Ships of Valor 1: Persona Non Grata

by Aaron Kennedy

  “It should give the impression we crashed, and there will be enough wreckage to imply our destruction.” I uttered some very choice things, but he was right. Whoever was after us when we made planet-fall had known we were coming, and wanted us gone. Heart had made the correct call, grabbing the conn, and doing what he felt was necessary. I apologized and let him know.

  I did ask where in the hell we were. “We're currently very deep in the Kermadec Trench. I can't give an exact reading as I have almost all my systems in standby mode. We should be relatively undetectable.” Slick move. Although designed for space travel, Heart could go underwater in a pinch. I’m not sure how deep he could go and wasn’t anxious to find out, but even though the types of pressures were different, he could hold his position underwater until we ran out of food. Using our hydronic farm and fully packed freezers that could be a very long time. I’d probably die of boredom eating the same meals before the ocean itself got to us.

  The drone finished up on my collar, and a display showed me a full X-ray. Lots of minor cracks but the collar appeared to be the only major break. I was right about the drone’s first injection. Loaded full of nanites, all going to town trying to fix things. I looked at my arms and saw I was bruised into a great yellowish purple haze. I asked Heart how long was I out. “It has been a little over fifty-one hours since the incident.” I started swearing again and asked why he didn’t wake me up. Machines started trilling again, but he cut them off almost instantly.

  “You were severely injured in the collision. I immediately put you in sustainment fluid and set to work repairing your internal injuries. I was actually hoping to keep you unconscious for another few days and move you to medical for surgery when you were stable. You really should not be up, or even awake at this point.” He paused for several seconds. “I would still like to put you in a medpod for additional recuperation.” I shut that option down fast. I was not going back into one of those boxes if I had a choice.

  We had spent a long time focused on me. I decided to shift gears and asked Heart how bad off he was. “Excluding the lost lifeboat, my damage is minor. Repairs are nearly complete.” I told him to show me. If he was willing to bend the truth about my health, he was sure as hell willing to do the same about his own. The display lit up after a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if he was changing the data or debating changing the data, but the pause was telling. “The majority of the damage was to the starboard side. Rear starboard sublight is functional, but at sixty percent. We lost two directional propulsors near the fore, but, I can fabricate those. The installation will require your assistance since my drones are not capable of aquatic operations. Damage to clamping dock number four is beyond my ability to repair. We will require a facility; however, the remaining boats and the Captain’s yacht are still functional.” That stopped me, as I didn’t know we he had a yacht on board, let alone a Captain’s yacht, forcing me to ask about it purely from curiosity.

  “Indeed. We have several vehicles aboard. I believe you will need one to use one for your reconnaissance since I will need to conduct repairs, and whoever attempted to destroy us was aware of arrival.” The fog of pain had made me temporarily forget why we were there. That made me angry. If someone wanted us dead, I was going to make it personal.

  Chapter 16

  My refusal to stay in medical any longer than absolutely necessary annoyed Heart to no end. I instead spent the next several days in my stateroom after Heart adjusted his artificial gravity so we weren’t upside-down, and so I could get a little sleep. He snapped at me a few times when I was being completely unreasonable. Not until I agreed to slap a medpack on and let one of his idiot drones follow me around did he relaxed a little. I don’t think he was trying to mother hen me, but like the captain on the bridge thing, some programming was embedded so deep he couldn’t shake it. Deep down he was a hospital boat, and while I was injured, I was his patient.

  I was going stir crazy. It’s one thing being in space and not being able to do something. It’s completely different being told I wasn’t allowed. I did a hell of a lot better than I thought I would. I made it almost three whole days before I was in one of the fabrication bays begging Heart to let me do anything to help fix him up. I know what he gave me was busy work, but the tasks kept my mind off the dull throb of healing up.

  Once the general fog started to lift and he was able to dial the painkillers down, we started talking about what went wrong. Not that we hadn’t since I woke up, but I kept getting caught in the same circular logic chain. The drugs he had me on made me useless mentally, and it was only the low-g making me moderately useful physically, as though he needed me to begin with. I would have skipped them entirely if he didn’t have the drones following me ready to stab me with a syringe.

  Our longest running conversation was why? Followed by whom? “I do not know Ari. For an attack of that nature, our opposition would need to know our arrival window. All data leads to an inside leak of information. However, very few people knew of my involvement.” Heart displayed the people who had direct knowledge on the master screens, as well as a smaller subset of their trusted relations. “We can have a fairly high confidence Miss Kellinger and General Campbell were not the direct leak but that does not exclude others within their inner circles.”

  That led to how we were supposed to proceed. There was a very long pause from Heart after that. To the point where I thought I hadn’t said it out loud. “I do not believe we can trust anyone. We must operate under the assumption all communications are compromised.” A rather chilling thought. If all comms were fried, then my forged idents were probably toast as well. “Concur. However, I believe I can rectify that. We have a few larger concerns.”

  “First, we must determine a way to get you ashore. The lifeboats and the Captain’s yachts are suboptimal, but would work. Neither the runabout nor the hopper located in the starboard secondary hold are viable due of our current location, leaving the sloop in fabrication bay three. It is incomplete but functional. Its communications package should be sufficient to act as a relay to me if we are cautious.” Heart replaced a portion of the screen with diagrams of each of the vehicles he mentioned in turn. The final one appeared showing an angrav sloop.

  He had glossed over it by calling it a sloop, but an angrav sloop is like a hopper and a runabout had a kid, modified to the point of being space-ready. Essentially a two-seat vehicle a little over five meters long, but rather than having wheels like a runabout, it had angrav pads and a series of directional propulsors like a hopper. What made sloops different was the two sublight engines on the back. Hoppers used propulsors all the way around and topped out around the speed of sound. Angrav sloops topped out by crashing into things.

  They were originally conceived by the entertainment industry and people used to do cross-continent and cross world racing with them. Sloops were not only dangerous as hell but also amazing. When I was a kid I would watch the races any chance I could. As soon as I saw the sloop on the screen, I yelled for Heart to stop. Probably more forcefully than I intended, but I wanted to know why he had one in one of his bays, and why in the hell I was only finding out about it then.

  “I did not know you were interested in them or I would have shown you, but like the ships back on Luna, this has been a pet project of mine for the last several years. The physics behind them are interesting, and a few years back there was a resurgence on Luna for the sport. I have been trying to build a vintage variant since then. Unfortunately, original parts are difficult to find on the secondary market.” He had an original. I was out the bridge door trying to remember where bay three was. He was already lighting the way for me. Over the preceding few days, we had swapped out of emergency power mode, and he had gradually been adjusting gravity back to normal. My blood was pumping when I got there, but oh was it was worth it.

  The diagram didn’t do the sloop justice and Heart hadn’t done himself justice. Whatever work he had been doing on her was beyond compare. She was gorgeous. I wasn’
t sure what he meant by incomplete but from outward appearances, she looked like she was minutes off the assembly line. The only visible thing lacking was paint, having a steel gray exterior at the time. I was spewing compliments as fast as I could, circling her, and running my hands over every centimeter. “I was actually experimenting with a non-stock option for coloring. I know it is not strictly traditional, but I did not think anyone would mind this allowance.”

  The exterior of the car changed to a deep scarlet matching my old jacket. “I used a high-density polymer compound that allows me to modify the color scheme to some extent. I believe the Legion uses the same technology on some of their battle armor.” He was right, we did for our scouts. I explained the paint was energy intensive and tended to drain power, so we didn’t use it for everyone. “Yes, that makes sense, however, the engines cannot possibly use the full output of the reactors, so my inclusion was of minimal impact.”

  I was truly excited about the prospect of flying this beauty, but I did want to know what he meant by incomplete, especially as I have a healthy respect concerning my own abilities as a pilot. I knew Heart’s abilities and not my own saved us. “Most are minor cosmetic issues, however, there are a few other items we can likely replace with aftermarket parts. I will check my databases and see if we can fabricate them. Much of the work has been slow because I have had to manufacture the tools to work on the sloop, even when parts are readily available. I encountered this previously when conducting repairs on myself. Although I have the knowledge, I lack the capability due to things like access, or simply a stripped screw.”

  That had to be frustrating. Not being able to fix something because of an inability to reach it. Heart had all these little drones running around he could control, but he still needed help from an outsider. I understood what he was saying in some ways. Like trying to stitch up a wound on my own back, almost impossible. Just no reach. I would need to get help. It reinforced why we were a good team. There were things I wasn’t capable of. Had I been flying any other ship, I would’ve been dead. Without a crew, Heart couldn’t make repairs. Or at least, the fixes would take him a much longer time.

  I pulled myself away from staring at the sloop, and we started to prioritize a repair plan. Not only for the sloop but also for Heart himself. If things went south again, we wanted to be able to hightail it.

  Chapter 17

  We had a few major obstacles regarding the sloop above and beyond getting it up and running. First was its location within Heart himself. Unlike his holds, the fabrication bays lacked the standard airlocks. It wasn’t designed to be used as a means of quick egress, meaning that the sloop had to be moved to a different location within Heart for when I was ready to go ashore.

  Unfortunately, because the sloops’ size we couldn’t take it down the main passageways either. This meant taking it outside of Heart. Back on Luna in his hanger, this would have been a complete non-issue. He had the ability to shift large panels aside on the outer skin to allow entry, but the procedure was not simple by any means.

  Since we were surrounded by seawater, once we opened the panels we would flood the section with seawater and have no real means of removing it. At best we could methodically flood it, then seal it, and slowly shift the water to other areas, and attempt to vent it. As a space-faring vessel, Heart was generally designed to keep the atmosphere in, as opposed to pushing it out. In space decompression would take care of the issue but in the ocean, he just lacked the ability to shift that amount of water. The alternative was attempting to use the fabrication bay’s limited air conditioning capabilities but we didn’t think they were close to what was needed.

  We decided the simplest solution would be to treat it like a compromised space, and seal it off. As our goal was to move the sloop from its location to one of the transport holds instead the first order of business was to shift as much equipment as possible from bay three over to another bay for storage. We were able to use his droids for most of it, but the remainder was tedious and sweaty work.

  Once completed, it was a matter of opening up his outer hull and shifting the sloop itself. I had donned full kit as a safety precaution even though the AGS had a decent air supply. It was a tight fit inside the sloop, and I was fighting a touch of claustrophobia, as the water flooded into the bay at what I felt was a too fast speed. My dislike of being in water did not help the situation at all. If docked, on normal land the process would be an hour-long event at a minimum. Hiding in the Kermadec Trench, it felt like an eternity. Heart could obviously read my fear through my suit and did his best to keep me calm. “Ari, we’ll have you in the secondary hold very soon. Unfortunately, I need you to maneuver the sloop as I do not have the ability. Were I able to do this remotely you would not be in there.” I lied and told him it was fine. I’m not fond of tight spaces to begin with, and only the combined presence of the sloop and suit were keeping my fear of water at bay. Part of my control issues. I like to be in control.

  I felt like we were in pre-drop mode all over again. When the outer panel finally opened, and I felt the clamp unhook beneath us, I had to consciously avoid gunning the port directional. I feathered the controls and brought her sideways so I was facing the hatch. “Easy Ari, you don’t have rear propulsors, only the sublights. You have to back the sloop out. I don’t know what will happen if you attempt to engage the primary engines this deep, but I don’t think it will be good.” I gave Heart a quick thanks and released my death grip on the wheel. I counted out to one-hundred aloud, trying to keep myself calm and slowly spun the sloop’s tail 180 degrees. Getting myself effectively perpendicular to the bay wall, I applied the bare minimum juice. I’m sure it didn’t take much to clear Heart’s skin but felt like forever.

  After finally making it outside, I could feel the flow of the currents. I had to use the directionals to stay relatively steady. I was hovering about five meters from Heart, trying to get my bearings. Being this deep, we had almost no visual capability. I knew where he was only because I had recently come out, and because my helm was giving me a constant feed down to the centimeter.

  “Ari, I am displaying your present orientation in relation to myself on your primary display. As discussed, we need you to go under me in true terms, and then proceed to the port secondary hold. I already have it open. You are to retain orientation, which is reverse to normal. You will be coming in upside-down; however, I have adjusted gravity in the bay to neutral. There are light personal shields on the sloop, and your containment suit will handle well above these pressures. If I see any indications, I will magnetize the hull, and we will walk you in.”

  Since I was not aboard, Heart was getting uppity, and I let him know I didn’t appreciate it. “Ari, you can chastise me when you are back aboard and safe. Until then, we have our proverbial hands full.” I pointed out between us there was only one real hand and stifled a giggle for a second.

  Following his directions, I brought the sloop around. Heart’s position blocked most of the current, and let me focus on moving the sloop in what felt like, to me, up and over the bridge, and then rotate back towards the bays. He had chosen the path so he could physically block from above. Although he hadn’t said anything, I had a distinct feeling his shields were also on full while I was outside. Even though I couldn’t see it, the sloops sensors were picking up odd readings. Something about the way the water was interacting several meters out. Or my paranoia was getting the better of me. Eventually, I reached the bay and brought the sloop in.

  Going in was a different kind of stress than backing out. I was able to use my bottom directionals without a problem; however, the instant I passed into Heart’s angrav field, I was forced to compensate in the opposite direction, and try to create a semblance of neutral buoyancy. Within seconds I felt a magnetic clamp grab hold, fighting the sloop and my attempts to control its direction. “Cut power Ari, I have you,” and I reacted to his instructions as quickly as I could.

  “Closing primary doors, and will vent the hold moment
arily. Adjusting gravity orientation.” As soon as I saw the bay doors start to move, I popped the seal on my helm and shoved it into the passenger seat. The air inside the sloop was only slightly less stale than my suit, but at least it didn’t smell like ninety minutes of bottled up Gadsden fear. It was another twenty before I was able to get out of the sloop, but getting the helm off helped a lot.

  As soon as I was out of the sloop, I felt the tension drop off. I hadn’t realized how terrified I was out there. I started laughing. I don’t know how long I went on, but I finally heard a too loud and very worried Heart over the loud-speakers. “Ari? Your helmet is not on. You cannot hear me.” I waved him off and sat on the floor. Laughed more and more until one of his idiot drones dragged my helm to me.

  Chapter 18

  Our argument finally reached a head the following day. If Heart had his choice, we would have bolted back to Luna. His view was if we were dead, there was no way to accomplish our mission. My stance was if we left Terra, we were never getting back, and that ended the mission as well. This was our one shot, and we’d best make the most of it.

  It boiled down to conflicting programming. My primary conditioning was on mission accomplishment. The Legion drums the concept into our heads. Mission first. It’s so ingrained I wasn’t able to push past it, even when survival was potentially at stake. Heart’s focus was on crew welfare. To him that meant me. I was his top priority, not the mission.