by Tom Chattle
She frowned, remembering a question she'd asked herself when first reviewing the crew files after being assigned to the Valiant. "It's a little strange she got posted to such a minor ship, given her Academy scores."
Leaning over, McCann scanned the results Chen had been looking at. "It is odd. No indication as to why?"
Nothing else in the report hinted as to why she was on board the Valiant, and Chen shook her head. "No, there's not anything else." Pausing, she glanced at McCann. "Something worth figuring out?"
"Wouldn't hurt to know," McCann nodded, a grin flashing across his face, "just in case she's crazy or something."
Chen filed that away as something to investigate. After scanning the rest of the file, she closed it, leaned back, and stared at McCann. "You're the one who paid attention in class. How do we deal with her?"
"You're the commanding officer. Shouldn't you be the one telling me?" McCann teased. When Chen replied with an unimpressed glare, he laughed. "We need to give her encouragement and space to flourish without pressuring her. Or so Commander Jackson would have said."
"Great, because I'm so good at the talking with the feelings." Chen sighed. Twirling her empty glass around on the desk, she frowned. "There has to be a reason why she's so antsy all the time."
McCann nodded. "There almost certainly is." A sly smile crept over his face. "And it's your job to find out."
Chen threw her head back and groaned. "I swear, sometimes I don't know why I keep you around."
"Auri, you'd be screwed without me."
The chirping alert of the comm saved Chen from having to think of a way to deny that particular truth.
The red-haired man glanced at the glowing comm-panel. "Speaking of..."
"Ma'am, we've located some debris." Moreau's hesitant voice filled the room. "I don't think it's natural."
Chen leaned forward and thumbed the button to reply. "Thank you, Ensign. We'll be out momentarily."
Standing and straightening his uniform jacket, McCann raised an eyebrow. "Some celebrity that just wanted out of the spotlight, eh?"
Swearing under her breath, Chen pushed past him onto the bridge.
- 3 -
2208.02.19 // 11:37
UVS Valiant, Arcturus System
Chen strode back onto the bridge and stood before her chair in the center. Spartan for the command deck of a starship, the wide space was dimly lit in shades of blue—a stark, functional room. The ceiling was low, and the thick buttresses that lined the bulkheads gave it a segmented appearance. From her elevated position at the center, Chen could watch over the primary and secondary stations spread along each side. Not at all like the gleaming, technology-packed spaces on the newer vessels in the fleet, Chen found it almost claustrophobic, far different from what she'd trained on.
Designed to be staffed by a minimal crew, the Valiant's tactical station sat on the right, angled toward the broad, front armor-glass windows that also functioned as a tactical overlay, able to pan and zoom as needed. On the opposite side was the operations station, currently staffed by the Valiant's lead engineer, Chief Cartwright.
Chen straightened her duty jacket. "All right, what have we got here?"
"Scanners picked up a lengthy debris field containing significant traces of metallic alloys, ma'am," Moreau replied.
"Could it be the remains of an asteroid with high contents of natural ores?" McCann asked, joining them.
"Possible, sir," Moreau answered. "We need to take a closer look."
Ensign Vega, located center-forward at the helm station, turned his head. "I'm bringing us in to investigate."
Chen sat in her chair, picking at the frayed edges of the armrest. "Good. Put it up on screen as soon as we're within range."
A few minutes of silence later, Moreau piped up. "Transferring sensor image to the screen."
The starfield on the main viewscreen jerked and zoomed in on a particularly large asteroid dead ahead. Jagged, fractured peaks thrust into space in every direction, icy deposits glittering in the faint light of the distant star. Chen stared at the image, but nothing significant was apparent. She was moments from asking Moreau to explain when the rock rotated further, bringing a silvery metallic cloud into view.
"Definitely not natural," McCann noted. "Moreau, can you zoom in more?"
Nodding, the woman tapped a few buttons, enhancing the display that spanned the forward bulkhead. What looked like pieces of dust before now resolved themselves into chunks of metal alloy. Most of it was indistinguishable, but one piece stood out. A long, thin panel spun lazily in place, its edges crumpled and torn. It brought its face to bear in their direction, and Chen could just about make out the flamboyantly painted letters 'ilde St.' Twisting her mouth, she glanced at McCann. "The Wilde Star."
McCann raised his eyebrows. "Well, this mission just got a lot more urgent." He turned to Moreau. "Any more significant debris, Ensign?"
"No, sir," she answered. "I'm not detecting anything else major." Moreau looked up anxiously. "I hope Ms. Wilde is okay."
Vega snorted derisively from his position at the helm. "You actually like her shows, don't you?"
"My mom and I watch them together," Moreau replied in a small voice as Vega chuckled to himself.
"That's enough, Vega," Chen warned. As much as she didn't care for Wilde's speculative brand of filmmaking, the last thing Moreau needed was further dents to her confidence.
"There's not enough debris here for an entire ship, even a small private vessel like the Wilde Star," McCann murmured, leaning toward Chen.
"Agreed. Perhaps they were disabled and drifted?" Chen drummed her fingers on the armrest. She had no interest in this mission, but Admiral Wilde had gone out on a limb to give her this command; she owed it to him to find the answers he needed. "Moreau, any signs of the rest of that ship?"
Studying her console intently, the young woman shook her head. "No ma'am, nothing big." She tapped a few more buttons before a frown crossed her face. "Although, there is a faint trail of metallic residue and frozen waste fluids heading deeper into the system."
"Well, there's our trail of breadcrumbs." McCann grinned.
Chen glanced at him before calling out. "Vega, do you have the route?"
"Aye, ma'am," he confirmed, receiving the data input from Moreau, "pulling it up now." He slid his hand up the glass display on his console, and the tracking data appeared on the main viewscreen, dotted lines tracing a gently arcing trail toward the center of the star system.
"All right, take us in. Maximum sub-light burn. I don't want this to take all week." Chen turned to the tactical station. Moreau was gazing out the viewport, twirling a lock of her dark hair. "Moreau, run some deep scans of the system." The command made the slender woman start. "We might as well map this area while we're here."
While the crew executed their orders, Chen brought up the screen in her armrest and tapped notes into her log. Regardless of the turn it had taken, this mission was frustrating. Not a single soul was out here in the far reaches of human space, other than the self-absorbed rich girl they were chasing and her filming crew. There wasn't even any concrete data on the system, just a few long-range scans and a couple of observations from passing ships. That itself was strange. While far-flung, the Arcturus system was not so far as to explain why the information in the fleet archives was so sparse and error-filled.
More than a hundred and fifty years after humans had first pushed out from Earth, near-constant arguments and wars between newly independent worlds had meant distant exploration had been slow. True human expansion had been limited to the closer stars such as Sirius and Alpha Centauri—a system that always brought painful emotions to the fore for Chen. Her father had been killed there in one of the defining battles of the Third System War when she was barely old enough to remember him.
Shaking away the turmoil of thoughts that bubbled up within, Chen grimaced. Her mother would have told her to suck it up and do her job. Even though that was probably the right answe
r, just the thought of her grating voice made Chen roll her hazel eyes.
"Umm, Lieutenant?"
Moreau's voice shook Chen from her thoughts. "What is it, Ensign?"
"Were there any planets in this system?" Her voice held uncertainty as she examined the data before her.
"I don't believe so. McCann?"
McCann was already checking the star charts on his screen. Peering at the map, he frowned and tapped the edge of his monitor before shaking his head and shrugging. "Not listed in the database, but who the hell knows out here?"
Moreau flicked cerulean eyes up from the screen. Chen had known her for several months now but had still not gotten used to the contrast between those bright eyes and the ensign's rich, tawny skin. "Well, scanners are detecting one."
Chen leaned forward in her seat, breath quickening. It was unusual for even the most rudimentary spatial survey to miss something as significant as a planet. "What kind?"
"Uhh, still hard to tell at this range, ma'am, but initial scans indicate a medium-sized super-Earth."
"Atmosphere?" McCann straightened, his interest piqued. A rocky world, much bigger than Earth or Mars, a super-Earth class planet held the possibility of a survivable surface.
Pausing, Moreau checked the data. "I'm reading a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere based on preliminary spectral analysis."
Vega swiveled his chair around. "Ma'am, the course we're following looks like it leads straight to the planet."
Chin resting in a cupped hand, McCann glanced over at Chen. "You think they headed there?"
Pursing her lips, Chen nodded. "Makes sense. With a damaged ship, even the chance of a breathable atmosphere would be a strong lure."
"Put it up on screen," McCann requested of Moreau. A few taps and a swipe from the woman and a fuzzy gray-blue dot showed up on the main screen. "Not much to look at from this range but, hey, it's something, at least."
Vega ran a few calculations and piped up. "It will take us nearly eight hours to enter planetary orbit at full burn."
"Call Bauer up here, will you?" Chen asked McCann. "She's going to need to be kept apprised of the situation if there's the potential for a planetary drop."
"Aye," McCann acknowledged, entering some commands into his arm console to locate and request the presence of the Marine lieutenant.
- 4 -
2208.02.19 // 12:03
UVS Valiant, Arcturus System
With Moreau's scan data flickering across the viewscreen, the uncomfortable silence of a crew still not used to each other's company took over. Moreau kept her head down, ignoring anyone else's movement, studying her readings intently. Whether that was because she was so focused on her console or was just acting like nothing was bothering her, Chen couldn't tell.
Vega, on the other hand, had a habit of drumming his fingers and swinging back and forth in his chair when not occupied. The young helmsman gave off a slight air of superiority, and his eyes darted back and forth around the bridge, clearly edging on boredom. She remembered he'd been near the top of his class in flight training, but Chen made a note to check his personnel report for any notes she'd missed the first time she'd glanced through them.
After fifteen minutes of near silence while the crew went about their work, the main bridge door hissed opened. Chen turned to see a tall woman in blue and gray combat fatigues enter, her platinum blond hair tied in a neat bun underneath a camouflaged utility cap. Martian born, Lieutenant Alexandra Bauer was the commander of the Union Marine detachment garrisoned on board the Valiant. For any ship equipped with void-specialized nuclear warheads in its armory such as the Valiant, a garrison of Marines was standard.
The ground-combat branch of the UEF's navy, Marines were also deployed when there was any chance of off-ship assignments. Given planet-fall had not been in the plan for this mission, the complement of Marines Bauer led was a paltry twelve men and women, plus her gunnery sergeant, Haynes.
Drawing up between Chen and McCann, Bauer raised a pale eyebrow at the fuzzy dot on the viewscreen. "I don't remember mention of any planets in the data files."
"That's because there weren't any." McCann snorted. "Moreau here can claim discovery of this one." He looked over at the ensign, a small smile tugging at the edge of his mouth. "What do you think, Moreau? Fancy a planet named after you?"
Moreau's blue eyes darted between her console and the sub-lieutenant, too flustered to respond to his gentle ribbing.
Chen gave her an out by inclining her head toward Bauer. "Seems like our celebrity picked up a bit of damage and headed in-system."
"Probably from the same unexpected asteroids that took a few bits of paint off our hull," McCann chimed in.
"Logical," Bauer agreed. "I assume that's where we're heading now?"
Chen nodded. "Exactly. Approximately eight hours until orbit."
Bauer scratched her chin. "How can a planet not be marked in the archives when the system was supposed to be mapped?"
"A good question." Chen hadn't given it much thought to this point, but it was peculiar that there was no mention of any type of planet in the data archives. Not even the asteroid belt had been listed, leading to much of their—and probably Katrina Wilde's—problems to this point. Everything larger than a thousand meters square was supposed to be cataloged by the long-range scanning teams, at least according to current protocol. Maybe it had been different back when this region got scanned, but a super-Earth sized object should have been listed.
"Perhaps the archive got corrupted?" McCann suggested.
"Sir?" Moreau piped up from across the bridge.
McCann gestured for her to continue.
"I checked the archives for any problems and cross-referenced them with the data backups. There were some strange readings with the files, but I think it might just be the computer system aboard the Valiant. I couldn't find any obvious indication of anything wrong with the fleet archives themselves."
Chen cleared her throat, using the opportunity to encourage the ensign. "Very diligent, Moreau. Good job."
The woman blushed and glued her face back to the console screen before her.
A smile tugged at the corners of McCann's face, but he managed to reign it in. "When was the system scanned in the first place? Maybe it just never got entered."
Chen skimmed through the archive file she had opened on her chair console. "Before the Second System War, it looks like. It's been a while."
"Regardless of the mystery," Bauer stated, "it looks like we'll be executing a planetary drop?"
"It seems likely," Chen replied. "If they were damaged, then trying to land would be the logical option."
"I'll have a search team ready for planet-fall." She moved closer to the viewscreen, squinting at the image. "Do we know anything about the atmosphere?"
Watching the Marine, Chen shook her head. "Nothing concrete until we're closer, but early indications from Moreau's scans point to it being breathable to some degree."
Satisfied with the answer, Bauer turned, her gray eyes landing on Chen. "All right, we can prep the exo-suits in case it isn't, but hopefully it's just a job for re-breathers."
"That's what I'm hoping for." Chen stood lazily, looking at the chronometer. "McCann, you have the bridge. I'm going to try and get some rest before we get there."
"Gee, thanks," McCann intoned, raising an eyebrow at Chen.
She smirked and patted her friend on the shoulder as she passed. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find time to rest later."
Chen headed to the exit tunnel at the rear of the bridge, and Bauer fell in step with her, hands clasped behind her back. "I'll walk with you. I'm sure we have more to discuss."
- 5 -
2208.02.19 // 14:16
UVS Valiant, Arcturus System
Chen gasped and her back arched, fingers entwining in the sheets, grasping for purchase. She collapsed onto the bed, dark hair matted across her face, the thin memory-mattress re-forming around her. Trying to catch her breath, she ran her hands
through the tousled, blond hair falling across her stomach. Bauer kissed her way up Chen's slick, bare skin and planted a muscular arm on each side of Chen's shoulders, the pale creaminess of her skin contrasting with Chen's darker hue. The Marine leaned down and planted a hungry kiss on Chen's lips; lingering a moment before she rolled off and lied next to her, one hand draped across Chen's chest, which still rose and fell heavily while she recovered.
"Not bad for a Martian," Chen murmured, running a lazy finger along Bauer's arm.
"Careful, Earther girl." The taller woman smirked, brushing back the hair clinging to her face. "Or there won't be a next time."
"Well, we can't have that." It had never been the plan for Chen to end up in bed with Alex Bauer at the start of this voyage. It just sort of happened. Her boyfriend back home...well, she hadn't talked to him since the Valiant's refit was nearly complete. Chen was pretty sure they were done after the last exchange of messages and wasn't interested in finding out. The selfish asshole had been decidedly frosty after she got reprimanded at the Academy, realizing her career wasn't likely to reach the peaks he'd apparently expected when he was introduced to her. Chen tried to shake off the memory of his face that loomed in her mind. Screw him, anyway; she'd only been dating him to placate her mother in the first place.
Whatever its drawbacks, and however much she grumbled about it to McCann, she had a ship that was hers and a beautiful and very enthusiastic woman to share her modest bed—at least when they could get away from their duties at the same time.
Bauer had been a natural candidate to socialize with during off-hours, since she was the only other person on the ship beside McCann who wasn't Chen's junior in rank. One thing led to another when the mixture of stress and boredom set in during the long trans-rift journey to their current location. There wasn't exactly a lot to do on a starship between duty shifts.
