by Becky Black
"No, I can't take all the credit, sir. I had a lot of help."
Chapter 47
"Thirty minutes out, Captain," the Trebuchet's helmsman reported.
"Alex." Maiga stood and turned to her first officer. "Take the con. I'll be back soon."
She went into the captain's ready room, where she picked up a carefully folded uniform from the desk and left again, heading for crew quarters.
An occasional crewmember passed her as she walked through the ship, but mostly the corridors were quiet. All the refugees had moved onto other ships. The fleet had made a few more stops but now, just over a month after leaving Hollow Jimmy, they were almost at their destination. Almost home.
Maiga had been glad to get the people off the Trebuchet. Not only because of her own preference for quiet, but because she considered the ship a crime scene. The section with the old captain's sealed cabin was still blocked off and would remain that way until they arrived and the investigation could begin. Alex and Sev had both pledged they would testify against Bara, even though it meant admitting to their own part in the mutiny.
Maiga didn't know how much punishment she could expect for anyone involved in the mutiny. After all, the human settlers would need everyone working and contributing, not languishing in a jail cell. But there had to be a trial.
She found the cabin she wanted, a marine standing guard outside. He spoke into his communicator at her order and a moment later, a woman wearing a nurse's uniform opened the door and stood aside to let Maiga enter. Inside the room, Bara sat up on the bunk.
"Who's that?"
"It's me," Maiga said. She spoke to the nurse. "Leave us for a moment, please."
"Yes, ma'am." The nurse left, the door swishing closed behind her. Maiga looked at Bara, still sitting on the bunk, facing where she knew Maiga must be, but not actually looking at her. Bara would not be making a contribution when they landed. At least not in the sense of building, or ploughing. Her trial would make a contribution, showing that humans were still civilised, still believed in the rule of law. Perhaps one day they could be a great civilisation again. But Maiga hoped they would take a different path this time.
"We'll arrive soon," Maiga said. "I thought you might like to be on the bridge. I brought your uniform."
"So kind of you," Bara said, her head turned to Maiga, but her unseeing eyes were not fixed on Maiga's face. "Allowing the poor blind woman some dignity."
"I'll help you put it on. Or I can call the nurse back in if you prefer."
"Nurse!" Bara snorted. "Guard dog, more like."
True enough. The nurse wasn't one of the Trebuchet's own medics, nor one from Hollow Jimmy. Maiga had requested Admiral Rand send her a nurse from one of the Committee ships to watch over Bara. Someone who hadn't been on either side.
"Had enough of medics anyway," Bara snarled. She stood up and Maiga helped her change, Bara snapping at her plenty. Lastly, the jacket. She could put that on alone and Maiga handed it to her. At once, Bara felt for the shoulder boards and ran her fingers over the raised stripes there. "One. Two. Three." A pause while she felt for the next, which wasn't there. She gave a bitter smile. "Commander."
"That's your rank."
"The rank you'll try me under." Maiga didn't answer. Bara shrugged and put on her jacket. "Command isn't simply about rank, Maiga," Bara said, doing up the buttons and straightening the jacket. "I was the captain of this ship."
"For a while."
"I was a good captain. The crew loved me."
"For a while."
Bara laughed at that. "And then they feared me for a longer while. And so they should have. So they should."
"So they should."
She led Bara from the room and walked arm in arm with her, like a couple of dear old friends. The few people they passed gave them a wide berth.
"So we're almost home to the mud ball, eh?" Bara said as they rode the lift to the bridge. "Where we can be those builders and farmers and parents you're so keen on. I'm glad I can't see it."
"I'm sorry." Maiga's voice was soft, she didn't even know if Bara heard it. She'd wanted to say it so many times; since the day Sheni had called her to sickbay and told her Bara had regained consciousness, seemed mentally intact. But…
Damage to the visual cortex, Sheni and the Trebuchet's doctor told Maiga. Repair, with regeneration therapy, might be possible, but would take months, even a couple of years.
I never meant to do that to her.
When they reached the bridge, Maiga found it crowded. Wixa was there with Gry, who cut a surprisingly distinguished figure now he'd cleaned up. Chervaz, with a pen in his hand and Jaff tagging along. Sev had appeared from engineering, no doubt with some spurious excuse about needing to man the bridge engineering station.
They had all come for the same thing. A planet filled the main viewing screen now.
Maiga guided Bara to the first officer's position beside the captain's chair. The others stared, but Maiga ignored that, as if she could no more see them than Bara could.
"Five minutes, then we'll establish orbit," Alex reported as he gave the captain's chair up to Maiga.
"I knew you were there, traitor," Bara said. "I can smell you." Alex scowled at her words, but said nothing.
"Be nice," Maiga said, quietly. "Or I'll send you back to your room." Bara subsided into silence, a sulky expression on her face. Back in the first officer's chair that she thought she'd escaped for good. She would kill me to get this chair back, Maiga thought, taking the captain's position.
Chervaz stepped close to her on the other side. He'd put his notebook away. No need to make notes to recall this moment. He'd remember it for the rest of his life. They all would. He laid one of his hands gently onto Maiga's. The other hand he put on Jaff's shoulder.
Glancing around, Maiga saw that Gry stood behind Wixa with his arms around her shoulders. Alex stood near enough to the engineering station that Sev could reach out and take his hand.
"Establishing orbit," the helmsman reported. Silence and then a few moments later he said, "Orbit achieved."
A sigh went around the bridge. The simple words--orbit achieved--ended their journey. They were home.
Bara's voice came quietly, a whisper, as if ashamed of asking. Ashamed of not being able to see it, Maiga wondered, or ashamed of caring enough to ask?
"What does it look like?"
Maiga looked away from her to the planet on screen. A mud ball Bara had called it, and perhaps she was right. Thick cloud cover drifted over continents coloured mostly brown and grey and bordered by black seas.
"It's beautiful."
###
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