisker lens without any observable effect. Our Troopers carefully but quickly mapped the situation, reporting we now had two of our people bleeding on the bridge deck.
As soon as they told me this I contacted medical, telling them to expect casualties, sooner rather than later. Eri acknowledged the call and we went back to waiting and watching as the Troopers prepared with calm efficiency to make their assault, retake the bridge and free the hostages who were trapped there.
Outside the guest quarters, a similar scenario was already playing itself out as the Troopers there carefully reconnoitred the situation facing them. Here as well, the hostiles tried to discourage the Trooper’s observation of their activities by firing at the hatch opening with the same results as their compatriots on the bridge had achieved, none. Once again, most of the energy from the stunners was absorbed by the hatch and surrounding bulkheads while the Troopers armour easily absorbed the rest. The Troopers who were attempting to relieve the guest quarters were in a slightly better position than the ones at the bridge because they didn’t need to worry about any hostages at all, just the four escaped prisoners who were trying to break into the guest quarters.
What I could not understand yet was how or why all of our hostiles were actually wearing ships uniforms. Where had these prisoners found them? Had someone in the crew given the uniforms to them or had they found them somewhere else, perhaps taken from someone they’d overpowered? These were all questions we needed to answer but after we had the situation firmly under control once again. All I knew was we’d not given the pirates those uniforms, the clothing they were wearing when we captured them was all we’d allowed them. We were not sure if the mutineers were in contact with each other but the Troopers at both the locations decided they would make simultaneous attacks and hope there was not a third group laying low somewhere else, possibly with intentions to supply reinforcements if they were needed. Fortunately, the lock-down I instituted would make it very difficult for anybody to move about the ship and cause problems for our Troopers unless they had the correct access codes and the only people with those were on our side, or at least I hoped they were.
Finally, the Troopers were ready to make their respective assaults. Clearly, the two groups of Troopers were in contact with each other because suddenly, both squads launched their attacks simultaneously. Both of the attacks were fast and efficient, quickly subduing everyone in each of the two locations. As soon as the bridge was secured, the Troopers performed emergency first aid on the crew who were lying bleeding on the deck before quickly placing them into stasis pods and rushing them directly to the medical bay for proper treatment by the medical staff who were already standing by waiting for the casualties to arrive. The rest of the people who were on the bridge and in the compartment outside the guest quarters, including those who I recognised as crew, were all placed in restraints till we could sort out what was going on and who we could trust. I already knew we would need to carry out a full interrogation of all the participants in this little fiasco to really get to the truth.
Now the bridge was secure, I conta
cted a backup bridge crew to inform the they were required. I then sent four Troopers over to crew quarters to escort the new bridge crew down here to take over monitoring and control of the ship from engineering. While that was happening, I ordered another contingent of Troopers down to the bridge to take our prisoners away for interrogation. The Troopers near the guest quarters were also successful in their assault and quickly subdued the four brig escapees who were there before placing them all in restraints and gagging them so they could not talk to each other when they woke from the stunners. They opened the hatch leading into the guest area to find Ensign Fraser waiting there, ready to take them on bare handed if she needed to. I have to admit; she is a brave woman.
As soon as she realised they were actually the rescue party, she relaxed before asking, “The Captain, is he safe, is he alright?”
One of the Troopers reassured her, “He is fine, Shasi was with him when this was all just starting and pulled him to safety before locking the bridge hatch closed so they could not come out and try to capture him. He quickly placed the ship under full lock-down while Shasi called the rest of us out to secure the ship?”
She replied, “Thank god for that. We really can’t afford to lose him right now. He is the glue that is holding this crew together.”
The Trooper agreed with her then proceeded to tell her his impressions of me. They were very favourable impressions she told me eventually, a long time afterwards. She told me then that she could never cease to be surprised at the level of loyalty and respect I seemed to be effortlessly commanding from this crew.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 34
