December
Page 48
*
Ted was sitting in the captain’s chair, both bored out of his mind and stressed more than he’d been at his first job interview. He wouldn’t have known such a sensation was possible minutes ago. It’d been one thing to be under fire himself. It was another to order other people, people he cared about, to go into harm’s way and then sit back and await the results. He decided this wasn’t really the type of leader he wanted to be. For better or worse, he wanted to be down there with the others. But because of his injury and because it was out of the question to leave a ship as valuable as the December unattended in the middle of a war zone, he endured it, barely.
He stared unblinking at the scanner readings before forcing himself to turn away. He kept swearing he’d stop doing that, for the readings didn’t tell him anything useful and only added to his anxiety.
Suddenly, emergency sirens began blaring, causing Ted to jump. What was wrong? Trying to control his fear, he ran to the General Operations table only to have his worst fears confirmed. The December was being boarded. And not by the Koleans or humans.
“Why didn’t you warn me earlier!” he yelled at the computer. Wasn’t the December supposed to have an early warning alert if it picked up other ships nearby? He glanced over and saw that the feature he was thinking of was plainly turned off. Trell must have turned off the system to avoid a distracting, annoying alarm going off every time other ships that he could clearly see on the scanners were in the vicinity.
He activated every security feature available, not even sure what some of them did, hoping that they’d fend off the intruders, or at least slow them down until help arrived. Next he moved his fingers to the communications controls, sending a short SOS to any Earth or Kolean ship that might be able to help. Mere seconds after Ted sent the message, a tall, imposing figure stepped onto the bridge, a satisfied smile on his face.
“Gavton,” Ted gasped.