“No, Captain,” he said, “that person is my daughter.”
I couldn’t argue with that. The man would obviously know his own daughter’s voice. “Okay, I guess that proves it. So what do we know about the planet?”
“Not much.” He pressed more keys, and a hologram of Savarea, as seen from space, floated in the air above the desk. I could see oceans, a desert, a jungle, but not much else.
“We can’t scan the planet in any detail,” he said, “because the Horde has placed signal jammers on the surface. They allow communications to and from the planet surface but block computer scans. Typical Horde behavior. This is what the planet looked like before the war.”
“So we don’t know the precise location of the survivors,” I said.
“Not the precise location, no. But I’ve had my scientists look at all the data surrounding the Oregon incident. They’ve come up with a computer simulation of the most likely area where the survivors would have crash landed on the planet.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “The Oregon didn’t crash on the planet. I saw her explode. And the only life raft that managed to escape the blast was the one I was in with my lieutenant.”
“Tell me about the life rafts,” Vess said.
“The Oregon was equipped with standard-issue Imperium life rafts. They’re small pods that are shot from a disabled ship into space so that the occupants have a chance of being picked up by a passing friendly ship. There’s a distress beacon that initiates automatically as soon as the raft is deployed.”
“And you’re positive that your raft was the only one to leave the Oregon before the explosion?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What if a life raft was fired toward the planet?”
I thought about that. It was possible. If a raft had been shot at the surface of the planet, Schafer and I might not have seen it because the Oregon had been blocking our view. Everything had been so chaotic.
“It’s possible,” I said. “The rafts have basic flight controls so, in theory, a crew could navigate to a safe landing zone on the planet.”
“Not just theory, Captain. It has happened. Those people made it to the planet’s surface and they are still alive. There’s no doubt about it.”
“Have you alerted the Imperium? Those survivors are serving soldiers. If the Imperium knows they’re alive, it’ll send out a rescue…”
“No,” Vess said, cutting me off. “The Imperium doesn’t know about the distress call. The only people who know about the survivors are the people in this room and the rest of the crew I have assembled to fly to Savarea on the mission.”
‘The Imperium has a lot of resources,” I said. “They might have a better chance to pull this off than a private undertaking.”
“They might have resources, Captain Blake, but they would go in there with all guns blazing, probably causing deaths among the survivors as well as any aliens on the planet.”
I nodded but said nothing. He had a point. Sometimes the Imperium acted in a heavy-handed fashion. Hell, not just sometimes; the Imperium way was to shoot first and ask questions later. That was the result of fighting a war where any alien species in the galaxy could be part of the Horde, but it did mean the Imperium might not be best-suited for a search and rescue operation. Not if we wanted the survivors on Savarea to still be surviving after the operation was over, anyway.
“My daughter’s life is on the line,” Vess said. “I will use every resource available to bring her back alive, but the Imperium is not part of my plan.”
“So what exactly is your plan?” I asked.
He grinned. “Does this mean you will be joining our venture? I need a captain.”
I nodded. If there were survivors from the Oregon and they were in trouble, it was my duty to help them. I may not be an employee of the Imperium any longer, but this was a duty that went beyond that. “I’m in,” I said, “but I have one question.”
“Then ask it, Captain.” He looked at me expectantly.
“Why me? Of all the people you could have picked for this mission, why did you choose the man responsible for the destruction of the Oregon in the first place?”
“That’s a fair question. After all, until I heard that distress call, I must have assumed that you were responsible for the death of my daughter, correct?”
“I guess so,” I said.
He shook his head and his eyes softened. “I never blamed you for Georgia’s death. After the Oregon was destroyed, I felt angry of course. But I was never angry at you. You were a fine captain, one who cared for his crew, which is a rarity these days.”
“How can you know that?” I asked, confused.
Vess smiled. “I’ve run more multi-billion credit companies than I can remember and if there’s one thing that has taught me, it’s this: if you want an honest appraisal of someone’s character, you ask the people who are ranked below them, those who work for them. And you come with glowing references.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Captain, the Oregon was my daughter’s favorite posting. When I spoke with her, she had nothing but good things to say about the way you ran that ship. When she was on the Oregon, she glowed with a happiness I hadn’t seen before. She mentioned you many times, and told me that you were the best captain she had ever worked for. Before being assigned to the Oregon, she’d been on ships where she didn’t like the captains for one reason or another, but she told me that she trusted you with her life.”
I was genuinely touched. As a captain, I’d always cared for my crew, which was probably why the destruction of the Oregon had hit me so hard. To hear that an ensign on board trusted me with her life, and had told her father that, filled me with a sense of warmth that I hadn’t felt in a long time. The type of warmth that didn’t come from a whisky bottle.
“So, you see,” Vess said, “as far as I am concerned, you come with the best reference possible, that of my own daughter. I’m sure there is nobody else she would rather have leading this rescue mission than you. So will you do her, and me, the honor of bringing my daughter back home?”
How could I refuse? “I will,” I said.
He beamed. “Excellent! Now, I’ve put together a rather special crew for you to lead. You’ve already met Eric Morrow. He’s going to be the pilot, of course. The man is a master of control when it comes to flying, you said so yourself.” He gestured to the gruff man who was still staring at me.
“Morrow,” I said, extending my hand.
He shook it with a grip that was meant to intimidate me. I looked him square in the eyes and waited for him to release my hand. He did so with a slight nod. I had no idea if he had a problem with me personally or if he was just a sociopath in general, so I didn’t take his intimidation attempt personally. The man could fly, I couldn’t deny that, and that meant he would be a good man to have on this mission.
“And you already know Jane, of course,” Vess said. “She’s an excellent fighter, Captain. Ex-legionnaire, you know.”
“I know,” I said, looking at Baltimore.
She smiled but it was one of her cold “I’m only smiling on the outside” smiles.
Was anyone on this mission going to be friendlier than Morrow and Baltimore? Vess’s enthusiasm certainly wasn’t spreading to the crew.
“There are two other crew members I’d like you to meet,” Vess said. “They’re waiting on your ship, along with a dozen soldiers hand-picked from my security team.”
“My ship?”
“Of course. You can’t be a captain without a ship. She’s not the Imperium fighter you’re used to, but I’m sure you’ll find her more than adequate for the journey to Savarea.”
He typed on the keyboard again and the field and forest vista disappeared from the windows. With the illusory landscape gone, we could see through the windows to the section of space beyond. A small ship drifted there.
She was much less grandiose than I’d expected, given Solomon Vess’s propensity for lux
ury. Compared to the shuttle that had brought us here, the ship I was looking at now was positively outdated. I recognized her as an Avis class fighter, one of the first classes of fighters that had been deployed during the Horde War. I’d heard they were maneuverable and reliable but they had soon been replaced with the more modern Raptor class vessels.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Vess said, going to the window. “She doesn’t look like much. But she’s been updated with the latest engine technology and we’ve improved her life support systems and weaponry.”
I was used to commanding much larger vessels but I’d been out of action for a year, so maybe taking command of a smaller craft was the best way to resurrect my captainship. And it was either this or go back to the surface of Iton-3 and spend my life huddled in doorways while the rain poured down. Beggars can’t be choosers.
“She’ll be fine,” I told Vess. “At least we should be able to get to the survivors without attracting too much attention to ourselves.” Who was going to be interested in an old Avis ship? Even pirates would probably ignore her.
“Exactly. And that’s another reason why I don’t want the Imperium blundering in with its cruisers and destroyers. This operation should be carried out with the minimum of fuss. Shall we go on board and have a closer look?”
I nodded. “Sure, why not? I might as well get acquainted with the old bird.”
“Of course, of course.” He pressed a button on his desk and said, “Velma, could you have my shuttle readied for take-off, please?”
He led us to a door that opened onto a long corridor. The walls were made of glass, so walking along the corridor made me feel as if I were walking on a bridge amongst the stars.
We reached a door that opened to reveal a small shuttle bay. The shuttle was almost identical to the one that had brought Baltimore and me here from Iton-3 except it was blue instead of white. A number of technical crew were fussing around the craft, obviously ordered by Velma to get it ready for their boss’s arrival.
A woman in dark blue technician’s coveralls ran over to Vess. “She’s ready to fly when you are, Mr. Vess.”
He smiled and nodded. “Excellent. Thank you, Sarah.” He looked at us and gestured to the steps leading up to the hatch.
Baltimore went first, me close behind. Vess took a seat near a window with all the excitement of a child about to embark on his first space journey. I supposed he was excited; if this mission succeeded, the daughter he had assumed dead was going to be returned to the civilized world after living on an alien planet for a year.
The old guy had every right to feel excited about that, but I hoped he knew that extracting the survivors from Savarea wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. We had to travel through Horde space to get to the planet in the first place, and once we were there we had no idea if there were any alien forces on Savarea itself. Being a Horde planet, it could be crawling with them.
Maybe that was why Morrow and Baltimore were so stoic. They knew what lay ahead. And maybe they didn’t relish having a captain who, until an hour ago, had been a drunken gambler living in a slum on Iton-3.
The shuttle lifted off and exited the docking bay in a manner that was smooth but not as silky smooth as Morrow had managed earlier. I wondered how well Morrow would pilot the Avis class ship. Probably damned well.
Vess seemed to employ the top personnel in their fields. Morrow was a first class pilot, no doubt about that, and Baltimore would be one hell of a fighter due to her legion training. Vess had said that there were two other crew members on the Avis, and I had no doubt that they would also be experts in their own right.
But what about me as captain? Vess said I came with glowing references but was he blinded by his daughter’s words? Just as he was over-enthusiastic now, seemingly blind to the hardships a search and rescue operation was going to entail, was he also blind to the fact that even though I’d been a good captain once, I was now out of practice and a possible liability to the mission?
I just had to hope that I was going to perform at the level expected of me, or at least well enough that I didn’t get anyone killed.
I watched through the window as we approached the Avis class ship. Her lines were certainly more retro than modern but she had a certain quirky charm about her. Her body was long with wings set far back, behind a top-mounted gun. The running lights lit on her nose and wingtips were illuminated orange and red and seemed to be winking at me as we got closer.
She wasn’t much compared to an Imperium naval ship but she seemed to have character. She and I would get along just fine.
I turned to Vess and asked, “What’s her name?”
He grinned. “Captain Shaun Blake, I’d like to introduce you to the Finch.”
CHAPTER 4
WE FLEW beneath the Finch’s hull and ascended into her docking bay. I heard the whirr of machinery as an outer door closed and an inner door opened. Morrow flew us expertly through the airlock and into the shuttle bay.
The shuttle door opened and a set of steps extended down to the hangar’s steel floor. Through the window, I could see a second shuttle sitting a few feet away and other vehicles covered by tarps. One of them was a tank, the camo-painted barrel of its main gun protruding from the tarp. I wondered what kind of trouble Vess was expecting. He seemed to be putting together a small private army.
“Come on,” Vess said. “Let’s go and meet the rest of the crew.” He jumped up out of his seat and descended the steps.
Baltimore and Morrow climbed out of their seats silently, their expressionless faces a stark contract to Solomon Vess’s wide-eyed wonder. Okay, so maybe the old guy was overenthusiastic but it would nice if at least some of his enthusiasm rubbed off on these two.
I followed them, realizing that proper protocol would have been for them to wait until I had disembarked. I was the captain, after all.
We walked through an open door and along a small, dimly lit corridor to a second door where two soldiers stood at attention with blaster rifles. They didn’t have the Imperium insignias on their dark blue combat jackets but everything about their attitude and manner told me these men had once worked in the regular army, even if they were now part of Vess’s private security force.
They waited until we were through the door and then fell in behind us.
Vess tapped the steel wall gently. “What do you think of her, Captain?”
“She’ll do just fine,” I assured him.
“As I said, we’ve upgraded the engines and weapons a little. She should fly like a dream. If you’re interested in all the technical aspects, Tegan can fill you in on that later.”
“Tegan?” I asked.
Vess nodded. “Tegan Prime, your engineer. She and her crew will make sure the Finch’s engines are ship shape. I asked her to meet us in one of the conference rooms, along with Shibari and Hart.”
“Shibari and Hart?” I asked. I hoped I was going to be able to keep all these names straight in my head. Until today, the only things I’d had to remember were WarZone strategies. I didn’t have many acquaintances on Iton-3 so interacting with people on a daily basis was going to be a new experience. I’d done it before, of course, but I had the feeling I was going to have to relearn my social skills. Especially where Morrow and Baltimore were concerned.
“Don’t worry,” Vess said as if reading my mind, “you’ll soon get to know everyone. All you need to remember for now is that I have assembled the finest crew for this mission.”
He led us to a transporter. Vess, Baltimore, Morrow, and I squeezed inside but there was no room for the soldiers. They remained in the corridor as the doors slid closed.
Vess pressed a button and the transporter began to move. “There are a dozen soldiers on board,” he told me. “Sergeant Ian Hart is in charge of them.”
“Sergeant?” I said. “I thought the Imperium wasn’t involved in this mission.”
“It isn’t,” Vess said. “I’ve hired Hart and his squad from the Imperium but his superior
s know nothing about his duties on board this ship. I paid a lot of money to keep it that way.”
I nodded with a newfound appreciation of Solomon Vess’s influence and power. Not just anyone could hire enlisted men from the Imperium. In fact, I’d never heard of such a thing before.
The transporter slowed to a stop and the door slid open. We stepped out into a corridor that was wider than the one we’d entered from the shuttle. The lighting panels in the walls and ceilings were brighter here. A number of doors lined the corridor on both sides, all with digital locks.
“Crew quarters’ deck,” Vess said. He walked to a door that had the word CAPTAIN stenciled on its steel surface. “And these are your quarters,” he said. “The passcode on the lock is all zeroes at the moment but you can change it to whatever you like.” He jabbed the zero key a few times and the door slid open.
Vess gestured for me to enter. “Your new home, Captain.”
I went inside and stood in my quarters. The main room was furnished with a blue sofa and easy chair arranged around a low glass coffee table. A TV screen was built into one wall while the largest wall was simply a huge window, looking out into space and the bright stars. An archway led to a small kitchen.
While Vess, Baltimore, and Morrow waited outside, I went through to the bedroom, which contained a large bed, a closet, a nightstand, and a second TV. Another huge window dominated the room but this one showed a view of a nighttime forest scene, complete with the sounds of distant birds. There was a remote on the nightstand to control the TV and the window.
If only Mr. Chow could see me now. Compared to my apartment on Iton-3, this was the lap of luxury.
In the closet, a number of identical dark blue uniforms hung, waiting for me. Each had a double silver bar insignia on the shoulder, the symbol of a naval captain in the Imperium Army. It seemed Vess had appropriated Imperium ranks and symbols for his own private force. Two weapons belts, complete with blaster pistols, lay on the closet shelf.
I wondered if we were all expected to wear uniforms while on this mission. Was Baltimore going to change into something other than her Solomon Vess Industries uniform, maybe a tight-fitting legion outfit? If so, I looked forward to it.
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