by Ryk Brown
“Are you sure?”
“What else could it be?”
“It could be a trap, for one,” Jessica warned. “They could’ve compromised our encryption and authentication codes.”
“Possibly, but why not just use a standard action order format? And why not put the name of the officer giving the order? That would be standard practice on a Fleet action order.”
“Without the issuing officer’s name, shouldn’t we be questioning its authenticity?”
“Normally, yes, but—I don’t know,” Nathan said. “There’s something about this that feels legit.”
“Well, I’d be sure to have everything armed and ready if you do go to that point,” Jessica said, “because if it is a trap, there are going to be a whole lot of Jung there to spring it.”
“Duly noted,” Nathan said with a nod. “And be sure that both Naralena and her assistant know how to recognize a Fleet comm-signal. We can’t afford to have any messages going unnoticed for days on end.”
Jessica looked suspiciously at Nathan. “That’s it? No butt chewing?”
“Not today. That’s the XO’s job anyway,” Nathan told her. “Besides, I have a confession of my own.”
Obviously happy she was not in trouble, Jessica leaned forward, her arms on her legs, trying to look serious. “What did you do, young man?”
“I’m afraid I inadvertently kept something from you,” Nathan said, bracing himself for her response. “Something that might be considered a security issue.”
Jessica tried not to laugh at her captain’s defensive body language as she leaned back on the couch again. “What makes you think I don’t already know?”
“Mister Percival is really Captain Dubnyk.”
Jessica laughed. “I guess I didn’t know.” Jessica looked at him. “What the hell, Nathan?”
“Vlad figured it out.”
“Since when does Vlad play detective?”
“He was working on the logs from the failed Jasper colony. He found a video transmission between the leader of the colony and Captain Dubnyk. It was Mister Percival.”
“Okay, so either Mister Percival is lying to us, and his real name is Dubnyk, or his real name is Percival, and he was lying to the colonists.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Why would he lie to us? Why would he want to be Percival instead of Dubnyk? To hide a criminal past? It’s been a thousand years, Nathan. None of the governments that existed back then are still around. Who’s going to arrest him?”
“Good point. But he’s lying about something. Or he’s lied about something.”
“Who hasn’t?”
“Either way, we should try to get to the truth of the matter.”
“And how do we do that?” Jessica asked. “Take a bio-scan and run it against arrest records from a thousand years ago? Which, by the way, we don’t have access to.”
“What if he is hiding something terrible?”
“Like what? Running an unregistered colony mission in an unregistered cargo ship? What was the penalty for that back in 2400? Take away his ship? Check. Strip him of his captain’s license? Check, if he ever had one, that is.”
“What do we do with him then?”
“Look, Nathan, I appreciate that you feel guilty for not telling me right away. And for the record, don’t do that again… ever,” she said as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. “I doubt he’s a threat to this ship. I mean, he’s a feeble old man. If you’re worried about him, just restrict him to his quarters or something. We’re already monitoring his movements. So far, he only goes to the head, medical, and the galley.”
“What about his computer usage?”
“Mostly just Earth history since after the plague. He’s also watched a few old, pre-plague movies—you know, the ones from the Ark. He hasn’t tried to look at anything more sensitive than a deck map so far. You want me to talk to him,” she said as she cracked her knuckles in jest, “get the truth out of him?”
Nathan recognized her sarcasm. “I’ll talk to him… Captain to captain, so to speak.”
“Suit yourself, Skipper,” Jessica said as she rose. “I’ll think about your punishment and get back to you,” she added with a smile as she headed for the exit.
“Thanks,” Nathan said. “And send Mister Riley in. I have some course changes for him to calculate.”
* * *
“Jump complete,” Mister Chiles reported.
“Position verified,” Lieutenant Yosef reported. “Approaching Beta Virginis Four.”
Nathan stared at the image of the massive, Earth-like world that nearly filled the main view screen. “Did we jump in too close, or is that thing really that big?”
“It’s really that big, sir,” Lieutenant Yosef answered.
“How much speed are we going to pick up during this maneuver?”
“Actually, we’re going to decelerate,” Mister Chiles said. “We’re coming around the planet in front of her orbital path, so we’ll be shedding some of our angular momentum to the planet.”
“That was at Lieutenant Yosef’s request,” Cameron told Nathan. “We were going a bit fast for data collection.”
“How much bigger is that planet than the Earth?” Nathan wondered.
“Approximately three and a half times the mass of Earth,” Lieutenant Yosef answered.
“I wonder what it’s like on the surface.”
“Freezing cold, extremely high gravity, and extremely high air pressure,” the lieutenant said, “not to mention that the air is rather toxic.”
“How long will the maneuver take?” Nathan wondered.
“Six point four hours,” Mister Riley said. “Like the lieutenant said, it is a big planet.”
“Anybody ever explore it?” Nathan asked.
“According to the database, it was explored robotically during the early days of core exploration. They found the usual resources you’d expect on a rocky world, as well as plenty of frozen water. No complex life to speak of other than microbial. They never paid it much attention.”
“Probably because of its mass,” Nathan said. “Too much propellant getting on and off that frozen rock.”
“Five minutes to our insertion point,” Mister Riley reported. “We will need to do a small course correction just before insertion, sir.”
“Very well.” Nathan looked at his watch. “I assume you’ve got this.”
“Yes, sir,” Cameron answered. “You don’t want to hang around and watch?”
“A six-hour maneuver? No thanks. Besides, I’m still not sleeping well.”
“Maybe you should go by medical and get something to help you sleep,” she suggested.
“Maybe.”
* * *
It had been nearly three days since Nathan had ordered the Aurora to retreat and jump away to safety. Leaving the Earth behind at the hands of the Jung had been one of the hardest things that he had ever done, and ever since they jumped away, he had not been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. He had so much on his mind that all he could do was lie in bed and worry.
Sleep had eluded him during much of their time in the Pentaurus cluster as well. At the time, he resorted to pushing himself to exhaustion so that his body left him no choice but to sleep. However, it had been an unpleasant way to live, one that he didn’t care to repeat. He didn’t care much for pharmaceutical sleeping aides, which usually left him feeling groggy when he woke. Unfortunately, he had little choice this time. He no longer had the luxury of knowing that he would eventually be handing his ship back to Fleet. Now, he was taking his ship to war against a powerful enemy that undoubtedly had them vastly outnumbered. This time, there would be no one to hand the responsibility to. The responsibility was his and his alone. That
meant he needed to take better care of himself. He needed to sleep.
Nathan entered the treatment area in medical and spotted Loki sitting in his bed, reading a data pad. The room was dark other than the light over Loki’s head and the soft lighting around Josh’s bed next to him. “How are you doing?” he whispered as he approached his bed.
“Fine, sir,” Loki answered. “A little sore, and my eyes seem to tire easily, but otherwise, I’m doing okay.”
“That’s good to hear,” Nathan whispered.
“Josh isn’t sleeping, sir. He’s in a medically induced coma so that he won’t feel the nanites working in his head. You don’t have to whisper.”
“Right.” Nathan took a seat next to Loki’s bed. “You don’t feel them?”
“Not really, but they said the nanites have already moved out of my head and into my gut, or something like that.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry about what happened, sir,” Loki said, “to Earth, I mean. After everything you guys went through to get back home, well, that had to suck.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Nathan said.
“It’s gotta be hard for you, sir.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can see it in your face,” Loki told him. “When I was worried about something, my father would tell me I looked like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I imagine I looked much like you do now.”
“That obvious, huh?”
“Yeah. Of course, you actually do have the weight of the world on your shoulders, so I guess you have a right to look the way you do.”
“I’m just tired,” Nathan told him. “I haven’t been sleeping well the last few days.”
“I don’t blame you, sir. Of course, you’re probably used to it by now, especially after fighting the Ta’Akar.”
“The Jung are not the Ta’Akar,” Nathan said. “They’ve got a lot more ships, and they control a lot more worlds. And we don’t have the Karuzari to help us this time.”
“Maybe we do.”
Nathan looked quizzically at Loki.
“Those resistance fighters in the 72 Herculis system on Tanna,” Loki said. “Aren’t they pretty much the same thing?”
“Not exactly,” Nathan said. “First, it sounded to me like they were more local than the Karuzari. Second, I doubt that one of them is an illegally deposed monarch.”
“Yeah, probably not,” Loki agreed with a shrug, “but if there’s one, there’s gotta be more, right?”
“You’ve been talking with Lieutenant Commander Nash, haven’t you?”
“She was in here a little while ago, asking me questions about Garrett and his friends. She really wants to go back there and talk to them.”
“I know. She told me.”
“I know it’s probably none of my business, sir. I’m just a navigator, but, are you going to let her?”
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“I guess captains have to do that a lot: think about things. Frankly, sir, I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?” Nathan wondered.
“Make the big decisions.”
“You just do. Most of the time, you don’t have any other choice.”
Loki was silent for a moment, looking down at his hands and thinking. Finally, without looking up, he said, “I guess that’s what makes you Na-Tan.”
“You don’t really believe in that Na-Tan garbage, do you?” Nathan asked. He looked at Loki as his head slowly rose to reveal a mischievous smile. “You’ve been hanging around Josh too long,” Nathan added.
“Yeah, he starts to corrupt you after a while.”
Nathan smiled back. “You know, she suggested that you go with her back to Tanna.”
“Yeah, she told me,” Loki said, offering no hint of how he felt about the idea.
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m okay with it, sir,” Loki answered. “Anything to get me out of here. I’m getting awfully bored.”
“Even if I do let her go, it will be a while,” Nathan told him, “maybe a month or more.”
“Yeah, she told me we’re going to coast for a while and collect old signals and images. Just as well, I guess. I suspect I’m not going to be a hundred percent for a few more weeks anyway.”
“Think you’ll be up for a little consulting work sometime soon?” Nathan asked.
“The sim stuff? Major Prechitt already asked me. I told him I’d do what I can, but that’s not much, really. Josh does most of the flying. I mostly just plot the jumps and manage the sensors and other systems. It’s all straightforward stuff. Those Corinari pilots will figure it out in no time, sir.”
“Don’t discount your expertise too quickly,” Nathan told him. “You may not realize it now, but you probably know a few tricks in the backseat that would be useful to your relief crew.”
“Then you’re not planning on replacing us?”
“Not unless you’re planning on quitting on me,” Nathan told him.
“No, sir, not me. Not Josh either, once they wake him up, that is.”
“Good, because we’re going to need a lot of recon flights, far more than one crew can handle—maybe even more than two crews can handle.”
“I’ll miss working on the bridge, though,” Loki said.
“Oh, you’re still going to be working on the bridge, Mister Sheehan. I only have one other flight team, remember?”
“Yes, sir,” Loki answered, smiling.
“Get some rest, Mister Sheehan,” Nathan instructed as he rose. “I’ve got to find the doctor and ask her for something to knock my ass out for a few hours.”
“Thank you, sir.” Loki watched his captain walk across the treatment room, disappearing through the doorway at the far end. He looked at his friend, Josh, lying unconscious in the bed next to him, his breathing controlled by an artificial respiration device connected to him by tubes and wires. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the pressurized air being pumped intermittently through the tubes to cause his friend to breathe. Loki let the rhythmic hisses lull him back to sleep.
* * *
Nathan left medical with a small container of med-tabs that Doctor Chen promised would help him sleep without leaving him groggy. He had never liked taking medications, something that he had picked up from his mother. She had always told him stories about how her grandmother could cure just about anything with a root, a paste, or a special blend of herbal teas. Many ailments of his youth had been cured by such recipes, all handed down over a hundred generations who had to learn how to treat themselves in the absence of modern medicine. He put the container into his pants pocket and continued down the corridor.
It took less than a minute to reach Mister Percival’s quarters, as he had been assigned to one of the rooms that had been converted into an extended care room due to its close proximity to the ship’s medical department. As he approached Mister Percival’s quarters, he tapped his comm-set. “Nash, Captain,” he announced in a hushed tone.
“Go for Nash,” Jessica’s voice answered over his comm-set.
“Are you ready?” Nathan asked as he played with the volume on his comm-set, setting it as low as possible while still being audible to him.
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan pressed the buzzer next to the doorway and waited. For days, he had thought about what to say to the man, and for days, he had wondered what that man would say when confronted. A hundred different ways to ask him why he had pretended to be someone else had run through Nathan’s mind. He had discussed it with Jessica more than once, but now he was going to have to choose one.
The door finally opened, and Mister Percival stood on the other side. His gray hair was neatly trimmed and styled, and his whiskers were trimmed
and stately in their appearance. He was dressed in medical scrub pants and a loose fitting T-shirt, and he appeared ready for a good night’s sleep.
“Captain, I wasn’t expecting you,” Mister Percival said.
“I didn’t wake you, did I?” Nathan asked politely.
“Of course not. I was just reading.”
“May I speak with you a moment?”
“Of course. Please come in,” Mister Percival said, stepping to one side to allow Nathan to pass.
Nathan stepped into the small room as Mister Percival closed the door and followed him in. The main lights were off, and the room was lit by the bedside lamp and the glow of the view screen mounted in the bulkhead over the desk at the foot of the bed. “What were you reading?” Nathan asked.
“Just browsing some of the files in your database about your early post-plague Earth history. How your ancestors managed to survive the total collapse of industrialized society is fascinating. It makes me feel quite proud, actually, that human beings could be so resilient. Quite surprising really, considering the state of humanity at the time the plague struck.”
“Yes, well, don’t believe everything you read,” Nathan told him. “A lot of the early stuff is based on some pretty weak evidence. Nobody bothered keeping decent records for at least a century after the fall.”
“You sound like an historian, Captain.”
“It was my area of study in college.”
“A logical choice for a future starship captain,” Mister Percival said as he sat on the edge of his bed. “Please, sit.”
Nathan took a seat on the chair at the small desk built into the bulkhead. He glanced at the viewer on the wall over the desk, noting that there were history files on display, just as Mister Percival had indicated.
“To what do I owe the honor of your company, Captain?” Mister Percival asked graciously.
