“Anything new on our vigilante?”
“Only verification that his first victim was a West Keeper. She kept to herself, came aboard with Wheeler's Regent Galactic crew and used every opportunity to use a personal comm unit to contact the Order of Eden. No one can find any evidence that her personal comm was used by anyone other than her, it uses a DNA sniffer to validate that she's the one on the line so we're pretty sure it wasn't planted on her to make it look like this vigilante is on our side. Our vigilante didn't leave any security footage of him or her killing the West Keeper, there are whole chunks of footage missing going all the way back to when Regent Galactic had possession of the Triton, and we haven't been able to generate any other leads. Whoever this is has a deep understanding of the ship's security systems, probably knows the layout better than anyone and knows how to blend in with the crew. All we can do is watch for him or her and hope that they really are on our side.”
“He can keep it up for all I care. Never got along with any cultists,” Frost scoffed. “Might shake 'is hand if ye ever catch 'im.”
“Does the crew know that there's a killer running around?” Laura asked.
“No, we've been able to keep it contained in the higher ranks of the security department, I'd rather keep it that way for as long as we can.”
“All right, then no one talks about this, but we need department heads to keep their eyes open. I want to talk to whoever this is, find out if they're working in our best interest and why they couldn't operate within the chain of command. He or she has to know that we would have taken care of this West Keeper if they brought information to us, we can't have people taking things into their own hands,” Captain Valance stated, sending a sideways glance to Frost. He looked around the table at his department heads and nodded to himself. “Good work everyone. Here's what it's all for.” Captain Valance said as he leaned forward from his seat at the end of the table. This was what everyone was waiting for, details on what the Captain was planning. Over the preceding seventeen days select crew members had been making trips to nearby planets that had been ravaged by the Holocaust Virus using the Cold Reaver and picking up as many qualified recruits as they could carry. Everyone had been training hard, working hard on the ship and getting ready to be active against Regent Galactic. As to their specific goal or direction, no one was privy to that information. “Thanks to the information recovered by Frost and a little help from our Intelligence department, I've managed to verify some important supply and transportation routes. It looks like they haven't changed in weeks, so they'll be there a while. There's a problem with that plan. The sheer quantities of goods transported along those lines and the ships we might be able to capture is too much for the Triton.
“If we plan on liberating supplies, materials, equipment and slaves from Regent Galactic at this volume we'll need a place to sell excess and someone to take care of the refugees. I'm getting ready to contact all the front line worlds that are opposed to Regent Galactic. I've prepared inquiry messages to be sent out as soon as our wormhole systems are up and running. I expect the inner Lorander and Carthan governments will most likely be the first to ally with us.”
“Lorander's a government now?” asked Stephanie.
“Yes, after taking control of several systems Vindyne left in a state of famine they accepted a few applicant worlds closer to our space. They were just about to announce their outer territories before they were hit by the Holocaust virus. We'll probably be a welcome sight.”
“Captain, do you know how wide spread the virus is now?” Asked Chief Vercelli.
Jacob sat back in his chair. He had tried to estimate it earlier, but stopped as he started to see figures that just had to be wrong. “Has anyone taken an educated guess?” he asked quietly.
Laura cleared her throat and edged her chair up closer to the table. She looked at the thin command and control unit mounted on her arm. “Jason was always better at that kind of number crunching, but I managed to come up with a conservative estimate. Considering the virus spreads to ships with a hyperdrive or wormhole system then uses them to continue spreading it to other solar systems and the number of worlds we've seen infected the virus should be reaching the inner core systems within the next ten days.”
“What? How's it moving so fast?” Asked Frost.
“It's tapping into the less secure transmission and relay systems used for galactic communications to transmit itself to places it hasn't gotten to with a ship yet.” Cynthia answered quietly. “From there ships with wormhole drives carry it to other systems that have communication hubs that use wormhole technology for their relays and so on. My department actually estimates the virus should be everywhere someone can turn on a computer within six days.”
“So it actually knows where it's spreading and how to deploy itself to sensitive areas?” asked Stephanie.
“I'm not sure,” Laura said, looking at Liam.
He nodded and went on. “It behaves like it's moving in a planned way, but we only have a small part of the picture. With the speed this thing is spreading at it's already gone far past what we can see.”
“Are our systems still immune?”
“They are, and Regent Galactic is being very public about developing a disinfection program. Only two of their held worlds have been affected from the reports we're getting though they're probably doctored and censored. They have control of or own over a hundred worlds in total.” Cynthia said.
“Now tell me people aren't smellin' somethin' rotten in that! How is it that the core worlds don't have a Star Legion worth of heavy armour comin' down on Regent Galactic's head?” Frost asked, visibly frustrated. “Regent Galactic's barely gettin' hit by this, they've gotta be behind it an' if I can figure that, the big heads closer to the core gotta know.”
“Everyone uses artificial intelligences to help manage their ships, especially the military. Organizations have been trying to cut down on manpower in favour of more dangerous weapons, bigger firepower for a long time. The only reason why the Triton got away as good as it did was because the ship artificial intelligences weren't very sophisticated and didn't have direct environmental control. The only other fleets made that way belong to the Britannian and Gandish. For all we know everyone else's ships are part of some kind of new Holocaust Fleet now.” Liam said, putting a hand on Frost's shoulder to calm him down.
“Freeground ships use artificial intels but they have security systems that are very sensitive to corrupted software. By my calculations they should be one of the last to be affected, thankfully.” Laura added.
“Any word from Jason?” Asked Alice quietly.
“They had trouble with their hyperspace systems and changed course for a world called Pandem.”
“I'm taking a Uriel out to pick them up.” Captain Valance said. Everyone who didn't already know about the plan looked at him with varying degrees of surprise. “I wanted to take one of them for a test drive,” he shrugged. “If there's nothing else, everyone have a good duty shift.”
The senior officers all stood and all but Laura, Cynthia and the Captain left. Jake looked at the pair and raised an eyebrow.
Cynthia eyed Laura uncertainly and addressed him quietly. “Sir, I'm having trouble with the Intelligence department.”
“What kind of trouble?” Captain Valance asked.
“Some of the senior analysts are reporting to Stephanie and her lieutenants instead of me. She's also making decisions based on their information.”
“A few of them started reporting to me while I was doing the systems survey, sir.” Laura added.
“My point is that I'm not in control of the department. I know I wasn't qualified for this but you put me in charge,” Cynthia said, growing more irritated.
“Do you have a second in command chosen?” Captain Valance asked.
“No, I've been trying people but I haven't made up my mind.”
Jake thought for a moment then looked to Laura. “How is field control right now?”
“Could you take command of Intelligence and make Cynthia your second?”
Cynthia boggled as Laura replied. “Temporarily. When Jason gets here he should be put in command. The department here is a quarter the size of what he was in charge of on Freeground.”
“Sir, I didn't mean that-” Cynthia started.
“You've said it yourself more than once, you don't have the training, so learn from Laura's experience and you'll get it if you want it,” Captain Valance reassured.
“Yes sir,” she replied quietly before leaving the briefing room, obviously disappointed.
Laura waited for the door to close behind her then turned to the Captain. “Thank you, watching her struggle has been driving me crazy. I sympathize, but she really doesn't know what she's doing. I'm no Intelligence specialist, especially compared to my husband, but I know what a working department looks like.”
“Do you think she'll make a good second?”
“She's a hard worker, with some direction she'll be fantastic if she wants to be.”
“Good, she's always had trouble finding her place in the crew, but she's intelligent and well liked.”
“I've noticed.” Laura walked to the large transparent section of hull and looked out to the bright yellow star clusters. “I thought Jason and Oz would be here by now.”
“I know. They should be safe on Pandem though, I'll probably find them sitting on one of its beaches sipping something that's served with a tiny umbrella.”
Laura couldn't help but smile at Jake's comical reassurance before shaking her head and going on. “Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you're doing this yourself, but why?”
Captain Valance felt blindsided by the question and moved to stand beside her and share the view. He had good answers to the question, most of them dishonest, but they all seemed more significant than the true answer. “I feel like I'm drowning here. For five years I've dragged a small crew around the galaxy. Easy to control, easy to manage, easy to replace. Here I have literally thousands,” he answered honestly.
“That's what delegation is for. You always had a problem with that,” she smiled.
“I have been, Intelligence is the last department in real need aside from the SSG. Still, there's so much time to think while I'm going over reports, requests and interacting with everyone from the civilian representative to Liam.”
She didn't need to know more. He had been inundated with memories and over the past weeks they took root. He was quiet, sometimes even sullen, which was a good thing considering it hid the fact that his manner was becoming softer, more human. To most of the crew he was still the hard, towering icon, but his senior officers were all noticing how much more personable and approachable he was. “I need Jason here, there's no one I miss more,” she appealed to that heart she had heard of. Alice had taken her into confidence to talk about the sleepwalking incident, and knew that there was a good chance that she could start trusting Jake just as she had come to trust Jonas.
“I'll be back with him before you know it. Until then Alice knows she has the ship and I'm sure the Chiefs will have everything under control.”
“How long do you think it'll take you?”
“In an Uriel fighter with an extra reactor installed? I'll get there in twenty hours, maybe less.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “If I don't find him it's because he found another mode of transportation and I just missed him on his way here.”
“Thank you Jonas,” she said, catching her error and regretting it immediately. Laura looked at him and was surprised at what she saw.
His eyes were closed, his lips were stretched in a tight smile. “I know. I suppose it was inevitable.”
“I'm sorry, it's just something he'd do, gestures he'd make.”
Jake nodded. “I stopped fighting the memories, lifted the mental separations. There are a lot of good memories, especially from his youth. It changes things, you know, when you have good times to look back on. I had so few of my own, I didn't even realize.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“Sometimes I think it's selfish, getting to know him so well that it's hard to tell where he ends and I begin, but then I remember meeting him face to face. He'd want this, he'd want me to be here for you, for Jason, for Oz. Even if I took his name it wouldn't phase him as long as I didn't do something he wouldn't.”
“Do you think you ever would?”
“Take his name?”
“Yes.”
“Not his first. Talking to Alice the other day, hearing about how so much of who she is was determined by her experiences with him and how she has her own distinct personality despite that, it got me thinking, and I don't have to change my name just because things are changing. Who I am is in part thanks to him and using his moral compass is tribute enough I think. If he were alive right now I don't think there would be a question that we're different people, but I know there are a lot of similarities now, a lot I can be proud of.”
“So you'll remain Jacob Valance. Still very close to Jonas Valent, really.”
He hadn't made the comparison aloud or heard anyone else do it for him and he paused to let it sink in. “I need time to think,” he chuckled. “and to do something useful, something important on my own.”
“Don't take this the wrong way, but you're becoming more like Jonas every minute. He was miserable when he didn't feel useful.”
“I think that's something we have in common,” he smiled back.
She gave him a brief hug and they started out of the meeting room. As she got to the door she stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. The last generation of the vacsuits are ready. We managed to materialize one for each of the senior staff.”
“That's early, did you manage to weave everything in?”
“Everything, your modifications, my refinements, the special projects additions, everything.” She grinned. “Have fun.”
“How do they look?”
“They're not very customizable, but I think you'll like them. Stop by the high resolution materializers on your way to the flight deck. I'd go with you but I have to talk to Alice about power usage aboard ship. It looks like we'll be deactivating all the personal materializers in quarters and berths. Only certain officer's quarters will have active materializers, and their constant use will be discouraged.”
“So you'll be instituting specific times for chow in the observation decks and clubs?”
“That's right, and we're opening the mess hall between the fore and aft central berths. It should make for an interesting change while you're gone.”
Captain Valance took a left once he exited the bridge instead of going straight on to the main lift. As soon as he passed through the security and intelligence office doors everyone was on their feet. “At ease,” he found himself saying reflexively. That's Jonas's military training. It's becoming instinct to me as much as it ever was to him. He thought to himself as he walked between the five rows of communications and ship monitoring stations.
The last time he'd been through most of them were seated, this time only the deck watchman was behind a desk. Above it's surface were holograms displaying three dimentional information management charts and on the desk itself was a status display of each intelligence team member's efficiency, whereabouts and health status.
Cynthia was behind the desk, prioritizing files in preparation for Laura to assume command of the intelligence department. Behind her were three doors. One led to the internal security office, the other to a large meeting room and the final one to the right was specifically reserved for the head of intelligence.
“Captain,” Cynthia said with a nod, barely looking away from the maelstrom of data in front of her.
“Is Stephanie in her office?”
“She h
eaded straight in after the meeting like her heels were on fire.”
“Thanks,” Jake acknowledged as he opened the armoured door. Stephanie was sitting on the desk at the far end of the darkened office, looking over training simulation statistics on one hologram while a playback of one security guard's perspective was displayed on the other. From the time indexes they were both from the night before.
There were over a dozen chairs lining the walls of the long office and a transparent section of hull behind Stephanie's desk. Jake knew that with a command a meeting table would lower from the ceiling, but she never used it, preferring to have everyone on their feet during staff meetings. She looked up from a cup of hot tea she was blowing on when he came through the door. “Everything all right?” she asked.
“I was about to ask the same question,” Jake answered quietly as the heavy hatchway closed behind him.
She was wearing a heavy vacsuit, combat boots, sidearm, along with her duty belt which included a basic door hacking kit, restraints, a survival cylinder and and two extra clips for her sidearm. She had draped her long coat across the back of her desk chair. Stephanie put her steaming cup down on her desk carefully before answering. “I'm sorry I left the way I did. Last night was a surprise.”
“For both of us,” Jake said quietly as he crossed the room slowly.
Her smile was mild, wistful. “I want to see where things go with Frost.”
He caught her gaze as he finished crossing the room. His vacsuit covered black hand caught hers on her thigh. “I know. I need you to be all right.”
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